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A new breed of daily: The life of a Captain.
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Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
STO doesn't make me feel like a captain because other than the "strange, new/old worlds" thing, we don't really do much other than PvP or PvE.
What we need are a series of random dailies that take place on board your ship. Let me give the go-ahead to run diagnostics on the warp engines, or the phasers, or even the tractor beam.
Let me call a conference with my senior staff when the Duty Officer system is added to get a handle on how the ship is faring.
Let me have a mock battle against another friendly vessel.
Let me do the things that captains do to keep a ship running. I'm sure that Cryptic could make a few missions that would be fun, immersive, give you a small reward and make you FEEL like you're actually calling the shots on a starship.
What we need are a series of random dailies that take place on board your ship. Let me give the go-ahead to run diagnostics on the warp engines, or the phasers, or even the tractor beam.
Let me call a conference with my senior staff when the Duty Officer system is added to get a handle on how the ship is faring.
Let me have a mock battle against another friendly vessel.
Let me do the things that captains do to keep a ship running. I'm sure that Cryptic could make a few missions that would be fun, immersive, give you a small reward and make you FEEL like you're actually calling the shots on a starship.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Honestly they wouldnt need to waste time on making a mission because their are times during missions where i ask myself, why am i, the Captain, doing the dirty work? Why am I fixing theses devices that an Engineer Boff or a Science Boff should be handling after they update me and request permission to proceed. So making a mission where I have to fix lifesupport or break up a fight when obviously security should do it is just annoying as the ground missions.
I like good content of all types!
nice idea though, probably a way off on the distance however.
...Your First Officer pops up and says that you have two weeks of Duty Rosters to approve....
...And that you have to interview the five candidates to replace your yeoman that you promoted to Lt. Commander and transfered to the engineering dept., because she spilled coffee on your lap one day on the bridge...
...Your CMO is threatening to remove you from active duty, cause you've been avoiding your semi-annual physical..., for the last 10 months...
...The Astro-Physicis Deptartment Head is hailing you for the 20th time, to convince you to give her more time with the Advanced Sensor Modules that were installed at the last trip to ESD...
...the ships Bolian Barber has left you several messages that you are over-due for your haircut....
(this is fun...anybody else got ideas...)
There's a reason things like what the OP requested are not in the game, and that reason is they would be annoying, tedius, and boring. Even the OP would realize it after a few days.
...A random engineering officer calls in to inform you that shipwide plumbing is clogged (again), so everyone will have to hold it for the next 8 hours.
...Your chief engineer informs you that he found a still in the warp core, making the "warp core breach" drink literal.
...Your chair falls apart as soon as you sit in it, causing you to complain to your maintinence crew.
...Your tactical officer informs you that the microbes your science officer had been studying are apparently sentient, and have taken your jello hostage.
...You order tea, earl gray, hot, only to receive pudding, tapioca, frozen.
(Yes, I know most of these are just ridiculous.)
...but funny...
...you accidentally slice your pants leg using a laser cutter (while trying to fix your broken replicator) and find out the ship's tailor has 2 weeks of back-order work before they can fix your pants. You then have to call down to engineering and get someone else to come fix your replicator while you spend the next hour with a needle and thread fixing your own pants (insert mini-game here).
...you are informed by your chief medical officer that the Bolian flu is making its way around the ship, and everyone must be innoculated. He has a list of side-effects from the latest version of the innoculation, and you must decide whether the treatment is really better than the flu.
I don't post very often, as I'm really not playing except for new episodes. Most of my posts have been fairly critical and negative; a billion dollar franchise with a skeleton crew for a dev team makes no sense unless you're just milking 'em for money. Which they are.
However, I still hold out hope for a miracle, or perhaps a change in philosophy that will make this game more like Star Trek and less like the generic space mmorpg it is.
"Daily Life" is a truly fine idea. One that ought to be pursued and implemented. It's a way to give this game the badly needed "Star Trek" feel that's still missing in my opinion. Do we do paperwork? No, not really. Perhaps we find excuses to give that Padd to our XO? Or go off to the gym to work out (adding a future bonus to hand to hand combat, perhaps?). Contact Starfleet. Something to flesh out this game!
Lets make this happen!
You head to a star system, get hailed by the planetary leader. Leader requests you send down a team of engineers, scientists or whatever to help them with their horrid TV reception while you actually do another job entirely. You beam them down. Meanwhile you fly to the outer edge of the map, repair the sattelite you were sent there to fix in the first place, blow up the asteroid or whatever. Upon returning to the planet expecting to receive your cudos for a job well done, you're told by the planetary leader that a member of your crew did something incredibly stupid. This stupid stunt requires you to investigate the officer's actions, try to smooth over some ruffled diplomatic feathers and on top of it all at the end of the day forces you to actually reprimand/demote the officer in question for their negligence, while following it up with the appropriate department head in the form of minor dialogue.
I think skilled writers will find a way to incorporate routine ship duties of a captain into their story, without making them seem rediculously mundane. I don't think full-blown daily missions will be needed, just a little creativity when it comes to story writting. That annoying physical exam you've been putting off may infact be part of the story line.
This mini-game reflects the realities of life on board a starship in a time of war! Designed to incorporate the new Duty Officer system, Bureaucracy is a game that must be played every day. Micro-manage your ship in a wide array of different ways, including assigning your officers to routine ship-board tasks, approving supply requisitions from department heads, and contacting Starfleet Headquarters to report on your ship's status.
Playing this game keeps your ship operating normally. Shirk your Bureaucratic duties and your ship or crew could pay the price! Skipping a Bureaucracy session has no immediate consequence. However, for each hour that passes after your missed session your ship has a cumulative chance* to suffer an Episode. Episodes can affect ship's crew or systems. System Episodes are things like computer viruses, plasma conduit fractures, mysterious replicator malfunctions, and other mechanical occurrences that hinder your ship. Crew Episodes can include holodeck injuries of key personnel, tension amongst rivals in your crew (professional or romantic, or both), your Klingon security chief getting his TRIBBLE beat in every fight he's in, or other social issues that reduce the efficiency of your ship's crew.
Episodes can be resolved by playing past-due Bureaucracy sessions and spending 100 Merits for each hour the session** was overdue.
Don't let your First Officer break his back in the holodeck because his date with the Chief Engineer was called off due to her fear of commitment as a result of abandonment issues caused by the loss of her father in a plasma conduit explosion. Play Bureaucracy.
* - This chance accrues even when not logged into Star Trek: Online.
** - Merit cost is counted from the earliest missed Bureaucracy session and accrues even while not logged in to Star Trek: Online. Bureaucracy waits for no one.
Z
And for those that do not want that much realism, well, it's not that hard. Tie these kind of "paperwork", "day to day" missions/occurrences to being inside your ship. If you never visit your ship's interior, you won't see any of this.
This.
If my department heads had anything interesting to contribute like somesort of personality or backstory I might be more interested in visitng my ship interior. Hell for those RP purists out there that sculpt every aspect of their Bridge officers, I'd even take random crewman x has problem y. Let the paperwork begin. Set course for system Z!
Come to think of it, sounds like how a few episodes of Trek actually began....
When we visit the bridge, we can talk to our XO and find out what's going on.
This will result in a random "slice of life" situation...
... One of your boffs is due for holiday. Disapprove and he'll be a bit slower to recover abilities due to fatigue and grumpiness. Approve and he (and a shuttle!) will be unavailable for a 20 hour (ie, one "daily" day) timer but when he comes back he'll be slightly faster for the same timer.
... Time to put in for major maintenance. Visit the repair docks at ESD to gain +x% hull strength for a daily, or skip it and slightly increase the chance of getting a ship injury.
... The Captain is due for a holiday! Go take it... and either play a mission as your captain going to Risa in a shuttle (with possible intrigue and danger!) or play in your ship as your XO for one daily pass. Or both, with some clever writing.
... Officer exchange! One of your boffs is replaced temporarily by a proportionally-SP'd NPC. You can have him sit on the sidelines, or include him in your missions, but the more you use him, the more useful the exchange is, so you gain some extra XP, diplo XP, merits, etc. for using the unusual officer.
... Captain exchange! You're in a borrowed ship, from another faction, with unfamiliar crew for one daily pass.
... Holodeck malfunction. Anything can happen!
... and on and on and on.....
"...to boldy go where no one has gone before. After the paperwork is completed."
I think these can be written in Foundry, especially if we can get some more mini-games into the game itself so that they can be implemented into the Foundry tools.
But, to keep people who don't want anything to do with them from having to play these, tie them into ship interiors only. I'd have it where one pops up randomly when walking by a panel in a corridor or when walking by a bridge officer stationed at their post.
However, there should be some really nice temporary buffs for doing them so that people can at least go in and give them a shot.
Yeah, because "investigating" (by pushing the F button five times) unsolved murders on various Federation colonies caused by the same non corporeal entities over and over again and acting like it is the first time each time isn't tedious at all.
Not to mention all the other repetitive "exploration" missions.
It's funny how so many people are against this idea. Other games have a similar system to what the OP has suggested. I bet if STO had something like this since launch there wouldn't be many complaints.
No one is suggesting forcing players to spend hours each day filing crew evaluations and writing reports. Just a few quick easy mini games to keep the ship running and crew happy for possibly some kind of slight bonus.
And the "scan 5 ancient d'Arsay tombs" is soooo exciting...
At least you get 10 DXP with almost no effort, but still depending on the mood I am at the moment, I can get annoyed if I get one of those assigned to me.
And the same with the "scan 5 anomalous readings" missions, I like the chance of getting a substantial amount of materials in one go, but going through it can be a chore.
Which makes me think if there would be a way to make some kind of daily that rewarded materials for crafting, like 10 of each of a given color ( i.e. ten "triangles", ten "flowers" and ten "atoms" ), OR 3-4 absolutely random particle traces, your choice.
One of the things missing from this game is a sense of humor and casual interaction with your crew, like in all of the series. Something like this could provide it.
The Foundry could possibly fill in this gap, yes, but imagine how difficult it would be to find mini-missions like this in a sea of thousands. Plus, there is currently no way to set a Foundry mission on your ship as far as I know. We would have no way to tie in any mini-games like, "Join your Bridge Officers' weekly poker game".
What i would prefer to see instead though, is more of a murphy's law type feature.
Where your on your way to a mission and say a conduit failes, causing some sort of havoc that needs adressed till you continue.you could even send out a distress call and have others boared your ship in efforts to help.
or you find a shuttle floating in space with a distress beacon and need ot pick it up,having todrop its crew off at a starbase at some point.
even being able to aid a aline vessel in distress and have to replicate a warp coil toget them going.
these little side instances would only take a couple minutes to complete, longer if a person chose to roleplay it out with others. but it would be a nice adition tothe daily grind that a starfleet captain would have to face more often then say blowing up a borg cube.
That is when Q shows up and whisks you away on some adventure!
Very nice ideas and suggestions OP.