Proposal for a viable Q experience

[cocoa-jin]

Everyone can be Q, whenever they want to...just not in game:D

Basically the Q are boring except for two things....Creation and Destruction.

I assume the destruction part woul dbe too easy to abuse and result in greifing and such...they are just to powerful and thats too corupting of our nature.

So the next part is creation...but we just cant have people creating willy-nilly because there is no readliy available way to intergrate it into the universe dynamically...and frankly we need standards.

So I propose we take a cue from other player driven content systems and provide a systems editor in the game. This systems editor would be to create player designed systems. We'd be able to chose back grounds for the system, adjust colors, transparencies(of nebulas, planetary rings, etc), choose textures, etc. These mods would be applied to the 3D celestial objects that we choose and place as we see fit...sort of. I mean we cant have low mass large gaseous planets in equalivalent orbits as mercury, we cant have suns orbiting inbetween planetary orbits, we cant have little earth sized mature mini-stars, etc....it'lll just be unimmersive.

But we can choose to place an asteroid belt in the system, choose the textures and colors of the asteroids, choose the properties of the asteroids and the type of environmental variables they add, like signal dispersion/interfernce, etc.

We can choose planets, textures, colors, add rings, provide abnormal orbits or a tilted axis. We could choose a 3D model of a post-planetary collision, like that between Earth and the primordial moon body that struck it...so you'd have a molten or partially molten planet with a molten moon body and debris orbiting in close proximity, or a debris disk/ring, or partially formed moon with less debris and less molten with afunny egg shape..or not.

You can place a large nebula cloud as a background or place a smaller gass cloud in orbit within a system, or have no star at all, but instead a proto-star, or EGG nebula with young stars beginning to condense and under go fusion, etc, etc

The variety is endless...but you get to play Q the creators at home or where ever, submit it to the website and have the devs pick and choose finalist and then have player input to choose those that will be included into the game in the future.

[jayrelo]

Everyone can be Q, whenever they want to...just not in game:D

Basically the Q are boring except for two things....Creation and Destruction.

I assume the destruction part woul dbe too easy to abuse and result in greifing and such...they are just to powerful and thats too corupting of our nature.

So the next part is creation...but we just cant have people creating willy-nilly because there is no readliy available way to intergrate it into the universe dynamically...and frankly we need standards.

So I propose we take a cue from other player driven content systems and provide a systems editor in the game. This systems editor would be to create player designed systems. We'd be able to chose back grounds for the system, adjust colors, transparencies(of nebulas, planetary rings, etc), choose textures, etc. These mods would be applied to the 3D celestial objects that we choose and place as we see fit...sort of. I mean we cant have low mass large gaseous planets in equalivalent orbits as mercury, we cant have suns orbiting inbetween planetary orbits, we cant have little earth sized mature mini-stars, etc....it'lll just be unimmersive.

But we can choose to place an asteroid belt in the system, choose the textures and colors of the asteroids, choose the properties of the asteroids and the type of environmental variables they add, like signal dispersion/interfernce, etc.

We can choose planets, textures, colors, add rings, provide abnormal orbits or a tilted axis. We could choose a 3D model of a post-planetary collision, like that between Earth and the primordial moon body that struck it...so you'd have a molten or partially molten planet with a molten moon body and debris orbiting in close proximity, or a debris disk/ring, or partially formed moon with less debris and less molten with afunny egg shape..or not.

You can place a large nebula cloud as a background or place a smaller gass cloud in orbit within a system, or have no star at all, but instead a proto-star, or EGG nebula with young stars beginning to condense and under go fusion, etc, etc

The variety is endless...but you get to play Q the creators at home or where ever, submit it to the website and have the devs pick and choose finalist and then have player input to choose those that will be included into the game in the future.

basically god mode from simcity.

ya know what? i kinda like it. it would be 'q' mode, and that way, we can create our own systems, under cryptics standards of course, and then voila, our own system that people can visit, colonize, we can choose an alien species to put there, and we wouldn't have any real ownership, but the ability to name it and it will show that ' a 'q' force was used by [player name] on whatever info screen.

though i doubt this option will be there, it is a nice way to go with the whole 'q' thingamajig.

kudos.

[Trekkie]

I think that this is a good idea in concept and I can definitely see a lot of players enjoying something like this, but for some reason it just seems like it wouldn't be completely compatible with everything else that we know about the game at this point. If a more streamlined version of this system could be implemented it might work, but at least it would simulate the power of being a member of the Q-Continuum.

[Mad-Max]

No. It would take time away from developing the core parts of the game that'll make it successful. They tried to do this with Spore and it flopped.

It's a nice idea, but very time consuming development wise.

[Banaticus]

I think the technical developers above the regular devs are the only Q-like individuals. ;)

Being able to run your own moddable server would give you a Q-like experience. People have done that with WoW and you might be able to do it with STO, although neither is legel. (I reccomend against trying.)

[cocoa-jin]

No. It would take time away from developing the core parts of the game that'll make it successful. They tried to do this with Spore and it flopped.

It's a nice idea, but very time consuming development wise.

It could be an add-on after release

[Typheron]

but you will still end up with a race called the b'all-sakians on the planet ***'ulas 9. Vetting this kind of content would rather tough to do.

Additionally Cryptic will still have to code and test it at some point, so even after release if they did it it means resources being used away from patching and expanding the main content. Shame really that since user created content can be really good somtimes.

Why the need to be a Q anyway? all-powerful means theres nothing new to explore.

[endeva]

Why not have Q as a one off weekly reward for a specific indervidual, within certain guide lines?

1. People do a specific quest per week. If you have already played Q on your account, you cannot participate again.

2. Randomly choosen by system, Saturday 3pm.

3. Specific's

Character is given Q (name) title for one week.
Ability to move without ship.
Maybe 10 or so specific Q related quest giving a specific rank title after the week if completed.
Option to silience someone for 1 hour x 5times.
Option to give either faction side a x2 XP bonus x 5times per week for 2 hours at a time.
Maybe an option for Q to initate an event of choice normally available for GM's only.... like a borg attack?
Dev's can do some specific bits to make it worth it, simple, unabusable things to make it fun, but


4. After the week, account is blacklisted from ever doing Q quest again to really give everyone a chance.

[RyanRosco]

Nope dont like this idea at all. Tho cool. Like mad-max and a few others said to much devolopment involved. I would rather have new playable content than something im just goin to mess around with every now and then

[Father_Origin]

Developers = Q
GOOD

In game CSR = Q
GOOD

Players = Q
BAD

any questions?

[Bailo]

I like the idea of a Q as a random event. Sorta like (and this is sad) on runescape (i don't play anymore :P) but just to sort of pop up and send you on a quest would be quite good...every,....month?...week something like that. To send you on a mission or maybe just to harrass you. :P

[Mad-Max]

To be honest, I think the only "Q" should be an NPC. Players - regular people - don't have the ability to be all powerful anyways without screwin' it up somehow. Even Q himself screwed up, and that was from a written script!!

[cv_coco]

So I propose we take a cue from other player driven content systems and provide a systems editor in the game. This systems editor would be to create player designed systems. We'd be able to chose back grounds for the system, adjust colors, transparencies(of nebulas, planetary rings, etc), choose textures, etc. These mods would be applied to the 3D celestial objects that we choose and place as we see fit...sort of. I mean we cant have low mass large gaseous planets in equalivalent orbits as mercury, we cant have suns orbiting inbetween planetary orbits, we cant have little earth sized mature mini-stars, etc....it'lll just be unimmersive.


I guess if they get so far ahead on their schedule for making regular game content, they could squeeze this in somewhere down the road. In the long run it could help them create new content for the game, kinda like a new map in an fps. Who knows...

[jayrelo]

To be honest, I think the only "Q" should be an NPC. Players - regular people - don't have the ability to be all powerful anyways without screwin' it up somehow. Even Q himself screwed up, and that was from a written script!!

yeah, i'm gonna have to evolve my position to support this. i think a create a universe may not be as popular as i thought. otherwise, it would be pretty neat to run into 'npc' Q and have him fudge with me in a quest or something. would really add intrigue...

[McManus]

Meeting a Q in a 'quest' would either mean you get your ass kicked or that the in-game Q is not representative of the powers of those seen on screen. Namely because no game could script all the things a "Q" could do to somebody - IE: Throw them into the Delta Quadrant for one or spawn an entire Borg Armada there and then for two.

[jayrelo]

Meeting a Q in a 'quest' would either mean you get your ass kicked or that the in-game Q is not representative of the powers of those seen on screen. Namely because no game could script all the things a "Q" could do to somebody - IE: Throw them into the Delta Quadrant for one or spawn an entire Borg Armada there and then for two.

thus the whole scripting part.

maybe he sends you back in time to meet a kirk or a next gen mission. maybe he messes with you and puts you into unknown space with a specific quest.

maybe he just messes with you on your own ship.

and in the show, Q was not evil, no one really got their ass kicked, just their hair fringed. i think we're not looking at this the right way. if there is no such thing as Q in this game, then i think we've all lost as fans and players.

[Keldaria]

Everyone can be Q, whenever they want to...just not in game:D

Basically the Q are boring except for two things....Creation and Destruction.

I assume the destruction part woul dbe too easy to abuse and result in greifing and such...they are just to powerful and thats too corupting of our nature.

So the next part is creation...but we just cant have people creating willy-nilly because there is no readliy available way to intergrate it into the universe dynamically...and frankly we need standards.

So I propose we take a cue from other player driven content systems and provide a systems editor in the game. This systems editor would be to create player designed systems. We'd be able to chose back grounds for the system, adjust colors, transparencies(of nebulas, planetary rings, etc), choose textures, etc. These mods would be applied to the 3D celestial objects that we choose and place as we see fit...sort of. I mean we cant have low mass large gaseous planets in equalivalent orbits as mercury, we cant have suns orbiting inbetween planetary orbits, we cant have little earth sized mature mini-stars, etc....it'lll just be unimmersive.

But we can choose to place an asteroid belt in the system, choose the textures and colors of the asteroids, choose the properties of the asteroids and the type of environmental variables they add, like signal dispersion/interfernce, etc.

We can choose planets, textures, colors, add rings, provide abnormal orbits or a tilted axis. We could choose a 3D model of a post-planetary collision, like that between Earth and the primordial moon body that struck it...so you'd have a molten or partially molten planet with a molten moon body and debris orbiting in close proximity, or a debris disk/ring, or partially formed moon with less debris and less molten with afunny egg shape..or not.

You can place a large nebula cloud as a background or place a smaller gass cloud in orbit within a system, or have no star at all, but instead a proto-star, or EGG nebula with young stars beginning to condense and under go fusion, etc, etc

The variety is endless...but you get to play Q the creators at home or where ever, submit it to the website and have the devs pick and choose finalist and then have player input to choose those that will be included into the game in the future.

the idea of players as a Q is ussually a bad idea in my book since its too easy to abuse but I want to applaud the effert and thinking outside the box. This idea is probibly the closest thing i've seen to being acceptable. Additional restrictions would have to be made on this playstye like allowing a player to create a system and then have that system randomly placed in the universe so players arn't playing Q then swaping to their own characters to and head to that system to exploit what they just created. But this would be 1 way to allow players to create their own constantly growing content for exploration.

Agian some pretty heavty limitations would havta be placed on this and the option to destroy things couldn't be allowed for players but the way I see this working is allow the players to make the content then have the GM's or an AI randomly destroy siad creations (and create if players arn't doing enough) in differant ways to give us more room to create and have a constant change in our enviroment so we can continuely explore

[cocoa-jin]

Why the need to be a Q anyway? all-powerful means theres nothing new to explore.

I agree, I hate the idea of a playable Q, so part of my intentions was to silence all the Q playable race mess, and hoped a well developed alternative would be the answer...but I also think player content is cool.

For clarification(due to some of the response), there would be no in game player portion, the only Q function available would the creation of systems.

Addition limits:
* The player/creater does not name the system
* The player/creator would not place the system
* The player/creater wouldnt determine resources available
* The player/creater wouldnt wouldnt choose or design any life forms(especially sentient) within the system

Perhaps the devs can choose a few forum members to moderate a website that handles the player created content. Each account would have a max number of entries over a period of time, max polygon count and file size.

The moderators could use player voting to help determine a finalist pool each week, or each month to be presented to the devs. Each entry would provide a means for the creater to present a description of the system.

[OliverBRogers]

A very good development on the Q idea but perhaps a suggestion sub-forum where people can post their ideas and concepts for their ideas and then(most probably) the devs will either expand or contract on those ideas but a system where players make their own content(i assume like in Second Life)seems to be an idea which could be built upon. Surely people making their own systems would greatly increase the game time and provide fun and laughter for all to enjoy, perhaps even it will allow Fleets to become regonised as a seperate empire(assuming you could stray from the faction you choose), perhaps even annex worlds for the Klingon Empire or bring new species to the Federation! Of course, i'm thinking too far ahead and too broadly.

Personalised systems and game content would greatly benifit the game on a whole but there most likely will be a flood of these suggestions. If this is ever implemented it would most likely be implemented some time after the initial release. Which coheres to the expansion idea, except, it won't be an expansion, it'd be an implemented feature.
I love stating the obvious.