Rare Playable Races as High End Rewards.

[USS_Parallax]

Generally high end rewards in MMOs are gear and crap that make it so you don't need skill to win. How about giving more often substantial high end rewards that don't offer unbalanced bonuses (of course those better gears will still be available :P).

My idea: Rare playable races.

You complete an epic mission, I'm talking a really epic one, and you get the option to starts a new characters as another race that probably can't be created in the creator. I'm talking you complete an epic mission that took forever to finish and then you can play as a Cardassian for your faction. Heck, maybe make an epic mission so epic that only 1/10000 people will finish it and then let them play as a Federation Klingon. Idunno.

It's an alternative that would mostly act as just a new skin and bling with a few references while playing if you're playing as something odd for your faction.

And just to give the non-high end people a chance give missions to them too but they'd probably take a lot longer and be rarer.

[Mad-Max]

Generally high end rewards in MMOs are gear and crap that make it so you don't need skill to win. How about giving more often substantial high end rewards that don't offer unbalanced bonuses (of course those better gears will still be available :P).

My idea: Rare playable races.

You complete an epic mission, I'm talking a really epic one, and you get the option to starts a new characters as another race that probably can't be created in the creator. I'm talking you complete an epic mission that took forever to finish and then you can play as a Cardassian for your faction. Heck, maybe make an epic mission so epic that only 1/10000 people will finish it and then let them play as a Federation Klingon. Idunno.

It's an alternative that would mostly act as just a new skin and bling with a few references while playing if you're playing as something odd for your faction.

And just to give the non-high end people a chance give missions to them too but they'd probably take a lot longer and be rarer.

I like it. I doubt something like this would ever happen, but I like it.

What if everyone makes it their goal to unlock this race? Then everyone will be the same eventually. Scary. 0.o

[Valse]

You may be joking, but that's actually will turn out to be the case. Everyone will play to gain this reward and then everyone will again... be the same. Doesn't matter how hard it is, as long as it's possible people will try.

Of course "everyone" is an unfair assessment, but a whole heaping lot of ya will be in that bunch I just described.

I like it. I doubt something like this would ever happen, but I like it.

What if everyone makes it their goal to unlock this race? Then everyone will be the same eventually. Scary. 0.o

[USS_Parallax]

You may be joking, but that's actually will turn out to be the case. Everyone will play to gain this reward and then everyone will again... be the same. Doesn't matter how hard it is, as long as it's possible people will try.

Of course "everyone" is an unfair assessment, but a whole heaping lot of ya will be in that bunch I just described.

Yes it matters how hard and long it is. Does everyone have a Thunderfury in WoW? Maybe a few dozen a server on high pop servers.

Sure you won't ever be the ONLY Klingon or ONLY Android or ONLY whatever in Starfleet but it could be made relatively rare.

Plus add the fact that it doesn't really give you a bonus and you'd just have to "level up" a new character which would cut the numbers down a bit too.

[Mad-Max]

Yes it matters how hard and long it is.

That's what she said.

Does everyone have a Thunderfury in WoW? Maybe a few dozen a server on high pop servers.

There were far more people who had a Thunderfury than a few dozen people. When TBC came out there was a certain bug that made hard earned Thunderfuries disappear from inventories. But even then, the weapon quickly became obsolete when compared against hellfire greens.

Besides, you can't really compare a weapon to a race anyways. Look what happened to DDO - there was a sudden overpopulation of Drow. Who saw that coming? /sarcastic

[AaronH]

I don't like the idea of epic gear, and this doesn't strike me as any better.

[Lateo]

Generally high end rewards in MMOs are gear and crap that make it so you don't need skill to win. How about giving more often substantial high end rewards that don't offer unbalanced bonuses (of course those better gears will still be available :P).

My idea: Rare playable races.

You complete an epic mission, I'm talking a really epic one, and you get the option to starts a new characters as another race that probably can't be created in the creator. I'm talking you complete an epic mission that took forever to finish and then you can play as a Cardassian for your faction. Heck, maybe make an epic mission so epic that only 1/10000 people will finish it and then let them play as a Federation Klingon. Idunno.

It's an alternative that would mostly act as just a new skin and bling with a few references while playing if you're playing as something odd for your faction.

And just to give the non-high end people a chance give missions to them too but they'd probably take a lot longer and be rarer.

I like this idea.. -but- (heres my two cents).

The "framework"(quests/abilities(both what it can do (fly/use special tool) -and- stregenth/wisdom/etc)/weaknesses/stregenths) for -each- player gainable position and race must be done (programmed) as well as how to -reach- such within the game, ironically sometimes the more limited a player gainable position is (engineer as opposed to captain for example) the -more- coding needs to be done. (to "restrict"/increase the normal precoded options available to a PC so it'll fit)

A race -isnt- like a weapon in regards to mechanics, a weapon only needs to "boost/decrease X attribute by Y", a race on the other hand also has a none specific set of features to it, for example, Vulcans being logical and emotionally repressed ( i will -cry- if STO gets a fad of emotional vulcan PCs, talk about ruining the setting, it just wouldnt be the star trek universe anymore).

while superficially it would just be "new skin/attributes/few ingame lines different", there would have to be other game alterations (NPC reactions to this specific character, PvP/PvE allowances) to "Make it so".

Now the idea of expansion packs with new selectable races/positions (think NWN's SoU/HotU and WoW to a degree) has alot of potential.

The biggest issue in the main would be development time no matter when its done, secondarily is the subject some will complete the quest just to "complete a quest", as a quicky concept its a good idea, making it work out development and ingame wise? *cries*

[jayrelo]

the high end reward is spending time here with you guys. awe...

in all seriousness, the high end rewards are going to be there no matter what. what cryptic decides to make it is up for much supposition, but this idea, of finding our own worf or an android, or maybe an enchancement to make certain holograms have personality, ala, the doctor (zim), then i'm for it.

even if everyone can't have it, it makes the universe even more trek, and thats what is most important for me.

[Allardyn]

This isn't actually a far streth in my opinion. In CoX the had epic archtypes one could create once one of thier characters reached max level.

The players really seemed to enjoy it and it gave them a way to 'hook' players for another 50 levels. (200+ if they wanted to play each archtype).

Not a bad idea at all.

[cavilier210]

well, if you look at WoW as a model, just because everyone with BC could make a blood elf, didn't mean everyone did make a blood elf, or a drenai. For instance, i hated the drenai.

Also, the races in WoW reflect various attitudes about the world, hence why some would pick a human, others the forsaken, and so on. I don't think that (stat wise) humans and vulcans, or klingons should be the same.

but i agree, its a nifty incentive. maybe it could be a reward for completing an epic quest related to a world event. Like on dec. 28 2009, anyone who manages to successfully capture a borg cube gets such and such rare race?

[Cryptic_Fan_101]

Did we learn nothing from Star Wars Galaxies?

[cavilier210]

no, because i didn't bother with SWG :-P

[Allardyn]

well, if you look at WoW as a model, just because everyone with BC could make a blood elf, didn't mean everyone did make a blood elf, or a drenai. For instance, i hated the drenai.


Actually while not every single person made a blood elf, over 50% (which is a majority) most likley did.

I actuallly did play WoW for awile and I started about a month before TBC launch. While playing for a month I was just getting used to the game and saving up my coins with the intention to reroll as a BE Pally. On launch day I did just that, and let me tell you how absolutly crowded the BE starting city was. I was unable to complete any noob quests due to the fact that when any mob spawned anywhere near that city it was instantly raped by 100 other players. I ended up logging out for a week until things died down a bit and even then I was hard pressed to complete those noob quests. To note the server I played on was Ravenholdt and was only created a little over a month before TBC, so it was far far from being one of the most populated servers, I can only imagine how bad the BE starting city was on those servers.

[cavilier210]

to my knowledge, it wasn't so bad on aggrammar (my server) and when i started my BE (my main now) it was pretty empty, and the populations again evened out. It wasn't such a novelty anymore. thats why i don't have the "ME FIRST" attitude. don't need to be the first, just the best :-D

[Nyanya]

They did something like this in DDO where if you wanted to play a drow you first had to play another character and get a lot of faction points with the drow faction (or such, I never played DDO for long).

But that kind of system, one where you unlock a race for a character to play, is absolutely horrible.

Let's say, for example, that we make this race the Klingons. There are a lot of people who really, really want to play a Klingon and who wouldn't really enjoy anything else (at least not if they know that they're available). So what ends up happening is that you play a character you don't enjoy playing just so that you can later, maybe, play a character you do enjoy playing. And that leaves a horribly sour taste of the game in your mouth.

It would also mean that they actually have to remove options from the character creator (as if the race wasn't unlockable then those parts could be part of the character creator), limiting customization options for everyone else.

it encourages grinding to get those special races, even among those that don't really have any interest in it, because it becomes a status symbol and people will do everything to make themselves appear better than everyone else. This breeds a highly negative atmosphere on the server where the game encourages people to do things they don't like doing just to be different or to get something they want (and I strongly believe that the thing you do should be enjoyable in their own right; the 'reward' you get shouldn't be the reason you do something).

And no, I don't agree with the unlockable classes in CoX either. Though there at least the classes were so weird and specific that nobody would have a character concept fitting them beforehand already and people really just played them because the game got boring and they wanted something fresh. But if anyone truly felt that those classes where exactly the kind of class they really wanted to play then you'd have a problem because you'd encourage them playing 50 levels they don't really enjoy just to get to that class they do.

Now, you might say that for Cryptic this is a good thing as at least people would be playing, but one I don't think many people would stick around long for something like that and as players we should be demanding something that we enjoy. We, as consumers, really have to learn to stop putting up with companies trying to shove boring crap at us and getting us to pay for it because until we do they're not going to stop doing so.

In short, a big NO to unlockable player races. Make them part of character customization from the start or not at all.

[THORN74]

i really like the idea of an unlockable race ..... there are over 150 different races in the federation and only 5 or 6 are currently playable. It would be a nice reward for maxing out ur toon or completing an epic quest/mission.

i do like the idea of having a klingon (ala Worf) on the fed side.

but definately do NOT involve the cardassians or romulans, they should be an expansion pack. available to everyone who would purchase it.

[Trekkie]

I actually really like this idea since it would be a great incentive for players to complete high-end missions and the like without giving them a substantial advantage over new players; that being said, I think that the races that can be unlocked should be those that aren't necessarily the most prevalent in the Star Trek universe that are still fan favorites, because I would hope that the major races would already be available to all players.

[Valse]

I actually enjoyed reading your post. It's refreshing to see someone actually think over something once in a while. I agree with what you've posted, it's all that I could say if I had the time to.

Of course there needs to be some incentive to continue playing playing the game to those high levels, but I don't think hashing out some otherwise unachievable race and possibly alienating some of your would be players is the way to do it. "Gear" just seems like a more logical choice. No doubt in the means of unique technologies and/or skill "perks".

They did something like this in DDO where if you wanted to play a drow you first had to play another character and get a lot of faction points with the drow faction (or such, I never played DDO for long).

But that kind of system, one where you unlock a race for a character to play, is absolutely horrible.

Let's say, for example, that we make this race the Klingons. There are a lot of people who really, really want to play a Klingon and who wouldn't really enjoy anything else (at least not if they know that they're available). So what ends up happening is that you play a character you don't enjoy playing just so that you can later, maybe, play a character you do enjoy playing. And that leaves a horribly sour taste of the game in your mouth.

It would also mean that they actually have to remove options from the character creator (as if the race wasn't unlockable then those parts could be part of the character creator), limiting customization options for everyone else.

it encourages grinding to get those special races, even among those that don't really have any interest in it, because it becomes a status symbol and people will do everything to make themselves appear better than everyone else. This breeds a highly negative atmosphere on the server where the game encourages people to do things they don't like doing just to be different or to get something they want (and I strongly believe that the thing you do should be enjoyable in their own right; the 'reward' you get shouldn't be the reason you do something).

And no, I don't agree with the unlockable classes in CoX either. Though there at least the classes were so weird and specific that nobody would have a character concept fitting them beforehand already and people really just played them because the game got boring and they wanted something fresh. But if anyone truly felt that those classes where exactly the kind of class they really wanted to play then you'd have a problem because you'd encourage them playing 50 levels they don't really enjoy just to get to that class they do.

Now, you might say that for Cryptic this is a good thing as at least people would be playing, but one I don't think many people would stick around long for something like that and as players we should be demanding something that we enjoy. We, as consumers, really have to learn to stop putting up with companies trying to shove boring crap at us and getting us to pay for it because until we do they're not going to stop doing so.

In short, a big NO to unlockable player races. Make them part of character customization from the start or not at all.

[Keller]

I would like to see new races unlocked server-wise. Your faction achieved some impressive victories on the other faction, your faction made an amazing discovery while scouting, etc. "Other races" heard about the achievements pf the Federation and decided to join them. (or Klingon ofc)

[Father_Origin]

Generally high end rewards in MMOs are gear and crap that make it so you don't need skill to win. How about giving more often substantial high end rewards that don't offer unbalanced bonuses (of course those better gears will still be available :P).

My idea: Rare playable races.

You complete an epic mission, I'm talking a really epic one, and you get the option to starts a new characters as another race that probably can't be created in the creator. I'm talking you complete an epic mission that took forever to finish and then you can play as a Cardassian for your faction. Heck, maybe make an epic mission so epic that only 1/10000 people will finish it and then let them play as a Federation Klingon. Idunno.

It's an alternative that would mostly act as just a new skin and bling with a few references while playing if you're playing as something odd for your faction.

And just to give the non-high end people a chance give missions to them too but they'd probably take a lot longer and be rarer.


LOL sorry, got a reality check here...

Any player can make any race..or invent new ones from scratch...so opening up some 'new' race
as a reward is pointless since you can make, or copy any race you like from day one.

perhaps having rare racial abilities unlocked so you can use them during character creation
might be a better reward.... or new skins ect..

[USS_Parallax]

LOL sorry, got a reality check here...

Any player can make any race..or invent new ones from scratch...so opening up some 'new' race
as a reward is pointless since you can make, or copy any race you like from day one.


I highly doubt we'll be able to accurately make a Cardassian in the species maker. They'll hold off the parts so you can't just make races they don't want you to make for your faction.

[Father_Origin]

I would ordinarily agree....however this is cryptic (yes it is a compliment)

There is really no reason to keep anyone from making any race they want, because
you will still need to join either the federation or the klingons.

The race of one particular captain is not important...it is the factions.

The expansions will not just be there so...oh I can be a romulan...THIS IS STAR TREK (Sparta)

The real meat of the expansion is the FACTION.

In most MMO games when they add a new race, they just stick it into a current faction..
case in point, wow added blood elves but just stuck them with the horde.

THIS IS STAR TREK (say it with feeling boys/girls)

so unlike that cop-out we will get whole new factions...they might be aligned with the Feds
or Klingons, but I doubt it...they will prob be a whole new power in the game with
thier own friends.

So, making a romulan (race) captain will be different then making a romulan captain that
represents the romulan faction.


I could be wrong, but cryptic has a way of taking the less traveled road.

[jwick4471]

I vote Horta for high-end unlockable race #1 :D

[marscentral]

My understanding of CoX's Kheldians (the epic AT you got at 50) was that Cryptic regretted the way they implemented them. In hindsight, I think they wished they hadn't made it a reward for getting a character to 50, though I don't know what they would have done instead.

I know for me personally, it seemed a bit frustrating that I had to play to 50 before I could create one. Especially as I'm an altoholic so it took me about 18 months!!

For STO, it would be cool if their are races that break the mold and go beyond the usual character creation like Tholians or Horta. But I don't know if they should be made an end game reward. Perhaps they should be a reward for completing an epic story mission, at which point they could be introduced to your crew.

[willriker09]

Interesting, so our own "Heroic Class" like the Death Knight in WOW and how Jedi used to be in Galaxies. I think this could be a cool idea. I think the best idea for this to translate would be that you could play as an android like Data, not necessarily made by Soong but you have superior strength, intelligence, etc.

[jwick4471]

Interesting, so our own "Heroic Class" like the Death Knight in WOW and how Jedi used to be in Galaxies. I think this could be a cool idea. I think the best idea for this to translate would be that you could play as an android like Data, not necessarily made by Soong but you have superior strength, intelligence, etc.

Or maybe a liberated Borg drone keeping some of their more beneficial implants like Seven of Nine. They could do SO MUCH with this IP.

[USS_Parallax]

The way I think of it is your unlocked race would be balanced, maybe have unique racial traits only that race has but that wouldn't make you any more powerful. It would just be extra bling and a bit of a status symbol. Measures could be put in place to limit the amount these races are used so they'll never become common.

[martinsky]

Personally I dont think there should be any races only available for those who played the game the longest.
To me it just feels wrong. Plus it seems like an entity that has potential to mess up balance

[andrewprofit]

Generally high end rewards in MMOs are gear and crap that make it so you don't need skill to win. How about giving more often substantial high end rewards that don't offer unbalanced bonuses (of course those better gears will still be available :P).

My idea: Rare playable races.

You complete an epic mission, I'm talking a really epic one, and you get the option to starts a new characters as another race that probably can't be created in the creator. I'm talking you complete an epic mission that took forever to finish and then you can play as a Cardassian for your faction. Heck, maybe make an epic mission so epic that only 1/10000 people will finish it and then let them play as a Federation Klingon. Idunno.

It's an alternative that would mostly act as just a new skin and bling with a few references while playing if you're playing as something odd for your faction.

And just to give the non-high end people a chance give missions to them too but they'd probably take a lot longer and be rarer.


I dont see why not get revered with a faction and you unlock the ability to create a chacter with that faction.
"offspring"

[WinterPark1701]

I like it. I doubt something like this would ever happen, but I like it.

What if everyone makes it their goal to unlock this race? Then everyone will be the same eventually. Scary. 0.o


Its a neat idea however, I like what they've done with allowing you to create your own races essensaly. I mean how many time have we seen a species in Trek in one episdoe to never see them again?