Star Trek and in depth relationships

[CAPT.Freeman]

Ok so we have all seen it in TOS kirk, riker or any other countless others are always shacked up with some alien beauty. Do you think there will be any of this type of thing going on in the game (not nudity) but deffinatly some of the more complex romantic aspects, do you think there will be or there should be the ability to fall in love with NPC's? Be able to invite them to 10 forward or your stateroom for dinner? Would there be some type of in depth socials involved with your crew or at least your bridge crew? Or rather not even romantic but maybe even just friendships (i.e. invite your first officer down to the holodeck for a bit of some kind of athletic compatition) What do you think?

[Blackheart]

I've thought about this before,and I love the idea. I just dont know if they will go as far as putting this into the game...I know In SWG you could marry another person in the game by giving them a ring...I would love to be able to make freindships with the bridge crew,and possibly a love intrest....I know that in the P&P star trek RPG i played yrs ago " what i plan on useing when i make my bridge crew ",my wife was the counselor. "I hope they have Counselers in the game." And I had strong friendships with the engineer,and my #1.

So i hope you can see your bridge crew off duty in ten forward,and have conversation choices with them that change and advance after time. I believe it would make you feel closer to them,and feel more like a real crew.

[Hagon]

I think there's a myriad of things I'd rather they spend time and effort on before they ever even thought about something like this.

[andrewprofit]

Why not.

The next logical question is should npc's have a chance of becoming pregnant?

[jayrelo]

I think there's a myriad of things I'd rather they spend time and effort on before they ever even thought about something like this.

plus, none of us have riker's beard, which have their own sexual organs.

[Roberto]

plus, none of us have riker's beard, which have their own sexual organs.

GTFO! Thats not true... is it? :eek:

[Cormoran]

I'd certainly like to interact with the npc pets on more than a bridge or away team level. something that puts them above 'red shirt no.58' status at the very least.

I'd hope some missions include stories that revolve around a particular pet.

even if it was basic and generic i'd enjoy the idea of having off duty convos with the pets, see what my uptight vulcan engineer thought of me pushing the engines in the last mission, or what the fun loving human tac officer thought of the recent battle or maybe hear a general rumour about other goings on in the sector from my talkative bajoran counsellor and so on.

[THORN74]

all i have to say is ................. bridge crew poker night!! ensign ricky has the conn

[Lizzio]

With me on the ship that means all female crew members are out of duty if they can become pregnant...

[THORN74]

With me on the ship that means all female crew members are out of duty if they can become pregnant...

starfleet sexual harrasment regulations strictly prohibit the commanding office from romantic relationships with his/her subordanets (sp). your fisrt office would be forced to releave you of command, then ship you off to the nearest starbase for court martial :(

[Manx]

starfleet sexual harrasment regulations strictly prohibit the commanding office from romantic relationships with his/her subordanets (sp). your fisrt office would be forced to releave you of command, then ship you off to the nearest starbase for court martial :(

Wouldn't Troi be considered Riker's subordinate? No wonder the Titan spends so much time in the back end of beyond; he is trying to run from the law :D

[Davorn]

Relationships should just be with other player characters. my 2 cents.

[THORN74]

Wouldn't Troi be considered Riker's subordinate? No wonder the Titan spends so much time in the back end of beyond; he is trying to run from the law :D

in rank yes, but she wasnt under his command directly. there fore no conflict exists. Besides, im pretty sure she was the same rank by nemisis. they were married, and then riker was promoted to captian.

but this kind of policy is why picard never hooked up with crusher (even though he was in love with her for a few seasons)

[Ensign.Ricky]

all i have to say is ................. bridge crew poker night!! ensign ricky has the conn

awwww...I guess I'm more of a crazy 8's kinds guy.

[THORN74]

awwww...I guess I'm more of a crazy 8's kinds guy.

just ry not to destroy my ship when you inevitably get killed by some random lava moster before the first commercial :D:D

[Blackfire2]

Well most MMO's allow players to get married in game, so I dont see why not. As for romance elements, hell kirk did it all the time. There may be things players can do that the devs might put in but the devs want this to be a game most any age can play so any 'mature' content will most definetely wont be in the game.
I imagine any 'dating' will be up to the individual to devize. Heh with a game rating of general audience, visitors to Riza will be sorely dissapointed LOL. :eek:

[aero029]

I think there's a myriad of things I'd rather they spend time and effort on before they ever even thought about something like this.

A new expansion pack: "The SIMS: Star Trek Edition"

[Fernos]

starfleet sexual harrasment regulations strictly prohibit the commanding office from romantic relationships with his/her subordanets (sp). your fisrt office would be forced to releave you of command, then ship you off to the nearest starbase for court martial :(


Someone forgot to tell Kirk...and Riker, and to a lesser extent Chikote. :rolleyes:

[THORN74]

Someone forgot to tell Kirk...and Riker, and to a lesser extent Chikote. :rolleyes:

Kirk was a cheat (im his biggest fan BTW) he cheated his way thru the Kobyashi maru sim. so he liked to break the rules.

Chakotay was a felon wanted for alot more than sexual harrasment (maqui remember, thats why voyager was chasing him)

Riker, asside from troi whom i have already addressed, i dont recall him bedding down too many crew members. although one could argue he could have an afair with any officer (non-comms would be off limits) not directly under his command, and since picard was captian not riker, everyone was fair game.

this would be supported by military tradition.

[helldiver]

I see nothing wrong with Baldur's Gate, SW: KotoR, Mass Effect, or Neverwinter Nights, type NPC relationships.

You'll be spending 75% or more of your in-game time and progression with NPCs crew members. They'd better bulk them up and give them personalities (ala the rpg games mentioned above) or it will be utterly boring.

Look at any RPG Bioware title, and I believe all of them thus far (with perhaps NWN 1 being an exception) allow you to have some sort of relationship (started through a series of quests) with one of the NPC companions. Not just straight relationships but alternate ones as well.

If they can do it, nothing says Cryptic can't do a series of quest lines (perhaps Epic ones) that allow your character to get involved with one of your NPCs.

By the way, Pirates of the Burning Sea (an MMO), allowed you to choose a lover in the RP main quest line.

So if all those people can do it, I'm sure Cryptic can without any issue.

By the way this will be my science officer
http://www.triphammered.com/PhotosExtras/MUTPol.jpg

And yes that's what she'll be wearing...

[BreachAndClear]

I would highly doubt seeing any sort of NPC relationship system like that in KOTOR or Mass Effect for the simple reason that the devs haven't mentioned it. The developers of Bioware's The Old Republic MMO have emphasized that they are going to be having in depth NPC relationships whereas nothing similar has been mentioned by Cryptic. All that's really been mentioned to my knowledge is that bridge crews go down to planet surfaces with you and provide bonuses. I would be pleasantly surprised if you can engage in Mass Effect style romances or even have the ability to anger or impress crew members.

[jayrelo]

what? there's sex in star trek?

whuuu hap'n?

[helldiver]

I would highly doubt seeing any sort of NPC relationship system like that in KOTOR or Mass Effect for the simple reason that the devs haven't mentioned it. The developers of Bioware's The Old Republic MMO have emphasized that they are going to be having in depth NPC relationships whereas nothing similar has been mentioned by Cryptic. All that's really been mentioned to my knowledge is that bridge crews go down to planet surfaces with you and provide bonuses. I would be pleasantly surprised if you can engage in Mass Effect style romances or even have the ability to anger or impress crew members.

I can wish that it would be that involved, although nice :D, it doesn't neccesarily have to be.

My only thing is, if we're going to be spending so much of our game time with NPC crew, I'd rather they have some sort of meat and potatoes. I'd like to know a bit about them atleast. Maybe no relationships, but atleast some form of background and perhaps even some form of interaction (perhaps do missions that are started by them or something of the sort). I just don't want it to be Starfleet Command the MMO :(

[Korrific]

Heh, "Sims 4: The Next Generation"...

But actually I would like to see some sort of interactivity with bridge crew. It doesn't have to be on the level of "The Sims" or even Bioware titles. It would be cool, though, if NPC crew could have one or more "background missions," or even a small story arc - something to make 'em more than pixellated automatons.

Huh, random thought - when putting together your crew, maybe you could select a very limited number of "plot hook traits" for each crewmember, and these traits would more-or-less randomly generate side missions. E.g., the plot hook "Member of Important Family" might induce a "Deal with Really Annoying VIP" or "Travel to Planet X for Important Ceremony" type of mission, etc.

Like I said, random thought.

...oh, yeah, the OP was about relationships. Meh, whatever :cool:

[Trekkie]

For the most part I think that relationships in the game will be present only from a roleplaying perspective, but I wouldn't mind seeing some recognition for a character's most important relationships, like the name of their significant other in their profile.

[CAPT.Freeman]

I see nothing wrong with Baldur's Gate, SW: KotoR, Mass Effect, or Neverwinter Nights, type NPC relationships.

You'll be spending 75% or more of your in-game time and progression with NPCs crew members. They'd better bulk them up and give them personalities (ala the rpg games mentioned above) or it will be utterly boring.


Mass Effect was exactly the kind on interation I was thinking.

[miqrogroove]

In TNG there were a lot of civilians on the ship. So there are always possibilities.

[Father_Origin]

If not mistaken, cryptic kinda hinted that the game would be 'kid' friendly.....SOOOOOOOO
I don't see it happening.

[Blackheart]

If not mistaken, cryptic kinda hinted that the game would be 'kid' friendly.....SOOOOOOOO
I don't see it happening.


I think they can make it where your crew are fleshed out some,give you missions" or side missions " and be 'kid' friendly. It's not all about the sexual relationships. I would just like to see my bridge crew as more than just people i have to choose from when i go down to planet side for a away mission.

[jayrelo]

In TNG there were a lot of civilians on the ship. So there are always possibilities.

yeh, a ship full of bunnies... :p

[Deyvid]

Stong bonds and meaningful relationships have always been a key part of Star Trek, from the camaraderie and brotherhood of Kirk, McCoy and Spock, to the friendship of Picard and Riker, Data and Geordi, Sisko and Dax, Bashir and O'Brien -- and then the romantic relationships of Troi and Riker, Worf and Jadzia, etc.

In the Sept.17th Ask Cryptic it says we will be able to customize our bridge crew's race, appearance, gender, name and physical appearance; but it would also be nice if we could select a relationship type for each crew member -- their relationship to the captain, and also between each other.

We've seen in some episodes that some captains and even team leaders try to avoid assigning married couples together, while other captains and team leaders either don't care or purposely assign married couples on the same assignment (ship or mission).

It would be cool if we could set the relationship of our bridge crew to include a married couple, or even just romantically linked. Also just the ability to set that two particular bridge officers are best friends.

And like others have said in this thread and others, it would also be cool if we could choose a disposition for some of our bridge crew, meaning the ability to determine if this bridge officer is a militaristic by-the-book stickler for the rules, while that bridge crew is more casual and jovial.


It would also be cool if STO allowed Player Characters to select a relationship, either by somehow designating that two players are brothers/sisters, father/mother and son/daughter, and married. Perhaps we could visit a starbase and marry another player, or establish a familial relationship between players.


While I don't think it should go as far as SIMS, I think the interaction with the bridge crew should go beyond just giving them orders to scan stuff. I'd like to walk around the bridge and chat with the NPCs, even if it's repeating the same lines of dialogue over and over but doing that would improve the relationship with that NPC (friendship +1, or romantic interest +1) etc.

[jayrelo]

While I don't think it should go as far as SIMS, I think the interaction with the bridge crew should go beyond just giving them orders to scan stuff. I'd like to walk around the bridge and chat with the NPCs, even if it's repeating the same lines of dialogue over and over but doing that would improve the relationship with that NPC (friendship +1, or romantic interest +1) etc.


lol deyvid, you just went as far as the sims...

[No1UKnow]

I don't get the purpose of having a relationship with NPCs. Obviously after a handful of conversations with them, they will begin repeating themselves until you disable their ability to talk to you.

As far as relationships with real players that venture into the romance department.. well we all know the dangers of that. After months of exploring the galaxy with your in game wife of extraordinary beauty, she finally tells you she is really a 55 year old male with a huge eating disorder and can't help himself to the restroom.

Friendly relationships with real people are good. How can you go wrong by making great friends in a great game?

[Blackheart]

Stong bonds and meaningful relationships have always been a key part of Star Trek, from the camaraderie and brotherhood of Kirk, McCoy and Spock, to the friendship of Picard and Riker, Data and Geordi, Sisko and Dax, Bashir and O'Brien -- and then the romantic relationships of Troi and Riker, Worf and Jadzia, etc.

In the Sept.17th Ask Cryptic it says we will be able to customize our bridge crew's race, appearance, gender, name and physical appearance; but it would also be nice if we could select a relationship type for each crew member -- their relationship to the captain, and also between each other.

We've seen in some episodes that some captains and even team leaders try to avoid assigning married couples together, while other captains and team leaders either don't care or purposely assign married couples on the same assignment (ship or mission).

It would be cool if we could set the relationship of our bridge crew to include a married couple, or even just romantically linked. Also just the ability to set that two particular bridge officers are best friends.

And like others have said in this thread and others, it would also be cool if we could choose a disposition for some of our bridge crew, meaning the ability to determine if this bridge officer is a militaristic by-the-book stickler for the rules, while that bridge crew is more casual and jovial.


It would also be cool if STO allowed Player Characters to select a relationship, either by somehow designating that two players are brothers/sisters, father/mother and son/daughter, and married. Perhaps we could visit a starbase and marry another player, or establish a familial relationship between players.


While I don't think it should go as far as SIMS, I think the interaction with the bridge crew should go beyond just giving them orders to scan stuff. I'd like to walk around the bridge and chat with the NPCs, even if it's repeating the same lines of dialogue over and over but doing that would improve the relationship with that NPC (friendship +1, or romantic interest +1) etc.



I agree. You should be able to interact with your crew,and come away with something from it,whether it be friendship,love intrest,or a mission plot to flesh out that char back ground story.

[Bawobac]

having relationships will be a natural occurrance in the game. someone else posted about getting married in SWG. it was a nice touch. it brought a bit of realism to a galaxy far far away. I hope to see that here. in SWG it was done well. kid friendly.
hey, another thought. captains of ships can legally marry people at sea can't they? Why not in space?

with the combat elements there willl be enough anger, spite, even hatred. Adding love will be a nice balance

[THORN74]

what? there's sex in star trek?

whuuu hap'n?

yes, remeber data was programmed for multiple techniques :D

[Deyvid]

lol deyvid, you just went as far as the sims...

Not really. If it was as far as the SIMS, we'd have to make sure they were happy and not sad, feed our bridge crew when they get hungry, manage their bathroom breaks, water the plants in the ready room, etc.

Establishing more of a bond with your science officer than the other bridge crew shouldn't be too far out of the realm of possibility in Star Trek. Kirk's friendship meter was higher with Spock and McCoy was higher than it was with Chekov and Sulu, even though he was friends with Chekov and Sulu and would die to save them, he obviously had a stronger, deeper bond with Spock and McCoy.

[jayrelo]

... had a stronger, deeper bond with Spock and McCoy.


i'm going to have to take your point and agree with it. you were only 'relationship' wise kinda like the sims. i too, would not want to play babysitter for the npcs, but agree that there should be some kind of personality.

on another note, can we have that in-game bond?

bonds are sexy. :p

[Mailman653]

I'm secretly waiting to meet the Trill of my life and then ask her to defect to the Romulans once the expansion comes out, if she refuses. If I ever see her on PVP, I may or may not be mercyful.

ha ha ha ha ha!

[rygar]

Ok so we have all seen it in TOS kirk, riker or any other countless others are always shacked up with some alien beauty. Do you think there will be any of this type of thing going on in the game (not nudity) but deffinatly some of the more complex romantic aspects, do you think there will be or there should be the ability to fall in love with NPC's? Be able to invite them to 10 forward or your stateroom for dinner? Would there be some type of in depth socials involved with your crew or at least your bridge crew? Or rather not even romantic but maybe even just friendships (i.e. invite your first officer down to the holodeck for a bit of some kind of athletic compatition) What do you think?

I don't think they have to do anything anywhere near as in depth as what your talking about to produce the same vibe.

All they really need is to have your bridge crew and away team respond with dialoge that is specific to the character rather than canned generic soundbites.

In other words, instead of them saying ,"assuming attack position!" every time you got into a fight, you'd have one guy that says, "I'm on it!" while another crew member would say something like "For the glory of the federation!"
Still canned, but offering different personalities for your officers.

I think the kind of thing you are talking about would be better suited to a single player RPG than an MMO anyway. Its just too much in the way of fluff that is non-essential to gameplay, meaning only a handful of people would ever spend that much time doing it, which would just be a waste of precious development time.

[Thibor]

I'd rather kiss a wookie.



Ooops ... wrong forums. :p

[Profedius]

I think they will and should rely on the players to form their own social aspects trying to program it into the NPC would be a great deal of effort since we are not dealing with one person’s bridge crew that could have a story line attached to them, but the bridge crews of many different players. I still think they should allow us to invite other players over to our ships for dinner beside it is a lot more rewarding to speak with a real person then an NPC.

[Blackfire2]

Okay, romance aside for a moment and I would agree with a lot of what has been said here, the devs need to make those npc's 'fun' to be around. If the the game is going to be made up of 50% exploration as were told it will then were going to be around these npcs alot of the time. Making them more interesting by allowing players to develop relationships with them ( note this does not mean romantic relationships ), will allow players to enjoy having them around rather than be bored with the fact they only provide a bonus to your ships skills in combat/research etc. As has been pointed out, trek had a number of relationships going on between the captain and bridge crew of every show in every series. It would be very dissapointing to me if this were to be left out, especially when the occasional humour comes out of it. Examples for instance, Guinen using the ships crew as guinea pigs to try out new mixes of drinks, with worf saying prune juice was a warriors drink and data wanting more of a drink that he found horribly revolting just to experience that emotion after activating his emotion chip.

It is moments like these that helped shaped our love for star trek and it would be a shame if the devs were to overlook this aspect of relationships between the player and crew. How would the devs implement this? A good question, I dont know myself, but I do know it would be a shame if all you get out your crew are bonus's to run your ship... IMHO.

[jagerbolt]

I don't think they have to do anything anywhere near as in depth as what your talking about to produce the same vibe.

All they really need is to have your bridge crew and away team respond with dialoge that is specific to the character rather than canned generic soundbites.

In other words, instead of them saying ,"assuming attack position!" every time you got into a fight, you'd have one guy that says, "I'm on it!" while another crew member would say something like "For the glory of the federation!"
Still canned, but offering different personalities for your officers.

I think the kind of thing you are talking about would be better suited to a single player RPG than an MMO anyway. Its just too much in the way of fluff that is non-essential to gameplay, meaning only a handful of people would ever spend that much time doing it, which would just be a waste of precious development time.

Something like this could work. They could develop a list of personality types that react and respond to different situations according to their type. Each bridge crew is assigned one of them randomly or let the player choose. Like Rygar above me said, it may be all canned dialog and you may not be able to interact with your crew much. But it gives them a personality that adds to the overall atmosphere of the game.

Bioware did announce the whole complex NPC interaction system for their MMO so I wouldn't be shocked if Cryptic is quietly putting together something of their own. This is a copycat industry, especially in a competitive MMO market.

[Flatfingers]

Another opinion on this subject: characters in a gameworld who have no character, who are given no features of personality that allow them to contribute through their behavior to making the gameworld feel like a world, might as well be replaced by Xs or simple colored squares.

If characters aren't going to be designed with enough depth of personality to behave like characters, then a simple game of manipulating abstract rules of play is good enough. No need to go to all the trouble and expense of generating fancy graphics representing people or places; we can all start playing Star Trek Online today.

Otherwise, if the "RPG" part of MMORPG is to mean anything, then cranking out NPCs as mere cardboard cutouts is not good enough. Designing NPCs to have enough depth that players will want to interact with them is not "fluff"; it's not an optional nice-to-have that interferes with generating real gameplay content -- it is real gameplay content.

And, in particular, it's gameplay content that a MMORPG based on Star Trek needs to have. Star Trek was nothing without its characters. Without Spock and McCoy bickering over whether logic or feeling mattered more, without Scotty crooning to his engines or decking any Klingon who insulted his ship, without Kirk or Picard or Sisko or Janeway demonstrating -- sometimes at great price -- what it means to be a leader, who'd have watched the show? Without characters whose interactions were so much fun to watch that we've done so for forty years, why would Cryptic have bothered to pay for a license to make a Star Trek MMORPG?

As just one more opinion to add to the mix, I'm in favor of designing NPCs in Star Trek Online -- in particular, bridge crew NPCs -- to be rich enough in personality that we actually look forward to being on the bridge of our ship or on an away mission just to hear what they might come up with this time. I support NPCs designed to be just interesting enough that their relationships with my character and with each other have some gameplay effects and make them memorable as characters.

How to do that is a separate question. Much longer thread for that one :)

--Flatfingers

[helldiver]

Gonna add to what Flatfingers said.

The way I look at it: If crew are just another "stat" or just another "skill bonus", I'll not be subscribing past the first free month.

Screw that. I'm done playing games like that (Eve, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Auto Assault). This smells of Starfleet Command or any of the umpeenth myriad of reiterations of that game (SC II, SC III, SC Dominion Wars).

Basically you the character -are- the ship. You never interact with any crew or anything of the sort because they're either a skill/stat bonus, or they are "abilities" that you use similar to potions or enchantments in World of Warcraft.

The only interaction you get with the crew is through scripted mission briefings and waypoints.

The developers of Bioware's The Old Republic MMO have emphasized that they are going to be having in depth NPC relationships whereas nothing similar has been mentioned by Cryptic. All that's really been mentioned to my knowledge is that bridge crews go down to planet surfaces with you and provide bonuses. I would be pleasantly surprised if you can engage in Mass Effect style romances or even have the ability to anger or impress crew members.

That right there. This game is going to eventually be put up against Bioware's product. If it doesn't provide similar in depth NPC Crew interaction, I'm jumping ship first chance I get.

Sorry for the pun...:D

[Edit] As other MMOs out there using a big IP have shown, an IP alone will not carry a game to success. Without NPC crew interaction (given no PC crewing), what do we have left? A glorified chat interface and pretty graphics? And... oh yeah, combat.

I mean if the bridge if just full of null "bots", very shortly you'll probably ignore the bridge all together (heck they haven't mentioned if you'll even get a bridge. I'm pretty sure there's a group on these forums that probably doesn't care for a bridge either. Give them 3rd person view outside the ship and they're good to go.

Once you ignore the bridge (since there's no interaction with 3D graphical automatons) it's all about grinding missions and pvp combat. I'll move my ship to shoot yours and use my skills to try and beat yours. Then we're pretty much back to Starfleet Command, except online, with lots of players...:mad:

That's a really shallow game. I can see an Indy developer doing something like that, I thought Cryptic was a bit larger than that.

[Arachnidus]

As said before, a Mass Effect style relationship system, with modifications, would be pretty cool.

[miqrogroove]

Somehow I imagine the relationships in this game will boil down to "omg u shot my doodz!"

[k.mpok]

While I don't think it should go as far as SIMS, I think the interaction with the bridge crew should go beyond just giving them orders to scan stuff. I'd like to walk around the bridge and chat with the NPCs, even if it's repeating the same lines of dialogue over and over but doing that would improve the relationship with that NPC (friendship +1, or romantic interest +1) etc.


Resentful +1
Intimidated +1
Disrespect +1

Other great options that could lead to some very unique encounters/interaction story arcs to develop.


I love the idea.

[marscentral]

Just to add my two credits, I want to see the Bridge Crew be as deep as possible, as many of you will be aware. The possibility of romantic relationship or friendship with crew members adds to that. It would also be interesting to see if bad feelings might develop, not to the point of mutiny, just that crew might get sarcastic with you and you lose any rewards for loyalty/happiness.

[Tranchera]

Kiss... Passionate.

Relationship minus minus.

[Loekii]

I see nothing wrong with Baldur's Gate, SW: KotoR, Mass Effect, or Neverwinter Nights, type NPC relationships.

You'll be spending 75% or more of your in-game time and progression with NPCs crew members. They'd better bulk them up and give them personalities (ala the rpg games mentioned above) or it will be utterly boring.

Look at any RPG Bioware title, and I believe all of them thus far (with perhaps NWN 1 being an exception) allow you to have some sort of relationship (started through a series of quests) with one of the NPC companions. Not just straight relationships but alternate ones as well.

If they can do it, nothing says Cryptic can't do a series of quest lines (perhaps Epic ones) that allow your character to get involved with one of your NPCs.

By the way, Pirates of the Burning Sea (an MMO), allowed you to choose a lover in the RP main quest line.

So if all those people can do it, I'm sure Cryptic can without any issue.


I enjoy those fleshed out storylines and character development.

As stated in the Bridge Crew Personality threads, it simply adds play value to the game.

[alucard1]

Ok so we have all seen it in TOS kirk, riker or any other countless others are always shacked up with some alien beauty. Do you think there will be any of this type of thing going on in the game (not nudity) but deffinatly some of the more complex romantic aspects, do you think there will be or there should be the ability to fall in love with NPC's? Be able to invite them to 10 forward or your stateroom for dinner? Would there be some type of in depth socials involved with your crew or at least your bridge crew? Or rather not even romantic but maybe even just friendships (i.e. invite your first officer down to the holodeck for a bit of some kind of athletic compatition) What do you think?

In my opinion... no. If I wanted to play a 'relationship simulator' I'd play the Sims (which I do, on occasion, just for clarification.)

I would much rather have the dev's write the game with the game in mind... not a relationship simulator.

Players, on the other hand... if you are looking for some 'down time' RP.. invite them over for a 'tour' of your ship... and call it a date. I've played several MMOs, and in each of them, people that play together regularly develop relationships (be it friendship only, or other.) It's human nature to do so... I've even seen Virtual weddings on the games I've played... (CoH, WoW, GW.. etc...) and no need to mention the cyberporn that happens... People can RP anything they like, but I'd rather the devs didn't actually code NPC relationships like that.

- Peace

[No1UKnow]

In my opinion... no. If I wanted to play a 'relationship simulator' I'd play the Sims (which I do, on occasion, just for clarification.)

I would much rather have the dev's write the game with the game in mind... not a relationship simulator.

Players, on the other hand... if you are looking for some 'down time' RP.. invite them over for a 'tour' of your ship... and call it a date. I've played several MMOs, and in each of them, people that play together regularly develop relationships (be it friendship only, or other.) It's human nature to do so... I've even seen Virtual weddings on the games I've played... (CoH, WoW, GW.. etc...) and no need to mention the cyberporn that happens... People can RP anything they like, but I'd rather the devs didn't actually code NPC relationships like that.

- Peace

/clap

If we must depend on our NPC crew's for entertainment.. this game is already doomed. That means we are in for long moments of nothingness. And no amount of programming will make an NPC crew interesting to interact with after 1 hour of game play.

[RyanRosco]

/clap

If we must depend on our NPC crew's for entertainment.. this game is already doomed. That means we are in for long moments of nothingness. And no amount of programming will make an NPC crew interesting to interact with after 1 hour of game play.

LOL very true. It could be cool if they added it the future. I would rather them work on other stuff right now

[Deyvid]

I don't think anyone is saying they want an in-depth relationship sim or that we want to depend on our NPC crew for the primary entertainment, but we just want our NPC to be more than walking cardboard cutouts.

In other MMOs that have pets or NPC companions, they don't have back-stories, or personalities. We can name our pets most of the time, maybe change their color, but for the most part we just don't really care about them. We use them for what they do (command them to attack our targets mainly) and we just don't care if they die. We just re-summon them and send them off to die again.

If we are going to be spending a lot of time with the NPCs (in non-combat missions, "performing tasks aboard our ship" like was said in an interview, etc.) then it will get boring if they are all just walking mannequins that all behave and "speak" exactly the same. If they are just walking card board cutouts then I probably won't care too much if my crew gets killed on an away mission. I'd just replace them with another uninteresting carbon copy crew member and move on.

It's hard to get invested into an NPC crew if they are completely one-dimensional.

[Loekii]

/clap

If we must depend on our NPC crew's for entertainment.. this game is already doomed. That means we are in for long moments of nothingness. And no amount of programming will make an NPC crew interesting to interact with after 1 hour of game play.

I disagree.

I think the sited games (Kotor, Mass Effect, etc) demonstrate how this is not the case, but rather that adding such personalities enhances the gameplay.

I don't think anyone is saying they want an in-depth relationship sim or that we want to depend on our NPC crew for the primary entertainment, but we just want our NPC to be more than walking cardboard cutouts.


I agree. If the Bridge crew is going to play a prominent role through out game play, I want them to be more than a '+1 Charisma earring and +10 targeting helm'.

[thefreshjedi]

I disagree.

I think the sited games (Kotor, Mass Effect, etc) demonstrate how this is not the case, but rather that adding such personalities enhances the gameplay.



I agree. If the Bridge crew is going to play a prominent role through out game play, I want them to be more than a '+1 Charisma earring and +10 targeting helm'.

I don't know, I think there is a big difference between personalities and characters being "fleshed" out. So to speak.

I wouldn't mind the crew interaction, but hold the "pronzo" please.

Perhaps if crew interaction is done tastefully, sure, okay then fine. And I don't expect any Nekkidness from an MMO rated "E". But more specifically I don't want a bunch of topless Vulcan chicks named "Logicorbs" running around either, like some bad AoC flashback.

And for the record, I'm a "Roll" Player, not a "Role" Player.


-Avery

[helldiver]

LOL very true. It could be cool if they added it the future. I would rather them work on other stuff right now

What's this mysterious "OTHER STUFF"? Can you elaborate?

Is it Combat?
Is it Crafting?
Exploring?

There is only so much of that before it becomes boring. There's only so many ways to fire a phaser bank. Like any other MMO, there comes a point where you'll run out of areas to explore (rather quickly I might add). Simply stating "it's Star Trek so there is going to be a massive area to explore", does not take into consideration that they (the developer) would have to build said areas without it becoming repetitive. Be realistic, you're not going to have the luxury of the Paramount lot, hundreds of writers, and 40+ years to come up with millions of plots and locations on a whim. Add to that, you'll not have the millions of dollars and workforce needed to graphically create said locations, on a whim...:rolleyes:

And how will this "Other Stuff" be implemented? Since you guys seem to be against NPC interactions and background, will this Other Stuff be scripted quest text from a random station or terminal?

That is why NPC interactions is critical in "thickening the soup". Your NPCs can die, you'll get new ones, or new ones become available through expansions or through new areas you explored. New NPCs offer new quest lines that incorporate "Other Stuff" you keep mentioning. It falls in line with what Star Trek's been about for how ever many years its been.

Evey single MMOs out there (even the most obscure ones from malaysia) have NPCs that give quests. Aside from NPCs found in Starbases and remote locations, your onboard NPCs can also have storylines and quests. Why do you guys fail to see this simple matter?

The difference in quests between the NPCs you find outside your crew and your crew NPC quests is that perhaps the crew NPC quests are much longer (think epic quests from WoW or Heritage quests from Everquest 2). How hard is that to understand? You don't have to do your NPC crew quests if you don't want to.

If we must depend on our NPC crew's for entertainment.. this game is already doomed. That means we are in for long moments of nothingness. And no amount of programming will make an NPC crew interesting to interact with after 1 hour of game play.

That means that we're in for long moments of nothingness? So you're saying Cryptic is such a small Indy studio that they can't possibly fill your gaming needs as well?

You mean to say that if they develop indepth NPC crew personalities (via quests), it will somehow also hinder any "other components of the game" which I've yet to have you or the other guys mention what it is. I'm thinking it's Combat or PvP. Cryptic is large enough to cover both bases (even an Indy studio can cover both basis).

game in mind... not a relationship simulator.

What is this "Game in mind". Perhaps describe it?

None of us asked for The Sims 2 or The Sims 99 Star Trek edition. None of us. If those are the only examples you guys can come up with, then your library of games is rather small.

There are numerous examples of games that had NPCs were by the player could learn more about and even do quests for, forming an albeit artificial connection between you and the NPCs that will make up the crew of your ship while you're out there doing all that OTHER STUFF you guys keep mentioning but don't go into detail.

If Cryptic can only churn out a space combat simulator with a series of scripted missions (with planetary instanced away missions) then the following is true from a different segment of the community:

this game is already doomed.

Are you guys aware that it isn't very difficult to flag NPC Crew on the bridge to also give out missions and that it could be another vehicle for the developer to give out quests and enrichen the game?

[SoongType]

I see nothing wrong with Baldur's Gate, SW: KotoR, Mass Effect, or Neverwinter Nights, type NPC relationships.

You'll be spending 75% or more of your in-game time and progression with NPCs crew members. They'd better bulk them up and give them personalities (ala the rpg games mentioned above) or it will be utterly boring.

Look at any RPG Bioware title, and I believe all of them thus far (with perhaps NWN 1 being an exception) allow you to have some sort of relationship (started through a series of quests) with one of the NPC companions. Not just straight relationships but alternate ones as well.

If they can do it, nothing says Cryptic can't do a series of quest lines (perhaps Epic ones) that allow your character to get involved with one of your NPCs.

By the way, Pirates of the Burning Sea (an MMO), allowed you to choose a lover in the RP main quest line.

So if all those people can do it, I'm sure Cryptic can without any issue.

By the way this will be my science officer
http://www.triphammered.com/PhotosExtras/MUTPol.jpg

And yes that's what she'll be wearing...

Completly agree!