Logging Out...Ship go poof?

[dnsbubba]

I was thinking about MMO mechanics and how they might apply to STO, and one thing popped into mind. When we log out of the game, what happens to our ship? I mean, I understand the obvious answer, but does that work within the game world?

Should we need to warp to a starbase, or spacedock of some kind to log out, simply to keep the fiction of the game world, or should the ship just disappear, to reappear at the same location the next time we log in?

Not a deal killer by any means, just something that popped in my mind today.

Yes, I have no life.:rolleyes:

[CherryTerri]

Oh that is a good question.

My "guess" would be you log out where you are, but when you re-enter the game, you are at the nearest station from where you logged off.

[IG_Slayer]

Just have the ship warp away (and disapear while in warp) when you log off. When you log back on your ship warps back towards where you were when you logged off.

[apexearth]

I remember playing PVP in other games years ago where you could log out in enemy territory, with a bunch of others....let a stealth guy hang out and wait for the enemies to get where you want them...and then have everyone log back in at the same time and kind of backstab them. Good times... however not quite realistic.

[Zooguy]

Just have the ship warp away (and disapear while in warp) when you log off. When you log back on your ship warps back towards where you were when you logged off.

This was a possibility I didn't consider and like it a lot more that appearing at the nearest base, since I plan on being in the middle of nowhere a lot.

[dyvimtorm]

Your first officer assumes control of the vessel and begins an exhaustive search of the area until you return. If you wait too long to log in, the first officer assumes the nearest civilized world kidnapped you and executes General Order 24.

Pavel Bester

[No1UKnow]

oops misread

[No1UKnow]

Just have the ship warp away (and disapear while in warp) when you log off. When you log back on your ship warps back towards where you were when you logged off.

I like this idea very much.

[Voyager24]

I like this idea very much.

I agree, thats what I would like to see happen.

[Draighwulf]

Your first officer assumes control of the vessel and begins an exhaustive search of the area until you return. If you wait too long to log in, the first officer assumes the nearest civilized world kidnapped you and executes General Order 24.

Pavel Bester

I vote for this one :D

[qoona]

in EVE, if you log of ( without agro) your ship waits minute, than warps off for 1 AU and disapears after minute
If you have agro, ships dissapear after 15 minutes ( so you can be easily found and killed). Still logoffsky is a powerfull tactics, and logof/logon traps are deadly weapon

[Sinclair]

This was a great question in the opening post, and I liked IG Slayers answer. Having a ship go into warp as a visual for other players that are still in game watching it is a great idea.

[Urantia]

Most MMORPGs I have played (depending on how you logged out) would leave your "character" in the game world for a short time. In SWG (like others) you could quit or logout (both had buttons and slash commands)....if you chose the logout option in 30 seconds you would be out....if you hard quit, crash, power outage, or internet goes down your "toon" would persists in the game world for several minutes...for good or for ill.

I goofed with LoTR for maybe a month before I got bored (just not my type of game), but one feature I loved in that game was if you crashed etc (even while in combat) it seemed you became unattackable. Now perhaps a LoTR expert could chime in and correct me, but every time I was in combat and my comp crashed etc....when I logged back on I was not killed (in PvE...did not try it with PvP), and my attacker moved away (where as in SWG PvP or PvE you would log back on to a corpse). I began thinking they had this system in place due to the fact that LoTR rewarded players with titles for not being killed (up to lvl 20 if I recall).

Naturally though we would not want players exploiting in any way. "Oh snap...I am about to die...better pull my internet cable out etc." I would not mind a similar feature for PvE....but not in PvP. In PvP if you crash...loose power etc....you should log back on to a "wreck"...I know I would expect to. Of course if STO (PvE-wise) does not include stupid badges for not dying...then it does not really matter. But if they do include such a system then they better come up with a way to not let a crash ruin it for those interested.

[MorganL4]

Oh that is a good question.

My "guess" would be you log out where you are, but when you re-enter the game, you are at the nearest station from where you logged off.


that seems logical, but to address the OP I dont know that we would have an issue with affecting in game reality if you just logged out where u were ( cuz lets face it there is no way in hell Picard stayed awake the entire time in between visiting bases, so i dont see why we would NEED to visit them to log out, or should necessarily appear at a base when we do log back in.

[Loekii]

Just have the ship warp away (and disapear while in warp) when you log off. When you log back on your ship warps back towards where you were when you logged off.

This is what I would like to see.

We see it all the time in the series (ships entering/exiting warp), so it would really support the Star Trek feel, imo.

[jagerbolt]

Just have the ship warp away (and disapear while in warp) when you log off. When you log back on your ship warps back towards where you were when you logged off.

Winner.

If the ship is currently in battle then there would be a delay for a few minutes, leaving them open to attack. Would prevent any exploits, even if it's frustrating if your internet happens to die in the middle of combat.

[dnsbubba]

Just have the ship warp away (and disapear while in warp) when you log off. When you log back on your ship warps back towards where you were when you logged off.

Great solution!!

[-Rufus-]

Somehow the thread topic reminded me of ...

"If a tree falls in the forest and there is nobody around does it make a sound?"

[USS_Parallax]

Though disappearing is lame you can't really require people to log out at certain places. That would be crap.

In most MMOs you can't really log out in battle. If you do you'll be destroyed without attacking back while you're logged off.

[OrabIbo]

I'm for the Warping away, anytime you go offline. It is such a seamless solution.

To add to this, If you are on the planet and you logoff or get DC'd your character should Transport in the typical Star Trek sparkley pattern :) Where you go? Nobody cares. How do we know when you transport that you are on the correct ship, or if you never really transported. But are destroyed then replicated on the other side :eek: lol

What I wonder is.... When ppl die. Will there be corpse skeletons littering the ground like in some MMO's? Doesn't seem very Trekish, especially since in Star Trek ppls bodies just lie on the ground or get disintegrated! And if your ship gets trashed will a derelict be floating in space for your to recover?

I like to see bodies on the ground, so I know that something dangerous is around that I need to be wary of. :D

[Ruzzell]

Here are my ideas, and I really hope they see this.

I think that each ship should have a first officer, that you have to recruit. An NPC, he can have diffrent skills and stats and the better he is, the more credit or honor or whatever you need to recruit him.

Then when you log out, when you are not inside of base, your first officer takes over. He then obeys your "standing orders". You can prioritize what you want him to do with your ship. Basic functions, include things like Patrol, go to, explore and map, explore and contact. You can add secondary things like scan, mine, gather, respond to distress calls. Also you can set how you want your first officer to respond to invading forces, defend to the last man, defend and retreat if taking damage or retreat and warn others.

You wouldn't be able to have your first officer "Invade" or "go on a war path". Other restictions would apply.

You would access your frist officer, set his primary. It would look like
Patrol (Earth-Vulcan)
Scan (nebulas, ships, comets)
Defend (30% shield loss)

With this set my first officer would set a coarse for Earth and then patrol from Earth to Vulcan and back, he would scan any ship, nerbula or comet, and if attacked he would defend until the ship lost 30% shield and then retreat. Your setup would certainly differ this is just an example.

[OrabIbo]

nice ideas, but I don't think I would be happy to find out that my NPC first officer trashed my ship while I was not logged in.

And I don't think the Dev's would go for allowing the player to get things done in game when they are not online. Thats like botting.

Lastly, from a technical standpoint. they can't let ppl use the servers bandwidth when they are not logged in. That is needlessly wasiting server resources that could be used for players that are logged in to the server.

Your idea is a great Idea, but not as an offline solution. Maybe as one, that you can set while online! Then you could patrol a sector by command of your first officer while you focus on getting crafting XP, or playing a game of 3D chess :D

[USS_Parallax]

How is it seemless? I assume you can chase ships warping away. I'd hate to fight someone, they logout and warp somewhere, I follow and can't find 'em.

[Ruzzell]

nice ideas, but I don't think I would be happy to find out that my NPC first officer trashed my ship while I was not logged in.

And I don't think the Dev's would go for allowing the player to get things done in game when they are not online. Thats like botting.

Lastly, from a technical standpoint. they can't let ppl use the servers bandwidth when they are not logged in. That is needlessly wasiting server resources that could be used for players that are logged in to the server.

Your idea is a great Idea, but not as an offline solution. Maybe as one, that you can set while online! Then you could patrol a sector by command of your first officer while you focus on getting crafting XP, or playing a game of 3D chess :D

Of course their would be restictions. You couldn't create and craft. Maybe you couldn't go faster than your cruising speed. You can't go menacing other factions, and you can set a retreat level too. Maybe you wouldn't be able to mine and some other limitis. As for bandwidth, that's not really going to be an issue since your ship becomes a NPC.

[Jahan]

Just have the ship warp away (and disapear while in warp) when you log off. When you log back on your ship warps back towards where you were when you logged off.
That is exactly what I had in mind. It would be a shame if they're not going to implement that idea (or they will have to come up with a really, really great idea).

[jagerbolt]

How is it seemless? I assume you can chase ships warping away. I'd hate to fight someone, they logout and warp somewhere, I follow and can't find 'em.

They'd have to put in a delay to prevent it being exploited like that. They logout, their ship turns into a sitting duck for a few minutes.

[Deyvid]

Just have the ship warp away (and disapear while in warp) when you log off. When you log back on your ship warps back towards where you were when you logged off.

/signed

I like this idea for what the outer world would see when we log off. In the official trailer (http://www.startrekonline.com/trailer), at around the 00:35 mark (when the announcer is talking about the Federation being founded in 2161) there is the exact thing we are talking about: a ship warping into the area. This would be perfect for the log-in effect, rather than a ship just blinking in or "decloaking".


My first thought which was mainly because I thought it'd be funny to see, was that when a player was disconnected or lagging, that the ship would start to drift off while tilting and spinning slowly, visually showing the ship has lost attitude control. But that doesn't address an intentional log out, since we wouldn't want hundreds of seemingly unmanned ships just drifting around space.