Play-Styles: Your Thoughts?

[DarkOrion69]

I was wondering about the general tactical and combat nature of much of the released information on STO. People really seem to want to know about the combat engine and the options available for combat in general. There have been some questions about non combat concerns, but it seems to me those questions are brushed aside cryptically (had to make the pun folks :p) by the Devs. It is not an information blackout by any means mind you...it just seems like data on non-combat information is being protected by Section 31 personnel :(

I guess what I am worrying about is that the data released seems more representative of a combat focused MMO than one with a good mix of play-style options. It feels like exploration, economy, ship interiors, and crafting are going to be something delivered in later expansions.

I am that odd gamer who loves to explore a universe and tinker with it's economy. I am the kind of guy you will find on my bridge, singing glorious Klingon battle chants while I sit in space dock drinking in-game Blood Wine. I am the guy happily found in Engineering during combat trying to get shields back up by repairing the ship with my mad crafting/repair skills. I like the nuances and the long road in an MMO...I usually enjoy combat the least of all, and I have yet to find meaningful RP-PvP outside of dueling for no particular reason.

Hopefully there will be room for my play-style choice in STO. I do not need my play-style to be enforced on other players however. Though likewise, perhaps it would be best if the game did not force their play-styles upon me either. Maybe we will all get different sand patches on the proverbial beach to play in, with the option to visit other play-styles as we see fit. That would satisfy me as long as griefers don't swoop in and kick my Sand-Starbase over and make me open up a can of PvP on them :)

[Commander_Nate]

I don't think you have much to worry about. A lot of our discussions have been about how movement is going to happen in combat and what pace it will occur at. These functions will likely be the same in exploration and other peaceful activities.

If you can run and jump behind cover in a phaser fight, you can run and jump to cross a river while exploring a new planet. If your ship can manuver a ton in a battle, it can manuver around asteroids and planetary debris in some new system. Combat functions are just the extreme versions of similar peaceful functions.

See what I'm saying?

[Rota]

Well one thing that made my girlfriend extremely happy with SWG was being able to gain experience levels and skills without ever entering combat. Simply dancing for a period of time gave you dancer experience and making things gave you skill-ups to that crafting skill.

Trek is a universe where there are many individuals spend their entire careers in the pursuit of science and discovery. I certainly hope that it is possible for someone to reach the "max level" or whatever the peak of a class is without being forced to seek combat.

Personally I look forward to launching a torpedo down an enemy ship's throat. But I would hope there are rewards for those who prefer the play style of exploration and discovery and building.

[Loekii]

I guess what I am worrying about is that the data released seems more representative of a combat focused MMO than one with a good mix of play-style options. It feels like exploration, economy, ship interiors, and crafting are going to be something delivered in later expansions.


While I am more a combat player, I do enjoy other aspects as well, and I agree with your observation.

The way I see it, combat is easy and will just be more or less a modified version of the CO mechanics (or other MMO mechanics).

Exploration, Science, diplomacy, and other non-combat aspects are all 'uncharted waters', and imo would take more time to do correctly. So given that the game will probably make the Q1 2010 release, I worry about the quality of the non-Combat aspects of STO.

[Musterion]

I'd like to know if our "stances" (shields down, yellow alert, red alert) will affect how NPC's react to us - if I'm flying around in uncharted space and make first contact with this neutral race, and I immediately go to red alert, will they:


try and hail me to talk things through.
raise their shields and try to hail me and talk things through.
get the hint and fight, rather than just sit there idle while I charge and lock my weapons on them?

I'd love to see enemies react to how we present ourselves (for example in Elder Scrolls Morrowing, peope's disposition towards me was much less when I was openly wielding a weapon, than when I was unarmed).

Similarly, if I come up against a ship that's at red alert and focused on me but not firing, will my staying shieds down maybe convince them I'm of peaceful intent? Also, can I "dissolve" a situation by firing warning shots first ("fire a shot past their bow, let them know we mean business")?

If all of the above is true, would this change playstyles, or would people still prefer to kill everything by default?

Will exploration missions involve more than "explore this sector", "scan 15 asteroids", and will episodic content always involve combat?

[Flatfingers]

... the data released seems more representative of a combat focused MMO than one with a good mix of play-style options. It feels like exploration, economy, ship interiors, and crafting are going to be something delivered in later expansions.

I have similar concerns at this time.

Not so much that there won't be any non-combat elements in STO when it launches, but more that the ones that are implemented will be:

designed by people who'd rather have been designing combat gameplay
designed by people who don't understand what makes those features fun for some of us
conceived as merely a support function for combat gameplay
abbreviated by being left for last (and then "running out of time" to do them right)I have no knowledge that any of those possibilities are true. I'm not asserting that any of them are true. In fact, I'd prefer to give Cryptic the benefit of the doubt that none of those things is true.

It's just getting harder to maintain that support as we race closer to Launch Day and blowing stuff up continues to be the primary subject on which specifics are being revealed. Where's any similar enthusiasm for dropping some knowledge on us about other aspects of this game?

We've heard Craig say that he really enjoyed the (physical) exploration aspect of Star Trek, and that "exploration" will be part of this game... but what does that mean? What does that translate to in terms of actual gameplay rules and outcomes? Why hasn't anyone talked about exploration (or any other core non-combat feature such as diplomacy or the game economy) with the same glee and specificity with which they've revealed details about gameplay features supporting killing and destruction?

In short, where is the evidence that the people in charge of designing Star Trek Online understand that intellectual (puzzle) and ethical (story) aspects are as critical to making a proper Star Trek MMORPG as the combat (action) aspects, in precisely the same ways that Spock and McCoy completed Jim Kirk?

To put it more directly, my personal feeling is this: enough with the Baysplosions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRS90V8BQGo) already.

What's going to be cool about the world of Star Trek Online with which we'll be interacting in non-destructive ways?

Actually, let's put this in a more constructive way.

Suppose Craig & Co. offered to focus the next dev chat on one non-combat feature of our choice.

What one feature should that chat be about?

Why?

--Flatfingers

[Commander_Nate]

Honestly they should chat about the Genesis Engine. It's functionality is pretty much going to determine how the entire exploration aspect of this game is going to work. At least that's how I understand it.

Some info on the NPC factions might be nice too.

[Loekii]

I am very wary of the Genesis system.

Imo, there is a big difference between pumping out generic content, and creating quality content.

I can see it working well for generic exploration and science quests -- creating a planet, setting its stats, etc.

I cannot see it creating interesting racial interactions, quests, or non-static elements.

[Commander_Nate]

I cannot see it creating interesting racial interactions, quests, or non-static elements.


Yeah that's the part I'm worried about too. I don't want to be meeting the same basic alien form just with different names and skin colors.

[Loekii]

Yeah that's the part I'm worried about too. I don't want to be meeting the same basic alien form just with different names and skin colors.

Did you see SWG random Mission generators and PoI system? I hated it. It felt so generic, artificial and 'forced grinding'. yuk!

[Commander_Nate]

Did you see SWG random Mission generators and PoI system? I hated it. It felt so generic, artificial and 'forced grinding'. yuk!

Well if that's how it works, I"ll just frag everything and send what's left to Cryptic's starbase!!! :eek:

[THORN74]

i belive they havent mentioned much on the exploration gameplay was because much of it is/was still being developed. We know the genreal info about the genesis system, but not too much more.

this could lead to several possibillities:

-- not done developing yet
-- it sucks
-- lawyers/CBS not ready to release info yet
-- some change from the original plan

personally i am not worried, eveythng i have seen thus far has been to my likeing, and i am fairly certian that cryptic will come thru in the end

[Kyias]

I personally am curious if they will be implementing an "architect" mode to the game like COH/COV. These are tools that allow palyers to create their own quests for players to complete.

You set stats, goals, etc to the quest set. That oculd be a very interesting mechanic to add to the game: giving the players the ability to create content between updates.

[billybob442]

I'm willing to wager that Cryptic is releasing info on systems as they complete them. Which only means that the combat systems got wrapped up first. We should've expected that anyway. People have been making combat oriented games for about 30 years; it should be a well mapped out process by now. There aren't many good systems out there for scientific discoveries or diplomacy in games so Cryptic has to invent the process as they refine it. Not an easy proposition. I am a bit worried though that 1Q of 2010 may be too soon for these systems to be fully developed by launch.

One approach to non-combat content that I really would have liked to have seen was Cheyenne Mountain's approach for their Stargate Worlds MMO. They really talked up their mini-game ideas for the non-combat classes but unfortunately things got shut down before they had a chance to reveal any of the specifics. I've put what they did reveal here. -- A doctor could run a research mini-game to cure an alien disease for example. When you beat it you got XP and if you did really well a chance for a relevant drop, like an engineer who pwns a mini-game for rewiring an alien shield generator might learn to craft better shields. This way you could have an archeologist who goes all the way to level cap by just setting around deciphering ancient inscriptions all day. It would take forever but it could be done.

Anyone think this sounded like a good idea to begin with? Anyone think a similar idea might work well for STO?