Skotticus
10-15-2009, 10:22 AM
First off, I want to make clear that this is NOT an "I am concerned about X" thread. I hate those threads. I'm not trying to be inflammatory or derogatory, I'm not trying to prophesy doom and gloom. I just gots a question, 'k?
I haven't seen a lot of discussion of actual mission/episode content, but what I have heard suggests that many missions will follow a similar structure which has you going from space to ground and back again. There have been some tantalizing little hints of exploration focused missions, but beyond that? Not much.
What I'd like to know is, "Will episodes have plot twists that completely change the type of mission you are playing?"
Having played my share of MMOs, I've learned to pretty easily decipher what type of quest/mission/etc I will be embarking on just by reading a couple key parts of the quest description. Collect X number of hamster tails, kill X number of irate salespersons, Find X and activate Y, etc. Sometimes the mission type is overtly identified (lookin' at you, EVE). Usually it isn't, but you can easily tell the difference between, say, a kill-and-collect quest and a crafting quest.
What we HAVE heard from Cryptic is that episodes will be somewhat more sophisticated than the average MMO quest. This could be a more elaborate vehicle for more traditional quests, it could be a plot-focused story for each episode, it could be a mix of both. I'm hoping one of the latter two, of course, and am heartened whenever the developers talk about how much work and pride goes into the episodes.
But all that doesn't ensure that players won't be able to easily identify the type of mission we'll be getting from the outset. I'm not talking about players who are re-running content on another character-- there's no real getting around knowing about a mission you've already done.
Ideally, what I'd like to see is quests that start out sounding like they'll be one thing-- a delivery mission, for instance, that turns into a diplomatic mission and then culminates in a combat mission. Or a mission to escort a diplomatic vessel that turns into an aid mission when the diplomatic vessel suffers a catastrophic systems failure.
Can we expect these sorts of plot twists, or should we expect missions to be fairly predictable in terms of structure? Note that a plot twist isn't a plot twist if it happens every single time... so if every mission is "beginning scenario >> development of scenario >> plot twist >> culmination of scenario" it doesn't make for a less predictable mission. ;)
So for my fellow STO forum-goers, what is your aggregate impression based on the limited information we have thus far? And you dev-like folks, I suppose i don't mind you guys chiming in.
I haven't seen a lot of discussion of actual mission/episode content, but what I have heard suggests that many missions will follow a similar structure which has you going from space to ground and back again. There have been some tantalizing little hints of exploration focused missions, but beyond that? Not much.
What I'd like to know is, "Will episodes have plot twists that completely change the type of mission you are playing?"
Having played my share of MMOs, I've learned to pretty easily decipher what type of quest/mission/etc I will be embarking on just by reading a couple key parts of the quest description. Collect X number of hamster tails, kill X number of irate salespersons, Find X and activate Y, etc. Sometimes the mission type is overtly identified (lookin' at you, EVE). Usually it isn't, but you can easily tell the difference between, say, a kill-and-collect quest and a crafting quest.
What we HAVE heard from Cryptic is that episodes will be somewhat more sophisticated than the average MMO quest. This could be a more elaborate vehicle for more traditional quests, it could be a plot-focused story for each episode, it could be a mix of both. I'm hoping one of the latter two, of course, and am heartened whenever the developers talk about how much work and pride goes into the episodes.
But all that doesn't ensure that players won't be able to easily identify the type of mission we'll be getting from the outset. I'm not talking about players who are re-running content on another character-- there's no real getting around knowing about a mission you've already done.
Ideally, what I'd like to see is quests that start out sounding like they'll be one thing-- a delivery mission, for instance, that turns into a diplomatic mission and then culminates in a combat mission. Or a mission to escort a diplomatic vessel that turns into an aid mission when the diplomatic vessel suffers a catastrophic systems failure.
Can we expect these sorts of plot twists, or should we expect missions to be fairly predictable in terms of structure? Note that a plot twist isn't a plot twist if it happens every single time... so if every mission is "beginning scenario >> development of scenario >> plot twist >> culmination of scenario" it doesn't make for a less predictable mission. ;)
So for my fellow STO forum-goers, what is your aggregate impression based on the limited information we have thus far? And you dev-like folks, I suppose i don't mind you guys chiming in.