eventhorizen
08-03-2008, 09:08 AM
This is a thread intended to discuss the kind of ingame support for Crews and Fleets that many of us perhaps expect to follow somewhat closely the established Guild system in MMORPGs. It is also meant to be thread to discuss the functional representation of Star Trek character interaction that is such a fundamental aspect of the IP itself.
I think many of us would feel disappointed to see a fairly bland and generic Guild format make its way ingame, with character career advancement represented as levels or some other form of hardcoded linear progression that has no relevance to social interaction and Guild dynamics other than to seperate Guilds into various levels of quest ability.
It is my view that much of the fun of this game for many people is going to come from the social networks established via this game, but more importantly from the organisation and maintenance of those networks as functional and semi-faithful representations of Starfleet Crews. The social networking aspect of Star Trek, both within the IP and as a real world interest in the internet age is something I feel that has a great potential for exciting things, especially in the context of the highly populated 3-D environment of a MMORPG.
First and foremost I would like to see the Guild system, irrespective of Starships and regardless of its name or superificial appearance, be developed and extended so as to provide players with a fun and engaging gameplay area of community interaction in its own right. Internal politics, when it is not taken out of context, can be as fun and interesting as any endgame raid. I am sure there are a lot of players and potential players of this game that share that sentiment.
Semi superficial Guild internal chains of command with departments of delegation and expertise, if supported by the gameplay itself in terms of tweaking starships, readying supplies, drawing up ingame mission templates a day or two beforehand, running combat drills and practicing skills, pulling up sector/system/race information and generally organising and arranging and preparing groups in a fun, interactive and engaging manner prior to engaging the mission is something I think would add a new, and a very Star Trek, dimension to this game without requiring a vast distraction from other areas of current game development.
I would like to see the Guild system combined with any potential ingame messenging system and the general party grouping system to provide not only a wider sense of community, but to also deal with groups and characters in an atmosphere that appears and acts like a common hierarchy. Guilds could advertise for specific areas of expertise, players could request "transfers" and groups could post mission templates and away team plans prior to leaving Starbase.
Allowing the community interaction to remain for the most part outside of the game would no doubt save bandwith and server loads, and free up some resources for other areas of development, but I think that the game would benefit greatly in terms of immersion by supporting much of the community interaction ingame, and possibly lack immersion if such things were absent in a Star Trek MMO.
I must state that my own experience with online Fleets and Crews is minimal at best, but it is always something I considered and felt tempted to explore. I will leave this discussion now, and hope to hear from those with more experience of the Star Trek community, and hear from those with ideas and thoughts on the importance and the implimentation of what surely must be an integral component of a massively multiplayer Star Trek game.
I think many of us would feel disappointed to see a fairly bland and generic Guild format make its way ingame, with character career advancement represented as levels or some other form of hardcoded linear progression that has no relevance to social interaction and Guild dynamics other than to seperate Guilds into various levels of quest ability.
It is my view that much of the fun of this game for many people is going to come from the social networks established via this game, but more importantly from the organisation and maintenance of those networks as functional and semi-faithful representations of Starfleet Crews. The social networking aspect of Star Trek, both within the IP and as a real world interest in the internet age is something I feel that has a great potential for exciting things, especially in the context of the highly populated 3-D environment of a MMORPG.
First and foremost I would like to see the Guild system, irrespective of Starships and regardless of its name or superificial appearance, be developed and extended so as to provide players with a fun and engaging gameplay area of community interaction in its own right. Internal politics, when it is not taken out of context, can be as fun and interesting as any endgame raid. I am sure there are a lot of players and potential players of this game that share that sentiment.
Semi superficial Guild internal chains of command with departments of delegation and expertise, if supported by the gameplay itself in terms of tweaking starships, readying supplies, drawing up ingame mission templates a day or two beforehand, running combat drills and practicing skills, pulling up sector/system/race information and generally organising and arranging and preparing groups in a fun, interactive and engaging manner prior to engaging the mission is something I think would add a new, and a very Star Trek, dimension to this game without requiring a vast distraction from other areas of current game development.
I would like to see the Guild system combined with any potential ingame messenging system and the general party grouping system to provide not only a wider sense of community, but to also deal with groups and characters in an atmosphere that appears and acts like a common hierarchy. Guilds could advertise for specific areas of expertise, players could request "transfers" and groups could post mission templates and away team plans prior to leaving Starbase.
Allowing the community interaction to remain for the most part outside of the game would no doubt save bandwith and server loads, and free up some resources for other areas of development, but I think that the game would benefit greatly in terms of immersion by supporting much of the community interaction ingame, and possibly lack immersion if such things were absent in a Star Trek MMO.
I must state that my own experience with online Fleets and Crews is minimal at best, but it is always something I considered and felt tempted to explore. I will leave this discussion now, and hope to hear from those with more experience of the Star Trek community, and hear from those with ideas and thoughts on the importance and the implimentation of what surely must be an integral component of a massively multiplayer Star Trek game.