Great Hopes & Gentle Expectations

[d4079925]

Hello Folks.

I'd like to politely start this off with a warning that this is a total Fan-Girl post so no comments about me being weird, or getting certain things wrong please, cuz I know the Star Trek Universe has an encyclopedia of it's own. ^_^

I'm truely and divinely excited about STO, and how it looks ; I daydream everyday, and quench my thirst for Star Trek, by re-watching an episode of Voyager each day I come home from work. I am a really really sad person, who has nothing better to do then to "be WWAYY out there" in the stars. I even hum the voyager tune when I take a shower, or pretend I was flying a shuttle through an asteroid belt instead of driving an Audi 6 just to make the daily journey to work more joyful. I have an "Incomming Hail" ringtone on my Motorola Razor (that looks oddly like a thin tricorder) (I know I know..... I'm crazy....)

BUT, now my dream has finally come true: Star Trek Online.

With it, comes many many things that I wonder. Having played 38 MMORPG's, I can imagine how it might function:

- You can explore your own ships, but really only the rooms that matter? (i.e. STV Elite Force 2)
- Star Trek Interiors will function very similar to City of Heroes Bases
- Space Manuevering and battle might work like Eve Online (or like Bridge Commander!? That'd rock!)
- You can defend your own ship during a boarding, or intrusion, or intrude/board other vessels, and this will all be instanced, depending on the outcome of a space battle.

ETC.

But one detail i really really hope for is "logistics".

When I play Pirate games, there is nothing that makes me feel more like a captain then statistics like "Food, Morale and Crew Complement"

With "officers" having different skills and experience levels, being capable of enhancing or providing you with skillsets out in the field.

I'd love to see Dilithium levels and having to actually "mine" Dilithium manually, through a specially long journey through space, or having lost a considerable amount of Dilithium during a space battle, due to sabotage, by a Romulan insurgent for instance.

Or conserving energy, because the warp core had to be ejected to prevent a warp core breach, or having one's ship capability's be greatly dimished due to crew casualties.

ALL these strategical considerations for me, is what makes being a captain worth it.

I'm having a gentle expectation that STO will capture the "essence" of what is Star Trek, instead of being a pretty Arcade Game, which has this "instant fun" factor of CoH, without *any* strategical considerations to go into each action done.

But with that said: Even if Star Trek Online turned out completely different from what i had imagined, for better or worse, I'll still play it as my main MMORPG, because frankly.... I'm a Star trek Fanatic and there is *NO* sci fi space MMORPG out there atm, where you have your bridge gleam red, with a classic "Red Alert" sound.

(The Bridge *WILL* go red, and one *WILL* experience that right?!.... Because if not, i'm going to be a sad panda!)


- Seven of Eleven, Secondary Logistics Adjunct of Unimatrix 34
"All your base are belong to us" - "Resistance is Futile"

[Zizi]

If you haven't already, I'd go watch the recorded stream of Jack's Vegas talk. I think a lot of the things you mentioned are at least strongly indicated, and some of them are outright confirmed.

Crews, for one, involve selection, training, leveling, etcetera. they'll give bonuses, and when solo, they'll accompany us on away missions(or we can take player buddies, too)-- you mention CoH, so I'm sure you're familiar with this; Jack responded to a question by saying yes, the bridge crew would function more like Mastermind pets than controller pets, so we have some idea of what that'll be like.

We know for sure that we'll have to balance power concerns and a number of other things like that on the fly, or at least it's been mentioned.

They're talking fully-realized interiors, to and extent. Not the ENTIRE ship down to ever tube, but all the main areas you'd see in a show-- engineering, sickbay, so on and so forth.

Space Battle's looking like Starfleet command/Legacy, from the gameplay footage we saw. No signs of Bridge Commander views, but I can't say I'll miss it myself.

Mining and trade and so on have also been mentioned, we've heard some hints at what exploration'll be like...

On the whole, I think your list is pretty well-represented, honestly.

[TheDart]

What Zizi said - and welcome, fellow fangirl! o/

[Cyjack]

Hello Folks.


With it, comes many many things that I wonder. Having played 38 MMORPG's, I can imagine how it might function:

- You can explore your own ships, but really only the rooms that matter? (i.e. STV Elite Force 2)
- Star Trek Interiors will function very similar to City of Heroes Bases
- Space Manuevering and battle might work like Eve Online (or like Bridge Commander!? That'd rock!)
- You can defend your own ship during a boarding, or intrusion, or intrude/board other vessels, and this will all be instanced, depending on the outcome of a space battle.

ETC.

But one detail i really really hope for is "logistics".

When I play Pirate games, there is nothing that makes me feel more like a captain then statistics like "Food, Morale and Crew Complement"

With "officers" having different skills and experience levels, being capable of enhancing or providing you with skillsets out in the field.

I'd love to see Dilithium levels and having to actually "mine" Dilithium manually, through a specially long journey through space, or having lost a considerable amount of Dilithium during a space battle, due to sabotage, by a Romulan insurgent for instance.

Or conserving energy, because the warp core had to be ejected to prevent a warp core breach, or having one's ship capability's be greatly dimished due to crew casualties.

ALL these strategical considerations for me, is what makes being a captain worth it.

I'm having a gentle expectation that STO will capture the "essence" of what is Star Trek, instead of being a pretty Arcade Game, which has this "instant fun" factor of CoH, without *any* strategical considerations to go into each action done.

But with that said: Even if Star Trek Online turned out completely different from what i had imagined, for better or worse, I'll still play it as my main MMORPG, because frankly.... I'm a Star trek Fanatic and there is *NO* sci fi space MMORPG out there atm, where you have your bridge gleam red, with a classic "Red Alert" sound.

(The Bridge *WILL* go red, and one *WILL* experience that right?!.... Because if not, i'm going to be a sad panda!)



As mentioned above, many of these things are strongly indicated by Jacks presentation.

I don't think you'll be wanting for logistics either. With a strong trade economy in the game, and them aiming for "tactical" gameplay during ship battles, i think there will be all sorts of nice gritty details to micromange, in addition to being able to customize the operation and function of your ship, and train your crew.

Even during combat you will be able to do things like transfer power to shields from engines,dispatch crew to effect repairs, etc.

Check out this quite from Gamespot interview today :

As for space, we don't want to fall into the trap of trying to make starship combat into a dogfighter. That's not what Star Trek is about. In the shows and movies, space combat is about positioning, shifting power from weapons to shields, analyzing weaknesses, and having your crew come up with a plan at the last minute that can blast your enemy out of the sky! Space combat in Star Trek Online is a much more measured and tactical experience to reflect the spirit of the franchise.

[Jonathan_Beecher]

Glad to hear you're excited about Star Trek Online like the rest of us. :)

Welcome to the forums! :D


Keep your eyes open for what more information Cryptic reveals about STO. I think after looking at the screenshots, gametrailer, and webcast you might be excited even more so with what is already there.

[naynayz]

Don't feel alone! you aren't the only one that likes to pretend your car is a shuttle! Welcome to the forums!

[d4079925]

Awwww, I feel so welcomed! =D

And now I feel like an exploding lemming from so much excitement. That just sounds AWESOME!

Does anybody know if one can create a custom designation of one's ship? Because I always dream of commanding an Intrepid Class Federation Starship with the designation: "USS Halcyon NC-1337" (excuse the gamer ref :P )

Some important concerns:

I feel as though there needs to be "raids" VS the Borg or the Doomsday Machine, or other great calamities. Raids offer games Longevity. We all play games, because we want to experience the world we love, but also "thrive" in them. To evolve ourselves. As soon as this evolution reaches it's apex, the point to continue diminishes, regardless of a game or a world's quality (in most cases, based on average gamers.. there are ofcourse those blessed few who love talking to the replicator all day, and get an everlasting kick from that, like myself)

Raids would require a considerable armada to perform against some calamity, and should offer some pretty awesome "loot" in terms of experimental prototypes or alien-technology or special crew members (I.e. Seven of Nine) to augment one's starship with.

This gives poeple an incentive to go out of their way to help others achieve a greater goal.


Now on a lighter note:

Don't feel alone! you aren't the only one that likes to pretend your car is a shuttle! Welcome to the forums!

I savor the moment I open the Garage Door.... I also enjoy pretending my Microwave was a replicator... Never quite grown out of the whole child-like fantasy thing cuz it's fun, wether i'm 24 or 12... besides, nobody needs to know why i have a cheerful demeanor about myself all the time for no apparant reason...


But Here, Listen. THIS is the primary reason why i'm so extremely excited about STO:

During my teen years, I'd ration my allowance money, so I could go to Toys'R'Us once every week, to buy one of those "MicroMachines" 3 packs, of assorted Star Trek Starships and add them to my collection...

Then when I came home, I unpack'em and actually outright play with them (when nobody's looking), and imagine my own story, and my own scenario's, and have my own kind of "The Adventures of the Starship Halcyon" and I'd go: "Space, The Final Frontier, these are the Voyages of the USS Halcyon, on her 7 month Journey to explore New Worlds and New civilizations, to simply go where Captain Picard has gone before"

Those MicroMachine models were so detailed and so beautiful, it felt good to have so many Starships to chose from, for each scenario. And the backstory is so rich, and the possibilities so endless, that there's a Starship for every mood, and whim (Klingon if you wanna blow something up... Borg if your feeling greedy and wanna assimilate, Federation if your feeling "Prudent" as Data puts it... , or Romulan if you like to "not exist", Gem'Hadar if your hooked on coke and happen to run out of it, and are feeling withdrawls...

NOW with Star Trek Online, I can finally continue "Collecting ships" and *actually* use them in space, not only by myself but with many others alike, who share my same dream! (and boy do those ships look AWESOME! The Devs played "Pimp das Space-Boot" and pulled a Tom Paris apparantly!)

Seeing STO is like rekindling with my childhood once more! Star trek for me is complete spiritual freedom. It's my little "Heaven away from it all" cuz it's such a stark contrast to everything "which is".

Random musing:
Now, It'd be awesome if they include a Comm-Badge which actually do the Cricket Chirp when touched, in the Collectors Edition :P