STO: Improvement Ideas

[blackfx]

STO: Speculative Thoughts and Reasoning for Improvement


*Dynamic = Procedural

(Disclaimer - This is merely speculation for improvement purposes and very particularly a means to express a personal vision.)

1) Flying a starship through "Zones"
- Will there be load times between areas?
- Will I have to go through a funnel point to get to a location?
+ Open ended galaxies are free from zones and choke points. (which may or may not matter)
+ Less "bottlenecking" traffic in a "Universe"

2) Quests and Missions
- Quests are typically repeated amongst everyone and common in fairy tale MMO's.
- Quests imply loot or reward for adventures
+ Starfleet is a "Structured" system.
+ Missions imply duty and responsibility with rewards through commendations(oops.. hehe, spelled incorrectly) at social events and promotional ceremonies.
~ Importance / relevance: Just like not explaining oneself thoroughly may cause pounding of chests and beating of drums. Differentiating between culture quests and Starfleet missions is important for otherwise self explanatory reasons.

3) Dynamic galaxy (planetary) generation VS Zoned (planetary) generation
- Zoned planetary generation - random but limited to zone boundaries
- Limited planetary scale and instanced away missions.
~ Importance / relevance: There is significant difference between dynamic planets that allow cultures to grow dramatically & develop a presence universally. A structured instanced planet is limited to a "Scenario". A dynamic world can be destroyed with physics in very dramatic ways. An instanced zone, surface, or galaxy cannot.

4) Guilds VS Fleets - Objective perspective
- Guilds badger other guilds and individuals as well they separate guild players from individual players.
- Guilds protect capitalism from other Starfleet Fleet members and force individuals to participate in that guilds discretions.
- Guilds are not Star Trek lore
+ Fleets are structured developer events with ordained rules that protect individuals looking to be a part of the team.
+ Fleets are game driven and eliminate "axis powers"
+ Fleets are Star Trek

5) Entertainment & Structure
- Other characters, antagonists to the "Stars" in the various shows never obtain key positions. Why should players with bad credo obtain success?
+ Kirk was entertaining but serious about his work. You could call him a Hero. He was steadfast in his shows.
+ Earn your rewards by being a team player, not a Guild member (aka Corporate Jock). Develop intermingling by social crafting (not item crafting) in social events.
+ Starfleet structure is rewarding if missions accomplished "Logically", albeit with the TV show entertainment factor (included in the mission but not mission oriented).
~ Importance / relevance: Standing in front of all your peers getting rewarded for efforts(after an epic battle) is an exciting moment and a great Starfleet theme or inevitably punished the same. Rewarded with dynamic space exploration, battle campaigning, space station duties, etc..

6) Procedural VS Handcrafting
+ Dynamic city growth and cultural expansion on a planetary level
+ Limitations? None, its a subscription based game. Needs or should have expansions and updates. Easier, quicker and time developed based expansion.
+ Endless possibilities with its use and with stories, campaigns, battles, wars, culture, etc..

7)Cultural Diversity
+ Every species has a cultural ritual. Will these rituals be something our Captains will be able to enjoy individually?
~ Importance / relevance: Like Vulcans and Klingons seeing a player species have a generated culture would be an enigmatic experience. If you made it cinematic experience(along with everything that is important to your characters personal development and his/her personal episodes). Perhaps adding voice or atleast some kinda dialect.

8)Crew Diversity
+

No complaints about anything below (from me):
> Starships
+ Interiors or Exteriors
+ Bridge Crews / PC Crews
+ Customization
+ Random Creatures / Species
+ Missions
These all have been pretty much mastered throughout gaming history.

Great games and examples
-Freelancer
-Elite
-Bridge Commander
-KOTOR

Looking at the social aspects, crew diversity, and intermingling as important concepts to fully explore in Star Trek.

Why play WoW in space? There are lots of other games that do that already and plenty to come. This is Star Trek.

Please add your own thoughts and ideas.. with pros and cons. I will not belligerently comment on them. Edit and improve them as you will.

I've also been watching every episode and movie for the past 2 days. I haven't gotten through a season yet, but I've watched enough episodes to equate to a season or two.

Watching in this order:

Star Trek: TOS
Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
rinse repeat

After a season in TOS I'll watch a movie.

I'm waiting to order Star Trek: The Next Generation in HD DVD
Will probably not read the books but will certainly play all the games through atleast one time.

Elite
Bridge Commander
Supremacy
Legacy
etc.. etc..

[RockyM]

Oooh pwetty colours :)
Seriously, I think they are good idea's, well put down and easy to understand (even to me!)

I'm not sure if Dev's are reading the forum's as of yet, but maybe sometime in the near future,
this can be bumped back up when more Dev to Community are touching base.

[Dustnite]

This post is actually legible, nice improvement ideas.

I'm pretty much in agreement with what you want in the game. I loved games like Freelancer and Bridge Commander.

The only problem I have with procedural generation is you eventually run unto the problem of repeating tilesets and quests. Then you run into planets like Vulcan 1, Vulcan 2, Vulcan 9 and all look similar with different colors.

I think the Cryptic2 engine is able to generate new content quickly, although I've not seen a lot of information on what that entails. I'm still waiting for more information about some of the ideas you've posted here.

Nice job, black.

[blackfx]

Oooh pwetty colours
Seriously, I think they are good idea's, well put down and easy to understand (even to me!)

I'm not sure if Dev's are reading the forum's as of yet, but maybe sometime in the near future,
this can be bumped back up when more Dev to Community are touching base.

Thanks, appreciate the support friend.

The only problem I have with procedural generation is you eventually run unto the problem of repeating tilesets and quests. Then you run into planets like Vulcan 1, Vulcan 2, Vulcan 9 and all look similar with different colors.

I think the Cryptic2 engine is able to generate new content quickly, although I've not seen a lot of information on what that entails. I'm still waiting for more information about some of the ideas you've posted here.

Nice job, black.

Thanks and I agree that repetition is inevitable on procedural as well as hand crafted locations. However, all of these things can be expanded upon. Like downloading a Sims 2 mod


My intentions is for everyone to gather their main ideas into this thread and format it to be similar to mine. Perhaps I'll even do it myself if I really feel like it. I'm just not sure I'm that energetic.