What kind of quests (missions) would you like to see? [Archive]

Nyrkl

08-31-2008, 01:24 AM

It’s always a tough job to make a game a success. A game must be original in all ways…
This is why I’m bringing up the quest part. Mostly all the questing is the same in MMO’s. I think they can change that completely in STO.
I think the creator's are happy to hear some examples what kind on quest they should make available in the game.

Example:

Quest: Trouble with the Maquis.

Your ship is picking up a distress call from a Cardassian freighter. You find out it’s only a few light years from your custom position. The signal is coming from the planet Ronara Prime.

Your mission:

Your mission is to find out what happened on Ronara Prime. And see what happened to the Cardassians.

Okay the idea is to let you make your own decisions. If you are for example a Maquis yourself you would response a different way than a federation. But the decision will still be yours… If you decide (as a federation ship) to go to the planet and help the Cardassians, you could find a resistant that is holding the crew hostage. Or maybe the Cardassians are setting a trap for you. Or maybe it is just a emergency call and you need help them to repair there ship and make a positive faction with them.

I’m just curious what kind of missions (quest) you all got in mind and like to play when the game will release.

Let me know.

Greetz,

Nyrkl :D

Elfender

08-31-2008, 02:08 AM

I'd like a randomized Distress signal style Mission platform, not really often or it would get annoying, but for example

"Captain. . . Recieving a distress signel from sector 073."

"On Screen."

"This is the Terran Frieghter (or other nearby race) Polaris, we are under attack! We have lost Warp, Life Support. Structural Integrity Failing, Many casualties. Request immidiate assistance."

"Helm, set a course for the freighter, Maximum Warp."

"Aye Sir....Course Set."

"Engage."

or something along that lines. SOmetimes you have to chase away the pirate/alien, sometimes they got what they need, but you have to somehow coordinate repairs and medical relief.

Nyrkl

08-31-2008, 02:25 AM

Yea... that sounds like a exiting quest as well... you never know what can happen.

good one mate ;)

Exezer

08-31-2008, 02:35 AM

Or if your going to be a captain / doctor ...you could get a mission to deliver some supplies to an outer rim planet and have to go through some fighting (early in the game to get the feel).

Sorbek

08-31-2008, 02:36 AM

What I'm wanting is to hear that deadful sounding voice of "we are the Borg"

Would love if the system (rarely) would have the system send out a random distress call for help with some kind of problem...IE disaster, attack, medical crisis, etc....and you decide if your current mission is more important or to divert to it.

On top of the normal. Go to this sector and map/explore and send us reports of your findings...which could sometimes lead to first contacts...encounters with random anomalies, or even things like puzzles (Booby Trap from TNG comes to mind).

Definately medical relief missions...go pick up supplies and bring them to a planet....and have to assign crew and personell to assist in distributing it to all the people on the planet.

I really hope they stay away from a level system. This will make missions be able to mean something...I would rather spend a few hours on a real mission (like trying to figure out how to divert an asteroid from impacting an inhabited planet) that is high priority than do a bunch of quick missions that mean nothing but a few points to advance in rank.

I also want to have to avoid or weather natural things like ion storms.

This is just some of the stuff that comes to mind right now bit there is so much more that we can come up with.

Nyrkl

08-31-2008, 02:49 AM

I really hope they stay away from a level system. This will make missions be able to mean something...I would rather spend a few hours on a real mission (like trying to figure out how to divert an asteroid from impacting an inhabited planet) that is high priority than do a bunch of quick missions that mean nothing but a few points to advance in rank.

The thing is that people want to level! But it does not mean that you can’t do missions like you describe… I think that missions like you pointed out must be rewarded much better that just a simple mission like blow a asteroid out of the sky.

Maybe missions like that could mean a medallion of heroic and more experience that the asteroid one. There is a change your ship be destroyed. The danger is much bigger but the reward should be much greater and maybe people should see that you are a great captain if you did complete a mission like that. There is a way to do both. ;)
Just my opinion.

But I thank you for this great creative mission's Sorbek… I would surly do it ;)

Elfender

08-31-2008, 06:54 AM

I think natural phenomona like Ion Storms and Space Creatures are a Wonderful idea, thier trek novelties and the game wouldnt be right w/o them. In fact, i was just thinkin an Ion storm causes strange phenomanons onboard your ship, and a system breakdown has your ship stranded in the middle of an Ion Storm (or nebula, or other galactic Phenomana) whilest this strange occurences happen. Your job is two prong, find out what caused the breakdown, and whats causeing the strangeness...could be linked, could not be linked...people might find a mission like that boring.

The typical exploration and First Contact mission would be fun as well though, as would an investigate the direlect artifact (or somthing like that)

Also, speaking of borg, it would be cool if you had to repel borders First Contact style, the borg have set up a "Base of Operations" on board your ship and are working on assimilating it and your crew, you must stop them without losing more of your ship or crew.

Nyrkl

08-31-2008, 11:38 AM

Quite exiting quest there ;)

I would love to see that one in the game...!

Thanks.

marscentral

08-31-2008, 11:57 AM

It might be interesting if something like exploring a nebula did cause mission. One that occurs on ship and is more character driven involving your crew as you try to figure what's destabalizing your warp field or something. That does seem more solo, though it could be something a fleet works on. It would mean making sure the crew interaction is compelling and they feel like people.

Silverspar

08-31-2008, 12:05 PM

I would like to see random missions occur in game. Aftre all, linear and predictable progression definitely are not Star Trek. Getting a strange positronic signal from near the Romulan Neutral Zone (ala Nemesis) I think should spark a mission on it's own.

I would also like to be given a basic over-all mission, but as I am exploring smaller, little missions pop up, thus for example;

Starfleet: Captain, your mission is to go to the Sylliac System located here and conduct survey and exploratory measures within the area to determine resources and economic value.

En-Route: Ship sensors pick up a strange distortion, under General Order Thirteen, a starship can divert course to investigate or continue heading towards the Sylliac system. If they choose to divert, they find a bit of space that is folding strangely... ect.

jeanleloup

08-31-2008, 12:12 PM

First of all, great thread idea! The multiple pathways to complete the Maquis mission is defineitly how it should be in the game.

I know it sounds extremely silly, but I think we should be terraforming in IRL. So, there should be a mission where you plan out the terraforming process of a planet. Sure it would take a bit of science knowledge, like that humans need a about 30% oxygen and 70% nitrogen, temperatures of around 300 kelvin but nothing extreme.

Example:
Take a planet like Mars, you need to crash meteors using your tractor beam into the ice caps. Then bomb the caps from orbit and then start bringing algae in. So in the game, you'd really only do the first two.

Also, there should definetly be a mission where you have to deal with Q. If you screw things up, you should be punished for the rest of the game by having your ship rainbow colour!

Bovafett

08-31-2008, 12:24 PM

DerManiac

08-31-2008, 12:25 PM

I like the distress signal thingy. Imagine You are playing federation and getting a distress signal by an andorian freighter. You fly there only to see how it is being attacked by a klingon vessel. You hail it, without response. you lock on phaser, charge em up and fire a warning shot. They hail you, just telling you should stay out of it. Since you have no other choice you engage the klingon vessel. while all that happens, another player - he himself playing klingon - received the distress signal from the freighter, and followed it, just to check it out. He finds you attacking a klingon comrade, and decides to help him. Next thing you know, is you send out a distress signal yourself, praying that another federation player is nearby...

Silverspar

08-31-2008, 12:27 PM

I'd like to see some historic missions of the past. Fight at Wolf 359 etc... Perhaps an anomoly that throws us into the past like in TNG when the Enterprise C met the D, just reversed.

Being able to partake in historic missions I think would be excellent.

If you get thrown into the Battle of Wolf 359, I don't think you should be able to do much to influence a major change (such as Starfleet pushing the Borg back) as that would alter time completely. I think you should be able to do small things, for instance, you help to save the sole surviving vessel from Wolf 359. Otherwise the advanced weaponry of a 25th century starship could force the Borg to adapt to future weapons faster.

Phunix

08-31-2008, 12:45 PM

Location triggered missions would definitely drive the impulse to explore systems, known and unknown :)

Reputation and posturing (did you bring a full fledged warbird or a science vessel?) could play an interesting role in missions that require any kind of negotiations even before the first word gets spoken, if they even do.

Maybe also officers you hire could trigger missions they 'brought' onboard?
Or from a diff pov missions could be generated that take into account and base it upon one of your officers.
This could even mean that in the middle of a regular mission a side mission starts where upon completion of the mission that officer doesn't beam back normally and disappears, only to hear a few minutes later from a dying redshirt that he's been taken by his own race for trials or whatever fits the officer's story.

This could be combined with your personal reputation with an officer, to when he's at a certain level he confides in you and a mission starts. Some officers would have it start at hiring (enough rep then) or later when the rep is quite higher (unless you somehow treated him badly or something like that), and other officers would have no missions at all. Even the death of an officer could spark a mission.

I'd like to see alot of Joker effects, where random missions get spawned because of a combination of factors such as rep, officers you're carrying, the ship you're sailing, the area/system you're in, and who knows what other possibilities.

TheMasterpiece

08-31-2008, 03:09 PM

Id believe we'll have ALL types of missions, random, to quests, to the main story. And i believe theyll range from combat to exploration to meeting new races. Everything really. the "sky" is the limit

Galluskek

08-31-2008, 03:43 PM

I would personally like to see some espionage missions, maybe something along the lines of Admiral Nechayev ordering Picard and Co. to Seltis 3 for some covert sabotage and recon. It should be an infrequent thing, and it should have significant dangers and rewards. I envision a mission structure as follows:

[Fog and Shadows]
{The following is one possible mission of many espionage-related alternates, and will be assigned infrequently}

Set up:
You receive a priority one message from starfleet command, which you must take. The caller is an Admiral of high rank and importance.
You: "What a pleasant surprise, Admiral [insert name], to what do I owe this great honor?"
Admrl: "I'm afraid I don't have time for pleasantries, Captain. Two days ago, we detected a message from a
threvessel deep in Klingon territory. The ship sent detailed sensor telemetry of a new Klingon weapon system."
You: "And you want me to investigate."
Admrl: "I am afraid so, Captain. This would be a strictly off the books mission, of course. Tensions with the
threEmpire are at an all time high and if you get caught, we will not be able to mount a rescue mission. You are
threnot being forced to take this mission, but if you should accept it, I need to know your decision now."

Objectives:
Determine the location of the Klingon weapons system
Destroy the Klingon weapon
Do not get captured

Summary:
You have been sent into Klingon space on a covert mission. Your goal is to find a weapon system of incalculable power and sabotage or steal it. You have been given license to use whatever force is necessary and the Prime Directive has been suspended for the duration. You are not to be captured, but that is no problem as the Klingons are not in the habit of taking prisoners.

This mission troubles you, as you may be forced to take actions you previously thought unthinkable. You will require unorthodox strategy and thinking to get through this task. The fate of the Federation may rest in your hands.

[End mission breakdown]

Ideally, there should be different mission types, based on your specialty or your ship choice. For example, an Intrepid class would get a scanning mission, and a Steamrunner would get a destroy mission.

sm12905

08-31-2008, 04:17 PM

I think that joint ground/space combat missions would be interesting (as well as challenging). for example-

(insert mission name here)

Start: you receive a distress call from a nearby planet. when you come to investigate, you discover that the planet is under attack by Romulans. A small Romulan army has already beamed to the surface before the planet raised it's shields. One person takes command of the ship while the Captain takes a landing party and tries to defend the planet's defense system. If the planet's shield fails completely, you will fail the mission. The people on the ground can assist the ship with the planet's phaser cannons (if they manage to capture it), and the ship can assist the people on the ground by destroying the Romulan ships and slowing the speed at which the shield is draining. Only by working together (and comunicating well) can the players win the battle.

AaronH

08-31-2008, 04:36 PM

Mission I would like to see: The classic mysterious thing headed towards (insert random planet) and your crew has to deal with it.

For me though, the big question isn't what kind of missions will we see, but how will we recieve missions. For this I think the best way to handle it would be to allow a player to go to their sensors, and that would bring up a brief list of missions available in the region. (similar to City of Heroes police scanner missions) Missions might be put out there as picking up a distress signal, or getting strange sensor data, or even a historical record of a ship once going missing in the area, and so on. Of course, I do hope there also other ways to get missions, such as by exploration, speaking to the right NPCs, or maybe even having the previously mentioned sensor missions sometimes have the option to open up a bigger mission.

Trekkie

08-31-2008, 07:15 PM

I do not have any specific ideas as far as what kinds of missions I would like to see in the game, but there are some great ideas in this thread and I hope the developers look at them!

Sinclair

09-01-2008, 08:42 AM

For missions, I think the devs could run back through all of the hundreds of Trek episodes to come up with good ideas for types and formats. There are many.

I also like the idea of having a random mission generator. This will keep missions accessible for those who need to log on for short time periods, instead of always being involved in long quest/mission chains. However, I think there needs to be a great variety in possible mission types to keep it interesting.

Scripting missions was a great idea for a thread. Let's keep it going. I thought a quick list of generic types of missions may help further discussion / mission scripting.

Here are a few types of ship-based missions I can think of. Keep the ideas coming and maybe come more mission scripts can be developed around the types of missions.

1. Spatial exploration mission involving scanning to find a key point of interest.
2. Mineral exploration involving scanning planets to find a resource
3. Biological exploration involving scanning planets to find a life form
4. Archaeological .... ditto, etc. etc.
5. Escort transport ships from point A to point B
6. Defend transport ships or a station from enemy
7. Clear pirates from asteroids.
8. Engage withfleet an attacking enemy
9. Dock at station defended by enemies
10. 'FedEx' - Deliver item from point A to point B (like deliver medical supplies before a timer runs down)
11. 'Bounty Hunting' - destroy "X" of "Y" (like destroy 10 Klingon ships)
12. Investigate response to distress signal
13. Kobayashi Maru type scenarios
14. Needing to get close enough to beam something aboard during a dangerous situation
15. Navigating through a difficult spatial anomoly area, where anomolies damage the ship
16. Capture an enemy vessel
17 Rendevoux with and repair a friendly vessel before enemies arrive
18. Collect resources faster than an enemy ship
19. Race a competing or enemy ship on some course
20. Repair your ship faster than an enemy to escape or defeat it.

Obviously there is even more variety to be had with away missions, though many of the categories above probably fit that that too.

knix

09-03-2008, 05:56 AM

Here are some more ideas for missions:
Find and distribute a cure for some epidemic.
First contact, negotiate a treaty with a recently discovered warp-capable species.
New technology, research, test or evaluate.

Missions also needs to be dynamic, linked and sharable. If I start a mission and after a while I run need to complete some task for which I'm not qualified, we should be able to delegate that subtask to someone who is, and they can then elaborate on the task given.

I can use two of the ideas above to explain.
The [insert random disease] Epidemic:
A crew member on a deep space scout manages to contract a previously unknown disease on an away mission to a previously unexplored planet, triggering the epidemic mission. The medical officer on the scout manages to find and classify the disease, but is unable to find a cure. The player asks someone else to help develop a cure, and another player with medical background helps out and develops a cure. The first player engineers a way to distribute the cure and finishes his part of the mission by curing the members of his crew that have been infected. At the same time, the other player discovers some genetical anomaly in the DNA of whatever virus, bacteria or other micro-organism was responsible for the disease. This opens up a side quests for players that have participated in previous steps of the quests. The different players could take this in different directions depending on their qualification. A scientist might establish the evolutionary relationship between the unexplored planet and some other system. A medic could invent a new hypospray that increases natural resistance to some wierd kind of radiation. Only the imagination and Cryptics resources sets a limit on how much missions can branch out.

Another mission could involve the development of new technology. This could be a little more complex to get going. While scanning for resources, a new compound is discovered, but no use for the new compound is directly apparent, only some general properties. Another (or the same player if he's really lucky) discovers some new astronomical anomaly, but once again, even after extensive studies not enough is known about the phenomenon to draw any conclusions. However, when these two players meet and compare their mission journals, they discover that there is a connection between the new compound and the anomaly. Perhaps the compound can be used as a shield against the anomaly, or when a third player discovers a way to artificially reproduce the anomaly, it can be used together with the compound to manufacture a system to drain energy from enemy vessels.

hoggj

09-03-2008, 08:03 AM

I wuld love to see some of the people from the tv series doing caeo aparences for the missions.

I wander if we will be able to build or modify personal wepones in STO,

It may be fun to be a wepones dealer, if its possible.

ElimGarak

09-03-2008, 09:09 AM

There's three kind of missions in general..."Go kill it", "Go take this item from a to b" " craft this"
I wait and desire that STO is not going to be like that.
There's a lot of great ideas in this thread, and im impressed with some of them.

- Some time quests could be great too. You have time limit to clear some biological anomalies or something like that ( in a planet will rock! :D)

We want a lot of variety and imagination!!

_\\//

Galluskek

09-03-2008, 09:27 AM

They ought to steal some techniques for writing missions off the actual writers for the series. They managed to make the show interesting, perhaps some of their concepts in story-assembling can be applied to mission-building. 2 plot lines per mission, like most episodes would be interesting.

You must save this world from a rather excessively huge asteroid that will impact in 1 hour, AND they are trying to disassemble your ops officer to make a race of slave-androids. Maybe you have to transport a small colony of humanoids to a hospital facility when their planetary generator explodes, AND it turns out Ensign Morgan is a serial killer that preys on colonists who are victims of things. Perhaps you beamed down to Risa and discovered an alien conspiracy, BUT it turns out that the Klingons have arrived in orbit, threatening to blow the joint up. Or, You are fleeing a deadly space ameoba, AND your are in the path of a soliton wave (easy solution to this one).

Point is, how about a random mission-matching system that connects two concurrent plotlines in one mission giving you primary and secondary objectives and perhaps allowing you to use up all that extra processor time you have lying around in that noggin of yours. And there are probably some better concepts that can be applied to the structuring of missions that would give it a really Trek feel on a fundamental level.

Of course this could just be a new way for people to become confused and angry with me... thoughts?

Redshirt_40067

09-03-2008, 09:36 AM

I too would like to see a random comm lead to a quest, be it combat, exploration, diplomacy or a rescue. They should happen frequently enough and varied enough to be fun, but not o frequent as to get old fast. Rewards, if any, should be small at best. Depending on how faction/diplomacy will be handled, a bump in the correct faction would be ideal.

Nyrkl

02-10-2009, 03:15 AM

Just giving this post a fresh 2009 look...

A few idea's for quests like happened in the series:

The Void, Space rip, Time travel, Loop (ground hawk day), Other dimensions, Mines, Juggernaut.... And so I can go on :P

Braunbaer

02-10-2009, 03:55 AM

I guess there will be a overall plot in the game. And of course there will be stand-alone missions. But I would like to see little "campaigns", too. If the plot is well written, I don't care if the mission itself is not that creative or repeats often. I mean, in TNG there were many humanitarian missions - the whole concept was always the same but the details were different. ;)

They mentoined the amount of crew on your ship has an effect on your ship systems, the effectiveness of your ship, didn't they? So, what about a mission where you have to decide if and how many crew members you are going to beam to the planet. Maybe you have to cover medical attendances or something else but on the other hand you need to accomplish another mission. So, the decision how many crew members you leave on the planet has to come into consideration with your other missions.

Later you come back to the planet and beam your crew onboard. But in the meantime your ship is less effective, maybe fights become more difficult.

Oh and the amount of crew you beam on the planet also affects the time your crew need to finish their mission.

Samodelkin

02-10-2009, 10:32 PM

I would like to see more non-linear missions.

What is a linear mission:
The developer creates a set of challenges that the player must overcome. The two most basic ones are "destroy this" and "bring that". The developer knows exactly what the player will do, because there is only one path a player can take. These missions quickly get repetitive and boring, but are simple to grasp and can be more fun the first time. Linear missions are popular in MMORPGs because they are easy to make and are very adaptable to different settings, plots, and factions - often the only thing the developers have to change is the NPC monologues, like in Dinosaur Comics (http://www.qwantz.com/). Examples: Star Wars Galaxies, EVE, WoW, Portal, Bioshock, Call of Duty, Resident Evil.

What is a non-linear mission:
The developer creates a set of objectives, including both required and optional, that the player will be challenged to carry out. The developer also creates a deeply interactive environment, but without setting any specific path for the player. It is up to the player to plan a way to carry out his or her objectives. These missions may be more difficult because they require thinking, planning, and creativity; however, they won't get boring as quickly as linear missions. Also, because the player could take multiple approaches, he or she can be rewarded something extra for not only completing the mission, but doing so with finesse. Examples: Hitman: Blood Money, Covert Action, Death to Spies; I have yet to see these in an MMO.

Try to find Covert Action on abandon-ware sites, or the Death to Spies demo. You will see what I mean. (Most missions in Hitman: Blood Money are good examples, the exceptions being the first and the last missions; the tutorial mission in the demo is actually a linear mission.)

PvP

02-10-2009, 10:57 PM