What Goes On INSIDE your ship?

[SAMEET]

This is my last post until I decide to return when there is real information about the game.

OK, in our ship we have a bridge crew, and a redshirt general crew. It is confirmed we have interiors like a bridge, corridors, sick bay, engineering, etc. But it is also confirmed that we cannot have any player crew, but we can invite other player to join away missions or to visit the ship.

So what goes on inside our ship? Will our bridge crew be set up on their bridge stations? Will we be able to walk around and go to the Mess Hall and play darts or visit a Holodeck? Can we invite other players to socialize on the ship?

[Sullen]

I imagine all of that will be there... maybe some quests will take place on your ship (tons of episodes of Star Trek were completely inside the ship).

[Signalsgt]

No one knows. Personally I'm hoping for "trophies" you collect during missions that are placed in your Ready Room that other players can log in and see.

[ParkerHayden]

I'd like the inside of ships to be like Elite Force where you could explore Voyager. You see crew members, main characters, secondary characters, and "redshirts" alike all around the ship, doing random tasks like repairing power conduits, lounging in the corridors or mess hall, or walking to and from parts of the ship.

There doesn't have to be a wide array of animations for them to do, just enough to make it so that the ship doesn't appear "dead".

[marscentral]

In theory, there's no reason ship interiors couldn't be quite complex and detailed, since the basics won't vary much. The customizations are likely minor surface details. At least that's how I see it.

[WinterPark1701]

I imagine all of that will be there... maybe some quests will take place on your ship (tons of episodes of Star Trek were completely inside the ship).

I do like that idea a lot.

[thefreshjedi]

I plan on having a petting zoo.

-Avery

[SAMEET]

Com on, cadets.

It is tentatively planned for the whole interiors of your ships to be explorable. What do you WANT to do inside your ship? Should we be able to work in engineering? Or heal the wounded in Sick Bay?

Should we be able to walk down to the Shuttle Bay and enter a shuttle and leave the ship for some short-term exploration around a planet?

Should we be able to enter the Holodeck and practice combat or relax or play some mystery game?

Can we perhaps walk into the Mess Hall and have a drink, listen to music, play darts, or pool, or watch the stars go by in the window?

Can we invite other players to do all the above with us, and then complete a mission together.

The whole issue of player ship interiors (PSIs) was a MASSIVE controversy when PE had the relms. Now that at least officially they are confirmed, although plans could change, shouldn't there be more discussion about them?

[Merius]

I would like to be able to walk the couradors, and see a crewman working on something. Stop and chat, repromand him if needs be and watch him cry. Or praise him and make him think hes going to get a promotion. ^_^

I think it would be cool to sumble upon coversations or see two red shirts courting.

I want to know that on deck 3, their are 20 crew members doing various things, and go to deck 3 as captain that day and see if I can spot each of them.

Or check ops and see which crew members are on what decks.

I think it would be awsome to run drills as a captain as well. Where everyone on deck 3 is sleeping and I run a fire drill and they all have to wake up and go to deck 6.

^_^

They will call me captain !@#!

[Varrangian]

It is tentatively planned for the whole interiors of your ships to be explorable.

Care to provide a link to this. In everything I've heard, seen or read it was "select" areas of the ship not the whole interior.

[SAMEET]

Care to provide a link to this. In everything I've heard, seen or read it was "select" areas of the ship not the whole interior.

I don't think it was ever mentioned anywhere either that only "select" areas would be explorable. At the LV convention, Jack just said that there would be interiors and you could visit the Sick Bay engineering and corridors.

I just don't think it is clear right now. I am not saying we will have jeffries tube access and and every little room explorable, but my guess is we will have access to all the decks.

PE was planning on having the Galaxy-class and Sovereign-Class ships available as whole interiors. It's my guess CS will expand that to several more ship classes.

[TruthSeer]

PE was planning on having the Galaxy-class and Sovereign-Class ships available as whole interiors. It's my guess CS will expand that to several more ship classes.

They had this planned because Galaxies and Sovereigns weren't planned on being player ships, they were planned as being player hubs, kinda playing the same roles as space stations.

[Manx]

Full interiors could require an awful lot of content to make them worthwhile. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of being able to explore my ship, check out the different departments, and maybe be able to take a shuttle or fighter out for a spin (without just being beamed into it from the bridge I mean). Thing is, if there is not enough to do around the ship then it is just a novelty and not really worth the effort of putting it in. On the other hand, lots of content, with lots of places to go visit makes it like a flying town... one for every player. I know that is how they have often been presented, but wouldn't it be a bit much? I think I like the Elite Force model, just put in the places you are at some point going to maybe have a reason to visit; rather than full interiors. Less trauma for the servers, and lets face it, who could keep up with everything thats happening on a Galaxy class ship anyways?

[SAMEET]

Full interiors could require an awful lot of content to make them worthwhile. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of being able to explore my ship, check out the different departments, and maybe be able to take a shuttle or fighter out for a spin (without just being beamed into it from the bridge I mean). Thing is, if there is not enough to do around the ship then it is just a novelty and not really worth the effort of putting it in. On the other hand, lots of content, with lots of places to go visit makes it like a flying town... one for every player. I know that is how they have often been presented, but wouldn't it be a bit much? I think I like the Elite Force model, just put in the places you are at some point going to maybe have a reason to visit; rather than full interiors. Less trauma for the servers, and lets face it, who could keep up with everything thats happening on a Galaxy class ship anyways?

What does server load have to do with it? The player ships are NPC crewed. What goes on in your ship only YOU see it, unless you have a guest on board.

You could have a Galaxy-Class ship with whole interiors and that would have no effect on server load, unless there were 100 other players on board, WHICH WON"T HAPPEN.

I am not saying there should be FULL INTERIORS, but I am against the Elite Force model.

The EF model was you just visited the deck for a mission. I want our ships to have all the major decks open, so we can hop in a lift and visit whatever we like.

I would imagine say if I was Captain of the Sovereign-Class (which I can't wait to do), I would want the following

1. Bridge, Observation Lounge, Ready Room
2. Turbolifts
3. Corridors
4. Engineering
5. Sick Bay
6. Quarters
7. Mess Hall
8. Holdoecks
9. Shuttle Bay
10. Astrometrics
11. Transporter Room

While it seems much, this is a realistic assessment, since a lot of the coding and design can be copied from ship to ship, which slight modifications. I would imagine there would be even more than this, because I don't want the locations to be instanced, but rather the loading time while you are in the turbolift and you enter the deck with your destination. So you have freedom to explore more.

Once the interiors are complete for a few ships, the redundancy level if quite high, so it's not like CS has to start over from scratch for every ship.

Server load has nothing to do with it.

[ValkerOmega]

they could always make the interior of your ship past the bridge instanced, that should take care of any serious problems. just pull up the basic ship interior, texture it according to the players specs, and there you go.

personally, i am hoping that some missions will be inside my ship so that i have to do something like repel a boarding party. even cooler if it was kicking the borg off my ship. Other than that, i really think walking through your ship should be cosmetic and for immersion with main areas such as med bay as places to train or upgrade. I do like the idea of the captains quarters being a trophy room. i personally will hang a borg arm over my door.:D

[Manx]

What does server load have to do with it? The player ships are NPC crewed. What goes on in your ship only YOU see it, unless you have a guest on board.

You could have a Galaxy-Class ship with whole interiors and that would have no effect on server load, unless there were 100 other players on board, WHICH WON"T HAPPEN.

I am not saying there should be FULL INTERIORS, but I am against the Elite Force model.

The EF model was you just visited the deck for a mission. I want our ships to have all the major decks open, so we can hop in a lift and visit whatever we like.

I would imagine say if I was Captain of the Sovereign-Class (which I can't wait to do), I would want the following

1. Bridge, Observation Lounge, Ready Room
2. Turbolifts
3. Corridors
4. Engineering
5. Sick Bay
6. Quarters
7. Mess Hall
8. Holdoecks
9. Shuttle Bay
10. Astrometrics
11. Transporter Room

While it seems much, this is a realistic assessment, since a lot of the coding and design can be copied from ship to ship, which slight modifications. I would imagine there would be even more than this, because I don't want the locations to be instanced, but rather the loading time while you are in the turbolift and you enter the deck with your destination. So you have freedom to explore more.

Once the interiors are complete for a few ships, the redundancy level if quite high, so it's not like CS has to start over from scratch for every ship.

Server load has nothing to do with it.

I didn't mean that areas should only be available if some mission requires it; I was was just thinking of the way areas of note in EF were enclosed in their own little sections, which you moved between via turbo lift; which sounds rather like what you are suggesting.

As for the server load thing... you're probably right. I have this unfortunate habit with MMOs of thinking 'server' even if I mean 'connection' or 'CPU'/'graphics card' etc. My bad :o

[SovWell]

My Ship will be a Pimp'en retro traveling club.

[thefreshjedi]

My Ship will be a Pimp'en retro traveling club.

Sweet, but remember it's not complete without the Disco ball centered above in the Bridge Room, and the Fuzzy Dice hanging from the Main Viewer.

You also have to have a Peace Symbol on the Rear Shuttle Bay Doors, and below that, a I BRAKE FOR ANDORIANS bumper sticker as well.

-Avery

*edited for grammar: sue me I'm tired tonight

[Jubal]

I'd like the inside of ships to be like Elite Force where you could explore Voyager. You see crew members, main characters, secondary characters, and "redshirts" alike all around the ship, doing random tasks like repairing power conduits, lounging in the corridors or mess hall, or walking to and from parts of the ship.

There doesn't have to be a wide array of animations for them to do, just enough to make it so that the ship doesn't appear "dead".

Agreed, I was a little bummed that we didn't get player formed crews, but I understand the logistical and design problems that would cause. Instead I'd settle for a really lively NPC crew. It'd be wonderful if your bridge crew was given special attention and could interact with each other to form relationships of a sort.

[Cormoran]

I am not saying there should be FULL INTERIORS, but I am against the Elite Force model.

The EF model was you just visited the deck for a mission. I want our ships to have all the major decks open, so we can hop in a lift and visit whatever we like.

I would imagine say if I was Captain of the Sovereign-Class (which I can't wait to do), I would want the following

1. Bridge, Observation Lounge, Ready Room
2. Turbolifts
3. Corridors
4. Engineering
5. Sick Bay
6. Quarters
7. Mess Hall
8. Holdoecks
9. Shuttle Bay
10. Astrometrics
11. Transporter Room

While it seems much, this is a realistic assessment, since a lot of the coding and design can be copied from ship to ship, which slight modifications. I would imagine there would be even more than this, because I don't want the locations to be instanced, but rather the loading time while you are in the turbolift and you enter the deck with your destination. So you have freedom to explore more.

Actually the special edition of elite force 1 had all that in it's extra content. (which is a big reason why i prefer it over elite force 2) it included several decks of voyager that you could access via a turbolift, decks which included everything you've mentioned, they were there simply so you could explore, there wasn't really any mission included with them.

[SAMEET]

Actually the special edition of elite force 1 had all that in it's extra content. (which is a big reason why i prefer it over elite force 2) it included several decks of voyager that you could access via a turbolift, decks which included everything you've mentioned, they were there simply so you could explore, there wasn't really any mission included with them.

I played that Virtual Voyager expansion this summer. It was a gimmick. Hardly anything was interactive, there were hardly any other crew members, most of them you could not talk to barely.

It got boring real quick.

I imagine in STO it would be different, since there would be more crew members doing things, you could actually travel in space and move the ship, you could invite players on board to visit, and a lot of the ship is to be interactive. I imagine you will be able to use chairs and stuff like that.

The Virtual Voyager mission was a drawback in a lot of areas, it was basically like a walk-in museum. Plus the USS Voyager is kind of a stale, ugly ship.

[Trekkie]

I think that the featured interiors will be notable locations that are important for one reason or another, and I think that the only areas on ships that will not be accessible are those that are basically repetitive of what is already visitable or areas that contribute little to gameplay.

[Vicelance]

I would like to be able to visit all the areas and walk the coridors of my ship and interact with the crew. Though on the larger ships I can see that being a problem due to the number of decks and rooms. I would be happy if they made it so It felt like my crew was there and when walking around didn't seem like I was on a ghost ship.

Though I would really like to be able to travel through the Jeffries tubes from deck to deck.

[dwarner]

If they implement main important areas of the ship and the complete decks they are on, I think that will be more than enough. They need to include the complete decks though so you're not just zooming on a turbo lift from engineering straight to the bridge, stellar cartography, ect. It will provide good immersion and interaction with the crew to walk through the corridors. Make sure the crew greets you with respect like they should.

I also agree that they should make stuff to DO while wandering your ship. Mini storylines between smitten crewmembers maybe. Some department head could have a problem of some kind. Maybe you can give your Chief Engineer a hand with a project.

Star Trek is as much about crew interaction on the ship as anything that happens off of it.

[SAMEET]

If they implement main important areas of the ship and the complete decks they are on, I think that will be more than enough. They need to include the complete decks though so you're not just zooming on a turbo lift from engineering straight to the bridge, stellar cartography, ect. It will provide good immersion and interaction with the crew to walk through the corridors. Make sure the crew greets you with respect like they should.

I also agree that they should make stuff to DO while wandering your ship. Mini storylines between smitten crewmembers maybe. Some department head could have a problem of some kind. Maybe you can give your Chief Engineer a hand with a project.

Star Trek is as much about crew interaction on the ship as anything that happens off of it.

Agreed. I think quarters are important too. For the immersion part. I think it would be diffcult to get that crew experience with a NPC crew.

[WinterPark1701]

I don't know that they'll render the whole ship. I could seem them doing the major sections of the ships, Bridge, Main Engineering, Transporter Room, Sick Bay. I think it would be far too complex and costly to do an entire ship, especaly on something like a Galaxy.

[SAMEET]

I don't know that they'll render the whole ship. I could seem them doing the major sections of the ships, Bridge, Main Engineering, Transporter Room, Sick Bay. I think it would be far too complex and costly to do an entire ship, especaly on something like a Galaxy.

Not really. Keep in mind that PE was going to render the whole Galaxy and Sovereign, and they may have made some progress in their 4 years with the title.

Is it really too much? Keep in mind corridors and turbolifts can be highly repeated. Basically you need to code the main areas, attach corridors, a few rooms, a viola!

If they add in the dolphin tank I will be impressed. Yes, PE had concept art for a dolphin tank.

[Edrick]

Sounds like a SIMs game the way its sounding like. The only difference is you dont have a home you just have a ship. I am no gamming expert but would something like that be posible to have that much interaction you would have in a SIMs game but in your ship?

[MushroomGod]

Bridge, Engineering, Sick-bay, Holodeck, Lounge, captain's quarters, Ready-room, and a few corridors is all thats needed.

[Typheron]

Im far more interested in whats outside my ship, than whats inside it, only key areas more mission emersion really, but if theres more than that, its good.

I probably wont pay it any attention however.

[Stu1701]

One thing I want to know about ship interiors is will they all be the same? Seeing has Cryptic has put a lot of focus in customization in both characters and ships, will we be able customize the interior as well as the exterior of our ships? We've seen threw out the shows that very ship's interior has it's own differences.

[KO_Gilligan]

My ship has a large Hokey Pokey replicator game, and as you put each body part in, it creates the new clothing that you will be wearing by the end of the game. It's great for getting the group fashionable during travel to a shore leave planet.

[ParkerHayden]

Not really. Keep in mind that PE was going to render the whole Galaxy and Sovereign, and they may have made some progress in their 4 years with the title.

Is it really too much? Keep in mind corridors and turbolifts can be highly repeated. Basically you need to code the main areas, attach corridors, a few rooms, a viola!

If they add in the dolphin tank I will be impressed. Yes, PE had concept art for a dolphin tank.
Yes, but those weren't player-ships.

[Qnaz]

Not much on the inside of Klingon ships. They're meant for transportation and fighting, Just the way I like it ;)