Puzzles are a big part of Star Trek, and in general the major thing that is lacking in STO. There needs to be three types of puzzles: Scientific, Engineering, and Diplomatic. Scientific is more trying to figure out how to get out of a situation or make a situation work. Figure out that B doesn't have to follow A to complete the picture, and in some respects test our knowledge of the universe around us. Engineering puzzles should be a bit more hands on, putting the proper pieces together on a device, organizing energy patterns in a certain way, etc. Diplomatic puzzles should work a little more like combat in that you engage an NPC on a diplomatic front and negotiate your way of a situation, of course if you fail this will lead to a fire fight.
These three types of puzzles need to be available to all classes, and should rely somewhat on Bofs to complete them.
Also do somethign with anomilies, EQ2 has collection quests from shinies, something like that could rely be worked in well with how star trek works. Find pieces of a ship scattered across a sector and once you have them all it offer you a quest.
Yes! These are excellent suggestions! It would also be cool if your character could gain a reputation for rtesolving things diplomatically like Picard, or kicking ass, like Sisko.
Why aren't you a STO dev??
No one has petitioned Cryptic for them to hire me... well, get on it. Would love to work for them and implement my ideas. ^_^
Yea the current accolades system isn't good, but giving players that option would be nice. They also should implement a Federation records network, so you can look up other players, their bios, their ships, their bofs, their crew etc. I think this is a way down the road, but an interactive communications tree. I know BW is really the only one working on this idea atm, but putting in place this type of system in STO (true view screen communication) would make things way more interesting. This would also allow you to make those choices of how you are going to handle the situations.
The problem, in part, is making the puzzles as viable as combat, so that way there is no 'easy way out'. In other words, diplomatic challenges should be just as complicated as combat. I know Vanguard tackled this system, they handled in an... interesting way. Not sure I would go the same route they did, but I think what they tried to do was plausible. When in combat your hotbars would toggle to combat skills (either space or ground), and for diplomatic combat they would toggle over to diplomacy skills. Then earn up playstyle points for doing certain taks (as pointed out) get an accolade for being diplomatic or being kick ass, as well as ones for puzzles (DDO did a half decent job of putting puzzles into their gameplay, I would like to see something a bit more complex then what they did; but the principle was sound). However, Star Gate Worlds also tried to put puzzles and diplomatic combat into their game as well, and they got in way over their heads. So this would have to be worked on carefully, not just flung in because people want it.
Nice ideas! I was way ahead of you on the viewscreen one tho - called it on the STO forums well before launch :P
I never cease to be amazed at the arrogance of a developer getting offended because people won't put up with a sub-par game.
You-know-who you're disgusting. How do you like your recent demotion? I know STO was largely your baby, how do you like the fact that a very large portion of the mmog community dislikes it? You're offended? I'm offended by the fact that you are offended.
BTW STO is now on amazon's marketplace for 22 bucks plus s/h. I bet you love that, too. When did the game launch? Oh that's right... last month.
/rant off (sorry I do my best not to troll but I hate arrogant developers more than I hate stupid people, because developers should have the intelligence to not be arrogant)
lol bill roper eating a doughnut counting the money from his lifetime subs he managed to sell to morons again... Hurry limited time offer buy lifetime sub before you play the game go!
LOL L2's new advertisement is wonderful..... Take a step back in time and relive the original Lineage II experience as it was in the beginning. Create a classic hero from the original 5 races and 31 class options and jump into the nostalgic hardcore level grind where the rewards can outweigh the risks. It's your chance to experience the game the way it was when "hardcore" meant something!
The core mechanics of the game are bad and need reworked. The crafting is the worse I ever saw in any game and its not really an MMO with all the instancing. It lacks content and leveling to max is easy and can be done in a very short time even at a casual pace.
If you like arcade games, this could be the one for you. If you want an MMO, stay away.
"Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game." - SEANMCAD
The "I want to solo" cry is the same problem often voiced by the same people.
And it seems so tempting, so easy. Why not allow a player to progress through all levels and content of your MMO? If that is what they want, and they pay for it, then were is the harm?
Because what you then got is a very expensive single player game.
Lord of the Rings Online has become ever more solo friendly, and it has not been all that succesful. Old people are leaving, new people... are not staying either.
Because spending an hour LFG IS what an MMO is about. That sound odd, but think about it. Why do people who play a MMO for years, keep playing AND paying for it? For the state of the art graphics? For the inticrate AI? For the superb tactical challenge?
No? Then for their friends maybe? I have done the Rift far more then I needed to, because other people I gave a damn about, needed it. That is time I spend playing and paying. Remove that group feeling and you remove the need to play online.
A single player element in a MMORPG is like paying 8 euro's for a beer in your own home, alone, with no friends. You pay 8 euro's for a beer because you are with friends. Not for when you are drowning your sorrows.
For me, I stopped playing Lotro. Dragon Age came out and if I wanted to solo, I could do it in a game were I was the hero, with beautiful graphics and no monthly fee (to be honest, I got life in Lotro so the fee is irrelevant).
Lotro was daring, there was a "grouping" mission very early on, in the tutorial and it showed. those that enjoyed that and took care of the boss together tended to stay. Those that didn't, didn't.
MMO dev's need to ask themselves, how can we get customers to pay year after year. That requires a game that draws people back. You do that with challenging gameplay where there is enough depth to keep things intresting and friends to give people a bond with your game.
I get a chuckle out of threads like this, arm chair. lawyers, game devlopers and and game indusrty experts one and all... does not matter what game it is.. everyone knows the business inside and out..LOL But I am sure none of them have ever developed anything more than a headache..:)
Not sure what your point is. I've never built cars, nor do I have the desire to do so. Does that stop me from picking out a nice car?
Do you build TVs? When you go to the store to pick out a TV don't you judge one from another?
Are you saying people who compare products, or know what it takes to make a good product is full of crap?
I know what I want from a tv or car. I also know what I want from a video game. Thank god, not all cars are pintos. I wish I could say the same about recent MMOs.
As an example, here is an article about a business model that makes Cryptic's behavior seem less strange. In a nutshell, the idea is to put out a core game after 6-12 months, and do an "early live" in order to initiate "customer development" i.e. the approach of letting the user request features to the software, a very common approach in business IT. The customer development approach has advantages and disadvantages compared to traditional development, but it is not necessarily inferior. I think I am going to put this link in my signature.
Based on real historical numbers, more than 70% of all software projects are total failures.
Software development planning is like trying to herd cats when everyone has their own idea of what is "good". The fact that they blew off bridge based space combat is just proof they did not really want to do anything more than take money from peeps.
The fact that this game requires a monthly sub and has a store means I will never even try this game. If you have a subscription, everything (including new races) should be included in your sub price. Either go sub or microtransaction. Don't go both. The combination of the two is just an act of either/both 1) corporate greed or 2) developers trying to milk gamers for more money because of a failed game.
I was going to try this game, but like I said previously, I will never play this game now that I know it combines subs and mt's. I am also going to boycott every product from this company now. It's time that gamers stand up for themselves. Start taking your money away from them. Don't help make it easer for companies to do this kind of crap in the future.
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke
Only AAA mmo's that i know of that retain far more than 100k subs atm are wow, eve and i think runescape for their various reasons. I also think war has a couple hundred k subs but it's still pretty young and also has falling numbers
last time i logged into lotro during free week i counted 10ppl so i guess their sub numbers count the lifetimers aswell
d&do lost so many it had to go f2p
AOC has managed to get itself up to 50k now i heard
eq2 is being killed of by soe
swg, well the less said about that the better
however they all had into the hundred k's for over a year(with the exception of aoc) and far more this soon after launch as far as i know
Seems to me that AAA MMOs are doing better than you think.
possibly(it would be nice if it were), but i think i trust my own eyes and those of other players more. I am curious and wonder if they eve log into any of the games listed and check the validity of those numbers themselves as i don't think they are accurate and some seem even wildy off
every place i've seen(both forum and articles) has said that wow's numbers are falling and now below 10 mil
as i said last time i logged in lotro was pretty empty, others have said the same and also seen the same written about eq2 and even aion
and as for swg having over 50k subs still, not even in an soe devs wet dream. Even the fans only say 25k and an honest guess would put it at 5-10k. I personally would say about 5k
truth is that the only ppl that know the actual numbers are the companies themselve and the only company i know that releases its numbers atm is ccp which is suggestive in itself and if some of those sub numbers charted were accurate i think they would be shouted from the rooftops:)
most of what we(or at least I) seem to hear is along the lline of cryptics 1mil forum registers and the like
which brings us back on topic, 1mil forum registered accounts pre release reprisents only a percentage of those interested in the game i guess which just shows how bad sto must be if you take that against its sales and then against its current subs
If a scientist tells you that the teprature of the sun is approximately 5,505 °C, do you believe them, or do you have to go check with a thermometer yourself?
I'm sorry, but I trust these researched charts over what you think might be the truth.
Originally posted by Anubisan I'm so sorry Cryptic for offending you... I should have considered your feelings when considering your game. Give me a break! People would not be saying the things they are saying about STO if they weren't genuinely upset by the direction this game has taken. It is the responsibility of the developers to deliver the community a game that is fun, compelling, and true to the Star Trek lore. It is not our fault that the game fails miserably on those levels. If Cryptic was serious about delivering a true Star Trek experience, they should have started by NOT re-skinning Champions Online with Star Trek graphics. They should have known from the beginning that Star Trek fans don't want just another MMO that plays exactly like every other MMO. They should have known that instancing absolutely everything in the game would kill immersion. They should have known from the very start that the game design they were pursuing wouldn't cut it. They have no one to blame but themselves and I don't give a crap if they are offended.
I've followed the game since development and as an observer I'm just shaking my head. The issues that have come up and Cryptic's reaction is very disconcerting. Wouldn't it be fair to say that there is enough information concerning game design, players likes/dislikes and general expectations of the gaming community that Cryptic could have drawn from?
These issues appear like rookie mistakes or just complete oversight. I feel for you guys that bought the game and shame on Cryptic for its behavior and reaction in addressing customer concerns.
The Old Timers Guild Laid back, not so serious, no drama. All about the fun!
www.oldtimersguild.com An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it. - Jef Mallett
If I was going to sum up my thoughts on STO at this point, it'd probably go something like this:
-A StarTrek MMO is cool.
-A game with space and ground play is a great idea.
-The ship combat sounds kind of fun.
-It sounds like the Klingon side needs to be fleshed out quite a bit.
-It sounds like the ground game needs some work.
-It sounds like there isn't a lot of reason to group with people, which is a bit odd for an MMO.
-I'd think of giving the game a try but a few things keep me from this, and all of them relate to the business model (subscription plus RMT -1, playable races only available in the RMT shop -1, RMT only races have unique buffs -1, life-time subscriptions pushed before the game went live -1, have to buy a lifetime sub for a whack of cash to play a borg character -1).
All of these minuses give me a strong "meh" feeling, about this game, and any hopes that it will improve. Customer satisfaction seems to have taken a back seat to quick and dirty revenue strategies. No thanks guys.
We need some sort of long term goal. Currently, every time I log on is pretty much the same as the last. I do my Dailies for my points to buy gear, and then log off. We need a reason to log on, we need to be able to effect the galaxy by our participation.
In it's current form, STO feels like Battlefield: Bad Company, or Modern Warfare 2. The more I play the more skills and gear I get. It's a lot of fun to fight the battles. But in the end, when the 5 to 20 minute battle is over, everything resets, and we start all over.
There's a war on! We need some way to effect the map!
1-Have four factions (Feds, Klingons, Romulan, Cardassian). Realistically this could be implimented with just the current Fed/Klingon factions, the others added later. Each has their own little empire as they do now. The borders between them are in dispute. Systems in the disputed zones can be "conquered". This opens up a universe of possibilities! Fed Fleet enters Beta Eridani system. Klingons are defending their space stations (4) with AI backup ships scattered throughout the map. Feds destroy the space stations, get space superiority. Then you you have to engage in ground combat against the Klingon ground forces to capture a few key points on the map. Presto, Feds own Beta Eridani, and their space stations and AI ships go up. If the Klingons want it back, they have to attack.
Guilds and PvPers could spend years with the back and forth of fighting to control these systems! Guilds planning and executing raids against a certain planet. Sneaky solo Klingons using cloaks to pick off a few AI's while solo Feds hunt them down.
I don't think this would be that hard to implement. Some of the current Space and Ground maps could be used, just kept running longer then the current few minutes of battle per instance. Yes, server capacity and bandwith could be an issue (you would need to allow fairly large numbers of players in at the same time), but I think it could be done.
Currently everyone plays on the same server, just enters different "Instances". This would not be true for these "Disputed" systems, wait times could be long. There could not be a "Beta Eridani 23", "Beta Eridani 24". But you could create many "Planets" along each border to give people a chance to get into one of them. Upon death you could get booted to the back of the battle wait list as a death penalty.
-Would need larger maps, especially ground maps (although some of the battleground maps COULD work). Space maps that they already have could be made to "feel" larger by simply disabling Full Impulse.
-Each faction has their "Warp in" point on opposite sides of the map, the death penalty is the long drive back to the point your fleet is at. Early in the battle you are close to your spawn, and the enemy is far from his. As your fleet moves forward, your travel time after a death is longer, and theirs is shorter. You avoid death because you don't want to make the long trip back to the battle. Besides, smart opponents will position a few ships between the battle and YOUR spawn to pick off the ships returning.
-Solo players could effect the battle, but in small ways. Picking off AI's, engaging returning enemies from the spawn point so they can't reinforce the main battle, or banding together to form smaller PUG fleets. But in the end, systems really only change hands when Fleets of players band together and attack with a plan.
-The Space Stations provide stability to the mixture. Even a well equiped solo player (or small group) can't conquer a system when server population is low. They could come to the zone of course, and fight AI's and whatever enemy faction players there might be. But they simply can't do enough damage to the space stations (think of them as Elite Bosses from WOW for example) to destroy them.
-Each planet can provide a small advantage to the faction that controls it. A vendor that sells lower cost gear, a researcher that allows you to upgrade certain equiment, interesting Bridge Officer Recruits. Once a system is controlled, players from your faction can access the "perk" for that system by travelling there. But of course they have to pass through the PvP zone to get there.
To illustrate:
Federation Guild "The Generics" puts out the call the day before. The Klingons have held Eridani for too long! They assemble their fleet of 20 ships and warp in. The only Feds already there are a few Solo players working on AI's and dodging the few Klingon defenders.
The Generics join the Beta Eridani queue and most get in right away. The rest get in not long after as spots open up. Soon they begin slicing through the AI's and player ships in the area. Clearing out AI's near the first Space Station fairly easily, and after a long fight to take out the well defended Space Station they move onto the next. All is going well at station 2 until they get a surprise from their old adversaries, the Klingon Guild "The Klings". They heard that the Generics were attacking Beta Eridani and gathered together as many people as they could on short notice. The best the Klings can gather is 10 ships. The Klings are defending, so they have the advantage, but they also are rushing into battle.
The Generics have trained to keep a good formation. Cruisers set for max shields on the edges of the fleet. Escorts ready to rush out and hit he enemies weak points and retreat safely behind the cruisers. Science Ships in the back repairing the damaged ships and jamming sensors or spotting cloaked ships.
The Klings can't seem to keep a good formation tonight. As usual they are doing plenty of damage. But unless they can break the Generics formation they will loose this battle.
The battle lasts for hours. Ships trying to flank get seperated and picked off. Cloaked Klingons get in a few good hits that threaten to break the Generics formation. Solo Captains hear about the battle and warp in to help on both sides. Small skirmishes break out all over the map. But the Generics continue moving through the system destroying AI's and Space Stations. Eventually through skill and determination the Generics take out the last Space Station.
The battle then moves to the planet surface. The Klingons put up a good fight, but having lost the space battle they are demoralized. Beta Eridani falls to the Federation!
The Klings, nursing their wounded pride, plan for the counter attack the next day.
Check out MMOCIA.com's comedic take one Cryptic's bad public relations when it comes to dealing with consumer issues. For the people who were ripped off on the March 3rd Star Trek Online discount debacle - this ones for you!
HEY HEY HEY!!! easy there folks......did any of you play EvE when it first came out? or in Beta??? I did....It sucked....I hated it...but all my bros were playing so I stuck with it...and I can tell you the game that EvE is now was nothing like the game that I played back at beta and release(Gives CCP the Evil Eye for Nerfing my Caldari Raven from PVP!!!)
With EVERY MMO or MMORPG there is GROWING pains....Every game has them. Some More than others!! WOW had it Anarchy Online had it....Asheron's Call had it.....the list goes on and on....Complaining about it isn't going to make you feel better.....they all take massive patients to play at release....How do you all think that new Star Wars game is going to be at Release????? I mean come on try to stay positive!!!
MY point is this....this game JUST came out....GIVE THEM SUME TIME FOOLS!! It will get better...and the game that we all are playing NOW will not be the same game next year...or the year after that..and so on
And of course in an mmo world you can't make EVERYONE happy!! One man's trash is another man's gold!! SO AGAIN I say give them time to work it all out......
Thanks for Reading
Tivian-Curse Alliance PvP Vet/Black Omega Security/The Original Suicide King
We did bring these problems to the attention of the devs during early Beta testing, among many other problems that are still persistent.
One of the central biggest problems with the game was the fact that beta testing even early on was at best to way short the testing done was not even suitable for an alpha test, periods given for when the servers would be available for testing where the most obscure you had a period of week between test and then test days were for two hours.
While we tried endless messaging the Devs on the forums regarding this policy, there was NEVER any in depth testing done, there was rarely any areas of specific testing requested by the Devs, it was essentialy "hey play the game tell us if you find any problems not to mention that you would not find out what had been fixed during or prior to new play session because Dev updates of recent acknowledged or known bugs were not posted till after the test, so we were always a play test behind.
so a lot of the reported problems fell on deaf ears, Such as the lack of diplomacy, the excuse given regarding players an MMORPG that plays more like an stand alone play by your self was and still is a big problem.
Community interaction even when earnest attempts by Betta testers were engaged in group activities was at best boring, at the beginning it was forced grouping, when they removed this feature the ability to actually talk to other players again was very cumbersome, even worse was attempting to group other players manually.
A feature that I have never been able to get around was the interface, simply put it's not remotely Star Trek, not to mention the game also had what many at the beginning during and towards the end prior to launch was the zero death penalty.
The endless amounts of bugs and reported problems revealed in Betta totaled less than 3 months, and that was at a rate of once per week for two hours, I have Betta tested MMORPG as well as stand alone pc games, ever since AC1 and never in all my time have I experienced the utter stupidity of the testing cycle developed by Cryptic .
After betta testing came to a close I posted all my finale thoughts regarding the condition of the game, the need for more time to address would be undiscovered game problem and the yet persistent problem but they never responded with more than what I would have expected from another previous Dev team SWG, In short the responces were more like "Hey were the game Developers we know what were doing just trust us".
Comments
Nice ideas! I was way ahead of you on the viewscreen one tho - called it on the STO forums well before launch :P
I never cease to be amazed at the arrogance of a developer getting offended because people won't put up with a sub-par game.
You-know-who you're disgusting. How do you like your recent demotion? I know STO was largely your baby, how do you like the fact that a very large portion of the mmog community dislikes it? You're offended? I'm offended by the fact that you are offended.
BTW STO is now on amazon's marketplace for 22 bucks plus s/h. I bet you love that, too. When did the game launch? Oh that's right... last month.
/rant off (sorry I do my best not to troll but I hate arrogant developers more than I hate stupid people, because developers should have the intelligence to not be arrogant)
lol bill roper eating a doughnut counting the money from his lifetime subs he managed to sell to morons again... Hurry limited time offer buy lifetime sub before you play the game go!
Take a step back in time and relive the original Lineage II experience as it was in the beginning. Create a classic hero from the original 5 races and 31 class options and jump into the nostalgic hardcore level grind where the rewards can outweigh the risks. It's your chance to experience the game the way it was when "hardcore" meant something!
The core mechanics of the game are bad and need reworked. The crafting is the worse I ever saw in any game and its not really an MMO with all the instancing. It lacks content and leveling to max is easy and can be done in a very short time even at a casual pace.
If you like arcade games, this could be the one for you. If you want an MMO, stay away.
The "I want to solo" cry is the same problem often voiced by the same people.
And it seems so tempting, so easy. Why not allow a player to progress through all levels and content of your MMO? If that is what they want, and they pay for it, then were is the harm?
Because what you then got is a very expensive single player game.
Lord of the Rings Online has become ever more solo friendly, and it has not been all that succesful. Old people are leaving, new people... are not staying either.
Because spending an hour LFG IS what an MMO is about. That sound odd, but think about it. Why do people who play a MMO for years, keep playing AND paying for it? For the state of the art graphics? For the inticrate AI? For the superb tactical challenge?
No? Then for their friends maybe? I have done the Rift far more then I needed to, because other people I gave a damn about, needed it. That is time I spend playing and paying. Remove that group feeling and you remove the need to play online.
A single player element in a MMORPG is like paying 8 euro's for a beer in your own home, alone, with no friends. You pay 8 euro's for a beer because you are with friends. Not for when you are drowning your sorrows.
For me, I stopped playing Lotro. Dragon Age came out and if I wanted to solo, I could do it in a game were I was the hero, with beautiful graphics and no monthly fee (to be honest, I got life in Lotro so the fee is irrelevant).
Lotro was daring, there was a "grouping" mission very early on, in the tutorial and it showed. those that enjoyed that and took care of the boss together tended to stay. Those that didn't, didn't.
MMO dev's need to ask themselves, how can we get customers to pay year after year. That requires a game that draws people back. You do that with challenging gameplay where there is enough depth to keep things intresting and friends to give people a bond with your game.
Based on real historical numbers, more than 70% of all software projects are total failures.
Software development planning is like trying to herd cats when everyone has their own idea of what is "good". The fact that they blew off bridge based space combat is just proof they did not really want to do anything more than take money from peeps.
Core game in 6 - 12 months? Maybe a console game.
NEWS FLASH -- COMING TO A CONSOLE NEAR YOU, STO!
The fact that this game requires a monthly sub and has a store means I will never even try this game. If you have a subscription, everything (including new races) should be included in your sub price. Either go sub or microtransaction. Don't go both. The combination of the two is just an act of either/both 1) corporate greed or 2) developers trying to milk gamers for more money because of a failed game.
I was going to try this game, but like I said previously, I will never play this game now that I know it combines subs and mt's. I am also going to boycott every product from this company now. It's time that gamers stand up for themselves. Start taking your money away from them. Don't help make it easer for companies to do this kind of crap in the future.
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke
If a scientist tells you that the teprature of the sun is approximately 5,505 °C, do you believe them, or do you have to go check with a thermometer yourself?
I'm sorry, but I trust these researched charts over what you think might be the truth.
I've followed the game since development and as an observer I'm just shaking my head. The issues that have come up and Cryptic's reaction is very disconcerting. Wouldn't it be fair to say that there is enough information concerning game design, players likes/dislikes and general expectations of the gaming community that Cryptic could have drawn from?
These issues appear like rookie mistakes or just complete oversight. I feel for you guys that bought the game and shame on Cryptic for its behavior and reaction in addressing customer concerns.
The Old Timers Guild
Laid back, not so serious, no drama.
All about the fun!
www.oldtimersguild.com
An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it. - Jef Mallett
If I was going to sum up my thoughts on STO at this point, it'd probably go something like this:
-A StarTrek MMO is cool.
-A game with space and ground play is a great idea.
-The ship combat sounds kind of fun.
-It sounds like the Klingon side needs to be fleshed out quite a bit.
-It sounds like the ground game needs some work.
-It sounds like there isn't a lot of reason to group with people, which is a bit odd for an MMO.
-I'd think of giving the game a try but a few things keep me from this, and all of them relate to the business model (subscription plus RMT -1, playable races only available in the RMT shop -1, RMT only races have unique buffs -1, life-time subscriptions pushed before the game went live -1, have to buy a lifetime sub for a whack of cash to play a borg character -1).
All of these minuses give me a strong "meh" feeling, about this game, and any hopes that it will improve. Customer satisfaction seems to have taken a back seat to quick and dirty revenue strategies. No thanks guys.
Ideas to have done it better?
We need some sort of long term goal. Currently, every time I log on is pretty much the same as the last. I do my Dailies for my points to buy gear, and then log off. We need a reason to log on, we need to be able to effect the galaxy by our participation.
In it's current form, STO feels like Battlefield: Bad Company, or Modern Warfare 2. The more I play the more skills and gear I get. It's a lot of fun to fight the battles. But in the end, when the 5 to 20 minute battle is over, everything resets, and we start all over.
There's a war on! We need some way to effect the map!
1-Have four factions (Feds, Klingons, Romulan, Cardassian). Realistically this could be implimented with just the current Fed/Klingon factions, the others added later. Each has their own little empire as they do now. The borders between them are in dispute. Systems in the disputed zones can be "conquered". This opens up a universe of possibilities! Fed Fleet enters Beta Eridani system. Klingons are defending their space stations (4) with AI backup ships scattered throughout the map. Feds destroy the space stations, get space superiority. Then you you have to engage in ground combat against the Klingon ground forces to capture a few key points on the map. Presto, Feds own Beta Eridani, and their space stations and AI ships go up. If the Klingons want it back, they have to attack.
Guilds and PvPers could spend years with the back and forth of fighting to control these systems! Guilds planning and executing raids against a certain planet. Sneaky solo Klingons using cloaks to pick off a few AI's while solo Feds hunt them down.
I don't think this would be that hard to implement. Some of the current Space and Ground maps could be used, just kept running longer then the current few minutes of battle per instance. Yes, server capacity and bandwith could be an issue (you would need to allow fairly large numbers of players in at the same time), but I think it could be done.
Currently everyone plays on the same server, just enters different "Instances". This would not be true for these "Disputed" systems, wait times could be long. There could not be a "Beta Eridani 23", "Beta Eridani 24". But you could create many "Planets" along each border to give people a chance to get into one of them. Upon death you could get booted to the back of the battle wait list as a death penalty.
-Would need larger maps, especially ground maps (although some of the battleground maps COULD work). Space maps that they already have could be made to "feel" larger by simply disabling Full Impulse.
-Each faction has their "Warp in" point on opposite sides of the map, the death penalty is the long drive back to the point your fleet is at. Early in the battle you are close to your spawn, and the enemy is far from his. As your fleet moves forward, your travel time after a death is longer, and theirs is shorter. You avoid death because you don't want to make the long trip back to the battle. Besides, smart opponents will position a few ships between the battle and YOUR spawn to pick off the ships returning.
-Solo players could effect the battle, but in small ways. Picking off AI's, engaging returning enemies from the spawn point so they can't reinforce the main battle, or banding together to form smaller PUG fleets. But in the end, systems really only change hands when Fleets of players band together and attack with a plan.
-The Space Stations provide stability to the mixture. Even a well equiped solo player (or small group) can't conquer a system when server population is low. They could come to the zone of course, and fight AI's and whatever enemy faction players there might be. But they simply can't do enough damage to the space stations (think of them as Elite Bosses from WOW for example) to destroy them.
-Each planet can provide a small advantage to the faction that controls it. A vendor that sells lower cost gear, a researcher that allows you to upgrade certain equiment, interesting Bridge Officer Recruits. Once a system is controlled, players from your faction can access the "perk" for that system by travelling there. But of course they have to pass through the PvP zone to get there.
To illustrate:
Federation Guild "The Generics" puts out the call the day before. The Klingons have held Eridani for too long! They assemble their fleet of 20 ships and warp in. The only Feds already there are a few Solo players working on AI's and dodging the few Klingon defenders.
The Generics join the Beta Eridani queue and most get in right away. The rest get in not long after as spots open up. Soon they begin slicing through the AI's and player ships in the area. Clearing out AI's near the first Space Station fairly easily, and after a long fight to take out the well defended Space Station they move onto the next. All is going well at station 2 until they get a surprise from their old adversaries, the Klingon Guild "The Klings". They heard that the Generics were attacking Beta Eridani and gathered together as many people as they could on short notice. The best the Klings can gather is 10 ships. The Klings are defending, so they have the advantage, but they also are rushing into battle.
The Generics have trained to keep a good formation. Cruisers set for max shields on the edges of the fleet. Escorts ready to rush out and hit he enemies weak points and retreat safely behind the cruisers. Science Ships in the back repairing the damaged ships and jamming sensors or spotting cloaked ships.
The Klings can't seem to keep a good formation tonight. As usual they are doing plenty of damage. But unless they can break the Generics formation they will loose this battle.
The battle lasts for hours. Ships trying to flank get seperated and picked off. Cloaked Klingons get in a few good hits that threaten to break the Generics formation. Solo Captains hear about the battle and warp in to help on both sides. Small skirmishes break out all over the map. But the Generics continue moving through the system destroying AI's and Space Stations. Eventually through skill and determination the Generics take out the last Space Station.
The battle then moves to the planet surface. The Klingons put up a good fight, but having lost the space battle they are demoralized. Beta Eridani falls to the Federation!
The Klings, nursing their wounded pride, plan for the counter attack the next day.
Now THATS the game I want to play!
Whats up MMO RPG fans,
Check out MMOCIA.com's comedic take one Cryptic's bad public relations when it comes to dealing with consumer issues. For the people who were ripped off on the March 3rd Star Trek Online discount debacle - this ones for you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_aXlpHAnoE
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HEY HEY HEY!!! easy there folks......did any of you play EvE when it first came out? or in Beta??? I did....It sucked....I hated it...but all my bros were playing so I stuck with it...and I can tell you the game that EvE is now was nothing like the game that I played back at beta and release(Gives CCP the Evil Eye for Nerfing my Caldari Raven from PVP!!!)
With EVERY MMO or MMORPG there is GROWING pains....Every game has them. Some More than others!! WOW had it Anarchy Online had it....Asheron's Call had it.....the list goes on and on....Complaining about it isn't going to make you feel better.....they all take massive patients to play at release....How do you all think that new Star Wars game is going to be at Release????? I mean come on try to stay positive!!!
MY point is this....this game JUST came out....GIVE THEM SUME TIME FOOLS!! It will get better...and the game that we all are playing NOW will not be the same game next year...or the year after that..and so on
And of course in an mmo world you can't make EVERYONE happy!! One man's trash is another man's gold!! SO AGAIN I say give them time to work it all out......
Thanks for Reading
Tivian-Curse Alliance PvP Vet/Black Omega Security/The Original Suicide King
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We did bring these problems to the attention of the devs during early Beta testing, among many other problems that are still persistent.
One of the central biggest problems with the game was the fact that beta testing even early on was at best to way short the testing done was not even suitable for an alpha test, periods given for when the servers would be available for testing where the most obscure you had a period of week between test and then test days were for two hours.
While we tried endless messaging the Devs on the forums regarding this policy, there was NEVER any in depth testing done, there was rarely any areas of specific testing requested by the Devs, it was essentialy "hey play the game tell us if you find any problems not to mention that you would not find out what had been fixed during or prior to new play session because Dev updates of recent acknowledged or known bugs were not posted till after the test, so we were always a play test behind.
so a lot of the reported problems fell on deaf ears, Such as the lack of diplomacy, the excuse given regarding players an MMORPG that plays more like an stand alone play by your self was and still is a big problem.
Community interaction even when earnest attempts by Betta testers were engaged in group activities was at best boring, at the beginning it was forced grouping, when they removed this feature the ability to actually talk to other players again was very cumbersome, even worse was attempting to group other players manually.
A feature that I have never been able to get around was the interface, simply put it's not remotely Star Trek, not to mention the game also had what many at the beginning during and towards the end prior to launch was the zero death penalty.
The endless amounts of bugs and reported problems revealed in Betta totaled less than 3 months, and that was at a rate of once per week for two hours, I have Betta tested MMORPG as well as stand alone pc games, ever since AC1 and never in all my time have I experienced the utter stupidity of the testing cycle developed by Cryptic .
After betta testing came to a close I posted all my finale thoughts regarding the condition of the game, the need for more time to address would be undiscovered game problem and the yet persistent problem but they never responded with more than what I would have expected from another previous Dev team SWG, In short the responces were more like "Hey were the game Developers we know what were doing just trust us".
I should be the one that's offended.