There is MMO precedent for allowing mutiple PC's on the same ship, check out Pirates of the Caribbean Online from Disney lol!
Or Star Wars Galaxies from 2003...
SWG has the best multiplayer set in space. On the new gunships you can have a pilot, operations and 6 gunners. All working together. SWG even has an awesome voice over IP built in to the game. Hey wait. You mean SOE the company that can do no right did multi role ship combat right?!? 6 YEARS ago? and cryptic can't? FAIL. If you want a game that has actual people running the entire ship and not just pressing npc buttons. There really is only one MMO that supports this, and ironically it's Star Wars Galaxies. How's that for a kick in the pants? There are also other multiplayer ships in SWG for 2, 4, and 8 player ships. And there is still room in the ships to for repair in flight. (That sounds just like Star Trek :P).
A system like that just wouldn't work in Star Trek, because in Trek you aren't flying ships as diversion or fun extra but are instead in your particular ship most of the time. I'd wager for 95-00%+ of the players, having to log on to a ship, then being able to do almost nothing because the Captain, First Officer, Chief Medical Officer, and Security Chief aren't logged in wouldn't be any fun. Nor would it be fun to play on a ship where the captain was a jerk (or equally unfun if you couldn't rise up in the ranks because of your personality as viewed by a small set of other players). Frankly, there just isn't a good way to capture this in an MMO without having the rest of the crew as AI. If you want to play as a member of a crew and have other crew members also be players, then play a Pen and Paper RPG.
Btw, the SWG system wouldn't work in Star Wars if you were a member of the Imperial Military or the New Republic Military either. These things just can't be done adequately with multiple real people unless you start paying people to show up or you are willing to accept certain breaks from reality such as logging in and being on a different ship each time.
Don't know about the rest of you, but I grow tired of explaining, for the hundredth time, to people who clearly follow the development of STO, solutions that solve and refute their arguments. Seriously Drachasor, why do you not let it sink into your head the solutions offered? Why do you instead offer up the same straw man arguments?
It has been suggested numerous times that if you log in, and none of your crewmates are live, then those positions would be filled by AI -- the same AI that Cryptic is ACTUALLY implementing now. And you wouldn't be forced to play on any multi-crewed ship. You could still captian your own ship, so you can safely ignore that 'jerk' captain. Presumably you'd only crew on a ship where you enjoyed the company of the players, and likely would be a Guild of some sort.
As far as one's personality flaws...well, an MMO can't do anything about that can they?
_____________________________ Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Don't know about the rest of you, but I grow tired of explaining, for the hundredth time, to people who clearly follow the development of STO, solutions that solve and refute their arguments. Seriously Drachasor, why do you not let it sink into your head the solutions offered? Why do you instead offer up the same straw man arguments? It has been suggested numerous times that if you log in, and none of your crewmates are live, then those positions would be filled by AI -- the same AI that Cryptic is ACTUALLY implementing now. And you wouldn't be forced to play on any multi-crewed ship. You could still captian your own ship, so you can safely ignore that 'jerk' captain. Presumably you'd only crew on a ship where you enjoyed the company of the players, and likely would be a Guild of some sort. As far as one's personality flaws...well, an MMO can't do anything about that can they?
It could be like "Puzzle Pirates", but in Space, with Star Trek Stories and races. Seriously, Puzzle Pirates has an excellent implementation of ships manned by semi-permanent, pick up, and NPC crews. Check it out.
Exploration should take a big part of the game. As the article said, it's not just all about war and combat. I would like to boldly go where no man has gone before. Spend time exploring far away, discover new worlds, new civilization, new technology.
On the ship interior part. I accept that there's only limited access at launch. But I expect it to be available within a year, with full ship interior wandering, ship/starbase crew quarters customizable.
"to beam down on this Planet, you will have to purchase clearance from the Cryptic Store"
They will tell you that those particular planets will not affect your gameplay and are only vanity items.
Expect some of the content that is in the beta to be removed from the game before its release.
Seriously, Cryptic should not be involved with this game nor should Atari. If they really cared about Star Trek, they would not be rushing it. CO is going nowhere and neither will this game thanks to the poor design decisions of Bill Roper.
Honestly most of you need to go buy SIMS and download some star trek skins, because that is the only area your going to get your lovey dovey star trek feel. Make sure your playing online with others of your ilk.
This game will be just a go get X and bring it to Y. Go kill B and return for your reward from A.
The game most want could not be done with any realistic budget and certaintly not by Cryptic. Maybe Bioware but not Cryptic. Anyways a realistic Star Trek game would also allow me as a pirate type player to jump you as a carebear type starfleeter with only consequence being you might beat me or star fleet would try and hunt me down. PvP will not be that way, rather it will be capture the flag, planet, or whatever object they want to give and it will be in an instance...yea!
As for culture, I only care about it for the known races. If someone makes a new race, it is their job to flesh out the race with backstory. This is an MMO and if you see some race your unfimiliar with, do like everyone here preaches about and explore. Explore the person. Ask them about themselves. That isn't something that needs to be spoonfed from the creators. But I believe the developers should give tools to do this also. Like a backstory tab or something that is readable by other characters.
As for time and realities, these should be handled as maybe instanced quests. No need to make it some huge underlying part of the story.
I think exploration will be there, but some of it will be instanced. I think if I visit a planet, I don't know if you will necessarily find that same planet on your own.
I don't really care alot about the crew and their personalities. Their NPCs, if they have no personality, then I'll just assume the are androids without an emotion chip or an uptight Vulcan.
I just want a mission where my bridge crew and myself are mysteriously changed into children then have to crawl around the ship's conduits to repel a boarding force of Klingons by throwing tribbles at them.
All of the Star Trek we know and love is dead. The latest film killed it. In its wake will be a brand new universe - more seedy, more hollywoody, more sexy, more expletivy, and much less like the vision of Roddenberry than anyone thought Star Trek would ever become.
The question is - will they put it back or will they drive a stake into the heart of Star Trek and make all of the movies and tv shows we've seen be like the lost season of Dallas - one big dream?
How will the movie affect the game? Hopefully it won't, but you never know.
How will the movie affect the game? Hopefully it won't, but you never know.
The latest movie took place in two different universes: The original one we know from the TV series and previous movies (which is where Nimoy Spock and Nero hail from, and JJ Abram's parallel-but-time-displaced universe where Quinto Spock and Pine Kirk come from.
STO takes place in the original universe 30 years after Star Trek: Nemesis and 22 years after (old) Spock and Nero get sucked into a black hole in the new movie. The effects of the movie prior to the transportation of Spock and Nero into JJ Abrams' universe is in there. From the standpoint of everyone in the original universe, the Hobus system went into an absolutely ridiculous supernova that destroyed Romulus (and probably a whole slew of other planets, outposts, and starbases that noone seems to care about), and then Spock flew in to create a black hole to negate the effects of the supernova. He succeeded, but in the process got sucked into that black hole along with Nero's Narada and was never heard from again. Presumed dead.
So, 22 years later, where do we find ourselves? Well, in our (STO) universe, Vulcan still exists but Romulus is gone. This leaves the Romulan empire with a destabilized government and several different factions are claiming that they're the one true Romulan empire. This leaves them vulnerable to the Klingon's encroachment (Khitomer Accord = gone). The Federation has offered aid, but Romulans for the most part are a proud people. The majority of the factions have branded the minority of planets that have applied for Federation assistance as traitors.
Honestly most of you need to go buy SIMS and download some star trek skins, because that is the only area your going to get your lovey dovey star trek feel. Make sure your playing online with others of your ilk.
This game will be just a go get X and bring it to Y. Go kill B and return for your reward from A.
The game most want could not be done with any realistic budget and certaintly not by Cryptic. Maybe Bioware but not Cryptic. Anyways a realistic Star Trek game would also allow me as a pirate type player to jump you as a carebear type starfleeter with only consequence being you might beat me or star fleet would try and hunt me down. PvP will not be that way, rather it will be capture the flag, planet, or whatever object they want to give and it will be in an instance...yea!
Yeah, because we often saw pirates in Star Trek going around ganking random Starfleet vessels. No wait, we didn't because pirates generally get leftover technology while Starfleet gets the biggest, best and most advanced technology around.
Maybe you should watch the shows before making dumb comments?
I find it frustrating that for the first time in history, vast numbers of like minded people can gather in a virtual space that lets them shed their "mortal" coils and fill the shoes of anyone they can possibly imagine AND one of the longest running science fiction IPs about the challenges and drama of GROUPS of people flying into the deep dark recesses of space ...
And they chose to boil it down to PEW PEW PEW ...
This really could've been the genre defining game ... No more grind. No more forced combat. This IP really could've allowed for people to BE Star Trek.
Star Trek, it should definitely not be about pvp, the federation was definitely more exploration and diplomatic encounters above 'military action' .. prime directive anyone? and as it is supposed to be an mmo, how about cooperative gameplay - seriously, would the federation really send half a dozen or more ships to investigate a single planet (only captains are players so a group of 6 players would therefore mean 6 ships were involved!) its just crazy. likewise, the ships captains werent tank classes or dps, or whatever, it just goes so much against everything know about star trek, it would have been better to recruit 'crews' for ships from a playerbase, rather than npc's. its not that im against pvp in games, its just that star trek was always about discovering something new, and the adventure, okay, maybe the odd klingon besides, we already have a spaceships in space game. its called eve ;D
Excellent points about how the bridge crews need personalities/backstories rather than just being windowdressing.
I also very much agree with the point on humor. Some of the most memorable scenes in Star Trek were ones with Q or other elements that had humor as well as a serious streak.
Indeed, there are High expectations, and i think your trying to say there has to be a soul to the game similer to the series, Some personnel touch and passion like we see with the real characters in every series.
I think this works great with the series but the way it is put into a game is more fun and adventureous, giving you the feel like your really having an effect on the Star Trek Universe in game. Im sure there will be elements that some dont love but some think make the game great for them. I for one cant wait for the game, its gonna be epic.
And i look forward to playing with you all out there in my Sovereign !
And if anyone is looking for a Fleet to join in game, please consider Federation Fleet,
Main aims are to have as much fun as possible and to get as much out of all areas of STO as possible for our members.
Ahh yes, here we go with the usual wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth.. really folks.. here's a concept for you: LETS WAIT until the game COMES OUT.. then PLAY the game and THEN begin the "oh woe is me... this game is bad.. blah blah blah.." Just a thought. STO will not be for everyone (even some Star Trek fans) but if it is even half as good as some of the things that are being shown and talked about over there on STO.com, then it should be a good game that should be a lot of fun.
As far as the continual thrashing of Cryptic goes: Yeah, they did badly with Champions... yes they pushed that game out too fast and over the tester's objections about flaws in the game... yes I know and have heard all the stories, but goodness people.. they made a mistake.. amazing! Let's burn them at the stake!!! Let's rally the people, grab the pitchforks and torches and let's destroy Cryptic!!! Ridiculous. Yes, the folks at Cryptic ain't Bethesda or Bioware or Blizzard or NCSoft but they aren't Sony Entertainment either. I guess alot of people forget that Cryptic gave us City of Heroes! An excellent game that I personally have enjoyed for all the 5 years of its awesome existence. Now they have secured my second favorite Sci-fi IP... it looks promising and it looks like its going to be a lot of fun.. so, let's give it chance first.. maybe, just maybe, it might surprise all of us.
Ahh yes, here we go with the usual wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth.. really folks.. here's a concept for you: LETS WAIT until the game COMES OUT.. then PLAY the game and THEN begin the "oh woe is me... this game is bad.. blah blah blah.." Just a thought. STO will not be for everyone (even some Star Trek fans) but if it is even half as good as some of the things that are being shown and talked about over there on STO.com, then it should be a good game that should be a lot of fun. As far as the continual thrashing of Cryptic goes: Yeah, they did badly with Champions... yes they pushed that game out too fast and over the tester's objections about flaws in the game... yes I know and have heard all the stories, but goodness people.. they made a mistake.. amazing! Let's burn them at the stake!!! Let's rally the people, grab the pitchforks and torches and let's destroy Cryptic!!! Ridiculous. Yes, the folks at Cryptic ain't Bethesda or Bioware or Blizzard or NCSoft but they aren't Sony Entertainment either. I guess alot of people forget that Cryptic gave us City of Heroes! An excellent game that I personally have enjoyed for all the 5 years of its awesome existence. Now they have secured my second favorite Sci-fi IP... it looks promising and it looks like its going to be a lot of fun.. so, let's give it chance first.. maybe, just maybe, it might surprise all of us. So Mote It Be.
Your argument is much more suited to saying we should way for 6 months and then see what things are like in a Free Trial, not that we should spend 60+ dollars on release day for a game of unknown quality that they rushed out the door in just 2 years.
Comments
Or Star Wars Galaxies from 2003...
SWG has the best multiplayer set in space. On the new gunships you can have a pilot, operations and 6 gunners. All working together. SWG even has an awesome voice over IP built in to the game. Hey wait. You mean SOE the company that can do no right did multi role ship combat right?!? 6 YEARS ago? and cryptic can't? FAIL. If you want a game that has actual people running the entire ship and not just pressing npc buttons. There really is only one MMO that supports this, and ironically it's Star Wars Galaxies. How's that for a kick in the pants? There are also other multiplayer ships in SWG for 2, 4, and 8 player ships. And there is still room in the ships to for repair in flight. (That sounds just like Star Trek :P).
A system like that just wouldn't work in Star Trek, because in Trek you aren't flying ships as diversion or fun extra but are instead in your particular ship most of the time. I'd wager for 95-00%+ of the players, having to log on to a ship, then being able to do almost nothing because the Captain, First Officer, Chief Medical Officer, and Security Chief aren't logged in wouldn't be any fun. Nor would it be fun to play on a ship where the captain was a jerk (or equally unfun if you couldn't rise up in the ranks because of your personality as viewed by a small set of other players). Frankly, there just isn't a good way to capture this in an MMO without having the rest of the crew as AI. If you want to play as a member of a crew and have other crew members also be players, then play a Pen and Paper RPG.
Btw, the SWG system wouldn't work in Star Wars if you were a member of the Imperial Military or the New Republic Military either. These things just can't be done adequately with multiple real people unless you start paying people to show up or you are willing to accept certain breaks from reality such as logging in and being on a different ship each time.
Don't know about the rest of you, but I grow tired of explaining, for the hundredth time, to people who clearly follow the development of STO, solutions that solve and refute their arguments. Seriously Drachasor, why do you not let it sink into your head the solutions offered? Why do you instead offer up the same straw man arguments?
It has been suggested numerous times that if you log in, and none of your crewmates are live, then those positions would be filled by AI -- the same AI that Cryptic is ACTUALLY implementing now. And you wouldn't be forced to play on any multi-crewed ship. You could still captian your own ship, so you can safely ignore that 'jerk' captain. Presumably you'd only crew on a ship where you enjoyed the company of the players, and likely would be a Guild of some sort.
As far as one's personality flaws...well, an MMO can't do anything about that can they?
_____________________________
Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO
Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Find the Truth: http://www.factcheck.org/
It could be like "Puzzle Pirates", but in Space, with Star Trek Stories and races. Seriously, Puzzle Pirates has an excellent implementation of ships manned by semi-permanent, pick up, and NPC crews. Check it out.
Exploration should take a big part of the game. As the article said, it's not just all about war and combat. I would like to boldly go where no man has gone before. Spend time exploring far away, discover new worlds, new civilization, new technology.
On the ship interior part. I accept that there's only limited access at launch. But I expect it to be available within a year, with full ship interior wandering, ship/starbase crew quarters customizable.
"to beam down on this Planet, you will have to purchase clearance from the Cryptic Store"
They will tell you that those particular planets will not affect your gameplay and are only vanity items.
Expect some of the content that is in the beta to be removed from the game before its release.
Seriously, Cryptic should not be involved with this game nor should Atari. If they really cared about Star Trek, they would not be rushing it. CO is going nowhere and neither will this game thanks to the poor design decisions of Bill Roper.
Honestly most of you need to go buy SIMS and download some star trek skins, because that is the only area your going to get your lovey dovey star trek feel. Make sure your playing online with others of your ilk.
This game will be just a go get X and bring it to Y. Go kill B and return for your reward from A.
The game most want could not be done with any realistic budget and certaintly not by Cryptic. Maybe Bioware but not Cryptic. Anyways a realistic Star Trek game would also allow me as a pirate type player to jump you as a carebear type starfleeter with only consequence being you might beat me or star fleet would try and hunt me down. PvP will not be that way, rather it will be capture the flag, planet, or whatever object they want to give and it will be in an instance...yea!
As for culture, I only care about it for the known races. If someone makes a new race, it is their job to flesh out the race with backstory. This is an MMO and if you see some race your unfimiliar with, do like everyone here preaches about and explore. Explore the person. Ask them about themselves. That isn't something that needs to be spoonfed from the creators. But I believe the developers should give tools to do this also. Like a backstory tab or something that is readable by other characters.
As for time and realities, these should be handled as maybe instanced quests. No need to make it some huge underlying part of the story.
I think exploration will be there, but some of it will be instanced. I think if I visit a planet, I don't know if you will necessarily find that same planet on your own.
I don't really care alot about the crew and their personalities. Their NPCs, if they have no personality, then I'll just assume the are androids without an emotion chip or an uptight Vulcan.
I just want a mission where my bridge crew and myself are mysteriously changed into children then have to crawl around the ship's conduits to repel a boarding force of Klingons by throwing tribbles at them.
-w
All of the Star Trek we know and love is dead. The latest film killed it. In its wake will be a brand new universe - more seedy, more hollywoody, more sexy, more expletivy, and much less like the vision of Roddenberry than anyone thought Star Trek would ever become.
The question is - will they put it back or will they drive a stake into the heart of Star Trek and make all of the movies and tv shows we've seen be like the lost season of Dallas - one big dream?
How will the movie affect the game? Hopefully it won't, but you never know.
The latest movie took place in two different universes: The original one we know from the TV series and previous movies (which is where Nimoy Spock and Nero hail from, and JJ Abram's parallel-but-time-displaced universe where Quinto Spock and Pine Kirk come from.
STO takes place in the original universe 30 years after Star Trek: Nemesis and 22 years after (old) Spock and Nero get sucked into a black hole in the new movie. The effects of the movie prior to the transportation of Spock and Nero into JJ Abrams' universe is in there. From the standpoint of everyone in the original universe, the Hobus system went into an absolutely ridiculous supernova that destroyed Romulus (and probably a whole slew of other planets, outposts, and starbases that noone seems to care about), and then Spock flew in to create a black hole to negate the effects of the supernova. He succeeded, but in the process got sucked into that black hole along with Nero's Narada and was never heard from again. Presumed dead.
So, 22 years later, where do we find ourselves? Well, in our (STO) universe, Vulcan still exists but Romulus is gone. This leaves the Romulan empire with a destabilized government and several different factions are claiming that they're the one true Romulan empire. This leaves them vulnerable to the Klingon's encroachment (Khitomer Accord = gone). The Federation has offered aid, but Romulans for the most part are a proud people. The majority of the factions have branded the minority of planets that have applied for Federation assistance as traitors.
Yeah, because we often saw pirates in Star Trek going around ganking random Starfleet vessels. No wait, we didn't because pirates generally get leftover technology while Starfleet gets the biggest, best and most advanced technology around.
Maybe you should watch the shows before making dumb comments?
I find it frustrating that for the first time in history, vast numbers of like minded people can gather in a virtual space that lets them shed their "mortal" coils and fill the shoes of anyone they can possibly imagine AND one of the longest running science fiction IPs about the challenges and drama of GROUPS of people flying into the deep dark recesses of space ...
And they chose to boil it down to PEW PEW PEW ...
This really could've been the genre defining game ... No more grind. No more forced combat. This IP really could've allowed for people to BE Star Trek.
Star Trek, it should definitely not be about pvp, the federation was definitely more exploration and diplomatic encounters above 'military action' .. prime directive anyone? and as it is supposed to be an mmo, how about cooperative gameplay - seriously, would the federation really send half a dozen or more ships to investigate a single planet (only captains are players so a group of 6 players would therefore mean 6 ships were involved!) its just crazy. likewise, the ships captains werent tank classes or dps, or whatever, it just goes so much against everything know about star trek, it would have been better to recruit 'crews' for ships from a playerbase, rather than npc's. its not that im against pvp in games, its just that star trek was always about discovering something new, and the adventure, okay, maybe the odd klingon
besides, we already have a spaceships in space game. its called eve ;D
Good article.
Excellent points about how the bridge crews need personalities/backstories rather than just being windowdressing.
I also very much agree with the point on humor. Some of the most memorable scenes in Star Trek were ones with Q or other elements that had humor as well as a serious streak.
Indeed, there are High expectations, and i think your trying to say there has to be a soul to the game similer to the series, Some personnel touch and passion like we see with the real characters in every series.
I think this works great with the series but the way it is put into a game is more fun and adventureous, giving you the feel like your really having an effect on the Star Trek Universe in game. Im sure there will be elements that some dont love but some think make the game great for them. I for one cant wait for the game, its gonna be epic.
And i look forward to playing with you all out there in my Sovereign !
And if anyone is looking for a Fleet to join in game, please consider Federation Fleet,
Main aims are to have as much fun as possible and to get as much out of all areas of STO as possible for our members.
Admiral Darren Wright
Federation Fleet
http://federationfleet.guildlaunch.com
Darren Wright
Ahh yes, here we go with the usual wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth.. really folks.. here's a concept for you: LETS WAIT until the game COMES OUT.. then PLAY the game and THEN begin the "oh woe is me... this game is bad.. blah blah blah.." Just a thought. STO will not be for everyone (even some Star Trek fans) but if it is even half as good as some of the things that are being shown and talked about over there on STO.com, then it should be a good game that should be a lot of fun.
As far as the continual thrashing of Cryptic goes: Yeah, they did badly with Champions... yes they pushed that game out too fast and over the tester's objections about flaws in the game... yes I know and have heard all the stories, but goodness people.. they made a mistake.. amazing! Let's burn them at the stake!!! Let's rally the people, grab the pitchforks and torches and let's destroy Cryptic!!! Ridiculous. Yes, the folks at Cryptic ain't Bethesda or Bioware or Blizzard or NCSoft but they aren't Sony Entertainment either. I guess alot of people forget that Cryptic gave us City of Heroes! An excellent game that I personally have enjoyed for all the 5 years of its awesome existence. Now they have secured my second favorite Sci-fi IP... it looks promising and it looks like its going to be a lot of fun.. so, let's give it chance first.. maybe, just maybe, it might surprise all of us.
So Mote It Be.
Your argument is much more suited to saying we should way for 6 months and then see what things are like in a Free Trial, not that we should spend 60+ dollars on release day for a game of unknown quality that they rushed out the door in just 2 years.