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Just talking about ST:O, am i wrong on this?
JustTalking
Member CommonPosts: 206
( this was going to be a response but i decided to just make a new thread because of length)
Being an old school Trekkie and a old school gamer i must admit to not having much faith in ST:O being very true to the Star Trek universe...now i realize that this is jumping the gun but it's only my opinion and is by no means an attack on ST:O or the people who are waiting for this game..it's just my two cents on the subject.
I think that Interplay along with Activision had the Star Trek universe down pat with 25th Anniversary, Judgment Rights,Starfleet Academy, Bridge commander...just to name a few...we've also had some really, really horrid Star Trek games over the years as well.
What I'm trying to say is that Star Trek has taken a real beating over the years in the video game industry and for the handful of games that are just amazing we get tons more that are a shallow, lame attempt to sell a game on the Star Trek name...now we get a MMO that has been started, stopped...started again and finally switched to another developer...never a good sign IMHO.
The concept art and ship designs we've been shown so far is...well...not very true to the universe, now i do like the ship building system they'll be having...but really, let's be honest now....we all know what ships we want, myself i want a Miranda Class...yes,yes i know she's old but she has charm and I'm certain that fellow gamers know -exactly- what they want to fly...Constitution? Sovereign? Defiant?...do we really need to change over ship design so drastically?
ST:O will need to focus much, much more than just combat or exploration...but planetary research, meeting new races, relief efforts...and this is how you should be able to "level up" and/or increase rank....truthfully this should be the first MMO in which you can level to max without firing a shot.
Lastly, what is the approach to death? for example if I'm ambushed by two Borg Cubes in my Miranda Class (which is brown bread against one, let alone two cubes) do i get assimilated and game over? or do we have new tech that allows clones like EvE Online? will we have to buy a new ship or will one be given to us?
In the end i don't really see how they can incorporate Star Trek into a MMO without throwing a lot of things out the window, i hope I'm wrong on this...as i said i love the Star Trek universe and I'm more than prepared to come back here and eat crow if I'm wrong....but I'm very skeptical Atm.
Sorry for the long post, looking forward to your response.
Comments
Well as a long time Trekkie myself (Started back in the 70's with TOS) I can understand your concerns as I have some of the same. Certain liberties have to be taken in the name of MMO game play so that people won't get bored and leave. At first I wasn't too keen on the customizable ships myself but after giving it some thought it really is needed to allow a certain degree of individuality in a MMO. I've kinda gotten used to the idea and have even grown fond of it. This will allow players to not all look the same in both spacecraft and avatar. This is important for a MMO.
As for a lot of your other concerns the answer would be that we just don't know enough yet to tell. They claim that the game will not revolve around combat so I'm hoping that a lot of the things you mentioned will be taken into account. They have already hinted at some of the missions like curing a plague on an alien planet and have claimed that diplomacy and first contact situations will play an important part in the game. This sounds great and they have also stated that the missions will play out like an episode of one of the shows. This brings back fond memories of playing Star Trek: 25th Aniversary and i have to say that it is a good feeling indeed.
I have to agree that we've probably seen far more craptastic Star Trek games than good ones so here's hoping that Cryptic can pull this one off and get added to the short list. Only time will tell but so far it's looking very good.
Edit: Oh I almost forgot. They have stated that they are not big fans of harsh death penalties. What I would guess is if you're destroyed you'll reappear at the nearest friendly starbase or planet and you'll probably just have to repair your ship and heal or replace any injured or dead crew. This is just speculation on my part but given what they have said on the subject this would be a good bet.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
I think that game developers love lore, after all it means that someone has done all the hard work (and backstory). The question is really the amount of depth that they put in. Now if it was me, then I would using all the fan base stuff out there which must amount to a vast resource - all free. Now added to the canon bible that the studio must have for script writing, then I would have thought job done.
So would they put in to stuff that isn't "Star Trek"? Well their will have to be some tweaking to convert it to a game as well as some editing to tie up some inconsistencies; however, if it work for the series, then you would be a fool (and I'm sure they are not) not to put stuff in. I mean, if my ship isn't blown up the first time I run into the Borg, they I will not be a happy trekkie. But obviously they will have to adjust the world so that an unstoppable enemy can be countered in some way.
Will it be a good game is a whole other debate. The odd are not on our side, for me, there have been only two Star Trek games that work as computer games. Starfleet command, although that wasn't strickly Star Trek and my favourite race (Hydrans) wasn't even in Star Trek. The other was the first person shooter on Voyager, last bit was a bit weak, but on the whole they really captured the feel of the series. On the positive, they have a highly regarded MMO under their belt, so I am confident that the game will playable, but I have no idea if it is a game we will be playing for years.
Death is an easy one, emergency transported out, shot out in a pod, death rarely happens in Star Trek (well assuming you avoid wearing red). Ship regeneration is another matter. I suppose your space hulk could be dragged to a Star base and repaired (or maybe it just retire from battle to be repaired). What is more probablematic is PvP/RvR. Players don't want to be out of the action for long. DAoC used to have a few minutes wait to get back to the action, and this was removed, much to player delight. Now in WAR players moan about the 30 sec wait to get back into the action in scenarios. I strongly suspect that they will not go down the Eve route of "loss" of Starship as that is just to "high a price" for current players and hinders players engauging in PvP/RvR (for all that it adds to the "realism" of the game).
What is suspect is going to upset Star trek fans the most, is the requirement of this game to "conform" to the industry standard approach to MMOs, which is obviously WoW (love it, or hate it). If the game was wildly different to that genre (WoW, WAR, LotR and probably others I haven't played), then they would have a hard time getting it through the funding process. At the end of the day, a commerical game is going to have to at least partially appear to the biggest group of MMO players to get its backing; as much as I would like to see some revolutionary aspects, I suspect that that there will be elements will be reminding us of WoW (shudder). Lock phasers on that Night Elf please Mr Chekov.
While I don't disagree with most of your post this I have a slight problem with. Cryptic has always been known for breaking the WoW mold when it comes to MMO development so I have a lot of confidence that STO will be no different. I seriously don't think we will see anything even remotely close to "WoW in space" from this developer. This is the main reason I was very happy to hear Cryptic was the one that took over this IP. If anyone can give us something original and very different it's these guys.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
While I don't disagree with most of your post this I have a slight problem with. Cryptic has always been known for breaking the WoW mold when it comes to MMO development so I have a lot of confidence that STO will be no different.
Beautifully put, and I'll assume this was intentional, and not a typo
While I don't disagree with most of your post this I have a slight problem with. Cryptic has always been known for breaking the WoW mold when it comes to MMO development so I have a lot of confidence that STO will be no different.
Beautifully put, and I'll assume this was intentional, and not a typo
lol... Probably more of a Freudian slip than anything else.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}