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How grouping could have worked in STO
kcypher2000
Member Posts: 116
First of all i still think this game has potential but the big selling point for friends and myself on this game was the previous teaming aspect of us all working together on one ship.
Primary reasons i have read that this has been has removed is because
A.What do you do when X team member is not on.
B. How do you make different roles work. Especially the Captain.
Here are a few suggestions i have on these two issues.
A1. Let every player have their own ship for when they choose to solo but allow them to instantly transport to other players ships. Limit it to guild mates only if needed. For instance I could be the tactical officer for the Whitestar which is another players ship but when he is not online i can captain my own ship the Bluestar. When i am not online an NPC will serve as tact officer for the whitestar.
B1. I believe the majority of complaints about roles on a single player ship are grossly exaggerated. All they simply do is to break down the standard MMO formula and distribute it to various players.
Tactical officer: will be a dps role. Instead of giving them a sinister trike allow them to target different areas of an enemy ship. Those of higher level should get special tricks and abilities that would encourage players to focus on one role but allow players to work on all skills, similar to EVE.
Engineer: can serve as a "Healer" of sorts. Allow them to fluctuate the ships Hull points while also giving them the ability to buff certain other roles through diverting power.
Medic: will be an important role for away missions but can still play a part in ship battles. They can go to sickbay and tend to those wounded during ship battles. You know when the classic sparks fly out the console and a guy in a red shirt is dying. This should have a random chance of happening to players as well and require the ships doctor to treat them quickly. The more people that are injured should lead to a debuff on the ship that slows down all actions, especially engineering due to the lack of crew members available.
Captain: In every mmo i have played when grouping someone who knows the fights or system best will take a leadership role. The captain should be built around those players. Only the captain should have access to all players information. Engineers down in engineering should not see the info for the tactical officer or medics. The captain should. Comms officer might be able to scan to find weaknesses in enemies, this information should also be directly sent to the captain.
However their primary role should be a buffing class, different than the engineer because their buffs will come in the form of "Orders" and Maneuvers".
Orders will be nothing more than passive buffs granted if an officer follows the exact commands given by the captain. Captain will be able to see Engineers interface and gives an order to divert power to shields. If engineer follows the order then the action is improved. A skilled engineer might know more than the captain and ignore the order, lose the buff, but divert power to engines instead.
Maneuvers would work similar to the combo system prestent in LOTRO. Instead of burglars however the captain will only be able to initiate it. Think of the Picard or Riker maneuver. By ordering several different roles to perform an action at the right time they will allow the next player in the sequence to create a combo that will result in a special maneuver. Captains will have to unlock these maneuvers on their own and certain powerful ones should require characters in each role to unlock certain criteria powers as well.
I know this was a long list and no i am not a huge Star Trek fan so there may be some errors in regards to what engineers are called these days or how to spell Riker(?) but i did have high hopes for this game. While i still plan to try it, the one great feature that seperated it from the competition has been sadly removed. Perhaps its a foolish dream but i hope cryptic reconsiders and takes another glance at what they can do to create a more enjoyable game.
Comments
I mean no offense but this topic has been beaten to death in over a dozen threads already. Did it really need a new topic created?
Bren
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Would you rather the OP resurrected an old topic on it? And did you really need to play forum police when the forum actually has its own police? And did I really need to play forum police with you?
To the OP: There's any number of ways a group dynamic on the bridge could have worked and worked well (we have a tendency to group together in other MMOs just fine.) I believe there are time constraints at work behind the scenes that have actually forced this decision on Cryptic.
Stay on topic guys. It's better to create a new, up to date thread than to resurrect one with potentially outdated information.
OP: For the most part, your suggestions are quite good. I would play that game.
I would suggest solo content be missions on or near a Starbase or Outpost. I would not allow interstellar beaming, though. If you want to be on a ship and ready for a landing party, run simulated missions on the holo deck.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Heh "Stay on topic!" funny stuff.
@ OP
Nice set of ideas but it sounds like something they would have already thought about but couldn't find an optimal way of executing in the time they allocated themselves as the other guy said. I do believe that when they do perfect it, it will come out as an update or expansion.
This is not a game.
Even if they do plan to put in multi-player crews at a later date, it will be too late for most Trek fans, as they will have tried and dropped it. If they try it at all.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Sorry, it's just after months and months of seeing this topic brought up again and again by the same 5-10 posters it gets a little annoying. I can see now that the OP doesn't seem to come here and post much which I didn't notice before. As for his ideas while I do believe they do have merit they would be a monumental task and a huge risk for any MMO developer to undertake. I'd rather have a huge galaxy full of content than to have the game you describe personally. They couldn't do both and remain on schedule and on budget. People don't realize just what a monumental task a MMO really is to undertake. Any added features no matter how small they may seem to the players can take months and even years to develop properly. Adding this to STO would quite probably add at least a year of development time to a game that is already well overdue in most fans minds that have been waiting since 2004 when PE first announced the game.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
Sorry, it's just after months and months of seeing this topic brought up again and again by the same 5-10 posters it gets a little annoying. I can see now that the OP is a relatively new member which I didn't notice before. As for his ideas while I do believe they do have merit they would be a monumental task and a huge risk for any MMO developer to undertake. I'd rather have a huge galaxy full of content than to have the game you describe personally. They couldn't do both and remain on schedule and on budget. People don't realize just what a monumental task a MMO really is to undertake.
Do you? What experience do you have?
Any added features no matter how small they may seem to the players can take months and even years to develop properly. Adding this to STO would quite probably add at least a year of development time to a game that is already well overdue in most fans minds that have been waiting since 2004 when PE first announced the game.
Bren
Then add a year, and release a good game. I personally, have seen enough rushed garbage.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Sorry, it's just after months and months of seeing this topic brought up again and again by the same 5-10 posters it gets a little annoying. I can see now that the OP is a relatively new member which I didn't notice before. As for his ideas while I do believe they do have merit they would be a monumental task and a huge risk for any MMO developer to undertake. I'd rather have a huge galaxy full of content than to have the game you describe personally. They couldn't do both and remain on schedule and on budget. People don't realize just what a monumental task a MMO really is to undertake.
Do you? What experience do you have?
Any added features no matter how small they may seem to the players can take months and even years to develop properly. Adding this to STO would quite probably add at least a year of development time to a game that is already well overdue in most fans minds that have been waiting since 2004 when PE first announced the game.
Bren
Then add a year, and release a good game. I personally, have seen enough rushed garbage.
I do program in C++, Java, C#, Visual Basic as well as about a dozen web based languages professionally. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Applied Computer Science and I'm currently going back to school part time (I have to work as well as I have a family to support) working towards Masters Degree. I have worked on many very large projects as a team programmer and know first hand what goes into development. MMOs are a monumentally huge project even for a large team to accomplish. This is why they cost 50-150 million dollars to develop and usually take 3-6 years. Just the predevelopment phase on these projects can take 6 months to a year before a single line of code is written.
Every added feature not only needs to be predefined by design documents but also has to be carefully added as any change to a program can have drastic unforeseen side effects to the rest of your code. What the OP suggests would be so intertwined with all of the existing game mechanics that the space portion of the game would have to be almost rewritten from scratch. I don't personally know the specifics of the Cryptic Engine but it may not even be able to handle these changes and may have to be redeveloped to include them. It isn't quite as simple as just throwing changes like this into a game.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
Since the mods see fit to allow this topic to be discussed for the hundredth time:
Grouping will not be with your buddies in one ship it will be with your buddies who will have their own ships. So grouping will work just fine in STO.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
Even if they do plan to put in multi-player crews at a later date, it will be too late for most Trek fans, as they will have tried and dropped it. If they try it at all.
You have the "Nostradamus Syndrome" going on in that post dude, you should try to dial it down a little. The guy with the Star Trek logo above me seems to be a trek fan, my family is made up of trek fans, some of the people who I play eve with are trek fans and I can honestly say that they are also looking forward to STO and not complaining about flying in their own ships as Captains. Seriously I do wonder if you have seen the future but enough of this....*goes back to playing CO*.
This is not a game.
Even if they do plan to put in multi-player crews at a later date, it will be too late for most Trek fans, as they will have tried and dropped it. If they try it at all.
"You have the "Nostradamus Syndrome" going on in that post dude, you should try to dial it down a little. The guy with the Star Trek logo above me seems to be a trek fan, my family is made up of trek fans, some of the people who I play eve with are trek fans and I can honestly say that they are also looking forward to STO and not complaining about flying in their own ships as Captains. Seriously I do wonder if you have seen the future but enough of this....*goes back to playing CO*."
People can throw out the anecdotal "I know X many people planning to get it, i know Y many who hate it now." But that was not the point of my post. What I (and i believe many others) are complaining about is the removal about an extra feature that really could have created a whole new gaming dynamic in MMOs.
Would all of your friends all of a suddenly lose interest in the game because of player crews? No because you can still solo it just as well. Would some players lose interest because the game has lost a feature that really segregated from other mmos. Yes they will.
i will be lying if i said i was not planning to get the game now. However i can definitely say that i have lost a great deal of interest and really doubt how long i would remain interested in the game now that it seems to be just another MMO in space. If i wanted space i would play Eve and if i wanted space/land i would go back to SWG. (Ps. I personally enjoy SWG NGE more than SWG pre-cu so thats not directly an insult.)
Your point is valid. If the system could have been designed that allowed you to group with your buddies on a starship as an option I'd be all for it. After reading the latest article in PC GAmer I have a feeling that anyone who cares a lot about that feature isn't going to want to play this game because the ship combat is more like the Starfleet Command Series.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft