When ever someone whines about player crew i pull out my trump card, "ok now give me a system that has a player crew and can acominate that crew going AFK at random or logging off mid mission, or not showing up the next day cause Little Timmy has socker pratice."
Your trump card does not take.
Especially if you have both PCs and NPCs, in which case the player in question simply has to get off the station and a NPC takes over, or he hits a button to notify his other Crew and a NPC takes over.
"That other game" i was refering to above can manage quite well with a player going afk - especially if people have ALTs on the ship - and they do not even have NPCs at all.
Maybe I read it wrong but it didnt seem like you could trade officers for parts...more like trading officers for officers.
That's what I meant, yes. You can trade officers with other players. If you prefer... "Reassign them."
Originally posted by Cerion
DANA wrote: " Bridge Officers provide players with a more iconic and complete Star Trek experience. Part of the fantasy is to be the Captain and while some out there would no doubt love to travel the galaxies in the role of Ship’s Doctor, that’s not exactly compelling gameplay for the average player. " Informative article over all, but then you had to take it down ten notches by parroting this over-used strawman argument. First of all, no Ship's Doctor class/profession was ever developed, so how do you know if something is compelling or not if it wasn't even created? You also say "part of the fantasy" is to be a Captain. Well 'part of the fantasy' is to run ones ship from an interior. Another 'part of the fantasy' is to have player crews. Cryptic, and journalists, have created this circular argument that is beyond frustrating. Without proof or evidence, its assumed that being a Captain is the ONLY part of the fantasy that matters. Finally, "Bridge officers provide players with a more iconice and complete Star Trek experience..." More iconic than what? Not having them? And if Iconic was so damn important, then Cryptic would have developed a system for player crews because that is even MORE Iconic.
This isn't a staw man argument, it's common sense. I know there are really hardcore Trek fans who would love to do this, but honestly, I've yet to hear one of these purists present a suggestion for compelling gameplay. On the show, they had "jobs" and performed them. We didn't watch them do those mundane thing. In a game, you would have to.
Seriously, what would you do? In Engineering would you constantly play a mini-game about balancing power to the various systems? Would the doctor treat runny noses of NPCs between missions?
There simply is not enough content there to drill that deep on any reasonable development timeframe.
Being a Captain is not the only part of the fantasy that matters, it's the only part that would be fun in a video game for a mass audience. You'll probably pick on the sentence "mass audience," but the fact is that Cryptic likely wants more people than just hardcore Trek fans to play the game.
Man, people who make these comments need to actually watch the show called Star Trek before they make these inane comments. Do you seriously think Geordi spent an entire episode in engineering balancing the ships power systems? Do you really have such a small and limited imagination?
Seriously, what would you do? In Engineering would you constantly play a mini-game about balancing power to the various systems? Would the doctor treat runny noses of NPCs between missions?
There simply is not enough content there to drill that deep on any reasonable development timeframe.
This is such a narrow view, and it seems to me that it come from having limited knowledge about Star Trek. This is probably the same view that Cryptic has. The more I hear about the game, the more I feel like they have a passing knowledge about Star Trek, but like Dana, they think it's all about the captain and the rest of the crew are just there to tinker with engines or mend broken bones.
Fans of Star Trek know that most episodes of Star Trek focused on characters other than the captain, and followed them through various challenges they had to face, and believe it or not episodes about the doctor were never about treating runny noses. As an example off the top of my head, there was an episode of Deep Space Nine where Chief O'Brian is kidnapped by the Cardassians. Just because he is an engineer doesn't mean all of his challenges have to be about balancing ship power or repairing ruptured conduits.
That's fine. I understand that the other characters are interesting, no one disputes that.
The question for you and anyone who wants to have player crews is a simple one:
Present to me compelling day-to-day gameplay for the ship's engineer? The doctor? The Security Officer?
What would they do during the average play session? What would their typical 10 minute gameplay experience entail? Why would this be fun?
Further to that, if I am in combat as a Captain and want to turn left. What would my experience then be if I had a player crew? Would the entire Captain gameplay experience consist of being on teamspeak trying to get other people on my ship to fire the phasers and turn the thing?
Seriously, I've heard lots of examples from the show of why crew is awesome, but I've yet to see one compelling gameplay idea that would be remotely practical or fun.
What does a paladin or a hunter or a mage do during combat or out of combat in WoW? Imagine these professions as standard MMO classes and any developer can think of tonnes of things for these classes to do. A medical officer can heal crew, buff crew, debuff the enemy's crew. An engineer can repair the ship, buff the ship, debuff the enemy's ship.
Why is this so difficult for some people to grasp?
When ever someone whines about player crew i pull out my trump card, "ok now give me a system that has a player crew and can acominate that crew going AFK at random or logging off mid mission, or not showing up the next day cause Little Timmy has socker pratice."
Your trump card does not take.
Especially if you have both PCs and NPCs, in which case the player in question simply has to get off the station and a NPC takes over, or he hits a button to notify his other Crew and a NPC takes over.
"That other game" i was refering to above can manage quite well with a player going afk - especially if people have ALTs on the ship - and they do not even have NPCs at all.
So explain a system. A complete one. when ever i hear peopel talk about pc crew it's always the same "eveyr station ha a player' there is never any mention of NPC stand ins just "give us a full pc crew! nao!"
That said i did work on the idea and posted my solution in the offical STO forms Big idea thread
Guild Ship
People want to have different roles performed by different live people not BOs, why why not make a Guild Ship.
The captian sets waypoints and can "paint the map" like a football narator
The enginnier redistributes power
Navigation player moves the ship
Tactical player commands weapons
(science officer) handles debuffs
etc.
This way people who want a shared ship just just form a SG
Two things. One, the stuff you described is a whole other game. This isn't laziness. What you're asking is eight times their budget if they actually wanted to do it. You're describing like eight different games rolled into one.
How many games rolled into one is WoW. More than one, for sure. Even at launch. You see - Cryptic wants our money. It is their job to fullfil our desires in order to get that money. We do not have a responsibilty to change what we want to meet Cryptic's effort or ability.
That is the way a service company works - satisfy your customers' demands, or they go elsewhere.
Secondly, those other games besides "flying around and fighting" only appeal to a very hardcore and very specific audience. In their current path, all players use all the content, more or less. You'd have them make games that 85% of their population never spend a second on. From a development perspective, spending man years on that kind of content for such a small audience is a very bad proposition.
Yes, what you describe would appeal to Trekkies. But, as you might have noticed, the last TV show they made was watched by barely anyone. The last movie, which many Trekkies lambasted as too "mainstream" and for throwing away all the cannon made more money than God. You need more than the hardcore audience.
No. You don't. Unless you are only going to be satified with WoW type numbers. Which isn't going to happen, anyway.
The game you described is ideal, but it would require literally eight times the current development resources to accomplish without adding even close to eight times the number of interested players.
The average person is never going to balance plasma relays. Hell, the average person doesn't know or care what a plasma relay is.
This game shouldn't be made for the average person. It should be made for fans of the IP. As others have pointed out - that is where big IP-based MMOs are going wrong.
Cryptic is making a Star Trek MMO for people who don't like Star Trek or MMOs.
All that said, what I'd personally like to see (and no I saw no particular indication they're planning this) is to do multi-person ships as end-game raid content. I believe, if I am recalling correctly, that was the plan Perpetual had. That alleviates the day-to-day grind since you'd only get on those huge ships for specific reasons.
What exactly is your job description? I ask because it sounds to me like you are employed to promote the new games coming out and to diminish the expectations of potential customers.
It's really not your place to be telling members of this site that they shouldn't be asking for features they want in these games.
MMOs are a service industry and you are spending a lot of energy telling us to be happy with minimal service. Leave that to employees of the compnies in question. As an employee of this site, you are supposed to be representingus. Please correct me if I am wrong on that point.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Originally posted by MMO_Doubter What exactly is your job description? I ask because it sounds to me like you are employed to promote the new games coming out and to diminish the expectations of potential customers. It's really not your place to be telling members of this site that they shouldn't be asking for features they want in these games.
MMOs are a service industry and you are spending a lot of energy telling us to be happy with minimal service. Leave that to employees of the compnies in question. As an employee of this site, you are supposed to be representingus. Please correct me if I am wrong on that point.
Eh, from what I understand, he starts representing us and he'll no longer get interviews, sneak peaks, previews, etc. Lots of game companies do that sort of thing now.
Originally posted by Drachasor Eh, from what I understand, he starts representing us and he'll no longer get interviews, sneak peaks, previews, etc. Lots of game companies do that sort of thing now.
Indeed, but the gaming sites have to realize that they are very cheap advertising for the game companies. It's not a completely one-sided relationship.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Originally posted by Drachasor Eh, from what I understand, he starts representing us and he'll no longer get interviews, sneak peaks, previews, etc. Lots of game companies do that sort of thing now.
Indeed, but the gaming sites have to realize that they are very cheap advertising for the game companies. It's not a completely one-sided relationship.
They need to form some kind of union honestly.* Otherwise a shill will always be willing to say nothing bad about products to get early treatment. With a union gaming sites can have some symbol of authority so gamers know which ones can be trusted. Until then you kinda have to sift through everything that gets said very carefully and important details will almost always be left out.
Originally posted by Drachasor Eh, from what I understand, he starts representing us and he'll no longer get interviews, sneak peaks, previews, etc. Lots of game companies do that sort of thing now.
Indeed, but the gaming sites have to realize that they are very cheap advertising for the game companies. It's not a completely one-sided relationship.
They need to form some kind of union honestly.* Otherwise a shill will always be willing to say nothing bad about products to get early treatment. With a union gaming sites can have some symbol of authority so gamers know which ones can be trusted. Until then you kinda have to sift through everything that gets said very carefully and important details will almost always be left out.
*One of my instant-brainstorms.**
**I am practicing calling out my attacks.
It's funny how movie reviewers can say whatever they want about a film and damn the movie companies if they don't like it. Game websites (this one included) are bought and paid for by the gaming companies.
Originally posted by Xondar123 It's funny how movie reviewers can say whatever they want about a film and damn the movie companies if they don't like it. Game websites (this one included) are bought and paid for by the gaming companies.
Due to their income streams and 'exclusive content', I'm sure. That, and the fact that they are gaming nerds, not real journalists.
If the gaming sites refused to take gaming industry ads (not to mention - PERKS), then they would be freer to be objective.
Players go to gaming sites for the content - much of which is provided at the whim of the game companies.
If a site focused on hard information and debate - rather than screenshots and powder puff 'interviews', then gamers could go there. I think it will happen some day, as the industry is too big to be locked down by shills and fanboys.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
What exactly is your job description? I ask because it sounds to me like you are employed to promote the new games coming out and to diminish the expectations of potential customers.
It's really not your place to be telling members of this site that they shouldn't be asking for features they want in these games.
MMOs are a service industry and you are spending a lot of energy telling us to be happy with minimal service. Leave that to employees of the compnies in question. As an employee of this site, you are supposed to be representingus. Please correct me if I am wrong on that point.
Well, to me, my job is not to represent you or them. It's to report back what I see and let you decide for yourself.
The article presents the facts of what they showed with some limited informed opinion.
Now, in this thread, clearly I branched beyond what I'd write in an average article. I'm just participating in the ongoing debate like the rest of you.
I'm not saying their approach is perfect or even necessarily right. I'm saying I had some fun with it when I tried it and I do not personally believe that the "player crew" group has realistic expectations. That's my opinion.
That said, I've already written it down as something to specifically ask about in the future. I've given why I think they didn't do it, but that hardly matters. In the future, we'll ask them.
To those who think we write nice things to get future articles... well I doubt there is anything I can say to convince you otherwise, but honestly, this site over the last few weeks has published several very critical editorials about Cryptic, some from senior staff. Jon's came out the very day I went to the studio. There is honestly no blacklist I've ever seen and I've never even considered whether or not a company will talk to us in the future when writing about a game.
The only softening you see in articles are allowance for "this is clearly not finished" type things. I don't write about bugs from very early previews, for example, because people will harp on it and it's totally unfair to a game that is months away from launch.
Originally posted by MMO_Doubter
Originally posted by Xondar123 It's funny how movie reviewers can say whatever they want about a film and damn the movie companies if they don't like it. Game websites (this one included) are bought and paid for by the gaming companies.
Due to their income streams and 'exclusive content', I'm sure. That, and the fact that they are gaming nerds, not real journalists.
If the gaming sites refused to take gaming industry ads (not to mention - PERKS), then they would be freer to be objective.
Players go to gaming sites for the content - much of which is provided at the whim of the game companies.
If a site focused on hard information and debate - rather than screenshots and powder puff 'interviews', then gamers could go there. I think it will happen some day, as the industry is too big to be locked down by shills and fanboys.
See this argument is downright hilarious.
We post only game ads by fan REQUEST. We could easily sell beer and car ads on this site, but Craig has always had a policy to stick to products that people who visit the site actually want. So, basically, to some people we're sellouts if we have game ads, and money grubbers if we don't.
For the record, not that it matters, this particular trip to Cryptic was 100% paid for by MMORPG.com. Cryptic gave me a Coke and a slice of pizza, as I recall, if you want full disclosure. We paid for the flight, rental car, hotels, etc.
However, that's a luxury we have because we're a large site. If video game companies didn't fly people to events, you'd only ever read an article from Gamespot, Gamespy, IGN and.. on the MMO side... us.
Dana Massey Formerly of MMORPG.com Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Something Else of corse is that u only get to see and hear what they want u to. They don't say come in and have the run of the place. Which of corse Sucks Because the Pre- Sell Statement from gamepro was That Aion was a non grind, PvE ,PvP Friendly Game. WHICH OF CORSE IS TRUE TILL LV 22. Then BAM changes to a Grind Fest and a watch your back or get ganked in yor PvE area.The Lack of Gatherin Statement's should have let us in on the awful grind for 1 pt. But was kinda passes -over. Now I can't read your Mind Dana or Gamepro's ppl's mind to know if u had more or they bluffed u so u only have a look at so much. I beleive that it is the dev's that try to keep there sercert's because if something does Fail in game at least they got the openin week sale's to help lick the wounds.I think this game will be Great for a time and then we will have to wait for update's and of corse The Expention's to give us the true fill we want. The thing they got to understand is if u Fail at lauch it is Hard to get ppl back ask SWG,WarHammer,AoC while i could go on. Aion will be another they have some great stuff for the future of Aion look's like a total another game. They was smart to throw it out after just losing 10% of there base Sub's to try and hold on a little longer till they can get it out. U will always have your QQ for any MMO when dealing with 100k+ ppl hopefully a mill+ ppl.ANYWHO We all should just be happy to have bridge's in. But truely if they didn't put it in this would have been a major Fail on there part and a lose they would have ot recovered from. When u got thousand of ppl saing hey we want bridge's and u kow thousand more just to nice to say hey come on u got think man what was we thinking not havin that.
I'll give you that. In some respects it's hard to call game journalism that because of a few core points:
-The subject matter, bluntly, isn't important enough for people to risk anything to tell the truth. If this were politics, people would leak things like subscriber numbers and such, but who really is going to do that in a video game company?
-Often we see what they want us to see until the very end.
That all said, Cryptic - to their credit - gave me the usual presentation/interviews, but they also basically just sat me at terminal and told me to go to town. I think I probably logged two hours without supervision or instructions on what I should be doing or what to avoid. I think in this case, mostly the first article that is, I got a pretty unvarnished view of the game as it stands to date.
Dana Massey Formerly of MMORPG.com Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
i think the idea is trying to find a decent balance in a game. there will always be people the want more details/deeper lore/ more things to do/ complex the game. on the other hand some people are less "hard core" and just want to take a ship into space and blow things up.
as i said, the omega point will be to find the range that both type of people with be happy with.
as for that, yeah you cant play scotty 24/7 (ok yes you can by like dana wrote developing that I.P would take lots of time$cash),
again on the other hand, making some missions as u play one of the crew lets say the doc, and your job is on the mission to heal the team/ watch the back.( im talking about a surface mission). how about there is some sort of strange disease going on the ship, u need to travel to a distant plant in order to find a cure. simple isnt it? and yet fun and cool.
lets say worf for a mission, the borg just breached the main hull, you go and stop them while the npc cpt. carry on with the battle.
that would not be that hard to create.
the possibilities are endless,
so gimme a choice, i understand that most game play will be as a cpt. but i would like once in a while the option the play something different.
again choices.
oh on the 3 worf thingy. gw solved that with heroes,when 3 of the same npc are in one instance 1 remain as the real one, the 2 others get a lil make over and boom, 2 brand new klingon officers appears. again all im saying it can be dealt with.
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I think a captain, a weapons office and an engineering officer is a reasonable start to the PC crew.
Captain flies, Weapons shoots, Engineering controls shields fixes ship if they can. Easy pie.
Three man groups, not too hard to find two others to fly with I think. The group leader could assign roles, every person would have xp in each of the three disciplines to give them some extra relevant skills. If someone wants to play captain all the time and does they will probably be asked to pilot ships due to their experience. You could probably create similar exploration teams like this, but I fear all we will be getting is WOW in space.
DANA wrote: " Bridge Officers provide players with a more iconic and complete Star Trek experience. Part of the fantasy is to be the Captain and while some out there would no doubt love to travel the galaxies in the role of Ship’s Doctor, that’s not exactly compelling gameplay for the average player. " Informative article over all, but then you had to take it down ten notches by parroting this over-used strawman argument. First of all, no Ship's Doctor class/profession was ever developed, so how do you know if something is compelling or not if it wasn't even created? You also say "part of the fantasy" is to be a Captain. Well 'part of the fantasy' is to run ones ship from an interior. Another 'part of the fantasy' is to have player crews. Cryptic, and journalists, have created this circular argument that is beyond frustrating. Without proof or evidence, its assumed that being a Captain is the ONLY part of the fantasy that matters. Finally, "Bridge officers provide players with a more iconice and complete Star Trek experience..." More iconic than what? Not having them? And if Iconic was so damn important, then Cryptic would have developed a system for player crews because that is even MORE Iconic.
Exactly.
I've seen fan pages devoted to Dr. Julian Bashir. I'm willing to bet that the fan who made that page would prefer to be like her hero rather than a captain. Why are all these people assuming that everone just loves the captains and wants to be one of them? What about all thev fans of Scotty or Data or Spock? They're being left out in the cold because people like Cryptic are making brash assumptions that really have no basis in reality. And that does not bode well for this game...
Okay, you got a valid point. HOWEVER, how would you make a GAME that allows you to do this? You have to remember marketing speak. "Everyone will want to play like this" really means "we can only cater to those who want to play like this".
Take Spock. An Iconic character if there ever was any and I think in a way far more popular then Kirk as a story character but how do you play him?
A novelist can make a dark brooding character because he can be the narator and TELL us the character is dark and brooding. But a game maker trying to make a playable character who is dark and brooding just ends up with a silent character. There is a reason most Bioware RPG's have a silent hero, so you can create their voice in your own mind, to your own liking. Bones, in the better Star Trek books is a troubled character, always torn between serving as a soldier and a healer at the same time. But how do you make the player feel such a struggle?
For that matter, how do you turn into gameplay the science parts that Spock and McCoy pull off? We never actually see them do it, spock just stares down this tube and pronounces something profound and that is it. Where is the gameplay?
There is a reason most games are shooters. Because running up to people and pressing a button to bandage them is not nearly as challenging.
SWG was the biggest game that tried to allow you to play different roles, dancer, image designer (make-up artist), cook, bio-engineer. It was great, for those who likes it, but the subscription figures told us that simply killing stuff (WoW) was way more popular.
And there is a problem with the unique roles approach. Already with the simple trinity of tank/dps/healer you see many complain that they hate grouping because there are never enough healers around.
In SWG on my server there was ONE image designer around. Wanted to change your appearance in the game? Then you had to wait for that person to log on as NOBODY else had the skills.
I myself was a scout (harvest meat) and I liked the aspect of finding what place and critter was dropping intresting resources (it changed over time). But I was one a handful and as such, we sold our materials to cooks we liked and they gave us a portion of their produce and sold the rest for a fortune. if you went into the game with little social skills and wanting pure combat, then you were entirely dependant on what little people were prepared to sell to strangers. It worked, to an extent but only for the social players.
In STO, would you want to have your enterprise with 500+ people onboard have to wait because nobody wants to play McCoy or the only one is on an event with his guild? It is the reason why SWTOR is going for pure combat roles where you have side-kicks to fill the support role you need most. To get rid of "5/6 for the dogs balls, need healer PLEASE! Been waiting for an hour, you can have all the goodies and we pay you a gold piece each.PLEASE!"
Cryptic has produced nothing so far but "simple" mmorpgs that focus on getting out there and beating stuff up with the minimum of group interaction needed. Don't look to them to create a Star Trek Universe Simulator.
This isn't a staw man argument, it's common sense. I know there are really hardcore Trek fans who would love to do this, but honestly, I've yet to hear one of these purists present a suggestion for compelling gameplay. On the show, they had "jobs" and performed them. We didn't watch them do those mundane thing. In a game, you would have to. Seriously, what would you do? In Engineering would you constantly play a mini-game about balancing power to the various systems? Would the doctor treat runny noses of NPCs between missions? There simply is not enough content there to drill that deep on any reasonable development timeframe.
Being a Captain is not the only part of the fantasy that matters, it's the only part that would be fun in a video game for a mass audience. You'll probably pick on the sentence "mass audience," but the fact is that Cryptic likely wants more people than just hardcore Trek fans to play the game.
You make good points. I agree, the kind of game we Trek "purists" want would be difficult, if not impossible. Which is exactly why I say some IPs do not make good games. I think Trek is one of those.
Sure, they can create a generic scifi shoot 'em up and slap Trek colors on it and call it Star Trek. In that vein, simply take an existing MMO engine, slap IP skins on it and before you know it, there's an MMO for anyone's favorite show. By the end of next year, there can be MMOs claiming to be Firefly, Farscape, Twilight, Heroes, Terminator and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. And all play exactly the same.
Originally, when STO was first being created, it was slated to be the Trekker's dream come true: fully inhabitable starships (see every room, sit at every console, use every panel to control the tiniest functions of your ship), freely explore the galaxy (boldly go where you want, when you want, whether it is to orbit or beam down) and develop your starship (from a small one-person craft al the way to an enormous starship) as you move up the ranks. This was to be the STO everyone clamored for, and it was being brought to us by Perpetual. Then, after a long silence, the website came alive with new information from the devs. Profuse with apology, the dev's said they just couldn't figure out how to make that happen. Instead, we'd BE the starship (no rooms, no sitting in chairs -heck, no chairs at all!) and we'd pew pew with phasers at other ships in space. There'd be some form of planet-side combat too (and at this point, no one had really asked for heavy combat) and you'd find yourself back in the usual tank-dps-healer teams using phasers instead of spells -esentially WoW in Star Trek uniforms. Well, the fans went berserk and the forums were aflame with hate. On one very memorable day, a fan posted a poll which basically asked if you'd prefer the game simply never came out if this was how it had to be. Overwhelmingly, over 90% of the forum posters voted that they'd rather it never got released. There was some hatred returned by the devs, flaming development boards elsewhere that the fans should never be listened to and to just make the trinity games we're used to anyway because it just works (cuz ya know, it works for WoW). In the end, Perpetual went out of business and the fans were sad to see there wouldn't be an STO but were nonetheless relieved it wouldn't come out as this dreary, combat-heavy WoW knock-off. Then, there was a glimmer of hope. It was annoucned that Cryptic had picked up the title and it was back into production! The fans again swarmed the boards, telling tales of the misery during the last development, offering advice (to the tinest detail) as to what would be the dream game and what to avoid so as not to ever see that tell-tale poll again. After a long development period, Cryptic began issuing interviews and game info and..much to our surprise, they totally ignored the fans and made the very same WoW knock-off nobody wanted. You are the ship (a la Star Trek Armada --yawn) and beam down to fight in teams against Klingons et al. The graphics look horrendously poor and the thought put into the gaming system is, frankly, dreadful. They even went so far as to remove any ability to freely explore the galaxy. Everything is a quest chain in a series of "episodes" that they have admitted do not hinge upon one another. In other words, do what you like in any given mission --it will not affect the final "episode" of that "season." Your actions have no affect on anything. So, with overwhelming fan requests for being inside their ships' rooms, working the controls etc, freely exploring the galaxy and building their starships from small one man craft to mighty starships --Cryptic gives us the "fun" of being a small ship in a convoluted version of, "Asteroids," unable to freely explore and yet not trading that for any impact on the storylines into which they're funneled.
While there is conflict and often combat in any given episode of Star Trek, the main focus of the series' has always been, "to seek out new life and new civilizations," finding a peaceful solution, and generally exploring the galaxy -and the human condition. Instead, we are given "war has come to the Federation." ...yawn. With a glut of shoot-em-ups in the market, one more (albeit Star Trek flavored) just isn't breaking any new ground. There was a tremendous opportunity here to create a thriving galaxy, populated starships and a compelling universe. Instead -- its Asteroids meets Armada meets Half-Life meets WoW. And given the dreadful quality of the graphics and gameplay displayed in their trailers it isn't even a good version of those classic games.
Note to developers of future video games: when a fan base is packaged neatly along with the property you obtain and they tell you point for point what would make the perfect game -don't utterly ignore them and make the dead opposite. You're just wasting your time, money and a golden opportunity.
Now, don't think everyone feels this way. There are actually plenty of posters on the STO forums that squeal with delight over any piece of dreary footage the devs post. I'm certain there will be a player base for this game. But in reality, it will very likely be a few thousand players (as opposed to, for example, WoW's multi-million subscribers) and the game will fall eventually much like Earth and Beyond when the devs simply refused to make the game the 'dynamic and changing universe' they initially promised, or Uru when low playership and fly-in-amber lag made the game unplayable. If it persists at all, it will probably end up like Star Wars Galaxies, a game that had its code chopped and gutted to try, weakly, to resemble the game it should've been instead of what it was at launch. There's already a hint of that as Cryptic announces 'player bridges' Trying to stem the tide of disgust over the refusal to implement bridge-play, they've added a horribly modeled bridge to the ships that you can use as a 'social room.' Yep, it doesn't control anything but you can invite other "captain's" over to walk around the simplistic room NOT using consoles to do anything and RP that the doors don't open because the ship's lost power or something... In the end, its a weak attempt to mollify a dissatisfied fan-base that has years to wait, it seems, to finally get the Star Trek experience in an MMO. Oh well, there's always Star Wars the Old Republic. After all, Bioware listens to their fans.
Live long and prosper, and don't waste your money on STO.
but you can invite other "captain's" over to walk around the simplistic room NOT using consoles to do anything and RP that the doors don't open because the ship's lost power or something...
LOL I hadn't thought about that but, yeah, you're right.
Late to this party, but I'd like to throw this in:
Naturally, the bridge serves as a control hub for the ship. UI elements from the general game will be accessible from within the bridge at logical locations. However, at least to begin, they have no plans to let people fight or actually pilot their ship from the inside. It’s far more akin to player housing than a different way to play the game.
Umm, I disagree. I think that aside from fighting, it makes perfect sense for the captain to pilot the ship, use communications, manage their bridge officers, etc. from the bridge.
Since this is a future timeline, the external camera view ("Tactical" view?) could be used in combat without breaking either canon or immersion.
Comments
Your trump card does not take.
Especially if you have both PCs and NPCs, in which case the player in question simply has to get off the station and a NPC takes over, or he hits a button to notify his other Crew and a NPC takes over.
"That other game" i was refering to above can manage quite well with a player going afk - especially if people have ALTs on the ship - and they do not even have NPCs at all.
I'm no Trekkie, but the more I read the better this game sounds. Will definitely have to check it out
That's what I meant, yes. You can trade officers with other players. If you prefer... "Reassign them."
This isn't a staw man argument, it's common sense. I know there are really hardcore Trek fans who would love to do this, but honestly, I've yet to hear one of these purists present a suggestion for compelling gameplay. On the show, they had "jobs" and performed them. We didn't watch them do those mundane thing. In a game, you would have to.
Seriously, what would you do? In Engineering would you constantly play a mini-game about balancing power to the various systems? Would the doctor treat runny noses of NPCs between missions?
There simply is not enough content there to drill that deep on any reasonable development timeframe.
Being a Captain is not the only part of the fantasy that matters, it's the only part that would be fun in a video game for a mass audience. You'll probably pick on the sentence "mass audience," but the fact is that Cryptic likely wants more people than just hardcore Trek fans to play the game.
Man, people who make these comments need to actually watch the show called Star Trek before they make these inane comments. Do you seriously think Geordi spent an entire episode in engineering balancing the ships power systems? Do you really have such a small and limited imagination?
This is such a narrow view, and it seems to me that it come from having limited knowledge about Star Trek. This is probably the same view that Cryptic has. The more I hear about the game, the more I feel like they have a passing knowledge about Star Trek, but like Dana, they think it's all about the captain and the rest of the crew are just there to tinker with engines or mend broken bones.
Fans of Star Trek know that most episodes of Star Trek focused on characters other than the captain, and followed them through various challenges they had to face, and believe it or not episodes about the doctor were never about treating runny noses. As an example off the top of my head, there was an episode of Deep Space Nine where Chief O'Brian is kidnapped by the Cardassians. Just because he is an engineer doesn't mean all of his challenges have to be about balancing ship power or repairing ruptured conduits.
That's fine. I understand that the other characters are interesting, no one disputes that.
The question for you and anyone who wants to have player crews is a simple one:
Present to me compelling day-to-day gameplay for the ship's engineer? The doctor? The Security Officer?
What would they do during the average play session? What would their typical 10 minute gameplay experience entail? Why would this be fun?
Further to that, if I am in combat as a Captain and want to turn left. What would my experience then be if I had a player crew? Would the entire Captain gameplay experience consist of being on teamspeak trying to get other people on my ship to fire the phasers and turn the thing?
Seriously, I've heard lots of examples from the show of why crew is awesome, but I've yet to see one compelling gameplay idea that would be remotely practical or fun.
What does a paladin or a hunter or a mage do during combat or out of combat in WoW? Imagine these professions as standard MMO classes and any developer can think of tonnes of things for these classes to do. A medical officer can heal crew, buff crew, debuff the enemy's crew. An engineer can repair the ship, buff the ship, debuff the enemy's ship.
Why is this so difficult for some people to grasp?
Your trump card does not take.
Especially if you have both PCs and NPCs, in which case the player in question simply has to get off the station and a NPC takes over, or he hits a button to notify his other Crew and a NPC takes over.
"That other game" i was refering to above can manage quite well with a player going afk - especially if people have ALTs on the ship - and they do not even have NPCs at all.
So explain a system. A complete one. when ever i hear peopel talk about pc crew it's always the same "eveyr station ha a player' there is never any mention of NPC stand ins just "give us a full pc crew! nao!"
That said i did work on the idea and posted my solution in the offical STO forms Big idea thread
Guild Ship
People want to have different roles performed by different live people not BOs, why why not make a Guild Ship.
The captian sets waypoints and can "paint the map" like a football narator
The enginnier redistributes power
Navigation player moves the ship
Tactical player commands weapons
(science officer) handles debuffs
etc.
This way people who want a shared ship just just form a SG
Two things. One, the stuff you described is a whole other game. This isn't laziness. What you're asking is eight times their budget if they actually wanted to do it. You're describing like eight different games rolled into one.
How many games rolled into one is WoW. More than one, for sure. Even at launch. You see - Cryptic wants our money. It is their job to fullfil our desires in order to get that money. We do not have a responsibilty to change what we want to meet Cryptic's effort or ability.
That is the way a service company works - satisfy your customers' demands, or they go elsewhere.
Secondly, those other games besides "flying around and fighting" only appeal to a very hardcore and very specific audience. In their current path, all players use all the content, more or less. You'd have them make games that 85% of their population never spend a second on. From a development perspective, spending man years on that kind of content for such a small audience is a very bad proposition.
Yes, what you describe would appeal to Trekkies. But, as you might have noticed, the last TV show they made was watched by barely anyone. The last movie, which many Trekkies lambasted as too "mainstream" and for throwing away all the cannon made more money than God. You need more than the hardcore audience.
No. You don't. Unless you are only going to be satified with WoW type numbers. Which isn't going to happen, anyway.
The game you described is ideal, but it would require literally eight times the current development resources to accomplish without adding even close to eight times the number of interested players.
The average person is never going to balance plasma relays. Hell, the average person doesn't know or care what a plasma relay is.
This game shouldn't be made for the average person. It should be made for fans of the IP. As others have pointed out - that is where big IP-based MMOs are going wrong.
Cryptic is making a Star Trek MMO for people who don't like Star Trek or MMOs.
All that said, what I'd personally like to see (and no I saw no particular indication they're planning this) is to do multi-person ships as end-game raid content. I believe, if I am recalling correctly, that was the plan Perpetual had. That alleviates the day-to-day grind since you'd only get on those huge ships for specific reasons.
What exactly is your job description? I ask because it sounds to me like you are employed to promote the new games coming out and to diminish the expectations of potential customers.
It's really not your place to be telling members of this site that they shouldn't be asking for features they want in these games.
MMOs are a service industry and you are spending a lot of energy telling us to be happy with minimal service. Leave that to employees of the compnies in question. As an employee of this site, you are supposed to be representing us. Please correct me if I am wrong on that point.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Eh, from what I understand, he starts representing us and he'll no longer get interviews, sneak peaks, previews, etc. Lots of game companies do that sort of thing now.
Indeed, but the gaming sites have to realize that they are very cheap advertising for the game companies. It's not a completely one-sided relationship.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Indeed, but the gaming sites have to realize that they are very cheap advertising for the game companies. It's not a completely one-sided relationship.
They need to form some kind of union honestly.* Otherwise a shill will always be willing to say nothing bad about products to get early treatment. With a union gaming sites can have some symbol of authority so gamers know which ones can be trusted. Until then you kinda have to sift through everything that gets said very carefully and important details will almost always be left out.
*One of my instant-brainstorms.**
**I am practicing calling out my attacks.
Indeed, but the gaming sites have to realize that they are very cheap advertising for the game companies. It's not a completely one-sided relationship.
They need to form some kind of union honestly.* Otherwise a shill will always be willing to say nothing bad about products to get early treatment. With a union gaming sites can have some symbol of authority so gamers know which ones can be trusted. Until then you kinda have to sift through everything that gets said very carefully and important details will almost always be left out.
*One of my instant-brainstorms.**
**I am practicing calling out my attacks.
It's funny how movie reviewers can say whatever they want about a film and damn the movie companies if they don't like it. Game websites (this one included) are bought and paid for by the gaming companies.
Due to their income streams and 'exclusive content', I'm sure. That, and the fact that they are gaming nerds, not real journalists.
If the gaming sites refused to take gaming industry ads (not to mention - PERKS), then they would be freer to be objective.
Players go to gaming sites for the content - much of which is provided at the whim of the game companies.
If a site focused on hard information and debate - rather than screenshots and powder puff 'interviews', then gamers could go there. I think it will happen some day, as the industry is too big to be locked down by shills and fanboys.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
What exactly is your job description? I ask because it sounds to me like you are employed to promote the new games coming out and to diminish the expectations of potential customers.
It's really not your place to be telling members of this site that they shouldn't be asking for features they want in these games.
MMOs are a service industry and you are spending a lot of energy telling us to be happy with minimal service. Leave that to employees of the compnies in question. As an employee of this site, you are supposed to be representing us. Please correct me if I am wrong on that point.
Well, to me, my job is not to represent you or them. It's to report back what I see and let you decide for yourself.
The article presents the facts of what they showed with some limited informed opinion.
Now, in this thread, clearly I branched beyond what I'd write in an average article. I'm just participating in the ongoing debate like the rest of you.
I'm not saying their approach is perfect or even necessarily right. I'm saying I had some fun with it when I tried it and I do not personally believe that the "player crew" group has realistic expectations. That's my opinion.
That said, I've already written it down as something to specifically ask about in the future. I've given why I think they didn't do it, but that hardly matters. In the future, we'll ask them.
To those who think we write nice things to get future articles... well I doubt there is anything I can say to convince you otherwise, but honestly, this site over the last few weeks has published several very critical editorials about Cryptic, some from senior staff. Jon's came out the very day I went to the studio. There is honestly no blacklist I've ever seen and I've never even considered whether or not a company will talk to us in the future when writing about a game.
The only softening you see in articles are allowance for "this is clearly not finished" type things. I don't write about bugs from very early previews, for example, because people will harp on it and it's totally unfair to a game that is months away from launch.
Due to their income streams and 'exclusive content', I'm sure. That, and the fact that they are gaming nerds, not real journalists.
If the gaming sites refused to take gaming industry ads (not to mention - PERKS), then they would be freer to be objective.
Players go to gaming sites for the content - much of which is provided at the whim of the game companies.
If a site focused on hard information and debate - rather than screenshots and powder puff 'interviews', then gamers could go there. I think it will happen some day, as the industry is too big to be locked down by shills and fanboys.
See this argument is downright hilarious.
We post only game ads by fan REQUEST. We could easily sell beer and car ads on this site, but Craig has always had a policy to stick to products that people who visit the site actually want. So, basically, to some people we're sellouts if we have game ads, and money grubbers if we don't.
For the record, not that it matters, this particular trip to Cryptic was 100% paid for by MMORPG.com. Cryptic gave me a Coke and a slice of pizza, as I recall, if you want full disclosure. We paid for the flight, rental car, hotels, etc.
However, that's a luxury we have because we're a large site. If video game companies didn't fly people to events, you'd only ever read an article from Gamespot, Gamespy, IGN and.. on the MMO side... us.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Something Else of corse is that u only get to see and hear what they want u to. They don't say come in and have the run of the place. Which of corse Sucks Because the Pre- Sell Statement from gamepro was That Aion was a non grind, PvE ,PvP Friendly Game. WHICH OF CORSE IS TRUE TILL LV 22. Then BAM changes to a Grind Fest and a watch your back or get ganked in yor PvE area.The Lack of Gatherin Statement's should have let us in on the awful grind for 1 pt. But was kinda passes -over. Now I can't read your Mind Dana or Gamepro's ppl's mind to know if u had more or they bluffed u so u only have a look at so much. I beleive that it is the dev's that try to keep there sercert's because if something does Fail in game at least they got the openin week sale's to help lick the wounds.I think this game will be Great for a time and then we will have to wait for update's and of corse The Expention's to give us the true fill we want. The thing they got to understand is if u Fail at lauch it is Hard to get ppl back ask SWG,WarHammer,AoC while i could go on. Aion will be another they have some great stuff for the future of Aion look's like a total another game. They was smart to throw it out after just losing 10% of there base Sub's to try and hold on a little longer till they can get it out. U will always have your QQ for any MMO when dealing with 100k+ ppl hopefully a mill+ ppl.ANYWHO We all should just be happy to have bridge's in. But truely if they didn't put it in this would have been a major Fail on there part and a lose they would have ot recovered from. When u got thousand of ppl saing hey we want bridge's and u kow thousand more just to nice to say hey come on u got think man what was we thinking not havin that.
I'll give you that. In some respects it's hard to call game journalism that because of a few core points:
-The subject matter, bluntly, isn't important enough for people to risk anything to tell the truth. If this were politics, people would leak things like subscriber numbers and such, but who really is going to do that in a video game company?
-Often we see what they want us to see until the very end.
That all said, Cryptic - to their credit - gave me the usual presentation/interviews, but they also basically just sat me at terminal and told me to go to town. I think I probably logged two hours without supervision or instructions on what I should be doing or what to avoid. I think in this case, mostly the first article that is, I got a pretty unvarnished view of the game as it stands to date.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
i think the idea is trying to find a decent balance in a game. there will always be people the want more details/deeper lore/ more things to do/ complex the game. on the other hand some people are less "hard core" and just want to take a ship into space and blow things up.
as i said, the omega point will be to find the range that both type of people with be happy with.
as for that, yeah you cant play scotty 24/7 (ok yes you can by like dana wrote developing that I.P would take lots of time$cash),
again on the other hand, making some missions as u play one of the crew lets say the doc, and your job is on the mission to heal the team/ watch the back.( im talking about a surface mission). how about there is some sort of strange disease going on the ship, u need to travel to a distant plant in order to find a cure. simple isnt it? and yet fun and cool.
lets say worf for a mission, the borg just breached the main hull, you go and stop them while the npc cpt. carry on with the battle.
that would not be that hard to create.
the possibilities are endless,
so gimme a choice, i understand that most game play will be as a cpt. but i would like once in a while the option the play something different.
again choices.
oh on the 3 worf thingy. gw solved that with heroes,when 3 of the same npc are in one instance 1 remain as the real one, the 2 others get a lil make over and boom, 2 brand new klingon officers appears. again all im saying it can be dealt with.
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I think a captain, a weapons office and an engineering officer is a reasonable start to the PC crew.
Captain flies, Weapons shoots, Engineering controls shields fixes ship if they can. Easy pie.
Three man groups, not too hard to find two others to fly with I think. The group leader could assign roles, every person would have xp in each of the three disciplines to give them some extra relevant skills. If someone wants to play captain all the time and does they will probably be asked to pilot ships due to their experience. You could probably create similar exploration teams like this, but I fear all we will be getting is WOW in space.
Exactly.
I've seen fan pages devoted to Dr. Julian Bashir. I'm willing to bet that the fan who made that page would prefer to be like her hero rather than a captain. Why are all these people assuming that everone just loves the captains and wants to be one of them? What about all thev fans of Scotty or Data or Spock? They're being left out in the cold because people like Cryptic are making brash assumptions that really have no basis in reality. And that does not bode well for this game...
Okay, you got a valid point. HOWEVER, how would you make a GAME that allows you to do this? You have to remember marketing speak. "Everyone will want to play like this" really means "we can only cater to those who want to play like this".
Take Spock. An Iconic character if there ever was any and I think in a way far more popular then Kirk as a story character but how do you play him?
A novelist can make a dark brooding character because he can be the narator and TELL us the character is dark and brooding. But a game maker trying to make a playable character who is dark and brooding just ends up with a silent character. There is a reason most Bioware RPG's have a silent hero, so you can create their voice in your own mind, to your own liking. Bones, in the better Star Trek books is a troubled character, always torn between serving as a soldier and a healer at the same time. But how do you make the player feel such a struggle?
For that matter, how do you turn into gameplay the science parts that Spock and McCoy pull off? We never actually see them do it, spock just stares down this tube and pronounces something profound and that is it. Where is the gameplay?
There is a reason most games are shooters. Because running up to people and pressing a button to bandage them is not nearly as challenging.
SWG was the biggest game that tried to allow you to play different roles, dancer, image designer (make-up artist), cook, bio-engineer. It was great, for those who likes it, but the subscription figures told us that simply killing stuff (WoW) was way more popular.
And there is a problem with the unique roles approach. Already with the simple trinity of tank/dps/healer you see many complain that they hate grouping because there are never enough healers around.
In SWG on my server there was ONE image designer around. Wanted to change your appearance in the game? Then you had to wait for that person to log on as NOBODY else had the skills.
I myself was a scout (harvest meat) and I liked the aspect of finding what place and critter was dropping intresting resources (it changed over time). But I was one a handful and as such, we sold our materials to cooks we liked and they gave us a portion of their produce and sold the rest for a fortune. if you went into the game with little social skills and wanting pure combat, then you were entirely dependant on what little people were prepared to sell to strangers. It worked, to an extent but only for the social players.
In STO, would you want to have your enterprise with 500+ people onboard have to wait because nobody wants to play McCoy or the only one is on an event with his guild? It is the reason why SWTOR is going for pure combat roles where you have side-kicks to fill the support role you need most. To get rid of "5/6 for the dogs balls, need healer PLEASE! Been waiting for an hour, you can have all the goodies and we pay you a gold piece each.PLEASE!"
Cryptic has produced nothing so far but "simple" mmorpgs that focus on getting out there and beating stuff up with the minimum of group interaction needed. Don't look to them to create a Star Trek Universe Simulator.
You make good points. I agree, the kind of game we Trek "purists" want would be difficult, if not impossible. Which is exactly why I say some IPs do not make good games. I think Trek is one of those.
Sure, they can create a generic scifi shoot 'em up and slap Trek colors on it and call it Star Trek. In that vein, simply take an existing MMO engine, slap IP skins on it and before you know it, there's an MMO for anyone's favorite show. By the end of next year, there can be MMOs claiming to be Firefly, Farscape, Twilight, Heroes, Terminator and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. And all play exactly the same.
Originally, when STO was first being created, it was slated to be the Trekker's dream come true: fully inhabitable starships (see every room, sit at every console, use every panel to control the tiniest functions of your ship), freely explore the galaxy (boldly go where you want, when you want, whether it is to orbit or beam down) and develop your starship (from a small one-person craft al the way to an enormous starship) as you move up the ranks. This was to be the STO everyone clamored for, and it was being brought to us by Perpetual. Then, after a long silence, the website came alive with new information from the devs. Profuse with apology, the dev's said they just couldn't figure out how to make that happen. Instead, we'd BE the starship (no rooms, no sitting in chairs -heck, no chairs at all!) and we'd pew pew with phasers at other ships in space. There'd be some form of planet-side combat too (and at this point, no one had really asked for heavy combat) and you'd find yourself back in the usual tank-dps-healer teams using phasers instead of spells -esentially WoW in Star Trek uniforms. Well, the fans went berserk and the forums were aflame with hate. On one very memorable day, a fan posted a poll which basically asked if you'd prefer the game simply never came out if this was how it had to be. Overwhelmingly, over 90% of the forum posters voted that they'd rather it never got released. There was some hatred returned by the devs, flaming development boards elsewhere that the fans should never be listened to and to just make the trinity games we're used to anyway because it just works (cuz ya know, it works for WoW). In the end, Perpetual went out of business and the fans were sad to see there wouldn't be an STO but were nonetheless relieved it wouldn't come out as this dreary, combat-heavy WoW knock-off. Then, there was a glimmer of hope. It was annoucned that Cryptic had picked up the title and it was back into production! The fans again swarmed the boards, telling tales of the misery during the last development, offering advice (to the tinest detail) as to what would be the dream game and what to avoid so as not to ever see that tell-tale poll again. After a long development period, Cryptic began issuing interviews and game info and..much to our surprise, they totally ignored the fans and made the very same WoW knock-off nobody wanted. You are the ship (a la Star Trek Armada --yawn) and beam down to fight in teams against Klingons et al. The graphics look horrendously poor and the thought put into the gaming system is, frankly, dreadful. They even went so far as to remove any ability to freely explore the galaxy. Everything is a quest chain in a series of "episodes" that they have admitted do not hinge upon one another. In other words, do what you like in any given mission --it will not affect the final "episode" of that "season." Your actions have no affect on anything. So, with overwhelming fan requests for being inside their ships' rooms, working the controls etc, freely exploring the galaxy and building their starships from small one man craft to mighty starships --Cryptic gives us the "fun" of being a small ship in a convoluted version of, "Asteroids," unable to freely explore and yet not trading that for any impact on the storylines into which they're funneled.
While there is conflict and often combat in any given episode of Star Trek, the main focus of the series' has always been, "to seek out new life and new civilizations," finding a peaceful solution, and generally exploring the galaxy -and the human condition. Instead, we are given "war has come to the Federation." ...yawn. With a glut of shoot-em-ups in the market, one more (albeit Star Trek flavored) just isn't breaking any new ground. There was a tremendous opportunity here to create a thriving galaxy, populated starships and a compelling universe. Instead -- its Asteroids meets Armada meets Half-Life meets WoW. And given the dreadful quality of the graphics and gameplay displayed in their trailers it isn't even a good version of those classic games.
Note to developers of future video games: when a fan base is packaged neatly along with the property you obtain and they tell you point for point what would make the perfect game -don't utterly ignore them and make the dead opposite. You're just wasting your time, money and a golden opportunity.
Now, don't think everyone feels this way. There are actually plenty of posters on the STO forums that squeal with delight over any piece of dreary footage the devs post. I'm certain there will be a player base for this game. But in reality, it will very likely be a few thousand players (as opposed to, for example, WoW's multi-million subscribers) and the game will fall eventually much like Earth and Beyond when the devs simply refused to make the game the 'dynamic and changing universe' they initially promised, or Uru when low playership and fly-in-amber lag made the game unplayable. If it persists at all, it will probably end up like Star Wars Galaxies, a game that had its code chopped and gutted to try, weakly, to resemble the game it should've been instead of what it was at launch. There's already a hint of that as Cryptic announces 'player bridges' Trying to stem the tide of disgust over the refusal to implement bridge-play, they've added a horribly modeled bridge to the ships that you can use as a 'social room.' Yep, it doesn't control anything but you can invite other "captain's" over to walk around the simplistic room NOT using consoles to do anything and RP that the doors don't open because the ship's lost power or something... In the end, its a weak attempt to mollify a dissatisfied fan-base that has years to wait, it seems, to finally get the Star Trek experience in an MMO. Oh well, there's always Star Wars the Old Republic. After all, Bioware listens to their fans.
Live long and prosper, and don't waste your money on STO.
LOL I hadn't thought about that but, yeah, you're right.
Very sad.
Late to this party, but I'd like to throw this in:
Naturally, the bridge serves as a control hub for the ship. UI elements from the general game will be accessible from within the bridge at logical locations. However, at least to begin, they have no plans to let people fight or actually pilot their ship from the inside. It’s far more akin to player housing than a different way to play the game.
Umm, I disagree. I think that aside from fighting, it makes perfect sense for the captain to pilot the ship, use communications, manage their bridge officers, etc. from the bridge.
Since this is a future timeline, the external camera view ("Tactical" view?) could be used in combat without breaking either canon or immersion.