Just give the ST licence to Bioware and call it a day.
Bingo.
If you think about it, it isn't like they could add these things to the current engine even if they had unlimited cash and time. It would be like trying to build a mansion on the foundation of a hovel. Cryptic would have to start fresh from the ground up, or let Turbine or Bioware do it right.
Now that it is generally accepted that what cryptic has offered is gargbage, can those that argued, quite irrationally, against interiors and the option of multiplayer crews, and class options beyond military, admit that the game might have had a lot more depth and playability had those options been included.
Yeah, you wouldn't have had to explore the interior of your ship, and yes you could have gone with an all npc player crew, and yes you could have stuck to an all military career if that's what you wanted, but don't you think the game might have had so much more depth, keeping so many more players around if they had been included?
Wow has a raid in Ulduar that allows passengers. You get a different UI depending on if driver or passenger to do different abilities/tasks. It could be done for a mission or two at each level requiring this type of grouping. End game content could have included this as well.
Interiors do not have to be anything special but just a few missions here and there that involves interacting with the crew. The crew not on the bridge could have simple interactions. Whenever a new ship is acquired they could explain things about them. Nothing overly difficult imo.
At last it seems like simple ideas to implement are out of Cryptic's grasp until they prove otherwise. All of this has been suggested at one time or another.
Ditto for WG battles. Something like that potentially can work in a ST MMO. On those machines in WOW, there are essentially two roles .. you either drive the vehicle or shoot. That is a reasonable division of labor and certainly a game can add skills for both of those activities. It would be a little like the dps & the tank division of labor in a dungeon except the two players are in the same ship.
It is also conceivable to add a third player to manage shield and "healing". I don't think it will work very well beyond 3 players though .. plus you may need voice chat to make it good.
You also need to be able to jump in and out of roles quickly just because people can log in and leave game at any time.
It would definitely give the feel of commanding one of the stations and 3 people would cover all the classes. WOW is using an old engine and they make it convincing enough. Maybe something like this will be in S3 or S4 sometime next year.
Season 2 does seem to be shaping up. I plan to check it out if they have another free weekend, which they should I'm thinking. There just wasn't enough to bother logging in on this last one.
But Blizzard is 100x the developers Cryptic is. I am sure they have refine and refine, play-test and play-test vehicle combat to make it fun. It is really not in the engine (although you have to admire the wow engine to be so solid & responsive) but in the design.
I don't know if Cryptic can pull it off, and whether the current STO engine can support it, but at least I believe there *is* a design that can make it work. You may also need somethign like WOW's dungeon finder tool to make sure the logistics of finding a group does not kill the feature.
i don't see how ship interiors and player crews showing up in a patch tomorrow will make this a good game, let alone a good Star Trek game.
For one, not having those things isn't what makes this game unsubworthy. Particularly since the ship combat was the best part of the game. Assuming player crews could be done in a way that DOES make it better, it would take all of two months rather than 3 weeks to complete the content, due to spending 60-ish% of the time having to find players to fill your ship.
Agreed. I played the open beta for STO a bit and i really don't need ship interior and player crew that much. Nice to have, but not crucial.
However, the game is just meh .. even the space ship combat which many likes .. seems meh to me and ground combat is just awful.
I seriously doubt the crappy STO engine can even handel the stuff I listed, but maybe the n ext Star Trek MMO developer is watching and taking notes. Maybe they'll take these ideas and create a really good sci-fi MMO out of them.
Any good SF game with the right features (player crews, exploration, variety in missions, non-combat content) would do well with Trek fans. Not AS WELL as a Trek MMORPG would, but well enough.
So - get to it, devs. Make the game we are waiting for!
Yeah ... so you and four others can stand around on the same ship with nothing to do at RA5?
Or maybe you can stroll around your ship for 138th time this week enjoying the immersion of ... walking around your ship for the 138th time.
Had Atari & Cryptic agreed to a normal MMO dev cycle of 3+ years, then interiors and possibly even player crews, would have been fully fleshed out and included at release. ALONG with a ton more content that currently is severely lacking.
But, they were out to prove you could go from acquisition of an IP license to on store shelves in 18mo or less and they did just that. And everyone who bought into that fantasy is now left with the burning brown paper bag of dog poo on their front porch after Cryptic rang their doorbell and demanded their $50 (+$15/mo) or more if you were a LT subscriber.
Cryptic cobbled together a decent space game with a lackluster ground game but unfortunately didn't give their writers and content designers enough time to really provide depth to the game. From the Fed side there is far too much Shoot first and don't even bother asking questions than there is any other type of gameplay.
Exploration, diplomacy, crafting all severely lacking along with story driven content being in short demand. And thankfully you have at least some PvE content if you play Fed. Klingons got shafted on that too at launch.
But yeah, ship interiors and player crews would have made everyone complaining about this game step back and say, "Whoah! It's awesome!"
I think not.
But glittering prizes and endless compromises Shatter the illusion of integrity
I really feel they designed this game completely backwards in that respect. I always envision a STO game would start off as you a citizen of your world, you would join whatever groups you want (star fleet, traders whatever) then find clans to eventully get an assignement on a ship run by a clan or something of that nature.
To start the game flying around blowing things up in a one manned star cruiser is just silly.
I really wish this game was designed completely different, not to mention the general art direction of the worlds and enviroment makes it look like its made for kids.
Besides, is Star Trek really a show about going around blowing things up? I mean seriously.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
I did purchase and was a subscriber... for 29 days then unsub'd.
Out of all the MMOs I have ever played and tried out, STO was one of them I anticipated the most and is also the one I was most disappointed with. I was ready for it to be a console MMO... I am just surprised how much it really was one. STO did start to get more complex and fun to play as you gained rank, but the same missions over and over..
I did support multiplayer crews and ship interiors. I no longer do. STO's engine will never be able to handle it imho, and Cryptic Brass never had any intentions of implementing such features. Cryptic Brass never had any intentions of ever creating a real MMO with quality either as far as I can tell. I hope they never create another online game or MMO again, as they either don't care, don't know how, or both.
I feel bad for the Lifers as I almost became one myself. I made a big enough mistake just buying the game, forget about subing for Life. I hope everything keeps going and Cryptic actually attempts to get new content into STO and make it better. But I am not going to lie to anyone. I honestly believe that Dr. McCoy said it best. It doesn't need to be said again. As a lifelong Star Trek fan, it hurts too much.
I am the Player that wonders... "What the %#*& just happened?!" ............... "I Believe... There should be NO financial connection or portals between the Real World and the Virtual in MMOs. " __Ever Present Cockroach of the MMO Verses__ ...scurrying to and fro... .munching on bits of garbage... always under foot...
Am I the only one that enjoyed ground combat more than space? Space combat was a boring dull, my 2year old could push one button and I could control the ship. That is how intuitive it actually is. Son, press this repeatly and things will blow up. Otay daddy! (he has a hard time with the C and K sounds)
Ground at least had to get tactical. Like move behind targets switch weapons, switch targets to get that expolit shot of. and the ground PVP was superior in everyway, to bad few played in in the mid 20's.
Does the game need interiors and player crews? Yes. Without a doubt. Honestly put subs on hold while they spend half a year or more to implement something that may save the game. The current trash heap is so bad I can't even log in anymore. This game's appeal is pretty bad to me and most everyone I knew playing it for a month. We all jumped on and jumped right off me staying the longest. When a 15year old game such as Diablo(original) can hold my attention for a period of multiple hours and I log in this game and see achievements give me half a level of exp and say, "well that is my exp for the week" and log off, you know this game needs an overhaul.
PULL a NGE it can not be any worse than the current state.
I think the some of the more key fundamental problems are the ones people arent necessarily seeing here.
Lets attempt to sum it up, or atleast start somewhere solid instead of propositionary.
Would bridges and all that be nice? Sure why not, but there are several other things that game is lacks and not just by own opinion here, this is a general synopsis of some of the things the community have said, even the standing community who are still subscribed. Basicly some of the top things I saw there mind you.
To start lets look at all of the people who are hollaring about:
"This isnt a group friendly game"
"It doesnt feel like an mmorpg"
"Sector space is horrible"
"Im at cap and have nothing to do!"
"Ground play needs improvements!"
"The crafting system sux, I have no reason to craft!"
"Server stability sux!"
"This isnt star trek!"
Now lets think about why.
"This isnt a group friendly game"
This really isnt totally true in the way that the game does allow for group play. In several areas as a matter of fact, through out the game you can group up with someone if you choose. The problem was that actually getting a group together and in the same location took some planning time and people meant moreso than in other mmorpgs. Let's not forget the broken/ missing mechanics needed to do that at launch. You couldnt just meet up with friends and go drop a level. It wasnt that easy. On top of that, people wanted to be able to solo through the whole game. Combine those two things together and a third in an npc bo crew and yes, you have what people are calling sto- a single player rpg with multiplayer functionality.
"It doesnt feel like an mmorpg"
See the first point above, one of the most important aspects of any mmorpg are the community. Now when you have a community who wanted to take missions from the ship and never go to a starbase unless they absolutely had to, there you go. Can anyone here mention how fundamentally important a quest hub is in an mmo? Regardless of cannon, no seriously anyone? How many quest hubs are there in sto? 2? Quest hubs are vital to community growth, this is where you meet up, team, guild up, trade, craft, and again see above, socialize. This is a major underlying mechanic that was thrown away at its most basic foundation and is now being called for repeatedly in the game. I've heard arguements that sector space is the hub. Ok, great, so whats wrong with sector space?
"Sector space is horrible!"
Aside from everyone initially believing that sector space was to be this very big broad representative open area of space where you could explore, make first contact and go where noone could go before.. It really doesn't work as a hub. That is a flaw in overall design. You cannot have space as your major hub in the game if players are asking for a very rich graphical representation of the void that we all know; not to mention warp and impulse travel glorified to accomdate space travel which is what you really want... isn't it?
If that be the case, think more in terms of eve.. otherwise It cant happen for trek really can it? Well It did and this is the result. A table top board game looking mess of space that noone really enjoys. What you can have with that design is several space stations and planets in that sector that should be the quest hubs and the ground settings for gameplay such as first contact or your major progression from 1- to whatever. but is that the case? I guess its pointless to mention the grids and blue lines all over space that totally take away from immersion, yes? That has to go, or atleast work much different than how it currently does.
"Im at cap and nothing to to do!"
See above, you'd have something to do if planets in sector space were actually more visitable permanents with activities to do on them as a pose to having a mission generator much like coh's paper missions doing the work for the developers. People wonder how Cryptic made this game in 18 months, and thats likely your main reason there. They didnt have to create more than one or two hubs (again that you didnt have to visit) nor one major iconic city on any iconic planet containing one quest anywhere. See Risa, Bajor, Vulcan, Earth, or Andoria? Those could have been 5 major quest and social hubs that now sit there virtually empty if they are there at all. Should I mention Starfleet academy? I guess the game speaks for itself in that regard. So does your gameplay and your reason for cancelling.
Lets go ahead and forget for a second that progression was given to you by the instance, and wait, nooo we cant. You didnt kill 10k klingons to level up in the conventional way, you killed 5 per instance and scanned something. The end result was a total mission xp reward that accumulated way to fast in the long run. Not to mention, you didnt get any sense of accompliment for killing an enemy ship or npc mob. Why? The lootdrops were normally a shield or engine booster that were really useless in the overall picture, but I digress on loot per kill for a moment; because believe it or not, seeing that 78 xp after you kill a mob or group of mobs actually does have a mental effect on the player, not always the best but not always the worst. It helps the player measure his activity and decide what he is going to do next, log out for the night, or kill a few more for instance, point being, each mob has a reward for the player, and in sto that is not so much the case.
"Ground play needs improvements!"
Hey, you know, if there were more ground play areas and maps available in the way of dungeons on planets and other ships, more abilities towards the "captain" than towards the bo... you might actually have a great ground game that actually compliments the whole group mechanic. However, the character game is split into this whole mess of minor buff skill and bo abilities between yourself and 6-7 npcs within the trinity mechanic that just confuses the hell out of everyone; so who bothers? It didnt have to be all that in terms of point allocation, not exactly no. They could have given the abilities to the player directly and simply allowed for experience, bonuses and stats for the bos over time. Afterall the focus is on the "captain" not the crew, atleast in an mmo.
But hey, people wanted a robust bridge officer system which I might add, totally replaces the need for other players in your mmo. That's kind of silly for an mmo I think, as cool as it can be and as nice as it is to have... they should be made way less mandatory and more focused on having a player in that spot over a dead set of pixels that grant you abilities you should have on your character in the first place, directly.
"The crafting system sux! I have no reason to craft!"
This right here has to be a pet peeve for anyone interested in game economies. When the whole game is 100% lootbased, ie everything you obtain in the game is collected in whole by killing something or completling a mission, your right, there is no reason to craft. By the time you add a traditional crafting system post launch, your economy is already saturated with crap loot drops that are always comparible to any crafted items you allow for. Thus? Your players are royally screwed and again have no reason to craft, less you totally introduce robust crafting and wipe the loot table. How often do you egt away with that? Lets not forget though, that people kept claiming that economy in sto wasnt canon, when in fact it had a very diverse and robust economy. Starfleet itself was the only major faction in the trek universe that didnt solely rely on the credit or latinum and uninformed canon freaks ruined that experience. Nevermind that this is an mmo to top it off.
"Server stability, I keep getting booted!"
Probably one of the biggest single handed killers for this game was that they could not hold the playerbase in the game long enough to enjoy, whatever they could enjoy I should say, for several months. No server stability, game over. Nuff said. Server stability went up of course, once many cancelled and left the game and the developers apparenly got new servers.
"This isnt Star Trek!"
Yea well, what can you do? You write a faction based story line that puts player against each other and fill your maps full of combat scenarios because you think combat sells, how much room do you have for actual trek? To be honest I think if you wanted a war youd simply have made this game during the dominion war era and not plotted it 30-40 sum odd years down the line where you had to make crap up as you went. Now you have two huge empty factions at war and very little if any Trek content.
In conclusion,
When I come to this forum and I see a very concerned gentleman or group of gamers asking for bridges of all things at this point and I can totally understand his and others need for that very iconic sort of gameplay. It does however, lead me to believe that some people are missing the overall picture here.
Before you craft any bridge, any c-store item, any ship skin to sell, you make sure your mmo is complete and works well for the community and when it doesn't, you dont just launch it, you wait and you fix itor you dont launch the game at all. You do not sell one sub, or announce any launch date if your people in beta are hollaring about these most fundamental issues that should have been adressed and focused on pre launch. But I digress, after the several paragraphs that people feel are the core issues, sure bridges and bridge gameplay would be great, but I think before you do that you should fix everything else. I guess as the gentleman above said, just nge the damn thing, it cant get any worse.
Comments
Heh, a Star Trek NGE in the future... _doh_
But Blizzard is 100x the developers Cryptic is. I am sure they have refine and refine, play-test and play-test vehicle combat to make it fun. It is really not in the engine (although you have to admire the wow engine to be so solid & responsive) but in the design.
I don't know if Cryptic can pull it off, and whether the current STO engine can support it, but at least I believe there *is* a design that can make it work. You may also need somethign like WOW's dungeon finder tool to make sure the logistics of finding a group does not kill the feature.
Agreed. I played the open beta for STO a bit and i really don't need ship interior and player crew that much. Nice to have, but not crucial.
However, the game is just meh .. even the space ship combat which many likes .. seems meh to me and ground combat is just awful.
Someone already did:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/227/StarQuest-Online.html
Full ship interiors, player crews, NPC crews, civiliian and military career paths, etc. etc.
Yeah ... so you and four others can stand around on the same ship with nothing to do at RA5?
Or maybe you can stroll around your ship for 138th time this week enjoying the immersion of ... walking around your ship for the 138th time.
Had Atari & Cryptic agreed to a normal MMO dev cycle of 3+ years, then interiors and possibly even player crews, would have been fully fleshed out and included at release. ALONG with a ton more content that currently is severely lacking.
But, they were out to prove you could go from acquisition of an IP license to on store shelves in 18mo or less and they did just that. And everyone who bought into that fantasy is now left with the burning brown paper bag of dog poo on their front porch after Cryptic rang their doorbell and demanded their $50 (+$15/mo) or more if you were a LT subscriber.
Cryptic cobbled together a decent space game with a lackluster ground game but unfortunately didn't give their writers and content designers enough time to really provide depth to the game. From the Fed side there is far too much Shoot first and don't even bother asking questions than there is any other type of gameplay.
Exploration, diplomacy, crafting all severely lacking along with story driven content being in short demand. And thankfully you have at least some PvE content if you play Fed. Klingons got shafted on that too at launch.
But yeah, ship interiors and player crews would have made everyone complaining about this game step back and say, "Whoah! It's awesome!"
I think not.
But glittering prizes and endless compromises
Shatter the illusion of integrity
I really feel they designed this game completely backwards in that respect. I always envision a STO game would start off as you a citizen of your world, you would join whatever groups you want (star fleet, traders whatever) then find clans to eventully get an assignement on a ship run by a clan or something of that nature.
To start the game flying around blowing things up in a one manned star cruiser is just silly.
I really wish this game was designed completely different, not to mention the general art direction of the worlds and enviroment makes it look like its made for kids.
Besides, is Star Trek really a show about going around blowing things up? I mean seriously.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
I did purchase and was a subscriber... for 29 days then unsub'd.
Out of all the MMOs I have ever played and tried out, STO was one of them I anticipated the most and is also the one I was most disappointed with. I was ready for it to be a console MMO... I am just surprised how much it really was one. STO did start to get more complex and fun to play as you gained rank, but the same missions over and over..
I did support multiplayer crews and ship interiors. I no longer do. STO's engine will never be able to handle it imho, and Cryptic Brass never had any intentions of implementing such features. Cryptic Brass never had any intentions of ever creating a real MMO with quality either as far as I can tell. I hope they never create another online game or MMO again, as they either don't care, don't know how, or both.
I feel bad for the Lifers as I almost became one myself. I made a big enough mistake just buying the game, forget about subing for Life. I hope everything keeps going and Cryptic actually attempts to get new content into STO and make it better. But I am not going to lie to anyone. I honestly believe that Dr. McCoy said it best. It doesn't need to be said again. As a lifelong Star Trek fan, it hurts too much.
I am the Player that wonders... "What the %#*& just happened?!"
...............
"I Believe... There should be NO financial connection or portals between the Real World and the Virtual in MMOs. "
__Ever Present Cockroach of the MMO Verses__
...scurrying to and fro... .munching on bits of garbage... always under foot...
Am I the only one that enjoyed ground combat more than space? Space combat was a boring dull, my 2year old could push one button and I could control the ship. That is how intuitive it actually is. Son, press this repeatly and things will blow up. Otay daddy! (he has a hard time with the C and K sounds)
Ground at least had to get tactical. Like move behind targets switch weapons, switch targets to get that expolit shot of. and the ground PVP was superior in everyway, to bad few played in in the mid 20's.
Does the game need interiors and player crews? Yes. Without a doubt. Honestly put subs on hold while they spend half a year or more to implement something that may save the game. The current trash heap is so bad I can't even log in anymore. This game's appeal is pretty bad to me and most everyone I knew playing it for a month. We all jumped on and jumped right off me staying the longest. When a 15year old game such as Diablo(original) can hold my attention for a period of multiple hours and I log in this game and see achievements give me half a level of exp and say, "well that is my exp for the week" and log off, you know this game needs an overhaul.
PULL a NGE it can not be any worse than the current state.
I think the some of the more key fundamental problems are the ones people arent necessarily seeing here.
Lets attempt to sum it up, or atleast start somewhere solid instead of propositionary.
Would bridges and all that be nice? Sure why not, but there are several other things that game is lacks and not just by own opinion here, this is a general synopsis of some of the things the community have said, even the standing community who are still subscribed. Basicly some of the top things I saw there mind you.
To start lets look at all of the people who are hollaring about:
"This isnt a group friendly game"
"It doesnt feel like an mmorpg"
"Sector space is horrible"
"Im at cap and have nothing to do!"
"Ground play needs improvements!"
"The crafting system sux, I have no reason to craft!"
"Server stability sux!"
"This isnt star trek!"
Now lets think about why.
"This isnt a group friendly game"
This really isnt totally true in the way that the game does allow for group play. In several areas as a matter of fact, through out the game you can group up with someone if you choose. The problem was that actually getting a group together and in the same location took some planning time and people meant moreso than in other mmorpgs. Let's not forget the broken/ missing mechanics needed to do that at launch. You couldnt just meet up with friends and go drop a level. It wasnt that easy. On top of that, people wanted to be able to solo through the whole game. Combine those two things together and a third in an npc bo crew and yes, you have what people are calling sto- a single player rpg with multiplayer functionality.
"It doesnt feel like an mmorpg"
See the first point above, one of the most important aspects of any mmorpg are the community. Now when you have a community who wanted to take missions from the ship and never go to a starbase unless they absolutely had to, there you go. Can anyone here mention how fundamentally important a quest hub is in an mmo? Regardless of cannon, no seriously anyone? How many quest hubs are there in sto? 2? Quest hubs are vital to community growth, this is where you meet up, team, guild up, trade, craft, and again see above, socialize. This is a major underlying mechanic that was thrown away at its most basic foundation and is now being called for repeatedly in the game. I've heard arguements that sector space is the hub. Ok, great, so whats wrong with sector space?
"Sector space is horrible!"
Aside from everyone initially believing that sector space was to be this very big broad representative open area of space where you could explore, make first contact and go where noone could go before.. It really doesn't work as a hub. That is a flaw in overall design. You cannot have space as your major hub in the game if players are asking for a very rich graphical representation of the void that we all know; not to mention warp and impulse travel glorified to accomdate space travel which is what you really want... isn't it?
If that be the case, think more in terms of eve.. otherwise It cant happen for trek really can it? Well It did and this is the result. A table top board game looking mess of space that noone really enjoys. What you can have with that design is several space stations and planets in that sector that should be the quest hubs and the ground settings for gameplay such as first contact or your major progression from 1- to whatever. but is that the case? I guess its pointless to mention the grids and blue lines all over space that totally take away from immersion, yes? That has to go, or atleast work much different than how it currently does.
"Im at cap and nothing to to do!"
See above, you'd have something to do if planets in sector space were actually more visitable permanents with activities to do on them as a pose to having a mission generator much like coh's paper missions doing the work for the developers. People wonder how Cryptic made this game in 18 months, and thats likely your main reason there. They didnt have to create more than one or two hubs (again that you didnt have to visit) nor one major iconic city on any iconic planet containing one quest anywhere. See Risa, Bajor, Vulcan, Earth, or Andoria? Those could have been 5 major quest and social hubs that now sit there virtually empty if they are there at all. Should I mention Starfleet academy? I guess the game speaks for itself in that regard. So does your gameplay and your reason for cancelling.
Lets go ahead and forget for a second that progression was given to you by the instance, and wait, nooo we cant. You didnt kill 10k klingons to level up in the conventional way, you killed 5 per instance and scanned something. The end result was a total mission xp reward that accumulated way to fast in the long run. Not to mention, you didnt get any sense of accompliment for killing an enemy ship or npc mob. Why? The lootdrops were normally a shield or engine booster that were really useless in the overall picture, but I digress on loot per kill for a moment; because believe it or not, seeing that 78 xp after you kill a mob or group of mobs actually does have a mental effect on the player, not always the best but not always the worst. It helps the player measure his activity and decide what he is going to do next, log out for the night, or kill a few more for instance, point being, each mob has a reward for the player, and in sto that is not so much the case.
"Ground play needs improvements!"
Hey, you know, if there were more ground play areas and maps available in the way of dungeons on planets and other ships, more abilities towards the "captain" than towards the bo... you might actually have a great ground game that actually compliments the whole group mechanic. However, the character game is split into this whole mess of minor buff skill and bo abilities between yourself and 6-7 npcs within the trinity mechanic that just confuses the hell out of everyone; so who bothers? It didnt have to be all that in terms of point allocation, not exactly no. They could have given the abilities to the player directly and simply allowed for experience, bonuses and stats for the bos over time. Afterall the focus is on the "captain" not the crew, atleast in an mmo.
But hey, people wanted a robust bridge officer system which I might add, totally replaces the need for other players in your mmo. That's kind of silly for an mmo I think, as cool as it can be and as nice as it is to have... they should be made way less mandatory and more focused on having a player in that spot over a dead set of pixels that grant you abilities you should have on your character in the first place, directly.
"The crafting system sux! I have no reason to craft!"
This right here has to be a pet peeve for anyone interested in game economies. When the whole game is 100% lootbased, ie everything you obtain in the game is collected in whole by killing something or completling a mission, your right, there is no reason to craft. By the time you add a traditional crafting system post launch, your economy is already saturated with crap loot drops that are always comparible to any crafted items you allow for. Thus? Your players are royally screwed and again have no reason to craft, less you totally introduce robust crafting and wipe the loot table. How often do you egt away with that? Lets not forget though, that people kept claiming that economy in sto wasnt canon, when in fact it had a very diverse and robust economy. Starfleet itself was the only major faction in the trek universe that didnt solely rely on the credit or latinum and uninformed canon freaks ruined that experience. Nevermind that this is an mmo to top it off.
"Server stability, I keep getting booted!"
Probably one of the biggest single handed killers for this game was that they could not hold the playerbase in the game long enough to enjoy, whatever they could enjoy I should say, for several months. No server stability, game over. Nuff said. Server stability went up of course, once many cancelled and left the game and the developers apparenly got new servers.
"This isnt Star Trek!"
Yea well, what can you do? You write a faction based story line that puts player against each other and fill your maps full of combat scenarios because you think combat sells, how much room do you have for actual trek? To be honest I think if you wanted a war youd simply have made this game during the dominion war era and not plotted it 30-40 sum odd years down the line where you had to make crap up as you went. Now you have two huge empty factions at war and very little if any Trek content.
In conclusion,
When I come to this forum and I see a very concerned gentleman or group of gamers asking for bridges of all things at this point and I can totally understand his and others need for that very iconic sort of gameplay. It does however, lead me to believe that some people are missing the overall picture here.
Before you craft any bridge, any c-store item, any ship skin to sell, you make sure your mmo is complete and works well for the community and when it doesn't, you dont just launch it, you wait and you fix it or you dont launch the game at all. You do not sell one sub, or announce any launch date if your people in beta are hollaring about these most fundamental issues that should have been adressed and focused on pre launch. But I digress, after the several paragraphs that people feel are the core issues, sure bridges and bridge gameplay would be great, but I think before you do that you should fix everything else. I guess as the gentleman above said, just nge the damn thing, it cant get any worse.