Poll: If a New Star Trek MMO was announced as a Sandbox Bridge Simulator, would you play it?

sludgebeard

I want to see what the general consensus here thinks of a Bridge-Simulator Focused MMO for Star Trek.

For me this means about 75% of the games content is around a bridge crew and those players interaction, and the sandbox element is really focused on the space exploration, travel, research, and combat the exists through the teams joint action as they control the ship. 

Obviously teleportation to another ships bridge would be included at launch, but I think "Star Trek: Away Missions" would be a great tag for the first expansion, so lets leave that out Away Missions and Planet Walking from the initial launch and buying decision.

This is really just about a hyper focused Bridge Simulator and Space Sandbox style game in the Star Trek Universe.

 

So what do you think, is this something you would consider buying if the gameplay elements provided were crafted effectively?

sunandshadow

A sandbox away-team missions game makes way more sense than a bridge sim... There's not all that much interesting stuff to do just sitting on the bridge.  As an IP, Star Trek has never been about strategy or space battles, it's pretty much always been about adventures off the ship, while the ship is more of a home base.

iridescence

As long as it wasn't 100% focused on combat, yes. That's the main problem I have with the current Star Trek MMO. Star Trek is supposed to be focused on exploration, diplomacy and trade, not grinding mindless hordes of enemies, combat in a game like that should be like only boss type battles not a mundane occurrence.

Incidentally, OP, I backed a single player game on Kickstarter called The Mandate which seems right up this alley. It's a small studio so they can't get the rights to Star Trek IP but they have their own interesting lore and it's pretty much a bridge simulator RPG.

 

Boneserino

Could you elaborate more on the Bridge simulator / Sandbox  a bit more?

 

A simulator is usually designed to simulate one thing.   Are you talking about micromangaing a crew on a starship?   

 

Not sure how this works in an MMO setting.

Satsunoryu

I'd try that or any decent attempt at a real Star Trek MMORPG, in a heartbeat!  Cryptic is NOT the company that should be running that franchise.

Boneserino

Sorry read it again, and it sounds like you plan on having multiple players on a starship and functioning as a crew.   

 

I can't see how that would work.

Tamanous

Basically you mean Star Fleet Battles over top of a sandbox universe?

 

F#CK YA! Count me in!

 

I was a hardcore tournament Star Fleet Battles player back in the day. The ultimate strategy game. The very first pc adaptation before Star Trek adopted it as their official game was a direct translation of the rules. Later games dumbed it down to unplayable. An updated engine over a sandbox universe would be amazing. I simply do not think any developer that had the balls to do it would have enough money and expertise to pull it off.

Boneserino

Originally posted by Tamanous

Basically you mean Star Fleet Battles over top of a sandbox universe?

 

F#CK YA! Count me in!

 

I was a hardcore tournament Star Fleet Battles player back in the day. The ultimate strategy game.

So like EVE gameplay in a Star Trek skin.

 

Might appeal to the PvP crowd but probably not to hardcore Trekkers looking for a deeper experience  with exploration and diplomacy as prime components of the game.

nomotag

I'm not 100% what your trying to say, but I'll say yes anyway. :P There are actually kind of a few games based around that pull power to shields caption feeling. I know there is one game, Artemis, that literally has you and your friends each commanding a station on a starship bridge like one is on helm, one is on coms, ect. It looks really neat though the communication and group dependency might be too much for a mmo.

Tamanous

Originally posted by Boneserino

Originally posted by Tamanous

Basically you mean Star Fleet Battles over top of a sandbox universe?

 

F#CK YA! Count me in!

 

I was a hardcore tournament Star Fleet Battles player back in the day. The ultimate strategy game.

So like EVE gameplay in a Star Trek skin.

 

Might appeal to the PvP crowd but probably not to hardcore Trekkers looking for a deeper experience  with exploration and diplomacy as prime components of the game.

EVE is nothing like SFB. SFB was about emulating the Star Trek universe through scenarios from the vantage point of a Commander of a star ship or as an Admiral of a (small) fleet. There were later rules for large fleet combat and a pen on paper RPG game. Basically a sandbox version would include all of these concepts to some degree. You could play any style of game you wanted however and AI control following the same rules of engagement would allow pve and not just pvp. 

 

SFB is also infinitely more strategic than EVE is. It is a proven system and the best by a long shot for Star Trek style space battles. A Star Trek sandbox would be very different than EVE as well. It would be more like SWG where the players take part of a greater universe than what they could control, make or influence themselves. It would pretty much have to be a mix of pve and pvp but with greater player impact on how history progresses. It is not an easy game to learn however. It is vastly harder to master as well.

 

SFB rules would only be a very small part of it but it also provides fleet make up rules. Very few of the largest ships were ever made. There would be no "grinding" for the ultimate ship in game. Running a battleship was always far too costly to support and only a rare necessity of large wars. Personally I would like to see a game where making anything of dreadnought or larger could only take place during times of war where the player economy globally was impacted and strategic alliances was required between player organizations. Star Trek has always been about the "Captain" anyway and perhaps guild leaders would be Admirals, planet leaders and others with greater impact on political systems.

 

And now I am rambling.

Boneserino

Tamanous

Perhaps you have something there, with the idea of a strategy game built over a sandbox universe.   I have never heard that type of game proposed before.

 

Hard to wrap my head around that this early in the morning.

Torgrim

I would love to play a true sandbox StarTrek game.

You start on a planet as a civilian, Ferengi,Romulan,Human, Trill or whatever, and you have the StarTrek world to live in.

You want to be an explorer, fine you can do that, you want to be a trader, fine you can do that, wanna be a miner and a industrial, sure why not, you wanna build your own mine, sure why not, you wanna join Starfleet, go right ahead, you get special missions if you do that, go pirate sure why not.

Yes this sounds alittle like EVE but the point is, I want that freedom in a StarTrek game

The StarTrek IP are so rich in lore and history, why not let let us choose our path how we want to live in that universe

The posibilities are endless.

Cephus404

Originally posted by Tamanous

Basically you mean Star Fleet Battles over top of a sandbox universe?

 

F#CK YA! Count me in!

 

I was a hardcore tournament Star Fleet Battles player back in the day. The ultimate strategy game. The very first pc adaptation before Star Trek adopted it as their official game was a direct translation of the rules. Later games dumbed it down to unplayable. An updated engine over a sandbox universe would be amazing. I simply do not think any developer that had the balls to do it would have enough money and expertise to pull it off.

I'm a huge fan of SFB, I own every single expansion, every single Captain's Log, everything ADB ever made for the game, but I can't see that working as an MMO.  It's a ship combat simulation.  It's a great ship combat simulation, don't get me wrong, but that's not what an MMO is.

AlBQuirky

My first reaction was "Sandbox? Great... PvP auto-included." In that case, no I would not play it.

But then I started thinking about the Bridge simulator aspect. Having a Captain, Navigator, Helmsman, Science Officer, Communications and Weapons Officers on the bridge, doing their own things with the poor Engineer off by himself would be an awesome experience. Each player has their screen of their workstation and get to manipulate the game in different ways is intriguing. With friends. With strangers, not so much for me.

So I have mixed feelings about the game, as you can see

Dibdabs

Originally posted by Tamanous

Basically you mean Star Fleet Battles over top of a sandbox universe?

 F#CK YA! Count me in!

 I was a hardcore tournament Star Fleet Battles player back in the day. The ultimate strategy game. The very first pc adaptation before Star Trek adopted it as their official game was a direct translation of the rules. Later games dumbed it down to unplayable. An updated engine over a sandbox universe would be amazing. I simply do not think any developer that had the balls to do it would have enough money and expertise to pull it off.

I loved Star Fleet Battles ever since I bought the first game release in its A5 ziplock bag.  I still have the boxed set and lots of those booklets with the ship "hit" boxes in a cupboard.  

I also played a Star Trek Bridge Simulator tabletop game released by Games Workshop many years ago, but forget the name. 

SwampDragons

Dunno, think catering to everyone in the Star Trek universe is hard, myself for example I would like to be able to play a Ferengi trader doing business. Or being a Cardassian renegade pirate roaming and stealing from vessles in a system or a Federation caddet on his first away misson. And also giant space battles.

Now if you can cram all that in to a ST game I'm in

The main point is that I dont want a linear progression in a Startrek game, or even gear grinding. I want it to be focused on the universe itself.

tawess

 

Man do i hate bridge simulators...all those beams and anchors and load bearing points... To much physics. And a sandbox on top of that... People would build bridges everywhere.

*ba-dum-thisss*

 

On a more serious not, i think not. Bridge simulators tend to be really stiff and un-responsive. Now there is a live version that looks pretty cool that i saw at a con recently. But not being able to throw a tribble at the guy manning your sensor station when he mess up take all the fun out of it.

Muke

my choice depends on the following list:

-quality of graphics

-performance

-enough content in game?

-which developer is building it, some developers dont know how to maintain games or treat customers correctly (SOE + John Smedley for example are blacklisted for me personally)

-PVP ingame?

-combat system, if so, not a cookie cutter healer-tank-dps build

-crafting + item decay?

-sovereignty grab system?

-skillbased or gearbased?

 

 

 

 

Rydeson

     Anymore.. especially after my last run in with SWTOR..  I"m against anything with a notable IP..  It always seems that gaming companies get the rights to PERFECT IP's , and always under achieve.. It is almost as if they are lazy and confident enough to take that quick money grab at the expense of making a good game..  I would prefer a company go out and make a good game and EARN a reputation of their own, instead of riding the IP coat tails such as your Star Treks , Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, etc etc..

PioneerStew

The way I imagine it I would be starring at schematics on a computer screen and I would occasionally see a floating head on that viewer screen thing.  Maybe if I was losing I would fall off my chair.

That would get old fast.  However a more visceral shared combat system where one player pilots, another controls gun turrets etc like Star Wars or a B52 or even a pirate ship would work for me.  

  

Flintsteen

you would need a reason to be on the bridge. Some reason to fly your ship. So some form of diplomacy and combat would need to be implemented ofc. Also i would prefer my ship to be more than just the bridge.  At least give an engine bay, a medbay and a cantina. Some supply officer to handle  food, fuel and medical supply too maybe.

 

If you made the ship big enough you could make it the "planet"  It would probably end up as a RP game mostly though,  the crews onboard startrek ships don't realy ever see combat.  It's just one ship firing lasers and missiles at another ship,  that is if it ever got so far as combat.

PAL-18

Originally posted by Boneserino

Could you elaborate more on the Bridge simulator / Sandbox  a bit more?

 

A simulator is usually designed to simulate one thing.   Are you talking about micromangaing a crew on a starship?   

 

Not sure how this works in an MMO setting.

http://pulsarthegame.com/

"

Journey Alone or With Friends

Each crew in PULSAR consists of up to five members. You can play offline with bots as your crew, or play cooperatively with friends in Online + LAN modes. Alternatively, you could take a ship out by yourself and perform all tasks of the crew, although it's quite a challenge!

Everyone Plays a Key Role on the Ship

Captain, Pilot, Scientist, Weapons, and Engineer. These are the five classes available in the game - each having their own unique responsibilities and roles during the journey. More info about the classes is available here."

sumdumguy1

Simply put I have been burned by so many games that are Star Trek. Until I experience one worth playing, I will answer no.

crabdog

Throwing in "sandbox" does not automatically make a great game so I'm going to say no...

If, however it was a good game with good sandbox elements then I would probably play it but I could care less about the Star Trek IP.

Beatnik59

I always said that a true Star Trek MMO ought to be more 'Second Life in space' and less 'Earth and Beyond-y' in order to attract the Star Wars fans.  I'd play it...but the ship ought to be huge, with a lot of different areas and distractions (holodeck, ten-forward, engineering, cargo bays, etc.).

 

This is the kind of game where live, GMing ought to take a central role.  The captain ought to be a Dev, who can set the immersive tone of the game.  Random encounters ought to occur all around (there could be an alien hiding out on the ship which attacks people...at the same time an enemy vessel is on the comms...at the same time something strange was discoveed and is needing to be analyzed...at the same time the warp core needs servicing).

SEANMCAD

Wurm was going to have a bridge simulator but that prooved to be too much work for now.

Oh...spaceship bridge...lol

well...perhaps. I will say this, I am a huge Star Trek fan but the game doesnt look like it would appeal to me. I would like them to fix that.