I'm sorry that I'm the one who has to say this, but this isn't Star Trek, it's Star Trek the MMO. There will be things that many would have done differently, but Cryptic is the one with the license. I think at this point you have to live with the inevitable. You either support the game by continuing to hype it up and comment on posts making it an active community, or you abandon it, vote a low hype and leave the community to become an abandoned wasteland of possibilities. (Potential is what we tend to say about MMO's that never lived up to expectations btw).
Anyway, unless venting in every STO thread makes your life better, I'd suggest you let it go. It is what it is, they're not changing it for now.
I'm not impressed with 5 captains beaming down to the surface either (especially without the protection of a security officer (rofl)), but I understand it's an MMO and that will happen from time-to-time because everyone wants to be a jedi.. I mean captain.
He's not telling you what you mean to say, he's saying that what your describing is not fun.
Sorry, not fun for the vast majority of people, there we go.
Either way, looking at his forum history, he really has nothing good to say about anything. I really hope that changes. Maybe hes a Klingon.
Star Trek Online Correspondent MMORPG.com
"I don't fear failure. I only fear the slowing up of the engine inside of me which is saying, "Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?" -Patton
I would just like to thank the author of this article! It had substance, emotion, and purpose! This may be the first time ever that actual game footage has diminished my enthusiasm for an MMO, or that an article has renewed it. It's usually the other way around. Somehow I feel that you truly did present us with "ten times" a thousand words in your brief review. Well done, and thank you, Carolyn Koh!
"Cryptic has shown pure love in the handling of the Star Trek franchise at this point, " What a steaming load. If the OP is working for Cryptic, she should state it at the start.
I understand, anyone who doesn't share you opinions must be working for Cryptic.
Look, I get where you're coming from. You don't feel like Cryptic has done much with the treatment of the IP. That's cool. That's your call. Someone else doesn't share your opinion, maybe have some respect for that even if you don't happen to agree?
Totally agree a persons opinion does not a fact make and I too am impressed with what they've done so far, more so than I thought I would be.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
What Star Trek did you watch as a kid that told you a Bird of Prey is a fighter?
Sorry I have read your statement and I understand that you arent saying they are, but you felt like they were, it was just the wording.
I dont think I can remember a time in the ST line did the captain ever give the speed as "Warp speed XX" It was "Warp factor XX." or "Warp XX"
But perhaps in the books they did, who knows?
Sorry to come across like that, but little things are driving me nuts today because its been a LONG day. I am still waiting for a decent Star Trek game, I am not getting my hopes up for this. The best Star Trek game I ever played was Star Fleet Battles, at least the ships felt right.
I understand, anyone who doesn't share you opinions must be working for Cryptic. Look, I get where you're coming from. You don't feel like Cryptic has done much with the treatment of the IP. That's cool. That's your call. Someone else doesn't share your opinion, maybe have some respect for that even if you don't happen to agree?
Well, read it again. She was practically gushing. Not very professional, IMO.
Anyone with open eyes can see Cryptic isn't being true to the IP. There is no teamwork. Trek isn't populated with captains and faceless technicians.
I'm not really a Trek fan, but I went through the same thing with Star Wars Galaxies and LotRo, both of which respect their original IP's in name only. I think it's folly to expect any licensed mmo to be faithful to it's source material beyond skin-deep aesthetics (i.e. getting the ship visual models correct, using source music, etc). These games are all basically the same: kill mob, get loot, level, etc. There's no way anyone can translate that into a world as layered and complex as Star Trek and maintain said complexity.
MMO devs have repeatedly proven that they aren't capable of making a game that respects established lore. It's always "fun is greater than lore" or whatever the excuse is, but it boils down to them not having the time/money/knowledge to make an accurate translation.
Cryptic doesn't want to please hardcore Trek fans because they're dwarfed in number by casual fans. If you're expecting STO to be faithful to Star Trek, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. I'm not defending Cryptic or other companies who piss on great stories, but it's just a business reality.
Look I think as fans we really need to get away from thinking WE have the right to determine what an IP's lore is "about" you mention LOTRO which from what I've seen is true to the lore of what it is based off of which is the Lord Of The Rings movies not the hobbit or any other Tolkien work as far as I'm concerned, again SWG a game I played from launch and listened to so many moan about it's loose ways with the "lore" especially when it came to Jedi but if I recall right there are definitely Jedi back in the Star Wars universe within five years of Return of The Jedi (based off the fact that the novels are official lore) Luke was training Jedi and there were countless numbers of students that he had as I recall. The bottom line is the people truly responsible for the "lore" are trusting it to these companies to do as they see fit which in my own eyes makes their interpritation of the lore much more factual and important than even my own opinion of the lore.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
What Star Trek did you watch as a kid that told you a Bird of Prey is a fighter?
I don't want to speak for her, but the way it was written, I got the impression that the author meant 'fighter' not in the sense of the fighter starship classification, but in the sense of being a warship.
Favorites: EQ, EVE | Playing: None. Mostly VR and strategy | Anticipating: CU, Pantheon
What Star Trek did you watch as a kid that told you a Bird of Prey is a fighter?
I don't want to speak for her, but the way it was written, I got the impression that the author meant 'fighter' not in the sense of the fighter starship classification, but in the sense of being a warship.
I thought Stradden was pretty clear when stated the Bird of Prey moved like a fighter in comparison to the Enterprise class ship she was in, but op makes it pretty clear that he just wanted to come and nitpick anyway.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
"Full impulse" would work. Did any ship in the series even have thrusters as such?
I got "fluff piece" from the article which is unusual since most of her work seems pretty even keel. Based on that, I'm guessing she really is/was excited about it. I would have preferred a more factual approach than opinion myself, but it *was* a first impressions AND hands-on piece so she gets some slack in my book.
Look I think as fans we really need to get away from thinking WE have the right to determine what an IP's lore is "about" you mention LOTRO which from what I've seen is true to the lore of what it is based off of which is the Lord Of The Rings movies not the hobbit or any other Tolkien work as far as I'm concerned
No, LotRO is based on the Lord of the Rings novels. They legally could not use material from the films. That's why nothing at all looks like it does in the films, but their own interpretation of the books. They would have faced serious consequences otherwise.
Favorites: EQ, EVE | Playing: None. Mostly VR and strategy | Anticipating: CU, Pantheon
I'm surprised by the number of people that want a "bridge commander" style game. Yeah, it might be great for *large* guilds or people that have a bunch of friends that can be on at the same time every day or so. But that's just not the case for the majority of players. And how would you level up your player when nobody is on? Will the medical tech push the same buttons over and over or sit in his room and read a padd for a couple hours? Or would he jump into the captain's chair and take the "guild hall" (aka ship) out for a spin? That's not realistic either.
Plus, the bridge concept would instantly label the game as hardcore only. Because you would almost certainly need those players. And that almost certainly means no pugs. Yeah, everyone would die because the pilot is an immature jerk that flys into every radioactive cloud that he sees. Great fun. Or everyone dies because of lag, or someone knocks on the door. In a game like that, you're all essentially controlling one character. In other mmos at least you don't die because the other people in your group accidently run off a cliff while simply travelling *to* the instance portal.
Plus, if you make it bridge commander trek the only people looking out the viewscreen would be the captain and *maybe* the pilot. Everyone else is looking at a readout or the warp core for an hour. Maybe some people want to do that, but I don't. I'd rather watch the ships get fired upon.
And Bridge commander PvP would almost certainly be a bigger pain.
The way they're handling space combat looks great. Instead of being a bridge commander style simulation, they are trying to recapture what its like to watch the show. Most of the time, your ship will be on its own. Or you can team up/rendezvous with another ship. Or 20 ships can battle the borg. This way everyone has their character/ship and a character for ground combat. And its quite obvious that they expect you to fill out a specific role in ground combat. Even though you're a "captain" of your ship, when you're grouped with others you will be an engineer, or a doctor, science officer or the "captain" or whatever, while some really, really unfortunate soul is the red shirt.
I understand, anyone who doesn't share you opinions must be working for Cryptic. Look, I get where you're coming from. You don't feel like Cryptic has done much with the treatment of the IP. That's cool. That's your call. Someone else doesn't share your opinion, maybe have some respect for that even if you don't happen to agree?
Well, read it again. She was practically gushing. Not very professional, IMO.
Anyone with open eyes can see Cryptic isn't being true to the IP. There is no teamwork. Trek isn't populated with captains and faceless technicians.
I'm not really a Trek fan, but I went through the same thing with Star Wars Galaxies and LotRo, both of which respect their original IP's in name only. I think it's folly to expect any licensed mmo to be faithful to it's source material beyond skin-deep aesthetics (i.e. getting the ship visual models correct, using source music, etc). These games are all basically the same: kill mob, get loot, level, etc. There's no way anyone can translate that into a world as layered and complex as Star Trek and maintain said complexity.
MMO devs have repeatedly proven that they aren't capable of making a game that respects established lore. It's always "fun is greater than lore" or whatever the excuse is, but it boils down to them not having the time/money/knowledge to make an accurate translation.
Cryptic doesn't want to please hardcore Trek fans because they're dwarfed in number by casual fans. If you're expecting STO to be faithful to Star Trek, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. I'm not defending Cryptic or other companies who piss on great stories, but it's just a business reality.
Look I think as fans we really need to get away from thinking WE have the right to determine what an IP's lore is "about" you mention LOTRO which from what I've seen is true to the lore of what it is based off of which is the Lord Of The Rings movies not the hobbit or any other Tolkien work as far as I'm concerned, again SWG a game I played from launch and listened to so many moan about it's loose ways with the "lore" especially when it came to Jedi but if I recall right there are definitely Jedi back in the Star Wars universe within five years of Return of The Jedi (based off the fact that the novels are official lore) Luke was training Jedi and there were countless numbers of students that he had as I recall. The bottom line is the people truly responsible for the "lore" are trusting it to these companies to do as they see fit which in my own eyes makes their interpritation of the lore much more factual and important than even my own opinion of the lore.
Couple things here. First off LotRo is explicitly not tied to Jackson's film adaptations but rather to Tolkien's source novels. Turbine is very up front about their acquisition of the license coming through Zaentz and having nothing to do with the New Line Films, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, or any of the Tolkien's books other than the three LotR volumes.
You mention that from what you have seen it is true to the lore, and that's fine, but you haven't seen a lot of it or you wouldn't have that opinion. Have you read the novels? There are a laundry list of departures in the game: dragons, runekeepers, hobbit warriors, proliferating elves, just off the top of my head. There are scores of other gaffes. I'm not talking about things that Turbine has invented to fill in content that Tolkien didn't talk about, but direct contradictions to his established work.
SWG is another case in point. Unfortunately you are not remembering correctly, as the Jedi were very nearly extinct during the timeframe in which SWG is set. There are other lore problems besides Jedi: aliens in the imperial military, melee users blocking blaster bolts with swords, the planet of Dathomir being accessible, the list goes on and on.
These are all concessions to gameplay, which is what I meant earlier when I said mmorpg devs are incapable of being faithful to the source material because of the medium in which they work and it's limitations.
Your assertation that fans need to stop determining the lore is completely off base. The lore is what it is, fans have no part of determining it, they simply read/watch it. The SW universe has certain conventions, many of which SWG doesn't follow. Tolkien's books have certain conventions, many of which LotRo doesn't follow. It has absolutely nothing to do with fans, it has to do with these companies being unwilling, or unable, to stick to the facts established by eariler authors.
Man, some of you take this stuff way to serious! I'm glad I never watched much TV. Personally, lore = bore. Make a fun game and let's call it a day. I could care less about how closely this follows that or how that ties into this. Just make a great game that the majority will have fun playing, profit and support the title. All I want to do is have some FUN. And from the looks of it, this may fit the bill.
Anyone that has played SWG pre-NGE can easily counter the silly argument about anyone saying that being captain is the only fun class and that no one wants to be a security officer, engineer, pilot at the helm, cook or whatever.
Not everyone likes to be a full combat class. Not everyone would want to be a captain on the ship.
Back in good old SWG there were so many people that didn't give a flying crock about combat.
There were people that enjoyed being pure politicians and build and maintain the whole guild city, decorate the halls and ejoyed the heck out of it.
There were people that were hanging around in the Capital Cities all day long, changing people's appearances as Image Designers or buffing people up in cantina's as Entertainers. Not to mention that people just enjoyed being a Doc.
Back then, people knew what the meaning of MMORPG actually stood for. Knew what socialising actually ment. Back then you actually had true Server communities!
It was exactly what made good old SWG such a great game. Despite it's bugs and issues.
People could be anything they wanted to be.
That's why STO will just be Epic FAIL with no longetivity at all. People will be bored of the game within months!
Nothing is more boring then to go Pew Pew Pew in a spaceship day in day out. Or do repetitive ground missions with NPC crews on random maps a la CoX.
Or do you think it's fun to do ground missions with 4 other captains on your side?? What a complete joke!! Ever seen ANY Star Trek episode where 5 captains ONLY beam to a planet surface for a mission??
You don't have to be a hardcore Trekkie (and I am sertainly not one) to see that Cryptic has absolutely no clue about what Star Trek really is!
We got already a pleatora of Star Trek Single player and mutliplayer Space Shooter games out there! Why go play this one and pay a monthly fee?? And probably with a Cash shop attached to it as well!
That's why that person that wrote that Single Player MMO topic in General Discussion hitted the nail on the head!
All this Solo crap is what eventually is going to kill and ruin the genre. People become more and more ANTI-social by the day.
Just have a look at the average forum or ingame chat in how people communicate with eachother these days. If you can call racism, hostility, flaming, L337 spam communicating that is.
people are going to hate this game because they cant be 'non Comm' roles and not everyone wants to fly Spaceships?
I am a HUGE fan Of ST (not a die hard trekkie though) and I have to say I am liking what I am hearing about teh control aspect of the game so far
Considering the game is still (technically) in Alpha designs and some concepts could be subject to trade
I mean.. I know another game that you ONLY get to captain a ship but I spend all my time being a stock market manipulator
and its been going for ooohhh 5 years now and its (technically) Version 2.0 of the game that was launched, and its still undergoing refinement, and still returns a nice profit
hmm what is that game
oh yes EvE
I think the reason so many people have negative thoughts about this game is because they want to Fully Immerse themselves in the game
Sadly this will not happen anytime soon due to a number of reason
Just how exciting can you make Medical/Engineering/Ops?
Would you ever be able to emply enough people to keep churning out new content while returning a profit from subscribers?
sadly not, Cryptic seem to be doing a good job with THEIR vision of the game, to all those hating it, teh solution is simple
Dont play it
I mean if you find McDonalds makes you feel sick everytime you eat it then you dont keep eating there do you?
so ......... people are going to hate this game because they cant be 'non Comm' roles and not everyone wants to fly Spaceships? I am a HUGE fan Of ST (not a die hard trekkie though) and I have to say I am liking what I am hearing about teh control aspect of the game so far Considering the game is still (technically) in Alpha designs and some concepts could be subject to trade I mean.. I know another game that you ONLY get to captain a ship but I spend all my time being a stock market manipulator and its been going for ooohhh 5 years now and its (technically) Version 2.0 of the game that was launched, and its still undergoing refinement, and still returns a nice profit
hmm what is that game oh yes EvE I think the reason so many people have negative thoughts about this game is because they want to Fully Immerse themselves in the game Sadly this will not happen anytime soon due to a number of reason Just how exciting can you make Medical/Engineering/Ops? Would you ever be able to emply enough people to keep churning out new content while returning a profit from subscribers? sadly not, Cryptic seem to be doing a good job with THEIR vision of the game, to all those hating it, teh solution is simple Dont play it I mean if you find McDonalds makes you feel sick everytime you eat it then you dont keep eating there do you?
ROFL!
You can't in no way compare STO with EVE Online.
First, EVE Online is a Sandbox game. The freedom you have in that game, right from the start back in 2003.... you will never find in STO.
Maybe you should actually read Cryptic's latest articles. It's only PEW PEW PEW in Space or PEW PEW PEW on randomly created maps on ground a la CoX. All as a Captain ONLY!
That's it!
Seriously, EVE Online had so much more to offer already back in 2003. It's just silly even trying to compare these 2 games.
I'm surprised by the number of people that want a "bridge commander" style game. Yeah, it might be great for *large* guilds or people that have a bunch of friends that can be on at the same time every day or so. But that's just not the case for the majority of players. And how would you level up your player when nobody is on? Will the medical tech push the same buttons over and over or sit in his room and read a padd for a couple hours? Or would he jump into the captain's chair and take the "guild hall" (aka ship) out for a spin? That's not realistic either. Plus, the bridge concept would instantly label the game as hardcore only. Because you would almost certainly need those players. And that almost certainly means no pugs. Yeah, everyone would die because the pilot is an immature jerk that flys into every radioactive cloud that he sees. Great fun. Or everyone dies because of lag, or someone knocks on the door. In a game like that, you're all essentially controlling one character. In other mmos at least you don't die because the other people in your group accidently run off a cliff while simply travelling *to* the instance portal. Plus, if you make it bridge commander trek the only people looking out the viewscreen would be the captain and *maybe* the pilot. Everyone else is looking at a readout or the warp core for an hour. Maybe some people want to do that, but I don't. I'd rather watch the ships get fired upon. And Bridge commander PvP would almost certainly be a bigger pain. The way they're handling space combat looks great. Instead of being a bridge commander style simulation, they are trying to recapture what its like to watch the show. Most of the time, your ship will be on its own. Or you can team up/rendezvous with another ship. Or 20 ships can battle the borg. This way everyone has their character/ship and a character for ground combat. And its quite obvious that they expect you to fill out a specific role in ground combat. Even though you're a "captain" of your ship, when you're grouped with others you will be an engineer, or a doctor, science officer or the "captain" or whatever, while some really, really unfortunate soul is the red shirt.
I feel it necessary to point out that STO is actually more like Bridge Commander than you seem to think. In both, players are only captains, backed up by NPC bridge crew members. In Bridge Commander, it is impossible for players to be on the same ship. Perhaps it's a different game you're thinking of? Or perhaps you're just speaking of the concept of a bridge group, and befuddling me by the use of an actual game title?
There isn't any reason why a multiplayer bridge concept couldn't work. The same AI that are already going into STO could fill out the bridge crew when players aren't available. There's also no reason that players couldn't move between positions, so that if the captain disconnected, someone else could take over. And yes, despite claims to the contrary, there are players that would like to play engineer, medical, whatever. I personally spent two years in SWG, from launch to just after the NGE, playing a doctor in the hospitals on Naboo. And I wasn't the only one. Many players would likely want to be captain, but I couldn't see any reason why a fully crewed ship (which is just a group in any other MMO) couldn't be successful.
For those that like to declare that this game is a travesty or is making Gene roll over in his grave, I feel your pain, but I think you're being far too dramatic, and quite possibly missing the real point. I was entirely enraptured in the original Perpetual idea for the game back in 2005, which was the Trek simulator concept. I was also quite upset when PE "dumbed" it down, and I wasn't at all happy when Cryptic took over and basically continued the same design. But this design isn't offensive to the IP at all. I've had to painfully learn that lesson with both this game and the new movie. It's taken a lot of introspection to realize this. Trek is about IDIC, and any real Trekkie/Trekker knows what IDIC is. There is room for this game design in the Star Trek universe. And once game designers are able to spend the time and money necessary, we'll get our Trek simulator.
I guarantee that Cryptic is under a strict schedule by CBS/Paramount to get this game out in a very specific period of time. It may even have been CBS/Paramount that demanded Cryptic continue with the PE concept of the game, for the sake of time.
Yes, but your idea of a bridge crew made up of all players just doesn't work in the mmo world right now. You would need to have a set amount of dedicated people to not only play a defined role (that may or may not see a lot of action on a mission), but also to meet up and play online at the same time at every session they wanted to play.
It sounds awesome, but in reality it just doesn't work. Your captain looses internet connection...so now everyone on the crew can't play? Even if the crew could find a random player to fill in the role of captain, what's the chances in a game where groups matter, that the crew would find somone available at the given level.
Well, I don't really have the energy to design the entire game right now, but:
You have a ship's crew of say 15. The game is either skill (not class)-based or allows multi-classing. The bridge crew is five. IF someone goes offline, he has just been struck down by a space sickness, or been toasted by one of the pyrotechnic computer consoles. One of the crew on standby (who are training skills or running simulations ion the holo-deck) fills in at the vacated station.
I could just see the forum posts on launch day as subscribers would complain of "forced grouping" and a game that is unfriendly towards solo players and low-levels.
Can you see the posts on opening day for THIS game, when players start asking why they can't play any class other than Captain? It will be messy.
I think most people would agree with your thoughts on having a bridge crew of all players. But such a game has way to many obstacles to overcome just to be a "good" game; and right now the industry just can't tackle something like that.
I think it can. Each ship would basically be an instance.
One of the crew on standby? Are you suggesting that while a crew plays a mission, that one player doesn't get involved in the action, that they run training missions while the rest of the group performs the mission? I don't think too many people would sign up for that role. I wouldn't pay a monthly fee to be second-string. Unless you mean one of the other 5 crew members doing the mission. In that case it could work, but If this is truly skill based; that fill-in will not come close to matching the missing player; and will handicap the entire crew and the mission. Not much fun there.
Your comment about launch day for STO is silly. If on launch day, someone actually logs in thinking they are going to be a science officer and part of a player crew; then they obviously just bought the game simply because it had "Star Trek" written on the box and never read the back of the box or did any kind of research before dropping the $50+ on the game. That person will look rather unintelligent posting on the forum...or just one big troll.
Ship instances would work, I totally agree. They worked well on Star Wars Galaxies. But I think if we are all constantly in an instance with only our crew, we'll lose that MMO feel.
The way I'm looking at STO is not that every player will be a captain. I'm looking at it more as every player will be a crew. Is that going to be everyone's cup of tea...probably not. Am I still going to give the game a shot when they offer a trial...absolutely.
Anyone that has played SWG pre-NGE can easily counter the silly argument about anyone saying that being captain is the only fun class and that no one wants to be a security officer, engineer, pilot at the helm, cook or whatever. Not everyone likes to be a full combat class. Not everyone would want to be a captain on the ship. Back in good old SWG there were so many people that didn't give a flying crock about combat. There were people that enjoyed being pure politicians and build and maintain the whole guild city, decorate the halls and ejoyed the heck out of it. There were people that were hanging around in the Capital Cities all day long, changing people's appearances as Image Designers or buffing people up in cantina's as Entertainers. Not to mention that people just enjoyed being a Doc. Back then, people knew what the meaning of MMORPG actually stood for. Knew what socialising actually ment. Back then you actually had true Server communities! It was exactly what made good old SWG such a great game. Despite it's bugs and issues. People could be anything they wanted to be. That's why STO will just be Epic FAIL with no longetivity at all. People will be bored of the game within months! Nothing is more boring then to go Pew Pew Pew in a spaceship day in day out. Or do repetitive ground missions with NPC crews on random maps a la CoX. Or do you think it's fun to do ground missions with 4 other captains on your side?? What a complete joke!! Ever seen ANY Star Trek episode where 5 captains ONLY beam to a planet surface for a mission?? You don't have to be a hardcore Trekkie (and I am sertainly not one) to see that Cryptic has absolutely no clue about what Star Trek really is! We got already a pleatora of Star Trek Single player and mutliplayer Space Shooter games out there! Why go play this one and pay a monthly fee?? And probably with a Cash shop attached to it as well! That's why that person that wrote that Single Player MMO topic in General Discussion hitted the nail on the head! All this Solo crap is what eventually is going to kill and ruin the genre. People become more and more ANTI-social by the day. Just have a look at the average forum or ingame chat in how people communicate with eachother these days. If you can call racism, hostility, flaming, L337 spam communicating that is. Cheers
Wow what a clueless post. You still don't get it do you. What you are asking for is 2015 development cycle at best. As if they have the development money to do such. Perhaps we will see a Star Trek like you envision someday. It is most certainly completely unpractical to do so today.
Anyone in this thread complaining about the NPC crew needs to come down out the clouds and face the facts. Changing to avatar based crew would be a huge project and then you have the major problem that no game wants to have. Players spending inordinate amounts of time looking for crew for their starship. That does not exclude the fact that the vast majority of players will want to be captain and then you have the problem of how you are going to get other players to follow the captains orders. You most certainly can't put them in the brig. Then you have the huge project of dreaming up things for all the other professions to do during flight, good luck with that. Beyond an ocassional space battle or an away mission, what is the doc going to do, twiddle his thumbs?
Basically making all ship officers into avatars opens up a huge can of worms. I could post a lot more issues with it than I have above. What this boils down to is that the officer avatar advocates need to stop spewing nonsense. In all the threads on the topic I have not seen one person with a reasonable approach to solving any of these issues. Until someone does all I see is a lot of hot air with no substance behind it.
This is a game people, players expect to have fun doing it. Posters like the above poster need to think about all these huge issues before going on a whimsical rant that has nothing to do with reality.
All the above poster does is completely ignore the issues posed by his complaints.
Wow what a clueless post. You still don't get it do you. What you are asking for is 2015 development cycle at best. As if they have the development money to do such. Perhaps we will see a Star Trek like you envision someday. It is most certainly completely unpractical to do so today. Anyone in this thread complaining about the NPC crew needs to come down out the clouds and face the facts. Changing to avatar based crew would be a huge project and then you have the major problem that no game wants to have. Players spending inordinate amounts of time looking for crew for their starship. That does not exclude the fact that the vast majority of players will want to be captain and then you have the problem of how you are going to get other players to follow the captains orders. You most certainly can't put them in the brig. Then you have the huge project of dreaming up things for all the other professions to do during flight, good luck with that. Beyond an occassional space battle or an away mission, what is the doc going to do, twiddle his thumbs?
This is a game people, players expect to have fun doing it. Posters like the above poster need to think about all these huge issues before going on a whimsical rant that has nothing to do with reality.
All the above poster does is completely ignore the issues posed by his complaints.
The only one that is completely clueless is you.
Did you actually read my whole post? I bet you didn't.
Did you actually read what others have been writing? I bet you didn't.
No one said it should be forced Player crews! No one!!
If you cannot get a player crew together or someone suddenly disconnects, you can fill the gap with a NPC crew member.
Pretty much the same as other MMO's like Guild Wars have been doing for years already.
And back in SWG I saw plenty of people running around who were not combat orriented!!! Plenty!
You vastly understimate the MMO community and make non-founded assumptions (like so many here) that the vast majority or even everyone wants to be a captain and a captain only! WRONG!!
Originally posted by Ozmodan Then you have the huge project of dreaming up things for all the other professions to do during flight, good luck with that. Beyond an occassional space battle or an away mission, what is the doc going to do, twiddle his thumbs?
Beyond an occasional space battle or an away mission what is the Captain going to do? Twiddle his thumbs? This is a game people, players expect to have fun doing it. Different people have fun doing different things.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Did you actually read my whole post? I bet you didn't.
Did you actually read what others have been writing? I bet you didn't.
No one said it should be forced Player crews! No one!!
If you cannot get a player crew together or someone suddenly disconnects, you can fill the gap with a NPC crew member.
Pretty much the same as other MMO's like Guild Wars have been doing for years already.
And back in SWG I saw plenty of people running around who were not combat orriented!!! Plenty!
You vastly understimate the MMO community and make non-founded assumptions (like so many here) that the vast majority or even everyone wants to be a captain and a captain only! WRONG!!"
Of course I read all that nonsense, it was a real chore. I especially liked where you invoked the SWG parts as if that has anything to do with this game. SWG was a sandbox game, this one most certainly is not. Like trying to compare apples and oranges. I get it you want a sandbox game, this most certainly is not one.
And again where are solutions to all the issues I raised. As usual you conveniently ignore them. You want to debate, put some solutions on the table, instead of whimsical flights of fancy.
Anyone that has played SWG pre-NGE can easily counter the silly argument about anyone saying that being captain is the only fun class and that no one wants to be a security officer, engineer, pilot at the helm, cook or whatever. Not everyone likes to be a full combat class. Not everyone would want to be a captain on the ship. Back in good old SWG there were so many people that didn't give a flying crock about combat. There were people that enjoyed being pure politicians and build and maintain the whole guild city, decorate the halls and ejoyed the heck out of it. There were people that were hanging around in the Capital Cities all day long, changing people's appearances as Image Designers or buffing people up in cantina's as Entertainers. Not to mention that people just enjoyed being a Doc. Back then, people knew what the meaning of MMORPG actually stood for. Knew what socialising actually ment. Back then you actually had true Server communities! It was exactly what made good old SWG such a great game. Despite it's bugs and issues. People could be anything they wanted to be. That's why STO will just be Epic FAIL with no longetivity at all. People will be bored of the game within months! Nothing is more boring then to go Pew Pew Pew in a spaceship day in day out. Or do repetitive ground missions with NPC crews on random maps a la CoX. Or do you think it's fun to do ground missions with 4 other captains on your side?? What a complete joke!! Ever seen ANY Star Trek episode where 5 captains ONLY beam to a planet surface for a mission?? You don't have to be a hardcore Trekkie (and I am sertainly not one) to see that Cryptic has absolutely no clue about what Star Trek really is! We got already a pleatora of Star Trek Single player and mutliplayer Space Shooter games out there! Why go play this one and pay a monthly fee?? And probably with a Cash shop attached to it as well! That's why that person that wrote that Single Player MMO topic in General Discussion hitted the nail on the head! All this Solo crap is what eventually is going to kill and ruin the genre. People become more and more ANTI-social by the day. Just have a look at the average forum or ingame chat in how people communicate with eachother these days. If you can call racism, hostility, flaming, L337 spam communicating that is. Cheers
As a Pre-NGE SWG vet myself, I can totally agree that there are people out there that could take a Star Trek sandbox game and enjoy spending their days as a Chief Medical Officer or something like that (I would be one of them).
Problem is, as much as some of us loved that old SWG game; it wasn't the success that companies want, and it's been said that SWG subscriptions were declining in the days leading up to the infamous CU and then the NGE. So I think most companies looking to make a buck aren't going to take a franchise and make a sandbox game out of them.
That being said, given the fanbase, if any franchise could succeed as a sandbox...it would be Star Trek; but I think to satisfy everyone's sandbox needs for that game would be a daunting task for any developer.
Hopefully now that the STO folks are showing game elements, all of them focussing on combat; they will now show us some of the community elements of the game as well as other mission types such as exploration and scientific missions. I think if they can sell those two elements; then they might settle some of the fears that this game is going to be all combat and no substance.
Comments
I'm sorry that I'm the one who has to say this, but this isn't Star Trek, it's Star Trek the MMO. There will be things that many would have done differently, but Cryptic is the one with the license. I think at this point you have to live with the inevitable. You either support the game by continuing to hype it up and comment on posts making it an active community, or you abandon it, vote a low hype and leave the community to become an abandoned wasteland of possibilities. (Potential is what we tend to say about MMO's that never lived up to expectations btw).
Anyway, unless venting in every STO thread makes your life better, I'd suggest you let it go. It is what it is, they're not changing it for now.
I'm not impressed with 5 captains beaming down to the surface either (especially without the protection of a security officer (rofl)), but I understand it's an MMO and that will happen from time-to-time because everyone wants to be a jedi.. I mean captain.
so...
He's not telling you what you mean to say, he's saying that what your describing is not fun.
Sorry, not fun for the vast majority of people, there we go.
Either way, looking at his forum history, he really has nothing good to say about anything. I really hope that changes. Maybe hes a Klingon.
Star Trek Online Correspondent
MMORPG.com
"I don't fear failure. I only fear the slowing up of the engine inside of me which is saying, "Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?"
-Patton
where's that upcoming MMOs to be watched list
ahh there we go
*STO scratched*
sigh
someday - - - - - it WILL happen (but frikkin hurry up - i'm 52)
I would just like to thank the author of this article! It had substance, emotion, and purpose! This may be the first time ever that actual game footage has diminished my enthusiasm for an MMO, or that an article has renewed it. It's usually the other way around. Somehow I feel that you truly did present us with "ten times" a thousand words in your brief review. Well done, and thank you, Carolyn Koh!
I understand, anyone who doesn't share you opinions must be working for Cryptic.
Look, I get where you're coming from. You don't feel like Cryptic has done much with the treatment of the IP. That's cool. That's your call. Someone else doesn't share your opinion, maybe have some respect for that even if you don't happen to agree?
Totally agree a persons opinion does not a fact make and I too am impressed with what they've done so far, more so than I thought I would be.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
I just want to say to the OP....
What Star Trek did you watch as a kid that told you a Bird of Prey is a fighter?
Sorry I have read your statement and I understand that you arent saying they are, but you felt like they were, it was just the wording.
I dont think I can remember a time in the ST line did the captain ever give the speed as "Warp speed XX" It was "Warp factor XX." or "Warp XX"
But perhaps in the books they did, who knows?
Sorry to come across like that, but little things are driving me nuts today because its been a LONG day. I am still waiting for a decent Star Trek game, I am not getting my hopes up for this. The best Star Trek game I ever played was Star Fleet Battles, at least the ships felt right.
So much crap, so little quality.
Well, read it again. She was practically gushing. Not very professional, IMO.
Anyone with open eyes can see Cryptic isn't being true to the IP. There is no teamwork. Trek isn't populated with captains and faceless technicians.
I'm not really a Trek fan, but I went through the same thing with Star Wars Galaxies and LotRo, both of which respect their original IP's in name only. I think it's folly to expect any licensed mmo to be faithful to it's source material beyond skin-deep aesthetics (i.e. getting the ship visual models correct, using source music, etc). These games are all basically the same: kill mob, get loot, level, etc. There's no way anyone can translate that into a world as layered and complex as Star Trek and maintain said complexity.
MMO devs have repeatedly proven that they aren't capable of making a game that respects established lore. It's always "fun is greater than lore" or whatever the excuse is, but it boils down to them not having the time/money/knowledge to make an accurate translation.
Cryptic doesn't want to please hardcore Trek fans because they're dwarfed in number by casual fans. If you're expecting STO to be faithful to Star Trek, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. I'm not defending Cryptic or other companies who piss on great stories, but it's just a business reality.
Look I think as fans we really need to get away from thinking WE have the right to determine what an IP's lore is "about" you mention LOTRO which from what I've seen is true to the lore of what it is based off of which is the Lord Of The Rings movies not the hobbit or any other Tolkien work as far as I'm concerned, again SWG a game I played from launch and listened to so many moan about it's loose ways with the "lore" especially when it came to Jedi but if I recall right there are definitely Jedi back in the Star Wars universe within five years of Return of The Jedi (based off the fact that the novels are official lore) Luke was training Jedi and there were countless numbers of students that he had as I recall. The bottom line is the people truly responsible for the "lore" are trusting it to these companies to do as they see fit which in my own eyes makes their interpritation of the lore much more factual and important than even my own opinion of the lore.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
I don't want to speak for her, but the way it was written, I got the impression that the author meant 'fighter' not in the sense of the fighter starship classification, but in the sense of being a warship.
I don't want to speak for her, but the way it was written, I got the impression that the author meant 'fighter' not in the sense of the fighter starship classification, but in the sense of being a warship.
I thought Stradden was pretty clear when stated the Bird of Prey moved like a fighter in comparison to the Enterprise class ship she was in, but op makes it pretty clear that he just wanted to come and nitpick anyway.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
You missed "Thrusters on full!"
"Full impulse" would work. Did any ship in the series even have thrusters as such?
I got "fluff piece" from the article which is unusual since most of her work seems pretty even keel. Based on that, I'm guessing she really is/was excited about it. I would have preferred a more factual approach than opinion myself, but it *was* a first impressions AND hands-on piece so she gets some slack in my book.
No, LotRO is based on the Lord of the Rings novels. They legally could not use material from the films. That's why nothing at all looks like it does in the films, but their own interpretation of the books. They would have faced serious consequences otherwise.
I'm surprised by the number of people that want a "bridge commander" style game. Yeah, it might be great for *large* guilds or people that have a bunch of friends that can be on at the same time every day or so. But that's just not the case for the majority of players. And how would you level up your player when nobody is on? Will the medical tech push the same buttons over and over or sit in his room and read a padd for a couple hours? Or would he jump into the captain's chair and take the "guild hall" (aka ship) out for a spin? That's not realistic either.
Plus, the bridge concept would instantly label the game as hardcore only. Because you would almost certainly need those players. And that almost certainly means no pugs. Yeah, everyone would die because the pilot is an immature jerk that flys into every radioactive cloud that he sees. Great fun. Or everyone dies because of lag, or someone knocks on the door. In a game like that, you're all essentially controlling one character. In other mmos at least you don't die because the other people in your group accidently run off a cliff while simply travelling *to* the instance portal.
Plus, if you make it bridge commander trek the only people looking out the viewscreen would be the captain and *maybe* the pilot. Everyone else is looking at a readout or the warp core for an hour. Maybe some people want to do that, but I don't. I'd rather watch the ships get fired upon.
And Bridge commander PvP would almost certainly be a bigger pain.
The way they're handling space combat looks great. Instead of being a bridge commander style simulation, they are trying to recapture what its like to watch the show. Most of the time, your ship will be on its own. Or you can team up/rendezvous with another ship. Or 20 ships can battle the borg. This way everyone has their character/ship and a character for ground combat. And its quite obvious that they expect you to fill out a specific role in ground combat. Even though you're a "captain" of your ship, when you're grouped with others you will be an engineer, or a doctor, science officer or the "captain" or whatever, while some really, really unfortunate soul is the red shirt.
Well, read it again. She was practically gushing. Not very professional, IMO.
Anyone with open eyes can see Cryptic isn't being true to the IP. There is no teamwork. Trek isn't populated with captains and faceless technicians.
I'm not really a Trek fan, but I went through the same thing with Star Wars Galaxies and LotRo, both of which respect their original IP's in name only. I think it's folly to expect any licensed mmo to be faithful to it's source material beyond skin-deep aesthetics (i.e. getting the ship visual models correct, using source music, etc). These games are all basically the same: kill mob, get loot, level, etc. There's no way anyone can translate that into a world as layered and complex as Star Trek and maintain said complexity.
MMO devs have repeatedly proven that they aren't capable of making a game that respects established lore. It's always "fun is greater than lore" or whatever the excuse is, but it boils down to them not having the time/money/knowledge to make an accurate translation.
Cryptic doesn't want to please hardcore Trek fans because they're dwarfed in number by casual fans. If you're expecting STO to be faithful to Star Trek, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. I'm not defending Cryptic or other companies who piss on great stories, but it's just a business reality.
Look I think as fans we really need to get away from thinking WE have the right to determine what an IP's lore is "about" you mention LOTRO which from what I've seen is true to the lore of what it is based off of which is the Lord Of The Rings movies not the hobbit or any other Tolkien work as far as I'm concerned, again SWG a game I played from launch and listened to so many moan about it's loose ways with the "lore" especially when it came to Jedi but if I recall right there are definitely Jedi back in the Star Wars universe within five years of Return of The Jedi (based off the fact that the novels are official lore) Luke was training Jedi and there were countless numbers of students that he had as I recall. The bottom line is the people truly responsible for the "lore" are trusting it to these companies to do as they see fit which in my own eyes makes their interpritation of the lore much more factual and important than even my own opinion of the lore.
Couple things here. First off LotRo is explicitly not tied to Jackson's film adaptations but rather to Tolkien's source novels. Turbine is very up front about their acquisition of the license coming through Zaentz and having nothing to do with the New Line Films, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, or any of the Tolkien's books other than the three LotR volumes.
You mention that from what you have seen it is true to the lore, and that's fine, but you haven't seen a lot of it or you wouldn't have that opinion. Have you read the novels? There are a laundry list of departures in the game: dragons, runekeepers, hobbit warriors, proliferating elves, just off the top of my head. There are scores of other gaffes. I'm not talking about things that Turbine has invented to fill in content that Tolkien didn't talk about, but direct contradictions to his established work.
SWG is another case in point. Unfortunately you are not remembering correctly, as the Jedi were very nearly extinct during the timeframe in which SWG is set. There are other lore problems besides Jedi: aliens in the imperial military, melee users blocking blaster bolts with swords, the planet of Dathomir being accessible, the list goes on and on.
These are all concessions to gameplay, which is what I meant earlier when I said mmorpg devs are incapable of being faithful to the source material because of the medium in which they work and it's limitations.
Your assertation that fans need to stop determining the lore is completely off base. The lore is what it is, fans have no part of determining it, they simply read/watch it. The SW universe has certain conventions, many of which SWG doesn't follow. Tolkien's books have certain conventions, many of which LotRo doesn't follow. It has absolutely nothing to do with fans, it has to do with these companies being unwilling, or unable, to stick to the facts established by eariler authors.
Man, some of you take this stuff way to serious! I'm glad I never watched much TV. Personally, lore = bore. Make a fun game and let's call it a day. I could care less about how closely this follows that or how that ties into this. Just make a great game that the majority will have fun playing, profit and support the title. All I want to do is have some FUN. And from the looks of it, this may fit the bill.
Anyone that has played SWG pre-NGE can easily counter the silly argument about anyone saying that being captain is the only fun class and that no one wants to be a security officer, engineer, pilot at the helm, cook or whatever.
Not everyone likes to be a full combat class. Not everyone would want to be a captain on the ship.
Back in good old SWG there were so many people that didn't give a flying crock about combat.
There were people that enjoyed being pure politicians and build and maintain the whole guild city, decorate the halls and ejoyed the heck out of it.
There were people that were hanging around in the Capital Cities all day long, changing people's appearances as Image Designers or buffing people up in cantina's as Entertainers. Not to mention that people just enjoyed being a Doc.
Back then, people knew what the meaning of MMORPG actually stood for. Knew what socialising actually ment. Back then you actually had true Server communities!
It was exactly what made good old SWG such a great game. Despite it's bugs and issues.
People could be anything they wanted to be.
That's why STO will just be Epic FAIL with no longetivity at all. People will be bored of the game within months!
Nothing is more boring then to go Pew Pew Pew in a spaceship day in day out. Or do repetitive ground missions with NPC crews on random maps a la CoX.
Or do you think it's fun to do ground missions with 4 other captains on your side?? What a complete joke!! Ever seen ANY Star Trek episode where 5 captains ONLY beam to a planet surface for a mission??
You don't have to be a hardcore Trekkie (and I am sertainly not one) to see that Cryptic has absolutely no clue about what Star Trek really is!
We got already a pleatora of Star Trek Single player and mutliplayer Space Shooter games out there! Why go play this one and pay a monthly fee?? And probably with a Cash shop attached to it as well!
That's why that person that wrote that Single Player MMO topic in General Discussion hitted the nail on the head!
All this Solo crap is what eventually is going to kill and ruin the genre. People become more and more ANTI-social by the day.
Just have a look at the average forum or ingame chat in how people communicate with eachother these days. If you can call racism, hostility, flaming, L337 spam communicating that is.
Cheers
So while the makers of Puzzle Pirates have managed to implement player crews and making it all interesting Cryptic can not?
I have never been so quick getting into friendly contact with other players as when playing PP.
so .........
people are going to hate this game because they cant be 'non Comm' roles and not everyone wants to fly Spaceships?
I am a HUGE fan Of ST (not a die hard trekkie though) and I have to say I am liking what I am hearing about teh control aspect of the game so far
Considering the game is still (technically) in Alpha designs and some concepts could be subject to trade
I mean.. I know another game that you ONLY get to captain a ship but I spend all my time being a stock market manipulator
and its been going for ooohhh 5 years now and its (technically) Version 2.0 of the game that was launched, and its still undergoing refinement, and still returns a nice profit
hmm what is that game
oh yes EvE
I think the reason so many people have negative thoughts about this game is because they want to Fully Immerse themselves in the game
Sadly this will not happen anytime soon due to a number of reason
Just how exciting can you make Medical/Engineering/Ops?
Would you ever be able to emply enough people to keep churning out new content while returning a profit from subscribers?
sadly not, Cryptic seem to be doing a good job with THEIR vision of the game, to all those hating it, teh solution is simple
Dont play it
I mean if you find McDonalds makes you feel sick everytime you eat it then you dont keep eating there do you?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Norsefire-logo.png
ROFL!
You can't in no way compare STO with EVE Online.
First, EVE Online is a Sandbox game. The freedom you have in that game, right from the start back in 2003.... you will never find in STO.
Maybe you should actually read Cryptic's latest articles. It's only PEW PEW PEW in Space or PEW PEW PEW on randomly created maps on ground a la CoX. All as a Captain ONLY!
That's it!
Seriously, EVE Online had so much more to offer already back in 2003. It's just silly even trying to compare these 2 games.
I feel it necessary to point out that STO is actually more like Bridge Commander than you seem to think. In both, players are only captains, backed up by NPC bridge crew members. In Bridge Commander, it is impossible for players to be on the same ship. Perhaps it's a different game you're thinking of? Or perhaps you're just speaking of the concept of a bridge group, and befuddling me by the use of an actual game title?
There isn't any reason why a multiplayer bridge concept couldn't work. The same AI that are already going into STO could fill out the bridge crew when players aren't available. There's also no reason that players couldn't move between positions, so that if the captain disconnected, someone else could take over. And yes, despite claims to the contrary, there are players that would like to play engineer, medical, whatever. I personally spent two years in SWG, from launch to just after the NGE, playing a doctor in the hospitals on Naboo. And I wasn't the only one. Many players would likely want to be captain, but I couldn't see any reason why a fully crewed ship (which is just a group in any other MMO) couldn't be successful.
For those that like to declare that this game is a travesty or is making Gene roll over in his grave, I feel your pain, but I think you're being far too dramatic, and quite possibly missing the real point. I was entirely enraptured in the original Perpetual idea for the game back in 2005, which was the Trek simulator concept. I was also quite upset when PE "dumbed" it down, and I wasn't at all happy when Cryptic took over and basically continued the same design. But this design isn't offensive to the IP at all. I've had to painfully learn that lesson with both this game and the new movie. It's taken a lot of introspection to realize this. Trek is about IDIC, and any real Trekkie/Trekker knows what IDIC is. There is room for this game design in the Star Trek universe. And once game designers are able to spend the time and money necessary, we'll get our Trek simulator.
I guarantee that Cryptic is under a strict schedule by CBS/Paramount to get this game out in a very specific period of time. It may even have been CBS/Paramount that demanded Cryptic continue with the PE concept of the game, for the sake of time.
I think it can. Each ship would basically be an instance.
One of the crew on standby? Are you suggesting that while a crew plays a mission, that one player doesn't get involved in the action, that they run training missions while the rest of the group performs the mission? I don't think too many people would sign up for that role. I wouldn't pay a monthly fee to be second-string. Unless you mean one of the other 5 crew members doing the mission. In that case it could work, but If this is truly skill based; that fill-in will not come close to matching the missing player; and will handicap the entire crew and the mission. Not much fun there.
Your comment about launch day for STO is silly. If on launch day, someone actually logs in thinking they are going to be a science officer and part of a player crew; then they obviously just bought the game simply because it had "Star Trek" written on the box and never read the back of the box or did any kind of research before dropping the $50+ on the game. That person will look rather unintelligent posting on the forum...or just one big troll.
Ship instances would work, I totally agree. They worked well on Star Wars Galaxies. But I think if we are all constantly in an instance with only our crew, we'll lose that MMO feel.
The way I'm looking at STO is not that every player will be a captain. I'm looking at it more as every player will be a crew. Is that going to be everyone's cup of tea...probably not. Am I still going to give the game a shot when they offer a trial...absolutely.
Wow what a clueless post. You still don't get it do you. What you are asking for is 2015 development cycle at best. As if they have the development money to do such. Perhaps we will see a Star Trek like you envision someday. It is most certainly completely unpractical to do so today.
Anyone in this thread complaining about the NPC crew needs to come down out the clouds and face the facts. Changing to avatar based crew would be a huge project and then you have the major problem that no game wants to have. Players spending inordinate amounts of time looking for crew for their starship. That does not exclude the fact that the vast majority of players will want to be captain and then you have the problem of how you are going to get other players to follow the captains orders. You most certainly can't put them in the brig. Then you have the huge project of dreaming up things for all the other professions to do during flight, good luck with that. Beyond an ocassional space battle or an away mission, what is the doc going to do, twiddle his thumbs?
Basically making all ship officers into avatars opens up a huge can of worms. I could post a lot more issues with it than I have above. What this boils down to is that the officer avatar advocates need to stop spewing nonsense. In all the threads on the topic I have not seen one person with a reasonable approach to solving any of these issues. Until someone does all I see is a lot of hot air with no substance behind it.
This is a game people, players expect to have fun doing it. Posters like the above poster need to think about all these huge issues before going on a whimsical rant that has nothing to do with reality.
All the above poster does is completely ignore the issues posed by his complaints.
The only one that is completely clueless is you.
Did you actually read my whole post? I bet you didn't.
Did you actually read what others have been writing? I bet you didn't.
No one said it should be forced Player crews! No one!!
If you cannot get a player crew together or someone suddenly disconnects, you can fill the gap with a NPC crew member.
Pretty much the same as other MMO's like Guild Wars have been doing for years already.
And back in SWG I saw plenty of people running around who were not combat orriented!!! Plenty!
You vastly understimate the MMO community and make non-founded assumptions (like so many here) that the vast majority or even everyone wants to be a captain and a captain only! WRONG!!
Cheers
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
"The only one that is completely clueless is you.
Did you actually read my whole post? I bet you didn't.
Did you actually read what others have been writing? I bet you didn't.
No one said it should be forced Player crews! No one!!
If you cannot get a player crew together or someone suddenly disconnects, you can fill the gap with a NPC crew member.
Pretty much the same as other MMO's like Guild Wars have been doing for years already.
And back in SWG I saw plenty of people running around who were not combat orriented!!! Plenty!
You vastly understimate the MMO community and make non-founded assumptions (like so many here) that the vast majority or even everyone wants to be a captain and a captain only! WRONG!!"
Of course I read all that nonsense, it was a real chore. I especially liked where you invoked the SWG parts as if that has anything to do with this game. SWG was a sandbox game, this one most certainly is not. Like trying to compare apples and oranges. I get it you want a sandbox game, this most certainly is not one.
And again where are solutions to all the issues I raised. As usual you conveniently ignore them. You want to debate, put some solutions on the table, instead of whimsical flights of fancy.
As a Pre-NGE SWG vet myself, I can totally agree that there are people out there that could take a Star Trek sandbox game and enjoy spending their days as a Chief Medical Officer or something like that (I would be one of them).
Problem is, as much as some of us loved that old SWG game; it wasn't the success that companies want, and it's been said that SWG subscriptions were declining in the days leading up to the infamous CU and then the NGE. So I think most companies looking to make a buck aren't going to take a franchise and make a sandbox game out of them.
That being said, given the fanbase, if any franchise could succeed as a sandbox...it would be Star Trek; but I think to satisfy everyone's sandbox needs for that game would be a daunting task for any developer.
Hopefully now that the STO folks are showing game elements, all of them focussing on combat; they will now show us some of the community elements of the game as well as other mission types such as exploration and scientific missions. I think if they can sell those two elements; then they might settle some of the fears that this game is going to be all combat and no substance.