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How would you have designed STO? What features would you include?
jadonc
Member Posts: 136
How would you have designed STO? What features would you include?
If it was up to me:
-Little to no instancing.
-Large planets with player housing, bases, cities, player owned cities (similar to SWG Pre-CU)
-Star Fleet Academy where you go through tutorials for crafting, combat, etc.
-Civilian classes that focus on gathering resources and materials for crafting as well as player owned markets and shops
-Large scale open world space combat, similar to RVR from Warhammer (NOT INSTANCED)
-Large scale open world ground combat, similar to RVR from Warhammer (NOT INSTANCED)
-Public Quests like Warhammer, for example everyone in the area joins in to take out a borg cube (this might be in the game)
-If there is heavy battle in an area, an alert system to call in more players to join the fight (like Warhammer)
-Social areas such as bars, dance clubs, holodecks with mini-games
....Holodecks would be instanced for group or solo play
-additional classic mission system that would allow you to do missions similar to what we saw in the TV shows with cut scenes and movies as you progress through the story line
-Auction House similar to WOW and SWG, the Auction house would allow you to buy from a player vendor and see what they have but you may need to go to their shop to retrieve the item
I'll probably add more ideas later.
Comments
The ability to, but NOT required to have, players as crew members or just hanging out on your ship.
I'm sure some are tired of me saying this but since we were all asked.....
A Borg Faction.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
I would have lots of mini games. Different forms of games that were hinted at or shown in the shows would be available to play against other people at star ports or wherever player ships may gather.
I would probably have mini games represent the different consoles on your ship that could be used for Quests.
Like maybe there is a particularly hard asteroid field to fly through, and you take control of the helm which happens to be some kind of frogger in space like mini game you must complete to succeed in the mission. Maybe with different rewards or penalties depending on how well you navigated it.
Have different mini games for communications, medical, security, systems, engineering etc. Each could be referred to as a nice break from the normal Quests you may encounter, and allow a scalable reward based on your skill.
Would be even cooler if your character could be adept at certain skills like engineering and get some kind of bonus assistance in the engineering mini game because of it. Making them easy masters of those Quests.
I dunno, STO could be so many cool things, it would be hard to actually decide on one set of features.
Nothing excites jaded Grandmasters more than a theoretical novelty
Episode-based. Unlike any MMO currently on the market.
The entire server of 1-2 thousand people would be on board a single ship (a newer, bigger Enterprise). The ship would travel through the galaxy "exploring strange new worlds, etc." The bridge crew would be composed of playable characters persistantly played by GMs. Players would represent the crew.
Every 2-3 months the ship (entire population) would more to a new system / mission area with a storyline unfolding around the area. Each area would have various solo, group, multi-group and server-wide objectives/missions to do in the area and tied into the main storyline. There would be as much focus on displomacy / building as on combat.
Combat would have ground and space-based combat, but space based combat would either take place on smaller ships (shuttle-size craft) or via consoles aboard the main ship.
Every area would have a couple of possible outcomes. Depending on the serverwide progression, each of the "episodes" would conclude with a major event involving the whole ship. There would be cool cinematics and progression rewards for individual actions within an "episode".
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
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Currently Playing: ESO
Update Feature_Set WHERE Feature IN (Select Feature from Cryptic_Feature_Set where Feature_Supported = False) Set Feature_Supported = True.
Custom programmable combat maneuvers. Like the Riker, Picard, Kirk maneuvers with their ships.
Omg, holodeck's as instances is amazing, the game could be endless... You could even have a Wow holoprogram... My mind has been blown...
Make it so...
I would have simply avoided every similarity with WoW. Make a game from zero simply based on the Tvshow.
Instead this STO is WoW with ST "looks" and gimmicks.
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Explain how STO is a wow clone. If STO is anything, it's Potbs.
Make it so...
Two complete factions
The entire economy would depend on crafters and crafting. Item Decay would be a must to keep crafters in business.
I would make it the exact game the previous developers were making it before they went under. Every last feature they announced during their time on the project was solid gold.
Wow. Now that is vision.
Sorry about that. I wasn't being sarcastic. That is a very good post.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
I haven't played it, so I can't say I would have designed it any differently.
Here is what I would have done.
Klingon Faction
War like, on a mission to conquer. Missions and PvE revolves mainly around combat and conquest. Ships are built more around dmg, stealth and maneuverability.
Fed Faction
Peace like, on a mission of peace and exploration. Missions and PvE revolves mainly around exploration and diplomacy. Ships are built more around defense, detection and speed.
Each faction has there own "zones" or sectors of space that they control. Klingons can not go into Fed space and Feds can not go into Klingon space. Then there is uncontrolled space where Klingons and feds can go both co-exist. This is a more FFA PvP zone. It's more of a conquest type of thing. Klingons are trying to conquer the planets, Feds are trying to encourage these planets to join the United Federation of Planets through diplomatic means.
For Kilingons to conquer a planet it's pretty straight forward, attack and win lol.
For the feds Diplomacy this could vary. The planet may require resources, they could require you to deal with rebels, they could require you to prove that you can protect them from the Klingons, they could require you to win some diplomatic mini game, they could require you to defeat there leader in a duel, they could require you to take part in some sacred dance, they could require you to destroy giant meteors heading for there planet. They could require you to save there sun, they could ask that you attack an enemy planet.
Klingons I would have simply made combat and PvP oriented.
Feds I would have made more explorers and dimplomats.
Then build the rest of the game around these principles.
Definetly add a database where you can upload the location of discovered planets and such and wether they are hostile or friendly with some other basic info.
I would also have added a system that had missions for the Klingons to attack a specified Fed protected Captial Planet and the Feds would be alerted when this happened and would then go out and try to defend it. Sort of like siege combat. These Capital Planets would only be vulnerable durring these missions. These missions would determine faction influence of a sector which would come with some perks. Maybe randomly recieve aid from time to time while doing missions in a sector where your faction has the dominent influence. Your being chased by a Bird of prey, shields are almost gone, things are looking like there going to end badly for you, then ... BAM 3 ships drop out of warp and engage the Bird of Prey just saving you.
In any case, this is just a rough idea oO... takes a lot of time to come up with a working idea for an MMO lol, at least longer than the 5 minutes I spent on this.
Some great ideas in this thread. Now answer these:
How would you get the funding to make the game?
From where would you get your team of talented developers to make the game?
How long would it take?
Who would handle you hardware and bandwith needs?
Who would publish it?
Just askin...
^^^^^^
This
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR
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Following: The Repopulation
I want a Virtual World, not just a Game.
ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
This game reminds me of Middle Earth Online...
When they revealed Lord of the Rings Online there was a wave of rage and hate and everyone condemned the game. 4 weeks later all the naysayers were gone.
Now it's on the game list #1, has constantly growing subs, is one of the most appraised western games and really does the IP justice.
Why is that? - Because they knew what they could deliver and what would work. They played their strengths and delivered the hell of a game.
Now STO is experiencing the exact same thing imo. People rage because they want 10 factions, player-built stations, planets, wormholes, 34 races, free PvP, time travel and a ton of cookies... I bet the game will be successful because they tell the sandbox-boys now that it isn't their game.
M
I sure hope STO has similiar success. I'm not a fan of Lord of the Rings so I know I would never get into that game. But I'm glad that fans of the IP do have something successful to play with. And anytime the naysayers are proven foolish is reason enough to be glad for a game's success
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
i like the current beta build, but it needs playable romulan and cardassian factions at some point, and the klingon pve needs a bit more beef and territory, right now you cant see all that space that got conquered that triggered the federation war so thats a big hang up (you literally have the main qo'nos area map and the neutral zone, thats it) hopefully the klingons at least have access to their conquered territory and some working pve repeatables for launch so theyll be levelable when waiting on feds to que for pvp, cause klingon on klingon pvp is a snooze fest as everyone cloaks all the time so no one knows where to go to fight! only in tier 5 is there a klingon ship without a cloak (although only the birds of prey can combat cloak and doing so is not a sure way to escape if your enemy has torpedoes locked!)
Pretty good quesiton. I'll try to answer since all I wanted was playable borg...
I add that the Borg have established a foothold on an Alpha Quadrant planet. This doesn't have to be in at launch so everything can stay as is. In the first few patches I add the Klingon PVE Content which should have been there to begin with and then for the first expansion I do the Romulans with all their ships and all their PVE and lore. THEN for the next expansion I do the Borg as a playable race with everything. I might even change the alliances at that point to allow the Federation, the Klingons and the Romulans be allied against the Borg just so I can have justification to make them real bad asses.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
The guys that made "SWG Pre-CU" for simulator purposes and crafting, combined with the original Ultima Online devs, for graphics get the LOTRO guys on board, for PvP hire the Warhammer Online devs, for space combat EVE Online devs maybe, lol... it could happen : /