[GAMES] Star Trek MMO

[Dreamor]

For all Hardcore (or non-Trekkies) Star Trek fans...

If you could design or have input to the Star Trek Online game, what would they be? What features would you like to see/have?

Can be anything from Crafting to classes.

[Starman]

Do you work for Cryptic Studios now Dreamor?

Starship combat is a must, along with being loyal to cannon, being able to fully explore (Within reason) a ship/planet/starbase. I'll give it some more thought but these are the musts IMO.

[LordjOX]

Not a major trekkie, but I've seen a fair share of the tv series.

Spaceships are a really important part of Star Trek, both the interior and the exterior. Would be neat if you could walk around on a starship and have fellow players as crewmates, responsible for navigation, weapons, propulsion etc. Dunno if it would be boring not being the cap'n but kind of like Yo-ho-ho Puzzle Pirates but even better game mechanics to give incentive for teamplay.

The races / factions are also important, there should be some political metagame where players can join the federation, klingons or whatever to incite conquest over sectors by diplomacy or conflict.

Iirc I think Star Trek Online got shelved...

[Dreamor]

I've watched plenty of the TV series from the original to the 'new' Enterprise. Personally I was a bigger fan of Deep Space 9.

Right now the focus is on both Ship Combat AND Planetary combat, but I'm struggling to see where the 'star trek feel' comes in.

Open to ideas Starman, I'm looking for good stuff from you

Right now I see it looks like a Pirates of the Burning Sea, but in space... and tbh POTBS was boring as hell.

[Faeldawn]

The star-trek mmo was dropped recently, if anyone was ever going to try it again, they would need to ask why.

Co-op ship controls, as in you can't pilot a Starship without a minimum crew, then theres an optimum crew which would increase reaction times, weapons lock, firing, manouver reactions, shield balancing etc. That being said single piloted fighters should also be available as well as a broad spectrum of other specialist ships and various sizes and configurations. The key would be getting the balance right.

Have a race based system with classes unique to those races, if you want a Startrek "feel" you have to get with the racial relationships and cultures.

Federation, Ferengi, Klingon, Vulcan, Romulan etc etc all have very complicated relationships with each other and very diverse cultures.

Personally i'd put ground combat on hold and go initially for a space-based mmo. Sure you'd need ships and starbases to explore as a character, also be able to board other ships, shuttles etc. Have the basics of fps combat on the ships so you can board, invade, attack, defend etc. Actual ground assaults can follow once you have the basics sorted out in an enclosed and easily controllable environment such as a ships corridors and compartments.

One thing players will want is the ability to explore, this is a real problem as to get it right you need a huge amount of content. PvE is not a good idea on any significant scale outside of special events such as Borg invasions etc. The question is can enough players be found to cover all the races to a number where large-scale combat is not only possible, but very achievable. If not then your talking about npc races or at least npc characters making up the balance between races, and that can be tricky.

Another issue is the type of player a Star Trek mmo can attract. You want to cater for the hardcore mmo players, but if you tap into the trekkie crowd, you'll find the vast majority will want to roleplay and probably not all of them will want pvp in any way.

It's a difficult thing for something with so much background to fit into an mmo, you have to pick a specific angle and direct the game that way, you'll struggle be able to cover it all in enough detail to suit your target audience.

[Dreamor]

Faeldawn
Its not been dropped at all, its just struggling to find people to pick up the game full time (Cryptic have it right now.)

personally I think they are going about it the wrong way with taking on too much to soon. Yes it would be nice to have ship AND planet combat but right now nether are very good. My thoughts are doing it similar to SWG and perhaps have an expansion for space combat but alas its fallen on deaf ears. The problem you will have with making a space-based MMO is EVERYONE will be captain of a whopping big ship and it will end up being Eve with a Star Trek skin job.

Click to:

Right now Starfleet and Klingons (although I didn't get it working) are in and the crew are pretty decent, NPC quests etc are pretty decent enough.

I'd post pic's but then I'd probably get shot ... by
a phaser no less

[old.Tohtori]

I could give a few ideas, but i don't want to 'cause they're written on my own design

But. If they wanted to start Star Trek MMO, they should start from the early days of the Alliance, introduce bloodlines so you play multiple characters and their offspring as the game advances(would explain "bugs" when it's crappy tech) and also it should have the opportunity and database to be really anally micromanaging of a game, or simply a "security officer" thing.

It's quite simple really.

and do remember to give due credit to us for ideas

[Dreamor]

Your own written design, shame Cryptic have all the franchise tied up now

PM me if you want to discuss or MSN/Skype me

... [credit to FH] no doubt will be in the back of the book

[old.Tohtori]

Originally Posted by Dreamor

Your own written design, shame Cryptic have all the franchise tied up now

PM me if you want to discuss or MSN/Skype me

... [credit to FH] no doubt will be in the back of the book

Hehe, aye and it's gonna be REVOLUTIONARY!

Don't they all say that about design?

What you doing by the way?

As in, writing a book, actually at Cryptic?

[Dreamor]

Originally Posted by old.Tohtori

Hehe, aye and it's gonna be REVOLUTIONARY!

Don't they all say that about design?

What you doing by the way?

As in, writing a book, actually at Cryptic?

givf PM or MSN me if you want to chat

[Faeldawn]

Originally Posted by Dreamor

Faeldawn
Its not been dropped at all, its just struggling to find people to pick up the game full time (Cryptic have it right now.)

personally I think they are going about it the wrong way with taking on too much to soon. Yes it would be nice to have ship AND planet combat but right now nether are very good. My thoughts are doing it similar to SWG and perhaps have an expansion for space combat but alas its fallen on deaf ears. The problem you will have with making a space-based MMO is EVERYONE will be captain of a whopping big ship and it will end up being Eve with a Star Trek skin job.

Click to:

Right now Starfleet and Klingons (although I didn't get it working) are in and the crew are pretty decent, NPC quests etc are pretty decent enough.

I'd post pic's but then I'd probably get shot ... by
a phaser no less

As i said above, i agree they need to focus on something specifically, not try and fit it all in as it's 30 years of history and a huge undertaking trying to make space, land and ships all work at once in an MMO.

If you are trying to market a Star Trek MMO you have to realise everyone will primarily want to experience starship play, thats what it's famous for. If it's land-based then your only essentially making another mmo with a Star Trek flavour, same as Lotro, DDO, SWG etc etc. Sure add this content later, but i think you would be making a huge mistake if this is the basis of the game.

I think your dead wrong btw about everyone wanting to be the captain (reread my opinions above on how to make this work) . If a starship crew is run in the same way as a guild it will work as you need a good mix of crew types to make it all work properly. You just need to have smaller fighter-class ships for those intrepid soloers and other types of ships for players who play in small groups. Also you'll have a large number of players who want to experience being part of a large starship crew and thats best experienced for some as an engineer, tactical, medical or science officer.

Starships and their crews are the key to making this successful, it would be something new and unique AND something thousands of gamers have been waiting for since the days of Elite. You'll tap the MMO market, mainstream gamers and Trekkie fans alike.

[LordjOX]

Then again as someone mentioned, if everyone was captains of a big ship it would be EVE with star trek ships instead. Star Trek is alot about living on these ships aswell..

Do you work for cryptic, are you even allowed to talk about this?

[Dreamor]

Originally Posted by LordjOX

Then again as someone mentioned, if everyone was captains of a big ship it would be EVE with star trek ships instead. Star Trek is alot about living on these ships aswell..

Do you work for cryptic, are you even allowed to talk about this?

I can't post any screenies that I had here or upload the videos, but I don't work for Cryptic, I work for another Developer/Publisher.

[Dreamor]

Originally Posted by Faeldawn

As i said above, i agree they need to focus on something specifically, not try and fit it all in as it's 30 years of history and a huge undertaking trying to make space, land and ships all work at once in an MMO.

If you are trying to market a Star Trek MMO you have to realise everyone will primarily want to experience starship play, thats what it's famous for. If it's land-based then your only essentially making another mmo with a Star Trek flavour, same as Lotro, DDO, SWG etc etc. Sure add this content later, but i think you would be making a huge mistake if this is the basis of the game.

I think your dead wrong btw about everyone wanting to be the captain (reread my opinions above on how to make this work) . If a starship crew is run in the same way as a guild it will work as you need a good mix of crew types to make it all work properly. You just need to have smaller fighter-class ships for those intrepid soloers and other types of ships for players who play in small groups. Also you'll have a large number of players who want to experience being part of a large starship crew and thats best experienced for some as an engineer, tactical, medical or science officer.

Starships and their crews are the key to making this successful, it would be something new and unique AND something thousands of gamers have been waiting for since the days of Elite. You'll tap the MMO market, mainstream gamers and Trekkie fans alike.

If say your engineers are offline, bank holiday weekend? then how are you going to maintain the ship? The original STO idea revolved around the idea that engineers would maintain/craft and keep the general ship running, but how likely is it that, if the Captain or Command structure are having fun blasting away on the top deck, the engineers and other 'classes' will want to be confined to the lower decks doing something else and feeling less involved?

And the problems with hitting the MMO Market is, it would have to come to a compromist on what Trekkie fans wanted... and ultimately at a cost of £££££££'s - which i hear is very high for the Star Trek license (as to be expected)

[Faeldawn]

Originally Posted by Dreamor

If say your engineers are offline, bank holiday weekend? then how are you going to maintain the ship? The original STO idea revolved around the idea that engineers would maintain/craft and keep the general ship running, but how likely is it that, if the Captain or Command structure are having fun blasting away on the top deck, the engineers and other 'classes' will want to be confined to the lower decks doing something else and feeling less involved?

And the problems with hitting the MMO Market is, it would have to come to a compromist on what Trekkie fans wanted... and ultimately at a cost of £££££££'s - which i hear is very high for the Star Trek license (as to be expected)

Read what you just posted and apply it to old and current mmo's where many, many player have for decades played support classes, healers etc and been very happy playing that role. If they are a key part of the overall success and are indeed essential crewmen, it won't be a problem.

I'm sorry, but if you think EVERYONE will want to be blowing shit up, your really quite naieve as to what mmo players actually want in their gaming and even more out of touch with the kind of thing Star Trek fans want.

Honestly you'll probably find more players want to play Tactical Officers, Helmsmen and Engineers than actual Captains.

You asked about Star Trek "flavour" and what Star Trek fans want, well there it is from my perspective.