MMORPG Thoughts and Other things that I can't get out of My Head

As a disciple of the MMORPG system, I offer my humble thoughts in this blog.

Author: fansede

Star Trek Online is the working title of a MMORPG being developed by Perpetual Entertainment which was announced on September 7, 2004.^[1] The game is expected to be a major release that will create a massive online arena for PC players to participate as Starfleet officers in the Star Trek universe.  The stated plan calls for the launch in the final quarter of 2008.

SO says the infamous Wikipedia.

As of this post, it has been three years, and we have an official website with scant amount of pictures of concept art, a page or so of development logs (Although the world builder stuff was interesting) and a few press releases.  Is that it?

Wikipedia seems to explain the game well enough, but developer interviews leave us scratching our heads.  The big issue with followers of the game is starship interiors. We do not want an Earth and Beyond experience where players simply acquire a ship, seek to obtain a means to upgrade your vessel so you can be a proud owner of your very own Galaxy Class Starship. We also do not want all our ships to be hubs or socialized areas where you seek out missions beam to your location and play like every other instanced MMO.

They say its going to be 50% space oriented and 50% 3rd person missions. This would be a good start. I just do not know where to go foward from there. Wikipedia says you will choose from professions like tactical/security, science and engineering. Medics is a skill not a profession in this game. The Commanding track is optional?

The ship doctor in Star Trek has definitely been a major character in all the Star Trek series. I cannot imagine why Perpetual could not develop this role in the game. Doctors, as we know can command their own medical starships as well.  I can only surmise the designers are stumped on how a doctor would truly contribute to space combat. After all, an Engineer can "heal" a ship via repair abilities. What can a ships doctor do? Heal players at their consoles?

Not at all. I see the doctor handle the entire crew during a ship to ship battle. Lets imagine a "group" of a Captain, an engineer, a security officer and a science officer player on the same ship. Now obiviously  in the dangerous away missions it would be foolish to leave their doctor on the ship.  However, we want to keep the doctor active during a space battle. I propose that the ships performace is intimatley tied the crew, players and NPCs alike.

The ship has a complement of x amount of ensigns or crew members for each section of the ship. Lets say this ship is small and has 10 crew in engineering, 10 science officers, 10 security members and 10 in tactical.  These crew all contribute to the perfomance of the ship in addition to other player skills. For simplicity sake, the engineers contribute to the ships repair rate and the speed of the ship. the security members are essential protecting the crew from on board attacks as well as weapon targeting and reload rate of torpedoes. The science team provides accurate informaion on the your ship and enemy data, such as its shield /weapon systems, and special attacks by the enemy or special tehnologies implmented by the ship. The tactical crew contributes to ship responsiveness in movement and allows rapid commands from captain to crew to take place.

IF the ship is in combat, the ship undergoes damage. If the hull receives damage, crew become injured. Injured crew are immediately sent to sick bay. It is up to the doctor to get the crew back in healthy condition so they contribute to ship duties. The doctor could simply act like a "crafter" at a machine at first. A bumped head condition is delat with a stimulant. A burnt officer is given a dermal regenerator treatment. If another player is hurt, the player is taken to sickbay. The player cannot do anything until the doctor medic fixes him up.  The player becomes a "crafting table" with various conditions going on that can vary from a simple laceration to a critical life threatening injury.  The doctor uses all the skills, items and medicines available to heal the player. Failure to heal the player effectively means the ship is without a key team member.

Doctors also can protect the crew with immunizations, medical innovations to protect them against alien incursions and predatory life forms that come on the ship.

Just one of several suggestions for STO.