Originally posted by kyme

The thing that killed the hype for me was that everyone was to have their own ship. The simple fix for this would be to have everyone on a server on 4 different ships: federation, klingon, rom, borg. With a 2K connection limit on each server this would be about 500 people to a ship. Ships are huge people could progress like an ordinary crew member.Each week these ships would visit a new planet where characters could leave the ship and interact with the planet.

 

Wouldn't this be more enjoyable and easier than what they have planned?

Nope.  Not in the least.

For one thing the guild I am in, if we got the turnout here that we got in WAR, could field 500 players ourselves, so thats 1/4th the server population that you would ask for.  Now, since we are a guild we would probably start off far better than others that had 500 complete strangers that are all bickering because 497 of them all want to be captain.  Must ask you, in all seriousness, are you going to pay ostensibly $50.00 for a box and $15.00 per month to, oh I dunno, bring the captain their freaking tea/coffee?  How the frack are you going to find entertaining things for FIVE HUNDRED people to do on board one stinkin lousy ship?  Then enough things for the lowliest scrub to do that would warrant a promotion in a decent amount of time rather than the years it takes for people to actually gain ranks?  This would be anything but easy for a developer to come up with and would insure a quick and painful death for this kind of a game.  I mean seriously this does not even remotely sound like fun and I think you should lay off the eggnog before posting lol. :)

 I don't like this idea.  in all versions of Star Trek the galaxy was rife with all sorts of ships:  faction, private, rogue, alien...you name it.  Getting pigeon holed on to one ship with (I assume) a limited role would really suck.  Who gets to pick the roles on the ship?  There are only a limited number of slots for certain types of positions.  Would people who started playing the game late be forced in to red shirt roles? 

I see nothing wrong with the idea of letting people captain their own ship of some kind.  I'm further assuming that to get to an uber ship is going to take an assload of work? And that most people will have fairly mundane/average ships?  Not sure about this.

500 or more PC crew on a single ship would sure suck.

But 2-10, depending on the available "battle"stations on the bridge would be ok.
If one disconnets in the middle of a fight?
Who cares? the next one - or the one with the "least important" station takes his place.
Only one player left? - NPCs take over, just as they plan to do it now.

But ST is really about a crew, not just a single person.
Besides, it is supposed to be a RPG too, and one can't really expect to raise all bridge skills equally.
There WILL be people placing more emphasis on engineering, or tactical or science or nav.
They could just as well put those skills to the best use for the the ship.

And keeping a group (of 2-max10) occupied isn't really THAT hard.
It all depends on how they plan to "mission" the game.
If it's all "free action" then yes, there will be boring periods.
If however they issue - at least some - NPC missions (patrol here, deliver medics there...),
then they could make use of instances or "instatravel" to get people to their first waypoint in no time,
which would mean quasi insta-action for all crew.

IMO they should implement it so that you can have an unlimited number of PCs (well, limited only by the number of rooms or size of life support - not saying you'd ever get that many PCs on one ship but why limit it artificially?) on a ship but REQUIRE only one.
PERHAPS require more than one on the major ships in the game, as it's rather unrealistic for a borg cube to be operated by only one drone.
Or for a galaxy class or D'deridex for that matter.

For (dedicated) solo players there are classes like the defiant which aren't exactly "small" either...

The OP is deluded.

It's a non issue to begin with. Cryptic has stated that they are considering putting in PC bridge crew post launch.

The core game has to be a captain game. Then Cryptic can develop a bridge crew type game. Given the amount of content and core game layout that needs to be done, it's not feasible to put in PC bridge crew by launch.

I agree Guilds should be able to fill a ship to RP in STO. But it will be hard to give people anything to do beyond the 3 or 4th bridge officer. People will have to RP mostly.

I don't think STO has any major issues.

We are lucky Cryptic is putting in ship interiors, otherwise PC bridge crew would be a remote possibility, instead of something they will put in later.

Originally posted by daadamo

While I am no fanboy of everyone being a Captain of their own ship, I have to agree with Bren here. Being one of a couple hundred people on a ship would suck beyond belief. Some lucky shmoe gets to be weapons officer while I am stuck as third supply ensign. The only way ship crews would work and keep everyone happy is if they were part of the bridge crew, other than that it would be boring as hell and might as well be Star Trek Second Life (ugh.)

agreed

I realize it isn't being coded for the option of choice, at this time but, I sure wish it would be.

For those who do not want a "boring" ship experience, fine.  Pilot/Captain your own ship.  But, I believe we could be given a choice; especially if the AI "automated" crew system will be as robust as they say.

They have stated they may open crew play in the future but at the moment it is not coded for the option and that is quite understandable.  But, to me, that is just not good enough an answer to warrant my subscription.  So, my reply to them is:

I'll wait to buy/try ST:O when the choice to be a non-Captain member of the crew is coded ingame.

Originally posted by kyme

The thing that killed the hype for me was that everyone was to have their own ship. The simple fix for this would be to have everyone on a server on 4 different ships: federation, klingon, rom, borg. With a 2K connection limit on each server this would be about 500 people to a ship. Ships are huge people could progress like an ordinary crew member.Each week these ships would visit a new planet where characters could leave the ship and interact with the planet.

 

Wouldn't this be more enjoyable and easier than what they have planned?

Umm....no it wouldn't. It would suck big time. The only people enjoying it would be the ones who get to be on the bridge. You do know that a ship only has ONE captain right?Only about 10 out of those 500 get to be on the bridge doing anything fun.The rest are stuck in the galley cleaning pots. No thanks. 

They already stated that there will be missions put in later on where you and your trek buddies can get together and pretend like your a real crew on a bridge. Far as I'm concerned, this is only an issue with trekkies who want to fulfill their life long fantasy of  being in charge over other people on a bridge setting. The only people who benefit from this are the people who have no lives and play 24/7 to level. You got to make the game fun for the most amount of people playing because after all this is a business.

I think the game looks promising so far. Now if they move away from skill based combat and/or a player run economy, then I'll start to join the naysayers. 

I know nothing about this game, but I kinda liked Star Trek Deep Space 9, so I wanted to check out some of  the threads.

I think it would be cool for individuals to have little ships they can cruise the galaxy with, but huge Enterprise type ships for "Crews".  You know, something like a guild I guess. Parties could hop into the leaders small ship, and if they decide to form a guild (or whatever it would be called in this game) they could get a big ship.

Like I said, I know nothing about the game, so I may just souond completely stupid to you who are educated in the game.  I just had a (very uneducated) opinion of what I think would be cool.

Originally posted by kyme

The thing that killed the hype for me was that everyone was to have their own ship. The simple fix for this would be to have everyone on a server on 4 different ships: federation, klingon, rom, borg. With a 2K connection limit on each server this would be about 500 people to a ship. Ships are huge people could progress like an ordinary crew member.Each week these ships would visit a new planet where characters could leave the ship and interact with the planet.

 

Wouldn't this be more enjoyable and easier than what they have planned?

Oh wow.... if they do that then the hype for star trek will die and "almost" nobody will buy it.

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Originally posted by kyme
The thing that killed the hype for me was that everyone was to have their own ship. The simple fix for this would be to have everyone on a server on 4 different ships: federation, klingon, rom, borg. With a 2K connection limit on each server this would be about 500 people to a ship. Ships are huge people could progress like an ordinary crew member.Each week these ships would visit a new planet where characters could leave the ship and interact with the planet.
 
Wouldn't this be more enjoyable and easier than what they have planned?

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Heck no, I wanna be the Captain and live!

I don't wanna be Crewman #5 and get killed by the Bolusian tree squirrels.

I want my own ship dammit!

Actually I think what NcSoft has proposed works 75% of the way. I think what people want is the best of both worlds and they can have that.

Give Individual players command of SMALLER vessles with NPC crews. If you want to be a Doctor, fine Command a Medical vessle. Engineer dandy career work at Utopia Planetia Shipyards design or build ships. (I will get to this in a few paragraphs bear with me.)

At the same time there is NO reason one of your friends cannot login and perform one of the tasks your NPC's do. For all of the fans of Player controlled chips let me ask you a question: Its 1am you login and while on board the ship gets attacked but the Tactical Officer is not online and your a Science Officer. Who fires the weapons and man's tactical, That nameless guy who took over for Worf when he stepped away, IE NPC's.

So allowing players to command ships and letting their friends come to the ship and help would be fine just meet up at Starbase 328 or whatever. Leave your ship behind and go aboard his, (SW Galaxies had a similar system for some of its vessles.)

But the larger Capital size vessles. Such as the older Galaxy Class, Excelsior Class, Sovereign Class, Prometheus Class etc. Give those commands to a Guild and require the Guild Leader to be of sufficent rank to merit such a command. Then you can allow him to appoint Guild Members to His XO position, Chief Opps etc. Then when they are not on NPC's can take over.

However, once again you have to consider. Say the Captain logs in and changes the ship to say Rigel VII, then he logs out and you login. You had a quest at the planet you just left, what do you do. Take a shuttle and go back IE once again your in command of a ship again albeit a small vessle.

This game is only going to be great if every group comprimises a little bit. Yes we will all have ships, but that does not mean you have to all fly your ship every single day all the time. Join a guild ship or join a friends crew for a few hours when your done come back and take command of your own vessle again.

There are plenty of examples when the CO of the vessles left and allowed others to command. No reason why you couldnt.

Now what I said about Engineering. This game MUST have a sophisticated crafting system within it. Especially ones involving electronics and ship parts. If as an Engineer I can stay at Earth and design a starship using an in game set of tools to control its looks and piece it together. Then supply the mats and build the hull and then fill it with all the required parts. Then submit the vessle the Starfleet Starship Design Dept for others to take command, (Or purchase I cannot solve the game's economic system within the confines of this post although I do have a few idea's.) Or take the ship yourself as long as you meet the minimum command parameters.

As for Doctors what do they do when no one is sick someone asked in a post, you can craft Hyposprays attempt mini games to solve dieseases, and counter toxins. Or leave the ship and go on a mission say: Priority 2 Mission Disease Breaks Out on Risa, any Starfleet Medical Personnel Appreciated. Once there you work on Triage, Qurantine and work with others to contribute wins in some sort of Mini Game to solve a planet wide disease. Sounds like fun to me, and most others who like playing Med officers.

In the end I could describe a few paragraphs of content for every Starfleet Profession and several non Starfleet ones. I have been running a Star Trek Tabletop game for 10 years and have addressed the problems plenty of times. How do you keep your players engaged on the ship without throwing some BIG huge flashy objective at them week after week.

I admire NCSoft's tenacity to take on the project of Star Trek. This is no easy task and writing content for it would be hard but I would sell off body parts to do it lol.

I am sure my post will merit critiscims, that's fine it is always easy to tell people what is wrong with things but it is so much harder to come up with solutions to the problems. So to the OP I don;t like your idea but hat's off to you for actually giving an Idea. The idea is where every single great invention, leap in technology and TV show came from.

So keep the idea's flowing man who knows one day you might post one so good a game dec will use it.

This is why I don't hold out much hope that this game will be anything more than EvE with a Star Trek skin (a phrase I'm copyrighting, by the way). 

Not all IPs make good MMOs.

The game Starquest Online has done this.  On Starquest Online the players have to work on a ship, with a crew of other players, this did bring a certain fun aspect to the game, but it also brought more problems than its worth;

For one, there was no activity, the ships had to operate on a timezone basis, this meant i had to wait until approx' 7-8PM GMT until i could play.  This is a subscription game we are talking about here, and you pay for the multiplayer experience, not to sit around until the captain or the next ranking officer comes Online.

The way Star Trek Online is going to be, there will be massive fleet battles, because of the number of players, there is the possibility of special ships where you can use them as troop transports, to get 15 odd people of your fleet to do a very hard ground mission.  There is also room for visits over to friends ships, see how they have customized their vessel, possibly even beam yourself and an engineering team over to help them mod it out with equipment you have in your cargo bay.  It raises more rewards this way.

In short, i am going to stick with the way they are making STO ATM, as i think it would make the game allot better.