While on the ground, players will be able to direct the team individually or as a group. Players grouping for planet exploration will choose which officers to bring with them as away teams consist of five characters whether players or Bridge Crew.
..
Now every one wana be a captian, you dont wana boring comunication officer
its like the Jedi in swg, everyone wanted to be a jedi, 90% of swg is jedi.
you roleplay a captain and manage your own crew, next to that you play in fleets and rp the missions both in space and on thr ground whit other players. those players and you fill in the roles of the crew as you have your jobs .. your not only captian, but also a xxxxx officer. guild leader highest rank? then he is the away team boss., your the medic and joe is the science officer. now go find and cure that wierd virus thats killing the planet...
theres always someting to nitpick about for anny mmo, but on this subject i beleve cryptic as put a lot of good tought in it..
I really have to pull myself together not to YELL at you. Sorry, I dont mean this bad but... in SWG, it was NOT THAT 90% were Jedi. This wasnt the case in no time! I was very happy with my Dancer, and there were a LOT Entertainers, not even doing any combat in the Pre-NGE era. And even later, when Jedi was for all. It is just a myth, that everyone wants to be Captain. I would love to be Science Officer or Councilor/Diplomat in STO. No, no and no.
Despite my deep distrust against making everyone Captain - it still sounds very lonesome to me - this plan does sound interesting. I like that part that you can make the Bridge crew member all look like you design. So cool! Now expect me to make all sexy looking guys, surrounding me, muhahaha. I'll use them for unimaginable things, when the com-screen goes off, hrhr.
Ok, one can dream, no? Dont tell me you straight guys are not tempted to surround yourself all with girls in mini-skirts!
...
Sheesh... did I write this...
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
They could've gone the 'start as a cadet and work your way up route', but honestly, think about how many lowly, boring jobs a cadet or low-ranking officer would have to do to get to a "fun" position. I think most people would be happier being a captain from day one, and gradually getting bigger and better ships.
I don't know about starting as a cadet, but wasn't there a ST:TNG episode where Picard sends out a group of Ensigns on a mission (Almost had the feel of a series spin off episode) ? That would be one way to start low with just a shuttle and slowly work your way up in rank and ship command. The other of course would be the standard 'ship battle / damage / emergency, you're the most senior still alive - take command!' situation and you work up from there.
Be interesting to see the back story on how you came to command a small destroyer / science vessel at the start 10 to 12 years into your career.
"Captain" is both rank and honor. I've been going through the ST:DS9 dvds lately, and this is shown quite frequently. Technically, Sisco is the only captain by rank, but whenever he turns over the Defiant to Worf or Dax or Kira and leaves the ship, the officer left in command is called "captain."
Correct. "Captain" refers either to the military rank, in this case a Naval O-6 who commands a fairly large vessel or a small task force, or the honorific title of a ship's commanding officer. In several areas in Star Trek, commanding officers of grades lower than Captain are found, at least down through Lieutenant Commander. In fact, I think Lieutenant Commander is the grade at which one can achieve command of their own ship. But on that ship, their title would be 'Captain', and even another Captain who happened to be on board would be required to refer to them as such. The visiting Captain, I believe, is titled 'Commodore' while aboard to alleviate confusion.
This is rather a humorous thread. To all those that think they need a bridge crew made of up players please explain how you would implement it. So far, in all the threads I had read both on the site boards and here, not one of you has even come close to an playable solution. So all that brainpower comes up empty and yet you still continue to whine about it? Besides the captain there is little to do on the bridge for the other roles when flying, how many players would be happy doing such, 1 ...2 ...a few more? Besides what happens when the rest of the party disagrees with the captain? I could go on and on with all the issues Cryptic would face implementing such an idea. All I can say is thank heavens they decided against it, or this game would never see the light of day. Next time before you whine please come up with some workable solutions.
If they couldn't come up with things for five or six people (playing different roles) to do then they are pretty pathetic as game developers. As someone else pointed out, what's the difference between this and the typical sort of game with tanks, healers, buffers, etc.?
You can't think of anything? The devs can't think of anything? Ok, just off the top of my head here are some ideas.
Helmsman---flies the ship. Controls speed and positioning. Tries to avoid enemy fire while positioning his ship so that the tactical officer can fire at vulnerable points on the enemy.
Tactical---Aims and fires the weapons. Decides which areas of the sheilds get how much of the power alloted to the shields.
Science officer---Uses sensors to detect weakness in enemy sheilds and vulnerble points on enemy ship. Spots stealthed ships. Jams enemy sensors. Detects if enemy sheilds have "phased" to a different "frequency" or some such. The tactical officer will rely on the science officer to inform him where the best targeting points are. Also detects incoming fire, the helmsman will rely on him to advise evasive action.
Engineer----Directs repair crews to various parts of the ship that are damaged. Has to decide which repairs are most critical. Controls overall power allotments....30% to weapons, 20% to sensors, 10% to lifesupport, 20% to sheilds, 20% to engines...that sort of thing. If he gives 20% to sheilds the tactical officer then decides how to split that 20% between forward, aft, etc. sheilds.
Ok, that's four right there off the top of my head.
So how would it play out in a battle? You are fired on by an enemy ship. The science officer sceams, "Incoming from 45 degrees!" (meaning the front right side). The helmsman kicks the ship in the ass forward and veers left then tries to bring it around so the weapons can bear on the enemy ship while avoiding further fire. But you take some hits as he brings it around. The engineer is deploying repair crews but the power is dropping so he cuts power to the engines and diverts it to weapons so you can hit the enemy hard on the first pass.
The science officer determines that the lower aft center shields of the enemy ship are weakest and informs tactical. Tactical screams, "I can't hit it from this angle! Take us below and turn the f-ck around when we get behind him!"
The helmsman screams, "Engine power is too low! I can't get behind unless I get some speed. Engineer wake the hell up!!"
The engineer screams, "Ok, damn it! But you canna have full power for all systems when we've ony got 70% power left! Cutting power to shields. Full impulse...NOW!"
ZOOMMM....the helmsman sweeps under and behind the enemy and turns about. While he's doing this the tactical officer diverts all shield power to the topside shields (because you're going under the enemy ship). BOOM---KABOOM...everyone leans hard to the left for a few seconds. But it's not as bad as it could have been because the science officer was jaming their sensors and they couldn't tell that they should have targeted the very rear of the ship instead of the top center.
The engineer screams, "They just took out our main phaser array!"
Tactical--"I'll have to use photons and the secondary array! Give me all you've got RIGHT NOW!
Engineering--diverts all power to weapons just as the helmsman gets the ship into position and the science officer verifies the exact spot to target.
Tactical targets...fires all weapons. KABLEWY, the enemy ship explodes in a pretty fireworks display.
Now wouldn't that be a heck of a lot more fun than having mindless NPCs automatically doing everything for you?
This is rather a humorous thread. To all those that think they need a bridge crew made of up players please explain how you would implement it. So far, in all the threads I had read both on the site boards and here, not one of you has even come close to an playable solution. So all that brainpower comes up empty and yet you still continue to whine about it? Besides the captain there is little to do on the bridge for the other roles when flying, how many players would be happy doing such, 1 ...2 ...a few more? Besides what happens when the rest of the party disagrees with the captain? I could go on and on with all the issues Cryptic would face implementing such an idea. All I can say is thank heavens they decided against it, or this game would never see the light of day. Next time before you whine please come up with some workable solutions.
If they couldn't come up with things for five or six people (playing different roles) to do then they are pretty pathetic as game developers. As someone else pointed out, what's the difference between this and the typical sort of game with tanks, healers, buffers, etc.?
You can't think of anything? The devs can't think of anything? Ok, just off the top of my head here are some ideas.
Helmsman---flies the ship. Controls speed and positioning. Tries to avoid enemy fire while positioning his ship so that the tactical officer can fire at vulnerable points on the enemy.
Tactical---Aims and fires the weapons. Decides which areas of the sheilds get how much of the power alloted to the shields.
Science officer---Uses sensors to detect weakness in enemy sheilds and vulnerble points on enemy ship. Spots stealthed ships. Jams enemy sensors. Detects if enemy sheilds have "phased" to a different "frequency" or some such. The tactical officer will rely on the science officer to inform him where the best targeting points are. Also detects incoming fire, the helmsman will rely on him to advise evasive action.
Engineer----Directs repair crews to various parts of the ship that are damaged. Has to decide which repairs are most critical. Controls overall power allotments....30% to weapons, 20% to sensors, 10% to lifesupport, 20% to sheilds, 20% to engines...that sort of thing. If he gives 20% to sheilds the tactical officer then decides how to split that 20% between forward, aft, etc. sheilds.
Ok, that's four right there off the top of my head.
So how would it play out in a battle? You are fired on by an enemy ship. The science officer sceams, "Incoming from 45 degrees!" (meaning the front right side). The helmsman kicks the ship in the ass forward and vears left then tries to bring it around so the weapons can bear on the enemy ship while avoiding further fire. But you take some hits as he brings it around. The engineer is deploying repair crews but the power is dropping so he cuts power to the engines and diverts it to weapons so you can hit the enemy hard on the first pass.
The science officers determines that the lower aft center shields of the enemy ship are weakest and informs tactical. Tactical screams, "I can't hit it from this angle! Take us below and turn the f-ck around when we get behind him!"
The helmsman screams, "Engine power is too low! I can't get behind unless I get some speed. Engineer wake the hell up!!"
The engineer screams, "Ok, damn it! But you canna have full power for all systems when we've ony got 70% power left! Cutting power to shields. Full impulse...NOW!"
ZOOMMM....the helmsman sweeps under and behind the enemy and turns about. While he's doing this the tactical officer diverts all shield power to the topside shields (because you're going under the enemy ship). BOOM---KABOOM...everyone leans hard to the left for a few seconds. But it's not as bad as it could have been because the science officer was jaming their sensors and they couldn't tell that they should have targeted the very rear of the ship instead of the top center.
The engineer screams, "They just took out our main phaser array!"
Tactical--"I'll have to use photons and the secondary array! Give me all you've got RIGHT NOW!
Engineering--diverts all power to weapons just as the helmsman gets the ship into position and the science officer verifies the exact spot to target.
Tactical targets...fires all weapons. KABLEWY, the enemy ship explodes in a pretty fireworks display.
Now wouldn't that be a heck of a lot more fun than having mindless NPCs automatically doing everything for you?
Someone please wrap this post round a brick and throw it through the window at their next board meeting..
This is rather a humorous thread. To all those that think they need a bridge crew made of up players please explain how you would implement it. So far, in all the threads I had read both on the site boards and here, not one of you has even come close to an playable solution. So all that brainpower comes up empty and yet you still continue to whine about it? Besides the captain there is little to do on the bridge for the other roles when flying, how many players would be happy doing such, 1 ...2 ...a few more? Besides what happens when the rest of the party disagrees with the captain? I could go on and on with all the issues Cryptic would face implementing such an idea. All I can say is thank heavens they decided against it, or this game would never see the light of day. Next time before you whine please come up with some workable solutions.
If they couldn't come up with things for five or six people (playing different roles) to do then they are pretty pathetic as game developers. As someone else pointed out, what's the difference between this and the typical sort of game with tanks, healers, buffers, etc.?
You can't think of anything? The devs can't think of anything? Ok, just off the top of my head here are some ideas.
Helmsman---flies the ship. Controls speed and positioning. Tries to avoid enemy fire while positioning his ship so that the tactical officer can fire at vulnerable points on the enemy.
Tactical---Aims and fires the weapons. Decides which areas of the sheilds get how much of the power alloted to the shields.
Science officer---Uses sensors to detect weakness in enemy sheilds and vulnerble points on enemy ship. Spots stealthed ships. Jams enemy sensors. Detects if enemy sheilds have "phased" to a different "frequency" or some such. The tactical officer will rely on the science officer to inform him where the best targeting points are. Also detects incoming fire, the helmsman will rely on him to advise evasive action.
Engineer----Directs repair crews to various parts of the ship that are damaged. Has to decide which repairs are most critical. Controls overall power allotments....30% to weapons, 20% to sensors, 10% to lifesupport, 20% to sheilds, 20% to engines...that sort of thing. If he gives 20% to sheilds the tactical officer then decides how to split that 20% between forward, aft, etc. sheilds.
Ok, that's four right there off the top of my head.
So how would it play out in a battle? You are fired on by an enemy ship. The science officer sceams, "Incoming from 45 degrees!" (meaning the front right side). The helmsman kicks the ship in the ass forward and vears left then tries to bring it around so the weapons can bear on the enemy ship while avoiding further fire. But you take some hits as he brings it around. The engineer is deploying repair crews but the power is dropping so he cuts power to the engines and diverts it to weapons so you can hit the enemy hard on the first pass.
The science officers determines that the lower aft center shields of the enemy ship are weakest and informs tactical. Tactical screams, "I can't hit it from this angle! Take us below and turn the f-ck around when we get behind him!"
The helmsman screams, "Engine power is too low! I can't get behind unless I get some speed. Engineer wake the hell up!!"
The engineer screams, "Ok, damn it! But you canna have full power for all systems when we've ony got 70% power left! Cutting power to shields. Full impulse...NOW!"
ZOOMMM....the helmsman sweeps under and behind the enemy and turns about. While he's doing this the tactical officer diverts all shield power to the topside shields (because you're going under the enemy ship). BOOM---KABOOM...everyone leans hard to the left for a few seconds. But it's not as bad as it could have been because the science officer was jaming their sensors and they couldn't tell that they should have targeted the very rear of the ship instead of the top center.
The engineer screams, "They just took out our main phaser array!"
Tactical--"I'll have to use photons and the secondary array! Give me all you've got RIGHT NOW!
Engineering--diverts all power to weapons just as the helmsman gets the ship into position and the science officer verifies the exact spot to target.
Tactical targets...fires all weapons. KABLEWY, the enemy ship explodes in a pretty fireworks display.
Now wouldn't that be a heck of a lot more fun than having mindless NPCs automatically doing everything for you?
And what does the Captain do in your scenario? The problem is... everyone will want to be the captain, or even the Pilot. What if you pilot flies all over the place and refuses to listen to the Captain? Then what?
If you say the Captain has all the power, well then what's the difference between the captain having the power over PC's or just being the Captain of your ship? Many people would rather just be the captain of their own ship there.
If you say there's nothing they can do, well then what fun is it if you're at the mercy of just 1 person? And if that's the case, why would anyone want to be anything other than the pilot?
Originally posted by Linthead4504 And what does the Captain do in your scenario? The problem is... everyone will want to be the captain, or even the Pilot. What if you pilot flies all over the place and refuses to listen to the Captain? Then what? If you say the Captain has all the power, well then what's the difference between the captain having the power over PC's or just being the Captain of your ship? Many people would rather just be the captain of their own ship there. If you say there's nothing they can do, well then what fun is it if you're at the mercy of just 1 person? And if that's the case, why would anyone want to be anything other than the pilot?
If you read my earlier post in my opinion their shouldn't be a specific "captain" profession. Everyone should be either a helmsman, a tactical officer, science officer, or whatever but no specific "captain" career.
When you put a group together the person who forms the group would be the Captain of that particular crew for the duration of the session. So sometimes you would be the captain and sometimes someone else would be the captain. But even if you are the captain you would still do your specific job in the group (piloting or engineer or tactical or whatever). If they actually had you on the bridge inside the ship we can just assume that all jobs could be done from the captains chair.
If you get an idiot in your group like a pilot who "flies all over the place" you just leave that group and remember never to group with that guy again. Take a shuttle back to the space station or beam back or whatever and get a different group or get a different pilot. It's hardly an insurmountable task.
How the hell is this going to be an MMO?!?! Jeez, if I want to have a gaggle of NPCs to direct, I'll install IceWind Dales and play through that game, or one of the many others just like it.
I don't like passing judgment on games before they're released because impressions are often incorrect, but this just sounds horrible. Ugh. I'll still keep on eye on STO, but this doesn't sound the least bit revolutionary, innovative, or interesting.
SWG Veteran and Refugee, Intrepid server NGE free as of Nov. 22, 2005 Now Playing: World of Warcrack Forum Terrorist
Originally posted by Linthead4504 And what does the Captain do in your scenario? The problem is... everyone will want to be the captain, or even the Pilot. What if you pilot flies all over the place and refuses to listen to the Captain? Then what? If you say the Captain has all the power, well then what's the difference between the captain having the power over PC's or just being the Captain of your ship? Many people would rather just be the captain of their own ship there. If you say there's nothing they can do, well then what fun is it if you're at the mercy of just 1 person? And if that's the case, why would anyone want to be anything other than the pilot?
I see this argument a lot too in discussions against player crews and it too is easily dismissed: In every mmo I've played when there is a group, someone is the leader. Whats the problem?
I'm really excited to hear this, but I'm kind of worried at how he compares bridge officers to freaking epic gear. I think he even said "phat lootz" like a idiot also. Wouldn't it be kind of stupid for like, everyone to be trying to get the SAME person on their ship? All crew members and bridge officers should be uniquely named.
"It is in your nature to do one thing correctly; Before me, you rightfully tremble. But, fear is not what you owe me. You owe me awe." ~Francis Dolarhyde
Originally posted by Linthead4504 And what does the Captain do in your scenario? The problem is... everyone will want to be the captain, or even the Pilot. What if you pilot flies all over the place and refuses to listen to the Captain? Then what? If you say the Captain has all the power, well then what's the difference between the captain having the power over PC's or just being the Captain of your ship? Many people would rather just be the captain of their own ship there. If you say there's nothing they can do, well then what fun is it if you're at the mercy of just 1 person? And if that's the case, why would anyone want to be anything other than the pilot?
If you read my earlier post in my opinion their shouldn't be a specific "captain" profession. Everyone should be either a helmsman, a tactical officer, science officer, or whatever but no specific "captain" career.
When you put a group together the person who forms the group would be the Captain of that particular crew for the duration of the session. So sometimes you would be the captain and sometimes someone else would be the captain. But even if you are the captain you would still do your specific job in the group (piloting or engineer or tactical or whatever). If they actually had you on the bridge inside the ship we can just assume that all jobs could be done from the captains chair.
If you get an idiot in your group like a pilot who "flies all over the place" you just leave that group and remember never to group with that guy again. Take a shuttle back to the space station or beam back or whatever and get a different group or get a different pilot. It's hardly an insurmountable task.
It seems to me that not many people have actually gone to the STO website and actually read about this title. The role of captain is not a profession. Everybody is their own captain and everybody commands their own ship. The point of a group is to increase the potential fire-power while bringing you own personal skills to the table. Captain #1 is an excellent strategist, captain #2 is an explorer, captain #3 can be even be a paleontologist! What's the point? Everybody uses their own personal skills to further to the advancement of a group but do so from their own ship. At no point have I seen anything on the STO site that said you could become a member of another player's bridge crew, that's just insanity! Visiting another ship to see what the captain has done with it, on the other hand, is an interesting idea. Boarding an enemy vessel to carry out a tactical seizure of the vessel or just oust the captain, that would be interesting. Becoming a member of another captain's bridge crew to sit there staring at an LCARS screen and carry out orders.... Sure, it's RP, but it's not fun.
Even more to add would be the fact that not all players assess the same situation in the same way. When one person says to do something a particular way at a certain time, reaction times could suffer immensely. We don't live in an age where all internet connections are created equally, you know? What if your tactical officer were experiencing a high amount of lag when the helmsman manuevers in for the perfect shot and you miss your chance and everybody dies? Well, I see all the players that just lost their lives on this mission being extremely PO'd! "Sorry captain, my LCARS screen was extremely boring and froze on me multiple times...." That's not RP, that's crappy internet in a RTS simulation.
Where did people get the idea that grouping up would mean that you become a member of another player's bridge crew? I don't get it, I really don't. Never once have I seen the Defiant come to the aid of the Enterprise by transferring the bridge crew over... would that even make sense? Hell no it wouldn't!
"U.S.S. Yorktown here to assist you in the fight against these Klingons, prepare for a new bridge crew"
"Sure thing, just dock your capital ship with my skow so you can help me." States the captain of a trade vessel.
No, this doesn't work. Get a clue and then post here please?
Originally posted by Linthead4504 And what does the Captain do in your scenario? The problem is... everyone will want to be the captain, or even the Pilot. What if you pilot flies all over the place and refuses to listen to the Captain? Then what? If you say the Captain has all the power, well then what's the difference between the captain having the power over PC's or just being the Captain of your ship? Many people would rather just be the captain of their own ship there. If you say there's nothing they can do, well then what fun is it if you're at the mercy of just 1 person? And if that's the case, why would anyone want to be anything other than the pilot?
If you read my earlier post in my opinion their shouldn't be a specific "captain" profession. Everyone should be either a helmsman, a tactical officer, science officer, or whatever but no specific "captain" career.
When you put a group together the person who forms the group would be the Captain of that particular crew for the duration of the session. So sometimes you would be the captain and sometimes someone else would be the captain. But even if you are the captain you would still do your specific job in the group (piloting or engineer or tactical or whatever). If they actually had you on the bridge inside the ship we can just assume that all jobs could be done from the captains chair.
If you get an idiot in your group like a pilot who "flies all over the place" you just leave that group and remember never to group with that guy again. Take a shuttle back to the space station or beam back or whatever and get a different group or get a different pilot. It's hardly an insurmountable task.
Because ships in the Star Trek universe changed captains every engagement?
Originally posted by gauge2k3 Because ships in the Star Trek universe changed captains every engagement?
We're talking about a game, remember? If there were going to be human bridge crews people would have to let this slide just like in fantasy games they accept the fact that the same dragon can be killed a million times but never truly die. It is a game after all, it's about having fun. So let some other guy be captain today, you can be the captain tommorrow...geez, don't they teach good sportsmanship anymore?
And if you found a good group of people you really liked then you could always just stick with that group. If you all agreed to let one member of the group always be the captain, then fine, do that. If you were playing one day and your friends weren't logged on then maybe you could overcome your stubborness and join someone elses group for a while. Yes, you might have to let some other guy be captain for a hour or two, God forbid, but I don't think it would kill you.
The thing about this is that if being the captain wasn't that big a deal (he's just the guy who formed the group) I don't think people would get so hung up on it.
Originally posted by zeifertstc No, this doesn't work. Get a clue and then post here please?
I don't think you understood what I was talking about. I was suggesting how it could have worked if they had decided to go more of a grouping route with player crews. In my suggestion we wouldn't all be flying around in our own customized, hot rod, Star ships. You wouldn't park your ship and then beam over to another guys ship. You would group up with some people and then the group would be assigned to a standard configuration ship. Maybe the rank of the crew members would determine which types of ships you could be assigned to.
But if you want to talk about ridiculous, immersion breaking silliness. It's going to be pretty silly to have every player in the game flying around in his/her own personal, customized ship. The ships in Star Trek were all standard issue models with just a very few special exceptions. Each captain didn't have a modified hot rod to fly around in.
Yeah, I can just see it now. <<Captain Jaimes TTT Kirck #00347>> Flying around in the <<Enterprise #558211098>> with spoilers on the warp nascelles, a turbo charger, and pretty flames painted on the sides. Oh yeah, that's real "Star Trekky".
This is a good example of creating a game in your head that ignores how players actually behave. Hardcore guild players - or those disciplined enough to play as a team - might work, but the vast majority of players wouldn't. Pick up groups (PUGs) would be out entirely.
Here's how it would actually play out:
You are fired on by an enemy ship. The science officer screams, "54 degs!", accidentally transposing the '4' and the '5' when typing. The helmsman - who'd had the ship on autopilot and had gone off to get a drink because they weren't at the mission zone yet, does nothing and the ship takes some hits. The engineer is deploying repair crews but the power is dropping so he cuts power to the weapons because he wants shields up and hates random encounters and wants engines powered to get away.
The science officer determines that the lower aft center shields of the enemy ship are weakest and informs tactical. Tactical screams, "Eng need powre foton torpedoes!"
The helmsman comes back and finds everyone screaming at him. "OMG laaaaaggg!" he screams.
The engineer screams, "no eng to weapons, eng to shields, eng to engines - run away. mob gives lousy xp and drops"
Tactical screams, "i wanna fight - take 5 mins ez kill'
Helmsman is already turning the ship around because he just wants to get the mission xp and quit the ship because he's going out tonight (it's D&D night).
ZOOMMM....the helmsman sweeps under and behind the enemy and turns about. While he's doing this the tactical officer Engineer diverts all shield power to the topside shields (because you're going under the enemy ship). BOOM---KABOOM...everyone leans hard to the left for a few seconds everyone watches their ship fly under the under ship in a range of differing graphics quailty and system lag. But it's not as bad as it could have been because the science officer was debuffing their sensors accuracy and was also using a -dmg debuff.
The Engineer screams, "y u fly thru them? run away"
Tactical--"FITEFITEFITEFITEFIT n00bs FITEFITEFITEFITE" because he can't do anything else since Engineering has control over his weapon power.
Engineering--keeps all power in engines and shields so they can fly away with minimal damage.
Tactical screams, "u all sux <CENSORED> later loosers" and quits.
Science officer changes to Tactical position because firing guns is much better than applying debuffs.
Engineer screams, "cant do away mission on this map with only 3 palyers - needs 4 min"
Helmsman goes "omg wtf? i gotta go bye" and quits because he doesn't want to have to wait while they recruit another team member.
Engineer quits without saying goodbye.
The former Science Officer, now Tactical offer switches to Helmsman and the ship to solo mode and goes back to blow up the random encounter mob.
Now wouldn't that be a heck of a lot more fun than having mindless NPCs automatically doing everything for you?
More memorable? Yes. More fun? No.
Everything the system previously described puts your effectiveness in the hands of another player. That's a recipe for disaster. Bad Helmsman? Tactical can't do their job, Engineering has to repair more damage. Bad Tactical Officer? You are slow in taking out your oppontent. Bad Engineer? They get the shields and repair wrong and the ship gets blown up (unless the Helmsman can run away fast enough).
Even Puzzle Pirates, which uses a team-based system, still has a Captain who actually makes the decisions. Starfleet / the military aren't democracies. Group decision making sucks in pressure situations where everyone has their own preferences and no-one has the final say on which direction they all go in.
This is a good example of creating a game in your head that ignores how players actually behave. Hardcore guild players - or those disciplined enough to play as a team - might work, but the vast majority of players wouldn't. Pick up groups (PUGs) would be out entirely.
Here's how it would actually play out:
You are fired on by an enemy ship. The science officer screams, "54 degs!", accidentally transposing the '4' and the '5' when typing. The helmsman - who'd had the ship on autopilot and had gone off to get a drink because they weren't at the mission zone yet, does nothing and the ship takes some hits. The engineer is deploying repair crews but the power is dropping so he cuts power to the weapons because he wants shields up and hates random encounters and wants engines powered to get away.
The science officer determines that the lower aft center shields of the enemy ship are weakest and informs tactical. Tactical screams, "Eng need powre foton torpedoes!"
The helmsman comes back and finds everyone screaming at him. "OMG laaaaaggg!" he screams.
The engineer screams, "no eng to weapons, eng to shields, eng to engines - run away. mob gives lousy xp and drops"
Tactical screams, "i wanna fight - take 5 mins ez kill'
Helmsman is already turning the ship around because he just wants to get the mission xp and quit the ship because he's going out tonight (it's D&D night).
ZOOMMM....the helmsman sweeps under and behind the enemy and turns about. While he's doing this the tactical officer Engineer diverts all shield power to the topside shields (because you're going under the enemy ship). BOOM---KABOOM...everyone leans hard to the left for a few seconds everyone watches their ship fly under the under ship in a range of differing graphics quailty and system lag. But it's not as bad as it could have been because the science officer was debuffing their sensors accuracy and was also using a -dmg debuff.
The Engineer screams, "y u fly thru them? run away"
Tactical--"FITEFITEFITEFITEFIT n00bs FITEFITEFITEFITE" because he can't do anything else since Engineering has control over his weapon power.
Engineering--keeps all power in engines and shields so they can fly away with minimal damage.
Tactical screams, "u all sux <CENSORED> later loosers" and quits.
Science officer changes to Tactical position because firing guns is much better than applying debuffs.
Engineer screams, "cant do away mission on this map with only 3 palyers - needs 4 min"
Helmsman goes "omg wtf? i gotta go bye" and quits because he doesn't want to have to wait while they recruit another team member.
Engineer quits without saying goodbye.
The former Science Officer, now Tactical offer switches to Helmsman and the ship to solo mode and goes back to blow up the random encounter mob.
Now wouldn't that be a heck of a lot more fun than having mindless NPCs automatically doing everything for you?
More memorable? Yes. More fun? No.
Everything the system previously described puts your effectiveness in the hands of another player. That's a recipe for disaster. Bad Helmsman? Tactical can't do their job, Engineering has to repair more damage. Bad Tactical Officer? You are slow in taking out your oppontent. Bad Engineer? They get the shields and repair wrong and the ship gets blown up (unless the Helmsman can run away fast enough).
Even Puzzle Pirates, which uses a team-based system, still has a Captain who actually makes the decisions. Starfleet / the military aren't democracies. Group decision making sucks in pressure situations where everyone has their own preferences and no-one has the final say on which direction they all go in.
Same can be said nearly any MMO out the... that just sounds like a bad PuG. Most games now have elements that require coordination and teamwork to come out successfully. You wouldn't attempt to solo an at level instance in your favorite game knowing the encounter requires a full group. Sure it requires you to trust someone to do their job but what group scenario doesn't? You have to trust the tank to hold aggro. You have to trust the healer to keep said tank up. You have to trust the buffers/debuffers to do what they do. You have to trust the DPS to ... DPS. If you don't want to trust someone else to do what they are supposed to be doing maybe you should lay off the MMO genre and stick to the single person games.
PC bridge crews is one element that I hope they plan on including. Half the fun of playing a MMO game is the player interactions.
These bridge crew fanatics are incredible. Pretty sad when they list a page full of arguments, none of which make any sense.
Still waiting for someone to post a practical way to implement player bridge crews because it is my opinion you will fault flat on your face as all the previous posters have.
These bridge crew fanatics are incredible. Pretty sad when they list a page full of arguments, none of which make any sense. Still waiting for someone to post a practical way to implement player bridge crews because it is my opinion you will fault flat on your face as all the previous posters have.
... wut? pretty sure i read 1 or 2 in the 5 previous pages. Maybe you need it more simply stated.
Already been said missions start from a station. So you get 4 or 5 friends... and get on a ship. I know! I know! It's confusing but stay with me here. One dude sits down at tactical and sees... get this... tactical stuff! The next dude sits down at navigation and sees ... *gasp*.. a way to control how the ship moves. And wait heres a really good part! The guy that sits in engineering... repairs the ship! No, really!
Not sure what you mean by "impliment" but technically there is no reason a PC can't take the place of an NPC. It's already been stated they can for away missions, why not for ship duties?
This is a good example of creating a game in your head that ignores how players actually behave. Hardcore guild players - or those disciplined enough to play as a team - might work, but the vast majority of players wouldn't. Pick up groups (PUGs) would be out entirely.
Here's how it would actually play out:
You are fired on by an enemy ship. The science officer screams, "54 degs!", accidentally transposing the '4' and the '5' when typing. The helmsman - who'd had the ship on autopilot and had gone off to get a drink because they weren't at the mission zone yet, does nothing and the ship takes some hits. The engineer is deploying repair crews but the power is dropping so he cuts power to the weapons because he wants shields up and hates random encounters and wants engines powered to get away.
The science officer determines that the lower aft center shields of the enemy ship are weakest and informs tactical. Tactical screams, "Eng need powre foton torpedoes!"
The helmsman comes back and finds everyone screaming at him. "OMG laaaaaggg!" he screams.
The engineer screams, "no eng to weapons, eng to shields, eng to engines - run away. mob gives lousy xp and drops"
Tactical screams, "i wanna fight - take 5 mins ez kill'
Helmsman is already turning the ship around because he just wants to get the mission xp and quit the ship because he's going out tonight (it's D&D night).
ZOOMMM....the helmsman sweeps under and behind the enemy and turns about. While he's doing this the tactical officer Engineer diverts all shield power to the topside shields (because you're going under the enemy ship). BOOM---KABOOM...everyone leans hard to the left for a few seconds everyone watches their ship fly under the under ship in a range of differing graphics quailty and system lag. But it's not as bad as it could have been because the science officer was debuffing their sensors accuracy and was also using a -dmg debuff.
The Engineer screams, "y u fly thru them? run away"
Tactical--"FITEFITEFITEFITEFIT n00bs FITEFITEFITEFITE" because he can't do anything else since Engineering has control over his weapon power.
Engineering--keeps all power in engines and shields so they can fly away with minimal damage.
Tactical screams, "u all sux <CENSORED> later loosers" and quits.
Science officer changes to Tactical position because firing guns is much better than applying debuffs.
Engineer screams, "cant do away mission on this map with only 3 palyers - needs 4 min"
Helmsman goes "omg wtf? i gotta go bye" and quits because he doesn't want to have to wait while they recruit another team member.
Engineer quits without saying goodbye.
The former Science Officer, now Tactical offer switches to Helmsman and the ship to solo mode and goes back to blow up the random encounter mob.
Now wouldn't that be a heck of a lot more fun than having mindless NPCs automatically doing everything for you?
More memorable? Yes. More fun? No.
Everything the system previously described puts your effectiveness in the hands of another player. That's a recipe for disaster. Bad Helmsman? Tactical can't do their job, Engineering has to repair more damage. Bad Tactical Officer? You are slow in taking out your oppontent. Bad Engineer? They get the shields and repair wrong and the ship gets blown up (unless the Helmsman can run away fast enough).
Even Puzzle Pirates, which uses a team-based system, still has a Captain who actually makes the decisions. Starfleet / the military aren't democracies. Group decision making sucks in pressure situations where everyone has their own preferences and no-one has the final say on which direction they all go in.
That was some pretty good stuff there, Unsub. Honest to God I almost did roll on the floor laughing. Not being sarcastic either, it was very funny.
But yeah, sure, you would get some bad groups sometimes. That's life, that's just how it goes. But usually people would join a group because they want to do their part. They want to accomplish something. Not so they can screw with people.
Something that might be helpfull would be sort of an un-friends list. Call it a de-merits list that you could put people on to help you remember that you don't want to group with that person again. It could even be automated so all you have to do is target a person or type their name in and then run a quick scan to see if they are on your list without having to read through the whole thing every time you want to check on someone.
To add to that idea, let people know how many different de-merit lists they have been added to. If a person sees that he/she has been put on 40 different de-merit lists out the 50 people he/she has grouped with it might even encourge a few people to modify their behavior.
You said:
"Everything the system previously described puts your effectiveness in the hands of another player."
Well that's kind of the point of a player crew. You each would rely on each other. Each person does his or her job or you all die together.
No doubt about it there would be times when you would end up grouped with some idiot but then you just need to remember not to group with that guy again. I suppose the captain (the group leader) could /kick someone from the group which would automatically send that person back to the nearest space station. Then I suppose he, depending on how they wanted to work it, could either beam in a replacement from the LFG tool or the ship would automatically return to the space station so he could pick up a replacement there. It doesn't have to be as impossible a thing as some people imagine.
These bridge crew fanatics are incredible. Pretty sad when they list a page full of arguments, none of which make any sense. Still waiting for someone to post a practical way to implement player bridge crews because it is my opinion you will fault flat on your face as all the previous posters have.
... wut? pretty sure i read 1 or 2 in the 5 previous pages. Maybe you need it more simply stated.
Already been said missions start from a station. So you get 4 or 5 friends... and get on a ship. I know! I know! It's confusing but stay with me here. One dude sits down at tactical and sees... get this... tactical stuff! The next dude sits down at navigation and sees ... *gasp*.. a way to control how the ship moves. And wait heres a really good part! The guy that sits in engineering... repairs the ship! No, really!
Not sure what you mean by "impliment" but technically there is no reason a PC can't take the place of an NPC. It's already been stated they can for away missions, why not for ship duties?
Ya this person is a tool. Practical solutions have been provided on this and various other threads. You can tell he's full of it, cause he doesn't actually refute anything which anyone interested in an actual discussion as opposed to trolling would do.
As another poster earlier on in this thread has stated, this game is sounding very reminiscent of Gods and Heroes -- a game that, unfortunately, never saw the light of day.
But more than that, STO reminds me a lot in basic design of Guild Wars, giving players the option of playing in groups or with henchmen/Heroes or with a mix of both other players and NPCs.
I think this is a really good thing. There are plenty of MMOs out there for group-minded individuals; there are relatively few that allow players to form their own crews/teams and just play the game rather than futzing around endlessly in LFG.
Simply stated, I like grouping occasionally, but if this game was not offering the NPC crew option, I would not play it. I see this game, if handled correctly, as a successor to Guild Wars (much more so than GW2, in fact). I am really looking forward to playing it.
This is a good example of creating a game in your head that ignores how players actually behave. Hardcore guild players - or those disciplined enough to play as a team - might work, but the vast majority of players wouldn't. Pick up groups (PUGs) would be out entirely.
Here's how it would actually play out:
You are fired on by an enemy ship. The science officer screams, "54 degs!", accidentally transposing the '4' and the '5' when typing. The helmsman - who'd had the ship on autopilot and had gone off to get a drink because they weren't at the mission zone yet, does nothing and the ship takes some hits. The engineer is deploying repair crews but the power is dropping so he cuts power to the weapons because he wants shields up and hates random encounters and wants engines powered to get away.
The science officer determines that the lower aft center shields of the enemy ship are weakest and informs tactical. Tactical screams, "Eng need powre foton torpedoes!"
The helmsman comes back and finds everyone screaming at him. "OMG laaaaaggg!" he screams.
The engineer screams, "no eng to weapons, eng to shields, eng to engines - run away. mob gives lousy xp and drops"
Tactical screams, "i wanna fight - take 5 mins ez kill'
Helmsman is already turning the ship around because he just wants to get the mission xp and quit the ship because he's going out tonight (it's D&D night).
ZOOMMM....the helmsman sweeps under and behind the enemy and turns about. While he's doing this the tactical officer Engineer diverts all shield power to the topside shields (because you're going under the enemy ship). BOOM---KABOOM...everyone leans hard to the left for a few seconds everyone watches their ship fly under the under ship in a range of differing graphics quailty and system lag. But it's not as bad as it could have been because the science officer was debuffing their sensors accuracy and was also using a -dmg debuff.
The Engineer screams, "y u fly thru them? run away"
Tactical--"FITEFITEFITEFITEFIT n00bs FITEFITEFITEFITE" because he can't do anything else since Engineering has control over his weapon power.
Engineering--keeps all power in engines and shields so they can fly away with minimal damage.
Tactical screams, "u all sux <CENSORED> later loosers" and quits.
Science officer changes to Tactical position because firing guns is much better than applying debuffs.
Engineer screams, "cant do away mission on this map with only 3 palyers - needs 4 min"
Helmsman goes "omg wtf? i gotta go bye" and quits because he doesn't want to have to wait while they recruit another team member.
Engineer quits without saying goodbye.
The former Science Officer, now Tactical offer switches to Helmsman and the ship to solo mode and goes back to blow up the random encounter mob.
Now wouldn't that be a heck of a lot more fun than having mindless NPCs automatically doing everything for you?
More memorable? Yes. More fun? No.
I would hate if everybody became a captain but on the other hand, you're totally correct it would play out like that if it were implemented. It would require teamwork and finding random PUG's that has it is next to impossible. Good teamwork that is. Happens sometimes but not so often. The only groups of people it would work for are friends and guildmates.
However, I really liked the idea nonetheless. It sounds like you could feel alone quite easily if each person captained their own private ship.
So I wondered - maybe the better the ships, the more people it would require to fly it optimally as the tasks get increasingly difficult. Small ships only require you as the captain since they don't have so many different functions. Or just replace those positions with NPC's in small ships for the sake of gameplay.
That way, depending on the size of the guild, you would get more powerful ships but which also requires more people. A group of friends would also be able to fly in one ship, albeit a weaker one than a guild would be able to require - but that's how it always is, I guess.
Of course, there's the question: why use 4 people in one ship when you could have 4 different ships then. But that's a matter of balance. Say each small ship can only debuff or attack or whatever, having a large ship with ALL of those functions would still perform as well as the small ones combined. I could come up with more suggestions but I'll leave that to the developers (hopefully : P)
Another thing would be the lore. I'm not sure whether or not such small ships already exist but I guess with some artistic freedom, they do exist : )
I doubt I'll be playing this since I rather this be more of a group game. To me this just sounds like your run of the mill single player game. When I think of Star Trek, I think of a ship with a crew of other people. Not NPC's that you earn by doing certain things in the game. Star Trek Online should have it where people should work together on ships.
Comments
I really have to pull myself together not to YELL at you. Sorry, I dont mean this bad but... in SWG, it was NOT THAT 90% were Jedi. This wasnt the case in no time! I was very happy with my Dancer, and there were a LOT Entertainers, not even doing any combat in the Pre-NGE era. And even later, when Jedi was for all. It is just a myth, that everyone wants to be Captain. I would love to be Science Officer or Councilor/Diplomat in STO. No, no and no.
Despite my deep distrust against making everyone Captain - it still sounds very lonesome to me - this plan does sound interesting. I like that part that you can make the Bridge crew member all look like you design. So cool! Now expect me to make all sexy looking guys, surrounding me, muhahaha.
I'll use them for unimaginable things, when the com-screen goes off, hrhr.
Ok, one can dream, no? Dont tell me you straight guys are not tempted to surround yourself all with girls in mini-skirts!
...
Sheesh... did I write this...
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I don't know about starting as a cadet, but wasn't there a ST:TNG episode where Picard sends out a group of Ensigns on a mission (Almost had the feel of a series spin off episode) ? That would be one way to start low with just a shuttle and slowly work your way up in rank and ship command. The other of course would be the standard 'ship battle / damage / emergency, you're the most senior still alive - take command!' situation and you work up from there.
Be interesting to see the back story on how you came to command a small destroyer / science vessel at the start 10 to 12 years into your career.
"Captain" is both rank and honor. I've been going through the ST:DS9 dvds lately, and this is shown quite frequently. Technically, Sisco is the only captain by rank, but whenever he turns over the Defiant to Worf or Dax or Kira and leaves the ship, the officer left in command is called "captain."
Correct. "Captain" refers either to the military rank, in this case a Naval O-6 who commands a fairly large vessel or a small task force, or the honorific title of a ship's commanding officer. In several areas in Star Trek, commanding officers of grades lower than Captain are found, at least down through Lieutenant Commander. In fact, I think Lieutenant Commander is the grade at which one can achieve command of their own ship. But on that ship, their title would be 'Captain', and even another Captain who happened to be on board would be required to refer to them as such. The visiting Captain, I believe, is titled 'Commodore' while aboard to alleviate confusion.
If they couldn't come up with things for five or six people (playing different roles) to do then they are pretty pathetic as game developers. As someone else pointed out, what's the difference between this and the typical sort of game with tanks, healers, buffers, etc.?
You can't think of anything? The devs can't think of anything? Ok, just off the top of my head here are some ideas.
Helmsman---flies the ship. Controls speed and positioning. Tries to avoid enemy fire while positioning his ship so that the tactical officer can fire at vulnerable points on the enemy.
Tactical---Aims and fires the weapons. Decides which areas of the sheilds get how much of the power alloted to the shields.
Science officer---Uses sensors to detect weakness in enemy sheilds and vulnerble points on enemy ship. Spots stealthed ships. Jams enemy sensors. Detects if enemy sheilds have "phased" to a different "frequency" or some such. The tactical officer will rely on the science officer to inform him where the best targeting points are. Also detects incoming fire, the helmsman will rely on him to advise evasive action.
Engineer----Directs repair crews to various parts of the ship that are damaged. Has to decide which repairs are most critical. Controls overall power allotments....30% to weapons, 20% to sensors, 10% to lifesupport, 20% to sheilds, 20% to engines...that sort of thing. If he gives 20% to sheilds the tactical officer then decides how to split that 20% between forward, aft, etc. sheilds.
Ok, that's four right there off the top of my head.
So how would it play out in a battle? You are fired on by an enemy ship. The science officer sceams, "Incoming from 45 degrees!" (meaning the front right side). The helmsman kicks the ship in the ass forward and veers left then tries to bring it around so the weapons can bear on the enemy ship while avoiding further fire. But you take some hits as he brings it around. The engineer is deploying repair crews but the power is dropping so he cuts power to the engines and diverts it to weapons so you can hit the enemy hard on the first pass.
The science officer determines that the lower aft center shields of the enemy ship are weakest and informs tactical. Tactical screams, "I can't hit it from this angle! Take us below and turn the f-ck around when we get behind him!"
The helmsman screams, "Engine power is too low! I can't get behind unless I get some speed. Engineer wake the hell up!!"
The engineer screams, "Ok, damn it! But you canna have full power for all systems when we've ony got 70% power left! Cutting power to shields. Full impulse...NOW!"
ZOOMMM....the helmsman sweeps under and behind the enemy and turns about. While he's doing this the tactical officer diverts all shield power to the topside shields (because you're going under the enemy ship). BOOM---KABOOM...everyone leans hard to the left for a few seconds. But it's not as bad as it could have been because the science officer was jaming their sensors and they couldn't tell that they should have targeted the very rear of the ship instead of the top center.
The engineer screams, "They just took out our main phaser array!"
Tactical--"I'll have to use photons and the secondary array! Give me all you've got RIGHT NOW!
Engineering--diverts all power to weapons just as the helmsman gets the ship into position and the science officer verifies the exact spot to target.
Tactical targets...fires all weapons. KABLEWY, the enemy ship explodes in a pretty fireworks display.
Now wouldn't that be a heck of a lot more fun than having mindless NPCs automatically doing everything for you?
If they couldn't come up with things for five or six people (playing different roles) to do then they are pretty pathetic as game developers. As someone else pointed out, what's the difference between this and the typical sort of game with tanks, healers, buffers, etc.?
You can't think of anything? The devs can't think of anything? Ok, just off the top of my head here are some ideas.
Helmsman---flies the ship. Controls speed and positioning. Tries to avoid enemy fire while positioning his ship so that the tactical officer can fire at vulnerable points on the enemy.
Tactical---Aims and fires the weapons. Decides which areas of the sheilds get how much of the power alloted to the shields.
Science officer---Uses sensors to detect weakness in enemy sheilds and vulnerble points on enemy ship. Spots stealthed ships. Jams enemy sensors. Detects if enemy sheilds have "phased" to a different "frequency" or some such. The tactical officer will rely on the science officer to inform him where the best targeting points are. Also detects incoming fire, the helmsman will rely on him to advise evasive action.
Engineer----Directs repair crews to various parts of the ship that are damaged. Has to decide which repairs are most critical. Controls overall power allotments....30% to weapons, 20% to sensors, 10% to lifesupport, 20% to sheilds, 20% to engines...that sort of thing. If he gives 20% to sheilds the tactical officer then decides how to split that 20% between forward, aft, etc. sheilds.
Ok, that's four right there off the top of my head.
So how would it play out in a battle? You are fired on by an enemy ship. The science officer sceams, "Incoming from 45 degrees!" (meaning the front right side). The helmsman kicks the ship in the ass forward and vears left then tries to bring it around so the weapons can bear on the enemy ship while avoiding further fire. But you take some hits as he brings it around. The engineer is deploying repair crews but the power is dropping so he cuts power to the engines and diverts it to weapons so you can hit the enemy hard on the first pass.
The science officers determines that the lower aft center shields of the enemy ship are weakest and informs tactical. Tactical screams, "I can't hit it from this angle! Take us below and turn the f-ck around when we get behind him!"
The helmsman screams, "Engine power is too low! I can't get behind unless I get some speed. Engineer wake the hell up!!"
The engineer screams, "Ok, damn it! But you canna have full power for all systems when we've ony got 70% power left! Cutting power to shields. Full impulse...NOW!"
ZOOMMM....the helmsman sweeps under and behind the enemy and turns about. While he's doing this the tactical officer diverts all shield power to the topside shields (because you're going under the enemy ship). BOOM---KABOOM...everyone leans hard to the left for a few seconds. But it's not as bad as it could have been because the science officer was jaming their sensors and they couldn't tell that they should have targeted the very rear of the ship instead of the top center.
The engineer screams, "They just took out our main phaser array!"
Tactical--"I'll have to use photons and the secondary array! Give me all you've got RIGHT NOW!
Engineering--diverts all power to weapons just as the helmsman gets the ship into position and the science officer verifies the exact spot to target.
Tactical targets...fires all weapons. KABLEWY, the enemy ship explodes in a pretty fireworks display.
Now wouldn't that be a heck of a lot more fun than having mindless NPCs automatically doing everything for you?
Someone please wrap this post round a brick and throw it through the window at their next board meeting..
If they couldn't come up with things for five or six people (playing different roles) to do then they are pretty pathetic as game developers. As someone else pointed out, what's the difference between this and the typical sort of game with tanks, healers, buffers, etc.?
You can't think of anything? The devs can't think of anything? Ok, just off the top of my head here are some ideas.
Helmsman---flies the ship. Controls speed and positioning. Tries to avoid enemy fire while positioning his ship so that the tactical officer can fire at vulnerable points on the enemy.
Tactical---Aims and fires the weapons. Decides which areas of the sheilds get how much of the power alloted to the shields.
Science officer---Uses sensors to detect weakness in enemy sheilds and vulnerble points on enemy ship. Spots stealthed ships. Jams enemy sensors. Detects if enemy sheilds have "phased" to a different "frequency" or some such. The tactical officer will rely on the science officer to inform him where the best targeting points are. Also detects incoming fire, the helmsman will rely on him to advise evasive action.
Engineer----Directs repair crews to various parts of the ship that are damaged. Has to decide which repairs are most critical. Controls overall power allotments....30% to weapons, 20% to sensors, 10% to lifesupport, 20% to sheilds, 20% to engines...that sort of thing. If he gives 20% to sheilds the tactical officer then decides how to split that 20% between forward, aft, etc. sheilds.
Ok, that's four right there off the top of my head.
So how would it play out in a battle? You are fired on by an enemy ship. The science officer sceams, "Incoming from 45 degrees!" (meaning the front right side). The helmsman kicks the ship in the ass forward and vears left then tries to bring it around so the weapons can bear on the enemy ship while avoiding further fire. But you take some hits as he brings it around. The engineer is deploying repair crews but the power is dropping so he cuts power to the engines and diverts it to weapons so you can hit the enemy hard on the first pass.
The science officers determines that the lower aft center shields of the enemy ship are weakest and informs tactical. Tactical screams, "I can't hit it from this angle! Take us below and turn the f-ck around when we get behind him!"
The helmsman screams, "Engine power is too low! I can't get behind unless I get some speed. Engineer wake the hell up!!"
The engineer screams, "Ok, damn it! But you canna have full power for all systems when we've ony got 70% power left! Cutting power to shields. Full impulse...NOW!"
ZOOMMM....the helmsman sweeps under and behind the enemy and turns about. While he's doing this the tactical officer diverts all shield power to the topside shields (because you're going under the enemy ship). BOOM---KABOOM...everyone leans hard to the left for a few seconds. But it's not as bad as it could have been because the science officer was jaming their sensors and they couldn't tell that they should have targeted the very rear of the ship instead of the top center.
The engineer screams, "They just took out our main phaser array!"
Tactical--"I'll have to use photons and the secondary array! Give me all you've got RIGHT NOW!
Engineering--diverts all power to weapons just as the helmsman gets the ship into position and the science officer verifies the exact spot to target.
Tactical targets...fires all weapons. KABLEWY, the enemy ship explodes in a pretty fireworks display.
Now wouldn't that be a heck of a lot more fun than having mindless NPCs automatically doing everything for you?
And what does the Captain do in your scenario? The problem is... everyone will want to be the captain, or even the Pilot. What if you pilot flies all over the place and refuses to listen to the Captain? Then what?
If you say the Captain has all the power, well then what's the difference between the captain having the power over PC's or just being the Captain of your ship? Many people would rather just be the captain of their own ship there.
If you say there's nothing they can do, well then what fun is it if you're at the mercy of just 1 person? And if that's the case, why would anyone want to be anything other than the pilot?
Pffff, its too deep to be true. Highly doubt it will make release.
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Before: developers loved games and made money.
Now: developers love money and make games.
If you read my earlier post in my opinion their shouldn't be a specific "captain" profession. Everyone should be either a helmsman, a tactical officer, science officer, or whatever but no specific "captain" career.
When you put a group together the person who forms the group would be the Captain of that particular crew for the duration of the session. So sometimes you would be the captain and sometimes someone else would be the captain. But even if you are the captain you would still do your specific job in the group (piloting or engineer or tactical or whatever). If they actually had you on the bridge inside the ship we can just assume that all jobs could be done from the captains chair.
If you get an idiot in your group like a pilot who "flies all over the place" you just leave that group and remember never to group with that guy again. Take a shuttle back to the space station or beam back or whatever and get a different group or get a different pilot. It's hardly an insurmountable task.
Sounds like an interesting game mechanic that fits in nicely with the feel of Star Trek. I'll be interested to see how Cryptic pulls it off.
This idea (NPC bridge crews) sucks.
How the hell is this going to be an MMO?!?! Jeez, if I want to have a gaggle of NPCs to direct, I'll install IceWind Dales and play through that game, or one of the many others just like it.
I don't like passing judgment on games before they're released because impressions are often incorrect, but this just sounds horrible. Ugh. I'll still keep on eye on STO, but this doesn't sound the least bit revolutionary, innovative, or interesting.
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Forum Terrorist
I see this argument a lot too in discussions against player crews and it too is easily dismissed: In every mmo I've played when there is a group, someone is the leader. Whats the problem?
I'm really excited to hear this, but I'm kind of worried at how he compares bridge officers to freaking epic gear. I think he even said "phat lootz" like a idiot also. Wouldn't it be kind of stupid for like, everyone to be trying to get the SAME person on their ship? All crew members and bridge officers should be uniquely named.
"It is in your nature to do one thing correctly; Before me, you rightfully tremble. But, fear is not what you owe me. You owe me awe." ~Francis Dolarhyde
If you read my earlier post in my opinion their shouldn't be a specific "captain" profession. Everyone should be either a helmsman, a tactical officer, science officer, or whatever but no specific "captain" career.
When you put a group together the person who forms the group would be the Captain of that particular crew for the duration of the session. So sometimes you would be the captain and sometimes someone else would be the captain. But even if you are the captain you would still do your specific job in the group (piloting or engineer or tactical or whatever). If they actually had you on the bridge inside the ship we can just assume that all jobs could be done from the captains chair.
If you get an idiot in your group like a pilot who "flies all over the place" you just leave that group and remember never to group with that guy again. Take a shuttle back to the space station or beam back or whatever and get a different group or get a different pilot. It's hardly an insurmountable task.
It seems to me that not many people have actually gone to the STO website and actually read about this title. The role of captain is not a profession. Everybody is their own captain and everybody commands their own ship. The point of a group is to increase the potential fire-power while bringing you own personal skills to the table. Captain #1 is an excellent strategist, captain #2 is an explorer, captain #3 can be even be a paleontologist! What's the point? Everybody uses their own personal skills to further to the advancement of a group but do so from their own ship. At no point have I seen anything on the STO site that said you could become a member of another player's bridge crew, that's just insanity! Visiting another ship to see what the captain has done with it, on the other hand, is an interesting idea. Boarding an enemy vessel to carry out a tactical seizure of the vessel or just oust the captain, that would be interesting. Becoming a member of another captain's bridge crew to sit there staring at an LCARS screen and carry out orders.... Sure, it's RP, but it's not fun.
Even more to add would be the fact that not all players assess the same situation in the same way. When one person says to do something a particular way at a certain time, reaction times could suffer immensely. We don't live in an age where all internet connections are created equally, you know? What if your tactical officer were experiencing a high amount of lag when the helmsman manuevers in for the perfect shot and you miss your chance and everybody dies? Well, I see all the players that just lost their lives on this mission being extremely PO'd! "Sorry captain, my LCARS screen was extremely boring and froze on me multiple times...." That's not RP, that's crappy internet in a RTS simulation.
Where did people get the idea that grouping up would mean that you become a member of another player's bridge crew? I don't get it, I really don't. Never once have I seen the Defiant come to the aid of the Enterprise by transferring the bridge crew over... would that even make sense? Hell no it wouldn't!
"U.S.S. Yorktown here to assist you in the fight against these Klingons, prepare for a new bridge crew"
"Sure thing, just dock your capital ship with my skow so you can help me." States the captain of a trade vessel.
No, this doesn't work. Get a clue and then post here please?
Pretty cool signature, yes?
If you read my earlier post in my opinion their shouldn't be a specific "captain" profession. Everyone should be either a helmsman, a tactical officer, science officer, or whatever but no specific "captain" career.
When you put a group together the person who forms the group would be the Captain of that particular crew for the duration of the session. So sometimes you would be the captain and sometimes someone else would be the captain. But even if you are the captain you would still do your specific job in the group (piloting or engineer or tactical or whatever). If they actually had you on the bridge inside the ship we can just assume that all jobs could be done from the captains chair.
If you get an idiot in your group like a pilot who "flies all over the place" you just leave that group and remember never to group with that guy again. Take a shuttle back to the space station or beam back or whatever and get a different group or get a different pilot. It's hardly an insurmountable task.
Because ships in the Star Trek universe changed captains every engagement?
We're talking about a game, remember? If there were going to be human bridge crews people would have to let this slide just like in fantasy games they accept the fact that the same dragon can be killed a million times but never truly die. It is a game after all, it's about having fun. So let some other guy be captain today, you can be the captain tommorrow...geez, don't they teach good sportsmanship anymore?
And if you found a good group of people you really liked then you could always just stick with that group. If you all agreed to let one member of the group always be the captain, then fine, do that. If you were playing one day and your friends weren't logged on then maybe you could overcome your stubborness and join someone elses group for a while. Yes, you might have to let some other guy be captain for a hour or two, God forbid, but I don't think it would kill you.
The thing about this is that if being the captain wasn't that big a deal (he's just the guy who formed the group) I don't think people would get so hung up on it.
I don't think you understood what I was talking about. I was suggesting how it could have worked if they had decided to go more of a grouping route with player crews. In my suggestion we wouldn't all be flying around in our own customized, hot rod, Star ships. You wouldn't park your ship and then beam over to another guys ship. You would group up with some people and then the group would be assigned to a standard configuration ship. Maybe the rank of the crew members would determine which types of ships you could be assigned to.
But if you want to talk about ridiculous, immersion breaking silliness. It's going to be pretty silly to have every player in the game flying around in his/her own personal, customized ship. The ships in Star Trek were all standard issue models with just a very few special exceptions. Each captain didn't have a modified hot rod to fly around in.
Yeah, I can just see it now. <<Captain Jaimes TTT Kirck #00347>> Flying around in the <<Enterprise #558211098>> with spoilers on the warp nascelles, a turbo charger, and pretty flames painted on the sides. Oh yeah, that's real "Star Trekky".
Everyone gets to be Capt Kirk. How stupid and lame. Like everyone gets to be a Jedi, remember that one?
Just garbage.
This is a good example of creating a game in your head that ignores how players actually behave. Hardcore guild players - or those disciplined enough to play as a team - might work, but the vast majority of players wouldn't. Pick up groups (PUGs) would be out entirely.
Here's how it would actually play out:
You are fired on by an enemy ship. The science officer screams, "54 degs!", accidentally transposing the '4' and the '5' when typing. The helmsman - who'd had the ship on autopilot and had gone off to get a drink because they weren't at the mission zone yet, does nothing and the ship takes some hits. The engineer is deploying repair crews but the power is dropping so he cuts power to the weapons because he wants shields up and hates random encounters and wants engines powered to get away.
The science officer determines that the lower aft center shields of the enemy ship are weakest and informs tactical. Tactical screams, "Eng need powre foton torpedoes!"
The helmsman comes back and finds everyone screaming at him. "OMG laaaaaggg!" he screams.
The engineer screams, "no eng to weapons, eng to shields, eng to engines - run away. mob gives lousy xp and drops"
Tactical screams, "i wanna fight - take 5 mins ez kill'
Helmsman is already turning the ship around because he just wants to get the mission xp and quit the ship because he's going out tonight (it's D&D night).
ZOOMMM....the helmsman sweeps under and behind the enemy and turns about. While he's doing this the tactical officer Engineer diverts all shield power to the topside shields (because you're going under the enemy ship). BOOM---KABOOM...everyone leans hard to the left for a few seconds everyone watches their ship fly under the under ship in a range of differing graphics quailty and system lag. But it's not as bad as it could have been because the science officer was debuffing their sensors accuracy and was also using a -dmg debuff.
The Engineer screams, "y u fly thru them? run away"
Tactical--"FITEFITEFITEFITEFIT n00bs FITEFITEFITEFITE" because he can't do anything else since Engineering has control over his weapon power.
Engineering--keeps all power in engines and shields so they can fly away with minimal damage.
Tactical screams, "u all sux <CENSORED> later loosers" and quits.
Science officer changes to Tactical position because firing guns is much better than applying debuffs.
Engineer screams, "cant do away mission on this map with only 3 palyers - needs 4 min"
Helmsman goes "omg wtf? i gotta go bye" and quits because he doesn't want to have to wait while they recruit another team member.
Engineer quits without saying goodbye.
The former Science Officer, now Tactical offer switches to Helmsman and the ship to solo mode and goes back to blow up the random encounter mob.
Now wouldn't that be a heck of a lot more fun than having mindless NPCs automatically doing everything for you?
More memorable? Yes. More fun? No.
Everything the system previously described puts your effectiveness in the hands of another player. That's a recipe for disaster. Bad Helmsman? Tactical can't do their job, Engineering has to repair more damage. Bad Tactical Officer? You are slow in taking out your oppontent. Bad Engineer? They get the shields and repair wrong and the ship gets blown up (unless the Helmsman can run away fast enough).
Even Puzzle Pirates, which uses a team-based system, still has a Captain who actually makes the decisions. Starfleet / the military aren't democracies. Group decision making sucks in pressure situations where everyone has their own preferences and no-one has the final say on which direction they all go in.
This is a good example of creating a game in your head that ignores how players actually behave. Hardcore guild players - or those disciplined enough to play as a team - might work, but the vast majority of players wouldn't. Pick up groups (PUGs) would be out entirely.
Here's how it would actually play out:
You are fired on by an enemy ship. The science officer screams, "54 degs!", accidentally transposing the '4' and the '5' when typing. The helmsman - who'd had the ship on autopilot and had gone off to get a drink because they weren't at the mission zone yet, does nothing and the ship takes some hits. The engineer is deploying repair crews but the power is dropping so he cuts power to the weapons because he wants shields up and hates random encounters and wants engines powered to get away.
The science officer determines that the lower aft center shields of the enemy ship are weakest and informs tactical. Tactical screams, "Eng need powre foton torpedoes!"
The helmsman comes back and finds everyone screaming at him. "OMG laaaaaggg!" he screams.
The engineer screams, "no eng to weapons, eng to shields, eng to engines - run away. mob gives lousy xp and drops"
Tactical screams, "i wanna fight - take 5 mins ez kill'
Helmsman is already turning the ship around because he just wants to get the mission xp and quit the ship because he's going out tonight (it's D&D night).
ZOOMMM....the helmsman sweeps under and behind the enemy and turns about. While he's doing this the tactical officer Engineer diverts all shield power to the topside shields (because you're going under the enemy ship). BOOM---KABOOM...everyone leans hard to the left for a few seconds everyone watches their ship fly under the under ship in a range of differing graphics quailty and system lag. But it's not as bad as it could have been because the science officer was debuffing their sensors accuracy and was also using a -dmg debuff.
The Engineer screams, "y u fly thru them? run away"
Tactical--"FITEFITEFITEFITEFIT n00bs FITEFITEFITEFITE" because he can't do anything else since Engineering has control over his weapon power.
Engineering--keeps all power in engines and shields so they can fly away with minimal damage.
Tactical screams, "u all sux <CENSORED> later loosers" and quits.
Science officer changes to Tactical position because firing guns is much better than applying debuffs.
Engineer screams, "cant do away mission on this map with only 3 palyers - needs 4 min"
Helmsman goes "omg wtf? i gotta go bye" and quits because he doesn't want to have to wait while they recruit another team member.
Engineer quits without saying goodbye.
The former Science Officer, now Tactical offer switches to Helmsman and the ship to solo mode and goes back to blow up the random encounter mob.
Now wouldn't that be a heck of a lot more fun than having mindless NPCs automatically doing everything for you?
More memorable? Yes. More fun? No.
Everything the system previously described puts your effectiveness in the hands of another player. That's a recipe for disaster. Bad Helmsman? Tactical can't do their job, Engineering has to repair more damage. Bad Tactical Officer? You are slow in taking out your oppontent. Bad Engineer? They get the shields and repair wrong and the ship gets blown up (unless the Helmsman can run away fast enough).
Even Puzzle Pirates, which uses a team-based system, still has a Captain who actually makes the decisions. Starfleet / the military aren't democracies. Group decision making sucks in pressure situations where everyone has their own preferences and no-one has the final say on which direction they all go in.
Same can be said nearly any MMO out the... that just sounds like a bad PuG. Most games now have elements that require coordination and teamwork to come out successfully. You wouldn't attempt to solo an at level instance in your favorite game knowing the encounter requires a full group. Sure it requires you to trust someone to do their job but what group scenario doesn't? You have to trust the tank to hold aggro. You have to trust the healer to keep said tank up. You have to trust the buffers/debuffers to do what they do. You have to trust the DPS to ... DPS. If you don't want to trust someone else to do what they are supposed to be doing maybe you should lay off the MMO genre and stick to the single person games.
PC bridge crews is one element that I hope they plan on including. Half the fun of playing a MMO game is the player interactions.
These bridge crew fanatics are incredible. Pretty sad when they list a page full of arguments, none of which make any sense.
Still waiting for someone to post a practical way to implement player bridge crews because it is my opinion you will fault flat on your face as all the previous posters have.
... wut? pretty sure i read 1 or 2 in the 5 previous pages. Maybe you need it more simply stated.
Already been said missions start from a station. So you get 4 or 5 friends... and get on a ship. I know! I know! It's confusing but stay with me here. One dude sits down at tactical and sees... get this... tactical stuff! The next dude sits down at navigation and sees ... *gasp*.. a way to control how the ship moves. And wait heres a really good part! The guy that sits in engineering... repairs the ship! No, really!
Not sure what you mean by "impliment" but technically there is no reason a PC can't take the place of an NPC. It's already been stated they can for away missions, why not for ship duties?
This is a good example of creating a game in your head that ignores how players actually behave. Hardcore guild players - or those disciplined enough to play as a team - might work, but the vast majority of players wouldn't. Pick up groups (PUGs) would be out entirely.
Here's how it would actually play out:
You are fired on by an enemy ship. The science officer screams, "54 degs!", accidentally transposing the '4' and the '5' when typing. The helmsman - who'd had the ship on autopilot and had gone off to get a drink because they weren't at the mission zone yet, does nothing and the ship takes some hits. The engineer is deploying repair crews but the power is dropping so he cuts power to the weapons because he wants shields up and hates random encounters and wants engines powered to get away.
The science officer determines that the lower aft center shields of the enemy ship are weakest and informs tactical. Tactical screams, "Eng need powre foton torpedoes!"
The helmsman comes back and finds everyone screaming at him. "OMG laaaaaggg!" he screams.
The engineer screams, "no eng to weapons, eng to shields, eng to engines - run away. mob gives lousy xp and drops"
Tactical screams, "i wanna fight - take 5 mins ez kill'
Helmsman is already turning the ship around because he just wants to get the mission xp and quit the ship because he's going out tonight (it's D&D night).
ZOOMMM....the helmsman sweeps under and behind the enemy and turns about. While he's doing this the tactical officer Engineer diverts all shield power to the topside shields (because you're going under the enemy ship). BOOM---KABOOM...everyone leans hard to the left for a few seconds everyone watches their ship fly under the under ship in a range of differing graphics quailty and system lag. But it's not as bad as it could have been because the science officer was debuffing their sensors accuracy and was also using a -dmg debuff.
The Engineer screams, "y u fly thru them? run away"
Tactical--"FITEFITEFITEFITEFIT n00bs FITEFITEFITEFITE" because he can't do anything else since Engineering has control over his weapon power.
Engineering--keeps all power in engines and shields so they can fly away with minimal damage.
Tactical screams, "u all sux <CENSORED> later loosers" and quits.
Science officer changes to Tactical position because firing guns is much better than applying debuffs.
Engineer screams, "cant do away mission on this map with only 3 palyers - needs 4 min"
Helmsman goes "omg wtf? i gotta go bye" and quits because he doesn't want to have to wait while they recruit another team member.
Engineer quits without saying goodbye.
The former Science Officer, now Tactical offer switches to Helmsman and the ship to solo mode and goes back to blow up the random encounter mob.
Now wouldn't that be a heck of a lot more fun than having mindless NPCs automatically doing everything for you?
More memorable? Yes. More fun? No.
Everything the system previously described puts your effectiveness in the hands of another player. That's a recipe for disaster. Bad Helmsman? Tactical can't do their job, Engineering has to repair more damage. Bad Tactical Officer? You are slow in taking out your oppontent. Bad Engineer? They get the shields and repair wrong and the ship gets blown up (unless the Helmsman can run away fast enough).
Even Puzzle Pirates, which uses a team-based system, still has a Captain who actually makes the decisions. Starfleet / the military aren't democracies. Group decision making sucks in pressure situations where everyone has their own preferences and no-one has the final say on which direction they all go in.
That was some pretty good stuff there, Unsub. Honest to God I almost did roll on the floor laughing. Not being sarcastic either, it was very funny.
But yeah, sure, you would get some bad groups sometimes. That's life, that's just how it goes. But usually people would join a group because they want to do their part. They want to accomplish something. Not so they can screw with people.
Something that might be helpfull would be sort of an un-friends list. Call it a de-merits list that you could put people on to help you remember that you don't want to group with that person again. It could even be automated so all you have to do is target a person or type their name in and then run a quick scan to see if they are on your list without having to read through the whole thing every time you want to check on someone.
To add to that idea, let people know how many different de-merit lists they have been added to. If a person sees that he/she has been put on 40 different de-merit lists out the 50 people he/she has grouped with it might even encourge a few people to modify their behavior.
You said:
"Everything the system previously described puts your effectiveness in the hands of another player."
Well that's kind of the point of a player crew. You each would rely on each other. Each person does his or her job or you all die together.
No doubt about it there would be times when you would end up grouped with some idiot but then you just need to remember not to group with that guy again. I suppose the captain (the group leader) could /kick someone from the group which would automatically send that person back to the nearest space station. Then I suppose he, depending on how they wanted to work it, could either beam in a replacement from the LFG tool or the ship would automatically return to the space station so he could pick up a replacement there. It doesn't have to be as impossible a thing as some people imagine.
... wut? pretty sure i read 1 or 2 in the 5 previous pages. Maybe you need it more simply stated.
Already been said missions start from a station. So you get 4 or 5 friends... and get on a ship. I know! I know! It's confusing but stay with me here. One dude sits down at tactical and sees... get this... tactical stuff! The next dude sits down at navigation and sees ... *gasp*.. a way to control how the ship moves. And wait heres a really good part! The guy that sits in engineering... repairs the ship! No, really!
Not sure what you mean by "impliment" but technically there is no reason a PC can't take the place of an NPC. It's already been stated they can for away missions, why not for ship duties?
Ya this person is a tool. Practical solutions have been provided on this and various other threads. You can tell he's full of it, cause he doesn't actually refute anything which anyone interested in an actual discussion as opposed to trolling would do.
As another poster earlier on in this thread has stated, this game is sounding very reminiscent of Gods and Heroes -- a game that, unfortunately, never saw the light of day.
But more than that, STO reminds me a lot in basic design of Guild Wars, giving players the option of playing in groups or with henchmen/Heroes or with a mix of both other players and NPCs.
I think this is a really good thing. There are plenty of MMOs out there for group-minded individuals; there are relatively few that allow players to form their own crews/teams and just play the game rather than futzing around endlessly in LFG.
Simply stated, I like grouping occasionally, but if this game was not offering the NPC crew option, I would not play it. I see this game, if handled correctly, as a successor to Guild Wars (much more so than GW2, in fact). I am really looking forward to playing it.
This is a good example of creating a game in your head that ignores how players actually behave. Hardcore guild players - or those disciplined enough to play as a team - might work, but the vast majority of players wouldn't. Pick up groups (PUGs) would be out entirely.
Here's how it would actually play out:
You are fired on by an enemy ship. The science officer screams, "54 degs!", accidentally transposing the '4' and the '5' when typing. The helmsman - who'd had the ship on autopilot and had gone off to get a drink because they weren't at the mission zone yet, does nothing and the ship takes some hits. The engineer is deploying repair crews but the power is dropping so he cuts power to the weapons because he wants shields up and hates random encounters and wants engines powered to get away.
The science officer determines that the lower aft center shields of the enemy ship are weakest and informs tactical. Tactical screams, "Eng need powre foton torpedoes!"
The helmsman comes back and finds everyone screaming at him. "OMG laaaaaggg!" he screams.
The engineer screams, "no eng to weapons, eng to shields, eng to engines - run away. mob gives lousy xp and drops"
Tactical screams, "i wanna fight - take 5 mins ez kill'
Helmsman is already turning the ship around because he just wants to get the mission xp and quit the ship because he's going out tonight (it's D&D night).
ZOOMMM....the helmsman sweeps under and behind the enemy and turns about. While he's doing this the tactical officer Engineer diverts all shield power to the topside shields (because you're going under the enemy ship). BOOM---KABOOM...everyone leans hard to the left for a few seconds everyone watches their ship fly under the under ship in a range of differing graphics quailty and system lag. But it's not as bad as it could have been because the science officer was debuffing their sensors accuracy and was also using a -dmg debuff.
The Engineer screams, "y u fly thru them? run away"
Tactical--"FITEFITEFITEFITEFIT n00bs FITEFITEFITEFITE" because he can't do anything else since Engineering has control over his weapon power.
Engineering--keeps all power in engines and shields so they can fly away with minimal damage.
Tactical screams, "u all sux <CENSORED> later loosers" and quits.
Science officer changes to Tactical position because firing guns is much better than applying debuffs.
Engineer screams, "cant do away mission on this map with only 3 palyers - needs 4 min"
Helmsman goes "omg wtf? i gotta go bye" and quits because he doesn't want to have to wait while they recruit another team member.
Engineer quits without saying goodbye.
The former Science Officer, now Tactical offer switches to Helmsman and the ship to solo mode and goes back to blow up the random encounter mob.
Now wouldn't that be a heck of a lot more fun than having mindless NPCs automatically doing everything for you?
More memorable? Yes. More fun? No.
I would hate if everybody became a captain but on the other hand, you're totally correct it would play out like that if it were implemented. It would require teamwork and finding random PUG's that has it is next to impossible. Good teamwork that is. Happens sometimes but not so often. The only groups of people it would work for are friends and guildmates.
However, I really liked the idea nonetheless. It sounds like you could feel alone quite easily if each person captained their own private ship.
So I wondered - maybe the better the ships, the more people it would require to fly it optimally as the tasks get increasingly difficult. Small ships only require you as the captain since they don't have so many different functions. Or just replace those positions with NPC's in small ships for the sake of gameplay.
That way, depending on the size of the guild, you would get more powerful ships but which also requires more people. A group of friends would also be able to fly in one ship, albeit a weaker one than a guild would be able to require - but that's how it always is, I guess.
Of course, there's the question: why use 4 people in one ship when you could have 4 different ships then. But that's a matter of balance. Say each small ship can only debuff or attack or whatever, having a large ship with ALL of those functions would still perform as well as the small ones combined. I could come up with more suggestions but I'll leave that to the developers (hopefully : P)
Another thing would be the lore. I'm not sure whether or not such small ships already exist but I guess with some artistic freedom, they do exist : )
Forum lurker since 2005
I doubt I'll be playing this since I rather this be more of a group game. To me this just sounds like your run of the mill single player game. When I think of Star Trek, I think of a ship with a crew of other people. Not NPC's that you earn by doing certain things in the game. Star Trek Online should have it where people should work together on ships.