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Star Trek Online: Bridge Crews
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh reports from a recent IRC chat about bridge crews in Cryptic's upcoming Star Trek Online MMO.
In Star Trek Online, every player is the Captain of his own ship, but like the characters in the TV series, there are career choices. Captain Jean Luc Picard was a diplomat and archeologist, and players similarly will develop skills. Apart from the character development, players will recruit their Bridge Crews throughout the game. These are actually Bridge Officers; the Communications Officers, Science Officers and the like, your Spocks, Chekovs and Scottys, a distinct difference from your Ship Crew, which are your hundreds of nameless crew that help run and repair the ship. The gameplay mechanic for your Bridge Officers is somewhat akin to minions and pets. They are the "phat lewts" of the game and will be earned, leveled and can be traded, although some will be bound to you.
;)
Read Bridge Crews
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Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Stradden with folks losing there jobs and employment tighting up gamers are gonna be more pickey and there are going to be fewer dollars going to gaming. In your opion are the folks at Cryptic gonna be able to pull this rabbit out of a hat and support it. Or are we looking at another run of the mill mmo. Be honnest and say what you think.
MAGA
Folks ask for different...well this is as different as they get. Pretty cool gaming concept, I like it, but I hope it works too
I Reject your Reality and Substitute it with My Own!
It really doesn't sound different. As I read the article, I for a moment thought I was reading about Gods and Heroes again. It sounded exactly like Gods in Heroes in space. Not surprising considering where cryptic got the IP from, I'm just surprised they were bringing the concept to Trek.
I too hope it works. To the other poster, if they make a good game people will play it even in the bad economy. Its one downfall may be when it comes to Trek people want to live in that world more so then play a game. So hopefully its not run from mission A,B, C rinse repeat.
"It is better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees,"
Elsa, in bad economic times people may cut corners, but they never fully stop entertainment expenses. Life is just unrelenting dreariness otherwise. During the Great Depression, movie theaters, film studios, baseball clubs, and board game manufacturers all still did fairly well. (Remember, Monopoly was marketed during that time.)
Considering how much you get for your dollar, I'll bet MMOs as a whole will do pretty good in the coming years, and when MMO companies have to cut corners they'll do it by cutting back on unprofitable games. Star Trek is a potential gold mine for Cryptic, so I wouldn't worry too much about it before we've had a chance to try it out. If it sucks it might get hurt, but even if it's bad it may sell well just because of the IP. Just look at Star Wars Galaxies.
Oh yes, this sounds really cool! Getting a much better idea of how things would work.
Still, I think they should make it so that certain "special skills" are not transferable to just any bridge officer.
Data for example is an android and therfore can do comutational skills much quicker than a biological being, so if he had some super computer skill then I dont think that should be transferable! o,O
They should have made this a single player game, cause it seems to be going that way anyway. Whats multiplayer about having a NPC crew? Star Wars: The Old Republic's companions sound better, at least you can pull stories, quests, and romance out of them. This has Cryptic faill all over it. Sorry I never like City of Heroes or any other Cryptic games.
Cryptic is going to piss off a lot Trekkies and you don't want to piss off Trekkies. Their worst fanbois of all time, they can get violent. Lol. Trekkies want to role play, not give commands to NPCs. They would have been better off with making starships, guild ships. Making the guild leader captain, and the guild leader appoints the different jobs to the different crew/guild members. It would be more multiplayered that way. So the Trekkies can have their own little Star Trek role play fantasies.
When we get back from where we are going, we will return to where we were. I know people there!
See now you're talking forced grouping and that's not going to fly with alot of casual gamers.
Hopefully they'll have a way that you can replace one or more of your NPC officers with live players (hey NPC Bob take a hike it's my turn). Then those that want to solo can and those that want to group can. It would also take care of the problem of 'needing a 6 man group to fly your ship', but Mike had a family emergency and can't make it tonight, instead you go with 5 and an NPC.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
See now you're talking forced grouping and that's not going to fly with alot of casual gamers.
Hopefully they'll have a way that you can replace one or more of your NPC officers with live players (hey NPC Bob take a hike it's my turn). Then those that want to solo can and those that want to group can. It would also take care of the problem of 'needing a 6 man group to fly your ship', but Mike had a family emergency and can't make it tonight, instead you go with 5 and an NPC.
as a mostly solo player in MMOs and pretty casual (not sure what that really means - though i'm pretty layed back) if i was to play a trek game i would expect to be part of a crew - that's kinda the point
not sure how it could be handled properly though as what do you do when the captain ain't on board (ingame) etc
but yes, for me trek is definitely roleplay so it seems the game is progressing in the wrong direction - but hey, early days......
and "gods and heroes" wasn't a bad game but from playing beta it seemed the devs were reading the writing on the wall well before they got sacked - they just gave up and starting cutting most of the cool stuff out
I still think that the ideal solution would be to have exactly what they have described here -- but also have the option of rotating players into any of the bridge crew slots. This would give those who want a shared bridge crew experience exactly what they want without ever forcing anyone to group. None of your friends available right now? Use the NPC crew. A couple friends on? Play with them. There is even precedent in canon for this. Several times throughout all the series there have been people temporarily added to the bridge crew or away team.
The catch, as some people have mentioned before, is that Cryptic would have to come up with things for these players to do. I don't think that's so impossible. I still have many fond memories of playing the Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator, which had an option for using a crew of players. It worked well and was a lot of fun.
People do not read..........
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..
Since they do have bridge crews, they could have easily let the spots on the bride be played either by players or npc's. If a player leaves, auto-replaced by npc.
I've finally come to realize that while Cryptic may make a game I want to play, they're not making a Star Trek game I would want to play. Because they've chosen an IP that has such a following and so much lore built into it, and so much expectation driving it, the argument of whether its a good game and whether its a good Star Trek game are two different arguments.
That sounds good in theory but in practice it would mean that hardly anyone would ever group. Why take time to put a group together when you can just go right now with a NPC crew? And because it would be so much more convenient for people to just use NPCs the people who are willing to group even though it's less convenient will be so few and far between that even they will be effectively forced to solo. The path of least resistance rules these games and if soloing is the path of least resistance then it will be a solo game.
I think that instead of having people use their own personal ship all the time (I assume that's what they are doing) they should set it up so that when you go to a space station you can be reassigned to different ships. Ok, then have ships that can be used solo, ships for duo, ships for three players, four, five, and six.
So you use a smaller, solo ship, ok you can do stuff but it's a little slower and you have to be a little more carefull. The bigger the ship is the faster and easier it is to do stuff. So people would go to space stations and put groups together. "Group looking for tactical officer"...."Group looking for Engineer" and so on. You get your group together, get assigned to a ship and off you go.
The way they are setting it up it looks to me like it's going to be the typical <solo all the time untill you get to max level and then raid> type of game. Run solo missions (quests) untill you get to max rank (level) and then do fleet actions (raids) with a large bunch of ships running through instanced scenerios.
The typical solo-on-rails then grind instanced raids for phat lewt type of game.
Yayyyy..?
Eladi we were talking about players (specifically a dedicated guild group manning a guild ship) while the ship was IN SPACE. Yes your comment is perfectly correct in regards to a Away Team ON THE GROUND, but has nothing to do with the ship while in space.
According to the OP the game will currently support, we'll call it face to face RP, grouping while on the ground, but while in space the groupings will really be the ships.
There are some that would like to be able to do face to face RP in a group while all are on the same ship, even if that means someone plays the boring comunication officer.
From a non-RP stand point, I have 2 son's (14 & 10) and if all 3 of us played I know the youngest would rather be on the same ship as his brother or me than flying on his own. Not everybody want's to be the Captain. I know in SWG that if given the chance I would rather be a ships gunner than fly my own ship. It was just something I was better at and could contribute more to the mission or Pvp by shooting than flying.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
That sounds good in theory but in practice it would mean that hardly anyone would ever group. Why take time to put a group together when you can just go right now with a NPC crew? And because it would be so much more convenient for people to just use NPCs the people who are willing to group even though it's less convenient will be so few and far between that even they will be effectively forced to solo. The path of least resistance rules these games and if soloing is the path of least resistance then it will be a solo game.
I think that instead of having people use their own personal ship all the time (I assume that's what they are doing) they should set it up so that when you go to a space station you can be reassigned to different ships. Ok, then have ships that can be used solo, ships for duo, ships for three players, four, five, and six.
So you use a smaller, solo ship, ok you can do stuff but it's a little slower and you have to be a little more carefull. The bigger the ship is the faster and easier it is to do stuff. So people would go to space stations and put groups together. "Group looking for tactical officer"...."Group looking for Engineer" and so on. You get your group together, get assigned to a ship and off you go.
The way they are setting it up it looks to me like it's going to be the typical <solo all the time untill you get to max level and then raid> type of game. Run solo missions (quests) untill you get to max rank (level) and then do fleet actions (raids) with a large bunch of ships running through instanced scenerios.
The typical solo-on-rails then grind instanced raids for phat lewt type of game.
Yayyyy..?
Unfortunitly I believe you are 100% correct. And yes I'm sure the coding to allow players to swap with NPC's would probably be larger than anyone could expect so would be dropped when looked at in a cost/return analysis.
While it would be nice for the game to be designed to support RP since ST really begs for it, the direction it appears to be going doesn't seem to support it.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
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.
Personally, i love the direction this game is going, and FWIW, I consider myself a dedicated trekkie/trekker or whatever term is in fashion these days.
To add something else to what I was suggesting (even though it's completely pointless) I think that there shouldn't even be a specific "Captain" proffession. If they had set it up as more of a grouping game (which they didn't and won't) the captain could have simply been the person who formed the group.
So you would be a tactical, science, engineering, helmsman, or whatever officer and that's what you would do in groups. But if you formed the group you would also be the "Captain" which would really just be token label because you were the one who formed the group. That would get around the problem of everyone wanting to be a Captain and so nobody wanting to be a subordinate because being a captain would then just be a relatively meaningless label that just means you were the one who formed the group.
I see this argument a lot but its easily dismissed. As a beginner you're a captain, but of smaller less powerful ships. As you gain in skill or level you gain the abiltiy to command larger more powerful craft and its the larger ones that require a crew that can be done either by npc's or other players. Other players might be willing to crew with xp incentives, especially if they are trying to level, or they could stick with there own one-man ships and level that way. Or players might do it because it would be fun for some people.
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.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
Star Trek will either shine or get mediocre subscription. I think by the time it is released all if the hype the movie brought up will be gone. If they time the release with the DvD release, maybe they will get the subs needed. Crypitc is a very good company and I expect it to do well. But it will depend on the economy. And as people have stated that usually in a bad economy entertainment is hardly hit. But something people forget is the internet payment plus the game payment, which might make the difference.
Ok it is better than nothing. At least we have some improvement over the you are a ship avatar design. Like others had said it is interesting that the now defunct Perpetual Entertainment (PE) had Gods and Heroes. The game hailed players having monster companions to run with them. When Cryptic bought STO from them, Jack Emmert said in essence that their work on STO was of little use to them. In a nutshell, STo was built from the ground up by Crpytic.
Maybe not everything PE did was tossed out. I wonder if PE was planning this for STO as well.
Eladi we were talking about players (specifically a dedicated guild group manning a guild ship) while the ship was IN SPACE. Yes your comment is perfectly correct in regards to a Away Team ON THE GROUND, but has nothing to do with the ship while in space.
According to the OP the game will currently support, we'll call it face to face RP, grouping while on the ground, but while in space the groupings will really be the ships.
There are some that would like to be able to do face to face RP in a group while all are on the same ship, even if that means someone plays the boring comunication officer.
From a non-RP stand point, I have 2 son's (14 & 10) and if all 3 of us played I know the youngest would rather be on the same ship as his brother or me than flying on his own. Not everybody want's to be the Captain. I know in SWG that if given the chance I would rather be a ships gunner than fly my own ship. It was just something I was better at and could contribute more to the mission or Pvp by shooting than flying.
But unlike in SWG there will be no 3d moving around asfar I know.
and no guns to get in,.
designing a mini game for each crew job would be verry expencive. its resorces vs amound of players wanting someting.
And in this case, most wana be captain
me,..I would love to have a big ship chatroom that acts as a RP comunity home , have internal plots and stuff on..but..well.. for 90%of tha gamers thats boring,silly and not needed.
We can dream, but a 100% rp friendly . RP build mechanics mmo you will not see for the next 10 years .
I think that for the release the feature list is fine and gooed enoug for both RP'ers and Others.
In time when enoug people ask for it they may bring out maybe guild stations ? guild mining ships ala the new movie :P
but it needs to make money, and money it will not get fromt he 10% roleplayers.. (20% in a big IP like this I guess)
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."
-------------
The less you expect, the more you'll be surprised. Hopefully, pleasantly so.
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.
Beginning players start out able to command small ships. As they level or whatever they gain the ability to command larger more powerful ships. This ensures anyone who wants to solo, can solo all they want. Ships above a certain size require crews. Crews can be provided either by npc's or other players. In the case of a player disconnecting, the position is automatically filled by an npc. Positions that would make sense are engineering (speed), helm (direction), weapons, communications. Lower level players could be given incentives to play a crewman (xp bonus for example. and a reminder, they can still captain their own ships limited to the level/skill if they don't want to crew.) or groups of friends could do it because it would be fun. Crews that disagree with the captain would probably fail at whatever task they're about.
What's the difference between a group of "healers, tank, dps" running around together and a group of "officers" sitting on the same "ship"? If you set up some kind of "perma-group" that had it's own ship that they could hop on whenever they were all online I don't see why it couldn't work. There could even be different levels, say a group of 3 has a "small ship" and a group of 6 gets a "medium" ship to work with ect ect, and make it so the ship itself levels up and so forth, basically a "guild" with a fun graphic slapped on it.