Star Trek Starship Commission System

Starship Commission System

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Report this Jun. 06 2005, 8:48 pm

Great post Daron. I'll outline more thoughts at a later time. For now, however, here are a few:

1. Larger PC ships may see an exodus of players from time to time. As positions empty, they'll need to be refilled. Will there be a transfer system where an ensign from one ship wishes to transfer to the bigger/better one can apply (The Enterprise had a long waiting list of hopefuls)? If so, will there be a list for the captain to select from? This list could include the player's personal record (quests, recommendations, past leaders). I'd like the captain's selection process to be a personal choice.

2. Allow the captain of a ship have the responsibility for promoting the crew member(s). Perhaps coding for ceremonies on the holodeck (like Worf's promotion on the old boat).

3. Crew quarters increase in size as the player moves up in rank.

4. I suggest permanent dwellings be allowed for players on their chosen home planets for them to return to when not stationed on a PC.

That's all for now.

Kinneas

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Report this Jun. 07 2005, 2:16 am

(edit. deleted all of previous post)
Still lovin' it.
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I keep re-reading through Daron's and all your posts and I really dig it. I can't find fault in it...only great possibility for all.

I'm very sympathetic to the subscriber who reaches captain and wishes extended tours so they can have a full bodied, single player experience and the "I own my ship" feeling.

I think teh captain who is a casual plaer and takes crews on nightly missions from SF HQ should also find interesting rewards.

I can't wait to learn more and I am thrilled at what Glen and Darron propose so far.

Enemy_Insurgent

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Report this Jun. 07 2005, 2:48 am

that sounds alright
but i dont think it would be that simple

JayC

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Report this Jun. 07 2005, 12:05 pm

Just as a future guild/fleet leader, a couple of things got brought up that I think I want to address (some are directly related to PC Ships, and some are not

)

Guilds should be able to set their own ships and crew of those ships are they see fit. I should be able to as the guild leader to define a CO or XO for a ship in our fleet, as well as who within that crew is allowed to take that ship out.

I think an important game play factor that needs to be considered is players should be able to group and play together no matter what rank they are. A new player should be able to start playing with 3 other players who have been playing for months.

It would be a huge problem for large guilds/fleets if somehow we were limited to a level type system (such as WoW where a lvl 40 doesn't group/socialize with a lvl 10).... A system such as the rank system in Planetside needs to be used where BR1's play right beside BR20's on the same 'missions'.

Thanks for asking for the input.

artika

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Report this Jun. 07 2005, 12:20 pm

Quote (perpetual_daron @ June 04 2005, 6:59 pm)

Glen and I have been working on the issue of ship ownership - otherwise known as Permanent Commissioned Ships (PC Ship). Wed like to put our ideas out for your feedback. But first, some assumptions:

1. STO is geared towards multiple players crewing a single ship. This means we must devise a system whereby there are many players for every PC Ship. The desired ratio is undetermined; but figure something around 20:1.

2. Player controlled ships of any type are not intended stay for extended periods away from a starbase. Though there may be special exceptions to this rule.

3. A Temporary Commissioned Ship (TC Ship) system allows for players of rank Captain and above to receive a loaner ship that can be crewed either by players or NPCs. TC Ships are assigned for specific missions and are returned to Starfleet when the mission is completed. The TC Ship system is designed for players who do not yet (or choose never to) have access to a PC Ship.

4. STO will support guilds, though we havent yet decided what to call them. Guilds are arbitrary player collections with management tools similar to (or better than) those found in other MMOGs. It is important to note that guilds can be any collection of players of any rank as determined by the guild leader.

The reason our first assumption is that we want to avoid a system that devolves into hundreds of thousands of ships running around each crewed by one player. There are other MMOGs that provide that experience. To address this issue, weve been considering the following solution:

Permanently Commissioned Ships are available only to guilds. There would be guild management tools to allow the guild leader to decide if and how PC Ships are shared among eligible guild members. Ship assignment methods could include:

1. Authoritative: Guild leader assigns the XO of any owned ship at will. This assignment method may be desirable for guilds that intend to role-play a ship crew for extended periods.

2. Round Robin: Eligible guild members can apply to be XO and an automated system will assign a guild ship according to guild leader parameters.

3. Other: There may be additional assignment options

A PC Ship becomes the guild hall for guild members in addition to being a ship available for members to take out on missions. Guilds will have the opportunity to upgrade ship capabilities and appearance, and can also trade a ship in for larger models. TC Ships are always available to guild members even if the guild has a PC Ship. It may be possible for large guilds to obtain multiple PC Ships.

Wed love to hear your thoughts about this model for temporary and permanently commissioned ships. I should emphasize though that these thoughts are only on the drawing board at this point; they are not yet considered to be a part of the STO design. Also, Id like to keep this thread focused on the system proposed here or alternatives. Please start a new thread to discuss the assumptions or other tangential issues.

Thanks

Daron Stinnett
Executive Producer || Star Trek Online

I'll tell you right now, if it's only guild owned ships i won't be playing..and i can promise thousands of others won't be either. But then again i guess you can 'start" a guild of your own and run the ship with npcs, but i really think that PC ships that are only guiild owned are a bad idea.

my 2 cents

SirCedric2

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Report this Jun. 07 2005, 12:33 pm

Maybe we need to rethink this idea on making PC ships pure guild control. Sure you will have crews out there that will just use 1 ship, and they will be based out of a starbase in the game. But if you want to make a fleet in the game, then you should have the guild rule in place. Lets keep the single ship crews out of the huge guild make up.

meaning if you have 1 captain, and a few friends on 1 ship, and they don't want to signup to a bigger group, then let that crew work as 1 ship.

artika

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Report this Jun. 07 2005, 12:39 pm

Quote (SirCedric2 @ June 06 2005, 10:33 am)

Yes i agree...whole heartedly (is that a word?!

RKstarbuck

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Report this Jun. 07 2005, 12:46 pm

they can do that but if they want to be issued a PC ship they would have to register as a guild. Artica I dont think PE will just let you have a 100% npc ship of your own. I beleive they will set an amout of players needed to to form a guild to keep people from doing what you said. PE doesnt want a ton of empty PC ships running around.

poser002

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Report this Jun. 07 2005, 12:48 pm

Same here i should not be forced to join any guild just to have a chance to run a ship. Even if u join a guild does not mean u will have a chance to have ur own ship as guilds mostly like to have there key officers in command and there close officers that would not give up leadership. Guilds are not always the greatest thing mostly it is BS day in and day out more then anything else. Also i dont like the idea that the guild leaders can remove me from a starfleet role over night. Once u been given a ship ownlly starfleet can remove me not a guild officer just because he has a friend that wants to command a ship.

artika

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Report this Jun. 07 2005, 12:48 pm

No no you missed the point ( and it's ARTIKA:) ) i don't want to join a guild (i hate that term) just to be able to get a PC..i see the point but having PC ships controlled by these guilds, will not work. all the power to them if this is the way they are officallly going but i'm sorry i love Star trek but i doubt i will be playing it.

poser002

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Report this Jun. 07 2005, 12:51 pm

Quote (RKstarbuck @ June 07 2005, 9:46 am)

Does not mean it will be 100% npc. In an avg game i play i make about 100-200 friends in game. Out of that i talk to about 50 a day. Out of that i would say 20 are close friends that would join a ship if i had one. Normaly we dont join guilds or we are all in dif guilds and just like to have fun with each other. So we would set up a ship with leadership roles for a PC ship and play for 6 months and maybe bring in new friends and start a chain of ships between the close group but never make it a guild thing.

SirCedric2

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Report this Jun. 07 2005, 1:27 pm

Point is if you want to solo, then use the TC ships, if you want a PC ship, then you need to meet the min requirements to run that type of ship. No one should run a PC ship solo, that is what the TC ones are for.

poser002

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Report this Jun. 07 2005, 1:34 pm

Quote (SirCedric2 @ June 07 2005, 10:27 am)

yes but with the system there setting up right now u have to join guild that is the key to a PC ship. Maybe make it that to take out a player ship out of spacedock u need atleast 3-4 people in the group. With there numbers 20-1 for ships out of that avg would be 4 people online at a time any way. Most of the time out of a 24 hour time slot u will have 3-4 people on at any given time out of 20 people.

Xenesis

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Report this Jun. 07 2005, 2:23 pm

I think the 20 to 1 ratio was a max they were looking at having on any one ship, and assumed that not all will be on all the time, so the minimum is lower than that.

If they go with the ranking and crew minimum according to the ship size, then we won't have to worry about joining a huge guild to get a pc ship, there should be ships available for almost every rank and crew size. You would probably be able to get something like the defiant or akira with 2-3 people minimum. I just hope they don't set the minimum to start up crews too high, maybe around 2 or 3 to start would be good.

I would suggest again to let captains whether in a guild or not to have access to pc ships, I think they would earn that privilage having worked up to captain's rank, with of course the limit being around the defiant size until they manage to get a bigger crew. That way we could satisfy the solo player with a decent ship, who may on some days pickup extra crew for missions, who may even decide to eventually start a permanent crew of his own and he already has the defiant to work off of.

The question now is, how much difference would upgrades really do to make a PC ship worth having over a random TC ship?

JWilder

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Report this Jun. 07 2005, 4:35 pm

Giving players ships is something that you will have to do. I think players of every rank should have access to some type of spacecraft.

There should be certain classes of ships that are only available to "guilds". I think somebody that has spent all their play time solo having some of the best ships is just silly. I think it is silly to even let them be a Captain but that is for another thread.

There is no reason smaller ships have to be "junkers". You can easily have a system in place that allows players of all ranks to have nice ships that reflect what "level" of missions their rank gets them.