Design-A-Trek-Game

[Jadzia]

If you were given the opportunity to design the next trek game, and it would be made for commercial sale, how would you have it?

Thinking along the lines of either: A space shooter with lots of phasers and torpedoes; an away team FPS; mission oriented command role; free exploration RPG kind of game; or something else.

Should the player make command decisions, or basically be pilot, navigator, ops, tactical, all in one? Or should you be someone lower in rank, a dutiful member of an engineering team, for example?

What is the importance of an explorable galaxy? Featuring the televised planets, starbases and outposts. Are there maps already in existence showing locations of these places? Or would you design the map yourself, placing things where you saw fit to place them? What about other unmentioned stars and planets to fill the voids?
What about real stars -- would they feature on your map?

Should it be limited to the known races or introduce new races to some of these new planets?

What about territorial borders? What about combat? How would a game reproduce negotiation as Picard often avoided conflict that way?

Should be player be able to play from the POV of the different races, eg, Romulan or Borg.

What about trek science? Should the game feature a working pseudo-science, where verterons mean wormholes and chronitons mean temporal anomalies? Should the game allow you (at will) to create highly focused graviton fields to create singularities in orbit around a planet, for instance? Singularities which can swallow planets and stars, and stuff like that?

What about multiplayer? Would we want a single player game or an online game for lots of players, ie lots of ships?

What would be the objective in the game? Would the game universe generate random events, which the player can investigate? Or should there be a specific story?

I'd like to hear what some of you would design.

 

[Ronald Held]

Why shouldn't this be merged into the dream game thread?

 

[CaptainStoner]

Free exploration, mostly RPG style, but obviously without need for an economic model, which I think would be great and relieve a lot of the repetetive drudgery you can get into in RPGs.
The importance of an explorable galaxy is huge, because it is what Star Trek is all about, not phasers, not Vulcans, not technobabble. It's a show about peaceful exploration, but as far as I know there's never been a Star Trek game about it.
There are some recent space exploration type games, but all rely on a economic model and as a result become dull, confining experiences, with every mission playing out nearly identically that even the wonderful graphics cannot save.
The "canon" locations will be fun to visit, but more importantly, exploring an unknown universe, and the tale it generates, that would be where it's at.

 

[Balthier the Great]

Well, I'd do basicly Oblivion or the like in the Trekverse. I'd have a strong storyline, but there would be literally hundreds of sidequests and whatnot. Meeting strange aliens, stopping plagues, saving people, ferrying diplomats, negotiating peace deals, what ever would be fun.

On the ground, the battle system would look a lot like FF12 (http://www.youtube.com/v/7_Qr7h12s08&hl=en) -- you could take control, but mostly you'd have issued standing orders. The ship battles would probably be some kind of turn-based tactical thing. Basicly I'd rather have a thinker's game than a run-n-gun. run-n-gun feels more Star Wars than Star Trek.

As to plot, I'd like an enemy that is technologically superior and perhaps believes that he has very good reasons for doing what he's doing. I'd like to have some sort of "Karma" or "morality" factor built in so that any decision you make (i.e killing the guards rather than stunning them, or shooting a ship loaded with civilians) will affect how game characters react to you.

 

[daedalus5]

For a dream game - I'd like to skip forward around 10 years, where wearing Virtual Reality goggles are common place and you can be fully immersed in a "real" Star Trek episode - everythng from commanding ships (no more joysticks or keyboards) by issuing verbal commands that the characters (wh can be other people linked into the game via the web) or computer generated. That way you could sit on the bridge, beam to far away worlds and the "games" would be structured a bit liek an episode/movie. The program could even be able to use neural networks (or similar) to predict outcomes based on your actions so if you did do silly things that were un-Federationy like creating rifts in space whilst orbiting a particularaly annoying planet like the Edo world, then you'd soon be intercepted by another starship trying to arrest you - else you'd have to run along the corridors to escape your own security people trying to relieve you.

For me, I can't wait until VR becomes more common place and computers can create somthing like a holodeck.


In the meanwhile, I'd settle for another game like A final Unity - ship based action, mixd with interesting away missions and a VERY good storyline!

 

[Jadzia]

Free exploration, mostly RPG style, but obviously without need for an economic model, which I think would be great and relieve a lot of the repetetive drudgery you can get into in RPGs.
The importance of an explorable galaxy is huge, because it is what Star Trek is all about, not phasers, not Vulcans, not technobabble. It's a show about peaceful exploration, but as far as I know there's never been a Star Trek game about it.
There are some recent space exploration type games, but all rely on a economic model and as a result become dull, confining experiences, with every mission playing out nearly identically that even the wonderful graphics cannot save.
The "canon" locations will be fun to visit, but more importantly, exploring an unknown universe, and the tale it generates, that would be where it's at.

20 years ago there was a game called Captain Blood, which had an explorable universe. But yes I'd like to see an RPG style game as you describe it CaptainStoner. But I'd also like the working trek-science too.

Although the Federation don't have an economic system like what we have today, not all races we encounter would be like this (eg Ferengi). There is still the idea of trade agreements in the Federation, but it tends to be by contract of mutual exchange of commodities, rather than monetary transaction. Starships still need to source dilithium and other ores from somewhere, and I doubt it would be free for the taking.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

If the concept of Bridge Commander got expanded to encompass a larger experience, that would be an excellent game, in my opinion. Instead of you being able to command only the Captain, maybe let you command anyone you want on the ship, and take on their duties. I suppose you can filter out the deadly dull jobs, but imagine you form an away team (as Captain), and jump into the shoes of a red/yellow-shirt. Try to survive the away mission.

And a larger, open galaxy would be a must. Damage to your ship can be repaired by your crew or, if it's too extensive, you have to survive to make it to a starbase. If your ship is pummeled so hard it's dead in space, you could abandon ship and have to wait to be picked up. Maybe you'll get a new ship, maybe not.

I'm thinking of something a bit like the Battlecruiser series, only without all the fun extracted.

 

[Penta]

Allow me to sound a vote against a VR interface.

Why?

I'm blind in one eye. I would be unable to play such a game.

That said:

My dream Trek game would be like BotF, but:

1. RPG-like diplomatic sequences.
2. A 3D battlescape. Yes, space is 3D. Imagine that.
3. Microbattles on the ground. If you're old enough, remember how "Caesar" (the first one) or "The Blue and the Gray" handled battles?
4. Domestic issues. Give us them.
5. The ability to play as the Andorians.

 

[CaptainStoner]

Free exploration, mostly RPG style, but obviously without need for an economic model, which I think would be great and relieve a lot of the repetetive drudgery you can get into in RPGs.
The importance of an explorable galaxy is huge, because it is what Star Trek is all about, not phasers, not Vulcans, not technobabble. It's a show about peaceful exploration, but as far as I know there's never been a Star Trek game about it.
There are some recent space exploration type games, but all rely on a economic model and as a result become dull, confining experiences, with every mission playing out nearly identically that even the wonderful graphics cannot save.
The "canon" locations will be fun to visit, but more importantly, exploring an unknown universe, and the tale it generates, that would be where it's at.

20 years ago there was a game called Captain Blood, which had an explorable universe. But yes I'd like to see an RPG style game as you describe it CaptainStoner. But I'd also like the working trek-science too.

Although the Federation don't have an economic system like what we have today, not all races we encounter would be like this (eg Ferengi). There is still the idea of trade agreements in the Federation, but it tends to be by contract of mutual exchange of commodities, rather than monetary transaction. Starships still need to source dilithium and other ores from somewhere, and I doubt it would be free for the taking.

Somehow I missed Captain Blood all those years ago. I was playing Starflight at the time. The visuals for Captain Blood were impressive.

 

[Jadzia]

The "canon" locations will be fun to visit, but more importantly, exploring an unknown universe, and the tale it generates, that would be where it's at.

If we were to have an RPG with cpu-generated puzzles/missions/events for the user get involved with, there would need to be "outline templates" pre-programmed for their formulation.

What sort of missions would you like to see in the game? Can you generalise a mission ideas into a template?

For example, a basic template might be an onboard-escort mission, where Group X is to be picked up from location Y and taken to location Z by stardate W. Although this would be the basic form of any onboard-escort mission, it is a little too vague. We need details of whats happening at the destination Z, why X is needed there, and X needs to be relevant to the event at Z (like scientists going to a science conference). Furthermore, there are political implications, like X must be of some race, and the event at Z might be in territory hostile to that race.

So to avoid strange/impossible missions being generated from the random insertion of details, we need to be more explicit, and define a variety of onboard-escort mission templates.

And in case you're wondering I enjoy thinking about technical design stuff like this. Anyone care to join me??

 

[daedalus5]

Allow me to sound a vote against a VR interface.

Why?

I'm blind in one eye. I would be unable to play such a game.

Forgive me for asking, but why does having only one eye preclude you from VR games - is it to do with the parallax image and (I presume) limited depth perception?

Just curious - I don't want to appear to be rude!

 

[Jadzia]

Allow me to sound a vote against a VR interface.

Why?

I'm blind in one eye. I would be unable to play such a game.

Forgive me for asking, but why does having only one eye preclude you from VR games - is it to do with the parallax image and (I presume) limited depth perception?

Just curious - I don't want to appear to be rude!

In normal everyday life, without the VR headset, he still only gets vision in one eye. He still has vision without parallax/depth perception. A VR headset wouldn't give him any less information than he has now. His disadvantage in such VR games is equal to his disadvantage in the real world.

So I believe Penta's complaint is that he enjoys the current tradition of flat screen games because the lack of depth perception is an equal disadvantage for all players, whether they have one eye or two.

 

[Penta]

Exactly - plus, current VR helmets are -intensely- annoying to use with one eye.

But I'd mostly prefer everybody play off a level biomechanical playing field.

 

[CommodoreKong]

From the other thread:

I would like to see a combination of Star Trek Conquest and Star Trek Legacy. Give it a galaxy map that's turn based (with multiple sizes/star systems, the number of fleets you get based on the size of the map). Give us the ability of make alliances (and have the choice to make preset alliances that can't be changed, for example if I wanted to recreate the Dominion War). Including the Borg as a normal race would also be a plus.

Also include more ships then Conquest (at least 6 per side) and make them more expensive and better balanced, so it's longer before you replace all your ships with the most powerful/expensive ship. I would also like to see more ship upgrades to every system (speed, handling, weapons, shields, etc).

Make the combat similar to Legacy, except with more ships per fleet (maybe 10-12). I would also like to create a task force with your allied fleets, though that might be hard to balance.

Updates: I think it would be pretty much impossible to balance allied fleet tasks forces, so I would drop that.

If the Borg would be included I would make them TNG like Borg, a single cube would be super expensive but able to take on a full fleet of enemy ships and would repair itself very quickly. The Delta Quadrant would be linked to the Alpha or Beta Quadrant through Borg Warp Relays or something like that.

I would also have multiple levels of Star Bases, including weaker ones that wont be able to take much punishment to massive ones that have super strong shields and tons of weapons.

Adding more things to research might be for the best (besides ship upgrades), maybe start off players with only the weakest class of ships and starbases, requiring them to research for the more powerful ships.

When starting a game I would not only let the player choose what races are playing/what alliances will be between races (or if they'll be allowed to form/break alliances), and size of the map, but what you control. Does each race control their entire territory or just their home planet.

Finally I would have each star system you control give you a unique bonus (maybe systems with shipyards on the show such as Earth would get a discount on ships or Orion would allow you to steal a small amount of money from your opponents each turn).

 

[darthraidr]

Battlestations: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/12350

change the races around to fit trek lore and you've got a really solid and fun game. what's really cool is that everyone has something to do during ship battles. you can launch boarding parties, redirect missiles, fight off boarding parties, build your own ships, level up your crew, scan enemy ships...

it's a very flexible game, that is very fun (though a bit complicated to set up).

 

[friedebarth]

I'd have an RPG free kind of game which basically lets you start as Crewman and if you're good you'll get to become a Captain. It would be called something like these: iTrek, SimTrek or Starfleet Tycoon.

The other people on the ship would be high quality AIs. The nearer you walk to them, the stronger you see a speech bubble on top of them telling you what they're saying at the moment. You can walk around the whole ship, you have work times and free times which strictly have to be followed, else you get a penalty, and there's holodecks and even quarters of every crew member. There's a school, a bar, basically everything you need on a ship.

The events and missions are variating very much, and you can die as well as you can do stuff wrong. It's basically a good real starfleet life simulation.

In the new game options menu you can choose from many scenarios and set many options: In which area do you want to work: Safety, command, medical, astrometrics, science, counseling, engineering? Which rank do you want to have at the start? Or don't you care and want it randomised? What kind of missions do you want to have to do? Do you want to be part of away teams? What skills do you want to have, how do you want to look, what difficulty grade do you want the game to be? What is your ship like? You decide.

New civilizations, races, places, events and of course people: all randomised but logic and with their own 3D look.

A range of major events which your ship may be involved in, eg. a war against the Romulans, a revolt in the federation, the Edo (Rubicun III) developing warp?

Choose your race! Are you an apostate in your system? Will you lead a revolt?

And finally an unbelievably good online multiplayer function: if you check the option "multiplayer", just choose a ship, or do you want to be alone on a ship with the rest being AI? No problem, create an own ship and check "AI only" and your underway to go there, where no man went before!

 

[RobertScorpio]

I just want a "game" where you can walk around the ship, press buttons, on the inside...go onto a real kick as bridge..give orders..and see the thing fly through space with great scenes...no mission...no 'timed' responces to get things done..just a pedestrian 'game' where the only thing you are buying is a big EYE CANDY of the Enterprise....

Boring...but thats all I want...

Rob
Scorpio

 

[msbae]

I have 2 ideas for Trek games. One's a Tabletop game and the other is intended for the Nintendo DS.

The Design Documents for both of them are at the bottom of this page on my website.

http://www.msbae.net/Game Stuff.htm

Questions, Comments, Concerns, Accolades, Outrageous Objections and Death Threats are both welcome and expected.

 

[Eric Cheung]

I was pretty disappointed by Starship Creator, so I'd remake that one and do it right.

First you would set a function and budget, then you would design the shape and put it through warp field tests to see what shape would be most functional instead of just looking cool, then you would draw up blueprints for each deck trying to figure out the best place for each system, you'd be able to walk around the ship and you'd of course test it out with interactive missions. There probably wouldn't be different character from which to select as the only variable I'd want would be the ship itself, but you'd be able to control each department.

There would be a wealth of resources built in to nudge the user in the right direction but it would be user-friendly and even educational.

Once you had a finished ship you'd be able to import it into compatible games as well, perhaps Star Trek Online or Bridge Commander?

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

An RPG would be the best direction, considering what Trek is about. You would start off as a young, successful Commander (Bennett?), who is commanding his/her first ship (Character customization, ahem.), a small, incredibly fast prototype ship called the USS Interceptor or something like that. Regardless, you have the highest conventional warp speed in Starfleet (for plot and gameplay purposes).

Anyways, space travel from system to system would be rather freeform, you can plot 3-dimensional courses yourself or go along pre-established trade routes. Going off of the beaten path can be dangerous, but you can also discover great wonders. Some amount of space combat would be involved, in a simulator fashion, but it wouldn't be very common.

A lot of the action would take place on Away Missions. You would put together a team for said Away Mission out of senior staff, mission specialists and so on. You can only send an away team when you're close enough to the planet/ship/station, so you'd have to move in close and then beam on over. The tricorder would play a role in investigating your environment, with scanning, a computer library and other abilities. Combat on the ground would use an RPG system, similar to Mass Effect perhaps.

Command decisions would be common and the game would be standalone so that these decisions can have more effect on the plot without having to consider future games.