I would love to see a Star Trek style game. One with an episodic format, where you travel to a different planet each episode, deal with some crisis or other, sometimes those with heavy moral/ethical issues and no real right answers. And the occasional opportunity to romance aliens or your crewmates, or to deal with their own indiscretions.
Oh no! Wesley is running on the grass! It’s time for the death penalty! Well what else could you do with the annoying kid who’s convinced that he knows everything and keeps sneaking onto the bridge to tell everyone what to do.
Oh no! Commander Riker has yet again hooked up with yet another alien woman!
I’d love to see a Star Trek style game, one based on the whole exploring, five year mission, seeking out new life, being ambassadors for the federation, helping the universe.
And perhaps even plots about the problems of an advanced civilisation coming along, forcing their own morals onto other races, destroying aspects of their culture in the name of enlightenment, delving into some of those themes.
I’d be more interested in that than Choice of Broadsides in space. I thought that Choice of Broadsides itself was okay, but not fantastic. I liked the relationship with the enemy captain but that was it. I can’t even remember who the rest of my crew was.
I’d want a small crew on my spaceship, so I could get to know them all. I would want to start off in charge because I think that works far better for choices. It puts you more in control of things. Although starting off as a cadet at starfleet academy also has its appeal to me.
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Don’t supposed you’ve tried the Star Trek MMO? Last I checked they basically re-did the story to be more RPG flavoured.
It was still crap though. I grew an instant dislike to Star Trek once Voyager came along. Much prefer DS9 to be honest. Voyager, so much potential squandered.
Staying on sci-fi, I kinda wish I could get my hands on Bablyon Five… ahh the days of my youth staying up till 3am to watch it on Bravo on a school night.
I didn’t even know there was a Star Trek MMO. DS9 was good. Babylon 5 was good as well. I liked the similarities between them. I seem to remember liking Crusade better but I can’t even remember what that was about now and it was cancelled too soon. I think Babylon Five went on for a little too long on the other hand.
I liked the whole space station premise, and the war.
I didn’t like Voyager at all. And the only thing stopping it from being the worst Star Trek is that Enterprise existed.
The Star Trek MMO takes place after the events of the new Star Trek movie. BUT, it’s in the TNG/DS9 timeline not the new franchise timeline. So Romulus ends up destroyed etc.
You should check it out. It’s free to play now, they heavily under-advertised it and expected the ‘trekkies’ to stay with it forever and ever. You may like it. I liked the rpg elements they’ve brought in, like crew management and collection (think pokemon in a weird way…) but the fact of the matter is, they made it a space and ground shooter. It’s no wonder it lost subscriptions so fast and had to resort to the f2p model.
I don’t do MMORPGS anymore. I’ve lost enough time to the MMORPG timesink in the past. If I do want to lose time in something Star Trekkish then I’d do so by writing my own game instead of playing someone elses. But thanks for the suggestion.
IMHO, Star Trek Online is too actiony to be able to serve as the sort of Star Trek most of us would expect. I played for a bit, and I found that the only viable RP character I could play was a two-fisted hardliner, mostly because you don’t seem to get much of a chance to negotiate, or investigate or weigh moral quandaries much.
@FairyGodfeather
You aren’t the only one that wants to see that sort of CoG. A series of short, monthly, maybe 30-50k word episodes each centering around a single major plot issue or encounter with a play time of 20-40 minutes each would actually be pretty cool.
^Yeah it is too actiony, straight up shooter like I said. Though they tried to change that with the new episodic format, but it’s too little too late really.
Star Trek had a team of writers doing episodes. Most US tv shows have a team of writers.
NOOOO!!! Must not suggest. NO!!!
@FairyGodFeather
Then I’ll do it:
Four or five of us build a universe and take turns collaborating on a monthly series and splitting the proceeds.
How did I not see this before! The reading was quite intriguing and brings me back to the good ol’ days of watching Star Trek. I would be happy to collaborate on this though my Star Trek knowledge has gotten fuzzy. I do seem to have the spare time recently.
World Building, character creation, ethical dilemmas, plot creation, that sort of thing is what I find enjoyable. I just don’t have the creative energy to spare to actually write another game though. The fun bits that come before the writing, sure, the whole hard work part, I’m just juggling too many projects already. But this is a very tempting idea.
I’m trying to remember the name of this webgame I played, which was admittedly for kids, and I think it claimed to be educational. You were an ambassador or something for a galactic organisation and you travelled to this planet to help them resolve some disputes. There were some ethical dilemmas in regards to people complaining about uniforms, one of their wells getting poisoned and whether or not you should make a man who’d dug a private well share his water, and of predators who were attacking the local livestock. There was a puzzle mechanic as opposed to being story based, but there was a small story in there. There were a whole lot of different colonists you would speak to, who would voice their opinions on the subjects and you had to balance out what was for the best for the community as a whole. Unfortunately I’ve tried to google for it and I just can’t remember the name or even how I found the game.
There was a second just text based game I played which I also can’t remember the name of. You were captain of a star ship, you had five crew members, who you could send on missions to train up their skills, and who you could take on dates and and romance. It wasn’t that developed as far as story, it was more of a very simple strategy game, where you’d to work out how to get 5 hearts for all the crew members, go on enough dates to experience all of their vignettes, and get their stats high enough, and complete enough missions that you had a chance of saving the world. I think. My memory’s hazy. It was a strange little web game.
But there’s aspects from both that I find interesting.
@spyfox259
I don’t think the intention is to make an actual Star Trek game. It’s to make a game with the same sort of dynamic as Star Trek. It’s to make one that’s inspired by it. But no Star Fleet or Vulcans or Enterprise or anything like that.
@FairyGodfeather
Just peaking hypotheticals of course. If I delay “Guns of Infinity” to work on yet another project, there *will* be a lynch mob waiting outside my apartment the next morning.
@FairyGodfeather
You mean something like…
You are the Academy’s newest graduate. Being the student with the highest average, you are chosen to be captain of a new prototype spaceship. Alongside the
Academy’s other rising stars, you’re given the task to explore, to help make mankind great again…
@Nocturnal_Stillness
That might be a bit too mushy when it comes to internal logic. It makes the player out to be one of those “special snowflakes”, who can ignore whatever system normally exists for the organization they’re in because they’re “The Hero™”.
How about:
"Congratulations on your promotion, Captain.
I’m sure you’ve got a lot on your mind, but I’ve got good news: Fleet Command has decided to give you command of our new prototype starship on its first exploration cruise.
Now, I’m not going to lie to you: This is going to be one helluva job. Deep space is dangerous, and without the rest of the Fleet backing you up, you’ll need to think carefully on all of your decisions. First contact with new worlds and civilizations will be your primary objective. Your first interactions with any new species will be their first glimpse of humanity, so any action on your part will have far-reaching consequences.
You’ll be able to pick your own crew, of course. You’ll have the best personnel in the fleet to choose from. Command is also giving you special dispensation to customize your ship’s equipment loadout and pick a name. If all goes well, that ship’s going to be your home for a long time.
I want a shortlist of your bridge officers and requested modifications on my desk by this time tomorrow. You ship out in four days.
Good luck."
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Another alternative is that your parents are exceptionally rich. Rich enough to build a fleet of spaceships. Space Fleet itself would never dream of making a wet behind the ears officer, captain of a ship, but your parents made it one of their conditions of supplying them with the latest in technology.
It’s humiliating. You’re the youngest captain of a starship, and much as you’d love to think it’s because you’re their brightest and best, rumours have dogged your entire (short) space career that you’ve only achieved what you have because of who you’re related to. Your superior officers and everyone else are just looking for the chance to see you fail, demote your ass, and snatch this opportunity away from you. You’re going to have to prove yourself the best of the best, stick to the rules, and prove that you do deserve this.
Most of the older, experienced, competent officers are going to avoid your ship like the plague. But there’s those who’re just as new and idealistic as you are, or others who fancy an easy assignment, or see an opportunity they can take advantage of.
I wouldn’t let players pick their crew though, mostly since the variables involved in selecting your own crew are awful and they have an impact for the rest of the game.
Although I do agree with Cataphrak, the “Congratulations on your Promotion” is a great way to start, as is playing someone who has a history, a past, and who’s worked towards deserving their role on a space ship. I loved how Apex Patrol dealt with your history and how integral it was to the plot.
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It’d be interesting if it offered other paths not just a captain, for example the medical officer or chief of security they lack the power of the captain but still would offer moral choices. ie the medical officer finds an injured alien a survivor of a ship that attacked your own but crashed, do they try and save them or let them die or maybe rigging a health check to get a troublemaker thrown off the ship.
@FairyGodfeather I misinterpreted this slightly, so Star Trek inspired than.
I like these ideas. If I must I could take up the harder more lengthy work. I’ll try to learn coding and catch on eventually. At this stage I have no idea how to start. I’ll contribute more later on though.
Aha! Found one of the games which I was looking for previously which I thought might be interesting inspiration for a Star Trek style game. Keep in mind that it is a game made for children, but each episode is story based with multiple endings.
http://www.quandarygame.org/play
