Star Trek Online preps player-generated content tools

Jef- That screen shot is from when Perpetual had the game... I only wish my conference room looked like that.

Finally.
That is all.






Ok ok really this is so awesome. As a STO Player I have been waiting for this since launch. I think this is the right direction for Cryptic and I think these player made missions will really make this game shine. You want more fighting missions, you got em, you want diplomacy its there, you want a sexy cocktail party, Bang!

Ah Yes I am looking forward to this....

Should be interesting to see how many things people can come up with that makes the main developer created missions look absolutely terrible. There's always a few people out there who can use their own creation software better than the designers themselves.

What Cryptic needs to be careful of, is player-designed content that is intended to do nothing more than boost one's friends, such as what happened in City of Heroes: with lots of missions designed to give you and your friends swell badges.

The primary element of sci-fi is "discovery", not "getting". If I were Cryptic, I'd make sure it's not abused with players saying "I'm gonna run the ______ mission so I can get my ______."

Normally I can go along with UGC, but in a title that is threadbare and lacking much, it's simply a way to artificial lengthen the games lifespan.

In a game that came out in Feb, rofl is all that comes to mind.

I'm cautiously optimistic here...

The thing I loved about the Star Trek TV series were the rich adventures and the crew member/bridge officer camaraderie and depth.

I have just lately been re-watching the Deep Space 9 series on DVD and while, yes, there were some clunker episodes, overall the stories were pretty good.

Oddly, Cryptic's take on STO, while functionally OK (except for sector space -- bleh!), is kind of "soul-less". The quests are generic and drab; your bridge officers are mindless automatons; and the other characters you encounter in your travels are for the most part just as bland, as are many if not most of the locales you travel to.

Characterization and good, creative writing were crucial to Star Trek's success on TV; maybe a few good and creative players can succeed in capturing the real essence of STO where Cryptic's writers pretty much failed.

I've played some pretty good player-created content in my day, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed about UGC and STO. :-)

I'm going to make tons of episodes with Orion Slave Girls with the main goal of out doing Capt Kirk.

"a title that has occasionally been criticized for a lack of things to do."

Gee i hope that was sarcasim? Occasionally criticized - lol@cryptic who are you trying to kid.

user generated content (the percentage that is any good) will improve the game for sure, but only because craptic seem incapable of developing a fully grown MMO.

I have seen that cryptic likes to work on future games by implementing features in their current product and this may be what we are seeing here.

NWN online is comming out soon and NWN without user content is completely fail, so they test out player made content in STO 1st giving them fun new content and getting the bugs out for NWN at the same time. Great idea imo.

So if the players are doing all the work what are the dev's getting paid for? Just asking?

As long as the missions that users can generate arent the usual go here, kill that etc with new skins, and can give the player the tools to come up with different and imaginative missions it should be a great feature. Really doubt it though, otherwise the developer would have included those imaginative missions from the start!

I look forward to seeing all the ppl who complained about horrible missions make their own equally lame missions. Complaining is one thing. But it's difficult to craft a story that others will enjoy. I'm busy now, but I look forward to throwing my hat in the ring here.

I think they missed the boat big time on this MMO. When I first heard about STO, my imagination ran wild about what they would be offering. The big allure to MMOs for me is the character. Starting with character customization and then ability for the user to "grow" with the character as you level, get gear, etc.

Here was my initial "imagining" of this game:
- You create your own character, customizing the look, class, abilities etc.
- You would then have a leveling period of going through star fleet academy, usual quests and such
- You then get assigned to a star ship (or something along the lines of the star ship being your "guild")
- You then travel with the star ship which is now populated with lots of other players who have roles within the ship hierarchy. The character would gain in levels and could some day create their own ship (guild) and recruit lower level players to go on missions with you.
- Now you explore and do missions with your shipmates with away missions being like dungeons and campaigns/etc on planets being like raids in wow

The idea that you have a ship as your "avatar" just doesn't sit well with me. There's no emotional connection like a lot of other MMOs offer.

Check your emails. Closed beta started today, according to dstahl.

Diligent bug-reporters were given the invite.

There's an NDA - so don't talk about what you see, just report issues with the editors.

@Joel--

I just don't think what you are suggesting would have worked. It would have been an exercise in total frustration trying to pull enough of a player crew together to accomplish anything.

I think Cryptic was right to design the game as an SP/CORPG (which is what STO really is, let's face it). In my opinion, that was a good call for this game and IP.

My biggest frustration with STO is the general colorlessness of the quests, characters, and overall game world (aka the universe!). If STO had been designed more along the lines of DDO or Guild Wars, with rich instanced missions (either in space, on planets and asteroids, or aboard ships and stations) STO would have been a vastly better game.

The game also should have offered Guild Wars-type map travel to discovered zones, stations, and planets. Travel in STO is a total PITA, imo.

Note to Cryptic:
For this and all future games, take a cue from Guild Wars, Neverwinter Nights/2, Dragon Age, etc., for how to develop a story and design compelling (AI) companions that make people want to keep playing.

Creating content is no different than creating 'fan fiction'. What Star Trek fan hasn't imagined their perfect episode?

I think the biggest problem will be players who will create content that shatters cannon, which the trekkers savagely defend.

Unless the UGC tools are more robust than the tools devs use to create episodes (doubtful), the UGC content will be as equally lame as what the devs have come up with to this point. It would be funny to see amateurs come up with better content than the chimps at Cryptic, though.

In any event, I'm sure the few future players of the sure to fail NWN OMG will appreciate STO players beta testing the UGC tools for them.