Come on sector space already!

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Its been said so many times. We need to lose the ugly grids in sector space ( or rework it all together ), you can add the grids to the mini map if you feel it has to be some place but as we have it now its just ugly. It serves no purpose (Yet? if there will be one in the future please let us know now). The planets and space around them when you zone into a mission look real good and sector space looks so bad, Its like having a huge poo covers in sweet cherry suace

I encoursge everyone to start tthere own thread on this matter. put them in every part of this forum. We need to really let the designers know that sector space must die!

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I died in sector space once.
Just FYI

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Its been said so many times. We need to lose the ugly grids in sector space ( or rework it all together ), you can add the grids to the mini map if you feel it has to be some place but as we have it now its just ugly. It serves no perpose (Yet? if there will be one in the future please let us know now). The planets and space around them when you zone into a mission look real good and sector space looks so bad, Its like having a huge poo covers in sweet cherry suace

I encoursge everyone to start tthere own thread on this matter. put them in every part of this forum. We need to really let the designers know that sector space must die!

And what if I like sector space? -.-

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And what if I like sector space? -.-

think you are the only one

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It serves no perpose

though I may agree I stopped reading here, l2spell "purpose" then try again pls

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Sector space as it stands is better than nothing. You failed to present an alternative.

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So stop working on the server crashes, stop working on the bugs, stop working on the patches, stop working on th future content. Drop everything because some don't like sector space.
Right way to go.

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SHORT TERM SUGGESTIONS
1) Sector Space: Dull down the grid lines and "lollipop" style white vertical lines that stretch from the "floor" of sector space up to the system images. At the moment it looks like a scene from the 1982 film "Tron".

2) Galaxy map / sector map functionality: Allow players to double left-click on a sector in the Galaxy map and it switches to the sector space map for that area. Right clicking in a Sector Map effectively "zooms out" to show the Galaxy map.

3) Communications whilst travelling: No communications windows should pop up in their maximise form when the player is sent a "communication". Instead all communications traffic should be appear initially in a specific area on the UI (much like when you "minimise" a communication from your BO and it appears in the bottom right corner as a tab). This means that players aren't being constantly interrupted and can respond to communications when and if they choose. This would include communications from Starfleet AND your Bridge Officers.

MID - LONG TERM SUGGESTIONS
1) Sector Space Replacement:
The whole concept of sector space could be replaced with "Eve" style warp scenes which are reminiscent of the opening and closing scenes in our fave Startrek episodes (ship at warp, stars whizzing past).

Static image example: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3038/2306754961_aa922766e6.jpg?v=0
Movie example: http://www.wegame.com/watch/Eve_Raven_Warp/

Imagine the above depicting your STO ship at warp.

The amount of travel time "at warp" would be approximately 50% longer than it would take now. And whilst "at warp" the player can either view the exterior of their ship (like in the game now) or be able to view their ships interior (i.e. visit the bridge etc). In all cases, the player still has access to the communications coming in (see below for details).

If the player is currently viewing their ships interior when the ship reaches its destination, then naturally the view reverts back to the exterior once the ship has entered the local space environment (i.e. zoned into local space). Just like it does now.

2) Communications whilst travelling
Due to the very nature of being "at warp" in a specific environment, the player can no longer get "jumped" by the "Enemy Encounters" like they did in Sector Space. Even though such an event is annoying, nevertheless, the player needs to be presented with the ability to get involved in activities not necessarily associated with their destination. Thus the "trigger" could appear to the player in the form of communications:

"Distress calls" (i.e. random communications which allow you to zone into a random "enemy encounter" instance in order to protect npcs).
"Official communications" from starfleet, these are the access to the fleet actions.

3) Galaxy map replacement
Example: http://go-dl1.eve-files.com/media/corp/UNL/influence.png
The Galaxy map should be replaced star map akin to the size of Eves (not all systems need names, some can be a combination of numbers of letters). Although it could have a little more organisation (i.e. you can actually SEE the divisions between the "quadrants" of the galaxy and actually where the Neutral Zone borders are).

4) Sector Map changes
The Sector Space map "rectangular" configuration would coincide with a "zoomed in" view of the Galaxy map i.e. double clicking an area on the Galaxy map would "zoom into" a particular area of the map to show multiple star systems and surrounding points of interest.

Just like in the short term suggestions, the double left-click and right click functionality for the local and Galaxy maps still apply.

The funny thing is, Eve "borrowed" the whole "at warp" scenario from the Star Trek franchise. Thus its perfect for depicting the same scenario in this game. Its time STO took back what it deserves.

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The 'grid' is the fabric of the space-time-continuum, at least thats how I see it. Yes, 'time' has no representation in the game so it serves no purpose. I too would like to see sector space more beautiful.

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think you are the only one

There's two of us!

We should form a club.

Anyway, I like Sector Space. It provides a 3d means to navigate in warp and gets the job done. I do wish enemy contacts would stop sneaking up on me while I'm trying to type something out to fleet or manage my inventory while I travel along my plotted course.

I'd prefer that the devs work on additional content. Perhaps some stuff that provides us with different options to take instead of us always having to do what one of our bridge officers recommends.

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The 'grid' is the fabric of the space-time-continuum, at least thats how I see it. Yes, 'time' has no representation in the game so it serves no purpose. I too would like to see sector space more beautiful.

Actually, if you look at the "floor" of each factions sector space area, you'll notice that it resembles the old-style "tactical screens" that you saw on the various ships. e.g. in Fed Space, the Sector Space floor is made up of squares, Klingon sector space floor is divided up into hexagons (iirc).

In any case, it just makes the game look like a giant board game or a scene from Tron, rather than being a truer representation of ships at warp.

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Sector space and the instancing of sectors are one of the biggest mistakes Cryptic made on this title. It really detracts from the thing that makes star trek what it is ... instead of space being this enormous, fascinating place with loads of things to discover and new races to meet it has become an annoying tiny little box where no one lives and everything is the same. In Star Trek the universe seems alive in STO it is dead.

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Sector space and the instancing of sectors are one of the biggest mistakes Cryptic made on this title. It really detracts from the thing that makes star trek what it is ... instead of space being this enormous, fascinating place with loads of things to discover and new races to meet it has become an annoying tiny little box where no one lives and everything is the same. In Star Trek the universe seems alive in STO it is dead.

Your summation is spot on. Could not agree more.

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Sector space and the instancing of sectors are one of the biggest mistakes Cryptic made on this title. It really detracts from the thing that makes star trek what it is ... instead of space being this enormous, fascinating place with loads of things to discover and new races to meet it has become an annoying tiny little box where no one lives and everything is the same. In Star Trek the universe seems alive in STO it is dead.

In the Star Trek universe, Warp has always been depicted like looking through a soda straw. Rarely is anything besides the ship that is in warp ever shown unless it's a pursuit in which case two or three ships may be shown, although not necessarily in the same frame. Sector space certainly shows more activity than that. A canon view of warp from the bridge would be nice, but players are still going to have to refer to something else to navigate by as well as to give them some situational awareness of what other ships may be doing.

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the option to make the grid invisable (spelling) should me add'ed atlest ( At the very least )

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though I may agree I stopped reading here, l2spell "purpose" then try again pls

hey buddy read the red text about half a inch down. Then feel free to go Frak yourself

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The 'grid' is the fabric of the space-time-continuum, at least thats how I see it. Yes, 'time' has no representation in the game so it serves no purpose. I too would like to see sector space more beautiful.

should be a special place on your ship were you go to see sector space this way

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From what you've shown as examples, I agree that EVE was inspired by Star Trek on some levels. Though I'm not altogether sold on how the warp travel is implemented there. I don't think its horrible. Just not sure how I would feel about that literal translation here.

Short Term 1) Sector Space:
I don't see the astrometric view of space travel as a problem. It comes to us by way of Voyager. So it's contemporary for the most part. It got us into the game and we travel easily enough, imo, between systems.

Though I acknowledge the graceful nature of space travel isn't yet refined. Perhaps a personal setting - under Options - to soften those grids would make it less invasive?

I do see the prospect of viewing warp travel from the Bridge as attractive. Though this is dependent upon the evolution of the Bridge instances. Depending upon the evolution of how we can interact with the ship from the bridge, I could see the Viewer having an optional overlay. Astrometric-style or not.

2) Galaxy map / sector map functionality:
Not a bad idea. It would be a more effective transition.


Mid Term 1) Sector Space Replacement:
As far as functional interface is concerned, I'm still happy with astrometric view.

Your suggestion would work for me on the level of roleplaying. Assuming we get more interiors, it would be fun to have a "cruise-mode". Where your suggestions come into play. However the time-sync for how long your trip takes could be shorter or longer to reach the destination. Depending upon just how much time you prefer in the "cruise-mode". Maybe it really is 2 minutes or 10 minutes to cross sectors. But if we chose the interior setting, we could stay in it as long as we like. View the warp spectrum from the bridge viewer or from an observation port?

2) Communications whilst traveling
I get what you're saying. But, back to the astrometic view, we can see the enemy encounters closing on us. We can, sometimes, evade them with effort.

What I would prefer is a communication prior to the interception. Be that the pop-up have now or the NPC tab with a unique chime:

"Captain, we've detected a Gorn (Klingon, Terran, etc) cruiser on an intercept course."

At which point, rather than us being forced from warp to deal with them, give us the option to ignore them. Unless, of course, its an integral set-up to a current mission we have?

The distress call idea works for me. I would suggest for those random encounters that are already being engaged, that we would get a communique as well:

"Captain, we are traveling within range of Federation ships engaged in battle. Shall we offer assistance?"

Again, the choice to drop in or not. It really depends upon how much play time someone actually has. If I can only play for hour a week, I would get irritated with the interruptions.

3) Galaxy map replacement
4) Sector Map changes
I'm not opposed to a more graceful transition between both views. As far as style goes, >what do you think of this (http://www.stdimension.org/int/Cartography/Atlas.htm)<?

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Think id prefer the game to be worked on with real fundamental game changes to make it fun and engagin, rather than working to fix a opinion choice of a graphical user interface.