If you haven't seen it, ThomasTheCat has an interesting thread on mini-games.

Makes me wonder if we could have functional mini-games in starbases that enhance the social aspects of game play or be used as rewards to affect any of the items listed in #122.

I hope this comes to be in game.

Starbases are Coming in Season 3!
See Craig's State of the Union. Well, okay, nothing in season 3 is set in stone and anything can happen - but best to be ready!

This thread seeks to get a unified community view of Starbases, so if you see something you don't like or isn't mentioned speak up! The next few posts summarize the ideas in the thread up to this point.

Why Starbases?
Why not? They’re in canon as proven in DS-9. While development would be required, Starbases already exist in-game and when combined with the features below, which could be steadily added over time, would provide a platform that dramatically adds to the game and increases player retention time. Starbases add a major player goal, increase player socializing and RP opportunities, and directly address many of the issues presented in the "Saving STO" thread. They also scale nicely and put the "Massive" back in MMO. In short, starbases are a platform for social sandbox activities, they'll provide an enormous number of things to do in canon that are fun and a break from the normal grind.

Fleet or Player Stations?
Anyone should be able to build Starbases. However, because so bases are so large, complex, and expensive to build; they are best built as Fleet activities which increases player socializing. The consensus is Starbases should be able to be support any size fleet whether its one player or thousands. Starbase costs scale with the fleet size and what the fleet plans to do with it.

Where would you build Starbases?
Space may be infinite, but in STO there are only so many maps and you don't want space littered with starbases. Therefore starbases should exist only in their own instance accessible via a warp gate. One transwarp gate for each faction would take them to their fleet's Starbase.
[Edit: With the upcoming changes to maps/nebulae, it may be possible to place Starbases in "normal" space]

Starbase Construction
One of the fun "sandbox" elements is being able to plan and make construction changes to your starbase (aka Lego style). Designed and built by players with Corridors, transporter rooms, engineering section, cantina/10 Forward, meeting rooms, shuttle bays, astrogation centers, hydroponics/gardens, science labs, sick bays, command center, and even Jeffries tubes. Adding on weapons, defenses, consoles, vendors, or other functional modules (e.g., armor, shields, weapon mount points) as the station expands. No two starbases would be alike, increasing the PvP newness for every encounter.

However, the fun of strabase construction shouldn't be limited to "just" the Fleet Leader or officers; all fleet members interested in "starbase" expansion must be able to participate. Here's how it could work. A Starbase is constructed from "modules" and each module contains one or more "expansion Points". A plan can be made and saved for Starbase Construction that shows how the modules are put together - which defines the floor layout, the external look, and the functional capabilities of the starbase (including attack and defense).

Each fleet member can have their own plan and file it for everyone in the fleet to see. So there may be several "grand visions" for what the starbase should look like. The starbase however is constructed one module per 10 fleet members at a time (possibly taking a week per module with little beings outside that do that the welding) and every module will have a base cost.

Since there could be several competing plans with different modules for the next expansion point (representing different visions) there could be some conflict. So, there is a rule that no one player (except one-man stations) can fund more than 80% of a given module (that would prevent abuses where someone railroads a design). As to selecting the module for the next expansion there are two mechanisms [locked at fleet creation] so far:

Capitalistic
Fleet members fund the next expansion they want with credits, resources, and/or merits. The next expansion point to be fully funded wins and construction starts. Players invested in an alternate expansions have their resources returned.

Democratic
Fleet members vote on the next expansion they most like. When resources are available the module is build

Starbase construction plans are always in flux in either to accommodate new modules, or changes in technology. Expansion never ends, its a true sandbox element as modules are added or replaced to meet the fleet's needs.

“Expensive” doesn’t mean energy credits. It means the time of the players, otherwise gold spammers will rule.

1. You can get a "starter" Starbase for Energy credits. Again, something low to make it easy to start with. Say, 10M Energy Credits. I'd prefer Marks, but there's no way to pool them and you want the starter station to be easy for a fleet to get to promote lots of activity.
2. You can purchase low level Starbase Modules with energy credits or marks
3. Moderate to advanced Starbase modules requires crafting or “starbase” credits. Starbase credits come in different types, for example starbase defense and weapon credits would come from participating in starbase PvP/PvE
4. Starbases will have multiple decks accessible via turbolift

In addition to modular-style construction, there might be different options for starbase types. Similarly, Refining, trading, Ship repair/manufacture might require separate space stations.

Player Housing
Characters could build/rent offices (player houses) on-board their fleet’s stabase (“Guildhall”). It has been conclusively shown that players with houses stay in MMOs longer. If a player leaves a fleet, their office stays in the transporter buffer until they have a new fleet.

Look & Feel
Starbase’s would come in different types and have different looks. Probably a premium content item, but why not add planets, moons, asteroid belts, etc. to the instance where your starbase resides? Similarly, Starbases should feel “big” and “busy” with crew members populating the interior and appear to be performing their duties. Similarly, much of what Dsthal mentioned in regards to ship interiors would apply to starbase interiors. Possibly the UGC toolset could be used by the fleet to build and run the starship interior instance (e.g., have crew performing actions, have a lounge where an Orion brings you a drink, etc.)

Different types of Starbases

• Asteroid base
• Deep Space starbase
• Planetary Orbiting starbase
• Colony Outpost

In addition to growing the Starbase lego-style, it might be possible to “improve” the instance that the Starbase resides in. Either by adding other structures, or through missions and activities “nuturing” the instance. The sector could start off just populated with random anomalies but get fleshed out and properly 'explored' by expending resources and picking versions of exploration systems (preferably with some ongoing diplomatic system and/or recurrent patrol-ish missions) to anchor there and, hopefully, allow for UGC placement as well. One possible mechanism is for the instance the Starbase resides in to have an “expanse” connected to an edge. As the fleet performs more missions (possibly even diplomatic) they get bonuses to crafting, mining, trading, starbase defense, etc.

Territory control

What can we Control?
As Starbases are in private-fleet instances, you can’t control that territory directly. Instead, you get bonuses based off indirectly controlling something. For example, if you win a PvP starbase encounter, you’ve weakened the grip of that fleet in that area as they rebuild, giving you a plus to mining for a short period.

How many different resources are there to Control?
Lots! Ideally each playable faction has some defining characteristics (e.g., Federation has Warp Core technology) and each fleet might be randomly assigned or select certain characteristics (mining, trading, crafting, etc.). In the PvP/PvE queue, the “bonus” attributes for the mission would appear so you can select what sort of bonus you’re trying for.

How do we get control?
Essentially you win the encounter. The more frequently you win the higher the bonus, but the bonus fades over time. The counter rotates on a 24 hour clock, so any victory over 24 hours no longer counts towards the total and its the sum of the encounters from all instances of the encounter. Plus, the counter automatically decrements itself once an hour so if no one's doing the encounter no one gets the bonus (e.g., you can't just win the encounter once per day and get the bonus for 24 hours).

The drive for fleets to do this is enormous. Not only for mining bonuses, but think about trying to build a MK X Replicator; it should be really hard/expensive to make, a 10% bonus could really be useful when trying to craft it.

Moving the Starbase
You should be able to place within the instance's system where your starbase is.

Starbase Holodeck
Holodeck programs could be loaded providing a place for crew simulations. Very important for Klingon, Romulan, and Tactical ships which can't afford the luxury of a holosuite. As UGC missions become available (yes, that's coming too!) this will be the ideal spot to playtest them and of course there will be stand-alone holosuite missions (possibly outside of the Star Trek IP, or transmedia (e.g., buy a holodeck program that let you be a super hero (a.k.a CO)).

Starbase Crafting
Crafting can be tied to Starbases and brings many elements which expand the game. In this idea, players never stand around at crafting stations. Instead, they explore strange new worlds, perform scientific investigations, and pursue their Federation/KDF duties in a time of war. That is, Crafting in Canon.

• Mining - Needed to get raw ore and rarer non-replicable materials. You get escort missions where you guard npc miners and npc haulers. Your PvE or PvP opponents try to steal the ore/destroy the miners. What your haulers make it out of the instance with is divided up between your team mates and deposited in your vault. The more valuable the ore, the more dangerous the mission. You could mine anywhere for normal matter, but you're really after materials that can't be replicated - so, you can't mine just anywhere.

  Why Mining?
  Let’s assume replicator technology is 90% efficient. Using Einstein’s E=mc**2, then to create a 1 ton starship armor panel, it takes 1.24 tons of mass (any type) not including the power to run the replicator. In addition to any old matter, we also know that some materials can not be replicated. Ergo, there is mining!
  

• Ore & Non-Replicable Matter
  There could be several different types of raw ore, perhaps one or two types from each expanse. Miners/tankers would return so many units of Ore. Raw ore has no other characteristics other than name; but is made up of subcomponents. One of the components would always be "Normal Matter". So, for example, an ore named Pitch-22 might be 80% normal matter, and then so much non-replicable matter: 15% Rubidium, 2% dilthium, and 1% trilythium. All Pitch-22 would have those characteristics.
  
  
• Schematics & Experimentation Some basic schematics are available for purchase, some as unique rewards from exploration missions, but generally you get these by decomposing existing items (you can not decompose crafted items). At the time of decomposition you “craft” a schematic.
  
  You can try to improve the recipe by experimenting with it by using anomalies and research materials available at Memory Alpha. Success is based on skill, and the more you craft the better you get at it. Simple improvements just rearrange statistics (e.g., instead of 20% tetryon, 20% Polaron, and 0% kinetic you can rearrange it to 10% tetryon, 10% Polaron, and 10% kinetic), more complex changes might improve statistics. In addition to changing component statistics, other items to vary on schematics are the amount of resources required, energy, and time.
  
  Being able to manipulate schematics is a branching technology (i.e., Crafting classes). At the base level common to all are simple refinery schematics, simple replicator console, and relief supplies. From there it branches out into many specifications: melee weapons, ranged weapons, starship energy weapons, launchers, kits, armor, weapons, engineering consoles, science consoles, tactical consoles, shields, replicators, refinery, starbase components, ship refits, etc. Schematics can be used by anyone (e.g., a doctor-crafter could create a new improved hypospray schematic for use in a normal starship replicator).
  
  Notes:
  • Schematics have minimum replicator levels from 1-10 which correspond to ship and Starbase replicator levels. A level 1 ship can’t have higher than a level 1 replicator. This means a level 1 ship can only get level 1 hyposprays dispensed and when they upgrade to a level 2 ship they'll want to buy the next level schematic to get the better hyposprays. That way, there's a constant need for a progressing player to need more schematics.
  • Starships would have level 1-5 replicators. Starbases would have levels 6-10, where the higher you get the more tuned the replicator is towards a specific branch of crafting. For example, a level 10 Medical replicator can whip up the best hyprosprays, but not a hand-phaser. Note that 6-10 should be very minor increases - just enough to make the trouble of getting it worth it (possibly need to make high-level replicators non-tradeable, that is they are "attuned" to one player - (or anyone can use them, but only Scotty who created it and tinkered with it can get it to perform at Mk X levels).
  • Buying a recipe allows a player to craft whatever consumable they like. It's good for them as by using ship-board replicators they don't need to consume inventory with supplies. If you're low, you just whip up a dozen and distribute to your team/crew members.
  • However, any shipboard generated supply won't have been created with the best replicators, and therefore won't be the very best stuff. So, they're still be a need for them to buy inventories.
  • It also works well for cross-class crafting. How many times have you needed a widget from a different crafting class and not been able to find it? With a schematic from that crafter you can build those pieces (although not as well because you won't have the high quality replicator they possess). So, enough to build the consumable parts (e.g., hypospray-injector-body to go with your Mark X hyposprays) you need for the Friday night raid when you can't find a crafter selling what you want at a reasonable prices (hey, side benefit of controlling gold-spammers!)
  • Another downside to consumables is that once replicated they have expiration dates. You definitely wouldn't want to be injecting yourself with medicine past its prime or trying to use an unstable battery.
  
  
• Refining- Requires raw materials, Formula-Schematics and consoles to convert raw materials into usable materials. This is a batch operation (think factory), you setup a “job” with a given schematic, ore, rare materials, and energy. It completes is so much time based on input volume. How much is converted depends on the schematic and the quality of the refinery.

  Sub-Idea: Anti-Matter is converted from normal matter and used for energy storage and used for fabrication of the mundane parts of items. Possibly it could also be used to run the station, crafting consoles, weapons, etc. as well; making it somewhat vital to keep a healthy reserve to keep the lights going (and a strategical element for space battles).

• Craftables - Any thing you can get a schematic for you can craft: refineries, replicator consoles, foods, medicines, starbase consoles, ship components, kits, weapons, shields, shuttlecraft, ships, ship refits (upgrade your beloved T4 to an equivalent T5), etc. All crafting is done automatically by replicators (e.g., Factory). That is it’s a batch job, you put in the materials and come back later to get the goods. Quality/quantity is based on the quality of the replicator.

Public starbases could have general/starter refineries and replicators. Once you’ve built your own you could put them aboard your ship or starbase, building as many as you need. You might also have several types optimized for specific items (remember, you can tailor schematics, so one replicator might be good at medicines, and another better for weapons). Raidisode bosses may have rare items that yield special schematics for either finished items, or subcomponents.

In order to promote crafter socializing, advanced technology end-components should require advanced technology subcomponents only available from other crafters.

Starbase Merits
This has been suggested as a way of thwarting Gold Spammers by having "sharable" merits expressly for the purpose of growing starbases. Possibly connected to crafting, PvE/PvP. the difficulty with it is that once you make merits shareable, it allows spammers entry. Good idea, but no practical implementation yet.

Phasing Crafting In
Crafting could be phased in gradually. For example, adding "mining" and “trading" missions would be straight-forward using the existing system with the exception that ore-types would need to be added as rewards, and new PvP queues/missions would need to be setup.

This would give the devs an idea for how much ore your average "active" fleet could accumulate in say a month's time and give them an idea for the breakdown for materials in refining. In the mean time, players would suddenly have a lot of new things to do, and a great reason for doing them. It would add a lot of excitement to the game.

While players started accumulating materials, the devs could be working on schematics and the skill-tree that goes along with them. Those would have to be releases next along with dissemblers to get base schematics. From there, players could get other schematics from exploration and other missions. From there, crafting! Once crafting is implemented, players could not only build mundane things, but start building parts for exciting new expansions (e.g., starbases).

Starbase PvE & PvP
Starbases are a great way to spruce up PvP and PvE encounters a great way to test your defensive plans. As starbases are lego-constructed, you never know what you'll find. Each will be a totally unique encounter. The fleet action at starbase 24 is a good example of how a PvP attack would proceed: fly in and take out the stations shields, then beam aboard and capture the flag.

NOTE: Starbases are not full-time "Open PvP". PvE and PvP occur only on demand and only the starbase inhabitants that have signed up for them (e.g., crafters can continue to craft uniterrupted).

Defenders Space Combat
Each fleet member would be able to build and man a station using their skills, bridge officer skills, and components they setup (that is, it's exactly like a starship setup and "stations" are crafted to your specifications). The UI would look very similar to the UI from their ship. Starbase weaponry (yes, an entirely new branch available via crafting) would be more powerful the smaller their firing arc, more powerful overall, but have longer recharge rates. You’d see the fixed portion of a starbase your defenses oversaw and the overall health of the starbase. Your view, and ability to attack, would change as the starbase rotated. Starbases should rotate fast enough that it's unlikely a fleet can stay in synchronous orbit.

In the second phase, you'd be hand-to-hand in the corridors of your starbase (so you have the home advantage) defending your base against the attackers.

Setting up the PvP/PvE Encounter
When creating the PvP queue for the encounter, the Fleet officer would want to put a time limit on it. An attacker could see the time remaining and basic information about the encounter. Players could join the "fleet" action as attackers or defenders provided a balance was maintained (possibly controlled by the queueing system), this would allow for drops or adds. Defenders would be one fleet and "friends", Attackers would be any arrangement of fleets, teams, or solo players added together by the queuing system.

Types of PvP Encounter
Mining, Trading as mentioned in the above summary would be normal encounters. However, just as there are several types of existing PvP encounters there could be several types of Starbase PvP/PvE encounters. From destroy the base, capture engineering, capture the bridge, kidnap the ambassador. [Could use more discussion.]

Winning the Encounter
Defenders would win when the opponents leave, or the timer expires. Attackers would win by either destroying the station or by "Capturing" it before the timer expires. To take the station they'd have to beam aboard and capture the flag before the timer expired (which represents faction groups arriving to repel the invaders).

What does Winning mean?
It's a game, everyone should win something for playing. The winning side should get the Victory points that are used to build up and maintain their starbase. Whether the station is destroyed or "taken" has no real game affect - the fleet will get the station back. Doing anything else would be just too traumatic (we want to promote starbase PvE & PvP, besides, it's just a game! ;-) Note: Starbases might suffer "injuries" under the new system if destroyed, and a player individual station might suffer injuries as well; this would make both personal and station repairs necessary.

Starbase PvP kinks
With respawn, the first stage of knocking down the station's shields is a foregone conclusion. A non-optional death penalty that additively decreases performance might be required for this.

Then, once the shields fell and the encounter went to fighting inside the station what happens when a player dies. If they respawn in the same point, will a defender suddenly find himself behind enemy lines; dying quickly again? Or, doe it provide an unfair tactical advantage for them to have gotten behind enemy lines to reclaim an area the enemy already claimed? Some mechanism (such as having players respawn in sick bay and attackers respawning at the beam in point would need to be worked out.

Solo Vs. Group Rewards
I think you need both, and they should be proportional to both the difficulty of the mission and the players contribution to the station via the amount of items crafted for the station (including the portion mined/refined/etc.). The group reward would be something that benefits the starbase as a whole and promotes Starbase activities. The individual rewards would go towards the players "portion" of the starbase (this could be anything from a poster on a wall to hang in their quarters to new components/weapons for their section of starbase defense).

Starbase Diplomacy
So, you command a starbase on the Federation's frontier. Seems to me the perfect place for diplomats to come to hammer out agreements. Epionage, Intrigue, Undine Plots, Trade Routes, Mining, Technology exchange, Peace Negotiations and more all await us!

Do some diplomacy missions and you get favorable mining rights leading to a bonus on ZincCragium-18 ().

1. A diplomacy mission should start with a briefing on what's known about your opponent - The "correct" solution for the same scenario should change based on that information (e.g., a Vulcan might respond to logic, whereas a Romulan to a veiled threat).
2. In all diplomacy missions the "last" option is space or ground combat. Other options would be some sort of mini-puzzle/game (word game, card game, board game, diffuse the bomb game) based on your opponent's nature and the bonus sought after.
3. Bonus's should be fleet based, be award via either solo or fleet play. One person working by himself might get a 1% bonus over an hour's effort for the fleet for 24 hours. 6 fleet members working solo for 10 min (the same effort as a soloist for an hour) would also get 1%. But 6 members teamed together for 10 minutes would get 2%.

Starbase Injury System
During PvE and PvP combat, starbases could take damage just like the existing injury system. Starbase injuries could have negative affects on any Starbase activities (e.g., mining, trading, crafting, PvE, PvP). These could be fixed by:

1. Crafting - crafters build replacement parts, requires mining, trading, schematics.
2. minigames - Could be like a circuitry puzzle work-around
3. Missions - Perhaps there are saboteurs in engineering, time to beam in and take them out

One thing it shouldn’t be, and that’s 20,000 merits to repair. Mainly because they're individual based, everything about starbases should be based on team/fleet-work.

Trading: Starbases as Centers of Commerce
In the last few world wars, protecting shipping consumed a large portion of everyone's navy. It should be no different today for Federation or Klingon. You wouldn't send out fully laden resource freighters to be captured or destroyed. Your job, as the captain of a warship, will be to escort the fleet to its destination (not to do the hauling).

From your starbase you check the computer against your inventories to see where those supplies are needed versus the reward, which is commensurate with the amount of material transferred. Some missions may "lend" special schematics (e.g., relief supplies). Some may require you to do raidisodes to get schematics.

First you need the stuff to ship. That might be raw resources, or it might be finished goods your fleet's crafters have made from the raw resources. Finished goods bring far higher rewards and are far more dangerous. You might not have what it takes to fill the order, so you might need to get supplies, craft, or even get schematics first to be able to do so.

Once you have all the "stuff", based on the volume it's going to take one or more npc haulers to haul it where it's going. The more haulers, the more stuff, the greater the reward, the higher the risk. Which means you'll need multiple fleet members to protect large loads. Essentially it would scale up, from solo play to full fleet.

Escort missions are hard because you have to keep the escort alive (unless your enemy wants to capture it). So, I can see these as PvE or PvP missions. In PvP, the real reward is if you can capture the freighter (that gives you goods for your fleet to transport)! Some breakage probably occurred during capture, and you might have to beam over an away-team to disarm the self destruct.

Trading encounters occur like the random encounters in sector space. Assume you're delivering emergency relief supplies to a Romulan world, so your fleet has to guard the haulers from the starbase transit gate deep into enemy space. Based on the risk-rating, there will be "n" encounters where the freighters get sucked into a combat instance.

Your fleet then needs to jump into the furball to destroy the enemy. Not only does this mean destroying the enemy, but using your shields, engineering teams, and science teams to keep your freighters alive. Heck, you might even have to beam an away team on-board to repel boarders. Perhaps you're stuck in the sector on until the freighter can repair their engines? Or, perhaps you just have to get clear of an area of space so you can warp out, or perhaps there's a warp field scrambler that needs to be destroyed while you're keeping your freighters safe?

In fact, the very first transport mission might be your fleet protecting your initial starbase during its creation phase. After all, the enemy has a vested interest in stopping you while you're weak. For example, you buy the starbase "kit" on Vulcan, a freighter (which you have to protect) travels into a new instance, and you must protect the freighter and the new starbase while it's being constructed (using materials you mined & refined).

Starbases sound like a great deal for large fleets. I would like to see such a system developed in parallel with smaller outposts and colonies for individuals and small groups. Particularly intriguing would be a system where players can join their private holdings together for a settlement that grows organically over time, rather than requiring an organized group effort up-front. That's more representative of how frontier settlements actually develop -- frontiersmen pave the way for settlers, who civilize the region for citizens. Give people an alternative way to form relationships and alliances, rather than merely favoring those players that already have them.

Don't forget Benjamin Sisko was a starship Captain before being assigned to Deepspace 9. Certainly the construction workers would need to have "starbase" construction skills, but the station architecture would be more for defense/attack and convenience of internal operations (e.g., crafting). As such, more for the players to determine based on the needs of their fleet.

Operations in terms of weapons and defenses should make use of a players skills. While the summary post above does call for player-crafted starbase weapons/defenses, I could see players using their existing skills in beams/cannons/torpedoes carrying over to similar to types of starbase weapons/defenses. This seems like a place where it makes sense to reuse what already exists rather than create something new.

Hopefully not just "large" fleets, but fleets of any size as discussed in #140! I think the largest objection to your idea is that players are starship captains, not frontiersmen or colonists - so it wouldn't be in canon to join them. But, Starfleet did defend those remote outposts, so there's opportunity in there.

I concur. There is some really great stuff is this thread and I agree with all of it. However i was wondering how and individual or a couple of friends who don't really have a fleet might participate. I think individuals organizing together through organic growth would be a great way. An example would be an asteroid field opened up for building. A person or small group could purchase one and start a small base. Should be resonalbly cheap. Over time as other individuals choose to build in this astroidfield more individual bases would appear. Over time as these people became friends options could appear to link the individual bases to create a larger one. Something like that would be way cool.

They need to hire you immediately. <3

Take a look at post #140 and if that's not what you're looking for let us know how it went wrong (left the content out of the last summary to reduce the size ) - or better yet, the solution to fixing it!

Thanks, but I can't take credit for all of it - those are summaries of ideas from a heck of lot of people in this thread and others. What I like best about these ideas are that they show how the game can include "social" sandbox elements while working with instancing and canon rather than fight them and be phased-in so that it could bring new and exciting content quickly with the promise of much more to come.

But, they're not done yet! The summaries are to try and "condense" the information (I know they're huge posts , but easier than reading the 15 pages of posts) so that readers like yourself and Commodore_Stipe can find flaws that we, as a community, can resolve. Hopefully, when Cryptic gets ready for this, we'll have done a lot of the leg work for them, and because of it get a much better sandbox.

(BTW, I seen some of your posts on other threads, it's great to see new blood with fresh insights! Keep Posting, it's your game now! )