I was wondering if Star trek online was going to allow Fleets to colonize planets and empliment transports to transport itmes to and from said colonys. As well as a mission to defend colony. I don't know what would be a good idea on benefits and knowing it'll be an insane long in game time to colonize and create transports, but Dilithium or credits for the fleet maybe. Or even duty officers. I thought id make a seguestion. Also I was wondering if any one else may have some thoughts on this idea.

This would be a part of the game, if they choose to tackle it, that'd I'd love to be able to influence. This would encompass exploration, diplomacy, crafting, player housing and possibly even pvp.

Since we have a fleet base system in progress, we could use the fleet level to determine a maximum number of colonial sites we could occupy. First we would pick a zone like Betreka or Hromi and initiate exploration missions. This would have to be a separate mission than the normal visit 3 systems missions we have now. The sole purpose would be to generate a potential site for occupation. There are a good number of different solar systems the engine could choose from with corresponding ground maps. Next it could populate the system. Is there indigenous life? Is there a colony for one of the major npc races already present? What are the natural resources available? Generate a 1-100 relative value for the basic types of resources. Generate a planetary bias if populated based on race/empire/development level. Create some fauna while you're at it.

So this exploring vessel would enter the system, scan for life (and possibly be attacked/contacted), land on the ground map and have a walk around. If there's no resistance you could do daily level missions to search for the pre-generated resources, perhaps requiring some infrastructure (crafted or purchasable). We could get great use of our starbases at this point sending those transports to the discovered systems with modules needed for colonizing/mining etc. Cryptic could make starbase projects where we fabricate the items and our transwarp gates could even be hooked up to the planets we acquire.

The variables of the systems would be set in advance and could be stored to our fleet's data, but it would be up to us to determine if it's worth a precious slot. There should be some monetary loss if we pick an unprofitable spot and must abandon it. If the planet were occupied by a friendly group, the projects might develop faster and you may be awarded doffs/bo's. If it's unfriendly your fleet could attempt an invasion which I think would be an awesome fleet event. If you lose the match, you gotta move on. If you're in a small fleet like myself, perhaps you could purchase some fleet assets to assist you, or invite mercenary players.

A developed planet should produce commodities that will be used by colonial/starbase projects. This would boost the economy and crafting as even the largest fleets would likely not be able to provide for all their needs.

So where does PWE profit? On +1 items as always, selling machinery or buildings like they do +1 consoles, selling doff type packs for civilians, defensive gear etc. They could even sell promising coordinates that might guarantee one good stat (minerals, archaeological site, populated, etc.)

I'm rambling, sorry. The big question is do they have the will to do this for people like you and me who want to do more than fly sector space. Given the approach taken for starbases so far, where we all have the very same stuff with no customization or randomness allowed... I'd have to say no, they don't. Fun dream though.

I use the fourxgamer name here for a reason, but there may be a lot of folks post 1990's that don't know what it means. It stands for Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate. Games need a good mix of these to be fun in my opinion, and Star Trek is not exempt.

Fleet based colonization gameplay would be more than welcome IMHO, and I agree that it could be easily tied into the "Fleet Holdings" rating (although technically, rather than "owning" colonies, they would have "support responsibility" for them).

Canonically speaking, there are a fair amount of references in Trek TV series regarding Starfleet assisting in colonization efforts.

For what it's worth, Fleets are getting an "embassy" with the new Romulan colony coming out in Season 7. There has also been mention of expanding the Fleet system to include more smaller installations. I think it says somewhere on the Fleet menu that the starbase is the "Headquarters" for your fleet. Will check when I log into the game later.