Cryptic why not just lose the instancing and sector space and tie all the planets togeather. It would really give this game such a awsome feel, I would love flying around and passing planets as i go, maybe stoping to kill some orions i meet on the way etc. You can make bases and ships respawnable in the respected area for what ever mission is tied there. Sure flying from ds9 to sol mite take 15min at max impolse but that dont bother me at all. This would also give the game a better community feel, Kill 3 birds with one stone. Also with this system in place we can have open pvp

this would also allow for more random things to happen in space and give more of a trek feel over-all

This would also require a MASSIVE overhaul and force then to essentially take down the whole game. YEAH people wouldnt QQ about THAT

I doubt this engine could handle such large zones and not everyone wants open PvP.

say they take the game down 2 months and freeze everyone's account till then, I wouldent mind if i knew they were doing somthing like this

I cant help but feel this is the way the game was ment to be

can have 2 servers one with open one with normal.

I think you mean 15 min at max warp. Real physics or game wise, from Sol to DS9 would take a LOT longer at impulse.

Two words: server stability.
We have issues NOW, with instancing. If everyone who was in Earth Spacedock (or Sol System, or DS9) was in the same instance, lag would be rampant (which it already is; it would be even WORSE).

It has nothing to do with the game Engine. STO has a huge graphic footprint because they were intentionally going for something of a higher visual quality. WoW can get a way with Phasing because of its low system requirements. If STO had phasing only the high-end machines would be able to play it. Everyone else would just lag-out, specially when their computer system was tryign to preload the next zone. For the game to be viable for lower-end systems some compromises needed to be made.

The changes you are requesting would take far longer then 2 months to implement, They would almost have to start from scratch.