We may never see starbases even if we come up with the perfect way to implement them.

Commander and below permanently in charge of a ship is a bit of a stretch in the star trek world.

Every admiral having their own starbase is even....stretchier....

Thanks to Squidheadjax & Felderburg for calling me out on my suggestion that Starbases could only be built from credits obtained in Starbase PvP. It was ill conceived to say the least as it ignored the question how does that first station get started and that a lot of people don't like PvP. You're absolutely right!

So, I proposed this amended idea:

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 any MK1 to MK4 Starbase Modules with energy credits or marks
3. Anthing above Mk4 requires a type of Credit specific to that activity. That is, Crafting stations cost crafting credits. PvP/PvE modules require Starbase PvP/PvE credits, etc.

Well, I hear you. I have all these marks and badges that are accumulating and no practical way to use them. But - that's another problem. My reason for using new credit types is to help promote interfleet activities. If you could just buy everything with cash or other marks, there would be less incentive for new Starbases to even try PvP. By making PvP station growth dependant on PvP activity, you can be reasonably sure of short queue times.

Starbase Crafting
The game, IMHO, needs a real crafting system. I propose that this new crafting system be tied to Fleet Owned Starbases. Essentially, there would be a multilayer integrated system:

• Mining - A dangerous occupation. In any of the Expanses, rather than the two options now (i.e., enter system, analyze anomaly) there would be a third random choice (mine resources). These areas should be plagued by recurring PvE pirates. Because the area is randomly instanced, there's no concern over fleet control or domination. A PvP mining queue could also be established where two groups of five could mine and compete for resources. Destroying a ship would release their load of mined material for the next closest ship to try and tractor in. Ships can only carry so much raw ore, and you have to give up a weapon mount for a mining laser. Is this practical for Starflleet? Sure! There's a war going on after all. (sidenote: actually, if crafting is revamped, you could do away with anomalies, pehaps "Device" slos can be used for cargo carrying ore). There could be ground based mining in addition to space based mining.
• Refining - Requires raw materials, formulaes, and consoles to convert raw materials into usable materials
• Ship Components - Any device, weapon, scanner, console, etc. When making items, Crafters use their skills to fashion components - not to the fixed in-game presets; but rather adjustable ranges. For example, instead of a 20% Tetryon & 20% Polaron and 0% Kinetic, they could make one 10% for all three. Add a random quality factor that, with skill, help decides if the item is white, green, blue, or purple. A high level crafter making a low level item ought to have a good shot at making a rare (purple) item. Perhaps add a new color (red) for substandard items. All items require schematics which are rewards handed out or discovered through exploration.
• Ground Components - Same as space components: Kits, weapons, shields, etc. Might be specialization in melee weapons, ranged weapons, engineering/tactical/science, etc.
• Starbase Components - I really like the idea of all Starbase Components being made by crafters. But, I also think its necessary for these components to be achieved through interfleet actions (e.g., selling crafted goods, PvP starbase battles) to keep low queue times. Perhaps this works more like the current crafting system for weapons and weapon consoles. All the items you puchase with stabase-battle-credits are "common", however skilled crafters can "enhance" them or change the base properties. (Sidenote: Crafting consoles could also have varying qualities or attributes that would make it desirable to expand Starbases to have several different types).
• Refits - Starbases so equipped could sell "refits" to players. Players would use the token purchased off the exchange to get to the fleet instance. This allows players to see how cool the Fleet's starbase is, and of course to get a refit for their ship. Refits might be the "new" way to tailor how your ship looks, or perhaps how RA5 ships get a new device slot, or perhaps how they can use MK XI+ weapons.

Grinding
I think there needs to be some form of Grinding. This isn't to punish the people that like to craft, but rather to encourage intrafleet cooperation and communication. If everyone can easily do everything, there's no reason for them to work closely together. Making schematics a somewhat scarce resource could do this too, but when I've seen that I found it more frustrating than fun. Another consideration might be that each of the crafting classes needs components made by other crafters to complete higher level things.

Well, let's here what you think!

Mining is for EVE, not for Starfleet. Nero was a miner, though, so if you want to play "crazy Romulan civilians online" go for it. Seriously though, you NEVER saw Starfleet involved in mining, as far as I know. They did help miners out, and I suppose there's room for missions involving miners that would give you some sort of boost or something but...

I do like your idea for crafting. It intrigues me. I'll wait and see what Cryptic comes up with.

Grinding.... You do realize that the term "grinding" is NOT positive, right? The "daily grind" is the mind numbing, soul sucking, ugh I hate this job feeling that 9-5ers get from sitting at a desk all day, or working on an assembly line all day. Grinding is not fun. I agree that things should be reasonably hard to get, but I don't want to have to "grind" for them.

I suppose this could turn into an argument about grinding, so I'll just say that everyone has different ideas on what constitutes grinding, and what constitutes "fun" grinding, and leave it at that.

Well, this thread is all about generating ideas to overcome issues and make the game more fun. I sure hope someone comes up with a better solution to foster community. (Even the logic behind it is bumpy, which is when its difficult for one player to do everything, in effect, they need other people and that builds community).

There's also the issue you raised, which I agree with, things should be reasonably hard to obtain. That adds intrinsic value and player pride to the accomplishment. But if you just make it cost a whole bunch, you just moved the grind to getting money (which fosters greed, and Gold Sellers/Spammers that I surely don't want to see) rather than spending time making things.

I really do agree with you. Of course, I hate mining - it's right up there with grinding. But, I included it since you need something for raw resources and it feels like it would be a critical aspect. Hopefully we can get a lot more discussion on a reasonable way to make this work. Here's an example how it might work and still be "in canon"

Mining Mission Players

• You - You, and your team, in your ships just like normal.
• Miners - These guys mine the ore, your job is to protect them, they're computer controlled entities. Shields but no weapons.
• Tankers - These guys transport the ore to your Starbase, your job is to protect them. They pop in, and dock with the miner. The miner fills them up. Then they fly out full as a replacement flies in empty. Shields, but no weapons.
• Them - PvE or PvP - These guys try to kill your miners and tankers, stealing your ore

So, from your starbase you get a mission (instanced for PvE or PvP) that you need some raw resources. Your job is to patrol the sector and keep the miners and tankers safe. Your opponent's job is to prevent you from mining (killing your miners), and stealing your cargo (they blow up your tanker and their tanker comes to pick up the stuff).

Thanks for challenging me on this, I like this idea a lot better and never would have thought of it you hadn't said Starfleet helps miners. This could make mining wicked fun.

starbases fit in with an idea I have on Fleets. They wouldn't be solitary to single Fleets, though... but would be shared/instanced based on the Fleet. Fleet's could do their own awards and promotions and what not. Post fully expanding that idea to follow

Refining & Materials
This is one example as to how Refining might work.

Just as in EvE 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 type; but as in EvE, each ore 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, 15% Rubidium, 2% dilthium, and 1% trilythium. All Pitch-22 would have those characteristics.

Two things are needed at the Starbase to refine the ore into materials. First, there is a player that has put points into a refining skill (possibly base refining points, then specialization in each of the ore types). This would be in the new "Crafting" section and not take away from existing points.

Secondly, there is a player made refining console that has a quality rating for each of the subcomponents. So, you might have a Mk IV Pitch Processer that was +10 on Dilthium, +5 on Rubidium, and -3 on Trilythium, and -10 on normal matter. The skill level of the player modifies the ability of the console. When the player processes the ore, they get some portion of anti-matter (rather than matter) and some portion of the other components.

Anti-Matter is used for energy, which is needed for the fabrication of the mundane parts of items. Possibly it could 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).


As always, please throw your ideas in - or if you don't see how to do something at least poke holes in what's in this post!

Thanks!

Started an independent thread on Crafting ideas at http://forums.startrekonline.com/sho...d.php?t=142656.

My Wife plays Wizards 101 and if you look at how they are setup its almost the same. Only one server with instances that they give Shard Type names. But just like here you can jump to any one you want. The Houses you own are also Instances. You Click Warp to Fleet and you enter an Instance that you design. You could even allow who you want and I could see even having Fleet war were oppisate sides could declare Wars.