Your Favorite Community Authored Mission(s)

[thunderfoot]

One of the things I like most about STO is the Foundry. Community members have the ability to make and share missions with others using the same tools as the devs. Since I first become a member of the KDF, I spent a lot of time playing these in between the Featured Content Episodes. Some of these player made missions are every bit the equal of anything Cryptic has done or may be doing. The Foundry is one thing in STO which may break my long standing rule of not paying Real Money to play an online game. The Foundry appeals to the map maker in me very strongly as well as the story teller. I view PC games as another way to tell a story, like a film or a book, with the added plus of making the player one of the main characters in the tale.

I just completed, Crouching Demon, Hidden Ty'Gokor by Captain_Revo. It is an excellent story. It is well planned and executed to boot. If you've not given it a try, I highly recommend you do so. Do you have a favorite Community authored mission(s)? What did you like about it(them)? Please share your tales of battle, honor, and glory with the rest of us. After all, when the Loresingers of a thousand years hence tell young Bekks of your mighty deeds, this is the only true immortality. May you die with honor in battle and be remembered as doing so. Qapla'!

 

[Amateur]

I'm a fan of the Nagus dailies on the Federation side due to their simplicity. They're not going to win awards for storytelling, but they are a quick and easy way to complete the officer reports assignment and grab the dilithium on offer. The longer missions are great, but some of them are very deep, detailed, and long - I'd rather play them in my own time than tackle them solely for the reward.

That said, I've played a couple and the one I really enjoyed was 'First Cause, Then Effect'. It felt new and unique, although the software limitations made it a little clunky in places. Still, it actually felt like a Trek episode - it had a decent plot as a backbone that everything else was built onto rather than being a series of fights joined up by some dialogue.

 

[thunderfoot]

The Nagus Dailies perform exactly as advertised. Nothing wrong with this. I use them myself. A lot of people forget the longer missions can get a little too involved to be successfully completed within the time limit. And for those who think these are cheating or not Star Trek enough, I would remind people STO is a game not a feature film.

First Cause, Then Effect is a great mission. I also agree with you some of the missions feel like a series of fights hooked together by a quick dialogue screen. I have no qualms at all about pulling the plug on a poorly done mission. I have even less about publicly warning others away from it. I'm usually not kind at all in the Comments either.

 

[SciFiFan]

I have not dabled too much into the community authored missions yet. I have ideas on some stories to try my hand at creating a few myself. I do remember one that I did, can't remember the name, that had some pretty serious pathing issues. This was nothing the author did wrong (I think it was game mechanics). I caught my Borg science officer crouching behind a pilar like he was scared. Imagine that, a Borg, scared.....

 

[thunderfoot]

There are some missions which are simply terrible. IDK if this is because of anything other than a lack of experience on the maker's part. I played a really great mission as part of a test group which had the same Away Team pathing issues. The first time I played STO, I wondered why all the passageways were so very wide. Then I remembered an AI unit usually needs about two and a half times more space than a player controlled unit does while moving. This to prevent units like, say, a Liberated Borg Bridge Officer from crouching behind stuff or moving around erratically because the algorithms keep coming up with the, "not enough space to set for the next move" answer.

Played Hunter Killer by Captain_Revo last night. More Rihannsu goodness. This guy really knows how to light a map, as well. Fire Blade has never looked better while trashing Mogais, lol.