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A 'STO Duty Officers'- style mini-game

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DoctorZorka
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A 'STO Duty Officers'- style mini-game

For anyone not familiar with the topic:
Star Trek Online's Duty Officer system allows the player to accumulate a roster of NPCs (Duty Officers) and assign them to a variety of missions that are carried out in the background, whether or not the player is on-line - the missions simply run out a real-time clock (a few hours to a few days) and then randomly determine an outcome. Outcomes consist of minor awards, such as crafting ingredients or temporary power boosts. Missions require suitable duty officer NPC's, some money and sometimes additional items. Duty Officers can also be traded between players on the open market. They never appear in-game - they only exist 'on paper'.

I have fun with this system - it feels like a combination of trading cards and a simple strategy mini-game. It always gave me something to look forward to every time I signed on - "What did I win this time?" It was a handy way to chase after that elusive chunk of unobtainium for some must-have gadget.

What villain wouldn't want a rogue's gallery of henchmen to dispatch on menial tasks as part of his Master Plan?

What hero doesn't have a fan club of eager volunteers somewhere, just waiting for the chance to help out?

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I also enjoy the STO Duty

I also enjoy the STO Duty Officer minigame...which isn't so mini. My only complaint or concern with trying to use the concept in CoT is that I would prefer to see it reward no XP to the player character. I would limit rewards to two categories - those that advance the players' power within the minigame (as rewarded higher-quality officers do in STO's version), and those that generate crafting items, currency used in crafting, or store tokens for crafting supplies. If CoT crafting is anything like CoH crafting, these rewards would be quite valuable to the player or at least worth selling via the auction house.

Sand_Trout
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I'm not directly familiar

I'm not directly familiar with STO, but this sounds like a good, if low-priority, feature to add in some way.

Eve online's Industry system is somewhat similar, though there's no real randomness applied.

Overall, I think the goal of this sort of system ought to be to encourage players to log on for at least a few minutes every couple of days. They may not be planning to log in for the time to run missions, but a friend sees them online, invites them to a raid, or notifies them about some other upcoming event.

Its important to keep people showing up, even if briefly, so that they stumble onto fun users and content they weren't planning on.

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This sounds a bit like Crew

This sounds a bit like Crew Missions in SWTOR.

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Redlynne
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I've been meaning to post

I've been meaning to post something about STO's Duty Officer System and keep not having time. It is, however, in every possible meaningful way an order of magnitude superior to the Day Jobs of City of Heroes.

In fact, I'd even argue that a City of Titans "Contact Network" analog to the Duty Officer System could even be set up in lieu of a "crafting system" ... especially if the Contact Network is what you use to "assemble" the parts and pieces of the Missions your Super goes out to do. That way you use the Contact Network to "craft" up the Missions rather than going to an NPC who has their feet nailed the the ground at coordinates XYZ. Even if it only works on a "craft a token" basis, that would still be better than many of the alternatives.


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Izzy
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Duty Officers?

Duty Officers?

Is that like The Sims where you can assign tasks in a queue?

Foradain
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They have something like this

They have something like this in the latest World of Warcrack expansion.

OTOH, all the older zones likely seem like ghost towns...

I would check, but I'm still number two thousand two hundred and seventy-two in the queue. ^_^

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dvirbl
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i also think it's a good idea

i also think it's a good idea to incorporate something like this in the game. i love the sto duty officers mini game and i think the concept will really add another layer to this game.

DoctorZorka
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I'm not familiar with the

I'm not familiar with the Sims system, but in STO the game server makes a list of missions available to your character, some of which depend on the zone you're in. Each player gets his own list - there is no sharing or waiting for other players to go first.

Once the mission's timer expires the results are applied and a cool-down timer starts. After the cool-down, the mission can be repeated.

There is a large variety of missions, tied to various aspects of the game - including character class, crafting, and location. Each Duty Officer has a set of attributes (race, profession, strengths, weaknesses) which affect his/her/its eligibility and chance of success for a given mission. Missions include a little bit of background story, a list of required Duty Officer attributes, the completion and cool-down times, and the rewards if successful (failure can put one or more Duty Officers out of commission temporarily or permanently). Once you assign your Duty Officers, the game shows you your probabilities of critical success, normal success, failure and disaster - at that point you can accept the mission or decline and try assigning different officers.

As Redlynne points out, this can be a fun alternative to hoping & grinding to get crafting ingredients.

Terwyn
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Many of the elements of this

Many of the elements of this particular mini-game seem to be derived from the old Star Trek CCG produced by Decipher.

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The borg were terrifying in

The borg were terrifying in that game. As they should be.

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Nadira
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I am trying to figure out how

I am trying to figure out how this would work in the context of a superhero game though.
In the star trek universe it kind of works because you have dozens or hundreds of crew on your ship (though it really should impact your ship a bit more if you send 40 of your crew on missions when your ship only has a crew of 50 ;))
Superheroes on the other hand are a bit loners, at most show up in small teams.
-
Tieing it into a growing network of contacts on the other hand just might work.
If your status with a contact gets high enough (through doing missions for him or her) he can start offering some of his own resources to get to work for you. This takes time and lowers your reputation again some, so you can do it only so many (or few) times before you need to help out the contact some more (and quite likely exemplar down to be eligible for mission from that particular contact).
This would even create a gentle encouragement to return to contacts and missions and team up with lower level (i.e. potentially new) players and create tighter bonds within the community.

snate56
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While I do like the Duty

While I do like the Duty Officer system, one thing it really simulates well is the tedium of the administrative side of running a starship!
Many times all I have time for is to jump on and do the duty roster for my half dozen or so characters and then log off again.

Tying it in to contacts would be nice, perhaps also in the running of base operations?

___

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Izzy
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snate56 wrote:
snate56 wrote:

While I do like the Duty Officer system, one thing it really simulates well is the tedium of the administrative side of running a starship!
Many times all I have time for is to jump on and do the duty roster for my half dozen or so characters and then log off again.
Tying it in to contacts would be nice, perhaps also in the running of base operations?

Dont they have a a iPhone App for that?
Do it on the Go. ;D

Just Kidding. I have no clue if they have an iPhone/Android App. :P

Foradain
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I believe there is an app for

I believe there is an app for the equivalent in NW...though it may be browser based.

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notears
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Nadira wrote:
Nadira wrote:

I am trying to figure out how this would work in the context of a superhero game though.
In the star trek universe it kind of works because you have dozens or hundreds of crew on your ship (though it really should impact your ship a bit more if you send 40 of your crew on missions when your ship only has a crew of 50 ;))
Superheroes on the other hand are a bit loners, at most show up in small teams.
-
Tieing it into a growing network of contacts on the other hand just might work.
If your status with a contact gets high enough (through doing missions for him or her) he can start offering some of his own resources to get to work for you. This takes time and lowers your reputation again some, so you can do it only so many (or few) times before you need to help out the contact some more (and quite likely exemplar down to be eligible for mission from that particular contact).
This would even create a gentle encouragement to return to contacts and missions and team up with lower level (i.e. potentially new) players and create tighter bonds within the community.

Well from the villain side I'd imagine it being all like "You minion!!!! Bring me the shrink ray from the museum!! So help you if you fail me again!!!" while from the hero side it would be all like "You sidekick!!!! Take care of doctor phobos's minion igor while I tackle the big man himself!!!"

not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM

DoctorZorka
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[cite=Nadira]Tieing it into a
Nadira wrote:

Tieing it into a growing network of contacts on the other hand just might work.
If your status with a contact gets high enough (through doing missions for him or her) he can start offering some of his own resources to get to work for you. This takes time and lowers your reputation again some, so you can do it only so many (or few) times before you need to help out the contact some more (and quite likely exemplar down to be eligible for mission from that particular contact).

I think this would work. Most contacts in CoX were members of one of the NPC organizations, so one possibility would be that they place a group of minions at your disposal.

Another way to go is that your character builds up a network of specialized minor contacts by doing favors (like radio/newspaper missions) for them. Once you've earned some favor points from one of them you can use that contact in the minigame to do various things: acquire crafting raw materials & recipes, craft the augments or other gear for you, or unlock new mission contacts - something like running simple protection missions for shopkeepers who deal in some category of power: magic, mutant, science, etc. Once you complete the mission you can choose between an immediate random reward or saving up some 'favor' points to use for acquiring a more specific item or objective.

With a little variety this network can become an extension of your character, customized to bring his or her story to life in the Titan City universe.

Redlynne
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Any mission given to Azuria

Any mission given to Azuria automatically results in Disaster 100% of the time. Chance for Failure is ... 0% ... because Disaster is the only result.

Success? 0%
Critical Success? Have you not been paying attention...? o.O;


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Foradain
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Redlynne wrote:
Redlynne wrote:

Any mission given to Azuria automatically results in Disaster 100% of the time. Chance for Failure is ... 0% ... because Disaster is the only result.
Success? 0%
Critical Success? Have you not been paying attention...? o.O;

I found that video hilarious. After I got done rofling, I noticed and clicked this link off to the side and got an MMO Anthropology interview with Chris Hare and William Strickland. When they referred to "what was her name, who kept losing things", but none of them could remember her name, I was rofling again...

Thanks Red!

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Redlynne
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Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.