The Single Player Missions

posted on July 31st, 2007, 6:43 pm

So far, I've read that, even if there are no promises, there would be a possibility that FO could have missions available in the future. I personally support it wholeheartedly, but like in many RTS games, despite a good storyline, the single player experience tends to get ruined because of the fact that it is an RTS game.

Normally, in most RTS games, the gameplay formula is usually
1) Build up your forces using limited manpower
2) Conquer a comparatively superior force
3) Maybe if the mission tells you to do something "single player"-ish, then complete that objective

I'll take out beloved Armada 2 as an example for that above formula.

In the Federation mission, the player is in the Delta Quadrant, and is fighting the Borg. The player is compelled to build up his/her forces in every single mission. The Federation, sensibly, would have sent at least several hundred ships to the Delta Quadrant. Where are those ships? Why would the player have to go through all the trouble to build dozens of ships from scratch?

In missions, we may as well throw out the old RTS single player formula out the airlock, and give the players a set number of ships to complete the mission OR keep the resource-collecting, ship-building formula yet make it somehow more realistic.

posted on July 31st, 2007, 7:45 pm

Indeed The Doctor agrees. When will the dear Federation learn? They made the same mistake when Starfleet proceeded to take back DS9 from the dominion. They had 600 ships and the enemy had 1200. Not a good idea when your enemy has superior fire power to boot.

The Star Trek universe is real, right? 

Or were you talking about some sort of fiction? 

posted on July 31st, 2007, 9:44 pm

It would not have been very catchy if the Feds crushed the Dominion simply by the number of ships. If it would not have been at least a bit risky it would not have been heroic and by that simply not interesting enough for TV.
So much for that.

But NCC1701Z is right about the RTS-formula as he calls it. If you start creating single-player missions for a RTS-game, it would be nice to see a difference to the permanent build-up-and-gather-resources-progress. It would be far more interesting to be limited to a certain number of units while trying to accomplish a mission.