*shrugs* You could just swing by the fan fic area on the boards and see what is there. Might be good for a mission or two.
Honestly, I could go either way with the "report to sector XXYY at once" style, but if that is included, could you allow the player a couple more hexes before the computer takes you there for things like starbase repairs, resupplies, et al? One of my biggest gripes with that was coming out of a battle barely alive, getting the order to go "over there" and then getting Shanghaied 1 hex from a starbase.
The tutorials were nice, but perhaps include something similar to them as the first two or three missions for each race? Yet at the same time something that can be clicked off as an option... You could get no more than 500 base prestige from the intro missions plus whatever bonus you might earn, while clicking "tutorial missions" off would start you out 500 + (whatever the average of bonus prestige could possibly be) so there isn't a need to go through them, but for the chance to net more prestige you could.
Without knowing fully which races are in the game or which time periods are available (I haven't looked recently so if that has changed in the last month, Oops) makes coming up with a true story line difficult for me. However, knowing that at least some of the races are available, I don't think it would be hard to have a campaign select screen that includes, but is in no way limited to, things like "General War Campaign", "Klingon/Tholian War", "WYN War of Return", "ISC War of Pacification", "Andromedan Invasion", etc, etc, etc... Story specific missions would fall under those campaigns, while missions like "convoy raid", as one, would be more tailor fit to the region/hostile races involved (every once in a while the game would toss in Romulan freighters on the Kzirak/Fed border, and even more rarely would have the convoy be an ally).
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, there should be, in no way shape or form, pulling a DN v FF mission more than once in any given time period (say, two hexes or two missions or whatever), especially when the enemy was defeated. I can understand the lowly LT getting ordered to investigate something fishy in the sector and finding a C8's silhouette on his FF's long range scanners, but you'd think that no matter the outcome, he'd be a little less likely to find another solo C8 just one sector over, waiting just for him. Of course, chances are if he did manage to pop the DN, there'd probably be more than one ship looking into that incident. Which leads me to the "Escape" mission. You've just popped that DN in your FF, just obliterated the enemy convoy, took down that starbase, or whatever other major move against the enemy. Eventually, they're going to send their own fleet after you. Maybe that lone DN in two hexes, maybe an entire fleet.
Assuming some form of crew exists like in SFC3, there could be a mission that allows you to rescue some crew members that survived some catastrophic mishap of their own ship (luxury liner crashed with VIPs, Cruiser nearly destroyed during a battle, etc.). Wouldn't even have to be of the same race, could be an ally or an enemy. But the catch would be that you could keep the ones that would be better for your crew and leave the rest at the next starbase, provided you could afford to keep them (something like 20% of their purchase price through normal means), and even volunteers willing to join your crew if you give the OK. Within the mission there would have to be some percentage of getting crappy green officers and superb legends, and everything in between.
If there is to be SFB historical campaigns, perhaps the ones in SFC4 should be from the point of view of a non-legendary figure. Instead of being the ship that finds the RTN first, you captain a ship that helps take it down. Historical events could be published in the "news" section (personally, I never found this to be of much use before), and the next mission(s) could play off of that information.
Multi-part missions would be a huge plus. Instead of how they are now (a progression where each mission can have multiple events in succession) have a mission block where one event is victory, then passes to the second mission, then a third (or more). This would reduce losses to the player if he manages to succeed in the first many parts only to goof up something simple and fail in the last seconds. An example might be capturing a planet and then holding it when enemy reinforcements arrive. The first mission succeeds once you've captured the planet; you collect your prestige and can sigh a small sigh right before you take on the second mission of fending off the enemy's reinforcements.
Czar "If there's more, you'll get an email," Mohab
Topic: Starfleet Command 4 Single Player storyline suggestions being accepted! (Read 11872 times)