Star Traders: Frontiers - How It Encourages (or Requires) Role-Playing

[GameDragonZero]

One thing that I noticed in ST:F is that it actually rewards role-playing - coming up with a character and living them out.

The game has many options and choices, but really no "must-do goals." One of the most satisfying ways I found to play it is to come up with and play my captain as a character.

In doing this, I then have direction, set my goals, and meet my challenges. It directs my crew options among many, it directs how I build my ship, it directs the missions I take, it directs who I work with. As you play and get "deeper down" given choices and skill trees, the game continues to shape itself far more like a story.

As an example, my current captain, Captain De Zorga. I concienved of her as a non-Royal Thulun military member anxious to use her charter to turn against her house out of spite and go pirate. Then when there's a call for a unified galaxy, she took the opportunity to terrorize her way across sectors and hook up with the new government partially out of revenge and disgust. Over time she evolved into a hero, becoming emeshed in politics, gaining a wider view, and being an agent of the new government. Ultimately she fought valiantly against a plague, and now works with "positive" conflicts like Alliances. From hopeful pirate to accidental peacekeeper.

[Cai]

Stories like this, when they happen to me, are some of my favorite video game experiences I've ever had.

Why? Because if I'm playing a normal roleplaying game and I experience the story, I know that story was written in advance and that while I have to choose dialogue options and such, ultimately it's a choose your own adventure book with some gameplay between parts.

With stories like this in ST:F? You don't have traditional dialogue options in many cases, but you are given just enough to work with you can imagine the story in your head, you can watch as tons of tiny choices add up and create something that you chose. You might interact with a "main story", but the real story is about your captain, about what they chose, not the three options someone chose for you.

I'm relatively new, but I can feel the pain of my captain making huge mistakes, doing things that I knew better about, how those actions had consequences, and I can also talk about how I dealt with them. Like the time my captain without thinking bought some rare goods without checking their legality, beginning a weeks long quest to meet new friends and do just about anything to offload them, including meeting smugglers, doing shady jobs for them, just to get access to a place where official regulations don't apply. Then my captain had to rely on their own wits and skill to actually make the sale. I remember being so relieved when those goods were finally out of my cargo bay after fighting off so many military patrols, pirates, and even a Xeno just to not lose all my credits tied up in this poorly thought out decision. - I know it didn't involve a major political shift or a plague or universe changing event, but it was a story I encountered all on my own that wasn't pre-written. Awesome.

Sometimes I even write little snippets of, "What I imagined happened" when I encounter certain mechanics. For example:

<i>I notice my main faction and another faction are in a duel of assassins... and have been for 51 weeks. I'm just imagining my captain talking to the officers, "So, uh, all my contacts in this faction have been at risk of getting killed for nearly a year and no one thought to tell me?"

"We thought you knew, just that you didn't care."

"Okay, fine, whatever. Somebody take out the fuel tank and install a safehouse to move spies around in. You! Get a crew dog to put the signal antenna on top of the torpedoes. And somebody smack my spymaster for not telling me sooner." *gets slapped* "What was that for?" "Uh, you're the one with spy training, captain."</i>

So as someone else who has found some fun stories in ST:F: It's awesome and I'm glad to see other people having a similar experience.

[Hayden]

Originally posted by GameDragonZero:

One thing that I noticed in ST:F is that it actually rewards role-playing - coming up with a character and living them out.

The game has many options and choices, but really no "must-do goals." One of the most satisfying ways I found to play it is to come up with and play my captain as a character.

In doing this, I then have direction, set my goals, and meet my challenges. It directs my crew options among many, it directs how I build my ship, it directs the missions I take, it directs who I work with. As you play and get "deeper down" given choices and skill trees, the game continues to shape itself far more like a story.

As an example, my current captain, Captain De Zorga. I concienved of her as a non-Royal Thulun military member anxious to use her charter to turn against her house out of spite and go pirate. Then when there's a call for a unified galaxy, she took the opportunity to terrorize her way across sectors and hook up with the new government partially out of revenge and disgust. Over time she evolved into a hero, becoming emeshed in politics, gaining a wider view, and being an agent of the new government. Ultimately she fought valiantly against a plague, and now works with "positive" conflicts like Alliances. From hopeful pirate to accidental peacekeeper.

While I still love the more traditional, directed and obvious quest systems you see in games like the Witcher, Skyrim, GTA, etc. they can never really compete with non-obvious player reactive quests like you're describing.

You just give the player a good, interesting set of mechanics that they must react to or they will fail. How they go about reacting to them is the quest, though it's never stated.

One of my favorite recent games for this is The Long Dark. You gotta worry about water, food, and temperature. How you do that is up to you and that's the quest.

Another good one is The Sims. I never really got into that series all that much, but back in uni The Sims always came up as the best example of this system at work. It showed in its sales as well. I don't know if there's many franchises that have done close to The Sims numbers.

What I really like about Star Traders is the fact that they blend both systems of quest design. You get all the player reactive quests, but you also get the era storylines. Having the era storylines on timers and everything really makes it work.

[Trese Brothers]

Thanks to everyone posting. It makes us 2 devs very happy, and happy devs work harder!

One thing to add - all the actions you take (peaceful trade, loot an enemy ship, help an alliance) have small % chance to cause a Trait mutation in your crew. So, the actions you RPed, the peacemaker you became, without a doubt helped you build a cast of characters who are more aligned with your Captain's choices. Had you take the piratical route, you could be expected to be surrounded by Brute, Bloodthirsty and Merciless Traits.

@cai - we're absolutely working on improving the eventing system to bring more such things directly to your attention.

[DARI]

oh.. there came my merciless vultures... i guess my pirate/diplomat was slightly one-sided

[FAT WANZER]

me a zealot, me patrol, me destroy every rychart and steelsong spy and bounty hunter, me mixed bags mutation lel only 2 to 4 people though how big is the chance to mutate?

[Trese Brothers]

The chance is small per action. So, it is the actions you repeat many times that will shape the crew the most.

[GameDragonZero]

Originally posted by Trese Brothers:

Thanks to everyone posting. It makes us 2 devs very happy, and happy devs work harder!

One thing to add - all the actions you take (peaceful trade, loot an enemy ship, help an alliance) have small % chance to cause a Trait mutation in your crew. So, the actions you RPed, the peacemaker you became, without a doubt helped you build a cast of characters who are more aligned with your Captain's choices. Had you take the piratical route, you could be expected to be surrounded by Brute, Bloodthirsty and Merciless Traits.

@cai - we're absolutely working on improving the eventing system to bring more such things directly to your attention.

Oh yeah I see the evolution. My characters have had a mix of combat and politics, of charging in or avoiding combat. The results:

Captain de Zorga - Is stubborn. Nuff said.

Ship doctor Nemo - Proud, righteous, inspiring . . . and really seedy. Great guy, but just a bit of a sleazebag.

Ship engineer and Spy Katharina - Friendly, charming . . . and also seedy. I worry about her and Nemo.

Resident merchant and smuggler Sarina - calm, intrepded, but has a drinking problem.

A lot of my crew are stubborn, righteous, lawful, driven. Plus a smattering of drug abuse, flashbacks, and combat nerves. Good folks but a bit stressed.

[219A730]

In my opinion, trait mutation is better than before. Previous versions, it was a lot more random and non sense.

As someone who try to maintain good relationship with everyone, I'm more likely to get peacemaker, assertive, etc. Early game I get fatalistic due to shame, stress, or whatever, but the negative traits I can usually deal with as I preapre for them beforehand.

[Trese Brothers]

@GameDragonZero - great to hear. Life in the void is stressful, so some of that will always settle on the shoulders of career spacers.

@219A730 - yes it's def been improved and deeepened. During the EA period, we linked more and more events to Trait mutation which helps fill in the gaps to ensure your actions do have Trait impact.