Suggestion for Version 2.0

Taigia, I think the part that you're missing is that the player's ship has to lower shield to teleport items or individuals out. It is a fairly risky maneuver, since you would have to be in weapon's range with the shields down on both ships for a few seconds to complete the transfer, so I think it would balance pretty well. It would also probably not be worth the risk against smaller enemies, since the reward would be proportionately less.
Also, this would be a fun tactic for a stealth ship, since they could sneak in close to a ship before they've raised their shields. You could have a troop carrier that would have minimal shields and hull, so they would have to be very careful. Maybe stealth could have to do with power allocation, like if you have too much power to your systems, other ships could detect you through your cloaking field, so it would probably behoove the crew to run with weapons and shields unpowered, or something.
Another idea is that you could get inside the shields, drop your shields, drop off the troops, and get out of there. Tactically dangerous, but a good idea if you're out of ordnance.

Dropping your shields can be hazardous but not that dangerous if you know what your doing. Sooner or later a captain would figure out to order boosted levels to the engines and maneuvering of the ship to stay in the blind spot of the enemy.

Just throwing in my two cents knowing that Thom listens to all our chatter. I'm not personally a fan of the boarding party idea. I don't think it fits the genre, and I believe it would take away from the immersion in the game. If we're the bridge crew and we get boarded, how do we play that out? Does our console stop working to represent the fact that we are supposed to be fighting hand to hand with boarders? I would assume that boarders would head for the bridge (if they could figure out where that is).

However, as always, I'm never against making a feature optional for those who want it so that more players can play the game in a way that they would enjoy.

I really wasn't trying to suggest that the "Bomb in the toilet" idea should actually be implemented in the game. I was just illustrating the fact that, in the Trek universe, it wouldn't make sense to do them. If the shields have to be down to transport over anyway, you might as well transport a bomb, instead of risking your crew.

I think you could represent capturing shops without having to add boarding parties. Just say the shields of the enemy ship have to be down, and the engines disabled. Then, move your ship within a specified distance of the enemy ship (transporter range), lower your shields; and, after a specified time, the ship is considered captured. From what little I know about mission coding, it seems this would be possible to accomplish this without a whole lot of trouble.

I still feel that this should be specified as a goal in a mission, rather than being a normal tactic available in the invasion scenarios, since Comms has the option of requesting surrender. This is an alternative to blowing the other ship to space dust. Also, if you have boarding as an option, the different races ought to have varying chances of self-destructing their ship to avoid capture.

As a suggestion for 2.0, could we have some type of points system to determine the crew's score at the end of a scenario? I'm thinking the score would be less dependent on the number of ships destroyed (you have to eliminate them all to win the invasion scenarios), but perhaps based on the time it took to complete the scenario, the number of starbases still alive, possibly a bonus for surrendered ships, difficulty level, etc

What I really want is bigger maps and things to do other than blowing enemy vessels up. I'm sure most people just play the game to do that second part but I think the game could provide a lot more.

Someone in this thread said that this game is about combat but it's calles Space Bridge Simulator not Battleship Simulator. To me that is a huge difference. I'm a big fan of Star Trek and when I first saw this game in action I thought this was a dream come true - and it was, in part. Star Trek was all about exploration, diplomacy, some action and sometimes saving the galaxy by doing so.

The game is a good start on the action front but reducing it to this one element would be a shame in my opinion. There is so much potential in this game. So I would really like to see something to do when your outside of combat like scanning planets, exploring uncharted regions of the galaxy.

I realise though that I'm probably the only one with this mindset but those are my two cents. ;)

Bigger maps would be awesome. Maybe a range of options in the start-up menu, alongside things like how "interesting" the sector is.

The problem with that is even though people draw the parallel this isn't Star Trek. That was a drama that was very much set in a galactic cold war. Makes sense as it(TNG) was dreamed up during the cold war. The Enterprise had plenty of small skirmishes and battles but the whole time they are also patrolling the Cardassian and Romulan borders. Making sure they can't or don't start a war against the Federation.

Being able to play some kind of Picard like role would be fun for whoever was doing it. Displaying your skills in brinkmanship, diplomacy, and negotiation. But for the other five people on your bridge it would be dull and uninteresting. Exploration without conflict would also be dull, like scanning planets in Mass Effect. A good example is the mission "The Waning Dark". My crew as well was two other ships tried to play that just last night and we were suppose to scan a nebula, meaning fly close enough, but we scanned two out of the three we needed to can couldn't find the last one. Then the scientist that wanted the scans kept telling us 'hurry up, you're burning daylight.'
After the forth time our comms officer read that I was ready to fire the son of a bitch out a torpedo tube into a star. Then he'll see some daylight burning.

Anyway, there is only so much that can be done to make a fun experience for six people.

I agree with Eric. Whilst boarding parties are an entertaining narrative device for sci-fi in tv, film and print; I don't believe they would be a gameplay element that would add to the experience. I appreciate that others may feel differently, but I thought I would share my opinion too for the sake of a balanced reflection of the player base.

Just an idea, but what about a pre-fight/"take-off" and a "post-flight" sequence? Like switching on all systems, spinning up the FTL, activating the warp core, whatever, and then shutting it down at the end. Make it optional, so that if a crew want to use that mode, they can, or if they don't have time, or don't like the addition, they can switch it off. but a system like this would add to the immersion of the experience, as well as add a new level for the Role-players, letting them recreate the "beginning" of a crew's adventure, as well as "getting home safe."

I'm a big fan of Star Trek and when I first saw this game in action I thought this was a dream come true - and it was, in part. Star Trek was all about exploration, diplomacy, some action and sometimes saving the galaxy by doing so.

The game is a good start on the action front but reducing it to this one element would be a shame in my opinion. There is so much potential in this game. So I would really like to see something to do when your outside of combat like scanning planets, exploring uncharted regions of the galaxy.

Actually, I agree with you. Artemis was inspired by Trek, and Trek was about exploring more than it was about combat. Let's be honest; programming enemies that shoot at you is much easier than enemies that negotiate with you.

However, I fully intend to make Artemis a game you can play and have fun with, even if you don't want to go to battle stations. Initially, that's what the scripting system was for, but I have more programming to do for non-battle challenges, too.

After the forth time our comms officer read that I was ready to fire the son of a bitch out a torpedo tube into a star. Then he'll see some daylight burning.

LOL!

pre-fight/"take-off" and a "post-flight" sequence?

This is an interesting idea; I'll think about it. Thanks!

Being able to play some kind of Picard like role would be fun for whoever was doing it. Displaying your skills in brinkmanship, diplomacy, and negotiation. But for the other five people on your bridge it would be dull and uninteresting. Exploration without conflict would also be dull, like scanning planets in Mass Effect. A good example is the mission "The Waning Dark". My crew as well was two other ships tried to play that just last night and we were suppose to scan a nebula, meaning fly close enough, but we scanned two out of the three we needed to can couldn't find the last one. Then the scientist that wanted the scans kept telling us 'hurry up, you're burning daylight.'
After the forth time our comms officer read that I was ready to fire the son of a bitch out a torpedo tube into a star. Then he'll see some daylight burning.

Anyway, there is only so much that can be done to make a fun experience for six people.

Well the thing is, that's the challenge. No one said it would be easy and it sure as hell ain't. You would have to find a good balance between the combat, exploration, everyone having something to do and every one enjoying themselves despite mabye not always having something to do. Even though it won't be easy and might take a long time to get it right I still think it's worth the effort. Mabye we should start up a thread where we collect some ideas for outside of combat. I'm sure if we all pull our heads together we can find a good solution.

It doesn't even have to be a sandbox thing where you're just free to go around and explore. A good place to start would probably be a Campaign with an over arching story line. That'd also be a good way to get people more familliar with the whole setting. With all the pro and amature voice actors I've seen on these forums I'm sure we could even make it fully voiced. ;)

Actually, I agree with you. Artemis was inspired by Trek, and Trek was about exploring more than it was about combat. Let's be honest; programming enemies that shoot at you is much easier than enemies that negotiate with you.

However, I fully intend to make Artemis a game you can play and have fun with, even if you don't want to go to battle stations. Initially, that's what the scripting system was for, but I have more programming to do for non-battle challenges, too.

I'm really glad to hear that and am looking forward to what you'll be coming up with.

I agree with the people that think exploration would be boring for most of the crew. The thing that has to be considered with this game is that it's not just the captain playing. The problem is that we are all trained to play games as single players that at best have some sort of AI crew. This is just not the case with Artemis and the challenge is keeping a room full of people engaged and working together. I know my crew and I know that if I were to say we were going to have a rollicking adventure consisting of scanning planets, negotiating treaties or transporting VIPs they would say no thanks.

As far as boarding parties being depicted on scifi shows I think it has a lot more to do with face time for the actors and the expense of the space battle FX. The easy out for those problems is away teams and boarding parties on inexpensive sets. The same goes for all the Picard diplomacy stuff. Far cheaper to create a drama based on political crisis where everyone sits around a table then it is to create an FX heavy adventure. I also agree and have mention before that there shouldn't be any useful tech, supplies or other salvage from the enemy ships. Why would there be? Even with boarding parties why would their tech be compatible with ours? Why we our crew be able to operate their tech? Read their language or even sit in their chairs for that matter? We have to think alien vs human and not be trapped into the fact they boarding parties could steal power and musket or the armed forces can drive each others vehicles and operate some equipment but that is only because we are all human and have a common ancestry. How do you deal with operating equipment made for somebody with four arms? Infrared vision or maybe know vision? How about senses we can't even relate to like detection of electrical fields?

The ability to engage all the players in a fast moving and tense mission is the key to this game working well. Combat does that. Sure the Trek verse wasn't at war but it's pretty easy to think of the Artemis verse in a state of war which means scanning planets and exploration is a luxury that cannot be had.

The problem is that we are all trained to play games as single players that at best have some sort of AI crew. This is just not the case with Artemis and the challenge is keeping a room full of people engaged and working together.

Our last game session proved this pretty accurately, though I will digress before I start by saying some of this falls on the officer manning the station. One of our crew was asked to take over the comms/science duties after being on the weapons console for two games. Once the Captain asked him to scan enemies in B2. We waited a minute and didn't see any new information coming in on our LRS on main viewer to show they were scanned. When asked why he wasn't doing it he looked up confused to what we were asking of him. The next time this happened when asked to check on the status of DS03. He didn't react until we shouted at him about it and asked if he was high. Again there is plenty of fault with the officer but he never was this inattentive when he was on weapons.

The easy out for those problem is away teams.. on inexpensive sets.

I completely agree. This leads to a nit pick for me about Star Trek. Often several senior bridge crew officers are the ones going the the possibility very dangerous place. If something was to go wrong they on any given series they would have lost on average the First Officer, Engineer, Ops/Science, and Tactical.

Well, as to the "why should their tech work like ours" question, it really depends on how you play the game. If you play it as every encounter being the first, then sure, the crew would be hard-pressed to be able to read the language or use the controls, though a good engineer might be able to recognize different types of technology.
But if you play it as though you're actually in the universe, it changes everything. A quick glance at the timeline shows that the TSN has had 25 years of contact with alien species, enough to at least get an idea of what is useful and/or compatible. I would think it'd be standard training to use any available resources, including those of the enemy. Additionally, it would follow that, while the controls may be adapted to different physiologies, physics is physics. The fact that alien ships have shields and seem to have similar impulse engines indicates that there is at least some basic similarity. In a lasting war with an alien enemy, a good leader would make adapting and overcoming enemy technology a priority, especially since the power plant of the ships themselves are so inefficient. Even being able to draw energy from a ruined enemy ship would be a powerful asset. I see from the history that the TSN has superior technology to the majority of the alien races, so there probably wouldn't be much of use in that vein (eg shields, weapons, etc), but information such as security codes, fleet strengths, cypher keys, etc, would be difficult to retrieve from the vapor cloud of a destroyed vessel. I would assume that some officers would be trained in alien languages and use of alien computer systems in order to facilitate information retrieval from captured enemy ships.
I can think of several different uses for boarding parties beyond the ones I've listed here, though many of them can be simulated, however weakly, with the mission scripting system. For example you could be trying to retrieve prisoners, which would definitely be made difficult if the ship carrying the prisoners blew up. You could be trying to take prisoners. Information retrieval, as I've mentioned. Perhaps you'd want to place a tracking device to find the enemy's hidden base, or a bug to listen in on secure transmissions. You could be trying to intercept the transport of supplies or some other cargo of importance. Yes, these things could be scripted, something along the lines of "once the shields are down and the ship is close enough, the event triggers," but it would be more fun if the boarding party had to fight past the guards to get to the prisoners, or search the cargo bay for the specific item, all while the bridge crew is trying to keep the ship in range to pick the boarding party up.]\
Kinda rambly, but there're my 2 cents. Probably more than 2 cents, at today's rates.

The one big thing I would like to see is being able to read/write to external files via scripting.

It really limits the mission making ability to just one "episode". Whereas if we can write to a variable file we can carry through plot events, special features, mission complete or failure status across multiple missions.