Minigames

Accessed through duty stations, minigames are the means by which players interact with their starship or facility. It should be stressed that players don't have to play minigames. If he so chooses, a player may spend all of his aboard-ship time in the crew lounge, barracks, or the holodeck. However, minigames will be a fun and entertaining way for players to increase their skills, earn merit points, and serve their ship.

Types of Minigames
There will be essentially three broad categories of minigames, each suited to a different kind of playing style. These are: Within each type, there can be a virtually limitless variety of games, and the development team will be encouraged to create new minigames all the time, to keep things fresh.
 * Twitch games (e.g. Space Invaders, Frogger)
 * Twitch/Strategy games (e.g. Tetris, Bust-A-Move)
 * Strategy games (e.g. Chess, card games)

Minigames should be playable by a single player or by many players, either competitively or cooperatively.

Skins
Although all minigames will be available to be played by characters in any department, they will be set apart by their 'skin'. This skin will typically match the uniform colour of the appropriate department, but more specifically, will be designed to have a look appropriate to the field the player has chosen to work on (i.e. a medical minigame will not only have the blue tone of the department, but the actual game 'pieces' will have a medical look to them). This difference is purely cosmetic: 'shielding Tetris' will play exactly the same way as 'botany Tetris' does.

Scoring
Scoring in the minigames will be a combination of actual score achieved by playing the game, the character's inherent skill in that field, and the quality of the duty station being used. The formula is:

(In-game score x character's Skill Class x duty station's Computer Class) / suitability factor

These scores are applied in real-time, as they are earned during the game, and are directly reflected in whichever system the player is working on (i.e. points earned in a 'shielding' minigame are applied directly to the shields). Note that the pure strategy-type minigames will have higher point earnings per 'victory', as victories tend to come at a significantly slower pace in those kinds of games.

Scoring, by skill class and duty station class
Table 1: (SC = Skill Class of the Character, CC = Computer class of the duty station being used)

Table 2:

Suitability factor
To ensure that players stick to vessels and facilities where they can do their faction (and themselves) the most good, an invisible 'suitability factor' is assigned based on their Skill Class and the Computer Class of the duty station they are using. The idea behind this concept is that even the most skilled characters can only get so much use out of a low-capability computer, and that low-skilled crewmen don't really benefit much from using an extremely capable computer. The formula for determining Suitability Factor is this:

'(Skill Class x Computer Class) / the number of steps between these two numbers' [e.g. (4x7)/3=9.33]

Skill points and Merit points
Skill points and Merit points are earned in equal measure while playing minigames. The formula is:

In-game score x character's skill modifier

Skill points earned go immediately toward the relevant skill of the game in question (sensors, first-aid, etc.), while merit points are applied to a character's standing in the relevant department, possibly resulting in an increase in rank.

Visual Ideas
With the prevalence of 16x9 televisions and computer monitors, it would be nice if minigames would take up only one half of the screen. On the other half, the player could be treated to a real-time exterior view of their ship (which they would rarely get, otherwise). In particular, this exterior view would be very appealing during space battles, enabling players in any department to enjoy the visual spectacle.

In an upper corner of the minigame window, there should be a hierarchical list of the other players in that field who are currently playing that particular game. They'll be listed in order of who has accumulated the most points, and the length of time they've been logged into that game will be listed alongside their current score. In this way, players will be able to 'become familiar with their colleagues' work'. The list is updated in real time - i.e. the order changes as players outdo each other, and players who exit the minigame are removed from the list immediately.