If every ship seen will find its way ingame sometime I might rekindle my hope of getting the NV or NC classes from ENT, the Newton type from 09, and the Norway from FC. Other than the Cardenas (which I know is coming) they're the only canon ships I particularly want.
Not every ship will find its way into the game that you might want.
- NV and NC, are there alternate names for these two ship classes, because I can't find them in Memory Alpha. I do find a ship called Intrepid type though.
- Newtwon and anything from Kelvin Timeline would have to be licensed out to use, and would likely be restricted a Lobi or lock box ship.
- Cardenas class WILL find its way into the game.
- Norway class might come into the game if they want to include it and have time in the schedule.
NV is the Intrepid type and NC is the Sarajevo type (NC comes from the concept art and I'm not sure where NV comes from but most references to it I've found call it that) and I don't care if the Newton is Lobi because it'll end up on the exchange.
It's probably unlikely we will see either of those ships in game. They're not widely as known as the NX-class and weren't featured in many episodes.
Especially for STO, where you also have to consider game mechanics.
This is honestly what I presume is a key factor in Cryptic's comments about not having many stories, at least bigger story arcs, left for STO.
Games have to interesting on three levels
1. Narratively, like all stories from books to movies
2. Visually, like TV shows and movies
3. Mechanically, something unique to games
While the Star Trek IP is massive, with 1,000 alien species or unique alien entities within Trek canon(let alone the expanded universe) Cryptic has a theoretical massive pool to draw from. The challenge comes in from the fact that most of these species are visually dull, as they look exactly like humans, or just have some minor nose/ear/forehead thing. To make matters worse, most species shown in Trek have fairly primitive technology compared to the Federation. They are only a threat because the hero ship is alone, or some of the crew beamed down and got taken hostage. Not to mention all the episodes where the new alien of the week wasn't hostile at all, but simply asking for the Federation's help to stop their planet from blowing up, or to stop an asteroid coming toward it, or something like that.
Looking at the races Cryptic has generally chosen for larger story arcs, like the Elachi, Tholians, Devidians, Voth, and Undine, all of them are very unique visually, they posses incredible technology which gives them unique mechanics, and the sheer difference in how they act sets them apart from the far more typical Trek races, giving then unique narrative angles as well. This also includes races like the Iconians, Tzenkethi, and Hur'q, who, while not seen in the shows directly, are stated to posses rather threatening technology that makes them famous or feared. These aren't the typical races of Star Trek one would expect to see wandering around DS9's promenade.
The more common Trek aliens, those that wouldn't make for particularly great story arcs on their own, tend to be either the playable species, NPCs for non playable species like the Karemma, or Benthans, or involved in like the duty officer system like the Bynars are. Which makes sense given that most of those species weren't hostile to the Federation anyways, and even if they aren't part of the Federation, generally maintained good relations with them.
Most of those species would really only be good for one off side missions like Survivor, and Dust to Dust, or some sort of patrol mission, or a hypothetical new exploration system random encounter, rather then a full 8 mission story arc.
While I agree, most of these are not seen in the shows. This is also not the first time the Tzenkethi have had a place in Star Trek. The Tzenkethi story is actually a direct reversal of what happened in the DS9 shows.
"In late 2371, a Founder posing as Federation Ambassador Krajensky informed Captain Benjamin Sisko that the current Autarch had been deposed. He ordered the USS Defiant to the Federation-Tzenkethi border to reinforce the Federation presence to the new leading faction. However, the entire mission had actually been engineered by the Dominion in an attempt to incite another war between the two powers; there never was a coup d'etat. After his identity was exposed, the Changeling commandeered the Defiant and attempted to attack a Tzenkethi settlement on M'kemas III, though he was stopped before the Defiant reached the planet. (DS9: "The Adversary")"
So instead of the changelings trying to start another war via using the Federation. They instead done it via using the Tzenkethi. If you follow the novels. New Fronntier's is not the first time the Tzenkethi appear. DS9, is the first time they're mentioned in the shows, making it at least the second time the Federation has had problems with them.
"A line spoken by Captain Sisko in "The Adversary" seemed to imply that there have been more than one war with the Tzenkethi."
This makes the third time, just from mem-alpha and the game. I believe with this, and the novels, this is the fourth time the Federation has run afoul with them.
Their appearance in game is also based on the how the original creator of them, one Robert Hewitt Wolfe, envisioned them. As, "heavily-armored lizard things."
I also agree that most of the species are bland, boring, and technologically behind, reference the Bajorans here. There were some that were more advanced than the Federation. The Hunters, for example, had tech that bypassed shielding, wrist mounted deflector shields, and energy weapons that could blast through a bulkhead door in one shot. But they only made an appearance once, and that was in hunting a tosk. Outside of this, they had no interest in the Federation, or anyone else for that matter. But again, these are two species, not really fit to build a story arc around. Since the tosk were genetically engineered by the Hunters to be their prey.
The Iconians, I'll admit they had some leeway on appearance there. I mean for the shows, there was no visual record of them. Of course they were nothing more than a historical foot note. The Elachi, again, had leeway, as these were a created Iconian servitor race.
The Undine they did have a visual reference to, via Species 8472 in Voyager. The same with the Voth. These two were set, they just had to figure out how to fit them in game.
Of all the species so far, only the Lukari, Kentari and Elachi are not taken directly from Star Trek lore. Unless you toss them in the "unnamed aliens" category. That's three species that Cryptic has given to Star Trek.
Granted I find these three species rather bland. There is more they could have done with them. They just strike me as the "set and forget" type of alien, as you mentioned with the more normal type of alien that we see. But, make no mistake, I do appreciate the amount of work that went into bringing them to the game.
Something I've ran into with my alien species. One day, I'll have the appearance close enough to what I envision, along with more than where they're from, a physiological setup, and a base societal setup. I have a second alien I'm working on as well, but that one is currently a back burner deal, as they're not meant to be the normal type of alien seen in Star Trek. This one, I'm setting up more as an enemy, one that the current genre of ending isn't possible with.
Especially for STO, where you also have to consider game mechanics.
This is honestly what I presume is a key factor in Cryptic's comments about not having many stories, at least bigger story arcs, left for STO.
Games have to interesting on three levels
1. Narratively, like all stories from books to movies
2. Visually, like TV shows and movies
3. Mechanically, something unique to games
While the Star Trek IP is massive, with 1,000 alien species or unique alien entities within Trek canon(let alone the expanded universe) Cryptic has a theoretical massive pool to draw from. The challenge comes in from the fact that most of these species are visually dull, as they look exactly like humans, or just have some minor nose/ear/forehead thing. To make matters worse, most species shown in Trek have fairly primitive technology compared to the Federation. They are only a threat because the hero ship is alone, or some of the crew beamed down and got taken hostage. Not to mention all the episodes where the new alien of the week wasn't hostile at all, but simply asking for the Federation's help to stop their planet from blowing up, or to stop an asteroid coming toward it, or something like that.
Looking at the races Cryptic has generally chosen for larger story arcs, like the Elachi, Tholians, Devidians, Voth, and Undine, all of them are very unique visually, they posses incredible technology which gives them unique mechanics, and the sheer difference in how they act sets them apart from the far more typical Trek races, giving then unique narrative angles as well. This also includes races like the Iconians, Tzenkethi, and Hur'q, who, while not seen in the shows directly, are stated to posses rather threatening technology that makes them famous or feared. These aren't the typical races of Star Trek one would expect to see wandering around DS9's promenade.
The more common Trek aliens, those that wouldn't make for particularly great story arcs on their own, tend to be either the playable species, NPCs for non playable species like the Karemma, or Benthans, or involved in like the duty officer system like the Bynars are. Which makes sense given that most of those species weren't hostile to the Federation anyways, and even if they aren't part of the Federation, generally maintained good relations with them.
Most of those species would really only be good for one off side missions like Survivor, and Dust to Dust, or some sort of patrol mission, or a hypothetical new exploration system random encounter, rather then a full 8 mission story arc.
While I agree, most of these are not seen in the shows. This is also not the first time the Tzenkethi have had a place in Star Trek. The Tzenkethi story is actually a direct reversal of what happened in the DS9 shows.
"In late 2371, a Founder posing as Federation Ambassador Krajensky informed Captain Benjamin Sisko that the current Autarch had been deposed. He ordered the USS Defiant to the Federation-Tzenkethi border to reinforce the Federation presence to the new leading faction. However, the entire mission had actually been engineered by the Dominion in an attempt to incite another war between the two powers; there never was a coup d'etat. After his identity was exposed, the Changeling commandeered the Defiant and attempted to attack a Tzenkethi settlement on M'kemas III, though he was stopped before the Defiant reached the planet. (DS9: "The Adversary")"
So instead of the changelings trying to start another war via using the Federation. They instead done it via using the Tzenkethi. If you follow the novels. New Fronntier's is not the first time the Tzenkethi appear. DS9, is the first time they're mentioned in the shows, making it at least the second time the Federation has had problems with them.
"A line spoken by Captain Sisko in "The Adversary" seemed to imply that there have been more than one war with the Tzenkethi."
This makes the third time, just from mem-alpha and the game. I believe with this, and the novels, this is the fourth time the Federation has run afoul with them.
Their appearance in game is also based on the how the original creator of them, one Robert Hewitt Wolfe, envisioned them. As, "heavily-armored lizard things."
I also agree that most of the species are bland, boring, and technologically behind, reference the Bajorans here. There were some that were more advanced than the Federation. The Hunters, for example, had tech that bypassed shielding, wrist mounted deflector shields, and energy weapons that could blast through a bulkhead door in one shot. But they only made an appearance once, and that was in hunting a tosk. Outside of this, they had no interest in the Federation, or anyone else for that matter. But again, these are two species, not really fit to build a story arc around. Since the tosk were genetically engineered by the Hunters to be their prey.
The Iconians, I'll admit they had some leeway on appearance there. I mean for the shows, there was no visual record of them. Of course they were nothing more than a historical foot note. The Elachi, again, had leeway, as these were a created Iconian servitor race.
The Undine they did have a visual reference to, via Species 8472 in Voyager. The same with the Voth. These two were set, they just had to figure out how to fit them in game.
Of all the species so far, only the Lukari, Kentari and Elachi are not taken directly from Star Trek lore. Unless you toss them in the "unnamed aliens" category. That's three species that Cryptic has given to Star Trek.
Granted I find these three species rather bland. There is more they could have done with them. They just strike me as the "set and forget" type of alien, as you mentioned with the more normal type of alien that we see. But, make no mistake, I do appreciate the amount of work that went into bringing them to the game.
Something I've ran into with my alien species. One day, I'll have the appearance close enough to what I envision, along with more than where they're from, a physiological setup, and a base societal setup. I have a second alien I'm working on as well, but that one is currently a back burner deal, as they're not meant to be the normal type of alien seen in Star Trek. This one, I'm setting up more as an enemy, one that the current genre of ending isn't possible with.
Technically speaking, Star Trek Online did NOT give us the Elachi. They gave a name for them, just like they gave Species 8472 a name "Undine." Star Trek already gave us the look of the Elachi.
In regards to the novels, they do not have much of a bearing of what Star Trek Online does. As far as the Novels go, they have dealt with the Tzenkethi three times. They are also not the same Tzenkethi that STO got.
It sounds like they were only talking about client support, not their own servers. Some people use Windows Server as a deskop client because they could get it free or cheap.
It's possible their server CPUs and DBs use Windows, but most companies use Linux servers for customer-facing applications. Most Microsoft server use is for intranet / corporate in-house use. Compare pricing for Windows vs. Linux servers at hosting companies and Amazon Web Services for one reason why.
I'm aware of the cost differences, i work for a hosting provider (MSP).
My point still stands though, they should not be trying to support clients using an OS that has not been supported for an extended period of time. It's just bad juju to do so. I mean this isnt talking about replacing something just a few years old, this is talking about OS's that are almost 2 decades old. The time and effort could be spent else where, is all i am saying.
And that's the thing, they do NOT want to have to support stuff like Windows Servers. They only enabled Windows Servers users to be able to log onto the game mostly to see how many people actually use the game that way. If it's a small portion of the playerbase, then they will likely turn it back off after a period of time. However, if they see that there's a great number of people whom access the game that way, they will have to leave access on.
So, I have additional information to share from Priority One Podcast's 401st episode, which features more of the interviews that they couldn't fit into the first episode. The System designer's interview took almost half the episode, so I'm going to post this in first. It's rather large.
System Designers interview, Jeremy "BorticusCryptic" Randall and Jonathan H.
- System Designers are the ones that handle the various areas of the game such as ship abilities, enemy mob powers, general systems (Crafting, Admiralty, Doffing etc.)
- Jonathan's contributions so far in game are the Emperor's Lockbox items except for the Styx, the Prolonged Engagement Torpedo and the Beacon of Kahless, as well as the new Crystal Prism universal Kit Module. He was also in charge of the two bridge officers from the Operations pack.
- The Styx was the last thing that Jett aka CrypticSpartan worked on with Jeremy before she moved over to lead ship design.
- While Battle of Binary Stars will likely not return as a 3 week TFO, they may bring back in the future Crystalline Cataclysm, The Breach or Mirror Invasion as TFOs.
- Jeremy doesn't believe that people should need a sort filter for 1x use Admiralty cards as they're meant to be used as soon as you get them. Filters though isn't something that they do.
- They have talked about looking at ways to allow players to claim admiralty cards from places like the C-store without having to go and purchase each ship again.
- C-store purchase bug was primarily due to a new tracker they're using which records metrics on what people are buying in order to come up with things that people will want to buy.
- STO devs since they started work on Victory is Life have essentially been working very hard in order to get out everything that they needed to between VIL and the new Discovery stuff. They're now just starting to return to a pace that they can look at what needs to be updated, such as Re-engineering, and other Quality of Life system updates to be scheduled.
- Jeremy has had a revamp rough draft for Duty Officers for 3 years now. He says that because the system is so tight with older players that they have to look at how revamping that system would to them vs. how a revamp might go with players since in order to revamp any system, it means destroying the old system.
- Expansion of systems for anything requires an honest look into what can they afford to do for the game at the time. They try to take what players want into account, but they only have so much time to do stuff with the game and only have so many people to work on everything, so in the end it's a give and take situation. That said, they will keep evaluating what they want to do.
- While leveling gear is gonna remain done sparingly, they're aware that players do want to have an easier time with just being able to go through the leveling proces without having to constantly monitor when they need better leveled gear.
- When the conversion of all the Tier 6 ships they want to be scaling ships eventually comes about, they plan on introducing leveless gear (think of items that scale with you like the TOS Connie Phasers) that will be outfitted on these ships.
- Reputation Sponsorship tokens are still being looked into as to what they want to do with them, since they no longer serve a purpose into the game. One avenue has been to offer a buyback type store where you convert them into something else.
- Inventory improvements are something that they always keeping an eye on, but it's yet another thing that they weigh on when it comes to a Return of Investement. They are aware that many people have growing collections of stuff like vanity pets or tribbles and do want to do something for that. Inventory management is something that is apart of every MMO, that's something they want players to keep in mind.
- Dilithium to Fleet credit ratio is likely something that isn't going to be easily changed as doing so would have a lasting impact on the economy of the game.
- As it stands right now, a new fleet holding may or may not ever come out. The reason this is so is mainly because that when the fleet holdings are probably the biggest investment of development time besides making episodes. They require the work of essentially everyone and at this point, they are not sure if they want to take the time to invest in another fleet holding given the fact that the game has changed, the playerbase changed and the dev team has changed. That said, they may come up with a way in the future for fleets to have something to invest in over time.
- Costs for fleet holdings are essentially something that they are hesitant to balance out, since when it was conceptualized, it was done using a 25 member fleet. Once again, while they understand that there are fleets that struggle with the costs, there are detrimental impacts to the game's economy that have to be taken into consideration.
- Console features such as the power auto execute feature are things they might want to port over to the PC version, but under the hood engine updates would need to happen as well as modifications to how the system works.
- As far as things appear right now for the game for the 10th anniversary, there's nothing that the system designers can say about it yet as they have not even started work yet. When they do start working on stuff, it's between 6-8 months of planning, so they will likely know more in a few more months. Since its 10 years, it'll be obviously a big deal.
- The big issue surrounding Windows Server, as I understand it, it's just a mess. There are many different versions and it's obviously hard to maintain compatibility since some versions have directX and some don't. They do plan to monitor the number of users who do log in via Windows Server and it's likely going to be a temporary restoration as they feel like Windows XP, Windows Server is just too unstable.
Know you have more info coming but I did want to comment on this one (well all of them) but this one the most.
Server 2003 and WinXP have been out of support for 3 years by Microsoft. Win7 falls out of support next Jan, and will not be extended like they had done with WinXP for it's end of life. Suffice it to say, for the Dev's, they should not be supporting end of life OS's for client side, and i hope like hell they aren't using it as part of their internal infrastructure. There are too many security holes in them that have not, and will not be fixed. It's a security risk no one should be taking in this day and age. To put a bit of perspective on it, Server 2019 has already been released and is no longer in beta but as a full product. Hopefully their DB isn't running on something antiquated either.
The short of it, people need to upgrade their systems if they are that old. I hold out as long as I can, but there's a time you got to move your systems up to keep playing the games you love. Sadly there's just no way around it if you want to ensure things are secure like they need to be.
Good luck with that, i'm going to Linux when support ends for windows 7 and i'm never going back to windows 10. I don't trust windows 10 or Microsoft at this point to clean my sewage. since STO works with Wine, it's not an issue.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Yeah no issues with Win 8.1 or 10 with me. Hell Windows 10 works better then my old win 8.1 though that could that the Windows 8.1 was old (at least 5 years old when I replaced it).
- STO devs since they started work on Victory is Life have essentially been working very hard in order to get out everything that they needed to between VIL and the new Discovery stuff. They're now just starting to return to a pace that they can look at what needs to be updated, such as Re-engineering, and other Quality of Life system updates to be scheduled.
- As it stands right now, a new fleet holding may or may not ever come out. The reason this is so is mainly because that when the fleet holdings are probably the biggest investment of development time besides making episodes. They require the work of essentially everyone and at this point, they are not sure if they want to take the time to invest in another fleet holding given the fact that the game has changed, the playerbase changed and the dev team has changed. That said, they may come up with a way in the future for fleets to have something to invest in over time.
Now THIS is very interesting to hear. I had always presumed they had at least one more fleet holding planned for the Gamma Quadrant. Just to finish the system out. To hear that there might not be another one is very interesting.
Though, the size of the colony world does seem like a "final thing" as well.
My interpretation of what they said is that the Fleet system as it stands now just isn't having quite the impact that it did in 2012 when it was released. The colony is the first Starbase sized holding that they did in a while and it was clear that something of that magnitude is not going to be made again.
- Jeremy has had a revamp rough draft for Duty Officers for 3 years now. He says that because the system is so tight with older players that they have to look at how revamping that system would to them vs. how a revamp might go with players since in order to revamp any system, it means destroying the old system.
This is very good to know, Doffing is something on what I consider the very short list of big things STO has yet to massively revamp. That he has at least a draft about a possible revamp is good.
My list of STO content that hasn't been revamped yet
Cryptic has confirmed that the following will be revamped/is something they want to revamp
-Doffing
-Early Klingon missions(Warzone + Fek'Ihri Return)
-Exploration
-State of Q
-UI
Other things in need of revamp that haven't been discussed(as far as I am aware)
-Pre LoR side missions like diplomacy missions, Fed patrols, and Klingon "Defend the Empire/Pi Canis Sorite" missions
-Older social zones like Vulcan, Andoria, Starbase 39-Sierra, Deep Space K-7, Ganalda, and Memory Alpha
-Accolade improvements
-Ship Interiors
-Melee combat
-PVP
Out of what you have listed, I don't think they will be revamping a lot of these anytime soon.
- Pre-LoR side missions: the Klingon stuff is only accessible by Klingon and Klingon-aligned factions. The Fed patrols are mostly out of view for anyone that doesn't know they exist. These things are probably lower than exploration on the priority list.
- Social Zones: Stuff like Starbase 39-Sierra, Deep Space K-7 and Ganalda are likely to be revamped with higher priority since they are zones that can be visited by players who don't want to fly back to Qo'noS, Earth Space Dock or New Romulus Command if they are in the beta quadrant.
Planets like Andoria, Vulcan and Memory Alpha are less likely to receive updates, since there's not a lot to do on them to begin with. Andoria is an example of an antiquated place that they were likely thinking of doing of PvP in the past.
- Ship interiors: Not a lot of people tend to use their interiors much, especially since many non-faction playable ships have just a bridge. The only way I could see this getting updated is if they were willing to spend time fleshing out interiors for alien ships, especially ones seen frequently on screen.
- Melee combat & PVP: I think these kind of go together, since Melee would fit in with PvP as a whole. If you're gonna do one, you should do the other too.
Here's the last of the interviews I have right now, the Artist Interview:
- The Character Artists have rather high demand on them since they try to do as much as possible to give certain parts to players, but can't always deliver everything, especially if the pieces they make cannot mesh well with other parts.
- Character Artists when it comes to adding a particular Trek Actor that isn't already in the game, start work right away when they know that they are looking to add them in. This is usually way before they have they have the contract.
- Animations of late as we've seen are no longer modular. Every actor that has since been added since Victory is Life have had custom animations made specifically for them.
- Jo is the UI artist for STO and has been at Cryptic for 6 months. When asked about the UI, she notes that compared to the UI that existed before Legacy of Romulus, it looks significantly better. She does want to see the UI improved more, but at the same time, she wants to ensure that the LCARS feel is kept the same.
- In terms of porting over the console UI over to PC, one thing that they would like to take from Console is the character creation UI and improve that UI on PC. They are starting work on this. A full PC version of the UI interface with a controller is not in the books for them right now.
- Black Section 31 badges are not currently on the list of things to add to the game at the moment.
- Romulans having the same options for hair that Vulcans get is essentially asking for when a specific ship is coming into the game. They cannot give that information out.
- Costume parts, such as hair or certain body parts like beards were restricted in the past primarily because CBS wanted certain species to match what was seen on screen, such as Vulcans having short, well kept hair. That restriction is being lifted now and we should see more parts become usable at some point in the future.
- The cutscenes that we've been seeing getting updates, such as the Empress Sela cutscenes, are built from scratch, throwing out the old modular annimated cutscenes that were mostly emotes. The goal is to eventually revamp all the older cutscenes in the game to the new standard.
- A key thing that Jo would like people to remember is that when it comes to the game, everyone on the team loves star trek and loves what they are able to do for the game. Jo is someone whom first played the game a bit before she was actually hired at Cryptic, so potentially anyone who has a passion for the game and wants to work at cryptic could potentially apply and be part of the team.
- Klingon ships in general are harder to design because they have a general feel to them and they cannot deviate too much before they start looking either like Romulan ships or other IP ships.
That's a strange statement, because it applies just as much to Fed ships as Klingon ships. With very few exceptions like the Defiant, all Fed ships have a very similar "feel". Not sure how that is more of an obstacle for Klingons than for Feds.
Thanks for all of the great notes though!
The Klingon ships are based around the old WW2 sub feel, where they were built around the purpose of hunting and stalking and not comfort where the fed ships also have comfort built into what they are set up for.
Comments
It's probably unlikely we will see either of those ships in game. They're not widely as known as the NX-class and weren't featured in many episodes.
To be fair... neither was the New Orleans. Hell... the New Orleans was literally only seen as wreckage in one episode.
While I agree, most of these are not seen in the shows. This is also not the first time the Tzenkethi have had a place in Star Trek. The Tzenkethi story is actually a direct reversal of what happened in the DS9 shows.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Tzenkethi
"In late 2371, a Founder posing as Federation Ambassador Krajensky informed Captain Benjamin Sisko that the current Autarch had been deposed. He ordered the USS Defiant to the Federation-Tzenkethi border to reinforce the Federation presence to the new leading faction. However, the entire mission had actually been engineered by the Dominion in an attempt to incite another war between the two powers; there never was a coup d'etat. After his identity was exposed, the Changeling commandeered the Defiant and attempted to attack a Tzenkethi settlement on M'kemas III, though he was stopped before the Defiant reached the planet. (DS9: "The Adversary")"
So instead of the changelings trying to start another war via using the Federation. They instead done it via using the Tzenkethi. If you follow the novels. New Fronntier's is not the first time the Tzenkethi appear. DS9, is the first time they're mentioned in the shows, making it at least the second time the Federation has had problems with them.
"A line spoken by Captain Sisko in "The Adversary" seemed to imply that there have been more than one war with the Tzenkethi."
This makes the third time, just from mem-alpha and the game. I believe with this, and the novels, this is the fourth time the Federation has run afoul with them.
Their appearance in game is also based on the how the original creator of them, one Robert Hewitt Wolfe, envisioned them. As, "heavily-armored lizard things."
I also agree that most of the species are bland, boring, and technologically behind, reference the Bajorans here. There were some that were more advanced than the Federation. The Hunters, for example, had tech that bypassed shielding, wrist mounted deflector shields, and energy weapons that could blast through a bulkhead door in one shot. But they only made an appearance once, and that was in hunting a tosk. Outside of this, they had no interest in the Federation, or anyone else for that matter. But again, these are two species, not really fit to build a story arc around. Since the tosk were genetically engineered by the Hunters to be their prey.
The Iconians, I'll admit they had some leeway on appearance there. I mean for the shows, there was no visual record of them. Of course they were nothing more than a historical foot note. The Elachi, again, had leeway, as these were a created Iconian servitor race.
The Undine they did have a visual reference to, via Species 8472 in Voyager. The same with the Voth. These two were set, they just had to figure out how to fit them in game.
Of all the species so far, only the Lukari, Kentari and Elachi are not taken directly from Star Trek lore. Unless you toss them in the "unnamed aliens" category. That's three species that Cryptic has given to Star Trek.
Granted I find these three species rather bland. There is more they could have done with them. They just strike me as the "set and forget" type of alien, as you mentioned with the more normal type of alien that we see. But, make no mistake, I do appreciate the amount of work that went into bringing them to the game.
Something I've ran into with my alien species. One day, I'll have the appearance close enough to what I envision, along with more than where they're from, a physiological setup, and a base societal setup. I have a second alien I'm working on as well, but that one is currently a back burner deal, as they're not meant to be the normal type of alien seen in Star Trek. This one, I'm setting up more as an enemy, one that the current genre of ending isn't possible with.
Technically speaking, Star Trek Online did NOT give us the Elachi. They gave a name for them, just like they gave Species 8472 a name "Undine." Star Trek already gave us the look of the Elachi.
In regards to the novels, they do not have much of a bearing of what Star Trek Online does. As far as the Novels go, they have dealt with the Tzenkethi three times. They are also not the same Tzenkethi that STO got.
Star Trek Enterprise Season 1 ep 12, Silent Enemy.
The unnamed aliens that forced Enterprise to expedite installation of the Phase Cannons.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Silent_Enemy_(episode)
They were never given a name or any real background. STO just filled it in.
They were seen in Ent. But, didn't have a name. So they had a visual appearance for them.
The Deferi, yeah, not much to remember there. It's sad that the planet is more memorable than the species that lives on it.
Well, someone had to be, gotta maintain the balance after all.
And that's the thing, they do NOT want to have to support stuff like Windows Servers. They only enabled Windows Servers users to be able to log onto the game mostly to see how many people actually use the game that way. If it's a small portion of the playerbase, then they will likely turn it back off after a period of time. However, if they see that there's a great number of people whom access the game that way, they will have to leave access on.
System Designers interview, Jeremy "BorticusCryptic" Randall and Jonathan H.
- System Designers are the ones that handle the various areas of the game such as ship abilities, enemy mob powers, general systems (Crafting, Admiralty, Doffing etc.)
- Jonathan's contributions so far in game are the Emperor's Lockbox items except for the Styx, the Prolonged Engagement Torpedo and the Beacon of Kahless, as well as the new Crystal Prism universal Kit Module. He was also in charge of the two bridge officers from the Operations pack.
- The Styx was the last thing that Jett aka CrypticSpartan worked on with Jeremy before she moved over to lead ship design.
- While Battle of Binary Stars will likely not return as a 3 week TFO, they may bring back in the future Crystalline Cataclysm, The Breach or Mirror Invasion as TFOs.
- Jeremy doesn't believe that people should need a sort filter for 1x use Admiralty cards as they're meant to be used as soon as you get them. Filters though isn't something that they do.
- They have talked about looking at ways to allow players to claim admiralty cards from places like the C-store without having to go and purchase each ship again.
- C-store purchase bug was primarily due to a new tracker they're using which records metrics on what people are buying in order to come up with things that people will want to buy.
- STO devs since they started work on Victory is Life have essentially been working very hard in order to get out everything that they needed to between VIL and the new Discovery stuff. They're now just starting to return to a pace that they can look at what needs to be updated, such as Re-engineering, and other Quality of Life system updates to be scheduled.
- Jeremy has had a revamp rough draft for Duty Officers for 3 years now. He says that because the system is so tight with older players that they have to look at how revamping that system would to them vs. how a revamp might go with players since in order to revamp any system, it means destroying the old system.
- Expansion of systems for anything requires an honest look into what can they afford to do for the game at the time. They try to take what players want into account, but they only have so much time to do stuff with the game and only have so many people to work on everything, so in the end it's a give and take situation. That said, they will keep evaluating what they want to do.
- While leveling gear is gonna remain done sparingly, they're aware that players do want to have an easier time with just being able to go through the leveling proces without having to constantly monitor when they need better leveled gear.
- When the conversion of all the Tier 6 ships they want to be scaling ships eventually comes about, they plan on introducing leveless gear (think of items that scale with you like the TOS Connie Phasers) that will be outfitted on these ships.
- Reputation Sponsorship tokens are still being looked into as to what they want to do with them, since they no longer serve a purpose into the game. One avenue has been to offer a buyback type store where you convert them into something else.
- Inventory improvements are something that they always keeping an eye on, but it's yet another thing that they weigh on when it comes to a Return of Investement. They are aware that many people have growing collections of stuff like vanity pets or tribbles and do want to do something for that. Inventory management is something that is apart of every MMO, that's something they want players to keep in mind.
- Dilithium to Fleet credit ratio is likely something that isn't going to be easily changed as doing so would have a lasting impact on the economy of the game.
- As it stands right now, a new fleet holding may or may not ever come out. The reason this is so is mainly because that when the fleet holdings are probably the biggest investment of development time besides making episodes. They require the work of essentially everyone and at this point, they are not sure if they want to take the time to invest in another fleet holding given the fact that the game has changed, the playerbase changed and the dev team has changed. That said, they may come up with a way in the future for fleets to have something to invest in over time.
- Costs for fleet holdings are essentially something that they are hesitant to balance out, since when it was conceptualized, it was done using a 25 member fleet. Once again, while they understand that there are fleets that struggle with the costs, there are detrimental impacts to the game's economy that have to be taken into consideration.
- Console features such as the power auto execute feature are things they might want to port over to the PC version, but under the hood engine updates would need to happen as well as modifications to how the system works.
- As far as things appear right now for the game for the 10th anniversary, there's nothing that the system designers can say about it yet as they have not even started work yet. When they do start working on stuff, it's between 6-8 months of planning, so they will likely know more in a few more months. Since its 10 years, it'll be obviously a big deal.
Good luck with that, i'm going to Linux when support ends for windows 7 and i'm never going back to windows 10. I don't trust windows 10 or Microsoft at this point to clean my sewage. since STO works with Wine, it's not an issue.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
My interpretation of what they said is that the Fleet system as it stands now just isn't having quite the impact that it did in 2012 when it was released. The colony is the first Starbase sized holding that they did in a while and it was clear that something of that magnitude is not going to be made again.
Out of what you have listed, I don't think they will be revamping a lot of these anytime soon.
- Pre-LoR side missions: the Klingon stuff is only accessible by Klingon and Klingon-aligned factions. The Fed patrols are mostly out of view for anyone that doesn't know they exist. These things are probably lower than exploration on the priority list.
- Social Zones: Stuff like Starbase 39-Sierra, Deep Space K-7 and Ganalda are likely to be revamped with higher priority since they are zones that can be visited by players who don't want to fly back to Qo'noS, Earth Space Dock or New Romulus Command if they are in the beta quadrant.
Planets like Andoria, Vulcan and Memory Alpha are less likely to receive updates, since there's not a lot to do on them to begin with. Andoria is an example of an antiquated place that they were likely thinking of doing of PvP in the past.
- Ship interiors: Not a lot of people tend to use their interiors much, especially since many non-faction playable ships have just a bridge. The only way I could see this getting updated is if they were willing to spend time fleshing out interiors for alien ships, especially ones seen frequently on screen.
- Melee combat & PVP: I think these kind of go together, since Melee would fit in with PvP as a whole. If you're gonna do one, you should do the other too.
- The Character Artists have rather high demand on them since they try to do as much as possible to give certain parts to players, but can't always deliver everything, especially if the pieces they make cannot mesh well with other parts.
- Character Artists when it comes to adding a particular Trek Actor that isn't already in the game, start work right away when they know that they are looking to add them in. This is usually way before they have they have the contract.
- Animations of late as we've seen are no longer modular. Every actor that has since been added since Victory is Life have had custom animations made specifically for them.
- Jo is the UI artist for STO and has been at Cryptic for 6 months. When asked about the UI, she notes that compared to the UI that existed before Legacy of Romulus, it looks significantly better. She does want to see the UI improved more, but at the same time, she wants to ensure that the LCARS feel is kept the same.
- In terms of porting over the console UI over to PC, one thing that they would like to take from Console is the character creation UI and improve that UI on PC. They are starting work on this. A full PC version of the UI interface with a controller is not in the books for them right now.
- Black Section 31 badges are not currently on the list of things to add to the game at the moment.
- Romulans having the same options for hair that Vulcans get is essentially asking for when a specific ship is coming into the game. They cannot give that information out.
- Costume parts, such as hair or certain body parts like beards were restricted in the past primarily because CBS wanted certain species to match what was seen on screen, such as Vulcans having short, well kept hair. That restriction is being lifted now and we should see more parts become usable at some point in the future.
- The cutscenes that we've been seeing getting updates, such as the Empress Sela cutscenes, are built from scratch, throwing out the old modular annimated cutscenes that were mostly emotes. The goal is to eventually revamp all the older cutscenes in the game to the new standard.
- A key thing that Jo would like people to remember is that when it comes to the game, everyone on the team loves star trek and loves what they are able to do for the game. Jo is someone whom first played the game a bit before she was actually hired at Cryptic, so potentially anyone who has a passion for the game and wants to work at cryptic could potentially apply and be part of the team.
The Klingon ships are based around the old WW2 sub feel, where they were built around the purpose of hunting and stalking and not comfort where the fed ships also have comfort built into what they are set up for.