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Foundry Sunset

ambassadorkael#6946 ambassadorkael Member, Administrator Posts: 2,673 Community Manager
Greetings Captains,

As of today, April 11, the Foundry has been sunset on Neverwinter and Star Trek Online. You can read the original announcement post here:

https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/11102923-foundry-sunset-april-11,-2019

All the content related to the Foundry has been removed from the games.

The rewards mentioned in the original post will be given out manually over the next few days. Please contact customer support if you have any questions.
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Comments

  • zedbrightlander1zedbrightlander1 Member Posts: 14,762 Arc User
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    Sig? What sig? I don't see any sig.
  • duncanidaho11duncanidaho11 Member Posts: 7,867 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    I want to link off Kael's livestream per the sunset in case anyone missed it and needs to know the full context on what this meant for the team.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA1fGVBhmpk

    This was a painful situation for all concerned and despite the best will in the world, the system couldn't be maintained by the company for reasons that would require a full rebuild. Maybe someday things change but for now and the foreseeable future there is the Sunset.

    That said the Foundry goes on. A lot of us spent a lot of time preserving missions by ourselves and others. Links:
    Legion of Myth
    The Foundry Roundtable
    Holocene Games
    Zef Films
    Texas Gemini
    Ranger Ryu
    Grumpy Old Nord
    The raging geek
    Yurazal
    Myself

    With more uploads on the way. We're in the process of collecting all known liveplays into a sortable list for authors and players to find their favorites, relive memories, and discover something new. Zorbane is also in the process of updating the community site www.Foundrymissions.com to automatically sort and display dialog (perhaps with character and map screenshots) from the mission export files we saved. In one way or another this will provide another way to relive the Foundry. Authors are also looking into translating their Foundry work to short story, comic, visual novel, and text adventure format.

    Keep an eye on the Foundry after the Foundry thread for additional projects and community resources (including sharable tailor files to bring Foundry characters into your crew.)
    https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1247628/keeping-up-with-the-foundry-after-the-foundry-general-psa-preserved-content

    See also the Foundry creative writing thread for an accessible repository of old and new short stories relating to the Foundry.
    https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1222819/creative-writing-hub-for-the-foundry/p2
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    Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
    Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
    Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
  • toivatoiva Member Posts: 3,276 Arc User
    Sad...
    TOIVA, Toi Vaxx, Toia Vix, Toveg, T'vritha, To Vrax: Bring in the Allegiance class.
    Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider.
    Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.

    Don't make ARC mandatory! Keep it optional only!
  • burstdragon323burstdragon323 Member Posts: 853 Arc User
    You know, there's a phrase that gets around after decisions like this.

    "When a game removes one of it's greatest features, it goes into a suicidal death spiral, unless they can replace it with something better."

    That's what this game is heading towards. First it was the Exploration Cluster system, now the Foundry. Unless you get something ingame to replace it, and soon, I dont think the game will survive a hit like this.
  • pendra37#5088 pendra37 Member Posts: 29 Arc User
    One pic that says it all
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  • messicrafter#6700 messicrafter Member Posts: 49 Arc User
    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO :'(
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    =/\= Member of Star trek Roleplayers and Former Foundry Author in training. =/\=
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    One problem now is that some endeavors are impossible for some people to get to (like those endevors dealing with Vadwaar) because of bugs in the episode skip system and "available" mission tab. The foundry made up for that (yes some were using it as a kind of exploit, but for others it was a necessary bug workaround).

    A while back all of the episode starter missions were unlocked for some reason, without the foundry it would be a good thing if they were unlocked like that again so people could actually GET TO the place they need to go to complete endeavors, at least until the bugs are squashed or a system is put in place to override the lockouts when endeavors using those areas are active.
  • jennycolvinjennycolvin Member Posts: 1,100 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    A while back all of the episode starter missions were unlocked for some reason, without the foundry it would be a good thing if they were unlocked like that again so people could actually GET TO the place they need to go to complete endeavors, at least until the bugs are squashed or a system is put in place to override the lockouts when endeavors using those areas are active.

    As per the latest patch notes:
    • Mission journal update:
      • If you have at least one level 65 character, all of your other characters should now be able to start any mission group they want - you can start the first mission in any section of the journal.
      • This applies to 23c, Century Fed captains after they reach the 25th c. and to Jem'Hadar and Romulan captains after they choose an allegiance.
      • 25 c. Federation and Klingon captains gain this update immediately after the tutorial.
    ​​
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    Not agreeing with someone doesn't give you the right to be an TRIBBLE.

    Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
    - quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
    - quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
    - quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;

    Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
    Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
  • gulremalgulremal Member Posts: 153 Arc User
    RIP Foundry.
  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    You know, there's a phrase that gets around after decisions like this.

    "When a game removes one of it's greatest features, it goes into a suicidal death spiral, unless they can replace it with something better."

    That's what this game is heading towards. First it was the Exploration Cluster system, now the Foundry. Unless you get something ingame to replace it, and soon, I dont think the game will survive a hit like this.
    I think there is a difference between a game's greatest feature, and a game's greatest sounding feature. The only Foundry mission I played in the last few years were two Grinders. This is just anecdotical, but it makes me think that its not the primary feature of STO.
    And if you look at the Foundry discussion forum, it wasn't very active, nor were there a lot of Foundry threads in the General Discussion area.

    It's still a shame it's gone. I'd say it was certainly STO's most ambitious feature, and giving up on ambitions is never a good feeling.

    I just hope that maybe it has some lasting impacts, giving Foundry authors an outlet for their creativity and a way to hone their talents - maybe this will lead to them being able to adopt creative careers elsewhere, and make a bigger mark on us.
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
  • novapolaris#2925 novapolaris Member Posts: 776 Arc User
    Saying something along the lines of "there's other fish in the sea" doesn't do much to close the wound or heal the grief, IMO. I'll still grieve the STAR TREK stories and characters I poured my heart and soul into, which I'll never be able to go anywhere with now that the Foundry is gone forever. You can say "you can just turn it into something for another IP", but that feels like being given a replacement pet for one that died.

    I finally came back with the resolution to push through and finish and publish these missions I'd poured so much into planning out, for years, while I was too stuck in my life due to unfortunate circumstances to finish anything sooner. And within a day it was all torn away.

    Sure, you can take it as "honing your talents for other things", and even if that's true there'll still be a gaping hole in my heart for things I can't replace, now.
  • duncanidaho11duncanidaho11 Member Posts: 7,867 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    And if you look at the Foundry discussion forum, it wasn't very active, nor were there a lot of Foundry threads in the General Discussion area.

    A lot of us communicate via twitter and discord. The forums served as a meeting point more for newer authors looking to connect to the Foundry community and the catastrophic editor problems over the last couple years made that much less accessible.

    For a little context, I played and recorded 58 missions over the last month, representing what I wanted to preserve and what authors requested I record. At lot of it was newer and only a few were the easy classics. This was a tiny fraction of published work that I'm simply aware of which more than justified the label "greatest feature" without qualification. Examples of what I wasn't able to get to myself include Purity, Photonomy, the work of Kirkfat, PF.Dennis, JohnnySnowball, and Alimac30. Ie. the absolute classics and easy examples to point to for what the Foundry community was able to achieve. And back when the editor was healthy, two or three highlights a month was a pretty safe bet. What lead to the sunset put a damper on recent activity but that's not reflective of the community as it was without the complication of catastrophic bugs (and even with those bugs, we were still able to achieve some great things. See for example the ViL challenge entries and Midas Part 3.)

    These were fantastic missions in their own right and the editor (when functional) was a wonderfully versatile toolset that cultivated a great community. We cared not just out of hope that one day ambition would be fulfilled but because of the incredible things the Foundry fostered then.
    Post edited by duncanidaho11 on
    Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
    Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
    Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
  • rhazedurilerhazedurile Member Posts: 74 Arc User
    edited April 2019
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    Post edited by rhazedurile on
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  • captaincelestialcaptaincelestial Member Posts: 1,925 Arc User
    I hope that a new version of the Foundry is made, I hope it would have in-Foundry tutorials (basic, intermediate and advanced) and be more user-friendly.

    I kept away from making any content with it because it was more frustrating than anything else. I'm glad people had created tutorials on YouTube for the Foundry, but it should have been handled in-game.

    I was able to publish a Foundry mission last night, but I was working on it for a while after the Sunset announcement (it was basic, but I was running out of time :open_mouth:

    Anyways, I want to thank everyone who worked on the Foundry, behind the scenes and the STO community that had created content on the Foundry :smiley:
  • hivercidehivercide Member Posts: 67 Arc User
    While using the Foundry to help complete Personal Endeavor missions was a nice bonus, I will miss it more for the ability to get rare Accolades. The Devs seem determined to remove some accolades from the game, perhaps for purposes of Elitism ("Yeah, I've got 'x' accolade, and you'll never be able to, noob!"), and closing the Foundry has made yet more of them impossible to achieve. M-113 Salt Vampires, anyone? If there was ever a mission that featured them, it has long since been removed from the game. If you were not able to get the accolades for defeating them in a Foundry mission, you can kiss them goodbye forever now.
  • herrgis#1415 herrgis Member Posts: 76 Arc User
    One problem now is that some endeavors are impossible for some people to get to (like those endevors dealing with Vadwaar) because of bugs in the episode skip system and "available" mission tab. The foundry made up for that (yes some were using it as a kind of exploit, but for others it was a necessary bug workaround).

    Report the problem to Support - in the bug report forum. Based on feedback from players, they recently removed some endeavors from the list and tweaked the difficulty and description of others to make them more accessible. If an endeavor is still impossible, then they probably would like to know it so they can remove it from the list (like they've previously done with others). If you've already reported this in the bug forum, then congrats - you've done the first step and hopefully it will be addressed 'soon'. In the meantime, 'reroll' is an option along with just ignoring that endeavor.

    You need to think of Star Trek Online as a marathon, not a sprint. Senlac t'Karveth
    Sometimes the Universe allows for the making of unexpected memories. Philippa Georgiou
    No matter your shame, gather your strength. Find a way to help those in need. Sarek of Vulcan
  • fred26291#2759 fred26291 Member Posts: 1,260 Arc User
    With the removal of the foundry i have discontinued ALL endeavors till further notice.
    The foundry helped make some of the endeavors dooable, and now they are not so easy to complete.
    Goodbye to the foundry and thanks to all who had a hand in making the missions that were a help to the game.
  • theyredeadjimtheyredeadjim Member Posts: 243 Arc User
  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    edited April 2019
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    The second picture really needs to be bigger, Kirk's face... :(

    When the Foundry was released (or in testing), I actually made a few missions. Nothing of the quality other authors could put out, certainly not with that attention to detail.

    But I still occasionally catch myself: "One should make a mission doing X"... But now, everytime I will have that thought I know it can't happen anymore. Not because I don't have the time, or whatever, because the entire feature is gone.
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
  • thegateexplorer#8515 thegateexplorer Member Posts: 35 Arc User
    Us players on console we never had a foundry we only had the content cryptic provided.
  • herrgis#1415 herrgis Member Posts: 76 Arc User
    hivercide wrote: »
    While using the Foundry to help complete Personal Endeavor missions was a nice bonus, I will miss it more for the ability to get rare Accolades. The Devs seem determined to remove some accolades from the game, perhaps for purposes of Elitism ("Yeah, I've got 'x' accolade, and you'll never be able to, noob!"), and closing the Foundry has made yet more of them impossible to achieve. M-113 Salt Vampires, anyone? If there was ever a mission that featured them, it has long since been removed from the game. If you were not able to get the accolades for defeating them in a Foundry mission, you can kiss them goodbye forever now.

    The sunsetting of the Foundry is a sad thing and (as Amb Kael said in his video) sometimes real life decisions suck and you need to live with them. But lets not blame the Foundry departure for suddenly making accolades inaccessible. For hints to complete accolades see: https://sto.gamepedia.com/Guide:_Accolades

    With game content changes over the past many years I haven't seen any evidence of a nefarious super-secret ultra-evil mega-project vunder-plan by Devs to deny players an obscure accolade accessible only by an ancient mission - that really has no effect on the games stats. Kill # of X enemies gives you +2% dmg, but these are fairly accessible. I DO tend to see hundreds, if not thousands, of player conspiracy theories .... +1.

    I appreciate that everyone has different "end game goals" but Accolade Elitism is purely a personal player issue, both to claim it and allow yourself to be impacted by such claims. The only person who cares (or doesn't care) about an accolade - is you. Sure I have (a lot) of accolades/titles, but I really don't pay attention to them as you can get a title from doing just about anything well, extremely bad, just plain weird random things or given enough time. Personally, I don't think accolades are worth loosing sleep over. I chase epohhs not accolades: they make cute pets and if you tire of them you can turn them into marks. Have you ever tried to pet an accolade?

    If the need to kill M-113's is still strong, multitudes of M-113 Salt Vampires can still be found in Arena of Sompek and Colony Invasion Simulations. Personally I didn't warmly cherish my accolade for killing # of them, but I would have - for coupon for a free freshly baked monster-sized buttery pretzel (lightly-salted and warm). Of course, that is probably just my stomach talking 30min before dinner.

    For the record, my favorite accolade/title is "Torpedo Target" = receive 500,000 torpedo damage. I got gud at catching torpedos. It was my first! - that I bothered to notice.
    You need to think of Star Trek Online as a marathon, not a sprint. Senlac t'Karveth
    Sometimes the Universe allows for the making of unexpected memories. Philippa Georgiou
    No matter your shame, gather your strength. Find a way to help those in need. Sarek of Vulcan
  • velquavelqua Member Posts: 1,220 Arc User
    RIP Foundry. :'(
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  • cheesebasketcheesebasket Member Posts: 1,099 Arc User
    Ideally they could rebuild it eventually, i could never get the editor to even run tho soz..

    Or, the last known working configuration could be made as a standalone thing, similar to tribble where the game just doesn't update past that point....But if it's not viable it's not viable and i'd rather lose a feature of the game then lose the game due to a feature that doesn't work consistantly.

    You could launch it as the foundry, you upload your character, but from that point on that uploaded character only works in the foundry
    The hamster will RULE ALLL....

    Mwahahahahahahaha
  • trennantrennan Member Posts: 2,839 Arc User
    edited April 2019
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  • djxprimedjxprime Member Posts: 522 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    What can I say that hasn't already been said. For me The Foundry was unique in that it gave many of us a creative outlet as well as a way to present our stories as part of a wider universe. Now that it is gone, there is nothing that really separates this game from the other games out there except that it has the Star Trek name. While I don't plan on uninstalling the game or waking away from it forever, just know that my presence online is going to be considerable reduced. Just adding my two credits and voicing and expressing my disappointment.
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    "No matter where you go...there you are."
  • neoakiraiineoakiraii Member Posts: 7,468 Arc User
    Didn't even notice , had they had a good mission like wiping out Bajor maybe I would have played it more
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  • avoozuulavoozuul Member Posts: 3,196 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    Too bad you can't get back the dil from buying access to the content creator.
This discussion has been closed.