Q: red_shirt_ The team took a tremendous amount of time to develop planetary systems for missions. I can understand why they are locked until we are able to access the missions attached to them. However, I cannot understand why we are not allowed to re-enter them after the mission(s) are complete (replay aside). It was mentioned more random events will be introduced into the game. What better places than the systems that are already here to generate possible random events and missions for us to play and allow to visit these beautiful planetary systems.
A: I hear you loud and clear on this one. It is one of my pet peeves with STO. I should be able to go to any planet at any time. It is a long term goal to make this happen and just as you suggested, use existing locations for new events and missions (which we have slowly been doing btw via some of our Feature Episodes).
Not so excited about the "long term" time stamp. But I am glad this has been something that crossed the dev's minds. It will be awesome to revisit all of these places and do new stuff then...
Q: pdidy What is the current status of the Andorian Kumari and Ambassador-Class ships?
A: Both of these ships are on our long term radar. I'd really like to see both incorporated into future Feature Episode series so that they can release when they do. Currently neither of these ships will be in game until after Season 4 releases, but we absolutely plan to have them in game in 2012.
Dissapointed
Q: dorko1 I know that the refit is still a touchy subject, but could you guys shed any light on what might happen? I understand that there should be obvious misgivings about the idea of the Constitution class outmatching a vessel 200 yrs new and twice its size, but a replica that's really more of an Excalibur class vessel might be able to add something to the mix.
A: You are correct that it is a touchy subject amongst the community and based on the discussions we've had with CBS about ships, I don't think we're going to put a high-end Constitution Class refit into the game. You can still have a lower tier TOS Connie use the Squad Leader feature to bring their stats up to a higher level, but the odds of an end game Connie refit is a long shot.
Redeemed
Oh and the forum link in the Ask Cryptic Article is broken; it goes to the homepage
A huge thank you to everyone for this months' "Ask Cryptic", but I wanted to also extend a big big thank you to Dan for answering my question.
Q: TOSLover While I absolutely love the Foundry and am very amazed at all we can do with it, might there be an easier way that we could place our items, objects, ships, etc.? Maybe like an actual 3-D representation similar to how "The Sims" does it? I guess the question I'm asking is a change to Foundry object placement somewhere on the horizon?
A: Your suggestion is right on the money and I wish the team had the time to implement this immediately. Unfortunately it is going to take us quite a bit of time to get there. The first step might come later this year when we start to talk about a revamp to ship interiors and player starbases that would allow you to place objects as props.
So, again, Dan, thank you very very much! You've made my month!
(no worries about the length of time; I'm a very patient person and will wait as long as it takes)
Twice you mentioned that it was some sort of hotly debated topic weather or not we could get a T5 connie or not. Why is this hotly debated when you aready put it to rest? You put a 22nd Century Vulcan ship at T5 for crying out loud. Presumably you are doing the same with the Andorian ship. Klingons have reused the B'rel since the 22nd Century as well and no one bats an eye at that either.
While I don't expect to see my T5 missions flooded with TOS connies I do have to wonder what this supposed impass is on allowing players to play as these ships.
All my questions got the snub (we still need more in game Boff slots with reward Boffs or way in game to purchase them reasonably)
But this was suggested in the "Crew System" I originally authored so YaY!
Q: Killer8472 With the addition of the TOS interior and the TOS dressed crew, does this open up the possibility of allowing us to customize the uniforms of NPC's in other interiors?
A: Yes, it is a step towards that. It is on our 2012 goal list to allow players to select a "ship crew" uniform that crewmen on your ship interiors will wear.
Q: dorko1 I know that the refit is still a touchy subject, but could you guys shed any light on what might happen? I understand that there should be obvious misgivings about the idea of the Constitution class outmatching a vessel 200 yrs new and twice its size, but a replica that's really more of an Excalibur class vessel might be able to add something to the mix.
A: You are correct that it is a touchy subject amongst the community and based on the discussions we've had with CBS about ships, I don't think we're going to put a high-end Constitution Class refit into the game. You can still have a lower tier TOS Connie use the Squad Leader feature to bring their stats up to a higher level, but the odds of an end game Connie refit is a long shot.
Before anyone lays claim to this answer as the 'final nail in the coffin', I interpret this to mean that CBS has side-stepped this concept for now. Taking pressure off of Cryptic. And that's fine. BUT. This doesn't mean that it can't / won't be taken up again in the future.
So, I wonder what the KDF equivalent of the Diplomacy system will be? A "Glory" system, perhaps? Doing missions specifically intended to bring Glory/Renown to the Empire. Actions that raise your status through battle.
In a previous Ask Cryptic I talked about how we recognize that some skill trees aren't as desirable as others due to various damage types like the ones you listed. Our first task is cleaning up the skill tree so that putting points into these powers makes sense. Once we tackle that hurdle, we can start to talk about ways to differentiate power types more than we have. The new ground combat system is introducing some of the changes to power types that point in the direction we want to go.
This may be an insane idea but hear me out...
Why not reduce the amount every given skill adds to it's specific weapon type (reduce Phaser Specialization effectiveness) by splitting it into various degrees:
Have beam weapons and cannon weapons as separate skills. Then at the next level instead of having Disruptor and Phaser as separate skills, let us pick from a drop down menu.
So at Commander instead of Specializing in Disruptors or Phasers we specialize in TRIBBLE Beam or TRIBBLE Cannon. The TRIBBLE is represented by a drop-down menu. From that menu you select "Phaser Beam Array, Disruptor Beam Array, Polaron Beam Array, etc" Then below that a drop-down for "Phaser Cannon, Polaron Cannon, etc".
Do the same with Mines/Torpedos as well. This way at Commander if I want to start specializing in Transphasic Torpedo and Tetryon Beam Arrays I can.
As the ranks progress add more advanced forms such as Phaser Beam Array Marksmanship, Phaser Beam Array Tactical Efficiency, etc etc just different names for improving the skills. Make the power split so that by VA if you've maxed your Phaser Skills all along you're maybe a little more powerful than maxing Phasers are now.
This would encourage a lot more variety especially early on. Also it would actually add value to random Mk 4 Tetryon cannons and Mk 4 Polaron Beam Arrays, etc.
Heck Yes! But we are doing both. We are revamping both the TNG Borg so that they have adaptive shielding and are more badass like I remember them being, and the newer Borg are also getting a revamp similar to what we did with the Romulans. As far as when will we see more of them? Very soon; and in big ways.
Could we see future Borg more like "One" from the Voyager episode with Seven's nanites assimilating the Doctor's emitter?
In many ways, your active Duty Officer roster is exactly that - a way to upgrade your ship that you control. With the ability to add up to 20 Duty Officers to active duty, each officer can bring its own abilities to improve your starship performance the way you want it to be. Once that feature releases with Season 4, we can start looking at additional ways to tune that system to provide various types of customization that players are asking for.
I'm pretty sure you totally mis-understood that question, unless you're saying that there's a Duty Officer that adds 20,000 HP to a Nova and several console and weapon slots so I can play it solo at high levels...
Why can't we just spend materials and goto Utopia Planetia and upgrade a ship from a previous level? Give us a schematic that we can earn "Retrofit Schematic" over the course of a week or two like the Shuttle Schematic. We can choose Retrofit Sci, Cruiser, Escort. Then we fly the ship we want upgraded to U.P. and click on the dockmaster, he gives our ship off to the system and maybe a day or two later we have a Nova equal to the other sci ships of the rank we were at when we took the Nova in...
A VA drives an old Nova to U.P. hands over the Retrofit Request/Requisition thing from a mission reward. The Dock guy charges us a buncha samples and maybe even some of those components for repairing the ship (since us "Normal" PvE folks have tons stacked up) and a buncha EC and Merit payment. BAM a week or less later he mails us and we "take a shuttle" over and pick up our "New" ship...
We have been discussing different ways we could allow players to have these rare species lately and some of the ideas range from Veteran Rewards, to Special Duty Officer Recruiting Assignments, to High-End Craftables. I'd look for us to do a variety of these ideas over the next 6 months.
Hologram BOFFs are already in game...great 500 day vet reward...just sayin...especially if packed with an extra boff space...
So, I wonder what the KDF equivalent of the Diplomacy system will be? A "Glory" system, perhaps? Doing missions specifically intended to bring Glory/Renown to the Empire. Actions that raise your status through battle.
Think more in terms of "Your planet has resources the empire needs"... so for example Kras (TOS: Friday's Child) would be a high ranking member of this organization.
Or as another example - "aid the planet" missions become "aid the empire" missions.
Wait a sec. If I team up with another Vice Admiral and set him as Squad Leader, my Tier 1 ship updates to better stats, even though I'm already a Vice Admiral?
A huge thank you to everyone for this months' "Ask Cryptic", but I wanted to also extend a big big thank you to Dan for answering my question.
Q: TOSLover While I absolutely love the Foundry and am very amazed at all we can do with it, might there be an easier way that we could place our items, objects, ships, etc.? Maybe like an actual 3-D representation similar to how "The Sims" does it? I guess the question I'm asking is a change to Foundry object placement somewhere on the horizon?
A: Your suggestion is right on the money and I wish the team had the time to implement this immediately. Unfortunately it is going to take us quite a bit of time to get there. The first step might come later this year when we start to talk about a revamp to ship interiors and player starbases that would allow you to place objects as props.
So, again, Dan, thank you very very much! You've made my month!
(no worries about the length of time; I'm a very patient person and will wait as long as it takes)
Been asking for the 3D map myself so I'm glad to see that it got answered and is on the road map (ha ha).
A: While I'm not at liberty to discuss the fate of the Enterprise-E, we are working on a fun way to introduce and showcase the new fan designed Enterprise.
Hmm, I wonder why? CBS doesn't want to put an end to the Enterprise-E yet maybe? But then how is the Enterprise-F going to come about if the E is still in service?
Wait a sec. If I team up with another Vice Admiral and set him as Squad Leader, my Tier 1 ship updates to better stats, even though I'm already a Vice Admiral?
Also wondering about this one. Being a squad leader gives your ship more stats?
Wait a sec. If I team up with another Vice Admiral and set him as Squad Leader, my Tier 1 ship updates to better stats, even though I'm already a Vice Admiral?
While I'm not an expert on all the minutia of this system, the answer is yes. HP, Shields, and Ship Items will scale to the appropriate level tables for those items to help bring them in line with the ship leader. The one thing you don't get using this method is the extra boff slots and weapon slots. So Squad Leading to another player's level does adjust your ship's abilites to the leader's level.
This feature was intended to let low level friends team with higher level friends and vice versa, but it does work even if you are similar level.
Think more in terms of "Your planet has resources the empire needs"... so for example Kras (TOS: Friday's Child) would be a high ranking member of this organization.
Or as another example - "aid the planet" missions become "aid the empire" missions.
That is the direction we want to take it in...
Ooh.. Any plans for a mission such as 'Sherman's Planet'? i.e. where Klingons and the Federation a vying to get the planet, and it's resources, on their side?
I've love to see the FDC versus the Klingon Empire 'Kras' organization go at each other.
While I'm not an expert on all the minutia of this system, the answer is yes. HP, Shields, and Ship Items will scale to the appropriate level tables for those items to help bring them in line with the ship leader. The one thing you don't get using this method is the extra boff slots and weapon slots. So Squad Leading to another player's level does adjust your ship's abilites to the leader's level.
I just had assumed I had to be lower level to do this.
Looking forward to putting more of my BOs (like my Gorn) in a Starfleet uniform.
Love the idea of a Ferengi ship for Latinum. (I would also like a Ferengi wardrobe for Latinum and maybe mercenaries and energy whips for Latinum too.)
I hope one Klingon system you look into is the option to be a Klingon Lawyer like Worf's grandfather. I'd like the robes and gavel of a judge. I'd like missions where we gather evidence and argue cases. Personally, this is what I have in mind for a counterpart to Diplomacy, all the way up to getting Federation prisoners put on work detail under my Klingon, picked up at Rura Penthe.
After all, in order to HAVE honor, we must sometimes determine WHAT honor is. That requires advocates and judges who will speak their mind and stake their own lives, blood, and honor on the truth of their words. Qapla'!
What is the possiblity of giving us more control of the NPCs during ground combat. I am getting tired of throwing a perfectly good plasma grenade and have it wasted because my team keeps firing too early and pulling my target out of the grenade blast radius.
Another pain is in the Foundry; I have seen very good stories ruined by the mechanics that allow NPCs to fire through walls, and strange anomolies that cause the combat to glitch (too many to identify).
Finally, it would be nice to be able to rejuvinate BOUND items so they can be sold on the market (of course, a small cost would be entailed), but that is better than wasting an item in recycle that can be given to someone else.
What is the possiblity of giving us more control of the NPCs during ground combat. I am getting tired of throwing a perfectly good plasma grenade and have it wasted because my team keeps firing too early and pulling my target out of the grenade blast radius.
We are working on the ability to map away team member controls and powers to your power tray which will help with this somewhat in that (at least in the new aim/target mode) you can point at something and issue commands.
We are working on the ability to map away team member controls and powers to your power tray which will help with this somewhat in that (at least in the new aim/target mode) you can point at something and issue commands.
I'd imagine that's pretty important if we don't have a mouse cursor in the new aim and look mode.
(What I'm envisioning is a lot like DCU Online and there you don't get a mouse cursor except on special menu screens, since your mouse defaults to controlling the camera and aiming the rest of the time and the first two items in your power tray become Mouse L and Mouse R.)
Since the Connie at T5 is pretty well shot down, how about C Madden's design as an all new ship that pays homage to the Connie?
I think something like that would awesome paired with a Refit Excalibur/Vesper. I really love the Excalibur and hate not having an option for it at endgame.
Q: dorko1 I know that the refit is still a touchy subject, but could you guys shed any light on what might happen? I understand that there should be obvious misgivings about the idea of the Constitution class outmatching a vessel 200 yrs new and twice its size, but a replica that's really more of an Excalibur class vessel might be able to add something to the mix.
A: You are correct that it is a touchy subject amongst the community and based on the discussions we've had with CBS about ships, I don't think we're going to put a high-end Constitution Class refit into the game. You can still have a lower tier TOS Connie use the Squad Leader feature to bring their stats up to a higher level, but the odds of an end game Connie refit is a long shot.
This makes me pretty happy, just my opinion. Further elaboration was good:
Q: JAM062307 Are there any plans or discussions about being able to craft lower tiered ships to higher tiers, such as crafting the Excalibur or Akira to T-5?
A: There have been many discussions about ship crafting internally, however whether or not that ties specifically into being able to refit specific ships up to T5 remains to be seen. In general, lower tier refits at end game are a heated debate both on the forums and internally.
I'd be all for Crafting of ships to +1 or 2 Tiers, hope it comes
I was reading this month's "Ask Cryptic" and got very excited when I noticed several mentions of The Borg and a possible new invasion. Dan makes several references to the fact that they about to unleash The Borg in a big way, the first being,
Someone asks it there will be a Borg re-vamp similar to the Romulans and the answer is yes and very soon in big ways.... So newer, meaner, better looking Borg coming very soon?
The next question ask if we will see an STF like "Into The Hive" to complete the Borg storyline and the answer is again yes, apparently the "new" Borg queen will appear very soon after season 4 releases.
The next hint is in response to the Undine and we can expect to see more about them after The Borg make their move, before the FE's for season 4.
And the big question is whether there will be a Gorn rebellion, and the answer is a very cryptic "depends on whether their homeworld gets assimilated".
All in all I would say something big is about to happen and it's going to set the stage for a whole new direction in STO. I'm very excited, but I just hope it's easier to handle than the existing STF missions.
R.
The May "Ask Cryptic" says we won't be getting the Ambassador till sometime next year! At the same time they mentioned that we are going to get more crappy untrek like Cryptic ships
Why does it take 7+ months to add a ship to the game?
What does this mean for ships like the New Orleans that aren't even on the radar yet? 2013? Never?
Why can't Cryptic follow the star trek is route and hire Mike Okuda or Doug drexler?
Comments
Oh you evil evil man.... I love you Dan!
and...
Not so excited about the "long term" time stamp. But I am glad this has been something that crossed the dev's minds. It will be awesome to revisit all of these places and do new stuff then...
Dissapointed
Redeemed
Oh and the forum link in the Ask Cryptic Article is broken; it goes to the homepage
Q: TOSLover While I absolutely love the Foundry and am very amazed at all we can do with it, might there be an easier way that we could place our items, objects, ships, etc.? Maybe like an actual 3-D representation similar to how "The Sims" does it? I guess the question I'm asking is a change to Foundry object placement somewhere on the horizon?
A: Your suggestion is right on the money and I wish the team had the time to implement this immediately. Unfortunately it is going to take us quite a bit of time to get there. The first step might come later this year when we start to talk about a revamp to ship interiors and player starbases that would allow you to place objects as props.
So, again, Dan, thank you very very much!
(no worries about the length of time; I'm a very patient person and will wait as long as it takes)
While I don't expect to see my T5 missions flooded with TOS connies I do have to wonder what this supposed impass is on allowing players to play as these ships.
But this was suggested in the "Crew System" I originally authored so YaY!
Q: Killer8472 With the addition of the TOS interior and the TOS dressed crew, does this open up the possibility of allowing us to customize the uniforms of NPC's in other interiors?
A: Yes, it is a step towards that. It is on our 2012 goal list to allow players to select a "ship crew" uniform that crewmen on your ship interiors will wear.
Before anyone lays claim to this answer as the 'final nail in the coffin', I interpret this to mean that CBS has side-stepped this concept for now. Taking pressure off of Cryptic. And that's fine. BUT. This doesn't mean that it can't / won't be taken up again in the future.
This may be an insane idea but hear me out...
Why not reduce the amount every given skill adds to it's specific weapon type (reduce Phaser Specialization effectiveness) by splitting it into various degrees:
Have beam weapons and cannon weapons as separate skills. Then at the next level instead of having Disruptor and Phaser as separate skills, let us pick from a drop down menu.
So at Commander instead of Specializing in Disruptors or Phasers we specialize in TRIBBLE Beam or TRIBBLE Cannon. The TRIBBLE is represented by a drop-down menu. From that menu you select "Phaser Beam Array, Disruptor Beam Array, Polaron Beam Array, etc" Then below that a drop-down for "Phaser Cannon, Polaron Cannon, etc".
Do the same with Mines/Torpedos as well. This way at Commander if I want to start specializing in Transphasic Torpedo and Tetryon Beam Arrays I can.
As the ranks progress add more advanced forms such as Phaser Beam Array Marksmanship, Phaser Beam Array Tactical Efficiency, etc etc just different names for improving the skills. Make the power split so that by VA if you've maxed your Phaser Skills all along you're maybe a little more powerful than maxing Phasers are now.
This would encourage a lot more variety especially early on. Also it would actually add value to random Mk 4 Tetryon cannons and Mk 4 Polaron Beam Arrays, etc.
Could we see future Borg more like "One" from the Voyager episode with Seven's nanites assimilating the Doctor's emitter?
I'm pretty sure you totally mis-understood that question, unless you're saying that there's a Duty Officer that adds 20,000 HP to a Nova and several console and weapon slots so I can play it solo at high levels...
Why can't we just spend materials and goto Utopia Planetia and upgrade a ship from a previous level? Give us a schematic that we can earn "Retrofit Schematic" over the course of a week or two like the Shuttle Schematic. We can choose Retrofit Sci, Cruiser, Escort. Then we fly the ship we want upgraded to U.P. and click on the dockmaster, he gives our ship off to the system and maybe a day or two later we have a Nova equal to the other sci ships of the rank we were at when we took the Nova in...
A VA drives an old Nova to U.P. hands over the Retrofit Request/Requisition thing from a mission reward. The Dock guy charges us a buncha samples and maybe even some of those components for repairing the ship (since us "Normal" PvE folks have tons stacked up) and a buncha EC and Merit payment. BAM a week or less later he mails us and we "take a shuttle" over and pick up our "New" ship...
Hologram BOFFs are already in game...great 500 day vet reward...just sayin...especially if packed with an extra boff space...
Think more in terms of "Your planet has resources the empire needs"... so for example Kras (TOS: Friday's Child) would be a high ranking member of this organization.
Or as another example - "aid the planet" missions become "aid the empire" missions.
That is the direction we want to take it in...
Been asking for the 3D map myself so I'm glad to see that it got answered and is on the road map (ha ha).
Hmm, I wonder why? CBS doesn't want to put an end to the Enterprise-E yet maybe? But then how is the Enterprise-F going to come about if the E is still in service?
Also wondering about this one. Being a squad leader gives your ship more stats?
While I'm not an expert on all the minutia of this system, the answer is yes. HP, Shields, and Ship Items will scale to the appropriate level tables for those items to help bring them in line with the ship leader. The one thing you don't get using this method is the extra boff slots and weapon slots. So Squad Leading to another player's level does adjust your ship's abilites to the leader's level.
This feature was intended to let low level friends team with higher level friends and vice versa, but it does work even if you are similar level.
Ooh.. Any plans for a mission such as 'Sherman's Planet'? i.e. where Klingons and the Federation a vying to get the planet, and it's resources, on their side?
I've love to see the FDC versus the Klingon Empire 'Kras' organization go at each other.
I just had assumed I had to be lower level to do this.
Looking forward to putting more of my BOs (like my Gorn) in a Starfleet uniform.
Love the idea of a Ferengi ship for Latinum. (I would also like a Ferengi wardrobe for Latinum and maybe mercenaries and energy whips for Latinum too.)
I hope one Klingon system you look into is the option to be a Klingon Lawyer like Worf's grandfather. I'd like the robes and gavel of a judge. I'd like missions where we gather evidence and argue cases. Personally, this is what I have in mind for a counterpart to Diplomacy, all the way up to getting Federation prisoners put on work detail under my Klingon, picked up at Rura Penthe.
After all, in order to HAVE honor, we must sometimes determine WHAT honor is. That requires advocates and judges who will speak their mind and stake their own lives, blood, and honor on the truth of their words. Qapla'!
Another pain is in the Foundry; I have seen very good stories ruined by the mechanics that allow NPCs to fire through walls, and strange anomolies that cause the combat to glitch (too many to identify).
Finally, it would be nice to be able to rejuvinate BOUND items so they can be sold on the market (of course, a small cost would be entailed), but that is better than wasting an item in recycle that can be given to someone else.
We are working on the ability to map away team member controls and powers to your power tray which will help with this somewhat in that (at least in the new aim/target mode) you can point at something and issue commands.
I'd imagine that's pretty important if we don't have a mouse cursor in the new aim and look mode.
(What I'm envisioning is a lot like DCU Online and there you don't get a mouse cursor except on special menu screens, since your mouse defaults to controlling the camera and aiming the rest of the time and the first two items in your power tray become Mouse L and Mouse R.)
I think something like that would awesome paired with a Refit Excalibur/Vesper. I really love the Excalibur and hate not having an option for it at endgame.
http://www.startrekonline.com/node/2424
My highlights are:
This makes me pretty happy, just my opinion. Further elaboration was good:
I'd be all for Crafting of ships to +1 or 2 Tiers, hope it comes
Probably my favorite thing to hear. It make me hopeful for STO in the future, it would give me a really fun reason to play!
What are your thoughts on this newest Ask Cryptic? Good, bad?
Someone asks it there will be a Borg re-vamp similar to the Romulans and the answer is yes and very soon in big ways.... So newer, meaner, better looking Borg coming very soon?
The next question ask if we will see an STF like "Into The Hive" to complete the Borg storyline and the answer is again yes, apparently the "new" Borg queen will appear very soon after season 4 releases.
The next hint is in response to the Undine and we can expect to see more about them after The Borg make their move, before the FE's for season 4.
And the big question is whether there will be a Gorn rebellion, and the answer is a very cryptic "depends on whether their homeworld gets assimilated".
All in all I would say something big is about to happen and it's going to set the stage for a whole new direction in STO. I'm very excited, but I just hope it's easier to handle than the existing STF missions.
R.
I IZ SCARED!!
Why does it take 7+ months to add a ship to the game?
What does this mean for ships like the New Orleans that aren't even on the radar yet? 2013? Never?
Why can't Cryptic follow the star trek is route and hire Mike Okuda or Doug drexler?