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Path to F2P Blog #25

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited December 2011 in Galactic News Network [PC]
In the latest entry on The Path to F2P, Stephen explains the updates to levels and graphics that are now on Tribble.


Link to the Article.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    I don't really like the "Captain 44" idea... I don't think I have ever come across someone with a problem with distinguishing the ranks.

    The downing of the levels is a good idea especially with this new rank naming.

    Oh and I'm glad to see DX11 is back... :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Hold the phone. My toon now has Captain X next to his name, rather than just Captain?! What if I as a VA just want the Captain title?!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    As a reminder, none of this is live on Holodeck at this time and is only present on the Tribble test server. We expect this build on Tribble to make its way to Holodeck sometime in the first half of January. Also, note that Cryptic will have minimal staff monitoring the forums during the week before the new year, so feedback may not be processed until the first week of January.

    minimal staff but a short deadline for feedback. how is it possible?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Sprint01 wrote:
    Hold the phone. My toon now has Captain X next to his name, rather than just Captain?! What if I as a VA just want the Captain title?!

    He's talking about the level display. Remember how it used to say Captain 4? Now it will say Captain 44. It has nothing to do with title/character display.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    I don't really like the "Captain 44" idea... I don't think I have ever come across someone with a problem with distinguishing the ranks.

    The downing of the levels is a good idea especially with this new rank naming.

    Oh and I'm glad to see DX11 is back... :)


    I don't believe there is anyone in the game that has a problem with rank and grade. Based on many of the changes for F2P (esp gaudy ESD signs) I think they're expecting people with the brain capacity of slugs to be joining STO.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    I also don't like ths simplified level showing. It was fine as it was at the rank display and would now work even better in the old style as the rank actually starts at 0 and ends at 9.

    Btw, whats up with this Ensign 0 and Commander 10. What happend to the LT ranks?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    I would rather have the rank and level seperated. Something like "Rank: level" so that a captain rank 4 would be Captain: 34.

    Matt
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Really? If people didn't understand the ranking system then they don't know trek and have no business playing a star trek game
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    I think it might read better as 38 Captain rather than Captain 38.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Oh and I'm glad to see DX11 is back... :)

    I hope this is sarcastic b/c we've only seen a million dev posts explaining that we never actually had DX11.

    I'd rather be a Captain 50 than an Admiral 50 that does the exact same things Captains do.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Prior to this change, we started counting at 1, and since each rank contains 10 grades, we'd rank up at level 2, 11, 21, 31, 41, 46 and 51. Now we start the game at level 0 and rank up at level 1, 10, 20, 30, 40, 45 and 50.

    People like even numbers. It's a psychological thing.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    I'm wondering if the new graphics changes will help stop the crash to desktop I keep having when attempting Borg ground missions, ie Khitomer, Cure, Deferi etc. If this does, then hurry up with the transfer to holodeck.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    This post has been edited to remove content which violates the Cryptic Studios Community Rules and Policies. ~Q
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    DirectX 11 support sounds fun, but is there any chance that actual DirectX 10/11 features and improvements could be implemented in STO? Things like Tesselation?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Before i .. ok will look here it is..

    We all know were on the road to somewhere..

    But the time to road opens changes.. or goes on too long.. its not as fun.

    So you make with the fun
    We'll enjoy it

    and we all wIN.

    cAse in point.. Level caps or Glass ceilings should go away
    and be accomplished to improve gaming excitement and grant new paradigms of game areas ie maps

    To accomplish this Cryptic should add to existing areas or Sectores such as the under utilized Pella Undine area.

    Deep Space
    These areas should be for the Undiscovered Counties and more persistant First Contacts.

    Diplomacy

    Diplomatic assemblies and meetign sites such as Babel have been in hard cannon and soft alike and provide for positive rewarding non-combat and combat security Short long deployment options.

    Organian type Missions were factions compete for favours of locals fortrade could spawn nice mini FE's?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    I would prefer some sort of boundary characters around the level, perhaps "Vice Admiral (50)" or "Captain [L30]" to distinguish between the rank and level a bit more.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    I think the level changes were a good idea.

    I'm sad that this didn't involve a change in the UI that would allow us to choose our form of address in dialogues. Not everyone cares to be considered an "Admiral" by NPCs.

    I still think the Rear Admiral "Upper Half" and "Lower Half" distinction is silly, though. I would not have kept it.

    DirectX 11 support seems a good thing for the game.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Alexraptor wrote: »
    DirectX 11 support sounds fun, but is there any chance that actual DirectX 10/11 features and improvements could be implemented in STO? Things like Tesselation?

    the improvements are actually implemented or else you wouldn't see a performance increase... like on so many console ports.

    But yes the most interesting DX11 feature is tessellation, and it would be quite awesome for the ships, now that we have higher resolution textures a more detailed models also would be nice... but I guess thats more a problem for captain logan cause he would have to update all ship models... again. :p
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    GenEricII wrote:

    I don't believe there is anyone in the game that has a problem with rank and grade. Based on many of the changes for F2P (esp gaudy ESD signs) I think they're expecting people with the brain capacity of slugs to be joining STO.

    lol yeah I am afraid you are right.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    While making this change, we also put in a one level shift down in the display value. Characters now level from “Ensign 0” to “Vice Admiral 50”. The reason we made this shift was so that characters rank up on the levels divisible by 10. For example, a Starfleet officer achieves Lt Commander at level 10, Commander at level 20, Captain at level 30, Rear Admiral at level 40, and Vice Admiral at level 50. We believe that this will feel more natural to players, and it made sense to make this shift at the same time that we were changing to display the actual level.

    This is a great change and will help clarify why "Commander 0" doesn't actually award a promotion as one might expect. I support this update. However, as others suggested, it might be better to decouple the ranking system altogether. At the very least display it as something closer to:

    Level 36 (Rank: Commander)

    If time and development permit, it would be nice to set your "Rank" separate from your actual level (i.e. allow me to show "Level 50 (Captain)" to other players, and not just "Level 50 (Vice Admiral)" when I'm wearing captain pips)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    The Basic change in ranking is at the stage a
    Veteran of the system was used to seeing a Free Enterprise E.
    or Sovey class.. an iconic long term cannon old friend and generally nice ship..
    All DEPT Heads BOFFS were Lt Commander or better..
    Now you really don't have a RAUH ship unless you buy a RALH ship and spend 120k Dth for it.
    We have many varieties of good 1 Star ships from C store or normal Gold account means so its fairly balanced for Engineers. in this Classification.

    Primary Focus on ships class relate to your career path in giving a ship a class advantage of power slots
    so its a case of Ranks changing for Commanding officer ..

    Im a fan of the First Trek Movie its use of the Enterprise and Making Captain Spock the only Captain as that Traditional Protocol as he was senior and the Admiral had Tactical Command of the Ship.

    Here as a Vice Admiral our EXEC or First officer should be a Captain
    Thus as a Senior Ship in an Open Fleet management and not a traditional formal military assignment.. we should get a compromise Extra BOFF power Slot for Topping out.

    What would you think about a Universal Captains slot or added Commanders BOFF Slot on Senior ships?
    Customizing to bring the skills of the BOFF with you to any ship now brings a well trained and groomed BOFF to not haveing a slot. .fitting their rank Grade Rating..
    Perhaps we could discuss a Fleet Command ship role in PVE Fleet actions gving out bonus rewards for longevity?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    This is a great change and will help clarify why "Commander 0" doesn't actually award a promotion as one might expect. I support this update. However, as others suggested, it might be better to decouple the ranking system altogether. At the very least display it as something closer to:

    Level 36 (Rank: Commander)

    If time and development permit, it would be nice to set your "Rank" separate from your actual level (i.e. allow me to show "Level 50 (Captain)" to other players, and not just "Level 50 (Vice Admiral)" when I'm wearing captain pips)

    THIS!!!!!!! Sick of Starfleet being top heavy with Admirals acting like Captains.

    I'm not an RP'er but for a sense of trekness (couldn't think of a better word). There's never been show where we have the main leader as an Admiral, always Captains.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Something that has always irked me is the fact that its my ship, but in order to maximise my powers i have to promote each of my boffs to full commanders.. Why cant their skills be separate from their rank, so i can have my Lt Worfs, or Lt Cmdr Datas or La Forge.. I want a chain of command not a ship of commanders.. I want to save that for my first officer/exec... And then promote them based on commendation and hard work.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Why? Why is there this dumbing down of aspects of this game? Signs on Qonos no longer display the Klingon language, the cartoonish and might I add childish looking icons on ESD, and now this. I can just imagine what is next. Do people who play this game need so much hand-holding? I say NO! :mad:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    My vote would be for:

    Level 34 "Captain"
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    If time and development permit, it would be nice to set your "Rank" separate from your actual level (i.e. allow me to show "Level 50 (Captain)" to other players, and not just "Level 50 (Vice Admiral)" when I'm wearing captain pips)

    Well, in fact if we change this around why are we not all "demoted" to Lvl 50 Captains. In the end we should not have admirals and if the system is changed it should be also move back to the ranks from Engsign to Captain:

    Ensgin 0 - 9
    Lt 10 - 19
    Lt. Commander 20 - 29
    Commander 30 - 39
    Captain 40 - 50

    I am also suprised about the statment that the rank system was confusing. After all, are we sure that the next generation of players really knos that 42 is higher than 38?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Actually, now i've starting thinking about it further..


    As Kobayashi Maru stated there are too many admirals. I really think they need to push down the ranks.

    At the end of the day, the levels are separate from the ranks. I dont really care what my rank is as long as i "level up" and get to use more of my skills and get a better ship. There is no reason a low ranking officer cant be in charge of a smaller ship (it happens in real life that a Lt Cmdr will be in charge of a small ship) and the game does this anyway by having "ooo we need lots of new captains so we will throw a load of ensigns out into space to command a ship".

    They also slipped up by not using the Lieutenant junior grade.

    They should keep the Levels the same but instead of ranking up at a certain level you rank up much later, which means you would still get your shiny new ship, but you wont be a captain until you reach near end game - you still get your T5 as a captain and everyone playing the game is CAPTAIN of their own ship but you just dont "rank up" but you stil level up to 50.

    You still get your T2 at level 11 but you dont necessarily need to be Lt Cmdr, but maybe only Lt

    Okay so its not as much as an achievement when you dont suddenly jump a rank but you are still leveling up
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Starfish1 wrote:
    I think it might read better as 38 Captain rather than Captain 38.


    No Cryptic couldn't possibly do that. it would add too much confusion; "Do I have a captain who is level 38 or do I have 38 captains? This is just too hard!"

    Next UI update: The ground skillbar gets less confusing with only 3 buttons... Shoot! Block Heal
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    wulfman wrote: »
    Ensgin 0 - 9
    Lt 10 - 19
    Lt. Commander 20 - 29
    Commander 30 - 39
    Captain 40 - 50

    ^ THIS

    SO MUCH THIS!

    Nobody wants to be Admiral,
    actual ingame FLEET LEADERS. deserve an Admiral TITLE, for roleplay reasons. But thats about it.



    and to be fair, the Federation ranks are not confusing anybody, but the Klingon ones always seemed a bit strange to me... brigadier general, commander general... :confused:


    *****


    DX11 still has the Beta Tag,

    i ran into multiple smaller errors and a few big ones yesterday afternoon

    - black stuff in faces ( _1_ _2_ )
    - some textures / shaders that pop up in the center of the map _1_ _2_
    - Fish Tank glass Shader Effect is in the middle of my bridge instead of the ready room PIC )
    - Earth has lost half its textures if you fly over it, but they flicker through when i make a screenshot ( _1_ _flicker_ )
    - Sirius Sector Block has flickering space background textures...
    - ALT TAB does not hide the game, but turns it into some weird window mode, that is *always on top* and if i want to maximize it again it switches to an odd washed out resolution, so i have to go to actual windowed mode and back to fullscreen,
    - the dropdown for the resolutions acts weird now and has stupid entries with things like 30Hz ( PIC )... who the hell has a 30Hz TFT?
    but the Refresh Rate is actually one drop down below the resolution, so it does not even belong in there...


    imho that "Beta"-Tag... is very appropriate ^^

    ... btw.: GTX460
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Q4s4R wrote: »
    minimal staff but a short deadline for feedback. how is it possible?

    hate to say it, but this, is not a first, I've seen changes hit tribble and with less than a full day of reaction, they hit holodeck. The Sinking eye incident was one of them, This is just another case of it, me thinks.
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