Due to the confusion both on the forums and in-game regarding when stipends are awarded to accounts:
I'd love to see
the date when the stipend should appear credited as well as
a timestamp for the last time a stipend was credited to a player account appear in:
- In-game C-Store Window
- The "My Account" page
- possibility of adding it to the launcher, just to be safe.
For example:
Open up the C-store and see:
- Next Stipend Awarded: Sunday, 22 January 2012
- Last Stipend Awarded: Thursday, 22 December, 2012
This would alleviate consumer issues and solve most of the burden on Cryptic/PWE's support staff regarding this issue.
Reasons this is a good idea:
- Increases consumer satisfaction
- Increases c-store visibility to the consumer
- Builds customer loyalty
- Encourage customers to browse longer
- Alleviates support staff burden for responding to these issues
- Alleviates community team's burden having to monitor yet-another-thread-on-this-issue
Anyone else agree?
Comments
Agreed 100%.
Also nice for those who want to plan purchases accordingly.
Maybe players who know when their account will receive a stipend will be more likely to purchase other items too? It gets players into the store more regularly.
It'd build customer loyalty, encourage them to browse longer, increases c-store visibility, etc.
Tell the beancounters this and watch their eyes glaze as visions of latinum dance in their heads.
Yes please!
So yes i agree
well the thing i hate is i use to be a software developer prior to the current economy. the thing i hate is that i keep seeing all sorts of issues like this and what appear to me to be shoddy testing or development techniques. almost as if they are not logically working out the steps or processes that should be there.
If that makes sense.
*************Edit****************************
PS Darrin i have never thanked you for the "What the developers are working on thread you been running for the last year and half, maybe more. it is one ofthe first things i check when i log in here and i really do appreciate it.
So thank you
I now return this thread to its rightful track
OK, that's cool that you are a pro in this space and know that deal, I personally do not. I am a SOE dev.
What would you have them stop working on to implement such changes?
Ok take your sarcasim ad go somewhere else with it. I am not asking them to implement any changes. I said that i have seen bugs show up that where the obvious problem of inadiquate testing. I have seen things (like the above suggestion) that should have been part of the initial build.
I have built software with simular functionality in the past for businesses and that functionality would be and natural expectation. something to tell the use the last time x happened or the next time x will need to be done or both.
An example.
I worked for Catapillar for a number of years in their Business Integration Unit. Our job was developing software for their dealerships. Specifically the delership personel who worked on site at the major mining operations handling the maintenance of said vehicles. I developed soiftware that allowed these individuals to handle their parts order, Maintenace schedulaing and warranty work via internet instead of them having to call the dealership office.
Again its nice for the maintenace guy to be able when he pulls up the information on a machine to have displayed on the entry page any requiered mainance that is due or coming due. so that he can handle that at the same time he is dealing with what ever problem he is about to fix.
Why? because the owners lose a million dollars an hour that machine is down. So if he is going to have to take it down to replace a hydrolic pump maybe he should go ahead and do the oil change while he is at it. or replace the filters in the hydrolic system. that way the customer loses as little time, energy and resources as possible.
Wouldnt the same be said for you and I in here. the goal is for this company to make money. would it behoove them to give us the ability to plan our expenditures so that we will be more inticed to spend that money when it will do us the most good. and would it not also make mer more likey to actually spend a little more if i know i got a stripend coming on a certain day?
Would the comapnies accountaints like it better if you and I where to spend our money on a regular timely bases?
I think the answers to those questions is yes.
/signed
I wan't being sarcastic, I was asking a question.
It is a shame that you were so quick to be defensive, I genuinely wanted to know how you would prioritise things.
It's just a misunderstanding. There are a lot of people here who will jump to insult you if you "claim any sort of experience with programming or the sort."
Cheers mate, I noticed that myself and that is why I mentioned that I was in SOE but don't know that general space myself.
I do appologize. I took your statment as a sarcastic note since you did say you where a developer for SOE. And as RSW pointed out people in here do get nasty sometimes.
But he and you are correct. it was a missunderstanding on my part. and Yes i did get defensive. Again i apologize
Darn, I just realised when you said "for SOE", I didn't mean Sony, I meant I am a SOE dev:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Operating_Environment
I feel somewhat a dope. A mistake on both parts it would seem.
Still I would like to know how you would prioritise? From what I see it is a small team at the moment and I would love new features like the one the OP suggested, I just don't know what I personally would cut.
The problem with answering that question is we really don't know what they are working on. They're really not very clear about anything right now. All the focus has been preparing for free-to-play. And they say things that never, ever get done. (See what I did there? ;-) So it's just an impossible question to answer.
I totally agree, they went from what was saying too much (too early) to being quite quiet.
I would do less on new ships (if they even are working on some) as the new F2P players will have all the current ones to play around with. (Midway through typing this sentence I realised that I want all of the team working on the Ent-F, I am so conflicted)
We just need the folk at Cryptic to have a massive team of creative peeps. Where is Q when you need him?
Seems lots of people want the Enterprise-F.
Me? I'm happy with my ship. What I really want from this team is for them to start adding some substance to this game that goes beyond just combat. (And sure, I get it's an MMO and even ST but just combat is what my problem is with STO.) I joking call STO "Stargate Universe Online" and then have to remind myself that perhaps that's a bit too much credit.
See its not so much prioritization. Its more of thinking through the logic the first time.
Right now if we want the above funcionality yes you will have to pull someone from something else to get this functionality in to the system. However, if the Developer had thought the process out and had actually put this little piece of inforamtion in then there would be no reprioritization at this point and we wouldnt even be talking about it.
Im sure this information is tracked. Im sure there are even database scripts that they run once a month to see who fast people are spending stripend points. that will give the owners the ability to make predictions as to the spending habits of gold level players based only on the stripend. and they will also be able to see if there is an actual increase in purchases since players have stripends. but im moving off topic.
The thing is the other day i went into the costume modification screen. I was going to modify one of my characters Off Duty outfits. well the wierest thing happened. the modification window popped up and low and behold she was not wearing her dress anymore but a Chartruse and Silver Starfleet uniform. i freaked out a moment and backed out ot the screen noy wanting he to lose her dress. as i started playing with it i realized there was in the upper right hand corner a drop down box that allowed you to make selections as to the type of uniform you want this to be.
If i had programmed this section when i sent the query call to the database to get the costume information i would have gotten something that told me it was an off duty uniform. I would then have set the drop down from the default uniform selection to off duty selection. this way the character would ahve shown up in her correct off duty outfit.
SO what kind of problem is this? its a couple of problems.
the first is the developer should have realized that since all uniform slots are now dual duty for uniforms and off duty that anytime someone modifies a uniform we will need to find out what kind of out fit they are modifying and set it to that type. not to the default of uniform. this way IF the player wants to turn it into a uniform he can do that when he is ready. if not he wont have a slight heart attack like i did LOL
To me that is the developer not thinking his processes out.
the second problem isin testing. and im not talking player testing. who ever tested this (whether it was the developer or an actual tester) tested it most likely with a slot with a uniform in it. hence when he hit modify he got his uniform and was able to modify it as he wished. If he had done this with a Off Duty uniform and got the Antaries 1 like i did he would have seen the problem (i hope 8P ). once the problem was seen it should have been rerouted back to the developer to correct it.
This is something the player base should never have ever seen. Is it a problem yes. is it a huge problem no. Could it have been avoided absolutly.
Now in the future if we want to fix this problem we will ahve to divert resources from something else, Like the ambassidor or constellation class, in order to correct this very minor problem that shouldnt have been in the build to begin with.
i hope that makes sense
and as a side not please forgive any misspellings. it wasalways my worst subject in school. I have always been much better with numbers than letters. hence the reason i spent so much time as a software developer.
Funny you say that i sometimes refer to it as Terran Empire on line.
To quote Kirk
"We will level your planet and take what we want."
because that is relly how it feels sometimes more that than Federation
Agreed. Same goes for the foundry. If they had used common sense, they would have built that into the very core of their product. As a result, devs and players would use the same foundry (the devs with greater access controls and functionality) and you'd never see a content drought and the foundry would never fall behind in maps, objects, functionality, etc.
Hey! I ~liked~ 'Stargate Universe'! On that note, 'Common Descent' should have been the last pair of episodes.
I have seen you post a bunch on here. I am actually quite envious about how well thought out and descriptive you are, I have trouble putting my junk into words sometimes.
thanks. but when i get typing its like my fingers are trying lik crazy to catch up with my mind. throw on top of that they have given me this god cursed ergonomic keyboard. Sometimes i believe god has a low and evil sense of humor
On a side note i noticed your austrailian. you know i work for an austrailian company here in the US.
That said, I still hope the idea in the OP goes through.
It'd save everyone a headache and might help Cryptic make money. Seems like a win-win, if you ask me?
On an interesting point there I suspect most of us want the Enterprise F to appear, but to all of us want to play an Odyssey class. I for example loved that Cardassian front episode where the USS Defiant came in to assist in the defence of Deep Space Nine.