This is the most frustrating thing (well, one of the most). What is the point of having more than one ship when every time you switch ships, the entire hotbar is totally in disarray? Is it that hard to make these separate for each ship? It takes about 30 minutes to change my layout each time. Has someone found a work-around for this? Any files we can alter in the game's folder?
No. (modifying client files, or even discussing such a mod if one existed, would be a violation of the Terms of Service.)
I don't think altering a file in such a way that has no effect on the actual game would violate anything. If it does, it is a bad reflection on the developers.
I don't think altering a file in such a way that has no effect on the actual game would violate anything. If it does, it is a bad reflection on the developers.
What's worse is being in a 'scramble' situation launching your other ship immediately for a time-sensitive task, not having the time to reconfigure properly and reprogramming the entire 'console' en route, or even more epic, in battle.
You need the reflexes of Japanese anime heros to manage that while phasers are searing and quantum torpedoes are detonating everywhere
Gundam 00 has an episode with this 'reprogramming amid combat situation' scenario. Hilarious.
Realistically, though, if all that is altered is the user interface and not the communication with the client, there's no way that the change would be perceptible to either other players or PW.
I'm new to this game - played WoW for a while. WoW, like STO, has a terrible base UI, but one of WoW's enduring strengths (even when so much else is wrong with that game) is that the UI is customizable, which lets players improve the "drawing-board" UI in light of their experience and better understanding of what works in actual gameplay.
Auctionator is a really good example of this. STO's auction interface - like WoW's - is pretty bad, but unlike WoW, it's not moddable. The limitations of the auction UI create major obstacles to free market forces, because the participants cannot easily participate in an informed and time-efficient manner.
STO used to be sub-based; the management changed their mind and now it's F2P. Perhaps the management will wisen up and allow players to mod the UI.
As I said, nothing in these links forbids the mentioning or even the actions of what I propose. This has nothing to do with reverse-engineering, hacking, or any other of those fancy terms. If I can figure out how to do it, I will.
The game is poorly programmed. This is evident by the hundreds of bugs even long after its introduction. As I have mentioned before, the fact that the most obvious things like the ship's pitch controls being backwards and has never been corrected is evidence of this. These control templates should have been made separate from Day 1. Has anyone ever played another MMO which had different characters and found each not to use its own hotbar setup? Not to mention having to reset all your key bindings when creating a new character; these should be a global set. So we have a global set of key mappings when it should be separate and a separate mapping when it should be global. Does this make sense? And these things are so easy to change. The pitch controls error would take 30 seconds, tops.
Why would anyone buy a ship slot when it's so difficult to switch between them and you get two slots per rank anyway? It would seem to me that by fixing this obviously hated condition, that the incentive to have more ships would be greater.
How about the fact that buttons continuously popup in one area of the screen then suddenly disappear and popup completely on the opposite side, causing you to click the wrong button because where you wanted to click has been replaced by a different option?
How about the mission log that gives you no indication of where to go in a mission, so after a long time of frustration, you notice the tracker on the right gives you the hint? But in other missions, the tracker tells you nothing and you have to search the mission log.
How about item stats that display incorrectly on your ship while docked so you have to go into space to check them?
How about the fact that items in the store are misrepresented about their true stats, which you don't find out until you buy them?
I could go on and on, but my point is, I'd like to keep playing the game but it gets harder and harder with each bug I find. It might lessen the frustration a bit if some of these simple issues would be addressed. I know they had limitations with the game engine and had to put the silly movement limitation on the ships, but these other things are not engine limitations. They are just plain and simple programming errors.
9. License
(d) modifying, adapting, altering, enhancing, or otherwise making any derivative uses of any Games, game content or other Proprietary Materials, or any portion thereof
9. License
(d) modifying, adapting, altering, enhancing, or otherwise making any derivative uses of any Games, game content or other Proprietary Materials, or any portion thereof
"derivative uses"
There would be no money-making in this and it's not modifying code in any manner that gives anyone an advantage in game play.
Forget changing ships, try changing characters without completely closing the game. Also, for some reason, my ship hotbar will randomly change from mission to mission without logging out or doing anything. I went into a fight with the Breen last night and my hotbar was completely rearranged. Attack Pattern Omega III? Nope. That button is now Abandon Ship...
There would be no money-making in this and it's not modifying code in any manner that gives anyone an advantage in game play.
That's not what derivative uses means.
Doesn't matter if it's money making or giving anyone an unfair advantage. Strictly speaking, if you modify game files in any way, for any reason, you are violating the TOS. I don't know if it's actually happened but I have heard people have been banned from the forums for posting screenshots which happened to show some "customization" people did to their UI/layouts by modifying game files.
In the context used, "derivative" seems to imply making money and that is one definition of the word.
Regardless, any thinking person or company would realize that such a thing has no detrimental effect on the product. I am just posting these things in order to try and get a better game. Cryptic and Perfect World may do as they wish and not change a single thing but this game is on a steep slope downhill and will crash in its standard state. I've played a lot of closed betas that had fewer bugs than this game, already passing its second year since release. Many of the things I talk about are so simple that they could be corrected in minutes, but nobody seems to care. I never see anything here from the actual developers. Do they even care what people think? I'm beginning to think "No". All I get as responses to my queries is from players who steadfastly defend the game's errors, as in the reversed pitch controls, telling me I can "fix" it by entering my control keys backwards.
I will likely continue to play, at least for a little while, until I get so bored with it. Aside from the annoying bugs, the entire system need an overhaul. I'd suggest it be fixed and wiping of all the data. The entire leveling structure is hideous and the ranking as well. "Rear Admiral Lower"? Leveling is far too quick in the game. This means that you don't have a chance to become attached to a ship because you'll get a new free one in another four hours or so. So just delete your old one because it's too damn hard to switch between them. And having an Ensign for one level and switching to Lieutenant? It's silly. I would have made the first rank as "Pilot" and able to operate only fighter craft, but let us fly in combat situations faster than what feels like 20 mph. Make it so some skill is required to hit the enemy and be able to actually dodge fire. After spending ten levels as pilot, then you go into larger ships, and so on, but not advancing an entire level after each mission. This I did up to about level 24, after which it took two missions to level. I hate MMO grinds, but this is just too fast. I think it'd be great if someone made a spaceship game where tactical combat required you to aim weapons via a 3rd person reticule, much like in World of Tanks. Can I mention that here or is that against the ToS as well?
I also hate the period of adjustment between switching ships.
I lost some skills I liked, no idea how to get them back. They dont show up in the master list
It should automatically put the same officers in the same stations, and the same skills in the same spots
The Sheliak wrote the terms of service - I happen to know that the word they would use in that context to mean "for money" is "consideration". "Derivative" simply means "taking the software and changing it into something other than its original form".
I completely agree with you that it's a stupid, self-defeating and largely unenforceable policy that should be changed. But the policy most definitely is what it is, for profit or no.
My hotbar is always locked. That doesn't do anything to prevent it.
The worst thing is that not only does it change, but it defaults to the most insane of settings. When I switched to my Vulcan shuttle which has only two fore weapons, it put the weapons on keys 3 and 6. It doesn't even attempt a logical layout.
I don't disagree with what you say, just stating that this is what their policy is, for better or worse, and you put yourself at risk by intentionally breaking it- whether it ends up harming others or not. The ToS clearly states that modding of any kind is strictly prohibited, and in the past devs and forum mods have not been kind to those who let it slip that they have modded their game files.
I don't disagree with what you say, just stating that this is what their policy is, for better or worse, and you put yourself at risk by intentionally breaking it- whether it ends up harming others or not. The ToS clearly states that modding of any kind is strictly prohibited, and in the past devs and forum mods have not been kind to those who let it slip that they have modded their game files.
Well actually, I am thinking more along the lines of saving some file and switching it outside the game in order to save the settings, which is not modifying files in any way.
Comments
You need the reflexes of Japanese anime heros to manage that while phasers are searing and quantum torpedoes are detonating everywhere
Gundam 00 has an episode with this 'reprogramming amid combat situation' scenario. Hilarious.
No denying it's against ToS.
Realistically, though, if all that is altered is the user interface and not the communication with the client, there's no way that the change would be perceptible to either other players or PW.
I'm new to this game - played WoW for a while. WoW, like STO, has a terrible base UI, but one of WoW's enduring strengths (even when so much else is wrong with that game) is that the UI is customizable, which lets players improve the "drawing-board" UI in light of their experience and better understanding of what works in actual gameplay.
Auctionator is a really good example of this. STO's auction interface - like WoW's - is pretty bad, but unlike WoW, it's not moddable. The limitations of the auction UI create major obstacles to free market forces, because the participants cannot easily participate in an informed and time-efficient manner.
STO used to be sub-based; the management changed their mind and now it's F2P. Perhaps the management will wisen up and allow players to mod the UI.
The game is poorly programmed. This is evident by the hundreds of bugs even long after its introduction. As I have mentioned before, the fact that the most obvious things like the ship's pitch controls being backwards and has never been corrected is evidence of this. These control templates should have been made separate from Day 1. Has anyone ever played another MMO which had different characters and found each not to use its own hotbar setup? Not to mention having to reset all your key bindings when creating a new character; these should be a global set. So we have a global set of key mappings when it should be separate and a separate mapping when it should be global. Does this make sense? And these things are so easy to change. The pitch controls error would take 30 seconds, tops.
Why would anyone buy a ship slot when it's so difficult to switch between them and you get two slots per rank anyway? It would seem to me that by fixing this obviously hated condition, that the incentive to have more ships would be greater.
How about the fact that buttons continuously popup in one area of the screen then suddenly disappear and popup completely on the opposite side, causing you to click the wrong button because where you wanted to click has been replaced by a different option?
How about the mission log that gives you no indication of where to go in a mission, so after a long time of frustration, you notice the tracker on the right gives you the hint? But in other missions, the tracker tells you nothing and you have to search the mission log.
How about item stats that display incorrectly on your ship while docked so you have to go into space to check them?
How about the fact that items in the store are misrepresented about their true stats, which you don't find out until you buy them?
I could go on and on, but my point is, I'd like to keep playing the game but it gets harder and harder with each bug I find. It might lessen the frustration a bit if some of these simple issues would be addressed. I know they had limitations with the game engine and had to put the silly movement limitation on the ships, but these other things are not engine limitations. They are just plain and simple programming errors.
I now yield the soap box...
(d) modifying, adapting, altering, enhancing, or otherwise making any derivative uses of any Games, game content or other Proprietary Materials, or any portion thereof
There would be no money-making in this and it's not modifying code in any manner that gives anyone an advantage in game play.
That's not what derivative uses means.
Doesn't matter if it's money making or giving anyone an unfair advantage. Strictly speaking, if you modify game files in any way, for any reason, you are violating the TOS. I don't know if it's actually happened but I have heard people have been banned from the forums for posting screenshots which happened to show some "customization" people did to their UI/layouts by modifying game files.
Regardless, any thinking person or company would realize that such a thing has no detrimental effect on the product. I am just posting these things in order to try and get a better game. Cryptic and Perfect World may do as they wish and not change a single thing but this game is on a steep slope downhill and will crash in its standard state. I've played a lot of closed betas that had fewer bugs than this game, already passing its second year since release. Many of the things I talk about are so simple that they could be corrected in minutes, but nobody seems to care. I never see anything here from the actual developers. Do they even care what people think? I'm beginning to think "No". All I get as responses to my queries is from players who steadfastly defend the game's errors, as in the reversed pitch controls, telling me I can "fix" it by entering my control keys backwards.
I will likely continue to play, at least for a little while, until I get so bored with it. Aside from the annoying bugs, the entire system need an overhaul. I'd suggest it be fixed and wiping of all the data. The entire leveling structure is hideous and the ranking as well. "Rear Admiral Lower"? Leveling is far too quick in the game. This means that you don't have a chance to become attached to a ship because you'll get a new free one in another four hours or so. So just delete your old one because it's too damn hard to switch between them. And having an Ensign for one level and switching to Lieutenant? It's silly. I would have made the first rank as "Pilot" and able to operate only fighter craft, but let us fly in combat situations faster than what feels like 20 mph. Make it so some skill is required to hit the enemy and be able to actually dodge fire. After spending ten levels as pilot, then you go into larger ships, and so on, but not advancing an entire level after each mission. This I did up to about level 24, after which it took two missions to level. I hate MMO grinds, but this is just too fast. I think it'd be great if someone made a spaceship game where tactical combat required you to aim weapons via a 3rd person reticule, much like in World of Tanks. Can I mention that here or is that against the ToS as well?
Anyway, nice chatting with you. Game on!
I lost some skills I liked, no idea how to get them back. They dont show up in the master list
It should automatically put the same officers in the same stations, and the same skills in the same spots
I completely agree with you that it's a stupid, self-defeating and largely unenforceable policy that should be changed. But the policy most definitely is what it is, for profit or no.
My hotbar is always locked. That doesn't do anything to prevent it.
The worst thing is that not only does it change, but it defaults to the most insane of settings. When I switched to my Vulcan shuttle which has only two fore weapons, it put the weapons on keys 3 and 6. It doesn't even attempt a logical layout.
That just prevents accidental clicking and dragging.
I don't disagree with what you say, just stating that this is what their policy is, for better or worse, and you put yourself at risk by intentionally breaking it- whether it ends up harming others or not. The ToS clearly states that modding of any kind is strictly prohibited, and in the past devs and forum mods have not been kind to those who let it slip that they have modded their game files.