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STOked Interviews dStahl

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited March 2012 in Galactic News Network [PC]
In this week's episode of STOked, Chris sits down to talk with Executive Producer Dan Stahl.


Link to the news article.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Nice episode, but it sucks that we may not get KDF content for a whole nother year. Just create a bunch of "front" missions for season 6 and make 20% of them for the KDF. Not much harm there.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Nice episode, but it sucks that we may not get KDF content for a whole nother year.

    They said that last year. And the year before. A pattern has emerged.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Sooooooo

    - A lot of people are at lvl cap
    - More content is needed, especially for these players
    - The current lvling rate isn't a major concern, but they are still looking to strike a balance, or possibly raising the cap. Everything is still in discussion and nothing should be construed as going to happen
    - The Neverwinter Project might be able to help STO out in terms of updating PvP maps and getting them out quickly. Nothing for sure though.
    - The Dan Man is so awesome he was helping STO while helping Neverwinter with foundry stuff.
    - An update to Foundry where you can group episodes, and the ability to subscribe to authors is something he'd like to see.
    - Making the Foundry more user friendly in general.
    - KDF content is iffy, due to production costs versus actual amount of people playing it they're still working on finding a balance for this as well, but more KDF content could come sooner or later. No firms dates for anything.
    - Engineering report coming out this month
    - Nothing firm on Season 6 till April, they want to make sure everything's going to work right and will be delivered on time. This could POSSIBLY lead to it being delayed a little past June but nothing is certain yet.



    All awesome, great episode!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Sooooooo

    - A lot of people are at lvl cap
    - More content is needed, especially for these players
    - The current lvling rate isn't a major concern, but they are still looking to strike a balance, or possibly raising the cap. Everything is still in discussion and nothing should be construed as going to happen
    - The Neverwinter Project might be able to help STO out in terms of updating PvP maps and getting them out quickly. Nothing for sure though.
    - The Dan Man is so awesome he was helping STO while helping Neverwinter with foundry stuff.
    - An update to Foundry where you can group episodes, and the ability to subscribe to authors is something he'd like to see.
    - Making the Foundry more user friendly in general.
    - KDF content is iffy, due to production costs versus actual amount of people playing it they're still working on finding a balance for this as well, but more KDF content could come sooner or later. No firms dates for anything.
    - Engineering report coming out this month
    - Nothing firm on Season 6 till April, they want to make sure everything's going to work right and will be delivered on time. This could POSSIBLY lead to it being delayed a little past June but nothing is certain yet.



    All awesome, great episode!

    Thanks for the summary.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Sooooooo

    - A lot of people are at lvl cap
    - More content is needed, especially for these players
    - The current lvling rate isn't a major concern, but they are still looking to strike a balance, or possibly raising the cap. Everything is still in discussion and nothing should be construed as going to happen
    - The Neverwinter Project might be able to help STO out in terms of updating PvP maps and getting them out quickly. Nothing for sure though.
    - The Dan Man is so awesome he was helping STO while helping Neverwinter with foundry stuff.
    - An update to Foundry where you can group episodes, and the ability to subscribe to authors is something he'd like to see.
    - Making the Foundry more user friendly in general.
    - KDF content is iffy, due to production costs versus actual amount of people playing it they're still working on finding a balance for this as well, but more KDF content could come sooner or later. No firms dates for anything.
    - Engineering report coming out this month
    - Nothing firm on Season 6 till April, they want to make sure everything's going to work right and will be delivered on time. This could POSSIBLY lead to it being delayed a little past June but nothing is certain yet.



    All awesome, great episode!

    So ... holding pattern as usual?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    superchum wrote: »
    They said that last year. And the year before. The pattern continues.
    Fix it for ya there Super. :o
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Pretty much the gist I got for KDF content there is they have never justified finishing the faction so one hand they say they are spending the year *fleshing it out* on the other with that interview what he is stating is they haven't even started because they haven't got the justification for the dev time to create this for us "18%". I am bilingual I can read and write in corporation and english :).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Zeuxidemus wrote:
    Pretty much the gist I got for KDF content there is they have never justified finishing the faction so one hand they say they are spending the year *fleshing it out* on the other with that interview what he is stating is they haven't even started because they haven't got the justification for the dev time to create this for us "18%". I am bilingual I can read and write in corporation and english :).

    It´s like time travel, I heard it all before. At least that is Trek-like. ;):(
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Zeuxidemus wrote:
    Pretty much the gist I got for KDF content there is they have never justified finishing the faction so one hand they say they are spending the year *fleshing it out* on the other with that interview what he is stating is they haven't even started because they haven't got the justification for the dev time to create this for us "18%".

    Sounds like another entry for:
    http://www.stowiki.org/User:Peregrine_Falcon#The_History_Of_The_Klingon_Empire_With_Cryptic_Studios
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Wow.

    That was the longest 15 minutes absolutely NOTHING that I've heard in a quite a while.

    "Playing 'em close to the chest" is an understatement in this case.

    .....
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Yeah they had the hands at 10 and 2 for a few episodes and then someone jerked the wheel back to a question. Did I really waste such and such minutes of time in my life I can never get back... for Nothing LOL.

    Yep it was like time travel and one to add to that link LOL. The part where it was stated "learned my lesson" and then recently in a post "KDF content is being worked on" all goes to show the lesson was not learned and I will give em some credit for giving a read between the lines of not bothering with the game any more since majority of my characters are KDF... Nothing coming out for them... I'll take my less than 18% self elsewhere.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    I gotta question for dan the man..

    consider the following

    Make a Star Trek MMO and they will come..

    ...and they did... inspite of it being a very unfinished game.. in spite of it not being ready to launch but having to launch anyway... in spite of knowing by launch day that there just wasn't that much to STO..

    Dan... we..the users, were under the impression that, and still are under the impression that the KDF get fleshed out essentially starting as soon as the current FE is finished...

    Iff you don't get the KDF stuff done any hope of getting some decent PvP action going is dead in the water because there wont be a KDF player base. while most players do not take part in PvP it does generate tremendous buzz because.. its exciting..

    For once.. ignore the projections.. listen to the Veteran Gamers.. I'm a veteran gamer and I've been a gamer longer then you've been alive! Right now all STO is is still a single player c0-op game.

    Decisions were made over a year ago that pretty much killed faction based PvP.. and now once again fed players wanting to take part in PvP now fall into two groups.. a very very small part of the Fed player base thats knows how to handle FvK pvp... and everyone else.. And I'm seeing once again "KDF is OP" when the hard core of the KDF players know it most certainly is not OP... its just those screaming it the loudest don't know HOW to pvP in this game because they've not built the skills yet. And honstly with out low level PvP they are not going to GET THE SKILLS.

    I heard you say on STOked "its the same old problem, what comes first? The chicken or the egg?"

    In this case, to make it work.. you need the Egg, and you need to grow the chicken from the egg.
    Compare this game to a car engine.. say a V-8.. ttheres only so much tune up you can do to make the engine run smooth when its only firing on 5 out of 8 cylinders.. those missing 3 are made up of 2 being KDF mission content, and 1 being PvP content...

    ........... And thats just to get it running smooothly.........

    Ignore the whole Star Trek thing.. Just look at it as an MMO for a moment. It's not a one faction MMO.. It's a two faction MMO that has hopes down the road of being a 3,4,5,or 6 faction MMO. But as of yet its not even a full two faction MMO. Once you have the KDF good, then the possibilities open up... but two years of rush work MUST be corrected.. well, more like one year of first flush and a second year of corporate ineptitude. Your demographic numbers are lying to you.. the reason they are lying to you is your studio has spent most of the last two years ignoring the fact that the KDF was not a finished faction...

    and making excuses not to finish it. STO as a single facion co-op play MMO might work.. but from my own experiences playing Featured Episodes in team play honestly..Cryptic hasn't yet to even get that right.
    I really am sorry but I have yet to play an FE with a full team of 5 players where there has not been bug after bug, after bug. Players not getting credit for completed accolades, mission progression for one or more team members being borked. Quite simply no matter how wonderfull the missions are they simply do not recieve sufficient testing before release. They go out buggy as hell. Untill your team has one whole hell of a lot more experience doing this, and learning to think of the missions first as a single play experience, and then second as a multiplayer expirience this is going to keep happeneing.

    I want STO to succeed, but this game is by far one of the buggiest MMO's I have ever played. I hear the term "Casual MMO" not to put to much of an emphisis on it, but what laser brain came up with that?

    To gamers.. there is no such animal.. only a non gamer could have ever have come up with such a patently silly notion. Even the board game to online computer game crowd such as the folks over at Days of Wonder with thier game "Ticket to Ride", and "Memior 44" relize that while the game might be "casual" the players are not.

    Really honestly.. Casual? Are you kidding? You honestly think youo can make a buck of off casual gamers in the current economy? You might make extra money off of them, but your bread and butter is still going to be the subscribers. They're going to be the ones that keep the bills paid and the servers up.....

    ..... and the paychecks covered.... no body works for free...

    I've said in other posts "I will help" and others have said the same thing... but none of us are going to do it entirely for free.. we want something out of it.. we want a playable story driven, multi faction MMO with meaningfull (within the context of the game) story/lore based PVP based on Star Trek.

    If you don't have the resources inside your company then surprise.. you have a tremendous amount of talent out here that doesn't absolutly need a pay check from you. Recognition.. perhapes. But many have jobs that they might not quite be willing to risk for a shot in the game industry. Doesn't mean they can't build missions if they have the right tools for the job. Don't have sufficent internal Beta testers to get this stuff tested before going live with it? Dude.. Email me a limited NDA... I'll do just to see that what ends up in front of everyone is playable! But if I do that then I get to give input that IS considered for content development or I won't do it.

    Want someone to pitch to foundry authors? I'll do it.
    You got storyline people?.. write a story.. one page.. give it to a foundry author and tell them.. "Make a mission of this story, you got 30 days." Make it clear what must be in the story and that it must have contiguaty with current content. Make the process as simple as possible.. the actuall execution will be sufficiently difficult without adding to it. Don't DEBATE IT.. DO IT!

    The players of STO are not quite like the other MMO gamers out there. Average age is certainly higher... expectations are greater.. and there is talent left right and center..

    How many MMO's with as small a user base as STO have have 3 internet radio stations, and lets see.. how many fan podcasts.. STOked, Foundry Files, Tribbles in Esctasy.. and thats 3 out of what 20 or so?
    STO has what..maybe 10,000 hard core regular plays and another 30-40,000 beyond that.. just a ball park figure mind you..and a generous one from what I see online in game compared to how many million for World of War craft, TOR, AION, etc.... There is more fan based buzz per player in STO then any other MMO existing. Because of the nature of the games internal economy issues with RMT's messing with the game econ are microscopic... not that they haven't tried...*giggle* the poor stinking sods!

    Grow the Game.. grow the game logically, rationally, and with a long view in mind and you will keep this player base, and have this MMO for years to come. But please.. you must flesh the core factions of the game to relitive parity. Thats is the game foundation. Right now that foundation is not stable, and untill you have the KDF fleshed its not going to be stable. KDF Numbers will never be the eaqual of the Federation faction. Thats a given, and really in many ways its a non issue. But KDF numbers have to come up, and without the content they will NOT come up. From there it get real simple.. Without the KDF numbers there is no meanigfull PvP.. Without the PvP buzz and the revenue it will generate there is no growth...

    In John M Ford's Trek Novel "The Final Reflection".. a fellow named Krenn...(whom I take my user name from) explains to the other lead character,a Federation ambasador to Qo'nos that the Klingons view the universe as two states (paraphrasing heavily here.. go read "The Final Reflection" it'll give your folks some great insight into the KDF mindset) Growing, and Dying.

    Khomerex, and Khesterex. I want STO to be the former not the later. And from out here in game I can tell you that you MUST create the basis for growth of the KDF. Without it, STO simply cannot adequatly grow. It becomes Khesterex. That which dies.

    Right now the game has a had a burst of users, but actuall game content is still fairly low. Create the KDF content quickly and you will give players something to do, this in turn will give YOU and the dev team the time it NEEDS to create even more content. Most of us out here realize its not that simple in execution, but most of us out here realize that the Plan itself MUST be made that simple. The devil is in the details and thats what you guys and gals get paid the big bucks for.

    There has been many suggestions about utilizing PGC...Do it. Its minimal resources out of pocket to do. Just a little setup to make it work. The foundry needs inprovement but what some folks have done with it is nothing short of amazing and that has been stated by your own staff! I do belive you have recieved numerous written invations to take advantage of it.. a certain russian pharse comes to mind about a cow.. but it basicly means get the lead out, get on with it, make it happen.

    The longer you take the more irritated the KDF players get. And we dont just play KDF...Ya'lls design remember? A lot of the current situation concerning the KDF goes right on Daniel Stal's desk during his previous time as EP. It's still a problem, and its going to do nothing but get bigger untill its delt with. And if its not dealt with it could very easlity turrn into a game killer. ..I'm of sufficent age that I can say I have seen it before.

    Deal with it now while you still can. And you should have delt with it before launcheing Free to Play.

    Khemaraa Iron Hand sends.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    I want them to flesh out KDF so we can get a Romulan faction. I would love to be part of rebuilding the RSE. There is tons of potential in that story line.

    If you build it they will come. You cant look at metrics to determine popularity of KDF or Future factions, because they can only look at the past and the current state of things and cant predict the future. As you said Dan, chicken and egg.

    You can play it safe and go all FED but think of all the extra character slots, and other C-store items you could sell with 3 full factions. :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Ithaqua wrote:
    Wow.

    That was the longest 15 minutes absolutely NOTHING that I've heard in a quite a while.

    "Playing 'em close to the chest" is an understatement in this case.

    .....

    hehehehhe nope you are wrong go lisen to priority ones podcast interview of him its even longer and says alot of the same thing, hehehehehe politician talk where he realy says nothing but atleast when you dont realy promise much or when people cant accuse you of lieing lol.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Insufficient players on the KDF side to justify additional work...this is potentially a catch 22. If the KDF was more fleshed out, I'd play it more often. Others likely feel the same way. /shrug
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Zeuxidemus wrote:
    Pretty much the gist I got for KDF content there is they have never justified finishing the faction so one hand they say they are spending the year *fleshing it out* on the other with that interview what he is stating is they haven't even started because they haven't got the justification for the dev time to create this for us "18%". I am bilingual I can read and write in corporation and english :).

    I am amused that the "numbers game" was said to not be the way to decide if something should be done in STO, in an earlier interview (Priority One I think) yet is one of the key reasons why the KDF is not getting any parity (yet again - The Pattern continues) this year and for the foreseable future.

    It is awesome that we have gotten Ships and consoles to beef up our small vessels of the line choices, a Flagship (both free and via purchase) and other assorted devices to allow for a bit more gameplay. Its great that we got a New First City and an Academy to enjoy (even if the other acruitements of RPing a KDF toon are still somewhat lackluster) and a assortment of some of the funnest PvE missions in the game at one time (14 actually - if you count the Path of the Warrior), not to mention the plethora of "Kill These/Go here" mission with no story or often a location and that we KDF players are included (if even as an after thought) in every FE that has been released so far to the game.

    Unfortunately all that substance is for naught if the faction itself has no meat upon its bones in the way of a meaningful rise throught the ranks that sets the background from start (Ensign) to finish (level Cap) via a storyline that gives a reason for the hostility with the feds, a reason why the KDF hunts for the Undine (even against the resistance of the leaders of the federation) across the quadrant, our expansion into new areas of space, the inclusion of the Orion Syndicate, The acceptance of the Gorn Hegomony and the rush of alien races into the KDF and how it has changed the Empire of the past into to something new, a little different, but much stronger than it was in times past.

    PvE missions will give this missing meaning to playing the KDF and help draw more of the new player and the merely curiuos.
    Its a sad sad thing when some of the playerbase attempts an aspect of the game only to quit becuase the tediuos nature of the grind is too much to overcome and they lapse back into the bigger bluer half of the game.

    We do not need much in the way of storyline and honestly we could supply it ourselves via the Foundry (and it would work if the Foundry had any measure of decent XP to allow leveling) but that shouldn't be the task of teh playerbase becuase we are not here to do the job the job that Cryptic bid for and won. We are here to enjoy what they create and the stories they wish to tell.
    Sadly though we are still stuck as the servitor faction to the federation and have little choice but to stand just outside the campfires light while the Devs tell stories to the feds, like some glowing eyed beast waiting to devour any morsel that drops our way by happenstance. Hungry and yet still waiting on our creators like some mishapen creature from the mind of Doctor Moreau.

    We could go the route of being a low PvE faction with a high PvP focus and do quite well at that as many KDF players really just want to be the bad guy and pounce upon the feds in battle.
    We could go that route except for the fact that its been tried before with a boost to our leveling speed and reward payouts via PvP that resulted in an outcry from the feds of unfairness (Why must the KDF be better at PvP they said) and led to a nerfing of even that simple attempt. We could say that the New Ships and Console where a new attempt at giving the KDF a PvP slant to gameplay to compensate for thier lack of content and backstory, except that too has come under fire for many broken reasons and only enlarged the once old KDF is OP belief giving proof to the fact that any PvP boost would only been seen as aunfair by the Federation due to its upsetting thier gameplay.

    What a sad way to introduce new players to a part of your overall game and to show them how little it matters in your eyes becuase your hands are too busy seeking payment instead of sponsoring creation and growth.
    Its time to make concrete plans for the KDF and leave the rhetoric of half truths behind so the faction can be finished and the game can move on past this ugly blemish on its face to new and possibly better things and make STo the game it should be instead of the could be. Excuses no longer hold water on why things are still the way they are.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Yes,Roach

    SFCIII-Nemesis tried that too. Shrink the established well supported factions to make
    dev team cycle quicker for movie tie in. Then create a back story to support the reasons
    and create anther ALT Trekverse of their own design.

    I saw one of my old SFC ALPHA BETA tester fleet last month only carry over left from a mixed SFC II
    fleet with 273 reg board members...

    WE ran the Romulan Empire three General Wars Campaigns in SFC II
    using the vast map of SFB Cyberboard chits and Dynaverse SFC Orion Pirates .
    we had vast House and Provincial territories. On a Map that showed the actual position of Star Consultations Planetary Systems from TREK Lore as they are on a night sky you can see y renting a telescope from your library.


    Because we had ranks beyond VA-1 LTG it was easy to split up a vast fleet and be a major force on Star League Ladder competitions and KOTH . We had an Order of Battle list for all Galactic Empires and Fleet areas outlined on a map so could easily take RP possession of an area and establish fleet recruit training.

    The fact that you could have this much player control in a Trek game TEN + years ago or SWG player controlled construction of persistent structures so long ago .. it seams the shadow of Fran Joseph DEtail and Star Fleet Battles will haunt small DEV TM s without team size to deliver

    Take a Hex map a large board game like Avalon Hill 3d Reich wooden ships and iron men look at Gary Grigsby's War in PAC 7 + mp sheets and how many unit chits it had
    Then History 101 of the Roman Empire Order of Battle and Political sub-divisions for Epic Star Empire Creations.

    Senshi Bat
    Sage of the Pan Galactic Consortium
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Sagison wrote: »
    Insufficient players on the KDF side to justify additional work...this is potentially a catch 22. If the KDF was more fleshed out, I'd play it more often. Others likely feel the same way. /shrug

    I would start to play my lil KDF toon again if they would add more content.

    They dont make content because KDF has few players, but why should players play KDF if it has almost no content compared to FED side.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Just kill the KDF faction already if you have no intentions to work on it Cryptic....

    ....wonder why not as many are playing the KDF...oh that's right, next to nothing content and the pushing back of when to make a KDF character.....


    A) Make KDF from start like Fed with a real tutorial
    B) Flesh out actual content, not c-store junk for KDF
    C) Watch numbers begin to grow on KDF side
    D) Ask yourself why it took 2+ years to not give effort
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Fix it for ya there Super. :o

    "They're calling these events The Pattern; as if someone was playing a con game, only the whole playerbase was their mark."
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    i bet the the weak spine on the fedside doesn't want the klinks to be flushed out inorder to prevent rommies to comeout with their warbirds and i am a feddie. I like to see the klinks full of content and see the loony feddies go even crazier when the warbirds arrive :P
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    I think the overall interview went incredibly well. HOWEVER,II honestly believe that the overall thinking of your development cycle may be flawed. In the interview you referenced a D&D style of campaign editor. You toold us how it is difficult for you guys to weigh producing "campaigns" for one faction that has the majority of the playerbase, while seamingly ignoring the other faction and thereby alienating that playerbase. Everyone knows that the KDF side is completely lacking. We agree. Everyone knows that the strong lion share of players reside on the FED side. We agree.

    Honestly, think larger scale. OK, now zoom out 100 times. What do you see? (rhetorical)

    What you should see is just another MMO. OK, so you look at it from a consumer point of view, because let's face it, what you're trying to do is get more actual consumers. Consumers = people who pay money for a product. They essentially write your paycheck and everyone else's paycheck in the studio.

    1. It's Trek based.
    2. It's ground combat AND space combat (with ships).

    To pull from your "campaign" model that you spoke about in the interview, I'll reference a DM's point of view in a traditional D&D game. What a GOOD DM does before the match is make their own maps, their own traps, their own plotline before the day arrives that his/her friends come over for the game. While in the game, the DM worries about the small things while the overall landscape is followed.

    To pull that into a MMO point-of-view, you make the overall large system of how things work, then you let the players worry about the little things as they're playing your system.

    To that end, I would like you guys to look heavily into the following thread by Alecto and contributed on by myself: Starbases and you.

    If you revamp sector space, it effects everyone (FED, KDF, newbie, and Veterans) alike. If you allow Fleets to have starbases and enable the PvP system for Fleets to vie for those Star bases and resources, then you effect everybody the same. Having everybody contribute the mainstay of their time and resources to Starbases and PvP, then they can interact with the existing plot-line at their leisure (or as they get into that sector of space). The majority of the game is already setup in this fashion. (DOFF missions and the plot-lines) are already tailored the sector of space that the user is in at the moment of play. If the PvP landscape followed this, then the world would be as comprehensive and interacting as possible. You would let the player make their own way in the Universe rather than telling them how they are going to play in their universe.

    I'll admit that there are four hurdles that I can see from a technical stand-point that will require development.
    1. Make sector space instance-less. If we're already at warp speed moving from system to system, how are we going to from Warp 20.00 or faster to a warp speed that's so fast that we instantly move to another quadrant of the galaxy? It doesn't make sense and doesn't provide for a finished product.
    2. Make the Starbase system. Fortunately, Alecto has done a lionshare of the whiteboard for this already in his thread.
    3. Make Sector space MUCH larger. I know that this will basically increase the load on the shards, but possibly by rearranging how they are setup you can change the load. Make systems or even instances of systems their own shard and sector space it's own shard. Sector space would only then be used for static placements of objects like planets or starbases and the movement to those objects by the players. The main load of the overall server would be on the PvP areas and the actual missions that players can play.
    4. Make the PvP system tied into the existing "Enemy Contact" system that is live on Holodeck now. If you need an MMO that ties this in immaculately, look at Pirate of the Burning Sea for instance.


    In closing, you've got mainly two types of players that currently play STO. The F2P guy who plays the game as casual as can be imagined or a lifetime subscriber who has been with the game since Beta and who has a lot of great ideas to see the game attract a larger player base and essentially would like to see you and everyone else in the Cryptic Studio make more money. The Foundry doesn't exactly allow for people to make entire systems of game play as it's tailored to mission maps and mission triggers. Could there be something like the contest of the Odyssey class to put down for you guys a clear vision for how the game (and community) will be best developed in the future?


    Besides, if you have everybody worried about territory control and the development of their Fleet's StarBase, then you essentially free up your developer's time to fully flesh out the KDF side, fix bugs and loot tables, and make additional player-run factions (Romulans, Cardassians, BORG, etc...).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Ncha wrote:
    What I'm worried for however is the return of the catering to the Fed population because they're a majority player base. Evidently with Stahl numbers matter and because we were "merely" 18% of the playerbase our desires weren't that important.

    Much as I don't like to be that guy, I got to say...I called it.

    The news had barely broke about Dan coming back to the EP chair and cries of doom were already sounding on the Klingon Gameplay board. And I said I'd love to give him the benefit of the doubt but his attitude towards a perceived minority player base would likely not have changed in his time away. And in two podcast interviews what's the first thing out of his mouth when the KDF comes up? "Still a minority player base", "chicken or the egg problem" etc.

    The rationalization continues. What's funny to me is the other players who talk about a Romulan faction. I actually think I remember one poster awhile back in a Romulan Faction request thread that said something to the effect of "the Romulan Star Empire doesn't NEED Klingon approval. Bring on our faction." And what's funny about this is who's to say that rationalization, that "tune" they're getting so used to playing about "well if we spend the money to make this content will enough people pay us to play it somehow" won't come to bear again? So really, people who want a Romulan faction I don't know what it is you're hoping for. If they won't flesh out and develop PvE content for one the biggest Star Trek factions, why on Earth do you think you would get anything better for the pervieved "15-20%" of the Star Trek fan base that comprise Romulan fans?

    Since Christmas to now they've been playing with Galor ships and Jem bugs but do you really think a Dominion faction is in the works for the "3-10%" who'd play them?

    Because really, what's Star Trek if not another sci fi series told through the eyes of human superiority over all life in the universe? And that's not Cryptics fault by any means, or even Rodenbarry's when he designed Trek. That's been going on since the birth of science fiction, and with Star Trek it's endured long enough that different races developed into major powers because they were compelling primary antagonists, Klingons in TOS, Romulans in TNG, Dominion in DS9 and Borg in Voyager. But at the end of the day each playerbase has a "minority" because the narrative view always came from human or Federation eyes. The sad thing is this game won't endure for very long on this road because truly even from the Fed side of things the content isn't that fleshed out or great. PvE in this game can border on tedious.

    The one thing STO has to hang it's hat on, and the only reason I recommend it to anyone frankly, is that they are rocking easily one of the best ship combat PVPs out there. And yet they won't help make that their bread and butter by doing what every aforementioned series took the time to do, devote episodes to flesh out and provide a window into the antagonist. Because it's those eps that spawned the "minority" or "cult" fan bases of those particular factions. And if you don't have more than one faction in an MMO, your PVP isn't going to count for jack all. Which destroys the one major piece of appeal left in your game. And that's sad that it's just being flushed away.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    For an Empire look at the World of GreyHawk the degree of history and story built for Nations and free city states as guide and example of where we could go with developing more functional areas.

    Im thinking maps that do not have Teller and Betazoid and Ferengor are needing a RETCON as a starting point to Move forward.

    STEP ONE> Project TREK the next age.

    Document past Dev PC and board game models to present as demographic support to why the owners should fund expansions and revisions.

    STEP TWO > Develop more depth of play not the multi player -Xbox Legacy the Solo Campaign strengths.
    the conquest model of SFB and SFC.
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