The company's history and timeline would not back up that statement. It's been sold three times. And continues to be a small studio that can't generate profit.
Your insight in to Cryptics economics is astounding, care to share the metrics? If they are currently hiring as Dhstal mentions, clearly they have the financials to do so, which would indicate they are profitable at the moment.
Like this guy^ who evidently thinks all the Klingon based CoSplay, Klingon books, Klingon games (like Klingon monopoly) and other paraphenalia that has been made and sold over the years must be just another synthahol induced fantasy.
Come on now Roach, you should know better than to post proof in an argument on the internet. It'll just be dismissed because it doesn't fit someones narrow point of view.
Just because people enjoy meat, doesn't mean they enjoy eating Moose at a restaurant. Just because there are people out there with Klingon Dictionaries, cosplay, books or what have you, it is in no way an indication of that group of people are also at the same time enjoying playing Klingon's in computer games, let alone MMORPGs.
FTA: Only 18% of all STO players have made a Klingon
That number is only a representation of Characters from either side, so one could assume given past MMORPG gaming trends, assume that the number of active primary players on the Klingon Empire side to be significantly less. It is than not a wonder, that resources aren't being allocated to fully flesh out a portion of the game which is underplayed.
Out of curiuosity, wargames to hone our skills against what future foe?
Why were Picard and Riker doing a war game?
And isn't most PvP really about bragging rights, or at least feel good rights? We PvP to challenge ourselves. To feel the joy of winning and frustration of defeat. You can feel that whether you're fighting a Klink or a Fed.
I'm not condoning the removal of the KDF Faction - though I never would have launched the game with it in that state, I simply would have added it later with more content. I'm simply saying that PvP can survive whether the game has 2 warring Factions or 2 united Factions, or just 1 Faction.
This has been brought up every time someone wants to merge the Factions and end the war. IE, that players can do "war game" scenarios to represent PvP.
My biggest issue with PvP is that there seems to be little to no objective of the match than to kill the other player. I find this rather dull. It is one of the reasons I actually liked Kerrat. You go into the mission with a goal to achieve with the other side there to stop you. I have had fun there. It is when you get the PvE and PvP only crowd in there that it becomes not fun.
PvE: "Leave me alone!! I am trying to do this mission."
PvP: *pew pew* "Ha Ha" *spawn camp*.
"War Games" is just another useless "tool" for an excuse to shoot one another. An idea for a "warzone" if you will. KDF warp to UPS to cripple Federation ship building capabilities. Feds warp in to stop them. Open PvP with a goal. I could get behind that.
Hoepfully there will be a basis to buy an Non-combat or a combat starbase, or both.
That would be a good start. For the small fleets like mine we could start with a non combat base (Outpost). When and if we got large enough to be more competive, we could up grade to a combat base (Starbase).
My biggest issue with PvP is that there seems to be little to no objective of the match than to kill the other player. I find this rather dull. It is one of the reasons I actually liked Kerrat. You go into the mission with a goal to achieve with the other side there to stop you. I have had fun there. It is when you get the PvE and PvP only crowd in there that it becomes not fun.
PvE: "Leave me alone!! I am trying to do this mission."
PvP: *pew pew* "Ha Ha" *spawn camp*.
"War Games" is just another useless "tool" for an excuse to shoot one another. An idea for a "warzone" if you will. KDF warp to UPS to cripple Federation ship building capabilities. Feds warp in to stop them. Open PvP with a goal. I could get behind that.
It seems to me that DStahl hinted at the idea that the Foundry will eventually be able to make PvP scenarios. So having secondary objective PvP Missions seems quite possible at some point even if Cryptic can't get to it - and assuming Foundry authors have a desire to make them.
Check out the link in my signature to an idea I had about a year ago... it's the perfect objective game.
My concept pertained to Quo'nos and ESD but it's be talked about amongst the community to be adapted to the Utopia Planitia map. Attack/defend with multiple objectives and multiple levels of success / failure
This amuses me, You attempt to de-legitimize someone's counter argument to you while vastly ignoring a great deal of the evidence presented to you. You then proceed to use the meat argument as an attempt to Strawman yourself. You just hit Grade-A on the hypocritical scale sir. Bravo!
Just because people enjoy meat, doesn't mean they enjoy eating Moose at a restaurant. Just because there are people out there with Klingon Dictionaries, cosplay, books or what have you, it is in no way an indication of that group of people are also at the same time enjoying playing Klingon's in computer games, let alone MMORPGs.
Less Strawman attempts please.
How is pointing out market potential a straw man? Potential doesn't mean it is easy to tap, but it usually means it is worth trying.
Now having sufficient resources to try is another matter.....
I feel sorry for you that you took the time to write all that, because Dan's earlier posts directly contradict it. Your long post basically just makes the point that it didnt make financial sense to finish the KDF, while his posts have simply stated that different people at PW wanted different things. Hence my question: why were we ONLY told what the "one guy" wanted(a full KDF faction) up until this point?
Because thats what they thought the community wanted to hear. Now they have relised lots and lots of people have tried the game with the f2p, got to lvl 50 done the stfs and left.
Thankfully, now they understand PvP would bring all these people back to try the game once again, now they relise people would buy more items from the c-store for a game that had some meaning, that had competition.
The klingon community on STO is 12%(approx) of the federation, having Pvp, a PvP conflict would see these numbers rise and make klingon content/items more worthwhile.
Because thats what they thought the community wanted to hear. Now they have relised lots and lots of people have tried the game with the f2p, got to lvl 50 done the stfs and left.
Thankfully, now they understand PvP would bring all these people back to try the game once again, now they relise people would buy more items from the c-store for a game that had some meaning, that had competition.
The klingon community on STO is 12%(approx) of the federation, having Pvp, a PvP conflict would see these numbers rise and make klingon content/items more worthwhile.
Strange, PvP makes me rather leave than come back to anything. I sincerely doubt that everyone that left did so because of a lack of PvP support.
So PW /Cryptic intentinally AGAIN lied to us about making KDF a full faction when they bought STO.
The KDF desaster is getting worse with every month and new Fed missions. Going back to the mining daily it already affects quality control. Releasding a mission knowing full well that it is broken for a faction is just plain stupid and shows their Fed Elitism.
I feel sorry for you that you took the time to write all that, because Dan's earlier posts directly contradict it. Your long post basically just makes the point that it didnt make financial sense to finish the KDF, while his posts have simply stated that different people at PW wanted different things. Hence my question: why were we ONLY told what the "one guy" wanted(a full KDF faction) up until this point?
I read his post before I wrote mine. I don't really see a contradiction.
there was no content for KDF at that time.
Not many ships. Costume variety. Couldn't leave the Qu'nos sector. No missions. No Tutorial. Nebula's just started to work. Nothing to do end game. I am suprised it wasn't lower than that.
In any other MMO, it would have been.
That is not how I remember it back on July 28th, 2011... Lets look at some history:
July 7th, 2011
All sector blocks except for Sirius are opened up to the KDF.
KDF get new Gorn
KDF get new Qo'noS map
February 3rd, 2011
KDF gets 1 of the first 4 foundary missions ported over
December 9th, 2010
KDF get stolen Fed tricorders
KDF can now get anomalies
Klingons can now craft
Sortie missions in Pi Canis added
KDF gets the 200 day Vet shoulderpads
November 12th, 2010
KDF gets Varanus Fleet Support Vessel, the Maurader Partol Cruiser, and the B'Rel Bird-of-Prey Retrofit
October 15th, 2010
KDF ship wings now move
August 28th, 2010
First of the weekly episodes, Cold Call, goes live for both KDF and Feds
August 5th, 2010
Several Orion and Klingon costume pieces added
July 27th, 2010
Kar'Fi Battle Carrier added
8 new Klingon-Only missions are available
And after all that less than 1/5th of all the player population of STO had taken a just few minutes just to make a KDF toon.
Edit: How ironic, the link I put at the top of my post as a source is in your signature.
I too would prefer a fully fleashed KDF and RSE factions to play. That said, Star Trek has always been Fed Elitist. The Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, Dominions were all created for one purpose: To serve as antagonists for the Federation heros.
Without a healthy KDF STO will slowly die, one way or another. It should have been in Cryptics intent to make it a viable faction rather then the 1/4 it is by now.
If I could I would write to CBS what incompetence Cryptic / PW shows for STO.
Without a healthy KDF STO will slowly die, one way or another. It should have been in Cryptics intent to make it a viable faction rather then the 1/4 it is by now.
STO hasn't had a healthy KDF population since 1-2 months after launch. The game is still here 2 years later. It's like the people who said SWG will die after NGE. SWG lasted over 6 years after NGE - and would still be going if it wasn't for SWTOR.
Originally Posted by Staran
there was no content for KDF at that time.
Not many ships. Costume variety. Couldn't leave the Qu'nos sector. No missions. No Tutorial. Nebula's just started to work. Nothing to do end game. I am suprised it wasn't lower than that.
In any other MMO, it would have been.
That is not how I remember it back on July 28th, 2011... Lets look at some history:
I believe he was refering to the at launch cindition of the KDF.
No body can honestly state that the KDF has not grown (albiet slowly) since 5 months after that point.
Seriuosly why would anybody but a diehard KDF fan make a toon on Release if there was nothing to do with it but PvP?
GAME LAUNCH
February 2nd, 2010 - GAME LAUNCH [6]
The Klingon Empire has no storyline PvE missions - only some "Empire Defense" space PvE madlibs.
No Joined Trill. Despite the fact that people paid money for them and were told that they would be useable in the KDF faction. [7]
No personal armor visuals.
No kit visuals.
No tricorders.
No ship customization.
No buff pets (like the Federation Tribbles).
No crafting.
"TOS uniform" consists only of the male shirt. No pants, no female uniform.
Only 7 races to the Federation's 14. Of those, 2 weren't available as bridge officers, and 3 were available as male only.
Computer combat audio and transporter visuals are the Starfleet ones, not KDF.
Post-Launch - The Golden Age The Golden Age pretty much consisted of bug fixes, and game functionality being added that many felt should have been in at launch.
February 5th, 2010 - Romulan "Empire Defense" missions added. [8]
February 11th, 2010 - The Borg Return: "level 43+ Klingon players now have access to repeatable Borg related Klingon Defense missions."
February 13th, 2010 - Jack Emmert: "Yes, there are definitely things on the table for Klingons. I'm a die hard Klingon player and I wanted them in no matter what. Believe me, we'll get more in. Otherwise, I'm going postal."
March 4th, 2010 - Infected goes live and the KDF is now able to enter Gamma Orionis. [9]
SEASON 1
March 25th, 2010 - SEASON 1 - The 45 day patch! [10]
KTanco Battle Cruiser added.
Some minor customization for some Birds of Prey & Raptors added.
KDF can now play Crystalline Entity, Big Dig, Breaking the Planet and The Cure.
KDF exploration missions added.
Bat'leths made available to Federation characters at Battle group Omega.
Shanty Town ground PvP map added.
Fed vs. Fed PvP (Wargames) was added, which reduced available PvP matches for Klingon characters.
There was a lot of forum flamage after this patch went live, because players had gotten the impression that the "Mythical 45 Day Patch" was going to fix all of the KDF's problems. To be fair, it's important to note that the developers never actually said that this patch would add anything to the Klingon Faction. During the height of the rage-fest, Jack Emmert made this post:
March 30th, 2010 - Jack Emmert: "Trust me, we'll continue to add PvE. I'm a die hard Klingon player and I'm constantly on the EP to add more."
April 13th, 2010 - Khitomer Accord goes live. [11]
SEASON 1.1
April 29th, 2010 - SEASON 1.1 - Death Penalty! [12]
Joined Trill (that we paid extra for) finally join the Klingon Faction.
Klingon ship replicators work now (Feds always had them).
Klingons get ground auto-fire (Feds worked earlier).
May 13th, 2010 - Terradome goes live. [13]
SEASON 1.2
June 3rd, 2010 - SEASON 1.2 - Accolades & Squad Support! [14]
Major space powers revamp and a ton of bugs added to the game.
July 1st, 2010 - Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich (Zinc) leaves Cryptic Studios. Producer Daniel Stahl (dstahl) is promoted to Executive Producer. [15]
July 10th, 2010 - Revamped Gorn coming possibly at the end of August 2010. [16]
July 16th, 2010 - Engineering Report - Klingon costume updates and revamped Gorn being worked on. [17]
July 7th, 2011
All sector blocks except for Sirius are opened up to the KDF.
KDF get new Gorn
KDF get new Qo'noS map
February 3rd, 2011
KDF gets 1 of the first 4 foundary missions ported over
December 9th, 2010
KDF get stolen Fed tricorders
KDF can now get anomalies
Klingons can now craft
Sortie missions in Pi Canis added
KDF gets the 200 day Vet shoulderpads
November 12th, 2010
KDF gets Varanus Fleet Support Vessel, the Maurader Partol Cruiser, and the B'Rel Bird-of-Prey Retrofit
October 15th, 2010
KDF ship wings now move
August 28th, 2010
First of the weekly episodes, Cold Call, goes live for both KDF and Feds
August 5th, 2010
Several Orion and Klingon costume pieces added
July 27th, 2010
Kar'Fi Battle Carrier added
8 new Klingon-Only missions are available
And after all that less than 1/5th of all the player population of STO had taken a just few minutes just to make a KDF toon.
Edit: How ironic, the link I put at the top of my post as a source is in your signature.
the only way i can see your post relevant is if you compare it to what the feds have. i am confused.
STO hasn't had a healthy KDF population since 1-2 months after launch. The game is still here 2 years later. It's like the people who said SWG will die after NGE. SWG lasted over 6 years after NGE - and would still be going if it wasn't for SWTOR.
and we both know that the game has never been all that popular or "healthy" we've seen the speculation on numbers, I still find it odd that they never have put out a singular number on subs. Most major game companies at least put out something, Cryptic doesn't. Though the game is indeed around now, its still not that well off in many areas, PVP, End game, balance, all need attention, some more than others
the only way i can see your post relevant is if you compare it to what the feds have. i am confused.
What confuses me is why anyone would think that a faction originally created by Star Trek writers to enhance the appearance of the Federation would have as much content in STO as the Federation. They never had that much content in the movies or TV shows. Heck, they never had as much content in novels or fan fiction either.
My biggest wonder is why the Klingon Academy was created when Klingon content doesn't start until far later. Probably to curb the complaints of KDF players to the addition of Starfleet Academy. I see that's worked out pretty well for them
there was no content for KDF at that time.
Not many ships. Costume variety. Couldn't leave the Qu'nos sector. No missions. No Tutorial. Nebula's just started to work. Nothing to do end game. I am suprised it wasn't lower than that.
In any other MMO, it would have been.
I again cited all the things that were in by that point countering most all of what you said (not many ships, costume variety, could not leave Qu'noS, no missions, nebulas just stated to work)
and we both know that the game has never been all that popular or "healthy" we've seen the speculation on numbers, I still find it odd that they never have put out a singular number on subs. Most major game companies at least put out something, Cryptic doesn't. Though the game is indeed around now, its still not that well off in many areas, PVP, End game, balance, all need attention, some more than others
I agree the game suffered from being rushed, and that has kept the game from ever being SWTOR-like. I also assume that the conversion to FTP was done to boost the population - and thus income. As the STO team only has around 30 Devs it doesn't require huge numbers of players to break even, though.
As far as releasing player numbers, most MMOs don't. They only tend to do it when the numbers get relatively high as part of a PR promotion. So the big games tend to talk about it as a way of saying: "We have 1 million! Come play our game. We're popular."
Right after the PW sale we were told that PW wanted the KDF to be a full fledged faction and that a big KDF PvE update was in the works. However in the most recent interview with Dan he says that PW would have preferred the KDF remain "monster play" and that they mainly focus on end game PvP content. So which is it?
Unfortunately Nagus, it is the same story since the game launched. KDF was promised to be fully fledged out with the 90day patch, then at 6 months then at 1 year, then by end of year 2.
Now we are seeing the same old story,"we want to do it, but not sure how we can" type remarks. When will whoever is running STO, finally realize we NEED 2 FULL factions. That reminds me, weren't we promised the world with a Romulan faction coming soon after KDF fix? guess that's why they are in a rush.
That is not an issue the devs have anything to do with.
When the suggestion is to create a mechanic based on fleet membership, it becomes an issue the devs have something to do with.
Just don't hope, or even wait, for cryptic to bring the Klingon side en par with the Federation.
The basic premise of this thread is that the devs and community reps kept making comments stating that the plan was to bring the KDF on par with the federation. Hence the consternation.
I cited that 18% of players by July 28th, 2011 had even made a KDF toon.
The source isn't very trustworthy. It's the same source that also said end-game wasn't a priority because data mining showed them the majority of players were low and midlevels.
Now end-game is a priority?
Heh.
I just don't know how any of you can actually buy that end-game is the focus for STO when the company's never once in three separate games been able to create a robust end-game MMORPG experience.
To be honest, if everyone playing the game were accustomed to video games, there'd be more demand for Klingons. However, the IP is at least partly responsible.
CBS is correct in saying that Klingon-focused games have sold less than UFP equivalents--and that a majority of players will only play the Federation.
I want a Klingon faction because it would make for a better game. However, I understand the reticence to make it that way when all pre-launch polls saw KDF players as a tiny fragment of those would play the Federation (and most Klingon players will play Federation either as their primary or secondary character).
That said, developing robust territory control through both PvE and PvP would entice players into the KDF faction. Give these players a reason to play--instead of playing FED-focused Featured Series episodes that feel anachronistic.
In fact, focusing on endgame territory control, exploration, and starbases makes sense--since the majority of the playerbase is now at endgame.
At this point, delivering starter KDF content is too little, too late--and I'd rather see the game developed toward supporting things to do at endgame with the occasional mission added to lower the starter level.
That said, developing robust territory control through both PvE and PvP would entice players into the KDF faction. Give these players a reason to play--instead of playing FED-focused Featured Series episodes that feel anachronistic.
The problem there is the old wag the dog tactics Cryptic's employed to get the game where it is now. Enticing people to play the faction they underdeveloped and cut in half will only draw more people to the incomplete and underdeveloped faction, increasing the complaints.
In fact, focusing on endgame territory control, exploration, and starbases makes sense--since the majority of the playerbase is now at endgame.
I maintain that the claim that the players are all now at end-game is a convenient stat which is extremely dubious.
At this point, delivering starter KDF content is too little, too late--and I'd rather see the game developed toward supporting things to do at endgame with the occasional mission added to lower the starter level.
People don't want starter content. BEFORE they cut the faction in half, the KDF starter content was fine. It's end-game content was fine. The GAP was in levels 11 to 41.
And still they refuse to do much of anything to fix that.
The source isn't very trustworthy. It's the same source that also said end-game wasn't a priority because data mining showed them the majority of players were low and midlevels.
Now end-game is a priority?
Heh.
I just don't know how any of you can actually buy that end-game is the focus for STO when the company's never once in three separate games been able to create a robust end-game MMORPG experience.
Lets see who was there from Cryptic (as they do not attribute the quote to a single person):
The evening started out last Friday when I met up with some players, including the entire membership of Ex-Astris Audentia Fleet, and devs at a local restaurant in San Diego, California. Geoff, aka Heretic, was the first of the devs to arrive; he is a Designer for Cryptic who is currently working on the Duty Officer (DOff) system. Steve, aka Salami_Inferno, was the next dev to arrive; he is one of the Producers for STO. The last dev to arrive was Jesse, aka JHeinig, who is a Systems Designer.
So, who are you saying is not trustworthy? Heretic? Salami_Inferno? JHeinig? All of them?
What confuses me is why anyone would think that a faction originally created by Star Trek writers to enhance the appearance of the Federation would have as much content in STO as the Federation. They never had that much content in the movies or TV shows. Heck, they never had as much content in novels or fan fiction either.
My biggest wonder is why the Klingon Academy was created when Klingon content doesn't start until far later. Probably to curb the complaints of KDF players to the addition of Starfleet Academy. I see that's worked out pretty well for them
oh that is an easy one. thank you for asking.
All IP MMO developers will make sure all factions have the same amount of content or there is no point on doing the game. Warcraft is about the Humans and alliance. There is extremely little info about the horde by comparison when wow was released. When the game was released, they have equal content, but everyone went and created there human paladins. There was little horde players. The populations evened out in a few years because the mmo developer didn't say "We have X amount of money and since more people play the alliance, we should put it towards the alliance".
Same thing with DAOC or Warhammer.
Every developer knows that they can't shortchange the other factions except Cryptic.
So, who are you saying is not trustworthy? Heretic? Salami_Inferno? JHeinig? All of them?
DStahl, the spin doctor of course. The data mining reports, the population percentages (but never population numbers) and so on and so forth.
The information is not trustworthy. It never stands up to scrutiny. And in 3 to 6 months of time passing you find out that it wasn't accurate anyways.
This thread's a great example. The game developers focused on designing new systems and starter areas last year because data mining proved that the players were all low and mid level.
Now we're being told the game, after it launched F2P and got an huge infusion of new, low level players, has them all sitting at end-game.
The numbers are simply used to suit whatever the whim at the time is. As you can see with the track record of this game's developmental history.
Comments
Your insight in to Cryptics economics is astounding, care to share the metrics? If they are currently hiring as Dhstal mentions, clearly they have the financials to do so, which would indicate they are profitable at the moment.
Just because people enjoy meat, doesn't mean they enjoy eating Moose at a restaurant. Just because there are people out there with Klingon Dictionaries, cosplay, books or what have you, it is in no way an indication of that group of people are also at the same time enjoying playing Klingon's in computer games, let alone MMORPGs.
Less Strawman attempts please.
That number is only a representation of Characters from either side, so one could assume given past MMORPG gaming trends, assume that the number of active primary players on the Klingon Empire side to be significantly less. It is than not a wonder, that resources aren't being allocated to fully flesh out a portion of the game which is underplayed.
And isn't most PvP really about bragging rights, or at least feel good rights? We PvP to challenge ourselves. To feel the joy of winning and frustration of defeat. You can feel that whether you're fighting a Klink or a Fed.
I'm not condoning the removal of the KDF Faction - though I never would have launched the game with it in that state, I simply would have added it later with more content. I'm simply saying that PvP can survive whether the game has 2 warring Factions or 2 united Factions, or just 1 Faction.
That's the PVP environment we have right now.
Don't get me wrong, merging the factions adds nothing to the game, but the reasons you've given to keep the factions apart do not make sense.
My biggest issue with PvP is that there seems to be little to no objective of the match than to kill the other player. I find this rather dull. It is one of the reasons I actually liked Kerrat. You go into the mission with a goal to achieve with the other side there to stop you. I have had fun there. It is when you get the PvE and PvP only crowd in there that it becomes not fun.
PvE: "Leave me alone!! I am trying to do this mission."
PvP: *pew pew* "Ha Ha" *spawn camp*.
"War Games" is just another useless "tool" for an excuse to shoot one another. An idea for a "warzone" if you will. KDF warp to UPS to cripple Federation ship building capabilities. Feds warp in to stop them. Open PvP with a goal. I could get behind that.
That would be a good start. For the small fleets like mine we could start with a non combat base (Outpost). When and if we got large enough to be more competive, we could up grade to a combat base (Starbase).
My concept pertained to Quo'nos and ESD but it's be talked about amongst the community to be adapted to the Utopia Planitia map. Attack/defend with multiple objectives and multiple levels of success / failure
This amuses me, You attempt to de-legitimize someone's counter argument to you while vastly ignoring a great deal of the evidence presented to you. You then proceed to use the meat argument as an attempt to Strawman yourself. You just hit Grade-A on the hypocritical scale sir. Bravo!
How is pointing out market potential a straw man? Potential doesn't mean it is easy to tap, but it usually means it is worth trying.
Now having sufficient resources to try is another matter.....
Because thats what they thought the community wanted to hear. Now they have relised lots and lots of people have tried the game with the f2p, got to lvl 50 done the stfs and left.
Thankfully, now they understand PvP would bring all these people back to try the game once again, now they relise people would buy more items from the c-store for a game that had some meaning, that had competition.
The klingon community on STO is 12%(approx) of the federation, having Pvp, a PvP conflict would see these numbers rise and make klingon content/items more worthwhile.
Strange, PvP makes me rather leave than come back to anything. I sincerely doubt that everyone that left did so because of a lack of PvP support.
The KDF desaster is getting worse with every month and new Fed missions. Going back to the mining daily it already affects quality control. Releasding a mission knowing full well that it is broken for a faction is just plain stupid and shows their Fed Elitism.
I read his post before I wrote mine. I don't really see a contradiction.
That is not how I remember it back on July 28th, 2011... Lets look at some history:
http://www.stowiki.org/User:Peregrine_Falcon
July 7th, 2011
All sector blocks except for Sirius are opened up to the KDF.
KDF get new Gorn
KDF get new Qo'noS map
February 3rd, 2011
KDF gets 1 of the first 4 foundary missions ported over
December 9th, 2010
KDF get stolen Fed tricorders
KDF can now get anomalies
Klingons can now craft
Sortie missions in Pi Canis added
KDF gets the 200 day Vet shoulderpads
November 12th, 2010
KDF gets Varanus Fleet Support Vessel, the Maurader Partol Cruiser, and the B'Rel Bird-of-Prey Retrofit
October 15th, 2010
KDF ship wings now move
August 28th, 2010
First of the weekly episodes, Cold Call, goes live for both KDF and Feds
August 5th, 2010
Several Orion and Klingon costume pieces added
July 27th, 2010
Kar'Fi Battle Carrier added
8 new Klingon-Only missions are available
And after all that less than 1/5th of all the player population of STO had taken a just few minutes just to make a KDF toon.
Edit: How ironic, the link I put at the top of my post as a source is in your signature.
If I could I would write to CBS what incompetence Cryptic / PW shows for STO.
and we both know that the game has never been all that popular or "healthy" we've seen the speculation on numbers, I still find it odd that they never have put out a singular number on subs. Most major game companies at least put out something, Cryptic doesn't. Though the game is indeed around now, its still not that well off in many areas, PVP, End game, balance, all need attention, some more than others
My biggest wonder is why the Klingon Academy was created when Klingon content doesn't start until far later. Probably to curb the complaints of KDF players to the addition of Starfleet Academy. I see that's worked out pretty well for them
I cited that 18% of players by July 28th, 2011 had even made a KDF toon.
You countered by saying that you are surprised it was not lower due to all the stuff you said was missing back then:
I again cited all the things that were in by that point countering most all of what you said (not many ships, costume variety, could not leave Qu'noS, no missions, nebulas just stated to work)
The relevance is that you are wrong in this case.
As far as releasing player numbers, most MMOs don't. They only tend to do it when the numbers get relatively high as part of a PR promotion. So the big games tend to talk about it as a way of saying: "We have 1 million! Come play our game. We're popular."
Unfortunately Nagus, it is the same story since the game launched. KDF was promised to be fully fledged out with the 90day patch, then at 6 months then at 1 year, then by end of year 2.
Now we are seeing the same old story,"we want to do it, but not sure how we can" type remarks. When will whoever is running STO, finally realize we NEED 2 FULL factions. That reminds me, weren't we promised the world with a Romulan faction coming soon after KDF fix? guess that's why they are in a rush.
Hope is the only thing left to say i guess.
When the suggestion is to create a mechanic based on fleet membership, it becomes an issue the devs have something to do with.
The basic premise of this thread is that the devs and community reps kept making comments stating that the plan was to bring the KDF on par with the federation. Hence the consternation.
Except Undiscovered Country was pretty much about the Klingons.
The source isn't very trustworthy. It's the same source that also said end-game wasn't a priority because data mining showed them the majority of players were low and midlevels.
Now end-game is a priority?
Heh.
I just don't know how any of you can actually buy that end-game is the focus for STO when the company's never once in three separate games been able to create a robust end-game MMORPG experience.
CBS is correct in saying that Klingon-focused games have sold less than UFP equivalents--and that a majority of players will only play the Federation.
I want a Klingon faction because it would make for a better game. However, I understand the reticence to make it that way when all pre-launch polls saw KDF players as a tiny fragment of those would play the Federation (and most Klingon players will play Federation either as their primary or secondary character).
That said, developing robust territory control through both PvE and PvP would entice players into the KDF faction. Give these players a reason to play--instead of playing FED-focused Featured Series episodes that feel anachronistic.
In fact, focusing on endgame territory control, exploration, and starbases makes sense--since the majority of the playerbase is now at endgame.
At this point, delivering starter KDF content is too little, too late--and I'd rather see the game developed toward supporting things to do at endgame with the occasional mission added to lower the starter level.
The problem there is the old wag the dog tactics Cryptic's employed to get the game where it is now. Enticing people to play the faction they underdeveloped and cut in half will only draw more people to the incomplete and underdeveloped faction, increasing the complaints.
I maintain that the claim that the players are all now at end-game is a convenient stat which is extremely dubious.
People don't want starter content. BEFORE they cut the faction in half, the KDF starter content was fine. It's end-game content was fine. The GAP was in levels 11 to 41.
And still they refuse to do much of anything to fix that.
Lets see who was there from Cryptic (as they do not attribute the quote to a single person):
The evening started out last Friday when I met up with some players, including the entire membership of Ex-Astris Audentia Fleet, and devs at a local restaurant in San Diego, California. Geoff, aka Heretic, was the first of the devs to arrive; he is a Designer for Cryptic who is currently working on the Duty Officer (DOff) system. Steve, aka Salami_Inferno, was the next dev to arrive; he is one of the Producers for STO. The last dev to arrive was Jesse, aka JHeinig, who is a Systems Designer.
So, who are you saying is not trustworthy? Heretic? Salami_Inferno? JHeinig? All of them?
oh that is an easy one. thank you for asking.
All IP MMO developers will make sure all factions have the same amount of content or there is no point on doing the game. Warcraft is about the Humans and alliance. There is extremely little info about the horde by comparison when wow was released. When the game was released, they have equal content, but everyone went and created there human paladins. There was little horde players. The populations evened out in a few years because the mmo developer didn't say "We have X amount of money and since more people play the alliance, we should put it towards the alliance".
Same thing with DAOC or Warhammer.
Every developer knows that they can't shortchange the other factions except Cryptic.
DStahl, the spin doctor of course. The data mining reports, the population percentages (but never population numbers) and so on and so forth.
The information is not trustworthy. It never stands up to scrutiny. And in 3 to 6 months of time passing you find out that it wasn't accurate anyways.
This thread's a great example. The game developers focused on designing new systems and starter areas last year because data mining proved that the players were all low and mid level.
Now we're being told the game, after it launched F2P and got an huge infusion of new, low level players, has them all sitting at end-game.
The numbers are simply used to suit whatever the whim at the time is. As you can see with the track record of this game's developmental history.