test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

Priority One Interviews CaptainGeko

pwebranflakespwebranflakes Member Posts: 7,741
In this week's episode of Priority One, Lead Designer Al "CaptainGeko" Rivera stops by to answer community submitted questions.


Link to the interview.
Post edited by pwebranflakes on
«1

Comments

  • nyniknynik Member Posts: 1,628 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    I had "trouble loading the plugin" but it was just an issue on my end as google just updated Chrome.

    Not to delay tuning into Priority One, I had to listen using Internet Explorer. Thats right. I suffered the use of IE for Priority One. I think I should get a Christopher Pike Medal of Valor or something. But it was worth it.
  • burstdragon323burstdragon323 Member Posts: 853 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Meh.

    More "blah blah we dont care about klingon content" jargon, excpet for one major thing.

    AL, THERE HAS BEEN NO MAJOR CONTENT BEFORE ALPHA. ALL OF THOSE "MISSIONS" YOU CLAIMED WERE FEDERATION FEATURED EPISODES RE-DRESSED FOR THE KDF. DO NOT CLAIM THAT YOU HAVE GIVEN US ALOT OF CONTENT, AS I AND OTHERS KNOW ALOT BETTER.
  • venetar90venetar90 Member Posts: 2 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Meh.

    More "blah blah we dont care about klingon content" jargon, excpet for one major thing.

    AL, THERE HAS BEEN NO MAJOR CONTENT BEFORE ALPHA. ALL OF THOSE "MISSIONS" YOU CLAIMED WERE FEDERATION FEATURED EPISODES RE-DRESSED FOR THE KDF. DO NOT CLAIM THAT YOU HAVE GIVEN US ALOT OF CONTENT, AS I AND OTHERS KNOW ALOT BETTER.

    Agreed 1,000% sir
    [/SIGPIC][SIGPIC]
  • dunnlangdunnlang Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Meh.

    More "blah blah we dont care about klingon content" jargon, excpet for one major thing.

    AL, THERE HAS BEEN NO MAJOR CONTENT BEFORE ALPHA. ALL OF THOSE "MISSIONS" YOU CLAIMED WERE FEDERATION FEATURED EPISODES RE-DRESSED FOR THE KDF. DO NOT CLAIM THAT YOU HAVE GIVEN US ALOT OF CONTENT, AS I AND OTHERS KNOW ALOT BETTER.
    venetar90 wrote: »
    Agreed 1,000% sir

    Except for these 8 missions:
    http://www.stowiki.org/List_of_missions#The_Federation_War

    There must be something in the water on Quo'nos. The KDF is the only faction that has received dedicated mission support since the game launched. In a game that is seriously starved for content, and the dev time required to provide that content, you can not overlook 8 missions.
    [SIGPIC]Want to know more about Cryptic's hidden lottery odds and outcomes? Read my posts below.[/SIGPIC]
    Lock Boxes: The true value - (thread link)
    Jem'Hadar Bug Odds - (thread link)
    Galor Creation Rate - (thread link)
    Find me in TSW - TSW Chronicle Profile
  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    dunnlang wrote: »
    Except for these 8 missions:
    http://www.stowiki.org/List_of_missions#The_Federation_War

    There must be something in the water on Quo'nos. The KDF is the only faction that has received dedicated mission support since the game launched. In a game that is seriously starved for content, and the dev time required to provide that content, you can not overlook 8 missions.

    i cant help but scroll up and count 27 missions in the klingon war arc for federation player. thats not counting exploration, defend sector, patrols, and the cardasian and romulan arc.

    so good job making their point about there being next to no klingon content.
  • dunnlangdunnlang Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    i cant help but scroll up and count 27 missions in the klingon war arc for federation player. thats not counting exploration, defend sector, patrols, and the cardasian and romulan arc.

    so good job making their point about there being next to no klingon content.

    8 missions, better than any of the launch Federation content, constitutes "MAJOR CONTENT BEFORE ALPHA" in any book. I did not make their point, I refuted it with actual evidence to the contrary.

    Don't forget that they also opened up every sector in the game to the KDF, added Explore missions, Fleet Actions, Sorties, race specific costumes, and race specific ships.

    Fact is that the KDF is the only faction that has received specific new mission content since the game was launched. If KDF players continue to ignore all the gains that have been made, then what is the point of even trying to make more progress?

    Anyone can be displeased about the state of the faction, but there is no reasonable argument that the KDF has received no support when they have received just as much, if not more, faction specific support since the game launched.
    [SIGPIC]Want to know more about Cryptic's hidden lottery odds and outcomes? Read my posts below.[/SIGPIC]
    Lock Boxes: The true value - (thread link)
    Jem'Hadar Bug Odds - (thread link)
    Galor Creation Rate - (thread link)
    Find me in TSW - TSW Chronicle Profile
  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    those 8 missions are like from 2010. at launch the federation faction was 'done', since launch most of the content has been sharable between factions. the kdf faction has no more then those 8 story missions to truly call their own, 11 if you count the sorties and alpha. the kdf could really use a batch of 20 or so story mission, then that faction could sort of be 'done' too.

    this isn't even a cause i champion or anything, but its as plane as day that this is the reality, and this is what is needed.
  • zeuxidemus001zeuxidemus001 Member Posts: 3,357 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    At this point with 11 LG's and one 3 levels from 50 from doff system being almost 12 LG's this is just my point of view because I am done making new characters...

    I'd rather see end game content but to the point like when I test something on tribble as a KDF person that its not horribly bugged or to the point where I just watch federation testers doing the shooting and I have to sit and watch...

    This is what I see happening though with the KDF to be brutally honest the tutorial will be an optional thing asking you yes or no if you want to take a tour of the city. Then before any of that happens you will have 19-20 levels of serving on a ship where you kill everyone above you until you reach commander rank of your ship. That would be the best true to Klingon lore way to rise in rank without taxing too much dev time and pretty much settle the content issue.

    It also kinda goes with the timeline since as a player you are not intermingled with the doings of B'vat and so forth. For content wise all this stuff KDF is not involved with currently at lower levels I believe as future content the KDF actually get involved after the fact it just works with what we have and it gets the job done and moves the game back on track.

    Edit: Another side note to the podcasters in this regard being this thing is about 2.5 hours or more long and its not broken down into segments and being I am not really into podcasts to begin with... If I am just trying to listen to hear the interview and not all the other beating around the bush talk I'd just suggest putting segments where people can just listen to the interview if need be.
  • phyrexianherophyrexianhero Member Posts: 768 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Since launch there have been several new episodes added:
    • 3 Federation exclusive (Collateral Damage, Asset Recovery, State of Q)
    • 9 KDF exclusive (Bringing Down the House, The House Always Wins, Second Star to the Right Straight on 'til Morning, Keep Your Enemies Closer, Blood of the Empire, Destiny, Afterlife, The Gates of Gre'thor, Alpha)
    • 24 Faction neutral (Assimilation, The Return, Fluid Dynamics, A Light in the Dark, and 5 from each feature series: Cold War, Spectres, Cloaked Intentions, The 2800)

    When the game launched there were 42 Federation episodes and 0 KDF episodes for 45 and 41 levels of gameplay, respectively (or 0.93 episodes/level for Fed, 0 episodes/level for KDF).

    Today there are 69 Federation playable episodes and 33 KDF playable episodes for 51 and 31 levels of gameplay, respectively (or 1.35 episodes/level for Fed, 1.06 episodes/level for KDF).

    I'd still like to see a lot more KDF-exclusive content added, but what I think is really hurting its numbers is not lack of content but the barrier to entry: players have to be half-way finished to leveling up a Federation character before they can start their first KDF.

    Also see: STO Timeline and Fed-KDF disparity (table).
    Playing since January 2010. STOwiki administrator. Accolade hunter.
    My STOwiki page | Reachable in-game @PhyrexianHero
    Fed Armada: Section 31 (level 730, 2700+ members)
    KDF Armada: Klingon Intelligence (level 699, 2100+ members)
  • sovereignmansovereignman Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Ok, about the actual podcast/interview.

    POne makin' moves. Diggin' it.

    Good stuff. Really appreciate Al getting into the nitty gritty behind some of the things like why do gated content, monetization, game philosophy, why throw the Armi in without testing (wtg whiners), etc.

    Can't wait for pt. 2.

    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMm_VoKkuco - Needs more female relief ops ensign.
  • blagormblagorm Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Meh.

    More "blah blah we dont care about klingon content" jargon, excpet for one major thing.

    AL, THERE HAS BEEN NO MAJOR CONTENT BEFORE ALPHA. ALL OF THOSE "MISSIONS" YOU CLAIMED WERE FEDERATION FEATURED EPISODES RE-DRESSED FOR THE KDF. DO NOT CLAIM THAT YOU HAVE GIVEN US ALOT OF CONTENT, AS I AND OTHERS KNOW ALOT BETTER.

    Agreed of Infinity to the 10 power times infinity. Id say more but Im not done looking at this fourm
    R'tolves Will Spread Thier Peace and Will Prevail Over the Hostiles Who Dare Hurt Such A Isolationist Consitutional Monarchy!
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • blagormblagorm Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    dunnlang wrote: »
    8 missions, better than any of the launch Federation content, constitutes "MAJOR CONTENT BEFORE ALPHA" in any book. I did not make their point, I refuted it with actual evidence to the contrary.

    Don't forget that they also opened up every sector in the game to the KDF, added Explore missions, Fleet Actions, Sorties, race specific costumes, and race specific ships.

    Fact is that the KDF is the only faction that has received specific new mission content since the game was launched. If KDF players continue to ignore all the gains that have been made, then what is the point of even trying to make more progress?

    Anyone can be displeased about the state of the faction, but there is no reasonable argument that the KDF has received no support when they have received just as much, if not more, faction specific support since the game launched.

    I know that Factions are good in all but listen to yourself. KDF by my knowlege can care less about race ships like the Federation dose. I don't think they complain. Plus, that mission thing, 8 likke special KDF missions isnt gonna cover almost 100+ fed misions. And dont get me started with acess everywhere. Thats at MAruarding Rank 3 and Feds can come to our space as well. Feds have more costumes than KDF so much that KDF looks bland with only one special outfit for them. (C-Store, Not Honor) And specific mission content? I bet its the same with feds and you just making us think difrent. I may have not been playing long, but man do I know that the KDF is half dead gagh and there people are just plain dead gagh to the STO Team. Federation have Rare exploration as well as fleet actions, i guees sorties what ever that was, and FEDS HAVE RACE SHIPS*. So dont be tellin me thoses lies. And race specific costumes for KDF!?!??! Like I said, only Klingon Academy and dumb little side clothings that are blander than rotten gagh. (Dont think im using gagh for gagh, I REALLLY mean it.) And dont get me started with ships. KDF's newest was the Borstaque and the Feds? A CATIAN CAIIRER*, That little Escort ship, and that other carrier. If it was up to me, Id do it for the people. But STO Team want profit and if theres not enough KDF (Probally cause you ingore then like dead gagh.) It makes sense they get angry. Im KDF ever since lvl 25 Fed and let me tell yah NOT happy. And so you know, if you DARE just throw in a little ship for KDF, that isnt gonna help the many more problems you seem to ingnore. and let me tell you this now, you probally didnt know but if there was a lot of KDFs back then, why nothing there? PLus by what I know KDF came after Season 1 so again I take your words as Dead Gagh. Id say more but im seeing any other posts im talking about.:mad: :mad: :mad:

    P.S. Gagh is an expression I use to show what I really mean being a KDF player. :cool:
    R'tolves Will Spread Thier Peace and Will Prevail Over the Hostiles Who Dare Hurt Such A Isolationist Consitutional Monarchy!
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • blagormblagorm Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    those 8 missions are like from 2010. at launch the federation faction was 'done', since launch most of the content has been sharable between factions. the kdf faction has no more then those 8 story missions to truly call their own, 11 if you count the sorties and alpha. the kdf could really use a batch of 20 or so story mission, then that faction could sort of be 'done' too.

    this isn't even a cause i champion or anything, but its as plane as day that this is the reality, and this is what is needed.

    Agree (Man.. I must be mad... im posting alla this stuff about how right the people are)
    R'tolves Will Spread Thier Peace and Will Prevail Over the Hostiles Who Dare Hurt Such A Isolationist Consitutional Monarchy!
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • blagormblagorm Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    why is it that we only have 1 special race anyways huh!?!? We get Fersans. FEDS get Catians, Klingons, and Joined Trill. Dont get back at me for saying Klingon, its was unlockable, not a honorable one that you have no matter what in KDF. Sure we do have race ships like I said before but look at Fed. They do too rather it be the cats or the Vulcans. They also have a 20+ list of races or so. And Im really mad because you just happened to make the little Gorn-Klingon War up for curtural value . That isnt gonna help. Same with the others. IF anything, federation has more than KDF by my over exaggeration of infinity equation back a few posts up. That was my hour of talks. 4 posts in a row becuse of what STO is doing. It would not be so cluttered if you would just do stuuf for them. I have Gold. Your income can drop 144$ a year with 6-month but due to my love of Role playing, your lucky im still on and living off that.

    Link For Gorn Forgery: http://www.stowiki.org/Gorn_Hegemony
    R'tolves Will Spread Thier Peace and Will Prevail Over the Hostiles Who Dare Hurt Such A Isolationist Consitutional Monarchy!
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • leviathan99#2867 leviathan99 Member Posts: 7,747 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    blagorm wrote: »
    why is it that we only have 1 special race anyways huh!?!? We get Fersans. FEDS get Catians, Klingons, and Joined Trill. Dont get back at me for saying Klingon, its was unlockable, not a honorable one that you have no matter what in KDF. Sure we do have race ships like I said before but look at Fed. They do too rather it be the cats or the Vulcans. They also have a 20+ list of races or so. And Im really mad because you just happened to make the little Gorn-Klingon War up for curtural value . That isnt gonna help. Same with the others. IF anything, federation has more than KDF by my over exaggeration of infinity equation back a few posts up. That was my hour of talks. 4 posts in a row becuse of what STO is doing. It would not be so cluttered if you would just do stuuf for them. I have Gold. Your income can drop 144$ a year with 6-month but due to my love of Role playing, your lucky im still on and living off that.

    Link For Gorn Forgery: http://www.stowiki.org/Gorn_Hegemony

    Because they don't anticipate enough of you will buy them. They picked the ONE they expected would sell the best to the game's current players.

    They don't think enough of you exist to warrant it. They aren't going to work 10x as hard marketing to Klingons (and losing Federation players) to try to market towards balanced factions.

    It is not a goal. It has never been a goal. It will never be a goal.

    Everything they have done has been about accommodation and, over time, trying to increase accommodation beyond what they initially planned. It was never about maintaining two separate games. It was about two separate factions in one person's mind, Jack Emmert, and because the CEO offered something up as an idea pre-launch, pre-development, folks have been taking that as a promise even though everyone since December of 2009 has been trying to adjust expectations DOWN.

    What you are asking for will NEVER be granted by developers and does absolutely nothing but agitate the community (those of us with Klingon alts included) and antagonize developers who won't and frankly can't give in fully to your demands, who will never be moved by your arguments, which are shaky.

    I want more and better for the KDF. I think there are creative solutions.

    But this idea of re-dressed content not counting and wanting absolute parity of missions is outrageous. Even WOW is about 2/3rds re-dressed quests between factions.

    You are asking for something that is out of the question, that will never be granted, that only upsets people.

    I do not understand why you ask for this. You were offered this once by Emmert. Everyone has since squarely said that it was not in the cards, that the CEO's words were not meant as a promise, that if you consider that a promise then it will always be a broken one.

    You are fighting for nothing, for absolutely nothing. With nothing to gain.

    And I am not asking rhetorical questions. I sincerely want to know why. Do you think there could conceivably be a reversal? Do you think fan polls and aggressiveness will EVER lead to anything constructive in this regard? I want to understand your position.
  • atatassaultatatassault Member Posts: 1,008 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    blagorm wrote: »
    why is it that we only have 1 special race anyways huh!?!? We get Fersans. FEDS get Catians, Klingons, and Joined Trill. Dont get back at me for saying Klingon, its was unlockable, not a honorable one that you have no matter what in KDF. Sure we do have race ships like I said before but look at Fed. They do too rather it be the cats or the Vulcans. They also have a 20+ list of races or so. And Im really mad because you just happened to make the little Gorn-Klingon War up for curtural value . That isnt gonna help. Same with the others. IF anything, federation has more than KDF by my over exaggeration of infinity equation back a few posts up. That was my hour of talks. 4 posts in a row becuse of what STO is doing. It would not be so cluttered if you would just do stuuf for them. I have Gold. Your income can drop 144$ a year with 6-month but due to my love of Role playing, your lucky im still on and living off that.

    Link For Gorn Forgery: http://www.stowiki.org/Gorn_Hegemony
    The KDF also get Joined Trill.

    Also, blame the IP. Most of the Alpha Species encountered that aren't Cardassian (or allied), Klingon (or allied), or Romulan (or allied) are Federation. There just weren't very many IP species the KDF was able to logically absorb.
  • clip2guyclip2guy Member Posts: 7 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    that is cool
  • bitemepwebitemepwe Member Posts: 6,760 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    redacted as I'm trying to play nice.





    bear with me as its a new aproach and thier will be difficulties in its implementation.
    Leonard Nimoy, Spock.....:(

    R.I.P
  • leviathan99#2867 leviathan99 Member Posts: 7,747 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Okay.

    To Al Rivera:

    Lockbox Loot:

    I have an idea for an endless consumable. And this may be a nightmare. But I think it would be neat if we had items where people could slot the energy type and the modifiers onto weapons. I can see this being huge with a kit revamp.

    I have some extra ideas on this. One involves the story crafting "first person duty officers" system I've discussed, which is a kind of reputation advancement system. This is the economical model for story advancement. It was suggested I forward my notes to you but I'm honestly reluctant to share all of it because part of it ties into some unpublished academic work I'm doing.

    This actually ties in somewhat with a trait revamp too. It kills me that I can't figure out how to share this. It's monetizable. It's perfect for Trek but would be just MENTAL as an inclusion in, say, Champs. If you can respec traits, you can EARN them by revealing your character.

    It's how you do secret identities. It's also a way to have more comic book-y stories in more distinct styles beyond just costuming entities.

    Ships:

    I think it would be neat to have faction specific "shuttle freighters." These could have less functionality than the Tuffi (ie. no crafting, maybe a single extra transwarp ala a transwarp to Memory Alpha). Basically, these would be heavy, slow-turning "tank shuttles" with bank access inside.

    Ship "away teams":

    Were you at Cryptic on City of Heroes? You know their arena system?

    I like the idea that a fleet admiral would have a resource pool for ships. Say a Connie is 500 points and a T6 ship is 2500 points. This would mean someone could choose between commanding a Connie with 4 BOffs on Connies or a single T6 ship. Or a Tier 5 ship and a Connie/Miranda/NX pet.

    Ship Interior Travel:

    Forget travel in sector space for now but this is how you do exploration. You do ship interior travel for exploration.

    Get rid of the box. Have DOff assignments fold into cluster missions. The cluster is outside the ship window. You do DOff assignments from your ship interior with a cluster appropriate skybox outside. You get a related cluster mission load, transitioning from ship interior to entering the exploration system.
  • genericiigenericii Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2012

    I loved Al's comment that there's no level 1-20 klingons so why make level 1-20 content. Isn't is just possible there's no level 1-20 klingons because when you make a KDF character you start at level 21? Just asking... :eek:
  • phyrexianherophyrexianhero Member Posts: 768 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    genericii wrote: »

    I loved Al's comment that there's no level 1-20 klingons so why make level 1-20 content. Isn't is just possible there's no level 1-20 klingons because when you make a KDF character you start at level 21? Just asking... :eek:

    There's a lot of self-fulfilling prophecy with Al (and DStahl's) comments on this. Of course if you don't allow ability for a new account to start a character as a Klingon, have less faction exclusive content, etc. then you're going to have less players. It concerns me what any future a Romulan faction would have -- would they just make it levels 40-50 and add a half dozen ships and a handful of episodes?

    The hyper-fast leveling in STO does allow anyone to get a max-ranked character in hours or days and enables them to play endgame content, but at the cost of making low tier ships virtually obsolete (cause in the C-Store you're basically buying a console for the money, not the ship) as well as all-but-the-highest mark gear.

    I would love to see more episodes added with Season 7 and I hope that once there's at least 40+ episodes for KDF (they're currently at 33 all told) that they will open up Tier 2 and let Klingons start at level 10.
    Playing since January 2010. STOwiki administrator. Accolade hunter.
    My STOwiki page | Reachable in-game @PhyrexianHero
    Fed Armada: Section 31 (level 730, 2700+ members)
    KDF Armada: Klingon Intelligence (level 699, 2100+ members)
  • suricattasuricatta Member Posts: 230 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Really confused by his answer to my question regarding the level cap. To roughly quote him:-
    We won't be seeing level cap increases in STO, we will see rank increase though

    The idea being that making content is expensive and that moving the level cap will make lvl 50 content defunct. So how the hell will people hit the next rank? If it isn't by levels it will just be via some other type of number that you will increase, which will ofcourse need content, so his argument makes no sence on that part. Also, since all content in the game has been made to scale with levels, his argument about lvl 50 content is also mute.

    If Cryptic want people to get to 'endgame' ASAP which is why they sped up leveling, and they don't want to flesh out the KDF so they can level from the beginning, and they don't want to add more levels because they don't want to move 'endgame', then I have to ask, "Why don't we just remove the level system?".

    It seems like right now the game doesn't actually know what it wants to be, so why not just let players earn skill points, these can be used to fill your skill trees, then just add 'alot' of new skills to the skill tree and let players grind them out (with no cap on skill points). Maybe have ship types locked to skills you have to put points into, a bit like how Eve does it. Right now it feels like Cryptic don't want STO to be a level based game, but have it as one anyway.
  • bitemepwebitemepwe Member Posts: 6,760 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    genericii wrote: »

    I loved Al's comment that there's no level 1-20 klingons so why make level 1-20 content. Isn't is just possible there's no level 1-20 klingons because when you make a KDF character you start at level 21? Just asking... :eek:


    If he had said , " Why make KDF missions levels 1-20 for a faction we undersupported from the start of teh game, starved for content thus cuasing the playerbase to dwindle in size and has been proven to not spend enough money becuase of such a history to warrant further development?"

    At least it would have been honest instead of hiding behind the "chicken & Egg" defense.

    If they had levels 1 to 20, thus making a complete progression, I know I would be rolling alts and playing those missions. Just like mnay feds have toon amounts numbering in the teens if not higher, I think mnay KDF fans would like to enjoy the same with a storyline to back it up.
    Leonard Nimoy, Spock.....:(

    R.I.P
  • alastorforthrighalastorforthrigh Member Posts: 222 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    bitemepwe wrote: »
    If he had said , " Why make KDF missions levels 1-20 for a faction we undersupported from the start of teh game, starved for content thus cuasing the playerbase to dwindle in size and has been proven to not spend enough money becuase of such a history to warrant further development?"

    At least it would have been honest instead of hiding behind the "chicken & Egg" defense.

    If they had levels 1 to 20, thus making a complete progression, I know I would be rolling alts and playing those missions. Just like mnay feds have toon amounts numbering in the teens if not higher, I think mnay KDF fans would like to enjoy the same with a storyline to back it up.

    At some point the Developer team's gonna just stop talking about KDF content. Because they can't win. They don't want to make the content, they don't want to just out and out say that they screwed the KDF from the start either. It's that black mark that keeps getting brought up though, and its what's really keeping STO from being a great game in my opinion. You can't build a two faction game, with one faction.
    2qTOAB3.gif
  • phyrexianherophyrexianhero Member Posts: 768 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    suricatta wrote: »
    Really confused by his answer to my question regarding the level cap. To roughly quote him:-

    The idea being that making content is expensive and that moving the level cap will make lvl 50 content defunct. So how the hell will people hit the next rank? If it isn't by levels it will just be via some other type of number that you will increase, which will ofcourse need content, so his argument makes no sence on that part. Also, since all content in the game has been made to scale with levels, his argument about lvl 50 content is also mute.

    If Cryptic want people to get to 'endgame' ASAP which is why they sped up leveling, and they don't want to flesh out the KDF so they can level from the beginning, and they don't want to add more levels because they don't want to move 'endgame', then I have to ask, "Why don't we just remove the level system?".

    It seems like right now the game doesn't actually know what it wants to be, so why not just let players earn skill points, these can be used to fill your skill trees, then just add 'alot' of new skills to the skill tree and let players grind them out (with no cap on skill points). Maybe have ship types locked to skills you have to put points into, a bit like how Eve does it. Right now it feels like Cryptic don't want STO to be a level based game, but have it as one anyway.

    He talks about it a bit around the 1:11:00 mark that it'd be like a talent tree. Previously all ranks were directly tied to levels so this would, presumably, be something new entirely.

    What I thought would be interesting is if they reshuffle the ranks with their corresponding levels they could do the following:

    0-9 Ensign
    10-19 Lieutenant Junior Grade
    20-29 Lieutenant
    30-39 Lieutenant Commander
    40-49 Commander
    50 Captain

    Then players could opt to increase their rank to admiral or stay at captain, while allowing everyone to still play at the same level (50 for now).
    Playing since January 2010. STOwiki administrator. Accolade hunter.
    My STOwiki page | Reachable in-game @PhyrexianHero
    Fed Armada: Section 31 (level 730, 2700+ members)
    KDF Armada: Klingon Intelligence (level 699, 2100+ members)
  • macfellymacfelly Member Posts: 107 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    What I thought would be interesting is if they reshuffle the ranks with their corresponding levels they could do the following:

    0-9 Ensign
    10-19 Lieutenant Junior Grade
    20-29 Lieutenant
    30-39 Lieutenant Commander
    40-49 Commander
    50 Captain

    Then players could opt to increase their rank to admiral or stay at captain, while allowing everyone to still play at the same level (50 for now).

    This^ I don't know why they decided to rank to Admiral, Captain was the logical choice. I wanted to be the Captain of my own ship not some desk jockey Admiral. Granted you can accomplish this with the Captain title and rank bars, but still.


    Edit: also the podcast needs to be available on iTunes I don't have time to sit at my computer for an hour and listen to a podcast, they were meant to be portable.
    Apparently not loyal enough :|
  • bitemepwebitemepwe Member Posts: 6,760 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    At some point the Developer team's gonna just stop talking about KDF content. Because they can't win. They don't want to make the content, they don't want to just out and out say that they screwed the KDF from the start either. It's that black mark that keeps getting brought up though, and its what's really keeping STO from being a great game in my opinion. You can't build a two faction game, with one faction.

    It is a sad fact that this will always pop up in interviews as a question. Its also a sad fact that its not the KDF fans fault that the faction was ill-created by the Devs. To have this pop-up all the time is what happens when you do something wrongly - people whom feel slighted remind you of it until such time as they feel you understand thier pains.

    While the Devs have siad they understand the pains of the KDf fans ingame, I do not think rationiliizng the issue or hiding it behind witty sayings like " chicken & egg" helps at all.

    I do find it nice that Al did say that the Dev team has no plans to ignore or do away with the KDF and that we KDF fans will see attention from time to time as the game progresses forward.
    Some attention is better than none but half a faction is still less than a whole and I still wish to see that completion happen one day.

    On that note I will stop my tirades on fed pandering as long as we are not ignored inside the game in which we too seek to find fun.

    As well if they wish to sell some KDF stuff in the Cstore, the T.I.E. KDF bundle pack was an excellent idea.
    If they wish to give the KDF some of its uniqueness-feel back to it they could make a Bath'leth Kit that allows the KDF warrior to do what Klingons do best on the ground, fighting with blade in hand.
    Leonard Nimoy, Spock.....:(

    R.I.P
  • drudgydrudgy Member Posts: 367 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    I enjoyed this interview very much. I can agree with Al though, that most Klingon's are already max level. I would like them to go back on the existing missions though like Adrianne suggested and fix some of the existing bugs. I've leveled 3 Klingon's all the way up, and it's been pretty painful with each experience.

    I also found it interesting to see what Al had to say about raising the level cap. I must say i'm with him on that one. I like all my ships and if they raised the level cap they would have to refit, or make new versions of everything. Just expanding on our existing content seems to make sense.

    Anyway great interview I look forward to part two!
    f3wrLS.jpg
  • tehjoneltehjonel Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    great interview. i understand the reasoning behind alot of their decisions involving game content, direction, and items, including the lockboxes.

    keep up the good work. :)
  • leviathan99#2867 leviathan99 Member Posts: 7,747 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    suricatta wrote: »
    Really confused by his answer to my question regarding the level cap. To roughly quote him:-



    The idea being that making content is expensive and that moving the level cap will make lvl 50 content defunct. So how the hell will people hit the next rank? If it isn't by levels it will just be via some other type of number that you will increase, which will ofcourse need content, so his argument makes no sence on that part. Also, since all content in the game has been made to scale with levels, his argument about lvl 50 content is also mute.

    If Cryptic want people to get to 'endgame' ASAP which is why they sped up leveling, and they don't want to flesh out the KDF so they can level from the beginning, and they don't want to add more levels because they don't want to move 'endgame', then I have to ask, "Why don't we just remove the level system?".

    It seems like right now the game doesn't actually know what it wants to be, so why not just let players earn skill points, these can be used to fill your skill trees, then just add 'alot' of new skills to the skill tree and let players grind them out (with no cap on skill points). Maybe have ship types locked to skills you have to put points into, a bit like how Eve does it. Right now it feels like Cryptic don't want STO to be a level based game, but have it as one anyway.

    That's not necessarily true.

    I still think the way to do the STFs rights would be to have scaling gear that directly (and only) applies to those STFs and is otherwise just pretty good.

    Just flat out make the gear award flat increasing bonuses each tier in Borg STFs with a fourth modifier that's basically a difficulty reduction.

    Then when you add Undine or augment STFs, somebody in Mk 12 Borg gear has an initial edge but somebody in Undine Mk 10 gets, say, a 15% bonus in Undine STFs ONLY. Which makes them better in Undine Mk 10 in Undine STFs... But no better in Borg STFs.

    So instead of the gear in each set of STFs getting better, none of it is ever better than the Omega Force/Honor Guard/MACO Mk 12. But the existing gear gets tuned against trivializing Borg. And the Undine gear is tuned against trivializing Undine.

    This would make all STF bundles into non-linear, parallel progression paths rather than the next one being inherently harder than the current one.
Sign In or Register to comment.