What are your plans devs?

rimner

I am relatively new to the game as in about 6 weeks so please forgive any mistakes

I have to ask the devs, what are your plans for STO?

the reason i ask is, well, its kinda got some major flaws and i cannot think of any way they could be solved without upsetting MANY people.

This is one of the all time great franchises, with established fans spanning generations and a game was created that can only be described as Star Trek Wars. That was an insult by the way to anyone who is curious, this game, instead of been a MMORG for ST fans is more like the games on facebook, ie Mafia Wars, Vampire Wars etc....

Now its my understanding that originally this game was subscription based like most good MMORGS but its easy to see why that wouldnt work too well, the problem been retention. Most games have a grinding process to go through, but that process is usually desirable to complete, as in you need experience to level or components to craft or... you get the idea, grinding is an unavoidable chore necessary to achieve a goal. Grinding in STO is for...well what exactly, dilithium, so you can buy new costumes or a new ship or more bank space etc...hardly things that would inspire most people to do it for long. There is a BIG difference between grinding to improve your character and get a new ability you want or new level so you can get something good, and grinding to get shiny new things that dont actually do much more than what you have.

This in my view cannot be fixed and would require a restart, the leveling is SO fast in this game that no real grind is needed, just doing the episodes and a few daily's will easily cap you, you zoom past levels so fast that there is no real achievment felt, no, cool i got promotion to Lt Cmd the grinding was worth it, in a few weeks i may make Cmd if iam lucky and work hard, lol.

Another thing that iam curious to know is 'Do any of the Devs actually know what Star Trek is?', it appears to me that none of them have ever watched a series, so i will give them a small hint, 'VERY FEW EPISODES IN STAR TREK WHERE SOLVED WITH CONFLICT', there its said, sorry devs. I know that you need to have combat in STO, and i know that alot of people like PVP and each to their own, BUT, and its a big but, not everything needs to be killing, there must be alot of star trek fans out there leaving the game because its 'just not star trek'.

This probably can be fixed but would require alot of work, I mean how can you implement diplomacy quests that are not just 'go here, click this dude, go back here click this dudette'
its not an easy thing to do. I suppose traders could be an easier non combat role for people to play, and easier to implement, but again after a while even this could get old. I suppose you could ask the community for ideas for non combat missions, they are not dumb people on the most part and could save you alot of work if you only ASKED them.

This is getting too long so i will finish soon, i realise that PWE now runs STO, and that they seem to be actually working on improving the game, starbases for example, so i do not believe (should i say do not WANT to believe) that all is lost and hopeless, this is a good game for a while but gets stale quickly at the moment, this COULD be a great game with numbers approaching WOW if it was done properly, and i believe the fans of star trek deserve the game fit to bear its name.

So with that over i would ask again, Devs, what are your long term plans for STO? please

otowi

It would take a lot of time and not least resources to get STO to higher levels.

Would I like STO to have as much content and VO's as The Old Republic have??? Yes, but Cryptic does not have those kind of resources.

The game is far from bad, but it is lacking in terms of content across the entire game.

We can only hope that what Dstahl said holds true, and that come Season 7 we will get more content....

trek21

On the whole "Ever watched an episode of ST", the devs watch a random episode of Star Trek every lunch, and many of them have Star Trek collectibles. So they obviously know their Trek a great deal.

But this is a video game... doing everything the trek way would not sell to a majority of people. Star Trek fans yes, but that wouldn't make enough money to keep the game afloat.

Plus I might add, the most popular Star Trek movies and video games were more about combat than anything else. STO is hardly any different in the combat area

commadorebob

The devs have Star Trek posters and memorabilia that would make you jealous. I had the thought many times as I walked through their work area "Would anyone miss this?"

(j/k of course. I would never steal from anyone.)

capnbludd

commadorebob wrote: »

The devs have Star Trek posters and memorabilia that would make you jealous. I had the thought many times as I walked through their work area "Would anyone miss this?"

(j/k of course. I would never steal from anyone.)

So what you're saying is, they haven't missed anything yet..;);):D

rimner

ok, i was a bit harsh on the 'have they ever seen Star Trek' front, i know that having a game where content isnt purely 'KILL this' would be difficult, but making alternative ways to level and do missions isnt beyond the realms of possible, there are MANY star trek fans out there and appealing to them would generate more income than the fickle war mongers who change games regularly when the 'latest new killer game' arrives.

And you never know, creating the game most trekkies want is more likely to survive on subscriptions alone, so the pay2win mentallity of the moment can be made redundant.

trek21

rimner wrote: »

ok, i was a bit harsh on the 'have they ever seen Star Trek' front, i know that having a game where content isnt purely 'KILL this' would be difficult, but making alternative ways to level and do missions isnt beyond the realms of possible, there are MANY star trek fans out there and appealing to them would generate more income than the fickle war mongers who change games regularly when the 'latest new killer game' arrives.

And you never know, creating the game most trekkies want is more likely to survive on subscriptions alone, so the pay2win mentallity of the moment can be made redundant.

well, they are slowly adding more options in the newer missions (like in the remade Doomsday Machine episode, you have the choice to either go through the combat-only guard, or the one who can be reasoned with).

so yeah, much of the newer content is slowly getting there. remaking all of the launch content would be a serious boost though (as they had to make the game from the ground-up, with a forced deadline, so they had to go for simple).

and I think the P2W 'mentallity' was forced on them by PWE.

rimner

Its my fault, i didnt make myself totally clear, adding new ways to do missions is more a wish than a reality, i know the difficulty in implementing these ideas. And i agree things look as though they are improving with starbases etc... My point is more along the lines of, i dont think there is not enough content, i have barely done 1/5th of whats out there, the problem is iam level 50, there is no great desire to do these missions when i will gain absolutely nothing, the rewards will be worse than i already have, the skill points are useless and i already have 1mil+ BO skill points spare. These games last longer when you have the desire to grind out missions, when you are gaining something, not farming for dilithium to convert to 'c' to buy a new cool looking costume.

I dont know who is calling the shots with STO iam not privy to that information, but i do know MMORG's, people need a reason to grind, usually to improve their char or ship or something, grinding day after day because quite frankly 'there is nothing else to do but that new hairstyle would look nice', is not going to keep people. Raising the level cap will do little either, when you cap at 50 in a few days, even raising that cap you will soon be back at this stage again.

So all iam asking is 'where is this game heading, to complete pay2win like evony etc.. or a true MMORG?'

trek21

rimner wrote: »

Its my fault, i didnt make myself totally clear, adding new ways to do missions is more a wish than a reality, i know the difficulty in implementing these ideas. And i agree things look as though they are improving with starbases etc... My point is more along the lines of, i dont think there is not enough content, i have barely done 1/5th of whats out there, the problem is iam level 50, there is no great desire to do these missions when i will gain absolutely nothing, the rewards will be worse than i already have, the skill points are useless and i already have 1mil+ BO skill points spare. These games last longer when you have the desire to grind out missions, when you are gaining something, not farming for dilithium to convert to 'c' to buy a new cool looking costume.

I dont know who is calling the shots with STO iam not privy to that information, but i do know MMORG's, people need a reason to grind, usually to improve their char or ship or something, grinding day after day because quite frankly 'there is nothing else to do but that new hairstyle would look nice', is not going to keep people. Raising the level cap will do little either, when you cap at 50 in a few days, even raising that cap you will soon be back at this stage again.

So all iam asking is 'where is this game heading, to complete pay2win like evony etc.. or a true MMORG?'

well, so far as that question, the game's Season 6 is heading to Fleet Starbases, which are basically an endgame grind... but then again, endgame has had little to do for awhile now, so it's a start

and as far as we know, Season 7 is planning to add content. we're not sure exactly what it will be, or what new things they'll give us, but that's that current plan

so really, we're not entirely sure on the long term aspect of that question

kamiyama317

rimner wrote: »

I am relatively new to the game as in about 6 weeks so please forgive any mistakes

I have to ask the devs, what are your plans for STO?

the reason i ask is, well, its kinda got some major flaws and i cannot think of any way they could be solved without upsetting MANY people.

This is one of the all time great franchises, with established fans spanning generations and a game was created that can only be described as Star Trek Wars. That was an insult by the way to anyone who is curious, this game, instead of been a MMORG for ST fans is more like the games on facebook, ie Mafia Wars, Vampire Wars etc....

Now its my understanding that originally this game was subscription based like most good MMORGS but its easy to see why that wouldnt work too well, the problem been retention. Most games have a grinding process to go through, but that process is usually desirable to complete, as in you need experience to level or components to craft or... you get the idea, grinding is an unavoidable chore necessary to achieve a goal. Grinding in STO is for...well what exactly, dilithium, so you can buy new costumes or a new ship or more bank space etc...hardly things that would inspire most people to do it for long. There is a BIG difference between grinding to improve your character and get a new ability you want or new level so you can get something good, and grinding to get shiny new things that dont actually do much more than what you have.

This in my view cannot be fixed and would require a restart, the leveling is SO fast in this game that no real grind is needed, just doing the episodes and a few daily's will easily cap you, you zoom past levels so fast that there is no real achievment felt, no, cool i got promotion to Lt Cmd the grinding was worth it, in a few weeks i may make Cmd if iam lucky and work hard, lol.

Another thing that iam curious to know is 'Do any of the Devs actually know what Star Trek is?', it appears to me that none of them have ever watched a series, so i will give them a small hint, 'VERY FEW EPISODES IN STAR TREK WHERE SOLVED WITH CONFLICT', there its said, sorry devs. I know that you need to have combat in STO, and i know that alot of people like PVP and each to their own, BUT, and its a big but, not everything needs to be killing, there must be alot of star trek fans out there leaving the game because its 'just not star trek'.

This probably can be fixed but would require alot of work, I mean how can you implement diplomacy quests that are not just 'go here, click this dude, go back here click this dudette'
its not an easy thing to do. I suppose traders could be an easier non combat role for people to play, and easier to implement, but again after a while even this could get old. I suppose you could ask the community for ideas for non combat missions, they are not dumb people on the most part and could save you alot of work if you only ASKED them.

This is getting too long so i will finish soon, i realise that PWE now runs STO, and that they seem to be actually working on improving the game, starbases for example, so i do not believe (should i say do not WANT to believe) that all is lost and hopeless, this is a good game for a while but gets stale quickly at the moment, this COULD be a great game with numbers approaching WOW if it was done properly, and i believe the fans of star trek deserve the game fit to bear its name.

So with that over i would ask again, Devs, what are your long term plans for STO? please

I have to disagree with pretty much everything you said. First, STO has always been a good MMO and I was happy to pay a lifetime sub for it over a year ago. I was sad to see it go Free to Play. Also, no browser game on Facebook could ever compete with it, I don't understand why you would make the comparison.

Having watched every season of every Star Trek, I have trouble recalling an episode where there wasn't at least one phaser fight or some kind of a brawl. Also, we do have non-combat missions, there just aren't many of them (thankfully).

I prefer the game having little to no grind, myself. I have played dozens of MMO's and I hate the whole climbing the ladder thing that they all make you do. To date I have never capped a character. I either get bored and stop playing the game or in some very rare cases, I become fascinated with the game and get this kind of character ADD and start playing many different semi-leveled characters. STO has thankfully held my attention longer than most, and I hope they continue what they have been doing.