Star Trek Online Mobile App

lifeofmessiah

It would be great if we had mobile app that would allow us to buy and sell items on the exchange, check our mail, and send duty officers off on missions while we are away from the game.

What do you think?

th3gr4ndnagu5

It was stated in the recent Priority One interview that the STO moble app *is* in development:

E: I want to ask a quick question about DOffs, when the DOff system was first introduced everyone was crying for some kind of an app that allowed you to check in on your doffs or do some missions, is that still on the table, what?s the status of it?

S: That is definitely on the table and we?re doing a little legwork right now on some lighter systems that don?t involve the DOff system but thats definitely something thats on the horizon, I wouldn?t say terribly soon but we are actively working towards it at Cryptic to get web and mobile integration into our games

E: Which team is working on that if you don?t mind my asking?

S: We have a core team that?s working on that, we have a UI team member that?s helping make the UI on star trek but other then that setting it up is off team, so you?re not losing Star Trek Online programmer resources to make this mobile app, we have an internal team that?s dedicated to that at Cryptic Studios

E: But they are doing it for all the projects that are on at cryptic right now?

S: Star Trek First

E: Oh Wow, Nice!, that?s good to hear, fantastic

http://priorityonepodcast.com/wordpress/transcript-episode-88-salmi-inferno-interview/

lifeofmessiah

what a bummer.

th3gr4ndnagu5

See last post.

dkeith2011

I'll believe it when I can download it.

Too many things have been 'looked into' and then quietly swept under the rug or similarly dropped.

robeasom

Hopefully it will be for Iphone and not just Samsung phones

o4q123

If they are comming out with an app, I would be Iphone followed by Android. Those are the 2 biggest phones that I know of.

commadorebob

o4q123 wrote: »

If they are comming out with an app, I would be Iphone followed by Android. Those are the 2 biggest phones that I know of.

Which Android?

tobar26th

o4q123 wrote: »

If they are comming out with an app, I would be Iphone followed by Android. Those are the 2 biggest phones that I know of.

Logic would say they'll write it in HTML5 and slap it on EVERYTHING

joenatl

man I would love that for DOFF missions. That way I don't have to sneak on at work to set up the missions every 4 hours or so lol.

commadorebob

tobar26th wrote: »

Logic would say they'll write it in HTML5 and slap it on EVERYTHING

They could do the same thing if they wrote it in java.

tobar26th

commadorebob wrote: »

They could do the same thing if they wrote it in java.

Well yeah, this is true also. I guess what I really meant was I can't see it being an 'iOS' app as such, more likely an app within an app

commadorebob

tobar26th wrote: »

Well yeah, this is true also. I guess what I really meant was I can't see it being an 'iOS' app as such, more likely an app within an app

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being a Win8 Metro app. After all, STO is a Windows app; they won't have to really learn anything new and they could attach it to the current launcher.

max1002

lifeofmessiah wrote: »

It would be great if we had mobile app that would allow us to buy and sell items on the exchange, check our mail, and send duty officers off on missions while we are away from the game.

What do you think?

I would love to see a mobile app come out with those features.

mikewendell

max1002 wrote: »

I would love to see a mobile app come out with those features.

If I had a nickle for everyone of these threads about a wanted mobile app, I would have bought the company.

azniadeet

Why a mobile app, when a website featuring these ideas would be accessible from any internet capable device?

dunnlang

azniadeet wrote: »

Why a mobile app, when a website featuring these ideas would be accessible from any internet capable device?

Ideally they would have a website and an API that could be used to develop apps for any platform. The website is essential to open access to everyone, regardless of other hardware/software.

Unfortunately Cryptic's license appears to only cover a computer game. Mobile games and applications for Star Trek are probably covered under a separate license. The website and API might be a way around that though.

lifeofmessiah

Uh, that would be all android phones, since they all use the same base software (Google Android)

lifeofmessiah

Why a mobile app, when a website featuring these ideas would be accessible from any internet capable device?

In theory, that should be true. In practice, it doesn't always work, since every phone is different, and some don't carry support for things such as cookies, java, etc, that would be needed to create a website that carries the features of the app. Not all internet-capable phones support those codes and software.

mikewendell

dunnlang wrote: »

Unfortunately Cryptic's license appears to only cover a computer game. Mobile games and applications for Star Trek are probably covered under a separate license. The website and API might be a way around that though.

The last time that got mentioned, it was pointed out that at no time has a dev actually said that.

Considering the Archived Posts, it made it too hard to go back through and find anything labeled as a dev post to this.

commadorebob

lifeofmessiah wrote: »

Uh, that would be all android phones, since they all use the same base software (Google Android)

Which tells me you don't understand how it works. Each version of Android has its own features and APIs. If Cryptic makes an Android app that is compatible with Jelly Bean (4.1), then they are losing out most of the Android market as most Android devices are still stuck at Gingerbread (2.3.3). If they make it Gingerbread compatible, then they are writing for an OS that is already obsolete, but makes up most of the market. A lot of Android developers are getting frustrated with it. Of course, that doesn't take account of all of the varying screen sizes that would need to be programmed in.

Compare that to iOS which already had over 90% of all iOS devices running at least 5.0 as far back as April. And there are only two screen sizes and only four resolutions. And they could probably go straight to Retina and not fool with what has already been deemed obsolete screen resolutions.

But look at it this way. You said "they all use the same base software (Google Android)," but all versions of OSX uses the same base code, but obviously you are not going to build a program to be compatible with Cheetah. In that same vein, Windows 7 is based on the Windows NT kernel, but again, you are not going to write the program to be compatible with the original 1993 release. You are going to pick where to spend your resources. And since over half of all computers are using Windows Vista or higher with Windows XP and higher making up the top 91%, it is obvious which versions you are going to focus on.

Technically, they ALL have the same base code as they are all programmed in C++. But it would obviously be harder to do than that.

THAT BEING SAID, there are a number of programs that will allow you to program for one OS and it'll convert it to use on another. webOS developers could program for webOS and then use a tool to convert the file for use in iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. But obviously, that would require some tweaking.

In the end, Cryptic doesn't have the resources to build an app for every mobile OS out there. They are going to need to focus their efforts. And the best way to get the best bang for their buck is to make an iPad app and a Windows Metro app. With Microsoft making updates to Windows 8 as cheap as $40, Windows 8 will overtake Android's total market share quickly. After all, there are more devices running Windows Vista than Android.

charliescot25

God bless samsung and android. I can't wait!

commadorebob

charliescot25 wrote: »

God bless samsung's version of android. I can't wait!

There, I made it more accurate.

lifeofmessiah

True. I do understand what you are saying there, I just didn't feel the need to go into all that detail. The question is not which android phone, but how far back they are willing to go, as far as which version of Android to make it compatible with. It wouldn't be feasible to go all the way back to Android 1.0, just like it wouldn't be feasible to go all the way back to NT 1.0.

More than likely, it would make more sense to make it compatible with Gingerbread on up, so that they can capture their market base, and go from there.

commadorebob

If they are going to make a mobile app, I think they should only go as far down as a Tablet app. Since Windows 8 would require little homework (as their program is already Windows compatible) I say build a Win8 Metro app. And since the iPad owns 90% of the tablet market, build an iPad app. But Android is a little trickier. The two largest Android Tablets are the Kindle Fire and the Samsung Galaxy. Both have different sized screens and different marketplaces.

I'm not saying Android isn't doable, it's just not as simple as other options.

lifeofmessiah

Honestly, I don't foresee Windows 8 taking too many market shares away from Android. It's not as flexible an OS as Android is, and I'm not sure they have learned there lessons, from the old Windows Mobile to the new Windows 7/8 phones. Android carries close to 50 percent of the market, sometimes more, depending on which stat you are looking at, and that is based on the link you provided. Microsoft has a LOT of catching up to do to come close to Android.

commadorebob

lifeofmessiah wrote: »

Honestly, I don't foresee Windows 8 taking too many market shares away from Android. It's not as flexible an OS as Android is, and I'm not sure they have learned there lessons, from the old Windows Mobile to the new Windows 7/8 phones. Android carries close to 50 percent of the market, sometimes more, depending on which stat you are looking at, and that is based on the link you provided. Microsoft has a LOT of catching up to do to come close to Android.

Android carries the current mobile market. When it comes to the Tablet market, iPad owns it. The Samsung is the most popular Android tablet and it only has a 2% market share. And the total number of tablets being sold still pales to the total number of laptop computers being sold. HP alone sold more PCs last year than Apple sold PCs and iPads combined.

So I think the Tablet market is still in its infancy. And the ability to run legacy apps on Win 8 will be a game changer.

dunnlang

mikewendell wrote: »

The last time that got mentioned, it was pointed out that at no time has a dev actually said that.

Considering the Archived Posts, it made it too hard to go back through and find anything labeled as a dev post to this.

I was really quite sure that Heretic said something to the effect that it was likely a licensing issue.

Either way, I highly doubt it will be seeing any Dev time. The Captain's Database is all but dead and that should far more simple than what would make an engaging mobile/web application.

Naturally I'd still love to see it. I might be bothered to do something STO related if I could access it from the web or my tablet.

mikewendell

dunnlang wrote: »

I was really quite sure that Heretic said something to the effect that it was likely a licensing issue.

I;m almost positive that a dev has said so as well but the poster who said we were all wrong is um rather vocal in expressing their opinion if you catch my meaning.

Plus it makes sense. It was the same story for all those televisions shows getting put on DVD. Those contracts the actors signed were for broadcast and rebroadcast. No one every thought about DVDs way back then.

th3gr4ndnagu5

Once again, it was stated in the recent Priority One interview that the STO moble app *is* in development:

E: I want to ask a quick question about DOffs, when the DOff system was first introduced everyone was crying for some kind of an app that allowed you to check in on your doffs or do some missions, is that still on the table, what?s the status of it?

S: That is definitely on the table and we?re doing a little legwork right now on some lighter systems that don?t involve the DOff system but thats definitely something thats on the horizon, I wouldn?t say terribly soon but we are actively working towards it at Cryptic to get web and mobile integration into our games

E: Which team is working on that if you don?t mind my asking?

S: We have a core team that?s working on that, we have a UI team member that?s helping make the UI on star trek but other then that setting it up is off team, so you?re not losing Star Trek Online programmer resources to make this mobile app, we have an internal team that?s dedicated to that at Cryptic Studios

E: But they are doing it for all the projects that are on at cryptic right now?

S: Star Trek First

E: Oh Wow, Nice!, that?s good to hear, fantastic

http://priorityonepodcast.com/wordpress/transcript-episode-88-salmi-inferno-interview/

koltoroc

commadorebob wrote: »

Android carries the current mobile market. When it comes to the Tablet market, iPad owns it. The Samsung is the most popular Android tablet and it only has a 2% market share. And the total number of tablets being sold still pales to the total number of laptop computers being sold. HP alone sold more PCs last year than Apple sold PCs and iPads combined.

So I think the Tablet market is still in its infancy. And the ability to run legacy apps on Win 8 will be a game changer.

While I agree mostly with your assessment, there are 2 problems you fail to see.

1: with the recent announcement of their own tablet they are intending to sell combined with the way they intend to license Win 8 for arm they managed to alienate the majority of third party manufacturers, which are now flocking to google, because they effectively have now no alternative left. This will ensure lackluster sales at best, but I expect an outright desaster for Microsoft. Well earned though.

2: Win 8 for ARM which will power the majority of all win 8 tablets will NOT have any kind of backwards compatibility to existing windows software.

In my opinion Windows 8 tablets and phones will be an enormous flop. They don't have the image that makes people wan't to buy iWhatever products and with their recent marketing "strategies" they all but ensured that there won't be any meaningful third party support.