Yeah i said it. I dont want to hear a producer come out and say no one plays PVP and gets away with it without acknowledging the fact that were all relegated to PVE to get starbases up and running. Not saying they are doing it on purpose to to shove PVP out of the airlock. Im just hoping our overseers are congnizant of this when they go to look at their pie charts at the next powerpoint presentation. I dont rant but i figured it was my turn this month. Thanks!
sad thing is, i can imagine almost all of the new starbase related stuff as being twice as fun if it had pvp options.
the starbase assault? imagine if it was 1-4 groups of 5 defenders and the attackers were 1-4 groups as well.
then when the defenders starbase gets "disabled" its an attackers victory. defe3nders have unlimted respawn but increased respawn timers for each death of the team.
when all the attackers get wiped out they get another "wave" up to 5 waves. or a set amount of time for each wave with a short respawn group timer, say every 20 seconds all killed attackers get respawned at a random attackers location.
or somehting like that.
maybe have the "defend the convoys" be where the transports cant be attacked until a set number of defenders have been killed?
such potential... it makes me cry to know none of this will probably never happen.
and why the hell did they change the pve and pvp button? -_-
This might be shocking if this was a pvp only game.
Adding some rewards such as Fleet Marks to PVP will help. But adding more maps, zones, and variety for PVP is really needed because Cryptic has refused to do anything for PVP since Day 1 of going live.
After 2 years of being live, the only war zone we have is Kerrat. And for the rest of instanced PVP, we have a small handful of possible maps.
Even the worst MMORPG PVP systems I have played had more variety in locations to fight than STO.
Yeah i said it. I dont want to hear a producer come out and say no one plays PVP and gets away with it without acknowledging the fact that were all relegated to PVE to get starbases up and running. Not saying they are doing it on purpose to to shove PVP out of the airlock. Im just hoping our overseers are congnizant of this when they go to look at their pie charts at the next powerpoint presentation. I dont rant but i figured it was my turn this month. Thanks!
Nice observation! Seems to be very true.
Arawn - SOB OP *is* the new balance, whether you know it or not! Gecko said so.
and why the hell did they change the pve and pvp button? -_-
The PvE'rs cried. I remember the absolute foaming at the mouth rage the PvE forums were when the dilithium store went up and pushed the PvE button off of the minimap.
just found out the private que button doesnt work right. it allows you to get in and invite peeps but when you go to select the map the drop down appears for a splt second then goes away.
just found out the private que button doesnt work right. it allows you to get in and invite peeps but when you go to select the map the drop down appears for a splt second then goes away.
Yeah, reported that on tribble... Disappointed to see it didn't get fixed before the push to live
Lets be honest... Season 6 = 20-40 hours of Dev time TOTAL. There is no way they spent any more time then that.
I'd say +graphics time spent... Working with GFX, designing 3D models, maps, textures, animations etc. is notoriously slow work...especially if the designer is gonna meet the expectations/vision of the EP. I imagine the colony invasion map alone took one dev at least a week, maybe much more.
I'd say +graphics time spent... Working with GFX, designing 3D models, maps, textures, animations etc. is notoriously slow work...especially if the designer is gonna meet the expectations/vision of the EP. I imagine the colony invasion map alone took one dev at least a week, maybe much more.
Keep in mind that the Colony Invasion map is about 95% recycled artwork from the P'Jem Monastery map. The other 5% might be from Alpha, but I could never do that mission with my laughably bad graphics.
Had I been given those artwork materials, I probably could have designed that map in about 30 minutes. Then another 30 minutes to hook up the interactive objects and place some NPCs.
However, the animations for the Tholians, the new Tholian ships, new FX and all of that, more than 20 hours was put into that, definitely.
Joined: January 2010
Fanfiction! ZOMG! Read it now!
kate-wintersbite.deviantart.com/art/0x01-Treachery-293641403
However, the animations for the Tholians, the new Tholian ships, new FX and all of that, more than 20 hours was put into that, definitely.
Where ARE the tholian ships? I've not seen hide nor hair of them so far.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] @Aquitaine985 Lag Industries STO PvP Fleet - Executive
A Sad Panda of Industrial calibre. 2010: This is Cryptic PvP. Please hold the line, your call is very important to us...
OP, i feel the same way everytime "they" talk KDF player numbers and yet i see KDF players all over STO everytime im ingame. In far larger numbers than 16% it seems.
Had I been given those artwork materials, I probably could have designed that map in about 30 minutes. Then another 30 minutes to hook up the interactive objects and place some NPCs.
heh, could be done... I look at it a bit differently... If I was working with it, I would ask myself "how long time can I justify spending on this map?". Then I'd complete it in 1 hour monday morning, have a nice and quiet week, and turn it in on friday evening..
Then the EP would ofc tell me that "no, this isn't exactly what I had in mind, do it completely different!", and I would be redoing it next week...
Then the QA team would run through it, and find 400 tiny detail faults, like palm leaves tilting a bit too wrong, buildings with corners partially into the ground, objects you get stuck in, etc etc... and i'd be working 2 more weeks fixing those things...
Then the QA team would run through it, and find 400 tiny detail faults, like palm leaves tilting a bit too wrong, buildings with corners partially into the ground, objects you get stuck in, etc etc... and i'd be working 2 more weeks fixing those things...
That's how 1 hour work becomes 1 month work.
i dont think cryptic has a QA. so that argument is invalid :P (me being a smartass)
sad thing is, i can imagine almost all of the new starbase related stuff as being twice as fun if it had pvp options.
the starbase assault? imagine if it was 1-4 groups of 5 defenders and the attackers were 1-4 groups as well.
then when the defenders starbase gets "disabled" its an attackers victory. defe3nders have unlimted respawn but increased respawn timers for each death of the team.
when all the attackers get wiped out they get another "wave" up to 5 waves. or a set amount of time for each wave with a short respawn group timer, say every 20 seconds all killed attackers get respawned at a random attackers location.
or somehting like that.
maybe have the "defend the convoys" be where the transports cant be attacked until a set number of defenders have been killed?
such potential... it makes me cry to know none of this will probably never happen.
and why the hell did they change the pve and pvp button? -_-
they arent smart enough to come up with something as nice as this..
I'd say +graphics time spent... Working with GFX, designing 3D models, maps, textures, animations etc. is notoriously slow work...especially if the designer is gonna meet the expectations/vision of the EP. I imagine the colony invasion map alone took one dev at least a week, maybe much more.
Do keep in mind the game was built start to finish in 18 months.
Now do you still want to say the devs took alot of time making these new maps and missions? :P
STO was (and still is) a rush job. No doubt about it.
The amount of content that came with Season 6 launch, does not justify the extended wait between Season 5 (Early December 2011), and Season 6 (Early July 2012). 7 months. Map Makers, and Programmers are generally not the same people. While people like Heretic was working on the "Fleet DOff System" i.e Fleet Starbases, what were the map makers doing? Certainly, in 7 months time, one would assume it to be possible to design quite a few maps, and design them rather well. Instead we got:
- Fleet Ops Level * 2 (original content, not rehashed)
- Engineering Level * 2 (rehashed content, new paintjob for FEDs)
- Science Level * 2 (rehashed content, new paintjob for FEDs)
- Tactical Level * 2 (rehashed content, new paintjob for FEDs)
- Tholian Invasion zone (4 maps, interior/exterior, bosses for interior/exterior)
- Space Events (rehash from "Fleet Starbase" map)
- Ground Events * 2 (original content, not rehashed)
Total: 8 original maps + 7 rehashed maps
Ofcourse, the "Cryptic Defense Force" will say, we got more original content than rehashed. And they would be right. But most of the rehashed content, are places that we're supposedly suppose to visit more than once over the course of an entire Fleet's lifetime. Namely the lower levels of the starbases. I feel as thou they cheaped out on making the Fleet Starbase levels, and instead chose to focus on designing the Tholian Invasion zone(s). Although those zones are really nicely done, they completely butchered the maps by having super-fast respawns on the Tholians, and a near impossible Zone mission (mining for crystals).
If the Foundry was up and running, i'd be able to crank out a more "FED-like Engineering Level" within a matter of hours, what apparently took Cryptic 7 months to do. And all we got was a rehashed engineering level from a previous mission.
sad thing is, i can imagine almost all of the new starbase related stuff as being twice as fun if it had pvp options.
the starbase assault? imagine if it was 1-4 groups of 5 defenders and the attackers were 1-4 groups as well.
then when the defenders starbase gets "disabled" its an attackers victory. defe3nders have unlimted respawn but increased respawn timers for each death of the team.
when all the attackers get wiped out they get another "wave" up to 5 waves. or a set amount of time for each wave with a short respawn group timer, say every 20 seconds all killed attackers get respawned at a random attackers location.
or somehting like that.
maybe have the "defend the convoys" be where the transports cant be attacked until a set number of defenders have been killed?
such potential... it makes me cry to know none of this will probably never happen.
and why the hell did they change the pve and pvp button? -_-
I Heard THAT ! The minute I heard starbase defense was PvE only I knew a major opportunity had been missed by the devs. Surely they were planning this to avoid the outcry from those who don't have any interest in PvP, and simply want their OP ships to not have a real fight.
Do keep in mind the game was built start to finish in 18 months.
Now do you still want to say the devs took alot of time making these new maps and missions? :P
It still does sound right to me... 18 months, the engine was already there, they had a larger staff during development, and they didn't have to work on a "live organism"... I think making one mission/map took a lot of time even back then, but now that the whole system has been patched by hundreds of different coders coming and leaving, it's probably a lot more messy to do anything.
STO! held together by rubber bands, chewing gum and paperclips! Stay tuned for Season 7: Duct tape!
Comments
the starbase assault? imagine if it was 1-4 groups of 5 defenders and the attackers were 1-4 groups as well.
then when the defenders starbase gets "disabled" its an attackers victory. defe3nders have unlimted respawn but increased respawn timers for each death of the team.
when all the attackers get wiped out they get another "wave" up to 5 waves. or a set amount of time for each wave with a short respawn group timer, say every 20 seconds all killed attackers get respawned at a random attackers location.
or somehting like that.
maybe have the "defend the convoys" be where the transports cant be attacked until a set number of defenders have been killed?
such potential... it makes me cry to know none of this will probably never happen.
and why the hell did they change the pve and pvp button? -_-
Lets be honest... Season 6 = 20-40 hours of Dev time TOTAL. There is no way they spent any more time then that.
Adding some rewards such as Fleet Marks to PVP will help. But adding more maps, zones, and variety for PVP is really needed because Cryptic has refused to do anything for PVP since Day 1 of going live.
After 2 years of being live, the only war zone we have is Kerrat. And for the rest of instanced PVP, we have a small handful of possible maps.
Even the worst MMORPG PVP systems I have played had more variety in locations to fight than STO.
hell.
with this game's content....??????????????
this SHOULD be a pvp focused game.
Nice observation! Seems to be very true.
Arawn - SOB
OP *is* the new balance, whether you know it or not! Gecko said so.
OP *is* the new balance, whether you know it or not! Gecko says so.
Season 7 - Exodus, available online. U buy nao!
http://seekingalpha.com/article/738221-monetizing-perfect-world-s-latest-update
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Come on over to Otha sometime.
...Granted, you'll be leaving your ship in orbit, we can't fit a ship on the ground.
Fanfiction! ZOMG! Read it now!
kate-wintersbite.deviantart.com/art/0x01-Treachery-293641403
so all we can privately que for is ground.
nice.
they hate us.
Yeah, reported that on tribble... Disappointed to see it didn't get fixed before the push to live
I'd say +graphics time spent... Working with GFX, designing 3D models, maps, textures, animations etc. is notoriously slow work...especially if the designer is gonna meet the expectations/vision of the EP. I imagine the colony invasion map alone took one dev at least a week, maybe much more.
Had I been given those artwork materials, I probably could have designed that map in about 30 minutes. Then another 30 minutes to hook up the interactive objects and place some NPCs.
However, the animations for the Tholians, the new Tholian ships, new FX and all of that, more than 20 hours was put into that, definitely.
Fanfiction! ZOMG! Read it now!
kate-wintersbite.deviantart.com/art/0x01-Treachery-293641403
I would say that, on increasingly firm ground too.
Where ARE the tholian ships? I've not seen hide nor hair of them so far.
@Aquitaine985
Lag Industries STO PvP Fleet - Executive
A Sad Panda of Industrial calibre.
2010: This is Cryptic PvP. Please hold the line, your call is very important to us...
R.I.P
heh, could be done... I look at it a bit differently... If I was working with it, I would ask myself "how long time can I justify spending on this map?". Then I'd complete it in 1 hour monday morning, have a nice and quiet week, and turn it in on friday evening..
Then the EP would ofc tell me that "no, this isn't exactly what I had in mind, do it completely different!", and I would be redoing it next week...
Then the QA team would run through it, and find 400 tiny detail faults, like palm leaves tilting a bit too wrong, buildings with corners partially into the ground, objects you get stuck in, etc etc... and i'd be working 2 more weeks fixing those things...
That's how 1 hour work becomes 1 month work.
i dont think cryptic has a QA. so that argument is invalid :P (me being a smartass)
they arent smart enough to come up with something as nice as this..
^;^
Do keep in mind the game was built start to finish in 18 months.
Now do you still want to say the devs took alot of time making these new maps and missions? :P
The amount of content that came with Season 6 launch, does not justify the extended wait between Season 5 (Early December 2011), and Season 6 (Early July 2012). 7 months. Map Makers, and Programmers are generally not the same people. While people like Heretic was working on the "Fleet DOff System" i.e Fleet Starbases, what were the map makers doing? Certainly, in 7 months time, one would assume it to be possible to design quite a few maps, and design them rather well. Instead we got:
- Fleet Ops Level * 2 (original content, not rehashed)
- Engineering Level * 2 (rehashed content, new paintjob for FEDs)
- Science Level * 2 (rehashed content, new paintjob for FEDs)
- Tactical Level * 2 (rehashed content, new paintjob for FEDs)
- Tholian Invasion zone (4 maps, interior/exterior, bosses for interior/exterior)
- Space Events (rehash from "Fleet Starbase" map)
- Ground Events * 2 (original content, not rehashed)
Total: 8 original maps + 7 rehashed maps
Ofcourse, the "Cryptic Defense Force" will say, we got more original content than rehashed. And they would be right. But most of the rehashed content, are places that we're supposedly suppose to visit more than once over the course of an entire Fleet's lifetime. Namely the lower levels of the starbases. I feel as thou they cheaped out on making the Fleet Starbase levels, and instead chose to focus on designing the Tholian Invasion zone(s). Although those zones are really nicely done, they completely butchered the maps by having super-fast respawns on the Tholians, and a near impossible Zone mission (mining for crystals).
If the Foundry was up and running, i'd be able to crank out a more "FED-like Engineering Level" within a matter of hours, what apparently took Cryptic 7 months to do. And all we got was a rehashed engineering level from a previous mission.
I Heard THAT ! The minute I heard starbase defense was PvE only I knew a major opportunity had been missed by the devs. Surely they were planning this to avoid the outcry from those who don't have any interest in PvP, and simply want their OP ships to not have a real fight.
Awoken Dead
Now shaddup about the queues, it's a BUG
STO! held together by rubber bands, chewing gum and paperclips! Stay tuned for Season 7: Duct tape!