That is also something that happens a lot in a lot of games.
Let's face it, STO isn't a great MMO by any standards. The space combat is nice and enjoyable, but apart from that and the ST license, it has very little to offer.
I disagree, STO is a great MMO, it is far different from most other MMOs and you can't put it to an "MMO standard" because I think you just limit developers with that kind of thinking.
It needs work yes, but there is so much to do in STO that other MMOs wouldn't even consider adding to their game, because they are stuck in a "create new map, add monsters and npcs and a poor plot that no one reads" mindset.
Now if only devs could stick to fixing things up, and maybe doing some non breaking revamps of older parts of the game... then we would have no problem.
Oh and the starbase gouge your playerbase thing, needs to be less of a gouge!
I disagree, STO is a great MMO, it is far different from most other MMOs and you can't put it to an "MMO standard" because I think you just limit developers with that kind of thinking.
It needs work yes, but there is so much to do in STO that other MMOs wouldn't even consider adding to their game [...]
And what would that be?
The foundry? Yes, that nice (if it would work that is), but what else does STO to offer that is out of the ordinary? The group, when you're on ground missions? Well, in SWTOR you had at least one follower as well. The fleet starbases? Even **** had guild housing superior to that and that was almost ten years ago.
I really don't see, why STO would be a "great MMO".
The foundry? Yes, that nice (if it would work that is), but what else does STO to offer that is out of the ordinary? The group, when you're on ground missions? Well, in SWTOR you had at least one follower as well. The fleet starbases? Even **** had guild housing superior to that and that was almost ten years ago.
I really don't see, why STO would be a "great MMO".
Well, I do have to say the Character customization (visually) is far superior to any other MMO I have played. Most let you maybe change skin tone and hair style (and gender of course) but they all use the same basic wireframe from there. The only non-Cryptic game I've played with even remotely similar customization has been Perfect World International (Yes, I did play it years ago. Sadly, now I am back to playing another PWE game)
And yes, the Foundry. What other MMO has similar? As for SWTOR giving you a follower, that's like saying Edison inventing the light bulb was no big deal since someone else has come along since and made another light bulb. SWTOW is the Newest MMO I am aware of, of course they are going to take what works from other games and implement it into their own. I think the DOFF system is pretty innovative as well, don't know of any other MMO with similar. And while it isn't in many missions, I am unaware of another MMO that allows missions to change based on character choices and skill (the Vault).
Do keep in mind I have not played EVERY MMO out as some people seem to have done, so this is based on my own MMO experience.
Well, I do have to say the Character customization (visually) is far superior to any other MMO I have played. Most let you maybe change skin tone and hair style (and gender of course) but they all use the same basic wireframe from there. The only non-Cryptic game I've played with even remotely similar customization has been Perfect World International (Yes, I did play it years ago. Sadly, now I am back to playing another PWE game)
All Points Bulletin: Reloaded, EVE Online and previously Star Wars Galaxies, all offered or still do offer in-depth customization. Not necessarily as free, given the realistic constraints to two of the titles, though well enough to compete even with STO.
That is not to say that I am not thoroughly pleased with STO in terms of customization. They lured me into becoming a lifer after all.
All Points Bulletin: Reloaded, EVE Online and previously Star Wars Galaxies, all offered or still do offer in-depth customization. Not necessarily as free, given the realistic constraints to two of the titles, though well enough to compete even with STO.
That is not to say that I am not thoroughly pleased with STO in terms of customization. They lured me into becoming a lifer after all.
I think I'm certain Eve Onlines character customization features were a fairly recent addition to the game.
The foundry? Yes, that nice (if it would work that is), but what else does STO to offer that is out of the ordinary? The group, when you're on ground missions? Well, in SWTOR you had at least one follower as well. The fleet starbases? Even **** had guild housing superior to that and that was almost ten years ago.
I smell a SWTOR fan, don't you dare compare my Star Trek with Star Wars, or a game ran by EA.
Well, I do have to say the Character customization (visually) is far superior to any other MMO I have played. Most let you maybe change skin tone and hair style (and gender of course) but they all use the same basic wireframe from there. The only non-Cryptic game I've played with even remotely similar customization has been Perfect World International (Yes, I did play it years ago. Sadly, now I am back to playing another PWE game)
Well, that is true (at least as far as WOW or SWTOR are concerned), but I don't see how that would keep you playing the game. Do you change the appearance of your toon regularly and then the game feels more interesting to you?
The funny fact for me is, that out of the gazillion possible options, the character editor offers, only very few appeal to me. So my two toons look nearly identical to each other, only that one is a Betazoid and the other one is human.
Yeah, the character editor offers a lot of options, specially if you choose "Alien", but that is nothing, that really lets you keep playing, I would think.
Well, that is true (at least as far as WOW or SWTOR are concerned), but I don't see how that would keep you playing the game. Do you change the appearance of your toon regularly and then the game feels more interesting to you?
The funny fact for me is, that out of the gazillion possible options, the character editor offers, only very few appeal to me. So my two toons look nearly identical to each other, only that one is a Betazoid and the other one is human.
Yeah, the character editor offers a lot of options, specially if you choose "Alien", but that is nothing, that really lets you keep playing, I would think.
I'm such an SWTOR fan, that I quite playing SWTOR after about two months, because it was boring and half my guild was about to leave the game.
Thats what I like to see!
My avatar is an Alien STO char My one and only... now only if they'd release Trait Reset, she will be perfect! Made her pre-launch just after beta~
Yeah, the character editor offers a lot of options, specially if you choose "Alien", but that is nothing, that really lets you keep playing, I would think.
I think the fact that I don't feel like I am playing "Attack of the Clones" where everyone looks the same, is one reason I haven't gotten bored as fast. I love seeing random aliens around, they almost always make me think, "you know that is a cool combination, I may have to check into something like that on my next character".
If we can establish a reward system that makes sense for Foundry Play (and a reward system for Foundary Authors too!!!), then we can finally nip the "No Content in this Game" gripe once and for all.
The Foundry is chuck full of great missions- missions nobody plays because of the poor rewards for them. Fix that and you open up a wealth of content for everyone, Feds and Klingons alike.
I dare say that, if you take away the rewards and strip them down to bare bone content, Foundry missions are above-and-beyond, far better than any FE.
I think you are giving far too much credit to the Foundry mission content.
And yes, while it's true that the Foundry "rewards" pale in comparison to the likes of the official story content, that's not the SOLE reason people tend to shy away from Foundry missions. Most of the time, it's because the GOOD missions are hard to find, and alot of missions don't have clear directions (either via Popup, or in the Mission tracker/Journal) of where to go.
I'd like one of these dev's to clarify for me the reason they are using lobi store which has been stated as a money store basically they are selling all these melee weapons but they take this melee weapon put it in a store when melee doesn't even work to the point that it can't be used in the new ground instances or stfs as well as other weapons. A huge factor I believe they want to stay away from it is because most KDF races benefit from melee and they cannot have it actually working. For the love of kahless why are you going to keep selling broken items.
And sweeping it all under the carpet isn't helping either.
They're both as bad as each other,dont try and pick sides. :rolleyes:
Sweeping it under the rug? You clearly read my post wrong... as I'm trying to get to the root of the issue, and clear any biased opinions about Cryptic.
Cryptics devs are good human beings who love Star Trek; we've seen evidence of this time and time again (just check STOked). But they are caught between a rock and a hard place with the real issue that's squeezing this game: PWE
They have to do what PWE says, or no jobs and STO flatlines. And they can't say anything that suggests they don't like this arrangement. In other words... Cryptic is good but caught in bad circumstances. That does not automatically make them bad.
So, whenever I see an opinion trying to say Cryptic is just as terrible as PWE, I laugh :rolleyes: That's just as ludricrious as the earth not rotating.
Was named Trek17.
Been playing STO since Open Beta, and have never regarded anything as worse than 'meh', if only due to personal standards.
I'm betting capthayden wasn't around for the "Year of Drought" that was 2011. If he/she was, they would know how bad things were during the past year. Many of us (such as myself), stuck it out despite the drought. After Free-to-play, how have the long-time veterans of the game been rewarded? Answer: They haven't. Instead we get screwed over time and time again. Doesn't matter that they made more ships available at max tier. In my opinion, the tier system is a flawed concept from the start. ALL ships should be playable at max level, and your bridge officers RANK and DEPARTMENT should control the stations, not the station itself.
And by being screwed over, i'm talking about the "new and shiny" Fleet ships, and the LACK of any form of discount for the veteran players who ALREADY have the original ships.
Yes, to some, the DOFF system, Fleet Starbases etc are all considered "content". I myself consider them to be game FEATURES, and not so much content in it's own right. Most define content, as something you can EXPERIENCE for your self. Sending off your Redshirts to do the work for you, doesn't give you that experience. STORY content on the other hand, does. In 2012, we've had a grand total of SEVEN story missions; 5 Feature Episodes, Alphas (Klingon-exclusive) and the Friday the 13th episode (which ONLY is playable around Friday the 13th). In 2011, we had a grand total of FIVE story missions; the Feature Episode series. To release ONLY 12 new missions in 1.5 year, is not acceptable by any definition. Especially when you consider that the Foundry authors (when Foundry isn't broken, half the time), can manage to create dozens of missions of their own, with a much more limited toolset, in much shorter time.
Bottomline is, Cryptic doesn't have any intention of producing any new original story content of their own anytime soon. They instead plan to rely on Foundry authors to do the work for them. We've been promised an entire season of new story content (Season 7), but that has yet to be seen, WHAT it will have. Not to mention, we've been promised so many things in the past 2.5 years (since launch), most of which never came through. Cryptics promises are wearing thin.
In closing... capthayden may see my above post as nothing more than the ramblings of a "stubborn six year old". That is ofcourse his opinion, and he is fully entitled to disagree with if he so chooses. These forums are meant for ALL forms of discussion around STO, both positive and negative. I refuse to be a "brown nose", and suck up to Cryptic, after all the **** they've done the past 2.5 years.
For the record, I was here as soon as the game went live. I was here for the drought of 2011, which is also known as the conversion to F2P in otherwords and (if you took the time to do your homework, sir) you'd have found that I agreed with much of what you had to say in many of my prior posts, under the name of Tom_Riker01. I'm taking exception to the fact that you insist that nothing has been added to the game, when in fact a lot has been changed since the very beginning. I'll admit some of the recent business decisions have been disappointing. (The sudden, unannounced mass conversion of this very forum for instance), but the game itself has seen gradual, and I have to confess it has been gradual, improvement.
Call me a "brown noser" if you like, merely because I continue to have faith in the game, but since you were here so long ago; then you must remember that there was a real desire to see DStahl stay with the game originally as he seemed sincerely passionate about it. The "state of the game's", the "engineering reports", the "ask cryptics"... Never in my time have a seen a game where so many devs have hopped onto podcasts to openly discuss what's coming down the pipe or why they made the decisions they did.
I DO remember Lucasarts way of doing things, ala Star Wars: Galaxies, which consisted of "Here is our game, play it." Feedback, we're not interested. Got new ideas you would like to see implimented, we don't want to hear them. What? You want to add your own mission content?! Get lost. You can call this a dated example if you like, but the business model speaks clearly.
We may not be seeing the immediate release of the content everyone wanted, but the devs have been more than willing to discuss the game with the playerbase, which in my opinion earns them major points and continues to give me hope that eventually all our concerns will be addressed... it's just going to take time, and I have loads of it to waste.
Captain Hayden/Tom_Riker01
Foundry missions: "Salvaged" and "Preemption (Federation)" brought to you by the former "Tom_Riker01".
"An artist's growth depends upon accurate feedback." ~Data
There was nothing of any substance in this post. More rah-rah-rah claptrap, save this garbage for the internal e-mail threads. We know Season 6 launched. Some bits of it are fun but overall it's ramping up S5's grind-and-pay model to new heights.
Delta Rising is the best expansion ever and the players love it! No, seriously! ...Why are you laughing so hard?
If we can establish a reward system that makes sense for Foundry Play (and a reward system for Foundary Authors too!!!), then we can finally nip the "No Content in this Game" gripe once and for all.
The Foundry is chuck full of great missions- missions nobody plays because of the poor rewards for them. Fix that and you open up a wealth of content for everyone, Feds and Klingons alike.
I dare say that, if you take away the rewards and strip them down to bare bone content, Foundry missions are above-and-beyond, far better than any FE.
Isn't it sad that the player generated content is that good compared to the Cryptic generated content? Not saying the Cryptic content isn't good, too.
But a bunch of avg players can design such killer content with half the tools and probably less real ability. And those players certainly aren't making a comfortable living from it.
And it's even sadder that you have to be a paying subscriber to create that content.
And that that helps Cryptic make more money.
So they can...hire Developers to make more Cstore items to make more money.
Because Danny's already said mission content is too expensive because most will only do the missions once or twice.
Sad but True.
Lord Krueg
KBF CO We are the Dead
join date Aug 2008
mission content to expensive? most of the foundry missions done in a few days are done to a much higher stnadard and much more interesting and much better written for there respective factions than ANY of the missions from cryptic and yet they take weeks over those by the looks of it
mission content to expensive? most of the foundry missions done in a few days are done to a much higher stnadard and much more interesting and much better written for there respective factions than ANY of the missions from cryptic and yet they take weeks over those by the looks of it
In the interest of fairness, I feel it should be pointed out that it seems to me that when the Devs create a mission they are building it from the ground up, literally, which increases the development time.
As for the quality, while I have not played that many Foundry missions I will say that what I have played was of a better quality than a chunk of the Cryptic missions.
Daniel Stahl, we appreciate what devs have put into this game, but please get your Zynga ideals out of STO or go back to Zynga which is a known predatory company that squeezes its base dry of money relentlessly until they get fed up.
Did I mention Zynga is getting pwned by quarterly losses?
I tried bringing this up when lock boxes first began, possibly earlier, and I'll say it now we're that much further down the road.
Studies always suggest a valued and satisfied customer base produces customers which spend more, and stick with a product for longer. So stop bothering everyone with gambling and messing people about with the ridiculous price hikes.
Making people pay over and over again for the same stuff [fleet modules anyone?] isn't the way forward, because, guess what, people will stop paying altogether.
I like that things are moving forward with Foundry. Very soon it will be the two year anniversary of when the Foundry was originally planned to be launched.
However, some more specifics about these feature and especially new assets would be welcomed.
Please say hi to sbugc and the foundry community at the con. Maybe throw them a bone?
As I've said before, I'm surprised CBS allows the kind of debasing of the Star Trek Franchise that PWE is doing. I know for a fact that when STO finally dies (and it will, you can only suck the player base dry for so long before backlash of being treated like a resource to mine rather than a customer kicks in) it will personally take me a long time to trust another online Star Trek game again (if I ever do). But I guess CBS just sees the $$$ coming in and not the pure hatred of the company running the game. The ONLY reason I am still here is that it is a Star Trek themed game (and I have a LTS I got before PWE took over). Had this been pretty much any other theme I would have been gone a long time ago.
If we can establish a reward system that makes sense for Foundry Play (and a reward system for Foundary Authors too!!!), then we can finally nip the "No Content in this Game" gripe once and for all.
The Foundry is chuck full of great missions- missions nobody plays because of the poor rewards for them. Fix that and you open up a wealth of content for everyone, Feds and Klingons alike.
I dare say that, if you take away the rewards and strip them down to bare bone content, Foundry missions are above-and-beyond, far better than any FE.
But I ask, I implore- a great mission deserves a great reward- for the guy who made it.
These folks work hard on their missions, mostly as a labor of love, without thought of reward, only to tell a good story.
And, I don't say this because I am one. Hell, I don't even know how to use the Foundry Program. So, I have a monolithic amount of respect for those that do take the time, effort and risk to self-esteem to put their storys and their work out for the rest of us to enjoy. These guys deserve a lot- they deserve to be compensated for their hard work.
Sweeping it under the rug? You clearly read my post wrong... as I'm trying to get to the root of the issue, and clear any biased opinions about Cryptic.
Cryptics devs are good human beings who love Star Trek; we've seen evidence of this time and time again (just check STOked). But they are caught between a rock and a hard place with the real issue that's squeezing this game: PWE
They have to do what PWE says, or no jobs and STO flatlines. And they can't say anything that suggests they don't like this arrangement. In other words... Cryptic is good but caught in bad circumstances. That does not automatically make them bad.
So, whenever I see an opinion trying to say Cryptic is just as terrible as PWE, I laugh :rolleyes: That's just as ludricrious as the earth not rotating.
Want to know why I find you funny Trek, you always seem to act like you have some inside knowledge. Why can we not blame Cryptic? You seem hell bent on trying to deflect any critism on cryptic, but when people call you out, you don't respond.
Let's try -
1. D Stahl keeps on saying hes in control. Is he lying?
2. Stahl says he's Playing the latest f/e last year when it wasn't started. Was he lying?
3. Stahl says P/w wants a full klingOn faction. Thn says they don't. Was he lying
4. It's Atari's fault not cryptic before pw? When does it become Cryptics? In you opinion it must be never.
The more I read your posts, the more I think your a cryptic employee or just one of those scary fanatics. Your handle in fact, gives it away.
I'm still judging him by his record. It sucks to be be honest
Sorry about the typos and edit. On hols In SPain typing on my iPhone.
Straight from the mouth of one of the leaders of the CDF - "I tell you what, Haven't spent any money either - I'm a lousy freeloader" - Jonsills 17/12/2014
Want to know why I find you funny Trek, you always seem to act like you have some inside knowledge. Why can we not blame Cryptic? You seem hell bent on trying to deflect any critism on cryptic, but when people call you out, you don't respond.
Let's try -
1. D Stahl keeps on saying hes in control. Is he lying?
2. Stahl says he's Playing the latest f/e last year when it wasn't started. Was he lying?
3. Stahl says P/w wants a full klingOn faction. Thn says they don't. Was he lying
4. It's Atari's fault not cryptic before pw? When does it become Cryptics? In you opinion it must be never.
The more I read your posts, the more I think your a cryptic employee or just one of those scary fanatics. Your handle in fact, gives it away.
I'm still judging him by his record. It sucks to be be honest
Sorry about the typos and edit. On hols In SPain typing on my iPhone.
Fanactic? Not really... if I reacted to every post that said anything about them, with wild statements trying anything to do so, then I'd be a fanactic.
As it is, I'm acting on my own opinion. I've been here since Open Beta, seen Cryptic as a good business with good folks, but forced to act in bad circumstances (Atari/PWE). And in my opinion, that does not make Cryptic bad, even with the forced decisions now.
PWE is not in that boat. And they're the ones I don't support.
Why don't I respond when called out? Because sometimes I don't how to respond right away, and I don't react right away exactly to avoid saying fanatical things that would only make me look worse.
So that's why I support Cryptic, doing what I can to defend them, even in the midst of decisions like this: because I know they're good, even now, but are forced to do bad things like this. It's not inside knowledge, but pure instinct... but I stand by it. With most everyone against Cryptic just because they're following orders (something that is not something to blame them for imho), it's a hard opinion to stand by. But I do so anyway.
And my handle has nothing to do with my opinions. I chose it at Open Beta as a simple easy name, as I like Trek and I like the number 17 (which was my name before the forum change). Now, I have that same name but with 21 instead. I still like it because it partially keeps my name alive.
What will I do if proven wrong? I don't know yet, because nothing I've seen, has in my opinion been proof that my instincts are wrong. And having seen everything the game's gone through since Open Beta, that's saying something.
Was named Trek17.
Been playing STO since Open Beta, and have never regarded anything as worse than 'meh', if only due to personal standards.
Personally the "state of the game" is that it need less grinds and more story
I don't know why story has to take such a back seat in this game. Story missions don't always have to be long or the big budget busters that the FE were. We could have had a small story mission for when D'Vak became an admiral and moved his operations to DS9 or how the Ferasan's came to join the KDF. It seems to me that that too much time and effort are spent on lockboxes. Just look at the fantastic bridge that tumorboy, aka taccofangs, did for the tholian lockbox. Most of us will never get to enjoy that bridge but we could enjoy the parliament hall of the Caitian homeworld as we plead the case for the federation for the use of their atrox carriers
Fanactic? Not really... if I reacted to every post that said anything about them, with wild statements trying anything to do so, then I'd be a fanactic.
As it is, I'm acting on my own opinion. I've been here since Open Beta, seen Cryptic as a good business with good folks, but forced to act in bad circumstances (Atari/PWE). And in my opinion, that does not make Cryptic bad, even with the forced decisions now.
PWE is not in that boat. And they're the ones I don't support.
Why don't I respond when called out? Because sometimes I don't how to respond right away, and I don't react right away exactly to avoid saying fanatical things that would only make me look worse.
So that's why I support Cryptic, doing what I can to defend them, even in the midst of decisions like this: because I know they're good, even now, but are forced to do bad things like this. It's not inside knowledge, but pure instinct... but I stand by it. With most everyone against Cryptic just because they're following orders (something that is not something to blame them for imho), it's a hard opinion to stand by. But I do so anyway.
And my handle has nothing to do with my opinions. I chose it at Open Beta as a simple easy name, as I like Trek and I like the number 17 (which was my name before the forum change). Now, I have that same name but with 21 instead. I still like it because it partially keeps my name alive.
What will I do if proven wrong? I don't know yet, because nothing I've seen, has in my opinion been proof that my instincts are wrong. And having seen everything the game's gone through since Open Beta, that's saying something.
Well I will say one thing, you give courage to your convictions and I respect that.
I do think Crypic started out with the best intentions, however I don't think they understood the sheer magnitude of the ip that is trek and I think they have bitten off more than they chew.
Ask yourself this question, you keep mentioning these are good people, why then do we have Stahl with his "lies", Devs saying there is no content drought, foundry will not replace dev missions, if a country blocks lock boxes, there not bothered, they won't make certain ships because a dev doesnt like them on and on etc.
I think you put the Devs on too high a pedestal.
Straight from the mouth of one of the leaders of the CDF - "I tell you what, Haven't spent any money either - I'm a lousy freeloader" - Jonsills 17/12/2014
Well I will say one thing, you give courage to your convictions and I respect that.
I do think Crypic started out with the best intentions, however I don't think they understood the sheer magnitude of the ip that is trek and I think they have bitten off more than they chew.
Ask yourself this question, you keep mentioning these are good people, why then do we have Stahl with his "lies", Devs saying there is no content drought, foundry will not replace dev missions, if a country blocks lock boxes, there not bothered, they won't make certain ships because a dev doesnt like them on and on etc.
I think you put the Devs on too high a pedestal.
Thanks.
As for the question...
* Dstahl is idealistic; he wants all he's saying to happen, he truly does, as far as I've heard. The problem is his goals constantly overshoot reality... in a certain light, it can be seen as lies, I admit that. But I believe lies have to have an intention behind them, ie that you want to lie on purpose or you want to lie to boost people's feelings. Dan's words don't really have the former, but they may have the latter.
So I believe he's either lying to try and keep people here with STO, both for business reasons and to give feedback on STO's changes. Or... he truly believes in what he's saying, and doing what he can with what he's got. I don't know which it is, so I gotta think between them, and decide which it is on instincts. So far, it's been the latter (that he's trying the best he can).
* As for content drought, to the devs, they believe any and all stuff they create is considered content. To them, there was/is no drought because they made new stuff for us to do, even if it wasn't mission content. Some of us don't believe that qualfies as content, and I respect that, but to the devs, they probably believed it was true. At least that's what I think.
* As for foundry content... well, let's face it: the missions created, while not official content, are mission content. Many believe that foundry should add-on, not replace official mission content... but the devs know those mission are as good, if not better than their own. Having the players play Foundry missions allows them to focus their resources elsewhere.
And personally, I think it's a good idea. I don't see why others have an issue with that (the replacing aspect) imho.
* Blocking lockboxes, that could be several reasons. One, most of the paying customers are in the U.S. (I'm not saying there aren't other countries that play, I know there are), and we've seen this in the patching times, trying to mostly not interfere with those times schedules. So... blocking a prime source of revenue in another country might not actually put that big a dent in their profits. But I can't say this for sure, considering I don't have any access to their revenue numbers.
Two, as I've argued somewhere on here, I believe the devs are showing signs that they don't like the lockboxes (or anything PWE's forcing them to do). So a country blocking lockboxes, or threatening to, they're seeing as a sign PWE might reconsider lockboxes because of lost profits, so they're not concerned for that reason.
Those are the only reasons I can think of. They're not very good, I agree, but it's all I got right now.
* Can't quite argue on the ship issue, because I haven't really been affected by those discussions... hence I probably don't want to get involved.
Either way... it's a complicated issue, to be sure. I have my pedestal of them, based on various factors and aspects, some of which I've already explained. And others have their pedestals, whatever their condition might be.
The reason my pedastal seems high is probably because of a quirk of mine: that I'm never bothered when I'm lied to (occasionally lied to; constantly is another matter). So, to me, the devs occasionally lying never bothered me, and still doesn't.
Was named Trek17.
Been playing STO since Open Beta, and have never regarded anything as worse than 'meh', if only due to personal standards.
Comments
I disagree, STO is a great MMO, it is far different from most other MMOs and you can't put it to an "MMO standard" because I think you just limit developers with that kind of thinking.
It needs work yes, but there is so much to do in STO that other MMOs wouldn't even consider adding to their game, because they are stuck in a "create new map, add monsters and npcs and a poor plot that no one reads" mindset.
Now if only devs could stick to fixing things up, and maybe doing some non breaking revamps of older parts of the game... then we would have no problem.
Oh and the starbase gouge your playerbase thing, needs to be less of a gouge!
| Join Date: January 2009 | Computer | Fleet: Broken Wings |
And what would that be?
The foundry? Yes, that nice (if it would work that is), but what else does STO to offer that is out of the ordinary? The group, when you're on ground missions? Well, in SWTOR you had at least one follower as well. The fleet starbases? Even **** had guild housing superior to that and that was almost ten years ago.
I really don't see, why STO would be a "great MMO".
Well, I do have to say the Character customization (visually) is far superior to any other MMO I have played. Most let you maybe change skin tone and hair style (and gender of course) but they all use the same basic wireframe from there. The only non-Cryptic game I've played with even remotely similar customization has been Perfect World International (Yes, I did play it years ago. Sadly, now I am back to playing another PWE game)
And yes, the Foundry. What other MMO has similar? As for SWTOR giving you a follower, that's like saying Edison inventing the light bulb was no big deal since someone else has come along since and made another light bulb. SWTOW is the Newest MMO I am aware of, of course they are going to take what works from other games and implement it into their own. I think the DOFF system is pretty innovative as well, don't know of any other MMO with similar. And while it isn't in many missions, I am unaware of another MMO that allows missions to change based on character choices and skill (the Vault).
Do keep in mind I have not played EVERY MMO out as some people seem to have done, so this is based on my own MMO experience.
All Points Bulletin: Reloaded, EVE Online and previously Star Wars Galaxies, all offered or still do offer in-depth customization. Not necessarily as free, given the realistic constraints to two of the titles, though well enough to compete even with STO.
That is not to say that I am not thoroughly pleased with STO in terms of customization. They lured me into becoming a lifer after all.
I think I'm certain Eve Onlines character customization features were a fairly recent addition to the game.
I smell a SWTOR fan, don't you dare compare my Star Trek with Star Wars, or a game ran by EA.
| Join Date: January 2009 | Computer | Fleet: Broken Wings |
Well, that is true (at least as far as WOW or SWTOR are concerned), but I don't see how that would keep you playing the game. Do you change the appearance of your toon regularly and then the game feels more interesting to you?
The funny fact for me is, that out of the gazillion possible options, the character editor offers, only very few appeal to me. So my two toons look nearly identical to each other, only that one is a Betazoid and the other one is human.
Yeah, the character editor offers a lot of options, specially if you choose "Alien", but that is nothing, that really lets you keep playing, I would think.
I'm such an SWTOR fan, that I quite playing SWTOR after about two months, because it was boring and half my guild was about to leave the game.
Thats what I like to see!
My avatar is an Alien STO char
| Join Date: January 2009 | Computer | Fleet: Broken Wings |
I think the fact that I don't feel like I am playing "Attack of the Clones" where everyone looks the same, is one reason I haven't gotten bored as fast. I love seeing random aliens around, they almost always make me think, "you know that is a cool combination, I may have to check into something like that on my next character".
I think you are giving far too much credit to the Foundry mission content.
And yes, while it's true that the Foundry "rewards" pale in comparison to the likes of the official story content, that's not the SOLE reason people tend to shy away from Foundry missions. Most of the time, it's because the GOOD missions are hard to find, and alot of missions don't have clear directions (either via Popup, or in the Mission tracker/Journal) of where to go.
Cryptics devs are good human beings who love Star Trek; we've seen evidence of this time and time again (just check STOked). But they are caught between a rock and a hard place with the real issue that's squeezing this game: PWE
They have to do what PWE says, or no jobs and STO flatlines. And they can't say anything that suggests they don't like this arrangement. In other words... Cryptic is good but caught in bad circumstances. That does not automatically make them bad.
So, whenever I see an opinion trying to say Cryptic is just as terrible as PWE, I laugh :rolleyes: That's just as ludricrious as the earth not rotating.
Been playing STO since Open Beta, and have never regarded anything as worse than 'meh', if only due to personal standards.
For the record, I was here as soon as the game went live. I was here for the drought of 2011, which is also known as the conversion to F2P in otherwords and (if you took the time to do your homework, sir) you'd have found that I agreed with much of what you had to say in many of my prior posts, under the name of Tom_Riker01. I'm taking exception to the fact that you insist that nothing has been added to the game, when in fact a lot has been changed since the very beginning. I'll admit some of the recent business decisions have been disappointing. (The sudden, unannounced mass conversion of this very forum for instance), but the game itself has seen gradual, and I have to confess it has been gradual, improvement.
Call me a "brown noser" if you like, merely because I continue to have faith in the game, but since you were here so long ago; then you must remember that there was a real desire to see DStahl stay with the game originally as he seemed sincerely passionate about it. The "state of the game's", the "engineering reports", the "ask cryptics"... Never in my time have a seen a game where so many devs have hopped onto podcasts to openly discuss what's coming down the pipe or why they made the decisions they did.
I DO remember Lucasarts way of doing things, ala Star Wars: Galaxies, which consisted of "Here is our game, play it." Feedback, we're not interested. Got new ideas you would like to see implimented, we don't want to hear them. What? You want to add your own mission content?! Get lost. You can call this a dated example if you like, but the business model speaks clearly.
We may not be seeing the immediate release of the content everyone wanted, but the devs have been more than willing to discuss the game with the playerbase, which in my opinion earns them major points and continues to give me hope that eventually all our concerns will be addressed... it's just going to take time, and I have loads of it to waste.
Captain Hayden/Tom_Riker01
"An artist's growth depends upon accurate feedback." ~Data
/B5
What about Matt Foley?
Isn't it sad that the player generated content is that good compared to the Cryptic generated content? Not saying the Cryptic content isn't good, too.
But a bunch of avg players can design such killer content with half the tools and probably less real ability. And those players certainly aren't making a comfortable living from it.
And it's even sadder that you have to be a paying subscriber to create that content.
And that that helps Cryptic make more money.
So they can...hire Developers to make more Cstore items to make more money.
Because Danny's already said mission content is too expensive because most will only do the missions once or twice.
Sad but True.
KBF CO
We are the Dead
join date Aug 2008
In the interest of fairness, I feel it should be pointed out that it seems to me that when the Devs create a mission they are building it from the ground up, literally, which increases the development time.
As for the quality, while I have not played that many Foundry missions I will say that what I have played was of a better quality than a chunk of the Cryptic missions.
I tried bringing this up when lock boxes first began, possibly earlier, and I'll say it now we're that much further down the road.
Studies always suggest a valued and satisfied customer base produces customers which spend more, and stick with a product for longer. So stop bothering everyone with gambling and messing people about with the ridiculous price hikes.
Making people pay over and over again for the same stuff [fleet modules anyone?] isn't the way forward, because, guess what, people will stop paying altogether.
However, some more specifics about these feature and especially new assets would be welcomed.
Please say hi to sbugc and the foundry community at the con. Maybe throw them a bone?
Well said. Pretty much sums up my sentiments as well.
thank you for this post.
Want to know why I find you funny Trek, you always seem to act like you have some inside knowledge. Why can we not blame Cryptic? You seem hell bent on trying to deflect any critism on cryptic, but when people call you out, you don't respond.
Let's try -
1. D Stahl keeps on saying hes in control. Is he lying?
2. Stahl says he's Playing the latest f/e last year when it wasn't started. Was he lying?
3. Stahl says P/w wants a full klingOn faction. Thn says they don't. Was he lying
4. It's Atari's fault not cryptic before pw? When does it become Cryptics? In you opinion it must be never.
The more I read your posts, the more I think your a cryptic employee or just one of those scary fanatics. Your handle in fact, gives it away.
I'm still judging him by his record. It sucks to be be honest
Sorry about the typos and edit. On hols In SPain typing on my iPhone.
As it is, I'm acting on my own opinion. I've been here since Open Beta, seen Cryptic as a good business with good folks, but forced to act in bad circumstances (Atari/PWE). And in my opinion, that does not make Cryptic bad, even with the forced decisions now.
PWE is not in that boat. And they're the ones I don't support.
Why don't I respond when called out? Because sometimes I don't how to respond right away, and I don't react right away exactly to avoid saying fanatical things that would only make me look worse.
So that's why I support Cryptic, doing what I can to defend them, even in the midst of decisions like this: because I know they're good, even now, but are forced to do bad things like this. It's not inside knowledge, but pure instinct... but I stand by it. With most everyone against Cryptic just because they're following orders (something that is not something to blame them for imho), it's a hard opinion to stand by. But I do so anyway.
And my handle has nothing to do with my opinions. I chose it at Open Beta as a simple easy name, as I like Trek and I like the number 17 (which was my name before the forum change). Now, I have that same name but with 21 instead. I still like it because it partially keeps my name alive.
What will I do if proven wrong? I don't know yet, because nothing I've seen, has in my opinion been proof that my instincts are wrong. And having seen everything the game's gone through since Open Beta, that's saying something.
Been playing STO since Open Beta, and have never regarded anything as worse than 'meh', if only due to personal standards.
I don't know why story has to take such a back seat in this game. Story missions don't always have to be long or the big budget busters that the FE were. We could have had a small story mission for when D'Vak became an admiral and moved his operations to DS9 or how the Ferasan's came to join the KDF. It seems to me that that too much time and effort are spent on lockboxes. Just look at the fantastic bridge that tumorboy, aka taccofangs, did for the tholian lockbox. Most of us will never get to enjoy that bridge but we could enjoy the parliament hall of the Caitian homeworld as we plead the case for the federation for the use of their atrox carriers
Well I will say one thing, you give courage to your convictions and I respect that.
I do think Crypic started out with the best intentions, however I don't think they understood the sheer magnitude of the ip that is trek and I think they have bitten off more than they chew.
Ask yourself this question, you keep mentioning these are good people, why then do we have Stahl with his "lies", Devs saying there is no content drought, foundry will not replace dev missions, if a country blocks lock boxes, there not bothered, they won't make certain ships because a dev doesnt like them on and on etc.
I think you put the Devs on too high a pedestal.
As for the question...
* Dstahl is idealistic; he wants all he's saying to happen, he truly does, as far as I've heard. The problem is his goals constantly overshoot reality... in a certain light, it can be seen as lies, I admit that. But I believe lies have to have an intention behind them, ie that you want to lie on purpose or you want to lie to boost people's feelings. Dan's words don't really have the former, but they may have the latter.
So I believe he's either lying to try and keep people here with STO, both for business reasons and to give feedback on STO's changes. Or... he truly believes in what he's saying, and doing what he can with what he's got. I don't know which it is, so I gotta think between them, and decide which it is on instincts. So far, it's been the latter (that he's trying the best he can).
* As for content drought, to the devs, they believe any and all stuff they create is considered content. To them, there was/is no drought because they made new stuff for us to do, even if it wasn't mission content. Some of us don't believe that qualfies as content, and I respect that, but to the devs, they probably believed it was true. At least that's what I think.
* As for foundry content... well, let's face it: the missions created, while not official content, are mission content. Many believe that foundry should add-on, not replace official mission content... but the devs know those mission are as good, if not better than their own. Having the players play Foundry missions allows them to focus their resources elsewhere.
And personally, I think it's a good idea. I don't see why others have an issue with that (the replacing aspect) imho.
* Blocking lockboxes, that could be several reasons. One, most of the paying customers are in the U.S. (I'm not saying there aren't other countries that play, I know there are), and we've seen this in the patching times, trying to mostly not interfere with those times schedules. So... blocking a prime source of revenue in another country might not actually put that big a dent in their profits. But I can't say this for sure, considering I don't have any access to their revenue numbers.
Two, as I've argued somewhere on here, I believe the devs are showing signs that they don't like the lockboxes (or anything PWE's forcing them to do). So a country blocking lockboxes, or threatening to, they're seeing as a sign PWE might reconsider lockboxes because of lost profits, so they're not concerned for that reason.
Those are the only reasons I can think of. They're not very good, I agree, but it's all I got right now.
* Can't quite argue on the ship issue, because I haven't really been affected by those discussions... hence I probably don't want to get involved.
Either way... it's a complicated issue, to be sure. I have my pedestal of them, based on various factors and aspects, some of which I've already explained. And others have their pedestals, whatever their condition might be.
The reason my pedastal seems high is probably because of a quirk of mine: that I'm never bothered when I'm lied to (occasionally lied to; constantly is another matter). So, to me, the devs occasionally lying never bothered me, and still doesn't.
Been playing STO since Open Beta, and have never regarded anything as worse than 'meh', if only due to personal standards.