We have a long term goal to get in the type of dynamic content you are discussing. As a baby step towards that, we are introducing a Romulan Colony "under construction" in Season 7. As players contribute to the Romulans as well as their Fleet's Embassy, progress over time will show the colony getting bigger and more complete. The hope is that by the time Season 8 hits, the Colony will be fully explorable thanks to efforts from the players. (keep in mind that this is handwaved in some part for now, but something we want to make dynamic in the future).
As far as moving the year forward, we haven't really found a good way to do that without simply having some missions remain stuck in 2409 and have new missions reference that it is 2410. This gets weird when a contact like Admiral Tanea might reference both timeframes when you talk to her. Maybe in some future update we could simply move everything forward, but it is not an easy task.
As a fleet holding, does it disappear if you leave a fleet?
You REMOVED SHIP COSTUMES from the C-Store with the Release of Season 6! The Tech was already there!!! :mad::mad:
While this is similar to what I was referring to, it is not exactly what I meant. I'd like to see a future where you but a ship once, and then have the option to continually upgrade it well into the future. Ship costumes was similar to this, but only a baby step towards what I was considering.
As for the timeline, my money (and it requires some dialogue overhauls and the implementation of player chosen titles) is on this:
Get rid of ranks next to player level ALTOGETHER.
Replace that with the year.
Instead of:
(Captain) 32
You'd have:
Level 32 (Year: 2407)
You earn time passing with levels. You'd still unlock the rank titles with level.
Level 50 is 2410.
The one exception would be in mission replay where the year of the mission would pop back up.
This gets around the goofy Ensign to Admiral in one year. It makes the social hubs slightly odd but time differentials are partly why stardates were adopted, right? ;-)
Tying level to YEAR has interesting mechanical properties.
For instance, Choniton (just picking a name; you might want a different time altering name) which temporarily boost your fighting level and Anti-Chroniton debuffs which lower your effective fighting level (maybe as a signature Krenim ability?).
As for the timeline, my money (and it requires some dialogue overhauls and the implementation of player chosen titles) is on this:
Get rid of ranks next to player level ALTOGETHER.
Replace that with the year.
Instead of:
(Captain) 32
You'd have:
Level 32 (Year: 2407)
You earn time passing with levels. You'd still unlock the rank titles with level.
Level 50 is 2410.
The one exception would be in mission replay where the year of the mission would pop back up.
This gets around the goofy Ensign to Admiral in one year. It makes the social hubs slightly odd but time differentials are partly why stardates were adopted, right? ;-)
Expanding on that idea, you could seperate the social hubs by having players that are in the same "year" inhabiting the same instances so that everyone is on the same page.
Another perk of tying gametime to levels is that in place of promotion missions, you have lore updates every few levels.
This does require rethinking the tutorial as Vega Colony is pretty fixed and some serious passes at mission dialogue.
But say you have the tutorial start people out in... 2399? At level 10, you get a little lore update saying it's 2402 and that Ambassador Jean-Luc Picard has retired from his post on Vulcan.
So the lore gets passively integrated into the leveling process instead of being dumped on people all at once.
Expanding on that idea, you could seperate the social hubs by having players that are in the same "year" inhabiting the same instances so that everyone is on the same page.
I'm worried about separating players too much but a perk is that you COULD progress the hubs this way.
I really like the idea of race-specific content for KDF. I think that doesn't necessarily mean your captain has to be a Gorn/Nausicaan/Orion, (or maybe a BOFF could fill that role). After all, there are many things that can be investigated in each sphere of influence. What's going on with the Gorn separatists? What's that story behind the acquitted Orion? Etc. I don't think it would be too difficult to come up with story arcs for each race that are 2-3 missions long and give us background on their culture and society, and how they've integrated into KDF. They could easily fill the hole at lower levels, giving a new KDF officer an opportunity to meet and interact with the other races in the KDF.
Re: Horses - They could fit in under a low-tech planet that Federation and Klingon are both competing to "win", a la Private Little War and Saturday's Child. But yeah, better to have real vehicles for on-planet travel. Also, nothing wrong with flying vehicles! After all, this is the future. Hover platforms, shuttles, surface to surface transports, etc. are perfectly reasonable!
Dstahl, thanks for taking the time to answer all those questions, and thanks to direphoenix for making them available like this. Well done guys! I've been away from STO for months now, and it was fascinating (though not all in a good way) bunch of information on where STO is at/heading.
I would like to know if there's any plans for any actual content? Dstahl: Foundry Spotlight = Coming in October-ish, New STF = Coming in Season 7, New Feature Episode Series = A big focus of Season 8
This made me very sad to hear. Now it looks like S7 will be less about story than I'd hope (ie, "Oh great, Cryptic's back with more Systems updates and Grindfests." :rolleyes:). It sounds more and more like I won't be back until S8 now...
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
Actually, yeah. You've pegged the secret of how I write.
I pace around and look at what I've done as an outsider a lot. In a perfect world, I wish I were on a team of writers because what I like to do is bounce ideas.
Most of the time when I write proposals here or Foundry missions, I run around looking at everything I wrote as if I were 5 different people. So when I read my own thoughts, I end up reading them as if someone else wrote them and then add on.
I voted for exploration because it's something is so trek. I'd love to see crafting get a serious revamp too, but exploring is, after all, the whole point of trek- boldly going where no one has gone before. Beside, revamping exploration (if done right) should give me plenty to do for a while
This Raptr thing got my hopes up for nothing. Heard someone in my fleet mention it in teamspeak, but I thought he meant something about a free Raptor as in the ship, not free stuff from using Raptr. I want my free Raptor ship lol.
This Raptr thing got my hopes up for nothing. Heard someone in my fleet mention it in teamspeak, but I thought he meant something about a free Raptor as in the ship, not free stuff from using Raptr. I want my free Raptor ship lol.
Maybe they will like have a ship sale soon that has a console with a raptor with a green photon torpedo like the somraw raptor in enterprise had LOL Pay $25 bucks for a raptor with a green torpedo!
raptr is trash and so is pwe, get rid of them this game is getting worse because of them. Get some Autonomy Cryptic...... I hate raptr and I hate the lockboxes.
Sincerely,
Lifetime Subscriber
P.S. Cryptic you are doing a good job with everything else.....
That was ignorant. What's wrong with Raptr? It connected a bunch of my gaming accounts and is tracking progress, that's cool. OK it has a built in chat function to add the other MYRIAD of progams into it? THat's cool. You get rewards just for logging game time and it has a built in forum? Seriously what are you complaining about? The lockboxes I have mixed feelings about, though I do admit that i popped more than I ever have with the Tholian lock boxes, and got some awesome DOFFS, four mirror U ships, like 536 lobi, and some awesome ship and ground purple weapons.
You are saying that PWE is trash? why? Did you even read the thread!? Go back and see Dan's response to my question! However since you most likely won't, what he said was that the majority of the cookie cutter "kill everything games" and "money sinkholes" were Chinese ports and that they deal exclusively with a separate US based subsidiary. Local developers and such, bringing things stateside, that is a good thing. Do a little research before you are so critical and unprofessional of the games developers and the company,
They couldnt keep someone from hacking dstahl's account and poopooing all over the Q&A.
Did you even look at the Raptr Q&A? They didn't hack Dan Stahl's account, they made accounts that looked like Stahl's account (used the same-looking name, and one of them had the same avatar). It was a poor attempt and anyone that actually looked at it could tell it wasn't him. Since the dupers (there were at least two accounts that attempted this) obviously don't know how Raptr works, I'd assume they came from this community, not Raptr's.
Did you even look at the Raptr Q&A? They didn't hack Dan Stahl's account, they made accounts that looked like Stahl's account (used the same-looking name, and one of them had the same avatar). It was a poor attempt and anyone that actually looked at it could tell it wasn't him. Since the dupers (there were at least two accounts that attempted this) obviously don't know how Raptr works, I'd assume they came from this community, not Raptr's.
Phoenix is correct, I love how the term "hacker" get's thrown around so wantonly on online forums
by children who have no idea of the meaning of the term. At best it was a lame clone attempt
and the comments were quickly deleted. Those people are not hackers, they were hecklers.
And if they know what is good for them will not do it again. As identities can be gained, no one messes with a
nerds Star Trek and us other community members who appreciate the QA would like them to continue.
Comments
As a fleet holding, does it disappear if you leave a fleet?
While this is similar to what I was referring to, it is not exactly what I meant. I'd like to see a future where you but a ship once, and then have the option to continually upgrade it well into the future. Ship costumes was similar to this, but only a baby step towards what I was considering.
Get rid of ranks next to player level ALTOGETHER.
Replace that with the year.
Instead of:
(Captain) 32
You'd have:
Level 32 (Year: 2407)
You earn time passing with levels. You'd still unlock the rank titles with level.
Level 50 is 2410.
The one exception would be in mission replay where the year of the mission would pop back up.
This gets around the goofy Ensign to Admiral in one year. It makes the social hubs slightly odd but time differentials are partly why stardates were adopted, right? ;-)
For instance, Choniton (just picking a name; you might want a different time altering name) which temporarily boost your fighting level and Anti-Chroniton debuffs which lower your effective fighting level (maybe as a signature Krenim ability?).
Expanding on that idea, you could seperate the social hubs by having players that are in the same "year" inhabiting the same instances so that everyone is on the same page.
This does require rethinking the tutorial as Vega Colony is pretty fixed and some serious passes at mission dialogue.
But say you have the tutorial start people out in... 2399? At level 10, you get a little lore update saying it's 2402 and that Ambassador Jean-Luc Picard has retired from his post on Vulcan.
So the lore gets passively integrated into the leveling process instead of being dumped on people all at once.
I'm worried about separating players too much but a perk is that you COULD progress the hubs this way.
Re: Horses - They could fit in under a low-tech planet that Federation and Klingon are both competing to "win", a la Private Little War and Saturday's Child. But yeah, better to have real vehicles for on-planet travel. Also, nothing wrong with flying vehicles! After all, this is the future. Hover platforms, shuttles, surface to surface transports, etc. are perfectly reasonable!
This made me very sad to hear. Now it looks like S7 will be less about story than I'd hope (ie, "Oh great, Cryptic's back with more Systems updates and Grindfests." :rolleyes:). It sounds more and more like I won't be back until S8 now...
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
Are you... commenting on your own proposal?
Raptr profile
I pace around and look at what I've done as an outsider a lot. In a perfect world, I wish I were on a team of writers because what I like to do is bounce ideas.
Most of the time when I write proposals here or Foundry missions, I run around looking at everything I wrote as if I were 5 different people. So when I read my own thoughts, I end up reading them as if someone else wrote them and then add on.
Sorry for the multiple posts.
That's how the sausage gets made, though.
Directive 010
And what a huge, fantastic, and satisfying sausage it is!
And that came out horribly.
I Support Disco | Disco is Love | Disco is Life
Maybe they will like have a ship sale soon that has a console with a raptor with a green photon torpedo like the somraw raptor in enterprise had LOL
That was ignorant. What's wrong with Raptr? It connected a bunch of my gaming accounts and is tracking progress, that's cool. OK it has a built in chat function to add the other MYRIAD of progams into it? THat's cool. You get rewards just for logging game time and it has a built in forum? Seriously what are you complaining about? The lockboxes I have mixed feelings about, though I do admit that i popped more than I ever have with the Tholian lock boxes, and got some awesome DOFFS, four mirror U ships, like 536 lobi, and some awesome ship and ground purple weapons.
You are saying that PWE is trash? why? Did you even read the thread!? Go back and see Dan's response to my question! However since you most likely won't, what he said was that the majority of the cookie cutter "kill everything games" and "money sinkholes" were Chinese ports and that they deal exclusively with a separate US based subsidiary. Local developers and such, bringing things stateside, that is a good thing. Do a little research before you are so critical and unprofessional of the games developers and the company,
Sincerely,
Lifetime Subscriber
They couldnt keep someone from hacking dstahl's account and poopooing all over the Q&A.
Did you even look at the Raptr Q&A? They didn't hack Dan Stahl's account, they made accounts that looked like Stahl's account (used the same-looking name, and one of them had the same avatar). It was a poor attempt and anyone that actually looked at it could tell it wasn't him. Since the dupers (there were at least two accounts that attempted this) obviously don't know how Raptr works, I'd assume they came from this community, not Raptr's.
Raptr profile
Phoenix is correct, I love how the term "hacker" get's thrown around so wantonly on online forums
by children who have no idea of the meaning of the term. At best it was a lame clone attempt
and the comments were quickly deleted. Those people are not hackers, they were hecklers.
And if they know what is good for them will not do it again. As identities can be gained, no one messes with a
nerds Star Trek and us other community members who appreciate the QA would like them to continue.