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State of the Game: September 2012
pwebranflakes
Member Posts: 7,741
Star Trek Online Executive Producer Dan Stahl checks in with this month's State of the Game article. Give it a read by clicking on the link below and let us know your thoughts in this thread!
Link to the news article.
Link to the news article.
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Just curious.
U.S.S. Maelstrom, NCC-71417 (Constitution III-class/flagship) --- Fleet Admiral Hauk' --|-- Dahar Master Hauk --- I.K.S. qu'In 'an bortaS (D7-class / flagship)
But, I want to make sure that this is clear:
Is this a commitment, or is it a statement that this will be the attitude if the commitment is made?
I Support Disco | Disco is Love | Disco is Life
I can't help but feel that STO has more than a few similarities to COH (in great ways), so when I joined up (800-vet) it was almost like visiting distant family - so much different, but so much the same, and you can still feel that "family" vibe going on.
I do have to wonder, given Paragon's origins, how many of your hires from them were Cryptic staff originally. Sort of like a home-coming?
Here's to a great future for STO, the remaining Paragon staffers, and players alike. Oh, and more War Machine games between work
My blog! Zen|Dilithium tracking on Thursdays
http://samonmaui.blogspot.com
As a lifetime member of STO, I officially became a financial liability as of April 2012 when compared to a subscriber.
You honour us with your words but do you fight as gloriously as you speak?! COME claim honour in battle, join us and afterwards we shall drink Blood wine, feast and sing songs of victory!!!
Incoming transmission from the Klingon High Command, decrypting...
Intelligence is requesting that you check out this old visual data from the computer archives, access is granted below, simply enter your security clearance code General.
Click to enter your security clearance code.
Glad to see the expressed attitudes about the KDF and the Romulans
I second that question.
Much of the angst the KDF has towards Cryptic could disapeer if we knew that true efforts where actually being made to complete our faction.
I can only think the same can be said for PvP and those that enjoy that of STO.
As well the the RSE fans, whom want to know if they can look to the future of STO.
Hiring the old CoH crew is awesome!! Congrats on a well played move to better things at Cryptic.
R.I.P
If it was anything like the month before Season 6, we'll likely have a featured episode replay, possibly a new lockbox, and tribble testing culminating in a too little too late "Tribble Test Weekend" to figure out the most egregious flaws in the new content. Quite a lot, though very little "new content" which will all be saved for the new season (and rightly so).
or just add 50 fleet marks to the pvp dailiies
or bring back pvp marks for a pvp item store at k7/granalda
or a better pvp leader board
or a global pvp ladder that tracks your stats
there, thats 5 seasons worth of pvp content you could add, wouldn't you prefer to brag about what you have done for pvp, rather then apologies for it?
dont you change that november for vesta though stahl , or ill make you watch eldorado reruns
Rear Admiral , Engineering Division
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when the hell is pvp gonna at least get fleet emblem rewards?
almost 3 fracking years of neglect... -tears-
But I'm a little confused, as it was left on the list of goals.
Does that mean that we've acknowledged that PvP desperately needs some Dev love, but it's not going to get it?
I hope Joe Morrissey or Sean Fish made the jump.
Mr. Stahl, if I go to stowiki.org and find the user Peregrine Falcon (yes, him) will I see a quote and/or link to you saying over a year ago that the communication decloaking is a bug and would try to be fixed? Because if that be true, your recent statement of 'it was always inteded to work like that' is, well I have to be blunt on this Dan, no way around that. And I think I speak for the whole community. No offense is intended, but as I said this will be blunt.
'Communicating with your bridge officer was always meant to decloak you.' = Absolute idiocy. First, to talk logic (put on your Vulcan hat). I sit in the captain's chair on my Defiant class escort, U.S.S. Black Phantom. The chief tactical officer standing ten feet away tells me something and we decloak. :eek: Yeah, I'd say that's how it's supposed to go. *ahem please do not hate me for saying this, but it's necessary* What moron thought of that? Sorry for saying that, but honesty is always the best thing to live by and that was honest.
Now the harsher part of it. Really? Really? Working as intended? That is the dumbfounded thought that comes to mind. In my honest opinion, that is just a sad, sad excuse for 'we don't want to actually go and make an attempt to fix it and will just sweep it under the rug over the course of a year' and that you don't want to just come out in the first place and say it would be hard to fix or there are other priorities. Now I know you said later in the forum thread that you would need to go map by map and fix it, but why not state that in the Ask Cryptic to begin with? Please Mr. Stahl, be honest and tell us the first time around what really is keeping you from fixing it. It's been over a year, then you give a pathetic excuse for 'it's working as intended'. Community rage, I wonder why. You and I both know that it can't possibly be working as intended. Respect us and we will respect you.
So, as I said before, honesty is the best policy. And the 'working as intended' comment does not invoke much trust in you guys. I'm not saying you're a bunch of shady and distrustful people, just that there is something we should know that you aren't telling. Be honest when something happens because I can't possibly in the darkest corner of my imagination believe that you really intended from the beginning for ships to decloak when talking to someone, even a bridge officer.
Now, I do not hate you or anyone, but I want to be dealt with fairly. Thank you for reading, it hope this continues to be calm and dignified, so long as you return that honesty. I still hold my respect for you guys.
Bye for now
Edit: I did look through the swept-under-the-rug archived posts to find in the 'Under Investigation' section of the March 15 Engineering Report:
De-coaking when prompted by a contact
Any dev care to offer an explantion to how you were investigating something you always had working as intended? Hm? I dunno about everyone else on the thread but that's a just a tad strange.
Frankly around the KDF forums they think I am a Fed troll - maybe at the beginning I was but defintly not now. Yes I am a primary Fed player. All my C-store ships (10) are Fed and I use my KDF alts for doffing but I just find this political speak regarding the KDF appaulling.
The issue "could" be settled once and for all:
1) WILL the KDF ever be a full faction? Yes or No.
2) Will the KDF see a new C-store ship in the next 6 months? Yes or no?
If these two can't be answered with a simple yes, then the default is NO. Of course there is always the wiggle answer of maybe.
You know its OK to say NO!! You could have run the numbers and they are just not economically viable to put any more resources into, but you could come out and say that if that is the case. Just leaving that question hanging is also a statement to how they will be treated in the future.
I can estimate the answers you'd get:
1) "Ever" is a long time. It's likely to be a process that may take years. But we're getting closer all the time and if some on our team had their way, it's all we'd be working on. We really have no choice but to take it VERY slowly. I know that's not the answer you want to hear. Just know that many of us are impatient for it too. Qapla'!
AND
2) These ships haven't been robust sellers in the past. So while "never" is also a long time, probably not, no. We may have limited new releases such as through the fleet system or the 1000 day vet reward though and investigate other ways of justifying the construction of new Klingon ships since the money and demand isn't there for them.
Is that your words or his?
The both of you would make excellent politicians. Then the answer to the questions is NO.
It's my words but I'm paraphrasing and interpreting things he and other devs have said.
He'd never say "It would take years" which is why he's a better politician. He's say something like:
"Look at the mission we did 'Alpha' for a taste of what you can expect and the kind of time table you can expect it on. We'll also continue to develop zones like Nukara Prime. Season Seven will feature our biggest zone ever and then, looking ahead to summer 2013, we'll see the return of Feature Episodes."
I think the politics is what keeps some wounds open, personally. But what it comes down to is that they can't do it on any reasonable timetable that they've figured out yet. They discuss it in lengthy meetings for probably ten hours a week and have been doing that for months but they can't settle on a plan that works. And they don't want to give up on it even though they can't figure out how to do it.
I'll level out what it would take for an involved community to help fix some of the issues:
Get Brandon to set up a conference call for GENERAL feedback. We're talking Foundry. We're talking KDF, Romulans, content, kit powers, etc. Keep it light. Keep it general. Probably best not to attract too much heat or attention by getting Stahl directly on there. Maybe something like Borticus and Salami. Ask people to submit their CVs prior to the conference call. Screen out members of the press. You'll probably get around 15-25 confirmed takers.
From there, listen to the call in a meeting with Al Rivera, Dan, Craig, and Jack. Find five people who were on the conference call who had some solid ideas. Just like assembling a boy band or a reality TV show, you want a range of perspectives covered by a group. In no particular order (and could be filled by any combination): a PvPer, an STFer, a theory crafter, a crafter, an MMO vet, an MMO newb, someone in a small fleet, someone not active in fleets, someone in a larger fleet, a gaming vet who isn't an MMO vet, an academic, a competitive gamer, someone with business background, an artist or writer, a Klingon player, a Fed player, a ground player, a space player, a Foundry author, and an IT person. You want five people who fulfill all of those categories. Heck, maybe a survey to screen for the initial call would help.
Fly them out to Los Gatos, same way they do job applicants. Give them a consulting fee and an NDA. Coach them that the numbers and information they're being shown is tentative and hypothetical and may not all be strictly accurate. Some may be current. Some may be hypothetical for various situations they want to plan for. Ask them to see what their responses are if those numbers ARE true and get them to spend two days brainstorming and attending design meetings. Keep open the option to pull a couple aside for job interviews. Pull a couple aside for voiceover recording, for kicks. Have Thomas, Borticus, Zero, and Salami take them out for dinner and drinks to get a feel for these people.
That will work.
That's how you do it.
I think you'd get powerful responses just by having people outside the bubble, outside the perceptual biases that emerge, come in and offer second opinions and brainstorming.
Why not stop all this flarn for once and do an in game poll. Offer a few lobi or something and get some real responses. Your metrics only tell you what people are doing, it doesn't tell you if they enjoy doing it or if they have better ideas.I think the reason why you don't is that you are scared of the results and having to come up with excuses of why you can or cannot, that's even if you were to release the results.
Do people really think you are now even considering going down the risky "build it and they will come" road, when you still cannot fix old issues and problems or have content that lasts more than a few weeks? What poppycock.
I thought you were looking at things that were only profitable? Why build something for 16% of the player base as you keep chucking at us? What's the player base for PVP? Less? And Rommies less than PVP?
All these should have been added ages ago, and you should have taken the risk that the build it and they will come attitude might have worked and we then wouldn't be saddle with a game that has such a bad rap (rightly deserved) and the name Cryptic, would no long be synonymous with poor, shallow (and now money grabbing) mmos.
Still think your the king of spin Dan. Still not sure why so many people believe anything you say.
Judge me by my record? Hah.
Will this STF be ready at launch of S.7 or will it come "sometime" during S.7 ?
Any chance for a little green Ferengi handing out purple Lirpas & Bat'leths this time around ?
I was also impressed that you took the time to publicly acknowledge this .
I would go a step further tho and look at the players view of only being able to create a Klingon once you've played as a Fed .
If you are going to try to create "a Romulan experience" , then look into a way for those players to be able to play as a Romulan from the get go -- even if the Romulan faction will be a 10 level "mini-faction" .
+1
I always get excited reading upcoming plans for the game.
But on the issue of delivery, I'm afraid that there needs to be a re-calibration on the entertainment factor, as I feel, it needs to be turned up a notch.
Season seven was promising, but, in my opinion, a tad too high on revenue generation and the grind factor.
For example:
Some of these specials for Fleet Starbases are ridiculously underwhelming, while at the same time being extremely time and resource heavy. The tribble and the security guard ones come immediately to mind.
They simply lack the awesomeness one would expect as a reward for investing so much to complete them.
Infact, If I may be so bold, they almost seem lazy developmentally, as they are utilizing things that already exist within the game. There's nothing new here, except something new to grind, or spend money on. They lack the epicness the effort deserves.
And while I'm on the issue of laziness. The new Regent class comes to my mind. Why?
In the season dedicated to fleets, You can't even put your fleet logo on the bloody ship due to a graphic bug rendering it as just a plain colored block.
Now before you roll your eyes at this, I'd also like to point out that almost EVERY c store ship released at late has been released with some sort of texture, or graphic bug that to this day, HAS NEVER BEEN FIXED.
The Venture refit's windows are bugged when you kitbash parts from other models.
The same with the Beleraphon.
The Armitage can't even change it's windows. At least you can take it into STFs now.
But yet prices go up.
You're all busy, I get it..... Planning great things. But really, how long would it take to fix a few graphical issues on a few products people have paid good money for?
To me these few issues I've mentioned are indicative of a much greater issue. The issue of taking the easy way out developing things, while charging top dollar for them, or expecting players to grind themselves silly to obtain something simply mediocre, underwhelming and not worthy of the effort or cost.
Then there are those other issues: The KDF, PVP, Romulans still waiting, bugs everywhere, STF REWARDS, balance issues.....The the to do list is not getting any shorter. WHY?
Where is all the staff we were told you were hiring?
Why does quality continue to suffer ?, content that requires massive amounts of effort continue to underwhelm, and longstanding game issue continue to be ignored?
What i would like to see is MORE. More effort from the devs to make a grind more worthwhile. More fun things to do.
More progress on advancing this game so that it might someday soon be MORE entertaining.
I'm sorry to be so blunt, but it's how I honestly feel.