Priority One Podcast - Interviews Al "CaptainGeko" Rivera - Submit your questions!

elijahmre

Hello Captains,

This weekend, we will be interviewing Star Trek Online Lead Designer Al "CaptainGeko" Rivera for our next installment of Priority One Podcast! We would like to invite you to post questions you would like for us to try and ask.

Did a recent "Ask Cryptic" Question get you thinking?... Got a question about upcoming ships?... Not sure how to fly that Ambassador?

Post your questions here and we'll do our best to get them answered!

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Would you like to join the Priority One Team? We've got two positions open for Audio Editors to help produce our weekly shows! If you're interested, send us an email to incoming@priorityonepodcast.com Get involved with the STO and greater Trek Community like never before!

Thanks
-Elijah
Associate Producer // Host
priorityonepodcast.com

sparhawk

Try asking about the new warp core slot that's being added to ships that Mr. Stahl mentioned recently.

thehavraha

Geko, what is the seekretz to yer awesome?

Where have you felt Star Trek Online needs the most improvement in 2013 and what are your plans?

Unknown

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thehavraha

Oh. It appears the third anniversary event has been a spectacular success and more success is yet to come. What are your thoughts on all this? Has it been a long time coming? Is stress off your shoulders?

azniadeet

I've heard rumors that Fleet Starships are intended to eventually become more customizable. Would this come in the form of additional ship parts for our existing variants, or the ability to mash together parts from all sorts of variants to create entirely new ship designs?

nynik

Probably too many questions, but, here goes anyway..

Hi CaptainGeko,

1. Daniel Stahl recently commented that there has been some discussion about potentially exploring a kickstarter approach to funding some ship designs. What are your personal thoughts about this type of financial backing for projects, and do you think the idea may hold some potential for future STO ships and even game content?

2. Following on from the recent release of the Dominion line of ships, is Cryptic growing concerned with the prevalence of non-faction specific ships? Specifically, whether or not, they have begun to compromise each faction's unique IP ship identity. I would personally be inclined to believe that starfleet and the kdf are transitioning to become more of a merchant fleet of "if it can hold together, then thats good enough".

3. Blowing your enemies to bits as an element of space combat in STO has been praised throughout the years, but there is also a body of players who would like to still engage in combat, but opt to not destroy their foes to resolve the aggression. From time to time in missions Cryptic has designed it so that enemies become and appear 'incapacitated' after a fight. But this is always a unique, scripted behaviour attached to that mission in isolation from the rest of the game. Has there been any further discussion on ways to allow for a broadening of this aspect of 'fighting the good fight' without always having to mercilessly annihilate your enemies, outside of specific missions?

4. Ship and object scaling in STO has been a reoccurring topic these past three years. It has been previously elaborated by developers posting on the forums that the reason for the scale disconnect between small ships (i.e. shuttles) and larger entities has been for the purposes of preserving gameplay, i.e. in order to better see a shuttle next to your Sovereign class starship without it being just a dot. I would certainly understand this rationale if it where not for the fact that the user interface has options to display, by default, HUD elements for all ships in the form of brackets, names and healthbars. If the important information is available no matter the scale, then why can't shuttle scaling fall in line with all other ships?

5. The ship's crew counter and repair mechanic - will this feature ever be revisited by the dev team?

6. Can we expect to see the selection of ships available at Captain rank expanded in the coming year?

Thanks P1, don't feel obliged to ask all of them - or any of them, rofl.

zulisvel

Al - Now that the Ambassador class is finally in the game (A big THANK YOU to the entire team btw, the ship is a blast to fly) will you take a look at the poor Galaxy class and consider bringing it in line with the Excelsior, Ambassador, and both Sovereign classes?

aurigas7

I really like elite STF's. But people are occupied with all kinds of grind, therefore it became increasingly difficult to me to recruit a full fleet team.

Are there any plans to move some of the Romulan marks grind into new STF's ?

Now that the fleet B'rel has been quite a disappointment to me, are there any chances to get a K'Vort ? (preferably with 5 tac consoles in fleet version)

eldarion79

There is a lot of pets in the game and they take up precious bank space. Can there be a Pets tab and can there be an in game checklist of the various space and ground sets for our characters?

snoggymack22

1- Who do you think will win the Super Bowl?

2- With the Lakers floundering and the Celtics roster burned by season ending injuries to Rondo and now Sullinger, does it look like another Thunder-Heat NBA Finals to you too?

3- Duke getting skewered like they did, is that going to affect the Cryptic Studios March Madness pool you think?

4- Thoughts on Neverwinter Online?

5- Tier 5 Constitution on the horizon?

azurianstar

I like to know what kind of ideas are floating around that can help small fleets with the Fleet System. Like a reduced Dilithium Cost for Projects and Decorative Projects.


With so many Federation Canonical ships and possible future Cryptic ships, we going to see changes to the ship system such as an refit program, so a player could possibility level up with the ship they like?

And there any possible changs to ships themselves so they are more unique than BOFF slots, such as bonuses to armoring (Sovereign, Defiant) or bonuses to Warp Core power (Galaxy) or maybe bonuses to speed (Sabre).


There any plans for Seperate Pet Storage for both Space and Ground pets. Could be a similar system like TOR's?


Why does the team always use K'T'inga skins and not the D7 skin when you specify NPCs as "D7 Battlecruisers"? :P


With the Foundry:

Are there plans of soon adding missing player ships (Lockbox, Lobi, C-store), new NPC ships, and uniform options in to the Foundry anytime soon?

Any plans of making Neutral Foundry missions that can be shared by all factions?

Any plans of making blank / empty maps for Interiors so Foundry authors who like making customized maps don't have to disguise or use tricks that works around maps?

Any plans in widening Text Boxes like they were originally?

There plans to debug the Foundry, like fixing the issue where in testing that the computer remembers both Space and Ground settings, so they work appropriately when transitioning? And bugs like NPCs falling through custom floors and BOFFs warping?

Think we can soon see maps that give us the option to limit BOFFs?

There going to be new assets added like more Romulan assets to create more Romulan-friendly Missions?


Can we have a Foundry function that allow authors to control the weapons that are used by NPC Groups?

For Example, some of us who want to do Pre-2409 missions (Time Travel, or Holodeck) or authentic Star Trek have the illusion of the mission being ruined with NPCs using equipment that was never seen before the STO era.

Finally, there any plans of us making a Boss Type Encounters without the use of Captain-type mobs?

molen

1. Are there any discussions about any kind of career specific progression system(Tac, Sci, Eng) that would open up at max level that would help to differentiate between the three career options a little more and also open up more builds within a career.

2. Any plans for user interface improvements when it comes to carriers and pets? At the very least, icons representing our carrier pets so you easier can see of they are alive or dead would be nice. For example bigger pets can have their own individual icons while smaller can have just one with a number under.

3. Any plans for fleet versions of the Guramba Siege Destroyer and the Kar'Fi Battle Carrier? Feel a little left behind with so many 10 console ships in the game at this point.

4. Do cryptic have any plans in place to try to decrease the number of bugs that end up in the game? I love the game but it's also one of the most bug ridden games I've ever played.

5. Will the "Red Alert" bug ever be fixed? Four out of five times when you click "Red Alert" you end up in a finished game. I've stopped answering red alerts because of this.

woodyvalley

You ever tried Vegimite?

undyingzero

Are we ever going to see Andoria restored to it's full glory? By this I mean, will the open PvP ever be added to this lonely social zone? And do you plan on expanding other social zones?

kekvin

[10:52] [REDALERT] <Dev> Oaks@dstahl: Other Trek Game ships are tricky - they must have clearance from CBS for us to use them

What Ships from previous ST Games would u like to add if u were allowed to?

captainrevo1

In regards to the Dominion lock box. There were two ships missing. The jem'hadar warship, and the jem'hadar fighter (not including the pet).

Can you explain the reasons behind leaving these two ships out? The other lockboxes had a shuttle and the warship in particular is canon over the heavy escort. Will these be added in game at a later date?

vestereng

Q: Any chance of a fix for ground sets? As much as easier access is appreciated, it's upside down aslong as it's blocked for people who didn't get everything through season 7.

cmdrskyfaller

elijahmre wrote: »

Hello Captains,

This weekend, we will be interviewing Star Trek Online Lead Designer Al "CaptainGeko" Rivera for our next installment of Priority One Podcast! We would like to invite you to post questions you would like for us to try and ask.

priorityonepodcast.com

1) When will pet AI be reworked? Its current form is a shadow of its former self. 'Functioning' does not equate to 'adequate'. We need a working AI that will allow more control over the pets. We used to have it but it got borked...ironically while trying to improve it.

2) Why is the Fleet VoQuv a tier 5 starbase vessel? The VoQuv is a tier 4 ship.

3) When will science skills get a look? Many science skills have abysmal performance due to the captain skill points giving too low a bonus and there being no ability to 'buff' science skills like tac capt's can 'buff' weapons or engineers can 'buff' ship power levels. For example Tachyon Beam. Pre-F2P when the stats worked properly, it would severely drain a shield. Now it doesn't do much even at III level.

4) Attack Pattern Omega : There are many unbalancing issues with this ability. It grants too many bonuses at once. It needs to be split into 'Attack' and 'Evasive' patterns.

5) Is there any plans to continue releasing Z-store ships? We have not seen one in a long time that is not a trio-pack ship and that is always a cruiser.

Finally, my MOST CRITICAL question. Answer this one at least:

6) Lobi: Account bound. WHEN?

The reason we keep being given is to avoid lobi farming on the once in a year free event. Well then, how about REMOVING that free lobi and making all lobi account bound? Its extremely frustrating to not be able to pool lobi to get the equipment that is needed. Players like myself have ceased bothering to open lockboxes for lobi because of this. This equates a far bigger loss in revenue than preventing people from farming lobi once a year in a very long time consuming set of missions.

mattmiracle

P1 Team - Thanks for allowing us to ask the questions.

Al, First, I just wanted to say thank you to you and your team.

My Fleetmate loves alot of the ships but Hates the Nacelles and/or Pylons. In the future crafting update, would it be possible to allow for the customization of the ships. For example, the ability to put the Galaxy Nacelles on the Ambassador or the ability to put a neck on the Sovereign or Intrepid.

hippiejon

As Lead Designer, can you talk about what the designed intentions were for the Foundry.
And , Can you speak to what future design ideas are on the table that might assist in dealing with the multiple exploits of the system ?

stardestroyer001

And also, will the Foundry gain more tools to aid authors?

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=495761

Finally, in regards to the ships in the game, is there any chance the Galaxy-class will be tweaked to be superior to the Excelsior and Ambassador classes? And will the model errors be fixed?

zerobang

What is the next big thing for the Duty Officer System?

Tell me something that the DOFFJOBS community can look forward too, beyond more C-Store Pay 2 Win Active Roster powers or the occasional handcrafted LockBox DOff set.

starfish1701

I would like to know, which of the recent additions to the game have you personally been the most pleased with?

cidstorm

What does god need with a starship?


And on a similar note, can we get confirmation on romulan faction status?

diogene0

How does it feel to work on playable Romulan ships?

artan42

The Typhoon was mentioned as a possibility for a new tier of ships, is the Jupiter also considered?

Also will these be added to the foundry?

elijahmre

diogene0 wrote: »

How does it feel to work on playable Romulan ships?

Ah... I see what you did there! :cool:

These are some great questions, everyone!! I'm looking forward to more!! We'll stop taking questions on Sunday, 2/3/13 @ 3pm ET / 12pm PT so that we can compile what we have.

Don't miss the interview by subscribing to:

feeds.priorityonepodcast.com

knuhteb5

Are there plans for introducing any Ferasan ships? I'm particularly interested in new KDF sci carriers like the Vo'quv. Will we see anything like that in the near future?

leviathan99

Stahl has been talking about "resolving" factions and the character editor being redone from the ground up. I have some pretty detailed thoughts I've shared about what I think this is on the forums but it seems to me to boil down to reinventing what factions are.

I imagine you can't talk specifics of unreleased features.

So here's the question:

What are the advantages and disadvantages of STO's CURRENT red team/blue team, Order/Destruction, Alliance/Horde, Coke/Pepsi approach to factions, is it what you would have done in hindsight, and do you see it changing going forward?

bitemepwe

Upcomming new KDF kits where mentioned recently, does thos mean Gorndogs may be in the KDFs future?

On that note, Season 8 has been said to have a focus on the KDF (if only in part), will we KDF fans be able to have hope that the hatchet between the fanbase and Devs can finally be buried and growth towards completion will arrive?

Beam Arrays are currently greatly unloved by much of the fanbase, are any of the ideas from the forums (or ideas in general) gonna be used to fix them so they are less scorned?

How happy are you with cruisers and the games quasi-trinity roles of ships in genera?

PvP, any good plans in the works?