Ask Cryptic: February 2013 - Submit Your Questions, Please!

pwebranflakes

Hello Captains!

Please post your questions below and dStahl will answer selected questions from all those received. Please post them today as I will ship questions off to Daniel tomorrow.

Also, remember that questions will not be answered in this thread -- answers will be posted in an upcoming "Ask Cryptic" Web Feature that should be released before the end of the month.

Cheers,

Brandon =/\=

zathri83

Will we ever get a very rare aenar duty officer in Ferra's duty officer store?

psycoticvulcan

The Foundry War is really spinning out of control. Any word on a compromise that will satisfy both sides?

Will the Remans ever get their own unique ships? I believe the Countdown comics provided a rough frigate design already.

Does "March Beneath the Raptor's Wings" mean what I think it means? Are we looking at a playable Romulan faction coming in May?

Are you still planning to remaster some of the older missions? I know a couple that could really use an update.

Are you still planning to revamp exploration? Can you give us any idea of how and when that might happen?

Will we get to properly meet the captain and crew of the K.D.F. Bortasqu'? We see them at Tau Dewa every now and then, but it would be nice to actually talk to them.

Why is the Terran Empire helping the Tholians? After that incident on Nukara, I would expect them to hate each others' guts. Will we get an answer soon?

Would it be possible to redo the KDF tutorial mission where you have to run around Qo'noS? It's really tedious and probably at least partly responsible for the lack of KDF players.

In the last Ask Cryptic, you hinted that STO might become compatible with Macs in the not-too-distant future. Can you tell us more about that?

Are there any plans to add audio FX to the Foundry?

Since much of the New Romulus storyline depends on progress in the Reputation System, there are undoubtedly many players who are missing out on it by not bothering with the Reputation grind. Will any future storyline content be restricted to Reputation Tiers in the future?

korithian1

The recent teaser trailer suggesting that their will be Romulans added to the game soon.

If this is so has this given the team a good insight into what it takes to add addition faction to the game and will we see any more such as the Cardassians or Borg? Or given the work involved will we see additional faction species and ships added via the store so that the focus can be on building up the factions already in game?

captainrevo1

The anniversary episode 'Temporal Ambassador' was superb, and quite possibly the best mission in the game. While I love FE series, can we get these single episodes more often going forward? Producing stand alone episodes must be easier than trying to string a whole series together.

cehus

Hi Dan & Dev team. Thank you for the best anniversary yet!
Can you tell us when we will find out exactly what is happening in May 2013 for STO, and what content we might be receiving in the meantime?

whamhammer1

Dstahl,

If it is true that the games space engine cannot handle more than four weapons per side (front/rear) and the Fleet ships already have increased stats/conosoles over regular/T5+ ships, what will be the real benefits for ranks for above Vice Admiral/ Lt. General when the rumored level cap is raised?


When can we get the Cryptic Pony Combat Pets?

Oh yeah, the Rechargable Batteries in "Temporal Ambassador", gotta' have them, how much??

mattmiracle

1. When might we see the opportunity to claim new IDIC tribbles? I have serval new captains since it was introduced and I would love to get it on those captains. I also wouldn't mind if it was added to the C-Store.
   
   
2. Will there be a way to either finish or clear accolades from prior "special" events? My fleetmate has the accolade in proress for having Q turn you into another form 5 times from the 1 year anniversary event but that is no longer available and complains that it is always in his "To Do" list of Accolades.

racar1

Any chance of getting Efficient Saurians or even non-Efficient Saurians added to the T4 Marauding Commendation Bridge Officer reward?

Followup: Y'all ever gonna fix it to where we can actually use our faction uniforms on the Marauding/Diplomacy Boffs?

saltypineapple

Nearly everything in the game cost dilithium and though there is more ways to obtain ore the refinement cap in the game's current form is just to low. Could you increase the daily cap to at least 10,000k, or lower the cool down on the veteran refinement from 2 days to 20 hours?

alastorforthrigh

1. Though far from the longest Temporal Ambassador is by far the most well done mission in game in my opinion. When will we see more missions along its lines of depth and creativity?

2. Everybody is abuzz with the "March beneath the Raptor's Wings" teaser, while I know you can't go into details, can you give us a bit of a hint towards what's going to be happening in regards to that?

3. You've said you've stopped calling Season 8 a Season. What's so big about it that its no longer qualifying as a season?

4. When will we see more ground sets with costume unlocks?

5. When will we be able to customize the appearance of weapons? Some of the end game weapons look, well bad. Phasers have holograms all over them, disruptor look industrial and have no Klingon aesthetics. For that matter when will the weapons that DO have Klingon aesthetics be revamped to look more like traditional klingon weapons, and less like "Klingon is, with extra blades and superfluous curvy sharp looking bits"?

6. With the Dominion getting a lockbox, after having received a 'chance ship' earlier already. Will we be seeing other previously visited species vessels in lockboxes? Keldon cruisers, Hedeki frigates mainly?

redricky

Why can't the Jem HEC slot Orion deployables?

To avoid a repost, please see an explanation of the issue here.

crypticarmsman

Right now, when you click on another player's ship, we see a player portrait, the ship type/class/name; and a player written bio (if they did one).

Question: Would it be possible that wen could instead (or in addition to the above) see the ship's weapon/device/console load out instead?

(Basically the ship display screen as it exists now, but showing the OTHER players ship class/type/loadout.)

IMO - THAT would be more Star Trek as Spock, Chekov, Worf, etc. ALL had lines such as "The Enemy ship is armed with phasers...add other lines about weapons/shields, etc.

zarxidejacko

What new ships we might expect anytime soon and what fleet variant of existing ships for both factions ?



p.s. Fleet Ki'tang

mikeward1701

mattmiracle wrote: »

1. When might we see the opportunity to claim new IDIC tribbles? I have serval new captains since it was introduced and I would love to get it on those captains. I also wouldn't mind if it was added to the C-Store.

The IDIC Tribble is currently claimable during the Anniversary event. I saw the NPC on Earth Spacedock standing opposite the door to Club 47.

Correction; IDIC tribble cannot be claimed by new characters it seems.

foxalpha5

Will you use the Atrox hull color/pattern on future ships?

Will we get a Ferasan ship, and will it use a recolored Atrox hull pattern?

Can we create an Atrox styled heavy escort carriers for both Caitians/Ferasans?

Will Caitians eventually get more hairstyles?

broodwyn

In a recent blog for Priority One I took note on how the NPCs seem to lack any form of AI, such as pathing problems and such

My question is will the "AI" of the game be improved/Overhauled?

as right now it hinders a lot of gameplay choices,
BOffs standing in plasma fires only to have another one rush in and try to revive him only to suffer the same fate, I'd rather have Worf, Geordi and Data, not the 3 Stooges
AI Driven parts of Player ships (MVAM & SS) while the benefits are nice they don't out weigh the downsides of them flying into explosions, sitting there following your ship clearly bugged out, Its all fun and games till someone looses their saucer with 900 crew aboard
Even NPC AI ships that players call in, Distress call ships often despawn without engaging as well as photonic ones

bolter25

With all the ships we have at our disposal, and I'm sure I'm not alone in asking for this, can we please have a way to save our powers tray settings so they don't disappear when we change from one ship to another?

It would be a tremendous help! Thanks!

saltypineapple

Any chance your team could add the green blinking notification to the fleet button in the mini-map (like the one notifying you if you have mail or a completed doff assignment) to let the player know that there is a current fleet project open?

pharhaun

1 - Any chance of seen Q costume or an Q NPC on the Foundry?

2 - It is possible to add dynamics objects information in UI Lobi store (or others UI store) to avoid the risk of buying the same object twice? (Ex: "Already unlocked costume" on the outfit box before buying).

3 - Any chance of seen Lobi Crystals in the Zen Store? Or seen Lobi vanity objects in the Zen Store? Having two ways to obtain this vanity objects will be nice and don't menace the selling of the keys...

4 - is it possible to set up a special inventory for pets? Many Epohhs and vanity pets... Too many for the normal inventory (I have unlock all the inventory slots in C-Store but it is not enough ^^')

5 - Any chance to have improvement of the personnal housing ?

Thanks again for the Q&A.
Live Long and Prosper.

chalpen

1) is there going to be more items going into the cstore for kdf characters this year?

2) is there been development on allowing people to log out and log back in and still be on the starbase?

zeuxidemus001

I have some questions maybe they will be answered or someone elses similar questions will be answered that are concerns I have with the game.

First in regards to any melee weapons seen by federation or klingon empire races as well as ritual type weapons will we be seeing them in game any time this year this would be a great start at fleshing out the KDF as well besides revamp of kits that may immerse the Klingon empire more.

The other issue is ships we currently have like the defiant (no battle cloak), intrepid's 10 second ablative armor not really being something that I see as useful, the multi vectors pets after the nerf around season 4 and 5 to pets in the game doesn't seem very useful, and the b'rel being it has the problem of in pvp not being very useful as far as for its torpedoes being its own mechanics of decloaking negates the need for the emissions seeking torpedo or any of the various anti cloaking abilities in the game there is no need when you can just use its disadvantages against the ship in pvp and just like in pve as well and in pvp you can just use hazard emitters since plasma torpedoes are the only viable torpedo in the game to somewhat use with them.

Will the foundry be the only source of KDF specific content in the future?

Fleets and adventure zones needing 3 ppl minimum for these when most of the time with the KDF it is hard to even find 3 people will there be any changes to teaming where you can actually team up with people on the federation side for this? The other question with fleets I have been wondering if there could be a change where fleets could be transformed into something like an omega fleet system to where its not faction specific but yet keep factions uniqueness intact where every kind of player can enjoy what is being put out without the issue of that got faction this or that faction got that?

Last question I have is that of social zones and doffing if there could be a centralized location of social zones like rura penthe, orion homeworld, etc for all the prisoner doff missions to be placed for further immersion of that aspect of the game?

canis36

1. How set are you on advancing the level cap? Would it not be simpler to tweak the rank advancement system so players achieve captain rank at 40 and unlock an Admiral/General reputation at level 50?

2. Will we see any Very Rare Mk XI and XII kits and/or more Ultra Rare Mk X, XI, & XII kits? In or out of the starbase?

thegreendragoon1

Can you give us any idea about what new features are coming to the Foundry? Would it be possible to do an updated Foundry roadmap?

warpedcore

Will there be any updates to the Fleet UI at some point?

brigadooom

Can you give jheinig and company a manly hug from all of us 700-day android variant devotees?

captainbmoney

Now that we've got the C. Any chance of talking and making a deal with John Van Citter of CBS to get the A. Just the A. Not the TOS version. of the Constitution out to Max Level toons? I know it would make a ton of money in the Star Trek Prospective and the Refit Constitution has been a staple in the movies from 1 to 6.

tehjonel

"If you can't reduce the cooldown on the Dilithium Mining Claims, can they at least be changed to Bind to Account?"

"After seeing the great work done on the Odyssey bridge, I was looking forward to more bridge designs. But since then (March 2012), only three unique bridges (D'Kora, Tholian, Temporal) have been released. Do you have plans to add unique bridges to unique ships that have been released in the past 10 months (Steamrunner, Galor, Chimera/Peghqu, Atrox, Armitage, Vesta, etc.)? Will this be a pattern moving forward with future ship releases?"

zulisvel

To the best of my knowledge the trophy ship models that we can place in our ready room/ship lounge have never been updated since launch. Will the selection of ship trophies ever be updated to include ships that have been added to the game since launch? Will I ever be able to have a gold Excelsior model in my ready room?

With the inclusion of the Ambassador class (awesome ship!) to the game we have yet another older cruiser that outperforms the iconic Galaxy class. As someone who grew up with and still loves The Next Generation I find it disheartening that at end game anything the Galaxy Retrofit can do any other cruiser, including the Galaxy Dreadnaught, can do better. Will the Galaxy-R ever get a second look from the dev team and be brought up to the standards of the other end game cruisers?

If I have more than on Jem'Hadar ship on the same character why am I limited to one MK 12 Jem'Hadar ship set on that character?

Since Lobi is going to remain bound to character instead of bound to account for the foreseeable future, why aren't the ground weapons and ship sets packed in crates instead of bind on pickup? Why can I buy a Jem'Hadar Dreadnaught or Tholian Recluse with the character I have lobi on to send to the alt I want to use that ship with but not an energy whip or temporal console?

I'd like to offer a big thank you to everyone on the dev team that was involved with finally finishing the android bridge officer variants for the 600 day vet reward. However what I'm left wondering is why something like a veteran reward was given such a low priority that it took nearly a year and a half to complete and if this is an indication of how the STO team values its subscribers?

Now that the 600 day android boffs are completed will someone be getting around to finally adding a replacement to the 500 day reward for the 250 emblems that were removed on September 29, 2011?
Link to the patch notes: http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=233025

lanceandragon

Will we see a New Romulus themed Duty officer expansion like the one in the Cardassian sectors?

vsilverwings1

Had these prepared in advance so hopefully 1 will get picked ; Hopefully more will get picked as I think these are questions a lot of the community is asking not just me.


1/ With the fleet advancement, embassy, Omega and Romulan reputation systems in full swing and lots of talk about having many more reputation systems, there's seems to be a strong feeling among many that the game is becoming a grindfest, resource sink and recycling old content. What lessons have you learnt from current reputation systems and/or what changes will you make to make future systems more enjoyable?

2/ The working Deep Space 9 Fleet Action got removed for no known reason. There was nothing wrong with the Crystalline Entity FA for good, organised groups but it too was removed. The Undine fleet Action had 1 bug in it which was easy to fix was. When will these removed fleet actions be returning (either revamped or original and fixed)?

3/ I have nearly 300 dilithium claims bound to a character that are tied to a 20 hour event which means I won't get the full reward for nearly 10 months if I log in and mine every day. Since the claims and ore are bound to character and the refine cap is 8000 per day, why do you have this system in place and instead just give players ore?

4/ With lobi being a good example, players are compelled to open boxes on a single character to increase their buying power but leaves them with character bound currency and items (dilithum claims being a particular problem). When can we expect to see account bound items instead of character bound?

5/ A growing problem among the community it seems is players idling in missions especially STFs. Many ideas have cropped up such as team voting or logging activity all of which have their pros and cons. From a dev point of view what are you plans to tackle this problem?

6/ Any plans to make ship interior work to make them more functional and will we be seeing more accolade trophies being made? I'd love to have a No-Win scenario trophy to replace my Crystalline Entity trophy .