I can tell you that when I was contacted by Branflakes to be spotlighted it came as a huge surprise. He also picked my least conventional and least played (at the time) mission to spotlight, which I think is pretty cool.
Why is there even a bunch of "popular" authors in the first place, surely the point of the Foundry is to showcase the abilities of multiple authors, not just pick the same people and make them "popular". That sort of defeats the object.
Why is there even a bunch of "popular" authors in the first place, surely the point of the Foundry is to showcase the abilities of multiple authors, not just pick the same people and make them "popular". That sort of defeats the object.
So, it's now your contention that it's a conspiracy on the part of the PLAYERS to promote authors they don't really like, in favor of some hidden agenda they share with Brandon?
Cream rises to the top.
Former moderator of these forums. Lifetime sub since before launch. Been here since before public betas. Foundry author of "Franklin Drake Must Die".
So, it's now your contention that it's a conspiracy on the part of the PLAYERS to promote authors they don't really like, in favor of some hidden agenda they share with Brandon?
Cream rises to the top.
It's not a conspiracy, people tend to be conservative and keep looking for what they already know. It's not a general rule but it's really a common behaviour. So, they'll go to see spotlighted authors' missions first. The only way to make them "discover" you is to contribute to challenges, which can work but will fail at some point with the increasing number of contributions.
Why is there even a bunch of "popular" authors in the first place, surely the point of the Foundry is to showcase the abilities of multiple authors, not just pick the same people and make them "popular". That sort of defeats the object.
Branflakes already mentioned that only a couple of authors have been spotlighted more than once and only because their work was deserving of it.
The spotlight isn't a list of popular authors, it's a list of missions that Branflakes believes showcases the best that the community has made through the Foundry, if the same authors keep showing up then I don't take that as a sign that there's a list of popular authors, I take it as a sign that the rest of the Foundry community including you and myself have to step up their game and show that we can match the quality of our missions with theirs.
Branflakes already mentioned that only a couple of authors have been spotlighted more than once and only because their work was deserving of it.
The spotlight isn't a list of popular authors, it's a list of missions that Branflakes believes showcases the best that the community has made through the Foundry, if the same authors keep showing up then I don't take that as a sign that there's a list of popular authors, I take it as a sign that the rest of the Foundry community including you and myself have to step up their game and show that we can match the quality of our missions with theirs.
Exactly. If BranFlakes was picking his friends, I wouldn't be sitting here redoing the plot for my mission to try to make it good enough for a spotlight.
Former moderator of these forums. Lifetime sub since before launch. Been here since before public betas. Foundry author of "Franklin Drake Must Die".
So, it's now your contention that it's a conspiracy on the part of the PLAYERS to promote authors they don't really like, in favor of some hidden agenda they share with Brandon?
Cream rises to the top.
Depends, I've seen plenty of other things that might class as a conspiracy on Cryptic's behalf. I agree that authors should get mentioned "ONCE" but if they get mentioned again then that's just silly because its taking away from other people that could be showcased instead. I am also not the only person who thinks that their is a sort of "inner circle" here of popular authors.
Now people think I'm critical of Cryptic because I hate the game, that is NOT true. I like the game, what I don't like is the dishonesty and slow development time. This game has the potential to gain a real Star Trek feel to it and I personally believe that it is unfortunately sacrificed for profit motive. Which is a bit sad...
That was just to respond to an earlier post that I constantly "bash" Cryptic.
Cream may rise but say somebody creates a Foundry mission and has a 500 strong Fleet, that's 500 instantly favorable reviews and more likely to get noticed by Cryptic. People will smaller groups of friends don't really get a look in.
Depends, I've seen plenty of other things that might class as a conspiracy on Cryptic's behalf. I agree that authors should get mentioned "ONCE" but if they get mentioned again then that's just silly because its taking away from other people that could be showcased instead. I am also not the only person who thinks that their is a sort of "inner circle" here of popular authors.
So you're saying that once an author has a mission spotlighted then they should never have a mission spotlighted again, even if said mission is far better than the original mission that got originally spotlighted.
That's pretty narrow minded, not only that but the spotlight isn't about the authors although they may get even more traffic to their missions from having a mission spotlighted, the spotlight is about the missions that showcase the best that people have made with the Foundry and is intended to inspire people to build their own missions and attempt to surpass the Foundry authors.
Limiting it to one spotlighted mission per person does ruin the intention of the spotlight to showcase the best missions in the Foundry because most people improve with a system as they continue to work with it meaning that if one of their first missions is spotlighted then their future missions which are better than that can never be shown off as the best the Foundry has to offer.
Now people think I'm critical of Cryptic because I hate the game, that is NOT true. I like the game, what I don't like is the dishonesty and slow development time. This game has the potential to gain a real Star Trek feel to it and I personally believe that it is unfortunately sacrificed for profit motive. Which is a bit sad...
That was just to respond to an earlier post that I constantly "bash" Cryptic.
Slow development time, we get system additions every 5-6 months often with new missions to accompany them. We got a complete overhaul to the mission structure with Season 5 and new systems and adventure zones with Season 6, we actually have one of the fastest development times on the market but because most of it is either backend, disliked or not story mission content people seem to dismiss this fact.
Cream may rise but say somebody creates a Foundry mission and has a 500 strong Fleet, that's 500 instantly favorable reviews and more likely to get noticed by Cryptic. People will smaller groups of friends don't really get a look in.
Actually if I was Branflakes and saw only 500 positive reviews from people in the same fleet as the author I'd be more critical of the mission than if it had 500 reviews from different people.
It's easy to get positive reviews from your friends, getting positive reviews from people who don't know you at all and only know you through your missions is something and more worthy of attention.
From what I've seen, Brandon seems to mostly pick Foundry missions that some podcast somewhere has reviewed first.
I also think that his 'Foundry Challenge' winners should be on a separate 'Foundry Challenge' tab in the Foundry, as I'm sorry, but I don't think getting the most votes automatically equals "incredible player made mission". The Foundry Challenge Winner's missions do deserve to be singled out and promoted (make no mistake); but I think there should be a delineation between 'voted best by a majority in a 6 weeks to create content'; and a spotlighted mission that's been recognized as excellent regardless of any defined parameters and a time limit.
I also think it would be good if other Devs/Members of Cryptic (who are interested) had a chance to spotlight player missions as well from time to time, as having only one person make the final determination all the time means we only get one point of view as to what constitutes "an incredible player made mission".
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
It's worth noting that BranFlakes said on Foundry Roundtable last week that he doesn't really look at star rating or even number of plays. He looks at what the reviews say, then he plays the mission himself to see if it's something he wants to spotlight.
I would also say this. If there is an "inner circle" of authors, and I'd hesitate to call us that, it's because there are authors who have taken the time to try and be a part of the community, to post in the forums, engage in discussions with their fellow authors, to help other authors when they ask questions, to create podcasts or machinima, to listen and interact with said podcasters or video creators, to engage the devs in constructive discussion, tweet back and forth with BranFlakes, meet the devs at conventions, to put out good missions and actively market those missions. Anyone can do these things, if they put in the time to do them.
Cream may rise but say somebody creates a Foundry mission and has a 500 strong Fleet, that's 500 instantly favorable reviews and more likely to get noticed by Cryptic. People will smaller groups of friends don't really get a look in.
I very much doubt the 'popular' missions are getting there because of massive fleets and friend lists. I have a mission spotlighted myself, and I don't have a group of friends to rate and publicize my missions. My fleetmates probably don't even realize my mission exists. I just publicized my mission on the forums and on StarbaseUGC (which anyone can join and post on). Now, there's definitely more competition these days, but I wanted to share how at least one spotlighted mission actually got there.
As for cliques, what do people think these are, exactly? Are people hesitant to publicize on websites because they're not part of their 'communities'? Resources like StarbaseUGC are there for everyone, not just a select few. Take some time to email your mission to some groups that review them. It's easy to say someone else's mission got popular because they had a bunch of people lined up already. But it's not that hard to at least get a mission a good look in a bunch of places.
Take a look at my Foundry missions! Conjoined, Re-emergence, and . . .
From what I've seen, Brandon seems to mostly pick Foundry missions that some podcast somewhere has reviewed first.
I also think that his 'Foundry Challenge' winners should be on a separate 'Foundry Challenge' tab in the Foundry, as I'm sorry, but I don't think getting the most votes automatically equals "incredible player made mission". The Foundry Challenge Winner's missions do deserve to be singled out and promoted (make no mistake); but I think there should be a delineation between 'voted best by a majority in a 6 weeks to create content'; and a spotlighted mission that's been recognized as excellent regardless of any defined parameters and a time limit.
I also think it would be good if other Devs/Members of Cryptic (who are interested) had a chance to spotlight player missions as well from time to time, as having only one person make the final determination all the time means we only get one point of view as to what constitutes "an incredible player made mission".
I agree, the "Foundry Challenge" shouldn't come into it because Cryptic is setting the criteria as to what players should create a mission about. I think that the "Spotlights" should go to the most inventive outside of the "Foundry Challenges" and the winners should be awarded separately.
Isn't it the job of these "review sites" to actually go out and look for good content instead of us having to promote our own missions to them? People should not have to be part of any "community" they should just make great missions for the sake of making them?
I have produced a biweekly podcast in association with StarbaseUGC for over a year now. It is made completely using the Foundry to animate it. It is a podcast designed to interest authors, both veterans and newbies alike. We release tutorials for new authors and are in the StarbaseUGC chatroom 24/7 to help anyone that has a question pertaining to the Foundry. The podcast is called PrimetimeUGC.
At the end of every show, we post the email address(mailbag@PrimetimeUGC.com) for anyone who would like their mission reviewed and/or would like to be interviewed. We have chosen many authors for interviews specifically because we had not heard of them and we have reviewed their work. To this day, I have had no one send in so much as a request for a review. We(SBUGC) are a community of authors whose goal is to help as many people as we can who want to create mission content. We urge people to come in and join us.
That being said, our only goal is to support the Foundry and User Generated Content. Not one of us receives any special recognition or compensation for doing so. We just love the game.
If anyone has something they'd like reviewed, send an email to mailbag@PrimetimeUGC.com. In the meantime, check the show out. If you love the Foundry, you should find it entertaining and educational, we hope. Thanks.
The only suggestion I would make is maybe instead of just one mission per week spotlighted, there should instead be both a Klingon and a Federation mission spotlighted.
As far as the missions on the spotlight being ones reviewed by podcasts, etc, I don't think it's a conspiracy. A really good mission where the author has put a lot of time into it will probably tend to attract more attention.
Cream may rise but say somebody creates a Foundry mission and has a 500 strong Fleet, that's 500 instantly favorable reviews and more likely to get noticed by Cryptic. People will smaller groups of friends don't really get a look in.
Bran doesn't spotlight missions unless he's played them first. They only get spotlighted if he thinks they're worthy of it.
I also think that his 'Foundry Challenge' winners should be on a separate 'Foundry Challenge' tab in the Foundry, as I'm sorry, but I don't think getting the most votes automatically equals "incredible player made mission". The Foundry Challenge Winner's missions do deserve to be singled out and promoted (make no mistake); but I think there should be a delineation between 'voted best by a majority in a 6 weeks to create content'; and a spotlighted mission that's been recognized as excellent regardless of any defined parameters and a time limit.
I also think it would be good if other Devs/Members of Cryptic (who are interested) had a chance to spotlight player missions as well from time to time, as having only one person make the final determination all the time means we only get one point of view as to what constitutes "an incredible player made mission".
I agree with this post. There could be a Foundry challenge section and a "staff picks" section
A TIME TO SEARCH: ENTER MY FOUNDRY MISSION at the RISA SYSTEM Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
It's worth noting that BranFlakes said on Foundry Roundtable last week that he doesn't really look at star rating or even number of plays. He looks at what the reviews say, then he plays the mission himself to see if it's something he wants to spotlight.
I would also say this. If there is an "inner circle" of authors, and I'd hesitate to call us that, it's because there are authors who have taken the time to try and be a part of the community, to post in the forums, engage in discussions with their fellow authors, to help other authors when they ask questions, to create podcasts or machinima, to listen and interact with said podcasters or video creators, to engage the devs in constructive discussion, tweet back and forth with BranFlakes, meet the devs at conventions, to put out good missions and actively market those missions. Anyone can do these things, if they put in the time to do them.
This is one cool thing about the foundry all the authors are generous about giving advice. You can find all kinds of help on this forum and all despite the fact that it can be hard to get the recognition your missions deserve.
A TIME TO SEARCH: ENTER MY FOUNDRY MISSION at the RISA SYSTEM Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
Isn't it the job of these "review sites" to actually go out and look for good content instead of us having to promote our own missions to them?
Contrary to opinions shown, creative cream doesn't rise. Popular doesn't always mean good nor does unpopular always mean bad. But no one will know either way unless you tell them about this thing you made.
Self promotion is 90% of any creative job and you may not get out of it what you put in to it. But you will at least get something as opposed to your current nothing.
And since all of the decent missions are buried under quickie grind vendor trash missions you're demanding to be that diamond found in the **** pile. Not likely to happen even if reviewers put the effort in to go through the Foundry mission by mission like some lunatic with no life.
Contrary to opinions shown, creative cream doesn't rise. Popular doesn't always mean good nor does unpopular always mean bad. But no one will know either way unless you tell them about this thing you made.
Self promotion is 90% of any creative job and you may not get out of it what you put in to it. But you will at least get something as opposed to your current nothing.
And since all of the decent missions are buried under quickie grind vendor trash missions you're demanding to be that diamond found in the **** pile. Not likely to happen even if reviewers put the effort in to go through the Foundry mission by mission like some lunatic with no life.
Well it does bug the question, why does Cryptic allow the **** pile to exist in the first place since those missions are violations of the Foundry's intended purpose. Wasn't that why they had to put a cap on the amount of loot that could be earned from Foundry missions?
Self promotion is 90% of any creative job and you may not get out of it what you put in to it. But you will at least get something as opposed to your current nothing.
And since all of the decent missions are buried under quickie grind vendor trash missions you're demanding to be that diamond found in the **** pile. Not likely to happen even if reviewers put the effort in to go through the Foundry mission by mission like some lunatic with no life.
Self-promotion is also the hardest part. But I agree, it's very necessary.
By the same token I'm sure people curse the overwhelming number of 1-2 hour amateur fiction missions that make it difficult to find specific battle scenarios. :rolleyes:
This rage at the mere existence of genres that do not all conform to one's personal taste is rather nuts.
Until they improve search, my suggestion is to treat your mission descriptions like a webpage and optimize it for search. Use keywords and phrases you think people are likely to use. If your mission has Orions and Gorn, make sure to use those words. Space combat? Ground combat? Add those as appropriate.
And this is really your biggest hurdle: You're asking players to take a big chance on you with their limited time. Even though it might spoil any "surprises" you have, give players a good idea of what to expect.
How MMO companies reach for the stars: "And as far as Season 7 being "grindy" - welcome to the MMORPG genre."
Well it does bug the question, why does Cryptic allow the **** pile to exist in the first place since those missions are violations of the Foundry's intended purpose. Wasn't that why they had to put a cap on the amount of loot that could be earned from Foundry missions?
Because as has been previously stated, in this thread and elsewhere, it's completely impractical for Cryptic employees to review every single mission. Further, Cryptic has no objection to the existence of crappy missions; they only object to their use as an exploit to circumvent the risk/reward curve. If you want to use them to test your ship build or just have fun blowing stuff up, they're fine with that.
They choose to promote the missions that, in their estimation, are in line with their vision of the game. That's not the same thing as denigrating those that aren't. You're free to start your own Foundry Spotlight thread, promoting your favorite garbage pile missions.
"warbird001's Garbage Pile Spotlight". I look forward to reading the thread.
Former moderator of these forums. Lifetime sub since before launch. Been here since before public betas. Foundry author of "Franklin Drake Must Die".
I wanted to get some numerical data on the Foundry spotlight winners and saw that of the 34 spotlighted missions so far, there's only been 3 duplicate authors (for each of them to have 2 episodes: Captain_Revo, drkfrontiers, and soriedem). Considering half the spotlight episodes are KDF, note that those 3 authors have 5 of their 6 spotlight missions for KDF -- which I'm confident has fewer episodes in general to pick from and thus a high quality mission has an easier chance of standing out.
So that's 34 episodes for 31 people. I think BranFlakes has been more than fair in getting a wide range of different authors.
So my congratulations to Aavarius, AdmiralMurphy, Alen_de_jour, Alimac30, Bazag, Capt.PFDennis, Captain_Revo, Castomodean, CheRoj, Darren_Kitlor, DenizenVI, drkfrontiers, Drogyn1701, Duke-of-Rock, Evil70th, Galactrix, Havraha, HippieJohn, Kirkfat, Maziken, Meth_Shadowstorm, milesredria, mygod_itsfullofstars, Netherblood, RachelGarrett, RogueEnterprise, Seancy8512, soriedem, Tiuz, woghd, and XR-377 for being spotlighted and best of luck to those who wish to get spotlighted in the future.
Because as has been previously stated, in this thread and elsewhere, it's completely impractical for Cryptic employees to review every single mission. Further, Cryptic has no objection to the existence of crappy missions; they only object to their use as an exploit to circumvent the risk/reward curve. If you want to use them to test your ship build or just have fun blowing stuff up, they're fine with that.
They choose to promote the missions that, in their estimation, are in line with their vision of the game. That's not the same thing as denigrating those that aren't. You're free to start your own Foundry Spotlight thread, promoting your favorite garbage pile missions.
"warbird001's Garbage Pile Spotlight". I look forward to reading the thread.
I think most of the Cryptic made "episodes" could probably go on that to begin with... :P Even before we get to the Foundry, just because I've seen better writing in Star Trek Unofficial Fan Fictions. Even Star Trek: Destiny is better written then some of the missions in this game *chuckles* and that's saying something.
I did have to laugh when I realized that Cryptic's entire story was a re-hash of Season 4-5 of Deep Space Nine with the Undine (Species 8472 is their actual name) replacing the role of the Founders. It probably would have been a better design choice for the game to have two "coalition" of races. Give much more choice to players and would allow for multiple ships for different races.
I think most of the Cryptic made "episodes" could probably go on that to begin with... :P Even before we get to the Foundry, just because I've seen better writing in Star Trek Unofficial Fan Fictions. Even Star Trek: Destiny is better written then some of the missions in this game *chuckles* and that's saying something.
I did have to laugh when I realized that Cryptic's entire story was a re-hash of Season 4-5 of Deep Space Nine with the Undine (Species 8472 is their actual name) replacing the role of the Founders. It probably would have been a better design choice for the game to have two "coalition" of races. Give much more choice to players and would allow for multiple ships for different races.
Nah... an "us vs them" mentality makes it resemble BSG(or the new BSG anyways) more than ST...
Also... there is a BIG difference from the Dominion War.... namely a lack of commitment to all-out war.
Season 4 Deep Space Nine was before the onset of the Dominion War when the Klingons accused the Federation of allowing the Alpha Quadrant to be infiltrated by the Founders which sparked a brief conflict which caused a major rift to form between the two powers. Ironically Martok was exposed as a changeling during the episode "Apocalypse Rising" at the beginning of the 5th Season.
The war between the Federation and the Klingons started in "The Way of the Warrior" when Deep Space Nine attempted to protect members of the Cardassian Detapa Council and refused to hand them over or support the invasion of Cardassia.
Oh that... I suppose it is rather similar. I don't really see it as too similar though.
If you watch the entire season, you begin to see a LOT of similarities between Deep Space Nine and the timeline that Cryptic have created. Its almost amusing in that fashion.
If you watch the entire season, you begin to see a LOT of similarities between Deep Space Nine and the timeline that Cryptic have created. Its almost amusing in that fashion.
In Cryptic's defense..
1) jjtrek, cursed be that man, ruined part of their initial storyline plans
2) STO had a way too short development time (2-3 years, iirc)
Though I believe their featured episodes and remasters make up for their initial rushed offerings.
How MMO companies reach for the stars: "And as far as Season 7 being "grindy" - welcome to the MMORPG genre."
1) jjtrek, cursed be that man, ruined part of their initial storyline plans
2) STO had a way too short development time (2-3 years, iirc)
Though I believe their featured episodes and remasters make up for their initial rushed offerings.
Oh yeah, now they are hitting their stride, some of the content, albiet slowly is of much better quality. Temporal Ambassador was a great mission although a little too short for my taste, I would have preferred something that was not such a blatant copy of "Yesterday's Enterprise" but I've learnt that imagination is somewhat limited because Cryptic don't have that much development time to create new content. That is why the Foundry exists...
I'm not game designer but I have an exceptional knowledge of Star Trek and enjoy writing. I honestly could not do very well at level design. :P
I just wish they had chosen a more interesting back-story because the "War with the Klingons" has been done to death. Plus it just seems like the Federation is at war with everyone.
Comments
So, it's now your contention that it's a conspiracy on the part of the PLAYERS to promote authors they don't really like, in favor of some hidden agenda they share with Brandon?
Cream rises to the top.
It's not a conspiracy, people tend to be conservative and keep looking for what they already know. It's not a general rule but it's really a common behaviour. So, they'll go to see spotlighted authors' missions first. The only way to make them "discover" you is to contribute to challenges, which can work but will fail at some point with the increasing number of contributions.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
Branflakes already mentioned that only a couple of authors have been spotlighted more than once and only because their work was deserving of it.
The spotlight isn't a list of popular authors, it's a list of missions that Branflakes believes showcases the best that the community has made through the Foundry, if the same authors keep showing up then I don't take that as a sign that there's a list of popular authors, I take it as a sign that the rest of the Foundry community including you and myself have to step up their game and show that we can match the quality of our missions with theirs.
Exactly. If BranFlakes was picking his friends, I wouldn't be sitting here redoing the plot for my mission to try to make it good enough for a spotlight.
Depends, I've seen plenty of other things that might class as a conspiracy on Cryptic's behalf. I agree that authors should get mentioned "ONCE" but if they get mentioned again then that's just silly because its taking away from other people that could be showcased instead. I am also not the only person who thinks that their is a sort of "inner circle" here of popular authors.
Now people think I'm critical of Cryptic because I hate the game, that is NOT true. I like the game, what I don't like is the dishonesty and slow development time. This game has the potential to gain a real Star Trek feel to it and I personally believe that it is unfortunately sacrificed for profit motive. Which is a bit sad...
That was just to respond to an earlier post that I constantly "bash" Cryptic.
Cream may rise but say somebody creates a Foundry mission and has a 500 strong Fleet, that's 500 instantly favorable reviews and more likely to get noticed by Cryptic. People will smaller groups of friends don't really get a look in.
So you're saying that once an author has a mission spotlighted then they should never have a mission spotlighted again, even if said mission is far better than the original mission that got originally spotlighted.
That's pretty narrow minded, not only that but the spotlight isn't about the authors although they may get even more traffic to their missions from having a mission spotlighted, the spotlight is about the missions that showcase the best that people have made with the Foundry and is intended to inspire people to build their own missions and attempt to surpass the Foundry authors.
Limiting it to one spotlighted mission per person does ruin the intention of the spotlight to showcase the best missions in the Foundry because most people improve with a system as they continue to work with it meaning that if one of their first missions is spotlighted then their future missions which are better than that can never be shown off as the best the Foundry has to offer.
Slow development time, we get system additions every 5-6 months often with new missions to accompany them. We got a complete overhaul to the mission structure with Season 5 and new systems and adventure zones with Season 6, we actually have one of the fastest development times on the market but because most of it is either backend, disliked or not story mission content people seem to dismiss this fact.
Actually if I was Branflakes and saw only 500 positive reviews from people in the same fleet as the author I'd be more critical of the mission than if it had 500 reviews from different people.
It's easy to get positive reviews from your friends, getting positive reviews from people who don't know you at all and only know you through your missions is something and more worthy of attention.
I also think that his 'Foundry Challenge' winners should be on a separate 'Foundry Challenge' tab in the Foundry, as I'm sorry, but I don't think getting the most votes automatically equals "incredible player made mission". The Foundry Challenge Winner's missions do deserve to be singled out and promoted (make no mistake); but I think there should be a delineation between 'voted best by a majority in a 6 weeks to create content'; and a spotlighted mission that's been recognized as excellent regardless of any defined parameters and a time limit.
I also think it would be good if other Devs/Members of Cryptic (who are interested) had a chance to spotlight player missions as well from time to time, as having only one person make the final determination all the time means we only get one point of view as to what constitutes "an incredible player made mission".
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
I would also say this. If there is an "inner circle" of authors, and I'd hesitate to call us that, it's because there are authors who have taken the time to try and be a part of the community, to post in the forums, engage in discussions with their fellow authors, to help other authors when they ask questions, to create podcasts or machinima, to listen and interact with said podcasters or video creators, to engage the devs in constructive discussion, tweet back and forth with BranFlakes, meet the devs at conventions, to put out good missions and actively market those missions. Anyone can do these things, if they put in the time to do them.
I very much doubt the 'popular' missions are getting there because of massive fleets and friend lists. I have a mission spotlighted myself, and I don't have a group of friends to rate and publicize my missions. My fleetmates probably don't even realize my mission exists. I just publicized my mission on the forums and on StarbaseUGC (which anyone can join and post on). Now, there's definitely more competition these days, but I wanted to share how at least one spotlighted mission actually got there.
As for cliques, what do people think these are, exactly? Are people hesitant to publicize on websites because they're not part of their 'communities'? Resources like StarbaseUGC are there for everyone, not just a select few. Take some time to email your mission to some groups that review them. It's easy to say someone else's mission got popular because they had a bunch of people lined up already. But it's not that hard to at least get a mission a good look in a bunch of places.
Conjoined, Re-emergence, and . . .
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I agree, the "Foundry Challenge" shouldn't come into it because Cryptic is setting the criteria as to what players should create a mission about. I think that the "Spotlights" should go to the most inventive outside of the "Foundry Challenges" and the winners should be awarded separately.
Isn't it the job of these "review sites" to actually go out and look for good content instead of us having to promote our own missions to them? People should not have to be part of any "community" they should just make great missions for the sake of making them?
At the end of every show, we post the email address(mailbag@PrimetimeUGC.com) for anyone who would like their mission reviewed and/or would like to be interviewed. We have chosen many authors for interviews specifically because we had not heard of them and we have reviewed their work. To this day, I have had no one send in so much as a request for a review. We(SBUGC) are a community of authors whose goal is to help as many people as we can who want to create mission content. We urge people to come in and join us.
That being said, our only goal is to support the Foundry and User Generated Content. Not one of us receives any special recognition or compensation for doing so. We just love the game.
If anyone has something they'd like reviewed, send an email to mailbag@PrimetimeUGC.com. In the meantime, check the show out. If you love the Foundry, you should find it entertaining and educational, we hope. Thanks.
As far as the missions on the spotlight being ones reviewed by podcasts, etc, I don't think it's a conspiracy. A really good mission where the author has put a lot of time into it will probably tend to attract more attention.
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I agree with this post. There could be a Foundry challenge section and a "staff picks" section
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
This is one cool thing about the foundry all the authors are generous about giving advice. You can find all kinds of help on this forum and all despite the fact that it can be hard to get the recognition your missions deserve.
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
Contrary to opinions shown, creative cream doesn't rise. Popular doesn't always mean good nor does unpopular always mean bad. But no one will know either way unless you tell them about this thing you made.
Self promotion is 90% of any creative job and you may not get out of it what you put in to it. But you will at least get something as opposed to your current nothing.
And since all of the decent missions are buried under quickie grind vendor trash missions you're demanding to be that diamond found in the **** pile. Not likely to happen even if reviewers put the effort in to go through the Foundry mission by mission like some lunatic with no life.
Well it does bug the question, why does Cryptic allow the **** pile to exist in the first place since those missions are violations of the Foundry's intended purpose. Wasn't that why they had to put a cap on the amount of loot that could be earned from Foundry missions?
Self-promotion is also the hardest part. But I agree, it's very necessary.
By the same token I'm sure people curse the overwhelming number of 1-2 hour amateur fiction missions that make it difficult to find specific battle scenarios. :rolleyes:
This rage at the mere existence of genres that do not all conform to one's personal taste is rather nuts.
Until they improve search, my suggestion is to treat your mission descriptions like a webpage and optimize it for search. Use keywords and phrases you think people are likely to use. If your mission has Orions and Gorn, make sure to use those words. Space combat? Ground combat? Add those as appropriate.
And this is really your biggest hurdle: You're asking players to take a big chance on you with their limited time. Even though it might spoil any "surprises" you have, give players a good idea of what to expect.
Because as has been previously stated, in this thread and elsewhere, it's completely impractical for Cryptic employees to review every single mission. Further, Cryptic has no objection to the existence of crappy missions; they only object to their use as an exploit to circumvent the risk/reward curve. If you want to use them to test your ship build or just have fun blowing stuff up, they're fine with that.
They choose to promote the missions that, in their estimation, are in line with their vision of the game. That's not the same thing as denigrating those that aren't. You're free to start your own Foundry Spotlight thread, promoting your favorite garbage pile missions.
"warbird001's Garbage Pile Spotlight". I look forward to reading the thread.
So that's 34 episodes for 31 people. I think BranFlakes has been more than fair in getting a wide range of different authors.
So my congratulations to Aavarius, AdmiralMurphy, Alen_de_jour, Alimac30, Bazag, Capt.PFDennis, Captain_Revo, Castomodean, CheRoj, Darren_Kitlor, DenizenVI, drkfrontiers, Drogyn1701, Duke-of-Rock, Evil70th, Galactrix, Havraha, HippieJohn, Kirkfat, Maziken, Meth_Shadowstorm, milesredria, mygod_itsfullofstars, Netherblood, RachelGarrett, RogueEnterprise, Seancy8512, soriedem, Tiuz, woghd, and XR-377 for being spotlighted and best of luck to those who wish to get spotlighted in the future.
My STOwiki page | Reachable in-game @PhyrexianHero
Fed Armada: Section 31 (level 730, 2700+ members)
KDF Armada: Klingon Intelligence (level 699, 2100+ members)
I think most of the Cryptic made "episodes" could probably go on that to begin with... :P Even before we get to the Foundry, just because I've seen better writing in Star Trek Unofficial Fan Fictions. Even Star Trek: Destiny is better written then some of the missions in this game *chuckles* and that's saying something.
I did have to laugh when I realized that Cryptic's entire story was a re-hash of Season 4-5 of Deep Space Nine with the Undine (Species 8472 is their actual name) replacing the role of the Founders. It probably would have been a better design choice for the game to have two "coalition" of races. Give much more choice to players and would allow for multiple ships for different races.
Typhon Pact vs Khitomer Accord.
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Typhon_Pact
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Khitomer_Accords
Also... there is a BIG difference from the Dominion War.... namely a lack of commitment to all-out war.
My character Tsin'xing
Season 4 Deep Space Nine was before the onset of the Dominion War when the Klingons accused the Federation of allowing the Alpha Quadrant to be infiltrated by the Founders which sparked a brief conflict which caused a major rift to form between the two powers. Ironically Martok was exposed as a changeling during the episode "Apocalypse Rising" at the beginning of the 5th Season.
The war between the Federation and the Klingons started in "The Way of the Warrior" when Deep Space Nine attempted to protect members of the Cardassian Detapa Council and refused to hand them over or support the invasion of Cardassia.
My character Tsin'xing
If you watch the entire season, you begin to see a LOT of similarities between Deep Space Nine and the timeline that Cryptic have created. Its almost amusing in that fashion.
In Cryptic's defense..
1) jjtrek, cursed be that man, ruined part of their initial storyline plans
2) STO had a way too short development time (2-3 years, iirc)
Though I believe their featured episodes and remasters make up for their initial rushed offerings.
Oh yeah, now they are hitting their stride, some of the content, albiet slowly is of much better quality. Temporal Ambassador was a great mission although a little too short for my taste, I would have preferred something that was not such a blatant copy of "Yesterday's Enterprise" but I've learnt that imagination is somewhat limited because Cryptic don't have that much development time to create new content. That is why the Foundry exists...
I'm not game designer but I have an exceptional knowledge of Star Trek and enjoy writing. I honestly could not do very well at level design. :P
I just wish they had chosen a more interesting back-story because the "War with the Klingons" has been done to death. Plus it just seems like the Federation is at war with everyone.