test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Podcast UGC's Third Interview with Captain Geko Airs Tonight!
thehavraha
Member Posts: 14 Arc User
Podcast UGC's most popular and favorite guest, Star Trek Online Lead Designer Al Rivera aka Captain Geko, makes his third visit to Podcast UGC to talk just as candidly as ever! Clocking in at just over 4 hours and 20 minutes in length, this is Geko's longest visit and most content filled talk!
It debuts tonight on TrekRadio.net at 4:40 pm PT / 7:50 pm re-airing, and at 6:00 pm PDT, 9:00 EDT on podcastugc.com/listen-live ! Don't care to listen live? Just go to PodcastUGC.com at our live airing time or after to download the mp3 for listening on your own time.
What's covered? More than I can list at this moment! But here's what I've written down so far!
- Romulan Beta: Who was invited and why?
- The difficulty with writing for Romulans
- Should STO's story progress through time?
- The one Romulan IP ship that wasn't made.
- Ha'apax Talk
- How does the Republic afford all this new tech?
- An Unstoppable Force Meets an Unmovable Object - Hav and Geko discuss the design decision of limiting and pay-walling the alien generator for Romulans, and they don't see eye to eye at all.
- Vega Colony: Are references being made that new players won't understand?
- What does the Federation get in this expansion?
- Warp Cores?
- What happened to armor?
- PvP: is survivability king, or DPS?
- Will Science ships get a secondary deflector?
- Science arcs to get a buff?
- No Typhoon Class? Bob is disappoint
- Bob's grand idea for STO? Introduce Paladins. But what does Geko think?
- Balancing the Game Isn't Hard: it's doing so without angering people that's the art.
- Kit Revamp: how's that coming?
- Professor Geko Schools Hav in What Is Content 101
- Is Geko God? Better question: What does God need with a Game Studio?
- The Legacy Pack: Better than the Neverwinter one? And is it actually worth $180?
- Romulan ships: are they bird-of-preys or warbirds?
- Our favorite and least favorite Romulan ship designs!
- Is there a C-Store version of the Ha'apax? *wink wink* Does the story of this thing actually make sense?
- Previous versions of Romulan ships will have Retrofit Versions at Tier 5, which will not have the costume of the C-Store Refit versions, and on top of that there will be Fleet versions of all Romulan ships!
Break Time!
- Are there plans for a Romulan flagship equivalent to the Odyssey and Bortasqu?
- Captain Mack Asks - Why is there no mid-range preorder pack?
- ROBOCOP MOMENT: Bob and Geko love Battlestar Galactica, apparently.
- Trek News and Views Asks - Do you have to buy most of the Romulan ships?
- How are we going to balance this rad singularity power?
- Alliances have been tweaked since their announcement: why? Where did the ally system come from in the first place?
- Why are we playing as Romulan Republic instead of Tal Shiar?
- Hav Thinks D'Tan is NOT a good guy. Geko counters!
- Tobar Asks: Are there any plans to redo the Fed Tutorial? Has any thought been put into fixing the cloaking bug?
- Is the amount of content we're getting for Legacy of Romulus par for the course now?
- Charleshalpenny asks: Any chance we'll get functionality in our Starbase, such as logging in and out while remaining on the Starbase itself?
- Justin Lowmaster asks: Can we train bridge officers without trading them? Saving Boff and Active Doff Setups? Can we fix the tricorder scan so it can differentiate between anomalies and objectives?
- None-combat content? How's that coming?
- Will the 1 Sectorblock to Rule Them All Ever Happen? And will it be like EVE's take on space? What do you have to lose to gain a 1 sectorblock to rule them all?
- The Foundry Dilithium Explot WARNING: Cryptic will "ban your TRIBBLE" if you do it, and they won't feel bad about it.
- Where do you see the economy of STO right now?
- Caspian Division was destroyed - are there things Cryptic can do to help secure fleets against losses?
- Foundry! Foundry Reputation?
- Legacy of Romulus is FREE, DAMNIT!
- We're not asking about Klingons? Well let's fix that! Klingons start at Level 1, New Stories and episodes, but no -- it's not as robust or deep as Romulans.
- The Crew of the I.K.S. Bortas'qu that Podcast UGC's hosts noted looked a little too old? Yeah, we were right: they were too old. Their character models were just bugged, and didn't display the proper appearances or costumes. It was "just a failure".
- Isn't the Day of Honor in Winter? COUNTER-ARGUMENT GO!
- Is it Qo'nos or Kronos? Speculation inbound! Geko's take on Klingon ridges.
- Did Enterprise make Vulcans jerks on purpose and retcon it later, or was it planned from the start?
- Geko has heard crazy stories about a 5th Season of Enterprise campaign on Netflix. So has Hav and Bob.
- Lots of Enterprise love in Legacy of Romulus - Hav is CERTAIN he knows who the new Silent Enemy is, but Geko won't bite on confirming or not.
- Bob lays out his reasoning for the discrepancy between ENT Romulans having warp drives and TOS Romulans not.
- Geko and Hav battle over whether the Gorn are second class citizens, slave, or even treated well at all. How would Romulans build an Empire? This brings the alien gen conversation back to the forefront.
- Koren's skirt would bug Terry.
- Play Legacy of Romulus. It's good.
As always, thanks for tuning into Podcast UGC, where we devote hours each week discussing Star Trek Online and the Foundry.
It debuts tonight on TrekRadio.net at 4:40 pm PT / 7:50 pm re-airing, and at 6:00 pm PDT, 9:00 EDT on podcastugc.com/listen-live ! Don't care to listen live? Just go to PodcastUGC.com at our live airing time or after to download the mp3 for listening on your own time.
What's covered? More than I can list at this moment! But here's what I've written down so far!
- Romulan Beta: Who was invited and why?
- The difficulty with writing for Romulans
- Should STO's story progress through time?
- The one Romulan IP ship that wasn't made.
- Ha'apax Talk
- How does the Republic afford all this new tech?
- An Unstoppable Force Meets an Unmovable Object - Hav and Geko discuss the design decision of limiting and pay-walling the alien generator for Romulans, and they don't see eye to eye at all.
- Vega Colony: Are references being made that new players won't understand?
- What does the Federation get in this expansion?
- Warp Cores?
- What happened to armor?
- PvP: is survivability king, or DPS?
- Will Science ships get a secondary deflector?
- Science arcs to get a buff?
- No Typhoon Class? Bob is disappoint
- Bob's grand idea for STO? Introduce Paladins. But what does Geko think?
- Balancing the Game Isn't Hard: it's doing so without angering people that's the art.
- Kit Revamp: how's that coming?
- Professor Geko Schools Hav in What Is Content 101
- Is Geko God? Better question: What does God need with a Game Studio?
- The Legacy Pack: Better than the Neverwinter one? And is it actually worth $180?
- Romulan ships: are they bird-of-preys or warbirds?
- Our favorite and least favorite Romulan ship designs!
- Is there a C-Store version of the Ha'apax? *wink wink* Does the story of this thing actually make sense?
- Previous versions of Romulan ships will have Retrofit Versions at Tier 5, which will not have the costume of the C-Store Refit versions, and on top of that there will be Fleet versions of all Romulan ships!
Break Time!
- Are there plans for a Romulan flagship equivalent to the Odyssey and Bortasqu?
- Captain Mack Asks - Why is there no mid-range preorder pack?
- ROBOCOP MOMENT: Bob and Geko love Battlestar Galactica, apparently.
- Trek News and Views Asks - Do you have to buy most of the Romulan ships?
- How are we going to balance this rad singularity power?
- Alliances have been tweaked since their announcement: why? Where did the ally system come from in the first place?
- Why are we playing as Romulan Republic instead of Tal Shiar?
- Hav Thinks D'Tan is NOT a good guy. Geko counters!
- Tobar Asks: Are there any plans to redo the Fed Tutorial? Has any thought been put into fixing the cloaking bug?
- Is the amount of content we're getting for Legacy of Romulus par for the course now?
- Charleshalpenny asks: Any chance we'll get functionality in our Starbase, such as logging in and out while remaining on the Starbase itself?
- Justin Lowmaster asks: Can we train bridge officers without trading them? Saving Boff and Active Doff Setups? Can we fix the tricorder scan so it can differentiate between anomalies and objectives?
- None-combat content? How's that coming?
- Will the 1 Sectorblock to Rule Them All Ever Happen? And will it be like EVE's take on space? What do you have to lose to gain a 1 sectorblock to rule them all?
- The Foundry Dilithium Explot WARNING: Cryptic will "ban your TRIBBLE" if you do it, and they won't feel bad about it.
- Where do you see the economy of STO right now?
- Caspian Division was destroyed - are there things Cryptic can do to help secure fleets against losses?
- Foundry! Foundry Reputation?
- Legacy of Romulus is FREE, DAMNIT!
- We're not asking about Klingons? Well let's fix that! Klingons start at Level 1, New Stories and episodes, but no -- it's not as robust or deep as Romulans.
- The Crew of the I.K.S. Bortas'qu that Podcast UGC's hosts noted looked a little too old? Yeah, we were right: they were too old. Their character models were just bugged, and didn't display the proper appearances or costumes. It was "just a failure".
- Isn't the Day of Honor in Winter? COUNTER-ARGUMENT GO!
- Is it Qo'nos or Kronos? Speculation inbound! Geko's take on Klingon ridges.
- Did Enterprise make Vulcans jerks on purpose and retcon it later, or was it planned from the start?
- Geko has heard crazy stories about a 5th Season of Enterprise campaign on Netflix. So has Hav and Bob.
- Lots of Enterprise love in Legacy of Romulus - Hav is CERTAIN he knows who the new Silent Enemy is, but Geko won't bite on confirming or not.
- Bob lays out his reasoning for the discrepancy between ENT Romulans having warp drives and TOS Romulans not.
- Geko and Hav battle over whether the Gorn are second class citizens, slave, or even treated well at all. How would Romulans build an Empire? This brings the alien gen conversation back to the forefront.
- Koren's skirt would bug Terry.
- Play Legacy of Romulus. It's good.
As always, thanks for tuning into Podcast UGC, where we devote hours each week discussing Star Trek Online and the Foundry.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] I am a Cheestah.
Check out my Foundry missions
Fed: "To Helna and Back", "Rema Donna", "Animations with Helna", "Mudd's Weapons", "Waiting for Wednesday", "Monolith"
KDF: "Time the Enemy", "Time the Ally", "Time the Traitor"
Check out my Foundry missions
Fed: "To Helna and Back", "Rema Donna", "Animations with Helna", "Mudd's Weapons", "Waiting for Wednesday", "Monolith"
KDF: "Time the Enemy", "Time the Ally", "Time the Traitor"
Post edited by thehavraha on
0
Comments
But not...
Gorn
Nausicaan
Orion
Andorian
Vulcan
I think the problem is the distinction drawn between non-combat content and inactive content. I think people who want non-combat content effectively want, in many cases, what amounts to combat with animations that don't look like violence. Still arcade gameplay (not stop and read or "press F") but something like kits full of non-combat abilities, used in a real time arcade fashion as much as anything else.
Second, I've hinted at this before. I've been warned off from posting full details by game devs in case I want to sell the idea to someone later.
But the core idea is Clue.
You collect cards in active gameplay or DOffing. You have several categories of card. You make an accusation/hypothesis by using a combination of cards. This opens up missions, cutscenes, dialogues, DOff assignments, and gear.
For example, a combination of cards may suggest that Quinn is an Undine, acquired from DOffing and a revamped Terrordome. You take the cards and have your computer "run the scenario."
What this does is it avoids having text interrupt active gameplay. You play with your friends in a very active way. You collect the puzzle pieces. Then you go read or watch a cutscene or go on a scavenger hunt. You may be right or wrong. You may discover planets this way. You may discover criminal conspiracies.
I call this "story crafting." I think it would allow for tons of non-combat options because it then creates lots of options for places to setup puzzle pieces. These can be awarded by DOffs. By conversations with NPCs on a timer. Through episode replay. Through certain accolades. But it's recombinent. Ingredient X plus ingredient Y yields a different result than ingredient X plus ingredient Z.
This post has been edited to remove content which violates the Perfect World Entertainment Community Rules and Policies . ~BranFlakes
guess we will be missing a few hundred people soon :eek:
that answer to the dilth foundry exploit is pretty brutal but its understandable because people were taking advantage of it. I for one am surprised it was still around (If its the one im thinking of...which i DID see, but ignored as i was enjoying the spotlight missions)
I would like comprehensive, clear, guidance for my community so we stay on the right side of this issue.
Sincerely & Respectfully,
Lance R. Violator
Directory Diplomacy
and Recruiting
Tactical Operations Fleet Delta
TFD Gaming
www.tfdgaming.com
"PWE MAY SUSPEND, TERMINATE, MODIFY, BLOCK ACCESS TO OR DELETE THE SERVICE OR ANY ACCOUNT AT ANY TIME WITH OR WITHOUT REASON, WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE."
why have anything but this in the eula, they can do what ever they want to who ever they want when ever they want with that. makes me think twice before spending another cent in the future on STO. it could all be taken away in an instant, on a wim. because of some stupid dil collecting method they made it so easy to take advantage of. do keep in mind cryptic that the zen always has to be bought with money, always. a dil 'exploit' doesn't cost you money
Props to the podcaster's though. If it weren't for you we'd never hear systems brain at work.
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013
Soo ... a Fleet gets stolen along with it's Starbase (Starbase = monetary investment by the players) and Cryptic does ... nothing to the offender . (AFAIK)
Dilithium get's "stolen" via an exploit and Cryptic waves the Ban Hammer .
This translates into : when it's YOUR MONEY , Cryptic does not give a #$%^ .
When it's THEIR MONEY , Gecko get's reports every few hours on the subject , and is really "upset" .
YEAH ... . :cool:
You have anything to back this claim up? Cryptic told you what has been done *or not done* Disciplinary events, if any, are never shared publicly, even to the person who file the ticket/complain...
I did put an 'AFAIK' there , you should have gotten the meaning .
At any rate , the latest 'big fleet theft' was Caspian fleet and one of their Fleet Honcho's had known the thief .
No one heard anything about that known individual getting banned .
That's what I had to go on .
Thus Cryptic wears the "we don't get involved in Fleet Business" hat when it's your money , but when it's their money , it's another story .
Plus that quote that I highlighted needed to be highlighted instead of getting washed away in a mess of text , as I know that a number of ppl have been using the Foundry lately for "extra" Dil mining purposes .
Those ppl deserve to be warned -- and not in the "you didn't listen to the latest Gecko Fest on Podcast UGC ? Too bad ! You were warned . " kind of way .
If there is anything to ban it is that.
Dilithium is connected to cryptics bottom line($).
I just know that none of this would happen if Cryptic didnt starve the playerbase on Dilithum...I mean Dilithum is part of the ingame money economy...which we use to BUY SHIPS, SHIPS WEAPONS etc.
I mean seriously why do we have a refinment cap on Dilithum...when none of the other big games like WoW doesnt have a cap on how much gold you can make ingame really or SWTOR with its ingame currency...so why us Cryptic?
They are not starving the playerbase. The solution to dilithium starvation is to have more than one character.
They are suggesting that players have more than one character to increase that 8k cap to be (for me 30k) in hopes that you will also buy cstore stuff in those characters.
that doesnt help people who either dont have the time or only plays one character
That is slippery slope.
Why not say "I want to level as fast as someone who has more time" or "I want all the gear as someone who has more time".
The more you want = the more you get?
Not the more you have to work on it?
How about on a daily basis, cryptic adds up all the dilithium in the game and distributes it evenly to all the players?
I have a job, family, and other hobbies.
My main is a kdf that farms contraband and gives it to other alts that does the 4hr contraband doff millions.
It doesn't take anytime at all and the rewards are great.
He actually discussed how they're doing it in more detail than they generally discuss bans. They're deleting the missions, removing them from people's journals while they're in progress, deleting the dilithium people gained from it. People who still kept doing it in some cases had all their dilithium removed, and "if they still continued" bans and permanent bans came into the picture.
Unrefined dilithium in your account is just vapor, pure and simple. You even have to physically refine it daily, so you are forced to log in and do so to get the benefit of it. The only thing this 'exploit' really accomplishes is liberation of a player to play the game how they choose instead of enforcing a 1-2 hour daily grind before doing so. Consider the number of threads in this post alone who are against the 'exploit' who claim they can get their cap daily anyway without it. In those cases where is the issue? Why force us to play a certain way?
Is there a vested interest for us to grind like work before we can do things we want to in the game just to be well equipped? Frankly, it seems to me that the inflated costs of starbase tier iv+ projects and gear out of the rep mall is far out of step with even the moderate gains player in general have seen in their dilithium wallets. Will we see any relief in the 1MM, 2MM, etc. costs of Holding upgrade projects on Cryptic's part? Doubtful. Will we see items in the top end of the rep mall stay under 4 days worth of refining (Omega XII's)? Doubtful. It just seems pretty disingenuous that when players find a means inside the allowed mechanics of the game (ie no hacking, no rootkits, no 3rd party programs), that Cryptic will 'ban your asses' for not accepting the grind.
Given a standard person with 4 characters to max level, they a significant amount of game time per day to CE for their 14 crystals (it seems likely there will always be a grind set up this way via the Event rep) and then a significant amount of game time per day to get their 6-9 STFs in to get their dilithium quota for the day. Seems shortsighted for a game that wants players to explore new content and gear to not be able to do so. I guess it is just forced discrimination for those who don't have all day to sit on the game.
The other benefit of this 'exploit' is that if it truly does provide significant additional liquidity for players, it only enhances demand for Zen, which still needs to be purchased for RM and that money is never lost for Cryptic. Hypothetically speaking, if everyone actually did have gobs of dilithium more because of this, more people would get Z-store items, whetting their appetite to get more. All this does is spike demand in game for Zen, which as I explain earlier, is still purchased independently. Seems that this would benefit Cryptic's bottom line more than hurt it.
Finally, 'banning your TRIBBLE' is a lazy way of addressing the issue if it truly is one. Cryptic put the mechanic in as it stands. Fix the mechanism to something more rational if that is not the development intent, but don't punish the player base for your own shortsightedness.
Is there a transcript so we can fast forward through the nonsense?
Well said aelbourne and good points in regards to the Zen.
I agree this broadcast is very hard to get anything good out of it because you have to filter through all the useless conversations and lack of structure.
I think Geko was very clear there.
If Cryptic believed the co-leader's account was TRIBBLE, they would have restored the fleet. They looked at IP addresses, Mac addresses, etc. Geko personally looked into this one. They did not restore the fleet. He admitted some geniuses may be able to fake everything...
But, come on. I think we all know what happened to Caspian at this point. I have no clue why. I thought we were all on pretty good terms. But Geko, diplomatically and within the limits of what he can say in his position, spelled out what happened.
Frankly, Geko is the one with something to lose by this kind of issue happening. So I trust Geko more than I trust... someone else who shall not be named.
Also keep in mind, you could always interpret that as meaning it turned a literal group of Romulan thugs into a second Empire.