Looking at all the known issues in the game right now, and it is pretty clear that we are in desperate need of a cleanup pass. Traits dont work, abilities dont work, too many items are too OP, basic errors everywhere (see KDF master list for a start), and so on. Really, we just need 3-4 weeks of heads-down, fix what's known broken. Its getting to the point where I am unable to make new characters because I dont know which broken element is going to interfere with the character the longest. Is that where you want the game to be?
it is pretty clear that we are in desperate need of a cleanup pass.
Damn right STO needs some polish. Often when people call for some dedicated clean up time in MMOs the rebuttal is made that the artists will have nothing to do while the programmers fix everything.
Right now STO is riddled with typos and miscellaneous bits of writing in need of polishing up. Clipping errors, poorly tiled textures, meshes that just don't meet right, mission and ability specific coding errors and larger scale engine problems. Horrible balance issues, and systems like crafting, exploration and PVP in need of a complete re-think.
So exactly who would be left with nothing to do if some time was devoted to fixing, balancing and polish?
Honestly, I think there may be too much cleaning up to do. So much so that it's impossible for the team to continue development and polish the rest of the game. The fact that so much of the early game is still broken and bugs have been around for years in some cases leads me to believe this is true. They simply don't have (or don't want to commit) the resources needed to fix this thing.
Honestly, I think there may be too much cleaning up to do. So much so that it's impossible for the team to continue development and polish the rest of the game.
Then common sense says if its gotten to that point the only thing to do is stop development and fix what needs fixing. Otherwise sooner or later its going to get to the point where the entire game turns into a giant unfixable bugfest
Then common sense says if its gotten to that point the only thing to do is stop development and fix what needs fixing. Otherwise sooner or later its going to get to the point where the entire game turns into a giant unfixable bugfest
Common sense, yes. But how do you think we got to where we are today in the first place?
i honestly think they have seriously shot themselves in the foot pulling so many returning and new players into the game to check out LOR only to have them have to wade through mountains and mountains of bugs virtually right from the login screen.
i am one such player and tbth and not wanting to sound to "whiny" in this thread if there isn't a big LOR bugfix patch soon i'll be away again because this is waaaay below par, the level of developer visibility is derisible compared with what it used to be, and, as a result, there is no sense, at last in my eyes, that concerns are even being heard or addressed.
to extend one olive branch to Cryptic however i can barely believe this had a beta test because frankly if it did supposed "beta testers" should frankly be ashamed of themselves.
what was it guys ? rush to 50 on your Rom and just muck about on Tribble like its a free ship tester like always ?
the game is riddled, RIDDLED, with very noticeable bugs (especially in the new Romulan content which is what "everybody" is here to play) and tbth this expansion may well have done more harm over the long term as a result than good over the short to medium.
i honestly think they have seriously shot themselves in the foot bring so many returning and new players into the game to check out LOR only to have them have to wade through mountains and mountains of bugs right from the login screen.
i am one such player and tbth and not wanting to sound to "whiny" in this thread if there isn't a big LOR bugfix patch soon i'll be away again because this is waaaay below par, the level of developer visibility is derisible compared with what it used to be, and, as a result, there is no sense, at last in my eyes, that concerns are even being heard.
to extent one olive brank however i can barely believe this had a beta test because frankly if it did said beta testers should be ashamed of themselves.
what was it guys ? rush to 50 on your Rom and just muck about on Tribble like its a free ship tester like always ?
the game is riddled, RIDDLED, with very noticeable bugs and tbth this expansion may well have done more harm over the long term as a result than good over the short to medium.
To be fair to Cryptic and the beta testers, LoR performed brilliantly on Tribble. The problem came when the live branch took on the LoR branch. They didn't jive perfectly.
Then common sense says if its gotten to that point the only thing to do is stop development and fix what needs fixing. Otherwise sooner or later its going to get to the point where the entire game turns into a giant unfixable bugfest
Common sense is not to think the same people work on dev and patching. I hope they won't pu the ones responsible of dev to patching, because I don't want writers to start making patch.
Saying they need to stop developing and start patching is a common mistake people does on MMO. STO have the same average number of bugs and problems any game have after an expansion. Less than some (look at funcom/bethesda games). They patch it regularly, given time most of those bugs will be removed.
If you ask me after three years of coding and 50+ coders (past and present) it's time for a re-write of the game code, I find the UI to be laggy, the current devs dare not touch the older code because they don't know what they might break if they do and there are so many broken things where the collective code just isn't mixing properly.
I would advise a complete re-write and some detailed documentation of what does what for future coders so that we don't have this situation again, maybe they could streamline what they have already while they are at it to remove some of the server-side lag (take the UI for example), sure it would be a huge undertaking but it would certainly benefit the health of the game and for a week at least the potential to have no bugs, imagine that...
Now do I expect this to happen? No. Do I believe it is in STO's best interests to do? Yes.
I think we can all agree on the huge bug problem this game has, what gets me is that with every bug fix brings a new or old bug with it ( its like fighting fire with petrol ), as far as beta testing went i was in closed beta, we found countless bugs some got sorted and some are still here! I submitted tons of bug reports and left feed back on these very forums, and if it wasn't for those rushing to level 50 the d'deridex would be considerably worse than its current incarnation.
If you ask me after three years of coding and 50+ coders (past and present) it's time for a re-write of the game code, I find the UI to be laggy, the current devs dare not touch the older code because they don't know what they might break if they do and there are so many broken things where the collective code just isn't mixing properly.
I would advise a complete re-write and some detailed documentation of what does what for future coders so that we don't have this situation again, maybe they could streamline what they have already while they are at it to remove some of the server-side lag (take the UI for example), sure it would be a huge undertaking but it would certainly benefit the health of the game and for a week at least the potential to have no bugs, imagine that...
Now do I expect this to happen? No. Do I believe it is in STO's best interests to do? Yes.
our "devs" don't "write game code".
they use design and scripting tools written by others (many of them industry standard) and the game engine is shared between multiple cryptic MMOs.
tbth i highly suspect that the (scalable) engine was originally commissioned as a venture capital down like project by "the suits" and even the people who currently do maintain it across all of Cryptic didn't actually write it...
PS. if your UI is "graphically" "laggy" as opposed to the network "laggy" or you are seeing weird texture detail degridation set your video memory manually in the troubleshooting settings under video advanced (i'm using 1024+ and it made a huge difference to the game). apparently the default "Auto" setting has been causing all kinds of weirdness since season 7...
Comments
Damn right STO needs some polish. Often when people call for some dedicated clean up time in MMOs the rebuttal is made that the artists will have nothing to do while the programmers fix everything.
Right now STO is riddled with typos and miscellaneous bits of writing in need of polishing up. Clipping errors, poorly tiled textures, meshes that just don't meet right, mission and ability specific coding errors and larger scale engine problems. Horrible balance issues, and systems like crafting, exploration and PVP in need of a complete re-think.
So exactly who would be left with nothing to do if some time was devoted to fixing, balancing and polish?
Then common sense says if its gotten to that point the only thing to do is stop development and fix what needs fixing. Otherwise sooner or later its going to get to the point where the entire game turns into a giant unfixable bugfest
Common sense, yes. But how do you think we got to where we are today in the first place?
i am one such player and tbth and not wanting to sound to "whiny" in this thread if there isn't a big LOR bugfix patch soon i'll be away again because this is waaaay below par, the level of developer visibility is derisible compared with what it used to be, and, as a result, there is no sense, at last in my eyes, that concerns are even being heard or addressed.
to extend one olive branch to Cryptic however i can barely believe this had a beta test because frankly if it did supposed "beta testers" should frankly be ashamed of themselves.
what was it guys ? rush to 50 on your Rom and just muck about on Tribble like its a free ship tester like always ?
the game is riddled, RIDDLED, with very noticeable bugs (especially in the new Romulan content which is what "everybody" is here to play) and tbth this expansion may well have done more harm over the long term as a result than good over the short to medium.
To be fair to Cryptic and the beta testers, LoR performed brilliantly on Tribble. The problem came when the live branch took on the LoR branch. They didn't jive perfectly.
Saying they need to stop developing and start patching is a common mistake people does on MMO. STO have the same average number of bugs and problems any game have after an expansion. Less than some (look at funcom/bethesda games). They patch it regularly, given time most of those bugs will be removed.
I would advise a complete re-write and some detailed documentation of what does what for future coders so that we don't have this situation again, maybe they could streamline what they have already while they are at it to remove some of the server-side lag (take the UI for example), sure it would be a huge undertaking but it would certainly benefit the health of the game and for a week at least the potential to have no bugs, imagine that...
Now do I expect this to happen? No. Do I believe it is in STO's best interests to do? Yes.
they use design and scripting tools written by others (many of them industry standard) and the game engine is shared between multiple cryptic MMOs.
tbth i highly suspect that the (scalable) engine was originally commissioned as a venture capital down like project by "the suits" and even the people who currently do maintain it across all of Cryptic didn't actually write it...
PS. if your UI is "graphically" "laggy" as opposed to the network "laggy" or you are seeing weird texture detail degridation set your video memory manually in the troubleshooting settings under video advanced (i'm using 1024+ and it made a huge difference to the game). apparently the default "Auto" setting has been causing all kinds of weirdness since season 7...