At this time, Foundry improvements are being tracked as part of the "fix and improve" strategy. We have a list of highly requested changes and are working to get some of them into each update. I don't foresee any major new features for Foundry in the coming months, however.
Comments
Me being one of them
:mad::mad::mad::mad:
I call it, the Stoutes paradox.
In fairness, the key word in that statement is "yet"
They have a new EP, if he chooses to change direction, that's his prerogative.
*One day later*
*A riot is seen in front of Cryptic studios*
IIRC, Stahl told us the same thing would happen before or during season 8. That turned out well.
Remember, they were just waiting for NW to launch before STO programmers would be dealing with the Foundry.
As as I've said previously. I find no value in trying to predict anything in this game. Dev blogs, interviews, etc etc are fine and dandy but don't look on anything as a guarantee until you see it in the patch notes (and sometimes not even then).
For instance do ported NW features count as "major new feature" or an "improvement?" I mean it's not like any of these things are new to Cryptic. It's tech Cryptic has already development.
But even setting that a side, I'm not sure that a fix and improve strategy is a bad thing. It's no secret that there have been a growing list of increasingly troublesome bugs in the Foundry. New features are all well and good, but it's better if these are added on top of a stable base. We, as a community do complain about the bugs a lot.
What do you guys think? What's more important to you, new features or bug fixes?
bug fixes, IMO. Most of the new features that we've gotten after the departure of the Foundry team have not exactly improved the situation. Patrols are buggy, for example. Pathing has gotten worse in some cases. Nobody seems happy with the new and improved ratings and listing system. I would be very skeptical of ported new features, based on testing those features in NW. The nudger was a bug-filled mess of a tool.
Still, I can't imagine that a dozen or so new things ported from NW do not count as major new features.
Maybe he is simply making a distinction between teams. No new tech from STO's side, but maybe imported a different team's tech is put into a different mental category.
Something here is weird though. How can an EP make a statement like this after BF told you guys that big news is coming? We'll have to wait for the Geko interview. I hope that Geko knows that he's supposed to talk about the Foundry.
My character Tsin'xing
As an aside, "coming months" in development terms typically means the next 2-3 months. As you all know, development of features, even the porting of existing features, takes time and would be beyond the scope of "the coming months". Wait to hear what Geko has to say before you get too worried.
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
Personally, I'd say bug fixes.
I know I'm only working on my third mission which I assume still makes me relatively green in the aspects of the Foundry, but when I look at the menus of possible assets, my mind goes crazy with figuring out all the various ways I can use things. There's a lot of costumes (NPC and ships), lots of props, and lots of different environments to use. I am constantly just thinking about different ways to do things (part of the reason my third mission is taking so long because I feel like I'm seeing a lot more Foundry potential than I did in the first two).
New features could be fun. Emphasis on the could. There's a lot available now. And I operate under the assumption that new features would be unveiled and immediately bugged and we would all complain for another year until they're finally functioning properly.
That's my point of view. But as I said, I would hardly call myself a Foundry veteran yet. Some of you have been doing this a lot longer than me and continue to impress me with things I hadn't even imagined. I guess like everything in life, it's a matter of perspective.
"The time has come to see the world as it is." - Captain James T. Kirk
Twitter - @SDVargo
As well for example for KDF foundry missions you can't make a real renegade Klingon type npcs, gorn rebellion, etc. Would be nice if it gave those options.
Here's the question: What specific thing is missing from the Foundry that is preventing you from making a specific mission?
I'll give you an example. A while back I had the idea to make a mission set in the historical time of Kahless. I haven't done any further development on the mission because we do not have the ability of making Klingon mobs fight with Bat'leth's or other melee weapons only, and it would be no fun to make that mission without that ability. Ergo, one thing I think the Foundry needs in terms of development is more control over NPCs, such as allegiance, weapons, powers, choosing exactly what types of mobs spawn in a group, etc.
Features can wait a few months.
But since I joined STO, there has literally been nothing new to the Foundry except for Voth mobs.
My personal priority in terms of costumes and maps:
Virinat, Yesterday's Enterprise uniform, Winter coats, Risian Summer outfits.
Except for the fact that we've apparently been in the planning stage for well over a year, it's nice to know that there are actually plans in place, after a year of dev talk about plans in place that would make season 7, no wait 8, no wait 9... the season of a Foundry update.
Here's my toast to plans. Sorry if the wine is rotten. I'm on dev time these days.
My character Tsin'xing
I think you mean season 3, unless wrecking our mission counts as the largest foundry update.
The only new features I really want right now are (1) a Next button in the search results and (2) a Romulan designation option for missions. (I've long been an advocate of NW-style campaign support, but that can wait for now.)
As for assets, I've been screaming for new LoR stuff for months now, especially the New Romulus space, ground and Command Center interior maps, so I can complete my Valley of the Shadow Republic trilogy as intended. (For now I've been forced to make my own bad facsimile of the space map, and use a substitute setting for a scene I intended to put in the Command Center.)
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
This is the number 1 request for me as well. I don't particularly care about ported features if nobody can find my missions without a custom search.
We're not really big enough to constitute a riot. It would be more like a "small demonstration".
Click here for my Foundry tutorial on Creating A Custom Interior Map.
"Would you believe it, there will be riots in front of the studio, massive riots?"
"I find that hard to believe."
"Oh, would you be believe a small demonstration?"
"No."
"How about two guys and a french poodle?"
Does Geko even have anything to do with features in the foundry?
"Big news for the foundry soon!" "The big news is there is no news! Yay!" -_-
BUT, Brandon's words have put me at ease for now.
I would like that. I wanted to do a similar mission except on ancient Vulcan just before the time of awakening/ sundering.
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
This! 10chars/
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p7hyAxa35s
Make this developer tailor available to Foundry costume creation. (Of course...Remove the lore characters such as Worf)
So we can mix-match every piece of clothing available in the game.
not just that, on redshirt i think there are costumes ( such as a ENT MACO variant i saw before ) that have never been released yet, I'd love that being unlocked for authors as a nice gesture of faith
But more important than either would be a few simple changes about the Foundry, to make Foundry missions more visible. A "next" button, as Kirksplat says, a better search system, and for the pop-up when you pass a star system to include Foundry missions that start from that point. It wouldn't take much. Neither bug fixes nor new features will help if nobody SEES the missions, and there's already enough good, working stuff there to repay a far more central role than it has now.
Have the devs seen this thread and this thread yet? Members of the community have come up with some detailed plans for how all this could be done, and there are a lot of players who'd like to know at least that they've been read.
Answers to Drogyn1701's question, just for reference:
The one missing feature that's actually important for the mission I'm working on
- a few generalised ship interior maps that would turn into the appropriate interior to match the player's ship. So a bridge map for which players flying Nebulas would see a Nebula bridge, those with Defiants would see a Defiant bridge, etc. and the same for an engine room and a general-purpose corridors and cabins map. I can JUST about do it without that, but it's going to need major suspension of disbelief, especially for Fed Romulan captains.
One that's not essential but would add a lot
- choices on one map being able to affect what happens on another. For instance, in one scene during this mission, the player captain has to decide on an emergency plan to be followed in case anything happens to them. This works, but would be much better if your choice actually affected what you find when you make it back to the ship.