What he did say at the time he took over the EP role the first time was that Dan had already set in motion most of the things they were going to do for the next few months.
This time around I see it differently. D'Angelo is actively directing the team and setting priorities and schedules in concert with the Leads and he's taking STO in a slightly different direction than Dan did.
Whether D'Angelo will remain EP indefinitely or not, I don't know. But this is his show right now.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
What he did say at the time he took over the EP role the first time was that Dan had already set in motion most of the things they were going to do for the next few months.
This time around I see it differently. D'Angelo is actively directing the team and setting priorities and schedules in concert with the Leads and he's taking STO in a slightly different direction than Dan did.
Whether D'Angelo will remain EP indefinitely or not, I don't know. But this is his show right now.
interesting.. learned a lot of thing today about the cryptic group, actually a lot more then expected. not just this, but quite a few things.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Whether you take the plane, helicopter, ferry, subway, train, car, bus, taxi, bicycle, or your own two legs... the destination is the same.
Somebody at PWE/Cryptic has the unenviable job of making sure all channels are clear and open for the public.
No method of communication should be preferred over the other. Audio-only podcats, reddit interviews, twitter releases, dev blogs, forum posts, you name it. All are viable. All are used. None are obsolete.
In my opinion, in an ideal (or perfect) world, the destination is the website/forums. All routes lead there. All information is stored there. All pageclicks end there.
I agree but, cryptic shut down their website. Whenever you go to the STO website your directed straight to ARC. Theres alot of ppl who don't like ARC. So if theres something important the devs want to tell us. Only the people who have arc will know about it. I know this is very narrow minded but cryptic did it. I think they hurt their playerbase when they did. They need something that reaches to everyone. Maybe a Email, they have all our addresses. If your on arc the whole country has your Email (maybe the planet).Thats the only way I see all of us getting new info on sto and everyone getting it at the same time.
I agree but, cryptic shut down their website. Whenever you go to the STO website your directed straight to ARC. Theres alot of ppl who don't like ARC. So if theres something important the devs want to tell us. Only the people who have arc will know about it. I know this is very narrow minded but cryptic did it. I think they hurt their playerbase when they did. They need something that reaches to everyone. Maybe a Email, they have all our addresses. If your on arc the whole country has your Email (maybe the planet).Thats the only way I see all of us getting new info on sto and everyone getting it at the same time.
??? You don't need ARC to visit the game news or the forums o_O. They also have your e-mail address as it's required when you signed up for your account (via Cryptic, Atari, PWE or ARC) and do send out e-mails advertising things as is :P
Yes, I'm that Askray@Batbayer in game. Yes, I still play. No, I don't care. Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker. Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
As someone who has been in their shoes I understand the difficulties of more communication with users. But I still say more is better. Something that has worked for me has been polls, as simple as that sounds. If we can be apart of some the changes in a way where we can all contribute equally that's makes a difference. I know some are more difficult than others, like the Cluster Removal or FE. But for items like the Doff UI I believe could have heavily made a difference if during initial design we could voted for several design options before serious development got under way. That could have actually saved you guys time as well and give you a way to track actuall live requirements categorized and online for record.
Also, an improved in-game customer support feature. At least one that let's us follow up on a ticket or see that it has been recognized or worked on. For me when I submit a bug in game i don't know if it filed because I can't pull it up in the list.
Apologies, rinkster, but what recent news might you be citing?
My suggestion for wanting to know how to communicate with the devs? Have the devs tell us via upcoming STOked radio and Priority One podcast interviews.
We are looking at possibilities about this and there are new tools coming in the forum "upgrade" that will help players get answers.
And guys, while I'm not going to hard line it, lets try to be serious in this thread (though the IPoAC was hillarious)
On that note, it'd be nice if the devs did blogs that more closely resembled the "diary" style a lot of people use for blogging. IE, posting things as often as they have something they want to share. Also, copying things across several media would be good too.
As someone who has been in their shoes I understand the difficulties of more communication with users. But I still say more is better. Something that has worked for me has been polls, as simple as that sounds. If we can be apart of some the changes in a way where we can all contribute equally that's makes a difference. I know some are more difficult than others, like the Cluster Removal or FE. But for items like the Doff UI I believe could have heavily made a difference if during initial design we could voted for several design options before serious development got under way. That could have actually saved you guys time as well and give you a way to track actuall live requirements categorized and online for record.
Also, an improved in-game customer support feature. At least one that let's us follow up on a ticket or see that it has been recognized or worked on. For me when I submit a bug in game i don't know if it filed because I can't pull it up in the list.
Good point, sometimes I wonder if the tickets actually even get to the helpdesk. I mean the game just crashed... what's to say the help thingy works?
1: Twitter is Life in 144 Characters. Except that you can't say anything interesting in 144 Characters. Must be a pathetic life full of meaningless minor moments. It's like writing to a pen pal on index cards. (If you don't know what a pen pal is, just Google it)
2: Forums are heavy and clogged with people who think they have coherent or well-rehearsed and studied opinions. Sifting through this site for useful information is like watching LOST. And watching LOST has been described as "wading through an Olympic-sized swimming pool full of TRIBBLE to find the nuggets of gold at the bottom".
3: Podcasts, ugh. I KNOW HOW TO READ, thank you.
Blogs are the way to go. Formattable, customizable, with a comments section for people to give their opinions and stuff without all the useful parts of the post being lost.
Honestly I think it should be kept off twitter, facebook and their ilk. In the last 18 months or so there has been more and more on there, and less and less on this forum. How many of us actually follow every single cryptic/pwe staffer/minion? Hell, how many of us follow any of them?
Communication has been the bugbear of this community for years. Heck, I remember the very same thing being said back when the whole "disenchanted" protest trope was doing the rounds. I and many of my friends feel alienated from the devs. I know we can't all be one and the same, but there needs to be some kind of procedure so that helpful player feedback is actually acknowledged, rather than just blanked as it has been. Sure the feedback might be seen by a dev and might even result in a change if it's good enough, but there just isn't any acknowledgement.
Hell, even a "kudos" button on the forum that only the devs can use would be a start. Essentially, it'd be a way for devs to quickly reward feedback they have seen. A "Kudos"ed post would be highlighted as such and the kudos would be recorded on the counter of the poster.
Hell, even a "kudos" button on the forum that only the devs can use would be a start. Essentially, it'd be a way for devs to quickly reward feedback they have seen. A "Kudos"ed post would be highlighted as such and the kudos would be recorded on the counter of the poster.
That is an interesting idea, imo.
I know there's been times when such a flag on a post of mine would have changed the tenor of my feelings on a subject.
What I cant figure out is that every other mmo I play has great communications between developers and customers (the people that make sure the coding people can buy that steak dinner) and everyone gets along the majority just fine...
here its like pulling teeth from an alligator not sedated to get info to and from...
They go lalalala we cant hear you...
and a majority of us go lalalala we don't care you cant hear us
its awfully confusing...than again this thing could be avoided with some...proper....you know whats that word....community...something other...its a title....gods I forget 15 plus years of gaming I just don't understand anymore....back to the ale for me :cool:
I may have misunderstood you, but are you suggesting those excellent podcasts become the primary outlet for STO Announcements?
You definitely misunderstood me. No harm, no foul. I'll try again...
In your original post, you stated "There have been some recent news apparently regarding how Cryptic/PWE are going to communicate with us in the future."
I was curious what "recent news"? Meaning: what news, and where did you see it?
About the podcasts: Since the goal is getting a response from the devs, the podcasts seemed like the best way to reach them. Especially as they're taking a media tour (of sorts) with the Season 9.5 release.
And since STOked radio is openly soliciting for questions, it's a great opportunity to get those questions raised (and hopefully answered).
You definitely misunderstood me. No harm, no foul. I'll try again...
In your original post, you stated "There have been some recent news apparently regarding how Cryptic/PWE are going to communicate with us in the future."
I was curious what "recent news"? Meaning: what news, and where did you see it?
About the podcasts: Since the goal is getting a response from the devs, the podcasts seemed like the best way to reach them. Especially as they're taking a media tour (of sorts) with the Season 9.5 release.
And since STOked radio is openly soliciting for questions, it's a great opportunity to get those questions raised (and hopefully answered).
Hope that clarified everything!
Ah, it all makes sense now.
I heard the news about 9.5 here, when someone posted the link to a tweet from our CM.
As for the apparent changes to comment, that was in a podcast.
In other words, the two most important recent announcements, Imo, were made on third party sites.
I miss the days where we could talk about what we were working on. Where we could slip out sneak peek images now and then, etc. Unfortunately, that all leads to 'You Promised!' land, which is no fun for anyone.
I miss the days where we could talk about what we were working on. Where we could slip out sneak peek images now and then, etc. Unfortunately, that all leads to 'You Promised!' land, which is no fun for anyone.
*tears up and sighs* I miss those days...
Yes, I'm that Askray@Batbayer in game. Yes, I still play. No, I don't care. Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker. Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
In all seriousness, I think we all miss those days... Chin up, carry on, though! Still lovin' the ESD revamp, among other awesome contributions from you into STO!
I miss the days where we could talk about what we were working on. Where we could slip out sneak peek images now and then, etc. Unfortunately, that all leads to 'You Promised!' land, which is no fun for anyone.
Wishes are good.
There's been a disconnect that has lead us to some less than ideal places.
Wishing to put that right is the first step.
And thats not meant to be directed at Taco, thats for everyone.
I've been as guilty as anyone at pointing fingers when I have a pointy finger mood on.
Perhaps emotionally satisfying, but not always as constructive as I'd hope.
Things have got bad.
They're not going to get better unless everyone wishes it.
create a dud twitter account, collect some sneak peek stuffs post em up and chest pump that account in the process. pretend to investigate it or call em out as its a lie and convince the community of it, 2 weeks later because you already know its true, put out there and move on :P. but as you stated, just a wishful idea.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Whether you take the plane, helicopter, ferry, subway, train, car, bus, taxi, bicycle, or your own two legs... the destination is the same.
Somebody at PWE/Cryptic has the unenviable job of making sure all channels are clear and open for the public.
No method of communication should be preferred over the other. Audio-only podcats, reddit interviews, twitter releases, dev blogs, forum posts, you name it. All are viable. All are used. None are obsolete.
In my opinion, in an ideal (or perfect) world, the destination is the website/forums. All routes lead there. All information is stored there. All pageclicks end there.
I miss the days where we could talk about what we were working on. Where we could slip out sneak peek images now and then, etc. Unfortunately, that all leads to 'You Promised!' land, which is no fun for anyone.
...as my ideal communication method.
Other than telepathy; that'd be cool, even if I could only use it with STO staff... though at times I'm sure they'd prefer we had empathy instead. Hmmm, maybe Tebaconesis? So many possibilities when wishes are involved, just keep djinn and monkey's paws away from this thread :P
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
I've been as guilty as anyone at pointing fingers when I have a pointy finger mood on.
Perhaps emotionally satisfying, but not always as constructive as I'd hope.
Things have got bad.
They're not going to get better unless everyone wishes it.
I've also been guilty of doing so. Perhaps too zealously at times.
It's a very fine line of being able to distinguish, "You promised X." with "Are you just going to squander money and labor hours on things you think are awesome like Perpetual did, without having anything more than Proof-of-Concept pictures?"
I can't say other players felt the same way I did, and I'm sure at least in a few circumstances I was over-reaching.
But that's always been my main concern. Overambition combined with doing things that look cool rather than things actually being put into the game.
Ambition is good. Ambition can be admirable. But overambition can lead to very bad things, particularly after such a rocky launch of STO.
And I do believe players have the right to know that money spent on the continual development of a game is actually going towards the game rather than assets that the development team wants to build on a lark simply because they can.
Not that I can blame them. How often does a computer game company get to build the Star Trek universe in its entirety?
I miss the days where we could talk about what we were working on. Where we could slip out sneak peek images now and then, etc. Unfortunately, that all leads to 'You Promised!' land, which is no fun for anyone.
Sry, but that's not the point. Of course you can't give us info about the holy grail of PWE/Crytic and I don't need it. I would be really happy to see a dev here from time to time just to be sure you are interested in what we write here. Imo it would help alot to know that devs know about the things we like and(!) things we don't like
So you're a native speaker and I'm not. So what?:P
Communication requires two factors: a transmitter and a receiver.
For the last 4 years, the discussions have been nothing more than a monologue. Whatever method is available will not have an effect on Cryptic. The developers have demonstrated that they only listen to a small minority of the game. And the company seems to only follow what management dictates.
My sense is that they only make changes as a psychological tool to give long time players a sense something is being done to the game (an illusion of change). When in reality, all they are doing is reinventing the game. There has been no real new system installed in the game since it went free to play. The stages that have been introduced since F2P launched were all just stimuli to induce people to buy new products from the cstore.
Season 9.5 has offered nothing to the game other than make it harder to play the game and take a longer time to acquire the basic necessities to play the game within a reasonable time period before the player experiences boredom.
I get the impression that the developers have stopped listening to the players and the players do not care to read or listen to what the developers post. The developers seem to never follow through on anything they do mention in any available tool for communication. The seem to only do what is necessary to get by.
Communication requires two factors: a transmitter and a receiver.
For the last 4 years, the discussions have been nothing more than a monologue. Whatever method is available will not have an effect on Cryptic. The developers have demonstrated that they only listen to a small minority of the game. And the company seems to only follow what management dictates.
Sadly, that minority is only the people who spend money.
I use to do 100K DPS, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
Your Ramming Speed III deals 242658 (243540) Kinetic Damage (Critical) to you.
I miss the days where we could talk about what we were working on. Where we could slip out sneak peek images now and then, etc. Unfortunately, that all leads to 'You Promised!' land, which is no fun for anyone.
Though I wasn't around then... If "you promised!" Happened enough for it to be a problem, then, butthurty community or not, I don't think that's our fault... Either overly high internal expectations or overly low productivity on some people's part... (Not you, Taco. As far as I can tell, you're fine.)
Blogs
These are Cryptics official way of communicating to any and all. If it's not in a blog, imo, its not official. If you want the community to know about something, it should go here first and foremost.
Social media
Use it for disseminating blog post info, and general info and chatting with players. If devs want to leak some things occasionally that's cool too. Keeps those of us that breath STO an extra something to keep an eye out for a morsel of juicy gossip but it should never be used as a primary announcement source for anything unless a blog has covered it already.
Many don't use social media.
Is there even a list anywhere of all the devs Facebook and Twitter accounts? Thats the other problem, it's all over the place. Blogs keep it centralized.
Forums
Some of the devs make an effort in the forums, which I think we're all eternally grateful for. I wouldn't mind seeing all devs spend an hour or two each week in the forums answering questions, putting things right and engaging with those that pay their bills.
Wiki
One thing I wish Cryptic could help out with in some minor capacity is STO Wiki. It's the best knowledge and data repository we have as a community on the mechanics of the game.
Generally it's good but with constant patch changes, I wonder how much needs fixing/editing/updating.
Possibly the CMs or forum mods could help with coordination of blog and patch info being put into the wiki for the communities benefit?
2 way comms
One idea. Perhaps mods and CMs can have the capacity (being abreast of whats going on in the forums) to choose a forum hot topic or two each week (to keep it timely and relevant to forum thread life times), based on what people have been talking about in forums, and they direct some questions based on that topic/issue at the relevant dev(s) for some official feedback to the community on important issues. Results go in an official forum post or in the relevant thread. Keep the shortish, maybe call it the 'weekly forum hot 5' and theres 5 answered questions done each week.
Chaff is sorted through by mods/CMs, and can be well managed through the pipeline meaning devs can't be barraged constantly.
Another idea. Something Star Citizen (a game that may well kill my STO habits) has in their forums, is a dedicated sub forum for dev questions. Each dev has a thread. It's heavily moderated and the devs are asked to participate and answer things in their thread when they can.
And it is great. Something that can perhaps be modeled here if Cryptic dare.
Where is D'Angelo?
Some thing from this chap once in a blue moon wouldn't hurt. Being the top guy, hearing anything from him would go a long way in terms of long term outlook and plan communications etc imo.
I miss the days where we could talk about what we were working on. Where we could slip out sneak peek images now and then, etc. Unfortunately, that all leads to 'You Promised!' land, which is no fun for anyone.
+1
BUT, Gecko stated on a podcast (I'm paraphrasing) somewhere not long ago that Cryptic now have a production time line mapped out that you all adhere to now. Things are more set in stone now and better planned out. And that it was working great.
So I could suggest that this rule could be looked at again to see if it's completely necessary to be in perpetual blackout mode.
Gecko pretty much flouts this every time he's on a podcast, divulging info I haven't seen or heard anywhere else. AND IT'S GREAT!
Gives me a deeper understanding of the workings of the game and Cryptic every time.
Something of a 'whats on STOs whiteboard' would be a nice thing to have officially somewhere. No comments allowed. Alter it whenever Cryptic likes. Just give us some sense of the games direction development wise.
PvP's revamp coming! Who knows when!
Captain skills revamp coming! Apparently in S10, but who knows!
Cruiser command console items or Sci secondary deflectors? Shrug!
I miss the old "what the devs are up to" thread. (can't remeber the name of it )
I'm really not much into the social media culture .
A thread combining all the info would be MUCH appreciated IMO.
"...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--"
- (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie
I've also been guilty of doing so. Perhaps too zealously at times.
It's a very fine line of being able to distinguish, "You promised X." with "Are you just going to squander money and labor hours on things you think are awesome like Perpetual did, without having anything more than Proof-of-Concept pictures?"
I can't say other players felt the same way I did, and I'm sure at least in a few circumstances I was over-reaching.
But that's always been my main concern. Overambition combined with doing things that look cool rather than things actually being put into the game.
Ambition is good. Ambition can be admirable. But overambition can lead to very bad things, particularly after such a rocky launch of STO.
And I do believe players have the right to know that money spent on the continual development of a game is actually going towards the game rather than assets that the development team wants to build on a lark simply because they can.
Not that I can blame them. How often does a computer game company get to build the Star Trek universe in its entirety?
This will likely lead down a rabbit hole I don't want to be in. . . but. . . What, exactly, do you think we (devs) have made, just because we want to make something cool, not because we think it is benefiting the game? From my side, there is nothing we make that we don't think is a benefit to the game. It may not always work out to be, but the intent is always there.
Sry, but that's not the point. Of course you can't give us info about the holy grail of PWE/Crytic and I don't need it. I would be really happy to see a dev here from time to time just to be sure you are interested in what we write here. Imo it would help alot to know that devs know about the things we like and(!) things we don't like
Uh. . . what? You just replied to a dev who's here to see what you like and don't like. . . ???
Though I wasn't around then... If "you promised!" Happened enough for it to be a problem, then, butthurty community or not, I don't think that's our fault... Either overly high internal expectations or overly low productivity on some people's part... (Not you, Taco. As far as I can tell, you're fine.)
It is the nature of designing anything (games included) that you will have to try some things that might not work out in practice. This is true everywhere, at all times. When they make a new jet airplane, they don't just take the first draft off the page and send it into the air. They test things, and see what ends up working and what doesn't. In the end, the plane that you or I ride in is not necessarily the same as it was on paper.
There are also times where, despite your best efforts, something fails so spectacularly, that it must be abandoned in favor of moving on to something else. This is not because anyone involved was lazy or incompetent. Some ideas simply do not work out. The problem is that everyone falls for the Sunk Costs Fallacy. To continue working on something that has no hope of being what it should be, IS wasted effort.
Comments
Nope.
What he did say at the time he took over the EP role the first time was that Dan had already set in motion most of the things they were going to do for the next few months.
This time around I see it differently. D'Angelo is actively directing the team and setting priorities and schedules in concert with the Leads and he's taking STO in a slightly different direction than Dan did.
Whether D'Angelo will remain EP indefinitely or not, I don't know. But this is his show right now.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
interesting.. learned a lot of thing today about the cryptic group, actually a lot more then expected. not just this, but quite a few things.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
I agree but, cryptic shut down their website. Whenever you go to the STO website your directed straight to ARC. Theres alot of ppl who don't like ARC. So if theres something important the devs want to tell us. Only the people who have arc will know about it. I know this is very narrow minded but cryptic did it. I think they hurt their playerbase when they did. They need something that reaches to everyone. Maybe a Email, they have all our addresses. If your on arc the whole country has your Email (maybe the planet).Thats the only way I see all of us getting new info on sto and everyone getting it at the same time.
??? You don't need ARC to visit the game news or the forums o_O. They also have your e-mail address as it's required when you signed up for your account (via Cryptic, Atari, PWE or ARC) and do send out e-mails advertising things as is :P
Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker.
Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
Also, an improved in-game customer support feature. At least one that let's us follow up on a ticket or see that it has been recognized or worked on. For me when I submit a bug in game i don't know if it filed because I can't pull it up in the list.
I may have misunderstood you, but are you suggesting those excellent podcasts become the primary outlet for STO Announcements?
My character Tsin'xing
1: Twitter is Life in 144 Characters. Except that you can't say anything interesting in 144 Characters. Must be a pathetic life full of meaningless minor moments. It's like writing to a pen pal on index cards. (If you don't know what a pen pal is, just Google it)
2: Forums are heavy and clogged with people who think they have coherent or well-rehearsed and studied opinions. Sifting through this site for useful information is like watching LOST. And watching LOST has been described as "wading through an Olympic-sized swimming pool full of TRIBBLE to find the nuggets of gold at the bottom".
3: Podcasts, ugh. I KNOW HOW TO READ, thank you.
Blogs are the way to go. Formattable, customizable, with a comments section for people to give their opinions and stuff without all the useful parts of the post being lost.
Captaincy, Excelsior-Class U.S.S. Bianca Beauchamp NCC-99947-F
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Honestly I think it should be kept off twitter, facebook and their ilk. In the last 18 months or so there has been more and more on there, and less and less on this forum. How many of us actually follow every single cryptic/pwe staffer/minion? Hell, how many of us follow any of them?
Communication has been the bugbear of this community for years. Heck, I remember the very same thing being said back when the whole "disenchanted" protest trope was doing the rounds. I and many of my friends feel alienated from the devs. I know we can't all be one and the same, but there needs to be some kind of procedure so that helpful player feedback is actually acknowledged, rather than just blanked as it has been. Sure the feedback might be seen by a dev and might even result in a change if it's good enough, but there just isn't any acknowledgement.
Hell, even a "kudos" button on the forum that only the devs can use would be a start. Essentially, it'd be a way for devs to quickly reward feedback they have seen. A "Kudos"ed post would be highlighted as such and the kudos would be recorded on the counter of the poster.
A working dev post tracker would be great too.
That is an interesting idea, imo.
I know there's been times when such a flag on a post of mine would have changed the tenor of my feelings on a subject.
They hire Jay Carney to lie to us? He did a great job for Obama.
here its like pulling teeth from an alligator not sedated to get info to and from...
They go lalalala we cant hear you...
and a majority of us go lalalala we don't care you cant hear us
its awfully confusing...than again this thing could be avoided with some...proper....you know whats that word....community...something other...its a title....gods I forget 15 plus years of gaming I just don't understand anymore....back to the ale for me :cool:
In your original post, you stated "There have been some recent news apparently regarding how Cryptic/PWE are going to communicate with us in the future."
I was curious what "recent news"? Meaning: what news, and where did you see it?
About the podcasts: Since the goal is getting a response from the devs, the podcasts seemed like the best way to reach them. Especially as they're taking a media tour (of sorts) with the Season 9.5 release.
And since STOked radio is openly soliciting for questions, it's a great opportunity to get those questions raised (and hopefully answered).
Hope that clarified everything!
Ah, it all makes sense now.
I heard the news about 9.5 here, when someone posted the link to a tweet from our CM.
As for the apparent changes to comment, that was in a podcast.
In other words, the two most important recent announcements, Imo, were made on third party sites.
I miss the days where we could talk about what we were working on. Where we could slip out sneak peek images now and then, etc. Unfortunately, that all leads to 'You Promised!' land, which is no fun for anyone.
*tears up and sighs* I miss those days...
Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker.
Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
In all seriousness, I think we all miss those days... Chin up, carry on, though! Still lovin' the ESD revamp, among other awesome contributions from you into STO!
Wishes are good.
There's been a disconnect that has lead us to some less than ideal places.
Wishing to put that right is the first step.
And thats not meant to be directed at Taco, thats for everyone.
I've been as guilty as anyone at pointing fingers when I have a pointy finger mood on.
Perhaps emotionally satisfying, but not always as constructive as I'd hope.
Things have got bad.
They're not going to get better unless everyone wishes it.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
In all seriousness, though, I have to go with these... ...as my ideal communication method.
Other than telepathy; that'd be cool, even if I could only use it with STO staff... though at times I'm sure they'd prefer we had empathy instead. Hmmm, maybe Tebaconesis? So many possibilities when wishes are involved, just keep djinn and monkey's paws away from this thread :P
Your Ramming Speed III deals 242658 (243540) Kinetic Damage (Critical) to you.
I've also been guilty of doing so. Perhaps too zealously at times.
It's a very fine line of being able to distinguish, "You promised X." with "Are you just going to squander money and labor hours on things you think are awesome like Perpetual did, without having anything more than Proof-of-Concept pictures?"
I can't say other players felt the same way I did, and I'm sure at least in a few circumstances I was over-reaching.
But that's always been my main concern. Overambition combined with doing things that look cool rather than things actually being put into the game.
Ambition is good. Ambition can be admirable. But overambition can lead to very bad things, particularly after such a rocky launch of STO.
And I do believe players have the right to know that money spent on the continual development of a game is actually going towards the game rather than assets that the development team wants to build on a lark simply because they can.
Not that I can blame them. How often does a computer game company get to build the Star Trek universe in its entirety?
Sry, but that's not the point. Of course you can't give us info about the holy grail of PWE/Crytic and I don't need it. I would be really happy to see a dev here from time to time just to be sure you are interested in what we write here. Imo it would help alot to know that devs know about the things we like and(!) things we don't like
For the last 4 years, the discussions have been nothing more than a monologue. Whatever method is available will not have an effect on Cryptic. The developers have demonstrated that they only listen to a small minority of the game. And the company seems to only follow what management dictates.
My sense is that they only make changes as a psychological tool to give long time players a sense something is being done to the game (an illusion of change). When in reality, all they are doing is reinventing the game. There has been no real new system installed in the game since it went free to play. The stages that have been introduced since F2P launched were all just stimuli to induce people to buy new products from the cstore.
Season 9.5 has offered nothing to the game other than make it harder to play the game and take a longer time to acquire the basic necessities to play the game within a reasonable time period before the player experiences boredom.
I get the impression that the developers have stopped listening to the players and the players do not care to read or listen to what the developers post. The developers seem to never follow through on anything they do mention in any available tool for communication. The seem to only do what is necessary to get by.
Thank you
Sadly, that minority is only the people who spend money.
Your Ramming Speed III deals 242658 (243540) Kinetic Damage (Critical) to you.
Though I wasn't around then... If "you promised!" Happened enough for it to be a problem, then, butthurty community or not, I don't think that's our fault... Either overly high internal expectations or overly low productivity on some people's part... (Not you, Taco. As far as I can tell, you're fine.)
Blogs
These are Cryptics official way of communicating to any and all. If it's not in a blog, imo, its not official. If you want the community to know about something, it should go here first and foremost.
Social media
Use it for disseminating blog post info, and general info and chatting with players. If devs want to leak some things occasionally that's cool too. Keeps those of us that breath STO an extra something to keep an eye out for a morsel of juicy gossip but it should never be used as a primary announcement source for anything unless a blog has covered it already.
Many don't use social media.
Is there even a list anywhere of all the devs Facebook and Twitter accounts? Thats the other problem, it's all over the place. Blogs keep it centralized.
Forums
Some of the devs make an effort in the forums, which I think we're all eternally grateful for. I wouldn't mind seeing all devs spend an hour or two each week in the forums answering questions, putting things right and engaging with those that pay their bills.
Wiki
One thing I wish Cryptic could help out with in some minor capacity is STO Wiki. It's the best knowledge and data repository we have as a community on the mechanics of the game.
Generally it's good but with constant patch changes, I wonder how much needs fixing/editing/updating.
Possibly the CMs or forum mods could help with coordination of blog and patch info being put into the wiki for the communities benefit?
2 way comms
One idea. Perhaps mods and CMs can have the capacity (being abreast of whats going on in the forums) to choose a forum hot topic or two each week (to keep it timely and relevant to forum thread life times), based on what people have been talking about in forums, and they direct some questions based on that topic/issue at the relevant dev(s) for some official feedback to the community on important issues. Results go in an official forum post or in the relevant thread. Keep the shortish, maybe call it the 'weekly forum hot 5' and theres 5 answered questions done each week.
Chaff is sorted through by mods/CMs, and can be well managed through the pipeline meaning devs can't be barraged constantly.
Another idea. Something Star Citizen (a game that may well kill my STO habits) has in their forums, is a dedicated sub forum for dev questions. Each dev has a thread. It's heavily moderated and the devs are asked to participate and answer things in their thread when they can.
And it is great. Something that can perhaps be modeled here if Cryptic dare.
Where is D'Angelo?
Some thing from this chap once in a blue moon wouldn't hurt. Being the top guy, hearing anything from him would go a long way in terms of long term outlook and plan communications etc imo.
+1
BUT, Gecko stated on a podcast (I'm paraphrasing) somewhere not long ago that Cryptic now have a production time line mapped out that you all adhere to now. Things are more set in stone now and better planned out. And that it was working great.
So I could suggest that this rule could be looked at again to see if it's completely necessary to be in perpetual blackout mode.
Gecko pretty much flouts this every time he's on a podcast, divulging info I haven't seen or heard anywhere else. AND IT'S GREAT!
Gives me a deeper understanding of the workings of the game and Cryptic every time.
Something of a 'whats on STOs whiteboard' would be a nice thing to have officially somewhere. No comments allowed. Alter it whenever Cryptic likes. Just give us some sense of the games direction development wise.
PvP's revamp coming! Who knows when!
Captain skills revamp coming! Apparently in S10, but who knows!
Cruiser command console items or Sci secondary deflectors? Shrug!
I'm really not much into the social media culture .
A thread combining all the info would be MUCH appreciated IMO.
This will likely lead down a rabbit hole I don't want to be in. . . but. . . What, exactly, do you think we (devs) have made, just because we want to make something cool, not because we think it is benefiting the game? From my side, there is nothing we make that we don't think is a benefit to the game. It may not always work out to be, but the intent is always there.
Uh. . . what? You just replied to a dev who's here to see what you like and don't like. . . ???
It is the nature of designing anything (games included) that you will have to try some things that might not work out in practice. This is true everywhere, at all times. When they make a new jet airplane, they don't just take the first draft off the page and send it into the air. They test things, and see what ends up working and what doesn't. In the end, the plane that you or I ride in is not necessarily the same as it was on paper.
There are also times where, despite your best efforts, something fails so spectacularly, that it must be abandoned in favor of moving on to something else. This is not because anyone involved was lazy or incompetent. Some ideas simply do not work out. The problem is that everyone falls for the Sunk Costs Fallacy. To continue working on something that has no hope of being what it should be, IS wasted effort.