That means... Farseer rank for Romulans and Waaaghboss for Klinks. :P
Unless GW does something like:
"Hello. I represent Games Workshop. I have just sued PWE/Cryptic for ALL THEIR THINGS for infringing on our Copyrights/IP. Please report to biomass processing, we need more stuff for Finecast. Or Green Stuff."
"Hello. I represent Games Workshop. I have just sued PWE/Cryptic for ALL THEIR THINGS for infringing on our Copyrights/IP. Please report to biomass processing, we need more stuff for Finecast. Or Green Stuff."
Which they would. It's GW.
Yup, sounds like them.
Or maybe they just force Cryptic to hire Matt Ward as a writer. :rolleyes:
I'd like to express my appreciation to Geko for participating in this thread. It was a pleasant surprise, and I hope something that continues to occur.
I also liked this blog, it felt like the first "real" information relating to X2. The new skill point system for levels 51-60 sound interesting, in a good way.
The topic of ranks has come up and I'd like to offer my 2-cents. I'd recommend that Cryptic disassociate rank names with the player level entirely. Have the level indication simply be Level 1, Level 13, Level 54, etc...
Equipment marks can still be tied to groups of 10 levels (ex, Mk 1 and 2 gear tied to Levels 0-9, then Mk 3 and 4 tied to Levels 10-19 and so on, just as it is now).
One of the most common examples offered in favor of disassociating rank names from player levels is the Admiral issue. If we are all Vice Admirals, and soon to be Fleet Admirals, we'd never leave Starbase (with the occasional exception). Our toons would have desk jobs. Since we "pull a Kirk" and go from Cadet to Captain via field promotion in one mission, then I suggest the game just refer to us as "Captain" in mission dialogue. It also heads off the future rank name issue of leveling up past 60.
I'm looking forward to the next blog.
Thank you,
Thank you for the T6 Galaxy Class. - I support Tovan Khev. - Please bring back the exploration missions.
I mean seriously, Rank (not Level) should have capped at Captain - the most famous and iconic Hero rank in Star Trek ( with Guild leaders able to unlock the Title of Admiral)
I don't see why people are still debating this whole thing of having 500,000 vice admirals (soon to be Fleet Admirals). The game treats a single character as being the hero character. The rank of fleet admiral by the time the expansion comes out will mean that everything you as the player has experienced will mean that you have earned the rank with hard work.
It's not like the developers at this point are gonna go back and adjust the way the ranks are right now. That will potentially be for a later time when they finally listen to us about adding in ranks like Ensign back into the natural progression for feds (Bekk potentially for Klingons and Uhlan for Romulans).
At the first link was this entry which I found interesting given some of the posts in the past on these Forums relating to Read Admiral (Upper Half) or (Lower Half) see further on:
"According to Public Law 78-482, fleet admirals on active duty received the same pay as rear admiral, upper half (two star) plus a $5,000 personal allowance"
Also previous talk of the use of 'Commodore' "It is often regarded as a one-star rank with a NATO code of OF-6 (which is known in the U.S. as "rear admiral (lower half)"), but whether it is regarded as a flag rank varies between countries.[1] From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_(rank)
Similarly, the game never used Fleet Captain, but I found this "Fleet captain has appeared in several science fiction sources, the most notable of which is Star Trek. As a Starfleet officer rank, there have only been two fleet captains shown in the entirety of Star Trek, both from Star Trek: The Original Series: Garth of Izar and Christopher Pike. In Deep Space 9 Season 6 Ep. 18 Internal Affairs Officer- Deputy Director Luther Sloan posed as a Fleet Captain, but is discovered to have been an operative of Section 31."
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Another thing I could never understand in MMOs was the gaining of XP or whatever for ranking up. I do stuff and learn and get more experienced which allows me to gain levels (and Ranks here in STO). All of a sudden, I become brain-dead. I do stuff but I don't 'learn' from it.
And then one morning, I wake up, and lo and behold, I'mma learnin' again; soon to know I will experience another mental block in my life's progress.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Marshal or Field Marshal is normally next if you are using ground ranks and don't want to use that General of the Army type nomenclature.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
I would like the ability to choose what rank title I'm called by NPC's. Captain it is. I see no logical reason for anyone to realistically go by any other title.
Too many chiefs, not enough indians applies here,...
"Go play with your DPS in the corner, I don't care how big it is." ~ Me "There... are... four... lights!" ~Jean Luc Picard
People keep saying that, but it's an MMO, not a single player game. Why not simply not make easily avidable, immersion-breaking mistakes?
Why not simply listen to the constructive player fedback in this matter?
As they have to touch the rank structure anyway with the level cap icrease, it's actually a good opportunity to fix this issue.
While this is a common sense, you're asking PerfectWorld Entertainment (owners of Cryptic) to change the fundamental business models and practices which shape their products. In the case of STO, it's the "Delta Rising" level cap increase.
After making a massive investment in PWE stock, I think you'd get results with the PWE Board of Directors (as a majority shareholder) to implement such changes.
Who knows? Maybe Cryptic would consider such changes. But the business-seasoned part of me says no.
I mean seriously, Rank (not Level) should have capped at Captain - the most famous and iconic Hero rank in Star Trek ( with Guild leaders able to unlock the Title of Admiral)
I completely agree and I would like to know from developers why it can not do or they want not to do it.
I mean seriously, Rank (not Level) should have capped at Captain - the most famous and iconic Hero rank in Star Trek ( with Guild leaders able to unlock the Title of Admiral)
100% agreed.
"...'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
Nope, not at all. I am suggesting to change a small text that is called "rank" into a variable so that all the "I wanne be an admiral" players (both of them) can remain admirals, while everybody who wants to be a captain just like the hero chracters of the TV shows that this game is modeled after, can be one.
It totally don't get how you could come to your conclusion from what I wrote.
Why no "Captain (level 60)"? "Fundamental business model"? Huh?
The problem with that is that the game didnt just come out.
Captain WAS the maximum planned rank upon release, but than they raised the level cap.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
While this is a common sense, you're asking PerfectWorld Entertainment (owners of Cryptic) to change the fundamental business models and practices which shape their products. In the case of STO, it's the "Delta Rising" level cap increase.
Not at all. People are fine with increasing levels. It's the ranks they take issue with. And those are just flags/words/text. The functionality people are cool with. The words are problematic. (More on how in a sec).
I don't see why people are still debating this whole thing of having 500,000 vice admirals (soon to be Fleet Admirals). The game treats a single character as being the hero character. The rank of fleet admiral by the time the expansion comes out will mean that everything you as the player has experienced will mean that you have earned the rank with hard work.
It's not like the developers at this point are gonna go back and adjust the way the ranks are right now. That will potentially be for a later time when they finally listen to us about adding in ranks like Ensign back into the natural progression for feds (Bekk potentially for Klingons and Uhlan for Romulans).
People are debating it because it is about to become a HUGE issue. Ok, we get to 60. Fleet Admirals all around. Fine. No problemo.
But hey, they just mentioned level 70 is in the plans. Not right away mind you but in the works down the road.
Uh oh!
Level 70 is WHAT RANK?
The naval system runs out at Fleet Admiral. There's nothing higher.
What the? What are they going to do?
So let's fix this issue right now? We are all ok with continued gameplay. Continued story. Continued levels.
But these pesky ranks are going to be problematic down the road.
Now I have two questions for the dev team regarding this specialization tree:
@Geko: I remember back in Beta. You were around then too right? So remember when the skill tree got given a point hard cap? Remember? I do. One of the reasons given was to prevent people from filling out every category over an extended period of time.
How come that philosophy has been completely reversed with the specialization tree? Why is it ok to now let people fill out this new tree but was (and unless you change the skill tree again) still is not ok to fill out those categories in the skill tree?
@Hawk: Remember, back in season 9 when you guys changed the traits? Capping how many players could have? Remember? I do. One of the reasons given for that was that you guys said you wanted a new level 50 to not feel overwhelmed by vet level 50s that had been playing much longer and had tons of traits equipped.
What the heck? How did that philosophy get so QUICKLY abandoned? Because with this specialization system, in 3 years, new level 60s are going to be dwarfed and overwhelmed by veteran level 60s that have filled out the tree from the start. The reason traits were capped is completely counter to this new system.
@both of you: Why does it seem the right hand and left hand didn't communicate with each other on this stuff? (Ok, maybe this question is a little unfair and snarky). I really am generally confused by the apparent contradiction I see here. So any light shed on what's going on would help. It really does seem like what happened with Traits and the reason given for why that happened, is directly contradicted with what's being stated about specialization points.
Has that come up? Is it intended? How is it intended? Why does one system work one way and the other work another way? From what I've read spec tree seems like it will have as big as or bigger impact on player builds as traits did. So is there any weight being given to the system in how it develops over three years time? Because the way it's explained it seems a level 60 with 3 years of spec point grinding will be much further ahead of a brand new level 60. It's a pretty big u-turn just two updates later.
Now I have two questions for the dev team regarding this specialization tree:
@Geko: I remember back in Beta. You were around then too right? So remember when the skill tree got given a point hard cap? Remember? I do. One of the reasons given was to prevent people from filling out every category over an extended period of time.
How come that philosophy has been completely reversed with the specialization tree? Why is it ok to now let people fill out this new tree but was (and unless you change the skill tree again) still is not ok to fill out those categories in the skill tree?
@Hawk: Remember, back in season 9 when you guys changed the traits? Capping how many players could have? Remember? I do. One of the reasons given for that was that you guys said you wanted a new level 50 to not feel overwhelmed by vet level 50s that had been playing much longer and had tons of traits equipped.
What the heck? How did that philosophy get so QUICKLY abandoned? Because with this specialization system, in 3 years, new level 60s are going to be dwarfed and overwhelmed by veteran level 60s that have filled out the tree from the start. The reason traits were capped is completely counter to this new system.
@both of you: Why does it seem the right hand and left hand didn't communicate with each other on this stuff?
Those ideas were bad to begin with, and should have never happened in the first place.
I hate nerfs.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
Bring back Bhaal, Lord of Murder. After all, the original Bhaal is dead, his Bhaalspawn sealed his essence, so it would work just fine as a title. That, and do you realize just how many beings we've murdered in our quest for power? We even keep count, until it becomes too cumbersome to do so, with separate Accolades for murdering them individually on the Ground or en masse by destroying their ships in the cold void of Space. All those souls, dying at our hands and by our will! Mwahahahaha!!! Truly are we worthy of the title Lord of Murder!!!
Wait, you don't mean that Bhaal, and STO really doesn't need more Neverwinter.
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.
@Hawk: Remember, back in season 9 when you guys changed the traits? Capping how many players could have? Remember? I do. One of the reasons given for that was that you guys said you wanted a new level 50 to not feel overwhelmed by vet level 50s that had been playing much longer and had tons of traits equipped.
What the heck? How did that philosophy get so QUICKLY abandoned?
Possibly because they already had this system in mind and they did not want to run this new system in parallel to the multiple traits / reps system .
But I'll grant you that until we get more info it sounds a bit odd .
Because with this specialization system, in 3 years, new level 60s are going to be dwarfed and overwhelmed by veteran level 60s that have filled out the tree from the start. The reason traits were capped is completely counter to this new system.
And since no new UI was presented to this new system , I can only guess that it exists on the drawing board half finished like all things Cryptic , and at best it'll be done 2 seconds before show time with zero possibility to make actual changes based on actual feedback .
But don't worry , they'll ask for feedback just the same .
Comments
...
Cumby can do a LOT more than Sherlock and Khan.
It'd be type casting atm.
He's over-exposed in that sort of role.
Now, for the Brits reading, Nicholas Parsons would make an awesome Master
Yeah, that'd be EPIC.
Back on the topic of the level cap raise...
Who wants to be a Galactic Emperor?
Palpatine, The Emprah, Darth Bobo, Nixon's head....shall I go on
Bah.
I want to be GOD EMPEROR.
That means... Farseer rank for Romulans and Waaaghboss for Klinks. :P
Unless GW does something like:
"Hello. I represent Games Workshop. I have just sued PWE/Cryptic for ALL THEIR THINGS for infringing on our Copyrights/IP. Please report to biomass processing, we need more stuff for Finecast. Or Green Stuff."
Which they would. It's GW.
Yup, sounds like them.
Or maybe they just force Cryptic to hire Matt Ward as a writer. :rolleyes:
I also liked this blog, it felt like the first "real" information relating to X2. The new skill point system for levels 51-60 sound interesting, in a good way.
The topic of ranks has come up and I'd like to offer my 2-cents. I'd recommend that Cryptic disassociate rank names with the player level entirely. Have the level indication simply be Level 1, Level 13, Level 54, etc...
Equipment marks can still be tied to groups of 10 levels (ex, Mk 1 and 2 gear tied to Levels 0-9, then Mk 3 and 4 tied to Levels 10-19 and so on, just as it is now).
One of the most common examples offered in favor of disassociating rank names from player levels is the Admiral issue. If we are all Vice Admirals, and soon to be Fleet Admirals, we'd never leave Starbase (with the occasional exception). Our toons would have desk jobs. Since we "pull a Kirk" and go from Cadet to Captain via field promotion in one mission, then I suggest the game just refer to us as "Captain" in mission dialogue. It also heads off the future rank name issue of leveling up past 60.
I'm looking forward to the next blog.
Thank you,
Matt Ward has left Games Workshop.
So Cryptic CAN hire him..... it is technically possible.
New lead writer, anybody?
*shudder*
Everyone is now a Fleet Admiral? What next? "President of the Federation"?
Can't we just use Titles instead of Rank? http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1116431
I mean seriously, Rank (not Level) should have capped at Captain - the most famous and iconic Hero rank in Star Trek ( with Guild leaders able to unlock the Title of Admiral)
arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1203368/pve-content-a-list-of-gamewide-polishing-pass-suggestions
It's not like the developers at this point are gonna go back and adjust the way the ranks are right now. That will potentially be for a later time when they finally listen to us about adding in ranks like Ensign back into the natural progression for feds (Bekk potentially for Klingons and Uhlan for Romulans).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_admiral_(United_States)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiral_of_the_fleet
and for Star Trek related:
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Fleet_admiral
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Fleet_admiral
At the first link was this entry which I found interesting given some of the posts in the past on these Forums relating to Read Admiral (Upper Half) or (Lower Half) see further on:
"According to Public Law 78-482, fleet admirals on active duty received the same pay as rear admiral, upper half (two star) plus a $5,000 personal allowance"
Also previous talk of the use of 'Commodore' "It is often regarded as a one-star rank with a NATO code of OF-6 (which is known in the U.S. as "rear admiral (lower half)"), but whether it is regarded as a flag rank varies between countries.[1] From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_(rank)
Similarly, the game never used Fleet Captain, but I found this "Fleet captain has appeared in several science fiction sources, the most notable of which is Star Trek. As a Starfleet officer rank, there have only been two fleet captains shown in the entirety of Star Trek, both from Star Trek: The Original Series: Garth of Izar and Christopher Pike. In Deep Space 9 Season 6 Ep. 18 Internal Affairs Officer- Deputy Director Luther Sloan posed as a Fleet Captain, but is discovered to have been an operative of Section 31."
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
And then one morning, I wake up, and lo and behold, I'mma learnin' again; soon to know I will experience another mental block in my life's progress.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Too many chiefs, not enough indians applies here,...
"There... are... four... lights!" ~Jean Luc Picard
Which suggests that it's more of an award than a rank, but... is quite vague.
My character Tsin'xing
After making a massive investment in PWE stock, I think you'd get results with the PWE Board of Directors (as a majority shareholder) to implement such changes.
Who knows? Maybe Cryptic would consider such changes. But the business-seasoned part of me says no.
I completely agree and I would like to know from developers why it can not do or they want not to do it.
The problem with that is that the game didnt just come out.
Captain WAS the maximum planned rank upon release, but than they raised the level cap.
Not at all. People are fine with increasing levels. It's the ranks they take issue with. And those are just flags/words/text. The functionality people are cool with. The words are problematic. (More on how in a sec).
People are debating it because it is about to become a HUGE issue. Ok, we get to 60. Fleet Admirals all around. Fine. No problemo.
But hey, they just mentioned level 70 is in the plans. Not right away mind you but in the works down the road.
Uh oh!
Level 70 is WHAT RANK?
The naval system runs out at Fleet Admiral. There's nothing higher.
What the? What are they going to do?
So let's fix this issue right now? We are all ok with continued gameplay. Continued story. Continued levels.
But these pesky ranks are going to be problematic down the road.
Let's fix that. What say you?
@Geko: I remember back in Beta. You were around then too right? So remember when the skill tree got given a point hard cap? Remember? I do. One of the reasons given was to prevent people from filling out every category over an extended period of time.
How come that philosophy has been completely reversed with the specialization tree? Why is it ok to now let people fill out this new tree but was (and unless you change the skill tree again) still is not ok to fill out those categories in the skill tree?
@Hawk: Remember, back in season 9 when you guys changed the traits? Capping how many players could have? Remember? I do. One of the reasons given for that was that you guys said you wanted a new level 50 to not feel overwhelmed by vet level 50s that had been playing much longer and had tons of traits equipped.
What the heck? How did that philosophy get so QUICKLY abandoned? Because with this specialization system, in 3 years, new level 60s are going to be dwarfed and overwhelmed by veteran level 60s that have filled out the tree from the start. The reason traits were capped is completely counter to this new system.
@both of you: Why does it seem the right hand and left hand didn't communicate with each other on this stuff? (Ok, maybe this question is a little unfair and snarky). I really am generally confused by the apparent contradiction I see here. So any light shed on what's going on would help. It really does seem like what happened with Traits and the reason given for why that happened, is directly contradicted with what's being stated about specialization points.
Has that come up? Is it intended? How is it intended? Why does one system work one way and the other work another way? From what I've read spec tree seems like it will have as big as or bigger impact on player builds as traits did. So is there any weight being given to the system in how it develops over three years time? Because the way it's explained it seems a level 60 with 3 years of spec point grinding will be much further ahead of a brand new level 60. It's a pretty big u-turn just two updates later.
Those ideas were bad to begin with, and should have never happened in the first place.
I hate nerfs.
You got me there. I feel all sorts of egg on my face for many of my posts from back then. I really bought into the reasons stated.
Now I'm very confused.
Needs more Neverwinter...
Bring back Bhaal, Lord of Murder. After all, the original Bhaal is dead, his Bhaalspawn sealed his essence, so it would work just fine as a title. That, and do you realize just how many beings we've murdered in our quest for power? We even keep count, until it becomes too cumbersome to do so, with separate Accolades for murdering them individually on the Ground or en masse by destroying their ships in the cold void of Space. All those souls, dying at our hands and by our will! Mwahahahaha!!! Truly are we worthy of the title Lord of Murder!!!
Wait, you don't mean that Bhaal, and STO really doesn't need more Neverwinter.
Possibly because they already had this system in mind and they did not want to run this new system in parallel to the multiple traits / reps system .
But I'll grant you that until we get more info it sounds a bit odd .
And since no new UI was presented to this new system , I can only guess that it exists on the drawing board half finished like all things Cryptic , and at best it'll be done 2 seconds before show time with zero possibility to make actual changes based on actual feedback .
But don't worry , they'll ask for feedback just the same .