okay seriously have you ever had to develop content? lol
I know there are some design issues with this game I am the first to point out that there are some concepts which are lacking but content creation is not quick or easy and for the most part the work on the delta quadrant is solid and properly done.
They are also in the case of delta quadrant adding it in pieces that is the point they can choose to work on something for 4 years and release it at once or release it in parts which is what has gone on with the delta package, because another criteria they have to meet is the constant demand from players for new content. MMO's are not single player games they are never done ever.
The delta area is appropriately structured for FUTURE expansion the patrol missions are better then patrol missions anywhere else in the game and fit the theme of the quadrant.
They have had to create a framework that they can expand on and MMO's are typically beta because of how they are built.
Halo is done, mass effect 1 & 2 are complete its a complete product packaged and out the door and in the case of the mass effect series they are designing it to make you purchase the next versions of 3 & 4 some games might create an addon package but they are basically done once released if they are single player versions intended to be a stand alone product. MMO's are nothing like these games they are constantly evolving living creations that is kinda like laundry or dishes or housework they are never ever *done* so you see part one of the delta expansion they release seasons of content and have to bootstrap it to the present structure. In the future seasons will have expansions that stick onto the framework they created. They are not done yet it will never be *done* even when they shut it down it will stil not be done
I point you to games like everquest that game is an mmo and one of the oldest on the market to this day they release expansions to plug into the rest of the game. Its never done it will only one day be shut down when it no longer draws customers.
I guarantee you though nothing being done here is 'easy' or quick. That is why we have bugs and errors in the game because its far from easy or quick.
I know developers on many other MMOs have said that they set XP values based on what it takes to hit a level cap and they set the level cap based on the amount of missions they have.
But quest reward values are frequently designed to be a percentage of the new total needed and the general trend is to make sure than completing 50-75% of the quests will get someone to the level cap.
okay seriously have you ever had to develop content? lol
I know there are some design issues with this game I am the first to point out that there are some concepts which are lacking but content creation is not quick or easy and for the most part the work on the delta quadrant is solid and properly done.
They are also in the case of delta quadrant adding it in pieces that is the point they can choose to work on something for 4 years and release it at once or release it in parts which is what has gone on with the delta package, because another criteria they have to meet is the constant demand from players for new content. MMO's are not single player games they are never done ever.
The delta area is appropriately structured for FUTURE expansion the patrol missions are better then patrol missions anywhere else in the game and fit the theme of the quadrant.
They have had to create a framework that they can expand on and MMO's are typically beta because of how they are built.
Halo is done, mass effect 1 & 2 are complete its a complete product packaged and out the door and in the case of the mass effect series they are designing it to make you purchase the next versions of 3 & 4 some games might create an addon package but they are basically done once released if they are single player versions intended to be a stand alone product. MMO's are nothing like these games they are constantly evolving living creations that is kinda like laundry or dishes or housework they are never ever *done* so you see part one of the delta expansion they release seasons of content and have to bootstrap it to the present structure. In the future seasons will have expansions that stick onto the framework they created. They are not done yet it will never be *done* even when they shut it down it will stil not be done
I point you to games like everquest that game is an mmo and one of the oldest on the market to this day they release expansions to plug into the rest of the game. Its never done it will only one day be shut down when it no longer draws customers.
I guarantee you though nothing being done here is 'easy' or quick. That is why we have bugs and errors in the game because its far from easy or quick.
Foundry missions involve some hackery. Hooking up a dev mission and preparing it is more of a bureaucratic process with additional considerations that slow them down.
Still, they probably could have done a LOT more with Kobali Prime.
I think a key thing to make clear with complaints about patrols is that it isn't the repetition of assets that's the issue but the mundane nature of the objectives coupled with expectations of repetition.
It would be better to have 20 new missions on Nimbus (ground and space) than one very adaptive patrol that has 500 subtle variations.
Sorry but that's not correct. I can produce as a foundry author a mission that will take at least two hours to complete full of rich content, good story, special effects, plot turns and twists and so on. And that is using the very limited tool set available to me as a foundry author. I could knock up all the delta quadrant missions myself in a couple of months if I were working full time on it, possibly much faster.
They rushed it out, ran out of time, ran out of money because of expensive voice actors most likely and filled the missing stories with patrols that I could manufacture in about an hour.
Here's a link to one of my foundry missions so you know I'm not full of BS.
I have done the foundry missions I can't say they are any better then cryptics .
These people storyboarded an entire story arc a new one (not redid old stuff) with cut scenes, voice overs etc. The designed new worlds, new races and an entire new quadrant. So your saying just because you can come up with more cookie cutter missions that those will help this issue that players have? I am sorry but no it wont help and it will not stop the complaints.
foundry missions are just 'more of the same' I cant say I have played a foundry mission that was particularly interesting or enjoyable I was on the same maps, with the same characters being told to kill more npcs for the same goals.
The main point of Foundry vs. Cryptic content is, and will always be, limited to the pre-made assets that are available in the Foundry. Big kudos to everyone who has taken the time to create a well-planned Foundry mission. I don't think anyone can ignore the incredible amount of work it takes to create a good one.
But, the key is that Cryptic needs to do all of that work that a Foundry author does, plus design new environments and locations, powers and mechanics, races and ships, and very often write a near-completely voiced script. So if anything, Foundry authors should understand that there's a whole additional layer of content creation that is above and beyond the storyboarding, script-writing, and asset placement that a Foundry mission requires.
I think many of us would've cried "foul" had Cryptic opted not to include many of the Delta quadrant races and locations in the expansion, or had taken the quicker route of bringing them all into the Beta/Alpha Quadrants and having the story play out in locations we've already seen. The asset and environment development work alone in DR is an impressive piece, and I'd rather have patrols located in the Delta Quadrant than missions in the Beta/Alpha.
I dont mean to trivialize what people do in the foundry but it doesn't even compare to the massive undertaking of creating an entire new quadrant from start to finish.
Even the patrols are different (and better). Foundry is something you do for fun on a weekend if you get an idea for a story.
They left obvious gaps in the delta quadrant content. They create a roadmap or blueprint projecting where they want to go over then next year or so and go from there. They then work on filling in the gaps by releasing bits and pieces like they did with that one mission and the artifact.
Perhaps if you take the time to write a foundry mission and include new custom built maps and environments that many authors make you would realise that they are not that dissimilar.
In addition the Cryptic toolbox is vastly superior to that given to the foundry authors. Cut scenes are a piece of cake, I am a film maker in my day job and can tell you that using the demo record function of STO and a reasonable video editor you can make any cut scene come to life.
In addition the guys at Cryptic use other software tools to create cut scenes.
The biggest jobs in new expansions are probably making an entire map like Kobali and coding something like the upgrade system. But please don't go thinking that because the average foundry mission is similar to what you've played already then they all are the same because you're plain wrong. Also don't let the glitz fool you, it's nowhere near as difficult as you may imagine to create all the extra gloss you see in the Cryptic stories.
My point was that given the time they had available there should have been 30 or 40 missions between level 50 and 60, not the 8 or so that we got. Why wasn't there that many? I honestly don't know any other reason other than cost and fire fighting.
you can make custom terrain in foundry? custom animations and stuff?most of the stuff is stock stuff from what I have seen. Everything i have seen in foundry is extremely limited. Nothing new no new races no custom animations nothing. ... same walls, same floors, same textures. No foundry mission I have seen even compares to what I have seen in delta quadrant.
The fact you feel it can take "a couple of hours' to create something unique is alarming lol.
You forget they also created an upgrade system a new set of armour which required time to make new meshes for it and make sure it worked with every single animation in the game. They also made a few new gun animations.
if you think its easy your free to build your own game from the ground up and have it work 24/7 i guarantee you its not easy. If you feel you can do it better then by all means have at it
(anyhow adding this after i am sitting shaking my head at this point so i have given up on the forums where everything is "easy" that is a new one and I think I just hit full so I am gonna leave this obsurdity behind for awhile.
Quite honestly people are being unreasonable and this foundry thing has just blown my mind so I at this point suggest anyone who is unhappy with how things are run to go do it themselves find themselves a job in the industry or partner with some people and make something you enjoy because honestly nothing they ever do will be right..)
We can place wholesale prefab assets and are missing some things like ship walls without doors, meaning we have to use some crude substitutes.
We cannot reshape physical assets or add animations. That is correct. We cannot add cutscenes or voiceover, that is also correct. We are limited on NPC pathing. We can make them walk in a circle. We can trigger them to appear and disappear.
We can add terrain, walls, altered gravity, or buildings to a map and, really, can do almost anything on a space map that a developer would typically do.
More recently, we gained the ability on ground maps to add water, allow Risian jetpacks (these are kinda fun with combat) or require an EV suit.
All of my missions do have cobbled together original environments. For instance, a Cardassian city, a Federation court room, a sleeper ship with cryo pods, a room with a pool.
I can do a mission using a default map in an afternoon.
I can do a new mission with heavily cobbled together original environments in very long weekend. (My three published missions -- Currents Turned Awry, Yesterday is Tomorrow, Final Judgment, The Inner Darkness -- each were roughly one weekend projects for me, including writing. Some of the tech I used could be improved with newer Foundry tech.)
My unpublished missions include several ongoing attempts at full cities, a remake of the classic Donkey Kong construction site, the beginnings of a Joust-inspired map (with a firey floor that is lethal to the touch), most of which I always intended to do something sandbox oriented with, allowing alternate completion parameters. (For example, the mission might be to solve a villager's problem and then have a large library of villagers with different problems, any one of which could trigger a completion. I have a few tricks I've played with to randomly vary those up as well.) A sandbox effort could take much longer. I'd estimate maybe 3-4 weeks for a really robust city with lots of things to do. I could probably finish up any one of my game-inspired missions in a weekend.
Now, that said, when you see a room in one of my missions, I may be hacking that together by putting four buildings in a box shape and then using eight more buildings to simulate molding. When you see a staircase, I stacked 50 large boxes clipping through one another and used tricks to conceal the clipping.
Also where animations and such go, there are things that, presently, you will only see in the Foundry, including animations not found typically elsewhere in the game.
I have one area I've been building for awhile that's a 1940s club. It has pool tables. Pool tables only exist in the Foundry.
I also cracked how to do blackjack awhile back. I could give you a game that plays differently although you'd have no card graphics. With just one dev tool I'm aware of and 52 card graphics, I could give you single player poker inside a week with full randomization. I'd actually be curious if anyone at Cryptic ever had the same idea for how I'd do it. It's a pretty sneaky use of game mechanics.
Funnily enough it was so obvious to me that they were trying to manipulate players to make them play the new content that I just stopped going to the Delta Quadrant completely, weeks ago.
Good job, Cryptic.
I completely stopped playing DR content including the quadrant. That move by Cryptic is total <redacted>.
I'm sticking in the alpha quadrant until more reasonable content is created.
I'm not sure I would say the content in DR is unreasonable. I think it more accurate to say there just wasn't enough of it. IMO DR should have had 3x more story content missions than it had, and I don't mean lame patrols.
The thing is if they was going remove they should have had a better replacement. I don't mean Foundry.
Although some people dedicated time to write Foundry missions. I would not play them for three reasons 1) Players should not be mandated to be replacement content creaters over developers 2) If you are making a Foundry mission which Cryptic profits in some way. The player should profit partially and 3) It can become predictable.
As for the Delta Quadrant, it should have not be 1x missions and 3x patrols. Just doing that shows DR was meant to be a huge dilithium, money, and time gate scam for money hungry profit.
Anyway, I think the metrics is flawed and its hurting Cryptic $$$ now...
I told a friend they should put memory alpha back so if someone start a R&D thing there. They could get a +10(1-9), +20(10-14), +30(15+) critical chance. Which they wouldn't had to remove content but expand on memory alpha. LIke adding special projects.
If the theory "cryptic wants all players in DQ" is true, why then are they buffing dil rewards in the dyson bz by 50% while the new Kobali zone (being new and DQ and all) still sucks AND gives nowhere near the dil the dyson bz rewards?
I'm not sure I would say the content in DR is unreasonable. I think it more accurate to say there just wasn't enough of it. IMO DR should have had 3x more story content missions than it had, and I don't mean lame patrols.
Pretty much this. With the current 50-60 leveling speed, there is barely enough content to level up to 55...
The thing is if they was going remove they should have had a better replacement. I don't mean Foundry.
Although some people dedicated time to write Foundry missions. I would not play them for three reasons 1) Players should not be mandated to be replacement content creaters over developers 2) If you are making a Foundry mission which Cryptic profits in some way. The player should profit partially and 3) It can become predictable.
That sound really weird reasons.
Do you not use the Exchange because players shouldn't act as content creators? In an MMO, other players are always also content, that's why it's "MM" and not Single player.
And these players that make content are basically using STO as an authoring tool like Word or Adobe Creator or Photoshop - and you do probably use content like that. Or think of someone uploading a self-made/edited video to youtube - he may get nothing for it, but Google is certainly earning money with it - you don't watch only Google-Made videos on youtube, do you?
More over - they have a desire to create content, they don't create it to be doing Cryptic's work, they create it because they have a story idea and wish to share it. The Foundry is a way to do this, and quite a different one from, say, a fan site or a youtube video. And much easier then to trying to write a novel, or make a TV show or movie.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
If the theory "cryptic wants all players in DQ" is true, why then are they buffing dil rewards in the dyson bz by 50% while the new Kobali zone (being new and DQ and all) still sucks AND gives nowhere near the dil the dyson bz rewards?
Most people are reporting a reduced dilithium payout in the Dyson ground zone. In fact I don't recall Cryptic posting that they are increasing the dilithium payout anywhere, do you have a link to a post that specifically says that?
Do you not use the Exchange because players shouldn't act as content creators? In an MMO, other players are always also content, that's why it's "MM" and not Single player.
And these players that make content are basically using STO as an authoring tool like Word or Adobe Creator or Photoshop - and you do probably use content like that. Or think of someone uploading a self-made/edited video to youtube - he may get nothing for it, but Google is certainly earning money with it - you don't watch only Google-Made videos on youtube, do you?
More over - they have a desire to create content, they don't create it to be doing Cryptic's work, they create it because they have a story idea and wish to share it. The Foundry is a way to do this, and quite a different one from, say, a fan site or a youtube video. And much easier then to trying to write a novel, or make a TV show or movie.
I play Second Life and I even create content for it. I have the option of creating something for fun or creating something for profit. It's even encouraged for players to create content.
But I have the feeling and comfortable with the fact the player has the option to profit, or not. Additionally, I have a comfortable feeling that content creation is not forced because of the game developer lack of capability to make content.
, they don't create it to be doing Cryptic's work,
Once Cryptic said they will not make content because it's time consuming and required resources and they are mandating it in a way to players. They are making authors do Cryptic work, period, once that statement was made.
I don't disagree but I really going stick by the fact I feel that once players was mandated to create content. It changed the whole discussion. I still going think if the players are going make content for a game development company because they don't want to. Then they should get paid or some incentive.
My experience with another game is that you can create content for the game but you have the choice and option to profit and possibly make some type of living. WIthout a company mandate or lead developer who insults players for knowing game mechanics and using it(Another topic). As for google or youtube, if a video gets enougth followers or viewers. You can make it a money creation or $$$ making tool also. I live close to NYC, so they even provide studio space, so you can make $$$.
If someone wants to create a Foundry mission, go for it. I'm personally not playing it because of my thoughts towards Cryptic handling of content.
So I'm posting this again having removed the two words that were found to be offensive, hopefully the rest is fine
okay i am going to take one more crack at this and try to get people to understand and i am also not posting what I do for a living more then once. I am a 3d asset creator and environment artist (but i could be the queen of england because this is the internets lol which is why i wont say it more then once) one that starts in maya and moves everything along with animators and writers etc from a drawing to finish. I do this for cgi movie making purposes I retired about 6 months ago. I turned to gaming because i enjoy 3D and liked the idea of things like the foundry to carry on what has become a lifetime addiction.
Working in a team of 5 people our turn around time from start to finish on a 3 minute segment is 3-6 months. This is custom animations, custom textures, custom everything and all the while working with a client. Because we are a smaller "indy" company we can do it faster then a huge company in a corporate structure like cryptic would be.
Their turn around time is reasonably fast for true "new" content. You need to remember they are the ones that built the foundry. I took a peak at the foundry awhile back. I saw no way to upload anything that was truly my own. What I was doing was working with their tools and using their premade assets. I thought it would be cool to use it for "machinima" since I do CGI it would be neat. Unfortunately I could find no way to truly script the animations included so I could create something in my head.
What the foundry is is a tool that one uses to create scnerious using what is premade things. Its a closed system. Someone had to create that system and those tools and that someone was cryptic (and their predacessors). Now those same people are busy creating new content on a tight schedule which appears to require a 6 month to 1 year turn around time.
As someone who is a cog in a smaller wheel who does most of what cryptic has to do from start to finish I think they do a pretty decent job. Its possible they have a plan to add more content in 6 months but dont want to release it all 'now" because of the fact that people devour content that it takes them a year to create in a week. Its possible their team ran out of time and they are finishing the rest now but had to release the expansion by some target date.
No I do not equate what people do in the foundry using premade assets and tools the same as doing it from scratch because there is a lot they wont let you do in the foundry. The only thing you can manipulate slightly is the space map which ironically is empty space and some round balls. The ground maps there is no way for me to upload any new height maps or anything. I can only pick from a bunch of extremely simple premade items and pull things from a library of items that have been in the game for a very long time.
Its nice that people can create stories (i do it to from time to time.. but i dont use the foundry much because it will not allow me the freedom I want/need to create something new that I dont feel that I have already done so about all I have done is try to cobble together a few scenes but found it unsatisfying due to the fact I could not get proper camera perspectives and I could not truly coreograph the moves like in the cut scenes I see cryptic do)
anyhow people need to realize that there is more to it then what they think there is and quite frankly its a symptom I see on this forum in most threads. Its not easy that is the point MMO's are the most complicated games around. You would not get me working for a company that creates MMO's because quite franky I can't keep up. Which is why I gravitate to the world of CGI where we create a product and get it out the door.
the point i am trying to make is. First its not quick and second does not just take them " a couple of hours"
New missions are always welcome but when people oversimplify it because they are working at home in a vacuum on their own storyline they have total control over with assets someone has loaded in for them I take issue. They have only so many hours in a day they never stop making new stuff they worry about their product as a whole.
Its not easy or quick and these people who need to make those missions are likely working on 10 other things at once. If there is not more content there is a reason for it and it had nothing to do with them being lazy or stupid or negligent or anything else.
Comments
I know developers on many other MMOs have said that they set XP values based on what it takes to hit a level cap and they set the level cap based on the amount of missions they have.
But quest reward values are frequently designed to be a percentage of the new total needed and the general trend is to make sure than completing 50-75% of the quests will get someone to the level cap.
Foundry missions involve some hackery. Hooking up a dev mission and preparing it is more of a bureaucratic process with additional considerations that slow them down.
Still, they probably could have done a LOT more with Kobali Prime.
I think a key thing to make clear with complaints about patrols is that it isn't the repetition of assets that's the issue but the mundane nature of the objectives coupled with expectations of repetition.
It would be better to have 20 new missions on Nimbus (ground and space) than one very adaptive patrol that has 500 subtle variations.
I have done the foundry missions I can't say they are any better then cryptics
These people storyboarded an entire story arc a new one (not redid old stuff) with cut scenes, voice overs etc. The designed new worlds, new races and an entire new quadrant. So your saying just because you can come up with more cookie cutter missions that those will help this issue that players have? I am sorry but no it wont help and it will not stop the complaints.
foundry missions are just 'more of the same' I cant say I have played a foundry mission that was particularly interesting or enjoyable I was on the same maps, with the same characters being told to kill more npcs for the same goals.
But, the key is that Cryptic needs to do all of that work that a Foundry author does, plus design new environments and locations, powers and mechanics, races and ships, and very often write a near-completely voiced script. So if anything, Foundry authors should understand that there's a whole additional layer of content creation that is above and beyond the storyboarding, script-writing, and asset placement that a Foundry mission requires.
I think many of us would've cried "foul" had Cryptic opted not to include many of the Delta quadrant races and locations in the expansion, or had taken the quicker route of bringing them all into the Beta/Alpha Quadrants and having the story play out in locations we've already seen. The asset and environment development work alone in DR is an impressive piece, and I'd rather have patrols located in the Delta Quadrant than missions in the Beta/Alpha.
Even the patrols are different (and better). Foundry is something you do for fun on a weekend if you get an idea for a story.
They left obvious gaps in the delta quadrant content. They create a roadmap or blueprint projecting where they want to go over then next year or so and go from there. They then work on filling in the gaps by releasing bits and pieces like they did with that one mission and the artifact.
you can make custom terrain in foundry? custom animations and stuff?most of the stuff is stock stuff from what I have seen. Everything i have seen in foundry is extremely limited. Nothing new no new races no custom animations nothing. ... same walls, same floors, same textures. No foundry mission I have seen even compares to what I have seen in delta quadrant.
The fact you feel it can take "a couple of hours' to create something unique is alarming lol.
You forget they also created an upgrade system a new set of armour which required time to make new meshes for it and make sure it worked with every single animation in the game. They also made a few new gun animations.
if you think its easy your free to build your own game from the ground up and have it work 24/7 i guarantee you its not easy. If you feel you can do it better then by all means have at it
(anyhow adding this after i am sitting shaking my head at this point so i have given up on the forums where everything is "easy" that is a new one and I think I just hit full so I am gonna leave this obsurdity behind for awhile.
Quite honestly people are being unreasonable and this foundry thing has just blown my mind so I at this point suggest anyone who is unhappy with how things are run to go do it themselves find themselves a job in the industry or partner with some people and make something you enjoy because honestly nothing they ever do will be right..)
We can place wholesale prefab assets and are missing some things like ship walls without doors, meaning we have to use some crude substitutes.
We cannot reshape physical assets or add animations. That is correct. We cannot add cutscenes or voiceover, that is also correct. We are limited on NPC pathing. We can make them walk in a circle. We can trigger them to appear and disappear.
We can add terrain, walls, altered gravity, or buildings to a map and, really, can do almost anything on a space map that a developer would typically do.
More recently, we gained the ability on ground maps to add water, allow Risian jetpacks (these are kinda fun with combat) or require an EV suit.
All of my missions do have cobbled together original environments. For instance, a Cardassian city, a Federation court room, a sleeper ship with cryo pods, a room with a pool.
I can do a mission using a default map in an afternoon.
I can do a new mission with heavily cobbled together original environments in very long weekend. (My three published missions -- Currents Turned Awry, Yesterday is Tomorrow, Final Judgment, The Inner Darkness -- each were roughly one weekend projects for me, including writing. Some of the tech I used could be improved with newer Foundry tech.)
My unpublished missions include several ongoing attempts at full cities, a remake of the classic Donkey Kong construction site, the beginnings of a Joust-inspired map (with a firey floor that is lethal to the touch), most of which I always intended to do something sandbox oriented with, allowing alternate completion parameters. (For example, the mission might be to solve a villager's problem and then have a large library of villagers with different problems, any one of which could trigger a completion. I have a few tricks I've played with to randomly vary those up as well.) A sandbox effort could take much longer. I'd estimate maybe 3-4 weeks for a really robust city with lots of things to do. I could probably finish up any one of my game-inspired missions in a weekend.
Now, that said, when you see a room in one of my missions, I may be hacking that together by putting four buildings in a box shape and then using eight more buildings to simulate molding. When you see a staircase, I stacked 50 large boxes clipping through one another and used tricks to conceal the clipping.
Also where animations and such go, there are things that, presently, you will only see in the Foundry, including animations not found typically elsewhere in the game.
I have one area I've been building for awhile that's a 1940s club. It has pool tables. Pool tables only exist in the Foundry.
I also cracked how to do blackjack awhile back. I could give you a game that plays differently although you'd have no card graphics. With just one dev tool I'm aware of and 52 card graphics, I could give you single player poker inside a week with full randomization. I'd actually be curious if anyone at Cryptic ever had the same idea for how I'd do it. It's a pretty sneaky use of game mechanics.
Devs themselves could make missions faster in the Foundry.
I completely stopped playing DR content including the quadrant. That move by Cryptic is total <redacted>.
I'm sticking in the alpha quadrant until more reasonable content is created.
The thing is if they was going remove they should have had a better replacement. I don't mean Foundry.
Although some people dedicated time to write Foundry missions. I would not play them for three reasons 1) Players should not be mandated to be replacement content creaters over developers 2) If you are making a Foundry mission which Cryptic profits in some way. The player should profit partially and 3) It can become predictable.
As for the Delta Quadrant, it should have not be 1x missions and 3x patrols. Just doing that shows DR was meant to be a huge dilithium, money, and time gate scam for money hungry profit.
Anyway, I think the metrics is flawed and its hurting Cryptic $$$ now...
I told a friend they should put memory alpha back so if someone start a R&D thing there. They could get a +10(1-9), +20(10-14), +30(15+) critical chance. Which they wouldn't had to remove content but expand on memory alpha. LIke adding special projects.
Pretty much this. With the current 50-60 leveling speed, there is barely enough content to level up to 55...
Do you not use the Exchange because players shouldn't act as content creators? In an MMO, other players are always also content, that's why it's "MM" and not Single player.
And these players that make content are basically using STO as an authoring tool like Word or Adobe Creator or Photoshop - and you do probably use content like that. Or think of someone uploading a self-made/edited video to youtube - he may get nothing for it, but Google is certainly earning money with it - you don't watch only Google-Made videos on youtube, do you?
More over - they have a desire to create content, they don't create it to be doing Cryptic's work, they create it because they have a story idea and wish to share it. The Foundry is a way to do this, and quite a different one from, say, a fan site or a youtube video. And much easier then to trying to write a novel, or make a TV show or movie.
Most people are reporting a reduced dilithium payout in the Dyson ground zone. In fact I don't recall Cryptic posting that they are increasing the dilithium payout anywhere, do you have a link to a post that specifically says that?
Free Tibet!
I play Second Life and I even create content for it. I have the option of creating something for fun or creating something for profit. It's even encouraged for players to create content.
But I have the feeling and comfortable with the fact the player has the option to profit, or not. Additionally, I have a comfortable feeling that content creation is not forced because of the game developer lack of capability to make content.
Then the latter is the reasons as stated.
Once Cryptic said they will not make content because it's time consuming and required resources and they are mandating it in a way to players. They are making authors do Cryptic work, period, once that statement was made.
I don't disagree but I really going stick by the fact I feel that once players was mandated to create content. It changed the whole discussion. I still going think if the players are going make content for a game development company because they don't want to. Then they should get paid or some incentive.
My experience with another game is that you can create content for the game but you have the choice and option to profit and possibly make some type of living. WIthout a company mandate or lead developer who insults players for knowing game mechanics and using it(Another topic). As for google or youtube, if a video gets enougth followers or viewers. You can make it a money creation or $$$ making tool also. I live close to NYC, so they even provide studio space, so you can make $$$.
If someone wants to create a Foundry mission, go for it. I'm personally not playing it because of my thoughts towards Cryptic handling of content.
okay i am going to take one more crack at this and try to get people to understand and i am also not posting what I do for a living more then once. I am a 3d asset creator and environment artist (but i could be the queen of england because this is the internets lol which is why i wont say it more then once) one that starts in maya and moves everything along with animators and writers etc from a drawing to finish. I do this for cgi movie making purposes I retired about 6 months ago. I turned to gaming because i enjoy 3D and liked the idea of things like the foundry to carry on what has become a lifetime addiction.
Working in a team of 5 people our turn around time from start to finish on a 3 minute segment is 3-6 months. This is custom animations, custom textures, custom everything and all the while working with a client. Because we are a smaller "indy" company we can do it faster then a huge company in a corporate structure like cryptic would be.
Their turn around time is reasonably fast for true "new" content. You need to remember they are the ones that built the foundry. I took a peak at the foundry awhile back. I saw no way to upload anything that was truly my own. What I was doing was working with their tools and using their premade assets. I thought it would be cool to use it for "machinima" since I do CGI it would be neat. Unfortunately I could find no way to truly script the animations included so I could create something in my head.
What the foundry is is a tool that one uses to create scnerious using what is premade things. Its a closed system. Someone had to create that system and those tools and that someone was cryptic (and their predacessors). Now those same people are busy creating new content on a tight schedule which appears to require a 6 month to 1 year turn around time.
As someone who is a cog in a smaller wheel who does most of what cryptic has to do from start to finish I think they do a pretty decent job. Its possible they have a plan to add more content in 6 months but dont want to release it all 'now" because of the fact that people devour content that it takes them a year to create in a week. Its possible their team ran out of time and they are finishing the rest now but had to release the expansion by some target date.
No I do not equate what people do in the foundry using premade assets and tools the same as doing it from scratch because there is a lot they wont let you do in the foundry. The only thing you can manipulate slightly is the space map which ironically is empty space and some round balls. The ground maps there is no way for me to upload any new height maps or anything. I can only pick from a bunch of extremely simple premade items and pull things from a library of items that have been in the game for a very long time.
Its nice that people can create stories (i do it to from time to time.. but i dont use the foundry much because it will not allow me the freedom I want/need to create something new that I dont feel that I have already done so about all I have done is try to cobble together a few scenes but found it unsatisfying due to the fact I could not get proper camera perspectives and I could not truly coreograph the moves like in the cut scenes I see cryptic do)
anyhow people need to realize that there is more to it then what they think there is and quite frankly its a symptom I see on this forum in most threads. Its not easy that is the point MMO's are the most complicated games around. You would not get me working for a company that creates MMO's because quite franky I can't keep up. Which is why I gravitate to the world of CGI where we create a product and get it out the door.
New missions are always welcome but when people oversimplify it because they are working at home in a vacuum on their own storyline they have total control over with assets someone has loaded in for them I take issue. They have only so many hours in a day they never stop making new stuff they worry about their product as a whole.
Its not easy or quick and these people who need to make those missions are likely working on 10 other things at once. If there is not more content there is a reason for it and it had nothing to do with them being lazy or stupid or negligent or anything else.
Free Tibet!