Loadouts: ◦Resolved an issue where occasionally Bridge Officers would have their powers reset to default when transferring maps.
◦Resolved an issue where Bridge Officers would occasionally be removed from their station when transferring maps.
Added text to trait rewards that mention a player has to transfer maps in order for the trait to be available.
Resolved further issues with Romulan ships not spawning in Azure Nebula Advanced.
Delta Recruit:
Treasure Trading Station: ◦Resolved an issue that would allow players to transfer to Cargo Bay 6 before completing their inspection of the bar.
◦Credit will be given more reliably for completion of the "Roadblocks" segment.
Resolved an issue with the Lae'nas III mission step in Cold Storage at the end so that Delta Recruits will properly see a Temporal Agent and be able to complete the mission. Note: Teamed Delta Recruits who are with a teammate of a different faction, e.g. Rom-allied Feds with a non-Romulan Fed, may see their allies' cutscene.
Romulans no longer have a Delta Recruit objective for the mission Taris or Alpha.
Resolved an issue where the alts on an account for a Romulan Delta Recruit would be able to claim rewards earlier than intended.
Made updates to the Claim reward and calendar UI to make information stand out more clearly for the Delta Recruit system.
The VO matches the text for the KDF Delta Recruit cutscene in the tutorial.
I'll just leave this link here to go through at your convenience. I can't promise you'll find your balance fixes in here as well (since those are largely subjective, but other balance tweaks you can certainly find. Ex. NPC health, Mk 13 and 14 damage, PVE difficulty, reduced console cooldown times, tachyon beam buff, ect.) but the rest, well its verifiable information. There's not much more to say besides "fact check." You can say what you want about priorities but not about the fact that there are substantial updates and other fixes made to STO. http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/tag/sto-patch-notes
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
The loadout bug fix you posted is one of several attempts at it and from what I've seen, it's still broken.
That's why I edited it to "questionable effect". It doesn't make much difference to the list though (there's plenty more to illustrate the point.)
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
I'll just leave this link here to go through at your convenience. I can't promise you'll find your balance fixes in here as well (since those are largely subjective, but other balance tweaks you can certainly find. Ex. NPC health, Mk 13 and 14 damage, PVE difficulty, reduced console cooldown times, tachyon beam buff, ect.) but the rest, well its verifiable information. There's not much more to say besides "fact check." You can say what you want about priorities but not about the fact that there are substantial updates and other fixes made to STO. http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/tag/sto-patch-notes
Well ok, cryptic also tends to fix some issues with bugged missions. The loadout has finally been fixed (like the 100 fixes in the past and I wouldn't be suprised if it's still not working).
Cryptic just doesn't focus on the importent things. They fix some Delta Recruit stuff??? Who cares??? If you look at the specialization trees - there is almost no ability or passiv bonus that is working as intended or described correctly. But who cares, stacking game breaking bugs that actually effect gameplay is a good thing I guess...
You can also search through the patch notes to find the other side to the problem. Bugs are continuously fixed in STO, there's no doubt about that. Not all are but thats the constraints of development. You'd wish the situation were ideal but that's not what the universe is about, when you get right down to it.
I do read the patch notes. I see the bugs that they fix and also the bugs that they don't fix. I don't want things to be ideal; I want them to be better.
On the other hand minor calculation bugs aren't worth extrapolating into a broken syndrome of gameplay development
If you look at one or two such bugs, they may not seem like a big deal. However, the frequency with which such bugs occur suggests that they don't carefully check their work before release.
Sometimes it can work like that (at least in my development experience). Sometimes it can't, because just because a bug is minor in effect, fixing it can be major.
If a bug proves difficult to fix, then you schedule time for it in a later release. But the point is to ensure that someone actually gets to it rather than let it sit in some bug list indefinitely. There will always be cases where it's difficult to decide which bug to prioritize first. But I do think that it's a bad idea to perpetually starve old bugs in favor of higher priority ones. At some point, the accumulation of old bugs reflects badly on your product and your company.
Sure, but... I know business decisions are not always made like that. There is always an eye aimed at the release schedule. "If Update X / Feature Y" has been promised at the end of March, then it has to be in at the end of March, not later.
I think it'S one fo the aspects I hate most about software development. Arbitrary deadlines that don't really seem to serve a good purpose. But they exist. Apparently, someone cares about these deadlines. Maybe they actually serve a good purpose, even if I don't know personally what it is. Maybe it's a contractual obligation. And there are situations were we can relate to it a lot better - for example, the date when the contractor will start working on your new bath. Even if the task itself will take the same time whether it happens in the end of March or end of Apri or the middle of August. Still, you care about when exactly it will happen, wouldn't you?
If I hired a contractor to install a new bathtub, then sure I would want it done in a timely fashion. But when the deadline arrives, I would be angry if there were no hot water and the bathtub leaked water to the floor below. I would rather have a working bathtub and a realistic deadline. In the end, it doesn't matter whether it's executives at Cryptic or PWE who call the shots. Someone sets the deadlines and decides what to release when. After so many releases with unfinished work and broken features, they have to realize that the deadlines are unrealistic, yet they continue to set deadlines they can't meet.
And in the end - the process of prioritizing will always remain intransparent to us. We don't know the code. We don't know the business goals. We don't know the politics. We don't know the plans. Asking for something to be done faster is born out of ignorance about any number of facts that influence the prioritizaton. We don't know if Cryptic makes bad decisions, or they are actually making the best possible decision due to the circumstances, and if we were decision maker with the same knowledge, we might actually make the same.
I will concede that we don't know what goes on behind the closed doors at Cryptic and PWE. I will tell you what I can see. Every release, players report bugs on Tribble. A few bugs are fixed; the rest go live to Holodeck. After release, the bugs are reported again on Holodeck. Cryptic spends two to three weeks patching what they can before moving on to the next release. Whatever doesn't get fixed in that time has a good chance of never being fixed. Maybe, it will be fixed in a year; maybe two years; maybe never. I think they can do better; you don't.
I think I've said all I have to say on this matter. I've said what I think is wrong and suggested things Cryptic can improve upon. Other people disagree and don't think there's much they can do to improve.
Comments
Oh really?
In order: Bug fix, bug fix (questionable effect), text tweak, bug fix, bug fix, bug fix, bug fix, bug fix, clarification, bug fix.
I'll just leave this link here to go through at your convenience. I can't promise you'll find your balance fixes in here as well (since those are largely subjective, but other balance tweaks you can certainly find. Ex. NPC health, Mk 13 and 14 damage, PVE difficulty, reduced console cooldown times, tachyon beam buff, ect.) but the rest, well its verifiable information. There's not much more to say besides "fact check." You can say what you want about priorities but not about the fact that there are substantial updates and other fixes made to STO.
http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/tag/sto-patch-notes
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
That's why I edited it to "questionable effect". It doesn't make much difference to the list though (there's plenty more to illustrate the point.)
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Cryptic just doesn't focus on the importent things. They fix some Delta Recruit stuff??? Who cares??? If you look at the specialization trees - there is almost no ability or passiv bonus that is working as intended or described correctly. But who cares, stacking game breaking bugs that actually effect gameplay is a good thing I guess...
I do read the patch notes. I see the bugs that they fix and also the bugs that they don't fix. I don't want things to be ideal; I want them to be better.
If you look at one or two such bugs, they may not seem like a big deal. However, the frequency with which such bugs occur suggests that they don't carefully check their work before release.
If a bug proves difficult to fix, then you schedule time for it in a later release. But the point is to ensure that someone actually gets to it rather than let it sit in some bug list indefinitely. There will always be cases where it's difficult to decide which bug to prioritize first. But I do think that it's a bad idea to perpetually starve old bugs in favor of higher priority ones. At some point, the accumulation of old bugs reflects badly on your product and your company.
If I hired a contractor to install a new bathtub, then sure I would want it done in a timely fashion. But when the deadline arrives, I would be angry if there were no hot water and the bathtub leaked water to the floor below. I would rather have a working bathtub and a realistic deadline. In the end, it doesn't matter whether it's executives at Cryptic or PWE who call the shots. Someone sets the deadlines and decides what to release when. After so many releases with unfinished work and broken features, they have to realize that the deadlines are unrealistic, yet they continue to set deadlines they can't meet.
I will concede that we don't know what goes on behind the closed doors at Cryptic and PWE. I will tell you what I can see. Every release, players report bugs on Tribble. A few bugs are fixed; the rest go live to Holodeck. After release, the bugs are reported again on Holodeck. Cryptic spends two to three weeks patching what they can before moving on to the next release. Whatever doesn't get fixed in that time has a good chance of never being fixed. Maybe, it will be fixed in a year; maybe two years; maybe never. I think they can do better; you don't.
I think I've said all I have to say on this matter. I've said what I think is wrong and suggested things Cryptic can improve upon. Other people disagree and don't think there's much they can do to improve.