One of the rare times I find myself in agreement with stoleviathan.
I completely understand that those of a "creative" nature (and those in certain positions of authority) often are not held to the same standards as those of the rank-and-file workers in a company. As you mentioned, we can see this in the behavior on a daily basis from those occupying CEO positions or creative jobs, and it would be silly to conclude that this simply doesn't apply to STO.
The problem here is this: We have what is essentially a "Vice President" of STO (as you put it), who is also in a design (creative) position. So not only does this person call the shots, he is directly and personally involved with content creation and major decisions that affect gameplay. If something he designed or created is criticized, he might take it personally for more reasons than a regular designer, as the former creates and green lights whatever is put into the game. That's why I think it's erroneous to blame the current unpopular decisions (xp nerfs, etc) on anyone but the man at the top. I have no problems with other Devs -- Taco is a pretty decent guy and Borticus is whatever -- but with the cuts at Cryptic coupled with rumors that PWE has moved Devs off STO to their new currently unnamed project (and a few that left the project of their own volition, and reviews of the company from former employees), I think, if anything, this displays a relatively unhappy working environment. None of this simply appears out of a vacuum, so something about the way the office is managed is a likely culprit.
You hear more from the inside than I do. And I suspect most of our disagreements come down to a few issues that are hot button for me but which probably don't preclude us agreeing on a lot of other things. Heck, I like Al as a person and have always said that I have beefs with Geko but not Al Rivera. I think a lot of the devs and players of all stripes from Dental to some Drozana fleet somewhere all have more in common with eachother than with the general population. Maybe not the same set of traits but I'd say STO (in terms of developers and players) skews towards educated, high strung, former military, autism spectrum, background in sales, background in retail management/training, tech oriented, specialized business knowledge (very specialized, deep in one area, often shallow outside of it), American, comic book reader, web-connected, well-traveled, self-absorbed... Odds are, most people here are half of those things. Some people here are all of them.
Put any two of us in a room of 100 people and we'd hit it off for at least a few drinks or some banter. It's when you get 100 of us together that it gets messy. Heck, I've run into people I knew from STO and discovered they were people I knew outside STO. One of the podcasters is a guy I used to play STCCG with. A guy I'd known for years (prior to STO) that I tried doing a STO machinima with was rumored to be taking over the franchise after Star Trek 3 and helming a new CBS show. Within nerd circles, this guy and I fight like cats and dogs over things like copyright law. But I think we'd also plug one another's Kickstarters in a heartbeat too.
You're not wrong on any of this.
I think if they're pulling people to a new project, it would be a strategic mistake not to have taken Geko. He is very good as designing and spitballing ideas in a vacuum. He's task-oriented and focused on business goals. Most of the areas where I'd say his performance dips involve sugarcoating, PR, or working within the parameters of either an established system put forth by other developers or an emergent system. He doesn't approach things like an improv comic with a "Yes and..." philosophy. Which is what I think a live game calls for along with a willingness to sacrifice design eloquence for a consistent experience with what already exists. I think he tends to treat everything like it's in Beta or Alpha rather than like a live game. So I think you'd get a LOT of benefit out of a bright, experienced, vision oriented guy like him on a permanent "prelaunch"/"store opening crew" type position where he launches games and then gets assigned to the next game as each one goes live. His liabilities all involve problems accepting that "the author is dead" and treating a live game with living, breathing players as its own organism. His assets meanwhile would make him KILLER at designing things from the ground up, getting them going, and moving on to another project.
Honestly, I'd think he and Cryptic BOTH missed the boat if they didn't think about putting him on "store opening crew" detail. That seems like a position that would pay better, would be gratifying for him, and good for Cryptic AND him. I'd have to imagine the only thing keeping him here on this project is the Star Trek brand and the friends he's made. Granted, that's ALSO probably true for a lot of players too.
Let's stay on subject , don't give damn about twitter , or other philosophical meanderings about devs.. This post is about the upcoming changes to the Doff system and dislike/disagreement by the majority of the players.. So create your own thread for that other BS
Let's stay on subject , don't give damn about twitter , or other philosophical meanderings about devs.
Those 'meanderings' about Devs become relevant when you have a certain Lead Dev locked in a tunnel-vision, hovering over his metrics, looking for peaks in XP rewards to nerf, with extreme prejudice, when he game so needs focus on fixing a zillion other, truly high-priority things first.
QUOTE Those 'meanderings' about Devs become relevant when you have a certain Lead Dev locked in a tunnel-vision, hovering over his metrics, looking for peaks in XP rewards to nerf, with extreme prejudice, when he game so needs focus on fixing a zillion other, truly high-priority things first.
Agree But... when you have a over a half page of meanderings ... we are totally getting off subject Again..
Let's stay on subject , don't give damn about twitter , or other philosophical meanderings about devs.. This post is about the upcoming changes to the Doff system and dislike/disagreement by the majority of the players.. So create your own thread for that other BS
You realize the two twitter posts being discussed were about the upcoming Doff reward change, right? Actually if you hadn't read the twitter posts you might not, as nobody seems to have addressed the specifics of their content, preferring instead to lodge complaints about their tone or jump to dramatically baseless generalizations.
So actually, you know what, I agree with you. It will not be productive for this group to discuss those tweets, no good will come of it.
Hey guys! Just wanted to get back to you on this. I'm talking with the team about the leveling curve and progression rates. I'll let you know once I have a little more info.
I just hope something positive will come out of this. Getting to level 60 after 50 is an absolute nightmare.
Hey guys! Just wanted to get back to you on this. I'm talking with the team about the leveling curve and progression rates. I'll let you know once I have a little more info.
Out of all of my issues with STO, the leveling time between 50 and 60 caused me to leave. If Cryptic is able to dramatically speed up leveling, I would come back to STO in a heartbeat. I would also spend more money on zen and c-store items.
I was a steadily paying mini-mini-whale.
'Dramatically' speeding up the leveling in between 50 and 60 is the key.
Like the other guy said, they used to... and got flamed for not doing everything they listed as soemthign they *might* do....
What was that old saying again?
You can't please all of the people, all of the time
So, whether your job is game development, or retail (mine), "flames" - occasionally known as very pointed criticisms, will be directed your way no matter what you do.
Personally, I've taken it upon myself to do everything in my power to avoid as many flames as I can, and suck up the few that I can't dodge. Perhaps, I may learn something from it.
The whole reason I'm even bringing up something that resembles the return of "state of the game" blogs is that, in my viewpoint of flame avoidance / minimization, a certain amount of regular communication and/or "advertisement" is necessary.
Perhaps I don't need to know that Season 11 is going to contain another faction, if said plans are still only on the drawing board. However, once the code is being replicated to start a new faction and/or it's "reached the point of no return, it's going in", that's prime material to go out in the next "state of game blog".
Perhaps I don't need to know every little bit of the formulae being used to generate rewards. However, knowing that the current goal is to get 8k dil in about 3.5-4 hours of playtime, or that 7x 3.5 hour sessions should equal a spec point, when an outlier comes up that allows 5x, 10x, or 17x the gains - there's a statement already made that can be referenced, pointed out, and used as the fact to minimize or avoid flames.
And, it would let me complain that after 3x big dig runs or 5x mine traps, I'm coming nowhere near the reward gains that I should and perhaps a mention to the Dev Team, again pointing out the facts, would garner attention and perhaps adjustment.
Or a statement that says "the reward here is a much larger EC boost, therefore the remaining payouts will be slightly lower for overall balance concerns"...
Perhaps the old blogs did say too much, but the absolutely nothing being said now is proving to be an even worse predicament. Perhaps the old blogs were inefficient, but the reliance on "easy voice interviews" with little to no "follow up use" other than "listen to it" isn't the way to go. Perhaps a (the) dev(s) have way too little tolerance for flames considering their artistic profession. Perhaps the community is being way too vocal over minor things.
The Deferi have an idea for us. "Everything in balance". Of course, we have a much harder time finding this balance then they do...
Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
Patrols should be optional content, to augment your XP gain and (nowadays) Dilithium gain. Not required as part of the leveling content (post-50). Delta Quadrant Patrols need to be REMOVED from the leveling progression, and made optional, without being "forced" into grinding them to level up.
The current system of "level gating" episodes, especially in the Delta Quadrant needs to be revisited as well. While I haven't taken a recent count, there's gotta be at least 60 Episodes in the game, to allow a player to level almost exclusively doing PVE story content, without resorting to needless "grinding".
The Deferi have an idea for us. "Everything in balance". Of course, we have a much harder time finding this balance then they do...
Some players' ideas of balance = stagnation though. To the point they get offended when an MMO dares to change things up to refresh the meta. STO moreso than others for some hilarious reason.
Though bugs are the worst part of STO; due to old and inefficient code that was never properly cleaned up and optimized, which naturally affects a different part of balance. So things that have been scaling wrongly have been taken for granted as what it should be (like some of the Doffing stuff requiring changes), and players get pissy that something is finally being done about it.
I think there's some truth in the idea that there's a "stock type" for a number two in an organization.
That's one type .
The other is the guy who has been around for so long that he's been eventually bumped up to a position of seniority .
He may or may not deserve it, he may or may not be qualified for it, but he has the seniority .
Honestly, I'd think he and Cryptic BOTH missed the boat if they didn't think about putting him on "store opening crew" detail
Unless they already have someone who fits the description you assigned to him in terms of vision & creativity .
Someone who's been STO's EP in the past perhaps ?
... some folks like that work together well ... , others are like oil and water ... . Not that I'm saying that he's on an obsessed quest to remold STO into His Vision after other visions (Zinc, DS) got to have their way before ... , 'cause that'd be ... , you know ... petty ...
You mean, on his private twitter? The one that he's under no obligation to be a company worker on?
I am probably late to say this, but I know many people who have been formally reprimanded by their employer for just that. The problem wasn't that they said insensitive things on their private twitter account. Rather, the problem was that they did so while "wearing the company hat" so to speak.
New home of the Romulan Republic.
I have an idea for what Season 11 should be; Season 11: The Big Bug Fix.
I have not been able to read my bug tickets in over a year, not even the tickets about not being able to see my tickets.
I find the drama of your signature proof of your immaturity, this means you, DR whiners.
Perhaps the old blogs did say too much, but the absolutely nothing being said now is proving to be an even worse predicament. Perhaps the old blogs were inefficient, but the reliance on "easy voice interviews" with little to no "follow up use" other than "listen to it" isn't the way to go. Perhaps a (the) dev(s) have way too little tolerance for flames considering their artistic profession. Perhaps the community is being way too vocal over minor things.
Yeah, I can't point at any one of those things and say it's THE issue. Maybe all of them? I dunno....
My prediction is this won't be changed because they are planning a new refinement system for DOFF's that will allow you to pay dilithium to turn your DOFF's gold which will give double the exp of current purple DOFF's and explode the dps gap between players even further.
1. Leveling Difference Between Pre- and Post-50 Characters
Up until level 50, characters can normally gain a level for every 1-2 story missions they do. It's a decent xp per time spent ratio and leveling feels fast and efficient. Then you hit 50 and all of a sudden it takes like 10 times more xp to hit the next rank. Instead of filling half the xp bar for a level, a story mission now maybe fills 1-2 bars. This seems unsatisfying.
As you can see, it's a huge curve after hitting 50. While there are good reasons for making it steeper than the pre-50 track (e.g. so you can't max out captain specialization points within 3 days of hard grinding), this curve is far too steep. You are either required to enter a non-stop 8-10 hour grind of STF's and and patrol missions just to reach the next level when 1-2 hours would have done the trick in pre-50 leveling, or you're required to resign yourself to taking weeks if not months to level your character playing a few hours a day.
You realize this is very specifically part of the design, right?
Cryptic doesn't want you at level 49 or lower, but once you're at level 50 they want you there basically forever.
What was the last T4 or under ship made? The Constellation, right? A canon ship design (with a T5 version along side). Before that? Ambassador, another canon design. And before that...? Not much, huh? Why? Because Cryptic knows T4 and under ships don't sell, and when they do they sell for lower amounts. You aren't supposed to spend weeks or months at lower levels. You aren't even supposed to spend more than a day on any particular level. They want you at Vice Admiral so you can buy their shiny $30 T6 ships and their shiny lockbox ships.
Heck, the only reason we see sub-T5 ships in the Zen Store is frog boiling. Cryptic released unbalanced ships there to get people used to the idea of buying more powerful ships within the tiers which is why they started at the bottom with the Rhode Island and worked their way up. Hell, when the RI released me and about five other people warned everyone that this was coming at all tiers and the majority laughed at us and told us Cryptic would never be stupid enough to put ships with extra BOff slots and consoles behind a Zen wall... then low and behold Fleet ships. And T6. And T6 Fleet.
The leveling curve is insanely fast at low levels because they want you to be a "good consumer" and buy all their shinies which you can't do sub-Vice Admiral. They also want you grinding away because it keeps you in game, thus increasing the chances you'll buy something thus making you a "good consumer". It's not a coincidence that we run face first into a wall very specifically at level 50 instead of 40, 20 or 55... 50 is where their bread and butter is.
They want you in game, but buying more product. Why do you think the starship mastery level XP got buffed through the roof? It was MUCH slower at release. Being shortsighted they saw a method to implement more grind... another carrot to put at the end of a long stick. What they didn't bother to consider was that you can only fly one ship at a time. So if you haven't mastered the ship you're flying, you aren't about to want to fly (or more importantly buy) another. So *bam* mastery XP requirements get lowered dramatically almost immediately.
What I don't think our friends at Cryptic realize is that their shiny new "Spec ships" almost deter you from buying them since they are intrinsically associated with earning XP and the resulting spec points, which only happens at a trickle once you actually get access to them. Doesn't matter if you can buy training manuals off the exchange... the perception that they're better with the associated spec points assigned is there quite simply due to association. A lot of people look at the new Pilot ships and think, "Well, why would I buy that when I'm not even done filling out my Intelligence spec yet, much less Command?" Maybe Cryptic will realize this and act accordingly, as it's probably the only thing that might result in actual change... however since the effects are likely to be less noticeable and dramatic than with Mastery XP it's doubtful.
Those 'meanderings' about Devs become relevant when you have a certain Lead Dev locked in a tunnel-vision, hovering over his metrics, looking for peaks in XP rewards to nerf, with extreme prejudice, when he game so needs focus on fixing a zillion other, truly high-priority things first.
yeah
they are concerned for their jobs, rational considering the layoffs
funny though
the money comes from us, ultimately, not their bosses
one would think they would occasionally swing their tunnel vision over to the forums, but that doesn't seem to be the case. sure a dev posted here, but even he/she said they had to ignore most of it. they can't take it.
EDIT: I don't want to be too harsh, perhaps they are under the gun
What I don't think our friends at Cryptic realize is that their shiny new "Spec ships" almost deter you from buying them since they are intrinsically associated with earning XP and the resulting spec points, which only happens at a trickle once you actually get access to them. Doesn't matter if you can buy training manuals off the exchange... the perception that they're better with the associated spec points assigned is there quite simply due to association. A lot of people look at the new Pilot ships and think, "Well, why would I buy that when I'm not even done filling out my Intelligence spec yet, much less Command?" Maybe Cryptic will realize this and act accordingly, as it's probably the only thing that might result in actual change... however since the effects are likely to be less noticeable and dramatic than with Mastery XP it's doubtful.
Ding Ding Ding. Thread OVAR!!!11!!
Important point. But back to the OP's point, has anyone discussed that it seems liek not ONLY are 12 hour doff missions getting the nerf/"fix", but OTHER high-rewarding ones are too?
I disagree. Actually, I'm of the opinion we should be forced to play more patrols throughout 1-50 as well, although it should be set up that we don't need to repeat them unless we actually want to. (I would have been more fine with Delta Rising if I didn't have to repeat patrol missions.)
Sometimes the Enterprise was patrolling a system, you know? <_<
I disagree. Actually, I'm of the opinion we should be forced to play more patrols throughout 1-50 as well, although it should be set up that we don't need to repeat them unless we actually want to. (I would have been more fine with Delta Rising if I didn't have to repeat patrol missions.)
Sometimes the Enterprise was patrolling a system, you know? <_<
Then a single patrol mission (not a "set of patrol missions" as they are now), should reward equally to an Episode. Hint: It doesn't.
What I don't think our friends at Cryptic realize is that their shiny new "Spec ships" almost deter you from buying them since they are intrinsically associated with earning XP and the resulting spec points, which only happens at a trickle once you actually get access to them. Doesn't matter if you can buy training manuals off the exchange... the perception that they're better with the associated spec points assigned is there quite simply due to association. A lot of people look at the new Pilot ships and think, "Well, why would I buy that when I'm not even done filling out my Intelligence spec yet, much less Command?"
Exactly .
They can nerf, adjust, tinker month after month with the obsession of a anorectic over their figure , but apart from "we make ships -- ppl buy ships" mentality , they have still much to learn .
... not that learning has helped them, as previous experience taught us ...
Bummer to read this. The XP change doesn't bother me much. Not that any one of my characters have maxed all the specialization trees yet, but then again only two of the existing four can be active at a time anyways so maxing all of them out just isn't that important to me.
The CXP nerf though - ouch. It was nice turning a Gorn critical into 90ish fleet marks, particularly since the changes to my other major source of FMs (Crystaline Entity). I'll probably still slot the projects though, the time frame for completion just fits my play style and it's a decent way to keep the provision/medical commodities in check.
What was the last T4 or under ship made? The Constellation, right?
actually, wasn't the stargazer the most recent?
What I don't think our friends at Cryptic realize is that their shiny new "Spec ships" almost deter you from buying them since [COLOR="limeing spec points[/COLOR], which only happens at a trickle once you actually get access to them. Doesn't matter if you can buy training manuals off the exchange... [COLOR="lime"]the perception that they're better with the associated spec points assigned is there quite simply due to association[/COLOR]. A lot of people look at the new Pilot ships and think, "Well, why would I buy that when I'm not even done filling out my Intelligence spec yet, much less Command?".
I'm going to have to disagree with this. Exp and spec points are 100% irrelevant to ships and most people know it. You captain can fly them at level 50 with zero points and use everything.
I don't think the association thing is the big issue.
There is only one way spec points matter and that is purely a choice on the player's part. If you choose to only make your own manuals to train your boffs and simultaneously choose to use powers from the specializations other than the ones you get for free (kobali command boff, white Intel boffs, the 4 powers with the free pilot spec manual from delta flight, etc) in that one and only circumstance, spec points matter.
However if you refuse to use the auction house, then you deserve the results of that decision. And I have no sympathy for you.
Everyone else can happily use everything on the ships right out of the box. Even someone who invested in say Intel,can sell Intel manuals and use the money to buy pilot ones instead of grinding spec points in pilot.
The issue as I see it, is that people are afraid of the auction house and feel that things are too expensive because they don't know how to make money off the stuff they already do in game. This is where people are unwilling to even check prices on pilot training manuals etc.
I don't think its association, I think its the auctionhouse that is the limiting factor.
You might be right, but that's not what I've been seeing or hearing in game.
I disagree. Actually, I'm of the opinion we should be forced to play more patrols throughout 1-50 as well, although it should be set up that we don't need to repeat them unless we actually want to. (I would have been more fine with Delta Rising if I didn't have to repeat patrol missions.)
Sometimes the Enterprise was patrolling a system, you know? <_<
Well, once upon a time the old-school patrols had a wrapper mission associated with them. Now people don't get directed to them at all. Although they're one-play only missions, so you actually have an incentive to wait.
Yeah, I don't get why we can only patrol Maro once, but we can patrol Argala as often as we wish...
Like the other guy said, they used to... and got flamed for not doing everything they listed as soemthign they *might* do....
I'm sure this also happened, but as it is, Cryptic are getting flamed so often now for the changes they are making, getting flamed for something they didn't change could not be any worse - and very likely would not be as much of a flaming anyway...
Throw in the usual disclaimers that it is all subject to change and avoid anything that's too far out from implementation, that it is likely to drastically change before introduction, and it will likely lessen the impact of mentioning a prospective change and not implementing it...
Right now, one of the biggest problems I see is the lack of proper communication with what is clearly a very passionate playerbase...
It's pretty clear not communicating with that playerbase is not working, it keeps blowing up in Cryptic's face time, and time, and time again... Maybe it's time for a change of tack and, instead of leaving players mostly in the dark, Cryptic start being more forthcoming with changes and discuss them with players...
This approach works very well for CCP in relation to EVE Online...
What I dont get it why they are worrying about changing exp when there is so much wrong since S10 and they havent spent 1 second trying to change it. Sector map wont update, RN and other sectors in Beta Q contain nothing. not too mention the 3 pages of bugs that need fixing. Worry about the current bugs instead of stupid nerfing. Get your priorities steaight for once.
Bug fixes=FAIL
You and your band of merry trolls don't speak for any of us. You fools spend all your time acting like children and doing what you can to aggravate the 'average player' and then come here trying to pretend you're some kind of champion for the people.
Don't expect sympathy or solidarity here, you will find none. The game would be far better off without you and your fleet of idiots.
Unless they are specifically joining missions/queues and failing them on purpose, they have every right to be here as everyone else.
Comments
You hear more from the inside than I do. And I suspect most of our disagreements come down to a few issues that are hot button for me but which probably don't preclude us agreeing on a lot of other things. Heck, I like Al as a person and have always said that I have beefs with Geko but not Al Rivera. I think a lot of the devs and players of all stripes from Dental to some Drozana fleet somewhere all have more in common with eachother than with the general population. Maybe not the same set of traits but I'd say STO (in terms of developers and players) skews towards educated, high strung, former military, autism spectrum, background in sales, background in retail management/training, tech oriented, specialized business knowledge (very specialized, deep in one area, often shallow outside of it), American, comic book reader, web-connected, well-traveled, self-absorbed... Odds are, most people here are half of those things. Some people here are all of them.
Put any two of us in a room of 100 people and we'd hit it off for at least a few drinks or some banter. It's when you get 100 of us together that it gets messy. Heck, I've run into people I knew from STO and discovered they were people I knew outside STO. One of the podcasters is a guy I used to play STCCG with. A guy I'd known for years (prior to STO) that I tried doing a STO machinima with was rumored to be taking over the franchise after Star Trek 3 and helming a new CBS show. Within nerd circles, this guy and I fight like cats and dogs over things like copyright law. But I think we'd also plug one another's Kickstarters in a heartbeat too.
You're not wrong on any of this.
I think if they're pulling people to a new project, it would be a strategic mistake not to have taken Geko. He is very good as designing and spitballing ideas in a vacuum. He's task-oriented and focused on business goals. Most of the areas where I'd say his performance dips involve sugarcoating, PR, or working within the parameters of either an established system put forth by other developers or an emergent system. He doesn't approach things like an improv comic with a "Yes and..." philosophy. Which is what I think a live game calls for along with a willingness to sacrifice design eloquence for a consistent experience with what already exists. I think he tends to treat everything like it's in Beta or Alpha rather than like a live game. So I think you'd get a LOT of benefit out of a bright, experienced, vision oriented guy like him on a permanent "prelaunch"/"store opening crew" type position where he launches games and then gets assigned to the next game as each one goes live. His liabilities all involve problems accepting that "the author is dead" and treating a live game with living, breathing players as its own organism. His assets meanwhile would make him KILLER at designing things from the ground up, getting them going, and moving on to another project.
Honestly, I'd think he and Cryptic BOTH missed the boat if they didn't think about putting him on "store opening crew" detail. That seems like a position that would pay better, would be gratifying for him, and good for Cryptic AND him. I'd have to imagine the only thing keeping him here on this project is the Star Trek brand and the friends he's made. Granted, that's ALSO probably true for a lot of players too.
Those 'meanderings' about Devs become relevant when you have a certain Lead Dev locked in a tunnel-vision, hovering over his metrics, looking for peaks in XP rewards to nerf, with extreme prejudice, when he game so needs focus on fixing a zillion other, truly high-priority things first.
Agree But... when you have a over a half page of meanderings ... we are totally getting off subject Again..
You realize the two twitter posts being discussed were about the upcoming Doff reward change, right? Actually if you hadn't read the twitter posts you might not, as nobody seems to have addressed the specifics of their content, preferring instead to lodge complaints about their tone or jump to dramatically baseless generalizations.
So actually, you know what, I agree with you. It will not be productive for this group to discuss those tweets, no good will come of it.
I just hope something positive will come out of this. Getting to level 60 after 50 is an absolute nightmare.
I was a steadily paying mini-mini-whale.
'Dramatically' speeding up the leveling in between 50 and 60 is the key.
What was that old saying again?
You can't please all of the people, all of the time
So, whether your job is game development, or retail (mine), "flames" - occasionally known as very pointed criticisms, will be directed your way no matter what you do.
Personally, I've taken it upon myself to do everything in my power to avoid as many flames as I can, and suck up the few that I can't dodge. Perhaps, I may learn something from it.
The whole reason I'm even bringing up something that resembles the return of "state of the game" blogs is that, in my viewpoint of flame avoidance / minimization, a certain amount of regular communication and/or "advertisement" is necessary.
Perhaps I don't need to know that Season 11 is going to contain another faction, if said plans are still only on the drawing board. However, once the code is being replicated to start a new faction and/or it's "reached the point of no return, it's going in", that's prime material to go out in the next "state of game blog".
Perhaps I don't need to know every little bit of the formulae being used to generate rewards. However, knowing that the current goal is to get 8k dil in about 3.5-4 hours of playtime, or that 7x 3.5 hour sessions should equal a spec point, when an outlier comes up that allows 5x, 10x, or 17x the gains - there's a statement already made that can be referenced, pointed out, and used as the fact to minimize or avoid flames.
And, it would let me complain that after 3x big dig runs or 5x mine traps, I'm coming nowhere near the reward gains that I should and perhaps a mention to the Dev Team, again pointing out the facts, would garner attention and perhaps adjustment.
Or a statement that says "the reward here is a much larger EC boost, therefore the remaining payouts will be slightly lower for overall balance concerns"...
Perhaps the old blogs did say too much, but the absolutely nothing being said now is proving to be an even worse predicament. Perhaps the old blogs were inefficient, but the reliance on "easy voice interviews" with little to no "follow up use" other than "listen to it" isn't the way to go. Perhaps a (the) dev(s) have way too little tolerance for flames considering their artistic profession. Perhaps the community is being way too vocal over minor things.
The Deferi have an idea for us. "Everything in balance". Of course, we have a much harder time finding this balance then they do...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
Though bugs are the worst part of STO; due to old and inefficient code that was never properly cleaned up and optimized, which naturally affects a different part of balance. So things that have been scaling wrongly have been taken for granted as what it should be (like some of the Doffing stuff requiring changes), and players get pissy that something is finally being done about it.
That's one type .
The other is the guy who has been around for so long that he's been eventually bumped up to a position of seniority .
He may or may not deserve it, he may or may not be qualified for it, but he has the seniority .
Unless they already have someone who fits the description you assigned to him in terms of vision & creativity .
Someone who's been STO's EP in the past perhaps ?
... some folks like that work together well ... , others are like oil and water ... . Not that I'm saying that he's on an obsessed quest to remold STO into His Vision after other visions (Zinc, DS) got to have their way before ... , 'cause that'd be ... , you know ... petty ...
I am probably late to say this, but I know many people who have been formally reprimanded by their employer for just that. The problem wasn't that they said insensitive things on their private twitter account. Rather, the problem was that they did so while "wearing the company hat" so to speak.
That is why i like her.
I have an idea for what Season 11 should be; Season 11: The Big Bug Fix.
I have not been able to read my bug tickets in over a year, not even the tickets about not being able to see my tickets.
I find the drama of your signature proof of your immaturity, this means you, DR whiners.
My character Tsin'xing
You realize this is very specifically part of the design, right?
Cryptic doesn't want you at level 49 or lower, but once you're at level 50 they want you there basically forever.
What was the last T4 or under ship made? The Constellation, right? A canon ship design (with a T5 version along side). Before that? Ambassador, another canon design. And before that...? Not much, huh? Why? Because Cryptic knows T4 and under ships don't sell, and when they do they sell for lower amounts. You aren't supposed to spend weeks or months at lower levels. You aren't even supposed to spend more than a day on any particular level. They want you at Vice Admiral so you can buy their shiny $30 T6 ships and their shiny lockbox ships.
Heck, the only reason we see sub-T5 ships in the Zen Store is frog boiling. Cryptic released unbalanced ships there to get people used to the idea of buying more powerful ships within the tiers which is why they started at the bottom with the Rhode Island and worked their way up. Hell, when the RI released me and about five other people warned everyone that this was coming at all tiers and the majority laughed at us and told us Cryptic would never be stupid enough to put ships with extra BOff slots and consoles behind a Zen wall... then low and behold Fleet ships. And T6. And T6 Fleet.
The leveling curve is insanely fast at low levels because they want you to be a "good consumer" and buy all their shinies which you can't do sub-Vice Admiral. They also want you grinding away because it keeps you in game, thus increasing the chances you'll buy something thus making you a "good consumer". It's not a coincidence that we run face first into a wall very specifically at level 50 instead of 40, 20 or 55... 50 is where their bread and butter is.
They want you in game, but buying more product. Why do you think the starship mastery level XP got buffed through the roof? It was MUCH slower at release. Being shortsighted they saw a method to implement more grind... another carrot to put at the end of a long stick. What they didn't bother to consider was that you can only fly one ship at a time. So if you haven't mastered the ship you're flying, you aren't about to want to fly (or more importantly buy) another. So *bam* mastery XP requirements get lowered dramatically almost immediately.
What I don't think our friends at Cryptic realize is that their shiny new "Spec ships" almost deter you from buying them since they are intrinsically associated with earning XP and the resulting spec points, which only happens at a trickle once you actually get access to them. Doesn't matter if you can buy training manuals off the exchange... the perception that they're better with the associated spec points assigned is there quite simply due to association. A lot of people look at the new Pilot ships and think, "Well, why would I buy that when I'm not even done filling out my Intelligence spec yet, much less Command?" Maybe Cryptic will realize this and act accordingly, as it's probably the only thing that might result in actual change... however since the effects are likely to be less noticeable and dramatic than with Mastery XP it's doubtful.
yeah
they are concerned for their jobs, rational considering the layoffs
funny though
the money comes from us, ultimately, not their bosses
one would think they would occasionally swing their tunnel vision over to the forums, but that doesn't seem to be the case. sure a dev posted here, but even he/she said they had to ignore most of it. they can't take it.
EDIT: I don't want to be too harsh, perhaps they are under the gun
Ding Ding Ding. Thread OVAR!!!11!!
Important point. But back to the OP's point, has anyone discussed that it seems liek not ONLY are 12 hour doff missions getting the nerf/"fix", but OTHER high-rewarding ones are too?
I disagree. Actually, I'm of the opinion we should be forced to play more patrols throughout 1-50 as well, although it should be set up that we don't need to repeat them unless we actually want to. (I would have been more fine with Delta Rising if I didn't have to repeat patrol missions.)
Sometimes the Enterprise was patrolling a system, you know? <_<
Then a single patrol mission (not a "set of patrol missions" as they are now), should reward equally to an Episode. Hint: It doesn't.
Exactly .
They can nerf, adjust, tinker month after month with the obsession of a anorectic over their figure , but apart from "we make ships -- ppl buy ships" mentality , they have still much to learn .
... not that learning has helped them, as previous experience taught us ...
The CXP nerf though - ouch. It was nice turning a Gorn critical into 90ish fleet marks, particularly since the changes to my other major source of FMs (Crystaline Entity). I'll probably still slot the projects though, the time frame for completion just fits my play style and it's a decent way to keep the provision/medical commodities in check.
I'm going to have to disagree with this. Exp and spec points are 100% irrelevant to ships and most people know it. You captain can fly them at level 50 with zero points and use everything.
I don't think the association thing is the big issue.
There is only one way spec points matter and that is purely a choice on the player's part. If you choose to only make your own manuals to train your boffs and simultaneously choose to use powers from the specializations other than the ones you get for free (kobali command boff, white Intel boffs, the 4 powers with the free pilot spec manual from delta flight, etc) in that one and only circumstance, spec points matter.
However if you refuse to use the auction house, then you deserve the results of that decision. And I have no sympathy for you.
Everyone else can happily use everything on the ships right out of the box. Even someone who invested in say Intel,can sell Intel manuals and use the money to buy pilot ones instead of grinding spec points in pilot.
The issue as I see it, is that people are afraid of the auction house and feel that things are too expensive because they don't know how to make money off the stuff they already do in game. This is where people are unwilling to even check prices on pilot training manuals etc.
I don't think its association, I think its the auctionhouse that is the limiting factor.
You might be right, but that's not what I've been seeing or hearing in game.
Yeah, I don't get why we can only patrol Maro once, but we can patrol Argala as often as we wish...
My character Tsin'xing
I'm sure this also happened, but as it is, Cryptic are getting flamed so often now for the changes they are making, getting flamed for something they didn't change could not be any worse - and very likely would not be as much of a flaming anyway...
Throw in the usual disclaimers that it is all subject to change and avoid anything that's too far out from implementation, that it is likely to drastically change before introduction, and it will likely lessen the impact of mentioning a prospective change and not implementing it...
Right now, one of the biggest problems I see is the lack of proper communication with what is clearly a very passionate playerbase...
It's pretty clear not communicating with that playerbase is not working, it keeps blowing up in Cryptic's face time, and time, and time again... Maybe it's time for a change of tack and, instead of leaving players mostly in the dark, Cryptic start being more forthcoming with changes and discuss them with players...
This approach works very well for CCP in relation to EVE Online...
Bug fixes=FAIL
Unless they are specifically joining missions/queues and failing them on purpose, they have every right to be here as everyone else.
Likewise, their opinions are just as valid.
The DOFF XPs are getting nerfed before DOFFing in Sector Space where these special missions take place are even fixed! :eek::D