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Making of the Pilot Ships
pwlaughingtrendy
Member Posts: 2,966 Arc User
Pilot ships let Captains out-fly and out-maneuver their foes with grace and agility. These new beautiful ships embody speed.
Learn how we designed them to feel and fight like the nimble ships that they are!
~LaughingTrendy
Learn how we designed them to feel and fight like the nimble ships that they are!
~LaughingTrendy
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and feds have...exactly lol
Feds have all the best Starship Traits available to them, as well as all the OP gear and stuff.
You've got to be kidding me, Cryptic. :rolleyes: The pricing on these is just insane. And yes, I know "you don't have to pay anything in this game" and yes I know "Cryptic is a business" and yes I know "the devs gotta eat" and yes I know "you don't need Tier 6 ships".
I even have the disposable income but I am talking specifically about the principle here... $120 for a few variants on the same 3 virtual goods is crazy overpriced. $50 stretches the limits of credibility but isn't as laughable as $120.
It explains why I thought they looked like Reman Starships.
Nice blog, hope yall carey forward customization to all future ships.
The KDF Raptors definitely came out on top IMO. Can't wait to get my hands on 'em.
I can kind of see the point about the BoP being it's own beast. I hope that means we can get a proper T6 BoP beast soon.
Mine Trap Supporter
The Dev Blog also failed to point out that, because of the wonky Crew mechanic, Federation ships also have the fastest repair rates thanks to having the lowest Crew (45). Romulan Pilot ships have 200% (90) of the Crew of the Federation Pilot ships, so they will take longer to recover from a fight, while the Klingon Pilot ships are at 266% (120) Crew when compared to Federation Pilot ships. Yes, it's backwards... but that's the Crew mechanic in STO.
This also applies to ship classes in general, with larger ships like Cruisers having slower repair rates that smaller ones like Escorts, despite theoretically having more people available to conduct those repairs... because they don't, in practice. Crew Recovery tends to favor smaller Crew numbers, which in turn buffs repair rates that are modified by the % of Crew available (not the actual number available).
The Klingons scream SR-71 Blackbird or Russian Su-47 Sukoi with the swept wings with dash of the X-Men Blackbird. Plus seriously one of brand new fighters to roll out of Lockhead Martin is called the Raptor LOL.
The Federation vessels kind of look like A-Wing Rebel fighter from Star Wars 6 or the Javelin 7 from the Justice League Animated Series from the Early 2000's.
I just want a model thats worth playing when I don't have to shell out a arm and a leg.
Depends how you look at it...
Federation ships with all there back ups, of back of ups, of back ups and more in line with protecting its crew may have more advanced ship repair and function. There for need less crew to repair the and man the ship.
Also if you think about it.. a bigger ships has a lot more things that can go wrong with it. It has more system and sub systems spread over a much larger area. So though it can with stand attacks longer it takes longer to recover.
Though I do agree that crew stat of ships is one of those stats hardly anyone cares about. It's a after thought to most players.
I do like these making of blogs! They're always very interesting.
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
Romulan:
1. The Romulan ships are a bit too 'Insecty', They seem more like something an Insectoid Xindi would build/fly than the graceful lines normally and historically associate with the Romulans.
2. The Tac Romulan, Okhala,... the wings needed to be less down swept. About half the angle they have now would have been perfect. Flying my Okhala makes me think I'm on a space catamaran.
Klingon:
1. The 'fins' that are the warp nacelles, needed to be less "50's fin style' with the top and bottom outward sweep. More straight or rounded 'warp nacelle-ish" would have looked much better.
Federation:
1. Would a version, or at least option, to NOT have a set of "1950's scifi wings" been too much to ask?
2. If no to #1, then make the 'wings' about half as long as they are. Wings are NOT needed in space for 'flight' so lets not make them look like that's what they're for. Shorten them up and call them weapons pods,... or RCS clusters or something,...
Basically, all of my criticisms are cosmetic. Performance wise, I am very happy. Love flying my pilot ships.
Maybe the dev's could do some work on the side and give each variant of the ships a couple of alternative pieces? Like the shorter or no wing thing. Some of us would greatly appreciate it. After all charging full ship price for a few costume pieces from another variant,... was not the wisest move I've ever.
My $0.02. YMMV.
"There... are... four... lights!" ~Jean Luc Picard
It takes about 2 weeks to make 1 ship model, so these 9 ships represent 18 weeks worth of work. The average salary for a 3D artist in the San Francisco Bay Area is $69k, so just to pay the employees to make these ships costs about $24,000, and that isn't counting the time it took to concept the ships, or any overhead like offices, computers, healthcare, etc.
It would take 200 sales of the 9 ship pack to just start getting close to breaking even, and since Ships are a major way of them funding the continued running of the game, they would need to sell thousands to make any significant impact. The more they lower the price, the more units they would need to sell to maintain the game.
So, when you look at actual economics, instead of just wishing other people would give you their labor for free, the price of the ships isn't unreasonable at all.
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Not to mention the views you get to see from the fast dog fighting style of play is awesome. Speed in and dump out damage, then speed out with Clean Getaway/Subspace Boom and now you're orbiting the whole battle from above right before you do another nose dive back into the madness.
Out running enemy torpedoes and having a row of them behind you -right before you pop Deploy Countermeasures is a great feeling. All we need now on this ship is a rear view mirror -seriously.
Not saying it's better than the style and grace of Trek Cruiser battles, but it's on par.
You did a great job making these ships feel unique Cryptic. Keep it up.
My only feedback is that the Bridge Officer Pilot Abilities need some re-arranging if you want us to truly use them in lieu of their Tactical/Engineering/Science counterparts. Because of where Tier 2/3 Pilot abilities can be slotted, it's actually more efficient to use the non-Pilot counterparts -which defeats the whole purpose of the ship. And really, some of the other Tier 1 abilities need to be avail to Ensign and Lt.
I agree that "Pilot Escort" sounds bad, but "Corvette" is already used for one of the Risan Summer Event ship. That doesn't mean it couldn't be used, but it would be insuffiicient for the name of the class.
And "Pilot Corvette" is not really better than "Pilot Escort".
What's a good word to use for particularly "maneuverable"?
You could just go with Cryptic naming MadLibs. Just throw in the words "Advanced", "Elite", or "Tactical" in the blanks.
Ajax-class _____ Corvette
Klavek-class _____ Corvette
Jaehih-class _____ Corvette Warbird
I think the Risian Corvette is plenty reason to have given these T6 vessels the designation of Corvette. The Risian Corvette was very clearly a prototype of the kind of ship Cryptic wanted to create, and you can make out similarities between the Fed Pilot ships and the Risian Corvette's aesthetics, particularly the Mercury-class (something I'm surprised was not mentioned in the blog).
Whenever the Risian Summer Event rolls around, I'm banking on a T6 Risian pilot ship to be the event ship. Which, if my predictions are correct, only makes more sense to classify these ships as Corvettes.
They're small, nimble, pack a punch, and built for speed. I think Cryptic missed a great opportunity to represent corvettes in a naval capacity, which the Pilot Ships most easily fulfilled in terms of performance and role.
Escort
Cruiser
Battlecruiser
Dreadnought
Carrier
Pilot Ship
...yeah, the naming is a bit uninspired and doesn't really fit the naval theme Trek has going. At least that much is an easy fix if they ever decide to revisit the naming.
But the ships look fun. Wish I enjoyed flying 'scorts. XD
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
That just makes T6 ships seem even more expensive (ignoring that the pilot ships were excluded).
There must be more people buying the new shinies, and ignoring the nice ones.... Too bad I didn't have any Zen saved
Money for old rope springs to mind, still, if the whales keep the game afloat...
Judging from all the Pilot Ships I've seen in STO despite the crippling lag, I'd say it's a rousing success.
$60 for a three ship bundle isn't quite as bad, but they're still variants. Buy 2 get 1 free sounds like a great deal, but I can't fly 3 ships at once. The only reason to do it is to get the full customization options and to complete the set.
I haven't bought a 3 variant bundle since the Vesta. I did buy the Pathfinder bundle, but it's not quite the same thing.
I would have jumped at a buy 1 get 1 free deal on Pilot ships, too. The Pilot Maneuvers mechanic sounds like a lot of fun. But I don't like all of the designs on all of the ships and the only console I'm really interested in is the tactical variant. If I could have bought a 3-Faction bundle of the tactical variant, I might've done that even though I really wanted the science variants (looks and configuration).
I guess I'm saying I'd like to see more buying options than paying $120 to get more than I really wanted. Too bad the store doesn't have a "Build Your Own Bundle" option
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