Priority One Podcast 231 | Gateway to Hell

elijahmre · July 2015

Greetings, Admirals! You’re listening to EPISODE 231 OF PRIORITY ONE PODCAST, the premier Star Trek Online podcast! This episode was recorded on Thursday, July 16th, 2015 and made available for download or streaming on Monday, July 20th, 2015 at PriorityOnePodcast.com!

We have some big news this week! Thanks to our long time friends at Geek Nation Tours, Priority One Productions will have an OFFICIAL presence at this year’s 2015 Star Trek Las Vegas Convention! If you’re already booked to go this year -- or have started saving your pennies for the grand 50th Celebration -- then you’re going to want to #TrekOut our interview with Teras Cassidy, owner and head geek of Geek Nation Tours, and Larry Nemecek, considered by many as the walking Star Trek encyclopedia! Together they’ll bring you a Star Trek Experience like none other!

So thanks to their sponsorship, Priority One Productions will be bringing you the latest and greatest from this year’s Star Trek Las Vegas Convention! Check out our blog detailing what you can expect -- And be sure to follow us on Facebook & Twitter so you don’t miss a beat.

Later, in Star Trek Online news, season 10.5 is here! We’re looking briefly at the new featured episode, checking out the contents of the new lockbox, and getting the lowdown on the new Tier 6 Resolute Advanced Heavy Cruiser. We’re also wrapping up our recent interview with Lead Designer Al “Captain Geko” Rivera, talking about advanced queues, how storylines get written, and more. And as always, before we wrap things up, we’ll open Hailing Frequencies for your incoming messages.

TOPICS DISCUSSED

Tracking the Devs

This week’s Community Question:

Now that we have details on the new lockbox, what do you think of the prizes?

Let us know YOUR thoughts by commenting below!

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There are no plans to transcribe this episode at this time.

bergins · July 2015

Good show, as always!

What do I think about the new lockbox prizes? I've not had a chance to look them over that closely yet, but I am excited about the increase chance at getting some of the better prizes! My only question now is, is the Time Ship going to be a mission reward, like I predicted last week, or an R&D Promo Pack reward, as others suggest?

I chuckled while listening during the feedback portion in light of part of my post last week:

bergins wrote: »

3. Well, I WAS going to make a smart remark to Cookie about if maybe she was brought back to pronounce my name (I've given her a hard time about it in chat...) but as I'm listening to the bloopers, "Bergins" might be the only thing she said right.

Was I closer to the truth than I thought? When reading my thoughts on Geko mentioning the removal of kits, Kenna didn't even try my name, or if she did, it was edited out. It's OK, if you say it wrong, I won't be offended. Well, I won't be too offended. OK, I at least promise not to sob in the corner for very long. Really. I might go on an eating binge again, but it really wouldn't be your fault. Honest.

Speaking of eating binges, and completely off topic, I found out about a doughnut shop that makes bacon doughnuts. Thankfully, Fitchburg MA is a 2+ hours from home. Maybe you could bribe Laughing Trendy to do an interview by having them overnight a dozen to PWE...

stumpfgobs · July 2015

I'm glad you split the interview in three - i liked the interview (and the show).

Maybe you could grill trendy about the community in an interview. I'm curious why the reddit part of the community is quite okay, but we got so many whiners and toxic trolls on the forums here.

I did watch sarcasms video about the new ships too but fell asleep - will re-watch it. Just had a long day and was too tired, but will give it another shot because i'm really curious about that zahl cruiser (might buy one) and how the krenim destroyer performs. Thanks for those too!

The highlighted links are, as always, appreciated.

xiaoping88 · July 2015

Oh my, don't give Geko the idea to gate elite marks and very rare materials behind optionals. Sheeesh.

dgdolph · July 2015

Dont wanna listen to all that unrelevant stuff...any news about pvp, balance, p2w, bugs?

bergins · July 2015

dgdolph wrote: »

Dont wanna listen to all that unrelevant stuff...any news about pvp, balance, p2w, bugs?

Listen and see.

tehbubbaloo · July 2015

geko highlights

26:50 - geko segment begins.

27:20 - geko talks about upcoming elite queues, and ideas he has to revitalise dead queues, like improving rewards, triple reward events and the like. 'if its too hard to fix, then its probably worth just ditching'. he also lays out a terrible idea to limit queues to 1 space/1 ground of each mark on a weekly rotating schedule.

32:50 - gekos thoughts on balancing queue rewards, with a lot of talk about NWS. one of the hosts actually got a bit adversarial in this segment, which was nice to hear

geko mentions 2 queues were nerfed in 10.5 that were 'over performing'.

41:30 - geko wants pet tabs

44:10 - geko wants to talk about the story. he gives a lot of information on how the stories are written.

51:15 - the host really wants to get back to talk about the queues. he asks about the omega/maco/hg elite stf accolades... and geko doesnt understand the question. the host tells him again. geko then says 'we dropped the ball on that' and suggests that he will make the costume unlocks available somehow. geko then says 'see, this is how we get things done around here'. maybe the other hosts should pause for a second and absorb what geko just told everyone.

52:50 - another space battlezone is coming 'in the very near future'.

53:50 - you must listen to this segment! the host points out that feds got 3 new sci ships at DR launch, and wants to know if the kdf and romulans are going to see t6 sci ships. geko talks about the t6 vesta being probable. host asks about kdf and romulans again. geko says they will get a t6 sci ship 'eventually', but they just dont sell well, so... the host obviously isnt going to leave it at that, so geko lays out a scenario where t6 kdf/rom ships are vestas skinned with existing assets, or a crossfaction sci ship is put in the lobi store, or maybe we could see a winter event breen sci ship.
'for next winter?', asks the host. 'yeah', replies geko.
'for factionless science ships, tier 6, its been basically a joke'. this host is relentless.

1:03:10 - now the host wants to talk about 'faction parity'.

i must say that i really like that mumbling host. he wasnt afraid to pursue an issue, and he wasnt prone to letting geko off the hook. and, to gekos credit, he didnt seem to mind that. p1 needs more geko interviews like that. its way more informative than the 'everything is awesome' variety. bring this guy back for more interviews.

sarcasmdetector · July 2015

tehbubbaloo wrote: »

bring this guy back for more interviews.

There parts of the interview that got cut and you will probably never hear them.

For example regarding parity between factions (and ships); there was a bit of discussion about a T6 Scimitar and T6 flagships. I asked if Feds/Klingons will ever get a ship on par with the Scimi/Tulwar. The Answer is basically Romulans and their ships are intentionally better than Klinks and Feds, but when the T6 flagship get released; Geko said they would be closer together in performance than the current flagship roundup.

Also briefly discussed was parity between weapon types but that also got cut. you probably wont hear that.

Also, the host got cut, so you probably won't hear any more interviews like that. Well... at least on P1 ;P

stumpfgobs wrote: »

I did watch sarcasms video about the new ships too but fell asleep - will re-watch it.

I'm no longer making videos for P1.

tehbubbaloo · July 2015

sarcasmdetector wrote: »

tehbubbaloo wrote: »

bring this guy back for more interviews.

There parts of the interview that got cut and you will probably never hear them.

For example regarding parity between factions (and ships); there was a bit of discussion about a T6 Scimitar and T6 flagships. I asked if Feds/Klingons will ever get a ship on par with the Scimi/Tulwar. The Answer is basically Romulans and their ships are intentionally better than Klinks and Feds, but when the T6 flagship get released; Geko said they would be closer together in performance than the current flagship roundup.

Also briefly discussed was parity between weapon types but that also got cut. you probably wont hear that.

Also, the host got cut, so you probably won't hear any more interviews like that. Well... at least on P1 ;P

stumpfgobs wrote: »

I did watch sarcasms video about the new ships too but fell asleep - will re-watch it.

I'm no longer making videos for P1.

well, that is completely their loss. i loved the harder-edged interview style, and it unearthed far more compelling information than 'everything is awesome'.
if they had more talk in this vein id likely listen to every episode rather than only listening to the dev portions of the occasional episode.

stumpfgobs · July 2015

sarcasmdetector wrote: »

tehbubbaloo wrote: »

bring this guy back for more interviews.

Also, the host got cut, so you probably won't hear any more interviews like that. Well... at least on P1 ;P

Was it because of your inquisitive questioning?

stumpfgobs wrote: »

I did watch sarcasms video about the new ships too but fell asleep - will re-watch it.

I'm no longer making videos for P1.

Won't stop me from watching your videos!

Just finished both the zahl and the krenim destroyer video. I think you missed the bog set visuals - but i might just have overlooked or overheard something, so no hard feeling there. Liked the reviews.
I do think you could shorten the part where you show all the ship attributes, traits etc. a bit by using stills (i.e. pictures with text) but i don't know how you work or how much time it does take so it's cool either way.

bergins · July 2015

sarcasmdetector wrote: »

There parts of the interview that got cut and you will probably never hear them.

For example regarding parity between factions (and ships); there was a bit of discussion about a T6 Scimitar and T6 flagships. I asked if Feds/Klingons will ever get a ship on par with the Scimi/Tulwar. The Answer is basically Romulans and their ships are intentionally better than Klinks and Feds, but when the T6 flagship get released; Geko said they would be closer together in performance than the current flagship roundup.

Also briefly discussed was parity between weapon types but that also got cut. you probably wont hear that.

Also, the host got cut, so you probably won't hear any more interviews like that. Well... at least on P1 ;P

Wait, what?

Genuinely sorry to hear that. I suppose this isn't the place to ask "Why?", but...

frtoaster · July 2015

tehbubbaloo wrote: »

27:20 - geko talks about upcoming elite queues, and ideas he has to revitalise dead queues, like improving rewards, triple reward events and the like. 'if its too hard to fix, then its probably worth just ditching'. he also lays out a terrible idea to limit queues to 1 space/1 ground of each mark on a weekly rotating schedule.

I'm going to guess that "The Big Dig" and "Klingon Scout Force" are on the cutting board along with "Gorn Minefield". It's a shame, because I actually like "The Big Dig". Then, there's "Breaking the Planet", which I don't believe there was ever a queue for, and the KDF mission "Federation Minefield", which for some reason appears twice in the PvE queue window. I have one suggestion for saving these missions: Is it possible to keep them available for private matches even if you remove them from the public queues?

There's another reason why certain missions are seldom played that wasn't mentioned in the podcast. It's not only low rewards and high difficulty, though, of course, those factors contribute. Some missions simply require too many players to start. "The Big Dig" and "Klingon Scout Force" fall into this category. So do "Mine Trap" and "Starbase Fleet Defense". If you're queued for two missions, one requiring 5 players and another requiring 15, guess which one will start first. The 15-to-20-man missions never start, because players keep leaving the queue to play other missions.

tehbubbaloo wrote: »

41:30 - geko wants pet tabs

Geko talks about adding an inventory tab for pets and how it might be expensive in terms of storage because pets come with activatable powers. I'm not sure how accurate his assessment is. Another possibility would be to add an extra bank tab for pets. It shouldn't be that different from giving players extra bank slots.

tehbubbaloo wrote: »

i must say that i really like that mumbling host. he wasnt afraid to pursue an issue, and he wasnt prone to letting geko off the hook. and, to gekos credit, he didnt seem to mind that. p1 needs more geko interviews like that. its way more informative than the 'everything is awesome' variety. bring this guy back for more interviews.

I agree that this podcast was more informative than some of the others, but maybe they should interview people other than Geko. I know that some of the other devs have given interviews in the past, but most of the Priority One interviews are with Geko. Maybe, Geko is the one most willing to do them, or he has the most free time on his hands. But I'd rather hear from borticus, tacofangs, crypticjoejing, or one of the programmers like flyingtarg or crypticbatsoup; I'd rather hear from the people actually making the stuff, because they're more likely to know the details.

zobovor · July 2015

bergins wrote: »

sarcasmdetector wrote: »

Also, the host got cut, so you probably won't hear any more interviews like that. Well... at least on P1 ;P

Wait, what?

Genuinely sorry to hear that. I suppose this isn't the place to ask "Why?", but...

Yeah ... , don't mince words Sarcasm, these are the forums of scum and villainy after all ...

Unless ofcourse you're either going swimming with the fishes right now or getting cemented in Geko's new office wall, in which case I can understand if you're a bit tied up ... .

canis36 · July 2015

Sarcasmdetector, I find myself strongly disagreeing with your desire to see the crafting mats and elite marks locked behind the optionals in the Advanced queues. While your grievance with those who do the bare minimum of one ship/point in queues like Azure Nebula is legitimate your proposed reaction is way out of proportion. Azure Nebula is merely one of several queues and it is, as far as I'm aware, the only queue where you can actually succeed with minimum effort like that. Every other queue I'm aware of you actually have to go and accomplish something in order to get it to end, and most players are going to try for the optionals as long as they're doing stuff. Of course most players aren't able to get all of the optionals which is why I think your proposal of locking stuff behind the optionals is a bad idea.

Not only is a large portion of the playerbase going to be unable to get those items, you're also promoting a return to the bad old days of abandoning a queue as soon as the optional fails. The current set-up makes losing an optional hurt, but there's still enough incentive there to stick it out and finish. It's only bad design in Azure Nebula that makes what you experienced there even possible.

And all that's setting aside the fact that Azure Nebula - the only queue you mentioned by name - operates on an RNG that can make it literally impossible to complete the optionals, something I've personally seen happen twice.

orangeitis · July 2015

xiaoping88 wrote: »

Oh my, don't give Geko the idea to gate elite marks and very rare materials behind optionals. Sheeesh.

Best idea I've heard so far. Anything to make pugs less insufferable.

Unknown · July 2015

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eldarion79 · July 2015

One of Cryptic's last let's get people to play the unpopular queues was to put the exotic crafting in them, but they didn't actually fix the reason why people don't play them. This new interview segment shows that they haven't learned since it was the exact same reasoning the last time.

Sarcasm Detector's suggestion would be great if the Advanced Queues were pre-made only, but it opens the door for massive quitting at the optional fail. Queue Highlight would be good if those highlights gave so much more marks, crafting materials, and dilithium for their temporarily highlighted status with possibly doff rewards.

My suggestion would be Dev and CM playthroughs with the playerbase with the highlighted queues and the re-tweaking of the queues.

canis36 · July 2015

Another idea to get people to play queues more is to give the queues a massive XP boost - like 3.5x to 5x for Normals, & 7x to 10x for Advanced & Elite. The current XP payouts are pitiful. Kill XP in queues is, last I checked, lower than in solo play and you actually get less XP for completion of a queue than you do for most of the patrol missions.

fcaptkmton · July 2015

Farewell Kam and good luck in your future endeavors. Your short stint was...controversial among other things.

stuntpilot · July 2015

sarcasmdetector wrote: »

There parts of the interview that got cut and you will probably never hear them.

For example regarding parity between factions (and ships); there was a bit of discussion about a T6 Scimitar and T6 flagships. I asked if Feds/Klingons will ever get a ship on par with the Scimi/Tulwar. The Answer is basically Romulans and their ships are intentionally better than Klinks and Feds, but when the T6 flagship get released; Geko said they would be closer together in performance than the current flagship roundup.

Also briefly discussed was parity between weapon types but that also got cut. you probably wont hear that.

Also, the host got cut, so you probably won't hear any more interviews like that. Well... at least on P1 ;P

Romulan or GTFO, boys.

jarvisandalfred · July 2015

Hey. Elijah, since you should be reading this:

Please do not ever link to or use information I have compiled without contacting me and getting my permission.
That would be anything compiled by /u/Mastajdog , Vel, Vel'Gon, or @Jarvisandalfred. You are putting my information out there without even doing me the courtesy of learning how to pronounce my name and you are a well-known podcast in STO. My information is generally free to be spread around, but I do not support or usually listen to P1, and I can get my information out to players well enough via reddit and the in-game channels and friends that I have.

I have a few reasons for this. First, I want to make sure you guys know how to pronounce my name and that I'm being properly credited (while some people would be able to guess who @Masjdog is, a lot more people would recognize it if you said the reddit user Mastajdog, or as he's known in-game, Vel@Jarvisandalfred). -_-

Secondly, I need to ensure that the information you're going to broadcast is in a state where I'm finished working on it and I'm ready to make it public. I have posted some things without widely broadcasting them because they are works in progress, and I don't want that information to be public-facing yet. In addition, I have had some discussions in confidence with players for obviously private reasons, and I want to ensure that information stays that way.

Third, I need to ensure that you're presenting the information correctly, which you did not in this podcast. Misrepresenting my information makes us both look bad, and I need to be able to ensure this does not happen again. Whatever your concerns are, I have a reputation as being an expert on the game, and I need to be able to ensure that anything that reportedly comes from me is being accurately portrayed so that I can avoid having my reputation falsely tarnished.

Fourth, it's common courtsey. I barely ever look at what P1 puts out, because frankly I've not been impressed, and only looked at this one because I knew that Jena was off P1 sometime soon. I should not have to randomly look at everything STO-related to find out that my information is being broadcast incorrectly and without a proper citation to a wide audience.

darkknightucf · July 2015

P1 lost a great host and resource in SarcasmDetector, but, if P1 wants to let him go, I know tons of people and entities that will snatch him up in a heartbeat.

vivenneanthony · July 2015

darkknightucf wrote: »

P1 lost a great host and resource in SarcasmDetector, but, if P1 wants to let him go, I know tons of people and entities that will snatch him up in a heartbeat.

If they can't be a talking mouthpiece for Cryptic and don't follow the everything is awesome rule. They probably get fired on or after the spot.. It seems to be the running theme.

xiaoping88 · July 2015

Seriously? SarcasmDetector was fired? Right after he asked just the right questions and actually insisted on Geko answering some of them without slithering out of it like he normally does?

Fishy. And sad.

sarcasmdetector · July 2015

Regarding the interview with Al: I made it very clear to the P1 guys that my intention was to improve P1's dev interview reputation among the community.

I made it very clear to them what tone i would be using in interviews.

I also made it very clear to Geko before we started recording. I flat out told him that i wasn't going to mean to him, but neither would i go too easy on him. He explicitly said he was fine with that, and even welcomed it.

I also gave him all the questions i was going to ask ahead of time and gave him a chance to read over them all.

Al didn't mind at all, or at least what i could tell from our discussion. Even after the interview was over and we had stopped recording, Al and I kept on talking about ships and other things for a good half hour or so... until Elijah showed up and pulled Al into a different room.

Taken from this post on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/3e63ju/lootcritter_lets_it_all_out/

Unknown · July 2015

This content has been removed.

tehbubbaloo · July 2015

sarcasmdetector wrote: »

Taken from this post on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/3e63ju/lootcritter_lets_it_all_out/

wow. i didnt think my opinion of a certain sycophant could sink any lower.

eldarion79 · July 2015

The new lockbox prizes are just that. Lockbox stuff. I have a thought about making queues better. What about Hero Weapons similar to what we got with Zefram Cochrane's shotgun, and a respec system to get them inline with a various weapon set. Worf's Bat'leth, Picard's phaser rifle, D'Vark's Omega Rifle, and so on.

thegrandnagus1 · July 2015

Kam's departure from the show is, quite simply, a damn shame. While P1 certainly has the right to make any kind of show they want, a very common complaint over the years was that they were closer to an unofficial PR team than a true representation of the community. Kam was a breath of fresh air, and it was nice to have someone keep pressing on questions that other members of the team would have simply let go. Kicking Kam out was a bad move, and is only P1's loss.

vivenneanthony · July 2015

thegrandnagus1 wrote: »

Kam's departure from the show is, quite simply, a damn shame. While P1 certainly has the right to make any kind of show they want, a very common complaint over the years was that they were closer to an unofficial PR team than a true representation of the community. Kam was a breath of fresh air, and it was nice to have someone keep pressing on questions that other members of the team would have simply let go. Kicking Kam out was a bad move, and is only P1's loss.

I can't take P1 serious anymore. It seems if someone is not a mouthpiece then you are booted.

Unknown · July 2015

This content has been removed.

Priority One Podcast 231 | Gateway to Hell

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