I honestly have no idea what to do in this game without foundry.
Create a new character. Play through Age of Discovery. Grind. Grind some more. Buy some zen and open a lockbox. Grind some more. Play the next phase in Age of Discovery. Grind some more. In other words, play the game the way Cryptic wants you to play it, not how you want to play it.
That about sum it up?
Actually thats what i was usally doing while waiting for new foundry content. And if its how cryptic want me to play... its mean they dont want me to purchase any zen? Cause its not like i need zen for playing 10-15 minutes per 2-3 months. (or whenever Cryptic will release any official missions...)
I am very very VERY unhappy with the destruction of the Foundry. When I purchased my STO subscription I thought that this is a game I can play forever because there will always be new content - and if I don't like the new content I can write my own. Now that has ended - can I get a refund?
Why don't you give the foundry to US. There are LOTS and LOTS of very talented people in STO. I feel certain that they could and WOULD maintain, fix and give the foundry the love you clearly lack for it.
As if my soul wasn't already crushed enough. I just was starting to come back from a rough period in my life, and return to the foundry to finally finish and publish all my missions. I had nearly the max cap amount of missions planned and started, over the years that I'd played STO. To finally come back and start working on things again only to have it ripped away like this makes me feel like abandoning the game completely even if I enjoyed other content. It'd hurt too much to have this all ripped away. Not even the stuff people have already made will be staying?
I never got to really contribute, because my life situation has been extremely unkind for years, since the Foundry first launched. And now that I finally had a chance to make all the missions I had planned out, in detail, that I poured my heart and soul into, it's torn out within a day of coming back to work on it all. The rewards seem nice on the surface, but they feel completely empty in comparison to losing this.
Well, it's over. I would post some kind of sad music to reflect my mood, but then I remembered that this is Star Trek. It has a theme that is appropriate for the ending of any great adventure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1H_OwK9r5s
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 think one of the reasons for the removal of the foundry is is the endeavour system. many players could very quickly do all their endeavours in foundry missions and save precious time (no need to travel across the whole galaxy just to do a endeavour mission).
what I also dislike is foundry authors get rewards that we normal players can't get in the game. everybody should have the chance to get ALL items in the game.
In all seriousness, looking back over the threads that have existed about the shutdown, I realize that the news of its demise was not really met with that much of a backlash. Oh, there was some heated discussion, but that was mostly repetative back-and-forth exchanges between only a few individuals, myself included. There have been SMALLER changes made to the game that garnered far more pushback from the community as a whole.
That's the nature of forum discussions though. Only a few people care enough to have those particular heated exchanges (over a topic which by the announcement was fully resolved) but that doesn't mean that the rest of the population is unaffected by what's going on (see. post-Sunset reviews and fact that only represents a subset of subsets). Everyone who used the Foundry will be negatively affected by this and those who weren't just grinding for easy endeavors (they'll just move on to the next effort/time min/max) are going to find themselves with a reduced STO. It's not reduced to the point where the game is no longer viable (that's a distant threshold to cross) but the PC community will be dealing with a new set of community and population dynamics without the main effects and interactions of having a cultivated creative community embedded in STO's systems design (and thus population.)
Ultimately, I think this will put STO is a more difficult position long term because there's less to buffer population dynamics and less to reach out to niches not satisfied by Cryptic's stylistic pattern of episodes. But it will continue for some time because as you can see with the consoles the base game is capable enough to justify player retention and active development. The Foundry wasn't so singly important that it removal is going to kill STO or demand a year+ development program to rebuild it from scratch (for the sake of an MMO which is getting on there in years) but that doesn't mean it wasn't important and that it's loss won't be felt.
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!
In all seriousness, looking back over the threads that have existed about the shutdown, I realize that the news of its demise was not really met with that much of a backlash.
<snip>
In summary, I am forced to conclude that the removal of Foundry is not going to be the big deal I thought it would be. I will miss it, but ultimately STO will move forward without it.
That's because the Foundry slowly died over the last 5 years. It was a mostly hidden feature that PWE (not Cryptic) really didn't support officially (thank goodness for the forward thinking angel devs we had who at least TRIED to keep it in a running state). I'll bet you 90% of the playerbase had no clue how to see more than the Spotlight missions, or at best, the 'Top Rated' list which was locked in concreate and never changed. Why would they care about something that doesn't have new content in over 5 years? (at least in their eyes)
A real shame. The Foundry could have been the basis for a fantastic exploration system and been a unique feature no other current MMO had. But PWE wants a grinder game to sell lockboxes in for a quick profit, not a long term money generator.
So long Foundry. You were the best feature in STO and will be missed by those few who knew you well.
I'm thankful for everyone who kept it going this long, but I'm just left with a hollow, painful bitter feeling now. Knowing it could have done better if supported better. If the people with more power than those who helped keep it going had actually listened to the support and suggestions over the years, more. Most people only knew the Foundry for spotlight missions, or even then only for grinders. Saying it can just be replaced with endeavors. But it was so much more than that.
As for less people responding, maybe a lot of them have feelings too strong to feel safe sharing them, if I'm remembering policies here about "dissent". I know I'm restraining myself here, so I don't cross any lines due to how I'm feeling over this.
I am feeling myself a bit down. Lots of memories rushing throuh my head right now. Played STO since the beginning, tried out the Foundry from the start and spent a lot of time on a mission which now never got finished. I know, i had a lot of time to get it done. Two death's in the family, other RL stuff, perfectionism, occasional STO fatigue, and other games came in the way. I took some final screenshots from my mission today. It was going to be mostly a Risa RP map (with an optional mission). Build a tropical transporter, bar, hotelroom, waether control station, jungle resort and more. That started all before we even had the new Risa summer event map in the main game.
The funny thing is, as i was walking around my map, i sometimes could remember what exactly i was listening to, when i placed certain objects on a map. Interesting how the long-term memory can create some connections. And this brings me to another thing...
... Over the years i listened to some great Foundry community shows. I want to take this time to thank all of them for their work, their tutorials, and most of all, the fun (*hrumph* CaptPFDennis *hrumph*)!
- Thank you Havraha & Co. for Podcast UGC (and thx for one of my favorite STO characters: Helna)
- Thank you Starbase UGC (i loved Broadcast UGC & Foundry Files back then)
- Thank you Foundry Roundtable (you guys accompanied me building in the Foundry and playing STO)
- Thank you to all the talented authors who made the Foundry what it was!
Well, it's over. I would post some kind of sad music to reflect my mood, but then I remembered that this is Star Trek. It has a theme that is appropriate for the ending of any great adventure
Perfect music choice.
I would like to end this post with a quote: "Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn."
Farewell Foundry. You shall be Avenged... erm,,, Missed. Yeah, We'll go with that.
In all seriousness, looking back over the threads that have existed about the shutdown, I realize that the news of its demise was not really met with that much of a backlash. Oh, there was some heated discussion, but that was mostly repetative back-and-forth exchanges between only a few individuals, myself included. There have been SMALLER changes made to the game that garnered far more pushback from the community as a whole.
Now this does not mean that Foundry was any less important to those it was important to. It just means that there were fewer people who considered it important enough to come here and pretend they could successfully fight for it. Of course, there may well be a massive number of people who do not even bother with the forums who did not know the Foundry was going away, and after today, they may start coming out of the woodwork, expressing their disdain over the removal. But I am going to predict that, if this does happen, it will not be a massive turnout. In fact, I think that after 2 weeks, maybe three, we may only see one or two pop in after having taken time off from the game, wondering what happened to the Foundry.
If I am right in this prediction, then I reluctantly will shift my position from "Removing Foundry was a stupid move on Cryptic's part," to a new position of, "Maybe it was a smart move on Cryptic's part to remove Foundry."
We have to remember, they have access to metrics we are not privy to. Some of us can scream all we want about how removal of the Foundry will cause a mass exodus of players. Maybe what Cryptic saw was a system that only a very tiny percentage of the overall ACTIVE player population was actually playing Foundry content, and an even smaller percentage was actually creating content. Maybe they calculated the costs for fixing it and dedicating someone to maintain and build upon it as being too high. We have to remember that STO is first and foremost a business venture, and a team as small as Cryptic must weigh the cost of everything against everything else. I still believe that if a company would just focus on delivering fun and compelling gameplay, the money will take care of itself, but then I cannot see their bottom line or all the numbers that contribute to it.
In summary, I am forced to conclude that the removal of Foundry is not going to be the big deal I thought it would be. I will miss it, but ultimately STO will move forward without it.
I think the reality is what Captain Hunter said. The Foundry has been dying for a long time now. Hell, I was not happy with how the Foundry was being treated six years ago when I quit the game! Truthfully, I'm surprised it manage to limp along as long as it did.
At this point in time, killing the Foundry probably made good business sense. The problem was it was allowed to deteriorate for the last five years (at least), and it was never developed to the point where it was stable and sustainable to begin with.
I'd actually go so far as to say the biggest business mistake on Cryptic's part was ever making the Foundry to begin with, when it seems they had no intention to follow through and integrate it properly into the game. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm glad we got the Foundry, even with the poor support got. But, honestly, if they had no intention to really support it, why even devote the resources required to make it?
Truthfully I think the Foundry was killed by PWE and the F2P transition. It was a feature that made sense for a subscription based game, but less so for a F2P game (at least as they saw it; I think there was potential, but no one asked me). That is the only thing that can explain why productive Foundry development was abandoned and it was placed on life support practically as soon as it was released.
Anyway, in the end I think Foundry authors and the Foundry community deserve props for making the best of a poor situation. Some individual devs put in some effort to keep the Foundry running on their own volition and deserve props for that. Cryptic as an entity... I don't know at this point whether they deserve thanks for how they treated the Foundry. On the one hand, it's great it ever existed at all.
But, on the other hand, support for it was so poor that it ended up feeling like a slap in the face to the effort put in by the Foundry authors. Foundry development was always on the back burner and it was made clear that we should be happy with whatever scraps we got. Well, it sucks to be treated that way when you're putting in your own blood, sweat and tears to create content for someone else's game.
Bottom line: It's not going to kill the game because it was never integrated enough into the game to become important. The Foundry is gone now, which is sad, but what is more sad is it never managed to live up to the potential that it had.
Comments
Actually thats what i was usally doing while waiting for new foundry content.
Why don't you give the foundry to US. There are LOTS and LOTS of very talented people in STO. I feel certain that they could and WOULD maintain, fix and give the foundry the love you clearly lack for it.
It makes no sense.
I never got to really contribute, because my life situation has been extremely unkind for years, since the Foundry first launched. And now that I finally had a chance to make all the missions I had planned out, in detail, that I poured my heart and soul into, it's torn out within a day of coming back to work on it all. The rewards seem nice on the surface, but they feel completely empty in comparison to losing this.
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!
what I also dislike is foundry authors get rewards that we normal players can't get in the game. everybody should have the chance to get ALL items in the game.
That's the nature of forum discussions though. Only a few people care enough to have those particular heated exchanges (over a topic which by the announcement was fully resolved) but that doesn't mean that the rest of the population is unaffected by what's going on (see. post-Sunset reviews and fact that only represents a subset of subsets). Everyone who used the Foundry will be negatively affected by this and those who weren't just grinding for easy endeavors (they'll just move on to the next effort/time min/max) are going to find themselves with a reduced STO. It's not reduced to the point where the game is no longer viable (that's a distant threshold to cross) but the PC community will be dealing with a new set of community and population dynamics without the main effects and interactions of having a cultivated creative community embedded in STO's systems design (and thus population.)
Ultimately, I think this will put STO is a more difficult position long term because there's less to buffer population dynamics and less to reach out to niches not satisfied by Cryptic's stylistic pattern of episodes. But it will continue for some time because as you can see with the consoles the base game is capable enough to justify player retention and active development. The Foundry wasn't so singly important that it removal is going to kill STO or demand a year+ development program to rebuild it from scratch (for the sake of an MMO which is getting on there in years) but that doesn't mean it wasn't important and that it's loss won't be felt.
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 because the Foundry slowly died over the last 5 years. It was a mostly hidden feature that PWE (not Cryptic) really didn't support officially (thank goodness for the forward thinking angel devs we had who at least TRIED to keep it in a running state). I'll bet you 90% of the playerbase had no clue how to see more than the Spotlight missions, or at best, the 'Top Rated' list which was locked in concreate and never changed. Why would they care about something that doesn't have new content in over 5 years? (at least in their eyes)
A real shame. The Foundry could have been the basis for a fantastic exploration system and been a unique feature no other current MMO had. But PWE wants a grinder game to sell lockboxes in for a quick profit, not a long term money generator.
So long Foundry. You were the best feature in STO and will be missed by those few who knew you well.
arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1203368/pve-content-a-list-of-gamewide-polishing-pass-suggestions
As for less people responding, maybe a lot of them have feelings too strong to feel safe sharing them, if I'm remembering policies here about "dissent". I know I'm restraining myself here, so I don't cross any lines due to how I'm feeling over this.
I am feeling myself a bit down. Lots of memories rushing throuh my head right now. Played STO since the beginning, tried out the Foundry from the start and spent a lot of time on a mission which now never got finished. I know, i had a lot of time to get it done. Two death's in the family, other RL stuff, perfectionism, occasional STO fatigue, and other games came in the way. I took some final screenshots from my mission today. It was going to be mostly a Risa RP map (with an optional mission). Build a tropical transporter, bar, hotelroom, waether control station, jungle resort and more. That started all before we even had the new Risa summer event map in the main game.
Vacation on Risa (01) I Vacation on Risa (02) I Vacation on Risa (03) I Vacation on Risa (04) I Vacation on Risa (05) I Vacation on Risa (06) I Vacation on Risa (07) I Vacation on Risa (08) I Vacation on Risa (09) I Vacation on Risa (10) I Vacation on Risa (11) I Vacation on Risa (12)
The funny thing is, as i was walking around my map, i sometimes could remember what exactly i was listening to, when i placed certain objects on a map. Interesting how the long-term memory can create some connections. And this brings me to another thing...
... Over the years i listened to some great Foundry community shows. I want to take this time to thank all of them for their work, their tutorials, and most of all, the fun (*hrumph* CaptPFDennis *hrumph*)!
- Thank you Havraha & Co. for Podcast UGC (and thx for one of my favorite STO characters: Helna)
- Thank you Starbase UGC (i loved Broadcast UGC & Foundry Files back then)
- Thank you Foundry Roundtable (you guys accompanied me building in the Foundry and playing STO)
- Thank you to all the talented authors who made the Foundry what it was!
Perfect music choice.
I would like to end this post with a quote: "Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn."
I think the reality is what Captain Hunter said. The Foundry has been dying for a long time now. Hell, I was not happy with how the Foundry was being treated six years ago when I quit the game! Truthfully, I'm surprised it manage to limp along as long as it did.
At this point in time, killing the Foundry probably made good business sense. The problem was it was allowed to deteriorate for the last five years (at least), and it was never developed to the point where it was stable and sustainable to begin with.
I'd actually go so far as to say the biggest business mistake on Cryptic's part was ever making the Foundry to begin with, when it seems they had no intention to follow through and integrate it properly into the game. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm glad we got the Foundry, even with the poor support got. But, honestly, if they had no intention to really support it, why even devote the resources required to make it?
Truthfully I think the Foundry was killed by PWE and the F2P transition. It was a feature that made sense for a subscription based game, but less so for a F2P game (at least as they saw it; I think there was potential, but no one asked me). That is the only thing that can explain why productive Foundry development was abandoned and it was placed on life support practically as soon as it was released.
Anyway, in the end I think Foundry authors and the Foundry community deserve props for making the best of a poor situation. Some individual devs put in some effort to keep the Foundry running on their own volition and deserve props for that. Cryptic as an entity... I don't know at this point whether they deserve thanks for how they treated the Foundry. On the one hand, it's great it ever existed at all.
But, on the other hand, support for it was so poor that it ended up feeling like a slap in the face to the effort put in by the Foundry authors. Foundry development was always on the back burner and it was made clear that we should be happy with whatever scraps we got. Well, it sucks to be treated that way when you're putting in your own blood, sweat and tears to create content for someone else's game.
Bottom line: It's not going to kill the game because it was never integrated enough into the game to become important. The Foundry is gone now, which is sad, but what is more sad is it never managed to live up to the potential that it had.
Click here for my Foundry tutorial on Creating A Custom Interior Map.
Wait... WHAT ?!!!
Such a bad move :s :'(