If they did get Patrick Stewart in that would be so awesome!
I doubt its Patrick Stewart. They have said the cost to get him is so high they would have to do a whole story arc just about him to warrant it, and I doubt they would do such a thing even after the Picard show is out.
A new game engine would mean remaking the whole game in said new game engine. You can't just copy paste the code from one game engine into another. That wouldn't be changing the face of the game, that would just be making a whole new game.
Well mid 2020 is the next expansion release if they follow past releases.
That number has likely been thrown off due to the "expansion over time" thing they are doing with Discovery.
they have taken half the missions out already.. would not surprise me if they were rewriting to a new engine
They ARE NOT rewritting anythbing in STO to a new engine. They're happy with the one they have. You only upgrade for a viable reason as any such task (upgrading to a new Engine) costs A LOT of money - so you don't do it unless you somehow expect to make WAY MORE than you are with the existing Engine.
Botton line: They are making a tidy profit with their current setup (if Dev and Marketing comments are to be believed) - thus there's no need at this time to spend money to covert to a new engine.
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
And if PvP still manages to survive, Romulan vs Romulan would make more sense, as it would be based on an internal division of Romulan ideologies.
Or... and I know this is really out there... WAR GAMES. Tactical exercises.
And weren't you gonna stop talking mechanics? PvP and factions are mechanics.
Story would be more who we're dealing with, what worlds we'll get to visit... things like that. Right now we know that we're gonna have to deal with J'Ula, and we know we're gonna be dealing with Admiral Leeta. The question is... how will we do so?
Maybe what we'll get is a formal declaration of the "Alliance" being not just a military coalition of necessity, but a formal political entity, a "meta" Federation.
That would be my guess as well, as that is the direction the game's narrative is going anyway. The official story of this happening would be a logical first step. But after that it would not surprise me if we see PvP removed and the faction system as we know it with it.
This would only work (and make sense) if we no longer use 2409 as the starting point for the game. Currently, no matter how many admirals or generals you've advanced to lvl 65, any new toon you start off (aside from a Jem'Hadar) is beginning in 2409, just like your last one. The Klingons are at a restrained level of war with the Federation, the Romulan Republic is still looking for a new homeworld and striving to protect itself from the Tal'Shiar by playing the Feds and Klinks off each other, we still don't know that one of the leaders of the True Way is in fact a Founder, and we haven't even met the Lukari yet.
The Galactic Union still lies in the future, sometime in the late 25th or early 26th century. Therefore, there are still factions, whether you approve of their implementation or no (too many people seem to want to play Klingons as evil pirates preying on everyone, rather than a warrior people who see combat as their duty - similar to the split between the lore of the Horde in WoW and the way people want to play Horde toons). Even when the Galactic Union is achieved, Klingons will keep their traditional modes of dress and carry their traditional weapons, as we saw during the signing of the Temporal Accords.
Maybe what we'll get is a formal declaration of the "Alliance" being not just a military coalition of necessity, but a formal political entity, a "meta" Federation.
That would be my guess as well, as that is the direction the game's narrative is going anyway. The official story of this happening would be a logical first step. But after that it would not surprise me if we see PvP removed and the faction system as we know it with it. At that point, the species we choose to play would determine which branch of the historical progression we go down. For example, If I choose any race that is currently Federation-specific, I would go down the Federation's historical branch. If I choose, say, a Klingon or a Gorn, then it would follow his career from the Klingon side of things.
PVP and the faction system being removed would be mechanics changes, once again something that was said isn't going to happen.
In terms of the Romulans, I would like to see them change things up a little bit where there is an opposition party to D'tan's regime that would prefer to see New Romulus take a more aggressive role that leans towards conquest. In this way, the Romulan vs Romulan narrative makes sense. The militant Romulan branch would align with the Klingon origin path, and D'tan's branch would align with the Federation path. The biggest change would be that you would pledge loyalto to D'tan or the militant branch's leader rather than to a Federation or Klingon NPC. This would make the decision you make Romulan-centric even though it would still lead to KDF or UFP mission branching from that point forward.
And if PvP still manages to survive, Romulan vs Romulan would make more sense, as it would be based on an internal division of Romulan ideologies.
Choosing Jem'hadar would begin the game at the Victory Is Life story arc.
Choosing a 23rd Century Starfleet Officer would begin with the Agents of Yesterday Story arc.
Alien - Klingon Empire and Alien - United Federation of Planets would be species options and would be handled the same way as species that started out belonging to the UFP or KDF factions.
First you say the faction system would be going away, then you go right back to talking about factional sides with Romulan vs. Romulan, which we had already before the Romulans come in.
If anything, the story is gonna move in such a way that maybe we'll see more than just the Mirror Terrans.
We are going to advance to the 2600s and be all part of the Galactic Alliance. Players will all be given a Universe Class ship to do the multiple Featured TFOs and the couple of Episodes that will release with this 'Game-changing' Story Arc.
In our travels we will run into the Race from Gary Seven's Planet.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
I do have to wonder, several people, including myself, have suggested that maybe the change has to do with the Picard show. But the Picard show isn't finished by any measure, and Cryptic doesn't have all the details on what CBS is planning to begin with. I do wonder if they could really be so confident as to what the Picard show is doing that they could plan next year's story arc around it confidently.
If it isn't about the Picard show, that just leaves the current J'Ula/Killy plot they have going, and the Mirror Leeta plot they originally had planned for after ViL. Given that Leeta stole data from the future, that contained a list of every species the Galactic Union had encountered to that point, there's a lot of possible things she could go out and find.
I think they have inside information about the Picard Show. I'm sure they don't know everything, but they know more than I do.
I honestly think he is overhyping, mechanically the game feels like it stagnating. They would be hard pressed to make a story that would engage me more then updates to game-play mechanics would.
Al Rivera makes the comment of: "Next year's story arc, its more then just a story arc, its going to change the face of the game.... "
So what do you think it will be? Some sort of exploration system? A PVP revamp? What group of players that might be unhappy do you think they will be making happy next year?
A new splash screen. Probably one with dutch angles and excessive lens flares.
I think future Romulan content is going to be influenced by Star Trek: Picard, maybe that's part of the reason that they're going to get new voice acting for that faction (from actors from that series)?
Probably be introducing new ships from that series as well, such as the one that was mentioned that was going to be given after the updated tutorial (would it be a T6, considering the move to make them usable from just about the get go?).
The current Discovery arc has been about building up this idea of J'Ula as a new threat in 2410, which we haven't seen yet. My bet is a coming Klingon Civil War, which destabilizes the Alliance.
I would have thought that J'mpok would have been rooting for J'Ula, maybe even providing her resources behind the scenes. Especially after his "I'm going to let the Alliance waste it's resources on the fight with our old enemy the Hur'q, while we'll swoop in after the carnage to be on top" stratagem for the Gamma Quadrant story arc.
The divisions drawing up after the return of General Martok was showing during that story arc (especially when a certain witch turned out to be from a certain sister of T'Kuvma was in a great position to undermine General Martok's side in a potential civil war).
If J'Ula was working both sides against the other so she could work her way to the top, then she would really be a threat, I suppose.
Agreed. J'mpok just wanted to see the Dominion burn. Meanwhile it seems as though J'mpok is viewing J'Ula as a major threat to the stability of the Empire. Martok has no interest in being Chancillor again, so there is no reason to have a Martok vs J'mpok civil war. However J'Ula, being from a period where the Federation and Empire were at war, would see the current situation in the 25th Century as a disgrace and try and rally support to either start up the war again or take over the Empire after gathering intel on the current climate.
Don't forget J'Ula is not only ruthless, she's smart. I mean WICKED smart. She's not gonna be as blatant as say B'Vat. She's gonna wait for the right moment to strike.
And as for Picard and making STO conform to it... the Devs have said several times that if any changes are minor, they can work it in, but anything major, like say no war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, STO would just branch off and be its own timeline.
The only significant game changers I can think of are them raising the lvl cap again, adding another class related captain skill, a new Fleet Holding and/or maybe something more drastic like them finally introducing T7 ships.
Those are system changes and not what Geko was talking about. Story Arc.
I can't wait until the end of July when STLV happens and we can put all this behind us. We will be underwhelmed.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
My general problem with storyline is it mainly treats me as Federation even when playing my KDF or KDF alligned Romulan and JH. A great storyline change to bring back an unhappy group would be starting to value everyone. Its not nice to have mostly one sided stories I mean. I am not totally sure what Gecko meant but hopefully it is a consideration.
> @lordmerc22 said:
> My general problem with storyline is it mainly treats me as Federation even when playing my KDF or KDF alligned Romulan and JH. A great storyline change to bring back an unhappy group would be starting to value everyone. Its not nice to have mostly one sided stories I mean. I am not totally sure what Gecko meant but hopefully it is a consideration.
Ok now we have something story related. Revamping dialogue to be less faction/race agnostic could indeed be a "change the face of the game" moment.
> @lordmerc22 said:
> My general problem with storyline is it mainly treats me as Federation even when playing my KDF or KDF alligned Romulan and JH. A great storyline change to bring back an unhappy group would be starting to value everyone. Its not nice to have mostly one sided stories I mean. I am not totally sure what Gecko meant but hopefully it is a consideration.
Ok now we have something story related. Revamping dialogue to be less faction/race agnostic could indeed be a "change the face of the game" moment.
Yes. And some people would indeed be happy about it.
However, it'd also be a lot of voiceovers to redo, which is expensive. Somehow I doubt the happiness of the minority KDF separatists is worth that much to Cryptic.
> @lordmerc22 said:
> My general problem with storyline is it mainly treats me as Federation even when playing my KDF or KDF alligned Romulan and JH. A great storyline change to bring back an unhappy group would be starting to value everyone. Its not nice to have mostly one sided stories I mean. I am not totally sure what Gecko meant but hopefully it is a consideration.
Ok now we have something story related. Revamping dialogue to be less faction/race agnostic could indeed be a "change the face of the game" moment.
It's something that was popular in Foundry missions. The devs of course know this, and some of the newer missions have options like this.
"talent" nah, it's more that they don't have a reason to devote days or weeks of work to making it so you can customize random NPCs that no one will see
Comments
They ARE NOT rewritting anythbing in STO to a new engine. They're happy with the one they have. You only upgrade for a viable reason as any such task (upgrading to a new Engine) costs A LOT of money - so you don't do it unless you somehow expect to make WAY MORE than you are with the existing Engine.
Botton line: They are making a tidy profit with their current setup (if Dev and Marketing comments are to be believed) - thus there's no need at this time to spend money to covert to a new engine.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Or... and I know this is really out there... WAR GAMES. Tactical exercises.
And weren't you gonna stop talking mechanics? PvP and factions are mechanics.
Story would be more who we're dealing with, what worlds we'll get to visit... things like that. Right now we know that we're gonna have to deal with J'Ula, and we know we're gonna be dealing with Admiral Leeta. The question is... how will we do so?
The Galactic Union still lies in the future, sometime in the late 25th or early 26th century. Therefore, there are still factions, whether you approve of their implementation or no (too many people seem to want to play Klingons as evil pirates preying on everyone, rather than a warrior people who see combat as their duty - similar to the split between the lore of the Horde in WoW and the way people want to play Horde toons). Even when the Galactic Union is achieved, Klingons will keep their traditional modes of dress and carry their traditional weapons, as we saw during the signing of the Temporal Accords.
PVP and the faction system being removed would be mechanics changes, once again something that was said isn't going to happen.
First you say the faction system would be going away, then you go right back to talking about factional sides with Romulan vs. Romulan, which we had already before the Romulans come in.
If anything, the story is gonna move in such a way that maybe we'll see more than just the Mirror Terrans.
In our travels we will run into the Race from Gary Seven's Planet.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
My character Tsin'xing
PvP taken to the next level!
Probably be introducing new ships from that series as well, such as the one that was mentioned that was going to be given after the updated tutorial (would it be a T6, considering the move to make them usable from just about the get go?).
I would have thought that J'mpok would have been rooting for J'Ula, maybe even providing her resources behind the scenes. Especially after his "I'm going to let the Alliance waste it's resources on the fight with our old enemy the Hur'q, while we'll swoop in after the carnage to be on top" stratagem for the Gamma Quadrant story arc.
The divisions drawing up after the return of General Martok was showing during that story arc (especially when a certain witch turned out to be from a certain sister of T'Kuvma was in a great position to undermine General Martok's side in a potential civil war).
If J'Ula was working both sides against the other so she could work her way to the top, then she would really be a threat, I suppose.
Don't forget J'Ula is not only ruthless, she's smart. I mean WICKED smart. She's not gonna be as blatant as say B'Vat. She's gonna wait for the right moment to strike.
And as for Picard and making STO conform to it... the Devs have said several times that if any changes are minor, they can work it in, but anything major, like say no war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, STO would just branch off and be its own timeline.
I can't wait until the end of July when STLV happens and we can put all this behind us. We will be underwhelmed.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
My character Tsin'xing
Dont forget Gecko(Al) likes to exaggerate
However, it'd also be a lot of voiceovers to redo, which is expensive. Somehow I doubt the happiness of the minority KDF separatists is worth that much to Cryptic.
My character Tsin'xing
My character Tsin'xing