Again, no one is debating that CBS has input in the game, they're not just going to let people do whatever they want with their IP, but the idea that they micromanage every single transaction and approve the availability of each item offered is frankly, ridiculous.
My understanding initially was that CBS didn't want very old ships to be competitive with modern ships at all, and they wanted captains flying ships from other factions to be a very rare occurrence, with those two blanket statements forming the basis for the initial lockbox and "no T6 Connie" rules.
Clearly CBS has changed their mind on that in the years since, otherwise we wouldn't have had AoY, Cardassian C-Store ships, or the addition of cross faction C-Store ship availability. So how a ship is released is purely a Cryptic marketing decision now, the fact that they've stuck to the previous pattern is probably a combination of not having any NEW post-Nemesis Trek content to pull from until now, as well as possibly making an effort to not anger fans .
I am surprised the Mirror Connie wasn't a Promo ship. I know it's not 'all that' but it's still a T6 Connie.
So is the Kelvin Timeline Heavy Command Cruiser. And that one was the FIRST T6 Connie in game, as a lockbox ship.
Which might have been a mistake on their part.
They put the Kelvin Connie as the Grand Prize and the Vengeance as the 'consolation prize' and most people wanted the Vengeance. I am not sure they wouldn't want to do that one over again.. I am sure they still made plenty of money, people likely opened a lot of boxes for Lobi, but still. I think they over estimated the demand for the Kelvin Timeline Constitution Class and somewhat undervalued the Vengeance.
Worked for me though, the second I saw the Vengeance on the big screen in the theater my first thought was that I couldn't wait to fly one in STO.
That's why im saying that the Inquiry was a good candidate for lobi..., it wuold be the Vengance of modern times!
That's why im saying that the Inquiry was a good candidate for lobi..., it wuold be the Vengance of modern times!
I think that's precisely why it wasn't lobi. They didn't want to make the same mistake they did with the Vengeance.
I'm pretty sure whoever decided to make it lobi is still raging for having failed to see all the additional potential money they could have made if it was put in a higher-priced box, considering it's a fan-favorite (it's pretty unusual not to see at least a couple every day), one of the high-points of the movie it's from and pretty solid in the meta.
Except while the Vengeance was incredibly badass and cool on-screen which is one of the reasons players wanted to get one, the Inquiry, despite being boasted by Riker as the best of the best... does absolutely nothing on screen and has nothing special compared to any other common Starfleet ship, outside of being subjected to the "lazy copy-pasted fleet" complaint.
Basically Kael didn't know that people had been led to believe that only rare and exotic shops would be in lockboxes until the Inquiry release triggered a lot of backlash. He's not sure who made the original statement, and doesn't know if it was phrased as a promise or as something else, but he did say that that has not been the reality for how they decide internally to release a ship for the entire time he's been there.
So essentially, anything and everything is open to appearing in a Promobox or Lockbox.
Basically Kael didn't know that people had been led to believe that only rare and exotic shops would be in lockboxes until the Inquiry release triggered a lot of backlash. He's not sure who made the original statement, and doesn't know if it was phrased as a promise or as something else, but he did say that that has not been the reality for how they decide internally to release a ship for the entire time he's been there.
So essentially, anything and everything is open to appearing in a Promobox or Lockbox.
No real surprise. Also i know people are going to bring it up. But they are never going to tell us what is the definning points that makes them decide to go c store, lockob, lobi or promo.
Undoubtedly financial is their primary consideration. However the other points that shifts their considerations will always (and rightly) remain obsecure. Otherwise you will then have arm chair admirals picking apart your discussion with a fine tooth comb.
While people may go "That should be OUR RIGHT". In a sense, your correct. But only if you remain objective, neutral and dont let feelings colour your analysis. Sadly, that is difficult for many people.
Basically Kael didn't know that people had been led to believe that only rare and exotic shops would be in lockboxes until the Inquiry release triggered a lot of backlash. He's not sure who made the original statement, and doesn't know if it was phrased as a promise or as something else, but he did say that that has not been the reality for how they decide internally to release a ship for the entire time he's been there.
So essentially, anything and everything is open to appearing in a Promobox or Lockbox.
Yeah, just listened to that too. At least he admitted some dev (he thinks Al but isn't sure) actually said this. No, not promised. But said it. At least that puts to bed the claim that it was never actually said and people just assumed it.
Like I said before, I understand that plans change. And that's fine. But now at least people can't claim the statement was never made.
I wonder how long that statement hasn't been true, because Kael makes it sound like for as long as he has worked there they stopped giving a TRIBBLE about whether a ship was exotic or not.
Also this really doesn't help them "assuage" the complaints people have, because the Inquiry still should not have been a promo pack. Because they wanted it to be, is a valid reason, but a terrible reason.
Basically Kael didn't know that people had been led to believe that only rare and exotic shops would be in lockboxes until the Inquiry release triggered a lot of backlash.
Well, let's check the releases until the Inquiry-class:
-Elachi Sheshar: rare boss ship in STO
-JH Strike Ship: player-exclusive T6 version of the JH Attack Ship that was a rare and powerful ship for players in STO for... some reasons
-Temporal TOS Connie, D7 and T'Liss: Temporal ships disguised as TOS hero ships, back when a T6 Connie was a surprising announcement
-Universe, Valkis, Durgath: gigantic 26th century timeships, only shown once with the Enterprise-J
-Amarie-class: boss ship shown once in TNG
-Annorax: boss ship shown once in Voyager, only one shown in STO
-Son'a Collector Dread: boss ship shown once in TNG: Insurrection
-Tzen-Tar Dread: rare boss ship in STO
-Vedcrid Hive Dread: rare boss ship in STO
-Vaadwaur Juggernaut: rare boss ship in STO, first Juggernaut
-Mirror Crossfield: debris shown once in DSC, Mirror!hero ship
-Donnie and DSC D7 Flight-Decks: Donnie specifically improved with special fighters by Number One for the Battle near Xahea
-Freedom-class (Franklin): retrofit of a hero ship shown once in Beyond, first non-event Frigate
-Jellyfish-XL: XL version of a supposedly-one-of-a-kind ship shown once in Star Trek 2009
-S31 Heavy Battlecruiser: Section 31 boss ship (with lots of drone-ships), only 3 shown once in DSC
-La Sirena: unique hero ship
Gee, I wonder how people got that idea only rare and exotic ships were for R&D boxes...
Gee, I wonder how people got that idea only rare and exotic ships were for R&D boxes...
Yeah, he clearly hasn't been paying attention if he didn't realize there has never been a single "normal" faction ship in a lockbox before the Inquiry. That said, oh well
That literally disproves nothing what I said, or what was said in Picard itself. All that shows is that they made a bigger version later.
I mean, did you even read it?
The Picard version is a Fed-modified Kaplan F17 Speed Freighter.
The STO version is a La Sirena Heavy Raider, a different type of ship than the original Sirena.
I don't think this can be any clearer. The STO version is not a Kaplan F17 Speed Freighter, which was a mass produced civilian small cargo transport ship. And for that matter, technically, la Sirena is a modified version as well.
The Picard version is a Fed-modified Kaplan F17 Speed Freighter.
Incorrect. Its a Rios modified Kaplan, the Federation itself didn't modify jack.
I didn't say anything about the Federation doing so, just saying it was "Fed-modified", meaning retrofitted with Fed tech, which is confirmed by the RL designer:
Cherniawsky noted that La Sirena was a non-Federation ship that had become "retrofit[ted] with Federation technology" over time, the holodeck and staterooms in particular. Cherniawsky also suggested the weapons rack had "accumulated a variety of weapons that probably date back as many as 150 years." ("La Sirena Set Tour", TRR: "Away Mission Special")
and Picard himself:
"Oh really? I see this ship is impeccably maintained, every bolt, and clasp, and fitting in place. Everything stowed in regulation Starfleet order. I don't know what happened to you, Rios, or the ibn Majid, but five minutes on this ship, and I know precisely what I'm looking at. You are Starfleet to the core. I can smell it on you."
Still a mass produced ship.
Nowhere is it said this particular version is mass-produced. The fact that it is found in a RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT pack would indicate a leaning toward the opposite.
well, one bit of evidence more people are playing.. when is the last time you saw a queue to get on the game? LoR? yet this last one you had that. as far as lobi vs c store vs lockbox/r&D, I think it's a safe bet that new "hero" ships will be LB/R&D, significant others become Lobi and redone T6 (like the luna) will be C-Store. Except the Nova, because they will only allow 1 in game, just to TRIBBLE off everyone who has posted in the Nova thread...
I could be wrong but I think a saw a lot more overall players in the second half of 2016, around the release of AoY.
And I don't mean according to some steam-charts nonsense. I mean in-game.
Well Cryptic has lowered the number of people per instance since then. So you will see less people in general, since less people can load into each instance.
And despite this not necessarily being bad, it still makes an MMO *feel* less alive. In games like Warframe, where your own main-hub is your own orbiter, it doesn't matter too much. In a game like STO where you go to DS9 or a huge spacedock, it kinda does.
Comments
My understanding initially was that CBS didn't want very old ships to be competitive with modern ships at all, and they wanted captains flying ships from other factions to be a very rare occurrence, with those two blanket statements forming the basis for the initial lockbox and "no T6 Connie" rules.
Clearly CBS has changed their mind on that in the years since, otherwise we wouldn't have had AoY, Cardassian C-Store ships, or the addition of cross faction C-Store ship availability. So how a ship is released is purely a Cryptic marketing decision now, the fact that they've stuck to the previous pattern is probably a combination of not having any NEW post-Nemesis Trek content to pull from until now, as well as possibly making an effort to not anger fans .
That's why im saying that the Inquiry was a good candidate for lobi..., it wuold be the Vengance of modern times!
I'm pretty sure whoever decided to make it lobi is still raging for having failed to see all the additional potential money they could have made if it was put in a higher-priced box, considering it's a fan-favorite (it's pretty unusual not to see at least a couple every day), one of the high-points of the movie it's from and pretty solid in the meta.
Except while the Vengeance was incredibly badass and cool on-screen which is one of the reasons players wanted to get one, the Inquiry, despite being boasted by Riker as the best of the best... does absolutely nothing on screen and has nothing special compared to any other common Starfleet ship, outside of being subjected to the "lazy copy-pasted fleet" complaint.
So essentially, anything and everything is open to appearing in a Promobox or Lockbox.
No real surprise. Also i know people are going to bring it up. But they are never going to tell us what is the definning points that makes them decide to go c store, lockob, lobi or promo.
Undoubtedly financial is their primary consideration. However the other points that shifts their considerations will always (and rightly) remain obsecure. Otherwise you will then have arm chair admirals picking apart your discussion with a fine tooth comb.
While people may go "That should be OUR RIGHT". In a sense, your correct. But only if you remain objective, neutral and dont let feelings colour your analysis. Sadly, that is difficult for many people.
Yeah, just listened to that too. At least he admitted some dev (he thinks Al but isn't sure) actually said this. No, not promised. But said it. At least that puts to bed the claim that it was never actually said and people just assumed it.
Like I said before, I understand that plans change. And that's fine. But now at least people can't claim the statement was never made.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Also this really doesn't help them "assuage" the complaints people have, because the Inquiry still should not have been a promo pack. Because they wanted it to be, is a valid reason, but a terrible reason.
-Elachi Sheshar: rare boss ship in STO
-JH Strike Ship: player-exclusive T6 version of the JH Attack Ship that was a rare and powerful ship for players in STO for... some reasons
-Temporal TOS Connie, D7 and T'Liss: Temporal ships disguised as TOS hero ships, back when a T6 Connie was a surprising announcement
-Universe, Valkis, Durgath: gigantic 26th century timeships, only shown once with the Enterprise-J
-Amarie-class: boss ship shown once in TNG
-Annorax: boss ship shown once in Voyager, only one shown in STO
-Son'a Collector Dread: boss ship shown once in TNG: Insurrection
-Tzen-Tar Dread: rare boss ship in STO
-Vedcrid Hive Dread: rare boss ship in STO
-Vaadwaur Juggernaut: rare boss ship in STO, first Juggernaut
-Mirror Crossfield: debris shown once in DSC, Mirror!hero ship
-Donnie and DSC D7 Flight-Decks: Donnie specifically improved with special fighters by Number One for the Battle near Xahea
-Freedom-class (Franklin): retrofit of a hero ship shown once in Beyond, first non-event Frigate
-Jellyfish-XL: XL version of a supposedly-one-of-a-kind ship shown once in Star Trek 2009
-S31 Heavy Battlecruiser: Section 31 boss ship (with lots of drone-ships), only 3 shown once in DSC
-La Sirena: unique hero ship
Gee, I wonder how people got that idea only rare and exotic ships were for R&D boxes...
Yeah, he clearly hasn't been paying attention if he didn't realize there has never been a single "normal" faction ship in a lockbox before the Inquiry. That said, oh well
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
+0.1 internet point!
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Technically speaking that's not actually even true, from Thomas himself:
The STO version is a La Sirena Heavy Raider, a different type of ship than the original Sirena.
I don't think this can be any clearer. The STO version is not a Kaplan F17 Speed Freighter, which was a mass produced civilian small cargo transport ship. And for that matter, technically, la Sirena is a modified version as well.
I could be wrong but I think a saw a lot more overall players in the second half of 2016, around the release of AoY.
And I don't mean according to some steam-charts nonsense. I mean in-game.
And despite this not necessarily being bad, it still makes an MMO *feel* less alive. In games like Warframe, where your own main-hub is your own orbiter, it doesn't matter too much. In a game like STO where you go to DS9 or a huge spacedock, it kinda does.