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Ten Forward weekly 7/27/22
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Member Posts: 3,156 Arc User
From: https://reddit.com/r/sto/comments/wagb9l/ten_forward_weekly_72722/
Credit to: https://reddit.com/user/TheSajuukKhar/
Credit to: https://reddit.com/user/TheSajuukKhar/
- Kael doesn't know when the ShiKahr skin updates are coming to console, but he will ask about it
- No current plans for more "lifeform" ships like the Jellyfish, doesn't mean they don't do more in the future
- Cryptic is looking into the Jellyfish console power being bright, and causing people issues
- Kael has talked to the team about getting currently existing bridges added to more ships that only have the basic bridge available. Kael believes you should be able to use any bridge you own
- One of the programmers is working on letting you zoom out more on consoles
- After the next Red Alert event is a 3 week event thats contributes to the event campaign
- Kael will ask about getting advanced and elite versions of Operation Wolf and Iuppiter Iratus added. Hes not sure why we wouldn't have them
- There is no SNW content on the calendar currently. So nothing for the next several months at least, maybe closer to the end of year
- Kael will ask about getting lower Decks haircuts added to the game. Kael is kind of excited about the SNW/LD crossover, hoping they do it full on Roger Rabbit style so they can just use them exactly how they looked in the show(side note, as far as I am aware they already confirmed the LD characters will be appearing in live action so this isn't going to pan out)
- If Picard S3 causes any significant changes to the timeline STO uses Cryptic will deal with if they want to say its an alternate timeline, or if Butterfly changed things, etc. Same thing with what happened with the Borg at the end of S2 of Picard
- Cryptic still hasn't gotten the OK from Nick to do Prodigy content
- Kael is pushing to have effects turned off from other players, but theres a lot of tech work that would need to be done since things like weapons are just effects, so character would have their hands up holding nothing if you turned off other player's effects
- There is news on the Sagan class(Stargazer from PIC S2)
- Unlikely to get Spotify integration into the STO music player since not a lot of people use it, and people who want to listen to music just tend to have Spotify or w/e open on another tab
- If STO does become an alternate timeline that would give them more leeway in terms of content, but the trade off would be the game loosing a lot of the legitimacy Cryptic has tried built up
- More likely to see STO focused story arcs with guest characters from across the series then something like a TNG or ENT specific story arc
- Updates to Borg ships came because Thomas decided to update them
- Unlikely to add new half factions like Romulans and Dominion due to the amount of work needed, especially for the new tutorial. More likely to add more player races to existing factions
- Kael isn't sure Cryptic will redo things like the weapon/power layouts for the ships in missions like "Step Between Stars". He knows there were reasons why the ships were designed the way they were. Likely to give players as wide of a taste as possible and not force them to any one thing
- No current plans to update anything like old uniforms/older races
- Stuff had to be moved around on the schedule and so we got this double Red alert event instead of just having nothing, console had the same happen earlier in the year, and so now thats filtering down to PC
- Unlikely we will ever be able to use PC accounts on consoles since the game was designed when such things weren't allowed, so it was never set up to even possibly to do it
- Kael has heard nothing about stopping the use of Reshade
- Kael would like to get the DPS testing map from tribble on live, but theres work that needs to be done there(preventing people from using it to farm endeavors, needing to redo the coding behind it to make it more efficient based on what devs have said on past livestreams)
- Unlikely to get something like a Legendary Cardassian Galor since legendary ships tend to have 3-4 variants to bundle together and things like the Galor don't
- Kael legitimately doesn't know if the ENT-F in Picard S3 is the STO Oddyssey class
- Unlikely that Cryptic would sell STL files directly for people to use for 3D item printing at home because it would involve making software to make those models into STL files, and then having some way for players to purchase them, and Kael isn't sure that would be worth the effort
- No plans to make the other two parts of a multi-vector ship directly controllable. Kael isn't sure how they would even do that
- Kael isn't sure why the Cali class isn't 3d printable, he will ask if its an oversight or a licensing issue(the response later in the stream was that it was a licensing issue)
- The FED/KDF team separation is hardcorded into the game, but there might be light at the end of that tunnel. Kael doesn't know how soon that might come, but he has more hope on it then he did a year ago
- There's less light at the end of the gender/species change tunnel since it hasn't been looked into as much as Kael would like it to have been, but he will bang that drum again
- There is also light at the end of the tunnel for DSC Andorians
- The feature Kael cannot confirm or deny exists(elite BOFF tokens) have run into technical hurdles that have caused it to be pushed back twice
- The unannounced feature is not why BOFF traits got messed up recently, that was just a random issue that cropped up
- Elite captain tokens work out differently economically compared to ship upgrade tokens since people tend to have many more ships then they do captains(Kael was asked about getting elite captain tokens from RA missions)
- Kael would really like STO to do the Gorn next due to their appearance in SNW, but hes not sure if they can because of their prominent role in SNW, and not wanting to start a Gorn story next year only for SNW to come out with something that completely contradicted STO
- Kael believes the all clear has been given on Hearts and Minds showing up again for Halloween/Friday the 13th
- Buying mission rewards for dil wouldn't be a good dil sink since it isn't repeatable
- Cosmetic weapon slots not likely to happen any time soon for the previously stated reasons
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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Comments
That's good to hear. Wanting to do it eventually is much much better than a flat denial like for weapon visuals.
> Kael believes the all clear has been given on Hearts and Minds showing up again for Halloween/Friday the 13th
Yeah! I think I am way over “Hearts and Minds,”but I want more Dr. Sibaks.
> @TheSajuukKhar said :
> Kael is kind of excited about the SNW/LD crossover, hoping they do it full on Roger Rabbit style so they can just use them exactly how they looked in the show(side note, as far as I am aware they already confirmed the LD characters will be appearing in live action so this isn't going to pan out)
I’m not excited. Talk about small galaxy syndrome. 100 billion planets in the galaxy—trillions of people, and yet we always seem to run into the same characters and aliens. They really should consider renaming the series “Same Old Worlds.”
Good to hear indeed.
Of course I don't spend much time there, but when I do, I'd like to have a normal bridge. Not something that looks like that old map in Researcher Rescue with only grey, bare walls and clumsy consoles that make those Vaadwaur computers from Dust to Dust look modern. (No disrespect towards designers intended, I just believe they have created much better designs since then.
Good to know. I hope it's a Voth-related event, we haven't had one of those in a while. Either way I can't wait to claim the big prize.
I'd be fine with that. I don't spend a lot of time looking at other players' characters when there are enemies nearby. So, please, keep pushing Ambassador!
I think that's the best way to do it. Though mini-factions, with a specific planet (say: Andoria) and city and a few special episodes could also work. You play a few unique episodes in newly built environments (which could be retained and a reason to redesign some currently existing planets) and then you join Starfleet or the KDF and follow their regular storyline.
But if they decide to focus on species instead, I hope we'll see some new ones soon.
I've already given my opinion on this elsewhere. But I think this is worth another post. I think the creators of this game would be right to be hesitant towards becoming an alternate timeline.
The people behind STO have cared for the franchise when no one at CBS did. They continuously published mostly coherent stories. They have built upon previously unexplained things from the series and movies. Created linkages that were previously not there, and all of this without contradicting 'canon'.
A few changes and cuts have been made to the game's content of course, but that isn't surprising in over 12 years time.
CBS, on the other hand, generally hasn't been concerned with continuity. As above, I'm referring to both release intervals and consistency here. Their (fresh) devotion to the IP is much more recent. And more ambiguous in terms of adhering to previously established in-universe facts.
I'm reminded of Superman and Lois, all the set up suggested it was set in the Arrowverse, same actors, some storyline references. Then along comes the season 2 finale and boom nope sudden shark jumping into a new universe and that cost me as a viewer and a box set buyer.
My reaction would not be the same in Star Trek's case but I wouldn't be a happy boy needless to say.
The best news though is the possibility of adding new races to the current factions, it would make the Dominion actually playable for the people who cannot stand to play Jem'Hadar (and there are a lot of those players judging by ingame chat and these forums).
The DSC Andorians would be a good addition as long as they do not prevent making TOS and ENT Andorians like the way the Shi'kahr class ship was recently mangled.
Not sure why we can't use Cardys over there either.
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Unlikely. There's already too many TOS and ENT style Andorians running around, and we already can have encounters with DSC Andorian NPCs. Odds are it will just be a cosmetic option, either like how we have the Andorians right now who can be either or, or they will do the same thing they did with DSC Klingons and make it a second option on character creation.
There's always outliers. Rogues in every setup. Plus the Cardassians are a shell of what they were, which was already barely functional.
If a Bajoran with as much ingrained hatred for Cardassians as Kira can end up working with them, a Cardassian can work with Neo-Doms.
They'd have to have some extensive rewriting in the Jem'Hadar story to justify Cardassians and Vorta in what was clearly written with Jem'Hadar in mind. Not only that, the Dominion has, at least until the end of the Hur'q Crisis, been stagnant in terms of military. They've maintained pretty much every element that had been established in DS9, complete with Jem'Hadar being soldiers. The Dominion is a lot more strict on their military than the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans.
For the Dominion, its literally why bother training a Vorta or even a Cardassian, when you can just breed a Jem'Hadar to do it? Each species had its purpose, and the Jem'Hadar are the soldiers.
I'm not saying that I'm against the idea of opening up more species options for the Dominion, but we have to remember HOW the playable faction was set up, which falls in line with established canon on the Dominion and how rigid they are. Could Cryptic make female Jem'Hadar in the future to show times changing in the Dominion thanks to Odo's influence? Possibly. But that would be a lot easier to slot in than slotting in a Cardassian or Vorta into the Dominion story as it stands now. The whole arc is a Jem'Hadar one.
Actually, the tutorial for the Dominion is exactly right for Vorta the way they are depicted in DS9 as being the officers and the Jem'hadar the non-coms and lower (more precisely, the Jem'Hadar were considered intelligent weapon systems, not soldiers if you pay attention to the nuances of dialog and body language of the Vorta and Founders), the only change they would have to make would be some wording for the mission-giver to make it a little more general, and skipping the shroud part (since Vorta were never shown to have that ability iirc).
If the devs are feeling frisky they could add a telekinesis tutorial section for Vorta or change the wording for the shroud part to suggest using telekinesis instead if the character is a Vorta and maybe ordinary stealth for other races, but it wouldn't be a big problem if they just left it as is or simply skipped it for non-horneytoads.
The idea of having to gather scattered, confused troops into an effective defense (and later striker) force is right in the wheelhouse of Vorta "field supervisiors" (what the Dominion apparently calls their traditional officer corps) like Eris, Kilana, Keevan, ship captains like Luaran, and others. It makes the "Jem'Hadar" tutorial feel like it was a minor rewrite of a Vorta scenario to make it use a J'H instead.
And remember, Weyoun was a disinformation specialist from their intelligence service, anything he said was very likely to be a lie as part of his job of deceiving the Federation and other Alpha/Beta powers in preparation for the invasion. In fact, in interviews Jeffrey Combs himself said that most of what Weyoun said were lies, as did several other people involved in the production.
There is no reason why Odo's reforms could not have included opening the military to other annexed nations/races like the Wadi, Dosi, and others including expat Cardassians.
As for the rest of the Gamma arc, nothing except the one, short, tutorial section is restricted to Jem'Hadar. The fact that it involves Ketrecel White and Jem'Hadar as plot points does not make it a Jem'Hadar-only arc any more than the Klingon revolution arcs were only for characters who were racially Klingon.
One thing that could be a problem though is the endgame-start stuff which makes sense for Jem'Hadar and Vorta (or at least second-generation-and-later Vorta who have enough memories from their predecessors to have an endgame-appropriate level of experience) but probably not so much sense for the others. But even that can be gotten around by assuming they were active for a while before they enter the game if the mechanics of the system make it necessary for everyone in the faction to enter at endgame like that.
That said, even if they only open the Dominion as far as playable Vorta (and Vorta military officers are just as canon as Jem'Hadar troops) it would dig the 'faction' out of the rut it is in now and be lightyears better than what exists for it in the game currently.
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True, it wasn't meant to have any other races when it was created, it was STO's jump onto the endgame-starting character fad bandwagon like Tera's Reaper class and not really a faction in the normal sense. Unfortunately, the wheels fell off of that bandwagon pretty much across the industry, so the endgame-starting character novelty alone is not sufficient to carry it far, and Jem'Hadar are just not interesting to a large chunk of the STO playerbase.
I am fairly certain from ingame chat and things said in this forum that STO lost a lot of sales of the Legendary Vanguard Attack Ship even though it was priced considerably lower than comparable legendary ships and still had more bloat goodies on top of that to try and sweeten the deal (for instance, it was low enough that I was considering getting it except for the fact I would not be able to use any of it except the just the ship itself, something a lot of other people complained about as well). Also, both Steam and MMOPopulations tracking shows a significant dip during the Gamma Recruit events compared to the other recruitments, especially when there is not another event running concurrently with it to prop it up.
Episode potential wise it is entirely a one-trick pony and after the Hur'q storyline there is nothing left to build on, so it is just coasting on momentum (and for a large part of the player base it didn't have that much momentum to begin with), which is a shame since the Dominion itself has a lot of story possibilities that Odo's expeditionary force lacks since it is just a military unit with a single mission and not an interstellar power with all the natural complexity and internal strife that entails like the other factions are.
And frankly, none of the other factions actually need new prefab races (though they definitely would be nice to have as a shortcut), since they don't have a situation where a lot of players simply avoid them that the "Jem'Hadar" faction has by nature of it being essentially just a single niche (and genderlocked no less, which is never a good thing in MMOs) race. In many ways it is the same drag as those episodes that force the player to play an NPC they either couldn't care less about or even actively dislike (like The Renegade's Regret).
STO would simply get the most bang for the buck by adding at least Vorta to the faction. Nothing else comes close since the other factions all have something to offer everyone and most of the "new" races for the other factions are not really new, just another revamp of already existing races unless they get the IP issues cleared away for some of the very few actual new ones like Kelpians (though they would probably be rather niche as well judging by the types of characters seen in the various social zones in the game), and possibly synths (though they would probably be entirely a back-end change like the difference between a regular Trill and a Joined Trill).
Fair point, but that doesn't mean they can't ever update the faction to be Dominion, at least to the extent of adding the most-requested race (Vorta). I agree that including Cardassians would be harder to fit in.
Note that we already have not-quite-appropriate dialog in the KDF where an Orion speaks of their honor or Talaxian is made to talk about their love of Kahless instead of their desire to cook revolting food.
If Cryptic doesn't want to add new dialog and If a player chooses a Vorta they can live with being treated as Jem'Hadar now and then if that's more fun for them.
I'd like to see this feature for playability. I can't complete Tenebris Torquent to save my life but I desperately want to get the reward and complete that arc. At this point, I'll never add another toon to my account because of it. In the future, if I could buy my way out of a mission that I have tried to complete, I would be thrilled! I'd gladly pay dilithium or zen to do that.
The rewards for Tenebris Torquent are 20 vials of Ketrecel White (which is only useful for Jem'Hadar, and they get the white for free on DS9 already) and a choice of ordinary craftable polaron weapons. In the future you could use the skip function to get around it and go directly to (Home which is the one that has the unique items (the Morphogenic Polaron set) as rewards.
Your general point is right though, I think everyone has missions that they have trouble getting through that have gear they need for particular builds, and they might pay to get the rewards without the hassle. The devs are also right though, it would probably not be a significant dil sink so it would depend on whether they feel the hassle-factor for players is serious enough to address with that modification.