Well, we have all been asking Cryptic for several significant things to be added to the game. We asked for bridges, interiors, diplomacy... and we're getting them.
Now, while I am delighted and highly commend Cryptic for paying attention to us, and responding so quickly, I do have a concern, and I wondered what other people might say about it.
We asked for Bridges, and I think most would agree, they're disappointing. They're far, far too big, badly designed in most cases, and non-functional. I mean, I can't even sit on my bridge and participate in zone chat.
This led me to wonder, what if the implementation of Interiors and Diplomacy, and any other things we might like to see, are as poor? Would we rather have nothing than a half-assed product, or is something, anything, better than nothing?
For my part, I say get it right before you introduce it. I would rather wait for a GOOD system of diplomacy, for example, than get a crappy one quickly.
My thinking on this is, SHARE your plans with the community. Give us some idea of the direction you're going, in as much detail as possible, and see what we think of it.
Unfortunately I believe they will just push out the diplomacy whatnot as soon as they can so that they can attract more players as its a 'new feature'. Tis the way MMO's work unfortunately.
I have faith in Cryptic however. They have turned me into a firm believer that they are one of the better MMO companies out there currently (CCP claim top spot for me even if I dont play their game).
I think Cryptic is a small studio that's trying to do what they can with the resources they have. They'll get around to "fleshing things out". I've never designed or ran a video game, but I'm pretty sure that adding things to the game take time and effort.
When the new stuff arrives on Tribble make sure you go and test it and provide feedback to the developers about it (saying it is "half-assed" helps no-one)
Also try to understand the limitations of making a game. For example, doors, corridors and rooms have to much larger than in real life otherwise movement becomes very difficult.
Good things evolve organically over time. Rarely does one magic up something awesome on the first try.
We have bridges now, and withour feedback Cryptic will be able to make them good... and have no doubt they will.
I think that's the better way of doing it. Put out a generic basic version and let the players give input on how it should be developed further. Seems it would cut down on development time rather than putting out a developed version that noone likes and had to go back and redo it.
The point here is that I'm concerned that the system they add will be unsatisfactory. I'm just thinking they might be better off collaborating with the players and getting feedback WHILE they design.
"Hey, we're going to do it this way, what do you think?"
"Ew. No, that's not going to work for us. Try it THIS way."
"Cool, we'll work with that.... Ok, how about now?"
"Better, how about you add THIS, and adjust THAT..."
The point here is that I'm concerned that the system they add will be unsatisfactory. I'm just thinking they might be better off collaborating with the players and getting feedback WHILE they design.
"Hey, we're going to do it this way, what do you think?"
"Ew. No, that's not going to work for us. Try it THIS way."
"Cool, we'll work with that.... Ok, how about now?"
"Better, how about you add THIS, and adjust THAT..."
You see what I mean?
They already do that. With quite a lot of things. It's just ... the people they deal with most are the ones on Tribble. And that's a small number of players. And they still have schedules to keep which force things live that aren't ready yet.
The point here is that I'm concerned that the system they add will be unsatisfactory. I'm just thinking they might be better off collaborating with the players and getting feedback WHILE they design.
"Hey, we're going to do it this way, what do you think?"
"Ew. No, that's not going to work for us. Try it THIS way."
"Cool, we'll work with that.... Ok, how about now?"
"Better, how about you add THIS, and adjust THAT..."
You see what I mean?
And if they did that to the extent you seem to want them to do it... then they would never get any work done... there would be far too many conflicting interests and no matter what decision they made... they would **** people off before the content is released...
Essentially... their development process would turn into the US Congress... lots of arguing and not much being done.
As a game developer... you have to make a decision on how you want the game to be in the end... while it is great to take player feedback and ideas... you have to make the final decision... having the very vocal and often polarized forums essentially making the decisions through constant critiques will lead to a horrible game of compromises to try and please everyone...
I see what you mean, but I just thought it would be useful if they posted their plan, so if there was a large response to it (positive or negative), they could see how it might be recieved before going live with it.
Relict's diplomacy idea (which was packaged with the Explore the System proposal) received developer feedback.
As for other features, Cryptic likes getting a foundation out first then expanding to it. It's part of the reason they keep such a large post-launch development team.
Exploration missions should be getting some love too, according to dstahl. The Koch Snowflake design principle seems to have been taken seriously.
Comments
Or rather about something we know very little about.
But on interiors... Think they said they are looking into the scaling issue.
I have faith in Cryptic however. They have turned me into a firm believer that they are one of the better MMO companies out there currently (CCP claim top spot for me even if I dont play their game).
Also try to understand the limitations of making a game. For example, doors, corridors and rooms have to much larger than in real life otherwise movement becomes very difficult.
We have bridges now, and withour feedback Cryptic will be able to make them good... and have no doubt they will.
I think that's the better way of doing it. Put out a generic basic version and let the players give input on how it should be developed further. Seems it would cut down on development time rather than putting out a developed version that noone likes and had to go back and redo it.
"Hey, we're going to do it this way, what do you think?"
"Ew. No, that's not going to work for us. Try it THIS way."
"Cool, we'll work with that.... Ok, how about now?"
"Better, how about you add THIS, and adjust THAT..."
You see what I mean?
They already do that. With quite a lot of things. It's just ... the people they deal with most are the ones on Tribble. And that's a small number of players. And they still have schedules to keep which force things live that aren't ready yet.
And if they did that to the extent you seem to want them to do it... then they would never get any work done... there would be far too many conflicting interests and no matter what decision they made... they would **** people off before the content is released...
Essentially... their development process would turn into the US Congress... lots of arguing and not much being done.
As a game developer... you have to make a decision on how you want the game to be in the end... while it is great to take player feedback and ideas... you have to make the final decision... having the very vocal and often polarized forums essentially making the decisions through constant critiques will lead to a horrible game of compromises to try and please everyone...
As for other features, Cryptic likes getting a foundation out first then expanding to it. It's part of the reason they keep such a large post-launch development team.
Exploration missions should be getting some love too, according to dstahl. The Koch Snowflake design principle seems to have been taken seriously.