As far as a First mission, for the series.. I kinda felt that it really wasn't that great.
Of course it's buggy as heck, which is a turn off (Engineers can't use Bunker Kit for example because their powers don't all work, as well as a few other Kits too, DOFF optional Mission can be uncompleteable, I even ran across the Cardassian Optional Mission as uncompletable once.). Some of the Voice acting is kinda sub par in some places (Espcially noticable at the end.)
I'm hoping that there's some more polish by the end when they link everything together so that it can flow as one grand story.
I'm also looking foward to the rest of the story provided they release it with less bugs then this one. :rolleyes:
after waiting for a year for content, i feel cheated and slighted. not saying the episode was bad but...
i would have expected more. i will reserve final judgement until after the series is over, but if this is what were going to expect- we got hosed boys and girls.
At what point, my friend, does the official story become so bad, inconsistent, and convoluted that you would prefer the fan made stuff? How many fronts does this war have? Is there, at this point, a plot to this game?
Your missions, I think, contribute far more to trek lore, than anything I've seen in the majority of this game's content, with the exception of a few select FEs. I have to be honest there. I think your lore is better than kill 5/5 gorn for no reason at all. You are advancing the timeline far more than unimaginative dungeon quests for shinies, half-baked and slapped together with no cohesion.
L99, your missions are more trek than much of this game. I'd rather see you in control, honestly. You seem to know what you're doing with this IP.
Glass half empty meet glass half full.
I agree with your assessment of Cryptic's strengths and weaknesses.
I think the problem comes down to prioritization. Cryptic will not grow by redoubling on its strengths.
Cryptic needs English majors. Cryptic needs people like you and me.
Kestrel is not enough by herself.
It's a ballsy thing to say but I'll say it.
I could get a job at White Wolf or Bioware. Either of us could. No doubt in my mind.
But I look at Cryptic and I see a NEED for them to integrate people like us. I sense that from Kestrel. I think dstahl sensed that. If you've ever applied and made it through their tests, I think you'd get that vibe from their employment tests and how they're structured.
I know a very competent veteran television story editor who is looking for a job and going through a foreclosure and I've directed him to apply at Cryptic for the same position several of us on the forums applied for. This man would rock content design.
I've spent the last twelve years of my life as a free idea farm for large companies while I waited tables and worked in offices and collected small checks and "thank you" credits. I've seen good people with resumes a mile long get sacked due to lack of a place for creatives as companies redoubled for their strengths, focusing on marketing and infrastructure. That's not how it should be. Creatives need to eat too.
There is something innately wrong with pushing tech as a profession and creative writing as a hobby. It's imbalanced.
- Sitting at the conference table to start the conference. The dialog tells you to take a seat in any chair to start the conference. I initially thought how cool, the game actually requires the use of an emote as part of a mission. My initial thought quickly turned to frustration though when the "sit in chair" emote would not allow me to sit in any of the chairs. It would put me hovering above it or hovering off the floor in front of it, and neither allowed the mission to continue. I ended up having to message someone in my fleet to figure out that I had to double-click a chair to sit in it and proceed with the mission. My response to this was, "how stupid of me to use the 'sit in chair' emote when told to sit in a chair." The response, my fleet mate had done the same thing and stuck there a bit himself.
the delay was largely due to other issue that have been discussed many time over from atari to free to play
no it wasn't. thats an excuse created by certain members of the community. work doesn't stop just because a company gets sold. they were working on other things that weren't needed and could have waited till far later. not to mention that excuse doesn't explain the '2 FE's per year' bs either
no the devs cant just use the foundry to make it. it does not work that way. it has to be using devs tools to be part of the game like every other mission, to be part of the journal, the have the rewards and xp, to make sure it stays up at all times regardless of what happens to the foundry.
the foundry is a dumbed down version of the dev tools. you're missing the point entirely.
the little extra side missions inside the mission has never been done before
except for, you know, just about half the rest of the missions in the game. theres nothing new about it
. the doff missions assignments have never been done before
gee, a link button to a doff mission. I bet they strained on that one
the person who has the kanar can be different depending on the order you do it in and has never been done before
except that its happened in quite a few missions. should pay more attention to some of them. its not the first time they've done that by any means.
the person who has the kanar can be different depending on the order you do it in and has never been done before
which means nothing.
I just don't get the impresion that "Second Wave" holds up in quality to the likes of "Skirmish" or "Cold Call" or "The Vault"
thats because it doesn't
After the battle you are told to proceed to Bajor, and once there, there is nothing to do other than get a popup dialog with a single option, that if clicked gets you yelled at.
indeed. odd place to end it to say the least. you'd think you'd at least transport to the surface and talk to whoever was in charge down there
It doesn't force you. Dabo is only one way of getting the Kanar.
what? dabo is for the holosuite reservation not the kanar
Also, that's 110% backwards. Game developers should be the ones supplying intriguing story direction., lore, and events that progress our characters. Events and meet-ups and tournaments are more in the arena that I'd expect to be player driven.
this ^^ fact is if a company is unable or unwilling to provide quality content in its mmo than they have no business running an mmo in the first place.
Honestly, it looks and plays like bad amateur stuff. Maybe it's because they are a small company and just do not have the money to make better things or spend time on those things to make them better
they're part of a very large and well funded company, who they claim is supposed to be providing them with proper funding. so thats not an excuse
We have to make butter with stones. They have moo cows. Can you imagine what we could do, if we had those moo cows too?
make the server explode within 30 minutes? bad, bad idea to even considering giving non-programmers access to the kind of scripting tools the devs actually use. you'd be amazed what you can break with a couple lines of code
Can you imagine what patrols would be like if they turned them over to foundry authors to remaster?
yes, I can. utter garbage for the most part. thats because for every good author you get, theres 50 that just slap some TRIBBLE together and use it as an exploit to farm exp, dilithium or officer report dailies.
At what point, my friend, does the official story become so bad, inconsistent, and convoluted that you would prefer the fan made stuff? How many fronts does this war have? Is there, at this point, a plot to this game?
its nowhere near there yet. the plot makes sense. considering the whole premise is the iconians manipulating everyone against eachother, the multiple fronts make sense. just because we haven't seen the end result of the plot doesn't mean there isn't one
In retrospect, while looking back at my time playing through "Second Wave" (while I thoroughly enjoyed the episode) I have the feeling that I'm playing a Foundry mission. Let me explain.
I will preface by stating I DID like the episode, I DID have fun. There is a lot I like about this as a setup episode for the series. However, there is a but.
The but being that I didn't get the impression that there isn't anything here (other than the voice acting obviously) that couldn't be done in the Foundry, or part of a Foundry mission.
I have to ask myself, why did it take so long to get this series out, if it is on the level and quality of a Foundry mission. Could Cryptic not just have used the Foundry and made this episode to get it out quickly? It seems like it to me. Other than the voice acting of course, I don't see anything really unique that would require developer tools to do? /shrug
My apologies if this has been brought up already, I haven't had time to read through the forum today.
I guess my main beef is simply, what does this episode have that couldn't be done in the Foundry, i.e. allowing the entire series to be produced more quickly? I just don't get why it took so long, with an episode like this that seems to be on the level of what Foundry can do. I've seen some awesome Foundry missions by players, so why doesn't Cryptic just use the Foundry for making missions, to save time. I wasn't blown away with unique features in this episode that couldn't be done with Foundry tools, given the art assets are there.
I guess what I'm saying is, Cryptic really needs to make these FE series feel separate from a Foundry mission. I got that impression with every FE to date, except this one. To me, The 2800 so far seems like something that someone could have made in the Foundry.
Does that make any sense?
I do think you set your expectations too high. Also: Its just the first part of a new series.
I said this in the other thread by Kirkfat comparing this to a Foundry mission but...
If this had been a part of the missions released at launch, it would be the most epic thing ever.
As it stands, it pales before a lot of Foundry missions and I can't figure out how this one took 5+ weeks to make.
I think what bugs me most is the plot structure. The dialogue is interesting. The cutscenes feel a bit excessive. Most of the VO is engaging although Andiorian guy comes off way too human and Gorn guy comes off way too Klingon.
But the plot doesn't flow. It's just one thing after another. A series of tasks. I realize that's what the gameplay in STO supports but my issue is that the story doesn't really have chapters or rising action. That's how you give a series of events the appearance of meaning. There's no dramatic arc. No Anton Chekov, Syd Fields, or Joseph Campbell kind of structure to it. And while slavish adherence to structuralism doesn't make a story good by itself, Star Trek has a very, very structured form of storytelling.
A teaser and 4 acts. Plot A + Plot B = Plot C. There is a theme (absolution/redemption/revenge/forgiveness/paternal love/romantic love/individual vs. society) in a Star Trek story.
I'm not getting any of that here and Cloaked Intentions made me feel like Cryptic was evolving towards that.
Good Foundry missions build on an understanding of that.
I stated before and I will state it again, the writers of the CRYPTIC team are not good writers. In the old Featured Episodes there were too many flaws in regards to the story arc remaining fluid and captivating. This is one area of the team where talent is lacking.
For starter:
A) they do not capture the spirit of what Star Trek is about, but I don't entirely blame them. This is because its a video game and must cater to the style of the game.
The script is atrocious - this is in regards to words and phrases - (Now on their defense, it cost too much to flesh out a very good script - also due to the gaming community and the style of the game / folks want to jump into the action ASAP)
Because folks want to jump into the action, and for the most part don't want to bother with reading a good drawn out story arc, the CRYPTIC team is probably left with having to do quick scripts in spurts. Again we're talking about the nature of the beast here.
C) Its F2P - so investing time and resources is now secondary to making a constant cash flow - as evident of the CStore upgrades and gimmicks.
So for the most part, from now on expect low quality Featured Episodes from here on out. These future FE will now be linked with CStore promotions and cash flow gimmicks.
I think one of the major reasoning behind why it may be something one could few as a foundry mission is that being that the foundation which is apparent of the ground portion is a copy of DS9 itself with some minor changes to it for the episode. Some big giveaways are that the engineering kits for example work the same as they do in the ds9 social area. Another is that the focus on the space part does not include any special things you can command or have to do that cannot be done in the foundry. The only contradiction to that as you assist a ship it will come to your aide.
As for my two cents this is how I would have done this episode if I was designing it for a special feel of something no one in the foundry could do. The same as they did it on ground except once you have them board your ship I would have had it where you went to OPS to go assist the 1st officer. At that point when you got there would be dialogue where she would tell you to fight off the dominion with the stations defenses while she continued evacuation coordination. Instead of you piloting your ship to fight all those jem hadar on first stage of the space part I would have it where you had certain skills but couldnt actually move the station such as maybe some beam overloads and fire at wills and high yields/torpedo spreads to kill the jem hadar and once you did that then it would transfer you to your ship with a (I can do a site to site transport for one person and then you'd say wait but then too late) and then your on your ship and assist the 4 ships. Ending was good I liked it To me though that would have been a better way to do that mission it definately would be something never done before being able to use a space station as your command in space In all thats what most people are looking for in a FE something they cannot do normally not even in the foundry (or even close too) that gives the fun and excitement to the mission in discussion.
Maybe when they have more time they could take some of my ideas or someone elses and possibly remaster it to something better. In all though I liked the cinematics and such and voice overs are good for the most part even if its a cheap foundry mission its still content that was taken time to make which has been a long time since we've gotten more than nothing.
Well, to answer the OP's questions of "What did this have that a Foundry mission didn't? (Otherthan voice acting)".
One answer is cutscenes, and there's plenty of opinions as to whether or not they are a good thing.
This mission did introduce us to integrated Duty Officer missions which (while optional) allowed a captain to further immerse themselves in the experience.
And lastly the mission rewards were rather unique. A specialized usable item, that modifies a certain weapon's ability in a unique way. Think of the possibilities: I'd LOVE to have small usable items that would allow me to adjust the setting/effect on my Type 2 TOS phaser pistol or even the Type 1, if only for a few seconds. I'd love to be able to click this item, and have 10-15 sec's to deliver a devestating close ranged wide-beam blast from the Type 2 phaser. (The type 2 only alt-fires stun blasts, by the way.) Give the item a long cooldown to avoid overpowering. If these items could be created/replicated, I now have the ability to adjust weapon settings for my away teams. Just my thoughts as to what could be possible, given what I saw with the rewards. Though the dev's may keep these items unique to the Jem'Hadar weaps. =(
Did I feel cheated? Nah, not really. It's the first in a series of featured episodes. I'll wait until the series conclusion and then pass judgement. But as we all know, the Dev's often times use these episodes as a means to "show off" what is and could be potentially coming at us down the line. There's still time for this series to be an eye opener.
#1 foundry missions that get near this level of quality are anything but "cheap", those would be the 4-5 star missions.
#2 Voice Over, Camera paths / Cinematics, DOff mission integration... and some other things you just can't do that in the foundry (not yet anyway)
but to be honest, the thought had crossed my mind that half of this could be done in the foundry already, and i can't believe it would take 6 Weeks (or longer) for a Content Dev to do this. (like Geko said in multiple interviews)
Not if the VO work was done, the Art Assets are ready to go and the Text/Story was written down by somebody else already.
But then i am not even a Foundry author, so what do i know?
#1 foundry missions that get near this level of quality are anything but "cheap", those would be the 4-5 star missions.
#2 Voice Over, Camera paths / Cinematics, DOff mission integration... and some other things you just can't do that in the foundry (not yet anyway)
but to be honest, the thought had crossed my mind that half of this could be done in the foundry already, and i can't believe it would take 6 Weeks (or longer) for a Content Dev to do this. (like Geko said in multiple interviews)
Not if the VO work was done, the Art Assets are ready to go and the Text/Story was written down by somebody else already.
But then i am not even a Foundry author, so what do i know?
I could go with the idea that it feels like a very EXPENSIVE Foundry mission with a weak plot. And I'm not going to blame Kestrel for this entirely because I don't know her working conditions, who inputs text where, etc.
The dialogue was pretty good if baffling in places. But the execution of story was weak.
A think any Foundry author who could do a three star or better mission could take an outline from Kestrel and an asset requisition request for turnerboy and a systems request for the loot items/DOff hookups and run circles around this mission.
That's not a slam on whoever the content dev here is. Maybe he's a genius at PvP maps or STF design. But it doesn't show signs of writerly construction.
It's like an early 90s Image or Marvel comic book in terms of its construction. One of those books where they let an artist go crazy and maybe had a screenwriter come in and fill in the dialogue balloons with a few interesting bits of dialogue.
Every time I hear someone saying something to the effect of "I could make a better mission on the Foundry," my stock response is, "Okay. Go do it. I'll play it and then judge if your braggadocio has any merit."
I find the Foundry insanely limited. This came out better and did a lot of things the Foundry can't do, like doff integration.
This.
I'm not saying the new mission was all that and a bag of chips--I'm merely saying that Foundry authors wish they had similar options in the toolset because they know of the potential they could have.
Also, that's 110% backwards. Game developers should be the ones supplying intriguing story direction., lore, and events that progress our characters. Events and meet-ups and tournaments are more in the arena that I'd expect to be player driven.
I mean, c'mon, Stephen D'Angelo is not my guildmaster. Why should I want him and the team to back away from progression and event driven content to develop stuff that a good guild/fleet will do for them?
I don't know about you, but most of the Foundry missions I've played have better story content or even MORE story content than the standard missions.
This is an MMO, we need more group-orientated activities not more single-player stories. Thats kind of the problem with this game, someone tried to force a very single-player orientated style of gameplay onto an MMO engine.
I mean, think of it this way... Instead of the 2800 coming back as the current single-player mission, have a sector-wide invasion occur. Actually LOOSE access to DS9 until players manage to retake it. Do something that involves what makes MMO's what they are, instead of these missions that I spend all my time replaying myself and I never actually go back to replay once I've already done them (IE very little replay content with these Featured Episodes compared to something like the STFs).
I don't know about you, but most of the Foundry missions I've played have better story content or even MORE story content than the standard missions.
Which is why it's so mind boggling that it isn't a priority resource for Cryptic to do. I thought maybe they had trouble getting CBS approval for new stories but Rivera's recent interviews indicate that as long as it doesn't involve actor likenesses, new ships, or material from the books, they have a rubber stamp to do it without asking.
Do they have to devote a whole team to it? No. But one to two content devs should be able to churn this stuff out.
This is an MMO, we need more group-orientated activities not more single-player stories. Thats kind of the problem with this game, someone tried to force a very single-player orientated style of gameplay onto an MMO engine.
I mean, think of it this way... Instead of the 2800 coming back as the current single-player mission, have a sector-wide invasion occur. Actually LOOSE access to DS9 until players manage to retake it. Do something that involves what makes MMO's what they are, instead of these missions that I spend all my time replaying myself and I never actually go back to replay once I've already done them (IE very little replay content with these Featured Episodes compared to something like the STFs).
For me, again, this comes down to story design.
I'm thinking of WoW. Many quests ARE single player focused but the plots fold off into multiplayer content and then back into single player content. Many rivers that branch and converge. TOR looks to follow that route as well.
I don't think anything is inherently wrong with each player being THE Captain instead of a captain. The problem is that the paths don't converge/diverge.
Imagine for a second that the Klingon front built up to an STF halfway through and again at the end.
So that, say, to find out what happened to B'vat, you'd need to team to kill him.
The way I see it, zones are a single-player, team-optional construct that should entice you into one or two dungeons.
As-is, our "dungeons" are close to story free and all at endgame instead of holding the answers to questions that missions hint at.
Overall, I have a philosophical disagreement. People like Cryptic should not redouble on their strengths. They absolutely need to devote resources to their weaknesses. There is something very deeply wrong if players can do something for free that Cryptic cannot do for money and they need to chase what they're missing in future development, not piddle around their comfort zone.
Why does everyone think the story started the way it did? I think it's pretty obvious, it's the only way to get the Klingon faction to buy into it. If it wasn't for the DS9 attack during the "borg" conference, the Klingons wouldn't give a rats *** about them attacking a Fed Station. Why should they, they are at war. So while I didn't entirely like it, i felt it was a necessary evil for faction equality. And lets admit it, the Gorn was the best delegate!!!
Also, lets put all the bugs aside. Every FE has had bugs in it. YES, EVERY ONE. Everyone remember the enemy mine bug with the disappearing Romulan patrols that made it uncompleteable. How about the "What lies beneath" flashlight bulb. The first two tiems I played that episode my flashlight didn't work, so I did it in the dark.
Now my dissappointment in this episode comes from the ending. They lost a HUGE opportunity to do something in the game that would have been epic. A few posters above me even said. They should have cut off access to DS9. Right now, these missions are not just some story arc that we can complete at our leisure. They are happening in real time and we have to wait for the next part. For everyone right now who follows the story, DS9 should be under siege and we should not have any access to it. Every player in the game has access to these missions and they should take priority over everything else for the next 5 weeks. It was incredibly immersion breaking to finish the episode in Bajor with an NPC telling me that the command center was being put at the planet, only to have nothing here, be able to warp out of the system and right back to DS9 to shop the STF store. This would have been an epic opportunity to have a real time game event have an impact on the world.
Now people have said that this would break fed mission progression and numerous foundry missions. They are right. Temporarily cutting off DS9 would temporarily block the cardassian story arc and break many foundry missions. I say its a small price to pay. And it's only temporary. Besides, with level progression now, most players are at level cap by the time they reach the cardassian arc, so does it really matter, they still have access to STF's and other dailies which is what all those who have finished the story already and reached level cap have had for a long time.
Now my dissappointment in this episode comes from the ending. They lost a HUGE opportunity to do something in the game that would have been epic. A few posters above me even said. They should have cut off access to DS9. Right now, these missions are not just some story arc that we can complete at our leisure. They are happening in real time and we have to wait for the next part. For everyone right now who follows the story, DS9 should be under siege and we should not have any access to it. Every player in the game has access to these missions and they should take priority over everything else for the next 5 weeks. It was incredibly immersion breaking to finish the episode in Bajor with an NPC telling me that the command center was being put at the planet, only to have nothing here, be able to warp out of the system and right back to DS9 to shop the STF store. This would have been an epic opportunity to have a real time game event have an impact on the world.
Now people have said that this would break fed mission progression and numerous foundry missions. They are right. Temporarily cutting off DS9 would temporarily block the cardassian story arc and break many foundry missions. I say its a small price to pay. And it's only temporary. Besides, with level progression now, most players are at level cap by the time they reach the cardassian arc, so does it really matter, they still have access to STF's and other dailies which is what all those who have finished the story already and reached level cap have had for a long time.
i have to disagree. while everything you said would make sense from a story point of view. the amount of stuff it would break from foundry to normal missions is too much in my view.
the blocking off of DS9 would only stop you from entering the map. if you want that level of immersion then dont go to DS9. Its that simple. just dont enter the map. the end result is exactly the same for you.
The people who have yet to do this mission or who are working their way through the cardassian missions may not want their gaming interrupted just because they have not gotten there yet. perhaps it is a small and temporary price to pay but when the option for people who have played it is the same as simply not going there, then i think you could annoy too many people, and break too many things for a little immersion.
I just don't get the impresion that "Second Wave" holds up in quality to the likes of "Skirmish" or "Cold Call" or "The Vault"
As a first episode of an FE series goes, "Second Wave" ranks below the previous series first episodes, IMO.
My current ranking, from best to worse is as follows:
Cold Call
The Vault
Skirmish
Second Wave
My opinion of course.
Well, to be fair, all those missions, beside the Vault, could have been done with the foundry and if we would play them the first time today KNOWING the foundry we would feel the exact same way about them.
But that makes the Issue even MORE urgent to focus on promoting foundry Missions much much better and giving us reason to play them.
Because until that doesnt happen they WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED as content by the major part of the comunity, although they are an almost unlimitet resource for content.
The foundry is the BIG advantage of that game towards other MMOs and it should be finally put to real use.
Chris from Stoked even said that the question if this game survives the next year depends on that, and I'm personally preaching simillary since the foundry exists.
And why not? The comunity as a whold simply IS more creative then a bunch of payed content designers. At some point EVERY author runs out of ideas.
But before we played all missions 10.000 community authors made before they run out of ideas we die of age.
About the FE... well it actually felt prety disapointing, but thats no suprise.
For the first... after teasing us with that for almost a WHOLE YEAR now it is litarally IMPOSSIBLE to match the hype.
Also.... after viewing the Trailer I could have predictet almost EVERYTHING that happened in that first episode, beside the details of the "submissions" in the beginning, wich are obviously just filler to make the episode feel longer.
Like I say, I think it would have refined this mission immensely to focus on the idea of paying prices and bargaining, that everything in life has a cost. That and foreshadowing the Jem'Hadar fleet a bit
I will add, I could live with this level of quality periodically if there were 25+ FE missions a year although I think it needs more attention on the writing side. At the rate of 10-12 a year, it's underwhelming.
i have to disagree. while everything you said would make sense from a story point of view. the amount of stuff it would break from foundry to normal missions is too much in my view.
the blocking off of DS9 would only stop you from entering the map. if you want that level of immersion then dont go to DS9. Its that simple. just dont enter the map. the end result is exactly the same for you.
The people who have yet to do this mission or who are working their way through the cardassian missions may not want their gaming interrupted just because they have not gotten there yet. perhaps it is a small and temporary price to pay but when the option for people who have played it is the same as simply not going there, then i think you could annoy too many people, and break too many things for a little immersion.
I would love to not go to the map...unfortunatley it's the only place in the game to turn in STF tech and salvage, and I am an STFer. Blocking DS9 for the duration of the FE would give the game a dynamic feel. The story aspects would affect the world. Well worth the minor inconvenience of a few Foundry projects for a couple weeks.
The trailer was totally cool, but all the video footage in the episode was just awful. I mean there was one bit where DS9 kept appearing and disappearing.
I feel that they spent more time on the trailer footage than on the actual game footage.
The story was entertaining but extremely short, compared to all the other Feature Episodes, it just wasn't quite there.
THe whole sit in a chair thing was a shambles, good idea but like everything else badly executed. I mean i was in shooter mode so i couldn't double click on the chair and nothing prompted me to.
You would have thought after almost a year that it would have been something amazing.
I know it was only the first episode, but really, you can only do a couple of these a year?
I will answer this only because the OP stated in another post said how great and fun the mission was, and now says its looks like a cheap foundry mission:
There are many levels dears users of this great game of why this last FE was not only BAD, but insulting.
First of all, we had to wait AN YEAR to play a new FE and what we get? A buggy mission which many people is not able to complete unless reconnects 4 times. A mission clearly done in a hurry, with no argument at all and no appealling either.
This mission, is an insult to the previous FE, to all of them, but specially the last Reman arc which was simply GREAT.
So what's bothers me the most and infuriate me, is to see, a couple of messages stating that this was the GREATEST MISSION EVER!!!!
So this kind of messages, intended and I dont know for which reason, to defend a bad quality content over and over again like if they were having some gain with this, makes me SICK.
This last FE was BAD, was INSULTING and only shows Crytic as a decadent company, spending more time on this so called "promotions" to get rare ships than creating good quality products for the users.
All this is disgusting, how this is being handled, how those users who wants some favor from the company try to get some work or promotions through this forums, accepting anything Cryptic sends to us, just to please their masters and be on the good eye of them, when they need a new moderator or a new employee to do some crappy voice overs.
All this, at the long and short terms will kill this game, the last oasis of Star Trek that we have.
Thank you all, keep doing this, at least, when this is all over, we will still have the series to play over and over again, to remind us what is GOOD and what is BAD writing.
As I said many times before, if COCA COLA starts to make the beverage with PEE FLAVOR, many will say that its tastes good, but the fact is that it tastes like PEE, here is exactly the same, we are consuming something that tastes really bad, but we have to stand people here telling us that this tastes good.
I would never undestand why you do that (you know whom I am refering to) but your way of accepting all the TRIBBLE that comes, will do us no good in long term.
i have to disagree. while everything you said would make sense from a story point of view. the amount of stuff it would break from foundry to normal missions is too much in my view.
the blocking off of DS9 would only stop you from entering the map. if you want that level of immersion then dont go to DS9. Its that simple. just dont enter the map. the end result is exactly the same for you.
The people who have yet to do this mission or who are working their way through the cardassian missions may not want their gaming interrupted just because they have not gotten there yet. perhaps it is a small and temporary price to pay but when the option for people who have played it is the same as simply not going there, then i think you could annoy too many people, and break too many things for a little immersion.
Simply wrong, they could just take some time in the LAST YEAR to create SIMPLE camp in Bajor and MOVE EVERYTHING to that place if the flag (I hope you know what a flag is) PLAYER.COMPLETED.CRAPPY_FIRST_CARDASSIAN_FE=TRUE
simple programming, and I can guarantee that this should not be that difficult.
Its didn't feel like a cheap foundry mission to me, just rushed slightly and a little confusing that a Gorn would so passionettely defend the honor of the KDF at such a conference, not the mention the many eludes to a peace mentioned by every federation NPC in the mission.
Overall I found it fun, a littel monotonous with the running around being the conference gopher for both the DS9 staff and the other diplomats when personally my charatcer would have rather said , " No, I'm a KDF LG not your errand boy. Find one of your subordinates to do your running around."
I really enjopyed the dramatic entrance of the 2800 fleet and the attack on DS9 while the delegates escaped.
The Villian seems interesting and I am curious as to the plans they have for the rest of the FE series.
I can blame most of my annoyances on the crappy internet connection I have in Nottingham. When I will replay it at home in 11 days it probably will be a whole lot more enjoyable.
Still there are a few things that irked me.
1) Where's D'vak? D'vak already leads a combined force of Starfleet and KDF against the Borg, he has the intel, an established organization to build upon and he is stationed on DS9. I don't give a burning bugship if he was still captain in Gamma Orionis when the mission was originally planned, they kept us waiting long enough to adapt it.
2) I know, that this was just the beginning, so maybe we'll get an explanation in a later episode, but if the Dominion fleet traveled through time, why the heck did they attack instantly? They should have expected to find DS9 under Dominion control, yet the first thing they do is open fire. If they were somewhere else those years, how did they survive without ketracel white? And with what authority would that Vorta claim to speak for the Dominion.
3) The final cutscene where DS9s first officer (what happened to Adina Charles or whatever her name was before this Saturday) with the funny accent is.... Well what is she? Stabbed? Shot? Beaten unconscious? We see a butt-ugly Jem'hadar beam in, walk up behind her and she screams and drops without him doing anything.
4) If you crit on the Belfast doff-assignments you practically get nothing more.
It might not actually be reasonable to expect every official mission to be superior to the very best the foundry has to offer.
Not "every official mission", but this is a featured episode with the attached hype and the expectations of the previous featured series coupled with a whole lot of frustration due to the long waiting time. The first scenes out of that series were shown months ago on STOked. Waiting almost a year and then seeing incomplete cutscenes or hearing of engineers who can't spawn turrets in combat is annoying.
Its didn't feel like a cheap foundry mission to me, just rushed slightly and a little confusing that a Gorn would so passionettely defend the honor of the KDF at such a conference, not the mention the many eludes to a peace mentioned by every federation NPC in the mission.
Overall I found it fun, a littel monotonous with the running around being the conference gopher for both the DS9 staff and the other diplomats when personally my charatcer would have rather said , " No, I'm a KDF LG not your errand boy. Find one of your subordinates to do your running around."
I really enjopyed the dramatic entrance of the 2800 fleet and the attack on DS9 while the delegates escaped.
The Villian seems interesting and I am curious as to the plans they have for the rest of the FE series.
You know, that does bother me. You made mention that it felt rushed. I thought the same thing, which is odd because wasn't back in August that Sthal said the FE series was almost finished?
1) Where's D'vak? D'vak already leads a combined force of Starfleet and KDF against the Borg, he has the intel, an established organization to build upon and he is stationed on DS9. I don't give a burning bugship if he was still captain in Gamma Orionis when the mission was originally planned, they kept us waiting long enough to adapt it.
This would have made more sense as the KDF representitive than the Gorn alone. If fact having a Gorn and a Orion rep as well as a Klingon to represent the Empire (and her vassals and allies) would made more sense to me.
You have to like St'*** though as he was good in a fight on the rush to get to the escape shuttles.
You know, that does bother me. You made mention that it felt rushed. I thought the same thing, which is odd because wasn't back in August that Sthal said the FE series was almost finished?
Rushed as in it went by quickly without setting in the proper level of immersion before all went to hell. I spent more time in the "errand boy" missions than the auctuall conference I was called to attend. I did like teh KDF DOff missions though and foudn them intersting option. As well the dialouge tree seemed strangely constrained and forced me to play a very un-Klingon aproach to the situation.
Comments
Of course it's buggy as heck, which is a turn off (Engineers can't use Bunker Kit for example because their powers don't all work, as well as a few other Kits too, DOFF optional Mission can be uncompleteable, I even ran across the Cardassian Optional Mission as uncompletable once.). Some of the Voice acting is kinda sub par in some places (Espcially noticable at the end.)
I'm hoping that there's some more polish by the end when they link everything together so that it can flow as one grand story.
I'm also looking foward to the rest of the story provided they release it with less bugs then this one. :rolleyes:
after waiting for a year for content, i feel cheated and slighted. not saying the episode was bad but...
i would have expected more. i will reserve final judgement until after the series is over, but if this is what were going to expect- we got hosed boys and girls.
I would put The Vault in from of Cold Call because of the slap in the face at the end of Cold Call.
Glass half empty meet glass half full.
I agree with your assessment of Cryptic's strengths and weaknesses.
I think the problem comes down to prioritization. Cryptic will not grow by redoubling on its strengths.
Cryptic needs English majors. Cryptic needs people like you and me.
Kestrel is not enough by herself.
It's a ballsy thing to say but I'll say it.
I could get a job at White Wolf or Bioware. Either of us could. No doubt in my mind.
But I look at Cryptic and I see a NEED for them to integrate people like us. I sense that from Kestrel. I think dstahl sensed that. If you've ever applied and made it through their tests, I think you'd get that vibe from their employment tests and how they're structured.
I know a very competent veteran television story editor who is looking for a job and going through a foreclosure and I've directed him to apply at Cryptic for the same position several of us on the forums applied for. This man would rock content design.
I've spent the last twelve years of my life as a free idea farm for large companies while I waited tables and worked in offices and collected small checks and "thank you" credits. I've seen good people with resumes a mile long get sacked due to lack of a place for creatives as companies redoubled for their strengths, focusing on marketing and infrastructure. That's not how it should be. Creatives need to eat too.
There is something innately wrong with pushing tech as a profession and creative writing as a hobby. It's imbalanced.
Don't feel bad, I tried the emote too.:o
no it wasn't. thats an excuse created by certain members of the community. work doesn't stop just because a company gets sold. they were working on other things that weren't needed and could have waited till far later. not to mention that excuse doesn't explain the '2 FE's per year' bs either
the foundry is a dumbed down version of the dev tools. you're missing the point entirely.
except for, you know, just about half the rest of the missions in the game. theres nothing new about it
gee, a link button to a doff mission. I bet they strained on that one
except that its happened in quite a few missions. should pay more attention to some of them. its not the first time they've done that by any means.
which means nothing.
thats because it doesn't
indeed. odd place to end it to say the least. you'd think you'd at least transport to the surface and talk to whoever was in charge down there
what? dabo is for the holosuite reservation not the kanar
this ^^ fact is if a company is unable or unwilling to provide quality content in its mmo than they have no business running an mmo in the first place.
they're part of a very large and well funded company, who they claim is supposed to be providing them with proper funding. so thats not an excuse
make the server explode within 30 minutes? bad, bad idea to even considering giving non-programmers access to the kind of scripting tools the devs actually use. you'd be amazed what you can break with a couple lines of code
yes, I can. utter garbage for the most part. thats because for every good author you get, theres 50 that just slap some TRIBBLE together and use it as an exploit to farm exp, dilithium or officer report dailies.
its nowhere near there yet. the plot makes sense. considering the whole premise is the iconians manipulating everyone against eachother, the multiple fronts make sense. just because we haven't seen the end result of the plot doesn't mean there isn't one
No
I do think you set your expectations too high. Also: Its just the first part of a new series.
Without being disrespectful, this reminds me a bit of this scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExWfh6sGyso
I stated before and I will state it again, the writers of the CRYPTIC team are not good writers. In the old Featured Episodes there were too many flaws in regards to the story arc remaining fluid and captivating. This is one area of the team where talent is lacking.
For starter:
A) they do not capture the spirit of what Star Trek is about, but I don't entirely blame them. This is because its a video game and must cater to the style of the game.
Because folks want to jump into the action, and for the most part don't want to bother with reading a good drawn out story arc, the CRYPTIC team is probably left with having to do quick scripts in spurts. Again we're talking about the nature of the beast here.
C) Its F2P - so investing time and resources is now secondary to making a constant cash flow - as evident of the CStore upgrades and gimmicks.
So for the most part, from now on expect low quality Featured Episodes from here on out. These future FE will now be linked with CStore promotions and cash flow gimmicks.
Money first, story last or what is left over.
I run my main monitor at 1920x1200. The opening cinematic is very pixelated.
As for my two cents this is how I would have done this episode if I was designing it for a special feel of something no one in the foundry could do. The same as they did it on ground except once you have them board your ship I would have had it where you went to OPS to go assist the 1st officer. At that point when you got there would be dialogue where she would tell you to fight off the dominion with the stations defenses while she continued evacuation coordination. Instead of you piloting your ship to fight all those jem hadar on first stage of the space part I would have it where you had certain skills but couldnt actually move the station such as maybe some beam overloads and fire at wills and high yields/torpedo spreads to kill the jem hadar and once you did that then it would transfer you to your ship with a (I can do a site to site transport for one person and then you'd say wait but then too late) and then your on your ship and assist the 4 ships. Ending was good I liked it
Maybe when they have more time they could take some of my ideas or someone elses and possibly remaster it to something better. In all though I liked the cinematics and such and voice overs are good for the most part even if its a cheap foundry mission its still content that was taken time to make which has been a long time since we've gotten more than nothing.
One answer is cutscenes, and there's plenty of opinions as to whether or not they are a good thing.
This mission did introduce us to integrated Duty Officer missions which (while optional) allowed a captain to further immerse themselves in the experience.
And lastly the mission rewards were rather unique. A specialized usable item, that modifies a certain weapon's ability in a unique way. Think of the possibilities: I'd LOVE to have small usable items that would allow me to adjust the setting/effect on my Type 2 TOS phaser pistol or even the Type 1, if only for a few seconds. I'd love to be able to click this item, and have 10-15 sec's to deliver a devestating close ranged wide-beam blast from the Type 2 phaser. (The type 2 only alt-fires stun blasts, by the way.) Give the item a long cooldown to avoid overpowering. If these items could be created/replicated, I now have the ability to adjust weapon settings for my away teams. Just my thoughts as to what could be possible, given what I saw with the rewards. Though the dev's may keep these items unique to the Jem'Hadar weaps. =(
Did I feel cheated? Nah, not really. It's the first in a series of featured episodes. I'll wait until the series conclusion and then pass judgement. But as we all know, the Dev's often times use these episodes as a means to "show off" what is and could be potentially coming at us down the line. There's still time for this series to be an eye opener.
#2 Voice Over, Camera paths / Cinematics, DOff mission integration... and some other things you just can't do that in the foundry (not yet anyway)
but to be honest, the thought had crossed my mind that half of this could be done in the foundry already, and i can't believe it would take 6 Weeks (or longer) for a Content Dev to do this. (like Geko said in multiple interviews)
Not if the VO work was done, the Art Assets are ready to go and the Text/Story was written down by somebody else already.
But then i am not even a Foundry author, so what do i know?
I could go with the idea that it feels like a very EXPENSIVE Foundry mission with a weak plot. And I'm not going to blame Kestrel for this entirely because I don't know her working conditions, who inputs text where, etc.
The dialogue was pretty good if baffling in places. But the execution of story was weak.
A think any Foundry author who could do a three star or better mission could take an outline from Kestrel and an asset requisition request for turnerboy and a systems request for the loot items/DOff hookups and run circles around this mission.
That's not a slam on whoever the content dev here is. Maybe he's a genius at PvP maps or STF design. But it doesn't show signs of writerly construction.
It's like an early 90s Image or Marvel comic book in terms of its construction. One of those books where they let an artist go crazy and maybe had a screenwriter come in and fill in the dialogue balloons with a few interesting bits of dialogue.
This.
I'm not saying the new mission was all that and a bag of chips--I'm merely saying that Foundry authors wish they had similar options in the toolset because they know of the potential they could have.
This is an MMO, we need more group-orientated activities not more single-player stories. Thats kind of the problem with this game, someone tried to force a very single-player orientated style of gameplay onto an MMO engine.
I mean, think of it this way... Instead of the 2800 coming back as the current single-player mission, have a sector-wide invasion occur. Actually LOOSE access to DS9 until players manage to retake it. Do something that involves what makes MMO's what they are, instead of these missions that I spend all my time replaying myself and I never actually go back to replay once I've already done them (IE very little replay content with these Featured Episodes compared to something like the STFs).
Which is why it's so mind boggling that it isn't a priority resource for Cryptic to do. I thought maybe they had trouble getting CBS approval for new stories but Rivera's recent interviews indicate that as long as it doesn't involve actor likenesses, new ships, or material from the books, they have a rubber stamp to do it without asking.
Do they have to devote a whole team to it? No. But one to two content devs should be able to churn this stuff out.
For me, again, this comes down to story design.
I'm thinking of WoW. Many quests ARE single player focused but the plots fold off into multiplayer content and then back into single player content. Many rivers that branch and converge. TOR looks to follow that route as well.
I don't think anything is inherently wrong with each player being THE Captain instead of a captain. The problem is that the paths don't converge/diverge.
Imagine for a second that the Klingon front built up to an STF halfway through and again at the end.
So that, say, to find out what happened to B'vat, you'd need to team to kill him.
The way I see it, zones are a single-player, team-optional construct that should entice you into one or two dungeons.
As-is, our "dungeons" are close to story free and all at endgame instead of holding the answers to questions that missions hint at.
Overall, I have a philosophical disagreement. People like Cryptic should not redouble on their strengths. They absolutely need to devote resources to their weaknesses. There is something very deeply wrong if players can do something for free that Cryptic cannot do for money and they need to chase what they're missing in future development, not piddle around their comfort zone.
Also, lets put all the bugs aside. Every FE has had bugs in it. YES, EVERY ONE. Everyone remember the enemy mine bug with the disappearing Romulan patrols that made it uncompleteable. How about the "What lies beneath" flashlight bulb. The first two tiems I played that episode my flashlight didn't work, so I did it in the dark.
Now my dissappointment in this episode comes from the ending. They lost a HUGE opportunity to do something in the game that would have been epic. A few posters above me even said. They should have cut off access to DS9. Right now, these missions are not just some story arc that we can complete at our leisure. They are happening in real time and we have to wait for the next part. For everyone right now who follows the story, DS9 should be under siege and we should not have any access to it. Every player in the game has access to these missions and they should take priority over everything else for the next 5 weeks. It was incredibly immersion breaking to finish the episode in Bajor with an NPC telling me that the command center was being put at the planet, only to have nothing here, be able to warp out of the system and right back to DS9 to shop the STF store. This would have been an epic opportunity to have a real time game event have an impact on the world.
Now people have said that this would break fed mission progression and numerous foundry missions. They are right. Temporarily cutting off DS9 would temporarily block the cardassian story arc and break many foundry missions. I say its a small price to pay. And it's only temporary. Besides, with level progression now, most players are at level cap by the time they reach the cardassian arc, so does it really matter, they still have access to STF's and other dailies which is what all those who have finished the story already and reached level cap have had for a long time.
i have to disagree. while everything you said would make sense from a story point of view. the amount of stuff it would break from foundry to normal missions is too much in my view.
the blocking off of DS9 would only stop you from entering the map. if you want that level of immersion then dont go to DS9. Its that simple. just dont enter the map. the end result is exactly the same for you.
The people who have yet to do this mission or who are working their way through the cardassian missions may not want their gaming interrupted just because they have not gotten there yet. perhaps it is a small and temporary price to pay but when the option for people who have played it is the same as simply not going there, then i think you could annoy too many people, and break too many things for a little immersion.
*sign that*
Well, to be fair, all those missions, beside the Vault, could have been done with the foundry and if we would play them the first time today KNOWING the foundry we would feel the exact same way about them.
But that makes the Issue even MORE urgent to focus on promoting foundry Missions much much better and giving us reason to play them.
Because until that doesnt happen they WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED as content by the major part of the comunity, although they are an almost unlimitet resource for content.
The foundry is the BIG advantage of that game towards other MMOs and it should be finally put to real use.
Chris from Stoked even said that the question if this game survives the next year depends on that, and I'm personally preaching simillary since the foundry exists.
And why not? The comunity as a whold simply IS more creative then a bunch of payed content designers. At some point EVERY author runs out of ideas.
But before we played all missions 10.000 community authors made before they run out of ideas we die of age.
About the FE... well it actually felt prety disapointing, but thats no suprise.
For the first... after teasing us with that for almost a WHOLE YEAR now it is litarally IMPOSSIBLE to match the hype.
Also.... after viewing the Trailer I could have predictet almost EVERYTHING that happened in that first episode, beside the details of the "submissions" in the beginning, wich are obviously just filler to make the episode feel longer.
I would love to not go to the map...unfortunatley it's the only place in the game to turn in STF tech and salvage, and I am an STFer. Blocking DS9 for the duration of the FE would give the game a dynamic feel. The story aspects would affect the world. Well worth the minor inconvenience of a few Foundry projects for a couple weeks.
The trailer was totally cool, but all the video footage in the episode was just awful. I mean there was one bit where DS9 kept appearing and disappearing.
I feel that they spent more time on the trailer footage than on the actual game footage.
The story was entertaining but extremely short, compared to all the other Feature Episodes, it just wasn't quite there.
THe whole sit in a chair thing was a shambles, good idea but like everything else badly executed. I mean i was in shooter mode so i couldn't double click on the chair and nothing prompted me to.
You would have thought after almost a year that it would have been something amazing.
I know it was only the first episode, but really, you can only do a couple of these a year?
There are many levels dears users of this great game of why this last FE was not only BAD, but insulting.
First of all, we had to wait AN YEAR to play a new FE and what we get? A buggy mission which many people is not able to complete unless reconnects 4 times. A mission clearly done in a hurry, with no argument at all and no appealling either.
This mission, is an insult to the previous FE, to all of them, but specially the last Reman arc which was simply GREAT.
So what's bothers me the most and infuriate me, is to see, a couple of messages stating that this was the GREATEST MISSION EVER!!!!
So this kind of messages, intended and I dont know for which reason, to defend a bad quality content over and over again like if they were having some gain with this, makes me SICK.
This last FE was BAD, was INSULTING and only shows Crytic as a decadent company, spending more time on this so called "promotions" to get rare ships than creating good quality products for the users.
All this is disgusting, how this is being handled, how those users who wants some favor from the company try to get some work or promotions through this forums, accepting anything Cryptic sends to us, just to please their masters and be on the good eye of them, when they need a new moderator or a new employee to do some crappy voice overs.
All this, at the long and short terms will kill this game, the last oasis of Star Trek that we have.
Thank you all, keep doing this, at least, when this is all over, we will still have the series to play over and over again, to remind us what is GOOD and what is BAD writing.
As I said many times before, if COCA COLA starts to make the beverage with PEE FLAVOR, many will say that its tastes good, but the fact is that it tastes like PEE, here is exactly the same, we are consuming something that tastes really bad, but we have to stand people here telling us that this tastes good.
I would never undestand why you do that (you know whom I am refering to) but your way of accepting all the TRIBBLE that comes, will do us no good in long term.
Enjoy this while it last.
Simply wrong, they could just take some time in the LAST YEAR to create SIMPLE camp in Bajor and MOVE EVERYTHING to that place if the flag (I hope you know what a flag is) PLAYER.COMPLETED.CRAPPY_FIRST_CARDASSIAN_FE=TRUE
simple programming, and I can guarantee that this should not be that difficult.
BUT hey, this was the greatest mission ever!!!
Overall I found it fun, a littel monotonous with the running around being the conference gopher for both the DS9 staff and the other diplomats when personally my charatcer would have rather said , " No, I'm a KDF LG not your errand boy. Find one of your subordinates to do your running around."
I really enjopyed the dramatic entrance of the 2800 fleet and the attack on DS9 while the delegates escaped.
The Villian seems interesting and I am curious as to the plans they have for the rest of the FE series.
Still there are a few things that irked me.
1) Where's D'vak? D'vak already leads a combined force of Starfleet and KDF against the Borg, he has the intel, an established organization to build upon and he is stationed on DS9. I don't give a burning bugship if he was still captain in Gamma Orionis when the mission was originally planned, they kept us waiting long enough to adapt it.
2) I know, that this was just the beginning, so maybe we'll get an explanation in a later episode, but if the Dominion fleet traveled through time, why the heck did they attack instantly? They should have expected to find DS9 under Dominion control, yet the first thing they do is open fire. If they were somewhere else those years, how did they survive without ketracel white? And with what authority would that Vorta claim to speak for the Dominion.
3) The final cutscene where DS9s first officer (what happened to Adina Charles or whatever her name was before this Saturday) with the funny accent is.... Well what is she? Stabbed? Shot? Beaten unconscious? We see a butt-ugly Jem'hadar beam in, walk up behind her and she screams and drops without him doing anything.
4) If you crit on the Belfast doff-assignments you practically get nothing more.
Not "every official mission", but this is a featured episode with the attached hype and the expectations of the previous featured series coupled with a whole lot of frustration due to the long waiting time. The first scenes out of that series were shown months ago on STOked. Waiting almost a year and then seeing incomplete cutscenes or hearing of engineers who can't spawn turrets in combat is annoying.
You know, that does bother me. You made mention that it felt rushed. I thought the same thing, which is odd because wasn't back in August that Sthal said the FE series was almost finished?