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Dairy of a Tester for Season 6
klytemnestra1
Member Posts: 40 Arc User
Season 6 Comments
Diary of a Tester
Today is June 28, 2012. It is the 7th day of testing if you include last Friday as a full day.
Although this week?s update for Season 6 is a big bulk of the update, the update has actually been on Tribble server for about three weeks.
For the last three weeks we have been able to test:
This week?s update included:
This is the early stages of the Starbase Package, which is part of the Fleet Updates, which sort of started back with Season 3 if I remember correctly. That was a small update to Fleets which I believe had added some refinements to the Fleet tools.
This update seems to have been built around the Duty Officer system which was added to the game in Season 5.
My first impression of the system is that it is very cool. Although some players on the Tribble Test Server have expressed that the grind may be too long, I would disagree; MMORPG?s need to have long grinds.
Part of the early problems with Star Trek Online was that the grind is too short. I feel and think that this had a large part to do with many of the beta testers were First Person Shooter type players what some now call MMO?s.
(Sidenote: many players who are Role-players or people who love MMORPG's become really offended when you refer to the game as a MMO or call these players a MMO player). I am not sure if the game developers know this, but it is true. These titles are not interchangeable as some players would have you believe.
I think the new Starbase system brings the game back to the realm of a true MMORPG. It is designed to be a long grind for both small and large fleet. From what I have seen so far from the tool, I think it achieves this.
Now, do not get me wrong, it is far from a true MMORPG, but it is a step in the right direction. I also think the system is not only a good step for a MMORPG, I think it is a good step for a true open war system.
I like how the Starbase system integrates well with the Duty Officer system. I am hoping that this will also lead to a Diplomatic system that is an over arching system to connect everything.
At some point, I would like to see this lead to the Supreme Galactic Senate and Federation Council in the game. Using the same idea as the Duty Officer system, it would have Admirals, Senators, Executive department heads like the Federation council, and Ambassadors. I hope they use the governmental structure set up by Franz Joseph, whom I think wrote the most comprehensive document that details the governmental system of the Federation.
So far on the Tribble server, three PVE events had been added this week which are:
I tested these out on the Federation side and the Klingon side. The Federation side was good, but the Klingon side had many issues with the loading tool. Time and time again, we were loaded up with 2 or 3 KDF people and 18 to 17 Federation people. On one battle, though we prevailed in a long battle in the Starbase Defense mission, we were penalized -57 points, which really sucked because it was a tough and long battle against overwhelming odds, but the event did not take into account that we were victorious with such a small force, but we still prevailed.
Colony Invasion proved to be the best event this week. The queue for the event kept rotating as people figured out it was the best event to run to get Fleet marks.
Fleet Blockade is a good event, but I do not think many people figured out you did not have to blow up targets to be successful on the mission. But the event was nice and short.
Fleet Red Alerts are really good. To me, they seemed like a logical step beyond the No Win Scenario; if that was the intent, then good for the designers.
I know my write up here is not very technical, but I am trying to stay away from over complicating my write up. I figure other people will be more technical.
The actual Fleet tool for the Starbase system is simple. A player will do an event or mission somewhere in the game and collect resources. These resources can be Fleet Marks, Data Samples, Dilithium, Duty Officers, etc. No matter what your preference is in the game as a player, anyone in your fleet can contribute to the cause.
If your fleet is 100 percent geared for PVP, you may have a problem with the Starbase system. Some of the missions or projects I have seen require resources that a PVP event will not be able to supply. However, if you use the Duty Officer system with your PVP fleet, you may be able to pool resources together to advance your Starbase.
I asked the developer on duty on Friday and Saturday night, who took a long time to explain as best he could about how the system would evolve over the next three weeks.
As I understand, the base starts out under construction. Then the fleet determines what projects to enable. Projects come in two types; Active Projects are long term projects which require a 20 hour cycle to complete. Special Projects are short term events which take a 2 hour cycle to complete.
Although on Tribble server people are racing because of the short time for testing, I do not think this time duration or intervals will pose a problem for a small fleet or large fleet. On the live server people will be able to take their time.
As the fleet unlocks the sub tiers in Tactical, Engineering, Science, they will gain an Upgrade Project. These are 20 hour events once unlocked.
When players donate their resources to the fleet they will gain a currency called Fleet Credits, which has been added to your Personal Fleet Asset tab in your inventory. This was explained to me to be part of a new system called Provisions.
Other then the title and a brief description of it, I am not sure what is all involved in it. So we will have to wait and see about this feature.
As far as technical issues, I have not seen too many issues. Other then the PVE loader for events, and the issue with the personal bank not being accessible, I do not see too many issues.
I think the KDF Starbase is better looking than the Star Fleet base. This for me is an issue. In the show, Starfleet bases are plush and have better style to them because federation designers want the crews who will be there to be comfortable. DS-9 was not plush because it was designed as an ore processing center for the Cardassians.
I think someone at Cryptic is backwards in making Starfleet bases basic and Spartan in design, while making the KDF architecture less Spartan and more stylish. This seems backwards to me.
I am interested to see if the Fleet bank will be able to be used with the Fleet/Starbase system as Personal banks are able to use with Projects.
I am interested to see how the Starbase will be able to be used in the Starbase Defense missions. If the events have multiple fleets in them, how will the computer know whose base to use? I have asked this question all week long, but no one has been able to answer the question.
Will the computer pick the less common denominator or the fleet with the best base? It would really suck if we built up our base only to be pair with another fleet with a crappy base and the computer always picks the crappy base. We will have to see what happens.
I do think the way the PVE queue works for multiple fleets is good. And I like that anyone can contribute to the event.
One problem I see with this system is that, exploration missions do not reward dilithium in adequate amounts to support the Starbase system. STFs do not support the other resources needed to support the Starbase system.
Perhaps, they should allow Exploration missions to reward 480 Dilithium for every three exploration missions to balance this out. Prior to the consolidation of the old currency system, Exploration missions rewarded the currency necessary to use the vendors at ESD.
When the game got rid of this, it really screwed the people who liked to do exploration missions over, because it forced these players to only do STFs or PVP. My experience with players who liked to do exploration missions is that they really hate PVP and most disliked STFs. The only reason these folks did STFs was it is one of the only ways to make Dilithium.
I think if they allowed Exploration missions to get 480 dilithium for every three exploration missions completed this would allow people to get dilithium independent of the STF system and might boost the lockbox key sales on C-Store.
I think by TRIBBLE over the Exploration mission folks, Cryptic Studios and PW hurt their sales. I think the developers of the game under-estimated the amount of people who actually did space exploration.
Thank you
Diary of a Tester
Today is June 28, 2012. It is the 7th day of testing if you include last Friday as a full day.
Although this week?s update for Season 6 is a big bulk of the update, the update has actually been on Tribble server for about three weeks.
For the last three weeks we have been able to test:
- The No Win Scenario
- Colony Invasion
This week?s update included:
This is the early stages of the Starbase Package, which is part of the Fleet Updates, which sort of started back with Season 3 if I remember correctly. That was a small update to Fleets which I believe had added some refinements to the Fleet tools.
This update seems to have been built around the Duty Officer system which was added to the game in Season 5.
My first impression of the system is that it is very cool. Although some players on the Tribble Test Server have expressed that the grind may be too long, I would disagree; MMORPG?s need to have long grinds.
Part of the early problems with Star Trek Online was that the grind is too short. I feel and think that this had a large part to do with many of the beta testers were First Person Shooter type players what some now call MMO?s.
(Sidenote: many players who are Role-players or people who love MMORPG's become really offended when you refer to the game as a MMO or call these players a MMO player). I am not sure if the game developers know this, but it is true. These titles are not interchangeable as some players would have you believe.
I think the new Starbase system brings the game back to the realm of a true MMORPG. It is designed to be a long grind for both small and large fleet. From what I have seen so far from the tool, I think it achieves this.
Now, do not get me wrong, it is far from a true MMORPG, but it is a step in the right direction. I also think the system is not only a good step for a MMORPG, I think it is a good step for a true open war system.
I like how the Starbase system integrates well with the Duty Officer system. I am hoping that this will also lead to a Diplomatic system that is an over arching system to connect everything.
At some point, I would like to see this lead to the Supreme Galactic Senate and Federation Council in the game. Using the same idea as the Duty Officer system, it would have Admirals, Senators, Executive department heads like the Federation council, and Ambassadors. I hope they use the governmental structure set up by Franz Joseph, whom I think wrote the most comprehensive document that details the governmental system of the Federation.
So far on the Tribble server, three PVE events had been added this week which are:
- Starbase Fleet Defense
- Starbase Blockade
- Fleet Red Alerts
I tested these out on the Federation side and the Klingon side. The Federation side was good, but the Klingon side had many issues with the loading tool. Time and time again, we were loaded up with 2 or 3 KDF people and 18 to 17 Federation people. On one battle, though we prevailed in a long battle in the Starbase Defense mission, we were penalized -57 points, which really sucked because it was a tough and long battle against overwhelming odds, but the event did not take into account that we were victorious with such a small force, but we still prevailed.
Colony Invasion proved to be the best event this week. The queue for the event kept rotating as people figured out it was the best event to run to get Fleet marks.
Fleet Blockade is a good event, but I do not think many people figured out you did not have to blow up targets to be successful on the mission. But the event was nice and short.
Fleet Red Alerts are really good. To me, they seemed like a logical step beyond the No Win Scenario; if that was the intent, then good for the designers.
I know my write up here is not very technical, but I am trying to stay away from over complicating my write up. I figure other people will be more technical.
The actual Fleet tool for the Starbase system is simple. A player will do an event or mission somewhere in the game and collect resources. These resources can be Fleet Marks, Data Samples, Dilithium, Duty Officers, etc. No matter what your preference is in the game as a player, anyone in your fleet can contribute to the cause.
If your fleet is 100 percent geared for PVP, you may have a problem with the Starbase system. Some of the missions or projects I have seen require resources that a PVP event will not be able to supply. However, if you use the Duty Officer system with your PVP fleet, you may be able to pool resources together to advance your Starbase.
I asked the developer on duty on Friday and Saturday night, who took a long time to explain as best he could about how the system would evolve over the next three weeks.
As I understand, the base starts out under construction. Then the fleet determines what projects to enable. Projects come in two types; Active Projects are long term projects which require a 20 hour cycle to complete. Special Projects are short term events which take a 2 hour cycle to complete.
Although on Tribble server people are racing because of the short time for testing, I do not think this time duration or intervals will pose a problem for a small fleet or large fleet. On the live server people will be able to take their time.
As the fleet unlocks the sub tiers in Tactical, Engineering, Science, they will gain an Upgrade Project. These are 20 hour events once unlocked.
When players donate their resources to the fleet they will gain a currency called Fleet Credits, which has been added to your Personal Fleet Asset tab in your inventory. This was explained to me to be part of a new system called Provisions.
Other then the title and a brief description of it, I am not sure what is all involved in it. So we will have to wait and see about this feature.
As far as technical issues, I have not seen too many issues. Other then the PVE loader for events, and the issue with the personal bank not being accessible, I do not see too many issues.
I think the KDF Starbase is better looking than the Star Fleet base. This for me is an issue. In the show, Starfleet bases are plush and have better style to them because federation designers want the crews who will be there to be comfortable. DS-9 was not plush because it was designed as an ore processing center for the Cardassians.
I think someone at Cryptic is backwards in making Starfleet bases basic and Spartan in design, while making the KDF architecture less Spartan and more stylish. This seems backwards to me.
I am interested to see if the Fleet bank will be able to be used with the Fleet/Starbase system as Personal banks are able to use with Projects.
I am interested to see how the Starbase will be able to be used in the Starbase Defense missions. If the events have multiple fleets in them, how will the computer know whose base to use? I have asked this question all week long, but no one has been able to answer the question.
Will the computer pick the less common denominator or the fleet with the best base? It would really suck if we built up our base only to be pair with another fleet with a crappy base and the computer always picks the crappy base. We will have to see what happens.
I do think the way the PVE queue works for multiple fleets is good. And I like that anyone can contribute to the event.
One problem I see with this system is that, exploration missions do not reward dilithium in adequate amounts to support the Starbase system. STFs do not support the other resources needed to support the Starbase system.
Perhaps, they should allow Exploration missions to reward 480 Dilithium for every three exploration missions to balance this out. Prior to the consolidation of the old currency system, Exploration missions rewarded the currency necessary to use the vendors at ESD.
When the game got rid of this, it really screwed the people who liked to do exploration missions over, because it forced these players to only do STFs or PVP. My experience with players who liked to do exploration missions is that they really hate PVP and most disliked STFs. The only reason these folks did STFs was it is one of the only ways to make Dilithium.
I think if they allowed Exploration missions to get 480 dilithium for every three exploration missions completed this would allow people to get dilithium independent of the STF system and might boost the lockbox key sales on C-Store.
I think by TRIBBLE over the Exploration mission folks, Cryptic Studios and PW hurt their sales. I think the developers of the game under-estimated the amount of people who actually did space exploration.
Thank you
Post edited by klytemnestra1 on
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Comments
Furthermore, once you go down to the Tactical, Engineering, and Science levels, you notice rather quickly that KDF has Main Engineering, a very nice copy of the one typically found on KDF ships, some sort of Engineering Lab (Starfleet either has a very small Main Engineering or an Engineering Lab). So yes, I think Starfleet has a long way to go before their stations are on par with the KDF, let alone close to canon architecture.
And before a certain very tasty tabasco-loving enviromental artist comes around to explain that there was a recent addition of consoles in the Hub, I will point out that it does very little to resolve the main problem of the Hub's blankness, as well as the blankness of everything directly connected to the Hub, barring the Transporter Room, Ops (which still needs chairs!), Requsitions section, and the unreachable Holodeck.
I think that if the resources were imminently available, the entire main floor of the Starfleet starbases should be reworked to have a structure closer to that of the KDF (like I said, it's a lot more interconnected and allows more mobility, which is what I'd very much like to see in Starfleet starbase). Barring that, minor (ok, maybe not so minor, due to adding several corridors, removing several walls, or similar surgical operations) adjustments could be done to open it up.
Edit: To whoever would be given such an objective, don't you dare say "I'm an enviromental artist, not a surgeon!"! (read above)
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
I would add the KDF base has a much better looking engineering department with functioning office.
The science deck has 3 useable offices for players. I counted 4 actually useable offices in the base.
Thank you.