claiming to lose money on kdf ships is an outright lie. it's not like they create one per player when it's ordered. so, stahl thinks the players are that stupid? no wonder cryptic tries to push so much insane, illogical, ill thought out drek down everyones throats. to them we're all morons.
creation is the only cost, any modeler, texture artist could bang out one in a day~> easy. 2 or 3 at most. so...8 hour day, 3 days at most 24 hours. multiplied by whatever their designers make per hour. sold at $10 to $25 bucks a pop. bought a kar'fi and a bortasqu' myself, $45 right there. seen tons of kar'fi's, bops (z-store version) and borts around.
more than enough to pay the salaries/per hour wages of those involved in creation.
just wtf. someone needs to have asked stahl what he thinks the average iq of the people who play this game is...bet that would have been enlightening...if he actually answered honestly.
Huh?
Those ships take a few people who probably make around $80k a year several weeks to make. They DO have a cost that isn't covered by making one sale.
That's maybe $20,000 in salary cost per ship.
A lot of "banging it out" involves testing, figuring out ways to make it lower res for polycount budgets, multiple rounds of approvals, placing weapon hardpoints, animations, etc.
An amateur could do it faster and cheaper, maybe, but they wouldn't do it the WAY a company would, with the concerns a company would have.
Maybe it could be done in a day and look good but the model isn't the only consideration and then you have to figure out how to make it look good without breaking five year old laptops.
I doubt Geko could settle on the BOff slots in under a week.
I realize this probably looks inefficient to you. I imagine your idea of efficiency looks inefficient to Cryptic too.
I have called out Cryptic before but I think you're seriously underselling the work.
Ultimately, Logan quit in large part over the Galaxy-X being given the Venture skin. That was a breaking point for him and that was a matter of adapting the Venture to a three nacelle design in a couple of weeks on top of his normal work and that was with the bulk of the modeling done.
If Dan pushed for ships to cost less labor on the scale you suggest, he'd be an EP without a team left to work for him in very short order.
Those ships take a few people who probably make around $80k a year several weeks to make. They DO have a cost that isn't covered by making one sale.
That's maybe $20,000 in salary cost per ship.
A lot of "banging it out" involves testing, figuring out ways to make it lower res for polycount budgets, multiple rounds of approvals, placing weapon hardpoints, animations, etc.
An amateur could do it faster and cheaper, maybe, but they wouldn't do it the WAY a company would, with the concerns a company would have.
Maybe it could be done in a day and look good but the model isn't the only consideration and then you have to figure out how to make it look good without breaking five year old laptops.
I doubt Geko could settle on the BOff slots in under a week.
I realize this probably looks inefficient to you. I imagine your idea of efficiency looks inefficient to Cryptic too.
I have called out Cryptic before but I think you're seriously underselling the work.
Ultimately, Logan quit in large part over the Galaxy-X being given the Venture skin. That was a breaking point for him and that was a matter of adapting the Venture to a three nacelle design in a couple of weeks on top of his normal work and that was with the bulk of the modeling done.
If Dan pushed for ships to cost less labor on the scale you suggest, he'd be an EP without a team left to work for him in very short order.
Closer to 50-60k, and only cause its California. Not anywhere near 80.
The "lost" money, is in all likelihood; not a negative deficit. They are probably more talking about the potential lost profits of having that designer work on a KDF ship instead of a Fed ship.
If you can't even populate the KDF faction then why is anyone even vaguely considering a separate Romulan faction?
If you are going to add a Romulan faction, it needs to be aligned with the KDF. That means it needs to share ships, equipment, content, etc. you can give them their own story arcs, UI, starting zone, etc, but they absolutely need to be aligned with the Klingons.
That's the only way your going to bridge the gap and make 2 legitimate factions; instead of 1 legit faction, and 2 half-assed and neglected factions.
If you can't even populate the KDF faction then why is anyone even vaguely considering a separate Romulan faction?
.
because the Romulans are FAR more popular as the Klingons are.
Gorn? Nausicaans? Never ever heard of them (yes, in TOS there was an episode, i know. No one from my Trekkies friends knew this at launch.)
I would really like to know how many Romulan fans are currently playing KDF side because they just can't stand the Fed Sky Blue Puppy World. I am one of them.
They should've START with 3 factions - FED; ROM; KDF (as promised on the homepage at launch)
This is not a NORMAL 2 factions MMO. Every Trekkie (and these are people with money, investing here) seeks to see here a HUGE galaxy full of various factions.
Every faction needs ships, DOff's, stuff.. that is the way to go.
So we would have:
FED, KDF, Romulans, Cardassians, free trader/marauder faction, Ferengi, whatever..
Content? There does not need to be content released EXTRA for every faction. There are common enemies all factions need to battle them together. And PVP.
because the Romulans are FAR more popular as the Klingons are.
ERRMMMM...nope.
Sorry, but with all due respect I have to disagree with you there.
There's a reason there are so many "Klingon" episodes in Trek and so few about the Romulans.
Why there are so many movies that feature the Klingons and only one the features the Romulans.
(I mean the Abrams movie, the Romulans in "Nemesis" were just standing around looking for a salary check)
Not to mention even though it's a whole lot more difficult to create a Klingon costume, I've never seen nearly as many people dressing up as Romulans at conventions as people dressing as Klingons.
There are no games called "Romulan Academy" or "Star Trek: Romulan".
And there is no Romulaus, only a Klingolaus (even though he sings in German)
Content? There does not need to be content released EXTRA for every faction. There are common enemies all factions need to battle them together. And PVP.
So you're basically asking for a romulan ship in a lockbox with a romulan toon and UI...
I'm not really sure how they can say KDF ships don't make them money. Once they've built it, they can sell it infinitely amount of times. If they increase the KDF players they will increase the KDF ship sales of all the ones that are currently available and quite possibly turn those failures into successes. Of course it doesn't help that the feds get a boost in sales from their fleet ships while the KDF just kick and scream.
As the difference between the two factions increase, the KDF is going to start feeling more like a DLC. Here try out the KDF and then come back to the FED side because don't bother investing effort/time into it since we aren't supporting it anymore.
i do HONESTLY believe Romulans would have more players than KDF has, if the game started with 3 factions.
And i do also honestly believe the Romulan faction (should it come in foreseeable future) will have more players than KDF has in short time. (because there are plenty of current FED players who would LOVE to play a badass Vulcan, there are people who would like to have the cloaking devices in PVP, and do not want to play KDF... and there are fanbois like myself who wait for Romulans for a long time)
So you're basically asking for a romulan ship in a lockbox with a romulan toon and UI...
no, i am asking them to consider creating Romulans, and even more factions.
They should start at lvl 45 (even 50) unlocked by a 50 fed toon.
Every faction should have
- homeworld with all the NPC's
- one free ship, various fleet and Zen store ships (at least 3 for sci, tac and eng, romulans need a BOP too, one shuttle)
- DOFF system
- fleet system. I don't really care how the starbases look like, even if they only reskin the existing stuff (there are plenty of models in the Foundry belonging to various factions)..
- PVP should get cross-faction if this would come true
- UI color
- 1 to 3 lore missions to start-off the faction
- Foundry stuff available
- no tutorial as starting at high lvl
And i think the off-duty clothing options should be opened cross -faction. If the Gorn are the problem, they should close this option for Gorn, but all the Aliens, Klingons, on the KDF side are pretty capable of using off-duty stuff.
I'm not really sure how they can say KDF ships don't make them money. Once they've built it, they can sell it infinitely amount of times. If they increase the KDF players they will increase the KDF ship sales of all the ones that are currently available and quite possibly turn those failures into successes. Of course it doesn't help that the feds get a boost in sales from their fleet ships while the KDF just kick and scream.
As the difference between the two factions increase, the KDF is going to start feeling more like a DLC. Here try out the KDF and then come back to the FED side because don't bother investing effort/time into it since we aren't supporting it anymore.
Not making profit from KDF ship sales is IMHO a plain LIE.
The mean they are not doing BIG profit, comparable with bringing FED ships (lol yesterday i went through the Fed ships shop, they are selling the same ship 3x, with different consoles, so you need to buy all 3 to have the set. And there is no bundle, just 3x 2500 Zen. Just LOL.)
It is no secret that profits from STO are financing other Cryptic developed games. Too bad, because if this wasn't happening there would be enough cash for everything.
Those ships take a few people who probably make around $80k a year several weeks to make. They DO have a cost that isn't covered by making one sale.
That's maybe $20,000 in salary cost per ship.
That was probably the cost of a Bortasqu'. But there's no mystery, when the ship sucks, no one will buy it, KDF supporter or not. They should wonder what KDF players would buy instead of trying to give random crappy cruisers.
And if you read the kdf subforums, people want:
- an escort with a significant turnrate/5 tac consoles (like the defiant)
- a couple science ships
- a Fleet Kar'fi.
- More ships with one hangar.
Instead of that they're trying to release crappy cruisers (you need to be stupid to use a Bortasqu' with such a terrible turnrate as a KDF)/tanky escorts (the temporal destroyer). It's well deserved if they don't make profit on this, they didn't pay attention to requests. :P
That was probably the cost of a Bortasqu'. But there's no mystery, when the ship sucks, no one will buy it, KDF supporter or not. They should wonder what KDF players would buy instead of trying to give random crappy cruisers.
And if you read the kdf subforums, people want:
- an escort with a significant turnrate/5 tac consoles (like the defiant)
- a couple science ships
- a Fleet Kar'fi.
- More ships with one hangar.
Instead of that they're trying to release crappy cruisers (you need to be stupid to use a Bortasqu' with such a terrible turnrate as a KDF)/tanky escorts (the temporal destroyer). It's well deserved if they don't make profit on this, they didn't pay attention to requests. :P
HMM, yeah I basically think they don't actually read what KDF players want...since the Catfish Carrier nobody requested.
Even though it's probably not going to happen:
Why don't they tell us which ships they lost money on so those on the forums can tell them why they didn't think it was worth buying?
HMM, yeah I basically think they don't actually read what KDF players want...since the Catfish Carrier nobody requested.
Even though it's probably not going to happen:
Why don't they tell us which ships they lost money on so those on the forums can tell them why they didn't think it was worth buying?
You know what all this is? Just setting up for season 8 when the so called KDF expansion never happens and he can say "look I fought hard for it but it could not be completed to my satisfaction so I am putting it off till season 9. I want to have a completed KDF before we bring it live this time - you understand - next season for sure, trust me!"
also
It would not be surprized in the least if they release a completely lame C-store KDF ship that flops so bad its not even funny - then he can say: "well looking at the recent data it's just not economically viable to go with the KDF"
Bottom line for any changes to the KDF - If it's not live on Holodeck - it's not happening!
Maybe if they just talk to some of us Klingon players we can tell them which ones we want to pay for.
I don't think it's so much a case of that; they've spent so much time producing FED ships that a lot of the KDF playerbase have likely given up. When I've been flying around Klingon Space in my Bird of Prey, it is rare that I'll see any Gorn, Orion or Nausicaan ships). They've got three each, yet few people seem to use them (least in my experience). They'd have been better off stretching the designs they did create for the KDF across two tiers, thus having a Gorn, Orion and Nausicaan ship for Tiers #1 & #2, a second design each for Tiers #3 & #4, and then a final design each for Tiers #5 & End Game. Least then it might encourage more people to play with them.
If you are going to add a Romulan faction, it needs to be aligned with the KDF. That means it needs to share ships, equipment, content, etc. you can give them their own story arcs, UI, starting zone, etc, but they absolutely need to be aligned with the Klingons.
NO!
The Romulans do NOT need to be aligned with the Klingon Empire. As full factions go, they're more likely to align themselves with the Federation. Either the Romulans are their own faction, or they're not a faction at all. TRIBBLE mixing them in with another, that's a terrible idea.
Gorn? Nausicaans? Never ever heard of them (yes, in TOS there was an episode, i know. No one from my Trekkies friends knew this at launch.)
Really? Granted the Gorn were only in TOS and ENT, but the Nausicaan were in TNG and DS9 (mentioned at least) and there was another race (who's name I have forgotten) that looked a lot like them in VOY.
I would really like to know how many Romulan fans are currently playing KDF side because they just can't stand the Fed Sky Blue Puppy World. I am one of them.
I have two toons; one FED, the other KDF. That is more for variety though, my FED is an Engineer, my KDF is a Tactical. If we get Romulans, I'll be playing that one through Science.
In regard to the rest of your post, I'd have been happy with just the FED at launch (to give everyone somewhere to start) providing that a Klingon Faction and Romulan Faction followed within three years. In my mind, the main three factions of Star Trek are the Federation, Klingon Empire and Romulan Star Empire (the latter two, as we've known them are single-races compared to the Federation which is a collection of).
I think they did right by the Klingon Empire to have others join them (though by default, the current faction should be titled the Imperial Defence Force for the simple reason that it ain't just Klingons any more).
As for the Romulans, this is a game, set in a fictional universe. JJ's Star Trek film needn't to have been taken into account here at all. The destruction of Romulus? That needn't have happened. They could have completely swung around here and have a Romulan theme that centered around a Romulan-Reman fallout, rather than the fall of an Empire. Again, throw some other species in to the mix, make that the third faction (again, you couldn't go around calling them the Romulan Star Empire cause it wouldn't just be Romulans). Majestic Star Empire?
Either way, if STO was specifically a three-faction based game, I'd be more than content with that. Cardassians, Ferengi ect... I ain't seeing it. Sure a Cardassian faction would be interesting, but (following DS9) they've got no military and their entire existence is on their own fallout following the Dominion War and they're suffering from what the Breen and Dominion did to them. I'd settle for a game without a direct Cardassian Faction (though would have welcomed Cardassian (FED & MSE) and Jem Hadar (FED & IDF) Bridge Officers).
Sorry, but with all due respect I have to disagree with you there.
*snip*
Whilst you make some valid points, I think you're looking at things a bit... differently.
Fancy Dress for arguments sake; you're more likely to be noticed as a Klingon than you are a Romulan or Vulcan. In regard to games with lots of violence, you're more likely to have a Klingon Academy than a Romulan Academy.
The Romulans are interesting in a different way to the Klingons. The Klingons are all about duty, honour and fighting. The Romulans are more about betrayal, dishonour and deceit. They are, undoubtedly the spies of the Galaxy. People like the Klingons and Romulans for very different reasons.
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Ultimately, the problem with releasing Klingon ships is that they need people to buy them. The problem here is that the KDF faction is the minority (when compared to the FED faction). The KDF faction is no doubt small for one reason, and one reason alone; it's incomplete. If the KDF faction was up to scratch with that of the FED faction, I honestly believe that more people would be playing with and / or using a Klingon toon. It took me a while to jump in and create one for this very reason, I only eventually did because I was getting bored with my FED toon and I despise grinding; this is where many FED players have no problem as they're content with the STF's, PvP's and PvE's ect that they don't need a KDF toon.
The reason the KDF playerbase is small is because the KDF faction isn't up to standard. As such, because there is a smaller KDF playing community, there are less people to buy KDF ships. Because of this, the developers are reluctant to create any new designs. From that point of view, I can see why there are few KDF ships, however it is the fault of Cryptic for not fully developing the KDF faction that is the reason for this. It all comes full circle at the end of the day. If they put as much time and effort (and money) into the KDF faction, I believe more people would play it, and as a result, the need for more KDF ships would show.
This will be the next big problem come Romulans. If they only make a half-baked faction out of them, they'll wonder why nobody jumps over to the Romulan side. These factions need to be full, they need to have everything the other factions have; stories, social zones, a full fleet ect. If you can't do something right, don't do nothing at all.
I'm not really sure how they can say KDF ships don't make them money. Once they've built it, they can sell it infinitely amount of times.
It's actually more along the lines that it doesn't make a certain amount of money within a certain amount of time post release.
Like others have said you have several stages for ship design -
1. Research and/or artist sketches.
2. Designing the 3d model.
3. Importing the model into the game, possibly going back to step 2 several times.
4. Initial testing with the standard console and BOff array for the ships rank and class.
5. Adjustments stage to give the ship a more unique feel if they feel it warrants it.
6. Designing and building unique ship powers.
7. Testing with the new ship powers.
8. Final internal adjustments.
9. Tribble release.
10. Public adjustments if any.
11. Release.
If it's released on the C-Store directly then they'll have X amount of time to sell X copies of it in order to determine whether it was profitable or not. From the sounds of the Ask Cryptic several C-Store KDF ships have failed to make that margin of profit.
As for the Romulans, this is a game, set in a fictional universe. JJ's Star Trek film needn't to have been taken into account here at all. The destruction of Romulus? That needn't have happened. They could have completely swung around here and have a Romulan theme that centered around a Romulan-Reman fallout, rather than the fall of an Empire. Again, throw some other species in to the mix, make that the third faction (again, you couldn't go around calling them the Romulan Star Empire cause it wouldn't just be Romulans). Majestic Star Empire?
Regardless of the fact that Cryptic are the developers, CBS maintains a strong hold on the IP and everything Cryptic adds to the game gets put past them, (CO lost the air guitar emote because it was developed for STO and ported over there and CBS objected). Therefore it's highly likely that the inclusion of Romulus's destruction was mandated by CBS rather than an active decision by Cryptic.
Closer to 50-60k, and only cause its California. Not anywhere near 80.
The "lost" money, is in all likelihood; not a negative deficit. They are probably more talking about the potential lost profits of having that designer work on a KDF ship instead of a Fed ship.
$50k in the Bay Area is a one bedroom and ramen noodles.
$80k is upper middle class/lower upper class with kids there. And is the average for a game designer.
I wouldn't doubt Cryptic pays a bit less but $50-60k and I can't see how they'd have anyone with a game design background working there. I'd do it to get my feet wet as someone whose degrees aren't in game design. I'd do it for five years for the experience and the love of the product.
But I wouldn't do it a second longer than five years for a penny less than $60k.
That may be true for new hires or inexperienced folks, probably primarily QA testers. I'd be really curious to see how that would work at $50k though.
Now... In Tennessee, Georgia, or Ohio? Heck. I'd happily take $50k for the rest of my life. That's a very comfortable family income there.
But I'm not sure how anyone living in San Jose/San Francisco (forget Los Gatos) can afford to and have a roof over their head.
Also, if the economic opportunity cost (ie. what you'd make off the designer working elsewhere) puts you in the negative then, yeah, you SHOULDN'T be doing it.
So if that "deficit" includes the lost opportunity of creating a Fed ship, well... Good. That means Cryptic has a sense of economics. That's how business decisions like that should be made. You have to weigh in your opportunity costs when determining a cost.
The counter is if they're underestimating the benefits associated with creating the Klingon ship somehow. Under the current model, I don't think they are, aside from possibly not calculating the public relations/sustainability costs of NOT releasing a Klingon ship. (Ie. They're looking at the economic cost of releasing a Klingon ship but aren't looking at the economic cost of NOT releasing one. It can be an externality when you do a one sided economic analysis.)
Under a pre-order/pledge model, there might be an argument that could change because the risk would be lower. Exchanging risky profit for sustainable, low-risk returns. Additionally, a pledging system might attract customers who have no personal interest in owning the ship to spend money. But it's clear that some people here find the notion repulsive as well, for whatever reason.
Those ships take a few people who probably make around $80k a year several weeks to make. They DO have a cost that isn't covered by making one sale.
That's maybe $20,000 in salary cost per ship.
A lot of "banging it out" involves testing, figuring out ways to make it lower res for polycount budgets, multiple rounds of approvals, placing weapon hardpoints, animations, etc.
An amateur could do it faster and cheaper, maybe, but they wouldn't do it the WAY a company would, with the concerns a company would have.
Maybe it could be done in a day and look good but the model isn't the only consideration and then you have to figure out how to make it look good without breaking five year old laptops.
I doubt Geko could settle on the BOff slots in under a week.
I realize this probably looks inefficient to you. I imagine your idea of efficiency looks inefficient to Cryptic too.
I have called out Cryptic before but I think you're seriously underselling the work.
Ultimately, Logan quit in large part over the Galaxy-X being given the Venture skin. That was a breaking point for him and that was a matter of adapting the Venture to a three nacelle design in a couple of weeks on top of his normal work and that was with the bulk of the modeling done.
If Dan pushed for ships to cost less labor on the scale you suggest, he'd be an EP without a team left to work for him in very short order.
1)ever done CG work?
2)ever made models for a game?
3)ever used apps like sutodesks 3D studio max? cinema 4D? Maya? blender? something?
besides using and doing the above, i've been with professionals who work in games. how fast they can create and texture something completely new is amazing, especially when they have parameters that they must adhere too in texture size and poly count. the slowest creation time involves organics, people, animals, etc.
tech models are fast. and at this point in time cryptic already has the work streamlined, and texture painting ready. pretty obvious by the variations that a similar on all ships.
then figure in the amount of people who buy kdf ships, either for the consoles or for end game. and the fact the ships only have to be made once. copy pasta with each purchase thereafter. i never said 'one' sale, in fact said i've bought 2 myself, and see z-store ships every where and consoles from other z-store ships in game.
considering the number of consoles and z-store ships i've seen, just me...cryptics alredy made the creation costs back. on the kar'fi, bop, and bort, several times over. and the kicker? people, new people, are still continuing to buy them new kdf ships, there's a thread in the forum atm where someone was asking which ones they should buy.
the 'we're not making profit on kdf ships' is a lie, and an excuse. quick buck mentality, fed stuff sells faster. and hopefully you're not going to even attempt to debate that that is the approach cryptic has shown consistently...
take everything known, apply known behavior, = cryptic is full of it regarding kdf. they'd rather focus on the quick cash. rapid sales then long term over time...quarterly reports, business thing making new fed stuff keeps those reports looking good...
no long view involved at all. or the kdf wouldn't be so content starved, the factions would be more equalized, and there wouldn't be so many blatant quick cash schemes poping up at every turn.
not difficult to use your head and see this drek. does require logical thought, not buying the companies excuses or BS though.
i post because it frakking ticks me off that there are people in charge of what has so much potential to be a great game...and it's squandered for quick profit. excuses when there should be action, lies when there should never be any in any consumer based entertainment. just overall bad decisions at almost every turn.
this is one of the worst managed mmo's i have ever seen...and i've played some bad ones before. BSGO, Rappelz. gala-labs/nflavor used to be at the top of my list for an effed up company, close tie with bigpoint...cryptics now honors that spot. while they can do some things right...overall they just continue to TRIBBLE up, consistently.
bleh, a rant...set myself to the 30th to wait and see what cryptics going to do. canceling my sub if they don't turn around and leaving. liked the game.../rant because just frakkin disappointed that so many possibilities are just wasted for short sighted goals excuses, and lies.
Dr. Patricia Tanis ~ "Bacon is for sycophants and products of incest."
Donate Brains, zombies in Washington DC are starving.
1)ever done CG work?
2)ever made models for a game?
3)ever used apps like sutodesks 3D studio max? cinema 4D? Maya? blender? something?
besides using and doing the above, i've been with professionals who work in games. how fast they can create and texture something completely new is amazing, especially when they have parameters that they must adhere too in texture size and poly count. the slowest creation time involves organics, people, animals, etc.
tech models are fast. and at this point in time cryptic already has the work streamlined, and texture painting ready. pretty obvious by the variations that a similar on all ships.
then figure in the amount of people who buy kdf ships, either for the consoles or for end game. and the fact the ships only have to be made once. copy pasta with each purchase thereafter. i never said 'one' sale, in fact said i've bought 2 myself, and see z-store ships every where and consoles from other z-store ships in game.
.
myself being an graphics girl, i've been working with Maya a lot. I can only approve your post. Development can be FAST. But the CBS approval could take a while.
I do also work closely with system programmers.
My understanding of the process leads me to following question - How many people are working on STO currently?
Cause YES, the Romulan Homeworld with the new romulan costumes, the new system changes, even the UI changes, took time. There are also new FED ships. 5 new missions (from opening new Romulan Reputation tiers).
But i could imagine with a crew of 7 people to be able to create a whole new Faction with a homeworld PLUS a new FE according to faction with an external writer involved - in 4 to 6 months. Plus one month for CBS approval. (3 designers, 3 programmers, 2d/UI designer with basic coding knowledge and a coffee machine)
Which means for 30 people (let's assume 5 of them are accounters or in service, 2 working on Foundry) it SHOULD be possible to
- finish KDF storyline without creating unimportant new assets (like Bajor, or the prison from the same FE, btw both unused, all the fancy uniforms and stuff == wasted time and money, they even did not bring these assets to the Foundry) and bring 3 brand new ships (not one ship with 3 consoles) in 4 months,
- they could throw us some PVP maps too (ranking of kill tables should also not be a problem) - estimated time = 1 month
- allowing the creation of PVP maps in the Foundry and implementing this into system = 2 weeks
- create whole new faction with 3 to 5 missions without tutorial - 4 to 6 months.
interesting is the point of "not bringing a KDF ship". The social/advertisement value of this information could be relevant.
but if they plan to give us another cruiser/carrier - i say thank you but no, thank you.
Content - i really don't get it - how can the series be so full of story, and the game has NONE of it?
Why is nothing there happening on Bajor? How much did it cost to develop? All this for one mission and that's it? Besides - it would be a PVP'ers dream to fight there.. 10vs10..
it would also be a good starting place for various episodic missions.. smuggling some artifacts to ferengi waiting on DS9, searching for cardassian sympathizers which are trying to sabotage KDF/FED.. just a few ideas.. What is with the rich history of Bajor? The prophets? Pah'Wraith caves? Vedek's?
The same goes for Vulcan, Rura Penthe, and New Romulus. Huge unused zones.
There are no important NPC's which would MEAN something to the gameplay.
Why are they reduced only to speak to us through the dialogue screen?
What is with section 31? Why are they NOT operation on New Romulus?
I don't expect them to finish the big plot stories like defera or devidians, but there should be episodic missions, tons of them, waiting for us on various planets, where we would meet one or another NPC as operative. Replayable. With multiple outcomes, also giving reputation. (shining example is Obisek, i really like that guy) . New reputations could be:
FED - section31, Vulcan academy of science, ...
KDF - orion syndicate, various Houses...
The would not need to bring new sets for every reputation. One badass KIT or ground gun or ship weapon in various MK versions would be sufficient.
1)ever done CG work?
2)ever made models for a game?
3)ever used apps like sutodesks 3D studio max? cinema 4D? Maya? blender? something?
besides using and doing the above, i've been with professionals who work in games. how fast they can create and texture something completely new is amazing, especially when they have parameters that they must adhere too in texture size and poly count. the slowest creation time involves organics, people, animals, etc.
tech models are fast. and at this point in time cryptic already has the work streamlined, and texture painting ready. pretty obvious by the variations that a similar on all ships.
then figure in the amount of people who buy kdf ships, either for the consoles or for end game. and the fact the ships only have to be made once. copy pasta with each purchase thereafter. i never said 'one' sale, in fact said i've bought 2 myself, and see z-store ships every where and consoles from other z-store ships in game.
considering the number of consoles and z-store ships i've seen, just me...cryptics alredy made the creation costs back. on the kar'fi, bop, and bort, several times over. and the kicker? people, new people, are still continuing to buy them new kdf ships, there's a thread in the forum atm where someone was asking which ones they should buy.
the 'we're not making profit on kdf ships' is a lie, and an excuse. quick buck mentality, fed stuff sells faster. and hopefully you're not going to even attempt to debate that that is the approach cryptic has shown consistently...
take everything known, apply known behavior, = cryptic is full of it regarding kdf. they'd rather focus on the quick cash. rapid sales then long term over time...quarterly reports, business thing making new fed stuff keeps those reports looking good...
no long view involved at all. or the kdf wouldn't be so content starved, the factions would be more equalized, and there wouldn't be so many blatant quick cash schemes poping up at every turn.
not difficult to use your head and see this drek. does require logical thought, not buying the companies excuses or BS though.
i post because it frakking ticks me off that there are people in charge of what has so much potential to be a great game...and it's squandered for quick profit. excuses when there should be action, lies when there should never be any in any consumer based entertainment. just overall bad decisions at almost every turn.
this is one of the worst managed mmo's i have ever seen...and i've played some bad ones before. BSGO, Rappelz. gala-labs/nflavor used to be at the top of my list for an effed up company, close tie with bigpoint...cryptics now honors that spot. while they can do some things right...overall they just continue to TRIBBLE up, consistently.
bleh, a rant...set myself to the 30th to wait and see what cryptics going to do. canceling my sub if they don't turn around and leaving. liked the game.../rant because just frakkin disappointed that so many possibilities are just wasted for short sighted goals excuses, and lies.
I'm saying it's not the art. It's the bureaucracy and precise nature of the demands.
Yeah. An artist working to his own tastes could get something pretty good in a very full day, assuming that things like bug fixes don't also need to be subsidized with product sales.
I'm saying the hands on part of making the art isn't the bulk of what has to get paid for. There's research and a LOT of bureaucracy and a LOT of other factors.
I have ideas on where that could be streamlined but I can tell you, there are people who would argue against any kind of streamlining that you or I might suggest.
As it stands now, the costs are what they are and that can cause ships to be unprofitable unless they sell in decent numbers and even then you have the economic reality that any time spent making on one ship that could have been spent on a ship that would have sold better is a loss.
But i could imagine with a crew of 7 people to be able to create a whole new Faction with a homeworld PLUS a new FE according to faction with an external writer involved - in 4 to 6 months. Plus one month for CBS approval. (3 designers, 3 programmers, 2d/UI designer with basic coding knowledge and a coffee machine)
Depending on organizational structure, more people can mean more slowdown. That doesn't change that more people may produce more volume of work. But it can disproportionately influence certain KINDS of work.
I get the strong vibe that there are at least segments of Cryptic that oppose any kind of strong, central vision and that there is a lot of pushback between leads.
To a point where there are folks who spend 30+ hours a week in meetings with one another, debating.
I think it's probably more polite than the forums. I also think there's considerably more time spent arguing over very minute details.
I'm not going to soil a good holiday weekend pointing fingers but I think Stahl's job is a lot like cat herding and that there are strong personalities who clash.
As it stands now, the costs are what they are and that can cause ships to be unprofitable unless they sell in decent numbers and even then you have the economic reality that any time spent making on one ship that could have been spent on a ship that would have sold better is a loss.
It's not a loss when it's an investment you make to help you achieving a long-term goal or make your players happier with the state of the game. That's why they keep making some kdf ships i guess, but they're definitely making the wrong ones.
I'll add that I think the corporate culture resists senior management taking sides in these back and forths (and sometimes introduces a new side) and so what happens is that you have a workplace that's based around a marketplace of ideas rather than a strong sense of vision, shared or otherwise.
It's not a loss when it's an investment you make to help you achieving a long-term goal or make your players happier with the state of the game. That's why they keep making some kdf ships i guess, but they're definitely making the wrong ones.
It is an economic loss if that goal is not considered... and if the goal cannot be calculated, it cannot be considered in a brutal economic evaluation.
Doing these kinds of things boils down to a faith in a vision that trumps calculatable costs and benefits, in favor of ones that can't be calculated. I think Cryptic is a company that is geared more towards internal debates than vision on that scale, as I alluded to before.
Well, if it is truly economics that is preventing Cryptic from creating Klingon content and only 16% of players on the KDF side, then it is 16% of revenue they won't make.
Assuming there are 150K players, then 24K are KDF. At $50 USD per ship bundle (assuming all purchased), comes to $1.2 million that Cryptic doesn't want.
I do support Cryptic. I have a Dekora, Tuffli, bug ship, and I have purchased the last three ship bundles. Yes, I did purchase the Vesta bundle, but I did it more for Cryptic than a want for the ship. I said I would stop purchasing Fed content unless it had a KDF equivalent vessel, but I hadn't purchased anything in a while it was an impulse buy. I also own 85-90% of the C-Store.
I would gladly (read: happily) invest just as much into KDF only content if it were available.
So anyway, not putting Klingon content isn't hurting my bottom line as it doesn't cost me anything to come on the forum tell them what I want. The Money has been sitting here waiting for them since 2010.
I just find it strange that he has to beg and plead the powers that be to develop a faction they use to advertise this game...
Am I the only one?
No your not the only one.
Though I am no longer shocked. This is the same old story for KDF fans and why many fan clubs have not bothered with STO after the KDF where first rolled under the bus before release.
Truthfully.... I think there's more than just a grain of truth to the idea that they are stuck with the standard Catch-22. They can't expand KDF without stopping development of new stuff.
This leaves them in the unenviable position of being guaranteed to anger at least part of their playerbase regardless of the outcome. Since there's far more Fed chars than KDF.... the choice is clear. Spend more time working on stuff that either both sides get to use or that the Feds get...
Comments
Huh?
Those ships take a few people who probably make around $80k a year several weeks to make. They DO have a cost that isn't covered by making one sale.
That's maybe $20,000 in salary cost per ship.
A lot of "banging it out" involves testing, figuring out ways to make it lower res for polycount budgets, multiple rounds of approvals, placing weapon hardpoints, animations, etc.
An amateur could do it faster and cheaper, maybe, but they wouldn't do it the WAY a company would, with the concerns a company would have.
Maybe it could be done in a day and look good but the model isn't the only consideration and then you have to figure out how to make it look good without breaking five year old laptops.
I doubt Geko could settle on the BOff slots in under a week.
I realize this probably looks inefficient to you. I imagine your idea of efficiency looks inefficient to Cryptic too.
I have called out Cryptic before but I think you're seriously underselling the work.
Ultimately, Logan quit in large part over the Galaxy-X being given the Venture skin. That was a breaking point for him and that was a matter of adapting the Venture to a three nacelle design in a couple of weeks on top of his normal work and that was with the bulk of the modeling done.
If Dan pushed for ships to cost less labor on the scale you suggest, he'd be an EP without a team left to work for him in very short order.
Closer to 50-60k, and only cause its California. Not anywhere near 80.
The "lost" money, is in all likelihood; not a negative deficit. They are probably more talking about the potential lost profits of having that designer work on a KDF ship instead of a Fed ship.
Jup. I though the same thing when I read the Ask Cryptic.
KDF is getting shuffled back again for more Fed goddies.
If you are going to add a Romulan faction, it needs to be aligned with the KDF. That means it needs to share ships, equipment, content, etc. you can give them their own story arcs, UI, starting zone, etc, but they absolutely need to be aligned with the Klingons.
That's the only way your going to bridge the gap and make 2 legitimate factions; instead of 1 legit faction, and 2 half-assed and neglected factions.
Learn from your mistakes Cryptic.
What's the eta on that? A year ?
But yeah a lot of maybe, potentially and perhaps, I guess that's how it should be.
At least there is still a chance for a full kdf right, gotta count for something
because the Romulans are FAR more popular as the Klingons are.
Gorn? Nausicaans? Never ever heard of them (yes, in TOS there was an episode, i know. No one from my Trekkies friends knew this at launch.)
I would really like to know how many Romulan fans are currently playing KDF side because they just can't stand the Fed Sky Blue Puppy World. I am one of them.
They should've START with 3 factions - FED; ROM; KDF (as promised on the homepage at launch)
This is not a NORMAL 2 factions MMO. Every Trekkie (and these are people with money, investing here) seeks to see here a HUGE galaxy full of various factions.
Every faction needs ships, DOff's, stuff.. that is the way to go.
So we would have:
FED, KDF, Romulans, Cardassians, free trader/marauder faction, Ferengi, whatever..
Content? There does not need to be content released EXTRA for every faction. There are common enemies all factions need to battle them together. And PVP.
ERRMMMM...nope.
Sorry, but with all due respect I have to disagree with you there.
There's a reason there are so many "Klingon" episodes in Trek and so few about the Romulans.
Why there are so many movies that feature the Klingons and only one the features the Romulans.
(I mean the Abrams movie, the Romulans in "Nemesis" were just standing around looking for a salary check)
Not to mention even though it's a whole lot more difficult to create a Klingon costume, I've never seen nearly as many people dressing up as Romulans at conventions as people dressing as Klingons.
There are no games called "Romulan Academy" or "Star Trek: Romulan".
And there is no Romulaus, only a Klingolaus (even though he sings in German)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0fn3234lxM
if the Romulans were more popular than the Klingons, those things would exist.
So you're basically asking for a romulan ship in a lockbox with a romulan toon and UI...
I'm not really sure how they can say KDF ships don't make them money. Once they've built it, they can sell it infinitely amount of times. If they increase the KDF players they will increase the KDF ship sales of all the ones that are currently available and quite possibly turn those failures into successes. Of course it doesn't help that the feds get a boost in sales from their fleet ships while the KDF just kick and scream.
As the difference between the two factions increase, the KDF is going to start feeling more like a DLC. Here try out the KDF and then come back to the FED side because don't bother investing effort/time into it since we aren't supporting it anymore.
You don't honestly believe that Romulans are more popular than Klingons, do you? You got some major fanboy delusion going on.
And i do also honestly believe the Romulan faction (should it come in foreseeable future) will have more players than KDF has in short time. (because there are plenty of current FED players who would LOVE to play a badass Vulcan, there are people who would like to have the cloaking devices in PVP, and do not want to play KDF... and there are fanbois like myself who wait for Romulans for a long time)
no, i am asking them to consider creating Romulans, and even more factions.
They should start at lvl 45 (even 50) unlocked by a 50 fed toon.
Every faction should have
- homeworld with all the NPC's
- one free ship, various fleet and Zen store ships (at least 3 for sci, tac and eng, romulans need a BOP too, one shuttle)
- DOFF system
- fleet system. I don't really care how the starbases look like, even if they only reskin the existing stuff (there are plenty of models in the Foundry belonging to various factions)..
- PVP should get cross-faction if this would come true
- UI color
- 1 to 3 lore missions to start-off the faction
- Foundry stuff available
- no tutorial as starting at high lvl
They gain:
- costume sales, char slot sales, boff slots sales, doff packs sales, ships sales... etc
And i think the off-duty clothing options should be opened cross -faction. If the Gorn are the problem, they should close this option for Gorn, but all the Aliens, Klingons, on the KDF side are pretty capable of using off-duty stuff.
Not making profit from KDF ship sales is IMHO a plain LIE.
The mean they are not doing BIG profit, comparable with bringing FED ships (lol yesterday i went through the Fed ships shop, they are selling the same ship 3x, with different consoles, so you need to buy all 3 to have the set. And there is no bundle, just 3x 2500 Zen. Just LOL.)
It is no secret that profits from STO are financing other Cryptic developed games. Too bad, because if this wasn't happening there would be enough cash for everything.
That was probably the cost of a Bortasqu'. But there's no mystery, when the ship sucks, no one will buy it, KDF supporter or not. They should wonder what KDF players would buy instead of trying to give random crappy cruisers.
And if you read the kdf subforums, people want:
- an escort with a significant turnrate/5 tac consoles (like the defiant)
- a couple science ships
- a Fleet Kar'fi.
- More ships with one hangar.
Instead of that they're trying to release crappy cruisers (you need to be stupid to use a Bortasqu' with such a terrible turnrate as a KDF)/tanky escorts (the temporal destroyer). It's well deserved if they don't make profit on this, they didn't pay attention to requests. :P
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
HMM, yeah I basically think they don't actually read what KDF players want...since the Catfish Carrier nobody requested.
Even though it's probably not going to happen:
Why don't they tell us which ships they lost money on so those on the forums can tell them why they didn't think it was worth buying?
You know what all this is? Just setting up for season 8 when the so called KDF expansion never happens and he can say "look I fought hard for it but it could not be completed to my satisfaction so I am putting it off till season 9. I want to have a completed KDF before we bring it live this time - you understand - next season for sure, trust me!"
also
It would not be surprized in the least if they release a completely lame C-store KDF ship that flops so bad its not even funny - then he can say: "well looking at the recent data it's just not economically viable to go with the KDF"
Bottom line for any changes to the KDF - If it's not live on Holodeck - it's not happening!
Long Term.
NO!
The Romulans do NOT need to be aligned with the Klingon Empire. As full factions go, they're more likely to align themselves with the Federation. Either the Romulans are their own faction, or they're not a faction at all. TRIBBLE mixing them in with another, that's a terrible idea.
Really? Granted the Gorn were only in TOS and ENT, but the Nausicaan were in TNG and DS9 (mentioned at least) and there was another race (who's name I have forgotten) that looked a lot like them in VOY.
I have two toons; one FED, the other KDF. That is more for variety though, my FED is an Engineer, my KDF is a Tactical. If we get Romulans, I'll be playing that one through Science.
In regard to the rest of your post, I'd have been happy with just the FED at launch (to give everyone somewhere to start) providing that a Klingon Faction and Romulan Faction followed within three years. In my mind, the main three factions of Star Trek are the Federation, Klingon Empire and Romulan Star Empire (the latter two, as we've known them are single-races compared to the Federation which is a collection of).
I think they did right by the Klingon Empire to have others join them (though by default, the current faction should be titled the Imperial Defence Force for the simple reason that it ain't just Klingons any more).
As for the Romulans, this is a game, set in a fictional universe. JJ's Star Trek film needn't to have been taken into account here at all. The destruction of Romulus? That needn't have happened. They could have completely swung around here and have a Romulan theme that centered around a Romulan-Reman fallout, rather than the fall of an Empire. Again, throw some other species in to the mix, make that the third faction (again, you couldn't go around calling them the Romulan Star Empire cause it wouldn't just be Romulans). Majestic Star Empire?
Either way, if STO was specifically a three-faction based game, I'd be more than content with that. Cardassians, Ferengi ect... I ain't seeing it. Sure a Cardassian faction would be interesting, but (following DS9) they've got no military and their entire existence is on their own fallout following the Dominion War and they're suffering from what the Breen and Dominion did to them. I'd settle for a game without a direct Cardassian Faction (though would have welcomed Cardassian (FED & MSE) and Jem Hadar (FED & IDF) Bridge Officers).
Whilst you make some valid points, I think you're looking at things a bit... differently.
Fancy Dress for arguments sake; you're more likely to be noticed as a Klingon than you are a Romulan or Vulcan. In regard to games with lots of violence, you're more likely to have a Klingon Academy than a Romulan Academy.
The Romulans are interesting in a different way to the Klingons. The Klingons are all about duty, honour and fighting. The Romulans are more about betrayal, dishonour and deceit. They are, undoubtedly the spies of the Galaxy. People like the Klingons and Romulans for very different reasons.
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Ultimately, the problem with releasing Klingon ships is that they need people to buy them. The problem here is that the KDF faction is the minority (when compared to the FED faction). The KDF faction is no doubt small for one reason, and one reason alone; it's incomplete. If the KDF faction was up to scratch with that of the FED faction, I honestly believe that more people would be playing with and / or using a Klingon toon. It took me a while to jump in and create one for this very reason, I only eventually did because I was getting bored with my FED toon and I despise grinding; this is where many FED players have no problem as they're content with the STF's, PvP's and PvE's ect that they don't need a KDF toon.
The reason the KDF playerbase is small is because the KDF faction isn't up to standard. As such, because there is a smaller KDF playing community, there are less people to buy KDF ships. Because of this, the developers are reluctant to create any new designs. From that point of view, I can see why there are few KDF ships, however it is the fault of Cryptic for not fully developing the KDF faction that is the reason for this. It all comes full circle at the end of the day. If they put as much time and effort (and money) into the KDF faction, I believe more people would play it, and as a result, the need for more KDF ships would show.
This will be the next big problem come Romulans. If they only make a half-baked faction out of them, they'll wonder why nobody jumps over to the Romulan side. These factions need to be full, they need to have everything the other factions have; stories, social zones, a full fleet ect. If you can't do something right, don't do nothing at all.
It's actually more along the lines that it doesn't make a certain amount of money within a certain amount of time post release.
Like others have said you have several stages for ship design -
1. Research and/or artist sketches.
2. Designing the 3d model.
3. Importing the model into the game, possibly going back to step 2 several times.
4. Initial testing with the standard console and BOff array for the ships rank and class.
5. Adjustments stage to give the ship a more unique feel if they feel it warrants it.
6. Designing and building unique ship powers.
7. Testing with the new ship powers.
8. Final internal adjustments.
9. Tribble release.
10. Public adjustments if any.
11. Release.
If it's released on the C-Store directly then they'll have X amount of time to sell X copies of it in order to determine whether it was profitable or not. From the sounds of the Ask Cryptic several C-Store KDF ships have failed to make that margin of profit.
Regardless of the fact that Cryptic are the developers, CBS maintains a strong hold on the IP and everything Cryptic adds to the game gets put past them, (CO lost the air guitar emote because it was developed for STO and ported over there and CBS objected). Therefore it's highly likely that the inclusion of Romulus's destruction was mandated by CBS rather than an active decision by Cryptic.
$50k in the Bay Area is a one bedroom and ramen noodles.
$80k is upper middle class/lower upper class with kids there. And is the average for a game designer.
I wouldn't doubt Cryptic pays a bit less but $50-60k and I can't see how they'd have anyone with a game design background working there. I'd do it to get my feet wet as someone whose degrees aren't in game design. I'd do it for five years for the experience and the love of the product.
But I wouldn't do it a second longer than five years for a penny less than $60k.
That may be true for new hires or inexperienced folks, probably primarily QA testers. I'd be really curious to see how that would work at $50k though.
Now... In Tennessee, Georgia, or Ohio? Heck. I'd happily take $50k for the rest of my life. That's a very comfortable family income there.
But I'm not sure how anyone living in San Jose/San Francisco (forget Los Gatos) can afford to and have a roof over their head.
So if that "deficit" includes the lost opportunity of creating a Fed ship, well... Good. That means Cryptic has a sense of economics. That's how business decisions like that should be made. You have to weigh in your opportunity costs when determining a cost.
The counter is if they're underestimating the benefits associated with creating the Klingon ship somehow. Under the current model, I don't think they are, aside from possibly not calculating the public relations/sustainability costs of NOT releasing a Klingon ship. (Ie. They're looking at the economic cost of releasing a Klingon ship but aren't looking at the economic cost of NOT releasing one. It can be an externality when you do a one sided economic analysis.)
Under a pre-order/pledge model, there might be an argument that could change because the risk would be lower. Exchanging risky profit for sustainable, low-risk returns. Additionally, a pledging system might attract customers who have no personal interest in owning the ship to spend money. But it's clear that some people here find the notion repulsive as well, for whatever reason.
Am I the only one?
1)ever done CG work?
2)ever made models for a game?
3)ever used apps like sutodesks 3D studio max? cinema 4D? Maya? blender? something?
besides using and doing the above, i've been with professionals who work in games. how fast they can create and texture something completely new is amazing, especially when they have parameters that they must adhere too in texture size and poly count. the slowest creation time involves organics, people, animals, etc.
tech models are fast. and at this point in time cryptic already has the work streamlined, and texture painting ready. pretty obvious by the variations that a similar on all ships.
then figure in the amount of people who buy kdf ships, either for the consoles or for end game. and the fact the ships only have to be made once. copy pasta with each purchase thereafter. i never said 'one' sale, in fact said i've bought 2 myself, and see z-store ships every where and consoles from other z-store ships in game.
considering the number of consoles and z-store ships i've seen, just me...cryptics alredy made the creation costs back. on the kar'fi, bop, and bort, several times over. and the kicker? people, new people, are still continuing to buy them new kdf ships, there's a thread in the forum atm where someone was asking which ones they should buy.
the 'we're not making profit on kdf ships' is a lie, and an excuse. quick buck mentality, fed stuff sells faster. and hopefully you're not going to even attempt to debate that that is the approach cryptic has shown consistently...
take everything known, apply known behavior, = cryptic is full of it regarding kdf. they'd rather focus on the quick cash. rapid sales then long term over time...quarterly reports, business thing making new fed stuff keeps those reports looking good...
no long view involved at all. or the kdf wouldn't be so content starved, the factions would be more equalized, and there wouldn't be so many blatant quick cash schemes poping up at every turn.
not difficult to use your head and see this drek. does require logical thought, not buying the companies excuses or BS though.
i post because it frakking ticks me off that there are people in charge of what has so much potential to be a great game...and it's squandered for quick profit. excuses when there should be action, lies when there should never be any in any consumer based entertainment. just overall bad decisions at almost every turn.
this is one of the worst managed mmo's i have ever seen...and i've played some bad ones before. BSGO, Rappelz. gala-labs/nflavor used to be at the top of my list for an effed up company, close tie with bigpoint...cryptics now honors that spot. while they can do some things right...overall they just continue to TRIBBLE up, consistently.
bleh, a rant...set myself to the 30th to wait and see what cryptics going to do. canceling my sub if they don't turn around and leaving. liked the game.../rant because just frakkin disappointed that so many possibilities are just wasted for short sighted goals excuses, and lies.
Donate Brains, zombies in Washington DC are starving.
myself being an graphics girl, i've been working with Maya a lot. I can only approve your post. Development can be FAST. But the CBS approval could take a while.
I do also work closely with system programmers.
My understanding of the process leads me to following question - How many people are working on STO currently?
Cause YES, the Romulan Homeworld with the new romulan costumes, the new system changes, even the UI changes, took time. There are also new FED ships. 5 new missions (from opening new Romulan Reputation tiers).
But i could imagine with a crew of 7 people to be able to create a whole new Faction with a homeworld PLUS a new FE according to faction with an external writer involved - in 4 to 6 months. Plus one month for CBS approval. (3 designers, 3 programmers, 2d/UI designer with basic coding knowledge and a coffee machine)
Which means for 30 people (let's assume 5 of them are accounters or in service, 2 working on Foundry) it SHOULD be possible to
- finish KDF storyline without creating unimportant new assets (like Bajor, or the prison from the same FE, btw both unused, all the fancy uniforms and stuff == wasted time and money, they even did not bring these assets to the Foundry) and bring 3 brand new ships (not one ship with 3 consoles) in 4 months,
- they could throw us some PVP maps too (ranking of kill tables should also not be a problem) - estimated time = 1 month
- allowing the creation of PVP maps in the Foundry and implementing this into system = 2 weeks
- create whole new faction with 3 to 5 missions without tutorial - 4 to 6 months.
interesting is the point of "not bringing a KDF ship". The social/advertisement value of this information could be relevant.
but if they plan to give us another cruiser/carrier - i say thank you but no, thank you.
Content - i really don't get it - how can the series be so full of story, and the game has NONE of it?
Why is nothing there happening on Bajor? How much did it cost to develop? All this for one mission and that's it? Besides - it would be a PVP'ers dream to fight there.. 10vs10..
it would also be a good starting place for various episodic missions.. smuggling some artifacts to ferengi waiting on DS9, searching for cardassian sympathizers which are trying to sabotage KDF/FED.. just a few ideas.. What is with the rich history of Bajor? The prophets? Pah'Wraith caves? Vedek's?
The same goes for Vulcan, Rura Penthe, and New Romulus. Huge unused zones.
There are no important NPC's which would MEAN something to the gameplay.
Why are they reduced only to speak to us through the dialogue screen?
What is with section 31? Why are they NOT operation on New Romulus?
I don't expect them to finish the big plot stories like defera or devidians, but there should be episodic missions, tons of them, waiting for us on various planets, where we would meet one or another NPC as operative. Replayable. With multiple outcomes, also giving reputation. (shining example is Obisek, i really like that guy) . New reputations could be:
FED - section31, Vulcan academy of science, ...
KDF - orion syndicate, various Houses...
The would not need to bring new sets for every reputation. One badass KIT or ground gun or ship weapon in various MK versions would be sufficient.
I'm saying it's not the art. It's the bureaucracy and precise nature of the demands.
Yeah. An artist working to his own tastes could get something pretty good in a very full day, assuming that things like bug fixes don't also need to be subsidized with product sales.
I'm saying the hands on part of making the art isn't the bulk of what has to get paid for. There's research and a LOT of bureaucracy and a LOT of other factors.
I have ideas on where that could be streamlined but I can tell you, there are people who would argue against any kind of streamlining that you or I might suggest.
As it stands now, the costs are what they are and that can cause ships to be unprofitable unless they sell in decent numbers and even then you have the economic reality that any time spent making on one ship that could have been spent on a ship that would have sold better is a loss.
Depending on organizational structure, more people can mean more slowdown. That doesn't change that more people may produce more volume of work. But it can disproportionately influence certain KINDS of work.
I get the strong vibe that there are at least segments of Cryptic that oppose any kind of strong, central vision and that there is a lot of pushback between leads.
To a point where there are folks who spend 30+ hours a week in meetings with one another, debating.
I think it's probably more polite than the forums. I also think there's considerably more time spent arguing over very minute details.
I'm not going to soil a good holiday weekend pointing fingers but I think Stahl's job is a lot like cat herding and that there are strong personalities who clash.
It's not a loss when it's an investment you make to help you achieving a long-term goal or make your players happier with the state of the game. That's why they keep making some kdf ships i guess, but they're definitely making the wrong ones.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
It is an economic loss if that goal is not considered... and if the goal cannot be calculated, it cannot be considered in a brutal economic evaluation.
Doing these kinds of things boils down to a faith in a vision that trumps calculatable costs and benefits, in favor of ones that can't be calculated. I think Cryptic is a company that is geared more towards internal debates than vision on that scale, as I alluded to before.
Assuming there are 150K players, then 24K are KDF. At $50 USD per ship bundle (assuming all purchased), comes to $1.2 million that Cryptic doesn't want.
I do support Cryptic. I have a Dekora, Tuffli, bug ship, and I have purchased the last three ship bundles. Yes, I did purchase the Vesta bundle, but I did it more for Cryptic than a want for the ship. I said I would stop purchasing Fed content unless it had a KDF equivalent vessel, but I hadn't purchased anything in a while it was an impulse buy. I also own 85-90% of the C-Store.
I would gladly (read: happily) invest just as much into KDF only content if it were available.
So anyway, not putting Klingon content isn't hurting my bottom line as it doesn't cost me anything to come on the forum tell them what I want. The Money has been sitting here waiting for them since 2010.
But please buy nw. Lol.
Cryptic has more excuses for "infidelity" than my exwife.
Guess its time to change the signature again.......
R.I.P
No your not the only one.
Though I am no longer shocked. This is the same old story for KDF fans and why many fan clubs have not bothered with STO after the KDF where first rolled under the bus before release.
R.I.P
This leaves them in the unenviable position of being guaranteed to anger at least part of their playerbase regardless of the outcome. Since there's far more Fed chars than KDF.... the choice is clear. Spend more time working on stuff that either both sides get to use or that the Feds get...
My character Tsin'xing