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Update on Fleet Marks and Dilithium

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  • themariethemarie Member Posts: 1,055 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    Based on decades in management... and my experience running a successful business I am going to make the following observations:


    1) Time Management: I don't think that internally Cryptic practices any form of time management. This shows in the sheer number of items that are not finished or unobtainable (Flamethrower, Robes for KDF, Android Officer, among others ) despite being promised is astounding. Brandon comes on here and via his blog postings and his links to other Dev postings... we are promised things that just never arrive. So what does a Cryptic Dev DO all day? It seems to me three months is more than enough time to finish a flamethrower code or to install uniform options on the KDF side.... I don't think the leaders monitor their workers... who do NOT stay on task... resulting in yet another half-baked mostly unfinished season. Getting four consecutive Romulan Data Chips that state "PLACEHOLDER TEXT -- STORY GOES HERE" turned me off to the history collection REAL quick. Projects need to be completed on time, or the season needs to be delayed. I would have rather waited an extra month and a half for a FINISHED WORKABLE Season Seven rather than what we have now.


    2) Quality Assurance: My question to Cryptic and I really would like an answer: Do you test internally? At all? After seeing the severity of the bugs in this latest patch... I really would like to learn all about your internal process. This is something that I can actually help you with, should you care to improve. If you wish to hire a Quality Engineer, please contact me!

    Lets look at it from the player POV: A) Broken major healing power that jams controls for 120 sec, and totally screws up cloak and any sort of "transform" or "mode switch" power. B) Promised store unlocks... not available after unlocking the store.

    How did you not notice that the unlocks in the store were not hooked up? I'm not criticizing I'm genuinely curious! Do devs self-check their code segments before integrating? What about after Or does someone check the code and send it back for further tuning? Does anyone check the game on a production build?

    What about the starship powers that are broken? Did no one sit down and run a handful of missions on both factions? The lockout glitch was discovered by me within ten min of patching. First mission I ran. The cloak and transform glitches shortly thereafter. Would have taken an internal tester the same amount of time... and the code could have been adjusted or not released.

    Same thing with the store unlocks. Did no one fire up the game, run the unlock mission and alert the Dev that the store wasn't stocking? Apparently not.

    Finally, we warn you via Tribble that something is broken -- I've seen it happen -- yet the next day the patch releases and breaks the game. Why not stop the patch release and fix what we discovered? I don't think you have an internal process to get the Tribble info to someone who can abort the live-patch in time to avoid breaking the game.

    In order to fix this, you need a dedicated playtest team. You need to test on the actual live environment under real-world conditions. Not just your ultra-tuned totally debugged internal Dev shard. Finally you need to release patches to Tribble a week to two weeks before "live" and put a process in place to abort patch release if the testers discover broken stuff.


    3) Old Bugs: This goes with the above questions and observations. I know I've submitted tickets on the Romulan and Klingon weapon glitches for the plot missions. I did so back in Season Five, and I submit tickets every few months. I've talked to Das Overflake and I've emailed Dan... problem is untouched.

    Is there a process in place, or anyone even assigned to fix long-standing bugs? Does not look like it. Ties into time management above. Time needs to be dedicated to fixing what is already broken before releasing more broken content.


    4) Lastly and this is a personal call -- feel free to disregard. There is a distinct lack of creativity in this game. Plasma Beams, Plasma Torpedoes, Omega Plasma, Plasma Energy Bolts, Plasma Riders, Plasma Consoles... do I need to go on? We also have multiple colored-cloud dispensers that all basically do the same thing. Theta, Warp Plasma, Tetyron Plasma, and the gas canisters on the Regent.

    We have beams. We have pulses. We have torpedo. We have mines. There are other weapons in the Star Trek universe -- Merculite Rockets for example. What about really primitive weapons like X-ray pulse lasers and NPB beams? Dual-cannon turrets? Voyager had a IsoKinetic Cannon. This is where other Trek games shined... Unique gimmicks and abilities above and beyond the standard pew pew.

    I would like to see more variety in weapons going forward. And for the love of all that's important PLEASE give plasma and cloud-dispensers a break for awhile!



    My final thoughts on the matter are this: The fan outrage isn't just about the fleet-marks. You dumped a massively broken patch on us for a three day weekend and made no attempt to roll it back. I would have tolerated the fleet-mark nonsense grudgingly... but on top of being unable to play my favorite ships for WHO KNOWS how long -- it's intolerable.

    It all comes down to listening to your fans. We are fed up with the lack of quality assurance and we are fed up with the heavy-handed adjustments and nerfing of the reward systems.

    Please. Fix. This.
  • warbird001warbird001 Member Posts: 246 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    themarie wrote: »
    Based on decades in management... and my experience running a successful business I am going to make the following observations:


    1) Time Management: I don't think that internally Cryptic practices any form of time management. This shows in the sheer number of items that are not finished or unobtainable (Flamethrower, Robes for KDF, Android Officer, among others ) despite being promised is astounding. Brandon comes on here and via his blog postings and his links to other Dev postings... we are promised things that just never arrive. So what does a Cryptic Dev DO all day? It seems to me three months is more than enough time to finish a flamethrower code or to install uniform options on the KDF side.... I don't think the leaders monitor their workers... who do NOT stay on task... resulting in yet another half-baked mostly unfinished season. Getting four consecutive Romulan Data Chips that state "PLACEHOLDER TEXT -- STORY GOES HERE" turned me off to the history collection REAL quick. Projects need to be completed on time, or the season needs to be delayed. I would have rather waited an extra month and a half for a FINISHED WORKABLE Season Seven rather than what we have now.


    2) Quality Assurance: My question to Cryptic and I really would like an answer: Do you test internally? At all? After seeing the severity of the bugs in this latest patch... I really would like to learn all about your internal process. This is something that I can actually help you with, should you care to improve. If you wish to hire a Quality Engineer, please contact me!

    Lets look at it from the player POV: A) Broken major healing power that jams controls for 120 sec, and totally screws up cloak and any sort of "transform" or "mode switch" power. B) Promised store unlocks... not available after unlocking the store.

    How did you not notice that the unlocks in the store were not hooked up? I'm not criticizing I'm genuinely curious! Do devs self-check their code segments before integrating? What about after Or does someone check the code and send it back for further tuning? Does anyone check the game on a production build?

    What about the starship powers that are broken? Did no one sit down and run a handful of missions on both factions? The lockout glitch was discovered by me within ten min of patching. First mission I ran. The cloak and transform glitches shortly thereafter. Would have taken an internal tester the same amount of time... and the code could have been adjusted or not released.

    Same thing with the store unlocks. Did no one fire up the game, run the unlock mission and alert the Dev that the store wasn't stocking? Apparently not.

    Finally, we warn you via Tribble that something is broken -- I've seen it happen -- yet the next day the patch releases and breaks the game. Why not stop the patch release and fix what we discovered? I don't think you have an internal process to get the Tribble info to someone who can abort the live-patch in time to avoid breaking the game.

    In order to fix this, you need a dedicated playtest team. You need to test on the actual live environment under real-world conditions. Not just your ultra-tuned totally debugged internal Dev shard. Finally you need to release patches to Tribble a week to two weeks before "live" and put a process in place to abort patch release if the testers discover broken stuff.


    3) Old Bugs: This goes with the above questions and observations. I know I've submitted tickets on the Romulan and Klingon weapon glitches for the plot missions. I did so back in Season Five, and I submit tickets every few months. I've talked to Das Overflake and I've emailed Dan... problem is untouched.

    Is there a process in place, or anyone even assigned to fix long-standing bugs? Does not look like it. Ties into time management above. Time needs to be dedicated to fixing what is already broken before releasing more broken content.


    4) Lastly and this is a personal call -- feel free to disregard. There is a distinct lack of creativity in this game. Plasma Beams, Plasma Torpedoes, Omega Plasma, Plasma Energy Bolts, Plasma Riders, Plasma Consoles... do I need to go on? We also have multiple colored-cloud dispensers that all basically do the same thing. Theta, Warp Plasma, Tetyron Plasma, and the gas canisters on the Regent.

    We have beams. We have pulses. We have torpedo. We have mines. There are other weapons in the Star Trek universe -- Merculite Rockets for example. What about really primitive weapons like X-ray pulse lasers and NPB beams? Dual-cannon turrets? Voyager had a IsoKinetic Cannon. This is where other Trek games shined... Unique gimmicks and abilities above and beyond the standard pew pew.

    I would like to see more variety in weapons going forward. And for the love of all that's important PLEASE give plasma and cloud-dispensers a break for awhile!



    My final thoughts on the matter are this: The fan outrage isn't just about the fleet-marks. You dumped a massively broken patch on us for a three day weekend and made no attempt to roll it back. I would have tolerated the fleet-mark nonsense grudgingly... but on top of being unable to play my favorite ships for WHO KNOWS how long -- it's intolerable.

    It all comes down to listening to your fans. We are fed up with the lack of quality assurance and we are fed up with the heavy-handed adjustments and nerfing of the reward systems.

    Please. Fix. This.

    You sir are a very intelligent man and I am in complete agreement, 100%
  • kyuui13kyuui13 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    The cost for upgrading (duty officer reassignment) was a terrible change, however it has not had a more recent price increase as you stated (on Holodeck, at least). It's still 500/2500/5000 to get a green/blue/purple from 5 of a lower rarity.

    I think, I know whats going on with that.
    the 500/2500/5000 is from the personnel officer. If you go to the three racial ones, its more the 5 white to green is 600, the five blue to purple is 6000, I don't know what the green to blue is, as i don't ever do it on them, Either way, its way to damn much. And just adds in to the overly large demand for an overly restricted resource. Yet another time gate that Cryptic is so very very fond of.

    its ok, I'm adapting their tactics, I'm gating my time in STO now.
    Next time you log in, ask yourself this.
    dastahl wrote: »
    If you can't have fun, then what is the point?
  • olivia211olivia211 Member Posts: 675 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    The cost for upgrading (duty officer reassignment) was a terrible change, however it has not had a more recent price increase as you stated (on Holodeck, at least). It's still 500/2500/5000 to get a green/blue/purple from 5 of a lower rarity.

    This is the one I was talking about.

    https://twitter.com/Executive_Emily/status/303580234777780224/photo/1

    Was this always like this?
    No, I am not who you think I am. I am someone different. I am instead a banana.
  • baddmoonrizinbaddmoonrizin Member Posts: 10,746 Community Moderator
    edited February 2013
    thebumble wrote: »
    I am not surprised in the least on this.

    If they can nerf The Foundry, why not the other crappy sources of FMs as well. They need to slow starbase construction to a crawl. The mega-fleets are hitting their goals at a much faster pace than Cryptic anticipated. Lets face it, if it wasn't time gated, there would be Tier 5 fleets already.

    I don't think their ready for Tier 5 starbases, period. Maybe they have glitches to work out or something. But I think their afraid of fleets hitting Tier 5 before their ready. That's what this nerf was about in the first place. Not an attack on rep system, but on the fleet project system.

    ^^^
    This actually makes sense. What other reason could there possibly be to basically bring Starbase construction to a halt? They simply aren't ready for there to be Tier 5 Starbases in the game yet.

    Perhaps they should've put a cap on the maximum number of members that a Fleet could have in it. Thereby preventing any Fleet from advancing faster than they had anticipated.
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  • stirling191stirling191 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    olivia211 wrote: »
    This is the one I was talking about.

    https://twitter.com/Executive_Emily/status/303580234777780224/photo/1

    Was this always like this?

    In a word: nope.
  • mikeflmikefl Member Posts: 861 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    red01999 wrote: »
    This is an interesting article.

    Personally I have thought this for a long time - I don't think that you can just write code that's going to adequately determine what missions are good and what missions are not.

    I think what this may need is a couple of employees by Cryptic specifically to review Foundry missions.

    Sadly this will likely end with them being flamed to death, too. However, that's the best solution that I think is viable (and maybe even realistic). They could reclassify the missions as necessary.

    I wish I knew how many missions in the Foundry there actually were, that might give a better idea of how practical this sort of thing might actually be, although I suspect "a whole lot" is the most specific we're going to be getting.

    Note I do not say that such a review system is necessarily a GOOD solution... just one of the less bad ones.


    I think that content is in the eye of beholder. Just because it has Cryptic's blessing isn't going to tell me its good. All the spotlighted missions have been played by branflakes and that's how they become spotlighted. I still think player driven ratings are better but if there was a better sorting UI people could filter for their mission style first and then by ratings.

    Someone had proposed that the system that actually measure the average playtime to qualify a mission be used to categorize missions by playtime into buckets that you can filter. Authors could also choose diplomatic (story) or combat mission or both buckets to further filter the missions.

    As it stands with searching either author or keyword it doesn't really do much and it sometimes even fails at doing that. Top Rated doesn't have an algorithm to analyze how many plays either so new missions that are highly rated end up higher on the list. Missions that have been played more or been out for a longer time need to be weighted heavier or a mission should be out for a prerequisite time period before it qualifies to be top rated or have at least minimum number of ratings.
    Gold Sub since March 2010
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  • olivia211olivia211 Member Posts: 675 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    themarie wrote: »
    We have beams. We have pulses. We have torpedo. We have mines. There are other weapons in the Star Trek universe -- Merculite Rockets for example. What about really primitive weapons like X-ray pulse lasers and NPB beams? Dual-cannon turrets? Voyager had a IsoKinetic Cannon. This is where other Trek games shined... Unique gimmicks and abilities above and beyond the standard pew pew.

    I would like to see more variety in weapons going forward. And for the love of all that's important PLEASE give plasma and cloud-dispensers a break for awhile!



    The photonic cannon.

    I see what you are saying though. Too much of the same thing. Sadly, bugs are all too common in this game. Heck, if they can't fix a bug, bring in an outsider so he can look at the code with fresh eyes.

    It feels like they spend more time nerfing things and not enough time working out real bugs. I am sure they are smart people. Why can't these things be figured out already?
    No, I am not who you think I am. I am someone different. I am instead a banana.
  • clannmacclannmac Member Posts: 279 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    wilbor2 wrote: »
    too bl**dy right ill give thumbs up from the brits :P

    Seconded, thirded, and so on...
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  • kyuui13kyuui13 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    olivia211 wrote: »
    This is the one I was talking about.

    https://twitter.com/Executive_Emily/status/303580234777780224/photo/1

    Was this always like this?

    IF that is from the Vulcan, Andorian, or Tellarite, yes. Its in the patch notes where they added it.

    and I checked the personnel officer just a bit ago, its still 500.
    Next time you log in, ask yourself this.
    dastahl wrote: »
    If you can't have fun, then what is the point?
  • joshmaaaaaaansjoshmaaaaaaans Member Posts: 32 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    themarie wrote: »
    Based on decades in management... and my experience running a successful business I am going to make the following observations:


    1) Time Management: I don't think that internally Cryptic practices any form of time management. This shows in the sheer number of items that are not finished or unobtainable (Flamethrower, Robes for KDF, Android Officer, among others ) despite being promised is astounding. Brandon comes on here and via his blog postings and his links to other Dev postings... we are promised things that just never arrive. So what does a Cryptic Dev DO all day? It seems to me three months is more than enough time to finish a flamethrower code or to install uniform options on the KDF side.... I don't think the leaders monitor their workers... who do NOT stay on task... resulting in yet another half-baked mostly unfinished season. Getting four consecutive Romulan Data Chips that state "PLACEHOLDER TEXT -- STORY GOES HERE" turned me off to the history collection REAL quick. Projects need to be completed on time, or the season needs to be delayed. I would have rather waited an extra month and a half for a FINISHED WORKABLE Season Seven rather than what we have now.


    2) Quality Assurance: My question to Cryptic and I really would like an answer: Do you test internally? At all? After seeing the severity of the bugs in this latest patch... I really would like to learn all about your internal process. This is something that I can actually help you with, should you care to improve. If you wish to hire a Quality Engineer, please contact me!

    Lets look at it from the player POV: A) Broken major healing power that jams controls for 120 sec, and totally screws up cloak and any sort of "transform" or "mode switch" power. B) Promised store unlocks... not available after unlocking the store.

    How did you not notice that the unlocks in the store were not hooked up? I'm not criticizing I'm genuinely curious! Do devs self-check their code segments before integrating? What about after Or does someone check the code and send it back for further tuning? Does anyone check the game on a production build?

    What about the starship powers that are broken? Did no one sit down and run a handful of missions on both factions? The lockout glitch was discovered by me within ten min of patching. First mission I ran. The cloak and transform glitches shortly thereafter. Would have taken an internal tester the same amount of time... and the code could have been adjusted or not released.

    Same thing with the store unlocks. Did no one fire up the game, run the unlock mission and alert the Dev that the store wasn't stocking? Apparently not.

    Finally, we warn you via Tribble that something is broken -- I've seen it happen -- yet the next day the patch releases and breaks the game. Why not stop the patch release and fix what we discovered? I don't think you have an internal process to get the Tribble info to someone who can abort the live-patch in time to avoid breaking the game.

    In order to fix this, you need a dedicated playtest team. You need to test on the actual live environment under real-world conditions. Not just your ultra-tuned totally debugged internal Dev shard. Finally you need to release patches to Tribble a week to two weeks before "live" and put a process in place to abort patch release if the testers discover broken stuff.


    3) Old Bugs: This goes with the above questions and observations. I know I've submitted tickets on the Romulan and Klingon weapon glitches for the plot missions. I did so back in Season Five, and I submit tickets every few months. I've talked to Das Overflake and I've emailed Dan... problem is untouched.

    Is there a process in place, or anyone even assigned to fix long-standing bugs? Does not look like it. Ties into time management above. Time needs to be dedicated to fixing what is already broken before releasing more broken content.


    4) Lastly and this is a personal call -- feel free to disregard. There is a distinct lack of creativity in this game. Plasma Beams, Plasma Torpedoes, Omega Plasma, Plasma Energy Bolts, Plasma Riders, Plasma Consoles... do I need to go on? We also have multiple colored-cloud dispensers that all basically do the same thing. Theta, Warp Plasma, Tetyron Plasma, and the gas canisters on the Regent.

    We have beams. We have pulses. We have torpedo. We have mines. There are other weapons in the Star Trek universe -- Merculite Rockets for example. What about really primitive weapons like X-ray pulse lasers and NPB beams? Dual-cannon turrets? Voyager had a IsoKinetic Cannon. This is where other Trek games shined... Unique gimmicks and abilities above and beyond the standard pew pew.

    I would like to see more variety in weapons going forward. And for the love of all that's important PLEASE give plasma and cloud-dispensers a break for awhile!



    My final thoughts on the matter are this: The fan outrage isn't just about the fleet-marks. You dumped a massively broken patch on us for a three day weekend and made no attempt to roll it back. I would have tolerated the fleet-mark nonsense grudgingly... but on top of being unable to play my favorite ships for WHO KNOWS how long -- it's intolerable.

    It all comes down to listening to your fans. We are fed up with the lack of quality assurance and we are fed up with the heavy-handed adjustments and nerfing of the reward systems.

    Please. Fix. This.

    Can we just quote this post as a reply for the rest of the life of this thread? Pretty much sums up the management of STO.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • warbird001warbird001 Member Posts: 246 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    Can we just quote this post as a reply for the rest of the life of this thread? Pretty much sums up the management of STO.

    Seconded, that way Cryptic may pay attention to it.
  • phyrexianherophyrexianhero Member Posts: 768 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    kyuui13 wrote: »
    I think, I know whats going on with that.
    the 500/2500/5000 is from the personnel officer. If you go to the three racial ones, its more the 5 white to green is 600, the five blue to purple is 6000, I don't know what the green to blue is, as i don't ever do it on them, Either way, its way to damn much. And just adds in to the overly large demand for an overly restricted resource. Yet another time gate that Cryptic is so very very fond of.

    its ok, I'm adapting their tactics, I'm gating my time in STO now.

    Ah, the racial ones do cost more. 600/3000/6000 instead of 500/2500/5000 for a random species.
    olivia211 wrote: »
    This is the one I was talking about.

    https://twitter.com/Executive_Emily/status/303580234777780224/photo/1

    Was this always like this?

    Ahh, this is for the Tellarite ones. As far as I can tell, those also went up in price along with the generics for Season 7.
    Playing since January 2010. STOwiki administrator. Accolade hunter.
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  • red01999red01999 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    1). Gated/forced content , players wanting more options in the content to get rewards. No one likes having to do same content over and over.

    I don't know if this counts as "forced" content, but I think there's an overall sentiment that people feel like they are forced to play the game in certain ways that they feel is unjustified. Example - You must go through specific missions in order to get fleet marks, as opposed to the diversity offered by Investigate Officer Reports, or whatever substitute may be cooked up for the Foundry.

    In fact arguably I think the fleet system is an example of it - yes, this is an MMO, but I for one also enjoy the single player aspects. I don't play story missions in a team, pretty much ever, and don't plan on starting. And I'm fine with PUGs for the most part. While I enjoy the fleets I'm a part of, I would enjoy the game without them, as well.

    I think if something exemplifies the gated content frustration it is the Starbase system, really - think about it. Many of the best ships in the game are behind a 6-18 month grind, and now the devs are trying to make that even worse? That's not going to make friends and win people over, especially since, IMO, the ships go beyond simple gear - they tend to be a lot closer to an identity. TNG would have markedly changed, for instance, if the Enterprise abruptly changed class and name. And I don't think it'd be in a good way.

    Personally I think that most of this can be worked through. Question is - are they willing to do it? I don't know. I hope so.
  • kyuui13kyuui13 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    olivia211 wrote: »
    The photonic cannon.

    I see what you are saying though. Too much of the same thing. Sadly, bugs are all too common in this game. Heck, if they can't fix a bug, bring in an outsider so he can look at the code with fresh eyes.

    It feels like they spend more time nerfing things and not enough time working out real bugs. I am sure they are smart people. Why can't these things be figured out already?

    A while back I had a convo with someone about this. Cryptic, pretty much admits the game engine, is the same, or nearly so, across their games. They like it that way, for whatever reason. My thought is that some of these bugs are due to that inane insistence. The bugs are coming from things outside of STO. It also lends a bit of Credence as to why they can't fix them. They don't know WHAT is causing them.

    Just my thought on it at least.
    Next time you log in, ask yourself this.
    dastahl wrote: »
    If you can't have fun, then what is the point?
  • baddmoonrizinbaddmoonrizin Member Posts: 10,746 Community Moderator
    edited February 2013
    mikefl wrote: »
    I think that content is in the eye of beholder. Just because it has Cryptic's blessing isn't going to tell me its good. All the spotlighted missions have been played by branflakes and that's how they become spotlighted. I still think player driven ratings are better but if there was a better sorting UI people could filter for their mission style first and then by ratings.

    Someone had proposed that the system that actually measure the average playtime to qualify a mission be used to categorize missions by playtime into buckets that you can filter. Authors could also choose diplomatic (story) or combat mission or both buckets to further filter the missions.

    As it stands with searching either author or keyword it doesn't really do much and it sometimes even fails at doing that. Top Rated doesn't have an algorithm to analyze how many plays either so new missions that are highly rated end up higher on the list. Missions that have been played more or been out for a longer time need to be weighted heavier or a mission should be out for a prerequisite time period before it qualifies to be top rated or have at least minimum number of ratings.

    One of the things that I proposed in my Rewards Revamp (see below link) was that ALL content in the game, including the Foundry, be given a Commendation Category designation that awarded CXP for that category, similar to Rescue Deferi Captives (Daily) which awards 10 Diplomatic CXP.

    CXP can be converted to Fleet Marks after achieving Tier 4, which would then make all content in the game an indirect source of Fleet Marks.

    If implented, then the UI in the Foundry could be tweaked to search on those Commendation Categories to find the type of content that players might be looking to play.
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  • litchy74litchy74 Member Posts: 417 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    Based on decades in management... and my experience running a successful business I am going to make the following observations:


    1) Time Management: I don't think that internally Cryptic practices any form of time management. This shows in the sheer number of items that are not finished or unobtainable (Flamethrower, Robes for KDF, Android Officer, among others ) despite being promised is astounding. Brandon comes on here and via his blog postings and his links to other Dev postings... we are promised things that just never arrive. So what does a Cryptic Dev DO all day? It seems to me three months is more than enough time to finish a flamethrower code or to install uniform options on the KDF side.... I don't think the leaders monitor their workers... who do NOT stay on task... resulting in yet another half-baked mostly unfinished season. Getting four consecutive Romulan Data Chips that state "PLACEHOLDER TEXT -- STORY GOES HERE" turned me off to the history collection REAL quick. Projects need to be completed on time, or the season needs to be delayed. I would have rather waited an extra month and a half for a FINISHED WORKABLE Season Seven rather than what we have now.


    2) Quality Assurance: My question to Cryptic and I really would like an answer: Do you test internally? At all? After seeing the severity of the bugs in this latest patch... I really would like to learn all about your internal process. This is something that I can actually help you with, should you care to improve. If you wish to hire a Quality Engineer, please contact me!

    Lets look at it from the player POV: A) Broken major healing power that jams controls for 120 sec, and totally screws up cloak and any sort of "transform" or "mode switch" power. B) Promised store unlocks... not available after unlocking the store.

    How did you not notice that the unlocks in the store were not hooked up? I'm not criticizing I'm genuinely curious! Do devs self-check their code segments before integrating? What about after Or does someone check the code and send it back for further tuning? Does anyone check the game on a production build?

    What about the starship powers that are broken? Did no one sit down and run a handful of missions on both factions? The lockout glitch was discovered by me within ten min of patching. First mission I ran. The cloak and transform glitches shortly thereafter. Would have taken an internal tester the same amount of time... and the code could have been adjusted or not released.

    Same thing with the store unlocks. Did no one fire up the game, run the unlock mission and alert the Dev that the store wasn't stocking? Apparently not.

    Finally, we warn you via Tribble that something is broken -- I've seen it happen -- yet the next day the patch releases and breaks the game. Why not stop the patch release and fix what we discovered? I don't think you have an internal process to get the Tribble info to someone who can abort the live-patch in time to avoid breaking the game.

    In order to fix this, you need a dedicated playtest team. You need to test on the actual live environment under real-world conditions. Not just your ultra-tuned totally debugged internal Dev shard. Finally you need to release patches to Tribble a week to two weeks before "live" and put a process in place to abort patch release if the testers discover broken stuff.


    3) Old Bugs: This goes with the above questions and observations. I know I've submitted tickets on the Romulan and Klingon weapon glitches for the plot missions. I did so back in Season Five, and I submit tickets every few months. I've talked to Das Overflake and I've emailed Dan... problem is untouched.

    Is there a process in place, or anyone even assigned to fix long-standing bugs? Does not look like it. Ties into time management above. Time needs to be dedicated to fixing what is already broken before releasing more broken content.


    4) Lastly and this is a personal call -- feel free to disregard. There is a distinct lack of creativity in this game. Plasma Beams, Plasma Torpedoes, Omega Plasma, Plasma Energy Bolts, Plasma Riders, Plasma Consoles... do I need to go on? We also have multiple colored-cloud dispensers that all basically do the same thing. Theta, Warp Plasma, Tetyron Plasma, and the gas canisters on the Regent.

    We have beams. We have pulses. We have torpedo. We have mines. There are other weapons in the Star Trek universe -- Merculite Rockets for example. What about really primitive weapons like X-ray pulse lasers and NPB beams? Dual-cannon turrets? Voyager had a IsoKinetic Cannon. This is where other Trek games shined... Unique gimmicks and abilities above and beyond the standard pew pew.

    I would like to see more variety in weapons going forward. And for the love of all that's important PLEASE give plasma and cloud-dispensers a break for awhile!



    My final thoughts on the matter are this: The fan outrage isn't just about the fleet-marks. You dumped a massively broken patch on us for a three day weekend and made no attempt to roll it back. I would have tolerated the fleet-mark nonsense grudgingly... but on top of being unable to play my favorite ships for WHO KNOWS how long -- it's intolerable.

    It all comes down to listening to your fans. We are fed up with the lack of quality assurance and we are fed up with the heavy-handed adjustments and nerfing of the reward systems.

    Please. Fix. This.



    Listen to this devs, your loyal trusting customers will stop spending.....

    By the way you don't supply beef to Finda's do you?!
    Where ever you go, there you are.......

    Join The Space Invaders,..... Federation and KDF fleets.
  • themariethemarie Member Posts: 1,055 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    olivia211 wrote: »
    The photonic cannon.

    I see what you are saying though. Too much of the same thing. Sadly, bugs are all too common in this game. Heck, if they can't fix a bug, bring in an outsider so he can look at the code with fresh eyes.

    It feels like they spend more time nerfing things and not enough time working out real bugs. I am sure they are smart people. Why can't these things be figured out already?


    Seniority and corporate inbreeding. Basically the folks who are "senior" have it their way right away to the exclusion of everything and everyone else. Of course this is my opinion, as I explained above... based on decades of experience dealing with these problems.

    What I speculate happens is: Senior Dev is tasked with "develop some new weapons for the Borg and Romulan Rep Systems." We get one unique weapon -- the cutting beam. And we get half a dozen "plasma" weapons. All basically the same. Rates of fire are slightly different. DPS, minor differences. Different animations. All do DOT. All have the same plasma-fire effect. Basically someone copy-pasted code, made a few adjustments and went home. Meanwhile Junior Dev watches Star Trek, and comes up with an idea for a Vulcan Pulsewave Torpedo (mentioned in DS9). He outlines the idea, codes up an initial concept and tests it. He also develops a Photonic Cannon and an Isokenitic Cannon, develops those and submits the package.

    The Boss signs off on the Senior Dev's package without looking at it, and disregards the Junior Dev's concepts. I speculate this is how we ended up with multiple cloud dispensers too. "Make a unique power for the new run-about." Copy-paste the Theta Vent console, change the text, alter the DPS and recolor it. Runabouts are Space Tugboats... I would have liked to seen a grappling mode or a push mode. Fly at a target, latch on to it and drag it/push it across the screen for 15 seconds. Larger targets would lose turn-rate or be unable to turn at all. THAT sort of idea can't be implemented between episodes of Adventure Time after a three martini lunch though. ;)


    A lot of talent has departed. And with it, the ability to manipulate existing code. Those who remain are obviously not communicating with each other or the new folks... and they are disregarding basic QA/QC protocols. As above, I would not be surprised if someone is just rubber-stamping code changes and bypassing any sort of check/balance in place. BOSS: "Well if it came from Bob, it's beyond fault. He's been here the longest."


    This is all for nothing though. Cryptic isn't going to change for us. We're stuck with what we have until it closes down and an new company tries again in 5-7 years.
  • boglejam73boglejam73 Member Posts: 890 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    So I just got back from some enforced quiet time. Anything change since page 53?

    I'm guessing..... no. :D
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • tieberionetieberione Member Posts: 137 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    181 pages D-Stahl. Isn't it about time you all re-thought this, like you did for STF Dilith?
    These are just the people taking time to post, there's even mroe resentment in game.
    Tieberion, Captain of the USS Excalibur NX-97000-B

  • sunfranckssunfrancks Member Posts: 3,925 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    What is this heal bug I keep hearing about? :/
    Fed: Eng Lib Borg (Five) Tac Andorian (Shen) Sci Alien/Klingon (Maelrock) KDF:Tac Romulan KDF (Sasha) Tac Klingon (K'dopis)
    Founder, member and former leader to Pride Of The Federation Fleet.
    What I feel after I hear about every decision made since Andre "Mobile Games Generalisimo" Emerson arrived...
    3oz8xC9gn8Fh4DK9Q4.gif





  • olivia211olivia211 Member Posts: 675 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    tieberione wrote: »
    181 pages D-Stahl. Isn't it about time you all re-thought this, like you did for STF Dilith?
    These are just the people taking time to post, there's even mroe resentment in game.

    there are still people logging on to the game who are just finding out about this. I tell them the IOR is gone and they think I am trolling them.
    No, I am not who you think I am. I am someone different. I am instead a banana.
  • olivia211olivia211 Member Posts: 675 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    sunfrancks wrote: »
    What is this heal bug I keep hearing about? :/

    Sometimes when you do a hull heal, you get a 2 minute cooldown on ALL abilities. You cannot do anything except maneuver. Your shields will not regen either. You are basically a sitting duck.

    This happened to me after we destroyed a ship and I was clicking abilities to recover. I clicked my hull heal and poof! 2 min cd on everything.
    No, I am not who you think I am. I am someone different. I am instead a banana.
  • sunfranckssunfrancks Member Posts: 3,925 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    olivia211 wrote: »
    there are still people logging on to the game who are just finding out about this. I tell them the IOR is gone and they think I am trolling them.

    Yup, had a fleet member log on last night asking the same question. They too thought we were pulling their leg until they saw it for themselves.....
    Fed: Eng Lib Borg (Five) Tac Andorian (Shen) Sci Alien/Klingon (Maelrock) KDF:Tac Romulan KDF (Sasha) Tac Klingon (K'dopis)
    Founder, member and former leader to Pride Of The Federation Fleet.
    What I feel after I hear about every decision made since Andre "Mobile Games Generalisimo" Emerson arrived...
    3oz8xC9gn8Fh4DK9Q4.gif





  • themariethemarie Member Posts: 1,055 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    sunfrancks wrote: »
    What is this heal bug I keep hearing about? :/

    Basically Engineering Team in combination with BO and certain other powers locks everything into a 120 second cooldown cycle... rendering your ship inert.

    If you play KDF, Engineering Team will drop your cloak and cause your Siege Destroyer to transform and dump the Javelin Charge you were collecting.


    I've been able to get the lockout bug to occur with other combinations besides Engineering Team but no one is listening. I used Haz II and Cannon Rapid Fire and got locked out. Friend of mine reports Sci Team and FAW caused a lockout as well.
  • joshmaaaaaaansjoshmaaaaaaans Member Posts: 32 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    Imo, removing Ior unless it was made a 24 hour daily instead of redoable every 30mins is a good call. The main problem is the only other source of fleet marks is the events and another daily, there needs to be something else which requires effort yet is also semi-repeatable.

    Because, lets be honest, how many of you actually played through a non-farming (Or 2 button finish) foundry mission every 30 minutes for your IOR completion?
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • sunfranckssunfrancks Member Posts: 3,925 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    olivia211 wrote: »
    Sometimes when you do a hull heal, you get a 2 minute cooldown on ALL abilities. You cannot do anything except maneuver. Your shields will not regen either. You are basically a sitting duck.

    This happened to me after we destroyed a ship and I was clicking abilities to recover. I clicked my hull heal and poof! 2 min cd on everything.

    Hmmm, I have had a couple of bugs, one being the not able to do anything while my ship randomly takes control of itself until I untarget, which is the one you describe and an another where my Vet ship wont change modes halfway through a battle for some reason.
    Might be linked to the same bug.... :confused:
    Fed: Eng Lib Borg (Five) Tac Andorian (Shen) Sci Alien/Klingon (Maelrock) KDF:Tac Romulan KDF (Sasha) Tac Klingon (K'dopis)
    Founder, member and former leader to Pride Of The Federation Fleet.
    What I feel after I hear about every decision made since Andre "Mobile Games Generalisimo" Emerson arrived...
    3oz8xC9gn8Fh4DK9Q4.gif





  • boglejam73boglejam73 Member Posts: 890 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    Because, lets be honest, how many of you actually played through a non-farming (Or 2 button finish) foundry mission every 30 minutes for your IOR completion?

    I don't think anyone disagrees that the IOR was abused. The problem is that they strip the IOR out and have nothing to substitute those marks with while they (Dstahl) admits everyone is hurting for fleet marks.

    That, coupled with the usual Cryptic "we'll have something to fix this in May!" really angered the torches&pitchforks crowd. (Which includes me. Got my pitchfork right here.)
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • nierionnierion Member Posts: 326 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    I've got quite a few fleet members experiencing the following issues:

    1 - Two members are using Beam Overload with 1 Dual Beam Bank and 3 DHCs. When they use the ability, the DMG sometimes swaps with the cannons, so they'll do a 4k shot with the Dual Beam Bank but their DHCs do 20k+ dmg per hit. They've managed to one shot cubes, but it's not happening all the time, just on and off. It's a nice bug, but still a bug.

    2 - Many members are experiencing a bug where when they change ship they cannot assign any of their BoFFs. They've changed zones, logged off, changed ship and done about everything that normally fixes this bug. Now their characters are unplayable and has been like it for days. The same thing has happened to my wife and she cannot play her main character anymore as it's been like it for 3 days.

    So when it comes down to it Mr Stahl. It's not just the FM's that's the problem, or even just the bugs alone, the whole game needs to be looked at again and worked on & patched up to a standard which your consumer deserves. Stop throwing new ships at us, lockboxes and new outfits, that stuff can come later when we have a stable game.
    api.php?action=streamfile&path=%2F187011%2FFleet%20Files%2FMember%20Signatures%2FNierion.png&u=146876
  • weylandjuarezweylandjuarez Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    Because, lets be honest, how many of you actually played through a non-farming (Or 2 button finish) foundry mission every 30 minutes for your IOR completion?

    And why is that a problem? Exactly the same thing was being done whilst IOR was a daily - so what did Cryptic do? Make it a repeatable!

    Cryptic was well aware of the potential to maximize the reward and minimize the effort with the Foundry (I refuse to call it exploiting because it wasn't) - they just didn't care - for a while - and now they do.

    About rewards anyway - not the players or the Foundry authors.
    Please join our peaceful protest to help make STO a better game
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    Proudly not contributing to PWE's bottom-line since October 2012
This discussion has been closed.