You cannot reasonably come to that conclusion based on an article that essentially has the divide of enthused:disappointed at 1:1.
Nor do you get to just add neutral to one side or the other because it suits your purpose. Neutral is neutral. Either they don't care, or have no opinion. That does not coincide with favorable/unfavorable.
When we are saying that the majority dissaproves, that means the majority has to disapprove. Neutral is not dissaproval.
And I was in that thread, and I had an argument with just one person who posted about rage for like 3 pages. So I know it from experience.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
Within a few moments, I am going to listen to the podcast.
I hope this is not an April Fools joke.
As I have said in many threads, the only problem Cryptic has is in communicating. Once the interviews and advertising conflicts, the players will start to react in a very negative manner.
After the new website went up, the impression everyone got was that a full-blown Romulan faction was on the way. Within a matter of a few days, all the interviews, blogs, and statements started to conflict.
According to those above statement, the Romulans will be a full independent faction. Once the following was added, later the next day, the new information contradicted the first information.
Regardless about what we finally obtain, I will just be happy to play as a Romulan. I just wished Cryptic was not being so cryptic.
Actually, those info releases were very clear. People simply did not use their brain when reading them.
It was clearly said that because the fleet starbase/embassy 'start over from scratch' would be a boner-killer for people, they are adapting the new faction to be able to ally with existing starbases/fleets.
And don't forget, most people who don't think it's that bad don't bother to post.
Very much true. Also, more importantly, those of us that do post on the forums are but a mere minority (and that's being generous) compared to all the playerbase that doesn't bother to visit the forums. We have no certain way to estimate how everyone else playing STO actually feels.
I take myself as an example, I played 10 months before even bothering to check out the forums.
Oh, thank God!
I'm in Europe and it's usually evening here when you post the news on the site, these past couple of weeks I find myself checking the news every evening in hope that a Dev blog pops out.
Don't be bummed, Branflakes! A lot of us are really excited for LoR.
^This!^
And somehow it has been overshadowed by the great Romulan discussion, but I think it's important to remember that with LoR, the KDF is being made into a full lvl 1-50 faction, their old low tier ships re-instated, at least one T5 ship down that line and new missions at LTG level - something the KDF players have been asking for since forever and I apreciate it very much!
I read a post the other day in which someone claimed that you guys have, and will always envision the Trek Online story as an eternal war between the Federation and Klingon factions. Is this true? Are we likely to ever see a 3rd faction that isn't involved in this war at all? Are we ever likely to see a three-way PvP scenario?
Second, Romulans remain neutral to each other. The only time you kill other Romulan players is in PVP and we have yet to introduce our goals and plans for PvP, but are placing a stake in the ground that this is 2 faction pvp game, with most pvp happening in the game now being Fed vs Fed which is in and of itself bizarro but it exists because it is fun and the queues are faster. Again we are game.
Good post flash - the only thing I'd add to that is that if the Devs had been more open with their plans and the justification for it then perhaps a lot of this animosity could have been avoided.
There's no good reason to keep things like this behind a curtain other than to have a big marketing splash over it - that's important, yes - but just like with New Romulus, all Cryptics plans come undone because they hint at one thing and deliver something altogether different.
This game has many faults, but by far the biggest is the lack of involvement with the community that allows it to thrive.
Yes its all a matter of some people lack brains. My 8 year old son was able to figure this TRIBBLE out better than half of you. He even was smart enough to crack a dictionary and look up what faction means and what fleet means. Two very different words.
You missed the part where she then disclosed how much of those negative posts were made by how many posters. There were 178 negative posts, but they were all made by the same 71 people, whereas the 107 positive posts, while fewer, were made by about 75 different people.
Overwhelming volume of negative posts doesn't mean much when the actual percentile of negative to positive posters is close to 1:1.
Well, yeah. I understood and read the whole article.
I just didn't think it was necessary for Terilynn Shull to end the article on a negative note. I can understand her frustration with players; however, I would have ended the article in a light manner.
Within the majority of my responses, based upon the new season, I have been trying to shed light on a misstep in communications. Its fixable. As I have been saying all along, I am very happy for a chance to play as a Romulan. Cryptic just needs to make sure their advertising is not so cryptic or confusing.
I feel like the hype for this Romulan faction was uncalled for. A countdown timer for a 60 day wait for a faction that isn't a faction... Some of us are still waiting for real end game content and expanded pvp.
I've just listened to Friday's interview with 'The Verdict' in which you mention you were a bit bumped about some fan feedback regarding Legacy of Romulus. Seeing as I was pretty focal on my opinion of it (so much so that I received an understandable signature warning over it) I feel the need to address the situation nice and clearly.
I am overjoyed that the Romulans are making a playable appearance in the game. Am I bothered that the Romulans of choice aren't remnants of the Empire? No, not really. People can play KDF and have their ship and crew roleplay as an honorable crew following Martok, or a dishonored crew following Torg or Duras. The choice-faction within the Romulan faction never bothered me because people can role-play.
What has bothered me specifically (and I believe this to be the main concern of those who have complained) is that Romulan players are being forced to align with the Federation or KDF when they'd have rather played as a Romulan that was specific and unique; and not a part of the war front.
During all the updates, news, speculation etc that came before last weeks Ask Cryptic it was insinuated that the Romulans we were getting would be complete, unique, and on their own. Granted that can be put down to speculation on the part of the readers, but I'd be lying if I said the choice of words used by whoever writes this stuff is insightful, it isn't; it gave a lot of people the wrong idea.
I'm pretty sure I speak for nearly everyone when I say we're all looking forward to May, and everything that is involved with that expansion. It's just a lot of us were expecting a unique faction and three-way PvP, and when concerns and complaints were listed, they seemingly went ignored; you made several posts in the big Romulan Thread in the main Discussion stating that you and the team are taking our feedback in. What exactly does that mean?
If you've all invested the time and effort into the way it's going to be, then is our feedback merely something to read and dismiss? Nobody within their right mind is going to expect everything you've been working on for the past 6 months to be edited and changed within the next month or two, though it would be nice to know that are concerns aren't being brushed away once read.
I read a post the other day in which someone claimed that you guys have, and will always envision the Trek Online story as an eternal war between the Federation and Klingon factions. Is this true? Are we likely to ever see a 3rd faction that isn't involved in this war at all? Are we ever likely to see a three-way PvP scenario?
I disagree with the point you made (in bold).
The storyline being followed is the Romulan empire blew up along with their homeworld. The broken remains are being actively helped by both KDF and FED while the militaristic remnants of the Tal Shiar are trying to bully the survivors into forming a new romulan empire while D'tan and his ilk are trying to form a Republic.
I think Cryptic could make the 'pure romulan' faction you want simply be available by allowing players to join the Tal Shiar at later levels. Say.. 30 to 49...
That would roleplay nicely into canon by having the player join Fed or KDF and later on be recruited into the talshiar but STILL remain able to use KDF or FED gear right up to the last level.
At 50 the player would choose finally if he becomes full Tal Shiar (and loses fed/KDF stuff access) or not.
Since romulans have no starbases and the TalShiar is supposed to a covert unit anyway... they should instead simply have an embassy type base on some hidden moonlet. From a 3 tier max hidden base the player can access the full romulan gear and whatever tal shiar goodies come out.
If I make a Romulan character and I choose say Federation to ally with, will my Romulan character have access to all my Federation cstore ships and, in turn, my Fed character has access to Romulan ships etc?
Simple clarification on this will decide if I bother with the Romulan content.....
I have yet to see how Cryptic are going to encourage people to play as either Federation or Klingons when you can play as Romulan, get all the romulan ships etc and STILL get everything the Federation/Klingon would have gotten.
I think Terrilynn's methodology makes Cryptic look bad there. There's no way that many are off topic and then if you do that, you wind up with 45% negative or only 25% positive.
Actually reading how she defined off-topic does fit. If someone were just replying to another poster's statement about star trek canon/storyline with a remark, it would have been considered off-topic for her tally. I didn't bother reading the massive thread to the same length she did did, but it fit with my initial impression.
One of the nice things though about this. You can make your own tally, with your definitions if you are so inclined. I would expect with a more strict definition of off-topic you'll find neutral going up, and the number of posts/acct going up.
However, if someone does do a similar assessment for this thread, please put my post into Off-Topic .
You should roll a KDF and wait for 10 minutes for your starbase incursion to pop. And try to convince people to build a new starbase.
The only element i dislike is romulans being able to fly kdf or fed ships - I'm ok with aligned romulans, that makes sense gameplay and resource-wise, but having them flying other faction ships is just too much.
I'm happy to see that the may uptade is overally well designed, and I think people should tone down a bit. Having too high expectations makes little sense considering that the update has to please most people with limited development resources, and I think they're doing quite well until now. Yes it's not perfect and yes there are some unpleasant decisions, but this is just small details.
I'm happy with the fact that we can leech from existing fleets. I have been levelling up 3 chars to max rep, i'm still grinding fleetmarks for my two fleets, and another new starbase, fleet, and 1 or 2 chars would have been too much to do for me, and I'm no casual (I play 4h or so a day, more during the weekend). How could people do more than I do without having no life but playing STO all day long? A fully independent faction isn't reasonable. Not at all. Not yet. Unless we get a ton of new fleetmark missions with elite level ones, a break on new reputations, new gear, diltihium starbase projects, and so on. This alignment is a really great option.
I think it's still going to be a Romulan faction because you have your romulan homeworld, bases, and so on. I'm also happy with the "no alien" policy. This is the best decision they made. This faction is going to make sense!
You should roll a KDF and wait for 10 minutes for your starbase incursion to pop. And try to convince people to build a new starbase.
The only element i dislike is romulans being able to fly kdf or fed ships - I'm ok with aligned romulans, that makes sense gameplay and resource-wise, but having them flying other faction ships is just too much.
I'm happy to see that the may uptade is overally well designed, and I think people should tone down a bit. Having too high expectations makes little sense considering that the update has to please most people with limited development resources, and I think they're doing quite well until now. Yes it's not perfect and yes there are some unpleasant decisions, but this is just small details.
I'm happy with the fact that we can leech from existing fleets. I have been levelling up 3 chars to max rep, i'm still grinding fleetmarks for my two fleets, and another new starbase, fleet, and 1 or 2 chars would have been too much to do for me, and I'm no casual (I play 4h or so a day, more during the weekend). How could people do more than I do without having no life but playing STO all day long? A fully independent faction isn't reasonable. Not at all. Not yet. Unless we get a ton of new fleetmark missions with elite level ones, a break on new reputations, new gear, diltihium starbase projects, and so on. This alignment is a really great option.
I think it's still going to be a Romulan faction because you have your romulan homeworld, bases, and so on. I'm also happy with the "no alien" policy. This is the best decision they made. This faction is going to make sense!
I agree. The only thing I have a problem with is the fact that Romulans can fly klingon and starfleet ships too.
Romulan and lockbox ships would be fine for the Romulans, it would make them more unique.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
If it means anything to you Brandon, I'm still excited.
The only thing I don't like is Romulans flying Fed and KDF ships.... Since Mr D said that Romulans do have a full ship progression from T1 up to T5, it shouldn't be necessary.
If the Romulan story missions come even close to the better missions in the game already, I will very much enjoy them, I'm sure.
Now, give me my Scimitar Fleet Carrier with Elite D'deridex pets and I will forever be thankful. :P
When we are saying that the majority dissaproves, that means the majority has to disapprove. Neutral is not dissaproval.
And I was in that thread, and I had an argument with just one person who posted about rage for like 3 pages. So I know it from experience.
Happy people get their stuff and keep quiet, hoping that what they like lasts some time. When someone says something, especially on the internet, expect him to be unhappy. That's one of the rules of the internet. And no, neutral is neutral.
You may think unhappy peps are in a majority but it's something highly debatable. Everyone is just focusing on a detail they don't like and discuss it ad nauseum because they fear for their beloved federation.
And I guess you missed the part where she took one single thread (which wasn't even the consolidated feedback thread that Bran keeps adding to) as the be-all and end-all of feedback on the Romulan situation, without even bothering to lay out why people were unhappy.
She basically made the argument that anyone who didn't like the announcement was a giant whiner.
Her sampling was from the largest thread regarding that announcement. I'd say that's a fair enough sample size to make her results sound, albeit not %100 accurate.
And I think you're reading a bit too much into her closing paragraphs. It was less "stop whining" and more "stop blowing things out of proportion".
Her sampling was from the largest thread regarding that announcement. I'd say that's a fair enough sample size to make her results sound, albeit not %100 accurate.
And I think you're reading a bit too much into her closing paragraphs. It was less "stop whining" and more "stop blowing things out of proportion".
And there's another funny fact: 2M accounts (with maybe 10-15% active accounts), 71 unhappy people. I think it's a fair deal.
Actually reading how she defined off-topic does fit. If someone were just replying to another poster's statement about star trek canon/storyline with a remark, it would have been considered off-topic for her tally. I didn't bother reading the massive thread to the same length she did did, but it fit with my initial impression.
One of the nice things though about this. You can make your own tally, with your definitions if you are so inclined. I would expect with a more strict definition of off-topic you'll find neutral going up, and the number of posts/acct going up.
However, if someone does do a similar assessment for this thread, please put my post into Off-Topic .
I'm saying I think she was probably pretty quick to make that assumption about posts that were actually on topic. And if you're going to throw those posts out, throw them out of the percentage ranking. Which means that people's posts are, by volume, 14% positive about the expansion, 41% neutral, and 45% negative.
Now, even allowing that negative posters post 85% more often than positive posters... We don't know how often neutral posters reply in response to the other two groups. But lets adjust for posting frequency on the positive side.
Here's the basic methodology:
Start off assuming 14 positive, 45 negative, and 41 neutral posts in a 100 post sample.
Adjust up the number of positive by 85% to allow for lower posting frequency.
You now have 26 positive, 45 negative, 41 neutral.
That brings the numbers around to:
40% negative. 23% positive. 37% neutral.
Now, yes, that means either way that negative posters are the minority. But the minority (especially a 40% one) is not strategically insignificant. It's not "break out the cake and to heck with the haters." It's serious sleeve rolling, coffee brewing, and pacing around the whiteboard time. And I'm sure they're already doing that but probably need to look at doing it more if 40% of your target for a free product is turned off by it.
I LIKE Cryptic's plan for the expansion overall. I like the ideas I'm seeing. I think it all stems from a good place, a place of creativity applied to dealing with challenges in game design. But I think that if they don't consider a few major changes, this is going to be a disappointment for them. The hole in the bucket is bigger than previously thought and it's time to get some really creative, adaptive brainstorming in, to let the criticism in and take it honestly and use it constructively. I don't expect Cryptic can just bend over backwards for every critic but I think these kinds of numbers really, really suggest the need for feedback and critical re-examination... and if they listen to Terilynn's dismissively calm take on this, they're going to wind up with a bruised lip and black eye in three months, taking a lot of this back to the drawing board.
If they treat it like an emergency now, it will save them money. You don't say:
- "Good news! My wife is only 40% sure she's going to divorce me!"
- "The doctor only gives me a 40% chance it's cancer!"
- "Revenue is down by a negligible 40% this quarter!"
You grit your teeth. You say, "We've got 60% we can work with." And you set out to understand, conquer, and convert as much of that remaining 40% that you can, while trying to electrify that 37% that's saying, "Meh. It's okay." (Because that's not great either.)
I'm saying I think she was probably pretty quick to make that assumption about posts that were actually on topic. And if you're going to throw those posts out, throw them out of the percentage ranking. Which means that people's posts are, by volume, 14% positive about the expansion, 41% neutral, and 45% negative.
Now, even allowing that negative posters post 85% more often than positive posters... We don't know how often neutral posters reply in response to the other two groups. But lets adjust for posting frequency on the positive side.
Here's the basic methodology:
Start off assuming 14 positive, 45 negative, and 41 neutral posts in a 100 post sample.
Adjust up the number of positive by 85% to allow for lower posting frequency.
You now have 26 positive, 45 negative, 41 neutral.
That brings the numbers around to:
40% negative. 23% positive. 37% neutral.
Now, yes, that means either way that negative posters are the minority. But the minority (especially a 40% one) is not strategically insignificant. It's not "break out the cake and to heck with the haters." It's serious sleeve rolling, coffee brewing, and pacing around the whiteboard time. And I'm sure they're already doing that but probably need to look at doing it more if 40% of your target for a free product is turned off by it.
I LIKE Cryptic's plan for the expansion overall. I like the ideas I'm seeing. I think it all stems from a good place, a place of creativity applied to dealing with challenges in game design. But I think that if they don't consider a few major changes, this is going to be a disappointment for them. The hole in the bucket is bigger than previously thought and it's time to get some really creative, adaptive brainstorming in, to let the criticism in and take it honestly and use it constructively. I don't expect Cryptic can just bend over backwards for every critic but I think these kinds of numbers really, really suggest the need for feedback and critical re-examination... and if they listen to Terilynn's dismissively calm take on this, they're going to wind up with a bruised lip and black eye in three months, taking a lot of this back to the drawing board.
If they treat it like an emergency now, it will save them money. You don't say:
- "Good news! My wife is only 40% sure she's going to divorce me!"
- "The doctor only gives me a 40% chance it's cancer!"
- "Revenue is down by a negligible 40% this quarter!"
You grit your teeth. You say, "We've got 60% we can work with." And you set out to understand, conquer, and convert as much of that remaining 40% that you can, while trying to electrify that 37% that's saying, "Meh. It's okay." (Because that's not great either.)
You're taking the first part of the article and basing all your assumptions on that, the point was that despite the number of negative posts, that it was essentially the same amount of people who were happy with the expansion but that they were shouting louder by posting more than the ones who were happy.
Number of posts is irrelevant; individual posters is what matters. For this discussion anyway.
Although an internet forum is not a representative enough sample to make any conclusions anyway. Anybody who says "The majority loves it!" or "The majority hates it!" or "All true romulans think..." is making **** up.
You're taking the first part of the article and basing all your assumptions on that, the point was that despite the number of negative posts, that it was essentially the same amount of people who were happy with the expansion but that they were shouting louder by posting more than the ones who were happy.
Except, as I just explained, it's not essentially the same and it's an alarmingly large minority, even adjusting for frequency.
I just weighted for frequency and it's still 40% negative, 37% neutral, 23% positive.
40% negative is alarming. 37% neutral is troubling.
Cryptic's response should be... not panic... but reasonable alarm.
And I think people who try to calm them down from that aren't doing Cryptic or the game any favors. And devs who want to be calmer than that aren't doing themselves any favors.
It's not that I think the ideas on the table so far are bad. I suggested things very similar to most of them. I'm pretty darned happy with them. I know a lot of work has gone into them. But I think a strategy pow wow where ideas are flexible is absolutely warranted and that the "Meh! Things are fine!" take is a bit infuriating because it's that kind of thinking that usually winds up resulting in good work failing to be recognized or a complete success.
Interesting that they didn't go into anything regarding the validity of the negative posts and neutral posts nor did they comment on what expectations had been led to be prior to that clarification.
Then again Massively gets exclusives left and right and to do anything but help Cryptic discredit or diminish the folks who expressed constructive negative criticism isn't entirely unexpected.
I understand that obviously not many people replied negatively but I also know that Cryptic has repeatedly said that a very small minority of the playerbase even visits the forums or is even very informed about the goings on of the game. Now I'd love to see what would happen if a pop-up survey is introduced in the game for a once-per-account test...
I'd like to see the concerns and confusion and constructive posts addressed rather than have them dismissed.
I have yet to see how Cryptic are going to encourage people to play as either Federation or Klingons when you can play as Romulan, get all the romulan ships etc and STILL get everything the Federation/Klingon would have gotten.
actually thats a great question, why would you want to play as a regular kdf or fed when if you align to thier faction you get everything they get PLUS all the extra romulan stuff UNLESS as seekerkoehil stated your fed/kdf characters get all the romulan extra stuff as well.
Again, I think including "off topic" posts in the percentage (especially apart from "neutral") is the big source of skew here.
It's like saying:
"We conducted a poll at the local zoo to gauge which Star Trek Captain is most preferred. 75% of the conversations we had were with giraffes and penguins who did not answer. Of the remaining 25%, 6% preferred Picard, 6% preferred Kirk, 4% preferred Sisko, 4% preferred Janeway, 3% had no strong opinion, 2% preferred Archer. There was a 2% margin of error. As you can see, it's impossible to know who the most popular Captain is and only a paltry 6% of respondents preferred Kirk."
183 negative, 107 positive, and 117 neutral posts.
Regardless about what side you are sitting on, the reality is that everyone is filled with "Star trek: Online" passion. We all have our loves and dislikes about this game. We are all driven to see "Star Trek: Online" succeed. Although we may not agree on certain issues, the game got 407 posts about the one topic we all love. "Stat Trek: Online".
I call that a win. I also see that as an opportunity.
The discussion about whether the majority is positive or negative is not helpful.
Both sides are big enough to be considered.
We should put our energy into possible solutions instead playing civil war.
my possible solutions
1.) if klingons are not profitable for the devs ...why not try kickstarter..this is the best plattform to solve this problem
2.) Do the "Choose your side"-Thing, but not let Romulans fly alliance ships and vice versa only as a temporary solution until you made enough content for the romulans and then break the bonds to the alliance and make them a full 100 % independent fraction....like development help from the industrialized countries until they are fit enough to stand alone.
3.) Make a real thrird fraction with less content like the klings at launch and deliver content through patches
It is easy to complain or defend the policy of cryptic....it is better to mediate and contribute solutions
The thing I'd like to know most about those who are upset and happy are how many of those upset are planning on being Romulan mains, and how many of those happy are FED/KDF simply planning on making a ROM alt?
Like the Romulan Alliance System? Of course you do, it sounds fine to you because you aren't Romulans, you're FED or KDF who are going to make a Romulan alt, it makes a HUGE difference in perspective.
The thing I'd like to know most about those who are upset and happy are how many of those upset are planning on being Romulan mains, and how many of those happy are FED/KDF simply planning on making a ROM alt?
Why does that matter?
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
Comments
When we are saying that the majority dissaproves, that means the majority has to disapprove. Neutral is not dissaproval.
And I was in that thread, and I had an argument with just one person who posted about rage for like 3 pages. So I know it from experience.
Actually, those info releases were very clear. People simply did not use their brain when reading them.
It was clearly said that because the fleet starbase/embassy 'start over from scratch' would be a boner-killer for people, they are adapting the new faction to be able to ally with existing starbases/fleets.
Very much true. Also, more importantly, those of us that do post on the forums are but a mere minority (and that's being generous) compared to all the playerbase that doesn't bother to visit the forums. We have no certain way to estimate how everyone else playing STO actually feels.
I take myself as an example, I played 10 months before even bothering to check out the forums.
Oh, thank God!
I'm in Europe and it's usually evening here when you post the news on the site, these past couple of weeks I find myself checking the news every evening in hope that a Dev blog pops out.
^This!^
And somehow it has been overshadowed by the great Romulan discussion, but I think it's important to remember that with LoR, the KDF is being made into a full lvl 1-50 faction, their old low tier ships re-instated, at least one T5 ship down that line and new missions at LTG level - something the KDF players have been asking for since forever and I apreciate it very much!
Not according to Dan:
Good post flash - the only thing I'd add to that is that if the Devs had been more open with their plans and the justification for it then perhaps a lot of this animosity could have been avoided.
There's no good reason to keep things like this behind a curtain other than to have a big marketing splash over it - that's important, yes - but just like with New Romulus, all Cryptics plans come undone because they hint at one thing and deliver something altogether different.
This game has many faults, but by far the biggest is the lack of involvement with the community that allows it to thrive.
This post has been edited to remove content which violates the Perfect World Entertainment Community Rules and Policies . ~BranFlakes
I just didn't think it was necessary for Terilynn Shull to end the article on a negative note. I can understand her frustration with players; however, I would have ended the article in a light manner.
Within the majority of my responses, based upon the new season, I have been trying to shed light on a misstep in communications. Its fixable. As I have been saying all along, I am very happy for a chance to play as a Romulan. Cryptic just needs to make sure their advertising is not so cryptic or confusing.
I disagree with the point you made (in bold).
The storyline being followed is the Romulan empire blew up along with their homeworld. The broken remains are being actively helped by both KDF and FED while the militaristic remnants of the Tal Shiar are trying to bully the survivors into forming a new romulan empire while D'tan and his ilk are trying to form a Republic.
I think Cryptic could make the 'pure romulan' faction you want simply be available by allowing players to join the Tal Shiar at later levels. Say.. 30 to 49...
That would roleplay nicely into canon by having the player join Fed or KDF and later on be recruited into the talshiar but STILL remain able to use KDF or FED gear right up to the last level.
At 50 the player would choose finally if he becomes full Tal Shiar (and loses fed/KDF stuff access) or not.
Since romulans have no starbases and the TalShiar is supposed to a covert unit anyway... they should instead simply have an embassy type base on some hidden moonlet. From a 3 tier max hidden base the player can access the full romulan gear and whatever tal shiar goodies come out.
If I make a Romulan character and I choose say Federation to ally with, will my Romulan character have access to all my Federation cstore ships and, in turn, my Fed character has access to Romulan ships etc?
Simple clarification on this will decide if I bother with the Romulan content.....
Actually reading how she defined off-topic does fit. If someone were just replying to another poster's statement about star trek canon/storyline with a remark, it would have been considered off-topic for her tally. I didn't bother reading the massive thread to the same length she did did, but it fit with my initial impression.
One of the nice things though about this. You can make your own tally, with your definitions if you are so inclined. I would expect with a more strict definition of off-topic you'll find neutral going up, and the number of posts/acct going up.
However, if someone does do a similar assessment for this thread, please put my post into Off-Topic
The only element i dislike is romulans being able to fly kdf or fed ships - I'm ok with aligned romulans, that makes sense gameplay and resource-wise, but having them flying other faction ships is just too much.
I'm happy to see that the may uptade is overally well designed, and I think people should tone down a bit. Having too high expectations makes little sense considering that the update has to please most people with limited development resources, and I think they're doing quite well until now. Yes it's not perfect and yes there are some unpleasant decisions, but this is just small details.
I'm happy with the fact that we can leech from existing fleets. I have been levelling up 3 chars to max rep, i'm still grinding fleetmarks for my two fleets, and another new starbase, fleet, and 1 or 2 chars would have been too much to do for me, and I'm no casual (I play 4h or so a day, more during the weekend). How could people do more than I do without having no life but playing STO all day long? A fully independent faction isn't reasonable. Not at all. Not yet. Unless we get a ton of new fleetmark missions with elite level ones, a break on new reputations, new gear, diltihium starbase projects, and so on. This alignment is a really great option.
I think it's still going to be a Romulan faction because you have your romulan homeworld, bases, and so on. I'm also happy with the "no alien" policy. This is the best decision they made. This faction is going to make sense!
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
I have been calling Terilynn Shull a he, for I know a guy by the name of Terilynn.
I apologize for the mix up. I went back to fix my errors.
I agree. The only thing I have a problem with is the fact that Romulans can fly klingon and starfleet ships too.
Romulan and lockbox ships would be fine for the Romulans, it would make them more unique.
The only thing I don't like is Romulans flying Fed and KDF ships.... Since Mr D said that Romulans do have a full ship progression from T1 up to T5, it shouldn't be necessary.
If the Romulan story missions come even close to the better missions in the game already, I will very much enjoy them, I'm sure.
Now, give me my Scimitar Fleet Carrier with Elite D'deridex pets and I will forever be thankful. :P
Happy people get their stuff and keep quiet, hoping that what they like lasts some time. When someone says something, especially on the internet, expect him to be unhappy. That's one of the rules of the internet. And no, neutral is neutral.
You may think unhappy peps are in a majority but it's something highly debatable. Everyone is just focusing on a detail they don't like and discuss it ad nauseum because they fear for their beloved federation.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
Her sampling was from the largest thread regarding that announcement. I'd say that's a fair enough sample size to make her results sound, albeit not %100 accurate.
And I think you're reading a bit too much into her closing paragraphs. It was less "stop whining" and more "stop blowing things out of proportion".
I Support Disco | Disco is Love | Disco is Life
And there's another funny fact: 2M accounts (with maybe 10-15% active accounts), 71 unhappy people. I think it's a fair deal.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
I'm saying I think she was probably pretty quick to make that assumption about posts that were actually on topic. And if you're going to throw those posts out, throw them out of the percentage ranking. Which means that people's posts are, by volume, 14% positive about the expansion, 41% neutral, and 45% negative.
Now, even allowing that negative posters post 85% more often than positive posters... We don't know how often neutral posters reply in response to the other two groups. But lets adjust for posting frequency on the positive side.
Here's the basic methodology:
Start off assuming 14 positive, 45 negative, and 41 neutral posts in a 100 post sample.
Adjust up the number of positive by 85% to allow for lower posting frequency.
You now have 26 positive, 45 negative, 41 neutral.
That brings the numbers around to:
40% negative. 23% positive. 37% neutral.
Now, yes, that means either way that negative posters are the minority. But the minority (especially a 40% one) is not strategically insignificant. It's not "break out the cake and to heck with the haters." It's serious sleeve rolling, coffee brewing, and pacing around the whiteboard time. And I'm sure they're already doing that but probably need to look at doing it more if 40% of your target for a free product is turned off by it.
I LIKE Cryptic's plan for the expansion overall. I like the ideas I'm seeing. I think it all stems from a good place, a place of creativity applied to dealing with challenges in game design. But I think that if they don't consider a few major changes, this is going to be a disappointment for them. The hole in the bucket is bigger than previously thought and it's time to get some really creative, adaptive brainstorming in, to let the criticism in and take it honestly and use it constructively. I don't expect Cryptic can just bend over backwards for every critic but I think these kinds of numbers really, really suggest the need for feedback and critical re-examination... and if they listen to Terilynn's dismissively calm take on this, they're going to wind up with a bruised lip and black eye in three months, taking a lot of this back to the drawing board.
If they treat it like an emergency now, it will save them money. You don't say:
- "Good news! My wife is only 40% sure she's going to divorce me!"
- "The doctor only gives me a 40% chance it's cancer!"
- "Revenue is down by a negligible 40% this quarter!"
You grit your teeth. You say, "We've got 60% we can work with." And you set out to understand, conquer, and convert as much of that remaining 40% that you can, while trying to electrify that 37% that's saying, "Meh. It's okay." (Because that's not great either.)
You're taking the first part of the article and basing all your assumptions on that, the point was that despite the number of negative posts, that it was essentially the same amount of people who were happy with the expansion but that they were shouting louder by posting more than the ones who were happy.
Although an internet forum is not a representative enough sample to make any conclusions anyway. Anybody who says "The majority loves it!" or "The majority hates it!" or "All true romulans think..." is making **** up.
Except, as I just explained, it's not essentially the same and it's an alarmingly large minority, even adjusting for frequency.
I just weighted for frequency and it's still 40% negative, 37% neutral, 23% positive.
40% negative is alarming. 37% neutral is troubling.
Cryptic's response should be... not panic... but reasonable alarm.
And I think people who try to calm them down from that aren't doing Cryptic or the game any favors. And devs who want to be calmer than that aren't doing themselves any favors.
It's not that I think the ideas on the table so far are bad. I suggested things very similar to most of them. I'm pretty darned happy with them. I know a lot of work has gone into them. But I think a strategy pow wow where ideas are flexible is absolutely warranted and that the "Meh! Things are fine!" take is a bit infuriating because it's that kind of thinking that usually winds up resulting in good work failing to be recognized or a complete success.
Interesting that they didn't go into anything regarding the validity of the negative posts and neutral posts nor did they comment on what expectations had been led to be prior to that clarification.
Then again Massively gets exclusives left and right and to do anything but help Cryptic discredit or diminish the folks who expressed constructive negative criticism isn't entirely unexpected.
I understand that obviously not many people replied negatively but I also know that Cryptic has repeatedly said that a very small minority of the playerbase even visits the forums or is even very informed about the goings on of the game. Now I'd love to see what would happen if a pop-up survey is introduced in the game for a once-per-account test...
I'd like to see the concerns and confusion and constructive posts addressed rather than have them dismissed.
actually thats a great question, why would you want to play as a regular kdf or fed when if you align to thier faction you get everything they get PLUS all the extra romulan stuff UNLESS as seekerkoehil stated your fed/kdf characters get all the romulan extra stuff as well.
It's like saying:
"We conducted a poll at the local zoo to gauge which Star Trek Captain is most preferred. 75% of the conversations we had were with giraffes and penguins who did not answer. Of the remaining 25%, 6% preferred Picard, 6% preferred Kirk, 4% preferred Sisko, 4% preferred Janeway, 3% had no strong opinion, 2% preferred Archer. There was a 2% margin of error. As you can see, it's impossible to know who the most popular Captain is and only a paltry 6% of respondents preferred Kirk."
Look at it like this: Ignore the percentages and offline posts.
183 negative, 107 positive, and 117 neutral posts.
Regardless about what side you are sitting on, the reality is that everyone is filled with "Star trek: Online" passion. We all have our loves and dislikes about this game. We are all driven to see "Star Trek: Online" succeed. Although we may not agree on certain issues, the game got 407 posts about the one topic we all love. "Stat Trek: Online".
I call that a win. I also see that as an opportunity.
Both sides are big enough to be considered.
We should put our energy into possible solutions instead playing civil war.
my possible solutions
1.) if klingons are not profitable for the devs ...why not try kickstarter..this is the best plattform to solve this problem
2.) Do the "Choose your side"-Thing, but not let Romulans fly alliance ships and vice versa only as a temporary solution until you made enough content for the romulans and then break the bonds to the alliance and make them a full 100 % independent fraction....like development help from the industrialized countries until they are fit enough to stand alone.
3.) Make a real thrird fraction with less content like the klings at launch and deliver content through patches
It is easy to complain or defend the policy of cryptic....it is better to mediate and contribute solutions
Why does that matter?