Hi Captains,
With Legacy of Romulus due out next month, and the introduction of a third faction, the time has come to start thinking about a forum reorganization. As you are the community and utilize the forums, I'd love to get your input and suggestions. Ultimately, I'll also need to make sure that the organizations make sense for the Dev team as they are reading the forums for feedback constantly, but I'd really like to involve you all in the process.
So, let's get started! Feel free to make descriptive suggestions or post something like this:
STO Forums
.Information and Discussion
..Federation News Network
..Release Notes
..Dev Tracker
etc, etc, etc.
Feel free to use the index as your guide:
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/index.php
Here's a few questions we should also think about:
Should the shipyards sub-forum (builds, feedback, not art, etc.) still be separated by faction?
Are there any forums that you think should be combined?
Is STO discussion and General Community Feedback too similar or should we keep them separated?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and suggestions
Once we all come to, or at least try to, a consensus, the changes will be made. The goal for this is a week or two before the expansion launches. NOTE: These changes will not include the future update mentioned
here, nor will anything else be changing at this time, other than what forums we have and the organization of them.
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
Comments
I.e. does one team cover multiple categories? It would make it easier to suggest consolidation with that knowledge, so we don't suggest a scenario where one dev team have to ready two or more different sections of the forum, ideally.
I'm not opposed to a rename at all Probably not the names you suggested, but...
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
I agree. Why not just "News Network" or something like "Game News".
Find us at CovenantofHonor.com. My Twitter handle; @jmattmiracle
Every single forum is read by multiple devs, and all categories are covered currently. So we wouldn't want to get rid of any, but we can consolidate.
For example: The systems designers who work on ships read the two current subforums, among others, of course, so maybe those can be combined?
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
Dramatic-Family-Guy-Closet-Monkey-Point ^
I agree that some other third party name would be nice, to help expand the focus from just the Federation to all three parties. Ferengi are alright, maybe something that has a grander focus? IDK ill think on it some more and update.
I live in an alternate universe, where j.j. abrams and cryptic never existed,
where R.S.E. is what it always should be.
It's tentatively planned as a sub-forum of Ten Forward, but I'm hesitant to introduce it until we have the "report post" feature is back.
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
but if sticking with the forums as they are:
Information and Discussion (generally fine)
-Dev Tracker (fix it so I can actually navigate past the first page, this is the most important feature in the forums)
-[all of the other current sections are fine]
Feedback (its too huge and going to grow bigger as it is, reserve this section for on feedback directed to Cryptic)
Make a community discussion section, place fleet recruiting, build discussions, foundry mission reviews
builds should still be separated by faction because of all the faction specific stuff (even romulans)
otherwise the organization is pretty fine
But perhaps consider adding some form of market section, and open up more sections to allow images?
Just now I had that feeling that I had something really important to add here ...and well..
One "discussion/rp" subforum per faction would also be appreciated. I often see people doing RP on the "klingon gameplay" forums, and honestly it's a bit annoying. Some place where players could discuss random stuff about their faction could alleviate the pain of reading RP in many threads. Like 3 faction specific "ten forward".
Why? There are already many RP posts. A report button won't change anything, and you can always lock a subforum if people go too far. And i'm quite sure it won't happen. I don't get why you're hesitant.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
News Network (I agree it needs a rename.)
Release Notes
Dev Tracker
The Academy
Star Trek Online Discussion (General Community Feedback should be rolled into here. Look at all the posts in GCF. I'll wait. Notice anything? Everyone is discussing STO. Where are they not discussing STO? Star Trek Online Discussion.)
Ten Forward
Federation Gameplay
Klingon Gameplay
Romulan Gameplay
Shipyards/Fleetyards (Consoles aren't faction specific any longer, except for a few examples, and Romulans will be able to fly allied ships. So why not consolidate?)
Captain and Bridge Officer Builds and Powers (Consolidate!)
Duty Officer System (Too different, I think, to roll into the Captain and BOff forum.)
PvE Gameplay
PvP Gameplay (Where else would we cry for nerfs? :P)
Missions and Episodes (I almost cut this forum because it's been pretty dead lately, but then I remembered how active it got when Temporal Ambassador and the 2800 debuted. Plus, we need a place to discuss non-faction specific missions.)
Controls and User Interface
The Art of Star Trek Online
C-Store and Promotions
And I'd keep the Foundry, Support, Fleet Administrative Station, and Test Servers the same.
As has been suggested already, adding a Romulan Shipyard and Romulan Content section to match the other 2 factions. I'm sure some wag will suggest putting all "content" under one section as it will be shared or "cut'n'pasted" but I think there's enough difference to warrant the separate sections.
I wouldn't combine General Community Feedback and Star Trek Online Discussion into one as the former seems to be a section which is more for forumites to question forumites and the latter is where forumites can question devs.
...Oh and I would second renaming Federation News Network to Galactic News Network except my mind goes to a galaxy far, far away when I read it for some reason
What I would suggest is making it a no posting allowed section, like release notes, moving discussions about maintenance, news and events to the more appropriate forum. I have trouble having to read through pages of moaning before finding an update from you telling us maintenance is extended when what I would want is a post from you RIGHT after the initial post.
Jo Cox 22.6.1974 - 16.6.2016
'Star Trek Online Discussion' & 'General Community Feedback' have the same type of threads, topics and discussions, relating to either the Developers, fansites, the forum changes, STO current and future developments and various gameplay ideas which doesn't fit in the other sub-forums.
They are the first obvious candidates for consolidation. It makes it easier for players to keep the focus on topics, which aren't directly related to the other sub sections, and it keeps clone topics and repeat posts down.
A name for the consolidated sub-forums could be 'Community Feedback & Discussions',
- "For feedback and discussions on topics not covered by another sub-forum".
Next up we have
The different Shipyards, even more so with the introduction of a third one, is a prime candidate for consolidation.
'Federation Shipyards' & 'Klingon Fleetyards', merge under sub-forum 'The Shipyard'. - "Where Captains meet to discuss their ships' layouts, equipment and performance".
Then we have
'Character Builds and Powers' & 'Bridge Officers and BOff Powers', merge under sub-forum 'Captains & Bridge Officers'. - "Discussion and feedback about player classes and Bridge Officers".
Abolish the sections and move the threads from 'Federation Gameplay', 'Klingon Gameplay' and 'PvE Gameplay'.
The topics in these three sub-forums are already covered by more appropriate sub-forums, such as
'Missions & Episodes'
-Discussion for all episodic content, STF, event missions.
'The Shipyard', 'Captain's & Bridge Officers', 'Community Feedback & Discussions' as outline above.
The Index would thus look like the following
Information
Federation News Network
Release Notes
Dev Tracker
The Academy
Ten Forward
Discussion & Feedback
Community Feedback & Discussions
The Shipyard
Captains & Bridge Officers
Duty Officers/Starbases/Reputations
Missions and Events (All things PvE gameplay)
PvP
On the topic of the 'The Academy', it has far too many stickies. 1 Master Index Sticky with a list of all the available threads of information, categorized and organized, would be far more beneficial.
Other sub sections of the forum have outdated stickies as well, or simply a multitude of different stickies taking up valuable screen estate on the first page of the forum.
Someone would have to maintain that list (Branflakes and mods), but I wrote one up which was current back 9 months ago, and makes a good foundation IMHO. You can find it here.
I've never really felt that the shipyard sections needed to be divided by faction; it's not like the ships are so radically different that there is no crossover as far as builds go. Having everyone discussing these things in the same place would make it easier for us to compare notes. The same applies to the faction gameplay sections; but the KDF players seem to like having a place to call home on the forums, so it might be a good idea to keep those.
The STO discussion and General Community Feedback sections are, to a large extent, used interchangeably; except that people don't read the threads in Feedback so often. There's a lot of good stuff that just gets lost in there, that could just as easily have been in Discussion. Having said that, concentrating that stuff into a single sub-forum means fewer possible places for angry people to rage; so if they were combined, then the good stuff might just get buried anyway. Maybe you could have a separate 'Complaints' forum? :P
Fleet Recruitment sections, and technical support sections, need to be more prominently displayed. I wouldn't be surprised if many new players don't even realise they are there.
Some things could probably stand to be tucked inside other things. Boff and Doff sections, for example, seem like they should be sub-sections of a 'Powers and Abilities' section or something. The top page of the forums is just too big.
Information
-Galactic News Network (Renamed from Federation News Network)
-Release Notes
-Dev Tracker
Discussion
-Academy (could possibly rename this, so it fits with all 3 factions)
-Star Trek Online Discussion
Recreational - Off Topic Discussion
-Ten Forward
-Role Play Forum
Feedback
-Federation Gameplay (Combined with General Feedback)
-Klingon Gameplay
-Romulan Gameplay
-Duty Officer System
-PVE Gameplay
-PVP Gameplay
-Character Builds and Powers
-Bridge Officers and BOFF Powers (could possibly combine this with Character Builds and Powers)
-Missions and Episodes
-Controls and User Interface
-C-Store and Promotions
Art of Star Trek Online
-Ship Art
-Epic Screenshots
-Beauty Shots
Shipyards
-Federation
-Klingon
-Romulan
The Foundry for Star Trek Online
-Discussion & Feedback
-Mission Database
-Bug Reports
Support
-Gameplay Bugs
-PC and Technical Issues
-Graphical Issues
Fleet Recruitment
-Federation
-Klingon
-Romulan
Test Servers
-Tribble
--Release Notes and Announcements
--Bug Reports
--Discussion and Feedback
-Redshirt
--Release Notes and Announcements
--Bug Reports
--Discussion and Feedback
Of course, this is just my opinion.
The Armada
Original join date: Feb 5, 2010
Twitter: @davejl_99, & @STO_BBArmada
also General Community Feedback and Star Trek Online Discussion, those basically seem like the same thing to me too
Character Builds and Powers and Bridge Officers and BOff Powers are certainly talking about the same thing. plus actual builds are discuses almost exclusively in the ship yard section or PVP section, those sections arent even used for that. any of the posts there now could be rolled into the academy.
so it should look about like this
News Network
Release Notes
Dev Tracker
Star Trek Online Discussion
Ten Forward
The Academy
Duty Officer System
Shipyards
PvE Gameplay
PvP Gameplay
Controls and User Interface
The Art of Star Trek Online
C-Store and Promotions
the foundry and test server stuff should be unchanged
I like this suggestion. Simple and clean.
We don't have Fed and KDF PvP/PVE forums, do we need Fed and KDF shipyards?
I think you are better off segmenting the game by play type:
General Community Feedback
Space Combat - Ships, Builds, Equipment, and Powers
Ground Combat - Builds, Equipment, and Powers
PvP
Crew Systems - BOFFs and DOFFs
Reputation
Missions, Fleet Actions, STFs, FEs
Controls and UI
The Art of STO
C-Store
You can just look at the topics on the first page of each subform to see a lot of that part of the forum to see discussion is really spread out. with similar topics across multiple areas.
I like this one, though Missions and Episodes could likely be rolled into PvE Gameplay or Online Discussion...
Another question to ponder: where do you all think feedback about the reputation and fleet holdings system should live? I was thinking it could be combined in one forum with the DOFF system, as the same devs work on it, but how do you feel about that?
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
Sounds logical to me!
I agree with the network rename and need for reorganization in the forums to accomodate the upcoming Romulan Faction. Here are some suggestions and ideas, feel free to discuss.
1- As STO is home to multiple factions, replace the current forum header image, which currently features a Federation starbase, to one representative of all 3 factions. Perhaps a graduated blending image showing an integral aspect of all 3 factions in simple, classy fashion may work. I can design an original one if supplied with the right images, or it can be made into a forum contest to pick the best replacement.
2- Suggestions for the renaming the Federation News Network category: The Embassy, Ambassador Herald Network, or simply Herald (or Ambassador) Network.
3- Rename Dev Tracker to Dev Central or move it to a category for all dev posts and interaction.
4- Move Star Trek Online Discussion category to where the Dev Tracker is or below it and rename it The Round Table. Also, specify in the description it is for game discussion, as opposed to Community Feedback which is for feedback of all related dynamics.
5- Place The Academy above the Ten Forward category as they are for new players, one to introduce, the other to ask and learn in.
6- Seperate faction categories from Feedback and create new individual Community forum sections for putting faction specific categories in one place, whereby you can easily create new categories if you add more factions in future. Create 3 individual faction specific categories, 1) Federation Community, 2) Klingon Community, 3) Romulan Community, and combine the Fleet Administrative Station category into each one respectively.
7- Rename the General Community Feedback category to Community Feedback Lounge.
8- Remove the Character Builds and Powers category, as it should be faction specific, perhaps included 1 each in the Community faction sections.
9- Rename the Bridge Officers and BOffs category to Bridge Command.
10- Move the Support section to 2nd section position under the Information and Discussion section. This facilitates access for both staff and players.
11- Place the new Community sections where the Fleet Administrative section is now, placing the fleet category into their respective factions as detailed in #6 above.
12- Add a moderator section to the end, after the Test Servers section, where we can see members who have visited the forum, how many posts were made today, some interesting tidbits to interest viewers who visit the forums regularly like me (Optional).
Thank you,
Xean
Fed + KDF (+Rom) Shipyards
Boff and character powers (i.e. all powers)
PvE Gameplay + Missions&Episodes
STO Discussion + General Feedback
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Joined October 2009. READ BEFORE POSTING
Not a good idea in my opinion. 70% of the feedback on fleet and reputation systems are about the prices, and 29% are from pvp-ers complaining about supposedly "op" gear. the last 1% could be welcome in the doff subforum, but actually i like it as it is, a suitable and quiet place for civil discussions about something not creating much anger from players. Reputation and fleet sysems could get a separate subforum though.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.