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Iconians Official Wall-of-Text S8 Review
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Member Posts: 6,987 Arc User
[Disclaimer: I did not see an official S8 feedback thread, stickied or whatnot.]
This is my one and only review for S8, and for those of you who know me and for those who do not, I provide constructive feedback and have strived to do so for 3 years. I consider my critiques in STO to be tough, but fair. Praise and scolding is given where needed. I am not a Cryptic fanboy, neither am I a hater. I love Star Trek Online, and I want to see this game continue to thrive and expand. I am also aware my opinion is not the only one that matters, and I am one of many voices. However, I feel it is my duty to post these reviews from time to time. Cryptic has given me much that I have asked for, and much I wish I had asked for earlier. But there is no room for idleness. There is always room for improvement. STO is nowhere near needing to be put in maintenance mode. I hope my voice will help keep it that way.
---Intelligent Commentary Below---
Overall: I give S8 a very respectable A- grade.
Ask Cryptic January 2013:
This is very true -- at least in regards to Season 8. In general, my first impressions are that this is not the same STO I was playing 3 months ago, let alone 3 years ago. It almost feels like Star Trek Online II, and went above and beyond anything I could have expecting in Season 1, which is a massive understatemet.
Romulan gameplay is fantastic, and I was pleased to see many storylines fleshed out. Denise Crosby does a fantastic job reprising her role as Sela, and the story behind Hakeev and Sela was very interesting. It was also a pleasure to see Hassan from the Orion Syndicate for the first time. I was hoping for Melani D'ian to finally be seen as well, but I will settle for Hassan.
The ships are very aesthetically pleasing, and the singularity mechanic is nothing short of phenomenal (and fun!).
The new UI is great on my eyes, and the options given are appreciated -- although I wouldn't mind having more.
The dev team deserves much praise for their hard work, because what they did accomplished more than many players were expecting. Very few game companies are able to achieve this amount of improvement and expansion in a single release.
The Bad:
If Dstahl wants the dev team's efforts judged by season 8, then the bad must come with the good. I must point out the shortcomings that Cryptic continues to exhibit and refuses to correct. A mistake is an error someone refuses to correct. In that sense, Cryptic has made a mistake.
Proper testing of builds. This has been a flagrant mistake that has been a part of STO for an extremely long period of time, and it is something that I feel must be addressed.
The Tribble Test Server should honestly be called the Tribble Preview Server. Test implies the conditions for failure. Cryptic has proven that any condition that could be perceived as failure can easily be corrected on holodeck.
This is why they announce launch dates for seasons not far into the future. Despite whatever monstrous bugs that are lurking in the build waiting to get released onto holodeck, it will get pushed to holodeck come hell or high water. If there is an unseen bug that requires 5 months to fix (let's say it's an extremely complicated bug that requires vast amounts of labor hours trying to correct, and this has been the case before), and the release date for a season is 3 months into the future. With one month of it being on the test server -- then that still requires 2 to 4 months of players having to put up with this bug until it is fixed. Let's say this bug was found on Tribble, and although extremely inconvenient and considered game-breaking to only a small number of people, this bug will release on May 21st. No matter what.
Holodeck is seen as an etch-a-sketch, and it always has been. Any problems that have made it to holodeck will be corrected eventually (in theory and for the most part in practice). All they need to do is shake the etch-a-sketch and they pretend nothing happened.
Bugs will happen. Bugs are unavoidable. I will never say anything to the contrary. Bugs are a fact of computer games and I am not advocating that every build that hits holodeck remain bug free. It is an unrealistic request to make.
I am, however, arguing that the threshold over which builds pass and which builds fail is unacceptably low. Part of this has not to do with the coding done on the testing shards, either internal or public, but rather the transition from test to public.
As any business will tell you, you spend a minority of your budget on things that do not make money. Any testing done in test environments is not an area that generates money. Military proving grounds where bombs are dropped is not real estate that will be sold. In comparison, money is not made over labor hours spent on the testing shards themselves. The content on the testing shards, yes. But not the infrastructure and framework that makes up the testing shards, which over a period of 3 years of hotfixes and non-tested content pushed directly to holodeck, along with synchronizations of code branches... must not closely resemble the holodeck shard itself.
Holodeck is where money is made, so labor hours are put there first. Unfortunately, that means that transitions are not smooth. And as we have seen in S8 -- they can be extremely turbulent. Constant downtimes, etc. is proof that they see holodeck as an etch-a-sketch. Any problems there are can be rectified -- given enough downtimes and hotfixes.
The content moved from a test shard to the public shard will be mostly the same on paper. 90% of that (statistics pulled from the aether) will work perfectly. But the 10% is the unforeseen. And even if it works perfectly in test environments, due to the different set-up of testing environments that do not resemble holodeck's environment... you will face these issues that almost every player in STO faces.
This needs to change, and this needs to change quickly. What Cryptic sees as a mild inconvenience (and they apologize before every downtime) to players, the players see as a terrible inconvenience because they can't play their game. Will downtimes be unavoidable at times? Sure. But Cryptic is not and has not taken the appropriate steps to lessen the risk, again, due to the money being in holodeck and not the testing shards.
In Short: More money would be spent upgrading and overhauling the test servers to more closely resemble holodeck than money spent constantly hotfixing holodeck itself.
Most of this server instability and back-end maintenance? I am willing to bet is not an issue on the testing shards. It points to an infrastructure problem that occurs only on holodeck.
When this month's Ask Cryptic hit, dstahl said that that sometimes bad things happen for no good reason (in direct reference to the stability and connection issues we've had). Any person who knows how the universe works knows that the law of causality can not be broken.
Dstahl's excuse is that he and the dev team have managed to break the law of causality, in that sense they have either defied the one rule of the universe since the big bang [and please tell me your secret so I can be extremely rich], or he isn't willing to admit that maybe this is a shortcoming in his teams efforts that need improvement.
"Excrement happens." is a cynical response from a parent to its child when they have a bad day at school. Or you get rear-ended in a car accident. But causality is behind everything. A bad day at school is a reaction to some other action during that day. "No reason" is not something you can send to your car insurance agent if you rear-end someone else's car. It is a phrase used to whitewash a very real problem, with no real amount of caring devoted to it or attempting to make it better.
This is not something I accept. And if I won't accept it, I have to make my voice heard.
Cryptic owns and controls their hardware and software. They are the ones who code it. They are the men and women who have spent a great deal of money on their education to do this job for 40 or more hours a week. I am sure Mr. Stahl never answered a question on a test in college in regards to computer programming that "bad things happen for no good reason". Nor should he. You code a computer, it will do exactly as it is told. I am not a computer programmer but even I am aware of that law.
Holodeck is not Skynet. That is a fictional software from a fictional movie. Holodeck did not become self-aware and declare war on STO's subscribers. Someone, somewhere, at some time coded it to give us this server instability (unintentionally, obviously). It does not happen for no reason.
And we either put up with this server instability over a period of weeks or months of constant downtimes and hotfixes, getting frustrated we can't play STO and complaining on the forums -- or Cryptic tries to lessen the risk of said downtimes (and server instabilities).
In my opinion, a great deal of money and labor hours need to be devoted to making their internal test shards resemble holodeck's set-up more closely. I am asking them to be wasteful with money in order to improve the quality of life of STO's players by making their testing environments better and more reliable.
At this point, testing is only lip service. I expect bugs, I welcome them because they point to new shiny stuff I also get to deal with. But what I have seen when it comes to bugs in S8 and before is unacceptable.
That is where the minus in my A- review comes from. This is a shortcoming that I feel needs strong attention. You inconvenience customers to save money. There is logic in that action, but there is no ethic.
That said, S8 is fantastic and I'll be busy for a very long time enjoying this game, and it is nothing short of amazing that needs to be applauded by a lot more people.
This is my one and only review for S8, and for those of you who know me and for those who do not, I provide constructive feedback and have strived to do so for 3 years. I consider my critiques in STO to be tough, but fair. Praise and scolding is given where needed. I am not a Cryptic fanboy, neither am I a hater. I love Star Trek Online, and I want to see this game continue to thrive and expand. I am also aware my opinion is not the only one that matters, and I am one of many voices. However, I feel it is my duty to post these reviews from time to time. Cryptic has given me much that I have asked for, and much I wish I had asked for earlier. But there is no room for idleness. There is always room for improvement. STO is nowhere near needing to be put in maintenance mode. I hope my voice will help keep it that way.
---Intelligent Commentary Below---
Overall: I give S8 a very respectable A- grade.
Ask Cryptic January 2013:
"Season 8 and Season 9 are both going to be BIG releases. I'm very much looking forward to them because they represent the first big releases we will have been able to do with the increase to our live team staff."
This is very true -- at least in regards to Season 8. In general, my first impressions are that this is not the same STO I was playing 3 months ago, let alone 3 years ago. It almost feels like Star Trek Online II, and went above and beyond anything I could have expecting in Season 1, which is a massive understatemet.
Romulan gameplay is fantastic, and I was pleased to see many storylines fleshed out. Denise Crosby does a fantastic job reprising her role as Sela, and the story behind Hakeev and Sela was very interesting. It was also a pleasure to see Hassan from the Orion Syndicate for the first time. I was hoping for Melani D'ian to finally be seen as well, but I will settle for Hassan.
The ships are very aesthetically pleasing, and the singularity mechanic is nothing short of phenomenal (and fun!).
The new UI is great on my eyes, and the options given are appreciated -- although I wouldn't mind having more.
The dev team deserves much praise for their hard work, because what they did accomplished more than many players were expecting. Very few game companies are able to achieve this amount of improvement and expansion in a single release.
The Bad:
If Dstahl wants the dev team's efforts judged by season 8, then the bad must come with the good. I must point out the shortcomings that Cryptic continues to exhibit and refuses to correct. A mistake is an error someone refuses to correct. In that sense, Cryptic has made a mistake.
Proper testing of builds. This has been a flagrant mistake that has been a part of STO for an extremely long period of time, and it is something that I feel must be addressed.
The Tribble Test Server should honestly be called the Tribble Preview Server. Test implies the conditions for failure. Cryptic has proven that any condition that could be perceived as failure can easily be corrected on holodeck.
This is why they announce launch dates for seasons not far into the future. Despite whatever monstrous bugs that are lurking in the build waiting to get released onto holodeck, it will get pushed to holodeck come hell or high water. If there is an unseen bug that requires 5 months to fix (let's say it's an extremely complicated bug that requires vast amounts of labor hours trying to correct, and this has been the case before), and the release date for a season is 3 months into the future. With one month of it being on the test server -- then that still requires 2 to 4 months of players having to put up with this bug until it is fixed. Let's say this bug was found on Tribble, and although extremely inconvenient and considered game-breaking to only a small number of people, this bug will release on May 21st. No matter what.
Holodeck is seen as an etch-a-sketch, and it always has been. Any problems that have made it to holodeck will be corrected eventually (in theory and for the most part in practice). All they need to do is shake the etch-a-sketch and they pretend nothing happened.
Bugs will happen. Bugs are unavoidable. I will never say anything to the contrary. Bugs are a fact of computer games and I am not advocating that every build that hits holodeck remain bug free. It is an unrealistic request to make.
I am, however, arguing that the threshold over which builds pass and which builds fail is unacceptably low. Part of this has not to do with the coding done on the testing shards, either internal or public, but rather the transition from test to public.
As any business will tell you, you spend a minority of your budget on things that do not make money. Any testing done in test environments is not an area that generates money. Military proving grounds where bombs are dropped is not real estate that will be sold. In comparison, money is not made over labor hours spent on the testing shards themselves. The content on the testing shards, yes. But not the infrastructure and framework that makes up the testing shards, which over a period of 3 years of hotfixes and non-tested content pushed directly to holodeck, along with synchronizations of code branches... must not closely resemble the holodeck shard itself.
Holodeck is where money is made, so labor hours are put there first. Unfortunately, that means that transitions are not smooth. And as we have seen in S8 -- they can be extremely turbulent. Constant downtimes, etc. is proof that they see holodeck as an etch-a-sketch. Any problems there are can be rectified -- given enough downtimes and hotfixes.
The content moved from a test shard to the public shard will be mostly the same on paper. 90% of that (statistics pulled from the aether) will work perfectly. But the 10% is the unforeseen. And even if it works perfectly in test environments, due to the different set-up of testing environments that do not resemble holodeck's environment... you will face these issues that almost every player in STO faces.
This needs to change, and this needs to change quickly. What Cryptic sees as a mild inconvenience (and they apologize before every downtime) to players, the players see as a terrible inconvenience because they can't play their game. Will downtimes be unavoidable at times? Sure. But Cryptic is not and has not taken the appropriate steps to lessen the risk, again, due to the money being in holodeck and not the testing shards.
In Short: More money would be spent upgrading and overhauling the test servers to more closely resemble holodeck than money spent constantly hotfixing holodeck itself.
Most of this server instability and back-end maintenance? I am willing to bet is not an issue on the testing shards. It points to an infrastructure problem that occurs only on holodeck.
When this month's Ask Cryptic hit, dstahl said that that sometimes bad things happen for no good reason (in direct reference to the stability and connection issues we've had). Any person who knows how the universe works knows that the law of causality can not be broken.
Dstahl's excuse is that he and the dev team have managed to break the law of causality, in that sense they have either defied the one rule of the universe since the big bang [and please tell me your secret so I can be extremely rich], or he isn't willing to admit that maybe this is a shortcoming in his teams efforts that need improvement.
"Excrement happens." is a cynical response from a parent to its child when they have a bad day at school. Or you get rear-ended in a car accident. But causality is behind everything. A bad day at school is a reaction to some other action during that day. "No reason" is not something you can send to your car insurance agent if you rear-end someone else's car. It is a phrase used to whitewash a very real problem, with no real amount of caring devoted to it or attempting to make it better.
This is not something I accept. And if I won't accept it, I have to make my voice heard.
Cryptic owns and controls their hardware and software. They are the ones who code it. They are the men and women who have spent a great deal of money on their education to do this job for 40 or more hours a week. I am sure Mr. Stahl never answered a question on a test in college in regards to computer programming that "bad things happen for no good reason". Nor should he. You code a computer, it will do exactly as it is told. I am not a computer programmer but even I am aware of that law.
Holodeck is not Skynet. That is a fictional software from a fictional movie. Holodeck did not become self-aware and declare war on STO's subscribers. Someone, somewhere, at some time coded it to give us this server instability (unintentionally, obviously). It does not happen for no reason.
And we either put up with this server instability over a period of weeks or months of constant downtimes and hotfixes, getting frustrated we can't play STO and complaining on the forums -- or Cryptic tries to lessen the risk of said downtimes (and server instabilities).
In my opinion, a great deal of money and labor hours need to be devoted to making their internal test shards resemble holodeck's set-up more closely. I am asking them to be wasteful with money in order to improve the quality of life of STO's players by making their testing environments better and more reliable.
At this point, testing is only lip service. I expect bugs, I welcome them because they point to new shiny stuff I also get to deal with. But what I have seen when it comes to bugs in S8 and before is unacceptable.
That is where the minus in my A- review comes from. This is a shortcoming that I feel needs strong attention. You inconvenience customers to save money. There is logic in that action, but there is no ethic.
That said, S8 is fantastic and I'll be busy for a very long time enjoying this game, and it is nothing short of amazing that needs to be applauded by a lot more people.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
90% of this "review" is complaining about the server instability.
I am 80% sure that you just tried to find an excuse to cry about the severs (because we REALLY need another thread about this), but disguised it into a "review".
Look, there is no reason to assume that Cryptic doesn't already know about the server instability and some bugs. Absolutely no reason. Because it is their service. They are providing it.
No devs in their right mind would want to offer a bad experience to the players, unless they want to sabotage themselves.
They most likely figured out by themselves that situations like this may discourage some people from playing any longer. Therefore it is safe to assume that they are already working on it.
So threads like this contribute to the situation with nothing at all.
"The quest for the Book of Ignum"
"I have seen your future. I have seen your end"
Well, that's partially because this isn't Season 8, but something bigger. I believe Dan has said that LOR got so much bigger than a season that they made a whole new term for it, and that we would see Season 8 released later this year.
This character is why I don't play my Romulan any more. Tovan Khev is NOT my BFF! Get him off my bridge!
---
Nice review.
Is this going to change anything anytime soon?
Didnt think so.
This + A few quirks:
dstahl's commentary also says that first deployment didn't work as planned. That actually makes sense, and is really something you CAN'T control. Although one hopes that if they do this again, they learnt a few lessons.
As for making Tribble resemble Holodeck, there's a problem: user count. (I do tend to agree that they stick to announced release dates a lot but that is a GAMING INDUSTRY problem.)
- Judge Aaron Satie