MMOGames.com Interviews Stephen D'Angelo

pwebranflakes · January 2014

Executive Producer Stephen D'Angelo stops by MMOGames.com to chat about Season 8.5 and beyond. Check out the written interview here.

Link to the interview.

rinkster · January 2014

I assume this new Ce type event will have a fantastically wonderful reward, given free to players after running once through an actually interesting FE and then fifteen tries at a horrible mini game, with each attempt artificially spaced 20 hours apart?

johngazman · January 2014

Interesting interview. I still don't know what to make of D'Angelo, especially in the wake of the recent decisions that have been made. I would like to mention a few things though;

Maressa: 2014 is well underway, are there any exciting things coming up that you can talk about?

D'Angelo: Once the anniversary celebration is over, we've got an entirely new event along the lines of the Crystalline Entity event. We've been playtesting it in the studio and it's a ton of fun. We won't be sharing details until the end of February.

Another grind, awesome. That did not take long. I do hope it's an entirely new PvE event, that might make things more interesting. I'm hoping it's a revamped Terradome, really.

Maressa: What is one thing you'd really like to accomplish in your new position?

D'Angelo: I really have two big things I want to accomplish. First, I want to work to improve the parts of the game that are not up to par. This means fixing bugs and polishing, replacing, or removing things that don't work as well as we'd like. Second, I want to push the game forward in a real way. I'm working with the dev team on plans here, and we should have something to share in March about big things coming this year.

If he's straight up about this, good on him. Fixing bugs is the one thing that is constantly asked for, so if he can deliver on this, things might start to begin looking up. As for revamping old content, eh. It's sound in principle, but by and large, most people will be playing Endgame content. As with the quote below, it's all very well revamping the Fed missions (which look awesome from what i've seen, don't get me wrong) but I find it strange given that most players will play it once, maybe twice and then never again.

Perhaps revamping older endgame content would be a more productive use of time? Just my opinion.

As for "pushing the game forwards in a real way" - I don't know what to make of that, it's too vague. If he means Story-wise, yeah cool, i'm all for that.

Maressa: Season 8.5 is bringing with it an updated experience to some of the earlier Federation episodes. But most players have already been through these. Why should veteran players go back and re-experience this content?

D'Angelo: The main draw of Star Trek Online is the story, and if you love the story it will be worth your while to go play the episodes again. But the main reason we chose to rework the tutorial in Season 8 and these episodes in Season 8.5 is to give new players a better view of what the veteran players have been getting at the end game. STO has improved a lot since launch, and I feel that the experience should be more even throughout the game.

Hence why i'm dissapointed he didn't really answer this question. Maressa asked him why veteran players should go back and re-play these old missions, and he's basically said "for the story". Well, on a personal level, i've played the Fed story...about five, six times now. Beyond the shiny new visuals, why should veteran players go back and replay these episodes?

sevenat · January 2014

A) Thanks for posting that. Neat.

Glad to hear the part about "not up to par" , bringing this game "up to par" would be helpful. Bug fixes especially. All content should be playable and usable. But the big key here is balanced and useful, want to use tetyron? Sure! Torpedo boats and sci vessels as a new role for them to fullfill! Sure!

C) Removing things... yes absolutely! Toast some of the terrible dead weight STF's if you dont want to revamp them. Stream line the queue for people to run. Then introduce new ones to add on.

D) Weekend events. Yes! Didnt even know there are hourly events. Wait maybe I did but i didn't participate because I was tied up doing things in menus... like the tailor screen.

E) Foundry is your meal ticket. Let people create content, then let the playerbase at large play it. Save you the dev's from making content when your base will do it for you! This opens you guys up for time to bugfix and update more frequently.

F) If you really want to do something awesome. Take the game away from its roots for a featured episode run. Or better yet, take a piece out of the TV shows.

Remember that episode of voyager "Year of hell" .... ya do something like that. Hardhitting!
Or the start of the dominion war! When sisko upgrade Ds9's offensive capabilities! Without anyone knowing! These things that really shook up the federation to its core!

G) Incorporate the defiant's ablative armour, that slow melts away from damage as something we can use in game. If your going to add a new slot, add an armour slot like
that.

H) Thanks guys, it has been fun over the years despite the headaches.

toiva · January 2014

Seriously, if right after the anniversary grind finishes you bring another daily grind, I just won't give it a damn. I'm still not firmly decided whether I'll get the Anniversary ships, but if you dish out more such events every other week, that'll be it for me.

EDIT: To finish on a more positive note, I'm welcoming D'Angelo's intention to squash old long standing bugs. I'll be very happy if you succeed.

kantazo1 · January 2014

D?Angelo: I know this episode doesn?t hit everyone?s sweet spot, but my favorite is ?The Inner Light?, where Jean-Luc Picard experiences a lifetime on a world that preserved their heritage by sharing a virtual experience. I love a well told story.

LOL I love that episode as well, to me the best part was the flute music.

ashkrik23 · January 2014

Wonder what the event will be.

robdmc · January 2014

One thing I do like is that he is terse. I prefer direct answers. What I find interesting is he gave a time frame.

We won?t be sharing details until the end of February.

That setting of expectation is something most devs and even Dan started shying away from to the point of generic phrases like "Stay tuned to find out more" or "Near future".

Unfortunately I have a feeling he will stop doing that eventually.

kantazo1 · January 2014

Hey Stephen D'Angelo this is for you specially

http://youtu.be/H899osSdKiw

thutmosis85 · January 2014

ashkrik23 wrote: »

Wonder what the event will be.

Grinding Stuff : The Next Generation :P (just like "The inner Light" -> experience a Lifetime of horrible Grinding in just a few days)

thutmosis85 · January 2014

double Post

havam · January 2014

kantazo1 wrote: »

Hey Stephen D'Angelo this is for you specially

http://youtu.be/H899osSdKiw

nice /10char

farmallm · January 2014

That was a good article. I'm looking forward to see what they come out with next for this year. I love the idea of him wanting to fix old bugs and other issues with the game. This to me is a great deal. Since it shows they are willing to do something about it. Than let it go and keep causing problems. As for his comment on the older missions being revamp. I don't know if I will go back with my lv50s and do it again. I will only do that if I'm finally caught up and want to do something to buy time. For new content to come out. However that won't happen to me since I play on weekends only. However I do have plans for a Fed Sci captain to make good with the new Sci ships changes, and the free Sci Ships I got from last summer give away. So then I will see all the new lower level content with that new captain.

ajm1067 · January 2014

D?Angelo: I really have two big things I want to accomplish. First, I want to work to improve the parts of the game that are not up to par. This means fixing bugs and polishing, replacing, or removing things that don?t work as well as we?d like.

Well this sounds great, but it seems it is going to be heavy going getting this done, judging by the fact that the new 8.5 episode has been unplayable for at least some, with more people apparently having the graphics issue that was originally reported by some players in the Graphics issue area of the forums in November, but is now happening at a specific point in the new mission.

Or does fixing bugs actually mean getting the community manager to censor comments about such in the news section of the forums?

MMOGames.com Interviews Stephen D'Angelo

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