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An unsettling rumor: The End of Exploration

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    jheinigjheinig Member Posts: 364 Cryptic Developer
    edited July 2014
    In the updates that I just finished testing, characters will keep their credit for old exploration, and gain new credit for completing DOFF assigments tied to the cluster. So, if you are at 14/15 toward the Delta Volanis Wanderer accolade, you can complete one Delta Volanis DOFF assignment and you will earn the accolade.

    If you have already earned the accolade, nothing changes -- you keep it.

    If you have never started the accolade, you can earn it by doing star cluster DOFF assignments.

    This is work in progress and the first iterations should be going to Tribble soon for testing. Hopefully it will all work as intended (fingers crossed) and voila.
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    markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,231 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    tenkari wrote: »
    so The Last FE had buildings floating 5 feet above the ground? had your BO's and NPC's planted in the ground so that they couldnt be shot, but still shoot towards thing that were above the gorund? Did it have holes in the ground where you could walk over just fine but your entire away team mysteriously drops under the map? Game breaking glitches so that the map could not be completed? Entire Spawns of enemies just... never showing up?
    While I have seen all of the above.... such things happen very rarely in the clusters. I went through a few dozen of them this week looking for interesting maps to make pics of. Never had a single glitch of any consequence. the only thing out of place was one map where a D'Arsay gravestone was floating above the ground instead of resting on it.
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    My character Tsin'xing
    Costume_marhawkman_Tsin%27xing_CC_Comic_Page_Blue_488916968.jpg
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    macroniusmacronius Member Posts: 2,526
    edited July 2014
    jheinig wrote: »
    In the updates that I just finished testing, characters will keep their credit for old exploration, and gain new credit for completing DOFF assigments tied to the cluster. So, if you are at 14/15 toward the Delta Volanis Wanderer accolade, you can complete one Delta Volanis DOFF assignment and you will earn the accolade.

    If you have already earned the accolade, nothing changes -- you keep it.

    If you have never started the accolade, you can earn it by doing star cluster DOFF assignments.

    This is work in progress and the first iterations should be going to Tribble soon for testing. Hopefully it will all work as intended (fingers crossed) and voila.

    So apparently accolades will be doable. But the actual content goes away. Devs missing the point once again ... *facepalm*
    "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."

    - Judge Aaron Satie
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    mikeflmikefl Member Posts: 861 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    jheinig wrote: »
    In the updates that I just finished testing, characters will keep their credit for old exploration, and gain new credit for completing DOFF assigments tied to the cluster. So, if you are at 14/15 toward the Delta Volanis Wanderer accolade, you can complete one Delta Volanis DOFF assignment and you will earn the accolade.

    If you have already earned the accolade, nothing changes -- you keep it.

    If you have never started the accolade, you can earn it by doing star cluster DOFF assignments.

    This is work in progress and the first iterations should be going to Tribble soon for testing. Hopefully it will all work as intended (fingers crossed) and voila.

    Thanks! This is a nice band-aid for now until some future exploration stuff is introduced.
    Gold Sub since March 2010
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    warmaker001bwarmaker001b Member Posts: 9,205 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    jheinig wrote: »
    In the updates that I just finished testing, characters will keep their credit for old exploration, and gain new credit for completing DOFF assigments tied to the cluster. So, if you are at 14/15 toward the Delta Volanis Wanderer accolade, you can complete one Delta Volanis DOFF assignment and you will earn the accolade.

    If you have already earned the accolade, nothing changes -- you keep it.

    If you have never started the accolade, you can earn it by doing star cluster DOFF assignments.

    This is work in progress and the first iterations should be going to Tribble soon for testing. Hopefully it will all work as intended (fingers crossed) and voila.

    I am more disturbed that you guys are simply gutting the Exploration clusters altogether, and not fixing and making them better.

    You are gutting an entire swathe of gameplay in favor of simple DOFF missions, and not replacing the original with something better.

    If you DO indeed have something better in the works, the least you guys could do was keep the current Exploration system in place until the new and improved version is ready.
    XzRTofz.gif
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    jonsillsjonsills Member Posts: 10,396 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    capnmanx wrote: »
    After reading that, I don't really see a problem. I mean, am I the only one who was puzzled about the Federation mounting an expeditionary force in a sector so far away it was only reachable by a transwarp gateway, but not having yet explored a stellar cluster less than twenty light-years from Earth??

    And as the blog notes, the missions were very "samey" and boring. I didn't even bother with them, after spending the better part of two days trying to find the world that needed the items I was supposed to deliver for the exploration mission. If I want to be bored out of my skull by doing the same thing over and over, I'll pay attention at work, thanks. At least you can get paid for that.
    Lorna-Wing-sig.png
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    valenn1valenn1 Member Posts: 842 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    Since the Accolade Question is answered...
    I can live with the changes.
    Why? Because imho thats the preparation of many more sectors to come, they replace some ancient subpar random stuff with something new (Expansion 2 ?).
    I won't miss the "holes in the ground" or "missing enemy group" bug, or the Early-Years-of-Cryptic-Hombrewed-Abomination-Races,
    Beta, LTA, CE, Multiple preorder Versions, all Addon Packs except AoY, nearly all KDF/Rom and ~50% of all Fedships, over 25 LockboxShips, Endurer of Atari's "Year of Hell", but...
    unfortunately:

    NOT LOYAL ENOUGH!!!
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    capnmanxcapnmanx Member Posts: 1,452 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    jonsills wrote: »
    After reading that, I don't really see a problem. I mean, am I the only one who was puzzled about the Federation mounting an expeditionary force in a sector so far away it was only reachable by a transwarp gateway, but not having yet explored a stellar cluster less than twenty light-years from Earth??

    And as the blog notes, the missions were very "samey" and boring. I didn't even bother with them, after spending the better part of two days trying to find the world that needed the items I was supposed to deliver for the exploration mission. If I want to be bored out of my skull by doing the same thing over and over, I'll pay attention at work, thanks. At least you can get paid for that.

    The alternative is running the same queued events over and over, or running the same story missions over and over. At least the exploration clusters randomised which missions you'd get; other than PvP it was the only content we have that isn't completely directed (well... PvP and Dabo I suppose).
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    millybunmillybun Member Posts: 232 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    jonsills wrote: »
    *snips*

    And as the blog notes, the missions were very "samey" and boring. I didn't even bother with them, after spending the better part of two days trying to find the world that needed the items I was supposed to deliver for the exploration mission. If I want to be bored out of my skull by doing the same thing over and over, I'll pay attention at work, thanks. At least you can get paid for that.
    capnmanx wrote: »
    The alternative is running the same queued events over and over, or running the same story missions over and over. At least the exploration clusters randomised which missions you'd get; other than PvP it was the only content we have that isn't completely directed (well... PvP and Dabo I suppose).

    Exactly as Capnmanx says, now you *can* do exactly that! More incentive to go into the same queues we've all been doing over and over again to grind our rep and get our rep gear. Tired of doing story missions to get the end rewards you wanted/needed? Well now you can do them over and over again too for crafting resources and stuff!

    We're not gaining content here, we're losing it, straight up.


    I enjoy a great portion of the new stuff we've gotten, the updates to old stuff, and hints of future stuff coming. But it's always worrying when a game has a large chunk of alternative content removed, no matter its quality.
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    snoggymack22snoggymack22 Member Posts: 7,084 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    mikefl wrote: »
    Thanks! This is a nice band-aid for now until some future exploration stuff is introduced.

    As stated in the new dev blog, no new future exploration will be introduced. INSTEAD, they're letting exploration now be handled by the Foundry.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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    snoggymack22snoggymack22 Member Posts: 7,084 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    jonsills wrote: »
    After reading that, I don't really see a problem.

    I can sum up the problem in a very succinct way: Cryptic Developers have passed the buck. And that'd distressing.

    How is that you may ask?

    The criticism was that these missions weren't up to their standards of quality in terms of mission creation.

    Their solution wasn't to go in and create an exploration system that IS up to their standard of quality.

    Instead they removed it and left it all on the shoulders of the players to now create exploration through the foundry.

    So they remove content because it's not good enough for the work they feel they are doing. But they haven't done any of the work.

    This is bad on two ends. The first end being that they've scrapped a system that is integral to the whole idea of Star Trek ... they just straight up remove content.

    And the second end ... this crock they're trying to sell about mission quality when they themselves can't put out actual missions. We get one tiny mission every three to six months.

    What kind of quality is that?

    This is a problem. A large, big picture systemic problem. They're selling their product short but still trying to convince their customers that they have high standards.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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    commodoreshrvkcommodoreshrvk Member Posts: 477 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    jheinig wrote: »
    In the updates that I just finished testing, characters will keep their credit for old exploration, and gain new credit for completing DOFF assigments tied to the cluster. So, if you are at 14/15 toward the Delta Volanis Wanderer accolade, you can complete one Delta Volanis DOFF assignment and you will earn the accolade.

    If you have already earned the accolade, nothing changes -- you keep it.

    If you have never started the accolade, you can earn it by doing star cluster DOFF assignments.

    This is work in progress and the first iterations should be going to Tribble soon for testing. Hopefully it will all work as intended (fingers crossed) and voila.

    Thank you for this Jessie. I really wish the "Scan anomalies" missions would have been retained though and acquired through the contact. We seriously need a non-combat way of actively obtaining crafting materials.
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    xtern1tyxtern1ty Member Posts: 796 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    jheinig wrote: »
    In the updates that I just finished testing, characters will keep their credit for old exploration, and gain new credit for completing DOFF assigments tied to the cluster. So, if you are at 14/15 toward the Delta Volanis Wanderer accolade, you can complete one Delta Volanis DOFF assignment and you will earn the accolade.

    If you have already earned the accolade, nothing changes -- you keep it.

    If you have never started the accolade, you can earn it by doing star cluster DOFF assignments.

    This is work in progress and the first iterations should be going to Tribble soon for testing. Hopefully it will all work as intended (fingers crossed) and voila.

    Thanks for the update jheinig.

    Saw the blog post as it went up which includes that and further details, as shared by a previous poster:

    http://community.arcgames.com/en/news/star-trek-online/detail/6002963

    Some may bemoan the loss of more content to interact with (not me personally, since I hardly have had the time to reach that section of content yet, with all the more essential areas like reputation, fleet marks and dil missions I've had to grind and get over with first), but great to know we'll still be able to get the accolades, by doing the doff assignments in those clusters. Hope it works as well (crosses fingers too) and keep up the good work! :)
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    enterprise1701axenterprise1701ax Member Posts: 209 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of our starships. Our mission, to explore ... oh TRIBBLE, we aren't allowed to do that prime function anymore! So why bother to call this game Star Trek? Why not call it Battlefield 4X -- Space, or Battlestar Galactica, Dyson Dinosaur edition? You Cryptic guys really missed the point of Gene Roddenberry's vision! And what is that "not up to the standards of the game" excuse for destroying the best part of this game? Exploration is a prime part of the game that was actually true to Star Trek! I doubt that Foundry missions will help. Every time I start to like a Foundry mission, you guys delete it! And exactly where is the access port to the Foundry, now that you redesigned Earth Space Dock?
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    captainoblivouscaptainoblivous Member Posts: 2,284 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    They must be mad to just nuke 3700 missions outright. Okay, so they weren't all that great, but in a game as content starved as STO 3700 missions simply cannot be ignored.
    What's worse, is that the 3700 are generally on par or better than a whole lot of what is in the foundry!


    Imo, they should link the foundry and the exploration. Keep the clusters, but let foundry authors set a flag on their missions that tells the game to put their mission in to the exploration mission rotation. That would allow them to do away with the wrapper missions they currently have for both, and just have one big wrapper that covers both. That way they get their dil nerf (which they do generally want) as well as adding more variety to the exploration missions.


    Oh, their content massacre isn't just the 3700. They're also nuking the diplomatic missions like the first contact and the diplomatic investigations. You know, the ones that have been broken for 18 months +. So it would seem that they are just deleting it rather than fixing up and modifying them to fit in with the new direction the game is going (aka grind grind and grind some more Oh heres a toy! grind grind grind some more Oh! Here's another shiny toy! ad nauseam)
    I need a beer.

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    chalpenchalpen Member Posts: 2,207 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    I haven't done exploration missions in years. They are gone? Ok. Whatever
    Should I start posting again after all this time?
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    snoggymack22snoggymack22 Member Posts: 7,084 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    chalpen wrote: »
    I haven't done exploration missions in years. They are gone? Ok. Whatever

    The best part is when they eventually get around to doing the same thing to something you personally like and then others will take up the torch and tell you "ok whatever."

    It'll be funny to me by then. Of that I have no doubt.

    In the meantime, I think this is a definitive flag from the current dev team that we are about to enter our second content drought, kind of like an ice age. This one it's tied to Atari or cups in the kitchen. But I do think it's related to the company's overall stagnation as anyone who's seen the work (or lack thereof) going on with Champions can now see a lot of the same general procedural ideas taking root over here.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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    chalpenchalpen Member Posts: 2,207 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    The best part is when they eventually get around to doing the same thing to something you personally like and then others will take up the torch and tell you "ok whatever."

    It'll be funny to me by then. Of that I have no doubt.

    In the meantime, I think this is a definitive flag from the current dev team that we are about to enter our second content drought, kind of like an ice age. This one it's tied to Atari or cups in the kitchen. But I do think it's related to the company's overall stagnation as anyone who's seen the work (or lack thereof) going on with Champions can now see a lot of the same general procedural ideas taking root over here.

    You should write books.
    Anyways, the game needs exploration. The genesis system, IMHO, was a good system to provide it.
    But they updated it "cryptic style" meaning, never.
    So right now it is unfixeable.
    Content drought? Cryptic will give us a grind soon enough. And we will grind away.
    Should I start posting again after all this time?
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    captainoblivouscaptainoblivous Member Posts: 2,284 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    chalpen wrote: »
    You should write books.
    Anyways, the game needs exploration. The genesis system, IMHO, was a good system to provide it.
    But they updated it "cryptic style" meaning, never.
    So right now it is unfixeable.
    Content drought? Cryptic will give us a grind soon enough. And we will grind away.

    I don't see why they couldn't re-purpose the exploration clusters etc into a faction specific rep system, possbily giving buffs to faction specific boats (i.e. not lockbox boats) as well as the factions own signature weapon type. Add in missions from the foundry that foundry authors have flagged as "exploration" to add a bit more variety and voila, you have yourself a ton of 'new' content.
    I need a beer.

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    shevetshevet Member Posts: 1,667 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    chalpen wrote: »
    Cryptic will give us a grind soon enough. And we will grind away.
    Speak for yourself - personally, I've been to Andoria more often than I've been to the Undine grind zones. And I don't see myself wasting any more time on the next one they churn out.
    8b6YIel.png?1
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    xtern1tyxtern1ty Member Posts: 796 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    Between now and the end of this month, I'll be patrolling all of those clusters, so the chains are started. It's not much, but it's a good thing to do for players who don't have the accolades yet, just in case. See you there!
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    khamseenairkhamseenair Member Posts: 2,640 Bug Hunter
    edited July 2014
    jheinig wrote: »
    In the updates that I just finished testing, characters will keep their credit for old exploration, and gain new credit for completing DOFF assigments tied to the cluster. So, if you are at 14/15 toward the Delta Volanis Wanderer accolade, you can complete one Delta Volanis DOFF assignment and you will earn the accolade.

    If you have already earned the accolade, nothing changes -- you keep it.

    If you have never started the accolade, you can earn it by doing star cluster DOFF assignments.

    This is work in progress and the first iterations should be going to Tribble soon for testing. Hopefully it will all work as intended (fingers crossed) and voila.

    So instead of playing the game, we can queue up DOFFs to do something over a set period of time with a chance of success. When did this become a game for a mobile phone?
    Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
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    aloishammeraloishammer Member Posts: 3,294 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    So instead of playing the game, we can queue up DOFFs to do something over a set period of time with a chance of success. When did this become a game for a mobile phone?

    Real Soon Now™
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    askrayaskray Member Posts: 3,329 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    Thread closed as this isn't a rumor anymore and there are other threads dedicated to it in the GNN
    Yes, I'm that Askray@Batbayer in game. Yes, I still play. No, I don't care.
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