Very disappointing that all of the Tribble feedback has fallen on deaf ears and this disaster waiting to happen is being shoved out.
If you are referring to the crafting system, they did change a lot of things that were first brought up in initial feedback. The one thing that they didn't change was the randomness of what you get from crafting items. However, they're not finished with the system yet and plan on making more changes.
Just to clarify, neither myself nor Trendy decide the publication schedule.
In fact, I don't have any control over the content publications as of nearly 3 months ago now.
Trendy is tied to the publication schedule that is decided by the management teammates above her. So please don't take your frustrations out on poor Trendy, she is doing everything she is allowed to do in order to bring these blogs out on time.
After BranFlakes departure, Cryptic/PWE hired a new Product Manager to oversee publication and keep everything on schedule, and bring up to date info the the players.
As you are all aware, this transition has not been the smoothest transition ever (to put it mildly) but we are working very hard to highlight these issues, and the delay with the Xindi LockBox blogs as well as the lack of any major official announcement about S9.5 release dates are great examples for us to show the management that we need to plan better before we head into Season 10.
With the Las Vegas convention fast approaching, my time is being focused on planning the convention and making sure we have things ready to go. But with the launch tomorrow, I will be redoubling my efforts to bring the needed changes to the entire STO publication machine, including the Forums, Facebook and Twitter.
We will have plenty to share with you over the next few months, and we thank you all for your patience over the last several weeks as we built to 9.5, and we thank you in advance for your patience as we work to improve our team engine leading into post launch.
Enjoy Season 9.5 tomorrow everyone, and we will see you in game!
~CaptainSmirk
Thank you for being honest about your frustrations Smirk. Here's hoping that things will actually begin to change.
Also to those saying that the devs haven't been listening to the frustrations being aired on the Tribble forums, that's not true. They have already made a lot of changes that were asked for since the first patch went up to test 9.5. The issue here is that they aren't being given enough time to do their jobs and release things the way they should be. I don't blame Cryptic for this anymore. It seems like things are being pushed through quickly by the management team at PWE. If this continues STO will continue to hemorrhage players, and we are already approaching the brink of no return.
Yes they announced it now... on the forums... that most people never bother reading. It is a sign of incompetence that they don't have the Dev Blog posts already posted with just over 12 hours before this all goes live. This whole release is one giant cluster****. No buildup, no "official" announcements about any of this, and too many major KNOWN ISSUES that are still being pushed live tomorrow. This game is really going downhill fast.
Wait a minute. It's not good enough that they're using Twitter. It's not good enough that it's on the forums (where, incidentally, you also find out about Blog Posts in the first place).
What the frak would be good enough? Are you expecting spam emails? Phone calls? An above-the-fold headline in the New York Times? You're expecting maybe someone from Cryptic is going to pay a personal visit to the households of every single STO player to tell us in person that the blogs will be a whole flipping day late???
Wait a minute. It's not good enough that they're using Twitter. It's not good enough that it's on the forums (where, incidentally, you also find out about Blog Posts in the first place).
What the frak would be good enough? Are you expecting spam emails? Phone calls? An above-the-fold headline in the New York Times? You're expecting maybe someone from Cryptic is going to pay a personal visit to the households of every single STO player to tell us in person that the blogs will be a whole flipping day late???
Just can't win with some folks...
Smirk and trendy are welcome over to my place to tell me when a blog is going to be late! I may have coffee, bacon or beer waiting
Yes, I'm that Askray@Batbayer in game. Yes, I still play. No, I don't care. Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker. Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
Good post smirk. I would say to "management" that this has been a very fumbled lead up to S9.5, the worse I've seen for STO imo.
If Xindi lock boxes are coming in this upcoming patch (I'm still confused about this), there's a complete lack of information and as a result hype and I would've thought lost sales potential on launch.
If the blogs aren't up before key sale finishes, I dare say you just shot yourself in the foot. :S
In this day and age, and as crowd funded games are showing, communication and engagement with your player base is a big part of a games ongoing success, disregard that notion at your own peril.
More information sooner is always better, even if you have to correct things later or explain alterations to plans. It actually gives us an understanding of how things are developing/evolving. I miss the time before the PR blackout PWE I think introduced way back, information was more free flowing and was great to keep up with.
Gecko is seemingly the last bastion of free flowing (as possible) insider information around, although adjudicatorhawk does a pretty good job these days too.
Feel free to pass this "up the chain".
I'm going to summarize this in one short sentence, then add a bit.
Cryptic, the more and earlier that you hype and give details about new content, the more insanely rabid excited people will get.
In other words: Don't ban leakers outright. Instead, punish them by giving them a choice between testing really early updates (on Tribble or otherwise) or being banned.
It'd be hilarious, and that way you get free, high-quality testers.
High-quality because anyone who has the intellect and dedication to dig through all of those files should be patient and smart enough to give a better-than-average opinion on new content. Free because there is nothing more conducive to accepting a "special offer" than the threat of a ban.
Wait a minute. It's not good enough that they're using Twitter. It's not good enough that it's on the forums (where, incidentally, you also find out about Blog Posts in the first place).
What the frak would be good enough? Are you expecting spam emails? Phone calls? An above-the-fold headline in the New York Times? You're expecting maybe someone from Cryptic is going to pay a personal visit to the households of every single STO player to tell us in person that the blogs will be a whole flipping day late???
Just can't win with some folks...
Yes they are using Twitter, but they are not able to make big "official" announcements. Just the occasional reply to another person's Tweet that most people will never see. Same thing with the posts here. No big blog post that they could share on the front page of the site, Facebook, and Twitter. Just one little line in the third post about the patch notes. And just like I said in my last post, I'm not blaming Smirk or Trendy for this, the blame is solely on the mysterious "Product Manager".
(...) After BranFlakes departure, Cryptic/PWE hired a new Product Manager to oversee publication and keep everything on schedule, and bring up to date info the the players.
As you are all aware, this transition has not been the smoothest transition ever (to put it mildly) but we are working very hard to highlight these issues, and the delay with the Xindi LockBox blogs as well as the lack of any major official announcement about S9.5 release dates are great examples for us to show the management that we need to plan better before we head into Season 10. (...)
After having serious issues with the way this release was announced, it took guts (or a deep need for sympathy) to post here with these details.
I can only imagine the folks saying "I can do this BETTER!"
Truth is, I can. Is PWE/Cryptic hiring a new (or replacement) Product Manager for STO ahead of Season 10? I'd be happy to submit my qualified r
Even if the crafting system moved to a DOFF system, the map was still a destination for missions as well as a place to visit that was different from other locations in the game. As well, it could easily have served as a tutorial area for people to learn the new system. Just eliminating it would seem to offer no advantage to the game and costs a place for people to visit.
If anything, Memory Alpha could have been revamped into a historical museum detailing the events prior to where the Path historical missions begin, or simply a science station offering services not found at other areas in the sector.
Just seems a waste of a good map to close it when the closing offers no benefits and costs the game another place to visit.
"The Queue ready notification popup now plays a short sound effect when it appears."
I know it might seem minor and wasn't at the top of the page, but this update was the most important for me. This is huge, best part of the patch for me. I can't count how many times I missed pops because I am not AFK, but am looking down at a book or at the TV. This should help queues that are moving slow somewhat.
Just to clarify, neither myself nor Trendy decide the publication schedule.
In fact, I don't have any control over the content publications as of nearly 3 months ago now.
Trendy is tied to the publication schedule that is decided by the management teammates above her. So please don't take your frustrations out on poor Trendy, she is doing everything she is allowed to do in order to bring these blogs out on time.
After BranFlakes departure, Cryptic/PWE hired a new Product Manager to oversee publication and keep everything on schedule, and bring up to date info the the players.
As you are all aware, this transition has not been the smoothest transition ever (to put it mildly) but we are working very hard to highlight these issues, and the delay with the Xindi LockBox blogs as well as the lack of any major official announcement about S9.5 release dates are great examples for us to show the management that we need to plan better before we head into Season 10.
With the Las Vegas convention fast approaching, my time is being focused on planning the convention and making sure we have things ready to go. But with the launch tomorrow, I will be redoubling my efforts to bring the needed changes to the entire STO publication machine, including the Forums, Facebook and Twitter.
We will have plenty to share with you over the next few months, and we thank you all for your patience over the last several weeks as we built to 9.5, and we thank you in advance for your patience as we work to improve our team engine leading into post launch.
Enjoy Season 9.5 tomorrow everyone, and we will see you in game!
~CaptainSmirk
Well, I'm terribly sorry that this pesky season 9.5 has interrupted the planning for the STLV thing.
Priorities, people, priorities.
And twitter is just lazy, if you've time to tweet you can log on to the forum and do it properly.
Yeah, you are sub-standard compared to BF. No insult intended, but it is what it is. I hope that you get better as a community manager. I really do.
Wow. Is it possible for something to be over the top and below the belt at the same time? I think you've achieved a remarkable feat in forum posting.
As long as Smirk understands that you don't speak for the rest of us, I see no need to say anything more. Especially since it would likely get me in trouble with the mods.
lets all guess how many old bugs come back after this patch im betting on my kdf outfit slots to bug out again like the last 3 times they added something new to the game.
as for someone commenting about branflakes i miss him he was a lot better at his job then smirk n trendy put together
My reply about us forum denizens biting your head off applies to this as well...
...but please try to forward not just the concerns about the Dev Blogs and general communication methodology, but also our collective concerns over the lack of responsiveness in the Tribble testing/feedback -> Holodeck release process. This would be an excellent opportunity to address the growing perception that Tribble testing doesn't actually accomplish terribly much; I've seen folks comment that this is normal, to be expected, and has not changed for quite a few Seasons now. If it did change, though, you'd have to deal with less shipstorms when things do show up on Holodeck.
No worries, I already addressed Tribble sub-forum with the team, and everyone is on board with some great changes to come.
Wish I could tell you them now, but still gotta wait a bit longer
Just to clarify, neither myself nor Trendy decide the publication schedule.
In fact, I don't have any control over the content publications as of nearly 3 months ago now.
Trendy is tied to the publication schedule that is decided by the management teammates above her. So please don't take your frustrations out on poor Trendy, she is doing everything she is allowed to do in order to bring these blogs out on time.
After BranFlakes departure, Cryptic/PWE hired a new Product Manager to oversee publication and keep everything on schedule, and bring up to date info the the players.
As you are all aware, this transition has not been the smoothest transition ever (to put it mildly) but we are working very hard to highlight these issues, and the delay with the Xindi LockBox blogs as well as the lack of any major official announcement about S9.5 release dates are great examples for us to show the management that we need to plan better before we head into Season 10.
With the Las Vegas convention fast approaching, my time is being focused on planning the convention and making sure we have things ready to go. But with the launch tomorrow, I will be redoubling my efforts to bring the needed changes to the entire STO publication machine, including the Forums, Facebook and Twitter.
We will have plenty to share with you over the next few months, and we thank you all for your patience over the last several weeks as we built to 9.5, and we thank you in advance for your patience as we work to improve our team engine leading into post launch.
Enjoy Season 9.5 tomorrow everyone, and we will see you in game!
~CaptainSmirk
Ah. Yep, changes in management makes perfect sense. It upset the natural flow of things.
Hopefully, as you said, this will be enough to get them to put things back or at least be more mindful of why things worked well the way they did before (not as in specific people [although from your own admission everyone misses Brandon...including me!], but in what their positions did).
Remember folks. Now is the last chance for you to hop into Risa and enjoy the waves! I'll see you on there tonight, Captains!
Did not bother with Risa at all this year. Last year had some interesting stuff, but combined with the Risa cruiser this year annoyed me greatly.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
No worries, I already addressed Tribble sub-forum with the team, and everyone is on board with some great changes to come.
Wish I could tell you them now, but still gotta wait a bit longer
~CaptainSmirk
Eh the first time the EP had the job it pretty much was like this. A lot of blogs saying how much Cryptic and the player base loved lockboxes but then he disappeared and then everyone was mailed a survey wondering why people quit buying keys lol. Along with that there was a communications blackout which is the same thing that is happening here so I am pretty sure its not your fault or Trendy's lol. Its also been made clear he doesn't like forums either so when you flush a toilet the stuff just goes down the pipe/chain of command.
The funny part about that first time was the game was going down the drain and we never heard of him again after that survey went out and then people were fearing what is happening now its kind of like I told you so kinda situation
Well, you nerfed the XP-Rewards of the currently available research-projects down to 5 XP/minute (it was 8 XP/minute).
How about offering us a real research-project that burns more materials/components (maybe compareable to a Mk VI Item or two) but still rewards the some XP (like those old 9.6k XP for 20 hours, so 8 XP/minute)?
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
If Star Trek Online was an Open-Source (GPL) Game, we would have a low-grind fork.
[...]the management teammates above her. [...] a new Product Manager to oversee publication and keep everything on schedule, and bring up to date info the the players.
[...]
And so far he is doing a terrific job! Please make him introduce himself on the forums so we can give him a proper welcome. *carefully hides the pitchfork behind the back*
Sarcasm aside, I've been around long enough to knew a new lockbox was coming, and to deduce from the timing of the 'all the previous boxes promotion' the exact date when that was scheduled. Nevertheless, I hazard the guess that the majority of players will be caught unaware, and that ought to be .... interesting.
I'm excited but also a bit disappointed. You're really going through with that terrible new Doff UI? Even though 100% of feedback was negative? I mean there's always a lot of negative feedback no matter how small or how good/bad an update is. But seriously. The old Doff UI is superior to the new one in every possible way. You could have left us with a choice. Implement both UIs and let us chose which one we want to use.
Well Captain Smirk, are you'll going to reconsider the removal of "Exploration" component of this game or not? I'm going to give you all a reasonable amount of time to respond and after that I'm going to cease my subscription. The ball is in your quys court!
Smirk is not the one who decides what changes are made to the game, smirk is pwe aka communications, even if they lack... Devs on the other hand are responsible for the changes to the game aka cryptic....
What the frak would be good enough? Are you expecting spam emails? Phone calls? An above-the-fold headline in the New York Times? You're expecting maybe someone from Cryptic is going to pay a personal visit to the households of every single STO player to tell us in person that the blogs will be a whole flipping day late???
Just can't win with some folks...
The information wasn't provided on the forums until very late yesterday evening, far too late. Yes, the information was on Twitter, but why should I or any other member of the community go to a third party website to find out about something if they have their own website? Besides social networks like Twitter and Facebook are nasty evil things and I have no desire to use them.
This whole situation has been a complete mess by whoever is supposed to deal with it, it's almost on Turbine levels of customer relations TRIBBLE ups.
Comments
If you are referring to the crafting system, they did change a lot of things that were first brought up in initial feedback. The one thing that they didn't change was the randomness of what you get from crafting items. However, they're not finished with the system yet and plan on making more changes.
Thank you for being honest about your frustrations Smirk. Here's hoping that things will actually begin to change.
Also to those saying that the devs haven't been listening to the frustrations being aired on the Tribble forums, that's not true. They have already made a lot of changes that were asked for since the first patch went up to test 9.5. The issue here is that they aren't being given enough time to do their jobs and release things the way they should be. I don't blame Cryptic for this anymore. It seems like things are being pushed through quickly by the management team at PWE. If this continues STO will continue to hemorrhage players, and we are already approaching the brink of no return.
Facebook Page: Don Burrito
Twitter: @DonBurrito143
What the frak would be good enough? Are you expecting spam emails? Phone calls? An above-the-fold headline in the New York Times? You're expecting maybe someone from Cryptic is going to pay a personal visit to the households of every single STO player to tell us in person that the blogs will be a whole flipping day late???
Just can't win with some folks...
Smirk and trendy are welcome over to my place to tell me when a blog is going to be late! I may have coffee, bacon or beer waiting
Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker.
Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
I'm going to summarize this in one short sentence, then add a bit.
Cryptic, the more and earlier that you hype and give details about new content, the more insanely rabid excited people will get.
In other words: Don't ban leakers outright. Instead, punish them by giving them a choice between testing really early updates (on Tribble or otherwise) or being banned.
It'd be hilarious, and that way you get free, high-quality testers.
High-quality because anyone who has the intellect and dedication to dig through all of those files should be patient and smart enough to give a better-than-average opinion on new content. Free because there is nothing more conducive to accepting a "special offer" than the threat of a ban.
spam post.
Yes they are using Twitter, but they are not able to make big "official" announcements. Just the occasional reply to another person's Tweet that most people will never see. Same thing with the posts here. No big blog post that they could share on the front page of the site, Facebook, and Twitter. Just one little line in the third post about the patch notes. And just like I said in my last post, I'm not blaming Smirk or Trendy for this, the blame is solely on the mysterious "Product Manager".
Facebook Page: Don Burrito
Twitter: @DonBurrito143
After having serious issues with the way this release was announced, it took guts (or a deep need for sympathy) to post here with these details.
I can only imagine the folks saying "I can do this BETTER!"
Truth is, I can. Is PWE/Cryptic hiring a new (or replacement) Product Manager for STO ahead of Season 10? I'd be happy to submit my qualified r
Is there a serious problem with PWE (and/or Cryptic) management which is creating serious business risks, lack of direction and guidance?
Why did they close Memory Alpha?
Even if the crafting system moved to a DOFF system, the map was still a destination for missions as well as a place to visit that was different from other locations in the game. As well, it could easily have served as a tutorial area for people to learn the new system. Just eliminating it would seem to offer no advantage to the game and costs a place for people to visit.
If anything, Memory Alpha could have been revamped into a historical museum detailing the events prior to where the Path historical missions begin, or simply a science station offering services not found at other areas in the sector.
Just seems a waste of a good map to close it when the closing offers no benefits and costs the game another place to visit.
I know it might seem minor and wasn't at the top of the page, but this update was the most important for me. This is huge, best part of the patch for me. I can't count how many times I missed pops because I am not AFK, but am looking down at a book or at the TV. This should help queues that are moving slow somewhat.
trendy! don't blurt out what the loxbox is before the blogs for it!
oh well, hope they let you do your job beter next season :P
Well, I'm terribly sorry that this pesky season 9.5 has interrupted the planning for the STLV thing.
Priorities, people, priorities.
And twitter is just lazy, if you've time to tweet you can log on to the forum and do it properly.
Wow. Is it possible for something to be over the top and below the belt at the same time? I think you've achieved a remarkable feat in forum posting.
As long as Smirk understands that you don't speak for the rest of us, I see no need to say anything more. Especially since it would likely get me in trouble with the mods.
as for someone commenting about branflakes i miss him he was a lot better at his job then smirk n trendy put together
Take a Valium, drink a beer and take a nap... Maybe int the morning you will behave like a decent person... Maybe.... :P
LoL who doesn't?
I know lots of Forum Folks who do, plus staff at PWE/Cryptic
But guess who will be at Vegascon too?
~CaptainSmirk
No worries, I already addressed Tribble sub-forum with the team, and everyone is on board with some great changes to come.
Wish I could tell you them now, but still gotta wait a bit longer
~CaptainSmirk
Ah. Yep, changes in management makes perfect sense. It upset the natural flow of things.
Hopefully, as you said, this will be enough to get them to put things back or at least be more mindful of why things worked well the way they did before (not as in specific people [although from your own admission everyone misses Brandon...including me!], but in what their positions did).
Damn it, Smirk, you're making me even more jealous of the people who ARE going to Vegas than I already was!
:cool::mad::P
Have fun, man. Chill out, relax, unwind for a few days, enjoy the Trekkiness. You deserve it.
Did not bother with Risa at all this year. Last year had some interesting stuff, but combined with the Risa cruiser this year annoyed me greatly.
Eh the first time the EP had the job it pretty much was like this. A lot of blogs saying how much Cryptic and the player base loved lockboxes but then he disappeared and then everyone was mailed a survey wondering why people quit buying keys lol. Along with that there was a communications blackout which is the same thing that is happening here so I am pretty sure its not your fault or Trendy's lol. Its also been made clear he doesn't like forums either so when you flush a toilet the stuff just goes down the pipe/chain of command.
The funny part about that first time was the game was going down the drain and we never heard of him again after that survey went out and then people were fearing what is happening now its kind of like I told you so kinda situation
How about offering us a real research-project that burns more materials/components (maybe compareable to a Mk VI Item or two) but still rewards the some XP (like those old 9.6k XP for 20 hours, so 8 XP/minute)?
If Star Trek Online was an Open-Source (GPL) Game, we would have a low-grind fork.
And so far he is doing a terrific job! Please make him introduce himself on the forums so we can give him a proper welcome. *carefully hides the pitchfork behind the back*
Sarcasm aside, I've been around long enough to knew a new lockbox was coming, and to deduce from the timing of the 'all the previous boxes promotion' the exact date when that was scheduled. Nevertheless, I hazard the guess that the majority of players will be caught unaware, and that ought to be .... interesting.
This new UI is definetly a step backwards.
Nice looking station, compared to the randomly placed ones across the map.
Assuming they have jobs after throwing the boss under the bus...
As for this catastrophe that is about to hit live, shizzle is about to get messy!
Smirk is not the one who decides what changes are made to the game, smirk is pwe aka communications, even if they lack... Devs on the other hand are responsible for the changes to the game aka cryptic....
The information wasn't provided on the forums until very late yesterday evening, far too late. Yes, the information was on Twitter, but why should I or any other member of the community go to a third party website to find out about something if they have their own website? Besides social networks like Twitter and Facebook are nasty evil things and I have no desire to use them.
This whole situation has been a complete mess by whoever is supposed to deal with it, it's almost on Turbine levels of customer relations TRIBBLE ups.