You know, for all the fuss, it is nice to be able to travel around the ESD area without bumping into that damned Delta Volanis pop up.
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
After seeing the update live, I'm annoyed. Even though I didn't do exploration missions a lot, we've lost roughly half the doff missions in Cardassian space. That's half the NADRCs, and 1/2 of the rare commodity missions only found there.
Grrr.
Maybe they should rename STO to Starfleet Battles or Starfleet Command. Like the old PC game.
That would be an insult to those games. They had meaningful, thought out combat systems that didn't rely on console spamming or P2W BS. Oh and that would require Cryptic at least pretend to give a **** about the KDF :mad:
You know, for all the fuss, it is nice to be able to travel around the ESD area without bumping into that damned Delta Volanis pop up.
"Helm, set course for Eta Eridani sector block, best speed."
"Aye, captain."
[30 seconds later...]
"Captain, we are cleared to warp to Delta Volanis."
"We are? Who requested this, exactly? And who told you to bring us to a stop here? Does 'Delta Volanis' in fact sound anything like 'Eta Eridani', which is the course I ordered you to set?"
It gets aggravating, and is, I believe, a major contributor to folks relying entirely on transwarp rather than flying through sector space. I like to admire the ship I built - but I don't like having to argue with the helm officer every time we leave ESD under warp drive.
Ooh no, not the evil Delta Volanis pop-up!! :eek: The horror. THE HORROR!!! :rolleyes:
Totally worth ripping a major and unique part of the game without any form of substitute.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
With the release of Season 9.5 (AKA how far can we push this before it breaks), the Star Trek Online team is continuing with our commitment to improve the overall quality of the player base for all shareholders, this time by focusing on Exploration content. When this was created, we envisioned role players, Star Trek fans and exploration-minded players to enjoy and make use of the explore strange new worlds part of the Star Trek mantra. Exploration missions used automated tools to facilitate creating large quantities of widely varied free-to-play content. But then because of the grinding, income and server bandwidth use minimisation needs of our game, the exploration-minded players had to be discouraged from playing within the non income-generating elements of game content (the dozen or so Exploration Clusters seen across the galaxy map) which featured a limited suite of opportunities within which to introduce pay-to-win initiatives (each Exploration Cluster features only free content). The end results were thousands of simple players that all played in their own way without buying up any Zen from our online store nothing close to what we now desire.
With the steadily improving quality of purchasable content available throughout the Zen store as well as our recent efforts to explore even more avenues of profiteering, Exploration Clusters have become something were reluctant to steer new players towards because they do not involve micro-transactions or milking player wallets for all theyre worth. One of the main reasons theyve stayed in the game as long as they have is that we didnt want to drive away all the role players and crafters without a micro-transaction framework established to replace the free content. As has been mentioned in other developer blogs, Season 9.5 marks a launching of our pay-to-win Research and Development system. This also comes with an update to how crafting materials are earned (most notably by adding them to the Zen store). As a result, weve been able to re-examine the inclusion of Exploration Clusters in STO and found them not to be part of the pay-to-win experience we want our shareholders to enjoy the benefit of.
Removing Exploration Clusters means that players will no longer be able to enjoy a diverse part of the game that doesnt involve paying us money. Players that logged out in these maps will be redirected to the appropriate area of the Zen store immediately.
Duty officer assignments that previous took place inside the Exploration Cluster sector maps can no longer be accessed, and the equivalent benefits those areas once offered are effectively transferred to payment-based elements of the game. For example, colonization rewards previously utilised by the old free crafting system are now readily available in packs from the Zen store.
The transwarp powers available on the Tuffli Freighter and Suliban Cell Ship, that took players to these locations, will now be useless, and those players who enjoyed a play style that involved spending countless hours not engaging in micro-transactions will now either be forced to leave the game or engage with the PvE queues, Fleet content, new paid crafting system or (ultimately, as the only way to jump the queue in terms of performance within any of the aforementioned in-game systems) the Zen store.
Accolades that previously tracked completing missions inside each Exploration Cluster will now track completion of duty officer assignments unique to those Exploration Clusters, because theres nothing more annoying to hardworking free-content players than devaluing their efforts by making older content and rewards much easier to earn.
The daily missions to explore these Exploration Clusters have been removed, including the Explore Strange New Worlds and We Need Breathing Room daily missions. In order to replace these sources of Dilithium, players will need to buy Zen from the Zen store, then convert that Zen into Refined Dilithium via the in-game Exchange tool.
For those who will miss the opportunity to explore the Exploration Clusters, we will be adding doors to the Foundry so that player-created missions can make use of these settings. The limitless nature of the inexplicable penchant of some players to perform our content-creation function for us for free, allows us to exploit that goodwill and use the Foundry tool as a paltry excuse for a replacement of the former robust Exploration Cluster content, whilst focusing paid resources on content that will entail micro-transactions and maximisation of value for money and profit.
While we are removing part of the player base, we hope that the result is a greater proportion of paying players within STO. In the end, we aim to make Star Trek Online something our shareholders are excited to be investing in every week.
Dr. Evil Von Moneystein
Zen Store Grand Nagus
$$$tar Trek Online
(It was a mistake to participate with the previous thread as I did, it didn't feel right and therefore I removed it.)
Yes, I too, appreciate that Cryptic pulled content that (almost) everyone agrees was sub par content, especially as far as STO has evolved. The Exploration Cluster content was a randomly generated set of maps that got Cryptic past a time that they could not generate content fast enough when there was no end-game content.
At the same time, having "exploration" removed still hurts because it was the only form of "exploring the unknown" that we have had and the fear is that since it's removed, there is no reason to fix it.
My feeling is that STO has everything that other MMOs already has, just the skins on the models are different. Having a way to explore the unknown would make it more unique and closer to being in Star Trek.
The best thing we can do is be creative, constructive and fair in our responses.
So, how can lots of unique, quality content be generated for players to regularly consume?
It would be almost impossible to hand-create exploration content at a rate and quality that players could be continually be playing new content.
An automated mission generator system, I believe it was called Genesis that was used for the Exploration Cluster content, was not very good - I wish I knew more about how it worked... but how can a computer program be so creative as to give truly creative content with a decent quality? The only possible way, that I can see, is to create templates (of maps, texture maps, dialog, races, etc.) that are randomly put together - sounds more like what Genesis was.
Besides the mechanics, it would need to be profitable for Cryptic/PWE or have no-cost in generating it. The Foundry, for what it is, it's the only solution that Cryptic see as the only stop gap they have for the time being. The is some great content in the Foundry but most of it I would not consider exploration though; I expect Cryptic to be the ones to create the content for their game. Even if you tie a Reputation to Exploration, you will still need regular (even non-story arc) content to be generated, besides what they come out with for each season.
How can we get Exploration into Star Trek Online?
Star Trek Battles Channel - Play Star Trek like they did in the series!Avatar: pinterest-com/pin/14003448816884219Are you sure it isn't time for a "colorful metaphor"? --Spock in 'The Voyage Home' SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
Procedurally generated content lives. It's being utilized in No Man's Sky to do what STO attempted to do back in 2009.
So really, your entire post just seems to fall for the narrow sighted business model Cryptic keeps trying to sell.
Other companies are taking the ideas and moving forward. I wish them luck. Exploration is viable. Procedural generation is a working tool that can be used in making rich and meaningful gameplay.
It just takes skilled developers. Something Cryptic lost along with their cups in the kitchen, years ago.
Procedurally generated content lives. It's being utilized in No Man's Sky to do what STO attempted to do back in 2009.
So really, your entire post just seems to fall for the narrow sighted business model Cryptic keeps trying to sell.
Other companies are taking the ideas and moving forward. I wish them luck. Exploration is viable. Procedural generation is a working tool that can be used in making rich and meaningful gameplay.
It just takes skilled developers. Something Cryptic lost along with their cups in the kitchen, years ago.
I just looked it up, and... it kinda bores me. Yeah, the graphics are pretty and having the game display the names of people who found stuff first is neat, but... It looks like one of those games that I'd play for a few hours then get bored of.
I just looked it up, and... it kinda bores me. Yeah, the graphics are pretty and having the game display the names of people who found stuff first is neat, but... It looks like one of those games that I'd play for a few hours then get bored of.
Finding the game boring is irrelevant to the point he is making about procedurally generated content.
Procedurally generated content lives. It's being utilized in No Man's Sky to do what STO attempted to do back in 2009.
So really, your entire post just seems to fall for the narrow sighted business model Cryptic keeps trying to sell.
Other companies are taking the ideas and moving forward. I wish them luck. Exploration is viable. Procedural generation is a working tool that can be used in making rich and meaningful gameplay.
It just takes skilled developers. Something Cryptic lost along with their cups in the kitchen, years ago.
So it's not impossible? Hmm...
Maybe all it takes is motivation. Apparently that's not enough for Cryptic to want to make STO to be different from other MMOs and strive to make the game to be anything close to what the Star Trek stands for and what most of us join STO to experience.
Cryptic had their initial rush to get a massive amount of content for players to have, otherwise there was none to keep the players. They had to create Genesis. But now since they have low-quantity but infinitely-repeatable content, what's their motivation to create a decent, tested and QAed mission generation engine for Exploration?
I think this is a case of history repeating itself. We got a man to the moon as a race against countries but have we been back there since? No? Why? No $$$ in it? Not enough competition?
Meanwhile Cryptic is happy with being a Star Trek themed version of Farmville. Oops, here comes No Man's Sky! What's Star Citizen? Hmmm...
Are new, rearranged UIs and more ships enough to keep the lights on?
Star Trek Battles Channel - Play Star Trek like they did in the series!Avatar: pinterest-com/pin/14003448816884219Are you sure it isn't time for a "colorful metaphor"? --Spock in 'The Voyage Home' SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
I really don't understand some of the arguments against removing the star clusters while they work on a new system...
1) You're removing a large portion of PvE content. a) which is boring and useless and nothing but a crafting mats farm fest.
2) You're removing a part of the game that makes star trek what it is. a) which is useless if you are essentially doing the same thing over and over and over without and variance which is clearly not what star trek was or is. Strange NEW worlds... Emphasis on the "new"
3) You've got no instant replacement after removing it. a) because theres no need to have an instant replacement when the game doesnt need it at this time, anyone suggesting that players will burn out because their farming zones are missing are clearly just stupid. If they've removed it, they will likely bring it back but much much better as they originally intended. so chill.
4) How can you remove something so large without replacing it? a) because there is no need to replace it just like that when a lot of what is in said content is redundant and repetitive and just allows people to farm mats, which is clearly not what was intended furthermore its not that simple to just replace it, it takes time if you just slam content in for the sake of replacing something then you're likely to break more than you're fixing.
5) now we have a ton less content thanks cryptic! a) content that was only used for doff missions and farming.... it wont be missed i sure as hell wont it was a awful and boring part of the game and im not sad its gone, but what it does mean is they intend to replace it which is why its likely they will replace it in 10.0 or 10.5 and quite frankly I can wait. If you cant then you are simply childish and no amount of stomping your feet will change the fact that its gone and never coming back in the form it was so grow up.
those are the 5 main arguments ive seen and ive added my own personal answers to it, as far as im concerned from what ive seen here theres just a bunch of butt hurt people who cant farm anymore in those particular areas. as for them making star trek less star trek, thats quite a pathetic argument considering its obvious they intend to replace it soon or they wouldn't of taken it out they know its an important part of the game and the franchise itself meaning they want to bring it back but much better. you people really need to think before you speak. Some people just really go over the top.
It just takes skilled developers. Something Cryptic lost along with their cups in the kitchen, years ago.
I wouldnt go that far, they certainly lost something but they've started to do much better recently.
However I personally wish they would either get a new engine or just optimize the one they are using because I think personally its limiting their development skills, from what ive seen displayed by the engine they are using and their other products...
I really don't understand some of the arguments against removing the star clusters while they work on a new system...
1) You're removing a large portion of PvE content. a) which is boring and useless and nothing but a crafting mats farm fest.
2) You're removing a part of the game that makes star trek what it is. a) which is useless if you are essentially doing the same thing over and over and over without and variance which is clearly not what star trek was or is. Strange NEW worlds... Emphasis on the "new"
3) You've got no instant replacement after removing it. a) because theres no need to have an instant replacement when the game doesnt need it at this time, anyone suggesting that players will burn out because their farming zones are missing are clearly just stupid. If they've removed it, they will likely bring it back but much much better as they originally intended. so chill.
4) How can you remove something so large without replacing it? a) because there is no need to replace it just like that when a lot of what is in said content is redundant and repetitive and just allows people to farm mats, which is clearly not what was intended furthermore its not that simple to just replace it, it takes time if you just slam content in for the sake of replacing something then you're likely to break more than you're fixing.
5) now we have a ton less content thanks cryptic! a) content that was only used for doff missions and farming.... it wont be missed i sure as hell wont it was a awful and boring part of the game and im not sad its gone, but what it does mean is they intend to replace it which is why its likely they will replace it in 10.0 or 10.5 and quite frankly I can wait. If you cant then you are simply childish and no amount of stomping your feet will change the fact that its gone and never coming back in the form it was so grow up.
those are the 5 main arguments ive seen and ive added my own personal answers to it, as far as im concerned from what ive seen here theres just a bunch of butt hurt people who cant farm anymore in those particular areas. as for them making star trek less star trek, thats quite a pathetic argument considering its obvious they intend to replace it soon or they wouldn't of taken it out they know its an important part of the game and the franchise itself meaning they want to bring it back but much better. you people really need to think before you speak. Some people just really go over the top.
Also . . .
The casualty of the removal is Colonial doffing . . . it is still there, just SEVERELY nerfed in it availability. Also no bridge invites for the chains. These are big deals to many people.
I really don't understand some of the arguments against removing the star clusters while they work on a new system...
1) You're removing a large portion of PvE content. a) which is boring and useless and nothing but a crafting mats farm fest.
2) You're removing a part of the game that makes star trek what it is. a) which is useless if you are essentially doing the same thing over and over and over without and variance which is clearly not what star trek was or is. Strange NEW worlds... Emphasis on the "new"
3) You've got no instant replacement after removing it. a) because theres no need to have an instant replacement when the game doesnt need it at this time, anyone suggesting that players will burn out because their farming zones are missing are clearly just stupid. If they've removed it, they will likely bring it back but much much better as they originally intended. so chill.
4) How can you remove something so large without replacing it? a) because there is no need to replace it just like that when a lot of what is in said content is redundant and repetitive and just allows people to farm mats, which is clearly not what was intended furthermore its not that simple to just replace it, it takes time if you just slam content in for the sake of replacing something then you're likely to break more than you're fixing.
5) now we have a ton less content thanks cryptic! a) content that was only used for doff missions and farming.... it wont be missed i sure as hell wont it was a awful and boring part of the game and im not sad its gone, but what it does mean is they intend to replace it which is why its likely they will replace it in 10.0 or 10.5 and quite frankly I can wait. If you cant then you are simply childish and no amount of stomping your feet will change the fact that its gone and never coming back in the form it was so grow up.
those are the 5 main arguments ive seen and ive added my own personal answers to it, as far as im concerned from what ive seen here theres just a bunch of butt hurt people who cant farm anymore in those particular areas. as for them making star trek less star trek, thats quite a pathetic argument considering its obvious they intend to replace it soon or they wouldn't of taken it out they know its an important part of the game and the franchise itself meaning they want to bring it back but much better. you people really need to think before you speak. Some people just really go over the top.
There has been no indication that they plan to replace it. If they had, I'd patiently wait.
But at this point, they removed that last representation of Exploration that made STO unique, be it what it was, it's completely gone now. No reason to fix it anymore.
"Some people go over the top"? This is the only possible place for us to speak our mind and for Cryptic to potentially see it. I want them to know what I think and feel. I want them to put Exploration in. I want STO to be more like Star Trek and different from other MMOs, besides the custom skins and polygons.
If you are happy with the way STO is now, then please go back and enjoy your Star Trek themed MMO that just sticks to the standard mechanics and does not aspire to be different.
Star Trek Battles Channel - Play Star Trek like they did in the series!Avatar: pinterest-com/pin/14003448816884219Are you sure it isn't time for a "colorful metaphor"? --Spock in 'The Voyage Home' SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
The development team's logic seems to be that it's already replaced by player made foundry missions so why bother, and, a lot of the player base seems to think that's great, but the fact is that the game is owned and run by Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic along with CBS having a say in the game, they are the ones making money from it so they should be the ones to dish out a replacement. Why should the players have to do it? they are not being paid, they were never hired by anyone.
Unless I'm wrong and never got the memo, I haven't heard that Cryptic is no longer developing the game, but instead leaving it up to the players to do it. Oh, wait, I'm not wrong, so the developers need to get to work and stop trying to push their jobs off on people who are not responsible for the game's development.
...anyone suggesting that players will burn out because their farming zones are missing are clearly just stupid...
...If you cant then you are simply childish and no amount of stomping your feet will change the fact that its gone and never coming back in the form it was so grow up...
...as far as im concerned from what ive seen here theres just a bunch of butt hurt people who cant farm anymore in those particular areas...
...does not actually do anything to support that subjective opinion. Bear with me now (or skip the part labeled with AD HOMINEM "formatting", which I dimmed to make doing so easier)...
[AD HOMINEM] Only an idiot cannot be bothered to make a reasoned argument for their own position, and those idiots really seem to support the removal of the Clusters. Heck, those must be the same idiots that got lost in the Clusters in the first place, as they clearly traded their apostrophe to Q just to get back out. [/AD HOMINEM]
Yes, that was a joke, because that too was an ad hominem and doesn't do anything to support my argument. What it does do is serve as an example of why that type of argument is not constructive. Did you suddenly feel the need to stop insulting your fellow forum users, or did you merely get offended and stop reading the rest of my response? If it was the latter, I apologize, and hopefully you finished reading in the /quote you were about to use... and now understand exactly why ad hominem arguments are not effective.
I do get where you are coming from in a general sense. The Exploration Clusters were, to you, TRIBBLE content that you won't miss. The thing is, the presence of the Exploration Clusters did not actually force you to play them, which meant that their presence should not have negatively affected your gameplay experience. The loss of the Exploration Clusters, however, forces players that did enjoy or benefit from them to no longer do so; that does negatively affect their gameplay experience.
"I didn't like the Genesis content, so you can't miss the Exploration Clusters."
"I have a sandwich, so you can't be starving."
There are notable similarities.
For me, the Exploration Clusters themselves weren't a huge loss, but I actually used to enjoy doffing; as there was only a partial conversion into the Interact Points, many doff assignments have gotten far less common while others simply don't have any possibility to appear at all. I miss the availability of the assignment chains and the utility of bridge invites; between those and the doffing UI I no longer enjoy doffing. Tuffli/Cell Ship owners also ended up taking a huge hit as far as the usefulness of their craft, which for many was the very reason they bought those particular ships in the first places... to contribute to the community.
...If they've removed it, they will likely bring it back but much much better as they originally intended...
...what it does mean is they intend to replace it which is why its likely they will replace it in 10.0 or 10.5 and quite frankly I can wait
considering its obvious they intend to replace it soon or they wouldn't of taken it out they know its an important part of the game and the franchise itself meaning they want to bring it back but much better
...related to the likelihood of the devs replacing exploration, since the devs have stated that they would like Foundry authors to fill the void*. They have not actually commented on the possibility of replacing the Genesis content themselves, instead commenting on the very inability of the Genesis tech to accomplish the goals of what they wanted out of exploration. This was used as part of the justification to pass the buck to the Foundry authors.
...which is useless if you are essentially doing the same thing over and over and over without and variance which is clearly not what star trek was or is. Strange NEW worlds... Emphasis on the "new"...
...because there is no need to replace it just like that when a lot of what is in said content is redundant and repetitive and just allows people to farm mats...
...I also have a hard time accepting. Much of the current STO content is intended to be repeatable, to the point where acquisition of Very Rare crafting materials is limited to Elite queued missions; further, those missions only reward a chance at Very Rare crafting materials. The actual in-game method to acquire materials is indeed the "same thing over and over and over" for a chance at the materials you need. I simply can't accept the argument that repetitiveness is a valid reason to remove content, as far too much of the remaining content is itself intended to be played in a "redundant and repetitive" manner.
...you people really need to think before you speak. Some people just really go over the top.
...though, is worth making note of.
*One dev did make a "Well there's your exploration!" joke on an unrelated subject, but as a joke it does not actually indicate that the content he was referencing was really meant to be a replacement.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
The development team's logic seems to be that it's already replaced by player made foundry missions so why bother, and, a lot of the player base seems to think that's great, but the fact is that the game is owned and run by Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic along with CBS having a say in the game, they are the ones making money from it so they should be the ones to dish out a replacement. Why should the players have to do it? they are not being paid, they were never hired by anyone.
Unless I'm wrong and never got the memo, I haven't heard that Cryptic is no longer developing the game, but instead leaving it up to the players to do it. Oh, wait, I'm not wrong, so the developers need to get to work and stop trying to push their jobs off on people who are not responsible for the game's development.
Some players will be happy with anything that Cryptic dishes out, they just like to pew-pew. Some, never. I just think Cryptic can do better.
Regarding Foundry content, I agree they shouldn't be falling back on the Foundry to make up for their lack of effort. Foundry content is great but it's all over the board with various level of quality and subject. We are paying Crpytic to create the content, not just ship$, grinding maps, season episodes and ship$. Did I say ship$?
I believe that unless they can see a direct relationship between playtime and purchases, they won't do it; they won't dare to innovate and be different, just stick to the standard MMO methods making STO just another MMO. This is where STO is now, but with less content than before.
Star Trek Battles Channel - Play Star Trek like they did in the series!Avatar: pinterest-com/pin/14003448816884219Are you sure it isn't time for a "colorful metaphor"? --Spock in 'The Voyage Home' SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
Hi there, have back on STO from a long pause, and i saw that the cluster were removed. a bit desapointed as it was for me a good play to explore random world and have random mission and breath the "ST spirit".
So i'd like to know a resume about what's happen since.
Will we have the chance to see a new system allowing us to go and explore random worlds ?
Is Foundry is for now the only alternative for thoses who liked the exploration part that was STO before the Cluster end ?
Comments
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Grrr.
That would be an insult to those games. They had meaningful, thought out combat systems that didn't rely on console spamming or P2W BS. Oh and that would require Cryptic at least pretend to give a **** about the KDF :mad:
Ooh no, not the evil Delta Volanis pop-up!! :eek: The horror. THE HORROR!!! :rolleyes:
"Aye, captain."
[30 seconds later...]
"Captain, we are cleared to warp to Delta Volanis."
"We are? Who requested this, exactly? And who told you to bring us to a stop here? Does 'Delta Volanis' in fact sound anything like 'Eta Eridani', which is the course I ordered you to set?"
It gets aggravating, and is, I believe, a major contributor to folks relying entirely on transwarp rather than flying through sector space. I like to admire the ship I built - but I don't like having to argue with the helm officer every time we leave ESD under warp drive.
Totally worth ripping a major and unique part of the game without any form of substitute.
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
With the steadily improving quality of purchasable content available throughout the Zen store as well as our recent efforts to explore even more avenues of profiteering, Exploration Clusters have become something were reluctant to steer new players towards because they do not involve micro-transactions or milking player wallets for all theyre worth. One of the main reasons theyve stayed in the game as long as they have is that we didnt want to drive away all the role players and crafters without a micro-transaction framework established to replace the free content. As has been mentioned in other developer blogs, Season 9.5 marks a launching of our pay-to-win Research and Development system. This also comes with an update to how crafting materials are earned (most notably by adding them to the Zen store). As a result, weve been able to re-examine the inclusion of Exploration Clusters in STO and found them not to be part of the pay-to-win experience we want our shareholders to enjoy the benefit of.
Removing Exploration Clusters means that players will no longer be able to enjoy a diverse part of the game that doesnt involve paying us money. Players that logged out in these maps will be redirected to the appropriate area of the Zen store immediately.
Duty officer assignments that previous took place inside the Exploration Cluster sector maps can no longer be accessed, and the equivalent benefits those areas once offered are effectively transferred to payment-based elements of the game. For example, colonization rewards previously utilised by the old free crafting system are now readily available in packs from the Zen store.
The transwarp powers available on the Tuffli Freighter and Suliban Cell Ship, that took players to these locations, will now be useless, and those players who enjoyed a play style that involved spending countless hours not engaging in micro-transactions will now either be forced to leave the game or engage with the PvE queues, Fleet content, new paid crafting system or (ultimately, as the only way to jump the queue in terms of performance within any of the aforementioned in-game systems) the Zen store.
Accolades that previously tracked completing missions inside each Exploration Cluster will now track completion of duty officer assignments unique to those Exploration Clusters, because theres nothing more annoying to hardworking free-content players than devaluing their efforts by making older content and rewards much easier to earn.
The daily missions to explore these Exploration Clusters have been removed, including the Explore Strange New Worlds and We Need Breathing Room daily missions. In order to replace these sources of Dilithium, players will need to buy Zen from the Zen store, then convert that Zen into Refined Dilithium via the in-game Exchange tool.
For those who will miss the opportunity to explore the Exploration Clusters, we will be adding doors to the Foundry so that player-created missions can make use of these settings. The limitless nature of the inexplicable penchant of some players to perform our content-creation function for us for free, allows us to exploit that goodwill and use the Foundry tool as a paltry excuse for a replacement of the former robust Exploration Cluster content, whilst focusing paid resources on content that will entail micro-transactions and maximisation of value for money and profit.
While we are removing part of the player base, we hope that the result is a greater proportion of paying players within STO. In the end, we aim to make Star Trek Online something our shareholders are excited to be investing in every week.
Dr. Evil Von Moneystein
Zen Store Grand Nagus
$$$tar Trek Online
Yes, I too, appreciate that Cryptic pulled content that (almost) everyone agrees was sub par content, especially as far as STO has evolved. The Exploration Cluster content was a randomly generated set of maps that got Cryptic past a time that they could not generate content fast enough when there was no end-game content.
At the same time, having "exploration" removed still hurts because it was the only form of "exploring the unknown" that we have had and the fear is that since it's removed, there is no reason to fix it.
My feeling is that STO has everything that other MMOs already has, just the skins on the models are different. Having a way to explore the unknown would make it more unique and closer to being in Star Trek.
The best thing we can do is be creative, constructive and fair in our responses.
So, how can lots of unique, quality content be generated for players to regularly consume?
It would be almost impossible to hand-create exploration content at a rate and quality that players could be continually be playing new content.
An automated mission generator system, I believe it was called Genesis that was used for the Exploration Cluster content, was not very good - I wish I knew more about how it worked... but how can a computer program be so creative as to give truly creative content with a decent quality? The only possible way, that I can see, is to create templates (of maps, texture maps, dialog, races, etc.) that are randomly put together - sounds more like what Genesis was.
Besides the mechanics, it would need to be profitable for Cryptic/PWE or have no-cost in generating it. The Foundry, for what it is, it's the only solution that Cryptic see as the only stop gap they have for the time being. The is some great content in the Foundry but most of it I would not consider exploration though; I expect Cryptic to be the ones to create the content for their game. Even if you tie a Reputation to Exploration, you will still need regular (even non-story arc) content to be generated, besides what they come out with for each season.
How can we get Exploration into Star Trek Online?
SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
Procedurally generated content lives. It's being utilized in No Man's Sky to do what STO attempted to do back in 2009.
So really, your entire post just seems to fall for the narrow sighted business model Cryptic keeps trying to sell.
Other companies are taking the ideas and moving forward. I wish them luck. Exploration is viable. Procedural generation is a working tool that can be used in making rich and meaningful gameplay.
It just takes skilled developers. Something Cryptic lost along with their cups in the kitchen, years ago.
My character Tsin'xing
Finding the game boring is irrelevant to the point he is making about procedurally generated content.
So it's not impossible? Hmm...
Maybe all it takes is motivation. Apparently that's not enough for Cryptic to want to make STO to be different from other MMOs and strive to make the game to be anything close to what the Star Trek stands for and what most of us join STO to experience.
Cryptic had their initial rush to get a massive amount of content for players to have, otherwise there was none to keep the players. They had to create Genesis. But now since they have low-quantity but infinitely-repeatable content, what's their motivation to create a decent, tested and QAed mission generation engine for Exploration?
I think this is a case of history repeating itself. We got a man to the moon as a race against countries but have we been back there since? No? Why? No $$$ in it? Not enough competition?
Meanwhile Cryptic is happy with being a Star Trek themed version of Farmville. Oops, here comes No Man's Sky! What's Star Citizen? Hmmm...
Are new, rearranged UIs and more ships enough to keep the lights on?
SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
1) You're removing a large portion of PvE content.
a) which is boring and useless and nothing but a crafting mats farm fest.
2) You're removing a part of the game that makes star trek what it is.
a) which is useless if you are essentially doing the same thing over and over and over without and variance which is clearly not what star trek was or is. Strange NEW worlds... Emphasis on the "new"
3) You've got no instant replacement after removing it.
a) because theres no need to have an instant replacement when the game doesnt need it at this time, anyone suggesting that players will burn out because their farming zones are missing are clearly just stupid. If they've removed it, they will likely bring it back but much much better as they originally intended. so chill.
4) How can you remove something so large without replacing it?
a) because there is no need to replace it just like that when a lot of what is in said content is redundant and repetitive and just allows people to farm mats, which is clearly not what was intended furthermore its not that simple to just replace it, it takes time if you just slam content in for the sake of replacing something then you're likely to break more than you're fixing.
5) now we have a ton less content thanks cryptic!
a) content that was only used for doff missions and farming.... it wont be missed i sure as hell wont it was a awful and boring part of the game and im not sad its gone, but what it does mean is they intend to replace it which is why its likely they will replace it in 10.0 or 10.5 and quite frankly I can wait. If you cant then you are simply childish and no amount of stomping your feet will change the fact that its gone and never coming back in the form it was so grow up.
those are the 5 main arguments ive seen and ive added my own personal answers to it, as far as im concerned from what ive seen here theres just a bunch of butt hurt people who cant farm anymore in those particular areas. as for them making star trek less star trek, thats quite a pathetic argument considering its obvious they intend to replace it soon or they wouldn't of taken it out they know its an important part of the game and the franchise itself meaning they want to bring it back but much better. you people really need to think before you speak. Some people just really go over the top.
I wouldnt go that far, they certainly lost something but they've started to do much better recently.
However I personally wish they would either get a new engine or just optimize the one they are using because I think personally its limiting their development skills, from what ive seen displayed by the engine they are using and their other products...
Also . . .
The casualty of the removal is Colonial doffing . . . it is still there, just SEVERELY nerfed in it availability. Also no bridge invites for the chains. These are big deals to many people.
They're not working on a new system.
There has been no indication that they plan to replace it. If they had, I'd patiently wait.
But at this point, they removed that last representation of Exploration that made STO unique, be it what it was, it's completely gone now. No reason to fix it anymore.
"Some people go over the top"? This is the only possible place for us to speak our mind and for Cryptic to potentially see it. I want them to know what I think and feel. I want them to put Exploration in. I want STO to be more like Star Trek and different from other MMOs, besides the custom skins and polygons.
If you are happy with the way STO is now, then please go back and enjoy your Star Trek themed MMO that just sticks to the standard mechanics and does not aspire to be different.
SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
Unless I'm wrong and never got the memo, I haven't heard that Cryptic is no longer developing the game, but instead leaving it up to the players to do it. Oh, wait, I'm not wrong, so the developers need to get to work and stop trying to push their jobs off on people who are not responsible for the game's development.
[AD HOMINEM] Only an idiot cannot be bothered to make a reasoned argument for their own position, and those idiots really seem to support the removal of the Clusters. Heck, those must be the same idiots that got lost in the Clusters in the first place, as they clearly traded their apostrophe to Q just to get back out. [/AD HOMINEM]
Yes, that was a joke, because that too was an ad hominem and doesn't do anything to support my argument. What it does do is serve as an example of why that type of argument is not constructive. Did you suddenly feel the need to stop insulting your fellow forum users, or did you merely get offended and stop reading the rest of my response? If it was the latter, I apologize, and hopefully you finished reading in the /quote you were about to use... and now understand exactly why ad hominem arguments are not effective.
I do get where you are coming from in a general sense. The Exploration Clusters were, to you, TRIBBLE content that you won't miss. The thing is, the presence of the Exploration Clusters did not actually force you to play them, which meant that their presence should not have negatively affected your gameplay experience. The loss of the Exploration Clusters, however, forces players that did enjoy or benefit from them to no longer do so; that does negatively affect their gameplay experience.
"I didn't like the Genesis content, so you can't miss the Exploration Clusters."
"I have a sandwich, so you can't be starving."
There are notable similarities.
For me, the Exploration Clusters themselves weren't a huge loss, but I actually used to enjoy doffing; as there was only a partial conversion into the Interact Points, many doff assignments have gotten far less common while others simply don't have any possibility to appear at all. I miss the availability of the assignment chains and the utility of bridge invites; between those and the doffing UI I no longer enjoy doffing. Tuffli/Cell Ship owners also ended up taking a huge hit as far as the usefulness of their craft, which for many was the very reason they bought those particular ships in the first places... to contribute to the community.
I also saw a few inaccuracies in your post... ...related to the likelihood of the devs replacing exploration, since the devs have stated that they would like Foundry authors to fill the void*. They have not actually commented on the possibility of replacing the Genesis content themselves, instead commenting on the very inability of the Genesis tech to accomplish the goals of what they wanted out of exploration. This was used as part of the justification to pass the buck to the Foundry authors.
These other bits of your argument... ...I also have a hard time accepting. Much of the current STO content is intended to be repeatable, to the point where acquisition of Very Rare crafting materials is limited to Elite queued missions; further, those missions only reward a chance at Very Rare crafting materials. The actual in-game method to acquire materials is indeed the "same thing over and over and over" for a chance at the materials you need. I simply can't accept the argument that repetitiveness is a valid reason to remove content, as far too much of the remaining content is itself intended to be played in a "redundant and repetitive" manner.
This... ...though, is worth making note of.
*One dev did make a "Well there's your exploration!" joke on an unrelated subject, but as a joke it does not actually indicate that the content he was referencing was really meant to be a replacement.
You do realize now that you've posted that, the next thing they get rid of will be ...
Some players will be happy with anything that Cryptic dishes out, they just like to pew-pew. Some, never.
Regarding Foundry content, I agree they shouldn't be falling back on the Foundry to make up for their lack of effort. Foundry content is great but it's all over the board with various level of quality and subject. We are paying Crpytic to create the content, not just ship$, grinding maps, season episodes and ship$. Did I say ship$?
I believe that unless they can see a direct relationship between playtime and purchases, they won't do it; they won't dare to innovate and be different, just stick to the standard MMO methods making STO just another MMO. This is where STO is now, but with less content than before.
SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
Fixed that for ya.
I'm DEEPLY DISSAPOINTED that those clusters were removed.
I REALLY liked it... A very casual, solo gameplay, where i can do some RP...
Actually, i've liked it more than all these STF grind. pew-pew 24/7.
So... Hello and goodbye, i guess. Not interested.
B.O.R.I.N.G.
So i'd like to know a resume about what's happen since.
Will we have the chance to see a new system allowing us to go and explore random worlds ?
Is Foundry is for now the only alternative for thoses who liked the exploration part that was STO before the Cluster end ?