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designationxr377
Member Posts: 542 Arc User
Well, Gents (And Lady Gents).
I think it has become apparent to me that there are a very select few, most likely just us, of the playing community that are of the desire for better foundry functionality. At the time of writing this post; the Player Poll makes that pretty apparent. Last place by quite the margin.
Granted the foundry author community has always been a very small group of players compared to the whole and those who take part in the content made in the foundry. So, I am not surprised that comparative it is a lower amount. Probably a high turn out from Authors voting for functionality, but, this isn't about the result of the poll or saying "Foundry Functionality should be first because REASONS!"
Compared to the player community as a whole, and the amount of time reasonable to devote to sections of the game, it does not make much sense for the Cryptic Dev team to put a lot of time and resources at foundry functionality. I know we want that to happen, but, we aren't the whole game and they have a lot more players to cater to as well. I'm not saying the Devs don't want to work on Foundry Functionality either, they may very well want to, but this makes the argument for it very difficult. I understand that and respect that.
So, if this poll is an indication of where future Dev attention will be spent, we can't expect more Foundry Functionality like Author Subs or escort mechanics, transport nodes or other things from Neverwinter.
The question I pose is this: "Without improved Foundry Functionality what are the things we can do or keep doing to keep Foundry strong?"
This is not about negativity, this is about practicality.
If we know we are not getting mechanic help, what can the Author community do to keep things from coasting. We can't go downhill or it will be a death sentence. The top 3 has shown wonderful promise IMO. If it is the last thing we get for a while, what can we do to make the most of what we have?
Do we pump out more missions, try to be prolific? Do we expand to different high traffic areas and sectors and specialize missions for those zones and start points? What can we do as a community to make sure we can keep Foundry on the up and up?
Again, this is not about negative, take that somewhere else... like the pillow I cry myself to sleep with every night... this is about what we can do or keep doing. It is up to us. What are our options?
I think it has become apparent to me that there are a very select few, most likely just us, of the playing community that are of the desire for better foundry functionality. At the time of writing this post; the Player Poll makes that pretty apparent. Last place by quite the margin.
Granted the foundry author community has always been a very small group of players compared to the whole and those who take part in the content made in the foundry. So, I am not surprised that comparative it is a lower amount. Probably a high turn out from Authors voting for functionality, but, this isn't about the result of the poll or saying "Foundry Functionality should be first because REASONS!"
Compared to the player community as a whole, and the amount of time reasonable to devote to sections of the game, it does not make much sense for the Cryptic Dev team to put a lot of time and resources at foundry functionality. I know we want that to happen, but, we aren't the whole game and they have a lot more players to cater to as well. I'm not saying the Devs don't want to work on Foundry Functionality either, they may very well want to, but this makes the argument for it very difficult. I understand that and respect that.
So, if this poll is an indication of where future Dev attention will be spent, we can't expect more Foundry Functionality like Author Subs or escort mechanics, transport nodes or other things from Neverwinter.
The question I pose is this: "Without improved Foundry Functionality what are the things we can do or keep doing to keep Foundry strong?"
This is not about negativity, this is about practicality.
If we know we are not getting mechanic help, what can the Author community do to keep things from coasting. We can't go downhill or it will be a death sentence. The top 3 has shown wonderful promise IMO. If it is the last thing we get for a while, what can we do to make the most of what we have?
Do we pump out more missions, try to be prolific? Do we expand to different high traffic areas and sectors and specialize missions for those zones and start points? What can we do as a community to make sure we can keep Foundry on the up and up?
Again, this is not about negative, take that somewhere else... like the pillow I cry myself to sleep with every night... this is about what we can do or keep doing. It is up to us. What are our options?
Post edited by designationxr377 on
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That said, there is always tons we can do. Most has to do with getting Foundry more visibility. The top 3 feature is going to do tons for that. But aside from that, there is always a lot more.
A few ideas off the top of my head:
- More group projects/high visibility projects. Purity proved that these can be both possible and effective, IMO.
- More podcasting/reviewing. Pretty self-explanatory. I think that the Top 3 could make for an interesting approach to reviewing. You can specialize in or make generalizations about missions based on X door.
- Continue making content using the stuff that the devs are doing for us... that is, adding assets and whatnot. This shows them that we value the work that they are putting in. Also, making missions' plots and whatnot based on the Top 3 system as an influencing factor could be interesting.
- Advocate community-driven events from the PWE community team that don't need dev support.
Personally I want Exploration back as a matter of urgency, but would like more functionality made available in Foundry as a second choice. This poll doesn't show what is a popular "second", or "third" place etc, so ultimately it's more a poll as to "What's the most important thing we broke that needs to be fixed as a matter of urgency first?" And not much else.
Not every MMO player will be interested in using the Foundry.Most of their goals simply involve playing them, getting to endgame, upgrading gear, doing events etc. so it will be difficult to push the Foundry further than it's current state without some sort of major intervention. Both communities on both games are relatively small and somewhat separated from each other and not many people play both games. I have said previously in other discussions about this both on Neverwinter and STO is that there needs to be some sort of network in all of Cryptic's games that involves the Foundry asset. A large collective community within one single game may not be enough.
STO
Smite
SWTOR
Are you kidding? I'd do it for free on my own time.
Second, in fairness, the only people Foundry improvements were going to appeal to is Foundry authors. If cryptic had put "Improved Developer Tools" on the list, it would have done equally badly (if not worse.) The trickle down benefit to the average player isn't obvious even if a player engages in Foundry missions.
Lastly, I think the best thing that can be done for the Foundry is getting it in front of more players. I'm not just talking about getting more plays for under played missions, but more of the general community playing foundry mission as a whole. The more the Foundry contributes back into the game as a whole, the more the devs will be willing to invest dev time into it. I think the Top 3 is a good first step in this direction. (Obviously, there are some kincks to work out, but at least new players are seeing the Foundry now.) I'm looking forward to seeing the impact it has. :cool:
On the contrary, I feel the poll indirectly supports more foundry functionality. The overwhelming majority of players want exploration content. It is well known that the removal of exploration clusters was followed by statements from Cryptic supporting foundry missions as a supplement. While the players themselves may not directly be saying I want better foundry functionality the devs undoubtedly see their response as a reason to add more tools for authors to provide that content.
One of the reasons I started this thread is in direct response to sponsoring more community involvement because at current we are the content creators of exploration missions.
Hell me too.
Pretty much what I was trying to say.
STO
Smite
SWTOR
The reason Neverwinter has more capability in foundry than STO is because STO is the beta foundry for Neverwinter. It takes a lot of programming to deal with updating what we have without breaking it. Neverwinter they didn't need to worry about old projects republishing when they posted updates and different capabilities. It's why I feel it is a heavy resource thing if Cryptic does try to Buff Up STO's foundry. Not like flipping a switch.
I know I myself will be trying to aim for some of the more popular doors, as it were, to make the most of the top three. Hopefully ones that don't have much strong content tied to them. Anything that can get quality foundry work in the field of vision. Wet their pallets for more.
Another thing, some of you were mentioning "get one of us hired"? Go to Cryptic Studio's jobs page. There is a position open for content designer. They are probably after people who are good with maps and environments but that shouldn't stop some of you who feel you have a shot to put in your application. I know I did.
heh I'd love to see one of the devs show us the programs they use to make maps.
I use to make some GMOD maps back in the day :P ... went back to that program the other day... well... took me about 20 minutes to make a wall.
If this poll results in us getting more awful procedurally generated content, then it was a complete failure, since the average Foundry author can make missions way better than anything an algorithm can.
Put the two together... kill two birds with one rock.
Give us... stuff we want / need *Cough* Elachi Props! *Cough* to create these epic missions... then we can dump these epic missions around the sectors for the players to find.
That being said... if the foundry had won... what would you all want?
3D map editor? (You think maps are good now?... give us the ability to see what we're making and... well... I think the map creativity will increase drastically.)
Npc contact commands? (Follow player at X objective. Beam out emote + despawn at Y objective?)
Npc group commands (Focus on player, focus on enemy npcs etc)
^
I have no problem with the Foundry getting better, but the "fringe aspects" of the game like PvP and the Foundry give back paltry returns to the average player when the player base is hungry for more XP to get to level 60 and fill those spec trees.