[PODCAST] Tribbles in Ecstasy Take 252: 'Proffeshonuls!'

midniteshadow7 · February 2017

Tribbles in Ecstasy Take 252: 'Proffeshonuls!' has warped on to Holosuite Media, you can download and stream it from: http://holosuitemedia.com/tie252/

We once again we geek out about all of this week’s Star Trek gaming news and general news. In this episode we discuss Star Trek Online PC news, Star Trek Online PS4 and XBox360 news (1:08:13), Star Trek Timelines (1:42:02), Star Trek News (1:59:31), Conventions (2:06:22), Unofficial Productions (2:08:50), Listener Feedback (3:04:46) and lots more!

Community Questions:
1. Do you buy Science ships in Star Trek Online?
2. Will you use the community made Star Trek Timelines worksheets discussed?
3. What did you think of the new bumpers we have?
4. What are your thoughts on the Deep Space 9 Documentary?

chozoelder2nd · February 2017

1.) I mostly get cruisers since most of my favorite ship classes tend to be in that category. I remember that I had no idea how science ships worked when I first started playing. That changed after years passed by. Now it's fun to fly just about every ship I can get my hands on.

So yeah, I acquire science ships. I buy roughly 85% of my Zen with dil. I occasionally buy Zen with money but only in small amounts when I could use some quick EC. I definitely can't afford to throw $120 for the mega bundle. I want both the Starfleet and Gorn packs, so I'll eventually grind for the mega bundle to get the Romulan ones for free. It'll take a while, but I'm patient.

Disclaimer: Cryptic, I am not responsible for holding off on this mega bundle temporarily if you ever end up bringing the USS Kelvin from '09 into STO. As of right now, the Kelvin is straight up the very last Kelvin Universe ship I want (because I don't like the Kelvin Enterprise-A or the Franklin).

2.) Nope.

3.) My favorite was Maria's line from the Community one. "Get out on the dance floor!" That got a laugh out of me. It would've been twice as good if the line "Don't you want an Epohh friend" was added in.

4.) When Hana Hatae talks about a newer generation of fans getting into the series, I nodded. I'm one of those people. The idea of this documentary is exciting.

Unfortunately, I understand what Sun and Timber were saying, and they're right. Names don't matter anymore after the whole Axanar kerfuffle. To be fair, all it would take for me would be a simple statement on facebook or twitter from CBS about this documentary that sums it up as "It's fine."

I would also love it if one of their reps could join a session on Tribbles. Either way, I'm crossing my fingers and hoping this documentary sees the light of day.

Feedback

Science just wasn't super popular back in the day. I remember it was mostly just cruisers and escorts that you saw people fly. Science changed heavily over the course of years.

We started to slowly see more versatile science ships get released.
We got the skill revamp that gave science a lot of love.
The Temporal Operative specialization came out that was focused on science.

Science isn't a corpse to the player base anymore. As for why that is, I think it was just the devs noticed how unpopular a major portion of their game was and decided to systematically fix it. This was something that could be fixed from a gameplay perspective.

So when I hear

"Cryptic used to say science ships don't sell, but now we're seeing a whole bunch of science ships? What about kitbashes? Cryptic also said they wouldn't sell. So let's start seeing stuff like the Niagra."

I think the two situations aren't as comparable as one might think. How do you fix "aesthetics"? How do you sell something that just isn't popular? If we go back to thinking about it from a gameplay perspective, we can probably introduce them as "super uber" ships by giving them good starship traits, consoles, boff layouts, ect. Would they sell then? Idk. I personally never touch a ship if I don't like their appearance, and I absolutely detest all of the kitbashes that were mentioned. What if the only way to bring these unpopular ships into the game was if the devs gave them really REALLY good stats and made them as Lobi/Lockbox/Promo ships? Would you be happy that they made it into the game or would you be angry that they're rare and difficult to acquire?

The niche of science was fixed when they came up with a plan and initiated that plan. When it comes down to it, I'm not entirely certain that they'll use up any hours to satisfy a niche that's based on aesthetics. I think they'd rather play this one safe.

The Nebula doesn't count as much because that ship received a pretty large amount of screen time throughout Trek. It was also sitting there at the intro for DS9 for a long time.

I was honestly caught off guard when this subject was brought up in the first place because the Romulan Mission Explorers don't look like kitbashes at all to me. They're clearly inspired by the Romulan Tiercel Shuttle and the Vulcan D'Kyr, but kitbashing is something entirely different. Kitbashing is literally just taking parts of ships and slapping them together like Legos. That's not what's happening with these Romulan ships. The Tiercel and the D'Kyr were used as the stepping stones for the basis of the designs so that the final product is coherent. They didn't literally slap the parts together in the most nonsensical way you could think of.

sunseahl · February 2017

chozoelder2nd wrote: »

I was honestly caught off guard when this subject was brought up in the first place because the Romulan Mission Explorers don't look like kitbashes at all to me. They're clearly inspired by the Romulan Tiercel Shuttle and the Vulcan D'Kyr, but kitbashing is something entirely different. Kitbashing is literally just taking parts of ships and slapping them together like Legos. That's not what's happening with these Romulan ships. The Tiercel and the D'Kyr were used as the stepping stones for the basis of the designs so that the final product is coherent. They didn't literally slap the parts together in the most nonsensical way you could think of.

So it seems the forum ATE my post so i'll try this again.....

My biggest problem is that the Alcubierre ring what wholly lifted from a D'kyr and, mostly, put back in the same friggin' position. Honestly, the athstetic of teh Romulans is and always has been quite counter to the Vulcans... were Vulcans hold to logic Romulans embrace passion, flair...

I mean... They have a friggin BLACK HOLE for a warp core! Why are these romulan ship's Alcubierre Rings not also skewed? knock it at 45... Hell lay it flat like the D'kyr does when it launches the T'kyr.... These are Romulans, their design is meant to be sleek, bird-like, and mysterious. While attaching an upright Alcubierre ring is nearly the most vulcan thing ever on a ship... It wholly doesn't fit with "Romulan passion"

sisteric · February 2017

sunseahl wrote: »

chozoelder2nd wrote: »

I was honestly caught off guard when this subject was brought up in the first place because the Romulan Mission Explorers don't look like kitbashes at all to me. They're clearly inspired by the Romulan Tiercel Shuttle and the Vulcan D'Kyr, but kitbashing is something entirely different. Kitbashing is literally just taking parts of ships and slapping them together like Legos. That's not what's happening with these Romulan ships. The Tiercel and the D'Kyr were used as the stepping stones for the basis of the designs so that the final product is coherent. They didn't literally slap the parts together in the most nonsensical way you could think of.

So it seems the forum ATE my post so i'll try this again.....

My biggest problem is that the Alcubierre ring what wholly lifted from a D'kyr and, mostly, put back in the same friggin' position. Honestly, the athstetic of teh Romulans is and always has been quite counter to the Vulcans... were Vulcans hold to logic Romulans embrace passion, flair...

I mean... They have a friggin BLACK HOLE for a warp core! Why are these romulan ship's Alcubierre Rings not also skewed? knock it at 45... Hell lay it flat like the D'kyr does when it launches the T'kyr.... These are Romulans, their design is meant to be sleek, bird-like, and mysterious. While attaching an upright Alcubierre ring is nearly the most vulcan thing ever on a ship... It wholly doesn't fit with "Romulan passion"

I will say this, the Ring aesthetic on the new Romulan ships is in keeping with the storypoint of The Romulan Republic and D'Tan's desire to re-unify with the Vulcans. We are now seeing visible evidence that some steps have been taken to trade ideas and information between the Vulcans and the Romulans has been occurring. How much farther the the re-unifyication narrative will be pushed in STO, I don't know. But at least we can see that D'Tan is making good on statements to try and grow closer with the Vulcans in some manner.

I just hope that this will open up the Vulcans as a race for the Romulans to play as at some point.

alex1ger · February 2017

Good morning, tribbles.

I feel like I should chime in on the romulan-vulcan hybrid ships, but I got too much on my plate already. So let me just say that I actually like their aesthetics. Now that I mention it, I actually don't remember a single romulan ship that I would have called "ugly". Wait... there's a disclaimer... The Tal Shiar adapted ships are not "romulan" ships, they are hybrids. The Scimitar is not a romulan ship either, it's a reman (-human-hybrid?) design. And the less we talk about the JJverse and the TOS stuff, the better.

But enough of that, let's get going...

Community questions:

1.) That's a tough question to answer. See, this is not my main MMO, so obviously I'm not gonna put as much time/money/effort into this game. I am also a bit of an alt-o-holic. Not quite as much as MidNite, but I like my alts, so it's difficult for me to justify getting a ship that will most likely be used by just one or two characters. I mean, my main char is a fed engi. I love the Sovereign class. I may not enjoy the oversized warp nacelles of the... what's the C-Store version of the T6 sovereign? I can't remember the name... But it's difficult for me to justify buying that ship because it would most likely be used by just that one character.

I prefer what Cryptic likes to call "the most bang for the buck". So the Legacy of Romulus bundle is vastly more desireable than a single romulan ship. And the Delta Rising bundle is vastly more desireable than the Romulus bundle.

TLDR: No I haven't and for the foreseeable future I won't.

2.) Timelines, you say? How very interesting. Tell me more. Wait, there's something I need to do first. *inserts ear plugs* PLEASE CONTINUE.

3.) I happen to really like the bumpers. I just hope you asked a certain someone whether you could use those voice bits. Well, you might have had to ask the company if you can use those clips at all, but even then I would still ask the person in question. Just to be safe. And out of courtesy, of course.

4.) You know, there's so much in there... I didn't read the... Kickstarter? IndieGoGo? wherever they did the crowdfunding... But you made it sound like they did not just ask CBS for permission to use some clips, they actually want to acquire a license to sell official merchandise. Uhm... what makes you think that is a non-profit venture? That sounds very for-profit to me. I mean, that is the whole idea behind acquiring a license. You pay someone to be able to use their franchise/idea to make money out of it. Now don't get me wrong, they could use that money to pay for their expenses and donate any "surplus" to some charity...

But if it was non-profit, CBS could (and in my opinion should) have just let them do it because it's free advertising.
Now, if it wasn't Adam Nimoy and Ira Steven Behr... well, that would have changed things significantly...
And don't get me started on how CBS should have sponsored this or even done this themselves in preparation for the upcoming anniversary of DS9. Sometimes you have to invest money if you want to make money...

Feedback:

Event ships:
Okay, let's start off by saying that sun's claim seems to be wrong. Apparently you don't need the "super awesome happy funtime bundle" to get a temp op BOff seat. The 26th century ships in that bundle, the 31st century ships (in that bundle and in their own bundle), the Konnie, the temporal dreadnoughts (TOS-phoon, Negh'TOS, D'DeriTOS... you know) and the NX refit all supposedly have a temp op seat.
My point was... you know, let's go back in time. I'm using STOwiki for this, so if something's wrong, feel free to correct me (and STOwiki...).

Delta Rising launched october 2014 and gave us the intel specialization. The first event after that was... winter event 2014 giving us the first T6 full carrier. And guess what? Lt. (Lieutenant) Intel seat.

January 2015 brought us the command spec. And the anniversary event. Oh look. It's a Kobali Samsar with a Lt. Cmdr. Command seat...

April 2015 brought us the Iconian war and expanded the Pilot spec into a primary spec. Okay, what's the next event? Summer event 2015. Ferengi Nandi with a Lt. Cmdr. Pilot seat. What a coinkidink! (That was on purpose. I know it's spelled coincidence.)

What's the next spec? Temp op. So... next event ship? Well, I think we got the Vorgon ship around that time, maybe a little too early? I don't quite remember the timing, but thematically that could have worked... After that? The Chel Boalg. And look, the blog talked about a temp op seat until they changed the blog. And the Ho'kuun? Would it have made sense to put a temp op seat in there? Well, there's so much stuff that doesn't make sense, so they could have done it...

But there was a pattern of giving us a new spec and then giving us an event ship to try that shiny new spec so we would be lured into investing money into better ships that offer this particular seat. That was my point. Cryptic breaks patterns and... maybe they were too generous in the past, but they keep saying how they are so successful and so profitable and yet they keep getting less generous. Actions and words... actions and words...

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not a doomsayer. This game will last for years. And Cryptic/PW will not grant it the honorable death of a warrior. It will slowly fade away into obscurity. (Just look at Champions.) And that's what gets me. This is Star Trek. Any halfway competent company should just jump at that opportunity, pump some money into the team and let their marketing department work overtime. STO should be going toe-to-toe with SWTOR. I mean, Star Wars may be the bigger franchise, but their setting is not "the" Star Wars. They are set in "the old republic". And after they went free-to-play they bent over backwards to try and shove more "true" Star Wars aesthetics into the game. Just like Cryptic bent over backwards to shove TOS and JJverse into this game. (I refuse to call it the Kelvin timeline.)
That's why I have so much more respect for Turbine... oh, sorry... I meant Standing Stone Games. They try so hard to stay within the confines of their setting. And they just announced that they are working on a graphical update for the player characters, so they "probably" won't go belly-up anytime soon, either.
[edit] I just thought to myself that it might be helpful to mention that Standing Stone Games (pretty much an "offspring" of Turbine) is the team behind LotRO... [/edit]

Marketing:
We talked about it so much already, but let me throw an idea out there... cut some of the dead weight in marketing. Hire another community representative (or two). Allow dataminers to do their thing. Make a copy-paste draft saying something along the lines of "Datamining is not an exact science, take those numbers with a grain of salt.". Don't worry, I have a feeling that you can do this copy-paste thingy...
Other games do it and it seems to work for them... I don't claim that this kind of marketing (and employing the "help" of dataminers to create hype/community engagement IS a form of marketing...) would be better than what their marketing department is doing now, but I cannot imagine it being ANY worse...

And since proffeshonulism seems to be this week's topic... When I said that it should not have taken PW a week to post the "official" Delta Rising announcement... Yes, stoo, it would have been understandable if the people who went to STLV needed some time to recover.
But that's not the point. The point is...
a) Not everybody went to STLV. Somebody stayed "home". Somebody could have written and published the announcement.
b) Even if one of the STLV people HAD to write the announcement, they did NOT decide to make the announcement during the flight or during their stay in Las Vegas. PREPARE the announcement BEFORE you fly to Las Vegas.
c) The above points show how "the devs" could have done this work. But it is actually not their job. It's a job for their marketing department. That is what I mean when I talk about dead weight and a severe lack of professionalism.

Delta Rising leveling exploit:
Just a quick addition... You claimed that nobody talked about the exploit. Well, that is not entirely true. I may not have known why and I didn't ask because I didn't care, but when I was playing through Delta Rising the delta quadrant zone chat was FULL of "lfm elite [insert "exploitable" patrol system]" It was very noticeable, so if anyone at Cryptic/PW (there IS a european team and some of them "probably" play the game...) had kept even HALF an eye on the in-game chat, they SHOULD have noticed that something was up, because that was rather unusual and noticeable from my point of view and I have NO ACCESS to the almighty metrics...

Console production team:
Uhm, sun... I doubt that the team was split in half. Sure, you need a few more/different coders and a few more QA people to port the game over to consoles. And you needed UI artists to create the console UI. But the ships are the same. The stories are the same. So it's pretty much the same content team, the same art team, the same systems team. Every now and then one of them might have to help the console coding/QA team, but you don't need to split the existing team in half. Get console started and then you have the PC team doing what they've done before and the "port team" just takes the stuff and "makes it go" on consoles. See, when Blizzard started out they did a lot of porting work for other companies. So that is not exactly new or unusual.

[PODCAST] Tribbles in Ecstasy Take 252: 'Proffeshonuls!'

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