Captains, the Star Trek Online Gateway system will be shutting down on April 13th. While some members of the community enjoyed it, the system never garnered enough interest to warrant further support. There are no plans for a similar feature at this time, and we apologize for any inconvenience it’s removal may cause.
"Never garnered enough interest to warrant further support"? In what reality? There were plenty of people who would have liked to see Doffing added to it, and Admiralty... and probably crafting. But the devs abandoned the project just shortly after the fleet system was added to it. So it started to get buggy because new game features werent properly supported. So less people used it.
If the team had continued developing it, and had done any sort of advertising beyond a "cryptic" button on the launcher, maybe more people would have used it and it would have become a great tool instead of a orphaned mess.
"Never garnered enough interest" means "Its the players fault we arent developing this further". And thats a bold faced lie. The devs abandoned the project first.
Between this "not enough interest" claim and the complete silence regarding the inexplicable depowering of the projectile systems (which were significantly behind their energy counterparts already and now are becoming even moreso) and offensive science powers, I am disappointed in the direction the development team has taken recently.
Your credibility has been damaged by this attitude.
Gateway is so useful when I am away from my laptop and need to do my Fleet admin, and it could have been an even more useful tool but you never really got behind it! You have once again taken an action without taking the 'pulse' of the players!! Hopeful you will do a reversal as you did with Sub Nuc!
"You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
No surprise, I have been waiting the coup de grace for this... non-thing for years now.
But wow, if your coders aren't up to the challenge the designers take your communication skills are top notch:
you managed to make such an announcement putting the blame on the players who "did not support" the nothing you released
without mentioning the fact you never released what promised, ie allowing access to Doff system off game
basically abandoning the project for years with little-than-nothing features like, wow, seeing our avatars and little more that were broken by bugs and left in that state forever
and so make it appear like you did a nice "service" and are just surprised it didn't got enough love from us, what a shame.
The biggest disappointment this game gave me and that speaks a lot,
now topped with this PR tweet that makes fun of our intelligence.
Hope at least you learned the lesson and don't bite more than you can chew about promising stuff you cannot release.
But messages like these are useless and lost in space, time and text.
I then decide I'll change the sig I have from start wrote about my top-second issue already knowing number one, Gateway, was going to do this end, to remember it and letting it rest in peace:
I still dream from time to time about using the Gateway to doff off-game in spare minutes as we were told
Just as the exploration clusters didn't meet "quality standards" - who'd have guessed that someting that didn't receive any attention didn't automatically become awesome.
I'm not mad about this, I understand it. What makes me sad is that once again Cryptic treats the playerbase like morons, giving a made-up reason for why it was the players "fault" instead of admitting that there was no interest to keep the feature in the first place. Exploration clusters never received an update since 2011 and suddenly were not up to quality standards - who would have guessed. The Gateway didn't receive any attention a few months after it was released and core functionality was never maintained to keep up with a changing game. A real mystery why nobody used it.
^ 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
Well considering Cryptic refused to add functionality that players wanted, such as Doffs, it's not surprising it didn't get used. Not to mention it constantly refused to load half the time. You failed to care for it, as a result, nobody used it after a while.
What he said, and the rest of the people said. Maybe if some effort had at least been put into making the platform stable, us players would have used it more.
Captains, the Star Trek Online Gateway system will be shutting down on April 13th. While some members of the community enjoyed it, the system never garnered enough interest to warrant further support. There are no plans for a similar feature at this time, and we apologize for any inconvenience it’s removal may cause.
I have to question how you measured the amount of interest it garnered... It worked GREAT as a way to show people your ship build prior to DR and the boff skills revamp. It was never updated to understand what specialization powers were, and tried to display every skill a boff knew, not just he ones they were actually using. And then AoY and a new faction that it doesn't understand... Oh also, it didn't know how to properly display gear that had been upgraded.
and that's just what I can list off based on memories of personal experience using it.
I never used this because I didn't know it existed. I thought it was just an idea in development for possible mobile doffing etc... If there was a feature for doffing and admiralty on mobile I would use it daily.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
This is pretty terrible spin. There are a ton of good reasons to drop support for something. For instance:
1. The system's architecture isn't compatible with the main product.
2. The skills needed to support it aren't available on the team and it isn't viable to hire people with the right skills.
3. If people aren't logging into the game, they aren't counting towards our metrics which we need in order to keep shareholders happy.
4. There isn't enough interest.
All of these are good reasons, and while some people would be upset, most would understand. . However, we know 4 is wrong. There was tons of interest in an expanded gateway with doffing and admiralty. Please don't insult peoples' intelligence and suggest otherwise.
Honestly another feature being removed because the devs don't see it being used. I know a few people myself that used the gateway to share their builds and how their setup was WITHOUT having to be in game. It was easier to just send a link than trying to type or drag everything into chat in game when all you had to do was copy link and paste it. Plus the idea of being able to do doffs missions outside of the game was a great idea, but I guess the devs couldn't bring in just a few people to do upkeep on it. First it's Mac support, then gateway. Watch.....There'll be a few more "Features" that'll get removed before the players finally see what the devs are really trying to do.
Hell, I would have paid Zen to use it and see it developed. Love the story line on the reason its going away. You guys just don't help yourselves some times.
I am disappointed angry that the official statement on this puts the blame on us, the players. I used to use the Gateway to compare and show builds, but it has been bugged to hell and back since the Intel spec was released - way back in 2014.
Upgrading equipment made it worse. The changes to BOFFs so they could learn more than one skill made it worse. TOS toons were the last nail in the coffin.
I am not surprised (nor disappointed, in the current state) that Gateway is being discontinued, especially in light of went on over in Neverwinter. I am very disappointed that the doff ui revamp was a complete waste of time (as was cited at the time to make for mobile friendly). But I am very angry that the blame is being placed on the players.
Cryptic, own up to your own mistakes - the statement should read as follows:
"Captains, the Star Trek Online Gateway system will be shutting down on April 13th. While some members of the community enjoyed it, the system never garnered enough development support to warrant interest. There are no plans for a similar feature at this time, and we apologize for any inconvenience it’s removal may cause."
Also - less than 2 days notice? Not that I think anyone's seriously using the stupid thing, but very poor form.
(...) There'll be a few more "Features" that'll get removed before the players finally see what the devs are really trying to do.
What exactly are the "devs trying to do"?
^ 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
it was never a complete system with full functionality , like alot of the wiz bang "NEW TECH" in this game never fully integrated into the STO experience just sprinkled here and there . this game needs a complete overhaul a pruning and change to the core , more battle zones less Queues that after a few months are dead to start . . DEVELOP the game rather than popping up that new ship or lock box . fix the reoccurring bugs,and not having ship functions broken for 6 or more months . these are a few reasons STO isnt my primary game anymore . i come back for new mission and events i like .
I think all of us, sadly, saw this coming. The system was never properly implemented or supported, but at least you've passed the blame to the players for not using the beta/unfinished/broken system which was hidden away in the back of beyond.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
Oh, right. It was shut down, development wise, years ago and the players have just been using a 'hidden path' to access this feature. Now you're shutting down that path.
Whatever.
I used it once, saw how incredibly broken it was and pretty much forgot about it except for those times I'd see it on the launcher and actually pay attention to the Visit the Gateway button.
Sad to see any content get stripped from the game, but since the blasted thing hasn't worked correctly in years (if ever), it's probably for the best.
While I'm here I may as well ask, although I'm pretty sure I know the answer already, any word on bringing back exploration to the game?
Hello. My name is iamynaught and I am an altaholic.
Captains, the Star Trek Online Gateway system will be shutting down on April 13th. While some members of the community enjoyed it, the system never garnered enough interest to warrant further support. There are no plans for a similar feature at this time, and we apologize for any inconvenience it’s removal may cause.
Love the spin you're trying for there...
More like, "the system was never given the support it needed" to begin with. It was thrown out there, and never updated. And like most things you guys remove, no replacement will ever be given. Like the so-called "exploration" that was removed. How do you make a Star Trek game without any exploration whatsoever? It's written right there in the opening monologue... "To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man/one/human has gone before"
Sorry, but I'm a bit fed up with Cryptic's modus operandi when it comes to all things STO. Remove a feature that people actually like, and replace it with [insert new lockbox] or [insert new reputation grind].
Shame to see it go, I've found it very useful to compare and retune my builds. I sincerely hope the GW will get a mobile alternative in the near future!
STO was a testbed for Neverwinter's Gateway, anyway. They never intended developing it for STO. Sad.
Sort of how the PC version of STO is a testbed for the console version. Console players seem to be more interested in PvP than PC players. So since the console version of STO is apparently bringing in some decent money, why not revamp PvP. They let the PC players beta test it so that it's as smooth as an androids bottom once it's released on consoles.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Lt. Philip J. Minns
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,567Community Moderator
I think all of us, sadly, saw this coming. The system was never properly implemented or supported, but at least you've passed the blame to the players for not using the beta/unfinished/broken system which was hidden away in the back of beyond.
After hearing of the Neverwinter bot problem, I can understand why Cryptic didn't pursue STO's Gateway a bit as that would be a MAJOR exploit. Also it could be that the Dev who worked on it originally is no longer there, and didn't leave notes (Which we've seen instances of in the past with unfinished plotholes and systems that were later removed). Also how was it hidden when there's a button to the Gateway right on the launcher?
Anyways... In this case its probably better to scrap it wholesale and start from scratch if possible. If its that buggy, it could be a drain on resources.
And for the record I'm not defending Cryptic, I'm just looking at this from a technical standpoint. While it may have had its useful bits that some people used, it was pretty clunky in my experience. And like people said, it did not recognize TOS Fed characters whatsoever. Only thing that seemed to semi work was viewing your build, which you can do in game. Seeing other peoples builds... I don't know about and never tried.
Anyways... In this case its probably better to scrap it wholesale and start from scratch if possible. If its that buggy, it could be a drain on resources.
And for the record I'm not defending Cryptic, I'm just looking at this from a technical standpoint. While it may have had its useful bits that some people used, it was pretty clunky in my experience. And like people said, it did not recognize TOS Fed characters whatsoever. Only thing that seemed to semi work was viewing your build, which you can do in game. Seeing other peoples builds... I don't know about and never tried.
Point 1 - they said here, in the CM's post that they do not intend to start from scratch. No replacement is anticipated. Since things that are pulled for officially announced "rework" don't come back, not anticipated means no replacement.
Point 2 - If you never used it to compare builds, then you aren't a voice of expertise in working with the tool. It worked splendidly, pre-DR. Also, Fleet Donations and Fleet management worked OK enough, pre-DR. Finally, it was one of the only ways to look at accolades, as the in game UI is an absolute mess. In the Gateway, they all had nice icons. Not like they've added support for trophy rooms on our ships lately, have they?
Finally - I don't think the common thread in this thread is pitchforks over the removal of the Gateway in its current state. The general trend I am seeing is upset over Cryptic's pinning the blame on the playerbase for its lack of use. The thing needed to be put out of its misery, but they should be owning up to why. Hint - it has nothing to do with the playerbase.
0
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,567Community Moderator
Point 1 - they said here, in the CM's post that they do not intend to start from scratch. No replacement is anticipated. Since things that are pulled for officially announced "rework" don't come back, not anticipated means no replacement.
I made that point as a possibility. Not absolute fact. You never know.
Point 2 - If you never used it to compare builds, then you aren't a voice of expertise in working with the tool. It worked splendidly, pre-DR. Also, Fleet Donations and Fleet management worked OK enough, pre-DR. Finally, it was one of the only ways to look at accolades, as the in game UI is an absolute mess. In the Gateway, they all had nice icons. Not like they've added support for trophy rooms on our ships lately, have they?
I wasn't a high enough rank in my fleet to do fleet management, so that option wasn't available. I found the interface rather clunky.
Frankly we haven't gotten any new accolade trophies for a long time. And how long has it been since Delta Rising? All my experience has been post-DR.
Finally - I don't think the common thread in this thread is pitchforks over the removal of the Gateway in its current state. The general trend I am seeing is upset over Cryptic's pinning the blame on the playerbase for its lack of use. The thing needed to be put out of its misery, but they should be owning up to why. Hint - it has nothing to do with the playerbase.
The way I see it, it was a half finished resource that was not updated. People wanted it for DOff assignments and Admiralty... and we hear stories of how Neverwinter's Gateway was exploited via bots. The whole thing honestly was a mess. Player or Cryptic... doesn't really matter in the long run. Could be Cryptic for not streamlining it, which in turn meant players didn't use it.
*shrug*
Comments
"Never garnered enough interest to warrant further support"? In what reality? There were plenty of people who would have liked to see Doffing added to it, and Admiralty... and probably crafting. But the devs abandoned the project just shortly after the fleet system was added to it. So it started to get buggy because new game features werent properly supported. So less people used it.
If the team had continued developing it, and had done any sort of advertising beyond a "cryptic" button on the launcher, maybe more people would have used it and it would have become a great tool instead of a orphaned mess.
"Never garnered enough interest" means "Its the players fault we arent developing this further". And thats a bold faced lie. The devs abandoned the project first.
Your credibility has been damaged by this attitude.
Gateway is so useful when I am away from my laptop and need to do my Fleet admin, and it could have been an even more useful tool but you never really got behind it! You have once again taken an action without taking the 'pulse' of the players!! Hopeful you will do a reversal as you did with Sub Nuc!
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
But wow, if your coders aren't up to the challenge the designers take your communication skills are top notch:
you managed to make such an announcement putting the blame on the players who "did not support" the nothing you released
without mentioning the fact you never released what promised, ie allowing access to Doff system off game
basically abandoning the project for years with little-than-nothing features like, wow, seeing our avatars and little more that were broken by bugs and left in that state forever
and so make it appear like you did a nice "service" and are just surprised it didn't got enough love from us, what a shame.
The biggest disappointment this game gave me and that speaks a lot,
now topped with this PR tweet that makes fun of our intelligence.
Hope at least you learned the lesson and don't bite more than you can chew about promising stuff you cannot release.
But messages like these are useless and lost in space, time and text.
I then decide I'll change the sig I have from start wrote about my top-second issue already knowing number one, Gateway, was going to do this end, to remember it and letting it rest in peace:
I'm not mad about this, I understand it. What makes me sad is that once again Cryptic treats the playerbase like morons, giving a made-up reason for why it was the players "fault" instead of admitting that there was no interest to keep the feature in the first place. Exploration clusters never received an update since 2011 and suddenly were not up to quality standards - who would have guessed. The Gateway didn't receive any attention a few months after it was released and core functionality was never maintained to keep up with a changing game. A real mystery why nobody used it.
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
and that's just what I can list off based on memories of personal experience using it.
My character Tsin'xing
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
1. The system's architecture isn't compatible with the main product.
2. The skills needed to support it aren't available on the team and it isn't viable to hire people with the right skills.
3. If people aren't logging into the game, they aren't counting towards our metrics which we need in order to keep shareholders happy.
4. There isn't enough interest.
All of these are good reasons, and while some people would be upset, most would understand.
.
However, we know 4 is wrong. There was tons of interest in an expanded gateway with doffing and admiralty. Please don't insult peoples' intelligence and suggest otherwise.
Upgrading equipment made it worse. The changes to BOFFs so they could learn more than one skill made it worse. TOS toons were the last nail in the coffin.
I am not surprised (nor disappointed, in the current state) that Gateway is being discontinued, especially in light of went on over in Neverwinter. I am very disappointed that the doff ui revamp was a complete waste of time (as was cited at the time to make for mobile friendly). But I am very angry that the blame is being placed on the players.
Cryptic, own up to your own mistakes - the statement should read as follows:
"Captains, the Star Trek Online Gateway system will be shutting down on April 13th. While some members of the community enjoyed it, the system never garnered enough development support to warrant interest. There are no plans for a similar feature at this time, and we apologize for any inconvenience it’s removal may cause."
Also - less than 2 days notice? Not that I think anyone's seriously using the stupid thing, but very poor form.
What exactly are the "devs trying to do"?
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
*Reads over the thread*
Oh, right. It was shut down, development wise, years ago and the players have just been using a 'hidden path' to access this feature. Now you're shutting down that path.
Whatever.
I used it once, saw how incredibly broken it was and pretty much forgot about it except for those times I'd see it on the launcher and actually pay attention to the Visit the Gateway button.
Sad to see any content get stripped from the game, but since the blasted thing hasn't worked correctly in years (if ever), it's probably for the best.
While I'm here I may as well ask, although I'm pretty sure I know the answer already, any word on bringing back exploration to the game?
Losing faith in humanity, one person at a time.
Love the spin you're trying for there...
More like, "the system was never given the support it needed" to begin with. It was thrown out there, and never updated. And like most things you guys remove, no replacement will ever be given. Like the so-called "exploration" that was removed. How do you make a Star Trek game without any exploration whatsoever? It's written right there in the opening monologue... "To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man/one/human has gone before"
Sorry, but I'm a bit fed up with Cryptic's modus operandi when it comes to all things STO. Remove a feature that people actually like, and replace it with [insert new lockbox] or [insert new reputation grind].
Sort of how the PC version of STO is a testbed for the console version. Console players seem to be more interested in PvP than PC players. So since the console version of STO is apparently bringing in some decent money, why not revamp PvP. They let the PC players beta test it so that it's as smooth as an androids bottom once it's released on consoles.
Losing faith in humanity, one person at a time.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
After hearing of the Neverwinter bot problem, I can understand why Cryptic didn't pursue STO's Gateway a bit as that would be a MAJOR exploit. Also it could be that the Dev who worked on it originally is no longer there, and didn't leave notes (Which we've seen instances of in the past with unfinished plotholes and systems that were later removed). Also how was it hidden when there's a button to the Gateway right on the launcher?
Anyways... In this case its probably better to scrap it wholesale and start from scratch if possible. If its that buggy, it could be a drain on resources.
And for the record I'm not defending Cryptic, I'm just looking at this from a technical standpoint. While it may have had its useful bits that some people used, it was pretty clunky in my experience. And like people said, it did not recognize TOS Fed characters whatsoever. Only thing that seemed to semi work was viewing your build, which you can do in game. Seeing other peoples builds... I don't know about and never tried.
Point 1 - they said here, in the CM's post that they do not intend to start from scratch. No replacement is anticipated. Since things that are pulled for officially announced "rework" don't come back, not anticipated means no replacement.
Point 2 - If you never used it to compare builds, then you aren't a voice of expertise in working with the tool. It worked splendidly, pre-DR. Also, Fleet Donations and Fleet management worked OK enough, pre-DR. Finally, it was one of the only ways to look at accolades, as the in game UI is an absolute mess. In the Gateway, they all had nice icons. Not like they've added support for trophy rooms on our ships lately, have they?
Finally - I don't think the common thread in this thread is pitchforks over the removal of the Gateway in its current state. The general trend I am seeing is upset over Cryptic's pinning the blame on the playerbase for its lack of use. The thing needed to be put out of its misery, but they should be owning up to why. Hint - it has nothing to do with the playerbase.
I made that point as a possibility. Not absolute fact. You never know.
I wasn't a high enough rank in my fleet to do fleet management, so that option wasn't available. I found the interface rather clunky.
Frankly we haven't gotten any new accolade trophies for a long time. And how long has it been since Delta Rising? All my experience has been post-DR.
The way I see it, it was a half finished resource that was not updated. People wanted it for DOff assignments and Admiralty... and we hear stories of how Neverwinter's Gateway was exploited via bots. The whole thing honestly was a mess. Player or Cryptic... doesn't really matter in the long run. Could be Cryptic for not streamlining it, which in turn meant players didn't use it.
*shrug*