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Episodes don't make them money directly. So they only do 'enough' to feel they sate the playerbase. And then toss in a few cheap to produce blog posts where we used to get FEs.
Episodes don't make them money directly. So they only do 'enough' to feel they sate the playerbase. And then toss in a few cheap to produce blog posts where we used to get FEs.
now see, as much as I rag on the Devs, I think you're wrong about this. I kinda suspect the team would turn out as much as the time will let them. (time being available man-hours they can apply to the game's 'front end'; aka the stuff we interact with as players.)
But, I also know the dev team is unusually small (and was, even before adding console versions for Playstation and Xbone), they are working with a limited budget (they have to pay CBS for the rights, among other things, or there's no game at all) and demands from the studio to fill gaps in the other three games Cryptic makes (Neverwinter, Champions, and the coming Magic:The Gathering MMO).
...
For sake of argument I'll grant that the current STO team is overworked as you say. But that still means someone in the PWE/Cryptic food-chain thinks that alot of content is 'unnecessary' and pushes for an avalanche of lockboxes and etc. that directly equates to income or else they'd have left STO a big enough team to do more than 6-10 FE's a season.
But wouldn't it require more time and people to make a living world than a smallish map that boffs can't navigate?
The pushing of gamblebox or ships as content is a very risky strategy, moreso in the current climate, especially when they shell out sizable chunks of income to get actors in for voice work.
I showed up late to this discussion, so I haven't read everyone's posts. I just wanted to chime in and say that I agree that the amount of episodes we got in this expansion is meager. Agents of Yesterday felt small, as well, and now this one feels smaller. I don't like this trend. I see two ways they can fix this. One, give us featured episodes more often than they used to. Two, make the next expansion have more episodes.
IMO this is a reflection that MMOs would do the minimum amount of work to stretch the MOST profits. Is that bad?
Depends on how players react to it. Lots of people left STO after DR to never return or moved on to other games. Yes, there will be those who weren't here and deny it. New players came with different expectations of what an "expansion" ought to be.
However, the amount of content has declined considerably after DR then AOY was a joke of whatever they called (expansion or semi faction). IMO the expectations were much lower for ViL that anything at all might now be called an expansion. As the OP put it...6 episodes should not be considered expansion but just my opinion. One might say quality over quantity? Yet what was LoR? If LoR served as a baseline for an expansion...anything after that is peanuts compare to it.
At the end of the day players will vote with their pockets and investments in STO. If you are here and stuck around these new ViL episodes have come and gone for a majority and things are starting to return to its normal boredom. Perhaps that is why they decided to wait for the summer event to be delayed at this unprecedented pace. Perfect time for the new upcoming FE or finally Summer event that should be up in a few weeks. Just my perspective on the posting.
Getting such a large number of the original actors from DS9 is worth it to me. Although I don’t really know if there’s a budgetary correlation or not.
I on the other hand would be fine with no voice acting if it meant more content
Thats your choice. Without voice acting, this MMO would be on the trash heap of gaming history (which apparently some of the responders in this thread seem to be hoping for)...besides you dont like it, turn the sound down
I think Delta Rising was trash, and can barely force another character through. Its boring, repetitive and about a bunch of third rate characters that would have been bit players at best on TNG...the only possible way Cryptic could make a more pathetic expansion is to base it on TRIBBLE...
LoR...again, boring...30 episodes of boredom...couldnt stand it at release cant stand it now.
Sorry, 30 or more episodes of boring trash, vs 6 (and thats just the first released, it would be nice if supposed adults learned to read) excellent and interesting episodes...hmmm...
I think I would’ve liked more Dominion-only missions like the Romulan and TOS factions had before being thrown into the Gamma storyline, but I do like what we got.
The thread of VIL's story does come across as a slightly more coherent line than the delta grinding ones where we get thrust from one episode to another without any real thought for progressing the story and more about getting actor X their moment in the spotlight. Which is why they had you leave the kobali hell hole to do a single mission with the doctor before even unlocking a transporter that would have made the next section of planetary stuff easier to get to.
And the blog posts do feel incredibly cheap when the individual doing them can't be bothered to check simple things like spelling, dates, times or indeed the platform the post is relating to. If the devil is in the detail then a certain someone is in line for sainthood.
Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. There is only one exclusive Jem'Hadar episode. That's even worse than I thought. I am really disappointed. How can a new faction have only one exclusive episode.
The subsequent arc also functions to orient Jem'Hadar to the STO universe and give them major plot points which shape their appreciation of their faction, like the intro arcs from other factions. It simply was written to be versitile enough that the episodes can also function well with other species/faction choices.
Reason for the number of episodes (as specified on Ten Forward): a conscious decision for quality over quantity.
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!
The jems could have had a longer tutorialising section but most folk would have found that annoying as STO tend to tutorialise quite a bit after you've already done the things its telling you.
Shorter meant less chance for more glitches like enemies that spawn inside crates and can't move or be attacked, or those that decide to jump a railing and attack from there when you can't respond.
They do cover the shroud by telling you to use it but gloss over the whole ketracel dependency so it feels a pretty half hearted attempt to inform of a new, albeit minor, mechanic for that race.
Getting such a large number of the original actors from DS9 is worth it to me. Although I don’t really know if there’s a budgetary correlation or not.
I on the other hand would be fine with no voice acting if it meant more content
Thats your choice. Without voice acting, this MMO would be on the trash heap of gaming history (which apparently some of the responders in this thread seem to be hoping for)...besides you dont like it, turn the sound down
I never said i didn't enjoy it, i said i would gladly give it up if the budget went to more missions instead.
Sorry, 30 or more episodes of boring trash, vs 6 (and thats just the first released, it would be nice if supposed adults learned to read) excellent and interesting episodes...hmmm...
I judge expansions based on what they launch with, not what is added in followup content patches.
I never said i didn't enjoy it, i said i would gladly give it up if the budget went to more missions instead.
Isn't that compromise made with the Foundry? We're not exactly hurting for high quality missions sans VO in STO. IMO there doesn't need to be a compromise here, just more done in systems design to make having the best of both worlds more apparent (ie. fix some key bugs and revamp the search interface so something like this: http://www.foundrymissions.com/ isn't such a tremendous step up for best results.)
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!
I never said i didn't enjoy it, i said i would gladly give it up if the budget went to more missions instead.
Isn't that compromise made with the Foundry? We're not exactly hurting for high quality missions sans VO in STO. IMO there doesn't need to be a compromise here, just more done in systems design to make having the best of both worlds more apparent (ie. fix some key bugs and revamp the search interface so something like this: http://www.foundrymissions.com/ isn't such a tremendous step up for best results.)
The Foundry is no alternative to official content, it is a means for fans to tell their own story.
The Foundry is no alternative to official content, it is a means for fans to tell their own story.
It's a supplement. The Foundry is offering volumes of playable content to fill whatever objective gameplay gap there is in the official game. Through collective action it's achieved quantity that Cryptic, with no amount of practical investment, can match. If they tried, they'd be making severe compromises to all areas of design (writing included) to achieve sustained rapid output that could easily bring their mission quality down to the reach of most Foundry authors and the Foundry toolset (meaning: we gain nothing besides more mission, which we aren't hurting for either with Foundry output or simply the volume of STO missions that have accumulated over the years.) And that is especially likely if they lose VO to help fund this (top-tier foundry authors probably have more experience with and writing STO through text alone than Cryptic content developers, who've been able to augment that experience with higher production value for years.)
That leaves us wanting for quality beyond the capabilities of any Foundry author. We had that with ViL. If you need further continuations of the official story, minus the trappings of highly polished missions, there are also the lore blogs to further supplement the game. This stuff is all out there, and I think we have now is pretty close to the ideal general setup for STO (it decouples the classic quality/quantity trade off across the game as a whole by pairing different resources with complimentary strengths and weaknesses.)
Post edited by duncanidaho11 on
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!
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Yes! Someone else agrees. I Love this episode..so Quarky! :-)
For sake of argument I'll grant that the current STO team is overworked as you say. But that still means someone in the PWE/Cryptic food-chain thinks that alot of content is 'unnecessary' and pushes for an avalanche of lockboxes and etc. that directly equates to income or else they'd have left STO a big enough team to do more than 6-10 FE's a season.
The pushing of gamblebox or ships as content is a very risky strategy, moreso in the current climate, especially when they shell out sizable chunks of income to get actors in for voice work.
Depends on how players react to it. Lots of people left STO after DR to never return or moved on to other games. Yes, there will be those who weren't here and deny it. New players came with different expectations of what an "expansion" ought to be.
However, the amount of content has declined considerably after DR then AOY was a joke of whatever they called (expansion or semi faction). IMO the expectations were much lower for ViL that anything at all might now be called an expansion. As the OP put it...6 episodes should not be considered expansion but just my opinion. One might say quality over quantity? Yet what was LoR? If LoR served as a baseline for an expansion...anything after that is peanuts compare to it.
At the end of the day players will vote with their pockets and investments in STO. If you are here and stuck around these new ViL episodes have come and gone for a majority and things are starting to return to its normal boredom. Perhaps that is why they decided to wait for the summer event to be delayed at this unprecedented pace. Perfect time for the new upcoming FE or finally Summer event that should be up in a few weeks. Just my perspective on the posting.
Original STO beta tester.
Thats your choice. Without voice acting, this MMO would be on the trash heap of gaming history (which apparently some of the responders in this thread seem to be hoping for)...besides you dont like it, turn the sound down
I think Delta Rising was trash, and can barely force another character through. Its boring, repetitive and about a bunch of third rate characters that would have been bit players at best on TNG...the only possible way Cryptic could make a more pathetic expansion is to base it on TRIBBLE...
LoR...again, boring...30 episodes of boredom...couldnt stand it at release cant stand it now.
Sorry, 30 or more episodes of boring trash, vs 6 (and thats just the first released, it would be nice if supposed adults learned to read) excellent and interesting episodes...hmmm...
And the blog posts do feel incredibly cheap when the individual doing them can't be bothered to check simple things like spelling, dates, times or indeed the platform the post is relating to. If the devil is in the detail then a certain someone is in line for sainthood.
The subsequent arc also functions to orient Jem'Hadar to the STO universe and give them major plot points which shape their appreciation of their faction, like the intro arcs from other factions. It simply was written to be versitile enough that the episodes can also function well with other species/faction choices.
Reason for the number of episodes (as specified on Ten Forward): a conscious decision for quality over quantity.
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!
Shorter meant less chance for more glitches like enemies that spawn inside crates and can't move or be attacked, or those that decide to jump a railing and attack from there when you can't respond.
They do cover the shroud by telling you to use it but gloss over the whole ketracel dependency so it feels a pretty half hearted attempt to inform of a new, albeit minor, mechanic for that race.
I never said i didn't enjoy it, i said i would gladly give it up if the budget went to more missions instead.
I judge expansions based on what they launch with, not what is added in followup content patches.
Isn't that compromise made with the Foundry? We're not exactly hurting for high quality missions sans VO in STO. IMO there doesn't need to be a compromise here, just more done in systems design to make having the best of both worlds more apparent (ie. fix some key bugs and revamp the search interface so something like this: http://www.foundrymissions.com/ isn't such a tremendous step up for best results.)
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!
The Foundry is no alternative to official content, it is a means for fans to tell their own story.
It's a supplement. The Foundry is offering volumes of playable content to fill whatever objective gameplay gap there is in the official game. Through collective action it's achieved quantity that Cryptic, with no amount of practical investment, can match. If they tried, they'd be making severe compromises to all areas of design (writing included) to achieve sustained rapid output that could easily bring their mission quality down to the reach of most Foundry authors and the Foundry toolset (meaning: we gain nothing besides more mission, which we aren't hurting for either with Foundry output or simply the volume of STO missions that have accumulated over the years.) And that is especially likely if they lose VO to help fund this (top-tier foundry authors probably have more experience with and writing STO through text alone than Cryptic content developers, who've been able to augment that experience with higher production value for years.)
That leaves us wanting for quality beyond the capabilities of any Foundry author. We had that with ViL. If you need further continuations of the official story, minus the trappings of highly polished missions, there are also the lore blogs to further supplement the game. This stuff is all out there, and I think we have now is pretty close to the ideal general setup for STO (it decouples the classic quality/quantity trade off across the game as a whole by pairing different resources with complimentary strengths and weaknesses.)
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!