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The good and the bad about changes to episode availability
tagen
Member Posts: 545 Arc User
The past few months have seen two big changes to the episode list and the missions a captain sees on the 'Available' tab. The idea behind these changes seems to be a good one, so I will start with what I do like about the updates.
Streamlining the mission journal
Again, I think these are changes that can improve the game experience. More choice of how to play is rarely a bad thing.
There are, however, some results of the changes that I think are bad and could use some work. I hope this is already something that is being considered, but here are the problems I see with how things are now.
Let a player choose which episode to start on the 'Episodes' tab, but maybe don't serve them all up at once on the other tabs or in hails like a screaming crowd all trying to get your attention and drowning each other out.
Give more information about where episodes or side missions fall in the timeline so the player has the tools needed to decide how to play through.
More choice is good. Being overwhelmed by choice is not.
Thanks.
Streamlining the mission journal
- Focusing on a main story. Especially as more content has been added over the years, making sure a new player has a more coherent story experience is a good thing.
- Keeping the "side" missions available. I was glad to see these missions were not removed, so they can still be played if someone chooses.
- Improving older missions. I was not happy to see these removed while being worked on, but am glad older content can see some updates.
- Following the story episode by episode is my preferred way to play, but letting others choose which episodes to play is, I think, an improvement.
- Allows for someone who has not done all the episodes to complete episode-based endeavors that may have been locked before.
Again, I think these are changes that can improve the game experience. More choice of how to play is rarely a bad thing.
There are, however, some results of the changes that I think are bad and could use some work. I hope this is already something that is being considered, but here are the problems I see with how things are now.
- The 'Available' missions list needs an overhaul. Opening up all the episodes is great, but just showing all or most of them lumped together in the available missions is not. It looks, to me, too chaotic. Too easy for a new player to get lost when the original goal was to streamline.
- Related to this, when you finish an episode mission, your contact may offer up the starters for a number of other episodes and, from what I could see, there is no indication which is "next" unless you look it up on the Episodes tab yourself.
- As I said in the good things above, I am glad the "side" missions are still around. But they, too, are just tossed into 'Available'. This might not be so bad if all the other episodes were not in there, too, but I would like to see them have their own section or maybe a sub-tab on the left of the window (as long as it is pointed out to new players so they don't miss it entirely).
Let a player choose which episode to start on the 'Episodes' tab, but maybe don't serve them all up at once on the other tabs or in hails like a screaming crowd all trying to get your attention and drowning each other out.
Give more information about where episodes or side missions fall in the timeline so the player has the tools needed to decide how to play through.
More choice is good. Being overwhelmed by choice is not.
Thanks.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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Comments
My character Tsin'xing
I did not notice that specifically, but it may explain why not every episode popped up in 'Available'. Most of them seemed to, though. I'll keep an eye out. Thanks.
None of my characters had to re-unlock anything.
Otherwise, I like the streamlining of the journal. I don't understand the order as there seems to be a LOT of bouncing around out of the flow of the STO timeline....but that could just be because I'm "used" to the old mission journal progression.
I don't see it in my list, either, but I'm reading that they are not available until level 65 now? Is your character 65 and it still is not there?
Edit: actually, I don't seem to be able to get it on my level 65 either. yeah, the mission journal needs a complete overhaul if they are going to keep slicing and dicing like this.
For example, I started a new Romulan character and before I am even done with the episode "From the Ashes" (it is currently the only one listed on the Episodes tab), the Available tab has starters for "The Delta Quadrant" and "Age of Discovery".
Maybe this is because of something special about each of those (like AoD being the newest?), but I am not sure. What I do know is that for a new player coming in, this might lead to confusion when it comes to the storylines. Maybe one solution is to not have episode missions on the Available tab at all and leave them on their own list. (A new tab or sub-tab for the episodes that have moved to being side missions would be a good for clarity, too.)
My character Tsin'xing
I'd like to see separate headings/sections for daily missions, PvP missions, side mission arcs, etc. Organize the journal so it does not take 10 minutes of reasearch to figure out what you are doing.
Think that is being too ambitious in my wishing?
@zerokillcf2011 did you read my latest update...there isn't a Romulan Mission Contact for Cold War...they need to get them from the Faction....J'mpok or Quinn...but they don't show up in the Romulan Available tab at all.
Look at the last post I made, with screen shots here:
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1244925/specters-breen-invasion-and-lost-dominion-story-arcs-missing-on-level-65-characters
So, they need to add J'mpok for KDF Roms, or Quinn for FED Roms....or add Ambassador Surah (or however you spell his name) for Romulans.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
I was speed reading so might not have seen this in full, but yes you are totally right. My romulan doesn't even HAVE Quinn in my available missions as a giver of anything. And without the faction leader giving the mission, Surah doesn't do anything even if you walk up to him on Deferra. Simple fix though, so maybe since the players figured it out, the devs can fix it for us? lol
While getting that one in there may or may not be a simple fix, the journal overall is a confusing mess for a new player.
I have been testing with a new Romulan KDF character and a few of the things I have noticed so far:
- The missions 'Secrets' (Age of Discovery episode starter) and 'Escalation' (Delta Quadrant episode starter) are shown in the Available list during the early intro when none of those are even shown in the Episodes tab (just shows From the Ashes, which makes sense before faction is picked))
- After choosing a faction, the other episodes show up and the starter for each pops into the Available list with the exception of the New Romulus starting mission 'New Romulus Aid' (which can still be started directly from the Episodes list)
- At this point, the new player is bombarded with all these mission choices when talking to contacts and turning in other missions. It would, I think, cause some massive storyline confusion, especially if someone thinks they should just pick up all missions being offered.
- The missions 'Temporal Ambassador' and 'The once and Future Agent' both show in Available at the same time and 'Temporal Ambassador' is not in the Episodes list even though it is the starter before 'TOaFA' for non-Romulans.
- The mission 'Neutral No More' shows in Available even after you complete it and there does not seem to be a way to close it out.
And that is just in the first 30 minutes of playing.Yeah.
I discovered that I had to re-unlock "A Step Between Stars" when the endeavor was to complete a mission in the Solonae Dyson Sphere story.
I'd have to make a new character to find out, and I am not inspired to do that at this time.
Only character I want to make and level all the way through right now is if they bring back the AoY event.
If I had to guess, though, I would assume that it is like it was before; Get through the first arc to unlock the second, get through the second to unlock the third, etc., with the side-missions fitting in wherever they fit.
The option to skip means that you could still effectively unlock everything immediately after the tutorial, you just have to make a conscious effort to do so.
That all got fixed a few days ago, but as of tonight, the only alt who can access ViL is my J'H character.
Yeah, when I usually have problems, it ends up being on my Romulan characters. It's like they keep forgetting these characters are part of the game. I remember being really frustrated one day when I couldn't access the New Romulan missions, even though I signed on my character the first time since coming back to the game, and I was actually in the wilderness of New Romulus and almost done with the entire mission arc.
Fleet Admiral Ventaxa Proxmire, U.S.S. Shaka Walls Fell
Blog: http://www.sarbonn.com/?page_id=1990
Foundry series: Bob From Accounting & For the Sake of the Empire
I suspect they were put at 65 as a quick-fix to some other problem it caused.
This is why I think the whole journal needs to be redone in a format friendlier to changes like this. It is not necessarily bad that they want to streamline and divide "side" missions out from main episodes, but right now the UI is not nearly capable enough of keeping such things straight.
Related to this is the unlocking of all the episodes. Not a bad thing to let players skip ahead if they want, but the consequence was the journal bombarding new characters with EVERY episode at once in a jumble and it had to be rolled back.
My character Tsin'xing
I can confirm this, but they are not skippable. So if you want your 4028 Jem'Hadar, you will first slog through Of Bajor and Operation Gamma. And YOU WILL LIKE IT!