I have no idea what these changes will be, but what I do know that as I player that has KDF mains and no FED character even to level 50 I'm getting sick of the few repetitive FED voices asking to break down the Faction wall so they can more easily play with the their KDF Alts with their Fed friends. I don't want the Faction wall broken down and the KDF merged into the Federation, and I've seen no evidence that others with KDF mains (NOT Alts) want it either. I would much rather see the walls between the Factions built up further than broken down.
Another gripe I have with some posters here is players who don't even PvP in STO falling over themselves to declare it dead and to shut it down. To Gre'thor with you people! There's no doubt PvP in STO has been horribly neglected, but there is a core of players who still enjoy the PvP crumbs Cryptic has left them, and some of them have of late been going out of their way to try and build up their community and draw in new players and teach them how to succeed in STO PvP. While personally I'm only an occasional PvPer in STO, the PvP community remains my go to for game mechanics information, for they are the creme de la creme of STO players in terms of both player skill and game mechanical knowledge. It's also worth noting many PvP players are also big spenders on this game, so while I'm not expecting any forthcoming improvements for PvP it would be beyond foolish for Cryptic to just shut them down altogether.
Going off the interview it seemed like the change would be story based and I'm guessing that it will be the formation of the Galactic Union. We'll see a new galactic union uniform, new ships, new star bases an new tutorial. Maybe see the start of exploration into Andromeda.
or
we could see the Roms and KDF join the Federation
It would be utterly illogical to go to Andromeda. There is barely 20% of Alpha and Beta Quads explored by ALL the known races and factions in-game that are playable, nevermind the rest of our own galaxy. All the major factions would be foolish to open the door to Andromeda without securing our own galaxy! We NEED proper procedurally generated exploration.
"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.
Which may not be possible with the current game engine and the game's more story driven experience.
Andromeda would be a clean slate for stories. Our own galaxy is somewhat dependant on CBS giving the green light. And right now the only Quadrant that can get more sectors without another new map is Delta.
I have no idea what these changes will be, but what I do know that as I player that has KDF mains and no FED character even to level 50 I'm getting sick of the few repetitive FED voices asking to break down the Faction wall so they can more easily play with the their KDF Alts with their Fed friends. I don't want the Faction wall broken down and the KDF merged into the Federation, and I've seen no evidence that others with KDF mains (NOT Alts) want it either. I would much rather see the walls between the Factions built up further than broken down.
Another gripe I have with some posters here is players who don't even PvP in STO falling over themselves to declare it dead and to shut it down. To Gre'thor with you people! There's no doubt PvP in STO has been horribly neglected, but there is a core of players who still enjoy the PvP crumbs Cryptic has left them, and some of them have of late been going out of their way to try and build up their community and draw in new players and teach them how to succeed in STO PvP. While personally I'm only an occasional PvPer in STO, the PvP community remains my go to for game mechanics information, for they are the creme de la creme of STO players in terms of both player skill and game mechanical knowledge. It's also worth noting many PvP players are also big spenders on this game, so while I'm not expecting any forthcoming improvements for PvP it would be beyond foolish for Cryptic to just shut them down altogether.
I agree on the KDF front. There is a huge KDF/Fed arc where they are at war with each other. You can't breakdown the faction walls without ignoring that! Although I do see potential for a version of the KDF AND Roms (Tal-Shiar Faction anyone) who split off to join J'Ula who were unhappy with being Feddy-bears.
"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.
Games that have a drastically different ruleset for PvE vs PvP solve this issue by having dual stats for things. One for PvE and one for PvP. For instance in one of the games I play, a super move in PvE will do 10 hits at 1066% of normal damage per hit. In PvP that would one shot you in the first hit so it does 1/10th of that damage in PvP. That means if all 10 hits happen, you die. But you would have to be some kind of terrible for all 10 hits to happen. And it is a super move. They have a fundimentally broken PvP system in this game. No if and or buts about it. They can solve it by say limiting gear to PvP only gear. Reduce effects of gear for PvP.
This is a game where gear defines your build. that's not gonna change any time soon.
The game I spent the most time PvPing in? Avengers Alliance. You needed a REALLY good build to stand a chance. If you didn't have one, you'd get rofl stomped without making a dent on the enemy. The setup I was using in the last tournament before the game went down was the sort of thing a new player would have had no way to counter and no hope of beating.
I don't know about that. Not trying to start anything but I would like to point out we used to have a moderator who didn't like the lesb*an klingons being included in a certain mission because he didn't want the possibility of his kids seeing it and he was removed as a moderator shortly after the backlash.
Not wanting to start anything either, and since it is a dangerous road and also kinda off topic for this thread, I wouldn't mind my answer getting edited by the current mod, but this disastrous discussion you mentioned has resulted in many "casualties" (forum blocks) on both sides, but for conduct not for content. Said discussion turned in parts very hostile and personal. And said former moderator may have been into it a bit more than advisable for his position or in general.
That being said: while a moderator, not being an employee, doesn't have to be all positive, all in-love-with-everything-about-the-game, it makes sense to choose people who are generally more positive compared to the general populace. First, up to a degree, his voice is taken by some to be that of the company, second, players mostly enjoying the game are more likely to stay on and stay motivated, third, a generally positive attitude shifts the athmosphere of the forums just that little bit also in conduct. That doesn't have to be a "yes man", that doesn't mean leaving your own opinion at the door, both would indeed be a huge negative, but generally liking something mostly makes the tone easier on neutrals than disliking it.
My mother was an epohh and my father smelled of tulaberries
I suspect we're in complete agreement vis-a-vis KDF "Mains".
My position on PvP is based on "do or do not." (TRIBBLE or get off the pot). and it's based on 9 years of podcasts and interviews showing that after they fired Gozer, they didn't have anyone who even plays PvP games, much less understands the development of them, so they really can't "Do".
With a different (better) team, they could have incremented the same exceptions used with Raider Flanking (or similar exceptions) and PvP would be balanced. With a different team, they could have implemented a working PvP reward system to incentivise good play, with a different team they could've finished the matchmaking algorithm and made something that actually functions and works, and still kept all the PvE intact.
But that's not the team Cryptic has, so it's pointless. The team they have, can't do these things and shouldn't be asked to do what they can't do.
Hence, they lost the bulk of the PvP community they almost had within 3 years of release, and what's left...isn't the sort that grows.
kind of too bad, because they started with quite a bit of potential and it COULD have been pretty good.
but it ain't now, and it can't be at this point, so it should go, because what's left is an embarrassment of vestigal code that's gone so long neglected that it's beyond the point of saving.
You and I both know they could tell a hell of a lot deeper story if they weren't so narrow-and even make PvP part of it, the parts to do it are all there, they just don't have the capability, and it's wrong to ask it of them when they literally can't understand the question.
I'm not going to disagree that the odds of Cryptic doing anything with PvP to be highly unlikely as I also agree they seem to have neither the inclination nor the know-how to do so. But that's no justification to ask them to shut what already exists down. Why does it matter to those that don't like PvP in STO whether it exists or not? Others albeit small in number do enjoy it, and if you don't you can safely ignore it as though it really didn't exist. Saying 'what's left of the PvP community isn't the sort that grows' shows real animus towards them, something I don't think is justified.. certainly not from my experience.
Conflict is often a part of story, and PvP is conflict. To be clear I'm not saying this big change has anything to do with PvP. In fact I'm almost certain its not.
I mean
-I really don't see them pulling some sort of procedural generated exploration system out of their TRIBBLE.
But they wouldn't need to 100% pull it out of a hat as they already have the base code of a procedural generated exploration system. The hardest part has already been solved by the devs which is the procedural generated maps/areas.
What if instead of starting from 0% they took the old system and modified/expanded/modernised it?
Doing something with the Klingons seems most likely. However, I would guess that they kill them off as a separate faction and officially fold them into the Federation (as we know that happens eventually in the STO timeline). That way, they'd only have to make 1 ship instead of 2 (just like they more or less dropped the Romulan ships).
But I think people underestimate how good procedurally generated stuff can be. The exploration clusters here were not a great example of it, even by standards of the time.
Back in the 1990s, there was a DOS program for a pen & paper RPG called Starmaster that procedurally generated planets down to cities and streets. It has ASCII graphics, but it was amazing.
I mean
-I really don't see them pulling some sort of procedural generated exploration system out of their TRIBBLE.
But they wouldn't need to 100% pull it out of a hat as they already have the base code of a procedural generated exploration system. The hardest part has already been solved by the devs which is the procedural generated maps/areas.
What if instead of starting from 0% they took the old system and modified/expanded/modernised it?
Because it didn't work the way you think it does? Genesis was never part of the game. "Exploration" missions weren't randomly generated on the fly while you explored. They were all pre-made missions where the bulk of the work of making the mission was done by Genesis, but each had to be manually tweaked because Genesis tended to spit out random nonsense.
I mean
-I really don't see them pulling some sort of procedural generated exploration system out of their TRIBBLE.
But they wouldn't need to 100% pull it out of a hat as they already have the base code of a procedural generated exploration system. The hardest part has already been solved by the devs which is the procedural generated maps/areas.
What if instead of starting from 0% they took the old system and modified/expanded/modernised it?
Because it wasn't a procedurally generated exploration system at all. It was a developer tool used to mass-produce lots of static premade maps with minimal work. I don't share som's extremely negative opinion about PGC, but the old system definitely wasn't it.
IMO the biggest point against real exploration (whether of procedurally generated or handmade content) is that it's fundamentally incompatible with Cryptic's long-term and recent policy, of content that holds the players' hands through every map, spoon-feeds solutions to everything they encounter and doesn't allow them to fail no matter what. It's just not exploration if the game tells players how to find everything and what they need to do when they find them.
Then again, changing that policy would in and of itself be a significant change.
That being said, I saw an interesting suggestion on my Reddit thread, where someone theorized that J'Ula and her forces may attack Qo'nos, and destroy the First City, and Cryptic will give us a revamped First City, and maybe do the Klingon faction mission revamps they have long said they wanted to do.
This would tie into the story, and throw a rather massive bone to the Klingon faction players, a group that has been notoriously unhappy.
I do like this idea, though. First City needs a major overhaul, one that could've happened storyline-wise with the Iconian attack on First City, but it would be nice to finally see another facelift done.
Star Trek Online Volunteer Community Moderator and Resident She-Wolf
Community Moderators are Unpaid Volunteers and NOT Employees of Gearbox/Cryptic
Views and Opinions May Not Reflect the Views and Opinions of Gearbox/Cryptic
Seeing talk about sector map size, I am reminded of them sunsetting the 32 Bit version of the game.
It's quite possible that the current max sizes for maps is also limited by the need to work on a 32 Bit computer. If that were the case, maybe the sector maps could be united.
I have no idea what these changes will be, but what I do know that as I player that has KDF mains and no FED character even to level 50 I'm getting sick of the few repetitive FED voices asking to break down the Faction wall so they can more easily play with the their KDF Alts with their Fed friends.
And I am getting sick of people treating me or others with Fed AND KDF characters as some kind of second tier players that don't deserve nice things.
But do you see me complaining?
Oh, yes, you do. Right here. You're welcome.
Don't act like you're belonging to some special awesome group just because you happen to only have KDF characters. You're just one of many players in this game, and just because an option doesn't interest you is not reason for it to be denied to the others. If you don't want to team up with Federation characters, don't do it.
What's worse is that i believe this attitude is actively hurting KDF fan , because the exclusion means that a decision for the KDF is a decision against where the majority of players are. That means less well-developed fleets to join, it is more difficult to set up a premade. And that means there are good reasons to actively decide against ever playing KDF. And if you don't play KDF, you also don't need KDF ships or uniforms, and few people would get excited about a KDF mission (or even to get excited about their KDF character getting special dialogue options).
That means Cryptic has less reasons to provide KDF content.
Your attitude is supporting the vicious cycle the KDF is in. It is not the solution, it is part of the problem.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Going to make a large group of players VERY happy.
Short list really
Trekies - Fly the galaxy map from the bridge. (likely)
Creative types - Foundry coming back. (unlikely)
Ship fans - All ships level up with you (unlikely because loss of revenue) (very unlikely)
Power gamers - Tier 7 ships (likely)
PvP - Dedicated PvP server (likely)
*****
other possibles
Cardasian character full story-line. (likely)
Seeing talk about sector map size, I am reminded of them sunsetting the 32 Bit version of the game.
It's quite possible that the current max sizes for maps is also limited by the need to work on a 32 Bit computer. If that were the case, maybe the sector maps could be united.
The map size is likely limited by what some programmer in the beginning decided was "big enough." Unfortunately in the world of software development, what seemed really, really big 10 years ago doesn't always stay that way.
Which is why you really should program things like map sizes so they can be adjustable in the future, but that's extra work and the boss wants it finished by tuesday, so...
I have no idea what these changes will be, but what I do know that as I player that has KDF mains and no FED character even to level 50 I'm getting sick of the few repetitive FED voices asking to break down the Faction wall so they can more easily play with the their KDF Alts with their Fed friends.
And I am getting sick of people treating me or others with Fed AND KDF characters as some kind of second tier players that don't deserve nice things.
But do you see me complaining?
Oh, yes, you do. Right here. You're welcome.
Don't act like you're belonging to some special awesome group just because you happen to only have KDF characters. You're just one of many players in this game, and just because an option doesn't interest you is not reason for it to be denied to the others. If you don't want to team up with Federation characters, don't do it.
What's worse is that i believe this attitude is actively hurting KDF fan , because the exclusion means that a decision for the KDF is a decision against where the majority of players are. That means less well-developed fleets to join, it is more difficult to set up a premade. And that means there are good reasons to actively decide against ever playing KDF. And if you don't play KDF, you also don't need KDF ships or uniforms, and few people would get excited about a KDF mission (or even to get excited about their KDF character getting special dialogue options).
That means Cryptic has less reasons to provide KDF content.
Your attitude is supporting the vicious cycle the KDF is in. It is not the solution, it is part of the problem.
Right. The restrictions are the reason KDF is "unprofitable." The best way to promote the playing of KDF toons is to let players do so with their existing friends and existing stuff they've bought. And the best way to promote the development of KDF stuff is to let everyone buy/play it instead of just a minority.
Comments
Another gripe I have with some posters here is players who don't even PvP in STO falling over themselves to declare it dead and to shut it down. To Gre'thor with you people! There's no doubt PvP in STO has been horribly neglected, but there is a core of players who still enjoy the PvP crumbs Cryptic has left them, and some of them have of late been going out of their way to try and build up their community and draw in new players and teach them how to succeed in STO PvP. While personally I'm only an occasional PvPer in STO, the PvP community remains my go to for game mechanics information, for they are the creme de la creme of STO players in terms of both player skill and game mechanical knowledge. It's also worth noting many PvP players are also big spenders on this game, so while I'm not expecting any forthcoming improvements for PvP it would be beyond foolish for Cryptic to just shut them down altogether.
It would be utterly illogical to go to Andromeda. There is barely 20% of Alpha and Beta Quads explored by ALL the known races and factions in-game that are playable, nevermind the rest of our own galaxy. All the major factions would be foolish to open the door to Andromeda without securing our own galaxy! We NEED proper procedurally generated exploration.
Andromeda would be a clean slate for stories. Our own galaxy is somewhat dependant on CBS giving the green light. And right now the only Quadrant that can get more sectors without another new map is Delta.
I agree on the KDF front. There is a huge KDF/Fed arc where they are at war with each other. You can't breakdown the faction walls without ignoring that! Although I do see potential for a version of the KDF AND Roms (Tal-Shiar Faction anyone) who split off to join J'Ula who were unhappy with being Feddy-bears.
However, that's over a century in STO's future, so who knows?
The game I spent the most time PvPing in? Avengers Alliance. You needed a REALLY good build to stand a chance. If you didn't have one, you'd get rofl stomped without making a dent on the enemy. The setup I was using in the last tournament before the game went down was the sort of thing a new player would have had no way to counter and no hope of beating.
My character Tsin'xing
Not wanting to start anything either, and since it is a dangerous road and also kinda off topic for this thread, I wouldn't mind my answer getting edited by the current mod, but this disastrous discussion you mentioned has resulted in many "casualties" (forum blocks) on both sides, but for conduct not for content. Said discussion turned in parts very hostile and personal. And said former moderator may have been into it a bit more than advisable for his position or in general.
That being said: while a moderator, not being an employee, doesn't have to be all positive, all in-love-with-everything-about-the-game, it makes sense to choose people who are generally more positive compared to the general populace. First, up to a degree, his voice is taken by some to be that of the company, second, players mostly enjoying the game are more likely to stay on and stay motivated, third, a generally positive attitude shifts the athmosphere of the forums just that little bit also in conduct. That doesn't have to be a "yes man", that doesn't mean leaving your own opinion at the door, both would indeed be a huge negative, but generally liking something mostly makes the tone easier on neutrals than disliking it.
I'm not going to disagree that the odds of Cryptic doing anything with PvP to be highly unlikely as I also agree they seem to have neither the inclination nor the know-how to do so. But that's no justification to ask them to shut what already exists down. Why does it matter to those that don't like PvP in STO whether it exists or not? Others albeit small in number do enjoy it, and if you don't you can safely ignore it as though it really didn't exist. Saying 'what's left of the PvP community isn't the sort that grows' shows real animus towards them, something I don't think is justified.. certainly not from my experience.
Conflict is often a part of story, and PvP is conflict. To be clear I'm not saying this big change has anything to do with PvP. In fact I'm almost certain its not.
What if instead of starting from 0% they took the old system and modified/expanded/modernised it?
But I think people underestimate how good procedurally generated stuff can be. The exploration clusters here were not a great example of it, even by standards of the time.
Back in the 1990s, there was a DOS program for a pen & paper RPG called Starmaster that procedurally generated planets down to cities and streets. It has ASCII graphics, but it was amazing.
My character Tsin'xing
IMO the biggest point against real exploration (whether of procedurally generated or handmade content) is that it's fundamentally incompatible with Cryptic's long-term and recent policy, of content that holds the players' hands through every map, spoon-feeds solutions to everything they encounter and doesn't allow them to fail no matter what. It's just not exploration if the game tells players how to find everything and what they need to do when they find them.
Then again, changing that policy would in and of itself be a significant change.
I do like this idea, though. First City needs a major overhaul, one that could've happened storyline-wise with the Iconian attack on First City, but it would be nice to finally see another facelift done.
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be ready to have a lot of job as a moderator, if that should happen one day
It's quite possible that the current max sizes for maps is also limited by the need to work on a 32 Bit computer. If that were the case, maybe the sector maps could be united.
And I am getting sick of people treating me or others with Fed AND KDF characters as some kind of second tier players that don't deserve nice things.
But do you see me complaining?
Oh, yes, you do. Right here. You're welcome.
Don't act like you're belonging to some special awesome group just because you happen to only have KDF characters. You're just one of many players in this game, and just because an option doesn't interest you is not reason for it to be denied to the others. If you don't want to team up with Federation characters, don't do it.
What's worse is that i believe this attitude is actively hurting KDF fan , because the exclusion means that a decision for the KDF is a decision against where the majority of players are. That means less well-developed fleets to join, it is more difficult to set up a premade. And that means there are good reasons to actively decide against ever playing KDF. And if you don't play KDF, you also don't need KDF ships or uniforms, and few people would get excited about a KDF mission (or even to get excited about their KDF character getting special dialogue options).
That means Cryptic has less reasons to provide KDF content.
Your attitude is supporting the vicious cycle the KDF is in. It is not the solution, it is part of the problem.
Short list really
Trekies - Fly the galaxy map from the bridge. (likely)
Creative types - Foundry coming back. (unlikely)
Ship fans - All ships level up with you (unlikely because loss of revenue) (very unlikely)
Power gamers - Tier 7 ships (likely)
PvP - Dedicated PvP server (likely)
*****
other possibles
Cardasian character full story-line. (likely)
My guesses
Which is why you really should program things like map sizes so they can be adjustable in the future, but that's extra work and the boss wants it finished by tuesday, so...
Right. The restrictions are the reason KDF is "unprofitable." The best way to promote the playing of KDF toons is to let players do so with their existing friends and existing stuff they've bought. And the best way to promote the development of KDF stuff is to let everyone buy/play it instead of just a minority.