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Have you personally impacted the game?

section31agent#8506 section31agent Member Posts: 665 Arc User
STO had been out for several years and there were certain Klingon players who made life in Kerrat miserable for Federation players trying to farm the Borg. These guys were absolutely merciless. After being hunted and attacked several times myself I decided to find a way to get under their skin.

*Note I never used any sort of keybind, hack, or bot. I prefer to outsmart my opponents with Science. Still do 😁

Back in the day the Science power Viral Matrix looked very different from the beam effect you see today. It used to be a small purple pea shape that was rather inconspicuous. My main toon was a Tactical Captain flying an Intrepid class Science Torpedo boat. I came up with an idea that I thought was very clever. The fireworks emote had recently been given to players. Subterfuge was going to be my weapon of choice. I would taunt opponents into attacking me in the area just outside the moon of Kerrat. I would claim that I would use my "Omega" weapon on my enemies. New powers were constantly being released into the game. So at the beginning of combat I would activate the fireworks emote 🎇 (at the same time I used it as cover to activate Viral Matrix 3) the results were awesome 💥!!! Next thing my opponents knew systems started going offline. Torpedo Spread 3 made short work of the Klingons. Well the opponents cried and complained and repeatedly reported me to the Devs. After investigations they told them that I wasn't cheating. That wasn't good enough so surveillance continued. Eventually a Dev figured out what was happening and sent me a PM to stop harassing the Klingons. Even though I wasn't violating any rules the Devs were upset with me. They started nerfing Science powers like Scramble Sensors because I would turn on Ablative Armor and fly into a nest of Klingons. All hell would break loose as the scrambled sensors caused them to target other Klingons. Because Klingon players were not set up to defend against disruptors the carnage was massive. Once again the Devs got an earful from the disgruntled Klingons. So the response was to nerf the science ability and to change my subterfuge effect to a beam effect. Ah... the good old days. Stardagger the wanna be Romulan before we had a Romulan faction, he crossed the line and got the lifetime ban. It felt so good to consistently defeat him and his band of brothers knowing that I was 💯% legal. Sometimes I really, really, miss the old days...
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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Comments

  • gaevsmangaevsman Member Posts: 3,190 Arc User
    Because of a joke i made years ago about Orion poledancers, we ended up getting Orion table dancers on the Klingon Starbase (dunno if they still exist, i'm not in a klingon fleet anymore), so it was a good idea after all.. :lol:
    The forces of darkness are upon us!
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,231 Arc User
    gaevsman wrote: »
    Because of a joke i made years ago about Orion poledancers, we ended up getting Orion table dancers on the Klingon Starbase (dunno if they still exist, i'm not in a klingon fleet anymore), so it was a good idea after all.. :lol:
    Well... they were a logical choice to add. :p
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    My character Tsin'xing
    Costume_marhawkman_Tsin%27xing_CC_Comic_Page_Blue_488916968.jpg
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,512 Arc User
    Nope, but I like to think I've helped a few players here in the forums over the years.
  • jexsamxjexsamx Member Posts: 2,802 Arc User
    gaevsman wrote: »
    Because of a joke i made years ago about Orion poledancers, we ended up getting Orion table dancers on the Klingon Starbase (dunno if they still exist, i'm not in a klingon fleet anymore), so it was a good idea after all.. :lol:

    I distinctly remember there being an event wherein several people lamented that the Orion stages lacked proper poles, as those are a necessity for pole dancing, and one of the devs said something akin to "We tried, but they told us it was a bit much."
  • section31agent#8506 section31agent Member Posts: 665 Arc User
    > @jexsamx said:
    > (Quote)
    >
    > I distinctly remember there being an event wherein several people lamented that the Orion stages lacked proper poles, as those are a necessity for pole dancing, and one of the devs said something akin to "We tried, but they told us it was a bit much."

    Apparently it was not too much to have topless dudes dancing on a table in a mission. 🙄 Uh... yeah. Whose idea was it to bind the drink from the yesteryear mission to the toon? I was making a fortune selling those 🍸 on the exchange. Not to mention giving them to the nice ladies at the club on ESD 🤪
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,231 Arc User
    arnthebard wrote: »
    > @jexsamx said:
    > (Quote)
    >
    > I distinctly remember there being an event wherein several people lamented that the Orion stages lacked proper poles, as those are a necessity for pole dancing, and one of the devs said something akin to "We tried, but they told us it was a bit much."

    Apparently it was not too much to have topless dudes dancing on a table in a mission. 🙄 Uh... yeah. Whose idea was it to bind the drink from the yesteryear mission to the toon? I was making a fortune selling those 🍸 on the exchange. Not to mention giving them to the nice ladies at the club on ESD 🤪
    The way I remember it, the explanation was that getting the dancer to actually GRAB the pole as part of the dance was the issue. The easiest way would be to fake it by having the pole as part of the dance animation and not part of the environment. the game just isn't setup to have characters actually grab environmental objects.
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    My character Tsin'xing
    Costume_marhawkman_Tsin%27xing_CC_Comic_Page_Blue_488916968.jpg
  • darkbladejkdarkbladejk Member Posts: 3,715 Community Moderator
    If we really want to go there, I've seen many a report myself and other Bug Hunters submit make it into patch notes for fixing. I also like to think I helped convince Borticus back in the day to give us Threatening Posture on ground to go along with Threatening Stance in space. Without that tanking on ground would be far more difficult. I also like to think I talked them into adding the Galor to the Vanguard pack since it is/was one of the most iconic Cardassian ships. Even if it wasn't me that talked them into that one that's still what I tell everyone cause reasons lols.
    "Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again." - Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek Generations

    Star Trek Online volunteer Community Moderator
  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 58,015 Community Moderator
    gaevsman wrote: »
    Because of a joke i made years ago about Orion poledancers, we ended up getting Orion table dancers on the Klingon Starbase (dunno if they still exist, i'm not in a klingon fleet anymore), so it was a good idea after all.. :lol:

    They still exist. That and the fireplace in the KDF Base Bar makes it better than the Fed bar. Almost a hunting lodge feel with dancers for those who like that kind of thing...
    <.<
    >.>
    Getting distracted again...
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • fleetcaptain5#1134 fleetcaptain5 Member Posts: 4,786 Arc User
    I, and probably many other Caitians, walked on the buildings on Defera.

    And then it wasn't possible anymore.


    I've also filed a bug report once, explaining how ships in the Azure Nebula were liberated by hiding behind the asteroids. I wouldn't be surprised if I were the game's biggest hero.

    ;)
    [4:46] [Combat {self}] Your Haymaker deals 23337 (9049) Physical Damage(Critical) to Spawnmother

    [3/25 10:41][Combat (Self)]Your Haymaker deals 26187 (10692) Physical Damage(Critical) to Orinoco.
  • jonsillsjonsills Member Posts: 10,361 Arc User
    I made sure that Law's ears had points (the mission almost went live with a human-looking Law!). I also take credit for correcting the spelling of the word in the Gorn leader's dialog on Kassae IV to "fluctuations".

    Yeah, not major impacts, but then again I'm not a major figure, so... :smirk:
    Lorna-Wing-sig.png
  • fleetcaptain5#1134 fleetcaptain5 Member Posts: 4,786 Arc User
    jonsills wrote: »
    I made sure that Law's ears had points (the mission almost went live with a human-looking Law!). I also take credit for correcting the spelling of the word in the Gorn leader's dialog on Kassae IV to "fluctuations".

    Yeah, not major impacts, but then again I'm not a major figure, so... :smirk:

    In the latest episode, there's a 'then' somewhere where it should read 'than'.

    I have not reported this yet, if you want to do it, go ahead ;)
    [4:46] [Combat {self}] Your Haymaker deals 23337 (9049) Physical Damage(Critical) to Spawnmother

    [3/25 10:41][Combat (Self)]Your Haymaker deals 26187 (10692) Physical Damage(Critical) to Orinoco.
  • sthe91sthe91 Member Posts: 5,451 Arc User
    edited February 2020
    I like to think that I am impacting the game especially when the in-game bug report system actually issued tickets which it does not do now. Still wish they would fix it so you can be given a ticket number as well as see your tickets online in-game. I also try to help Star Trek Online players in the chat and forums. Though thinking of the recent featured episode, the holo Michael Burnham has an errant comma in her written dialogue.
    Where there is a Will, there is a Way.
  • jslynjslyn Member Posts: 1,784 Arc User
    A few times, I had suggested a lateral Advance Class system which is closed to what the Specializations System that came out a year or so later is. I am not taking credit for the system. itself; it was more like just throwing out an idea that stuck in someone's head and they decided to run with it.
  • truewarpertruewarper Member Posts: 928 Arc User
    If there were anything I give an idea for the game...eons ago. Is lost in the previous old forums. The only thing left, a new updated game engine?

    Can we not dream?
    52611496918_3c42b8bab8.jpg
    Departing from Sol *Earth* by Carlos A Smith,on Flickr
    SPACE---The Last and Great Frontier. A 14th-year journey
    Vna res, una mens, unum cor et anima una. Cetera omnia, somnium est.
  • centaurianalphacentaurianalpha Member Posts: 1,150 Arc User
    jslyn wrote: »
    A few times, I had suggested a lateral Advance Class system which is closed to what the Specializations System that came out a year or so later is. I am not taking credit for the system. itself; it was more like just throwing out an idea that stuck in someone's head and they decided to run with it.

    This; except in my case, I proposed that there be some sort of 'loyalty' or 'longevity' reward for completing multiple server events, along the lines of preserving the 'exclusivity' that Cryptic had favored for long-time players. Their solution now expressed in the 3-event reward packs now a regular part of the event cycle, and increasing daily dil rewards for those who exceed the minimum number of event runs.

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    Welcome to StarBug Online - to boldly Bug where no bug has been before!
    STO player since November 2013
  • tribbulatertribbulater Member Posts: 292 Arc User
    I have, several times. I try not to do it anymore though because it's hard on the knuckles and new screens get expensive.
  • sthe91sthe91 Member Posts: 5,451 Arc User
    I have, several times. I try not to do it anymore though because it's hard on the knuckles and new screens get expensive.

    LOL
    Where there is a Will, there is a Way.
  • questeriusquesterius Member Posts: 8,316 Arc User
    I'd like to think that every time you help someone in the game you impact the game directly.
    This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
  • ltminnsltminns Member Posts: 12,569 Arc User
    @sthe91

    You must have had an effect, they're using your picture on the game promos. :)
    '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
  • rinzler2112#7472 rinzler2112 Member Posts: 8 Arc User
    I hope the people I have helped has caused a pay it forward ripple effect. I try to be as helpful and generous as my wallet and time allows.
  • husanakxhusanakx Member Posts: 1,593 Arc User
    arnthebard wrote: »
    STO had been out for several years and there were certain Klingon players who made life in Kerrat miserable for Federation players trying to farm the Borg. These guys were absolutely merciless. After being hunted and attacked several times myself I decided to find a way to get under their skin.

    *Note I never used any sort of keybind, hack, or bot. I prefer to outsmart my opponents with Science. Still do 😁

    Back in the day the Science power Viral Matrix looked very different from the beam effect you see today. It used to be a small purple pea shape that was rather inconspicuous. My main toon was a Tactical Captain flying an Intrepid class Science Torpedo boat. I came up with an idea that I thought was very clever. The fireworks emote had recently been given to players. Subterfuge was going to be my weapon of choice. I would taunt opponents into attacking me in the area just outside the moon of Kerrat. I would claim that I would use my "Omega" weapon on my enemies. New powers were constantly being released into the game. So at the beginning of combat I would activate the fireworks emote 🎇 (at the same time I used it as cover to activate Viral Matrix 3) the results were awesome 💥!!! Next thing my opponents knew systems started going offline. Torpedo Spread 3 made short work of the Klingons. Well the opponents cried and complained and repeatedly reported me to the Devs. After investigations they told them that I wasn't cheating. That wasn't good enough so surveillance continued. Eventually a Dev figured out what was happening and sent me a PM to stop harassing the Klingons. Even though I wasn't violating any rules the Devs were upset with me. They started nerfing Science powers like Scramble Sensors because I would turn on Ablative Armor and fly into a nest of Klingons. All hell would break loose as the scrambled sensors caused them to target other Klingons. Because Klingon players were not set up to defend against disruptors the carnage was massive. Once again the Devs got an earful from the disgruntled Klingons. So the response was to nerf the science ability and to change my subterfuge effect to a beam effect. Ah... the good old days. Stardagger the wanna be Romulan before we had a Romulan faction, he crossed the line and got the lifetime ban. It felt so good to consistently defeat him and his band of brothers knowing that I was 💯% legal. Sometimes I really, really, miss the old days...

    Sounds like you had lots of fun in early PvP many of us did. As a member of Razor (the fleet you seem to be talking about lead by StarDagger) we had a lot of fun blowing up a lot of people... and I don't remember a time where we where fooled by any sci, we tended to fly a lot of Science themed birds of prey. The science "nerfs" where pretty much all PvE related. Sci was all fun and games in PvP and no one at Cryptic cared until some PvE player used sci magic to pull off some 30 second speed run of PvE content. The old versions of VM where all annoying and or broken in their own ways. The first version was abused by Klingons mostly as you could VM people out of cloak and almost always respawn them before they even knew they where being shot at.

    For the record StarDagger never received any bans of any kind. (in fact he had a note on his account... as he was often reported for his antics. If I remember correctly he was immune from the auto mute, cause Cryptic got sick of unmuting him. He was never banned because although he may have annoyed some people he never used foul language, never used personal insults that where not heavy on the RP and never did anything not allowed by the game... he would never do stupid things like follow people out of the PvP zone ect. He played kerrat exactly as Crytpic intended, and its where he was 99% of the time.)

    He did leave the game however... as did most of the those early PvP players. (most of whom played KDF... as it was a PvP leveling faction at launch) Sadly Cryptic never made PvP a priority or even paid enough attention to it to keep a lot of PvP players around after year 2 or 3. Star Dagger also returned when they released Romulans for real... unfortunately all the same PvP issues that where there when he and many others left where still in game and his return was short lived. (at that time I welcomed many good old PvP friends... and non of them stayed much longer then it took to see what the greatest expansion ever looked like. I would say they loved it and stayed but alas they did not)

    What have I done that I take pride in... hmmm fixed the market a lot. Dropped 100s of millions of worthless stuff on bad market workers... collecting their EC and I assume tears. I have to imagine them bashing their keyboards as opposed to the old days of reading their frustration in Kerat zone chat. Made sure to use as many badly designed items in PvE speed runs as possible to facilitate "nerfs". The 1.5 million damage tricobalt mine pattern insta killing gates and cubes was a personal favorite. Those lasted on live all of a week. :) And I will say that after months of complaining about FAW around year 3 or 4 the PvP community found a way to get it fixed... all that was needed was to upload a few videos of sub 30s Borg infected runs. STO is full of cool sharing space communists. I have also had a good time giving away lockbox ships here and there... even got the favor returned at one point in a completely different game. Same handle and someone recognized me and gave me a nice headstart there as a thank you.

  • littlesarbonnlittlesarbonn Member Posts: 486 Arc User
    I contributed a lot in the early days of the Foundry, constantly trying to change the template locations to be much different from the established norms. And yes, I broke the Foundry so many times by adding layer onto layer to try to script different environments. But also found a bunch of ground-breaking processes that were pretty useful. I really miss the foundry.
    Fleet Admiral Duane Gundrum, U.S.S. Merrimack
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  • thunderfoot#5163 thunderfoot Member Posts: 4,540 Arc User
    My ego is just out of control enough to loudly announce to all within hearing, "Yes! I have!"
    My common sense tells me I am just one among many and players who have made a difference in this game are very few and very far between.
    I have helped some players and upset far more others.
    I'd like to think what little impact I've created on STO is positive in nature but I cannot say for certain this is true.
    A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,231 Arc User
    I contributed a lot in the early days of the Foundry, constantly trying to change the template locations to be much different from the established norms. And yes, I broke the Foundry so many times by adding layer onto layer to try to script different environments. But also found a bunch of ground-breaking processes that were pretty useful. I really miss the foundry.
    Yeah, Foundry was great, maybe someday we'll get a Foundry 2.0.... maybe.
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    My character Tsin'xing
    Costume_marhawkman_Tsin%27xing_CC_Comic_Page_Blue_488916968.jpg
  • section31agent#8506 section31agent Member Posts: 665 Arc User
    > @markhawkman said:
    > (Quote)
    > Yeah, Foundry was great, maybe someday we'll get a Foundry 2.0.... maybe.

    Assuming we do get another Foundry my hope is that they release it with a COMPLETE set of DEV tools including voiceovers. I would even be happy with a review council that took submissions for publication. That way you stop the quickie blow something up missions and get more into the storyline missions. That's my 2¢ not that it's worth anything... 😁
  • duncanidaho11duncanidaho11 Member Posts: 7,867 Arc User
    edited February 2020
    arnthebard wrote: »
    > @markhawkman said:
    > (Quote)
    > Yeah, Foundry was great, maybe someday we'll get a Foundry 2.0.... maybe.

    Assuming we do get another Foundry my hope is that they release it with a COMPLETE set of DEV tools including voiceovers. I would even be happy with a review council that took submissions for publication. That way you stop the quickie blow something up missions and get more into the storyline missions. That's my 2¢ not that it's worth anything... 😁

    As one of the top Foundry authors I would offer a polite "no" to those suggestions.

    Jesse Heinig showed off Cryptic's content design tools once on Ten Forward weekly. They are less much efficient at doing simple things than the Foundry (ex. optional dialog contacts, dialog trees, setting up combat mobs with scaling difficulty, building maps out of a large number of existing assets) and would have served as a significant barrier to entry and creative roadblock. What we had in the Foundry was better for where we were coming from and they allowed us to do things which the devs weren't able to as frequently (because for them things like optional dialog and contextually-scaling combat are much more involving to set up) in addition to making the process of building an elaborate mission yourself a lot more viable.

    To VO: the amount of projects that could have coordinated voice overs of even reasonable quality I count as four in the life of Foundry 1.0 (Purity, Photonomy, AEI, ICO.) Nothing else had the scale or number of people involved to provide a passable ensemble performance across multiple missions, and this is coming from an accessible system. That leaves single author narrations as the most likely target for this and, as a format, that would be completely new to players (requiring an even greater adjustment than reading, which we already do for Boffs, display information, and older content.) If we had the option back in the day I think it would have been more frequently requested to NOT use it.

    Add to this: the problems for Cryptic in storing hundreds of thousands of hours of player-uploaded VO (a large portion of which will never be used or used sufficiently to justify bandwidth and storage costs) and distributing that without detonating load times or bandwidth. Modded games like Skyrim make use of 3rd party distribution like Nexus or the Steam Workshop and what's being modified are not live MMO's (where modifying an asset could potentially break the rest of the game for the rest of the population. See. the Dyson/Jenolan ground maps recently.)

    If ever the devs decide to take another stab at a UGC system (whether or not it involves missions) they should capitalize on the Foundry's core strength (bringing a creator's voice to as many people as possible in one system that could be handled by a single individual without technical experience) and prioritize making the system as bullet proof as possible. Bring back and enhance the ability for players to impact the game directly for other players. Whether or not we had the capability to copy the devs exactly was not the deciding factor in whether the system remained, it didn't prevent the Foundry from having a tremendous impact (far from it, the limitations helped channel effort into far more productive areas like plot), nor is it what folks are lamenting most now.

    (Old topic and one I still care about.)

    And to the thread: Lt. Tardigrade
    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!
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,231 Arc User
    One interesting thing is that someone did actually make a tool that was a cludgy way of adding VO, but it used a third party website to stream audio.
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    My character Tsin'xing
    Costume_marhawkman_Tsin%27xing_CC_Comic_Page_Blue_488916968.jpg
  • echattyechatty Member Posts: 5,914 Arc User
    Can't say I've impacted the game in any significant way, though I've helped people when I could over the years. That's about all I can say I've done. As to the game itself, no.
    Now a LTS and loving it.
    Just because you spend money on this game, it does not entitle you to be a jerk if things don't go your way.
    I have come to the conclusion that I have a memory like Etch-A-Sketch. I shake my head and forget everything. :D
  • fleetcaptain5#1134 fleetcaptain5 Member Posts: 4,786 Arc User
    And of course I originally served as inspiration for the game's only Corvette ;)
    [4:46] [Combat {self}] Your Haymaker deals 23337 (9049) Physical Damage(Critical) to Spawnmother

    [3/25 10:41][Combat (Self)]Your Haymaker deals 26187 (10692) Physical Damage(Critical) to Orinoco.
This discussion has been closed.