Work hours
I don't know the exact size of the list of people on STO's payroll but I guess it isn't that big. So the problem is man*hours. See it as basic maths: first person worked 6 hours on a project, second worked 2, third, 4, etc... At the end of the project, you end up with, let's say 20 man*hours. That's a short project, since an average worker will work 2k hours in a year on average. Let's assume Cryptic dev team is 12 people, to ease the maths. First of all, Project Management 101, on a work team, the two people on the top of the food chain don't do anything productive. They waste their time time on PR, redundant micromanagement, follow up with needless requests from the hierarchy, etc... That leave 10 people working 2k hours a year, or 20k potential man*hours in a work year. I'm pretty sure that's not far from the truth, but I also think Cryptic has some workers worth on both STO and NW.
However, from what we've seen in the recent Risian festival, Cryptic has a tendency to overwork projects that are to be shelved. They made a poll, player chose the Dome Terraforming ship, Cryptic went ahead with the Weather Control ship. However, there were three ships. At some point we were showed three elaborate sketches. But then we saw some other artwork. That means that they spent a couple dozen man*hours on this. For 3 ships for a single event. The Measure of Morality also made a clear statement on this. Cryptic used dropped material from past project for some scenes. That means that quite a lot scenes get scripted, recorded, but are ultimately dropped because they make some last minute changes to the story telling. We're probably talking about several hundred of man*hours puts on material that ends up shelved.
Project precedence
I started playing a bit over two years ago. Ever since I joined, I've been hearing nonstop about "the next upcoming expansion". They never ever stop coming up with new content. CBS focus was Discovery, so Cryptic clearly was told to go that way. In exchange, the actors from the live show were made available for voice acting. CBS focus is once again Discovery, so I expect the "Year of the Klingon" to fade out and be replaced by more Discovery content, or the two of them being merged.
The project's precedence means that Q WW is left with scraps regarding man*hours, unless it fits current "main project" (adding Neelix during Delta Rising, adding Kramp'Ihri during the Fek'Ihri/Hurq emphasis during the Gamma Quadrant arc introduction
Politics Star Trek did touch delicate subject matters but STO is a game aiming a younger audience. So they must refrain from entering some minefields that would jeopardize their rating.
For example, someone suggested having a fling on Risa. Would totally makes sense from an in-universe PoV (off duty on vacation in a tropical resort) but ain't gonna happen.
The boss is always wrong but he's still the boss
We've all seen terrible moves in STO. Removing the Calendar, going on with Baseball, promising that they were to eventually add Vortas as a playable race to then adopt a hard line of closing any threads requesting this, etc... Such a parade of bad moves typically means the leather patch at the helm made those nonsensical decisions, and the underlings must comply or quit. Given STO even banned players from the forum for requesting Vortas, Cryptic leadership won't ever back down from something strictly based on popular demand.
That's simply silly. Q WW and Risian Lol'uhnat Festival have more notoriety and impact STO's image and Cryptic's corporate image far more that whatever "random next upcoming content that kept being released non stop for years", but the bosses who think they're smart think otherwise.
So, now what?
I'd love grandiose additions to Q WW, but ain't gonna happen. Whenever I want to make a suggestion, I have to keep in mind that it needs to be something that can be added easily and rapidly and that whatever "next upcoming content" has priority, even if numerous hours end up wasted.
So, for example:
New outfits for the players? For Q? No big deal... Takes one hour to sketch up, then a couple minute to feed in the rendering software, and the rest is done unattendedly.
Moving existing stuff around (within reason)? No big deal, takes minutes.
Adding another copy of an existing element? No big deal, couple minutes.
Adding an existing behaviour/buff/mechanism? Feasible.
Copying existing material from another map and repurpose it? That's tricky. Could be easy or could simply be impossible. Changing textures takes minute but recoding it can be a pain, especially if coding conflicts arise.
Coding brand new material? Arguably not gonna happen unless it's done in parallel with current main project
I still for the life of me do not understand why we need to get into all this. To me this is a distraction to the issue, do players want something new added or not. The how and why is on the owner, and I do not have the inclination nor information to give advice to them in that area. Also why bother speculating on "why" they can not do this or that, they can talk for themselves or do what I would expect say nothing. It is more than clear that logically, should it not be added, a choice was made not to do so. I really don't need to create reasons why, nor feel a need to speculation as to why. As from my POV not doing so is bad and not what I want.
I understand my role here, and its as a consumer of this content. I want it to work and be what I would like when it does. It really is that simple. Ergo, put more stuff in the WWL for 2020, something new. If they don't do it, well that action answers my question.
Work hours
I don't know the exact size of the list of people on STO's payroll but I guess it isn't that big. So the problem is man*hours. See it as basic maths: first person worked 6 hours on a project, second worked 2, third, 4, etc... At the end of the project, you end up with, let's say 20 man*hours. That's a short project, since an average worker will work 2k hours in a year on average. Let's assume Cryptic dev team is 12 people, to ease the maths. First of all, Project Management 101, on a work team, the two people on the top of the food chain don't do anything productive. They waste their time time on PR, redundant micromanagement, follow up with needless requests from the hierarchy, etc... That leave 10 people working 2k hours a year, or 20k potential man*hours in a work year. I'm pretty sure that's not far from the truth, but I also think Cryptic has some workers worth on both STO and NW.
However, from what we've seen in the recent Risian festival, Cryptic has a tendency to overwork projects that are to be shelved. They made a poll, player chose the Dome Terraforming ship, Cryptic went ahead with the Weather Control ship. However, there were three ships. At some point we were showed three elaborate sketches. But then we saw some other artwork. That means that they spent a couple dozen man*hours on this. For 3 ships for a single event. The Measure of Morality also made a clear statement on this. Cryptic used dropped material from past project for some scenes. That means that quite a lot scenes get scripted, recorded, but are ultimately dropped because they make some last minute changes to the story telling. We're probably talking about several hundred of man*hours puts on material that ends up shelved.
Project precedence
I started playing a bit over two years ago. Ever since I joined, I've been hearing nonstop about "the next upcoming expansion". They never ever stop coming up with new content. CBS focus was Discovery, so Cryptic clearly was told to go that way. In exchange, the actors from the live show were made available for voice acting. CBS focus is once again Discovery, so I expect the "Year of the Klingon" to fade out and be replaced by more Discovery content, or the two of them being merged.
The project's precedence means that Q WW is left with scraps regarding man*hours, unless it fits current "main project" (adding Neelix during Delta Rising, adding Kramp'Ihri during the Fek'Ihri/Hurq emphasis during the Gamma Quadrant arc introduction
Politics Star Trek did touch delicate subject matters but STO is a game aiming a younger audience. So they must refrain from entering some minefields that would jeopardize their rating.
For example, someone suggested having a fling on Risa. Would totally makes sense from an in-universe PoV (off duty on vacation in a tropical resort) but ain't gonna happen.
The boss is always wrong but he's still the boss
We've all seen terrible moves in STO. Removing the Calendar, going on with Baseball, promising that they were to eventually add Vortas as a playable race to then adopt a hard line of closing any threads requesting this, etc... Such a parade of bad moves typically means the leather patch at the helm made those nonsensical decisions, and the underlings must comply or quit. Given STO even banned players from the forum for requesting Vortas, Cryptic leadership won't ever back down from something strictly based on popular demand.
That's simply silly. Q WW and Risian Lol'uhnat Festival have more notoriety and impact STO's image and Cryptic's corporate image far more that whatever "random next upcoming content that kept being released non stop for years", but the bosses who think they're smart think otherwise.
So, now what?
I'd love grandiose additions to Q WW, but ain't gonna happen. Whenever I want to make a suggestion, I have to keep in mind that it needs to be something that can be added easily and rapidly and that whatever "next upcoming content" has priority, even if numerous hours end up wasted.
So, for example:
New outfits for the players? For Q? No big deal... Takes one hour to sketch up, then a couple minute to feed in the rendering software, and the rest is done unattendedly.
Moving existing stuff around (within reason)? No big deal, takes minutes.
Adding another copy of an existing element? No big deal, couple minutes.
Adding an existing behaviour/buff/mechanism? Feasible.
Copying existing material from another map and repurpose it? That's tricky. Could be easy or could simply be impossible. Changing textures takes minute but recoding it can be a pain, especially if coding conflicts arise.
Coding brand new material? Arguably not gonna happen unless it's done in parallel with current main project
I still for the life of me do not understand why we need to get into all this. To me this is a distraction to the issue, do players want something new added or not. The how and why is on the owner, and I do not have the inclination nor information to give advice to them in that area. Also why bother speculating on "why" they can not do this or that, they can talk for themselves or do what I would expect say nothing. It is more than clear that logically, should it not be added, a choice was made not to do so. I really don't need to create reasons why, nor feel a need to speculation as to why. As from my POV not doing so is bad and not what I want.
I understand my role here, and its as a consumer of this content. I want it to work and be what I would like when it does. It really is that simple. Ergo, put more stuff in the WWL for 2020, something new. If they don't do it, well that action answers my question.
I tried to explain why some ideas are a lost cause.
ANd you are right, things would be less of a hassle if Cryptic showed us some respect by acknowledging us and responding to key threads instead of solely responding to select few forum people on select few threads, that always are in favour of Cryptic...
Contrary to you, those they (Cryptic) responds to are not always in favor of Cryptic.
Winter Wonderland Ground battlezone (normal open battlezone instance size of 15 chars max) with multiple map objectives with extra rewards (earmuffs, candles, incense, etc) for each objective plus special rewards for beating the zone boss(es). Optionally limit weapons to winter weapons.
Winter Wonderland Ground battlezone (normal open battlezone instance size of 15 chars max) with multiple map objectives with extra rewards (earmuffs, candles, incense, etc) for each objective plus special rewards for beating the zone boss(es). Optionally limit weapons to winter weapons.
Comments
I still for the life of me do not understand why we need to get into all this. To me this is a distraction to the issue, do players want something new added or not. The how and why is on the owner, and I do not have the inclination nor information to give advice to them in that area. Also why bother speculating on "why" they can not do this or that, they can talk for themselves or do what I would expect say nothing. It is more than clear that logically, should it not be added, a choice was made not to do so. I really don't need to create reasons why, nor feel a need to speculation as to why. As from my POV not doing so is bad and not what I want.
I understand my role here, and its as a consumer of this content. I want it to work and be what I would like when it does. It really is that simple. Ergo, put more stuff in the WWL for 2020, something new. If they don't do it, well that action answers my question.
Contrary to you, those they (Cryptic) responds to are not always in favor of Cryptic.
I like it
However please do so in a new thread. BEGONE ZOMBIE!
*casts Holy Photon Torpedo*