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Ten Forward Weekly 4/4/23
protoneous
Member Posts: 2,991 Arc User
From: https://reddit.com/r/sto/comments/12c6elj/ten_forward_weekly_4423/
Credit to: https://reddit.com/user/TheSajuukKhar/
Credit to: https://reddit.com/user/TheSajuukKhar/
- Cryptic is looking into the "invalid entity name" bug
- Tommy Gun hasn't been added to Mudds because its in the Picard bundle and they want to keep it exclusive to that bundle
- Section 31 Rifle not being in Mudds is likely just because it got forgotten
- Kael believes the reason why the medical coat doesn't work on more uniforms is that the minor clipping it already has turned into major clipping on those other uniforms
- The reason why there was no new April Fools thing this year is because Kael put a lot of work into something, but forgot to ask Al if it was something they could do, and only found out it wasn't a week before April 1st. The reason why Kael can't do the idea is also the reason he can't talk about the idea he came up with. It would've apparently got them in big trouble with Paramount due to something Kael didn't know about at the time, but mentioning what that is now would still possibly get them in trouble with Paramount.
- No plans to make Tribble Darts an official activity. Its a fun bug, which is why they've left it in, but unlikely anyone will spend time to make it official
- Unlikely to make April Fools artinasal sound files a permanent option year round. Cryptic doesn't want someone possibly hitting the wrong setting in the options menu and accidentally turning it on/don't know how to turn it off.
- Consoles are behind PC event wise due to long certification processes on consoles, and Cryptic can't update consoles as often as PC due to the certification process. Makes sense to release stuff on PC, and incorporate fixes into the console push so theres less need to update consoles
- Kael will ask about the Voth Mech tray being able to be rearranged
- Kael noted the bug report of newer PC installs of STO not creating a screenshot folder, making saving outfits/custom ships impossible unless players create the folder manually
- Unlikely to get more support/documentation on Demorecord. Demorecord is technically an internal piece of software that Kael isn't sure how/why it got released publicly(though hes glad it did). But, because of that, its technically not a supported featured, and is something Cryptic has aged out of using themselves, so its unlikely to get updates.
- Cryptic probably wont make an option to be able to claim ships without the generic weapons. Those are there for new players to have items on their ship when they claim it. Much like the April Fools audio they don't want people accidentally turning that on in the options menu, and then being confused about why theres no weapons on the ship they just claimed.
- Unlikely they will move console power trays to PC. The console UI was completely redone for consoles, to make it better on console.
- More details about the First Contact Day event will come out tomorrow
- Event calendar unlikely to return. It was a huge pain in the butt
- Kael will pass the bug report that consoles weren't getting April Fools stuff
- STO is now in the Playstation store for many of the countries it was reported to be missing on before. Not in stores in Brazil yet because Brazil has its own process
- No update on the Fed tutorial bridge becoming playable
- Unlikely they will unlock the Klingon Honor Guard outfit for Feds. People on the Cryptic team will want to keep that exclusive to Klingons
- After the First Contact Day Event, and the RA event after it, is around when the next story content should drop
- The new Terran bridges will hopefully be made playable when the new Federation ones are
- First Contact Day event reward created the Chronogami time portal from Lower Decks. Target a ship, opens up a time portal pulling out a future version of the ship right before its destroyed. Immediately going into warp core breach. when the original version of the ship is about to be destroyed it falls into a time portal.
- Kael thinks the team wouldn't want playable humans in the KDF faction due to cultural differences between the two groups. KDF being in Feds makes sense due to the rare chances where they feel more like they belong there. Team unlikely to think the reverse makes sense
- No updates for UI hiding/camera zoom for consoles. Kael mentions it to Travis every once in awhile, and Travis is excited to do it, but get buried in other work
- Kael will ask about an option for alien gen that lets us name the species
- Unlikely they will do a level cap increase past 65. That was something a previous EP liked to do, but its a lot of work for not a lot back for the game
- Some SNW related content coming soon
- When asked about why there hasn't been a regular Zen store KDF ship in years, and if it was due to it no longer being economically viable, or other priorities keep pushing it aside, Kael says its a bit of both. Klingon ships sell less well then Federation ships(as do all non Fed ships). Most people play STO to live the Star Trek fantasy from the shows, so they play Federation/buy Federation ships. So it makes more sense to make Fed sips. There's also the fact that most of the new ships from the new shows are Federation ships, so that also pushes them in that direction. Kael would like to see more Klingon ships, and more Klingon zen store ships, but he doesn't know if thats on the horizon. Looked at the ship list and said it doesn't seem like it.
- Kael mentioned to the character team how much people want to edit the Miracle worker BOFF. Says it might happen
- Unlikely that legendary ships will be sold individually/outside their bundles
- There might be updates for STO on the newest gen consoles at some point to increase framerate/load times/resolution. But nothing that makes the game look better than it currently does
- To get Feds to be able to visit First city, or KDF to visit ESD, they would completely have to redo a lot of the underlying faction code since that causes Fed NPCs to attack KDF players and vice versa.
- No lore blogs for the upcoming legendary ships. Team no longer has time to do lore blogs. Kael may take on responsibility of doing lore blogs, but other changing responsibilities at the company may effect what free time he has to do that
- GPL updates are a very low priority
- Kael will pass on the idea of released the gold Nagus ship in the GPL store for an insane amount of GPL. Admits it unlikely to happen because the team is terrified of that ship due to the backlash when it first came out.
- We will see new NPC species in the upcoming storyline. Kael can't say what they are, but they are new
- Cryptic is working on tailor lag issues
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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Comments
Secondly...
Yes this!!! Several times this!!! Please this!!!
These people have no idea how their own species works, do they?
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
pretty much. and I'm sure the fact that many people only play human and if they could be human and kdf aligned they would which would increase the demand for non fed content has nothing to do with it.
if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Still, would this actually be a problem for anyone?
When creating a character, you automatically get some gear to start with. And it's not like you don't pick up more immediately after. Players can also ask in chat if they're not sure why they're not getting gear after having turned off that feature by accident.
[3/25 10:41][Combat (Self)]Your Haymaker deals 26187 (10692) Physical Damage(Critical) to Orinoco.
This, and the bit about the in-game calendar make me sad.
There's so many things that have been cut out, or which aren't updated anymore. I think we all understand that priorities need to be set, but it is concerning that ever fewer features remain. Comments like these - which suggest that limited resources are available to basically work on, well, basically anything - really do give off the impression that STO is not doing very well.
[3/25 10:41][Combat (Self)]Your Haymaker deals 26187 (10692) Physical Damage(Critical) to Orinoco.
I can certainly see people having that impression, but STO was something like Gearbox's number 5 earner last time they did a financial statement, so they're pretty profitable. Problem seems to be that they're not re-investing that money back into the game as much as seems worthwhile to us players. 'Better game' seems like it'd make more money in the long term, but they're probably focused on the short-term and are cutting expenses (I.E. game dev time) instead.
Okay, Phoenix, one more time - you're not getting playable Vorta because the Vorta, unlike the Jem'Hadar, don't have complete freedom of themselves, they must serve the Founders, or anyway *a* Founder. The Jem'Hadar were kept in line with an instilled addiction to ketracel white, but the Vorta were genetically engineered to worship the Founders. Maybe you could find some of the original stock who had separately evolved sapience after the Founders returned to the Great Link with their Vorta servants, but they'd be no more "members of the Dominion" than, say, Humans or Klingons.
I didn't ask what they are, I asked whether it was an actual species or something cryptic invented themselves like the deferi. I didn't ask what species he's referring to. 'New' could mean either of those things
Both species have the same programming as far as worshiping the founders. Addicting them to the white was a necessary measure as a backup method of control in case they overcame that programming, given the fact that unlike the vorta they're genetically engineered killing machines and not something you want to lose control over. Vorta aren't exactly 100% loyal to their programming either as weyoun showed multiple times, one of which flat out tried to kill a founder in ds9, knowing full well it was directly against his instructions, and actively tried to hide that behavior from a founder
Surprise, surprise 🙄
I really think it is unreasonable that they wouldn’t release at least one KDF ship a year. We got 4 ledgendary Romulan ships. And only one for KDF. Ok there are 3 but 2 are locked behind the worst bundle ever. And the B’rel was particularly underwhelming. As much as I would love to try the ledgendary Vorcha. At 300 for a ship, I might as well just buy lockbox keys…
Were the Founders as a society to choose one faction or another to follow in Alpha Quad, the Vorta might be able to serve, but as things stand, they don't have "free will" as we understand it. (The Jem in the game, otoh, are working to overcome their addiction to the white, thus becoming truly free of their masters.)
It still baffles me as to why some people would want to play humans in a game, where you can anything but human, look at the vastly superior vulcans, they're long lived, they're hot (they'll still be in their 20s, while you'll grow into an old person), pointy elf ears, super strength, nerve pinch and mind melds.
Also if we're putting a Federation race on the KDF side, the Ferengi is literally right there, I mean really you see plenty of Ferengis on Qo'noS, then you would on ESD, there's like 2 Ferengis on ESD (both are right beside the tailor shop) while Qo'noS has like 4 or 5 Ferengis trying to scam you for latinum.
Could be for all sorts of reasons.
Most characters from the show - or even Starfleet officers in general - were humans. And Star Trek is about 'the human condition'.
Also, if you care about biographies and background stories for your characters, why would you need an alien? Humans in all their diversity can be interesting enough, there's (hopefully) no need to look at exotic species and all sorts of weird creatures to create a fascinating character that you can immerse in while playing.
Most of my characters are aliens - Caitians, Andorians, 'Voth', Vulcans, a few own creations - but recently I've come to create more human Boffs and a few captains for reasons given above.
[3/25 10:41][Combat (Self)]Your Haymaker deals 26187 (10692) Physical Damage(Critical) to Orinoco.
I'm guessing (and hoping) they will be unseen aliens / completely new ones.
There aren't that many aliens from the shows that could carry their own episode arcs while capturing the interest of a significant part of the playerbase. Most species that aren't in the game yet are relatively minor ones that never played much of a big role or were only seen a handful of times like Xindi Arboreals, Efrosians, the Fish-people from TNG and so on.
Either that, or they'd have to use species that are even more obscure like the T'Kon and create something around that. They did that with the Tzenkethi.
I wouldn't really consider either of those new species though.
[3/25 10:41][Combat (Self)]Your Haymaker deals 26187 (10692) Physical Damage(Critical) to Orinoco.
As long as they're well written most people wouldn't complain about them, the Difference between the Deferi and the Lukari/Kentari is like Night and Day,
Deferi were well designed, Balance was a cool concept however the way they were written left much to be desired, they had 0 survival instincts, you could invade them and they'll just let you conquer them without putting up a fight, or you could shoot them in the street in broad daylight and their neighbors would watch you do it, without a care in the world,
The Lukari also cool designs, were environmentally friendly but in cool way with their protomatter weapons, Even though the Lukari/Kentari did steal the Sundering from the Vulcans/Romulans, They still added their own little spin to it where instead the ones that followed the Teachings got the Exile treatment while they self-destructive ones ended staying behind on the Homeworld which makes them even more fascinating, The Great Exodus and The Sundering were very similar historical events in Star Trek with very different outcomes.
....What? The jem'hadar are absolutely programmed to believe the founders are gods, and they aren't exactly known for their flexibility in thinking at all, even when they know what they're ordered to do isn't the best course of action. Case in point - keevan betrayed his men, they knew full well he did so and knew they had been ordered into a trap, were told specifically this was the case and carried out the orders anyway. The vorta don't require the white for two reasons: the founders made a point of not putting brains and brawn in the same package - the vorta are the brains of the operation when it comes to the jem'hadar and the vorta are physically weak people, comparatively small in number, who despite being more independent thinking to a point, are not a threat if they go rogue, nor are they likely able to convince any of the soldiers under their command to do so both due to their own programming and the fact the vorta are at best not particularly liked or trusted by the jem'hadar, probably at least partially by design and by their own disdain of their soldiers. The jem'hadar obey the vorta because as they put it themselves its the order of things and literally ordained by their gods
As far as weyoun being willing to kill odo, again, they're not 100% products of their programming. We're also talking about weyoun in that regard so there is already evidence that at least with him in particular, the programming doesn't always take. Hell that was a central concept of that episode
and they weren't working to overcome their addiction, its not like smoking or alcohol or any number of drugs for us, its something they are physically dependent on to live. Its something that has to be cured on a genetic level not a physical one
All while Cryptic is ignoring the fact that they purposely put garbage consoles on Non-Federation Ships, while also giving them bad stats, if the Federation got the exact same treatment as every other faction in STO, then Federation Ships would also be no longer be economically viable, all the Non-Federation Ships are badly designed in comparison.
Personally I think it would be a lot more economy viable if they released good Klingon and Romulan ships in the Zen store, that are way more powerful than any Starfleet ship you could possibly buy in the Zen store.
True, they make that point in the last mission or two, but that is one of the liberties taken by the devs in order to make Jem'Hadar into something even remotely playable. Lazarus is right, in the show itself they point out that the white contains a critical isogenic enzyme that is (deliberately) missing from the Jem'Hadar physical makeup and that without it they deteriorate into homicidal rage monsters and soon die of convulsions and circulatory system shutdown (assuming they don't all murder each other during withdrawal first).
It is not like an ordinary addiction where it is a craving for something outside of the normal metabolism, they were deliberately engineered to be unable to manufacture their own enzyme internally (though technobabble mentions that a few mutants exist who can but never knew it because they are fitted with the tubing and fed the stuff anyway) in order to make them totally dependent on the Founders and their agents.
Odo's oddballs being able to wean off of the white would only work if they were some sort of special order horneytoads who are not engineered to be enzyme deficient. The devs made that adjustment for the toads, the Vorta don't even need anywhere near that kind of thing to be viable player character candidates.
In fact, the "fanatical devotion" thing could easily be a software/mindware tampering of their memory backups instead of something genetic, especially since it at least appears that the Vorta in the higher-ranking positions are almost always fanatics while the rank-and-file seem far less so. Some of the lower ranking ones even seem to mostly just give lip service to it, which fits with the kind of hyper-extreme-authoritarian theocratic society the Dominion has, since failing to at least talk the government line, no matter what they think in private, is almost always a fatal mistake.
It would be a trivial thing (as in possibly a few lines of dialog if they even want to bother to point it out) to "fix" the Vorta to be player character ready lore-wise, and except for the shroud part of the tutorial they could be dropped right into the existing "Jem'Hadar" tutorial since gathering and organizing scattered and confused horneytoads into an effective fighting force is exactly the kind of thing that would have been assigned to Vorta in DS9. Icing on that cake is that as "clone families" the Vorta would be just as appropriate for the endgame-starting-character schtick as the Jem'Hadar are, which would make for a lot less work for the devs to add them to the faction than it would be otherwise.
Weyoun's (and a few other's) actions in the Jem'hadar arc is even a very compelling reason for the Founders to ease back on the "encouraging" fanatical devotion stuff since it seems to be increasingly biting them in the behind, so it all makes perfect sense. It might even spawn a good mission arc where some previously unknown villain or star-nation finds a way to corrupt and turn the fanaticism to their own advantage against the Dominion and the rest of the Alliance or something along those lines.