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Ten Forward Weekly 10/24/23
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Member Posts: 3,156 Arc User
From: https://reddit.com/r/sto/comments/17fu4gk/ten_forward_weekly_102423/ Credit to: https://reddit.com/user/TheSajuukKhar/
- Cryptic has specific data that shows them that when they ask players to play evil characters, and create character that only have evil choices, nobody wants to do that. Which is why they wont make an "evil faction" like Terrans for STO.
- Unlikely to make any new factions for STO in the foreseeable future.
- Updating older uniforms to be more in line with current ones in terms of quality/color options is a time thing, and they have to balance between updating older stuff and making newer stuff.
- When asked about the recent speculation about staff, Kael says there have been no changes to any of the teams at Cryptic, and, as we can see, he is still employed there also.
- Additionally, when asked about STO, Kael says there is nothing to suggest STO/Neverwinter/Champions is going anywhere. Kael believes STO has another 10-15 years in it.
- Keal believes there is likely a rights issue with the Protostar, which is why you can't 3D print it.
- Kael passed along the list of irreclaimable items from Zen store packs to the team, and will follow up on it.
- When asked about T6/Legendary versions of the Dysons, Kael says last time he talked to Thomas he(Thomas) had plans to make every ship to T6. So it will likely happen at some point.
- Kael asked one of the programmers about more ship zoom options for consoles. what he was told was that ship zoom options are different for every ship, so if there are ships people have trouble with(zooms to far in or out) go on the forums and make a list of them. Someone in chat mentioned a workaround where you plug a keyboard into your console and use the page down key to get more zoom out on ships.
- Vault bug fix should be hitting console soon as its already fixed on PC.
- Keal will pass along a request for the Klingon torps from the Motion Picture.
- Kael doesn't know of any immediate plans to bring any any of the new ships from Star Trek Infinity.
- Moopsy combat pet was requested by pretty much everyone. Even people who work on Neverwitner messaged Kael asking about if its possible. Kael has passed on how big of a demand it is.
- Now that they know the door is open for it its likely we will see more items from older Trek games added into STO. Kael isn't aware of anything in the works right now.
- Its possible to get ships from the Ships of the Line calendars. Kael will mention the Bonaventure to the team.
- After Halloween event ends the "The Feast" event is coming back on PC with Red Alert in between.
- Current storyline is planned to run though the 15th anniversary.
- Always a chance we will see the Picard leather jacket uniforms. Keal isn't aware of them doing it currently however.
- Its unlikely Kael will ever be able to talk about the non-Trek crossover that STO almost did, and why it fell through. Mentions something like Doctor Who would've stood out as non Trek, but that the crossover that almost happened would've fit in well. Says its a movie people say is one of the better Star Trek movies... without being a Star Trek movie.
- Unlikely Cryptic will ever make a token that lets you upgrade specialist seating to its highest possible rank(someone asked in chat)
- DSC Andorians are still being worked on in the artists free time.
- Kael hopes/is pushing for a remaster of the removed Klingon War episodes. The people who decide these things mostly want to work on new stories.
- Unlikely to get new bridges if they have to include ready rooms. that was a compromise they had to make with the new bridges. Either put them out as is, or wait for an environment artists to get free time to make new ready rooms for them which could be possibly never. When discussion was going internally about the new bridges it was Kael who argued that people would rather have the bridges, minus the Ready Room, then not have the bridges at all.
- Weapon overrides are a sticky issue. Way back in the day Paramount said no. Kael doesn't know if that's still an issue today, but due to that initial no the game was coded in such a way that makes it difficult to switch weapon visuals. Every weapon has its effect individually coded to that weapon. So its not that the weapon is calling from an effect from a list that can be easily redirected to some other effect.
- Unlikely Cryptic will go back and revamp every old interior. It isn't as simple as just port over the new assets, would have to rebuild most of them from scratch.
- Kael isn't sure that they have anything special for DSC's final season in Jan. STO isn't matching up as much with the shows at this point.
- VFX issues have been talked about internally. Kael will bring it up again.
- Kael will pass on requests for a non tanker D5.
- Unlocking hanger pets from older ships is a case by case thing.
- Unlikely any new kind of Foundry system to be made. Kael mentions you would likely need people in the core engineering team interested in bringing it back, and he feels like they probably only remember it as being a pain to fix.
- Kael has been pushing to be able to use any bridge on any ship you own. Hes not sure if it will ever be something they do/how easy it would be to do.
- More TFOs should be getting advanced/Elite options soon. Kael has brought it up multiple times.
- Kael will mention to the team about making the available tab arcs(Lost Dominion, Cold War, Skirmish) available at chronological levels if you already have a level 65 on your account.
- Mirror Borg are likely to come back in the new episode in January.
- There's been a few attempts over the years to bring back "different option based on carrier" stuff in missions, but the team has mainly moved into everyone having the same stuff.
- Kael will ask about being able to save DOFF filter settings.
- Elachi ships in Picard S3 were taken from a list of STO alien ships Paramount asked for before the season started.
- STO is not one of the companies being striked against by SAG, so they should be in the clear.
- Cryptic would love to let players mix/match things like beam ups/warp outs. But its a big technical issue.
- Kael doesn't know the reasoning behind why they don't do advanced/elite TFOs for events, would have to ask why, and if its possible to allow them for events. He thinks it has to do with keeping it accessible to everyone, and not having to deal with different rewards for different levels, etc.
- Kael believes the chances are much higher of a playable Borg Assimilator compared to a Borg Cube.
- Kael has seen the new Christmas Sweaters and he thinks they're very good.
- Ship coming up next month players are going to like.
- Winter ship is an older ship, and a very cool design.
- Kael/the devs would love to write move fiction blogs, but no one really has the time to do it anymore.
- One of the things the team was thinking about when designing the Harmony(new alien ship in the Guillotine TFO) is it being player usable.
- There is a certain pushback from Trek purists in the team in regards to TOS aliens. So Kael doesn't believe that will ever happen.
- Kael says there hasn't been any discussion on fleet things like expanding roster size(someone in chat asked about it) in awhile. Asks to let him know if its an issue.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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Comments
I am also interested in what Kael meant by "older ship".
And I swear the second we get the Picard Jackets I will switch my main from the Sierra 1 to that jacket.
This would be a welcome change for me.
Show us the data.
Aww TRIBBLE.
VFX spam solutions are our Half Life 3 at this point.
I mean, the contrary would have been surprising since they're directly set up as the current main threat by Thaseen-Fei.
We couldn't get a Galaxy Quest crossover?!
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Well, it already happens by accident for a few ships (like the S31 Intel Dreadnought Cruiser having both the 2409 and DSC warp animations at the same time), so it IS possible.
I find it odd that the Discovery Starfleet has an alien option, and a possible upcoming Andorian choice, but no aliens for TOS Starfleet.
I think this is an improvement, right?
I think they're right about this.
Good. It makes sense for Dyson-based ships to be among the top performing ones.
These people should get paid for the work they're doing. I'd rather not have DSC Andorians than anyone feeling pressured to work for free, in their own time.
That would be nice. Also, we need sorting options there. And search filters (I don't think those are there at the moment).
My suggestion: ask the players. We've even had a few contests years ago, where players could write stories dealing with the aftermath of the Iconian War IIRC.
I'm sure there are many people who'd love to participate.
Now, there were two removed missions that could do with a remaster before being restored to the game:
I've got it covered:
That sounds about right from the negative reaction in chat to missions like Renegade's Regret and Mind Game, as well as some of the mirror stuff.
True, making a whole new faction is probably a massive amount of work for a small team.
On the other hand, fixing the faction from the Gamma quadrant to give the players some choice in characters is probably far less work and (from what I hear in chat) would make the Gamma Recruit event much more popular than it is now. Too many players prefer doing Space Barbie, roleplaying, or canon-accurate themed character-and-boffs teams (none of which the current "Jem'Hadar faction" is suited for) to only cater to the roll-players who are only interested in neat mechanics gimmicks for their playing pieces.
Is it possible to get a list of which games are fair game for that? Like is it only computer-based games or can they use something like FASA ship designs?
That would be great if it does happen, the concrete-looking bridge that is the default for most ships nowadays is just way too jarringly ugly and so far from Trek aesthetics that it ruins any Trek feel the ships have.
I agree, if nobody wanted evil characters, we wouldn't have gotten Klingons, Orions, Nausicaans, Romulans, Jemmies and Cardies as playable races, the ones I just listed are Historically Evil races in Star Trek and they make up 3 quarters of STO's Khitomer Alliance.
But those aren't really evil anymore. The Romulan Republic certainly isn't.
The Jem'Hadar were mostly portrayed as responding to attacks by outsiders. The female Founder could be argued to be evil, but she's not in charge - and possibly not even alive - anymore.
Cardassia has changed a lot as well and officially they are only active as members of Starfleet or the KDF anyway.
I strongly disliked having to play as a Terran, if I wanted to find out what the new episodes were about or wanted one of the rewards. They're among the least enjoyable episodes to me.
As for factions: I'm still hoping they could make something like a mini-faction. Or even just unique starter experiences for existing species within existing factions. That alone would be a serious improvement.
Let my Andorian start on a revamped Andoria for example and add unique environments (including cities) for Betazed, Cait, Denobula and so on. Maybe even add unique replicator recipes like special consumables that are only available to those species. Add and do something that makes each and every species stand out in its own way.
Right now it doesn't really matter what you're playing as, the experience is totally the same for every species. And it's been a while since we've seen new worlds and open zones being added.
I get that they're a lot of work to add, but it's also what makes STO a great game. New ships and kit modules every season are nice to have and all, but my most memorable experiences are still related to the first time seeing Winter Wonderland or walking on the amazingly realistic world of P'Jem in those FED starter episodes all those years ago.
Those were lasting experiences and they're the kind of experiences we need more of, in my opinion.
Well... I believe a lot of the designs from Starfleet Command and SFC vol 2 are adapted FASA designs updated to the TMP era. And the Romulan Winged Defender is a FASA design that has found its way into many games, such as Armada 2 and Legacy.
Klingons have been enemies, but that is very different from an evil faction like the puppy-kicking Terrans who will stab their own mother, son or family pet in the back if it will gain them more power.
Those would be nice to have back as well.
I prefer classic era Daleks, myself, though.
You're talking about the SNES game!
Sure am; I honestly didn't expect anyone to get the reference. Freaked me out at the time, but considering it was either late 1994 or early 1995, when I was about twelve, that's hardly unexpected.
I still have a copy myself. And sometimes listen to the soundtrack on YouTube.
Indeed Klingons, Orions, Nausicaans, Jem'Hadar, Romulans and Cardasians are "safe" evil so their "evil" acts are mostly guilt free, Terrans (or the Tzenkethi) do acts that are clearly and obviously Evil like killing civilians without prompting.
Well... by 2412 they probably figured it out so we could have a Moopsy Combat Pet.
I wouldn't call them "evil" then. More Neutral. Klingons still have their Honor, and there is no Honor in killing those who can't fight back. And before B'Vat is brought up, he was without Honor and only cared about escalating the war to a point it could never end. And of course J'mpok is without Honor as well as he willingly backstabs not only Martok, but a War Hero (the player) for his own personal gain in his mad bid to be Emperor. J'ula was redeemed after realizing she made a big mistake and fought against a tyrant. Does that excuse her entirely for her actions? Maybe not, but not everything is a binary black/white view. There's a LOT of shades of gray. And a lot of interesting characters dwell in that realm of gray.
Lemme clarify that real quick - I meant "free time" as in "time during their work day where they weren't scheduled to be working on a specific project." That comes up sometimes, especially if a feature someone was working on got done and checked out by QA early.
Ah, alright. Thanks for clarifying.
That happens for me too. I get to sneak in a bit of code refactoring now and then at work when I'm waiting on QA, or some piece of server-side code that the client needs to have available, or just when all of the high-priority tickets have been closed.
(Not a Cryptic employee)