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Cryptic feature series shouldn't be as good

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
It will take another 2 1/2 months until the next series. (most likely).
Let's say cryptic doesnt spend as much resources onl the cool visuals though.
Could they reduce the amount of time it takes for the next series to come out?
Instead of flair, cryptic could rely on storytelling ( in other words).
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Some of what makes the missions great is the WOW! Factor of seeing the "flair"
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    If Cryptic don't push the boundaries in storytelling, then who will? This series has shown a willingness to expand the base STO engine to new horizons, and should be encouraged. We don't want flagship content to be reduced to verb five nouns again.

    How about instead of a 5-part high-quality series every 3 months; we have a 2-part high-quality series with associated repeatable content every month? That way we're only a couple of weeks away from the next HQ episode, and have something to do in the meantime.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Yeah, but I fear the wait for new content will be a detriment
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    The time between the release of this mission and last mission has nothing to do with them taking long to work on graphics or anything else of these missions. If you remember correctly, there was only a few weeks seperation between the Breen and Devidian series.

    The delay of this series has to do with Season 3, which the devs stated themselves as well. If you remember correctly Season 3 was released between the Devidian series and this series. It was a huge update for them. Further there was also the One Year anniversary which they needed to prepare for. So it has nothing to do with visuals, and everything to do with other stuff they were working on.

    If we have to wait a while for the next series it'll be due to the fact that they want to release the Foundry and Season 4.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    The next series is likely waiting on Season 4 now (to help show off the new ground combat etc)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    That's the great debate isn't?

    Does Cryptic make feature, flair-rich missions that push the boundaries of the tech and, indeed, incorporate new tech as it arrives? Or does Cryptic create more numerous, easier-to-assemble fair with "good stories" but less of the technical provisions?

    Is it possible to create content to address both areas without exhausting personnel working in either?
    Should content be accepted as "good enough" or "good but not great", if it means more frequent production?

    It seems like the dailies from the previous series fill this void (and do so well). They enter the soon-to-be flooded marketplace of missions where developers and players alike will be competing for attention to content.

    Some Foundry content will undoubtedly be better than some of the launch content: both from story and gameplay. Likewise, the Featured Episodes probably represent the devs being able to do something the Foundry really can't do (i.e. voice-acting, cutscenes, full scripting, etc.)

    So, maybe it should be settled whether the community really enjoys the sector-unique dailies in Orellius and Eta Eridani? Perhaps a poll by the developers could help guide whether players like the entry point set that low or if they prefer it set high?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Cryptic said 75% of their team Is working in new content.
    Cryptic asked us if we wanted them to spend more time On quality episodes. We said yes. And that was amazing quality. Let's turn down the dial?
    So, if that team reduced the baseline (which I assume is the high quality), they should come out faster. No?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Staran wrote: »
    Cryptic said 75% of their team Is working in new content.
    Cryptic asked us if we wanted them to spend more time On quality episodes. We said yes. And that was amazing quality. Let's turn down the dial?
    So, if that team reduced the baseline (which I assume is the high quality), they should come out faster. No?

    Possibly, there is no guarantee to that. For example, the delay between this and the last series had to do with the release of Season 3 and the 1 year anniversary. So if the delay of the next series has to do with the release of Foundry and Season4 then no matter how much you "turn down the dial", we'll still have to wait.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    If the Foundry will be able to churn out missions with quality storytelling, then i would rather see Cryptic focus on flair and tech and awesomeness. I don't have a problem with their story telling. It's fairly decent.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    curzon176 wrote: »
    If the Foundry will be able to churn out missions with quality storytelling, then i would rather see Cryptic focus on flair and tech and awesomeness. I don't have a problem with their story telling. It's fairly decent.
    It's seem like Cryptic is positioning themselves to do this (even if it isn't discussed as formally). The Foundry means there will be plenty of content out there. Some, not all, will be better than dev offerings.

    The technical flairs and lack of restrictions are what the devs can use to separate their content from the rest.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Not for the next one, that one's going to be about the Gorn! After, maybe:p
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    It's seem like Cryptic is positioning themselves to do this (even if it isn't discussed as formally). The Foundry means there will be plenty of content out there. Some, not all, will be better than dev offerings.

    The technical flairs and lack of restrictions are what the devs can use to separate their content from the rest.

    Yeah, but with 50 skill points per Foundry episode, it really isnt a legitimate way for any character to level. If you take the Klingons for example, they are constantly asking for more content but I really think this is a request for better ways to rank up. The featured episodes have been really beneficial to them in providing a less grindy path.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    i do want the next series as soon as but the quality made that series really stand out. i dont think i want to see a drop in quality so i can accept a large gap if that the case.

    basically start working on the next series as soon as you can and produce it to the same level. ill be happy with that.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    CapTrott wrote: »
    Yeah, but with 50 skill points per Foundry episode, it really isnt a legitimate way for any character to level. If you take the Klingons for example, they are constantly asking for more content but I really think this is a request for better ways to rank up. The featured episodes have been really beneficial to them in providing a less grindy path.
    I had thought the Foundry awarded based on playtime length too (this was in talks going back to closed beta).

    This is without the daily Foundry mission wrapper, if I'm not mistaken.

    The wrapper is if you do, say, 3 (or some other arbitrary figure), you complete an overlapping mission that grants hundreds of SP per day (while encouraging people to still play in the game world instead of Foundry instances).

    It seems like 3 Foundry missions per day with many skill points and diminishing returns thereafter.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    ST has always been about the flair. Since when did you see a spectacular explosion and think: "Wow, that's good storytelling!" Same thing with the Horta (although they DID have a good story behind them.)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    CapTrott wrote: »
    Yeah, but with 50 skill points per Foundry episode, it really isnt a legitimate way for any character to level.

    first of all your forgetting the xp you get inside the missions. some heavy space encounters can easily give you another 100 or more points per mission, but why is it not a legitimate way to level?

    one of the biggest complaints ive heard since this game launched is its too quick to level.

    reached VA in a week, reached VA in 3 days. if someone wants to use the foundry to help them level they might actually take a while to reach max rank instead of blasting their way through then having nothing to do and no sense of progression.

    the fact we will have thousands of story mission over the 50 odd at launch, will allow players to play endless amounts of mission but still level, just slightly slower than before. unless their goal is to hit max rank as soon as possible, slower levelling would be a good thing.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    spartan844 wrote:
    ST has always been about the flair. Since when did you see a spectacular explosion and think: "Wow, that's good storytelling!" Same thing with the Horta (although they DID have a good story behind them.)
    Storytelling isn't necessarily better either way. It's not like less technical flair means the storytelling suddenly increases (or vice-versa).

    With the featured episodes, there are certainly more tools available to tell a story better (voice acting makes Obisek far more memorable than anyone else in the game) and that will distinguish developer-made stories from player-made ones (Brand Recognition).

    Also, it's not like you have a favorite ship based on repeated listenings to Star Trek the radio drama. ;)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    spartan844 wrote:
    ST has always been about the flair.

    You mean STO has always been about flair? Star Trek used to always be about good story telling. Then The Next Generation movies came along and story telling took a back seat.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Firix wrote:
    Some of what makes the missions great is the WOW! Factor of seeing the "flair"

    I have the standard 15 pieces of flair :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    I have the standard 15 pieces of flair :)

    Day = Made because of that statement.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    I have the standard 15 pieces of flair :)

    scary, I have that movie in my dvd player right now lol
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    They may as well take a few weeks to make the next series. We'll all be too busy with Dragon Age 2 to notice. ;)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    The weeklies are nice but it wouldn't hurt my feelings any if they took a break from them for a while. That way they could move those people over and maybe finally get the Klingons turned into the fully fleshed out faction they should have been at launch. Then they could bring in the Romulans. Once they have all three of the Star Trek major players in as fullly playable factions, then they could go back to doing the weeklies.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    I believe one of the big highlight of the series as shown is that because they are ambitious and that new resources must be created to achieve that high bar of 'new experience and content' (a.k.a. "exploration"), they bring new improvements and capabilities to the game's engine.

    The more the Devs do that, the more attractive STO becomes in turn. It's pretty much one of their main recipes for potential success right now... and if we're asking for more admittedly it works. I'm of the crowd that wishes the STO dev team could grow to be more capable at meeting that demand as well.

    Right now, on the Cryptic website, they're looking for an Animator, Senior Character Artist, Senior Environment Artist, Senior VFX Artist and Senior Games Programmer. Those job openings are promising because STO might get some of these and thus manufacture more content for us to enjoy (given the lineup: new animations, new character models/uniforms, new environment with added special effects, and new game features and mechanics).

    The fact that they're employing new people also gives us a good confirmation on them doing well (they keep their subscription numbers secret, but they claimed those have increased - they wouldn't be hiring if they needed to tighten the belt).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    The weeklies are nice but it wouldn't hurt my feelings any if they took a break from them for a while. That way they could move those people over and maybe finally get the Klingons turned into the fully fleshed out faction they should have been at launch. Then they could bring in the Romulans. Once they have all three of the Star Trek major players in as fullly playable factions, then they could go back to doing the weeklies.

    I think that Mr. Stahl just recently posted that the weeklies are his personal contribution. That's why this FE Series didn't have any, he was rather busy being the Exec Producer and stuff. Fighting for our right to party.

    Keep in mind that the STO team is tiny compared to other studios... yet they still hammer out quality stuff for us. Fortunately, they have a shared engine team with other games so that any new bells and whistles being added to those games, STO inherits. Vivox tech is a primary example. STO wasn't really asking for it, but it was added to for the Fable title. So STO and Champions get it too. Mr. Stahl is also trying to hire new developers right now, but my impression is... they've not found people up to the demands that the team handles right now.

    I'm very impressed with how much they get done in the short time they have with the extremely limited resources they have available... and with the owners of the IP rights wanting to see the TPS reports and authorize every single thing they do.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    There was great concern after the last Featured Episode series that the long wait between it and Cloaked Intentions would be detrimental to the game. Clearly that wasn't the case; the game is more populous than it has been in a very long time. So people appear willing to forgive significant waits for Feature Episode content.

    Let's not forget that the Featured Episodes are prestige events. They draw a lot of attention to the game and may very well draw significant numbers of new players. If the missions don't push the envelope and show real craftsmanship, then the effect on players new and old might very well be diminished. That would hurt everyone.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Aris wrote:
    They may as well take a few weeks to make the next series. We'll all be too busy with Dragon Age 2 to notice. ;)

    Hehe. Tempting, but going for a Shogunate first. :D

    To stay on topic, I would rather see work on the game itself, if the alternative is rushed weeklies. Rushing leads to the dark side. Well, the dark side of the dark side, since the light side of the dark side is rather good, where you get power and... uh ... that's enough digression. The point was that rushing leads to disaster, in more cases than not. :p

    ---
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    I have the standard 15 pieces of flair :)

    I'm just saying you need to express yourself!
    Look at Dan over there, Dan wears 37 pieces of flair, he's creative!

    </obscure reference>
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    On a serious note, I think that most of the feature series have been of such amazingly high quality.
    Seriously, nearly all of them have been MILES better than any WoW Quest I've played. Even the top level WoW stuff is still Kill <enemy> <X> times. collect <X>.
    And the story has been fairly boring, we're talking even a lot of the top end lich king content.

    STO ends up feeling far more interactive, with small yet IMMERSIVE environments.
    The mission today when I beamed down to the city. That was AWESOME.
    The scale of it was immense, and it felt populated and interesting.

    Nearly every wow quest is 'kill guy in cave/hill/fort/same textures again and again'.
    Cryptic's environmental art may not be as numerous, but the quality is FAR higher.

    I anxiously await the day when perhaps I can fly a shuttle on an away mission on the surface....
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    I have the standard 15 pieces of flair :)

    i can't believe the one person who got the flair reference was you :)
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