Star Trek Online Discussion Thread (now free to play!)

[Noname Given]

Scout101 wrote:

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That's where it got to about 6 months ago, but instead of building more upon that, they pretty much just sat back and collected money. They've set it up so that you arrive at the endgame far too early (any real reason that you need to level up after every 3rd mission or so?), and then provided nothing to do AT endgame. Couple STFs, which are both buggy and LONG, that's about it. The Featured Episodes were a great idea, and are fun, but the last one finished back in the first week of March.

Since then, they've pretty much let the game sit. Great if they did stuff behind the scenes, but if you don't release it, you don't get credit for it. Haven't had any trouble making things for the C-Store, though...

Well, there WA the fact that Atari basically pulled all but minimal funding lout from under them when they opuyt them up for sale (They weren't even allowed to backfill vacated positions); then, 6 months later; the deal with PWE went through; and they are now hiring and staffing up again 9and all teams will be larger than under Atari.

Think about it:

- The last FE series ended March 5th. After that DStahl started talking up Season 4 and the content plans post season 4.

- March 31. Atari lists Cryptic as a 'discontinued operation' and puts them up for sale. All during tat time DStahl is trying to rally the troops 9and from comments made after Atari was out of te picture, know during this time Staff was shrinking, they couldn't hire; and they were being shopped by Atari.

- May 31. PWE announces tenative deal to acquire Cryptic from Atari (assuming all detail can be done to both sides satisfaction.)

- September. PWE deal officiallly concludes and PWE has Cryptic; allows them to start restaffing and starts funding their projects adequately. (And it'll still take some time for Cryptuic to get up to speed as all their in house tools are proprietary, meaning the new hires need training and time to get famiiliar with them.

PWE also decdes that (since Cryptic already had plans to do so at some point in the next year) it's time to take STO F2P; and any new content in development should be rolled into the F2P relaunch.

But, in the end, I don't tink it's coincidence that we got the last FE in March; after which Atari hung a fFor Sle sign on Cryptic and cut support and funding to a bare minimum; and that until PWE acquired and started putting money back in, we didn't see signs of more new content on the horizon. And get te Borg Space Invasion Red Alerts.

Rigth now on Tribble (which is the test server for STO F2P); we see:

- The Doff System (being tested, it's fun, and has some depth)

- A New 'Daily Event System' that has one Event active (a Mirror Univese mini FA where you see and fight a Mirror 'Oddesey Class ship - aka the new Ent-F Classs ship) and 3 other events (all available for the KDF faction too) shown as 'coming soon'

- A Mission Journal Revamp

- Lore missions at Star Fleet Academy

- An STF overhaul (From all reports the new ndesign and gamellay of STFs is improved.)

I hope that once the F2P relaunch happens we'll start to see new content coming at a faster pace then in the first year of STO; but we'll see.

At least Cryptic is now part of a larger MMO company that HAS money (annd is willing to spend it on development); that wants to expand into the Western MMO market; rather than a company (Atari) trying to take whatever profit it could get; while underfunding everything else.

But, time will tell.

[Ayelbourne]

Just watched STOked #100 and WOAH, heavy spoiler at the end there.

So the Prophets think it's time to release that Dominion fleet that they once made dissappear?

[Captain_Amasov]

Ayelbourne wrote:

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Just watched STOked #100 and WOAH, heavy spoiler at the end there.

So the Prophets think it's time to release that Dominion fleet that they once made dissappear?

It's been speculated for a while now that might happen. And as mentioned in that clip it's not that they want to do it, but they must do it. Still, a thirty year old Dominion fleet isn't gonna be a match for our 25th century fleet killers!

[Noname Given]

Captain_Amasov wrote:

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It's been speculated for a while now that might happen. And as mentioned in that clip it's not that they want to do it, but they must do it. Still, a thirty year old Dominion fleet isn't gonna be a match for our 25th century fleet killers!

Oh, IDK - the 23rd century Klingon ships in the Davidian FE do a pretty good job; so, I think a 24th century Fleet will be just as dangerous.

[syberghost]

Scout101 wrote:

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They've set it up so that you arrive at the endgame far too early (any real reason that you need to level up after every 3rd mission or so?),

That's entirely driven by the amount of content they have. As they expand mid-level content, the XP for the existing content will be nerfed to maintain progression.

The problem they run into is they're a small team, so any time spend working on mid-level content is time not spend on endgame or all-level content. More importantly, time spent on the F2P move and the codebase resync was time that couldn't be spent on *ANY* episodic content.

One of those major efforts is now complete. The other is approaching completion. They're increasing staffing in the content areas. These things will combine to allow them to slow leveling by adding content in the areas where you blow through currently.

Of course, that matters more to NEW players than existing ones, and they will never slow leveling at the lowest end because that's the least-interesting part of a characters' life. Most of the playerbase is in the Commander/Captain range, so that's where they'll have to concentrate this.

Almost all of us reading this (or at least the ones who comment) are at the high end. None of this will really affect us on our mains. That's a hard balance they have to walk; where's the most effective place to spend a developer's time?

A good story mission takes several people a week to create, is only seen by people in a narrow level range, and lasts those people 15-60 minutes.

[Trek]

I've tried out the free to Play version on the Tribble and for the most part I've enjoyed it so far. There are a couple of things I'm concerned about though:

• I'm really not sure about Dilithium. While I didn't have any issue purchasing my second ship, it does seem to only be available on some of the more boring missions (IMHO). It'll be a grind to get an additional new ship or special weapons.
• I don't like the new mission progression. One of the nice things about the old mission progression was that you could skip a mission if you wanted. With Lex I played them all, but with Foxton I deliberately dipped in and out, choosing instead to progress via other means. I do like the new interface though.

All in all though, I am liking it for the most part. However I am now unsure if I'll go free play or lifetime next March (but that should give me plenty of time to decide)

[PsychoPere]

Right, dilithium will be available through basically any daily mission (which star cluster explorations are now included in!). The "easiest" way to get dilithium is probably the Starfleet Academy event where you scan molecules. I find it annoying, however, that that event will be live for Fed players once F2P goes live, but the KDF side won't have a similar option at that time because the Klingon Academy won't be coming until some time long after F2P.

[Hartzilla2007]

I really don't like the idea of making exploration missions dailies. It forces you to only use patroles and story missions to level.

[Timelord_Victorious]

Rather the other way around. You get up to 11 Exploration zones per day on Fed side.
But you absolutely have to do them, to get your 8000 refined Dilithium per day, even if you can't stand them.

[Rocketeer]

Is it better to keep the Dilithium Ore or refine it? I was refining it as soon as I'd get some but the vender in the center of ESD wants Dilithium Ore. Are there any other places where ore is needed?

[Timelord_Victorious]

I'd say you can refine as soon as you get it, since the hardcap of 8000 is per day.
I didn't know that there was a vendor who takes ore, though. Sounds like that's unintended.

[Bird of Prey]

I'm trying to level up a KDF toon on the F2P server, and I have not gotten any additional BOFF's aside from what I was originally given (3). As it now stands, I have an empty slot on my ship stations, and on ground missions I'm given some random goon. Has anybody else experienced this?

[PsychoPere]

Yes, that's a widespread bug. All BOff Skill Trainers are also currently unable to train new abilities.

[Bird of Prey]

The devs seem to be focussing on the DOFF and Dilithium systems. I found the bug report on the official website for the KDF issue, but it has had no response or acknowledgement from the devs. I understand they are really busy trying to get these new systems in place and working correctly. Once launched, it appears we will have plenty of new content, I was just hoping we could test the KDF in it's full form.

[PsychoPere]

"No response or acknowledgement" does not mean the Devs are unaware of the issue. Both issues affecting BOffs are rather big ones, after all. The majority of the dev posting in the Tribble section is coming from Heretic, who is the primary developer on the DOff system, and a lot of his posting is coming at very late and very early hours. I'm sure that a fix for the BOff issues is in the works, even without a dev posting about it.