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

[syberghost]

Ruaidhri wrote:

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So, has anyone gotten a fleet ship yet? I'm curious as to how they compare perfoamce-wise to the run of the mill versions.

Nobody's fleet bases (nobody, at all, anywhere in the game) are anywhere near making T5 ships yet, and most of us have no interest in T1 or T2 fleet ships.

It'll be several more months before anybody can start provisioning T5 fleet ships.

[Timelord_Victorious]

The Gold SUV Sale is good for Silver players who want stuff like extra bank slots, esspecially Account bank slots and Shop tokens, character slots, expanded foundry access... They get it all for just 30 bucks including 1500 Zen.

[syberghost]

Timelord_Victorious wrote:

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The Gold SUV Sale is good for Silver players who want stuff like extra bank slots, esspecially Account bank slots and Shop tokens, character slots, expanded foundry access... They get it all for just 30 bucks including 1500 Zen.

And another 500 Zen a month.

[Ruaidhri]

syberghost wrote:

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Nobody's fleet bases (nobody, at all, anywhere in the game) are anywhere near making T5 ships yet, and most of us have no interest in T1 or T2 fleet ships.

It'll be several more months before anybody can start provisioning T5 fleet ships.

As a player flying a Patrol Escort, my primary interest actually IS in a T1 Starbase fleet ship. So I did upgrade to the Fleet Blockade Escort. The extra hull and shields have been great. Extra console is for engineering, also adding to survival. Hanging in there longer, and putting out more DPS as a result. Don't need to run away so much now.

So, I've also been going into CSE and starting the match by saying to the team, "Can we all agree that popping a cube early is a BAD thing?" It always seems to get a chorus of YESes, and there's a lot more coordination lately in CSE in general lately. Haven't been seeing the Kang explode nearly so much.

Plus, I've been seeing a lot more communication in PUGs over the last week or so. I know I'm trying to be a lot more vocal to get people to talk to each other, so I hope it has a good effect.

[Briquettes]

Ruaidhri wrote:

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So, I've also been going into CSE and starting the match by saying to the team, "Can we all agree that popping a cube early is a BAD thing?" It always seems to get a chorus of YESes, and there's a lot more coordination lately in CSE in general lately. Haven't been seeing the Kang explode nearly so much.

You've been luckier than me then. I've tried CSE over a dozen times in the last couple weeks and failed every single one. I explain in chat every time that popping a cube too soon will not be good, but there's always that one jerk that either doesn't listen or pulls the whole "I'll play how I want" routine.

I have noticed that ISE is much better, though. Most of the time I'm in PUGs that finish with at least 5 minutes left on the timer.

[syberghost]

Terilynn Schull recaps the dev panel from Las Vegas:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08...-in-las-vegas/

Some highlights:

Stahl was once quoted as saying that Season Seven will be "bigger than" Season Six and that Season Eight will be "bigger than" Season Seven. Then he was asked about any potential hints he could give us about Season Eight; he said that Cryptic, and the STO team in particular, is doing very well -- that when he first started working on STO the team consisted of no more than 20 people, and since that time, the team has grown exponentially. He confirmed with the attendees that the team now well exceeds 40 people, and the studio will be looking to hire several more to make Season Eight the success he envisions.

Stahl did confirm that the game will be seeing the Vesta-class ship in game, maybe as soon as Season Seven, once the final legal hurdles have been jumped by CBS Studios and the ship's designer, Mark Rademaker.

[syberghost]

My thought on the above; if they've doubled the dev team, why do they STILL only have one writer? I adore Kestrel, but I have a feeling we'd have more interesting stories if she had some help...

[Scout101]

Yeah, that's ONE of their more obvious problems.

First off, can't really say they grew exponentially if they went from 20 to 40. Doubled? sure. Unless they meant in the several hundred range when they said "well over 40", then they aren't close.

Second, what you asked about. Doubled the staff, but still want to use the "we're a small team, weren't able to get to that" excuse, and they go to that well often. With a team double the size they had before, why aren't they able to at least keep up with their OLD output, if not beat it? And another obvious, related question: If they actually are paying someone to work on writing/story ideas, where are they? When they take a big chunk of time without releasing anything, why isn't there then a backlog of stuff they can release later? After a hiatus, should get a bunch of new stuff, not one thing and another excuse/hiatus.

They don't appear to be doing much writing, no one's on customer service (ever tried to resolve an issue?), have a hard time believing they're doing much bug fixing (how's that cloaking device bug that's been in there since launch coming?), and by what gets released, there can't be much testing going on. Everything is released to the test server and we do that for them, then they release it to holodeck buggy as hell. After we bitch, they focus on whatever we complained about the most. Seems to be the process.

So, what are all these people working on?

Maybe less focus on shiny objects, kewl new drops, and a little more on the actual GAME? Missions, storyline, events?

When little things, like making the 700-day android reward actually work as advertised, can't seem to be handled, not much faith in these guys, even at twice the manpower. That should have been fixed in an afternoon. Instead, it's been an embarrasment, and has dragged on to the point where people are close to getting the 1000-day reward without the 700-day being fixed yet.... And the story on that one is a revolving door of finger-pointing, blame, lies, and silence....

[syberghost]

Sounds like Season 7 is the answer to "what are they all working on":

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/sh...41#post5271941

Season 7, which is scheduled to launch before the end of the year, is all about new mission content.

[T J]

Quick question all. As a gold subscriber should I be getting a monthly 500 zen stipend? It seems the last 2 months I did but not this month. So just wanted to know is the stipend thing a regular monthly thing?

[syberghost]

T J wrote:

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Quick question all. As a gold subscriber should I be getting a monthly 500 zen stipend? It seems the last 2 months I did but not this month. So just wanted to know is the stipend thing a regular monthly thing?

Yes, it's monthly. I think the day it comes is based on your billing date. If it doesn't come within a couple of days, open a ticket.

[T J]

Awesome, thanks!

[Timelord_Victorious]

FYI, Cryptic has posted stats for the Sovereign Refit and new pics.

It comes with a build in Riker Maneuver and a wide arc Quantum Launcher (instead of the rapid fire we all wanted)

[Scout101]

Eh, I'm done with their constant c-store toys. WAY overpriced. Not bad if you play for free, not great if you've got hundreds invested already. Yeah, there's a stipend, but a good amount of that has to go to overcome the slot limitations (bank, inventory, ship, character, costume, account bank, etc) they put on us. Even without that part, it would take 5 months of stipends for a free ship.

I bought the Gal-X, and they pretty much immediately abandoned it, it's shit at this point. And the console (which became the real reason to buy ships now) is a cloak, which is worthless and comes with the regular VA ship anyway). Paid $20 in real money for it, and never use it. I'm over the toys. Plus don't want to encourage them. Would rather they focus on stories, mission content, and things to do rather than shiny toys and rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic...

[syberghost]

Scout101 wrote:

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Would rather they focus on stories, mission content, and things to do rather than shiny toys and rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic...

The phrase "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic" is customarily used to describe a situation where a project is failing and in danger of being cancelled, and ineffective measures are being taken to try to stop it. Since STO has never been unprofitable, and has become so much more profitable lately that PWE has doubled the size of the development team, I don't see how that's in any way applicable. Please help me understand what you mean by it.