TrekBBS Armada - The Foundry

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

The Foundry Dailey mission is online now btw.
I guess this makes it very easy to level with UGC missions alone.
You get XP additionally to kills and level specific loot (I got a rare HD beam rifle yesterday). Apparently the level specific badges don't work properly, so don't pick them as your reward to be on the save side until the issue is resolved.

So it get's a lot more interesting to level a new toon with hundreds of new missions.

Then again, the exploitation of that system has probably already begun.
In addition to missions named "Kill Stuff" we now get "Enter system to resolve mission" so doing 3 missions in the row for the XP and loot is done in as many minutes.
I really hope the rewards are tied to the missions length and complexity somehow.

 

[DarkHorizon]

Apparently the level specific badges don't work properly, so don't pick them as your reward to be on the save side until the issue is resolved.

Yeah, found that out after I claimed mine yesterday - no emblems for me! The patch being applied right now is supposed to be fixing that - no idea if I'll get my emblems retroactively. Still, it means that my waiting list of Foundry episodes I have been building up in my mission pane will start to go down, and be more useful - although I did end up reaching two Borg top-level accolades (i.e ones that grant a passive) during one of them yesterday.

For the record, yesterday's missions: "Worst of All Worlds" - poor dialogue, concept interesting but let down by execution in places; "The Feint" - enjoyable, if slightly repetitive at points, with a bit of an annoying puzzle halfway through (also, write down the location of the mission - there's no indicator in the mission listing); "Conjoined" - brilliant, lots of fun, nice explore-y mission rather than combat, one particular effect I'd love to know how it was done.

Then again, the exploitation of that system has probably already begun.
In addition to missions named "Kill Stuff" we now get "Enter system to resolve mission" so doing 3 missions in the row for the XP and loot is done in as many minutes.

Cryptic is apparently already cracking down on those sorts of missions - there is at least one thread on the official forums of someone complaining that their publishing rights have been recinded because they made grind missions. Plus, they've reduced the effect a ship explosion has, to stop those "here are five hundred enemies; they'll kill you, but you'll wipe them out blowing up" missions - it'll only affect five ships now. Which is more than enough, quite frankly.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Apparently the bug with the emblems is a space issue. YOu can claim them while you are on the ground. According to zone chat.

 

[Ronald Held]

Is it better to spend the time to create a mission now or play others and get a feel for their strengths and weakness in construction and execution?

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Why not do both?

 

[Freman]

Being a writer, I would love to make a few of these. Unfortunately I took a look at the program, and couldn't make heads or tails of it. Ah well.

Playing through The Lost Traveler right now. Pretty good, light on story and has a few spelling mistakes, but damn, it sure gave me some ship combat experience. lol

I wanna try some of the GRD Foundry missions. How do you find them from in the game?

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

GRD?

The tool set is confusing at first and it takes practice to master all it's abilities.
But to get the basics down I suggest playing around with it and/or take a look at these: http://starbaseugc.com/index.php/uncategorized/noob-guide-to-foundry-part-2-video-tutorials/

One of the most helpful tutorials if you want to get that extra flavor into your mission most authors most certainly lack: http://www.youtube.com/user/kirkfat#p/u/11/SyW6t3HwZgI

 

[Freman]

GRD = Ground. I saw the abbreviation used on the STO Foundry Missions website.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Pure ground? No way to tell. Most missions are a mix of space and ground in some way. Unless the author says so in the desription you just have to play it.
If you want to gain ground experince I would recommend playing a fleet action. There are a few which are purely ground combat.
If you want to use them for training ignore the objectives and just fight at your own pace.
Those missions are Breaking the Planet, The Dig and DS9 Siege.
Not exactly sure at what level you unlock those.
There is also the Starbase 24 Fleet action, it's a space scenario but leads into a solo/team instance where you have to fight Klingons that continue to spawn. If you can hold your ground there you're pretty much ready to face anything later on.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Apparently the quality authors are all Federation or is it that much harder to write for Klingons?
Played 3 KDF missions today.
Another accidental trip to the mirror universe was pretty light on story (find a way back home and run around a lot) but had the best dialog and was generally fun. have to look up the name of this one again, though.
"To mock a Killing Bird" had a good immersive story but was lacking in technical aspects.
"Hornet's Nest" keep your fingers away from this one. Author has a good grasp of the foundry's technical abilitis but absolutely no story telling sense.
We literally forgot what the mission was about while we did it and ran into a cliffhanger without any idea what just happened and why.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

I would think it would be much harder to write for Klingons, due to the fact that the emphasis there is on the PvP aspects of play, while the Federation tends to have the emphasis on story missions.

 

[Noname Given]

I have a KDF character and like him; but honestly I never was able to get into the "TOS Movie-Era or TNG Era" Klingon mindset; so given all the 'hardcore' KDF players that are really into the 'modern' Trek franchise depiction of Klingons, while I do feel I could come up with a good plot and story; I don't know if I could write Klingon dialogue or maintain a Klingon character in the 'modern era' well enough to make enjoyable for the folks REALLY into Kliongons in STO - so that's what's stopped me from doing a Foundry mission for the KDDF side.

I have no issues relating to the Federation side or maintaing a Federation officer character to come across 'in character' front to back, so that why I stick with creating Federation stuff myself.

 

[syberghost]

I've published my first mission. Enjoy:

http://starbaseugc.com/wiki/index.php/Franklin_Drake_Must_Die

 

[Dancing Doctor]

I seem to be having a problem. I'm at the turbolift on Starbase 39, and after I click on "Use turbolift", nothing happens.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Me too. Turbolift doesn't do anything. You should pull the mission and fix it before bad reviews kill it.
love the title. For that alone you will probably get a lot of hits!

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

The Spirits of Ramok Nor

I highly recommend this story.It's a must-play for all DS9 and Trek fans. This guy plays the foundry tools like no other I've seen.
When I play missions like these, which have to be rated 5 stars, I will be totally content with getting a 3 star average on my own when I eventually publish it.

 

[Freman]

The Spirits of Ramok Nor

I highly recommend this story.It's a must-play for all DS9 and Trek fans. This guy plays the foundry tools like no other I've seen.
When I play missions like these, which have to be rated 5 stars, I will be totally content with getting a 3 star average on my own when I eventually publish it.

Just played through it, and I second the motion. Lots of fun!

 

[Ronald Held]

maybe we need a sticky or someplace to post the best Foundry missions?

 

[syberghost]

Why my mission had problems and is now temporarily withdrawn:

The patch Friday introduced a bug. Publishing a mission silently corrupts it (we think your copy is fine, but the published version is hosed). This causes a number of problems, the worst of which is map transitions won't trigger. That's why you guys were in the turbolift and nothing happens; without the corruption you'd have gotten a popup dialog from the Admiral's Flag Lieutenant telling you he was expecting you and to come right up, and then you've had transitioned to his office.

As soon as Cryptic fixes the bug, I'll republish it. The corruption appears to happen every time you publish, without fail, so doing it repeatedly doesn't fix anything.

Foundry's still in beta, so either Cryptic wasn't aware of this problem when they left Friday, or decided beta didn't mean "we fix it this weekend". I suspect it's the former, since there's been no dev post about the issue and they're usually really good about that.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Another one for my personal Top 10:
The Infinitesimal Frontier
That title is a mouthful but well worth it. I won't spoil too much and you'd never think a concept like this could be pulled off with the foundry. It's Star Trek's version of a certain film with Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan.