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Star Trek Online: New State of the Game Letter, Trailer

MikeBMikeB Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555

Star Trek Online Executive Producer Craig "Zinc" Zinkievich returns with another State of the Game letter, bringing us up to (warp) speed on Star Trek Online.

The first topic addressed in this latest State of the Game letter is that of support. Craig discusses the challenges of trying to support such a large community, and the efforts they're making to tackle those challenges. Some of these efforts include: additional moderation of the official Star Trek Online forums, staffing up on Customer Support personnel to deal with support tickets quicker, and improvements to their hardware configurations in order to improve server capacity and lower queue times.

Looking ahead, Craig also mentions some of the upcoming features players can expect to see in Star Trek Online as a result of the development team responding to player feedback, and they include:

  • Respec
  • Death Penalty
  • Difficulty Slider
  • More open auto-fire
  • Replayable missions
  • Improving Memory Alpha
  • Fixing those Commodity missions

Players can also expect to see the affectionately named "Tribble" public test server go up in the near future.

How about those raidisodes mentioned in previous State of the Game letters? Officially, the five man raid content will be referred to as "Special Task Forces" with the first STF, The Infected, to arrive quite soon.

The initial offering of Special Task Forces will set players against the Borg, and you can view this latest trailer for a sneak peek at the upcoming Special Task Forces content.

Finally, Craig takes a look ahead to Update 1 and beyond. Update 1, which is currently pending a "classy marketable name," should be hitting Tribble in the next few weeks. Zinc hints at a few of the features Update 1 will include, such as the aforementioned respec system, and new Klingon ships.

Beyond Update 1? Over the next 6-12 months players can look forward to content centered around the mysterious Undine, more Genesis system content, additional exploration content, new playable factions, Fleet Officers, Fleet advancement, and even improvements to ship interiors, ranging from more bridges, to crew quarters.

For even more details, read the full State of the Game letter here.

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Comments

  • MoretrinketsMoretrinkets Member Posts: 730

    damn just read that letter... so much drama and so much QQing from devs... I haven't heard yet if they fixed the borg officer stats. Why do I need a difficulty slider? This is not suppose to be a single player game!

  • GozerTCGozerTC Member UncommonPosts: 119

    *Shrugs*



    I'm glad I did the Del Taco trial because after 4 days I'm good.  Made Lt. Commander and figured enough is enough for now.  In a few months maybe they'll actually have more there to bother with.  Perhaps they'll even go the DDO route and go F2P/Subscription plan, if so I'm there. :) 

     

     

    Current Game: Asssasins Creed 2(PS3, Gamer Tag: Happy_Hubby)
    Current MMO: World of Warcraft and World of Tanks
    Former Subscribed MMO: Star Trek Online, Aion, WoW, Guild Wars, Eve Online, DAoC, City of Heroes, Shattered Galaxy, 10six.
    Tried: Too many to list

  • GuintuGuintu Member UncommonPosts: 320

    The two things I don't like are

    1) the difficulty slider, not sure why an MMO would need that.

    2) Repeatable missions.  I HATE repeatable missions.  I know I don't need to re-do them, but I hate knowing an MMO has them.  It just makes it less real knowing I can save the same person, kill the same ships, kill the same people, over and over again.  It shows a lack of originality, and that they want to make less missions.

  • WraithoneWraithone Member RarePosts: 3,806
    Originally posted by Guintu


    The two things I don't like are
    1) the difficulty slider, not sure why an MMO would need that.
    2) Repeatable missions.  I HATE repeatable missions.  I know I don't need to re-do them, but I hate knowing an MMO has them.  It just makes it less real knowing I can save the same person, kill the same ships, kill the same people, over and over again.  It shows a lack of originality, and that they want to make less missions.

     

    Or perhaps it shows how expensive and time consuming generating new content is?...

    As you stated, you don't have to  repeat any missions, unless you choose to.  But I'm really wondering about this death penalty. Methinks they are listening way too much to the "Death Must Have Meaning" crowd again.  It depends on how harsh it is.  But the last thing STO needs is to lose more players over this.

    "If you can't kill it, don't make it mad."
  • GuintuGuintu Member UncommonPosts: 320

    Then maybe they should try having a mixture or regular missions and user generested missions.  I mean they can let out an editor and let people submit missions and they ok them.  Granted the planets that have missions for them you'd have to use existing buildings and such, you couldn't just go and change things, but you could still make missions.  Ship missions may be easier.

    A death penalty doesn't bother me as much, I think every game needs some sort of death penalty because it makes people play smarter and use tactics rather than just running in and fighting.  Granted I think mmo's that are more FPS style need more of a death penalty than MMO's with this fighting style (at least the land missions), because if your in a group a run and gunner can really screw up a mission.  

  • wgc01wgc01 Member UncommonPosts: 241

    Lots of stuff coming, as with any new mmo, I am not sure about the slider, that was feature in COH, I seen allot of folks asking for it, I never used it when I played COH, dunno how that is gona impact the game, looking forward to new stuff...:)

  • xoringxoring Member Posts: 65

    I guess the difficulty slider is to shut up the people who say the game is too easy.

     

    On the one hand it's friendly to casual players, on the other it's "too easy" for the hard core guys . A slider allows a player to pick what level of challenge they're looking for. In a game as heavily instanced at STO it's completely doable. I hope that setting the slider to a harder setting also means you get better drops.

  • GuintuGuintu Member UncommonPosts: 320

    I also wonder when the slider is on easy there won't be a death penalty and when its on hard there will be.  As you slide it from easy to hard the death penalty goes from 0 to higher, highest maybe permadeath?

  • Agricola1Agricola1 Member UncommonPosts: 4,977

    I feel that USS Cryptic is still stuck in the Alpha quadrant and it'll be some years before reaching the Beta quadrant!

    This game is a piece of mediocre trash that does nothing but try to fleece Star Trek fans by making Champions Online with a trek skin. After buying and subscribing you still have to pay for certain races? What do these guys want? Blood from a stone?

    I'm just waiting for when Bill Roper is sitting drinking his coffee and a DEV bursts in screaming, "SIR I canny stop it! The core fanbase is gonna quit! They say STO isn't gonna blow ... it does blow!".

    "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"

    CS Lewis

  • prototypoprototypo Member UncommonPosts: 179
    Originally posted by xoring


    I guess the difficulty slider is to shut up the people who say the game is too easy.
     
    On the one hand it's friendly to casual players, on the other it's "too easy" for the hard core guys . A slider allows a player to pick what level of challenge they're looking for. In a game as heavily instanced at STO it's completely doable. I hope that setting the slider to a harder setting also means you get better drops.

     

    I just think it's there halfazz'd way of extending the game and repeatable missions is another way to try and fill the content up. They are doing the same thing in CO and i can tell you from being a forum regular over there that when they announced it most were like we didn't even ask for it, it must be an across the board type of thing. The game just needs more solid CONTENT and more non combat mission's that aren't cookie cutter of the other one's and it might not be as bad as some reviewers are giving it.

    image

  • Xondar123Xondar123 Member CommonPosts: 2,543
    Throughout development, we guessed Star Trek Online might be polarizing. Some people don't get it and some people simply don't like it... But, others fall in love with their ships and captains and bridge officers. Those are the ones who can't live without beaming down to strange, new planets and participating in lively stories.

    We guessed this and still we made a conscious decision to not water things down and go "mass market".

    I thought everyone would appreciate reading a few of the more insane parts of this State of the Game. Even MMORPG.com must not "get it" because they only rated the game a 6.4.

    The other funny parts include the part where Zinkivich admits that the Cryptic devs are in an abusive relationship with this game's "fans."

  • Echo08Echo08 Member Posts: 55

    Let me open by saying the last time I posted on any forum was back during the Star Wars Galaxies CU.   That really irked me that sony would disrespect me so much as to trash most everything I had earned in game.  So, I gave my 2 cents and pretty much nailed smedley's character as being an egotistal punk who's management style  is more suited to run venezuela or cuba.  Now it seems mr. Zinc (Craig Zinkeivich), at least to me, seems to be cut from the same stone.

    1.  Making this state game  update  with a some vague and clearly controversial  topics at the end of the week... bad move.  It is not unlike the company that does layoffs at Christmas and then wonders why its having negative press. 

    2.  The some people get it some people don't  comment.  I know he did not mean to offend.  Yeah there are people who simply can't be pleased.  But public relations 101,  that comment is completely left to interpretation.  You basically offended a significant portion of your fan base.  Example.... anyone who came out and said "No"  to the ingame death pentalty will likely conclude you think that they "don't get it" based on the way the press release is structured.  Couple that with the bit that we are here for the people who do get it....  The same psychology that makes memes work causes people to conclude you are saying they don't get it and they can get lost.

    3. Life time subs.  Some people (my self included) bought life time subscriptions.  The death penalty was not something in the game at the time of purchase.  Had it been disclosed I would have reconsidered my purchase.  Now, I suspect it won't be very harsh.  Honestly, look at champions online.  But the principle really irks me.  I paid for one thing and to me they are changing a fundamental part of the game.  Worse, it seems they are ignoring the elephant in the room.  Permit me to document what I have observed. 

    PVE Bridge officers..... The pathing needs work.  My bridge officers get stuck constantly.  So I find I have to try to herd them into a position for the fight with the elitish mob at the end of an instance.  I entered a ticket about this back on the 18th.  Despite their claim they are engaging the community, I did not see any acknowledgement on the ticket until I formally requested a refund for my life time sub (more on that in a bit).  The response was a mixed canned thank you with a comment about pathing being difficult... someone more on the ball would have said "hey thanks, we know and we are on it."

    War Zones?  Well there is only one space war zone.  It involves 'decrypting' borg nodes while fighting borg (AI controlled) and klingons (other players).  On surface that sounds challenging and interesting.  Until you try it.  Most of the borg are stuck in the nodes.  So you can't target them, but they target you just fine.  Nothing like being setup for failure.  But I believe in adapting and overcoming... so if you're interested... one of your buddies needs to play decoy target while another flies in and interacts with the node.  And least I forgot... you and the klingons spawn right on top of each other.... yep, simply the side with the fewest ships is done right out of the gate.  So, its ironic that some folks cite 'zerging' (ie attacking with disregard for your ship and crew) as justification for a death penalty.  Ummm... You don't have to be a top military analyst to conclude ... what else are you going to do under that circumstance.  And this is the current epic end game instance. 

    I would like to save everyone more reading by simply stating there are issues with this game.  But I firmly believe that if you make a claim, you damn well better back it up with some facts...

    Spawning.... Well...  Its seems you tend to spawn right in the middle of mobs when doing the space  contact encounters in PVE.  You have enough time to say "OH SHH...."

    PVP.... ouch.  I loved the pvp be it rather one sided ... for obvious reasons.  For one thing... the teams numerically end up as being unbalanced.  So you end up with 5 vs 2 for a good portion of the battle.  And to cryptics credit... 5 should kick the snot out of 2.  And honestly even when I'm out numbered... there is something just klingon about taking your bat'leth (forgive me I'm not very trek savey) and getting one good swat on each of the feds before they take you out (which has a chance to stun).... it does seem that he bat'leth is king of battle in this game.  Now for the real problem here.  The fed side of the game is largely PVE.  So the fed players have experienced nothing but the AI in combat.  The klingon side is nothing but PVP....  its only logical to conclude that under the most numerically and gear wise even conditions which side will dominate (and does).  That's just common sense.

    So I ask this.  Why don't you address these issues? Why not sit down and think through a mission.... if you want people to avoid zerging (aka leroy jenkins)  design some missions that make it impossible.  But don't discount the fact that sometimes its just fun to wade into mobs and knock some heads together.  Obviously someone concluded the proper fix to all this is to add a death penalty. Further, to all you nosey nagging busy bodies who can't keep your nose in your own business.  It simply is none of your damn business how another player spends his/her free time playing any game, clearly you need to learn to respect other people's time and property. If you honestly believe someone on the other side of the planet playing a game appart from you is somehow affecting you... you have a mental illness.  Seriously, you need to get some help and I strongly encourage you to seek it before you really do hurt someone when you snap.   Finally, on principle and disgust I've closed my champion's onilne acount and gotten my lifetime Star Trek Online membership refunded. Cryptic/Atari are now in the 'no chance in hell' bin with Sony Online.  I signed up to play a game to get away from this kind of BS...

    That's all.  Sionara.

     

  • LydonLydon Member UncommonPosts: 2,938

    Great to see a lot of content on the horizon.



    The difficulty slider doesn't bother me too much, as it's sorta like Hard Mode in Guild Wars.

  • RocketeerRocketeer Member UncommonPosts: 1,303

    The different slider in CoX was a huge success, because lets face it, stuff that a hardcore player might consider ok, may be unbeatable by a not so hardcore player. And WoW really does the same, with their hard modes in raids, only played till Ulduar, but the hardmodes where very well liked there.

     

     

    And about that people dont get it comment, well i dont get where the problem with it is. He properly distinguished between people who like it, people who dont like it, and people who dont get it. If he had said "those that dont like the game dont get it" i would fully agree with the uproar, cause that would be a ridiculous arrogant thing to say. But he didnt say that. And what he did say makes it clear he didnt even mean it(since people who simply dont like the game get mentioned in the same breath as their own group).

     

    But maybe im simply not understanding it properly since english is not my first language. Can someone explain me where the problem is? Is it a context thing? Or is it simply impolite to imply someone doesnt understand something, cause that could mean he is dumb?

  • xoringxoring Member Posts: 65
    Originally posted by Echo08



    3. Life time subs.  Some people (my self included) bought life time subscriptions.  The death penalty was not something in the game at the time of purchase.  Had it been disclosed I would have reconsidered my purchase.  Now, I suspect it won't be very harsh.  Honestly, look at champions online.  But the principle really irks me.  I paid for one thing and to me they are changing a fundamental part of the game...

     

    I also bought a life time sub and I think you're over reacting to the death penalty being added. Buying a life time sub  to STO isn't like buying a life time sub to online chess where the rules are well known and haven't changed for thousands of years. STO is an MMO and a very young one at that. It would have been extremely foolish of not to expect the game to receive updates, both large and small, which might have some effect on the game play. If adding a death penalty is such a big deal, I've see DAoC change "fundamental parts" of the game several times over the course of it's life.

  • Xondar123Xondar123 Member CommonPosts: 2,543
    Originally posted by Rocketeer


    The different slider in CoX was a huge success, because lets face it, stuff that a hardcore player might consider ok, may be unbeatable by a not so hardcore player. And WoW really does the same, with their hard modes in raids, only played till Ulduar, but the hardmodes where very well liked there.
     
     
    And about that people dont get it comment, well i dont get where the problem with it is. He properly distinguished between people who like it, people who dont like it, and people who dont get it. If he had said "those that dont like the game dont get it" i would fully agree with the uproar, cause that would be a ridiculous arrogant thing to say. But he didnt say that. And what he did say makes it clear he didnt even mean it(since people who simply dont like the game get mentioned in the same breath as their own group).
     
    But maybe im simply not understanding it properly since english is not my first language. Can someone explain me where the problem is? Is it a context thing? Or is it simply impolite to imply someone doesnt understand something, cause that could mean he is dumb?

     

    Except that he lumped the people who "simply don't like" the game with the people who "don't get it." Honestly though, what's not to get? It's an incredibly simple, dumbed-down, generic, game with very few features that one thinks about when talking about MMORPGs. Also it's never, ever a good idea to tell one's critics that they don't "get it." It means that Zinc is taking absolutely none of the criticisms of the game to heart, it come off as incredibly arrogant. It's like M. Night Shyamalan saying that his movies "aren't for critics."

    The only way someone would not "get" an MMO is if it was quite complex and full of depth that newbies find difficult to explore. Someone who says "I can't get into EVE Online because I can't find any quests to do" doesn't really "get" EVE. Someone who says "STO has a very small game universe with too many loading screens and too much instancing. All the missions are the same and boring" does indeed "get" STO.

    In the next line he talks about the game not being dumbed down for mass market consumption. Someone would have to be completely naive to not be staggered by the irony.

  • GuintuGuintu Member UncommonPosts: 320
    In the next line he talks about the game not being dumbed down for mass market consumption. Someone would have to be completely naive to not be staggered by the irony.

    This is the problem, most MMO's are dumbed down.  The thing is STO shouldn't have been because a lot of the people who watch the movies and TV shows are geeks and Star Trek did very well going after the geek community.  This game should have done the same.  True that would mean that it would have the chance to turn off the non-trek person, but who cares...I guess Cryptic does.  Its all about money and less about making a game that honors the IP.  So if the game fails are they going to fess up and say "maybe we should made a game that was  more Star Trek"?  or are they just going to say "We did the best we did, oh well" and go on to the next project?  

    There are people that will play the game simply because its Star Trek and if it were F2P I may have done the same for a while, but I'm not going to pay money for a game that doesn't really make me feel like I'm in the Star Trek universe.  It makes me wonder what the other company that was working on STO was up to?  

  • RocketeerRocketeer Member UncommonPosts: 1,303

    Oh please, ofc he lumbs those who dont get it and those who dont like it together, they are both not going to play the game which puts them in the same subgroup no matter how different they are otherwise. And if you think everyone is getting it your simply mistaken. The starting area is full of people complaining how STO is so much more complex than WoW. The skill + item system alone aer more complex than im used too. Deflector dish, astrometrics, shield maintenance ... whats the deflector for again?

    And the game is not at all simple, the current content is simple, thats something completly else. Most games have easy to very easy leveling content. The mechanics and theorycrafting behind it though are easily on par with other mmorpgs. Most people dont even have a clue why 7 beams are better than 8 no matter how many EPS you have, or how the various different stacking penalties affect the different systems and put +30% turnrate consoles on their cruisers.

     

    And thats not even taking into account finding a compromise of supporting your team and helping yourself and your damage with your BOs. Currently there are no cookie cutter setups, cause there simply are too many variables. You can fly a fully buff, or debuff oriented science ship and either may be win or fail. And thats not even getting into wether a Assault cruiser or a Star cruiser is better in a certain situation.

    They only have a single BO ensign and a single console difference, but that can easily amount to 30% damage difference vs higher burst healing. And thats with extremely similar ships and doesnt even begin to take the players own spec into account.

  • WraithoneWraithone Member RarePosts: 3,806
    Originally posted by Guintu

    In the next line he talks about the game not being dumbed down for mass market consumption. Someone would have to be completely naive to not be staggered by the irony.

    This is the problem, most MMO's are dumbed down.  The thing is STO shouldn't have been because a lot of the people who watch the movies and TV shows are geeks and Star Trek did very well going after the geek community.  This game should have done the same.  True that would mean that it would have the chance to turn off the non-trek person, but who cares...I guess Cryptic does.  Its all about money and less about making a game that honors the IP.  So if the game fails are they going to fess up and say "maybe we should made a game that was  more Star Trek"?  or are they just going to say "We did the best we did, oh well" and go on to the next project?  

    There are people that will play the game simply because its Star Trek and if it were F2P I may have done the same for a while, but I'm not going to pay money for a game that doesn't really make me feel like I'm in the Star Trek universe.  It makes me wonder what the other company that was working on STO was up to?  

     

    Well, if you think about it, there is a LONG tradition of Star Trek computer games being shall we say... Sub par...  Why should Cryptic break with such a long and venerable tradition? ^^ I was really expecting much more from STO, than I've seen so far.  I'm wondering just how harsh this new death penalty is going to be.  If its too harsh, they will lose even more players. If its not harsh "enough" then the Death Must Have Meaning crowd will start howling like banshee's(again).

    "If you can't kill it, don't make it mad."
  • GuintuGuintu Member UncommonPosts: 320
    Originally posted by Echo08



    So I ask this.  Why don't you address these issues? Why not sit down and think through a mission.... if you want people to avoid zerging (aka leroy jenkins)  design some missions that make it impossible.  But don't discount the fact that sometimes its just fun to wade into mobs and knock some heads together.  Obviously someone concluded the proper fix to all this is to add a death penalty. Further, to all you nosey nagging busy bodies who can't keep your nose in your own business.  It simply is none of your damn business how another player spends his/her free time playing any game, clearly you need to learn to respect other people's time and property. If you honestly believe someone on the other side of the planet playing a game appart from you is somehow affecting you... you have a mental illness.  Seriously, you need to get some help and I strongly encourage you to seek it before you really do hurt someone when you snap.   Finally, on principle and disgust I've closed my champion's onilne acount and gotten my lifetime Star Trek Online membership refunded. Cryptic/Atari are now in the 'no chance in hell' bin with Sony Online.  I signed up to play a game to get away from this kind of BS...
    That's all.  Sionara.
     

    Dude it does effect you when people on your end just run and gun when you want to use tactics.  Some people may have ADD and not be able to think before they do, so they just jump out and start firing.  Playing a mission in  STO I was grouped with 3 people and we got slaughtered. I told them we have to all hit the main guy first, and stay high and at as much a distance as we can. They didn't listen so we kept getting slaughtered. I left the group, formed another group and gave my suggestion and they followed it and we beat the mission. .  It the whole loose link in the chain effect.  I would then start blocking people who didn't play smart and making friends with people who did...but there should be a warning system.  Maybe when you block someone they can have a button that says "doesn't use good tactics"...or something like that.  Then if enough people click on it, next to their name in the grouping screen it will show they don't use proper tactics, and people can either still group with him or stay away.  It gives people the choice.

    Its obvious you like to resort to name calling so the idea that someone mentioned it does hit a nerve, which means you like to run and gun.  The thing is you don't even see that it does effect the group...maybe not a group of 10 if 1 goes off, but in a group of 3-4 yes it does. 

  • GuintuGuintu Member UncommonPosts: 320
    Originally posted by Wraithone

    Originally posted by Guintu

    In the next line he talks about the game not being dumbed down for mass market consumption. Someone would have to be completely naive to not be staggered by the irony.

    This is the problem, most MMO's are dumbed down.  The thing is STO shouldn't have been because a lot of the people who watch the movies and TV shows are geeks and Star Trek did very well going after the geek community.  This game should have done the same.  True that would mean that it would have the chance to turn off the non-trek person, but who cares...I guess Cryptic does.  Its all about money and less about making a game that honors the IP.  So if the game fails are they going to fess up and say "maybe we should made a game that was  more Star Trek"?  or are they just going to say "We did the best we did, oh well" and go on to the next project?  

    There are people that will play the game simply because its Star Trek and if it were F2P I may have done the same for a while, but I'm not going to pay money for a game that doesn't really make me feel like I'm in the Star Trek universe.  It makes me wonder what the other company that was working on STO was up to?  

     

    Well, if you think about it, there is a LONG tradition of Star Trek computer games being shall we say... Sub par...  Why should Cryptic break with such a long and venerable tradition? ^^ I was really expecting much more from STO, than I've seen so far.  I'm wondering just how harsh this new death penalty is going to be.  If its too harsh, they will lose even more players. If its not harsh "enough" then the Death Must Have Meaning crowd will start howling like banshee's(again).

    I agree, but they could have the death penalty linked to the difficulty slider like I said before.  In the easier positions there is no death penalty, in the middle its not so strict, on hard its very strict and then there is "very difficult" which is permadeath.   This would fix the whole situation.

  • RocketeerRocketeer Member UncommonPosts: 1,303
    Originally posted by Guintu 
    I agree, but they could have the death penalty linked to the difficulty slider like I said before.  In the easier positions there is no death penalty, in the middle its not so strict, on hard its very strict and then there is "very difficult" which is permadeath.   This would fix the whole situation.

     

    Permadeath aint going to happen, but apart from that sure why not? Pretty sure the difficulty will affect the lootdrops like in any game with variable difficulty(i.e. wow hardmodes), so im pretty sure everyone would be happy with that. And its not like cryptic isnt open to player ideas.

     

    That being said there are voices on the official forums saying what the game needs is not necessarily a deathpenalty but missions that you can fail. So if you wipe, mission failed gg bb. That surely would also encourage teamplay, personally id like to see both, but im not anal about it, just my personel preference. I just would like to see some stuff that is really hard, so us min/maxxers can have some fun too.

  • Xondar123Xondar123 Member CommonPosts: 2,543
    Originally posted by Rocketeer


    Oh please, ofc he lumbs those who dont get it and those who dont like it together, they are both not going to play the game which puts them in the same subgroup no matter how different they are otherwise.
    But you just said he didn't put those people together, thus it wasn't an insult to the critics of the game. I pointed out that yes actually, he did. Essentially Zinc was saying three things with that sentence 1) Cryptic does not care what critics say about their game. They will not take any criticisms to heart, they will simply dismiss them. 2) He thinks that everyone who dislikes the game is either hopelessly biased or stupid. Any criticisms of the game aren't because the game has any faults. 3) Fanboys should feel free to crucify anyone who dislikes the game. He'll even provide talking points for them to disseminate.
    And if you think everyone is getting it your simply mistaken. The starting area is full of people complaining how STO is so much more complex than WoW. The skill + item system alone aer more complex than im used too. Deflector dish, astrometrics, shield maintenance ... whats the deflector for again?
    Wow, seriously? The average age of the playerbase must be over 75. Either that or Cryptic somehow managed to find the dumbest playerbase on the face of the planet. If this is true and Cryptic decides to dumb the game down any more, I'm afraid that all they'll be left with is a big red button on the screen that says "Win?" But then I suppose they are complaining because the game is too complex and not because Cryptic designed a poor tutorial that doesn't explain things properly.
    And the game is not at all simple, the current content is simple, thats something completly else. Most games have easy to very easy leveling content. The mechanics and theorycrafting behind it though are easily on par with other mmorpgs. Most people dont even have a clue why 7 beams are better than 8 no matter how many EPS you have, or how the various different stacking penalties affect the different systems and put +30% turnrate consoles on their cruisers.
     No, actually the game content is the game. If the content is simple the game is simple. That's how it works. The mechanics behind STO are equivalent to Champions Online, not with any other MMO.  If Cryptic designed the mechanics poorly, then at the surface they may seem complex, but really they aren't.
    And thats not even taking into account finding a compromise of supporting your team and helping yourself and your damage with your BOs. Currently there are no cookie cutter setups, cause there simply are too many variables. You can fly a fully buff, or debuff oriented science ship and either may be win or fail. And thats not even getting into wether a Assault cruiser or a Star cruiser is better in a certain situation.
    They only have a single BO ensign and a single console difference, but that can easily amount to 30% damage difference vs higher burst healing. And thats with extremely similar ships and doesnt even begin to take the players own spec into account.

     

  • TzetothTzetoth Member Posts: 67

    Unfortunately a difficulty slider is only going to increase the damage enemies do, and decrease the damage you do. It still doesn't make up for boring level design.

  • RocketeerRocketeer Member UncommonPosts: 1,303
    Originally posted by Xondar123

    Originally posted by Rocketeer


    Oh please, ofc he lumbs those who dont get it and those who dont like it together, they are both not going to play the game which puts them in the same subgroup no matter how different they are otherwise.
    But you just said he didn't put those people together, thus it wasn't an insult to the critics of the game. Lumping together and a insult is not the same thing, but i guess if your really really want to feel insulted, well have fun with it. I pointed out that yes actually, he did. Essentially Zinc was saying three things with that sentence 1) Cryptic does not care what people who have no intention to play their game say about their game. They will not take any criticisms by those people to heart, because its irrelevant to their buisness, they will simply dismiss them. 2) He thinks that everyone who dislikes the game is either hopelessly biased or stupid. What he thinks i have no idea, unlike you i do not pretend to be able to look into other peoples minds, but what he said is that people either dont get it or simply dont like it. Any criticisms of the game aren't because the game has any faults. Some faults lie in the eye of the beholder, the faults are getting fixed. 3) Fanboys should feel free to crucify anyone who dislikes the game. He'll even provide talking points for them to disseminate. Yeah why dont you make up some more stuff? Maybe he eats babies too, or supports the taliban while your at it.


    And if you think everyone is getting it your simply mistaken. The starting area is full of people complaining how STO is so much more complex than WoW. The skill + item system alone aer more complex than im used too. Deflector dish, astrometrics, shield maintenance ... whats the deflector for again?
    Wow, seriously? The average age of the playerbase must be over 75. Either that or Cryptic somehow managed to find the dumbest playerbase on the face of the planet. You do know nothing about this game. If you really think running around with a paladin the first levels killing kobolds with autoattacks is in any way or shape or form more complex than in this game where you have access to like over a dozen abilities from the second you undock the first time in your ship your simply clueless. Yeah the rats might be equally easy, but you dont get a graceperiod here where you run around with only two buttons to press and no talents till level 10. WoW is so easy i have seen people that never played a mmorpg get it almost immediatly, STO not so much. Please tell me how someone who just started the game should know the difference between a turret, cannon and torpedo. In wow the difference is completly irrelevant for a new player, take the one that does more dps done. If this is true and Cryptic decides to dumb the game down any more Newsflash Cryptic is making the game more complex, not less. Adding DP, adding 5 man content that is hard, adding fully customizable ships to klingons, thats not dumbing down. You know what dumbing down is? Getting rid of spellpower and defense value on gear like wow intends. , I'm afraid that all they'll be left with is a big red button on the screen that says "Win?" But then I suppose they are complaining because the game is too complex and not because Cryptic designed a poor tutorial that doesn't explain things properly.


    And the game is not at all simple, the current content is simple, thats something completly else. Most games have easy to very easy leveling content. The mechanics and theorycrafting behind it though are easily on par with other mmorpgs. Most people dont even have a clue why 7 beams are better than 8 no matter how many EPS you have, or how the various different stacking penalties affect the different systems and put +30% turnrate consoles on their cruisers.
     No, actually the game content is the game. If the content is simple the game is simple. That's how it works. The mechanics behind STO are equivalent to Champions Online, not with any other MMO.  If Cryptic designed the mechanics poorly, then at the surface they may seem complex, but really they aren't. Your wrong. Just cause you can pretty much ignore the complex part for pve, where there currently isnt much hard content, doesnt mean you wont get your ass kicked horribly in pvp if you have no clue about the gamemechanics. The gamemechanics are the foundation for future content, if they are simple its impossible to implement hard content in a non twitch based game.


    And its not the surface that seems complex, the surface seems easy. The hard part is understanding how to make a balanced build. Also the itemization is simply more complex than WoW for example. For example weapons, in WoW wether you use a axe, a sword or a hammer, or a gun vs a bow is completly besides the point. Maybe your class has a skill specialization that can make one or the other better, but even then its a pretty minor difference and completly optional for the class. In STO though the difference between Cannons, Turrets, Beams and kinetic weapons are huge. They not only have different dps, energydrain & lock which affects dps, damagetype(cannons are stonger against hull than beams, kinetics are weak against shields) and damagefalloff(beams do more dps at long ranges, since they have less falloff). They also have different firearcs, and are affected by wildly different skills. For example a force feedback pulse will in pvp reflect beamdamage back to you, but not cannon or turret. Target subsystem skills can only be used with beams though. Or that you can fire up to 4 beams simultaniously(alphastrike), but cannons or torps have to fire sequentially(dps).


    And thats not even getting into the other ship items, do you take a large shieldbuffer with high bleedthrough and a hullrepping ability, or do you take less shields with less bleedthrough and invest in another shieldbuff instead(there are abilities which disable or bypass your shields), maybe you rather get you hull toughened up? Ands thats not even getting into which deflector to use, which science consoles, and wether you want to make your ship tougher or do more damage with your engineering consoles(which gets affected by energydrain & lock of your weaponchoice above).
    Ands thats just items, which imho are fairly simple when compared to skills + boffs builds, which in turn are affected by your career. A engineering captain often wants different BO than a science or tactical captain. And lastly there are the mixes, tactical captain in science vessel, engineer in escort etc, which can be quite effective.
    And thats not even taking into account finding a compromise of supporting your team and helping yourself and your damage with your BOs. Currently there are no cookie cutter setups, cause there simply are too many variables. You can fly a fully buff, or debuff oriented science ship and either may be win or fail. And thats not even getting into wether a Assault cruiser or a Star cruiser is better in a certain situation.
    They only have a single BO ensign and a single console difference, but that can easily amount to 30% damage difference vs higher burst healing. And thats with extremely similar ships and doesnt even begin to take the players own spec into account.

     

     

    Didnt want this getting so long, but you only have seen the surface, if at all, and still you insist on claiming you know more about how complex the game is than someone so involved with it as i. Its arrogant. I could fill pages with examples of how players have to compromise and use their judgement, about how every single fitting ends up being fairly situational.

    Even the oh so overpowered full debuff science vessels can easily by killed by a single BoP uncloaking and jamming their sensors and unloading his cannons. Since your debuffs are targetet, and you cant target the guy attacking you, you die pitifully.

    A buff oriented science vessel on the other hand could survive in the same situation by using its own buffs for itself, however it would be much less usefull in other situations.

     

    Bottomline, the game can be hard to get, the content currently is not. You can test that by pvping, some people are worlds apart from others in pvp, because they have a good build and are able to adapt their build to different situations. And yeah im really looking forward to hard 5 mans.

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