STOKed podcast to cease covering STO

Comments

• Robsolf Member RarePosts: 4,607

  January 2012

  Just after F2P, even.  Hmmm.

  Can't say I blame them.  I played a bit for free over the weekend.  While they have improved the ground game significantly, they also added a bug that makes the whole ground game sound like you're listening from 200 feet down an aluminum tunnel.  crew AI is still kinda funky...

  Seems like the episode missions... at least the 48-50 ones are much improved over the launch experience.  Seems not so much like running, shooting, clicking on a link and having your crew tell you what to do. 

  It's worth playing for free, maybe even spending cash on a ship or two.

   
• AG-Vuk Member UncommonPosts: 823

  January 2012

  Can't say I'm sorry to see it end . These cheerleaders set themselves up as free advertisers for Cryptic and almost weaseled a postion on a player advisory board for the game for themselves , before the forums errupted in protest. These two cheerleaders threw more softballs at Cryptic then are thrown in the entire womens collegiate softball championship series. It was distrubing to watch to say the least and frankly , not that entertaining , unless you are interested in watching what qualifies as the publics image of computer gamer combined with Star Trek geek come to life on a podcast. Now if only the game would go away like these two. This is probably the best thing that could happen from STO going F2P. 

  
• ShardWarrior Member Posts: 290

  January 2012

  
  Originally posted by Robsolf

  Just after F2P, even.  Hmmm.

  Can't say I blame them.  I played a bit for free over the weekend.  While they have improved the ground game significantly, they also added a bug that makes the whole ground game sound like you're listening from 200 feet down an aluminum tunnel.  crew AI is still kinda funky...

  Seems like the episode missions... at least the 48-50 ones are much improved over the launch experience.  Seems not so much like running, shooting, clicking on a link and having your crew tell you what to do. 

  It's worth playing for free, maybe even spending cash on a ship or two.

   

  I can't say I blame them either.  The main reason Chris gave was that he lost his passion for the game because of the total lack of new content, in addition to (and perhaps most importantly) the lack of concern on Cryptic's part for adding new content to the game in 2012.

   

  There was a thread on the official forums not that long ago, which of course has since been locked and moved to oblivion, where some folks discussed a post that a Cryptic Dev (Gozer if I remember right) made regarding the Foundry.  Essentially, it sounded quite clear (and this looks to be the case) that Cryptic will rely on the (paying) "fans" to use the Foundry to generate the games story content while Cryptic churns out cash shop item after cash shop item.  The current EP's post discussing "2 Featured Episodes per year" does not bode well.

   

  Were you to watch episode 109 here of STOKed, Chris' predictions from last year and going forward do not bode well for the game.    He also makes some excellent points IMO regarding how Cryptic could be using the Foundry themselves to quickly add a lot of story content to the game.  IMO that's the biggest problem the game suffers from... a complete lack of content.  With the XP boosts in the cash shop, you can level to max within a few short hours of gameplay and then find yourself with nothing to do besides an endless, repetitive grind for gear which has no content for you to use it in!

   

  More and more I am beginning to agree with the folks who predicted that PWE bought Cryptic for their engine and will not be supporting STO or CO any further.   I hope that is not the case, but that seems to be what is going on.
• Robsolf Member RarePosts: 4,607

  January 2012

  
  Originally posted by ShardWarrior
  
  

  I can't say I blame them either.  The main reason Chris gave was that he lost his passion for the game because of the total lack of new content, in addition to (and perhaps most importantly) the lack of concern on Cryptic's part for adding new content to the game in 2012.

  I was kinda expecting it, myself, having observed what they did with Champions Online, and what little content they put into it after launch.  What little they DID do, they initially tried to charge subscribers for, some 3 months after launch.   

   There was a thread on the official forums not that long ago, which of course has since been locked and moved to oblivion, where some folks discussed a post that a Cryptic Dev (Gozer if I remember right) made regarding the Foundry.  Essentially, it sounded quite clear (and this looks to be the case) that Cryptic will rely on the (paying) "fans" to use the Foundry to generate the games story content while Cryptic churns out cash shop item after cash shop item.  The current EP's post discussing "2 Featured Episodes per year" does not bode well.

  Wow... that's like... an hour and a half of content.  Klingon players, ask and ye shall receive!  You'll have your faction completed... right about the year the first Enterprise is built...

  Were you to watch episode 109 here of STOKed, Chris' predictions from last year and going forward do not bode well for the game.    He also makes some excellent points IMO regarding how Cryptic could be using the Foundry themselves to quickly add a lot of story content to the game.  IMO that's the biggest problem the game suffers from... a complete lack of content.  With the XP boosts in the cash shop, you can level to max within a few short hours of gameplay and then find yourself with nothing to do besides an endless, repetitive grind for gear which has no content for you to use it in!

  And before you even get into that sort of stuff... whether it's right to stop developing content to have a paying customer do it instead, while you look for ways to charge people above and beyond the sub price...

  Player created content in MMO's is always one of those ideas that looks great on paper, then quickly becomes a mess when implemented.  You will have at least 50% of your users trying to make content to grind XP or tokens, some 20% that will intentionally make something stupid, a remaining 30% that will try to make something cool, of which about 2% of them will succeed.

  Lastly, I wondered about the gear grind.  I've come in from quitting after my free month at launch, and despite my having picked up every single anomaly I've ever seen, I don't seem to have the right stuff to make anything.  And I have not quite enough dilithium(not sure how I got it) to get anything that's better than what I have.  either way, all my stuff is class 10 and 11.  Naturally I'd want class 12 stuff, but as you say, I don't have much episode content left to do, which is the only thing that I like doing in the game.  And again as you say, if there's little to no content coming, why gear up for it?

  More and more I am beginning to agree with the folks who predicted that PWE bought Cryptic for their engine and will not be supporting STO or CO any further.   I hope that is not the case, but that seems to be what is going on.

  Given Cryptic's MO to date has been to use an IP to make money off of boxes on a half made game, and given that PWE's MO is to MT people into oblivion, I'd be surprised if it's any different than predicted.  I'd gladly pay a fair price for Episode packs as a free player, but since they'd have to give that content to their sub base for free(as opposed to ships, XP pots, races, etc) and it actually takes effort, I doubt it'll happen.