Greetings, Captains! You’re listening to Episode 170 of Priority One Podcast, the premier Star Trek Online podcast! This episode was recorded on Thursday, April 17th, 2014 and published for download on Monday, April 21st at PriorityOnePodcast.com!
Elijah, Jayce and Cookie bring you yet another epic show as we continue our conversation with Al “Captain Geko” Rivera bringing you more details on Season Nine and beyond, but before we get to the good stuff, in this week’s Trek It Out Cookie tells us of some poor habits picked up by the Star Trek community that need to be broken. Next, in STO News, we cover the avalanche of Dev Bogs that have been coming out of Cryptic as we being you our coverage of Season Nine Dev Blogs 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16; and a tiny little spoiler let out by Garrett Wang (better known as Harry Kim from Star Trek Voyager) on Twitter. After our conversation with Al, Jayce puts on his jacket and glasses, transforming into Professor Jayce right before your eyes to bring you a reimagined Field Notes segment, and then finally we open up Hailing Frequncies and listen to what’s incoming from you — our listeners.
Be sure to check out the newest show in the Priority One Productions lineup, The Guard Frequency. This new show is focused on the latest offering from Wing Commander/Freelancer creator Chris Roberts and Cloud Imperium Games, Star Citizen. If you like Priority One, head on over to http://guardfrequency.com/ and see what awaits you in the world of Star Citizen!
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Elio is a Northern New Jersey Cuban-American and graduate of Kean University, having earned his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Performance in 2011. He has performed in internationally renowned performance halls such as Avery Fisher Hall with the New York Philharmonic, as a member of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, and in Beijing, China as a representative for Kean University. Since 2012, he has had the wonderful opportunity to Executive Produce Priority One – the premiere Star Trek Online podcast. Whether recruiting, managing the global team of talented volunteers, arranging interviews with special guests, editing, web-development, finding sponsors, managing crowd funding, or writing content for the podcast, Elio has a hand in it all. A long-time Trekkie, Elio has been watching the series since he was a child and sneaking in late night, back-to-back, episodes of TNG reruns. He finally embraced the Trekdom in college and spent many hours catching up on the entire multiverse…. instead of studying.
Greetings, Captains! You’re listening to Episode 169 of Priority One Podcast, the premier Star Trek Online podcast! This episode was recorded on Thursday, April 10th, 2014 and published for download on […]
neal on 2014-05-02
Hey everyone,
This is my first time posting here and I decided to break my silence because of what I heard Mr. Rivera say about season 9. I listened to the pod cast on my phone and I am pretty sure this is the correct segment where he mentions a TED speech about choice. His mention of that leads me to believe that he has some background in economics or at least a passing interest in it and it is amazing that he does not apply the purpose of that video and the actions of deflation on the supply and demand curve to what was released with season 9.
First off, lets talk about choice. What did cryptic/PWE choose to do when they released season 9? Well we have an abundance of modified content and some additional STF options. When devs decided to change the traits in the reputation system, they chose to change a part of the game that people spent either actual money on or in game resources on. It is fair to say that when they released the reputation system last year and the traits that went along with it, they fundamentally altered they way people played the game by changing the builds of ships and thus, what people choose to spend resources on. Players changed to the new game style and spent resources to meet the new topography of the game. By taking away the ability to use traits in a combination that people spent resources to acquire, by allowing the acquisition of previously expensive reputation store gear through simple project slotting, the devs sent an important message to players- “do not spend time or resources for a build or any aspect in the game because it is not going to last”.
This might be an extreme statement at first glance, however it is easily proven when one looks at the game now compared to launch. STO 2014 is a completely new beast, which has little in common with the goals and gameplay of STO when it was launched. This is both a good and natural growth of a product. It needs to change in order to survive in the market, to compete against substitutes and complements, however it is important to stay on the indifference curve. What that means is that when a consumer is given X amount of goods they receive Y amount of satisfaction. While peoples’ satisfaction change based on consumer behavior, there are some things that a business can do to control satisfaction. While season 9 still allows players to enjoy their traits and reputation gear, they are not drawing the same level of satisfaction as they were before because it is now easier to get store gear, it is now impossible to use the traits the way they were before and/or it is impossible to return your trait tokens that you bought to respec. If you want to see this proven mathematically, take a microeconomics course or you can watch that very same TED talk about choice and he briefly touches on it.
The point is that the indifference curve is now dramatically affected because no compensation is given to players-there is no trade off, which was the opposite case in the past. Essentially what has happened is no different than a person going to a bank and taking out a loan and defaulting on that loan by repaying the loan with artificially devalued currency. To explain this analogy, the loan is the money that players give the game through subscriptions and item purchases in the understanding that what they receive is a return in what will bring them a certain predefined good and entertainment. That return has been altered in such a way that it is no longer the original predefined good or entertainment, rather a new lesser quality good with less entertainment value. Why is it lesser? Well that is because now instead of using skill and forethought in a build, when a player goes into space battle they can just slot all space traits and all offensive or defensive traits with no penalty for a bad build and no reward. Simply, you can not eliminate risk with out diminishing reward and allowing people to create these “right tool for the right job” builds takes away from the level of forethought and skill that was previously required and provided the reward of success.
So now on to the deflation problem we have. Anyone who subscribes to Paul Kurgan’s theory about deflation (I do no personally, however he is an Nobel Peace Prize economist) you will know that the trouble with deflation is that it prevents people from ever spending their savings. For example, if a person is searching the market for a new refrigerator and they see that the price has dropped from last week, and last weeks price had dropped from the week before, and that week it was lower than before- the consumer has every reason to believe that it will fall next and the week after. This will cause the consumer to never purchase the product because they will always be waiting for a better price. When I said that STO has changed from day one, this is the pattern that developed.
When one goes to the forums and reads the reactions of season 9, one prevailing complaint is that it screws over veteran players. Some people have responded by saying that it attracts new players to the game. Does it? Does it really attract people who have never played STO before? If that is true, does it attract more new players who have never spent a dime on the game than it alienates veteran players who have spent considerable resources?
I feel these are questions that have failed to be addressed. More importantly, I believe that the failure to address these questions is a sign of a bigger problem- is it time for STO to die? We are witnessing a failure in this business model that may not seem to have an impact in short term elasticity ( I would argue it does since myself and others have already cancelled subscriptions) however it will most definitely have an impact in long term elasticity.
I make a living doing this, trading futures and commodities and understanding the market. When I look at what we have here in season 9, a lack luster and glticthy release and an attempt to alienate veteran players; in combination with the fact that last year Disney purchased Star Wars and the first thing they did was kill Lucas Arts (they would love to get their hands on Star Trek and after the resources they will have after the new Star Wars movie I doubt CBS can hold them off)- I have legitimate reason to worry about the future of STO and so do all players.
Vivienne Anthony on 2014-05-03
Great response. Very thorough and true.
neal on 2019-01-30
Hey everyone,
This is my first time posting here and I decided to break my silence because of what I heard Mr. Rivera say about season 9. I listened to the pod cast on my phone and I am pretty sure this is the correct segment where he mentions a TED speech about choice. His mention of that leads me to believe that he has some background in economics or at least a passing interest in it and it is amazing that he does not apply the purpose of that video and the actions of deflation on the supply and demand curve to what was released with season 9.
First off, lets talk about choice. What did cryptic/PWE choose to do when they released season 9? Well we have an abundance of modified content and some additional STF options. When devs decided to change the traits in the reputation system, they chose to change a part of the game that people spent either actual money on or in game resources on. It is fair to say that when they released the reputation system last year and the traits that went along with it, they fundamentally altered they way people played the game by changing the builds of ships and thus, what people choose to spend resources on. Players changed to the new game style and spent resources to meet the new topography of the game. By taking away the ability to use traits in a combination that people spent resources to acquire, by allowing the acquisition of previously expensive reputation store gear through simple project slotting, the devs sent an important message to players- “do not spend time or resources for a build or any aspect in the game because it is not going to last”.
This might be an extreme statement at first glance, however it is easily proven when one looks at the game now compared to launch. STO 2014 is a completely new beast, which has little in common with the goals and gameplay of STO when it was launched. This is both a good and natural growth of a product. It needs to change in order to survive in the market, to compete against substitutes and complements, however it is important to stay on the indifference curve. What that means is that when a consumer is given X amount of goods they receive Y amount of satisfaction. While peoples’ satisfaction change based on consumer behavior, there are some things that a business can do to control satisfaction. While season 9 still allows players to enjoy their traits and reputation gear, they are not drawing the same level of satisfaction as they were before because it is now easier to get store gear, it is now impossible to use the traits the way they were before and/or it is impossible to return your trait tokens that you bought to respec. If you want to see this proven mathematically, take a microeconomics course or you can watch that very same TED talk about choice and he briefly touches on it.
The point is that the indifference curve is now dramatically affected because no compensation is given to players-there is no trade off, which was the opposite case in the past. Essentially what has happened is no different than a person going to a bank and taking out a loan and defaulting on that loan by repaying the loan with artificially devalued currency. To explain this analogy, the loan is the money that players give the game through subscriptions and item purchases in the understanding that what they receive is a return in what will bring them a certain predefined good and entertainment. That return has been altered in such a way that it is no longer the original predefined good or entertainment, rather a new lesser quality good with less entertainment value. Why is it lesser? Well that is because now instead of using skill and forethought in a build, when a player goes into space battle they can just slot all space traits and all offensive or defensive traits with no penalty for a bad build and no reward. Simply, you can not eliminate risk with out diminishing reward and allowing people to create these “right tool for the right job” builds takes away from the level of forethought and skill that was previously required and provided the reward of success.
So now on to the deflation problem we have. Anyone who subscribes to Paul Kurgan’s theory about deflation (I do no personally, however he is an Nobel Peace Prize economist) you will know that the trouble with deflation is that it prevents people from ever spending their savings. For example, if a person is searching the market for a new refrigerator and they see that the price has dropped from last week, and last weeks price had dropped from the week before, and that week it was lower than before- the consumer has every reason to believe that it will fall next and the week after. This will cause the consumer to never purchase the product because they will always be waiting for a better price. When I said that STO has changed from day one, this is the pattern that developed.
When one goes to the forums and reads the reactions of season 9, one prevailing complaint is that it screws over veteran players. Some people have responded by saying that it attracts new players to the game. Does it? Does it really attract people who have never played STO before? If that is true, does it attract more new players who have never spent a dime on the game than it alienates veteran players who have spent considerable resources?
I feel these are questions that have failed to be addressed. More importantly, I believe that the failure to address these questions is a sign of a bigger problem- is it time for STO to die? We are witnessing a failure in this business model that may not seem to have an impact in short term elasticity ( I would argue it does since myself and others have already cancelled subscriptions) however it will most definitely have an impact in long term elasticity.
I make a living doing this, trading futures and commodities and understanding the market. When I look at what we have here in season 9, a lack luster and glticthy release and an attempt to alienate veteran players; in combination with the fact that last year Disney purchased Star Wars and the first thing they did was kill Lucas Arts (they would love to get their hands on Star Trek and after the resources they will have after the new Star Wars movie I doubt CBS can hold them off)- I have legitimate reason to worry about the future of STO and so do all players.
Vivienne Anthony on 2019-01-30
Great response. Very thorough and true.
Dan Kochheiser on 2014-04-25
Hi all, again. This is becoming a regular thing….
Cookie, elitism is in all things that people become passionate about. Unless you find a way to change human brain chemistry, the problem will always exist.
To rename the field report segment, I would consider Command Briefings. It’s basically briefings on how best to do things as a starship captain in STO.
As for the gap between Veteran and New Players, like I said there should be gap. COnsider other MMO’s, to cover the ones I know very well, WoW. There is a huge gap btween people who just got dinged max level and those that are the pro-raiders. And that has NOT hurt the game at all. In fact, the game design philosophy is such that the people who spend the time to be the best put in more hours than those that play to have fun. And that gap is filled by end game content that supports both playstyles. STO could follow this general guideline by creating not only group content, in the formn of STF’s, for end game progression, but also maybe some end game repeatable single player missions that reward marks too. Maybe make the single player mode reward half what group content would reward. Add to that, put in more ways to attain end game gear for consoles and modules that are useful.
I also think that the community at large really needs to create accessable and easily understood guides and builds so that the community as a whole will get better. The Veterans need to impart the wisdom of thier hard earn experience to the new players so that they will become competative and make the game better for everyone.
I would do this but I really haven’t gotten the my own handle on the how all the moving parts that make a build work. I need that kind of help to up my game.
I would love to hear more of the Field Notes. Because I need that kind of info to get better.
Dan Kochheiser on 2019-01-30
Hi all, again. This is becoming a regular thing….
Cookie, elitism is in all things that people become passionate about. Unless you find a way to change human brain chemistry, the problem will always exist.
To rename the field report segment, I would consider Command Briefings. It’s basically briefings on how best to do things as a starship captain in STO.
As for the gap between Veteran and New Players, like I said there should be gap. COnsider other MMO’s, to cover the ones I know very well, WoW. There is a huge gap btween people who just got dinged max level and those that are the pro-raiders. And that has NOT hurt the game at all. In fact, the game design philosophy is such that the people who spend the time to be the best put in more hours than those that play to have fun. And that gap is filled by end game content that supports both playstyles. STO could follow this general guideline by creating not only group content, in the formn of STF’s, for end game progression, but also maybe some end game repeatable single player missions that reward marks too. Maybe make the single player mode reward half what group content would reward. Add to that, put in more ways to attain end game gear for consoles and modules that are useful.
I also think that the community at large really needs to create accessable and easily understood guides and builds so that the community as a whole will get better. The Veterans need to impart the wisdom of thier hard earn experience to the new players so that they will become competative and make the game better for everyone.
I would do this but I really haven’t gotten the my own handle on the how all the moving parts that make a build work. I need that kind of help to up my game.
I would love to hear more of the Field Notes. Because I need that kind of info to get better.
Steve on 2014-04-25
Cookie you are spot on! I would like to just add a little extra….
A few years ago, I belonged to another genre’s fangroups. I was thrown out and kicked around for RPing “Light side” over “Dark side” where I belonged to the light side group and others were dual alligned(had characters in both groups) Rather than taking it as it was meant, (Role Play) They took everything personally,,,
Now I am entering a new Star Trek group and am finding one of the people who had “issues” with my RP within the other group is High up in my local branch of this new group and is pre-conceiving issues and trying to block my entry into the group by making up and spreading lies about me to the Admiralty Board.
This is just as bad as what you were speaking about.
Steve on 2019-01-30
Cookie you are spot on! I would like to just add a little extra….
A few years ago, I belonged to another genre’s fangroups. I was thrown out and kicked around for RPing “Light side” over “Dark side” where I belonged to the light side group and others were dual alligned(had characters in both groups) Rather than taking it as it was meant, (Role Play) They took everything personally,,,
Now I am entering a new Star Trek group and am finding one of the people who had “issues” with my RP within the other group is High up in my local branch of this new group and is pre-conceiving issues and trying to block my entry into the group by making up and spreading lies about me to the Admiralty Board.
This is just as bad as what you were speaking about.
Genada on 2014-04-24
Could you please ask in a interview sometime:
Why is this game really lacking any true mmo end game?
All of the new content can be done in a single day. There is no path of progression that matters for beating more challenging content.
The game is really lacking any end game what so ever.
Vivienne Anthony on 2014-04-27
That’s what players are asking for plus increase of difficulty. Cryptic is just ignoring the player base.
Genada on 2019-01-30
Could you please ask in a interview sometime:
Why is this game really lacking any true mmo end game?
All of the new content can be done in a single day. There is no path of progression that matters for beating more challenging content.
The game is really lacking any end game what so ever.
Vivienne Anthony on 2019-01-30
That’s what players are asking for plus increase of difficulty. Cryptic is just ignoring the player base.
Sunseahl on 2014-04-23
I’d liek to buypass the Community questions to start a discussion of sorts. Granted this may get me quite a bit of hate from the community as they’re start whining about “doomsaying” but this needs to be asked anyway…
Who thought it was a good idea to release the Undine Lockbox? Time and again I ask this question and I get shot down with “you’re just a hater” or “why can’t you be glad for the new things”
Well the truth is I am VERY glad for season 9. I love all of the new content, granted some could be tweaked, and what content couldn’t, but at the end of all this development is the selling of lockboxed to make payback for the time, effort, blood, sweat, and even love spent on making it all.
And even then I understand some of the lockboxes… Until we get to the Undine.
The Undine have always been this xenophobic, even germophobic species in our universe to the point that they’ve even committed suicide before. They hate all life in our known version of space because to them we are, indeed, quite alien.
But that aside we realized the Undine were becoming a bigger problem in STO… in fact the First Contact Day/Day of Honor/Republic Day missions had us testing a new bio-molecular torpedo on was was then said to be hard to acquire disabled vessels. This made a lot of sense considering the Undine are, again, xenophobic to the point of suicide. This would include their living ships too…
But now with Season 9 being released that little bit of lore just got airlocked out of the old ESD as the Ferengi’s Lobi Consortium tosses around Undine ships, almost quite literately, like Mardi-Gras beads.
Now to this I can understand the lockboxes are supposed to be a chance and win. Fine, cool… But there’s a very, very thin line between boxing us ships to buy and then making lore, then turning around to break that very same lore jut to turn a buck.
so I’ll ask again…. Why the Undine lockbox?
Also… Giving us the enemies ships like this, just as the season hits… for those that /do/ get these ships, doesn’t it start to cause that very same power creep that Cryptic keeps saying it’s trying to balance?
LotsOfLore on 2014-04-24
I understand your point, however, isn’t power creep ultimately a built-in requirement for mmorpgs(in general)? The game has the players go through the content becoming all the more powerful little by little. If you didn’t have that the game would be static. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be better, I honestly don’t know, but it just would be unprecedented imo…
That being said, I agree with the incongruence of having Ferengis selling out Unidine ships like nuts, and I don’t like it. I would prefer each faction developing their own new ships for their officers, with enemy-stolen tech and ship being extremely rare (i.e. strictly story-tied and not buyable).
Awesome new content anyway
The_Grand_Nagus on 2014-04-25
“Who thought it was a good idea to release the Undine Lockbox?”
Its pretty obvious: the guys who count the money. It makes zero sense from an in game story perspective, but it makes perfect sense when you realize they just want people’s money.
LotsOfLore on 2014-04-23
Hi, I’ll post it here as well since I had no follow up on the forum.
I just want to THANK WITH ALL MY HEART the devs for allowing kit parts and armour as costumes, I can now FINALLY display armour and even customize a DARN GOOD, realistic and immersive battlesuit with equipment pieces for my KDF characters!
It is something I craved since I started playing this game!! I am sooooooo happy to be able to finally dump those idiotic and horrible canon-related pieces of junk that somebody from the Show, on acid, back in the 80s dared call “armour” for Klingons and the like.
Why hasn’t this huge change been mentioned in any interviews/posts I’ve read??
It’s not even in the official notes, for the love of Q!!
What is your opinion on this? Thank you.
Sunseahl on 2019-01-30
I’d liek to buypass the Community questions to start a discussion of sorts. Granted this may get me quite a bit of hate from the community as they’re start whining about “doomsaying” but this needs to be asked anyway…
Who thought it was a good idea to release the Undine Lockbox? Time and again I ask this question and I get shot down with “you’re just a hater” or “why can’t you be glad for the new things”
Well the truth is I am VERY glad for season 9. I love all of the new content, granted some could be tweaked, and what content couldn’t, but at the end of all this development is the selling of lockboxed to make payback for the time, effort, blood, sweat, and even love spent on making it all.
And even then I understand some of the lockboxes… Until we get to the Undine.
The Undine have always been this xenophobic, even germophobic species in our universe to the point that they’ve even committed suicide before. They hate all life in our known version of space because to them we are, indeed, quite alien.
But that aside we realized the Undine were becoming a bigger problem in STO… in fact the First Contact Day/Day of Honor/Republic Day missions had us testing a new bio-molecular torpedo on was was then said to be hard to acquire disabled vessels. This made a lot of sense considering the Undine are, again, xenophobic to the point of suicide. This would include their living ships too…
But now with Season 9 being released that little bit of lore just got airlocked out of the old ESD as the Ferengi’s Lobi Consortium tosses around Undine ships, almost quite literately, like Mardi-Gras beads.
Now to this I can understand the lockboxes are supposed to be a chance and win. Fine, cool… But there’s a very, very thin line between boxing us ships to buy and then making lore, then turning around to break that very same lore jut to turn a buck.
so I’ll ask again…. Why the Undine lockbox?
Also… Giving us the enemies ships like this, just as the season hits… for those that /do/ get these ships, doesn’t it start to cause that very same power creep that Cryptic keeps saying it’s trying to balance?
LotsOfLore on 2019-01-30
I understand your point, however, isn’t power creep ultimately a built-in requirement for mmorpgs(in general)? The game has the players go through the content becoming all the more powerful little by little. If you didn’t have that the game would be static. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be better, I honestly don’t know, but it just would be unprecedented imo…
That being said, I agree with the incongruence of having Ferengis selling out Unidine ships like nuts, and I don’t like it. I would prefer each faction developing their own new ships for their officers, with enemy-stolen tech and ship being extremely rare (i.e. strictly story-tied and not buyable).
Awesome new content anyway
The_Grand_Nagus on 2019-01-30
“Who thought it was a good idea to release the Undine Lockbox?”
Its pretty obvious: the guys who count the money. It makes zero sense from an in game story perspective, but it makes perfect sense when you realize they just want people’s money.
Retissal on 2014-04-23
I agree that the Trek community can be a bit too harsh and could stand to relax a bit. However, I do think it speaks to how passionate we can be, even if it’s misdirected.
I have played the revamped episodes on Holodeck – so good. Set the difficulty on Elite and get ready for a good time.
As for the hyper focused rep gear? I’m a fan. They are, after all, special missions requiring special gear for special enemies. That being said, I think that we should be able to craft our purple mark x set gear using some components we acquire from the FE and other places, NPCs, and even players. That way we can use the gear against the enemies it was intended for before we get tired of fighting them (and have a reason to craft). Make purple mark xii gear and whatever other goodies you want available as upgrades so that future grinding is a tad bit easier. Personally, this preserves immersion and gives the PVEs greater replay value – and rids me of the peeve that is, “I’ve fought you for a month now give me stuff I’ve I could’ve used for the past month!”.
LotsOfLore on 2014-04-24
haha so true!
LotsOfLore on 2019-01-30
Hi, I’ll post it here as well since I had no follow up on the forum.
I just want to THANK WITH ALL MY HEART the devs for allowing kit parts and armour as costumes, I can now FINALLY display armour and even customize a DARN GOOD, realistic and immersive battlesuit with equipment pieces for my KDF characters!
It is something I craved since I started playing this game!! I am sooooooo happy to be able to finally dump those idiotic and horrible canon-related pieces of junk that somebody from the Show, on acid, back in the 80s dared call “armour” for Klingons and the like.
Why hasn’t this huge change been mentioned in any interviews/posts I’ve read??
It’s not even in the official notes, for the love of Q!!
What is your opinion on this? Thank you.
Retissal on 2019-01-30
I agree that the Trek community can be a bit too harsh and could stand to relax a bit. However, I do think it speaks to how passionate we can be, even if it’s misdirected.
I have played the revamped episodes on Holodeck – so good. Set the difficulty on Elite and get ready for a good time.
As for the hyper focused rep gear? I’m a fan. They are, after all, special missions requiring special gear for special enemies. That being said, I think that we should be able to craft our purple mark x set gear using some components we acquire from the FE and other places, NPCs, and even players. That way we can use the gear against the enemies it was intended for before we get tired of fighting them (and have a reason to craft). Make purple mark xii gear and whatever other goodies you want available as upgrades so that future grinding is a tad bit easier. Personally, this preserves immersion and gives the PVEs greater replay value – and rids me of the peeve that is, “I’ve fought you for a month now give me stuff I’ve I could’ve used for the past month!”.
LotsOfLore on 2019-01-30
haha so true!
Adam LaJuene on 2014-04-23
Regarding reputation rewards, I think the new flexibility could make specialization viable especially if future reputation rewards specialize in other weapon types. If this is the case, I support it fully as it would encourage pre-battle preparation which to me would improve the experience of feeling in command of a ship rather than playing with a toy ship.
Woody_Valley on 2014-04-23
I’ve been playing your Foundry Missions, Tony.
It might be all good to go on Priority One and say ‘We know about it, stop exploiting the foundry’. But who many of the players who exploit listen to Priority One, or any other STO related podcasts?
What is the good of preaching the message to the saints, when the message is meant for the sinners. Did anyone from Cryptic or PWE say anything on the Reddit Posting saying what Gecko just said?
Adam LaJuene on 2019-01-30
Regarding reputation rewards, I think the new flexibility could make specialization viable especially if future reputation rewards specialize in other weapon types. If this is the case, I support it fully as it would encourage pre-battle preparation which to me would improve the experience of feeling in command of a ship rather than playing with a toy ship.
Vivienne Anthony on 2014-04-22
I almost want to say Cryptic should be getting a more mature crowd to the game instead of annoying some players. Making them want to leave especially lifetime subscribers or people who subscribe.
It seems Season 8 to 9 was the seasons of Nerfing. In my obversation, STO seem less populated. Other people might have different views but I am talking about my observation.
(edited)
Prof. Dr. Zarek on 2014-04-23
To the Core that is pretty much as it appears to me.
Cryptic/PWE did push imho the wrong way.
They over casualised the game and put to much Focus on Events and Lockbox super Special pink Pony rewards or just Ships to make Money.
What People keeps playing a MMO are not pink ponies and Events you are served like on a Conveyerband or the the idea of forcing People into social Zones.
People Play MMO for the community they are part of the challenge or just the awe some would say for braging rights maybe aswell.
Playing STO is not serving this at all extrem instancing no real open world Events beyond Dyson ground.
And the Marathon design of the big Events and finaly now Event festive ones are not exploring a TREK world but driving down the City and watching at all the Neon lights and Store Windows.
Thank you Cryptic to bringing us the American way of live to our most loved SCi-Fi franchrise.
Yet you have to admit the games that had it done more or less right are gone Star Wars Galaxies, Warhammer Online, Ever Quest and Lord of the Rings Online is struggeling aswell after they changed their game mecanics actualy to the better.
just my thought 😉
LotsOfLore on 2014-05-06
Oh for the love of Q.
People spoke out for an increasing power creep and then the developers work on a fix for that, they roll it out and ppl complain about nerfing! Don’t you see what sort of madness this is?
Home assignment: pick up a piece of paper and write 100 times: “what whiners call “nerfing” I will call bug fixing. And that is good.”
Thank you
Woody_Valley on 2019-01-30
I’ve been playing your Foundry Missions, Tony.
It might be all good to go on Priority One and say ‘We know about it, stop exploiting the foundry’. But who many of the players who exploit listen to Priority One, or any other STO related podcasts?
What is the good of preaching the message to the saints, when the message is meant for the sinners. Did anyone from Cryptic or PWE say anything on the Reddit Posting saying what Gecko just said?
Vivienne Anthony on 2019-01-30
I almost want to say Cryptic should be getting a more mature crowd to the game instead of annoying some players. Making them want to leave especially lifetime subscribers or people who subscribe.
It seems Season 8 to 9 was the seasons of Nerfing. In my obversation, STO seem less populated. Other people might have different views but I am talking about my observation.
(edited)
Prof. Dr. Zarek on 2019-01-30
To the Core that is pretty much as it appears to me.
Cryptic/PWE did push imho the wrong way.
They over casualised the game and put to much Focus on Events and Lockbox super Special pink Pony rewards or just Ships to make Money.
What People keeps playing a MMO are not pink ponies and Events you are served like on a Conveyerband or the the idea of forcing People into social Zones.
People Play MMO for the community they are part of the challenge or just the awe some would say for braging rights maybe aswell.
Playing STO is not serving this at all extrem instancing no real open world Events beyond Dyson ground.
And the Marathon design of the big Events and finaly now Event festive ones are not exploring a TREK world but driving down the City and watching at all the Neon lights and Store Windows.
Thank you Cryptic to bringing us the American way of live to our most loved SCi-Fi franchrise.
Yet you have to admit the games that had it done more or less right are gone Star Wars Galaxies, Warhammer Online, Ever Quest and Lord of the Rings Online is struggeling aswell after they changed their game mecanics actualy to the better.
just my thought 😉
LotsOfLore on 2019-01-30
Oh for the love of Q.
People spoke out for an increasing power creep and then the developers work on a fix for that, they roll it out and ppl complain about nerfing! Don’t you see what sort of madness this is?
Home assignment: pick up a piece of paper and write 100 times: “what whiners call “nerfing” I will call bug fixing. And that is good.”
Thank you
Wardcalis on 2014-04-22
Dunno bout the rest of you but this is extremely upsetting to me. I personally feel that STO is extremely lacking in the way of PvE ques. And that what we need are more PvE ques, specifically organized fleet ques. Something that could be like raiding in other MMOs. we need more not less.
Wardcalis on 2019-01-30
Dunno bout the rest of you but this is extremely upsetting to me. I personally feel that STO is extremely lacking in the way of PvE ques. And that what we need are more PvE ques, specifically organized fleet ques. Something that could be like raiding in other MMOs. we need more not less.
seannewboy on 2014-04-22
Follow up, to summon tacofangs, do you need to be in a dark bathroom looking into the mirror? Also i must say its no fun to be megamuffled, been there done that.
seannewboy on 2014-04-22
CQ1)Yes, and i say that as a trekker, not a filthy trekie! 😉
CQ2)I think its fine considering how many reps we could end up with.
CQ3)Havent tried it, waiting for holodeck.
VSCQ1)Who else thinks it should be undIne rather than undeene?*
Wonderful show everyone, cant wait for future Field Notes, a wonderful revamp.
Prof. Dr. Zarek on 2014-04-22
Loved the part about new blood, and that we as a whole should try to welcome the new Fans.
Even when it happens to be that they jumped in the boat by the missguided JJ movies. 🙂
Yet People get your Facts straight pretty much every Episode lately you put SCi Cpt in the Spot of healers in Space or do take it fr given that SCi Cpt throw SCi powers around.
In Space every class can fly every ship type so TAC and ENG could be fly a SCi vessel or Cruiser and fill a Healer Slot.
Same for Ground SCi is SCi not Medic by Default.
Infact beyond one one Cpt power SCi has neither on ground or in space a heal power (Teampower) while ENG has two.
So please stop forcing SCi into a healer role.
Life Long and Podcast
seannewboy on 2019-01-30
Follow up, to summon tacofangs, do you need to be in a dark bathroom looking into the mirror? Also i must say its no fun to be megamuffled, been there done that.
seannewboy on 2019-01-30
CQ1)Yes, and i say that as a trekker, not a filthy trekie! 😉
CQ2)I think its fine considering how many reps we could end up with.
CQ3)Havent tried it, waiting for holodeck.
VSCQ1)Who else thinks it should be undIne rather than undeene?*
Wonderful show everyone, cant wait for future Field Notes, a wonderful revamp.
Celestiaseven on 2014-04-22
Oh! Cookie Segment! Nice!
I have to agree on what Cookie say regarding about it. We are fans of Star Trek, because we love it, no matter which generation we started. Even myself, my girlfriend and brother, where we started during Generation, while my father started from TOS and my mother taken interest during JJ’s Star Trek, but we didn’t complain about it, we love it because it’s Star Trek.
It’s just like how some fan of Trek doesn’t like Star Trek Online because it is non-canon anymore. I mean, how more ‘canon’ can you go? And plus, STO is a game after all.
Prof. Dr. Zarek on 2019-01-30
Loved the part about new blood, and that we as a whole should try to welcome the new Fans.
Even when it happens to be that they jumped in the boat by the missguided JJ movies. 🙂
Yet People get your Facts straight pretty much every Episode lately you put SCi Cpt in the Spot of healers in Space or do take it fr given that SCi Cpt throw SCi powers around.
In Space every class can fly every ship type so TAC and ENG could be fly a SCi vessel or Cruiser and fill a Healer Slot.
Same for Ground SCi is SCi not Medic by Default.
Infact beyond one one Cpt power SCi has neither on ground or in space a heal power (Teampower) while ENG has two.
So please stop forcing SCi into a healer role.
Life Long and Podcast
Celestiaseven on 2019-01-30
Oh! Cookie Segment! Nice!
I have to agree on what Cookie say regarding about it. We are fans of Star Trek, because we love it, no matter which generation we started. Even myself, my girlfriend and brother, where we started during Generation, while my father started from TOS and my mother taken interest during JJ’s Star Trek, but we didn’t complain about it, we love it because it’s Star Trek.
It’s just like how some fan of Trek doesn’t like Star Trek Online because it is non-canon anymore. I mean, how more ‘canon’ can you go? And plus, STO is a game after all.
Duggan on 2014-04-21
A great episode but I have a few comments.
Small fleets should in no way get systems to help them level. Small/single person fleets are counter intuitive to the reason of putting a fleet system in place. If you want the benefits of a large fleet then those fleets should consider recruiting more players.
Field Notes: how about a name like Command School. My one comment about “Defense” is that people should be made aware of Sub-system repair. The repair rate from 1-9 points is so negligible that it’s really not worth spending points on. Also how come no mention of ground defense? STO isn’t just starships.
Duggan
TOS Vets
sanokskyrat on 2014-04-21
Yes Cookie. Yes. I love Star trek but there are alot of people who are elitist. I was on Youtube the last few weeks (i know, i know trolls everywhere) but there alot of people saying STO is not real trek and try and kill other people enjoyment so he was my replay to someone who said i was a fake Trekkie.
“As for not being a true trekkie, what makes a true trekkie? I’ve watch all the episodes of every series. Is that enough? How many Episodes does it take to be not to be a “fake”. Do i need to go to several conventions as well? Do i need to have all the Auto graphics, toys etc? Is there an elitist board i can ask to enjoy my trek of which things i can enjoy and which things i can not?”
But i think there a bad as anyone elitists. We just notice them more because we love star trek and am in the community.
Hyperfocused? Meh its ok. Thought i feel this has been going on from the Tholians.
As for the Undine mission arc. I love them so much better rewards. But why is everyone going on about state of Q? I get both sides. But they did say they wanted it back and would redo this mission making it look a whole lot better. Where did I hear that?
Cough! Cough! P1! Cough!
sanokskyrat on 2014-04-22
Jayce. Your stuff is gold but its kinda overwhelming and i listen to it a few times. Maybe a video?
Vivienne Anthony on 2014-04-21
STO is quickly becoming one of the worst MMO’s. I seen these development blogs and the new ones. Sorry. Undine ships should not be playable and then this reputation system change. Cryptic is just going lose money.
The_Grand_Nagus on 2014-04-22
This is a great example of exaggerated doom. As silly as Undine ships are, they dont effect my gameplay, nor my spending. As long as they keep adding new things for me to do, I dont really care that much what ships other people fly. That said, I dont mind(and have already done so) calling silly things out when they happen.
Duggan on 2019-01-30
A great episode but I have a few comments.
Small fleets should in no way get systems to help them level. Small/single person fleets are counter intuitive to the reason of putting a fleet system in place. If you want the benefits of a large fleet then those fleets should consider recruiting more players.
Field Notes: how about a name like Command School. My one comment about “Defense” is that people should be made aware of Sub-system repair. The repair rate from 1-9 points is so negligible that it’s really not worth spending points on. Also how come no mention of ground defense? STO isn’t just starships.
Duggan
TOS Vets
sanokskyrat on 2019-01-30
Yes Cookie. Yes. I love Star trek but there are alot of people who are elitist. I was on Youtube the last few weeks (i know, i know trolls everywhere) but there alot of people saying STO is not real trek and try and kill other people enjoyment so he was my replay to someone who said i was a fake Trekkie.
“As for not being a true trekkie, what makes a true trekkie? I’ve watch all the episodes of every series. Is that enough? How many Episodes does it take to be not to be a “fake”. Do i need to go to several conventions as well? Do i need to have all the Auto graphics, toys etc? Is there an elitist board i can ask to enjoy my trek of which things i can enjoy and which things i can not?”
But i think there a bad as anyone elitists. We just notice them more because we love star trek and am in the community.
Hyperfocused? Meh its ok. Thought i feel this has been going on from the Tholians.
As for the Undine mission arc. I love them so much better rewards. But why is everyone going on about state of Q? I get both sides. But they did say they wanted it back and would redo this mission making it look a whole lot better. Where did I hear that?
Cough! Cough! P1! Cough!
sanokskyrat on 2019-01-30
Jayce. Your stuff is gold but its kinda overwhelming and i listen to it a few times. Maybe a video?
Vivienne Anthony on 2019-01-30
STO is quickly becoming one of the worst MMO’s. I seen these development blogs and the new ones. Sorry. Undine ships should not be playable and then this reputation system change. Cryptic is just going lose money.
The_Grand_Nagus on 2019-01-30
This is a great example of exaggerated doom. As silly as Undine ships are, they dont effect my gameplay, nor my spending. As long as they keep adding new things for me to do, I dont really care that much what ships other people fly. That said, I dont mind(and have already done so) calling silly things out when they happen.
mjaybird on 2014-04-21
I like the Trek Community from what I have seen in Treekies and going to Conventions. Being a Treker I see people and groups getting together and saying we love all of trek new and old and debate more important things like who is your fav captain or what ship do you like.
My idea for small fleet is this. Our fleet has a big Fed player base but the KDF side is low. How about connecting both sides together and have a project to send resources from one side to another. let people know both sides are apart of the same fleet.
AkuhaShuzen on 2014-04-21
i agree with you cookie this eliteism needs to go. I like the fact you can hot swap the rep traits and the species traits. the new borg/undine revamp missions is acctually pretty good especially the end movie for the mission before assimilated ^_^
The_Grand_Nagus on 2014-04-21
Maybe this wasnt the intention, but it sounds like it is being suggested or implied that there is more elitism in the Trek community than there is anywhere else(otherwise why would we be talking about it here?). I submit that hard core fan communities in general tend to usually have elitist elements, but that is in no way exclusive to Trek. This is a real world/life in general issue, not a Trek issue per say.
Elijah on 2014-04-21
Oh, No! That wasn’t our intention. It happens across all the franchises. As a matter of fact, just this weekend I was at a wedding; and at the table I was sat at, the entire group was discussing (in great detail) Star Wars lore — and I mean LooOoOOore. As I overheard the conversation, the same “elitism” happened within their own ranks. It was like watching a NATGEO documentary! 😛
The_Grand_Nagus on 2014-04-21
In regards to the rep systems, I hate to say it but they simply dont appeal to me. If we’re being honest with ourselves, they are really just vendors. You go grind the currency needed, then you trade it in to these vendors for rewards. That isnt “content” to me, its just a purchase. The fact that its all done through the mission journal interface makes it feel even less fun to me than if I had to go to an actual NPC vendor. That might sound strange, but it just feels like the game is becoming less of a “world” and more of a bunch of instances when all the new content is through ques and the rep systems are completely through the UI rather than dealing with an NPC representative.
The_Grand_Nagus on 2014-04-21
Also, with all due respect, I completely disagree with Jayce on foundry rewards. Sorry if your missions dont get many plays, but I play tons of legitimate foundry missions, and I like getting the appropriate scaling rewards for playing those missions. As far as adding more rewards, that isnt needed. Foundry missions already reward people pretty well. But what is needed is to fix the bugs with the editor and add new assets so that it doesnt get stale by seeing the same old maps and NPCs over and over again.
Retissal on 2014-04-23
Interesting, I never got that from the broadcast.
mjaybird on 2019-01-30
I like the Trek Community from what I have seen in Treekies and going to Conventions. Being a Treker I see people and groups getting together and saying we love all of trek new and old and debate more important things like who is your fav captain or what ship do you like.
My idea for small fleet is this. Our fleet has a big Fed player base but the KDF side is low. How about connecting both sides together and have a project to send resources from one side to another. let people know both sides are apart of the same fleet.
AkuhaShuzen on 2019-01-30
i agree with you cookie this eliteism needs to go. I like the fact you can hot swap the rep traits and the species traits. the new borg/undine revamp missions is acctually pretty good especially the end movie for the mission before assimilated ^_^
Towani on 2014-04-21
As for your question – it’s too hyperfocused. Sadly, I think that’s how Cryptic will go. Just like you said, Reputation systems will come out and the rewards will by hyper specific to that enemy. I don’t want to grind for hyper specific items. The game becomes playing to get some uber reward only good against that enemy. It just bores me. Makes me not even want to log in. They way they are going, IMHO, is just a huge turn off. I’m not sure if others feel this way… but with all the MMOs out there, and the road this game is going down, it no longer feels like Star Trek. If feels just like another grind (which it really is as you’re grinding for the latest and greatest that is specific to the latest update/episode), I may as well just go log into another MMO. Just saying 🙁
The_Grand_Nagus on 2019-01-30
Maybe this wasnt the intention, but it sounds like it is being suggested or implied that there is more elitism in the Trek community than there is anywhere else(otherwise why would we be talking about it here?). I submit that hard core fan communities in general tend to usually have elitist elements, but that is in no way exclusive to Trek. This is a real world/life in general issue, not a Trek issue per say.
Elijah on 2019-01-30
Oh, No! That wasn’t our intention. It happens across all the franchises. As a matter of fact, just this weekend I was at a wedding; and at the table I was sat at, the entire group was discussing (in great detail) Star Wars lore — and I mean LooOoOOore. As I overheard the conversation, the same “elitism” happened within their own ranks. It was like watching a NATGEO documentary! 😛
The_Grand_Nagus on 2019-01-30
In regards to the rep systems, I hate to say it but they simply dont appeal to me. If we’re being honest with ourselves, they are really just vendors. You go grind the currency needed, then you trade it in to these vendors for rewards. That isnt “content” to me, its just a purchase. The fact that its all done through the mission journal interface makes it feel even less fun to me than if I had to go to an actual NPC vendor. That might sound strange, but it just feels like the game is becoming less of a “world” and more of a bunch of instances when all the new content is through ques and the rep systems are completely through the UI rather than dealing with an NPC representative.
The_Grand_Nagus on 2019-01-30
Also, with all due respect, I completely disagree with Jayce on foundry rewards. Sorry if your missions dont get many plays, but I play tons of legitimate foundry missions, and I like getting the appropriate scaling rewards for playing those missions. As far as adding more rewards, that isnt needed. Foundry missions already reward people pretty well. But what is needed is to fix the bugs with the editor and add new assets so that it doesnt get stale by seeing the same old maps and NPCs over and over again.
Retissal on 2019-01-30
Interesting, I never got that from the broadcast.
Canis Black on 2014-04-21
Haven’t finished the episode yet, but hearing Cookie’s little segment on Trekkie Elitism I have to stop by and say “Bravo Cookie.”
I can’t agree more with the expressed sentiments and I grew up watching TOS reruns and TNG.
Ookami87 on 2014-04-21
Hello again Priority One!
I’ve seen the little bickering and mind set. I really don’t understand it, I gladly welcome anyone who is a fan of trek, any trek.
I’ve tested the new story arc on Tribble and love it. The artist and writers did a nice job.
And Yes, the new Rep gear is hyper specific and no I’m not interested, I’ll keep my assimilated full set and if anything I may want the torpedo for an alt.
Towani on 2019-01-30
As for your question – it’s too hyperfocused. Sadly, I think that’s how Cryptic will go. Just like you said, Reputation systems will come out and the rewards will by hyper specific to that enemy. I don’t want to grind for hyper specific items. The game becomes playing to get some uber reward only good against that enemy. It just bores me. Makes me not even want to log in. They way they are going, IMHO, is just a huge turn off. I’m not sure if others feel this way… but with all the MMOs out there, and the road this game is going down, it no longer feels like Star Trek. If feels just like another grind (which it really is as you’re grinding for the latest and greatest that is specific to the latest update/episode), I may as well just go log into another MMO. Just saying 🙁
Canis Black on 2019-01-30
Haven’t finished the episode yet, but hearing Cookie’s little segment on Trekkie Elitism I have to stop by and say “Bravo Cookie.”
I can’t agree more with the expressed sentiments and I grew up watching TOS reruns and TNG.
Ookami87 on 2019-01-30
Hello again Priority One!
I’ve seen the little bickering and mind set. I really don’t understand it, I gladly welcome anyone who is a fan of trek, any trek.
I’ve tested the new story arc on Tribble and love it. The artist and writers did a nice job.
And Yes, the new Rep gear is hyper specific and no I’m not interested, I’ll keep my assimilated full set and if anything I may want the torpedo for an alt.
Comments are closed.