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State of the Game:January 18
ktanner3
Member UncommonPosts: 4,063
http://www.startrekonline.com/node/899
"Where’s Sulu?"-The first week of Open Beta has been amazing
- We have seen more signups and players than we ever imagined we could. So very many people have shown interest in Star Trek Online and logged in to play that we've actually had to scramble to support everyone. Our core engineers are this very second working like crazed technology wielding madmen to improve performance and stability across the board. We're also adding a lot more hardware to accommodate our players.
- p.s. Sulu is right behind you in Quinn’s office. Right there, behind the other desk.
"Stability and Performance"-Where the heck did you all come from!?!
- Reality has exceeded even our wildest expectations. We looked at numbers from Closed Beta, numbers from games we've worked on in the past, and some numbers that float around the games industry. Based on those numbers, we predicted that about 65% of the keys we generated would eventually turn into active players (some keys never get delivered, others are lost in spam boxes, some are never redeemed, etc.). And, we predicted about 1/6 of those redeemed keys would turn into players that game at the same time. It's what we call our concurrent users or CCU, for short.The actual numbers crushed our predictions.
- So, we tore apart our logs and began doing a lot of extra optimization work even while we stumbled upon some truly bizarre crashes that can only appear with this sort of load. The result? The shard has been steadily improving over the first few days of Open Beta. Given the hardware we're adding and a couple more fixes we have in the pipe, shard performance and stability should continue to improve over the coming week.
Space Combat-alpha strikes
- There appears to be an issue with enemies performing devastating Alpha strikes in space -- all ships will target the first player, take him out, and move through the rest of the squadron. This makes space combat, when you’re teamed up, very difficult.
- We’re addressing this in the next major patch. For now, flying in a tighter formation with your team will help.
Klingon, Klingon, Klingon
- Better stores are coming to Qo’noS. You’ll be able to purchase disruptors, consoles, and all the things a proper warlord needs to improve his starship and clobber his pathetic, cowering enemies.
- Your ship's starter gear is getting an upgrade as well. You won’t be able to sell this to the store for as much as you used to, but it packs a meaner punch out of the gate.
- PvP maps and queues are getting a lot of attention. We’re working on all the queue and map issues we've seen reported and we're jamming as many fixes as possible into the game.
Bridge Officers
- Starting at Lt. Grade 6, new and sometimes strange recruits from Starfleet and the KDF will periodically ask to be transferred to your starship. Every few Grades, you’ll automatically receive more Bridge Officers.
- By popular demand, Bridge Officers can now be immediately renamed and tailor when they join your crew. Sex and species are still off the customization block, but pretty much everything else can be meddled with.
UI
- The build you are playing does not feature an enormous amount of work the UI team has done.
- For instance, the mini-map, team window, away team controls, and many of the HUD elements have all received an overall look and feel pass. The sector maps are way more useful and the galaxy map now tells you where you are, too. A gigantic number of small fixes have also gone in to tighten up the overall HUD experience.
- Klingon UI is also looking great. Icons, buttons, FX and everything else has been re-styled in true Klingon fashion. The next major patch will have you piloting a Bird of Prey using a HUD General Martok would be proud of.
- Finally, and most importantly, the crew bar on the space HUD now looks like little people... But it's so sad when they get depleted!
Exploration Improvements
- We’ve fixed many bugs in star cluster missions. We’re finding and crushing them. You target 'em and we fire the torpedoes. So keep those bugs coming, please.
- More alien races and stranger alien races will appear with greater frequency in those clusters now. Some are friendly and in need of assistance... Others, not so much.
Scanning
- Due to popular demand, we’ve added in-game scanning FX.
- On ship and on ground, pressing the scan button located near the mini-map will point you to the nearest object that you can interact with.
- Looking for that last alien artifact on a bizarre and unfriendly alien world, but you just can’t seem to find it? Hit the scan button! Looking for a particularly hard to find spacial anomaly in a far-off star system? Hit the scan button! Looking for Sulu? ... Look out! He’s right behind you!
Level Cap
- Have no fear! The current level cap will be removed sometime this week.
- We’re really looking forward to opening up the entire game for our testers. You’ll get to visit DS9, Memory Alpha and advance your characters past Lt. Commander.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
Comments
Apparently so do all the people bombarding the server to play it.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
Apparently so do all the people bombarding the server to play it.
You know that's not true. There are a lot of people trying it out because it is Star Trek, but plenty of people don't like the game. Heck, in the informal poll someone put up here, a lot more people hated the game than liked it (of the people who had played it, even). That doesn't mean they didn't want to try it out or people won't keep testing their opinion as long as the game is free.
Anyhow, last I checked we don't have much of an idea how many people those servers can handle, so the fact they are full doesn't mean much.
Apparently so do all the people bombarding the server to play it.
Me and three of my friends just got our downloads finished today, I had played it personally at a different friends house a week ago, but wanted to test it out for myself. We all played, and every one of us reached the same conclusion.
Its not ready, its not fun, and it lacks everything that makes a good MMO or a Good Star Trek game.
So no, not everyone trying out the game is saying how great it is.
[Mod Edit]
Ah so predictable.
Yes the people who are playing it hate it, so much so that they continue to keep playing it and keep the server full.
Or are you suggesting that the people who hate it are quitting, but there's so many people still trying to get on the server that it's kept full anyways?
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
How many people do you think are currently playing the Beta? Go ahead and give me a number. Take a wild guess. Im talking about Concurrently playing, meaning how many people do you think are Online, at one time, logged into the game right now?
I am saying that not everyone who is playing it has a positive opinion of the game. I'm also saying that the server being full doesn't mean that much because we have no idea what "full" is in terms of numbers. "Full" could be 50k, or 100k, or 300k...we don't know. Well, the other thing I said was that since the OB is free, there are probably a number of people willing to play it on those terms who won't be buying it (some might not like it, some might just think it is ok). Those are the only things I am saying.
In any case, I don't think an OB with unknown numbers of people playing it is a sensible way to judge how popular the game is.
Apparently so do all the people bombarding the server to play it.
Me and three of my friends just got our downloads finished today, I had played it personally at a different friends house a week ago, but wanted to test it out for myself. We all played, and every one of us reached the same conclusion.
Its not ready, its not fun, and it lacks everything that makes a good MMO or a Good Star Trek game.
So no, not everyone trying out the game is saying how great it is.
Anyway, the server is jam packed and of course not veryone who tries it will like it - guess what, it's the same for wow, war, AO, AoC, it will be the same for SWTOR etc etc.
[Mod Edit]
Yes, because open beta to a game with a HUGE IP and equally large following is a fantastic indicator of how awesome the game is, considering everyone and their brother/sister/mother etc are at least going to get into beta and use it as "free trial."
We've never seen an MMO with such a huge IP backing it fail when there were hundreds of thousands of beta applicants and packed beta servers. And certainly not recently.
/facepalm
Please stay on topic and refrain from personal attacks. If you feel someone is breaking the forum rules, please report them rather than retaliate.
Fortune favours the bold.
I'm curious about DS9 and what that will look like.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
And still playing it...
What do you think about the issue over character slots? Some folks are pretty upset about only having 3 character slots.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
I'm playing it. I don't particularly like it. I don't think it's terrible, but it's not drawing me in either.
I'm going to keep playing for a bit more until I make a purchase decision. /shrug.
There are so many MMOs, most are fun for something. It's not the end of the world either way.
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
Currently Playing: ESO
How many people do you think are currently playing the Beta? Go ahead and give me a number. Take a wild guess. Im talking about Concurrently playing, meaning how many people do you think are Online, at one time, logged into the game right now?
Every time I warp to a system I see a list of about 10 instances with around 50 players in each. There are a lot of systems.
Argh! I'm so sick of every STO discussion getting hijacked to "I don't like it. It's not ready!" I get it. No game will be for everyone. If you don't like the game, please do all of us a favor who do and stop hijacking the forums. Trust me, your opinion is not a gift to the world and your insight into exactly what will happen at launch is probably less based on scientific research than your own inflated sense of self worth.
Back to the thread topic: Thanks, op for the update; these changes sound great! A couple were very much needed such as the enemy targeting issue and auto-facing scan targets. I had one design suggestion: instead of progress bars for loading screens, maybe make a context-appropriate animation to make it appear a little more seamless. For example, when loading in space after jumping to warp, show the ship at warp during loading. When loading after entering a turbo lift, show the character standing in a moving turbo lift, etc. Small design issue that would help with those cursed loading screens and make the world feel larger.
I can't wait to see all of the improvements at launch!
I'm still on the fence about the enemy targeting. When I group up, I always try and have everyone focus on one ship. To me that's a good tactical move. Take out their strongest ship first, or maybe get rid of the support ship first. I just don't want them to do a SOE type nerf to the game(swing the pendulum too far the other way) because a few people are crying that it's too hard.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
Apparently so do all the people bombarding the server to play it.
LOL open beta always has alot of people playing the game, because it's free, no matter what game it is and when it has open beta it'll have lots of people downloading and logging on. Battlefield Bad Company 2 has open beta next tuesday, you can bet there'll be ALOT of players even if they aren't Battlefield fans.
Groups that I have been in have handled the mass target issue by each pulling one of the 'bigs' away from the ship that is being mass targeted, then refocusing on the initial ship. It seems to save that initial few ships from respawning to get back into the fight. I have found it very easy to pull aggro atm.
Eeep... I gotta say, I was skeptical.
Then my best friend bought a copy the other day to get into Open Beta and we had an absolute blast... he's a major Trekkie, he's never played an MMO and I really wonder how many new MMO converts this game will make - I know several people myself that are going to play this as their first MMO ever, and I'm just one person!
The game is fun! As much as it could be improved; it's fun. And it's Star Trek! I didn't want to fall in love with the game just because of the IP but... the game was fun, too.
We'll see what other changes they implement; they might get a subscription from me. Then I'd be subbed to 3 MMO's, though... because I don't want to give up WAR or Fallen Earth.
It's a good thing I "work" from home.
And thread is hijacked again by Trekies. Does anyone even take you people seriously? also the negativity on this website is quite well known. There is not a single game which does not have its share of hard core haters (most of them with multiple accounts).
Sad part is that people who are satisfied, enjoy playing the game while whiners cry on forums. Its obvious they are always the most vocal ones. Co is not dying neither is STO, but nothing tastes better then tears of 40 year old Trekkies (yuckk)!
I'm 30, but thanks for guessing. I know I'm mature for my age.
And I'm not whining at all. I don't see anyone whining. All I posted was that a friend tried the game and we liked it. I also posted that in my opinion, this will bring a lot of new MMO players (like the friend I mentioned) to the game.
Sure, every game will have their haters. I just don't really get why they feel the need to comment on every positive thread for a game. There are games I don't like and I'll make one, maybe two or three comments about my experiences, and then I move on.
I spend more time discussing things I like and enjoy, but perhaps that's just me. I could spend an hour a day in the EVE forum telling all the EVE players how much their game sucks but, yaknow, I have better things to do and I don't mind that some people like a game that I dislike.
I love onions. Some people hate them. Shall we have a discussion with rabid division between people who like and dislike onions? Christ. Isn't it enough to say, "I dislike onions, I don't eat them" - or do you have to explain, in full detail, to every single person that mentions onions, how much you truly hate and despise them, and then give 10 reasons why?
I have a lot of free time but ya'll must have even more free time than I have.
Hope no eve people are complaining about the focus fire (alpha fire). Its normally a main tactic in eve. The combat is not more complex then Eve it is funner. But i also always sucked at eve combat so.
Good point. In every engagement that lead ship pretty much knows it's a guaranteed death today. It's a rinse and repeat. Lead ship engages, dies, full impulse back to finish the encounter. It makes sense that the AI locks on to the first player that comes into range. Maybe they will force each AI ship to recheck the nearest player after 10 or 15 seconds. That would balance the AI targeting a little. It will be interesting to see how they handle it.
And still playing it...
What do you think about the issue over character slots? Some folks are pretty upset about only having 3 character slots.
I think you only need three if you're playing Federation. Three slots allows you to may characters of all three types (Tactical, Science or Engineer). It also allows you to mix traits sets of your favored type. I do think if you go Klingon you should get 1 extra slot as you have to burn a Federation slot to open up Klingon (unless you can delete the fed character after you open Klingon).
Either way they are trying to go with "one server" so I can see where they would want to limit slots and thus the amount of data the server has to contend with. I'm not an altoholic and one or two slots is good enough for me. I'll probably never use that 3rd slot.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
Just a FYI unless some of you people have a different OB client than I do, there are only TWO character slots, not three.
I'm 30, but thanks for guessing. I know I'm mature for my age.
And I'm not whining at all. I don't see anyone whining. All I posted was that a friend tried the game and we liked it. I also posted that in my opinion, this will bring a lot of new MMO players (like the friend I mentioned) to the game.
Sure, every game will have their haters. I just don't really get why they feel the need to comment on every positive thread for a game. There are games I don't like and I'll make one, maybe two or three comments about my experiences, and then I move on.
I spend more time discussing things I like and enjoy, but perhaps that's just me. I could spend an hour a day in the EVE forum telling all the EVE players how much their game sucks but, yaknow, I have better things to do and I don't mind that some people like a game that I dislike.
I love onions. Some people hate them. Shall we have a discussion with rabid division between people who like and dislike onions? Christ. Isn't it enough to say, "I dislike onions, I don't eat them" - or do you have to explain, in full detail, to every single person that mentions onions, how much you truly hate and despise them, and then give 10 reasons why?
I have a lot of free time but ya'll must have even more free time than I have.
"Judge not, lest thee be judged"
Also if i go by this site which is overrun by crying men child, no MMO is worth paying. However, when someone is posting a general information topic, atleast try not to hijack it with your own personal issues.
I have never seen so much negativity on any gaming site before. All of you realise that you are just screaming at the computer screen?