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The Foundry is live!
Edward_K
Member Posts: 69
For any not aware, the "Foundry"(user generated content tool) is officially live! You can learn more and watch the trailer here:
http://startrekonline.com/foundry
As with any UGC tool, some missions are gold and some are...not. However, site has been created to help highlight the best of the best, which you can find here:
If you havent played STO in a while or have yet to try it, now is the perfect time to log in and check out some of the great missions the community is making 
Comments
And because Cryptic is too damn lazy to put in enough content themselves! Now, they want the players to do that too!
What exactly are they doing to earn that $15 a month they want from people?
Ummm....
Well, they put a bunch of new stuff in their cash shop last week....
Pfft.....
It is my pleasure to inform you that the Foundry wasnt Cryptic's idea. The playerbase has been asking for a UGC system since before game launched. Cryptic simply gave us exactly what we asked for. Also, they recently announced they are going to be doubling the amount of featured episodes we get every year, so we will be getting more new content post-Foundry we were before. There are now going to be 9 or 10 featured series every year, which will break down to approximately 1 new episode every week. That is more new content on a weekly basis than any other MMO I'm currently aware of.
PS: For anyone who is not sure what featured episodes are, you can find out here:
http://www.startrekonline.com/feature_episodes
I was going to resub just for the Foundry, until I discovered today you can't use it as a leveling tool, at all. I was looking forward to playing the 'good' missions and getting a little XP at the end and then doing a few 'Cryptic' missions to advance my character. Can't. No XP, no item rewards, nothing.
Bit of a slap to all the people waiting on playing Klingons that were planning on using Foundry missions to help them level.
Aaaand flop. (Sure, some of the missions are probably fantastic and great, but my character is only a Lt. Cmdr and needs XP more than I need to spend 2 hrs playing someone's dream episode.)
Playing:SW:TOR
Played: A lot.
Beta tested: Freaking everything.
Looking forward to: Nothing.
More like a beta test for the D&D game they are working on which will include a system just like the Foundry so GM's can create their own adventures. What about all the really important stuff the playerbase has been asking for like valid Klingon content, endgame content, VA level items and better PVP options?
Cryptic can announce anything they wish but until its in the game its just more "coming soon" bullshit like everything else they claim to be working on and at the moment the featured series are just 4-5 quests added to the game every 3 months.
I am sure the "players" have been asking for a lot of things, and how many of those have shown up?
Here's a term for you from the business lexicon: opportunity cost. It is the "cost" in time, money or other "options" of choosing one option over another. It is the path not taken.
Cryptic spent their time making this foundry deal, at the expense of all the other stuff that needed fixing and/or beefing up. Klingon faction, better crafting, less sucky ground missions and on and on. Everyeone that has ever played knows the list. Instead, of all that, they did the foundry, which, as all the announcements and notices have said, are restricted to not using any character or situation seen in any movie, book, or TV series.
It is an invitation for players to shovel their own "content" because Cyptic is not willing or not able to, to the point that most people will keep paying.
But they still want your $15/mo to do their job.
While they put more stuff in the C-store (just like last week) on your dime.
Thanks, no.
This game is best left to the lifetimers, they have nothing left to lose.
The Foundry is the ultimate idea for fans of the game. And since Star Trek fans are about 500 times smarter/more creative than the average MMO player, I can't wait to see what some of them come up with.
I'm sorry that you were given false information, but Foundry missions do in fact give xp. Not only do you get xp(and loot) from the NPCs you kill, you also get the same amount of "mission xp" from Foundry missions as you do from star cluster missions. So once a little time has passed and enough Foundry missions have been made, you will be able to completely level off of them.
Every change/addition to the game since launch has been in response to player request. Obviously they have not been able to add "every" request, but neither has any other game. Furthermore, the playerbase isnt even in agreement about some of the things people want. Some people want this, other people disagree.
As is the case with all MMOs, there is no universal agreement among the palyerbase about what is "important" and what is not. For example, about 85% of the playerbase plays Federation. Because of that, Klingon content isnt "important" to the majority of the playerbase. Furthermore, the majority of the playerbase in almost(key word) every MMO mainly PvEs. That being the case, PvP isnt "important" to the majority of the playerbase. All Cryptic(or any other developer) can do is try to please the majority of their customers while not completely ignoring the minority aspects of the game.
You honestly gonna tell us all that only a minority of the playerbase hates ground combat or cares about end game content, the two things the dev team should of been working on the moment the launch day bugs were fixed ?
No, I'm not going to tell you that. I think most people do think ground combat should be improved, and fortunately that revamp is coming within the next couple of months in Season 4. As far as when it should have happened, once again different people have different priorities. Personally, while I didnt love ground combat, I didnt hate it either. So I personally wanted them to spend their time making new content. That just goes to show you how just because people might agree something needs work it doesnt mean they agree on when that work should be done.
Regarding end game, this goes back to what I just said. Different people want different things. Some people want more STFs, while other people just want more regular mission episodes. Personally, I am in the latter group. And the Foundry is exactly the kind of end game content I enjoy the most, because it gives me a brand new mission to play every single time I log on(and the missions scale to my level so I can play them with my max level characters).
Now you may feel differently and that is fine, but the point is simply that there is no universal list Cryptic can go down because each person has their own specific opinion about what should be done first and what is more important than something else.
So http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=209759 is a lie? I find that unlikely.
Playing:SW:TOR
Played: A lot.
Beta tested: Freaking everything.
Looking forward to: Nothing.
The link you provided is not about XP but about LOOT ITEMS. There are no loot items but there is XP.
Let's party like it is 1863!
Um no, right out of the OP...
"Skillpoints need to be added as rewards for these missions. skillpoints equal to somebodys level. I would love to rank up just by doing foundry missions!!!"
Sounds like no skill points to me.
Edit: Not to mention the thread is titled 'Foundry Missions need Skill Point Rewards.'
Playing:SW:TOR
Played: A lot.
Beta tested: Freaking everything.
Looking forward to: Nothing.
I'm not saying its a "lie", but the person is either misinformed or did not pay close attention to their xp bar when they completed the mission. I have seen for myself(today in fact) that Foundry missions do in fact grant mission xp upon completion, similar to a star cluster mission.
It was not designed as a tool to manipulate for easy exp / loot grind. They specifically stated this in the past.
Not what I meant at all. If I go do a mission from the Admiral or go do a Foundry mission that takes just as long, I would think a similar amount of skill points would be in order.
As far as the skill points they do give being similar to a cluster mission...well that's just not worth it imo.
Playing:SW:TOR
Played: A lot.
Beta tested: Freaking everything.
Looking forward to: Nothing.
And your completely entitled to your opinion. But whether you personally think its "worth it" or not, the fact is that Klingon players now have new ways to level their characters without repeating the same content over and over like they had to previously.
A little thing called cause and effect . If you make something that sucks sooo badly , the majority will bypass the experience based upon the testamony of those that went before . Hence 85% play Fed , because the Klingon experience has been and is still extremely abysmal. The faction that is the PvP faction holds little interest to the majority of the Fed PvE players. They've artifically scued the numbers and made the situation unbearably bad. FYI they've been ignoring the minority for the better part of a year . So please spare the community the platitudes.
I dont disagree that more people would play Klingon if they had had more content at launch. However, the fact that every single Trek show and movie is about the Feds means that the vast majority of players will always want to play them, regardless of what condition the other factions are in. Even if Klingons had the exact same amount of content as Feds, the majority of players would still be Fed. As always, thanks for making a meaningful contribution to the conversation.
Actually, that is almost exactly the excuse Cryptic used before launch on why the Klingons were going to have such limited PvE. Had they paid attention, they would have noticed that far more than the 10-15% of the players they claimed were wanting to play Klingons would have made the Klingon faction their primary faction. Much like the ancient Greek tragedies, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's a pity really, as their playerbase would be quite a bit larger had they held off on the Klingons until the first expansion like most in beta were asking them to do.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Like I just said:
"I dont disagree that more people would play Klingon if they had had more content at launch. However, the fact that every single Trek show and movie is about the Feds means that the vast majority of players will always want to play them, regardless of what condition the other factions are in."
To back that up, here is a poll someone posted back when everyone thought both factions would have equal content, and as you can see the vast majority would still have been Fed:
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=15931
Parroting Cryptic's excuses or making the excuses for them doesn't re-inforce the point you're making. Empirical evidence is still just that. You should know a player conducted informal poll of 397 people really represents nothing statistically , especially without out any controls built into the sampling. We'll never know how things could've been and it's all speculation , sadly . I can say that they definitely muffed a major part of the game. Regardless of what people thing Trek was , the game was presented as a two faction game set in conflict with each other. That game for the most part doesn't come close to exsisting. FYI your statements are an oft repeated refrains of the CDF , which have been gone over in a lot of previous topics, both here and STO forums. Is the Foundry a good idea, yes. Does it work for STO , with all the restrictions and constraints , in my opinion perhaps not, it's definitely better then nothing. Since Cryptic has chosen pretty well nothing, other then 4 to 5 episiodes every quarter , it'll have to do. Yes , I know the coming refrain "of they are going to double the output ", the proof is to be seen, which takes us back to the first sentence.
I'm sorry, but people who can't see what a great addition a user-generated content tool to an MMORPG can be have no heart for MMORPG's at all.
I wish that all MMORPG's would have something like that.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
i for one am glade to see the foundry out now. I finally get to make that mission i always wanted. And who knows there are alot of star trek fans that play this game and so far have made some damn good missions. I am liking what i see now and whats to come for sto.
Have No Fear Cohas is here!!!
