Engineering report...

[Fleet Admiral E. Fortin]

Just wanted to let everyone know what is coming from Cryptic Looks awesome looking forward to it. Without further adieu...


Greetings!

Wow! Its been a while since the last report and during that time we've released update 1.2 with the new squad leading and accolade features, made some sweeping balance changes, and yours truly became a Father for the first time. Lots of changes indeed.


Read more ----->>

[Fleet Admiral E. Fortin]

The first thing you are wondering is the very thing I've been following up on this week - where is update 1.3 and what is going on with the Season 2 update? This report has the answers for those questions.

Season 1.2 spent more time in testing this time around and as such ended up shipping earlier this month instead of the end of May. There were a few things that turned up during testing that preventing some of our intended features from making that build, Episode Replay and the Caitians. Episode replay was intended to ship with squad leading so that you could go back and play older episodes with a team at any level. When we started testing this, it proved challenging to get it to work and feel right. It works well with one person, but if you have a team and they are different levels and some of them have squad leveled to the team leader, but the team leader decided to replay the episode at a lower level... it got a bit wonky. So we're still working on ways to make that better and will release it once we're happy with how its working. The Caitians fell prey once again to the fact that the character art team has a ton of work on their plate with Season 2 and the cats just weren't ready for prime time yet (but they are in internal testing so they're almost here).

So what about update 1.3? With Season 2 looming in July, and 1.2 having just shipped this month, we made the decision that the game will better served if we combine 1.3 into Season 2.0 and work to get that full update onto Tribble as soon as possible instead of trying to get 1.3 up later this month, and then Season 2 after that. Getting Season 2 onto Tribble sooner than later will give you more time to check it out and provide valuable feedback and testing of the content before it goes live in July. So that's the plan. No more 1.3 update. Instead, get 1.3 into 2.0 and get 2.0 to you ASAP. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can ship Season 2.

Now on to the latest report!

In Testing
•Veteran Rewards
•Fleet Action Level Banding Fixes
•Fed Playable Species: Caitians
•Season 2.0 (see list below)

Under Investigation
•Galaxy X Referral Reward Claim Issue
•Some Accolades not granting properly
•Away Team behavior / ignoring commands / aggro issues / selection
•Sometimes being unable to train an officer till you zone
•Inconsistencies in what Captain Skills are trainable
•Exchange search and expiration issues
•Kits with incorrect MK number
•Similar kit power stacking
•Weapons disappearing during combat
•Camera clipping through your ship hull
•Several missions not completing properly for someplayers
•Deepspace encounters do not always have safe spawn points
•Borgified planets without Borg in B'Tran
•Exploration Mission Tracker Issues
•Orbital Strike
•Motion Accelerator
•Empty PVP maps
•Sniper shot rooting players to the ground
•Minor injuries not healing after 30 mins

In Development
Season 2.0
The following features are schedule to release with 2.0, but keep in mind that there is always a chance a feature may get postponed to a later update.

•Rank up to 51 (Vice Admiral/Lieutenant General)
•- New Captain Power
•- Rank 5 Ship Reward (Special T5 Ship)
•- Mark XI Gear
•Player Ship Interiors (FED and KLG)
•- Select between 3 layouts
•- Make Consumables Mini-Game
•- Trophy Case
•- New Ship Interior Designs
•- Sliding Doors
•Anomaly Scanning Mini-Game
•- chance for additional anomalies
•Dabo MiniGame
•- Holo Leeta Dabo Girl
•- Gold Pressed Latinum Item Store
•Klingon PVE
•- 8 New Klingon Episodes
•- New Enemy Group unique to the Klingon Faction
•Weekly Episodes - Series 1
•- Weekly Story Advancement Mission
•- Scales to all levels
•- Episodes available to FED and KLG
•- New Enemy Group Faction
•Level 46-51 Sector (FED and KLG)
•- 5 New Episodes
•- New Level 53 Fleet Action
•- New Daily Fleet Actions for Level 51
•- Run STFs at Level 51
•Federation Diplomatic Corps
•- Earn FDC-XP for non-combat gameplay
•- New First Contact Missions in Exploration Sectors
•- 4 New non-combat missions
•- New Rewards at each rank
•Klingon Costume Customization Updates
•Trade Commissioned Officers
•Fleet Logos
•Fleet Action Level Banding Changes
•Global Help Chat Channel
•New Exploration Enemy Ship Designs
•New Wildlife Creatures
•Gamepad/Controller Support

Season 2.X
The following features may or may not make it into Season 2.0 and if not would be added to a later update.
•Episode Replay
•Stores that allow you to obtain "random" Bridge Officers
•Sitting in Chairs Tech
•Controller Support
•New Memory Alpha Items
•Poker MiniGame
•STF - Into the Hive
•Older Science Consoles Refit
•Daily Mission Re-Scoping

Upcoming C-Store Release
Not everything planned for the upcoming C-Store is listed below and dates are tentative

Pack 7 - June 15
•KLG Bridge Pack - Raptor
•FED Costume Pack - DS9
•FED Costume Pack - MU
•FED Costume Pack - TNG
•FED COstume Pack - TOS
•FED Costume Pack - Wrath of Khan
•FED Light Cruiser - TOS USS Enterprise
•FED NX Ship Registry Prefix
•FED Playable Fed Species: "Caitian" (crossing fingers)
•FED/KLG Playable Species: "Joined Trill"
•FED Borg Bridge Officer
•KLG Borg Bridge Officer
•KLG Pet - "Targ"
•Emote - Bloodwine
•Emote - Khan
•"Rivera" Tribble

Pack 8 - July 1
•KLG Bridge Pack - Cruiser
•Fed Playable Species: "Rigelian"

Future Packs (After Season 2 launch)
•New Off-Duty Costumes Types
•- Merc Outfits
•- Formal Wear
•New Ships
•New Species

Tribble Test Server
Many updates and fixes in the "in testing" section are available for you to check out for yourself on the Tribble Test Server. For a full list of fixes in testing - please refer to the latest Tribble Release Notes.

Keep in mind that not all things we are working on are listed above. See something you're curious about not listed? Check the Calendar first.

dstahl

[FiGiN]

Looking forward to hearing your next Admiral's corner recorded live at TF-72 HQ, sir.

//FiGiN

[William Anders]

Fleet Logos!

I can't wait to brand the Aventus with the 7th Fleet banner... oh sexy times to come...

Guest Post Rules are In Effect for this Post

[Morgan Shackelford]

Very cool changes ahead.

[RampantArc]

*requires a new keyboard from all the drooling*

[Ezreq Blodvaerd]

Fleet Admiral E. Fortin wrote:

In Testing
•Veteran Rewards
•Fleet Action Level Banding Fixes
•Fed Playable Species: Caitians
•Season 2.0 (see list below)

Under Investigation
•Galaxy X Referral Reward Claim Issue
•Some Accolades not granting properly
•Away Team behavior / ignoring commands / aggro issues / selection
•Sometimes being unable to train an officer till you zone
•Inconsistencies in what Captain Skills are trainable
•Exchange search and expiration issues
•Kits with incorrect MK number
•Similar kit power stacking
•Weapons disappearing during combat
•Camera clipping through your ship hull
•Several missions not completing properly for someplayers
•Deepspace encounters do not always have safe spawn points
•Borgified planets without Borg in B'Tran
•Exploration Mission Tracker Issues
•Orbital Strike
•Motion Accelerator
•Empty PVP maps - I hope they mean PVE?
•Sniper shot rooting players to the ground
•Minor injuries not healing after 30 mins

In Development
Season 2.0
The following features are schedule to release with 2.0, but keep in mind that there is always a chance a feature may get postponed to a later update.

•Rank up to 51 (Vice Admiral/Lieutenant General)
•- New Captain Power
•- Rank 5 Ship Reward (Special T5 Ship)
•- Mark XI Gear
•Player Ship Interiors (FED and KLG)
•- Select between 3 layouts
•- Make Consumables Mini-Game
•- Trophy Case
•- New Ship Interior Designs
•- Sliding Doors
•Anomaly Scanning Mini-Game
•- chance for additional anomalies
•Dabo MiniGame
•- Holo Leeta Dabo Girl
•- Gold Pressed Latinum Item Store
•Klingon PVE
•- 8 New Klingon Episodes
•- New Enemy Group unique to the Klingon Faction
•Weekly Episodes - Series 1
•- Weekly Story Advancement Mission
•- Scales to all levels
•- Episodes available to FED and KLG
•- New Enemy Group Faction
•Level 46-51 Sector (FED and KLG)
•- 5 New Episodes
•- New Level 53 Fleet Action
•- New Daily Fleet Actions for Level 51
•- Run STFs at Level 51
•Federation Diplomatic Corps
•- Earn FDC-XP for non-combat gameplay
•- New First Contact Missions in Exploration Sectors
•- 4 New non-combat missions
•- New Rewards at each rank
•Klingon Costume Customization Updates
•Trade Commissioned Officers
•Fleet Logos
•Fleet Action Level Banding Changes
•Global Help Chat Channel
•New Exploration Enemy Ship Designs
•New Wildlife Creatures
•Gamepad/Controller Support

Season 2.X
The following features may or may not make it into Season 2.0 and if not would be added to a later update.
•Episode Replay
•Stores that allow you to obtain "random" Bridge Officers
•Sitting in Chairs Tech
•Controller Support
•New Memory Alpha Items
•Poker MiniGame
•STF - Into the Hive
•Older Science Consoles Refit
•Daily Mission Re-Scoping

Upcoming C-Store Release
Not everything planned for the upcoming C-Store is listed below and dates are tentative

Pack 7 - June 15
•KLG Bridge Pack - Raptor
•FED Costume Pack - DS9
•FED Costume Pack - MU
•FED Costume Pack - TNG
•FED COstume Pack - TOS
•FED Costume Pack - Wrath of Khan
•FED Light Cruiser - TOS USS Enterprise
•FED NX Ship Registry Prefix
•FED Playable Fed Species: "Caitian" (crossing fingers)
•FED/KLG Playable Species: "Joined Trill"
•FED Borg Bridge Officer
•KLG Borg Bridge Officer
•KLG Pet - "Targ"
•Emote - Bloodwine
•Emote - Khan
•"Rivera" Tribble

Where is the x116 Rifle?

Pack 8 - July 1
•KLG Bridge Pack - Cruiser
•Fed Playable Species: "Rigelian"

Future Packs (After Season 2 launch)
•New Off-Duty Costumes Types
•- Merc Outfits - Could this be MACO Uniforms??
•- Formal Wear
•New Ships
•New Species

[Fleet Admiral E. Fortin]

Quote:
Originally Posted by ThomastheCat
Also, of course, curious about the minigames. Another thing I'm not clear on - does the XP we get from Diplomacy mission still count towards skill points in terms of how we level up our characters? It'd be a shame if we still had to do combat grind to increase in actual rank.

Now why would ThomastheCat be curious about minigames? ;P We think you of all players will enjoy the designs for the mini-games we'll be using.

FDX (Fed Diplomacy Experience) is a unique rankup separate from your normal skillpoints. As you perform non-combat mission in STO, you gain FDX. An accolade tracks your progress and as you reach each new level in the FDC, you unlock a new Diplomatic reward. These range from badges, to uniform options, to other special rewards. You will *not* need to grind any combat missions to increase your FDC rank.


Quote:
Originally Posted by personae
Sad to see the Exclusives hitting the C-Store so soon.

This was a tough call for the team, and Craig recently posted that it was a hard balance between players asking for new ways to get these rewards versus exclusivity. We will be watching that thread and it continues to be an internal discussion topic.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Fractal_Eye
was hoping (for) more than 8 episodes...elaborate on the "Older Science Consoles Refit"...support for joysticks? How soon (do you think) before you guys get the interiors on Tribble for testing? Also, are the 'New Rewards at each rank' for the FDC be retroactive

While we wish that we had the time to make endless amounts of episodes, it does take significant time to make each episode since they often involve something new that we've never done before. Having played through the Klingon Episodes, I feel satisfied that there are some very memorable moments that Klingon Faction players will have in this update. These aren't just Federation missions flavored Klingon - these are Klingon Faction all the way.

We want to deal with the older grandfathered science consoles so that players can turn them in for something cool, but allow us to bring these in line with the way they work now.

While there are no compatibility tests being done for specific controllers, we do plan to add basic 3rd party controller support which I do believe includes gamepads, xbox controllers, and joysticks.

FDC ranks are independent accolades you achieve for completing non-combat missions, so you can rank this up independently at any level.


Quote:
Originally Posted by The.Grand.Nagus
That said, I didnt see any mention of the uber ground NPCs on advanced/elite exploration. Are you guys still investigating this or not?

An unstated goal of Season 2.0 is to completely revamp the back-end of how the exploration maps are sent to your client which will hopefully address a boat-load of issues. The powers team continues to look at the uber exploration NPCs as well, but the new exploration client delivery tech should eliminate some of the errors that are resulting in bad gameplay on some of those maps.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Darren_Kitlor
Any chance of releasing more screenshots to whet fans' appetites? (i.e. Caitian, Leeta, etc.)

Attached a screen of the Caitians from the test server (work in progress - eyes aren't done)


Quote:
Originally Posted by Armsman
With regard to Planets have more 'wildlife' so thay don't seem so mempty...

Unfortunately, this update isn't going to solve all of those problems, but does add some new beasts that you have a chance of running into. As I mentioned above, our new tech for delivering exploration maps to your client will eliminate a lot of the data corruption errors that have ended up as various bugs (since as far back as beta). One of my personal goals is to completely revamp exploration in an upcoming update so that it addresses the issues you brought up and makes it far more compelling that flying up to question marks and getting what you get.


Quote:
Originally Posted by SlothfulDragoon
(what about) refit existing T4s and T5s as "special" T5s...is there any chance the Feds and Klings will be able to team up for faction agnostic content? Is there any way some of this stuff (Season 2 C-Store Items) could come somewhat shortly after season 2?

Refitting lower tier ships for play at T5 is not coming in the 2.0 update, but something we are investigating. We are also looking into ways for you to temporarily fly other faction's ships which *may* make it into Season 2 sometime. The Season 2 C-Store updates will come out shortly after Season 2.

The Fed Level 51 ship reward is a "familiar" ship that has been retrofitted for T5 with special abilities. The Klingon 51 ship is something completely new.


Quote:
Originally Posted by ShinRa_Actual
Any (Leeta) Audio being recorded? C-Store list is missing the TR-116...

We are in contact with Chase Masterson and do plan to get some audio recorded for "Holo" Leeta. As far as C-Store items, I'm unaware of any other items being made available.


Quote:
Originally Posted by InfamousBrad
Given that episode replay is coming after the delivery of the first 8 Klingon episode missions, can you tell us what level band(s) the missions are aimed at... Do you really think you can do this? (Weekly Episodes)

The Klingon Episodes are in two groups... some between 9-13, and the others between 31-33. Our hope was to have episode replay working so you could enjoy them at any level, but for now you'll need to find a lower level player to squad level down to if you are level 51. The new weekly content levels to your level, so you can do them at any time. The only real PVE gap for Klingons will now be in the 20's but that is where the weekly episodes will fill in.

Weekly episodes are something *new* for us. We have a number of them done and in the can ready to release, and our goal is to keep working ahead so that we can have solid arcs of episodes before starting the next series. We may have small breaks between the series, but hope to continue it onward. We have shown that we can push a lot of updates (just by looking at our release notes subthread) and I'm of the opinion that if it's a hit - we'll keep the resources necessary to keep it running. It all really depends on how much you like them. We're not going to keep making them if nobody plays them, but we think they might just turn out to be awesome.

The episodes will be available to all levels (they level to the team leader). While our goal is to make them available for all factions, we are finding that some parts of the story don't make sense for one side or the other, so we're adjusting as necessary. It could be that series 1 has a few more Fed missions than Klingon, but that series 2 will be the opposite. We really want all players of all factions to enjoy the work being done on these.


Quote:
Originally Posted by StarbasePrime
The sections on Starbases & UGC was completely missing! Does that mean there are 8 additional Klingon missions being planned...

Yes we are working on UGC and the lead designer is hell bent on getting Fleet Starbases in at some time, we're just not ready to talk about it yet because they are Season 3 (or beyond) features.

At the launch of Season 2.0, there will be 8 KLG eps, 4 new specific non-combat missions, 5 new end game episodes, a new exploration mission type "First Contact" which will be found by those of certain rank in FDC, as well as new episodes every week going forward. It is TBD what the new episodes will be after weekly episodes series 1 is delivered (mostly because we want to see how the weekly thing goes).


Quote:
Originally Posted by Popov147
No sign of a Trait respec anywhere in that report - oversight or just not planned anytime soon?

Trait respec requires some specific tech we are waiting on which is TBD. Once I get an update on when we're getting it I can throw it back on the schedule.


Quote:
Originally Posted by RogueEnterprise
Is there any official word as to how customizable they will be when they launch?

For Season 2, you will get to select between 1 of 3 different predefined interior layouts. Obviously as we delve into UGC, I can see a future where you design your own ship interior... maybe down the road. So for now, some premade "defaults" to get the ball rolling and we'll go from there.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Mineria
What is this "special T5 Ship'? Are the Weekly episodes going to be as long as the average current ones or different? I can't wait to get into the FDC missions can we possibly get more details on these? Does trade commisioned officers mean we can trade officers we have ben using? Does new exploration enemy ship designs mean boarding missions? Are the new ships going to be cannon ships or Cryptic ships same with the species?

Currently the special T5 ship is a well known favorite, but I can see us adding more of these quickly.

The weekly episodes vary in length. We have 5 done so far, and the emphasis is on having a little story arc and introducing recurring characters.

Trading commissioned officers is giving one of your fully trained bridge crew to someone else.

New exploration enemy ships means that there will be more ship designs for aliens to use (more variety).

The new ships are cannon ships related to the ship poll results.


Quote:
Originally Posted by tyyy
btw some real pvp sector for season 3 ?

My crystal ball says that it is already in discussions and more likely than not, but not guaranteed yet.



Quote:
Originally Posted by mavgeek
The fact its taken a month+ to get an Engineering Report is sad...

That is partly my fault in that I should have handed the task off to someone else, but the baby came earlier than expected and I immediately bailed. As a direct result of this, we have stormshade back as community rep to ensure stuff like this doesn't fall through the cracks again.


Quote:
Originally Posted by superchum
Chair sitting tech ... Merc outfits?

Chair sitting tech requires our lead animator's love to make it work, and while he has been working on it, every animation showstopper ends up on his plate and our request keeps getting delayed. So its not for a lack of wanting it, it just requires some special skills that the lead needs to lock himself in a room and crank through.

Attaching examples of merc and formal options (still work in progress) as well as some ship interior trophies.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Darren_Kitlor
Any chance that PvP button can get "unburied" from the game interface?

The UI team has several bugs related to this as well as a revamp of that whole 'drop down' button next to the minimap that no one really likes.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Oshanee
When will live on Tribble Test?!!! cant wait try them

The team has 1 more week to finish tasks, then we go into bug fixing and polishing, so we expect our first external candidate to pass QA sometime between last week of June and 1st week of July.


SCREENSHOTS ARE WORK IN PROGRESS (not final)
1) Example: Caitian Male
2) Example: Merc Costume Options
3) Example: Formal Costume Options
4) Example: Ship Interior Trophy Rewards


dsthal



Caitian Male



Merc Costume Options



Formal Costume Options



Ship Interior Trophy Rewards

[.Belladonna]

Can't wait to be back in the action and playing some those updates when they do arrive.

[Ezreq Blodvaerd]

Awesome pics Admiral Fortin.....

I call dibs on the "Eye Patch"!!!

That will go great with that facial scar Blodvaerd has.