Ship Interiors, DEVs why do you hate them so much

[AbsynthMinded]

Ive been in and out of STO from the start. One of my many complaints over the years has been the utter stupidity with which Ship Interiors are Ignored and advanced haphazardly.

Not alot happens anymore inside your ship, not alot ever was going on there. However as part of the potential in STO what 'could' be achieved with Interiors makes me all kinds of mad. But for the purpose of this post I'd like to focus on the pretty factors. The only factor that seems to matter to the DEVs on that level.

In the beginning there was FED, and it was good.. but bland.. Over time we got a few CStore ship bridges, as stand alone or as part of some other release, to flesh out FED, and it was good but still bland. Added KDF and it was for a moment REALLY good. As a universal rule anything different should be seen as good on its face till shown otherwise. Rarely is but.. we had KDF to play with after much annoying wait. Then as with FED, a few bridge releases here and there..

All welcome and more pretty, but still bland..

Then there were the ' one off ' bridges that can only be had with specific ships.. Then there was Romulan and the world rejoiced.. because clearly the shady beings of the Trekverse always have the best style. And then there was Dyson and I had to scratch my head.. and doing so I took a step back to look at all the Ship Interiors..

Besides the base issue of not having anythign interesting to do or alot of detail to fiddle with regarding ship interriors, I look at the Romulan set up and my head kinda twitches now when I look at anything else..

When will we ever get some effort to get jiggy with the the new tech styles and ship interriors. With all the Delta Rising hype theres been not one mention of a new Ship Interrior, to go with the new ships. And as I see it, StarShips should only be obsolete when you can no longer update the insides. So I think it is vastly over due for some creative minds to focus their efforts on making our ships as interesting on the inside as they can be on the outside. To look at if nothing else.

[markdb92]

they said it just takes too long to make bridges for ships so they only make the room with captians chair. All new ships use the old bridges unless its one of lockbox ships.

[AbsynthMinded]

But they build a master piece for the Romulans...

Takes too long, or they are just not motivated to care? Talking the path of least trouble isnt a winning plan for MMO developmetn in my mind.

[Kitsune Aoi]

If I recall what they said correcly the interior for 1 ship takes something like 10 weeks to complete. They can use that 10 weeks and create new episodes (4 to 6 weeks), a new ship (4-8 weeks), work on new systems (Crafting upgrade, Doff, PvP, Queues, Bug squashing, new events and aditions to events) that the interiors group could be working on instead. What would most people rather sacrifice teh interiors that have very little use as it sits or more work on teh other aspects of the game.

As much as I would love an Unique Orion Interior for my Marauder, Risian Corvette and Cruiser. I would rather see them release a new T6 Orion ship, More Epsiodes/Expansion, Fix bugs in the game and improve the current systems over all. (PvP I don't personally care about but know others do) For LoR they did 1 brigde for all Romulan ships to use no other options, Breen Ships finally got a special Bridge when they released the Raider a year after the first ship, They Then Did a Dyson Bridge for teh Dyson Destroyers right after the breen and started working on teh new Expansion while still having teams working on the Crafting System update in 9.5 and teh Risian summer event along with a couple more Episodes for 9.5 so they have been keeping busy enough and They are apparently revamping the Voyager bridge. (Not sure if it is for player ships and teh Voyager NPC ship or just the NPC ship). But at 10 weeks for 1 bridge that is 2.5 months of taking the team away from the other stuff that every one is crying for that will have a bigger payoff either in teh form of "cheeks in seats" or Monetary income.

The Bridges sell about as well as the KDF ships apparently and they say that the KDF ships are not profitable due to how few players buy them. Well they are not profitable because they have alienated the players of teh KDF so much that the players don't bother buying things to show cryptic that they are being neglected which in turn makes teh devs not want to create that content anymore since it does sell. When if they treated all factions teh same instead of favoring the federation players them more would play KDF leading to higher sales KDF side.

It wasn't until what 3.5 years after the game went live that the players could create a KDF toon at level 1 right off teh start and not have to play Fed to 25 just to start a lvl 20 KDF leading to the lack of interest due to lack of content... Now they have to deal with that in the form of sparking enough interest in buying the items be it "minor faction" related items being brought up to par with Fed or the Bridges being made to be the ones that we want as players and are willing to buy. Only time will tell what they will do to get those issues on track to make them profitable enough to designate teams to them regularly or not.

[AbsynthMinded]

You want MORE ships? You working for them? LESS Ships we want LESS Ships.. More EVERYTHING ELSE!

[AbsynthMinded]

Ive compiled a short list of changes and systems we didnt ask for:

DOFF Recycling system redesigned to massivly increase Dilithium Costs
DOFF MIssion System Revamp
Lobi System
Elimination of the Exploration Clusters
Planet Adventure Zones
Lots and Lots of 3rd Party faction Ships
Reputation System Mk 2, we liked it better the way it was
Revamp of the crafting system (jury still out on that, I suspect it to be a new dilithium sink)
Tweaking and reTweaking the random loot drops and Dilithium awards for STFs

[El Rushbo]

I have two things I would like to see done with interiors. First is being able to change the uniforms of your enlisted crew. I figure breaking them up into categories by department would make that feasible. The second would be the ability to choose who sits or stands where on your bridge.

[Kitsune Aoi]

Originally posted by AbsynthMinded:

You want MORE ships? You working for them? LESS Ships we want LESS Ships.. More EVERYTHING ELSE!

Yes I want more Orion Ships as I play Orion toons and would like a Fleet Marauder, Warbarge or an Orion Fighter Heck more KDF and Rom ships in general. I am happy with teh fed selection but KDF get the shot end of the stick ship wise. Rom have no Warbirds that cost 200k Fleet credits all their Tier 5 are bascally Cstore and FSM ships apart from the 3 Token ones at 40.

Your "We want less ships" doesn't seem to be vary accurate since for example on the official forums in the KDF shipyards section you regulalry see people asking for more Orion, Gorn, Nausican, and Ferasean ships. and those threads can get prety long with many different players piping in. When people us the term 'we" they are saying that they speak for the majority when they can only speak for them selves. I could say we want more of the allied race ships but more accuate is many of us want more of them. Just because you think they have enough ships doesn't mean everyone does. I could also Say we don't want more Fed ships implying you and me because you have stated you want less ships and I don't want to see new Fed ships after the DR release until they get the KDF and Rom selection brought up to par with the feds. But that we is only talking about the 2 of us not the community as a whole. (Sorry had to get that part about people claiming the we as in the community as a whole when they really mean themselves which is how your comment sounded due to my first hand forum experience off my chest.It has become a bit of a pet peave.)

As I had stated in the previous I would love to get an Orion Interior since it doesn't make sence that O.S.S. ships would have the same interior as a KDF Battlecruiser, Raptor or BoP. But they have stated time and time again that that takes to much time to design compared to the payoff. (Few years of reading the forums and seing the replies from teh devs about the KDF Alllied racial ships not having a Unique bridge especially after teh Oddy and Bortasqu got their's) I also want to see more episodes, Queues, and Events. For Interios I would like to see them set them up so that you can set the Theme and then do your own layout similar to teh housing that SWG had or that they use in EQ2. Basically be able to use teh foundry tech to create your ship interior. Have the Bridge Design you chose be teh deciding factor of basic Bridge layout and the color/Tech scheme of the rest of your interior as well as determing the number of rooms you have the ability to design the layout of in that ship. example BoP Bridge may give you 6 rooms while a Carrier bridge gives you 20 rooms. Maybe have it so that you can import a premade layout that another player has created and you are able to "cheat" to set up your's that way if so inclined.

[Kitsune Aoi]

Originally posted by AbsynthMinded:

Ive compiled a short list of changes and systems we didnt ask for:

DOFF Recycling system redesigned to massivly increase Dilithium Costs
DOFF MIssion System Revamp
Lobi System
Elimination of the Exploration Clusters
Planet Adventure Zones
Lots and Lots of 3rd Party faction Ships
Reputation System Mk 2, we liked it better the way it was
Revamp of the crafting system (jury still out on that, I suspect it to be a new dilithium sink)
Tweaking and reTweaking the random loot drops and Dilithium awards for STFs

DOFF Lobi and Eploration issues I agree with mostly (99%) Lobi is nice that even lockboxes that don't have the Item you are after still give you something to put towards something you may want from the Lobi Store as a Consolation prize for not getting 'Jem Ha'Dar Heavy escort Carrier or Leech.Bio Neural Warhead" from the box you opened. They need more ways to earn the Lobi just through game play tho to make that system Feasable. The could have tied it to teh GPL instead of Lobi since people have been calling for actual useful ways to spend their GPL on things that they want to instead of just trophies, Holoemiters and Gambling.

Planet Adventure Zones I actually enjoy New Rom and Nimbus, Nukara Prime is my primary source of Nukara marks on my 15 toons, Not that big of a fan of Defera tho not sure what it is about the planet I just don't like it as much as the other 3.

3rd party Faction ships I am on teh fence with. I love the fact of being able to get some of them that we can't play as a faction that they belong to. (Jem Ha'dar, Breen, Cardassian Galor) The Ferngi D'Kora and shuttle should only be Fed since you can't be a ferengi toon as fed. Then the Risians want to be a Nuetral area and I like their 2 ships we have. The Adapted ships should have been Romulan only since they are Tal' Shiar/Romulan ships that have Borg Tech integrated into them. Time ships I don't gare for but not an issue with them being there since they are faction specific How ever the others I have 0 interest in and think they could have been left out al together but I am sure that there are poeple that are fans of those races similar to Ho I am about the Ships of the Domion races.(I still want to see a Dominion Faction where they will let me play as a femal Jem Ha'dar since one was actually in DS9)

Rep system I prefer the new way myself. after they did the test with the dyson before converting all the others to match it. So I am glad about that change. And they did have people complaining about the old system and prefering the dyson test of it. Everyone I play with prefer teh Mk2 to the old one

Crafting System I don't hate teh new system but preffered the old system. The old system just needed to be modified so that it had useful gear instead of teh crap gear that it mostly contained. The new system wouldn't be bad if it wasn't for all the timegating. That was teh big plus to the old system You craft it as you need it and not have to wait hours or a day for teh one item just a few seconds. It made it pointless to bother crafting gear for fleetmates and friends to help them level as soon as they can use the next rank of gear. That was what made the old system much more superior in my eyes. But the selection and variety now was what was needed in teh old system. and the community was asking for them to fix the crafting system for years before they finally did.

Loot drops and rewards I agree that have messed those up baddly when we weren't asking for those changes (I would like to see a 10k daily refine limit instead of the 8k personally but that is a different issue that they probably won't change for those of us in small fleets tying to build up our mines and who aren't long enough Vet account holders) The tweaking of the EC values on items and teh loot drops have hurt those of us who disn't have hundreds of millions of EC Before the reductions. I can still easily make 40K unrefined Dil in a few hours without a Dil weekend but that will probably drop big time with the changes coming in the DR Queue rewards.

Another thing I have seen asked for often over teh years is a poker mini game to be added but no sign of that ever getting finished cause I think teh dev that was doing that after hours on his own time is no longer on STO or has left the company altogether.

[AbsynthMinded]

To focus on the points of possible disagreement ;

Planetary Adventure Zones, are only good for Marks. If not for the Marks system would they really be that fun? Not so much.. The Summer/Winter event zones are vastly more fun by comparison. We'll have to see how they deployed the new one first hand. Never trust a livestream and DEV Hype Vision.

Reputation System, The Mk1 Rep System was what I liked Best. Going to the location where the recruiters were. It was the only occasion where you would really see parking lots of people instead of ships. How people design their characters is at least as interesting as their ships. I saw no need to remove them as an access point. Cramming everything to the STF Queue only reduced potential player pre match socializing at the recruitment locations. Mebe it was a lag thing.. I never had any trouble with it. There has been a fair amount of push back and forth over that and I agree it was what got us the Dyson Adventure Zones. I see it as a moderately well concieved and valiant attempt to satisfy all worlds, and coming up short. Limited to being fun only of you are focused on Dyson marks. A proper Adventue zone should have a broad appeal for more than one agenda or more importantly no agenda at all.

3rd party Ships, I don't dislike that they were developed, but I think they should have been released about 75% slower and fewer. The development philosophy has relied on shiny ship sales to stay afloat im made to understand.. I believe they could have gotten alot more milage if they have been released with less abandon, slightly higher prices and a forward thinking development team allowing the Ships to be brought into the new realm of Tier/Tech no matter what the systems were. Now just wait for the 1st T6 Lock Box release.

Crafting, I don't 'hate' the new crafting.. However I was maxed and master of the old system and got nothing but a title for the conversion. So I am having to grind out the click and wait 20 Hrs for the mission to complete, unless I want to PAY. The lack of perks for those who had bothered to invest in the 1st system, I find tobe a lack of ethical practices. If ONE DAY I mannage to get to the to lvl 15 end of a tree and find it over complex or it produces sub par tech from what can be accessed otherwise from other systems, my discovery and dissapointment will fuel another few pointed posts.

As for the Lobi and Mini games.. Lobi Gambling is a poor substiution for Poker, 3D Chess or Darts.. I always cried out for darts for a bar mini game. For Trek tho, it really should be 3D Chess and Poker. Lobi and everything connected to it can be distributed via the Reputation systems. I find it a worthless money sink designed to prey on the worst parts of human psychology. Also, any 3rd party faction you see show up in Lobi is almost certianly not going to become a playable faction.. Can you imagine the out cry when all the ships for said faction are bought and sold for hundreds of millions then become a playable faction with a free access Navy Ship line?

[Kalle_Paulsen]

What really itches me about the interiors is their full out of proportion size. Which really looks off. They probably had to do it because of the 3rd person camera. but still.
About the manufacturing time. If they really say that one bridge takes them 10 weeks to complete, then their 3d artists are lousy slackers.
I'm 3D Artist and can knock out 4 bridges in that timeframe, With higher detail too.
The rest of the ships is essentially a repeatable thing. Even the bridges share geometry.

[AbsynthMinded]

Originally posted by Kalle_Paulsen:

What really itches me about the interiors is their full out of proportion size. Which really looks off. They probably had to do it because of the 3rd person camera. but still.
About the manufacturing time. If they really say that one bridge takes them 10 weeks to complete, then their 3d artists are lousy slackers.
I'm 3D Artist and can knock out 4 bridges in that timeframe, With higher detail too.
The rest of the ships is essentially a repeatable thing. Even the bridges share geometry.

Take one look at the Romulan ship interriors and then look at anything else and I would defy anyone not to start scratching their heads wondering why its like night and day. Romulans get open hydroponic gardens for Kriks Sake~! I want a singularity core fro my screensaver.. I want a massive holographic design over my bar..

[Imperius Rex]

Remember when people were lusting over interiors way back then? 'It would make the game!' What good are interiors if they do nothing? It is a massive waste of resources unless they totally overhaul them to be functional somehow. Dont ask me how either! I truly believe only trekkies are concerned over this issue. What good are they? vanity? bridge rp? rubbish I say.

I still have np with the T6 ships, but after looking at them more closely, they are just another cash grab and tied into the content so that its more diabolical than ever. The upgrade system is great idea but tied to awful crafting system makes it another cash/time sink that in the end only serves to kill my interest in playing.

[Sir Dookface McFerretballs]

Don't foget how screwed up the ship scaling is as well... Bridges so freakishly huge that you could hold an American football game in... Hallways in ships that are 40 feet wide and 30 feet tall... Ships the size of planets and plantes the size of ships... Small escorts that are way too big next to cruisers... Cruisers that are not the right size... So on and so forth. People have been asking for fixes to these issues since day one, but the developers only seem to care about lock boxes, grinding, and new paywalls.

[AbsynthMinded]

Yeah.. The scaling has always seemed, inappropriate.. However in light of all the bigger things to complain about that one was pretty far down the list for most folks.