June 2010 - Audio Interview with Craig Zinkevich!

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Just thought you folks might like to have a listen. It will be appearing on the front page soon - but here is the link:

http://hailingfrequency.com/boards/latest-star-trek-gaming-news/hailing-frequency-special-june-2010-interview-with-craig-zinkevich!/

45 minute interview with Criag Zinkevich that we at HailingFrequency.com did last week.

Enjoy!

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Bad time to post, everyone's busy crying about their precious pre-ordered items being available to buy :P

I do hope people listen to it!!

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Well these forums are always so active, that I'm not sure if there is ever a "good-time" - I guess I'll just try to keep this bumped near the top and hope that Cryptic post it up on the front page shortly.

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Interesting interview. I haven't played much in a couple months, but I am looking forward to Season 2!

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thanks for posting this!!!!

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Glad to hear that they are so serious about User Generated Content..... :D


Factions...
I hope he does not think that People realy want Borg next?
It is pretty obvious that the People who want Romulan (>60%) would vote on something else once Romulans are there and the poll would probably turn out a lot diffrent if those 60% could choose again.
And why did he say that he couldn't put Horta in the Poll...? Horta ARE in the Poll!

PS: we need more Polls!

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I am happy to see people enjoying the interview so far!

Zach

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nice work as always Zach

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Thanks Zach

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Anyone got a transcript? I keep trying to listen but keep getting distracted.

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45 mins is a long interview. Can anyone post the highlights?

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listening now! :D

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45 mins is a long interview. Can anyone post the highlights?
Anyone got a transcript? I keep trying to listen but keep getting distracted.

I'm working on a transcription - much like what I did for the Subspace Radio Interview. :D

EDIT: A few minutes in and there's already 100% less "Rock You Like A Hurricane" by Poison in this audio feed. That's a plus already.

[Archived Post]

Part 1 (note: I'm only 14 minutes into the 45 minute interview.

[Today we are being joined by the Executive Producer of Star Trek Online, Craig Zinkievich. How are you?]

I'm doing great, Zach. How are you?

[I'm doing very, very [well]. Thank you for coming back to Hailing Frequency, yet again.]

Oh, no problem. No - it's fantastic; I love doing interviews, getting as much word out there as possible.

[We've had you on quite a few times. I have to say: it's a particular delight to have you on to discuss everything going on with STO.

Last time we had you on was just days before the release of Star Trek Online. I think we had you on January 28th. [This] was the last time we had you on.]

Yes.

[And now, of course, we're into the start of the fifth month of Star Trek Online now?]

Yes, yes. It feels like we just launched yesterday but also feels like we launched years ago.

[Five months is certainly a milestone. I think every month is a milestone in the first year of an MMO, especially one as historic as Star Trek Online.

I have to say, Craig: you'd think the mentality of most MMO developers would be to ship the game and start on a staff rotation of vacations.]

(Craig laughs.)

[From the looks of the stuff you've been releasing (from the patches and the Season Updates), it doesn't seem like any of you have had even one day of vacation since it launched.]

We have cycled some, *some* vacations here and there and gave some people some time off. Not the traditional couple months off after the shipment in the videogame industry.

When we launched, we knew there was a whole lot of content stuff to do. There's still a lot of stuff that we want to do now and going forward for the future of Star Trek Online. [We] really wanted to set a precedent with the amount of stuff that we're putting out [along] with how much we're listening to the community - that what we're doing is directly driven by what they want.

The first few months are very important. We want to make sure we're there, developing for the community.

[Everyone appreciates a lot of the stuff that's been going in. You've added in things like the injury system, difficulty slider... there's tons of other minor things and bugs fixed. Off duty uniforms and other little bits and pieces that just serve to increase the immersiveness of the game.]

All the Borg Content, STFs, putting in the respec system, and the Accolade System - which is fantastic for re playability and "going out and collecting" the Achievements. A person looking for achievements in the game will really, really love the accolade system. So, yeah, there's a whole lot of stuff we've been adding.

[Onto the first question we've got here:

1. Since Star Trek Online launched, what has been your experience in terms of player loyalty? Have a lot of people that were in there through Beta and through day one, are you finding through your statistics that those people are still playing? taken a long break?

Also, do you have population statistics?]

We tend not to reveal numbers. The industry doesn't just go out and tout subscription numbers but we are really happy with the subscriptions we have, with the community built. I think that we have a very solid, hardcore community that has been with us since beta. Through the launch of the game, we've seen some come on and get really, really excited and stick with that. Some people come on and go but we are really, really excited with the core group of guys in the community that we Star Trek being around and being supported right now for a very long time.

[Just recently, you released a demo. You see freeplay and welcome back weekends but a demo is quite odd for an MMO. So, that's quite a unique thing that you did there.

2. Can you give us information on what the mentality was behind that? Also, what the response to the demo has been?]

Well, other MMOs have done freeplay weekends and trial accounts that are readily available for a lot of MMOs. Quite frankly, a demo for any videogame is pretty common - even on the consoles now. They've figured out how to get people playing and really let them see what the game is like.

We ended up doing a demo for Champions Online that was very well received and had really good pick-up from there. The demo for Star Trek Online is also doing really well: bringing in more people and letting people try the game.

With the box and subscription, there is an amount of investment to get into the game. [You] have to really sign yourself up for that. Giving people a taste and allowing them to know what it's like, we're confident with the gameplay and experience that we know its really exciting for a lot of people. Getting it out there is just common sense.

I wish the footprint for the demo was a little bit smaller. I think it's upwards of 8 gigs+ right now? All the content is going out with the demo currently but we have a smaller demo in works that will allow more people to get in and not have that gigantic download to start with.

We're happy with how the demo is going. I don't think it's as ground-breaking as you put it.

[I guess I just haven't been paying as much attention as I thought ot the MMO kind of world. It seemed pretty cool.]

I definitely think its cool but we can't take credit for being trailblazers there. (laughs)

[Looking at your recent State of the Game, you gave people hints at the upcoming content. Looks cool, some of it I have to say. Something that we touched on in the last edition of Hailing Frequency was the emphasis you put in curved hallways of your crew deck. It seems you're doing a lot of work on ship interiors for Star Trek Online. You mentioned, specifically, curved hallways and Ten Forward.

3. Are there other [interior] areas that are going to be in the update in question or are you starting there and building up from then?]

You already have the bridge. We're working on ready rooms right off the bridge - making sure you have your ten forward to go to, your Captain's quarters... Engineering, you need to see the warp-core!

So there are definitely more areas than I list in Season 2 for the interiors.

What we really don't want to do is create a vast, sprawling 20-deck ship with nothing to do in it. As we release ship interiors, we want to make sure the areas are saturated with thing to do. Things to do down in Engineering that actually benefit your ship, your crew, and your teammates. There's a reason to go to Ten Forward: to show off your trophy decorating areas like you want.

We want to make sure as we add in rooms that there's actually content in there. There's reason to put those rooms in. As opposed to, "hey, we have a holodeck - let's put that it!" Let's hold onto the holodeck until there's a reason for us to put that in. Let's wait for the holodeck experience that we want.

We do see more ship interiors than were listed in the State of the Game. We'll keep adding to them ver time as well and working content into them.

[You're really talking about merging... well, in that same State of the Game you talked about minigames, places like Quark's and stuff to play Dabo.

4. So, you're merging ship interiors and do things like minigames or mini-missions?]

For Season 2, we expect there to be at least one minigame on your ship that will allow you to do research to improve yourself and your team. We''l definitely release more details about that. There'll definitely be more minigames on the ship.


[In terms of minigames, it seems like these will have more tangible rewards.

5. How about recreational minigames? Like Dabo at Quark's or 3-D Chess, are they just going to be for fun or are you going to get a credit reward?]

For Dabo, we're going to have gold-pressed latinum as a reward, sort of a closed economy for those sorts of games. They're used to go buy rewards specific to those sorts of games. What the Dabo Store is going to offer is: you're not going to play Dabo at Quark's to get better weapons for oyur ship or shields or things like that.

You're going to go to Quark's and you're going to get interesting things: holoemitters to make your ship look different, costume pieces, and that sort of stuff. That's what we expect. We'll see what people say about Dabo.

[5. How are you developing the rules for games like Dabo? Is this something your worked with CBS on or something you're working on yourselves to make as fun as possible?]

We do work with CBS on these things. When we said, "we got to put Dabo in" we did talk to them about the design of the prop in the show and what the purpose was [and] if anybody had any sort of rules.

You're right. There weren't any rules. The prop was more or less designed to make lasers on a roulette table. They thought that would look cool, so they created that.

So, we take some liberties so as to not design it based purely on the prop but use the propr as inspiration for what Dabo might be. It may not be the Dabo everybody imagined but it's a shared, almost like [audio is distorted here] experience where everybody is watching in the room and everybody in the room is going to win together if somebody wins. It's a pretty cool, fun social experience.

MORE TO COME!)

[Archived Post]

Part 2 (from ~14 minute mark till podcast break and advertisement spot at 21:52)

[Moving onto one of the other things you mentioned in the State of the Game, the Federation Diplomatic Corps - that's going to be [a base]?

There's a lot of combat in the game and I suppose this will be a base.

6. What are the scenarios or hints as to the amount of Diplomatic and Exploratory Content that is going to launch with the Diplomatic Corps?]

There is a lot of non-combat that exists currently in the exploration content, the star clusters. There are non-combat episodes throughout the game. When we ran beta, players really like to solve who committed the crime or what the miners needed and ease tensions there.

It became apparent that we not only need to add more but to have a centralized location to tie all of this stuff together - not just thrown throughout the combat that is in the sotrylines based on the war and the strife in the Alpha Quadrant. We wanted a place where people could go and be assured that what content they got was non-combat.

So, the Federation Diplomatic Corps is a way to have that content and have that person that's going to send you on Star Cluster missions that are non-combat. There are rewards for doing those non-combat episodes and, at the same time, we are adding in more non-combat episodes to the game. We are adding in other "flavors" of non-combat exploration, like first contact missions. Those were one of the most sought after and requested features after launch. With Season 2, we wanted to address that and have started getting in that talking to different envoys from an alien race and trying to find out more about their species.

We're looking to launch Season 2 and the Fed. Diplo. Corps with first contact content as well as some other non-combat episodes.

There are a few other scenarios that are in R&D right now and whether or not those will make it into Season 2.

[You are adding in the Federation Diplomatic Corps now.

7.Is this opening the door later on for, perhaps, Starfleet Corps of Engineering for Engineering Missions? Maybe Starfleet Medical for Medical Missions? Intelligence?]

I think (and this is going back to the beginning of the interview) is that we've tried really, really hard to make sure that everything we've done over the past 4-5 months is really driving with what the community wants, with what they want to see in the game as it goes on and matures. If they want to see an Engineering Corps and it's the next big thing, that's what we're here for. We're making the game for you guys now.


[That's just really cool that you're taking the things that people want and then putting that in.]

It's not only really good business sense when you think about about all the users as customers but it is one of the coolest and funnest parts of development in MMO: working with the people on the boards, working with the community to figure out what's next, figure out what you guys want and try to deliver that.

That - that is really gratifying.

[Definitely. Backpeddling a little:

8. How much of the content you're added in during the past 4-5 months was stuff you couldn't get in for launch?]

We definitely started with a road map when we launched: getting the Borg content, the STFs, and the Fed v. Fed PvP, all of that stuff.

We had a roadmap [and] you can't go to launch without knowing what you're going to do the next day but we also realized that where we launch and the destination of your game [it] does change after launch. Through Season 1, we knew what we were going to do.

Even in the weeks leading up to launch, we were taking a pulse of the game - finding out out what the community wanted - what the community thought was lacking and that we would have to add in after launch in order to flesh out everything between Season 1 and Season 2.

It's really kind of gray to say "yeah, we wanted that." It's not that we never thought of putting Dabo in the game before launch; it's that we knew we couldn't get it in during that time frame. A lot of the stuff that we're putting in now we had thought of and entertained before launch but we knew that [launch] was out date and we should just hit that date and keep developing from that date after, geared more toward how the community wants it.

[We're going to take a short break. So, stayed tuned for more of our interview with Craig Zinckievich]

(More to come...)

[Archived Post]

Part 3 (after commerical break: from ~24 minutes till ~ 35 minutes.

[We're back and moving on with the interview (looking at your State of the Game), you touch on two really big things. The first is User Generated Content down the line. Now, I'm not 100% correct but I believe that's new ground for User Generated Content in your games.

I'm pretty certain it wasn't in City of Heroes [prior to sale to NCSoft] and I'm not sure about Champions, since I don't follow that as much as Star Trek Online.

9. Is User Generated Content something new for Cryptic? [Is it] something new that you're seriously developing?]

It is something new for Cryptic. We've always been proud of our internal toolset and our ability to make tools that people can use to make content. We've always imagined, since the beginning of Star Trek [Online], that there's no community out there that is more voracious and more passionate than the Star Trek Community in terms of writing fiction, writing content, and trying to figure out at this one location at these points in time. I think the Star Trek fan is well-known for these things.

Star Trek is a great opportunity in order to get these sorts of tool out to the players. You know: recreate episodes that they loved or add their take on what they think is happening int he universe.

Even early in development with the Genesis System, we were looking at ways, at paths toward User Generated Content. The UCG Team is made of a bunch of people that worked on the Genesis System and the tech we have to describe missions and still make something pretty cool out of it. So, they've been working since launch to create those tools in a way that someone outside of the industry can get in.

It's a really exciting opportunity for Cryptic Studios 2.0 but also very well-suited for the Star Trek fanbase.

[Absolutely. It's very exciting. I think I just read a coupl months ago that since NCSoft added in the User-Generated Content ability into Cryptic's old game City of Heroes, they've had something like in the space of a month had more content than the team could have produced in two years!]

Exactly but the goal is to make sure the tools that you give the players are robust enough and easy enough to use that the content that is made is not only "more" but also of high quality. To the end that people like to make can realize their vision and something that is also fun to play.

That's what we're focused on.

[I presume, of course, that it will be a fairly moderated system.

10. Do you anticipate that if people submit missions (or be it objects or ship designs) that these will be on the live server or go onto Tribble first for community feedback?]

We're still early in terms of how we're going to moderate this, how the ranking system is going to work for this sort of content.

We do expect there to be a development environment and really enable the developers to get in and give feedback before things get published out live and creating a ranking system to allow the community to say "look, this is really awesome content. this guy makes awesome content; look at his stuff!"

There are all sorts of ways to moderate and publicize certain content. We're playing around with a couple of different models right now.

[I'm excited for that feature and it's something that I'm going to be watching like a hawk, so to say.]

It should be awesome.

[As well as the 1000s strong modding community that exists in Star Trek gaming. I'm sure they're looking forward to that system as well.]

I would hope so. (laughs)

[The other thing you mentioned for Season 3 and beyond is adding another faction to the game.

11. Have you have done any polls so far as to what the community wants in next?]

We have yet to post... wait, that's not true! We actually posted that poll last week. Here you go, this is that cold playing with my head.

We did put up a poll. Go to the forums. Go to startrekonline.com, go to the forums, and vote! Last time I checked, Romulans had a pretty sizeable lead with Borg coming in next.

Everybody has their own "pet" faction that they want in. Nobody at work allowed me to put Horta down as a playable faction. (laughs)

It's going to be Romulan or Borg at the rate it's going at now.

[At the point that it becomes clear, is the decision made... I'm going to be cruel but:

12.How long does it take to add a new faction to Star Trek Online? I'm not even sure that is a question you can answer.]

No, it's not an easy question. Mainly because you need to figure out what that faction needs before you figure out how long it takes to make.

I think it's exciting that the two factions at the top of the heap are Romulan and Borg. They are very different. You can imagine bizarre gameplay for the Borg. In which case, we have to spend a lot more time looking at new systems and brand new gameplay and balance issues - though not as much art assets as the Romulan side. I'm just making stuff up; I'm sure you could find a reason why the Borg need more.

What we really need to do is figure out what the community wants and what we're really excited about as well. Find out what that is and scope it properly. We do have the luxury of saying "this is when our updates are going to happen; this is what people want" and so moving dates around is a possibility depending what the people want and when that needs to be.

[Sorry to hit you with such a difficult question.]

It's fine. I wish I had a nice, solid "new faction takes five and a half months." (laughs) I wish it were that easy sometimes.

[I guess when you put that first new faction into the game, it gives you a benchmark on future factions. It gives you a rough ballpark for future factions]

Sure but, then again, you pick something totally different and you're going to run into different issues, different roadblocks. We try to make each faction unique and figure out what it needs.

[This is where I try and get the scoop:

13. Is there anything that is in the planning stages: major new features that are going into the game in two months, three months that community hasn't heard a whisper of yet? Do such things exist?]

One of the things along with developing for the community and what they want is one of the things we have done is which is kind of groundbreaking for an MMO is to really try to communicate as much as possible to the players. [This] puts all our cards out on the table: this is what we're working on, this is what it's going to be like.

I'm pretty sure there is no hidden scoop in Season 2. I mean, we've talked about the interiors, the Diplomatic Corps, raising the level cap to 51, the Klingon episodes, the Breen episodes, and the Undine episodes at the top end.

I don't think that there's super juicy scoop that I'm saving; we're trying to tell as much as possible through the State of the Games and the Engineering Reports in the forums.

Go there. There's probably something that hasn't been talked about enough.

One more part. I hit the post character count.

[Archived Post]

Part 4 (from ~35 minutes till the end of the interview)

[On the Hailing Frequency forums and other forums, we have people that say "We've played Star Trek Online. We think it sucks. It's no good. It's a shell..." that kind of comments.

How does that make you feel? What would you say to them? Perhaps giving the game a second chance?

14. How do you address those people and their concerns?]

There are all sorts of people on the internet. It's hard to take sometimes. The team, the individual guys on the dev team who put their hearts and soul into the project and continue to do so after launch. I know it drives them crazy but we can't just ignore that sort of feedback. Even if it's not constructive at all or "haters will be haters" but it does have an effect on the team/.

After that, you have to realize that sometimes you're not going to get that person to like your game.

There's a vision there from people who really do enjoy the game and we're here working for them or you can look at the comment and try and break it down and use it as a Rosetta Stone to figure out what is actually missing from the game for this person.

In general, our goal is to develop more for Star Trek Online than any MMO in its first year. We want to add so much, do so much to the game. Any MMO that you see a year to five from its launch is an entirely different experience. It's much more mature and deep experience than when it launched.

If those kinds of people really want to game to be something they could play (and not just there to find the next thing to yell about on the internet) then definitely come back and take a long at everything we've added.

If you thought the game was too easy, try the difficulty slider and the injury system.
If you want more non-combat, that's coming in Season 2.

We're constantly changing the game, so we can only hope that they'll come back and try it again.

[Even I find it upsetting to find someone who completely hates the game. I love the game. If it upsets me, I can only imagine how it makes the team feel when they read that. They seem like a very small minority at the moment.

I started back in February and took a break for work reasons but came back just last week. I don't want to say some of the new stuff was game changing but it definitely added some new levels of complexity. It changed my perceptions from good to someone who likes this game even more.]

I'm glad that there's some in the community that do like that.

[I guess that should be a lesson to someone who doesn't like STO. That, now three months on, as someone who likes STO now feels its sufficiently different to suggest people come back (and I do) that three more months or six months down the line, I hope that they give the game another chance.

Moving on a little bit, we've talked about the community's response to Star Trek Online. How about CBS?

15. What is CBS' response to you guys being the successors to Star Trek Online since it launched?]

I know my contacts at CBS continue to be really excited about the potential this brings and that this platform can bring the timeline ahead and add content. They're stille xcited about what potential this sort of game, environment, and community brings to Star Trek as a whole.

[That's cool. A little while ago, you talked about raising the level cap to 51. There are quite a few people running around Star Trek at the level cap at the moment. They've reached the original level cap quite quickly.

16. Are there any plans to raise the level cap at a faster pace that you have been? To give those people at the cap something to strive for - higher levels and such?]

We want to make sure that we will be raising the level cap up to Vice Admiral 1 in Season 2. It's not always trying to keep pace with the fastest person who can get there but it's also to make content at those levels that keeps people playing, making sure there's a wider variety of ship, making sure there's stuff for those at the cap.

No matter how much we put in, there are those who play all week and get to the cap as fast as possible. It's not about adding 100s of hours more content because of how fast the extreme can play the game but it's about making sure that the systems, that the loots, the STFs, the episodic content, and keeping players feeling like they aren't advancing their character to an end-point. We're trying to get replayability up there.

[I understand there are people completely addicted to Star Trek Online and are playing it as much as they can and then there are (I don't want to say "more normal" because that's just applying stereotypes) but to say more average people that are playing a hour a day

I've got a ton of questions from the community but I don't want to keep you long. I just want to ask from Craig's corner.

17. Is there a message you would like to give the community? Is there anything you'd like people to hear from your mouth directly?]

I do want to thank the community. The first month or two after launch was difficult and rocky. There was a huge influx of all sorts of people from those just checking out the game: some who loved and some with the opposite reaction.

It was rocky for a couple months but I think we've fallen into a groove with the community. We've found ways to works with the community with what to do with the game.

The community has matured with ideas, feedback, and comments on the forums. So there's a lot of stuff that we've taken from there and it's really become a pleasure to work with the community on the sticky issues, on the balance issues recently, and work with the community.

I just want to say thanks to everybody and I look forward to this long relationship.

[Okay, Craig. I'm not going to keep you any longer. I hope you had a great Memorial Weekend that just past. I hope we can have you on again in a couple of months and by then we'll be talking 2.1, 2.2, and 3. I hope we'll have more to talk about the next time we have you on the show.

To everyone today: thanks for listening! I am Zach, this was Craig. Bye-bye!]

You too, Zach. Thanks!

That's it.

I'm finished! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1PYp-fsZOA)

:cool::cool::cool:

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Part 4 (from ~35 minutes till the end of the interview)



That's it.

I'm finished! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1PYp-fsZOA)

:cool::cool::cool:

Thank you. I have a gift for you. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI2COawqMJQ) sorry I'm in a weird mood tonight (: but really thank you

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Thank you for making the transcript Darren_Kitlor!

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Thank you. I have a gift for you. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI2COawqMJQ) sorry I'm in a weird mood tonight (: but really thank you
F' my life! That song is awesomely bad.

Thank you for making the transcript Darren_Kitlor!
You're welcome.

I'm glad many of the questions were as dutiful answered (the huge Dabo section was quite interesting to get a feel for their development process with CBS)

I made some changes for grammar reasons or to reduce the "ums, so, well" parts as the whole thing was unscripted.

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I had a list of questions, and a partial script, I just tend to err and umm alot when I am tired - which is alot these days as I am self employed and regularly work 14 hour days!

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I had a list of questions, and a partial script, I just tend to err and umm alot when I am tired - which is alot these days as I am self employed and regularly work 14 hour days!
No worries. :)

I realized this and tried to edit it out for readability. It wasn't a criticism of you two: it was more-so an explanation on why it's 100% word-for-word but still something like 95%-98%. A literal transcription would've been harder to read.

No worries!

Besides, I've done editing like this before (as well as when I published my first book last year). :D

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I am bumping this for visability

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I am bumping this for visability
I transcribed the Interview is on page 2, for those wondering.

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I transcribed the Interview is on page 2, for those wondering.

:eek:

exactly how much time did you spend doing THAT?

It's nice to know they'rew thinking of us. And the timeframe issue I can completely agree with.

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Bumping again for visability. The Cryptic Machine is a bit slow at the moment with staff having been at E3 - still waiting for this to go on the front page, hopefully soon.

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Halfway through the interview right now, it's very good. Somehow whenever Zinc opens his mouth about STO he seems to give a lot of hope.

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:eek:

exactly how much time did you spend doing THAT?

It's nice to know they'rew thinking of us. And the timeframe issue I can completely agree with.

I probably spent 1.5 hours typing/listening - I paused every sentence or so. I broke it up into 30 minute portions (with ample breaks in-between).

I figure not everyone has time to sit and listen - so reading makes it easier.

You're welcome! :D

[Archived Post]

Halfway through the interview right now, it's very good. Somehow whenever Zinc opens his mouth about STO he seems to give a lot of hope.

Yeah you can tell he really cares about his work - which is great!

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Bumping again for visability

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Bumpy Bumpy

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Yeah you can tell he really cares about his work - which is great!

This is very very true. I get the vibe that the majority of the Cryptic team is really into this game. However, as cool as this interview was, one thing did make me take notice. He mentioned how people in beta liked the miners mission (from early in the levels, at Beytan now): "When we ran beta, players really like to solve who committed the crime or what the miners needed and ease tensions there." I was in beta, and I remember several threads about how much the mining mission sucked, and how it had let people down since it was so lacking.

I've been away from the game for a bit, but all the stuff for Season 2 has brought me back... I just hope things like the Diplomatic Corps are as awesome as we think they will be, rather than more Beytan miners style missions. I do have faith though.

Anyways, other than that one thing, great interview. Thanks for transcribing it!.

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This is very very true. I get the vibe that the majority of the Cryptic team is really into this game. However, as cool as this interview was, one thing did make me take notice. He mentioned how people in beta liked the miners mission (from early in the levels, at Beytan now): "When we ran beta, players really like to solve who committed the crime or what the miners needed and ease tensions there." I was in beta, and I remember several threads about how much the mining mission sucked, and how it had let people down since it was so lacking.

I've been away from the game for a bit, but all the stuff for Season 2 has brought me back... I just hope things like the Diplomatic Corps are as awesome as we think they will be, rather than more Beytan miners style missions. I do have faith though.

Anyways, other than that one thing, great interview. Thanks for transcribing it!.
I think the biggest complains was that it was the only diplomacy missions most people can name off the top of their head - not the content itself but the fact there wasn't more like it.

I can also recall the investigation and arrest of that Captain (forget the mission name).

Everything else had combat - even the Princess and the Klingon mission.

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I think the biggest complains was that it was the only diplomacy missions most people can name off the top of their head - not the content itself but the fact there wasn't more like it.

I remember people being very disappointed that it was basically a quiz; talk to four or five people, and just regurgitate what they said. Nothing deeper or meaningful, just a series of yes/no questions, which made it into nearly pointless clicking.

I certainly think people are expecting quite a bit more out of a diplomatic system. Dialog trees, multiple options for responses that are more than a simple yes/no, things like that. I know I'll be disappointed if it's just something like:

"Ask the alien race what the matter is."
Ok, done.
"Is problem X what they're complaining about? Yes or no."
Um... yes....?
"Congratulations! You've ended war and famine for 5 sector blocks! Hooray!"
But... I didn't do anything...?
"That's ok! We'll pretend you did something meaningful. Here's a cool jacket!"
Sweet! No, wait, I mean... crap.

That's basically what the miner mission is/was (been a while since I played, maybe it's different). You answer yes/no questions, then they tell you that Admiral Quinn's on the line, and he's going to fix everything up. You were just a PR stunt. You don't even get to fix the broken holodeck!

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13. Is there anything that is in the planning stages: major new features that are going into the game in two months, three months that community hasn't heard a whisper of yet? Do such things exist?

the Breen episodes...

Breen episodes?! how did I miss this?

point me to more info please.

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Not one to complain but yea.. I can't think of a (current) MMO that DOESN'T have a demo.

Still a very cool interview.

The Brit ad made me think it said "Director Drive"

I do really like this because, I feel like the guy has a genuine passion for the game. Which gives me some confidence for the future.

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I probably spent 1.5 hours typing/listening - I paused every sentence or so. I broke it up into 30 minute portions (with ample breaks in-between).

I figure not everyone has time to sit and listen - so reading makes it easier.

You're welcome! :D

Thanks for doing that, Darren! My computer doesn't like streaming audio much, and this was very much appreciated!

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Breen episodes?! how did I miss this?

point me to more info please.
I haven't seen any screenshots but I know several developers have mentioned Breen as a new enemy (possibly a few episodes int he new end-game sector block).