very good answers, very informative, congrats to thomasthecat. glad to hear that cryptic is still hiring very good sign of long lasting game.

Thanks for the response! Gamma Quadrant would be so cool! Really looking forward to seeing what everyone can do in the foundry, lots of creative people playing this game.

Good to see that PvP stuff is still in the works, even if it is a few seasons down the line. I don't mind how long they take, as long as it's coming eventually.

I also hope that they hold off on the Romulan faction until the Klingons are up to snuff. And that means in the eyes of the community as well.

Q: Havraha: The improvements to sector space are monumental, but the realism of the improvements is spoiled for me every time I actually enter a system and see the same garish backgrounds and cartoony lighting that plagued sector space before. Are you guys planning on updating the mission instances to look more real as well?

A: We think that the environment team has done an amazing job at making individual systems look unique and interesting, and while they might not have the "realism" of Sector Space, we feel that they add a necessary change of scenery and do not plan to change them. Some of the system space screenshots are absolutely breathtaking and I'm not exactly sure what you don't like about them, other than the fact that they are much more dramatic than the cold dark sector space.


I don't think anyone disagrees that certain elements of the artwork in the systems is quite beautiful, but that doesn't mean certain things should be there. I'm surprised to hear that Dan doesn't see what I don't like about it, considering I think a TON of players, since closed beta, have been complaining that you cannot see a nebula from Sol system, for instance. Beautiful is one thing, but be beautiful where it matters -- throwing things where we know they don't belong just bugs us.

As far as the lighting is concerned, all I would prefer is that, for the most part, the darker lighting of sectorspace apply to the ships while in instances. It's kind of jarring when you jump from a very realisticly lit ship in sectorspace, to a ship that seems to be lit fairly well from every angle while in space, but perhaps that just's me. Even adjusting the shading so you get an even darker shadow, almost blackness, on the dark side of a planet would add to the realism of space instances I think.

I'm not advocating completely overhauling every mission in the game -- just add some tweaks to bring things more in line with the sexy look of the new sectorspace.

I agree with you. I thought Dstahl said at one point somewhere he didn't like the blue background of space in the Earth instance. I thought they would change that. I hope they still do.

no, he meant the enterprise from the J.J. Abrams reboot movie, not the enterprise-E

I'm sure Cryptic gets tired of this question but many of us would like to know when the Klingons is going to stop being the red - headed stepchild of the game and actually be given some meaningful content (PvE). That is what I would like to ask Cryptic.

I second this motion. Having a formatting difference between the questions and answers would make reading it easier for me.

"Q: Fractal_Eye: When can we expect the Sol System (and Rura Penthe) maps to be ready for use? The last we heard, the maps were done a long time ago. I hope you guys have had enough time by now to find uses for them.

A: The current estimate is with the launch of Season 5."

This made me very sad.,