The developers at Cryptic have schedules and someone is making these schedules. Who are those who decide which things get priority?

Reason: Apparently for the higher-ups a rebalancing of shields is more pressing than returning PvP to an acceptable state by fixing New Faw™. Probably also the same guys who decided that a welcome back weekend was the best choice after they had ruined the queue system.

Since jheinig is not the one making these schedules, who is?

Dstahl (Dan Stahl) is the Executive Producer for Star Trek Online and probably makes the majority of those decisions. However, the fixes you are complaining about being done first probably require less time, less resources, and are more simplistic. The other problems you are complaining about being done second are on the list of things to fix, but require more time, more resources and are overall probably more complicated. Since Dstahl has been Executive Producer a lot of things have been upgraded, fixed and added. Sadly, IMHO, Star Trek Online was a little rushed and so there has been a lot of catching up to do. Dstahl has done a good job of working diligently to bring STO up to the high standards we all have and conscientiously determining when to apply those updates in order of precedence to his staffing, budget and community needs.

"Probably" was not exactly the answer I was looking for. :p

The problems I mentioned (New Faw™ and the queues) are both issues that were introduced after launch because of poor testing and there is no indication that Cryptic regarded any of them as important although both are/were taking a heavy toll on the PVP population.

It has been mentioned that New Faw™ is supposedly difficult to fix. If it is that difficult to fix, why was it modified in the first place and then released without proper testing?

Of course it is easier to work on fluff than to fix bugs. But doing the fluff first doesn't speed up the bugfixing. It's just procrastination or not caring for the pvp part of the game.

I am by no means saying that balancing the game should be done before any further elements are added to the game. I am well aware that rebalancing SNB/healing would take a long time and maybe it is even better if it never happens because that reduces Cryptic's chances to destroy what balance is left.

But the decision to postpone fixes to gamebreaking issues is incomprehensible to me and I would like to know who is in charge of such decisions so that I can direct any future petition at the true forces that are at work instead of the poor developers who just carry out the tasks that have been assigned to them.

It doesnt really matter which skills take less time to change.

Fact is that Shields and Efficient Engine changes are .. meaningless .. compared to the broken state of FAW.

I mean, seriously, subpar resilient shields and OPd (lol) MK IV efficient engines.. Noone cares about that really.. Its on the list: "Sure, itd be nice enough to have them changed, but in the end it doesnt change anything" - Next to an ability that have driven more players away than the broken que did.

Quality over quantity tbh.

I get the feeling that Dstahl more into appeasing care bears and couldn't care less about PvPers

But But he flies a klink.

Transformers! Feddies in disguise...

Have any of us seen him play?

Sometimes one must just.......
http://www.youtube.com/user/MontyPyt.../0/JrdEMERq8MA

There's a problem with the PvP queue system? I haven't had a PvP queue error (or non-transfer) in over a month.