How many times did we see the same cave redressed in TNG, DS9, and VOY? Many. Ten Forward got redressed so many times that folks didn't recognize it most of the time. But, it was used in Starfleet Headquarters in Star Trek VI, as the mess hall in Voyager, as a bar in Voyager's "Workforce" episode, to name a few.

The fundamental assets of the missions are already there. New missions, as you point out, could be created without necessarily creating brand new art for each one. Some exceptions, like the walk on DS9's outer hull, couldn't otherwise be done without new art. However, that isn't true for the majority of the featured episodes or normal missions and shouldn't be.

I do not doubt the passion of most of the Dev’s for the ST/IP but this is the real world where companies are there to make money.
As much as many of the Dev’s would wish to give us all the perfect ST game we all desire it can never happen no matter how much it is requested.
Whoever the company is they have responsibilities to their shareholders above and beyond other considerations.

The lock boxes are here to stay or variants of them, the game being free to play now means revenue is king it has to be.
This means slowly the subscribers cancel their subscriptions and go F2P.
Life timers get use to the fact they are the minority of players.


The game will evolve with each seasons update, new missions and events will be added.
New ships in the c-store to please people who wanted them.
In fact I see lots of ships on the way. (I guess I will need to find some overtime soon.)

The seam of lock box ships is almost limitless and each will run its course and then the next then the next ad infinitum.
The game as suggested before is in a maintenance mode of sorts or to put it another way its treading water for now and many of the new additions to come soon are just variations of what will be appearing in the new Neverwinter game.
Which the never ending STO beta will hopefully test out for them.

For those who are unaware of it.
Neverwinter is Cryptic/PWE upcoming dungeons and dragons based mmo.
F2P from launch. (Ever wondered where a big chunk of the lock box money goes to.)

On the Neverwinter site Dev’s have said that the foundry update which hopefully will be part of the season 6 update is in essence what they have been developing for Neverwinter.
I would guess that the fleet starbases is tech should easily cross over to guild fortresses.
And the dreaded lock boxes which people on the Neverwinter forums are already worried about will be full of dragons, wyverns and griffon mounts.
The doff system would lend itself well to players being able to settle new lands and run their own mini kingdoms trade empires on the side while still being out and about dragon bashing.
(Each to their own eh!)

I think we have already benefited from the developing game that is Neverwinter and that it will benefit from STO’s input in return.
Once Neverwinter is flying there will be a whole new player group who love their IP as much as we love ours.
Many of whom will be throwing money into the kitty and hopefully some of that will see its way back over to us in STO.
Until then we will get what we get.

There will be a price for those willing to pay for shiny things and the option to truly F2P for those who don’t want to or unfortunately cannot pay.
There is nothing wrong with people venting ire at things they do not agree with or dislike.
We are all fans, players and customers but in the real world unfortunately companies listen to payers more than players and if their metrics or what not say it’s working, they won’t change it.
I don’t think they are doing it to purposely anger us but they are just doing their job.

What would happen? Chaos & madness! Cats would chase dogs, people would put nacho cheese on their ice cream and lorebabies would be forced to admit that Star Trek 2009 was better than every TNG movie except First Contact.

Trek fans are the original "Unpleasable fanbase" so even if they did start doing what you wanted in game, there'd be a bunch of others yelling about it being stupid and they now hate Cryptic forever and ever... while they farm dilithium in another window...

I enjoy this little space shooter. It helps me unwind after work. I find the negatives minor and easily ignored. I'd like to give them some money like I did for Champions Online but since the C-Store has next to nothing in it that enhances or changes gameplay (It's all hats), I haven't. If the game changed in a way that I didn't gain enjoyment from it, I'd stop playing.

Which is what you, and others like you, should be doing. Assuming Cryptic is as mercenary as you think, they will pay far more attention to a loss of revenue than they will some grandstanding in the obviously-set-up-for-ragers-to-rage forums. This option does run the risk of folks discovering they're not as important as they think. But I say it's a risk worth taking since your goal is to save the Star Trek IP from the people you feel are ruining it.

It is about the Star Trek IP and not some selfish reasons... Right?

Thank you.

Do not presume to tell me what I should or should not do.

I am a trek fan. I am also an MMO player. What I choose to do is be an advocate for a product that reconciles Star Trek with MMO in a way that both parties can be satisfied. I'm not here to rage and hate. All I can do is observe and offer potential solutions. I want into the MMO development industry. The barriers to getting in are financial in nature. I choose to use my years of observation of the industry, its practices and its resultsm and offer what I see as solutions.

Cryptic has a problem. The process they follow is at the heart of it. If they fix the process, they will gain momentum and will stand a good chance of actually achieving the full potential that I, and others, know full well that a Star Trek MMO has.

No other MMO developer can say that they have the rights to develop a Star Trek MMO. That right there has Cryptic sitting on a goldmine. The just won't dig. The process the follow is a straightjacket when it should be streamlined.

And let me tell you this. In spite of my critical standpoint I have held towards Cryptic for a while, I would work for them in a cold minute. I don't hate them, or their work. I just know it should be way more than it is and can be if they would just reach for it.

I do know what you are saying when you speak of Star Trek fans as being "unpleasable". I warned Cryptic going into this that they are taking on a fan base that is so divided against itself that if one person mentions they like Captain Picard, 4/5 of the entire fanbase poinces on him, saying, "Kirk's better, no Sisko's better, No it's Janeway!, no Archer has them all beat..." and then you have the battle of five armies raging right in front, with each army against all the others.

The best way to bridge the gap is to take all the common elements inherrant in all five Trek series, make that the core framework, and build outward. I told them durring development that they needed to ask themselves in what aspects are all five series alike. In STO, it's not about Kirk, Picard, Archer, Sisko or Janeway... It's about US and the role WE play as captains of destiny! Content is how we play out our own personal Star Trek experience. But content has seemed to be a lesser consideration, and is one of the key areas where STO suffers.

You approach the game as you see fit, and kindly allow me and others like me to do the same. Do not presume to tell us how.

Good evening...

And for many of the rest (as well as some of the first - there's overlap), Foundry missions don't count because they're not "official". They want to see the storyline advanced. They want it to finally be 2410 (and beyond).

Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...
The dead rising from the grave!
Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

Are you getting this Dan? This is a true statement.

Foundry can be fun. And if anything, the phenomenal things done within its limitations offer testimony of what can be done officially. They just need to be done. And you really should push for having your process streamlined so that you guys can do more faster.

Management should only stick its noses in development's business if sales are down. Marketing should keep its nose out of Development's business PERIOD, and apply its skills to finding a way to sell what Development produces.

When I manage to finally break into this industry as an independent, that is how it will be. The game's development, as in the content my customers would be playing will come first. If they don't get what they are looking for, they'll take their money somewhere else. And Cryptic, there are many F2P games on the offering now. The longer you guys let the process drag your feet, the further behind you will get.

Please listen to what we are trying to tell you.

They will have to work. Fat chance.