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Here are the questions and answers given for those whom missed the
transcript. There were technical issues, so I isolated the pertinent
information.
Questions are in turquoise and answers in green.
Cryptic_Rekhan> Hello, and welcome to this week's dev
chat! Just in time for Halloween, a Lovecraftian plague has decimated
Cryptic, so we lost our developers for this chat. In their stead will
be Awen (who also has the plague but has thus far resisted its ...
darker effects) and Rekhan, whose immune system will someday be studied
by paleobiologists.
Cryptic_Rekhan> We'll do our best to answer your
questions on ship tiers and player progression, but clearly this dev
chat is going to take on a more community-driven focus. So ask any
questions you like with that in mind. We'll get to as many as we can!
Cryptic_Awen> Let's get this party started. Please be patient while Rekhan and I work hard to answer the questions that we can.
Cryptic_Rekhan> Varrangian> Is there a minimum number of Bridge Officers
required to command each tier of ship? If so will we have earn enough
of them before unlocking the next tier of ships to command that tier
immediately?
Cryptic_Rekhan> Each ship has a
certain number of Bridge Officer stations, which you can fill. You
don't _need_ to assign a Bridge Officer to each station, but it's
definitely recommended that you do. The rate at which you acquire
Bridge Officers should guarantee that you always have enough on hand to
staff any ship you can fly.
Cryptic_Rekhan> [BETA]MrVolt> on the topic of ship tiers and module
customization: Will the different tiers have their own parts or can we
use those parts on other tiers too ?
Cryptic_Awen> That's a good
question - you will be able to equip within your ship tier. There are
just pieces of equipment that don't belong on the smaller ships right?
You're not going to be able to put a heavy cannon on a Science ship.
However, in true Cryptic fashion, we make your ships as customizable as
we possibly can and still stay true to the canon.
Cryptic_Rekhan> BreachAndClear> Can a player invest awarded skill points in a
ship type they're not using? For instance, can a player flying in a
Sovereign complete episodic content and invest awarded skills into low
tier escorts, without ever having touched one previously? Or does the
player have to hop into a low tier escort to invest points into those
kinds of ships?
Cryptic_Rekhan> Ship type and
skill points aren't related in that manner. You acquire skill points
for completing episodes, which you can then spend to increase skills
your character has. So if you're completing episodes in a Sovereign and
want to use the skill points you receive from that episode to increase
your Escort skills, you can definitely do that.
Cryptic_Rekhan> Loekii> Q: Does Captain skills affect Space? For example, will
an Admiral in control of a Tier 2 ship have more options/power/ability
than a Commander in the same ship?
Cryptic_Awen> Yes, an Admiral
will have more skills, bridge officers etc than a Commander simply
because he has raised his skill and rank. He's done more work and
evolved as a Captain than a Commander has. In any level up scenario - a
higher ranking player is going to have an advantage over a lower
ranking player.
Cryptic_Rekhan> HittingSmoke> It's been said that we can command a science ship
and still be a tactical captain, etc. Will there be any disadvantages
to this? Will it "nerf" players to select one career path and command a
ship of a different type or will they be just as effective as a tac
captain commanding a tac ship?
Cryptic_Rekhan> The way the skill
system works, it's very hard to "nerf" yourself. If you're a tactical
captain flying a science ship, your skills will obviously be better
suited for combative abilities. However, since you're going to have
your Bridge Officers with you, and Science vessels tend to have more
Science Officer stations, you'll still have a lot of Science-related
powers at your disposal. If you don't have Science skills, your Bridge
Officers may not be as effective as they would be under a Science-heavy
captain, but you'll still remain viable with the right Bridge Officers
and items.
Cryptic_Rekhan> Admiral-Darren-Wright> Do we know yet when the Captains ready
room that Zinc previsously mentioned will be available, if not at lauch
do we know when? A lot of players are excited about it
Thanks
Cryptic_Awen> It's in the
noodling stages right now. I don't have a specific date of when that
feature is going to be implemented into the game.
Cryptic_Rekhan> Vicelance> Are their advantages to getting all your bridge
officers up to max rank or if you have one that only sits in a Lt. seat
on your bridge would it be better not to rank up that one?
Cryptic_Rekhan> Generally, you'll
want to increase your Bridge Officers' ranks. While they may be limited
depending on the rank of a specific Bridge Officer station, as you
advance into bigger and better ships, the ranks of those seats tend to
increase. So, personally, I'm dumping skill points into my Bridge
Officers as soon as I get the points to assign. I don't want to get
caught with an under-ranked Boff
.
Cryptic_Rekhan> Stnet> will we be able to visit Quarks at DS9 ?
Cryptic_Awen> Yes, You will be
able to visit Quarks on DS9. Our environment team is working very hard
to replicate certain areas of the series that translate well into our
game.
Cryptic_Rekhan> CaptLykke> Q: If you use your skill points in one way, and find
out that its wrong path you taken, can you reset them, and use them in
the correct way you really wanted ?!
Cryptic_Rekhan> We hope so.
"Retcons" aren't an easy system to implement. There are a lot of
economic and gameplay factors that go into skill reassignment. We're
hard at work on getting a system in place that makes sense within the
confines of the game world, though.
Cryptic_Awen> Vicelance: Can you tell us how many Bridge officer seats are on each tier and maybe their type?
Cryptic_Awen> This information
will become available through our website in conjunction with the other
info that we've been putting out as we move forward toward launch.
Please just keep checking back there regularly. We are going to try to
start adding that type of information to the Ship of the Line feature
as well as the game information that we've been adding.
Cryptic_Rekhan> OuroborosAgain> When you gain skill points is there a pool so
you can either use them for yourself of a BO? or do your BOs have to do
things with you to skill up?
Cryptic_Rekhan> You gain skill
points for your captain, and skill points for your Bridge Officers
enter a different pool. As you complete episodes, you'll gain skill
points for both sets. The Bridge Officer pool goes across all your
Boffs, even if they weren't stationed or on the ground with you during
particular episode. We did it this way because who's to say your other
Boffs weren't contributing "off-camera"?
Cryptic_Awen> [BOK]Veglargh: are there any ships that only fleets/guilds/houses can make?
Cryptic_Awen> That's a great
question. I was recently talking to Stephen D'Angelo who is right now
working on our fleet tools.They really had to sit down and determine
which tools and features for fleets were critical to implement. It's
something that they have thought of and are interested in considering,
but it's most likely not going to make it into launch.
Cryptic_Awen> [STX]Wagner: Can Fleets be comprised of both Fed and Klingon players?
Cryptic_Awen> Fleets can be
comprised of Federation and Klingon races. However, the Klingon will
need to be a part of the Federation faction. As far as I know, we're
going to keep the factions seperate.
Cryptic_Rekhan> clevere1> Are the rank promotions based on experience points like other games?
Cryptic_Rekhan> You raise in rank
after you spend a certain amount of skill points. So, let's say you
need to spend 100 points to raise from Lieutenant to Lieutenant
Commander (NOT THE REAL NUMBER). You'd then need to spend 200 points in
either your Lieutenant or Lt. Commander skills to reach the rank of
Commander (AGAIN, NOT THE REAL NUMBER). So it's experience-based, but
not strictly level-based.
Cryptic_Awen> Thanks so much for joining the plague ridden STO Chat of the week!
Cryptic_Awen> We apologize for the questions that didn't
get answered. If you'd like to put them into a forum thread, we can see
if the Devs can do a quick QNA once they are all feeling better.
Cryptic_Rekhan> Thanks for coming out, folks!
transcript. There were technical issues, so I isolated the pertinent
information.
Questions are in turquoise and answers in green.
Cryptic_Rekhan> Hello, and welcome to this week's dev
chat! Just in time for Halloween, a Lovecraftian plague has decimated
Cryptic, so we lost our developers for this chat. In their stead will
be Awen (who also has the plague but has thus far resisted its ...
darker effects) and Rekhan, whose immune system will someday be studied
by paleobiologists.
Cryptic_Rekhan> We'll do our best to answer your
questions on ship tiers and player progression, but clearly this dev
chat is going to take on a more community-driven focus. So ask any
questions you like with that in mind. We'll get to as many as we can!
Cryptic_Awen> Let's get this party started. Please be patient while Rekhan and I work hard to answer the questions that we can.
Cryptic_Rekhan> Varrangian> Is there a minimum number of Bridge Officers
required to command each tier of ship? If so will we have earn enough
of them before unlocking the next tier of ships to command that tier
immediately?
Cryptic_Rekhan> Each ship has a
certain number of Bridge Officer stations, which you can fill. You
don't _need_ to assign a Bridge Officer to each station, but it's
definitely recommended that you do. The rate at which you acquire
Bridge Officers should guarantee that you always have enough on hand to
staff any ship you can fly.
Cryptic_Rekhan> [BETA]MrVolt> on the topic of ship tiers and module
customization: Will the different tiers have their own parts or can we
use those parts on other tiers too ?
Cryptic_Awen> That's a good
question - you will be able to equip within your ship tier. There are
just pieces of equipment that don't belong on the smaller ships right?
You're not going to be able to put a heavy cannon on a Science ship.
However, in true Cryptic fashion, we make your ships as customizable as
we possibly can and still stay true to the canon.
Cryptic_Rekhan> BreachAndClear> Can a player invest awarded skill points in a
ship type they're not using? For instance, can a player flying in a
Sovereign complete episodic content and invest awarded skills into low
tier escorts, without ever having touched one previously? Or does the
player have to hop into a low tier escort to invest points into those
kinds of ships?
Cryptic_Rekhan> Ship type and
skill points aren't related in that manner. You acquire skill points
for completing episodes, which you can then spend to increase skills
your character has. So if you're completing episodes in a Sovereign and
want to use the skill points you receive from that episode to increase
your Escort skills, you can definitely do that.
Cryptic_Rekhan> Loekii> Q: Does Captain skills affect Space? For example, will
an Admiral in control of a Tier 2 ship have more options/power/ability
than a Commander in the same ship?
Cryptic_Awen> Yes, an Admiral
will have more skills, bridge officers etc than a Commander simply
because he has raised his skill and rank. He's done more work and
evolved as a Captain than a Commander has. In any level up scenario - a
higher ranking player is going to have an advantage over a lower
ranking player.
Cryptic_Rekhan> HittingSmoke> It's been said that we can command a science ship
and still be a tactical captain, etc. Will there be any disadvantages
to this? Will it "nerf" players to select one career path and command a
ship of a different type or will they be just as effective as a tac
captain commanding a tac ship?
Cryptic_Rekhan> The way the skill
system works, it's very hard to "nerf" yourself. If you're a tactical
captain flying a science ship, your skills will obviously be better
suited for combative abilities. However, since you're going to have
your Bridge Officers with you, and Science vessels tend to have more
Science Officer stations, you'll still have a lot of Science-related
powers at your disposal. If you don't have Science skills, your Bridge
Officers may not be as effective as they would be under a Science-heavy
captain, but you'll still remain viable with the right Bridge Officers
and items.
Cryptic_Rekhan> Admiral-Darren-Wright> Do we know yet when the Captains ready
room that Zinc previsously mentioned will be available, if not at lauch
do we know when? A lot of players are excited about it
Thanks Cryptic_Awen> It's in the
noodling stages right now. I don't have a specific date of when that
feature is going to be implemented into the game.
Cryptic_Rekhan> Vicelance> Are their advantages to getting all your bridge
officers up to max rank or if you have one that only sits in a Lt. seat
on your bridge would it be better not to rank up that one?
Cryptic_Rekhan> Generally, you'll
want to increase your Bridge Officers' ranks. While they may be limited
depending on the rank of a specific Bridge Officer station, as you
advance into bigger and better ships, the ranks of those seats tend to
increase. So, personally, I'm dumping skill points into my Bridge
Officers as soon as I get the points to assign. I don't want to get
caught with an under-ranked Boff
. Cryptic_Rekhan> Stnet> will we be able to visit Quarks at DS9 ?
Cryptic_Awen> Yes, You will be
able to visit Quarks on DS9. Our environment team is working very hard
to replicate certain areas of the series that translate well into our
game.
Cryptic_Rekhan> CaptLykke> Q: If you use your skill points in one way, and find
out that its wrong path you taken, can you reset them, and use them in
the correct way you really wanted ?!
Cryptic_Rekhan> We hope so.
"Retcons" aren't an easy system to implement. There are a lot of
economic and gameplay factors that go into skill reassignment. We're
hard at work on getting a system in place that makes sense within the
confines of the game world, though.
Cryptic_Awen> Vicelance: Can you tell us how many Bridge officer seats are on each tier and maybe their type?
Cryptic_Awen> This information
will become available through our website in conjunction with the other
info that we've been putting out as we move forward toward launch.
Please just keep checking back there regularly. We are going to try to
start adding that type of information to the Ship of the Line feature
as well as the game information that we've been adding.
Cryptic_Rekhan> OuroborosAgain> When you gain skill points is there a pool so
you can either use them for yourself of a BO? or do your BOs have to do
things with you to skill up?
Cryptic_Rekhan> You gain skill
points for your captain, and skill points for your Bridge Officers
enter a different pool. As you complete episodes, you'll gain skill
points for both sets. The Bridge Officer pool goes across all your
Boffs, even if they weren't stationed or on the ground with you during
particular episode. We did it this way because who's to say your other
Boffs weren't contributing "off-camera"?
Cryptic_Awen> [BOK]Veglargh: are there any ships that only fleets/guilds/houses can make?
Cryptic_Awen> That's a great
question. I was recently talking to Stephen D'Angelo who is right now
working on our fleet tools.They really had to sit down and determine
which tools and features for fleets were critical to implement. It's
something that they have thought of and are interested in considering,
but it's most likely not going to make it into launch.
Cryptic_Awen> [STX]Wagner: Can Fleets be comprised of both Fed and Klingon players?
Cryptic_Awen> Fleets can be
comprised of Federation and Klingon races. However, the Klingon will
need to be a part of the Federation faction. As far as I know, we're
going to keep the factions seperate.
Cryptic_Rekhan> clevere1> Are the rank promotions based on experience points like other games?
Cryptic_Rekhan> You raise in rank
after you spend a certain amount of skill points. So, let's say you
need to spend 100 points to raise from Lieutenant to Lieutenant
Commander (NOT THE REAL NUMBER). You'd then need to spend 200 points in
either your Lieutenant or Lt. Commander skills to reach the rank of
Commander (AGAIN, NOT THE REAL NUMBER). So it's experience-based, but
not strictly level-based.
Cryptic_Awen> Thanks so much for joining the plague ridden STO Chat of the week!
Cryptic_Awen> We apologize for the questions that didn't
get answered. If you'd like to put them into a forum thread, we can see
if the Devs can do a quick QNA once they are all feeling better.
Cryptic_Rekhan> Thanks for coming out, folks!
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