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Interview with Stephen Ricossa, Sr. Producer for Star Trek Online

In November we asked you, the community, to submit your questions for Cryptic, Cehus is here with the Interview!

By Cehus Mon 22 Dec, 2014 8:00 PM - Last Updated: Sun 03 Apr, 2016 11:33 PM
In November we asked you, the community, to submit your questions for Cryptic, Cehus is here with the Interview![PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

First off, congratulations on the release of STO's second expansion! How did it feel to finally get that out the door and in the hands of the players? Were you happy with the community's response?

STEPHEN - Thank you! We put a significant amount of time and effort into planning, designing, and executing our vision for Delta Rising. The entire team really came together and worked for a significant portion of 2014 to build everything that shipped, and I’m not sure if the team was more excited to release the expansion or to see the community’s reaction to our work. Once it was actually live, we were incredibly pleased with the feedback from the community about the stories and features in Delta Rising.

Exploration has been put out to pasture since the star cluster closures. Are there any plans for the system to make a return in the future?

STEPHEN - There are definitely plans to get exploration back into the game, and I look forward to being able to discuss them with the community as the design progresses.

Since Delta Rising, players have had a bonus dilithium weekend and the infamous mirror event as well as several announcements indicating increases to dilithium rewards, are there any discussions involving a refining cap increase?

STEPHEN - Our goal is to continue to increase the locations that players can earn Dilithium. We see it as a time currency, and we want to make sure player time invested, regardless of what type of content in which it is invested, equates to the designed amount of Dilithium earned. This doesn’t necessarily mean that everything will reward Dilithium, but the plan is to hit a better cross section of what everyone plays. There are currently no plans to increase the refinement cap, but we’re keeping a close eye on the Dilithium economy and we are more than willing to make adjustments based on the data.

Stephen D'Angelo stated when he took over as STO's Executive Producer that he would be focusing on quality of life improvements. We have seen wonderful leaps in this area, however many issues that players are having involve the trait system, needing to trait into ground or space depending on what they do, are there any plans to streamline this?

STEPHEN - I’m glad that our focus on improving quality hasn’t gone unnoticed! We’re definitely putting in the time to squash bugs, streamline features, and improve old content wherever we can. The goal for the trait system was to give players additional customization options and ways to differentiate their builds from other players. We are currently considering whether or not we should simply split the trait slots into dedicated ground and space slots so players no longer feel the need to swap them per region.

Players have developed a strong love for many Intelligence powers and ships! Are there plans to create additional Intel ships, specifically a Romulan Intel Cruiser and Science Vessel, and a Klingon Intel Escort and Science Vessel, as well as adding more parts to further customize existing Intel ships?

STEPHEN - We are definitely going to continue to support intelligence bridge officer powers and the ships that use them, though I’m not able to get into specifics at this time. We do have an extensive ship schedule that will provide great breadth to Tier 6 ships, and ships that use intelligence powers are definitely in there!

A week after the launch of Delta Rising, Tau Dewa-gate occurred. In that a component of the game was shut down as it was actively being exploited by a minority of players. Stephen D'Angelo addressed the issue and explained it in detail. While this has been far from standard operating procedure in the past, does this signal a change in policies on behalf of cryptic studios?

STEPHEN - In general we like to allow our community team to handle official, outward facing communication in order to maintain a messaging and communication standard. In special or atypical situations, such as with the Tau Dewa Patrols, we may feel the need to provide an official response directly from the development team. This isn’t necessarily a change of policy but more of a flexibility in protocol on our end that allows us to provide the best possible messaging given any situation. In regards to locking out the Tau Dewa maps, we have historically turned off content, stores, even the exchange in the event of a major bug or unexpected behavior. This isn’t a course of action we take lightly, but it is an option we evaluate on a case by case basis.

Since the skill point drop rate had been adjusted, casual and hardcore players alike have had great difficulty earning skill points in a timely fashion. On November 4th Cryptic mentioned they were examining the drop rates of skill points. Firstly could you elaborate on how long cryptic feels an average player should take to earn a specialization level, and could you shed some light on how this review is being done specifically?

STEPHEN - Once a player reaches Level 60, they then earn a Specialization Point every time they would theoretically hit 61. The amount of Skill Points needed to get from 60 to 61 is the same amount required to move from 59 to 60, although the time it takes to achieve that level depends on the type of content you’re playing and the speed at which you’re capable of moving through it. We review our leveling rate based on constant reports that give us incredibly varied and detailed information on Skill Point earn rates. Based on that data, we can identify trends and monitor the rates of Skill Point acquisition. If the data shows that it is taking too long for players to earn Specialization Points, we use the data to implement game changes that will correct the negative trend. In general, this is a slow process since we don’t want to make a sweeping change after a short period of time that could be the result of atypical player behavior.

Will future specialization trees feature dedicated starships, or will cryptic move to implement more specialization-neutral ships to accommodate for future trees?

STEPHEN - We have definitely discussed adding new types of specialization trees and ships to the game in order to expand our new specialization system. While every specialization won’t necessarily have a new type of ship, it would be a safe bet to assume there will be more ships that feature specialized stations. For example, the Guardian Cruiser isn’t specifically an intelligence ship, but it has an intelligence seat. There is a large opportunity for this type of ship expansion in the future.

Will existing universal slots allow intelligence officer seatings at some point in the future?

STEPHEN - We currently have no plans to adjust universal seats to allow hybrid-specialist bridge officers. However, we’re always willing to re-evaluate this position in the future.

The Vaaudwaur designs, in terms of both ground great and starships resonated with many players. Will player variants of the costumes, weapons and ships be available to players in the future?

STEPHEN - Our art team was incredibly pleased at the response to the visuals for the Vaadwaur group, and it was a lot of fun bringing an enemy from a single episode to life in such a complete way. As far as player availability of these assets goes, there’s nothing I can discuss in specifics at this time, but I’d say it’s within the realm of possibility.

When we interviewed you guys back in July, Mr. Ricossa indicated that the development team was currently in discussions in the location of the next fleet holding, as many fleets have their main and alternate fleets completed at this point, is there an estimated time of arrival for this?

STEPHEN - I’m glad I’m here for the follow up question! It would be a safe bet to say sometime during 2015, although I’m reluctant to get more specific than that.

Even with Delta Rising, Player Vs. Player content is still needing a good deal of work. Can you share any details as to what players can expect from a possible PvP update?

STEPHEN - As we plan our releases throughout the year, we look at systems that need improvement, as you mentioned in a previous question, and slot them into our schedule. There are a variety of systems that we would like to come back and improve after five years, and PvP is definitely part of the discussion. While it hasn’t made it to the top of the list quite yet, we regularly consider it for our updates and look forward to the opportunity to make the improvements the community wants.

One of the big selling points for Delta Rising was the involvement of the actors from Voyager. Last time Tim Russ was involved he recorded a lot more material that showed up later on - did this happen this time as well? can we be looking forward to more adventures with those crew members in the short term, perhaps for STO's 6th Anniversary?

STEPHEN - You got to experience some voice recordings we made with the future in mind for the winter event, we had Ethan Phillips as Neelix to replace the chef in the winter gazebo. As far as the future goes, we’ve thought ahead and recorded some lines we can use for some episodes, but you can definitely expect to see continued involvement from freshly contracted actors in the future. Our Sixth Anniversary will bring back a familiar face, as well as deal with a loose end that I’m sure many players would like to see tied up.

Many players were elated to find that the infamous Voyager compression rifle was among the delta reputation's unlocks. Will players see more canon weapons in the future reputations?

STEPHEN - It was great to see so many people excited by the appearance of the Compression Rifle. We like to look for any opportunity to get a canon weapon into the game if we feel like it fits. Players should definitely keep an eye out for canon items or weapons in the future.

What's the deal with the Son'a and the Ba'ku? We've not seen or heard anything from them since Star Trek: Insurrection. Are there any plans to introduce these species to STO?

STEPHEN - We don’t currently have plans to introduce those species into our story arc, but that doesn’t mean we won't get to them eventually. Star Trek is a rich IP full of amazing stories and characters and it will take a while to get to them all!

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK MR. RICOSSA FOR ONCE AGAIN TAKING THE TIME TO ANSWER OUR QUESTIONS,
WHAT FEATURE ARE YOU MOST EXCITED FOR?

BE SURE TO LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW!

QUESTIONS BY MEMBERS OF THE UFPLANETS COMMUNITY
EDITED BY TORINTH - STEPHEN.HALL@UFPLANETS.COM
4 Comments
Tue 23 Dec, 2014 12:10 AM
Very cool to read through, and even better to see my question made the cut Big Grin Looking forward to seeing more VO in the future!

One piece of feedback though, if that's alright: I found it a bit jarring to see questions start with "Stephen D'Angelo said such and such" and then the reply came from 'Stephen'. I know it's two completely different people, but I found as I read through it I would have to remind myself that it's a different person each time.

Other than that, always cool to see!
Tue 23 Dec, 2014 5:49 AM
Nice to hear from another member of the team. Good interview, but referring to 'Stephen' in the way you did seemed like he was responding with preset marketing answers.

Looking forward to hearing mor about the fleet holdings in 2015.
Tue 23 Dec, 2014 3:55 PM
This is the most massive PR crap I seen. I posted this on some other thread but this is my feeling.


"So the question is, even if the content we had was amazing, how could you ever balance it when one player can do 100x the damage of another? How do you make the content a challenge when the outgoing damage from enemies is laughable, but can't be increased because it starts to one shot people again?

This is why DR failed for me, a new level cap, new skill levels, this was the opportunity for a real designer to brush off the past mistakes, fix the issues and get things going again. Instead they just ran some multipler to enemy HP. At that point I knew it was over, the devs had no interest in making anything fun, and if you didn't subscribe to the cookie cutter ship design you were simply not worthy of playing at higher "difficulties" (ie: mindless damage sinks)

If this one part had shown a sign of hope, a glimmer the devs gave a crap about fun, I'd probably still be playing. If the missions weren't mindless shooting, I'd be in the queues getting my purple R+D drops, upgrading, getting spec points, etc, but reality is... the game is like playing that mind sucking dilithium mining mini-disaster over and over. If the missions we played weren't started with walls of text (that has no point in a timed mission) followed by just endless DPSing. The sad truth is there is nothing Star Trek about the missions that are in the game, while the STFs are still the best we have, they are really old, really static and require the exact same actions everytime. We have nothing dynamic, nothing that makes you think, nothing that reacts, uses attack combinations that are the least bit threatening. Enemies don't try to heal, defend, retreat, protect objectives.

Of course nothing interesting can be made, designed or remastered until the DPS problems are fixed. If that ever happened, the queue missions do desperately need to be remastered. A system needs to be placed to graduate advancement to Advanced or Elite, walls of text that are never read removed, and the objectives clearly indicated while playing. Higher difficulties need better AI, and sustained damage. Teamwork needs to be added, no more blindly shooting anything that moves (thats ok for some missions not everything in the game)

So to sum up the massive wall of non-sense, the game isn't fun. The costs of DR, to me, are acceptable, the people whining about them are not justified, IMO. The upgrade costs to epic status are the exception to that. Launching an expansion and level cap increase with only a small fraction of the content needed to get there is mind blowing. I'm at level 64/65 in rift, and I haven't grinded anything, I've skipped more content than I can count. Devs making xp adjustments at this stage in the game is like design 101, how did they skip that?

Our fleet has been shrinking fast, at some point recruiting new players it gets depressing because all you hear are questions of why is this that, and that this? The answer is time and time again, bugs. Our fleet is now empty, most have moved to Rift.. a really bug free game, refreshing.

You might want to read this article http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11...ess-right-now/
Tue 23 Dec, 2014 3:57 PM
This is PR nonsense. THis is my feelings.

DR was a fail to the playerbase but a win to DR $$$ pockets.

DR failed for me, a new level cap, new skill levels, this was the opportunity for a real designer to brush off the past mistakes, fix the issues and get things going again. Instead they just ran some multipler to enemy HP. At that point I knew it was over, the devs had no interest in making anything fun, and if you didn't subscribe to the cookie cutter ship design you were simply not worthy of playing at higher "difficulties" (ie: mindless damage sinks)

If this one part had shown a sign of hope, a glimmer the devs gave a crap about fun, I'd probably still be playing. If the missions weren't mindless shooting, I'd be in the queues getting my purple R+D drops, upgrading, getting spec points, etc, but reality is... the game is like playing that mind sucking dilithium mining mini-disaster over and over. If the missions we played weren't started with walls of text (that has no point in a timed mission) followed by just endless DPSing. The sad truth is there is nothing Star Trek about the missions that are in the game, while the STFs are still the best we have, they are really old, really static and require the exact same actions everytime. We have nothing dynamic, nothing that makes you think, nothing that reacts, uses attack combinations that are the least bit threatening. Enemies don't try to heal, defend, retreat, protect objectives.

Of course nothing interesting can be made, designed or remastered until the DPS problems are fixed. If that ever happened, the queue missions do desperately need to be remastered. A system needs to be placed to graduate advancement to Advanced or Elite, walls of text that are never read removed, and the objectives clearly indicated while playing. Higher difficulties need better AI, and sustained damage. Teamwork needs to be added, no more blindly shooting anything that moves (thats ok for some missions not everything in the game)

So to sum up the massive wall of non-sense, the game isn't fun. The costs of DR, to me, are acceptable, the people whining about them are not justified, IMO. The upgrade costs to epic status are the exception to that. Launching an expansion and level cap increase with only a small fraction of the content needed to get there is mind blowing. I'm at level 64/65 in rift, and I haven't grinded anything, I've skipped more content than I can count. Devs making xp adjustments at this stage in the game is like design 101, how did they skip that?

Our fleet has been shrinking fast, at some point recruiting new players it gets depressing because all you hear are questions of why is this that, and that this? The answer is time and time again, bugs. Our fleet is now empty, most have moved to Rift.. a really bug free game, refreshing. "