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New Executive Producer of Star Trek Online

Stephen Ricossa named as Stephen D'Angelo's successor for Star Trek Online.

By Cehus Mon 02 Feb, 2015 8:04 PM - Last Updated: Sun 03 Apr, 2016 11:31 PM
Stephen Ricossa named as Stephen D'Angelo's successor for Star Trek Online.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

Today, Cryptic Studios announced that Stephen D'Angelo will be ending his tenure as Executive Producer for Star Trek Online. Mr. D'Angelo has served as the title's Executive Producer twice now - in 2011; where he oversaw the game's transition to Free-to-Play, and in 2014, he promised and delivered on many quality of life improvements as well as overseeing the production of Star Trek Online's most recent expansion: Delta Rising. D'Angelo - before and in between his stints as EP - served as Cryptic's Chief Technology Officer. With his replacement announced, Stephen D'Angelo will be returning to his previous role.

Stephen Ricossa, the new Executive Producer, has been working for Cryptic Studios since December 2008, starting as a QA tester. He has served as a producer for Cryptic for almost six years now, spending the last two as Star Trek Online's Senior Producer. Ricossa is the third now to follow the pattern of adopting a new Executive Producer yearly, a policy which Cryptic adopted after Dan Stahl's departure in early 2014. The reasoning behind this approach - according to Cryptic - is they want to bring fresh people in with fresh ideas.

Just as D'Angelo's introductory post promised quality of like improvements, Ricossa has promised - come Season 10, which is set to be delivered in late spring - Sector Space will be redesigned to fit in three maps, in lieu of the 19 currently present.

Stephen Ricossa's introductory letter reads as follows:

Star Trek Online has been privileged to have a great history of Executive Producers through its lifetime. Stephen D’Angelo has most recently occupied the big chair and during his second tour has lent the team his considerable experience, design expertise, and vision for the future of Star Trek Online through Delta Rising.

Stephen is stepping down as Executive Producer for Star Trek Online in order to focus on his role as Chief Technology Officer at Cryptic Studios to oversee several internal projects. I would like to thank him on behalf of the community and the Star Trek Online team for once again taking the reins and leading the team through a fantastic year of releases.

As of today I will officially be leading the team as Executive Producer, and I couldn’t be more proud to lead this incredible team and game, both of which mean a great deal to me.

I have been a lifelong Star Trek fan and one of my favorite early memories of trek took place in late September of 1990. Earlier that summer, after experiencing one of the greatest cliffhangers in television history, I told my dad I couldn’t wait to find out if Captain Picard was going to be rescued from the Borg. It turns out his boss was planning a huge viewing party for the second part of “The Best of Both Worlds” and my dad brought me along. It was an amazing event and the first time I witnessed how Star Trek could bring people together from different walks of life simply to enjoy a great episode.

I’ve been a member of the Star Trek Online team since 2008 and was here during pre-production, active production, launch, and every update since. You’ve seen me posting on the threads as the person that creates builds and patch notes, and I’ve been active in feedback threads on features that I’ve produced with the team. I’ve seen how the game has grown and changed over the years from a team management perspective and how the community has responded to those changes.

We have some fantastic plans in store for the game in 2015 and the same veteran team that brought you Delta Rising is here to execute those plans. I’m truly excited to share what this year has to offer, and instead of leaving it at that I’m going to tease a feature of our Season 10 update coming late this spring. With the launch of Season 10 Sector Space will be comprised of only three maps, with each one representing a quadrant that exists in STO. Yes, the sector walls are coming down! I hope that minor reveal will get you excited for the changes in the year to come, and I look forward to working with the team to achieve everything we have planned.

Live Long and Prosper,

Stephen Ricossa
Executive Producer
Star Trek Online


WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON STO'S NEW EXECUTIVE PRODUCER?
TELL US IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

WRITTEN BY CEHUS - CHRIS.HUDSON@UFPLANETS.COM
EDITED BY McCLINTOCK - UFP.CLINT@HACARI.COM

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20 Comments
Mon 02 Feb, 2015 8:02 PM
Wow... seems the STO EP chair gets vacated fairly frequently... It can't have already been a year D'Angelo was sitting in it... right?
Mon 02 Feb, 2015 8:14 PM
Originally Posted by Federation News Service

With the launch of Season 10 Sector Space will be comprised of only three maps, with each one representing a quadrant that exists in STO. Yes, the sector walls are coming down!
I remember this being talked about some three years back, before F2P. Nice to see one of Dan Stahl's pipe dreams actually come to fruition.
Mon 02 Feb, 2015 9:42 PM
Originally Posted by Federation News Service
the same veteran team that brought you Delta Rising is here to execute those plans.
I wonder if he understands thats what worries us.
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 2:03 AM
Shaka, when the walls fell..
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 8:50 AM
As i was say the other day to bill ash and kains i just had a funny feeling this was going to happen, thing is i can honestly say i can see this being a GOOD thing, Thoughts people??

http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/sta...detail/9065603
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 9:36 AM
Will be interesting to see how sector space will be with the reduction of maps to just 3 quadrant maps. I just hope that they get more bugs killed before actually making it live.
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 12:35 PM
I believe there is another thread discussing this already... but it's first thing in the morning, so I'll leave it to the Fab guys to find it Big Grin

Honestly this doesn't surprise me a whole lot. What does surprise me is how few times we've had turnover in this role since the beginning, especially for a game that has grown rather significantly over the past few years. Despite the shiny title, Executive Producers actually have very little to do in the overall say and direction of the title and more often simply get to be the bad guy when the publisher tells them to publish.

However, dude does seem enthusiastic, and is actually telling us about things that are in the pipeline, so hopefully the forum monkies and trolls don't quash that too quickly. It would be good to see a guy in the role who is simply so excited about what he's doing that he spills the beans all the time. Big Grin
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 12:51 PM
We can only hope for the best but always expect the worst.
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 1:19 PM
Meh, I always look for the best. It means I'm disappointed here and there, but honestly my disappointment about video game stuff is so very little, and look for the best in things that really matter.

It's so positive it's nauseating I'm sure, but its the way I work.
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 1:40 PM
Originally Posted by Code743
I remember this being talked about some three years back, before F2P. Nice to see one of Dan Stahl's pipe dreams actually come to fruition.
I sincerely hope they don't remove sector borders. For me I don't really care about it really but the potential bugs that they might introduce scares me. Excessive rubber banding from server overload, 5 min wait time to get into sector space, etc.

Cryptic: please fix the bugs from your last unimportant update before doing another unimportant update.
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 3:26 PM
I'd like to see a big map, but I hope it doesn't screw DOffing over.
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 3:57 PM
Rule 62: The flimsier the product, the higher the price.

When I read through the announcement, I couldn't help but picture someone standing at a podium wearing earmuffs. Anyone else? Despite all the fluff, it does not bode well when the EP does not even acknowledge that there are issues that need to be resolved. Apparently the new EP has learned the ways the dark side in marketing. At least Stahl would acknowledge some of the problems, even if he didn't fix them.

Originally Posted by Kains
I believe there is another thread discussing this already... but it's first thing in the morning, so I'll leave it to the Fab guys to find it Big Grin
:emoticon_ShiftyEyes
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 3:59 PM
Well, in my defense, even if I had found it there is jack I could do to fix it Smile

Mah bad.
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 4:14 PM
Originally Posted by Kains
Well, in my defense, even if I had found it there is jack I could do to fix it Smile

Mah bad.
Slacker! *notices rank* I mean.. uh... no problem sir! Wink

Edit: Use the report post thingy! It will not break! Oh wait, it broke. lol

Tue 03 Feb, 2015 5:51 PM
i dunno, gotta be more hope full, the last guy stank and screwed things last time he was in charge too
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 5:54 PM
Which one, Stahl or D'Angelo? I'd say Stahl's first run was better than his second, IMO. D'Angelo is just all bad juju. Mad
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 6:05 PM
Wait, there's a report icon?

And kudos on the Aladin reference. With a little one at home Disney has become my go to when I need a moment's peace Smile

As for the topic at hand, I rather liked Stahl: My impression of him was that he was honestly trying to make the best of bad situations, and I can appreciate that.

Never got to talk to D'Angelo, meaning the only impression I have is the occasional update he posted and the state of his work.

Which I'll leave the record speak for itself Smile
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 6:13 PM
D'Angelo sucks Stahl was cool, and nice to talk to, he was always really optimistic and looked forward to showing what they were doing, D'Angelo wanted to hide it all
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 7:53 PM
Hey guys, keep in mind this is the person who promised us Scants. I think we're in good hands.

D'Angelo sucks Stahl was cool, and nice to talk to, he was always really optimistic and looked forward to showing what they were doing, D'Angelo wanted to hide it all
The problem with Stahl was, he often made promises or released images of things that were supposedly happening but never materialized. One example off the top of my head is the race specific com-badges. Don't get me wrong: Nice guy, but he perhaps shared too much.

D'Angelo's first stint as EP, he handled the F2P transition and had to deal with limited time, resources (IE: Money), and a small staff. I honestly think he didn't do a terrible job with that transition. It gave the game a fresh breath of life, that's for sure.

As for this past year, despite all of the issues with DR and the 5th anniversary, they are still adding content to a title I enjoy, so *shrug* could be worse.
Tue 03 Feb, 2015 8:06 PM
Oh I get it, any time you draw back the curtain of development you run the risk of showing off something that ends up being a dead end. All sorts of hidden issues can crop up: Time for development/deployment, risk versus reward, heck even copyright issues, and thats not even discussing possible code issues.

Folks who know me know I work for some of the kings of keeping secrets, and they are very anal about it. So I totally get the business model, and know it does work, but personally I'd far rather see people who are excited and enthusiastic about their work and want to show it off, even if it sometimes doesn't work out.