[Mikester92]

DEFENSE SECRETARY'S OPENING

Exactly half of the categories in September's Community Survey were related to our gaming divisions; a strong indication that no matter how old our community gets, Star Trek gaming continues to be the single strongest and arguably most important aspect to the UFP.

I say this because of the 38 CL4 and CL5 volunteers that dedicated themselves to the UFP, about 65% are gaming volunteers. In acknowledging this fact, I must first and foremost extend a heartfelt thank you on behalf of FEO for all the hard work these officers continue to do; I am personally proud to oversee such a passionate and engaging area of the UFP.

The results and written content within the survey come from equally passionate members of the community. Some of what was said was very personal, but still entirely welcomed by myself and Starfleet Command. The most honest and blunt feedback is sometimes the best feedback.

It was a natural choice for me that my first log be a joint log, with Starfleet Command, on the individual feedback given in September's survey. Our division leaders did an excellent job of responding in detail to each piece of anonymous feedback related to their separate areas.

This particular log presents everyone with the perfect opportunity to think up a few follow-up questions for the open UFP community meeting this Friday. That said, feel free to still comment below should you have anything to say!

My second log, which is due to be released in October, will detail more my personal agenda and goals for the rest of the year onto 2015. But before we can get to that, lets start with the division feedback. Included before is the approval rating for each division:

Starfleet Operations 28% - Strongly Approve 37% - Approve 33% - Neutral 1% - Disapprove 2% - Strongly Disapprove	House of Kular 17% - Strongly Approve 21% - Approve 56% - Neutral 5% - Disapprove 1% - Strongly Disapprove
Elite Strike Force 12% - Strongly Approve 18% - Approve 65% - Neutral 2% - Disapprove 4% - Strongly Disapprove	Starfleet Reserves 13% - Strongly Approve 22% - Approve 64% - Neutral 1.5% - Disapprove 1.5% - Strongly Disapprove
Community Events 18% - Strongly Approve 35% - Approve 42% - Neutral 5% - Disapprove 2% - Strongly Disapprove

STARFLEET OPERATIONS FEEDBACK
Responses by SFO Command Staff

Do not see the need for two executive officers, and if so title could be as seen on screen CO,XO,2nd Officer.

Three of Seven: SFO is a fairly large division, two XOs gives a benefit to day to day running, with one more focused on staff affairs and the other on more logistical areas. While I see the concern here, it does give an overall benefit to the workload and what we can come up with to help improve the ingame experience of others. On the subject of the position naming, that could make it a little more clear to others in some fashion, I can see the thinking behind this idea and worth investigating

NeoTrident: I believe the optimal way to decide whom is XO and whom is 2nd Officer would be a Kirk/Spock lirpa battle!

Wixiban: A Kirk/Spock battle is not necessary as I would win that - If you were going to reduce to either 1 XO or a first and second officer then Neo has seniority as he has been the position longer.

Staff is efficient and enthusiastic!

Three of Seven: Enthusiasm! What is this madness, I will only stand for efficiency! On a serious note, thank you, they are always working hard to help others.

NeoTrident: Inefficiency has dire consequences with Three around...

Das ist gud ja

Three of Seven: Ja!

Three, Wixiban and NeoTrident run a tight ship, and I cannot fault them for anything.

Three of Seven: The Miranda bridge is a tight squeeze, Wixi and Neo keep asking for a new ship and more room, but I do not wish to mothball my beloved Miranda! Thanks for the kind words

NeoTrident: On the plus side, I got the top bunk!

I find that most if not all of the information that Starfleet Operations posts is information that has been posted before on the site at some point by other users, I'd like to see more original ideas and content.

Three of Seven: Many of our current and upcoming guides are designed to put a lot of information in one place and we hope this provides content which people can get some use out of. We try not to repeat content and where possible, give new ideas and content to our members.

NeoTrident: Without knowing specific examples it is difficult to understand which information is duplicated however if this is in regards to official posts then this is a natural cycle, as people move on and information becomes outdated new posts are made to keep everything up to date.

Wixiban: As Mentioned above the duplication is not about repeating previous info but bringing details upto date that reflect any changes in game.

I see SFO running like a well oiled machine. Frequent activities, and always people around to do stuff.

Three of Seven: Many thank yous for the comment, we try to keep a positive view and share this with others, if we can do our job in an uplifting manner, we can only hope it spreads to others!

Despite being unaffiliated with this division my experience and interaction with its command staff has been positive. The command staff are approachable and friendly - a real cornerstone of this community.

Three of Seven: Thank you for your kind words, we always make sure to show respect to those around us if they have a question, leave feedback or just have some general chatter with us, we are on hand to assist!

I have no affiliation with this department, so I have no comment.

Three of Seven: If you are ever think of anything, please get in touch

I think the way the way the fleets are being provisioned is embarrassingly bad. I've moved my characters between all three fleets and I have thousands and thousands of fleet marks I'll never, ever, be able to spend because of of the way the leadership is handling the situation. Who cares if we have 5,000 of x type of provision? Run the projects. Let us spend our marks and generate fleet credits. If you use the multi-clanning allowance and look at what other, larger, fleets are doing, you'll see just how poorly administered SFO is.

Three of Seven: To answer this point, other holdings projects require more than just marks, they require Dilithium and special Provisions, so someone is going to end up out of pocket and might not be able to donate their marks. To help people in getting rid of fleet marks, we are making use of the special project which Cryptic added for them to be donated. While it doesn't give the same return, it does ensure that some members don't end up out of pocket and that there is always enough space to donate marks. For anything other than marks, our 2nd and 3rd fleets are always in need of duty officers, dilithium and commodities!

NeoTrident: This is an unfortunate result of the Fleet System within STO; until such a time where Doffs, Dilithium, Commodities, Materials and all other requirements can be earned in as equal and fast manner as Fleet Marks we will all have thousands of Fleet Marks to burn. Fleet Marks can only be entered as fast as projects are filled and the projects need more than just Marks. As for multi-clanning, if we were to do so we would be in breach of our command agreement, however since you have done so could you please let us know the tips you have from those other fleets?

STO Ops is running very smoothly from the perspective of someone not serving as part of the command structure. There are also a lot of staff filling dual roles between Fed and KDF, I'd recommend that some of those positions be vacated so that others can step up to serve.

Three of Seven: Staffing wise, we generally leave that up to the individual member on what they apply for, if they feel they can hold a dual role then more power to them I say! We are always on the look out for eager members wishing to join and I suspect the same goes for the House of Kular, while I can't speak for them, I imagine they are to on the lookout.

NeoTrident: I would have to agree, however it is important to note that positions always need new volunteers to fill these roles.

Wixiban: Positions are advertised freely and for all to apply for.

More projects in game to donate marks, overall good job.

Three of Seven: We are trying to strike a balance that won’t leave members out of pocket and help the progression of our reserve fleets.

NeoTrident: Projects unfortunately need much more than just Marks, Marks just happen to be the easiest and cheapest to acquire and as they are not used elsewhere the easiest to donate.

Well run, good officers, who keep things running etc.

Three of Seven: Thank you, we certainly could do most of what we do without our officers and members who support us!

The division is run great from the CO down. All the staff are friendly and helpful.

Three of Seven: That’s great news to hear and something that makes me proud to work with SFO.

NeoTrident: Glad to hear it!

Could use more varied events but seems to be going well

Three of Seven: We shall look into addressing this in the near future.

NeoTrident: This something that we have picked up on and we will be addressing this shortly, I currently have a list of non-standard STO activities that ATLs can use, it needs some tweaks, extra randomness and maybe a few TOS miniskirts and its good to go.

If this is the division that handles the Star bases, they need to be removed, effective immediately. For a fleet that claims to be operating at capacity, it is difficult to comprehend why it is always behind other fleets whenever a new holding, project, etc., becomes available. While other fleets are giving away free access to their star bases, UFP is sadly far behind and constantly playing catch up in obtaining the latest and greatest gear. A prime example of this was when UFP members where going to the NOP channel to obtain the new tactical consoles. These consoles were available on other fleets, not days, but weeks ahead of UFP. There is a serious need for someone with a true understanding of how best to allocate the fleet’s resources and properly manage its holdings.

Three of Seven: I will start by saying no one is getting fired, instead we will try to address the concerns people have. We are also wanting to promote the progression of our reserve bases as well, which are always in need of Dilithium and Duty Officers, once the starbase over on those two is competitive, there will be less need for character switching and we can refocus. With regards to the consoles, I believe you are referring to the spire some months ago, there was a shift in focus due to a member poll, originally we started on the track for kits by an initial vote, then after new information regarding the tactical consoles, the direction was changed. But we didn’t provision these until the end so we could reach the top gear faster, while the situation wasn’t ideal, our members helped in getting the spire up to maximum tier regardless.

NeoTrident: Comparing ourselves to other fleets is never as black and white as one would think, other fleets may have a similar capacity but have far shorter or stricter inactivity rules or have minimum donation policies, forced raiding ect ect. At the end of the day the UFP is a far more relaxed and easygoing community and this is reflected in the in-game fleets, we are here for the community but even so we are never far behind the big guys in terms of progression.

Wixiban: These other big fleets like NoP get there as quick as possible because they let anyone join as long as they donate a minimum amount of contributions. You find they get to the top tier quickly because of this. We have a laid back attitude to contributions so anyone can contribute a little or a lot.

My main issue with SFO is it seems to be run by a child. Three holds grudges forever and will willfully ignore members that she thinks has wronged her in some way.

Three of Seven: To address this more directly, I will just leave you with a personal principle of mine; Life is too short to hold a grudge, people make mistakes, I accept that and will forgive them for it.

Very organized and run. Kudos to all staff and leaders for making not only me, but other members feel that we're apart of something great.

Three of Seven: Thank you to all of you, we hope to make all our members feel as welcome as possible, if there are any problems, please reach out to any member of our team!

NeoTrident: Well next time we have the survey lets get it from being part of something great to being part of something EPIC!

Yes I am happy

Three of Seven: I’m happy if you’re happy

they do a good job

Three of Seven: Thank you!

Erm yea....

Three of Seven: Indeed.

NeoTrident: Yeah!

I haven't dealt with the CO of SO although this is mostly because I haven't yet needed too, part of which would be down to the way it's run as I've never had an issue or really seen one, either in game or on the forum when it comes to SO.

Three of Seven: I’m glad to hear that you haven’t run into any issues anywhere within SFO, that is great news to hear! If you ever do run into any problems, then I or one of my officers will be on hand to assist.

NeoTrident: Excellent, even if you are not having issues don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have ideas or suggestions.

I love this fleet. Everyone is nice, helpful, and active. My only grip is not being able to trade in fleet marks on a regular basis. There's just not enough fleet mark projects when I'm on GMT -8 (pacific time).

Three of Seven: We currently have one officer to help assist with the holdings in the North American timezone, however we are investigating the possibility of adding to this. I am glad you find everyone to be nice and helpful, this is certainly what we aim to promote

SFO runs events pretty frequently, although there's a strong Euro-timezone bias. The schedule of STO fleet projects is maintained, although I'm doubtful it's optimal. I've never been able to spend all the Fleet Marks I earn, despite switching characters in and out of fleets based on open projects.

Three of Seven: We are always on the lookout for officers who can assist in other timezones, we are aware there are US and Asia members within the UFP and try to adjust accordingly. We want to make sure everyone can be included, not just members from Europe, if any member from any non-EU timezone is interested in becoming an officer, please get in touch!

NeoTrident: We have equal representation of event officers at the moment between EU and Non-EU, but we are always looking for volunteers so if you want to see more in your own time zone have a look at giving us a helping hand

Starfleet recently had a CO change, and again, my comment goes to the lack of visibility and access. We have a leader who isn't in the game and isn't on Teamspeak. We don't even have a 'vision statement', canned or thoughtful, for the direction he intends to take Starfleet Operations. Looking at the Head of Starfleet's forum activity over the last 3 months, I couldn't find a single STO-related post.

Three of Seven: I will just take this moment to clarify that the Head of Starfleet isn’t the same role as the CO of Starfleet Operations, the HoS oversees all tactical divisions, while I (CO of SFO) only watch over the Federation fleets within Star Trek Online. I can certainly look at getting an SFO vision statement written up.

There are probably issues that need to be addressed. Personally, I think that fleet members can't cash in their Marks, and events seem to have a Euro time-zone bias, despite the majority of the UFP's STO players being from North America. But not even a, "Hi, guys, I'm the new head of Starfleet..." message? No request for feedback? No visible attempt to get in touch with the game or its UFP players?

Three of Seven: We continue to look into the issue of marks, but we need to balance it against cost to members. With regards to events not being in North America, we are always willing and looking to take on new event officers from that area of the world so we can cover this effectively, if you are interested, please get in touch!

NeoTrident: We need everything else too not just Marks

Wixiban: As mentioned above in all the other questions about the fleet holdings and marks. Marks are the first thing to be filled in any project, the remainder of the items, Dil, Doffs, Provisions etc. still need to be filled - if these got filled as easily as the marks then queuing up loads of projects wouldn’t be an issue.

Command staff has grown complacent and is too satisfied with status quo. They don't seem to care about anything that happens outside of their clique or timezone. There should be more North American events and officers to queue projects for North American players. The guides are nice but having them instead of events seems counter-productive.

Three of Seven: Our officers who run events are welcome to volunteer to do guides but must still maintain their 1 event per week, we don't favour one over the other. As for staffing, we are always looking to cater for all timezones and do not discriminate based on location.

NeoTrident: Guides are done by staff willing to give a little extra back to the community, they are not completed at the expense of any other task, as for more events we currently have Away Team Leader and Battle Officer positions available, have a look and give us a hand.

Wixiban: Our event officers are volunteers, when a vacancy is advertised, it is open to the whole community. Currently we have hired one new officer based in NA. He has done amazing work so far, turning out more events then required.






HOUSE OF KULAR FEEDBACK
Responses by HoK Command Staff

I don't really know how the House of Kular is run.

The House of Kular is run in a very similar way to Starfleet Operations, with the CO & XO over seeing the planning and running of the divisions activities.
Below them is the Orion Syndicate Traders, who run the in-game fleet banks, to keep them both tidy and full of useful stuff, as well as get specific items for members from our Banks "Fleet Shop" tab, as a significant discount to the Exchange.
Next we have the Battle Master, who is responsible for the day to day running of the in-game fleet holdings and making sure member contributions are used in the most efficient way possible for the benefit of the whole Klingon player-base.
Finally we have the Battle Masters, they are HoKs front-line, and are responsible for the planning and running of events for the Klingon player-base.
If anyone every as any questions, feel free to PM a member of HoK staff either on the forums or in-game.

Strong approval for Nova and a few other's attempts to add vitality to a division that has been allowed to languish with zero attention or effort on behalf of the rest.

A nice sentiment for Nova, but a reminder that HoK has had trouble with staff activity, to which I am not immune.

4/10 would not play agen

Some more information would be helpful, then we know where we can improve.

There is very little activity by the HoK staff in regards to events or activities. If anything, I would say that the HoK is the smallest, least significant division in the gaming group, and is on the verge of near irrelevancy.

A harsh and sadly fair statement, unfortunately HoKs staff activity and numbers have been on a decline over the first half of this year due to a combination of reasons, including real life commitments.

I'm not directly exposed to HoK so I cannot rate adequately on it's leadership.

Ok, next question (I need humor before the depressing ones).

This division seems to have a serious leadership problem. With HoK leadership seemingly having only peripheral control of its own inactive staff.

Unfortunately I agree with this statement, in the past I have been too laid-back with staff activity. However jobs within the community are voluntary, as such any 'disciplinary' action for staff just leaves you with less staff, and finding enthusiastic people to replace them is harder then it should be

I have no affiliation with this department, so I have no comment, but there's one thing, the ego and the attitude of the CO need's to change.

I believe I know exactly who this is from, and would rather discuss this members behavior in private.

What, exactly, does Dodgers do? He's a very nice fellow. Our interactions have always been positive. But, outside of Friday PvP, what does he actually do? When was the last time he started a conversation in the HoK forum? When was the last time he publicly participated in...anything? Again, working faithfully behind the scenes is fantastic, but not at the expense of meaningful public participation.

A little harsh, but I can see how it can appear to some that a CO doesn't do too much. It is also fair to point out my public facing activity is not as good as it could be, this is something I would certainly like to improve upon where I can. But in recent months I have been busy sorting out some real life stuff, but am more settled now, so expect some improvement.

Great job with the last man standing tourney, I think it was a great idea!

Thank you, this is something I greatly enjoyed running and hope to see it continue to grow. Speaking of which the next Champion Standing Bat'leth Competition will be next month (October), expect to hear more about it in the coming weeks

No clue, not a member.

Why even pass along

Lack of leadership is clearly evident. Lack of events that are interesting or unique.

Blunt, but can't deny. The decline of HoKs event staff numbers have had a knock-on effect to the moral of the leadership, but the leadership is there. As for the events, we are always looking for new people who want to think up and run events, even if you only have an idea for an event pitch to a HoK staff member and we can try to make it work.

Not got a good overall appearance on the forums.

Something we are trying to improve upon, unfortunately not as many people visit the HoK area as well. Any ideas for threads let us know?

Should be an exact image of SFO, but nothing seems to be happening.

The job roles are the same, sadly less people play Klingons in general, this makes it a more difficult task at times. But we are always trying to improve this, and welcome any member of the community who think they can help to drop us a PM.

The division is run well, the lack of event staff and members that play KDF make their job a little harder.

Thank you, we try our best and hope to build the numbers back up as soon as we can.

I don't see a lot happening here

More info would be helpful, but yes activity does need to improve across the board.

Is there someone actually running this division? When I first joined this fleet I thought Ashley was the person in charge of HOK. He was the only person in TS promoting, marketing and discussing all things HOK. To be candid, Ashley should have been the person promoted to HOK XO and given a chance to shine. Who knows, maybe he could have been the one to bring life and excitement to the division. Instead he was denied and later promoted to ESF, where he is woefully out of his league, but that’s another issue for another day. As it stands now, I don’t know who the XO is and as for the CO, other than his weekly event, he is nonexistent.

As Nova said, this feels like a disguised attack on Ashley a bit. But Ashley is one of HoK shining stars that we could not live without, and am glad to have him in any role, as he does a great job across the community.
For the last part of it, yes we can always improve our public face, but we only have so many hours of the day.

HoK runs quietly and efficiently. Its amazing what good leadership can do, with a small fraction of the number of SFO. Just picture what SFO could do with good leadership?

Too kind, we do our best, but there is always room for improvement. As for SFO they have a larger load to deal with, and do it well.

It would be nice if there was more activity.

More activity is always good, both from a personal standpoint and the community in general.

I believe the energy is there, but I feel that Cryptic itself hampers this faction greatly. For being a step-child in STO, I feel the HoK folks do a great job.

We try our best, and it is true that what Cryptic gives us isn't always enough, that is why we need creative and enthusiastic people to join HoK and make as many interesting and fun events as we can.

they do a good job

Thank you, we try our best.

Not really a big KDF player so I pay little attention to HoK to be honest so don't have an opinion

We need more publicity then

HoK is great.

Thank you, we aim to be one of, if not 'the' best Klingon fleets in STO. Though there is always room for improvement.

I'm not sure if the hierarchy is such that HoK now eports to the SFO leader as well, but all the things that are going well in SFO are not going well in HoK. There aren't many events at all, regardless of time zone, and all projects on all holdings on both fleets are usually empty or locked. I'd have to say that there really isn't much of a House of Kular.

HoK doesn't report to SFO, but we do work closely on many things so as not to step on each others toes, and on the event front things are going better for SFO currently, somethings we are always trying to improve upon, but first we need new members who are interested in running events.

Same as the Federation faction. The Commanding Officer's interest seems to no longer be in his division. The Executive Officer doesn't seem to be around much. It seems like Klingon events are non-existant regardless of time zone.

Can't speak for SFO, but I am still very much interested in the division, but I am only human and don't want to play STO every single min of every day, I have college work to do as well. My Executive Officer also works for a living, so he to can't be around 24/7.
The events though do need a big improvement, but we first need new Battle Officers, so if any one feels they would like to try their hand at running Klingon events lets us know via PM and we will give you all the support you need.

In last few days we didnt hear much of the leaders, and if i wrote to somebody I nearly never got a answer.. But i m proud of the many big Projects we finished in the last years all together. :-)

The academic year has started in Scotland, and I have been busy getting settled into my new college course. But I always check my PMs and reply to them when I can (haven't received many lately). I am glad you are also proud of what we have completed in the past, and look forward to that we can complete together in the future.






ELITE STRIKE FORCE FEEDBACK
Responses by ESF Command Staff

I don't know how The Elite Strike Force is run either.

The Elite Strike Force (ESF) manual found here describes how ESF is run.

Dont see the need for a elite group of STFs to have there on division, a department with in SFO would have made more sense.

This seems like a personal opinion without any supporting documentation or evidence. We could refer this to the process which led to the creation of ESF if that is warrented. Also, everyone should keep in mind that ESF is cross-faction. If ESF is a "part" of SFO, that is a direct insult to HoK.

I do appreciate their attempts to aid other members in STFs. Do wish they would push for more North American participation.

We are attempting to add more content for the western hemisphere and I would encourage all those western hemisphere community members to help by being present on TS or becoming ATL, Battle officers or join ESF. As we are all volunteers, we need people to step up in all the time zones to have an increase in events when and where they are desired.

I have to put something serious in this one. ESF should go back to the way it was, as a sub-section in SFO and not it's own division.

Refer to the feedback given in the second quote.

Bill & Ashley have created a lot of fun, and work very hard to provide for the membership of this division. I have no complaints about this division.

We will continue to try and give the community what they want and appreciate all feedback so that we can adjust to best provide for the communities needs.

I see little of what the Elite Strike Force actually does, they are very rarely open about what they do, when they do post things it's rather hard to read due to the majority of posts being in broken english.

With regards to the comment about "broken english" I think it is very important to remember that English is not the first language of every member of this community. To make negative comments of this nature is quite inappropriate. As for what ESF does, nothing is hidden. The manual and forum threads are easily accessible to all community members and Intro to Ground and STF Wednesday and Sunday are posted on the events page.

From what I've seen with there Squad Leaders, I am very impressed. I love STF Wed/Sun. But would love to see ESF promote other eSTF/STF runs other than the Borg ones so to expose the rest of the community to these other eSTF/STFs.

We are seeing more and more of the non-Borg end game content being done at the events. Each team is free to decide which content they want to run. We will go with the majority, but it is sometimes impossible to make everybody happy.

ESF comes across as an extremely elitist, privileged group. I believe that this reflects badly on the community. With little to show and no truly unique events, I feel that this division should be folded into SFO.

I would have to ask for specifics in order to be able to address them directly. I would also counter that the only thing Elite is the name. Anyone is free to apply to join, but we do have minimum requirements to make it condusive to tackling the end game content.

ESF's mandate is to master and then teach the larger membership the skills needed to play end-game content. It is failing miserably. Bill's "Intro to Ground STFs", along with STF Wednesday and STF Sunday are centered on what I would consider "mid-game" content. It's so easy it can and has been solo'd. That's not mastery of the game. That's not teaching the larger membership what it needs to know. Then you have BlackOps, a clique within a clique. The last time I checked, their mandate was to give the larger membership a look at what was coming? When was the last time a ESF BlackOps Officer did that? When was the last post in the BlackOps child forum? Six months? Eight? Get with the program or get rid of the division. ESF, as it exists now, is merely a "boys club" with their own private TeamSpeak channel so they don't have to deal with the plebes in Battle Bridge.

I think this poster needs to remember that although they may have conquered all that STO has to offer and feel that the game is too easy, there are always people joining the community who are new to STO. To them, STFs can be quite a challenge and they are the ones we are dedicated to helping. These are designed to be 5 man missions indicating a team approach. The idea of soloing is against the team concept. I also have to assume they are referring only to space STFs as I am unaware of anybody soloing a ground elite STF. With regards to TS, if this poster is actually on TS I'm sure he/she would notice that ESF members spend the vast majority of their time in Battle Bridge and quite often are the only community members in Battle Bridge at all. Lastly if the poster has been monitoring the forum, ESF/Black Ops members have been extremely active in keeping the community up to date regarding developements in STO gameplay, new ships, new content, etc. Our threads concerning expansion 2/Delta rising have over 9000 views. This seems to certainly be providing content that the community finds useful based on activity level alone. Keeping the community updated and advised on this content is part of our mandate.

The group continues to flourish under Bill's leadership, I only wish I could join but the participation requirements are too high with my busy schedule.

Thank you

Act beyond their remit.

Without specifics I have no way to respond to this comment

Needs other end game content events, STFs are still fun.

Hopefully Cryptic will be providing us with lots of fun new end game content with expansion 2/delta rising. If so, we will definitly be incorporating it into our events.

Very well run, events are regular and officers approachable.

Thank you

The division is run well and having diversified into specialist areas like PvP and No Win Scenario as well as other end game STO content is great.

Thank you

More training things

Training is provided at each of our events as needed and you can always just poke or send a pm to any ESF member with any specific request or question. We can always put a team together for accolade runs and the like. Additionally if you have a specific idea for a training event we would love to hear from you and will try to make it happen.

This is the one division that makes the CL6s look good.

Between the dubious promotions and the extreme elitist-ism of Black Ops, I dont know where to start. So Ill just leave you with a few thoughts. If the mandate of ESF and Black Ops is to focus on end game content and NWS accolade hunting, in order to share what they know, then I just don’t see it. Other than the two weekly events, I just don't see the constantly pushing of the envelope with regards to builds, game mechanics and strategy or the passing on of experience to members of the community.

In all honestly, there are regular members of the fleet that are constantly helping with ship builds, dps charting, nws accolade hunting, as well as ise speed and dps runs. Some of these members even outrank most of ESF/Black Ops on independent DPS and Time charts. They have also engaged in more NWS accolade runs, having obtained the accolade for far more members than Black Ops.

Here's another example that speaks volumes to the mandate of ESF/Black Ops. Kindly look at the activity or lack thereof in their forums. These are the last five non-sticky threads in the Black Ops forums;

NO MORE ADAPTATION - LATEST POST BY JACKAL287 Wed 20 Aug, 2014, 12:59 AM
CURE SPACE - LATEST POST BY NEOTRIDENT Sat 15 Feb, 2014, 01:51 PM
STAR TREK ONLINE COMBAT LOG PARSER COMPARISON - LATEST POST BY DAUNKNOWNADMIN Mon 14 Oct, 2013, 09:36 AM
NUKARA REPUTATION COSTS / MARKS - LATEST POST BY THREE OF SEVEN Thu 11 Jul, 2013, 02:08 PM
ATTACK PATTERN BETA, CANNON SCATTER VOLLEY LATEST POST BY WIXIBAN Wed 03 Jul, 2013, 01:17 PM

Two posts in 2014 and three posts in 2013. Does Black Ops really need its own sub-division, does it really need its own sub-forums? How much can Black Ops really be sharing with the community, when 3 of their 5 most recent posts were posted over a year ago?

ESF members do not try to push or force any particular builds or style or level of play on community members as everyone has their own goals with regards to game play. DPS is one aspect of game play and certainly some players are attracted to achieving the highest DPS they possibly can. This is certainly not necessary to have fun playing the game and really only serves to promote bragging rights for the person trying to achieve ultimately high dps. It also tends to lead to hurt feelings and unfair criticism of casual players who have as much right to play and have fun as somebody at the top of the DPS charts. We individualize build advice based on the individual needs of the particular player. Keep in mind the UFP community is composed of all types of people and not everyone wants to be at the top of the DPS league or be involved in speed runs. In fact, most just want to relax and have fun. I think it's great that fleet members wnat to help eachother. After all, isn't that what we are all suppossed to do?

With regards to post in the forums, Black Ops members are constantly making post throughout the various forum threads. If they were restricted to only post in the Black Ops thread then there would be much more activity there, but that doesn't really seem practical. The Black Ops members will post general information throughout the forums and typically will restrict information more to direct Black Ops activity in the Black Ops thread.

Ok, ESF I have a huge problem with. In a game that is faceroll easy. Why does a fleet need subset of eliteists thats sole job is to faceroll content that is so stupidly easy. ESF really has no reason to exist. The ESF Americans were treated like crap by the greater leadership and it showed. They bailed. I say again. ESF needs to be disbanded, it has no point at this stage in STO other then to divide the membership and make them distrustful of ESF.

Again, not everyone is at the same level and what one person finds "faceroll...easy", others will find challenging. ESF is here to help those who can benefit from our help. For those who already know everything there is to know all I can ask is that you be willing to help other community members as well. With regards to the other comments, I would require specific details to reply to.

STF events, tutorials, and training. Top notch. I'm a casual player but when I go on this STF events led by ESF, I feel that I'm not only in good hands... but I always have a fun time. Kudos to all the team leaders who take us non-ESF casuals and lead us to victory.

Thank you very much and glad to hear you are having fun at the events, that's what we are all here for

they do an excellent job

Thank you!

The ESF seems to do its job. Members are expert enough at the higher-end content of the game, and capable of leading teams of players new to that content. Some members are quite good at it, able to not only run successful missions but teach some of the finer points to new and veteran players alike, and I really appreciate that.

The ESF seems to have taken a hit recently, though, with a noticeable drop in member activity in the North American time zones. I don't know what happened there, but I do know that ESF's commitment to training one of its recruits fell through, and that recruit didn't pass their entrance exam.

But the one part of ESF that's really driving my low rating is Black Ops. Until some of the UFP members (some in ESF, some not, none in Black Ops) started making successful attempts at the game's most difficult PvE scenario to date, I had never heard of the Black Ops group. Only then did they pick themselves up out of obscurity and make their own No Win Scenario efforts. Prior to that, their forum had been completely dead since February. In the 5 or 6 months between those bursts of activity, STO released Seasons 9 and 9.5. We had a new reputation system with completely new traits, ground combat gear, and space combat gear. We had new doffs, equipment, and ships from 3 new lockboxes. We had new queue missions, two of which arguably more difficult than 3 of the Borg STF missions. We had events - the Mirror Invasion, the Lohlunat Festival, the Shuttle Weekend, and now the Crystalline Cataclysm.

And not a single post about any of it from Black Ops. No guides. No one-liner pieces of advice on how to best make progress in the game. I don't know exactly what Black Ops is supposed to do, but as far as providing any benefit to the community, they're not doing it.

So I looked into it. Their self-definition: "Black Ops consists of some of the ESF’s most experienced members that operate in groups of 5 to seek out new challenges in Star Trek Online, like the No-Win Scenario and record runs."

Even if the description is accurate, I still don't know what Black Ops is supposed to do for the community. They apparently have no mandate. One would expect things like advice on equipment, tactics, bridge officer abilities, traits, duty officers, skill point allocations, specific mission details. Or maybe they'd be reporting back from a few days spent on the Tribble shard, explaining what's coming but not yet released. Or even after new content is released, guides & tips. One might certainly expect that if a serious question is asked on UFP forums in the supposed area of Black Ops expertise, a Black Ops answer would be supremely appreciated. But no - when a member asked about doing NWS on UFP forums, the leader of Black Ops had this flippant, unhelpful, and frankly offensive response: https://ufplanets.com/showthread.php...h-me-how-to-do

So they're doing nothing. But, it gets worse. The self-defining claim isn't accurate. There's exactly one widely accepted way to objectively measure a player's expertise in STO PvE. The DPS channel settings are used on the CombatLog text parser to establish time records for the team, and damage records for individuals, in both CSE and ISE STF missions. ISE DPS results are the metric by which entry to the DPS channels is granted. Only two of the Black Ops members are in the highest DPS channel, but there are six active members of UFP (some in ESF, some not) who out-damage every single Black Ops member. Eight members of UFP have faster ISE completion times than Black Ops' quickest finisher, and one famed UFP member actually holds the fastest ISE time ever, despite not being a member of Black Ops.

Obviously NWS is no longer the sole purview of Black Ops, but not only that, no Black Ops member is subscribed to the test-for-entry NWS channels. Four UFP members are, and regularly shred that mission to pieces.

Black Ops members are not nearly the best UFP has to offer, and they're certainly not offering anything to help us get better.

So if they're not doing anything to keep their status and perks, what did they do to earn them? Can anybody claim the same by just throwing together a group of five players to finish a few PvE queue missions? Can small cliques of gamers within UFP gather and be given:
1. Their own CL5 officer position?
2. Their own in-game chat channel?
3. Their own UFP TS server channel?
4. Forum commendations?
5. Special recognition that somehow places them above ESF?

It doesn't need to be expanded. It doesn't even need to be put in order or refocused. If they're not providing any benefit to the community, then they don't deserve any of these things, and ESF shouldn't subdivide itself. ESF needs to strengthen, and Black Ops, since they do no more and perhaps less than any other ESF member, seem well suited to bolster the ESF effort.

I think again the focus on DPS is misplaced. ESF serves to help and guide members of the community to achieve their individual desired goals. It seems that some members of the community feel that that has to equate to being at the top of the DPS chart. This is saddening and very limited in thought. There are many styles and levels of game play and to equate everything to DPS makes no sense. There also seems to be a thought that only space PVE is important. Ground events or PVP events are equally important, foundry, role play, crafting, everyone should be free to do what they enjoy. A close-minded or restricted approach to what members should do or strive for in game play is not good for the community. And as mentioned previously, Black Ops and ESF members post in other forums just as community members post in ESF forums. There are contributions from ESF and Black Ops members throughout the STO forums. And Black Ops has been doing a wonderful job of keeping us all updated on what's coming with Delta Rising. Again, over 9000 views speaks for it self.

I have no idea what purpose they serve. No content is too difficult to warrant positions dedicated to perfecting it. They don't seem to even do their jobs. The teamspeak channel isolates them from the commoners in the UFP. Shouldn't ESF be producing guides for content? Why is SFO beating them to it?

There was a thread on the ESF forums asking money for crafted goods. Money which went to their own pockets. Profiteering off the UFP membership i think is wrong. Don't we have trade forums?

So on the one had the content is too easy to warrent specilization, but on the other hand we should be producing guides (which we do btw) . With regards to team speak, as stated before you will most often find ESF members in Battle Bridge and we wish more members of the community would join us there, it's fun. I find the money comment funny. I assume you are speaking about EC as opposed to real money. And yes, there were community members crafting a rare product and offering to sell it for EC. EC are designed to buy items in STO and are not money. And I doubt they held a TR-116B to anyones head and made them pay EC for it. Sorry for the levity, but it's a game and anyone can buy or sell anything they want, that's part of playing the game. If you don't feel a deal is fair, you are under no obligation to "buy" that item.






STARFLEET RESERVES FEEDBACK
Responses by SFR Command Staff

I'M NOT GAY! Puny shallow bucket!

Thanks for the useful comment, Ben.

I think that despite reserves low staff count they have a nice fluid amount of events and activity.

Thanks, we will attempt to keep it, at it's current activity level.

Though I do not participate, I do love to see the activity level of this division.

Thank you. Maybe sometime you could join us on EF? If you like FPS that is

Command staff are passionate about their division. A wide variety of regular and unique events are held. Reserves has started to really strike a chord with the wider community.

Thank you for your feedback. Positive feedback is always welcomed within Reserves

There is no problem within reserves, just a shame that there is not that much attendance wise.

I am glad you don't have a problem. It is a shame about attendance, but sadly due to the age of our games, it's difficult to increase attendance. But we are working on it!

Little to no interaction. Assume they do a good job like all things at UFP

Thank you

I have no thoughts either way. I have no desire to play the older vaporware products and that style of RP doesn't interest me.

I am sorry to hear that. If by style of RP you are meaning RPG-X, we do have other forms of roleplay, which we play in all of our games. This ranges from voice acting (all be it questionable, but still fun), text roleplaying, and fleet roleplaying (Armada 2).

Had fun with some events, more tips on playing older games.

Hopefully, with some additional information/development within the Academy, we may be able to provide more information. We may also look into running "training" sessions, within each game, so that people who are interested, can learn from the tips and tactics we all use.

I have only attended a couple of reserves events as my main focus is STO, but from what I see it is run well.

Thank you for at least attending some events, it is nice to see more STO players trying out Reserves games.

Could use more events and have more information on old games

We are recruiting more event staff, to increase event output as we speak. We do also provide additional installation instructions about each of our games, and also will be releasing several news stories - via FNS - about the older games for community member to read.

With what little I have had to do with the reserves it was a pleasant experience. Well run and no BS. Just like it should be.

Thank you, I am glad that you have enjoyed your time within Reserves, we will do our best to keep it up.

I believe for the limited amount of members with the game, this division does well. The limit or difficult for entry due to the age of the games, does make this tough on the staff. Perhaps more ways to expand this division's games would help bring life back Not necessarily 'official star trek games' but perhaps new games that are modded to 'feel' or 'look' like Star Trek games. Otherwise, this is a dying division imho.

Thank you for giving us your honest opinion, and comment on how to improve our division. We are aiming to get more popular Star Trek mods integrated into Reserves, similar to what we have done with Armada 3 - although, there aren't that many popular Star Trek mods out there (at least for non-Trek games). That being said, we are always happy to receive any suggestions/comments on what mods to get into Reserves. I can assure you, that Reserves will always be very much alive, but we are restricted because of the difficulty in obtaining the classic Trek games.

A bit slow on holding mission, but it is the reserve. You don't expect premium development or premium characters there.

I think you may have Starfleet Reserves mixed up with the in-game STO Reserve fleets. Starfleet Reserves deals with classic Star Trek gaming, including (but not limited) Bridge Commander, and Armada 2. Thank you fro commenting though






EVENTS FEEDBACK
Responses by Starfleet Command

European time zones are well supported, and efforts have been made to regularly stifle events in other time zones. Difficult to call it a world wide community when only a key set of time zones are welcome.

A number of divisions are working hard to create more events and are always on the lookout for staff who can fill a role in another timezone. Where possible many events are also held in the evenings by EU staff to try and pull in as many other members as possible from other timezones.

Very do. Much busy. Wow

Thank you. Much praise. Wow.

There are often plenty of events, both for retro-gamers and STO gamers alike. Although, as mentioned previously, not many Klingon dedicated events.

Dodgers: Our Klingon division, the House of Kular, is looking to take on new event staff to help to alleviate this problem. Thank you for your feedback on this matter and we hope it can be addressed in the near future. The decline in numbers of Klingon events officers has been an unfortunate one, however we are always looking for new and interested members to step-up and try their hand at being a HoK Battle Officer. Your experience level doesn’t matter to us, as long as you are actively interested in Klingon gameplay, we would like to hear from you, and give you all the support you need to host events for your fellow Klingon players.

It would be nice if there were more fleetwide events that happened a bit later in Europe so the players in North America could attend
Could use more events in other timezones.

NeoTrident: Due to “wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff” we cannot always put on events where all timezones can attend, however a number of divisions are aware we need more timezone coverage and are always looking for members willing to help out, regardless of where they are from in the world.

There could always be more events spanning time zones seeing as we are an international community. I would suggest focusing on timezones with the majority of players (London, Eastern, Pacific) and use Bridge Officers of these time zones to manage them.

Three of Seven: All divisions welcome any new applications from other timezones to help address this,we welcome any and all candidates.

Many events run daily which cater to the entirety of the community.

Three of Seven: Thank you for your kind words, we still strive to make improvements to these events.

The only events I take part in are Reserves events, I have no problem with the Reservess events I just wish there could be more people attending it

Adster94: I am very glad that you are enjoying have events. We do the best we can to advertise the events, but sadly due to the age of the games, it is very difficult to get the games without having to pay a hefty fee. This, amongst other reasons including most of the community are here for STO and the trouble people have installing the games, prevents us from increasing the number of players that attend events.

Too much emphasis on elite content. Beginners events or meetups that do NOT require Teamspeak would be nice (I can't run it.) Also, less of those two words: "Geared Only." Can we possibly define what 'geared' is? How geared does one have to be to be considered geared?

Three of Seven: Often leveling events end up with a poor turn out and generally there is a greater call for the Elite side in order to get marks however it is rare that gear is a consideration in event participation. TeamSpeak is often cited as a requirement due to it being easier for officers to communicate with participants to teach them or assign them to a team and it’s also a great way to meet other people. If you are struggling to run TeamSpeak, it could be possible to use our support centre on the forums to see if any technical help can be provided. We can look at some events which don’t involve TeamSpeak, that will be down to the individual officer.

Static events have their time and place, but that is all we really seem to have. SFO Away Team Leaders and HoK Battle Masters should be continuingly pushed to do better and more innovative events. Currently, all they do are things that I already to, by myself, or with other Community Members. I don't need an "event" for that.

Three of Seven: This is a point that we will be strongly looking into improving, unique ideas, the problem that this often results in is a small number of members turning up to these types of events. The general events are often more of a way to meet up with new people and getting to know each other better. If anyone in the community has idea for events, don’t be shy, let us know and we can try them out.

Still need to participate. Hopefully my work schedule will allow it soon.

Three of Seven: Hope you can make it one day!

I have been very pleased to see the frequency and time distribution of events increase since the last UFPAC, good job!

Three of Seven: We hope to continue to go from strength to strength!

Have not participated in any events yet.

Three of Seven: Hopefully you will get a chance one day, if there is anything preventing you, please get in touch with an officer or your councillor to help.

The organizers are friendly, and it's easy to participate. I still feel confused about what's going on, though I'm not sure whether it's reasonable for me to expect some sort of tutoring.

Dodgers: All event organizers aim to be friendly, and it good to see it showing through. As for tutoring, don’t be afraid to ask about anything your not sure about, all staff are happy to pass on their knowledge, there is also always the Help & Tips forum to ask for help.

Same thing every week, even festivals are the same events with the festival name put in front of it.

Three of Seven: The limitations of various games make it hard to create something vastly different from the other, while officers try for festivals, there often isn’t much to work with. If you have ideas on what you would like to see, please contact an officer and hopefully they can work with you to implement this idea.

More verity would be nice.

Three of Seven: An issue we are continuing to look into, you can expect to see something on this fairly shortly so stay tuned!

Events are frequent and fun.

Three of Seven: Glad you enjoy them, we shall keep them coming!

Events are turned out as often as they can be. SFO & HoK have both can have issues with events thought no fault of their own. When STO has a lull in activity either by player or content, the same old events don't get as much attendance and so can dishearten event officers. When the new stuff arrives the old members come back and things pick up again for a few months. It's swings and roundabouts. But overall events are good.

Three of Seven: We try to make sure our event officers aren’t disheartened by a lack of attendance to either the same type of event or something new. Just giving the chance for the community to take part is all we ask, we hope that all events can be well attended all the time, but at the end of the day, if just one member attends and walks away happy, that can be considered a success.

Could use more creativity but the frequency and the way they are run is good

Three of Seven: We continue to look into enhancing our creativity, and welcome all suggestion for event ideas.

It is because of the frequency and quality of your events, that I have chosen to multi-clan in order to find a more active and friendly fleet. Let’ just leave it at that, it’s getting late.

Three of Seven: Sorry to hear that you are having a negative experience, if there is something you have a specific issue that we can resolve, please get in touch.

This is kind of a mixed bag really. The "fun" events are generally ignored by the membership as they dont progress there characters. And the boring grinder events have huge turnout. No fault of any of the leadership, but STO is a mindless treadmill of grinding and thats the type of player it attracts.

Three of Seven: STO does have many endgame queued missions that most people will want to play, however we hope that our events can give members other people to hang out with, but also to get them through the grind. We also want to offer those fun events just for those who want to play around, we hope that we can work towards striking the right balance between these two.

There were a several events scheduled when i was active. However, several times although i registered to participate and was online at the event time. There was no call or information ingame concerning the start of the event or the way we going to organise or progress. If the event was cancelled for any reason there should be some sort of announcement ingame if not some sort of call for anyone interested should be made across all channels.

Three of Seven: There is often a call within the ingame chat channel for STO called {UFP-UFPK}, as well as a gathering on TeamSpeak. The RSVP system only allows an officer to get an idea of how many people are going to be able to attend and where possible, a cancellation notice will be posted in game and in the forum chatbox on occasion. Also just incase there may be confusion bare in mind that our event times are GMT and as such would need to be translated into other timezones.

The amount of events is incredible and kudos to all who plan and execute them. Certainly not an easy thing.

Three of Seven: Thank you for the kind words, our officers work hard to ensure others get as much enjoyment as possible out of the events that they host.

the events are always alot of fun

Three of Seven: Glad you have fun at our events!

Don't attend enough events to comment.

Three of Seven: Hopefully an event will one day catch your eye, if there is something you would like to see, please get in touch with one of our division officers.

I love the events that we put on here, there is always an STF Wednesday for beginners and the STF's at the weekend, same with PVP, the RPer's have their events too, there is always something to do. Add to that the quiz nights, UFPAC, it's keeps this place fun.

Three of Seven: We are always trying to make sure there is something for everyone to take part in and are happy to hear that these efforts have paid off with thoughtful words like these.

I usually run the weekly events like Friday PvP and STF Wednesdays. I've even recently (if I'm available) joining in on the T1 pvp on Thursdays. It's all fun, but it's all the same people. I don't know how but it would be nice to get others involved.

Three of Seven: We are always looking to try to get people involved with events through in game promotion and on TeamSpeak but often issues come up with some members still at work or not interested in events that involve lower level ships and gear.

Strictly speaking of STO events here, there's a strong focus of STF and SFO events in the Euro time zones. HoK activity is low all day long. Quality, however, is great. ATLs know what they're doing and make things fun, usually despite whatever obstacles any given situation presents.

Three of Seven: Event timezone is something we continue to work on and HoK continues to be on the lookout for anyone who is interested in joining the ranks to help make events fun for everyone.

I have not seen much "teaching" events. I would like those and I might take part sometimes. You can always learn. Nobody knows everything. The game has too much in it. I'm not so much into "elite". I like fun and doing those easy things and giving a hand to newbies would be great. Maybe doing those missions - if they are available for groups.

Ashley: Standard events can sometimes include some amount of teaching but there certainly is room to explore having additional teaching events for end game content and possibly general game mechanics. Additionally, ESF are willing to provide ingame training if you wish, similar events such as Intro to Ground would be possible, get in touch with an ESF officer to let them know what you would like to see.

Need moar stuffs!

Three of Seven: We will certainly keep trying to give more stuff!

[Jake Tyler]

Very interesting read, a fair few "personal" comments with axes to grind though, which is fair enough as it is all candid and welcomed feedback and gives each division some food for thought.

I think all staff members do an excellent job as they are giving up a lot of their spare time, being part of this myself in the past, i know exactly how that goes.

I wont comment on all feedback or i would have my old hat on and reply to every last one , but there seems to be a running theme regarding events in different timezones. My advice is, if the events arent there, then apply to be a Battle Officer or Away Team Leader and make those events happen

[Three of Seven]

I would like to thank people who took the time to write feedback and to Mikester for putting this together! I can say that a number of suggestion for SFO are already in the process of being addressed, on the subject of staffing, we look for people to come forward and volunteer, open community positions can be found here

If anyone has any further feedback for SFO, or any questions, please get in touch and we'll be happy to listen and take onboard any new ideas. Additionally, the feedback form is always available.

I am defiantly looking forward to what my colleagues can produce for their divisions out of this feedback

[Kerry Malone]

It's nice to see the feedback, although I hate to say that some of it is extremely negative - with no real recommendations for solutions. I especially found some of the ESF and HoK commentary to be overly harsh. These guys are all volunteers, and they're doing the best they can with what time they have available to them.

I would put out a challenge to anyone who thinks we can do better, to step up and help us do just that. We can always improve, but we need the help. Speaking as an Events Officer myself, I know HoK and SFO can use all the events planners/hosts they can get - especially in the American timezones.

Oh, and on one point that came across from ESF's feedback. I joined back in April, so I've been here less than six months. In that time, I've not only joined ESF, I've become a member of its staff. So I would be the first in line to dispute that it is an elitist faction of SFO, and an exclusive clique. If you want to be part of it - all you have to do is apply. Its that simple. The only difference is, is that you have to have been in UFP for 30 days, pass an interview to be accepted, then a membership exam - whereas the other divisions you just rock up and say "Hi". That's the big difference.

I think what I'm saying is, don't be put off by what you read here today - everyone has something to offer, and don't be afraid to step up and make yourself counted. I did, and I've never regretted it.

[Solace]

A very interesting community log. I can see the push for transparency is even greater in this log. I appreciate the comments of Three and she is a testament to the hard work herself and the her staff put into the community and its always nice to see such a large division being able to adapt and change to meet the needs of community.

Not to mention divisions like ESF which is the prestigious 'academy' of those members who excel at PVP and STF event queues. ESF has shown time and again that it too can bring out the best in people from its training procedures to shaping people into experts at STFs, builds, PVP etc. This could not be achieved without the work of people like 'The Kains' *tremble*

Least I forget that Bill and Ashley are monuments in the community much like SFO is, their always ready to hand out advice for any number of reasons. Without the hard work of Bill and Ashley ESF simply could not continue to evolve and keep molding and shaping members into the best of the best.

That being said the comments made about distinguishing HoS from SFO CO should be emphasized more in a forum post or other easy to access resource. This is especially true for newer members.

[Curzon Peers]

Thanks for the replies.

I can't help but agree with some of the comments made about ESF.
When it was originally formed from the old FSOG, Borg STFs WERE the end game content and getting the optionals was quite tough and generally only had a few minutes left on them, so members really were elite, and could be considered experts in the field. Now there are a lot of other end game queues which hampers the focus of the group, and the fact that getting optionals with many minutes to spare is trivial somewhat hampers their relevance, and makes the "elite" claim dubious. Hopefully the changes to difficulty will fix that a bit. I wouldn't say they should disband (A cross faction division does have some use), but I would like to see them step up a bit more in actually sharing their knowledge on the forums, and maybe they could expand their mandate on training new members by holding a few more of those intro to X events.

As for Black ops, I find the defense of them somewhat flaccid. Most of the advice given out on the forums are written by people not even in ESF at all and guides by those members outnumber guides written by Black ops or even ESF as a whole. I would also like to point out that it was mentioned that Black ops has been reporting on new content. So far I have seen Ashely and Bridger giving us new information at each release (along with others not in ESF) and Bridger is listed as your "Benchwarmer" Black Ops seems to be high profile since their members are mostly high ranking UFP members, not for anything they actually seem to do related to it. Again, maybe that will change with the difficulty changes, but I am less sure about that.

Remember we have folded a number of divisions/departments into others in the past couple of years to streamline leadership, so I'd just as soon see the ESF officers do what Black Ops (supposedly) does rather than have a separate entity.



As for HoK. I think it's lack of presence is mainly due to the population of the KDF faction as a whole. It's population is much lower, and even many Romulans seem to choose to join with the Federation. There isn't a whole lot HoK can do about that. Of course it still would be nice to see more of the events posted up sponsored by HoK rather than SFO, though since events tend to be cross faction, that is more of a formality related to the event posting.

Oh, and on one point that came across from ESF's feedback. I joined back in April, so I've been here less than six months. In that time, I've not only joined ESF, I've become a member of its staff. So I would be the first in line to dispute that it is an elitist faction of SFO, and an exclusive clique. If you want to be part of it - all you have to do is apply. Its that simple. The only difference is, is that you have to have been in UFP for 30 days, pass an interview to be accepted, then a membership exam - whereas the other divisions you just rock up and say "Hi". That's the big difference.

I am a former member and I can agree with that. I haven't seen any elitism from the group for the most part, so I assume it's confirmation bias. the fact the group is called ELITE Strike Force may have negative connotations for some (ie. the assumption that an elite group is elitist).

[Raylan]

It's nice to see that the feedback was taken seriously by some.

[Daedalus]

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback and to those of you who took the time to address all of it openly and honestly. I have been and continue to be impressed by the maturity displayed by our all volunteer staff, even when some of the feedback is very critical. I am equally disappointed about the number of comments that were effectively personal attacks upon other members. Although UFP leadership has expressed a desire to hear all feedback good or bad, I would hope that personal issues would be addressed using your chain of command first. There are other avenues to express your concerns in a constructive forum that might allow issues to be resolved more amicably. Don't bottle it up or hold it in, use your chain of command. All CL5 and higher staff have always been accommodating and approachable to me, even when I was infringing on their down time.

I have been critical of fleet provisioning in the past, but after speaking with command staff I have a much better appreciation for the difficulty involved in filling project requirements outside of marks. Everyone has marks. They are easy to earn, but hard to spend in mature fleets. The additional mark projects have been wildly successful, but in order for STO fleet holding to be the best, everyone must contribute more than just marks. Doffs, dil, and provisions are harder to earn but required in much higher numbers for many of the most significant projects. If you want those projects to advance, you must be willing to donate more than just marks!

I am saddened to see so many comments about ESF being elitist. I've only been with the UFP since 2012, but ESF staff have always been friendly toward me in every aspect, regardless of chat on TS or participation in events and I count many of them as my friends here in the UFP, even though I am not a member myself.

The KDF continues to remain the division where I spend most of my game time in STO. Depsite Cryptic's lackluster support of the faction, I do find that some of our best and most friendly players regularly fly KDF. Reading through the feedback makes me ache because I think we all know that the lower player population hurts not only our fleet, but the entire KDF faction in game. If you want to see the KDF begin to grow and expand, step up and apply for a Battle Officer position today. You need not be the most charming (or even shower), but if you'd like to make new friends and have fun doing it a Battle Officer gets those opportunities first.

Qa'pla!