Going to lump my event feedback and voyage change feedback into this one place. It will most likely not be seen by anyone but whatever.
1. The voyage event was...interesting. Like most people I figured things out little-by-little through trial and error as we kind of had to with no clear guidance, but for a trial run with zero stakes it was fine. It would have been good to have had access to more boosts so we could practice with them, I only got 2 and I accidentally used one while poking around but since it was a test run it would have been useful to have more boosts to test out.
2. I...am not a big fan of the new voyage interface. I do like being able to search for cards by name and I do like being able to select multiple skills to shrink the field during crew selection, but I REALLY do not like that the seat skill is automatically selected and cannot be de-selected, it has made staffing voyages much, much harder. If for example your voyage has MED for the gold skill and SCI for the silver skill and you want to find your best MED+SCI or SCI+MED card for a COM seat, we should be able to de-select COM so the options at the top are all strongest in MED and SCI. Having COM also be selected make s it more difficult to actually select for the skills we want.
3. I am curious how these events will utilize crew if they become a real event. I did not run into any concerns as I do not do Continuum Missions or Gauntlet anymore (unless I "have" to for something like this current Objective Event) and I have enough cards to run shuttles and voyages, but it sounds like a lot of people were unhappy at not having access to cards while they were on the event voyage and that should be addressed, either way. I think people were pretty unhappy that they did not know their cards were not going to be available.
-EDIT (forgot to mention this)-
4. Discord is great at a lot of things, but replacing a forum is not one of them. I run a Discord server for our fleet, a second one for a guild I run from a different game, and am a moderator on a few others. Discord is useful and powerful, but it is really, really bad at being a message board, information moves very fast and expecting everyone on Earth to be able to get the information they need to play your game from only Discord is unbelievably disappointing. It is a nice supplement to official communications but you KNOW we all log in to the game, you absolutely should be telling us things there (and here on this forum too).
There has been plenty of communication. At the start of the event, during the event answering questions, and during the issues after the event. It's just all happening on discord. They want to kill the forums. It's time to recognize that and move on. This is not where the staff is spending their time communicating with players anymore.
It costs money to keep the lights on, even a forum like this one has costs. My guess is that it probably dosnt cost much to keep the forum going, but since a lot of the playerbase use a free platform to talk about this game, the decision makers are clearly trying to “quietly” make the switch so that they can further reduce overhead costs.
People can complain all they want but if there is one constant about this game, through all the different ownerships, all the controversies and all of the B.S., one thing has remained constant; Show a effing profit.
The decision to close the doors to the forum began with Shan being unceremoniously laid off, probably by Ben under direction from the CO of TP. Either way, since Shan was fired the forum has gradually died on its own, the devs completely ignore it and one day very soon, you will see a url error when you try to visit the page.
The part-time forum mod, full-time complacency fairy that they put in place of shan should demonstrate to all of you just how much they care about you feeling like you were “communicated with”.
There has been plenty of communication. At the start of the event, during the event answering questions, and during the issues after the event. It's just all happening on discord. They want to kill the forums. It's time to recognize that and move on. This is not where the staff is spending their time communicating with players anymore.
It costs money to keep the lights on, even a forum like this one has costs. My guess is that it probably dosnt cost much to keep the forum going, but since a lot of the playerbase use a free platform to talk about this game, the decision makers are clearly trying to “quietly” make the switch so that they can further reduce overhead costs.
People can complain all they want but if there is one constant about this game, through all the different ownerships, all the controversies and all of the B.S., one thing has remained constant; Show a effing profit.
The decision to close the doors to the forum began with Shan being unceremoniously laid off, probably by Ben under direction from the CO of TP. Either way, since Shan was fired the forum has gradually died on its own, the devs completely ignore it and one day very soon, you will see a url error when you try to visit the page.
The part-time forum mod, full-time complacency fairy that they put in place of shan should demonstrate to all of you just how much they care about you feeling like you were “communicated with”.
Also they have a new game launched so I guess we can expect less "noise " on this one.
I do use Discord on a regular basis, but it is a much worse method of giving out information, if you actually want people to see it. It's just a continual flow of messages, very little structure, and it's very hard to actually go back and look at past information. Discord is great for chatting, the forums are much better for actually sharing information.
By all means, share the info on Discord. But if that's the only place you share it, don't be surprised if the majority of your players don't see it. Including most of the ones that are actually on Discord.
^ This
And/or most players dont want discord.
By cutting out the forums, you are cutting off the majority of players to interactive communication.
It takes a long time to scroll Discord, as mentioned, just a few lengthy running threads of banter. Very seldom can you find what you are looking for. It is a horrible form of communication to find information on actual topics or specific game areas.
And again…..most players do not want social media. And do not even know what discord is let alone know how to use it.
@STT Community may i suggest, Take a poll. Set up a poll through an in game link to the survey. Ask
1. how many players know what Discord is?
2. How many players want discord for official stt communication?
3. How many players would be willing to obtain another app on mobile strictly for game communications?
4. Possibly ask the age range of the player to help understand,
STTis played heavily by Trek fans of 50-60yrs old. This age range typically dislikes social media.
I do use Discord on a regular basis, but it is a much worse method of giving out information, if you actually want people to see it. It's just a continual flow of messages, very little structure, and it's very hard to actually go back and look at past information. Discord is great for chatting, the forums are much better for actually sharing information.
By all means, share the info on Discord. But if that's the only place you share it, don't be surprised if the majority of your players don't see it. Including most of the ones that are actually on Discord.
^ This
And/or most players dont want discord.
By cutting out the forums, you are cutting off the majority of players to interactive communication.
It takes a long time to scroll Discord, as mentioned, just a few lengthy running threads of banter. Very seldom can you find what you are looking for. It is a horrible form of communication to find information on actual topics or specific game areas.
Gawd, I hate Discord. I had to use it for work some years ago, and I couldn't understand then why it was better than just sending emails (or creating a forum... ahem). And it still bites. It's just a mess, imo. Here, I know exactly where to go to find information, everything is neatly organized, and mostly, I don't have to deal with that awful interface. 🤢🤮
Discord has its uses, but the more users are on there, the more unmanageable it gets. For a fleet (max of 50) it works pretty well for things like coordinating boss battles, soliciting advice from other players, or just chatting. Once you've got the entire player base on one server it's nigh-on impossible to keep up with, it just becomes a mess with so many simultaneous conversations. Anything that's actually useful becomes lost in the noise.
Comments
The person probably isn’t working when the main office isn’t.
There is no "main office". And if there is, it's probably in Europe too. Ben and Joe are the only full time employees based in the US
1. The voyage event was...interesting. Like most people I figured things out little-by-little through trial and error as we kind of had to with no clear guidance, but for a trial run with zero stakes it was fine. It would have been good to have had access to more boosts so we could practice with them, I only got 2 and I accidentally used one while poking around but since it was a test run it would have been useful to have more boosts to test out.
2. I...am not a big fan of the new voyage interface. I do like being able to search for cards by name and I do like being able to select multiple skills to shrink the field during crew selection, but I REALLY do not like that the seat skill is automatically selected and cannot be de-selected, it has made staffing voyages much, much harder. If for example your voyage has MED for the gold skill and SCI for the silver skill and you want to find your best MED+SCI or SCI+MED card for a COM seat, we should be able to de-select COM so the options at the top are all strongest in MED and SCI. Having COM also be selected make s it more difficult to actually select for the skills we want.
3. I am curious how these events will utilize crew if they become a real event. I did not run into any concerns as I do not do Continuum Missions or Gauntlet anymore (unless I "have" to for something like this current Objective Event) and I have enough cards to run shuttles and voyages, but it sounds like a lot of people were unhappy at not having access to cards while they were on the event voyage and that should be addressed, either way. I think people were pretty unhappy that they did not know their cards were not going to be available.
-EDIT (forgot to mention this)-
4. Discord is great at a lot of things, but replacing a forum is not one of them. I run a Discord server for our fleet, a second one for a guild I run from a different game, and am a moderator on a few others. Discord is useful and powerful, but it is really, really bad at being a message board, information moves very fast and expecting everyone on Earth to be able to get the information they need to play your game from only Discord is unbelievably disappointing. It is a nice supplement to official communications but you KNOW we all log in to the game, you absolutely should be telling us things there (and here on this forum too).
It costs money to keep the lights on, even a forum like this one has costs. My guess is that it probably dosnt cost much to keep the forum going, but since a lot of the playerbase use a free platform to talk about this game, the decision makers are clearly trying to “quietly” make the switch so that they can further reduce overhead costs.
People can complain all they want but if there is one constant about this game, through all the different ownerships, all the controversies and all of the B.S., one thing has remained constant; Show a effing profit.
The decision to close the doors to the forum began with Shan being unceremoniously laid off, probably by Ben under direction from the CO of TP. Either way, since Shan was fired the forum has gradually died on its own, the devs completely ignore it and one day very soon, you will see a url error when you try to visit the page.
The part-time forum mod, full-time complacency fairy that they put in place of shan should demonstrate to all of you just how much they care about you feeling like you were “communicated with”.
Also they have a new game launched so I guess we can expect less "noise " on this one.
^ This
And/or most players dont want discord.
By cutting out the forums, you are cutting off the majority of players to interactive communication.
It takes a long time to scroll Discord, as mentioned, just a few lengthy running threads of banter. Very seldom can you find what you are looking for. It is a horrible form of communication to find information on actual topics or specific game areas.
And again…..most players do not want social media. And do not even know what discord is let alone know how to use it.
@STT Community may i suggest, Take a poll. Set up a poll through an in game link to the survey. Ask
1. how many players know what Discord is?
2. How many players want discord for official stt communication?
3. How many players would be willing to obtain another app on mobile strictly for game communications?
4. Possibly ask the age range of the player to help understand,
STTis played heavily by Trek fans of 50-60yrs old. This age range typically dislikes social media.
Gawd, I hate Discord. I had to use it for work some years ago, and I couldn't understand then why it was better than just sending emails (or creating a forum... ahem). And it still bites. It's just a mess, imo. Here, I know exactly where to go to find information, everything is neatly organized, and mostly, I don't have to deal with that awful interface. 🤢🤮