Flatfingers Signing In!

[Flatfingers]

Hey, all.

It's great to see Star Trek Online rising from the ashes once more. Bravo to Cryptic for taking this on, and here's hoping this time is the charm!

Some of you will remember me from the late lamented STOnet forums; others have yet to experience the unique charms of my brutally long-winded design theory posts.

I'll probably be taking care of that soon. :) Meantime, hello!

--Flatfingers

[Jazzaiz]

Hiya and welcome to the community....which is about an hour old...

* Jazzaiz' shifty eyes looks from side to side*


:D

[Marcellus]

Hey Flatfingers! Good to see you again! I really missed reading and discussing your articles!

[AaronH]

Hey Flatfingers, good to see you again.

[Warrior4Hire]

Flatfingers! Good to see you again, when's the ST-Online.net reunion thread? :P

[Flatfingers]

Hey, gang. It's nice to see you folks again, too.

One of the questions I've just realized that I'm facing is whether to resurrect old posts from the STOnet forum. For the most part I'm thinking no, that sounds a little lazy. On the other hand, the questions I raised in those design essays still stand -- so maybe they're worth airing again, and why should I completely rewrite them?

For now I expect I'll mostly be testing the waters here with short new comments, but I'm curious to hear what you think about this question. Any of my old stuff worth repackaging here, and would it be rude to do so?

--Flatfingers

[Warrior4Hire]

Those were insanely well-written and well-thought-out essays, Flatfingers, but they may not necessarily apply yet for Cryptic's version of STO.

For one, these forums are scorching with everyone getting settled in, and two, two weeks' wait for more info and ingame footage isn't much, so why not wait until we have a bit more info?

[Commander_Daedelus]

nice to see you again Flatfingers, your posts over at STO.net were always well thought out and great to read. I look forward to your insight once again

[RogueEnterprise]

Hey again, Flatfingers! Looking forward to reading some of your awesome posts, just like back in the good ol' days on startrek-online.net. =)

[Flatfingers]

Hey, gang. Thanks for the words of encouragement.

Warrior, I definitely don't plan on cranking out any more major design essays until I know more about the specifics of Cryptic's version of STO! Not much point in babbling at great length until we've got something worth babbling about. :)

My first goal here while reconnecting with my fellow fans of more-than-just-another-conventional-MMORPG will be to get spelled out in specific words the definite features of Cryptic's Star Trek Online. Once we have that, then we can think about essays that explore the unknown bits.

Honestly, I suspect that Cryptic has spent so much time on STO in "silent running" mode that there's little point in any of us gamers offering any meaningful design suggestions. I also don't know how much of a "not-invented-here" attitude Cryptic has.

Once those things become more clear, I may or may not have some detailed comments. We'll see.

For now, it's just great to hook back up with folks who also want to see a great Star Trek MMORPG. Onward!

--Flatfingers

[Sherp]

Good to see you again, Flatfingers. /salute

[Noonien]

Big fan of your work Flatfingers, read every one of your posts and theories on STOnet. It's too bad that the site closed down and all of your work was more or less lost for everyone else, but they definately weren't a waste of time, I was inspired by the level of detail put into your thoughts on the subjects. :cool:

Hopefully I'll be taking your class at Starfleet Academy one day. Until then looking forward to your contributions to the community with great anticipation. :)

[Borek]

Hello Flatfingers!

[Flatfingers]

Hey, gang!

Noonien, thanks for the kind words. I had a lot of fun working out those design concepts, and it's great to hear that you enjoyed them.

As it turns out, when I heard that STOnet was going dark, I spent some time going through it to make copies of all my more detailed posts that I didn't already have copies of. (I got burned before by Sony simply deleting huge chunks of its official SWG forum, so now I tend to stash local copies of the essays I spend serious time on.)

In addition to a bunch of other game design topics, all of my Perpetual-mode Star Trek Online essays (http://flatfingers-theory.blogspot.com/search/label/Star%20Trek%20Online) are now available on my game design blog, Theory by Flatfingers (http://flatfingers-theory.blogspot.com/). If there were some ideas of mine that you enjoyed reading, they're now safely encased in a static warp shell over there for your continued reading pleasure.

Whether or not I'm able to add to those essays with some design ideas for Cryptic's version of Star Trek Online will depend on Cryptic. If they release some specific feature plans, and seem open to suggestions, and it's not too late for design suggestions that can add meaningful value, then I might have one or two additional things to say. :)

Here's hoping!

--Flatfingers

[HyorD]

Great to have you with us, Flatfingers; I'll have to check out that blog out yours!

[Athos]

Flatfingers! Great to see that you made it on...not that I had any doubts that you would show up. Welcome!