Engineering Report - May 07, 2010

[dstahl]

For more information about Engineering Reports, see the "What are Engineering Reports?" thread at the top of the Forum.
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Greetings!

The team is very excited that Season 1.1 is live and want to thank everyone who continues to take the time to check out changes on Tribble for themselves and post comments and feedback. Aftter the last release, we realized that there were some bugs and changes that you had commented on that went live without changes. We are working to improve the release process and to keep features on Tribble longer to work out kinks and react to your feedback and comments.

This is one reason why STF: Undine Terradome and Memory Alpha are still on Tribble and have not gone live yet. We have just made another round of changes for this weekend for you to check out and will hopefully get these features worked out so that they can go to Holodeck next week.

You've also heard that some of our long time team members (like Gozer) are moving off to pursue other opportunities and we wish them all the best. While turn-over is common once titles ship, their impact on the game will be missed. There are a few items on the schedule that are shifting due to the transfer or loss of a few team members which is allowing us to bring several new team members up to speed on their work in progress. The STF Into the Hive (which is being rescoped to work with the upcoming new level cap) and the Caitians are the two things most impacted and have shifted as necessary.

The new items appearing on the list are related to our desire to work on the concept of "weekly episodes". We agree that the game could always use more mission content and instead of having to wait until Season 2 launches - we are considering releasing the episodes in this new Hub as a Series where there would be a new episode every week until the Series completed. Its an interesting and fun concept and we're going to go for it. If it turns out to be a hit, then you can be assured we'll continue this concept moving forward.

Thanks to all the great feature ideas and bug reports that get posted in these threads. We have several team members combing through these replies (other than just myself) looking for hot topics and feedback. The concept of adding injury removal mini-games to your ship interior was a single example of player ideas in this thread turning into reality. So keep it coming!

Now on to the latest report!

In Testing

• STF – “Undine: Terra Dome”
• Fed Cruiser Tier 5 – Emissary Variant “Nomad”
• Memory Alpha Progression Update
• DPS/Global Cooldown/EPS revamp
• Accolade System (Perks and Unlocks)
• Weapons Locking up in space (Beam Overload)
• Displaying player class in more UI locations
• Away team issue with forcefield during Hunting the Hunters episode
• Veteran Rewards
• Galaxy X Referral Reward
• Warp to Buddy Fixes

Under Investigation

• Dual Pistol Bolt Spray
• Bulk Healing
• Older Science Consoles
• Chat and other UI usability improvements
• PVP Match and Balance Bugs
• Ability to set a private instance for Fleet Actions (so Fleets can do Fleet Actions)
• Metreon Gas and Other Destructibles having too many HP
• Chase Masterson as Leeta
• Fleet Action Level Banding
• Daily Mission Scoping

In Development
Season 1.2 Update - May

• Global Help Chat Channel (1.2)
• Fleet Mail Improvements (1.2)
• Fed Playable Species: "Rigelian" (1.2)
• Squad System (Sidekicking) (1.2)
• Episode Replay (1.2)
• Fed Bridge Pack “Prometheus” (1.2)
• Fed Science Tier 4 – Luna Variant “Comet” (1.2)
• Playable Fed Species: "Caitian" (1.2 or 1.3)
• Social System Improvements (1.2 or 1.3)

Season 1.3 Update - June

• Weekly Episodes - Series 1 (1.3 or 2.0)
• Bridge Officer Trading (1.3)
• Random Bridge Officer Requisition (1.3)
• Sitting in Chairs tech (1.3)
• Klingon Bridge Pack “Raptor” (1.3)
• New Emotes (1.3)
• Dabo MiniGame (1.3)

Season 2.0 - July

• STF – “Into the Hive”
• Random BOFF Stores
• Curved Federation Ship Hallways
• Smaller Federation Hallways (non-combat versions)
• Player Ship Interiors
• New Skillpoint Level Cap
• Klingon Episodes
• High End Episode Sector
• Multi-Faction Episode Sector
• Federation Diplomatic Corps
• New Enemy Ship Designs
• New Enemy Group to the Klingon Faction
• New Global Enemy Group for Series 1
• Wildlife Creatures
• New Off-Duty Costumes Types
• Klingon Costume Customization Updates

Tribble Test Server
Many updates and fixes in the "in testing" section are available for you to check out for yourself on the Tribble Test Server. For a full list of fixes in testing - please refer to the latest Tribble Release Notes.

Keep in mind that not all things we are working on are listed above. See something you're curious about not listed? Check the Calendar first.

Otherwise respond below so we can investigate.

[Red.Line]

dstahl, are there any posts from the previous thread which you would like to see duplicated/cross-quoted over here? Or is the fact that they were posted in the previous thread "sufficient" feedback for you?

[JCSWW]

Does that mean the Galaxy X is available for everyone to try out on Tribble?

[AngelSilhouette]

dstahl, as well as smaller non-combat ship corridors, can we have an option (for those who want to) to be able to select smaller non-combat ship bridges? Please please please.

[Summit]

thanks for the post!

[Red.Line]

Originally Posted by dstahl

• Chase Masterson as Leeta

/signed
/notarized

Originally Posted by dstahl

• Fleet Action Level Banding
• Episode Replay (1.2)

May I recommend that these two functions be bundled ... so that if you've already reached a higher level band than one which has active players in it, you can "downrank" yourself easily so as to play in a lower level banded fleet action? For the CoH Oldtimers, this would essentially mean auto-sidekicking for the duration of the fleet action instance(s).

[Alecto]

Super awesome excellent post dstahl, great stuff and thank you!

[Dan_H]

Originally Posted by dstahl

[*]Galaxy X Referral Reward

dstahl, please tell me that this means that something is going to be done about offering the Galaxy X to people who can't get it through the referral program!!??? Please!!??

[sltdg]

I have a few questions

Random Bridge Officer Requisition (1.3)

Season 2.0 - July
Random BOFF Stores

what is the difference between these two items? I'm assuming that BOFF stands for Bridge OFFicers.

I also have some questions about the "Weekly Episodes" - would they all be in new Hubs? or would we occasionally go back to familiar sector blocks a go back to Planets we've already been too? Would they come out on a weekly basis so we got one a week (weekly is in quotation marks) marks or do you have some other schedule in mind, similar to the rate we get the STFs? Could we get them on a faction rotation system so that maybe you have Feds get an episode, then in your next release the Klingons get one, and etc (later down the road)? (I do love this idea)

Thanks for the Post and thanks for the Game.

[Armsman]

I noticed there was no mention of the bug where certain players are unable to get an Aid the Planet/Commodities Star Cluster mission type due to character data corruption (and I have a GM response to th GM ticket I opened on this issue - (Ticket # 849613).

I assume this issue IS stilll 'under investigation' - or do they have a test fix ready to go?