Engineering reports/20100818

=August 18, 2010= Greetings!

Welcome back to another edition of the Engineering Report! We are certainly excited to see more players coming back to Star Trek to check out the Season Two: Ancient Enemies update. In a market where new MMOs are struggling to find a foothold and more and more games are shutting down, we recognize and thank you for continuing to support Star Trek. This is your game and we will continue to listen and drive development in the direction that you tell us it needs to go in.

Right now there are two big things we're hearing and working to deliver. Improved and fixed PVP and more PVE content for everyone. Add in more ships, more costumes, and more overall Star Trek and you can see that a lot of the changes you are asking for are on the radar. We want to see the game continue to improve and grow over time and after our six month anniversary it is amazing to look back at how many updates have gone into the game already. We plan to continue releasing updates that improve the quality of the game.

In fact, that is the goal and focus of the development team. Focus on Quality. There are many features in the game that need a quality touch and instead of promising that we have a quick fix around the corner, we are taking the time to develop a solid solution and deliver a functional and tested feature. The new PVP challenge system is an example of this. We recognized that PVP was in a scary state after the release of Season Two, and instead of rushing out a temporary solution, we've been working to deliver an improved Queue and Challenge system. Those changes have been going onto the test shard and we've been incorporating feedback and bug reports to ensure the update addresses the issue.

So while the team takes time to address your concerns and wishes for the game, we are also working on new ways to introduce content into the game. In the immediate future we will be releasing our first weekly series focusing on the Breen. These series will allow a way for us to release content on a steady basis in a fun and exciting way. Another way we want to introduce new content in the game is to allow you to make your mission content in the game via a User Generated Content Tool.

While still in the infancy stage, our vision for UGC is to not just put players in a box and let them make their own content in some corner of the universe, but allow you to create missions that take place in the existing game. Want to make a new mission that takes place on Deep Space Nine? Go for it! Want to make a mission that takes you from P'Jem to Andoria to Vulcan? Go for it! We want you to have the flexibility to use existing locales in your content as well as existing contacts. There's a lot of tech required to make that happen, and we may not even get close by the start of Season 3, but we are going to put a stake in the ground and start making the system.

Another big change we are making internally is focusing less on "big updates" like Season one or Season two and focusing more on the features, fixes, and content you care about. We all agree Sector Space needs to change. So we're working on it. I honestly don't know when we'll be able to release a new sector space to you, but the key is - its a priority and we're working on it. We'll show you progress and even discuss putting up test versions on TRIBBLE so you can give feedback. When we all agree its ready and awesome. Then we'll release it.

Given that switch away from "the next big update", I'm adding a few new sections to the report this time around to give a better idea of what is "In Development" = we have resources working on this now. "In Design Discussion" = we have designers in meetings discussing how to make or improve this feature. "On Hold" = we were in development of the feature and hit a snag or some other tech issue that needs to be resolved before we can move forward.

We look forward to delivering all of the features listed below. As we move forward, you'll see features and issues continue to move around from design to development to testing. I'm also hoping to continue to shrink the number of issues under investigation and the QA and Customer Service departments are renewing efforts to track down your bugs and ensure that we have fixes on the way for anything that is causing you an issue.

The future for Star Trek looks awesome from where I'm sitting and look forward to working together to continually improve the game.

Now on to the report!

In Testing

 * PVP Queue Updates including revamped Personal Challenge system
 * Updates to the Assimilated Cruiser PVP Map
 * Weekly Series 1 Episodes and Daily Missions
 * Updated Loot item drops for Level 51 enemies
 * Updates to the camera to reduce jittering
 * Mission fixes for STF: Undine Terradome
 * Fixes for Shanty Town PVP map
 * Fixes to allow Aid the Planet Missions to be continued and repeated if you had completed them before
 * Fixes to ensure anomalies drop at the correct levels in Star Cluser Unexplored Systems
 * Fleet Bank UI Revamp
 * Additional Season 2 Bug fixes
 * General Performance fixes to address rubberbanding
 * New wing movement animations for various ships
 * Excelsior T3 classic design - requires Commander Rank
 * Fixes for interiors missing ambient audio

Under Investigation

 * B'Tran Elite Cluster - Teaming, Drops, Anomalies
 * PVP and other Daily mission issues
 * Bugs reported in specific STF missions
 * Bugs reported in specific PVP maps
 * Buddy Icons showing up as white Squares
 * Loot Tables for Level 51+ enemies in B'Tran
 * Reports of STO Mail being returned after deletion
 * Reports of players unable to load into Star Cluster Unexplored Systems and getting booted to login screen
 * Reports of players unable to rank up properly
 * Reports of Klingon Players not receiving the Sword of Kahless reward item after completing the appropriate mission
 * Eject Warp plasma killing friendlies after the spawning player leaves the map
 * Ships not displaying correct rank restrictions
 * Gamma and other graphical issues reported since Season 2 launched
 * Global Chat Channel Revamp
 * Remaining reports of anomaly data not dropping at appropriate levels (we're slowly fixing all these)

In Development

 * Upcoming Content for Weekly Series
 * - New Episodes for Fed and Klingon factions
 * - New locales to visit
 * - Updated Enemy factions (and maybe even some new ones!)
 * - New Daily Missions
 * - More Diplomatic missions
 * - New Accolades
 * More Loot
 * - New Weekly Series Rewards
 * - Episode Specific Rewards
 * - More Memory Alpha Crafting Items
 * Redesign for the Remote Contact System
 * - Improve the way you get missions
 * - Provide daily rewards for doing specific missions
 * - Allow players to rate and search for missions by metadata
 * Redesign for Sector Space
 * - Larger Sectors
 * - Less UI / UI you can Toggle
 * - Contextual Menus for Systems
 * User Generated Content Tools (beta)
 * More Minigames
 * More Ships including
 * - Vor'cha Refit
 * - Vulcan Faction Ship
 * - Orion Faction Ship
 * - Nausicaan Faction Ship
 * - New Crytpic Design - Klingon Ship
 * - TOS Enterprise Refit
 * - Andorian Faction Ship
 * - Enterprise J
 * - Enterprise NX
 * More Costume Options
 * - ST: The Motion Picture Uniform
 * - More Borg parts for AlienGen
 * - TNG: All Good Things Uniform
 * - PC Gamer Cover - Open Jacket Uniform
 * - T'Pol Jumpsuit
 * - More Skirt options
 * - New Gorn customization options
 * 300 Day Veteran Rewards
 * Missions features planetary wildlife creatures

In Design Discussion

 * First Officer System
 * Converting First Officer to Playable Captain
 * Redesign for Exploration Sectors
 * Additional Bridge Officer and Player Species
 * - Aenar
 * - Kzinti
 * - Talaxian
 * - Android
 * - Hologram
 * Crafting for Klingons
 * Allowing Episodes to be Replayed
 * Revamping VO for contacts
 * Improved Hair Tech

On Hold/Pending Issues

 * STF: The Hive
 * Sitting in Chairs
 * Episode Replay

Upcoming C-Store Releases

 * Excelsior T5 "Lakota" - Requires Rear Admiral rank
 * Off-Duty Costume - Mercenary Outfit
 * Nebula T5 - Requires Rear Admiral rank
 * 7 of 9/T'Pol Jumpsuit Costume Pack
 * Enterprise Uniform Costume Pack