Post by scott on Jan 20, 2011 23:42:25 GMT -5
forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=3296000#post3296000
Greetings!
To keep you up to date on upcoming features and releases, I wanted to take a quick moment to go over some changes that were made since my last Engineering Report.
There is a lot of excitement around the studio at the moment with all project teams cranking on all cylinders. The biggest news is that Champions Online is opening the doors to Free to Play next Tuesday. We are expecting an influx of players to check it out and as much as our operations center has prepared for this, you can never say for certain what could possibly come up. Since STO and Champs run on different servers we do not expect any game related issues, however we do share an account server and so you'll notice that we've been doing some account server upgrades over the last week or so to prepare.
In STO related news, we are quickly coming up on our 1 Year Anniversary, and subsequently our 400 day Veteran Rewards. The Foundry is preparing for its next major update which will add some highly requested storytelling features and if all goes well, we will begin preparations to turn on Foundry on Holodeck. On top of that we also have the launch of our new Feature Episode series – “Cloaked Intentions” which features a storyline related to the Romulan Empire. In addition to all of that we also have some combat updates going into the game, new shuttles being made available, as well as some new costumes and a Vulcan playable ship.
All of this is expected to hit over the next several weeks. As such, I’ve asked the team to make some minor scheduling changes to ensure that things get released without a hitch. The biggest change is pushing back the start of the next Feature Episode Series by 1 week. This will both allow time for a few extra goodies I’ve asked for as well as give STO a week’s space between Champs F2P launch weekend and the start of our series.
I’ve also made it know on the forums that it would be fun to allow the KDF to blow up Earth Space Dock if we ever replaced it with something else. As much as I wanted to see this, we’ve focused our efforts on spending more time on the feature episodes (which everyone can enjoy) instead. Despite shedding a small tear about this, it makes more sense for us to spend the time making more PVP or Fleet Actions maps that are a permanent part of the game. So instead, someone else is going to get rid of ESD (not players).
So with these changes in mind, here is the updated timeline for the upcoming weeks.
Disclaimer: These are tentative dates and may still change.
Jan 25 (Tuesday) – Champs starts Free to Play
Jan 27 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
* Minor Combat Updates
* Earth Space Dock Interior Update
* New Default Font
* Remastered “Stranded in Space” (replayable mission that scales to level)
* XP Boost Devices added to rare drop tables (20% Skillpoint gain for 1 hour on use. These do not stack)
* Open up Psi Velorum Sector Block to KDF
* C-Store: Delta Flyer Shuttle (note: free basic shuttles will be given out at the start of the Romulan series)
* C-Store: XP Boosts (20% Skillpoint gain purchaseable in 1 and 8 hr increments. These do not stack.)
* Foundry Mission Test – We hope to copy over a few player made missions from TRIBBLE for everyone to test on HOLODECK. (this is still very tentative)
Feb 1 (Tuesday) – HOLODECK Update
* STO Anniversary Event Preparations
* Feature Episode Series Preparations
Feb 2 (Wednesday) –1 Year Anniversary Event
* 10am Pacific - Start Anniversary Event on Earth Space Dock and Qo’Nos.
Feb 5 (Saturday) – Feature Series 3 – Episode 1
* 11am Pacific – Feature Episode Series “Cloaked Intentions” begins with the episode “The Vault”
* Free Basic shuttles are given out at the start of this mission
Feb 8 (Tuesday) – 1 Year Anniversary Event
* 10am Pacific – End Anniversary Event
Feb 10 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
* Feature Episode Preparations
* C-Store: Vulcan D’Kyr Class Science Vessel
Feb 11 (Friday) – TRIBBLE Update
* Foundry Update (tentative)
Feb 12 (Saturday) – Feature Series 3 – Episode 2
* 11am Pacific – Feature Episode “Enemy Mine”
Feb 17 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
* Feature Episode Preparations
* 400 Day Veteran Rewards Available
Feb 19 (Saturday) – Feature Series 3 – Episode 3
* 11am Pacific – Feature Episode “Frozen”
Feb 24 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
* Feature Episode Preparations
* C-Store: Open Jacket Uniform
* Foundry Beta on HOLODECK (very tentative)
Feb 26 (Saturday) – Feature Series 3 – Episode 4
* 11am Pacific – Feature Episode “Coliseum”
Mar 3 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
* Feature Episode Preparations
Mar 5 (Saturday) – Feature Series 3 – Episode 5
* 11am Pacific – Feature Episode “Cutting the Cord” (Series 3 Finale)
* Species Series 3 Reward available upon completion of “Cutting the Cord”
Mar 10 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
* C-Store: Prometheus
forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=198039
Mar 24 (Thursday) - HOLODECK Update
* C-Store: TOS Bundle Pack (New Costumes, New Bridge, New Ship Interior)
note: I'm still working on more details for March - but for now, count on more Remastered Episodes and continued game updates in addition to the C-Store items listed above.
I’ve asked the web team to update the Calendar to reflect these changes, so it may be out of synch with this post for a short bit.
I'll keep you posted as things change (which they always do).
Greetings!
To keep you up to date on upcoming features and releases, I wanted to take a quick moment to go over some changes that were made since my last Engineering Report.
There is a lot of excitement around the studio at the moment with all project teams cranking on all cylinders. The biggest news is that Champions Online is opening the doors to Free to Play next Tuesday. We are expecting an influx of players to check it out and as much as our operations center has prepared for this, you can never say for certain what could possibly come up. Since STO and Champs run on different servers we do not expect any game related issues, however we do share an account server and so you'll notice that we've been doing some account server upgrades over the last week or so to prepare.
In STO related news, we are quickly coming up on our 1 Year Anniversary, and subsequently our 400 day Veteran Rewards. The Foundry is preparing for its next major update which will add some highly requested storytelling features and if all goes well, we will begin preparations to turn on Foundry on Holodeck. On top of that we also have the launch of our new Feature Episode series – “Cloaked Intentions” which features a storyline related to the Romulan Empire. In addition to all of that we also have some combat updates going into the game, new shuttles being made available, as well as some new costumes and a Vulcan playable ship.
All of this is expected to hit over the next several weeks. As such, I’ve asked the team to make some minor scheduling changes to ensure that things get released without a hitch. The biggest change is pushing back the start of the next Feature Episode Series by 1 week. This will both allow time for a few extra goodies I’ve asked for as well as give STO a week’s space between Champs F2P launch weekend and the start of our series.
I’ve also made it know on the forums that it would be fun to allow the KDF to blow up Earth Space Dock if we ever replaced it with something else. As much as I wanted to see this, we’ve focused our efforts on spending more time on the feature episodes (which everyone can enjoy) instead. Despite shedding a small tear about this, it makes more sense for us to spend the time making more PVP or Fleet Actions maps that are a permanent part of the game. So instead, someone else is going to get rid of ESD (not players).
So with these changes in mind, here is the updated timeline for the upcoming weeks.
Disclaimer: These are tentative dates and may still change.
Jan 25 (Tuesday) – Champs starts Free to Play
Jan 27 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
* Minor Combat Updates
* Earth Space Dock Interior Update
* New Default Font
* Remastered “Stranded in Space” (replayable mission that scales to level)
* XP Boost Devices added to rare drop tables (20% Skillpoint gain for 1 hour on use. These do not stack)
* Open up Psi Velorum Sector Block to KDF
* C-Store: Delta Flyer Shuttle (note: free basic shuttles will be given out at the start of the Romulan series)
* C-Store: XP Boosts (20% Skillpoint gain purchaseable in 1 and 8 hr increments. These do not stack.)
* Foundry Mission Test – We hope to copy over a few player made missions from TRIBBLE for everyone to test on HOLODECK. (this is still very tentative)
Feb 1 (Tuesday) – HOLODECK Update
* STO Anniversary Event Preparations
* Feature Episode Series Preparations
Feb 2 (Wednesday) –1 Year Anniversary Event
* 10am Pacific - Start Anniversary Event on Earth Space Dock and Qo’Nos.
Feb 5 (Saturday) – Feature Series 3 – Episode 1
* 11am Pacific – Feature Episode Series “Cloaked Intentions” begins with the episode “The Vault”
* Free Basic shuttles are given out at the start of this mission
Feb 8 (Tuesday) – 1 Year Anniversary Event
* 10am Pacific – End Anniversary Event
Feb 10 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
* Feature Episode Preparations
* C-Store: Vulcan D’Kyr Class Science Vessel
Feb 11 (Friday) – TRIBBLE Update
* Foundry Update (tentative)
Feb 12 (Saturday) – Feature Series 3 – Episode 2
* 11am Pacific – Feature Episode “Enemy Mine”
Feb 17 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
* Feature Episode Preparations
* 400 Day Veteran Rewards Available
Feb 19 (Saturday) – Feature Series 3 – Episode 3
* 11am Pacific – Feature Episode “Frozen”
Feb 24 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
* Feature Episode Preparations
* C-Store: Open Jacket Uniform
* Foundry Beta on HOLODECK (very tentative)
Feb 26 (Saturday) – Feature Series 3 – Episode 4
* 11am Pacific – Feature Episode “Coliseum”
Mar 3 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
* Feature Episode Preparations
Mar 5 (Saturday) – Feature Series 3 – Episode 5
* 11am Pacific – Feature Episode “Cutting the Cord” (Series 3 Finale)
* Species Series 3 Reward available upon completion of “Cutting the Cord”
Mar 10 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
* C-Store: Prometheus
forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=198039
Mar 24 (Thursday) - HOLODECK Update
* C-Store: TOS Bundle Pack (New Costumes, New Bridge, New Ship Interior)
note: I'm still working on more details for March - but for now, count on more Remastered Episodes and continued game updates in addition to the C-Store items listed above.
I’ve asked the web team to update the Calendar to reflect these changes, so it may be out of synch with this post for a short bit.
I'll keep you posted as things change (which they always do).