Change of Command and the Sector Walls are COMING DOWN!!!!!!

[jkirk131]

Star Trek Online has been privileged to have a great history of Executive Producers through its lifetime. Stephen D’Angelo has most recently occupied the big chair and during his second tour has lent the team his considerable experience, design expertise, and vision for the future of Star Trek Online through Delta Rising.

Stephen is stepping down as Executive Producer for Star Trek Online in order to focus on his role as Chief Technology Officer at Cryptic Studios to oversee several internal projects. I would like to thank him on behalf of the community and the Star Trek Online team for once again taking the reins and leading the team through a fantastic year of releases.

As of today I will officially be leading the team as Executive Producer, and I couldn’t be more proud to lead this incredible team and game, both which of which mean a great deal to me.

I have been a lifelong Star Trek fan and one of my favorite early memories of trek took place in late September of 1990. Earlier that summer, after experiencing one of the greatest cliffhangers in television history, I told my dad I couldn’t wait to find out if Captain Picard was going to be rescued from the Borg. It turns out his boss was planning a huge viewing party for the second part of “The Best of Both Worlds” and my dad brought me along. It was an amazing event and the first time I witnessed how Star Trek could bring people together from different walks of life simply to enjoy a great episode.

I’ve been a member of the Star Trek Online team since 2008 and was here during pre-production, active production, launch, and every update since. You’ve seen me posting on the threads as the person that creates builds and patch notes, and I’ve been active in feedback threads on features that I’ve produced with the team. I’ve seen how the game has grown and changed over the years from a team management perspective and how the community has responded to those changes.

We have some fantastic plans in store for the game in 2015 and the same veteran team that brought you Delta Rising is here to execute those plans. I’m truly excited to share what this year has to offer, and instead of leaving it at that I’m going to tease a feature of our Season 10 update coming late this spring. With the launch of Season 10 Sector Space will be comprised of only three maps, with each one representing a quadrant that exists in STO. Yes, the sector walls are coming down! I hope that minor reveal will get you excited for the changes in the year to come, and I look forward to working with the team to achieve everything we have planned.



Live Long and Prosper,

Stephen Ricossa
Executive Producer
Star Trek Online

[Ciaphas]

I can't possibly imagine why Stephen D’Angelo would be stepping down, things have been going so well...

But no sector walls, I was always hoping that would disappear

[Hevach]

I wonder how Defera and Gamma Orionis will fit in. Defera's location relative the rest o the Alpha Quadrant has always been ambiguous, and Gamma Orionis should be a sector or two disconnected from the existing Beta Quadrant maps.

Either way, both sides could use some filling out to "square off" the maps without leaving big empty tracts of nothing, so maybe we'll finally be getting that Betazed/Bolia/Ferenginar region that's been "not next season but the one after that" since season 4.


Edit: I'm not entirely optimistic with the change in leadership. There's an old trick of PR where, if the top management decides something should be done that customers are going to be angry about, you get it all over with at once and then change the visible leadership (who in this case is only about halfway up the actual ranks). Then you do things customers will like to make the new leadership look good, but you never actually undo the things they didn't like, you just stop making it worse.

[Sysil]

Either way, both sides could use some filling out to "square off" the maps without leaving big empty tracts of nothing, so maybe we'll finally be getting that Betazed/Bolia/Ferenginar region that's been "not next season but the one after that" since season 4.

Sorry, PvP update was promised in season 2, so your new sector will just have to wait

Seriously though, a new guy always brings hope of a PvP revamp.

We have some fantastic plans in store for the game in 2015 and the same veteran team that brought you Delta Rising is here to execute those plans.

Hope extinguished.

[Amarai]

Well only time will tell how things progress. Although as some of my friends have pointed out things under both times Stephen D’Angelo was in the big chair things moved more towards grinding. Granted there have been some cool things that have come out.

Again hoping for the best, but only time will tell.

[adastra1930]

We have some fantastic plans in store for the game in 2015 and the same veteran team that brought you Delta Rising is here to execute those plans.

Haha, yeah, they may have misjudged the community's reception of that sentence

Still, it will be interesting to see how things change when the sector walls come down...Will Tour of the Galaxy change?

[cmdraftbrn]

cryptic is already changing the diaper?


this will be interesting.

[Dancamvet]

I'll be interested to see where things go but I'll reserve judgement for now. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, as they say.

[cmdraftbrn]

i'll believe the magically sector walls coming down when i dont run into one. besides for the last four and years they've screamed they couldnt dont the system would blow up. and now they can?

[Hevach]

It was a resourse issue. If STO ran on high end servers before, bargain bin junk boxes now would be upgrades. The client graphical demands have also crept up, especially with the sphere maps.