An Open Letter to DB: “Do Better”

Posted: 17 March 2017 02:37 PM When we look at Star Trek Timelines, many of us in the player community see a great game with considerable potential that is squandered by sloppy execution. Longtime players can attest that many aspects of the game have improved. Pre-announcing the following week’s event has been a significant improvement in players’ overall ability to plan. The cadet missions have added much-needed item drops to the game’s economy. PVP and Gauntlet have been welcomed changes that have added extra elements of gameplay, and listening to player feedback and removing certain low-level loot from Gauntlet currency boxes has made for a better experience since rollout. At the same time, however, other aspects of the game have begun a steady decline in quality that affects the playing experience for everyone. If this game is to continue to thrive, Disruptor Beam must consider some fundamental changes, such as: Better communication, internally and externally: Shan is tasked with providing the community with information, a job that is often apparently made more difficult by providing her with incorrect information, such as the recent incorrect stats given for Garak, Elim Garak (1). DB should ensure that staff is given accurate information, especially when it is released to the community at large. In addition, external communication must improve to avoid problems, like the shift associated with Daylight Savings Time, which saw multiple inconsistent event times given across social media as well as within the game itself (2). Better quality controls: Mistakes frequently appear in game, such as: event reward tables published with incorrect threshold/rank rewards (3); the errors in the 1.8 server build (4); numerous items with spelling or wording mistakes or incorrect stats scaling (5); and this past week’s event error where featured bonus crew were not receiving appropriate bonuses (6). Thorough testing before pushing updates live: Small changes in-game often have unexpected consequences (7). These should not be unexpected; these should be thoroughly tested. Thorough testing of new features: The recently-added Gauntlet contained a number of bugs that are still being worked through, despite a full roll-out to the playerbase and downtime prior to rollout to work on reported bugs. (8) A commitment to transparency and accountability: Everyone makes mistakes. Developers and CMs are human. But an acknowledgment of errors and a commitment to putting things in place to prevent such errors from happening again would go a long way in generating goodwill with the community. (9) A commitment to change: We have been promised expanded gameplay and a long-term endgame, but have not been provided updates since the original statements were made. While follow-up information may not be readily available during the building process, without any update as to the vision presented, it is difficult not to view such posts as unreliable. (10) We are calling on all players and all fleets to join us in holding Disruptor Beam accountable – for its unacknowledged errors today, and for its future performance. The players have too long been the ones left on the hook for any breakdowns in performance or communication that have occurred. During the Extinction Point event, we will not make any purchases of packs or dilithium, or use any dilithium on-hand for shuttle boosts, purchases of new crew, or chronitons. For those that wish to join in solidarity for a better game experience, we encourage you to change your game tag to “[DB-Do Better] or [DoBetter].” This is not spam. Signature Join the eXo|plosion today! One spot remaining! When I’m not a VIP Hero, I’m a proud VIP 0. But I’m BronzeRose there; F2P can’t afford silver. Also a proud member of [DCC] Dilithium Causes Cancer with monthly card Silver-Plated Rose. Because it’s hard to play three accounts without some ability to warp. Profile

Posted: 17 March 2017 02:40 PM 1) Fully fused, fully equipped stats for Garak, Elim Garak were published via the forums and in-game message on March 14, 2017 which advertised: CMD 992 (235-503), DIP 944 (170-347), SEC 565 (66-138) before the packs were available for sale. On the day of the event start, one day after packs were made available for sale, these stats were corrected to CMD 1000 (229-493), DIP 937 (179-362), SEC 565 (66-138). 2) During the Alpha and Omega event, it was advertised on the forums, twitter, and Facebook that the event would end at 17:00 UTC “edited to take into account the temporal anomaly known as Daylight Savings Time.” Players noticed an in-game countdown timer consistent with this information through the early part of the event weekend. At some point after the daylight savings time shift, the in-game clock and in-game messaging reflected an end time of 16:00 UTC. On Monday, players posted a thread asking for confirmation that the previously disseminated information was correct. At that time, with less than 3 hours left in the event, the original social media posts were edited to reflect a 16:00 UTC end time. 3) On December 7, 2016, event information was published that contained incorrect threshold rewards for items that belonged to Disguised Tuvok and should have belonged to Clairborne Chekov. On December 20, 2016, event information was published that contained incorrect threshold rewards items that belonged to Clairborne Chekov and should have belonged to GI Chakotay On December 28, 2016, incorrect information about event bonus characters was published on social media which conflicted with information given in-game. On Wednesday, March 15, 2017, the event screen for the Shore Leave shuttle event became visible in-game. At that time Augment Riker was showing as both a ranked reward and threshold reward in the event instead of Romulan Kirk. This was later corrected to Romulan Kirk. 4) After the 1.8.0 server build was pushed live, several errors occurred in game, including but not limited to: missing artwork for Agent Janeway, Maquis Ro Laren, and Hippocrates Noah; and cadet challenges appearing to have been added to Saturday on the in-game schedule, which was later identified as a copy and paste error from the Sunday challenges and removed. 5) These items include, but are not limited to: the 4* linguistic database that did not give the appropriate amount of base stats as rarity scaled (corrected in 1.8), Platonian Kirk’s wreaths that did not give the appropriate amount of base stats as rarity scaled (corrected in 1.8), Gangster Spock’s Tommy Gun having identical stats at the 4* and 5* equipment rarity (not corrected), Agent Janeway equipping Cover Contacts instead of Covert Contacts (not corrected), and Locutus of Borg equipping Loctus’s Nanoprobes instead of Locutus’s Nanoprobes. 6) At the beginning of the Shore Leave event, event crew 5* Garak, Elim Garak and 4* Romulan Kirk were receiving a 2x bonus instead of the advertised and promised 3x bonus. This was corrected over 3 hours into the event time. 7) As part of the 1.8 server build, Dr. Selar was updated such that she “now wears a uniform from the appropriate era.” This change inadvertently changed her stats from 409 (158-499) to 354 (158-496). Since adding crew to the faction stores, the Augment faction store was “bugged” such that crew did not appear for purchase and multiple transmissions were unable to be purchased prior to an event start. This problem, ongoing for months, was fixed on March 16, 2017. 8) In early-mid February 2017, a new feature was added to the game. The Gauntlet was initially rolled out to a random subset of players and later extended to the entire playerbase after a period where it was taken offline to fix bugs. Despite this downtime, bugs persisted in the live Gauntlet after complete rollout. Ghost opponents showed unbeatable rolls of 999 across the board. End timers showed inconsistent movements that made some Gauntlets end earlier than anticipated. The “Featured Skill” randomly changed. The ghost opponents and end timer issues were reported to be fixed in a later update. Changes were also reported to be made to the loot tables to remove 2* trainers and under 30 merits from reward boxes. The “Featured Skill” visual bug persists. The 999 issue is also still reported to persist, as of March 17, 2017. End timers have been affected by Daylight Savings Time and are still reported to be displaying visual fluctuations. The trainers and merits issued were corrected approximately 48 hours after the announcement that those had been fixed but without official acknowledgment. Furthermore, a bug which had a tie going to the defender was purported to be fixed in the 1.8 build and later announced that it would be fixed in a later build. The Gauntlet also experienced unannounced downtime on March 15, 2017 for a span of approximately 2 hours.



9) On January 12, 2017, Product Owner Erin published a blog post which made several commitments to the playerbase, including: an improved quality assurance process, developing new automation to prevent in-game bugs, and continuing to work hard to fix what’s not working and improve what is. See https://www.disruptorbeam.com/blog/2017/1/12/the-undiscovered-country-the-future-of-star-trek-timelines. 10) Players have been presented with two conflicting long-term vision statements, the first from David, Lead Game Designer, on October 6, 2016 (https://forums.disruptorbeam.com/stt/viewthread/61421/) and then from Senior Producer Erin in the blog post referenced above. Both of these statements were presented without context or clarification. Neither individual has “checked back in with updates on our vision for the game,” as promised. Signature Join the eXo|plosion today! One spot remaining! When I’m not a VIP Hero, I’m a proud VIP 0. But I’m BronzeRose there; F2P can’t afford silver. Also a proud member of [DCC] Dilithium Causes Cancer with monthly card Silver-Plated Rose. Because it’s hard to play three accounts without some ability to warp. Profile

Posted: 17 March 2017 02:43 PM Just before I get started - I have a simple request to you, my game playing brethern: We are happy to have you join in our discussion, but please keep it civil and constructive. This isn’t a thread where we are asking for answers or new things. Please feel free to start a new thread if you want to raise a different issue. Thank you. ——————— Hi! I’m Frank.

Although everyone can openly read this post, I’m really centering the intended audience to be the staff of DB. You may also remember me from such events as “DisruptorCon 2k17 – Frank drinks all the free beer” and “Hey, you’re the cheater guy!” Also, you may remember me as “Jon”. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed our time together last week in chilly Boston. You guys really put on a great event, and everyone was very friendly. Moreso, I got to meet some people that, for the previous 60 months, were merely names on a screen I interacted with. It was amazing to meet people from other fleets – live and in the flesh – and just shoot the breeze. It was like UC come to life. Actually, no. UC is a scary. All jokes aside, we all had a great experience and I cannot tell you how much your gesture at the end of the evening meant to me that was provided by Elicia and Heather. After the event was over, I got real life 1 on 1 time with Nod, which was a premium to me because I had soooooo many questions that not only myself, but so many people in the community wanted to get answers to. Yet, with all of that in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but talk to him as a human and discuss hair care products. I came away from the event (and immediately to warmer temperatures!) just high on life. As I’ve said before, this community means the world to me. Yeah, the game is fun and all, but it’s the people and relationships I’ve forged that really make it special. No matter where I am or what’s going on, I carry with me some really awesome people that are always available in one of our many chat apps. We talk about life, we talk about the game, hell - we talk about everything but politics! When things seem to be on edge because of the latest issue or break, someone busts out Star Trek Trivia and we all get distracted; our moods improve and life goes on. Today, I’m speaking to you as I have in the past – as a member of this community but also as a champion for this community. I’m not taking a stance that because of my total money spent, my voice is more important than others. That’s simply not the case. I don’t care what a person has spent monetarily on this game. They can be F2P, monthly card or VIP 95 – but they still have the same value. They are consumers of your product and supporters of your brand. They are your customers. They are my friends.

As highlighted in the excellent post by SilverRose, there are some fundamental issues & breakdowns. We, as visible members of the user base, aren’t disparaging you, nor are we calling out any specific employee for anything negative. I have nothing but nice things to say about the front-line staff, and that’s not just because I’ve met them. Our collective goal is to help identify what are some process gaps and areas where improvements can be made. Sometimes, internally, you can see these specific flaws and create solutions. There are other times that it takes a second pair of eyes, or a completely different perspective to see something that previously wasn’t as visible. That’s our intention here – to start an open line of communications and *keep* it. What may be my biggest ‘ask’ is that DB, as a company, is more engaged with points of contact in the base than it is currently. I say this as a twofold observation: A few months ago, I made a post called “An open letter to Jon Radoff” on the forums. That post was made after a groundswell of a not too dissimilar set of issues surrounding a lack of communication, constant errors and lack of overall ownership. I knew that my post wouldn’t get an official response on the forums, and I never intended it to. What I wanted is exactly what happened – I wanted it to be read by the staff. I know Jon read it, and he had the staff read it – I know it was brought up in meetings. Despite whatever mud is slung towards the company, I can safely say I know that DB values its customer base and its perception among those customers. Some changes were made behind the scenes and, for a brief period, things did improve. However still, some of the underlying issues never really got patched; and as more time has passed, they are becoming more and more frequent. Profile

Posted: 17 March 2017 02:44 PM I think at the end of the day, most of the large issues center around processes and communications. Plenty of companies have employees that don’t work all in a central location – I know myself and others have employees that are across the country. I can’t micromanage from a different zip code – the best I can do is set clear expectations of performance, communications and feedback. Since we are all adults and professionals at work, there is no issue with someone raising a hand – and if they do, they get an immediate acknowledgement. I may not have an answer right at that second, but I at least validate that person and their concern by showing that I have heard or read the message, it is understood and I’m taking it back with me to evaluate. I don’t set a specific timetable for when an answer or solution is going to be made, but just that I have the action-item and I’ll give a follow-up in a week (usually). That buys me ample time to dig in, collaborate with others and make the most of whatever opportunity we have. What I, as an outside observer, see happening is that some remote employees aren’t ‘in the loop’ as compared to those at the central office. This is to be expected to a small degree, as information must travel via IM or Email, instead of walking over to a desk and speaking directly. So, that is an issue, but it’s only a symptom. Again, your employees that work remote (not naming names) are, as best I can tell, able to discharge their duties without issue. So, if the employee themselves is a good worker, and them being 2200 miles away isn’t the issue, what is? From what we as a community have observed, there is a large breakdown in direct and clear communications between departments. Applying a specific example here would be the CM posting to the forums and social media the stats on the new event characters for the week. However, in between the CM posting those and the packs going live, a change was made to an item or something in the build which causes the stats to change. This change is not communicated to the CM and thus not to the community. From this, you have a situation that has occurred, by our notes, 9 times – where SilverRose or someone buys the characters at release and power levels them within an hour, only to find that what she sees on her iPad doesn’t match what she reads on the forums. The CM, as is sometimes part of the job, takes the heat and falls on the sword publicly despite having nothing to do with the actual change nor being out of the loop on it. Further, there is an issue I can’t seem to wrap my head around – and that is that no one on the front-line staff is directly told exactly what the stats are for new characters. The event characters in question that are sold at a valuation of roughly $50 USD per Legendary star, are leveled as quickly as 2 days before and as late as 10 minutes after the start of their event. Dating back to the Becca days, the CM has had to get a copy of the event character in what I assume is the live environment and manually level it to 100, while granting themselves all the items needed to do so. This takes time. Also, to not fill out the ‘first to max” flag, the CM may not equip one last item and just eyeball the stats. Human error with math or the transposing of a number can occur here. My request is a complete change to this process to both eliminate the chance of human error as well as correct the communications gap and take a last-minute stress of the CM. The dev team who specifically finalized the event characters should be directly providing the complete stats to the CM for distribution to the public channels. These stats will come directly from the coder who created them, so they won’t be missing anything, and they should be the final stats after all QA has occurred. These complete stats should be used to best serve the community but also not be curt – they should include 1/5 and 5/5 numbers as not everyone is going to finish the event with a 5/5 card. Lastly, communication should be clear not only internally between departments, but also publicly to the players. I know the forums can be a scary place. I know Facebook is even scarier. Don’t get me started on the random Twitter eggs. Nod, Shan and Heather are very active on the forums and social media engaging the base. Occasionally, we have seen DB Koz and others drop by, introduce themselves, and gather some feedback. I speak for the base when I say “hell yes!” because that’s awesome. What hurts is when those names disappear. We went through a staff change last year where Erin was installed as the product owner/lead for STT – she made some social media posts and committed to improvements. Again, we have seen numerous improvements as well as new features in the past months – both QoL and game mechanics. It’s the small things like we get to meet these new staff members that work on our game, that are engaging with us on their first “day”, and then they disappear. The external world hasn’t heard from Erin since. For me, as a product owner, the buck stops with her – however I can’t get my point to her if she’s not visible. There are numerous threads on the forums or FB that ask for features of QoL improvements or changes that I personally am privy to and know are coming soon, however due to NDAs or licensing, they cannot be publicly commented on. I live in a world of NDA’s every day, so I get that. However, some players may not. What they see, from their perspective, is that they are raising concerns, questions or suggestions to a company that shuts down and goes silent. Profile

Posted: 17 March 2017 02:46 PM Recently, Shan did an excellent job (although it was lost in a sea of other events) of making a vague post saying “Hey, we hear you, changes are being made, be patient. Can’t say more, don’t ask”. That perfectly skirts the lines of what is and is not allowed legally to be publicly disclosed, but it accomplished a bigger need of letting the base know that DB has been listening and receptive to their ideas, and wheels are turning. That is very appreciated. What is a bit harder to swallow are the posts that highlight a specific issue in the game and no DB interaction occurs past a certain point. I can understand partially as the discussions can get rather heated, and things do tend to get, shall we say, snippy. Maybe this is where a small change can go a long way – a public comment that the issue is being discussed internally and more information will be made available at a later time. That comment could quell the thread and mood, but even then, that’s only temporary. You must engage in the other half of that process which is following up as promised. You don’t have to give an answer everyone wants to hear, but you must give an answer. Even bad news can be considered ‘good’ news because no news Is truly the worst news. I’ve rambled on long enough. You have a fantastic product and, I dare say, everyone’s favorite IP in your hands, literally. No matter if a person invests $35k or $3.50 – they have invested in DB. Even those ‘freeloading’ F2P people (Hi guys!) have invested an insane amount of time to get around the perceived mobile game paywall and compete. I’m proudly a member of that group of players, just as proud as I am a member of the group that has spent 5 figures. Time is money, so the F2P voice and investment is just as valuable as my $16k. The common theme to those statements is we have all invested in DB. We have invested in your staff, your vision and your ability to make a great distraction from the real world that we can all enjoy. I believe in you. So many people here believe in you. I know you are capable, as an organization, to fix a few process gaps and climb higher up the mountain. I want to see you succeed. I am just doing my part, as an investor, to hold you accountable in a very friendly, courteous, professional way, but doing so with a level of forwardness so the message is not lost. Make us proud. I don’t want the initials “DB” to stand for anything anymore other than what your daily credo should be:

Do Better. Love, Silver and Frank Also this post is not spam. Profile

Posted: 17 March 2017 02:58 PM Thank you, I like what you’ve said here and support your actions.

One question, if we all change our name to DB - Do Better, won’t that make it impossible to know who we’re talking to within fleet chat? Rather than me suggest something, Maybe Silver Rose can decide since it’s your letter and you’ve started the cause Profile

Posted: 17 March 2017 03:04 PM [TRF] Species 8471 - 17 March 2017 02:58 PM Thank you, I like what you’ve said here and support your actions.

One question, if we all change our name to DB - Do Better, won’t that make it impossible to know who we’re talking to within fleet chat? Rather than me suggest something, Maybe Silver Rose can decide since it’s your letter and you’ve started the cause I suppose I take it for granted that people still use the in-game chat (shudder). Thanks for bringing up this point. I guess folks can shorten their names or shorten the hashtag? DB:DB maybe? Signature Join the eXo|plosion today! One spot remaining! When I’m not a VIP Hero, I’m a proud VIP 0. But I’m BronzeRose there; F2P can’t afford silver. Also a proud member of [DCC] Dilithium Causes Cancer with monthly card Silver-Plated Rose. Because it’s hard to play three accounts without some ability to warp. Profile

Posted: 17 March 2017 03:09 PM SilverRose - 17 March 2017 03:04 PM [TRF] Species 8471 - 17 March 2017 02:58 PM Thank you, I like what you’ve said here and support your actions.

One question, if we all change our name to DB - Do Better, won’t that make it impossible to know who we’re talking to within fleet chat? Rather than me suggest something, Maybe Silver Rose can decide since it’s your letter and you’ve started the cause I suppose I take it for granted that people still use the in-game chat (shudder). Thanks for bringing up this point. I guess folks can shorten their names or shorten the hashtag? DB:DB maybe? Have everyone change their pic to Admiral riker. Profile

Posted: 17 March 2017 03:11 PM So maybe <[DB:DB] In game tag> Does that work for you Rose? Profile

Posted: 17 March 2017 03:12 PM I’ll be taking my 3 month pay strike a step further and not using Ads next week. Signature This week Frank and Roonis talk about extra long shuttles, the concept of F2P pain to convert to spending customers, discuss how Odo is not a Dax, and discuss the worst Starfleet Department to work in, HR.

Brand New Twitter Page!!!! https://twitter.com/FrankAndRoonis Profile

Posted: 17 March 2017 03:14 PM Roonis - 17 March 2017 03:12 PM I’ll be taking my 3 month pay strike a step further and not using Ads next week. Ooh, an interesting twist. Good idea. Signature This Signature Is Not Approved By Disruptor Beam Profile

Posted: 17 March 2017 03:15 PM Thank you Silver Rose and Frank. You have my support. Profile

Posted: 17 March 2017 03:16 PM [TRF] Species 8471 - 17 March 2017 03:11 PM So maybe <[DB:DB] In game tag> That’s perfect. Thanks! Signature Join the eXo|plosion today! One spot remaining! When I’m not a VIP Hero, I’m a proud VIP 0. But I’m BronzeRose there; F2P can’t afford silver. Also a proud member of [DCC] Dilithium Causes Cancer with monthly card Silver-Plated Rose. Because it’s hard to play three accounts without some ability to warp. Profile

Posted: 17 March 2017 03:17 PM SilverRose - 17 March 2017 03:16 PM [TRF] Species 8471 - 17 March 2017 03:11 PM So maybe <[DB:DB] In game tag> That’s perfect. Thanks! Actually just tried to use

[DB - Do Better] Species 8471

And that worked fine, maybe think that’ll have more impact than the initials. Profile

Posted: 17 March 2017 03:24 PM [TRF] Species 8471 - 17 March 2017 03:17 PM Actually just tried to use

[DB - Do Better] Species 8471

And that worked fine, maybe think that’ll have more impact than the initials. Yeah I think spelling it out is more clear. Keep in mind, though, that in-game names can only be 32 characters max, and some players’ names are long… I’ll be using [DoBetter], myself. Emphasis on the D and B.

For the sake of clarity, I hope we can all decide on one tag to use, while it’s early in the movement. I’ll change mine to whatever the majority settles on. EDIT: Settled on [DB-DoBetter]. Still a tiny bit long, but clearer than just [DoBetter], I think. But either is fine. Signature VIP 0 For Life!

To DB: Today is a good day to Do Better. Profile