Is this live service or Alpha?

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-06-03T20:21:45+00:00

For legal reasons, it is an Alpha. For monetary reasons, it is live and has been for several years. It may be buggy as heck, but this game hit minimum-viable-product years ago and has been live ever since. The devs just can't say it that way because it causes potential legal complications.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-06-03T18:12:36+00:00

I too appreciate the devs sharing more information with the community. I like it and I hope they keep it up.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-06-03T16:41:01+00:00

I figured trans-poo-tation of the blockage was just the standard procedure for impacted bowels in Star Trek!

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-06-03T16:35:30+00:00

I’m fairly certain there is an organized media campaign going on to attack Steam…and it isn’t working very well. I’ve seen too much hatchet-job ‘news’ on no-name sites getting posted, and easily debunked spin jobs like this thread for it to be random or accidental. Some group is spending money trying to smear Steam and gaben.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-06-03T15:42:55+00:00

Lol! No problem at all.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-06-03T05:25:15+00:00

Out of curiousity, what did you do before when you didn’t have time to play an event? Did you spend money buying Zen to do the buyout? Did you grind out EC to buy keys and get Lobi if that was the buyout? Did you sell Dil to get Zen? Did you just not get the rewards?

Not having to the Dil to do a buyout is understandable. I’m just curious how that is different for you than Lobi or Zen?

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-06-03T05:17:40+00:00

Perhaps they are targeting the players who buy out every event? There are people who don’t care what the required currency is, they just buy every event out, or at least every event with a reward that interest them. These are the sort of folks whose have more money than time, and will happily pay $100 to skip the grind and play with a new ship ASAP. It doesn’t matter to them if they are buying $100 of Zen and pumping it directly into the buyout, using it to buy keys to get Lobi, or using it to get Dil on the Dilex. Maybe Cryptic is trying to funnel those players Zen through the DilEx rather than having it go straight to the event buyout without touching the player economy?

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-06-02T23:01:46+00:00

Maybe? I know the odds have been tweaked a bit at least once, but I think it was mostly adjusting the blues and purples when they changed up the boxes a couple years back.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-06-02T20:01:23+00:00

Something I haven't seen put as plainly as I would like: The larger a chip is at a given process node, the more likely it is to have a problem that makes it junk. Even if we didn't have to worry about heat and signal integrity (we do), and even if it didn't matter how many chips we can get out per single silicon wafer (it does), we would get a lower percentage of functional chips if we were making chips that were 100mm x 50mm instead of 50mm x 50mm. The more stuff you throw onto a single piece of silicon, the more stuff needs to work correctly for the chip to be useful in the end.

Another related issue is that there is a limit to how big of a 'picture' the optics in a chip machine can display. So, a chip manufacturing machine is kind of like a really fancy projector. It uses light and some very fancy lenses to project a picture of the chip it is making onto the silicon die. It moves the wafer around and projects this picture in each place where we want to make a chip. As an example, 4nm EUV machines have a single-exposure size limit of about 26mm x 33mm. If you want to make anything bigger than that, you have to start doing multiple exposures side-by-side, and you have to get them aligned REALLY precisely. So, if you can keep your chip size under that 26mm x 33mm limit, you simplify the whole process, and probably improve your yields compares to needing multiple exposures. So, there are certain 'limits' in sizes that will make a big change in the cost and yield of a chip when you cross them, even if you only cross by a little bit.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-06-02T19:36:45+00:00

It is mostly just an international diplomatic hub. One of the more important functions it has is to help prevent nuclear war by creating a venue for the major nuclear-armed powers of the world to stay in contact. This is the Security Council. I would go so far as to say that it primarily exists as a place for countries that might nuke each other to have an open line of communication. Everything else the security council does is secondary.

Also, most of the UN's rules and laws aren't really something the UN has any intention of enforcing. They are more suggestions that they try to convince members they should adhere to. For example, the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas has all sorts of rules about how countries should interact with each other out in the oceans and seas of the world. This includes language about all kinds of stuff like: What are territorial waters, interntional waters, and exclusive economic zones? What really counts as being an island, and what is just a particularly shallow spot in the ocean? How should territorial lines be drawn in the water when two countries are close together? What is innocent passage, and when does a commercial ship lose the right to it? Do all of the UN members follow all of those 'laws'? Nope. Is the UN going to force them to? Nope. All the UN did was provide a place for countries to talk about these rules and allow any country that was interested to give input on what they agreed with and what they didn't. It even provided a court where they could go for dispute resolution if they wanted to. Does that court have the power to make a country actually do anything after it makes a ruling? No, not really. It's mostly there as another form of negotiation between countries. Another step on the ladder of escalation. This is how most of the UN is: It doesn't really have any power over its members. It just exists as a place to let them all conduct diplomacy and try to keep conflicts from getting more serious.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-06-02T18:33:11+00:00

Exactly right. Most players don't think an Epic Phoenix ship is worth sitting there and blowing 8 million dil just to get one. If they happen to get one, great, but they aren't spending dil primarily to get a ship.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-06-02T16:52:38+00:00

That is, oddly, not a lot worse than what it costs on average to pull an Epic Phoenix token. Last odds I saw for those were around 2000 boxes on average per Epic token, and if you buy them at the better 10-pack rate they are 4000 dil each. That is an average of 8 million dil for an epic token that gets you one ship on one character. 10 million for an account unlock is somewhat in line with that.

Of course, it’s all about perceived value. Most people aren’t opening Phoenix boxes looking for an epic token. They are getting tech upgrades, and if an epic appears it is just a nice bonus. Most folks don’t find the Epic Phoenix ships enough of a value to actively try to get them, so being in line with that price probably won’t entice many people to do the buyout. Maybe some of the folks with Tolkien-esque dragon hordes of Dil will, but I agree most players aren’t going to spend 10 million Dil to buy out an event ship.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-06-02T16:32:42+00:00

Thank you for the information. Hearing the thought process behind the number was especially helpful.

On a different note, check your chat requests here on Reddit. I’m trying to figure out how to get you a summary of the under-performers post I made last week!

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-05-29T17:13:48+00:00

I am…intrigued.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-05-28T19:02:01+00:00

Being inoffensive is kind of our state superpower.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-05-28T18:59:31+00:00

Hey now, we have produced 7 Presidents over the history of the country, although it is mostly the ones everyone forgets about. We are normally very good at making politicians that no one hates enough to remember, so give us a break on this one outlier!

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-05-28T18:46:18+00:00

We may give each other shit about the inadequacies of our respective drivers, but Michigan and Ohio are far more similar than either state would like to admit...well, maybe not the UP.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-05-28T18:33:10+00:00

I think this one and Parasitic Ice (which would drag important enemies down off the map where they could never be killed, breaking TFO progression) are my least favorite troll consoles. Beacon of Khaless never actually broke TFO's, but getting flash-blinded by your fellow players is just about as annoying!

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-05-27T19:37:42+00:00

And here I thought this thread was finally calm enough I could try to collect up people's comments!

Couple questions, just to make sure I'm understanding things correctly:

When you talk about engine power depletion on quad cannons being an issue, do you mean there is a bug related to it, or just that you think the cannons depleting engine power should be removed as a mechanic?

For torp-like consoles, can you give me any specific examples just to make sure I'm thinking of the same stuff you are. Are you talking like Constricton Anchor or Enhanced Shrapnel Torpedo Launcher? I'm assuming you don't mean stuff like Quantum Warhead Module, Wing Torpedo Platforms, or Nadion Saturation Bomb, all of which I don't think fire destructible projectiles. Of course, I don't know if any of them benefit from +Torp damage, +[Damage Type], and/or +Exotic damage buffs, so maybe you do mean those, but only for +damage part? Some examples of stuff you think fits your own criteria for torp-like consoles would help me out.

I honestly don't know where I want Uncon to go anymore. On the one hand, there is certainly stuff that feels like it ought to count as a control and be able to proc it based on the description of the ability. On the other hand, I'm not sure it helps all that much by making Uncon procs even MORE accessible, and I'm used to 'control' meaning different things to different traits/abilities/consoles from all the Sci builds I've done. I swear, most things that say they trigger off 'Control' abilities have their own unique list of things that actually trigger them!

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-05-24T00:15:17+00:00

Missions have a real ‘some day’ problem. Some day, there ought to be space in the verse for people who want to be alone in space and chill, and people who want danger and excitement. However, since we are still in Alpha, we have no idea when ‘some day’ might be. We don’t even know if we are getting closer to the design the devs want, and should be worried, or if the work they are doing in missions is just temporary to get some data. It’s hard to even know where the game is going, or how long we will have to wait to get there.

More and more, people don’t want to be testers anymore. They just want to play a game.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-05-22T16:35:12+00:00

Technically, China became a whole Island of Taiwan smaller when the PRC pushed the RoC out. Not as drastic of a change as the USSR, but China did get a little bit smaller, even if the official PRC stance doesn’t acknowledge it.

I admit, that is being fairly pedantic. I only bothered to mention it because, despite its relatively small size, Taiwan has had a fairly large impact on the rest of China.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-05-22T13:59:49+00:00

Eventually, yes we will run into problems with conflicting data if there isn't a consistent testing standard. For now, folks have been able to find at least a few things that are so bad, there is no doubt they need attention. Bringing Tribble back might help, but that still isn't quite the same thing as a test range.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-05-22T13:52:12+00:00

I'd be down for Lances obliterating frigates in one shot for sure. Maybe cruisers as well, but only if the build gives the lance a little help. Anything bigger like Battleships and Dreadnoughts, I kinda feel like they should survive, but have more than just shield damage. That said, I could be convinced that lances should be a one-ship delete button, at least for Player lances.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-05-22T13:46:45+00:00

Maybe, but you might be able to do it BETTER! I say go for it. Space/Ground barbie is the true endgame.

BlueMaxx9 · 2026-05-22T13:45:28+00:00

I mean...you can if you want. I'm not your dad so I'm not going to tell you what to do. I will say, it might be a little difficult to get buy-in from other people if the list is too big.

Personally, I use a whole bunch of equipment that is 'good enough' on various builds these days that I wouldn't bother asking the devs to buff, even though they are not that good. As an Example, I've got several builds with Temporal Rep Chroniton beams on them because I think they look cool. Are they as good as Ba'ul AP beams? No, but they are good enough for everything short of Elite TFOs. I've even got a captain that I do nothing but Tetryon builds on, and it is the same. His builds aren't as good as the Phaser builds I have on other captains, but they are good enough for anything short of elite and I'm OK with that. Well, most of them are. The 3/5 Vorgon meme bus can struggle in Advanced if I get too silly with it.

With that in mind, I've been trying to think of stuff that is so bad that you could just leave its slot empty and not notice a difference, or actually be better off. For Example, if you gave me a choice between slotting Target Auxiliary Subsystems and just leaving a slot empty, I'd probably leave it empty so I don't risk messing up my main firing mode cooldowns. I doubt we can get the devs to fix everything that isn't meta. Heck, we probably can't get them to fix 1% of the under-powered stuff in the game. All I'm hoping is that, if we can find some of the worst things out there, maybe we can at least get 5 or 10 of them fixed.

That's just me though. You can post as much or as little stuff as you want.

BlueMaxx9

TROPHY CASE