Ok now next time I log on...I'm looking at this ship

Dear Fleet Advanced Heavy Cruiser Retrofit,

Why are you so fugly? Why do you look like a 5th-grader was given popsicle sticks, a tongue depressor, and other arts and crafts from a low-rent Michael's knock-off store and told to make a spaceship version of the 1984 Oldsmobile 98? Why are you the pinnacle of cruiser acquisitions at the shipyard when you are clearly just some scuzbag with damaged hair and over-plucked eyebrows? Why do you make horses vomit? Why do you smell like a dirty ashtray? Why do I want to hit Alt-7 and Alt-8 to activate Emergency Power to Engines and Ramming Speed, respectively, fly my ship into yours, and finish us both off with Abandon Ship III whenever I see you? Why?

With All My Hate,
Vice-Admiral Lancelot "Rocket" Pierpont

Those videos make me want to say, "'Merica, fuck yeah!" But in your case it would be, "Great Bri'on, fuck yeah!"

I can't believe that some people are complaining about how long it takes ANet to get things out, like guesting, since when they come out they almost invariably have few/no problems - at least, none that I've experienced! I remember a certain other MMO I used to play where I would wait a week after an update to play, just so I could download the update and the patch to fix the update at the same time!

I don't know anything about Utopia, but I'm a big fan of anything where you get to bend time and space! (Cross reference to: My huge star trek nerdom)

So glad to see organized events! Will definitely try to log in for these when I can. :)

@Jacien: No problem :) I know everyone has the best interests of the fleet at heart!
@Araa: lol ;)

Incidentally, please feel free to refer people to this thread! We sent out the fleet-wide email providing the link, but I think that some people may be a bit forum shy. If the topic of fleet stores comes up with other fleeties during conversation in fleet chat, an STF or Fleet Action, encourage them to speak up here :D I'll try to do the same and hopefully we'll we some new faces!

Cheers all!
Dave.

If we want everyone's opinion, here's mine:

This doesn't really affect me at all. I try to make contributions to the fleet when I can, as generously as I'm able, but I'm not into going full-tilt with equipment once I hit 50. I only team for PvE occasionally, I don't do PvP at all, and at 50, I mostly just like to run around New Romulus and play Foundry missions. In short, I contribute but don't buy. I'm not sure how many players there are like me in this respect, but I'm about as casual a player as one can be whilst still playing frequently.

Oh no, don't get me wrong I did enjoy the reboot and liked it a lot but for me there was just something missing from it that's inherently Trek. I'm very grateful to J.J. for breathing new life into the Franchise and this will hopefully set the stage for a new series (fingers crossed). There are other really talented directors that could do future Trek movies justice so I'm not to worried about that part. I just feel like Star Wars is going to be a good fit for J.J. and am really looking forward to it.

@Voleron - You're making a habit of being the voice of reason in these things. You SURE you're a cop? :-D

Thanks for keeping us grounded Voleron. You remind me that this entire problem may just go away once we get back to regular reprovisioning projects. Perhaps, as you suggest, the right solution is simply to give it another month or two to clarify where the real issues are before getting involved in a detailed debate about the next step.

I do hope everyone feels free to contribute their thoughts though, sometimes it takes a new person and some fresh ideas to help us focus on what's really important! (see above)

I quite agree, Voleron. I'm sorry if my posts were overly loquacious and feel that I have said all I needed to say.. and then some :P

I don't want this to turn into the "a gentle reminder" thread so I will bow out of the debate and allow others to have their say.

I fervently encourage everyone reading this thread and who hasn't already commented to please please contribute your opinions, questions and concerns. :)

I really enjoyed the rebooted "Star Trek" and I think "Into Darkness" looks just as awesome.

I can't imagine him doing both so I can't help but think Star Trek just lost and Star Wars just won. It's an unfortunate turn of events but at least we should get a watch-able Star Wars film finally.

I just hope whoever takes over on Trek does as good a job as JJ.

Quote by Araa

@Todd, my math comes out very, very differently than yours since, as I think the demand side is far smaller than you expect. For example, I haven't had anything from the store in months and don't intend to.

I can respect that. And you raise a good point about how some people don't buy stuff. I would just point out that if we have seven people like you who don't buy anything and one person who buys eight things to fully equip his new ship, my math still works. My math doesn't require each person to buy one thing a month, it just assumes the average demand across all users.

Another issue that I'm surprised hasn't reared its head yet, and which I haven't mentioned because I don't really care about it, is the matter of people camping the store. It has already happened. If we are going to have an open system, then are we saying that we are okay with a return to people camping the projects and the store?

Let's try to keep this discussion on track. I fully recognize that this is a sensitive topic for many people who had strong opinions one way or another, prior to us trialling a new policy with respect to the fleet stores.

That being said, I think that it was important for us to proceed with the trial, because without at least attempting something different, we couldn't be sure exactly in which area or to what extent, we'd face provisioning challenges.

Like Bao, I haven't purchased any fleet weapons for my ship either, nor do I plan to in the near future. I suspect that there are others who don't care to make those sorts of purchases from fleet stores and others yet, who don't have the fleet credits or dilithium to make the purchases they might like. Of the 450-some fleet members in Stonewall, I don't suspect that all are at max level or even know about the fleet stores. It's because of these extraneous variables that a non-gatekeeper trial was the only way to provide those answers to the membership, so that everyone could weigh in with their opinion on how to manage the fleet stores moving forward, while having as much information as possible with respect to the pros and cons of both methods.

I kept a close eye on our provision levels throughout the trial, and it wasn't until my check on December 31st, that we began to encounter challenges in keeping up with demand in the engineering personal provisions. This means that we've been out of provisions for three and a half weeks or so. In the grand scheme of things, it's not a disastrous situation, and it's something we'll be able to recover from in short order. I think that the knowledge we gained in return was worth this minor and temporary inconvenience.

We'd very much appreciate receiving as much input from as many different members of the fleet as possible on this topic, but if the thread degenerates into personal attacks, it's likely going to discourage people from joining the conversation.

Being part of a large fleet means that we reap the benefits of being members of a big community, namely having access to high tier fleet equipment before many other fleets. Sometimes that also means that there is a cost associated with being but one voice in a chorus of 449 others, in that our personal views and desires may not always be reflected in choices that are made by the membership at large.

Let's make sure that we're polite to each other in these discussions and welcome as many others to join this conversation as possible by keeping things civil and not monopolizig the thread, so that our way forward is truly representative of the will of the membership.

I actually feel completely opposite of you on this, Jacien! I really liked the new movie and thought it infused the franchise with a much-needed vitality. As much as the series has been about discovery, it's been even more about solving mysteries, especially with regard to the movies, which Abrams' style is well-matched for.

While Star Wars is more action-oriented, I feel its stories are usually much more simplistic. While I don't doubt that Abrams would do a good job on Star Wars, I'd much rather see him stick to Star Trek.

@Todd, my math comes out very, very differently than yours, as I think the demand side is far smaller than you expect. For example, I haven't had anything from the store in months and don't intend to. What were we running before using the gatekeeper, a demand of 10-20 eng provisions per week max vs. a 160/week supply limit? Seems easy to do, and if demand has shot up, guess what, that could be a sign of the success of the new program. Unless we all believe the shortage is due to fraud/overpurchasing, the lack of that one provision could be a great sign that members are enjoying the base and it's benefits more than they were. Then the simple question is, can we meet demand?

And rather than get caught up in using very different assumptions to drive our math, it`s easy to test this stuff empirically. We just get rid of the fab bottleneck, issue some guidelines to the fleet ("don't go crazy with the weapons people") and do a few weeks of (not 250k dil) provisioning projects to estimate the latent demand. Simple, and no one gets hurt. Then we check in in a couple of weeks and see what we do next. It's totally normal for these kinds of program changes to need a few iterations and adjustments along the way.

And as a reminder, all the other provisions are working fine and with no admin at all... so let's see if a few tweaks can solve our little problem first.

What does everyone think about this? He's a good director and I kinda feel like maybe Star Wars is more action oriented than Star Trek. He did a good job with Star Trek in making it entertaining and appealing to a mainstream audience but I kinda feel like that he left out the 'soul' of Star Trek which is about wonder and discovery and less about conflict. Star Wars is much more about the conflict between good and evil and I'm sure he'll bring a lot of action to the genre.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/01/j-j-abrams-to-direct-new-star-wars-movie-for-disney/

Star Trek director J.J. Abrams will be helming the next Star Wars movie. “It’s done deal with J.J.,” a source with knowledge of the situation told Deadline today. Argo director Ben Affleck was also up for the gig, the source says. Despite saying publicly that he didn’t want to direct a new Star Wars, Abrams was courted heavily by producer Kathleen Kennedy to take the job. Expected in 2015, Episode VII will be the first new Star Wars movie since 2005′s Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith. Michael Arndt is writing the script for the first installment of the relaunch of George Lucas’ franchise by Disney. The company bought Lucasfilm in October for $4 billion, with the Star Wars franchise the jewel in the crown. At the time, CEO Bob Iger said three more Star Wars films were in the pipeline. Abrams’ other space-based franchise sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness, comes out May 17. This weekend, the PGA will honor the Lost creator and Revolution producer with its 2013 Norman Lear Award For Television. Abrams is repped by CAA and Oasis Media Group.

I was impressed by the commitment to this class of ships especially with the general move towards smaller more role defined ships.

Very impressive! I'd love to see one of them in person so I hope Britain comes to show off their latest toy to the SA Navy sometime.

Quote by Jacien

Has anyone heard such murmurings and if so could they please provide a link on the STO forums?

You're right. I haven't seen anyone talking about this on the STO forums. Not even people from our fleet. Who from our fleet has gone on the STO forums to complain about our lack of provisions? Not me. Not you. So I guess that having this problem doesn't really guarantee that the result will be a "huge racket" on the forums. After all, if we aren't making a fuss about it in public, then one can reason that other people don't do so, either.

If not, then one can reason that since other fleets get along just fine with balancing their provisioning projects, so too can we.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Your statement is engaging in argumentum ad ignorantiam, which is a informal logical fallacy. Strong suit? Really?

Once we get to tier 5 I'm sure all of this will blow over

You were also sure that opening up the store would lead to no problems. I believe your exact words at the time were that "a valid and apparently popular argument is being made that the system could stand to be reformed without incident". Yet, here we are, debating how to deal with the resulting incident.