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I love the new seasons. STO is improving!
antiquesroadshow
Member Posts: 227 Arc User
Speaking for myself. I love the new direction STO is going in. I loved the dps nerf. I am a high end dps'er, and things were getting too easy. The enemy actually have a chance to kill you now! They've brought back pvp, which shows their trying. They've nerfed certain consoles which brought back variety in the game. There are so many new ways to build your ship now. The Endeavor system. Making all content valuable again. I know everything's not perfect. But their trying. Great job Cryptic!
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Also... no.
U.S.S. Buteo Regalis - Brigid Multi-Mission Surveillance Explorer build
R.R.W. Ri Maajon - Khopesh Tactical Dreadnought Warbird build
My Youtube channel containing STO videos.
They haven't really done much directly for PvP this year at all.
PvP in 2017:
- PvP Scoreboard fixed with S13, broke with a patch a week or two later. Still broke months later.
- Multiple things have popped up and ruined overall PvP balance post-S13
- Constant High Speed Potential due to Competitive Rep Engines and stacking other speed buffs.
- Dyson Rep Science Shield Refrequencer "Proton" Consoles doing too much damage and apparently ignoring some resists.
- Drains being pretty OP
- Shield Drains (mostly from Quantum Phase Torp) make shields worthless quite often.
- Most survivability relies on the DPRM and Protomatter consoles, and the Shield Overload trait. Most player heals can't counter the still absurdly high raw damage players have in PvP. Heals and Player HP needs a significant bump in PvP maps to counter this.
- The new teased PvP map from earlier this year is still MIAYou'll always have the dilemma that people need to play the content multiple times over because it is consumed faster than it can be produced. That's fine, I have no problem accepting that we need to play the same content.
The problem for me is, however, that they never bothered to make repeating the same content actually interesting. Their answer to everything has been to slap interesting rewards on it: play the same queue dozens of time so that you can get better gear to... yeah, do what exactly? Play the same content again for the dozens + 1 time with some improved gear?
It's the same with basically everything. Reputations. We are encouraged to play the same episode three times. For R&D you need to go in 'mindless automaton' mode and select the same daily missions for months to come.
Of course there are many different ways of playing the game; using a different build or ship, a different playstyle, even wearing a different uniform. Some of these things have become very expensive to try out though, and it does not solve the issue that it's still the same content you're playing.
The Endeavour system may help a bit to make some less often played content a bit more popular. But it does not bring in new players, which means you're only redirecting your players and moving around the problem: taking players from populated areas/queues towards a less popular one - which will only leave empty the previously populated areas and queues.
That's my main concern here. The Devs have so heavily focussed on rewards being the solution to everything, that they seem to have forgotten that, in the end, playing and enjoying the game should be the reward and everything else is a bonus. If it isn't sufficient as a reward, something is flawed and just slapping more rewards on it (some of them to be accessed over a period of 3-4 weeks for new episodes, 40 days in the case of reputations and over half a year or something for R&D) will only temporarily address the issue. Indeed, it will not actually solve it because nothing is done with the core of the problem.
They need to start offering some more variation. If you expect players to play the same episode, queue etc. multiple times (which cannot be avoided I guess) then at least make the content itself more varied. Players have asked for meaningful dialogue choices for example, which would be just one way of adding some variation. Queues could have different backgrounds, random enemies or allies, environmental effects like nebulae that cause interference...
Anything else such as bringing in a voice actor, releasing a great episode or adding an Endeavour system might temporarily lead to a surge in activity or redirect activity to where it's 'needed', but eventually it won't solve anything.
Edit: spelling
While I haven't given the endeavor system a fair shake yet, I agree; I doubt it will be a very long-term solution. I am glad they've added a way to give older cues value, but I question why they weren't having "Hive Onslaught, etc" weekend, or something with bonus rewards on the same caliber as those that are given out for "Marks weekend" or even to double the dilithium rewards, or SOMETHING.
Don't let them promote you. Don't let them transfer you. Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you're there... you can make a difference.
-Captain James T. Kirk