I agree with who ever it was that said if you dont like the shooter mode then press b.... and if you wish to complain about the whole subscription stuff and why pay $15 dollars for it (10 dollars for fee and 5 dollars for the 400 promo points)... again in the same context as the person said before with regards to shooter mode and all. you have a choice.. if you dont like what you see make a choice about what you want to do about.
another note i see that some people dont read things properly...... i seriously think that you would have you eyes checked and if you need glasses then get some.. it is very tiring to see people rant and cuss out something that they enjoyed for a long time then get all blah cause of a few thing that they dont like.. seriously... grow up and accept the changes that comes..
Cryptic i strongly believe you are doing a wonderful job and the changes are good... except with the mass amount of disconnection i have had i haven't got all ****y about it like some people have...
1 ofther thing... the andorian and the aenars live on the same planet can we migrant them in to the one species type of something if you are planning on doing that..
overall enjoy the F2P beta right now.... keep it up...
everyone else whos been spilling TRIBBLE out shame on you... at least give the beta a chances before being ****y about it...
recap if you dont like it you can cancel your membership if you want to cause no one is going to stop you from doing so if you dont like how the changes with the beta have been so far..
I agree that the shooter mode needs to be better implemented in the tutorial.
Either start in the standard RPG mode and explain the shooter mode. Or make it easier to understand what shooter mode is. For us existing players its easy as we know the keys etc for new players they will find it frustrating and perhaps give up on the game complaining of crappy controls.
So please consider changing how shooter mode comes up - personally I don't think it should be the default mode, but it should certainly come up as the FIRST help item.
PLEASE POST or tell us what all of the bonus set items do: I.E Borg Space gear bonus; ground gear bouns... They sound pretty awesome but I want to know what they do pl0x!!!!!!!!!!
I really wish that the tutorial started off in Starfleet Academy. Or at least, start the entire ordeal off as you failing a holodeck simulation, then moving to the Vega Colony scenario. That way, the resources spent on the Khitomer Rescue event won't be wasted, and will still work as part of the tutorial.
Starting off on Shooter mode is a bit weird, especially since most PC players, especially casuals like me, expect to be able to CLICK ON STUFF upon starting a game that isn't an FPS. Recommend that the game starts on RPG mode, then offers the "shooter mode" option after. Granted, I actually use my 360 controller for Champions Online, but the button remap on there is fairly nice. I couldn't get that to work when I tried it here. No big loss, though, since I've been playing STO on just keyboard and mouse for almost 600 days.
A few sound stutters in some areas, including the opening video.
to all the people saying that shooter mode in the tutorial as default is stupid...
Then turn it off... You all know how. Its typically the "B" button. The tutorial boxes tell new players how to exit shoot mode as well.
you need to look at it as a new player, someone who does not know to press B.
when a new player logs on the first thing he sees is the tooltips, which have a scroll bar on them that he cant scroll. they might not initially see to close them by using the enter key. (which also activates the chat window) he runs over to the npc and for some reason the F key does not work with them. so you cant even get to the first major tool tip that explains to use the B button without first using the B button. I know that can all be cleaned up but there is a second problem.
edit - i played it again and there is a tool tip before you speak to him, telling you to leave shooter mode, but even so i managed to miss it the first time. so will others.
many players will also skip tutorials as its just something people do. some wont bother reading it, and while that may be their fault it should not punish them because they choose to skip it. with rpg you can work out what to do by exploring your screen and clicking on everything. with shooter mode if they dont know to press B is all feels very awkward. they need to make a great first impression and this is not it. Shooter mode should be naturally introduced at the first combat stage not turned on, then the first thing they tell you to do is exit it.
Upon first initiating the system, characters will be granted a number of starting duty officers to staff their ship. Additional duty officers of various qualities, rarities, specializations and species may be gained by means of certain assignments as well as via purchase of random packs of duty officers on the C-Store.
I am Lt.Com1 and have nothing becom a Dutyofficerstarterpack.
Upon first initiating the system, characters will be granted a number of starting duty officers to staff their ship. Additional duty officers of various qualities, rarities, specializations and species may be gained by means of certain assignments as well as via purchase of random packs of duty officers on the C-Store.
I am Lt.Com1 and have nothing becom a Dutyofficerstarterpack.
It's a major system. Either make it unlock at Level 1 or Level 10. Not 12. Not 11. Not 73.6.
It's bad enough that you switch ranks at eleven as opposed to ten. It's counter-intuitive and no expects it and we've been explaining that to new players since launch that no, sorry, you're going to have to go up one more level.
Yes Cryptic, we know that technically there's no "Level 0" so that technically the tenth level IS the eleventh level but you know what, that just makes you that same guy who went on at length that the new millennium actually was actually starting on 2001 as opposed to 2000. No one likes that guy. No one likes a math geek Cryptic.
In fact, while you're fixing basic stuff... make your rank ding at 10 as opposed to 11. Go back and fix that. It's long past due.
As soon as you finish off Lieutenant 9 you should ding and hit Lieutenant Commander 1. No Lieutenant 10. No Cryptic. Bad! Bad Cryptic! *hits Cryptic with a rolled up newspaper* Bad!
Been on Tribble around 4-5 hours today. Here's what I think so far:
In Love With
Tutorial Updates - very cool that Sci start in the Sickbay, Eng in Engineering, and Tac in a Weapons Locker. Also very cool moving around ship interiors. And excellent Red Alert LCARS on the bridge!
New Mission Journal "Episode Guide" - along with properly ordered missions. Makes your progression much cleaner and easy to understand.
Episode XP - Getting 1 Level per Episode which is awesome. I really hated playing early content before this change because it seemed like a slow crawl. Now it's very enjoyable!
Improvement Suggestions
"In Progress" Missions could use an "Info button" which shows the XP and Rewards upon completing it. That has been a long time wish of mine since I usually accept a bunch of stuff then do them later. I cannot see what the reward will be after acceptance.
Something happened to the Low Priority Window. We can no longer resize it. Plus it cuts off text making prompts undecipherable at times.
Character slots silver accounts will receive the following character slots
1 slot that is limited to Starfleet characters
1 slot that is limited to Klingon characters (note that in this build the Klingon faction is not available at this phase of the beta)
1 slot that is for Foundry content creation
Additional character slots may be purchased from the c-store
Gold account Details:
Character slots silver accounts will receive the following character slots
1 Unrestricted character slot
1 slot that is limited to Starfleet characters
1 slot that is limited to Klingon characters (note that in this build the Klingon faction is not available)
1 slot that is for Foundry content creation
Additional character slots may be purchased from the c-store
Are character slots bought via the C-Store going to be unrestricted, like it's still on Holodeck, or will these be replaced / supplemented with faction- or purpose-specific slots? If the latter, what are the new prices going to be?
They're talking generally, not about Featured Episodes.
So... this is what the content designers have been doing? Retooling all the old missions to work only in sequence and level to the player?
So if one wants to parse that, what you end up with is this:
If you're looking for serious new mission content with F2P there isn't any in this beta and won't be any coming beyond (eventually) the next Featured Series. This is what the content designers have been doing for the last eight months or so, retooling the missions the subscribers have already played for the F2P Conversion and the influx of Silvers instead of making new content that everyone could enjoy.
This is the gist we should be getting here, right?
I don't think that this is going to happen. For one, Cryptic has announced their plans for a featured episode almost every week. For another, Cryptic has promised that there will never be a content like this ever again. For another, making the missions line up should not be that hard and they are saying it is something they plan to do, they haven't been working on that for months. They've been out designing the new STFs, making the Doff system, doing a great job of remastering old episodes, and fixing the game's most annoying bugs. For yet another, they DO listen to their community and notice people posting questions and complaints. They will do what their community wants them to do (within reason and US law). I don't think there is much to worry about. My biggest concern is the server stability.
I don't think that this is going to happen. For one, Cryptic has announced their plans for a featured episode almost every week.
I think you're completely misinterpreting what I said, which is this:
Beyond the next Featured Series which is supposed to be launching with F2P there is no more sizable new playable mission-based content coming with the F2P launch. The new FEs will basically be it.
Unlike with Champions Online there won't be any new massive rework of a large section of content.
The new stuff will be:
The Economy Revamp
The Feature Series
The Doff System
Minor Event Additions
Some STF Updates
The only real new mission content, that the drought bought us, which will launch with F2P is the one Featured Series. Beyond that it's mostly systems and minor updates.
So... very little real content is coming with F2P.
If you're going to start it at LT Commander, then 11 makes the most sense.
I have to disagree with that. Unless it was changed, in a few places when you reach say Lt 10, it can show up as LtC 0, if I remember correctly. That means that your are the lowest grade/rank LtC, what I would imagine would be akin to a field promotion as opposed to a "proper promotion." Yes you are then officially "unofficially promoted" just with out the pomp and ceremony, or something like that.
Otherwise you'd be right, technically on simple number system.
Okay, here's a question. I've hit LTCmdr. Where are my duty officers? Nobody shows up in my roster.
You have to hit ltCmdr2 (IE Level 12). herirtic said you could see it at LtCmdr1 IF you go to the Star Fleet Academy and do something there, but it's a bug and it's supposed to 'open' at Level 12.
Ah, my bad. It would be nice hitting the next rank at 10. I don't know how many times I thought "Yay, next rank!" only to have to get one more to rank up.
So I saw the patch notes last night and started getting excited but right away that was diminished.
In order to test out the Doff system I have to grind up to Lt Cmdr? WTF???!!! ugh been there done that and again and again got the t-shirt. No character trans for several weeks either so testing any of the higher end stuff out is out.
But I'd be "okay no biggie' if stuff like the Doff System made it to redshirt but nooooo...
Anyway so I give the new tutorial a go and find myself in the armory or security office whatever, that was neat. So I go tlak to the NPC but F fails to cause the conversation to start. Thankfully that seemed to be the only one to have that problem
So I explore the rest of the deck and findt Engineering and the science lab are on the same deck? But anyway I chuck it up to "It's a small ship" and resource limitations. But it's a small ship with a sovereign class warp core... hmm anyway....
The new bridge was an excellant touch....
The rest of the tutorial was rpetty much the same as before blah blah blah
So I found myself rather annoyed new toys dangled in front of us to test out but just out of reach
I have to admit, I think I prefer this tutorial to a tutorial that could be done at the academy. I agree something needs to be done at the academy, but I think this mission is a good jump into the action. Admittedly the tutorial side of the mission still needs some polish.
I have seen an issue that i dont like if im reading it correctly with the way we now get missions. (it may be something they will change later).
right now, 'stop the signal' seems to be bugged. there is a problem with the klingon help getting killed too quickly, but no problem as that will get fixed....but.... the next mission does not seem to open up (researcher rescue) until i play stop the signal. so that means players are forced to play a misison in the story chain to get the next one.
that brings up 2 issues.
1) much like above if one mission is bugged, and it happens from time to time, the game comes crashing to a halt as you cant continue the quest.
2) ive made tons of alts and i dont play the same missions every time. sometimes i want skip them and move onto something else, maybe even come back to them later. i thought the whole point of having missions level to you is that you could skip some and then come back to them later, not to let one mission stop the storyline.
does it only affect missions within a chain or the whole lot. will not doing 'stop the signal' mean i cant play the devidian series or the romulan front?
I am not sure I like the increase in skill points to Lt. commander. I hope this is just for testing purposes. Before, skill point flow went fairly well all the way to level 45. There are some awsome ships at Tier 1 (NX, constitution, Oberth) that the accelerated progression would just whip through. For F2P players, it would not be worth paying C-points for a ship that you would only use for a few hours. Having used both the Constitution and the NX, they are nice ships and can make the first tier a lot of fun. Before, I think you out leveled them fairly quickly, now, the early levels go by in the blink of an eye. I can see the appeal to get past the newbie levels and get into a real ship, but unless the Tier 1 C-store ships are turned into tier 2 ships, I do not see how they would generate any revenue with the accelerated leveling for Tier 1.
I am not sure I like the increase in skill points to Lt. commander. I hope this is just for testing purposes. Before, skill point flow went fairly well all the way to level 45. There are some awsome ships at Tier 1 (NX, constitution, Oberth) that the accelerated progression would just whip through. For F2P players, it would not be worth paying C-points for a ship that you would only use for a few hours. Having used both the Constitution and the NX, they are nice ships and can make the first tier a lot of fun. Before, I think you out leveled them fairly quickly, now, the early levels go by in the blink of an eye. I can see the appeal to get past the newbie levels and get into a real ship, but unless the Tier 1 C-store ships are turned into tier 2 ships, I do not see how they would generate any revenue with the accelerated leveling for Tier 1.
-Keppoch
its both good and bad. it helps that early grind but yes it seems way to quick at the moment. upping it was good but probably not that high for when it goes live. you dont want players burning through the game.
I am getting a lot of server drops. I had the load screen wait when I first logged on, but moving quickly after the drops.
Also, something seems to be wrong with Hide and Seek, I was not able to scan the large asteriod base where the mines are located. I tried several times, warped out, and the stage reset. Then it crashed again.
I think I will resume testing once some of these bugs are worked out a little more on the stability side.
Comments
currently I believe the doff system is not actuallly in yet
another note i see that some people dont read things properly...... i seriously think that you would have you eyes checked and if you need glasses then get some.. it is very tiring to see people rant and cuss out something that they enjoyed for a long time then get all blah cause of a few thing that they dont like.. seriously... grow up and accept the changes that comes..
Cryptic i strongly believe you are doing a wonderful job and the changes are good... except with the mass amount of disconnection i have had i haven't got all ****y about it like some people have...
1 ofther thing... the andorian and the aenars live on the same planet can we migrant them in to the one species type of something if you are planning on doing that..
overall enjoy the F2P beta right now.... keep it up...
everyone else whos been spilling TRIBBLE out shame on you... at least give the beta a chances before being ****y about it...
recap if you dont like it you can cancel your membership if you want to cause no one is going to stop you from doing so if you dont like how the changes with the beta have been so far..
Either start in the standard RPG mode and explain the shooter mode. Or make it easier to understand what shooter mode is. For us existing players its easy as we know the keys etc for new players they will find it frustrating and perhaps give up on the game complaining of crappy controls.
So please consider changing how shooter mode comes up - personally I don't think it should be the default mode, but it should certainly come up as the FIRST help item.
you need to look at it as a new player, someone who does not know to press B.
when a new player logs on the first thing he sees is the tooltips, which have a scroll bar on them that he cant scroll. they might not initially see to close them by using the enter key. (which also activates the chat window) he runs over to the npc and for some reason the F key does not work with them. so you cant even get to the first major tool tip that explains to use the B button without first using the B button. I know that can all be cleaned up but there is a second problem.
edit - i played it again and there is a tool tip before you speak to him, telling you to leave shooter mode, but even so i managed to miss it the first time. so will others.
many players will also skip tutorials as its just something people do. some wont bother reading it, and while that may be their fault it should not punish them because they choose to skip it. with rpg you can work out what to do by exploring your screen and clicking on everything. with shooter mode if they dont know to press B is all feels very awkward. they need to make a great first impression and this is not it. Shooter mode should be naturally introduced at the first combat stage not turned on, then the first thing they tell you to do is exit it.
I am Lt.Com1 and have nothing becom a Dutyofficerstarterpack.
I read they are at level 12, so ltcom 2, but that you could manage to get doffs through starfleet academy at level 11.
I'm assuming that means you get introduced to the system and are given the 'starter pack' of doffs at LtCom 2.
So level once more! ^_^
it starts at 12. so lt.com 2
And on this note:
It's a major system. Either make it unlock at Level 1 or Level 10. Not 12. Not 11. Not 73.6.
It's bad enough that you switch ranks at eleven as opposed to ten. It's counter-intuitive and no expects it and we've been explaining that to new players since launch that no, sorry, you're going to have to go up one more level.
Yes Cryptic, we know that technically there's no "Level 0" so that technically the tenth level IS the eleventh level but you know what, that just makes you that same guy who went on at length that the new millennium actually was actually starting on 2001 as opposed to 2000. No one likes that guy. No one likes a math geek Cryptic.
In fact, while you're fixing basic stuff... make your rank ding at 10 as opposed to 11. Go back and fix that. It's long past due.
As soon as you finish off Lieutenant 9 you should ding and hit Lieutenant Commander 1. No Lieutenant 10. No Cryptic. Bad! Bad Cryptic! *hits Cryptic with a rolled up newspaper* Bad!
Stop trying to make things counter-intuitive.
In Love With
Improvement Suggestions
Level 10 is still LT.
If you're going to start it at LT Commander, then 11 makes the most sense.
Keep readin'...
I assure you my post did not stop there.
Are character slots bought via the C-Store going to be unrestricted, like it's still on Holodeck, or will these be replaced / supplemented with faction- or purpose-specific slots? If the latter, what are the new prices going to be?
I don't think that this is going to happen. For one, Cryptic has announced their plans for a featured episode almost every week. For another, Cryptic has promised that there will never be a content like this ever again. For another, making the missions line up should not be that hard and they are saying it is something they plan to do, they haven't been working on that for months. They've been out designing the new STFs, making the Doff system, doing a great job of remastering old episodes, and fixing the game's most annoying bugs. For yet another, they DO listen to their community and notice people posting questions and complaints. They will do what their community wants them to do (within reason and US law). I don't think there is much to worry about. My biggest concern is the server stability.
I think you're completely misinterpreting what I said, which is this:
Beyond the next Featured Series which is supposed to be launching with F2P there is no more sizable new playable mission-based content coming with the F2P launch. The new FEs will basically be it.
Unlike with Champions Online there won't be any new massive rework of a large section of content.
The only real new mission content, that the drought bought us, which will launch with F2P is the one Featured Series. Beyond that it's mostly systems and minor updates.
So... very little real content is coming with F2P.
I have to disagree with that. Unless it was changed, in a few places when you reach say Lt 10, it can show up as LtC 0, if I remember correctly. That means that your are the lowest grade/rank LtC, what I would imagine would be akin to a field promotion as opposed to a "proper promotion." Yes you are then officially "unofficially promoted" just with out the pomp and ceremony, or something like that.
Otherwise you'd be right, technically on simple number system.
to bad i was at Ensign lvl 48 and had the idea to make a lvl 51 Warrior
humf there goes a real challenge.
You have to hit ltCmdr2 (IE Level 12). herirtic said you could see it at LtCmdr1 IF you go to the Star Fleet Academy and do something there, but it's a bug and it's supposed to 'open' at Level 12.
Ah, my bad. It would be nice hitting the next rank at 10. I don't know how many times I thought "Yay, next rank!" only to have to get one more to rank up.
In order to test out the Doff system I have to grind up to Lt Cmdr? WTF???!!! ugh been there done that and again and again got the t-shirt. No character trans for several weeks either so testing any of the higher end stuff out is out.
But I'd be "okay no biggie' if stuff like the Doff System made it to redshirt but nooooo...
Anyway so I give the new tutorial a go and find myself in the armory or security office whatever, that was neat. So I go tlak to the NPC but F fails to cause the conversation to start. Thankfully that seemed to be the only one to have that problem
So I explore the rest of the deck and findt Engineering and the science lab are on the same deck? But anyway I chuck it up to "It's a small ship" and resource limitations. But it's a small ship with a sovereign class warp core... hmm anyway....
The new bridge was an excellant touch....
The rest of the tutorial was rpetty much the same as before blah blah blah
So I found myself rather annoyed new toys dangled in front of us to test out but just out of reach
no, you assume command of the miranda you beam over to.
right now, 'stop the signal' seems to be bugged. there is a problem with the klingon help getting killed too quickly, but no problem as that will get fixed....but.... the next mission does not seem to open up (researcher rescue) until i play stop the signal. so that means players are forced to play a misison in the story chain to get the next one.
that brings up 2 issues.
1) much like above if one mission is bugged, and it happens from time to time, the game comes crashing to a halt as you cant continue the quest.
2) ive made tons of alts and i dont play the same missions every time. sometimes i want skip them and move onto something else, maybe even come back to them later. i thought the whole point of having missions level to you is that you could skip some and then come back to them later, not to let one mission stop the storyline.
does it only affect missions within a chain or the whole lot. will not doing 'stop the signal' mean i cant play the devidian series or the romulan front?
Yep.
/10 Chars
-Keppoch
i think thats a bad idea then, that will cause so many issues, far more than it solves.
its both good and bad. it helps that early grind but yes it seems way to quick at the moment. upping it was good but probably not that high for when it goes live. you dont want players burning through the game.
Also, something seems to be wrong with Hide and Seek, I was not able to scan the large asteriod base where the mines are located. I tried several times, warped out, and the stage reset. Then it crashed again.
I think I will resume testing once some of these bugs are worked out a little more on the stability side.