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Diary of a Beta Tester...
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Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
Well, the developers have launched the Tribble server for the beta test of Free-to-play (F2P) and to put further work into Season 4.1.
I first became aware of the beta test on the 29 September 2011. However, I did not attempt to access the server until Friday, 30 September 2011. I read over the patch notes provided by the developers. The notes are provided in an outline format.
However, it is unclear in the written documentation how people access a Silver account or a Gold account. Since, I am a veteran of the game since February 2010, I took an educated guess that if I had a lifetime subscription or was paying for an account that I was already a gold member. I also speculate that to start a silver account, a player just has to download the client software and open a new account with the game.
Although, I have not confirm this information. I also do not know how someone not playing the game will know that Cryptic Studio is beta testing the game for silver account clients.
Logging in the game to test:
At this phase of the test, the players must start out with a new character. I was able to load a copy of my main character in the character editor. At least, I will have the look of my main character, but she is a new character.
The game starts the player with the same tutorial, but there have been changes. Players will now start in sickbay if they are a science officer, engineering if they are a engineer character, or another place for tactical officers. I have not confirmed where tactical players start.
From this point, the tutorial is still the same.
This is where I encountered my first bug report. In role play mode (RPG), the auto fire did not function properly. The problem was mainly with the number 2 slotted power or attack. I switch back to the shooter mode, the toolbar functioned correctly. I then switched back to RPG mode. In my set up, I use a Logitech F310 gamepad. Only the number 3 slot power on the toolbar would function correctly. I tried several techniques to understand what was happening in the game in relation to the game pad.
The method I ended up using to work around this problem was to turn off the second auto attack option, or the highlighted green button. To turn this off in game, a player just has to hold the right mouse button down until the button is no longer highlighted green. I was able to enable or turn on the first position power in the toolbar while using the gamepad. The auto fire work too, but I had to press the second attack manually to activate the second attack power from both the keyboard and gamepad.
I suspect when the programmers eliminated the 'maintain' option on the ground game for the RPG mode, it wiped out the necessary code that allowed the toolbar to function properly. Even though the programmers stated they had made the function inoperable for several months. I do not think this is true. I have always used 'maintain' in Star Trek Online (STO) and Champions Online (CO).
I mainly used maintain because it allowed a player on ground and space to set the first two slotted powers to autofire and not have to worry about targeting the enemy. In space it allows a player to fire at multiple contacts if the player does not target anything. You just had to enable the fire and as soon as a foe steps into range, the player will attack the foe.
My 'maintain' was able to do this up until Season 4 patch came out which eliminated this option. When they eliminated this option in the autofire menu, this is when I first started to experience the toolbar not working properly for the slotted 2 power.
I suspect that the way maintain was working before Season 4 patch was a mistake to begin with when the programmers started allowing autofire to more than one slotted attack for space and ground. I think they tried to correct for this because it caused an error in the players favor. I think they stated 'they had made it inoperable' only to act a a block for what was really transpiring in the game. I think the programmers underestimated how useful the original serendipitous error was.
I think they intended to correct for it in Season 4 with the shooter system. However, it backfired because by removing the underlying function caused more malfunctions in the code. I do not think this is a sinister act or behavior. I think it was a bad policy to tinker with something that was not consider 'broken' by the player base.
Anyway, I slaved through the tutorial and am told I never have to do it again. We will see.
On to Exploring the Galaxy:
My usual style of play is to skip the Cryptic storyline in the game, mainly because I think it is not Star Trek style stories, but really just Space Wars version 4.0. I usually, go strait to the Delta Volanis area and explore. I save the story missions if people want to team later.
However, I soon discovered that the developers assume everyone plays the storyline missions. I base this on that you do not officially get the go explore the Delta Volanis until after you finish the P'Jem story.
I prefer to do exploration missions first build up some money and replace all the useless starter equipment on the Miranda. On the live server, I immediately dump the Miranda for the TOS Constitution class. I also outfit my away team with Phaser 2. This way I only have to pay for armor and shield upgrades. I normally use my exploration badges to buy items from Ensign to VA1.
However, the developers have eliminated badges with the current proposed patch. This actually is a bad idea. When you first start doing exploration missions, the first couple of missions are Aid the Planet, Gather resources, or approach the planet. By eliminating the badges, the player now has to buy all the ship components and landing party equipment as a out of pocket expense.
A player could elect to craft some low level items, but by the time you made enough low level items to overcome the skill required to make a useful item that you can slot now, you will out rank the crafted item. So, when I swing around to make craftable items, I will be able to do so with my second character or when I am VA1, I will be able to make a ton of useless items. Not to mention, the long back and forth flights to Memory Alpha to make the items is allot of dead time.
I explored to see if they moved crafting off of Memory Alpha, I have not seen anything ship board to do so.
The moment I hit the exploration zone, I hit around 10 Aid the Planet missions in a row. The developers decided to eliminate the reward item for going out and purchasing commodities. So all ten of those missions were sent to the drop mission pile because, there is no point to do them. No one is going to go out and spend 1,000 Ec or more on items, and get nothing in return.
I was hoping to see if the game awarded dilithium instead of badges or aid the planet rewards. This was not to be. Instead, the player is left with a large amount of time grinding that is not profitable. Keep in mind profit is any skill, currency, or tangible and intangible item a player comes away with from spending time doing an activity in the game.
So my options, was a long grind to Lieutenant Commander (LtC) or go do the storyline missions, which I think are boring and not representative of Star Trek. So I decided to go do the storyline missions to get them out of the way.
The P'Jem mission had some changes which are nice. However, in my opinion the story is awful. A federation Commander who has just survived a Borg attack on Vega Colony, then went to save a stranded freighter which was under attack by Orions , who are formally allied with the Klingon Empire. You have to escort a emotionally unstable Vulcan who is prone to frustration and anger (very non-Vulcan like). he has urgent business on P'Jem that requires Star Fleet intervention.
Makes no sense if you are a Undine spy trying to secretly infiltrate a Vulcan monastery. Yes, my first instincts is to argue for Star Fleet to personally escort me. Then if bad storyline is not enough, the Klingons show up to tell you that you are being duped by the Undine.
What is a better mystery is how the Klingons know about the Undine and the federation player does not know. It also begs the question, if we have a Betazoid Counselor, which is standard operating procedure for Star Fleet since TNG. The whole purpose of have a telepathic and empathetic as a bridge crewman is to inform the captain of suspicious people who are trying to deceive the captain with mental skills.
If that is not enough, the next mission Stop the Signal, is actually really good until you get to the end of it. Some how, in a gun fight, a Undine is revealed to the crew. Then a bunch of Klingons show up to aid the lone federation frigate. This is weird because, we are so deep in the Federation interior. The Klingons get wiped out in 30 seconds by a Undine battlecruiser that should be fighting a VA1 ship.
Instead you have to attempt to fight the ship solo, after an entire Klingon battle force is wiped out with standard issue phasers and standard issue torpedoes, without any skills allocated.
Where a smart player and wise player would have went and built up the ship and crew for the mission can come back to the stories, the developers wiped out the only way to build up your ship and crew by eliminating the badges. Then not replacing it with anything.
However, once I realized the Stop the Signal mission was poorly designed, I went back and slaved my way with exploring. I did rack up a nice payload of resources. however, my monetary assets is below average. of the 22 characters I currently have in the main game. I am usually north of 22,000 EC's at LtC1. I was barely at 2,000 EC's this weekend.
(continue below)
I first became aware of the beta test on the 29 September 2011. However, I did not attempt to access the server until Friday, 30 September 2011. I read over the patch notes provided by the developers. The notes are provided in an outline format.
However, it is unclear in the written documentation how people access a Silver account or a Gold account. Since, I am a veteran of the game since February 2010, I took an educated guess that if I had a lifetime subscription or was paying for an account that I was already a gold member. I also speculate that to start a silver account, a player just has to download the client software and open a new account with the game.
Although, I have not confirm this information. I also do not know how someone not playing the game will know that Cryptic Studio is beta testing the game for silver account clients.
Logging in the game to test:
At this phase of the test, the players must start out with a new character. I was able to load a copy of my main character in the character editor. At least, I will have the look of my main character, but she is a new character.
The game starts the player with the same tutorial, but there have been changes. Players will now start in sickbay if they are a science officer, engineering if they are a engineer character, or another place for tactical officers. I have not confirmed where tactical players start.
From this point, the tutorial is still the same.
This is where I encountered my first bug report. In role play mode (RPG), the auto fire did not function properly. The problem was mainly with the number 2 slotted power or attack. I switch back to the shooter mode, the toolbar functioned correctly. I then switched back to RPG mode. In my set up, I use a Logitech F310 gamepad. Only the number 3 slot power on the toolbar would function correctly. I tried several techniques to understand what was happening in the game in relation to the game pad.
The method I ended up using to work around this problem was to turn off the second auto attack option, or the highlighted green button. To turn this off in game, a player just has to hold the right mouse button down until the button is no longer highlighted green. I was able to enable or turn on the first position power in the toolbar while using the gamepad. The auto fire work too, but I had to press the second attack manually to activate the second attack power from both the keyboard and gamepad.
I suspect when the programmers eliminated the 'maintain' option on the ground game for the RPG mode, it wiped out the necessary code that allowed the toolbar to function properly. Even though the programmers stated they had made the function inoperable for several months. I do not think this is true. I have always used 'maintain' in Star Trek Online (STO) and Champions Online (CO).
I mainly used maintain because it allowed a player on ground and space to set the first two slotted powers to autofire and not have to worry about targeting the enemy. In space it allows a player to fire at multiple contacts if the player does not target anything. You just had to enable the fire and as soon as a foe steps into range, the player will attack the foe.
My 'maintain' was able to do this up until Season 4 patch came out which eliminated this option. When they eliminated this option in the autofire menu, this is when I first started to experience the toolbar not working properly for the slotted 2 power.
I suspect that the way maintain was working before Season 4 patch was a mistake to begin with when the programmers started allowing autofire to more than one slotted attack for space and ground. I think they tried to correct for this because it caused an error in the players favor. I think they stated 'they had made it inoperable' only to act a a block for what was really transpiring in the game. I think the programmers underestimated how useful the original serendipitous error was.
I think they intended to correct for it in Season 4 with the shooter system. However, it backfired because by removing the underlying function caused more malfunctions in the code. I do not think this is a sinister act or behavior. I think it was a bad policy to tinker with something that was not consider 'broken' by the player base.
Anyway, I slaved through the tutorial and am told I never have to do it again. We will see.
On to Exploring the Galaxy:
My usual style of play is to skip the Cryptic storyline in the game, mainly because I think it is not Star Trek style stories, but really just Space Wars version 4.0. I usually, go strait to the Delta Volanis area and explore. I save the story missions if people want to team later.
However, I soon discovered that the developers assume everyone plays the storyline missions. I base this on that you do not officially get the go explore the Delta Volanis until after you finish the P'Jem story.
I prefer to do exploration missions first build up some money and replace all the useless starter equipment on the Miranda. On the live server, I immediately dump the Miranda for the TOS Constitution class. I also outfit my away team with Phaser 2. This way I only have to pay for armor and shield upgrades. I normally use my exploration badges to buy items from Ensign to VA1.
However, the developers have eliminated badges with the current proposed patch. This actually is a bad idea. When you first start doing exploration missions, the first couple of missions are Aid the Planet, Gather resources, or approach the planet. By eliminating the badges, the player now has to buy all the ship components and landing party equipment as a out of pocket expense.
A player could elect to craft some low level items, but by the time you made enough low level items to overcome the skill required to make a useful item that you can slot now, you will out rank the crafted item. So, when I swing around to make craftable items, I will be able to do so with my second character or when I am VA1, I will be able to make a ton of useless items. Not to mention, the long back and forth flights to Memory Alpha to make the items is allot of dead time.
I explored to see if they moved crafting off of Memory Alpha, I have not seen anything ship board to do so.
The moment I hit the exploration zone, I hit around 10 Aid the Planet missions in a row. The developers decided to eliminate the reward item for going out and purchasing commodities. So all ten of those missions were sent to the drop mission pile because, there is no point to do them. No one is going to go out and spend 1,000 Ec or more on items, and get nothing in return.
I was hoping to see if the game awarded dilithium instead of badges or aid the planet rewards. This was not to be. Instead, the player is left with a large amount of time grinding that is not profitable. Keep in mind profit is any skill, currency, or tangible and intangible item a player comes away with from spending time doing an activity in the game.
So my options, was a long grind to Lieutenant Commander (LtC) or go do the storyline missions, which I think are boring and not representative of Star Trek. So I decided to go do the storyline missions to get them out of the way.
The P'Jem mission had some changes which are nice. However, in my opinion the story is awful. A federation Commander who has just survived a Borg attack on Vega Colony, then went to save a stranded freighter which was under attack by Orions , who are formally allied with the Klingon Empire. You have to escort a emotionally unstable Vulcan who is prone to frustration and anger (very non-Vulcan like). he has urgent business on P'Jem that requires Star Fleet intervention.
Makes no sense if you are a Undine spy trying to secretly infiltrate a Vulcan monastery. Yes, my first instincts is to argue for Star Fleet to personally escort me. Then if bad storyline is not enough, the Klingons show up to tell you that you are being duped by the Undine.
What is a better mystery is how the Klingons know about the Undine and the federation player does not know. It also begs the question, if we have a Betazoid Counselor, which is standard operating procedure for Star Fleet since TNG. The whole purpose of have a telepathic and empathetic as a bridge crewman is to inform the captain of suspicious people who are trying to deceive the captain with mental skills.
If that is not enough, the next mission Stop the Signal, is actually really good until you get to the end of it. Some how, in a gun fight, a Undine is revealed to the crew. Then a bunch of Klingons show up to aid the lone federation frigate. This is weird because, we are so deep in the Federation interior. The Klingons get wiped out in 30 seconds by a Undine battlecruiser that should be fighting a VA1 ship.
Instead you have to attempt to fight the ship solo, after an entire Klingon battle force is wiped out with standard issue phasers and standard issue torpedoes, without any skills allocated.
Where a smart player and wise player would have went and built up the ship and crew for the mission can come back to the stories, the developers wiped out the only way to build up your ship and crew by eliminating the badges. Then not replacing it with anything.
However, once I realized the Stop the Signal mission was poorly designed, I went back and slaved my way with exploring. I did rack up a nice payload of resources. however, my monetary assets is below average. of the 22 characters I currently have in the main game. I am usually north of 22,000 EC's at LtC1. I was barely at 2,000 EC's this weekend.
(continue below)
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
The post is not useful with some basic information, such as, how do you acquire duty officers. Where do you go to get duty officers. There is not any useful instructions on explaining the duty officers and bridge officers are different.
I stumbled upon the acquire a duty officer mission, when I decided to go to the captain's ready room and see what happens when I activate the tool there. This was after, I activated the button in Arucanis Arm, Regulus Sector block, Sirius sector block, Vulcan space, Delta Volanis, Sol system, ESD, and various compartments in my ship.
It took me about an hour of flying around and fumbling around to get the tool to do anything useful. Like I said before, I finally struck gold when I went to the ready room and found the 'Duty Officer Cadre' mission.
However, it takes 24 hours to see the results. At this stage, I do not know what will happen. I hope a officer will show up and is trainable to do some missions. I purchased two bridge officers before all this because the Duty Officer tool states personal traits that correlate with the bridge officers traits. I suspect they are not the same in practice.
It looks to me at this stage that you recruit each of your officers one day at a time. Then you send them to do assignments. The assignments allow them to gain experience and specialties. This is sort of like Eve Online's skill level progression, but for NPC's. I think once you acquire the junior officers, you can then send them back for retraining or go to a specific sector space to get a certain character like a Vulcan or Andorian.
Well, that is my current situation. I will report back when I have more information. Other then 8 crashes, and a couple of anomalies (2) underground. I did not encounter many bugs. i did learn how to use the /loc tool to get the coordinates on planets to help the developers and programmers to better locate items on a planet.
Thank you.:)
If you get to lv12, about 12-15 DOffs (forgot the exact number) are sent to you in a pop up
You still might want to start all missions you can to get duty officers, there arent enough for all the missions you want, takes a while to build them up
What you wrote is what I got from it this weekend. Don't know why but XP seem to come slower Credits seem to come slower, Its like I'm always 5 or more lvl behide were I should be.
No...I have not used the exchange in beta...I tend not to use the exchange in beta because the market is small. Our main purpose here is to test the programs functionality and ruggedness. Since the programmers and developers have officially stated that this is phase 1, then I am not really sure if the state of the economy is more of a result because they have not turned on some of the aspects for the economy to work.
Also, while they are testing, it is possible they may wipe the server again. Which, they have done several times since the game has been launched. My main concern is buttons, powers, animations, exploration missions. Although I tend to be highly critical of the programmers and developers, I am not really sure what they intend to actually do. SO my opinions are at most 'speculation'.
I hope by keeping detail records of my testing in a diary and submitting bug reports in the format they have asked for, that it will lead to a bug free game. That may never be a reality, but I think it is a great goal.
Also, even in the main game, I never sell anomalies on the exchange. My fleet we have a open fleet bank and we all deposit our resources into the fleet bank for a common warehouse. Then our crafters refine those resources for the fleet and other marketable items.
Thank you.
I imagine, this would be the time to goto the C-store and spend real cash to avoid grinding? Lame.
I returned to my ready room after twenty-four hours past by. There was a blinking light on my mini-map that indicated a task was completed on the duty roster tool. I clicked the button and selected the 'completed' tab on the left. Then, nothing happen. I did not have a officer in my roster or anywhere else in the tool.
A complete waste of time.
Next, I will go on the at level 12 or LtC 2 for the people who actually play STO information provided above from another poster. However, this is another example where Cryptic Studio's has failed to make documentation that explains:
1. At LtC1, you will unlock the duty officer tool but can do nothing with it.
2. At LtC2, you will get people to use with the duty roster tool.
Right now, I ave no clue what will happen after number 2.
Thank you
okay..thank you...
I went in my inventory and there was a item. When you select 'use' it breaks out into a group of 5 cadets or officers. So when you call for a cadre of junior officers, you ship receives 5 officers for task.
Okay, it appears that once you have your first five people, then you pick a mission or 'assignment'. To activate the assignment you just drag the officers icon from the right side of the screen (pool) and then drag and drop them to the left side.
The mission I selected "Contain Outbreak of Androsian Encephalitis" required 5 officers to do. One had to be a medical specialist. I had to drag and drop all the five officers I had to do the assignment. The task will take 3 Days to complete.
It looks like I have a crew compliment of 5 of 100.
Let us see what happens next.
Thank you.
I did encounter a bug that kicked me off the server, it was right when I was supposed to beam over to the Kitomer. I logged on again later and did the meet and greet all over ESD. I then did the stranded in space mission. I thought that it went well.
There was a screen that gave a brief synopsis on the Duty Roster. There should be a information popup when we make Lt. Commander 1.
I have decided to do the remainder of my beta test on exploration missions. I started thinking today that there maybe a purpose in what the developers are doing with the Duty Roster and the current configuration of the game economy. I feel that maybe the developers want us to go slower on the progression. So if I plan my progression out with diplomatic xp, skill points, and duty roster progression. I may hit top tier in all three phases at the same time.
I have also accumulated a ton of anomalies and trace elements since Saturday. Once I have 400+ of each in stock, I will venture over to Memory Alpha.
Thank you.
No bug reports so far tonight.
I also spent the time crafting some consumables. So far I have made 870 General research points from all the exploration I have done so far. This has unlocked all the craftable items up to Commander level. So once my Duty officers gets back in 16 minutes from there assignment and I clear out the Delta Volanis Cluster duty, I will transfer to Arucanis Arm and work on making all my Lt Commander level items.
If I get on a nice pace, i will market some items on the test server to see how strong the market is here.
Thank you.
However, the reward for doing the set of exploration missions paid off and my payload of resources is substantial.
For the duty roster, I manage to get a couple of assignments completed. I manage to get assignments to get two blue type officers. We will see how that goes.
I still have not received any Dilithium, so I do not know what that is about.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I decided to wait to craft anymore items. After, I completed several exploration missions I had a good amount of energy credits, so I used them to acquire a good supply of commodities in case I get anymore 'Aid the Planet' missions. Once an hour, when I can summon a supply ship, I go ahead and stock up on commodities as well as sell items I have gather for the hour.
Energy Credits on hand now is 6,928 after I paid all my upkeep expenses.
I have not had to file any bug reports so far.
I made Lt Commander 3 already tonight and have started working on my tier 2 skills. Since I am training up for a medic (Doctor) Kit, which is heavily skilled, I have decided to place my officer in a cruiser. SO my training chain will be Miranda>Constitution>Excelsior (hopefully)...my back up is a Stargazer class>Galaxy class. If I remember correctly, the Excelsior at lower levels is available as a ship at Commander.
Thank you.
PS...In the time I have played STO...I have constructed a chart in Excel that allows me to know what kits to use and skills to get for the kits and how to skill out the bridge officers to mimic the kits.
So a Medic kit requires:
Nanite Health Monitor II...Science Practice...Doctor...Nanite Treatment
Triage III.........................Science Practice...Doctor...Molecular Chemistry
Vascular Regenerator III..Science Practice...Doctor...Physiology
Medical Tricorder III.........Science Practice...Doctor...Physiology
That requires 14,400 Skill Points to use.
Energy Credits on hand is: 13,405 after all upkeep expenses have been paid for supplies.
My Research and Development skill is at 970
My Diplomatic skill is at 210
Accolades: 510
Exploration Missions: 57 = [(7 Arucanis Arm )(3)] + [(12 Delta Volanis)(3)]
Commendations are;
Diplomacy 210
Engineering 44
Exploration 24
Colonial 24
In my assignment queue I have 7 missions going on between 18 hours and 2 days to complete them.
My rank is Lt Commander 3 with 4.5 ticks completed.
I am flying a Constitution class Cruiser
Payload is:
50 mineral samples
57 alien artifacts
44 radiation samples
21 biological samples
40 unknown alloys
22 antimatter samples
1 antithoron particle trace
2 beta-tachyon particle trace
2 chronometric particle trace
3 dekyon particle trace
2 duderon particle trace
2 metreon particle trace
1 trianium particle trace
2 vertion particle trace
Consumables:
29 large hypo
25 large power cell
31 large shield charge
10 weapon battery
3 shield battery
8 engine battery
8 auxiliary battery
Commodities:
30 medical supplies
6 astrometric probes
2 industrial energy cells
30 provisions
1 communication arrays
10 shield generators
I had a couple more resources but had to use them to craft:
[Phaser Beam Array Mk III [Acc} [Dmg]x2]
and
[Phaser Turret Mk III [Acc] [Dmg].
As far as ship configuration:
Weapon slot 1 = Phaser beam Array Mk III [Acc] [Dmg]x2
Weapon slot 2 = Photon Torpedo Lancher Mk III
Weapon slot 3 = Phaser Turret Mk III [Acc] [Dmg]
Weapon slot 4 = Quantum Mine Launcher Mk III
Deflector Array Mk III [Def]
Combat Impulse Engines Mk III [Aux]
Resilient Shield Array Mk III
Engineering Consoles:
Console - Engineering - EPS Flow Regulator Mk III
Console - Engineering - Tritanium Alloy Mk III
Science Console:
Console - Science - Biofunction Monitor Mk III
Tactical Console:
Console - Tactical - Phaser Relay Mk III
Bridge officer complement (6 Officers)
2 Engineers
3 Science
1 Tactical
Duty Officers (20 Officers)
2 Tactical
3 Security
4 Engineers
3 Operations
3 Science
3 Medical
2 Civilians
At this stage, this report is to help track the progression of the character in terms of economics. Keep in mind, economics studies the cycle of civilization. Although, some people become fixated on the money aspect.
I think this is quite a bit of work since last Friday night.
I have not experienced any bug reports today. I think I filed 1 report, but I think it was an error on my part. I did not see the freighter when I entered the mission to investigate the ship. I looked around, even though the mission started and the attacks ships were on the map. I did not see the ship until after I filed the bug report for the missing freighter.
Thank you.
Thank you,
Sure I will not get a reward every 3 missions nor will I get my 108 skill points for doing 3 missions, but I will keep plugging away at exploration missions because I will still earn energy credits. It will not be at the same rate as before, but it will be a rate of some type.
I figure, once these goofy plans prove to be economic disasters and they have a lower population of paying customers to non paying customers, then maybe some of these changes will go away.
Keep in mind, City of Heroes did not become a great game until Cryptic Studios was no longer in the picture. When Cryptic was at COH, they were too restrictive in the running of the economy. They were to restrictive in the how superpowers were used in the game. Cryptic went away, and NC Soft is very profitable in F2P and pretty much wrote the book on the F2P market.
Well off to explore.
I did my daily earlier today and was reward a refined dilithium amount of 1,440. I did not receive any ore to refine. So the article about getting ore for exploration is not factual nor true.
Thank you.
I have decided to hold off doing that mission because I find it boring to do.
However, despite the crazy economy the developers have rain down on the galaxy, I have decided to keep exploring since our mission is to 'seek out life and new civilizations' and t give me time to study the economic situation and formulate a plan.
My overall plan of the day is to keep my assignment tool going as my duty officer complete their assignments. While they are doing task, I will continue to explore the Arucanis Arm for most of today.
My payload has increased since my last log report:
132 Mineral Samples
125 Alien Artifact
119 Radiation Sample
46 Biological Sample
70 Unknown Alloy
49 Antimatter Sample
3 Plasma Sample
2 Encoded Data
2 Technical Schematic
1 Chronometric Wave Signature
1 DNA Sequence
2 Genetic Sequencer
1 Exobiological Data
4 Tachyon Wave Signature
1 Antithoron Particle Trace
1 Anyon Particle Trace
2 Beta-Tachyon Particle Trace
2 Chronometric Particle Trace
3 Dekyon Particle Trace
3 Duderon Particle Trace
1 Methogenic Particle Trace
5 Metreon Particle Trace
2 Trianium Particle Trace
3 Vertion Particle Trace
Commodities:
45 Medical Supplies
6 Astrometric Probe
13 Industrial Energy Cells
20 Provisions
10 Communication Arrays
20 Shield Generators
Energy Credits: 5,480
Refined Dilithium: 1,490
Dilithium Ore: 0
Gold Press Latinum: 0
Bridge Officers: 6
2 Engineers
3 Science Officers
1 Tactical Officer
Duty Officers: 28
2 Tactical
3 Security
4 Engineering
6 Operations
3 Science
5 Medical
5 Civilian
I currently have 10 assignments going on with the crew.
I think overall I am doing fine. I want to spend most of today building up my energy credit supply.
Thank you
I am not sure if I had fun or not. I had fun last weekend, but this weekend was not really fun. I did the same amount of exploration, but made less profit. I did find dilithium ore and refined dilithium, but the amounts were lousy.
If you only get 40 to 50 units of refined dilithium a day (40 x 365 = 14,600 units per year). If a ship above Commander is in the 20,000+ range of dilithium, then a player is looking at a year and four months of grinding time.
If they do have a auction house to exchange dilithium to energy credits then with this system all there will be is massive inflation.
The department head tool was nice, but at the same time, you are not really doing anything but scheduling an event.
The tie in with the hourly events was nice, but the profit from the event was lousy. I predict once people play these events and realize the profits 'suck' they probably will not do them much unless they are bored.
The EP wrote a letter and said they are going to need two weeks to implement any changes, that is not acceptable. My chat has been malfunctioning since July. I have not seen anyone trying to address the problem.
This game does not have a 'player' economy, it is really a hybrid of a communist/fascist economy. The government (Cryptic Studios) imposes the rate of production, the rate at which people can accumulate wealth, and the means at which products and resources can be acquired.
The player actually has no method or manner in which to affect change or improvement. Our only choice in the game is black market deals or long hours of unnecessary labor.
Why can't developers of these games leave 'well-enough' alone? In all these games, what creates the massive inflation is the developers with goofy dreams of Immanuel Kant and Karl Marx.
This weekend was lousy because these changes are lousy. :mad:
That is my two cents.
Thank you.
Today was kind of dull and boring. I have move my exploration to the Khazan Cluster. I did see some space combat in the region today. I was victorious. The ground combat has been slow but financially rewarding. I maxed out my crafting skill yesterday. SO once my resources come up to sufficient quantities, I will be able to market some items.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you