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Path to F2P Dev Blog #7

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited November 2011 in Galactic News Network [PC]
Today on the Path to F2P, Stephen D'Angelo tells all about the new Dilithium currency in Star Trek Online, currently available for testing on Tribble.

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  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I'm a little nervous that there weren't any specifics given about crafting changes and what will become of our left-over currencies when F2P hits.

    Usually withholding info till later is a precursor to anger-inducing news.

    I'm especially nervous about crafting changes mentioned.
    Heretofore I've actually acquired most of my stuff via crafting since the speed at which I can acquire, well anything, is only limited by how fast I can grind or purchase anomalies.

    I'm worried this will be gated in some way like the dilithium.
    I don't like the idea that the speed at which I can kit-out is limited by anything but the time I have to put into the game.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    yes for me, at least, that was extremely useless. It doesn't appear that he knows how to talk TO people just at them( just me though).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    One thing in common between the various ways to get Dilithium Ore is that they are limited to once-a-day activities or to activities only open during certain hours of the day. This is not accidental. At least for now, we're restricting how much Dilithium Ore players can collect in a single day, and we're splitting it across a variety of activities.

    Did you fire the one who thought that this is a good idea? if not you prolly should.
    Existing players are probably used to getting a "free ship token" at each rank up. With the new changes, the discount plus the Refined Dilithium award will often not be enough to get a ship. It will be close to enough at the lower ranks, but there will be a larger gap at the higher ranks. We expect that players will need to spend a portion of their time as they level up doing daily missions and other means to acquire Dilithium. If they do so, they should generally have more than enough to acquire a ship at rank-up. If, however, they have not been participating in the daily content, they may find that there is a gap they need to fill.

    It's being said that nothing will be taken away from the Subscribers or Lifers who are playing now. But you take away the free Ship at each Rank. So that was another lie that is called transparent Communikation?
    Next week, I'll reveal what will happen to existing characters when the F2P build makes its way to Holodeck.

    Yeah, really nice to not kill our Weekend with more bad news.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    when is the kdf going to be unleashed?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Looking at the following, please tell me why we should continue to humor you guys.
    We will be bringing the Tribble server down for maintenance to apply a new update.
    ST.16.20111002a.4

    Features:•Dilithium Update:◦Dilithium ore is now implemented! You gain dilithium ore by completing daily tasks such as star cluster exploration, PVP, certain Duty Officer assignments, special events, or daily story missions.■Dilithium ore cannot be spent in it’s raw state and must be refined in order to create usable, spendable, refined dilithium.
    ■Check your inventory and go to your resources tab in order to convert dilithium ore into refined dilithium, which is used to purchase gear and ships.■You may process up to 8,000 ore into refined dilithium each day.

    ■You now gain a small stipend of refined dilithium at each new rank, along with a placard for a new ship at a deep discount in price.
    ■ At the ranks of Commander and above you will need to earn some additional dilithium to be able to afford the next ship, so be sure to play some daily missions for those rewards. ■See the developer's log for information about the new changes to the economy.
    http://www.startrekonline.com/node/2637



    •Klingon Progression◦Klingon Progression is now unlocked when a federation player reaches level 3.■This will be level 25 with this actually goes live to Holodeck.

    ◦Klingon players will start at level 17 and progress through updated episode threading.

    •Special Task Force◦The Cure is now available as a ground and space STF.

    •Automatic Sector Travel◦The first few federation missions now have a “warp to” button in the mission journal.
    ◦This button allows players to warp directly to the starting location for that mission.
    ◦Players must be on that mission to use the button
    ◦Players that choose to use the warp button will be charged Energy Credits based on the mission starting location.
    ◦This feature will be added slowly to every episode in the game.

    •C-Store
    •A test version of the C-Store is now active.◦All players that exist on the shard at the time this build goes live will receive 1,200 test C-points by the end of the day.
    ◦All microtransaction pricing has been changed. Some items that are on the Holodeck C-Store are not available yet in this Tribble version of the C-Store.

    •New Events:◦Starfleet Academy Cadet Training■Hail Professor Meyer or speak to him in person at Starfleet Academy while this event is in progress to participate.■Help Academy Cadets gather Particle Fragments and participate in holographic combat exercises.
    ■Save up Particle Fragments and return them to your cadet or Prof. Meyer for Dilithium Rewards.
    ■Particle Fragments will not last for long after the event has ended, turn them in before they disappear.


    ◦Tour the Universe■Come test your ship and crew with a race across Sector Space for energy credits.■Players will be tasked with traveling to every sector block and returning to your mission giver before the end of the event.■Starfleet Players: Talk to Jay Yim in Earth Space Dock. Captain Yim can be found on the balcony in Club 47.
    ■KDF Players: Speak with Targak in Qonos. Targak can be found at the Blood Wine fountain in Qonos.



    ◦Multiphasic Event■All anom
    alies throughout the universe will give a bonus on how many are dropped during this event.

    General:•There is now a 24 hour XP limiter on the foundry. When you hit the limit you will get a message and no longer earn XP for the rest of that 24 hour period.
    •The number of Bridge Officer slots for rank 4 and 5 have been increased for silver players so they have enough to fill their ship stations
    •The PVP Daily reward has been updated to dilithium ore instead of marks of honor.
    •The level-appropriate badge container reward for UGC and DSEs is now a Dilithium Ore Container.
    •Fixed a bug that was causing the close/next button in the tip window to display an incorrect keybind.
    •Updated ground enhancement for [Borg] raid gear; they now do bonus kinetic damage against the Borg.
    •The queue private game mini status window now functions for PvP matches
    •The model for Starbase 39 now represents it’s system in the sector block.
    •Free Respec Tokens are now only available at level up for gold players
    •Former emblem and badge store text has been updated to reflect the currency change to refined dilithium.

    Missions:•Stop the Signal:◦Resolved an issue with a clickable in the Klingon base
    ◦The Undine ship at the end is now far more beatable.

    •Tutorial Updates◦Population on the group areas of the tutorial have had their populations reduced.
    ◦Set up first tutorial map to only allow one player at a time

    •Since exploration missions reward dilithium they have been updated to be daily missions.
    •Promotion missions given from Admiral Quinn are now available as a remote contact
    •The mission “War Games” can now be completed.
    •Naomi Wildman now appears in the mission journal.
    •Several fixes and updates have been made to the “Infected” STF based on player feedback.

    Duty Officer:•Increased non-Commendation XP/non-Dilithium numeric rewards for assignments, but decreased ramp-up for rarity and critical successes.◦In net, this should mean better numerical rewards for common successes, but less for other categories.

    •Fixed assignments that were not giving correct amounts of Commendation xp.
    •Adding duty officer contacts NPCs to Starfleet Academy.
    •Reducing level at which duty officer system can be accessed to level 8
    •Reduced the time to complete for most assignments.
    •Added more variety to colonists to reduce incidence of twins and triplets.
    •Fixed colonial Medical Supply and Provision resupply assignments.
    •Reduced time injured duty officers are in Sick Bay.
    •Fixed reassignment assignment issue.
    •Fixed mis-gendered female human scientists.
    •Fixed typo on Doctor specialization active roster tooltip text.
    •Hiding assignments you aren't high enough level to do yet.
    •Straightened out requirements for "Scan for Trace Organic Signatures" assignment.
    •Fixed inability to start "Level 4 Diagnostic of Secondary Weapon Coils" assignment.
    •Reversed ordering of levels on Diagnostic assignment (flavor change).
    •Added new common assignments to use Colonists.
    •Changed commendation tiers to operate on store tokens redeemed at duty officer contact at the Academy/Q'onoS.
    •Duty Officer packs are now available on the Tribble C-Store.

    Known Issues:•Klingon players will appear as Lieutenant 17 until they reach level 19, at which point they will become a Lieutenant Commander.
    •We’ve updated how the player earns their ship at level up, but unfortunately there is no fixup for those already affected.
    •We’ve adjusted the starting level of the Duty Officer system to level 8, however it’s not working properly. Do not turn in the mission until you reach level 12 or you will not get your free compliment of duty officers. You can still purchase duty officer packs on the c-store and play the game.
    •Players will not be able to train Bridge Officers in new powers at this time.

    Before I forget! C-Store prices (mostly) went up, not down, and now ships are per character, *not* account-wide.

    EDIT: Apparently, the C-Store into is one very unfortunate typo. One I hope gets fixed on Tuesday, if not sooner.

    Yes, I really do think Cryptic thinks we're stupid bottomless wallets with no jobs.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Yeah not too crazy about how this is coming across, but will reserve final judgement till I've played it. Most all of my stuff is crafted, I really hope they don't nerf that system.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    On Tribble the Repair the Satilletes used to give 1440 Refined, now it gives 480 Ore, and when I try to refine ore I get a game crash so is it safe to assume there is a 1 ore to 3 refined ratio for default?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Zanshi wrote: »
    Before I forget! C-Store prices (mostly) went up, not down, and now ships are per character, *not* account-wide.

    Yes, I really do think Cryptic thinks we're stupid bottomless wallets with no jobs.
    Where are you getting ships being character only? The ones I bought were account wide still.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    On Tribble the Repair the Satilletes used to give 1440 Refined, now it gives 480 Ore, and when I try to refine ore I get a game crash so is it safe to assume there is a 1 ore to 3 refined ratio for default?

    As i did this Mission earlier this week i got 480 refined Dilithium. The Char was LT. CMDR. 3. Do you get more on higher Ranks? If not i don't think it will be 1 Ore to 3 refined.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    rtk142 wrote: »
    Yeah not too crazy about how this is coming across, but will reserve final judgement till I've played it. Most all of my stuff is crafted, I really hope they don't nerf that system.

    Guessing they will.

    The dilithium (and likely other changes) are designed to change how you spend time in the game.
    By limiting how much you can accomplish each day they keep you in-game for more days, thus increasing the chances of money spent.

    My latinum says there will be a very functionally similar limit placed on crafting either by;
    • Limiting the number of items crafted a day
    • Jacking the amount of anomalies required per item thru the roof
    • Creating a similar refinement system with anomalies

    Its strategy.
    Cold calculating strategy.
    Its exactly what you ought to expect. They're a business first and foremost.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    temprus wrote: »
    Where are you getting ships being character only? The ones I bought were account wide still.

    the wording on the C-store mentioning all characters on an account has been removed.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Zanshi wrote: »
    Looking at the following, please tell me why we should continue to humor you guys.



    Before I forget! C-Store prices (mostly) went up, not down, and now ships are per character, *not* account-wide.

    Yes, I really do think Cryptic thinks we're stupid bottomless wallets with no jobs.


    Wow I sure hope on top off all the other stupid moves there not going to make ships character wide now. Even more so with the Price Increase!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    RCO wrote:
    Wow I sure hope on top off all the other stupid moves there not going to make ships character wide now. Even more so with the Price Increase!

    If I wasn't already convinced that they have dollar signs in their eyes and it made them lose all common sense, I'd share in that hope.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Good way to really stick it to your loyal subscribers.

    If it's not clear, I am not happy with these changes and I regret purchasing a Life Time sub for the game.

    There are only a few months until another MMO comes out that I'm interested in, and I wish you all the best when that day comes.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Zanshi wrote: »
    If I wasn't already convinced that they have dollar signs in their eyes and it made them lose all common sense, I'd share in that hope.

    A Rumor says that the Company will be renamed in "Money Grabtic". :eek:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    RCO wrote:
    Wow I sure hope on top off all the other stupid moves there not going to make ships character wide now. Even more so with the Price Increase!

    Just confirmed to not be the case (for the moment)

    sdangelo wrote: »
    We have not made any changes to make ships unlock per character. All ships should still unlock account wide.

    Stephen D'Angelo
    Executive Producer
    Star Trek Online
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    This is absolutely unacceptable.

    Its been said before and i say it again, by removing the free ship token's and not replacing them with anything of "equal" value you are TRIBBLE over your loyal subscribing customers.
    And as has been said before, you also now force people to spend the currency they would previously have spent on new gear on getting a new ship instead.

    There is absolutely nothing good with this change, nor is there any valid reason why the ship tokens were removed.
    We as Gold members should not have ANY restrictions, but you are doing just that.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    There was no change to how ships unlock. C-Store purchases of ships are still unlocked at the account level for all characters. If any ship is not behaving this way (so far my team has not found any), then there is a bug that we'll get fixed promptly once it is found.

    Stephen D'Angelo
    Executive Producer
    Star Trek Online
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Unbelievable. So basically Cryptic's flipping gold's the bird by trashing a fundamental part of gameplay (ranking up) with F2P, in spite of having claimed we will not notice any SIGNIFICANT changes to our gameplay.

    I'm sorry but this is just another reason why i will never touch ANYTHING made by Cryptic again. The only reason i am here and voicing my opinion at all these days is because i was stupid and subbed for life at launch.

    It's blatantly obvious Cryptic doesn't care at all about quality gameplay for it's existing subscriber base and is just doing a last mad grab for player cash before .... other MMO options drain their playerbase into insignificance.

    R.I.P. STO to this subscriber.

    There i said it. I didn't want to, as i am a huge Star Trek fan and it upsets me to see the IP handled as Cryptic has. Cryptic, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    we can only get unrefined dilithium from missions we can only do once a day? that simply will not do! you can get through an entire rank in a day easily, how are you ever supposed to afford anything, unless you only play an hour or 2 a day, and spread your leveling over a month?

    everything cost dilithium now! and you don't even have enough for your next ship! even pretty basic weapons cost dilithium, and the energy credit venders have nothing but TRIBBLE now, being stuck with low tier gear AND ships is an epidemic on tribble right now.

    everything that costs merits and honor now costs dilithium. currently you get merits from every single thing you do in game, but now everything that costs merits now is going to cost us the equivalent of emblems, with a 200% mark up? this game wont be playable! life timers and gold players are loosing MOST of their ability to gear up that they have now!! unless prices are slashed 10 fold we are 10 times worse off in F2P then we are currently.

    every single thing we do in game that earns us any experience or merits now needs to be giving us dilithium too, there simply wont be enough to do any basic progression. this was supposed to be a payed for your time currency, well as it is its a paid for >2 hour's of your time once a day, don't level to fast! currency.

    what this entire economy depends on is this: what is the exchange rate for unrefined to refined? if its 1 to 1, then everything i just said is correct. if its closer to 1 to 100, things might work out. this detail is VERY important, so please share it before you enrage your player base further!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Alexraptor wrote: »
    This is absolutely unacceptable.

    Its been said before and i say it again, by removing the free ship token's and not replacing them with anything of "equal" value you are TRIBBLE over your loyal subscribing customers.
    And as has been said before, you also now force people to spend the currency they would previously have spent on new gear on getting a new ship instead.

    There is absolutely nothing good with this change, nor is there any valid reason why the ship tokens were removed.
    We as Gold members should not have ANY restrictions, but you are doing just that.

    Anyone else planning to panic-level characters?
    I intend to make sure everything I've got is leveled and kitted out *before* the changes hit.
    Depending how the conversion from current currencies to Dilithium works I might also panic-stockpile (if it does any good, but my guess is everything will be converted to raw dilithium. Not processed.)

    Heh. Ironically this might actually get me to play my Klingon. :rolleyes:
    we can only get unrefined dilithium from missions we can only do once a day? that simply will not do! you can get through an entire rank in a day easily, how are you ever supposed to afford anything, unless you only play an hour or 2 a day, and spread your leveling over a month?!

    Congratulations.
    You have figured out what they are trying to force players to do!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Maybe the Executive Producer should remember or be told that the Devidian and Breen missions no longer open up at level X, but instead can only be opened by doing every preceeding mission in the game-long episode chain. This is only a half dozen missions for the Devidian arc, but will in fact require dozens of prereq missions for the Breen arc.

    I'm just saying.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Cryptic...destroying something good in only a month....wonder how long the guy who thought this up kept his job? and if he still has it fire him.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    This new economy change is seeming horrible. The C-Store changes on Tribble are horrible.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Anyone else planning to panic-level characters?
    I intend to make sure everything I've got is leveled and kitted out *before* the changes hit.
    Depending how the conversion from current currencies to Dilithium works I might also panic-stockpile (if it does any good, but my guess is everything will be converted to raw dilithium. Not processed.)

    Heh. Ironically this might actually get me to play my Klingon. :rolleyes:



    Congratulations.
    You have figured out what they are trying to force players to do!

    Actually, I panic-levelled one of my toons a couple of weeks ago because I smelled a rat in this debacle. :D
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I'm trying to stay positive guys, but I really can't... I know that this is only the first iteration of the economy, but I am severely unimpressed and concerned with what I'm seeing.

    There's too many hard caps on Dilithium right now. What is meant to be a time based currency is looking more and more like a heavy handed gating mechanism designed to push people in to the C-Store. I don't feel like my time playing the game is well spent/rewarded with the current iteration of the economy on tribble.

    Prices for equipment have seen a massive increase in costs when compared to the live server, and even with the new additions with today's patch, the opportunities for gaining Dilithium are few and the amounts given out, paltry. There are hard caps on top of hard caps, meaning that it'll be difficult to even get the (rather pathetic) 8k ore to refine per day. This is not good, and certainly not encouraging me to play. With the situation as it is now you've got a problem where at low levels Dilithium is too scarce to be worth the effort earning (besides being forced to plunge most of what you can in to funding your next ship), and at higher tiers it's completely pointless because of the ease of getting hold of the STF gear.

    Add in the fact that the dilithium rewards seem incredibly inconsistent. Ore rewards for some things, while refined dilithium for others. This needs to be standardised, and honestly, you guys really need to take a look back at the live server to help you do this.

    In my opinion you should have all items that gave marks/badges (exploration missions, pvp matches) on the live server work normally, and grant you ore per completion, while the dailies should give you refined Dilithium. With a more sensible refinement hard cap you will still have control of how much Dilithium enters the economy. Until refined, any excess ore earned by players is worthless, it doesn't effect the economy, but it allows those who play mostly at the weekend to bank some ore by doing their favourite activity in game (I stress this point) which they can then process during the week when their time is more limited.

    Seriously guys, the balance right now is way off. Thanks to all the limits placed on it and the sky high prices of everything available for it the Dilithium currency is pretty much worthless. If you weren't forced to earn it to buy ships, I think most people wouldn't bother and would end up falling back on using energy credits on the exchange to buy loot to equip their ships and/or grind the STFs at max level.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    sdangelo wrote: »
    There was no change to how ships unlock. C-Store purchases of ships are still unlocked at the account level for all characters.

    Yes, but are vessels such as the Tier 3 Excelsior and Tier 5 Excelsior different beasts? Will purchasing one net us the other?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I'm a little nervous that there weren't any specifics given about crafting changes and what will become of our left-over currencies when F2P hits.

    Usually withholding info till later is a precursor to anger-inducing news.

    I'm especially nervous about crafting changes mentioned.
    Heretofore I've actually acquired most of my stuff via crafting since the speed at which I can acquire, well anything, is only limited by how fast I can grind or purchase anomalies.

    I'm worried this will be gated in some way like the dilithium.
    I don't like the idea that the speed at which I can kit-out is limited by anything but the time I have to put into the game.

    They mentioned they would either become Dilithium or Energy credits...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Yes post what the exchage rate will be.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I have to agree with the consensus on this, the fact that we no longer get a new ship when promoted (i.e. Dilithium + token = more grind for new ship) is unacceptable. Part of the fun of this game is the variety of gameplay, I for one never cared much for dailies, but I would grind some out for gear, but to grind them out to get the new ship I shouldn've gotten when promoted is completely unacceptable. Now I have to spend all my time grinding just to move up into a ship of the tier that I'm in! This game is supposed to be played for fun, since I have to work I can't spend all my waking ours on grinding, instead I would rather be having fun with the variety of gameplay STO offers. Please fix this.
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