Put in the most simple terms, it's not fun here. The loot is anemic, the progression is slow, the Starfleet Academy is not easy to understand. What do the data chips do? I click on them and they disappear. I don't remember all of the political intrigue that brought us here. I have done all of these missions before, and what is not broken, seems to take longer. It is an irritant, and I already have a job in real life, so I don't need this. I am not going to pay to work, or even worse... pay to go back to High School (Starfleet Academy).
Progression is slow? I'm getting a level every 1-2 missions, are you not? How fast should it be? I haven't noticed any change in loot drop rates from Holodeck to Tribble either, so that confuses me. Crafting is pretty easy to level as well, and is a good way to upgrade loot as you go.
Part of the purpose of the test is to test out the leveling experience for new players, so of course the quests are the quests you did before. When this goes live you don't have to do them again unless you make a new character.
The STA Lore Quests are for those really interested in the story and history, and might not be for everyone. The data chips are to add the story to your log.
They have admitted that the economy needs adjustments yet, I'm willing to go 3-4 more builds before I declare it broken.
Other then the economy the only thing that I am concerned about, which isn't any different then Holodeck, is ship level matching isn't up to snuff. I've yet to beat a Borg DSE on Tribble, and have only gotten to phase 2 once. It seems really easy to get close to one shot in the DSE or the Mirror Invasion event.
Progression is slow? I'm getting a level every 1-2 missions, are you not? How fast should it be? I haven't noticed any change in loot drop rates from Holodeck to Tribble either, so that confuses me. Crafting is pretty easy to level as well, and is a good way to upgrade loot as you go.
Part of the purpose of the test is to test out the leveling experience for new players, so of course the quests are the quests you did before. When this goes live you don't have to do them again unless you make a new character.
The STA Lore Quests are for those really interested in the story and history, and might not be for everyone. The data chips are to add the story to your log.
They have admitted that the economy needs adjustments yet, I'm willing to go 3-4 more builds before I declare it broken.
Other then the economy the only thing that I am concerned about, which isn't any different then Holodeck, is ship level matching isn't up to snuff. I've yet to beat a Borg DSE on Tribble, and have only gotten to phase 2 once. It seems really easy to get close to one shot in the DSE or the Mirror Invasion event.
I can only guess that he is playing Klink which is almost as enjoyable as a warm fish milkshake right now. The Klink grind is still horrific and they don't benefit from the tier one xp boost.
Progression is slow? I'm getting a level every 1-2 missions, are you not? How fast should it be? I haven't noticed any change in loot drop rates from Holodeck to Tribble either, so that confuses me. Crafting is pretty easy to level as well, and is a good way to upgrade loot as you go.
I am sure that things move if you can complete missions. Researcher Rescue is broken for me, and in an endless loop that won't end the quest when I return to sector space. I am going to restart it again, and try it one more time. It seems that if a mission is broken, there are no more missions for you. None!
The only thing I'm doing on tribble is the Doff system becuase everything else is too much trouble. I can't even level up just doing exploration missions any more.
I'm mostly on Holodeck doing a final replay of the original versions of the story missions then trying to get a lot of badges so I get a nice amount of dilithium when the changes go live. Luckly I have a VA fed so I won't have to worry about the ranking problems.
Honestly, if they move the cluster missions back to a 30m cooldown, and have them pay out ore instead of refined, that would bring back the leveling up through the ranks with those missions... Also, they need to fix that bug where only one cluster will give you dilithium at any given time.
I am sure that things move if you can complete missions. Researcher Rescue is broken for me, and in an endless loop that won't end the quest when I return to sector space. I am going to restart it again, and try it one more time. It seems that if a mission is broken, there are no more missions for you. None!
And there's the major problem with this idiotic idea of a set mission progression. If they would at least separate the mission arcs from one another and let us chose which to do in which order, it would be a lot better. Keep them in the rigid set within one arc if you want, but at least let us access other arcs.
Edit: And for Pete's sake, pull the FEs out of the other mission arcs and set them aside as their own arc. Doing the Breen set at the end of everything else is stupid. Who wants the Breen set when you can have the Aegis or Borg sets?
Not to slam you by any means soloman but if your are saying grinding is needed and acceptable then turn around and say making us do the grinding is BS how would you recommend them going about the process? Honestly not trying to flame you just thinking you might have some cool ideas
No, I don't consider this slamming or flaming. We can have a civil debate.
BASIS FOR MY WORDS: To be able to use the crafting system on Holodeck my experience was that I needed to go back and repeat missions to be able to acquire the resources to build what I wanted to have. This to me is a form of grinding. Some of the patrol missions were dull and could be improved. They felt like grinding due to lack of imagination. I look to TOS and TNG as my references. There are a lot of episodes where a routine patrol turned into many things, such as First Contact or helping a local population avoid civil war. This is the excitement of Star Trek. This is what I would like to see more of in STO.
Realistically, I understand that this is very hard to translate into a game. This is why so many sci-fi franchises have failed to have a truly great game/MMO. I am willing to accept that I need to go repeat missions to gather items to make the crafted item that I want. It is fun? NO. My some "some grinding" comment is more about a limitation based on game mechanics than anything else. If someone has a better way to get resources, please let me know.
None of us are happy with this build. Agreed. Yes, we are all venting our frustration and hoping for change. My day job is in computers. I have been doing Beta Testing for over 16 years. Yes, I full well understand that this is an early Beta. I come to Tribble expecting a program that crashes, fails, and needs serious improvement. I am disappointed that Bug Reporting system is one of the items that is broken in this build. This is the primary feedback for the Devs to understand what is wrong and where they need to concentrate their efforts. How can they be expected to fix something that they don't know is broken? They just don't seem to have their stuff together. I love STO and Star Trek. I hope that they do get better. I see where this game could go based on what the Devs are wanting. I want to see it come to fruition. I am just questioning if they are going to be able to pull it off. Based on what I have read so far on the Forums, it doesn't look like I am alone.
At least some people have common sense and don't immediately defend cryptic like a misguided fanboy. Yes it is not fun, and this TRIBBLE does not belong anywhere NEAR the official servers as it is. You put it exactly as I would have. "I will not pay to work" Thank you. Cryptic please listen and don't jump the gun on accepting these changes as a success. If so many on tribble don't like it, and they are a small part of the community, a larger part of the whole will hate it and you will end up destroying what makes this game great.
Oh, but they are going to "listen" to the "silent majority"... Yeah, push anything like this onto the live servers and it really will be a silent majority... They'll be so silent you'll hear crickets... because they won't be there.
Oh, but they are going to "listen" to the "silent majority"... Yeah, push anything like this onto the live servers and it really will be a silent majority... They'll be so silent you'll hear crickets... because they won't be there.
As an aside, who remembers what the actual meaning of the term "silent majority" was before Nixon got to it?
Nixon was talking about the generation who fought in WWII, but before then "the silent majority" referred to the dead.
Somehow, Cryptic's insistence that they're listening to "the silent majority" gets so much funnier when you realize they're saying "we're listening to the people who aren't IN the game at all."
I dont think Cryptic will listen to people at all, perhaps not because they dont want to but because Perfect World wont let them. These changes are ones i've seen all too often in asian F2P MMOs, coincidence? Not likely. Odds are they are applying an Asian Market forumla to the US and European Markets thinking it will succeed, if not by the original fanbase then by the F2P people that migrant from F2P mmo to F2P mmo.
TL;DR We are being replaced by F2P players who are use to Grind or Pay and the people in charge, be they Cryptic or most likely PW dont care if we are upset.
Don't assume that Cryptic or PW won't listen, or that they don't care about the current player base until they prove on the live servers over a decent period of time.
We also have to see what's in store for subscribers. I would hope gold means something much better than what we are seeing on Tribble. If it works like that, they may see me continuing to play and buy from the C Store. Of course my lifetime status helps to make that more likely.
I don't mind paying to win nearly as much as I mind paying and losing. I should think that PW/Cryptic would share that sentiment for their own bottom line.
The cost of ships in dilithium is quite expensive. Hopefully lifers aren't required to pay for ships in dilithium but only in EC. Because the current scenario for lifers would be like squeezing milk from cow which already gave you milk with VAT.
The only thing I'm doing on tribble is the Doff system becuase everything else is too much trouble. I can't even level up just doing exploration missions any more.
I'm mostly on Holodeck doing a final replay of the original versions of the story missions then trying to get a lot of badges so I get a nice amount of dilithium when the changes go live. Luckly I have a VA fed so I won't have to worry about the ranking problems.
Are you leveling your toon with the DOFF system at all ?
The cost of ships in dilithium is quite expensive. Hopefully lifers aren't required to pay for ships in dilithium but only in EC. Because the current scenario for lifers would be like squeezing milk from cow which already gave you milk with VAT.
I have a lifer account and was just on Tribble checking out the ships...they are all Dilithium and / or C-store points...
It takes AGES to become Lieutenant Commander, but then it speeds up considerably, your time as Commander will be relatively short and you level very fast to Captain.
The early levelling process is very tedious, killing stuff takes a long time and the progression is very slow.
Now compare that to later levels: You level up faster than early on, that's quite novel and didn't happen to me in other MMOs.
I can't even rap my brain around the complaints about leveling. Leveling is a breeze on Tribble. Missions are giving over 1k skill points; I leveled to VA in no time with a new toon. If anything, leveling is too easy and will be adjusted before hitting holodeck.
The doff system has been a lot of fun despite not being completed.
The STFs are a ton of fun, now that I can actually do them thanks to the queue system.
The hourly events are hit and miss but they are no where near completed; I love the concept.
Hey - It's not all rainbows and unicorns, I am pi$$ed about crafting and hoping they do something about it but I don't understand all the complaints. I think some of them just have no validity and has more to do with an aversion to change than anything else.
I can't even rap my brain around the complaints about leveling. Leveling is a breeze on Tribble. Missions are giving over 1k skill points; I leveled to VA in no time with a new toon. If anything, leveling is too easy and will be adjusted before hitting holodeck.
.
Many have forgotten the XP is boosted on Tribble so the testers can level fast enough to test everything on the way up and at cap.
Many have forgotten the XP is boosted on Tribble so the testers can level fast enough to test everything on the way up and at cap.
I have a feeling the real grind will be when they reveal the real XP payout amounts and couple that with the skill tree changes and its probably going to be a big nightmare.
Why? To give people reason to buy those XP Boosts they sell in the C-store like they are candy.
If I was only going to agree with one thing about Tribble, this would be it. The DOFF system is AWESOME. Everything else blows goats.(*) Seriously. I know you guys are all working hard on this. But your game sucks. Period. If this is what we're going to get on Live, then I'll probably hang around until I get bored of the DOFF system on my existing VA captains. And after that, no more. I don't need a game that is no fun to play, whether I'm paying for it or not.
This is no longer a "Free to Play Version of STO." It's now 180 degrees opposed to the game that I liked enough to buy an LTS for when I first played it 8 months ago. If I was looking for a new game today (and apparently I will be in a couple months, the way this is looking), and if I came across STO in the form it is on Tribble . . . I would have kept on looking. End of story.
As a new player, I would probably try this game out for a while, only because it does have the Trek name on it, and our choices for Sci-Fi MMOs are few and far between. Then I would get annoyed and frustrated, and I would walk away. And I would not even consider spending money on this, because if I feel annoyed before I have started giving you money, then I know that once I start paying to try and make it less annoying, I'm just going to feel annoyed AND ripped off.
(*) Ok, maybe that's a little harsh. Straight story line missions are still fine on Normal, as far as they go, at least once you hit LTC and get out of that dang Miranda. But you still managed to stuff those up by forcing this scripted progression, which you have not gotten around to undoing yet. Giving a script that people CAN follow is a great idea. Putting the entire game on rails and making a script that people are FORCED to follow is just dumb.
I have a feeling the real grind will be when they reveal the real XP payout amounts and couple that with the skill tree changes and its probably going to be a big nightmare.
Why? To give people reason to buy those XP Boosts they sell in the C-store like they are candy.
The Skill Tree changes and the adjustment in SP needed to fill it may very well be a huge letdown to many just getting started as they most likely will change what the SP totals are at LG/VA to keep players from minmaxing skills. Low SP pay-outs for missions will just axcerbate the issue.
The reall grind is the KDF until the Revial appears as nothing missionwise has truelly changed (accept for some mission restrictions) and we now will have a condensed version of our existing grind.
In all honesty though I've enjoyed playing on tribble for the most part, even my flight speed and controls seem faster on Tribble.
/agree. With the loot drops being so NERFed, I'm at Com 5, on trilbble, still using consoles from my 1st tier ship. With crafting NERFed to nothing but odd number levels, there really is not much call for crafting, either. The mini-game of crafting/selling will be null after this goes live. I fully expect to see gear as the next great additon to the C-Store.
Keep in mind you are leveling WAAAYYY faster on tribble than you would on Holodeck (read the Dev blogs for more info).
So with that you will outlevel the rewards you get, and outlevel what you can craft.
Also keep in mind that most of the dilithium giving missions are not implemented. Heard rumors that dilithium will be given with story line missions (cant confirm).
Either way....Tribble is still a BETA of with the holodeck will be.
Keep in mind you are leveling WAAAYYY faster on tribble than you would on Holodeck (read the Dev blogs for more info).
Leveling speed has nothing to do with any of the show stopper, deal breaker problems that are in place right now on Tribble, and that have turned the entire game into a tedious, mindless, thankless, un-fun grindfest, from top to bottom. If anything these problems are only going to get worse, because when you level slower you will have to put up with them longer.
Keep in mind you are leveling WAAAYYY faster on tribble than you would on Holodeck (read the Dev blogs for more info).
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If we are leveling way faster than holodeck and still find tribble a tedious grind.... I can't imagine what it must feel like to level up exponetially slower. Oh wait, I can do that on holodeck right now... minus the extra grind.
My experiences on Tribble the last month have been many things, but with the exception of the DOff system, none of those things could be described as fun.
I recognize that part of the problem is the increased level rate and EC rewards, mission rewards and loot drops not keeping pace. I leveled to VA and almost always had the incorrect gear for my build and all items 2 or more tiers lower than my captain. Some of that may be fixed when XP is rescaled, but it's hard for me to know if the experience will be enjoyable for new F2P players.
The mission content of the game felt dated in 2009 when it launched and it feels even worse in 2011. No matter the story dressing or anything else, virtually every mission was a variation of scan 5 things or kill 6 things. After running through these missions at least 3 times prior to now, they are not at all fun to be railroaded through on Tribble. This may be a less significant factor to new players, but I expect they will quickly see the "scan 5 things" wizard behind the curtain.
Playing on Tribble the last month has felt like more of a job than my actual job. It's very difficult to tell if things will get better when the economy is tweaked.
Put in the most simple terms, it's not fun here. The loot is anemic, the progression is slow, the Starfleet Academy is not easy to understand. What do the data chips do? I click on them and they disappear. I don't remember all of the political intrigue that brought us here. I have done all of these missions before, and what is not broken, seems to take longer. It is an irritant, and I already have a job in real life, so I don't need this. I am not going to pay to work, or even worse... pay to go back to High School (Starfleet Academy).
This game has gone from something that's semi-enjoyable to irritating on Tribble. Maybe I won't have to live the life of Tribble when it hits Holodeck, because I am a lifer. Up to now, I bought things on the C-Store, and enjoyed leveling a Captain in different ways. Now I just want to go back to Holodeck, and enjoy what I have before it all changes. Will we be insulated from this as gold members?
Perhaps if I had leveled high enough to try the Duty Officers, I might find something redeeming. I made it to 11, but 12 is a mighty drag. Sorry.
I hope most responses disagree with me. Somebody ought to be enjoying this.
I'm loving it on tribble, except for the botched crafting. I have maxed out a fed char, and am working on my klingon toon. The STF's are a blast now (thank you Gozer), the Mirror event rocks, and the Doff system is amazing,
New STFs (depending on the updates/adjustments). Some may say these are a grind to get the gear, but nevertheless I think they are fun to play.
Mirror event
Things that are a drag or grind:
Forced mission progression. I still don't have access to gamma orionis because my toon hasn't completed romulan series, and I don't intend to complete all of them either.
Dilithium grind for crafting, and just about everything else. No thanks. I'll stick with white/green gear.
Playing all content in a tier 2 ship (although this has now been fixed, but at the time I was leveling, was not fun)
Honestly, once I got to the DOFF stuff I did have a decent amount of fun... sorta. It's more like I feel there's something to work for. Now I have my Fed to Captain 4 and no longer leveling quickly and I'm losing any excitement over playing. Now that it's not fast-paced and I'm looking at re-doing all the same old missions yet again, the idea of playing Tribble is becoming as un-enticing as the idea of playing Holodeck. Like one reply said, the focus seems to be on new systems and new ships and new gear, yet the one thing I really want--New Content--is not coming.
I'm a Lifer and I've met and talked to several of the devs in person and I believe in them and their passion for the game. I just don't know if that passion is getting through when so much of the game changes seem to be focused on the style of the game rather than the substance.
(By the way, personal attacks on "the devs" is not only misguided, but rude. Most are well-intentioned and kind, and they're human beings so everyone should try not to be an a-hole by insulting them.)
They even wrecked the Stern posture and made it look less authorative and more argumentative with the hands on hips part.
I'm glad someone else noticed this.
I never thought the first ten levels were fun in this game. Except the first time I did them, and even then I was getting tired of it by LT8. I think this is something that needs to be addressed since the gamble on f2p is that tons or people will try this game because it is free and then stick around to buy stuff because they are having fun.
Comments
Progression is slow? I'm getting a level every 1-2 missions, are you not? How fast should it be? I haven't noticed any change in loot drop rates from Holodeck to Tribble either, so that confuses me. Crafting is pretty easy to level as well, and is a good way to upgrade loot as you go.
Part of the purpose of the test is to test out the leveling experience for new players, so of course the quests are the quests you did before. When this goes live you don't have to do them again unless you make a new character.
The STA Lore Quests are for those really interested in the story and history, and might not be for everyone. The data chips are to add the story to your log.
They have admitted that the economy needs adjustments yet, I'm willing to go 3-4 more builds before I declare it broken.
Other then the economy the only thing that I am concerned about, which isn't any different then Holodeck, is ship level matching isn't up to snuff. I've yet to beat a Borg DSE on Tribble, and have only gotten to phase 2 once. It seems really easy to get close to one shot in the DSE or the Mirror Invasion event.
I can only guess that he is playing Klink which is almost as enjoyable as a warm fish milkshake right now. The Klink grind is still horrific and they don't benefit from the tier one xp boost.
I am sure that things move if you can complete missions. Researcher Rescue is broken for me, and in an endless loop that won't end the quest when I return to sector space. I am going to restart it again, and try it one more time. It seems that if a mission is broken, there are no more missions for you. None!
Honestly, if they move the cluster missions back to a 30m cooldown, and have them pay out ore instead of refined, that would bring back the leveling up through the ranks with those missions... Also, they need to fix that bug where only one cluster will give you dilithium at any given time.
And there's the major problem with this idiotic idea of a set mission progression. If they would at least separate the mission arcs from one another and let us chose which to do in which order, it would be a lot better. Keep them in the rigid set within one arc if you want, but at least let us access other arcs.
Edit: And for Pete's sake, pull the FEs out of the other mission arcs and set them aside as their own arc. Doing the Breen set at the end of everything else is stupid. Who wants the Breen set when you can have the Aegis or Borg sets?
No, I don't consider this slamming or flaming. We can have a civil debate.
BASIS FOR MY WORDS: To be able to use the crafting system on Holodeck my experience was that I needed to go back and repeat missions to be able to acquire the resources to build what I wanted to have. This to me is a form of grinding. Some of the patrol missions were dull and could be improved. They felt like grinding due to lack of imagination. I look to TOS and TNG as my references. There are a lot of episodes where a routine patrol turned into many things, such as First Contact or helping a local population avoid civil war. This is the excitement of Star Trek. This is what I would like to see more of in STO.
Realistically, I understand that this is very hard to translate into a game. This is why so many sci-fi franchises have failed to have a truly great game/MMO. I am willing to accept that I need to go repeat missions to gather items to make the crafted item that I want. It is fun? NO. My some "some grinding" comment is more about a limitation based on game mechanics than anything else. If someone has a better way to get resources, please let me know.
None of us are happy with this build. Agreed. Yes, we are all venting our frustration and hoping for change. My day job is in computers. I have been doing Beta Testing for over 16 years. Yes, I full well understand that this is an early Beta. I come to Tribble expecting a program that crashes, fails, and needs serious improvement. I am disappointed that Bug Reporting system is one of the items that is broken in this build. This is the primary feedback for the Devs to understand what is wrong and where they need to concentrate their efforts. How can they be expected to fix something that they don't know is broken? They just don't seem to have their stuff together. I love STO and Star Trek. I hope that they do get better. I see where this game could go based on what the Devs are wanting. I want to see it come to fruition. I am just questioning if they are going to be able to pull it off. Based on what I have read so far on the Forums, it doesn't look like I am alone.
As an aside, who remembers what the actual meaning of the term "silent majority" was before Nixon got to it?
Nixon was talking about the generation who fought in WWII, but before then "the silent majority" referred to the dead.
Somehow, Cryptic's insistence that they're listening to "the silent majority" gets so much funnier when you realize they're saying "we're listening to the people who aren't IN the game at all."
Consoles? What are these consoles you speak of? I haven't had a console on any of these ships except the occasional random drop.
TL;DR We are being replaced by F2P players who are use to Grind or Pay and the people in charge, be they Cryptic or most likely PW dont care if we are upset.
We also have to see what's in store for subscribers. I would hope gold means something much better than what we are seeing on Tribble. If it works like that, they may see me continuing to play and buy from the C Store. Of course my lifetime status helps to make that more likely.
I don't mind paying to win nearly as much as I mind paying and losing. I should think that PW/Cryptic would share that sentiment for their own bottom line.
Are you leveling your toon with the DOFF system at all ?
I have a lifer account and was just on Tribble checking out the ships...they are all Dilithium and / or C-store points...
It takes AGES to become Lieutenant Commander, but then it speeds up considerably, your time as Commander will be relatively short and you level very fast to Captain.
The early levelling process is very tedious, killing stuff takes a long time and the progression is very slow.
Now compare that to later levels: You level up faster than early on, that's quite novel and didn't happen to me in other MMOs.
No, your not.
I can't even rap my brain around the complaints about leveling. Leveling is a breeze on Tribble. Missions are giving over 1k skill points; I leveled to VA in no time with a new toon. If anything, leveling is too easy and will be adjusted before hitting holodeck.
The doff system has been a lot of fun despite not being completed.
The STFs are a ton of fun, now that I can actually do them thanks to the queue system.
The hourly events are hit and miss but they are no where near completed; I love the concept.
Hey - It's not all rainbows and unicorns, I am pi$$ed about crafting and hoping they do something about it but I don't understand all the complaints. I think some of them just have no validity and has more to do with an aversion to change than anything else.
Many have forgotten the XP is boosted on Tribble so the testers can level fast enough to test everything on the way up and at cap.
I have a feeling the real grind will be when they reveal the real XP payout amounts and couple that with the skill tree changes and its probably going to be a big nightmare.
Why? To give people reason to buy those XP Boosts they sell in the C-store like they are candy.
This is no longer a "Free to Play Version of STO." It's now 180 degrees opposed to the game that I liked enough to buy an LTS for when I first played it 8 months ago. If I was looking for a new game today (and apparently I will be in a couple months, the way this is looking), and if I came across STO in the form it is on Tribble . . . I would have kept on looking. End of story.
As a new player, I would probably try this game out for a while, only because it does have the Trek name on it, and our choices for Sci-Fi MMOs are few and far between. Then I would get annoyed and frustrated, and I would walk away. And I would not even consider spending money on this, because if I feel annoyed before I have started giving you money, then I know that once I start paying to try and make it less annoying, I'm just going to feel annoyed AND ripped off.
(*) Ok, maybe that's a little harsh. Straight story line missions are still fine on Normal, as far as they go, at least once you hit LTC and get out of that dang Miranda. But you still managed to stuff those up by forcing this scripted progression, which you have not gotten around to undoing yet. Giving a script that people CAN follow is a great idea. Putting the entire game on rails and making a script that people are FORCED to follow is just dumb.
The Skill Tree changes and the adjustment in SP needed to fill it may very well be a huge letdown to many just getting started as they most likely will change what the SP totals are at LG/VA to keep players from minmaxing skills. Low SP pay-outs for missions will just axcerbate the issue.
The reall grind is the KDF until the Revial appears as nothing missionwise has truelly changed (accept for some mission restrictions) and we now will have a condensed version of our existing grind.
In all honesty though I've enjoyed playing on tribble for the most part, even my flight speed and controls seem faster on Tribble.
Keep in mind you are leveling WAAAYYY faster on tribble than you would on Holodeck (read the Dev blogs for more info).
So with that you will outlevel the rewards you get, and outlevel what you can craft.
Also keep in mind that most of the dilithium giving missions are not implemented. Heard rumors that dilithium will be given with story line missions (cant confirm).
Either way....Tribble is still a BETA of with the holodeck will be.
If we are leveling way faster than holodeck and still find tribble a tedious grind.... I can't imagine what it must feel like to level up exponetially slower. Oh wait, I can do that on holodeck right now... minus the extra grind.
I recognize that part of the problem is the increased level rate and EC rewards, mission rewards and loot drops not keeping pace. I leveled to VA and almost always had the incorrect gear for my build and all items 2 or more tiers lower than my captain. Some of that may be fixed when XP is rescaled, but it's hard for me to know if the experience will be enjoyable for new F2P players.
The mission content of the game felt dated in 2009 when it launched and it feels even worse in 2011. No matter the story dressing or anything else, virtually every mission was a variation of scan 5 things or kill 6 things. After running through these missions at least 3 times prior to now, they are not at all fun to be railroaded through on Tribble. This may be a less significant factor to new players, but I expect they will quickly see the "scan 5 things" wizard behind the curtain.
Playing on Tribble the last month has felt like more of a job than my actual job. It's very difficult to tell if things will get better when the economy is tweaked.
I'm loving it on tribble, except for the botched crafting. I have maxed out a fed char, and am working on my klingon toon. The STF's are a blast now (thank you Gozer), the Mirror event rocks, and the Doff system is amazing,
Things that are a drag or grind:
I'm a Lifer and I've met and talked to several of the devs in person and I believe in them and their passion for the game. I just don't know if that passion is getting through when so much of the game changes seem to be focused on the style of the game rather than the substance.
(By the way, personal attacks on "the devs" is not only misguided, but rude. Most are well-intentioned and kind, and they're human beings so everyone should try not to be an a-hole by insulting them.)
I'm glad someone else noticed this.
I never thought the first ten levels were fun in this game. Except the first time I did them, and even then I was getting tired of it by LT8. I think this is something that needs to be addressed since the gamble on f2p is that tons or people will try this game because it is free and then stick around to buy stuff because they are having fun.