Off Topic: Your cover band is going to be male strippers? :eek: (Filipino is masculine, Filipina is feminine)
Umm...didn't catch that on my post...think of a quick explanation.....Yes. All male. We plan on making a killing on the bachlorette party circuit. Soon-to-be-wed women love asian male strippers covering the power ballads of the 80's, right?
But this crafting thing has to go. If the DOFF system didn't throw traces at me I would be done collecting them entirely.
I note the devs have nothing to say about the overwhelming negativity about their latest attempt to get rid of the people who kept them having jobs for the last 2 years, but they can come in and censor a post without saying who did the censoring.
Shame on you guys.
I'm pretty sure that was self censoring for humorous purposes . . . not nefarious devs . . . . .;)
Lets not jump to conclusions though, I'm sure the poster can and will clear that up soon.
EDIT - Ninja'd by Davey, who also thinks it was a joke . . . It's probably a joke. Let's keep it calm and collected in here everyone.
I've posted in other threds RE this change (and I'm not even an avid crafter in most MMOs); but this has to be another in DUMB F2P moves by the STO Dev team.
IMO - Stephen D'Angelo seriously needs a break and must be horribly, horribly overworked to allow this to even allow this idea to go to the Tribble F2P server (let alone the Dilithium crafting costs.) I can by an 'overlooked pricing slip up once - which was th excuse given for the ridiculous Item costs in the in game Dilithium equipment store - but to have top Grind for Anomolies to level up in Crafting, and THEN to pay a DAYS worth (well 55 units shy) of refined Dilithium for stuff like a Mk XI Rifle?
Ridiculous.
better tio just remove crafting from the game as a whole if you go forward with this and shift the Dev resources to something else. Seriously.
I find it quite amazing that after 16 pages of replies, there has been a unified consensus of the opinion that adding a Dilithium component to crafting is a bad thing. The fact that every person posting agrees on this should be an overwhelming message to Cryptic...
As to if it will be or not, sadly, is an entirely different issue
wow
i'm gonna say no to this dilithium crafting tax thing.
i don't craft, yet.
but if this change happens then i don't think i will even start.
I mean, does anyone actually like paying taxes? i sure don't. this is almost like all those states that collected state income taxes that went bankrupt, while those that didn't, didn't go bankrupt.
this tax, i think , will bankrupt the crafting industry in game
it is a "tax" but not quite like an income tax.
More like a Production Tax.
Like say:
You want to buy an "Really Great" Ice Cooler for your camping trip next week.
The Cooler cost $20.
The company that makes them needs all the equipment and materials to make them, that costs them money.
So, say that cooler cost them $5 to make each. They need to make a profit so they wholesale them at $10 each, while the store that sells them, retails them at $20 so they can make a profit. Normal business pratice.
Well, the new "Crafting Tax" just made that Cooler substantially more expensive to make, by making the materials to make said cooler more expensive by adding extra ingredients that are absolutely not needed to make the cooler in the first place. This increases the production costs, which raises the wholesale costs, which substantially increases the Retail costs.
This Tax doesn't actually cost the production company any money, but every single day they HAVE to do extra hours of special work to get this special material from their "Government" so they can even keep producing those coolers.
Also, the number of coolers that can be produced, has been reduced substantially by their "Government" imposed quantity per day limit, as they can only get so much of this special production material daily thru those extra hours of special work.
This production company CAN, however, "BUY" the special material needed from a different company, by paying Real Money, to their "Government", to get the "Special Requisition Points", and then trade those "Special Requisition Points" to that other company, in an amount that which that other company or their "Government" sets for their value per unit of the special material...
So, now back to you and that Ice Cooler.
Because of all of those extra hours of work/money needed to make that cooler, do you think they will still be able to sell them at the same costs or substantilly more expensive?
...
I forsee a whole lot of cheap, plain "White" styrofoam coolers in the future ...
Wow, this is just a terrible idea. It's like you're determined to shove out at least one blatantly horrible idea for every good one you have.
I thought you were supposed to be attracting and retaining players, not irritating them and making entrenched players give people negative opinions about the game's future and direction.
Don't be afraid to just tell people you screwed up on this. You'll get more forgiveness and respect if you just swallow some pride and admit that you've f'd up real bad.
Don't be afraid to just tell people you screwed up on this. You'll get more forgiveness and respect if you just swallow some pride and admit that you've f'd up real bad.
I agree. BUT, I still have to wonder who on the team thought this was a good idea? Because it worries me that that same person might be thinking up other "good ideas" like this later =|
Wow, this is just a terrible idea. It's like you're determined to shove out at least one blatantly horrible idea for every good one you have.
I thought you were supposed to be attracting and retaining players, not irritating them and making entrenched players give people negative opinions about the game's future and direction.
Don't be afraid to just tell people you screwed up on this. You'll get more forgiveness and respect if you just swallow some pride and admit that you've f'd up real bad.
I think I'd prefer to believe that Cryptic now hates us subscribers (looking at us like a stone around their neck for the F2P future), than to think that - right AFTER a horrible mistake with dilithium prices and c-store increases on tribble - they would AGAIN so blatently and completely miss the mark on crafting changes.
Yes, I'd rather think they're pushing subscribers out, than believe they're incompetent fools.
it is a "tax" but not quite like an income tax.
More like a Production Tax.
Like say:
You want to buy an "Really Great" Ice Cooler for your camping trip next week.
The Cooler cost $20.
The company that makes them needs all the equipment and materials to make them, that costs them money.
So, say that cooler cost them $5 to make each. They need to make a profit so they wholesale them at $10 each, while the store that sells them, retails them at $20 so they can make a profit. Normal business pratice.
Well, the new "Crafting Tax" just made that Cooler substantially more expensive to make, by making the materials to make said cooler more expensive by adding extra ingredients that are absolutely not needed to make the cooler in the first place. This increases the production costs, which raises the wholesale costs, which substantially increases the Retail costs.
This Tax doesn't actually cost the production company any money, but every single day they HAVE to do extra hours of special work to get this special material from their "Government" so they can even keep producing those coolers.
Also, the number of coolers that can be produced, has been reduced substantially by their "Government" imposed quantity per day limit, as they can only get so much of this special production material daily thru those extra hours of special work.
This production company CAN, however, "BUY" the special material needed from a different company, by paying Real Money, to their "Government", to get the "Special Requisition Points", and then trade those "Special Requisition Points" to that other company, in an amount that which that other company or their "Government" sets for their value per unit of the special material...
So, now back to you and that Ice Cooler.
Because of all of those extra hours of work/money needed to make that cooler, do you think they will still be able to sell them at the same costs or substantilly more expensive?
...
I forsee a whole lot of cheap, plain "White" styrofoam coolers in the future ...
I wouldn't mind it if i was actually buying the cooler. I'm making the cooler myself, from materials i've gathered myself already, and i'm apparently paying for the priviledge of doing so. YAY!? Umm...
Apparently MA is now applying a Room Tax for you to craft in....
Yes, I'd rather think they're pushing subscribers out, than believe they're incompetent fools.
See, I don't get that. I can only speak for myself of course, but I would have gladly continued to buy from the C-Store if the game had gone in the right direction for me. I'm hardly a millstone if I was doing that right?
Pushing me away since the start of the year essentially has probably lost them the same amount of cash as if I had been a subscriber. I can probably say that I would have brought the cast majority of ships after F2P too.
No, I think they have somebody who is well versed in how PWI runs its games at the Cryptic studio saying this need X and this needs Y - They are, after all, bankrolling the wages and future development costs now so you should all see this game for what it is now; a cash grab for a year or so then to dwindle numbers to nothing just before Neverwinter releases.
There's nothing new I can really add to what has already been said.
This is a terrible idea on every level.
Adding new, unique crafting items that we would want to use more resources to create would have been great. Making what we already have vastly more expensive is going to make everyone angry, and I don't see how anyone at Cryptic could have thought otherwise.
Let me throw this into the crafting / dilithium debate, and see if it makes any sense to anyone -
You have DOFF's, they go on missions, and they EARN dilithium for you.
You use that dilithium, to add it to your crafting to get it done.
How is this costing you anything?
Other than possibly spending some C-store points on buying doff's.
As a solo player I have no problem with the change to adding dilithium to the crafting process.
If adding dilithium to the crafing mix makes it harder to obtain rarer/exclusive gear, I'm all for that too.
Then it means for me, the solo crafter that if I crafter harder to obtain rarer gear, I'm going to set
what I think is a FAIR price, NOT a gajillion EC set price for it, and I'll see how many people want to
buy the gear I craft.
IF Cryptic decides to go the other way, and remove dilithium from the crafting mix because of the overwhelming negative reviews in this thread, that's ok too.
Whatever way the changes go it's not going to keep me from crafting. If it's something I want bad enough and I can craft it, I will. Either way I could care less about changes to crafting. It's a game, have fun with it.
I welcome changes that make me work for something, it's a challenge to get it, and when you get it, it makes it all the much sweeter.
Let me ask a question - Was it REALLY that hard to level your FED up to VA1? My answer is NO, it wasn't.
It also wasn't hard to get all the crafting points i needed maxed out to be able to craft anything I wanted.
Just my take but I think most of the negativity about added dilithium to crafting is a little over the top.
In the world we currently live in, which is I want it all and I want it now, Cryptic is making things harder for you to obtain. What's so bad about that? Ever think that's the way they are going to keep people playing the game?
Stay or quit, it's your choice. I'm staying. You quit, more room for me to craft.
As I posted previously elsewhere, I say again... Adding a dillithium charge to crafting is just plain stupid.. Bad idea.. end of.. IF you must add a "cost" then make it EC's.. that will give you a "sink"...
But this is unbelievable dumb... Sorry guys, but whoever thought this would be good for the game is obviously missing a few brain cells... :mad:
To add my 2 cents... I have been a supporter of Cryptic for a while, and I approve of many of the changes that others seem to loathe. And I am not one of those doom-sayers or silver vs gold squabblers either.
However, the dilithium component of crafting is A TERRIBLE addition. First, the amounts are way too large, and second, if it will be permanent there MUST be a way to directly trade dilithium player -to-player. This cannot be the c-points/dilithium system, because people should be able to trade crafting materials for the service, not have to pay the other players real money. Especially so that we can craft for our own lower level characters!
As I posted previously elsewhere, I say again... Adding a dillithium charge to crafting is just plain stupid.. Bad idea.. end of.. IF you must add a "cost" then make it EC's.. that will give you a "sink"...
But this is unbelievable dumb... Sorry guys, but whoever thought this would be good for the game is obviously missing a few brain cells... :mad:
I agree, make it an EC sink, not a dilithium sink.
... but to have top Grind for Anomolies to level up in Crafting, and THEN to pay a DAYS worth (well 55 units shy) of refined Dilithium for stuff like a Mk XI Rifle?
resources to something else. Seriously.
Oh yeah, did not even think about that one. Now it will COST you dilithium to "level-up" in a system. Yeah you want to level a crafter, you just need to collect ALOT of dilithium. An ambitious person should calculate the cost necessry to fully level up now in terms of dilithium. I, personally, have lost all ambition with this game.
Why is the craftable KDF Har'peng torpedo missing too ?? Is that going to be the next thing to appear only on the C-store along with the Delta-Flyer which is no longer craftable on tribble.. Just another instance of "here one minute-gone the next."... very soon like most of the player base methinks...
Well this pretty much seals it in my mind. There is no spinning or excusing it anymore, the evidence is there for us see.
The goal of the F2P change, whether mandates internally or from the new ownership, is to monetize every single facet of the game via the dilithium mechanic. You simply cannot progress without buying extra dilithium anymore. Even if you could grind out the needed ore, you are not able to convert enough to satisfy everything that requires it now.
You've gutted the game, from top to bottom. Its either grind for weeks, or open the wallet.
No more casual gaming sessions with tangible rewards, no more "I can get there eventually"
STO is now either a Second Job or a new Monthly Bill to be paid.
I'm not mad anymore, I'm saddened. You guys did pretty well on Champions - you did the overhaul of the game with a scalpel, and stitched in the F2P system without destroying what you had created.
With STO, it was done with a chainsaw and a meat mallet, and most of what remains is a meaty pulp of expensive dilithium requirements and C-Store price-tags.
You have managed to excise the enjoyment and the excitement out of virtually everything by making it a treadmill. The worst part is that it overshadowed some truly great additions, like the Duty Officer systems.
I really think you have lost the trust of you player-base now. Its time for crisis management. Sweeping rollbacks of many of the changes is required.
1: Go tell Perfect World it isn't going to work
2: Announce postponement of F2P for 6 months
3: Ship content to holodeck soon for your PAYING customers
4: Use those 6 months to rework and present the F2P framework so that its not "Asian-grind" Lite and really fulfill your promise of not drastically changing the game
It makes no sense. Lots of MMOs have made SMALL CHANGES to go F2P and have met with good success. You have tried something radicial, something that deeply punishes existing players and totally changes the progression of your game. You fixed everything we didn't ask for, and nothing we DID ask for.
I know its far too late now, that it is what it is.
But I can dream.
Balls in your court now, Cryptic.
(IF it wasn't clear, adding dilithium to crafting is.. ridiculous.)
LOL..yeah, the same MMO that made the "easy mode roll your face over the keyboard" decision on 11-15-05 and now is the same MMO that is shutting down on 12-15-11...epic decision making on thier part for sure
...an if this F2P dilithium stuff went live before 12/15...who do you think would close first .
Yes devs., many of us played that other MMO and we know how bad decision go. We know what a stigma it causes, one that can never be recovered from. Honestly, before this change I would say I was being a doomsayer, given the bad decisions being made on this test, I am thinking it is more a realism.
If you want to "revamp" crafting then you should add more complexity. Give anomalies varying "qualities"(low, medium, high, etc) that effect the stats. Allow people to experiment with a chance of losing their resources or a chance of getting bonus stats. Allow people to reverse engineer junk loot for anomalies. That is a "revamp". This is just another money grab.
Couldn't have said it any better.
And just incase any of the devs try to pull the 'we need to make rare stuff harder to get' excuse out of their plasma vents let me go on record with this;
Even *I* can come up with ways to accomplish that goal without ;
*A; nickle and diming players
*B; forcing them into a grind-fest
*C; time gating them
If I can think of those ideas the devs should be able to come up with more and better ones, isn't that what we are paying them for? supposedly?
Let me throw this into the crafting / dilithium debate, and see if it makes any sense to anyone -
You have DOFF's, they go on missions, and they EARN dilithium for you.
You use that dilithium, to add it to your crafting to get it done.
How is this costing you anything?
Other than possibly spending some C-store points on buying doff's.
As a solo player I have no problem with the change to adding dilithium to the crafting process.
If adding dilithium to the crafing mix makes it harder to obtain rarer/exclusive gear, I'm all for that too.
Then it means for me, the solo crafter that if I crafter harder to obtain rarer gear, I'm going to set
what I think is a FAIR price, NOT a gajillion EC set price for it, and I'll see how many people want to
buy the gear I craft.
IF Cryptic decides to go the other way, and remove dilithium from the crafting mix because of the overwhelming negative reviews in this thread, that's ok too.
Whatever way the changes go it's not going to keep me from crafting. If it's something I want bad enough and I can craft it, I will. Either way I could care less about changes to crafting. It's a game, have fun with it.
I welcome changes that make me work for something, it's a challenge to get it, and when you get it, it makes it all the much sweeter.
Let me ask a question - Was it REALLY that hard to level your FED up to VA1? My answer is NO, it wasn't.
It also wasn't hard to get all the crafting points i needed maxed out to be able to craft anything I wanted.
Just my take but I think most of the negativity about added dilithium to crafting is a little over the top.
In the world we currently live in, which is I want it all and I want it now, Cryptic is making things harder for you to obtain. What's so bad about that? Ever think that's the way they are going to keep people playing the game?
Stay or quit, it's your choice. I'm staying. You quit, more room for me to craft.
Oh so you will be happy to craft one item every two days?
15,834 R.Dilithium cost for a crafted Purple Mk11 Phaser Beam Array...
So you will have to grind out your limit of Dilithium, twice, and then the expenditure of time/money for the other ingredients...
If you only crafted for yourself, and no one else evr, then you could possibly accept that.
But for the dedicated Fleeters that craft for their mates, it is incredibly restrictive.
Let me throw this into the crafting / dilithium debate, and see if it makes any sense to anyone -
You have DOFF's, they go on missions, and they EARN dilithium for you.
You use that dilithium, to add it to your crafting to get it done.
How is this costing you anything?
If your Doffs can gather enough Dilithium fast enough for you to craft as normal, more power to you.
But considering the Crafting prices in Dilithium are going into the tens of thousands, and the most Dilithium I've ever gotten from a Doff assignment was around about 50 Dilithium Ore.. I, and many, many others find this to be something of a major impediment.
And just because you're a solo player, doesn't make it "OK" for them completely TRIBBLE over Fleet Crafters, who, if they want to keep being Fleet Crafters, have to max out their Dilithium attainment each and every day.
Welp, I want to get my bit in here too. And first off, I have to agree with my fellow players in that I to do not thing that this is a good idea for a change.
How about instead, we go back to the idea of needing a base white item in order to craft a really good purple item. Or go even further and make it so that we need to dismantle parts and use them with amounts of anomalies in order to craft. The current iteration of the crafting system feels like it was a quick change that wasn't really thought out, or that it was a change that was easy to do without a lot of extra graphical or code work. So, please dont do this. Make crafting a better experience for everyone. Make us fight huge bosses to get rare drop components, make us specialise in one area of crafting (weapons, armor, ect..) Expand the system and turn it into something that will draw people into the game. This will not. It just adds another grind.
But, that being said, kudos for trying something new. Im glad your using the test server for this kind of thing.
Oh so you will be happy to craft one item every two days?
15,834 R.Dilithium cost for a crafted Purple Mk11 Phaser Beam Array...
So you will have to grind out your limit of Dilithium, twice, and then the expenditure of time/money for the other ingredients...
If you only crafted for yourself, and no one else evr, then you could possibly accept that.
But for the dedicated Fleeters that craft for their mates, it is incredibly restrictive.
Let me tell you guys something about dilithium gain and doffs: it SUCKS
They gate your dilithium gain by gating you yet again by only allowing 20 'jobs' to be run at once.
I spent 7000 cp on doffs, and I have been busting my hump, sending them on jobs. I went from ra1 to va1 using doffs.
In that time I only earned 5000 dilithium with my doffs. After spending $90 to get the best Doffs that I could.
Well this pretty much seals it in my mind. There is no spinning or excusing it anymore, the evidence is there for us see.
The goal of the F2P change, whether mandates internally or from the new ownership, is to monetize every single facet of the game via the dilithium mechanic. You simply cannot progress without buying extra dilithium anymore. Even if you could grind out the needed ore, you are not able to convert enough to satisfy everything that requires it now.
You've gutted the game, from top to bottom. Its either grind for weeks, or open the wallet.
No more casual gaming sessions with tangible rewards, no more "I can get there eventually"
STO is now either a Second Job or a new Monthly Bill to be paid.
I'm not mad anymore, I'm saddened. You guys did pretty well on Champions - you did the overhaul of the game with a scalpel, and stitched in the F2P system without destroying what you had created.
With STO, it was done with a chainsaw and a meat mallet, and most of what remains is a meaty pulp of expensive dilithium requirements and C-Store price-tags.
You have managed to excise the enjoyment and the excitement out of virtually everything by making it a treadmill. The worst part is that it overshadowed some truly great additions, like the Duty Officer systems.
I really think you have lost the trust of you player-base now. Its time for crisis management. Sweeping rollbacks of many of the changes is required.
1: Go tell Perfect World it isn't going to work
2: Announce postponement of F2P for 6 months
3: Ship content to holodeck soon for your PAYING customers
4: Use those 6 months to rework and present the F2P framework so that its not "Asian-grind" Lite and really fulfill your promise of not drastically changing the game
It makes no sense. Lots of MMOs have made SMALL CHANGES to go F2P and have met with good success. You have tried something radicial, something that deeply punishes existing players and totally changes the progression of your game. You fixed everything we didn't ask for, and nothing we DID ask for.
I know its far too late now, that it is what it is.
But I can dream.
Balls in your court now, Cryptic.
(IF it wasn't clear, adding dilithium to crafting is.. ridiculous.)
As someone who tries their best to put out memorable, elegant responses and posts (most of the time), let me say, this is impressive. Spot-on, to the point, and completely true.
Oh so you will be happy to craft one item every two days?
15,834 R.Dilithium cost for a crafted Purple Mk11 Phaser Beam Array...
So you will have to grind out your limit of Dilithium, twice, and then the expenditure of time/money for the other ingredients...
If you only crafted for yourself, and no one else evr, then you could possibly accept that.
But for the dedicated Fleeters that craft for their mates, it is incredibly restrictive.
I think Cryptic could say they're going to require every player to shove glass shards into their eyes once a day and there would be people online jumping to their defense, telling the rest of us it ain't so bad.
Look, we've had 18 pages and counting of responses and only one person likes this. Cryptic knows this is a mistake, now we see if they're willing to do something about it.
You're right. They want to get rid of all the Lifers.
Or more specifically the Magnificent Lifetime Subscribers.
You see, we're no longer assets, in fact we're the opposite.
If you've paid $300 for an LTS, that pays for 20 months worth of subcription. If you're a "Magnificent" Veteran, you've been playing for 600 days. You've used up your $300 worth. Some people used up their "value" sooner if they got the LTS on discount.
Add to that the 400CP/mo stipend, your strain on system resources for continued game use, etc.
Congradulations, you are now a liability.
The Bean Counters Want to Get Rid Of You!
Not necessarily. I bought my lifetime sub and one for my wife this past February. I have nowhere near used up my "value." If things keep going the route of adding grind to slow down leveling instead of adding immersive content, I may never see the value for my money.
Comments
Umm...didn't catch that on my post...think of a quick explanation.....Yes. All male. We plan on making a killing on the bachlorette party circuit. Soon-to-be-wed women love asian male strippers covering the power ballads of the 80's, right?
But this crafting thing has to go. If the DOFF system didn't throw traces at me I would be done collecting them entirely.
I'm pretty sure that was self censoring for humorous purposes . . . not nefarious devs . . . . .;)
Lets not jump to conclusions though, I'm sure the poster can and will clear that up soon.
EDIT - Ninja'd by Davey, who also thinks it was a joke . . . It's probably a joke. Let's keep it calm and collected in here everyone.
IMO - Stephen D'Angelo seriously needs a break and must be horribly, horribly overworked to allow this to even allow this idea to go to the Tribble F2P server (let alone the Dilithium crafting costs.) I can by an 'overlooked pricing slip up once - which was th excuse given for the ridiculous Item costs in the in game Dilithium equipment store - but to have top Grind for Anomolies to level up in Crafting, and THEN to pay a DAYS worth (well 55 units shy) of refined Dilithium for stuff like a Mk XI Rifle?
Ridiculous.
better tio just remove crafting from the game as a whole if you go forward with this and shift the Dev resources to something else. Seriously.
As to if it will be or not, sadly, is an entirely different issue
it is a "tax" but not quite like an income tax.
More like a Production Tax.
Like say:
You want to buy an "Really Great" Ice Cooler for your camping trip next week.
The Cooler cost $20.
The company that makes them needs all the equipment and materials to make them, that costs them money.
So, say that cooler cost them $5 to make each. They need to make a profit so they wholesale them at $10 each, while the store that sells them, retails them at $20 so they can make a profit. Normal business pratice.
Well, the new "Crafting Tax" just made that Cooler substantially more expensive to make, by making the materials to make said cooler more expensive by adding extra ingredients that are absolutely not needed to make the cooler in the first place. This increases the production costs, which raises the wholesale costs, which substantially increases the Retail costs.
This Tax doesn't actually cost the production company any money, but every single day they HAVE to do extra hours of special work to get this special material from their "Government" so they can even keep producing those coolers.
Also, the number of coolers that can be produced, has been reduced substantially by their "Government" imposed quantity per day limit, as they can only get so much of this special production material daily thru those extra hours of special work.
This production company CAN, however, "BUY" the special material needed from a different company, by paying Real Money, to their "Government", to get the "Special Requisition Points", and then trade those "Special Requisition Points" to that other company, in an amount that which that other company or their "Government" sets for their value per unit of the special material...
So, now back to you and that Ice Cooler.
Because of all of those extra hours of work/money needed to make that cooler, do you think they will still be able to sell them at the same costs or substantilly more expensive?
...
I forsee a whole lot of cheap, plain "White" styrofoam coolers in the future ...
I thought you were supposed to be attracting and retaining players, not irritating them and making entrenched players give people negative opinions about the game's future and direction.
Don't be afraid to just tell people you screwed up on this. You'll get more forgiveness and respect if you just swallow some pride and admit that you've f'd up real bad.
I agree. BUT, I still have to wonder who on the team thought this was a good idea? Because it worries me that that same person might be thinking up other "good ideas" like this later =|
I think I'd prefer to believe that Cryptic now hates us subscribers (looking at us like a stone around their neck for the F2P future), than to think that - right AFTER a horrible mistake with dilithium prices and c-store increases on tribble - they would AGAIN so blatently and completely miss the mark on crafting changes.
Yes, I'd rather think they're pushing subscribers out, than believe they're incompetent fools.
I wouldn't mind it if i was actually buying the cooler. I'm making the cooler myself, from materials i've gathered myself already, and i'm apparently paying for the priviledge of doing so. YAY!? Umm...
Apparently MA is now applying a Room Tax for you to craft in....
See, I don't get that. I can only speak for myself of course, but I would have gladly continued to buy from the C-Store if the game had gone in the right direction for me. I'm hardly a millstone if I was doing that right?
Pushing me away since the start of the year essentially has probably lost them the same amount of cash as if I had been a subscriber. I can probably say that I would have brought the cast majority of ships after F2P too.
No, I think they have somebody who is well versed in how PWI runs its games at the Cryptic studio saying this need X and this needs Y - They are, after all, bankrolling the wages and future development costs now so you should all see this game for what it is now; a cash grab for a year or so then to dwindle numbers to nothing just before Neverwinter releases.
This is a terrible idea on every level.
Adding new, unique crafting items that we would want to use more resources to create would have been great. Making what we already have vastly more expensive is going to make everyone angry, and I don't see how anyone at Cryptic could have thought otherwise.
You have DOFF's, they go on missions, and they EARN dilithium for you.
You use that dilithium, to add it to your crafting to get it done.
How is this costing you anything?
Other than possibly spending some C-store points on buying doff's.
As a solo player I have no problem with the change to adding dilithium to the crafting process.
If adding dilithium to the crafing mix makes it harder to obtain rarer/exclusive gear, I'm all for that too.
Then it means for me, the solo crafter that if I crafter harder to obtain rarer gear, I'm going to set
what I think is a FAIR price, NOT a gajillion EC set price for it, and I'll see how many people want to
buy the gear I craft.
IF Cryptic decides to go the other way, and remove dilithium from the crafting mix because of the overwhelming negative reviews in this thread, that's ok too.
Whatever way the changes go it's not going to keep me from crafting. If it's something I want bad enough and I can craft it, I will. Either way I could care less about changes to crafting. It's a game, have fun with it.
I welcome changes that make me work for something, it's a challenge to get it, and when you get it, it makes it all the much sweeter.
Let me ask a question - Was it REALLY that hard to level your FED up to VA1? My answer is NO, it wasn't.
It also wasn't hard to get all the crafting points i needed maxed out to be able to craft anything I wanted.
Just my take but I think most of the negativity about added dilithium to crafting is a little over the top.
In the world we currently live in, which is I want it all and I want it now, Cryptic is making things harder for you to obtain. What's so bad about that? Ever think that's the way they are going to keep people playing the game?
Stay or quit, it's your choice. I'm staying. You quit, more room for me to craft.
But this is unbelievable dumb... Sorry guys, but whoever thought this would be good for the game is obviously missing a few brain cells... :mad:
I've spent $300 on cpoints
I've spent $300 on the game for life
I've intorduced dozens of paying customers to your game
I test your servers and even SPEND MONEY to stress test your game systems (doffs)
This is the absolutely DUMBEST idea that I have EVER seen in this game.
I know I'm one for hyperbole and histrionics, but this is like punching my infant in the face.
WHO THE *BLEEP* DO YOU GUYS THINK YOU ARE!
You give me 48k dilithium for TWO YEARS worth of merits, and THEN CHARGE ME 35k to build MY OWN ENGINES.
Are you guys mentally deranged? I mean SERIOUSLY!
HULK SMASH!!!!!!!!
Do you feel me destroying your feeble bodies with the power of my enraged mind?
Do you have any idea how disgusted the vast majority of people here are?
I've stuck up for you guys, I've defended you all. This is an absolute betrayal and utterly STUPID decision.
NO DILITHIUM FOR CRAFTING!!
NO DILITHIUM FOR CRAFTING!!
NO DILITHIUM FOR CRAFTING!!
NO DILITHIUM FOR CRAFTING!!
However, the dilithium component of crafting is A TERRIBLE addition. First, the amounts are way too large, and second, if it will be permanent there MUST be a way to directly trade dilithium player -to-player. This cannot be the c-points/dilithium system, because people should be able to trade crafting materials for the service, not have to pay the other players real money. Especially so that we can craft for our own lower level characters!
I really hope this is amended somehow.
I agree, make it an EC sink, not a dilithium sink.
Umm...can we put you down as no dilithium for crafting then...:D
EC good....DC bad...very bad...the depths of bad...so bad it's under the definition of bad in most dictionaries...
Oh yeah, did not even think about that one. Now it will COST you dilithium to "level-up" in a system. Yeah you want to level a crafter, you just need to collect ALOT of dilithium. An ambitious person should calculate the cost necessry to fully level up now in terms of dilithium. I, personally, have lost all ambition with this game.
The goal of the F2P change, whether mandates internally or from the new ownership, is to monetize every single facet of the game via the dilithium mechanic. You simply cannot progress without buying extra dilithium anymore. Even if you could grind out the needed ore, you are not able to convert enough to satisfy everything that requires it now.
You've gutted the game, from top to bottom. Its either grind for weeks, or open the wallet.
No more casual gaming sessions with tangible rewards, no more "I can get there eventually"
STO is now either a Second Job or a new Monthly Bill to be paid.
I'm not mad anymore, I'm saddened. You guys did pretty well on Champions - you did the overhaul of the game with a scalpel, and stitched in the F2P system without destroying what you had created.
With STO, it was done with a chainsaw and a meat mallet, and most of what remains is a meaty pulp of expensive dilithium requirements and C-Store price-tags.
You have managed to excise the enjoyment and the excitement out of virtually everything by making it a treadmill. The worst part is that it overshadowed some truly great additions, like the Duty Officer systems.
I really think you have lost the trust of you player-base now. Its time for crisis management. Sweeping rollbacks of many of the changes is required.
1: Go tell Perfect World it isn't going to work
2: Announce postponement of F2P for 6 months
3: Ship content to holodeck soon for your PAYING customers
4: Use those 6 months to rework and present the F2P framework so that its not "Asian-grind" Lite and really fulfill your promise of not drastically changing the game
It makes no sense. Lots of MMOs have made SMALL CHANGES to go F2P and have met with good success. You have tried something radicial, something that deeply punishes existing players and totally changes the progression of your game. You fixed everything we didn't ask for, and nothing we DID ask for.
I know its far too late now, that it is what it is.
But I can dream.
Balls in your court now, Cryptic.
(IF it wasn't clear, adding dilithium to crafting is.. ridiculous.)
...an if this F2P dilithium stuff went live before 12/15...who do you think would close first
Yes devs., many of us played that other MMO and we know how bad decision go. We know what a stigma it causes, one that can never be recovered from. Honestly, before this change I would say I was being a doomsayer, given the bad decisions being made on this test, I am thinking it is more a realism.
Couldn't have said it any better.
And just incase any of the devs try to pull the 'we need to make rare stuff harder to get' excuse out of their plasma vents let me go on record with this;
Even *I* can come up with ways to accomplish that goal without ;
*A; nickle and diming players
*B; forcing them into a grind-fest
*C; time gating them
If I can think of those ideas the devs should be able to come up with more and better ones, isn't that what we are paying them for? supposedly?
Oh so you will be happy to craft one item every two days?
15,834 R.Dilithium cost for a crafted Purple Mk11 Phaser Beam Array...
So you will have to grind out your limit of Dilithium, twice, and then the expenditure of time/money for the other ingredients...
If you only crafted for yourself, and no one else evr, then you could possibly accept that.
But for the dedicated Fleeters that craft for their mates, it is incredibly restrictive.
If your Doffs can gather enough Dilithium fast enough for you to craft as normal, more power to you.
But considering the Crafting prices in Dilithium are going into the tens of thousands, and the most Dilithium I've ever gotten from a Doff assignment was around about 50 Dilithium Ore.. I, and many, many others find this to be something of a major impediment.
And just because you're a solo player, doesn't make it "OK" for them completely TRIBBLE over Fleet Crafters, who, if they want to keep being Fleet Crafters, have to max out their Dilithium attainment each and every day.
How about instead, we go back to the idea of needing a base white item in order to craft a really good purple item. Or go even further and make it so that we need to dismantle parts and use them with amounts of anomalies in order to craft. The current iteration of the crafting system feels like it was a quick change that wasn't really thought out, or that it was a change that was easy to do without a lot of extra graphical or code work. So, please dont do this. Make crafting a better experience for everyone. Make us fight huge bosses to get rare drop components, make us specialise in one area of crafting (weapons, armor, ect..) Expand the system and turn it into something that will draw people into the game. This will not. It just adds another grind.
But, that being said, kudos for trying something new. Im glad your using the test server for this kind of thing.
Let me tell you guys something about dilithium gain and doffs: it SUCKS
They gate your dilithium gain by gating you yet again by only allowing 20 'jobs' to be run at once.
I spent 7000 cp on doffs, and I have been busting my hump, sending them on jobs. I went from ra1 to va1 using doffs.
In that time I only earned 5000 dilithium with my doffs. After spending $90 to get the best Doffs that I could.
I am SO disgusted.
As someone who tries their best to put out memorable, elegant responses and posts (most of the time), let me say, this is impressive. Spot-on, to the point, and completely true.
If you don't mind, I'd like to link it in my Sig.
I think Cryptic could say they're going to require every player to shove glass shards into their eyes once a day and there would be people online jumping to their defense, telling the rest of us it ain't so bad.
Look, we've had 18 pages and counting of responses and only one person likes this. Cryptic knows this is a mistake, now we see if they're willing to do something about it.
Not necessarily. I bought my lifetime sub and one for my wife this past February. I have nowhere near used up my "value." If things keep going the route of adding grind to slow down leveling instead of adding immersive content, I may never see the value for my money.