Cryptic makes XP gained at a much slower rate that in the normal time it takes to get to Rear Admiral you only can get to LtCmdr1? Basically slowing down the progression so it takes much more time to level.
Im referring to slowing down on holodeck but tested on the future, ie: lets say it took 3 months to get to Rear Adm Lower Half 1 now, but in the future, it took at least a year to get the same way all playing casually. making you over a year to get to VAdm
Slower progression is fine, as long as you have content to keep you engaged...
Which means you could probably slow the Federation side of the equation down in terms of XP...but if you do that to the KDF...then leveling a Klingon will be even more of a grind than it is now.
I don't see how they could do this without adding tons of new missions. The whole reason they are going to start the klingons at commander is there is not enough missions and leveling is a grind of having to repeat the same mission over and over or doing the DSE and explore missions until you open up the next mission.
If they slow it down to what you suggest then we have mind numbing grind to open up next mission or if they lower all the missions then we run out of them before we reach lcdr and have a mind numbing grind of having to repeat everything a thousand times. Plus I don't know about you but I don't want to be stuck in the starter ship for 3-4 months.
Slowing down progression requires more to do in the gaps which requires more missions and content so folks can be entertained the whole way. STO does NOT have enough missions or content to sustain a longer gaming period.
If Cryptic want to be serious then STO would have to develop into something like LOTRO which has tons of stuff to do.
Can it be done ? - No because Cryptic dont have the competence to pull it off.
Since STO launched more has been done on the cosmetic side than it has on the actual gameplay side. Wether it be bringing out pretty hull varients or changing beams to tingle slightly better. Sadly the majority of the STO community gets hung up on the cosmetic garbage like uniforms, ship classes and colours than encouraging Cryptic to make more missions, STFs, Fleet Actions or just improve the mechanics.
Burning circles in a pretty skin is monumentally sad because you have nowhere new to actually take the thing. I will take SUBSTANCE over LOOKs thank you and STO's substance remains weak, bland and decidedly unsatisfying.
Cryptic makes XP gained at a much slower rate that in the normal time it takes to get to Rear Admiral you only can get to LtCmdr1? Basically slowing down the progression so it takes much more time to level.
My question: Why? What's the purpose to that kind of change? Answer that first.
If they added 5 times as much content and then slowed the progression down to be 5 times as slow, I'd be fine with that. But if it means we just need to run a billion defends and explores to level, then that would kill the game.
At this point, I'm not convinced Cryptic is actually capable of producing content at a reasonable rate. We've basically seen nothing for 9 months, and even before that the FEs were few and far between. Whatever the team has spent their time working on, content has never been fast in coming.
I'd be pretty displeased, assuming we use the OP's comparison. There isn't enough content to fill the levels out as it is, if they slowed it down so drastically the game would really just be a grind.
And even if they filled it out to accommodate that kind of slowdown, I haven't stuck with this game so long because it takes eons to level...
I'd be okay if the timescale was, say, in the normal time it takes to get to VA, instead it takes that long to reach Captain. Any slower and it would be too slow for my taste.
They say they want to slow progression down, we gain max level way too fast, ive played other games like EQ II and it normally takes a lot longer to reach the max level. Now here is a good question:
At their current staff level do you think they can produce the amount of content to please the player base and fix the major bugs, and add new features to keep up with the competition? If not how many more developers will they need to hire to provide content?
Do you think it would be wise to hold a Foundry Contest to find the most creative authors and the top 3 get hired to produce content?
I'm a little confused, why would anyone want to make leveling take longer? I can't stand the leveling process as it is now, I couldn't imagine dealing with it being any slower. The missions just aren't that interesting, especially patrol missions, given that nearly all MMO's save the best content for the high level users, why would you want to make it harder for people to get there?
All Cryptic has to do to see how unpopular a grind they are trying to impose on us is, is to look at how small the population of the Klingon faction is currently.
Cryptic cant produce content anywhere near to the level required and the Foundry does not make up for that fact.
Turning your own playerbase into mission makers that Cryptic pick and choose missions to adopt into the 'mainstream' game might work but somehow I doubt Cryptic will do that. Additionally, the Foundry is extremely limited when it would come to making quality missions like the Feature Episodes or a coherrant story arc.
Overall, it would require a more intensive vetting process from Cryptic and I doubt they even have the manpower to have one specific member of staff go through legions of Foundry missions to weed out what they want to turn into real missions.
My question: Why? What's the purpose to that kind of change? Answer that first.
Well the purpose may be to make it take longer to get to end game, does it not feel like you get comfortable in ya new ship then WAM level up new ship again, i think if it took longer but we had some fun playable content to enjoy the journey with it would be great. isnt the point of a MMO to have fun and be social, shouldnt we focus making the game last longer, no fun in beating a game and having nothing to do
Cryptic cant produce content anywhere near to the level required and the Foundry does not make up for that fact.
Turning your own playerbase into mission makers that Cryptic pick and choose missions to adopt into the 'mainstream' game might work but somehow I doubt Cryptic will do that. Additionally, the Foundry is extremely limited when it would come to making quality missions like the Feature Episodes or a coherrant story arc.
Overall, it would require a more intensive vetting process from Cryptic and I doubt they even have the manpower to have one specific member of staff go through legions of Foundry missions to weed out what they want to turn into real missions.
The foundry would be the judging material and they can have the playerbase vote(one vote per account) for there favorite and the top 10 of the finalist would be reviewed by Cryptic. The foundry is a limited version of what they use to make the FE, the winners would be Cryptic Contractors with access to the full creation system and be able crank out the good stuff we want. Its an idea, one I would love them to consider. Anyone else think this would be something worth them doing? Would it help?
I think you've answered your own question. Yes they can slow down level progression- BUT the only way to do so would be to simultaneously add substantial amounts of content to it.
Unfortunately they have repeatedly demonstrated, since the day the game launched, that they are incapable of regularly producing playable content.
I kind of think that they have been sitting on a lot of content. What we don't know is if Atari was making them hold stuff back because of the situation. I mean really I don't think we know half the story of everything that went down, but I have a feeling that there is quite a bit in the pipeline.
Well the purpose may be to make it take longer to get to end game, does it not feel like you get comfortable in ya new ship then WAM level up new ship again, i think if it took longer but we had some fun playable content to enjoy the journey with it would be great. isnt the point of a MMO to have fun and be social, shouldnt we focus making the game last longer, no fun in beating a game and having nothing to do
Considering it's easier dealing with one level, VA, i would say more end game content is needed than lengthening the leveling. At least until they can get it together and add more developers to content for leveling. I would actually suggest about 5 full time builders for more content.
As for the Foundry adding content they would have to create something like the Aurora Toolset. Without it i find the Foundry limiting to say the least. The other problem of course is the fact that i pay monthly for this game; i help pay someone's salary to do that already.
Foundry is a pale comparison to the toolset required to actually be able to add proper content to the game. The same could be said for Forge in Cryptic's NWN as well as it's based on the same programming. In Aurora i can fundamentally change the game in all ways. In foundry i can't even script my own AI.:rolleyes:
If they want players to really add content they should create a Cryptic equivalent of the Aurora Toolset for STO, and eventually their version of NWN.
The game needs more content as it is... I could see reducing the xp limit on some missions to slow the mid-progression down a little (so you end up actually being able to use your ship for a little), but not too much; and they'd have to add MUCH more content.
As has been stated, since launch, Cryptic has demonstrated that they are incapable of producing content with regularity, let alone at a pace that would be consistent with increasing the leveling time, all the while catching the Klingons up and also adding more factions. The ONLY thing that they've been able to consistently produce within their windows (and even then, they're not 100%) is c-store stuff... seriously... we've seen 5+ c-store things added for every featured episode, and 1-3 of those have been ships (early on it was additional skins, later it was +1 ships). The only 'content' we've seen added in the past 9 months is the Red Alerts. In that same 9 month period, we've seen ships, uniforms, and other c-store things at a pace of 3-4 per month... In the past 60 days, we've seen 5 brand new +1 ships added.
All Cryptic has to do to see how unpopular a grind they are trying to impose on us is, is to look at how small the population of the Klingon faction is currently.
I kind of think that they have been sitting on a lot of content. What we don't know is if Atari was making them hold stuff back because of the situation. I mean really I don't think we know half the story of everything that went down, but I have a feeling that there is quite a bit in the pipeline.
I have a feeling there is a lot we don't know yet.
I'm a little worried about mission rewards. As you level up, they give you good starter gear.
In this new F2P economy, I fear the rewards will be reduced or taken out completely and replaced with small amounts of dilithium so you have to crank to obtain anything.
Remember the cool FE rewards? These things may now be seen as a determent to the new economy.
I'd really hate to see all the rewards replaced with dilithium only, I really hope that's not the next rabbit to come out of the hat.
How would it be better to be Lieutenant Commander with nothing to do than Vice Admiral with nothing to do?
You think it would help Cryptic's business model if it took players three months before they were even *eligible* to buy a new tier of C-Store ships?
As others have stated, if this was a good idea you'd see a heck of a lot more people playing KDF.
And no, I don't think adding three more people to the development staff would make a monumental change in how quickly they're able to produce new content. Thirty people? Maybe. Three? No.
Im referring to slowing down on holodeck but tested on the future, ie: lets say it took 3 months to get to Rear Adm Lower Half 1 now, but in the future, it took at least a year to get the same way all playing casually. making you over a year to get to VAdm
3 Months to RAlh1 or BG1? ROFL....
11 Days from Lt6(Lvl6)-LTG1(Lvl51) KDF no less with No Q-Weekend :cool:
1 year to VA/LtG1? There isn't enough content even on the Fed side for that, let alone KDF.
Slower progression is fine, as long as you have content to keep you engaged...
Which means you could probably slow the Federation side of the equation down in terms of XP...but if you do that to the KDF...then leveling a Klingon will be even more of a grind than it is now.
This ^. I do not mind a grind to level that is filled with enough content to give the grind some purpose.
Having to grind the same missions over and over again add-infinitum is not the way to keep a playerbase chasing that virtual carrot.
Comments
Slowing holodeck down... eh, not ideal, but I'll live with it. There are far worse things they can do
Which means you could probably slow the Federation side of the equation down in terms of XP...but if you do that to the KDF...then leveling a Klingon will be even more of a grind than it is now.
If they slow it down to what you suggest then we have mind numbing grind to open up next mission or if they lower all the missions then we run out of them before we reach lcdr and have a mind numbing grind of having to repeat everything a thousand times. Plus I don't know about you but I don't want to be stuck in the starter ship for 3-4 months.
If Cryptic want to be serious then STO would have to develop into something like LOTRO which has tons of stuff to do.
Can it be done ? - No because Cryptic dont have the competence to pull it off.
Since STO launched more has been done on the cosmetic side than it has on the actual gameplay side. Wether it be bringing out pretty hull varients or changing beams to tingle slightly better. Sadly the majority of the STO community gets hung up on the cosmetic garbage like uniforms, ship classes and colours than encouraging Cryptic to make more missions, STFs, Fleet Actions or just improve the mechanics.
Burning circles in a pretty skin is monumentally sad because you have nowhere new to actually take the thing. I will take SUBSTANCE over LOOKs thank you and STO's substance remains weak, bland and decidedly unsatisfying.
My question: Why? What's the purpose to that kind of change? Answer that first.
At this point, I'm not convinced Cryptic is actually capable of producing content at a reasonable rate. We've basically seen nothing for 9 months, and even before that the FEs were few and far between. Whatever the team has spent their time working on, content has never been fast in coming.
And even if they filled it out to accommodate that kind of slowdown, I haven't stuck with this game so long because it takes eons to level...
I'd be okay if the timescale was, say, in the normal time it takes to get to VA, instead it takes that long to reach Captain. Any slower and it would be too slow for my taste.
At their current staff level do you think they can produce the amount of content to please the player base and fix the major bugs, and add new features to keep up with the competition? If not how many more developers will they need to hire to provide content?
Do you think it would be wise to hold a Foundry Contest to find the most creative authors and the top 3 get hired to produce content?
Turning your own playerbase into mission makers that Cryptic pick and choose missions to adopt into the 'mainstream' game might work but somehow I doubt Cryptic will do that. Additionally, the Foundry is extremely limited when it would come to making quality missions like the Feature Episodes or a coherrant story arc.
Overall, it would require a more intensive vetting process from Cryptic and I doubt they even have the manpower to have one specific member of staff go through legions of Foundry missions to weed out what they want to turn into real missions.
Unfortunately they have repeatedly demonstrated, since the day the game launched, that they are incapable of regularly producing playable content.
Considering it's easier dealing with one level, VA, i would say more end game content is needed than lengthening the leveling. At least until they can get it together and add more developers to content for leveling. I would actually suggest about 5 full time builders for more content.
As for the Foundry adding content they would have to create something like the Aurora Toolset. Without it i find the Foundry limiting to say the least. The other problem of course is the fact that i pay monthly for this game; i help pay someone's salary to do that already.
Foundry is a pale comparison to the toolset required to actually be able to add proper content to the game. The same could be said for Forge in Cryptic's NWN as well as it's based on the same programming. In Aurora i can fundamentally change the game in all ways. In foundry i can't even script my own AI.:rolleyes:
If they want players to really add content they should create a Cryptic equivalent of the Aurora Toolset for STO, and eventually their version of NWN.
As has been stated, since launch, Cryptic has demonstrated that they are incapable of producing content with regularity, let alone at a pace that would be consistent with increasing the leveling time, all the while catching the Klingons up and also adding more factions. The ONLY thing that they've been able to consistently produce within their windows (and even then, they're not 100%) is c-store stuff... seriously... we've seen 5+ c-store things added for every featured episode, and 1-3 of those have been ships (early on it was additional skins, later it was +1 ships). The only 'content' we've seen added in the past 9 months is the Red Alerts. In that same 9 month period, we've seen ships, uniforms, and other c-store things at a pace of 3-4 per month... In the past 60 days, we've seen 5 brand new +1 ships added.
EXACTLY !
I have a feeling there is a lot we don't know yet.
I'm a little worried about mission rewards. As you level up, they give you good starter gear.
In this new F2P economy, I fear the rewards will be reduced or taken out completely and replaced with small amounts of dilithium so you have to crank to obtain anything.
Remember the cool FE rewards? These things may now be seen as a determent to the new economy.
I'd really hate to see all the rewards replaced with dilithium only, I really hope that's not the next rabbit to come out of the hat.
How would it be better to be Lieutenant Commander with nothing to do than Vice Admiral with nothing to do?
You think it would help Cryptic's business model if it took players three months before they were even *eligible* to buy a new tier of C-Store ships?
As others have stated, if this was a good idea you'd see a heck of a lot more people playing KDF.
And no, I don't think adding three more people to the development staff would make a monumental change in how quickly they're able to produce new content. Thirty people? Maybe. Three? No.
11 Days from Lt6(Lvl6)-LTG1(Lvl51) KDF no less with No Q-Weekend :cool:
1 year to VA/LtG1? There isn't enough content even on the Fed side for that, let alone KDF.
Not even with 30.....
This ^. I do not mind a grind to level that is filled with enough content to give the grind some purpose.
Having to grind the same missions over and over again add-infinitum is not the way to keep a playerbase chasing that virtual carrot.