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Leveling is too fast and new players have short learning curve.
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Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
Since leveling is much faster than the release day of the game 2 or more years ago. Other players and I feel like the new players are not getting enough time in learning the game rules and how to play.
My main character is level 50 (Vice Admiral) and took me 6 to 8 weeks to level up to the max.
Now some players are leveling up to high levels less than a week's time. Crazy insane rate for most MMOs.
These new players are massing the things I learned in the 6 to 8 weeks of my game play.
- How to use your character or ship in battle.
- Learning how teams are setup.
- Reading the mission log
- Upgrading equipment when leveling up.
- Learning how to train skills to your character.
- Training for Bridge Officers and Duty Officers for skills and buffs.
- How to work with other players in auto PvE Missions.
- Understanding Leadership and Teamwork with Veterans Players. By following their lead and helping.
- Teamwork is better than independence when the team is needed to finish the mission.
I could go on... What you might learn. But new players are lacking the training and cause Veterans Players to be upset more often than enjoying the game.
To Solve some Problems
- I think the leveling rate should slow down overall or start to slow down like at level 30. This might be useful when the level 50 max is expanded to 55 or 60? Longer time as Mid level player will help them be better skilled player for higher levels.
- More complex and learning PvE Missions for lower levels that is part of the main quest. This will help in the training lower levels to work with other players before joining high level PvE Missions.
- Join date to STO listed from player for mission match sorting. Rookies can play with other Rookies and Veterans can play with other Veterans easier. Players can still pick random players from any group.
- First time player walk-through mission that can not be skip for new players. If they gain a new skill or learning something like duty officers? They have to take a class at Academy. This might happen some time before or after being promoted to next rank.
Other player maybe have their own ideas to solve other problems.
New Players need gain knowledge while playing than having too much ignorance at a high level.
So the learning curve needs to be fixed. So every one could enjoy the game play much better.
My main character is level 50 (Vice Admiral) and took me 6 to 8 weeks to level up to the max.
Now some players are leveling up to high levels less than a week's time. Crazy insane rate for most MMOs.
These new players are massing the things I learned in the 6 to 8 weeks of my game play.
- How to use your character or ship in battle.
- Learning how teams are setup.
- Reading the mission log
- Upgrading equipment when leveling up.
- Learning how to train skills to your character.
- Training for Bridge Officers and Duty Officers for skills and buffs.
- How to work with other players in auto PvE Missions.
- Understanding Leadership and Teamwork with Veterans Players. By following their lead and helping.
- Teamwork is better than independence when the team is needed to finish the mission.
I could go on... What you might learn. But new players are lacking the training and cause Veterans Players to be upset more often than enjoying the game.
To Solve some Problems
- I think the leveling rate should slow down overall or start to slow down like at level 30. This might be useful when the level 50 max is expanded to 55 or 60? Longer time as Mid level player will help them be better skilled player for higher levels.
- More complex and learning PvE Missions for lower levels that is part of the main quest. This will help in the training lower levels to work with other players before joining high level PvE Missions.
- Join date to STO listed from player for mission match sorting. Rookies can play with other Rookies and Veterans can play with other Veterans easier. Players can still pick random players from any group.
- First time player walk-through mission that can not be skip for new players. If they gain a new skill or learning something like duty officers? They have to take a class at Academy. This might happen some time before or after being promoted to next rank.
Other player maybe have their own ideas to solve other problems.
New Players need gain knowledge while playing than having too much ignorance at a high level.
So the learning curve needs to be fixed. So every one could enjoy the game play much better.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
The time to level a toon should take about 10x as long. All these F2P (not a bad thing) are hitting level-cap without every really learning how to fly any given ship. Many players erroneously believe that, because they catterwompped that borg cube in PvE, meh, a cube is a cube is a cube and the STFs should be like shooting womprats.
They do not learn timing. They do not learn power level management. They do not learn ability management. They know nothing of teamwork or focus fire. They really learn nothing other than to spam everything until the bad guy goes boom.
It's sad.
Total play time was probably less then 40 hours. The level speed is WAY too fast.
They could easily extend the XP needed to level up EASILY and they would also make a ton load from Boosters then, Cryptics decisions are very odd indeed, they made it that you can max level in a week or less yet end game content is practically zero, they only have themselfs to blame really though, and they wonder why they failed as a sub based game.
Extend the XP to level asap make it meaningful, the extra content is there and booster sales would rocket.
The leveling before fit perfectly with getting promoted and going to a new sector with new missions.
After you reaching level 50. How many players would finish the normal missions levels for 25 to 45?
They might just skip those mission and go to DS9.
Not doing those missions may cause them to lose something in learning and a lack of credits they would have.
With the lack of training and credits to buy better equipment. They cause a drain on other player and the exchange.
Plus you miss a lot of cool missions.
The problem is a lot of games get dumbed down over time and made easier..... So rather than STO getting harder to play, it will most likely get even easier..... not sure how, maybe the removal of power level/ability management? lol
For first time levelers I can agree to this, I started playing on January 17 myself, not even two weeks later my first Tact Officer was VA, by now I have 5 characters at VA.
However, when you level secondaries, leveling taking much longer, for me anyway, is an aggravation, the missions I loved doing on my first character because I was curious as to how they'd play out, now feel mandatory to get my exp and reward item. (though there are a select few I can do many times and still enjoy them, such as the time travel missions)
Kinda like a TV channel rerunning the same movie 5 times in one month, the first time you love watching it, but by the third time you are like: Not again..
I have 6 Characters 5 Fed and 1 Klink, all at top level. When I started the game over 2 years ago it took me a good while to reach max level at least 6 to 8 weeks and that was playing every mission including the patrol missions, the deep spcae encounters and also replaying a few others.
I recently rolled a new ALT and made it a Borg Engineer, after getting it to max level I was curious on the play time so I checked and it said I have been active for 1 Day and 8 Hours, so it took me 32 hours of casual play to get to VA and I still have the Cardassian, Breen, Borg and Undine missions to complete.
Since it free to play now... I would think letting a normal free player to play the game for 6 to 8 weeks would be good business. During that time the player might buy XP boost pack, item slots, ships, etc. from the store.
Than leveling up to max in one week, get bored on 2nd week, and then maybe quit soon after.
What I like: Leveling up seemed like a horrible grind sometimes before F2P. Especially as a Lt. It seemed to take forever to get your first real ship. I hated the patrols even after Cryptic shortened them. I got very tired of grinding exploration missions just so I could match the level of the upcoming story mission. I like that you get your VA ship so quickly because so I don't have to spend a ton of time and currency worrying about upgrading a ship that is going to sit in my inventory forever.
What I don't like: There's no sense of accomplishment in ranking up. What I like about MMOs is character development and growth. Pre F2P, even with my previous gripe, gaining a new rank felt like my toons had really accomplished something. All the grinding and effort finally paid off. Getting a toon to max level was always exciting. Now it seems like a race to VA since I know I'm only going to be in my current ship for a couple of playing sessions.
My understanding is that the PW F2P model is designed for player turnover. They want new players to come in and spend money, and they want the older players gone because there's nothing left for them to buy. I'm guessing the super-fast leveling is supposed to facilitate this idea somehow. Get new players in, get them to VA as quickly as possible, get their money, and get them out. This doesn't seem like a sustainable model to me, but what do I know.
Why and who wants us at the "end game"? There has been talk about 2 other playable factions being added and expanding 10 more levels.
I hope it never end till this game least over 5 years old. It's been only 3 years. I hope it last longer than 5. The next Star Trek Movie will be out next year and boost players back to the game.
They, happen to be the folks in charge of the game. and the game is 2 years old, not three. We can talk all we want about other factions, but one must look at what we have to see if that will work out well. Also note the fact that PWE apparently wanted the KDF to be "monster play"
People do need to take time to learn things, people do need to take time to make connections of some sort with fleets and such before they stumble blindly into end game content.
If these gaming companies have decided it is time to cut out leveling and give players no time to learn, just do it totally and get it over with!! Quit messing around!! Start everyone as 6 star Admirals of Starfleet with our own Starbases to fly around launching Odysseys as fighters, sending our doff rosters full of 100 common level Starfleet Chief(s) of Operations to run their little missions. And when that time comes when you get say 100 Stf runs done you get a special Vice-president of the Federation title!
Snark aside. I agree we need far more leveling time, more learning time, tutorial that actually teaches you how to play the game more than a few buttons. Better yet when you hit 50 14 days after you start a second tutorial that actually teaches you how to use the 50 abilities your power tray just got spammed with like tribbles breeding your bank..:p
It's kind of is 3 years since beta release and working on making the game.
No, the game was only released 2 years ago, though some do say its still in beta. It really doesn't matter the time since release, what matters is that yes, leveling is WAY to fast. They complained about it then sped it up. We don't have enough content now, nor have we had enough content since release. End game, is well at best, weak, and PvP? 1 map in 2 years but they have added a boat load of spam for your enjoyment.
Couple that with the learning curve and the overly dps centric nature of the game and its just goofy. They need to re tune the leveling, slow it down a lot and do something to help educate the players.
But hey, they were at least at one point going to re write the manual for the game.... Some time, last, year.
One thing you can be sure of, it will not change anytime soon. As long as their business model is working as they think it should, they aren't going to change a thing about leveling speed.
I've only been playing a few weeks, and I can tell you, it felt a bit fast. There is still a lot that I am learning. The upside is that I'm thinking of getting the Joined Trill, which means leveling up that character won't be as much of a boring grind.
The most interesting thing about this game is that players can make their own content. I agree, it shouldn't be incumbent upon players to make content. But you can, you have this amazing tool you can use, and it doesn't seem people are really using for much beyond dilithium generation, at least to me. Which is fine, I do it too. The ability to make content reminds me of Neverwinter Nights, anyone remember that game? It was super fun, and made even better by the ability to make your own content.
I guess what I'm saying is that unless you're a pvp hound, and I have two friends that very much are pvp hounds, then content isn't really an issue. Yes, it would be nice to have new content that actually advanced the STO world, but players aren't totally bereft of options.
Ok, I'm rambling now, I'm done. Rage away.
Best way to learn something is to dive in headfirst. An extended leveling process is not going to make as big of a difference as that player just doing some entry level STFs, or running some PvP matches.
If you want to gate the elite level STFs because you don't want to play w/ noobs, then address that directly. There are many better ways of doing that. Extending the leveling process is not going to do a damn thing, other than make people not want to play alts.
Before I felt that 1 week is equal to one year in game time. Now it's like 2 or 3 hours is a year in game time.
In the Star Trek series... They say you could be a captain of a ship in 4 to 10 years or some thing like that.
With promoting to the next rank less than a year seems crazy for any military and in any of the series.
You never see characters getting promoted more than 3 times.
Normal Leveling took 6 to 8 weeks and you become rank captain and have state of the art Starship as your reward. That like 6 to 8 years in old game time.
If they wanted to speed up leveling? Why just made it 4 to 6 weeks or 3 to 5 weeks?
Least I will feel that 3 or 4 week player is better trained in the game than 1 week who skip a lot of things.
Of course, to me, leveling doesn't a game make. I'm much more interested in playing through the story than I am in watching some number slowly increase. I've played through every mission at least half a dozen times, and I still can't think of one I'd want to just hit the Skip button rather than playing, regardless of what level my captain is.
I've seen other games, such as RIFT, add 1000 additional levels after 50, so players never stop having a slowly-increasing XP bar at the bottom of their screen. For some players, watching numbers go up is the only reason they play the missions. It certainly explains some of the popularity of the DOff system, which added, what, 40 more levels to work through?
Oh, and to answer the real problem: I think what is needed are more, easier, STF-like missions which train players in how to do group play and STF-style play a little at a time. Say, one per storyline/chain, being played at least once being a mandatory part of that chain. (Then repeatable daily, to keep them populated.) I think the Fleet Actions missed the opportunity to teach STFing, by being so different from STFs. As it is, I've been playing STO since Beta and have no idea how to function in a group, nor any incentive to learn how.
the issue with sto has always been one of content my tac office i just got to VA with some help form the free exp boost i didnt even get past the cardasian missions till i hit va.
the other issue is that sto isnt really that complex as mmos go. to be honest most of the end content can be done by just shooting till it explodes
However, KDF not being able to get played from lvl 0 when you start playing STO is still insulting.
Seeing them flying off to fight a Borg ship by themselves or not able to solve puzzles in taking down a shields.
If you done the mission many times before? You are the expert and others should follow your lead. Newer players thinking missions are the same as the early part of the game. That are less complex and the missions slowly get little complex in later missions and the few early low level PvE. Not doing some missions past Romulan missions is a big leap to DS9 and STF missions.
As the expert player in the mission... You have to lead and teach them how its done. But some newer players are bit self-center from the lack of doing any thing hard and not able to work with others in some early missions. When they reach something hard in the mission. They sometimes don't listen to the expert player, try to do it again with out a plan, not talking to their teammates, or just quitting leave other players upset.
Some these players have not even speak a word in chat.
Some people like to have their independence than being told what to do.
The fact is that you might need to be told what to do. I myself have to follow a guild leader and elder members to finish a mission in other games in life. Real life is like that too.
Some people don't have time to teach anyone now days and tell them go to a website.
It all crazy with problems... Some one needs to give some order in this disorder problems.