My fleet has four active members out of only five total, and we're humming right along. Admittedly, we all play a lot, and we all have multiple VA toons.
What makes me angry is the 4 fleet ship module bollocks and requiring 5 contraband instead of 3 for the 2,000 dilith DOFF mission. I pour a lot of time and a fair share of $$$ into the game and to have them make such a blatant attempt at dragging people into spending more money just irritates me and makes me nervous about the future direction of the game. On the flipside, if they continue to refine the lock box system perhaps I can live with it all.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Former/Cryptic Name: Captain_Hans_Langsdorff
Founding member, Special Service Squadron
"Fear God and Dread Nought." First Sea Lord, Adm. Jacky Fisher
What I like about Starbases is that it does what Cryptic intented with players working together for a mutual goal. And the benefits are new unlocked ships and buffs.
However, there are two things I really don't like about Fleet Starbases:
1) They trivalized Hubs.
Everything you needed from a Hub such as Shipyards and Trainers, are now available. So in a way socializing is decreased in one aspect, in turn for increased socializing at the Fleet Starbase (which is sort of unnecessary due to fleet chat).
IMHO, I really wished that instead of our own Starbases, we got a chance to station our Fleets at an already established Hub (DS9, ESD, K7, SB39), that way these empty Hubs can have more vitality to them.
2) The Grind
While going for marks is pretty easy for Large Fleets for projects, small fleets have to grind their hearts out to be competitive. And that just wears people out.
(And the HUGE Dilithum costs like for these windows really hurts small fleets too).
The Benefits?
I honestly can't know for certain what surprises that are ahead, but honestly I'm not too thrilled. With Shipyards, having new ships is cool, but the real money sinks involved has me frowning. The Transwarp Gates are cool, but to locations we already have access too? Given that we can go anywhere with Transwarps, this seems rather....meh. However, given what we hear about Fleet Mk12 gear, that might be something nice to have.
Comments
What makes me angry is the 4 fleet ship module bollocks and requiring 5 contraband instead of 3 for the 2,000 dilith DOFF mission. I pour a lot of time and a fair share of $$$ into the game and to have them make such a blatant attempt at dragging people into spending more money just irritates me and makes me nervous about the future direction of the game. On the flipside, if they continue to refine the lock box system perhaps I can live with it all.
Former/Cryptic Name: Captain_Hans_Langsdorff
Founding member, Special Service Squadron
"Fear God and Dread Nought." First Sea Lord, Adm. Jacky Fisher
However, there are two things I really don't like about Fleet Starbases:
1) They trivalized Hubs.
Everything you needed from a Hub such as Shipyards and Trainers, are now available. So in a way socializing is decreased in one aspect, in turn for increased socializing at the Fleet Starbase (which is sort of unnecessary due to fleet chat).
IMHO, I really wished that instead of our own Starbases, we got a chance to station our Fleets at an already established Hub (DS9, ESD, K7, SB39), that way these empty Hubs can have more vitality to them.
2) The Grind
While going for marks is pretty easy for Large Fleets for projects, small fleets have to grind their hearts out to be competitive. And that just wears people out.
(And the HUGE Dilithum costs like for these windows really hurts small fleets too).
The Benefits?
I honestly can't know for certain what surprises that are ahead, but honestly I'm not too thrilled. With Shipyards, having new ships is cool, but the real money sinks involved has me frowning. The Transwarp Gates are cool, but to locations we already have access too? Given that we can go anywhere with Transwarps, this seems rather....meh. However, given what we hear about Fleet Mk12 gear, that might be something nice to have.