To me that argument never holds water, If I purchase an item in the real world with my money then I have used a form of currency, If I say to someone I will work X amount of hours for the item then I have paid in another form of currency.... but I guess your time has no value.
That's a somewhat ridiculous argument to make. If you're considering your time in the game to be "work" then you should probably stop playing.
I have posted many threads about the cost and uselessness of starbases - for slightly better ships that will only show any real effect in PvP which almost no-one does. Not only that but these ships cost more money on top of the grind AND to add insult they are character only - unlike c-store ships.
So WHY are we doing this - there is nothing to do with the bases as far as fleet missions go - so for to buy 10% better ships which are just the old ones - have them only unlock for that character - I no my reason is just pure insanity and it stops very soon at T3.
Simple question: have fleet starbases lived up to your expectations? Why or why not?
No, but i expected as much, so... Yes?
In short: expected the heavy GRIND, expected the SINKS, expected the SHOPS + some decent Loot from it,
did NOT expect the high dilithium / Zen cost to the Shops items, after all you've put in to get the Fleetcredit there should be no dilithium cost PERIOD.
it's like buying a Shop, then buying items for the Shop, and then go buy the stuff inside your own Shop again.
Those quadruple costs are kinda silly.
For the missions... mmmh...
i expected more from Nukara, much Hype, not much meat. Certainly bad Loot *meh*
i LIKED the Fleetmark Missions, initially, but they get repetitive really fast, and by now i am so bored of them that i ONLY play them to keep the Fleetbase running at all if nothing moves forward (usually KDF side, with slow queues, which makes it even worse).
It seems like the "Long term Starbase skin development" turned out to be ONE (1) new Ops deck and three (3) other decks that are just rooms mashed from past missions. The Engineering deck main section being taken from the Captains Table, for example. How many hundreds of dollars will it cost the make a fully finished one?
All the rat-TRIBBLE at Cryptic must be laughing their arses off.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] @Aquitaine985 Lag Industries STO PvP Fleet - Executive
A Sad Panda of Industrial calibre. 2010: This is Cryptic PvP. Please hold the line, your call is very important to us...
All joking aside though, I did reply to one or two of the better zone-chat fleet invites, but the fleets that those players invited me to appear to have convoluted application processes that involved either registering on a forum, completeing an application form, or both. I'm sorry, this is only MY own, personal, opinion, but that's just taking things a little too seriously - sorry, but I refuse to complete a ruddy job application to join a fictional (and often badly named) fleet in a flippin online game!
Totally agree. I did it once to join one fleet and I won't do it again at all. There was some other fleet that had this process where they ran a "security check" where they checked all your alts, all fleets you'd ever been in, went through all your forum posts and then googled your e-mail address and name. And if anything was "wrong" you had to explain it all.
That's just being a creeper. Get over yourselves, it's a video game based on a TV show. :rolleyes:
Delta Rising is the best expansion ever and the players love it! No, seriously! ...Why are you laughing so hard?
Not to be overwhelmingly negative... but yes my expectations where that they would be a ridiculous time sink designed to herd players into "larger" fleets because, well, dang it that's how MMOs are supposed to be played!
And that's what we have...
Hopefully when the promised ability to customize interiors shows up, there will be an opportunity for fleets to grind towards enhancing their star base visually.
I'd really like them to have the option of selling those fancy fleet ships they work so hard to get as a way of funding the customization too. I think they would rather do that then take on members who are only interested in a ship. At least this way they could get some profit from their hard work.
Finding the whole 'Starbase' process tiresome to be honest.
As said earlier, was a member of one fleet until quite recently, as they were making no advancement (basically ground to a halt) therefore eliminating any chance of obtaining either a nice starbase or any fleet ships.
And to be honest, have found running around with a fleet-less (VA) toon quite a revealation - received a few fleet invites when visited ESD to change ship and, out of morbid curiosity, posted "any fleets recruiting" in Zone Chat - big mistake!
All joking aside though, I did reply to one or two of the better zone-chat fleet invites, but the fleets that those players invited me to appear to have convoluted application processes that involved either registering on a forum, completeing an application form, or both. I'm sorry, this is only MY own, personal, opinion, but that's just taking things a little too seriously - sorry, but I refuse to complete a ruddy job application to join a fictional (and often badly named) fleet in a flippin online game!
Well once my Grand experiment to reach T3 by myself -solo fleet("Starbase 001") ends in about 2 weeks - 43/42/45k exp now I will be taking on a few people - no more than 10 - who want to take it to T4 and possibly beyond. (if I can make it to T3 by end of Sept by myself than T4 should be possible with 10 people by end of Oct - before season 7)
Other than posting assignments it will be kind of a leaderless fleet - as I am not really into the whole ego trip - fleet running thing - I am a doffer and dilth grinder and that's pretty much all my time - so it would have to be some people who are dedicated to putting in something to the base but not interested in making a big fleet thing - doing all kinds of events together(at least till after season 7 launches and see what's there)
Well once my Grand experiment to reach T3 by myself -solo fleet("Starbase 001") ends in about 2 weeks - 43/42/45k exp now I will be taking on a few people - no more than 10 - who want to take it to T4 and possibly beyond. (if I can make it to T3 by end of Sept by myself than T4 should be possible with 10 people by end of Oct - before season 7)
Other than posting assignments it will be kind of a leaderless fleet - as I am not really into the whole ego trip - fleet running thing - I am a doffer and dilth grinder and that's pretty much all my time - so it would have to be some people who are dedicated to putting in something to the base but not interested in making a big fleet thing - doing all kinds of events together(at least till after season 7 launches and see what's there)
As others have noted.... I hope Season 7 and future releases add more variety / options / content to the Starbases.
In my silly opinion, Season 6 almost felt like a "BETA" Release with it's one size fits all approach and the Fleet missions (which I do like the new missions, but gets old with the limited ways to get Fleet Marks.... and like we need another currency).
Yes and no. They are what I was expecting... not what I was hoping for.
Right now there is really no reason to visit anyone else's starbase. I was hoping for a place where fleets could have something truly their own.
Massive personalized banners hanging from the walls, customisable welcome plaques in the transporter room, entirely different textures and aesthetics (New and Shiny, Old and Worn, Old and Well Kept, TNG visuals and textures, yadda, yadda, yadda...), possibly a Farscape style marketplace full of odd aliens selling weird (rare) wares you're unable to purchase anywhere else, customisable contacts, and the ability to name/dress them in starbases, the list goes on.
As it stands right now, everyone has the same projects, same visuals, same, same, same. There is literally no difference between the options that the fleets "Guardians of Equestira", "Ten Forward", "Minuteman", and "Cats United". You could go to anyone of these starbases and you would never tell the difference. And that's sad.
It's what I was expecting, I knew it would be like this, but it's not what I wanted.
this is the kind of topics which makes me post on the forums only once in forever.
Me and my fleet are trying to put some effort in the starbase, but they are the pretty opposite of what we expected.
When we heard about "Fleet Ships", we thought that they would have been alternate versions of the same ships currently in game for their ORIGINAL level, not lvl50 retrofits.
Not to mention, these ships (besides the improved hull, shield, and boff layout) are rather worthless.
Yeah, right, more lvl50 content for KDF and FED sides, but no, just no.
These ships end up costing about 3 times actual C-store ships (200000 fleet credit for the standard retrofit and 20k + 4 fleet ship module for 5? each, which added to the resources and time needed to reach a given shipyard level increases the price A LOT) and yet have about a third of the actual effectiveness.
Sure, up to a total of 10 consoles on a ship is nice, but what is needed is more value to those ships (which tbh are the only thing which makes the starbase worth even just looking at), such as built-in skills or bonuses.
Let's look at something like the Fleet Science Vessel Retrofit.... balanced console slots with tact-sci boff layout. Now, the Nova/Rhode Island classes are known to have under their saucer the Nova Waveraider shuttle (http://stgalileo.com/images1/wikiwaverider.png <---- just a concept to give an idea of the shuttle), originally meant to be an aeroshuttle, could be put in STO as a toggle-able combat pet for the Fleet S.V. Retrofit.....
Or let's look at the most aimed-at fleet ship on the FED side: the Acquarius destroyer.
it looks pretty much like the Fleet Patrol escort if it wasn't for the universal BOFF slot.
I think that by itself wouldn't do much better, maybe a bit less than the standard patrol escort if it wasn't for the universal boff, so what about a slight passive bonus to targeting systems?
These are just ideas, but they're surely more sense than what fleet ships are right now by themselves unless you got by yourself bought about 4-5 c-store ships already.....
And if you consider repeating tasks over an over to earn currency not work... but "fun" then you need to get out more.
Fun has nothing to do with work. Work can be quite fun, hobbies can be quite fun. Work can be quite tedious, hobbies can be quite tedious.
If you're burned-out on the game then yes, doing it for any reason can seem tedious - even doing new things can seem tedious - but not everyone's burned-out on the game, and thus doesn't need to get out more. Personally I'd say if you're burned-out on the game then YOU need to get out more. Find other hobbies until you can rekindle your STO spark.
The reason I subscribe to and play many different MMOs is because I know myself. I know I'm not the type of person who can be happy doing X over and over and over forever. Playing other games and doing Y over and over, and then Z over and over, and then K over and over, rekindles my desire to eventually get back to doing X over and over.
STO is never going to be the type of game we want for a lot of reasons - not the least being that we all want a different type of game. You can either accept that and find ways to make your hobbies enjoyable or you can spend all your time miserable. Life's too short to spend it being miserable, IMO. YMMV
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
An MMO has to be about grinding. It's simply not possible to not be so, because it's not possible to write stories as fast as people consume them. The difference is a couple of orders of magnitude.
So, I expected the first release of Fleet Starbases to be a communal space that could be expanded through grinding, and that the grinding would be structured such that there was a great benefit to teaming with fleet members for it. I expected, based on the structure of the game, that said grinding would also include things that could be short-cutted by spending real money.
I hoped, but not expected, that Cryptic would learn from past mistakes and include some significant time-gating, so that the determined couldn't sprint their base to the end of all current expansion in the first week. So to that extent, my expectations have been exceeded, for the initial release.
I now expect that small base enhancement projects will continue to be released at a pace where average sized fleets can keep up with their progression without missing any, as long as they maintain activity, and that there will be periodic re-releases of old enhancement projects, to allow fleets to "fill in the gaps" if they happen to miss one due to a lull in activity.
I expect that the current difficulties caused by having yet another currency in a game that was trying to get rid of extra currencies will not be solved any time soon, simply because Cryptic is finding that anything that links systems results in opportunities for exploit, which reduces variety of grinding, which leads to burnout.
I hope that they will integrate fleet gear into endgame progression, something like this:
"Normal" STFs are balanced for people wearing endgame story gear, or gear that can be purchased for Dilithium, or from low-tier fleet bases.
"advanced" STFs are balanced for people wearing gear that costs a currency dropped by "normal" STFs, or from top-tier fleet bases.
"elite" STFs are balanced for people wearing gear that costs a currency dropped in "advanced" STFs.
In that way, you could gear up a new character from your fleet base for "normal" or "advanced", but you'll never make it in an "elite" without having done a lot of "advanced" grinding. But at least you can skip the "normal" grind on new characters if you're in a decent fleet.
I don't expect they'll manage the above any time soon, though.
Former moderator of these forums. Lifetime sub since before launch. Been here since before public betas. Foundry author of "Franklin Drake Must Die".
An MMO has to be about grinding. It's simply not possible to not be so, because it's not possible to write stories as fast as people consume them. The difference is a couple of orders of magnitude.
For the Devs, no. For the players using the foundry, yes. Stahl recently admitted himself that they need to make better use of the foundry. So when/if they can get their hands on NW's foundry tech which scales mission rewards to average mission length, there will be plenty of content that actually rewards people for the time required to play it.
An MMO has to be about grinding. It's simply not possible to not be so, because it's not possible to write stories as fast as people consume them. The difference is a couple of orders of magnitude.
When will game developers learn that grinding is NOT fun at all?
And more important, how long will it take until gamers will notice that playing a game should be fun?
Modern Game developers should try to invent something more creative or at least something that does not include doing the same thing over and over. When playing a game turns into work, then something about this game is very wrong IMO.
The only reason for me to deal with Starbases is getting better equipment/weapons or maybe some fleet ships (but i haven't seen one that really interests me, so far TBH.).
I haven't had any big expectations concerning Starbases (i have broken with the habit to expect anything good from cryptic for a long time), so i haven't been dissapointed.
Live long and prosper.
"...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--"
- (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie
Absolutely not, OP. I could not have imagined the STO experience would devolve so far into the endless, monotonous, chase-the-carrot, high cost-low reward, currency grind it's become. Season 6's starbases are sort of the capstone to this achievement by what I can only imagine is PWE's influence.
Being charged twice for the same thing does not equate to fun for me.
Personally, I think it's a little too difficult to lay hands on specific duty officer specializations in bulk, as some projects call for. Especially for smaller fleets. I wish they'd stuck with specifying DO departments instead. I can get my hands on 30 Operations DO's if I have to, but 30 Sensor officers (or insert-DO-spec-here)?
I don't have a beef with requiring specific types of DO's, but at the specialization level they shouldn't require quite so many.
I think the Dilithium costs for the limited-time projects are also too high, although I understand that they are trying to give larger fleets more opportunities to generate fleet credits.
Our fleet is still grinding up to Tier 2 in all categories. I would have thought we would have gotten to Tier 2 by now.
But, I've seen some of the gear available to provision at our current level and they look pretty sweet. I'm also loving the Transwarp Conduit and can't wait to level that sucker up to where it's more useful. So I'm not entirely disappointed with it.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Well once my Grand experiment to reach T3 by myself -solo fleet("Starbase 001") ends in about 2 weeks - 43/42/45k exp now I will be taking on a few people - no more than 10 - who want to take it to T4 and possibly beyond. (if I can make it to T3 by end of Sept by myself than T4 should be possible with 10 people by end of Oct - before season 7)
A solo T3 base? That's insane. :eek: I think building a solo T1 base is a fun little side project and is doable, especially if you have alts in "real" fleets to get that experience. Anything bigger than that is of questionable usefulness as a solo fleet. I want the T2 base exterior purely for the visuals (T1 is horrid) but I'm not at all willing to grind 2.5x the T1 base at twice the cost per project to get there.
Delta Rising is the best expansion ever and the players love it! No, seriously! ...Why are you laughing so hard?
If they enabled PvP between fleets, I would enjoy them more. As it is, they're just another timesink and another means to get new ships.
It would be nice to have that, perhaps that will occur when they introduce, or i should say when they introduce the territory system. Iam not holding my breath, Cryptic needs to rely on the Foundry people more to implement more to the game itself.
I was expecting this to be something to do on the side and build up over time with fun things to do, but instead it ended up being nothing but a gigantic moneysink with real and game currencies, with more Boring Grinds, all for no real benefits.
Once my fleets are completed with Tier 2, we are done.
Yeah, i agree and all it has become is a grind that isnt fun and just boring.
I never said it should have to be rebuilt after every failure, so responding as if I did is just a strawman tactic. However without having any effect at all on the base, the defense missions are meaningless to the system itself. In fact, they are not really even a part of the fleet base system. They are completely optional and have no effect in any way on the development of the base; just like the colony defense and no win scenario missions.
Very true indeed, much of what is being done is meaningless and i even left the clan i was with as too but pressure to get on and stay on a schedule when i want to play and do other things.
The multiple missions we all do in order to get fleet marks for the projects are meaningless and have no direct link to that of the star-base or anything you are doing and two of the missions you can even do in part that no one can get coordinated to win it, on the 20 man.
I was also hoping to see taking damage and having to make repairs, people having different layouts and outside designs. Everyone has the same layout, same exterior, same location, same interior. Why not a variety of bases? Ground, Moon or orbiting a star or planet. Instead we have a black-hole location that our bases sit at. As well, bases should have been tiered to the size of ones clan, not give everyone the same type and layout and missions in order to get the next timesink going. Boring!
Commander Shran - You tell Archer, that is three the pink skin owes me!
A solo T3 base? That's insane. :eek: I think building a solo T1 base is a fun little side project and is doable, especially if you have alts in "real" fleets to get that experience. Anything bigger than that is of questionable usefulness as a solo fleet. I want the T2 base exterior purely for the visuals (T1 is horrid) but I'm not at all willing to grind 2.5x the T1 base at twice the cost per project to get there.
Nope, thats very possible.
I'm actually building a Federation and Klingon Starbase right now, and I'm just one or two projects from finishing up Tier 2. All by myself (on three characters).
I'm getting really burnt out in doing Fleet Marks, except trying to finish the 10th Wave in No Win Scenario with the guys. But since I just need 1000 more Starbase Experience to hit Tier 3, it's very possible I could struggle on. (Though likely I won't get to it until November).
So given my experience, Starbases are definitely soloable. And there are plenty of possibilities of selling Fleet Ships and Fleet Gear for easy ECs or trade for Fleet Marks to restore the coffers.
99,9% negative feedback...cryptic really knows how to make fun games!:(
They have made quite experience with STO.
They tend to hit just off the mark each time if you ask me.
I don't want to list every dissappointment they have made, but be asured it would be a long list of mine, lol.
With each season they release, this game get more and more uninteresting and now it feels even like work IMHO. They must have a very strange concept of the word "fun".
Live long and prosper.
"...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--"
- (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie
A solo T3 base? That's insane. :eek: I think building a solo T1 base is a fun little side project and is doable, especially if you have alts in "real" fleets to get that experience. Anything bigger than that is of questionable usefulness as a solo fleet. I want the T2 base exterior purely for the visuals (T1 is horrid) but I'm not at all willing to grind 2.5x the T1 base at twice the cost per project to get there.
I have posted many times in various threads of mine that my project is a work of pure insanity - but I set a goal and am going to see it through.
Tomorrow I will be at 44k mil 43k eng and 46.5k sci - so it's not like I have much more to go before hitting those big T3 upgrade projects. I will be taking on a few people after that to take it on to T4 and maybe T5 if the change the requirements. But after doing 1000's of STF's and such what else is there to do - that's the problem with STO. For the last 6 months or so other than the base most of my time is spend doffing - not much else to do that interests me. The only way it has been possible is that they added the CXP conversion and I had 4 maxed out toons that generate the fleet marks for the project + the 50 marks for the investigate officer report helps to. Before that i almost gave up the project from colony invasion burnout. Now I don't bother with the fleet missions anymore and stick just to doffing. It's the only thing that keeps me playing the game. I have 15,000 Zen so I am really hoping for some new c-store ships soon.
Comments
That's a somewhat ridiculous argument to make. If you're considering your time in the game to be "work" then you should probably stop playing.
So WHY are we doing this - there is nothing to do with the bases as far as fleet missions go - so for to buy 10% better ships which are just the old ones - have them only unlock for that character - I no my reason is just pure insanity and it stops very soon at T3.
No, but i expected as much, so... Yes?
In short: expected the heavy GRIND, expected the SINKS, expected the SHOPS + some decent Loot from it,
did NOT expect the high dilithium / Zen cost to the Shops items, after all you've put in to get the Fleetcredit there should be no dilithium cost PERIOD.
it's like buying a Shop, then buying items for the Shop, and then go buy the stuff inside your own Shop again.
Those quadruple costs are kinda silly.
For the missions... mmmh...
i expected more from Nukara, much Hype, not much meat. Certainly bad Loot *meh*
i LIKED the Fleetmark Missions, initially, but they get repetitive really fast, and by now i am so bored of them that i ONLY play them to keep the Fleetbase running at all if nothing moves forward (usually KDF side, with slow queues, which makes it even worse).
All the rat-TRIBBLE at Cryptic must be laughing their arses off.
@Aquitaine985
Lag Industries STO PvP Fleet - Executive
A Sad Panda of Industrial calibre.
2010: This is Cryptic PvP. Please hold the line, your call is very important to us...
Totally agree. I did it once to join one fleet and I won't do it again at all. There was some other fleet that had this process where they ran a "security check" where they checked all your alts, all fleets you'd ever been in, went through all your forum posts and then googled your e-mail address and name. And if anything was "wrong" you had to explain it all.
That's just being a creeper. Get over yourselves, it's a video game based on a TV show. :rolleyes:
Considering the rest they do I'd expect it includes a car battery, jumper cables and your sensitive areas. :eek:
And that's what we have...
Hopefully when the promised ability to customize interiors shows up, there will be an opportunity for fleets to grind towards enhancing their star base visually.
I'd really like them to have the option of selling those fancy fleet ships they work so hard to get as a way of funding the customization too. I think they would rather do that then take on members who are only interested in a ship. At least this way they could get some profit from their hard work.
Captain Ariel Trueheart Department of Temporal Investigations
U.S.S. Valkyrie - NCC 991701
=/\= ================================= =/\=
Well once my Grand experiment to reach T3 by myself -solo fleet("Starbase 001") ends in about 2 weeks - 43/42/45k exp now I will be taking on a few people - no more than 10 - who want to take it to T4 and possibly beyond. (if I can make it to T3 by end of Sept by myself than T4 should be possible with 10 people by end of Oct - before season 7)
Other than posting assignments it will be kind of a leaderless fleet - as I am not really into the whole ego trip - fleet running thing - I am a doffer and dilth grinder and that's pretty much all my time - so it would have to be some people who are dedicated to putting in something to the base but not interested in making a big fleet thing - doing all kinds of events together(at least till after season 7 launches and see what's there)
As others have noted.... I hope Season 7 and future releases add more variety / options / content to the Starbases.
In my silly opinion, Season 6 almost felt like a "BETA" Release with it's one size fits all approach and the Fleet missions (which I do like the new missions, but gets old with the limited ways to get Fleet Marks.... and like we need another currency).
Delirium Tremens
Tier 4 Starbase, Tier 3 Embassy
http://dtfleet.com/
This sums up my feelings nicely.
Yet another ball dropped by the Devs.
And if you consider repeating tasks over an over to earn currency not work... but "fun" then you need to get out more.
Me and my fleet are trying to put some effort in the starbase, but they are the pretty opposite of what we expected.
When we heard about "Fleet Ships", we thought that they would have been alternate versions of the same ships currently in game for their ORIGINAL level, not lvl50 retrofits.
Not to mention, these ships (besides the improved hull, shield, and boff layout) are rather worthless.
Yeah, right, more lvl50 content for KDF and FED sides, but no, just no.
These ships end up costing about 3 times actual C-store ships (200000 fleet credit for the standard retrofit and 20k + 4 fleet ship module for 5? each, which added to the resources and time needed to reach a given shipyard level increases the price A LOT) and yet have about a third of the actual effectiveness.
Sure, up to a total of 10 consoles on a ship is nice, but what is needed is more value to those ships (which tbh are the only thing which makes the starbase worth even just looking at), such as built-in skills or bonuses.
Let's look at something like the Fleet Science Vessel Retrofit.... balanced console slots with tact-sci boff layout. Now, the Nova/Rhode Island classes are known to have under their saucer the Nova Waveraider shuttle (http://stgalileo.com/images1/wikiwaverider.png <---- just a concept to give an idea of the shuttle), originally meant to be an aeroshuttle, could be put in STO as a toggle-able combat pet for the Fleet S.V. Retrofit.....
Or let's look at the most aimed-at fleet ship on the FED side: the Acquarius destroyer.
it looks pretty much like the Fleet Patrol escort if it wasn't for the universal BOFF slot.
I think that by itself wouldn't do much better, maybe a bit less than the standard patrol escort if it wasn't for the universal boff, so what about a slight passive bonus to targeting systems?
These are just ideas, but they're surely more sense than what fleet ships are right now by themselves unless you got by yourself bought about 4-5 c-store ships already.....
If you're burned-out on the game then yes, doing it for any reason can seem tedious - even doing new things can seem tedious - but not everyone's burned-out on the game, and thus doesn't need to get out more. Personally I'd say if you're burned-out on the game then YOU need to get out more. Find other hobbies until you can rekindle your STO spark.
The reason I subscribe to and play many different MMOs is because I know myself. I know I'm not the type of person who can be happy doing X over and over and over forever. Playing other games and doing Y over and over, and then Z over and over, and then K over and over, rekindles my desire to eventually get back to doing X over and over.
STO is never going to be the type of game we want for a lot of reasons - not the least being that we all want a different type of game. You can either accept that and find ways to make your hobbies enjoyable or you can spend all your time miserable. Life's too short to spend it being miserable, IMO. YMMV
So, I expected the first release of Fleet Starbases to be a communal space that could be expanded through grinding, and that the grinding would be structured such that there was a great benefit to teaming with fleet members for it. I expected, based on the structure of the game, that said grinding would also include things that could be short-cutted by spending real money.
I hoped, but not expected, that Cryptic would learn from past mistakes and include some significant time-gating, so that the determined couldn't sprint their base to the end of all current expansion in the first week. So to that extent, my expectations have been exceeded, for the initial release.
I now expect that small base enhancement projects will continue to be released at a pace where average sized fleets can keep up with their progression without missing any, as long as they maintain activity, and that there will be periodic re-releases of old enhancement projects, to allow fleets to "fill in the gaps" if they happen to miss one due to a lull in activity.
I expect that the current difficulties caused by having yet another currency in a game that was trying to get rid of extra currencies will not be solved any time soon, simply because Cryptic is finding that anything that links systems results in opportunities for exploit, which reduces variety of grinding, which leads to burnout.
I hope that they will integrate fleet gear into endgame progression, something like this:
"Normal" STFs are balanced for people wearing endgame story gear, or gear that can be purchased for Dilithium, or from low-tier fleet bases.
"advanced" STFs are balanced for people wearing gear that costs a currency dropped by "normal" STFs, or from top-tier fleet bases.
"elite" STFs are balanced for people wearing gear that costs a currency dropped in "advanced" STFs.
In that way, you could gear up a new character from your fleet base for "normal" or "advanced", but you'll never make it in an "elite" without having done a lot of "advanced" grinding. But at least you can skip the "normal" grind on new characters if you're in a decent fleet.
I don't expect they'll manage the above any time soon, though.
For the Devs, no. For the players using the foundry, yes. Stahl recently admitted himself that they need to make better use of the foundry. So when/if they can get their hands on NW's foundry tech which scales mission rewards to average mission length, there will be plenty of content that actually rewards people for the time required to play it.
Themepark MMOs, maybe.
And more important, how long will it take until gamers will notice that playing a game should be fun?
Modern Game developers should try to invent something more creative or at least something that does not include doing the same thing over and over. When playing a game turns into work, then something about this game is very wrong IMO.
The only reason for me to deal with Starbases is getting better equipment/weapons or maybe some fleet ships (but i haven't seen one that really interests me, so far TBH.).
I haven't had any big expectations concerning Starbases (i have broken with the habit to expect anything good from cryptic for a long time), so i haven't been dissapointed.
Live long and prosper.
Being charged twice for the same thing does not equate to fun for me.
I don't have a beef with requiring specific types of DO's, but at the specialization level they shouldn't require quite so many.
I think the Dilithium costs for the limited-time projects are also too high, although I understand that they are trying to give larger fleets more opportunities to generate fleet credits.
Our fleet is still grinding up to Tier 2 in all categories. I would have thought we would have gotten to Tier 2 by now.
But, I've seen some of the gear available to provision at our current level and they look pretty sweet. I'm also loving the Transwarp Conduit and can't wait to level that sucker up to where it's more useful. So I'm not entirely disappointed with it.
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A solo T3 base? That's insane. :eek: I think building a solo T1 base is a fun little side project and is doable, especially if you have alts in "real" fleets to get that experience. Anything bigger than that is of questionable usefulness as a solo fleet. I want the T2 base exterior purely for the visuals (T1 is horrid) but I'm not at all willing to grind 2.5x the T1 base at twice the cost per project to get there.
It would be nice to have that, perhaps that will occur when they introduce, or i should say when they introduce the territory system. Iam not holding my breath, Cryptic needs to rely on the Foundry people more to implement more to the game itself.
Yeah, i agree and all it has become is a grind that isnt fun and just boring.
Very true indeed, much of what is being done is meaningless and i even left the clan i was with as too but pressure to get on and stay on a schedule when i want to play and do other things.
The multiple missions we all do in order to get fleet marks for the projects are meaningless and have no direct link to that of the star-base or anything you are doing and two of the missions you can even do in part that no one can get coordinated to win it, on the 20 man.
I was also hoping to see taking damage and having to make repairs, people having different layouts and outside designs. Everyone has the same layout, same exterior, same location, same interior. Why not a variety of bases? Ground, Moon or orbiting a star or planet. Instead we have a black-hole location that our bases sit at. As well, bases should have been tiered to the size of ones clan, not give everyone the same type and layout and missions in order to get the next timesink going. Boring!
Nope, thats very possible.
I'm actually building a Federation and Klingon Starbase right now, and I'm just one or two projects from finishing up Tier 2. All by myself (on three characters).
I'm getting really burnt out in doing Fleet Marks, except trying to finish the 10th Wave in No Win Scenario with the guys. But since I just need 1000 more Starbase Experience to hit Tier 3, it's very possible I could struggle on. (Though likely I won't get to it until November).
So given my experience, Starbases are definitely soloable. And there are plenty of possibilities of selling Fleet Ships and Fleet Gear for easy ECs or trade for Fleet Marks to restore the coffers.
They tend to hit just off the mark each time if you ask me.
I don't want to list every dissappointment they have made, but be asured it would be a long list of mine, lol.
With each season they release, this game get more and more uninteresting and now it feels even like work IMHO. They must have a very strange concept of the word "fun".
Live long and prosper.
I have posted many times in various threads of mine that my project is a work of pure insanity - but I set a goal and am going to see it through.
Tomorrow I will be at 44k mil 43k eng and 46.5k sci - so it's not like I have much more to go before hitting those big T3 upgrade projects. I will be taking on a few people after that to take it on to T4 and maybe T5 if the change the requirements. But after doing 1000's of STF's and such what else is there to do - that's the problem with STO. For the last 6 months or so other than the base most of my time is spend doffing - not much else to do that interests me. The only way it has been possible is that they added the CXP conversion and I had 4 maxed out toons that generate the fleet marks for the project + the 50 marks for the investigate officer report helps to. Before that i almost gave up the project from colony invasion burnout. Now I don't bother with the fleet missions anymore and stick just to doffing. It's the only thing that keeps me playing the game. I have 15,000 Zen so I am really hoping for some new c-store ships soon.
I expected them to be useless and so far I haven't been disappointed.
Like farming for 4 modules x 500 zen points + 1000 fleet missions for a ship no thanks
Basically all it is to me is one day maybe getting a secondary ground weapon for +2 dps