While I like the idea of a reputation system, I think these "unlock item in store" projects
should be taken away. This also annoys me when it comes to starbases.
When you reach a tier, it is an achievement - you have worked to get there. You should then
(in my opinion) have instant access to the stuff you want and that you have worked to get to.
Not more projects that you will have to pay for in order to unlock the stuff you really want
(which you then also have to pay for).
Either remove the unlocking projects completely (preferably), or keep them and make the
items you unlock with them free. Both paying to unlock and then paying for the item itself is
excessive. All it does is add to the feeling of grinding.
Yes, I know this is all a really a grind, but I have no problems with grinding a bit in order to
get my rewards. What I do have a problem with is when I have to pay twice for something
that should have been awarded to me (if not free, then at least cheaply) for the currency I've
spent and the time I've invested.
Joined in March, 2011. Lifer since December, 2011.
Is there a plan to give current members "credit" for all the STFs they have already completed with the Reputation system? For instance, if a player has received the Starfleet Silver Star for completing 75 STFs, will he/she be given a certain amount of reputation when Season 7 goes live or was that 75 STF runs for nothing?
The cost of the projects i have seen so far is minimal, nothing compared to starbase projects, I don't see why people are complaining so much about it. My one complaint on the system is the time it takes to complete projects and move through the tiers. If I want to grind STFs 10 hours a day to get the marks to move through the tiers quickly I should be able to, but as it stands right now everyone is going to be stuck waiting over a month to get to tier 5.
Please either significantly reduce the time needed to complete projects or at least allow us to run more than 2 projects at a time.
I like this new system and all, but I have one issue. It may just be because it's TTS and there aren't as many people, but I find that there's a significant lack of sources for marks. No one's queueing for anything. So, I have a proposition.
Add marks to existing story content. Some dilithium rewards wouldn't go amiss, either. There's no reason to replay story missions most of the time. Give us a reason (this would also help new people, since as they do these missions, they'll stock up on Marks and Ore and be all set for when they hit VA). This way, if your PUG luck is horrible, or you don't want to do everything 9001 times (or your STFs are on cooldown), you can still get some marks. Fact is, the way the system is now, I'll be lucky to hit Tier II before S7 launch, because I can't get marks. :x
Totally going in the wrong direction. It's like your gearing this system towards a slow grind for the casual players that might run a couple stfs a day and shafting the hardcore players that regularly run 10+ stfs a day. If you grind at it hard you can currently complete an XII set in 1-2 weeks, 3 at worst, but now at 100k your looking at 2-3 months to do the same thing, this is not an improvement.
So... from 40,000 reputation to suddenly 100,000 without any other changes to project requirements or rewards? Meaning, more grind and more dilithium to sink.
And aside from just a single daily there's absolutely no new ways to earn dilithium to be seen.
*sigh* We just can't have anything nice, can't we?
I honestly do understand the need to monetize the game some more, but all the new changes are so drastic they rather discourage from playing, not the other way around.
After playing on Tribble a while and reaching Tier 1 in the Omega Force system I see a couple of potential problems with the new system. The one that I find the biggest is the dilithium requirement for some projects. under the old system I used to be able to pick up EDCs to turn them into tech to pick up an MKX or MKXI MACO, Honor Guard or Omega piece or just get the Tech at random, under the new system I have to unlock projects commit resources to these projects which includes 6,500 Dilthium for each MKX MACO piece which turns out to be 19,500 dilithium for the complete ground set and 20,000 dilithium for each space part MKX which costs 60,000 dilithium for the entire space set and these numbers increase substantially increase at MKXI and MKXII. Furthermore, after committing resources to these projects and the time that it takes to complete, I would have to spend another x amount of dilithium to actually get the piece after finishing the project. As it currently stands now these requirements will have a negative effect on gameplay. For smaller fleets especially it would slow fleet starbase progression because if 5 people for example, contribute to fleet projects they grind heavily to earn the necessary resources needed to start these projects; this takes a heavy toll on earning dilithium and contributing to building a fleet Starbase. With the current Reputation system requirements this will cause people to shift their focus from contributing to fleet projects to contribute solely on the Reputation system therefore, slowing or halting production of the starbase. This may not be an issue for large fleets because the more people in a fleet the more spread out the contributions are, smaller fleets however, are strained as it is. Please review these current numbers to come up with a solution that it does not damage fleet progression for smaller fleets; I cannot stress this enough. I would like to suggest: once MACO projects are complete instead of paying to start the project just to unlock the piece in the store then to pay dilithium to get that piece in the store, as an alternative can we please obtain the tech from completing that project and that we can use in the store to grab the gear? If we wanted to grab the same piece of a different set we can just re-run the project It would be similar to how it was before where if we received a Rare Borg Engine Tech for example we can go with that tech to DS9 to pick up the MKXI Engine. This will help greatly in reducing the amount of grind and makes much more sense, as it currently stands right now it feels as if I am double paying to get the gear.
In addition, the dilithium rewards have been reduced on Elite STFs from getting 1,100 dilthium down to 480. Under the new system, there is a project that allows us to trade 5 Borg Nerual Processors for 1000 dilithium, we only get 1 processor per run so, that's basically like instead of getting 5500 dilithium from 5 STF Elite runs to only getting 2400 dilithium plus an additional 1000 dilithium for completing the project. With these numbers currently on Tribble it appears to require a huge amount of grind. To be honest, as a player, I would want to log into a game to have fun not to log into a game because I have work to do. As it is now it feels like the game is turning into a game that is like a job. Furthermore, there are some Reputation Projects that require common doffs, this will have also have a negitive impact on fleet progress as well. To acquire common doffs it's pricy as it is I have to go to the Exchange or try to convert 5 green doffs for 1 common doffs. Currently fleet projects require 30 common doffs at tier 1 or 180 for tier 2, these numbers already take a toll on how people contribute to fleet projects and a strain on resources. These projects may have looked good on paper however, from a players' perspective these numbers should really be reviewed.
The Second problem I see with the systems is they only unlock at level 50. If I create an alt and work my way up in the ranks I really think level 50 to start the reputation system is too high. I can understand Omega Force because STFs only unlock at Rear Admiral. Since the Reputation system is about building a reputation with the Romulans could it be possible to unlock the system once we reach the Romulan missions or once we reach Captain? I think earning Romulan Marks alongside of playing the Romulan missions would add to immersion and value to playing those missions. If it would not work with the entire Romulan story arc can Romulan Marks be added to the Featured Series Cloaked Intention missions at the very least? On the Omega Force system, if I play STFs when they open up at Rear Admiral rank can I obtain Omega Marks before the system opens up at level 50 or do I only earn marks at level 50 when that system is unlocked?
Thank you devs for taking the time to read my post . I know that was a long read but, I wanted to share my concerns about what I have noticed on Tribble so, it can be reviewed before it goes live.
This is not great for casual players, someone who is playing say a few hours on the weekend and an hour or two every other day or day will find this going to take forever as they won't even be hitting the 8k dilithium a day needed to get this done in 60-90 days.
To be honest, the removal of random chance is fine, though I would have preferred to keep it and optionally allow people to trade in Edc for MKXII gear instead. But I think they want to stretch out end game content to fill the gap between now and Season 8 when a lot more new content should be available.
I also think if they were going to go with a reputation system it would have been better to grant unique Omega XP for each mission and use that as the main resource sink in the tiers rather than using Dilithium which is already stretched as it is often being used against it's original purpose of giving F2Pr's a chane to buy items from the C-Store.
In addition, the dilithium rewards have been reduced on Elite STFs from getting 1,100 dilthium down to 480. Under the new system, there is a project that allows us to trade 5 Borg Nerual Processors for 1000 dilithium, we only get 1 processor per run so, that's basically like instead of getting 5500 dilithium from 5 STF Elite runs to only getting 2400 dilithium plus an additional 1000 dilithium for completing the project.
Not particularly happy with these numbers. I know the devs are working on ways to monetize the game, but bolting on requirements to existing things and removing rewards from the existing gameplay instead of coming out with actually new things to put that money towards is not going to get Cryptic on mine or many other player's good side. Romulan Reputation requiring Dil and giving out little is fine, it's new at least.
As far as delaying the Fleet projects, that's what they want. If your fleet doesn't have a heavy spender propping it up, you're not going to get anywhere. Even in larger fleets most don't contribute Dil as it's far too valuable on a personal level already(Mostly as Dil->Zen conversion, but still).
I'm just copying my thoughts from the blog 10 thread. I didnt want to start ranting again:
My biggest concern is that these changes is that it removes any incentives for playing the STFs. Once a player has the nessisary marks to start a reputation 'mission' theres no reason to play again or put in an extra effort.
Granted, there is dilithium and gear rewards, but they've NEVER been a proper incentive. Lets face it, almost everything rewards dilithium and there's a daily limit and you would be hard pressed to find ANY gear that would sell for much more then it's vendor cost on the exchange unless it's MKXII purple. It's turning the missions from repeatable mission, chance of reward to: Show up, do forced grind, pick up reward at end of the week.
Your odds of picking up something good may SUCK with the current system but there's no limit to how much, or little, effort you can put in. If I wanted to spend 3 days straight trying to get a MKXII drop I could, the new system prevents that.
In addition, the missions them selves are going to have an extra cost... which is an extra cost that we have to deal with in addition to the Starbase and Embassy expenses going on in the fleets.
This is the same reason I HATED the S6 content released for the starbases. Instead of offering rewards for doing the new missions, they were introduced as a forced grind required to do the starbase projects. They may be entertaining, but when all the projects are filled when I get on... there's no reason for me to play them. I've played consistantly since STO was released and I have to say, I really had no interest in the new content with S6 because of this.
I dont enjoy running around looking for what is essentially 'Vendor trash' or wasting my time and EDCs trying to get the proper DOFFs from the exchange when I cant get them from recruitment missions. It's not why I play the game. I find it insulting that after running the STFs since before there was a borg set to get, it'll be FORCED to deal with it in order to have access to the endgame loot. It wont matter how many runs I do, or how effective I am, I didnt file the paperwork so no one cares.
Even from a Fluff perspective this system makes no sense to me. I find it extremely strange to think that destroying entire borg and/or tholian fleets has no effect on my standing but sending someone to show off a shiney peice of metal does? Really?
I know the architecture is convienent, pre built from the DOFF and Starbase system, but if the current version of the reputation system gets implemented it'll completely kill the game for me. I'm not going to bother playing when EVERY end game system is time sensitive and I'm required to collect trivial things to progress with. I'm ok doing that with the DOFFs and the starbase, I dont need to do that for every mission.
There are better ways to implement the system then slapping a pre-existing system on top and calling it progress. I'm honestly not sure why you wouldn't reward Reputation after completing an STF or Romulan event. At least people could get credit and progress for completing the content and not be limited by what projects they're running. You could still give some XP for completing projects, but dont make it the primary (and definately not the ONLY) way of progressing.
I have some more feedback about the rep system and this time it is about the mission timers. I know that the 40 hours were chosen as a way to balance out the little requirements which is nice; 40 hours is fine for the Supply and Support missions since they offer 800 rep xp or 2,000 rep xp. The requisition mission's timer should be shortened since they only offer 200 rep xp and the requisition item; maybe to 20 hours that way once a day we could get a new item, but we would still have to wait 2 days to get our xp up.
This is not great for casual players, someone who is playing say a few hours on the weekend and an hour or two every other day or day will find this going to take forever as they won't even be hitting the 8k dilithium a day needed to get this done in 60-90 days.
To be honest, the removal of random chance is fine, though I would have preferred to keep it and optionally allow people to trade in Edc for MKXII gear instead. But I think they want to stretch out end game content to fill the gap between now and Season 8 when a lot more new content should be available.
I also think if they were going to go with a reputation system it would have been better to grant unique Omega XP for each mission and use that as the main resource sink in the tiers rather than using Dilithium which is already stretched as it is often being used against it's original purpose of giving F2Pr's a chane to buy items from the C-Store.
Well, one good aspect is that you can play STFs for Marks one day until you have 100 or more and then not bother with doing missions for marks until you need more. Me, I often queue doff missions and then cycle characters. Someone with less characters could do dailies for Dil.
Borticus, when it comes to the Borg T5 Reputation Bonus, I got an idea. Instead of making it an insane heal / revive, why not make it more Borg-Centric (since Omega Reputation involves the Borg) and have it be an affect that reduces the assimilation rate or a cure?
Right now, the assimilation rate is just too fast to react to by clicking on the UI Toolbar. So an ability to slow down the assimilation rate would be a nice reward to have. This would be a boon for meleers who tend to get assimilated without getting any warning.
1250 dilithium and 5 tactical or security doffs for tier I consumable security escorts? Seriously? Even if it's a stack of 10 or 20 consumables i'm not buying this. In no way i'll use dilithium and doffs in consumables, I'm sorry. And I think it won't be popular at all, since you know how popular consumables have been in the lockboxes... :rolleyes:
Why not giving us devices like the shard or the cane? I wouldn't mind something more expensive as long as I know it's not an unending ressource sink for a little buff.
Borticus, when it comes to the Borg T5 Reputation Bonus, I got an idea. Instead of making it an insane heal / revive, why not make it more Borg-Centric (since Omega Reputation involves the Borg) and have it be an affect that reduces the assimilation rate or a cure?
Agreed. The tooltip has been changed but there's still 10 strong heals, auto res, and tacs will still allow their team to spam it with tac initiative. What's the point of playing stfs in god mode? Completely removing assimilation with a passive power would be enough imo.
So far I've been playing with the Romulan system an I'm about to hit tier 1 in it so I only have one suggestion so far. There are two mission levels in the system (i see the same in the Omega as well) one that provides 2000 reputation and one that gives 800. Both these missions take the same amount of time to complete. I would think the 800 point one might take less time considering it provides less reputation. That's my suggestion so far considering how little I've gotten into it so far.
Borticus, when it comes to the Borg T5 Reputation Bonus, I got an idea. Instead of making it an insane heal / revive, why not make it more Borg-Centric (since Omega Reputation involves the Borg) and have it be an affect that reduces the assimilation rate or a cure?
The primary intent of the Borg T5 ability is to rescue teammates from Assimilation. Unfortunately, due to the way Assimilate works, that teammate must be killed and then resurrected, in order to "rescue" them. So, this is what the ability does. It will also clear Assimilation debuffs in progress.
The AOE Heal was added to the ability to give it more general non-Borg-specific utility. The concept of having to advance to T5 reputation, only to receive an ability that is only useful against a single type of enemy, doesn't seem like a great payoff for so much investment, even if that enemy is prevalent at the level cap. We're open to feedback on this, though, and are still in the tuning stages for all Reputation abilities.
Others have noted in this thread, the fear of using Tactical Initiative (or other Cooldown reductions) to continually spam these T5 abilities... Well, I hope I can put some of those fears to rest when I say that we are making all T5 Reputation abilities immune to cooldown reductions. They will also share a region-specific category cooldown (currently set to 5min), although the only ones coming with S7 will not share a Region so this won't be noticed (Region = Ground or Space).
Jeremy Randall
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
Do NOT use the same imputs to the rep system as are already in the fleet system.
I would be willing to let dilithium be the one exception, but it should be reduced in costs both for projects and cost of items, given what I have heard.
Why:
The whole purpose of season 6 was to get everyone to join a fleet. If you want to continue the push the playerbase to go to fleets, then you need to not make players choose between being selfish (rep system) or self-less (fleet system) by having both require the same imputs. It is enough of a choice that players have to either play missions that reward fleet marks or Omegra rep marks. Though as an aside, I wonder why some Romulan missions reward fleet marks, but none of the STFs do.
Or, another way to look at making this more balanced. Create a new store in the fleet system that allows you to convert excess fleet credits into dilithium. Of course I would expect something less that a one to one conversion as it is for dilithium to fleet credits, maybe 2 or 4 fleet credits to 1 dilithium ore. Something like this would let players who have all they want from the fleet stores instead turn it into dilithium which can be used in the rep stores and projects. People still have a reason to play in fleets, and can get something for themselves as well.
Others have noted in this thread, the fear of using Tactical Initiative (or other Cooldown reductions) to continually spam these T5 abilities... Well, I hope I can put some of those fears to rest when I say that we are making all T5 Reputation abilities immune to cooldown reductions.
The AOE Heal was added to the ability to give it more general non-Borg-specific utility.
Sure, why not, but it will also have a borg utility. Unless you intend to create a 3rd difficulty level (or new STFs) at some point so that these new reputation powers make sense, it will make current STFs a lot easier and not really fun to play.
We always get more powerfull stuff (10 console ships, new consoles, new ground weapons and abilities) but the content remains the same. There's been many upgrades and boosts, except to content itself, which has been nerfed repetedely.
I think the rep system is far too fast and the costs too low, especially the dilithium. Maybe instead of increasing the amounts across the board (except for dilithium, please keep those costs as high as possible) add more necessary inputs, like bridge officers and Mark XII blue and purple equipments.
People need to work hard for these rewards, and I'm just seeing more instant gratification here.
The primary intent of the Borg T5 ability is to rescue teammates from Assimilation. Unfortunately, due to the way Assimilate works, that teammate must be killed and then resurrected, in order to "rescue" them. So, this is what the ability does. It will also clear Assimilation debuffs in progress.
The AOE Heal was added to the ability to give it more general non-Borg-specific utility. The concept of having to advance to T5 reputation, only to receive an ability that is only useful against a single type of enemy, doesn't seem like a great payoff for so much investment, even if that enemy is prevalent at the level cap. We're open to feedback on this, though, and are still in the tuning stages for all Reputation abilities.
Others have noted in this thread, the fear of using Tactical Initiative (or other Cooldown reductions) to continually spam these T5 abilities... Well, I hope I can put some of those fears to rest when I say that we are making all T5 Reputation abilities immune to cooldown reductions. They will also share a region-specific category cooldown (currently set to 5min), although the only ones coming with S7 will not share a Region so this won't be noticed (Region = Ground or Space).
My Tactical Initiative operates at around 24%. I think If I really invested into it, it could get to 20%. With a 10 minute cooldown, that's still 2 minutes of recharge. I don't see that as being able to spam the power.
I have an issue I got to tier 1 romulan reputation and did the assault and rifle weapons. The issue I see is the mini gun has a custom romulan skin for the romulan minigun but when I got a few rifles I noticed they are the same ones in the game already that look nothing like a romulan weapon.
Is the romulan skin on the rifles just not been put in yet and also will the only rifle be the high density or will we see sniper and split beams too?
My Tactical Initiative operates at around 24%. I think If I really invested into it, it could get to 20%. With a 10 minute cooldown, that's still 2 minutes of recharge. I don't see that as being able to spam the power.
With a team of 5 tacs it can be insane. It can be permanently activated.
Ohh you mean even less fun than they allready are with their insane one shots and other nonsense...
Anything that aliviates ground difficulty will make me want to play it more. Right now it's a pure clusterf****.
You guys should see my lethean tact in action with a Omega XII ground set... He's about as insane as I believe a tact can get.
Edit: Anyone who does not have a lethean tact should probally make one before this Hearts and Minds goes away for the doff. Its really fun for stfs when you combine it with tactical initiative
Ohh you mean even less fun than they allready are with their insane one shots and other nonsense...
Anything that aliviates ground difficulty will make me want to play it more. Right now it's a pure clusterf****.
Current ground STFs are a walk in the park. I've not been one shot ina while, at least not since i learnt how to play them. And my fleet and I always get the optionals, except if we have a new member in our instance.
Comments
should be taken away. This also annoys me when it comes to starbases.
When you reach a tier, it is an achievement - you have worked to get there. You should then
(in my opinion) have instant access to the stuff you want and that you have worked to get to.
Not more projects that you will have to pay for in order to unlock the stuff you really want
(which you then also have to pay for).
Either remove the unlocking projects completely (preferably), or keep them and make the
items you unlock with them free. Both paying to unlock and then paying for the item itself is
excessive. All it does is add to the feeling of grinding.
Yes, I know this is all a really a grind, but I have no problems with grinding a bit in order to
get my rewards. What I do have a problem with is when I have to pay twice for something
that should have been awarded to me (if not free, then at least cheaply) for the currency I've
spent and the time I've invested.
Joined in March, 2011. Lifer since December, 2011.
Well, we don't know for sure if they do count or not, but they should.
Please either significantly reduce the time needed to complete projects or at least allow us to run more than 2 projects at a time.
Add marks to existing story content. Some dilithium rewards wouldn't go amiss, either. There's no reason to replay story missions most of the time. Give us a reason (this would also help new people, since as they do these missions, they'll stock up on Marks and Ore and be all set for when they hit VA). This way, if your PUG luck is horrible, or you don't want to do everything 9001 times (or your STFs are on cooldown), you can still get some marks. Fact is, the way the system is now, I'll be lucky to hit Tier II before S7 launch, because I can't get marks. :x
Totally going in the wrong direction. It's like your gearing this system towards a slow grind for the casual players that might run a couple stfs a day and shafting the hardcore players that regularly run 10+ stfs a day. If you grind at it hard you can currently complete an XII set in 1-2 weeks, 3 at worst, but now at 100k your looking at 2-3 months to do the same thing, this is not an improvement.
And aside from just a single daily there's absolutely no new ways to earn dilithium to be seen.
*sigh* We just can't have anything nice, can't we?
I honestly do understand the need to monetize the game some more, but all the new changes are so drastic they rather discourage from playing, not the other way around.
In addition, the dilithium rewards have been reduced on Elite STFs from getting 1,100 dilthium down to 480. Under the new system, there is a project that allows us to trade 5 Borg Nerual Processors for 1000 dilithium, we only get 1 processor per run so, that's basically like instead of getting 5500 dilithium from 5 STF Elite runs to only getting 2400 dilithium plus an additional 1000 dilithium for completing the project. With these numbers currently on Tribble it appears to require a huge amount of grind. To be honest, as a player, I would want to log into a game to have fun not to log into a game because I have work to do. As it is now it feels like the game is turning into a game that is like a job. Furthermore, there are some Reputation Projects that require common doffs, this will have also have a negitive impact on fleet progress as well. To acquire common doffs it's pricy as it is I have to go to the Exchange or try to convert 5 green doffs for 1 common doffs. Currently fleet projects require 30 common doffs at tier 1 or 180 for tier 2, these numbers already take a toll on how people contribute to fleet projects and a strain on resources. These projects may have looked good on paper however, from a players' perspective these numbers should really be reviewed.
The Second problem I see with the systems is they only unlock at level 50. If I create an alt and work my way up in the ranks I really think level 50 to start the reputation system is too high. I can understand Omega Force because STFs only unlock at Rear Admiral. Since the Reputation system is about building a reputation with the Romulans could it be possible to unlock the system once we reach the Romulan missions or once we reach Captain? I think earning Romulan Marks alongside of playing the Romulan missions would add to immersion and value to playing those missions. If it would not work with the entire Romulan story arc can Romulan Marks be added to the Featured Series Cloaked Intention missions at the very least? On the Omega Force system, if I play STFs when they open up at Rear Admiral rank can I obtain Omega Marks before the system opens up at level 50 or do I only earn marks at level 50 when that system is unlocked?
Thank you devs for taking the time to read my post
1000+ day veteran
I agree with you though.
This is not great for casual players, someone who is playing say a few hours on the weekend and an hour or two every other day or day will find this going to take forever as they won't even be hitting the 8k dilithium a day needed to get this done in 60-90 days.
To be honest, the removal of random chance is fine, though I would have preferred to keep it and optionally allow people to trade in Edc for MKXII gear instead. But I think they want to stretch out end game content to fill the gap between now and Season 8 when a lot more new content should be available.
I also think if they were going to go with a reputation system it would have been better to grant unique Omega XP for each mission and use that as the main resource sink in the tiers rather than using Dilithium which is already stretched as it is often being used against it's original purpose of giving F2Pr's a chane to buy items from the C-Store.
#2311#2700#2316#2500
Not particularly happy with these numbers. I know the devs are working on ways to monetize the game, but bolting on requirements to existing things and removing rewards from the existing gameplay instead of coming out with actually new things to put that money towards is not going to get Cryptic on mine or many other player's good side. Romulan Reputation requiring Dil and giving out little is fine, it's new at least.
As far as delaying the Fleet projects, that's what they want. If your fleet doesn't have a heavy spender propping it up, you're not going to get anywhere. Even in larger fleets most don't contribute Dil as it's far too valuable on a personal level already(Mostly as Dil->Zen conversion, but still).
My biggest concern is that these changes is that it removes any incentives for playing the STFs. Once a player has the nessisary marks to start a reputation 'mission' theres no reason to play again or put in an extra effort.
Granted, there is dilithium and gear rewards, but they've NEVER been a proper incentive. Lets face it, almost everything rewards dilithium and there's a daily limit and you would be hard pressed to find ANY gear that would sell for much more then it's vendor cost on the exchange unless it's MKXII purple. It's turning the missions from repeatable mission, chance of reward to: Show up, do forced grind, pick up reward at end of the week.
Your odds of picking up something good may SUCK with the current system but there's no limit to how much, or little, effort you can put in. If I wanted to spend 3 days straight trying to get a MKXII drop I could, the new system prevents that.
In addition, the missions them selves are going to have an extra cost... which is an extra cost that we have to deal with in addition to the Starbase and Embassy expenses going on in the fleets.
This is the same reason I HATED the S6 content released for the starbases. Instead of offering rewards for doing the new missions, they were introduced as a forced grind required to do the starbase projects. They may be entertaining, but when all the projects are filled when I get on... there's no reason for me to play them. I've played consistantly since STO was released and I have to say, I really had no interest in the new content with S6 because of this.
I dont enjoy running around looking for what is essentially 'Vendor trash' or wasting my time and EDCs trying to get the proper DOFFs from the exchange when I cant get them from recruitment missions. It's not why I play the game. I find it insulting that after running the STFs since before there was a borg set to get, it'll be FORCED to deal with it in order to have access to the endgame loot. It wont matter how many runs I do, or how effective I am, I didnt file the paperwork so no one cares.
Even from a Fluff perspective this system makes no sense to me. I find it extremely strange to think that destroying entire borg and/or tholian fleets has no effect on my standing but sending someone to show off a shiney peice of metal does? Really?
I know the architecture is convienent, pre built from the DOFF and Starbase system, but if the current version of the reputation system gets implemented it'll completely kill the game for me. I'm not going to bother playing when EVERY end game system is time sensitive and I'm required to collect trivial things to progress with. I'm ok doing that with the DOFFs and the starbase, I dont need to do that for every mission.
There are better ways to implement the system then slapping a pre-existing system on top and calling it progress. I'm honestly not sure why you wouldn't reward Reputation after completing an STF or Romulan event. At least people could get credit and progress for completing the content and not be limited by what projects they're running. You could still give some XP for completing projects, but dont make it the primary (and definately not the ONLY) way of progressing.
My character Tsin'xing
Right now, the assimilation rate is just too fast to react to by clicking on the UI Toolbar. So an ability to slow down the assimilation rate would be a nice reward to have. This would be a boon for meleers who tend to get assimilated without getting any warning.
Why not giving us devices like the shard or the cane? I wouldn't mind something more expensive as long as I know it's not an unending ressource sink for a little buff.
Agreed. The tooltip has been changed but there's still 10 strong heals, auto res, and tacs will still allow their team to spam it with tac initiative. What's the point of playing stfs in god mode? Completely removing assimilation with a passive power would be enough imo.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
The primary intent of the Borg T5 ability is to rescue teammates from Assimilation. Unfortunately, due to the way Assimilate works, that teammate must be killed and then resurrected, in order to "rescue" them. So, this is what the ability does. It will also clear Assimilation debuffs in progress.
The AOE Heal was added to the ability to give it more general non-Borg-specific utility. The concept of having to advance to T5 reputation, only to receive an ability that is only useful against a single type of enemy, doesn't seem like a great payoff for so much investment, even if that enemy is prevalent at the level cap. We're open to feedback on this, though, and are still in the tuning stages for all Reputation abilities.
Others have noted in this thread, the fear of using Tactical Initiative (or other Cooldown reductions) to continually spam these T5 abilities... Well, I hope I can put some of those fears to rest when I say that we are making all T5 Reputation abilities immune to cooldown reductions. They will also share a region-specific category cooldown (currently set to 5min), although the only ones coming with S7 will not share a Region so this won't be noticed (Region = Ground or Space).
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
Given the investments needed it's stupid to have work on them blindly.
I want to see if the Scorpion Fighters or Romulan whatever is worth getting.
Do NOT use the same imputs to the rep system as are already in the fleet system.
I would be willing to let dilithium be the one exception, but it should be reduced in costs both for projects and cost of items, given what I have heard.
Why:
The whole purpose of season 6 was to get everyone to join a fleet. If you want to continue the push the playerbase to go to fleets, then you need to not make players choose between being selfish (rep system) or self-less (fleet system) by having both require the same imputs. It is enough of a choice that players have to either play missions that reward fleet marks or Omegra rep marks. Though as an aside, I wonder why some Romulan missions reward fleet marks, but none of the STFs do.
Or, another way to look at making this more balanced. Create a new store in the fleet system that allows you to convert excess fleet credits into dilithium. Of course I would expect something less that a one to one conversion as it is for dilithium to fleet credits, maybe 2 or 4 fleet credits to 1 dilithium ore. Something like this would let players who have all they want from the fleet stores instead turn it into dilithium which can be used in the rep stores and projects. People still have a reason to play in fleets, and can get something for themselves as well.
Nouveau riche LTS member
That's good to hear!
Sure, why not, but it will also have a borg utility. Unless you intend to create a 3rd difficulty level (or new STFs) at some point so that these new reputation powers make sense, it will make current STFs a lot easier and not really fun to play.
We always get more powerfull stuff (10 console ships, new consoles, new ground weapons and abilities) but the content remains the same. There's been many upgrades and boosts, except to content itself, which has been nerfed repetedely.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
People need to work hard for these rewards, and I'm just seeing more instant gratification here.
I support this.
I'm also concerned about the T4 omega proc. CRF + tac buffs will make that kinetic damage stack up quite a lot in a short amount of time...
Is the romulan skin on the rifles just not been put in yet and also will the only rifle be the high density or will we see sniper and split beams too?
With a team of 5 tacs it can be insane. It can be permanently activated.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
Ohh you mean even less fun than they allready are with their insane one shots and other nonsense...
Anything that aliviates ground difficulty will make me want to play it more. Right now it's a pure clusterf****.
You guys should see my lethean tact in action with a Omega XII ground set... He's about as insane as I believe a tact can get.
Edit: Anyone who does not have a lethean tact should probally make one before this Hearts and Minds goes away for the doff. Its really fun for stfs when you combine it with tactical initiative
Current ground STFs are a walk in the park. I've not been one shot ina while, at least not since i learnt how to play them. And my fleet and I always get the optionals, except if we have a new member in our instance.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.