Since when is grinding fun, people? If you want to grind, then please take a roll of sandpaper and an iron anvil and sand yourself an iron skillet that you can use to cook in for years to come. That is your reward, but it is going to take you a long time to do it. Then, when you are done, get another anvil and sand yourself a plate to eat the food that you prepared in your iron skillet. Hopefully, you won't starve before you get to that point. This is what Cryptic is doing.
Actually, if you look carefully, you'll see I said 'Though I see grinding as merely 'meh'.
That means I don't like or hate it: it's just there.
Was named Trek17.
Been playing STO since Open Beta, and have never regarded anything as worse than 'meh', if only due to personal standards.
It has been widely discussed that the maco shield is the most preferable shield in the game, and that, if a player were to have acess to it and the plasmonic leech they would become nearlt unstopable. While most of these arguments were simply against the federation getting the leech it now seems that klingon players will be able to get the maco shield. So my question is has there been a balance pass over the new sets or are you waiting to see what data turns up? And if there hasn't. Have you considered what would happen should a klingon carrier be equipped with the maco shield, plasmonic leech, siphon drones, and aceton assimilators? While the level of power drain does not go up the level of power generation does increase. Is this a valid concern? Or is it as usual doom sayers making things up because they don't want some one having and advantage?
Learn to paragraph.
It goes both ways though. KHG engine gives efficiency boost to lower powered subsystems. Run that with maco shield and you'll get a good boost on subsystems set under 75. I think more of a boost than what MACO shield alone would give.
This is a point I'd like to latch on to. Cryptic seem to have gotten into a habit of dismissing certain types of feedback based on the tone of it or another reason but the reality is theres some form of feedback in almost everything.
A simple emotional outburst to the effect of "I don't like this" is feedback. If this theme is persistant then it's up to them to figure out why a particlar feature is disliked. Fortunately for them, many explanations from several sources detail why such features are disliked so they needn't scratch their heads. Worryingly they seem to dismiss a lot of feedback and treat the detailed explanations as isolated comments not to be heeded.
So I agree, if they can't take feedback in all forms, a fault does indeed lie with them.
Except (and unless you think DStahl is lying about it too); it appears each Season the playerbase (and the STO Dev staff as well) has been growing. The game certainly seems to have a number of players and instances running at all times of the day - and (for example), even though it appears a number of Forum posters are continually outraged about Lockboxes the actual paying and playing playerbase seems to keep buying Master Keys and unlocking them (which is the only reason Cryptic/PWE continue to make new ones); so, it's pretty clear that 'Forum Rage' doesn't always equal 'Paying/Playing Playerbase' rage to the same degree; and even long term players who don't read or participate on the Forums (and they do exist); may not be as outraged, or inclined to quit as some here would like to believe.
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
No one is ignoring feedback. Season 7 isn't fully on TRIBBLE yet
Dan , sometimes you don't need the Magic 8 Ball to know some things are coming .
For example , I don't need it to know that many of the Omega Rep suggestions are good for the short term only .
I don't need it to know that there will be a lot less ppl inclined to Learn how to play most STF's on Elite (they will just go w/what's the easiest to slide by , and no amount of "love" (aka dumbing down) will help those STF's that require practice , knowledge and a certain amount of determination to get better .
And I don't need a Magic 8 Ball to know the three reasons ppl are grinding STF's (Dill + Tech/EDC + Proto Tech.
How many of those are going away (without being replaced in an equal fashion) ?
480 Dil for an Elite STF ? Really ?
And I'll get the option to convert OM's to Dil way down the road ?
See , this is why some ppl do not consider Dil to be a time based currency .
Because you are downgrading it's worth (on the sort term at least) w/your current plan .
480 Dil does not equal the current Elite STF award .
Nor has there been any mention of additional awards (blue/green weapons/shields/armor) to be dropping from STF's .
I have the benefit of seeing the reality behind the scenes to know the truth that the game is doing really well.
I hope you are right -- bcause to have a Season of Grind (6) to be followed by ANOTHER Season of Grind (7) is not what I consider to be "what the players really want" .
But since I can't really explain why I like STF's and hate (and or get bored by quickly) Fleet Actions (yes , even the new ones which technically speaking are of a much higher quality) -- I won't try to explain that to you .
All I know is that STF's used to be a culmination of Story and Exiting Team play .
TOTOH Fleet actions were never more then "go kill 5 rats" , thus they were (and are) no more exiting and meaningful than a current Nebula Patrol .
It goes both ways though. KHG engine gives efficiency boost to lower powered subsystems. Run that with maco shield and you'll get a good boost on subsystems set under 75. I think more of a boost than what MACO shield alone would give.
First I'd have to give a fu#k. As is the amount of wining I had to read through in this thread put me in a less than good mood. Dan I honestly can't say that accounts wouldn't be mysteriously deleted if it were me.
Second. The engine only boosts systems under 50 while maco boosts everything regardless. Normally this would be of no concern but combined with the stacking boost from leech it could get nasty. I only brought it up since the arguments I've seen against the feds getting leech always include its combination with maco shields. I play both sides so it's not like I loose out on anything, just curious if there was merrit to the argument or not.
As a time traveller, Am I supposed to pack underwear or underwhen?
Not everything you see on the internet is true - Abraham Lincoln
And again there is 8k dil refinement cap yet they are adding more things that need refined dil without adding more ways to get refined dil. Ore is great but isn't worth a damn thing until it's refined.
Also my main gripe is the fact that many of us have already done the grind to get access to stf gear and forcing us to do yet another grind, both time and resources, to regain our access to this gear is utter bs.
Technicaly you are grinding up a new system. True some of the rewards you already have, but most of the new one are just that, new. And you do get to keep everythign you already earned so it's not like you loosing out. Its also not like if you started a new character you would have had access to any of that any way, still had to grind it. Where I would be annoyed is most of it isn't accound wide. That would be nice for those of us who have too damn many characters.
As a time traveller, Am I supposed to pack underwear or underwhen?
Not everything you see on the internet is true - Abraham Lincoln
I dont mean to flame, and i can see the idea behind "lock the old stuff away until Tier 5".
But thats just not like you do it. You cant rob a player of something he has earned in many hours of playing and have him spend many more hours of playing to get it back. Every Kid understands that, and if not, it needs to learn that because otherwise we?ll have a little gangster growing :rolleyes:
I hope most of the longtimers with stuff in their Inventory get the message to spend it before its taken away...but there still we be many threads in the future from returning players with "where are my elite requisitions?!"
i think you devs need at least a "caring mum" in you staff who..wll, cares for the player base and sorts out all the rubbish ideas - i dont mean that offensive, that would really help to boost public opinion
but lets take that stupid lock-away decision aside: the new systems seeams much fairer than the old one. definitely a better way to start for new players. and we old ones get the chance to earn some new stuff (cutting beam and torpedos read really nice). and including other events in the reward structures, not just stfs, is also very welcome. i hope terradome will get its remastering in the future
Cryptic is really seeing what creativity in a vacuum will do. The best thing dstahl EVER did recently is when he put up a poll asking us what WE wanted to see and do in the game for 2013. That was opening the door for 2 way communication and he got many good answers and feedback from that. Note that no one voted for more grinding.
This season 7 was nothing we asked for except for a fair way to obtain the sets that wasn't lottery based, so at least cryptic listened to us with that.. but more grinding for the same thing that some of us have already achieved? We don't like and we hate it-- especially when it is grinding via the same missions, for the same gear (now cross-factioned) and little bitty tweaks and twists here and there.
This is minimal effort on cryptic's part and maximum effort on ours. Does this sound like an equal relationship? Of course we are going to lose trust in cryptic and anything the devs say from here on out. Cryptic is not being a friend to us. They are, in fact, being a user and abuser for what is in our wallets. Keep the game profitable legitimately, of course, but these "tricks" to con us out of our hard earned money need to stop now! I feel like cryptic are borgified ferengi who do not strive to achieve perfection, but try to con us out of what is in our wallets.
I'm talking about minimal tweaks to the defiant and other C-store ships and selling it to us all over again as fleet vessels. Minimal tweaks the the maco/khg gear and making us go through the grind all over again without giving us credit for what we have already accomplished (Believe me, they have record of who has obtained what STF gear already). Killing KDF by taking away anything unique to that faction. Killing PvP softly without a formal declaration.
I am really at the edge here.
I AM NOT A FAN OF PWE!!!!
MEMBER SINCE JANUARY 2010
Second. The engine only boosts systems under 50 while maco boosts everything regardless. Normally this would be of no concern but combined with the stacking boost from leech it could get nasty. I only brought it up since the arguments I've seen against the feds getting leech always include its combination with maco shields. I play both sides so it's not like I loose out on anything, just curious if there was merrit to the argument or not.
True, though it is one of the few remaining perks of being a KDF player.
Something else I was thinking about. Ground sets. Everyone will likely start running around with KHG/MACO 2 and 2 set pieces on. eg For KDF, Adpated KHG armor and gun and regular KHG shield and gun.
Adrenal booster and emergency shield both available at once. Good option for the "tank" ground players.
wow... my toons will be nerfed and something is telling me I will have to use a lot of dilithium to get back what my toons actually have... The current system is not good, but this new one is a way to juice player's wallet regardless he is LTS, a recurring subscriber or silver member...
Thanks... may be it's time to delete my subscription, better paying only when I really want something.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Playing STO spamming FAW is like playing chess using always the computer's suggested moves
Do you remember that scene where Clark Griswold opens his holiday bonus, and he finds out his boss signed him up for the Jelly of the Month Club?
That is exactly how this makes me feel.
I believe a line that followed that was: "Of all the lousy ways to save, (in this case MAKE) a buck."
A bit of trivia, did anyone catch the actress who played Clarke's Boss's wife? The one in the fur coat who showed up at the Griswald's house with the police?
What was HER connection to Star Trek ? hummmmmm?
Here's my questions, and they have probably already been asked somewhere. If they have, please someone link to specific posts that answer them (I'm too lazy to read all 65 pages that were listed at the time of this post at this hour of the night).
* Why attach Dilithium taxes to the current MACO/OMEGA/Honor Guard sets and "standard issue borg equipment"?
** As it stands you'd end up investing 100k Dilithium to get a complete set of any of these three. Plus a lot extra if you want to set up your ship or away team with anti-borg weapons. And if you're a completion-crazy nut like me ("gotta have 'em all") then you're losing a lot more.
*** The "new" sets (which aren't really anything except stat-traded equipment) I can understand having this cost. But current sets, not so much. We didn't have to pay Dilithium in the current system on Holodeck, we just had to get VERY lucky to get the drop we wanted.
* The blog says we can't do jack with our "converted" goods until T5 and we'll end up waiting months before that happens. Wasn't this the same thing with fleet bases? Spend months to get to a certain tier and spend even more Dilithium and doffs or commods (or both) to get there?
** I hope to heaven we don't have to use purple doffs for any of this. Or rare doffs for that matter. Have you even SEEN the prices for those lately? I know I pinch every EC I get, but I object to paying more than 500k for a doff (many doffs cost 700k to well over 10 million depending on quality, traits and player demand), so this could mean a lot of projects will be cost prohibitive and really hurt.
*** Further, withholding this stuff could be seen as telling a player they can't get their gear NOW but have to wait LONGER before they can get something they already spent months if not a year trying to get (Heck, I've only managed to get ONE character a full Mk XII space set. The others have only 2 out of 3 pieces each and on some characters I'm trying to get OMEGA as well as my faction-specific set). They'll be trying to grind that final drop even as I post so they don't have to bear that frustration of a different kind of months-long grind in the Reputation System.
* No STF doffs outside the Rep System? What the TRIBBLE? >_> Are we at least going to have more specialized options besides Security Officers and Projectile Weapons Officers? Like maybe Space/Ground Warfare doffs?
* No conversion of Marks/Neural processors into Dilithium like we could with EDCs, Salvage and Tech?
* Current conversion would turn a portion of our collected STF loot into ore. Unfortunately because of the refining limit, we can't use more than 8k (9k with that vet mission. Perhaps up to 24k if they let it auto-refine after several days pass) of it per day. Thus projects for this stuff at T5 are further held up. Impatient people will HATE this (I already do).
** It would be far easier to turn it into refined dilithium straight up. Just leave it in the box until opened. This way we don't have to wait x-days to use the Dilithium for these projects.
*** Also of note is that you tuned this to "average players" that barely make 1000 ore a WEEK. As "very casual" playing of the game. This doesn't say out loud if this means projects will have cheap Dilithium costs or not. Just that its centered around casual players.
**** A further example of this are the stores. In the blog post example (subject to change) it looked like each Mk XI ground gun shown had a cost of 8608 refined Dilithium. The casual player would be waiting about 6 to 8 weeks to get ONE of these. To equip an entire away team? Yup. More waiting and grinding. Casual players may not care.
There are checks and balances here. Some parts of it I will like. But being told I have to wait months to get at stuff I should've had via STF grinding half a year ago? Just to wait longer for those projects? AND pay Dilithium on TOP of all of that? Yeah...not a fan of that. I want to finish my sets now so I should get grinding before this goes live and hope to heck I get the proto tech drops I need. Otherwise I'd have to spend Dilithium I could use to get Zen (In case something actually GOOD shows up in the C-Store, especially for Klingons who lack T5 ships).
Some good, some bad. It should help with the Reman set. But STF gear... I just don't think that grind is worth it. I can't get that mentioned "leg up" and will have to grind from nothing like everyone else because my "time spent" is withheld from me by a conversion crate I can't open until I hit T5 in the new system. In spite of the fact that the locked up crate is so locked so I don't accidentally spend it all on insta-capping my reputation, not that we can do that anyway.
Cryptic provides a service.. a customer pays for that service. if the customer is angry.. the customer has every right to gripe in a manner that is not abusive and cryptic should listen as everything is considered feedback at that point. This isn't a one way street
Cryptic needs to understand that each of their long term players has put in hundreds of hours on each of their toons and we get mad when they rip the carpet out from under us, so to speak.
We also get mad when their creativity is limited to offering the same content, same items, same grinding all with "a new twist" over and over and over to us again.
I mean.. lets take the fleet defiant. Did everyone who has the fleet defiant have to already pay for the ship twice over for a boost to shields, an extra tac slot and extra hull that is marginal at best? one good DHC strike and it is done for...
Yet, we paid for it so that we could remain competitive. All cryptic had to do was change a few numbers in a config file somewhere, make some UI changes to account for the extra console slot and...
***POOF***
..."a brand new variation of the defiant"???? that will cost you x2 to get the same ship Seriously people?? You paid the equivalent of $20 whether by purchasing modules from the exchange or c-store plus fleet credits, for a ship that literally took a few minutes of changes to make.
Into the Hive.. we've all played it (except the new players), but there is going to be a "twist" to it, yet all of the coding for it is already there..
Maco/KHG adaptive gear? Again, all the coding is there. It is a copy/paste operation to make new items with new names, yet we are going to be grinding for what... 2 months.. just so that we can have the other factions' gear? Next thing you know, the federation will get a B'rel.. then you'll see even fewer KDF because that will be the last straw for some.
This is what cryptic is doing... and they wonder why we are getting more angry. The question is.. why do people find it acceptable to allow them to do this?
Exactly, it's the same thing with the 200K dilithium cost for a pile of tribbles, a few potted plants and a few ordinary security NPCs that just stand there, (why at least not the cool new holographic maco one's from that facility mission?!!!).
Then there is the fleet starbase gear like the battle riffles and such that look just like all the other now inferior stuff. Just a few changes in stats for Cryptic, but a grindfest for us to level our starbases, provision them, then grind fleet marks AND dilithium.
The "new" content continues to underwhelm with it's mediocrity whilest the dilithium requirement continues to climb.
They want us to grind our tails off when they can't even put in the effort to reward us with something worthy of our efforts. Visually speaking....
I mean honestly, how much development time would it take to design a cool new fleet riffle that would look like it was a step up from the stuff we'd been using?
Even the new hybrid weapons one pays tons for in the lock boxes looks just about the same as the standard fair.
Come on Cryptic ! Stop taking the lazy way out. Make our rewards visually worth the effort too.
Stop using all your development on lock box items.
This game could be so damned great, but it's a friggin shame when **** keeps getting recycled over and over.
Of course he would lie. He is not gonna post on a public forum hey all we are losing players we need to step it up
He doesn't need to claim they're growing either.
In general, I think it's counterproductive to assume that anyone is lying on the internet. I know that goes against the prevailing thought... but if you don't believe someone, you can't have a conversation with them.
Is there something between the lines I'm missing here, or are my own items really being taken from me and held hostage until I grind enough of the game to get them back?
Thank God I already have everything that proto-whatevers can get me, but unless someone clarifies exactly what the devs mean by this I'm gonna grind all of 'em into dil and wait for the S7 dil market to crash before cashing out. I don't mind having stuff converted into new marks or whatever in principle but I'm not going to have them taken from me to bully me into grinding the same damn missions I did to get them in the first place.
I prefer the new system in the long run, and for players starting new it should be much better although the conversion for some players could be painful/annoying. although i wish they would cut out the dilithium costs. there is too many sinks for dilithium now. its going a little overboard.
but at least players get the chance to see what is happening and can use tribble to make a judgement call on how best to proceed.
like most problems, i expect after a month or two of it going live it will have straighten itself out and people will go right back to grinding away their missions as they have been for the past year.
Cryptic is really seeing what creativity in a vacuum will do. The best thing dstahl EVER did recently is when he put up a poll asking us what WE wanted to see and do in the game for 2013. That was opening the door for 2 way communication and he got many good answers and feedback from that. Note that no one voted for more grinding.
...
I am really at the edge here.
Why on earth would you want to play an MMO if you don't like grinding?
Maybe we have different definitions of grinding. I define grinding as content you do more than 10 times. And I absolutely don't get why anyone would want Cryptic to design content that only gets played once or twice.
I have substantial disagreement about how the S7 rollout is happening but I think it's pretty absurd for Cryptic to design content that isn't targeted at being played 40-50 times per player, at least... And honestly, I'm frustrated both at the loot tables for FEs (not pushing replay) and at players who say they want to play content once and be done with it.
Again, I may totally be misunderstanding your definition of grind but I see the word as synonymous with heavy repeatable play and I take real issue with the idea of fellow players not wanting to do that. Because when and if you don't do that, Cryptic will stop making that kind of content. As well they should.
I think we deserve a detailed conversion plan for the Borg tech. I've hundreds of Borg techs on my toons and want to know wether it's better to convert them into dilithium or not. And if so to which extend.
"...using a rate that takes into account how many of these items you have acquired, and not yet spent, on your character."
This means there's probably gonna be an optimum of Borg technology stored in your bank.
"...and employs an improved anti-Borg damage proc that scales based on weapon firing speeds (slow weapons will deliver large bursts of kinetic damage, while fast weapons will deliver smaller hits on each pulse)."
Do I understand this correctly? Turrets, beams, cannons will get a large burst, projectile weapons a small one? Does this mean energy weapons will deal kinetic damage too?
Isn't the existing Borg proc something like this already? Fast weapons have many chances per minute to deal the extra 1000 dmg to Borg ships and structures while a tricobald mine for example has just one chance in 2min?
Why on earth would you want to play an MMO if you don't like grinding?
STO wasn't about the absurd amount of grinding prior to PWE purchasing them. Cryptic had more "heart" as a company before PWE came in and stabbed them through that heart, which ultimately bled all over the customers.
I AM NOT A FAN OF PWE!!!!
MEMBER SINCE JANUARY 2010
Technicaly you are grinding up a new system. True some of the rewards you already have, but most of the new one are just that, new. And you do get to keep everythign you already earned so it's not like you loosing out. Its also not like if you started a new character you would have had access to any of that any way, still had to grind it. Where I would be annoyed is most of it isn't accound wide. That would be nice for those of us who have too damn many characters.
Yes I do lose out. Right now if want to go buy some stf gear. guess what. I can. I don't have to grind a damn thing to do it. And its not like I can buy all the stf gear there is and just store it because of the tiny inventory. (that's even after upgrading it)
And you say new stuff? What new stuff? The pathetic pasives? Honestly it almost like they put that in there just so they could use it as an excuse to lock away the access to stf gear. Or are you referring to the seperate borg set? yeah well I've got the borg set I want but they are breaking that set up and forcing people to use that garbage borg shield or switch either maco/omega set where the passives really aren't that great.
and yeah, the fact that we have to do the grind on each character. yeah that pretty much blows big chunks.
In the end the system, for the most part, is fine for new players or those who do not have access to stf gear already. But for those who do and who have done the grinding already it pretty much sucks.
The other main issue is that realistically it doesn't matter how much you play. It will still take you months to just to unlock the ability to get the items even if you have the resources already to fill the projects. Then there is the dill cost, which again is very high, (will take you a minimum of a month and a half of all your dil to get a complete stf set up [weapons + gear], adding strain to already scarce resource. When you add in the other new dil sinks it's just worse.
The whole dil situation is a mess. The devs keep saying "we're adding more ways for you to get dil." The issue is that they are talking about ore, not refined dil which is what you need to fill projects etc. I, as well as many others, have got plenty of ore. There are so many ways to fix this issue.
- increase the refinement cap but put a zen purchase cap so people can't zen farm.
- allow projects to be filled with ore but at a higher price.
- If you subscribe then you should either have no refinement cap or it should be MUCH higher than it is now.
In a nutshell
- If you have unlocked or acquired the gear already you shouldn't have to unlock the ability to get the gear AGAIN
- If you subscribe, you should have some benefit over those who do not pay anything
- There should not be a cap on how quickly you can unlock the store. Meaning if you play more and acquire the resources quicker than others then you shouldn't have to wait. That also means that if you pay for the resources you shouldn't have to wait. In short, take away the time for project completion. If you fill it, it should finish right away. (again it could be a subscriber benefit)
- sort out the dil issue.
Ok, your going to take all that I have stored in my bank, all those data chips and extra prototypes.
Place them in a box that I WILL NOT GET, until I grind through, AGAIN, your "new system" to reach Tier 5, THEN I get the rewards, AGAIN, that I already HAD to begin with???!!????!!
Your not serious, IF you are serious, I already objected with my wallet and STOPPED paying for this game due to you all not thinking things through, NOW you want to take what I worked my tail of for in what limited time I have, HOLD IT, force me to do it all again and GRIND, AGAIN, through your system JUST to RECOLLECT the same stuff I already was awarded!?!
Explain to me how that is "fairly" compensated. Its oxymoronic to me. Maybe I should just try the uninstall option next and end my frustrations. Good Grief gang, you have a great idea here, and you KILL it with your implementation, AGAIN!
Got it. The game designers don't want me to play the missions I like (stfs) to get the rewards I want from the missions I like, since I'll need to play a 2-3 fleet actions I don't really like a day to reach my 8k dil daily cap in top of my doffing. Could doff more you know but just wandering in space at warp 14 has its limits.
Why don't I like the current fleet actions? The season 6 ones are boring. A blank empty map with a starbase in the center of it and vawes of mobs you just have to pew-pew endlessly looks like cheap work to me. It's definitely not the kind of game I want to play. Now to get dil with missions I like I'll have to play ground fleet actions and to play dirty to get the purple loot. Yes if you want the purple loot you need to take advantage of your team mates to rush objectives while they deal with the enemy. I know the tricks to get the first place, and I don't like them.
So you want me to switch from a cooperative gameplay (stfs) to a competitive and dirty one (fleet actions). Did any of you guys ever considered that your old fleet actions weren't played because the design was flawed (people not willing to compete with eachother)? And since everyone will rush to get the purple loot, expect a lot of dirty stuff in fleet actions, and a lot of frustration too, since they are just plain and simple "competition".
Oh and by the way, the loot table looks pretty old, we often get a Mk X purple loot when we get 1st place. On very rare occastions you can get a Mk XI one. would be great to update that so that people enjoy more having no ethics in their free time, playing dirty and fooling their team mates in those great fleet actions!
Mine trap and its cooperative gameplay is definitely what I want to play if you want to force fleet actions upon players. At least we should be able to choose if you really don't want to revamp how the reward system is made (different timers for different loot qualities for the whole team would magically turn competition in cooperation you know, and would allow you to keep the 1920 dil reward for the completion of the mission within the limits of the hardest timer).
I believe a line that followed that was: "Of all the lousy ways to save, (in this case MAKE) a buck."
A bit of trivia, did anyone catch the actress who played Clarke's Boss's wife? The one in the fur coat who showed up at the Griswald's house with the police?
What was HER connection to Star Trek ? hummmmmm?
We know it is ?many months? because when we looked at the data, it showed that players were running Elite STFs hundreds of times and still not receiving the drops necessary for this gear. We didn?t really need to look up the data because a handful of players were telling us how frustrated they were that these drops were so rare. This was all marked as ?working as designed? because it was exactly how we set them up. Getting the best gear was meant to be extremely challenging.
Lmao.. Dan, you make me laugh. Are you really serious that 'only a handful' of players were telling you how frustrated they were of not getting drops?? Do you not read the forums or actually play the game?? Or is Branflakes or Gozer not relaying the messages that were left in the forums? Hell, there were hundreds (if thousands) of players extremely frustrated that left posts (even chatting in in-game chat) complaining about the drops not dropping enough. And that was back in March (if not earlier) of this year.
The problem, however, is that it?s unfair when someone lucks out and gets the very rare item they need after only playing one elite STF while another person is still running the same STFs over and over hoping to get the drop.
We agree it isn?t fair and are about to change the STF reward structure. We now have a better way to keep the hunt for these items challenging while removing the randomness of drops
You agree that it isn't fair the some get some Tech drops faster than others?? Again, when did you come up with this brilliant assessment??
Ok, just checked with the designers and here is what they've done for Season 7
- Normal STFs now reward 240 Dilithium + Omega Marks
- Elite STFs now reward 480 Dilithium + Omega Marks + Borg Commodity for MKXII Sets
- Fleet Actions now reward 960 Dilithium (1st place Gold gets 2x this = 1920 Dilithium)
In Season 7, Fleet Actions will now become the best source of Dilithium between the two types of Events.
In addition Fleet Actions will now have better rewards in general
Gold = Purple + 1920 Dilithium
Silver = Purple + 960 Dilithium
Bronze = Blue + 960 Dilithium
All others = Green + 960 Dilithium
In addition, at max level in the Omega Fleet a repeatable project unlocks that converts Omega Marks to Dilithium at a rate of 50 marks to 500 dilithium or thereabouts.
The new Red Alert daily in the New Romulus Sector also rewards 480 Dilithium in addition to Rom marks.
All of this could change before Season 7 hits, but that is what the current plan is.
This is a very bad call. Fleet Actions are notoriously bugged, like Ghekli feeding ground, CE and DS9 no longer in game, apparently there are problems with SB24 as well.
On top of this, since their release, the only ship that can get to 1st place is a Tac/escort (maybe a sci/scort) giving #1 double the rewards, is simply a nightmare for all sci and cruiser ships. CC and Healing are not necessary, and are not taken into account for the 1st place calculation. How do you think 2/3 of you player base are going to like the fact that whenever a mission doesn't bug out no matter how long they've been on the map, an escort can join the mission in progress and get top spot in like 3-4min tops?
Add to that the new proc-based powers from the reputation system, which again heavily favor Cannon Escorts, since they produce the most procs (just like the SNB) doffs). Dear Systems, something for your whiteboard: No matter what the design intention, procs favor cannon escorts with CRF.
It gets beyond silly. The problem with escorts in the FA and the associated first place accolade has been pointed out since S3 (stupid new forums). But instead of responding to the concerns, it has constantly gotten worse, but with S8 why don't you put all non escort ships in a crate as well, convert all toons to Tac, maybe this will make it easier for systems to balance this game.
Fleet Marks are being added to more events and missions in Season 7, but I don't have the complete list yet.
Since there is no PvP person, dispite your team growing and growing and growing.
Simple request: Fleet Marks for (CnH, arena) PvP, Omega Marks for Kerrat Otha warzones (its friggin Borg Content)
Comments
That means I don't like or hate it: it's just there.
Been playing STO since Open Beta, and have never regarded anything as worse than 'meh', if only due to personal standards.
Learn to paragraph.
It goes both ways though. KHG engine gives efficiency boost to lower powered subsystems. Run that with maco shield and you'll get a good boost on subsystems set under 75. I think more of a boost than what MACO shield alone would give.
Except (and unless you think DStahl is lying about it too); it appears each Season the playerbase (and the STO Dev staff as well) has been growing. The game certainly seems to have a number of players and instances running at all times of the day - and (for example), even though it appears a number of Forum posters are continually outraged about Lockboxes the actual paying and playing playerbase seems to keep buying Master Keys and unlocking them (which is the only reason Cryptic/PWE continue to make new ones); so, it's pretty clear that 'Forum Rage' doesn't always equal 'Paying/Playing Playerbase' rage to the same degree; and even long term players who don't read or participate on the Forums (and they do exist); may not be as outraged, or inclined to quit as some here would like to believe.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Dan , sometimes you don't need the Magic 8 Ball to know some things are coming .
For example , I don't need it to know that many of the Omega Rep suggestions are good for the short term only .
I don't need it to know that there will be a lot less ppl inclined to Learn how to play most STF's on Elite (they will just go w/what's the easiest to slide by , and no amount of "love" (aka dumbing down) will help those STF's that require practice , knowledge and a certain amount of determination to get better .
And I don't need a Magic 8 Ball to know the three reasons ppl are grinding STF's (Dill + Tech/EDC + Proto Tech.
How many of those are going away (without being replaced in an equal fashion) ?
480 Dil for an Elite STF ? Really ?
And I'll get the option to convert OM's to Dil way down the road ?
See , this is why some ppl do not consider Dil to be a time based currency .
Because you are downgrading it's worth (on the sort term at least) w/your current plan .
480 Dil does not equal the current Elite STF award .
Nor has there been any mention of additional awards (blue/green weapons/shields/armor) to be dropping from STF's .
I hope you are right -- bcause to have a Season of Grind (6) to be followed by ANOTHER Season of Grind (7) is not what I consider to be "what the players really want" .
But since I can't really explain why I like STF's and hate (and or get bored by quickly) Fleet Actions (yes , even the new ones which technically speaking are of a much higher quality) -- I won't try to explain that to you .
All I know is that STF's used to be a culmination of Story and Exiting Team play .
TOTOH Fleet actions were never more then "go kill 5 rats" , thus they were (and are) no more exiting and meaningful than a current Nebula Patrol .
First I'd have to give a fu#k. As is the amount of wining I had to read through in this thread put me in a less than good mood. Dan I honestly can't say that accounts wouldn't be mysteriously deleted if it were me.
Second. The engine only boosts systems under 50 while maco boosts everything regardless. Normally this would be of no concern but combined with the stacking boost from leech it could get nasty. I only brought it up since the arguments I've seen against the feds getting leech always include its combination with maco shields. I play both sides so it's not like I loose out on anything, just curious if there was merrit to the argument or not.
Not everything you see on the internet is true - Abraham Lincoln
Occidere populo et effercio confractus
Technicaly you are grinding up a new system. True some of the rewards you already have, but most of the new one are just that, new. And you do get to keep everythign you already earned so it's not like you loosing out. Its also not like if you started a new character you would have had access to any of that any way, still had to grind it. Where I would be annoyed is most of it isn't accound wide. That would be nice for those of us who have too damn many characters.
Not everything you see on the internet is true - Abraham Lincoln
Occidere populo et effercio confractus
But thats just not like you do it. You cant rob a player of something he has earned in many hours of playing and have him spend many more hours of playing to get it back. Every Kid understands that, and if not, it needs to learn that because otherwise we?ll have a little gangster growing :rolleyes:
I hope most of the longtimers with stuff in their Inventory get the message to spend it before its taken away...but there still we be many threads in the future from returning players with "where are my elite requisitions?!"
i think you devs need at least a "caring mum" in you staff who..wll, cares for the player base and sorts out all the rubbish ideas - i dont mean that offensive, that would really help to boost public opinion
but lets take that stupid lock-away decision aside: the new systems seeams much fairer than the old one. definitely a better way to start for new players. and we old ones get the chance to earn some new stuff (cutting beam and torpedos read really nice). and including other events in the reward structures, not just stfs, is also very welcome. i hope terradome will get its remastering in the future
This season 7 was nothing we asked for except for a fair way to obtain the sets that wasn't lottery based, so at least cryptic listened to us with that.. but more grinding for the same thing that some of us have already achieved? We don't like and we hate it-- especially when it is grinding via the same missions, for the same gear (now cross-factioned) and little bitty tweaks and twists here and there.
This is minimal effort on cryptic's part and maximum effort on ours. Does this sound like an equal relationship? Of course we are going to lose trust in cryptic and anything the devs say from here on out. Cryptic is not being a friend to us. They are, in fact, being a user and abuser for what is in our wallets. Keep the game profitable legitimately, of course, but these "tricks" to con us out of our hard earned money need to stop now! I feel like cryptic are borgified ferengi who do not strive to achieve perfection, but try to con us out of what is in our wallets.
I'm talking about minimal tweaks to the defiant and other C-store ships and selling it to us all over again as fleet vessels. Minimal tweaks the the maco/khg gear and making us go through the grind all over again without giving us credit for what we have already accomplished (Believe me, they have record of who has obtained what STF gear already). Killing KDF by taking away anything unique to that faction. Killing PvP softly without a formal declaration.
I am really at the edge here.
I AM NOT A FAN OF PWE!!!!
MEMBER SINCE JANUARY 2010
True, though it is one of the few remaining perks of being a KDF player.
Something else I was thinking about. Ground sets. Everyone will likely start running around with KHG/MACO 2 and 2 set pieces on. eg For KDF, Adpated KHG armor and gun and regular KHG shield and gun.
Adrenal booster and emergency shield both available at once. Good option for the "tank" ground players.
Thanks... may be it's time to delete my subscription, better paying only when I really want something.
Playing STO spamming FAW is like playing chess using always the computer's suggested moves
I believe a line that followed that was: "Of all the lousy ways to save, (in this case MAKE) a buck."
A bit of trivia, did anyone catch the actress who played Clarke's Boss's wife? The one in the fur coat who showed up at the Griswald's house with the police?
What was HER connection to Star Trek ? hummmmmm?
* Why attach Dilithium taxes to the current MACO/OMEGA/Honor Guard sets and "standard issue borg equipment"?
** As it stands you'd end up investing 100k Dilithium to get a complete set of any of these three. Plus a lot extra if you want to set up your ship or away team with anti-borg weapons. And if you're a completion-crazy nut like me ("gotta have 'em all") then you're losing a lot more.
*** The "new" sets (which aren't really anything except stat-traded equipment) I can understand having this cost. But current sets, not so much. We didn't have to pay Dilithium in the current system on Holodeck, we just had to get VERY lucky to get the drop we wanted.
* The blog says we can't do jack with our "converted" goods until T5 and we'll end up waiting months before that happens. Wasn't this the same thing with fleet bases? Spend months to get to a certain tier and spend even more Dilithium and doffs or commods (or both) to get there?
** I hope to heaven we don't have to use purple doffs for any of this. Or rare doffs for that matter. Have you even SEEN the prices for those lately? I know I pinch every EC I get, but I object to paying more than 500k for a doff (many doffs cost 700k to well over 10 million depending on quality, traits and player demand), so this could mean a lot of projects will be cost prohibitive and really hurt.
*** Further, withholding this stuff could be seen as telling a player they can't get their gear NOW but have to wait LONGER before they can get something they already spent months if not a year trying to get (Heck, I've only managed to get ONE character a full Mk XII space set. The others have only 2 out of 3 pieces each and on some characters I'm trying to get OMEGA as well as my faction-specific set). They'll be trying to grind that final drop even as I post so they don't have to bear that frustration of a different kind of months-long grind in the Reputation System.
* No STF doffs outside the Rep System? What the TRIBBLE? >_> Are we at least going to have more specialized options besides Security Officers and Projectile Weapons Officers? Like maybe Space/Ground Warfare doffs?
* No conversion of Marks/Neural processors into Dilithium like we could with EDCs, Salvage and Tech?
* Current conversion would turn a portion of our collected STF loot into ore. Unfortunately because of the refining limit, we can't use more than 8k (9k with that vet mission. Perhaps up to 24k if they let it auto-refine after several days pass) of it per day. Thus projects for this stuff at T5 are further held up. Impatient people will HATE this (I already do).
** It would be far easier to turn it into refined dilithium straight up. Just leave it in the box until opened. This way we don't have to wait x-days to use the Dilithium for these projects.
*** Also of note is that you tuned this to "average players" that barely make 1000 ore a WEEK. As "very casual" playing of the game. This doesn't say out loud if this means projects will have cheap Dilithium costs or not. Just that its centered around casual players.
**** A further example of this are the stores. In the blog post example (subject to change) it looked like each Mk XI ground gun shown had a cost of 8608 refined Dilithium. The casual player would be waiting about 6 to 8 weeks to get ONE of these. To equip an entire away team? Yup. More waiting and grinding. Casual players may not care.
There are checks and balances here. Some parts of it I will like. But being told I have to wait months to get at stuff I should've had via STF grinding half a year ago? Just to wait longer for those projects? AND pay Dilithium on TOP of all of that? Yeah...not a fan of that. I want to finish my sets now so I should get grinding before this goes live and hope to heck I get the proto tech drops I need. Otherwise I'd have to spend Dilithium I could use to get Zen (In case something actually GOOD shows up in the C-Store, especially for Klingons who lack T5 ships).
Some good, some bad. It should help with the Reman set. But STF gear... I just don't think that grind is worth it. I can't get that mentioned "leg up" and will have to grind from nothing like everyone else because my "time spent" is withheld from me by a conversion crate I can't open until I hit T5 in the new system. In spite of the fact that the locked up crate is so locked so I don't accidentally spend it all on insta-capping my reputation, not that we can do that anyway.
I'm really sorry of this question has been asked already and answered but this is already a long thread!
I dont understand this line in Dans blog entry:
"Earn gear with the other faction?s stats that use your faction?s visuals"
Sorry it thats a thick sounding question. :rolleyes:
Exactly, it's the same thing with the 200K dilithium cost for a pile of tribbles, a few potted plants and a few ordinary security NPCs that just stand there, (why at least not the cool new holographic maco one's from that facility mission?!!!).
Then there is the fleet starbase gear like the battle riffles and such that look just like all the other now inferior stuff. Just a few changes in stats for Cryptic, but a grindfest for us to level our starbases, provision them, then grind fleet marks AND dilithium.
The "new" content continues to underwhelm with it's mediocrity whilest the dilithium requirement continues to climb.
They want us to grind our tails off when they can't even put in the effort to reward us with something worthy of our efforts. Visually speaking....
I mean honestly, how much development time would it take to design a cool new fleet riffle that would look like it was a step up from the stuff we'd been using?
Even the new hybrid weapons one pays tons for in the lock boxes looks just about the same as the standard fair.
Come on Cryptic ! Stop taking the lazy way out. Make our rewards visually worth the effort too.
Stop using all your development on lock box items.
This game could be so damned great, but it's a friggin shame when **** keeps getting recycled over and over.
He doesn't need to claim they're growing either.
In general, I think it's counterproductive to assume that anyone is lying on the internet. I know that goes against the prevailing thought... but if you don't believe someone, you can't have a conversation with them.
Klingons and Fed each have a unique STF gear set.
Klingons can't get MACO gear. Feds can't get Honor Guard gear. The sets have unique stats.
In S7, Feds will be able to get Honor Guard and Klingons will get MACO. But the new versions will look different to reflect faction.
Thank God I already have everything that proto-whatevers can get me, but unless someone clarifies exactly what the devs mean by this I'm gonna grind all of 'em into dil and wait for the S7 dil market to crash before cashing out. I don't mind having stuff converted into new marks or whatever in principle but I'm not going to have them taken from me to bully me into grinding the same damn missions I did to get them in the first place.
vids and guides and stuff
[9:52] [Zone #11] Neal@trapper1532: im a omega force shadow oprative and a maoc elite camander and here i am taking water samples
but at least players get the chance to see what is happening and can use tribble to make a judgement call on how best to proceed.
like most problems, i expect after a month or two of it going live it will have straighten itself out and people will go right back to grinding away their missions as they have been for the past year.
Ah! Thank you. Understood now
Why on earth would you want to play an MMO if you don't like grinding?
Maybe we have different definitions of grinding. I define grinding as content you do more than 10 times. And I absolutely don't get why anyone would want Cryptic to design content that only gets played once or twice.
I have substantial disagreement about how the S7 rollout is happening but I think it's pretty absurd for Cryptic to design content that isn't targeted at being played 40-50 times per player, at least... And honestly, I'm frustrated both at the loot tables for FEs (not pushing replay) and at players who say they want to play content once and be done with it.
Again, I may totally be misunderstanding your definition of grind but I see the word as synonymous with heavy repeatable play and I take real issue with the idea of fellow players not wanting to do that. Because when and if you don't do that, Cryptic will stop making that kind of content. As well they should.
"...using a rate that takes into account how many of these items you have acquired, and not yet spent, on your character."
This means there's probably gonna be an optimum of Borg technology stored in your bank.
"...and employs an improved anti-Borg damage proc that scales based on weapon firing speeds (slow weapons will deliver large bursts of kinetic damage, while fast weapons will deliver smaller hits on each pulse)."
Do I understand this correctly? Turrets, beams, cannons will get a large burst, projectile weapons a small one? Does this mean energy weapons will deal kinetic damage too?
Isn't the existing Borg proc something like this already? Fast weapons have many chances per minute to deal the extra 1000 dmg to Borg ships and structures while a tricobald mine for example has just one chance in 2min?
STO wasn't about the absurd amount of grinding prior to PWE purchasing them. Cryptic had more "heart" as a company before PWE came in and stabbed them through that heart, which ultimately bled all over the customers.
I AM NOT A FAN OF PWE!!!!
MEMBER SINCE JANUARY 2010
Yes I do lose out. Right now if want to go buy some stf gear. guess what. I can. I don't have to grind a damn thing to do it. And its not like I can buy all the stf gear there is and just store it because of the tiny inventory. (that's even after upgrading it)
And you say new stuff? What new stuff? The pathetic pasives? Honestly it almost like they put that in there just so they could use it as an excuse to lock away the access to stf gear. Or are you referring to the seperate borg set? yeah well I've got the borg set I want but they are breaking that set up and forcing people to use that garbage borg shield or switch either maco/omega set where the passives really aren't that great.
and yeah, the fact that we have to do the grind on each character. yeah that pretty much blows big chunks.
In the end the system, for the most part, is fine for new players or those who do not have access to stf gear already. But for those who do and who have done the grinding already it pretty much sucks.
The other main issue is that realistically it doesn't matter how much you play. It will still take you months to just to unlock the ability to get the items even if you have the resources already to fill the projects. Then there is the dill cost, which again is very high, (will take you a minimum of a month and a half of all your dil to get a complete stf set up [weapons + gear], adding strain to already scarce resource. When you add in the other new dil sinks it's just worse.
The whole dil situation is a mess. The devs keep saying "we're adding more ways for you to get dil." The issue is that they are talking about ore, not refined dil which is what you need to fill projects etc. I, as well as many others, have got plenty of ore. There are so many ways to fix this issue.
- increase the refinement cap but put a zen purchase cap so people can't zen farm.
- allow projects to be filled with ore but at a higher price.
- If you subscribe then you should either have no refinement cap or it should be MUCH higher than it is now.
In a nutshell
- If you have unlocked or acquired the gear already you shouldn't have to unlock the ability to get the gear AGAIN
- If you subscribe, you should have some benefit over those who do not pay anything
- There should not be a cap on how quickly you can unlock the store. Meaning if you play more and acquire the resources quicker than others then you shouldn't have to wait. That also means that if you pay for the resources you shouldn't have to wait. In short, take away the time for project completion. If you fill it, it should finish right away. (again it could be a subscriber benefit)
- sort out the dil issue.
Place them in a box that I WILL NOT GET, until I grind through, AGAIN, your "new system" to reach Tier 5, THEN I get the rewards, AGAIN, that I already HAD to begin with???!!????!!
Your not serious, IF you are serious, I already objected with my wallet and STOPPED paying for this game due to you all not thinking things through, NOW you want to take what I worked my tail of for in what limited time I have, HOLD IT, force me to do it all again and GRIND, AGAIN, through your system JUST to RECOLLECT the same stuff I already was awarded!?!
Explain to me how that is "fairly" compensated. Its oxymoronic to me. Maybe I should just try the uninstall option next and end my frustrations. Good Grief gang, you have a great idea here, and you KILL it with your implementation, AGAIN!
Why don't I like the current fleet actions? The season 6 ones are boring. A blank empty map with a starbase in the center of it and vawes of mobs you just have to pew-pew endlessly looks like cheap work to me. It's definitely not the kind of game I want to play. Now to get dil with missions I like I'll have to play ground fleet actions and to play dirty to get the purple loot. Yes if you want the purple loot you need to take advantage of your team mates to rush objectives while they deal with the enemy. I know the tricks to get the first place, and I don't like them.
So you want me to switch from a cooperative gameplay (stfs) to a competitive and dirty one (fleet actions). Did any of you guys ever considered that your old fleet actions weren't played because the design was flawed (people not willing to compete with eachother)? And since everyone will rush to get the purple loot, expect a lot of dirty stuff in fleet actions, and a lot of frustration too, since they are just plain and simple "competition".
Oh and by the way, the loot table looks pretty old, we often get a Mk X purple loot when we get 1st place. On very rare occastions you can get a Mk XI one. would be great to update that so that people enjoy more having no ethics in their free time, playing dirty and fooling their team mates in those great fleet actions!
Mine trap and its cooperative gameplay is definitely what I want to play if you want to force fleet actions upon players. At least we should be able to choose if you really don't want to revamp how the reward system is made (different timers for different loot qualities for the whole team would magically turn competition in cooperation you know, and would allow you to keep the 1920 dil reward for the completion of the mission within the limits of the hardest timer).
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
You mean Admiral Nechayev ?
Clark's rant near the end of the movie, comes to mind occasionally in regards to Cryptic. Specifically the part about his boss
Lmao.. Dan, you make me laugh. Are you really serious that 'only a handful' of players were telling you how frustrated they were of not getting drops?? Do you not read the forums or actually play the game?? Or is Branflakes or Gozer not relaying the messages that were left in the forums? Hell, there were hundreds (if thousands) of players extremely frustrated that left posts (even chatting in in-game chat) complaining about the drops not dropping enough. And that was back in March (if not earlier) of this year.
You agree that it isn't fair the some get some Tech drops faster than others?? Again, when did you come up with this brilliant assessment??
This is a very bad call. Fleet Actions are notoriously bugged, like Ghekli feeding ground, CE and DS9 no longer in game, apparently there are problems with SB24 as well.
On top of this, since their release, the only ship that can get to 1st place is a Tac/escort (maybe a sci/scort) giving #1 double the rewards, is simply a nightmare for all sci and cruiser ships. CC and Healing are not necessary, and are not taken into account for the 1st place calculation. How do you think 2/3 of you player base are going to like the fact that whenever a mission doesn't bug out no matter how long they've been on the map, an escort can join the mission in progress and get top spot in like 3-4min tops?
Add to that the new proc-based powers from the reputation system, which again heavily favor Cannon Escorts, since they produce the most procs (just like the SNB) doffs). Dear Systems, something for your whiteboard: No matter what the design intention, procs favor cannon escorts with CRF.
It gets beyond silly. The problem with escorts in the FA and the associated first place accolade has been pointed out since S3 (stupid new forums). But instead of responding to the concerns, it has constantly gotten worse, but with S8 why don't you put all non escort ships in a crate as well, convert all toons to Tac, maybe this will make it easier for systems to balance this game.
TL;DR: Escorts online galore
Since there is no PvP person, dispite your team growing and growing and growing.
Simple request: Fleet Marks for (CnH, arena) PvP, Omega Marks for Kerrat Otha warzones (its friggin Borg Content)
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013