Season 7 Dev Blog #17

pwebranflakes

Executive Producer Daniel Stahl discusses and answers questions about the Season 7 Dilithium changes in this entry the Season 7 News Dev Blog series.


Link to the blog.

starcommando101

Cryptic... I have defended you guys for the longest... This isn't right and you know it. So for once, play the game on the level of an average level 50 player and think...

you guys are so close...

"You know what storm" in 3...2...1...

partizan81

Dilithium no longer directly rewarded from STF runs, but still via indirect turn-ins
After a lot of internal deliberate, we made the decision to remove Dilithium as a direct reward from STFs to make it consistent with all current and future Reputation content (for example Romulan Reputation mission do not directly reward Dilithium either). However, STFs still reward Dilithium indirectly via Omega Marks and Borg Neural Processors (Elite only) via projects in the Omega Fleet reputation.

You can engage in as much "internal deliberate" all you want, this is TRIBBLE, and if you don't know it's TRIBBLE, you don't deserve the income you're receiving and to be called game designers.

brigadooom

"After a lot of internal deliberate"

Ha, nice freudian slip there.

brigadooom

At any tier in the Omega Reputation system, you can convert Borg Neural Processors into Dilithium by running Reputation projects:

10 Borg Neural Processors = 1000 Dilithium

Eh. In-game it says 5 processors for 1000 dil. Can't even get your facts straight on this, or is this yet another blind change after much 'deliberate'? :rolleyes:

wilv

You know what? If you guys are going to make dilithium so hard to get, then REMOVE it from fleetbase and embassy projects. You guys have just KILLED any chance small fleets had in getting their bases upgraded!

tachyonharmonic

So the dil reward for an elite stf, the end game content, is a token worth 200 Dilithium. (When you turn in 5) Also, you have to save this token if you want to use it for the Omega gear, which requires 10? per piece.

Before, we got 1100 dilithium ore, plus tokens for gear.

If you thought we weren't refining enough before, I quite think we'll be refining less now.

superherofan

This change is messed up, and you guys deserve the vitrol you're going to get for it.

I'm also very glad I just downloaded Guild Wars 2 this weekend.

jexsamx

Explain this train of thought to me.

"People are refining a lot less Dillthium than we expected... Let's remove it directly from STF's, make it take a lot longer to get via Foundry, and remove the extra 1440 from B'tran. Now they'll refine a lot more!"

superherofan

jexsamx wrote: »

Explain this train of thought to me.

"People are refining a lot less Dillthium than we expected... Let's remove it directly from STF's, make it take a lot longer to get via Foundry, and remove the extra 1440 from B'tran. Now they'll refine a lot more!"

I'm not even going to try to make sense of any of this nonsense. It's all lies and bull****, because they just want us to buy dilithium with zen. Everything else is just blah blah blah.

topset

I'm so angry at being downright lied to over the past few weeks that I can't even formulate my thoughts into words right now.

I've been defending season 7 since it was announced, but you've been constantly out-right lying to is. It's bang out of order, and I feel like I've just had a backhander to the face and told it was for my own good.

No. Not on PWE. I will not give you any more money, I will still play - I'll use up as much resources as I possibly can on your servers, but I will NOT pay you.

f8explorer

wilv wrote: »

You know what? If you guys are going to make dilithium so hard to get, then REMOVE it from fleetbase and embassy projects. You guys have just KILLED any chance small fleets had in getting their bases upgraded!

THIS!!!! .... Otherwise anything less than a Mega fleet will never EVER advance in this game.

Dstahl / Devs ..... You don't have a clue about your own players.

Stop looking at the reports and listen to your PLAYERS.

You have lost sight of the HUMAN players in this game.

BAD BAD BAD business.

trek21

Well, that answers that

I'm not affected though, in any way, and since this forum will be full of opinions for the next few days... I'll simply be enjoying the game during much of that time

hypl

Well, I guess the lack of dilithium from STF's IS intentional after all. :rolleyes:

brigadooom

tachyonharmonic wrote: »

So the dil reward for an elite stf, the end game content, is a token worth 200 Dilithium. (When you turn in 5) Also, you have to save this token if you want to use it for the Omega gear, which requires 10? per piece.

Before, we got 1100 dilithium ore, plus tokens for gear.

If you thought we weren't refining enough before, I quite think we'll be refining less now.

100 dil. The project is meant to be 10 BNPs for 1000 dil

maarkean

This is ridiculous.

To sum it up ? we expect it to take several months of playing the game regularly for several hours per session in order to outfit a captain and crew with the best gear in the game.

WTF? I play this game versus specifically because it DOESN'T require hours of time investment. I like that about this game. And so does everyone I know who plays. We all have kids and jobs and don't have the time to invest. Making us work harder for things isn't going to make us play more, its going to drive us away from the game.

I really, really hate that mentality of game designers. It's a GAME, not a job.

What really boggles the mind is this:

Concern 1 ? Active level 50 players are refining far less Dilithium than we expect them to.
Prior to Season 7, the average amount of Dilithium refined by an active level 50 player was 3100 per session or 13,250 per week. That is far less than the cap of 8000 per day when you consider that most level 50 players play multiple days per week and slightly more than the average hours per session.

Most players DON'T convert very much dilithium. So you're going to make it HARDER to get it? Why? How does that make any sense what so ever?

I hate conspiracy theories but those that claim this is just a scam to get us to buy Dilithium with Zen don't sound so crazy now.

tachyonharmonic

brigadooom wrote: »

100 dil. The project is meant to be 10 BNPs for 1000 dil

On live it tells me that I get 1000 dilithium for 5 BNPs instead of 10.

Still bad either way.

amosov78

Well you removed the dilithium from STFs "directly", that 's personally okay because I don't play STFs, and you added dilithium to Fleet Actions to compensate. Damn, I don't play Fleet Actions either.... :rolleyes:

maarkean

jexsamx wrote: »

Explain this train of thought to me.

"People are refining a lot less Dillthium than we expected... Let's remove it directly from STF's, make it take a lot longer to get via Foundry, and remove the extra 1440 from B'tran. Now they'll refine a lot more!"

Exactly. Completely contradictory.

cptskeeteruk

Hmm time to go on strike for sto. Seriously EP, stop messing the game up.

Edit - Actually perfect timing because SWTOR goes f2p so its a good excuse to pass the time while not playing sto while the devs look at themselves and change back the stfs rewards.

meurik

Always nice to be proven right... I read people claiming "It's just a bug, the Dilithium will be added". I was cynical and said, something tells me it's currently "Working as intended". And I WAS RIGHT.

Thanks Mr Stahl, for lying through your teeth, and TRIBBLE over your player base yet again. Although I guess I shouldn't be too surprised when you insist in the latest Massively interview, that KDF were always intended as PVP only faction. Jack Emmert says otherwise...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcAn3nhf97Y#t=01m48s

Mr BranFlakes; Feel free to take whatever disciplinary action you deem necessary against me. I'm done jumping through Cryptic's hoops. Spent the better part of 3 years on this game, and hundreds of dollars. So i've been plenty screwed over already. This is the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

kirksplat

I wish this applied to foundry:

Make Dilithium rewards balanced and consistent. No specific content should be aberrantly more efficient than others. We will be removing or adjusting reward tables anytime we find missions that are allowing players to earn Dilithium at an aberrant rate.

3 actual foundry missions is at least 1 hour of play, and more like 2-3 hours if you're going by what is popular and well-rated.

1 15-minute Starbase 24 = the same rewards.

Maybe I have the details wrong, but the reward for playing 3 foundry mission is not "balanced and consistent" with other content. Cryptic content is far more efficient. Your stuff rewards players at an "aberrant rate" compared to our actual content.

And we provide stories.

If you're quote is honest, then you should care about that. The foundry wrapper is violating your standards.

mormonjihad

Nice job guys....your greed (and don't insult us by saying it isn't) just killed the small fleets of sto. Pathetic.

suprcheeze

As much as I dislike the dilithium being removed from basically every method I used prior to Season 7, the extreme shortage this will create will drive up the value of my stockpile of dilithium, meaning I can buy more Zen with it, which is a good thing. So there is a silver lining.

Still, the blatantly contradictory statements of this posting are troubling. "We want people to refine more dilithium, so we're removing the largest sources of it." Excuse me?

leviathan99

I feel jerked around by the assertion on Tribble that the absence of dilithium in STFs was an error.

I think Cryptic is way too caught up in what I call wikiality, the desire to balance, retune, and recapitalize old content. Nothing is ever done and so no nothing is ever moved beyond.

Oops, that old design is out of whack.

Even the "finale" of the STFs ends with a big shoulder shrug regarding the fate of the Queen.

Oops. She got away. Oops, we killed her a second time but she'll always be out there as long as there's a single Borg.

Everything is repeatable and repurposable. Nothing is DEFINITIVE.

This all goes back to the problems Cryptic has had ever since Enhancement Diversification in CoX.

Better design, bad rollout of better design. You shouldn't re-design something because the old design is bad. You should work with your game more the way your community plays it, not continually yanking it back to the way you want it played.

thepantsparty

When I queued for elite STFs, I did them with people from my fleet and would cooperate with them so we could earn the best rewards.

When I queue for SB24 now, I queue solo and only focus on trying to place first so I can get the bonus loot instead of helping anyone else.

Elite STFs were a much more enjoyable way to earn dilithium.

suprcheeze

Oh, I forgot to mention I've never paid money for anything in STO and never plan to, so reducing the dilithium price per zen is a very good thing in my book!

alastorforthrigh

"People are not refining Dilithium in the amounts we were expecting, so we must make Dilithium more accessible."

"Lets take them away from the missions most people run then!"

"Brilliant!"

misteryhistory1

Well, no wonder I see an F. They just don't seem to "get it."

voiceoftemprus

No Dil drops nor loot rewards from STFs plus really lousy conversion rates (only after you get up to tier 5) makes STFs look even less worth playing than the really low drops rates did.

I commend STO on its ability to make a grind even more of a grind while claiming to make it less of a grind. People did not think you could make it even more so but you did. :rolleyes:

Having said that, kudos on giving us other outlets that are more fun to do to rank up Omega Rep rep. Though, I guess I still am going to have to explain to people that only "Elite" people are assigned helmets in Starfleet.

gypsyblade

Lying to us has worn thin, my wallets now closed until this is addressed.

You limit ways to get Dil, you increase the amount of time it takes to grind.

Stahl your math is wrong, I was able to do 8k easy on each toon in 1-2 hours. That's across 6 characters, mostly through STFs (Converting Salvage, Tech, and EDC). Being a LTS member I could even earn more than cap and not have to log onto a toon for a few days.

The system worked, people that didn't have cash... could grind and trade for Zen. People that had cash and no time could buy dil with Zen. In some cases myself included, I grinded dil for ingame things and purchased Zen when needed for the C-store.

This is a play to drive up the cost of Dilithium in the exchange, it will fail. The economy is STO is optional, it doesn't provide food, water, or shelter. At some point the market will bottom out as the conversion hits a point that isn't worth it to the player.

I hope you adjust the Marks to Dil rates....

I've been a Star Trek Fan since 1987, I was 7 years old when I first saw TNG. From that moment on I was hooked. This game is making me hate Star Trek.

You guys flat out lied to us.... we won't forget that.