I doubt anyone will get laid off because of this decision. But I agree very much that the oft-quoted Blog Post very much reeked of a "this is the way it is because PWE told us to do it this way" language. It doesn't seem that there is much of anything that can be done to change this. Nor does it seem that those who are complaining about this change and who are blaming Dstahl really have much of a grounds for that blame.
Dude , you have no idea how much slack we have cut the devs .
Some did it because they loved the game .
Some did it because they were in love with the POTENTIAL of this game .
Last time I did it was less then a year ago when the game went F2P .
I thought , new opportunity , new blood/players , old/new EP , new owner , new direction -- hey why not , there has been enough accusations , missteps , unkept promises & misinformation .
A new slate was needed , and that was what I advocated .
In return , Stahl said to judge him on what he does .
So now ... , a year later , I do .
A year later ... I find that both STO and Neverwinter follow the "In Soviet Russia ... " joke literally .
Neverwinter apparently has a bug that allows your horse to ride you ,
and in STO the Devs think to herd me to play content by nerfing previous STF awards .
I am not a sheep . (well not in this sense anyway)
I do not need to be manipulated this way away from my preferred content .
And I don't like it when I'm intentionally mislead . (again)
Okay, that was probably the most foolish thing that Dstahl could ever possibly have said to the player base. Fact is this: Cryptic Studio's is owned by Perfect World Entertainment. The entire In-Game Economy is based on the Cryptic Currency known as Zen. Thus any decision that revolves around the Currency of Zen has a very very very significant probability of being dictated to Cryptic Studio's by Perfect World Entertainment.
Also, the introduction of Lock Boxes? That was 100% a Perfect World Entertainment Design Call. That was not something that Cryptic Studio's was likely to have installed on it's own, and it is something that is present in virtually every other Perfect World Entertainment Game.
Heck, the C-Store itself is largely influenced by other Perfect World Entertainment Cash Shops.
And for crying out loud the Reputation system? Yeah thats another Perfect World Entertainment / Wanmei thing. (Go check out Perfect World International's Reputation System and be stunned by the fact that many of those people actually WILLINGLY paid over 2,000 US Dollars for the best gear in that game). At least we haven't gotten to the point were we are dropping as much real life money as Perfect World International yet.
So he's lying about his job responsibilities too now? It's one thing to defend a decision, I can understand that, but defending a decision making process that is based on deception, falsehoods and stringing along the playerbase doesn't change the fact that Mr. Stahl is ultimately responsible for what occurs on his watch at Cryptic.
Just because you're part of the mob and you commit a crime at the behest of your Capo, doesn't mean you're any less responsible.
So he's lying about his job responsibilities too now? It's one thing to defend a decision, I can understand that, but defending a decision making process that is based on deception, falsehoods and stringing along the playerbase doesn't change the fact that Mr. Stahl is ultimately responsible for what occurs on his watch at Cryptic.
Just because you're part of the mob and you commit a crime at the behest of your Capo, doesn't mean you're any less responsible.
How has he lied about his responsibilities?
He is still executive producer at Cryptic Studio's. Just because he now has a boss who tells him what to do doesn't make his role at Cryptic Studio's any less important. He still has to tell all the people at Cryptic Studio's what to do to make his boss happy. Basically it comes down to this, consider him the equivalent of the manager of a Franchise Department of, let's say a McDonalds. He has all the authority in how things run in his McDonalds, with the exception to where it counteracts decisions made by the CEO of McDonalds International Inc. (or whatever the international corporation is called). I hope you get the basic comparison I am drawing here? Basically it is a matter of would you prefer your local McDonalds to have a different Bigmac from all the other McDonalds in the Nation or would you rather some uniformity in the McDonalds menu's? Similarly, Cryptic Studio's is kind of bound to follow the guidelines that are laid out by Perfect World Entertainment. And one thing I have noticed is that there seems to be a bit of uniformity across many of the Perfect World Entertainment Games.
He is still executive producer at Cryptic Studio's. Just because he now has a boss who tells him what to do doesn't make his role at Cryptic Studio's any less important. He still has to tell all the people at Cryptic Studio's what to do to make his boss happy. Basically it comes down to this, consider him the equivalent of the manager of a Franchise Department of, let's say a McDonalds. He has all the authority in how things run in his McDonalds, with the exception to where it counteracts decisions made by the CEO of McDonalds International Inc. (or whatever the international corporation is called). I hope you get the basic comparison I am drawing here? Basically it is a matter of would you prefer your local McDonalds to have a different Bigmac from all the other McDonalds in the Nation or would you rather some uniformity in the McDonalds menu's? Similarly, Cryptic Studio's is kind of bound to follow the guidelines that are laid out by Perfect World Entertainment. And one thing I have noticed is that there seems to be a bit of uniformity across many of the Perfect World Entertainment Games.
Either he runs the show at Cryptic, directing what STO is to do, or he doesn't. You can't have it both ways with him taking the credit when things go right, but pawning off the blame when something goes horribly wrong onto some faceless PWE overlord.
There are several good reasons to be upset, the new content is nice, I like new Romulous, and the new zone, just fine. But in the worst days of this game stfs kept us going, yeah it was grind but it payed well, it was fun to run with friends and in all ways was worth doing.
Now elite STFs rewards amount to approximately 700 dilithium after the use of two cool downs at tier 5. In the short term that means they reward no dilithium, in the long 700 is non-sustainable. (It takes 1.9 Mil dilithium to unlock tier 4 Star Base wise, not mention the dilithium costs of raising 2 reps and starting on the Embassy. In short the top end can't be maintained under this system.
So instead we are expect to farm SB-24 over and over again? FYI half an hour cool down is really longer then the STF cool down b/c if you ran them in series they basically had no cool down if you included ground. So in short we are now expect to chain run some of the oldest content that really only has 1 or 2 reasonably playable versions.
If the stated goal of making it easier to get dilithium so that the average player could get more, then what good did removing it from STFs altogether
That pretty much sums it up .
No one called STF's an exploit .
Heck , Al Rivera called STF players a "minority" less then 2 weeks ago . (good one Al !:rolleyes:)
So WHY mess with the STF awards ?
Do they really need this "minority" to hold the hand of the majority and help them through Fleet Actions ?
I mean , do they think their playerbase is THAT incompetent ?
I think what Helix is seeing - rightly or not - is what is known in TV-land as "Executive Meddling." Rarely is it ever acknowledge by anyone involved to be happening during the production run even if the signs are "obvious" to the fans. This is largely because you don't want to be seen as talking bad about your bosses and even acknowledging that they had a hand in an unpopular decision (or set of decisions) is a surefire way to be seen as badmouthing them and can therefore cost someone his or her job.
I don't know that this is what's happening with STO. I don't care to speculate. But what I am saying is that if this executive meddling is indeed happening? We're not likely to find out from DStahl or any of the other devs unless/until Cryptic folds or they all get fired and their NDAs expire.
I have 14 characters total. This is because once upon a time this game was very alt-friendly. For these 14 characters I figure it will take me a little over 1 months time to get them all to tier 1 of Romulan and Omega Reputation. I think that is a little excessive, especially for Omega Rep where I have run all of the STFs 100s of times before S7. All I want to do is get to T3 so I can open my box and get back that which I have already earned.
I ran 1 infected space elite. We got optional. I got 75 omega marks. Thats is more than enough to complete tier 1. Wich will require 52.
I then did gorn. Then starbase 24 and then new space vault. And azure one. I started both romulan projects. I then did a couple fleet stuff incursion and fleet alert.
Then did the dig. And gorn again.
In short. They have made stf's only necessary to get the stf gear. I didnt do another stf because i didnt need too. I got my 8k dilly. And actually played a lot more content than i usually do. Most of the time i would just grind stf's.
I like this change. I like that i can do a variety of things instead of just spamming stf's with a sprinkle of fleet.
Either he runs the show at Cryptic, directing what STO is to do, or he doesn't. You can't have it both ways with him taking the credit when things go right, but pawning off the blame when something goes horribly wrong onto some faceless PWE overlord.
If I wanted to pawn things off to some faceless evil corporate overlord I would be blaming the Company whom pretty much owns Perfect World Entertainment. But I am not doing that since that company has little to no say (as far as I can tell) in this game directly.
For relevance sake, the company who more or less owns Perfect World Entertainment is Wanmei, the inventors of the game after which Perfect World Entertainment is named.
In short the top end can't be maintained under this system.
I am going to put this into perspective for you all really nice and concisely.
YOU HAVE IT EASY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you were to play Perfect World International, you would need 4,263,108,185 Experience Points just to reach max level. To make matters worse (as of the time I left) the highest Experience Yielding Mobs in the game, gave roughly 20,000 Experience at a time, meaning you would have to kill just over 213,000 of those mobs in order to reach max level. And they only yield that much experience if you are using the cash shop item known as a Hyper Experience Stone (and you have to use 5 of those to get that high of Experience).
Now the matter compounds itself when you consider the fact that in order to get the best gear in the game (as of the time I left) you have to use the Reputation System in that game. The Total cost for an entire set of Rank IX Gear (the best Gear in the Game) is 151300 Zen, or 1,513 US Dollars... So not only do you have to spend an ungodly amount of time leveling in Perfect World International, but you also have to spend an ungodly amount of real life money (or alternatively you have to spend YEARS and by that I mean literally 10 or so years, grinding the in game currency) just to get the best gear in the game.
By comparison, we have it easy. We can all realistically have Mark XII gear of one sort or another within a few weeks to months if we spend a bit of time each day farming Dilithium and doing STF's. So I fail to see what the problem here is?
I ran 1 infected space elite. We got optional. I got 75 omega marks. Thats is more than enough to complete tier 1. Wich will require 52.
I then did gorn. Then starbase 24 and then new space vault. And azure one. I started both romulan projects. I then did a couple fleet stuff incursion and fleet alert.
Then did the dig. And gorn again.
In short. They have made stf's only necessary to get the stf gear. I didnt do another stf because i didnt need too. I got my 8k dilly. And actually played a lot more content than i usually do. Most of the time i would just grind stf's.
I like this change. I like that i can do a variety of things instead of just spamming stf's with a sprinkle of fleet.
I agree. after initially hating it, i realised its made me play more content than before. i have so many objectives to aim for its fun and im not just grinding the same content over and over.
earning dilithium is still pretty easy. its just takes a bit more variety than before. i dont mind that.
what ever cryptic's motives were, the change actually suits me quite well.
Helix, what PWE may or may not do in another title is irrelevant when analyzing a decision made in STO by STOs stated leadership. Just because the next town over got nuked doesn't mean your own house isn't on fire.
He is still executive producer at Cryptic Studio's. Just because he now has a boss who tells him what to do doesn't make his role at Cryptic Studio's any less important. He still has to tell all the people at Cryptic Studio's what to do to make his boss happy. Basically it comes down to this, consider him the equivalent of the manager of a Franchise Department of, let's say a McDonalds. He has all the authority in how things run in his McDonalds, with the exception to where it counteracts decisions made by the CEO of McDonalds International Inc. (or whatever the international corporation is called). I hope you get the basic comparison I am drawing here? Basically it is a matter of would you prefer your local McDonalds to have a different Bigmac from all the other McDonalds in the Nation or would you rather some uniformity in the McDonalds menu's? Similarly, Cryptic Studio's is kind of bound to follow the guidelines that are laid out by Perfect World Entertainment. And one thing I have noticed is that there seems to be a bit of uniformity across many of the Perfect World Entertainment Games.
I think it's far more likely a case of Stahl and co. copying their neighbors at PWE than it is a case of a mandate.
"When it doubt, do what works for the other guy" is a proven technique. In general, when I see PWE refer to Cryptic as R&D, it means two things:
1) Their job is to figure out what works. Meaning they do have some autonomy.
2) Cryptic is not profitable in the most broad economic sense, whether or not it's actually covering costs. From a GAAP bookkeeping perspective, R&D isn't an investment. You expense R&D. They're not making money hand over fist and are reinvesting what they do get... so they're probably under some obligation to minimize their liability by using profit strategies that do work.
PWE did release its financial goals for STO S6 awhile back and from as near as I could figure, they really just want STO to break even and use it as a research tool... and are by and large pumping the money back into the game.
It's not about PROFIT directly. It's about INFORMATION, which can make big profits later.
If it was about direct profit, it would make more sense to sell or shut down Cryptic and open a browser game department -- or, heck, a chain of coffee shops. Without factoring in the information variable, a coffee chain would be a MUCH better short-run investment.
Helix, what PWE may or may not do in another title is irrelevant when analyzing a decision made in STO by STOs stated leadership. Just because the next town over got nuked doesn't mean your own house isn't on fire.
Actually it is entirely relevant for the simple reason that it shows that Perfect World Entertainment learned from Wanmei's mistakes (because they inherited the experience points system in Perfect World International at the very least from Wanmei), and that they are making efforts to fix that problem in their future titles.
Additionally as I have already pointed out (either in this thread or another thread), many of the new features in this game are heavily based on, or borrowed from entirely the features of other Perfect World Entertainment Titles. Thus what is done in those other titles has a heavy influence on what is done in this title.
While the Design Team at Cryptic has the final say in HOW things get implemented, it is ultimately Perfect World Entertainment who has final Veto Powers on WHAT gets implemented. So it was likely Perfect World Entertainment's decision that changed STF's to what they are now.
EDIT: I did not see Stole's post when I posted this, nor did I know that Perfect World Entertainment viewed Cryptic Studio's as an R&D Branch. With such being the case, then it makes sense that things get messed up and that promises get broken from time to time. R&D does not easily equate to "make the customers happy 100% of the time"
For the record most elite stf folks are already in full MkXII sets in many cases with several redundant sets collecting dust on our other ships or the bank. As to us having it easy, I know better then to play a classic fully pay to win Eastern MMO like PWI. I saw Rag Online, I grasped what was going down, and I declined to get involved. Not say there is anything wrong with those who didn't but STO is not such a game nor should it be. There is nothing wrong with wanting, what we know work to continue to work.
Finding out if I can ace sb24 isn't something I have to find out, I know I can. I have all the trophies to from the FAs to prove it. I did even suggest ways of making FA more playable and attractive to players during the testing phase, they chose to go on as is. SB24 is easily the best of the FAs, and believe me, it gets boring, very boring, after you have run it for the 200th time or so.
I ran 1 infected space elite. We got optional. I got 75 omega marks. Thats is more than enough to complete tier 1. Wich will require 52.
I then did gorn. Then starbase 24 and then new space vault. And azure one. I started both romulan projects. I then did a couple fleet stuff incursion and fleet alert.
Then did the dig. And gorn again.
In short. They have made stf's only necessary to get the stf gear. I didnt do another stf because i didnt need too. I got my 8k dilly. And actually played a lot more content than i usually do. Most of the time i would just grind stf's.
I like this change. I like that i can do a variety of things instead of just spamming stf's with a sprinkle of fleet.
Yeah, more content, but you ran it alone. I'm used to run ESTF's with my friends. Coordination, chatting over skype, to brag over the optional loot you got etc.
And now? Everyone is running as wild to get his marks as fast as possible because New Romulus is nice but after 2 hours you are just plain bored. Or you are already bored from the testing on Tribble ;-)
There is no incentive to run something with your friends. Or to get optional with a PUG even after the stupid Tac in his rainbow color cruiser killed the gen to soon or popped somehow a cube xD
Hopefully the foundry gets soon up :-) In the meantime I will run MWO with my friends :-)
Does Mirror Universe grant Dill? This one you end in under 5 min with 3 Escorts xD
Ya know, i started this post simply because i dont see what the big fuss about dilithium is.
I was able to collect my 8k yesterday easily in about 3-4 hours. Im sorry you all cant see that it can still be done. It might not be the exact way you want it, but atleast you can still get dilithium if that is what your going for. And it is easier to collect this way, as it cant be failed.
This post has become ridiculous, with people insulting eachother (when in fact they know nothing of the other person)
I like the new changes Cryptic has made. As far as those of you who are upset about it, Im sorry...I can only lead the horse to the water...
Ya know, i started this post simply because i dont see what the big fuss about dilithium is.
I was able to collect my 8k yesterday easily in about 3-4 hours. Im sorry you all cant see that it can still be done. It might not be the exact way you want it, but atleast you can still get dilithium if that is what your going for. And it is easier to collect this way, as it cant be failed.
This post has become ridiculous, with people insulting eachother (when in fact they know nothing of the other person)
I like the new changes Cryptic has made. As far as those of you who are upset about it, Im sorry...I can only lead the horse to the water...
I for one don't dispute it can be done and in less time than you spent, probably. I know 5k can be had from the Academy event, playing aggressively, and even with changes they made, it can be done.
It isn't about the dilithium. It's about the STFs and recognizing that they have value and require more work than other content.
I just crunched some numbers.
I'd actually be fairly happy if they added something like 500k Energy Credits (or maybe 2 Lobi) to an ESTF and 250k (or 1 Lobi) to a regular STF. It's actually a bit of an improvement on the old payout rate when you look at dil-to-ZEN-to-EC conversion.
Then maybe swap the DOff grinder to being an EC sink or have a Ferengi DOff grinder as a Lobi sink.
The issue is not with dilithium. The issue is with STFs being marginalized without considering the true economic cost of playing one.
You really are making yourself look like an TRIBBLE today, do you get a dilithium payment from Cryptic for that? You said Dstahl is marketing department. End of. We are merely pointing out to you that he is far more than just the marketing department, he is the boss, the top guy, get it? Sure that means he has overall say in the marketing department but it's not all he is. And for your information I was a sales director when you were probably still in nappies sonny.
When you can't respond to someone's argument, accuse them of corruption and taking bribes; as well as try to play a semantics game by ignoring the meat of their point and quibbling over the way in which it was said. Then top it all off with an agism based insult.
I'll reiterate my point in far simpler manner so you can understand. I don't trust or even pay attention to anything that comes out of the mouth of a company about what is coming in the future. I only trust end results. Dstahl lied? So what. If it's not worth going to the FTC over, it's not worth losing sleep over.
P.S. working in sales isn't the same thing as working in marketing. Infact, sales is pretty much the lowest rung on the ladder for actual employees, considering that janitorial duties tend to be contracted out these days.
P.P.S. you got my gender wrong
P.P.P.S. Since you're throwing out work experience in irrelevant fields, I'm coowner of an indie game company and do most of the programming for our games, as well as serve as art director
So either they didn't lie, or they did lie but it's marketing speak so it doesn't count? Make up your mind with your arguments.
Let's go by exactly what Stahl has said:
I could go on, but you get the idea.
What part of "I don't care what Dstahl said because I expect everything that comes out of any kind of official communications to be remotely accurate" don't you understand? I'm not contending that he lied or not. That's not my issue. My issue is that I'm sick and freaking tired of nothing but negativity. I want to see something productive.
Let me say it more bluntly. I don't give a TRIBBLE what you Dstahl said. I don't give a rat's TRIBBLE who Dstahl is. What I care about is results. The results are that Season 7 is not as bad as people are making it out to be. In many ways it's a major improvement on the endgame.
If you don't like dilithium rewards being moved around in a patch, too bad. Make like a borg and adapt.
I ran 1 infected space elite. We got optional. I got 75 omega marks. Thats is more than enough to complete tier 1. Wich will require 52.
Although this is true, I don't understand why I have to wait 1 day, 16 hours or whatever for the project to complete, that seems a bit extensive. T1 is 5000 XP, for Omega you get 2800 from your first cycle which requires a 2nd cycle plus whatever upgrade/provisioning missions there are. I just want to get to T3 to claim what I've already earned. Maybe by January?
What part of "I don't care what Dstahl said because I expect everything that comes out of any kind of official communications to be remotely accurate" don't you understand? I'm not contending that he lied or not. That's not my issue. My issue is that I'm sick and freaking tired of nothing but negativity. I want to see something productive.
Let me say it more bluntly. I don't give a TRIBBLE what you Dstahl said. I don't give a rat's TRIBBLE who Dstahl is. What I care about is results. The results are that Season 7 is not as bad as people are making it out to be. In many ways it's a major improvement on the endgame.
If you don't like dilithium rewards being moved around in a patch, too bad. Make like a borg and adapt.
So folks who don't agree with your viewpoint, and have taken great pains to rationally and logically lay out their case for why a change was not only terrible, but also why the method said change was communicated to the playerbase was downright insulting don't have a right to be heard because you disagree?
If you don't want to keep reading about something that (rightfully) has a non-insignificant portion of the playerbase honked off, then leave the forums. Turn off zone chat and enjoy the parts of the game that make you happy. But don't turn around and act like just because someone is raising a legitimate concern, they have no right to do so because you disagree.
It will all be forgotten about in a few months when the next 'big thing' annoys people. Remember the big stink when they added Dilithium and Unreplicateable Materials to crafting?
no where just add it to our list of lies and so on mine is 2 pages long
STF's are pretty much end game content and a lot of VA run these because they are end game content and rewarded better than re-running FE.
I personally don't enjoy the old Fleet Actions as their is no team work, it is enter press space bar and blow everything up with no strat. Also someone can warp in like i have before on Klingon scout force where people have got to the part before taking out the main command ship and came 1st despite only doing 2 5ths of the mission. Good for me, annoying for someone who has already spent 30 plus mins in there killing bops/command squads and turrets.
Removing dilithium from STF's missions i ran them because A. i enjoyed them and B. it funded my fleet star base.
well i feel like i've been kicked right in the nuts and the reputation system is a joke. Please correct me if i'm wrong but i heard once the store is unlocked to purchase omega/maco you still require dilithium to make the purchases
The big problem with your stance is that the Cryptic spokespersons initially came out early on to say that all of these changes were to somehow benefit the more casual player that didn't have time to play as often as the hardcore, such as the elitist STFers of whom you complain. Well, as someone pointed out in another thread, all of these changes only serve to hurt those same casual players as now every category of in-game currency (dilithium, Romulan marks, Omega marks, EC, etc.) is now relegated to its own category of event. With STFs, you gained several different useful currencies in one reasonably paced event. Now, if you want to gain access to pretty much the same content, you're going to have to grind several different events at a far more time-consuming rate. Definitely not something that would benefit casual players, except perhaps the masochistic ones.
Why is this a problem? Maybe I don't want or need to solve the puzzle in five seconds or less. So it takes me longer than someone else to acquire enough dilithium to get the Super Ultimate Relly Kewel Extra Special Shazam Set. I can still get it. I'm not trying to "win" the game as fast as I can. I am a casual player, too. When I played S7 on Tribble to check it out, I rather liked it. Some parts not so much. So now it is here on Holodeck. I've decided I can safely leave those parts alone. I do not feel like my prospects in the game have been lessened or damaged. Nor do I feel the need to hold the Dev's feet next to the flamethrower at every opportunity. STO is not my only way to get my Star Trek fix. I can always go back to modding Star Trek: Armada II or watch TWOK on Netflix if I want. I would prefer to remain here because this is a really fun experience but it isn't that critical to my existence.
I run stuff on my ships and in my Away Team that mostly can be acquired by playing missions or from the Exchange because someone else decided to sell it off. I have never owned a single piece of MACO or Omega Gear. Never wanted to, either. Jim Kirk used to beat the Klingons all the time without it. If he can, and the game is true to the spirit of the series, then I can as well.
I understand fully why some people want dilithium and as much as they can get their hands on as often as possible. If that's how they choose to roll, then good on 'em, I say. The various currencies handed out as rewards from the STFs were only useful when one had enough of them. What is the real difference between playing KASE often enough to acquire 120 EDCs and Borg Prototype Tech or playing under the Reputation System? From my viewpoint - zero.
Tell ya what I'd have liked to have seen the Devs implement. A performance based reward system for all of the group events. If you participate, then you get rewarded. If you spawn camp/AFK, then your share is split among those who did play the mission and you get bupkiss. Good to see they've moved this way a little, but I think they should go further. Got really tired of losing the Optional because ReeTurd@SumDumGuy10,000 spent more time clicking the Need Button than he did healing the Kang.
A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
So you have to grind to level up in the reputation system. And then when you hit the right level to purchase said equipment. The one reward that you really need DILITHIUM is taken away from STF's. Forcing you to have to grind
other missions to purchase what you were grinding for in the 1st place.
So the point of the reputation system is there is no point as tiering up in the rep system is worthless unless you either purchase zen to dil or go play a different mission outside the arena you were playing to get the gear you wanted by playing that arena
Know i feel like i've been smacked in the nuts with a sledge hammer.
Whoever thought of this change up needs to be hung.
So you have to grind to level up in the reputation system. And then when you hit the right level to purchase said equipment. The one reward that you really need DILITHIUM is taken away from STF's. Forcing you to have to grind other missions to purchase what you were grinding for in the 1st place.
Know i feel like i've been smacked in the nuts with a sledge hammer.
Whoever thought of this change up needs to be hung.
Well Craptic and Pennypinching World think that this will make everyone <cuz everyone is rich btw> line up at the ZStore with there credit cards buying billions of dollars worth of in game currency. SO that eventually.........
Now I can earn dil doing things I like to do, and not just by grinding stfs and exploiting officer reports to stay competitive with other people who do the same thing. I like the fleet actions, but there was no real incentive beyond competition for 1st place and lightshows.
The game seems to be moving toward an amount of content I expect from an mmo, I am glad I checked out season 7.
Comments
Dude , you have no idea how much slack we have cut the devs .
Some did it because they loved the game .
Some did it because they were in love with the POTENTIAL of this game .
Last time I did it was less then a year ago when the game went F2P .
I thought , new opportunity , new blood/players , old/new EP , new owner , new direction -- hey why not , there has been enough accusations , missteps , unkept promises & misinformation .
A new slate was needed , and that was what I advocated .
In return , Stahl said to judge him on what he does .
So now ... , a year later , I do .
A year later ... I find that both STO and Neverwinter follow the "In Soviet Russia ... " joke literally .
Neverwinter apparently has a bug that allows your horse to ride you ,
and in STO the Devs think to herd me to play content by nerfing previous STF awards .
I am not a sheep . (well not in this sense anyway)
I do not need to be manipulated this way away from my preferred content .
And I don't like it when I'm intentionally mislead . (again)
I WILL PLAY THIS GAME MY WAY OR NOT AT ALL .
So he's lying about his job responsibilities too now? It's one thing to defend a decision, I can understand that, but defending a decision making process that is based on deception, falsehoods and stringing along the playerbase doesn't change the fact that Mr. Stahl is ultimately responsible for what occurs on his watch at Cryptic.
Just because you're part of the mob and you commit a crime at the behest of your Capo, doesn't mean you're any less responsible.
How has he lied about his responsibilities?
He is still executive producer at Cryptic Studio's. Just because he now has a boss who tells him what to do doesn't make his role at Cryptic Studio's any less important. He still has to tell all the people at Cryptic Studio's what to do to make his boss happy. Basically it comes down to this, consider him the equivalent of the manager of a Franchise Department of, let's say a McDonalds. He has all the authority in how things run in his McDonalds, with the exception to where it counteracts decisions made by the CEO of McDonalds International Inc. (or whatever the international corporation is called). I hope you get the basic comparison I am drawing here? Basically it is a matter of would you prefer your local McDonalds to have a different Bigmac from all the other McDonalds in the Nation or would you rather some uniformity in the McDonalds menu's? Similarly, Cryptic Studio's is kind of bound to follow the guidelines that are laid out by Perfect World Entertainment. And one thing I have noticed is that there seems to be a bit of uniformity across many of the Perfect World Entertainment Games.
Either he runs the show at Cryptic, directing what STO is to do, or he doesn't. You can't have it both ways with him taking the credit when things go right, but pawning off the blame when something goes horribly wrong onto some faceless PWE overlord.
Now elite STFs rewards amount to approximately 700 dilithium after the use of two cool downs at tier 5. In the short term that means they reward no dilithium, in the long 700 is non-sustainable. (It takes 1.9 Mil dilithium to unlock tier 4 Star Base wise, not mention the dilithium costs of raising 2 reps and starting on the Embassy. In short the top end can't be maintained under this system.
So instead we are expect to farm SB-24 over and over again? FYI half an hour cool down is really longer then the STF cool down b/c if you ran them in series they basically had no cool down if you included ground. So in short we are now expect to chain run some of the oldest content that really only has 1 or 2 reasonably playable versions.
That pretty much sums it up .
No one called STF's an exploit .
Heck , Al Rivera called STF players a "minority" less then 2 weeks ago . (good one Al !:rolleyes:)
So WHY mess with the STF awards ?
Do they really need this "minority" to hold the hand of the majority and help them through Fleet Actions ?
I mean , do they think their playerbase is THAT incompetent ?
Why do you need the STF-ers Cryptic ?
Why ?
Ever hear of leaving well enough alone ?
I don't know that this is what's happening with STO. I don't care to speculate. But what I am saying is that if this executive meddling is indeed happening? We're not likely to find out from DStahl or any of the other devs unless/until Cryptic folds or they all get fired and their NDAs expire.
I then did gorn. Then starbase 24 and then new space vault. And azure one. I started both romulan projects. I then did a couple fleet stuff incursion and fleet alert.
Then did the dig. And gorn again.
In short. They have made stf's only necessary to get the stf gear. I didnt do another stf because i didnt need too. I got my 8k dilly. And actually played a lot more content than i usually do. Most of the time i would just grind stf's.
I like this change. I like that i can do a variety of things instead of just spamming stf's with a sprinkle of fleet.
If I wanted to pawn things off to some faceless evil corporate overlord I would be blaming the Company whom pretty much owns Perfect World Entertainment. But I am not doing that since that company has little to no say (as far as I can tell) in this game directly.
For relevance sake, the company who more or less owns Perfect World Entertainment is Wanmei, the inventors of the game after which Perfect World Entertainment is named.
I am going to put this into perspective for you all really nice and concisely.
YOU HAVE IT EASY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you were to play Perfect World International, you would need 4,263,108,185 Experience Points just to reach max level. To make matters worse (as of the time I left) the highest Experience Yielding Mobs in the game, gave roughly 20,000 Experience at a time, meaning you would have to kill just over 213,000 of those mobs in order to reach max level. And they only yield that much experience if you are using the cash shop item known as a Hyper Experience Stone (and you have to use 5 of those to get that high of Experience).
Now the matter compounds itself when you consider the fact that in order to get the best gear in the game (as of the time I left) you have to use the Reputation System in that game. The Total cost for an entire set of Rank IX Gear (the best Gear in the Game) is 151300 Zen, or 1,513 US Dollars... So not only do you have to spend an ungodly amount of time leveling in Perfect World International, but you also have to spend an ungodly amount of real life money (or alternatively you have to spend YEARS and by that I mean literally 10 or so years, grinding the in game currency) just to get the best gear in the game.
By comparison, we have it easy. We can all realistically have Mark XII gear of one sort or another within a few weeks to months if we spend a bit of time each day farming Dilithium and doing STF's. So I fail to see what the problem here is?
I agree. after initially hating it, i realised its made me play more content than before. i have so many objectives to aim for its fun and im not just grinding the same content over and over.
earning dilithium is still pretty easy. its just takes a bit more variety than before. i dont mind that.
what ever cryptic's motives were, the change actually suits me quite well.
I think it's far more likely a case of Stahl and co. copying their neighbors at PWE than it is a case of a mandate.
"When it doubt, do what works for the other guy" is a proven technique. In general, when I see PWE refer to Cryptic as R&D, it means two things:
1) Their job is to figure out what works. Meaning they do have some autonomy.
2) Cryptic is not profitable in the most broad economic sense, whether or not it's actually covering costs. From a GAAP bookkeeping perspective, R&D isn't an investment. You expense R&D. They're not making money hand over fist and are reinvesting what they do get... so they're probably under some obligation to minimize their liability by using profit strategies that do work.
PWE did release its financial goals for STO S6 awhile back and from as near as I could figure, they really just want STO to break even and use it as a research tool... and are by and large pumping the money back into the game.
It's not about PROFIT directly. It's about INFORMATION, which can make big profits later.
If it was about direct profit, it would make more sense to sell or shut down Cryptic and open a browser game department -- or, heck, a chain of coffee shops. Without factoring in the information variable, a coffee chain would be a MUCH better short-run investment.
Actually it is entirely relevant for the simple reason that it shows that Perfect World Entertainment learned from Wanmei's mistakes (because they inherited the experience points system in Perfect World International at the very least from Wanmei), and that they are making efforts to fix that problem in their future titles.
Additionally as I have already pointed out (either in this thread or another thread), many of the new features in this game are heavily based on, or borrowed from entirely the features of other Perfect World Entertainment Titles. Thus what is done in those other titles has a heavy influence on what is done in this title.
While the Design Team at Cryptic has the final say in HOW things get implemented, it is ultimately Perfect World Entertainment who has final Veto Powers on WHAT gets implemented. So it was likely Perfect World Entertainment's decision that changed STF's to what they are now.
EDIT: I did not see Stole's post when I posted this, nor did I know that Perfect World Entertainment viewed Cryptic Studio's as an R&D Branch. With such being the case, then it makes sense that things get messed up and that promises get broken from time to time. R&D does not easily equate to "make the customers happy 100% of the time"
Finding out if I can ace sb24 isn't something I have to find out, I know I can. I have all the trophies to from the FAs to prove it. I did even suggest ways of making FA more playable and attractive to players during the testing phase, they chose to go on as is. SB24 is easily the best of the FAs, and believe me, it gets boring, very boring, after you have run it for the 200th time or so.
Yeah, more content, but you ran it alone. I'm used to run ESTF's with my friends. Coordination, chatting over skype, to brag over the optional loot you got etc.
And now? Everyone is running as wild to get his marks as fast as possible because New Romulus is nice but after 2 hours you are just plain bored. Or you are already bored from the testing on Tribble ;-)
There is no incentive to run something with your friends. Or to get optional with a PUG even after the stupid Tac in his rainbow color cruiser killed the gen to soon or popped somehow a cube xD
Hopefully the foundry gets soon up :-) In the meantime I will run MWO with my friends :-)
Does Mirror Universe grant Dill? This one you end in under 5 min with 3 Escorts xD
I was able to collect my 8k yesterday easily in about 3-4 hours. Im sorry you all cant see that it can still be done. It might not be the exact way you want it, but atleast you can still get dilithium if that is what your going for. And it is easier to collect this way, as it cant be failed.
This post has become ridiculous, with people insulting eachother (when in fact they know nothing of the other person)
I like the new changes Cryptic has made. As far as those of you who are upset about it, Im sorry...I can only lead the horse to the water...
I for one don't dispute it can be done and in less time than you spent, probably. I know 5k can be had from the Academy event, playing aggressively, and even with changes they made, it can be done.
It isn't about the dilithium. It's about the STFs and recognizing that they have value and require more work than other content.
I just crunched some numbers.
I'd actually be fairly happy if they added something like 500k Energy Credits (or maybe 2 Lobi) to an ESTF and 250k (or 1 Lobi) to a regular STF. It's actually a bit of an improvement on the old payout rate when you look at dil-to-ZEN-to-EC conversion.
Then maybe swap the DOff grinder to being an EC sink or have a Ferengi DOff grinder as a Lobi sink.
The issue is not with dilithium. The issue is with STFs being marginalized without considering the true economic cost of playing one.
When you can't respond to someone's argument, accuse them of corruption and taking bribes; as well as try to play a semantics game by ignoring the meat of their point and quibbling over the way in which it was said. Then top it all off with an agism based insult.
I'll reiterate my point in far simpler manner so you can understand. I don't trust or even pay attention to anything that comes out of the mouth of a company about what is coming in the future. I only trust end results. Dstahl lied? So what. If it's not worth going to the FTC over, it's not worth losing sleep over.
P.S. working in sales isn't the same thing as working in marketing. Infact, sales is pretty much the lowest rung on the ladder for actual employees, considering that janitorial duties tend to be contracted out these days.
P.P.S. you got my gender wrong
P.P.P.S. Since you're throwing out work experience in irrelevant fields, I'm coowner of an indie game company and do most of the programming for our games, as well as serve as art director
P.P.P.P.S. Nobody thinks you're clever, except you.
What part of "I don't care what Dstahl said because I expect everything that comes out of any kind of official communications to be remotely accurate" don't you understand? I'm not contending that he lied or not. That's not my issue. My issue is that I'm sick and freaking tired of nothing but negativity. I want to see something productive.
Let me say it more bluntly. I don't give a TRIBBLE what you Dstahl said. I don't give a rat's TRIBBLE who Dstahl is. What I care about is results. The results are that Season 7 is not as bad as people are making it out to be. In many ways it's a major improvement on the endgame.
If you don't like dilithium rewards being moved around in a patch, too bad. Make like a borg and adapt.
↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → Ⓑ Ⓐ
Although this is true, I don't understand why I have to wait 1 day, 16 hours or whatever for the project to complete, that seems a bit extensive. T1 is 5000 XP, for Omega you get 2800 from your first cycle which requires a 2nd cycle plus whatever upgrade/provisioning missions there are. I just want to get to T3 to claim what I've already earned. Maybe by January?
On the other hand, I enjoy fleet actions and don't enjoy elite STF's.
Ain't criticizin'. Just sayin'.
So folks who don't agree with your viewpoint, and have taken great pains to rationally and logically lay out their case for why a change was not only terrible, but also why the method said change was communicated to the playerbase was downright insulting don't have a right to be heard because you disagree?
If you don't want to keep reading about something that (rightfully) has a non-insignificant portion of the playerbase honked off, then leave the forums. Turn off zone chat and enjoy the parts of the game that make you happy. But don't turn around and act like just because someone is raising a legitimate concern, they have no right to do so because you disagree.
no where just add it to our list of lies and so on mine is 2 pages long
system Lord Baal is dead
I personally don't enjoy the old Fleet Actions as their is no team work, it is enter press space bar and blow everything up with no strat. Also someone can warp in like i have before on Klingon scout force where people have got to the part before taking out the main command ship and came 1st despite only doing 2 5ths of the mission. Good for me, annoying for someone who has already spent 30 plus mins in there killing bops/command squads and turrets.
Removing dilithium from STF's missions i ran them because A. i enjoyed them and B. it funded my fleet star base.
well i feel like i've been kicked right in the nuts and the reputation system is a joke. Please correct me if i'm wrong but i heard once the store is unlocked to purchase omega/maco you still require dilithium to make the purchases
You heard correctly.
I run stuff on my ships and in my Away Team that mostly can be acquired by playing missions or from the Exchange because someone else decided to sell it off. I have never owned a single piece of MACO or Omega Gear. Never wanted to, either. Jim Kirk used to beat the Klingons all the time without it. If he can, and the game is true to the spirit of the series, then I can as well.
I understand fully why some people want dilithium and as much as they can get their hands on as often as possible. If that's how they choose to roll, then good on 'em, I say. The various currencies handed out as rewards from the STFs were only useful when one had enough of them. What is the real difference between playing KASE often enough to acquire 120 EDCs and Borg Prototype Tech or playing under the Reputation System? From my viewpoint - zero.
Tell ya what I'd have liked to have seen the Devs implement. A performance based reward system for all of the group events. If you participate, then you get rewarded. If you spawn camp/AFK, then your share is split among those who did play the mission and you get bupkiss. Good to see they've moved this way a little, but I think they should go further. Got really tired of losing the Optional because ReeTurd@SumDumGuy10,000 spent more time clicking the Need Button than he did healing the Kang.
other missions to purchase what you were grinding for in the 1st place.
So the point of the reputation system is there is no point as tiering up in the rep system is worthless unless you either purchase zen to dil or go play a different mission outside the arena you were playing to get the gear you wanted by playing that arena
Know i feel like i've been smacked in the nuts with a sledge hammer.
Whoever thought of this change up needs to be hung.
Well Craptic and Pennypinching World think that this will make everyone <cuz everyone is rich btw> line up at the ZStore with there credit cards buying billions of dollars worth of in game currency. SO that eventually.........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPX5mRSQ3pw
Yeah, that's right.
Now I can earn dil doing things I like to do, and not just by grinding stfs and exploiting officer reports to stay competitive with other people who do the same thing. I like the fleet actions, but there was no real incentive beyond competition for 1st place and lightshows.
The game seems to be moving toward an amount of content I expect from an mmo, I am glad I checked out season 7.