What worry's me is that you still don't seem to understand why so many of us were upset about this... it wasn't so much that you took dilithium away from the STFs, it was more that you did it in a very underhanded last minuet via the backdoor way with little to zero warning it would happen on the eve of season 7 and when we asked you about it you ignored our comments while happily posting about other topics untill you were ready to post a blog about it that basically said "this is the way it is, deal with it" ... we even then had cryptic staff posting that the players were "short sighted" for even questioning the change.
Your complete and utter lack of candid disclosure ahead of the time and complete lack of respect for the community shown is the real core of the problem here.
Yes you changed it back and yes it is better overall now for everyone, but that dosnt change the root ongoing issue here does it? This game used to be famous for its honesty, what did become of that?
doff prices are still insane, so adding dil rewards back to stf's actually did nothing to solve that. there's still an 8k cap, so extra dilithium wasn't the main issue, just a symptom.
reducing doff prices to 1/5 of their current value would be reasonable, especially considering the cost 5x duty officers + dil and you get a random. that's less of a burden on new players or players with multiple alts then the current prices.
simply put stahl, trying to force sales on one item or down one or 2 avenues fails. trying to sell doff packs and zen for the exchange equates to people buying less of everything else.
diversify if you want strong CS sales. have weekly sales of items. add more fashions for ships and player avatars. old adage you have to spend at least some money to make money (design/dev costs) what you tried and are doing in S7 was pure laziness by altering game mechanics. you didn't even need to add the content to pull that off.
just moving some numbers around and instant higher prices for everything with reduced income. while you did add new content...it wasn't necessary for the changes.. they could have been done at anytime.
you also seriously need to get off your collective posteriors about the klingon faction. fed is more popular simply because of your own restrictions on the klingons. so it's an artificially induced imbalance promoted by your decisions. claiming that fed faction earns you more and is the one to push content for is a fail when you weigh the dice at every turn in that factions favor.
you give players more choices, more options, more stay, more pay. you try to force players into what you think is best/profitable = failure. only sheeples like to be led/forced...and there's not enough of them to keep your game afloat, not to mention they follow trends, so if people start leaving, they will to...think about that.
Dr. Patricia Tanis ~ "Bacon is for sycophants and products of incest."
Donate Brains, zombies in Washington DC are starving.
What worry's me is that you still don't seem to understand why so many of us were upset about this... it wasn't so much that you took dilithium away from the STFs, it was more that you did it in a very underhanded last minuet via the backdoor way with little to zero warning it would happen on the eve of season 7 and when we asked you about it you ignored our comments while happily posting about other topics untill you were ready to post a blog about it that basically said "this is the way it is, deal with it" ... we even then had cryptic staff posting that the players were "short sighted" for even questioning the change.
Your complete and utter lack of candid disclosure ahead of the time and complete lack of respect for the community shown is the real core of the problem here.
Yes you changed it back and yes it is better overall now for everyone, but that dosnt change the root ongoing issue here does it? This game used to be famous for its honesty, what did become of that?
I agree entirely, and while the partial restoration of dilithium to STF's is a step in the right direction it is not the whole path. No specifics were given as far as conversion rates for existing Borg tech we'd collected, and I am sad to say I had enough faith in you to make it a reasonable conversion. I logged off with 15 Prototype items and a few EDC's that had been worth 34560 dilithium, and when I logged back in I had a sealed box with 1500 Omega Marks, 8 Borg Neural Processors, and 1000 (seriously) dilithium, which just seems ridiculous. I have a fleetmate that had 8 EDC's and ended up with a box with 500 Omega Marks and 4 Borg Neural Processors. Not really understanding the conversion rates there buddy...
Next time you plan on converting ANY resources as part of an update, please provide a clear and specific method of how you intend to convert those resources. Oh, and as far as the sealed crate is concerned, wasting inventory space with something used on projects that have 40hr timers just seems silly; I couldn't race to tier V even if I could open it given the timers involved. Dude :rolleyes:
I hesitated on buying the Lifetime subscription as a direct result of the changes that I'd seen rumors of, and the lack of enough detail to make an informed decision. After all this, I am glad I did. If I had paid $200 for what just went on I would be... greatly perturbed. I really do want you to change my mind, but I'm not holding my breath.
Yes, I know the price is $300 now, but that's not going to happen in any case. Sorry.
<edit>
Ok, just did some thinking, and revised my opinion. This is not a step in the right direction, it's even worse than the Season 7 change. Now, you have to do a Fleet Action for 480 dilithium AND an Elite STF for 960 to get the 1440 dilithium that you were getting from a single Fleet Action or STF. So, hardcore STF fans have to run Fleet Actions and the more casual Fleet Action players have to run STF's, and everyone is forced to grind two missions for the reward one gave before. No, not better, not added, just shuffled around in a way that makes it even worse.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
2 little 2 late uesd to get drops blue quality or better we kept the fleet bank stocked with good items for people who had just joined or leveld up. used to get salvage that could sell for extra dilithium. btran no longer had dilithium reward. dof and other dilithium cost have jumped up over 1000% in some places and the star base still has 200,000 dilithium upgrade missions. This is Like Being ***** and Afterwards Having the Rapist Say Hes Real Sorry Here Have a Free Morning After Pill. you have still gutted this game and I think you will see it soon in you bottom line profits. all you had to do to make the old system work was to let mk12 omaga/maco/honor. be pruchesed for 100 or 150 edc's each. the old saying goes KISS Keep It Simple Stupid.
I think season 7 is just a bad dream we need to wake up from. I'd elaborate but a lot of the posts of discontent speak for me and I'd probably rage if I went further.
I guess the solution to the increased dil flow (I'd like to believe you on that part, why not?) could be more huge but completely optional and individual dilithium sinks, similar to the starbase featured projects. Just make sure that it looks completely optional, and everyone should be happy with that except the usual hardcore completionists who can't stop themselves from getting every little useless feature you add. :P
In case no one else noticed, this is a dil nerf in disguise.
Running FAs are brainless but are completed so fast fleetmates were getting more than they did with the old eSTFs.
Now the only time STFs come ahead is when you hit T5 and start turning everything into dil. But you still won't match the ease it is to top a FA and make off with EC and dil.
So stop celebrating, you've been had. :P
"Last Engage! Magical Girl Origami-san" is in print! Now with three times more rainbows.
It wasn't an easy decision by any stretch of the imagination and even though the Dilithium changes to remove STFs has been on TRIBBLE since the test weekend promo, it wasn't until we looked at the data today and saw that everyone had more Dilithium on average and still weren't happy - that I decided that the data driven approach was accomplishing the goal of giving players more Dilithium, but wasn't making some of our hardcore players happy at all.
So in other words - we stuck to our guns - left the change in - it accomplished exactly what we wanted it to (help players get more Dilithium) but that doesn't equal "fun" for the community. We needed to see the data after S7 launch in order to realize that players can have their cake and eat it too and the game will be ok.
Do you think people having extra Dilithium might have something to do with the fact that we realized how terrible the Omega Crate conversion was, and everyone game-wide was saying to cash out your tokens? That would be my first guess, based on what was happening with the players.
My problem with the whole dilithium scheme has nothing to do with STF's or fleet actions but with the underlying mechanic being used :
- make everything cost heaps of the stuff
- try to force players to play content you want them to play ,not necessarily what they like in order to get the stuff
- implementing a cap/cooldown on how often they can play that content
That isn't a "time based " currency but rather a scheme to slow down progression ( regardless of howmuch time you're willing to invest let alone effort ) so they won't burn through the content before you guys are able to produce the next batch of episodes .That will be the decisive factor : if progression is too fast you'll simply nerf dilithium again because there's no content left .
What you should do to expedite release of new content is get together a group of players ( easily recognized by reading the forums ) in a sort of unofficial player counsel and talk about the direction of the game . You can ask foundry authors for their input on mission/episode design even by making them sign an NDA prior to this process .
After many hours of deliberation and review of the post Season 7 player data, I've made the call to reverse the decision to remove Dilithium as a reward for running STFs. In addition, we've also decided to keep Dilithium as a reward in Fleet Actions.
Thank you. We're a small fleet and this will help us greatly as we much prefer running STF's together than anything else and before this reversal we'd effectively lost our lifeblood.
Does Cryptic have any plans to look at EDC's in the near future as the methods to collect these seem to have dropped off a cliff? Are they being phased out?
However, our concern that there would be too much Dilithium in the economy if we left Dilithium in both STFs and Fleet Actions has been outweighed by the frustration we've seen from STF fans since the launch of Season 7.
First, you can't do STF and Fleet action at the same time, so to claim that people would get more Dilithium if it remained in STF is bogus, because someone that does an STF doesn't get dilithium from a fleet action and vice versa.
Second, there already IS an 8000 dilithium daily refining cap, so that puts a hard limit on the amount of dilithium that can be injected into the market.
Third, you introduced several new massive dilithium sinks in recent time. The entire fleet starbase system in s6, and now the embassy dilithium sink, the reputation dilithium sink, and the duty officer dilithium sink, all of which remove large amounts of dilithium from the market.
So even if you had left the STF dil rewards the same, you still would have less dil in the market than before S7.
As far as I can see, your "concern" was completely unfounded.
Thank you for considering putting dilithium back to STF's.
Me and my 4 friends play this game very often in the night hours, socialising.
We would like ot thank you for NEW ROMULUS, the content, new planet and systems.
The game is growing and thatis how it should be.
I think I represent big group that likes the new content, but their expressions were probably coulded by the rage that arose after the dilithium cut.
I hope more people will realize that and express their opinion on the new content as well.
Looking forward to more content and any other FUN oriented changes.
P.S.:
We played yesterday Hive Onslaught Elite. I don't remember when I died so often, or when it took us over 45min to do STF. But the amount of fun I had with my friends was unbelievable.
Finaly is the ENDGAME an ENDGAME. Not soloing a tactical cube. We had to actualy fly around, retreat, attack etc.
That is how it should be I think.
I repeat what i said in your blog.... People should realize the difference how much play time they can have compared to store bought games played on consoles....
Show me 1 person who playes for example CoD for 3 years.....
Noxline, Laura Kinney, Alexejevna Grobari, Artagain Werlon, Meggie and friends from fleet TaskForce 77
What about item drops? What about dilithium from turning in stuff?
May 2013, automatic permanent ban for mentioning gold-seller sites pwebranflakes: this system is currently in place and working the way it should. moradum: I got banned for saying "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM off of the bottom of my cabinet"
seeing all these thanks, i cannot help being stunned how easily they get away with this ...
removing all Dil and(!!!) loot ... coming back within one day saying "yeah sry, we listen to u players we will add it again"
*tinfoil head wrap mode on* ppl have warned, they ll do it to make u accept all the crappy changes *tinfoil head wrap mode off*
they added countless new dilithium sinks, ie:
- STF projects
- DOFF exchange/reassign
(remember the old dil costs for this? here is the new ones:
"The Dilithium cost associated with Reassignments has been increased:
White to Green: Now 500 Dilithium
Green to Blue: Now 2500 Dilithium
Blue to Purple: Now 5000 Dilithium")
so in short, gettin a proper amount of dil without playing 24/7 ... almost impossible now,
gettin proper gear (regular purple mk12 stuff) ... not possible anymore (at least in STFs),
gettin MACO or OMEGA gear, spend all ur money on dil and maybe,
gettin good purple DOFFs, spend all ur money on dil and maybe
WELL i am about to become a very casual player (if at all, maybe have a look at SWTOR), dont see why I should invest anymore time into this game
i don't really understand the whine about DOff reassigment. have you guys heard about Officer Exchange program? those are free. or asylum assigs. those are free too. i know, the quality is not guaranteed, but if you have the proper DOffs/refugees, you have a decent chance to get blues and purples.
and there are other ways to obtain great DOffs, like investigate defection assig and the support colonization nebula assigs if crit.
Defiant
RnD and upgrade needs less RNG. Less lottery. Something has to change.
i don't really understand the whine about DOff reassigment. have you guys heard about Officer Exchange program? those are free. or asylum assigs. those are free too. i know, the quality is not guaranteed, but if you have the proper DOffs/refugees, you have a decent chance to get blues and purples.
and there are other ways to obtain great DOffs, like investigate defection assig and the support colonization nebula assigs if crit.
well lets stay with the reassignment for a moment, lets say i have all white doffs and i want to change into one purple, costs as follows:
white to green:
5 whites + 500 dil = 1 green
green to blue
5 greens + 2500 dill = 1 blue
blue to purple
5 blues + 5000 dill = 1 purple
5x5000 + 5x(2500) + 25x(500) = 50k dil
so one purple BOFF costing now 50k dilithium and 25 white boffs???
and at the same time reduce the amount of dil u can get drastically
PS: yeah there are ways to get good BOFFs but those are too random and seldom
Back to the brainless stf grinding. Hard to believe how stupid the ppl is, this is a real dil nerf, and they say thanx...
a would rather stop playing, than doing mindless, stupid, chaotic fleet actions like SB24 for the daily dilithium. STFs are way better than those ****.
Defiant
RnD and upgrade needs less RNG. Less lottery. Something has to change.
So STFs still don't give nearly as much dil as before considering that we still don't get tech/EDC/salvage to turn in for dil, and our dil rewards for Fleet actions reduced too. I think the adding dil back to STFs was good, but lowering dil from fleet actions bad.
So STFs still don't give nearly as much dil as before considering that we still don't get tech/EDC/salvage to turn in for dil, and our dil rewards for Fleet actions reduced too. I think the adding dil back to STFs was good, but lowering dil from fleet actions bad.
the old system, one elite STF rewarded 1100 dil, plus 2 EDC (~200dil) = ~1300dil/run
now, it rewards 960 dil, plus one neural processor (200 dil) plus at least 60 omega marks (more, if the optional is completed, but 500 dil is minimum here, after tier5 omega) = ~1700dil/run
i know, salvages and techs could be exchanged to dil too in the old system, but their drop was freakin' random. i think i don't make a big mistake, if i say there are only represented n x100 dil in the sum of the dil reward /run.
and i think a guaranteed 1700 is really a considerable amount.
Defiant
RnD and upgrade needs less RNG. Less lottery. Something has to change.
the old system, one elite STF rewarded 1100 dil, plus 2 EDC (~200dil) = ~1300dil/run
now, it rewards 960 dil, plus one neural processor (200 dil) plus at least 60 omega marks (more, if the optional is completed, but 500 dil is minimum here, after tier5 omega) = ~1700dil/run
i know, salvages and techs could be exchanged to dil too in the old system, but their drop was freakin' random. i think i don't make a big mistake, if i say there are only represented n x100 dil in the sum of the dil reward /run.
and i think a guaranteed 1700 is really a considerable amount.
Ok so maybe worth it once t5 omega unlocked, but until then its hard to earn dil at a reasonable rate considering fleet actions are getting nerfed and they are faster and short cd.
At least I have a reason to unlock T5 Omega on all my characters now.
Comments
Your complete and utter lack of candid disclosure ahead of the time and complete lack of respect for the community shown is the real core of the problem here.
Yes you changed it back and yes it is better overall now for everyone, but that dosnt change the root ongoing issue here does it? This game used to be famous for its honesty, what did become of that?
reducing doff prices to 1/5 of their current value would be reasonable, especially considering the cost 5x duty officers + dil and you get a random. that's less of a burden on new players or players with multiple alts then the current prices.
simply put stahl, trying to force sales on one item or down one or 2 avenues fails. trying to sell doff packs and zen for the exchange equates to people buying less of everything else.
diversify if you want strong CS sales. have weekly sales of items. add more fashions for ships and player avatars. old adage you have to spend at least some money to make money (design/dev costs) what you tried and are doing in S7 was pure laziness by altering game mechanics. you didn't even need to add the content to pull that off.
just moving some numbers around and instant higher prices for everything with reduced income. while you did add new content...it wasn't necessary for the changes.. they could have been done at anytime.
you also seriously need to get off your collective posteriors about the klingon faction. fed is more popular simply because of your own restrictions on the klingons. so it's an artificially induced imbalance promoted by your decisions. claiming that fed faction earns you more and is the one to push content for is a fail when you weigh the dice at every turn in that factions favor.
you give players more choices, more options, more stay, more pay. you try to force players into what you think is best/profitable = failure. only sheeples like to be led/forced...and there's not enough of them to keep your game afloat, not to mention they follow trends, so if people start leaving, they will to...think about that.
Donate Brains, zombies in Washington DC are starving.
I agree entirely, and while the partial restoration of dilithium to STF's is a step in the right direction it is not the whole path. No specifics were given as far as conversion rates for existing Borg tech we'd collected, and I am sad to say I had enough faith in you to make it a reasonable conversion. I logged off with 15 Prototype items and a few EDC's that had been worth 34560 dilithium, and when I logged back in I had a sealed box with 1500 Omega Marks, 8 Borg Neural Processors, and 1000 (seriously) dilithium, which just seems ridiculous. I have a fleetmate that had 8 EDC's and ended up with a box with 500 Omega Marks and 4 Borg Neural Processors. Not really understanding the conversion rates there buddy...
Next time you plan on converting ANY resources as part of an update, please provide a clear and specific method of how you intend to convert those resources. Oh, and as far as the sealed crate is concerned, wasting inventory space with something used on projects that have 40hr timers just seems silly; I couldn't race to tier V even if I could open it given the timers involved. Dude :rolleyes:
I hesitated on buying the Lifetime subscription as a direct result of the changes that I'd seen rumors of, and the lack of enough detail to make an informed decision. After all this, I am glad I did. If I had paid $200 for what just went on I would be... greatly perturbed. I really do want you to change my mind, but I'm not holding my breath.
Yes, I know the price is $300 now, but that's not going to happen in any case. Sorry.
<edit>
Ok, just did some thinking, and revised my opinion. This is not a step in the right direction, it's even worse than the Season 7 change. Now, you have to do a Fleet Action for 480 dilithium AND an Elite STF for 960 to get the 1440 dilithium that you were getting from a single Fleet Action or STF. So, hardcore STF fans have to run Fleet Actions and the more casual Fleet Action players have to run STF's, and everyone is forced to grind two missions for the reward one gave before. No, not better, not added, just shuffled around in a way that makes it even worse.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
Running FAs are brainless but are completed so fast fleetmates were getting more than they did with the old eSTFs.
Now the only time STFs come ahead is when you hit T5 and start turning everything into dil. But you still won't match the ease it is to top a FA and make off with EC and dil.
So stop celebrating, you've been had. :P
"Last Engage! Magical Girl Origami-san" is in print! Now with three times more rainbows.
Support the "Armored Unicorn" vehicle initiative today!
Thanks for Harajuku. Now let's get a real "Magical Girl" costume!
Do you think people having extra Dilithium might have something to do with the fact that we realized how terrible the Omega Crate conversion was, and everyone game-wide was saying to cash out your tokens? That would be my first guess, based on what was happening with the players.
- make everything cost heaps of the stuff
- try to force players to play content you want them to play ,not necessarily what they like in order to get the stuff
- implementing a cap/cooldown on how often they can play that content
That isn't a "time based " currency but rather a scheme to slow down progression ( regardless of howmuch time you're willing to invest let alone effort ) so they won't burn through the content before you guys are able to produce the next batch of episodes .That will be the decisive factor : if progression is too fast you'll simply nerf dilithium again because there's no content left .
What you should do to expedite release of new content is get together a group of players ( easily recognized by reading the forums ) in a sort of unofficial player counsel and talk about the direction of the game . You can ask foundry authors for their input on mission/episode design even by making them sign an NDA prior to this process .
Players you do see we are getting less for more work now, well at lest i got my 8K cap in record time without having to read about 10% or 5km.
Thanks Dan.
Does Cryptic have any plans to look at EDC's in the near future as the methods to collect these seem to have dropped off a cliff? Are they being phased out?
- A VERY happy player again.
- A hardcore STF Fan
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First, you can't do STF and Fleet action at the same time, so to claim that people would get more Dilithium if it remained in STF is bogus, because someone that does an STF doesn't get dilithium from a fleet action and vice versa.
Second, there already IS an 8000 dilithium daily refining cap, so that puts a hard limit on the amount of dilithium that can be injected into the market.
Third, you introduced several new massive dilithium sinks in recent time. The entire fleet starbase system in s6, and now the embassy dilithium sink, the reputation dilithium sink, and the duty officer dilithium sink, all of which remove large amounts of dilithium from the market.
So even if you had left the STF dil rewards the same, you still would have less dil in the market than before S7.
As far as I can see, your "concern" was completely unfounded.
Me and my 4 friends play this game very often in the night hours, socialising.
We would like ot thank you for NEW ROMULUS, the content, new planet and systems.
The game is growing and thatis how it should be.
I think I represent big group that likes the new content, but their expressions were probably coulded by the rage that arose after the dilithium cut.
I hope more people will realize that and express their opinion on the new content as well.
Looking forward to more content and any other FUN oriented changes.
P.S.:
We played yesterday Hive Onslaught Elite. I don't remember when I died so often, or when it took us over 45min to do STF. But the amount of fun I had with my friends was unbelievable.
Finaly is the ENDGAME an ENDGAME. Not soloing a tactical cube. We had to actualy fly around, retreat, attack etc.
That is how it should be I think.
I repeat what i said in your blog.... People should realize the difference how much play time they can have compared to store bought games played on consoles....
Show me 1 person who playes for example CoD for 3 years.....
Noxline, Laura Kinney, Alexejevna Grobari, Artagain Werlon, Meggie and friends from fleet TaskForce 77
pwebranflakes: this system is currently in place and working the way it should.
moradum: I got banned for saying "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM off of the bottom of my cabinet"
seeing all these thanks, i cannot help being stunned how easily they get away with this ...
removing all Dil and(!!!) loot ... coming back within one day saying "yeah sry, we listen to u players we will add it again"
*tinfoil head wrap mode on* ppl have warned, they ll do it to make u accept all the crappy changes *tinfoil head wrap mode off*
they added countless new dilithium sinks, ie:
- STF projects
- DOFF exchange/reassign
(remember the old dil costs for this? here is the new ones:
"The Dilithium cost associated with Reassignments has been increased:
White to Green: Now 500 Dilithium
Green to Blue: Now 2500 Dilithium
Blue to Purple: Now 5000 Dilithium")
so in short, gettin a proper amount of dil without playing 24/7 ... almost impossible now,
gettin proper gear (regular purple mk12 stuff) ... not possible anymore (at least in STFs),
gettin MACO or OMEGA gear, spend all ur money on dil and maybe,
gettin good purple DOFFs, spend all ur money on dil and maybe
WELL i am about to become a very casual player (if at all, maybe have a look at SWTOR), dont see why I should invest anymore time into this game
and there are other ways to obtain great DOffs, like investigate defection assig and the support colonization nebula assigs if crit.
RnD and upgrade needs less RNG. Less lottery. Something has to change.
well lets stay with the reassignment for a moment, lets say i have all white doffs and i want to change into one purple, costs as follows:
white to green:
5 whites + 500 dil = 1 green
green to blue
5 greens + 2500 dill = 1 blue
blue to purple
5 blues + 5000 dill = 1 purple
5x5000 + 5x(2500) + 25x(500) = 50k dil
so one purple BOFF costing now 50k dilithium and 25 white boffs???
and at the same time reduce the amount of dil u can get drastically
PS: yeah there are ways to get good BOFFs but those are too random and seldom
It's like thanking a robber for sterilising the knife he stabs you with.
a would rather stop playing, than doing mindless, stupid, chaotic fleet actions like SB24 for the daily dilithium. STFs are way better than those ****.
RnD and upgrade needs less RNG. Less lottery. Something has to change.
Brainless? Even ISE needs more brain SB24 xD
thats true
RnD and upgrade needs less RNG. Less lottery. Something has to change.
the old system, one elite STF rewarded 1100 dil, plus 2 EDC (~200dil) = ~1300dil/run
now, it rewards 960 dil, plus one neural processor (200 dil) plus at least 60 omega marks (more, if the optional is completed, but 500 dil is minimum here, after tier5 omega) = ~1700dil/run
i know, salvages and techs could be exchanged to dil too in the old system, but their drop was freakin' random. i think i don't make a big mistake, if i say there are only represented n x100 dil in the sum of the dil reward /run.
and i think a guaranteed 1700 is really a considerable amount.
RnD and upgrade needs less RNG. Less lottery. Something has to change.
Ok so maybe worth it once t5 omega unlocked, but until then its hard to earn dil at a reasonable rate considering fleet actions are getting nerfed and they are faster and short cd.
At least I have a reason to unlock T5 Omega on all my characters now.