It seems the devs, responding to the huge slew of comments from all sides of the community, just made an update which in effect collapses in on itself and just makes everyone even more mad.
Over here we had "I want more STFs and faster, we have to play so many that it gets boring!", so they made playing STFs less incredibly useful so you'd play other content.
Over there we had "It took me months to get STF gear, yet my friend got it in a week, wtf!", so they added a clear progression system that lets you get gear and extra buffs in a linear fashion.
Then we had "There isn't enough content, we want new content, new episodes, to keep us entertained!" so cryptic added a sector block filled with beautiful yet grindy zones to keep people occupied.
Finally, we have PWE: "people arent buying enough zen! they can get dilithium so easy in-game, cut the rewards and make people play longer!"
Now all of this seems OK alone, but as you notice when you mix them all together you get a huge catastrophe, it seems season 7 was worked on by multiple isolated dev teams within cryptic, there is no way you can be so blind to see how this update works against itself in more ways than one and would have (and oh yes it has) received massive community backlash.
The best part is, cryptic seems to think that S7's changes have no effect on the rest of the game, with dilithium prices being as high as ever (and even raised significantly in some areas) with absolutely no adjustment seeing the new shortage of ways to get dilithium in a timely fashion.
Regardless, I believe this may (I know this is said alot) be the final straw that breaks the camel's back for alot of players, including myself.
Despite being quite loyal to the game and the franchise in general, and spending a hefty amount of money on the game, seeing the changes listed and the rather haughty dev blog afterwards... it left a very bad taste in my mouth, the kind I get when I utterly lose all respect for something.
Bye Cryptic, Bye STO, I hope you guys survive through the dilithium depression!
It's worse than you think. This was all intentional. The small amount of content they added was a side project. The main change was an intentional change of the entire game fundamentals to require all players to buy zen to convert to dil to get anything done that didn't require dil before.
THAT was fully 100% intentional on their parts, and the real reason for S7. Then they "revert" their STF no dil decision as a false compromise to pretend to appease folks. The foolish accept it as a god-send but fail to see that the main change is still in place. Now the entire game cannot be played effectively without buying zen DAILY for stuff we got through hard work before.
I canceled my gold subscription (since day 1 launch, 33+ months, 1015+ days uninterrupted, not grandfathered in during the $200 LTS money grab) after seeing all the garbage that got pushed through in Season 7. It was a real sad decision because I had wanted to see the game's third anniversary in Feb 2013, and was content to keep playing the way the game was, it had always been my favorite game.
But you can really tell the change in philosophy on the part of the developers and management. There was widespread concern (I'll refrain from using the dramatic "outrage") posted by players all over these forums and there wasn't any response, other than to lock some posts.
And now, this afternoon, dstahl shows up with a well worded mea'culpa about the dilithium situation? Too little, too late Danny boy. And it wasn't a real concession. Yes, "he" added smaller rewards back to STF's like they were on Tribble server, before they were removed when the patch went live. BUT, they also nerfed the Fleet Actions down from 1440 dil. down to 480 space / 640 ground to compensate their oh-so-generous reinstating of STF rewards. Rob Peter to pay Paul and call it a generous acknowledgement of their disgruntled player base. Unbelievable.
Well, I won't be playing the game anymore, so the many months of paying $15 will stop and the numerous purchases of cryptic points (and it's unholy cousin zen points) will stop. Mission accomplished, the in game economy is now balanced and I have decided to NERF the amount of real life dollars that flow into PWE's coffers.
It's worse than you think. This was all intentional. The small amount of content they added was a side project. The main change was an intentional change of the entire game fundamentals to require all players to buy zen to convert to dil to get anything done that didn't require dil before.
THAT was fully 100% intentional on their parts, and the real reason for S7. Then they "revert" their STF no dil decision as a false compromise to pretend to appease folks. The foolish accept it as a god-send but fail to see that the main change is still in place. Now the entire game cannot be played effectively without buying zen DAILY for stuff we got through hard work before.
+1 your wish lists become backlogged and you are removing items from it slower than they are being added, which make you do an impulsive buy of ZEN to catch up. Doing things for free will make you continue to fall further behind even with them adding dilithium back to the STFs. You still have the daily cap limit, afterall, and what they added back isn't even the full dilithium amount you got before.
I AM NOT A FAN OF PWE!!!!
MEMBER SINCE JANUARY 2010
Sorry mate, couldn't resist. But you are correct. This game has taken a nosedive ever since yesterday. And to make matters worse, now they are trying to recover when they have no power, no control, and too much dead weight on board (all that bs with DOffs, dil, and basically zillions of other features... too damn many if you ask me).
Spiral spiral spiral BOOM. I am gonna shudder the day I see that BOOM because I actually rather liked this game. It was fun. Then I met PWE and their greed. And then the game became a grind. And then now I am thinking about returning to BSGO and LoL instead of this game.
But until that happens...
KIN I HAZ UR STUFFS????? XP XP XP
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
+1 your wish lists become backlogged and you are removing items from it slower than they are being added, which make you do an impulsive buy of ZEN to catch up. Doing things for free will make you continue to fall further behind even with them adding dilithium back to the STFs. You still have the daily cap limit, afterall, and what they added back isn't even the full dilithium amount you got before.
Im surprised the game is STILL going. yes i just spent my hard earned real money for Z-points but for my friends in my fleet to get these next to impossible Starbase jobs done. The game sucks now its unbalanced and unfun. Its a meanlingess grind. The only reason I play? Its because I am to fond of my own fleet. Until Every single fleet member quits I wont go any where. That is the ONLY reason im staying. Even then its one night a week. Im devoting the rest of my time to more fufilling games. Im amazed and not shocked at the same time that so many people complain and you say and do nothing. Congratulations Cryptic and PWE for ruining Star Trek.
Proud Co-founder of Caitian Fleet a Caitian only fleet
Comments
THAT was fully 100% intentional on their parts, and the real reason for S7. Then they "revert" their STF no dil decision as a false compromise to pretend to appease folks. The foolish accept it as a god-send but fail to see that the main change is still in place. Now the entire game cannot be played effectively without buying zen DAILY for stuff we got through hard work before.
But you can really tell the change in philosophy on the part of the developers and management. There was widespread concern (I'll refrain from using the dramatic "outrage") posted by players all over these forums and there wasn't any response, other than to lock some posts.
And now, this afternoon, dstahl shows up with a well worded mea'culpa about the dilithium situation? Too little, too late Danny boy. And it wasn't a real concession. Yes, "he" added smaller rewards back to STF's like they were on Tribble server, before they were removed when the patch went live. BUT, they also nerfed the Fleet Actions down from 1440 dil. down to 480 space / 640 ground to compensate their oh-so-generous reinstating of STF rewards. Rob Peter to pay Paul and call it a generous acknowledgement of their disgruntled player base. Unbelievable.
Well, I won't be playing the game anymore, so the many months of paying $15 will stop and the numerous purchases of cryptic points (and it's unholy cousin zen points) will stop. Mission accomplished, the in game economy is now balanced and I have decided to NERF the amount of real life dollars that flow into PWE's coffers.
No Star Trek Series went past Season 7.
Will Star Trek Online survive Season 7?
+1 your wish lists become backlogged and you are removing items from it slower than they are being added, which make you do an impulsive buy of ZEN to catch up. Doing things for free will make you continue to fall further behind even with them adding dilithium back to the STFs. You still have the daily cap limit, afterall, and what they added back isn't even the full dilithium amount you got before.
I AM NOT A FAN OF PWE!!!!
MEMBER SINCE JANUARY 2010
Sorry mate, couldn't resist. But you are correct. This game has taken a nosedive ever since yesterday. And to make matters worse, now they are trying to recover when they have no power, no control, and too much dead weight on board (all that bs with DOffs, dil, and basically zillions of other features... too damn many if you ask me).
Spiral spiral spiral BOOM. I am gonna shudder the day I see that BOOM because I actually rather liked this game. It was fun. Then I met PWE and their greed. And then the game became a grind. And then now I am thinking about returning to BSGO and LoL instead of this game.
But until that happens...
KIN I HAZ UR STUFFS????? XP XP XP
Im surprised the game is STILL going. yes i just spent my hard earned real money for Z-points but for my friends in my fleet to get these next to impossible Starbase jobs done. The game sucks now its unbalanced and unfun. Its a meanlingess grind. The only reason I play? Its because I am to fond of my own fleet. Until Every single fleet member quits I wont go any where. That is the ONLY reason im staying. Even then its one night a week. Im devoting the rest of my time to more fufilling games. Im amazed and not shocked at the same time that so many people complain and you say and do nothing. Congratulations Cryptic and PWE for ruining Star Trek.