There's a saying about glasshouses and stones that I can't quiet remember.
Those who lives in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Least I think that's it. That is to say unless you already knew that and were merely being sarcastic with your mention of the quote, in which case I submit to you. :P
tbh i think you are asking more than they are willing to give
Trust me I'm not holding my breath waiting for it to happen. But ultimately everything what happens in STO is Dan Stahl's responsiblity, even the players venting, have some of the responses to Season 7 been less than cordial? Yes, but who was it that implemented massive changes to the game even after being repeatedly told by the dedicated Tribblers that it would cause an unholy storm? <Answers on a postcard>
If Dan didn't like the reaction then maybe he should go brush up on Newton's Laws of Motion to look for the reason. Also it doesn't help that Dan's missives come across as 99% marketing of the next shiny toy to distract people, 1% vague acknowledgement that there might be a problem but without taking any responsibilty for introducing it. If Dan wants people to be polite maybe he should stop coming across as a snake-oil salesman.
The number of players that were earning 1440 dilithium on all of their ALTs by running simple Foundry missions (ie - click one thing on Earth Space Dock) and then selling that Dilithium to the exchange, then buying it back on their main forced us to make this change.
If you want the 1440 Dilithium from the Foundry daily - you must play a Foundry mission that "qualifies" - meaning it has to be at least 15 minutes of gameplay.
We've held off on making this change in the hopes that players would police the simple missions and have them removed - but it just didn't happen.
If we had a better solution for the Foundry daily, we would go with it - but for now - Sorry you have to play at least a 15 minute long mission.
We will look into increasing the reward if the average length of Foundry missions that players are playing is greater than 15 minutes - but we're waiting to see if players will stop using these missions as an "easy" way to get Dilithium.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. It's not one 15 minute long foundry mission , it's THREE. The foundry just came up today and I immediately went to try an investigate officer reports mission because our fleet is sorely in need of fleet marks since the opening of season 7. I have invested over 45 minutes at this point and still am in need of one more foundry mission to complete the investigate off reports daily. I'm sorry but an extra hour of foundry missions every day is NOT what anybody should be forced to do to obtain a measly 50 fleet marks.
The investigate officer report daily was CRUCIAL to fleets(especially small or medium size fleets) to obtain the outrageous fleet mark requirements for fleet projects and upgrades. It was also crucial that the 3 foundry missions not take up a tremendous amount of time as there are a myriad of other responsibilities and items that need to be procured to advance the fleet.
By instituting this "15 minute minimum" qualification time for foundry missions to qualify for investigate officer reports daily, you are A. Finding another way to slowly drain the life out of the fleet system. B. adding another annoying grindfest facet to the STO gameplay experience. & C. Subconsciously creating animosity towards the the whole foundry system and foundry writers - foundry projects are supposed to be a way that player/members can express their creative talents and showcase them to the general STO community. Foundry projects SHOULD be a way for the community to enjoy the fruits of other members imaginations and, ultimately, become a treasure trove of content that can possibly be pulled into the STO cannon at a later date if said missions are of high quality. I thoroughly enjoy taking my spare STO time and perusing the foundry to find mission descriptions that seem appealing to me and playing said missions. By FORCING me to have to MAKE time daily and require me to play 3 LONG foundry missions; you're only succeeding in making the foundry seem like a grinding daily chore to me. Eventually I and others will not see the foundry missions as a useful creative outlet and tool, but, rather, something to disdain as an additional daily headache.
Either return investigate daily officer reports to it's previous season 6 structure OR change the requirement for investigate officer reports from 3 foundry missions to only one(that is fair) - otherwise you risk slowly destroying both the foundry and the fleet system in one fell swoop.
I agree this has successfully shut down my fleet/Starbase progression. I have a very small fleet, not ashamed to admit it either. My fleet consist of real life friends, so we all get along very well. We all agreed from the get go that we would not annoy every other player with the ridiculous "join our fleet" spam in zone chat, and that we would not ninja invite problems and drama into our fleet. I have posted our fleet info for people that are looking, and I have received a whopping one, yes one interested person (which the fleet is fine with).
Now with that being said, you designed the starbases to accommodate very large fleets, there was no scaling for size of fleets at all. A fleet with 300 or more could come up with the requirements very easily and fast, as to where smaller fleets had to work for it, yet the smaller fleets didn't complain, they just found a "workaround" to help compensate for your oversight. Apparently that "workaround" became too popular for your liking and you shut it down.
I will admit our fleet had a total of 4 alts doing this (Marks/Dil/Doffs) to help out with the high cost of building, but this was only after we were spending $250-$300 a month for zen to buy dilithium, which we will no longer be doing.
The number of players that were earning 1440 dilithium on all of their ALTs by running simple Foundry missions (ie - click one thing on Earth Space Dock) and then selling that Dilithium to the exchange, then buying it back on their main forced us to make this change.
If you want the 1440 Dilithium from the Foundry daily - you must play a Foundry mission that "qualifies" - meaning it has to be at least 15 minutes of gameplay.
We've held off on making this change in the hopes that players would police the simple missions and have them removed - but it just didn't happen.
If we had a better solution for the Foundry daily, we would go with it - but for now - Sorry you have to play at least a 15 minute long mission.
Want a better solution, here's one and the bonus is you already do it elsewhere.
Why does it have to be 3 missions to earn the 1440 Dilithium from the daily? The real goal seems to be 45 minutes of game play to earn the reward not a specific number of missions. The new Romulan patrol & ground dailies have percentage completion counter, just do the same thing with the Foundry missions. A Foundry mission that takes 30 seconds to complete gets you 0.5% towards the daily total and if players want to get R.S.I. by doing 200 one-click missions a day well that's thier choice. But if they want to do one 45 minute mission to complete the daily then that should be fine too. You obviously already have some system in place to determine Foundry mission length, just translate that into a "Foundry Completion Percentage" and add that info to the Foundry mission descriptions, problem solved.
(OK so you'll have to add in a search by "Foundry Completion Percentage" for when you're on 97% and just want a quick mission to finish things off but that should be trivial.)
Of course this all misses the bigger question of why we're people doing the one-click missions in the first place? The obvious answer is that it's a quick and easy supply of Dilithium. And if the goal of Season 7 is to increase the amount of Dilithium casual players earn then shouldn't you been encourgaing the use of the one-click missions as a simple way of achieving that goal? If you don't want the system to be abused by alts, change from a character refining cap to a larger account wide refining cap. It's simple to move Dilithium between alts so it's effectively an account wide currency anyway, why not embrace that fact instead of putting up larger more convoluted barriers?
...
And if the goal of Season 7 is to increase the amount of Dilithium casual players earn then shouldn't you been encourgaing the use of the one-click missions as a simple way of achieving that goal?...
their goal is to drain as much dilithium from the market, as possible, so you would have to buy them with zen. the less dilithium in the market, and the more need for it, means the best to them. dilithium prices will be low, so your zen will buy less dilithum, you will have to pay more zen
their goal is to drain as much dilithium from the market, as possible, so you would have to buy them with zen. the less dilithium in the market, and the more need for it, means the best to them. dilithium prices will be low, so your zen will buy less dilithum, you will have to pay more zen
It would be nice if it was that simple but I don't think it is. If what you are saying is true then you would expect to see the price on the exchange collapse but that hasn't happened. If you compare the prices just before the release of S7, just after the release and now; there was a 10% drop in the exchange rate just after the release, that drop is now down to 4%. Yes it's only been a couple of weeks but it doesn't seem like a huge change.
While Cryptic have added dilithium sinks in S7 some of them are only short term:
The Omega Crate : Reduced effective buying power of STF trade in's by 90%
Reputation System : Spare marks can be converted into Dilithium but while people are working up T5 that won't be happening. The real hard core gamers can get to T5 in 36 days, casual gamers 18 weeks. But after that waiting period, some Dilithium should be freed up.
New Gear : Has Dilithium costs that weren't there before so will take Dilithium out of circlulation. Difficult to gauge what the impact is going to be long term, crunching the numbers it will take about 60 runs on Elite to earn enough "stuff" to get a full Mk XII space set. Doubtful that new players will try and outfit every ship and Boff in Mk XII gear which existing players have done because it didn't really cost anything, more likely that people will limit themselves to 1 set of Mk XII space and ground gear.
Embassies : That's a big long term drain, no way to hide it.
Doff's : The frankly stupid increases seem to be a pure money grab but one that might backfire. Increasing the grinder costs is an obvious attempt to push people into buying Doff packs, but if the grinder costs put people off from using this part of the game then the demand for the z-store packs will drop and ultimately Cryptic lose out.
Don't get me wrong I think the changes to Dilithium in the game have been badly implemented, badly communicated and will have unintended outcomes but I don't think that the person responsible for that will ever man up and admit it as they seem to come from the Seagull & Mushroom School of Management. Have to wait and see but the Dilithium exchange falling off a cliff doesn't seem likely, it might fall off a mole hill but that doesn't hurt as much.
The new Romulan patrol & ground dailies have percentage completion counter, just do the same thing with the Foundry missions. A Foundry mission that takes 30 seconds to complete gets you 0.5% towards the daily total and if players want to get R.S.I. by doing 200 one-click missions a day well that's thier choice. But if they want to do one 45 minute mission to complete the daily then that should be fine too. You obviously already have some system in place to determine Foundry mission length, just translate that into a "Foundry Completion Percentage" and add that info to the Foundry mission descriptions, problem solved.
Failing that, why can't we have a timer? If it has to be 3 of "15 minutes or longer", it's 45 minutes.
You pick up the investigate officer reports mission, and the clock is on 00:00. Then, you pick your foundry mission. Clock is still on 00:00. As soon as you enter the foundry mission's map, until the point that specific foundry mission is complete, the clock is ticking. Mission not long enough? Grab another one, start playing it, and get the timer ticking again. As soon as the clock hits 45:00, the Investigate Officer Reports wrapper completes.
An obvious problem with this idea is foundry missions that take place on social maps (because there's no map transition to start the clock) probably wouldn't work. However, that is a sacrifice I'd be willing to make to add some much needed simplicity/clarity to the wrapper.
Yeah, the loot has returned in the STF, as well the optional end boss loot. What, wait, where ???
OMG, did an STF, the loot that I got for my frustrations (opponent still nerfed up waaaay to much, way beyond normal, even in this fantasy scifi adventure) are : a frekking lock box which is useless to me coz I don't gamble, a dozen of batteries for which to me are still useless and only take up space and has no value at all.
Dear Mr. Stahl, are you really taking us for brainless morons, numbed by numerous hours of playing a frustrating game which should give us in fact some joy ??? Think twice. Stop lying to us, coz we are all able to prick through that bubble. :mad:
The Reputation System, including the STFs are getting some major changes over the next two weeks. Here is a rundown of what is going to happen over the next several Holodeck updates.
Omega Conversion Crates can be opened immediately. You will no longer need to achieve T3 in Omega Fleet to open these.
Reputation XP Project timers are dropping from 40 hours to 20 hours across all Tiers. If you have a project in progress, it will not change, but any new projects after the update will be adjusted. We are also looking into adding the ability to drop a project.
All XP Reputation Projects (projects that reward progress towards your next Tier) will now grant 240 Dilithium (on average) upon completion. If you complete 4 XP Rep Projects a day, you should earn about 960 Dilithium per day from it. These are in addition to the Marks to Dilithium conversion Projects. Once you've completed a Reputation System, these XP Projects will go away, but the Marks to Dilithium conversion projects will remain.
Reputation Projects that convert Marks to Dilithium are being moved from unlocking at T5 to being available immediately. This allows you to convert Omega Marks and Romulan Marks to Dilithium similar to how you could trade STF items for Dilithium previously.
Loot drops are getting added to STF mobs as well as to bosses.
End of STF Loot Rolls are returning. There will once again be a chance to earn special rewards at the end of STFs or Romulan Mark events. These special rewards will be Bonus marks, Borg Neural Processors, or other items needed for Reputation rewards.
Reputation Advancement Projects (the ones that unlock each tier) are having their timers reduced from 1 hour to 15 mins. and we are removing Dilithium inputs from these Tier Up projects.
The amount of commodities needed for Romulan Reputation projects is being reduced due to the lack of drops on New Romulus. We will be adding more drops to New Romulus in the future either through enemy kills or daily missions.
All Reputation Projects are being changed so that you need to claim the reward upon completion. This puts it in line with how Duty Officer assignments work so you can see the rewards you are getting from each project.
We expect all of the above changes to be live before December. A few will be live by tomorrow, with the rest live around Nov 29th.
-SNIP-
give them a little time. they announced all these changes a day before a long american holiday weekend.
I'm assumign that means there wont be one. And because of that, I dont believe i'll be returning. The changes are nice. But the tactics employed by the dev team and PWE staff in the deployment and testing of Season seven are downright despicable and disgusting.
Two words would have made this a LOT better for ME anyway.
give them a little time. they announced all these changes a day before a long american holiday weekend.
Why ? They had a storm aka hurricane like Sandy of protest before the launch of Season 7. A good understander needs only a half world. It would have saved them more work if they really would have listened to the base, before the launch. :eek: Yup, business wise still the best call, coz twice the job and keep on adding back the things you have broke cost a company double the cost. Now, it's only some little patches, to mask the TRIBBLE up they have made. And do you really believe that they have done and will do those changes because they have listened to their community. Nah, if you wanna believe in Santa Claus, that's your issue, but it was more like this : Ouch, their manager and pwe is noticing a serious drop of subscribers, or a bunch of regulars that are suddenly stopping with transferring real money into Zens after the launch and this manager, for whom only the figures at the end of the month counts, has tapped their fingers. That's is the only word devs in the gaming industry are able to understand : MONEY and nothing else.
Why ? They had a storm aka hurricane like Sandy of protest before the launch of Season 7. A good understander needs only a half world. It would have saved them more work if they really would have listened to the base, before the launch. :eek: Yup, business wise still the best call, coz twice the job and keep on adding back the things you have broke cost a company double the cost. Now, it's only some little patches, to mask the TRIBBLE up they have made. And do you really believe that they have done and will do those changes because they have listened to their community. Nah, if you wanna believe in Santa Claus, that's your issue, but it was more like this : Ouch, their manager and pwe is noticing a serious drop of subscribers, or a bunch of regulars that are suddenly stopping with transferring real money into Zens after the launch and this manager, for whom only the figures at the end of the month counts, has tapped their fingers. That's is the only word devs in the gaming industry are able to understand : MONEY and nothing else.
they screwed up. that's a given. but it's not the first time they've screwed up, nor is it the last time they'll TRIBBLE up. at least they're taking steps to remedy some of the issues this time.
if you don't like how something is being done or if you think something needs to be changed, creatively criticism them and offer suggestions. you never got your way crying, stamping around and calling people names as a child. what makes you think anything's changed between now and then? if anything, it gives them incentive to do the opposite.
they screwed up. that's a given. but it's not the first time they've screwed up, nor is it the last time they'll TRIBBLE up. at least they're taking steps to remedy some of the issues this time.
if you don't like how something is being done or if you think something needs to be changed, creatively criticism them and offer suggestions. you never got your way crying, stamping around and calling people names as a child. what makes you think anything's changed between now and then? if anything, it gives them incentive to do the opposite.
I dont know about anyone else. But i just want an apology for the tactics and attitudes expressed. I dont want this game on easy mode. I DO want to not have to spend korean grind level hours to get anything done. And i want a Dev Team that's going to be honest with its players. This go around? They weren't. That trust is going to take a lot of work to repair. An apology is only a start. But we haven't even gotten that.
i'm still waiting for my apologies. for the lack of pvp content and balance; the overall treatment of the KDF; the nerfing of science skills; the treatment of the real "veteran" players... i'm pretty sure there are more, these are just the few that popped to mind.
so take a number if you're waiting for an apology. for me, you can forgo the apology and show me some action. right the wrongs and we're straight.
just got to teir 2 in the rom rep system this morning , started another project to start work on teir 3 and it said 20 hours to complete . just looked at the time left this evening and it now says it has 1 day 9 hours left , is this a new bug ?
they screwed up. that's a given. but it's not the first time they've screwed up, nor is it the last time they'll TRIBBLE up. at least they're taking steps to remedy some of the issues this time.
if you don't like how something is being done or if you think something needs to be changed, creatively criticism them and offer suggestions. you never got your way crying, stamping around and calling people names as a child. what makes you think anything's changed between now and then? if anything, it gives them incentive to do the opposite.
Yeah, true, but that creatively criticism, positive & negative, was given weeks before Season 7, even weeks before they launched it on the Tribble Sever. And, they have put those advices, concerns, ideas aside and did nothing with it. Like for example that reputation system. It's totally over the top at all. Reason of change: people got too much currencies. What do you get in place ? Two different reputation marks that are piling up for what ? Ah, to get your MK XII gear which is costing dilithium.
A better solution was : Getting rid off that salvage and prototype stuff. Using the EDC's for everything that is Romulan, Omega, Maco : Example :
MK X stuff : 40 EDC's a piece + eventually a mild amount of dilithium
MK XI stuff : 60 EDC's a piece + eventually a mild amount of dilithium
MK XII stuff : 80 EDC's a piece + eventually a mild amount of dilithium
Gosh, wouldn't that be easier to implement into the system ?
Another example : Make the optional a loot bag for each team member, instead of that roll the dice system. Only like that, all team members will do an effort to get it. Now, at this moment, it doesn't matter if you or someone is TRIBBLE it up for the rest of the team. They get rewarded anyway, with this need or greed system. BTW, if you are able to take down a cube, for example, by your own, and it drops loot, why should another have the shot to run away with it, whilst he is poking his finger in his nose and do nothing at all ? Does it seem not logical for you ?
Mr. Stahl I noticed after doing a Tholian Red Alert that I could not turn in the Thoian Red Alert (Daily) as I did not get credit for doing the Red Alert. Of course this made me a little sad. I hope you are aware of the issue and can ask someone to look into it on part of the other players that have also been bothered by this issue.
If you are a pickle in a pickle jar you know every pickle's different, sort of, but really they're all just pickles...
just got to teir 2 in the rom rep system this morning , started another project to start work on teir 3 and it said 20 hours to complete . just looked at the time left this evening and it now says it has 1 day 9 hours left , is this a new bug ?
Same issue with me here, I thought they reduced the timers for T1 & T2 projects? Right now I'm seeing the old 40 hours time, and not the new reduced 20 hours that was supposed to be in place.
Any chance that the equipment requisition/store unlock projects in the rep system will be moved from the advancement slots to the upgrade slots? The upgrade slot sits unused almost all the time, while having a equipment requisition (which currently takes 40 hours) that competes with advancing your rep is... frustrating.
To be fair to Jack - he has been the most vocal champion of the changes that you see in this list. He plays STO a lot and always has really good feedback. I just like to blame him for things because he's fun to tease.
If there is anyone that deserves the shame, it is me because ultimately the buck stops here and if something goes live, I approved it.
Luckily, I can also change it
Fortunately, Season 6 (and now Season 7) have been such positive improvements to the game (and the health of the business), I've been able to increase my staff and for the first time in Season 8 - tackle something awesome and on my long standing engineering report to do list.
If things keep going this way - the team will be able to start knocking off all of the features and content goals we've had since day one. It really is a good time for STO and we hope that with your support - it continues!
So long as that thing you're tackling in season 8 is a full fledged Klingon Faction then people will certainly be happy.
Appreciate all of you Devs hard work and
Determination to make this season work
Jellico....Engineer ground.....Da'val Romulan space Sci
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
Mr. Stahl I noticed after doing a Tholian Red Alert that I could not turn in the Thoian Red Alert (Daily) as I did not get credit for doing the Red Alert. Of course this made me a little sad. I hope you are aware of the issue and can ask someone to look into it on part of the other players that have also been bothered by this issue.
any projects that get u to teir 1 and teir 2 are 20 hours the others are 40 hours for right now till the next patch is over with
Looking forward to the changes. I just saw Z|D hit 1:132 for a second there, and that actually worries me a bit. Nevermind I have a Lifetime, as someone who SELLS Dilithium I don't want my buyers to loathe the market! I'd much rather it be less favorable to me but have a steady stream of revenue than for it to massively peak and everyone gets so fed up it swings to the other extreme (ie, people stop buying and Dilithium becomes worthless).
I won't worry too too much unless it goes under 1:100. Maybe we're just seeing a bubble and lots of pent up demand. Ideally the Z|D Exchange is a win/win deal for buyers and sellers, in which case its also a win for Cryptic/PWE.
My blog! Zen|Dilithium tracking on Thursdays http://samonmaui.blogspot.com As a lifetime member of STO, I officially became a financial liability as of April 2012 when compared to a subscriber.
LOL, I read dastahl's post as "Holy TRIBBLE! The natives are revolting!"
And I bet the average Dil income dropped horribly, I know mine did.
Everything monetarily related in S7 just seemed to scream "Hi, I'm here to ruin your day and/or empty your wallet!"
Glad to hear some of the horrible decisions they made are being moderated.
But I still ain't shelling out any more Dil on fleet projects till the TRIBBLE-storm is over. Especially useless Dil sinks like the Special Projects. 200k for some visual something at a fleetbase no one goes to. yay.
And while I'm on the subject of empty fleetbases. The Officer of the Day mission ain't worth the time to do for 5 fleet marks. Even if the mission was just 'run to guy, say hi, and he hands you 5 marks' wouldn't be worth the transwarp and jog across the fleetbase.
Someone who feels the same way I do. Cool!
I'd like to add that the rep system requirememts are starting to irritate me no end. The small perks are good and all, but given the choice between 14kdil for a rep project and the same for a SB project, I'll pop for the fleet project every time. Not that I'd toss out that much at once at any rate, because doing so would break my refined stores very quickly.
Which brings me to a question: Why? Why must dilithium be in such demand by the system and at the same time limited so harshly? Even if I did spend all day playing, and used all available ways of acquiring dil, the cap would still strangle my ability to use it the way I want. I don't have some meatball solution for this problem, but I do know that the current state of affairs makes the game a lot less fun and is pushing it towards the sort of choices I have to make in the real world, which I equate to drudgery.
In essence Dan (I hope you're still reading), I want to fly/run around and shoot things and explore, by way of challenging and fun content. If I can do this AND acquire resources that further that end, then all the better. I'm not interested in puzzle's, lots of story telling by way of text, etc., or extensive economic models that make no sense to me. I will, and have, spent real money if there's something compelling enough to warrant it.
Now, I ask you this Dan, because you seem to be in the best position to know the answer: Is there a place for me, and people like me, in the furture of STO?
"Reputation XP Project timers are dropping from 40 hours to 20 hours across all Tiers. If you have a project in progress, it will not change, but any new projects after the update will be adjusted. We are also looking into adding the ability to drop a project."
Help me to understand, why I am back to 40 hours per project now that I reached Tier 2 in Reputation?
With all of these changes to the game, it is very tedious for a player. There were changes to the way the Dilithium Ore and Fleet Marks are collected. This is fine, but who has time to collect dilithium with a time limit, and then do a mission for the fleet marks. Now, we have missions for the Romulus Marks and Omega Marks. When do we have time to finish all of the missions in the series for Dilithium, Fleet, Romulus, or Omega? Each needs time to finish a series. My solution is to remove any time limits on any of these parts and remember not everyone is going be on the game 24/7.
Do you deem one 15 or more minute mission adequate? Truthfully, "real" missions quite often exceed 30 mins. An hour is far from unheard of.
Actually, yes I do.
The foundry missions are now a complete waste of my time. I personally will probably never do one again.
My time on this game is extremely limited. Why would I wast 45 minutes (minium) for 1440 of dilithium and 50 marks.
I can easily do 2 fleet actions in 30 for the same amount of marks and I can do an entire run of dailies in eta and deferi space for my about 7k-8k of dilitihium in about an hour.
it makes absolutely no sense to do them.
Personally I think the developers should pay attention to the question that was asked as to "why" people are using "bug".
Its not just because it was an easy 1440 dilitium. it was because EVERYTHING you have been implimenting is costing dilitium. Base, embassies, reputation, fleet and Doff's.
and its not just a little, its alot. I have a small fleet. I cannot get anything accomplished because no one has the dilitium to spare anymore. let alone 50k of it for a project.
Basicially what it comes off to me is you want me to purchase zen and sell it for dilitium. If that the case, just put the s**t on the market and let me avoid the exchange.
Comments
Trust me I'm not holding my breath waiting for it to happen. But ultimately everything what happens in STO is Dan Stahl's responsiblity, even the players venting, have some of the responses to Season 7 been less than cordial? Yes, but who was it that implemented massive changes to the game even after being repeatedly told by the dedicated Tribblers that it would cause an unholy storm? <Answers on a postcard>
If Dan didn't like the reaction then maybe he should go brush up on Newton's Laws of Motion to look for the reason. Also it doesn't help that Dan's missives come across as 99% marketing of the next shiny toy to distract people, 1% vague acknowledgement that there might be a problem but without taking any responsibilty for introducing it. If Dan wants people to be polite maybe he should stop coming across as a snake-oil salesman.
I agree this has successfully shut down my fleet/Starbase progression. I have a very small fleet, not ashamed to admit it either. My fleet consist of real life friends, so we all get along very well. We all agreed from the get go that we would not annoy every other player with the ridiculous "join our fleet" spam in zone chat, and that we would not ninja invite problems and drama into our fleet. I have posted our fleet info for people that are looking, and I have received a whopping one, yes one interested person (which the fleet is fine with).
Now with that being said, you designed the starbases to accommodate very large fleets, there was no scaling for size of fleets at all. A fleet with 300 or more could come up with the requirements very easily and fast, as to where smaller fleets had to work for it, yet the smaller fleets didn't complain, they just found a "workaround" to help compensate for your oversight. Apparently that "workaround" became too popular for your liking and you shut it down.
I will admit our fleet had a total of 4 alts doing this (Marks/Dil/Doffs) to help out with the high cost of building, but this was only after we were spending $250-$300 a month for zen to buy dilithium, which we will no longer be doing.
Want a better solution, here's one and the bonus is you already do it elsewhere.
Why does it have to be 3 missions to earn the 1440 Dilithium from the daily? The real goal seems to be 45 minutes of game play to earn the reward not a specific number of missions. The new Romulan patrol & ground dailies have percentage completion counter, just do the same thing with the Foundry missions. A Foundry mission that takes 30 seconds to complete gets you 0.5% towards the daily total and if players want to get R.S.I. by doing 200 one-click missions a day well that's thier choice. But if they want to do one 45 minute mission to complete the daily then that should be fine too. You obviously already have some system in place to determine Foundry mission length, just translate that into a "Foundry Completion Percentage" and add that info to the Foundry mission descriptions, problem solved.
(OK so you'll have to add in a search by "Foundry Completion Percentage" for when you're on 97% and just want a quick mission to finish things off but that should be trivial.)
Of course this all misses the bigger question of why we're people doing the one-click missions in the first place? The obvious answer is that it's a quick and easy supply of Dilithium. And if the goal of Season 7 is to increase the amount of Dilithium casual players earn then shouldn't you been encourgaing the use of the one-click missions as a simple way of achieving that goal? If you don't want the system to be abused by alts, change from a character refining cap to a larger account wide refining cap. It's simple to move Dilithium between alts so it's effectively an account wide currency anyway, why not embrace that fact instead of putting up larger more convoluted barriers?
their goal is to drain as much dilithium from the market, as possible, so you would have to buy them with zen. the less dilithium in the market, and the more need for it, means the best to them. dilithium prices will be low, so your zen will buy less dilithum, you will have to pay more zen
10k DPS Vesta threads: 1; 2
It would be nice if it was that simple but I don't think it is. If what you are saying is true then you would expect to see the price on the exchange collapse but that hasn't happened. If you compare the prices just before the release of S7, just after the release and now; there was a 10% drop in the exchange rate just after the release, that drop is now down to 4%. Yes it's only been a couple of weeks but it doesn't seem like a huge change.
While Cryptic have added dilithium sinks in S7 some of them are only short term:
Don't get me wrong I think the changes to Dilithium in the game have been badly implemented, badly communicated and will have unintended outcomes but I don't think that the person responsible for that will ever man up and admit it as they seem to come from the Seagull & Mushroom School of Management. Have to wait and see but the Dilithium exchange falling off a cliff doesn't seem likely, it might fall off a mole hill but that doesn't hurt as much.
You pick up the investigate officer reports mission, and the clock is on 00:00. Then, you pick your foundry mission. Clock is still on 00:00. As soon as you enter the foundry mission's map, until the point that specific foundry mission is complete, the clock is ticking. Mission not long enough? Grab another one, start playing it, and get the timer ticking again. As soon as the clock hits 45:00, the Investigate Officer Reports wrapper completes.
An obvious problem with this idea is foundry missions that take place on social maps (because there's no map transition to start the clock) probably wouldn't work. However, that is a sacrifice I'd be willing to make to add some much needed simplicity/clarity to the wrapper.
OMG, did an STF, the loot that I got for my frustrations (opponent still nerfed up waaaay to much, way beyond normal, even in this fantasy scifi adventure) are : a frekking lock box which is useless to me coz I don't gamble, a dozen of batteries for which to me are still useless and only take up space and has no value at all.
Dear Mr. Stahl, are you really taking us for brainless morons, numbed by numerous hours of playing a frustrating game which should give us in fact some joy ??? Think twice. Stop lying to us, coz we are all able to prick through that bubble. :mad:
give them a little time. they announced all these changes a day before a long american holiday weekend.
I'm assumign that means there wont be one. And because of that, I dont believe i'll be returning. The changes are nice. But the tactics employed by the dev team and PWE staff in the deployment and testing of Season seven are downright despicable and disgusting.
Two words would have made this a LOT better for ME anyway.
I'm sorry.
Why ? They had a storm aka hurricane like Sandy of protest before the launch of Season 7. A good understander needs only a half world. It would have saved them more work if they really would have listened to the base, before the launch. :eek: Yup, business wise still the best call, coz twice the job and keep on adding back the things you have broke cost a company double the cost. Now, it's only some little patches, to mask the TRIBBLE up they have made. And do you really believe that they have done and will do those changes because they have listened to their community. Nah, if you wanna believe in Santa Claus, that's your issue, but it was more like this : Ouch, their manager and pwe is noticing a serious drop of subscribers, or a bunch of regulars that are suddenly stopping with transferring real money into Zens after the launch and this manager, for whom only the figures at the end of the month counts, has tapped their fingers. That's is the only word devs in the gaming industry are able to understand : MONEY and nothing else.
they screwed up. that's a given. but it's not the first time they've screwed up, nor is it the last time they'll TRIBBLE up. at least they're taking steps to remedy some of the issues this time.
if you don't like how something is being done or if you think something needs to be changed, creatively criticism them and offer suggestions. you never got your way crying, stamping around and calling people names as a child. what makes you think anything's changed between now and then? if anything, it gives them incentive to do the opposite.
I dont know about anyone else. But i just want an apology for the tactics and attitudes expressed. I dont want this game on easy mode. I DO want to not have to spend korean grind level hours to get anything done. And i want a Dev Team that's going to be honest with its players. This go around? They weren't. That trust is going to take a lot of work to repair. An apology is only a start. But we haven't even gotten that.
so take a number if you're waiting for an apology. for me, you can forgo the apology and show me some action. right the wrongs and we're straight.
DELTA PRICE RISING
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!:D:D:D:D
Yeah, true, but that creatively criticism, positive & negative, was given weeks before Season 7, even weeks before they launched it on the Tribble Sever. And, they have put those advices, concerns, ideas aside and did nothing with it. Like for example that reputation system. It's totally over the top at all. Reason of change: people got too much currencies. What do you get in place ? Two different reputation marks that are piling up for what ? Ah, to get your MK XII gear which is costing dilithium.
A better solution was : Getting rid off that salvage and prototype stuff. Using the EDC's for everything that is Romulan, Omega, Maco : Example :
MK X stuff : 40 EDC's a piece + eventually a mild amount of dilithium
MK XI stuff : 60 EDC's a piece + eventually a mild amount of dilithium
MK XII stuff : 80 EDC's a piece + eventually a mild amount of dilithium
Gosh, wouldn't that be easier to implement into the system ?
Another example : Make the optional a loot bag for each team member, instead of that roll the dice system. Only like that, all team members will do an effort to get it. Now, at this moment, it doesn't matter if you or someone is TRIBBLE it up for the rest of the team. They get rewarded anyway, with this need or greed system. BTW, if you are able to take down a cube, for example, by your own, and it drops loot, why should another have the shot to run away with it, whilst he is poking his finger in his nose and do nothing at all ? Does it seem not logical for you ?
Same issue with me here, I thought they reduced the timers for T1 & T2 projects? Right now I'm seeing the old 40 hours time, and not the new reduced 20 hours that was supposed to be in place.
Thats indeed the only thing that bugs me,
the only downside so far.
For the rest doing a perfect job Cryptic!:D
So long as that thing you're tackling in season 8 is a full fledged Klingon Faction then people will certainly be happy.
Appreciate all of you Devs hard work and
Determination to make this season work
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
any projects that get u to teir 1 and teir 2 are 20 hours the others are 40 hours for right now till the next patch is over with
I won't worry too too much unless it goes under 1:100. Maybe we're just seeing a bubble and lots of pent up demand. Ideally the Z|D Exchange is a win/win deal for buyers and sellers, in which case its also a win for Cryptic/PWE.
My blog! Zen|Dilithium tracking on Thursdays
http://samonmaui.blogspot.com
As a lifetime member of STO, I officially became a financial liability as of April 2012 when compared to a subscriber.
Someone who feels the same way I do. Cool!
I'd like to add that the rep system requirememts are starting to irritate me no end. The small perks are good and all, but given the choice between 14kdil for a rep project and the same for a SB project, I'll pop for the fleet project every time. Not that I'd toss out that much at once at any rate, because doing so would break my refined stores very quickly.
Which brings me to a question: Why? Why must dilithium be in such demand by the system and at the same time limited so harshly? Even if I did spend all day playing, and used all available ways of acquiring dil, the cap would still strangle my ability to use it the way I want. I don't have some meatball solution for this problem, but I do know that the current state of affairs makes the game a lot less fun and is pushing it towards the sort of choices I have to make in the real world, which I equate to drudgery.
In essence Dan (I hope you're still reading), I want to fly/run around and shoot things and explore, by way of challenging and fun content. If I can do this AND acquire resources that further that end, then all the better. I'm not interested in puzzle's, lots of story telling by way of text, etc., or extensive economic models that make no sense to me. I will, and have, spent real money if there's something compelling enough to warrant it.
Now, I ask you this Dan, because you seem to be in the best position to know the answer: Is there a place for me, and people like me, in the furture of STO?
Help me to understand, why I am back to 40 hours per project now that I reached Tier 2 in Reputation?
From the Release Notes:
Duration of all T1 and T2 Reputation XP projects has been reduced from 40 hours to 20 hours.
Once you start on Tier 3, the timers go back to 40 hours.
Actually, yes I do.
The foundry missions are now a complete waste of my time. I personally will probably never do one again.
My time on this game is extremely limited. Why would I wast 45 minutes (minium) for 1440 of dilithium and 50 marks.
I can easily do 2 fleet actions in 30 for the same amount of marks and I can do an entire run of dailies in eta and deferi space for my about 7k-8k of dilitihium in about an hour.
it makes absolutely no sense to do them.
Personally I think the developers should pay attention to the question that was asked as to "why" people are using "bug".
Its not just because it was an easy 1440 dilitium. it was because EVERYTHING you have been implimenting is costing dilitium. Base, embassies, reputation, fleet and Doff's.
and its not just a little, its alot. I have a small fleet. I cannot get anything accomplished because no one has the dilitium to spare anymore. let alone 50k of it for a project.
Basicially what it comes off to me is you want me to purchase zen and sell it for dilitium. If that the case, just put the s**t on the market and let me avoid the exchange.