It was NEVER fully tested. NO ONE had the time to test the higher tier passive abilities.
WHY? Because even on tribble, it still had very long project cooldowns.
So here we are now, deep into it and the calls for nerfs have started.
Is it justified ? I may not be as qualified as the next player to answer that.
All I can say is after investing my time, and in some cases ZEN/aka REAL MONEY, to trade for dilithium to help me level up some of these projects, it irks the hell out of me that some of these passives might change AFTER I've ground and put in the time to obtain them.
Oh and BTW, I play science and I'm really lookin forward toward the tier 5 Romulan ability. I'm wondering as I work my way up, if it will still be there as it is now, when I get to that level.
I know game balance is a tough job, I get that. But this "balancing" things as we go along really is the pits.
There has to be a better way to test this content on tribble, especially the content that requires leveling time gated abilities and gear.
I don't know, get rid of cool downs on tribble? Just throwin it out there.
I agree with the OP concerns and read all the back and forth.
I'm planning to be as short as possible since I'm still one of those vanishing species who played STO since beta. I salute the intrinsic concepts of Atari in finally doing a SCI FI MMO that nobody thought about it 3 years ago. That was a totally awesome and pioneering concept.
Once the game got transferred to Cryptic and now PWE it lost itself in translation and money has become the main intrinsic factor ever since. Money is a great motivator for any company but on its way it lost its original concepts. To expect things to remain the same might be a bit nostalgic and a bit naive. This is the real world and all of us do understand the hard way that goes into making a buck. However, with every transition STO has lost its sense of what it used to be for most of us lifers or those who stuck with it.
This was a great game and concept at the start. Now is a mosly a grinding orgy fest trying to reach deep in our pockets the fastest. I hope PWE will recognize that customer satisfaction comes first then money follows. If most are not happy with the immense amount of glitches and nerfing going on this will be a lonely place where the only true voice would be found in pages lost in unread forums like this as testimony of things to come.
Man thats a giant wall of text that could've been summed up as:
That's how MMOs work. There is no obligation by the company to not do changes as they deem fit, and they don't need to hand out free respecs to people just because they change some skills around. Just because the Connie USED to be in a special copy of the game doesn't mean it MUST stay like that.
Actually, why do I even bother trying to counter all your points? You clearly just hate Cryptic, and nothing is going to change your mind over your perceived injustices at the hands of a corrupt company that does what every other company in the world does: it needs to make money. I don't know why people lie to themselves and think anything else matters.
Money is the first priority, always. You can make the world's most awesome and fun game, but unless it's making a lot of money, no one is going to bother publishing or hosting the thing.
Way to be superficial and address exactly nothing the person said fanboy!!
That's one way of looking at it. Another way brings to mind a parable involving a bull, his son, and a herd of cows. But you go grind at it with all your might like it matters. I'll get all the same stuff without effort.
Tell me the parable :-), unless it's too dirty for public forums. Otherwise I need a good laugh
When this game started, Craig Z promised that the #1 goal would be to establish a fun game. He said that if they had a fun game that people would want to play it and that they could make money $15 per player per month and that for .50 cents a day Cryptic would provide solid entertainment value.
Then we went free to play and it seems that Cryptic only cares about enhancing revenues and not so much about providing a fun game that people want to play.
Lets discuss the many ways Cryptic is purposefully bending over backwards to nerf fun.
One of my biggest pet peeves is nerfs and respecs. In the early days of the game science was the best class and my fleet had some of the best science players in the game. Sci got nerfed from being the best class to being a Novelty class that many if not most universally ignored in pvp. I lost many fleetmates over this and they were the kind of players you wanted in the game. If something is unbalanced then you raise the abilities of the other classes to meet it rather than nerfing or destroying the hard work people put into their class or ship. Cryptic should have improved the merits of Eng and Tact rather than destroying Sci. They nerfed the fun of people who put hard work and effort into Sci. And they lost players over it. Good players. Players who played daily and spent money on the game. When Cryptic nerfs skills they nerf players fun.
Being stingy with respecs is a way to nerf fun. Respecs cost $5 and everytime you turn around Cryptic is changing with either new products or nerfs. I knew people who had tight fitting ships built around reverse shield polarity 3. Cryptic nerfed rsp3 and they just left the game. You could tell them all day that it only cost $5 to respec but they made the point that if they paid $5 and next week Cryptic did another nerf that it would cost $5 more. And that they would be rewarding Cryptic for ruining their characters. Everyone should be able to play their characters as much as they want and how they want. People cannot respec as fast as Cryptic nerfs or changes skills without spending tons of money. When Cryptic destroys players builds and then denies them the ability to respec for free they nerf players fun.
Cryptic has nerfed pvp. Player pvp matches are down and keep falling and its obvious that its only enjoyed by a small minority. I enjoy pvp and I like it. But PvP is pay to win now. I get nearly daily invites to pvp and some with good fleets like Spanish Inquisition or Fista Sistas. I just dont want to do it. I have not done pvp in over a year and do not see myself returning anytime soon. Even if I had all the top gear such as Jem Hadar ships and the best weapons and consoles; I just dont think it would be a challenge or fun to beat people that couldnt kit up like I could. I dont want to lose to someone because they have superior gear and I dont want to beat someone because they have inferior gear. In chess you sit down and both sides have the same number of pieces and ability to compete and fight. In STO, you better have spent $1000 on your ride because that person you are fighting probably did. 98% of the people dont pvp anymore and those that do are usually the "whales" that had big wallets. STO can hold pvp academies from not until forever trying to "rebuild" pvp but skilled players with "good" ships are going to lose to skilled players with great pay to win ships. Destroying pvp by catering to the pay to win crowd nerfs players fun.
Stealing from players nerfs players fun. Make no mistake Cryptic steals from its players. For instance, I bought a Tellarite. I know they are free now but I paid money for the right to play mine. It had a nice skill pig headed rage and lucky had a +5 bonus to crits. Cryptic nerfed pig headed range and reduced Lucky to +3 and took a toon that I invested real world money, time and effort in and made it less fun. People quit buying Tellarites so they made them free for anybody that wanted one. My Tellarite was "special" and Cryptic nerfed it. They stole it from me. Sure I still have it and play it but its less "special". Everyone probably could share a story of their own. I spent a good deal on prototype consoles. They were nerfed and I feel Cryptic "stole" them from me. I spent 5 million ec on a reverse shield polarity 3 bridge officer and watched it get nerfed. Ive lost untold amounts of marks, emblems, requisitions, salvage, etc.. when Cryptic decided to simplify things for us and "change" currency. I had Devs tell me that the only way to ever fly a Connie was to go to Gamestop and spend $50 and buy another copy of the game. I went to gamestop paid my $50. Now anyone can buy it in the zen store for less. Put simply, they lied. I could have saved $30 by waiting for it to go to the zen store and then buying it. I could write 100 paragraphs over the many ways Cryptic "steals from its players but theres more to address. When Cryptic lies to and steals from its customers they nerf players fun.
Exactly right! Ignore all these ignorant trolls and fanboys who I suspect are secret PWE stoolies planted here to make it look like there's a debate. What you said is what most of us PAYING customers (myself included) are actually thinking.
Ford, GM, and Chrysler didnt listen when people said we want affordable, high gas mileage, high quality cars. And we had to have the goverment bail them out to save them. I cant even count how many times Chrysler has been bailed out.
This is the problem with people who complain in general. Ford didn't take a bail out, they were at the meetings to make sure Chrysler and GM got their bail outs. They helped their own compaction.
And this is just a easy thing to point out, over say the personal preferences people have with the way Cryptic is doing things. Personally I seem to enjoy their changes for the most part, and most people I know play STO seem to too. Plus there is no where near this level of complaining in game.
Why you might ask? Because whiners tend to whine on the forums so they can feel better about themselves. In a sea of thousands of happy players on Zone chat their voices would go mute.
Comments
The reputation system.
It was NEVER fully tested. NO ONE had the time to test the higher tier passive abilities.
WHY? Because even on tribble, it still had very long project cooldowns.
So here we are now, deep into it and the calls for nerfs have started.
Is it justified ? I may not be as qualified as the next player to answer that.
All I can say is after investing my time, and in some cases ZEN/aka REAL MONEY, to trade for dilithium to help me level up some of these projects, it irks the hell out of me that some of these passives might change AFTER I've ground and put in the time to obtain them.
Oh and BTW, I play science and I'm really lookin forward toward the tier 5 Romulan ability. I'm wondering as I work my way up, if it will still be there as it is now, when I get to that level.
I know game balance is a tough job, I get that. But this "balancing" things as we go along really is the pits.
There has to be a better way to test this content on tribble, especially the content that requires leveling time gated abilities and gear.
I don't know, get rid of cool downs on tribble? Just throwin it out there.
I'm planning to be as short as possible since I'm still one of those vanishing species who played STO since beta. I salute the intrinsic concepts of Atari in finally doing a SCI FI MMO that nobody thought about it 3 years ago. That was a totally awesome and pioneering concept.
Once the game got transferred to Cryptic and now PWE it lost itself in translation and money has become the main intrinsic factor ever since. Money is a great motivator for any company but on its way it lost its original concepts. To expect things to remain the same might be a bit nostalgic and a bit naive. This is the real world and all of us do understand the hard way that goes into making a buck. However, with every transition STO has lost its sense of what it used to be for most of us lifers or those who stuck with it.
This was a great game and concept at the start. Now is a mosly a grinding orgy fest trying to reach deep in our pockets the fastest. I hope PWE will recognize that customer satisfaction comes first then money follows. If most are not happy with the immense amount of glitches and nerfing going on this will be a lonely place where the only true voice would be found in pages lost in unread forums like this as testimony of things to come.
(Listed in no particular order)
I would pay for more bridge/ship packs. (the next gen, voyager, refitted movie connie )
I LOVED the TOS and the Belfast bridge, But they are not always appropriate for every ship.
I would pay for an updated modern skin, for the Excellsior.
I would pay for some custom ship part choices for the Odyssey.
I would pay for more Mark Rademaker and John Eave's designed ships.
I would pay for the nemesis refit Sovereign
I would pay for ground weapons that didn't look silly or ridiculous.
I would pay to explore Earth, or some of the other core planets of the Federation.
I would pay to explore our own solar system, with the ability to beam down to any planet.
I would pay to play some of Perpetual's ships.
I would pay for a Red matter capacitor.
I would pay for character trait, sex, or race respecs.
I would pay for a T5 ship that looks somewhat like a modern version of the constitution class.
I would pay for a Galaxy class ship that I wouldn't be called a noob for flying.
I would pay to play a Romulan and fly a warbird.
I would pay to play an android, or photonic character.
I would pay for either a Romulan mark/omega marks booster, or perhaps the marks themselves to help elevate some of the grind.
I would pay for the guards armor visiuals that were in that facility mission with the founder.
I would pay for a KDF expansion.
I would pay for content expansions that are FUN, NOT grindy.
Just off the top of my head.
Way to be superficial and address exactly nothing the person said fanboy!!
Tell me the parable :-), unless it's too dirty for public forums. Otherwise I need a good laugh
Exactly right! Ignore all these ignorant trolls and fanboys who I suspect are secret PWE stoolies planted here to make it look like there's a debate. What you said is what most of us PAYING customers (myself included) are actually thinking.
This is the problem with people who complain in general. Ford didn't take a bail out, they were at the meetings to make sure Chrysler and GM got their bail outs. They helped their own compaction.
And this is just a easy thing to point out, over say the personal preferences people have with the way Cryptic is doing things. Personally I seem to enjoy their changes for the most part, and most people I know play STO seem to too. Plus there is no where near this level of complaining in game.
Why you might ask? Because whiners tend to whine on the forums so they can feel better about themselves. In a sea of thousands of happy players on Zone chat their voices would go mute.
Jim