The game survives because of Zen. And if less people play then less people will buy zen. If the ones that do play - then play less - because they are bored - they also will buy less zen. And if people discover that when they buy zen that they get less value for their money - they might start buying less zen.
How will the game survive indeed if you have less players, people playing less, and people buying less.
Games do close and I can name you dozens that have.....
DStahl could go back and try to work for city of heroes again or something ......
Oh wait ...
Lets see who designed COH....
That would be Cryptic....
Who said COH had a free to play model worth of emulation ....
That would be Cryptic.....
Who said COH was on the right track by making players grind more and giving them less...
That would be Cryptic.....
Who said COH had the best Microtransaction store in MMO's
That would be Cryptic......
Its well and good to have City of Heroes as your role model .....
Except .....
Oh yeah - It failed
Survival is an issue when a games not fun
City of Heroes didn't fail at all. NC Soft decided to pull the plug because they were making changes in the company. There was actually a big fuss about it on the CoH forums as well as petitions to save the game and even some news outlets posting the story. The game was actually doing fairly well and they were working on issue 24 and had plans at least to issue 26. We got screwed big time. Even the developers didn't know the game was going to shut down. Just 1 day the came in to work and all employees were let go and Paragon Studios shut down. No warning or anything. They actually were making a profit.
To be honest I believe CoH had a better cash shop. I played for a year and spent over $1,000 on Paragon Points in that time. Most of the stuff were permanent account unlocks. All costumes, all power sets, all non-combat pets. Just pay for it once and that was it. In STO the pets are all single character and only costumes in the c-store are account unlocks (They seem intent on putting more and more costumes in the stupid lobi store where you end up spending more real money (If you buy Zen that way) for a single character costume then you would for an account wide unlock in the c-store).
COH had fairer prices than STO. The most expensive items in the CoH cash shop was 1600 paragon points, roughly $20, and that was only 1 to 3 things. Everything else was $10 max. They were also adding a lot of new content every 3-4 months as well as having items in the cash shop go on sale every single week, sometimes something would be as much as 50% off, new items added at least once a month. Costume pack with a lot of different pieces unlocked for your whole account were ALL 400 points, $5 each.
You have no friggen clue what you are talking about.
*Note: In 2007 Cryptic sold City of Heroes to NC Soft. The game went free to play in 2011.
If what you claimed Cryptic said about CoH is true, it was because Cryptic felt stupid for failing at the game and selling it. Cryptic screwed up CoH and NC Soft saved it. They were jealous.
Edit: CoH didn't have nearly as much grind as STO. Not even close.
They were a quick way to get 1440 Dill and 50 FM's.
To be honest, i used it too at times. but not so much for the Dill, but for the FM's.
Having 12 toons now (9 before S7) i was actively playing 2-3.
I was getting to my daily 8k on one or two of them.
The other toons needed 1140, 2280, 3420, 4560, 5700, 6840, 7980 = 7 days to get to their 8k. If i even logged onto them. I do not think that was such a big amount..
On the other hand, i loved to have 9x50 = 450 FREE fleet marks a day to build up my fleet.
So - the dillithium is NOT the problem here at all. The problem are the FM's. How long would i have to play and coordinate with other people (on KDF side even more difficult) to get 450 Fleet Marks?
- 3,5 hours of Foundry
- logging only in when the bonus is around
- replaying the same 5 missions over and over, waiting in the queue, hoping the group will not be full of morons which can't read, don't know their stuff, sci's who don't heal, engis without turrets...
NOT FUN
IF the Fleet Star Bases are designed as sinks, their decision to let us grind for Fleet Marks, which are not usable for anything else and were previously free, is just stupid.
Now, my main sits on 100k Dill, refined, and im creating 20k a day without much trouble.
But i cannot put it into the base, cause the projects are standing cause of Fleet Marks.
Therefore the idea of AWARDING players JUST for logging into a toon by 50 free Fleet Marks and NOTHING ELSE is a GOOD IDEA.
ps - every other F2P game i know has a daily log-in bonus. Why not STO?
solution - give all Fleet actions also some Dill reward + the existing FM reward, and get the daily log-in bonus of 50 FM's on the road.
In my Opinion,the real Problem with Dilli ist not to collect your 8000 per Day.
The Problem is the Refine Cap of 8000 Dilli.
That slow down FLeets in my eyes this Daily Amount is a Joke and i think this must be increased.
A lot of the OP is just complaining for complaining sake, but a daily log in bonus is used in a lot of MMOs, it serves a real purpose, one that S7 has yet to address and we can feel the effects in game.
Encouraging people to log on every day, even if they don't really play, gives them a motive to come into the game, to keep playing and not forget or get detached from the game. Many games will give you increasing rewards for consecutive days logged in, so if you don't show up one day then you start back out with tiny rewards again.
Obviously this could be abused again, because the real exploit in the game is the ability to transfer dilithium from one character to another, not all the BS everyone else decides to call an exploit. So they could make the bonus one per account, or fix the root cause of the problem, which is what real businesses do, not just slap half used bandaids ontop of each other.
A lot of the OP is just complaining for complaining sake, but a daily log in bonus is used in a lot of MMOs, it serves a real purpose, one that S7 has yet to address and we can feel the effects in game.
Encouraging people to log on every day, even if they don't really play, gives them a motive to come into the game, to keep playing and not forget or get detached from the game. Many games will give you increasing rewards for consecutive days logged in, so if you don't show up one day then you start back out with tiny rewards again.
.
this, 1000x this
when there is a daily log-in bonus, which can help me/the fleet, i will log in, only if for a while. Then i chat a bit with friends, see what is new, what is fun, do some quick PVP or Fleet action... and look at my watch - i've played for 3 hours..
without the bonus, i just tell myself - i earned 700 FM's in the last 3 days - it's time my fleet mates do something. And i go play something else for a week.
Then i look around - 3 months are gone, and i have to install 2GB of updates before getting into the game.
I have to say I havent used the Foundry missions since the change but I will be doing from now on, it will kickstart our SB progression again.
As I've stated before in other threads (and as one or two here have also said) its not the Dilithium that I miss its the Fleet Marks. The Dil was almost a by-product to me.
So this change is very welcome
I can honestly see why the "clickies" were outlawed, its not what the Foundry is about and detracted from the good work of many authors (Some damn fine work! Worthy of a Featured Episodes that would put Cryptic themselves to shame!) but it removed a source of FM. OK a very EASY source but a source none the less.
Personally I dont find the Fleet actions fun, although I have a soft spot for colony invasion, so grinding those does not enthrall me at all.
What would be great is if someone could compile a list of good, fun, 15 to 30 min foundry missions?
If its absorbing I'll go for it A varied source of missions will decrease the sense of repetition and grind.
I have to say I havent used the Foundry missions since the change but I will be doing from now on, it will kickstart our SB progression again.
As I've stated before in other threads (and as one or two here have also said) its not the Dilithium that I miss its the Fleet Marks. The Dil was almost a by-product to me.
So this change is very welcome
I can honestly see why the "clickies" were outlawed, its not what the Foundry is about and detracted from the good work of many authors (Some damn fine work! Worthy of a Featured Episodes that would put Cryptic themselves to shame!) but it removed a source of FM. OK a very EASY source but a source none the less.
Personally I dont find the Fleet actions fun, although I have a soft spot for colony invasion, so grinding those does not enthrall me at all.
What would be great is if someone could compile a list of good, fun, 15 to 30 min foundry missions?
If its absorbing I'll go for it A varied source of missions will decrease the sense of repetition and grind.
Try "hair today, gorn tomorrow" I get a kick out of the little bit of dialog involved otherwise its a simple ground battle against groups of gorn terminating in a boss fight. Running time for me 15 minutes.
Fleet Marks doesn't work that well because there are plenty of people who aren't even in a fleet, so that's not quite fair to them.
Dilithium is problematical because it can be converted to Zen, which is how PWE makes money. If this perk were limited to Gold accounts, I would agree it's a good idea. I'd even be tempted to sub for that, plus the other Gold benefits.
Energy Credits? That could work okay, to allow people to save up for really expensive stuff on the Exchange. On the other hand, it could be less incentive for people to put stuff up on the Exchange.
What else is there?
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Try "hair today, gorn tomorrow" I get a kick out of the little bit of dialog involved otherwise its a simple ground battle against groups of gorn terminating in a boss fight. Running time for me 15 minutes.
Fleet Marks doesn't work that well because there are plenty of people who aren't even in a fleet, so that's not quite fair to them.
Dilithium is problematical because it can be converted to Zen, which is how PWE makes money. If this perk were limited to Gold accounts, I would agree it's a good idea. I'd even be tempted to sub for that, plus the other Gold benefits.
Energy Credits? That could work okay, to allow people to save up for really expensive stuff on the Exchange. On the other hand, it could be less incentive for people to put stuff up on the Exchange.
What else is there?
no, it has to be something non-currency..
like some boosts (medium shield recharge, 10 uses, not sellable) or Fleet Marks
I like having a reason to do foundry missions now!
I played a handful of fun ones yesterday and a few okay ones.
I for one am happy with the new change, heck, I think it will help the foundry improve. Hopefully they can get rid of all the old one click mission clogging up the list though.
What if they sent you an in-game mail, one per account with items attached. It could be randomized
One of X number of (Omega/Romulan/Fleet Marks)
X amount of dilithium
X amount of energy credits
A stack of consumables or a piece of equipment of varying quality
With the Xs increasing up to 5 days logged on consecutively
Reducing the cooldown for officer reports to 30 minutes means there is now zero incentive to play anything in the PvE queues except to get Omega/Romulan marks. The rewards for doing one easy foundry mission now outstrips the dilithium and fleet mark rewards of everything multiplayer.
Reducing the cooldown for officer reports to 30 minutes means there is now zero incentive to play anything in the PvE queues except to get Omega/Romulan marks. The rewards for doing one easy foundry mission now outstrips the dilithium and fleet mark rewards of everything multiplayer.
There is such a thing as too much rewards.
I've played those PvE queues plenty, thank you very much. Besides, you'll need something to do during that 30 minute cooldown.
I've only read the first post here so excuse me if what I follow with has been said already. @OP, the current allowance is more than enough. You can easily earn your 8k refined Dilithium per day, along with a good 60-90 Romulan Marks (via the Dailies).
The Officer Reports mission has a 15-minute cooldown from start, thus (if you stayed up for 24-hours straight playing this mission alone) you could effectively earn roughly 220k in dilithium and 4800 fleet marks. I think that's more than adequate.
There is no point playing STF's for Fleet Marks cause nomatter what you do, you aren't given enough. The same applies to the Romulan Nebula event. The rewards are just too small. There are other ways to get the required currencies. The only one that may take a bit more time is the Omega Stuff. I have yet to find a quick way around that short of elite STFs, half of which people quit out the second the optional objective fails.
[QUOTE=flash525;7090521
The Officer Reports mission has a 15-minute cooldown from start....[/QUOTE]
Agree with your point but the new cooldown on it to 30 minutes; so just keeping info accurate.
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Agree with your point but the new cooldown on it to 30 minutes; so just keeping info accurate.
My mistake.
Still, even with a 30-minute cooldown, that's still 1100k in dilithium and 2400 fleet marks in 24 hours, and people are complaining about it? :rolleyes:
Reducing the cooldown for officer reports to 30 minutes means there is now zero incentive to play anything in the PvE queues except to get Omega/Romulan marks. The rewards for doing one easy foundry mission now outstrips the dilithium and fleet mark rewards of everything multiplayer.
Disagree, reducing the cooldown is still not enough incentive to play any of the foundry missions. There are so many out there with 5 star reviews that are horrible missions. If PvE Queues are dying it's because of the Winter event and seeing how the drop rates from the snow piles in the last patch was reduced, people will be spending even more time there and not in the STFs, Fleet Actions, or whatever.
Ah no, the more rewards you give users the more likely they will come back for even more. People are greedy and if you make it easy to get stuff; people will be there every day, make it hard and they will go on to something else.
People come to MMO's to achieve and accomplish. ....they find something else to do.
"Star Trek: Online" is my first ever multiplayer online game. If this game represents the best in the genre, "Star Trek: Online" will also become my very last multiplayer game.
Approximately three to four days ago, I went out and bought "Skyrim" and "Dragon Age II". After playing "Star Trek: Online" for a good ten months, I started to miss the fulfillment I get from playing offline games. You don't have to worry about lockboxes dropping, intense grinding, and intensely gated content. If I want to obtain a specific piece of gear, I don't have to: grind to unlock tiers, grind to claim a tier, grind to unlock the piece, and then grind to buy the items. Within a normal offline roleplaying game, you just have to meet certain criteria. Your level progression unlocks certain content, and you save up coins and items to 'instantly' buy them from stores. Also, the content you obtain can be used for leveling characters.
"Star Trek: Online" went from, "Yay! Featured episodes and new items!", to, "What?!?! I have to grind a million gates to get one item?". When I was playing through Season Five, I was hoping to see more featured episodes. Once they were replaced with fleetbases, embassies, and the reputation system, I started to remember what it was like to play single-player games. Its much more rewarding.
During the past four to five months, I spent around $200+ on the purchase of zen. Even though I spent that much money, the rewards for making a substantial investment didn't turn up. If I did get anything from my investment, I think I was rewarded with: nerfed gear, nerfed ships, nerfed weapons, nerfed rewards, nerfed progress, high dilithium requirements, high Omega, Fleet, and Romulan Marks requirements, extensively gated content, and zero over level fifty progression.
If it wasn't for the social aspects of this game, I would have most likely left after a few months.
I actually laughed when I read OPs first post. Some of the ones that followed were also quite amusing, but the first one took the cake.
So let's see if I got this right. Cryptic allows players to only have to do one (let's make sure you got this, only ONE) foundry mission to get a nice little chunk of dil and 50 fleet marks. AND it only has a 30 minute cooldown. Whereas the old one took you 15 minutes (loading time etc) and gave you 1440 dil and 50 marks, and then had a 20 hour cooldown. So you could only do it once a day. However this new Investigate reports requires you to actually do some work (30 minutes tops), BUT you can do it more than once per day. So this being said, you lose out on 480 dil per run, but you can do it more than once, which has the potential to allow you to get 12x what you would have gotten over that 20 hour period, and OP still isn't satisfied. Ok...
Next up, Cryptic DRASTICALLY reduces both the resource requirements and time it takes for the reputation system, while completely eliminating the dilithium requirements for both tiering up and unlocking new items. Granted purchasing items requires dilithium, but it's supposedly top of the line gear, so supposedly worth it. And OP still isn't happy. Ok...
Was free prior Season 7. OK, ya needed some luck to get the required salvage and prototype drops to get it, but it was free without any requirement of Dilithium. The whole overhaul towards the reputation system was NOT needed. Just a little adaption in the drop rate or a system that kept track of how many times a player did an STF or simply made all parts at that moment available in the famous STF store for the EDC's.
Next, we have fleet actions. They now give a nice chunk of dil, and once a day, each one can get you fleet marks, while at the same time you can also get a nice chunk of skill points (for those of us not at level 50 or levelling new toons) and nice drops (the NPCs do occasionally be kind and give good things), and there are actually lots of people doing them, whereas before you were lucky if a gorn minefield or sb24 gave you a queue. So more dil, fleet marks, and possible gear. And OP STILL isn't happy. Ok...
Fleet marks in SB24 or Gorn Minefield ? Where ? I believe you didn't played them after Season 7, coz there aren't any fleet marks to obtain during those events. As speaking from a nice chunk of Dilithium, 480 dil isn't a chunk, but a beggars tip.
Next up, STFs. They gave us back our dilithium in those STFs, and the NPCs also drop far more often than they did before. And some of those drops are actually quite nice (especially from tac cubes and regular cubes). AND we got our end of battle loot back. And you can get mk XII purple gear from it again. But OP still is not happy. Ok...
Where ? Point me out where do you get those nice MK XII purple stuff in the STF's. The promised optional loot bag hasn't returned after the famous first patch after Season 7. Go check the release notes once and verify then with doing a STF Elite. Common, Uncommon MK X, useless batteries aren't rewards according level as said by Cryptic, but a plain lie and insult toward us. And even still, for that Common and Uncommon stuff, we need to play that silly Need Or Greed gambling game. Sorry, dude, if I take down a cube, by myself alone, and it drops something, I don't have to give another the shot to steal it away from me. Sounds selfish, but sorry, it's still my fruit of effort.
I could go on and on about how ludicrous this whole thread is, but I will simply state that despite what you said OP, their changes aren't just a step in the right direction, it's more than a lot of players deserve. You want everything to be given to you almost free. You want things to fall over at your feet. You want instant gratification, without bothering to actually do anything. Well you sir are a part of a very very SMALL minority that will never be happy. I pity you more than anything.
P.S. As for the Tier 5 Starbase? There won't be any of those until around february of next year fastest I think. It was predicted it would take that long anyways, even with everyone doing every project with them adding them every 20 hours/40 hours. I say again, INSTANT GRATIFICATION. And it was stated very specifically, starbases were designed for 25 people. Not 2, not 5, but 25.
Yep, true, but how may that be so. Well, if Cryptic hadn't lingered around the issue that one of the projects was jamming the progress of the fleets, most of those fleets would have hit the Tier 5 by the end of this month, or beginning next month. Yes, a problem that has received over 200 bug reports remained untouched for more then 1 month and a half, which brought many fleets into problems to reach that Tier 5. We could think that Cryptic intentionally had put this issue aside, if we were evil minded.
Fleet marks in SB24 or Gorn Minefield ? Where ? I believe you didn't played them after Season 7, coz there aren't any fleet marks to obtain during those events. As speaking from a nice chunk of Dilithium, 480 dil isn't a chunk, but a beggars tip.
If you read the latest release notes, the featured fleet action daily (which will be SB24, Gorn Minefield, or Klingon Scout force) gives 960 dilithium and 50 fleet marks. Besides, I get to slap the TRIBBLE out of NPCs which are weak as hell compared to the elite NPCs I usually fight, I get to laugh at other players incompetence or see others succeed and learn from them, AND I get paid to do it? What is there to complain about? I do fleet actions for fun, not for loot. If I wanted loot I would sit in Tau Dewa or Defera or the B'Tran Cluster (Vice Admiral/Lieutenant General) and farm those missions all day on Elite. Or I would do ESTFs (which are addressed in the next portion).
Where ? Point me out where do you get those nice MK XII purple stuff in the STF's. The promised optional loot bag hasn't returned after the famous first patch after Season 7. Go check the release notes once and verify then with doing a STF Elite. Common, Uncommon MK X, useless batteries aren't rewards according level as said by Cryptic, but a plain lie and insult toward us. And even still, for that Common and Uncommon stuff, we need to play that silly Need Or Greed gambling game. Sorry, dude, if I take down a cube, by myself alone, and it drops something, I don't have to give another the shot to steal it away from me. Sounds selfish, but sorry, it's still my fruit of effort.
This makes me wonder if you have played any elite STFs at all, since I have played dozens since S7 came out, and they did give us back our end of mission loot bags I believe two or three patches ago. Which contain dilithium, Omega marks, and random drops, some of them being mk XII purple equipment/weapons. Just the other day I got a rather nice mk XII phaser beam array [acc]x2 [crtd] which I sold for 4 million on the exchange.
Yep, true, but how may that be so. Well, if Cryptic hadn't lingered around the issue that one of the projects was jamming the progress of the fleets, most of those fleets would have hit the Tier 5 by the end of this month, or beginning next month. Yes, a problem that has received over 200 bug reports remained untouched for more then 1 month and a half, which brought many fleets into problems to reach that Tier 5. We could think that Cryptic intentionally had put this issue aside, if we were evil minded.
Now I think you're just being cynical. They addressed on of the biggest complaints that was put up with putting the dilithium back in STFs and giving people the opportunity to get better gear without having to place first in a fleet action (really not that hard tbh, I fly a bloody cruiser and I manage to do it on a regular basis), and all you got is a starbase project complaint? What about those people who aren't in fleets? As rare as they may be, they were still helped. Smaller fleets were helped by this. Hell, everyone was helped by this. I am not trying to be the poster boy for Cryptic, but at least give them credit for listening for once, and actually doing something for the playerbase with no trade-off.
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.
Dunno on which server you are playing nor what game you are. Just did a Starbase 24. Zero fleet marks and only 480 Dilithium. Be free to check it yourself
Fleet Marks doesn't work that well because there are plenty of people who aren't even in a fleet, so that's not quite fair to them.
Dilithium is problematical because it can be converted to Zen, which is how PWE makes money. If this perk were limited to Gold accounts, I would agree it's a good idea. I'd even be tempted to sub for that, plus the other Gold benefits.
Energy Credits? That could work okay, to allow people to save up for really expensive stuff on the Exchange. On the other hand, it could be less incentive for people to put stuff up on the Exchange.
What else is there?
To start, I do agree that a log-in bonus would be really nice, and help people log into the game and keep doing so each day.
I say don't force a single choice on anyone. Why not just give them a 'token' once a day for logging in? Then put a vendor at every major hub in the game, including fleet Starbases, which will let you spend the log-in token. Things could cost just 1 token, or multiple ones.
Some examples:
1 token items:
50,000 EC
50 Fleet Marks
50 common, or 1 uncommon unreplicatable material
A random uncommon or rare item of your level
A random common DOFF.
A bunch of commodities of your choosing
5 token items:
275,000 EC
275 Fleet Marks
15 token items:
825 FMs
DOFF pack (same as general recruitment would get you)
Larger amounts could from there include just more of the above, with a bonus for 'saving up' as it were. They could also include more unique rewards, like...other species of BOFFs (like Cardassians, Deferi, etc), perhaps DOFFs as well, and other such things.
That way there can still be a log in bonus, we couldn't get any dil out of it (since I feel that dil is the bigger problem here of things we shouldn't get outta this, not the FMs, because getting more FMs won't hurt the economy).
Obviously yes, this could potentially usher in a wave of farming again, true, but that could happen from ANYTHING. Just look at Q's Winter Wonderland.
If ya'll are worried about it, then keep it to one Fed, and one KDF character a day. So then no one can get more than 2 a day, ever. Though if that was the case, the tokens should be account bound, but if they aren't limited in such a manner ,then they'd need to be character bound, but untradable either way.
I remain empathetic to the concerns of my community, but do me a favor and lay off the god damn name calling and petty remarks. It will get you nowhere.
I must admit, respect points to Trendy for laying down the law like that.
Dunno on which server you are playing nor what game you are. Just did a Starbase 24. Zero fleet marks and only 480 Dilithium. Be free to check it yourself
You too? I was wondering if he was playing on the test server...
Dunno on which server you are playing nor what game you are. Just did a Starbase 24. Zero fleet marks and only 480 Dilithium. Be free to check it yourself
Checkmate. Was it the Daily Fleet action at the time, or did you just go into a SB24?
And fleets are especially problematic because 99% of them have ground to halts on their projects and the other 1% are massively slowed. There isnt a fleet that has made it past tier 3 without at least one person buying massive amounts of zen or everyone availing themselves of the log in bonus.
Ok... NOW I'm going to say something... I have read this and your other thread and laugh hilariously. Love a good nerd rage thread, you know
You keep mentioning that "99% of fleets have ground to a halt" Have you personally spoken to all the fleets out there? Have you taken a poll? Have you TRIBBLE Cryptic's severs and looked at the numbers?
Personally, My fleet is right on track. We've hit a few snags along the way and growing pains along the way, but we worked through it, on the fleet side. Our Fleet Command pulled together and rallied our troops behind a smaller, short term goal, and we conquered it. We did not ask Cryptic to give us a break, We did what we could to do what we want.
You complain about the grind, when the grind is what an MMO is about, a small steady gain in power and prestige. Hard work+time=Awesome. Just like in real life.
You complain about the time it takes to gain rewards. All things take time and energy to get, even in MMOs. Just like in real life.
I am not wondering what sever you are playing on, I am wondering what LIFE you are living.
Live on Earth. Work in Space. Play with Dragons. Join the best add on to STO, the Neverwinter holodeck program! Only 14 GPL a month.
Comments
City of Heroes didn't fail at all. NC Soft decided to pull the plug because they were making changes in the company. There was actually a big fuss about it on the CoH forums as well as petitions to save the game and even some news outlets posting the story. The game was actually doing fairly well and they were working on issue 24 and had plans at least to issue 26. We got screwed big time. Even the developers didn't know the game was going to shut down. Just 1 day the came in to work and all employees were let go and Paragon Studios shut down. No warning or anything. They actually were making a profit.
To be honest I believe CoH had a better cash shop. I played for a year and spent over $1,000 on Paragon Points in that time. Most of the stuff were permanent account unlocks. All costumes, all power sets, all non-combat pets. Just pay for it once and that was it. In STO the pets are all single character and only costumes in the c-store are account unlocks (They seem intent on putting more and more costumes in the stupid lobi store where you end up spending more real money (If you buy Zen that way) for a single character costume then you would for an account wide unlock in the c-store).
COH had fairer prices than STO. The most expensive items in the CoH cash shop was 1600 paragon points, roughly $20, and that was only 1 to 3 things. Everything else was $10 max. They were also adding a lot of new content every 3-4 months as well as having items in the cash shop go on sale every single week, sometimes something would be as much as 50% off, new items added at least once a month. Costume pack with a lot of different pieces unlocked for your whole account were ALL 400 points, $5 each.
You have no friggen clue what you are talking about.
*Note: In 2007 Cryptic sold City of Heroes to NC Soft. The game went free to play in 2011.
If what you claimed Cryptic said about CoH is true, it was because Cryptic felt stupid for failing at the game and selling it. Cryptic screwed up CoH and NC Soft saved it. They were jealous.
Edit: CoH didn't have nearly as much grind as STO. Not even close.
it was much needed..
To the exploit "clickies":
They were a quick way to get 1440 Dill and 50 FM's.
To be honest, i used it too at times. but not so much for the Dill, but for the FM's.
Having 12 toons now (9 before S7) i was actively playing 2-3.
I was getting to my daily 8k on one or two of them.
The other toons needed 1140, 2280, 3420, 4560, 5700, 6840, 7980 = 7 days to get to their 8k. If i even logged onto them. I do not think that was such a big amount..
On the other hand, i loved to have 9x50 = 450 FREE fleet marks a day to build up my fleet.
So - the dillithium is NOT the problem here at all. The problem are the FM's. How long would i have to play and coordinate with other people (on KDF side even more difficult) to get 450 Fleet Marks?
- 3,5 hours of Foundry
- logging only in when the bonus is around
- replaying the same 5 missions over and over, waiting in the queue, hoping the group will not be full of morons which can't read, don't know their stuff, sci's who don't heal, engis without turrets...
NOT FUN
IF the Fleet Star Bases are designed as sinks, their decision to let us grind for Fleet Marks, which are not usable for anything else and were previously free, is just stupid.
Now, my main sits on 100k Dill, refined, and im creating 20k a day without much trouble.
But i cannot put it into the base, cause the projects are standing cause of Fleet Marks.
Therefore the idea of AWARDING players JUST for logging into a toon by 50 free Fleet Marks and NOTHING ELSE is a GOOD IDEA.
ps - every other F2P game i know has a daily log-in bonus. Why not STO?
solution - give all Fleet actions also some Dill reward + the existing FM reward, and get the daily log-in bonus of 50 FM's on the road.
The Problem is the Refine Cap of 8000 Dilli.
That slow down FLeets in my eyes this Daily Amount is a Joke and i think this must be increased.
Maybe to 16.000 or 20.000
Encouraging people to log on every day, even if they don't really play, gives them a motive to come into the game, to keep playing and not forget or get detached from the game. Many games will give you increasing rewards for consecutive days logged in, so if you don't show up one day then you start back out with tiny rewards again.
Obviously this could be abused again, because the real exploit in the game is the ability to transfer dilithium from one character to another, not all the BS everyone else decides to call an exploit. So they could make the bonus one per account, or fix the root cause of the problem, which is what real businesses do, not just slap half used bandaids ontop of each other.
Completed Starbase, Embassy, Mine, Spire and No Win Scenario
Nothing to do anymore.
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this, 1000x this
when there is a daily log-in bonus, which can help me/the fleet, i will log in, only if for a while. Then i chat a bit with friends, see what is new, what is fun, do some quick PVP or Fleet action... and look at my watch - i've played for 3 hours..
without the bonus, i just tell myself - i earned 700 FM's in the last 3 days - it's time my fleet mates do something. And i go play something else for a week.
Then i look around - 3 months are gone, and i have to install 2GB of updates before getting into the game.
As I've stated before in other threads (and as one or two here have also said) its not the Dilithium that I miss its the Fleet Marks. The Dil was almost a by-product to me.
So this change is very welcome
I can honestly see why the "clickies" were outlawed, its not what the Foundry is about and detracted from the good work of many authors (Some damn fine work! Worthy of a Featured Episodes that would put Cryptic themselves to shame!) but it removed a source of FM. OK a very EASY source but a source none the less.
Personally I dont find the Fleet actions fun, although I have a soft spot for colony invasion, so grinding those does not enthrall me at all.
What would be great is if someone could compile a list of good, fun, 15 to 30 min foundry missions?
If its absorbing I'll go for it
Try "hair today, gorn tomorrow" I get a kick out of the little bit of dialog involved otherwise its a simple ground battle against groups of gorn terminating in a boss fight. Running time for me 15 minutes.
Fleet Marks doesn't work that well because there are plenty of people who aren't even in a fleet, so that's not quite fair to them.
Dilithium is problematical because it can be converted to Zen, which is how PWE makes money. If this perk were limited to Gold accounts, I would agree it's a good idea. I'd even be tempted to sub for that, plus the other Gold benefits.
Energy Credits? That could work okay, to allow people to save up for really expensive stuff on the Exchange. On the other hand, it could be less incentive for people to put stuff up on the Exchange.
What else is there?
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Thanks! I'll give that one a gorn...I mean go...
no, it has to be something non-currency..
like some boosts (medium shield recharge, 10 uses, not sellable) or Fleet Marks
I played a handful of fun ones yesterday and a few okay ones.
I for one am happy with the new change, heck, I think it will help the foundry improve. Hopefully they can get rid of all the old one click mission clogging up the list though.
One of X number of (Omega/Romulan/Fleet Marks)
X amount of dilithium
X amount of energy credits
A stack of consumables or a piece of equipment of varying quality
With the Xs increasing up to 5 days logged on consecutively
Completed Starbase, Embassy, Mine, Spire and No Win Scenario
Nothing to do anymore.
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Visit our Youtube channel
There is such a thing as too much rewards.
I've played those PvE queues plenty, thank you very much. Besides, you'll need something to do during that 30 minute cooldown.
The Officer Reports mission has a 15-minute cooldown from start, thus (if you stayed up for 24-hours straight playing this mission alone) you could effectively earn roughly 220k in dilithium and 4800 fleet marks. I think that's more than adequate.
There is no point playing STF's for Fleet Marks cause nomatter what you do, you aren't given enough. The same applies to the Romulan Nebula event. The rewards are just too small. There are other ways to get the required currencies. The only one that may take a bit more time is the Omega Stuff. I have yet to find a quick way around that short of elite STFs, half of which people quit out the second the optional objective fails.
The Officer Reports mission has a 15-minute cooldown from start....[/QUOTE]
Agree with your point but the new cooldown on it to 30 minutes; so just keeping info accurate.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Still, even with a 30-minute cooldown, that's still 1100k in dilithium and 2400 fleet marks in 24 hours, and people are complaining about it? :rolleyes:
Disagree, reducing the cooldown is still not enough incentive to play any of the foundry missions. There are so many out there with 5 star reviews that are horrible missions. If PvE Queues are dying it's because of the Winter event and seeing how the drop rates from the snow piles in the last patch was reduced, people will be spending even more time there and not in the STFs, Fleet Actions, or whatever.
Ah no, the more rewards you give users the more likely they will come back for even more. People are greedy and if you make it easy to get stuff; people will be there every day, make it hard and they will go on to something else.
Approximately three to four days ago, I went out and bought "Skyrim" and "Dragon Age II". After playing "Star Trek: Online" for a good ten months, I started to miss the fulfillment I get from playing offline games. You don't have to worry about lockboxes dropping, intense grinding, and intensely gated content. If I want to obtain a specific piece of gear, I don't have to: grind to unlock tiers, grind to claim a tier, grind to unlock the piece, and then grind to buy the items. Within a normal offline roleplaying game, you just have to meet certain criteria. Your level progression unlocks certain content, and you save up coins and items to 'instantly' buy them from stores. Also, the content you obtain can be used for leveling characters.
"Star Trek: Online" went from, "Yay! Featured episodes and new items!", to, "What?!?! I have to grind a million gates to get one item?". When I was playing through Season Five, I was hoping to see more featured episodes. Once they were replaced with fleetbases, embassies, and the reputation system, I started to remember what it was like to play single-player games. Its much more rewarding.
During the past four to five months, I spent around $200+ on the purchase of zen. Even though I spent that much money, the rewards for making a substantial investment didn't turn up. If I did get anything from my investment, I think I was rewarded with: nerfed gear, nerfed ships, nerfed weapons, nerfed rewards, nerfed progress, high dilithium requirements, high Omega, Fleet, and Romulan Marks requirements, extensively gated content, and zero over level fifty progression.
If it wasn't for the social aspects of this game, I would have most likely left after a few months.
I technically lost the game.
If you read the latest release notes, the featured fleet action daily (which will be SB24, Gorn Minefield, or Klingon Scout force) gives 960 dilithium and 50 fleet marks. Besides, I get to slap the TRIBBLE out of NPCs which are weak as hell compared to the elite NPCs I usually fight, I get to laugh at other players incompetence or see others succeed and learn from them, AND I get paid to do it? What is there to complain about? I do fleet actions for fun, not for loot. If I wanted loot I would sit in Tau Dewa or Defera or the B'Tran Cluster (Vice Admiral/Lieutenant General) and farm those missions all day on Elite. Or I would do ESTFs (which are addressed in the next portion).
This makes me wonder if you have played any elite STFs at all, since I have played dozens since S7 came out, and they did give us back our end of mission loot bags I believe two or three patches ago. Which contain dilithium, Omega marks, and random drops, some of them being mk XII purple equipment/weapons. Just the other day I got a rather nice mk XII phaser beam array [acc]x2 [crtd] which I sold for 4 million on the exchange.
Now I think you're just being cynical. They addressed on of the biggest complaints that was put up with putting the dilithium back in STFs and giving people the opportunity to get better gear without having to place first in a fleet action (really not that hard tbh, I fly a bloody cruiser and I manage to do it on a regular basis), and all you got is a starbase project complaint? What about those people who aren't in fleets? As rare as they may be, they were still helped. Smaller fleets were helped by this. Hell, everyone was helped by this. I am not trying to be the poster boy for Cryptic, but at least give them credit for listening for once, and actually doing something for the playerbase with no trade-off.
To start, I do agree that a log-in bonus would be really nice, and help people log into the game and keep doing so each day.
I say don't force a single choice on anyone. Why not just give them a 'token' once a day for logging in? Then put a vendor at every major hub in the game, including fleet Starbases, which will let you spend the log-in token. Things could cost just 1 token, or multiple ones.
Some examples:
1 token items:
50,000 EC
50 Fleet Marks
50 common, or 1 uncommon unreplicatable material
A random uncommon or rare item of your level
A random common DOFF.
A bunch of commodities of your choosing
5 token items:
275,000 EC
275 Fleet Marks
15 token items:
825 FMs
DOFF pack (same as general recruitment would get you)
Larger amounts could from there include just more of the above, with a bonus for 'saving up' as it were. They could also include more unique rewards, like...other species of BOFFs (like Cardassians, Deferi, etc), perhaps DOFFs as well, and other such things.
That way there can still be a log in bonus, we couldn't get any dil out of it (since I feel that dil is the bigger problem here of things we shouldn't get outta this, not the FMs, because getting more FMs won't hurt the economy).
Obviously yes, this could potentially usher in a wave of farming again, true, but that could happen from ANYTHING. Just look at Q's Winter Wonderland.
If ya'll are worried about it, then keep it to one Fed, and one KDF character a day. So then no one can get more than 2 a day, ever. Though if that was the case, the tokens should be account bound, but if they aren't limited in such a manner ,then they'd need to be character bound, but untradable either way.
You too? I was wondering if he was playing on the test server...
Checkmate. Was it the Daily Fleet action at the time, or did you just go into a SB24?
(source)
sb24 is never part of the 3.
Ok... NOW I'm going to say something... I have read this and your other thread and laugh hilariously. Love a good nerd rage thread, you know
You keep mentioning that "99% of fleets have ground to a halt" Have you personally spoken to all the fleets out there? Have you taken a poll? Have you TRIBBLE Cryptic's severs and looked at the numbers?
Personally, My fleet is right on track. We've hit a few snags along the way and growing pains along the way, but we worked through it, on the fleet side. Our Fleet Command pulled together and rallied our troops behind a smaller, short term goal, and we conquered it. We did not ask Cryptic to give us a break, We did what we could to do what we want.
You complain about the grind, when the grind is what an MMO is about, a small steady gain in power and prestige. Hard work+time=Awesome. Just like in real life.
You complain about the time it takes to gain rewards. All things take time and energy to get, even in MMOs. Just like in real life.
I am not wondering what sever you are playing on, I am wondering what LIFE you are living.