They can datamine all they want and see the errors after they make them, but it loses them customers, a lost customer rarely returns. If anyone with any actual (real) game play experience worked at cryptic they would know this is a disaster. Being part of a 400 person fleet who logs on once a week isn't the core of STO.
fair enough and yes it makes sense, but again can someone look at increasing the current rewards or adding new ways in the immediate future or are they staying the same till the next big update?
as every fleet is getting higher up in the tiers, the cost is increasing so its only getting harder and harder as everyone goes along and a big way to earn marks just went away.
if promoting the fleet content is the goal then great, but people could use a little compensation via more marks per mission to help out.
Should ask the team to work on a better variety of fleet missions that award marks. I can only play the same bunch of missions over and over again before I face roll my keyboard in a fit of snoring. This goes the same with the romulan and omega rep missions.
I'll be back when the game stops putting me to sleep. Until then, I'll be in Planetside 2 :cool:
fair enough and yes it makes sense, but again can someone look at increasing the current rewards or adding new ways in the immediate future or are they staying the same till the next big update?
as every fleet is getting higher up in the tiers, the cost is increasing so its only getting harder and harder as everyone goes along and a big way to earn marks just went away.
if promoting the fleet content is the goal then great, but people could use a little compensation via more marks per mission to help out.
I beleave ya'll are thinking wayyyy back when it was first added back then they had the clicky 3 second missions that counted, not about they way its set up now.
Also who ever can say what ever all this does it hurt your smaller fleets and discroages them, They say they are looking into ways to help smaller fleets then they do stuff like this which hurts them, it's simply talking out boath sides of your mouth, and once again makes alot of people say foundry why bother now, its just isnt worth it in a gaame where we have so much grinding to do, And foundry authors can think what they want but all those complaining about not getting play time on there missions well guess what your gonna get even less now. And thats a sad thing cause they are alot of realy great missions out there that those who are in mid size to smaller fleets have alot less time now to even think about playing them cause now we got to find another way to make up for the fleet mark loss.
While reading the patch logs i have to ask myself if the developers actually know what they are doing.
The amount of fleet marks that are required is getting more and more as new content is getting added. Starbase and embassy already take thousands of fleet marks for simple projects. Hundred thousands in total.
And the only valueable way to earn fleet marks is being removed now.
Fleet events are idiotic, boring and the reward is not worth the time spent.
Right at the moment there is no alternative to the foundry missions when it is about earning fleet marks.
And in fact most foudry missions are only played because of the fleet marks. Remove the fleet marks from there and practically nobody wants to play the foundry missions anymore because they are simply not worth it anymore.
So what are the alternatives?
Adding fleet marks to PVP? Cmon you can not be serious about this.
This is just an invitation for Tier 5 fleet members to bash the members of lower lvl fleets.
In order to win in PVPs you need good equipment... equipment that you can only access if you are already in a high lvl fleet.
So members of low lvl fleets get the chance to play target... for old fleets? is that the new innovative idea behind the new PVP system?
IF the fleet marks get removed then new fleets practically never get the chance to make progress... they practically never get the chance to raise in tiers.
It does not even make sense anymore to form new fleets if these changes really get introduced. It might even be that smaller fleets die now as they lost their chance to evolve.
Aye, this is bad news for big fleets that need ~3000 Fleet Marks a day, *very* bad for small fleets who have only a handful of people to earn the marks, and *very* bad for Foundry authors.
Expect a reversal or stepback within the next two weeks, or else Cryptic's net player gain may dip back into the negative.
I just don't understand why they even care if we gain a bunch of fleet marks quickly. You can't buy them for real money.
The faster you earn FM the more dilithium a fleet will need (something you can buy with real money).
The faster a fleet gets to T5 the faster people will be buying ship modules (also something you can buy for real money).
You would think they would make Fleet marks spring out of the ground as we walk.
Face the facts cryptic, you don't know how to write missions any more (2800 multiplayer... nuff said), you have no ideas for content.
Even when you introduce something to a game that writes its own story, you dont. Temporal vessels, where's the story line missions for that. Ferengi boxes introduced, no ferengi missions. Come on, really?
So what's left? Neato gear and a grind fest. At least with the foundry we got to play someone else mindnumbing brainless grind to add on to the 4 stale mindnumbing brainless grinds you gave us over 6 months ago.
And now, with FM farming, you had a way to speed up our spending real money that you implemented by accident which we didn't realize we were doing to ourselves and you want to stop that as well. Genius!
I almost wish I could go back to right when Atari was selling STO. And yes, we had no content, and true, there was no word on what was coming. But what we had was hope. Hope that when the "Great Darkness" was over we would have weekly FE's like we were promised. Hope that new story-line content would flow like Romulan Ale at a party. A newly invigorated staff happy to be owned by a company that actually wanted the STO IP.
I miss hope.
I am in a very small fleet and I support these changes. I find it interesting that so many people complain that the Fleet Mark missions are boring, and then turn around and 'grind' these boring foundry missions.
As far as making PvP used for fleet marks, it would be a good idea to make the system where kills AND assists (assists is possibly the hardest part but I suspect it could be done if you set it up where if a heal is applied something like 20-30s before or after a kill you get credit for an assist) then make it something like 5 fleet marks per kill/assist it would be a good thing. Just an idea.
Edit: As a matter of fact, you could make it a self buff in PvP environments that is just labeled something like "Assist" and if a kill is registered, it applies the credit. Just a possible programming idea that might work with the system you are working with internally. Just don't let it be able to apply if it's done on self or doesn't actually heal any damage (thinking of AFKers in PvP).
Only reason I bother to do any foundry missions is for the FM. I already cap 4-5 characters on dilithum each day without touching IOR. You could leave IOR in and reduce the dilithum ore to 240 or even 80 and I would still do them for the fleet marks.
I've done the few missions that award FM 100s of times and am a bit tired of them. Although I do kind of enjoy The Big Dig, i only bother to do it when I have the daily for FM from it. If it always granted them I would be more interested in it.
I really couldn't care less about how much dilithum the foundry missions award. I already get enough for my needs from other sources, Fleet Marks are the main shortfall for progress on the SB.
Guess I'll go back to not bothering to do any of the foundry missions. Like I did when IOR stopped working for clickies, I was not going to spend 2hr to get 50 FM when FM were the main reason I was doing them. No way I'm going to bother doing them when they give 0 FM.
I feel for the KDF fleets. They are going to come to a halt. The low level members are also going to have problems earning FC. Not many ways to earn FM when you are lower level.
...still fuming over the tricobalt changes...no, I don't "need" them to do well in pve or pvp but they are FUN and that ought to be something...
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Former/Cryptic Name: Captain_Hans_Langsdorff
Founding member, Special Service Squadron
"Fear God and Dread Nought." First Sea Lord, Adm. Jacky Fisher
AFK's will bring pvp down, they will just log in and get the fleetmarks after you killed them 15 times.
Absolutely guaranteed. We already have enough of that going on in some of the PVE STF's, namely Minetrap.
The PvP PuG base is going to feel that one on the nose. The premades might be just as happy having to square off against a pack of Tuffli Captains who choose that particular chunk of time to go make a coffee... However I certainly do not think pressuring/luring PvE'ers into PvP for rewards will end well for those who are in it for the actual gameplay.
There's not much more irritating in game for many of us, than to struggle for 15+ minutes to accomplish a goal and ultimately fail, because a number of your team AFK'd, or simply make it clear they don't want to be there.
I don't honestly see the FM's being added to PvP as a viable solution at all. I see nothing but more complaints, and a flurry of new Tickets being issued against afk'ers.
Is it just me or are other ppl missing the mission, " investigate officer report (repeatable)
"? I logged on and the system said it was removed then added then removed again. What's going on, isn't bad enough we lost fleet marks?
I never understood why the fleet system they added did nothing to foster fleet play. I am in a fleet and I never really talk to them or do anything with them except add to the star base bucket. When the fleet events were talked about, I thought they were going to be just that; Events that you do with your fleet mates. Every fleet event or fleet action that I do is with a PUG. It makes no sense. And don?t get me going that you can?t even use the star base as a social map to hang out with your fleet. No one is ever in there because every time you queue for an event from there, you don?t return to the starbase!! You go back to the map you were at BEFORE going to the starbase.
Anyway, here is my suggestion, for what it is worth. Offer Fleet Mark bonus for doing things with players IN YOUR FLEET. Like fleet actions and events, foundry missions, and other stuff. If the other members of your team are all in the same fleet you get bonus fleet marks.
"Star Trek Online is powered by the most abundant resource in the galaxy . . . Gullibility"
Unlocked Borg Doffs on Holodeck. It acts like something was added to the store (the store button was active) but the store is empty with just an Exit button.
Just to be sure I unlocked both blue and purple doffs. Nothing. I then unlocked something else for the store and that showed up fine. Just the doffs are missing.
In any fleet, particularly a large fleet your going to have solo players, whether you personally like it or not, who should be able to contribute to the fleet goals.
I could be mistaken but I just can't help but read an anti-solo sentiment in your posts. If that's the case i'm sorry to bust your bubble but some people are just never going to play with others even in a MMO and really doesn't detract from your gaming experience at all. In some cases that might be how the soloist gets along with other people. Or maybe it just takes them longer to drop their shields. Regardless solo fleet mates should have a way to contribute to fleet goals too.
And if i'm completely off base with this, I apologize to you and the community, and hope you don't take this as a personal attack.
I still don't know why they don't implement something like the Prestige system from their original MMO City of Heroes. When you joined a supergroup there, you could switch to "Supergroup Mode", which would allow you to earn the currency Prestige no matter what content you did in the game.
It was simple, effective, and allowed you to the play game and spend your time how you wanted. I sometimes think that they forget that the precious time we spend in game is our time and not theirs.
Couldn't Cryptic at least give us the reasoning behind taking away the FMs from foundry missions?
Or do we all have to flame the heck out of the forums again before Mr Stahl reveals why?
Now the poor authors won't get nearly as many players playing their missions. I feel for em!
Maybe just a reduction to 20-25 would have been better. 50 was kinda high, especially for big fleets.
You want to know why they're taking them away? Because Foundry Authors of 3 hour long missions were whining that people weren't playing their missions. So, this is all because of about .01% of the playerbase being satisfied, when the rest of the 99.99% is being screwed over. And 50 was not too high.
My B'rel is now both uselss in eSTFs and cant even heal himself.
Oh and the borg still hit us for 50k with a normal torpedo. Was just in a KASE, cleared everything but the tac cube at the end slaughtered us. It was one shotting everyone in the team. We actually ended up with zero living players for awhile. We blew the gate with 8 minutes left on the clock and lost the optional by time over.
Guess its time to play something else for a while. I could see how the mines would be overpowered if everyone used them but I never saw that in the pugs I did. It was just a fun toy that I liked to use. Saved the day many times, now worthless, cant even puch through the shield of a normal elite cube. Had to sit there watching it do whatever it wanted because nothing I had on my bomber could get its shields down to do dmg to the hull.
Oh and I don't remember there being a universal ticobalt cooldown before. Firing a trico torpedo now puts my mines on a timer and dropping a mine now puts all my trico torpedos on timers. I know that dropping a mine would put the other trico mines on a 30 second timer but firing a trico device did not affect my mines before. The difference really stuck out when I was doing a bombing run.
EDIT: The boff slotting bug also went live. If you change ships you can't change your boffs. If you zone a couple of times it seems to right itself but how much it takes is random. I changed ships, went to FIrst city, went to orbit, went to first city, exited, logged in, went to orbit, went to sector and I was finally able to change my boffs. Another player had to go to a different sector before they were able to change boffs.
I'd just like someone to explain why they even have Tribble as a test server?
All it does is gives us two opportunities to yell at Cryptic - once when they break Tribble, and again when the reported game-breaking bugs on Tribble get moved to Holodeck two days later.
If I was constantly TRIBBLE up, I'd at least want to minimize my tongue-lashings to one instead of two.
Proposed solution: Quit calling Tribble the test server and call it the bug preview server.
No one could complain then that we weren't getting exactly what we were told we were getting.
You want to know why they're taking them away? Because Foundry Authors of 3 hour long missions were whining that people weren't playing their missions. So, this is all because of about .01% of the playerbase being satisfied, when the rest of the 99.99% is being screwed over. And 50 was not too high.
[citation needed]
I submit that it is just as likely, if not moreso, that Cryptic looked at their own internal data, saw that people were earning "too many" fleet marks doing the "wrong" things, and made this decision unilaterally, as usual - completely ignoring what any group of players thought, also as usual.
Once every 24 hours, the first spotlight mission completed in that time frame will get a bonus 1440 Dilithium.
Once every 24 hours, the first spotlight mission completed in that time frame will get a scaling amount of Energy Credits, based on the player's level.
this did not happen I got a total of 1,364 dilithium for doing a spotlight mission "Spectres, Episode Six" on holodeck the day of the patch so your so called bonus is not working and I recieved no EC
Alright, I've just recently started playing again within the last month when I have leisure time in-between other things. Normally I just browse the forums, randomly, however I finally decided to post, don't know if that is really a good thing or not.
While there were some things changed in the recent season, which were much needed, for me it is still the same old grind with different names. Also one of the things I've seem a number of times is that there is a noticeable flux in some type of income overall, which case it is "nerfed" in some way without introducing a different way of achieving it.
While this game has changed a good amount, like I stated before, the new game play just seems like the same random grind; I'd like to add some constructive comments and concepts I've been thinking about for a while.
Second many concepts do not tie in well, which creates massive imbalances in the game; loot, crafting and general market systems. These things actually need more of a player influence. Once you are level 50, capped, much of the loot/items you receive is readily useless and a waste of time, so it's converted to EC at some point or another.
---
Starbases and Fleets
First and forth most, these must be changed to introduce a more 'fleet'-like play rather than only having a community chest for griding to level up tiers. I must add the actual instance is hardly used, and interior that people will use for all of five minutes to que up DOFF missions or general missions, the same with ship interiors.
Thus I suggest changing all of this. Make it so that the Fleet Starbase is actually in use and has meaning. Make the instant have a constant event, where things are constantly happening related to the levels of the starbase, contrast with of how many people are 'actively online, in the instant'. This can be done by:
General attack swarms, which hamper facilities of the Starbase, over the course of the day, say Raiders Orions, whomever. Also based on whats attacking, say BORG rep Marks could be rewarded, along with Fleet Marks.
The starbase based on Tier level has standing AI defenses, or making defenses (ships/turrets/etc) which are being built, disabled or boarded through the course of the event. The defenses can be upgraded using an 'leadership/command' interface tied into fleet. So this would imply slight RTS like elements.
Donate TRAINED BOFFs to the Fleet to spawn/build ships based on factors as stated before.
This will also make it so that BOFFs have a point beyond being setup for ships and doing the random the bland ground missions, after a while.
Donate constructive (ground/space: random shield/armor/kit/hypo/etc) MK space/ground equipment to apply buffs to the BOFFs and ship.
Have beam down and repair, fight off invading force, disabled ships/defenses parts of the starbase.
Have DOFFs assist with DOFF missions which repair parts of the starbase.
While the starbase is disabled/under attack the facilities/services offered are reduced or offline.
Introduce a crafting system (based on tier level, giving engineering teir more of a point), for building Starbase standing ships and defenses.
Introduce random anomalies in starbase instances which are related to the sci teir, which must be investigated, etc.
Introduce a wave system and difficulty system which scales based on the amount of people taking part.
Introduce a 'fleet' red alert, which will automatically warp individuals in the fleet to the instance and allow them to invite outsiders when the waves are becoming extremely heavy and to many things are offline in the instance.
Rewards
Have the rewards scale, rewarded on what is going based on tier level, the amount of people in the instance. This way small fleets can join someone else instance or have people join theirs to 'assist'.
Starbase LIST
Introduce a LIST, where people can scroll Starbase instances and which fleet they belong to. Not that the guest can actually use the internal Starbase itself but can instance hop to assist to get Fleet Marks by repairing disabled things, or destroying ships, etc. If there is a wave event going on.
LIST Opposing Fractions Starbases
This will give more depth to the other fractions (klink), they can show up the Fed instance, attack the third party (until it's the same fraction) while attacking the Starbase hampering it
Team System
Change how the team system works in large events. Make the Team LIST everyone in the actual event rather than teaming with four other people, the system has to be more interactive. The actual team gui/menu can easily be graphically made sleeker to fit more people on it. Make it so based on different factors, say distance, people show up on the top of the LIST, or make it so that teams have a fleet like 'wing' interface so that teams stick together and get 'wing' buffs based on distance.
Solo Play
Exploring
To actually make Solo Play exploring has more a key draw to the area generator. Have the things 'race assisted in it' be it whatever race, sends a small attachment to the starbase to assist with the constant event for a short amount of time. That or there is some type of buff, say slight increases to crafted ship production.
Alright, I've just recently started playing again within the last month when I have leisure time in-between other things.
While there were some decent amount of things changed in the recent season which were much needed, for me it is still the same old grind with different names. Also one of the things I've seem a number of times is that there is a noticeable flux in some type of income overall, which case it is "nerfed" in some way without introducing a different way of achieving it.
While this game has changed a good amount, like I stated before, the new game play just seems like the same random grind; I'd like to add some constructive comments and concepts I've been thinking about for a while.
Second many concepts do not tie in well, which creates massive imbalances in the game; loot, crafting and general market systems. These things actually need more of a player influence. Once you are level 50, capped, much of the loot/items you receive is readily useless and a waste of time, so it's converted to EC at some point or another.
---
Starbases and Fleets
First and forth most, these must be changed to introduce a more 'fleet'-like play rather than having a community chest for griding to level up tiers. I must add the actual instance is hardly used, and interior that people will use for all of five minutes to que up DOFF missions or general missions, the same with ship interiors.
Thus I suggest changing all of this. Make it so that the Fleet Starbase is actually in use and has meaning. Make the instant have a constant event, where things are constantly happening related to the levels of the starbase, contrast with of how many people are 'actively online, in the instant'. This can be done by:
General attack swarms, which hamper facilities of the Starbase, over the course of the day, say Raiders Orions, whomever. Also based on whats attacking, say BORG rep Marks could be rewarded, along with Fleet Marks.
The starbase based on Tier level has standing AI defenses, or making defenses (ships/turrets/etc) which are being built, disabled or boarded through the course of the event. The defenses can be upgraded using an 'leadership/command' interface tied into fleet. So this would imply slight RTS like elements.
Donate TRAINED BOFFs to the Fleet to spawn/build ships based on factors as stated before.
This will also make it so that BOFFs have a point beyond being setup for ships and doing the random the bland ground missions, after a while.
Donate constructive (ground/space: random shield/armor/kit/hypo/etc) MK space/ground equipment to apply buffs to the BOFFs and ship.
Have beam down and repair, fight off invading force, disabled ships/defenses parts of the starbase.
Have DOFFs assist with DOFF missions which repair parts of the starbase.
While the starbase is disabled/under attack the facilities/services offered are reduced or offline.
Introduce a crafting system (based on tier level, oh look engineering teir has a point), for building Starbase standing ships and defenses.
Introduce a wave system and difficulty system which scales based on the amount of people taking part.
Introduce a 'fleet' red alert, which will automatically warp individuals in the fleet to the instant and allow them to invite outsiders when the waves are becoming extremely heavy and to many things are offline in the instance.
Rewards
Have the rewards scale, rewarded on what is going based on tier level, the amount of people in the instant. This way small fleets can join someone else instance or have people join theirs to 'assist'.
Starbase LIST
Introduce a LIST, where people can scroll Starbase instances and which fleet they belong to. Not that the guest can actually use the internal Starbase itself but can instant hop to assist to get Fleet Marks by repairing disabled things, or destroying ships, etc. If there is a wave event going on.
LIST Opposing Fractions Starbases
This will give more depth to the other fractions (klink), they can show up the Fed instant, attack the third party (until it's the same fraction) while attacking the Starbase hampering.
Team System
Change how the team system works in large events. Make the Team LIST everyone in the actual event rather than teaming with four other people, the system has to be more interactive. The actual team gui/menu can easily be graphically made sleeker to fit more people on it. Make it so based on different factors, say distance, people show up on the top of the LIST, or make it so that teams have a fleet like 'wing' interface so that teams stick together and get 'wing' buffs based on distance.
Solo Play
Exploring
To actually make Solo Play exploring has more a key draw to the area generator. Have the things 'race assisted in it' be it whatever race, sends a small attachment to the starbase to assist with the constant event for a short amount of time. That or there is some type of buff, say slight increases to crafted ship production.
If I remember right while testing Season 6 they had a red alert for the fleets and it failed or was so badly bugged that they dropped that idea and put it in the que system instead, beside that I like the idea although I doubt it would be implemented as the fleet system was a semi suscess cryptic is wanting to finish out the story missions for Season 8 and 9 and maybe then they might go and overhaul the fleet system to make things better for the smaller fleets and so on but then your looking at maybe a year or so off before that's even attempted, great idea though
I'd just like someone to explain why they even have Tribble as a test server?
All it does is gives us two opportunities to yell at Cryptic - once when they break Tribble, and again when the reported game-breaking bugs on Tribble get moved to Holodeck two days later.
If I was constantly TRIBBLE up, I'd at least want to minimize my tongue-lashings to one instead of two.
Proposed solution: Quit calling Tribble the test server and call it the bug preview server.
No one could complain then that we weren't getting exactly what we were told we were getting.
Yup it just shows that they don't take their own test server seriously and instead choose to force patches onto the live server for test duty with the masses.
I presume their reasoning for this would be "well the alternative is waiting weeks longer for patches" but uh, I rather wait weeks for patches than live with bugged **** for days to weeks to months to years.
It's negative light that is easily prevented. It's also easy to motivate players to use the test server. They just aren't willing to give out rewards year round when they can take some heat and just unleash a mess onto the live server and make everyone bug test their coding. Would it be so terrible to set up a "veteran rewards" type of system for playtime on the test server? Not that we could get access to the kind of rewards veteran rewards hands out, I'm just using it as a prime example of what's on my mind. Reward people and they will come. I've done seen enough of this kind of 'live server testing' practice by game devs. It's a terrible practice unless you make it a mission to fix things within a day or two of breaking stuff. Then it's pretty much forgivable but only then.
Just checked the Rom boffs, they still have their traits bugged in the boff store, not sure if maybe they are working properly if you buy them. Not gonna try though.
Comments
Completed Starbase, Embassy, Mine, Spire and No Win Scenario
Nothing to do anymore.
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Should ask the team to work on a better variety of fleet missions that award marks. I can only play the same bunch of missions over and over again before I face roll my keyboard in a fit of snoring. This goes the same with the romulan and omega rep missions.
I'll be back when the game stops putting me to sleep. Until then, I'll be in Planetside 2 :cool:
I beleave ya'll are thinking wayyyy back when it was first added back then they had the clicky 3 second missions that counted, not about they way its set up now.
The amount of fleet marks that are required is getting more and more as new content is getting added. Starbase and embassy already take thousands of fleet marks for simple projects. Hundred thousands in total.
And the only valueable way to earn fleet marks is being removed now.
Fleet events are idiotic, boring and the reward is not worth the time spent.
Right at the moment there is no alternative to the foundry missions when it is about earning fleet marks.
And in fact most foudry missions are only played because of the fleet marks. Remove the fleet marks from there and practically nobody wants to play the foundry missions anymore because they are simply not worth it anymore.
So what are the alternatives?
Adding fleet marks to PVP? Cmon you can not be serious about this.
This is just an invitation for Tier 5 fleet members to bash the members of lower lvl fleets.
In order to win in PVPs you need good equipment... equipment that you can only access if you are already in a high lvl fleet.
So members of low lvl fleets get the chance to play target... for old fleets? is that the new innovative idea behind the new PVP system?
IF the fleet marks get removed then new fleets practically never get the chance to make progress... they practically never get the chance to raise in tiers.
It does not even make sense anymore to form new fleets if these changes really get introduced. It might even be that smaller fleets die now as they lost their chance to evolve.
Expect a reversal or stepback within the next two weeks, or else Cryptic's net player gain may dip back into the negative.
My STOwiki page | Reachable in-game @PhyrexianHero
Fed Armada: Section 31 (level 730, 2700+ members)
KDF Armada: Klingon Intelligence (level 699, 2100+ members)
The faster you earn FM the more dilithium a fleet will need (something you can buy with real money).
The faster a fleet gets to T5 the faster people will be buying ship modules (also something you can buy for real money).
You would think they would make Fleet marks spring out of the ground as we walk.
Face the facts cryptic, you don't know how to write missions any more (2800 multiplayer... nuff said), you have no ideas for content.
Even when you introduce something to a game that writes its own story, you dont. Temporal vessels, where's the story line missions for that. Ferengi boxes introduced, no ferengi missions. Come on, really?
So what's left? Neato gear and a grind fest. At least with the foundry we got to play someone else mindnumbing brainless grind to add on to the 4 stale mindnumbing brainless grinds you gave us over 6 months ago.
And now, with FM farming, you had a way to speed up our spending real money that you implemented by accident which we didn't realize we were doing to ourselves and you want to stop that as well. Genius!
I almost wish I could go back to right when Atari was selling STO. And yes, we had no content, and true, there was no word on what was coming. But what we had was hope. Hope that when the "Great Darkness" was over we would have weekly FE's like we were promised. Hope that new story-line content would flow like Romulan Ale at a party. A newly invigorated staff happy to be owned by a company that actually wanted the STO IP.
I miss hope.
Edit: As a matter of fact, you could make it a self buff in PvP environments that is just labeled something like "Assist" and if a kill is registered, it applies the credit. Just a possible programming idea that might work with the system you are working with internally. Just don't let it be able to apply if it's done on self or doesn't actually heal any damage (thinking of AFKers in PvP).
I've done the few missions that award FM 100s of times and am a bit tired of them. Although I do kind of enjoy The Big Dig, i only bother to do it when I have the daily for FM from it. If it always granted them I would be more interested in it.
I really couldn't care less about how much dilithum the foundry missions award. I already get enough for my needs from other sources, Fleet Marks are the main shortfall for progress on the SB.
Guess I'll go back to not bothering to do any of the foundry missions. Like I did when IOR stopped working for clickies, I was not going to spend 2hr to get 50 FM when FM were the main reason I was doing them. No way I'm going to bother doing them when they give 0 FM.
I feel for the KDF fleets. They are going to come to a halt. The low level members are also going to have problems earning FC. Not many ways to earn FM when you are lower level.
AFK's will bring pvp down, they will just log in and get the fleetmarks after you killed them 15 times.
Former/Cryptic Name: Captain_Hans_Langsdorff
Founding member, Special Service Squadron
"Fear God and Dread Nought." First Sea Lord, Adm. Jacky Fisher
The PvP PuG base is going to feel that one on the nose. The premades might be just as happy having to square off against a pack of Tuffli Captains who choose that particular chunk of time to go make a coffee... However I certainly do not think pressuring/luring PvE'ers into PvP for rewards will end well for those who are in it for the actual gameplay.
There's not much more irritating in game for many of us, than to struggle for 15+ minutes to accomplish a goal and ultimately fail, because a number of your team AFK'd, or simply make it clear they don't want to be there.
I don't honestly see the FM's being added to PvP as a viable solution at all. I see nothing but more complaints, and a flurry of new Tickets being issued against afk'ers.
"? I logged on and the system said it was removed then added then removed again. What's going on, isn't bad enough we lost fleet marks?
Anyway, here is my suggestion, for what it is worth. Offer Fleet Mark bonus for doing things with players IN YOUR FLEET. Like fleet actions and events, foundry missions, and other stuff. If the other members of your team are all in the same fleet you get bonus fleet marks.
Just to be sure I unlocked both blue and purple doffs. Nothing. I then unlocked something else for the store and that showed up fine. Just the doffs are missing.
Way to QA.
... or not.
I still don't know why they don't implement something like the Prestige system from their original MMO City of Heroes. When you joined a supergroup there, you could switch to "Supergroup Mode", which would allow you to earn the currency Prestige no matter what content you did in the game.
It was simple, effective, and allowed you to the play game and spend your time how you wanted. I sometimes think that they forget that the precious time we spend in game is our time and not theirs.
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
Or do we all have to flame the heck out of the forums again before Mr Stahl reveals why?
Now the poor authors won't get nearly as many players playing their missions. I feel for em!
Maybe just a reduction to 20-25 would have been better. 50 was kinda high, especially for big fleets.
You want to know why they're taking them away? Because Foundry Authors of 3 hour long missions were whining that people weren't playing their missions. So, this is all because of about .01% of the playerbase being satisfied, when the rest of the 99.99% is being screwed over. And 50 was not too high.
My B'rel is now both uselss in eSTFs and cant even heal himself.
Oh and the borg still hit us for 50k with a normal torpedo. Was just in a KASE, cleared everything but the tac cube at the end slaughtered us. It was one shotting everyone in the team. We actually ended up with zero living players for awhile. We blew the gate with 8 minutes left on the clock and lost the optional by time over.
Guess its time to play something else for a while. I could see how the mines would be overpowered if everyone used them but I never saw that in the pugs I did. It was just a fun toy that I liked to use. Saved the day many times, now worthless, cant even puch through the shield of a normal elite cube. Had to sit there watching it do whatever it wanted because nothing I had on my bomber could get its shields down to do dmg to the hull.
Oh and I don't remember there being a universal ticobalt cooldown before. Firing a trico torpedo now puts my mines on a timer and dropping a mine now puts all my trico torpedos on timers. I know that dropping a mine would put the other trico mines on a 30 second timer but firing a trico device did not affect my mines before. The difference really stuck out when I was doing a bombing run.
EDIT: The boff slotting bug also went live. If you change ships you can't change your boffs. If you zone a couple of times it seems to right itself but how much it takes is random. I changed ships, went to FIrst city, went to orbit, went to first city, exited, logged in, went to orbit, went to sector and I was finally able to change my boffs. Another player had to go to a different sector before they were able to change boffs.
All it does is gives us two opportunities to yell at Cryptic - once when they break Tribble, and again when the reported game-breaking bugs on Tribble get moved to Holodeck two days later.
If I was constantly TRIBBLE up, I'd at least want to minimize my tongue-lashings to one instead of two.
Proposed solution: Quit calling Tribble the test server and call it the bug preview server.
No one could complain then that we weren't getting exactly what we were told we were getting.
[citation needed]
I submit that it is just as likely, if not moreso, that Cryptic looked at their own internal data, saw that people were earning "too many" fleet marks doing the "wrong" things, and made this decision unilaterally, as usual - completely ignoring what any group of players thought, also as usual.
this did not happen I got a total of 1,364 dilithium for doing a spotlight mission "Spectres, Episode Six" on holodeck the day of the patch so your so called bonus is not working and I recieved no EC
While there were some things changed in the recent season, which were much needed, for me it is still the same old grind with different names. Also one of the things I've seem a number of times is that there is a noticeable flux in some type of income overall, which case it is "nerfed" in some way without introducing a different way of achieving it.
While this game has changed a good amount, like I stated before, the new game play just seems like the same random grind; I'd like to add some constructive comments and concepts I've been thinking about for a while.
Second many concepts do not tie in well, which creates massive imbalances in the game; loot, crafting and general market systems. These things actually need more of a player influence. Once you are level 50, capped, much of the loot/items you receive is readily useless and a waste of time, so it's converted to EC at some point or another.
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Starbases and Fleets
First and forth most, these must be changed to introduce a more 'fleet'-like play rather than only having a community chest for griding to level up tiers. I must add the actual instance is hardly used, and interior that people will use for all of five minutes to que up DOFF missions or general missions, the same with ship interiors.
Thus I suggest changing all of this. Make it so that the Fleet Starbase is actually in use and has meaning. Make the instant have a constant event, where things are constantly happening related to the levels of the starbase, contrast with of how many people are 'actively online, in the instant'. This can be done by:
Team System
Solo Play
If I remember right while testing Season 6 they had a red alert for the fleets and it failed or was so badly bugged that they dropped that idea and put it in the que system instead, beside that I like the idea although I doubt it would be implemented as the fleet system was a semi suscess cryptic is wanting to finish out the story missions for Season 8 and 9 and maybe then they might go and overhaul the fleet system to make things better for the smaller fleets and so on but then your looking at maybe a year or so off before that's even attempted, great idea though
I presume their reasoning for this would be "well the alternative is waiting weeks longer for patches" but uh, I rather wait weeks for patches than live with bugged **** for days to weeks to months to years.
It's negative light that is easily prevented. It's also easy to motivate players to use the test server. They just aren't willing to give out rewards year round when they can take some heat and just unleash a mess onto the live server and make everyone bug test their coding. Would it be so terrible to set up a "veteran rewards" type of system for playtime on the test server? Not that we could get access to the kind of rewards veteran rewards hands out, I'm just using it as a prime example of what's on my mind. Reward people and they will come. I've done seen enough of this kind of 'live server testing' practice by game devs. It's a terrible practice unless you make it a mission to fix things within a day or two of breaking stuff. Then it's pretty much forgivable but only then.
Why does it say its fixed in the patch notes?
XO of Training
Tier 5 Starbase, Tier 3 Embassy, Tier 3 Dilithium Mine, Tier 3 Spire
Join us at www.dtfleet.com