rinkster:
Except that you yourself have admitted this is no longer about right or wrong, if it ever was. It's about an angry mob looking for a target for their anger, because they can't do anything about the thing that actually made them angry. They can yell at the sky, but that's all - and that's not enough. They want to think they can do something, that they have power, that they have control. Even if they don't. Especially if they don't.
Like you said, it's human nature.
My mistake, my sin, has been in trying to tell them "Actually, no, God can do whatever He likes and you just have to take it." They don't want to hear that.
I broadly agree, but you have missed one thing out. Some foundry authors called for fleet marks to be removed.
Whether or not they were instrumental in cryptics decision isn't really my point. Calling for other peoples rewards to be changed so that their offerings would get the attention they felt they deserved was wrong, in and of itself.
They may not have a true responsibility for the change, but they asked for other people to be, essentially, forced to play their content. That is something they deserve to be held to account for.
On the subject of the foundry authors, I can understand that while I personally don't create foundry missions (I have a ton of ideas but still don't have the foggiest how to use the tools right), I still get that they try and provide the buffer that the lack of story content in the game is pushing against.
Whether they sort of attracted PWE's attention to the fleet marks thing knowingly or not, still doesn't change the bigger issue, and that's that the game is headed for more grind oblivion, anyway.
The loss of fleet marks only punctuates that they (PWE) think players are moving too fast and getting ahead of their ridiculous requirements curve somehow. When that happened, it was instant shutdown on that front. They think they're gonna lose a dollar on something, believe it's gone.
Lifetime subber and former STO player from when it didn't suck.
ETA...I'd just like to point out I was not referring to branflakes editing of the message but the content of the message itself, which I shant repeat.
However, as Branflakes is clearly watching, I'd like to ask him directly how much this change was inspired by a tiny minority of foundry authors asking for it.
It would clear up an important issue, which is clearly causing considerable bad blood between players.
Some foundry authors have asked (and there is ample, irrefutable evidence of this) for rewards to be taken away from other players in order to have their own efforts appreciated more.
.
The part in bold is the part lost on some of the more vocal supporters of the change. I can see if people were making stuff up, but the evidence has been linked to. And the dates of said posts are way to convienient for it to be mere coincidence.
How the Devs see Star Trek, apparently:
Star Trek: The Original Grind
Star Trek: The Next Grind
Star Trek: Deep Space Grind
Star Trek: Voyage to the Grind
I am mainly a Lotro player coming to STO for a break. The grind has just become a joke within STO due to the latest update.
From my perspective its not about the dil, mainly about the removal of fleet marks from the foundry missions. Which offered a GREAT variety in ways of gaining these, instead we now have to grind the same 5-6 missions.
PWC would do well to remember that Turbine makers of LOTRO decided too put in a massive grind. The result of this was that players left in large numbers. This then resulted in Turbine going into chapter 11 (US) receivership (UK) bankrupt.
The fact that this thread is now 60 pages long should be telling you something dev's. I have underlined the point with relevant example of what can happen.
What ever happened to the US mind set the customer is right..............Forget it at your peril.
In the limited time i have to play during the week. I can venture to say. I can once every day make more dilithium if i do the deferra run, DAILYS IN NEUTRAL ZONE, BRAVE NEW WORLDS. AND doff missions. this would be double i would get in the same time. doing your 2 hour foundry mission.... bring back the Fleet Marks!!!
PWC would do well to remember that Turbine makers of LOTRO decided too put in a massive grind. The result of this was that players left in large numbers. This then resulted in Turbine going into chapter 11 (US) receivership (UK) bankrupt.
I'm curious as to which grind you're referencing here
I am mainly a Lotro player coming to STO for a break. The grind has just become a joke within STO due to the latest update.
From my perspective its not about the dil, mainly about the removal of fleet marks from the foundry missions. Which offered a GREAT variety in ways of gaining these, instead we now have to grind the same 5-6 missions.
PWC would do well to remember that Turbine makers of LOTRO decided too put in a massive grind. The result of this was that players left in large numbers. This then resulted in Turbine going into chapter 11 (US) receivership (UK) bankrupt.
The fact that this thread is now 60 pages long should be telling you something dev's. I have underlined the point with relevant example of what can happen.
What ever happened to the US mind set the customer is right..............Forget it at your peril.
Ask some of the ex Turbine employee's.
In the short term, it means a lot of players who are fans of both major sci-fi franchises, will take a hiatus and go back over to SWTOR, which just coincidentally started an in-game event there a couple days ago. They have a new rep sytem as well, however any progression you make in it, goes account wide, you don't have to grind every character you have separately.
In the long term, the only solution is that some fans band together, incorporate into an LLC, start a studio, and develop a Star Trek MMO the right way.
Lifetime subber and former STO player from when it didn't suck.
Seeing as how this topic is so popular right now, I went ahead and made a video about it and uploaded it to Youtube. Look down for the link! :rolleyes:
No, I am not who you think I am. I am someone different. I am instead a banana.
Removing Fleet Marks and altering the Dailies (again) is, in my opinion, a mistake.
On the surface, it appears that these changes will negatively impact casual, or part-time, players the most. It will also, obviously, negatively impact Fleets, especially mid and small sized units.
From my perspective, this is a bad decision. Hopefully, they'll quickly reverse thier position, or introduce an alternative which is acceptable and rewarding for the majority of the Community.
I broadly agree, but you have missed one thing out. Some foundry authors called for fleet marks to be removed.
Whether or not they were instrumental in cryptics decision isn't really my point. Calling for other peoples rewards to be changed so that their offerings would get the attention they felt they deserved was wrong, in and of itself.
They may not have a true responsibility for the change, but they asked for other people to be, essentially, forced to play their content. That is something they deserve to be held to account for.
It's not the anger mob routine hfmudd, it's PWE/Cryptic listening to a few players that only have their own "foundry" skills in mind and not the entire community.
Now let's examine a possible reason for why the "foundry" authors that suggested removing rewards like FM's from the missions....
What really is behind an idea like that.... Oh wait I think I might have the answer...
People were not playing their long 45 minutes and longer missions in favor of the 15 minute missions.
Now how would that impact these "authors", well it's simple.....
If only 10% of the players that did these missions actually gave the author a diithiuml reward in the review of the mission, then think of how much dill they lost when people stopped playing their missions.
Now it makes sense why they would complain and try to get rid of the 15 minute missions that were being played instead of the long story based missions.
THEY LOST DILITHIUM! Plain and simple!
They did not care about the foundry or the players, they were in it for themselves!
As my Vulcan friends would say... your logic is undeniable!
Calling for other peoples rewards to be changed so that their offerings would get the attention they felt they deserved was wrong, in and of itself.
I think that this is a stretch. We had a very long debate about rewards and different ways the Foundry rewards could be adjusted. Any discussion of that nature will involve lots of posts like:
"I don't think it should reward A and B, but instead reward X, Y, and Z."
Any discussion like that is a discussion of various ideas about what to add and what to remove, with lots of competing ideas thrown in and out in the back and forth. Any discussion of change to any rewards system involves exactly that type of "take out X, put in Y."
According to your standard, any discussion of change is "wrong, in and of itself."
Seeing as how this topic is so popular right now, I went ahead and made a video about it and uploaded it to Youtube. Look down for the link! :rolleyes:
Kudos on the video, I enjoyed. LOL@the cat picture.
Lifetime subber and former STO player from when it didn't suck.
According to your standard, any discussion of change is "wrong, in and of itself."
Not exactly correct.
If foundry authors had asked for a reward to be added as an incentive to play their missions, then that is clearly not a problem.
Asking for a reward to be taken away is a problem.
ETA, asking for a reward to be taken away is even more of a problem when the thing that is being asked for is a major source of that commodity for other players. This is not a trivial change, its a small fleet killer. That sort of thing has consequences.
bummer i stopped doing the fleet events because well i got board of them so when the FMs where added to the foundry i was delighted as i could do different content to get the marks now not even going to bother getting marks and just doing the same missions, over, and over, and over, and over. it gets dull i do not play this game to be board i play this game to have fun playing the same 4 missions is not fun (same reason i never got big into the STFs)
and no i never id grind missions. i actually played some story missions
oh well now fleet marks form me it seems. the scaled rewards are fine to bad the FMs are not scaled rewarded with them
Kudos on the video, I enjoyed. LOL@the cat picture.
I threw that in to let Brandon and the team at Cryptic know it's nothing personal. I know it was a business decision and that after all this dies down, we can still go out and get a steak.
No, I am not who you think I am. I am someone different. I am instead a banana.
If foundry authors had asked for a reward to be added as an incentive to play their missions, then that is clearly not a problem.
Asking for a reward to be taken away is a problem.
The reward is the tip in the review at the end of the mission. If players are not playing your mission then you don't get the tip, which is by the way is a minimum of 25 dilithium.
So the reward is not something that drops or is given to the players, but the tip in the review of the mission.
Now think if just 10% of the players that played their missions gave the minimum tip of 25 dilithium.
That's alot of dilitium to lose to the "quick and easier" 15 minute foundry missions made by the other authors.
I think that this is a stretch. We had a very long debate about rewards and different ways the Foundry rewards could be adjusted. Any discussion of that nature will involve lots of posts like:
"I don't think it should reward A and B, but instead reward X, Y, and Z."
Any discussion like that is a discussion of various ideas about what to add and what to remove, with lots of competing ideas thrown in and out in the back and forth. Any discussion of change to any rewards system involves exactly that type of "take out X, put in Y."
According to your standard, any discussion of change is "wrong, in and of itself."
I think any time that Player Group A lobbies Devs that "Something for Player Group B should be changed"...no matter what that "something" is...without Group B's input, Group A should be, and usually is, slowly roasted over hot coals in the forums of whatever MMO is involved.
PS, on a completely unrelated note; restricting the ability to start threads for someone who has already paid to upgrade to gold is asinine.
Seeing as how this topic is so popular right now, I went ahead and made a video about it and uploaded it to Youtube. Look down for the link! :rolleyes:
LOL at the end. I will subscribe to your channel.
How the Devs see Star Trek, apparently:
Star Trek: The Original Grind
Star Trek: The Next Grind
Star Trek: Deep Space Grind
Star Trek: Voyage to the Grind
Seeing as how this topic is so popular right now, I went ahead and made a video about it and uploaded it to Youtube. Look down for the link! :rolleyes:
I think that this is a stretch. We had a very long debate about rewards and different ways the Foundry rewards could be adjusted. Any discussion of that nature will involve lots of posts like:
"I don't think it should reward A and B, but instead reward X, Y, and Z."
Any discussion like that is a discussion of various ideas about what to add and what to remove, with lots of competing ideas thrown in and out in the back and forth. Any discussion of change to any rewards system involves exactly that type of "take out X, put in Y."
According to your standard, any discussion of change is "wrong, in and of itself."
To be fair, I wasn't aware there was an ongoing discussion about such rewards connected to the Foundry. I'm not omnipresent on these boards, and I don't go to the Foundry section because I don't create such content myself. I wouldn't expect a great many players would also have been aware.
If Cryptic were concerned with the reward system, they should have brought it to the attention of the whole forum themselves, and if possible, more than just the apparent small sampling of the STO community that frequents this forum. But then that is the ultimate danger when dealing with minorities, something Cryptic seems loathe to do anything about.
I threw that in to let Brandon and the team at Cryptic know it's nothing personal. I know it was a business decision and that after all this dies down, we can still go out and get a steak.
This has been an ongoing thing since PWE's purchase of Cryptic. I've been playing since the first week the game launched, when it was subsciption only. I remember that right before we even knew Cryptic was being sold off by Atari, they had announced that STO was going to explore free to play, but they had planned to follow what had been a very successful Champions Online model at the time where they had balanced F2P with subbers quite well.
However, once PWE entered the mix and bought them, you never heard any of those plans again, they came out with a completely different model than what they were envisioning, I'm sure because it had to be approved under PWE mandate. So Asian grind was forced onto us under orders, not because of what Cryptic had planned.
Revisionist history aside, you see now what the game is for yourself. It wasn't like this back in the earlier seasons, I can promise you that.
~ Supreme
Lifetime subber and former STO player from when it didn't suck.
This has been an ongoing thing since PWE's purchase of Cryptic. I've been playing since the first week the game launched, when it was subsciption only. I remember that right before we even knew Cryptic was being sold off by Atari, they had announced that STO was going to explore free to play, but they had planned to follow what had been a very successful Champions Online model at the time where they had balanced F2P with subbers quite well.
However, once PWE entered the mix and bought them, you never heard any of those plans again, they came out with a completely different model than what they were envisioning, I'm sure because it had to be approved under PWE mandate. So Asian grind was forced onto us under orders, not because of what Cryptic had planned.
Revisionist history aside, you see now what the game is for yourself. It wasn't like this back in the earlier seasons, I can promise you that.
~ Supreme
True. That's why I never take changes like this on a personal level and I never make jabs at people like Branflakes when things like this happen. In most cases, they are having to follow what is handed down from the money men in the company and they have little control over it. I am sure they want to make us happy again and by making our voices heard here and on the web via twitter, facebook, youtube, etc. it will make it easier for them to convince the money men to give us certain things back. I hope those money men are listening and reading our posts and watching my video. I really like this game, but if becomes unplayable in my eyes, I and many other people will go elsewhere. I don't mind paying a sub fee for a game I like which is why I just bought a 3 month sub to show my support for the guys at Cryptic. I purchased it before this change was made though and now I feel ripped off. Every month I have purchased a decent amount of zen not only so I can enjoy the game the way I want to, but also to keep people like Brandon and the rest of the guys employed in a good job. Things like this make it very hard for me to justified spending money now. I hate to say it, but I won't buy zen this month and if something doesn't get better, I will just wait till another game I have been looking at goes live and when it does, I may not come back to sto.
Yeah, yeah. I know some people will read this and think it's an empty threat, but it's true. Whenever they had zen sales, I always bought zen. When the Universal Game Card promo was on, i bought tons of those cards (at $20 a pop). Heck, look at all the clothes my characters have and you will see I've spend significant money on this game so I can enjoy myself. I am sure there are others out there like me who don't mind dropping some cash on something we like. I want to keep liking this game, but right now they are making it very hard for me. The simple fact is we spend money on something that we feel we get pleasure from. This is no longer pleasing...so why spend money?
No, I am not who you think I am. I am someone different. I am instead a banana.
Asking for a reward to be taken away is a problem.
I don't remember many people doing that beyond brainstorming different systems. The topic of FMs was never a "crusade," like it's being presented.
The simple issue for me is that I spent well over 100 hours crafting each of my stories. Before the IOR there were clickies, yes, but they did not dominate the list of "top rated." Folks could find my missions. With the introduction of the IOR, the list of "top-rated" got absolutely flooded with "Farm Lootz 101."
These are missions primarily designed to give players the most stuffz for the least amount of work, because that is how the IOR treated Foundry in general:
"Hey player, do you want 960 dil +50 FMs for playing a 15 minute grinder that was slapped together in 35 minutes? Or, do you want the same reward for a significantly longer mission that was a labor of love by a Star Trek fan who is trying to tell their own story in a fictional universe that they love?"
If there was any kind of unified crusade, it was collective anger that all of our stories were getting drowned out by missions that didn't even try to tell a story. They were either exploits or missions where players go afk. Or, they are specifically designed to farm loot.
That they were so popular is a no brainer when all of you have endless buckets to fill.
Taking away FMs was not advocated very often, that I recall. The two most popular ideas were A. Rewards that scale with time; and B. UI that lets us sort between grinder stuff and actual story missions.
This patch was Cryptic's answer after watching that debate.
A. They finally gave us a system of scaling rewards (which we have been asking for).
B. They did nothing to stop farming or AFK missions (although they did nerf what was clearly an exploit with timid).
C. They took away FMs (I'm guessing that is to discourage Foundry grinding in general). That is a guess on my part. They could simply have used the opportunity to do something they already wanted to do.
Comments
I broadly agree, but you have missed one thing out. Some foundry authors called for fleet marks to be removed.
Whether or not they were instrumental in cryptics decision isn't really my point. Calling for other peoples rewards to be changed so that their offerings would get the attention they felt they deserved was wrong, in and of itself.
They may not have a true responsibility for the change, but they asked for other people to be, essentially, forced to play their content. That is something they deserve to be held to account for.
Whether they sort of attracted PWE's attention to the fleet marks thing knowingly or not, still doesn't change the bigger issue, and that's that the game is headed for more grind oblivion, anyway.
The loss of fleet marks only punctuates that they (PWE) think players are moving too fast and getting ahead of their ridiculous requirements curve somehow. When that happened, it was instant shutdown on that front. They think they're gonna lose a dollar on something, believe it's gone.
Fed: Astarsha, level 60 tactical officer
KDF: K'tana level 54 tactical officer
And so it begins......
ETA...I'd just like to point out I was not referring to branflakes editing of the message but the content of the message itself, which I shant repeat.
However, as Branflakes is clearly watching, I'd like to ask him directly how much this change was inspired by a tiny minority of foundry authors asking for it.
It would clear up an important issue, which is clearly causing considerable bad blood between players.
The part in bold is the part lost on some of the more vocal supporters of the change. I can see if people were making stuff up, but the evidence has been linked to. And the dates of said posts are way to convienient for it to be mere coincidence.
Star Trek: The Original Grind
Star Trek: The Next Grind
Star Trek: Deep Space Grind
Star Trek: Voyage to the Grind
I am mainly a Lotro player coming to STO for a break. The grind has just become a joke within STO due to the latest update.
From my perspective its not about the dil, mainly about the removal of fleet marks from the foundry missions. Which offered a GREAT variety in ways of gaining these, instead we now have to grind the same 5-6 missions.
PWC would do well to remember that Turbine makers of LOTRO decided too put in a massive grind. The result of this was that players left in large numbers. This then resulted in Turbine going into chapter 11 (US) receivership (UK) bankrupt.
The fact that this thread is now 60 pages long should be telling you something dev's. I have underlined the point with relevant example of what can happen.
What ever happened to the US mind set the customer is right..............Forget it at your peril.
Ask some of the ex Turbine employee's.
I'm curious as to which grind you're referencing here
The radiance.
In the short term, it means a lot of players who are fans of both major sci-fi franchises, will take a hiatus and go back over to SWTOR, which just coincidentally started an in-game event there a couple days ago. They have a new rep sytem as well, however any progression you make in it, goes account wide, you don't have to grind every character you have separately.
In the long term, the only solution is that some fans band together, incorporate into an LLC, start a studio, and develop a Star Trek MMO the right way.
Fed: Astarsha, level 60 tactical officer
KDF: K'tana level 54 tactical officer
On the surface, it appears that these changes will negatively impact casual, or part-time, players the most. It will also, obviously, negatively impact Fleets, especially mid and small sized units.
From my perspective, this is a bad decision. Hopefully, they'll quickly reverse thier position, or introduce an alternative which is acceptable and rewarding for the majority of the Community.
It's not the anger mob routine hfmudd, it's PWE/Cryptic listening to a few players that only have their own "foundry" skills in mind and not the entire community.
Now let's examine a possible reason for why the "foundry" authors that suggested removing rewards like FM's from the missions....
What really is behind an idea like that.... Oh wait I think I might have the answer...
People were not playing their long 45 minutes and longer missions in favor of the 15 minute missions.
Now how would that impact these "authors", well it's simple.....
If only 10% of the players that did these missions actually gave the author a diithiuml reward in the review of the mission, then think of how much dill they lost when people stopped playing their missions.
Now it makes sense why they would complain and try to get rid of the 15 minute missions that were being played instead of the long story based missions.
THEY LOST DILITHIUM! Plain and simple!
They did not care about the foundry or the players, they were in it for themselves!
As my Vulcan friends would say... your logic is undeniable!
PWE/Cryptic Stop the farm, bring back the fun!
Zeus
I think that this is a stretch. We had a very long debate about rewards and different ways the Foundry rewards could be adjusted. Any discussion of that nature will involve lots of posts like:
"I don't think it should reward A and B, but instead reward X, Y, and Z."
Any discussion like that is a discussion of various ideas about what to add and what to remove, with lots of competing ideas thrown in and out in the back and forth. Any discussion of change to any rewards system involves exactly that type of "take out X, put in Y."
According to your standard, any discussion of change is "wrong, in and of itself."
Kudos on the video, I enjoyed. LOL@the cat picture.
Fed: Astarsha, level 60 tactical officer
KDF: K'tana level 54 tactical officer
Not exactly correct.
If foundry authors had asked for a reward to be added as an incentive to play their missions, then that is clearly not a problem.
Asking for a reward to be taken away is a problem.
ETA, asking for a reward to be taken away is even more of a problem when the thing that is being asked for is a major source of that commodity for other players. This is not a trivial change, its a small fleet killer. That sort of thing has consequences.
bummer i stopped doing the fleet events because well i got board of them so when the FMs where added to the foundry i was delighted as i could do different content to get the marks now not even going to bother getting marks and just doing the same missions, over, and over, and over, and over. it gets dull i do not play this game to be board i play this game to have fun playing the same 4 missions is not fun (same reason i never got big into the STFs)
and no i never id grind missions. i actually played some story missions
oh well now fleet marks form me it seems. the scaled rewards are fine to bad the FMs are not scaled rewarded with them
I threw that in to let Brandon and the team at Cryptic know it's nothing personal. I know it was a business decision and that after all this dies down, we can still go out and get a steak.
The reward is the tip in the review at the end of the mission. If players are not playing your mission then you don't get the tip, which is by the way is a minimum of 25 dilithium.
So the reward is not something that drops or is given to the players, but the tip in the review of the mission.
Now think if just 10% of the players that played their missions gave the minimum tip of 25 dilithium.
That's alot of dilitium to lose to the "quick and easier" 15 minute foundry missions made by the other authors.
PWE/Cryptic Stop the farming, bring back the fun!
Zeus
I think any time that Player Group A lobbies Devs that "Something for Player Group B should be changed"...no matter what that "something" is...without Group B's input, Group A should be, and usually is, slowly roasted over hot coals in the forums of whatever MMO is involved.
PS, on a completely unrelated note; restricting the ability to start threads for someone who has already paid to upgrade to gold is asinine.
LOL at the end. I will subscribe to your channel.
Star Trek: The Original Grind
Star Trek: The Next Grind
Star Trek: Deep Space Grind
Star Trek: Voyage to the Grind
Lol nice!
To be fair, I wasn't aware there was an ongoing discussion about such rewards connected to the Foundry. I'm not omnipresent on these boards, and I don't go to the Foundry section because I don't create such content myself. I wouldn't expect a great many players would also have been aware.
If Cryptic were concerned with the reward system, they should have brought it to the attention of the whole forum themselves, and if possible, more than just the apparent small sampling of the STO community that frequents this forum. But then that is the ultimate danger when dealing with minorities, something Cryptic seems loathe to do anything about.
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
Yeah...that was eternally idiotic.
To Turbine's credit, they've done pretty well in making things accessible since.
This has been an ongoing thing since PWE's purchase of Cryptic. I've been playing since the first week the game launched, when it was subsciption only. I remember that right before we even knew Cryptic was being sold off by Atari, they had announced that STO was going to explore free to play, but they had planned to follow what had been a very successful Champions Online model at the time where they had balanced F2P with subbers quite well.
However, once PWE entered the mix and bought them, you never heard any of those plans again, they came out with a completely different model than what they were envisioning, I'm sure because it had to be approved under PWE mandate. So Asian grind was forced onto us under orders, not because of what Cryptic had planned.
Revisionist history aside, you see now what the game is for yourself. It wasn't like this back in the earlier seasons, I can promise you that.
~ Supreme
Fed: Astarsha, level 60 tactical officer
KDF: K'tana level 54 tactical officer
Can we take it that this is a metaphor for how cryptic feel small fleets should be treated?
LOL, except for the fact that floor won't break regardless of how many times it get's jumped on, kicked at and whatever, yeah :P
Apparently some forum posters have diplomatic immunity nowadays, where can I get mine? [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
True. That's why I never take changes like this on a personal level and I never make jabs at people like Branflakes when things like this happen. In most cases, they are having to follow what is handed down from the money men in the company and they have little control over it. I am sure they want to make us happy again and by making our voices heard here and on the web via twitter, facebook, youtube, etc. it will make it easier for them to convince the money men to give us certain things back. I hope those money men are listening and reading our posts and watching my video. I really like this game, but if becomes unplayable in my eyes, I and many other people will go elsewhere. I don't mind paying a sub fee for a game I like which is why I just bought a 3 month sub to show my support for the guys at Cryptic. I purchased it before this change was made though and now I feel ripped off. Every month I have purchased a decent amount of zen not only so I can enjoy the game the way I want to, but also to keep people like Brandon and the rest of the guys employed in a good job. Things like this make it very hard for me to justified spending money now. I hate to say it, but I won't buy zen this month and if something doesn't get better, I will just wait till another game I have been looking at goes live and when it does, I may not come back to sto.
Yeah, yeah. I know some people will read this and think it's an empty threat, but it's true. Whenever they had zen sales, I always bought zen. When the Universal Game Card promo was on, i bought tons of those cards (at $20 a pop). Heck, look at all the clothes my characters have and you will see I've spend significant money on this game so I can enjoy myself. I am sure there are others out there like me who don't mind dropping some cash on something we like. I want to keep liking this game, but right now they are making it very hard for me. The simple fact is we spend money on something that we feel we get pleasure from. This is no longer pleasing...so why spend money?
I don't remember many people doing that beyond brainstorming different systems. The topic of FMs was never a "crusade," like it's being presented.
The simple issue for me is that I spent well over 100 hours crafting each of my stories. Before the IOR there were clickies, yes, but they did not dominate the list of "top rated." Folks could find my missions. With the introduction of the IOR, the list of "top-rated" got absolutely flooded with "Farm Lootz 101."
These are missions primarily designed to give players the most stuffz for the least amount of work, because that is how the IOR treated Foundry in general:
"Hey player, do you want 960 dil +50 FMs for playing a 15 minute grinder that was slapped together in 35 minutes? Or, do you want the same reward for a significantly longer mission that was a labor of love by a Star Trek fan who is trying to tell their own story in a fictional universe that they love?"
If there was any kind of unified crusade, it was collective anger that all of our stories were getting drowned out by missions that didn't even try to tell a story. They were either exploits or missions where players go afk. Or, they are specifically designed to farm loot.
That they were so popular is a no brainer when all of you have endless buckets to fill.
Taking away FMs was not advocated very often, that I recall. The two most popular ideas were A. Rewards that scale with time; and B. UI that lets us sort between grinder stuff and actual story missions.
This patch was Cryptic's answer after watching that debate.
A. They finally gave us a system of scaling rewards (which we have been asking for).
B. They did nothing to stop farming or AFK missions (although they did nerf what was clearly an exploit with timid).
C. They took away FMs (I'm guessing that is to discourage Foundry grinding in general). That is a guess on my part. They could simply have used the opportunity to do something they already wanted to do.