Yep, still trying to figure out why this thread has been allowed to go on for 24+ pages, when a similar thread with sound files that were data mined was quickly deleted, and the individual was banned.
1. Because it's off the Gateway rather than the game itself (anyone can type in a URL).
2. If it were closed, people would just make another.
They suck. They've always sucked. I only do them when bored... which isn't often.
First contact missions are one of the key elements of the diplomacy system. Did it move the game forward?
I have two chars at max crafting.
When was the last time you levelled them up? I maxxed crafting over two years ago and haven't tried doing a new crafter since. And yet they keep trying to tweak crafting and it doesn't seem to have moved crafting forward, let alone the game.
You seem to be defining "forward" based solely on whether you like certain features. Which is irrelevent.
I actually LIKE First Contact missions. And do them frequently. You think they suck.
I'm just saying they didn't move the game forward. Which was my point. When Cryptic implements a new system it is quite often implemented incomplete During the Tribble Testing of Diplomacy, a group of us worked pretty closely with the dev in charge of it. And we were told that what was going live was only the first part and that more would be coming. That never happened. It was left incomplete. It's still incomplete.
And it didn't move the game forward, even though it gave so many people the ability to move from one transwarp spot to another.
What I'm trying to say is, Cryptic putting out another half-done faction, another group of incomplete content, isn't guaranteed to move the game forward.
No matter how badly you want to fly a D'Deridex, three years of history should tell you all exactly what to expect. Flail about all you want on the forums, but Cryptic's development history is pretty consistent.
First contact missions are one of the key elements of the diplomacy system. Did it move the game forward?
When was the last time you levelled them up? I maxxed crafting over two years ago and haven't tried doing a new crafter since. And yet they keep trying to tweak crafting and it doesn't seem to have moved crafting forward, let alone the game.
I actually LIKE First Contact missions. And do them frequently. You think they suck.
I'm just saying they didn't move the game forward. Which was my point. When Cryptic implements a new system it is quite often implemented incomplete During the Tribble Testing of Diplomacy, a group of us worked pretty closely with the dev in charge of it. And we were told that what was going live was only the first part and that more would be coming. That never happened. It was left incomplete. It's still incomplete.
And it didn't move the game forward, even though it gave so many people the ability to move from one transwarp spot to another.
What I'm trying to say is, Cryptic putting out another half-done faction, another group of incomplete content, isn't guaranteed to move the game forward.
No matter how badly you want to fly a D'Deridex, three years of history should tell you all exactly what to expect. Flail about all you want on the forums, but Cryptic's development history is pretty consistent.
I concur almost completely with your entire post. You are right about many aspects of the game: there are many features that are sadly neglected, collecting cyber dust. There's a lot of potential and it is squandered by lack of imagination, creativity, or simple drive. There feels to be a lack of concern over quality with Cryptic.
I haven't actually read all pages of this thread so I don't know if this has been stated, but I am entirely convinced that Cryptic will eventually roll out a Romulan faction. I'm personally not convinced it's going to happen in May. I can't imagine that they've really been able to do as much work as something like that.
What I do know is that a Romulan faction will most likely be largely unplayable for days when it is debuted, whenever that may be, due to bugs and errors that the dev team doesn't care about fixing. Once most of those bugs get smoothed over, due to the high demand of players in trying out something as shiny and new as a new faction, I think people will notice that the Romulan faction will lack just as much content as the KDF faction.
I'm not a psychic but there you go. (I'm not talking/lecturing to you personally, just sort of building on what your post said, because I really appreciated you articulating and hinting at certain things.)
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You do know that this is an MMO right? It's not an RPG where the story IS the game.... Sure it's focussed on story more than most MMOs, but MMOs can't be entirely story based. Why? Games that are have too little replayability.
This is an area I have to disagree with. One of the most replayable games I play is LOTRO, which is a heavily story-based MMO. But it has so many story options that you can create multiple characters and none of them have to follow the exact same leveling/story path. It also has a wide variety of story content, from deep immersion, to mid-range, to light (a category I would put New Romulus dailies in). While I do not enjoy the obligatory "kill 10 boars" quests, I can handle them because there is so much more immersive content available.
This was also true in CoH. There was a wide variety of mission content, sometimes based on character origin (science, tech, natural, mutant, magic). While in both of those games there is a lot of overlap, it is still possible to tailor your experience per character and never run out of story content to do. I've never raided or PvPed in either LOTRO or CoH -- and never felt the need to.
A good MMORPG is one with a mix of solid story and other elements. I do not think that dailies, Adventure Zones, etc., are bad things. They can be very fun in small doses. But -- for me -- they cannot ever be the "meat" of the game. Too much repetition of the same tasks becomes monotonous. They can certainly blend in as a nice change of pace to help flesh out the overall experience.
The mechanics and game system in STO are wonderful for designing episode content, as you and other Foundry authors have demonstrated -- with lesser tools than those available to the devs. I would just like the devs to make more use of their tools and talents to flesh out the STO storyline for all factions.
When it comes to story vs. daily content, I don't think it's a question of either/or. It's both/and for a better game experience.
This is an area I have to disagree with. One of the most replayable games I play is LOTRO, which is a heavily story-based MMO. But it has so many story options that you can create multiple characters and none of them have to follow the exact same leveling/story path. It also has a wide variety of story content, from deep immersion, to mid-range, to light (a category I would put New Romulus dailies in). While I do not enjoy the obligatory "kill 10 boars" quests, I can handle them because there is so much more immersive content available.
Just because you can kill 10 boars in evendim instead of north downs doesn't mean it's replayability. Don't get me wrong I like lotro, I have a LTS, and play from time to time. But saying lotro is a "heavily story-based MMO" is a joke. The lore is obviously huge, but 99% of the leveling content is about killing 10 stuffs.
The only story part is just following a pre-established path. Some choices happen in the newer content, but it's few and not important. No matter what, you'll always do the same exact thing in the story. After the tutorial ofc.
The only story heavy MMO I played was SWTOR. Unique class story, 2factions stories, etc... Lots of replayability. However it's EA, and EA would sell their own mother in a cartel pack if it would make money. They already did p2win pack and Xmas event on cash shop only.
STO is also story heavy, you can lvlup using only storyline mission (some non storyline mission may be required, but not that much), and I like it.
We agree story is very important in STO. See what happen with New Romulus, they did a generic MMO map, with the usual kill boars/collect stuff objectives. It was annoying, and a lot of people will never come back to New Romulus. However, most player replay the FE from time to time, sometimes just for the item, sometimes not.
If they release a Romulan faction (will happen one day or another), I wont play it if it's some random mmo lvling path. I don't want to bash stuff with a D'deridex instead of a galaxy. I want to see the story from a Romulan point of vue. That's the most important part of it, to me.
The point doesn't stand. The point the KDF vets keep making is that they don't have enough mission content to level from 1 to 50. So your counterpoint is that there's a group of story missions you find boring. But the KDF has 8 to 9 missions written for them back in season 2. Period.
No, not period. Undo and remove that period, we've got some things to add here.
The KDF has 8 to 9 missions written for them back in season 2, and every featured episode that's ever been released, and that new episode that was released sometime last season, and every other bit of faction agnostic content in the game. Now you can add the period.
Yup, not long now until a considerable amount of the playerbase raises a collective sigh of disappointment at what all this hype is actually about
No matter what they will show, it will end up in rage all over the forum. No romulan faction : whine because people though there would be one. Romulan faction : whine because it will be op/not finished/KDF comes first. KDF update : whine because feds doesn't care, and people want Romulan. No KDF update : whine, as usual.
I am eager to see what it will be. If it's a Romulan faction, I'll be very happy, and I hope it will be interesting. Everything else ? I'll see. If it's not pvp related (doubtful) it's fine by me. Except if it's another planet full of eppohs to tag and mindless grind of tal shiar/water sampling.
They should come out with the news early or release a pictures slowly up to its reveal so that people will be thinking about it all the way up till the timer hits 0.
Just because you can kill 10 boars in evendim instead of north downs doesn't mean it's replayability. Don't get me wrong I like lotro, I have a LTS, and play from time to time. But saying lotro is a "heavily story-based MMO" is a joke. The lore is obviously huge, but 99% of the leveling content is about killing 10 stuffs.
The only story part is just following a pre-established path. Some choices happen in the newer content, but it's few and not important. No matter what, you'll always do the same exact thing in the story. After the tutorial ofc.
But there are no boars in Evendim!
I get your point, but do disagree with your assessment of percentages. There is far more story than you are giving them credit for. There are many side stories in LOTRO, not just the Epic and a bunch of kill 10 boar quests. There are plenty of kill 10 whatever quests to be sure, but every region has a solid blend of "generic" and story quests. I despise the kill 10 boars in LOTRO as much as in any other game, but there is so much more story-based content there that it offsets the generic stuff. In some regions it's enough that I can skip many of the "kill 10 boars" style quests.
The point is, as a Founder and a lifetimer there, I have never run out of fun quests to play (even with the generic ones tossed in) and never felt the need for "endgame" because the journey hasn't ended for me yet. I have multiple characters on multiple servers at a variety of levels. The variety keeps the content fresh and does indeed enhance replayability for me.
That's what I would like to see in STO as well. I know we're going to get kill/scan/click 10 whatevers and dailies, but more storyline missions need to be added to the mix to get a better balance. Then, as with LOTRO, the "kill 10 whatever" missions will be easier to stomach because they will just be part of a greater, more entertaining whole.
That's what I would like to see in STO as well. I know we're going to get kill/scan/click 10 whatevers and dailies, but more storyline missions need to be added to the mix to get a better balance. Then, as with LOTRO, the "kill 10 whatever" missions will be easier to stomach because they will just be part of a greater, more entertaining whole.
Honestly, while still being basically told to go there and kill stuff, I didn't feel the grind on SWTOR. Every quest have a story, even if it's always "Hey you, I need your help, because I'm too stupid to handle a simple task".
They improved the quests a bit on lotro. On ROR, you have the usual kill 10 boars, but they work in a story, and once done you have 1-2 solo quest involving story and no boars. Still a lot of work to do.
The episode content is fine in STO, but they are released too slowly. That's why we have to wait and grind in between.
It'll be awesome, green (no, not Orion...) and sinister.
Other than that, it will introduce vast amounts of new bugs, and revive some of the old bugs.
I'll bet'ya on this.
Eventhough, I am really looking forward to it. I have promised myself not to log in before friday. Recieving something along the lines of 'Launcher cannot initiate', or something, is for some silly reason irritating me.
No matter how badly you want to fly a D'Deridex, three years of history should tell you all exactly what to expect. Flail about all you want on the forums, but Cryptic's development history is pretty consistent.
And yet, as much as you seem to hate them, you still play their game. Or do you come to the forums just to annoy people who do? I know what to expect, I also know that if they've decided to implement a feature they'll do it anyways. I'm not gonna waste my breath trying to convince them not to based on a pessimistic assessment of the probable outcome.
I actually go to New Romulus rather often, and every time I do, I see a lot of people there. I often do informal teamups with other players in the areas with enemies.
Tau Dewa has one of the highest instance numbers for a section of the galaxy map. It regularly has 2 digit instance numbers while many parts of the galaxy map only have ONE instance. Even Sirius block(the one with ESD), usually has less than 10.
I'm pretty fresh to Star Trek Online and so far am loving the Klingon Defense Force much more than the Federation (a tad better gracious in-game attitude, if you ask me), so I wouldn't be offended by no content being offered to the Imperial Empire. All I'd be happy with is cryptic actively saying they're working to improve the KDF's content, that'd be ok.
This Romulan Star Empire faction proposal sounds all well and good, as long as it has the same amount of content as the Klingon Defense Force is limited to. As well, you have to work your way to level 24 as a Federation character- same as people wishing to unlock the KDF faction first time round. If all that is put in place and if it doesn't feel rushed, I'd say 'alright.'
Although in all honest opinion, a Romulan Star Empire faction appears rather far drawn (what with the fractures in the current romulan people) and it wouldn't be eligible to work with the New Romulus reputation faction (if it isn't drawn from it, for PvP reasons), not to mention it stinks of fan service: like the ferasans/caitians in a wish for playable kzinti.
That's not to say I don't want it, it just feels like the Dominion (for instance) would be a far more viable faction to work with how the current lore is structured. Welp, I don't really know. Maybe I'm alone in that opinion. I suppose we'll just have to see how things go.
STO is also story heavy, you can lvlup using only storyline mission (some non storyline mission may be required, but not that much), and I like it.
Only one faction can do that. And that's the crux of the issue with the KDF, and something people have been trying to point out is a problem with the development of this game.
Only one faction can do that. And that's the crux of the issue with the KDF, and something people have been trying to point out is a problem with the development of this game.
Actually.... it's no longer necessary. Thus irrelevent.
Automan FTW! Yes! I remember that show. Automan would call to the cursor, and it would draw his car for him. Pretty badass for the time period. The show brought the computer out into the real world...Tron, in reverse.
Honestly, while still being basically told to go there and kill stuff, I didn't feel the grind on SWTOR. Every quest have a story, even if it's always "Hey you, I need your help, because I'm too stupid to handle a simple task".
They improved the quests a bit on lotro. On ROR, you have the usual kill 10 boars, but they work in a story, and once done you have 1-2 solo quest involving story and no boars. Still a lot of work to do.
The episode content is fine in STO, but they are released too slowly. That's why we have to wait and grind in between.
Your last statement pretty much sums up my viewpoint here. I like the episode content in STO, they just need more of it. I don't feel the grind so much in other games, because there is enough "real" quest content to offset it.
No matter what they will show, it will end up in rage all over the forum. No romulan faction : whine because people though there would be one. Romulan faction : whine because it will be op/not finished/KDF comes first. KDF update : whine because feds doesn't care, and people want Romulan. No KDF update : whine, as usual.
I am eager to see what it will be. If it's a Romulan faction, I'll be very happy, and I hope it will be interesting. Everything else ? I'll see. If it's not pvp related (doubtful) it's fine by me. Except if it's another planet full of eppohs to tag and mindless grind of tal shiar/water sampling.
This. It's the same in every MMO, the "community" is loud, negative, and does not usually actually represent what the player base at large is thinking. No matter what gets announced tomorrow we will see a massive negative wave of comments, but come May what we will actually see is a huge boost to the number of players online enjoying whatever is coming, the same as always.
Personally, I can't wait to see the outraged posts about how whatever they are going to announce is going to be a paid update. It's almost guaranteed to be so, given that they have said that there would be a new lifetime reward in May, and that reward is almost certain to be free access to whatever new content they are adding. Every time they add paid content to the game, there is a big wave of grumbling, and this will be the first major update with a paid component, so I expect it to reach epic levels this time.
Your last statement pretty much sums up my viewpoint here. I like the episode content in STO, they just need more of it. I don't feel the grind so much in other games, because there is enough "real" quest content to offset it.
They have talked about this over the years, last time was around the time the 2800 was released. They love doing the featured episode content as much as we do, but it's very time consuming and the return on investment (dev hours vs gameplay hours) is relatively low. They obviously will be doing SOME story content as we go on, but they have said that for more regular story based content, they are relying on the foundry and their promotion of higher quality missions from it to fill the gaps, while they work on developing game systems and big story arc content.
While it's not my preferred "make a great mission that has a fun story and then charge $10 to get access" (AKA Turbine's DDO and LOTRO) model of F2P content development, PWE does not like that particular revenue model so we get what we get.
This. It's the same in every MMO, the "community" is loud, negative, and does not usually actually represent what the player base at large is thinking. No matter what gets announced tomorrow we will see a massive negative wave of comments, but come May what we will actually see is a huge boost to the number of players online enjoying whatever is coming, the same as always.
Personally, I can't wait to see the outraged posts about how whatever they are going to announce is going to be a paid update. It's almost guaranteed to be so, given that they have said that there would be a new lifetime reward in May, and that reward is almost certain to be free access to whatever new content they are adding. Every time they add paid content to the game, there is a big wave of grumbling, and this will be the first major update with a paid component, so I expect it to reach epic levels this time.
Season 7 had some pretty epic levels of nerd rage. One person actually tried starting a petition to rollback the changes.... lol, like that would happen. But yeah, this will likely be worse.
Adding any new faction in now will destroy all but the larger fleets.
I can only imagine the post rages now we lost 20 people of our 30 man Fleet to the Romulans.
Starbase building will stop and the KDF players will have a hay day with rage posts due to lack of content there.
Destroy the fleets, deny the KDF content and give us Romulan Faction, just dont see how it will be a good thing.
I have already agreed with a large group if and when it happens to start a Romulan fleet.
None us however are looking forwarding to starting over again building a new Starbase.
Just when our FED fleet is so close to Tier 5.
By introducing a long awaited for faction into the game, Cryptic will provide more options for players to indulge in. There will be more avenues for story content. There will be more avenues for player and fleet assets. There will be more avenues for ship models. There will be more avenues for revenue for Cryptic and PW.
There will not be any of the this so-called "destruction of fleets". There will not be any of this "denying the KDF content". There will be some migration and settling of the player base as those Romulan fans slide over to enjoy their favored faction finally. There will probably also be an influx of new players interested in the Green Team. There may be another outflux of Red Team fans but Cryptic will continue to provide factions with content as the game moves along.
Yes, Romulan fleets will have to start at ground zero in building their starbases. But will they have or need an "embassy" on New Romulus? Or will they have some sort of fleet "office" on New Romulus?
Cardassian/Dominion/Whomever-is-the-next-playable-faction will also have to start building their starbases from scratch. But will they have or need an "embassy" on New Romulus? Or will they have some sort of fleet "office" on New Romulus?
By having new factions introduced, Cryptic will have to address the fleet starbase projects and their resource requirements at some point.
Oh, and the exchange will probably get a lot more cluttered with a lot more gear.
Comments
1. Because it's off the Gateway rather than the game itself (anyone can type in a URL).
2. If it were closed, people would just make another.
My character Tsin'xing
Pissst .... The forums are priivatly owned by a Chinese company based in the U.S.
First contact missions are one of the key elements of the diplomacy system. Did it move the game forward?
When was the last time you levelled them up? I maxxed crafting over two years ago and haven't tried doing a new crafter since. And yet they keep trying to tweak crafting and it doesn't seem to have moved crafting forward, let alone the game.
I actually LIKE First Contact missions. And do them frequently. You think they suck.
I'm just saying they didn't move the game forward. Which was my point. When Cryptic implements a new system it is quite often implemented incomplete During the Tribble Testing of Diplomacy, a group of us worked pretty closely with the dev in charge of it. And we were told that what was going live was only the first part and that more would be coming. That never happened. It was left incomplete. It's still incomplete.
And it didn't move the game forward, even though it gave so many people the ability to move from one transwarp spot to another.
What I'm trying to say is, Cryptic putting out another half-done faction, another group of incomplete content, isn't guaranteed to move the game forward.
No matter how badly you want to fly a D'Deridex, three years of history should tell you all exactly what to expect. Flail about all you want on the forums, but Cryptic's development history is pretty consistent.
I concur almost completely with your entire post. You are right about many aspects of the game: there are many features that are sadly neglected, collecting cyber dust. There's a lot of potential and it is squandered by lack of imagination, creativity, or simple drive. There feels to be a lack of concern over quality with Cryptic.
I haven't actually read all pages of this thread so I don't know if this has been stated, but I am entirely convinced that Cryptic will eventually roll out a Romulan faction. I'm personally not convinced it's going to happen in May. I can't imagine that they've really been able to do as much work as something like that.
What I do know is that a Romulan faction will most likely be largely unplayable for days when it is debuted, whenever that may be, due to bugs and errors that the dev team doesn't care about fixing. Once most of those bugs get smoothed over, due to the high demand of players in trying out something as shiny and new as a new faction, I think people will notice that the Romulan faction will lack just as much content as the KDF faction.
I'm not a psychic but there you go. (I'm not talking/lecturing to you personally, just sort of building on what your post said, because I really appreciated you articulating and hinting at certain things.)
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This is an area I have to disagree with. One of the most replayable games I play is LOTRO, which is a heavily story-based MMO. But it has so many story options that you can create multiple characters and none of them have to follow the exact same leveling/story path. It also has a wide variety of story content, from deep immersion, to mid-range, to light (a category I would put New Romulus dailies in). While I do not enjoy the obligatory "kill 10 boars" quests, I can handle them because there is so much more immersive content available.
This was also true in CoH. There was a wide variety of mission content, sometimes based on character origin (science, tech, natural, mutant, magic). While in both of those games there is a lot of overlap, it is still possible to tailor your experience per character and never run out of story content to do. I've never raided or PvPed in either LOTRO or CoH -- and never felt the need to.
A good MMORPG is one with a mix of solid story and other elements. I do not think that dailies, Adventure Zones, etc., are bad things. They can be very fun in small doses. But -- for me -- they cannot ever be the "meat" of the game. Too much repetition of the same tasks becomes monotonous. They can certainly blend in as a nice change of pace to help flesh out the overall experience.
The mechanics and game system in STO are wonderful for designing episode content, as you and other Foundry authors have demonstrated -- with lesser tools than those available to the devs. I would just like the devs to make more use of their tools and talents to flesh out the STO storyline for all factions.
When it comes to story vs. daily content, I don't think it's a question of either/or. It's both/and for a better game experience.
The only story part is just following a pre-established path. Some choices happen in the newer content, but it's few and not important. No matter what, you'll always do the same exact thing in the story. After the tutorial ofc.
The only story heavy MMO I played was SWTOR. Unique class story, 2factions stories, etc... Lots of replayability. However it's EA, and EA would sell their own mother in a cartel pack if it would make money. They already did p2win pack and Xmas event on cash shop only.
STO is also story heavy, you can lvlup using only storyline mission (some non storyline mission may be required, but not that much), and I like it.
We agree story is very important in STO. See what happen with New Romulus, they did a generic MMO map, with the usual kill boars/collect stuff objectives. It was annoying, and a lot of people will never come back to New Romulus. However, most player replay the FE from time to time, sometimes just for the item, sometimes not.
If they release a Romulan faction (will happen one day or another), I wont play it if it's some random mmo lvling path. I don't want to bash stuff with a D'deridex instead of a galaxy. I want to see the story from a Romulan point of vue. That's the most important part of it, to me.
No, not period. Undo and remove that period, we've got some things to add here.
The KDF has 8 to 9 missions written for them back in season 2, and every featured episode that's ever been released, and that new episode that was released sometime last season, and every other bit of faction agnostic content in the game. Now you can add the period.
Yup, not long now until a considerable amount of the playerbase raises a collective sigh of disappointment at what all this hype is actually about
I am eager to see what it will be. If it's a Romulan faction, I'll be very happy, and I hope it will be interesting. Everything else ? I'll see. If it's not pvp related (doubtful) it's fine by me. Except if it's another planet full of eppohs to tag and mindless grind of tal shiar/water sampling.
But there are no boars in Evendim!
I get your point, but do disagree with your assessment of percentages. There is far more story than you are giving them credit for. There are many side stories in LOTRO, not just the Epic and a bunch of kill 10 boar quests. There are plenty of kill 10 whatever quests to be sure, but every region has a solid blend of "generic" and story quests. I despise the kill 10 boars in LOTRO as much as in any other game, but there is so much more story-based content there that it offsets the generic stuff. In some regions it's enough that I can skip many of the "kill 10 boars" style quests.
The point is, as a Founder and a lifetimer there, I have never run out of fun quests to play (even with the generic ones tossed in) and never felt the need for "endgame" because the journey hasn't ended for me yet. I have multiple characters on multiple servers at a variety of levels. The variety keeps the content fresh and does indeed enhance replayability for me.
That's what I would like to see in STO as well. I know we're going to get kill/scan/click 10 whatevers and dailies, but more storyline missions need to be added to the mix to get a better balance. Then, as with LOTRO, the "kill 10 whatever" missions will be easier to stomach because they will just be part of a greater, more entertaining whole.
Honestly, while still being basically told to go there and kill stuff, I didn't feel the grind on SWTOR. Every quest have a story, even if it's always "Hey you, I need your help, because I'm too stupid to handle a simple task".
They improved the quests a bit on lotro. On ROR, you have the usual kill 10 boars, but they work in a story, and once done you have 1-2 solo quest involving story and no boars. Still a lot of work to do.
The episode content is fine in STO, but they are released too slowly. That's why we have to wait and grind in between.
It'll be awesome, green (no, not Orion...) and sinister.
Other than that, it will introduce vast amounts of new bugs, and revive some of the old bugs.
I'll bet'ya on this.
Eventhough, I am really looking forward to it. I have promised myself not to log in before friday. Recieving something along the lines of 'Launcher cannot initiate', or something, is for some silly reason irritating me.
I actually go to New Romulus rather often, and every time I do, I see a lot of people there. I often do informal teamups with other players in the areas with enemies.
Tau Dewa has one of the highest instance numbers for a section of the galaxy map. It regularly has 2 digit instance numbers while many parts of the galaxy map only have ONE instance. Even Sirius block(the one with ESD), usually has less than 10.
21.5 hours left to go....
My character Tsin'xing
This Romulan Star Empire faction proposal sounds all well and good, as long as it has the same amount of content as the Klingon Defense Force is limited to. As well, you have to work your way to level 24 as a Federation character- same as people wishing to unlock the KDF faction first time round. If all that is put in place and if it doesn't feel rushed, I'd say 'alright.'
Although in all honest opinion, a Romulan Star Empire faction appears rather far drawn (what with the fractures in the current romulan people) and it wouldn't be eligible to work with the New Romulus reputation faction (if it isn't drawn from it, for PvP reasons), not to mention it stinks of fan service: like the ferasans/caitians in a wish for playable kzinti.
That's not to say I don't want it, it just feels like the Dominion (for instance) would be a far more viable faction to work with how the current lore is structured. Welp, I don't really know. Maybe I'm alone in that opinion. I suppose we'll just have to see how things go.
My character Tsin'xing
Automan FTW! Yes! I remember that show. Automan would call to the cursor, and it would draw his car for him. Pretty badass for the time period. The show brought the computer out into the real world...Tron, in reverse.
My character Tsin'xing
Your last statement pretty much sums up my viewpoint here. I like the episode content in STO, they just need more of it. I don't feel the grind so much in other games, because there is enough "real" quest content to offset it.
This. It's the same in every MMO, the "community" is loud, negative, and does not usually actually represent what the player base at large is thinking. No matter what gets announced tomorrow we will see a massive negative wave of comments, but come May what we will actually see is a huge boost to the number of players online enjoying whatever is coming, the same as always.
Personally, I can't wait to see the outraged posts about how whatever they are going to announce is going to be a paid update. It's almost guaranteed to be so, given that they have said that there would be a new lifetime reward in May, and that reward is almost certain to be free access to whatever new content they are adding. Every time they add paid content to the game, there is a big wave of grumbling, and this will be the first major update with a paid component, so I expect it to reach epic levels this time.
They have talked about this over the years, last time was around the time the 2800 was released. They love doing the featured episode content as much as we do, but it's very time consuming and the return on investment (dev hours vs gameplay hours) is relatively low. They obviously will be doing SOME story content as we go on, but they have said that for more regular story based content, they are relying on the foundry and their promotion of higher quality missions from it to fill the gaps, while they work on developing game systems and big story arc content.
While it's not my preferred "make a great mission that has a fun story and then charge $10 to get access" (AKA Turbine's DDO and LOTRO) model of F2P content development, PWE does not like that particular revenue model so we get what we get.
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I can only imagine the post rages now we lost 20 people of our 30 man Fleet to the Romulans.
Starbase building will stop and the KDF players will have a hay day with rage posts due to lack of content there.
Destroy the fleets, deny the KDF content and give us Romulan Faction, just dont see how it will be a good thing.
I have already agreed with a large group if and when it happens to start a Romulan fleet.
None us however are looking forwarding to starting over again building a new Starbase.
Just when our FED fleet is so close to Tier 5.
My character Tsin'xing
By introducing a long awaited for faction into the game, Cryptic will provide more options for players to indulge in. There will be more avenues for story content. There will be more avenues for player and fleet assets. There will be more avenues for ship models. There will be more avenues for revenue for Cryptic and PW.
There will not be any of the this so-called "destruction of fleets". There will not be any of this "denying the KDF content". There will be some migration and settling of the player base as those Romulan fans slide over to enjoy their favored faction finally. There will probably also be an influx of new players interested in the Green Team. There may be another outflux of Red Team fans but Cryptic will continue to provide factions with content as the game moves along.
Yes, Romulan fleets will have to start at ground zero in building their starbases. But will they have or need an "embassy" on New Romulus? Or will they have some sort of fleet "office" on New Romulus?
Cardassian/Dominion/Whomever-is-the-next-playable-faction will also have to start building their starbases from scratch. But will they have or need an "embassy" on New Romulus? Or will they have some sort of fleet "office" on New Romulus?
By having new factions introduced, Cryptic will have to address the fleet starbase projects and their resource requirements at some point.
Oh, and the exchange will probably get a lot more cluttered with a lot more gear.