I think one of the major problems Cryptic has is that they tend to bring out their personal Death Star to fix problems. Like the IOR one. They point their Death Star at the problem and blow it into kingdom come and damned be the consequences.
Granted they fixed the IOR thingy by bringing in FM to other areas in the game, but my point stands.
If they could communicate with the player base before doing said heavy handed changes, we would not have the major uprisings in the forums, and might just get a say in things, and maybe, just maybe, prevent certain changes with civil discussions...
They're awful at rollouts. And I chalk this up to them treating marketing as a sales/advertising role rather than a planning role. This makes everything they do reactive.
They use marketing to justify/sell/raise awareness of decisions but I don't feel like there's a lot of coordinated effort to internalize marketing in the decision making process any more than a designer takes the initiative to.
I certainly feel like they suck at rollouts. They don't ever seem to do things in phases and they'll always just shift to whatever they think the better design is. I think they've developed the internal attitude that abrupt patching/problem solving doesn't cost players, it just makes the forums flare up. But I think it's more of a long term issue, it costs them purchases, and it probably makes people less likely to recommend the game. IMHO, you don't count the lost players based on whether someone walks away (that can be beneficial sometimes) but you look at the social influence.
Some players here may be keeping people away, actively. And in that case, them NOT leaving when they get upset is probably worse for the game. Meanwhile, some players may not leave when they get upset but you can't measure that as a win because they may be avoiding recommending the game based on perceived instability based on splotchy and poorly managed rollouts.
Cryptic tends to be results oriented with its releases. They don't justify making the change, they justify the state of the game after the change. And I think that's a big, real problem that undermines longterm confidence and happiness. And maybe it rarely does cost players (I suspect their metrics show that talk is cheap and that people don't disappear when a season patch upsets them) but that doesn't mean it doesn't cost dollars and they shouldn't count it as a win in their column that dissatisfied players stick around. (Ie. ideally they wouldn't be dissatisfied -- and I think this could be avoided by putting marketing more in charge of the patching process -- and if those players will be, it may do more damage than good that they don't leave. I think Cryptic's attitude on this issue is stuck in subscription game thinking.)
Doesn't matter how he meant it tbh. Such remarks are not something that should be said, especially not by a dev that does not know his own systems well. Beside, most PvPers around I know are around their 30s. It's not the 14 years min-maxers that give him feedback/bug reports in pvp forums.
I don't think Geko said it was. It's a general community hang-up in nerd culture to treat "14 year old" as an insult.
Moreover, the problem he was describing wasn't one of immaturity (ie. he wasn't using the term "14 year-old" to refer to a lack of maturity) but the problem of innate sophistication with the game providing too much of an advantage, when he feels that innate sophistication being less advantageous would make PvP more accessible to more players.
Now, there's a communication problem there but a part of it stems from the PvP community treating "14 year-old" as an insult or a slam on their maturity when he wasn't talking about maturity. Now, he could have expressed that better but I think it says something unflattering about a person who considers "14 year-old" an insult too.
Moreover, the problem he was describing wasn't one of immaturity (ie. he wasn't using the term "14 year-old" to refer to a lack of maturity) but the problem of innate sophistication with the game providing too much of an advantage, when he feels that innate sophistication being less advantageous would make PvP more accessible to more players.
Now, there's a communication problem there but a part of it stems from the PvP community treating "14 year-old" as an insult or a slam on their maturity when he wasn't talking about maturity. Now, he could have expressed that better but I think it says something unflattering about a person who considers "14 year-old" an insult too.
Just about any adult would take issue with being called a child, especially by someone who demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding on the topic that's causing him to call people children.
More of as a customer who spend hundreds of $ on this game I think such remarks are inapropriate and it's not like there was ever love between him and pvp community.
Beside, Cryptic actively promotes min-maxing via lockbox lottery and the ships/items that are clearly superior to the rest of the game content and other P2W gimicks like special consoles on low tier ships...just to increase their sale.
"Cryptic Studio’s Jack Emmert (2010): Microtransactions are the biggest bunch of nonsense. I like paying one fee and not worrying about it – like my cellphone. The world’s biggest MMO isn’t item based, even though the black market item GDP is bigger than Russia … microtransactions make me want to die.”
Specific gripes get nowhere as we have seen constantly over the last 3 years. The only things that get addressed are concerns by players who seem to magically get Cryptic's ear. PvPers have always been at the core with the problem in the game and are mainly responsible for what the game is now.
What I don't see is why they cannot make a PvP version and a PvE version of a skill and just mess about with the former.
Cruisers are STILL underpowered DESPITE so many requests for them to be brought into the fold. So what do they do, release a new escort with 5 weapons on the front. Forgive me for saying this but Geko needs to be fired and replaced with somebody who actually can bring balance to the game.
You're refering to the prophecy of the Chosen One?
If Cryptic really favored large fleets, they would have adjusted the chef contact project requirements long before they did, or compensated them for the massive amounts of ec that was spent obtaining 1,000 hearts of targ. I could have bought a lockbox ship off the exchange for what I spent on rare food items. Small fleets benefited from our misfortune.
And I still contend, the only people hurt (and still upset) by to IOR and foundry fm nerf were the exploiters. I'm earning 10x the fm's I ever did by playing the same content I always was (fleet alerts, nukara, big dig, etc). I'm currently sitting on > 1,000 fm's with no way to offload them (being a large fleet, it's very difficult to contribute to projects as they fill almost immediately). My complaint w/ cryptic in this matter was not that they nerfed the fm's in the foundry but rather the fm improvements elsewhere in game to compensate took so long to implement. The fm improvements should have gone in at the same time.
All in all, I still enjoy this game and I think Cryptic does a good job. Absolutely it could be better (escorts vs cruisers, cannons vs beams, more fe's, more pvp maps, more end game content) and could be more "Trek" (focus on exploration), but it's constantly improving. Just because the playerbase (and forum members particularity) perceive there to be a problem going unresolved doesn't mean the devs aren't silently working on a solution
Just about any adult would take issue with being called a child, especially by someone who demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding on the topic that's causing him to call people children.
I don't know many adults who'd treat being called or compared to a child an insult as long as they were being compared to a particularly bright child.
I don't know many adults who'd treat being called or compared to a child an insult as long as they were being compared to a particularly bright child.
As usual, Leviathan, you're being a Doogie Howser in these forums. That's not going to get you very far with the Vinny Delpinos you're interacting with.
As usual, Leviathan, you're being a Doogie Howser in these forums. That's not going to get you very far with the Vinny Delpinos you're interacting with.
Legend -- waitforit -- I'm not sure if I get the other reference --Dary.
No sir, I believe you're pretty much wrong about this. The rep. system and the way the gear is distributed now is one of the best features that S7 brought.
This way a casual player that logs once in a while, can have the feeling of progression and that regardless wheather he/she has only half an hour to play today he/she made a step further in obtaining the desired gear, rep. marks and such.
The previous system was based purely on luck and no game should be based on luck.
The devs. mentioned this and I'd like to see, too - bringing the previous loot system that would drop some special items that are very very rare and only a number of select lucky or overally dedicated players would obtain, just for more flavour in the game, but not be game-breaking or must have.
On the other hand, obtaining end-game gear should not be based on my luck, the daily horoscope or wheather I walked in the room with the right or left foot first. :P
No one should be a casual brusher especially considering the cost of dentist bills.
And pretty much this:
I always failed and still fail to see how the time gates bring problems in the game or as you mentioned require logging on daily basis, other that the players forcing themselves into this driven by the must have it all now, or being the first to have it. IMHO this is wrong, any game should be primarily about having fun and being as good as you can at it and not something that you'll pressure yourself into doing just to show others that you're first/best etc.
This is just my opinion on this, though.
No because if you only log in once a week thats 36 weeks of waiting, which is I am afraid unrealistic, whereas logging on 4 hours on a Saturday over say 6 weeks and getting your items is much more realistic.
Once again casual is the opposite of regimented.
Time gates are not casual, a casual system would pay out by amount time played not pay out based on how many times you log in over a week.
You see this is where you've all gone hideously off track, casual gamers by definition do not play everyday they pick up the game every so often when they have the time, when they do so they expect that they can make realistic progress, this is best done by measuring how long you play in a week not how many times you log on, so the person who logs on for 5 hours on the weekend should in all fairness be able to progress as far as the person who logged on for 45 minutes every day for the past 5 days. At the moment this is not the case, so no it does not benefit casual gamers.
It benefits daily gamers, which by definition are not casual even if they just pick the game up for 10 minutes they are doing a daily organized regimented activity.
I know simple logic is often the hardest to follow but to assume that daily time-gates are casual gamer friendly is funny especially when it then feels like a choir, I prefer brushing my teeth in the morning than the thought of logging in for "dailies" after a hard days work, it doesn't take as long and is nowhere near as painful.
No one should be a casual brusher by the way because... dentist bills cost money!
Basically tl:dr
A person who plays one hour a day for 5 days should progress at the same rate as someone who plays 5 hours 1 day, not more not less. That would truly be of benefit to casual gamers.
Currently this is what happens when I get free time on the weekends:
- Hmm maybe I should play some STO:
- Eugh I guess I need to do some rep stuff as well since fleet is dead it's the only end game content in town
- Eh, better things to do with my time than play STO for an hour.
In Season 6:
- Yay play STO
- Hmmm PublicSTF channel is awesome
- Hmmm 6 hours in, just 1 more STF, just 1 more....
Different world...
If my 5 hours on the weekend was equal to another persons 5 hours spread across the weekdays, I'd be playing STO again. As it stands I'm waiting to see what happens in May.
So What's good about the Reputation system ? It does not need much luck.
What's bad about it? It requires Dilithium and energy credits.
Cryptic should take out the dilithium requirements for items, and the energy credit item requirements.
Reputation system should only cost you marks. No other requirements, just marks.
Because before it, you sure did not need to give 30k dilithium up if a purple prototype tech dropped.
they should take the marks out too and have the various missions and things that currently give them give reputation directly instead
that way, you can advance reputation as you play, instead of play, earn marks, stop, open rep window, insert marks, curse long timer, wait for long timer to finish next day, collect reward, rinse and repeat
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
Does anyone else feel that there are two factions in Star Trek: Online wanting control over the game. I'm not talking about Klingon or Federation... I am talking about;
Cryptic and their lovers;
- Major Fleets
- Major PvPers
- Developers
- Moderators
vs
- Casual Players
- Star Trek "Fans" (People who were fans before this game was released)
- Newbs
- Intelligent People
- Small Fleets
I mean you could easily make a game over the "Battle of Star Trek: Online" rather then the actual game itself. It just seems so pointless, what is the point of offering feedback when certain Developers basically tell you that they are going to do what THEY want and not what the players are demanding.
Why is Cryptic so utterly and completely resistant to any change from "Escorts: Online" or to help out Science or Engineering classes by reworking their abilities?
Why? What exactly do they have to lose from making this game as fair as possible and actually reignite all 5 series fans interest in it? (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT). I cannot see how that is bad thing...
Why do Cryptic simply NOT care if they want a successful game, like they claim. Because all they are doing are running it into the ground and it will become Star Wars: Galaxies... Do they not care now that their next "Cash Cow" Neverwinter is coming out.
Where is your morality Cryptic? Your sense of moral obligation to the players of this mess!? Its like watching your brother, who could be a doctor, throw it away and become a drug addict!
I know what you are talking about. (For a Pun>) GMs dont mean Game Moderators or Game Masters or whatever... They mean: A pain in our "Gluteus Maximus" d:
R'tolves Will Spread Thier Peace and Will Prevail Over the Hostiles Who Dare Hurt Such A Isolationist Consitutional Monarchy!
Sorry what would you call a daily time gate? would you call it chaotic or random? no it's a regimented system.
Some of us travel for work, spend nights in hotels, some of us can't log on everyday to do a 2 hour grind. Sometimes I can't log on for 3 or 4 days, depending on work. I tell you what though you can keep calling people who work their guts out everyday greedy and obsessive about rewards in this game but it won't make it any more true, in fact those kind of slurs are actually comical.
With the old system I could log on the weekend in my actual spare time and within two hours I could have an end-game item, granted that wasn't always very likely but the point here is I could log on when I WANTED.
That is the essence of casual gaming, regimented time gates are the opposite of casual even if it only takes 5 minutes to grind the required content, because as a casual gamer I may not be able to log in daily.
Regimentation is the opposite of casual.
Order the opposite of Chaos.
Think on this.
Umm, if you're logging in every day, you're not a 'casual player'. Casual these days (in MMO parlance) is someone who logs in 2 to 3 times a week for an hour or more each time. Those palyers probably dn't even notice the 20 hour cooldowns.
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Umm, if you're logging in every day, you're not a 'casual player'. Casual these days (in MMO parlance) is someone who logs in 2 to 3 times a week for an hour or more each time. Those palyers probably dn't even notice the 20 hour cooldowns.
Exactly my point, casual gamers do not have a regular pattern, therefore any system gated at regular intervals is by definition regimented and not casual.
I'm also pretty sure I'm not the only weekend gamer here that became so hamstrung by the rep system that we stopped playing altogether.
Exactly my point, casual gamers do not have a regular pattern, therefore any system gated at regular intervals is by definition regimented and not casual.
Nope. Casual is not the opposite of regimented. Casual is the opposite of hardcore.
Casual is an attitude. A casual gamer doesn't care if he gets only two cooldowns a week as opposed to seven, as long as he's having fun.
If you're focused on getting the maximum efficiency out of your time to the point where the fact that you can't log in evey 20 hours causes you to quit, then it doesn't matter if you only have an hour a week to devote to gaming. You're hardcore.
"Participation in PVP-related activities is so low on an hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly basis that we could in fact just completely take it out of STO and it would not impact the overall number of people [who] log in to the game and play in any significant way." -Gozer, Cryptic PvP Dev
Nope. Casual is not the opposite of regimented. Casual is the opposite of hardcore.
Casual is an attitude. A casual gamer doesn't care if he gets only two cooldowns a week as opposed to seven, as long as he's having fun.
If you're focused on getting the maximum efficiency out of your time to the point where the fact that you can't log in evey 20 hours causes you to quit, then it doesn't matter if you only have an hour a week to devote to gaming. You're hardcore.
This.
It's only the "hardcore" players that are complaining about reputation and it's other ilk.
Nope. Casual is not the opposite of regimented. Casual is the opposite of hardcore.
Casual is an attitude. A casual gamer doesn't care if he gets only two cooldowns a week as opposed to seven, as long as he's having fun.
If you're focused on getting the maximum efficiency out of your time to the point where the fact that you can't log in evey 20 hours causes you to quit, then it doesn't matter if you only have an hour a week to devote to gaming. You're hardcore.
I'm pretty sure most casual gamers still care about progression, especially when that is all this game has.
To argue that casual gamers don't care about progression and don't deserve to have 1 hour of their game time to be equal to 1 hour a hardcore gamers game time doesn't seem fair to me.
What caused me to quit was the lack of fun and reward for playing, simple as that, I wouldn't term myself as hardcore because I don't care about PVP or being the best PVE'r I just like to progress and play with friends, but in all honestly if my 5 hours online on a Saturday is not worth the 1 hour each day someone plays for 5 days then I don't see the point of uphill struggle in the game, especially since so many of my friends have stopped playing.
If playing on the weekend when I get the chance and taking a punt on winning something in an old skool STF means I'm a Hardcore Gamer then... well I think you guys don't understand the term "Hardcore Gamer"
"It's not because I want everything immediately. It's because I want everything immediately. It's not my fault you guys are too clueless to know the difference."
Im prolly inbetween casual and hardcore, i like to progress, but i go through bouts of play, if theres little to do i get bored and find something else, pop back later.
This new reputation thing is an absolute joke, at our expense, in all honesty i actually preferred the old drop rate as atrocious as it was, at least i had a reason to do things.
20 hour wait timers, expertise, commodites, stupidly high dilithium requirements, its a mix of cash-cow and sheer irritation. i didnt need to spend 90k dil when i had weapon drop, and i certainly didnt have to wait 20 hours inbetween. and dont give me the BS about making us log in everyday, i log in for all of 10 minutes then log out, because i have naff all to do, at least the old system ment i had something to do even if it was grinding stf's, thesedays i have no reason to do them, and the biggest slap int he face, most of my characters were missing 1 item from mk12 sets now i have to wait 2 months, be sucked dry of resources for the pleasure, ive all but stopped doing the rep grind simply as i cant be bothered with it anymore.
taking away loot drops was the worst idea they had, put them back, get rid of the 20 hour waits, and require marks only because the current system is redundant, uninspiring, unessecary and down right boring. time gating things never works, it actually annoys your playerbase.
... have this awful feeling like ive digressed .. meh.
"It's not because I want everything immediately. It's because I want everything immediately. It's not my fault you guys are too clueless to know the difference."
Carry on with that line because it's hilarious and obvious,
Someone asking for their 5 hours on a Saturday to be worth the same another persons 1 hour on each of the weekdays now equals in your mind = "I want it all now"
It's kinda of funny because you just like to reel out an irrelevant cliche to obfuscate a debate. :cool:
Im prolly inbetween casual and hardcore, i like to progress, but i go through bouts of play, if theres little to do i get bored and find something else, pop back later.
This new reputation thing is an absolute joke, at our expense, in all honesty i actually preferred the old drop rate as atrocious as it was, at least i had a reason to do things.
20 hour wait timers, expertise, commodites, stupidly high dilithium requirements, its a mix of cash-cow and sheer irritation. i didnt need to spend 90k dil when i had weapon drop, and i certainly didnt have to wait 20 hours inbetween. and dont give me the BS about making us log in everyday, i log in for all of 10 minutes then log out, because i have naff all to do, at least the old system ment i had something to do even if it was grinding stf's, thesedays i have no reason to do them, and the biggest slap int he face, most of my characters were missing 1 item from mk12 sets now i have to wait 2 months, be sucked dry of resources for the pleasure, ive all but stopped doing the rep grind simply as i cant be bothered with it anymore.
taking away loot drops was the worst idea they had, put them back, get rid of the 20 hour waits, and require marks only because the current system is redundant, uninspiring, unessecary and down right boring. time gating things never works, it actually annoys your playerbase.
... have this awful feeling like ive digressed .. meh.
Very true it feels like a regression in many ways, the rep system itself doesn't add much in terms of content beyond some token passives. I actually think the rep system was a better way of doing things and allowed people to know they would eventually get their items but it's implementation was horrible and it was so bad when it was first rolled out that there was a full on player rebellion.
Personally I would have preferred a rep system that you received marks for to buy items and to have a passive XP counter that increased your tiers based on STF game time. That way it doesn't matter how many times you log in just how many hours you play a much fairer system. I would also have liked them to keep the random drops for Omega items, maybe at slightly reduced rate, but it would spice things up a lot more. The best of both worlds really.
Im prolly inbetween casual and hardcore, i like to progress, but i go through bouts of play, if theres little to do i get bored and find something else, pop back later.
This new reputation thing is an absolute joke, at our expense, in all honesty i actually preferred the old drop rate as atrocious as it was, at least i had a reason to do things.
20 hour wait timers, expertise, commodites, stupidly high dilithium requirements, its a mix of cash-cow and sheer irritation. i didnt need to spend 90k dil when i had weapon drop, and i certainly didnt have to wait 20 hours inbetween. and dont give me the BS about making us log in everyday, i log in for all of 10 minutes then log out, because i have naff all to do, at least the old system ment i had something to do even if it was grinding stf's, thesedays i have no reason to do them, and the biggest slap int he face, most of my characters were missing 1 item from mk12 sets now i have to wait 2 months, be sucked dry of resources for the pleasure, ive all but stopped doing the rep grind simply as i cant be bothered with it anymore.
taking away loot drops was the worst idea they had, put them back, get rid of the 20 hour waits, and require marks only because the current system is redundant, uninspiring, unessecary and down right boring. time gating things never works, it actually annoys your playerbase.
... have this awful feeling like ive digressed .. meh.
No you didn't have to to spend 32k(90k is for a set) dil for your weapon, but you did have to put 100s of runs for months, and still never had it dropped
but, sure the Dil cost is annoying
but i ask you this, is it "Fair" for someone who plays a 3 hours a week to be placed at the same level as someone who 3 hours a day
If you want your shinnies, you have to put the time in
but i ask you this, is it "Fair" for someone who plays a 3 hours a week to be placed at the same level as someone who 3 hours a day
If you want your shinnies, you have to put the time in
No it's not fair you should get equal progress with equal amounts of time, so 1 for one person is always the same in progression value as 1 hour for another.
Tell me is it fair that someone who plays 5 hours on the weekend can only slot one cycle of rep and someone who plays 1 hour for 5 days can slot 5...
No it's not fair you should get equal progress with equal amounts of time, so 1 for one person is always the same in progression value as 1 hour for another.
Tell me is it fair that someone who plays 5 hours on the weekend can only slot one cycle of rep and someone who plays 1 hour for 5 days can slot 5...
the answer: no.
Then how would you do it oh wise one? :P
I do sympathise with where you're coming from, but I don't really get how you would change it.
EDIT: Actually, maybe I do. Perhaps if there was a third project that gave 5000 rep, but cost 3 times what the 2000 rep project costs, and took three days to complete, then I think that would be a nice compromise.
No it's not fair you should get equal progress with equal amounts of time, so 1 for one person is always the same in progression value as 1 hour for another.
Tell me is it fair that someone who plays 5 hours on the weekend can only slot one cycle of rep and someone who plays 1 hour for 5 days can slot 5...
the answer: no.
i see nothing unfair about that
its a MMO , time gates are part of genre. with out they you have the hardcore min/maxers playing themselves to death to stay at the top of the pile
also, if geting you rep is so important its not like it take hours to cycle the projects more like about 5 mins tops. hop on during the week to cycle them
EDIT: Actually, maybe I do. Perhaps if there was a third project that gave 5000 rep, but cost 3 times what the 2000 rep project costs, and took three days to complete, then I think that would be a nice compromise.
Now that would work!!!
or you could change the time-gate to say a Tier XP gate so you can either do it over the the week or in one session but you have a weekly limit to tier progression that would be == to the current 7 day max you can slot for rep.
But yeah I think your way would be simpler and fit in with the current system and I would totally back that!!!
its a MMO , time gates are part of genre. with out they you have the hardcore min/maxers playing themselves to death to stay at the top of the pile
also, if geting you rep is so important its not like it take hours to cycle the projects more like about 5 mins tops. hop on during the week to cycle them
So wait you think someone who does 3 hours and getting the same reward as someone who does 9 hours is unfair...
But you think someone who does 5 hours in one sitting should only get 1/5th the progression of someone who does 5 hours over 5 sittings.
Whilst the current situation won't win Cryptic over anymore players especially those of us who have days where we simply can't log in.... just adding the tweak centersolace suggested would win a hell of a lot of weekend gamers back to this game. For you though you think that would be unfair?
or you could change the time-gate to say a Tier XP gate so you can either do it over the the week or in one session but you have a weekly limit to tier progression that would be == to the current 7 day max you can slot for rep.
But yeah I think your way would be simpler and fit in with the current system and I would totally back that!!!
So wait you think someone who does 3 hours and getting the same reward as someone who does 9 hours is unfair...
But you think someone who does 5 hours in one sitting should only get 1/5th the progression of someone who does 5 hours over 5 sittings.
Whilst the current situation won't win Cryptic over anymore players especially those of us who have days where we simply can't log in.... just adding the tweak centersolace suggested would win a hell of a lot of weekend gamers back to this game. For you though you think that would be unfair?
welcome to the MMO rep system
Edit: also the "Weekly Cap" system run off daily players, whats the point of playing everyday if you can get all your stuff done on "Reset Day"
Comments
They're awful at rollouts. And I chalk this up to them treating marketing as a sales/advertising role rather than a planning role. This makes everything they do reactive.
They use marketing to justify/sell/raise awareness of decisions but I don't feel like there's a lot of coordinated effort to internalize marketing in the decision making process any more than a designer takes the initiative to.
I certainly feel like they suck at rollouts. They don't ever seem to do things in phases and they'll always just shift to whatever they think the better design is. I think they've developed the internal attitude that abrupt patching/problem solving doesn't cost players, it just makes the forums flare up. But I think it's more of a long term issue, it costs them purchases, and it probably makes people less likely to recommend the game. IMHO, you don't count the lost players based on whether someone walks away (that can be beneficial sometimes) but you look at the social influence.
Some players here may be keeping people away, actively. And in that case, them NOT leaving when they get upset is probably worse for the game. Meanwhile, some players may not leave when they get upset but you can't measure that as a win because they may be avoiding recommending the game based on perceived instability based on splotchy and poorly managed rollouts.
Cryptic tends to be results oriented with its releases. They don't justify making the change, they justify the state of the game after the change. And I think that's a big, real problem that undermines longterm confidence and happiness. And maybe it rarely does cost players (I suspect their metrics show that talk is cheap and that people don't disappear when a season patch upsets them) but that doesn't mean it doesn't cost dollars and they shouldn't count it as a win in their column that dissatisfied players stick around. (Ie. ideally they wouldn't be dissatisfied -- and I think this could be avoided by putting marketing more in charge of the patching process -- and if those players will be, it may do more damage than good that they don't leave. I think Cryptic's attitude on this issue is stuck in subscription game thinking.)
I don't think Geko said it was. It's a general community hang-up in nerd culture to treat "14 year old" as an insult.
Now, there's a communication problem there but a part of it stems from the PvP community treating "14 year-old" as an insult or a slam on their maturity when he wasn't talking about maturity. Now, he could have expressed that better but I think it says something unflattering about a person who considers "14 year-old" an insult too.
Just about any adult would take issue with being called a child, especially by someone who demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding on the topic that's causing him to call people children.
Beside, Cryptic actively promotes min-maxing via lockbox lottery and the ships/items that are clearly superior to the rest of the game content and other P2W gimicks like special consoles on low tier ships...just to increase their sale.
You're refering to the prophecy of the Chosen One?
And I still contend, the only people hurt (and still upset) by to IOR and foundry fm nerf were the exploiters. I'm earning 10x the fm's I ever did by playing the same content I always was (fleet alerts, nukara, big dig, etc). I'm currently sitting on > 1,000 fm's with no way to offload them (being a large fleet, it's very difficult to contribute to projects as they fill almost immediately). My complaint w/ cryptic in this matter was not that they nerfed the fm's in the foundry but rather the fm improvements elsewhere in game to compensate took so long to implement. The fm improvements should have gone in at the same time.
All in all, I still enjoy this game and I think Cryptic does a good job. Absolutely it could be better (escorts vs cruisers, cannons vs beams, more fe's, more pvp maps, more end game content) and could be more "Trek" (focus on exploration), but it's constantly improving. Just because the playerbase (and forum members particularity) perceive there to be a problem going unresolved doesn't mean the devs aren't silently working on a solution
I don't know many adults who'd treat being called or compared to a child an insult as long as they were being compared to a particularly bright child.
Since crafting in this game is really bad, one might even say broken, and a revamp is off into the future of who knows when, I'd say:
1- Your need of rare particle traces is overall pointless.
2- Knock that down to 11 hitlers.
As usual, Leviathan, you're being a Doogie Howser in these forums. That's not going to get you very far with the Vinny Delpinos you're interacting with.
Legend -- waitforit -- I'm not sure if I get the other reference --Dary.
No because if you only log in once a week thats 36 weeks of waiting, which is I am afraid unrealistic, whereas logging on 4 hours on a Saturday over say 6 weeks and getting your items is much more realistic.
Once again casual is the opposite of regimented.
Time gates are not casual, a casual system would pay out by amount time played not pay out based on how many times you log in over a week.
You see this is where you've all gone hideously off track, casual gamers by definition do not play everyday they pick up the game every so often when they have the time, when they do so they expect that they can make realistic progress, this is best done by measuring how long you play in a week not how many times you log on, so the person who logs on for 5 hours on the weekend should in all fairness be able to progress as far as the person who logged on for 45 minutes every day for the past 5 days. At the moment this is not the case, so no it does not benefit casual gamers.
It benefits daily gamers, which by definition are not casual even if they just pick the game up for 10 minutes they are doing a daily organized regimented activity.
I know simple logic is often the hardest to follow but to assume that daily time-gates are casual gamer friendly is funny especially when it then feels like a choir, I prefer brushing my teeth in the morning than the thought of logging in for "dailies" after a hard days work, it doesn't take as long and is nowhere near as painful.
No one should be a casual brusher by the way because... dentist bills cost money!
Basically tl:dr
A person who plays one hour a day for 5 days should progress at the same rate as someone who plays 5 hours 1 day, not more not less. That would truly be of benefit to casual gamers.
Currently this is what happens when I get free time on the weekends:
- Hmm maybe I should play some STO:
- Eugh I guess I need to do some rep stuff as well since fleet is dead it's the only end game content in town
- Eh, better things to do with my time than play STO for an hour.
In Season 6:
- Yay play STO
- Hmmm PublicSTF channel is awesome
- Hmmm 6 hours in, just 1 more STF, just 1 more....
Different world...
If my 5 hours on the weekend was equal to another persons 5 hours spread across the weekdays, I'd be playing STO again. As it stands I'm waiting to see what happens in May.
:cool:
#2311#2700#2316#2500
they should take the marks out too and have the various missions and things that currently give them give reputation directly instead
that way, you can advance reputation as you play, instead of play, earn marks, stop, open rep window, insert marks, curse long timer, wait for long timer to finish next day, collect reward, rinse and repeat
you're forgetting something; those particles are also needed for artifact infusion, plus they sell decently by themselves on the exchange
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
I know what you are talking about. (For a Pun>) GMs dont mean Game Moderators or Game Masters or whatever... They mean: A pain in our "Gluteus Maximus" d:
Barney Stinson! Love that show.
Vinny Delpino was Doogie's friend from the show. Last time I saw the actor on screen was in season 5 or 6 of the Sopranos.
Umm, if you're logging in every day, you're not a 'casual player'. Casual these days (in MMO parlance) is someone who logs in 2 to 3 times a week for an hour or more each time. Those palyers probably dn't even notice the 20 hour cooldowns.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Exactly my point, casual gamers do not have a regular pattern, therefore any system gated at regular intervals is by definition regimented and not casual.
I'm also pretty sure I'm not the only weekend gamer here that became so hamstrung by the rep system that we stopped playing altogether.
#2311#2700#2316#2500
Nope. Casual is not the opposite of regimented. Casual is the opposite of hardcore.
Casual is an attitude. A casual gamer doesn't care if he gets only two cooldowns a week as opposed to seven, as long as he's having fun.
If you're focused on getting the maximum efficiency out of your time to the point where the fact that you can't log in evey 20 hours causes you to quit, then it doesn't matter if you only have an hour a week to devote to gaming. You're hardcore.
This.
It's only the "hardcore" players that are complaining about reputation and it's other ilk.
I'm pretty sure most casual gamers still care about progression, especially when that is all this game has.
To argue that casual gamers don't care about progression and don't deserve to have 1 hour of their game time to be equal to 1 hour a hardcore gamers game time doesn't seem fair to me.
What caused me to quit was the lack of fun and reward for playing, simple as that, I wouldn't term myself as hardcore because I don't care about PVP or being the best PVE'r I just like to progress and play with friends, but in all honestly if my 5 hours online on a Saturday is not worth the 1 hour each day someone plays for 5 days then I don't see the point of uphill struggle in the game, especially since so many of my friends have stopped playing.
If playing on the weekend when I get the chance and taking a punt on winning something in an old skool STF means I'm a Hardcore Gamer then... well I think you guys don't understand the term "Hardcore Gamer"
http://kotaku.com/5843253/the-hardcore-gaming-myth
#2311#2700#2316#2500
This new reputation thing is an absolute joke, at our expense, in all honesty i actually preferred the old drop rate as atrocious as it was, at least i had a reason to do things.
20 hour wait timers, expertise, commodites, stupidly high dilithium requirements, its a mix of cash-cow and sheer irritation. i didnt need to spend 90k dil when i had weapon drop, and i certainly didnt have to wait 20 hours inbetween. and dont give me the BS about making us log in everyday, i log in for all of 10 minutes then log out, because i have naff all to do, at least the old system ment i had something to do even if it was grinding stf's, thesedays i have no reason to do them, and the biggest slap int he face, most of my characters were missing 1 item from mk12 sets now i have to wait 2 months, be sucked dry of resources for the pleasure, ive all but stopped doing the rep grind simply as i cant be bothered with it anymore.
taking away loot drops was the worst idea they had, put them back, get rid of the 20 hour waits, and require marks only because the current system is redundant, uninspiring, unessecary and down right boring. time gating things never works, it actually annoys your playerbase.
... have this awful feeling like ive digressed .. meh.
@Mad-Larkin
Fleet: http://www.unrepentantgaming.com
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Carry on with that line because it's hilarious and obvious,
Someone asking for their 5 hours on a Saturday to be worth the same another persons 1 hour on each of the weekdays now equals in your mind = "I want it all now"
It's kinda of funny because you just like to reel out an irrelevant cliche to obfuscate a debate. :cool:
Very true it feels like a regression in many ways, the rep system itself doesn't add much in terms of content beyond some token passives. I actually think the rep system was a better way of doing things and allowed people to know they would eventually get their items but it's implementation was horrible and it was so bad when it was first rolled out that there was a full on player rebellion.
Personally I would have preferred a rep system that you received marks for to buy items and to have a passive XP counter that increased your tiers based on STF game time. That way it doesn't matter how many times you log in just how many hours you play a much fairer system. I would also have liked them to keep the random drops for Omega items, maybe at slightly reduced rate, but it would spice things up a lot more. The best of both worlds really.
#2311#2700#2316#2500
No you didn't have to to spend 32k(90k is for a set) dil for your weapon, but you did have to put 100s of runs for months, and still never had it dropped
but, sure the Dil cost is annoying
but i ask you this, is it "Fair" for someone who plays a 3 hours a week to be placed at the same level as someone who 3 hours a day
If you want your shinnies, you have to put the time in
No it's not fair you should get equal progress with equal amounts of time, so 1 for one person is always the same in progression value as 1 hour for another.
Tell me is it fair that someone who plays 5 hours on the weekend can only slot one cycle of rep and someone who plays 1 hour for 5 days can slot 5...
the answer: no.
#2311#2700#2316#2500
Then how would you do it oh wise one? :P
I do sympathise with where you're coming from, but I don't really get how you would change it.
EDIT: Actually, maybe I do. Perhaps if there was a third project that gave 5000 rep, but cost 3 times what the 2000 rep project costs, and took three days to complete, then I think that would be a nice compromise.
i see nothing unfair about that
its a MMO , time gates are part of genre. with out they you have the hardcore min/maxers playing themselves to death to stay at the top of the pile
also, if geting you rep is so important its not like it take hours to cycle the projects more like about 5 mins tops. hop on during the week to cycle them
Now that would work!!!
or you could change the time-gate to say a Tier XP gate so you can either do it over the the week or in one session but you have a weekly limit to tier progression that would be == to the current 7 day max you can slot for rep.
But yeah I think your way would be simpler and fit in with the current system and I would totally back that!!!
So wait you think someone who does 3 hours and getting the same reward as someone who does 9 hours is unfair...
But you think someone who does 5 hours in one sitting should only get 1/5th the progression of someone who does 5 hours over 5 sittings.
Whilst the current situation won't win Cryptic over anymore players especially those of us who have days where we simply can't log in.... just adding the tweak centersolace suggested would win a hell of a lot of weekend gamers back to this game. For you though you think that would be unfair?
#2311#2700#2316#2500
welcome to the MMO rep system
Edit: also the "Weekly Cap" system run off daily players, whats the point of playing everyday if you can get all your stuff done on "Reset Day"