Romulan Fleetbases: A simple solution

voicesdark

Before I begin I just want to say that as far as PVP/PVE/Fleet actions I do understand to a degree why Cryptic decided to have Roms Ally with either FED or KDF, I don't like it, but I understand it.

However, considering the simplicity of some solutions that would allow for Romulan Fleetbases and Romulan Fleets, their decision to exclude these I don't understand.

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Proposal:

This has been Heavily Modified after playing some of the LOR open Beta:

The Chulan System Station used in the Romulan Mission would be a perfect Romulan Fleetbase exterior and interior. To simplify creating a Romulan Fleetbase system I propose that the exterior upgrades be removed. Meaning that going from tier 1 to tier 5 would still use the same exterior map that already exists.

The interior layout is already perfectly suited for a Fleetbase and would only require minor modifications such as adding NPC contacts for the various fleet vendors.

There are now only three major modifications to the Fleet system that I am proposing and these are actually Fleet system wide, not just for Romulan Fleetbases.

1) Fleet Alliance System: There have been whispers of something like this being added. If it allowed fleets to ally temporarily or permanently to make use of higher tier shipyards/gear then it would reduce the sense of urgency on upgrading the lower tier bases, it would also supply resources/ec income for higher tier fleets.

2)Limited Time Special Projects: It's no secret these are largely ignored other than by the larger/mega/uber fleets. There is no reason why the resource cost of these projects shouldn't be greatly reduced (by 50%) as to increase interest in these projects.

3) More functionality, Sooner not later: Fleetbases provide Hub services just like any other hub area. However in order to access these basic functions you have to unlock all the tiers of the fleetbase. Fleetbases should be made more function by having the basic Bank,Exchange,Medical,Ship repair, Non-fleet gear vendors,bartender,chef opened not throughout the fleetbase system but right from the start. This would add more function to fleetbases sooner and give more reason for people to case about the fleetbases other than just to get fleet gear/ships.


Please keep all feedback and discussion on topic and constructive only.

voicesdark

This post is no longer relevant after the modifications made to the original post/proposal.

skyranger1414

Lol, I don't think you grasp the purpose of fleet bases at all.

You want a base that's easier to make than the fleet holdings?

Cryptic would have to suddenly realize they hate money to do any of this. All the baby Roms will just have to suffer through like everyone else if they want a Rom only base. Maybe someday down the line Cryptic can release a green base exterior or something, but the way everything has to be tied to direct monetization it seems to be rather unlikely or very far off.

neoakiraii

Just hang out in the Romulan embassy portion of the base if it bugs you so much.

voicesdark

skyranger1414 wrote: »

Lol, I don't think you grasp the purpose of fleet bases at all.

You want a base that's easier to make than the fleet holdings?

Cryptic would have to suddenly realize they hate money to do any of this. All the baby Roms will just have to suffer through like everyone else if they want a Rom only base. Maybe someday down the line Cryptic can release a green base exterior or something, but the way everything has to be tied to direct monetization it seems to be rather unlikely or very far off.

Not necessarily easier than a fleet holding. the only way cryptic actually makes any money off the fleetbases is when people buy zen to exchange to dil. And actually Cryptic stated they didn't add Romulan bases in because they didn't want people to have to start all over again on a fleetbase so you're saying that they wouldn't do it because they wouldn't make as much money off of it is clearly wrong. You're not making money off of something that doesn't exist.

you would still have to have to use dilithium for the fleet stores and for projects, it would just remove the over complicated and unnecessary parts of the fleetbase. A simple green exterior is still a Fed or KDF base on the interior, this would allow for rom fleets and rom starbases.

Again Cryptic said they didn't want players to have to start a fleetbase from scratch, the purpose of this is to try to find that middle ground where players will participate in it because it's not starting completely from scratch but also something that has enough appeal and possible profit so it's worth it for Cryptic to implement it.

Personally I have absolutely no problem with starting a Rom base completely from scratch. However this proposal is only removing overly expensive comm array, transwarp, shipyard upgrade projects and reducing the fleetbase tier upgrades. It's also removing any chance of semi-customizing the interior of your fleetbase by not offering the limited time special projects.

Why should a Romulan be forced to go to a Federation or Klingon Fleet base, and then on top of that work on helping the FEDS or KDF build their Embassy on New Romulus. It gives Romulans only fleets their own place to go just like the KDF and FEDS have, but also eliminates the pointless parts like an embassy fleet holding.

skyranger1414

voicesdark wrote: »

Not necessarily easier than a fleet holding. the only way cryptic actually makes any money off the fleetbases is when people buy zen to exchange to dil. And actually Cryptic stated they didn't add Romulan bases in because they didn't want people to have to start all over again on a fleetbase so you're saying that they wouldn't do it because they wouldn't make as much money off of it is clearly wrong. You're not making money off of something that doesn't exist.

Cryptic says a lot of things. Notice how the reason most things don't get done is almost always a variation of "its too hard"? Do you realize that's another way of saying "it'd be too expensive and it would not bring in enough revenue"? I'm sure that the devs as people sympathize with players wanting to avoid excessive grinding, but as a company its in their interest to make things as grindy as possible without pushing people away.




you would still have to have to use dilithium for the fleet stores and for projects, it would just remove the over complicated and unnecessary parts of the fleetbase. A simple green exterior is still a Fed or KDF base on the interior, this would allow for rom fleets and rom starbases.


Sure, you would need a minor and practically insignificant amount of Dil. At least in comparison to what current bases need. That's not profitable for them. They want you to stay in game grinding as long as possible because metrics show them that the longer a person stays in game the more likely they are to spend on lockboxes and/or Dil. This may seem to contradict the no Rom bases stace, until you realize they get teh same result without further development cost by forcing Roms to side with Fed adn KDF bases. I do think they will eventually have some sort of exterior costume project so that Roms can get their cosmetic exterior.


Again Cryptic said they didn't want players to have to start a fleetbase from scratch, the purpose of this is to try to find that middle ground where players will participate in it because it's not starting completely from scratch but also something that has enough appeal and possible profit so it's worth it for Cryptic to implement it.

Personally I have absolutely no problem with starting a Rom base completely from scratch. However this proposal is only removing overly expensive comm array, transwarp, shipyard upgrade projects and reducing the fleetbase tier upgrades. It's also removing any chance of semi-customizing the interior of your fleetbase by not offering the limited time special projects.


What seems overly expensive to you is actually one of the greatest ways they have to keep people in game which in turn leads to greater revenue. I would be willing to bet they already have a nice consistently proven curve that tracks player time in game vs. cash spent by that player. This is why they are so reluctant to spend development resources in decreasing the grinding involved. In business terms it'd be an insane move to spend resources to bring in less money. After all, the grinds are clearly not so excessive that fleet's aren't getting to T5.



Why should a Romulan be forced to go to a Federation or Klingon Fleet base, and then on top of that work on helping the FEDS or KDF build their Embassy on New Romulus. It gives Romulans only fleets their own place to go just like the KDF and FEDS have, but also eliminates the pointless parts like an embassy fleet holding.

Again, your proposal would be of great benefit to Rom players, but of great detriment to Cryptic's financial bottom line. Nevermind the fact that it would cause discontent from Fed and KDF players that have to get there the hard way.

I understand that your solution of simply reducing the costs involved would appear a simple solution, except that making it cheaper in time and cash is not a problem Cryptic really wants to solve.

My thoughts in RED

voicesdark

skyranger1414 wrote: »

My thoughts in RED

Yeah I know, and like I said I'd personally be willing to go through and do a Rom base from scratch as I'm sure other die hard Romulan fans would be.

My original idea was to still remove the embassy since Romulans don't need an embassy holding on their own planet and offset the high resource cost for smaller fleets and the dread of starting over from scratch by reducing resources per project, but adding more projects needed to complete a tier that way smaller fleets wouldn't grind to a halt on the more resource heavy projects now would people get burned out from another fleetbase.

It should be a Romulan base interior as well as exterior, not simply just an exterior costume. I know it seems silly, but this whole Roms not getting a separate fleetbase thing is really what's stopping me from really getting into the LOR expansion. I was all stoked and ready to go full Romulan, grab the legacy pack and get grinding out on a new base (especially knowing how to better go about it now), then the announcement about no Rom bases and the 5.5 turn for the D'deridex killed it. Although people have been having luck getting that turn rate up to 13, so mostly still this.

parrotking97

I support your idea but for starbase exterior I wolud like to be used romulan mission starb ase. Embasy could be in esd Qonos depending from allie. And we do have support of our allies so it would make sense that romulan starbases are faster to build than fed or klink ones.

dalolorn

An easier solution would be to just make the 25 or so Romulan fleet holding space models, the 5 interiors (counting in the embassy), and - wait for it...

Make an expensive (possibly even VERY expensive) special project that transforms your fleet holdings into Romulan-themed ones. :P

voicesdark

Or add the Fleet alliance system they've been talking about adding, but make it so the Alliance allows you to visit an allied fleetbase to get the higher tier fleet ships/gear, thus removing the sense of urgency to level up a Romulan base from scratch. Then simply make the fleet bases more functional as hubs right from the beginning by having the standard hub funtions (bank/exchange/medical/ship repair) unlocked right from the beginning.

It wouldn't actually be lowering the cost of anything, but would make them more functional from the start, and would remove the need to level them up as quickly as possible. this way it could be worked on whenever people feel like it/have the extra resources.

Although I do still support lowering the limited time special projects by half, but for all factions as these are still largely ignored other than by large/mega fleets.

voicesdark

dalolorn wrote: »

An easier solution would be to just make the 25 or so Romulan fleet holding space models, the 5 interiors (counting in the embassy), and - wait for it...

Make an expensive (possibly even VERY expensive) special project that transforms your fleet holdings into Romulan-themed ones. :P

The problem with this is you're talking about taking an existing Federation or Klingon Fleetbase and simply making it look Romulan. This wouldn't be a bad idea if the entire fleet decided they wanted to go all Romulan, but it also removes the fleet from having A KDF exclusive Base, a FED exclusive Base, and a Rom exclusive base.

Not everyone is going to want their fed/kdf fleet going to a rom base, or their rom fleet going to a fed/kdf base. A separate rom base that can ally with fed/kdf is the simplest solution to all aspects.

I actually changed my initial proposal to be much more simplistic to develop and initiate, while also not favoring reduced costs for a rom fleetbase.

dalolorn

voicesdark wrote: »

The problem with this is you're talking about taking an existing Federation or Klingon Fleetbase and simply making it look Romulan. This wouldn't be a bad idea if the entire fleet decided they wanted to go all Romulan, but it also removes the fleet from having A KDF exclusive Base, a FED exclusive Base, and a Rom exclusive base.

Not everyone is going to want their fed/kdf fleet going to a rom base, or their rom fleet going to a fed/kdf base. A separate rom base that can ally with fed/kdf is the simplest solution to all aspects.

I actually changed my initial proposal to be much more simplistic to develop and initiate, while also not favoring reduced costs for a rom fleetbase.

My fleet has THREE fed bases around T4 (the alpha fleet hit T5 recently). I imagine the really large ones also have a couple of subfleets.