Shame on Cryptic for making this a stealth nerf. If you're going to nerf something this important, put it in the patch notes. Players always find out, and then you just look bad for hiding it in the first place.
Now, I'd like to offer a constructive analysis of the situation. The reason so many players use the mail system to store excess DOffs is because of the DOff distribution problem with fleet starbases. I farm DOff recruitments heavily because I am the ONLY person in my fleet actively contributing significant numbers of DOffs to the starbase. However, because of the inequality in the random distribution of DOffs vs the requirements for starbase projects, I end up with thousands, yes, THOUSANDS of excess science and tactical DOffs. Since they're worth nothing on the Exchange, and there are the occasional projects I can run that use just these, I save all these so I can fill up those projects instantly. The core problem here is that starbases require far fewer science and tactical DOffs than are randomly created, and far more security and medical DOffs than are randomly created.
Yes, using mail as storage is silly and is borderline exploitative. We shouldn't do it, but we shouldn't HAVE to do it because of poorly balanced mechanics. I would be 100% in support of a mail item attachment limit if you simultaneously fixed the DOff distribution problem. Don't nerf mail attachments, which players are simply using as a workaround to this imbalanced mechanic, until you've fixed the reason players are flooding the mail system with thousands of DOffs in the first place.
A fairly simple change has already been proposed. Instead of requiring 30 tactical and 30 security DOffs for the most common starbase projects, change the requirement to 60 tactical or security DOffs. Players will quickly eat through their thousands of stored tactical and science DOffs in a couple weeks, and we will no longer have a reason to keep flooding the mail system with DOffs. Do this, and I predict most players will be okay with a mail attachment limit (though the OP's concerns about trolling by flooding someone's mail with worthless attachments is still legitimate).
The nerf is intentional and is account wide (meaning no more than 100 stacks in mailbox, in total)
Most of us agree that the magic mail was exploitative; however we had no viable alternative since the starbase doff problem has been ignored for months and getting worse (even more now since this stealth nerf).
Mailbox spamming another player is a concern, however mail from non-friends and fleet can be blocked.
Cryptic reports that returned exchange items will eventually make it to you even if you are at the cap. However I am skeptical given that mails containing items that are accidentally deleted aren't returned to you despite the tool-tip that says otherwise.
Lots of us have taken issue that this wasn't addressed in the patch notes and the only response from Cryptic is from a 3rd-party service saying to buy more slots. This comes off as both contemptuous and naive of the actual players and how they are playing the game.
Remember Cryptic, if a large segment of the player-base is using an exploit; its because you've failed to address an issue somewhere or because the game is more enjoyable with the exploit or because not performing the exploit would put the individual player at a significant disadvantage.
you guys are laughing and joking saying this is no big deal well it is..
all day log i been getting emails saying my echange item has expired.. yet there is no attachment. even if i go to a mail station..
now do i delete these emails? will i get new ones someday?
i have many many many expensive items in the EX on multiple characters.. lock box ships. contraband in stacks.. acc2-3 weapons..
i buy items and resell them at a higher price.. there are prices i wont go under so if the market is bad those items dont sell.. they do eventually tho.. someday..
i have about 100m tied up right now in inventory. if it doesnt get returned to me, what then?
[12:35] Vessel Two of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 225232 (271723) Plasma Damage to you with Plasma Lance.
[12:44] Vessel One of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 1019527 (1157678) Kinetic Damage to you with Plasma Energy Bolt Explosion.
Yes, they snuck this right in, didnt they? :mad:
Mail is broken right now too; can't delete messages.
If players have too much mail in the box it's because Cryptic is not giving players enough space. Only 10 Boffs on your 'bench' is not enough.
AND lower the price of the doff grinder and I won't have to store them in the mail. I'll go grind them for a better one like I used to instead of sitting on them for the chance at fleet donation.
At this this point it is no surprise the extent cryptic will go to cripple a game, or try to get money out of people, even if they can't get anymore out of people.
It's a shame that they have to continue nerfing already established systems that have been in place since the game was launched just to justify a few extra sale out of the few that will by that can still buy
And for what to TRIBBLE off the majority of the player base yet again.
I am about at my wits end I keep throwing time and money at them but their greed is unending and being punished for trying to support my fleet is BS.
Ok this patch has been an absolute disaster for me. The chronic instability has limited my ability to play and now I run into this unannounced "feature" has dramatically changed how I play the game. Doff storage is a nightmare and necessary for those advancing a starbase which demands doffs like a fat guy eats cake. You open hundreds of packs and have to sort what is needed now and what is needed later. Four hundred doff slots is far too few for serious doffers to both use for projects and to store for starbase builders.
Switching accounts is a pain in the TRIBBLE already and I am not playing the game to spend all my time jumping from account to account as needed. This game has already made things difficult for doffing due to poor design for storage and this change just may kill it. Doffing is the one area where I felt I can contribute and this change makes the game feel more like a job if I am forced to switch and manage accounts to sort and find what I need. I could care less about the new content if it forces me to work ten times harder to help advance the fleet. When a game starts to feel like work, I tend to leave for greener pastures.
If this is some crude method to facilitate storage sales then I will probably have to say goodbye. I don't respond to gimmicks to make me buy something that was a core feature. I can take my money and time elsewhere. Doffing/Starbase construction is the one thing that has kept me involved in STO and these changes have killed that aspect for me if there isn't a suitible replacement for what the mail was allowing in terms of doff/item storage. This change has made me sick and has me incredibly frustrated unable to enjoy anything else with this additional content.
Has there been any Dev/Community Manager response to this issue? While I don't have anywhere near the amount of stuff in the mail as some others do, I haven't been able to delete any mail at all since LOR went live.
Yes, they snuck this right in, didnt they? :mad:
Mail is broken right now too; can't delete messages.
If players have too much mail in the box it's because Cryptic is not giving players enough space. Only 10 Boffs on your 'bench' is not enough.
AND lower the price of the doff grinder and I won't have to store them in the mail. I'll go grind them for a better one like I used to instead of sitting on them for the chance at fleet donation.
Very right. I bet almost no one uses the option to turn in 5 blues or greens for a better doff since they hiked up the dil price to a level no one in their right mind would pay since you're not even guaranteed a resolve trait doff for that much dil.
that doff grinder was a very greedy move on their part..
who is going to pay so much to turn 5 whites into a green, then pay more to turn 5 greens in to a blue, and by the time you turn in 5 blues to get a purple you have spent like 20k dil for one purple doff that is random.
[12:35] Vessel Two of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 225232 (271723) Plasma Damage to you with Plasma Lance.
[12:44] Vessel One of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 1019527 (1157678) Kinetic Damage to you with Plasma Energy Bolt Explosion.
that doff grinder was a very greedy move on their part..
who is going to pay so much to turn 5 whites into a green, then pay more to turn 5 greens in to a blue, and by the time you turn in 5 blues to get a purple you have spent like 20k dil for one purple doff that is random.
I'm curious what's the number of people who used that DOFF upgrade after they added the Dilithium Tax?
I'm curious what's the number of people who used that DOFF upgrade after they added the Dilithium Tax?
I used it once just to see what would happen. I wasn't really expecting anything special, but I thought perhaps the result would give me a doff with extra traits than usual. Since it was just random TRIBBLE, I never did it again. I can't really think of anyone I know who actually does it. It's standard practice to tell newbies and your friends/fleet mates when they ask about doff recruitment at Klingon Academy/SF Academy to never use that particular one, since it's a complete waste of dilithium.
Patching 11 files, 0 KB/s
SERVER NOT RESPONDING (362.32s)
Patching 87 files, 160.08 KB/s
It is odd that they communicate more information on another company's site than they do their own, isn't it? To be entirely honest, though, that is not an isolated practice. The main failing this particular company has in that regard is that they don't actually have their own Twitter feeds either replicated, re-posted or imported on their main page; Turbine was always good about that, though lacking in other areas (obviously, I'm here and not there).
Love the handle, breadandcircuses...
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid." Q Join the 44th Fleet. [FED and KDF] Apply Online: startrek.44thfleet.com
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
i'd be interested what the metrics say more so than what people say.
anybody who has a little bit of know how about the game will avoid it like plasma fire.
but there are plenty of noobs who may fall for the trap.
so the question really is, was more dilithium spend on it while it was priced lower, or now that it is priced as ridiculous as it is?
and i'd like to know if Cryptics metrics are event that precise to be able to tell how often people do that upgrinding stuff anyway.
I don't disagree that it was too cheap before, but they overcompensated as usual and now it is not worth it at all.
Says the dude who made the Doff Sheet and has bought 4000 DOff slots.
Interesting to get your take on that, being a long time doffer myself and contributor to your lovely work its always nice to hear your thoughts on the doff system.
Its always about the money, they almost always nerf thing for the money, like the trade up system for doffs was nerf for money, and you want to know what almost no one uses it anymore.
That is one of many examples of the nerfs usually stealth that they have done to try to get more money and in the process make the doff system or just plain playing that game that much more unenjoyable.
Not surprised Cryptic threw this in, they are always throwing in little sneaky features they know people won't like.
All they have done is shifted this from the mail to the exchange. People will just throw their items on the exchange for crazy prices like a million EC for a white duty officer for example to store them there until they need them.
I am not too worried about this feature as I only use the mail to store Breen BOFF's and Duty Officers waiting for fleet projects to open up. But I know many won't be impressed by this action I am not as it's the principle of the thing, Cryptic not being open and honest with their customers yet again. Out of all the gaming companies out there Cryptic doesn't have a good rep with their customers and things like this only enforce the view and opinion players have with them.
Its always about the money, they almost always nerf thing for the money, like the trade up system for doffs was nerf for money, and you want to know what almost no one uses it anymore.
That is one of many examples of the nerfs usually stealth that they have done to try to get more money and in the process make the doff system or just plain playing that game that much more unenjoyable.
Indeed I no longer get the requesting packs from the Personnel officer not do I grind officers up, it just isn't worth the dilithium. I know they are a business but they make loads of money off lock boxes, the packs they just released for the Romulans and an assortment of other things, yet they still want more and instead of making new quality content they just nerf and make cheap changes to try and kill the dilithium exchange or try to make people buy zen just to transfer into dilithium. Too much in this games needs dilithium these days.
Cryptic has in the last 12 months damaged the game a lot with such changes from cross faction consoles in lock boxes to these nerfs.
Support the Game by Supporting the KDF, equality and uniqueness for all factions!
Its mail. not a bank. EVERY game has limited bank space, this is usually solved by having a bank toon, or if you really wanted to a bank starbase.
If you run out of space for items, you liquidate them. I fail to see the real problem here.
on principle I agree with you; but tell me how to reasonably liquidate the several hundred otherwise worthless doffs produced each day in order to produce the few dozen we need for starbases.
The unlimited mailbox was being abused, I do not disagree; however Cryptic decided to sneak in a 'fix' for that abuse without addressing the main reason that abuse was necessitated.
i'd be interested what the metrics say more so than what people say.
anybody who has a little bit of know how about the game will avoid it like plasma fire.
but there are plenty of noobs who may fall for the trap.
so the question really is, was more dilithium spend on it while it was priced lower, or now that it is priced as ridiculous as it is?
and i'd like to know if Cryptics metrics are event that precise to be able to tell how often people do that upgrinding stuff anyway.
I don't disagree that it was too cheap before, but they overcompensated as usual and now it is not worth it at all.
Says the dude who made the Doff Sheet and has bought 4000 DOff slots.
Indeed, they overshot things and made it ridiculous that veteran players avoided it, like what they did with Crafting.
And with LoR, there is no need to depend on that when Romulan players can access not only the Romulan DOFF Recruiting, but their ally's as well. So Cryptic themselves made it unncessary to spend the Dilithum for a 5-DOFF pack.
Which leaves us back to the intial problem, DOFF storage to do Starbase and Embassy Projects. We got all these DOFFs and we need a place to put them without depending on players using their 400 DOFF slots (which I'm betting was not the intention by the Cryptic team when the DOFF systemw as originally implemented).
If you can show me how to store my duty officers in the bank, I'd be much obliged. Fix the imbalance so that medical doffs aren't 10x more valuable (or more) than science doffs with civilians being similarly worthless and I don't think anyone will have problems with an attachment limit. I don't have a single item in my mail that's NOT a duty officer, that's what the account and fleet banks are for.
If you can show me how to store my duty officers in the bank, I'd be much obliged. Fix the imbalance so that medical doffs aren't 10x more valuable (or more) than science doffs with civilians being similarly worthless and I don't think anyone will have problems with an attachment limit. I don't have a single item in my mail that's NOT a duty officer, that's what the account and fleet banks are for.
This is perfectly reasonable; also, a per-character slot limit that allows for a minimum of one full Exchange posting return cycle, rather than an account limit. Penalizing players for purchasing additional character slots is silly, and outright unfair to those that already have done so.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
EDIT: the attachment limit is intentional https://twitter.com/trekonlinegame/status/337558776494321664
Cryptic's solution to our #1 use for the mailbox 'storing unbalanced doffs" is to buy more slots
Again, Cryptic you are killing fleets. A healthy fleet cannot maintain the unbalanced doff requirements without producing excess 'worthless' doffs, and players cannot afford to trash those doffs (valued at 22.5k ea. ~17k more than market; value derived from 1 fleet credit costing 75ec).
Fix the doff imbalance, today, not 'sometime in June, maybe' or remove the limit on the mailbox. Personally I prefer the doff imbalance being addressed like we asked for for months.
please move this post to a proper forum location as I could not find one that fit well
a 100-attachment limit was quietly added
please remove it. Having the limit wont make me buy bank slots or increase my doff roster. it will make me flood the exchange with useless TRIBBLE (i.e. common science doffs) for several months to indefinitely
With a currently broken mail system where exchange mails pile up, cannot be deleted and where some of the expired messages do not return the item which had been up for sale and since expired, in my humblest of new player opinions, this is becoming a critical failing that requires attention soon!
So, anyone notice that now they just imported the Neverwinter duplicating mail bug? Plus, it still won't delete mail. Awesome :P
Seriously, though, can't you just revert the mail system to how it was previously implemented? This version clearly doesn't work... heck, you can even share that old version of the mail system with the Neverwinter team so they can get their end working too.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
If you can show me how to store my duty officers in the bank, I'd be much obliged. Fix the imbalance so that medical doffs aren't 10x more valuable (or more) than science doffs with civilians being similarly worthless and I don't think anyone will have problems with an attachment limit. I don't have a single item in my mail that's NOT a duty officer, that's what the account and fleet banks are for.
A good solution would be for those assignments in the fleet that require medical officers allow for civilians to also be placed, so either medical or civilian can be added to that part of the assignment. This would be a quick fix to relieving the pressure of getting medical officers and make civilians useful rather than for just dismissing for the CXP.
Support the Game by Supporting the KDF, equality and uniqueness for all factions!
I got butt****ed again, how I'm supposed to clean my mailbox if i cannot organize it first? I suppose its time to make 50 new accounts...
Sad isn't it when they force our hands to doing things like that, mind you I made a second account ages ago for quick doff transport for my main characters on my main account.
But god I have not the energy to start making tons of accounts just to deal with a poor stealth nerf like this, after all this is suppose to be a game not a freaking job.
I was strongly considering the buying the lifetime subscription during the sale. But now, due to this mail issue, I will not be purchasing the lifetime subscription. I'm not getting a monthly subscription either. I will keep playing for free only. Cryptic's ploy to get me to spend more money has caused me to not spend $199.99. Cryptic can't make unilateral, unannounced changes without angering their customers. Any changes should have been officially disclosed. Changing the mail should have been announced well in advance. Cryptic can read our posts of confusion and outrage, but refuses to respond. In any RPG, no players like being "Rail Roaded." Stealth nerfs are bad for Cryptic's bottom line.
Has there been any acknowledgement on these forums about this bug/feature beyond a vague twitter post? Not being able to delete/access mail is a dramatic short term bug, but the pathetic dofiing/selling limit of 100 total attachments is more critical in the long term.
We need recognition that this is an issue that will be addressed through another mechanism or a raising of the limit to something such as 1000 or at minimum 500. Also seperating out each characters mail rather than having it account based would limit the impact. But having 5 or 6 characters with only 100 attachments simply isn't feasible if your do any kind of doffing or selling items without crippling mails ability to deliver items and messages. It destroys many other areas of the game in terms of fleet communications, starbase/embassy construction, and exchange management just by this one simple undisclosed change. If we would have know about it, we could have alerted this issue to try and make adjustments long before it went live.
Comments
Now, I'd like to offer a constructive analysis of the situation. The reason so many players use the mail system to store excess DOffs is because of the DOff distribution problem with fleet starbases. I farm DOff recruitments heavily because I am the ONLY person in my fleet actively contributing significant numbers of DOffs to the starbase. However, because of the inequality in the random distribution of DOffs vs the requirements for starbase projects, I end up with thousands, yes, THOUSANDS of excess science and tactical DOffs. Since they're worth nothing on the Exchange, and there are the occasional projects I can run that use just these, I save all these so I can fill up those projects instantly. The core problem here is that starbases require far fewer science and tactical DOffs than are randomly created, and far more security and medical DOffs than are randomly created.
Yes, using mail as storage is silly and is borderline exploitative. We shouldn't do it, but we shouldn't HAVE to do it because of poorly balanced mechanics. I would be 100% in support of a mail item attachment limit if you simultaneously fixed the DOff distribution problem. Don't nerf mail attachments, which players are simply using as a workaround to this imbalanced mechanic, until you've fixed the reason players are flooding the mail system with thousands of DOffs in the first place.
A fairly simple change has already been proposed. Instead of requiring 30 tactical and 30 security DOffs for the most common starbase projects, change the requirement to 60 tactical or security DOffs. Players will quickly eat through their thousands of stored tactical and science DOffs in a couple weeks, and we will no longer have a reason to keep flooding the mail system with DOffs. Do this, and I predict most players will be okay with a mail attachment limit (though the OP's concerns about trolling by flooding someone's mail with worthless attachments is still legitimate).
The nerf is intentional and is account wide (meaning no more than 100 stacks in mailbox, in total)
Most of us agree that the magic mail was exploitative; however we had no viable alternative since the starbase doff problem has been ignored for months and getting worse (even more now since this stealth nerf).
Mailbox spamming another player is a concern, however mail from non-friends and fleet can be blocked.
Cryptic reports that returned exchange items will eventually make it to you even if you are at the cap. However I am skeptical given that mails containing items that are accidentally deleted aren't returned to you despite the tool-tip that says otherwise.
Lots of us have taken issue that this wasn't addressed in the patch notes and the only response from Cryptic is from a 3rd-party service saying to buy more slots. This comes off as both contemptuous and naive of the actual players and how they are playing the game.
Remember Cryptic, if a large segment of the player-base is using an exploit; its because you've failed to address an issue somewhere or because the game is more enjoyable with the exploit or because not performing the exploit would put the individual player at a significant disadvantage.
all day log i been getting emails saying my echange item has expired.. yet there is no attachment. even if i go to a mail station..
now do i delete these emails? will i get new ones someday?
i have many many many expensive items in the EX on multiple characters.. lock box ships. contraband in stacks.. acc2-3 weapons..
i buy items and resell them at a higher price.. there are prices i wont go under so if the market is bad those items dont sell.. they do eventually tho.. someday..
i have about 100m tied up right now in inventory. if it doesnt get returned to me, what then?
[12:44] Vessel One of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 1019527 (1157678) Kinetic Damage to you with Plasma Energy Bolt Explosion.
Mail is broken right now too; can't delete messages.
If players have too much mail in the box it's because Cryptic is not giving players enough space. Only 10 Boffs on your 'bench' is not enough.
AND lower the price of the doff grinder and I won't have to store them in the mail. I'll go grind them for a better one like I used to instead of sitting on them for the chance at fleet donation.
It's a shame that they have to continue nerfing already established systems that have been in place since the game was launched just to justify a few extra sale out of the few that will by that can still buy
And for what to TRIBBLE off the majority of the player base yet again.
I am about at my wits end I keep throwing time and money at them but their greed is unending and being punished for trying to support my fleet is BS.
Switching accounts is a pain in the TRIBBLE already and I am not playing the game to spend all my time jumping from account to account as needed. This game has already made things difficult for doffing due to poor design for storage and this change just may kill it. Doffing is the one area where I felt I can contribute and this change makes the game feel more like a job if I am forced to switch and manage accounts to sort and find what I need. I could care less about the new content if it forces me to work ten times harder to help advance the fleet. When a game starts to feel like work, I tend to leave for greener pastures.
If this is some crude method to facilitate storage sales then I will probably have to say goodbye. I don't respond to gimmicks to make me buy something that was a core feature. I can take my money and time elsewhere. Doffing/Starbase construction is the one thing that has kept me involved in STO and these changes have killed that aspect for me if there isn't a suitible replacement for what the mail was allowing in terms of doff/item storage. This change has made me sick and has me incredibly frustrated unable to enjoy anything else with this additional content.
Very right. I bet almost no one uses the option to turn in 5 blues or greens for a better doff since they hiked up the dil price to a level no one in their right mind would pay since you're not even guaranteed a resolve trait doff for that much dil.
who is going to pay so much to turn 5 whites into a green, then pay more to turn 5 greens in to a blue, and by the time you turn in 5 blues to get a purple you have spent like 20k dil for one purple doff that is random.
[12:44] Vessel One of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 1019527 (1157678) Kinetic Damage to you with Plasma Energy Bolt Explosion.
I'm curious what's the number of people who used that DOFF upgrade after they added the Dilithium Tax?
I used it once just to see what would happen. I wasn't really expecting anything special, but I thought perhaps the result would give me a doff with extra traits than usual. Since it was just random TRIBBLE, I never did it again. I can't really think of anyone I know who actually does it. It's standard practice to tell newbies and your friends/fleet mates when they ask about doff recruitment at Klingon Academy/SF Academy to never use that particular one, since it's a complete waste of dilithium.
SERVER NOT RESPONDING (362.32s)
Patching 87 files, 160.08 KB/s
Love the handle, breadandcircuses...
Join the 44th Fleet. [FED and KDF] Apply Online: startrek.44thfleet.com
Mostly chosen for the TOS episode, though of course the original Latin phrase holds a certain amount of amusement as well
i'd be interested what the metrics say more so than what people say.
anybody who has a little bit of know how about the game will avoid it like plasma fire.
but there are plenty of noobs who may fall for the trap.
so the question really is, was more dilithium spend on it while it was priced lower, or now that it is priced as ridiculous as it is?
and i'd like to know if Cryptics metrics are event that precise to be able to tell how often people do that upgrinding stuff anyway.
I don't disagree that it was too cheap before, but they overcompensated as usual and now it is not worth it at all.
Says the dude who made the Doff Sheet and has bought 4000 DOff slots.
Interesting to get your take on that, being a long time doffer myself and contributor to your lovely work its always nice to hear your thoughts on the doff system.
That is one of many examples of the nerfs usually stealth that they have done to try to get more money and in the process make the doff system or just plain playing that game that much more unenjoyable.
All they have done is shifted this from the mail to the exchange. People will just throw their items on the exchange for crazy prices like a million EC for a white duty officer for example to store them there until they need them.
I am not too worried about this feature as I only use the mail to store Breen BOFF's and Duty Officers waiting for fleet projects to open up. But I know many won't be impressed by this action I am not as it's the principle of the thing, Cryptic not being open and honest with their customers yet again. Out of all the gaming companies out there Cryptic doesn't have a good rep with their customers and things like this only enforce the view and opinion players have with them.
Indeed I no longer get the requesting packs from the Personnel officer not do I grind officers up, it just isn't worth the dilithium. I know they are a business but they make loads of money off lock boxes, the packs they just released for the Romulans and an assortment of other things, yet they still want more and instead of making new quality content they just nerf and make cheap changes to try and kill the dilithium exchange or try to make people buy zen just to transfer into dilithium. Too much in this games needs dilithium these days.
Cryptic has in the last 12 months damaged the game a lot with such changes from cross faction consoles in lock boxes to these nerfs.
If you run out of space for items, you liquidate them. I fail to see the real problem here.
on principle I agree with you; but tell me how to reasonably liquidate the several hundred otherwise worthless doffs produced each day in order to produce the few dozen we need for starbases.
The unlimited mailbox was being abused, I do not disagree; however Cryptic decided to sneak in a 'fix' for that abuse without addressing the main reason that abuse was necessitated.
Indeed, they overshot things and made it ridiculous that veteran players avoided it, like what they did with Crafting.
And with LoR, there is no need to depend on that when Romulan players can access not only the Romulan DOFF Recruiting, but their ally's as well. So Cryptic themselves made it unncessary to spend the Dilithum for a 5-DOFF pack.
Which leaves us back to the intial problem, DOFF storage to do Starbase and Embassy Projects. We got all these DOFFs and we need a place to put them without depending on players using their 400 DOFF slots (which I'm betting was not the intention by the Cryptic team when the DOFF systemw as originally implemented).
This is perfectly reasonable; also, a per-character slot limit that allows for a minimum of one full Exchange posting return cycle, rather than an account limit. Penalizing players for purchasing additional character slots is silly, and outright unfair to those that already have done so.
With a currently broken mail system where exchange mails pile up, cannot be deleted and where some of the expired messages do not return the item which had been up for sale and since expired, in my humblest of new player opinions, this is becoming a critical failing that requires attention soon!
Seriously, though, can't you just revert the mail system to how it was previously implemented? This version clearly doesn't work... heck, you can even share that old version of the mail system with the Neverwinter team so they can get their end working too.
CUUCUUMBEER! "-With slight partigen with it."
Proud member or DPS-800 "-We kill dem mines with our scitter turrets."
A good solution would be for those assignments in the fleet that require medical officers allow for civilians to also be placed, so either medical or civilian can be added to that part of the assignment. This would be a quick fix to relieving the pressure of getting medical officers and make civilians useful rather than for just dismissing for the CXP.
Sad isn't it when they force our hands to doing things like that, mind you I made a second account ages ago for quick doff transport for my main characters on my main account.
But god I have not the energy to start making tons of accounts just to deal with a poor stealth nerf like this, after all this is suppose to be a game not a freaking job.
We need recognition that this is an issue that will be addressed through another mechanism or a raising of the limit to something such as 1000 or at minimum 500. Also seperating out each characters mail rather than having it account based would limit the impact. But having 5 or 6 characters with only 100 attachments simply isn't feasible if your do any kind of doffing or selling items without crippling mails ability to deliver items and messages. It destroys many other areas of the game in terms of fleet communications, starbase/embassy construction, and exchange management just by this one simple undisclosed change. If we would have know about it, we could have alerted this issue to try and make adjustments long before it went live.
When I asked a work round I was just told buy more slots are the mail isn't ment for storage so. . .