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Creepy power-creep!?
meimeitoo
Member Posts: 12,594 Arc User
Aka, is Cryptic sabotaging their own game?
Ever since LoR, I have noticed a great disturbance in the Force. Rom ships, consoles, and boffs are being output with powers that are so unbalanced, that it's becoming game-breaking.
Allow me to explain. Okay, I have a Tal Shiar Adapted Destroyer now. Great ship! And finally, as a Fed, I can now cloak too, properly, and live the enormous OP benefits it brings. And so I now get a 60% dmg decloak bonus (with the right Rom Embassy boffs); plus 4% extra CrtH (from another set of Rom Embassy boffs).
So, why am I complaining then, you ask? Because the new Rom stuff -- even if I have partial access to it -- is so unbalanced as to be tantamount to sabotage of the game. To name a few obvious consequences of the above alone:
1) When Rom boffs give you an extra, stackable, 2% CrtH, the only sensible thing to do, is to either start replacing all your existing boffs (or to simply not use them any more). I consider that game-breaking, as I loved visiting my own bridge, and be able to enjoy the company of my diverse boffs: most of which I had carefully outfitted with the costumes of my choice. Yet now I'm stuck with an all-Rom boff crew, even on my Fed ships, that all look the same, and whose outfit and look cannot be changed! As irony would have it, most of those boffs, as it turns out, not only cost me an arm and a leg figuratively, but iterally too, it would appear, as almost all of them are missing heads/limbs. Which makes going to your bridge moot to begin with.
2) Making one set of boffs to (of only 1 faction!) possess 'superior' traits simply breaks everything else; not only in that it insta-obsoletes everything else, boff-system wise, but simply because it takes away choice (yes, you can still 'choose' to fit boffs that have no 2% extra CrtH, or no superior warp-core efficiency; but I was taking about sane choices). And when every boff you have looks exactly the same, and cannot have his/her look changed, it simply obsoletes having 3D boffs altogether.
Oh yeah, and they made Rom female boffs slightly less 'superior' (like 1.5% CrtH vs. 2.0%). So, again, when it comes to 'choosing' your superior operative, it will need to be male (again, assuming sensible choices).
2) Same can be said about new mining consortium consoles: neutroniums with 35% extra turn-rate! YAY! But it also insta-obsoletes everything else in that department. Not just by like 1.2%, but simply by effectively putting 2 consoles into 1.
Tl;dr: it seems Cryptic has become so obsessed with selling stuff, that they no longer really care whether it breaks their game or not. And this has me worried; yes, even when I have access to all of the above.
Ever since LoR, I have noticed a great disturbance in the Force. Rom ships, consoles, and boffs are being output with powers that are so unbalanced, that it's becoming game-breaking.
Allow me to explain. Okay, I have a Tal Shiar Adapted Destroyer now. Great ship! And finally, as a Fed, I can now cloak too, properly, and live the enormous OP benefits it brings. And so I now get a 60% dmg decloak bonus (with the right Rom Embassy boffs); plus 4% extra CrtH (from another set of Rom Embassy boffs).
So, why am I complaining then, you ask? Because the new Rom stuff -- even if I have partial access to it -- is so unbalanced as to be tantamount to sabotage of the game. To name a few obvious consequences of the above alone:
1) When Rom boffs give you an extra, stackable, 2% CrtH, the only sensible thing to do, is to either start replacing all your existing boffs (or to simply not use them any more). I consider that game-breaking, as I loved visiting my own bridge, and be able to enjoy the company of my diverse boffs: most of which I had carefully outfitted with the costumes of my choice. Yet now I'm stuck with an all-Rom boff crew, even on my Fed ships, that all look the same, and whose outfit and look cannot be changed! As irony would have it, most of those boffs, as it turns out, not only cost me an arm and a leg figuratively, but iterally too, it would appear, as almost all of them are missing heads/limbs. Which makes going to your bridge moot to begin with.
2) Making one set of boffs to (of only 1 faction!) possess 'superior' traits simply breaks everything else; not only in that it insta-obsoletes everything else, boff-system wise, but simply because it takes away choice (yes, you can still 'choose' to fit boffs that have no 2% extra CrtH, or no superior warp-core efficiency; but I was taking about sane choices). And when every boff you have looks exactly the same, and cannot have his/her look changed, it simply obsoletes having 3D boffs altogether.
Oh yeah, and they made Rom female boffs slightly less 'superior' (like 1.5% CrtH vs. 2.0%). So, again, when it comes to 'choosing' your superior operative, it will need to be male (again, assuming sensible choices).
2) Same can be said about new mining consortium consoles: neutroniums with 35% extra turn-rate! YAY! But it also insta-obsoletes everything else in that department. Not just by like 1.2%, but simply by effectively putting 2 consoles into 1.
Tl;dr: it seems Cryptic has become so obsessed with selling stuff, that they no longer really care whether it breaks their game or not. And this has me worried; yes, even when I have access to all of the above.
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Ive got them stacked on my romulan character. I believe my current crit chance in space is 20.45% and my Crit Severity is 92%.
Best thing to do is roll a romulan. It is not unfair because everyone has access to the same stuff. If you feel its overpowered, then make one and be overpowered yourself :P
If you can't beat them, join them?
That's not a solution for a game. A game only works when both sides are having fun.
Except not everyone has access to the stuff. KDF and Fed players have no way of acquiring dual-traited Romulan or Reman boffs, nor do they have an avenue to create a character with the Operative or Infiltrator traits.
I think that's the attitude Cryptic wants us all to take. I can't imagine a better way for them to kill their own game though, than by taking the strongarm approach to trying to sell us all new stuff..... easier than making content I guess.
You, or some fleet you joined, has to have spent a good deal of time building up to unlock the fleet stuff. Fleet like that are sort of a legacy thing because it's rare someone stick around start to finish. One sided 'games' don't last that long. The victory loses interest fast, and the loser get sore.
I'm sure that's what PWE/Cryptic is banking on to feed the "pay to win" themes. As hard as they're rocking that boat the poison that generates starting to show it's ugly head in force.
Edit: It's half the reason I sneer at lockbox ships and the ever more powerful ship packs that keep coming out. I have to ask why I want to spend $25-100 on something that will not last more then a month, when I could get a brand new game that will last for that price tag. I could get a dozen old classics that do not get old (they're classics) for $100.
Yes, "I like the Superior Operative trait for the new BOFF's" too. In fact, a little too much. Which was my entire point: that with the introduction of them (and other OP stuff, like having 600% decloak dmg boost) there's only 1 sane choice left: to make everything you own Romulan (including, but not limited to, yourself, for that matter).
It's not about unfair, but about game-breaking: something a great deal more worrisome.
That does mean that PvP is only going to lose players, though, as the cost of getting to a point where one can even compete becomes insurmountable for most players looking to make the move. Cryptic might try working up a few new PvP maps to lure people in, in the hopes they'll join the arms race, but ultimately, it's going to fail. So it's the PvPers, including the ones reaping the 'benefits' of this, that should care.
I don't. I don't play PvP. The only thing I know about Romulans is that they're always blocking my lane in sector space. (Damn wideloads going at warp in the subtranswarp lane! Make like Romulus and get out of my way!)
Let's get something straight here: you're hideously overinflating the damage bonus that Ambush can yield. Not only is the bonus from Subterfuge not working at present, it isn't intended to stack. Even if it did, you would need 29 or so Boffs with the trait to get an Ambush up to 600% bonus.
Decloak ambush will give you a 15-25% (based on the cloaking variant) damage bonus.
LOL. I said 600, didn't I?
Why, I'm sure it is. :P
My problem with OP-ness is really only indirectly, though: once you realize you kinda have to replace everything with Rommie stuff, you know something is askew. Even when, like I said, I have access to most of those things myself (and I actually have a Rom char too).
Leadership trait was already a joke. Subsystem repair? Yawn. Nothing either time itself or a simple ET button won't fix instantly already (and it doesn't even stack any more). Besides, I'm still not sure having *any* points in Subsystem Repair yourself makes any difference whatsoever to start with.
Borg boffs with warp core efficiency and all, now those were cute. Seems 'superior' Roms have usurped that market too now. Sigh.
Every species of BOFF should have superior space traits available. This is especially true of Klingons. Fed players can make a reasonably canon all human bridge crew but KDF players are forced to slot either Romulans or Letheans, which makes little sense canon-wise, if they want to get a BOFF space bonus.
Why can we not have Klingon BOFFs with elusive, Vulcans with efficient, Trills with astrophysicist, Orions with Halmsman, and Gorn with accurate?
Isn't that what the whole point of LoR was? To get everyone to start and gear and buy ships for brand new Romulans?
Probably so, yes. And nothing wrong with wanting ppl to buy new stuff. But why then not add superior traits to humans too? Even the same traits would work. You add 2.0% extra CrtH to purple human boffs, and I'll replace my old ones, guaranteed; but I'll be able to keep their looks and outfits (via a simple costume save/load operation).
What Cryptic is currently doing is like running a kitchen appliance shop, with all fairly decent toasters, all each worth $20. And then add 1 that is vastly superior to anything else, and then... also sell that for $20! Now, how much of the other (non-Cylon) toasters you think this store will now sell?! Zactly, 0. Which is why what Cryptic is currently doing is game-breaking, IMHO: always make an attractive product, but not so beguiling that customers won't buy anything else any more. Or simply have Cryptic incur QoT (Quit over Time) damage, as that 1 proverbial toaster shafted everyone else.
A wise shop upgrades its product across the *entire* line.
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For what its worth I agree with your sentiment, this really sucks for players. All we can do is show our displeasure in threads like this one and make sure other players understand where we're coming from and ideally see how it affects them as well.
The long-term value comes from growing the player-base, and turning them into paying customers. That means convert existing players, draw in new players who were not already customers, and get old players who had left to return. If they stay around then they are all going to spend money on secondary ships and dilithium for gear and costumes for their toons and whatever.
Did you delete your old ships when LoR came out? When you get bored of Romulans are you going to put your account into stasis mode until Cryptic calls your wallet again? Do you want your existing garage to be obsoleted by the next wave of ships?
No its better for Cryptic if you stay here and play with your old ships, after you are bored of the shiney. But if your old stuff is turned into non-competitive TRIBBLE by the constant power creep, you are not going to have that motivation. You are going to look at your old stuff like its junk, and be motivated to go do something else after the buzz of New Romulus wears off. That's bad for business.
Cryptic is a business. As such, their goal is to make a profit. Of course, this has been brought up in the sense of selling additional power...and...I will get into that.
Before doing that though, I'd like to share several thoughts.
As has been mentioned, the PvPer makes up a very small portion of the game's overall population. So while such actions can be devastating to PvP in the eyes of some, it is potentially seen as a small price to pay for the overall increase in revenue.
Next, while there is some semblance of "gear progression", there is not the "content progression" that usually goes hand in hand with that. Do X to get A so you can do Y to get B so you can get Z to get C...etc, etc, etc. This means that some enjoy that form of progression are likely to walk away from STO as well.
So that might look pretty bleak to some of the folks out there - because those two things used to be considered "endgame"...used to I say, because well...I'll get into that in a bit.
Where some have set the bar at a certain level and see Cryptic drowning the game in powercreep, I would ask them the following - have you considered that Cryptic's bar is not set? Rather than looking at the powercreep as something that is making the bar look sillier and sillier, consider instead that the powercreep is actually lowering that bar.
Yes, with the addition of each new more powerful item - Cryptic is making the game more accessible to the casual and very casual player. Tasks that some take for granted with whatever hodgepodge of gear they might have at 50, are nigh impossible for other players. Tada, Cryptic adds more and more powerful items so that even the most casual player can be the hero in Star Trek. They are able to expand their customerbase - increase revenue - generate more profit. Look at what has happened in the past year or so, eh?
Now, it is not just about attracting those new players - they need to keep them as well. They need something to do. Tada, Reputations. Think about some of the casual games out there that have been very popular - they tend to involve various timegated repetitive activities.
There's also another type of player, that may or may not be part of that casual group. That player is the collector. For them, they'll need more than just Reputations. So Cryptic gave them Starbases. All sorts of holdings and projects so they can collect more and more. Powercreep will not generally bother them, because it means two things for them: 1) They're able to farm things faster. 2) There's more stuff to collect.
Speaking of farming, mind you, there's something that Cryptic has put together brilliantly in regard to that. Some might call it parasitic while others will call it symbiotic, but in the end it works. That is the people that want Dil and the people that want Zen.
People farming Dil to convert to Zen are creating the product that Cryptic can sell to the people willing to pay cash for Zen to convert to Dil. Some people have more money, some people have more time, or some people simply have a preference for how they go about making those particular purchases (with Dil or Zen) in the game.
But it ties well into the system of powercreep lowering the bar for the more casual player, the Reputation system, and with the Starbases. It's a very synergistic revenue generating system they have got going on there, eh?
Of course though, there were those two groups mentioned earlier that tend to become dissatisfied over time and leave. Their leaving is a loss of revenue for Cryptic. They're not blind to that.
You've heard the talk about the next couple of seasons focusing a little more on "endgame" and that quality of life thing. Now that Cryptic has gotten the "machine" in place with regard to attracting new customers, giving them something to do, giving the collector's something to do, etc, etc, etc...they're going to be in place to look at giving those two other groups something more to do, no? They've got a more solid foundation on which to do it than they did a year or two ago.
Also, some of those folks that came into the game one way or another - might just end up in those groups - and Cryptic does not want to lose them. So I would expect to see over the next 2-3 seasons, that improvement to the "endgame" in the classic sense of the MMO.
It will encourage folks to stay and even offer that temptation to return to others.
Doesn't mean that the powercreep will go away, not in the least - but folks may find themselves in scenarios where they actually wished they had more powercreep and they may find themselves in areas of the game where the powercreep doesn't exist to the extent it does elsewhere in STO.
That's just pure speculation, of course - just speculating on how Cryptic/PWE might be looking at maximizing the overall revenue stream from the game. In the end, it could turn out very well for everybody involved. The various "factions" within the playerbase will have plenty of things to do that keep them happy, Cryptic will be generating increased revenue which in turn means they will be able to reinvest in the game more - the various players will be even happier - more revenue - and yes, a healthy cycle takes root and the game thrives for years to come...
...but yeah, just my thoughts on the matter.
Post #23: Yea, stupid right? Boffs should all have at least one space trait. Or else, where is this Bridge on which they are officers? Spanning the Atlai on New Romulus?
No. Your fun makes everyone else's fun wrong by default.
That is completely TRIBBLE. It IS unfair because it means that to enjoy the best stuff you need to sacrifice whatever cosmetic choices you've made about your captain and crew, and replace them all with Romulan pole-dancers. The whole point of offering choices in a MMOG (or any game for that matter) is that those choices need to be remotely fair. Because 'choosing to be inferior' isn't a choice, it's an inducement to quit playing the game.
I don't have a problem with Cryptic putting in new content to grind for, but at least make it available to everyone on a fair basis. Don't give away freebies to new Rom captains, make them earn it like everyone else. And don't lock me into having an elf-only bridge crew. Some of us want to crew our ship with Gorn, and not feel like we're being punished for it.
Just one question, do you PvP?
If the answer is 'no', then why did you bother with this post?
I agree OP they seriously need to issue some bonuses to the feds to balance the game again. Klinks had all kinds of bonuses but Feds especially science engineer have had the short end of the stick for some time now. ie the ground science abilities to make a nurse beam down when using a hypo hasn't worked since launch, and the turrets beamed down by the engineer class nowhere near as potent as the plasma flame thrower and also the M&D buff for the whole teem doffs not working and that's just the ground stuff.
The space is a whole other story. Buy one of their OP store ships that btw don't have an equivalent on the fed side at all and you'll see what I mean.
It's turned into an everything but the fed ship game every time they come out with new improced ships fewer and fewer people are flying fed ships and the federation space is filled with all of these alien ships.
they're not just destroying the balance they're destroying the IP.
Agreed on everyhing, except for wanting a full Gorn crew. :P But to each his own.
Seriously, though, I'm glad you understand. People scoff when you say the word 'cosmetic.' But it's, in an overall sense, more about immersion, really. Or a suspension of disbelief, if you will. And yes, I find it *extremely* annoying to be needing a complete, 'they all really *do* look alike' male Rom crew on my Fed ships, simply because... yes, why exactly?!
Also, even when it's now becoming more and more clear that "Sell moar!" is the only thing which drives Cryptic, they should still do well to remember they're selling all those outfits for a reason: ppl like 'cosmetic' stuff. So, ere long it should become apparent to them -- even if they don't care -- that having every boff look exactly the same, and not even have the ability to change their outfit or looks, is going to harm themselves. So, at the very least, it needs to be made so that you can change the outfit and looks of those Rom boffs.
Oh, and make the Rom female boffs have the same stats as the male -- having them be weaker makes no sense, and is based on an outdated notion that women are inferior.
This reminds me of Rule of Acquisition 82: "The flimsier the product, the higher the price." Aka, people want flimsy, new stuff: not the regular 'old' Fed things. And there is, in itself, nothing inherently wrong even with introducing exotic new ships (within bounds, set by CBS, btw). Since LoR, however, a new, and rather disturing, trend can be seen: 'Make everything new *so* OP, that ppl will have no choice, but to buy it.' Sounds great, right? Yeah, no. Cuz they're destroying/obsoleting everything else in the process.
Why is that so bad, you ask?! Because this kind of selling-technique is usually indicative of a company ready to scuttle its own game -- milking it for everything they can, in one final spurt, as it were. So, yes, this openly having given up on balance thingy has me deeply worried -- even when I, like I said, have access to most of it.
Be afraid; be very afraid!
It feeds a "I have to have it now!" mentality that does not feed it's owner. Two quotes:
-John D. Rockefeller
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_d_rockefeller.html
Edit: For those who don't know who Rockefeller was? Here is a quote from wiki: