Speculation: Eventhough 'Legacy of Romulous' was a public relations success, the question people should be asking is, "Was the expansion an economical success?". If Cryptic is putting the pinch on certain resources, I can only assume that there is a revenue problem.
I'll skip over your economic "skills" and only address this. Cryptic has already announced a new Expansion Pack for next year. That indicates that the EPs were huge sellers - huge enough for them to be willing to put resources into another one. If revenues were tight they wouldn't be willing to invest hundreds of thousands more into another unknown or losing venture.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
You know, eventually, those sales are gonna time out and drop. Sellers are gonna have to repost their items, if they want to, and then, they'll either keep their selling prices, or they won't. It takes what, a few days for that to happen? Pretty sure, we'll have something to go on as a trend by then.
Not even close. It's going to take quite some time for the ECs already in the system to start to decrease. We're talking months here, not days.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
I am not sure if people know this, but - During a bad economy (and times of high demand), companies will increase the cost of products and services. Eventhough consumers may be struggling economically, companies will increase prices and slowdown production. While we will be getting an expansion, within the next twelve to eighteen months, the speed of its development will be deternmined by the flow of revenue. Content make up of the exansion is also affected.
Cryptic can promise everyone the moon, but the flow of revenue will detrmine what they deliver.
You can't have misread me this time. I spoke plain as day.
Exchange listing prices aren't going to drop for some time because there's still an abundance of ECs in the player's hands. One week without the full Tour didn't make everyone broke. It's going to take months before the current supply of ECs dwindled to the point where people stop paying the existing prices and force a decrease. I can't say it any plainer then that either.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
True, but this is an MMO video game. There's no production to slow down. The expansions are electronic downloads. The company develops the original and we pay to make a copy of it we can use to unlock it on our accounts.
There's no packaging, no DvD/CD's, no physical retail stores, no shipping, no middlemen that eat into the profit of the production of real physical products.
Eliminating all that stuff means Cryptic has less pressure to worry about because they've maximized their profit margin on the expansions and items in the C-store.
If you have any familiarity with the world of advertising, photography, web development, game design, digital imaging, and graphic design, you would now that a production department deals with many jobs.
Regardless about how a product is released to the public, the people building everything from advertising to 3D models works in a production department. Game icons, 3d models, web advertising, texture artists, etc... Its all done in a production department.
Before a game is released to the public, the product has to be built by the production, codding, and editing departments.
If you have any familiarity with the world of advertising, photography, web development, game design, digital imaging, and graphic design, you would now that a production department deals with many jobs.
Regardless about how a product is released to the public, the people building everything from advertising to 3D models works in a production department. Game icons, 3d models, web advertising, texture artists, etc... Its all done in a production department.
Before a game is released to the public, the product has to be built by the production, codding, and editing departments.
You have either misread or are misrepresenting what he said. He never said there's no production departments. He said there's no "middlemen" eating into the profits of the production. IE, you make and you sell directly to the consumer digitally. It goes from Cryptic to you.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
You need to keep in mind that when the Tour was designed the game was different. Sector speed movement hadn't been increased, Transwarp hadn't been increased, there weren't as many options for warp cores and going faster in sector space. Doffs that boost and/or decrease cooldowns weren't in the game. The simple truth is that people today can do the tour quicker then they could at launch because Cryptic was making changes to traveling speeds and not making the Tour longer to compensate.
Not only was the Tour granting enormous ECs - several times more then any other way to earn ECs in 1 hour - but the changes to the game over the last 18 months had even inadvertently made it even easier to earn EC.
This is true, though the numbers I referred to are based on pre-LoR assets and travel times on the Federation side, and not factoring in the Excelsior or Odyssey. Current travel speed can easily exceed this completion time... which is not the fault of the players running Tour. Actually, one of those boosts to Transwarp cooldown is the perk for completing Tour...
Really, though, if this "fix" were designed to actually close this gap without making Tour a limited availability Daily, we wouldn't be quite so concerned with it. If the "exploit" was that people were doing short-Tours and dropping, or using Transwarp hops as a shortcut through various sectors, this could have been dealt with specifically.
Example:
Tour the Universe rewards upon completion of all sectors, and use of Transwarp prior to completion has been added as a mission failure condition.
Outcome:
Players actually have to fly Tour the Universe, without being rewarded for short-Tours and without using Transwarp other than as a way to get back to base.
What we got instead:
A Daily that wastes space in the Event rotation and has to be picked up in person.
It is the design of the "fix" that bothers many of the folks here, rather than the fact that the "exploit" was closed. Personally, I enjoyed the challenge of seeing how many full runs I could accomplish during the hour, with a secondary minigame wherein I tried to see how many folks I could grant Diplomatic Immunity/Raiding Party to; only folks that hadn't already been buffed counted in my little game. It used to be a nice diversion from the constant pew pew that most everything else in the game entails, and actually gave me rewards that made it something more than just a way to waste time. Now... meh.
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.
"Tour the Galaxy: Some mission timers were set to start on completion of a mission rather on start, they are all set to start on completion of the mission."
what does it mean? its confusing, but maybe thats the point. it seems that its being further modified, but maybe they still dont want us to know exactly how until we see it live... but this time it's not a stealth fix/nerf since there's "something" in the notes.
"Tour the Galaxy: Some mission timers were set to start on completion of a mission rather on start, they are all set to start on completion of the mission."
what does it mean? its confusing, but maybe thats the point. it seems that its being further modified, but maybe they still dont want us to know exactly how until we see it live... but this time it's not a stealth fix/nerf since there's "something" in the notes.
__________________
It means that the 4 hour cooldown period now will start at the end of the mission, whereas currenty they start at the beginning of the mission, thus a 20 min race resulted in a 3 hr 40 minute cooldown remaining....now the 4 hour countdown begins at the end of the mission when you complete it....making it that much longer.
It means that the 4 hour cooldown period now will start at the end of the mission, whereas currenty they start at the beginning of the mission, thus a 20 min race resulted in a 3 hr 40 minute cooldown remaining....now the 4 hour countdown begins at the end of the mission when you complete it....making it that much longer.
WOW such a badly needed fix....pffffftttt not that the tour ever comes around ever 4 hours so a wasted effort on their part. I know how about actually making the tour worth even running? Because as it is currently it really isn't worth the time.
WOW such a badly needed fix....pffffftttt not that the tour ever comes around ever 4 hours so a wasted effort on their part. I know how about actually making the tour worth even running? Because as it is currently it really isn't worth the time.
I think that they did this to stop the "savers". These are people who pick up the event and wait until the next one after ths cooldown is out so that they can do it twice. You can do this with quite a few things, and make it so you only have to grind every couple of days allowing you to play on the in between times.
I think that they did this to stop the "savers". These are people who pick up the event and wait until the next one after ths cooldown is out so that they can do it twice. You can do this with quite a few things, and make it so you only have to grind every couple of days allowing you to play on the in between times.
Not really, you cant do that since the tour mission drop itself when the hour expire, so thats not why this was added. I think is more of a subtle message in the line of "In your face so f**k off !" towards the players. However its a good thing, at atleas now we know how things are between Cryptic and players.
Not really, you cant do that since the tour mission drop itself when the hour expire, so thats not why this was added. I think is more of a subtle message in the line of "In your face so f**k off !" towards the players. However its a good thing, at atleas now we know how things are between Cryptic and players.
Well then I will have to agree with you, though not so subtle. I haven't really looked that much into the tour, I have enough EC for my needs even though I am a tad poor at making it.
Not really, you cant do that since the tour mission drop itself when the hour expire, so thats not why this was added. I think is more of a subtle message in the line of "In your face so f**k off !" towards the players. However its a good thing, at atleas now we know how things are between Cryptic and players.
I found your sentence quite epic, so i've put it in my sig if you don't mind... A bit modified, but still applyable.
Not really, you cant do that since the tour mission drop itself when the hour expire, so thats not why this was added. I think is more of a subtle message in the line of "In your face so f**k off !" towards the players. However its a good thing, at atleas now we know how things are between Cryptic and players.
Yes the "players " are actually very pleased and hope they continue to make it difficult on the exploiters
If your not going to do the tour just because you cant exploit it and make the amount you feel is acceptable that is your choice
...And why not just fix the mission to only allow full tours to give rewards?
Two words: LIGHT BULB!
Cryptic, with this questionable workaround (as opposed to a proper fix) you're IMHO kicking practically every player in the testes/ovaries just to make sure you hit the naughty ones. :mad:
Personally I was glad to get about 1.5M EC with TtU, which was usually gone the next few minutes while doing shopping for our small (but hard working) T3 fleet. It was a great help to keep things going, now it isn't worth the effort any more. Shame.
Another itch: We got some slick ships through Risa (for which I'm grateful!), which were originally supposed to be racing ships according to the description if I'm not mistaken. Throw in the the mix, say, a couple of [COI] [SSR] [SSS] cores... To me that looks more like a pitch to an expansion of some sort.
I'm wondering: Why basically decapitate the only speed event in the game at such a time? Is there even a plan? :eek:
Another itch: We got some slick ships through Risa (for which I'm grateful!), which were originally supposed to be racing ships according to the description if I'm not mistaken. Throw in the the mix, say, a couple of [COI] [SSR] [SSS] cores... To me that looks more like a pitch to an expansion of some sort.
I'm wondering: Why basically decapitate the only speed event in the game at such a time? Is there even a plan? :eek:
I dont think anything will come of it more then the chel gret the risian vette is just another escort in the game nothing more then that.
If cryptic has something planned for the vettes id think they would be introducing a whole new class of ships and have special events tailored around them.
But i highly doubt this will happen but we can hope right?
why not just fix the mission to only allow full tours to give rewards?
Two words: LIGHT BULB!
Cryptic, with this questionable workaround (as opposed to a proper fix) you're IMHO kicking practically every player in the testes/ovaries just to make sure you hit the naughty ones. :mad:
Personally I was glad to get about 1.5M EC with TtU, which was usually gone the next few minutes while doing shopping for our small (but hard working) T3 fleet. It was a great help to keep things going, now it isn't worth the effort any more. Shame.
Another itch: We got some slick ships through Risa (for which I'm grateful!), which were originally supposed to be racing ships according to the description if I'm not mistaken. Throw in the the mix, say, a couple of [COI] [SSR] [SSS] cores... To me that looks more like a pitch to an expansion of some sort.
I'm wondering: Why basically decapitate the only speed event in the game at such a time? Is there even a plan? :eek:
its possible that could also have been something that they were trying fix as a well.
Perhaps the intent was that it only be run once . Possible reasons for that would be
1 it makes sense since they pay per sector .
2 they may only want people to be able to make X EC total in that event .
3 It also falls in line with other events take the mining event you can only do that once they may be trying to do the same thing with the t tour .
If you're not going to run the tour simply because you cant exploit it and make an amount you feel is acceptable that's you choice
Tour the Galaxy: Some mission timers were set to start on completion of a mission rather on start, they are all set to start on completion of the mission.
so dose this mean we can do a full hours tour or not as its not very clear :P
its possible that could also have been something that they were trying fix as a well.
Perhaps the intent was that it only be run once . Possible reasons for that would be
1 it makes sense since they pay per sector .
2 they may only want people to be able to make X EC total in that event .
3 It also falls in line with other events take the mining event you can only do that once they may be trying to do the same thing with the t tour .
If you're not going to run the tour simply because you cant exploit it and make an amount you feel is acceptable that's you choice
Perhaps another take on the circular argument here...
1. If the intent was "only run once per event", then why has it been "as many runs in an hour" since it's introduction (IIRC)? Granted, at release, ship speeds were slow enough to only allow 2-2.5 "full" runs per hour, and with the faster ships people can sneak 3-4 in per hour now...
1.5 - Pay per sector could also be an artifact of the "expansion" system - I ran my <40 Rommie through the tour - so no access to Gamma Orisonis / Pelia (Borg & Undine sectors). Still got the remaining tour credit...
2. Yeah, we could be making "more" EC than desired in that hour, but then again, this is more likely due to "unintentional effect of power creep" than exploit. I mean, my Vesta (can't test now due to maintenance) has the 2 piece Vesta Chroniton Quantum Slipstream (faster than normal, better turn rate, 1 min run time / 1 min cooldown), and my warp core has the 50% off slipstream reduction. This means I slipstream for 1 min, cool down for 30 sec, repeat. Combined with MACO engine for better speed in those 30 second cooldowns, and I could easily make 4x tours per hour...
3. Mining event is also "run at will" with a "bonus trace" event that runs in the calendar cycle. Unless Tour is going the same way (say, run tour at will for CXP, get EC during special event) then this could not be the intent. However, both the cooldown and the freeing of tour to be ran at any time should have been implemented concurrently (same time), not cooldown now, free-to-run next month...
4. Even for those "abusing" the "start tour, hit Fed/Defera/Borg/Undine -> Transwarp to Sol, Restart" pattern, I've seen math that shows my Vesta can make as much - if not more - in 4 legit full tours than these "exploiters" earn in the hour. Also, if this is the "exploit", adapting the "drop STF and get penalty, complete and keep going" system to the Tour would be the more obvious fix to the "exploit" than slapping a "random" cooldown that comes across as "one tour per event, period" more than an "exploit fix"...
Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
Comments
You can't have misread me this time. I spoke plain as day.
Cryptic can promise everyone the moon, but the flow of revenue will detrmine what they deliver.
Regardless about how a product is released to the public, the people building everything from advertising to 3D models works in a production department. Game icons, 3d models, web advertising, texture artists, etc... Its all done in a production department.
Before a game is released to the public, the product has to be built by the production, codding, and editing departments.
This is true, though the numbers I referred to are based on pre-LoR assets and travel times on the Federation side, and not factoring in the Excelsior or Odyssey. Current travel speed can easily exceed this completion time... which is not the fault of the players running Tour. Actually, one of those boosts to Transwarp cooldown is the perk for completing Tour...
Really, though, if this "fix" were designed to actually close this gap without making Tour a limited availability Daily, we wouldn't be quite so concerned with it. If the "exploit" was that people were doing short-Tours and dropping, or using Transwarp hops as a shortcut through various sectors, this could have been dealt with specifically.
Example:
Tour the Universe rewards upon completion of all sectors, and use of Transwarp prior to completion has been added as a mission failure condition.
Outcome:
Players actually have to fly Tour the Universe, without being rewarded for short-Tours and without using Transwarp other than as a way to get back to base.
What we got instead:
A Daily that wastes space in the Event rotation and has to be picked up in person.
It is the design of the "fix" that bothers many of the folks here, rather than the fact that the "exploit" was closed. Personally, I enjoyed the challenge of seeing how many full runs I could accomplish during the hour, with a secondary minigame wherein I tried to see how many folks I could grant Diplomatic Immunity/Raiding Party to; only folks that hadn't already been buffed counted in my little game. It used to be a nice diversion from the constant pew pew that most everything else in the game entails, and actually gave me rewards that made it something more than just a way to waste time. Now... meh.
"Tour the Galaxy: Some mission timers were set to start on completion of a mission rather on start, they are all set to start on completion of the mission."
what does it mean? its confusing, but maybe thats the point. it seems that its being further modified, but maybe they still dont want us to know exactly how until we see it live... but this time it's not a stealth fix/nerf since there's "something" in the notes.
__________________
Pizza: Pepperoni
Kalek shel'tek!
"Do not make me look foolish by allowing yourself to be murdered" -Lord Yu
It means that the 4 hour cooldown period now will start at the end of the mission, whereas currenty they start at the beginning of the mission, thus a 20 min race resulted in a 3 hr 40 minute cooldown remaining....now the 4 hour countdown begins at the end of the mission when you complete it....making it that much longer.
WOW such a badly needed fix....pffffftttt not that the tour ever comes around ever 4 hours so a wasted effort on their part. I know how about actually making the tour worth even running? Because as it is currently it really isn't worth the time.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
I think that they did this to stop the "savers". These are people who pick up the event and wait until the next one after ths cooldown is out so that they can do it twice. You can do this with quite a few things, and make it so you only have to grind every couple of days allowing you to play on the in between times.
I'm past trying or paying to win.
I'm.
So.
Done.
can we even expect that cryptic response to this discussion, and possibly takes out the cooldown in ttu?
yours sincerly, maximgorkiy
MB: MSI MPG X570 GP 2.0
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Mem: Samsung DDR4 -2132 8GB (x2)
Graph: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
System: Micrsft. Windows 10 Pro v.21H2
Shard maintenance every Thursday. Don't read too much into it.
Not really, you cant do that since the tour mission drop itself when the hour expire, so thats not why this was added. I think is more of a subtle message in the line of "In your face so f**k off !" towards the players. However its a good thing, at atleas now we know how things are between Cryptic and players.
I wish i disagreed with you on that.
Well then I will have to agree with you, though not so subtle. I haven't really looked that much into the tour, I have enough EC for my needs even though I am a tad poor at making it.
I found your sentence quite epic, so i've put it in my sig if you don't mind... A bit modified, but still applyable.
Yes the "players " are actually very pleased and hope they continue to make it difficult on the exploiters
If your not going to do the tour just because you cant exploit it and make the amount you feel is acceptable that is your choice
Yes, all 5 of them, according to this thread.
EDIT: Or is that 2
Two words: LIGHT BULB!
Cryptic, with this questionable workaround (as opposed to a proper fix) you're IMHO kicking practically every player in the testes/ovaries just to make sure you hit the naughty ones. :mad:
Personally I was glad to get about 1.5M EC with TtU, which was usually gone the next few minutes while doing shopping for our small (but hard working) T3 fleet. It was a great help to keep things going, now it isn't worth the effort any more. Shame.
Another itch: We got some slick ships through Risa (for which I'm grateful!), which were originally supposed to be racing ships according to the description if I'm not mistaken. Throw in the the mix, say, a couple of [COI] [SSR] [SSS] cores... To me that looks more like a pitch to an expansion of some sort.
I'm wondering: Why basically decapitate the only speed event in the game at such a time? Is there even a plan? :eek:
I dont think anything will come of it more then the chel gret the risian vette is just another escort in the game nothing more then that.
If cryptic has something planned for the vettes id think they would be introducing a whole new class of ships and have special events tailored around them.
But i highly doubt this will happen but we can hope right?
its possible that could also have been something that they were trying fix as a well.
Perhaps the intent was that it only be run once . Possible reasons for that would be
1 it makes sense since they pay per sector .
2 they may only want people to be able to make X EC total in that event .
3 It also falls in line with other events take the mining event you can only do that once they may be trying to do the same thing with the t tour .
If you're not going to run the tour simply because you cant exploit it and make an amount you feel is acceptable that's you choice
It's only been brought up right at the first few pages, and then a dozen more times since. Feels like we're just going in circles.
Pretty much the only new idea that's been brought up in a while is that maybe the developers hate us.
All in all, maybe i agree.
That would've been nice, actually, but it doesn't have nearly the turn rate to be an effective escort.
so dose this mean we can do a full hours tour or not as its not very clear :P
[/SIGPIC]
Perhaps another take on the circular argument here...
1. If the intent was "only run once per event", then why has it been "as many runs in an hour" since it's introduction (IIRC)? Granted, at release, ship speeds were slow enough to only allow 2-2.5 "full" runs per hour, and with the faster ships people can sneak 3-4 in per hour now...
1.5 - Pay per sector could also be an artifact of the "expansion" system - I ran my <40 Rommie through the tour - so no access to Gamma Orisonis / Pelia (Borg & Undine sectors). Still got the remaining tour credit...
2. Yeah, we could be making "more" EC than desired in that hour, but then again, this is more likely due to "unintentional effect of power creep" than exploit. I mean, my Vesta (can't test now due to maintenance) has the 2 piece Vesta Chroniton Quantum Slipstream (faster than normal, better turn rate, 1 min run time / 1 min cooldown), and my warp core has the 50% off slipstream reduction. This means I slipstream for 1 min, cool down for 30 sec, repeat. Combined with MACO engine for better speed in those 30 second cooldowns, and I could easily make 4x tours per hour...
3. Mining event is also "run at will" with a "bonus trace" event that runs in the calendar cycle. Unless Tour is going the same way (say, run tour at will for CXP, get EC during special event) then this could not be the intent. However, both the cooldown and the freeing of tour to be ran at any time should have been implemented concurrently (same time), not cooldown now, free-to-run next month...
4. Even for those "abusing" the "start tour, hit Fed/Defera/Borg/Undine -> Transwarp to Sol, Restart" pattern, I've seen math that shows my Vesta can make as much - if not more - in 4 legit full tours than these "exploiters" earn in the hour. Also, if this is the "exploit", adapting the "drop STF and get penalty, complete and keep going" system to the Tour would be the more obvious fix to the "exploit" than slapping a "random" cooldown that comes across as "one tour per event, period" more than an "exploit fix"...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]