If the problem is people not completing it, then instead of a cooldown, why not just require full completion for any rewards. Eliminate sector block rewards and increase the final reward to, say, 1 million EC. Then fast ships can still get their 3 mil, and the exploit is not longer useful.
Doesn't that seem better than a 4-hour cooldown?
Zinc: The universe of Star Trek Online is shaped and changed by the actions of the players...expect to see new planets and races discovered that were unknown the last time you logged in."
I'd also like to add my frustrations to this long long list of anger filled rants.
This game is full of grind already. With your Dilithium capped at 8k refineable a day. And the fact this game is supposedly built towards casual players...Do you really think casual players want to come on and constantly grind grind grind? Casual players are typically people who actually HAVE LIVES...They do have jobs, families and responsibilities to take care of too.
I can sympathize with those that used Tour of the Galaxy as a means to support their ability to stay up with the need for the latest and greatest in gear especially with Fleet Elite and Advanced XII gear.
If you dont have a fleet, or if your fleet isnt big enough to have rolled over the first 4 tiers for the Starbase and the 3 tiers for Embassy and so forth in a reasonable amount of time.....
If you dont have the time to spend two or three hours online a night continuosly trying to grind Rep Marks...
How else but the exchange are you going to get ahold of Mark XII gear? You tease the playerbase with this gear and then do everything you can to keep it out of our grasp...Months and months of grinding...And the only way to get what you want in a reasonable amount of time is to spend MORE time in STO doing the same grindy missions over and over again.
For those without a Fleet or just dont have the manpower to roll through the projects and tiers.. The Tour of the Galaxy was one of the last few places you could make enough EC that you didnt feel too much like you were a hamster on a wheel. And as for those stating that EC is easy to make..Its pretty easy to make when you spend numerous hours online filling you Inventory up before going to dump it on a Vendor...I also highly doubt that people are making a Quarter of a Million of a single run of a Fleet Action...Stop exaggerating. EC isnt the hardest thing to get, or atleast it wasnt prior to this stealth nerf. But missions like Tour of the Galaxy was one of those means to an ends.
Sure it was a an exploit. I dont think anyones denying that. But what is unacceptable here is the fact that theyve now made it so that casuals who dont have the time to get on here and grind grind grind cant utilize the Exchange to get too the better gear in a reasonable amount of time....No one wants to spend months if not a year to fully outfit their ship and crew with gear that is probably obselete half way through collecting what you need.
The forums are the last place to mount a mutiny. Its been tried over and over and over. The real Star Trek fans come here to post. The majority, which we are not, never come here and dont really care about the quality of the Star Trek experience in this game. Cryptic just wants to bring them in, grab some bucks, and let em leave. Thats their model, they wont change course, retaining real Trek fans be darned. Apparently random MMO players come to the game for a little content, something new, spend some bucks, and leave.
Ive already pulled back my sub long ago, after being duped on a sub sale in the past. I realized I was paying to let them take several months to a full YEAR to release the story content, the only reason Im here, so I stopped subsidizing laziness. I buy a ship here and there, but barely. I dont play their lock box lottery. When they provide the Star Trek experience I want, I pay in. When they want to release what THEY want, I dont spend squat.
Somehow I think even when the mass of unconcerned MMO players leave in droves, Cryptic still wont cater to the desires of the REAL Star Trek fans. That day is never coming. Even though we've all told them countless times how to take our money from our hand by the truckload. :rolleyes:
STO: @AGNT009 Since Dec 2010
Capt. Will Conquest of the U.S.S. Crusader
You have the right to not play a free game. You have the right to not pay for Zen. You have the right to not participate. You have the right to get what you pay for, but not to dictate what they sell you, or for how much.
No, it's more buying a six pack of beer for $5 and then later you go back to the store and the price has changed because the store realized they were losing money at that price, or because their supplier increased their price, or someone was buying beer from the store and reselling it for a higher price elsewhere, or for whatever reason the store owner realized they were charging too little. Then you go to the store and accuse them of ripping you off.
You have the choice to go buy your beer somewhere else.
Typical response from a Cryptic Apologist..rofl
Not everyone is like you and plays the game for free, in fact, alot of people spend money to support this game, and those people have rights.
When those people stop paying the company money due to lack of service or quality of the product, the game will simply shut down and you will no longer be playing your "free" game.
Sure it was a an exploit. I dont think anyones denying that.
Sure there is.. plenty of us. It was loooong repetitive boring and hard work requiring lots of attention to detail.
An exploit makes things easy and fast... quite the opposite of what the tour was.
That wasn't the exploit. That's the full route. The exploit they're referring to was where people did two or three sectors and then dropped the mission, picked it up and did the same sectors again.
Though the community have already come up with several solutions in this thread that are a 100 times better than how Cryptic have dealt with this.
Calling it an exploit is wrong. It was a well documented tactic to make more EC on the tour.
In addition, it took a lot of resources to be able to make this route pay better than the normal event itself. Cryptic made money selling the Advanced Heavy Cruiser Retrofit and the Advanced Heavy Cruiser, The first for transwarp drive and the second for the transwarp computer, both of which could be used to attain the movement necessary to get the 3 Mil. Ergo, Cryptic profited from this terrible exploit.
I am not a cheater. I am a paying customer and I spent money to have the best gear possible to get more EC. Exploit? Please. It's about changing the focus from EC to Zen because they are running a business. So it is what it is, they just ruined a fun event.
Why not add a 15 minute cool down, instead of a 4 hour one? I mean there were legitimate ways to do four runs in an hour, using Borg engines and QSD running the full route you could do it four times... I don't see the need for this 4 hour cool down, it's just going to p*ss off a lot of players.
15 minutes would stop the people who were doing one or two blocks then dropping it, but still allow the people who were not cheating to do it more than once. I enjoyed my little hour long tour through sector space, listening to music, setting up DOFF missions.
Though to be fair, the people who were cheating through it probably also have a lot of alts, so this isn't even going to affect them. It's only really going to hurt the people who were doing it legitimately.
My thoughts exactly.. this really does seem a little rushed and not thought through properly.. the proverbial equivalent of knocking in a tack with a sledge hammer!!
You have the right to not play a free game. You have the right to not pay for Zen. You have the right to not participate. You have the right to get what you pay for, but not to dictate what they sell you, or for how much.
Thing is that I'm such a Trekkie/Trekker that I bought a lifetime sub to this game at launch. What is Cryptic doing to make me want to drop money hand over fist on this game? Giving credit where credit is due, releasing LoR was a big boost but there are a lot of bugs associated with its release that have yet to be rectified. I guess in the end-all-be-all there are a lot of devoted Star Trek fans here who have become upset that they are no longer this games target audience (anymore).
That being said, I don't see the need for the change though... there are certainly easier ways to earn EC. If you can stomach running it over and over... you get some extra EC... whats the big deal... EC cant be converted to Dil or Zen... not sure what could be considered an exploit here?
No it's not, it's based on the idea that A source of EC was the tour. While others who don't run it don't have that source... exploiters got an even larger advantage.
Where is your proof that the people posting things on the exchange was assuming buyers were running the tour? You cant...Thats entirely speculative. You cant possibly know what every player using the exchange is thinking when they post prices of items.
Why not add a 15 minute cool down, instead of a 4 hour one? I mean there were legitimate ways to do four runs in an hour, using Borg engines and QSD running the full route you could do it four times... I don't see the need for this 4 hour cool down, it's just going to p*ss off a lot of players.
15 minutes would stop the people who were doing one or two blocks then dropping it, but still allow the people who were not cheating to do it more than once. I enjoyed my little hour long tour through sector space, listening to music, setting up DOFF missions.
Though to be fair, the people who were cheating through it probably also have a lot of alts, so this isn't even going to affect them. It's only really going to hurt the people who were doing it legitimately.
15 minutes is no good.
Vesta + Borg Engine + Raiding Party + Diplomatic Immunity + Warp engine with [Coi]+[SSR] + Practice = 8 minute entire Tour.
5 minutes is enough to stop the supposed "exploit" from being profitable, while maintaining the value of those expensive items above.
What motivation do players have to make their super-fast ship anymore?*
This is a very unfortunate change and the silent way it was implemented was underhanded.
What legitimate reason is there for a cooldown on this?
There is only one I can think of...recently there's been a bug where the quest would not complete at the end of the second run, I was affected by it. Perhaps it's a stopgap solution?
Edit: Thanks, Brandon!
I was thinking about that actual. This nerf after having the Oddy so long with the 2x slipstream almost renders that useless. Cores with [Coi] aren't as redeemable. As well as making faster subspace engines. Stock piling player points in Drive Core rank may be more wasted. The Dev Team seems a bit khokie
Not everyone is like you and plays the game for free, in fact, alot of people spend money to support this game, and those people have rights.
When those people stop paying the company money due to lack of service or quality of the product, the game will simply shut down and you will no longer be playing your "free" game.
Time to change your attitude.
1. In PWE's eyes, no one has rights. The TOS you agree to every time you play this game clearly states that PWE has the right to take away anything in-game at any time for any reason.
2. Wait wait, did we just go full circle from the OP, which is "Let's boycott the game so something gets done" to "When we boycott the game it shuts down"?
Oh yeah, and you can call me a Cryptic Apologist all you want. Go ahead. Just want to burst your bubble on the fact that it's a wrong term. If I were apologizing, it would be implying that I'm trying to defend something they did wrong.
True enough. I still play (we still hang out sometimes, like 3x a week), if only to get my fix of Trek.I write this as I was just booted from an Azure Nebula Rescue attempt, Server Not Responding then logged off.
Just had the same thing happen to me, am I sad over it yeah maybe, that's a decent way to get rom marks, am I going to log off and be all pissed about it hell no I just move on to the next thing.
As far as boycotting goes your just hurting yourself, ok don't spend any money on the game instead make the people that don't care do that and just go after the dilithium in game and transfer it to zen, bugs can't be fixed over night, yes there have been some bugs since launch but apparently there is not enough info on those bugs to be able to fix, if you want them fixed the the info needs to be there for Cryptic to do, not just "fix this because I say its broke", what to say that if STO goes down and some other company takes the IP that they will do any better, what if it's EA that got it would you rather they have them or have cryptic keep it, me I would rather have Cryptic continue on with it, now I don't have qualms about EA but I know several gamers do fine that there right but I would rather keep what I have than wait five more years to find out that we had a better game than what might maybe be.
I was thinking about that actual. This nerf after having the Oddy so long with the 2x slipstream almost renders that useless. Cores with [Coi] aren't as redeemable. As well as making faster subspace engines. Stock piling player points in Drive Core rank may be more wasted. The Dev Team seems a bit khokie-V
It is a nerf to those ships that needed to be BOUGHT for their ability to travel in sector space faster. Some people bought those ships because of Tour.
Do something boring long enough, guess what it becomes? Yes, hard.
I never ever ever ever heard anyone that was doing it say.... Hey, I LIKE THIS!
Everyone actively disliked it. Hell there are a lot that never got past doing it more than once.
Calling it an easy exploit - it sounds insulting.
Do something boring long enough, guess what it becomes? Yes, hard.
I never ever ever ever heard anyone that was doing it say.... Hey, I LIKE THIS!
You have met one now - Me
I am a fleet leader, and everyone in my fleet knew I was unavailable during the event. It was the one time when I insisted on taking a break and simply relaxed doing something I thought was fun.
I stand together with fellow players on this one. Whatever differences we have we need to put it aside, for this is no ordinary TRIBBLE-up.
The Tour of Galaxy is the only reliable simple method, besides foundry, to gain ec in game. And it rewards much higher than foundry. Though faulty at times, hundreds of players, myself included, depend on it to earn ec to pay for extra-high items essential to gameplay from the exchange, from samples to ships. Without the reliable source of income, many players who do not have extraordinary means will be pushed to the side, essentially putting an end to F2P.
This needs to be resolved and I urge Cryptic, whether or not a deliberate change, to please return the Tour as it was before patch. I am a longterm player and won't quit regardless, but it will definitely reduce STO's player base if this isn't resolved expediently.
Your kind attention is greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Xean
Besides buying things off the exchange, (which might self-adjust over time, although thinks like Mk.XII VR disruptor coils will be nigh unobtainable now) this also affects people who need to by commodities. (In other words, everyone.) Filling rep and fleet projects sets me back several million EC a week, and I'm buying off a Tuffli.
Removing sources of income never helps any economy. Reducing scarcity of certain overpriced items (like the aforementioned consoles) does.
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
I am a fleet leader, and everyone in my fleet knew I was unavailable during the event. It was the one time when I insisted on taking a break and simply relaxed doing something I thought was fun.
I'm actually surprised but happy for you. Do you also share the idea that it was an exploit and it was easy?
Just had the same thing happen to me, am I sad over it yeah maybe, that's a decent way to get rom marks, am I going to log off and be all pissed about it hell no I just move on to the next thing.
Just to clarify, I didn't log off on my own accord, but because of the 'Server Not Responding' error I got. FWIW, I was taken back to the login screen, entered my pwd, went to the character select, clicked on my char and was taken right back in. So what's up with the server? Furthermore, I was taken back to Qo'noS, not Azure Nebula, so my group of guys lost 20% of their team and I lost marks, it effected more than just me.
As far as boycotting goes your just hurting yourself, ok don't spend any money on the game instead make the people that don't care do that and just go after the dilithium in game and transfer it to zen, bugs can't be fixed over night, yes there have been some bugs since launch but apparently there is not enough info on those bugs to be able to fix, if you want them fixed the the info needs to be there for Cryptic to do, not just "fix this because I say its broke", what to say that if STO goes down and some other company takes the IP that they will do any better, what if it's EA that got it would you rather they have them or have cryptic keep it, me I would rather have Cryptic continue on with it, now I don't have qualms about EA but I know several gamers do fine that there right but I would rather keep what I have than wait five more years to find out that we had a better game than what might maybe be.
Yes, I realize bugs aren't fixed overnight. Months or years? Yes, those bugs should be fixed. It has been over 2 months since LoR debuted. And if STO goes down, which I doubt it will anytime soon, who is to say that whoever gets the IP does any worse? See, there are 2 sides to every flip of the coin.
AAARRRGGGGGGG!!!!!!
thats because I just finished typing a whole essay on this topic and the server crashed when I hit save, so I have to do this again.
*condensed* 6-7 pages of whine is my limit, haven't read the whole thread. Kinda a shock to not get my 4 laps in on today's tour, wtf?
Ultimately, this cool down will benefit people with multiple toons. Since they cannot do more than one lap, they'll probably switch characters and run it again. That was my first instinct. Single toon people are being punished by this move.
Also, the exploit was caused by the designers and the inequitable method of rewarding completion bonuses. You can't blame us for figuring out that some sectors always pay off and others and onn that whacky sliding scale.
Here's my suggestions
1) toss the current bonus system out and start giving a flat rate PER SECTOR paid upon completion of a block. For example, 5000ec a sector means that the sirius block is worth 15k, Pella is worth 5k, and Iota Pavonis is worth 20k. That's a little over 200Kec for the entire current map. In the spirit of Tour, you could give an optional 5k per cluster/nebula as well.
2) Make the current cool down a leaver penalty: it only activates if you drop the event without completing all the blocks (but not the optionals)
3) give partial completion bonuses by faction space: like 50K for completing all the blocks in Fed space; or Borg, Rom, Card, and kling spaces. Possibly, the faction bonus only kicks in with the optionals, or kicks in bigger with the optionals. There should be another substantial bonus (500k?) for completing everything (all blocks, all clusters).
These ideas would mean that you MUST have DI/RP or dip rank 4 to have a chance at the full bonus. This would bring back Wolf 359. It would also bring back the need for fast ships, quicker transwarp, slipstream, etc. Because only VAs can get to Borg space, it does provide them with an advantage, but newer players can still get 4 faction bonuses. Hmmm, sounds like borg space has to be optional too, unless you can detect the person's rank....
People with multiple toons could benefit as well. Instead of chasing 4-5 sectors to get their first payoff, they could run a predictable short course (like a single faction), pick up a modest bunus, then drop (taking the 4 hour leaver penalty), switch toons and do it again. They won't get the big bonus, but it's easier to spread the wealth around the various characters they control.
Ive seen some possible answers, some good answers, and some not so good.
My take on solving a problem like this is to just break it down into objectives.
The first, in this case, is to close what the devs see as an exploit.
The second should be to keep the players happy... at least some of them.
In my opinion, those are the only two factors that matter, at least at first. Other objectives could be added.
To solve the first problem, this solution works. However, it doesn't work for the second.
Leaving it as is would fix the second, not the first.
To compromise, and accomplish both, I propose the following.
1. All sector block rewards are removed entirely.
2. The cooldown timer is removed entirely.
3. The payout for the mission is paid out like any other mission: Upon completion.
This keeps the system simple. It allows a much simpler manipulation of rewards, for the devs, while allowing players who invested in more expensive ships and equipment to get an equitable return on that investment. It prevents the kind of "exploiting" that caused the issue in the first place. It does not penalize the players who were, and would, be running the event legitimately.
The only downside to this is that partial runs (IE, as a VA, only hitting the Sirius block) would not be rewarded. It would be all or nothing. I find that, personally, though I no longer run this event, nor have I for a singificant period of time, to be a fair tradeoff for the rest of the balance struck.
Perhaps this could be proposed officially if there is enough support?
Yes, if a game dies, another will rise from somewhere else, and probably for the better
-blinks-
So, if we boycott cryptic, CBS is going to take away their rights to make this game... and hand it to someone else...
RIIIIIIGHT
And christmas isn't REALLY about the presents -shakes head-
If Cryptic doesn't make enough profit on this, it will be shut down. PWE and CBS will decide this was a 'debacle' and never make another Star Trek MMO again.
So, if we boycott cryptic, CBS is going to take away their rights to make this game... and hand it to someone else...
RIIIIIIGHT
And christmas isn't REALLY about the presents -shakes head-
If Cryptic doesn't make enough profit on this, it will be shut down. PWE and CBS will decide this was a 'debacle' and never make another Star Trek MMO again.
THAT'S what will 'rise' from 'somewhere'
Actually yes, CBS would give the rights to another developer to produce a new Trek MMO because people would pay to play it, and it would most likely be a more stable, quality game.
Try thinking about what you are going to say before you post another response.
Well, IMO that is a good thing. Maybe a competent developer will get ahold of the IP and show us Trek fans what a quality trek MMO should be.
IP's never get sold ever. game companies would rather sit on an IP they have no plans to ever use than sell it. The only time an IP changes hands is when a company is bought out. Thus PWE will not sell it's leased rights to another company like Atari did.
Once STO goes offline because it was not profitable CBS will be less inclined to lease the rights to another game company for another MMO and fewer game companies will be interested because the IP will be considered toxic in relationship to an MMO.
There is already a bad track record for Star Trek games when it comes to profit so that does not help get a new game started either.
Plus this is the internet and you get a new boycott a week that never happens.
Join Date: Nobody cares.
"I'm drunk, whats your excuse for being an idiot?" - Unknown drunk man. :eek:
It was nice of Cryptic to give a simple method for people to make a little EC by exploring the game universe. It is too bad that your genersity was taken as an entitlement by some, especially the ones who exploited game mechanics to maximize withdrawals. And yeah, exploit is accurate term; I have read some of the "how to" articles on this, who say things such as ~enter a system from one side then change instances to quickly respawn at the exit. That is exploiting the mechanics of the software to maximize in-game rewards, and is essentially cheating. Worse is that it punished the players who get their EC from straight gameplay, and are crushed by the price inflation from the ezloot exploiters. So thank you for finally fixing it, maybe prices will fall to reasonable levels when EC starts getting more valuable. And its nice that Tour is still there as a simple way to make a little extra credits in a pinch, thank you for keeping it in the game instead of just deleting it.
Comments
If I hadn't seen this myself on more than one occasion, I would never believe anyone could be this dumb.
But I've made some decent profit from vendoring that stuff, so I say bring it on
This game is full of grind already. With your Dilithium capped at 8k refineable a day. And the fact this game is supposedly built towards casual players...Do you really think casual players want to come on and constantly grind grind grind? Casual players are typically people who actually HAVE LIVES...They do have jobs, families and responsibilities to take care of too.
I can sympathize with those that used Tour of the Galaxy as a means to support their ability to stay up with the need for the latest and greatest in gear especially with Fleet Elite and Advanced XII gear.
If you dont have a fleet, or if your fleet isnt big enough to have rolled over the first 4 tiers for the Starbase and the 3 tiers for Embassy and so forth in a reasonable amount of time.....
If you dont have the time to spend two or three hours online a night continuosly trying to grind Rep Marks...
How else but the exchange are you going to get ahold of Mark XII gear? You tease the playerbase with this gear and then do everything you can to keep it out of our grasp...Months and months of grinding...And the only way to get what you want in a reasonable amount of time is to spend MORE time in STO doing the same grindy missions over and over again.
For those without a Fleet or just dont have the manpower to roll through the projects and tiers.. The Tour of the Galaxy was one of the last few places you could make enough EC that you didnt feel too much like you were a hamster on a wheel. And as for those stating that EC is easy to make..Its pretty easy to make when you spend numerous hours online filling you Inventory up before going to dump it on a Vendor...I also highly doubt that people are making a Quarter of a Million of a single run of a Fleet Action...Stop exaggerating. EC isnt the hardest thing to get, or atleast it wasnt prior to this stealth nerf. But missions like Tour of the Galaxy was one of those means to an ends.
Sure it was a an exploit. I dont think anyones denying that. But what is unacceptable here is the fact that theyve now made it so that casuals who dont have the time to get on here and grind grind grind cant utilize the Exchange to get too the better gear in a reasonable amount of time....No one wants to spend months if not a year to fully outfit their ship and crew with gear that is probably obselete half way through collecting what you need.
Ive already pulled back my sub long ago, after being duped on a sub sale in the past. I realized I was paying to let them take several months to a full YEAR to release the story content, the only reason Im here, so I stopped subsidizing laziness. I buy a ship here and there, but barely. I dont play their lock box lottery. When they provide the Star Trek experience I want, I pay in. When they want to release what THEY want, I dont spend squat.
Somehow I think even when the mass of unconcerned MMO players leave in droves, Cryptic still wont cater to the desires of the REAL Star Trek fans. That day is never coming. Even though we've all told them countless times how to take our money from our hand by the truckload. :rolleyes:
Capt. Will Conquest of the U.S.S. Crusader
Typical response from a Cryptic Apologist..rofl
Not everyone is like you and plays the game for free, in fact, alot of people spend money to support this game, and those people have rights.
When those people stop paying the company money due to lack of service or quality of the product, the game will simply shut down and you will no longer be playing your "free" game.
Time to change your attitude.
Sure there is.. plenty of us. It was loooong repetitive boring and hard work requiring lots of attention to detail.
An exploit makes things easy and fast... quite the opposite of what the tour was.
Sry here is the correct link
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=356911
Calling it an exploit is wrong. It was a well documented tactic to make more EC on the tour.
In addition, it took a lot of resources to be able to make this route pay better than the normal event itself. Cryptic made money selling the Advanced Heavy Cruiser Retrofit and the Advanced Heavy Cruiser, The first for transwarp drive and the second for the transwarp computer, both of which could be used to attain the movement necessary to get the 3 Mil. Ergo, Cryptic profited from this terrible exploit.
I am not a cheater. I am a paying customer and I spent money to have the best gear possible to get more EC. Exploit? Please. It's about changing the focus from EC to Zen because they are running a business. So it is what it is, they just ruined a fun event.
My thoughts exactly.. this really does seem a little rushed and not thought through properly.. the proverbial equivalent of knocking in a tack with a sledge hammer!!
Thing is that I'm such a Trekkie/Trekker that I bought a lifetime sub to this game at launch. What is Cryptic doing to make me want to drop money hand over fist on this game? Giving credit where credit is due, releasing LoR was a big boost but there are a lot of bugs associated with its release that have yet to be rectified. I guess in the end-all-be-all there are a lot of devoted Star Trek fans here who have become upset that they are no longer this games target audience (anymore).
But nobody else sells "Romulan Ale" right now. Too bad ST: Infinite Space was canned, competition is always good for the consumer.
That being said, I don't see the need for the change though... there are certainly easier ways to earn EC. If you can stomach running it over and over... you get some extra EC... whats the big deal... EC cant be converted to Dil or Zen... not sure what could be considered an exploit here?
Star Trek Online, Now with out the Trek....
Where is your proof that the people posting things on the exchange was assuming buyers were running the tour? You cant...Thats entirely speculative. You cant possibly know what every player using the exchange is thinking when they post prices of items.
15 minutes is no good.
Vesta + Borg Engine + Raiding Party + Diplomatic Immunity + Warp engine with [Coi]+[SSR] + Practice = 8 minute entire Tour.
5 minutes is enough to stop the supposed "exploit" from being profitable, while maintaining the value of those expensive items above.
Star Trek Online, Now with out the Trek....
Evil
I was thinking about that actual. This nerf after having the Oddy so long with the 2x slipstream almost renders that useless. Cores with [Coi] aren't as redeemable. As well as making faster subspace engines. Stock piling player points in Drive Core rank may be more wasted. The Dev Team seems a bit khokie
-V
1. In PWE's eyes, no one has rights. The TOS you agree to every time you play this game clearly states that PWE has the right to take away anything in-game at any time for any reason.
2. Wait wait, did we just go full circle from the OP, which is "Let's boycott the game so something gets done" to "When we boycott the game it shuts down"?
Oh yeah, and you can call me a Cryptic Apologist all you want. Go ahead. Just want to burst your bubble on the fact that it's a wrong term. If I were apologizing, it would be implying that I'm trying to defend something they did wrong.
Just had the same thing happen to me, am I sad over it yeah maybe, that's a decent way to get rom marks, am I going to log off and be all pissed about it hell no I just move on to the next thing.
As far as boycotting goes your just hurting yourself, ok don't spend any money on the game instead make the people that don't care do that and just go after the dilithium in game and transfer it to zen, bugs can't be fixed over night, yes there have been some bugs since launch but apparently there is not enough info on those bugs to be able to fix, if you want them fixed the the info needs to be there for Cryptic to do, not just "fix this because I say its broke", what to say that if STO goes down and some other company takes the IP that they will do any better, what if it's EA that got it would you rather they have them or have cryptic keep it, me I would rather have Cryptic continue on with it, now I don't have qualms about EA but I know several gamers do fine that there right but I would rather keep what I have than wait five more years to find out that we had a better game than what might maybe be.
It is a nerf to those ships that needed to be BOUGHT for their ability to travel in sector space faster. Some people bought those ships because of Tour.
Do something boring long enough, guess what it becomes? Yes, hard.
I never ever ever ever heard anyone that was doing it say.... Hey, I LIKE THIS!
Everyone actively disliked it. Hell there are a lot that never got past doing it more than once.
Calling it an easy exploit - it sounds insulting.
You have met one now - Me
I am a fleet leader, and everyone in my fleet knew I was unavailable during the event. It was the one time when I insisted on taking a break and simply relaxed doing something I thought was fun.
Besides buying things off the exchange, (which might self-adjust over time, although thinks like Mk.XII VR disruptor coils will be nigh unobtainable now) this also affects people who need to by commodities. (In other words, everyone.) Filling rep and fleet projects sets me back several million EC a week, and I'm buying off a Tuffli.
Removing sources of income never helps any economy. Reducing scarcity of certain overpriced items (like the aforementioned consoles) does.
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
I'm actually surprised but happy for you. Do you also share the idea that it was an exploit and it was easy?
Just to clarify, I didn't log off on my own accord, but because of the 'Server Not Responding' error I got. FWIW, I was taken back to the login screen, entered my pwd, went to the character select, clicked on my char and was taken right back in. So what's up with the server? Furthermore, I was taken back to Qo'noS, not Azure Nebula, so my group of guys lost 20% of their team and I lost marks, it effected more than just me.
Yes, I realize bugs aren't fixed overnight. Months or years? Yes, those bugs should be fixed. It has been over 2 months since LoR debuted. And if STO goes down, which I doubt it will anytime soon, who is to say that whoever gets the IP does any worse? See, there are 2 sides to every flip of the coin.
thats because I just finished typing a whole essay on this topic and the server crashed when I hit save, so I have to do this again.
*condensed* 6-7 pages of whine is my limit, haven't read the whole thread. Kinda a shock to not get my 4 laps in on today's tour, wtf?
Ultimately, this cool down will benefit people with multiple toons. Since they cannot do more than one lap, they'll probably switch characters and run it again. That was my first instinct. Single toon people are being punished by this move.
Also, the exploit was caused by the designers and the inequitable method of rewarding completion bonuses. You can't blame us for figuring out that some sectors always pay off and others and onn that whacky sliding scale.
Here's my suggestions
1) toss the current bonus system out and start giving a flat rate PER SECTOR paid upon completion of a block. For example, 5000ec a sector means that the sirius block is worth 15k, Pella is worth 5k, and Iota Pavonis is worth 20k. That's a little over 200Kec for the entire current map. In the spirit of Tour, you could give an optional 5k per cluster/nebula as well.
2) Make the current cool down a leaver penalty: it only activates if you drop the event without completing all the blocks (but not the optionals)
3) give partial completion bonuses by faction space: like 50K for completing all the blocks in Fed space; or Borg, Rom, Card, and kling spaces. Possibly, the faction bonus only kicks in with the optionals, or kicks in bigger with the optionals. There should be another substantial bonus (500k?) for completing everything (all blocks, all clusters).
These ideas would mean that you MUST have DI/RP or dip rank 4 to have a chance at the full bonus. This would bring back Wolf 359. It would also bring back the need for fast ships, quicker transwarp, slipstream, etc. Because only VAs can get to Borg space, it does provide them with an advantage, but newer players can still get 4 faction bonuses. Hmmm, sounds like borg space has to be optional too, unless you can detect the person's rank....
People with multiple toons could benefit as well. Instead of chasing 4-5 sectors to get their first payoff, they could run a predictable short course (like a single faction), pick up a modest bunus, then drop (taking the 4 hour leaver penalty), switch toons and do it again. They won't get the big bonus, but it's easier to spread the wealth around the various characters they control.
My take on solving a problem like this is to just break it down into objectives.
The first, in this case, is to close what the devs see as an exploit.
The second should be to keep the players happy... at least some of them.
In my opinion, those are the only two factors that matter, at least at first. Other objectives could be added.
To solve the first problem, this solution works. However, it doesn't work for the second.
Leaving it as is would fix the second, not the first.
To compromise, and accomplish both, I propose the following.
1. All sector block rewards are removed entirely.
2. The cooldown timer is removed entirely.
3. The payout for the mission is paid out like any other mission: Upon completion.
This keeps the system simple. It allows a much simpler manipulation of rewards, for the devs, while allowing players who invested in more expensive ships and equipment to get an equitable return on that investment. It prevents the kind of "exploiting" that caused the issue in the first place. It does not penalize the players who were, and would, be running the event legitimately.
The only downside to this is that partial runs (IE, as a VA, only hitting the Sirius block) would not be rewarded. It would be all or nothing. I find that, personally, though I no longer run this event, nor have I for a singificant period of time, to be a fair tradeoff for the rest of the balance struck.
Perhaps this could be proposed officially if there is enough support?
-blinks-
So, if we boycott cryptic, CBS is going to take away their rights to make this game... and hand it to someone else...
RIIIIIIGHT
And christmas isn't REALLY about the presents -shakes head-
If Cryptic doesn't make enough profit on this, it will be shut down. PWE and CBS will decide this was a 'debacle' and never make another Star Trek MMO again.
THAT'S what will 'rise' from 'somewhere'
system Lord Baal is dead
I know, I've never done that much... though imo that sounds like a HUGE amount of money to get for flying around, beaming down and staring at stuff...
Actually yes, CBS would give the rights to another developer to produce a new Trek MMO because people would pay to play it, and it would most likely be a more stable, quality game.
Try thinking about what you are going to say before you post another response.
IP's never get sold ever. game companies would rather sit on an IP they have no plans to ever use than sell it. The only time an IP changes hands is when a company is bought out. Thus PWE will not sell it's leased rights to another company like Atari did.
Once STO goes offline because it was not profitable CBS will be less inclined to lease the rights to another game company for another MMO and fewer game companies will be interested because the IP will be considered toxic in relationship to an MMO.
There is already a bad track record for Star Trek games when it comes to profit so that does not help get a new game started either.
Plus this is the internet and you get a new boycott a week that never happens.
"I'm drunk, whats your excuse for being an idiot?" - Unknown drunk man. :eek: