Because I remember very well when this game used to be fun , when this game was going somewhere , when the Dev's were actually excited and you felt that you were getting a bang for your buck .
And I remember when we didn't get anything for 6-8 months and DStahl kept coming to the forum and promising things, but secretly most of the staff had been laid off and the rest were converting to FTP in one last-ditch effort to save the game. Is that the year the last 20 Devs were excited about the game - the point when the company was so broke they couldn't even afford paper cups in the breakroom?
Or was it right after launch and we were so angry that Jack and everyone else kept telling us to wait for the 45-day patch? You know, when Zinc quit as the Line Developer because of all the negative backlash?
When you look at the first 2 years of STO there was a lot of ups and downs there. Yeah, we got 3 FEs before PWE but we also got very long periods of nothing. It wasn't all wine and roses in the old days.
A new EP ?
Or a new FE ?
A new Expansion Pack like LoR for next year. The new FE is coming out relatively soon - and leads into Season 8 - which is primarily end-game focused.
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.
In regards to grind, I take great issue with the Omega Reputation system.
STF's were pretty much perfect before they completely changed the reward system.
Back then, you had to play through ALL the STF's in order to get complete sets.
It was also pretty addictive and exciting, because you knew of the potential to get the rare loot drop, I.E borg tech, every time you played it.
With the reputation system however STF's have pretty much become a boring chore, as you need to spend a month or two leveling up before you can even get the Elite STF gear.
A second problem as a result of the Omega reputation is one involving "prestige".
Fact is, wether one likes it or not, A LOT of people enjoy enlarging their e-peen, and chasing after "rare" rewards that not just anyone can obtain.
And the old layout of STF's did just that.
They forced people to actually play ALL the missions to get complete sets, on ELITE difficulty, repeately, with the very rare tech drops being rather rare.
Only the most comitted and determined players would end up owning a full set of Elite Ground gear and the costume unlock that came with it, in the process making it a status symbol.
Unfortuantely the Omega reputation system did away with all that.
Suddenly, Elite STF gear is a very common sight, because any pug just farming Infected Space can get them now, And as such, the STF costume unlocks no longer hold the same appeal as they once did, because they are no longer special.
And on top of that it turned the experience into a "boring" grind, because the "thrill of the loot" was taken away.
Its too late to do anything about it now, but Cryptic might want to think about that in the future, and put in some rare "elite" content for the more "hardcore" crowd to aim for, and actually keep it that way.
STO, on occasion can be entertaining, when there is something, anything new.
Sadly the Devs did settle for lots and lots of grind to keep players BUSY, better than bored but when the parts that should be Entertaining become busy grind work then the entertainment isn't happening anymore at all and after a while that gets boring.
If you're burned out take a break. Go play something else.
exactly what i'm doing at the moment... too bad for Cryptic, now i'm spending money at Marvel Heroes, that Jetpack in the Summer Event made me feel like Iron Man, that was fun (pretty much the only fun part about the whole summer thing), now i play as Iron Man for realz. The Diablo 2-esque ARPG style game is also much more fun for me than the Hotkey smashing mmo style MMOs mostly have... oh and Heretic is there too.
They have patchnotes as long as my arm every week, not those short 3 liners like here and the Devs are very talkative on their Forums, not like the secretive silent bunch from Cryptic that doesn't even tell us whats up next anymore.
I feel appreciated as a player and customer in MH, in STO i feel like a cow that is supposed to be milked for as much as possible... well sorry Cryptic i've given you all the milk i can.
It's weird, all the things i liked about STO and i wish would still happen here are actually happening over there right now while this game feels like maintenance mode. (i know it isn't, but if they are working for weeks and months on their internal builds until a season update happens and Holodeck only gets 3 liner patch notes, then it could as well be in maintenance mode.)
The problem that i have now, if MH is so much fun, why should i even go back to STO?
Unless Cryptic comes up with something new, truly ENTERTAINING (not just another grind map or more Starbase grind) then i really do not see the point in it.
Sure i will log in and check it out, but i don't see me doing the daily stuff anymore or run after any of the new Ships (by god i really have enough Ships now, i need something TO DO with them.)
I hate to inform the OP of this, but it seems to me that he's seeing the game through serious rose-colored glasses. At launch, I couldn't even bring myself to get characters to the level cap. The story content was dull, too much grinding outside it was required to level up to the next story mission, and the game as a whole just wasn't fun.
STO has vastly improved since launch. The process of reaching level cap has been made far less painful, interesting mechanics like the duty officer system have been added, the game's been made free so I can play it with my girlfriend, and acquiring endgame equipment has changed from being a question of absoute luck to being a direct reward of progress for effort. Is STO grindy? Yes. It's an MMO. Without the grind we'd all quit and there wouldn't be a game. But the grind hasn't increased in the last few years - the grind to level cap has decreased, and the grind once there has been made about the same for everybody rather than having some people luck out and get their top-tier space gear in three elite STF runs while others play day and night without getting anything.
So your reply boils down to, but correct me if I'm wrong: "All MMOs are like this, so deal with it" and "They made the grind less annoying, so deal with it."
... something about polishing a TRIBBLE (not that I think STO is a TRIBBLE, but it's not a diamond either).
I thank you all very much for all your replies, positive and negative feedback. Everybody is entitled to have their own opinions. The fact of the matter is is that Star Trek Online was released too early, with half of the stuff that was promised for launch not being there, and then being added in afterwards. No I'm not complaining about that cause it is what it is, and I played it from day one.
It took me 3-4 months to get to max level with one federation toon. That was a steady grind, I couldn't put the game down at all cause I was having fun playing with my character. When I got my Romulan, you want to know how long it took me to even hit lvl 30? 3 days! And that is playing it the exact same way as I did with my fed toon. 1 week total for lvl 50. took me 3 years with my klingon to even reach lvl 35. now? I can play a mission and earn 1 level, or pretty damned close to leveling up each mission. how is that fun for a game?
But when I see people sit there and say that I'm disillusioned, that the game was TRIBBLE from day one, that is a total disgraceful lie! Not every body set's their standards for a game to be exactally like "WoW" or "Everquest" or whatever it is you have set for a mmo to be standardized towards.
I've Watched this game from day one, as I've stated before. I've watched it go from good to great to epic to fail over time. and it keeps riding a rollercoaster on status with those levels. Is it a total failure? NO. is it total gold on a silver platter? NO. Could it be better. YES. The whole point of this thread is not to entice a flame war of epic proportions between myself and other players of this community. This post is for the Devs, and my sharing my opinions with them, and the community as well, on what was the goods and what are the bads of the game. At one time, they used to listen to the player base. They should really start listening again!
And I remember when we didn't get anything for 6-8 months and DStahl kept coming to the forum and promising things, but secretly most of the staff had been laid off and the rest were converting to FTP in one last-ditch effort to save the game.
Forgive me for finding this amusing , but when I rant about the bad things in the game , you sometimes pop in to point out the good things , and now that I've noted some positive aspects from the past , you went (again the opposite direction) and started bringing back the Year of Hell .
I'm ... not really sure what to make of that .
But I will stand by the first year of STO (buggy as it was) as an example of what it should be :
New STF every few months , new FE series every few months , plus the odd mission here and there to pad the KDF out .
I'll take that over a new Adventure zone every 6 months + 2 FE episodes per year + a "summer/winter event" + 2-3 Reputations per year .
The "play plan" was better .
The "game plan" aka income , was not .
I believe in the Best of Both Worlds .
I believe that grind can co-exist with content .
I believe Cryptic can do better .
What I doubt more and more is their will do do better as a whole (not just the Art Department) .
When you look at the first 2 years of STO there was a lot of ups and downs there. Yeah, we got 3 FEs before PWE but we also got very long periods of nothing. It wasn't all wine and roses in the old days.
No it wasn't .
But up until Atari slammed the door in the face of Cryptic , things were better as a whole .
You're welcome do disagree .
A second problem as a result of the Omega reputation is one involving "prestige".
Fact is, wether one likes it or not, A LOT of people enjoy enlarging their e-peen, and chasing after "rare" rewards that not just anyone can obtain.
On the "bright side" , you still have STF awards that are impossible to attain ... , like the KDF Honor Guard "boob window" or the "Shredder" versions .
They were supposed to be the 'pinnacle' of the Honor Guard set .
And they have been broken since the Omega Reputation came about ... , was it one year ago now ?
Yeah ... .
And I remember all the talk before that ... , when we asked when are we going to get new STF awards , and new costume variations ... .
The answer we got then was "we're working on a new reward system (Omega Rep) that will have new costume unlocks " .
"push the easy button"...no more grind, Cryptic just gives you evvvverything you want. NOW peeps will complain about how easy the game has become. You can't win, to easy to hard to much grind the only thing I really agree with in this thread is the 200k dilth for projects..thats ALOT of dilth X numerous projects. The Devs could lower the dilth a little. OHHH and the KDF could use a little more story content and PvP NEEDS some attiention.
I'm not really sure what some peeps want...its NOT "Star Trek Enough"...what is that...not enough fighting not enough exploring not enough factions not enough races...I see that phrase when peeps do not know what they want in "this" game. It's a dumb phrase. Give a description of what "Star Trek Enough" is and maybe the Devs will accommodate us with it.
The game is fine and the Devs are doing a good job, it is a Play to Pay game, the lockboxes are here to stay and if you do not want them do not buy the keys for them. HOWEVER you can buy the keys and MOST of the lockbox stuff in the exchange for FAKE money. This game is verrrrry easy to make FAKE money in...I just spent 70+ million EC's during the Risa Summer Dancin party this last month...yes I got lazzzzy and just bought the needed Favours...I have LOTS of toons that needed summer clothes.
It sounds like the OP and others just need to take a short game break, watch a few episodes of Trek, maybe read a Trek book, because I have watched and read LOTS of Trek stuff and I think the game is in line just fine...and so does CBS...apparently.
Just my 2 ec's worth during patch time.
Betty
"Sips her PWE Koolaide and looks at alllll the goodies in the Z store"
Badname Betty (PvP...PvE...STF...Trophy Hunter...Latnium Collector...Federation)
Commander Morgana (PvP...PvE...STF...KDF)
1000 day vet and LTS
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] STO Join date: 7 Feb 2010
I have been playing Star Trek Online from day one. I used to play it very religiously every single day. I still find myself WANTING to play, but unable to because it is doing the same exact crappy thing over and over again. Let me elaborate on what it is that i'm talking about.
Started out as an epic game of epic proportions based on the Star Trek Universe. All nice and great. Could definitely have been better, but the game was new and released on a truncated time table. After the first year of play, we had our first anniversary event, which released the new and improved eye candy Earth Space Dock (the one that should have been there at launch, but we have it now and I'm happy). It looked the way it should even with ships flying outside the windows, even if they weren't actual player ships. It gave the game a sense of immersion. Half way through that second year, that was taken away with no reason as to why.
You then started to introduce "Feature Episode Series" that were, for a lack of better words right now, epic. They gave us a unique story line that we could play, and get a weekly "episode" of Star Trek. Everybody had something to look forward to. They started when? August of 2010? 5 episodes in 5 weeks, then a short "season break" then the next episodes were released. We all were like children waiting for the show to come on every Wednesday night to see what happened next! August to September 2010 for series 1...October-November 2010 series 2...February-March 2011 series 3....oh wait there was less than a month between series 1 and 2, but 3 months between series 2 and 3? we'll let it slide for now.....Series 4 February-March 2012...whoa wait, 2012???????? We waited a bloody year for series 4? WHY??? You promised us that they'd be a regular release, and that they'd be like 6 series a year....then you went down to 4 a year, and now it's whenever you feel like it? What's going on cryptic????
STF's, easier as they may be in some instances, have lost most of the immersion factor. They were meant to be a "movie Story line" type deal when the game first released and now are split up to be 15 minute fun flicks. They should still be paired up "infected space and ground" in one sitting, so on and so fourth. Now with it split up the way it is, it don't even tell a story. Then we had Terradome, which was broken from the start, and looked to be a promising story line....I really can't answer if it was or not cause I never got to play it past the first stage. Then it was just deleted, and never fixed.....**waves hands** we never saw anything!
Throughout the multiple seasons, game play mechanics were getting better and better, and new things to do (which got old quickly by the way) started to sprout up. The Duty officer system, the fleet starbases and fleet holdings...so on and so fourth. Fun at first but get very hard if you are a casual gaming fleet who happen to take the time out of our gaming lives to actually have a real life so we can make money and pay for the game that we play. So by not playing and grinding 24 hours a day / 7 days a week, we get penalized cause we don't sit down and grind grind grind all the time.
These fleet holdings are starting to get tiresome too.....I mean lets look at the dilithium mines......First off you have to pay dilithium to a dilithium mine in order to get discounts on dilithium spending? one of these things just doesn't belong here. And now we have to pay 200,000 Dilithium to the project holding just so we can have Dilithium crystals show up on the OUTSIDE of a DILITHIUM MINE?!?!?! What is this?
AND the last thing that I have to complain about is this. LOCKBOXES! A little box of trinkets within game that you can earn, IF you buy Lockbox Keys from the Zen Store in game, which requires Zen which requires money. I HAD no problems spending money to get ZEN in order to get items from the ZEN store. NOW I refuse to pay a damned dime because everything that is 'worth getting' are in them damned lockboxes and I am not going to be one of these people who spend $100's just for a small chance to get a rare ship. Now I just sit back and convert my 500 zen stipend into dilithium to put towards my dilithium mine so I can get a discount on spending dilithium so I can try and have some end game gear.
Yeah I agree. This is the main issue with STO. I started to play STO at the last featured episode. It was so much fun to play a new mission every week or every second week. You had something to look forward to. It was definitely a high... Foundary does not count. Its a fun feature but its not official.
Now the fleet base and reputation system are not bad ideas.. but they key word is "in moderation". Most people are just casual players since they cannot do STO 24 hours a day or even just a few hours a day obtaining those goals is though.. and eventually you almost feel like giving up. Most things are expensive.. I haven't even begun to collect the dilithium I need to get my first Zen ship. To do so It would require me to do STF every day for the last 3-6 months. And that is not including the fleet gear I need. Its just to expensive. I am not saying everything should be cheap.... but maybe more affordable.
The content that is released, gets better and better, it's very easy to tell the old from the new. By my observations, a lot of the villainy around this issue is that there isn't much existing content that has real depth, and almost none at all which get any TLC, which is a commonly echoed sentiment in this thread and on these forums.
What's really sour is that nothing is done about it. PwE is content with their lockbox gambling and lazy power creep. STO might do it right, in that there's (almost) nothing you can't obtain by grinding (ie 'free') ~ but the products they create and solicit, are by and large, game altering devices, which is in my opinion, just p2w.
'New' doesn't have to come at the expense of 'old'. Old can learn new tricks, and bring more diversity to the whole.
(As an aside, I get the feeling from time to time that a lot of what is 'new' seems only half-way done, which in a way makes it very much like the 'old').
LoR was 95% story mission. they just released it in one lump rather than over half a year. [...]
take the grind away and what would you have in its place? a few extra story missions? well if 30+ in LoR did nothing for you then would 35+ do any better?
The story content in LOR was single-player campaign missions, where you go back in time to learn how New Romulus and the Republic came to exist. It was a single-player expansion. How many times are you going to play the episodes?
Its a multiplayer game, with a shared persisstent universe? An MMORPG right? Except the end-game universe did not change very much at all. There wasnt any significant kind of shared experience content in LoR. Even New Romulus and the reputation systems were already in place before LoR, so there was not even any kind of change to that. The only substantive change was new social zones that are only available to new characters species.
This is the biggest structural flaw in the game's design principle, IMO. The devs keep doing stuff that is centered around single-player and do not address the long-term persistent universe at all, and then the end-game gets boring and stagnant and people wander off. And if you look at how they constantly push new OP gear, there is an argument to be made that they dont even care about the end-game experience (eg, PVP balance, who cares).
One thing about the OP, they are weepy reminiscent for the good old days of more SP campaigns. IMO that is what has made the game so unenjoyable from the beginning, the focus on SP experience, and no focus at all on the multiplayer persistent universe.
Its a multiplayer game, with a shared persisstent [sic] universe? An MMORPG right? Except the end-game universe did not change very much at all. There wasnt any significant kind of shared experience content in LoR. Even New Romulus and the reputation systems were already in place before LoR, so there was not even any kind of change to that. The only substantive change was new social zones that are only available to new characters species.
This is the biggest structural flaw in the game's design principle, IMO. The devs keep doing stuff that is centered around single-player and do not address the long-term persistent universe at all, and then the end-game gets boring and stagnant and people wander off. And if you look at how they constantly push new OP gear, there is an argument to be made that they dont even care about the end-game experience (eg, PVP balance, who cares).
I am inclined to agree with the notions about the stagnant state of the game.
It has stayed largely unmoved since launch. The Iconians remain the looming, hardly-any-sort-of-secret threat they were when we completed the campaign missions that've been available since, and the game's story hasn't moved forward at all towards revealing a bit more about this. Rather, it's fattened out laterally to relieve its formerly anorexic state.
The game's quite fat now with, as Zerobang put it in an earlier post, 'Busy work'. There's enough time-gated grind to keep players busy. It's well past time to move forward to the next level.
The Picard-quote in my sig about remembering when we were explorers is there due to my desire to see STO's story actually move forward, to see us get something new. It's possible this new upcoming adventure zone and feature episode series will maybe address it, but I have learned with Cryptic's pathway for STO content to calibrate my expectations low.
As for new challenges: The Borg are done. Current STF content has been refurbished, repackaged and resold to the point where it's now just easily digestible paste. They made tentative steps forward by re-heating Into the Hive, glitchy as it is currently. There are more uber-enemies in Star Trek than the Borg, and while Cryptic may be trying to maintain the Borg as the ultimate endgame experience, they are failing to actually innovate new challenges with them.
The Borg are a known threat. The Tholians are under-utilized currently as endgame threats. The Undine/S-8472 are apparently forgotten. Iconians remain a shadow. It's time for something new. Something that wakes the STO playerbase up from their usual and makes them adapt to something other than the typical, something that *isn't* just sitting in sector space queueing up for whatever mark-grinder mission is off cooldown at the moment. Something that gets us working together in this persistent universe again.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] The Artist Formerly Known As Nikotaka ][ Join Date: Jan 2010 "Can anyone remember when we used to be explorers...?"
the only thing I really agree with in this thread is the 200k dilth for projects..thats ALOT of dilth X numerous projects. The Devs could lower the dilth a little. OHHH and the KDF could use a little more story content and PvP NEEDS some attiention.
Ok, This is constructive. Some of the things in this game is way too over priced. before anybody goes through and picks apart what I say again, i said SOME!
The game is fine and the Devs are doing a good job, it is a Play to Pay game, the lockboxes are here to stay and if you do not want them do not buy the keys for them. HOWEVER you can buy the keys and MOST of the lockbox stuff in the exchange for FAKE money.
I bring back the point of the fact that lockboxes are a lottery, and there is only a 1 out of 500 chance (ok, I really don't know the real odds), of earning the ship that you want. Used to be able to just open up the Z-store and click buy and be done with it. now you have to play a lottery.
It sounds like the OP and others just need to take a short game break, watch a few episodes of Trek, maybe read a Trek book, because I have watched and read LOTS of Trek stuff and I think the game is in line just fine...and so does CBS...apparently.
Big corporate people who are leeching up all the money are happy, so why should they care if their player base is "Shut up and give us your money!!!" Give me good reasons to spend my money that doesn't consist of a lottery system, and I'll consider it. And as for everybody saying the OP needs a break from the game? Take a quantum torpedo and place it in your aft plasma vent. Instead of being a P'taq about everything, offer some ideas on what you would like to see in game. Everybody has something that they want to see in game.
One thing about the OP, they are weepy reminiscent for the good old days of more SP campaigns. IMO that is what has made the game so unenjoyable from the beginning, the focus on SP experience, and no focus at all on the multiplayer persistent universe.
Yes, I am looking for more SP campaigns, but I'm also looking for new Multiplayer experiences that are STORY Driven, not Fly to this starbase and defeat 10 waves of borg or romulan just because they decided to pick this day to fly there and attatck. I want Adventure zones, I want story, most of all, I want promises that were made to be kept, instead of swept under the carpets and be told **waves hands** it never existed.
i Am Inclined To Agree With The Notions About The Stagnant State Of The Game.
It Has Stayed Largely Unmoved Since Launch. The Iconians Remain The Looming, Hardly-any-sort-of-secret Threat They Were When We Completed The Campaign Missions That've Been Available Since, And The Game's Story Hasn't Moved Forward At All Towards Revealing A Bit More About This. Rather, It's Fattened Out Laterally To Relieve Its Formerly Anorexic State.
The Game's Quite Fat Now With, As Zerobang Put It In An Earlier Post, 'busy Work'. There's Enough Time-gated Grind To Keep Players Busy. It's Well Past Time To Move Forward To The Next Level.
The Picard-quote In My Sig About Remembering When We Were Explorers Is There Due To My Desire To See Sto's Story Actually Move forward, To See Us Get Something New. It's Possible This New Upcoming Adventure Zone And Feature Episode Series Will Maybe Address It, But I Have Learned With Cryptic's Pathway For Sto Content To Calibrate My Expectations Low.
As For New Challenges: The Borg Are Done. Current Stf Content Has Been Refurbished, Repackaged And Resold To The Point Where It's Now Just Easily Digestible Paste. They Made Tentative Steps Forward By Re-heating Into The Hive, Glitchy As It Is Currently. There Are More Uber-enemies In Star Trek Than The Borg, And While Cryptic May Be Trying To Maintain The Borg As The Ultimate Endgame Experience, They Are Failing To Actually Innovate New Challenges With Them.
The Borg Are A Known Threat. The Tholians Are Under-utilized Currently As Endgame Threats. The Undine/s-8472 Are Apparently Forgotten. Iconians Remain A Shadow. It's Time For Something New. Something That Wakes The Sto Playerbase Up From Their Usual And Makes Them Adapt To Something Other Than The Typical, Something That *isn't* Just Sitting In Sector Space Queueing Up For Whatever Mark-grinder Mission Is Off Cooldown At The Moment. Something That Gets Us Working Together In This Persistent Universe Again.
The problem with the content seeming so short (despite the dev's best efforts) is that they're ignoring the one thing that usually makes an MMO last.
PvP.
Seriously, when you have an MMO that is literally only PvE with an unbalanced, high gear/skill barred, and horrendously unsupported PvP aspect, players are going to burn through the PvE and then do... nothing.
MMO longevity, no... game longevity, is hugely dependent on MULTIPLAYER, more importantly, COMPETITIVE MULTIPLAYER.
Its why I quit, its why alot of people quit no doubt, there is no reason to stick with the game after you burn through the PvE because the PvP is frankly complete trash when compared to even WoW.
Literally the only thing this game has going for it is it's theme, and the unique space combat,
Even then, if this wasn't a star trek mmo this game would have been dead years ago.
I do agree that pvp in an mmo is what is needed to keep people coming around. From day one, when i heard that the klingons and the federation is at war, i thought about shifting red / blue lines on a wide galaxy wide scale. cutting off supplies one day and fighting for them the next. but when i played the game, it was..disipointing to say the least. now granted i dont really pvp anymore, but still its fun to do when im low on ec. if it was possible to get that implemented into the game, that would be great, some how using the deep space encounters and klingon players to pick fights with you.
though i see grind as a apart of the mmo experience. the trick is not to make it feel so . right now the grind is felt bigtime .
i also see the cost of awards for the grind are a little excessive .
they CUT back on currency only to keep adding more ? which to me makes no sense to me. cryptic herds us to certain content . rather then letting us choose how we earn a certain currency . to give cryptic credit , there are now choices for getting either this or that currency .big step forward there
it seems that Crypitc add holdings just to keep the level of avail currency at a certain point .depending on your fleet size it can almost feel like a job to keep progression going , less time to really enjoy other aspects of the game. or let the holdings stagnate , your average causal doesnt have time normally ,either one or the other .
there are things that need attention to be fixed for seasons , things talked about but havent been touched, told WIP but magically other content gets out the door . but there are things that dont mesh or are used once or left hanging .
these are the things that urk me about STO in general .
and STO has so much potential .
to give credit , ive enjoyed the story content , with LOR cryptic has opened a large gateway of possibilites for STOs future .
I do agree that pvp in an mmo is what is needed to keep people coming around. From day one, when i heard that the klingons and the federation is at war, i thought about shifting red / blue lines on a wide galaxy wide scale. cutting off supplies one day and fighting for them the next. but when i played the game, it was..disipointing to say the least. now granted i dont really pvp anymore, but still its fun to do when im low on ec. if it was possible to get that implemented into the game, that would be great, some how using the deep space encounters and klingon players to pick fights with you.
but its not since its pro fed. ( yay fed).
I agree with the above...instead of relying on unending grinding that is sooo tiresome to say the least give some needed love PvP which has remained UNCHANGED for the most part ever since launch time 3 yrs ago...PVP could relieve the boredom as employed by other MMOs at the very least try to balance more....:cool:
Yes, the game could definitely use a big expansion on the PvP system. Add rewards, more modes and maps, a tier system to differentiate the new PvPers from the 'elite' ones, and maybe some form of territorial control within a sector block devoted to PvP.
STO, on occasion can be entertaining, when there is something, anything new.
Sadly the Devs did settle for lots and lots of grind to keep players BUSY, better than bored but when the parts that should be Entertaining become busy grind work then the entertainment isn't happening anymore at all and after a while that gets boring.
If that makes any sense...
exactly what i'm doing at the moment... too bad for Cryptic, now i'm spending money at Marvel Heroes, that Jetpack in the Summer Event made me feel like Iron Man, that was fun (pretty much the only fun part about the whole summer thing), now i play as Iron Man for realz. The Diablo 2-esque ARPG style game is also much more fun for me than the Hotkey smashing mmo style MMOs mostly have... oh and Heretic is there too.
They have patchnotes as long as my arm every week, not those short 3 liners like here and the Devs are very talkative on their Forums, not like the secretive silent bunch from Cryptic that doesn't even tell us whats up next anymore.
I feel appreciated as a player and customer in MH, in STO i feel like a cow that is supposed to be milked for as much as possible... well sorry Cryptic i've given you all the milk i can.
It's weird, all the things i liked about STO and i wish would still happen here are actually happening over there right now while this game feels like maintenance mode. (i know it isn't, but if they are working for weeks and months on their internal builds until a season update happens and Holodeck only gets 3 liner patch notes, then it could as well be in maintenance mode.)
The problem that i have now, if MH is so much fun, why should i even go back to STO?
Unless Cryptic comes up with something new, truly ENTERTAINING (not just another grind map or more Starbase grind) then i really do not see the point in it.
Sure i will log in and check it out, but i don't see me doing the daily stuff anymore or run after any of the new Ships (by god i really have enough Ships now, i need something TO DO with them.)
Yeah, I spend a lot of time on 'bored' and 'busy'. If I can get into the mood to run PvE queue missions, I can run 'em with my fleetmates and have plenty to keep myself occupied. Sometimes I'll just loiter around and chat via the chatbox, and that qualifies as 'bored'. The only time I'm truly entertained is when I'm PvPing. . .the problem with PvP is the pitiful rewards. It's not worth the time you put into it, if you're interested in collecting resources. It doesn't reward marks, the dilithium rewards are low, and the EC rewards are pitifully low.
A MMORPG developer can never keep up with the demand for more content, and whenever they do it messes up the old content. This is why the solution is to completely scrap the themepark WOW-clone model and adopt a sandbox model.
There is a difference between a what we get in STO and what would be considered reasonable. I've played other games, so lets look at WoW as an example. Has anyone ever heard of WoW players casually talk about content droughts like it was the most natural thing in the world? STO is extreme in the slowness with which it releases content.
There is a difference between a what we get in STO and what would be considered reasonable. I've played other games, so lets look at WoW as an example. Has anyone ever heard of WoW players casually talk about content droughts like it was the most natural thing in the world? STO is extreme in the slowness with which it releases content.
No it really isn't.... Wo- has or had one of the biggest development teams in the industry, expecting every other game to do what they did is silly.
Uh i beg to differ, I just tried Star Wars: The Old Republic and IT SUCKS! You guys don't know how lucky we have it. SWTOR is mockery of the franchise, our look, feel and well stories are better and we are getting Vorn expansions soon and who knows what Sela has in store.
So id love for you guys to try this out and once you do....Star Trek Online will seem like a dream come true.
Poor Wars Fans got screwed, fortunately we are lucky in the game aspect, when your YouTube Jedi Archives are better than the actual game...something is wrong.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] "This planet smells, it must be the Klingons"
I have not read many of the other replies but here is my own.
I have been here since open beta...I have not seen this game as anything more then a grindfest once you make admiral levels.
There are no more stories to tell...no more plots to absorb....The game relies, sadly, on the community to fill that gap...
Instead the game DOES become a grind fest. Grind this stf for a month...grind that for a week.....
To be honest and IMO there is so few END content items to pick from in comparison to ther MMO's I have played and or currently do that is has been tough even logging on to grind Nukara marks etc....
If they introduce more factions with rep, which is likely, they will probably introduce more utter grindage.
IMo they need to focus more on story content for a while..I am all grinded out.......maybe focus on the KDF/FED cold war with new pvp zones or content that is pvp driven but also a pve experience as well.
More episodes for the next 6mos to a year as well as some new stf content and more GEAR
VERY TIRED of REP and GRIND gear being the best gear in game when there should also be drops that could infuse the already tired looking gear......
Today we fight the GAULS......monstrous and HAIRY beyond reason.
Comments
Or was it right after launch and we were so angry that Jack and everyone else kept telling us to wait for the 45-day patch? You know, when Zinc quit as the Line Developer because of all the negative backlash?
When you look at the first 2 years of STO there was a lot of ups and downs there. Yeah, we got 3 FEs before PWE but we also got very long periods of nothing. It wasn't all wine and roses in the old days.
A new Expansion Pack like LoR for next year. The new FE is coming out relatively soon - and leads into Season 8 - which is primarily end-game focused.
STF's were pretty much perfect before they completely changed the reward system.
Back then, you had to play through ALL the STF's in order to get complete sets.
It was also pretty addictive and exciting, because you knew of the potential to get the rare loot drop, I.E borg tech, every time you played it.
With the reputation system however STF's have pretty much become a boring chore, as you need to spend a month or two leveling up before you can even get the Elite STF gear.
A second problem as a result of the Omega reputation is one involving "prestige".
Fact is, wether one likes it or not, A LOT of people enjoy enlarging their e-peen, and chasing after "rare" rewards that not just anyone can obtain.
And the old layout of STF's did just that.
They forced people to actually play ALL the missions to get complete sets, on ELITE difficulty, repeately, with the very rare tech drops being rather rare.
Only the most comitted and determined players would end up owning a full set of Elite Ground gear and the costume unlock that came with it, in the process making it a status symbol.
Unfortuantely the Omega reputation system did away with all that.
Suddenly, Elite STF gear is a very common sight, because any pug just farming Infected Space can get them now, And as such, the STF costume unlocks no longer hold the same appeal as they once did, because they are no longer special.
And on top of that it turned the experience into a "boring" grind, because the "thrill of the loot" was taken away.
Its too late to do anything about it now, but Cryptic might want to think about that in the future, and put in some rare "elite" content for the more "hardcore" crowd to aim for, and actually keep it that way.
- Entertained
- Busy
- Bored
STO, on occasion can be entertaining, when there is something, anything new.
Sadly the Devs did settle for lots and lots of grind to keep players BUSY, better than bored but when the parts that should be Entertaining become busy grind work then the entertainment isn't happening anymore at all and after a while that gets boring.
If that makes any sense...
exactly what i'm doing at the moment... too bad for Cryptic, now i'm spending money at Marvel Heroes, that Jetpack in the Summer Event made me feel like Iron Man, that was fun (pretty much the only fun part about the whole summer thing), now i play as Iron Man for realz. The Diablo 2-esque ARPG style game is also much more fun for me than the Hotkey smashing mmo style MMOs mostly have... oh and Heretic is there too.
They have patchnotes as long as my arm every week, not those short 3 liners like here and the Devs are very talkative on their Forums, not like the secretive silent bunch from Cryptic that doesn't even tell us whats up next anymore.
I feel appreciated as a player and customer in MH, in STO i feel like a cow that is supposed to be milked for as much as possible... well sorry Cryptic i've given you all the milk i can.
It's weird, all the things i liked about STO and i wish would still happen here are actually happening over there right now while this game feels like maintenance mode. (i know it isn't, but if they are working for weeks and months on their internal builds until a season update happens and Holodeck only gets 3 liner patch notes, then it could as well be in maintenance mode.)
The problem that i have now, if MH is so much fun, why should i even go back to STO?
Unless Cryptic comes up with something new, truly ENTERTAINING (not just another grind map or more Starbase grind) then i really do not see the point in it.
Sure i will log in and check it out, but i don't see me doing the daily stuff anymore or run after any of the new Ships (by god i really have enough Ships now, i need something TO DO with them.)
So your reply boils down to, but correct me if I'm wrong: "All MMOs are like this, so deal with it" and "They made the grind less annoying, so deal with it."
... something about polishing a TRIBBLE (not that I think STO is a TRIBBLE, but it's not a diamond either).
It took me 3-4 months to get to max level with one federation toon. That was a steady grind, I couldn't put the game down at all cause I was having fun playing with my character. When I got my Romulan, you want to know how long it took me to even hit lvl 30? 3 days! And that is playing it the exact same way as I did with my fed toon. 1 week total for lvl 50. took me 3 years with my klingon to even reach lvl 35. now? I can play a mission and earn 1 level, or pretty damned close to leveling up each mission. how is that fun for a game?
But when I see people sit there and say that I'm disillusioned, that the game was TRIBBLE from day one, that is a total disgraceful lie! Not every body set's their standards for a game to be exactally like "WoW" or "Everquest" or whatever it is you have set for a mmo to be standardized towards.
I've Watched this game from day one, as I've stated before. I've watched it go from good to great to epic to fail over time. and it keeps riding a rollercoaster on status with those levels. Is it a total failure? NO. is it total gold on a silver platter? NO. Could it be better. YES. The whole point of this thread is not to entice a flame war of epic proportions between myself and other players of this community. This post is for the Devs, and my sharing my opinions with them, and the community as well, on what was the goods and what are the bads of the game. At one time, they used to listen to the player base. They should really start listening again!
took me 1 month to have 2 max feds forgot did not make 3rd till 7 month after game had went live
system Lord Baal is dead
at launch it took me a couple months to get to max lvl,... I would look forward to double XP weekends
came back recently within the past year...and yes...I also got a few to mx lvl in a month as well. it doesnt take much effort at all now....
but thats OK with me... I am just playing the game very casually nowadays anyway..... kinda fun to fast track in short game sessions.
.
---- FIRE EVERYTHING ! ----
Nobody cares.
Forgive me for finding this amusing , but when I rant about the bad things in the game , you sometimes pop in to point out the good things , and now that I've noted some positive aspects from the past , you went (again the opposite direction) and started bringing back the Year of Hell .
I'm ... not really sure what to make of that .
But I will stand by the first year of STO (buggy as it was) as an example of what it should be :
New STF every few months , new FE series every few months , plus the odd mission here and there to pad the KDF out .
I'll take that over a new Adventure zone every 6 months + 2 FE episodes per year + a "summer/winter event" + 2-3 Reputations per year .
The "play plan" was better .
The "game plan" aka income , was not .
I believe in the Best of Both Worlds .
I believe that grind can co-exist with content .
I believe Cryptic can do better .
What I doubt more and more is their will do do better as a whole (not just the Art Department) .
No it wasn't .
But up until Atari slammed the door in the face of Cryptic , things were better as a whole .
You're welcome do disagree .
the tissue offer still stands
---- FIRE EVERYTHING ! ----
On the "bright side" , you still have STF awards that are impossible to attain ... , like the KDF Honor Guard "boob window" or the "Shredder" versions .
They were supposed to be the 'pinnacle' of the Honor Guard set .
And they have been broken since the Omega Reputation came about ... , was it one year ago now ?
Yeah ... .
And I remember all the talk before that ... , when we asked when are we going to get new STF awards , and new costume variations ... .
The answer we got then was "we're working on a new reward system (Omega Rep) that will have new costume unlocks " .
And that kept us exited ... . :cool:
As does my toilet paper offer.
I'm not really sure what some peeps want...its NOT "Star Trek Enough"...what is that...not enough fighting not enough exploring not enough factions not enough races...I see that phrase when peeps do not know what they want in "this" game. It's a dumb phrase. Give a description of what "Star Trek Enough" is and maybe the Devs will accommodate us with it.
The game is fine and the Devs are doing a good job, it is a Play to Pay game, the lockboxes are here to stay and if you do not want them do not buy the keys for them. HOWEVER you can buy the keys and MOST of the lockbox stuff in the exchange for FAKE money. This game is verrrrry easy to make FAKE money in...I just spent 70+ million EC's during the Risa Summer Dancin party this last month...yes I got lazzzzy and just bought the needed Favours...I have LOTS of toons that needed summer clothes.
It sounds like the OP and others just need to take a short game break, watch a few episodes of Trek, maybe read a Trek book, because I have watched and read LOTS of Trek stuff and I think the game is in line just fine...and so does CBS...apparently.
Just my 2 ec's worth during patch time.
Betty
Badname Betty (PvP...PvE...STF...Trophy Hunter...Latnium Collector...Federation)
Commander Morgana (PvP...PvE...STF...KDF)
1000 day vet and LTS
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] STO Join date: 7 Feb 2010
Yeah I agree. This is the main issue with STO. I started to play STO at the last featured episode. It was so much fun to play a new mission every week or every second week. You had something to look forward to. It was definitely a high... Foundary does not count. Its a fun feature but its not official.
Now the fleet base and reputation system are not bad ideas.. but they key word is "in moderation". Most people are just casual players since they cannot do STO 24 hours a day or even just a few hours a day obtaining those goals is though.. and eventually you almost feel like giving up. Most things are expensive.. I haven't even begun to collect the dilithium I need to get my first Zen ship. To do so It would require me to do STF every day for the last 3-6 months. And that is not including the fleet gear I need. Its just to expensive. I am not saying everything should be cheap.... but maybe more affordable.
What's really sour is that nothing is done about it. PwE is content with their lockbox gambling and lazy power creep. STO might do it right, in that there's (almost) nothing you can't obtain by grinding (ie 'free') ~ but the products they create and solicit, are by and large, game altering devices, which is in my opinion, just p2w.
'New' doesn't have to come at the expense of 'old'. Old can learn new tricks, and bring more diversity to the whole.
(As an aside, I get the feeling from time to time that a lot of what is 'new' seems only half-way done, which in a way makes it very much like the 'old').
Its a multiplayer game, with a shared persisstent universe? An MMORPG right? Except the end-game universe did not change very much at all. There wasnt any significant kind of shared experience content in LoR. Even New Romulus and the reputation systems were already in place before LoR, so there was not even any kind of change to that. The only substantive change was new social zones that are only available to new characters species.
This is the biggest structural flaw in the game's design principle, IMO. The devs keep doing stuff that is centered around single-player and do not address the long-term persistent universe at all, and then the end-game gets boring and stagnant and people wander off. And if you look at how they constantly push new OP gear, there is an argument to be made that they dont even care about the end-game experience (eg, PVP balance, who cares).
One thing about the OP, they are weepy reminiscent for the good old days of more SP campaigns. IMO that is what has made the game so unenjoyable from the beginning, the focus on SP experience, and no focus at all on the multiplayer persistent universe.
I am inclined to agree with the notions about the stagnant state of the game.
It has stayed largely unmoved since launch. The Iconians remain the looming, hardly-any-sort-of-secret threat they were when we completed the campaign missions that've been available since, and the game's story hasn't moved forward at all towards revealing a bit more about this. Rather, it's fattened out laterally to relieve its formerly anorexic state.
The game's quite fat now with, as Zerobang put it in an earlier post, 'Busy work'. There's enough time-gated grind to keep players busy. It's well past time to move forward to the next level.
The Picard-quote in my sig about remembering when we were explorers is there due to my desire to see STO's story actually move forward, to see us get something new. It's possible this new upcoming adventure zone and feature episode series will maybe address it, but I have learned with Cryptic's pathway for STO content to calibrate my expectations low.
As for new challenges: The Borg are done. Current STF content has been refurbished, repackaged and resold to the point where it's now just easily digestible paste. They made tentative steps forward by re-heating Into the Hive, glitchy as it is currently. There are more uber-enemies in Star Trek than the Borg, and while Cryptic may be trying to maintain the Borg as the ultimate endgame experience, they are failing to actually innovate new challenges with them.
The Borg are a known threat. The Tholians are under-utilized currently as endgame threats. The Undine/S-8472 are apparently forgotten. Iconians remain a shadow. It's time for something new. Something that wakes the STO playerbase up from their usual and makes them adapt to something other than the typical, something that *isn't* just sitting in sector space queueing up for whatever mark-grinder mission is off cooldown at the moment. Something that gets us working together in this persistent universe again.
The Artist Formerly Known As Nikotaka ][ Join Date: Jan 2010
"Can anyone remember when we used to be explorers...?"
Ok, This is constructive. Some of the things in this game is way too over priced. before anybody goes through and picks apart what I say again, i said SOME!
I bring back the point of the fact that lockboxes are a lottery, and there is only a 1 out of 500 chance (ok, I really don't know the real odds), of earning the ship that you want. Used to be able to just open up the Z-store and click buy and be done with it. now you have to play a lottery.
Big corporate people who are leeching up all the money are happy, so why should they care if their player base is "Shut up and give us your money!!!" Give me good reasons to spend my money that doesn't consist of a lottery system, and I'll consider it. And as for everybody saying the OP needs a break from the game? Take a quantum torpedo and place it in your aft plasma vent. Instead of being a P'taq about everything, offer some ideas on what you would like to see in game. Everybody has something that they want to see in game.
Yes, I am looking for more SP campaigns, but I'm also looking for new Multiplayer experiences that are STORY Driven, not Fly to this starbase and defeat 10 waves of borg or romulan just because they decided to pick this day to fly there and attatck. I want Adventure zones, I want story, most of all, I want promises that were made to be kept, instead of swept under the carpets and be told **waves hands** it never existed.
Thank You!
PvP.
Seriously, when you have an MMO that is literally only PvE with an unbalanced, high gear/skill barred, and horrendously unsupported PvP aspect, players are going to burn through the PvE and then do... nothing.
MMO longevity, no... game longevity, is hugely dependent on MULTIPLAYER, more importantly, COMPETITIVE MULTIPLAYER.
Its why I quit, its why alot of people quit no doubt, there is no reason to stick with the game after you burn through the PvE because the PvP is frankly complete trash when compared to even WoW.
Literally the only thing this game has going for it is it's theme, and the unique space combat,
Even then, if this wasn't a star trek mmo this game would have been dead years ago.
but its not since its pro fed. ( yay fed).
i also see the cost of awards for the grind are a little excessive .
they CUT back on currency only to keep adding more ? which to me makes no sense to me. cryptic herds us to certain content . rather then letting us choose how we earn a certain currency . to give cryptic credit , there are now choices for getting either this or that currency .big step forward there
it seems that Crypitc add holdings just to keep the level of avail currency at a certain point .depending on your fleet size it can almost feel like a job to keep progression going , less time to really enjoy other aspects of the game. or let the holdings stagnate , your average causal doesnt have time normally ,either one or the other .
there are things that need attention to be fixed for seasons , things talked about but havent been touched, told WIP but magically other content gets out the door . but there are things that dont mesh or are used once or left hanging .
these are the things that urk me about STO in general .
and STO has so much potential .
to give credit , ive enjoyed the story content , with LOR cryptic has opened a large gateway of possibilites for STOs future .
I agree with the above...instead of relying on unending grinding that is sooo tiresome to say the least give some needed love PvP which has remained UNCHANGED for the most part ever since launch time 3 yrs ago...PVP could relieve the boredom as employed by other MMOs at the very least try to balance more....:cool:
Yeah, I spend a lot of time on 'bored' and 'busy'. If I can get into the mood to run PvE queue missions, I can run 'em with my fleetmates and have plenty to keep myself occupied. Sometimes I'll just loiter around and chat via the chatbox, and that qualifies as 'bored'. The only time I'm truly entertained is when I'm PvPing. . .the problem with PvP is the pitiful rewards. It's not worth the time you put into it, if you're interested in collecting resources. It doesn't reward marks, the dilithium rewards are low, and the EC rewards are pitifully low.
There is a difference between a what we get in STO and what would be considered reasonable. I've played other games, so lets look at WoW as an example. Has anyone ever heard of WoW players casually talk about content droughts like it was the most natural thing in the world? STO is extreme in the slowness with which it releases content.
My character Tsin'xing
So id love for you guys to try this out and once you do....Star Trek Online will seem like a dream come true.
Poor Wars Fans got screwed, fortunately we are lucky in the game aspect, when your YouTube Jedi Archives are better than the actual game...something is wrong.
I have been here since open beta...I have not seen this game as anything more then a grindfest once you make admiral levels.
There are no more stories to tell...no more plots to absorb....The game relies, sadly, on the community to fill that gap...
Instead the game DOES become a grind fest. Grind this stf for a month...grind that for a week.....
To be honest and IMO there is so few END content items to pick from in comparison to ther MMO's I have played and or currently do that is has been tough even logging on to grind Nukara marks etc....
If they introduce more factions with rep, which is likely, they will probably introduce more utter grindage.
IMo they need to focus more on story content for a while..I am all grinded out.......maybe focus on the KDF/FED cold war with new pvp zones or content that is pvp driven but also a pve experience as well.
More episodes for the next 6mos to a year as well as some new stf content and more GEAR
VERY TIRED of REP and GRIND gear being the best gear in game when there should also be drops that could infuse the already tired looking gear......