I had initially been ok with this grind, thinking it was a 10 console/fleet grade ship ('normal' ones take longer to grind for in terms of ec/dil/zen anyway...)
but looking at newest dev blog that isnt going to be the case? ( 9 console slots in screenie )
Went from getting it on my 3 mains and possible alts if the daily wasnt too bad : to probably not bothering at all :P
m2 now lookis like i will not even play new fe since i do not plan to grind for 9 consoles ship
If its too much grind, well dont do it, but this is nothing with regards to any grind (and thats the game as a whole not just the anniversary event)
Cryptic needs to understand not everyone can grind 15 days in that time frame for the reward. This isnt a christmas event, but an event for ALL the players for playing the game for years.
Ive played since beta, im not asking to be handed the ship. Just add them as rewards to the FE mission like Odd/Amb. Im having shoulder surgery a few days after the event goes live. I wont be able to do 15 days of grinds.
They also need to understand at this point in time most of us have 5-10 alts. Those of us who want to get the ship on multiple characters then have to do sickening amounts of the same mission. People hate it so much lots of us just do winter/summer stuff on 1-2 characters.
I have 10 alts. Thats 10x15 IF i did all my toons IF my shoulder was able. Doing anything 150 times in 15 days sucks and becomes unfun. Im not even keen on doing a FE mission 10 times unless its really good like temporal ambassador.
I want to be able to log on and play how i like, i dont like being told do 15 days of missions for a ship thats to celebrate ME playing the game for 4 years.... I thought cryptic maybe learning grinds arent fun when they made the new dyson rep much more relaxed, now they throw another pointless grind in.
Stuff like the STFs are meant for grinds, as high level repeatable content. Xmas presents, summer evens, ann events are about celebrating players attaching grinds to them is stupid. Not to meantion most people travel during the holidays and cant always log in from their vacation spot. What you want the xmas ship, grind for 25 days straight so you can get it AFTER xmas..... who comes up with this stupid pointless junk?
Want us to do your mini games? fine. Make them fun and interesting, but dont try to bait us into grinding them. Its to noones gain.
You do realize they did the same thing last year giving away free c-store items so your theory on "doing this to calm the masses" doesn't make sense in this scenario. They're doing it because they DO want to thank the players. If they didn't care, they wouldn't do free stuff at all. I will comment on the EP thing after...
Random free stuff from the C-Store is a bit different to past Anniversaries, as that 'gift' could very well end up being nothing at all to people who already own the item offered. I can imagine quite a few people will get nothing what so ever from the initial give-away.
And before someone comes along forgetting I've been here for over 4 years and not always the "fanboy" and thinks I'm defending this grind idea, I'm not. I actually hate the grind as much as anyone else to be honest. But really 15 days out of the 28ish it's running and it's a 10ish minute mission? I got better things to complain about than that
So it is '10ish' now? Brian intoned around 5 minutes. Either way, it's making players waste their time in game repeating the same quickly dulling and time-grated task to get the kind of 'special anniversary ship' which they had been able to claim with one mission years prior. All the while, branding it as FREE, which it is not, as you have to work for it, and thus earn it. So it leaves a sense of 'Dance, monkeys, dance!' rather than the feeling of 'Thank you for keeping us alive.'
As I mentioned before, they could shoot for a 'best of both worlds' format. Single mission rewarding a basic version, and then let people grind for the high-end super shiny par to the other grinder reward ships. This is both disappointing in the Thank-you 'gift' being locked behind a grind this year, and additionally underwhelming at what seems to be just T5 instead of T5.5 which other similar events gave.
It feels like rather than truly thank players. people are just being coerced to waste time in game to inflate playtime statistics for an inferior ship which they will be offered an upgraded version of in a month or two.
So it is '10ish' now? Brian intoned around 5 minutes. Either way, it's making playings waste their time in game repeating the same quickly dulling and time-grated task to get the kind of 'special anniversary ship' which they had been able to claim with one mission years prior. All the while, branding it as FREE, which it is not, as you have to work for it, and thus earn it. So it leaves a sense of 'Dance, monkeys, dance!' rather than the feeling of 'Thank you for keeping us alive.'
As I mentioned before, they could shoot for a 'best of both worlds' format. Single mission rewarding a basic version, and then let people grind for the high-end super shiny par to the other grinder reward ships. This is both disappointing in the Thank-you 'gift' being locked behind a grind this year, and additionally underwhelming at what seems to be just T5 instead of T5.5 which other similar events gave.
It feels like rather than truly thank players. people are just being coerced to waste time in game to inflate playtime statistics for an inferior ship which they will be offered an upgraded version of in a month or two.
I said 10ish because it's an even number. Some will run it in 5, others will take longer. 10 just sounded good. By your logic, even last years "free" ship wasn't free as you HAD to run a mission to get it. That means you had to work for it. Again, I'm not sitting here advocating for grinding but ultimately in the end this is light compared to other things.
Yes, I'm that Askray@Batbayer in game. Yes, I still play. No, I don't care. Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker. Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
I find it hilarious that people are complaining about repeating one of 2 minigames 15 times....
Honestly, its not that we would need to do 2 minigames for 15 days. Thats not the main point... it is a departure from the previous Anniversary events that were strctly celabratory events for another year of STO. The issue is taking what was a celebration, and adding an element of Grind to it.
As others have stated, its about the precedent that it sets.
If this were any other event, I'd never had said a word, and would have happily ground out 1000 Qmendations... the ship look sweet.
My issue (and some others who have posted here) is that they are cheapening what the Anniversary event was intended for, and what it was about.
I said 10ish because it's an even number. Some will run it in 5, others will take longer. 10 just sounded good. By your logic, even last years "free" ship wasn't free as you HAD to run a mission to get it. That means you had to work for it. Again, I'm not sitting here advocating for grinding but ultimately in the end this is light compared to other things.
A mission, singular, one. Additionally, it was a new, interesting little FE which was enjoyable. Not the same drell for two weeks, because of cooldowns to time-gate it; even good missions become aggravating when you've played it for the umpteenth time. Artificially delaying a player from obtaining the item is a terrible thing to do when it is supposed to be a celebratory gift. Coupled with the fact that, once again, you can buy the bloody tokens with lobi; it starts to stink of a barely veiled money grab.
'Free' is not such, if you are forced to work for it or can pay money to reduce said amount of work. It's been billed as free, and the 'Yay we've made it another year' reward. We've spent another year grinding, and to get the 'gift'? More grinding. Bloody hell...
I said 10ish because it's an even number. Some will run it in 5, others will take longer. 10 just sounded good. By your logic, even last years "free" ship wasn't free as you HAD to run a mission to get it. That means you had to work for it. Again, I'm not sitting here advocating for grinding but ultimately in the end this is light compared to other things.
Last year was doing a mission and then get a reward for that mission, and the mission was epic.
But now they are forcing us to grind same missions over and over again till we get the ship.
And truly i don't see the point. Why we need to grind 15 days for our "Free" Ship reward?
No one from Cryptic has told us why is so important to run same mission for 15 days.
Do they know something that we don't ? Are they covering up in this way true existence of universe ? Are they in some secret society?
I didn't mind grinding for winter and summer event, hell it was fun for me cause lots of moths are between the dates. But now it is anniversary and they want to punish us why?
Call me stupid but i really don't get it why we need to grind for this ship this year and last year we didn't have to?
No one from Cryptic has told us why is so important to run same mission for 15 days.
They are "more special" than the previous ships.
(And the combination of a free cool, but subpar ship and optional fleetships for 4 fleetmodules did not generate as much revenue as the risian/breen-ships with lobi packs)
Beta, LTA, CE, Multiple preorder Versions, all Addon Packs except AoY, nearly all KDF/Rom and ~50% of all Fedships, over 25 LockboxShips, Endurer of Atari's "Year of Hell", but...
Hate to say it but it's beginning to look like Cryptic/PWE needs some new blood. Obviously, the present crew cannot seem to get themselves out of the grind mentality. Here folks, ignore tradition, do this single mission over and over again cause THAT's all we can think of to earn new stuff.
So it's not your typical anniversary ship? Let's involve an annoying charcter and make em grind the same mission dozens of times to earn it. But, isn't that the SAME AS EVERYTHING THEY DO NOW? True, but what else is there? Duh, I don't know.
Really guys, creativity counts for alot. Try something different. Or at least let tradition count for something.
And another doom post it tends to happen every month or so
Actually, not a doom post. Just a simple fact. Look at every MMO that went heavy on the grinding in the game. Within a few years, they all but died. Grinding is sadly become a way of life in most MMO's, F2P or otherwise. So, there will always be grinding. However, when you take an event that has always been Complete FE and a Ship is Your Reward, and turn that into a grind fest, I think that is just insulting to players. Especially a few weeks after the previous grind fest for yet another ship. And, we will have another when S9 hits, then there will be the Summer Grind, then the next Expansion Grind along with new Reputation grinds, Fleet grinds, and so on and so forth. Where is the new content? I would rather have an engaging storyline that takes place over 5 or 6 episodes, taking 3 to 4 hours to complete and get a ship that way, instead of this repetitive grind. At least there would be something new in the game. 1 FE that IMO should have been part of the S8 release in the first place is not New content. So, you can call it doom and gloom all you want, but Cryptic is killing it's own game.
As far the the C-Store giveaway is concerned, how is giving me 3 ships that I already have purchased "Thanking Me" for playing the game? It seems more like a slap in the face for even buying C-store content in the first place. "Haha, too bad you wasted your hard earned money. If you had only waited, we would have given it to you for free." Sorry, but your logic there does not reason.
Also, the event is now 10 minutes? I thought it was going to be 2-5 minutes? So, it keeps going up. So, instead of an hour each day grinding my way though this event on all of my alts, I now have 2 hours a day to look forward to. Again, you are not helping to make anyone's case in this matter. The reality of the matter is this: The Party Patrol mission normally takes 4 or 5 minutes to gather up the Mini-Q's. HOWEVER, now that you have made this event mandatory for the Qmendations to get the "Free" ships, this event will probably take much longer because it is not a single instance queue or event. There will be other players fighting for the Q's and with X number available, someone is always going to be left waiting for more to appear. So, I am estimating more like a 15 minute event for 1 toon. Now, we are up to 3 hours a day minimum grind time for 15 days to get each of my alts and mains the "Free" Anniversary Event Ships.....Um, how is that Free? How is that Fun? That is work, not play. Again, going back to my OP about people will find other games for fun.
Cryptic........
The Needs Of The Many (Players) Outweigh The Needs Of The Few (Cryptic) Or The One (PWE)
Actually, not a doom post. Just a simple fact. Look at every MMO that went heavy on the grinding in the game. Within a few years, they all but died. Grinding is sadly become a way of life in most MMO's, F2P or otherwise. So, there will always be grinding. However, when you take an event that has always been Complete FE and a Ship is Your Reward, and turn that into a grind fest, I think that is just insulting to players. Especially a few weeks after the previous grind fest for yet another ship. And, we will have another when S9 hits, then there will be the Summer Grind, then the next Expansion Grind along with new Reputation grinds, Fleet grinds, and so on and so forth. Where is the new content? I would rather have an engaging storyline that takes place over 5 or 6 episodes, taking 3 to 4 hours to complete and get a ship that way, instead of this repetitive grind. At least there would be something new in the game. 1 FE that IMO should have been part of the S8 release in the first place is not New content. So, you can call it doom and gloom all you want, but Cryptic is killing it's own game.
As far the the C-Store giveaway is concerned, how is giving me 3 ships that I already have purchased "Thanking Me" for playing the game? It seems more like a slap in the face for even buying C-store content in the first place. "Haha, too bad you wasted your hard earned money. If you had only waited, we would have given it to you for free." Sorry, but your logic there does not reason.
Also, the event is now 10 minutes? I thought it was going to be 2-5 minutes? So, it keeps going up. So, instead of an hour each day grinding my way though this event on all of my alts, I now have 2 hours a day to look forward to. Again, you are not helping to make anyone's case in this matter. The reality of the matter is this: The Party Patrol mission normally takes 4 or 5 minutes to gather up the Mini-Q's. HOWEVER, now that you have made this event mandatory for the Qmendations to get the "Free" ships, this event will probably take much longer because it is not a single instance queue or event. There will be other players fighting for the Q's and with X number available, someone is always going to be left waiting for more to appear. So, I am estimating more like a 15 minute event for 1 toon. Now, we are up to 3 hours a day minimum grind time for 15 days to get each of my alts and mains the "Free" Anniversary Event Ships.....Um, how is that Free? How is that Fun? That is work, not play. Again, going back to my OP about people will find other games for fun.
Cryptic........
The Needs Of The Many (Players) Outweigh The Needs Of The Few (Cryptic) Or The One (PWE)
See my post over 30 minutes ago as to why I said 10ish I'm not trying to make anyone's case for anything. As it clearly in bold, underlined and italic white letters in my signature
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment
I am not making anything or doing anything as I don't have any control over content/decisions made here.
Yes, I'm that Askray@Batbayer in game. Yes, I still play. No, I don't care. Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker. Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
Then why are you on here making statements and commenting on mine and others post? If you are a Moderator, then Moderate. Moderators are supposedly here to enforce the rules of a forum, not get snarky with the people expressing their concerns or worries over the direction the game is taking or throwing "Look at my Signature Line" into peoples faces. Yes, you are special because you got a special Sig Line.
This could become a great bit of PR for the devs/owners and IP rep..........
Ie
' never be said we don't listen to our players and as such you now have to complete the event once to claim your free ship, you can continue to do the mini games for 25 days if you wish and store those rep points for our next project'
Same chance as winning the lotto me thinks.........
Where ever you go, there you are.......
Join The Space Invaders,..... Federation and KDF fleets.
Then why are you on here making statements and commenting on mine and others post? If you are a Moderator, then Moderate. Moderators are supposedly here to enforce the rules of a forum, not get snarky with the people expressing their concerns or worries over the direction the game is taking or throwing "Look at my Signature Line" into peoples faces. Yes, you are special because you got a special Sig Line.
I'm also, like every one here including developers etc, a player and as such am allowed to comment on every open thread as long as my posts relate to said discussion. I did not get "snarky" I made my own comments, read others, replied to those that posted and so on. I don't care if i'm special or not, my point to you was you were directing your comments about development to ME which, as it states in my signature, I'm a volunteer and as such not a paid employee of Cryptic/PWE.
Yes, I'm that Askray@Batbayer in game. Yes, I still play. No, I don't care. Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker. Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
Then why are you on here making statements and commenting on mine and others post? If you are a Moderator, then Moderate. Moderators are supposedly here to enforce the rules of a forum, not get snarky with the people expressing their concerns or worries over the direction the game is taking or throwing "Look at my Signature Line" into peoples faces. Yes, you are special because you got a special Sig Line.
I would first point out that the community moderators are also players and have as much right to comment about/agree with/disagree with any other forum-goers post as you or I do. Moderators have feelings too.
Secondly, I would suggest you go back and reread all of Askray's posts in this thread before you try to "pick-a-fight" with him. His posts arguing that this move by Cryptic is worrying and not popular with the vast majority of posters in this forum are some of the best written and concise I have seen here.
Given the fact that you are misinterpreting some of Askray's posts I really do suggest you go back to the beginning and start over from post #1. You will then have all the same information we do, and have better insight into how to address other forum-goers posts.
"...we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than the things that divide us.”
Jo Cox 22.6.1974 - 16.6.2016
I was directing my comments to you because of the comments you made, not because you are a Community Moderator. I do happen to know what a Community Moderator is. I do know that you do not work for or are paid by Cryptic. I know that you do not have a "back door channel" to the Dev's. I was in fact replying to your comments. However, others read these posts, including the developers, so keeping that in mind, I always reply with enough information so that people know what I am saying, not just the person I responded to.
I am not going to comment further, because all this is doing is diverting attention away from the fact that a lot of people have issues with the direction Cryptics is taking, regardless of who is moderating, producing or developing. Let's please get back to the reason that this forum was started for.
I want to explore the quadrant, and discover my rewards.
I want to try new things, and gain from my attempts.
I want to play with friends and fleet, and get a bonus for it.
What I do not like is being forced to do a solo repetitive chore to earn my rewards. I will on one of two characters so I can try the ships, but it's too much to do it on all of them.
Solo repetitive chores... keep us in one place so we don't go exploring.
Solo repetitive chores... keep us working on one thing so we don't try new things.
Solo repetitive chores... take away time we could be spending with friends and fleet.
The fourth anniversary only comes once. Give us something special, not another grind.
Then why are you on here making statements and commenting on mine and others post?
Same reason you are: He's a player, has an opinion, and has as much right to express it as you do. Sorry little snowflake, you're not as special as you think.
We have other giveaways planned that will lead up to the anniversary where you can just log-in and claim an item for free, like the summer giveaway last year -- more info on that soon, too. So there are some free, no-work-necessary items that will be given away.
Again, these ships are not your average anniversary ships -- you'll see that once you learn more about them. Due to this, there is a little bit more effort needed to give them away for free. They're per character, and they're optional. If you don't end up fancying them, you don't have to work on the projects. But if they do, and we think you will like them quite much, we're allowing you to earn them for FREE, but with a little side of effort.
Thanks for your support, and no more spoilers!
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
you`ll get no complaints from me bran, I was ok with it before the c-store giveaway but now its even better you`ll only get thanks from me.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
(And the combination of a free cool, but subpar ship and optional fleetships for 4 fleetmodules did not generate as much revenue as the risian/breen-ships with lobi packs)
And we have a winner!
Cryptic is hoping that they can use what they would have in the past given to us for free" after one play of the new FE and turn it into a mini gold mine.
Lobi is not cheap.
5 Lobi is about $1.25 and it takes 5 Lobi to trade in for 3-5 commendations if used to speed up the process of getting one of these "Free" ships like Cryptic is hoping many players will do, can net them a nice bit of revenue.
I have no problem with Cryptic trying to make has much money has possible for minimal effort; however, I do have a problem with them using the Anniversary Event of STO to do it.
I coined what has become of The Anniversary event here in STO a "Milk Grind"
Cryptic has decided to lock our "Free" ships behind a time grind in hopes that can Milk money out of the players who might not have the time to play or just need to have the new hotness now.
This kind of strikes me has how an Anniversary Event would be run in Bizzaro World :rolleyes:
Hey Guys!
We'd like to thank you all for your continued support and interest in STO!
With the upcoming 4th Anniversary of STO we are pleased to announce that you'll all be getting new "Free" ships!
That's right New "Free" Ships!
Yep and all you have to do is play our new FE mission and then run your choice of 2 repeatable mini missions for at least 15 days and grind out 1000 commendations to claim your new "Free" ships!
That's right only 1000!
And has and added thank you for your continued support of STO we have graciously added an option for you to get you new "Free" ships even faster if you choose by allowing you to use just 5 Lobi and exchange them for a few extra commendations!
That's right for just $1.25 US you can get 3-4 Commendations to get your hands on your new "Free" ship even faster!
I am wondering if this thread will get as long as the changes to fleet marks and dilithium from awhile back - aka the one click investigate officer reports removal.
The thing that worries me the most is that they will put the 10 console version locked behind T3 spire - that will TRIBBLE double the amount of people off I suspect.
I am wondering if this thread will get as long as the changes to fleet marks and dilithium from awhile back - aka the one click investigate officer reports removal.
I was definitely wondering about that yesterday. That was the only other time I recall a thread on here growing so long so fast.
I was definitely wondering about that yesterday. That was the only other time I recall a thread on here growing so long so fast.
I would say it's a fair assesment that the majority of people planning to do the anniversary event don't even know about these changes yet!! It is very likely that a awful lot of player would only start checking it out late next week - expecting like last year to run the event and get the ship. We could have a tidal wave of anger come in around the start of the event if no changes are made.
While I believe they should remove the grind part altogether, I will stick by my much earlier recommendation: the reduce the number of days from 15 to 10. So out of 29 days total, 10 is not too bad. I plan on running 12 of 30 toon's through, so it's still going to be a chore.
And the fleet version - if it's locked behind T3 spire - well let's just say I will be a little annoyed!!
The thing that worries me the most is that they will put the 10 console version locked behind T3 spire - that will TRIBBLE double the amount of people off I suspect.
Well assuming that the choice to go 9 consoles is an arbitrary **** move (Cryptic: "grind my minions, grind! Then buy a better version of the very same ship with FM and render all that work moot. MWA HA HA HA HA!") rather than a balancing decision to offset the new abilities. As it is I think there's still plenty of room to hope for the latter.
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
And another doom post it tends to happen every month or so :P
No, and that was a cheap shot. This is not a 'doom' thread, and its attracted no more than the usual doom-merchants. What it has attracted is a lot, a vast majority, of negative opinion. Usually thoughtfully expressed and respectful.
You do realize they did the same thing last year giving away free c-store items so your theory on "doing this to calm the masses" doesn't make sense in this scenario. They're doing it because they DO want to thank the players. If they didn't care, they wouldn't do free stuff at all. I will comment on the EP thing after...
I agree, I seriously doubt the c-store giveaway is, in any shape or form, a reaction to this thread. What DID happen is that control was lost of the message. The details about the grind came out before the announcements of the new ships and the giveaway.
I imagine the original schedule would have given us the news about the ships and the giveaway. And then slip the grind bit in afterwards.
This anniversary event was planned MONTHS ago so I doubt it had much to do with Stephen. And no, it's not false advertising as it IS free. You're not having to pay real life money.As for the "it's only 50 lines of code". I didn't know you work for Cryptic/PWE because I'm betting it's a bit more than 50 lines.
Just not quite as free as hitherto.
And before someone comes along forgetting I've been here for over 4 years and not always the "fanboy" and thinks I'm defending this grind idea, I'm not. I actually hate the grind as much as anyone else to be honest. But really 15 days out of the 28ish it's running and it's a 10ish minute mission? I got better things to complain about than that
Ok, and this is the point where it seems to me you've misunderstood what many have been saying.
Lets stipulate an FE takes 15 minutes and to run one of the grind dailies takes 5 minutes.
Previous years we have had a situation where you run a 15 minute thing, once, at the time of your choosing, and get a character locked 9 console ship with no special whistles and bells.
This year, same 15 minutes, but now you'll have to run a five minute thing fifteen times. Additionally, the schedule is imposed on you via the (I assume) 20 hour cooldown.
So, for one toon, we've gone from 15 minutes to 15 + (5x15)= 90 minutes.
OK, granted the ship is a tad better, but its still 9 consoles and Cryptic will still monetarise it later via a lobi or c-store version.
15 minutes becomes 90 minutes.
Six times as much time required and we can no long choose when to spend that time.
That may, just, be supportable if the new ships are all things to all people.
The huge, major, utterly predictable problem comes in when any of us have more than one toon.
Which is most of us.
Two toons. 30 minutes now becomes 3 hours.
Three toons. 45 minutes becomes four and a half hours.
Six toons. 90 minutes becomes a whopping NINE hours.
And remember, these new inflated investments of time are no long as and when we choose. They're time gated.
The reason so many people are miffed about this has nothing to do with the ships, or even how long it would take to run this for one toon.
It's the apparent utter lack of thought that has gone into this from Cryptic, regarding more than one toon.
The very best I can say of this decision is.....extremely careless.
Thats the very nicest way to describe it.
I would wager that the majority of players run and maintain more than one toon.
It's not the five minutes a day thats the problem, its the multiplication of the time needed overall by a factor of six that is. And the fact that player choice over when to spend that time has been taken utterly away.
Not a doom thread.
But, if I had the devs responsible for this in front of me now, I'd stare at them for a while before slowly shaking my head and softly muttering.... "I'm very disappointed in you"
This image was taken from Tribble, but I wanted to provide a few important notes about this. The free ships this year are not your average Anniversary ship; they've got some extremely amazing bells and whistles, and even 2 new mechanics being introduced for the first time (more info soon). Because of this, you'll need to work a tad bit harder for a free ship over just running an episode one time. However! You will receive a package of 400 Qmendations as a one-time reward the first time you complete the Featured Episode, "A Step Between Stars." That means you only need to collect 600 more, which at 40 a day from completing a short daily, will take 15 days out of the 25+ days the event runs. There should also be a Lobi option for additional/ substitute Qmendations.
All of this info and much more will be coming up in our Dev Blogs next week, and I think once you see the ships, you'll see why a little extra effort for the ships will be more than worth it.
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
I can't possibly read through 80+ pages of posts, so this might be something that others already asked:
Can I collect surplus 'Qmendations' for the next year's anniversary event (like with the winter pictures), or is this just a one-time thing?
No way am I patient enough to read 86 pages of posts.
But, looking at it it's still free. But God, not the grind again.
I only have four characters, so it's not that bad for me, but wow, coupled with the fact that we just got a ship grind from this winter, it's a bit rough.
And I appreciate the extra event slot, but I'd greatly appreciate it if the ship came with a ship slot to store it in for our trouble.
On the other hand there may have been foreshadowing for this; remember the Obelisk carrier? You had to turn around and repeat the mission several times for the Antiproton weapons, the warp core, then lobi for the advanced version and the rest of the set.
I certainly hope this FE is fun at least.
"Rise like Lions after slumber, In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many they are few"
Comments
m2 now lookis like i will not even play new fe since i do not plan to grind for 9 consoles ship
Cryptic needs to understand not everyone can grind 15 days in that time frame for the reward. This isnt a christmas event, but an event for ALL the players for playing the game for years.
Ive played since beta, im not asking to be handed the ship. Just add them as rewards to the FE mission like Odd/Amb. Im having shoulder surgery a few days after the event goes live. I wont be able to do 15 days of grinds.
They also need to understand at this point in time most of us have 5-10 alts. Those of us who want to get the ship on multiple characters then have to do sickening amounts of the same mission. People hate it so much lots of us just do winter/summer stuff on 1-2 characters.
I have 10 alts. Thats 10x15 IF i did all my toons IF my shoulder was able. Doing anything 150 times in 15 days sucks and becomes unfun. Im not even keen on doing a FE mission 10 times unless its really good like temporal ambassador.
I want to be able to log on and play how i like, i dont like being told do 15 days of missions for a ship thats to celebrate ME playing the game for 4 years.... I thought cryptic maybe learning grinds arent fun when they made the new dyson rep much more relaxed, now they throw another pointless grind in.
Stuff like the STFs are meant for grinds, as high level repeatable content. Xmas presents, summer evens, ann events are about celebrating players attaching grinds to them is stupid. Not to meantion most people travel during the holidays and cant always log in from their vacation spot. What you want the xmas ship, grind for 25 days straight so you can get it AFTER xmas..... who comes up with this stupid pointless junk?
Want us to do your mini games? fine. Make them fun and interesting, but dont try to bait us into grinding them. Its to noones gain.
Random free stuff from the C-Store is a bit different to past Anniversaries, as that 'gift' could very well end up being nothing at all to people who already own the item offered. I can imagine quite a few people will get nothing what so ever from the initial give-away.
So it is '10ish' now? Brian intoned around 5 minutes. Either way, it's making players waste their time in game repeating the same quickly dulling and time-grated task to get the kind of 'special anniversary ship' which they had been able to claim with one mission years prior. All the while, branding it as FREE, which it is not, as you have to work for it, and thus earn it. So it leaves a sense of 'Dance, monkeys, dance!' rather than the feeling of 'Thank you for keeping us alive.'
As I mentioned before, they could shoot for a 'best of both worlds' format. Single mission rewarding a basic version, and then let people grind for the high-end super shiny par to the other grinder reward ships. This is both disappointing in the Thank-you 'gift' being locked behind a grind this year, and additionally underwhelming at what seems to be just T5 instead of T5.5 which other similar events gave.
It feels like rather than truly thank players. people are just being coerced to waste time in game to inflate playtime statistics for an inferior ship which they will be offered an upgraded version of in a month or two.
Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker.
Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
Honestly, its not that we would need to do 2 minigames for 15 days. Thats not the main point... it is a departure from the previous Anniversary events that were strctly celabratory events for another year of STO. The issue is taking what was a celebration, and adding an element of Grind to it.
As others have stated, its about the precedent that it sets.
If this were any other event, I'd never had said a word, and would have happily ground out 1000 Qmendations... the ship look sweet.
My issue (and some others who have posted here) is that they are cheapening what the Anniversary event was intended for, and what it was about.
Star Trek Online, Now with out the Trek....
A mission, singular, one. Additionally, it was a new, interesting little FE which was enjoyable. Not the same drell for two weeks, because of cooldowns to time-gate it; even good missions become aggravating when you've played it for the umpteenth time. Artificially delaying a player from obtaining the item is a terrible thing to do when it is supposed to be a celebratory gift. Coupled with the fact that, once again, you can buy the bloody tokens with lobi; it starts to stink of a barely veiled money grab.
'Free' is not such, if you are forced to work for it or can pay money to reduce said amount of work. It's been billed as free, and the 'Yay we've made it another year' reward. We've spent another year grinding, and to get the 'gift'? More grinding. Bloody hell...
Last year was doing a mission and then get a reward for that mission, and the mission was epic.
But now they are forcing us to grind same missions over and over again till we get the ship.
And truly i don't see the point. Why we need to grind 15 days for our "Free" Ship reward?
No one from Cryptic has told us why is so important to run same mission for 15 days.
Do they know something that we don't ? Are they covering up in this way true existence of universe ? Are they in some secret society?
I didn't mind grinding for winter and summer event, hell it was fun for me cause lots of moths are between the dates. But now it is anniversary and they want to punish us why?
Call me stupid but i really don't get it why we need to grind for this ship this year and last year we didn't have to?
They are "more special" than the previous ships.
(And the combination of a free cool, but subpar ship and optional fleetships for 4 fleetmodules did not generate as much revenue as the risian/breen-ships with lobi packs)
So it's not your typical anniversary ship? Let's involve an annoying charcter and make em grind the same mission dozens of times to earn it. But, isn't that the SAME AS EVERYTHING THEY DO NOW? True, but what else is there? Duh, I don't know.
Really guys, creativity counts for alot. Try something different. Or at least let tradition count for something.
Actually, not a doom post. Just a simple fact. Look at every MMO that went heavy on the grinding in the game. Within a few years, they all but died. Grinding is sadly become a way of life in most MMO's, F2P or otherwise. So, there will always be grinding. However, when you take an event that has always been Complete FE and a Ship is Your Reward, and turn that into a grind fest, I think that is just insulting to players. Especially a few weeks after the previous grind fest for yet another ship. And, we will have another when S9 hits, then there will be the Summer Grind, then the next Expansion Grind along with new Reputation grinds, Fleet grinds, and so on and so forth. Where is the new content? I would rather have an engaging storyline that takes place over 5 or 6 episodes, taking 3 to 4 hours to complete and get a ship that way, instead of this repetitive grind. At least there would be something new in the game. 1 FE that IMO should have been part of the S8 release in the first place is not New content. So, you can call it doom and gloom all you want, but Cryptic is killing it's own game.
As far the the C-Store giveaway is concerned, how is giving me 3 ships that I already have purchased "Thanking Me" for playing the game? It seems more like a slap in the face for even buying C-store content in the first place. "Haha, too bad you wasted your hard earned money. If you had only waited, we would have given it to you for free." Sorry, but your logic there does not reason.
Also, the event is now 10 minutes? I thought it was going to be 2-5 minutes? So, it keeps going up. So, instead of an hour each day grinding my way though this event on all of my alts, I now have 2 hours a day to look forward to. Again, you are not helping to make anyone's case in this matter. The reality of the matter is this: The Party Patrol mission normally takes 4 or 5 minutes to gather up the Mini-Q's. HOWEVER, now that you have made this event mandatory for the Qmendations to get the "Free" ships, this event will probably take much longer because it is not a single instance queue or event. There will be other players fighting for the Q's and with X number available, someone is always going to be left waiting for more to appear. So, I am estimating more like a 15 minute event for 1 toon. Now, we are up to 3 hours a day minimum grind time for 15 days to get each of my alts and mains the "Free" Anniversary Event Ships.....Um, how is that Free? How is that Fun? That is work, not play. Again, going back to my OP about people will find other games for fun.
Cryptic........
The Needs Of The Many (Players) Outweigh The Needs Of The Few (Cryptic) Or The One (PWE)
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment
I am not making anything or doing anything as I don't have any control over content/decisions made here.
Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker.
Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
Ie
' never be said we don't listen to our players and as such you now have to complete the event once to claim your free ship, you can continue to do the mini games for 25 days if you wish and store those rep points for our next project'
Same chance as winning the lotto me thinks.........
Join The Space Invaders,..... Federation and KDF fleets.
I'm also, like every one here including developers etc, a player and as such am allowed to comment on every open thread as long as my posts relate to said discussion. I did not get "snarky" I made my own comments, read others, replied to those that posted and so on. I don't care if i'm special or not, my point to you was you were directing your comments about development to ME which, as it states in my signature, I'm a volunteer and as such not a paid employee of Cryptic/PWE.
Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker.
Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
I would first point out that the community moderators are also players and have as much right to comment about/agree with/disagree with any other forum-goers post as you or I do. Moderators have feelings too.
Secondly, I would suggest you go back and reread all of Askray's posts in this thread before you try to "pick-a-fight" with him. His posts arguing that this move by Cryptic is worrying and not popular with the vast majority of posters in this forum are some of the best written and concise I have seen here.
Given the fact that you are misinterpreting some of Askray's posts I really do suggest you go back to the beginning and start over from post #1. You will then have all the same information we do, and have better insight into how to address other forum-goers posts.
Jo Cox 22.6.1974 - 16.6.2016
I am not going to comment further, because all this is doing is diverting attention away from the fact that a lot of people have issues with the direction Cryptics is taking, regardless of who is moderating, producing or developing. Let's please get back to the reason that this forum was started for.
I want to try new things, and gain from my attempts.
I want to play with friends and fleet, and get a bonus for it.
What I do not like is being forced to do a solo repetitive chore to earn my rewards. I will on one of two characters so I can try the ships, but it's too much to do it on all of them.
Solo repetitive chores... keep us in one place so we don't go exploring.
Solo repetitive chores... keep us working on one thing so we don't try new things.
Solo repetitive chores... take away time we could be spending with friends and fleet.
The fourth anniversary only comes once. Give us something special, not another grind.
STO Resources: <Ship Comparison - All Tiers + Small Craft + Hangar Pets> <Damage Resistance>
<R&D + Upgrade Costs> <Duty Officer Finder> <Suliban Doff Reqs> <Fleet Costs> <Rep Costs>
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Same reason you are: He's a player, has an opinion, and has as much right to express it as you do. Sorry little snowflake, you're not as special as you think.
you`ll get no complaints from me bran, I was ok with it before the c-store giveaway but now its even better you`ll only get thanks from me.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
And we have a winner!
Cryptic is hoping that they can use what they would have in the past given to us for free" after one play of the new FE and turn it into a mini gold mine.
Lobi is not cheap.
5 Lobi is about $1.25 and it takes 5 Lobi to trade in for 3-5 commendations if used to speed up the process of getting one of these "Free" ships like Cryptic is hoping many players will do, can net them a nice bit of revenue.
I have no problem with Cryptic trying to make has much money has possible for minimal effort; however, I do have a problem with them using the Anniversary Event of STO to do it.
I coined what has become of The Anniversary event here in STO a "Milk Grind"
Cryptic has decided to lock our "Free" ships behind a time grind in hopes that can Milk money out of the players who might not have the time to play or just need to have the new hotness now.
This kind of strikes me has how an Anniversary Event would be run in Bizzaro World :rolleyes:
Hey Guys!
We'd like to thank you all for your continued support and interest in STO!
With the upcoming 4th Anniversary of STO we are pleased to announce that you'll all be getting new "Free" ships!
That's right New "Free" Ships!
Yep and all you have to do is play our new FE mission and then run your choice of 2 repeatable mini missions for at least 15 days and grind out 1000 commendations to claim your new "Free" ships!
That's right only 1000!
And has and added thank you for your continued support of STO we have graciously added an option for you to get you new "Free" ships even faster if you choose by allowing you to use just 5 Lobi and exchange them for a few extra commendations!
That's right for just $1.25 US you can get 3-4 Commendations to get your hands on your new "Free" ship even faster!
The thing that worries me the most is that they will put the 10 console version locked behind T3 spire - that will TRIBBLE double the amount of people off I suspect.
I was definitely wondering about that yesterday. That was the only other time I recall a thread on here growing so long so fast.
STO Resources: <Ship Comparison - All Tiers + Small Craft + Hangar Pets> <Damage Resistance>
<R&D + Upgrade Costs> <Duty Officer Finder> <Suliban Doff Reqs> <Fleet Costs> <Rep Costs>
<Keybind Tour the Galaxy> <Fleet / Armada Management> <Currency Exchange> <Other STO Links>
I would say it's a fair assesment that the majority of people planning to do the anniversary event don't even know about these changes yet!! It is very likely that a awful lot of player would only start checking it out late next week - expecting like last year to run the event and get the ship. We could have a tidal wave of anger come in around the start of the event if no changes are made.
While I believe they should remove the grind part altogether, I will stick by my much earlier recommendation: the reduce the number of days from 15 to 10. So out of 29 days total, 10 is not too bad. I plan on running 12 of 30 toon's through, so it's still going to be a chore.
And the fleet version - if it's locked behind T3 spire - well let's just say I will be a little annoyed!!
Well assuming that the choice to go 9 consoles is an arbitrary **** move (Cryptic: "grind my minions, grind! Then buy a better version of the very same ship with FM and render all that work moot. MWA HA HA HA HA!") rather than a balancing decision to offset the new abilities. As it is I think there's still plenty of room to hope for the latter.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
No, and that was a cheap shot. This is not a 'doom' thread, and its attracted no more than the usual doom-merchants. What it has attracted is a lot, a vast majority, of negative opinion. Usually thoughtfully expressed and respectful.
I agree, I seriously doubt the c-store giveaway is, in any shape or form, a reaction to this thread. What DID happen is that control was lost of the message. The details about the grind came out before the announcements of the new ships and the giveaway.
I imagine the original schedule would have given us the news about the ships and the giveaway. And then slip the grind bit in afterwards.
Just not quite as free as hitherto.
Ok, and this is the point where it seems to me you've misunderstood what many have been saying.
Lets stipulate an FE takes 15 minutes and to run one of the grind dailies takes 5 minutes.
Previous years we have had a situation where you run a 15 minute thing, once, at the time of your choosing, and get a character locked 9 console ship with no special whistles and bells.
This year, same 15 minutes, but now you'll have to run a five minute thing fifteen times. Additionally, the schedule is imposed on you via the (I assume) 20 hour cooldown.
So, for one toon, we've gone from 15 minutes to 15 + (5x15)= 90 minutes.
OK, granted the ship is a tad better, but its still 9 consoles and Cryptic will still monetarise it later via a lobi or c-store version.
15 minutes becomes 90 minutes.
Six times as much time required and we can no long choose when to spend that time.
That may, just, be supportable if the new ships are all things to all people.
The huge, major, utterly predictable problem comes in when any of us have more than one toon.
Which is most of us.
Two toons. 30 minutes now becomes 3 hours.
Three toons. 45 minutes becomes four and a half hours.
Six toons. 90 minutes becomes a whopping NINE hours.
And remember, these new inflated investments of time are no long as and when we choose. They're time gated.
The reason so many people are miffed about this has nothing to do with the ships, or even how long it would take to run this for one toon.
It's the apparent utter lack of thought that has gone into this from Cryptic, regarding more than one toon.
The very best I can say of this decision is.....extremely careless.
Thats the very nicest way to describe it.
I would wager that the majority of players run and maintain more than one toon.
It's not the five minutes a day thats the problem, its the multiplication of the time needed overall by a factor of six that is. And the fact that player choice over when to spend that time has been taken utterly away.
Not a doom thread.
But, if I had the devs responsible for this in front of me now, I'd stare at them for a while before slowly shaking my head and softly muttering.... "I'm very disappointed in you"
I can't possibly read through 80+ pages of posts, so this might be something that others already asked:
Can I collect surplus 'Qmendations' for the next year's anniversary event (like with the winter pictures), or is this just a one-time thing?
But, looking at it it's still free. But God, not the grind again.
I only have four characters, so it's not that bad for me, but wow, coupled with the fact that we just got a ship grind from this winter, it's a bit rough.
And I appreciate the extra event slot, but I'd greatly appreciate it if the ship came with a ship slot to store it in for our trouble.
On the other hand there may have been foreshadowing for this; remember the Obelisk carrier? You had to turn around and repeat the mission several times for the Antiproton weapons, the warp core, then lobi for the advanced version and the rest of the set.
I certainly hope this FE is fun at least.