I read through the recent blogs (including this one) and this thread up until about 250 posts (then just started scanning them) and I think I can sum up my feelings about Season 8.5's 4th Anniversary:
Historically the Anniversary Events were about Cryptic showing their appreciation to the players for their support, and so far, Cryptic is paying lip service to that legacy.
But the sad fact is, this event with its Grind AND Pay mechanic does not express gratitude to me. It expresses a confusing mix of options that all include too much work for what is being presented as a gift, and all that covered in a greed frosting.
I do not feel appreciated at all.
More and more I get the feeling I need to take my time and business elsewhere.
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
why make us grind for a ship??? why not just give it to us like the obelisk and the ambassador?! not all of us have the time to do 15 missions even in 25 days...
Just wondering why you think that anyone will be in a big hurry to get extra environmental suits when they just take up inventory space... One slot for body armor and one for an environmental slot is already one slot of inventory permanently taken up by something that I need to carry around. Why would I want to make it two just to have a second environmental suit that looks different?
I don't think that my collecting habits are out of control; I don't even think that they are exceptional.
But with all of the samples, commodities, and consumables, along with dilithium mining claims, New Romulus research, pets, the aforementioned armor or environmental suit, fireworks, the various devices needed for whatever, the lockbox du jour, and a few pieces of gear and suddenly all that bank space that I bought isn't that much space. All that personal inventory space that I bought is mostly being used to carry around stuff that I keep in the bag and I can't hold much more in the way of drops than I could before.
I'll pick one suit and like it, thank you very much.
Assuming that the suit is better than what I have now.
There is room for appearance, but if the very best looking E-suit is junk, then I will wear something else.
Looking good isn't going to make getting crushed by Tholians any more enjoyable.
============
And what's this about being able to buy an upgraded bundle later on?
I mean, thanks, but no thanks. In my case I doubt that this ship is going to be my thing... I have found myself attracted to cruisers, mostly, and that is the one thing this ship isn't.
Of course, I may get the ship and discover that I really like it.
I guess in that way it's a chance to let people get the 'standard' model before offering to sell them one that is 'fully loaded', but to me it cheapens the effort of getting the ship in the first place.
Might be a divide here, as I see people saying "I'll just buy the thing", and I guess that for Cryptic that is what they really want to hear, but if this is the idea, then why not have an upgraded version of the Risian Corvette or the Support Cruiser Retrofit in the store as well?
I know that the store is needed to make money for the game, but I thought that the anniversary stuff was supposed to be special for the folks that are here.
I know that it's "free" for people that play the missions, but it's still an inferior product.
To get the "real" ship you have to pay, and that option is there for anyone that starts playing at any time.
It's not like there aren't better ships than the Support Cruiser Retrofit in the C-store; There certainly are.
But they aren't the Support Cruiser Retrofit.
That is all that I want here, really. You can put something better in the C-store, just make it better and different.
As a new player this whole blog is pretty much gobbledygook to me however I did twig that I have to do a mission in order to earn these 400 token things, am I allowed to do this mission as it's part of season 8 or do I have to work my way through all the previous seasons of the game first?
Historically the Anniversary Events were about Cryptic showing their appreciation to the players for their support, and so far, Cryptic is paying lip service to that legacy.
But the sad fact is, this event with its Grind AND Pay mechanic does not express gratitude to me. It expresses a confusing mix of options that all include too much work for what is being presented as a gift, and all that covered in a greed frosting.
I do not feel appreciated at all.
More and more I get the feeling I need to take my time and business elsewhere.
Should their goal be to make you feel appreciated and valued? No. It's to make money.
I read through the recent blogs (including this one) and this thread up until about 250 posts (then just started scanning them) and I think I can sum up my feelings about Season 8.5's 4th Anniversary:
Historically the Anniversary Events were about Cryptic showing their appreciation to the players for their support, and so far, Cryptic is paying lip service to that legacy.
But the sad fact is, this event with its Grind AND Pay mechanic does not express gratitude to me. It expresses a confusing mix of options that all include too much work for what is being presented as a gift, and all that covered in a greed frosting.
I do not feel appreciated at all.
More and more I get the feeling I need to take my time and business elsewhere.
^This. And the apologists trying to defend cryptic/pwe and just brush off the slap to the face we are all getting are not helping much either.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]Thanks to scooterkhan for the awesome sig!
Simple point here really...most of us play this game to pew pew...not grind grind.
We know there's always some grind to getting things you want to improve your ship, get a new one, etc....but when the grind is such a high % vs the game...people get bored enough to seek fun elsewhere. Its not laziness..its just incentive. You play a game for fun..when it's no longer fun, you no longer play.
Oh and artificially inflating login statistics by making people grind stuff is misguided. when people are grinding, they are not making you money. When people are having fun, they are more inclined...even, if they log on for less days at a time.
A 3 pack per faction...after a grind...really misses the point of either. If I dont do the grind...my 3 pack is gimped...if I dont get the 3 pack...I have a gimped ship. I admit...I've been a bit of a whale....I own a good portion of Cstore gear..but that is just too much. When you bought a 3 pack before..you had the end result ship...not grind then buy. Why do you think I am buying...to avoid grinding. I have a job and stuff
Sorry Cryptic...love Star Trek..like a lot about STO and was excited for these ships. Cant go there now.
My KDF sci character can't use EV suits because game don't show option to set on. This means for this character EV nsuits are only fashion items. And can't end this special episode to get rewards (specially 400 Qmendations to get sci ship)
Simple point here really...most of us play this game to pew pew...not grind grind.
We know there's always some grind to getting things you want to improve your ship, get a new one, etc....but when the grind is such a high % vs the game...people get bored enough to seek fun elsewhere. Its not laziness..its just incentive. You play a game for fun..when it's no longer fun, you no longer play.
Oh and artificially inflating login statistics by making people grind stuff is misguided. when people are grinding, they are not making you money. When people are having fun, they are more inclined...even, if they log on for less days at a time.
A 3 pack per faction...after a grind...really misses the point of either. If I dont do the grind...my 3 pack is gimped...if I dont get the 3 pack...I have a gimped ship. I admit...I've been a bit of a whale....I own a good portion of Cstore gear..but that is just too much. When you bought a 3 pack before..you had the end result ship...not grind then buy. Why do you think I am buying...to avoid grinding. I have a job and stuff
Sorry Cryptic...love Star Trek..like a lot about STO and was excited for these ships. Cant go there now.
Think I misread the blog here..its not a 3 pack per faction...looks like 1 3 pack for all factions..1 of each type. That I MIGHT do but still, the idea of grinding for the 9 console ship just to get a console for the one I'd have to buy seems utterly silly to me.
To everyone that doesn't understand the ire, the problem is all of these combined. Free ship (like last year), with upgraded version later for cash? A-OK. New FE where you can grind out gear on future alts? A-OK. But a grind ship, without grind-ship quality (Breen ships), as well as a paid version later, as well as limited-time gear... all of that together, as a "thank you", is an insult.
For Romulans, we're adding a Matter/Anti-Matter Warp Core to the rewardpack that contains your Romulan Dyson Science Destroyer. This is in addition to the Singularity version that will be pre-equipped on the ship.
So, that also means for non-Rom players, there will be a M/AM core in the pack? Unless I'm mistaken, can non-Romulan players not get C-store and Lobi Romulan ships?
I see only one way of making this work:
1)- The Anniversary ships will already be the 'upgraded' vessels later found in the C-Store.
2)- The C-Store versions will also come with the secondary deflector.[/B]
EDIT: Or just reward players with the Anniversary 9 console base ships without the crazy grind, like with the Odyssey, Bortas, Ambassador or Kamarag. Then you can keep the shinies on the C-Store pack (again, like with the Odyssey and BortasQu').
Fear not, puny mortals ! I, QJunior come to deliver you from evil !
I have the perfect solution that would at least make me feel much better about all this:
Put the damn warp core or whatever the 4th setpiece might be on the c-store version as well !
That way people can do the Anniversary event and get the 9-console ships for "free", and people who haven't got the time or suffer from Grindophobia can pay money to get the c-store bundles !
It's not good to put a limited-time setpeice in the game, what about people who can't participate in the event or new players who join after the event ?
they could at least make the anniversary set item account bound
And here is another piece.
Look, here's the basic issue: Value for time spent grinding. I see several ways to smooth this over, make it better, with minimal effort:
1) Offer the Warp Core and Singularity Core as separate items in the ship pack itself, make everyone happy.
2) Offer the secondary deflector and the Core in every C-ship purchase, so paying customers don't miss out.
3) If a ship takes 2 weeks+ of grind, make it a GOOD ship. Make the grind ship on-par with the paid ones--paying customers still get the ship on all toons, and consoles, so are still getting value.
4) Announce that the limited-time items (Core and 2nd Deflector) will be Lobi purchases later on.
5) If the ship is not 10-console, quality, VA/Fleet level, don't make us grind for it (just add 100 Q marks to FE missions beyond the first, easy fix).
6) Make event items and gear account-bound, even after equipping. People can't sell to each other, but items that can't ever be gotten again can be swapped to new characters. Will also allow alts to "catch up".
The way it is now, everyone is inconvenienced a bit. That's the problem. Make people who do the grind feel REWARDED--both Cores, account-bound gear, and a ship worth grinding for. Make people who choose to just pay for the C-store ships feel REWARDED--both Grind ship items (so they can skip the grind if the want, future purchases aren't left with an impartial set).
As it is now, no one feels appreciated/rewarded, we're feeling very tasked--to get it all, we MUST spend two weeks grinding a (truly, terrible) mini-game (or Lobi) on each toon, AND we must pay $50-$150 for the actual ships worth flying, to get all the gear. It's too much asked of paying customers, it's too much asked of free customers, and nothing is in any way a "thank you".
It can still be fixed, Cryptic, it just takes a little effort. You can still monetize this and make everyone happy. For the record, I ground out the Breen ships on every alt, and I'd have ZERO problem with offering a Lobi/C-store version later--as long as it's identical to the grind ship. Same applies here--if you take the quick/easy path of paying (more power to you), you get the same quality ship as those who put in days of work.
Personally, I'm not angry, but I am very disheartened. This does not come across as a "thank you", but I don't think it's intentional. You guys just didn't realize how all of this combined would come across. You can fix it though, easy, with any/all of the above suggestions gleaned from constructive feedback from this thread. Please consider some/all of these solutions.
The least thing Cryptic should do is remove the grind to paying players (subscribers) and let them get the ship with only one episode, like previous anniversary events. These nonsense grinds only serve to upset the playerbase and encourages us to not spend any money on this game. We've had enough.
I won't grind this event and won't buy the new packs. No way. It's against my principles to give money to someone when i'm not satisfied with the product i'm buying.
It's getting harder and harder to log in the game... no fun at all, and no perspective of things changing for the better.
My KDF sci character can't use EV suits because game don't show option to set on.
What option?
Just drag and drop EV suit from inventory to armor slot on you character - my KDF captain is using it without any problems.
Oh - and for all the others:
I'm playing as F2P so I do NOT have any problems with heavy grind for rewards.
If you really are so angry about it, then maybe you should just put some money to Zen, buy bunch of Lockbox keys, get Lobi crystals from them and buy "Anniversary Qmendation Package" (5 Lobi crystals each), which have (i think) 10-20 Qmendation each.
Easy and fast for "paying" customers :P
While I do believe that the Federation, Klingon Empire and the Romulans would not simply abandon their bridge construction practices, I would like to mention that the Starfleet version of the Dyson seems to be displaying the hologram of the Chimera in the cutscenes for the feature episode.
"I will make the Orion Syndicate face the light of justice or burn them with it." - Captainl Kyle Nathaniel Locke, U.S.S. Excalibur NCC-98105-C
It's getting harder and harder to log in the game... no fun at all, and no perspective of things changing for the better.
This, I used to be on the game constantly but due to the constant grinds I only log on maybe for a couple of hours sometimes only enough to do a few doff missions.
Since season 7 I have took a break from the game twice and each time it has been longer than the one before.
Next time I take a break I will not come back We sould have got a free ship like last yearand the year before.
I know grinding is a part of MMO's but when it's a thank you to the customer then it is no thank you. I am grinding for the ship as it has been a while since the last science ship. But I won't be getting the Cstore version and won't be giving anymore money. Maybe we should make you grind for our money.
i.e Give us 400 C Store points on first day then grind 25 days out of 28 with 40 C store points each day.
And even then mine is beter than yours as you don't have to play a crappy mini game
NO TO ARC
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Should their goal be to make you feel appreciated and valued? No. It's to make money.
When they drive away customers due to how they treat them, are they making, or loosing money?
Good will goes a long way. Recently I had a dealing with EA customer support, in which I was attempting to refund a purchase I had made on the wrong account. EA, not only left the purchase on my account, but they put it on the right account as well. FOR FREE. they basically gave my wife the game, free.
I can with out a hesitation tell you Cryptic wouldn't. That single act by EA, got them 25.00 more in DLC purchase by me. Cryptic hasn't gotten any money from me, since the Wells came out.
Every Game developer out there is out to make money, its how they function. How they go about it, thats the key. and let us not forget it was EA who was voted worst company, 2x over. Yet, they did what they did when they could have just refunded the 20 bucks and made me buy it all again.
My KDF sci character can't use EV suits because game don't show option to set on. This means for this character EV nsuits are only fashion items. And can't end this special episode to get rewards (specially 400 Qmendations to get sci ship)
What option?
Just drag and drop EV suit from inventory to armor slot on you character - my KDF captain is using it without any problems.
Ais
I know in this game two ways to wear gear like EVs. One is "drag and drop", second is double-click (is armor and characters only have one armor slot). When you wear that EV your screen show up to "powers tray" two buttons: "Activate EV suit" and "Reaction Thrusters".
Problem with this character, not rest of highest characters I have, is game don't show last two buttons making EV suits for this character a only-fashion item.
Personally I think this would have been better served with a Sphere of Influence style ship reward (first completion of the mission gets you the 9 console ship). The grind could have been for something else completely. OR... if the warp core / singularity in the grind ship is essential for one of the sets, then have the events as is, but have the warp core / singularity separate so that people who can't both grind AND pay don't miss out.
Also, I'm curious as to the wording of the Dev blog in "...we'll be releasing a 3-pack C-Store bundle of each factional Dyson Science Destroyer..."
Does this mean that you're releasing a single 3-pack with one each of the 3 faction ships, or does this mean you're releasing 3 packs with 3 ships each? If it's the latter, how much money do you expect us to pay for these things? If it's $50 per pack, then I have a problem. That makes $150 if I want to get the ship for my characters which occupy all three factions, which I am not willing to pay. I'd pay $50 maximum for the whole nine yards - that means ships for all 3 factions. $150 is nowhere near worth it. Even if I only got the Klink and Rommy versions, there's still a hundred bucks... no way. The whole thing should be sold as a single account-wide, all-faction pack for about $50, or the three packs should only be $15 - $20 each.
9 console ship reward from FE completion OR 4th set piece (warp core / singularity) from FE and ship from grind, and $50 for the full collection of ships. I wouldn't have a problem with that. The current state of things, however, leaves a real sour taste in my mouth, especially if they expect us to buy 3 x $50 ship packs.
It's not about getting freebies (although having such a setup for an ANNIVERSARY event is in bad taste), and it's not about instant gratification. It's about the reasonableness of the whole setup.
You're not talking about a system where you can either grind OR pay and come up with similar or equal results. You are talking about a system where you must grind AND pay (potentially a metric shedload of money) to achieve the end result. It seems to be the majority opinion in this thread that this setup is not reasonable to the player.
Just my thoughts.
Somewhere on the wrong side of insanity.
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately be explained by stupidity" ~ Robert Heinlein.
When you wear that EV your screen show up to "powers tray" two buttons: "Activate EV suit" and "Reaction Thrusters".
Problem with this character, not rest of highest characters I have, is game don't show last two buttons making EV suits for this character a only-fashion item.
Is a bug
Or maybe you got the two buttons hiden - check the toggle for Special EV tray - above the 2 small buttons (numer of trays and all abilities - third small buton - is only avaible if you got EV suit equipped).
Personally I think this would have been better served with a Sphere of Influence style ship reward (first completion of the mission gets you the 9 console ship). The grind could have been for something else completely. OR... if the warp core / singularity in the grind ship is essential for one of the sets, then have the events as is, but have the warp core / singularity separate so that people who can't both grind AND pay don't miss out.
Also, I'm curious as to the wording of the Dev blog in "...we'll be releasing a 3-pack C-Store bundle of each factional Dyson Science Destroyer..."
Does this mean that you're releasing a single 3-pack with one each of the 3 faction ships, or does this mean you're releasing 3 packs with 3 ships each? If it's the latter, how much money do you expect us to pay for these things? If it's $50 per pack, then I have a problem. That makes $150 if I want to get the ship for my characters which occupy all three factions, which I am not willing to pay. I'd pay $50 maximum for the whole nine yards - that means ships for all 3 factions. $150 is nowhere near worth it. Even if I only got the Klink and Rommy versions, there's still a hundred bucks... no way. The whole thing should be sold as a single account-wide, all-faction pack for about $50, or the three packs should only be $15 - $20 each.
9 console ship reward from FE completion OR 4th set piece (warp core / singularity) from FE and ship from grind, and $50 for the full collection of ships. I wouldn't have a problem with that. The current state of things, however, leaves a real sour taste in my mouth, especially if they expect us to buy 3 x $50 ship packs.
It's not about getting freebies (although having such a setup for an ANNIVERSARY event is in bad taste), and it's not about instant gratification. It's about the reasonableness of the whole setup.
You're not talking about a system where you can either grind OR pay and come up with similar or equal results. You are talking about a system where you must grind AND pay (potentially a metric shedload of money) to achieve the end result. It seems to be the majority opinion in this thread that this setup is not reasonable to the player.
Just my thoughts.
I second this whole post. Would like clarification on the 3 packs as well and share the grind and buy objection.
What grind and pay?
If you really want to only pay, then you can!
Just buy Qmendation Packages for Lobi Crystals (10-20 Qmendation for 5 Lobi Crysts. each) and here you are ready for your new ship...
Yeah, well - some people will rather whine and cry, than look for options ...
What grind and pay?
If you really want to only pay, then you can!
Just buy Qmendation Packages for Lobi Crystals (10-20 Qmendation for 5 Lobi Crysts. each) and here you are ready for your new ship...
Yeah, well - some people will rather whine and cry, than look for options ...
Problem with this statement is the history of c store ships in the past....3-packs specifically. Prior to this, a 3-pack would get you all the unique consoles applicable to a ship....no grind required. By tying this 3 pack to a grind ship to complete a console set, we are not getting what we've come to expect from previous purchases.
Its not whining when a customer doesn't get what they pay for. And what I pay for is time.
If I read the developer's blog correctly, it seems that one can get all the pieces of the set by playing the featured mission (repeatedly...a bit grindy), and buying the forthcoming C-Store version of the ship. Am I missing something? Is grinding required to get all the pieces?
Its look like there are 2 sets:
1. Warp or Singularity core from Event reputation ship + Shield, Deflector, Engine from Featured Episode.
2. Secondary deflector from Event reputation ship + some consoles (check equipment on ship in Featured Ep. - i think it got both sets) which will be avaible from new upcoming 3-packs.
I think people are angry about second set.
Just wanted to add some feedback about this event. The new ship is awesome, new episode is great, enjoyed each time I played it.. but the event itself, the little Q's, not enjoyable in the least. I ended up spending the 200 or so lobi to get the commendations to buy one of my chars the ship straight up, but wanted the ship on 2 other factions so was stuck with a grind on 2.
Its just not enjoyable. During peak times the tiny bit of lag I get playing from Aus is enough to make the chase annoying, the 'shell' game with the boxes can be dodgy and sometimes be more guess work than carefully watching the little Q. I really don't mind a grind but compared to winter wonderland this one is really frustrating, and the 10 minutes + I spend per character completing it is nowhere near Bran's estimate of 2.5 minutes (this is always in a near empty zone). Also that 10 minutes or so is a real drag and yawn fest, especially when compared to the guarantee of success you had once you got to know the quest that came with winter wonderland's grind.
In short nice work on the episode, love it, very cool, and the new ship is fun with a capital F.. actual anniversary quest though needs some work. I can't help think that it would have benefited from more tweaking to accommodate for the extra players on holodeck compared to tribble and some factoring in of the bit of lag your overseas customers get in peak hours. Maybe tweaking the actual fun factor would have been nice to.. not overly sure who thought playing a shell game and chasing a Q around would be fun compared to what we normally do in the STO universe.. personally I'd rather shoot 40 borg for 40 tokens than chase 5 Q's.
Or maybe you got the two buttons hiden - check the toggle for Special EV tray - above the 2 small buttons (numer of trays and all abilities - third small buton - is only avaible if you got EV suit equipped).
Time to go back to Nukara. That was problem in my character. Ty
Some nice rewards, but the mission is a bit long and honestly not very exciting to run through multiple times for the gear set.
Consider breaking long missions like this up into smaller bites, and each bite could contain a different piece of gear (and running all 2 or 3 bites to completion would unlock the ability to go back and get the gear for example).
Power trays & Ship load outs.
Everytime I do one of these missions (Ambassador, Obelisk), and I get a new ship having to stop and re-arrange the complete mess that is the hot bars is just silly.
Can't you have at least some rhyme or reason to this?
If that's not possible, just give us nothing or the option to wipe the entire hotbar clean.
This is easily one of the least convenient, least enjoyable and frustrating things in these missions you do. They also completely break any kind of temp or rhythm the mission might have had, as well as immersion for players who care for that.
Weapon load out.
What is it with these weapon load outs? It feels like you are trolling players.
You have 3 beam arrays that want to broadside, ineffectively, a dual beam bank, fore torpedo and a special DHC that want to be fore facing.
You have a rear torpedo for no purpose at all, since you are already trying to broadside and frontal assault your targets.
But wait, why stop there?
2 torpedo launchers no torpedo powers. Why?
Do you know that the fore beam array inteferes with the dual beam bank?
Why even make it a dual beam bank? It can't broadside, and the beam array interferes with overloads.
I think you are trying for "star trek canon" load outs - but this game punted anything resembling "canon" into the stratosphere years ago when it comes to game mechanics.
Having a ship that actually has an effective load out, a synergistic load out, isn't a bad thing.
Mini Q: Tired of this, dislike the shell game. Time for a revamp or something new next year.
Comments
Historically the Anniversary Events were about Cryptic showing their appreciation to the players for their support, and so far, Cryptic is paying lip service to that legacy.
But the sad fact is, this event with its Grind AND Pay mechanic does not express gratitude to me. It expresses a confusing mix of options that all include too much work for what is being presented as a gift, and all that covered in a greed frosting.
I do not feel appreciated at all.
More and more I get the feeling I need to take my time and business elsewhere.
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
I don't think that my collecting habits are out of control; I don't even think that they are exceptional.
But with all of the samples, commodities, and consumables, along with dilithium mining claims, New Romulus research, pets, the aforementioned armor or environmental suit, fireworks, the various devices needed for whatever, the lockbox du jour, and a few pieces of gear and suddenly all that bank space that I bought isn't that much space. All that personal inventory space that I bought is mostly being used to carry around stuff that I keep in the bag and I can't hold much more in the way of drops than I could before.
I'll pick one suit and like it, thank you very much.
Assuming that the suit is better than what I have now.
There is room for appearance, but if the very best looking E-suit is junk, then I will wear something else.
Looking good isn't going to make getting crushed by Tholians any more enjoyable.
============
And what's this about being able to buy an upgraded bundle later on?
I mean, thanks, but no thanks. In my case I doubt that this ship is going to be my thing... I have found myself attracted to cruisers, mostly, and that is the one thing this ship isn't.
Of course, I may get the ship and discover that I really like it.
I guess in that way it's a chance to let people get the 'standard' model before offering to sell them one that is 'fully loaded', but to me it cheapens the effort of getting the ship in the first place.
Might be a divide here, as I see people saying "I'll just buy the thing", and I guess that for Cryptic that is what they really want to hear, but if this is the idea, then why not have an upgraded version of the Risian Corvette or the Support Cruiser Retrofit in the store as well?
I know that the store is needed to make money for the game, but I thought that the anniversary stuff was supposed to be special for the folks that are here.
I know that it's "free" for people that play the missions, but it's still an inferior product.
To get the "real" ship you have to pay, and that option is there for anyone that starts playing at any time.
It's not like there aren't better ships than the Support Cruiser Retrofit in the C-store; There certainly are.
But they aren't the Support Cruiser Retrofit.
That is all that I want here, really. You can put something better in the C-store, just make it better and different.
Also where do you have to go to find Q?
He's in front of Admiral Quinn's office, next to the fountain.
Thank you
^This. And the apologists trying to defend cryptic/pwe and just brush off the slap to the face we are all getting are not helping much either.
No, their goal should be to make me feel appreciated and valued so I continue to pour money into the game.
We know there's always some grind to getting things you want to improve your ship, get a new one, etc....but when the grind is such a high % vs the game...people get bored enough to seek fun elsewhere. Its not laziness..its just incentive. You play a game for fun..when it's no longer fun, you no longer play.
Oh and artificially inflating login statistics by making people grind stuff is misguided. when people are grinding, they are not making you money. When people are having fun, they are more inclined...even, if they log on for less days at a time.
A 3 pack per faction...after a grind...really misses the point of either. If I dont do the grind...my 3 pack is gimped...if I dont get the 3 pack...I have a gimped ship. I admit...I've been a bit of a whale....I own a good portion of Cstore gear..but that is just too much. When you bought a 3 pack before..you had the end result ship...not grind then buy. Why do you think I am buying...to avoid grinding. I have a job and stuff
Sorry Cryptic...love Star Trek..like a lot about STO and was excited for these ships. Cant go there now.
Think I misread the blog here..its not a 3 pack per faction...looks like 1 3 pack for all factions..1 of each type. That I MIGHT do but still, the idea of grinding for the 9 console ship just to get a console for the one I'd have to buy seems utterly silly to me.
So, that also means for non-Rom players, there will be a M/AM core in the pack? Unless I'm mistaken, can non-Romulan players not get C-store and Lobi Romulan ships?
Here's a good solution.
Here's another one.
And here is another piece.
Look, here's the basic issue: Value for time spent grinding. I see several ways to smooth this over, make it better, with minimal effort:
1) Offer the Warp Core and Singularity Core as separate items in the ship pack itself, make everyone happy.
2) Offer the secondary deflector and the Core in every C-ship purchase, so paying customers don't miss out.
3) If a ship takes 2 weeks+ of grind, make it a GOOD ship. Make the grind ship on-par with the paid ones--paying customers still get the ship on all toons, and consoles, so are still getting value.
4) Announce that the limited-time items (Core and 2nd Deflector) will be Lobi purchases later on.
5) If the ship is not 10-console, quality, VA/Fleet level, don't make us grind for it (just add 100 Q marks to FE missions beyond the first, easy fix).
6) Make event items and gear account-bound, even after equipping. People can't sell to each other, but items that can't ever be gotten again can be swapped to new characters. Will also allow alts to "catch up".
The way it is now, everyone is inconvenienced a bit. That's the problem. Make people who do the grind feel REWARDED--both Cores, account-bound gear, and a ship worth grinding for. Make people who choose to just pay for the C-store ships feel REWARDED--both Grind ship items (so they can skip the grind if the want, future purchases aren't left with an impartial set).
As it is now, no one feels appreciated/rewarded, we're feeling very tasked--to get it all, we MUST spend two weeks grinding a (truly, terrible) mini-game (or Lobi) on each toon, AND we must pay $50-$150 for the actual ships worth flying, to get all the gear. It's too much asked of paying customers, it's too much asked of free customers, and nothing is in any way a "thank you".
It can still be fixed, Cryptic, it just takes a little effort. You can still monetize this and make everyone happy. For the record, I ground out the Breen ships on every alt, and I'd have ZERO problem with offering a Lobi/C-store version later--as long as it's identical to the grind ship. Same applies here--if you take the quick/easy path of paying (more power to you), you get the same quality ship as those who put in days of work.
Personally, I'm not angry, but I am very disheartened. This does not come across as a "thank you", but I don't think it's intentional. You guys just didn't realize how all of this combined would come across. You can fix it though, easy, with any/all of the above suggestions gleaned from constructive feedback from this thread. Please consider some/all of these solutions.
The least thing Cryptic should do is remove the grind to paying players (subscribers) and let them get the ship with only one episode, like previous anniversary events. These nonsense grinds only serve to upset the playerbase and encourages us to not spend any money on this game. We've had enough.
I won't grind this event and won't buy the new packs. No way. It's against my principles to give money to someone when i'm not satisfied with the product i'm buying.
It's getting harder and harder to log in the game... no fun at all, and no perspective of things changing for the better.
Just drag and drop EV suit from inventory to armor slot on you character - my KDF captain is using it without any problems.
Oh - and for all the others:
I'm playing as F2P so I do NOT have any problems with heavy grind for rewards.
If you really are so angry about it, then maybe you should just put some money to Zen, buy bunch of Lockbox keys, get Lobi crystals from them and buy "Anniversary Qmendation Package" (5 Lobi crystals each), which have (i think) 10-20 Qmendation each.
Easy and fast for "paying" customers :P
This, I used to be on the game constantly but due to the constant grinds I only log on maybe for a couple of hours sometimes only enough to do a few doff missions.
Since season 7 I have took a break from the game twice and each time it has been longer than the one before.
Next time I take a break I will not come back We sould have got a free ship like last yearand the year before.
I know grinding is a part of MMO's but when it's a thank you to the customer then it is no thank you. I am grinding for the ship as it has been a while since the last science ship. But I won't be getting the Cstore version and won't be giving anymore money. Maybe we should make you grind for our money.
i.e Give us 400 C Store points on first day then grind 25 days out of 28 with 40 C store points each day.
And even then mine is beter than yours as you don't have to play a crappy mini game
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
When they drive away customers due to how they treat them, are they making, or loosing money?
Good will goes a long way. Recently I had a dealing with EA customer support, in which I was attempting to refund a purchase I had made on the wrong account. EA, not only left the purchase on my account, but they put it on the right account as well. FOR FREE. they basically gave my wife the game, free.
I can with out a hesitation tell you Cryptic wouldn't. That single act by EA, got them 25.00 more in DLC purchase by me. Cryptic hasn't gotten any money from me, since the Wells came out.
Every Game developer out there is out to make money, its how they function. How they go about it, thats the key. and let us not forget it was EA who was voted worst company, 2x over. Yet, they did what they did when they could have just refunded the 20 bucks and made me buy it all again.
Ais
I know in this game two ways to wear gear like EVs. One is "drag and drop", second is double-click (is armor and characters only have one armor slot). When you wear that EV your screen show up to "powers tray" two buttons: "Activate EV suit" and "Reaction Thrusters".
Problem with this character, not rest of highest characters I have, is game don't show last two buttons making EV suits for this character a only-fashion item.
Is a bug
Also, I'm curious as to the wording of the Dev blog in "...we'll be releasing a 3-pack C-Store bundle of each factional Dyson Science Destroyer..."
Does this mean that you're releasing a single 3-pack with one each of the 3 faction ships, or does this mean you're releasing 3 packs with 3 ships each? If it's the latter, how much money do you expect us to pay for these things? If it's $50 per pack, then I have a problem. That makes $150 if I want to get the ship for my characters which occupy all three factions, which I am not willing to pay. I'd pay $50 maximum for the whole nine yards - that means ships for all 3 factions. $150 is nowhere near worth it. Even if I only got the Klink and Rommy versions, there's still a hundred bucks... no way. The whole thing should be sold as a single account-wide, all-faction pack for about $50, or the three packs should only be $15 - $20 each.
9 console ship reward from FE completion OR 4th set piece (warp core / singularity) from FE and ship from grind, and $50 for the full collection of ships. I wouldn't have a problem with that. The current state of things, however, leaves a real sour taste in my mouth, especially if they expect us to buy 3 x $50 ship packs.
It's not about getting freebies (although having such a setup for an ANNIVERSARY event is in bad taste), and it's not about instant gratification. It's about the reasonableness of the whole setup.
You're not talking about a system where you can either grind OR pay and come up with similar or equal results. You are talking about a system where you must grind AND pay (potentially a metric shedload of money) to achieve the end result. It seems to be the majority opinion in this thread that this setup is not reasonable to the player.
Just my thoughts.
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately be explained by stupidity" ~ Robert Heinlein.
Or maybe you got the two buttons hiden - check the toggle for Special EV tray - above the 2 small buttons (numer of trays and all abilities - third small buton - is only avaible if you got EV suit equipped).
I second this whole post. Would like clarification on the 3 packs as well and share the grind and buy objection.
If you really want to only pay, then you can!
Just buy Qmendation Packages for Lobi Crystals (10-20 Qmendation for 5 Lobi Crysts. each) and here you are ready for your new ship...
Yeah, well - some people will rather whine and cry, than look for options ...
Problem with this statement is the history of c store ships in the past....3-packs specifically. Prior to this, a 3-pack would get you all the unique consoles applicable to a ship....no grind required. By tying this 3 pack to a grind ship to complete a console set, we are not getting what we've come to expect from previous purchases.
Its not whining when a customer doesn't get what they pay for. And what I pay for is time.
BSG-Benne Gesserit Consortium
1. Warp or Singularity core from Event reputation ship + Shield, Deflector, Engine from Featured Episode.
2. Secondary deflector from Event reputation ship + some consoles (check equipment on ship in Featured Ep. - i think it got both sets) which will be avaible from new upcoming 3-packs.
I think people are angry about second set.
Its just not enjoyable. During peak times the tiny bit of lag I get playing from Aus is enough to make the chase annoying, the 'shell' game with the boxes can be dodgy and sometimes be more guess work than carefully watching the little Q. I really don't mind a grind but compared to winter wonderland this one is really frustrating, and the 10 minutes + I spend per character completing it is nowhere near Bran's estimate of 2.5 minutes (this is always in a near empty zone). Also that 10 minutes or so is a real drag and yawn fest, especially when compared to the guarantee of success you had once you got to know the quest that came with winter wonderland's grind.
In short nice work on the episode, love it, very cool, and the new ship is fun with a capital F.. actual anniversary quest though needs some work. I can't help think that it would have benefited from more tweaking to accommodate for the extra players on holodeck compared to tribble and some factoring in of the bit of lag your overseas customers get in peak hours. Maybe tweaking the actual fun factor would have been nice to.. not overly sure who thought playing a shell game and chasing a Q around would be fun compared to what we normally do in the STO universe.. personally I'd rather shoot 40 borg for 40 tokens than chase 5 Q's.
Time to go back to Nukara. That was problem in my character. Ty
Consider breaking long missions like this up into smaller bites, and each bite could contain a different piece of gear (and running all 2 or 3 bites to completion would unlock the ability to go back and get the gear for example).
Power trays & Ship load outs.
Everytime I do one of these missions (Ambassador, Obelisk), and I get a new ship having to stop and re-arrange the complete mess that is the hot bars is just silly.
Can't you have at least some rhyme or reason to this?
If that's not possible, just give us nothing or the option to wipe the entire hotbar clean.
This is easily one of the least convenient, least enjoyable and frustrating things in these missions you do. They also completely break any kind of temp or rhythm the mission might have had, as well as immersion for players who care for that.
Weapon load out.
What is it with these weapon load outs? It feels like you are trolling players.
You have 3 beam arrays that want to broadside, ineffectively, a dual beam bank, fore torpedo and a special DHC that want to be fore facing.
You have a rear torpedo for no purpose at all, since you are already trying to broadside and frontal assault your targets.
But wait, why stop there?
2 torpedo launchers no torpedo powers. Why?
Do you know that the fore beam array inteferes with the dual beam bank?
Why even make it a dual beam bank? It can't broadside, and the beam array interferes with overloads.
I think you are trying for "star trek canon" load outs - but this game punted anything resembling "canon" into the stratosphere years ago when it comes to game mechanics.
Having a ship that actually has an effective load out, a synergistic load out, isn't a bad thing.
Mini Q: Tired of this, dislike the shell game. Time for a revamp or something new next year.