Valid criticism has more thought behind it than "I hate this"
I have both valid criticism about the event (as stated in this thread and others) as well as "I hate this" feedback.
But do we (the forum community) really need to shoot each other down over this?
Some don't care about Party Patrol one way or the other and some do.
I'm in the "don't like it" camp.
But not because I think Cryptic has betrayed the players by gating the freebie ship more aggressively or because they're trying a new angle to increase sales.
I don't like it because it's a repetitive and pointless activity apart from getting the reward. It's only cute and clever the first half dozen or so times you run it and after that it sucks. It feels like grind and they put the new anniversary ship behind that grind. They didn't have to do that.
However, I can also appreciate the point that's being raised that this activity doesn't bother some people all that much. And there are some who are probably more worked up over this than is healthy.
But do we really need to get worked up over someone else getting worked up over something we're not?
Everyone, feel free to state your position on this but it's not necessary to pick everybody else's position apart.
You're not changing anybody's mind about their feelings about the event, so don't bother. If you're trying to convince Cryptic, all that's necessary is that you give them your own feedback and let them decide how to take it.
I've already decided that I don't care about the anniversary ship enough to jump through this particular hoop. I will do Party Patrol for the dilithium boxes on one or two characters. If by some coincidence I complete a set of a 1000 (unlikely) fine. Otherwise I'm in good shape for the next Qmendation event.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
It;s a shame people always have to try to force others to play the way they want to play. IT'S A GAME FOLKS. Play your way and allow other's to play their way. There's no need for threads like this asking the Dev's to enforce one way of playing a game.
I have both valid criticism about the event (as stated in this thread and others) as well as "I hate this" feedback.
But do we (the forum community) really need to shoot each other down over this?
Some don't care about Party Patrol one way or the other and some do.
I'm in the "don't like it" camp.
But not because I think Cryptic has betrayed the players by gating the freebie ship more aggressively or because they're trying a new angle to increase sales.
I don't like it because it's a repetitive and pointless activity apart from getting the reward. It's only cute and clever the first half dozen or so times you run it and after that it sucks. It feels like grind and they put the new anniversary ship behind that grind. They didn't have to do that.
However, I can also appreciate the point that's being raised that this activity doesn't bother some people all that much. And there are some who are probably more worked up over this than is healthy.
But do we really need to get worked up over someone else getting worked up over something we're not?
Everyone, feel free to state your position on this but it's not necessary to pick everybody else's position apart.
You're not changing anybody's mind about their feelings about the event, so don't bother. If you're trying to convince Cryptic, all that's necessary is that you give them your own feedback and let them decide how to take it.
I've already decided that I don't care about the anniversary ship enough to jump through this particular hoop. I will do Party Patrol for the dilithium boxes on one or two characters. If by some coincidence I complete a set of a 1000 (unlikely) fine. Otherwise I'm in good shape for the next Qmendation event.
sometimes letting someone vent is healthy, depends how far others want to take that vehicle for a ride though.
in good shape for the next qthing? but what happens if the next one is a carbon copy of this one? wolf in sheeps clothing.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Didn't read most of what came before... but I would like the devs to fix the problem of people activating the Q's and running off. I just spent a good 10 minutes running around on the least populated instance of ESD and couldn't interact with a single Q, because all of them are on cool down.
Is there a cool down? Every time I've seen them, they disappear after being caught.
I have both valid criticism about the event (as stated in this thread and others) as well as "I hate this" feedback.
But do we (the forum community) really need to shoot each other down over this?
Some don't care about Party Patrol one way or the other and some do.
I'm in the "don't like it" camp.
But not because I think Cryptic has betrayed the players by gating the freebie ship more aggressively or because they're trying a new angle to increase sales.
I don't like it because it's a repetitive and pointless activity apart from getting the reward. It's only cute and clever the first half dozen or so times you run it and after that it sucks. It feels like grind and they put the new anniversary ship behind that grind. They didn't have to do that.
However, I can also appreciate the point that's being raised that this activity doesn't bother some people all that much. And there are some who are probably more worked up over this than is healthy.
But do we really need to get worked up over someone else getting worked up over something we're not?
Everyone, feel free to state your position on this but it's not necessary to pick everybody else's position apart.
You're not changing anybody's mind about their feelings about the event, so don't bother. If you're trying to convince Cryptic, all that's necessary is that you give them your own feedback and let them decide how to take it.
I've already decided that I don't care about the anniversary ship enough to jump through this particular hoop. I will do Party Patrol for the dilithium boxes on one or two characters. If by some coincidence I complete a set of a 1000 (unlikely) fine. Otherwise I'm in good shape for the next Qmendation event.
Actually I don't mind a little event grind in general....
The problems here, for me, are 2:
1. this particular mini game sucks. I mean really....
I personally hate "fastest game on ice", with passion, mainly because I did that far too often in my life at this point. The first time it was around I did it daily with each of my -back then 13- characters and we didn't even get a ship in the first run.
But I always admired that there was some afford in it, and that it was kind of a funny race....
"Party patrol" is not thought through, its lazy and its awful. I never thought I'd miss "fastest game on Ice", but with "Party patrol".... I do. EVEN WITH the shooter mode trick.
And speaking of "Fastest game on Ice": 2. The winter event is just over!!!!
Doing that kind of grind every half year is one thing, but permanently?
Its not even very smart, because I certainly not the only one loosing interest in those ships if there is a new one again and again.
I'm intrested in that particular one not because of the ship but because it has a complete set, and the last set piece is on the ship, (that engine that will not even be in the c-store variant)
If I had known about this before the winter event, I wouldn't have grindet the Breen raider. And probably having that set after this grind, I won't go for the next ship (unless its a Hegh'ta refit) and pretend it doesn't exist (just like I do it with every lock box ship, so I already have some training in reality bending....
in good shape for the next qthing? but what happens if the next one is a carbon copy of this one?
If I can run another FE and get another 400 Qmendations, I'll be that much closer to whatever the reward is. 200 from the prize is better than 600 from the prize and would take a heck of a lot less time to grind if I wanted the prize. No guarantees, but I'm okay with that.
And besides that, the odds aren't too terrible that the anniversary ship will end up in fleet stores at some point and I can grind the stuff I'm already grinding to get it sometime in the future, assuming I even want it.
It won't have the special warp/sing cores or the special deflector, true. But there's perfectly fine cores in the SoI FE and fleet stores, and other secondary deflectors will find their way into the game eventually... probably ones I'll want more than this one. I can wait.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
If I can run another FE and get another 400 Qmendations, I'll be that much closer to whatever the reward is. 200 from the prize is better than 600 from the prize and would take a heck of a lot less time to grind if I wanted the prize. No guarantees, but I'm okay with that.
And besides that, the odds aren't too terrible that the anniversary ship will end up in fleet stores at some point and I can grind the stuff I'm already grinding to get it sometime in the future, assuming I even want it.
It won't have the special warp/sing cores or the special deflector, true. But there's perfectly fine cores in the SoI FE and fleet stores, and other secondary deflectors will find their way into the game eventually... probably ones I'll want more than this one. I can wait.
The way I understand it they, from now on, intend to handle it like they do it with the winter event ships and make them available every year when the particular event is around.
Wich means we will get this grind every year from now on.
Is there a cool down? Every time I've seen them, they disappear after being caught.
Not as such... I was meaning that every one of them were doing that box shuffle thing, or waiting around for a player that wasn't there any more to pick one. even if the player just picked the wrong box the Q would reset after a few seconds, but since the players are leaving and the system is giving them time to chose the Q is unavailable to other players for far longer.
Oh, and for people who are leaving the boxes because they can't follow the Q here is a VERY easy way to get it right: Wait for the boxes to stop moving, switch to the First Person shooter mode ('b' key by default) and scan over the boxes. one of them will have a gear like symbol in your crosshair brackets, that is the box with the Q.
I have done this in both Fed Acad, and Klink Acad. with 100% success.
Oh, and for people who are leaving the boxes because they can't follow the Q here is a VERY easy way to get it right: Wait for the boxes to stop moving, switch to the First Person shooter mode ('b' key by default) and scan over the boxes. one of them will have a gear like symbol in your crosshair brackets, that is the box with the Q.
I have done this in both Fed Acad, and Klink Acad. with 100% success.
Thing is, I don't leave them because I can't find the Q. Finding him is stupid easy. I leave because in the time it takes for those damn gift boxes to shuffle themselves I can find and chase down 3 runners.
Time finishing the unwanted, tedious grind > time waiting for dancing gift boxes to stop moving
The Devs can fix this rubbish...until they do, well... -shrug-
If you're trying to convince Cryptic, all that's necessary is that you give them your own feedback and let them decide how to take it.
I just wish there was something except this deafening silence from cryptic.
I'm not expecting them to announce some huge change, but there's been virtually no acknowledgement of any issues at all from the devs.
Even if they said something along the lines of, 'we have heard your feedback, particulary regarding the mini Q game, and will take it into account for future events"
Something as non commital as that would be better than the obviously official silence.
Stupid little grind, i run off at the presents as it takes forever, i can catch all 5 q's in the time it takes for the present to shuffle.
Plus the academy can get that busy with people running through your presents you miss it after all that waiting.
No need for these Grindfest's one after the other. would rather replay the FE 10 times at 100 Qmendations a time to get the ship as that has a decent story and was enjoyable.
I just wish there was something except this deafening silence from cryptic.
I'm not expecting them to announce some huge change, but there's been virtually no acknowledgement of any issues at all from the devs.
Even if they said something along the lines of, 'we have heard your feedback, particulary regarding the mini Q game, and will take it into account for future events"
Something as non commital as that would be better than the obviously official silence.
Oh no there is no silence... they DID after all say that they are reading the feedback in that other thread....
(btw, thats sarcasm)
Stupid little grind, i run off at the presents as it takes forever, i can catch all 5 q's in the time it takes for the present to shuffle.
Plus the academy can get that busy with people running through your presents you miss it after all that waiting.
No need for these Grindfest's one after the other. would rather replay the FE 10 times at 100 Qmendations a time to get the ship as that has a decent story and was enjoyable.
Actually after 10 times you won't enjoy it that much any more...
And if you have multiple characters, like a lot around, running it up 100 times (or even more) within one month would make you enjoy it even less...
I'm a great fan of mission reparability but that would be to much...
Personally I will admit to running around and starting the boxes, then I run back as they are about to finish and pick one, the scrambling just takes so long waiting for it is annoying.
Alas, this is what happens when you combine leftovers and expect a tasty treat to miraculously spring forth.
We can all agree that the previous Anniversary Q-isms have been at worst mildly irritating. They were completely optional after all, with nothing of any gameplay consequence involved as rewards. In short, they were quite literally "just a bit of fun".
But this year is different. For 3 reasons.
3 increasingly cascade failure-esque reasons...
1. This year the Anniversary Q-games reward is a ship. That's something of more consequence than a party popper, so obviously more people will go for it.
2. Unlike previous years, the reward is also a grind. Which obviously means you're more likely to encounter more people fiddling with Q-games, because they need to do them multiple times to get the reward.
3. Combining the games of Qs running away with Qs in boxes may have seemed like an easy shortcut offering an illusion of choice and content, but all it did was caused the mathematics of points 1 and 2 above to stack, making the problem far, far worse than if there'd been no reward and no grind.
As the OP of this thread stated, a lot of players now click Qs and then immediately run away if they see the hateful "shell game" chat bubble.
This annoys me, but I have to say, I can't in all truth blame the players who do this. For all I know, they thought they were in an empty instance when they arrived, and figured "Well, if no one else is around, I'm not inconveniencing anyone, am I?". But even if they knew other players were there, I still can't really blame them - they are acting out of frustration at how broken the Event has turned out to be.
This was supposed to be an Anniversary to remember. It was meant to be a celebration of (in Cryptic's own words) how we the players have helped make this the most successful year so far for STO.
Oh, it'll be an Anniversary to remember all right - but not for that reason.
Instead when players talk about the 4th Anniversary, they won't say "best year ever" - all they'll do is grimace and mutter "Party Patrol Fail..." through clenched teeth.
It's sad.
Sad for Cryptic, and sad for all of us players too
I do this. I suppose I could do the gift box ones. The same way I could run Elite hive for my marks instead of elite conduit. The question is though, when it's more annoying and more time consuming for comparable reward, why should I? It's not our fault the event Cryptic conjured up wasn't fun. Certainly doable, but not fun. When you put two methods to get something done and one method is much more time consuming than the other, than the other option might as well be the only one that exists as far as most of us are concerned. Players always zero in on the path of least resistance. If Cryptic did not understand that, take your beef up with them assuming they will listen to you. Most of us just want to get through this TRIBBLE as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Another thing about the fun factor regarding the event games:
Aside from the fact that grinding in general isn't really fun...
We play this game to fly starships arround, shoot stuff with spaceship weapons or doing missions on ground = mainly shooting stuff there too. Do mission... Whatever.
We do not play it for the shell game. Or the ice race.
Those are actually... Or better the would be... KIND of funny distractions now and then, but they are not this games intended type of gameplay.
There are lots of people who do that mission with multiple characters, that results that a lot of people do nothing but shell games in sto right now. That is not even really playing the actual game...
The bigger problem I see is that the activation prompt takes forever and a day to show up. So we run around the mini Q trying to get an activation, while other players try to steal the Q. Needs to be a better way.
Player and forumite formerly known as FEELTHETHUNDER
We do not play it for the shell game. Or the ice race.
That's right!
Those are actually... Or better the would be... KIND of funny distractions now and then, but they are not this games intended type of gameplay.
They ARE just (funny) distractions (except of some bugs)!
There are lots of people who do that mission with multiple characters, that results that a lot of people do nothing but shell games in sto right now.
Even if you don't do any runners it doesn't take longer than max 5 minutes/char. And ppl who have 10+ toons are much faster I think and if not it's their own choice to get this ship on so many characters.
---
You can see it in chat channels every day - the ppl who are complaining the most, are the ones who don't even know what to do with this ship instead of leaving it in their bank, but they need to get it more than anyone else.
indeed, and if you don't want to do the shell game then leave them alone and only activate the Q's that do runners. There's no sense in mindlessly activating every Q and thus keeping someone else from using them.
If I get boxes, I look for another Q. If its a runner, I take it and then return to my boxes. If the second one is boxes, I finish them both in that order. Cuts some time without aggravating other players.
Tyr shall give me strength! For the glory of Tempus! I am the hands of Shar! Flames of Kossuth, protect me! Oghma, grant me knowledge! Lolth commands, and I obey!
Not going to lie I've done it on each of my characters.
Once per day for the last crasher of the mission.
Personally speaking I'd rather they fix the contact range on the little *******s first. Gets pretty dang annoying having to do a freaking dance to find the sweet spot just to get the interaction to pop up.
If I get boxes, I look for another Q. If its a runner, I take it and then return to my boxes. If the second one is boxes, I finish them both in that order. Cuts some time without aggravating other players.
I go for 5 shell games whenever possible. Getting 5 started usually eats the time it takes the first one to finish shuffling, then boom-boom-boom-boom-boom I'm outta there.
Always remember:
Party Crashers with HP bars run,Party Crashers without HP bars start the shell game.
The easiest way to avoid this problems with unrespectful players would be, that when they activate one Q, they cant activate another till the currently one is over. They (unrespectful players) say you save time when you activate more than one Q, but on other hand they increas play time to other players, when the other players must run around and try to find free mini Q that's available. And I agree,, NPC's should be removed during event time.
And to runner players - the ones that activate more than one Q, and they say it takes less time - WHY ARE YOU THAN PLAYING GAME IF YOU DON'T HAVE TIME? -
The easiest way to avoid this problems with unrespectful players would be, that when they activate one Q, they cant activate another till the currently one is over. They (unrespectful players) say you save time when you activate more than one Q, but on other hand they increas play time to other players, when the other players must run around and try to find free mini Q that's available. And I agree,, NPC's should be removed during event time.
And to runner players - the ones that activate more than one Q, and they say it takes less time - WHY ARE YOU THAN PLAYING GAME IF YOU DON'T HAVE TIME? -
So you think, if you'd force others to spend more time in one Zone, it would increase "Party-Crasher"- Availability ... how exactly should this work ? ... more people, in one Zone spending more time, competing = less "Party Crashers" ... sure you might say, there are Q's for everyone, if everyone just gets One ... but have you ever tried to get One in an 20+ Zone ... that's pretty much how all Zones would look like ...
There is a difference between "having time" and "wasting" it ...
Besides ... if you're not changing to lower populated Zones, you'll always have problems finding available "Party Crashers", just like you'll having problems starting "Fastest Game on Ice" because of the 20 people waiting in line ... (sadly Cryptic designed these Events to be Anti-Social)
=> best solution would be EVERYONE being able to participate in doing the Shell Game for a period of time, before it disappears ...
Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
Problem solved. If you have a problem with how some of us chose to get this irritating grind down efficiently, then I am sorry you didn't move to a quieter instance. It's too bad that there are always people out there who want to make everyone suffer instead of figuring out how to do things more efficiently.
What would be nice would be an option to choose whether the game puts you in low, high, or randomly-populated instances (or instances where you have friends or fleetmates) when you beam into social zones...
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Former/Cryptic Name: Captain_Hans_Langsdorff
Founding member, Special Service Squadron
"Fear God and Dread Nought." First Sea Lord, Adm. Jacky Fisher
When I do the Qmendation games I check to see how many box Qs are in the immediate vicinity. If it's 3 or 4 I activate them all and use the shooter crosshair to cheat my way to finding Q-in-the-box. That 3 or 4 all done in one go.
Not everyone who activates Qbox and leaves are trolling.
When I do the Qmendation games I check to see how many box Qs are in the immediate vicinity. If it's 3 or 4 I activate them all and use the shooter crosshair to cheat my way to finding Q-in-the-box. That 3 or 4 all done in one go.
Not everyone who activates Qbox and leaves are trolling.
I do this too, a major time saver when you have multiple accounts and almost 20 characters to run. I come back to each box I spawn and I never spawn more than what I need.
But it's too late I fear. Probably next year everyone will be forced to spawn one Q at a time, causing the grind to last an hour instead of minutes for all of us with many characters.
The easiest way to avoid this problems with unrespectful players would be, that when they activate one Q, they cant activate another till the currently one is over.
Why not find a real solution to the actual problem, and lay off this Sheldon Cooper "punish them for having fun wrong" nonsense already?
And to runner players - the ones that activate more than one Q, and they say it takes less time - WHY ARE YOU THAN PLAYING GAME IF YOU DON'T HAVE TIME? -
Believe it or not, but I play this game to play STO. If I wanted to play shell games, I'd play on my phone.
Comments
I have both valid criticism about the event (as stated in this thread and others) as well as "I hate this" feedback.
But do we (the forum community) really need to shoot each other down over this?
Some don't care about Party Patrol one way or the other and some do.
I'm in the "don't like it" camp.
But not because I think Cryptic has betrayed the players by gating the freebie ship more aggressively or because they're trying a new angle to increase sales.
I don't like it because it's a repetitive and pointless activity apart from getting the reward. It's only cute and clever the first half dozen or so times you run it and after that it sucks. It feels like grind and they put the new anniversary ship behind that grind. They didn't have to do that.
However, I can also appreciate the point that's being raised that this activity doesn't bother some people all that much. And there are some who are probably more worked up over this than is healthy.
But do we really need to get worked up over someone else getting worked up over something we're not?
Everyone, feel free to state your position on this but it's not necessary to pick everybody else's position apart.
You're not changing anybody's mind about their feelings about the event, so don't bother. If you're trying to convince Cryptic, all that's necessary is that you give them your own feedback and let them decide how to take it.
I've already decided that I don't care about the anniversary ship enough to jump through this particular hoop. I will do Party Patrol for the dilithium boxes on one or two characters. If by some coincidence I complete a set of a 1000 (unlikely) fine. Otherwise I'm in good shape for the next Qmendation event.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
sometimes letting someone vent is healthy, depends how far others want to take that vehicle for a ride though.
in good shape for the next qthing? but what happens if the next one is a carbon copy of this one? wolf in sheeps clothing.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Is there a cool down? Every time I've seen them, they disappear after being caught.
Actually I don't mind a little event grind in general....
The problems here, for me, are 2:
1. this particular mini game sucks. I mean really....
I personally hate "fastest game on ice", with passion, mainly because I did that far too often in my life at this point. The first time it was around I did it daily with each of my -back then 13- characters and we didn't even get a ship in the first run.
But I always admired that there was some afford in it, and that it was kind of a funny race....
"Party patrol" is not thought through, its lazy and its awful. I never thought I'd miss "fastest game on Ice", but with "Party patrol".... I do. EVEN WITH the shooter mode trick.
And speaking of "Fastest game on Ice":
2. The winter event is just over!!!!
Doing that kind of grind every half year is one thing, but permanently?
Its not even very smart, because I certainly not the only one loosing interest in those ships if there is a new one again and again.
I'm intrested in that particular one not because of the ship but because it has a complete set, and the last set piece is on the ship, (that engine that will not even be in the c-store variant)
If I had known about this before the winter event, I wouldn't have grindet the Breen raider. And probably having that set after this grind, I won't go for the next ship (unless its a Hegh'ta refit) and pretend it doesn't exist (just like I do it with every lock box ship, so I already have some training in reality bending....
If I can run another FE and get another 400 Qmendations, I'll be that much closer to whatever the reward is. 200 from the prize is better than 600 from the prize and would take a heck of a lot less time to grind if I wanted the prize. No guarantees, but I'm okay with that.
And besides that, the odds aren't too terrible that the anniversary ship will end up in fleet stores at some point and I can grind the stuff I'm already grinding to get it sometime in the future, assuming I even want it.
It won't have the special warp/sing cores or the special deflector, true. But there's perfectly fine cores in the SoI FE and fleet stores, and other secondary deflectors will find their way into the game eventually... probably ones I'll want more than this one. I can wait.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
The way I understand it they, from now on, intend to handle it like they do it with the winter event ships and make them available every year when the particular event is around.
Wich means we will get this grind every year from now on.
Not as such... I was meaning that every one of them were doing that box shuffle thing, or waiting around for a player that wasn't there any more to pick one. even if the player just picked the wrong box the Q would reset after a few seconds, but since the players are leaving and the system is giving them time to chose the Q is unavailable to other players for far longer.
Oh, and for people who are leaving the boxes because they can't follow the Q here is a VERY easy way to get it right: Wait for the boxes to stop moving, switch to the First Person shooter mode ('b' key by default) and scan over the boxes. one of them will have a gear like symbol in your crosshair brackets, that is the box with the Q.
I have done this in both Fed Acad, and Klink Acad. with 100% success.
Thing is, I don't leave them because I can't find the Q. Finding him is stupid easy. I leave because in the time it takes for those damn gift boxes to shuffle themselves I can find and chase down 3 runners.
Time finishing the unwanted, tedious grind > time waiting for dancing gift boxes to stop moving
The Devs can fix this rubbish...until they do, well... -shrug-
I just wish there was something except this deafening silence from cryptic.
I'm not expecting them to announce some huge change, but there's been virtually no acknowledgement of any issues at all from the devs.
Even if they said something along the lines of, 'we have heard your feedback, particulary regarding the mini Q game, and will take it into account for future events"
Something as non commital as that would be better than the obviously official silence.
Stupid little grind, i run off at the presents as it takes forever, i can catch all 5 q's in the time it takes for the present to shuffle.
Plus the academy can get that busy with people running through your presents you miss it after all that waiting.
No need for these Grindfest's one after the other. would rather replay the FE 10 times at 100 Qmendations a time to get the ship as that has a decent story and was enjoyable.
Oh no there is no silence... they DID after all say that they are reading the feedback in that other thread....
(btw, thats sarcasm)
Actually after 10 times you won't enjoy it that much any more...
And if you have multiple characters, like a lot around, running it up 100 times (or even more) within one month would make you enjoy it even less...
I'm a great fan of mission reparability but that would be to much...
We can all agree that the previous Anniversary Q-isms have been at worst mildly irritating. They were completely optional after all, with nothing of any gameplay consequence involved as rewards. In short, they were quite literally "just a bit of fun".
But this year is different. For 3 reasons.
3 increasingly cascade failure-esque reasons...
1. This year the Anniversary Q-games reward is a ship. That's something of more consequence than a party popper, so obviously more people will go for it.
2. Unlike previous years, the reward is also a grind. Which obviously means you're more likely to encounter more people fiddling with Q-games, because they need to do them multiple times to get the reward.
3. Combining the games of Qs running away with Qs in boxes may have seemed like an easy shortcut offering an illusion of choice and content, but all it did was caused the mathematics of points 1 and 2 above to stack, making the problem far, far worse than if there'd been no reward and no grind.
As the OP of this thread stated, a lot of players now click Qs and then immediately run away if they see the hateful "shell game" chat bubble.
This annoys me, but I have to say, I can't in all truth blame the players who do this. For all I know, they thought they were in an empty instance when they arrived, and figured "Well, if no one else is around, I'm not inconveniencing anyone, am I?". But even if they knew other players were there, I still can't really blame them - they are acting out of frustration at how broken the Event has turned out to be.
This was supposed to be an Anniversary to remember. It was meant to be a celebration of (in Cryptic's own words) how we the players have helped make this the most successful year so far for STO.
Oh, it'll be an Anniversary to remember all right - but not for that reason.
Instead when players talk about the 4th Anniversary, they won't say "best year ever" - all they'll do is grimace and mutter "Party Patrol Fail..." through clenched teeth.
It's sad.
Sad for Cryptic, and sad for all of us players too
the shell game takes too bloody long, it might be ok if was switched to percentage based completion, say 20% for a runner and 50% for a hider
for spoiler text use #1b1c1f
Aside from the fact that grinding in general isn't really fun...
We play this game to fly starships arround, shoot stuff with spaceship weapons or doing missions on ground = mainly shooting stuff there too. Do mission... Whatever.
We do not play it for the shell game. Or the ice race.
Those are actually... Or better the would be... KIND of funny distractions now and then, but they are not this games intended type of gameplay.
There are lots of people who do that mission with multiple characters, that results that a lot of people do nothing but shell games in sto right now. That is not even really playing the actual game...
Player and forumite formerly known as FEELTHETHUNDER
Expatriot Might Characters in EXILE
That's right!
They ARE just (funny) distractions (except of some bugs)!
Even if you don't do any runners it doesn't take longer than max 5 minutes/char. And ppl who have 10+ toons are much faster I think and if not it's their own choice to get this ship on so many characters.
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You can see it in chat channels every day - the ppl who are complaining the most, are the ones who don't even know what to do with this ship instead of leaving it in their bank, but they need to get it more than anyone else.
For the glory of Tempus!
I am the hands of Shar!
Flames of Kossuth, protect me!
Oghma, grant me knowledge!
Lolth commands, and I obey!
Once per day for the last crasher of the mission.
Personally speaking I'd rather they fix the contact range on the little *******s first. Gets pretty dang annoying having to do a freaking dance to find the sweet spot just to get the interaction to pop up.
I go for 5 shell games whenever possible. Getting 5 started usually eats the time it takes the first one to finish shuffling, then boom-boom-boom-boom-boom I'm outta there.
Always remember:
Party Crashers with HP bars run, Party Crashers without HP bars start the shell game.
And to runner players - the ones that activate more than one Q, and they say it takes less time - WHY ARE YOU THAN PLAYING GAME IF YOU DON'T HAVE TIME? -
So you think, if you'd force others to spend more time in one Zone, it would increase "Party-Crasher"- Availability ... how exactly should this work ? ... more people, in one Zone spending more time, competing = less "Party Crashers" ... sure you might say, there are Q's for everyone, if everyone just gets One ... but have you ever tried to get One in an 20+ Zone ... that's pretty much how all Zones would look like ...
There is a difference between "having time" and "wasting" it ...
Besides ... if you're not changing to lower populated Zones, you'll always have problems finding available "Party Crashers", just like you'll having problems starting "Fastest Game on Ice" because of the 20 people waiting in line ... (sadly Cryptic designed these Events to be Anti-Social)
=> best solution would be EVERYONE being able to participate in doing the Shell Game for a period of time, before it disappears ...
2) Switch to an instance with a low population
Problem solved. If you have a problem with how some of us chose to get this irritating grind down efficiently, then I am sorry you didn't move to a quieter instance. It's too bad that there are always people out there who want to make everyone suffer instead of figuring out how to do things more efficiently.
What would be nice would be an option to choose whether the game puts you in low, high, or randomly-populated instances (or instances where you have friends or fleetmates) when you beam into social zones...
Former/Cryptic Name: Captain_Hans_Langsdorff
Founding member, Special Service Squadron
"Fear God and Dread Nought." First Sea Lord, Adm. Jacky Fisher
Not everyone who activates Qbox and leaves are trolling.
I do this too, a major time saver when you have multiple accounts and almost 20 characters to run. I come back to each box I spawn and I never spawn more than what I need.
But it's too late I fear. Probably next year everyone will be forced to spawn one Q at a time, causing the grind to last an hour instead of minutes for all of us with many characters.
Why not find a real solution to the actual problem, and lay off this Sheldon Cooper "punish them for having fun wrong" nonsense already?
Such spiteful people out there these days.
This post is exatly what I think.
Believe it or not, but I play this game to play STO. If I wanted to play shell games, I'd play on my phone.