See that's where you've been horribly misinformed, Ace. It's a business' job to satisfy the customer, and in so doing, put a little coin in their pocket. A business does this by producing a certain standard of excellence, and quality in their service, or product. This way everybody get's "paid". That's why money is called a medium of exchange.
Interesting, I seem to have been enjoying this game and feel mostly satisfied despite its faults, so I clearly feel I've made an adequate exchange. Could there be less bugs? No doubt, but that's Cryptic's amateurish coding for you. At least they've managed something enjoyable from my perspective.
Hell, I wish I got paid every time a Cryptic fanboy, rushed to STO's defense with the only excuse being "Well, every MMO does it".
Me a "Cryptic fanboy?" Amusing, considering some of the criticisms I've made over their management of Champions. Over there, some call me a "Cryptic hater."
The problems with the differing perspective here though, is that you are actually the hater and the saps I speak of over in Champions are the fanboys. I'm simply a person who gives criticism or praise where it's due.
Whether you endorse it, or not, "Take the money and run", is not a sound business practice.
Really? Have they actually stolen your money? Maybe you should save us all the trouble and demand your bank to make a charge back if you feel robbed. I'm sure PWE would be most... "accommodating" for you.
Yeah, dooom!! but hey, go for it.
Sometimes I think STO would be better off dead. Then I could just mourn it and move on. But as is, sometimes feels like it's a zombie... Stinky, putrid & moaning about eating your brains (aka $/Zen) but it's still kickin' round.
Sometimes I think I play STO just to have something to complain about on the forums.
See that's where you've been horribly misinformed, Ace. It's a business' job to satisfy the customer, and in so doing, put a little coin in their pocket. A business does this by producing a certain standard of excellence, and quality in their service, or product. This way everybody get's "paid". That's why money is called a medium of exchange. Hell, I wish I got paid every time a Cryptic fanboy, rushed to STO's defense with the only excuse being "Well, every MMO does it". Whether you endorse it, or not, "Take the money and run", is not a sound business practice.
Nope, you're the one who's got it wrong. The job of a business is to make as much money as possible. That often aligns with customer satisfaction, but not always - for example, see cable providers.
"Participation in PVP-related activities is so low on an hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly basis that we could in fact just completely take it out of STO and it would not impact the overall number of people [who] log in to the game and play in any significant way." -Gozer, Cryptic PvP Dev
As others have mentioned, it's a case of figuring out the content that is worth playing. A lot of the missions on the PvE queue are kind of old, and their rewards have been eclipsed by the newer ones. When you hit level 50 you will find a lot more players in the queue as well, because almost the entire active player base is at level 50. The missions I find that are the easiest to get started are Fleet Mark missions, and space based STFs, particularly Cure Space Elite.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
This character is why I don't play my Romulan any more. Tovan Khev is NOT my BFF! Get him off my bridge!
Nope, you're the one who's got it wrong. The job of a business is to make as much money as possible. That often aligns with customer satisfaction, but not always - for example, see cable providers.
Yes, satisfied customers typically come back for more. Thus customer satisfaction increases profits.
Ok based on your replies and also a look at the list of PVE/PVP events on Wiki it's obvious now that there are loads of missions that don't show up in my lists yet which are where all the experienced players are playing so basically in other words the missions I'm trying to do are newbie missions and there aren't enough newbies to flesh them out, bit silly really as some of them are tutorial missions which of course are no good if you can't play them lol.
Maybe Perfect World should flesh these missions out with NPC characters so newbies like myself can actually take part/learn in them or give good rewards that will attract veteran players to mix in with the newbies
Not even really that...
Those missions you're talking about were never really played, even when they were new. For the most part, STO doesn't have much where you have incentive to queue before you reach level cap.
The one exception was the Mirror Universe event, which is gone now.
I don't think the OP is claiming DOOOOOOOOM, but he is right about certain of those quests, The Big Dig requires 20 players, but when you start the mission is just you and a group of 4 more players doing the mission, then why the heck we need 20 players? Just make the mission for 5 players, do you know how many times I have tried the Big Dig to just have 9-10 players on queue? It is just painfully ridiculous.
I'm always amused when a term like "Expansion Pack", is thrown around so liberally. Especially, when the cash hook contained therein is so transparent, the letters aren't even blurry, when you read them from the other side.
You know, back in the old, glorious days, when men were men and tiny furry animals from Alpha Centauri where tiny furry animals, "expansion packs" were actually even more obvious cash hooks.
That is because they literally came with a price tag, like "Command & Conquer: Covert Operation" costing 10-30 $ or whatever.
And man, these guys where lazy back then. They didn't even necessarily include new units, sometimes all they did was create a new set of missions ,using assets that already all existed in the game.
Yeah, those were good times.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
That's more of company operating within its limits than "the customer is not always right". The slogan is a metaphor and refers to giving the customer top service but its always within operating limits. That is how many hotels, restaurants and retail stores and other services earn their reputation.
It's a metaphor, but not for this. It was created by Marshall Fields, and it's still the system they and most specialty retail outlets use today. The emphasis is on using flattery and deception to obtain a false sense of satisfaction from customers. When you see a sleazy salesman on a sitcom answer a valid and serious concern with, "What a good looking question, let me tell you what really matters..." That's The Customer Is Always Right.
Big Dig... Oh my god, the horror, isn#t that the mission with enemy units every few meters that constantly respawn?
That's Breaking the Planet. Big Dig got nerfed pretty hard a while back, fewer enemies, most don't respawn, you can carry more than one of those shield things, and you don't have to use one on every single device, just about half of them or so.
It's still an unholy mess of a mission, and there's a good reason nobody wants to do it (though, at least Fed side, you do get the queue popping occasionally when it's the daily).
Another point the OP left out is what level they are. Because leveling happens so fast, and most of those queues are level banded, there's not a lot of people in any band except the top one at any given time, and most of them are doing something else that will get them to that final level faster. So even the active queues are close to dead if you're not VA.
Even the successful games have lots of "dead" zones.
That is because not every zone is equal, there are zones that are made of shiite, and have never been updated. And never will be...
Breaking the Planet, Klingon Scout Force, The Big Dig are ALL horrible, boring, detestable , broken and just plain old time wasting relics of another time.
No one goes there because those zones ARE SHIITE.
Klingon Scout force and The Big Dig fill up pretty fast for 20-man queues. Having said that, those missions can be done in 15-20 minutes once they start.
Breaking the planet takes time and has few rewards. I love breaking the planet, but i rarely get it started using a public queue.
With 5-man you can do the mission, but you have to wait for 20. So if you want to do Breaking the planet, grab a team with your fleet or visit on of the specialized channels for a 5-10 man team.
I really wish more people would play breaking though since it is pure fun. Very intense ground combat.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
Like others have said, game really doesn't begin till you hit 50, then it becomes "welcome to the first day of the rest of your life"
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
I rather gage the empty Fleet Queues than rely on the empty Fleet Actions.
People are just flat out tired of playing them after 2-4 years. They are boring and the rewards are lackluster. Especially when Reputation and Fleet gear is far superior.
This. There is only so long you can drag out the same content for max level. Borg have had their run, and then some. This game is in its death throes unless they start bashing out some decent challenge PVE content.
Why would anyone pay 10k zen to use a new ship against the same old TRIBBLE content they were going up against in older ships 2 years ago?
" Experience is a hard mistress, she gives the tests first, and the lessons after... "
This. There is only so long you can drag out the same content for max level. Borg have had their run, and then some. This game is in its death throes unless they start bashing out some decent challenge PVE content.
Why would anyone pay 10k zen to use a new ship against the same old TRIBBLE content they were going up against in older ships 2 years ago?
^^^^^ This one million times, it is like in my workplace, we have several ponds with fishes in them, the policy here is catch and release, the fishes have been caught so many times that some already have medals of how many times they have been caught, scars of battles, tattoos, hats and fancy shirts and when they see a new fisherman with a spanky new fishing road they go to the surface and open their mouth so the bite lands there where they are.
The same with STO, the same old fishes are the same old missions. You can only shoot so much until you know where they have every single bullet hole and just shoot them blind.
C'mon STO new ships is awesome but we need a total revamp of every single mission from level 1-49. I will let someone else complaint about level 50 missions.
I will admit I usta really like Big Dig, but it takes far to long to do. They should make the enemies not respawn except when the thing is done. So much fighting for junk to get from objective to objective.
"..and like children playing after sunset, we were surrounded by darkness." -Ruri Hoshino
this game is just over 4 years old, half life for an mmo is 5..., STO could have longer staying power but PWE seems to want to stop that... Instead of letting us keep our very unique SEPARATE and superior brand, they are trying to ball this VASTLY superior game into their brand which is causing backlash amongst most of the player base. STO has STAR TREK first then the other added TRIBBLE. We will see if the whole hearted cash grab of "buy our garbage too" kills it or not, the game itself is sound (of its own merits despite PWE ) DOOOOM or not only time will tell.
Not completely doooooooomed, but if more players are like me, the awesome grinding takes its toll. The only things I bother do these days are fleetmarks (Colony Invasion) and dilithium through doffing. All that goes to building the fleet projects. The incentive should be clear.... ...the dil-weekend, and this weekend, I in theory would be stuck infront of the PC, but nah. All I did was the same routine. Aye, I got a few more marks than usual, but considering the true needed amout, I looked at the screen, thought frak that, logged out, and started playing Planetside 2. Much more fun that STO at the moment. This game seems to be loosing its momentum to keep me going. I don't 'feel' the game as a game anymore. But dying? Nah. Not until the fat lady sings. I haven't heard her yet, and I doubt I will be around to do so.
I'm with you there. In fact I don't like the Dyson thing at all. I want more space missions, done in the dark with no bloody asteroids, nebulae, dust clouds.. Just the black of space and stars. Most of my Foundry missions are like that. The whole Dyson thing doesn't feel Star Trek to me. 1 or 2 missions are fine but I lose interest quickly. There is way too much white. I want stars as in, well, Star Trek.
But I still love the game. I just don't do any of the Dyson stuff. I love to have more KDF and Romuland (and Cardassian) stuff but no I don't think it is in its death throes. And this is the only Star Trek we've had for the past 9 years. J.J. verse does not count. It has nothing to do with Star Trek.;)
For over a week now I've had some tutorial and a couple of other missions (Breaking the Planet, Klingon Scout Force, The Big Dig and a couple of others), stuck on my mission log screen waiting to be done, the reason they have taken so long to play is because the only way to play them is via the PVE and PVP menu but no-one is ever around to do these missions.
I was told the PVE and PVP queues would be packed with people this weekend however despite checking at various times throughout Friday, Saturday and Sunday I noticed no more people queuing to play these battles than normal and as a result was unable to complete any of them so I've now dropped the lot from my mission screen.
After a week of constantly checking the PVE and PVP queues it's becoming quite obvious that barely anyone is playing this game so is it closing down or something and there just hasn't been an official announcement about it?
I was planning to purchase a lifetime membership package but that would seem to be a pretty daft thing to do from what I can see unless I'm missing something really obvious
If you want to play them invite friends or fleet mates otherwise NOPE you will wait a very long time sir....
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised. It's got me through the worst of the last three years. I beat the Borg with it."
Ok based on your replies and also a look at the list of PVE/PVP events on Wiki it's obvious now that there are loads of missions that don't show up in my lists yet which are where all the experienced players are playing so basically in other words the missions I'm trying to do are newbie missions and there aren't enough newbies to flesh them out, bit silly really as some of them are tutorial missions which of course are no good if you can't play them lol.
Maybe Perfect World should flesh these missions out with NPC characters so newbies like myself can actually take part/learn in them or give good rewards that will attract veteran players to mix in with the newbies
I cant see what you mean by them being tutorial missions.
I played all my characters up to lvl50 without doing any of these missions, in fact the first time I ever played the big dig was about a month ago cos some of my fleeties were doing it and asked me to join them.
the only stuff I did when levelling up was the story missions all of these can be played solo and doffing when it became available.
I think the biggest problem with the game at the moment is everyone wants to level up their fleet holdings to top tier just as quickly as they can if not quicker.
nobody is just happy to just play the game and have fun which is how it really should be played and let the fleet holding level up as and when.
personally I could care less if any of our fleet holding never reach top tier, if I have stuff I don't want
or fleet marks obviously I donate to the fleet but that is only secondary to having fun.
in the words of harry kim star trek voyager - 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.
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.
I didn't bother logging into STO this weekend... having too much fun with another Steam game I just picked up. I was ready to drop another $100 for the Dyson Ship super pack, but then I realized that I was getting more entertainment out of the other free-to-play title.
If Cryptic ever fixes STO's broken torpedo system, then I might start spending cash in here again lol.
Wrong answer. The customer IS always right. She wants bacon on her veggie burger give it to her, you just sold one more veggie burger than you would have. Guy wants meat in his chili? Fry up some hamburger, cumin, and chili power with a little salt'n'pepper, and mix it in. That's what's good about chili, you can put anything in it. Most successful business owners understood this strategy once upon a time. It's what set them apart from their competition. In today's global economy, where you have to talk to machines, not so much, that's why there's so much escalating, misery in the world. Everybody is too greedy.
So, you mean if I go to McDonalds and order a pizza, they should give it to me despite the fact that McDonalds doesn't have pizzas? BRILLIANT!
It's obvious that you don't know anything about business.
Having dueled with Capnkirk before, you will find that someone with the signature of hindsight really doesn't practice it. It is more of a do as I say not what I do kind of mentality.
What Cryptic is trying to do is force us to want something that we really don't want, but we are being forced to accept it because of their monopoly on a Star Trek-oriented medium. I was so hoping that Star Trek Infinite Space would have picked up, it would have gave STO a much needed competition. The other mmos are a nice break, but if you are a fan of the ip, you will be coming back.
I cant see what you mean by them being tutorial missions.
I played all my characters up to lvl50 without doing any of these missions, in fact the first time I ever played the big dig was about a month ago cos some of my fleeties were doing it and asked me to join them.
The game called them that not me, they had tutorial written on them in green lettering, I think they were given to me by two officers on Station K-7
There are not many people that play this game. My best guess is there is a small amount of diehard players that bankroll this game and keep it going. Start a character in Neverwinter just for comparisons sake and you'll see what a populated game looks like and how the bulk of Cryptics resources are going to it. Fully loaded skirmishes and events at level 10 etc. Try getting into any group content at level 10 or even level 20 and you're SOL. And if you're on the KDF side forget it period.
Funny thing is, the same complaints here are over there as well. Too grindy, no end game, no balance, too casual, store items being too expensive, etc etc. MMOs *sigh*
Comments
Interesting, I seem to have been enjoying this game and feel mostly satisfied despite its faults, so I clearly feel I've made an adequate exchange. Could there be less bugs? No doubt, but that's Cryptic's amateurish coding for you. At least they've managed something enjoyable from my perspective.
Me a "Cryptic fanboy?" Amusing, considering some of the criticisms I've made over their management of Champions. Over there, some call me a "Cryptic hater."
The problems with the differing perspective here though, is that you are actually the hater and the saps I speak of over in Champions are the fanboys. I'm simply a person who gives criticism or praise where it's due.
Really? Have they actually stolen your money? Maybe you should save us all the trouble and demand your bank to make a charge back if you feel robbed.
Yeah, dooom!! but hey, go for it.
Sometimes I think STO would be better off dead. Then I could just mourn it and move on. But as is, sometimes feels like it's a zombie... Stinky, putrid & moaning about eating your brains (aka $/Zen) but it's still kickin' round.
Nope, you're the one who's got it wrong. The job of a business is to make as much money as possible. That often aligns with customer satisfaction, but not always - for example, see cable providers.
This character is why I don't play my Romulan any more. Tovan Khev is NOT my BFF! Get him off my bridge!
My character Tsin'xing
Fing right!
Well kept on playing for 4 years now, while others are constantly watching for Ice-Bergs ...
... more like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" :P
Awww man, puts away party hats and champagne
Not even really that...
Those missions you're talking about were never really played, even when they were new. For the most part, STO doesn't have much where you have incentive to queue before you reach level cap.
The one exception was the Mirror Universe event, which is gone now.
Even after the big ground combat revamp, I hate ground combat.
You know, back in the old, glorious days, when men were men and tiny furry animals from Alpha Centauri where tiny furry animals, "expansion packs" were actually even more obvious cash hooks.
That is because they literally came with a price tag, like "Command & Conquer: Covert Operation" costing 10-30 $ or whatever.
And man, these guys where lazy back then. They didn't even necessarily include new units, sometimes all they did was create a new set of missions ,using assets that already all existed in the game.
Yeah, those were good times.
It's a metaphor, but not for this. It was created by Marshall Fields, and it's still the system they and most specialty retail outlets use today. The emphasis is on using flattery and deception to obtain a false sense of satisfaction from customers. When you see a sleazy salesman on a sitcom answer a valid and serious concern with, "What a good looking question, let me tell you what really matters..." That's The Customer Is Always Right.
That's Breaking the Planet. Big Dig got nerfed pretty hard a while back, fewer enemies, most don't respawn, you can carry more than one of those shield things, and you don't have to use one on every single device, just about half of them or so.
It's still an unholy mess of a mission, and there's a good reason nobody wants to do it (though, at least Fed side, you do get the queue popping occasionally when it's the daily).
Another point the OP left out is what level they are. Because leveling happens so fast, and most of those queues are level banded, there's not a lot of people in any band except the top one at any given time, and most of them are doing something else that will get them to that final level faster. So even the active queues are close to dead if you're not VA.
Klingon Scout force and The Big Dig fill up pretty fast for 20-man queues. Having said that, those missions can be done in 15-20 minutes once they start.
Breaking the planet takes time and has few rewards. I love breaking the planet, but i rarely get it started using a public queue.
With 5-man you can do the mission, but you have to wait for 20. So if you want to do Breaking the planet, grab a team with your fleet or visit on of the specialized channels for a 5-10 man team.
I really wish more people would play breaking though since it is pure fun. Very intense ground combat.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
This. There is only so long you can drag out the same content for max level. Borg have had their run, and then some. This game is in its death throes unless they start bashing out some decent challenge PVE content.
Why would anyone pay 10k zen to use a new ship against the same old TRIBBLE content they were going up against in older ships 2 years ago?
^^^^^ This one million times, it is like in my workplace, we have several ponds with fishes in them, the policy here is catch and release, the fishes have been caught so many times that some already have medals of how many times they have been caught, scars of battles, tattoos, hats and fancy shirts and when they see a new fisherman with a spanky new fishing road they go to the surface and open their mouth so the bite lands there where they are.
The same with STO, the same old fishes are the same old missions. You can only shoot so much until you know where they have every single bullet hole and just shoot them blind.
C'mon STO new ships is awesome but we need a total revamp of every single mission from level 1-49. I will let someone else complaint about level 50 missions.
I'm with you there. In fact I don't like the Dyson thing at all. I want more space missions, done in the dark with no bloody asteroids, nebulae, dust clouds.. Just the black of space and stars. Most of my Foundry missions are like that. The whole Dyson thing doesn't feel Star Trek to me. 1 or 2 missions are fine but I lose interest quickly. There is way too much white. I want stars as in, well, Star Trek.
But I still love the game. I just don't do any of the Dyson stuff. I love to have more KDF and Romuland (and Cardassian) stuff but no I don't think it is in its death throes. And this is the only Star Trek we've had for the past 9 years. J.J. verse does not count. It has nothing to do with Star Trek.;)
If you want to play them invite friends or fleet mates otherwise NOPE you will wait a very long time sir....
"Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised. It's got me through the worst of the last three years. I beat the Borg with it."
I cant see what you mean by them being tutorial missions.
I played all my characters up to lvl50 without doing any of these missions, in fact the first time I ever played the big dig was about a month ago cos some of my fleeties were doing it and asked me to join them.
the only stuff I did when levelling up was the story missions all of these can be played solo and doffing when it became available.
I think the biggest problem with the game at the moment is everyone wants to level up their fleet holdings to top tier just as quickly as they can if not quicker.
nobody is just happy to just play the game and have fun which is how it really should be played and let the fleet holding level up as and when.
personally I could care less if any of our fleet holding never reach top tier, if I have stuff I don't want
or fleet marks obviously I donate to the fleet but that is only secondary to having fun.
in the words of harry kim star trek voyager - 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.
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.
If Cryptic ever fixes STO's broken torpedo system, then I might start spending cash in here again lol.
So, you mean if I go to McDonalds and order a pizza, they should give it to me despite the fact that McDonalds doesn't have pizzas? BRILLIANT!
It's obvious that you don't know anything about business.
What Cryptic is trying to do is force us to want something that we really don't want, but we are being forced to accept it because of their monopoly on a Star Trek-oriented medium. I was so hoping that Star Trek Infinite Space would have picked up, it would have gave STO a much needed competition. The other mmos are a nice break, but if you are a fan of the ip, you will be coming back.
The game called them that not me, they had tutorial written on them in green lettering, I think they were given to me by two officers on Station K-7
Because of some buffoon insisting that "good business" is giving the customer, who "is always right," whatever they want, period.
Funny thing is, the same complaints here are over there as well. Too grindy, no end game, no balance, too casual, store items being too expensive, etc etc. MMOs *sigh*