Common sense...
you should not come into playing an MMO with only a limited amount of time and expect to be able to do and get everything, that is the thought process of someone who only wants instant gratification and does not want to actually do something for stuff.
Its not a question about 'will people do work to obtain stuff'.
Its not even a question about 'will people pay for zen'.
Its a question about 'how to balance player's effort, rewards, and time'. When a casual weekend player logs in for four to five hours, per day, they should be able to walk away with a sense of accomplishment. Instead of being rewarded for their time, effort, and money (zen and c-store purchases), many casual players are stuck waiting for timegates and bonus weekends.
Fleet holdings should be used to keep players around for long periods. Since multiple players are working together on projects, the use of medium resource retirements, medium timegates, and a strong reward system makes sense.
When it comes to the reputation system, the holdings should focus on casual game play. Light resource requirements, shorter timegates, and a strong reward system.
While one system is used for casual players, the other system should be used for long term players.
Waiting 20 hours for a timegate to expire stinks.
Obtaining extremely low rewards for 30 to 45 minutes of work stinks.
If the idea of "Free to Play' is to use my money and effort to keep the costs down, the game turns into an actual nine to five job. I should charge Cryptic for my time. I make about $80 an hour. Is "Star Trek: Online" a game, or is it a job? It cannot be both.
Casual players pay into this game just as much as long term players.
Something has to seriously change, or people will get tired and walk away.
I have nothing to lose.
Keep in mind that I am a "Star Trek" fan. I am not an MMO fan.
I am looking for a casual experience, which balances rewards with effort. If I am getting less than 200 marks (or xp) for fifteen minutes of work, while only progressing the bar by a centimeter, I have more to gain from walking away.
"Star Trek: Online" does not balance rewards with effort, nor does it give players a sense of fulfillment. At the end of each session, I want to walk away fulfilled. I want to 'accomplish' something meaningful. Waiting 20hrs for a timegate to expire is not meaningful. Grinding and filling endless resource requirements is also meaningless.
I want to work towards a specific goal; however, the steps and rewards have to give me a sense of progression. If I am walking away practically empty handed, at the end of each session, I will end up moving onto something more fulfilling. Outside of progressing a small reputation meter, I am ending each session without anything substantial.
Since the Dyson reputation system represents the future, let us use its reward system as an example. In order to obtain an entire Mk XII set, you have to progress a bar for roughly two months. Other words, you cannot enjoy playing the set for two months. Once you actually do get the gear, the road (grind) to obtain it mutes your passions. You are left bored from performing repetitious actions. If you are able to obtain the gear quicker, while limiting the number of mission play throughs, you are more likely to not burn out. You will get instant gratification, casual play, and more passion.
All the endgame items are tools, which only have one specific purpose. Players are trying to obtain items, so they can use them to carry out repetitive actions. What are you getting from the experience? Did you solve any diplomatic missions on Vulcan? Did you help with a civil war on Romulous? Did you free any Borg on Khitomer? Did you negotiate peace between the Federation and Klingons? Did you become the hero of the Alpha Quadrant? Did you bring your character up to level 60? Did you get a new rank?
There's a pattern I've been seeing on the forums. Everyone seems to view the game as some form of work. To get X, you must do Y. When people complain how much they dislike having to grind for 20 hours or more to get something, others fire back that those people are "lazy" and feel "entitled" to instant gratification that isn't deserved. They stress that you must "earn" your rewards. But this misses the greater issue. If the rewards were removed, would you keep doing that "work"? Would you have any incentive to keep playing? If your answer to either or both of those is "no", then you've just come to realize what's wrong with STO.
STO works on a form of operant conditioning, which is stimulus>response>reward. It's a method used to make the player think they are having fun, when they are actually being trained to perform certain behaviors. In this case, to play the game longer and more often. STO presents you with a stimulus (e.g. C-store ships), you respond (grinding and time gates), then you get the reward (dilithium, marks, zen, etc.). You are being tricked into performing behaviors that directly or indirectly result in profit for Cryptic/PWE. They get you to play more and that boosts their player statistics. The more people that play, the more people there are that spend money. The problem with this is when you stop caring about the rewards they provide, what's left is rather hollow. It's meaningless to the player. The missions don't matter, they're just the bar they press when the light blinks so they can have a food pellet. The missions are mechanical tasks and have no personal meaning to the player, just like the bar in the skinner box is meaningless to the rat beyond the reality of it being the thing that triggers the reward, which leads me to my main point.
This game lacks any true meaning to the player. This means absent of any reward, the task that the player is being asked to perform has no intrinsic value. This is what needs to be addressed. If Cryptic wants players to put more time into the game, then the missions need to be worth playing absent any rewards for completion. That is to say, that If I'm going to put in an hour of my time into this game, I want to enjoy my time spent playing it rather than time being spent "working" on getting to the prize. To do this, the game is going to have to require me to make at least some rudimentary cognitive effort to make progress. That means the game has to teach the player how to do this throughout the game. Every new challenge will require a new lesson on how to overcome it.
Teaching the player how to play your game is incredibly important. Under no circumstances should this area of game design be overlooked because getting it wrong means players may never see all the hard work youve put into the rest of the game. So the following is a list of what Ive learnt about how to get it right mostly from getting it wrong myself but hey thats the best way right! So without further ado here it is:
Dont teach too much too soon: No one likes to feel overwhelmed, even less so when they are playing your game to have fun. People have saturation points, throw too much at them and the information overflow will go unheard. Keep things bite-sized.
Dont be remorseless: Once you have taught something new allow time for the information to set in. Remorselessly moving on from one tutorial to another will makes players feel uncomfortable and not able to cope. Learning something new is a challenge and mentally taxing, so allow players time to feel good about doing it.
Reinforce: Demonstrate to the player the benefits of what youve taught. People are fairly efficient at marginalising seemingly redundant information. Reinforcing the benefits of a new piece of knowledge or skill will raise its relevance making it much more likely to be retained.
Nothing is worse than teaching something when the lesson has already been learnt: So for quick learners or inquisitive players whove already figured out what youre about to teach them, allow them to opt out or at the very least shut you up.
Self-discovery and self-realisation are worth so much more to a player than anything you have to say: Make it as easy as possible for this to happen, thats part of the skill of being a good teacher. Designing your tutorial in a restrictive way that only allows for the game to play according to your lesson plan is dumb, dont do it.
Dont try to be a teacher: People dont like having that psychological inferiority of having to be taught something. So the less you rub it in their faces the better. Aim to be more of companion helping to guide them and no I dont mean a ^@#!*#% Microsoft paperclip.
Dont give the answers before the questions: Sounds simple doesnt it, but if people havent asked the questions then they wont see the relevance of your answers. In other words present them with the problem before giving them the solution.
Finally here is my number one tip, if you go away with anything from this then let it be this, and itll sound obvious, but here goes Dont be a TRIBBLE: There you go I said it. Any hint of you revelling in the players lack of understanding by mocking or teasing etc is incredibly naughty and a bit silly because this more than anything else will make the player hate you and your stupid game. They are doing YOU the favour by wanting to learn how to play YOUR game, so show them some respect.
Gamnesia briefly mentions the value of narrative design techniques for games. My favorite is the emergent narrative. Having a story build up based on your choices and actions is a rewarding experience. This is something that can be done to a limited extent in the foundry right now. An intrepid designer could form a story tree and based on the choices made in a mission, it would conclude the mission by telling the player which foundry mission(s) to choose in order to continue the arc they have chosen. This way, your choices matter and the story evolves based on your actions. Do you make peace with your enemy or do you blast them into dust? Do you aid/sabotage/manipulate one faction of a planetary conflict or mediate a treaty and possibly start proceedings to induct them into the Federation? After these story arcs are concluded, they could also form the basis of new story arcs.
Go here and show your support for a better Foundry!
There's a pattern I've been seeing on the forums. Everyone seems to view the game as some form of work.
Unfortunately, "Star Trek: Online" has become a job.
As a result of Cryptic treating everyone as statistics, "Star Trek: Online" has been turned into a grind. Where do you think the word 'grind' comes from? Its an old world that refers to a physical job.
"I got to get back to the grind" is a phrase in which people use to refer to work.
rofl...
Games should be used for entertainment purposes, so that people can escape from the realities of life. Once a developer adds in mechanics that reflect actual work, the game starts to become something in relation to a job.
Cryptic turned "Star Trek: Online" into work rather than entertainment.
Cryptic should be reminded that "Star Trek: Online" is suppose to be a game.
As someone who has studied extensive psychology, I can also appreciate what you put into your post. I saw the note on conditioning, and I think you are absolutely correct.
Cryptic needs to know that "Star Trek: Online" is majorly flawed.
Unfortunately, "Star Trek: Online" has become a job.
As a result of Cryptic treating everyone as statistics, "Star Trek: Online" has been turned into a grind. Where do you think the word 'grind' comes from? Its an old world that refers to a physical job.
"I got to get back to the grind" is a phrase in which people use to refer to work.
rofl...
Games should be used for entertainment purposes, so that people can escape from the realities of life. Once a developer adds in mechanics that reflect actual work, the game starts to become something in relation to a job.
Cryptic turned "Star Trek: Online" into work rather than entertainment.
Cryptic should be reminded that "Star Trek: Online" is suppose to be a game.
As someone who has studied extensive psychology, I can also appreciate what you put into your post. I saw the note on conditioning, and I think you are absolutely correct.
Cryptic needs to know that "Star Trek: Online" is majorly flawed.
I am glad someone else see the problem.
And here's the fallacy of your comment: it's a job if you choose it to be. And that's what you've done. I don't see it as a job, I see it as a game. Yes, I grind, but I get a thrill out of how I do so.
But ultimately, don't stand here complaining and trying to make yourself superior. If you don't like it, you're free to do other things!
Where do you think your "free" ZEN on the exchange come from? Those ZEN have already been paid for by someone else!
Yeah someone has already bought the zen. But not everyone here has the money to suck it out of our pockets to cash in on lockboxes, and lifetime memberships. Oh wait you are one of them. BRILLIANT!
Yeah someone has already bought the zen. But not everyone here has the money to suck it out of our pockets to cash in on lockboxes, and lifetime memberships. Oh wait you are one of them. BRILLIANT!
That wasn't his point at all. The person he quoted was implying that people having lots of Dilithium would mean Cryptic loosing out on Zen revenue. He was pointing out that they wouldn't be missing out on the revenue because the Zen on the exchange still has to be bought by someone for others to exchange dilithium for it.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
I try to balance grinding dilithium with story missions or something random I've never done before or enjoy doing. I do feel some sense of accomplishment with completing a long grind also. For example, getting the science dyson ship and upgrading it to c-store version. Now I get to fly it every day and blow things up with my magic lightning bolts. And that is fun.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
These changes seem to all fit my wishes and needs. Perfect.
The only possible downside I can think of currently is the regular (non daily bonus) mark rewards to be lowered. But thankfully, that seems to be ruled out by dev answers so far.
Now it's decided, the last reps some of my alts are missing (just Nukara, I believe) will wait to be started after Season 9 is live.
TOIVA, Toi Vaxx, Toia Vix, Toveg, T'vritha, To Vrax: Bring in the Allegiance class. Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider. Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
These changes seem to all fit my wishes and needs. Perfect.
The only possible downside I can think of currently is the regular (non daily bonus) mark rewards to be lowered. But thankfully, that seems to be ruled out by dev answers so far.
Now it's decided, the last reps some of my alts are missing (just Nukara, I believe) will wait to be started after Season 9 is live.
These changes nerf Dyson, but are improving the other reps.
Luckily I'm done with Dyson.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
These changes nerf Dyson, but are improving the other reps.
Luckily I'm done with Dyson.
Well, I'm done with Dyson as well, but what do you mean is a nerf to it? Personally, I've gotten the vast majority of Commendations through the 'Marks to Commendations' project and without need for commendations, it would seem the main project will actually be cheaper in marks than the 70 one commendation costs now.
TOIVA, Toi Vaxx, Toia Vix, Toveg, T'vritha, To Vrax: Bring in the Allegiance class. Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider. Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
Well, I'm done with Dyson as well, but what do you mean is a nerf to it? Personally, I've gotten the vast majority of Commendations through the 'Marks to Commendations' project and without need for commendations, it would seem the main project will actually be cheaper in marks than the 70 one commendation costs now.
I think the "nerf" to Dyson (which I don't hafta worry about, thank goodness - it was my first rep finished) is because of the disappearance of the Commendations.
Let's see.... Mk XII VR set.... Deflector changed from +3.5% Stealth Value to +30 Starship Stealth. The big chance is the 3 set power. The Old 3 piece set power is now incorporated into the Shields itself:
10% chance hit by Directed Energy attacks grain +5% Maximum Shield Capacity for 30 sec (stacks up to 10)
Reduces Disruptor Damage to Shields by 20%
3 Piece set bonus is now:
Capacitance Transfer
Target's Self
3 min recharge
Reduces Damage to Shields by 29.3% for 15 seconds.
Enhances all Energy Weapons to do the following once per firing cycle
-106 All Shields to foe
+106 All Shields to self
(Improved by Starship Flow Capacitors)
Note: The character I'm looking at has 0 Flow Capacitors skill. So that's the base value).
So basically. They kept everything plus we get a new 3 Piece set ability and -20% Disruptor Damage to Shield.
Yeah, that doesn't look half-bad. But did all my 16 full Borg sets needed to nerfed for this?!
And more in general, is this going to be the new trend, where the introduction of a new rep means a substantial nerf to another rep set that might compete with it? If so, I find that very disappointing.
Have you thought about Energy Credit Flow in server. reputation was a big way of spending Ec at least for a while when someone made a new character. and usually when people finish one they make a new one. but if system become like dyson, wouldnt it disturb the flow and make prices in exchange crazy?
Have you thought about Energy Credit Flow in server. reputation was a big way of spending Ec at least for a while when someone made a new character. and usually when people finish one they make a new one. but if system become like dyson, wouldnt it disturb the flow and make prices in exchange crazy?
Those two are unrelated.
And yes, the Dyson nerf is this: A 5 minute mission gave you one commendation.
Now it will be marks and expertise and energy credits. And you can bet that the Dyson command daily mission will not give you enough of the latter two.
I am so glad I'm done with dyson rep in 3 days.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
All the different marks and currencies just clog it up.
We asked for 1 currency and auto-fill tabs of hypos, shields etc. from before s. 7 even launched.
Good to see you finally realizing how pointless it all was!
Also hoping you guys finally going to fix the s.7 launch blocked omega/maco costumes for us who waited 1½ years.
Lastly account wide reputation unlock - reasoning being you are still having to grind for the actual items.
For us who played prior to s.7 and got weapons and top set drops in the game, for free - while earning marks*, reputation system is and has been a major pain the butt.
Waiting on the costume unlocks I am not really playing and least of all doing reputation.
We got a long way to go still
/edit
* that was of course dilithium at the time
for those who don't know all weapon types used to be unlocked and dropped for free on the regular on STFs
And yes, the Dyson nerf is this: A 5 minute mission gave you one commendation.
Now it will be marks and expertise and energy credits. And you can bet that the Dyson command daily mission will not give you enough of the latter two.
I am so glad I'm done with dyson rep in 3 days.
They have already stated that your first daily mission of any rep system missions will reward 'bonus' marks for that rep, the bonus will always be enough for one daily, one hourly plus 10 extra marks. So if you run that mission at the start of your day then you'll get enough marks from it to launch the daily, and an hourly (if you want) and have 10 marks spare plus the marks the mission already rewards.
The ONLY difference to the Dyson rep system is that the daily mission will now also require a sum of EC and XP to start. People complaining about the removal of the commendations aren't really looking at all of the info. This change will actually be better than the commendations when you think about it. If you wanted to 'stock pile' commendations for five days of not having to do any Dyson missions, you needed 350 marks to exchange for 5 commendations... They have already stated that the daily missions will require 30 Marks, so that means for your 350 marks instead of converting them to 5 commendations you can use them to start 10 (plus one half) of the daily projects... What is the issue here?
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
They have already stated that your first daily mission of any rep system missions will reward 'bonus' marks for that rep, the bonus will always be enough for one daily, one hourly plus 10 extra marks. So if you run that mission at the start of your day then you'll get enough marks from it to launch the daily, and an hourly (if you want) and have 10 marks spare plus the marks the mission already rewards.
The ONLY difference to the Dyson rep system is that the daily mission will now also require a sum of EC and XP to start. People complaining about the removal of the commendations aren't really looking at all of the info. This change will actually be better than the commendations when you think about it. If you wanted to 'stock pile' commendations for five days of not having to do any Dyson missions, you needed 350 marks to exchange for 5 commendations... They have already stated that the daily missions will require 30 Marks, so that means for your 350 marks instead of converting them to 5 commendations you can use them to start 10 (plus one half) of the daily projects... What is the issue here?
They haven't said the main project will be 30 marks, it was merely an example for the purpose of the explanation of bonus marks. But it's likely (I hope) to be indeed lower than the 70 marks per commendation you need now.
As for what seems to be considered a nerf to Dyson - expertise and EC cost added to main projects - well, they never seemed discriminatory to me. I've always found EC and expertise very abundant in game.
TOIVA, Toi Vaxx, Toia Vix, Toveg, T'vritha, To Vrax: Bring in the Allegiance class. Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider. Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
They haven't said the main project will be 30 marks, it was merely an example for the purpose of the explanation of bonus marks. But it's likely (I hope) to be indeed lower than the 70 marks per commendation you need now.
As for what seems to be considered a nerf to Dyson - expertise and EC cost added to main projects - well, they never seemed discriminatory to me. I've always found EC and expertise very abundant in game.
They may have stated it as an example of how the bonus works, but they didn't state those figures were merely an example so based on the fact that current high end tier rep 20 hour projects cost 32 marks, and they have confirmed that all tiers' 20 hour and 1 hour projects will have a flat cost (not increasing or decreasing with tier progression) I would say it's safe to say that 30 is the new standard for them all. Though of course, that could be wrong to assume. I only do so based on the current evidence, and also a naive hope that they wouldn't go above 30 otherwise it would further increase the mark requirements for older reps even more than they already will be.
However, the base point remains. It will not be any more difficult than the current commendation system for the Dyson rep, but in fact could prove to be even better.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
So the news about the rep changes has gotten people all in an uproar. Some hate it, some like it. I just want to through my opinion about in this flurry.
I have been playing this game since before Free-to-play. I didn't pay the lifetime membership till last year. That is the extent of money I have payed into this game. Just to establish my starting point for my view.
When they introduced the rep system, I stopped playing. I hated it because the time requirment to advance it was not in my wheelhouse at the time. When I could run the STF's and get gear drops I liked. Even better was the fact that I could what gear I wanted from those drops. I geared out my main alot from those drops.
Two years ago I finally cam back to this game. I had already Maxed out a Fed Tac officer, so moved on to max out my KDF Eng and Fed Sci alts. Then LoR came out and I maxed out my Rom Eng character. So that got me to 4 characters andf no rep. FInding that most of the sets can only be gotten through the reps. I started working on the reps. I tried doing it on all four at the same time but that became to time prohibitive for me. So I just focused on one character. But I just intermittantly worked on it. Then 8.5 and it's alt buffing commendation when it comes to rep grinding. This drove me to make an concerted effort to get the main guy down. Buy the buffs and apply it to the the alts. So the Fed tact maxed all the reps. And I now have started on my Fed Sci with those commendations.
With these changes that are comming, I completing the reps projects that have been started and then I will do nothing but gain marks till Season 9 comes out. The changes will require less time involvement for me, and it means that I might very well just do all three guys at the same time.
The removal of the commodaties to just a set amount of EC's is such a good thing. I hate having to either track down those commodities or just purchase it directly from the replicators. And making those large hypos and such was such a pain that I just didn't do it any more.
Commendations removal is good too. They are placing the one drop of Commendation with one drop of marks equal to one daily and one hourly plus 10 marks for each rep (once per rep that is). This means that after you get the rep, this drop will continue to drop the marks without having to do any project to make it marks.
As for the addition of expertise to the projects, I have no problems with it. I typically have more expertise than I can spend at any time on all of my guys, including the ROm Eng, which was created right after LoR went live. I have never even done anything special to go get the exp. I just play to get my marks and ec's. Dilithium and Expertise has just always been there from my missions and doffing that I do. No extra effort to have what I need.
Every single announced change will allow me to go from just playing this game to grind out the rep to spending a little bit of time grinding rep and more time actually picking and choosing the content that I want to play.
I am an casual player, I play maybe an hour or two most nights. I have goals in the game that I have created for myself. And that is the fun part of the game. If the game couldn't support me doing my own thing, I wouldn't play it.
As for the gamnes mentioned in this thread so far, I have played most of them. SWTOR became pay-to-win and drove me from it. WOW, Neverwinter and Champions ONline I play when too when I can, mostly on weekends. DDO I am founder and my character name is marked on the fountain, And I don't play it either because of the pay-to-progress mentallity it has become. DCUO I have'nt played in a while because I don't have my playstation hooked up. But I would probably not play as often as the pc games just because of the severe limitations that the free model has on characters. I hate being limited in a free to play. I can truley say that the Cryptic created games that I play don't give me that feeling of being limited in the free portion of the game. And it allows me to create goals that I can works towards.
THese changes are good and moving in the right direction, and I hope they keep this kind of up going forward.
Remember, the "first of day completion" bonus = one full day + 1 hourly + 10.
So, if it's 30 daily / 15 hourly, then 30+15+10 = 55 marks per day, bonus.
If they increase it to 60 & 30, then we're looking at 100 bonus marks per day, and unless they're gonna mess with the mark prices of all the items, that's gonna be rough on Cryptic once a player tiers up to T5 - parts come quicker than they want...
Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
They have already stated that your first daily mission of any rep system missions will reward 'bonus' marks for that rep, the bonus will always be enough for one daily, one hourly plus 10 extra marks. So if you run that mission at the start of your day then you'll get enough marks from it to launch the daily, and an hourly (if you want) and have 10 marks spare plus the marks the mission already rewards.
The ONLY difference to the Dyson rep system is that the daily mission will now also require a sum of EC and XP to start. People complaining about the removal of the commendations aren't really looking at all of the info. This change will actually be better than the commendations when you think about it. If you wanted to 'stock pile' commendations for five days of not having to do any Dyson missions, you needed 350 marks to exchange for 5 commendations... They have already stated that the daily missions will require 30 Marks, so that means for your 350 marks instead of converting them to 5 commendations you can use them to start 10 (plus one half) of the daily projects... What is the issue here?
The issue is the added EC and Expertise cost.
Plus...whoever exchanged marks for commendations? Its a bad trade.
You could get a commendation in 5 minutes a day.
It was easier to get commendations than to get marks and exchange them for commendations.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
Remember, the "first of day completion" bonus = one full day + 1 hourly + 10.
So, if it's 30 daily / 15 hourly, then 30+15+10 = 55 marks per day, bonus.
If they increase it to 60 & 30, then we're looking at 100 bonus marks per day, and unless they're gonna mess with the mark prices of all the items, that's gonna be rough on Cryptic once a player tiers up to T5 - parts come quicker than they want...
Exactly, if they upped the daily mission mark requirement then after hitting tier 5 you'd be getting ridiculously high levels of marks still from the daily. They will have to keep it relatively low for that purpose as they've already stated the mark prices for items are remaining the same (save for one or two they mentioned had been lowered).
Plus...whoever exchanged marks for commendations? Its a bad trade.
You could get a commendation in 5 minutes a day.
It was easier to get commendations than to get marks and exchange them for commendations.
I thought that may be the real issue, but you had complained about the commendations so that's what I was replying to.
The mark to commendation may not have been a great exchange rate but it did get used by myself and others for a few reasons really. If all you want is the ground set, then you can only buy each piece at tier 1, 3, and 5. So in between if you're still running battle zone (great for Dilithium) then you gain several hundred marks in a single run of that, so one and a half runs (around 30 - 45 minutes depending on how busy it is) and you usually had enough to convert over. That way, you could do that on a toon you may not wish to even spend 10 minutes playing on for the next five days. Just log in, set up the rep and log out.
The new system will allow for the same though at a much reduced cost.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
I don't know what constitutes an Endgame Rep vs a Non-Endgame Rep - nor do I want to know. The problem with the very declaration is first that no reputation is in any functional way endgame or they all are. Second reputation systems represent one of two types - those belonging to playable races and those that are pillaged from non-playable races. The role-play possibilities are completely ignored, and virtually discouraged by the game mechanics. It is like the Vulcan D'Kyr class starship. What is supposed to be the pride and joy of the Vulcan fleet, capable of both incredible scientific research and military power equal to the Andorian Kumari class vessels is pathetic.
Currently, I hear Dyson tauted as the epitome of tactical capacity. Once again, it is limited to a specific concept and fails to be adaptable to other role-play considerations. Dyson equipement has no support for the Andorian class ships, Romulan/Reman preferences in weaponry, or adaptation by Borg officers to interact intrinsically with Borg originated technology. There is no ability to use it to effectively enhance Klingon, Federation, Dominion, Ferengi, Orion, etc. tech. It is almost as if the very concept of role play is discouraged. Why would I want to invest in things that are ultimately horridly inappropriate to my characterization? It is like the Scimitar class warbirds which come from one of the most scientifically oriented races in the Star Trek universe and yet are incapable of a truly scientific build. (Making my purchase of them disappointing and further purchases of equipment less desirable.) If it is desirable to improve item sets, fine, but how about starting with improving the things that are already inappropriately inferior or poorly represent their people.
I was not happy the last time the reputation system was ripped apart and restructured and I have no reason to be excited with this one. The biggest problem with all of them is that they are centered on life controlling grind - as if people do not have homes to clean, cars to maintain, children to raise, homework, jobs, lawns, etc. The advantage of the Dyson Commendations was that they reduced the grind - so ofcourse they must be destroyed. Across my numerous Star Trek characters, it is this grind that is the most undesirable feature of the game.
The increased speed of the Tier Upgrade is however an improvement as it reduces the time the player is stuck mucking about with little stuff, when they could instead actively join in on something more involved.
As regards the Nukara equipment, I at one point considered using it simply because it mimics the appearance of Andorian Weapons. (Whose cannons fire a beam in the actual series.) However, doing so intrinsically reduces the effectiveness of my game play. It is the fundamental failing of the game mechanics to follow one of the most endearing Star Trek concepts (IDIC or Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination) which is at the core why certain reputations are less desirable. My current primary character has been earning the reputation tiers for the bonuses of those tiers, but because nothing is both beneficial in a gameplay sense as well as a characterization sense, I have no reason to obtain and use the equipment sets. Each and every member of the Federation is supposed to be able to be a part of Star Fleet while maintaining their own cultural and military traditions. The Klingons equally do not care that others in their empire reflect who and what they are, as Klingons concern themselves with being Klingon - something the researched equipment does not reflect. Reducing the equipment costs on the Nukara is nice, but I still have no reason to use it since it will be no better than the inferior equipment I already have, and will not represent anything or anyone in any role play capacity.
As to the reward packs, which are character bound upon opening, I have not received one piece of usable equipment from them yet. They simply fill my inventory with recycling garbage. They are too limited in scope, do nothing for my game play, do nothing for my role play, and cannot be transferred to any of my characters that might use them. Further, I can't sell them on the exchange. So, thanks for the limited bump in EC.
Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary. ~ Cecil Beaton
As to the reward packs, which are character bound upon opening, I have not received one piece of usable equipment from them yet. They simply fill my inventory with recycling garbage. They are too limited in scope, do nothing for my game play, do nothing for my role play, and cannot be transferred to any of my characters that might use them. Further, I can't sell them on the exchange. So, thanks for the limited bump in EC.
Well, most of it is junk, unless its not junk to you.
It's all fairly situational, in the sense you need to build a ship around the concept, which not everyone will do.
However, I've had about 10% useful stuff from the Dyson rep reward packs.
I am actually intrigued ny how this will be rolled out across other reputations.
Mostly because the store items in other reps can be extremely useful.
Plus...whoever exchanged marks for commendations? Its a bad trade.
You could get a commendation in 5 minutes a day.
It was easier to get commendations than to get marks and exchange them for commendations.
A bad trade in this case is better than no trade at all (I would hardly ever get enough commendations to finish a single toon without the exchange project, well, before giving up on it, anyway).
5 mins a day is too much if you can't log in at all every day. I've always hated Commendations and am glad they'll be gone.
And the EC and expertise cost can only hurt people with dozens of toons trying to finish all reps at once (unless they up the costs significantly), hence I believe all the changes are good.
TOIVA, Toi Vaxx, Toia Vix, Toveg, T'vritha, To Vrax: Bring in the Allegiance class. Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider. Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
Well, most of it is junk, unless its not junk to you.
It's all fairly situational, in the sense you need to build a ship around the concept, which not everyone will do.
However, I've had about 10% useful stuff from the Dyson rep reward packs.
I am actually intrigued ny how this will be rolled out across other reputations.
Mostly because the store items in other reps can be extremely useful.
Romulan plasma weapons, I'm looking at you.......
I used the vendor if I didnt need the item and since the drops would have been happening loads i got more from the vendor that I may have got on the exchange
NO TO ARC
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Comments
Its not even a question about 'will people pay for zen'.
Its a question about 'how to balance player's effort, rewards, and time'. When a casual weekend player logs in for four to five hours, per day, they should be able to walk away with a sense of accomplishment. Instead of being rewarded for their time, effort, and money (zen and c-store purchases), many casual players are stuck waiting for timegates and bonus weekends.
Fleet holdings should be used to keep players around for long periods. Since multiple players are working together on projects, the use of medium resource retirements, medium timegates, and a strong reward system makes sense.
When it comes to the reputation system, the holdings should focus on casual game play. Light resource requirements, shorter timegates, and a strong reward system.
While one system is used for casual players, the other system should be used for long term players.
Waiting 20 hours for a timegate to expire stinks.
Obtaining extremely low rewards for 30 to 45 minutes of work stinks.
If the idea of "Free to Play' is to use my money and effort to keep the costs down, the game turns into an actual nine to five job. I should charge Cryptic for my time. I make about $80 an hour. Is "Star Trek: Online" a game, or is it a job? It cannot be both.
Casual players pay into this game just as much as long term players.
Something has to seriously change, or people will get tired and walk away.
I have nothing to lose.
Keep in mind that I am a "Star Trek" fan. I am not an MMO fan.
There's a pattern I've been seeing on the forums. Everyone seems to view the game as some form of work. To get X, you must do Y. When people complain how much they dislike having to grind for 20 hours or more to get something, others fire back that those people are "lazy" and feel "entitled" to instant gratification that isn't deserved. They stress that you must "earn" your rewards. But this misses the greater issue. If the rewards were removed, would you keep doing that "work"? Would you have any incentive to keep playing? If your answer to either or both of those is "no", then you've just come to realize what's wrong with STO.
STO works on a form of operant conditioning, which is stimulus>response>reward. It's a method used to make the player think they are having fun, when they are actually being trained to perform certain behaviors. In this case, to play the game longer and more often. STO presents you with a stimulus (e.g. C-store ships), you respond (grinding and time gates), then you get the reward (dilithium, marks, zen, etc.). You are being tricked into performing behaviors that directly or indirectly result in profit for Cryptic/PWE. They get you to play more and that boosts their player statistics. The more people that play, the more people there are that spend money. The problem with this is when you stop caring about the rewards they provide, what's left is rather hollow. It's meaningless to the player. The missions don't matter, they're just the bar they press when the light blinks so they can have a food pellet. The missions are mechanical tasks and have no personal meaning to the player, just like the bar in the skinner box is meaningless to the rat beyond the reality of it being the thing that triggers the reward, which leads me to my main point.
This game lacks any true meaning to the player. This means absent of any reward, the task that the player is being asked to perform has no intrinsic value. This is what needs to be addressed. If Cryptic wants players to put more time into the game, then the missions need to be worth playing absent any rewards for completion. That is to say, that If I'm going to put in an hour of my time into this game, I want to enjoy my time spent playing it rather than time being spent "working" on getting to the prize. To do this, the game is going to have to require me to make at least some rudimentary cognitive effort to make progress. That means the game has to teach the player how to do this throughout the game. Every new challenge will require a new lesson on how to overcome it.
Here is an excellent list of tips from Gaming Reality:
Gamnesia briefly mentions the value of narrative design techniques for games. My favorite is the emergent narrative. Having a story build up based on your choices and actions is a rewarding experience. This is something that can be done to a limited extent in the foundry right now. An intrepid designer could form a story tree and based on the choices made in a mission, it would conclude the mission by telling the player which foundry mission(s) to choose in order to continue the arc they have chosen. This way, your choices matter and the story evolves based on your actions. Do you make peace with your enemy or do you blast them into dust? Do you aid/sabotage/manipulate one faction of a planetary conflict or mediate a treaty and possibly start proceedings to induct them into the Federation? After these story arcs are concluded, they could also form the basis of new story arcs.
As a result of Cryptic treating everyone as statistics, "Star Trek: Online" has been turned into a grind. Where do you think the word 'grind' comes from? Its an old world that refers to a physical job.
"I got to get back to the grind" is a phrase in which people use to refer to work.
rofl...
Games should be used for entertainment purposes, so that people can escape from the realities of life. Once a developer adds in mechanics that reflect actual work, the game starts to become something in relation to a job.
Cryptic turned "Star Trek: Online" into work rather than entertainment.
Cryptic should be reminded that "Star Trek: Online" is suppose to be a game.
As someone who has studied extensive psychology, I can also appreciate what you put into your post. I saw the note on conditioning, and I think you are absolutely correct.
Cryptic needs to know that "Star Trek: Online" is majorly flawed.
I am glad someone else see the problem.
And here's the fallacy of your comment: it's a job if you choose it to be. And that's what you've done. I don't see it as a job, I see it as a game. Yes, I grind, but I get a thrill out of how I do so.
But ultimately, don't stand here complaining and trying to make yourself superior. If you don't like it, you're free to do other things!
Yeah someone has already bought the zen. But not everyone here has the money to suck it out of our pockets to cash in on lockboxes, and lifetime memberships. Oh wait you are one of them. BRILLIANT!
That wasn't his point at all. The person he quoted was implying that people having lots of Dilithium would mean Cryptic loosing out on Zen revenue. He was pointing out that they wouldn't be missing out on the revenue because the Zen on the exchange still has to be bought by someone for others to exchange dilithium for it.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
The only possible downside I can think of currently is the regular (non daily bonus) mark rewards to be lowered. But thankfully, that seems to be ruled out by dev answers so far.
Now it's decided, the last reps some of my alts are missing (just Nukara, I believe) will wait to be started after Season 9 is live.
Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider.
Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
Don't make ARC mandatory! Keep it optional only!
These changes nerf Dyson, but are improving the other reps.
Luckily I'm done with Dyson.
--Red Annorax
Well, I'm done with Dyson as well, but what do you mean is a nerf to it? Personally, I've gotten the vast majority of Commendations through the 'Marks to Commendations' project and without need for commendations, it would seem the main project will actually be cheaper in marks than the 70 one commendation costs now.
Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider.
Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
Don't make ARC mandatory! Keep it optional only!
I think the "nerf" to Dyson (which I don't hafta worry about, thank goodness - it was my first rep finished) is because of the disappearance of the Commendations.
Yeah, that doesn't look half-bad. But did all my 16 full Borg sets needed to nerfed for this?!
And more in general, is this going to be the new trend, where the introduction of a new rep means a substantial nerf to another rep set that might compete with it? If so, I find that very disappointing.
Those two are unrelated.
And yes, the Dyson nerf is this: A 5 minute mission gave you one commendation.
Now it will be marks and expertise and energy credits. And you can bet that the Dyson command daily mission will not give you enough of the latter two.
I am so glad I'm done with dyson rep in 3 days.
We asked for 1 currency and auto-fill tabs of hypos, shields etc. from before s. 7 even launched.
Good to see you finally realizing how pointless it all was!
Also hoping you guys finally going to fix the s.7 launch blocked omega/maco costumes for us who waited 1½ years.
Lastly account wide reputation unlock - reasoning being you are still having to grind for the actual items.
For us who played prior to s.7 and got weapons and top set drops in the game, for free - while earning marks*, reputation system is and has been a major pain the butt.
Waiting on the costume unlocks I am not really playing and least of all doing reputation.
We got a long way to go still
/edit
* that was of course dilithium at the time
for those who don't know all weapon types used to be unlocked and dropped for free on the regular on STFs
They have already stated that your first daily mission of any rep system missions will reward 'bonus' marks for that rep, the bonus will always be enough for one daily, one hourly plus 10 extra marks. So if you run that mission at the start of your day then you'll get enough marks from it to launch the daily, and an hourly (if you want) and have 10 marks spare plus the marks the mission already rewards.
The ONLY difference to the Dyson rep system is that the daily mission will now also require a sum of EC and XP to start. People complaining about the removal of the commendations aren't really looking at all of the info. This change will actually be better than the commendations when you think about it. If you wanted to 'stock pile' commendations for five days of not having to do any Dyson missions, you needed 350 marks to exchange for 5 commendations... They have already stated that the daily missions will require 30 Marks, so that means for your 350 marks instead of converting them to 5 commendations you can use them to start 10 (plus one half) of the daily projects... What is the issue here?
They haven't said the main project will be 30 marks, it was merely an example for the purpose of the explanation of bonus marks. But it's likely (I hope) to be indeed lower than the 70 marks per commendation you need now.
As for what seems to be considered a nerf to Dyson - expertise and EC cost added to main projects - well, they never seemed discriminatory to me. I've always found EC and expertise very abundant in game.
Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider.
Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
Don't make ARC mandatory! Keep it optional only!
They may have stated it as an example of how the bonus works, but they didn't state those figures were merely an example so based on the fact that current high end tier rep 20 hour projects cost 32 marks, and they have confirmed that all tiers' 20 hour and 1 hour projects will have a flat cost (not increasing or decreasing with tier progression) I would say it's safe to say that 30 is the new standard for them all. Though of course, that could be wrong to assume. I only do so based on the current evidence, and also a naive hope that they wouldn't go above 30 otherwise it would further increase the mark requirements for older reps even more than they already will be.
However, the base point remains. It will not be any more difficult than the current commendation system for the Dyson rep, but in fact could prove to be even better.
I have been playing this game since before Free-to-play. I didn't pay the lifetime membership till last year. That is the extent of money I have payed into this game. Just to establish my starting point for my view.
When they introduced the rep system, I stopped playing. I hated it because the time requirment to advance it was not in my wheelhouse at the time. When I could run the STF's and get gear drops I liked. Even better was the fact that I could what gear I wanted from those drops. I geared out my main alot from those drops.
Two years ago I finally cam back to this game. I had already Maxed out a Fed Tac officer, so moved on to max out my KDF Eng and Fed Sci alts. Then LoR came out and I maxed out my Rom Eng character. So that got me to 4 characters andf no rep. FInding that most of the sets can only be gotten through the reps. I started working on the reps. I tried doing it on all four at the same time but that became to time prohibitive for me. So I just focused on one character. But I just intermittantly worked on it. Then 8.5 and it's alt buffing commendation when it comes to rep grinding. This drove me to make an concerted effort to get the main guy down. Buy the buffs and apply it to the the alts. So the Fed tact maxed all the reps. And I now have started on my Fed Sci with those commendations.
With these changes that are comming, I completing the reps projects that have been started and then I will do nothing but gain marks till Season 9 comes out. The changes will require less time involvement for me, and it means that I might very well just do all three guys at the same time.
The removal of the commodaties to just a set amount of EC's is such a good thing. I hate having to either track down those commodities or just purchase it directly from the replicators. And making those large hypos and such was such a pain that I just didn't do it any more.
Commendations removal is good too. They are placing the one drop of Commendation with one drop of marks equal to one daily and one hourly plus 10 marks for each rep (once per rep that is). This means that after you get the rep, this drop will continue to drop the marks without having to do any project to make it marks.
As for the addition of expertise to the projects, I have no problems with it. I typically have more expertise than I can spend at any time on all of my guys, including the ROm Eng, which was created right after LoR went live. I have never even done anything special to go get the exp. I just play to get my marks and ec's. Dilithium and Expertise has just always been there from my missions and doffing that I do. No extra effort to have what I need.
Every single announced change will allow me to go from just playing this game to grind out the rep to spending a little bit of time grinding rep and more time actually picking and choosing the content that I want to play.
I am an casual player, I play maybe an hour or two most nights. I have goals in the game that I have created for myself. And that is the fun part of the game. If the game couldn't support me doing my own thing, I wouldn't play it.
As for the gamnes mentioned in this thread so far, I have played most of them. SWTOR became pay-to-win and drove me from it. WOW, Neverwinter and Champions ONline I play when too when I can, mostly on weekends. DDO I am founder and my character name is marked on the fountain, And I don't play it either because of the pay-to-progress mentallity it has become. DCUO I have'nt played in a while because I don't have my playstation hooked up. But I would probably not play as often as the pc games just because of the severe limitations that the free model has on characters. I hate being limited in a free to play. I can truley say that the Cryptic created games that I play don't give me that feeling of being limited in the free portion of the game. And it allows me to create goals that I can works towards.
THese changes are good and moving in the right direction, and I hope they keep this kind of up going forward.
KDF: Dahar Master Kan (Borg Klingon Tactical)::Dahar Master Torc (Alien Science)::Dahar Master Sisteric (Gorn Engineer)
RR-Fed: Citizen Sirroc (Romulan Science)::Fleet Admiral Grell (Alien Engineer)
RR-KDF: Fleet Admiral Zemo (Reman Tactical)::Fleet Admiral Xinatek (Reman Science)::Fleet Admiral Bel (Alien Engineer)
TOS-Fed: Fleet Admiral Katem (Andorian Tactical)::Lieutenant Commander Straad (Vulcan Engineer)
Dom-Fed: Dan'Tar (Jem'Hadar Science)
Dom-KDF: Kamtana'Solan (Jem'Hadar Science)
CoHost of Tribbles in Ecstasy (Zombee)
So, if it's 30 daily / 15 hourly, then 30+15+10 = 55 marks per day, bonus.
If they increase it to 60 & 30, then we're looking at 100 bonus marks per day, and unless they're gonna mess with the mark prices of all the items, that's gonna be rough on Cryptic once a player tiers up to T5 - parts come quicker than they want...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
The issue is the added EC and Expertise cost.
Plus...whoever exchanged marks for commendations? Its a bad trade.
You could get a commendation in 5 minutes a day.
It was easier to get commendations than to get marks and exchange them for commendations.
Exactly, if they upped the daily mission mark requirement then after hitting tier 5 you'd be getting ridiculously high levels of marks still from the daily. They will have to keep it relatively low for that purpose as they've already stated the mark prices for items are remaining the same (save for one or two they mentioned had been lowered).
I thought that may be the real issue, but you had complained about the commendations so that's what I was replying to.
The mark to commendation may not have been a great exchange rate but it did get used by myself and others for a few reasons really. If all you want is the ground set, then you can only buy each piece at tier 1, 3, and 5. So in between if you're still running battle zone (great for Dilithium) then you gain several hundred marks in a single run of that, so one and a half runs (around 30 - 45 minutes depending on how busy it is) and you usually had enough to convert over. That way, you could do that on a toon you may not wish to even spend 10 minutes playing on for the next five days. Just log in, set up the rep and log out.
The new system will allow for the same though at a much reduced cost.
Currently, I hear Dyson tauted as the epitome of tactical capacity. Once again, it is limited to a specific concept and fails to be adaptable to other role-play considerations. Dyson equipement has no support for the Andorian class ships, Romulan/Reman preferences in weaponry, or adaptation by Borg officers to interact intrinsically with Borg originated technology. There is no ability to use it to effectively enhance Klingon, Federation, Dominion, Ferengi, Orion, etc. tech. It is almost as if the very concept of role play is discouraged. Why would I want to invest in things that are ultimately horridly inappropriate to my characterization? It is like the Scimitar class warbirds which come from one of the most scientifically oriented races in the Star Trek universe and yet are incapable of a truly scientific build. (Making my purchase of them disappointing and further purchases of equipment less desirable.) If it is desirable to improve item sets, fine, but how about starting with improving the things that are already inappropriately inferior or poorly represent their people.
I was not happy the last time the reputation system was ripped apart and restructured and I have no reason to be excited with this one. The biggest problem with all of them is that they are centered on life controlling grind - as if people do not have homes to clean, cars to maintain, children to raise, homework, jobs, lawns, etc. The advantage of the Dyson Commendations was that they reduced the grind - so ofcourse they must be destroyed. Across my numerous Star Trek characters, it is this grind that is the most undesirable feature of the game.
The increased speed of the Tier Upgrade is however an improvement as it reduces the time the player is stuck mucking about with little stuff, when they could instead actively join in on something more involved.
As regards the Nukara equipment, I at one point considered using it simply because it mimics the appearance of Andorian Weapons. (Whose cannons fire a beam in the actual series.) However, doing so intrinsically reduces the effectiveness of my game play. It is the fundamental failing of the game mechanics to follow one of the most endearing Star Trek concepts (IDIC or Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination) which is at the core why certain reputations are less desirable. My current primary character has been earning the reputation tiers for the bonuses of those tiers, but because nothing is both beneficial in a gameplay sense as well as a characterization sense, I have no reason to obtain and use the equipment sets. Each and every member of the Federation is supposed to be able to be a part of Star Fleet while maintaining their own cultural and military traditions. The Klingons equally do not care that others in their empire reflect who and what they are, as Klingons concern themselves with being Klingon - something the researched equipment does not reflect. Reducing the equipment costs on the Nukara is nice, but I still have no reason to use it since it will be no better than the inferior equipment I already have, and will not represent anything or anyone in any role play capacity.
As to the reward packs, which are character bound upon opening, I have not received one piece of usable equipment from them yet. They simply fill my inventory with recycling garbage. They are too limited in scope, do nothing for my game play, do nothing for my role play, and cannot be transferred to any of my characters that might use them. Further, I can't sell them on the exchange. So, thanks for the limited bump in EC.
Well, most of it is junk, unless its not junk to you.
It's all fairly situational, in the sense you need to build a ship around the concept, which not everyone will do.
However, I've had about 10% useful stuff from the Dyson rep reward packs.
I am actually intrigued ny how this will be rolled out across other reputations.
Mostly because the store items in other reps can be extremely useful.
Romulan plasma weapons, I'm looking at you.......
5 mins a day is too much if you can't log in at all every day. I've always hated Commendations and am glad they'll be gone.
And the EC and expertise cost can only hurt people with dozens of toons trying to finish all reps at once (unless they up the costs significantly), hence I believe all the changes are good.
Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider.
Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
Don't make ARC mandatory! Keep it optional only!
I used the vendor if I didnt need the item and since the drops would have been happening loads i got more from the vendor that I may have got on the exchange
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Does this mean we'll see the be'veS costume option fixed?
Other than that quibble I'm loving what I'm reading. When I cycle back into playing this'll make the Rom rep grind a LOT more tolerable.
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