Takes one of the edges off power creep
Creates greater on the fly customisability, fits well with the new build system if it can be incorporated
Creates less of a gap for newer players who haven't been able to sink as much into the rep system
Reduces the lockoutiness of the rep system.
Encourages more careful decisions
Allows for infinite scaleability
If the whole point of this "revamp" is to make things more competitive for new level 50 captains compared to those of us who've been playing since beta, should you not also nerf all the fleet ships, fleet holding consoles, weapons, and misc gear to also fight the power creep? How about we also get rid of all the pay to win consoles from the c-store ships while we are at it, and maybe even get rid of all ships with 5 forward weapons and 5 tac consoles too? Not to mention various lock box related OP items like some of the special traits that can only be accessed that way.
Seriously, if this is to fight "power creep" there are a lot of other issues that should be addressed first. Like how about giving the kdf a BOP or Raptor with 5 forward weapons and 5 tac consoles? Or maybe even address the many long standing bugs that discourage people from playing the kdf because half of the early missions are bugged. Or the supposedly fixed with the march 6th patch issue of uniform slots that are still bugged?
If you really want to make things "fair" for new players (let's face it, you can make lvl 50 in less than a week of a couple hours per day) why not try fixing pvp and give it more options?
Why fix the problems when you can take away something ppl spent hours upon hours on. Then later on go and sell them more slots to buy back what they already had. For them easier money than fixing bugs or balancing the power creep with ships of equal stature
Takes a lot to drive me back to ncsoft but I think they accomplished that lol.
Long time players that feel they are owed an advantage over new players.
There is a difference between feeling owed and earning something.
Regardless, that's not my real problem here. My real problem is that I don't want to spend more time micromanaging to take advantage of what I have earned playing the game.
They can start handing out Tier 4 rep in every rep to new players to get them to want to play - I couldn't care less.
But managing this game is already so complex, that making it more complex just to appease folks who are bored, or who are new to the game and expect it all handed to them, is the issue.
If you think this game is too easy, play without armor. Use inferior weapons. Give yourself a challenge. And there always will be two-week old players who cry about other people being more powerful/earning more than them. That's an MMO.
It's the middle of the road folks who foot the bill around here, and this change is just going to discourage folks from bothering with more than a few trees of rep - which means less playing, less spending, etc.
But stay smug, "friend" - and watch it all happen, just like every other MMO that has ever tried to cater to the bored and the newbies, as the middle-of-the-road folks loose interest. On the plus side for you, the servers will likely end up more stable as two or three folks on a map isn't going to crash it out.
Reading over the changes to the passives, they're all pretty dramatic. And all better than what's currently there. This could be fascinating in determining how I spec out my different characters.
When you think about it should be fun with alts as well.
If you roled a new sci perhaps you skip Romulan rep completely... but Go hard in Nukura for the tier 4 aux reps with a combo of dyson... anything you do after that is for fun and to be a completionist. On an engi toon perhaps you choose a couple other reps to focus on.
In 6 months from now when we have 6 or 7 rep systems... it could be real interesting.
At least new players that decide to role 2-3 toons... can have fun doing completely different grinds on those toons to start with. When they get there main 4 passives for each toon they could swap tokens around and do the opposite grinds after. Bottom line they could play longer on more toons DIFFERENT content. (instead of doing the same boring rep missions 3 or 4 times for each alt)
This is by far the worst thing I have ever seen happen to STO. Period.
Nah, this doesn't even crack top 10. The absolute worst change they made? Was making a skill point cap on the skills system. Back in beta. The rage over that? Hooo boy.
When you think about it should be fun with alts as well.
If you roled a new sci perhaps you skip Romulan rep completely... but Go hard in Nukura for the tier 4 aux reps with a combo of dyson... anything you do after that is for fun and to be a completionist. On an engi toon perhaps you choose a couple other reps to focus on.
In 6 months from now when we have 6 or 7 rep systems... it could be real interesting.
At least new players that decide to role 2-3 toons... can have fun doing completely different grinds on those toons to start with. When they get there main 4 passives for each toon they could swap tokens around and do the opposite grinds after. Bottom line they could play longer on more toons DIFFERENT content. (instead of doing the same boring rep missions 3 or 4 times for each alt)
That's also what I was thinking. I have my two charcters that are still way far ahead of my other alts on rep grinds. And now I'm looking at this, and will look at Undine, and for once it could be a somewhat different path for different characters.
Takes one of the edges off power creep
Creates greater on the fly customisability, fits well with the new build system if it can be incorporated
Creates less of a gap for newer players who haven't been able to sink as much into the rep system
Reduces the lockoutiness of the rep system.
Encourages more careful decisions
Allows for infinite scaleability
AdjudicatorHawk, I have only one question (and problem) with this being done.
Why not 8 powers?
8 powers would let anyone who already likes their build to keep it. It'd also provide some more flexibility. Additionally, it would provide a definite hedge against the power creep that you seem to be trying to address.
I would prefer to have less grind and more people to play with than to be a part of an elitist club where everyone not in this club (95-99% of the player base) is merely cannon fodder to my glory and might.
Seriously, how many times have you complained about randoms in queues lately? How many more do you think you will you have to complain about if power creep constantly raises the bar? And when you notice there aren't very many noobish players around anymore, how many months or weeks do you expect to go by before Cryptic announces a turn off date?
Let me tell you all this, because I have seen it before. I have been exactly where all of us have dreamed on a little NWN server that still runs today, because after nine years of tweaking and playing the same damn character and power creep and players and characters coming and going I achieved that which I had in my naivete sought: I acquired the most powerful character on the server, unmatched in PVP or PVE, and this all kept going because it was an RP server, so for most this wasn't even the actual goal. But I did it, unquestionably, and maybe for a brief time it was fun to be that guy, but that quickly faded as each thing I participated in started going about the same ways. Every PVP event was a curb stomp due to sheer power from longevity of play, rather than any measure of skill. Every PVE event got the same commentary from DMs: Either they balanced to challenge the average party member which resulted in me stomping the entire thing flat, or they balanced to challenge my character which resulted in most of the rest of the party being dead by round two, and this just wasn't fun for anyone. I once stood out in the open just to passively tank a group of a half-dozen archers that were up a cliff while the rest of the party healed, and did so with no issue. ONE of these archers switched targets to an average member of the party who got a little too close. After a round of combat he had been chunked to near death and he was spamming healing kits. I could only watch while his healing was completely out-DPSed and within 3 rounds or so he was dead.
There was just no middle ground for this. How can you balance this when one character can wreck a 4-5 of a thing that most of the rest could barely deal with one on one? This is what happens in that model, and it's no fun for anyone involved, not for those who are eternally beneath the elite, and not even for those at the top. Because at the top you will find, one day, that you have no one to play with.
tl;dr: Power creep is bad. New players being able to get on our level in a more reasonable time frame means more people to play with and have fun.
So when are lockbox ships and items going to be nerfed?
I'd like to know this as well. Maybe I'd pvp more if it happened.
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."
so why grind the new rep systems at all if they don't have a specific piece of equipment or passive that you want? With the current system you still get benefit from the time...in the new system you will get a bunch of passives in a pool that you will never use.
That said, the new rep systems will have to be better than the current ones to get people to put in the time and EC to complete them which mean new players will still skip the current ones to get the new better passives.
Also I love how they use the phrase "if we had 200" and "if we had 100". At the rate of 2 new reps a year (assuming we get two new seasons or expansions each year) we will hit that level of reps in only 48 years. Yeah the doom associated with 100+ reps systems and their associated passives are impending. Pro Marketing tip to the blog writer....if you are trying to persuade people that something is needed use a plausible argument.
I've seen this assertion made repeatedly, and I want to clarify - I'm not saying a new 50 should be equal to a veteran 50, nor will they be under this new system. I am saying that combat math where a fresh 50 deals 500 DPS but a veteran 50 deals 40,000 DPS is too wide a performance delta to sustain gameplay between those two actors.
Then what is the point of working to get the best out of a ship. If someone does not know how to use their ship. They should work to make their ship better like we did. I use to do low dps but I put TIME and MONEY into making my ship better. I like some of the revamp but your taking to much away at same time. This would be considered fraud in the real world. To take something away that someone spent a lot of effort in getting.
Reading over the passives.....there are pretty much at least 3 'must have' traits in both ground and space each. Especially now, with the significantly improved effects.
Dyson: T1/T2 Crit Severity. Simple as that. Especially now, with the Effect at 20%, up from 10.
Nukara: T1/T2 Shield Bleedthrough. Same as the previous line.
New Romulus: T1/T2 Crit Hit Chance. No Brainer, as the previous two.
Thus, 1 Space and Ground Slot is left.
A middle ground for this new system should, in my opinion, be: For each new Reputation line, 1 Space and Ground Passive Slot gets added. Since unless future Rep lines come with passives that are even stronger than the 6 choices above, we will STILL end up with only 1 slot actually being available on space/ground.
Leveling the playing field was one thing the dev said.
The truth is this is about more then just that. It is also about the future of the game.
They can't let rep creep continue with out making the current content harder.... Raising a level cap would only solve the issue for a short time frame.
Lets assume the new rep comes out and they make the content hard enough that you find it interesting with your 5 completed reps... that same content is now that much harder for the new guy with no rep.
There system is elegant and the same system used by games like LORO. Where you can unlock tons of cool passives... but you are limited to X number.
The only real argument on this change as I see it is...
Is the rep system right now FINE ... in which case a limit of 8 would allow for the status que with the new 5th and following reps being the optional reps for Vets... and one of the options for new players.
Or Is the number of current passives part of the problem... in which case it is in need of a reduction.
Now I am obviously in the camp that feels the game has to much right now... and a reduction to 4 active is a good step.
Either way it needs to have a limit... the number of reps is only going to grow... and the balancing of new content is going to get harder and harder for Cryptic.
I don't disagree with any of that. I was simply arguing the point of entitlement, which is a word I see getting tossed around too much.
If the real issue is the future of the game, they also do need to keep in mind the veteran players. I will adjust to this system, like I do with any change. I don't like it, and I find it constricting. Many of the passives I will never use, and I assume that is the case for most. The limit of 4 though I think is the biggest problem. I feel like 8 would be too much as it wouldn't do anything to quell the current problem, but 4 is too low. I think 6 is a fair number.
I am not actually a fan of the powers getting buffed however. Some passives are really powerful as they are, and I can already see some very deadly things I can do with the buffed ones. I think they should stay as they are, with the few minor changes here and there to some skills, and up the cap to 6, or as some have said, 8 universal.
In your comparison to LOtRO, you miss the very important aspect of your passive slots increased as you leveled up. Now, I haven't played in over a year or so, but if I remember correctly, at max level you have 5, that you earned through leveling. Every new player got 2, but veterans got more because they actually put time into leveling their character.
This change is just a blanket "everyone has 4".
I agree that the playing field needs to be somewhat leveled, but this is a very drastic measure towards a not very drastic problem.
Total nonsense. No noob is going to go into a PvE instance and see some veteran blowing up borg ships 2x as fast and complain. She'll be done and out of that instance, maybe even with the sidequest done, in half the time.
Total nonsense. This is a nerf and if it really does have nothing to do with PvP, we'll soon see the monetization behind it.
Different topic for a later dev blog. Give em time.
Not really.
The stated aim of the proposed change is to address power creep.
Lock box ships, at least some of them, are part of that problem.
As are some zen ships.
There's not a lot of point fiddling around with one mechanism, with minimal impact on power creep, and ignoring those other items, if your stated aim is to address power creep.
This is a bit like someone saying we want to address world hunger, so we're working on tackling obesity in Florida.
Nerf'ing the amount of Rep Traits to 4 Space and 4 Ground pool's and Buffing the amount of Damage and Defense to 25-100% on the previous Rep Traits...
How would this solve the Power Creep?
This will make players do less grinding especially for players who grind only or mostly for Rep Traits thats not really comparable to the ones that Cryptic Buff'd for S9 especially if players can only use 4 for Space or Ground.
Why not make a Rep Trait Pool of 8 Universals instead of a Restricted 4 Space and 4 Ground since like i said b4 that Skill tree in this game force to make ur character either a very good Space and Ground character and any1 that's balance in both fronts would most likely will be killed.
8 Universal Rep Traits Pool (of course w/load out or respec like Reg Traits) brings more diversity to characters either they're space or ground without the need for more ppl spamming the same hand full of OP Rep Traits that Cryptic planned for S9... cause that will not solve the power creep issue if most or if not every1 using 100% passive 5% crit, 100% passive 20% Crit Dmg, 100% passive bonus Weapon Dmg and so on.
Okay, now that I understand what they are doing I don't like it. Leveling the playing field my rear end! Of course a level 50 player that has completed the reps is stronger than a new level 50 player, they busted their butt to get those passive abilities. They activity worked for it and now you are yanking that carrot on a stick away. Why would I work on new reps if I can only use a handful of the passives? Or the actives for that matter? The only thing saving the system is the ability to change selected skills at will. Cryptic you are walking a vary fine and dangerous line, bending over backwards for the so called "casual player" is driving away heavy gamers and trek fans. I personally know 3 ex players that stopped playing for over the last time you cow towed to such group.
Takes one of the edges off power creep
Creates greater on the fly customisability, fits well with the new build system if it can be incorporated
Creates less of a gap for newer players who haven't been able to sink as much into the rep system
Reduces the lockoutiness of the rep system.
Encourages more careful decisions
Allows for infinite scaleability
This is a really good, solid decision.
I agree entirely. I personally much prefer a hot-swappable selection of powerful passive choices than the current power-creepy system.
I'm sorry that some people are dismayed by this change, but it seems to me that once people get to play with this for a bit, they won't miss the current system. Just on paper, I can see this being pretty nice for most if not all of my builds. As always, time will tell.
There is a difference between feeling owed and earning something.
I hear what you (and a few others are saying) Yes we did earn the reps.
However they are not being taken away. They are simply only allowing us to activate 4 at a time. I am still glad I will have the option to choose which ones I want to have on... I unlocked them all, so I can swap back and forth.
New players can choose to unlock only 4 they want... or unlock them all and play around with them like we have.
Lets be completely honest this game is NOT that hard to set your toon up... in MMO terms this game is easy. Compare this to one of the old guard MMOs and its kindergarden.
Makes me think of the system in LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online) where you can earn passive traits by doing X Y or Z. (Killing 1000 of this or completing this area ect) Each passive would level up to 10 and get a bit better each level. However you where limited to X number of them slotted at one time. (which you could respec if you wanted).
Many players in LOTRO would pick a hanful of traits they felt where a benifit to there build and they would go and earn them and slot them.... others would be completionist and earn them ALL and swap around as they liked... and most would earn enough for a few load outs.
The nice thing was a new player could fill there basic trait list pretty quick, and be mostly on par with long time players. However as they played they unlocked more traits and some of the harder to earn ones that where slightly better.
It worked in that game BECAUSE there was a limit on the number of active traits. With out a limit new players would have had to put in months of grind content to catch up.
I like this new system... in a week or so new players can have 4 half decent tier 2 space traits to slot... and really 4 ground ones in a couple days. That is enough to be close to equal in terms of content they can tackle.... after that they can earn there better ones and optional ones that would allow them to swap builds ect.
Reading over the passives.....there are pretty much at least 3 'must have' traits in both ground and space each. Especially now, with the significantly improved effects.
Dyson: T1/T2 Crit Severity. Simple as that. Especially now, with the Effect at 20%, up from 10.
Nukara: T1/T2 Shield Bleedthrough. Same as the previous line.
New Romulus: T1/T2 Crit Hit Chance. No Brainer, as the previous two.
Thus, 1 Space and Ground Slot is left.
A middle ground for this new system should, in my opinion, be: For each new Reputation line, 1 Space and Ground Passive Slot gets added. Since unless future Rep lines come with passives that are even stronger than the 6 choices above, we will STILL end up with only 1 slot actually being available on space/ground.
I would add the 4th must have as the Omega tier 2 passive damage increase.
There, we already got the cookie cutter set up folks!
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
Different topic for a later dev blog. Give em time.
Lock boxes have been around since before the reputation system. The power disparity they provide is just as large or larger but it won't go away because the devs don't actually care about balance.
They never have, it's part of why PVP has always been so messed up, the only reason this change happened is because it had to. Anyone with half a cents worth of foresight could see that activated powers could only be provided so many times, but instead of dealing with this off the bat when reputation was created the devs allowed everyone to slave through minimal amounts of content repeatedly for these rewards. The answer to the problem is just as dumb as the problems creation, the devs deserve every bit of backlash they get for this.
Lotro has completely changed their trait trees recently. Most people on forums are angry but it doesn't bother me.
Here I have to ask again - why would I play season 9 rep????
I hope there's a really good reason to do so because I was really looking forward to it.
I actually like the rep grinds (except nukara). But I'm questioning whether I would bother now
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."
However they are not being taken away. They are simply only allowing us to activate 4 at a time.
Ok, you often make observations i can agree with but the above is semantic hogwash.
They are taking away the ability to have the passives we have earned active all the time, as was originally intended.
While you may well have valid points regarding power creep, this continued denial of the essential character of this change is not making you more credible.
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Creates greater on the fly customisability, fits well with the new build system if it can be incorporated
Creates less of a gap for newer players who haven't been able to sink as much into the rep system
Reduces the lockoutiness of the rep system.
Encourages more careful decisions
Allows for infinite scaleability
This is a really good, solid decision.
Why fix the problems when you can take away something ppl spent hours upon hours on. Then later on go and sell them more slots to buy back what they already had. For them easier money than fixing bugs or balancing the power creep with ships of equal stature
Takes a lot to drive me back to ncsoft but I think they accomplished that lol.
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There is a difference between feeling owed and earning something.
Regardless, that's not my real problem here. My real problem is that I don't want to spend more time micromanaging to take advantage of what I have earned playing the game.
They can start handing out Tier 4 rep in every rep to new players to get them to want to play - I couldn't care less.
But managing this game is already so complex, that making it more complex just to appease folks who are bored, or who are new to the game and expect it all handed to them, is the issue.
If you think this game is too easy, play without armor. Use inferior weapons. Give yourself a challenge. And there always will be two-week old players who cry about other people being more powerful/earning more than them. That's an MMO.
It's the middle of the road folks who foot the bill around here, and this change is just going to discourage folks from bothering with more than a few trees of rep - which means less playing, less spending, etc.
But stay smug, "friend" - and watch it all happen, just like every other MMO that has ever tried to cater to the bored and the newbies, as the middle-of-the-road folks loose interest. On the plus side for you, the servers will likely end up more stable as two or three folks on a map isn't going to crash it out.
When you think about it should be fun with alts as well.
If you roled a new sci perhaps you skip Romulan rep completely... but Go hard in Nukura for the tier 4 aux reps with a combo of dyson... anything you do after that is for fun and to be a completionist. On an engi toon perhaps you choose a couple other reps to focus on.
In 6 months from now when we have 6 or 7 rep systems... it could be real interesting.
At least new players that decide to role 2-3 toons... can have fun doing completely different grinds on those toons to start with. When they get there main 4 passives for each toon they could swap tokens around and do the opposite grinds after. Bottom line they could play longer on more toons DIFFERENT content. (instead of doing the same boring rep missions 3 or 4 times for each alt)
Nah, this doesn't even crack top 10. The absolute worst change they made? Was making a skill point cap on the skills system. Back in beta. The rage over that? Hooo boy.
That's also what I was thinking. I have my two charcters that are still way far ahead of my other alts on rep grinds. And now I'm looking at this, and will look at Undine, and for once it could be a somewhat different path for different characters.
I'm intrigued by this long term.
Well put.
I would like the post if the forums allowed.
Why not 8 powers?
8 powers would let anyone who already likes their build to keep it. It'd also provide some more flexibility. Additionally, it would provide a definite hedge against the power creep that you seem to be trying to address.
Seriously, how many times have you complained about randoms in queues lately? How many more do you think you will you have to complain about if power creep constantly raises the bar? And when you notice there aren't very many noobish players around anymore, how many months or weeks do you expect to go by before Cryptic announces a turn off date?
Let me tell you all this, because I have seen it before. I have been exactly where all of us have dreamed on a little NWN server that still runs today, because after nine years of tweaking and playing the same damn character and power creep and players and characters coming and going I achieved that which I had in my naivete sought: I acquired the most powerful character on the server, unmatched in PVP or PVE, and this all kept going because it was an RP server, so for most this wasn't even the actual goal. But I did it, unquestionably, and maybe for a brief time it was fun to be that guy, but that quickly faded as each thing I participated in started going about the same ways. Every PVP event was a curb stomp due to sheer power from longevity of play, rather than any measure of skill. Every PVE event got the same commentary from DMs: Either they balanced to challenge the average party member which resulted in me stomping the entire thing flat, or they balanced to challenge my character which resulted in most of the rest of the party being dead by round two, and this just wasn't fun for anyone. I once stood out in the open just to passively tank a group of a half-dozen archers that were up a cliff while the rest of the party healed, and did so with no issue. ONE of these archers switched targets to an average member of the party who got a little too close. After a round of combat he had been chunked to near death and he was spamming healing kits. I could only watch while his healing was completely out-DPSed and within 3 rounds or so he was dead.
There was just no middle ground for this. How can you balance this when one character can wreck a 4-5 of a thing that most of the rest could barely deal with one on one? This is what happens in that model, and it's no fun for anyone involved, not for those who are eternally beneath the elite, and not even for those at the top. Because at the top you will find, one day, that you have no one to play with.
tl;dr: Power creep is bad. New players being able to get on our level in a more reasonable time frame means more people to play with and have fun.
Different topic for a later dev blog. Give em time.
I'd like to know this as well. Maybe I'd pvp more if it happened.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
That said, the new rep systems will have to be better than the current ones to get people to put in the time and EC to complete them which mean new players will still skip the current ones to get the new better passives.
Also I love how they use the phrase "if we had 200" and "if we had 100". At the rate of 2 new reps a year (assuming we get two new seasons or expansions each year) we will hit that level of reps in only 48 years. Yeah the doom associated with 100+ reps systems and their associated passives are impending. Pro Marketing tip to the blog writer....if you are trying to persuade people that something is needed use a plausible argument.
Then what is the point of working to get the best out of a ship. If someone does not know how to use their ship. They should work to make their ship better like we did. I use to do low dps but I put TIME and MONEY into making my ship better. I like some of the revamp but your taking to much away at same time. This would be considered fraud in the real world. To take something away that someone spent a lot of effort in getting.
Dyson: T1/T2 Crit Severity. Simple as that. Especially now, with the Effect at 20%, up from 10.
Nukara: T1/T2 Shield Bleedthrough. Same as the previous line.
New Romulus: T1/T2 Crit Hit Chance. No Brainer, as the previous two.
Thus, 1 Space and Ground Slot is left.
A middle ground for this new system should, in my opinion, be: For each new Reputation line, 1 Space and Ground Passive Slot gets added. Since unless future Rep lines come with passives that are even stronger than the 6 choices above, we will STILL end up with only 1 slot actually being available on space/ground.
I don't disagree with any of that. I was simply arguing the point of entitlement, which is a word I see getting tossed around too much.
If the real issue is the future of the game, they also do need to keep in mind the veteran players. I will adjust to this system, like I do with any change. I don't like it, and I find it constricting. Many of the passives I will never use, and I assume that is the case for most. The limit of 4 though I think is the biggest problem. I feel like 8 would be too much as it wouldn't do anything to quell the current problem, but 4 is too low. I think 6 is a fair number.
I am not actually a fan of the powers getting buffed however. Some passives are really powerful as they are, and I can already see some very deadly things I can do with the buffed ones. I think they should stay as they are, with the few minor changes here and there to some skills, and up the cap to 6, or as some have said, 8 universal.
In your comparison to LOtRO, you miss the very important aspect of your passive slots increased as you leveled up. Now, I haven't played in over a year or so, but if I remember correctly, at max level you have 5, that you earned through leveling. Every new player got 2, but veterans got more because they actually put time into leveling their character.
This change is just a blanket "everyone has 4".
I agree that the playing field needs to be somewhat leveled, but this is a very drastic measure towards a not very drastic problem.
OK, let's assume Hawk has the authority to make that so.
What about extra trait slots?
Can we get an equally unequivocal promise that these, if ever created, will also be free?
In other words, they wont be hidden in tier 2 and 3 of a new holding?
Because if not, then this is a case of taking stuff away to sell it back to us later.
Total nonsense. No noob is going to go into a PvE instance and see some veteran blowing up borg ships 2x as fast and complain. She'll be done and out of that instance, maybe even with the sidequest done, in half the time.
Total nonsense. This is a nerf and if it really does have nothing to do with PvP, we'll soon see the monetization behind it.
Not really.
The stated aim of the proposed change is to address power creep.
Lock box ships, at least some of them, are part of that problem.
As are some zen ships.
There's not a lot of point fiddling around with one mechanism, with minimal impact on power creep, and ignoring those other items, if your stated aim is to address power creep.
This is a bit like someone saying we want to address world hunger, so we're working on tackling obesity in Florida.
How would this solve the Power Creep?
This will make players do less grinding especially for players who grind only or mostly for Rep Traits thats not really comparable to the ones that Cryptic Buff'd for S9 especially if players can only use 4 for Space or Ground.
Why not make a Rep Trait Pool of 8 Universals instead of a Restricted 4 Space and 4 Ground since like i said b4 that Skill tree in this game force to make ur character either a very good Space and Ground character and any1 that's balance in both fronts would most likely will be killed.
8 Universal Rep Traits Pool (of course w/load out or respec like Reg Traits) brings more diversity to characters either they're space or ground without the need for more ppl spamming the same hand full of OP Rep Traits that Cryptic planned for S9... cause that will not solve the power creep issue if most or if not every1 using 100% passive 5% crit, 100% passive 20% Crit Dmg, 100% passive bonus Weapon Dmg and so on.
I agree entirely. I personally much prefer a hot-swappable selection of powerful passive choices than the current power-creepy system.
I'm sorry that some people are dismayed by this change, but it seems to me that once people get to play with this for a bit, they won't miss the current system. Just on paper, I can see this being pretty nice for most if not all of my builds. As always, time will tell.
I hear what you (and a few others are saying) Yes we did earn the reps.
However they are not being taken away. They are simply only allowing us to activate 4 at a time. I am still glad I will have the option to choose which ones I want to have on... I unlocked them all, so I can swap back and forth.
New players can choose to unlock only 4 they want... or unlock them all and play around with them like we have.
Lets be completely honest this game is NOT that hard to set your toon up... in MMO terms this game is easy. Compare this to one of the old guard MMOs and its kindergarden.
Makes me think of the system in LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online) where you can earn passive traits by doing X Y or Z. (Killing 1000 of this or completing this area ect) Each passive would level up to 10 and get a bit better each level. However you where limited to X number of them slotted at one time. (which you could respec if you wanted).
Many players in LOTRO would pick a hanful of traits they felt where a benifit to there build and they would go and earn them and slot them.... others would be completionist and earn them ALL and swap around as they liked... and most would earn enough for a few load outs.
The nice thing was a new player could fill there basic trait list pretty quick, and be mostly on par with long time players. However as they played they unlocked more traits and some of the harder to earn ones that where slightly better.
It worked in that game BECAUSE there was a limit on the number of active traits. With out a limit new players would have had to put in months of grind content to catch up.
I like this new system... in a week or so new players can have 4 half decent tier 2 space traits to slot... and really 4 ground ones in a couple days. That is enough to be close to equal in terms of content they can tackle.... after that they can earn there better ones and optional ones that would allow them to swap builds ect.
I would add the 4th must have as the Omega tier 2 passive damage increase.
There, we already got the cookie cutter set up folks!
Are there any plans (like community participation in the past) of providing an in-game reward for Tribble participation?
We've had some cool Tribble prizes for past testing endeavors. I'm curious if there's a reward planned or not.
Cryptic: Dangle the cheese. More testers, more feedback...
Lock boxes have been around since before the reputation system. The power disparity they provide is just as large or larger but it won't go away because the devs don't actually care about balance.
They never have, it's part of why PVP has always been so messed up, the only reason this change happened is because it had to. Anyone with half a cents worth of foresight could see that activated powers could only be provided so many times, but instead of dealing with this off the bat when reputation was created the devs allowed everyone to slave through minimal amounts of content repeatedly for these rewards. The answer to the problem is just as dumb as the problems creation, the devs deserve every bit of backlash they get for this.
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Here I have to ask again - why would I play season 9 rep????
I hope there's a really good reason to do so because I was really looking forward to it.
I actually like the rep grinds (except nukara). But I'm questioning whether I would bother now
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Ok, you often make observations i can agree with but the above is semantic hogwash.
They are taking away the ability to have the passives we have earned active all the time, as was originally intended.
While you may well have valid points regarding power creep, this continued denial of the essential character of this change is not making you more credible.