I remember when they were making changes to the talent system in WoW and people complained, I was there for two of them and yes I was one of the complainers. It was more from the way it was described in the blogs it was a little difficult to get an idea of what was going to happen. A number of us thought we were going to lose a lot.
However when it was actually introduced a number o use who complained went on to say we actually liked the changes. It was because we could see the layout and how they worked.
The same happened when skills were being removed or combined into one. Again a number of us complained, again I was one of them. We complained for the same reason to do with the talent changes. When the changes happened, again, a number of us who complained then went onto say we liked the changes as they worked better than before. For example it was more logical that x, y, and z resitances were combined into one skill as they set each onto a cool down this way we had them in one spell with the same cool down.
I say I don;t like what I have read, but with previous experience I am not going to say it is a bad thing. For the same reason as the above, so I will wait and see exactly how they work out. I like the idea of choices and consequences in games.
I remember when they were making changes to the talent system in WoW and people complained, I was there for two of them and yes I was one of the complainers. It was more from the way it was described in the blogs it was a little difficult to get an idea of what was going to happen. A number of us thought we were going to lose a lot.
However when it was actually introduced a number o use who complained went on to say we actually liked the changes. It was because we could see the layout and how they worked.
The same happened when skills were being removed or combined into one. Again a number of us complained, again I was one of them. We complained for the same reason to do with the talent changes. When the changes happened, again, a number of us who complained then went onto say we liked the changes as they worked better than before. For example it was more logical that x, y, and z resitances were combined into one skill as they set each onto a cool down this way we had them in one spell with the same cool down.
I say I don;t like what I have read, but with previous experience I am not going to say it is a bad thing. For the same reason as the above, so I will wait and see exactly how they work out. I like the idea of choices and consequences in games.
So what you are saying is you don't mind MMORPG's constantly limiting advancement, when they can simply make more challenge?
Oh all while keeping and adding more grind to go with that ever changing limitations.
More than you think, I would bet. Not a lot of the forum folks who tend to be serious about the game and builds, but countless current players currently do not have all 4 reps at t5. This is a buff for those people, while its a nerf for those who earned it all. I am probably one of the most hurt by the way... 4/6 chars at t5 in all 4, played about 4 months, lot of wasted EC & time to get those passives just to lose them soon. But I understand the why of it, and approve.
Got to have some factual numbers to show for this, even though both of us are using opinion here, but I see more player's leaving MMO's due to limitations with ever more increased grind with no real rewards.
This change will hopefully make some builds not quite as powerful and this seems to be a change in cryptics view of balance.
I'm calling it : Next change will be limits to universal consoles. Or all out universal console slots either way they'll be restricted.
Holy Hell we might actually have a game on our hands!
Holy Hell, I can't believe all these nerfers are getting their way! I was more right about my 2-piece Borg set nerf than I thought: it's become a game where a bunch of spiteful folks want nothing but to nerf, nerf, nerf. All in the name of 'balance,' of course. It's disturbing to watch so many ppl gleeful at the opportunity to take away from others.
Well that's a decent list to start, but tons more need be applied. If we want balance in pvp you need eliminate all use of doff's/boff traits/rep traits/all ship consoles except the unique ship ones/allow only batteries and weapon platform devices/forced plain jane ship gear (no fleet/lobi/store or rep).
Only than would this bring a huge balance to the game from a pvp perspective, but good luck getting this to happen.
This would
Well I don't think they need to go that far honestly.
Boff trait add a diminishing return and its fixed... make a third of any of the doffs (including romulan) almost pointless due to diminishing returns. (that would work for both pvp and pve just fine)
doffs are also find in PvP... what is NOT fine is a handful that need to be corrected. Tech doffs for instance. (are fine) what is not fine is that Bort moved A2B off of the EPTx global... which was a massive mistake. Put it back on that global and the doff is once again fine. There are a small number of others that also need tweeked. Over all though the system is not a major issue for PvP if they adress the worse of the worse doffs.
Traits if Cryptic doens't back step on this change are fixed for pvp now.
Ship consoles I do agree I would add uni console slots... and I think that again fixes the issue for both pvp and pve.
I think that is the key... good mechanics in PvP = good mechanics in PvE. I know the devs believe that so its not impossible to see some good changes for PvP happen.
They have announced they are putting a No team Que on tribble... and replacing FvK / FvF / KvK with a standard PvP que with mixed teams. I would love to see them incorperate the auto balancing style tools we have been using in TD... but that is another long winded topic. lol
Nope it would require far more than nerfing rep traits, to bring balance to an all out dps race of a game.
And builds will potentially be more powerful even with fewer rep traits, due to the doubling of the dps only output rep traits.
Simply not true... more DPS yes if they go ahead with the boosting of a few traits. Still overall those people will be giving up the massive amounts of Healing they are getting now from the rest of the traits.
One of the main issues people complain about is escorts tanking... and "Vaper" builds not dying. Well they will have a much harder time of that if they decide to Not take any defensive traits in favor of all offense. Right now there is no choice... they get it all.
Simply not true... more DPS yes if they go ahead with the boosting of a few traits. Still overall those people will be giving up the massive amounts of Healing they are getting now from the rest of the traits.
One of the main issues people complain about is escorts tanking... and "Vaper" builds not dying. Well they will have a much harder time of that if they decide to Not take any defensive traits in favor of all offense. Right now there is no choice... they get it all.
Not really at all,
if they buffing the powers as it seems they will still be able to get the same balance as we already have anyway, its just another pointless change.
Well I don't think they need to go that far honestly.
Boff trait add a diminishing return and its fixed... make a third of any of the doffs (including romulan) almost pointless due to diminishing returns. (that would work for both pvp and pve just fine)
doffs are also find in PvP... what is NOT fine is a handful that need to be corrected. Tech doffs for instance. (are fine) what is not fine is that Bort moved A2B off of the EPTx global... which was a massive mistake. Put it back on that global and the doff is once again fine. There are a small number of others that also need tweeked. Over all though the system is not a major issue for PvP if they adress the worse of the worse doffs.
Traits if Cryptic doens't back step on this change are fixed for pvp now.
Ship consoles I do agree I would add uni console slots... and I think that again fixes the issue for both pvp and pve.
I think that is the key... good mechanics in PvP = good mechanics in PvE. I know the devs believe that so its not impossible to see some good changes for PvP happen.
They have announced they are putting a No team Que on tribble... and replacing FvK / FvF / KvK with a standard PvP que with mixed teams. I would love to see them incorperate the auto balancing style tools we have been using in TD... but that is another long winded topic. lol
I love how people can say they are all gungho for rep traits being limited, but ooooooh nooooo not my ships, boff's, doff's, traits, consoles, lockbox toys, etc... such a quick turn around when those to would involve changes such as the reputation change to better bring as some want balance to the game. Funny huh? :rolleyes:
So what you are saying is you don't mind MMORPG's constantly limiting advancement, when they can simply make more challenge?
Oh all while keeping and adding more grind to go with that ever changing limitations.
Nope what I am saying is we need to see how it will work, as theory and practice can be totally different. There is nothing wrong with choices and consequences in games and traits/talent. We already have it with character traits.
I agree there should be more challenge. Even as a "casual", what ever that means, player I am happy for there to be content like raids that are for those who want that level of challenge. As a mostly PvE player I would be happy if they took the time to sort out the mess that is PvP for those that like the challenge of that, it might even get some of us PvE'ers into PvP.
Games without limitations are not fun. I remember the "god mode" cheats in games that made it impossible to fail, or the ones that allowed you to get more currency and so not worry about management in SIM type games. There should be limitations or where do we end up with unending numbers increase?
Even BLizzard is going down the road of the great numbers squish because things have gotten out hand where you have players with more health than raid bosses of an expansion or two ago. This was from their just making the numbers grater and not looking to the future.
Limitations also drive off player's, guess they will see how effective their change really is. :rolleyes:
And as it stands there is no limitation in interesting or customizability currently, and not everyone ends up with everything without spending or grinding the new system isn't going to effect any of that.
You're "limited" to having a certain number of skill points to distribute. You're "limited" to the number of BOFF abilities you can have on a ship. You're "limited" to the number of DOFFs you can have at a time. You're "limited" to the number of consoles you can put on a ship.
I may be wrong, but all of the limitations I've listed above haven't driven players of just yet. I really don't think this new limitation will, either.
Limitations create choice. If you can't have everything you choose the things that you want. This will create more diversity. Instead of everyone having everything now everyone will have the abilities they choose.
I may be wrong, but all of the limitations I've listed above haven't driven players of just yet. I really don't think this new limitation will, either.
Yeah. Now see what happens when we *remove* 8 boff abilities from your ship! Cuz that's what's happening here: Cryptic did not just set a limit (big deal), but they saw your 12 passive rep abilities, and decided to ony let you keep 4 in effect at the time.
Limitations create choice. If you can't have everything you choose the things that you want. This will create more diversity. Instead of everyone having everything now everyone will have the abilities they choose.
Bullocks. Remind me to ask your boss to cut your pay-check in half: sure, it will sting a bit, but, hey, you can't have everything, so you'll choose the things that you want, from here on in.
Archon did confirm that having loadouts for Reputation Traits is one of their design goals that might not be ready when these changes launch.
Loadouts will give us IDIC without OP.
I would prefer that they not launch this change until loadout functionality is available, but if the Undine rep is already built around Traits and it's launching as part of Season 9... I recognize that it will probably launch with or without it.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Yeah. Now see what happens when we *remove* 8 boff abilities from your ship! Cuz that's what's happening here: Cryptic did not just set a limit (big deal), but they saw your 12 passive rep abilities, and decided to ony let you keep 4 in effect at the time.
Biggest. Nerf. Ever.
Seriously? Boff abilities are WAY more important than the rep passives.
Bullocks. Remind me to ask your boss to cut your pay-check in half: sure, it will sting a bit, but, hey, you can't have everything, so you'll choose the things that you want, from here on in.
Sound like a plan?!
Good example. Unfortunately not accurate.
A more correct example would be if you were were on infinite pay and then your boss cut you down to your current pay level. Why infinite pay? Because in-game you are going from a system where you can possess every rep power in existence to a portion of all of those rep powers.
It's plain to see that some people are not really looking at what is good for the game long term because all they can see is what is being taken from them.
The whole concept of this idea is TRIBBLE, 25 total rep traits, for which you can now only have 4 ground and 4 space active at any time.
This statement I totally agree with. Cryptic has already set me off with the revamp of the Galaxy Classes IE: my disappointment with the fleet Dreadnought of which I have deleted almost all my characters/avatars over, and now this? x4 Space Rep Traits and x4 Ground? alright since Cryptic is going to play this out like that and or if they go through with it for Season 9 I will delete my last character, and never again play a game/s owned or other by Cryptic & PWE. Too many times have I been disappointed about the changes made (And many of them not for the better). This is bull****!
my 2 cents is why are us vets being penalized for cryptics lack of foresight. sure, it makes sense and all, but i am so sick of hearing how all of us who have been busting our chops to elevate ourselves to the ceiling of endgame need to be nerfed so "new" players who havnt spent the time or money can be equal.. essentially, what i hear time and time again is that the new players are more important than the old players..
this is why they invent things like regular and elite modes.. its time for the "newer" players to start using the regular modes to build experience, and work their way to the elites.. what next, cryptic is going to reset the game and make eveyrone start from scratch so everyone is on the same playing field..
i know what i said was pve, and i am leaving out pvp, well you need pve to get the rep systems so its kind of a stepping stone..
this is what happens when cryptic gets an idea, talks about it for ten minutes, and then makes it happen. they didnt sit and think about the future at all.
Limitations create choice. If you can't have everything you choose the things that you want. This will create more diversity. Instead of everyone having everything now everyone will have the abilities they choose.
I don't know where you get this funny concept from, because we all are still "limited" and had to "Choose" which passives we wanted after tier completion, which still created diversity. Second we didn't have "Everything" only those passives which a player "Chooses". I am assuming you meant all the passives that were chosen as a whole active at one time.
But either way if Crypitc goes through it, I am leaving this game completely.
I don't know where you get this funny concept from, because we all are still "limited" and had to "Choose" which passives we wanted after tier completion, which still created diversity. Second we didn't have "Everything" only those passives which a player "Chooses". I am assuming you meant all the passives that were chosen as a whole active at one time.
But either way if Crypitc goes through it, I am leaving this game completely.
my 2 cents is why are us vets being penalized for cryptics lack of foresight. sure, it makes sense and all, but i am so sick of hearing how all of us who have been busting our chops to elevate ourselves to the ceiling of endgame need to be nerfed so "new" players who havnt spent the time or money can be equal.. essentially, what i hear time and time again is that the new players are more important than the old players..
this is why they invent things like regular and elite modes.. its time for the "newer" players to start using the regular modes to build experience, and work their way to the elites.. what next, cryptic is going to reset the game and make eveyrone start from scratch so everyone is on the same playing field..
i know what i said was pve, and i am leaving out pvp, well you need pve to get the rep systems so its kind of a stepping stone..
this is what happens when cryptic gets an idea, talks about it for ten minutes, and then makes it happen. they didnt sit and think about the future at all.
Vets like you and I will have all of the existing rep powers to choose from. We also have all of the gear we've unlocked to choose from. New players will still have to work hard to get what we have, but on the way they'll only be a mile behind us, not ten light years.
I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but all games needs to encourage new players to play. Do you really think that new players will want to start playing in a system where they're never going to approach veteran players? The way you talk it sounds like you want to be treated like royalty because you've been here longer than a lot of others.
I'm sure if you had it your way and the game wasn't made more accessible to new players it would die faster than it should. And then you'll be able to tell you kiddies that even though the game you loved died, you were a vet and better than the newer players because you had more stuff.
I like the new system ... Not only because it will level the playing field somewhat between "vets"(read: olde farts who hate change) and "newbs" (read: fresh players who are just starting out) but also with the possibilities of more customized builds and customized content.
Maxing out reputation is approx. 1 month and you can achieve all desired abilities. Nerfing the system is hardly a "level the playing field". It is the opposite: giving a straitforward solution to acquire new abilities _was_ the leveling of the playing field.
Power creep between "new" and "veteran" players is not because of reputation powers. The reasons:
Apparently purposely misreading or misinterpreting posts is the norm now ... So to clarify ...
"Preferred Ship Type" as in the 'story" in the MIE, is such that it's "recommended" or "preferred" for a Science Ship to close Rifts, and it's 'recommended" or preferred" for a Cruiser to power up the satellites ...
Of course it's not necessary in the MIE as it's currently written, but I think maybe Cryptic are looking to see if they can expand on the concept and make it compulsory to have different ship types. The design of the MIE coupled with this new direction for Rep Traits could be nothing of the sort, or it could also be a prelude to more ship/class/trait specific type of content.
What I'm suggesting is that with a limited number of 'currently assigned' Rep Traits, that are more powerful, we will (hopefully) have the opportunity to use "Player Loadouts" that are designed for specific maps/missions.
And I would like to see them on optional maps as 'Requirements" to even play them.
The design of the preferred ships is an ultimate fail in Mirror Universe Elite (and in the new Undine STF on the Tribble).
On paper preferring science ships to close rifts and cruisers to power up relays sounds good.
In reality the preferred ships are escorts with ultrahigh DPS. A pair of high DPS escorts will close a rift faster then a tank+science pair: they kill the mobs faster and who cares if the actual closing interaction is a littlebit slower.
Maxing out reputation is approx. 1 month and you can achieve all desired abilities. Nerfing the system is hardly a "level the playing field". It is the opposite: giving a straitforward solution to acquire new abilities _was_ the leveling of the playing field.
Power creep between "new" and "veteran" players is not because of reputation powers. The reasons:
You are absolutely insane, or you are a goofball teenager who sits on his butt at home all day. Some of us have lives outside of STO, and since we spend a lot of that life working, WE have the money Cryptic is looking for.
Nothing breaks the tension better than a tankard of warnog - except maybe a good brawl...
Seriously? Quitting the game because you're losing half of the rep powers you have right now?
As far as killing progression entirely, there is an easy way to fix that. I can't imagine they'll leave the rep trait cap at 4x4x4 when we're at 10 reps with 80 passives to choose from. So maybe it is 4x4x4 with only 5 reps, but you get another 1x1x1 for each rep you get to tier 5 after these first 5. So just like increasing the level cap in other games adds abilities that you have to CHOOSE between, you'll get a growing pool of rep traits to choose from and a growing number of slots for them. But these post 50 powers/traits are infinitely respec-able.
Yes, we got nerfed. It happens in every MMO from time to time. Take your ball and go home.
You are absolutely insane, or you are a goofball teenager who sits on his butt at home all day. Some of us have lives outside of STO, and since we spend a lot of that life working, WE have the money Cryptic is looking for.
What is insane?
I'm 32 years old, I have a job, I have lots of activities outside of gaming.
Maxing out reputation levels are _not_ a huge amount of time - especially with the changes in S9.
Maxing out Dyson rep is 5 minutes playtime per day:
- go to Dyson sphere
- hail Dyson command
- do a quick 3-5 minutes long mission
And voila, you finished your daily Dyson "grind".
All other reputations will be similar to this: do a quick mission and you will receive enough marks to start a daily and 1 hourly reputation project.
OK, if you have no time to grind multiple reputations because you have half an hour playtime per day - no problem, you will max out your reputation in 2 or 3 month, not in one month.
Comments
This change will hopefully make some builds not quite as powerful and this seems to be a change in cryptics view of balance.
I'm calling it : Next change will be limits to universal consoles. Or all out universal console slots either way they'll be restricted.
Holy Hell we might actually have a game on our hands!
However when it was actually introduced a number o use who complained went on to say we actually liked the changes. It was because we could see the layout and how they worked.
The same happened when skills were being removed or combined into one. Again a number of us complained, again I was one of them. We complained for the same reason to do with the talent changes. When the changes happened, again, a number of us who complained then went onto say we liked the changes as they worked better than before. For example it was more logical that x, y, and z resitances were combined into one skill as they set each onto a cool down this way we had them in one spell with the same cool down.
I say I don;t like what I have read, but with previous experience I am not going to say it is a bad thing. For the same reason as the above, so I will wait and see exactly how they work out. I like the idea of choices and consequences in games.
Nope it would require far more than nerfing rep traits, to bring balance to an all out dps race of a game.
And builds will potentially be more powerful even with fewer rep traits, due to the doubling of the dps only output rep traits.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
So what you are saying is you don't mind MMORPG's constantly limiting advancement, when they can simply make more challenge?
Oh all while keeping and adding more grind to go with that ever changing limitations.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Got to have some factual numbers to show for this, even though both of us are using opinion here, but I see more player's leaving MMO's due to limitations with ever more increased grind with no real rewards.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Holy Hell, I can't believe all these nerfers are getting their way! I was more right about my 2-piece Borg set nerf than I thought: it's become a game where a bunch of spiteful folks want nothing but to nerf, nerf, nerf. All in the name of 'balance,' of course. It's disturbing to watch so many ppl gleeful at the opportunity to take away from others.
Well I don't think they need to go that far honestly.
Boff trait add a diminishing return and its fixed... make a third of any of the doffs (including romulan) almost pointless due to diminishing returns. (that would work for both pvp and pve just fine)
doffs are also find in PvP... what is NOT fine is a handful that need to be corrected. Tech doffs for instance. (are fine) what is not fine is that Bort moved A2B off of the EPTx global... which was a massive mistake. Put it back on that global and the doff is once again fine. There are a small number of others that also need tweeked. Over all though the system is not a major issue for PvP if they adress the worse of the worse doffs.
Traits if Cryptic doens't back step on this change are fixed for pvp now.
Ship consoles I do agree I would add uni console slots... and I think that again fixes the issue for both pvp and pve.
I think that is the key... good mechanics in PvP = good mechanics in PvE. I know the devs believe that so its not impossible to see some good changes for PvP happen.
They have announced they are putting a No team Que on tribble... and replacing FvK / FvF / KvK with a standard PvP que with mixed teams. I would love to see them incorperate the auto balancing style tools we have been using in TD... but that is another long winded topic. lol
Simply not true... more DPS yes if they go ahead with the boosting of a few traits. Still overall those people will be giving up the massive amounts of Healing they are getting now from the rest of the traits.
One of the main issues people complain about is escorts tanking... and "Vaper" builds not dying. Well they will have a much harder time of that if they decide to Not take any defensive traits in favor of all offense. Right now there is no choice... they get it all.
Not really at all,
if they buffing the powers as it seems they will still be able to get the same balance as we already have anyway, its just another pointless change.
I love how people can say they are all gungho for rep traits being limited, but ooooooh nooooo not my ships, boff's, doff's, traits, consoles, lockbox toys, etc... such a quick turn around when those to would involve changes such as the reputation change to better bring as some want balance to the game. Funny huh? :rolleyes:
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Nope what I am saying is we need to see how it will work, as theory and practice can be totally different. There is nothing wrong with choices and consequences in games and traits/talent. We already have it with character traits.
I agree there should be more challenge. Even as a "casual", what ever that means, player I am happy for there to be content like raids that are for those who want that level of challenge. As a mostly PvE player I would be happy if they took the time to sort out the mess that is PvP for those that like the challenge of that, it might even get some of us PvE'ers into PvP.
Games without limitations are not fun. I remember the "god mode" cheats in games that made it impossible to fail, or the ones that allowed you to get more currency and so not worry about management in SIM type games. There should be limitations or where do we end up with unending numbers increase?
Even BLizzard is going down the road of the great numbers squish because things have gotten out hand where you have players with more health than raid bosses of an expansion or two ago. This was from their just making the numbers grater and not looking to the future.
You're "limited" to having a certain number of skill points to distribute. You're "limited" to the number of BOFF abilities you can have on a ship. You're "limited" to the number of DOFFs you can have at a time. You're "limited" to the number of consoles you can put on a ship.
I may be wrong, but all of the limitations I've listed above haven't driven players of just yet. I really don't think this new limitation will, either.
Limitations create choice. If you can't have everything you choose the things that you want. This will create more diversity. Instead of everyone having everything now everyone will have the abilities they choose.
Yeah. Now see what happens when we *remove* 8 boff abilities from your ship! Cuz that's what's happening here: Cryptic did not just set a limit (big deal), but they saw your 12 passive rep abilities, and decided to ony let you keep 4 in effect at the time.
Biggest. Nerf. Ever.
Bullocks. Remind me to ask your boss to cut your pay-check in half: sure, it will sting a bit, but, hey, you can't have everything, so you'll choose the things that you want, from here on in.
Sound like a plan?!
Archon did confirm that having loadouts for Reputation Traits is one of their design goals that might not be ready when these changes launch.
Loadouts will give us IDIC without OP.
I would prefer that they not launch this change until loadout functionality is available, but if the Undine rep is already built around Traits and it's launching as part of Season 9... I recognize that it will probably launch with or without it.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
My character Tsin'xing
Good example. Unfortunately not accurate.
A more correct example would be if you were were on infinite pay and then your boss cut you down to your current pay level. Why infinite pay? Because in-game you are going from a system where you can possess every rep power in existence to a portion of all of those rep powers.
It's plain to see that some people are not really looking at what is good for the game long term because all they can see is what is being taken from them.
This statement I totally agree with. Cryptic has already set me off with the revamp of the Galaxy Classes IE: my disappointment with the fleet Dreadnought of which I have deleted almost all my characters/avatars over, and now this? x4 Space Rep Traits and x4 Ground? alright since Cryptic is going to play this out like that and or if they go through with it for Season 9 I will delete my last character, and never again play a game/s owned or other by Cryptic & PWE. Too many times have I been disappointed about the changes made (And many of them not for the better). This is bull****!
this is why they invent things like regular and elite modes.. its time for the "newer" players to start using the regular modes to build experience, and work their way to the elites.. what next, cryptic is going to reset the game and make eveyrone start from scratch so everyone is on the same playing field..
i know what i said was pve, and i am leaving out pvp, well you need pve to get the rep systems so its kind of a stepping stone..
this is what happens when cryptic gets an idea, talks about it for ten minutes, and then makes it happen. they didnt sit and think about the future at all.
I don't know where you get this funny concept from, because we all are still "limited" and had to "Choose" which passives we wanted after tier completion, which still created diversity. Second we didn't have "Everything" only those passives which a player "Chooses". I am assuming you meant all the passives that were chosen as a whole active at one time.
But either way if Crypitc goes through it, I am leaving this game completely.
Can I haz your stuffs?
Vets like you and I will have all of the existing rep powers to choose from. We also have all of the gear we've unlocked to choose from. New players will still have to work hard to get what we have, but on the way they'll only be a mile behind us, not ten light years.
I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but all games needs to encourage new players to play. Do you really think that new players will want to start playing in a system where they're never going to approach veteran players? The way you talk it sounds like you want to be treated like royalty because you've been here longer than a lot of others.
I'm sure if you had it your way and the game wasn't made more accessible to new players it would die faster than it should. And then you'll be able to tell you kiddies that even though the game you loved died, you were a vet and better than the newer players because you had more stuff.
Maxing out reputation is approx. 1 month and you can achieve all desired abilities. Nerfing the system is hardly a "level the playing field". It is the opposite: giving a straitforward solution to acquire new abilities _was_ the leveling of the playing field.
Power creep between "new" and "veteran" players is not because of reputation powers. The reasons:
- unbalanced ship classes (science-cruiser-escort)
- unbalanced ships
- unbalanced consoles, weapons, etc.
http://images.sodahead.com/polls/003474695/4854949832_good_good_let_the_butthurt_flow_through_you_11_xlarge.jpeg
The design of the preferred ships is an ultimate fail in Mirror Universe Elite (and in the new Undine STF on the Tribble).
On paper preferring science ships to close rifts and cruisers to power up relays sounds good.
In reality the preferred ships are escorts with ultrahigh DPS. A pair of high DPS escorts will close a rift faster then a tank+science pair: they kill the mobs faster and who cares if the actual closing interaction is a littlebit slower.
You are absolutely insane, or you are a goofball teenager who sits on his butt at home all day. Some of us have lives outside of STO, and since we spend a lot of that life working, WE have the money Cryptic is looking for.
As far as killing progression entirely, there is an easy way to fix that. I can't imagine they'll leave the rep trait cap at 4x4x4 when we're at 10 reps with 80 passives to choose from. So maybe it is 4x4x4 with only 5 reps, but you get another 1x1x1 for each rep you get to tier 5 after these first 5. So just like increasing the level cap in other games adds abilities that you have to CHOOSE between, you'll get a growing pool of rep traits to choose from and a growing number of slots for them. But these post 50 powers/traits are infinitely respec-able.
Yes, we got nerfed. It happens in every MMO from time to time. Take your ball and go home.
What is insane?
I'm 32 years old, I have a job, I have lots of activities outside of gaming.
Maxing out reputation levels are _not_ a huge amount of time - especially with the changes in S9.
Maxing out Dyson rep is 5 minutes playtime per day:
- go to Dyson sphere
- hail Dyson command
- do a quick 3-5 minutes long mission
And voila, you finished your daily Dyson "grind".
All other reputations will be similar to this: do a quick mission and you will receive enough marks to start a daily and 1 hourly reputation project.
OK, if you have no time to grind multiple reputations because you have half an hour playtime per day - no problem, you will max out your reputation in 2 or 3 month, not in one month.