No matter what is done someone is going to be upset.
That is an other problem, yes. The alleged nerf through the rep system changes already caused a wild outcry, now imagine what would happen, if they would nerf weapons or even ships, people paid for.
Again: The powercreep of the players is NOT the problem, honestly it is really small compared to the time the game is running by now.
Look at WoW for example, they now have to cut the damage and health numbers across the board by like 99%, because the have grown so large over the years, that they would reach technical limitations with the next expansion otherwise. The final boss of the first raid instance had around 1,2 million health points and you would kill him with 40 players. The final boss of the last raid instance had all in all over 3.500 million health points (they actually had to have him heal multiple times during the encounter, because this number would have caused problems with the memory otherwise) and you fight him with only 25 people.
THAT is powercreep, but the pve content kept up. The players became more powerful and so did their enemies. In STO we sill fight the final boss of the first raid instance (so to speak), but with gear well beyond him.
Why would they design new ships, that then no one would buy, because they are TRIBBLE?
The problem isn't the growing powers of the players (that is absolutely normal in an MMO), the problem is, that the PvE content doesn't keep up. We still play essential the same Borg STFs, we played years ago (if anything, they were even easier). Back then they were somewhat of a challenge, at least in PUGs, now people have to deliberately sabotage them, to fail the optionals.
Actually you're right about the lack of new challenging content. And they will just buff the enemies in the same content. But that causes problems for the fresh 50 since they won't have anything they will really be able to do. The best solution is just to get new challenging content for the vets to do that keeps up with the things they introduce.
___________________
"There is no problem in the universe that can't be solved with a bribe, a paid assassin, or an overpowered fighter." - Chubain from Jumpgate Evolution
Here we go, again. Paying with cash, ingame currency and time is basically all cost and not FREE. Free would be if I gave you something for absolutely nothing.
nothing in this game is given away for absolutely nothing, with the exception of c-store giveaways.
everything that you get in game is earned in one way or another whether its for playing a mission, earning it from reputation, buying it with earned ec for items on the exchange or selling your earned dilithium for zen and buying it from the c-store.
in that respect I guess we are all pay to win in a way though I prefer to look on it as play to win when everything I have purchased with the exception of my lifetime sub has been earned by playing and not by paying.
and if they had sold lifetime sub on the c-store I would have earned that by playing also, sadly you can only get it outside of the game by paying cash.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
They just want to using Reputations as padding the game and call it "end game" without actually doing what been asked again and again, that is more missions.
They believe that is "healthy" to have hundreds of adventure zones and instance group dungeons as the proper gameworld feels smaller and smaller because in statistics it looks that way, powerpoint presentations of how the game is "growing".
At one point that card castle is going to collapse over its own weight, this isnt about "selling power" because you can buy power AND get your passives, even time invested is just 40 days but they realized that we reached the point were there are more Passives from reps that from Traits.
In short, this is nothing but a attempt to prolong a system (Reputation) into infinity, nothing with "new players" because at one point they would be asking 10+ hours per day to level the 400 Reputations they added, at one point the system will so massively bloated that will overshadow all other aspects of the game.
Then what?
I doubt they have a answer for that and are taking the short road.
Sadly, and I agree with this to a point, the adventure zones / instanced group dungeons are "better endgame content" than piles of plot-advancing missions, especially on a design cost vs. use ratio calculation.
Compare - Season 8 gave us 2 "story" missions, the one that gives us the Obelisk Carrier and "Step Between Stars" for the Solanae set. How much "complaints" did we hear about replaying those missions, over and over, to complete the set(s) on multiple alts - vs. - the number of complaints about replaying the "Dyson STFs" and the Dyson Ground Battlezone.
Boredom "tended" to set in on alt #3, and you only had to play the Obelisk one twice to get it's full haul (unless you wanted 6 AP weapons).
Also consider how many people use the LoR missions (last major release of a string of mission content) as a "primary" income source vs. those who, to this day, use the STFs (ISE in particular) as a primary income source. Also note that there is a vocal minority now complaining about Defera (the first ever "adventure zone" IIRC), because it's still viable to this day on an Omega/Fleet Mark needing character...
Now don't get me wrong, I firmly believe that both are truly necessary for endgame, say a 5-pack "FE sized" mission release giving us the actual story for the season at a minimum and then the grind-zone to get us through the season's reputation in a fairly comfortable pace, instead of this "your missions are just an introduction to the grind variety we 'gave' you" we got with Solanae... And even if said 5 pack FE was released on a tier-by-tier rate (sorta like they tried with Romulan Rep and those missions, though there needs to be more "mission" in those...), we'd be doing a bit better than 5 cutscenes and an uncontested lap through the sphere...
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]
I guess we are supposed to believe what he thinks over what the dev actually said about reducing the gap. SMH
Actually that would mean he's calling the dev a liar. I can go with that. lol
I will say it for the third time in the hope you understand. i am not calling the devs a liar and that im not putting what i think over what the devs said.
what you said was;
"If they really want any fresh 50 to be on par with vet 50's..."
I told you thats not what they want. On par means a very specific thing. the devs have never said they want a fresh 50 on par with a vet 50 or have any intentions of going down that route.
what they want it to stop the gap from growing ever wider. thats a very different thing from having everyone on par.
what you said, that spawned this whole conversion was wrong, maybe you wrote it wrong, maybe you did not, i dont know as i can only respond to what was written, but the devs do not want fresh 50's to be on par with vet 50's and have said no such thing to suggest they do. get it?
The problem isn't the growing powers of the players (that is absolutely normal in an MMO), the problem is, that the PvE content doesn't keep up. We still play essential the same Borg STFs, we played years ago (if anything, they were even easier). Back then they were somewhat of a challenge, at least in PUGs, now people have to deliberately sabotage them, to fail the optionals.
Problem just is, that cranking up the STFs makes them too hard for entry-level VA Captains, which Cryptic doesn't want either.
Reason I grow tired is the nerfs that cryptic does time a time again doesn't help there are people out there that can and do justify anything.
I have been here since beta and I can say I have been here for the fleet mark debacle, the mail system nerf, the fleet grind debacle and now this every time I have been there people have defended cryptic.
I wish not to see the game fail and close out I ma trying to make it clear what I feel they are doing is not sitting well with me and as it would seem many others.
If its not people trying to defend cryptic at every turn its unfixed bugs that keep growing each patch some that have been here for as long as the game has been out.
Right now aside from the eye candy that is ESD/earth in the next major update, I am just tired of the nerfs and grind and nerfs to effort put into these grind both rep and fleet wise just to try to squeeze a few extra bucks out of us. That or the attempt to add more grind and more drives to spend more money to speed things along.
So for me I am going to take a break as I mention a few pages back just to see how things play out but to also give me a break from very large grind I do on too many characters each day for both rep and fleet.
what they want to do is make sure that this one system does not have unlimited growth with no cap so that the gap that already exists does not get bigger and bigger. so yes they want to curb it, but thats not the same thing as on par.
I agree they're trying to cap character growth from what is arguably their main content releases. Which will make people less apt to do the rep grinds, which in turn will mean they will stop releasing new reps.
Which makes me wonder, how WILL they go about letting character's grow then? If we all get capped with reps, there's very little incentive to keep playing for most of the playerbase. Could they be looking to tie character growth more directly with store purchases?
OWK: "These aren't the Romulans you're looking for."
Stormtrooper: "These aren't the Romulans we're looking for."
OWK: "They can go about their business. Move along."
Stormtrooper: "They can go about their business. Move along. Move along."
Comments
Again: The powercreep of the players is NOT the problem, honestly it is really small compared to the time the game is running by now.
Look at WoW for example, they now have to cut the damage and health numbers across the board by like 99%, because the have grown so large over the years, that they would reach technical limitations with the next expansion otherwise. The final boss of the first raid instance had around 1,2 million health points and you would kill him with 40 players. The final boss of the last raid instance had all in all over 3.500 million health points (they actually had to have him heal multiple times during the encounter, because this number would have caused problems with the memory otherwise) and you fight him with only 25 people.
THAT is powercreep, but the pve content kept up. The players became more powerful and so did their enemies. In STO we sill fight the final boss of the first raid instance (so to speak), but with gear well beyond him.
Actually you're right about the lack of new challenging content. And they will just buff the enemies in the same content. But that causes problems for the fresh 50 since they won't have anything they will really be able to do. The best solution is just to get new challenging content for the vets to do that keeps up with the things they introduce.
"There is no problem in the universe that can't be solved with a bribe, a paid assassin, or an overpowered fighter." - Chubain from Jumpgate Evolution
nothing in this game is given away for absolutely nothing, with the exception of c-store giveaways.
everything that you get in game is earned in one way or another whether its for playing a mission, earning it from reputation, buying it with earned ec for items on the exchange or selling your earned dilithium for zen and buying it from the c-store.
in that respect I guess we are all pay to win in a way though I prefer to look on it as play to win when everything I have purchased with the exception of my lifetime sub has been earned by playing and not by paying.
and if they had sold lifetime sub on the c-store I would have earned that by playing also, sadly you can only get it outside of the game by paying cash.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
Sadly, and I agree with this to a point, the adventure zones / instanced group dungeons are "better endgame content" than piles of plot-advancing missions, especially on a design cost vs. use ratio calculation.
Compare - Season 8 gave us 2 "story" missions, the one that gives us the Obelisk Carrier and "Step Between Stars" for the Solanae set. How much "complaints" did we hear about replaying those missions, over and over, to complete the set(s) on multiple alts - vs. - the number of complaints about replaying the "Dyson STFs" and the Dyson Ground Battlezone.
Boredom "tended" to set in on alt #3, and you only had to play the Obelisk one twice to get it's full haul (unless you wanted 6 AP weapons).
Also consider how many people use the LoR missions (last major release of a string of mission content) as a "primary" income source vs. those who, to this day, use the STFs (ISE in particular) as a primary income source. Also note that there is a vocal minority now complaining about Defera (the first ever "adventure zone" IIRC), because it's still viable to this day on an Omega/Fleet Mark needing character...
Now don't get me wrong, I firmly believe that both are truly necessary for endgame, say a 5-pack "FE sized" mission release giving us the actual story for the season at a minimum and then the grind-zone to get us through the season's reputation in a fairly comfortable pace, instead of this "your missions are just an introduction to the grind variety we 'gave' you" we got with Solanae... And even if said 5 pack FE was released on a tier-by-tier rate (sorta like they tried with Romulan Rep and those missions, though there needs to be more "mission" in those...), we'd be doing a bit better than 5 cutscenes and an uncontested lap through the sphere...
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]
I will say it for the third time in the hope you understand. i am not calling the devs a liar and that im not putting what i think over what the devs said.
what you said was;
"If they really want any fresh 50 to be on par with vet 50's..."
I told you thats not what they want. On par means a very specific thing. the devs have never said they want a fresh 50 on par with a vet 50 or have any intentions of going down that route.
what they want it to stop the gap from growing ever wider. thats a very different thing from having everyone on par.
what you said, that spawned this whole conversion was wrong, maybe you wrote it wrong, maybe you did not, i dont know as i can only respond to what was written, but the devs do not want fresh 50's to be on par with vet 50's and have said no such thing to suggest they do. get it?
Problem just is, that cranking up the STFs makes them too hard for entry-level VA Captains, which Cryptic doesn't want either.
What we need is simply a true Elite mode.
I have been here since beta and I can say I have been here for the fleet mark debacle, the mail system nerf, the fleet grind debacle and now this every time I have been there people have defended cryptic.
I wish not to see the game fail and close out I ma trying to make it clear what I feel they are doing is not sitting well with me and as it would seem many others.
If its not people trying to defend cryptic at every turn its unfixed bugs that keep growing each patch some that have been here for as long as the game has been out.
Right now aside from the eye candy that is ESD/earth in the next major update, I am just tired of the nerfs and grind and nerfs to effort put into these grind both rep and fleet wise just to try to squeeze a few extra bucks out of us. That or the attempt to add more grind and more drives to spend more money to speed things along.
So for me I am going to take a break as I mention a few pages back just to see how things play out but to also give me a break from very large grind I do on too many characters each day for both rep and fleet.
I agree they're trying to cap character growth from what is arguably their main content releases. Which will make people less apt to do the rep grinds, which in turn will mean they will stop releasing new reps.
Which makes me wonder, how WILL they go about letting character's grow then? If we all get capped with reps, there's very little incentive to keep playing for most of the playerbase. Could they be looking to tie character growth more directly with store purchases?
OWK: "These aren't the Romulans you're looking for."
Stormtrooper: "These aren't the Romulans we're looking for."
OWK: "They can go about their business. Move along."
Stormtrooper: "They can go about their business. Move along. Move along."