To some extent I have to agree with the OP - and I have said similar things in the past. Very little of the game is actually explained to you.
You start in your T1 ships and everything is fine, because everyone is using the same basic T1 ship. Then you get promoted into T2 and all of a sudden you are supposed to understand the differences between Cruiser, Science, and Escort - as well as how your chosen Class functions in each of them. There is nothing in game that explains to new players why they might decide to choose a Cruiser over an Science Vessel. And on top of all that you have now had Dilithium and Doffing dumped on you without any real understanding of the importance of Dilithium or exactly how Doffing is supposed to benefit you over time. And all of this happens very quickly because leveling is at Light-speed in the game with you going into a T3 vessel in around 10 /played hours and being at end-game around 25.
I have been here since before the Trek license was even announced as purchased by Cryptic and there are still things in this game I do not fully understand - such as where to hunt-down all the Doff chains or exactly how some of the various Equipable items are calculated into your stats when you slot them or choose a Skill - or why you should choose Engine type A over B, or Shield type D over E, etc. Very little of this game is actually explained while you play - which is why there are always so many repeat questions on the forum constantly.
And yes, all established games have a learning curve that you either deal with or you do not play, but in many instances it seems like STO goes out of its way to not make things intuitive or even marginally understandable.
STO is a game of understanding, I barely understand it, but I chat in the fleet seek out forums and mostly copy paste builds and modify it to my own likes.
Best thing you can do if you can destroy enough ships in an STF without any help you have a good build, but if you can't make a dent in a NPC Shielding then you should rethink your build. ( BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD !!! )
It's a balance you have to find and reading helps you very much.
1. Are you a healer it's wise to have strong shielding to defend you ship while healing others.
2. Are you like the defiant, an tanker you make sure you have an High DPS and a good armor.
3. Are you the one that fly by and shoot down shields you seek the recipe for that...
It's all plusses and minuses, But I agree with the Op in some ways doffing I don't understand it either in some cases, some are clear they give you an extra turret or extra team to beam down.
But the rest I do not understand it, or it doesn't work the way its meant to be.
Also what I do not understand why the heck they make the dill store so expensive. I do have an Idea so you won't buy stuff but grind for it. but if you don't have the time. You get my meaning.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised. It's got me through the worst of the last three years. I beat the Borg with it."
You played another game. One of the worst things and most horrible things on STO is pvp lol. Because it is almost non existent. Because only a few play pvp in STO. Because it is messed up. And the community.. well, im not going to go that way.
Your idea, but I love STO PvP. Just try hopping to OPvP channel and see yourself. We organize spontaneous matches, pugs and talk a lot lol. Or ker'rat (when complaining kids aren't online).
It's true that STO is not always utterly clear in what is required.
A portion of that is just bad tooltips, and to be fair to Cryptic, some effort has gone into making this sort of thing clearer.
However, the OP seems to suggest that complexity is a bad thing.
They're wrong.
Complexity is the fertile soil from which emergent gameplay grows.
Emergent gameplay is, imo, necessary for any game to have longevity.
For myself, even years after starting to play this game and an LTS, not a week goes by without me learning some new nugget of information about the game.
Sometimes its a small thing, sometimes it changes the way i look at everything.
with all the builds for ships, characters, bridge officiers, duty officiers, and now kits. the game is hard to play esp if you want one of the best ships eqipped in game. there too much to learn for no real reward. pvp is horrible. with making the game where you have to think so much in order not to even accomplish something, why bother playing sto? most games you dont have to think half as much in order to get character situated for playing. even the concept of change is great, its alot of work and reading. im starting to think its not worth the effort.
Theres a lot in this game you can do but like half of it you dont have to do to be doing well in this game.
I have been playing STO for around 1000 days and I have not completed ONE rep line. I dont do DOFF either. I dont like pvp as well, but i can just get fleet gear only and be perfectly fine in PVE, getting fleet gear is not hard unless your not in a fleet. I got my ship fitted with fleet gear in 2 weeks or less. This game for me, in terms of is it worth playing, it is, the foundry is amazing and the people who make the missions for foundry are really good at it, plus its F2P and your not limited much by it.
But I mean if you dont like this game, thats cool, but trust me there are way harder games out there.
Here's the thing. Yes, there is a lot, a LOT, of thought that goes into this game. You've mentioned only a fraction of it. But its also what makes this game what it is. Because of all the variables, there are possibilities for thousands of different builds, and everyone can be unique. Yes, PvP does suck, but fortunately its optional. But if you think it takes too much effort, then maybe its not the game for you. Try BSGO or war thunder.
Thank you poster, I needed a laugh today. I get having to think about your gear and kits/powers as those co-inside with playing style/career/etcetera but that's good. I want a game that (with a little effort from me) compliments the way I want to play instead of being forced into a style I don't like. I am a lib.Borg engineer in an adapted battle cruiser, I play a support craft role. However, if I need to tank it takes just a few seconds to swap out a few boffs and gear pieces and tada! tanker!
If you think STO is hard..... well.... I was gonna say go play Farm ville but that would most likely be too hard too.
The only thing that is hard in this game is PvP and that's because you play against other more skilled players, PvE is simple.... so simple.. Just place your face on your keyboard, roll your head from left to right and you win.
Well I suppose who are saying STO is easy are brainiacs from A to Z.
Yeah well give it to the ops face, tease him with it and feel good about yourself,
That you're a smart TRIBBLE and he is not. I'm so sick and tired of people doing this.
What is wrong with get a hand out to someone to help him so he can have fun to.
Damn guys.... :mad:
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised. It's got me through the worst of the last three years. I beat the Borg with it."
OP i remember feeling like you did, it seemed so complicated the walls were closing in, blah blah blah. I recommend looking for a good fleet, and have someone explain things to you, and believe me, it's not really complicated in the end. It just seems that way. But in all seriousness, this is one of the easiest MMORPG i've played.....seriously humans need to think more and figure things out for themselves.
It's possibly to get a very low budget escort class ship for less than 200,000 energy credits, ship included, with no dilithium, no waiting for random drops, and no ZEN purchases needed.
Playing the game is extremely easy for me, having a (free) Dyson Science Destroyer fitted with the (free) Solanae set, and the only work I had to do was hope for reputation crate drops of turrets, dual cannons, and consoles. After a while, I mounted the Dyson reputation torpedo, proton weapon, and console, and I've considered adding the Dyson set instead of the mission set. It didn't take that much time or effort on my part.
It's true that PvP can become extremely difficult, and even some PvE (based on pure chance), because players now have access to such amazing ships, gear, and weapons, but this game has been out for years now, so I can understand that.
If you want an easy game, go play Call of Duty or Halo. STO does require a small amount of strategy simply because there are so many choices of ways to play, and there is no single "best" way to equip yourself or your ship. Anyone can equip a Tier 4 Sovereign with rainbow beams and slap random consoles and abilities onto it, and you can play through missions easily enough. It takes a little bit of thought if you want to truly dominate things like STFs, Nukara missions, and Voth missions. Basically, end game content isn't for those who want to keep everything easy.
with all the builds for ships, characters, bridge officiers, duty officiers, and now kits. the game is hard to play esp if you want one of the best ships eqipped in game. there too much to learn for no real reward. pvp is horrible. with making the game where you have to think so much in order not to even accomplish something, why bother playing sto? most games you dont have to think half as much in order to get character situated for playing. even the concept of change is great, its alot of work and reading. im starting to think its not worth the effort.
i have written this so many times the past few months, will write it again:
instant gratification? no thanks.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
You must be new. This channel seems dead nowadays. I barely see any tyler durden matches. And people in opvp get a team started to stomp the pugs. STO PvP leaves a lot to be desired.
New? Not at all. You probably check OPvP during European morning when most of its players are offline for time zones.
with all the builds for ships, characters, bridge officiers, duty officiers, and now kits. the game is hard to play esp if you want one of the best ships eqipped in game. there too much to learn for no real reward. pvp is horrible. with making the game where you have to think so much in order not to even accomplish something, why bother playing sto? most games you dont have to think half as much in order to get character situated for playing. even the concept of change is great, its alot of work and reading. im starting to think its not worth the effort.
I'm sorry, what? Never mind, this thread topic requires too much thinking...
I would agree the game is hard to play, mainly because its hard to find the willpower to play it when there is no challenging content in the game. This game is so easy its boring.
Even when you get on a legit server it's hard to do things when you're using tasers against people with Rocket Launchers.
Don't be an Enforcer then
No but seriously, that game is so TRIBBLE, virtually everybody has an aimbot. I had managed to have some fun in that game for a few months, but then all of a sudden it was like everyone found that same aimbot at the same time.
That game is also one of the worst offenders of the P2W model I have ever seen. I used to think STO's model was bad, until I played APB.
What is wrong with get a hand out to someone to help him so he can have fun to.
Damn guys.... :mad:
I know exactly what you mean. It's gotten so bad that instead of the devs continually nerfing and putting us down, we're starting to do it to ourselves.
We need unity. We need to come together. And strengthen the foundation of our community. You, me, the OP, we're all in this game together. And together we can overcome any and all hassles and obstacles.
A few things:
The game IS a bit opaque for beginners. But OP, seeing your Join date as Sep 2012 means you've been around over a year, so here are some ideas: (some may be inaccurate/outdated, but very useful for expressing the BASICS of how it works): STO Wiki, YouTube's Yuzral and many others, and the forums, which you are obviously familiar with, has many guides.
Next, you talk about wanting " one of the best ships eqipped in game." Um, lessee, if you want to be the BEST, you have to work HARDER THAN EVERYONE ELSE. So you have two choices: Work harder than everyone else, or enjoy the game as Not The Best. Unless you are THE BEST at some other thing in Life, and feel that Not Being The Best just doesn't work for you, I think you have to Get Over It.
It's pretty hard to SUCK TERRIBLY at this game. You can do quite well in non-Elite content with minimal effort. I found I could easily compete as 'competent' in Elite STFs (space) in only a few months playtime. Thanks to the forums and some light research and thinking (this game, as many other MMOs, require thinking to be a decent performer. To not think is to disrespect the others playing the game. You don't have to be a Professional combat expert, but you cannot play this the same as playing, say, GTA III, just running around and driving over and shooting everything in sight. At least not if you're playing with others.
TLDR: You will get out of the game as much as you are willing to put in. Like everything. Wanna be the best? WORK AT IT. But you don't HAVE to be the best. It's not required. OTOH, 'Not Sucking' is easy in this game.
Please reconsider ARC. Please make it optional, at the least. PLEASE.
It seems the vast majority of your most active players (forum regulars) hate the idea... and while that's a small subset of the playerbase, I think it's an important constituency.
THE PLAYERS DO NOT WANT THIS.
I know exactly what you mean. It's gotten so bad that instead of the devs continually nerfing and putting us down, we're starting to do it to ourselves.
We need unity. We need to come together. And strengthen the foundation of our community. You, me, the OP, we're all in this game together. And together we can overcome any and all hassles and obstacles.
For those of us wondering why Cryptic has seemed hell-bent on dumbing the game down, this thread is actually quite enlightening. The OP is a prime example of the casual-player mindset Cryptic/PW has been bending over backwards to accommodate.
Comments
STO is a game of understanding, I barely understand it, but I chat in the fleet seek out forums and mostly copy paste builds and modify it to my own likes.
Best thing you can do if you can destroy enough ships in an STF without any help you have a good build, but if you can't make a dent in a NPC Shielding then you should rethink your build. ( BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD !!! )
It's a balance you have to find and reading helps you very much.
1. Are you a healer it's wise to have strong shielding to defend you ship while healing others.
2. Are you like the defiant, an tanker you make sure you have an High DPS and a good armor.
3. Are you the one that fly by and shoot down shields you seek the recipe for that...
It's all plusses and minuses, But I agree with the Op in some ways doffing I don't understand it either in some cases, some are clear they give you an extra turret or extra team to beam down.
But the rest I do not understand it, or it doesn't work the way its meant to be.
Also what I do not understand why the heck they make the dill store so expensive. I do have an Idea so you won't buy stuff but grind for it. but if you don't have the time. You get my meaning.
"Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised. It's got me through the worst of the last three years. I beat the Borg with it."
Your idea, but I love STO PvP. Just try hopping to OPvP channel and see yourself. We organize spontaneous matches, pugs and talk a lot lol. Or ker'rat (when complaining kids aren't online).
It's true that STO is not always utterly clear in what is required.
A portion of that is just bad tooltips, and to be fair to Cryptic, some effort has gone into making this sort of thing clearer.
However, the OP seems to suggest that complexity is a bad thing.
They're wrong.
Complexity is the fertile soil from which emergent gameplay grows.
Emergent gameplay is, imo, necessary for any game to have longevity.
For myself, even years after starting to play this game and an LTS, not a week goes by without me learning some new nugget of information about the game.
Sometimes its a small thing, sometimes it changes the way i look at everything.
And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Theres a lot in this game you can do but like half of it you dont have to do to be doing well in this game.
I have been playing STO for around 1000 days and I have not completed ONE rep line. I dont do DOFF either. I dont like pvp as well, but i can just get fleet gear only and be perfectly fine in PVE, getting fleet gear is not hard unless your not in a fleet. I got my ship fitted with fleet gear in 2 weeks or less. This game for me, in terms of is it worth playing, it is, the foundry is amazing and the people who make the missions for foundry are really good at it, plus its F2P and your not limited much by it.
But I mean if you dont like this game, thats cool, but trust me there are way harder games out there.
The only thing that is hard in this game is PvP and that's because you play against other more skilled players, PvE is simple.... so simple.. Just place your face on your keyboard, roll your head from left to right and you win.
APB isn't hard... it's just been TRIBBLE to pieces. No real challenge when everyone cheats.
Yeah well give it to the ops face, tease him with it and feel good about yourself,
That you're a smart TRIBBLE and he is not. I'm so sick and tired of people doing this.
What is wrong with get a hand out to someone to help him so he can have fun to.
Damn guys.... :mad:
"Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised. It's got me through the worst of the last three years. I beat the Borg with it."
guessing if the OP is serious, he is one of the 5 people who like the 6 talentpoint model WoW started using in MoP
I thought WoW's forums had angry elitist snobs, but I never could have imagined the level STO forums has.
system Lord Baal is dead
Playing the game is extremely easy for me, having a (free) Dyson Science Destroyer fitted with the (free) Solanae set, and the only work I had to do was hope for reputation crate drops of turrets, dual cannons, and consoles. After a while, I mounted the Dyson reputation torpedo, proton weapon, and console, and I've considered adding the Dyson set instead of the mission set. It didn't take that much time or effort on my part.
It's true that PvP can become extremely difficult, and even some PvE (based on pure chance), because players now have access to such amazing ships, gear, and weapons, but this game has been out for years now, so I can understand that.
If you want an easy game, go play Call of Duty or Halo. STO does require a small amount of strategy simply because there are so many choices of ways to play, and there is no single "best" way to equip yourself or your ship. Anyone can equip a Tier 4 Sovereign with rainbow beams and slap random consoles and abilities onto it, and you can play through missions easily enough. It takes a little bit of thought if you want to truly dominate things like STFs, Nukara missions, and Voth missions. Basically, end game content isn't for those who want to keep everything easy.
Even when you get on a legit server it's hard to do things when you're using tasers against people with Rocket Launchers.
i have written this so many times the past few months, will write it again:
instant gratification? no thanks.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
New? Not at all. You probably check OPvP during European morning when most of its players are offline for time zones.
:rolleyes:
Bookmarked for the next server outage! :cool:
Don't be an Enforcer then
No but seriously, that game is so TRIBBLE, virtually everybody has an aimbot. I had managed to have some fun in that game for a few months, but then all of a sudden it was like everyone found that same aimbot at the same time.
That game is also one of the worst offenders of the P2W model I have ever seen. I used to think STO's model was bad, until I played APB.
I know exactly what you mean. It's gotten so bad that instead of the devs continually nerfing and putting us down, we're starting to do it to ourselves.
We need unity. We need to come together. And strengthen the foundation of our community. You, me, the OP, we're all in this game together. And together we can overcome any and all hassles and obstacles.
Huzzah!
The game IS a bit opaque for beginners. But OP, seeing your Join date as Sep 2012 means you've been around over a year, so here are some ideas: (some may be inaccurate/outdated, but very useful for expressing the BASICS of how it works): STO Wiki, YouTube's Yuzral and many others, and the forums, which you are obviously familiar with, has many guides.
Next, you talk about wanting " one of the best ships eqipped in game." Um, lessee, if you want to be the BEST, you have to work HARDER THAN EVERYONE ELSE. So you have two choices: Work harder than everyone else, or enjoy the game as Not The Best. Unless you are THE BEST at some other thing in Life, and feel that Not Being The Best just doesn't work for you, I think you have to Get Over It.
It's pretty hard to SUCK TERRIBLY at this game. You can do quite well in non-Elite content with minimal effort. I found I could easily compete as 'competent' in Elite STFs (space) in only a few months playtime. Thanks to the forums and some light research and thinking (this game, as many other MMOs, require thinking to be a decent performer. To not think is to disrespect the others playing the game. You don't have to be a Professional combat expert, but you cannot play this the same as playing, say, GTA III, just running around and driving over and shooting everything in sight. At least not if you're playing with others.
TLDR: You will get out of the game as much as you are willing to put in. Like everything. Wanna be the best? WORK AT IT. But you don't HAVE to be the best. It's not required. OTOH, 'Not Sucking' is easy in this game.
It seems the vast majority of your most active players (forum regulars) hate the idea... and while that's a small subset of the playerbase, I think it's an important constituency.
THE PLAYERS DO NOT WANT THIS.
If only people were that easy to rally. :P
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
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