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Cryptic money is in the details...

dark4blooddark4blood Member Posts: 1,192 Arc User
So many opportunities lost in this recent Season, but this has been going on for a while ever since after Season 7. It seems like Cryptic does not fully think through or expand on their new and current ideas. They are completed in haste, and lack polish, not even including the bugs, the new gear and weapons aren't complete at the Lobi store, the new ships don't really make sense in Star Trek universe as they should have been hybrids, and the "war" didn't change in any of the story mission besides the featured one. That is all beside the point, the real problem is they have lost out on possible money and customers EVERY Season after 7.

Here is where they are failing:

- Fleet Weapons (Advanced/Elite) -- these haven't been expanded since Fleets became available, make All weapons upgradeable to Advanced and Elite, some like the ones that come from Lockboxes can be Lobi bound. Others like from the missions, mainly blues, can be Fleet only. This is pure money, and you finally give STO the much needed variety it is missing compared to other MMO's that have thousands of different weapons instead of hundreds.

- Ship Updates - Add another level to the fleet, but instead of making Tier 6 Ships, give players the ability to buy one weapon slot and one console slot. Obviously this will change the balance of power, but this will also get more people into fleets. This would bring the most variety, as ships seen as weak because they don't have certain missing setups would become stronger, obviously they can't go beyond the normal limitations of the ship classes. No 6 front or 5 rear ships, no 6 tactical/science/Engineer console slots either.

- Lockbox Updates - I have been wondering why when a new lockbox is added the others aren't updated to have similar versions of gear? This would promote the new lockboxes and also make people want to open the older ones they have collect. This obviously doesn't apply to ships, but other items like special individual consoles and most recently the tactical kits and modules. How could you make this grand change to Kits and only give people 4-5 kits to work with when you could have easily put these in old Lockboxes.


These are just some of the issues that I think is actually a missed opportunity to for Cryptic to make money WITHOUT pisses everyone off, obviously some are still going to complain, but this content would really start to separate ships of the same class. This next and last suggestion is something that could separate Cryptic away from other MMO,s...5 definitive ship classes.

Here is how this works:

Escort
Destroyer
Cruiser
Carrier
Dreadnaught

Now all these exist but the differences between the ships isn't enough to actually make everyone WANT to test EVERY ship. Obviously, this would expand on top of the Science, Engineer, and Tactical class ships, but separating the blurry lines will help make this game more expansive. Also fixing some ships that are supposed to be Tactical Escorts vs. Tactical Destroyers would be nice, the Defiant,the Armitage,and the Chimera Destroyer come to mind. Some ships can stay the same, but if a class is a pure destroyer or escort it should act accordingly, one slower with heavier armor/guns and the other Faster with lighter armor and more evasion.

There are probably other missed opportunities but these seem the most obvious that require the least work.
Post edited by dark4blood on

Comments

  • lowy1lowy1 Member Posts: 964 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Nice Ideas...especially for the weapons, there are some nice ones for rewards only to be sold or deleted once you hit 50 because they become woefully underpowered. However I would rather see for the tier 6 fleet, maybe you only can update lower level ships up 1-2 levels and maybe a tier 5 ship gets to shift one console slot and maybe a weapon slot (not sure on this, this would make sci ships out of balance I think).
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  • starkaosstarkaos Member Posts: 11,557 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    For the Ship Update, customizable upgradabilty just doesn't work. Each ship type is defined as having a set amount of slots and there is no way to change one Fleet Tactical Escort Retrofit without changing all other Fleet Tactical Escort Retrofits. So if you want one Fleet Tactical Escort Retrofit to have a 5/3 Weapon layout, then every Fleet Tactical Escort Retrofit will have a 5/3 Weapon layout. This is the reason why we have to purchase Fleet Ships instead of Fleet upgrades. Adding a computer core or armor slot is easy since the devs want to change every single ship, but that is the extent of what can be done for upgradability. It is theoretically possible to introduce upgrade consoles, but that is just a workaround and not actually upgrading your ship.
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  • blakes7tvseriesblakes7tvseries Member Posts: 704 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Money Lost

    No Cardassisn playable character
    No Purchasable Bikini
    No Classy Female Dresses, not the current TRIBBLE wear.
    No Classic Federation lock box ships
    No third breast purchasable option for female toons.
    No purchaseable cargo bay
    No purchaseable fleet bank slots
    No purchaseable account bank slots
    No purchaseable buildable colony / house
    No purchaseable instant 50 option for ALT toons
    No purchaseable Galaxy that's equal to a lock box ship
    No purchaseable Roster increase past 500
    No purchaseable Fleet rank increases above the current 7
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  • cbrjwrrcbrjwrr Member Posts: 2,782 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    dark4blood wrote: »
    ^This can't be true as we have some Dreadnaughts with 5 front, some battleships/cruisers with 4 or 5 front and some escorts with 5 and 2, so there must be a way to have the ships listed as something else to add consoles and slots. Many of the new ships break all these rules you have stated. Now if NO ship can have more than 8 weapon slots, I recommend actually changing the setup to include a dedicated torpedo or mine slot upgrade for ALL ships. This seems like a smaller feature and would definitely help in making ships feel different.

    You mis-understand him/her/it - read Fleet Tactical Escort Retrofit as Fleet Defiant, and re-read it, it will make sense then.
  • grazyc2#7847 grazyc2 Member Posts: 1,988 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    I would welcome a upgrade for the Fleet Tactical Escort !!
    Against the Borg and the Voth it's a hell of a Tank Boat as you call it, but against the Undine it misses Armor, and faster shield generation and engine speed. because the undine set's of the anomaly if you are a second to slow you being slucked into it and it will destroy your escort no matter what you do, I tried polarize hull but was unable to get loose. .

    So yes I would love an upgrade for it !!!
    [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."
  • johngazmanjohngazman Member Posts: 2,826 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    dark4blood wrote: »
    ^This can't be true as we have some Dreadnaughts with 5 front, some battleships/cruisers with 4 or 5 front and some escorts with 5 and 2, so there must be a way to have the ships listed as something else to add consoles and slots.

    You're missing the point. Using the Defiant Retro as an example, everyone flies the same ship. It has four fore weapons, three aft weapons, slots for shields, engines, deflector, warp core, so on and so forth. It's the template. How you fill the template is your business, but at the basic level, you have the same ship as everyone else who is flying a Defiant Retro.

    Because of the way the game is coded, it's presently impossible to add a fifth weapon slot (by the way of this proposed "ship upgrade" system) to a single Defiant Retro without changing the template for every single Defiant Retro in the game as well.

    In order for this system to work, Cryptic would have to rework the code for every single ship to include the possibility of making a modular ship upgrade system. And that takes time, effort and money which could be better spent elsewhere.
    You're just a machine. And machines can be broken.
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  • starkaosstarkaos Member Posts: 11,557 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    The whole point of an upgrade is it is better than the previous version. If all ships are changed, then they are not upgrades. Cryptic in theory could add upgrade consoles where the console contains a weapon slot and console slot. This method would be easier to achieve since it doesn't require changing every single ship, but only a dev could say if this is possible or not.
  • vegeta50024vegeta50024 Member Posts: 2,336 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Money Lost

    No Cardassisn playable character -Cryptic knows people want the last big TNG/DS9 power in the game, but it's not on the plan for the foreseeable future.
    No Purchasable Bikini-Not sure exactly why this isn't in the game, but I think it might be too close on the border of pushing this game in a direction they would rather not go.
    No Classy Female Dresses, not the current TRIBBLE wear.-All a matter of priority. New costumes only come now when there is a necessity for them.
    No Classic Federation lock box ships-They're not gonna ever put older federation ships in a lockbox.
    No third breast purchasable option for female toons.-Really? The only benefit I see this on is a custom alien. Three TRIBBLE just really looks weird IMO.
    No purchaseable cargo bay-To me, inventory=this.
    No purchaseable fleet bank slots-fleet banks are currently maxed at 8 repositories. They don't work like regular banks.
    No purchaseable account bank slots-this currently has a max at 60 slots for a gold member and 40 for a silver player. I don't see them expanding this anytime soon.
    No purchaseable buildable colony / house-Colony idea is probably more reserved for a Fleet Holding. As for a house, this game is more focused on constant travel so having a house is kind of a waste. Customizable quarters though, that would be neat.
    No purchaseable instant 50 option for ALT toons-No. Just NO. There really is no distinction between main and alt in the game. Plus it defeats the purpose of leveling up.
    No purchaseable Galaxy that's equal to a lock box ship-They would argue they just beefed it up.
    No purchaseable Roster increase past 500-Increase recently happened in January. They only give us increases when they think it's necessary and I don't think they're doing it now.
    No purchaseable Fleet rank increases above the current 7-More ranks only means mroe work that fleet members have to do to rank up.

    My replies are all above. Some I think could work, others are just ludicrous right now.

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