No, what all of us want is a system where we are *guaranteed* to get a Purple item if we're pursuing it. Making crafting based on a chance *is* gambling. And gambling with a resource that we can use to get guaranteed Mk XII Purple gear. As it stands, using Dil to spend on a chance for a Purple is not worth it. If it was EC or GPL, no one would mind. But why spend Dilithium on a chance when I can guaranteed get a Purple Item with unique procs and stats from the Rep and Fleet Stores? I'd rather spend more and guarantee I get what I want than spend less and take a CHANCE on what I want.
Here's my view on the subject, for what it's worth.
I'm in a small fleet, at the point where I'm basically providing 90% of the project input. I'm levelling up multiple reps on multiple characters. Right now, for me, dilithium is the single most valuable resource in the entire game. I'm not prepared to take part in a crafting system that will take this dilithium away from my other projects and put it into a mission that is not guaranteed to give me the exact item that I want. Even having to repeat the mission once for a Mk XII purple item is likely to cost me an entire day's worth of dilithium grinding. For crafting to be attractive to me, it needs to involve random chance, OR dilithium cost, not both. I will happily pay 21K dilithium for a Mk XII purple, but I have to know that I will be getting the exact set of mods that I wanted.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
This character is why I don't play my Romulan any more. Tovan Khev is NOT my BFF! Get him off my bridge!
Hypothetically, would you prefer a system where you could only make Blue items?
If I was able to choose all the aspects of the item, like mods, type, mark, and quality: Yes, yes I would. Not being able to choose what I'm going to get and just having it be completely random is just... ugh. Like really, the most I can choose is type? I can't even pick which mods I want? I mean with [Acc], [CritH], [CritD], and [Dmg], we're looking at twenty four possible outcomes. That means that, statistically, to craft the specific item I want, it's going to take at least twenty four attempts, and that number doubles when we aren't even guaranteed to craft at the rarity we want.
Yeah, sure, we can choose the deflector type, or the energy weapon type- but that pales in comparison to actually being able to choose the useful parts of the item.
If people WANT purple, if they're at level 20, they should GET purple EVERY SINGLE TIME, especially since we're spending DILITHIUM for this stuff. THAT'S why it's being called gambling. If the chance of getting a purple is NOT 100%, it's gambling. PEOPLE DO NOT WANT BLUE OR BELOW. What is so hard to understand with that? We're not stupid, we know we have to level up. We get that. But If we're spending FSM Knows how much, WE WANT PURPLE OR HIGHER.
Yeah. For mark XII, blue or below is pretty worthless.
We just want a guaranteed purple or ultraviolet if we put Dilithium into it.
Also, please let people who got a job have a chance at the system too.
Add some missions that give more XP than just a handful. Make them last equally long and take equally a lot of mats, just please let us have that option.
Also, we should be able to make more than 1 "focusing lens" type material, as you need more than 1 usually.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
You're... not? You know exactly what you're making - Mk XII Antiproton Beam Array - you just might have to make it a couple times to get a purple quality one. I can understand posts that point out that the cost of items is too high given the uncertainty of what they'll produce, but I think it's hyperbole to equate the system to gambling. You'll make all of what you want much more quickly with R+D than you would, say, farming in Kerrat or ISE.
You have to make it a few times to get a purple one, then how many more times to get the mods that are worthwhile or you want? At 5 hour per try it could take 25+hours of “gambling” to try to get what you wanted. Just like the old borg STF’s some people will get unlucky due to the randomness and take 50+hours or even 100hours. Just to get 1 item they want.
Look at all the people who craft currently with the Alien Artifacts. It’s the same system and same problem. A large % of what you craft is junk due to the randomness, wrong item or wrong mods.
For example I only run torpedo boats and the only mod that means anything to me (not counting new mods) is Crit chance. How many runs would I have to do to craft what I want? If it would take me 100+ attempts to get 4 torpedo with the mods I want I don’t see how it is hyperbole to call it gambling.
If a fleet member ask me to craft a beam with x2 ACC and X1 DMG how long would it take me to craft that and give it to him? How many attempts? How many hours due to the 5 hour for high level items, how much dill? That is why players see it as gambling and is why so many people will not use the new crafting system.
"You'll make all of what you want much more quickly with R+D than you would, say, farming in Kerrat or ISE"
I do not agree with that. Farm for 1 hour make some EC or just run ISE for 10min and pop on the exchange and buy what you need in minuets. Cheaper and faster then crafting. No 5 hour wait for a random item that might not even be what you want. Using my example above how long would it take me to get money to buy the torpedo I want on the exchange? How long would it take me to craft? Right now crafting takes over 100 times longer and is over 100times more expensive.
Also, we should be able to make more than 1 "focusing lens" type material, as you need more than 1 usually.
This too. I just went and bumped Beams up to level 2 to try it out. It was really annoying to have to go and search down the list every time for all the bits. Either let us choose to craft more than one thing at a time, or add in a "Craft this again." box on the results page so you can create the exact same item without having to go back and search.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
This character is why I don't play my Romulan any more. Tovan Khev is NOT my BFF! Get him off my bridge!
one other option i could see being good is, make it possible to click on a material in the required materials list to quickly jump into that material's project to start it.
get rid of all the searching and menu switching, make it as simple as clicking on one of the materials in the project list to get to their projects.
combined with crafting multiples this could make the system much less cumbersome and annoying.
Now clowns, that's another story. They scare the crap out of me.
We fight them too. Entire armies spilling out of Volkswagens.
We do our best to fight them off, but they keep sending them in.
Hypothetically, would you prefer a system where you could only make Blue items?
Hawk, the truth is, nobody wants anything but purple. More importantly is the randomness of the modifiers. Back when fleet space weapons had [dmg]x3 plus one chosen mod, they were basically considered starter gear. When the dev team realized that no-one well schooled in the game mechanics wants [dmg] mods, they changed it to [dmg]x2 plus two chosen mods. Now fleet gear is considered almost on par with drop gear with multiple [acc] and [crt_] mods. I think the modifier randomness is a much larger issue than the rarity/quality one.
Consider:
If I craft a MK XII Antiproton Beam Array and it comes out as a Very Rare with [dmg]x3 it's vendor trash. Take one look at the exchange and this will be clear. If instead I crafted a Rare with [acc]x2 I might actually be able to sell it for a few ECs. The same issue applies with the the "Unique [arc]" weapons. [acc] [dmg] [arc] is not desirable compared to [acc]x3 or some combination of [acc] and [crtd]. A weapon with increased [arc] does me no good if I can't hit my enemy particularly in PvP where accuracy is king.
When we get to consoles the issue gets even muckier. Fleet consoles render anything less completely worthless. Before the fleet consoles were introduced, the exchange value on MK XII VR consoles was in the tens of millions. Mk XI VR were 5 million and up for desirable energy types. Look at the prices on those items now.
Suggestion:
1. There really needs to be a way to control the modifiers on weapons. Even a system where a crafted item can then be modified with a second round of crafting would help.
2. For everything else, there needs to be modifiers available through no other means than crafting for each and every school of items.
Lastly a question that doesn't seem to have been answered: At the completion of each crafting school is listed a trait that we gain. Will these be part of the current pick and choose system or will they be passives like the bonuses gained from accolades? (if they are bonuses like the accolades then most of them seem WAY too powerful)
At the end the modded item U commit / forge to become a weapon.
This could be applied to any object.
Have u guys even considered that, because when U released news about kits than the info about craft re-vamp I totally thought U would do this in such a way.
The changes to the system you are introducing are ... in my personal opinion - a joke.
Ok fine your revamping the crafting system, one of my fears was a carbon copy of Neverwinter. Disliked that so much. But here we are a Carbon copy.
Though why have you removed the explore's? These were part and parcel of Star Trek the Franchise, you should be implementing rewards for going here higher chances of very rare craft rewards. But no you have removed this entirely.
I should really be keeping Tabs on what you guys are doing to the game. You'll please the newer and younger generation quite easily. But the older and more reliable source of income, won't be pleased. I've been asking to improve explores for Four years! I used to play these 24/7 until the load times became unbareable.
10 Marks for an attempt of improving the Crafting system
-50 Marks for removing something which could of been improved. And is part and parcel of the Franchise.
The more you steer away from Star Trek, the more I'll be inclined to leave.
To comment on people who have remarked about randomness.
Why not give the ability at set ranks in each school to set one. Two or Three. But still have a chance of not getting it.
So lets say Rank 5 Shields gives the ability to choose 1 bonus stat
Rank 10 Shields would give the ability to choose 2 bonus stats
Rank 15 shields give the ability to choose 3 bonus stats
With a detrimental chance of receive the final reward.
1 stat - 90% chance of success
2 stats -50% chance of success
3 stats 10% chance of success
On top of this you could have a cash shop item which boosted that chance!
You have another source of income from the crafting community!
Though have it in a Crafting pack as you do in neverwinter, since you're so eager to go down this route.
I have been away from STO. Enjoying my time in ESO.
Reading the recent patch notes and seeing my beloved exploration mission clusters shutdown will keep me away longer. An update would have been better. All you needed to do is update scan anomalies to drop the new crafting materials. I think anyway.
My Lifetime membership will continue getting me Zen and am never gonna put any real money into this game. I am just waiting to hear when they will also Nerf Lifetime Accounts that are in-active and accumulating Zen.
Everything is just going to pots regardless of the care and attention you guys seem to put in. I commend you efforts but I am not excited about the results.
Have tested the Crafting system. Hate it in its current state. I will not give any useful feedback because my interest in this game has decreased to a very very lowly state.
Perhaps, I do await your implementation of Secondary Deflectors but I wonder what exploration is there to do with my Intrepid Class crew. I came to this game for the exploration but that is all in Limbo now. I hope you have a replacement for mission clusters. I really hope you do.
I can answer this succinctly without touching on the rest of the thread yet - The Star Cluster missions were really out of date and a generally awful game experience for any new players who stumbled upon them. While those of us who are veterans of the game were able to accept them as their own thing and do them only when we wanted to, new players would (with moderate frequency) enter a star cluster mission, get lost or get blocked on an unclear objective, and then quit and never return.
Additionally, the Star Cluster missions took up a sizable portion of the game's install size. This also negatively impacts new players, as the longer it takes to download and install the game, the less likely they are to actually complete the process and give it a shot. So the very existence of Star Cluster missions was essentially dinging our player retention at least twice for each new player.
We recognize that removing them has removed a feeling of exploration from the game, and we know that the feeling of exploration is important to the Star Trek vision and feel - we'll want to rectify that. However, the presence of the Star Cluster missions in the game just provided so many negatives that they outweighed the positive of holding on to that feel of exploration.
We're looking in to modifying the Exploration Accolades so that they're still obtainable.
It a disgrace that you are removing exploration from a star trek game that already has a seriously lack exploration.
We will be bringing down the Tribble server for maintenance to apply a new update: ST.42.20140609a.9
New Feature:
Revamped Crafting System Research and Development:
The new Research and Development system will allow Captains to use materials theyve gathered throughout the galaxy along with Duty Officers to create powerful gear to use.
Captains will craft items throughout a choice of 7 schools using Duty Officers to complete the project as well as increase the change of creating a higher quality item depending on the Duty Officers used.
At launch, we will have 7 schools each of which have 20 levels.
Tier 1 is levels 0-4, Tier 2 is levels 5-9, Tier 3 is levels 10-14, and Tier 4 is levels 15-20.
Your skill at making things depends on your level in the school from which you are crafting, and the difficulty of your task depends on the level of item you are trying to create.
As long as you have the materials, you can try to create Mark XII items at School Level 1 but your chance of creating a Very Rare will be nonexistent due to the tasks high difficulty and your low starting skill.
As you progress by crafting items, your Skill Rating increases, causing the overall quality of the items you craft to increase on average.
By the time you hit the maximum level of any school, youll regularly craft Rare and Very Rare items, and youll completely eliminate Common items from your potential outcomes.
Crafting Schools
Beams:
Beam Arrays, Dual Beam Banks
Beam Consoles Unlocks at Tier 2
Dilithium Components Unlocks at tier 3
Trait: On activating Beam skill, gain 2% Beam damage for 20 sec. Stacks x3.
Cannons:
Dual Cannons, Turrets, Single Cannons, Dual Heavy Cannons
Cannon Consoles Unlocks at Tier 2
Dilithium Components Unlocks at tier 3
Trait: On activating Cannon skill, gain +1 Turn Rate, +1 Inertia for 20 sec. Stacks x3.
Projectiles:
Torpedoes and Mines
Projectile Consoles Unlocks at Tier 2
Dilithium Components Unlocks at tier 3
Trait: Your Torpedoes and Mines penetrate an extra 10% of your targets shields
Shields & Arrays:
Shields
Ground Shields Unlocks at Tier 2
Dilithium Components Unlocks at tier 3
Trait: Activating a Shield Heal gives the target 99% Shield DR for 1 second
Science:
Deflectors
Science Consoles Unlocks at Tier 2
Dilithium Components Unlocks at tier 3
Trait: Your Particle Generator skill gives up to 25% bonus crit chance on Science powers (at 100 PartGens)
Trait: Activating any Engineering Bridge Officer ability gives 100% dodge chance with 20% deflect for 3 seconds.
Ground Weapons:
Basic Ground Weapons
Advanced Ground Weapons Unlocks at Tier 2
Dilithium Components Unlocks at tier 3
Trait: All of your ground weapon attacks penetrate 10 armor rating.
Components are required to build items
Components are built from Materials.
Materials are found throughout the galaxy where harvesting nodes previously were.
Materials can also be collected through Duty Officer assignments and PVE Queues.
All Components and Materials can be traded or put up on the exchange.
The following is a list of each general type of recipe that can be created, and which Duty Officer youll need to slot to make that kind of item.
All Schools:
Energy Credit Components
Fabrication Engineer
Dilithium Components
Matter-Antimatter Specialist
Beam School:
Beam Weapons
Energy Weapon Officer
Consoles
Technician
Cannon School:
Cannon Weapons
Energy Weapon Officer
Consoles
Technician
Shield/Arrays:
Space Shields
Shield Distribution Officer
Ground Shields
Assault Squad Officer
Consoles
Systems Engineer
Projectiles:
Torpedoes
Projectile Weapons Officer
Mines
Armory Officer
Projectile Consoles
Security Officer
Engineering:
Impulse Engines
Systems Engineer
Warp Core
Warp Core Engineer
Ground Armor
Security Officer
Singularity Core
Warp Theorist
Engineering Console
Damage Control Engineer
Science:
Deflectors
Deflector Officer
Science Consoles
Research Lab Scientist
Ground:
Ground Weapons
Assault Squad Officer
General:
Star Cluster maps are no longer available to access for all factions.
The associated Exploration missions have also been removed.
Captains can still conduct Duty Officer assignments related to these maps by flying to the appropriate border and interact with the special Duty Officer Assignment button at each cluster's location.
For instance, in the Sirius sector block, you can fly to the northwest area labeled "Delta Volanis Cluster" and you will be able to pick up special Duty Officer assignments related to the cluster there, including the assignment chains that are specific to each cluster.
Any player in these maps prior to the update will be moved out of the map upon logging in.
The Tuffli Freighter and the Suliban ships will transwarp you to the associated cluster map Duty Officer interact location.
Memory Alpha is closed.
If you were on this map prior to the update, you will be transported off the map immediately after loading in.
All crafting vendors have been shut down.
Starfleet officers on fleet starbases are now wearing the Odyssey uniform.
Systems:
Pricing for items has been normalized.
This means that the disparity in value between weapons and non-weapon items has been removed.
Space weapons are now priced HIGHER.
Deflectors, shields, impulse engines, and warp cores are now priced LOWER.
Ground weapons are now priced HIGHER.
Ground armor is now priced LOWER.
Kit frames are now priced LOWER.
Ground items still have a lower value than space items.
Ground combat tends to be faster and involve more creatures, which means more items are gained in the same amount of time.
Removed non-specialty items from the Dilithium store.
The D-store button on the UI will still link to a store that sells specialty items such as Special Items, EV Suits, and Reclaim.
Players can also still access the Dilithium Exchange through the D-Store button.
Vendors that formerly sold these items for Dilithium in the game (on ESD, Qo'noS, Ganalda, K7, Gamma Orionis fleet) no longer offer a contact.
The vendor is still there but no longer has a store or a dialog.
Using Dilithium through the crafting system has replaced the removed items from the D-Store.
These items can still be found in random drops throughout the game as has always been the case.
Enhanced Induction Coils:
No longer shares a cooldown with Batteries.
Now effects Auxiliary subsystems in the same manner as existing Weapons/Engines bonuses.
Now grants Immunity to Weapons, Engines and Aux offline for full duration.
Now grants +10 Maximum Weapon, Engines and Aux power for full duration.
Increased base power bonus from 33 to 50, and gains additional benefit from the Starship Batteries skill.
Base duration reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds, but now gains more benefit from Starship Batteries skill.
Enhanced Induction Coils AND Enhanced Plasma Manifold:
Boosts to max power do not stack with the passive bonuses supplied by Warp Cores.
Only the higher will apply.
Tuned behavior of Scimitars that appear in queued events so that they cloak far less frequently.
Content:
Addressed an issue in "Colony Invasion" that could cause players not to get credit when beaming out diplomats.
Several Duty Officer assignments that normally become available on Earth Spacedock, such as "Participate in Colonial Assessment" and "Offer Asylum on Earth," will now appear on the new Earth Spacedock map.
UI:
The Duty Officer UI has been updated.
The updates apply to the available assignments list.
Functionally, the options work the same as in the past.
Known Issues:
The new Crafting system is not in its final state.
UI for the Crafting system is still a work in progress.
The list of available damage types does not refresh.
Changing duty officers has a chance to make the Start Task button stay grayed out.
Projects in progress will show up in assignments tab of the Completed section.
Crafting components go into the inventory instead of the materials bag.
Catalysts are not being consumes when they are used in a project.
New kit modules do not have their own search category in the Exchange.
Kits in your inventory cannot be equipped by double-clicking on them.
You can drag and drop slot them.
Hello Dear,
Please pass this message creators.
I am worried that probably cancel accolades in Story accolades for exploration in individual clusters. I personally left to complete all seven clusters. In the last half year, it seems to me that instead of improving the existing one, so it is deleted and the new is not working as it should. I would be very grateful to you Accolade left to continue. I personally is 40 years and the changes I'm not much "built".
Please report back on how it will treat the accolade and if they want to cancel it now, it would be advisable to have them. Such changes odradíte many players.
I am extremely disappointed in the loss of the exploration clusters. It is SO Star Trek to go ... you know... explore. On my klingon there were several levels when I literally had no other missions to do.
I can't believe you are taking content OUT. I'm stunned. Please don't do this.
I am extremely disappointed in the loss of the exploration clusters. It is SO Star Trek to go ... you know... explore. On my klingon there were several levels when I literally had no other missions to do.
I can't believe you are taking content OUT. I'm stunned. Please don't do this.
Sadly they won't listen, even I could find a solution to their dilemma. But the highest rule is to never listen to a small minority, in the gaming world. It would have to take 70-90% of the games population for them to listen. This won't happen.
The poor choices from the start have had thousands of people quit, the poor choices are still continuing today. If I for some reason ran out of Role players to play with. I would leave in an instant.
The Craft system is a good idea but is just a paste of something they know. One you can use the Rep system to get the CritD CritH stats on But the chance of getting that from this system for time and effort The reputation system would still remain the best soure of gear. This need to use my above idea .
Exploration was and still is an important part of Star Trek, the Star Cluster's are/were the only part of the game which actual exploring could take place, this was introduced just over fours years ago. The Foundry does not offer this kind of exploration, I mean how many want to develop a map to explore it. And how many farming maps or out of star trek context maps are on the Foundry right now.
As long as money is in there pocket who cares what the Fans want. It makes me laugh to watch that dev on his podcast calling us the fans of PWE. We are fans of Star Trek, the majority are there for the freebies.
The only reason I ever joined Cryptic was because of one Genre and one Franchise.
Hero and Villains and Star Trek. Had these titles or Franchise been developed by another company. I would of never of heard of Cryptic or PWE. Because I dislike how they care for their games.
I also apologise to PWE/Cryptic for this message, but this is how I've felt for the past years, please for once stop doing something stupid. As the gamers keep asking for.
There is a system which generate's random missions, in another MMO. Which does not take up a huge chuck of resources.
They utilise Mission generator Terminals, and Doors. This can be used in Star Trek in place of the old system for explorations. Simple have it in a Star Trek method. Head to your sensor station on your bridge to scan for missions. Place the door in Nebulas or to other planets. You have developer technics which can save memory, this can be cleverly done to make something big but use a smaller amount of memory than intended.
Picking the mission up prior to heading there would alleviate some of the known loading issues, because the server would of loaded it. Rather than it generating it of the bat like it's doing now.
I can answer this succinctly without touching on the rest of the thread yet - The Star Cluster missions were really out of date and a generally awful game experience for any new players who stumbled upon them. While those of us who are veterans of the game were able to accept them as their own thing and do them only when we wanted to, new players would (with moderate frequency) enter a star cluster mission, get lost or get blocked on an unclear objective, and then quit and never return.
So instead of at least getting one intern to do your job and fix it you just went full "EF it!" and threw the whole thing out of the airlock...
Additionally, the Star Cluster missions took up a sizable portion of the game's install size. This also negatively impacts new players, as the longer it takes to download and install the game, the less likely they are to actually complete the process and give it a shot. So the very existence of Star Cluster missions was essentially dinging our player retention at least twice for each new player.
Wasn't there word of having the Content added to the Foundry or as a Door in the Foundry? If you guys haven't flat out lied... how is this changing the Size of the Install unless you actually removed all the content?
We recognize that removing them has removed a feeling of exploration from the game, and we know that the feeling of exploration is important to the Star Trek vision and feel - we'll want to rectify that. However, the presence of the Star Cluster missions in the game just provided so many negatives that they outweighed the positive of holding on to that feel of exploration.
"A Feeling of Exploration"... you mean the ONLY Feeling of Exploration... and if you knew that this feeling is/was important to Star Trek, why are you killing it?
Rectify with what? 1,5 Feature Episodes per Year that are marked as "Special Exploration Themed"?
We're looking in to modifying the Exploration Accolades so that they're still obtainable.
And I am pretty sure you will ef it up and leave them bugged for quite some time until some intern stumbles upon them...
Please stop actively lying into our faces and at least admit that they are gone simply because your Corporate Overlords haven't managed to find a way to monetize the whole experience...
So instead of at least getting one intern to do your job and fix it you just went full "EF it!" and threw the whole thing out of the airlock...
I generally try to avoid political posts. Indeed, this one smacks of politics - both from forum users as well as those internal to Cryptic/Perfect World. That said, your post is not going to serve as a lightning rod for anything good - primarily for the reason it is mean spirited, uncivil, and precisely the sort of rant that gets ignored. You could have perfectly valid points all of which lost in the amber of your tone.
Please stop actively lying into our faces and at least admit that they are gone simply because your Corporate Overlords haven't managed to find a way to monetize the whole experience...
Assumptions, even those veiled in the shroud of purported outrage, are baseless without facts to back them up. I do not believe they are lying to us. I believe, however, that they almost certainly had a directive from higher up to rectify this issue and given a timeframe to do so.
I cannot know for certain, but your commentary suggests you have never before worked in an organization that does rapid software development. While I could write a very long post addressing both possibilities, I'll go with the one that seems most probable (that you don't have said experience).
Various groups within said company are given tasks (some companies use sprints to do this) within a set period. Often sprints can be 3 weeks. Within those weeks (whatever Cryptic's period is), those set tasks are in motion and, usually unless a technical issue blocks it, moving at various speeds for that set period of time. With multiple groups and multiple tasks in flight, some get done relatively faster than expected, most get done within the window expected, and some slip. While the latter could certainly slip for usually technical reasons, other things come out of it that prevent said deadline from being met. So, they either get pushed to another sprint or put into the backlog for technology (or whatever issue it is) to resolve.
That doesn't make the product managers, sales, or even forum staff liars. After all, they don't know what's going on in the background any more than you do. Otherwise, they would be coding and off of the forums. The people you see posting on here from Cryptic/PW get basic top level summaries as to what is being done. They don't know until the development management sends out a summary of what was or was not done. (And this assumes a perfectly functional organization.) More likely, some things are not communicated to them from time to time and slip through the cracks. But, that's what the usual process should be.
Moving on from your understanding (or perhaps lack of same) of agile software development, the more salient point is not that many people are clamoring for it to stay in game. Remember, statistically, there's a very small showing of actual users in game to those that post on the forums. You don't represent a majority, even if you'd prefer and your point were absolutely valid.
I would be perfectly fine with their removal of the Genesis system (that which creates the randomly generated exploration missions) as I argued on the original forums that it was a poor substitute for quality work. It would work fine in theory, but in practice would be tedious and boring. Indeed, it was and is exactly that. If they are looking to streamline the download process and get rid of repetitive content, this will accomplish those two goals. You're attempting to argue a third goal should be to have something in place that would either take the place of that or work as an effective alternative. Valid point - but make it that without the invective. Otherwise, your point is lost in the noise of your tone.
Their counterargument will be (and legitimately so) that the Foundry is user generated content that can do what Genesis could not do. Genesis could not generate random engaging content. It wasn't exploration either. It was repeatedly entering a holodeck set to random. Foundry content isn't exploration either - but can be engaging content. You should argue that we should have an alternative which allows us exploration and provide suggestions.
Remember, effective feedback not only illustrates the problem but also proposes solutions. While your proposed solution may not be used, it would however spawn ideas from which a future solution is built. A rant, however, does not go well and is ignored. So you will have lost your otherwise valid point. Participate in the activities that will increase your happiness long-term, not the immediate knee jerk reaction that will not contribute to said happiness.
Well, if the star clusters have to go then we need some way to get random, short, repeatable missions. I like the idea of being able to get them from a station on the bridge!
My time to play is fairly limited and being able to hop on at any time and spend 30 minutes doing a complete mission is one of the things that keeps me coming back frequently and keeps my interest in the game going.
I'm afraid without the exploration missions or something to replace them, my play time will be down to once a week or less when I happen to have a couple of hours together to do my next story mission. Not happy.
Comments
This, this, this.
http://www.stoarchive.com/
I'm in a small fleet, at the point where I'm basically providing 90% of the project input. I'm levelling up multiple reps on multiple characters. Right now, for me, dilithium is the single most valuable resource in the entire game. I'm not prepared to take part in a crafting system that will take this dilithium away from my other projects and put it into a mission that is not guaranteed to give me the exact item that I want. Even having to repeat the mission once for a Mk XII purple item is likely to cost me an entire day's worth of dilithium grinding. For crafting to be attractive to me, it needs to involve random chance, OR dilithium cost, not both. I will happily pay 21K dilithium for a Mk XII purple, but I have to know that I will be getting the exact set of mods that I wanted.
This character is why I don't play my Romulan any more. Tovan Khev is NOT my BFF! Get him off my bridge!
If I was able to choose all the aspects of the item, like mods, type, mark, and quality: Yes, yes I would. Not being able to choose what I'm going to get and just having it be completely random is just... ugh. Like really, the most I can choose is type? I can't even pick which mods I want? I mean with [Acc], [CritH], [CritD], and [Dmg], we're looking at twenty four possible outcomes. That means that, statistically, to craft the specific item I want, it's going to take at least twenty four attempts, and that number doubles when we aren't even guaranteed to craft at the rarity we want.
Yeah, sure, we can choose the deflector type, or the energy weapon type- but that pales in comparison to actually being able to choose the useful parts of the item.
Yeah. For mark XII, blue or below is pretty worthless.
We just want a guaranteed purple or ultraviolet if we put Dilithium into it.
Also, please let people who got a job have a chance at the system too.
Add some missions that give more XP than just a handful. Make them last equally long and take equally a lot of mats, just please let us have that option.
Also, we should be able to make more than 1 "focusing lens" type material, as you need more than 1 usually.
Look at all the people who craft currently with the Alien Artifacts. It’s the same system and same problem. A large % of what you craft is junk due to the randomness, wrong item or wrong mods.
For example I only run torpedo boats and the only mod that means anything to me (not counting new mods) is Crit chance. How many runs would I have to do to craft what I want? If it would take me 100+ attempts to get 4 torpedo with the mods I want I don’t see how it is hyperbole to call it gambling.
If a fleet member ask me to craft a beam with x2 ACC and X1 DMG how long would it take me to craft that and give it to him? How many attempts? How many hours due to the 5 hour for high level items, how much dill? That is why players see it as gambling and is why so many people will not use the new crafting system.
"You'll make all of what you want much more quickly with R+D than you would, say, farming in Kerrat or ISE"
I do not agree with that. Farm for 1 hour make some EC or just run ISE for 10min and pop on the exchange and buy what you need in minuets. Cheaper and faster then crafting. No 5 hour wait for a random item that might not even be what you want. Using my example above how long would it take me to get money to buy the torpedo I want on the exchange? How long would it take me to craft? Right now crafting takes over 100 times longer and is over 100times more expensive.
This too. I just went and bumped Beams up to level 2 to try it out. It was really annoying to have to go and search down the list every time for all the bits. Either let us choose to craft more than one thing at a time, or add in a "Craft this again." box on the results page so you can create the exact same item without having to go back and search.
This character is why I don't play my Romulan any more. Tovan Khev is NOT my BFF! Get him off my bridge!
get rid of all the searching and menu switching, make it as simple as clicking on one of the materials in the project list to get to their projects.
combined with crafting multiples this could make the system much less cumbersome and annoying.
We fight them too. Entire armies spilling out of Volkswagens.
We do our best to fight them off, but they keep sending them in.
Hawk, the truth is, nobody wants anything but purple. More importantly is the randomness of the modifiers. Back when fleet space weapons had [dmg]x3 plus one chosen mod, they were basically considered starter gear. When the dev team realized that no-one well schooled in the game mechanics wants [dmg] mods, they changed it to [dmg]x2 plus two chosen mods. Now fleet gear is considered almost on par with drop gear with multiple [acc] and [crt_] mods. I think the modifier randomness is a much larger issue than the rarity/quality one.
Consider:
If I craft a MK XII Antiproton Beam Array and it comes out as a Very Rare with [dmg]x3 it's vendor trash. Take one look at the exchange and this will be clear. If instead I crafted a Rare with [acc]x2 I might actually be able to sell it for a few ECs. The same issue applies with the the "Unique [arc]" weapons. [acc] [dmg] [arc] is not desirable compared to [acc]x3 or some combination of [acc] and [crtd]. A weapon with increased [arc] does me no good if I can't hit my enemy particularly in PvP where accuracy is king.
When we get to consoles the issue gets even muckier. Fleet consoles render anything less completely worthless. Before the fleet consoles were introduced, the exchange value on MK XII VR consoles was in the tens of millions. Mk XI VR were 5 million and up for desirable energy types. Look at the prices on those items now.
Suggestion:
1. There really needs to be a way to control the modifiers on weapons. Even a system where a crafted item can then be modified with a second round of crafting would help.
2. For everything else, there needs to be modifiers available through no other means than crafting for each and every school of items.
Lastly a question that doesn't seem to have been answered: At the completion of each crafting school is listed a trait that we gain. Will these be part of the current pick and choose system or will they be passives like the bonuses gained from accolades? (if they are bonuses like the accolades then most of them seem WAY too powerful)
build a frame for example:
[Dual Beam Bank Frame][energy mod] - common item
[Dual Beam Bank Frame][energy mod] - [x] - green item
[Dual Beam Bank Frame][energy mod] - [x][x] - blue item
[Dual Beam Bank Frame][energy mod] - [x][x][x] - purple item
[Dual Beam Bank Frame][energy mod] - [x][x][x][x] - fleet unique item
Make it possible to slot modules into it.
For example:
Weapon mods: CrtH -mod, CrtD -mod, Acc -mod, Arc -mod etc.
Energy: Dis -mod, AP -mod, Plasma -mod etc.
At the end the modded item U commit / forge to become a weapon.
This could be applied to any object.
Have u guys even considered that, because when U released news about kits than the info about craft re-vamp I totally thought U would do this in such a way.
The changes to the system you are introducing are ... in my personal opinion - a joke.
Though why have you removed the explore's? These were part and parcel of Star Trek the Franchise, you should be implementing rewards for going here higher chances of very rare craft rewards. But no you have removed this entirely.
I should really be keeping Tabs on what you guys are doing to the game. You'll please the newer and younger generation quite easily. But the older and more reliable source of income, won't be pleased. I've been asking to improve explores for Four years! I used to play these 24/7 until the load times became unbareable.
10 Marks for an attempt of improving the Crafting system
-50 Marks for removing something which could of been improved. And is part and parcel of the Franchise.
The more you steer away from Star Trek, the more I'll be inclined to leave.
This change does not merit my Stamp!
Why not give the ability at set ranks in each school to set one. Two or Three. But still have a chance of not getting it.
So lets say Rank 5 Shields gives the ability to choose 1 bonus stat
Rank 10 Shields would give the ability to choose 2 bonus stats
Rank 15 shields give the ability to choose 3 bonus stats
With a detrimental chance of receive the final reward.
1 stat - 90% chance of success
2 stats -50% chance of success
3 stats 10% chance of success
On top of this you could have a cash shop item which boosted that chance!
You have another source of income from the crafting community!
Though have it in a Crafting pack as you do in neverwinter, since you're so eager to go down this route.
This does not merit my Stamp
Reading the recent patch notes and seeing my beloved exploration mission clusters shutdown will keep me away longer. An update would have been better. All you needed to do is update scan anomalies to drop the new crafting materials. I think anyway.
My Lifetime membership will continue getting me Zen and am never gonna put any real money into this game. I am just waiting to hear when they will also Nerf Lifetime Accounts that are in-active and accumulating Zen.
Everything is just going to pots regardless of the care and attention you guys seem to put in. I commend you efforts but I am not excited about the results.
Have tested the Crafting system. Hate it in its current state. I will not give any useful feedback because my interest in this game has decreased to a very very lowly state.
Perhaps, I do await your implementation of Secondary Deflectors but I wonder what exploration is there to do with my Intrepid Class crew. I came to this game for the exploration but that is all in Limbo now. I hope you have a replacement for mission clusters. I really hope you do.
Hello Dear,
Please pass this message creators.
I am worried that probably cancel accolades in Story accolades for exploration in individual clusters. I personally left to complete all seven clusters. In the last half year, it seems to me that instead of improving the existing one, so it is deleted and the new is not working as it should. I would be very grateful to you Accolade left to continue. I personally is 40 years and the changes I'm not much "built".
Please report back on how it will treat the accolade and if they want to cancel it now, it would be advisable to have them. Such changes odradíte many players.
Thank you Nedd Charles.
I can't believe you are taking content OUT. I'm stunned. Please don't do this.
Sadly they won't listen, even I could find a solution to their dilemma. But the highest rule is to never listen to a small minority, in the gaming world. It would have to take 70-90% of the games population for them to listen. This won't happen.
The poor choices from the start have had thousands of people quit, the poor choices are still continuing today. If I for some reason ran out of Role players to play with. I would leave in an instant.
The Craft system is a good idea but is just a paste of something they know. One you can use the Rep system to get the CritD CritH stats on But the chance of getting that from this system for time and effort The reputation system would still remain the best soure of gear. This need to use my above idea .
Exploration was and still is an important part of Star Trek, the Star Cluster's are/were the only part of the game which actual exploring could take place, this was introduced just over fours years ago. The Foundry does not offer this kind of exploration, I mean how many want to develop a map to explore it. And how many farming maps or out of star trek context maps are on the Foundry right now.
As long as money is in there pocket who cares what the Fans want. It makes me laugh to watch that dev on his podcast calling us the fans of PWE. We are fans of Star Trek, the majority are there for the freebies.
The only reason I ever joined Cryptic was because of one Genre and one Franchise.
Hero and Villains and Star Trek. Had these titles or Franchise been developed by another company. I would of never of heard of Cryptic or PWE. Because I dislike how they care for their games.
I also apologise to PWE/Cryptic for this message, but this is how I've felt for the past years, please for once stop doing something stupid. As the gamers keep asking for.
They utilise Mission generator Terminals, and Doors. This can be used in Star Trek in place of the old system for explorations. Simple have it in a Star Trek method. Head to your sensor station on your bridge to scan for missions. Place the door in Nebulas or to other planets. You have developer technics which can save memory, this can be cleverly done to make something big but use a smaller amount of memory than intended.
Picking the mission up prior to heading there would alleviate some of the known loading issues, because the server would of loaded it. Rather than it generating it of the bat like it's doing now.
So instead of at least getting one intern to do your job and fix it you just went full "EF it!" and threw the whole thing out of the airlock...
Wasn't there word of having the Content added to the Foundry or as a Door in the Foundry? If you guys haven't flat out lied... how is this changing the Size of the Install unless you actually removed all the content?
"A Feeling of Exploration"... you mean the ONLY Feeling of Exploration... and if you knew that this feeling is/was important to Star Trek, why are you killing it?
Rectify with what? 1,5 Feature Episodes per Year that are marked as "Special Exploration Themed"?
And I am pretty sure you will ef it up and leave them bugged for quite some time until some intern stumbles upon them...
Please stop actively lying into our faces and at least admit that they are gone simply because your Corporate Overlords haven't managed to find a way to monetize the whole experience...
I generally try to avoid political posts. Indeed, this one smacks of politics - both from forum users as well as those internal to Cryptic/Perfect World. That said, your post is not going to serve as a lightning rod for anything good - primarily for the reason it is mean spirited, uncivil, and precisely the sort of rant that gets ignored. You could have perfectly valid points all of which lost in the amber of your tone.
Assumptions, even those veiled in the shroud of purported outrage, are baseless without facts to back them up. I do not believe they are lying to us. I believe, however, that they almost certainly had a directive from higher up to rectify this issue and given a timeframe to do so.
I cannot know for certain, but your commentary suggests you have never before worked in an organization that does rapid software development. While I could write a very long post addressing both possibilities, I'll go with the one that seems most probable (that you don't have said experience).
Various groups within said company are given tasks (some companies use sprints to do this) within a set period. Often sprints can be 3 weeks. Within those weeks (whatever Cryptic's period is), those set tasks are in motion and, usually unless a technical issue blocks it, moving at various speeds for that set period of time. With multiple groups and multiple tasks in flight, some get done relatively faster than expected, most get done within the window expected, and some slip. While the latter could certainly slip for usually technical reasons, other things come out of it that prevent said deadline from being met. So, they either get pushed to another sprint or put into the backlog for technology (or whatever issue it is) to resolve.
That doesn't make the product managers, sales, or even forum staff liars. After all, they don't know what's going on in the background any more than you do. Otherwise, they would be coding and off of the forums. The people you see posting on here from Cryptic/PW get basic top level summaries as to what is being done. They don't know until the development management sends out a summary of what was or was not done. (And this assumes a perfectly functional organization.) More likely, some things are not communicated to them from time to time and slip through the cracks. But, that's what the usual process should be.
Moving on from your understanding (or perhaps lack of same) of agile software development, the more salient point is not that many people are clamoring for it to stay in game. Remember, statistically, there's a very small showing of actual users in game to those that post on the forums. You don't represent a majority, even if you'd prefer and your point were absolutely valid.
I would be perfectly fine with their removal of the Genesis system (that which creates the randomly generated exploration missions) as I argued on the original forums that it was a poor substitute for quality work. It would work fine in theory, but in practice would be tedious and boring. Indeed, it was and is exactly that. If they are looking to streamline the download process and get rid of repetitive content, this will accomplish those two goals. You're attempting to argue a third goal should be to have something in place that would either take the place of that or work as an effective alternative. Valid point - but make it that without the invective. Otherwise, your point is lost in the noise of your tone.
Their counterargument will be (and legitimately so) that the Foundry is user generated content that can do what Genesis could not do. Genesis could not generate random engaging content. It wasn't exploration either. It was repeatedly entering a holodeck set to random. Foundry content isn't exploration either - but can be engaging content. You should argue that we should have an alternative which allows us exploration and provide suggestions.
Remember, effective feedback not only illustrates the problem but also proposes solutions. While your proposed solution may not be used, it would however spawn ideas from which a future solution is built. A rant, however, does not go well and is ignored. So you will have lost your otherwise valid point. Participate in the activities that will increase your happiness long-term, not the immediate knee jerk reaction that will not contribute to said happiness.
My time to play is fairly limited and being able to hop on at any time and spend 30 minutes doing a complete mission is one of the things that keeps me coming back frequently and keeps my interest in the game going.
I'm afraid without the exploration missions or something to replace them, my play time will be down to once a week or less when I happen to have a couple of hours together to do my next story mission. Not happy.