I'm all for pulling the "random encounters" in sector space too, since they never work right anyway and don't scale with level. They're entirely worthless.
I to agree with all the comments made above. But as one person suggested I'll wait and see what happens and hope for the best. But given the way cryptic treats its player base and goes against the majority. I'll not hold out any hope that this time they'll sit up and listen to us.
I'm not lamenting the loss of the start clusters, truthfully. The only time I ever went in there was to farm samples before they introduced unreplicateable materials. Once they brought those in, crafting was dead to me and I never went to another cluster again.
This crafting revamp is ensuring that I never touch crafting in this game ever again. Random chance mods in a crafted item is in the top three dumbest things I've ever seen in an mmo.
9.5 is looking to be a major, major letdown. I think I need to put STO away for a while and shop for a new mmo. I can always take a look again when E2 launches...provided I even want to anymore at that point.
I'm all for pulling the "random encounters" in sector space too, since they never work right anyway and don't scale with level. They're entirely worthless.
Like you say in your signature - we need more story content. Unless Cryptic is holding some cards very close to their chests, we're not getting it in S9.5. We've only seen 3 story missions since last August. They were all amazing, but it's very little narrative to go with new reps.
I think they should replace exploration with something simple (and quick). The random mission generation didn't work well, but the random planet maps were sometimes beautiful. Perhaps content designers could use existing assets to put together a bunch of one offs (that make sense) over time. I think I'm going to put together a suggestion thread in General Discussion and see if it sticks. It won't, but I prefer to add some constructive ideas then to just whine all day.
It's safe to say that exploration needed a revamp just as much as crafting - and I say that as someone who's got a full set of exploration accolades.
But it needs a revamp, not a complete deletion.
As others have said - this is an essential part of what makes the game "Star Trek" rather than "random grindfest". Losing the exploration and diplomatic missions is absolutely not something Cryptic should be doing. Improving them, yes, by all means. They need that. But deleting them? No.
Like you say in your signature - we need more story content. Unless Cryptic is holding some cards very close to their chests, we're not getting it in S9.5. We've only seen 3 story missions since last August. They were all amazing, but it's very little narrative to go with new reps.
You're forgetting the Borg and Undine revamp, which took some really mediocre missions (one of which I outright refused to ever replay), made them almost as high quality as the latest FEs, and tied them into the current storyline. My only complaint is that they're all a bit short. (Oh and making Commander Taelus evil because we're not allowed to have morally gray stuff for the Romulan Empire now that the Republic's around -- but I've complained about this one more than enough already.)
There was the Klingon War revamp too, but I can't remember if that added any story content or just reworked what was already there.
I think they should replace exploration with something simple (and quick). The random mission generation didn't work well, but the random planet maps were sometimes beautiful. Perhaps content designers could use existing assets to put together a bunch of one offs (that make sense) over time. I think I'm going to put together a suggestion thread in General Discussion and see if it sticks. It won't, but I prefer to add some constructive ideas then to just whine all day.
You're forgetting the Borg and Undine revamp, which took some really mediocre missions (one of which I outright refused to ever replay), made them almost as high quality as the latest FEs, and tied them into the current storyline. My only complaint is that they're all a bit short. (Oh and making Commander Taelus evil because we're not allowed to have morally gray stuff for the Romulan Empire now that the Republic's around -- but I've complained about this one more than enough already.)
There was the Klingon War revamp too, but I can't remember if that added any story content or just reworked what was already there.
Yes, whining gets tiresome, ideas are fun.
If forced to choose between spending an afternoon navigating the flying snot missions or doing random missions in exploration clusters, I would have chosen the exploration clusters any day. Almost nothing the devs have created in the last year has been 'high quality' in my opinion and I think my opinion is borne out by the fact that if you look in the queues, almost none of those missions are ever being played.
I dont know how many of you play Neverwinter, but this new crafting system is the Neverwinter crafting system. It is essentially an additional rep grind that takes absolutely ridiculous amounts of time unless you are willing to pay. Oh, and a good part of new content will from now on just be additional "new" crafting professions. And to craft the good stuff, you have to spend money.
I was so hoping that there would be no further overlap between Neverwinter and STO, but I guess that hope was in vain.
3700 missions from two basic flavors, scan 5 things or kill 5 squads. This isn't a meaningful amount of content. It's perhaps the weakest part of STO. Now removing it without providing an adequate Exploration substitute I agree isn't a happy occasion but it is perhaps the least substantial cut Cryptic could make to this game. At least now there's the opportunity to replace it with something else at some point in the future (which seems pretty damned likely to be when we get the Delta Quadrant.)
Dabo is the weakest part of STO. It's a time sink that rewards you with a practically useless currency.
The exploration missions were still, at their very core, missions. Things you did as a player.
Taking content away from a game that has a notorious history for being bad about creating new content is perhaps one of the stupidest things Cryptic has ever thought of doing. For the first time in ages, I'm actually thinking Atari wasn't the problem when Stahl said they had no cups in the kitchen.
You're forgetting the Borg and Undine revamp, which took some really mediocre missions (one of which I outright refused to ever replay), made them almost as high quality as the latest FEs, and tied them into the current storyline.
They got rid of half of the Undine story arc in doing so, leaving me with overall less missions available. And removed the best mission of the 45 to 50 levelling process, with no more Q-jr.
Comments
This crafting revamp is ensuring that I never touch crafting in this game ever again. Random chance mods in a crafted item is in the top three dumbest things I've ever seen in an mmo.
9.5 is looking to be a major, major letdown. I think I need to put STO away for a while and shop for a new mmo. I can always take a look again when E2 launches...provided I even want to anymore at that point.
Like you say in your signature - we need more story content. Unless Cryptic is holding some cards very close to their chests, we're not getting it in S9.5. We've only seen 3 story missions since last August. They were all amazing, but it's very little narrative to go with new reps.
I think they should replace exploration with something simple (and quick). The random mission generation didn't work well, but the random planet maps were sometimes beautiful. Perhaps content designers could use existing assets to put together a bunch of one offs (that make sense) over time. I think I'm going to put together a suggestion thread in General Discussion and see if it sticks. It won't, but I prefer to add some constructive ideas then to just whine all day.
But it needs a revamp, not a complete deletion.
As others have said - this is an essential part of what makes the game "Star Trek" rather than "random grindfest". Losing the exploration and diplomatic missions is absolutely not something Cryptic should be doing. Improving them, yes, by all means. They need that. But deleting them? No.
You're forgetting the Borg and Undine revamp, which took some really mediocre missions (one of which I outright refused to ever replay), made them almost as high quality as the latest FEs, and tied them into the current storyline. My only complaint is that they're all a bit short. (Oh and making Commander Taelus evil because we're not allowed to have morally gray stuff for the Romulan Empire now that the Republic's around -- but I've complained about this one more than enough already.)
There was the Klingon War revamp too, but I can't remember if that added any story content or just reworked what was already there.
Yes, whining gets tiresome, ideas are fun.
If forced to choose between spending an afternoon navigating the flying snot missions or doing random missions in exploration clusters, I would have chosen the exploration clusters any day. Almost nothing the devs have created in the last year has been 'high quality' in my opinion and I think my opinion is borne out by the fact that if you look in the queues, almost none of those missions are ever being played.
I was so hoping that there would be no further overlap between Neverwinter and STO, but I guess that hope was in vain.
Dabo is the weakest part of STO. It's a time sink that rewards you with a practically useless currency.
The exploration missions were still, at their very core, missions. Things you did as a player.
Taking content away from a game that has a notorious history for being bad about creating new content is perhaps one of the stupidest things Cryptic has ever thought of doing. For the first time in ages, I'm actually thinking Atari wasn't the problem when Stahl said they had no cups in the kitchen.
They got rid of half of the Undine story arc in doing so, leaving me with overall less missions available. And removed the best mission of the 45 to 50 levelling process, with no more Q-jr.
Overall I don't see that revamp as a plus.