An unsettling rumor: The End of Exploration

xtern1ty

I've heard a very unpleasant rumor circulating to which clarity is definitely needed:

http://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/28jgi1/death_of_support_doff_chain/

One word: Accolades.

Remove cluster and sector combat missions and you remove a large section of accolades some players already have gotten, while others have yet to get to.

I been grinding months to build my game up to the level where I can engage content such as those exploration missions, for the accolades themselves if nothing else. If you remove that, it means players like me are not going to be able to get the accolades. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't get 70 daily missions per cluster before the end of July.

That is very unsettling, especially considering the great amount of accolades involved. After all the grind and hard hours I've spent preparing to get to that section of content, not being able to get them is something I don't want to hear. I'm not going to rest easy until some clarification is made on this.

In the meantime, I encourage players who've been grinding, hoping as I have to get to cluster mission content, to join with me and send a clear message to the developers/whoever is in charge:

Please do not remove the ability to get current exploration accolades. Thank you.

hypl

I think Cryptic plans on replacing exploration with something else, although they have not officially announced anything yet. They've dropped a hint or two about replacing that aspect of the game, and it has been suggested that the upcoming expansion will revolve around exploration.

baddmoonrizin

Also a Dev recently stated that they were looking at how to make the Accolades still obtainable.

ankokuneko

But accolades dont do anything ...

xtern1ty

Replacing or removing, still doesn't clarify what's going on with the accolades. The picture on that webpage I linked above doesn't help to settle the unease.

hypl

ankokuneko wrote: »

But accolades dont do anything ...

Some grant titles and the combat accolades can grant minor damage buffs and resistance bonuses.

xtern1ty

ankokuneko wrote: »

But accolades dont do anything ...

Aside from minor buffs provided, accolades are a measure of game progress. Since everyone can have the same level, complete all the same reps and get all pretty much the same and there is no completion award, accolades are what serves for an accomplished achievements score atm. Dedicated players compare their accolade tallies to see who has the most and who has reached the most content. It's fair, it's clear and it should remain accessible.

iconians

I believe it was Mr. Hamilton who said they were looking into ways to make those accolades achievable. And I certainly hope they are -- and have it in their top priority list.

I personally feel certain doff missions should reward progress for the appropriate star cluster. Obviously not the 15 minute ones, but certain ones should be flagged.

baddmoonrizin

iconians wrote: »

I believe it was Mr. Hamilton who said they were looking into ways to make those accolades achievable. And I certainly hope they are -- and have it in their top priority list.

I personally feel certain doff missions should reward progress for the appropriate star cluster. Obviously not the 15 minute ones, but certain ones should be flagged.

I believe that you're correct about the who.

I had suggested linking the Accolades to DOFFing as that will be the only thing we can do with the Clusters once the maps are gone.

lucho80

ankokuneko wrote: »

But accolades dont do anything ...

But I don't care. I still want to get them anyway.

t0xsick2

ankokuneko wrote: »

But accolades dont do anything ...

Your nipples don't do anything, lets rip those out too.

wildweasal

t0xsick2 wrote: »

Your nipples don't do anything, lets rip those out too.

well yeah but you still would not miss em if you did

jheinig

We're working on a way to make these accolades completable under the new system of star clusters. Anyone who has completed the accolades won't lose them.

I personally also like to occasionally offer rewards tied to accolades, such as the Risian duty officers, which could only be requisitioned if you completed enough summer accolades. I make no promises, but I think it would be interesting to have some kind of reward that you can only access by completing certain star cluster accolades, or groups of them.

baddmoonrizin

jheinig wrote: »

We're working on a way to make these accolades completable under the new system of star clusters. Anyone who has completed the accolades won't lose them.

I personally also like to occasionally offer rewards tied to accolades, such as the Risian duty officers, which could only be requisitioned if you completed enough summer accolades. I make no promises, but I think it would be interesting to have some kind of reward that you can only access by completing certain star cluster accolades, or groups of them.

That is awesome. And much appreciated.

iconians

jheinig wrote: »

We're working on a way to make these accolades completable under the new system of star clusters. Anyone who has completed the accolades won't lose them.

I personally also like to occasionally offer rewards tied to accolades, such as the Risian duty officers, which could only be requisitioned if you completed enough summer accolades. I make no promises, but I think it would be interesting to have some kind of reward that you can only access by completing certain star cluster accolades, or groups of them.

This made my day. Have some of my money, Cryptic.

azurianstar

jheinig wrote: »

We're working on a way to make these accolades completable under the new system of star clusters. Anyone who has completed the accolades won't lose them.

I personally also like to occasionally offer rewards tied to accolades, such as the Risian duty officers, which could only be requisitioned if you completed enough summer accolades. I make no promises, but I think it would be interesting to have some kind of reward that you can only access by completing certain star cluster accolades, or groups of them.

I'm sure there is a ton of accoladers breathing a sigh of relief with confirmation their hard-earned work (exploration accolades) isn't going away.

Now let me ask you, is this system for those who have already started (like 1/70 visits) or will new players who yet to start the exploration clusters able to get these accolades?

baddmoonrizin

azurianstar wrote: »

I'm sure there is a ton of accoladers breathing a sigh of relief with confirmation their hard-earned work (exploration accolades) isn't going away.

Now let me ask you, is this system for those who have already started (like 1/70 visits) or will new players who yet to start the exploration clusters able to get these accolades?

It'll almost definitely be available to everyone, I'm sure, otherwise they'd just discontinue the Accolades.

daedalus304

they haven't been procedural generating since the third month of launch.

they turned off the genesis engine after a while. the same maps have been circulating for a while.

they'd have been better off revamping the genesis engine to allow for truly procedural generated maps and have them deleted after mission is completed for ease of space.

azurianstar

baddmoonrizin wrote: »

It'll almost definitely be available to everyone, I'm sure, otherwise they'd just discontinue the Accolades.

It's the "almost" that requires a more official answer.

warmaker001b

hypl wrote: »

I think Cryptic plans on replacing exploration with something else, although they have not officially announced anything yet. They've dropped a hint or two about replacing that aspect of the game, and it has been suggested that the upcoming expansion will revolve around exploration.

This is annoying. This isn't directed at you but at Cryptic's line of thought.

So, they have a "plan" on replacing Exploration with something else but have nothing to show for it. Instead of leaving the Exploration missions / clusters in place UNTIL they finish making it, they're just removing the current system in favor of simple DOFF missions?

Instead of improving Exploration missions, they're just removing them?

Exploration has received far less attention and fixes than most of this game. Matter of fact, Exploration ranks there with PVP as one of the most neglected aspects of STO by Cryptic.

Some fixes are needed (NPCs spawning inside buildings with no entrances / exits, thereby killing the mission). Some fine tuning needed (We're searching for ancient artifacts of the 3rd Borg Dynasty???). But outright complete removal to be reduced to mere DOFF missions is laughable.

Exploration cluster missions are the ONLY dynamic mission generation in STO. Everything else is static and you know exactly what to face (regular PVE quests/story arcs, STFs, Battlezones, etc). Exploration is the only thing in the game where you can go into the anomaly and maybe go into space combat, maybe do a bit of ground pound, maybe scan a few things on the ground. Even Foundry missions are fixed in nature. I really think more could be done with the missions and how they're generated.

But removing it outright before actually putting in an equal or better replacement is just wrong.

vivenneanthony

daedalus304 wrote: »

they haven't been procedural generating since the third month of launch.

they turned off the genesis engine after a while. the same maps have been circulating for a while.

they'd have been better off revamping the genesis engine to allow for truly procedural generated maps and have them deleted after mission is completed for ease of space.

I say revamp the Genesis to make maps on the server side not on the main server. Then add it code that makes the main server transfer maps from the Genesis server to the client only when required then update Genesis to be more procedural with a lot more parameters.

Setup sector space edges so if someone wants to do exploration stay close to chartered sector space and let people get resources. If someone wants to explore then can go further but they won't have easy access to starbases (maybe derelict starbases thats ready for salvaging) or maybe even alien starbases(unknown races) . Disable transwarp jumps.

xtern1ty

jheinig wrote: »

We're working on a way to make these accolades completable under the new system of star clusters. Anyone who has completed the accolades won't lose them.

I personally also like to occasionally offer rewards tied to accolades, such as the Risian duty officers, which could only be requisitioned if you completed enough summer accolades. I make no promises, but I think it would be interesting to have some kind of reward that you can only access by completing certain star cluster accolades, or groups of them.

Thank you very much for the clarification, sets my mind at ease knowing the accolades will still be available to get and I don't have to overtax myself on more grind between now and the upcoming season. Doffs sound good and would add an extra incentive for completing content. Support.

Cheers

leviathan99

jheinig wrote: »

We're working on a way to make these accolades completable under the new system of star clusters. Anyone who has completed the accolades won't lose them.

I personally also like to occasionally offer rewards tied to accolades, such as the Risian duty officers, which could only be requisitioned if you completed enough summer accolades. I make no promises, but I think it would be interesting to have some kind of reward that you can only access by completing certain star cluster accolades, or groups of them.

You could possibly tie them to the existing Cluster DOff chains, I'd think.

notrealedna

To explore strange new.....oh wait without explore lol

johnsteward

Doesnt "the end of exploration" require that there ever was one in the first place?

baddmoonrizin

azurianstar wrote: »

It's the "almost" that requires a more official answer.

I only say "almost" because of the possibility that they aren't able to implement it. If they do, everyone will get it. Wouldn't make sense to put the efforf into making it work and then only allow it for players that had started the Accolades before the change.

zeuxidemus001

jheinig wrote: »

We're working on a way to make these accolades completable under the new system of star clusters. Anyone who has completed the accolades won't lose them.

I personally also like to occasionally offer rewards tied to accolades, such as the Risian duty officers, which could only be requisitioned if you completed enough summer accolades. I make no promises, but I think it would be interesting to have some kind of reward that you can only access by completing certain star cluster accolades, or groups of them.

Make them true way(these guys are also in the outdated content area since they are about as deadly as a shuttle with no power) bases to raid lol All bajorans get double damage against them as a joke lol :P

thutmosis85

hypl wrote: »

I think Cryptic plans on replacing exploration with something else, although they have not officially announced anything yet. They've dropped a hint or two about replacing that aspect of the game, and it has been suggested that the upcoming expansion will revolve around exploration.

What Hints (please share) ? All I've heard so far is "We'll want to rectify ..." aka :

http://www.imediaconnection.com/images/content/image1.jpg

only real "Hint" or better to say "Leak" about Expansion 2, i know of ... are some Audio Samples, which imply we're going to shoot a lot of DQ - Species ... doesn't scream "Exploration" for me ...

snoggymack22

daedalus304 wrote: »

they'd have been better off revamping the genesis engine to allow for truly procedural generated maps and have them deleted after mission is completed for ease of space.

Not sure they have anyone on staff who can actually do that, and then there's the whole issue of the genesis system not being something they created. I know that DStahl worked on it back in alpha. But the way he talked about it, it seemed like the people who could really revamp it haven't worked at the company in years. And that was a couple years ago at that.

Now I could be way off here. It's just going off what I see them doing with their updates and actual work they put out, it seems like they have devs that really don't mess with older code and older systems. Which in the long run is probably a good thing as they've had a long history of breaking things and not fixing them well due to their QA process and patching process.

What I guess I'm saying is, it seems like the genesis sytem will be quarantined, or placed safely in a corner where no one will have to touch it.

snoggymack22

nabreeki wrote: »

Read through the link provided, OP, but didn't quite see the part that you claim to be "unsettling." Can you please go into more detail so everyone here can have a greater picture as to what, the OP, you, in this case, and any others who may not be the OP but also interested, I assume, are troubled about?

The OP was pretty clear, they are worried about the removal of the exploration clusters cutting off access to specific accolades that can only be attained by doing exploration missions in those clusters.

Here's a list of those affected, from STO Wiki.

naharikajal

jheinig wrote: »

Anyone who has completed the accolades won't lose them.

That's good to hear. Thanks for the Information.