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If "Removal = raising average quality," the obvious question is- what goes next?
aloishammer
Member Posts: 3,294 Arc User
It's that simple. Since they've decided shrinking the game is acceptable as long as it raises the "average quality," what's the next most execrable, screwed-up thing in the game that they can boost overall quality by removing? PvP? Ground combat? Queued content that rarely fills?
Let's help'em out here by showing them what needs to go next until they've got extremely high quality in the 4 remaining missions that constitute the entire game!
Let's help'em out here by showing them what needs to go next until they've got extremely high quality in the 4 remaining missions that constitute the entire game!
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Personally, I wouldn't be very sad to see everything that Gozer made get axed.
I was gonna mention Breaking the Planet because it's outlived the other two remaining "real" team missions (Old Crystalline and Terradome). And if PvP got removed, at least then all the nerf criers would have to find something else to blame for nerfs.
It is quite possible that cryptic will add a revamped system to replace the exploration clusters perhaps in season 10.
Further, the spawn rate in breaking the planet needs adjustment...where in breaking the planet, big dig, starbase 24 too many NPCs spawn simultaniously, Klingon scout force suffers from the opposite. Everytime you need to wait for respawn endlessly to progress the mission.
tie in some rewards + those adjustments and you have perfectly good grp content.
Whatever can be monetized the fastest.
To clarify, I have absolutely no problem with Cryptic monetizing portions of the game.
I do have a problem when they TRIBBLE on my leg and tell me it's raining, and blatantly and unabashedly mislead its players into thinking this has to do with the content 'not being up to their current standards' when this solution of theirs could have been put in years ago when the Foundry still had developer support.
It's shady and underhanded and insults the intelligence of some of the STO players who know better than to believe what Mr. Gray has to say at face value...
... when those of us with an IQ bigger than that of a rock know it's all about monetizing the crafting system via c-store mats.
I really don't care if you try to make money, Cryptic. I do care when you have to insult my intelligence by saying it isn't about money, and use a hot button issue like 'content quality' in order to push that narrative.
But I don't think that they will go so easily, simply because they are really a minor, barely noticeable part of the game. To get into any of the FAs, you need to queue up. Since no one does, you'll never get in there anyway. You really need some dedication to figure out how bad they are.
Exploration Clusters are accessible from almost every Sector Block, and there is no "queue bad quality protection" from them -you go in, you stumble upon a mission, beam down on some planets and your BOs fall through the floor (or whatever
Something like Breaking the Planet could be part of the seasonal mission revamps and you would see immediate benefits form it.
Of course, they did remove State of Q recently, though in that case, their plan/goal to improve it is a bit out of their control - they want Avery Brooks to speak his character again, and who knows if he can be interested in that. (So maybe we'll never see that mission back. Or they have to abandon their plan).
I think monetizing is a bit too simplistic description. Cryptic will look at what affects player retention positively.
Some stuff is directly monetized, like C-Store ships or Lockboxes.
But other stuff does it only indirectly - only by having people actually play the game they can convince them that buying a lockbox or a C-Store ship is actually worth it.
That's why they don't provide us with dozens of featured episodes each year - an FE is a reason to come back for one day. THey need other content to keep you playing the game afterwards - the dreaded "Reputation Grind" for example. Or something like Risa Events (which has pretty much no direct monetization in it - the only way to get that ship is to log in every day, and fly your rounds. You can't speed it up with Dilithium or Zen. But - you're playing the game now.)
But they still need to provide the occasional episode - they draw players back that haven't been around in weeks or months. And players may actually decide to leave because the story isn't advancing any more.
So they will always need to provide a mix of content options, some of them to attract players to play the game in the first place, and some to get players to keep playing.
Special Events
Featured Episodes
Reputations with new missions and mechanics
The mix will always cause some frustrations for people - for example, some (many) want 24 FEs per year. Maybe Cryptic could do that - but that would, at worst, give people only a reason to play for a day. You don't really need a new ship for that, do you? So what is keeping you around the other 365-24 days of the year, when all the reputations are maxxed out, there are no events that give special rewards?
The exploration areas suck. Like seriously, they are the absolute worst part of the game. The only thing they accomplished was wasting new players' time.
I started not too long ago, and I remember running around those huge ground maps looking for the 4 fogs to scan (in the fog!) and thinking, my god this is the most boring game in the world. I still see people on the French chat channel asking if they're doing an exploration mission right because it's taking a lot of time and this can't possibly be right, and it's like, the only way to do an exploration mission right is just to not do it.
It's like a right of passage, I guess. At some point you learn not to use multiple energy weapon types on the same ship, to turn on your autofire to shoot faster, and never to do exploration missions because watching the paint dry is more exciting. So the devs are just reducing the learning curve for STO, if you want to think of it that way.
To answer the original question, I wouldn't mind seeing the long slog of episodes that is "romulan mystery" up to the shuttlecraft episode just go or just get reduced.
Heh. Heheheheheheheh.
Actually, I heard the plan was only to drop in the audio from "Emissary," since STO would have access to that from CBS, and it's possible to drop in Avery's original performance of that since the audio is "multi-tracked" (meaning, they can just get his audio, no music or FX).
John de Lance was the actor I heard they wanted to come in and record new stuff.
But, this is only their solution for now... we don't know that this is their FINAL offering for exploration.
And, personally, I would more call defending the quality of the star clusters... and referring to them as exploration... as "pissing on my leg and telling me it's raining." Far too many are crying about the so-called "removal of exploration" from this game, or losing an easy way to farm dilithium... I don't see anyone defending the content itself. Because it's LAME.
Besides, I can get more dilithium from playing two elite Borg STFs (1920) at endgame, then playing three boring missions in a star cluster (only 1440).
It's like Tommy Callahan said in Tommy Boy... you can take a dump in a box, and mark it as "exploration," but I'd much rather have good content to play. I say, let's wait until X2 before we set fire to anything!
Except for them having said this is the entire plan. :rolleyes:
Yes, of course they might revisit the decision later- but no matter how loudly the Rosy Glasses Brigade chants, they've said the current full plan is "Door to Foundry missions = Exploration Revamp."
Closure at last. :P
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Just because youve been through the mission (Spoiler Alert) that has brought about a Ceasefire. (End of Spoiler Alert) doesnt mean everyone else has.
Theres also a significant bit of storyline between the moment you gain control of a ship and when such mission takes place that would have to be stripped away simply to placate you and others who have an issue with the war.
Except we do know.
http://community.arcgames.com/en/news/star-trek-online/detail/6002963-exploration-cluster-removal
"For those who will miss the opportunity to explore these particular locations, we will be adding doors to the Foundry so that player-created missions can make use of these settings. The limitless nature of the potential missions that can be created using the Foundry as well as the high quality of content that Foundry authors continue to deliver are both exactly in line with the original goals of Exploration Clusters.
While we are removing part of the game,........"
So officially they would like free labor to generate revenue, so they can focus on something more within their goals I guess.
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Hey, we Foundry authors earn dilithium tips. You can tip me as much as 100 dilithium, which I think is worth about half a penny worth of zen. I can't do the math on that one.
I think maybe my non-spotlight missions earn me about 2 cents worth of zen every 4 days.
Well yes. But that is virtual currency, paid for by other players. There is of course a chance that your Dilithium could have been converted to zen, and used on some official content instead, so I will have to moderate the statement to "practically for free", fair is fair. The only transaction that matters is the real money infusion that grants you zen. Everything else is a game of bits and bytes.
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First of all, call me an eternal optimist, but this still does not mean they won't do something on top of this in the future.
Second of all, I am of the camp here that is FOR connecting Foundry to exploration. I think that's a great idea, because I currently don't do EITHER exploration clusters OR Foundry missions. Now, if I have an itch for "exploration"? I will be taken to a Foundry mission that isn't a click-fest or pew-pew-fest. No issues with that.
Now, perhaps the devs' "next step" will be to beef up the Foundry system... add more assets, and give better rewards to players. (See, I don't even know how the Foundry works... do players get any EC/Dil/XP for completing a Foundry mission?) I'm sure Foundry authors would LOVE more/better assists to make better stories. I would LOVE to see something more automatic... like, you reach a star cluster, click to enter, and BOOM... it automatically throws you into a mission.
The idea may not be perfect, but I think it's good. In the meantime, the devs could focus on major bug squashing, building new ships, doing more main-story content... all things we ALL want.
I say erase Earth. Who needs it?
Depending on the length of the mission, you get something like 700 to 2000+ dilithium, plus an additional set bonus of 960 from "Investigate Officer Reports," which can be repeated every half hour. The loot grinders have the worst dilithium pay-outs. The stories have the best.
With a spotlight mission, you earn more. The last spotlight I played earned my like 3600 dilithium.
Plus 20,000 ECs, more ECs from vendor trash, and a bunch of XP.
I think those numbers are right, but it's been a few weeks since I've actually played the game.
But I can see them removing any queued missions which have decent rewards. The more they make people grind or pay zen the better according to their calculus. Personally, I haven't spent 1 cent on the game since end of November (despite spending something 20 bucks a month before). I decided not to reward them after the lame Season 8 with ridiculous dinos with lasers and then the grind-a-versery.
Perhaps, they will realize at some point that they can only TRIBBLE on the IP and fans up to a certain point and squeeze wallets before the money dries up. Let's see how long it goes.
- Judge Aaron Satie
On the one hand, you're completely correct.
But on the other, I suspect the C-store is immune under the "But that's different" rule.