I'm very sorry to hear that. . .
I hope that we can remedy whatever it is you're not liking at the moment, and you will consider giving us another shot down the line. LLAP
The community is just getting angry over executive decisions on direction. (And legitimately so imo)
This is the important part. I make a sincere effort to criticise producer decisions, and I think others should too, rather than pointing fingers in the wrong places.
I can't blame the developers who spend days laboring over a computer creating what they are told to create. There are many talented developers at Cryptic who I think get an unfair shake at times.
Sure, there are times when I point out something I think Borticus or Al Rivera is wrong on. Sure, I'll question some of the things they use their artistic freedom on -- but I can't in good conscience be anti-innovation entirely. Sometimes they make decisions I don't understand until after it has been in the game for a while.
Sure, I'll even point out why volunteering to test on Tribble is a waste of time. But that's just symptoms of a bigger problem. It's superficial criticism.
The problem is higher than the developers.
I can blame the people at the top who tell them what to create and how to create it. They're the ones making the big bucks, they're the suits and ties that can afford to be dished out (sometimes scathing) criticism.
They're also the ones who are noticably absent from direct communication with the fans. Having to go through middle-men (and women) like Smirk and Trendy shows an impersonal desire to address the fanbase.
To quote the video link in my signature, "Support creators for how they create, not always for what they create."
Personally? I'm scaling back my involvement with STO until some meaningful changes hit holodeck. My heart isn't in it as much as it used to be, and I can say that after Season 9.5 I'm certainly demoralized.
I'm still playing, and I still support Cryptic Studios and am pleased they continue to develop. But as Tacofangs said, I think some remedies are in order. I'm not asking for a panacea. I'm asking to be met half-way.
Hopefully something big is headed this way to take this bitter taste of Season 9.5 out of my mouth.
I'm very sorry to hear that. . .
I hope that we can remedy whatever it is you're not liking at the moment, and you will consider giving us another shot down the line. LLAP
I know yer just an artist, but please speak to the other devs who work in the crafting area. This change is driving many players away.
I can blame the people at the top who tell them what to create and how to create it. They're the ones making the big bucks, they're the suits and ties that can afford to be dished out (sometimes scathing) criticism.
So many bring up the revamp from SW:Galaxies as a case study for what not to do with an MMO when in reality it was not the game killer many claimed it to be. Licenses and all that.
At one point in EVE they became hyper focused on creating content the player base had no interest in. They then proceeded to insult and annoy the playerbase and push out a terrible release. Income dropped dramatically as players left and far too many good developers lost their jobs. Since then they have been doing well as they changed directions and quite honestly got lucky with a few key devs saving the company.
I do not want to see that happen to STO and hope those at top wake up before it is too late.
I'm still playing, and I still support Cryptic Studios and am pleased they continue to develop. But as Tacofangs said, I think some remedies are in order. I'm not asking for a panacea. I'm asking to be met half-way.
Hopefully something big is headed this way to take this bitter taste of Season 9.5 out of my mouth.
Iconians, I would like to issue a Foundry challenge to you. Spend one week not caring about dilithium, not caring about sinks, not touching your doffs, not visiting the exchange, not crafting and generally not doing anything at all as a mouse in a maze trying to grind some shiny. Throw every lockbox away and just dump all loots into your replicator.
Just take a break and try to find a few good stories that players made.
In other words, I challenge you to play the game the opposite of how it is designed by Geko and others post S6. Don't touch the buckets. Don't buy a thing. Don't even look at those reputation projects.
Just try to feel like it's a Star Trek experience, not a MMO.
Iconians, I would like to issue a Foundry challenge to you. Spend one week not caring about dilithium, not caring about sinks, not touching your doffs, not visiting the exchange, not crafting and generally not doing anything at all as a mouse in a maze trying to grind some shiny. Throw every lockbox away and just dump all loots into your replicator.
Just take a break and try to find a few good stories that players made.
In other words, I challenge you to play the game the opposite of how it is designed by Geko and others post S6. Don't touch the buckets. Don't buy a thing. Don't even look at those reputation projects.
Just try to feel like it's a Star Trek experience, not a MMO.
The removal of multiple Crafting Research projects really upset me. I'm not going to waste 4 months or exorbitant amounts of materials to grind all the way to the point... where I can make stuff that is basically equivalent to TRIBBLE I can buy in a Rep store for a lot less effort. This was pointed out REPEATEDLY during Tribble testing and seems to have been totally ignored. Crafting was my one last big hope. If X2 isn't an utterly amazing story-centric addition with little to no grinding (which, let's admit it, that's the opposite of what it's likely to be), I don't think I'll be continuing with this game, either. And it's the only game I play anymore. I didn't buy a Lifetime Sub to Grind Fest Online.
Cryptic, your game is broken. Fix it, please, before you grind your players out of the game. Here's what's broken:
Too much Dilithium Grind. I made a post about this on Reddit, explaining the economic issues with Dilithium. It basically comes down to reverse demand-pull inflation. Where demand-pull is too few goods and too much money, reverse demand-pull is too much goods and too few money. Now with the Crafting system and it's HILARIOUSLY over-the-top Dilithium time-gate-skipping option that, to the player, screams "GIVE ME MONEY," the issue has reached a level of self-parody on par with Voyager's infamous "Threshold." (warning: Linked review may contain strong language)
Too much grind in general. Want good gear? I hope you enjoy playing the same few missions a thousand times to get that gear. Oh, look, new good gear, go grind for that. With now 5 reputations, 4 Fleet Holdings, DOff commendations, and a Crafting grind to rival EVE online in boredom and repetition, it's hard to have fun in this game. You're not encouraged to have fun, you're encouraged to grind. STO has a facebook fan group. Therein, most of its players are shown how to grind and how to reach 30k DPS. Any and all dissent from these is met with laughs generated from absurdity and responses that boil down to "why do you want to have FUN when you can grind moar". Grind in and of itself isn't bad if you're having fun doing it. I have a friend that just finished a Relic Weapon in Final Fantasy XIV. That, as he explained it to me, takes ABSURD amounts of grinding. But the grind is varied and fun, and includes challenges. He doesn't hate grind. But he doesn't like how this game does it - I brought him in, he left. Early game is kinda samey, so new players leave before hitting end game. And now veterans are leaving because there's no variety at end game. Killing Tholians requires the same basic tactics as killing Borg, killing Voth, and killing Undine, with only one or two different mechanics that are so ineffective that they're just avoided or ignored entirely to differentiate the enemies. Tholians Web you - carry FAW - and disable weapons - negated by EPtW, bog standard in a DPS build, and ET, bog-standard in every other build. The Borg tractor you - stay more than 5km away or just Evasive Maneuvers out of tractor range. The Voth have Aceton Drones - just don't shoot them - and refracting shields - just fly around to the other side. The Undine have their Fluidic Rifts - stay out of the front arc to prevent it firing. There is no challenge in this game. The last time they tried to make a fight hard was the ESD ground battle, and that was only hard for a lack of Bridge Officers.
Power Creep. The only way this game could be called "balanced" is if you consider everything being overpowered as all Hell being "balanced." New, more broken things are added with every big patch. With 9.5, it was the Xindi Lockbox. The DOffs are all pretty OP - especially the Grav Well M/AM specs. The ships are broken OP - the Carrier is a rival to the JHDC and the Escort is close to the JHAS in firepower and durability. The Kit Modules are almost ALL overpowered. Hell, Scis get something that makes Armek a joke and a vaccine for DEATH ITSELF. Motivation looks to make Tacs damn near invincible, too. And before that Season 9. Hirogen Lock Box - same general issues. Plus, we then got the 8472 rep and the Enhanced BioMol Torpedo of Doom that hits like a sack of bricks. Before that was Dyson Joint Command and the Spire in Season 8. Anything and everything an uber-crit boat could ever want. I could go all the way back to Season 6 on this point. There are Scimitar builds that break 70k DPS. That's an initial decloak ambush killing any enemy players in PvP in less than two seconds. The power creep has taken all challenge away from the game. The Star Trek Battles channel has a hard cap of 7k DPS and still makes most Elite STFs a breeze. We need a massive increase in challenge. We need a balance pass on things like Superior Romulan Operative (all you have to do there is make it not stack). We need enemies that make the stupidly high DPS actually mean something. We need to have a reason to have dedicated tanks and healers. We need to have genuine boss fights that are more than tank-and-spank DPS-fests. We need a variety of content that does not exist as yet in this game.
Too freaking much combat. With the removal of Exploration clusters, only minigames and lore missions stand as fully non-combat content pieces, and they're neither played much nor worth much. Increasingly, we have missions where the end goal is "slaughter everything," and that isn't Trek. Were we to give this game an accurate title... it would be Star Wars Online. Because that's all it is: Wars and fighting. There is no adventure, no exploration, no trek amongst the stars. There's very little non-combat story missions. I could see this being Klingon Empire Online... but there's nothing but combat here. Give us non-combat content.
Most of the game feels... small. Cramped. Players can now reach Transwarp 60 and higher. Cross the length of Sector Blocks in minutes. Most Ground maps are tiny compared to the massive nature of a planet. We have three Ground "Adventure Zones." One is all about fighting Borg - you'd might as well call it a Battle Zone. Another is swarming with hostile Tholians by the dozen at every turn. It very much IS a Battle Zone. Nimbus is mainly empty - the only places of INTEREST are crawling with enemies to fight, so it's more a Battle Zone as well. And Mol'Rihan even has combat, though it only dominates HALF the map and is finally big enough to really explore. So, we only really have one true ADVENTURE zone. One place out of it all that we can explore. One place where it doesn't FEEL like you're on a small chunk of a planet - most of the time. I want a totally non-combat Adventure Zone. A place with its own challenges. Perhaps a zone of lore challenges, of meeting the locals, of using gameplay to help the people living there. And I know the perfect place for it: Cardassia Prime. At the end of DS9, Cardassia was bombed from orbit by the Dominion. It may have been 35 years, but I doubt the rebuilding is complete. Give us THAT, Cryptic. Let us help the Cardassians rebuild. Let us see the fruits of our labor. A place to go to help people. To rebuild. As one part of the planet is finished, simply make a new zone with another map, different unique challenges, until you've opened up almost all of Cardassia. Planets are HUGE. Make the player really feel that with those zones. Make the player feel like their decisions matter. Because that's another thing the game lacks - your player seems to just be along for the ride. They do what they're told, but their decisions seem to have no impact. The only mission where a player decision really alters a mission is "The Ultimate Klingon", and that only goes so far as to avoid a single fight to capture the bad guy. But the immersion of even that bests most of the end game content. We like having choices, Cryptic. Give them to us.
Were I in charge of this game, it would be a lot different. But I'm not. I'm just a player. But without players, no game survives. Any really great game knows this: Players are their revenue. Keeping them happy is key to getting lots of money from them. Happy players are more prone to giving them more money. Game developers can be seen, from the perspective of the customers, as waiters at a high-end restaurant: They'll get paid for their service. But they'll get paid MORE if they give GOOD service. They also get unjustly harassed a lot by bad customers, but these are a relatively vocal minority.
I end with this: Cryptic... I love Trek. And I enjoy your game. But you're killing it. I don't want to leave. But decisions like you've made recently are forcing me out real fast.
Iconians, I would like to issue a Foundry challenge to you. Spend one week not caring about dilithium, not caring about sinks, not touching your doffs, not visiting the exchange, not crafting and generally not doing anything at all as a mouse in a maze trying to grind some shiny. Throw every lockbox away and just dump all loots into your replicator.
Just take a break and try to find a few good stories that players made.
In other words, I challenge you to play the game the opposite of how it is designed by Geko and others post S6. Don't touch the buckets. Don't buy a thing. Don't even look at those reputation projects.
Just try to feel like it's a Star Trek experience, not a MMO.
Sure. I've already experimented with the Foundry with the Investigate Officer Reports repeatable. I'll keep a log and post my results on Saturday.
This will be exciting to read. I'm sure you'll be blunt, yet honest. It is an interesting experiment, and I could see it going in all kinds of interesting ways, from good to bad. But, it will be interesting to read.
I'm very sorry to hear that. . .
I hope that we can remedy whatever it is you're not liking at the moment, and you will consider giving us another shot down the line. LLAP
The posters below you summed it up pretty well. I'll probably have another look around when Expansion 2 releases and see what more has happened.
I know yer just an artist, but please speak to the other devs who work in the crafting area. This change is driving many players away.
This. In fact, there is probably one dev in particular that needs a talking to, and we all know his name. I believe he's ultimately responsible for the things that go in game, which in turn pushed me out.
In fact, there is probably one dev in particular that needs a talking to, and we all know his name. I believe he's ultimately responsible for the things that go in game, which in turn pushed me out.
Seconded... Someone please, for the sake of my sanity... can we call for deposistion?
Since at least 1 dev is responding in this post (I did not read the entire tread...) will there be another revision to the Doff UI?
It's great that filters have been add, but I still prefer the the Doff UI from season 9. The change that i would like to see is by default none of the quality or specialization boxes are checked off. If I want to see Doff of a specific specialization then all I need to do is simply check the box for that specialization; like security officer.
My Fed toon has the most Doff of all my toon; 380 of 'em. My KDF tactical toon is next with 287 Doffs. Currently if I just want to see my security officer I have to uncheck all the other boxes. I counted them all. There are a total of 51 different Doff specializations (+ / - 1) so if I just wanna see my security officers I need uncheck 50 boxes. If the Doff mission requires two security officers, guess what? I have to uncheck 50 more boxes to see a list of security officers for the second slot of that Doff mission.
I would assume that any sane person would consider that to be extremely F'ing annoying and is a huge waste of time. The more Doff slots a Doff mission has the more F'ing annoying this little "mini-game" becomes. Colony Support / Expansion missions requires 5 Doffs, so potentially this means unchecking specialization boxes 250 times per mission.
Oh, good. This is giving me more faith in the game. I'm still going to stop playing for a little while (probably a month or two; I've just lost interest, and I've finally started playing Skyrim with mods -- it happens from time to time, and I'll be back), but I was almost ready to throw in my lot with the DOOOOM crowd. But it looks like my impression might have been correct, that the tide may have turned.
You'll notice, for example, that with the exception of crafting, grind has actually lessened significantly over the past few months. Rep update, the event ship discount...This, to me, is I think consistent with the devs themselves altering things to lessen grind, despite people higher up wanting it, maybe? Which would explain crafting.
Anyway, nobody give up. Devs, players, nobody. This game has potential.
Oh, good. This is giving me more faith in the game. I'm still going to stop playing for a little while (probably a month or two; I've just lost interest, and I've finally started playing Skyrim with mods -- it happens from time to time, and I'll be back), but I was almost ready to throw in my lot with the DOOOOM crowd. But it looks like my impression might have been correct, that the tide may have turned.
You'll notice, for example, that with the exception of crafting, grind has actually lessened significantly over the past few months. Rep update, the event ship discount...This, to me, is I think consistent with the devs themselves altering things to lessen grind, despite people higher up wanting it, maybe? Which would explain crafting.
Anyway, nobody give up. Devs, players, nobody. This game has potential.
I'm angry as heck over the DOff UI and the crafting XP nerf, but this is generally correct.
I'm still playing pretty much daily. Excited for expansion 2!
I'm angry as heck over the DOff UI and the crafting XP nerf, but this is generally correct.
I'm still playing pretty much daily. Excited for expansion 2!
I need to remember to play Foundry. The only that bothers me about it is that it isn't canon. (Shut up. You know what I mean. Game-canon.) It's kind of hard to enjoy things that you know probably aren't actually happening in-universe. It's just...I don't know.
This is why it would help if we had some sort of system where certain missions were approved, and linked into the game proper. They would then be considered game-canon.
I need to remember to play Foundry. The only that bothers me about it is that it isn't canon. (Shut up. You know what I mean. Game-canon.) It's kind of hard to enjoy things that you know probably aren't actually happening in-universe. It's just...I don't know.
I'm playing a lot of Foundry this weekend. Unit designation Three is going to do her level best to act like a complete psychopath all through Purity, which is hard because that's a series where you're SUPPOSED to be a moral, upstanding person.
May I plug my mission? It's called "Doomsday". It involves the Undine, the Iconians, and bloody colossal space battles, because bloody colossal space battles.
I think it's still in the reviewing stage. Oh, and it was made just before "A Step Between Stars". I was kind of surprised at how similar that mission wound up being, when it came out.
May I plug my mission? It's called "Doomsday". It involves the Undine, the Iconians, and bloody colossal space battles, because bloody colossal space battles.
I think it's still in the reviewing stage. Oh, and it was made just before "A Step Between Stars". I was kind of surprised at how similar that mission wound up being, when it came out.
Lemme see if I can find it...
Nope, it's still in the reviewer section. If I haven't played it in a month, send me a mail in-game and I'll give it a look. :cool:
Comments
Well, he put out a video over why on YouTube.
Alot of people have stated they're leaving today over design decisions at the top levels.
People still like you Taco, as well as Kestral, ZeroniusRex, Borticus, ThomasTheCrypticCat, JamzJamz and so on.
The community is just getting angry over executive decisions on direction. (And legitimately so imo)
TRIBBLE Hydra! Hail Janeway!
This is the important part. I make a sincere effort to criticise producer decisions, and I think others should too, rather than pointing fingers in the wrong places.
I can't blame the developers who spend days laboring over a computer creating what they are told to create. There are many talented developers at Cryptic who I think get an unfair shake at times.
Sure, there are times when I point out something I think Borticus or Al Rivera is wrong on. Sure, I'll question some of the things they use their artistic freedom on -- but I can't in good conscience be anti-innovation entirely. Sometimes they make decisions I don't understand until after it has been in the game for a while.
Sure, I'll even point out why volunteering to test on Tribble is a waste of time. But that's just symptoms of a bigger problem. It's superficial criticism.
The problem is higher than the developers.
I can blame the people at the top who tell them what to create and how to create it. They're the ones making the big bucks, they're the suits and ties that can afford to be dished out (sometimes scathing) criticism.
They're also the ones who are noticably absent from direct communication with the fans. Having to go through middle-men (and women) like Smirk and Trendy shows an impersonal desire to address the fanbase.
To quote the video link in my signature, "Support creators for how they create, not always for what they create."
Personally? I'm scaling back my involvement with STO until some meaningful changes hit holodeck. My heart isn't in it as much as it used to be, and I can say that after Season 9.5 I'm certainly demoralized.
I'm still playing, and I still support Cryptic Studios and am pleased they continue to develop. But as Tacofangs said, I think some remedies are in order. I'm not asking for a panacea. I'm asking to be met half-way.
Hopefully something big is headed this way to take this bitter taste of Season 9.5 out of my mouth.
I know yer just an artist, but please speak to the other devs who work in the crafting area. This change is driving many players away.
So many bring up the revamp from SW:Galaxies as a case study for what not to do with an MMO when in reality it was not the game killer many claimed it to be. Licenses and all that.
At one point in EVE they became hyper focused on creating content the player base had no interest in. They then proceeded to insult and annoy the playerbase and push out a terrible release. Income dropped dramatically as players left and far too many good developers lost their jobs. Since then they have been doing well as they changed directions and quite honestly got lucky with a few key devs saving the company.
I do not want to see that happen to STO and hope those at top wake up before it is too late.
Iconians, I would like to issue a Foundry challenge to you. Spend one week not caring about dilithium, not caring about sinks, not touching your doffs, not visiting the exchange, not crafting and generally not doing anything at all as a mouse in a maze trying to grind some shiny. Throw every lockbox away and just dump all loots into your replicator.
Just take a break and try to find a few good stories that players made.
In other words, I challenge you to play the game the opposite of how it is designed by Geko and others post S6. Don't touch the buckets. Don't buy a thing. Don't even look at those reputation projects.
Just try to feel like it's a Star Trek experience, not a MMO.
See how you feel at the end of the week.
I think he'd go mad after a day.
Cryptic, your game is broken. Fix it, please, before you grind your players out of the game. Here's what's broken:
Were I in charge of this game, it would be a lot different. But I'm not. I'm just a player. But without players, no game survives. Any really great game knows this: Players are their revenue. Keeping them happy is key to getting lots of money from them. Happy players are more prone to giving them more money. Game developers can be seen, from the perspective of the customers, as waiters at a high-end restaurant: They'll get paid for their service. But they'll get paid MORE if they give GOOD service. They also get unjustly harassed a lot by bad customers, but these are a relatively vocal minority.
I end with this: Cryptic... I love Trek. And I enjoy your game. But you're killing it. I don't want to leave. But decisions like you've made recently are forcing me out real fast.
Challenge accepted.
Please keep a log of what missions you play and post them up in these forums
Sure. I've already experimented with the Foundry with the Investigate Officer Reports repeatable. I'll keep a log and post my results on Saturday.
Make sure to check all of the foundry section for some big missions. I hope you find some good ones.
This will be exciting to read. I'm sure you'll be blunt, yet honest. It is an interesting experiment, and I could see it going in all kinds of interesting ways, from good to bad. But, it will be interesting to read.
The posters below you summed it up pretty well. I'll probably have another look around when Expansion 2 releases and see what more has happened.
This. In fact, there is probably one dev in particular that needs a talking to, and we all know his name. I believe he's ultimately responsible for the things that go in game, which in turn pushed me out.
Seconded... Someone please, for the sake of my sanity... can we call for deposistion?
Vote of no confidence,
Impeachment
SOMETHING?
It's great that filters have been add, but I still prefer the the Doff UI from season 9. The change that i would like to see is by default none of the quality or specialization boxes are checked off. If I want to see Doff of a specific specialization then all I need to do is simply check the box for that specialization; like security officer.
My Fed toon has the most Doff of all my toon; 380 of 'em. My KDF tactical toon is next with 287 Doffs. Currently if I just want to see my security officer I have to uncheck all the other boxes. I counted them all. There are a total of 51 different Doff specializations (+ / - 1) so if I just wanna see my security officers I need uncheck 50 boxes. If the Doff mission requires two security officers, guess what? I have to uncheck 50 more boxes to see a list of security officers for the second slot of that Doff mission.
I would assume that any sane person would consider that to be extremely F'ing annoying and is a huge waste of time. The more Doff slots a Doff mission has the more F'ing annoying this little "mini-game" becomes. Colony Support / Expansion missions requires 5 Doffs, so potentially this means unchecking specialization boxes 250 times per mission.
I'm excited to see this. Which subforum will it be posted on?
Ten Forward. There'll be a new thread there Saturday. I'm already currently undertaking Kirksplat's challenge.
I'd put it in STO general. It's a general experiment with the game, right?
Thanks, Iconians! Maybe I should do something similar...
Well. Maybe I will dedicate Three and...D'trel as my dedicated Foundry characters for a few days. See how it goes.
Not this week, though, I have stuff that'll cut down on my playtime.
You'll notice, for example, that with the exception of crafting, grind has actually lessened significantly over the past few months. Rep update, the event ship discount...This, to me, is I think consistent with the devs themselves altering things to lessen grind, despite people higher up wanting it, maybe? Which would explain crafting.
Anyway, nobody give up. Devs, players, nobody. This game has potential.
I'm angry as heck over the DOff UI and the crafting XP nerf, but this is generally correct.
I'm still playing pretty much daily. Excited for expansion 2!
I need to remember to play Foundry. The only that bothers me about it is that it isn't canon. (Shut up. You know what I mean. Game-canon.) It's kind of hard to enjoy things that you know probably aren't actually happening in-universe. It's just...I don't know.
This is why it would help if we had some sort of system where certain missions were approved, and linked into the game proper. They would then be considered game-canon.
I'm playing a lot of Foundry this weekend. Unit designation Three is going to do her level best to act like a complete psychopath all through Purity, which is hard because that's a series where you're SUPPOSED to be a moral, upstanding person.
I think it's still in the reviewing stage. Oh, and it was made just before "A Step Between Stars". I was kind of surprised at how similar that mission wound up being, when it came out.
Lemme see if I can find it...
Nope, it's still in the reviewer section. If I haven't played it in a month, send me a mail in-game and I'll give it a look. :cool: