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Priority One Podcast 185 | STLV Reflections
elijahmre
Member Posts: 195 Arc User
Tier 6 Ships?! Level-Cap increase?! New Federation Ship Designs?!WHAT IS EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT?!
Learn more about Star Trek Online's second expansion titled, "Delta Rising" by listening to episode 184 or Priority One Podcast - the premiere Star Trek Online Podcast!
Listen to the entire panel, see snapshots from the presentation, and learn more about the expansion with a Q&A session with the Devs!
If you're wondering what all the commotion is about -- #TrekOut Priority One Podcasts - Episode 184!
Captains, the Priority One Team has arrived home safely from their Away Mission to the 2014 Star Trek Las Vegas Convention! With them, they bring memories that will last them a lifetime. This week, we Trek Out some of those memories as the team fondly recalls their favorite moments from the convention. In STONews, we review our own opinions on Delta Rising and address some community concerns regarding the second expansion to Star Trek Online. In our Community Spotlight segment, we present an interview with Alec Peter recorded from the convention floor and our review of Prelude to Axanar. Finally, we open our Hailing Frequencies and hear whats incoming from you.
Stay tuned to Priority One over the next few weeks as we bring you even more from our trip to the Star Trek Las Vegas convention 2014.
Topics Discussed
This week's Community Question
-
We received great general feedback. What are you specifically excited about from Expansion II Delta Rising?
Let us know YOUR thoughts by commenting below!
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Comments
I cannot wait for stuff to do in game.
And yes, I am a little concerned about the t6 ships.
T5 ships will be competitive at level 60. But that doesn't mean they will be equal.
Also, you realize that the 10 ships coming out on release day will have more fed than rom or kdf.
Guaranteed.
So here I am comfortable in the ship that i have been flying the past while and will need to upgrade into one of the two ships the kdf will get.
Again, we do not have enough information to make a correct analysis of the situation.
I will trust cryptic will be fair.
Good coverage of the convention.
I'm excited about a lot of the stuff coming in Delta Rising, especially with the confirmed Bug Ship upgrade to T6.
The only thing I'm concerned with is upgrading fleet equipment. Upgrading through the R&D system makes sense... but, non-crafters won't like having the upgrade process tied only to R&D. My suggested solution: either offer upgrade paths in fleet stores that cost a reduced amount of fleet credits, OR allow a sellback option to get fleet credits for old fleet gear (not sure if this second option currently exists).
The second option isn't really an upgrade path, I admit, but getting some fleet credits back would be an okay consolation prize in my book, even if it's a reduced return (like trading in vendor trash for EC, really).
-Leveling through some fresh new content, experiencing some great new stories. Going where no man... well except for the Voyager crew... has gone before.
-And definitely the new ships. Though the federation ships didn't really rock my world, maybe those angles were just bad... But that romulan warbird looked really interesting. And the klingon raptor looked... "klingon" for better or for worse. I'm really curious about that new "class" or "subclass" of ships or whatever that's supposed to mean.
-And the new class of BOffs and more BOff customization.
What am I concerned about?
-This whole Tier 6 ships and Tier 5 upgrade thing. Not necessarily because of myself, I know the "gear is obsolete" stuff from WoW and don't really mind it. But this is a "free to play" game. Those tend to be carried by whales. So don't upset the whales too much. That's gotta be a delicate balance.
-The way Perfect World has been handling this so far. The devs at STLV seemed to know that people would be concerned about those T5 ships they spent so much money and/or effort on. But here on the official website/forums? Nothing. Not even an acknowledgement of the announcement. Until the "official" announcement on thursday.
I cannot emphasize enough how impressed I am that CrypticQuack and JHeinig came out to try and calm people down. That is most definitely not their job and they still did it admirably. Kudos to them.
What could have been done better?
-Give us some teasers on the official site. Remember the teasers and the countdown til the announcement of Legacy of Romulus? Something along those lines. I mean, we basically knew X2 was coming and would involve the Delta Quadrant, because it was hinted at/implied on several podcasts. But in that case, tease us about new ships, playable species, NPC species, BOff species, whatever new features you got coming our way.
-Give us an official Delta Rising website right after the announcement.
-The whole "Excitement around Delta Rising" blog where Executive Producer Stephen D'Angelo wrote about how "nothing would be invalidated" (paraphrasing here) needed to come out on the heels of the announcement. And by that I mean the announcement at STLV, not the announcement here on the official website/forums.
-Maybe, just maybe put Smirk or Trendy on forum duty for the weekend or at the very least for a couple of hours after the announcement.
But do not just drop a bomb like that and then let the community stew for days.
Since the announcement of T6 ships and Mk XIV weaponry, the safe and easy uninstall of both the game and ARC have me excited about all the disk space I am now saving.
To paraphrase Sergeant Schultz - "We know noth-ing!" So really it's all speculation except the bullet points they said at Las Vegas.
Right now my main concern outside of Tier 6 ships is the Delta Quadrant itself. Because we always been roughly confined to a small territory 50 light years from Earth. And the Delta Quadrant is literally trillions of times larger. So how are they going to pull that off? Because they revealed that we will be running into the Ocampa and the Kazon, who were on the far end of the Galactic Rim, at the same time we are encountering other Delta Quadrant species that were on the other side of the Delta Quadrant.
So did they pancake everything into a couple of sectors and call that the Delta Quadrant?
As for Tier 6 ships, Elijah, I don't think you understand why people are upset about that. Put it bluntly, we spent either hundreds or even thousands of dollars on these ships or spent hundreds of hours grinding away dilithum and converted them to Zen, to buy these ships. So they may not be obsolete, but they sure are obsolescent. And the sales focus will now be towards Tier 6 ships, starting us buying ships all over again.
Sure, Geko said we will be able to upgrade, but there has been nothing else that explains what that is. Is it wordplay in basically saying we can equip MK14s on our Tier 5 ships and that's that? Or will there be a true upgrade mechanic?
And what of these refits that supposed to be of the STO generation like the Odyssey, the Bortasqu, the Avenger, the Dyson, and the Regent? Shouldn't they be automatically upgraded to Tier 6? After all the Enterprise-F supposed to be the Flagship of Starfleet, so within a few months of her launch, she's already put out to pasture?
What of Fleet ships, they supposed to be refitted to modern standards. So people spent hours and waited patiently for Fleet Projects to earn Fleet Marks, to buy these ships are now out of luck?
It's these things that has gotten people on edge with Tier 6 ships and so far Cryptic has done is stand at the podium and gestured toward the angry crowd going "calm down". But not really giving a good explanation that gives the answers that would calm us down. Right now they have to be very careful in explaining things, if they alienate the playerbase in telling them to pay more, it very well could backfire and cause them to lose costumers just like NGE killed the SWG playerbase.
As for your equating this to older MMOs........sorry man but it's a fallacy. In older MMOs, sure we constantly upgraded our gear, but we never bought them either. We bought these ships to be used for endgame, and now they will be left in drydock, never to be used again. So tons of our money and time was flushed down the toilet. And that does strike a sour note with players who don't have disposable income. This also bathes Cryptic in a negative light that we aren't valued customers, we are just wallets to be pilfered.
If PWE refuses to acknowledge that, then they will never get return business ever again.
The Delta Quadrant.
I actually liked Voyager, and I'm looking forward with great anticipation to visiting the DQ.
What am I concerned about?
The launch for x2 could barely have been done worse.
We've had a few times recently where either mistaks or light content has been explained to us as 'resources working on X2'.
Yet, right out of the gate, we don't get a well oiled X2 machine ala LoR, instead we get a stumbling mumbling mess where people at Cryptic/PWE seem to be busy avoiding doing any useful PR for days.
The whole thing stinks of complacency.
Serious errors have been made in PR.
Errors which, I am fairly sure, are hurting T5 ship sales.
I don't want STO to be so prone to this lamentable tendency to accept the shoddy.
It was mentioned that they had 40 dev blog posts ready to go.
They haven't posted even the first of those 40. Just two teaser posts about how exciting the new expansion is.
They're posting what, one blog per week? It's August 11.
That rate of dev blogging will take us well past October before they're done blogging about the expansion.
Is it too early to think they release date will get pushed back? Or were those dev blog posts just a guesstimation? And there's more like five or six?
From the STO ship discussions, I wish Cryptic would simply allow holoemitters. If you own a ship, then you can project the image over whatever other ship you own.
Certain rules would exist, such as PvP usage and Constitution-class use (if that's an issue for CBS).
But this allows players to continue playing with older ships (skins only via holoemitters).
I imagine this has been previously debated. Maybe it's a good time to resurface that discussion. Or hear the numerous reasons why this would cause too much chaos and confusion in-game.
it's Cryptic. I'm 100% sure the first two (2) Blogs they posted last Trus. 8/7 and Fr. 8/8 WERE part of the "Forty Blogs ready to go..."
Remember, these are the same people who think (well, at least Lead Designer Mr. Rivera):
1) There's TOO MUCH content in STO right now as it is.
2) Hunting down anomalies to scan for Crafting system materials equals "Exploration." (again, per a comment by Mr. Al Rivera.)
EVERYTHING is a metric of some type with them. Thus we have 38 Blogs left ready and waiting to go.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Looking forward to the level cap increase and the new skills/powers that will be a part of that.
Do not like my Mk12 gear becoming obsolete, though wiping away player progress is a Cryptic staple these days, so not all that surprising.
Not enough info about T6 ships to get excited over. Lots of trepidation over this "competitive" comment the devs keep bragging about.
If that means what I think it means, in that T6 ships will be to Fleet level ships, as Fleet level ships are to RA T5 ships, then I think the devs will have a problem...
"All your gear dating back 3 years might be vendor trash - find out in 8 weeks!"
"ps. please buy some t5 ships while you wait"
Then they throw up a blog praising the "attention" around the expansion I mean seriously :rolleyes:
They are completely disconnected from the players or they don't care either way it's a huge problem to me, so no I don't at all have any faith in their abstract co-operate reassurance terminology that's worded primarily on what you can get sued for.
So like I said announcing t6 was a huge mistake that's sadly going to over shadow everything.
There isn't anything else to talk about since that was put out there the week before last and the subject won't change either since it's potentially game over.
And it's extra funny too when you then look at the blog they post right after that's like 300% drained from any kind of information - where were the censorship on that one...
The thing about gear becoming obsolete is exactly that, gear being swapped out.
In STO however your ships is your avatar, your skin and your player model that you spefiically picked chances are based on your favorite show, captain or whatever.
And when you bought your t5 ship was on the premise it was going to be that character with that avatar for ever.
Additionally I don't want to fly fake un-official ships either so in my opinion t6 so far is one giant nightmare, the worst one yet, colliding with the fall of the doff system that used to be our rescue during bad releases.
The loss of official ships in itself a huge topic to me but yeah let's try to ignore that too.
We got several huge problems overlapping with developers nowhere to be found.
Agreed and I just wanted to add a little.
People don't like what they have to be invalidated. Raising the level from 50 to 60 does not remove or invalidate what I gained going from level 1 to 60. It is the best of both worlds I get progression without instantly loosing any value in what I had before.
T6 ships on the other hand instantly make my T5 ship pointless. That T6 ship will replace my T5 ship.
When fleet ships were released they offered a significant discount to purchase them if you already had the Cstore version. That means my previous purchase was not invalidated as it still served a useful purpose as a stepping stone to the fleet version.
Provided the 'upgrade' option for existing T5 ships is done in a good way it will not be a big problem. However in the past Cryptic has at times not done a very good job with conversions from an old system into a new system (ref: dilithium introduction & omega reputation crates) and other times as done a mostly good job (ref: fleet ships). I cannot pass judgement without further information.
And on that note this is the first time I have felt a keen disconnect with the priority one crew as if we are not part of the same community. Some of the things said about the players came across as a bit condescending. Similar to the vibe Geko tends to give off at times. I am beggining to get a bit tired of the entire STO forum community being lumped into a singular voice when their is never a consensus on what is good or bad for STO from the forums. Imma use the entire Aquarius ship as an example.
Bob makes a post on the forums about wanting an Aquarius ship to fly and states he doesn't care about the stats he just wants the option. He is a casual player and frankly stats don't matter to him.
Jim agrees with Bob and even though he is a hardcore/casual player he figures if it's T5 it won't be terrible even if a bit sub optimal.
The Aquarius is introduced. Frank is a new player who recently hit level 50 and decides the aquarius looks really cool and decides to buy it. He goes into an STF with his fleet mates and learns his performance was subpar and that he shouldn't have wasted money on such a terrible ship. They aren't mean to him about it and will still fly with him no matter what, they just wanted to share a bit of info. So Frank hops on the forums and starts a thread complaining about the Aquarius being sub par.
Jim agrees with Frank. While at first he thought it wouldn't be a big deal for the ship to be a bit subpar he never actually flies it and would like it to be brought up to the performance of the other ships.
Geko then proceeds to mock the community for changing their minds on what they want when asked about it on a podcast...
STO is a game, a form of entertainment, that appeals to a wide variety of player types. Therefore it will be extremely rare for any change (or lack) to be desirable by everyone.
If I recall correctly, it was said that the Delta Rising content would be released slowly between October and the next Anniversary. So they might be releasing those 40 blogs between now and February.
- Firstly, a number of Devs were shipped out to STLV to promote x2 .
To me this looks like trying to cast the widest net in a place teeming with Trekkies.
The follow up to that effort in the last two weeks was ... unimpressive to say the least, and if I were an atendee of the con, who was trying to find d some new info on the topic, and I'd be searching for 2 weeks without success... -- I'm not sure how much longer my interest would be focuzed on x2 ... , and that's not counting that the first two blogs on the subject were a reminder of the stuff they heard at the con .
( and this is how I'd feel if I was lucky enough to avoid the rampant unease and paranoia that has most of the forum folks in it's grips)
- Second issue is the Starbases, their cost in time / cash / Dil , and how their products, the T5 ships may be reduced to being "competitive" .
I'm curious folks, how long did it take you to finally finish your Starbase?
Have you finished it already ?
Did it take you over a year to do that?
How does that compair to other games you've played ? Does that come close to any previous grind for equipment that might become "meh" a year later ?
And perhaps as importantly if not more importantly -- what kind of message does this send to the folks still chugging away at getting their Starbase finished?
I don't know about others, but I spend a lot of time trying to figure out my end game ship set up, weapons, load outs, consoles, and so on. I even do some planning on what pvp builds that I want to try out. All I needed to hear was Tier VI, and the only thing I can do is exhale and say damn because knowing Cryptic, the new Tier ships will be more expensive plus the even better Tier VI will cost even more.
Most Trekkies don't even know STO exists, and those who do either don't have the means or are nervous to even try due to bad reputation. Especially with recent events.
Here's my answer: Two fleets that started on Day 1, not even done with the Holdings. And why I'm so cranky with STO..............eh my "job". :rolleyes
My thoughts: Okay, so still with the T6 and Mk XIV... I wonder...?
I wonder what they meant by "competitive"?
I wonder exactly how we will upgrade to this "competitive" state?
I wonder what will happen to my Fleet and Reputation gear?
I wonder if there will be a method to upgrade these items?
I wonder if we will ever get the Tinfoil Hat costume unlock leaked on Twitter?
I wonder what 10 levels and a separate skill tree will do for or to my captain?
I wonder what all this will do the Ground content?
I wonder what T6 ships have that "competitive" ships do not?
I wonder if we will ever get consumables that serve as a tribute to the various devs*?
I wonder if the Fleet Ship Module discount will apply to T5 ships once that is no longer the highest tier?
I wonder if lower level ships will grant a Fleet Ship Module discount?
I wonder if there will be Fleet versions of T6 ships?
I wonder how many years it will take my Fleets to unlock access?
I wonder if Fleet ships will actually be converted to the highest tier?
I wonder if we will ever get a bacon consumable in-game?
I wonder what new toys will be in the X2 lock box?
I wonder that the theme will be for the X2 lock box?
I wonder if they will release balanced offerings with X2, or if faction balance will be ignored again?
I wonder if [Mod] selection and/or reverse engineering for crafting xp and materials will be added with X2?
I wonder if we'll ever see those [Borg] Antiproton Space weapons that went AWOL so long ago?
I wonder if we'll ever see those unique Romulan weapons show back up?
I wonder if the missing doff assignments will ever show back up?
I wonder if the missing Romulan and Reman boff recruitment assignments are missing on purpose?
I wonder what playable, allied, and enemy species we will encounter?
I wonder when this will show up on Tribble?
I wonder if our feedback from testing on Tribble will matter anyway?
I wonder how many labor hours are being used to improve the doff UI?
I wonder how many labor hours it would take to add the option to use the old doff UI?
I wonder if we'll get a T5 Connie, since T5 won't actually be end game anymore?
I wonder where those Dev Blogs are that actually cover any of these topics?
My thoughts about X2 are all questions and random humor, since we don't have relevant information anyway :P
(*I'd suggest things like a Fanged Taco, Cryptic Frosty, Adjudicated Ham Hock, "Uh Oh" SpaGeckiO's, etc. They should have fun effects, rather than ones that add buffs or heals, since the idea is... fun
Well said.
Geko was very vague about it in the podcast (always a bad sign); but said we will be able to upgrade our lockbox ships to a competitive level. At the very least we can conclude from his literal words, that the upgrade, even for lockbox ships, won't be automagically (nor for free, 98% chance, or the upgrade would have been integrated with the patch). That, in itself, for a many lockbox ships owner like myself, is already bad news.
First off, Geko being vague about something is not always a bad sign. More of a sign that, if he were specific and then plans changed, he would be called a liar. Although it probably doesn't matter anymore as people are calling him a liar anyways, right?
That's why we can't have nice things. I loved it when DStahl and Geko just spoke their minds about what they wanted to see. Someday. If resources (and time is a resource too...) allowed it.
About the lockbox ships, I can't see them treating lockbox ships... let me rephrase that... when we talk about lockbox ships, we talk about the "grand prizes", right? There are also those mirror universe ships in there. But if we talk about the grand prize ships, I can't see them treating those differently from the bugship. Which, as we know from the promotion, will be upgradeable "at no cost".
So I agree with you that the upgrade won't happen automagically, but my conclusion is that the grand prizes will be upgradeable at no cost. I mean, when it comes down to "power" and availability and all that, the bugship and the grand prizes are just too similar to give them a different treatment in this matter. If Cryptic did decide to treat them differently, I would definitely call that an error in judgment.
I guess we will have to wait for the specific dev blog to see which one of us is right.
Now, you could ask, if I was right, why didn't he flat out say it? Maybe he wasn't cleared to say anything more about it? Maybe (quite probably...) different ships (grand prize, mirror universe, lobi store, fleet store, c-store) get different upgrade paths and he couldn't go into details? Maybe they were/are still iterating on that?
And that's exactly the problem I mentioned in my earlier post. This whole Tier 6 ships/Tier 5 upgrade mess is a huge communication problem. We needed specific details right then. We needed positive buzz and instead we got a whole lot of concerns and worries and a few more doomsayers. Or maybe it's the same doomsayers as always... I'm not exactly keeping track of them.
Edith says: Typo.
Fair enough.
Right.
Well, I call their error of judgment in advance. :P
Seriously, I hope you're right; but Geko was so circumvent about it, that if they really would just let us upgrade them for free, they would A) patch them in upgraded already (like they're doing for the bugships, and
And that's the part that makes it possible for me to hope you're right.
Nope -- I'm not disconnected. Quite the contrary. Our team has a close ear to the ground on these forums, Twitter, and r/sto. There is precedence to show that expansions have the tendency to render equipment obsolete. HOWEVER, if you listen to ep184 of Priority One Podcast the developers made the point to say -- repeatedly -- that T5 ships will not be obsolete.
How -- exactly -- will T5 ships be upgraded? Well, that has yet to be announced. I also go on to say in the podcast -- that without more information, I can understand the debate as to whether or not people should spend their time trying to "gear" up their ships.
As a matter of fact -- JUST last night, I pulled the trigger to kit-out my Avenger when someone said to me, "Why don't you just wait 2 months?"
.... Because I don't want to wait....
And even if I did wait, there will come a time when THAT gear is shadowed by "new hotness." There was a time when the Aegis Set was "the" set to have. Then, new sets were introduced and the Aegis were a thing of the past.
How different is this new expansion?
I can appreciate that. I'm unemployed myself right now -- so can empathise to that personally. But, like Cookie pointed out, how different is that from modern consumer vanity products? If the game is to stay alive for us to enjoy, there has to be something to entice players to either A) spend more time in the game or
So despite the lack of systems descriptions -- how should T5 ships be handled? What's the point of striving for a T6 ship when my Avenger can still pack a similar punch after an upgrade?... If upgrades cost $$, would that be fair?
I don't disagree with you that they have to make an income to keep STO running. And many do want to move on to Tier 6, though many committed to a serious investment of Tier 5 ships and to start over with more expensive ships.......well lets just say people are less likely to invest. Especially with it in the back of their minds that there might be a Tier 7 someday.
Since we know nothing about what Tier 6 ships are all about, except for the BOFF, it's hard to speculate. Some ships should get a free upgrade since they logically are new ships, like the Dyson (and people spending $100 for the pack).
But paying for ship upgrades? I got a sour feeling in my stomach just thinking about it. All I could think about is it being handled like Fleet ships in needing modules to upgrade. So would that mean everytime we dismiss a C-store ship, we have to pay again for the Tier 6 version? That doesn't sit well with me.
And given people are now hitting the ship slot wall limit, it's going to be painful to decide what ship to sacrifice.
but i disagree with your outlook on the T6 ships and T5 being "competitive" like Captain Geko states is very vague.
How you Pick and plan your endgame ship is a big part of your character development and becomes your space avatar , Do you want a fleet ship ? Do you want a lockbox ship? . you a fan of TNG,DS9 , a fan of the books? there is a ship that is VERY viable in those flavors . when a new Tier 5 ship released you dont feel you need to replace your current ship if the "gimmick " doesn't suit you because your ship is still viable . You may add a cstore console or a rep or Fleet one to Improve your Current ship .thats just a gear change and Progression .
Tiers are power LEVELS there is a big difference between tier 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5. you can take a a lower tier ship into a higher tier mission and complete it , but are you really Competitive ? no your not . just because you can survive a encounter and complete it doesn't mean your equal to a higher tier ship.
If these are true Tier 6 ships then the power levels wouldn't make them equal in any way . or are they Tier 6 in name only with a gimmick like the Warbirds ? We are all making assumptions at this point , and the devs are going to word things to lessen the blow of the reality of the change .
Ill tell you this i played another space mmo that did this kind of game change that made all my gear completely obsolete in one expansion. I would have needed a yr of grind or dumping a load of cash to get back to where Ii was and i left the game with no regrets . while gear does change in a mmo it should be gradual not instantly obsolete . Which I conjecture could be .
It defines how much time and effort we put into the game, it defines our game play, and it defines our accomplishments. I, for one, only really have three ships that I actually use. The rest are testing ships, foundry mission ships, and just plain look at I got ships. Which is sort of similar to raid and elite dungeon gear, however, we use a currency that requires real money. Because of the option to outright buy them, I assume that the majority of the high end ships are bought using zen or zen majority. By saying "So What", you are telling us you really don't understand the culture that defines a STO player.
I am a big fan of the podcast and I look forward to each new episode. As for the community question, I love new stories and I, personally, feel that even the smallest lore bits that STO brings, enriches our history of the future. I am a lorist. Other than the ship issue, I am concerned that instead of mission strings that spell out a story, we get the adventure zones where we grind to level 60 with a short FE to introduce them.
so... from what you just said, personal preference doesn't matter.. if I like canon ships, and I want to play canon ships.. well too bad, because t6 is the new hotness... ummm. no.. the t5 ships should be brought in line with the t6 ships.. I paid good money for them, I have spent more on this game in 4 years, than I did on wow in 10.. and most of that was ships and other TRIBBLE that has since been thrown to the wayside.
yes, cryptic needs to make new things to try to get people to buy into the new hype.. but making the very ships the player wants to play as obsolete, is not an option.. yes.. we know. cryptic said they are going to be brought up to be competitive.. but, I have learned (and agree with mav on this, from his live stream in vegas) that cryptic has a long long history of messing things up, as in , they think they are bringing something up to par, and they probably will fall short of it.. and they are too lazy, or stone headed to change it..
im telling you, they keep saying t5 ships will be able to compete, just watch, a few months in, power creep and the likes will have t5 ships packed up and put away, just the way they want them to be..
you claim your not disconnected, but in actuality you are... whenever I listen to priority one, its like one big rainbow of nothing wrong here, and butt kissing cryptics butt. I swear I can here you say, oh, geko wants to TRIBBLE us, well, let me get the lube sometimes.. its one of the reasons I listen to mav and stoked, at least he has passion and tells it like it is, weather I agree with him or not, I know he is giving us his view, and not some sort of watered down version so he can stay in close with the devs..
I guess I am one of the few but I'm glad of a new level bar and gear bar. Looking at new ships/builds/weapons to use. Maybe some pve content that is not close your eyes roll face on keyboard easy. If you can upgrade your old ship to T6 well I hope there is a investment to do it and not some z store module or other quick gimmick to upgrade your ship...
oh don't get me wrong, I love that we will have new gear, and a new level.. however, the ship thing is a different matter..
lets look at it this way.. remember when people got upset over ships from enterprise being in at t5, or even in the game at all.. well, cryptic devs literally explained this away by stating that ships are modular.. and can be upgraded.. basically that we were getting an old design of ship, with all new tech..
so to me, there is no reason that all t5 ships cant be upgradeable to t6.. thus, making the part of the game a lot of us have spent money on, useable forever.. kind of like buying a mount in other games.. they always run as fast as the fastest mount available in game.. that way, something you spent real money on, doesn't ever becom obsolete..
and im not saying that t5 is going to be obsolete, im hopeing not, we don't have enough info at this time.. my rant could be for nothing.. but..... cryptic has a track record, and that track record worries me with these changes, and gives me a moment of pause. especially since they are being so shady about giving any info on it..
I will say this, if my t5 ships that I love (*as I only play canon ships, my only want for a non canon ship is the Tahoe lol.. ) but if my ships, that I have not bought once, but in some cases 3 and 4 times with real money, are struggling to keep up at endgame, that will be my endgame.. I really hope they do as I do like this game to an extent.
also, if t6 ships are the only ones with access to the new boff, I will not purchase a new t6 ship.. ever.. if its something like a first officer boff, than all t5 ships should be upgraded to have it. I will not be strong armed into paying for, and playing something I have no interest in..
now again, im not saying I know how this is going to go.. for all we know everything will be hunky dory. but I am worried given the past with sto and cryptic.
Yes, upgrading gear is always part of MMOs. That's why nobody is complaining about Mk14s (except maybe those who spent a ton of Dilithum to get to Tier 15 to craft the Ultras). But someone best put it that our ships is more our avatar than the armor or weapons we equip. And I don't recall needing to spend $20, $30, $50 in Everquest or in the other MMOs I played to be at endgame.
As for Tier 6 getting new players into PvP, I respectfully doubt it will get more than a few people to try it. And I don't see Tier 6 being anymore balanced than it is now, unless they specifically take the time to make balance passes during testing. Because I hate to disagree with Geko, but adding MK14s on your ship isn't any more balanced than your mk12s, because the only difference is more damage.
I agree, knowing Geko the "remain competitive" will likely translate to "equip MK14s on your Tier 5 ship". I seem to recall something similar years ago when Fleet Ships came into play.
But in the end its wordplay and instead of reassuring us, they need to show us.
so in everquest you didn't buy the expansions? WoW you didn't spend $30 bucks per expansion? or how about GW 10 to 30 bucks per expansion... need I go on?
They are not charging you money for the expansion as all the above games did... and if you grind enough dilithium you still wont have to spend a dime.. just your time.
Who knows maybe with there ship upgrade they hinted on you still wont have to spend money....
But there a business and no one would be playing if some people weren't buying.. and giving a carrot on a stick is the best way to get people to buy. And really you buy a ship for T6.. you spend maybe 20-30 dollars.. for a whole year.. id say that's a pretty sweat deal.
At least there not like SWTOR that charges just to put epic gear on your toon, and to do more then 3 dungeons a week or 3 pvp matchs a week with out paying... over all STO is a pretty easy on the pocket book mmo imo.