Incidentally, my stance overall is that if you're going to create a need, you should create it in a way that plays fair with existing and prior value propositions made to paying customers.
So let me toss this out there as an alternative I would have been fine with:
Additional up-close experience with the Borg has resulted in Delta Quadrant species developing more sophisticated personal shields that resist damage.
New DR shields (NPC and player) have an additional DResist mod, which limits the amount of damage their shields can receive per second. Some DR weapons have a ResistPen mod which mitigates DResist.
Old shields continue to scale but can be upgraded to utilize DResist as one of several possible enhancements.
This could basically be done by giving all post-50 weapons two socketable extra enhancements, similar to kit power socketing. DResist is one choice of mods. You pay for the weapon mods, not the new gear.
In many respects, the effect would be the same but I think the means of presenting the change would play more fairly with existing offers. I think Cryptic would do well to be more constrained to the particulars of its existing offers rather than change existing things every time a new design goal comes up.
Pretty much, but that localized boycott will never happen in a size great enough to matter. Look at lockboxes, everyone hates them but people MUST have the shinies so they open them anyway. In fact, people open enough of them that Good Ol' Bort flat out told us once that if their legality was questionable in any particular country, well... they'd just pull the game from that country.
Yeah. I don't see deliberate boycotts as much of a solution unless also paired with general player/activity attrition. Which I figure will hit about 6 months after DR.
I just hope they don't interpret that as a need for more time gated activities or a failure of the Voyager cast to sustain interest but instead take that as an internal failing if it happens.
And that of course kicks the living heck out of your third point, the one Cryptic does love to wave around every now and then when people ask why EVERYTHING needs a Dilithium or Zen price tag. If lock boxes are successful enough that they can gut out entire portions of the player base to keep them... why monetize EVERYTHING? Why make people pay multiple times for the product they already bought? Why keep digging deeper and deeper into the player base? Why keep adding in new "taxes"? I mean, really... are we seeing spectacularly more content than we ever have before? Not really. Heck, they were rolling out FEs weekly before lock boxes even existed... and that was in ADDITION to Seasons which updated mechanics... and it seemed like the Seasons were even more frequent!
Also, I want Cryptic to make money. I just think that if you limit the ways that you make money in order to seem more trustworthy and offer more lasting value, you will make more money in the longterm. Cleverness in moneymaking approaches is generally counterproductive. The best approach is to find what your customer wants and sell that experience or product to them.
If what you're doing involves too many wheels within wheels, it's probably both wrong ethically and incorrect in terms of sustainability.
No, they released episodes of FE's weekly, after many months of development beforehand to get all of them done, or in a near done state, to be released weekly.
big difference there.
Really doesn't matter how long they were working on them, just how frequently they could release them. The gap between Featured Series 1 and 2? Less than a month ("Cold Storage released 25th September, 2010, Skirmish released 16th October, 2010) Between 2 and 3? Less than three months (Night of the Comet released 13th November, 2010, The Vault released 5th February, 2011). That means, due to development continuing as content released, we saw more weeks with content than not. 15 episodes in the 27 weeks that encompassed the first three featured series... and that was in addition to Seasons which added game mechanics.
You make it sounds as though there were many months between releases. There were not except between Featured Series 3 and 4... during which time Cryptic shelved content development due to being sold to their new overlords.
Again, I'm better at this than you. Why do you keep trying? You should just stay down. It'll be less embarrassing for you.
Also, I want Cryptic to make money. I just think that if you limit the ways that you make money in order to seem more trustworthy and offer more lasting value, you will make more money in the longterm. Cleverness in moneymaking approaches is generally counterproductive. The best approach is to find what your customer wants and sell that experience or product to them.
If what you're doing involves too many wheels within wheels, it's probably both wrong ethically and incorrect in terms of sustainability.
There's also something to be said for lower prices. You stand to make more sales, as holdouts will find lower price points more appealing, and thus harder to turn down. You make less off of each individual sale, but more sales in total. I'm sorry but... fifty dollar "Ship Bundles" that get you three ships? That's unreasonable. It's the price of an entire game. And it's also uncalled for since these are digital wares. There's no per unit manufacturing cost.
Pretty much everything they do in regards to money just... it always seems like Cryptic makes the worst possible move. The one that makes the seem the absolute worst. To be frank, I used to want to see them make money. I used to want to see the game succeed. I just... don't care anymore. I have an LTS, I've invested more money into this title beyond that, been here since closed beta and... I just don't care. I mildly enjoy a few things it offers but... if it all went down the tubes tomorrow I'd shrug. I wish it no ill will, but also don't wish it well... mostly I just play what I still enjoy about it and roll my eyes at the company behind it.
I have several ships in my own personal boneyard, each with it's own specialty of gear still on board (Vesta has my Undine stuff, Dyson has my Polaron gear, etc.). I'm using the Wells with the full Temporal set right now so I hope those items can be upgraded. Timey-Wimey is fun.
I'm wondering what those lucky few who can enter Tribble have found out which energy type and Faction Set works the best in the Delta Quadrant.
And that's another question that I haven't seen mentioned yet; will all our factions have a new Tier added to reflect the new cap?
Pretty much everything they do in regards to money just... it always seems like Cryptic makes the worst possible move. The one that makes the seem the absolute worst. To be frank, I used to want to see them make money. I used to want to see the game succeed. I just... don't care anymore. I have an LTS, I've invested more money into this title beyond that, been here since closed beta and... I just don't care. I mildly enjoy a few things it offers but... if it all went down the tubes tomorrow I'd shrug. I wish it no ill will, but also don't wish it well... mostly I just play what I still enjoy about it and roll my eyes at the company behind it.
This is how i feel, if it wasn't for my friends/fleet i would be gone for 2 years now.
I think that they need to leave leveless items as it is at the moment and let them to scale up to 60 lvl, but also they need to offer players upgrade those leveless items to VR/UR MK14 level via R&D system.
Not cool. And the WoW comparisons are very wrong since they do not monetize their leveling items and indeed do say in the item description which level range they cover.
Besides that some of those are rather unique like the heavy disruptor single cannon which just cannot be replaced with some crafted/other item if you want to keep its unique stlye.
I have several ships in my own personal boneyard, each with it's own specialty of gear still on board (Vesta has my Undine stuff, Dyson has my Polaron gear, etc.). I'm using the Wells with the full Temporal set right now so I hope those items can be upgraded. Timey-Wimey is fun.
I'm wondering what those lucky few who can enter Tribble have found out which energy type and Faction Set works the best in the Delta Quadrant.
And that's another question that I haven't seen mentioned yet; will all our factions have a new Tier added to reflect the new cap?
It seems that everything remains XII -- and then you have to $$$ your gear if you want it XIV.
I guess my thing is, also, that nobody ever promised the gear had to be THE BEST. It was generally blue quality and a step down from some mission rewards, only fully worth it for a gimmick or a set bonus.
I just... don't care anymore. I have an LTS, I've invested more money into this title beyond that, been here since closed beta and... I just don't care. I mildly enjoy a few things it offers but... if it all went down the tubes tomorrow I'd shrug. I wish it no ill will, but also don't wish it well... mostly I just play what I still enjoy about it and roll my eyes at the company behind it.
Upgradeable, but at what cost? Somehow I don´t see it being paid in Energy Credits, or even Dilithium.
Haven't been on tribble much/at all have you?
(the system isn't up, but one or two things cluing you into what it will be are.)
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
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I noticed the breen torpedo is infinity yesterday. I doubt that poor guy will get an upgrade. Still awesome though.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
I think it's poor form to Cryptic to nerf the runner up prizes of the lockboxes like this. As many have said, I know they weren't the best, but they were nice for new toons grinding up to Rep gear.
And since Cryptic is only willing to upgrade the hyper-rare lockbox ships, we should all stop buying Lockbox keys. I bet you that just like the lockbox ships getting the automatic T5U lockbox ship upgrades (bugship) or STFs getting their dilithium back, if we don't use a major part of the business model they'll correct the issue pretty fast.
It sucks that my Apex Predator set pieces will be now garbage. I hope at least the Jem'Hadar space set, which is Mk XII, gets an upgrade path.
Uhh they were already garbage. The blue lobi weapons suck even right now. If our complaints get these guys a VR mk 14 version even with a paid upgrade we'd be ahead.
I think it's poor form to Cryptic to nerf the runner up prizes of the lockboxes like this. As many have said, I know they weren't the best, but they were nice for new toons grinding up to Rep gear.
They still are. By all appearances they're just getting folded into the standard equipment upgrade system that Cryptic will probably be talking about in the near future.
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
They still are. By all appearances they're just getting folded into the standard equipment upgrade system that Cryptic will probably be talking about in the near future.
Two things.
One, why does your quote from me say STOLeviathan instead of GL2814E?
Two, I'm aware of the upgrade system. All I'm saying is that our runner up prizes for the gambleboxes should stay at the top level, whatever that may be. It may not be the case for you, but for me those mediocre gimmicks take the sting out of hyper-rare ship draw odds.
Elijah on Priority One put it best this way, paraphrasing, what you are getting basically is the Lobi with a remote (read highly unlikely) chance of getting a ship.
That Lobi let us buy neat gimmicky stuff. But if it isn't already at the peak it can be, MK 14, why bother at all with. Better to make do with non-gimmicky drop loot or even crafted stuff.
And this isn't directed at you specifically, but at every petaQ who shows up to argue/brag to some complaints:
Most of us who play this don't have billions of EC, we never win the lockbox ships, we don't have a million Zen, we don't do 100,000 dps, aren't independently wealthy so we can play this game all day or barely play and have everything, and we can't juggle constant playing of this game and maintain adult lives. The Lobi stuff is nice for the casual to moderate-non hardcore player/Trekkie. Having to turn around and upgrade Hirogen armor kind of sucks.
Not all of the Lobi gear is garbage, at least in my opinion. The Hirogen armor is very rare and has a nice perception bonus. This was a leveless item that will no longer scale and costs 200 Lobi to purchase.
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Its good to know that you speak for everyone and all the people who dont care about lockboxes somehow vanished in the last day.
No, they released episodes of FE's weekly, after many months of development beforehand to get all of them done, or in a near done state, to be released weekly.
big difference there.
It wouldn't surprise me if a number of people now have you down as either a troll or an uneducated moron at this point, so if you were planning to achieve something, then congratulations you did that much....
Now on topic, as these items were advertised as infinity levelling without any stated limit, they ought to keep levelling. It wouldn't matter if Cryptic made new ones with stated level caps as they would be getting sold as advertised, but changing what someone already has in this regard is a very bad way to do it.
Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head. - Euripides
I no longer do any Bug Hunting work for Cryptic. I may resume if a serious attempt to fix the game is made.
... but changing what someone already has in this regard is a very bad way to do it.
Precisely this. I know the ToS says they can do this thing if they feel like it, but it makes the Lobi boxes gambling with no consulation prize. And that makes me not want to gamble.
It sucks that my Apex Predator set pieces will be now garbage. I hope at least the Jem'Hadar space set, which is Mk XII, gets an upgrade path.
They have always been garbage by far the worst set of of any. The two lobi weapons do less damage then basic white items. No one should be doing a paid upgrade for an item that does half the damage of basic white items. Even if you somehow get double the hits with the Apex mine which in itself very unlikely you still end up with lower damage then fleet mines. That's how bad the set damage is.
All we need now is a disclaimer in the blog post like the one that promised the JHAS would be freely upgradable to 'tier 6 capabilities' that'll get the gullible spending!!! :P
My hopes are that they give us some way to mod them in crafting.
That's certainly not my hope. That would make crafting mandatory for all players, rather than the niche sideline that it is now. Remember that all gear is "bound to char/bind on pickup/bound to account" except for white gear. It'd be damn tough to transfer items to crafter's for R&D reworking...and there's no secure method of trading it to crafter'sin game for this service.
Requiring R&D couldn't happen, its a non starter.
I'm predicting doff missions using the new upgrade thingies and gear selected via drop down, modified by doff color and traits as to progress in the upgrade. Numerous doff missions will be needed per item
I am a bit perturbed here. See the whole levels with you concept is great and gives you some good gear till 50 when you should use the money you saved not buying stuff to upgrade to something appropriately more dangerous. But then the hirogen and undine lobi armour goes in with the infinity sign (Sorry no idea how to insert it here). But they are not useable till level 50. Now they also will not level with you to 60. It does feel a bit like a why bother at all with the lobi stuff.
I have been going on about a wait and see on all the things they will add. But now I am starting to lose heart here as I hear another item effectively getting taken away and entire sections of fun left to the why bother areas now. So I am asking, some one shed a little light and take some of the gloom of this away.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
Comments
So let me toss this out there as an alternative I would have been fine with:
Additional up-close experience with the Borg has resulted in Delta Quadrant species developing more sophisticated personal shields that resist damage.
New DR shields (NPC and player) have an additional DResist mod, which limits the amount of damage their shields can receive per second. Some DR weapons have a ResistPen mod which mitigates DResist.
Old shields continue to scale but can be upgraded to utilize DResist as one of several possible enhancements.
This could basically be done by giving all post-50 weapons two socketable extra enhancements, similar to kit power socketing. DResist is one choice of mods. You pay for the weapon mods, not the new gear.
In many respects, the effect would be the same but I think the means of presenting the change would play more fairly with existing offers. I think Cryptic would do well to be more constrained to the particulars of its existing offers rather than change existing things every time a new design goal comes up.
Yeah. I don't see deliberate boycotts as much of a solution unless also paired with general player/activity attrition. Which I figure will hit about 6 months after DR.
I just hope they don't interpret that as a need for more time gated activities or a failure of the Voyager cast to sustain interest but instead take that as an internal failing if it happens.
Also, I want Cryptic to make money. I just think that if you limit the ways that you make money in order to seem more trustworthy and offer more lasting value, you will make more money in the longterm. Cleverness in moneymaking approaches is generally counterproductive. The best approach is to find what your customer wants and sell that experience or product to them.
If what you're doing involves too many wheels within wheels, it's probably both wrong ethically and incorrect in terms of sustainability.
When you look up "infinite/infinity" and "straw man" you also might want to look up "hyperbole". Guess we can up the count from two to three, huh?
Really doesn't matter how long they were working on them, just how frequently they could release them. The gap between Featured Series 1 and 2? Less than a month ("Cold Storage released 25th September, 2010, Skirmish released 16th October, 2010) Between 2 and 3? Less than three months (Night of the Comet released 13th November, 2010, The Vault released 5th February, 2011). That means, due to development continuing as content released, we saw more weeks with content than not. 15 episodes in the 27 weeks that encompassed the first three featured series... and that was in addition to Seasons which added game mechanics.
You make it sounds as though there were many months between releases. There were not except between Featured Series 3 and 4... during which time Cryptic shelved content development due to being sold to their new overlords.
Again, I'm better at this than you. Why do you keep trying? You should just stay down. It'll be less embarrassing for you.
There's also something to be said for lower prices. You stand to make more sales, as holdouts will find lower price points more appealing, and thus harder to turn down. You make less off of each individual sale, but more sales in total. I'm sorry but... fifty dollar "Ship Bundles" that get you three ships? That's unreasonable. It's the price of an entire game. And it's also uncalled for since these are digital wares. There's no per unit manufacturing cost.
Pretty much everything they do in regards to money just... it always seems like Cryptic makes the worst possible move. The one that makes the seem the absolute worst. To be frank, I used to want to see them make money. I used to want to see the game succeed. I just... don't care anymore. I have an LTS, I've invested more money into this title beyond that, been here since closed beta and... I just don't care. I mildly enjoy a few things it offers but... if it all went down the tubes tomorrow I'd shrug. I wish it no ill will, but also don't wish it well... mostly I just play what I still enjoy about it and roll my eyes at the company behind it.
I'm wondering what those lucky few who can enter Tribble have found out which energy type and Faction Set works the best in the Delta Quadrant.
And that's another question that I haven't seen mentioned yet; will all our factions have a new Tier added to reflect the new cap?
This is how i feel, if it wasn't for my friends/fleet i would be gone for 2 years now.
Besides that some of those are rather unique like the heavy disruptor single cannon which just cannot be replaced with some crafted/other item if you want to keep its unique stlye.
It seems that everything remains XII -- and then you have to $$$ your gear if you want it XIV.
But what it did do was LEVEL.
In fact that is exactly how I feel too...
...#LLAP...
Haven't been on tribble much/at all have you?
(the system isn't up, but one or two things cluing you into what it will be are.)
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
And since Cryptic is only willing to upgrade the hyper-rare lockbox ships, we should all stop buying Lockbox keys. I bet you that just like the lockbox ships getting the automatic T5U lockbox ship upgrades (bugship) or STFs getting their dilithium back, if we don't use a major part of the business model they'll correct the issue pretty fast.
Uhh they were already garbage. The blue lobi weapons suck even right now. If our complaints get these guys a VR mk 14 version even with a paid upgrade we'd be ahead.
They still are. By all appearances they're just getting folded into the standard equipment upgrade system that Cryptic will probably be talking about in the near future.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Two things.
One, why does your quote from me say STOLeviathan instead of GL2814E?
Two, I'm aware of the upgrade system. All I'm saying is that our runner up prizes for the gambleboxes should stay at the top level, whatever that may be. It may not be the case for you, but for me those mediocre gimmicks take the sting out of hyper-rare ship draw odds.
Elijah on Priority One put it best this way, paraphrasing, what you are getting basically is the Lobi with a remote (read highly unlikely) chance of getting a ship.
That Lobi let us buy neat gimmicky stuff. But if it isn't already at the peak it can be, MK 14, why bother at all with. Better to make do with non-gimmicky drop loot or even crafted stuff.
And this isn't directed at you specifically, but at every petaQ who shows up to argue/brag to some complaints:
Most of us who play this don't have billions of EC, we never win the lockbox ships, we don't have a million Zen, we don't do 100,000 dps, aren't independently wealthy so we can play this game all day or barely play and have everything, and we can't juggle constant playing of this game and maintain adult lives. The Lobi stuff is nice for the casual to moderate-non hardcore player/Trekkie. Having to turn around and upgrade Hirogen armor kind of sucks.
> <
> <
>
It wouldn't surprise me if a number of people now have you down as either a troll or an uneducated moron at this point, so if you were planning to achieve something, then congratulations you did that much....
Now on topic, as these items were advertised as infinity levelling without any stated limit, they ought to keep levelling. It wouldn't matter if Cryptic made new ones with stated level caps as they would be getting sold as advertised, but changing what someone already has in this regard is a very bad way to do it.
Precisely this. I know the ToS says they can do this thing if they feel like it, but it makes the Lobi boxes gambling with no consulation prize. And that makes me not want to gamble.
They have always been garbage by far the worst set of of any. The two lobi weapons do less damage then basic white items. No one should be doing a paid upgrade for an item that does half the damage of basic white items. Even if you somehow get double the hits with the Apex mine which in itself very unlikely you still end up with lower damage then fleet mines. That's how bad the set damage is.
Wanted to say that hahahaha
How ironic!
Star Trek Online Intro HD [3rd Fleet Anniversary]
Join Date: Jul 2009
All we need now is a disclaimer in the blog post like the one that promised the JHAS would be freely upgradable to 'tier 6 capabilities' that'll get the gullible spending!!! :P
Why did we need a level cap and ship tier raise?
What exactly has any of this accomplished other than drama, confusion and apprehension?
Why could DR and the new Intel ships not be kept at T5?
There is no money made from this when you still can use all your current stuff for the new expansion :cool:
Star Trek Online Intro HD [3rd Fleet Anniversary]
Join Date: Jul 2009
That's certainly not my hope. That would make crafting mandatory for all players, rather than the niche sideline that it is now. Remember that all gear is "bound to char/bind on pickup/bound to account" except for white gear. It'd be damn tough to transfer items to crafter's for R&D reworking...and there's no secure method of trading it to crafter'sin game for this service.
Requiring R&D couldn't happen, its a non starter.
I'm predicting doff missions using the new upgrade thingies and gear selected via drop down, modified by doff color and traits as to progress in the upgrade. Numerous doff missions will be needed per item
I have been going on about a wait and see on all the things they will add. But now I am starting to lose heart here as I hear another item effectively getting taken away and entire sections of fun left to the why bother areas now. So I am asking, some one shed a little light and take some of the gloom of this away.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.