Actually jumping into PVE to get around a much more protracted leveling scheme was how I kept up a decent pace in SWTOR (alternative: grind the same arbitrary fetch/kill quests and it is to STO's credit that it offers more choices.)
Anyway the problem you have here is considering scale. Within a single episode you have 2 or 3 stories going on but is the DR expansion (in its entirety) analogous to an episode or a season? Similarly while hopping planets isn't something that happens often in SWTOR except for a total change of scenery (the format of the game expects that you stay in the same place for a while), in STO we'll move between planets multiple times over the course of a single episode and even engage in a quick space mission sandwiched between ground story content. Then when that's over with we've always had the choice of what do we queue up next. Is it a fleet alert or the next episode? Patrol or doffing run? From the early levels STO is a lot more freeform and being able to level through STF's in DR is just a component of this game's structure (which IMO is a lot more appropriate to the interactive format of the video game.)
Yah thats one of the advantages that WoW and SWTOR and other games have over STO. They create a huge map and you have multiple quests in the same area. You know how in Mindscape they have the interior of the actual Voyager? how many times did they use that? just once, for that level. I am down to the last two episodes of DR and i'm guessing that the Voyager interior isnt reused there either. In STO each mission takes place in a different location and they very rarely reuse the same place. All that time taken to painstakenly recreate the actual interior of Voyager and it only gets used once? Why not use it once more? maaaaybe 2 more times? a battle can take place inside of it. Maybe we help them in a space battle but they need our help inside repairing stuff. Kinda like how we helped out the Defari and ran around the inside of their ship to redo multiple missions. Thought i hate recycled maps i think in DR's case i would have made an exception. Even reusing the Voyager interior 2-3 times instead of just 1 time means they could have had 2 fewer patrol missions. Or they could have added 1 or 2 more fresh missions with different actors moved around but no environmental work had to be done.
Bingo, tldr the thread. But, I bet they planned on people playing them on elite.
I've played on elite difficulty since I started playing and never had a grind issue if I was missing a level it was always a bar or 2 (which takes all of a minute to fill in most cases).
I had a little deadzone between 56.5 and 57... but that's it? Apart from that, I've had journal assignments all the way.
Possibly because I am running elite, but..
I have been running on elite the whole time as well and hit a dead zone at 52. Maybe the difficulty reset itself.
Regardless, it is horribly dumb to set the level requirements and XP rewards to such that you have to grind XP between missions or find a way to circumvent it (like playing on elite).
I've been playing on Advanced difficulty and I am constantly half a level short. I have to do STF's or grind somewhere to tide me over to the next level where I can enjoy the next bit of the story.
Whoever at Cryptic/PWE thought this was a bright idea needs to get sacked. Post haste.
Experience needs to be increased by a factor of five, at the very least. If you are telling a story, then bloody tell it! I don't want any interruptions.
As it stands, I'm lv58 and a half. I have half a level to grind out before I can do the last bit. And it has frustrated me to the point where as soon as I reach 60 I won't be touching this game for months if not years.
You should not have these interruptions in leveling. Once you do an episode you should have enough XP to tide you over to the next level so you can continue the next episode. It should not matter if you play on Normal, Advanced or Elite.
This is common bloody knowledge. I'm well aware of MMO's are sometimes grindy (been playing this for umpteen years as well as WoW...) but come on! This is too much.
So I now need to skill point grind just play the new episodes! Are they serious with this!
I don't mind grinding to upgrade gear, to fill a rep, etc. Even the prospect of grinding a bit to 'level up' my Chel Gret is not a big deal.
BUT WHY ON EARTH DO I HAVE TO GRIND JUST TO BE ABLE TO PLAY THE NEW EPISODES!
Guess that just leaves me with one less thing to do in this game, I was barely playing as it was.
knew this was gonna happen. cryptic dev teams seemed to acknowledge it with a level up boost and a permanent dxp on tribble before dr was yanked for holo. however, they chose their path and how to take it which means you merely suffer the consequences. i read up that going a few 8472 space battlezones can get you quick levels.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Like I said in the OP, I don't mind a little grind. Just don't break up the episodes with grinding. Let me finish the episodes straight through so I can enjoy the story.
Honestly having the missions require higher levels is the only problem I have. Make the episodes have a required level of 50, all of them requiring only level 50. Then getting only three levels of XP over the course of the missions won't matter.
I don't mind grinding a bit to get to level 60, or to unlock my ship traits, or to get dil for equipment upgrades, just don't TRIBBLE up the story by making me stop to grind XP at various points throughout. Do not require people to run the episodes on elite just to have a chance at playing through them interrupted.
I have one question for those saying that.
WHY?
Why should I be forced to do something I'm not really interested in or have to ramp up the difficulty to a level I am not equipped and/or capable of handling?
When I finish all story missions for one level I'm lucky if I get more then 2 XP bars filled, and then I have to grind for ages to get the rest.
If I were to run these missions on elite, I would be pulling my hair out and likely just ragequit out of sheer frustration as I would be dying every 5 seconds, I'm struggling enough as it is.
DOFFing is not even worth looking at, the shortest missions gives almost no XP at all.
I was looking at it yesterday, shortest I could find was 1-3 hours for a measly 56-109 XP/SP, where as those that gives a decent amount of XP takes anywhere from 8 to 72 hours and the XP gain per hour too low to be worth even trying.
As it stands now I find myself logging in and doing one or two STFs, then then I log off out again because I the progress I make from that is minimal at best and I feel its a waste of time to even try.
I'm not in a rush to get to 60, I dont care if it takes a month to get to 60, as long as I have a good storyline to entertain me along the way, all the way.
The constant breaks in the story we have now where I have to find something else to do every time is not what I find enjoyable.
If they want people to take longer to level up there are better ways of doing it.
I've been pretty critical of Cryptic's approach to queue rewards and difficulty in Delta Rising... but spacing out story content better isn't one of those things they should be faulted for. Levelling in the game was faaaaar to fast before. It's about right now.
I've been pretty critical of Cryptic's approach to queue rewards and difficulty in Delta Rising... but spacing out story content better isn't one of those things they should be faulted for. Levelling in the game was faaaaar to fast before. It's about right now.
I don't mind the speed of leveling from 50 to 60. I think most people are also okay with it. My issue is: don't make me stop doing the storyline just to XP grind up to qualify for the next mission.
Spacing out the storyline is okay also, but don't break up a continuous story line with mini XP grinds.This style would be okay for spacing out several small stories that are not tied together in any particular order.
Maybe something like this:
Level 50- 4-5 welcome missions
Level 51- 4-5 missions of one complete mini story
Level 54- another unrelated 4-5 mission mini story
Level 57- and again
Level 60- some intro into grindface content
That is not what we have. It is annoying to get into a storyline just to hit a level requirement wall making me go grind, before ccoming back and trying to get back into the storyline, then hitting another level requirement wall, etc.
I've been pretty critical of Cryptic's approach to queue rewards and difficulty in Delta Rising... but spacing out story content better isn't one of those things they should be faulted for. Levelling in the game was faaaaar to fast before. It's about right now.
Too fast ? Maybe. But certainly a lot more fun.
I don't think farming patrol missions in elite is fun. And it seems a lot of people are thinking the same, otherwise the powerleveling we have now in tau dewa would have been there before. But instead, people where doing something else, like story missions.
All of this remind me the game when it was launched. Well, actually the open beta since I didn't played the released (I was not going to spend money on a half finished game without endgame at all).
Story missions (which were a lot less than now) were not enough for leveling up. We had to grind for the level gap. But at this time, there was the exploration missions (removed), the mirror universe STF (removed).
And yet people complained, so they make it what is is now. Also, lots of people didn't know what to do.
They removed the tools to make up for the missing xp. And yet they ask us to do what we asked them to remove years ago. Totally a case of 1step forward for 2 steps backward.
Now, I'm pretty sure they are going to nerf Japori and all, because they don't want that. Then, with the constant whine, and a lot of new players/casual being confused about what to do, they'll make it so episode are the way to go, without gaps.
Also, on a side note, I find that quite funny to have to grind patrols mission, only to unlocks.... patrol missions in the storyline. What was doing your team cryptic ? Is that what you think is a "story heavy" expansions ? Half the story missions are patrols ! Oh noes a [insert friendly alien name here] freighter is under attack, we need to kill X squadrons of [insert random alien enemy here] ! You have a writer, and a lot of people, more than you used to have, and yet, this is all you can produce.
Comments
Yah thats one of the advantages that WoW and SWTOR and other games have over STO. They create a huge map and you have multiple quests in the same area. You know how in Mindscape they have the interior of the actual Voyager? how many times did they use that? just once, for that level. I am down to the last two episodes of DR and i'm guessing that the Voyager interior isnt reused there either. In STO each mission takes place in a different location and they very rarely reuse the same place. All that time taken to painstakenly recreate the actual interior of Voyager and it only gets used once? Why not use it once more? maaaaybe 2 more times? a battle can take place inside of it. Maybe we help them in a space battle but they need our help inside repairing stuff. Kinda like how we helped out the Defari and ran around the inside of their ship to redo multiple missions. Thought i hate recycled maps i think in DR's case i would have made an exception. Even reusing the Voyager interior 2-3 times instead of just 1 time means they could have had 2 fewer patrol missions. Or they could have added 1 or 2 more fresh missions with different actors moved around but no environmental work had to be done.
I've played on elite difficulty since I started playing and never had a grind issue if I was missing a level it was always a bar or 2 (which takes all of a minute to fill in most cases).
I did. I found the game way too easy otherwise it was like enemies were tissue paper. Only issues I had was with boss mobs.
I have been running on elite the whole time as well and hit a dead zone at 52. Maybe the difficulty reset itself.
Regardless, it is horribly dumb to set the level requirements and XP rewards to such that you have to grind XP between missions or find a way to circumvent it (like playing on elite).
Whoever at Cryptic/PWE thought this was a bright idea needs to get sacked. Post haste.
Experience needs to be increased by a factor of five, at the very least. If you are telling a story, then bloody tell it! I don't want any interruptions.
As it stands, I'm lv58 and a half. I have half a level to grind out before I can do the last bit. And it has frustrated me to the point where as soon as I reach 60 I won't be touching this game for months if not years.
You should not have these interruptions in leveling. Once you do an episode you should have enough XP to tide you over to the next level so you can continue the next episode. It should not matter if you play on Normal, Advanced or Elite.
This is common bloody knowledge. I'm well aware of MMO's are sometimes grindy (been playing this for umpteen years as well as WoW...) but come on! This is too much.
knew this was gonna happen. cryptic dev teams seemed to acknowledge it with a level up boost and a permanent dxp on tribble before dr was yanked for holo. however, they chose their path and how to take it which means you merely suffer the consequences. i read up that going a few 8472 space battlezones can get you quick levels.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Honestly having the missions require higher levels is the only problem I have. Make the episodes have a required level of 50, all of them requiring only level 50. Then getting only three levels of XP over the course of the missions won't matter.
I don't mind grinding a bit to get to level 60, or to unlock my ship traits, or to get dil for equipment upgrades, just don't TRIBBLE up the story by making me stop to grind XP at various points throughout. Do not require people to run the episodes on elite just to have a chance at playing through them interrupted.
Just run the missions on elite, or do some DOFFing
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1259471
I have one question for those saying that.
WHY?
Why should I be forced to do something I'm not really interested in or have to ramp up the difficulty to a level I am not equipped and/or capable of handling?
When I finish all story missions for one level I'm lucky if I get more then 2 XP bars filled, and then I have to grind for ages to get the rest.
If I were to run these missions on elite, I would be pulling my hair out and likely just ragequit out of sheer frustration as I would be dying every 5 seconds, I'm struggling enough as it is.
DOFFing is not even worth looking at, the shortest missions gives almost no XP at all.
I was looking at it yesterday, shortest I could find was 1-3 hours for a measly 56-109 XP/SP, where as those that gives a decent amount of XP takes anywhere from 8 to 72 hours and the XP gain per hour too low to be worth even trying.
As it stands now I find myself logging in and doing one or two STFs, then then I log off out again because I the progress I make from that is minimal at best and I feel its a waste of time to even try.
I'm not in a rush to get to 60, I dont care if it takes a month to get to 60, as long as I have a good storyline to entertain me along the way, all the way.
The constant breaks in the story we have now where I have to find something else to do every time is not what I find enjoyable.
If they want people to take longer to level up there are better ways of doing it.
I don't mind the speed of leveling from 50 to 60. I think most people are also okay with it. My issue is: don't make me stop doing the storyline just to XP grind up to qualify for the next mission.
Spacing out the storyline is okay also, but don't break up a continuous story line with mini XP grinds.This style would be okay for spacing out several small stories that are not tied together in any particular order.
Maybe something like this:
Level 50- 4-5 welcome missions
Level 51- 4-5 missions of one complete mini story
Level 54- another unrelated 4-5 mission mini story
Level 57- and again
Level 60- some intro into grindface content
That is not what we have. It is annoying to get into a storyline just to hit a level requirement wall making me go grind, before ccoming back and trying to get back into the storyline, then hitting another level requirement wall, etc.
I don't think farming patrol missions in elite is fun. And it seems a lot of people are thinking the same, otherwise the powerleveling we have now in tau dewa would have been there before. But instead, people where doing something else, like story missions.
All of this remind me the game when it was launched. Well, actually the open beta since I didn't played the released (I was not going to spend money on a half finished game without endgame at all).
Story missions (which were a lot less than now) were not enough for leveling up. We had to grind for the level gap. But at this time, there was the exploration missions (removed), the mirror universe STF (removed).
And yet people complained, so they make it what is is now. Also, lots of people didn't know what to do.
They removed the tools to make up for the missing xp. And yet they ask us to do what we asked them to remove years ago. Totally a case of 1step forward for 2 steps backward.
Now, I'm pretty sure they are going to nerf Japori and all, because they don't want that. Then, with the constant whine, and a lot of new players/casual being confused about what to do, they'll make it so episode are the way to go, without gaps.
Also, on a side note, I find that quite funny to have to grind patrols mission, only to unlocks.... patrol missions in the storyline. What was doing your team cryptic ? Is that what you think is a "story heavy" expansions ? Half the story missions are patrols ! Oh noes a [insert friendly alien name here] freighter is under attack, we need to kill X squadrons of [insert random alien enemy here] ! You have a writer, and a lot of people, more than you used to have, and yet, this is all you can produce.