Restoring Specialization Points

stephendangelo

I would like to thank the players who took the time to report problems with the Specialization Point removal last Thursday through the Customer Service ticket system. It really helped in being able to track and take care of everyone.

In the process of reviewing each person’s ticket, we did indeed find that there were a few customers who did not take advantage of the power-leveling bug and yet had Specialization Points removed. There were also a few who managed to use the bug and were not penalized.

After considering the situation, we have decided that rather than doing another round of corrections a week after the problem event, that we will restore the points to all characters that had them removed. As of the time of this posting, all characters should have had their missing points restored.

I sincerely apologize on behalf of the Star Trek Online team for both the original bugs and the error of penalizing some customers incorrectly.

Stephen D’Angelo
Executive Producer
Star Trek Online

daveyny

Bravo, Sir..., Bravo...

This goes a very long way in helping to restore my and I'm sure many other folks impression, that Cryptic is much more than a company just trying to make a fast buck off the backs of it's players.

While I was not one of the many that partook or suffered from the unfortunate circumstances of the last week, I still wish to say Thank You for Your efforts to alleviate the hard feelings that resulted from both sides 'over-reacting'.

:cool:

mancom

Good news.

Sadly this just seems to reinforce the belief that the only way to get Cryptic to listen is to set the forums on fire.


Also: Does this mean that Cryptic decided that the supposed "exploit" wasn't actually one or is this an admission that their devs don't have the necessary level of competence to hit the "exploiters" (and only those)? And if it really was "a few" who incorrectly got penalised, why not deal with them individually instead of restoring points for everyone? This doesn't really make sense, considering according to Cryptic only "around 300 characters" were affected and unless Cryptic majorly screwed up only a fraction of those should have been hit accidentally.

sarcasmdetector

GG

Now you get back to work while i get back to playing.

guilli88

Thank you.

abfabfleet

Kudos! And thank you! :eek:

centaurianalpha

While I was personally unaffected by the events in question, your post is a welcome departure from most of the customer disservice players have come to expect from Cryptic. Thank you for this positive step toward repairing the relationship with the player base!

agresiel2

shouldnt have removed them in the first place, or rather you should have done it individually not some silly program to do it.

i bet youve had more work answering tickets than you would have if you had just done a proper job and not a hack job.

thanks for seeing the light though !

ps i still am missing 12 points, i have a ticket in the system ill attempt to retrieve them back via that ticket.

beefydegree

Glad to hear that.:D Hope there was a lesson learned, from that. :cool:

bareel

I applaud and support this decision. I hope it sets a new precedent for future communications and practices when resolving problems between the community and Cryptic in a timely fashion.

knocky

Stop thanking that condescending character for TRIBBLE over the entire player base over "a few".

smoketh2

It takes a big person to admit they were wrong.

Thank you for correcting this and taking the time to issue an apology!

stirling191

Tis a good first move, and I do applaud the effort and intent of a public apology on this matter. Hopefully this is the beginning of a conversation that ends with the other player concerns relating to DR getting addressed.

I will be very interested to see what happens in the next week or so.

cerritourug

Good news, now compleat the job and fix the XP rate on advanced and elite. Maybe we can have something good from DR.

Btw, I hope you ppl learn something about this and next time dont insult your playerbase.

Anyway, like I said, the biggest problem is the XP ratio, so plz revert that too.

fftt

I wasn't affected, but could sympathize with those that were.

The steps originally taken seemed a bit draconian, but it's nice to read a 'Hey we goofed and we're sorry' along with 'Here's your stuff back.'

This is good thing on Cryptic's & D'Angelo's part.

stostargatewars

I am still missing points, I had 24 when this whole this started then ended up with 17 after the patch then gained 4 since then which means I am missing 5 points

lordmalak1

Rewarding the cheaters to shut them up.

GG Cryptic

abfabfleet

knocky wrote: »

Stop thanking that condescending character for TRIBBLE over the entire player base over "a few".

Stop being bitter, they did their job. Accept it and move on.

khan5000

knocky wrote: »

Stop thanking that condescending character for TRIBBLE over the entire player base over "a few".

the whole player base wasn't screwed over

shpoks

"Let there be peace!"

I believe that considering everything this was a good move and a step in the right direction. I haven't been affected by the rollback, but I symphatize with the part of the playerbase that was unjustifiably and I care about the game.
I sincerely hope that this is the start of remedying the strained relations between the developers and the playerbase, so we can all relax and you go back peacefully to developing your game and we can go back to playing and enjoying the game.

cbrjwrr

No worries. At first, I read your last post very dismissively as it seemed like a deflection attempt, but once I found out that there was an exploit I did soften to a wait and see mildly hopeful it would be sorted.

Glad it is now. (Mostly)

mancom wrote: »

Good news.

Sadly this just seems to reinforce the belief that the only way to get Cryptic to listen is to set the forums on fire.


Also: Does this mean that Cryptic decided that the supposed "exploit" wasn't actually one or is this an admission that their devs don't have the necessary level of competence to hit the "exploiters" (and only those)?

A) When aren't the forums on fire... There are still a mass of bugs out there, some of them making the game unplayable (as Mac users know) it isn't over yet.

There was an exploit. As to how it was handled, it was a bit sledgehammer to crack a nut, but it will be resolved soon.

lordmalak1 wrote: »

Rewarding the cheaters to shut them up.

GG Cryptic

Cryptic has checked those supposed "cheaters" - and in vast amounts of cases returned points.

I suggest it is you who needs to shut up.

hypl

It's funny. A lot this mess could have been avoided if you delayed the release of Delta Rising to November. An extra month of Tribble testing, along with actually reading feedback from that testing, might have made all the difference.

You should also consider opening your tester pool for major content releases to silvers as well, maybe through some sort of drawing. Enough for the testing server to handle.

flash525

Apparently, if enough people voice their disapproval, Cryptic do in fact listen. :P I must admit, I did chuckle a bit. The last couple of weeks has been a right mess, and now it's back to exactly how it was.

fauxpasiii

Thank you for doing the right thing.

elvnswords

Thank You Mr. D'Angelo... I havn't been able to play because of a computer issue, so I have been watching this all unfold on the forums, but I am glad to see you taking steps to put the community back togther and to put the community's needs ahead of anything else.

Thank you,
~Reveris

daveyny

lordmalak1 wrote: »

Rewarding the cheaters to shut them up.

GG Cryptic

Really???

You do realize that it wasn't just "cheaters" that were punished...

I truly hope that you never find yourself in a position of being wrongly accused, but forced to suffer the consequences anyway.

Perhaps a moment of reflection about how miserable ones life can be made, due to the insensitivity of others, would deter you from posting in such a callus way in the future...

:cool:

khan5000

hypl wrote: »

It's funny. A lot this mess could have been avoided if you delayed the release of Delta Rising to November. An extra month of Tribble testing, along with actually reading feedback from that testing, might have made all the difference.

You should also consider opening your tester pool for major content releases to silvers as well, maybe through some sort of drawing. Enough for the testing server to handle.

delay the release...and you thought the boards were on fire now

smokeybacon90

Right, now don't do it again!

crusader2007

What about XP leveling?

The fact of the matter that the game still remains unplayable for most. Not speaking for anyone but myself but the game is "unplayable" as is. Will XP leveling revert back to 10/22?.

Great that the exploiters got their points back but due to that ALL the playerbase got pusnished with the BIGGEST NERF EVER!

Still feels as if the exploiters won and the rest of US got kick in our arses...way to go Cryptic

askray

flash525 wrote: »

Apparently, if enough people voice their disapproval, Cryptic do in fact listen. :P I must admit, I did chuckle a bit. The last couple of weeks has been a right mess, and now it's back to exactly how it was.

Actually, compared to a few other communities I follow about STO the forums were actually lightly on fire lol.

zero2362

The confiscation of points should never have happend in the first place and I cant help but feel that you are apologizing for the wrong reasons.

However that being said the apology is appreciated