test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Options
How much *FUN* are you having playing Delta Rising?
lordhavelock
Member Posts: 2,248 Arc User
I'm a veteran player of Star Trek Online who's been here since the beginning (some of you might have seen me around), I stopped regularly playing a couple months ago, just after Season 9.5 was released when my last alt completed the Undine Rep. With S9.5 I started crafting on my Main, but after getting a feel for just how much work, effort, and real life money (or even more work/effort) was going to be involved... It put me off, and as I said, I stopped playing.
When Delta Rising was announced, I got excited, I even pre-ordered the Operations Pack, but the more I read about what was coming, the less interested I became.
When DR launched a couple weeks ago, I've only logged on three times, to pick-up the free Lobi they offered last weekend. I just haven't seen anything that looks like it's not just going to be a soul-crushing grind: New Rep, Gear Upgrades, Harder Elite Missions, etc....
So, the purpose of this thread: Have I been mislead by the gnashing of teeth on the forums? Is anyone having fun playing STO's Expansion 2? Or is it just more of the same rat race?
This isn't an I quit thread, it's actually more an I wanna play thread... Just trying to get motivated to do so.
When Delta Rising was announced, I got excited, I even pre-ordered the Operations Pack, but the more I read about what was coming, the less interested I became.
When DR launched a couple weeks ago, I've only logged on three times, to pick-up the free Lobi they offered last weekend. I just haven't seen anything that looks like it's not just going to be a soul-crushing grind: New Rep, Gear Upgrades, Harder Elite Missions, etc....
So, the purpose of this thread: Have I been mislead by the gnashing of teeth on the forums? Is anyone having fun playing STO's Expansion 2? Or is it just more of the same rat race?
This isn't an I quit thread, it's actually more an I wanna play thread... Just trying to get motivated to do so.
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
It's VERY tedious to try and level anything; and where prior to DR I used to play EVERYTHING on Elite - with the EXP reward VS HP need to kill so skewed - 'Elite' just isn't worth it; and even 'Normal' is somewhat tedious to me.
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..."
Do it on a Federation toon, as the storyline doesn't really work well with KDF. Use a toon that's already at level 59 so you don't find yourself blocked from the next episode in the story by levels (and there's not enough points to level you up, even playing on New Elite). Lower your difficulty to Normal so the massive HP of enemy groups don't get in the way of story. Then, note which ones are actual story and which ones are patrol grind, and I'd suggest playing story missions first, by skipping the patrol grinds, then going back and doing the patrol grinds at your leisure.
If approached in this way, it might be okay.
Find your own fun and ignore the whiners.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
My fun came from the foundry tool, roleplay and been with my fleet mates.
Division Hispana
www.divisionhispana.com
Am I having fun wasting time on ESD, Drozana, or DS9 listening to random convos between queues and alts? Yes.
Why am I not having fun with Delta Rising? Because it asks me to grind to unlock the next level set of missions, which breaks the story immersion, unlike older mission chains where it leveled you enough to see the next mission or episode and you could play until you got tired and wanted a break. They could have just lowered the mission reqs and scaled the NPCs down accordingly, but nope.
Does the level of fun I'm having warrant enough to recommend anyone coming back? No. There simply isn't much to do, or motivation to do, thanks to Cryptic nuking XP gains and implying I need to grind more for hours. No, Cryptic. I will simply not play much, if at any, of your DR content and just continue replaying queues and old missions for equipment or for fun until I finally hit 60, then play the DR missions in one go to not break what little immersion is left.
Frustrating thing is the other thing I really like doing is ship tinkering. I want to buy the DR pack, I have the zen for it, but with Cryptic doing one boneheaded thing after another, I'd be an idiot to financially reward them for doing so. C'mon Cryptic, stop being stupid so I can give you money with a clear conscience!
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
That spike at the end is DR
And I don't understand some of the complaints about ships - I'm running the content in a Tier 5 Odyssey prototype, and doing fine. (Should I feel T5U necessary, I can always transfer my flag from the Hans Asperger to the Ernst Mach, a Risian corvette, or the Space Beagle, a Risian luxury cruiser. So far, the Asperger's doing fine, though.)
Edit: Oh yeah, it's because there's not a lot to do in-game. I also do foundry stuff, too.
Some of the storyline missions are pretty good;
Seeing the Pralor again was a nice touch;
Ship Mastery is good;
Specialization is good.
N.B. Hmm, funny how the list of things I like about DR is considerably shorter than 'the other list.' :P
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
This expansion has shown a disregard for most of our previous investments in gear and ships. No way to get to top gear without upgrades placed behind time gates you must either wait through or be*frustrated into spending even more dil/money to skip ahead. I pay money to have fun....not to get my gear out of upgrade jail.
Then, there is the impending intro of fleet t6 ships that will make your previous ships second rate in comparison. Dont get me wrong...the t5u's have worked wonderfully and compare well to reg t6. But when fleet t6 comes out...they still have everything your t5u will have and one more BO slot. (look at the benthan cruiser for confirmation console wise)
I might roll with the ship thing although ill remember the wholesale downgrade of my ship collection vs end game in considering other ship purchases. As to the rest....until there are significant improvments to the grind for alts and the lunacy of the upgrade system, my wallet will stay closed.
Around here everything is as usual - some people are upset by everything, some people are angry because of stupid stuff, some people are angry because of serious and relevant stuff, some people are happy no matter what and only see rainbows and butterflies, etc.
To me the expansion does not seem as big a LoR (though I might be mistaking), but it's a nice addition to further the game. Rumor has it that the plan is to roll DR content out continuously, so suposedly what we now see is not all of it yet.
Am I having fun? Yes I am, otherwise wouldn't be here and playing the game. The game is as fun as always to me, plus I'm enjoying the KDF faction getting the most legendary ship ever.
Once again, my suggestion - jump in game when you can, leave the prejudice of what you heard/read behind and play as you always enjoyed playing before DR. Only then you'll be able to see if you'll enjoy DR or not.
For me, the patrols could have been better handled either by making them a parallel to the main storyline, or if it simply 'must' be part of the main storyline, then at least enough to mean my toon could stay put in the Delta Quadrant for the entire DR arc. As currently designed, you sort of get "dumped" at regular intervals with not enough XP to level up, and have to return to the Alpha Quadrant to do stuff there, or join a bunch of PvEs which are not in the Delta Quadrant to level up. I really only started to get annoyed with patrols when I worked so hard to get through one, only to discover it did very little to get me to the next bit of 'real story' anyway.
Then I finished it in like 2-3 days. And now I have to grind 2700 dilithium on all my other characters to essentially buy back the main ships that I previously already had. Because they were screwed out of the upgrade system.
Not to mention the other 'side' ships I kept around to have fun with.
Oh yeah, and grinding through the annoying gear upgrade system... forgot that.
So yeah... fun.
To me I'm used to it. As I had to level a KDF character by doing patrols just to get to the next story mission. As this how it used to be. So I did a ton of "cluster" missions with that one. Which helped him out on crafting and making his own gear, plus gave him a large amount of Dil. Then later they changed the KDF so you don't have to do that.
It all depends on how you look at it. I'm here to play and enjoy the game. So what I have to do a few patrols before the next mission. If I rushed and was done with my character. I would then be on my alts working on them, and that one would "sit". As he met the new goal from the expansion. Since I don't do group type missions. My main actually sat for a month waiting for DR to come out. Since I met all the goals at that time. For that character. So I was working on the alts.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
I don't care for the level blocks on the story, and I think the difference without a booster between leveling and following the story is a bit much, but I am also very ok with mixing in patrols, Kobali Prime, and queued events into process. That said, it could be cleaner, with into quests to help build on the involvement, instead just hitting a milestone and seeing a new queue.
The "grind" as people like to call it in this game (I'm guessing a lot of them haven't ever played a MMO before), doesn't really bother me, but then again, I mostly only play one character, though I do have a 3 Feds (my original main, and two alts, one of each division), 3 Romulans (my new main, and two alts, one of each profession) and one Tac KDF that I basically rolled for the new story when LOR came out. I haven't really done much to level them, and mostly just use them to farm Event Projects, like CC and MI. My main is level 60+ now, but I didn't grind it that much to get there.
I guess I can see how the game would feel more grindy if you are one of those who has to max everything out right now, but I'm happy to pop briefly each night, and play a few longer sessions a couple times a week, work on what I want to work on, queue up the 20 hour R&D and Rep Assignments, fill my DOFF roster, and then not worry about it until I log in next. I don't buy Dil, and I don't sell it either, and I have only bought ZEN twice, I mostly live off my LTS Stipend. I did buy the LOR and DR Packs, and am enjoying what I got with it. I'm very pro-Romulan, so I have also purchased every Romulan C-Store ship to date.
Ship equipment upgrades don't seem that essential to me, so I am working on them a bit at a time as I get my skills up and can make my own Superior upgrades. Usually pop them in the upgrade oven as I am wrapping up my play for the night, so they will be ready for me the next time I log in.
Yeah, I'm mostly doing normal queues now, but I am already moving back into some Advanced queues, and eventually will be ready for Elites again, but I'm happy to have something to work toward long term, Elites were so boringly easy before you really didn't have to think about them.
As with anything I guess it's a balancing act between trying to have enough for people to do, and too much for people to do, so that it feels grindy, but as someone pushing 40, I just can't get all that wrapped up in the "I have to have it NOW" mindset anymore.
I suggest for the next expansion, quests are provided all the way to a new level cap, instead of just a handful of quests per level. I know it's expensive and I know it costs money and I know it takes time to make all of this, that said, you can still do it.
It was good to get a refresher on Star Trek Voyager, especially the episode that features the Vaadwaur for the first time. Even better to get some of the original cast members in on the game, how absolutely remarkable!
I do hope we get to visit the Gamma Quadrant next, and find out what Odo has been up to since 2375, perhaps you can find a way to write Sisko back into the story as well, I felt his disappearance wouldn't last forever when the camera panned to show us his baseball sitting on his desk.
It's not really essential to have any of that stuff right now, so why don't you just play the game, which will give you the Dil over time, and them upgrade as you get it?
Havelock, You're a poster, who's opinion I've always respected.
I share some of the same sentiments and "teeth gnashing" others have had.
But I also agree with previous posters that there is still fun to be had. You JUST gotta find it for yourself. Do the things that you enjoy. I'd say that's a fair over all assessment.
Some of the new content can be fun with friends, if just a tad grindy, but it does advance the "story", and no one is putting a gun to our heads telling us what we have to do, or what we have to spend money on. Although there are definitely some very strong suggestions.....:rolleyes: Cryptic's gotta make money.
It's new content, and for novelty sake, Remembering the great content drought before FTP, this is definitely a better situation, with more to do.....
personally, I've pretty much given up on the Delta rep for now, I'm just not ready for the new advanced, or elite :eek: STFs. I gotta advance my game. But that's really been the theme of this expansion, if above all else.
So I'm taking the new content slow and at my own pace. (Working as intended).
I hope to see more of your posts.
- I have to play on normal because I could not get anywhere in the new content on elite. Fine, I suppose, but I thought I had pretty decent gear. I ran the DPS program that crowd uses and learned my DPS is in the 4000 range. Apparently this is very inadequate now.
- I love the new crafting system. I remember the original one (for me, pre Season 5) that maxed out literally in hours and was convinced I must be doing something wrong that at the time I had to get clarification from the forums I really did max out that quickly. This new system is also more comprehensive. But it is insurmountably expensive and time-consuming. I literally cannot afford to upgrade all the weapons on my main ship. I find that disappointing.
- The transition to the Delta Quadrant is confusing at first because they want to drop you into one of their fun zones or quest areas (no idea what it is really) but eventually you get over that hurdle (and that area is fun, btw).
- I've spent a few hours today on Kobali and so far it is an agreeable distraction. I am one of the minority crowd that prefer the ground combat in STO so this was a nice thing to add for people like me. I do find it difficult to understand why they choose the Kobali (given some things I won't spoil for you) instead of some other race.
- Since I was gone for so long, there is a lot for me to catch up. I had to learn about this reputation system, the fleet holding system, etc., as well as peruse different resources online to better understand where I could most efficiently earn different types of currency, but you probably have this mastered already. And if you have maxed them all out, hey, you got a new one now in the Delta Marks!
- The queues were fun for me...but they really are dead right now. No one is playing them! I mean, no one. There's one exception I've seen today: they are playing that one thing that is temporary, I believe. I really hope the queues get better. It's even worse for Klingons.
- I am having fun...probably because I was gone for so long and have so many different things I can do that you have probably done many times before, so I may not be able to offer you the best perspective. I am unhappy however with the mass XP nerf that has taken place; that is a very real problem that must be addressed, imho.
- The DR narrative (which I have not finished yet) is "meh." I'm actually kind of disappointed by some of the voice actors -- two in particular -- because I don't feel either sound or express themselves the way they did on the show. I have trouble accepting them as a result...so maybe expect some disappointment if you are a huge Voyager fan like myself.
- THAT SAID, I absolutely LOVE what an awesome job they did on recreating the inside of the ship -- amazing detail. I really felt like I was on the Voyager bridge and couldn't help but take my character to the different areas of the bridge and think, "This is where so-and-so was..."
I think my short answer to you would be something like this:
- Since you have maxed out most things, you really only have the DR content itself and the new Delta Marks that you could work to achieve. You will also have to overcome any inadequacies created by the new difficulty buffs and xp nerfs. I really don't know if this is something you would enjoy...I think maybe you should find out with one of your characters.
Firesworn Nation (@rswfire) - https://www.firesworn.com
I have my character ran through TD, so most of them are 60, so I could enjoy the story, but even then, I don't feel like playing. Mostly because it's boring, all the mobs have so much HP, and CC, I spend a long time to kill them.
Also, the replay value is non existent. All the factions have the same story, same answers, and basically no choices whatsoever.
And I seriously laughed at all the comment "you never played another MMO". In fact, I have a lvl max in LOTRO, but you know what's the difference ? In LOTRO, even if it takes a VERY long time to levelup, and a lot of grind, you can do it along the way, from one iconic place to another, from the Shire to Rohan, and now to Gondor. I've grinded in the Moria, Bree, the Golden Forest, Rivendell, and so many places. In STO ? Well, I can grind Argala, and that's it. Maybe I can do another patrol in DR, but Argala or somewhere else, it's pretty much the same. Change the planet with another one, and you're done. It's highly repetitive.
I think I'm not the only one, just check my signature, or wonder why we have so many events since DR is released, a bit like they would want to "push" the player to log in. As in, DR was not working enough.