this is an incredibly stupid thread, if you want difficulty, go do elite, advanced IS mid tier difficulty, if you can breeze through advanced, there is no reason why you can't do elite with a proper team, check the DPS/STF channels and get one.
No, I really don't, because I'd never be demanding the devs make Elite easier because I'm not ready for it. If you didn't catch it, I'm arguing for you. You should be getting better rewards for playing the difficulty you can handle, and I should be getting challenged by the difficulty I can handle. Everyone wins that way.
My apologies if I misunderstood you . It just that I used be able to do the borg elite missions with my fleet or even with pugs and have 10 minute left on the clock but now we either fail or run out of time on advance mission. So you can see why I am not happy.
It's not a matter of difficulty per se. I could do elites easily before DR, and in a fleet team, with people that know what they are doing, we can currently do advanced. I am not saying we plow through them, we do find relative difficulty and we do fail. But we are not overwhelmed. That being said, we do not do regular runs. Why ? Because it's not worth it and ultimately, it's not fun to spend 30 minutes in a STF in order to get... nothing.
The DR changes killed the queues. There is no point in trying to pug an advanced queue because the system allows for players who are not ready for advanced to join advanced STFs in hope that the rest of the team will carry them. I am not bashing those players, the exact same thing happened previously with elites, but noone is willing to do that anymore. Why ? Because the people that would actually be able to carry other people in advanced queues have no reason to. They don't need anything from those STFs.
The 6/11 patch changes will change nothing I suspect. Unless ofc they bring advanced down to what elite used to be. Why ? Why would advanced players waste their time trying to get some dilitihum and 1 purple mat, while risking wasted playtime and frustration ? Elites used to work because if you got a couple of players with best in slot gear in the group, they could plow the STF in 10 minutes and everyone was happy.
So what happens is you have public queues noone is willing or able to join. It's not a matter of difficulty, it's just bad design and Cryptic has no clue how to go about it. It's not like there's other MMOs around that have tiered content...
this is an incredibly stupid thread, if you want difficulty, go do elite, advanced IS mid tier difficulty, if you can breeze through advanced, there is no reason why you can't do elite with a proper team, check the DPS/STF channels and get one.
There's more to it than DPS.
I have many players in my fleet with great DPS, but when their Escorts are not getting hull/shield heals when they need them, that DPS does not help as much as it should.
There is more than one role to play in an MMO in order to succeed in a team-based mission.
The basic layout for STO would be:
Tac in an Escort-style ship for DPS, and certain buffs
Sci in a Sci-type ship for shield healing, and certain debuffs
Eng in a cruiser for threat generation, and hull heals
This kind of team can decimate any content in the game, but they have to accept their roles, embrace them, and execute them properly.
Some players (which I see a lot in PUGs when I occasionally have no friends online) do not do this.
They simply need to get their heads out of their warp exhaust manifolds, and play their role instead of thinking they're going to be the big, bad DPS hero.
imho
"Join Date: Jun 2012" Says Cryptic's "new" forum system. I've been here since a week before launch, but SOME stuff just didn't carry over through multiple system changes/updates. :rolleyes:
I kinda like this.
How about locking people out of the Advanced version of a PvE queue until they've completed the Normal version a set amount of times, and then locking players out of Elite version of a PvE queue until they've done so in the Advanced version?
I mean, Lieutenants can't play Admiral-level content.
So why not just extend that concept into the queues as well, and actually alleviate this conflict a bit more efficiently?
OR how about a new Rep system which will keep track of this by requiring inputs only obtained by beating a certain difficulty of PvE queues?
Once you've reached Tier 1 in that Rep by actually winning the Normal PvE queues, and submitting the proper inputs, you'd be able to play the Advanced versions, and so on.
This is what I thought the Rep system was going to be like, but it instead turned out to be just a grind-fest for better gear.
Not sure if srs, trolling, or just missed the blatant sarcasm i detected in post you quoted.
People who are saying, " Leave Advanced the way it was, make it too hard for new players! " Don't seem to udnerstand the massively underlying problem with that.
In order to GET gear to do " harder " content you need these shiny special tokens of each reputation. Neural Processors, Etc. These little things are required for set items YOU already have from PRE-DR stuff.
Now think about this seriously. No put the thinking cap on.
New players gets into game. He does NOT have an already maxed toon. So theres no EC or Dilithium pile already feeding it.
He's probably going to be loaded with greens and some blues when he hits 50+. Maybe, maybe he'll have some purples. But NOTHING will be good set bonuses that actually help.
This player will struggle and get frustrated in pre-nerf advanced que content. Probably fail it 95% of the time. This means he won't get the required items for gear.
Now heres the clincher.
He NEEDS gear to do advanced que but the only way to get gear in order to not be completely useless in advanced que would of been having advanced que's items. See the problem? Thats not Progression. Progression would be having items for gear in normal that he can get, that will make him stronger, to move onto advanced que, to get items for stronger equipment, in order to move onto elite. Thats how progression works. Old DR advanced shot progression in the foot. Made sure it stumbled, then shot it 2 times in the head for good measure.
People who are saying, " Leave Advanced the way it was, make it too hard for new players! " Don't seem to udnerstand the massively underlying problem with that.
In order to GET gear to do " harder " content you need these shiny special tokens of each reputation. Neural Processors, Etc. These little things are required for set items YOU already have from PRE-DR stuff.
Now think about this seriously. No put the thinking cap on.
New players gets into game. He does NOT have an already maxed toon. So theres no EC or Dilithium pile already feeding it.
He's probably going to be loaded with greens and some blues when he hits 50+. Maybe, maybe he'll have some purples. But NOTHING will be good set bonuses that actually help.
This player will struggle and get frustrated in pre-nerf advanced que content. Probably fail it 95% of the time. This means he won't get the required items for gear.
Now heres the clincher.
He NEEDS gear to do advanced que but the only way to get gear in order to not be completely useless in advanced que would of been having advanced que's items. See the problem? Thats not Progression. Progression would be having items for gear in normal that he can get, that will make him stronger, to move onto advanced que, to get items for stronger equipment, in order to move onto elite. Thats how progression works. Old DR advanced shot progression in the foot. Made sure it stumbled, then shot it 2 times in the head for good measure.
I know.
Also, I do not have that gear already.
I never got the gear because I was terrible when I first started playing, I was busy with a full-time job & college, and they kept changing the way the gear was obtained.
Anyhow, I completely agree with that last paragraph.
Like I said, Advanced needs fixed.
Elite is fine, Normal is dealable, but Advanced is completely useless as the intermediary that it should serve as...imho
"Join Date: Jun 2012" Says Cryptic's "new" forum system. I've been here since a week before launch, but SOME stuff just didn't carry over through multiple system changes/updates. :rolleyes:
Yeah, we need another difficulty level queue now. After the last nerf "advanced" difficulty wasn't that far from normal. After this nerf it might as well be renamed.
Prior to the nerfs it was something like this.
Normal >>>
Advanced >>>>>>
Elite >>>>>>>>>
After the first nerf:-
Normal >>
Advanced >>>>
Elite >>>>>>>>>
After this nerf:-
Normal >
Advanced >>
Elite >>>>>>>>>
There's effectively no intermediary difficulty level between easy and hard.
Funny thing is...if you have a balanced team like you say you cannot do elite because you don't have enough DPS to beat the timer...sad but true.
I've been in teams that beat Elite just fine.
I do agree that those timers are problematic.
I do hate the insane increase in difficulty.
However, I have seen it firsthand to be overcome quite easily by even a PUG...on rare occasions.
I wish it was a little easier, but then it would not be "working as intended", now would it?
"Join Date: Jun 2012" Says Cryptic's "new" forum system. I've been here since a week before launch, but SOME stuff just didn't carry over through multiple system changes/updates. :rolleyes:
Yeah, we need another difficulty level queue now. After the last nerf "advanced" difficulty wasn't that far from normal. After this nerf it might as well be renamed.
Prior to the nerfs it was something like this.
Normal >>>
Advanced >>>>>>
Elite >>>>>>>>>
After the first nerf:-
Normal >>
Advanced >>>>
Elite >>>>>>>>>
After this nerf:-
Normal >
Advanced >>
Elite >>>>>>>>>
There's effectively no intermediary difficulty level between easy and hard.
no there isn't, if you TRULY need harder difficulty, get a team and do elite, its nowhere near as hard as some people claim it is, like i said, if you can breeze through advanced, you can do elite with a good team.
I know.
Also, I do not have that gear already.
I never got the gear because I was terrible when I first started playing, I was busy with a full-time job & college, and they kept changing the way the gear was obtained.
Anyhow, I completely agree with that last paragraph.
Like I said, Advanced needs fixed.
Elite is fine, Normal is dealable, but Advanced is completely useless as the intermediary that it should serve as...imho
Sorry if I came off hostile. Its just seeing them making Advanced ques near impossible for new players at the start made me really irritable on the subject.
No. I do not agree. The changes were necessary for any player who doesn't have full elite gear. Some of us do, but not everyone does. You want more challenge, move up to Nightmare mode --- err, I mean "Elite" mode.
Prior to the nerfs it was something like this.
Normal >>>
Advanced >>>>>>
Elite >>>>>>>>>
After the first nerf:-
Normal >>
Advanced >>>>
Elite >>>>>>>>>
After this nerf:-
Normal >
Advanced >>
Elite >>>>>>>>>
There's effectively no intermediary difficulty level between easy and hard.
I know; right?
I was in a Mirror Invasion last night, and (just to test it out) I just hung around the base, blasting ships, and aggroing everything to myself.
I only died once, and the entire thing was still entirely completed.
THAT was a bit easy.
For crying out loud, I didn't help at all...in this PUG...and it was STILL entirely completed successfully.
That is DEFINITELY too easy for an intermediary between Normal-Elite.
"Join Date: Jun 2012" Says Cryptic's "new" forum system. I've been here since a week before launch, but SOME stuff just didn't carry over through multiple system changes/updates. :rolleyes:
Not sure if srs, trolling, or just missed the blatant sarcasm i detected in post you quoted.
People who are saying, " Leave Advanced the way it was, make it too hard for new players! " Don't seem to udnerstand the massively underlying problem with that.
In order to GET gear to do " harder " content you need these shiny special tokens of each reputation. Neural Processors, Etc. These little things are required for set items YOU already have from PRE-DR stuff.
Now think about this seriously. No put the thinking cap on.
New players gets into game. He does NOT have an already maxed toon. So theres no EC or Dilithium pile already feeding it.
He's probably going to be loaded with greens and some blues when he hits 50+. Maybe, maybe he'll have some purples. But NOTHING will be good set bonuses that actually help.
This player will struggle and get frustrated in pre-nerf advanced que content. Probably fail it 95% of the time. This means he won't get the required items for gear.
Now heres the clincher.
He NEEDS gear to do advanced que but the only way to get gear in order to not be completely useless in advanced que would of been having advanced que's items. See the problem? Thats not Progression. Progression would be having items for gear in normal that he can get, that will make him stronger, to move onto advanced que, to get items for stronger equipment, in order to move onto elite. Thats how progression works. Old DR advanced shot progression in the foot. Made sure it stumbled, then shot it 2 times in the head for good measure.
New Players don't need to do advanced and probably shouldn't. Also, Rep gear is not needed to complete advanced pre 11/6 patch. You can get all the gear you'd need from FE's and get good stuff even with passives if you need them. Also, can get plenty of dil and resources from other content in game. So, it's my opinion, but I don't think this argument holds water.
I don't see anything wrong with some casual players needing to play Normal. While having a good middle ground that challenge those of us that are not ready for Elite.
Sorry if I came off hostile. Its just seeing them making Advanced ques near impossible for new players at the start made me really irritable on the subject.
I completely understand.
I felt the same way at first.
I also did mean to seem hostile or confusing.
Maybe it's my ADD that causes my thoughts to become easily misinterpreted through the written word.
It DOES happen a lot.
Also, I feel for the new players.
I really do.
I literally only still play so I an use my experience(s), and abilit(y/ies) to help out new players that may feel overwhelmed at first.
Speaking of which, I wish there was some way I could team with new RR players for their first 10 levels, but even making myself a new RR toon doesn't seem to allow me to team with other non-allied RR toons.
This is disheartening as a lot of new players I have met have terrible trouble learning how to even maneuver well in space maps, but I can't zone in to help show them the way.
"Join Date: Jun 2012" Says Cryptic's "new" forum system. I've been here since a week before launch, but SOME stuff just didn't carry over through multiple system changes/updates. :rolleyes:
Anyone agree with this? I'm not talking about rewards of course, but the HP levels of the critters. I ran a pug last night in ISE in my Mirror T'Varo with primarily Mk XII gear a couple pieces of MK XIII and only died once. Had to really stay on top of my BO powers and even had to disengage at a couple points to recoup.
I enjoyed the challenge and not steam rolling through it in five minutes. I know not everyone may agree but anyone else that does?
Nope.
The rewards drop, coupled with the lack of dil and R&D mats kept many away. This is supposed to be an MMO, not a private game for the few. I pay to play here, but not everyone can.
There used to be 300-500 players in elites in an evening, even during a launch of new content. Now there are a handfull (< 12). Playership is way down.
I can now count more than a dozen people who've left for other games, 8 of those are cancelled subscribers.
Theres a reason for the lack of players, and it prompted the 8 posts by devs in less than 2 days speaking directly to it.
The needs of the many outway the needs of the few.
New Players don't need to do advanced and probably shouldn't. Also, Rep gear is not needed to complete advanced pre 11/6 patch. You can get all the gear you'd need from FE's and get good stuff even with passives if you need them. Also, can get plenty of dil and resources from other content in game. So, it's my opinion, but I don't think this argument holds water.
I don't see anything wrong with some casual players needing to play Normal. While having a good middle ground that challenge those of us that are not ready for Elite.
And theres the kicker.
Challenge.
HP sponges are not a challenge. They're merely a dps gate that smacks new players in the face.
And no. From all the ques i joined and saw, mostly CCA pre DR nerf, the average player would struggle. There is no argument there, its plain to see when you played. lol.
I have no issue with casual players only playing " normal " except for the fact you cannot progress at all via reputation set items because normal doesn't fork out processors, etc.
And before anyone says, " Well don't pug, do it with your fleet! "
If the " middle ground " content is so annoying and hard to approach as to need 5 of the same fleet all in good gear on a voice server, then its not approachable content. You should only need that on new elite.
No. I do not agree. The changes were necessary for any player who doesn't have full elite gear. Some of us do, but not everyone does. You want more challenge, move up to Nightmare mode --- err, I mean "Elite" mode.
This is BS.
Upto to 10k dps gear plays a very small part and by this i mean you can do 10k dps in a ship equipped with mk 11 green or blue weapons(a full set of 8 weapons will cost you 40-400k ec depending on energy type) i have done it multipe times and i am by no means a great players.
Even the road to 20k dps is more about boff layout and piloting then gear.
HP sponges are not a challenge. They're merely a dps gate that smacks new players in the face.
And no. From all the ques i joined and saw, mostly CCA pre DR nerf, the average player would struggle. There is no argument there, its plain to see when you played. lol.
I have no issue with casual players only playing " normal " except for the fact you cannot progress at all via reputation set items because normal doesn't fork out processors, etc.
And before anyone says, " Well don't pug, do it with your fleet! "
If the " middle ground " content is so annoying and hard to approach as to need 5 of the same fleet all in good gear on a voice server, then its not approachable content. You should only need that on new elite.
^THIS^...Sooooo much ^this^.
"Join Date: Jun 2012" Says Cryptic's "new" forum system. I've been here since a week before launch, but SOME stuff just didn't carry over through multiple system changes/updates. :rolleyes:
The rewards drop, coupled with the lack of dil and R&D mats kept many away. This is supposed to be an MMO, not a private game for the few. I pay to play here, but not everyone can.
There used to be 300-500 players in elites in an evening, even during a launch of new content. Now there are a handfull (< 12). Playership is way down.
I can now count more than a dozen people who've left for other games, 8 of those are cancelled subscribers.
Theres a reason for the lack of players, and it prompted the 8 posts by devs in less than 2 days speaking directly to it.
The needs of the many outway the needs of the few.
Good words to live by.
This reply is not relevant to the discussion. We're not talking about the rewards.
Upto to 10k dps gear plays a very small part and by this i mean you can do 10k dps in a ship equipped with mk 11 green or blue weapons(a full set of 8 weapons will cost you 40-400k ec depending on energy type) i have done it multipe times and i am by no means a great players.
Even the road to 20k dps is more about boff layout and piloting then gear.
You mean 40-400k Ec EACH; right?
Because, that's what the gear you meantioned always costs me...even good white/common Mk XI gear that I am always looking for costs me about 40-200k EC each.
Server's back up.
Gotta fly.
Stay shiny ;-)
"Join Date: Jun 2012" Says Cryptic's "new" forum system. I've been here since a week before launch, but SOME stuff just didn't carry over through multiple system changes/updates. :rolleyes:
If people don't like Advanced being playable once more (I mean, Heaven forbid the vast majority of the playerbase should be able to play and enjoy endgame without endless frustration) then you can always go to Elite. Since difficulty is clearly no option for these people, they should be spending more time in that nightmare challenge rather than worrying about what the lesser players are doing.
Its threads like this that make me want to punch the screen.
Go play Elite FFS, its not rocket science!!!!!!!
Haha, I can same the same to you buddy. Go play Normal! The last 2 weeks...hmmm well I did have some DvDs I had to return, then shampoo my hair, where does the time go? My point to the OP was to see who was for or against this and have intelligent discussion about it. If you can't manage that, keep your crazy rage to yourself.
You mean 40-400k Ec EACH; right?
Because, that's what the gear you meantioned always costs me...even good white/common Mk XI gear that I am always looking for costs me about 40-200k EC each.
Server's back up.
Gotta fly.
Stay shiny ;-)
No you can get green mk 11 beam arrays as low as 10000 ec per (as long as you don't care about energy type) After that mk 11 or mk 12 blues beam arrays can be had for under 100k each so at current prices for 8 beams its 80,000 to 800,000 ec for 8 green/blue weapons. The weapon energy type/mods might be bad but considering they make such a small differnce in dps and for a low price its hard to complain.
The price has gone up quite a bit about a month ago i got 5xgreen mk11's for under 5k each and 3x blue mk11's for under 40k each.
If people don't like Advanced being playable once more (I mean, Heaven forbid the vast majority of the playerbase should be able to play and enjoy endgame without endless frustration) then you can always go to Elite. Since difficulty is clearly no option for these people, they should be spending more time in that nightmare challenge rather than worrying about what the lesser players are doing.
Advanced was playable already, just not for people who really should be in the normal queues.
As for why I'm not doing elite, I don't do enough DPS for it. Hence why I stick to advanced. Don't hear me calling for a nerf to elite do you?
Someone posted earlier that each captain spec should be doing *blank* job and man alive I hope thats not the direction they go with the game. I liked in pre Delta that it didn't matter I was an engy, I wasn't locked into tanking or debuffing or whtaever. STO was unique in that it didn't have some holy trinity of healer/tank/dps for group play and I thought that was a feature not a bug.
if normal mode had a path to get the extra rep items needed for gear like BNPs, i would say yes leave it alone. but it does not, so no change it back to pre DR. not everybody can handle those mobs and we still have the elite with the massive increases and that was what people were asking for " a nightmare mode" not a complete overhaul of the pre DR content.
This is absolutely correct. Having rep gear behind a wall that the average STO player can't PUG is foolish in the extreme. If you enjoy a "challenge" its not hard to find.
This is absolutely correct. Having rep gear behind a wall that the average STO player can't PUG is foolish in the extreme. If you enjoy a "challenge" its not hard to find.
No, I really don't, because I'd never be demanding the devs make Elite easier because I'm not ready for it. If you didn't catch it, I'm arguing for you. You should be getting better rewards for playing the difficulty you can handle, and I should be getting challenged by the difficulty I can handle. Everyone wins that way.
I love watching scrubs wave their tiny little e-peens around about advanced. It's so cute.
Honestly, advanced needs to be available to pugs and to teams. Pugs should not be able to do the optionals. Teams should be able to. That gives an entry way i for the people that normal is to easy and are using advancex to figure out builds, but hard enough for people to prep for elite.
So no, make it easier to gate into and harder to gate out of, but stop waving your e-peen around like Advanced makes you special.
Comments
My apologies if I misunderstood you . It just that I used be able to do the borg elite missions with my fleet or even with pugs and have 10 minute left on the clock but now we either fail or run out of time on advance mission. So you can see why I am not happy.
The DR changes killed the queues. There is no point in trying to pug an advanced queue because the system allows for players who are not ready for advanced to join advanced STFs in hope that the rest of the team will carry them. I am not bashing those players, the exact same thing happened previously with elites, but noone is willing to do that anymore. Why ? Because the people that would actually be able to carry other people in advanced queues have no reason to. They don't need anything from those STFs.
The 6/11 patch changes will change nothing I suspect. Unless ofc they bring advanced down to what elite used to be. Why ? Why would advanced players waste their time trying to get some dilitihum and 1 purple mat, while risking wasted playtime and frustration ? Elites used to work because if you got a couple of players with best in slot gear in the group, they could plow the STF in 10 minutes and everyone was happy.
So what happens is you have public queues noone is willing or able to join. It's not a matter of difficulty, it's just bad design and Cryptic has no clue how to go about it. It's not like there's other MMOs around that have tiered content...
There's more to it than DPS.
I have many players in my fleet with great DPS, but when their Escorts are not getting hull/shield heals when they need them, that DPS does not help as much as it should.
There is more than one role to play in an MMO in order to succeed in a team-based mission.
The basic layout for STO would be:
Tac in an Escort-style ship for DPS, and certain buffs
Sci in a Sci-type ship for shield healing, and certain debuffs
Eng in a cruiser for threat generation, and hull heals
This kind of team can decimate any content in the game, but they have to accept their roles, embrace them, and execute them properly.
Some players (which I see a lot in PUGs when I occasionally have no friends online) do not do this.
They simply need to get their heads out of their warp exhaust manifolds, and play their role instead of thinking they're going to be the big, bad DPS hero.
imho
Not sure if srs, trolling, or just missed the blatant sarcasm i detected in post you quoted.
People who are saying, " Leave Advanced the way it was, make it too hard for new players! " Don't seem to udnerstand the massively underlying problem with that.
In order to GET gear to do " harder " content you need these shiny special tokens of each reputation. Neural Processors, Etc. These little things are required for set items YOU already have from PRE-DR stuff.
Now think about this seriously. No put the thinking cap on.
New players gets into game. He does NOT have an already maxed toon. So theres no EC or Dilithium pile already feeding it.
He's probably going to be loaded with greens and some blues when he hits 50+. Maybe, maybe he'll have some purples. But NOTHING will be good set bonuses that actually help.
This player will struggle and get frustrated in pre-nerf advanced que content. Probably fail it 95% of the time. This means he won't get the required items for gear.
Now heres the clincher.
He NEEDS gear to do advanced que but the only way to get gear in order to not be completely useless in advanced que would of been having advanced que's items. See the problem? Thats not Progression. Progression would be having items for gear in normal that he can get, that will make him stronger, to move onto advanced que, to get items for stronger equipment, in order to move onto elite. Thats how progression works. Old DR advanced shot progression in the foot. Made sure it stumbled, then shot it 2 times in the head for good measure.
Funny thing is...if you have a balanced team like you say you cannot do elite because you don't have enough DPS to beat the timer...sad but true.
I know.
Also, I do not have that gear already.
I never got the gear because I was terrible when I first started playing, I was busy with a full-time job & college, and they kept changing the way the gear was obtained.
Anyhow, I completely agree with that last paragraph.
Like I said, Advanced needs fixed.
Elite is fine, Normal is dealable, but Advanced is completely useless as the intermediary that it should serve as...imho
Prior to the nerfs it was something like this.
Normal >>>
Advanced >>>>>>
Elite >>>>>>>>>
After the first nerf:-
Normal >>
Advanced >>>>
Elite >>>>>>>>>
After this nerf:-
Normal >
Advanced >>
Elite >>>>>>>>>
There's effectively no intermediary difficulty level between easy and hard.
Daizen - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
Selia - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
I've been in teams that beat Elite just fine.
I do agree that those timers are problematic.
I do hate the insane increase in difficulty.
However, I have seen it firsthand to be overcome quite easily by even a PUG...on rare occasions.
I wish it was a little easier, but then it would not be "working as intended", now would it?
no there isn't, if you TRULY need harder difficulty, get a team and do elite, its nowhere near as hard as some people claim it is, like i said, if you can breeze through advanced, you can do elite with a good team.
Sorry if I came off hostile. Its just seeing them making Advanced ques near impossible for new players at the start made me really irritable on the subject.
I know; right?
I was in a Mirror Invasion last night, and (just to test it out) I just hung around the base, blasting ships, and aggroing everything to myself.
I only died once, and the entire thing was still entirely completed.
THAT was a bit easy.
For crying out loud, I didn't help at all...in this PUG...and it was STILL entirely completed successfully.
That is DEFINITELY too easy for an intermediary between Normal-Elite.
I don't see anything wrong with some casual players needing to play Normal. While having a good middle ground that challenge those of us that are not ready for Elite.
I completely understand.
I felt the same way at first.
I also did mean to seem hostile or confusing.
Maybe it's my ADD that causes my thoughts to become easily misinterpreted through the written word.
It DOES happen a lot.
Also, I feel for the new players.
I really do.
I literally only still play so I an use my experience(s), and abilit(y/ies) to help out new players that may feel overwhelmed at first.
Speaking of which, I wish there was some way I could team with new RR players for their first 10 levels, but even making myself a new RR toon doesn't seem to allow me to team with other non-allied RR toons.
This is disheartening as a lot of new players I have met have terrible trouble learning how to even maneuver well in space maps, but I can't zone in to help show them the way.
Nope.
The rewards drop, coupled with the lack of dil and R&D mats kept many away. This is supposed to be an MMO, not a private game for the few. I pay to play here, but not everyone can.
There used to be 300-500 players in elites in an evening, even during a launch of new content. Now there are a handfull (< 12). Playership is way down.
I can now count more than a dozen people who've left for other games, 8 of those are cancelled subscribers.
Theres a reason for the lack of players, and it prompted the 8 posts by devs in less than 2 days speaking directly to it.
The needs of the many outway the needs of the few.
Good words to live by.
And theres the kicker.
Challenge.
HP sponges are not a challenge. They're merely a dps gate that smacks new players in the face.
And no. From all the ques i joined and saw, mostly CCA pre DR nerf, the average player would struggle. There is no argument there, its plain to see when you played. lol.
I have no issue with casual players only playing " normal " except for the fact you cannot progress at all via reputation set items because normal doesn't fork out processors, etc.
And before anyone says, " Well don't pug, do it with your fleet! "
If the " middle ground " content is so annoying and hard to approach as to need 5 of the same fleet all in good gear on a voice server, then its not approachable content. You should only need that on new elite.
This is BS.
Upto to 10k dps gear plays a very small part and by this i mean you can do 10k dps in a ship equipped with mk 11 green or blue weapons(a full set of 8 weapons will cost you 40-400k ec depending on energy type) i have done it multipe times and i am by no means a great players.
Even the road to 20k dps is more about boff layout and piloting then gear.
^THIS^...Sooooo much ^this^.
This reply is not relevant to the discussion. We're not talking about the rewards.
You mean 40-400k Ec EACH; right?
Because, that's what the gear you meantioned always costs me...even good white/common Mk XI gear that I am always looking for costs me about 40-200k EC each.
Server's back up.
Gotta fly.
Stay shiny ;-)
OP, where have you been for the last 2 weeks?
Its threads like this that make me want to punch the screen.
Go play Elite FFS, its not rocket science!!!!!!!
Haha, I can same the same to you buddy. Go play Normal! The last 2 weeks...hmmm well I did have some DvDs I had to return, then shampoo my hair, where does the time go? My point to the OP was to see who was for or against this and have intelligent discussion about it. If you can't manage that, keep your crazy rage to yourself.
No you can get green mk 11 beam arrays as low as 10000 ec per (as long as you don't care about energy type) After that mk 11 or mk 12 blues beam arrays can be had for under 100k each so at current prices for 8 beams its 80,000 to 800,000 ec for 8 green/blue weapons. The weapon energy type/mods might be bad but considering they make such a small differnce in dps and for a low price its hard to complain.
The price has gone up quite a bit about a month ago i got 5xgreen mk11's for under 5k each and 3x blue mk11's for under 40k each.
Advanced was playable already, just not for people who really should be in the normal queues.
As for why I'm not doing elite, I don't do enough DPS for it. Hence why I stick to advanced. Don't hear me calling for a nerf to elite do you?
Daizen - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
Selia - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
This is absolutely correct. Having rep gear behind a wall that the average STO player can't PUG is foolish in the extreme. If you enjoy a "challenge" its not hard to find.
The exactly same can be said for crafting mats.
I completely agree.
I love watching scrubs wave their tiny little e-peens around about advanced. It's so cute.
Honestly, advanced needs to be available to pugs and to teams. Pugs should not be able to do the optionals. Teams should be able to. That gives an entry way i for the people that normal is to easy and are using advancex to figure out builds, but hard enough for people to prep for elite.
So no, make it easier to gate into and harder to gate out of, but stop waving your e-peen around like Advanced makes you special.