No they openly said they ran out of star trek ships - federation at least
.
Feds are down to small blips only seen for a few seconds in back of shot, Roms were out at LoR launch, but KDF still have some canon ones not made yet.
Why do people still think Cryptic increased difficulty to please the high DPSers? Cryptic did that to give everyone a reason to buy high-end gear and then upgrade the TRIBBLE out of it. Plain and simple.
All you needed to use to do an old ESTF was a ship with some stuff equipped, even for T1 or T2 ships, yet everyone was running Mk XII Fleet/Rep gear - People would have upgraded stuff with no queue changes.
When I say "let it go", I mean it in the sense Lily Sloane meant it when she said "blow up the ship" in First Contact. I feel like there's almost vendetta level focus here in slowing down fast progression.
Pretend the Borg are elite players and pretend Picard is a systems dev here.
LILY: You stealth nerfed us. PICARD: This really isn't the time. LILY: Okay. I don't know jack about game development systems design but everybody out there thinks that staying here and following this content grind strategy is suicide. They're just afraid to come in here and say it. PICARD: The players are accustomed to adapting to my patches. LILY: They're probably accustomed to your patches making sense. PICARD: None of them understand the grind as I do. ...No one does. No one can. LILY: What is that supposed to mean? PICARD: Six years ago, I was invited to play a game called 'Farmville'. I had their app implanted throughout my social media profiles. My credit card was linked to my account, every trace of disposable income erased. I was one of them. So you can imagine, my dear, I have a somewhat unique perspective on the grind and I know how to implement strategy. Now if you will excuse me I have work to do. LILY: I am such an idiot. ...It's so simple. The elite players hurt you, and now you're going to milk them dry. PICARD: At my company we don't succumb to monetization. We have a more evolved sensibility. LILY: Bull...! I saw the look on your face when you lowered those numbers on the spreadsheet. You were almost enjoying it! PICARD: How dare you!? LILY: Oh, come on, Captain. You're not the first man to get a thrill from nerfing someone. I see it all the time. PICARD: Get out! LILY: Or what? You'll nerfl me, like you nerfed the players who ground STFs after launch? PICARD: There was no way to distinguish them from exploiters. LILY: You didn't even try. Where was your evolved sensibility then? PICARD: I don't have time for this. LILY: Oh! Hey! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your little quest. Captain Zynga has to go hunt his whales. PICARD: What? LILY: You do have facebook in the twenty-fourth century? PICARD: This is not about monetization. LILY: Liar! PICARD: This is about saving the future of free-to-play gaming. LILY: Jean-Luc, delete the friggin' spreadsheets! PICARD: No! ...No!
(Picard breaks the starship display cabinet with his phaser rifle) PICARD: No! ...I will not sacrifice the systems design. We've made too many compromises already. Too many retreats. They invade our space patrols and we fall back. They assimilate entire keybind systems, and we fall back. Not again! The line must be drawn here, ...this far, no further! And I will make them pay for their dilithium. LILY: You broke your little ships. ...See you around, Zynga.
I haven't the words to describe how much WIN I got from your post
I think we should all stop blaming each other and place the blame squarely where it is deserved; on Cryptic's shoulders.
Divide and conquer is a well known strategy
It's not the casual players, it's Cryptic.
It's not the content tourists, it's Cryptic.
It's not the whales, it's Cryptic.
It's not the elite players, it's Cryptic.
Cryptic want to make more money and can't lose face to PWE, so of course they will blame everyone else except themselves. The TD "exploit" was a classic example of this. We had a dev post as 'Q' and pretty much accuse a large number of players as exploiters, rather than admit their mistake and make good on it. Then D'Angelo popped in and doubled down on that. Next minute we're all at each others throats and it's been like that for nearly a month now.
Don't fall for the propaganda. It's Cryptic's fault, plain and simple.
It WAS the PVP-ers fault !!!! :P
... they were pulling the strings behind the scenes all along ... , especially those who left ....
Why do people still think Cryptic increased difficulty to please the high DPSers? Cryptic did that to give everyone a reason to buy high-end gear and then upgrade the TRIBBLE out of it. Plain and simple.
More like the reverse .
Th high DEEPS crowd showed them what purchases ppl will fall for , and now they have decided to expand those purchases as semi mandatory for the whole playerbase .
More like the reverse .
Th high DEEPS crowd showed them what purchases ppl will fall for , and now they have decided to expand those purchases as semi mandatory for the whole playerbase .
There's not a single purchase that will get you 30k DPS. Probably 80% of DPS comes from keybinds, piloting, and timing. If anything, I'd imagine THAT is the realization that spooked them.
People with Mk XIIs blowing through content.
I upgraded to Mk XIV UR and I doubt I could touch most of those guys.
There's not a single purchase that will get you 30k DPS.
I wasn't being literal -- as in "empty your ships of neutronium consoles and fill them up with Lobi Crit consoles" , but rather the equivalent of the costs to gear up a ship (from mk 12-14 , which from some calculations comes to around 83$) .
How much $$ do 3-4 Lobi consoles cost , along with a few of the rarer Doff packs ?
Probably 80% of DPS comes from keybinds, piloting, and timing. If anything, I'd imagine THAT is the realization that spooked them.
I'd put that on from anywhere from 40% to 60% (depending on the player) , not 80% , and if that's what's spooked them , I have yet to see anything that resembles a direct nerf to that ... , while there was plenty of "let's slow everybody down" going on .
Heh ... I mean what are they gonna do ... -- remove Flanking after just having put it in there ?
Or TRIBBLE around with keybinds ?
Nerf to the ground consoles & doffs ppl purchased in good faith ?
No ... .
Cryptic usually do two things :
They either blatantly over-nerf something .
Or they create a roundabout plan to nerf everything around the thing they want to nerf , an then bring the thing that stands out down to the new "acceptable level" .
Again I am not evaluating the implementation at all.
All I said was, DR is not about dps, neither is the level cap.
Because both are about selling fake star trek ships...
That's not even commenting on the ships neither, all it is, is explaining the motivation behind the level cap, DR and the t6 blocked animations.
It's not controversial or surprising knowledge at all.
Gecko was straight up asked "why do only t6 ships have new animations?" where he had no problem directly replying "to sell the ships..."
And that just can't come as a surprise to anyone?
OF COURSE they want to sell ships am I right
So they slap some extra stuff on because it's not an official design (and call it an expansion) I mean come on now, how is it not entirely obvious
If DR was about selling ships everyone would be fine with it, seriously..
Its about duping people with a terribly grindy and fake crafting system
Its about lowering rewards/time to make people buy more
Its about adding in an endless grind to simulate as a lack of content
Its about fooling people that T5U is better than T6 and then planning to obsolete T6 while taking your money twice...
If Cryptic really have adjusted the leveling speed to suit the top 1% of players then I think they will soon realise that those players will spend all their cash getting the best gear and then stop. The rest of the players aren't going to be spending THEIR cash trying to catch up - that's a stupid premise.
"Catching up" was never my goal. I came to the realization that I will always be a casual, mediocre gamer and made peace with that long ago.
My patience with the grind does have limits, though. I opted out of last Anniversary's grind and unless the Winter Event shakes things up I will very likely opt out of that one too.
I haven't hit the levelling "wall" for the DR content yet. Since I'm mostly replaying some other stuff for now and levelling off that, I may never. I won't like it if I do. But I'll eventually get over the wall. Just means I won't be prioritizing it. Not sure if that's patience or antipathy. But I'm enjoying doing other things both in and out of the game, so I'm not too worried about it.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
To all the epeeners who feel the need to work into their posts how they are one of the elite/1%/whatever.
No one is impressed.
Can't speak for everyone, but the reason I mentioned it is because I want people to know where I'm coming from in regards to my answer. Not that it matters because this comment is pretty pointless, especially as you're only really speaking for yourself and you didn't contribute anything in doing so.
Personally I just see it as knowing why someone has that perspective, nothing else to 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.
I am not a top performer, first of all. I consume content semi-fast but I'd wager I do replay more than average. I DO upgrade gear. I doubt I'm a top DPSer and I made a decision a long time ago not to run with a DPS meter or look at charts.
But I made this observation recently:
And this is why I'm saying right now:
- Like most players, I don't PvP. I don't want you to try to entice me into PvP.
- Getting outDPSed by other players is not really that demoralizing.
- I spend money but am about done with any desire I had to because of what I perceive as balancing around curbing top performers.
- Let them go. Let them finish grinding spec points in no time flat. I don't care and I don't think Cryptic should either. If these changes are designed to target and stop them, I really feel Cryptic's systems teams have become Javert pursuing Jean Valjean over what is, in the end, just a loaf of bread. Somebody else progressing too fast won't interfere with my spending but Cryptic disrupting my much more modest gameplay in an attempt to police top performers will disrupt my spending and my activity and my loyalty towards, interest in, and willingness to recommend the game.
Don't think TOP performers are leaving in rows....IMO mostly casual players. If you are a TOP performer why leave? Maybe go into hiatus but they will come back. Since DR launched most of my fleets who left the game were "casual players" which in a way are the bread and butter of STO.
Just last weekend I was on a PvP and those so called "TOP" performers...were still around doing the same DPS game as always. I know PvP is not a typical gameplay for most but gives an indication of hardcore players that are willing to allocate MONEY and SKILLS to be the best. Just saw the same names as 2-3 years ago. Some in hiatus but MOST damage has been done to casual players...hence creating more imbalance from the newbies or those struggling in relation to the top performers.
When I say "let it go", I mean it in the sense Lily Sloane meant it when she said "blow up the ship" in First Contact. I feel like there's almost vendetta level focus here in slowing down fast progression.
Pretend the Borg are elite players and pretend Picard is a systems dev here.
LILY: You stealth nerfed us. PICARD: This really isn't the time. LILY: Okay. I don't know jack about game development systems design but everybody out there thinks that staying here and following this content grind strategy is suicide. They're just afraid to come in here and say it. PICARD: The players are accustomed to adapting to my patches. LILY: They're probably accustomed to your patches making sense. PICARD: None of them understand the grind as I do. ...No one does. No one can. LILY: What is that supposed to mean? PICARD: Six years ago, I was invited to play a game called 'Farmville'. I had their app implanted throughout my social media profiles. My credit card was linked to my account, every trace of disposable income erased. I was one of them. So you can imagine, my dear, I have a somewhat unique perspective on the grind and I know how to implement strategy. Now if you will excuse me I have work to do. LILY: I am such an idiot. ...It's so simple. The elite players hurt you, and now you're going to milk them dry. PICARD: At my company we don't succumb to monetization. We have a more evolved sensibility. LILY: Bull...! I saw the look on your face when you lowered those numbers on the spreadsheet. You were almost enjoying it! PICARD: How dare you!? LILY: Oh, come on, Captain. You're not the first man to get a thrill from nerfing someone. I see it all the time. PICARD: Get out! LILY: Or what? You'll nerfl me, like you nerfed the players who ground STFs after launch? PICARD: There was no way to distinguish them from exploiters. LILY: You didn't even try. Where was your evolved sensibility then? PICARD: I don't have time for this. LILY: Oh! Hey! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your little quest. Captain Zynga has to go hunt his whales. PICARD: What? LILY: You do have facebook in the twenty-fourth century? PICARD: This is not about monetization. LILY: Liar! PICARD: This is about saving the future of free-to-play gaming. LILY: Jean-Luc, delete the friggin' spreadsheets! PICARD: No! ...No!
(Picard breaks the starship display cabinet with his phaser rifle) PICARD: No! ...I will not sacrifice the systems design. We've made too many compromises already. Too many retreats. They invade our space patrols and we fall back. They assimilate entire keybind systems, and we fall back. Not again! The line must be drawn here, ...this far, no further! And I will make them pay for their dilithium. LILY: You broke your little ships. ...See you around, Zynga.
This needs to be read more... I have not laughed this hard in a long time. Well played. Well played.
To put it simply, D'Angelo is going to crash and burn this game all because the 1%ers are pitching a tantrum. It's time to let them go. All the other mmo's out there who use themepark designs have learned not to cater or worry about the 1% it's time Cryptic learned it as well.
I am not a top performer, first of all. I consume content semi-fast but I'd wager I do replay more than average. I DO upgrade gear. I doubt I'm a top DPSer and I made a decision a long time ago not to run with a DPS meter or look at charts.
But I made this observation recently:
And this is why I'm saying right now:
- Like most players, I don't PvP. I don't want you to try to entice me into PvP.
- Getting outDPSed by other players is not really that demoralizing.
- I spend money but am about done with any desire I had to because of what I perceive as balancing around curbing top performers.
- Let them go. Let them finish grinding spec points in no time flat. I don't care and I don't think Cryptic should either. If these changes are designed to target and stop them, I really feel Cryptic's systems teams have become Javert pursuing Jean Valjean over what is, in the end, just a loaf of bread. Somebody else progressing too fast won't interfere with my spending but Cryptic disrupting my much more modest gameplay in an attempt to police top performers will disrupt my spending and my activity and my loyalty towards, interest in, and willingness to recommend the game.
I don't think people are leaving at all - the queues are just empty because everyone is leveling in DR, as ordered.
It sort of really hit me when I saw some guy saying he was in "protest mode" so he was only going to spend 300$ this month.
Additionally, in people accepting the 13 year mission, to level out new characters and new specialization, the queues are no longer needed.
When people accept upgrading and leveling as gameplay we no longer need reputation and we then we no longer need queues.
You are living in a fantasy world LOL you really are. Sorry to have to give you the bad news but it's time to come back to reality. People are leaving until D'Angelo fixes the game so that it's not an eternal struggle just to progress, it's really that simple.
DR doesn't have enough content in it for people to be missing out of most of the STFs for 24 hrs everyday
PWE/Cryptic probably doesn't care about the Elites as much as they;re making out, what they care about is that the Elites show up, supermaxgrind their way to the new top level stuff and buy the cool shinies they want, then leave.
They don't stick around, they're the player spike when new content comes out, and they're the ones that leave during the ho-hum average days of the game.
They don't show up for weekend events.
They don't show up for Featured Episode Re-Runs.
They sure as &%#$ don't show up every time new shinies hit the Cash Shop.
And that's the problem.
PWE/Cryptic want them to hang out and stay, get caught in the grind, be tempted to spend money for Zen, be in game the day new shinies hit the Cash Shop and be here to buy them, they want them to be stuck in the same slow grind the rest of us are and be here for their gimmicks and sales and new shinies..
That's why they're focused on making the endgame one big grind. They want all the Elites and PvPers at the end game to flock to buy Zen to trade with the casual grinders for Dilithium.
They want the Content Tourists to stick around to grind to get to the new content, hence why all of DR is level locked at steps to lvl60, they don't want someone to burn through the content and ditch, they want them to experience the grind, get frustrated, buy Zen, and then trade for Dilithium.
Everything boils down to "How can we drive players to give us money".
They don't give a %^&* about player metrics, not really, that's just the convenient excuse.
If the l337 truly exist... then they are likely to be the minority and are accustomed to the fast, easy grinds; they are not going to be patient enough to stay in the slow grinds and either leave or throw more money at the game.
They are not the ones to focus on... it's the ~95% of the other players, the new players and the ones that have been here since the game started. The players that are seeing the game "Die"; even though Cryptic has made minor tweaks to the difficult levels, the queue are still almost empty.
I see Cryptic/PWE killing the game by making it less casual through the added difficulty and added crafting grind.
I go to work all day and want to come home and unwind by playing my canon ships and having them feel powerful like the "hero" ships in the series. I don't find the idea pleasant of putting together spreadsheets to keep track of where to get all the materials and then having to play through content that has much lower success rate than WHAT IT WAS PROMISED TO BE (Normal DR = Normal Pre-DR, Advanced DR = Elite Pre-DR, Elite = Nightmare/? mode)... Normal is now boring it's so easy with no rewards for crafting and Advanced needs crazy DPS or a pre-made team to achieve.
Don't get me wrong, I want a challenge too, but I don't want it to be like a second job either.
This is not casual anymore and therefore not fun; with the queues being almost empty making the game look like it's dying, should I put any more money into THIS game with Cryptic seemingly doing nothing but killing it more and more each season?
I want STO to start thriving again, I want it to be fun again and I want to support it by buying more ships - I would like to get the Operations Pack but in the state that STO is in, I cannot see "investing" any more into it.
I recommend that Cryptic, as a start in the right direction, dial-back the space map difficulties to Normal DR = Normal Pre-DR, Advanced DR = Elite Pre-DR, Elite = Nightmare/? mode. This should encourage people to play more and make crafting a little easier to progress in as well.
Star Trek Battles Channel - Play Star Trek like they did in the series!Avatar: pinterest-com/pin/14003448816884219Are you sure it isn't time for a "colorful metaphor"? --Spock in 'The Voyage Home' SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
... I see Cryptic/PWE killing the game by making it less casual through the added difficulty and added crafting grind...
Funny you should mention this...
I'm just listening to a radio podcast thing with Rivera from the launch of the Voth battlezone and together with the past several days of discussions on these boards, what really sticks out so far is that there's a real disconnect between two important concepts:
Adventure versus Battles
From everything people have said, Star Trek Online does not have the engine necessary to be a true "battle focused MMO". The battles are almost all "target and hit spacebar" centered. This isn't a problem, in fact it works well within the Star Trek universe where for example, space battles involved the Captain saying "target that explosion and fire!" and some bridge bunny doing all the work to make it so.
So that leaves us with Adventure. This fits in well with the Star Trek franchise, where the focus was never on 'battle' so much as bridging cultural gaps, mystery, surprises, a bit of humor, winning through sheer nerve and wit, and optimism. Think about how many times in Star Trek, battles weren't won by sheer firepower but by being clever. Oftentimes, the enemy survived to tell the tale as well. In Voyager, the Voth City Ship wasn't defeated but was talked around.
In the podcast, Rivera got terribly defensive about people being surprised at the Voth having laser-mounted dinos, despite having a perfectly justifiable position (i.e. Klingon Targ handlers provides an in-game justification for Voth to have the equivalent of War Elephant handlers). Yet what I also noticed was how part of the surprise by players that such things might be around made no sense considering that Star Trek had a range of whacky ideas like the Planet with one hotel, the planet which had perfect Earth reproduction eras on them, etc.
And this is where it really strikes. Planet with One Hotel would make a potentially intriguing STO episode. A Romulan episode could focus around that Romulan from the past who was beamed to Voyager through a wormhole - he took messages back, yet died several years before his tour of Voyager. What happened to those messages? Are they somewhere in the mess left behind by the destruction of Romulus?
STO does not have the capacity to be a huge Battle MMO. Star Trek wasn't focused on battles anyway. Going after the Battle market is pointless for STO because to be blunt, it can't compete. The only reason it survives is because of Star Trek fans who want adventure. And the lead designer goes into discussing all these opportunities for adventure, and doesn't notice it, while in the middle of discussing why we need "bigger badder enemies to defeat in battle".
This is pretty much exactly why some of us are so angry about how they've treated science. It's seriously a crime against the IP it really is because these battles weren't always won by tactical maneuvers there were many many times that they were won by inteligence and science. The entire Voyager series wouldn't have happened had her captain not been smart and quick. Almost none of the battles that were fought by Voyager were won by Tuvok Seriously if you look at the entire series almost all of the battles after the implementation of Seven were won by Intelligence and Science. As Seven was quoted as saying in Friendship One "You're a scientist, you can see a problem and imagine a solution."
I'm just listening to a radio podcast thing with Rivera from the launch of the Voth battlezone and together with the past several days of discussions on these boards, what really sticks out so far is that there's a real disconnect between two important concepts:
Adventure versus Battles
From everything people have said, Star Trek Online does not have the engine necessary to be a true "battle focused MMO". The battles are almost all "target and hit spacebar" centered. This isn't a problem, in fact it works well within the Star Trek universe where for example, space battles involved the Captain saying "target that explosion and fire!" and some bridge bunny doing all the work to make it so.
So that leaves us with Adventure. This fits in well with the Star Trek franchise, where the focus was never on 'battle' so much as bridging cultural gaps, mystery, surprises, a bit of humor, winning through sheer nerve and wit, and optimism. Think about how many times in Star Trek, battles weren't won by sheer firepower but by being clever. Oftentimes, the enemy survived to tell the tale as well. In Voyager, the Voth City Ship wasn't defeated but was talked around.
In the podcast, Rivera got terribly defensive about people being surprised at the Voth having laser-mounted dinos, despite having a perfectly justifiable position (i.e. Klingon Targ handlers provides an in-game justification for Voth to have the equivalent of War Elephant handlers). Yet what I also noticed was how part of the surprise by players that such things might be around made no sense considering that Star Trek had a range of whacky ideas like the Planet with one hotel, the planet which had perfect Earth reproduction eras on them, etc.
And this is where it really strikes. Planet with One Hotel would make a potentially intriguing STO episode. A Romulan episode could focus around that Romulan from the past who was beamed to Voyager through a wormhole - he took messages back, yet died several years before his tour of Voyager. What happened to those messages? Are they somewhere in the mess left behind by the destruction of Romulus?
STO does not have the capacity to be a huge Battle MMO. Star Trek wasn't focused on battles anyway. Going after the Battle market is pointless for STO because to be blunt, it can't compete. The only reason it survives is because of Star Trek fans who want adventure. And the lead designer goes into discussing all these opportunities for adventure, and doesn't notice it, while in the middle of discussing why we need "bigger badder enemies to defeat in battle".
This is pretty much exactly why some of us are so angry about how they've treated science. It's seriously a crime against the IP it really is because these battles weren't always won by tactical maneuvers there were many many times that they were won by inteligence and science. The entire Voyager series wouldn't have happened had her captain not been smart and quick. Almost none of the battles that were fought by Voyager were won by Tuvok Seriously if you look at the entire series almost all of the battles after the implementation of Seven were won by Intelligence and Science. As Seven was quoted as saying in Friendship One "You're a scientist, you can see a problem and imagine a solution."
Cryptic has created a infinite loop in this manner. When STO came out, there were a ton of people that gravitated to DPS... ie tac/tac. It's what people wanted, so Cryptic began to cater to that subset more, which drew more people to that subset, which caused Cryptic to cater to that subset more... because that subset paid the bills. This went double when they switched to F2P model.
When they complained about science (because we were able to counter most of what tac's could do) they nerfed us, because Atari didn't care about things like balance... or even the game. They wanted money... and tacticals made them money... specifically fed tacs made them money. Science was nerfed, cruisers were ignored, beam weapons were ignored, and more and more escorts and ships that could hold DHCs were made, because that's what made Atari money.
Now PWE isn't my favorite company, but they've been working slowly towards balance, but they're still concerned about one thing... money... and only money. DPS sells... everything else is a gimic... because that's how the game was set up and that's how the game continued to develop under Atari.
So instead of alienating the majority of their player base... when we're already ready to revolt practically and leave... they continue to develop things along that line... dps. Science doesn't matter... unless they can boost it's DPS. Engineering doesn't matter... unless they can boost it's DPS.
So that's why the top performers are so important to Cryptic and why the won't... and can't... let them go.
The top performers are practically free advertising for Cryptic. They come on the board stroking their E-Peens bragging how everyone can be like them if they just spend the time and most importantly the money.
Make no mistake while the game may technically be F2P... most people don't want to spend the time... they'd rather spend the money for instant gratification and to be just like their idols... the dps kings.
The problem Cryptic found out in DR is what a lot of game companies figured out. DPS Kings may brag the loudest... scream the loudest... cry the loudest... and generally have the ego and manners of a 2 year old... and that listening to them will make them quick cash... but in the long run it alienates the casuals... the people that actually pay the bills...
So now Cryptic needs to figure out a way to dig themselves out of the hole they've dug themselves into over 5 years... and they can't. So they can only do what they've done... continue to cater to the loudest minority that brings in money, force the casuals to adapt to their way of thinking... and hope to make money.
because the other option is they close down, and at this point it's practically inevitable.
So that's why the top performers are so important to Cryptic and why the won't... and can't... let them go.
Actually this is the only part of your statement that isn't true and here's why. The IP itself commands a larger audience than is seen here. People might like flashy explosions etc but there is also a much larger audience who appreciates the astrometrics, medical, and engineering side of things.
If they got rid of this nonsense where everything is a battle everything is a war right now at this point in the game, and focused on what made ST what made it popular in the first place, exploration, they could totally eliminate the need for these tiny few who like the JJ Abrams nonsense where everything is flashy and the lore doesn't matter (which is how I describe these top performer DPSers, or the 1%ers).
They could easily make the game enjoyable for a larger audience sure it might take a little work and it might take a bit of time to transition over to it but they could totally leave behind these 1%ers and attract those of us who appreciated this IP for it's intelligence and science aspects all you have to do is go to a convention and see just how many people are dressed up as who, I can guarantee you there are far fewer people who are dressed up as and focused on the JJ Abrams style flashiness and tactical nonsense than there are with stories of why they like Data or Seven of Nine or any of the Doctors in every series. Most of them are gamers and I'm sure they'd be attracted to the game if they spent more time on explores or made the lore for the expansions reflect the lore like they did with DR but with much more content than they did in DR.
The 1%ers are not gods they can be replaced easily with a little work they just have to have someone who can actually manage the game on anything other than standby mode.
Actually this is the only part of your statement that isn't true and here's why. The IP itself commands a larger audience than is seen here. People might like flashy explosions etc but there is also a much larger audience who appreciates the astrometrics, medical, and engineering side of things.
If they got rid of this nonsense where everything is a battle everything is a war right now at this point in the game, and focused on what made ST what made it popular in the first place, exploration, they could totally eliminate the need for these tiny few who like the JJ Abrams nonsense where everything is flashy and the lore doesn't matter (which is how I describe these top performer DPSers, or the 1%ers).
They could easily make the game enjoyable for a larger audience sure it might take a little work and it might take a bit of time to transition over to it but they could totally leave behind these 1%ers and attract those of us who appreciated this IP for it's intelligence and science aspects all you have to do is go to a convention and see just how many people are dressed up as who, I can guarantee you there are far fewer people who are dressed up as and focused on the JJ Abrams style flashiness and tactical nonsense than there are with stories of why they like Data or Seven of Nine or any of the Doctors in every series. Most of them are gamers and I'm sure they'd be attracted to the game if they spent more time on explores or made the lore for the expansions reflect the lore like they did with DR but with much more content than they did in DR.
The 1%ers are not gods they can be replaced easily with a little work they just have to have someone who can actually manage the game on anything other than standby mode.
Fair enough... and I certainly see your point. I guess my point boils down to... to totally change directions now in the game would alienate a goodly minority of your population and drive them off. The question is... after 5 years... how fast could they.. and even is it possible to... pull in enough people to prop up the loss in this minority who pay a ton of time and/or money into the game.
Lets be honest here... while the game isn't failing... it's not exactly raking in enough money that it can willing hemorage a siginificant portion of it's population due to a drastic direction change... and a gradual change will take years to accomplish.
So right now I don't see how they can just change direction's monetarily. Sure CAN they let them go.. yes... but what effect would that have on their bottom line?
Cryptic never cared about balance, and frankly only Geko has this obsession with the top 1% of DPSers, which he has steadily inflated and made worse and worse.
The whales supporting cryptic aren't the DPSers, and their showboating isn't impressing the whales. People are paying to relive the tv shows, to fly the ships and attempt to relive something that is gone.
This vendetta against the top 1% has killed the game, its unprofessional, childish and pretty shocking its gone on so long without someone being fired.
When I say "let it go", I mean it in the sense Lily Sloane meant it when she said "blow up the ship" in First Contact. I feel like there's almost vendetta level focus here in slowing down fast progression.
Pretend the Borg are elite players and pretend Picard is a systems dev here.
LILY: You stealth nerfed us. PICARD: This really isn't the time. LILY: Okay. I don't know jack about game development systems design but everybody out there thinks that staying here and following this content grind strategy is suicide. They're just afraid to come in here and say it. PICARD: The players are accustomed to adapting to my patches. LILY: They're probably accustomed to your patches making sense. PICARD: None of them understand the grind as I do. ...No one does. No one can. LILY: What is that supposed to mean? PICARD: Six years ago, I was invited to play a game called 'Farmville'. I had their app implanted throughout my social media profiles. My credit card was linked to my account, every trace of disposable income erased. I was one of them. So you can imagine, my dear, I have a somewhat unique perspective on the grind and I know how to implement strategy. Now if you will excuse me I have work to do. LILY: I am such an idiot. ...It's so simple. The elite players hurt you, and now you're going to milk them dry. PICARD: At my company we don't succumb to monetization. We have a more evolved sensibility. LILY: Bull...! I saw the look on your face when you lowered those numbers on the spreadsheet. You were almost enjoying it! PICARD: How dare you!? LILY: Oh, come on, Captain. You're not the first man to get a thrill from nerfing someone. I see it all the time. PICARD: Get out! LILY: Or what? You'll nerfl me, like you nerfed the players who ground STFs after launch? PICARD: There was no way to distinguish them from exploiters. LILY: You didn't even try. Where was your evolved sensibility then? PICARD: I don't have time for this. LILY: Oh! Hey! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your little quest. Captain Zynga has to go hunt his whales. PICARD: What? LILY: You do have facebook in the twenty-fourth century? PICARD: This is not about monetization. LILY: Liar! PICARD: This is about saving the future of free-to-play gaming. LILY: Jean-Luc, delete the friggin' spreadsheets! PICARD: No! ...No!
(Picard breaks the starship display cabinet with his phaser rifle) PICARD: No! ...I will not sacrifice the systems design. We've made too many compromises already. Too many retreats. They invade our space patrols and we fall back. They assimilate entire keybind systems, and we fall back. Not again! The line must be drawn here, ...this far, no further! And I will make them pay for their dilithium. LILY: You broke your little ships. ...See you around, Zynga.
Comments
Feds are down to small blips only seen for a few seconds in back of shot, Roms were out at LoR launch, but KDF still have some canon ones not made yet.
All you needed to use to do an old ESTF was a ship with some stuff equipped, even for T1 or T2 ships, yet everyone was running Mk XII Fleet/Rep gear - People would have upgraded stuff with no queue changes.
And that is a sad state, as STO AI could easily be made PvP tournament level of ability with decent scripting.
I haven't the words to describe how much WIN I got from your post
It WAS the PVP-ers fault !!!! :P
... they were pulling the strings behind the scenes all along ... , especially those who left ....
More like the reverse .
Th high DEEPS crowd showed them what purchases ppl will fall for , and now they have decided to expand those purchases as semi mandatory for the whole playerbase .
There's not a single purchase that will get you 30k DPS. Probably 80% of DPS comes from keybinds, piloting, and timing. If anything, I'd imagine THAT is the realization that spooked them.
People with Mk XIIs blowing through content.
I upgraded to Mk XIV UR and I doubt I could touch most of those guys.
I wasn't being literal -- as in "empty your ships of neutronium consoles and fill them up with Lobi Crit consoles" , but rather the equivalent of the costs to gear up a ship (from mk 12-14 , which from some calculations comes to around 83$) .
How much $$ do 3-4 Lobi consoles cost , along with a few of the rarer Doff packs ?
I'd put that on from anywhere from 40% to 60% (depending on the player) , not 80% , and if that's what's spooked them , I have yet to see anything that resembles a direct nerf to that ... , while there was plenty of "let's slow everybody down" going on .
Heh ... I mean what are they gonna do ... -- remove Flanking after just having put it in there ?
Or TRIBBLE around with keybinds ?
Nerf to the ground consoles & doffs ppl purchased in good faith ?
No ... .
Cryptic usually do two things :
They either blatantly over-nerf something .
Or they create a roundabout plan to nerf everything around the thing they want to nerf , an then bring the thing that stands out down to the new "acceptable level" .
All I said was, DR is not about dps, neither is the level cap.
Because both are about selling fake star trek ships...
That's not even commenting on the ships neither, all it is, is explaining the motivation behind the level cap, DR and the t6 blocked animations.
It's not controversial or surprising knowledge at all.
Gecko was straight up asked "why do only t6 ships have new animations?" where he had no problem directly replying "to sell the ships..."
And that just can't come as a surprise to anyone?
OF COURSE they want to sell ships am I right
So they slap some extra stuff on because it's not an official design (and call it an expansion) I mean come on now, how is it not entirely obvious
One console is 200 Lobi, we get ~5 Lobi per lockbox, so 40 keys. A set of 10 keys is 1125 Zen, so 4500 Zen, which means 45 USD each.
(As an aside, this means the free 15 Lobi events are essentially giving us 3.37 USD, and getting all 45 is 10.12 USD.)
We only actually want 2, the Taychokinetic Converter and the Bioneural Infusion Circuits, so that's $90.
If DR was about selling ships everyone would be fine with it, seriously..
Its about duping people with a terribly grindy and fake crafting system
Its about lowering rewards/time to make people buy more
Its about adding in an endless grind to simulate as a lack of content
Its about fooling people that T5U is better than T6 and then planning to obsolete T6 while taking your money twice...
Nobody likes to be treated as a wallet
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To all the epeeners who feel the need to work into their posts how they are one of the elite/1%/whatever.
No one is impressed.
"Catching up" was never my goal. I came to the realization that I will always be a casual, mediocre gamer and made peace with that long ago.
My patience with the grind does have limits, though. I opted out of last Anniversary's grind and unless the Winter Event shakes things up I will very likely opt out of that one too.
I haven't hit the levelling "wall" for the DR content yet. Since I'm mostly replaying some other stuff for now and levelling off that, I may never. I won't like it if I do. But I'll eventually get over the wall. Just means I won't be prioritizing it. Not sure if that's patience or antipathy. But I'm enjoying doing other things both in and out of the game, so I'm not too worried about it.
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Can't speak for everyone, but the reason I mentioned it is because I want people to know where I'm coming from in regards to my answer. Not that it matters because this comment is pretty pointless, especially as you're only really speaking for yourself and you didn't contribute anything in doing so.
Personally I just see it as knowing why someone has that perspective, nothing else to it.
Don't think TOP performers are leaving in rows....IMO mostly casual players. If you are a TOP performer why leave? Maybe go into hiatus but they will come back. Since DR launched most of my fleets who left the game were "casual players" which in a way are the bread and butter of STO.
Just last weekend I was on a PvP and those so called "TOP" performers...were still around doing the same DPS game as always. I know PvP is not a typical gameplay for most but gives an indication of hardcore players that are willing to allocate MONEY and SKILLS to be the best. Just saw the same names as 2-3 years ago. Some in hiatus but MOST damage has been done to casual players...hence creating more imbalance from the newbies or those struggling in relation to the top performers.
It sort of really hit me when I saw some guy saying he was in "protest mode" so he was only going to spend 300$ this month.
Additionally, in people accepting the 13 year mission, to level out new characters and new specialization, the queues are no longer needed.
When people accept upgrading and leveling as gameplay we no longer need reputation and we then we no longer need queues.
This needs to be read more... I have not laughed this hard in a long time. Well played. Well played.
You are living in a fantasy world LOL you really are. Sorry to have to give you the bad news but it's time to come back to reality. People are leaving until D'Angelo fixes the game so that it's not an eternal struggle just to progress, it's really that simple.
DR doesn't have enough content in it for people to be missing out of most of the STFs for 24 hrs everyday
If the l337 truly exist... then they are likely to be the minority and are accustomed to the fast, easy grinds; they are not going to be patient enough to stay in the slow grinds and either leave or throw more money at the game.
They are not the ones to focus on... it's the ~95% of the other players, the new players and the ones that have been here since the game started. The players that are seeing the game "Die"; even though Cryptic has made minor tweaks to the difficult levels, the queue are still almost empty.
I see Cryptic/PWE killing the game by making it less casual through the added difficulty and added crafting grind.
I go to work all day and want to come home and unwind by playing my canon ships and having them feel powerful like the "hero" ships in the series. I don't find the idea pleasant of putting together spreadsheets to keep track of where to get all the materials and then having to play through content that has much lower success rate than WHAT IT WAS PROMISED TO BE (Normal DR = Normal Pre-DR, Advanced DR = Elite Pre-DR, Elite = Nightmare/? mode)... Normal is now boring it's so easy with no rewards for crafting and Advanced needs crazy DPS or a pre-made team to achieve.
Don't get me wrong, I want a challenge too, but I don't want it to be like a second job either.
This is not casual anymore and therefore not fun; with the queues being almost empty making the game look like it's dying, should I put any more money into THIS game with Cryptic seemingly doing nothing but killing it more and more each season?
I want STO to start thriving again, I want it to be fun again and I want to support it by buying more ships - I would like to get the Operations Pack but in the state that STO is in, I cannot see "investing" any more into it.
I recommend that Cryptic, as a start in the right direction, dial-back the space map difficulties to Normal DR = Normal Pre-DR, Advanced DR = Elite Pre-DR, Elite = Nightmare/? mode. This should encourage people to play more and make crafting a little easier to progress in as well.
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Funny you should mention this...
I'm just listening to a radio podcast thing with Rivera from the launch of the Voth battlezone and together with the past several days of discussions on these boards, what really sticks out so far is that there's a real disconnect between two important concepts:
Adventure versus Battles
From everything people have said, Star Trek Online does not have the engine necessary to be a true "battle focused MMO". The battles are almost all "target and hit spacebar" centered. This isn't a problem, in fact it works well within the Star Trek universe where for example, space battles involved the Captain saying "target that explosion and fire!" and some bridge bunny doing all the work to make it so.
So that leaves us with Adventure. This fits in well with the Star Trek franchise, where the focus was never on 'battle' so much as bridging cultural gaps, mystery, surprises, a bit of humor, winning through sheer nerve and wit, and optimism. Think about how many times in Star Trek, battles weren't won by sheer firepower but by being clever. Oftentimes, the enemy survived to tell the tale as well. In Voyager, the Voth City Ship wasn't defeated but was talked around.
In the podcast, Rivera got terribly defensive about people being surprised at the Voth having laser-mounted dinos, despite having a perfectly justifiable position (i.e. Klingon Targ handlers provides an in-game justification for Voth to have the equivalent of War Elephant handlers). Yet what I also noticed was how part of the surprise by players that such things might be around made no sense considering that Star Trek had a range of whacky ideas like the Planet with one hotel, the planet which had perfect Earth reproduction eras on them, etc.
And this is where it really strikes. Planet with One Hotel would make a potentially intriguing STO episode. A Romulan episode could focus around that Romulan from the past who was beamed to Voyager through a wormhole - he took messages back, yet died several years before his tour of Voyager. What happened to those messages? Are they somewhere in the mess left behind by the destruction of Romulus?
STO does not have the capacity to be a huge Battle MMO. Star Trek wasn't focused on battles anyway. Going after the Battle market is pointless for STO because to be blunt, it can't compete. The only reason it survives is because of Star Trek fans who want adventure. And the lead designer goes into discussing all these opportunities for adventure, and doesn't notice it, while in the middle of discussing why we need "bigger badder enemies to defeat in battle".
Are we surprised the game's where it is?
Cryptic has created a infinite loop in this manner. When STO came out, there were a ton of people that gravitated to DPS... ie tac/tac. It's what people wanted, so Cryptic began to cater to that subset more, which drew more people to that subset, which caused Cryptic to cater to that subset more... because that subset paid the bills. This went double when they switched to F2P model.
When they complained about science (because we were able to counter most of what tac's could do) they nerfed us, because Atari didn't care about things like balance... or even the game. They wanted money... and tacticals made them money... specifically fed tacs made them money. Science was nerfed, cruisers were ignored, beam weapons were ignored, and more and more escorts and ships that could hold DHCs were made, because that's what made Atari money.
Now PWE isn't my favorite company, but they've been working slowly towards balance, but they're still concerned about one thing... money... and only money. DPS sells... everything else is a gimic... because that's how the game was set up and that's how the game continued to develop under Atari.
So instead of alienating the majority of their player base... when we're already ready to revolt practically and leave... they continue to develop things along that line... dps. Science doesn't matter... unless they can boost it's DPS. Engineering doesn't matter... unless they can boost it's DPS.
So that's why the top performers are so important to Cryptic and why the won't... and can't... let them go.
The top performers are practically free advertising for Cryptic. They come on the board stroking their E-Peens bragging how everyone can be like them if they just spend the time and most importantly the money.
Make no mistake while the game may technically be F2P... most people don't want to spend the time... they'd rather spend the money for instant gratification and to be just like their idols... the dps kings.
The problem Cryptic found out in DR is what a lot of game companies figured out. DPS Kings may brag the loudest... scream the loudest... cry the loudest... and generally have the ego and manners of a 2 year old... and that listening to them will make them quick cash... but in the long run it alienates the casuals... the people that actually pay the bills...
So now Cryptic needs to figure out a way to dig themselves out of the hole they've dug themselves into over 5 years... and they can't. So they can only do what they've done... continue to cater to the loudest minority that brings in money, force the casuals to adapt to their way of thinking... and hope to make money.
because the other option is they close down, and at this point it's practically inevitable.
Actually this is the only part of your statement that isn't true and here's why. The IP itself commands a larger audience than is seen here. People might like flashy explosions etc but there is also a much larger audience who appreciates the astrometrics, medical, and engineering side of things.
If they got rid of this nonsense where everything is a battle everything is a war right now at this point in the game, and focused on what made ST what made it popular in the first place, exploration, they could totally eliminate the need for these tiny few who like the JJ Abrams nonsense where everything is flashy and the lore doesn't matter (which is how I describe these top performer DPSers, or the 1%ers).
They could easily make the game enjoyable for a larger audience sure it might take a little work and it might take a bit of time to transition over to it but they could totally leave behind these 1%ers and attract those of us who appreciated this IP for it's intelligence and science aspects all you have to do is go to a convention and see just how many people are dressed up as who, I can guarantee you there are far fewer people who are dressed up as and focused on the JJ Abrams style flashiness and tactical nonsense than there are with stories of why they like Data or Seven of Nine or any of the Doctors in every series. Most of them are gamers and I'm sure they'd be attracted to the game if they spent more time on explores or made the lore for the expansions reflect the lore like they did with DR but with much more content than they did in DR.
The 1%ers are not gods they can be replaced easily with a little work they just have to have someone who can actually manage the game on anything other than standby mode.
Fair enough... and I certainly see your point. I guess my point boils down to... to totally change directions now in the game would alienate a goodly minority of your population and drive them off. The question is... after 5 years... how fast could they.. and even is it possible to... pull in enough people to prop up the loss in this minority who pay a ton of time and/or money into the game.
Lets be honest here... while the game isn't failing... it's not exactly raking in enough money that it can willing hemorage a siginificant portion of it's population due to a drastic direction change... and a gradual change will take years to accomplish.
So right now I don't see how they can just change direction's monetarily. Sure CAN they let them go.. yes... but what effect would that have on their bottom line?
The whales supporting cryptic aren't the DPSers, and their showboating isn't impressing the whales. People are paying to relive the tv shows, to fly the ships and attempt to relive something that is gone.
This vendetta against the top 1% has killed the game, its unprofessional, childish and pretty shocking its gone on so long without someone being fired.
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Much needed laughter LOL.
LOL, I hope the dev team reads this over and over... I've never seen anyone so perfectly sum up the situation with such absolute creativity
You are right on so many counts, let the top 1% go... erase them from the metrics and tune the game around the other 99%
Very well said, very well said indeed!
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