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Which parts of the game that you loved are gone now?
mancom
Member Posts: 784 Arc User
I understand that an online game evolves and that there will be additions that one doesn't always appreciate. But what saddens me about STO's development is that many things that I really liked have disappeared from the game / have been changed with no real need. Why can't the existing game stay as it is and only the additions being new and different? Then if I don't like the new additions, I could always keep playing the old content instead of being forced out of the game completely.
These are some things that I used to love, but which sadly have been removed from the game:
What are the things you used to love and that are no longer there?
These are some things that I used to love, but which sadly have been removed from the game:
- Open instance fleet actions. I liked being able to start doing a fleet action even if I was the only one doing it. As the fleet action progressed, more people tended to show up and tell their friends about an impending completion so that they would join too and then close to completion the instance was alive. This way one or two players could jumpstart a fun event.
I also miss being able to play a fleet action while waiting for queue pops. Sometimes that would make me miss the completion of the fleet action, but then I would just start again after completing the queued event.
I used to play at least the daily fleet action until Cryptic made fleet actions queue-only and removed the open instances. At that point I essentially stopped playing fleet actions. I miss the old days. I don't understand why the open instances could not have coexisted with queued and/or private versions of the fleet actions. - PVPing as a fresh level 45/50 character with white gear and still be competitive. The game was so accessible. No need to grind for gear, just jump in and have fun. Many of my friends agreed that the lack of gear requirements was one of STO's strong points. And just like the PVP of season 1.2 and 2/3 isn't here anymore, many of my friends aren't here anymore either due to STO's move towards having significant gear requirements and offering no option to keep queueing for matches with the old "ruleset".
- Ship costumes for a low price. Why do ships cost 50$? Is one ship really worth as much as a full price pc/console game? I really like my Maelstrom costume for the fleet escort, and while I still have it, others can't buy it anymore as a simple and cheap costume.
- Ships for energy credits. It used to be possible to get the basic ships for just EC. Now this option isn't even available to gold subscribers.
- The original "Fluid Dynamics" and "A Light in the Dark" missions. Obviously the new versions have cutscenes and fancy voiceovers, but why did the old missions have to go?
- Travelling through sector space. I know, one can still do that. But with everything being moved into the queues and almost all missions having transwarp options, I find I rarely ever fly through space anymore. Traveling is a part of the game that is still available, but has become superfluous as a game mechanic.
- Exploration. Yes, I mostly did it for the daily emblems, but it was a nice diversion. I actually liked the simplistic "click 5 / shoot 5" mission format. Kill tribbles in the name of the empire! Help the Borg find their third dynasty.
- The Great Hall. Not the tiny one on the new Qo'nos map. The old one that can still be seen in one of the Fek'lhr missions. Going to the old Great Hall always felt like coming come. I miss the Great Hall and I miss this feeling of coming home.
What are the things you used to love and that are no longer there?
Post edited by mancom on
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- Featured Episode Series
- State of Q
- War is Good for Business
- DS9 (a reason to go there that is ... Commander Roxy etc)
- Earning Endgame Gear for a reason ... other than upgrading it for no reason, because you already earned it, the hard way ...
Hourlies - They gave the game some variety and optional direction whenever I logged in. IE - The Academy event is on, cool, pop over and scan some anomalies if you want. Mirror invasion is happening, awesome, time for some XP. Tour the Galaxy time - OK, time to run around and do all the 5 minute dailies in each sector.
On that note...
The "old" Tour The Galaxy - With an hour to complete, it gave me the opportunity to pop around the map and take care of little tasks. Traelus System, the refinery and freighter, Nimbus III dailies. If a red alert was up, maybe hop in there as well. I felt like a Starfleet Captain flying around and doing things in the different sector blocks, and getting rewarded for it. Now - I can get it done in 15 minutes, JUST, and feel like I'm watching a counter.
Memory Alpha - No, not the crafting AT Memory Alpha. But the side missions that were there. (Which were not moved somewhere else, so that sick person at K7 is just doomed forever now.) The amenities - somewhere my sci alt could hub out of, and not be "in the warzone" so to speak. No idea why this was pulled when maps like Andoria are still floating around.
Non-Combat character advancement - Aiding the planets, first contact missions, scanning anomalies in exploration clusters during "Metaphasic Events" (<- See, not an exploit - actually "encouraged"!) to craft things. My sci alt was Level 32, in an Oberth, and I was fine to leave him in an Oberth as his job was science doffing and crafting.
Wow...I didn't realize the list was so long...
Speaking which, I really miss the old Gorn Minefield. It was a massive cluster**** of hundreds of enemy ships and a total party to jump into with FAW, back when there was no A2B or god-king DPS builds. It was actually dangerous to do that and I reveled in the chaos. The new Gorn Minefield is but a pale husk by comparison.
I also miss ground optionals in fleet actions, and the DS9 fleet action.
The old Hourly tour was much more fun.
... for that matter so were the actual hourly events..
..and the scheduled Defera invasions that essentially crashed the servers because everyone would rush to Defera at the same time. Also I miss a time when Defera was receiving active development.
Joined January 2009
Laziness ... they would have to edit Memory Alpha to some degree ... removing all the Crafting Vendors etc ... same with Exploration Clusters ...
... the only reason Andoria is still here, is because there was nothing to do there in the first place ...
Division Hispana
www.divisionhispana.com
-State of Q
Ok, so this suffered from all the issues all the old missions do, but I miss it for some reason. My only complaint with it is, by the time I got here in the story, I knew I could totally take on all those Borg and survive. I really hope the rumors of this coming back with VOs are true.
-The Return
This is now "Where Angels Fear to Tread" and an overall better mission, but I miss there actually being a gray moral dilemma near the end. Shoehorning in the Republic prisoners was just lame, and makes anyone who actually sides with Commander Taelus a monster.
-Original Sela/Yar
'nuff said, old one might've been cartoonier, but the new one looks terrible.
-Hourly Events
Sort of. I honestly used to hate planning play sessions around these, and thought I'd prefer weekend events. I probably would, were there actually one every weekend.
It's not "Laziness". It's "This feature costs x manhours, we could also do this other feature(s) with x manhours, what gives us the most bang for our buck".
I also have fond memories of running "Breaking the Planet" with just one or two friends. Luring the NPCs onto the bridges to get the big turrets to fire on them... so much fun. And as time progressed, more and more players would join the instance. Those were the days.
Yeah sorry I don't consider "removing 5 Vendors" to keep an entire "Social Zone" with 5 Missions, as a feature ... the "feature" was already there for several years ...
I also miss crafting Delta Flyers, but at least you can still get those from the store.
Joined January 2009
- Exploration clusters. I really enjoyed relaxing and doing those. No, they were far from perfect or the best the game had to offer, but I enjoyed them nevertheless. I could play in those on different chars for days, creating RP logs and storyilnes and enjoying myself. And hey, what do you know - I even got a humble amount of dilithium and exp. every day by doing what I enjoyed. Especially on the KDF side, due to the general lack of content, some of those were very wellcomed and some even hillarious - like when the Feds. "attack" a Klingon starbase or freighter by beaming in tribbles. I will never forgive Cryptic and D'angelo for removing those.
- PvP. What more needs to be said? In a sad state since forever, but Season 7 and the introduction of rep.systems was the moment they killed it for me and I stopped playing. Plus the increasing number of lockbox ships and items by the start of Season 7 and LoR as well. Nowdays.....lol
- Sector space/social zones. This is something I always considered important for comminity building in MMOs. With the option to snap our fingers and teleport magically anywhere in the galaxy the need for sector space has been severely diminished, which is sad....no, it's pathetic in a Star Trek game. With endless menues of slidebars and clickies we can access anywhere in the galaxy, the need to be at a certain hub in order to do cerain things has died. Nowdays I can just sit in my ship anywhere on the map and do everything just by sitting there.
- Memory Alpha. An entire social zone that instead of being developed and expanded with non-combat and research/diplomacy missions as the few that were already there was scarpped from the game completely. Instead of turning it into the main centre for research. Terrible game design.
- The old STFs. STFs that had a good story. STFs that meant something except grinding marks and dilithium by mindlessly FAW-ing everything in sight. STFs that brought people together as a group and in many cases forged friendships.
- Diversity. Diversity in general - diversity in content, diversity between faction, diverstiy in gameplay. It's gone, it's all vanilla now. And that sucks.
At the end, I'll also mention that I miss few things you said OP - like open fleet actions and normal prices for ships as well as the alting others have mentioned that is almost impossible now.
EDIT: Hourly events. Miss those as well. The new weekend model is just another epic fail in my eyes.
Exploration clusters. Yeah they weren't perfect but it was nice to at least pretend we were exploring strange new worlds. Now we can't even do that. Even with the Delta Quad opened, we can't explore at all.
THIS ^ ^ ^
I miss the lottery system of getting gear drops. The new system (rep) ensures everyone can get the gear regardless of their qualifications or skill using it.
Awoken Dead
Now shaddup about the queues, it's a BUG
.. I miss the old Doff UI. :P
Joined January 2009
I miss the reason why games have timegates being completely ignored in STO.
The reason timegates exist, is so developers can work on future content while not being hamstrung by players who burn through their content.
Unfortunately, I simply see it as "Timegates are created to delay the release of more timegates".
If upcoming content was more innovative and different. If upcoming content had more outside-the-box thinking, I could see the necessary evil of gated content.
It's reputation system after reputation system. The R&D schools are just another form of reputation system.
Innovative at one time. But when they just keep phoning it in every major update, it gets boring. Particuarly when the reputation system is created to provide gear to help you combat the things you've been grinding for.
When I get my full Mk XII Bio-Molecular sets and weapons, by the time I'm finished I'm already sick of fighting the Undine.
Likewise with my MACO and Omega sets. By the time you get them, you've done so much grinding already what is the point of having the best equipment? For dilithium?
Yeah, I very much miss the innovation STO had, before they started following the same release model time after time.
Lockbox, rep system, new grindy area to explore. Wash hands, repeat, etc.
Money earned from these major releases should be funneled into parts of the game that do not earn as much money. Romulan, KDF, etc.
New systems, new minigames, new fluff that isn't going to make a lot of money -- but is instead dependant on things that do make a lot of money.
I miss when I could say STO was a f2p well done, and not another cash grab fest.
The ability to gather mountains of crafting mats encouraged everyone to do it. Of course this conflicted with monetization of crafting, so they were removed.
I miss the fun too. That is the key thing that is missing from this expansion, it's just not fun any more in the slightest for me or my friends and we are all drifting off to other games because this game is so painfully dull to play now.
Before DR I used to play multiple alts, now my main feels like a full time job and the thought of levelling another character beyond 50 makes me feel ill.
I miss Terradome too, it was a fun mission to play.
-Memory Alpha, it was a nice map to visit and it seems a shame to have taken it away when it could have (to my mind) been easily repurposed.
- When lockbox keys cost 1.2 mil EC and could be easily and casually obtained alongside regular gameplay.
- Daily events. I remember when people would log in regularly just for the event that was on for that particular time, and where I do enjoy the current event format, I do miss the old one more.
- Casual PVP, this used to be so much fun.
- My fleet WITHOUT the fleet roster bug to which I still have no response of any kind after 1year now.
- When I felt I could explain various aspects of the game to a new player with excitement, without feeling like I was reeling off a whole bunch of bad news.
"If this will be our end, then I will have them make SUCH an end as to be worthy of rememberance! Out of torpedos you say?! Find me the ferengi!".
The old Doffing System. It was a far more engaging interface that made it really seem like you were in charge and making decisions about who was doing what. The new system is just "Click the button to choose and click to start". I don't have any idea whether a mission will work or not, and there's no point thanks to the clunky, clumsy interface. "Pretty" doesn't equal "improvement"!
Memory Alpha. It just made sense that there was a Federation Research Planet, and now, it's just more button-pressing and less immersion and engagement.
Patrols. I think it's telling that a new character gets access to all these patrols everywhere, but once you've done many of them once, they're no longer accessible. It's almost as though the game only caters to people who will get bored and leave fairly early on, and rather than recognizing that the playerbase wants to hang around for much longer, and thus devs should create way more of various levels of content from simple stuff like this to the complex mission arcs as the "highlights", they just increase grind. As a sidenote, these little partrol mini-missions are what Exploration Clusters should be like.
The care. It's pretty clear from some of the earlier things that have been done like the Devidian mission arc, the new tutorial and the like, that the devs used to care about STO, its artwork, its adventurousness, and its overall feel. The newest content (if you an call it that) is clearly a "clump some stuff together and grab some cash!" I really think that too many of the devs have been there too long and have simply lost interest in making a good game for the players, rather than a "This is what I want to develop and I'm entitled to do anything I want!" attitude.