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Sacrificing everything for Delta Quadrant Metrics
mattjohnsonva
Member Posts: 4,974 Arc User
Devs, who are you trying to impress? Is it PWI, PWE? Is it someone high up at Cryptic, someone at CBS, or a combination of those?
You have done a fantastic job of ensuring that everyone stays in the Delta Quadrant by making sure only DQ patrols pay out any reasonable sort of XP.
You are effectively sacrificing the rest of the game, all other story missions pay out 2030 XP, STFs and other queues even less, whereas an Argala Patrol is over 10,000 which by the way is still way too low and doesn't satisfy the "You won't be levelling any slower" BS we got on the Nov 20th Patch.
So Devs, please explain your rationale here, oh I know you have no intention of answering this post much less actually doing anything about it. However I can suggest that what you are doing is dangerous for STO, in fact it's so dangerous you could say it's Elite Dangerous.
You have done a fantastic job of ensuring that everyone stays in the Delta Quadrant by making sure only DQ patrols pay out any reasonable sort of XP.
You are effectively sacrificing the rest of the game, all other story missions pay out 2030 XP, STFs and other queues even less, whereas an Argala Patrol is over 10,000 which by the way is still way too low and doesn't satisfy the "You won't be levelling any slower" BS we got on the Nov 20th Patch.
So Devs, please explain your rationale here, oh I know you have no intention of answering this post much less actually doing anything about it. However I can suggest that what you are doing is dangerous for STO, in fact it's so dangerous you could say it's Elite Dangerous.
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Funnily enough it was so obvious to me that they were trying to manipulate players to make them play the new content that I just stopped going to the Delta Quadrant completely, weeks ago.
Good job, Cryptic.
Free Tibet!
Same here
/10 chars
Love the Cryptic logic.
I really don't understand the logic behind it, it just makes the whole expansion feel very jarring and unenjoyable.
+2.
Just don't do it. The more you do it the better their metrics look and the better they think they're doing.
Killing snowborg by the thousands is more fun anyway.
Good job Dynamic Duo (Geko/D'Angelo)! :rolleyes:
Free Tibet!
I have the feeling that Mechwarrior Online will be a more popular study object if students need examples of bad design.
Congrats, you (may) have found something even worse! And just how does that aleviate our situation here?
They can pair the two together in the curriculum (assuming MWO that you like to bash so much is really that bad, I haven't played it), it's still not like that's flattering in any way.
what bad with mechwarriors online ? didnt tried them, since have no time to play so many mmos
Don't give them any more bad ideas :eek:
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Same here, as well.
As soon as I finished all the DQ missions, I stopped going there. That was about 2 weeks from launch...
If you don't have time to play so many MMOs, you better don't take the time to investigate that one.
Well, the complaining won't end, so I guess it wouldn't. But I think STO is doing pretty cool stuff. We have new missions every few months, and the occassional expansion. We have a lot of features, endgame content.
The current major complaint is: "My progress bar is not moving fast enough". Sorry, that is really what the only real issue is. It sounds to me like it is both to a large extent subjective, but it's also something that wouldn't require major rework to figure out. If Cryptic does't change it eventually, it is probably simply because the complaints on the forums are not reflected in sales. That are the final metrics a business has to look at.
If it is reflected in sales - well, you'll see the reaction sooner or later, and the problem will be gone.
Come on - this is the company that in this year has given us extra inventory and BO slots, a completely new inventory category so our crafting items no longer occupy the regular loot and stuff, that has modified the reputation system to be more alt-friendly via sponsorship tokens and daily reward bonuses. And at the time this was made the exact same pepole were at the helm then now.
Yes the story missions and voice overs are great and i liked them. But not the grind wall between story missions and how Cryptic handle the grind and gameplay mechanics.
So basically nothing to do and totally missing the point of the discussion in this thread, just felt like praising the company a bit? Got it. :rolleyes:
Gratuitously praising Cryptic for small changes just makes you seem as silly as those who gratuitously insult Cryptic for no reason.
Free Tibet!
I can't read people's mind, but here is what I suspect the logicis:
Do you know restaurants that put up signs for their parking space or bath rooms that say "Customers only"?
Cryptic is basically doing the same thing for story missions. Star Trek Online is probably one of the MMOs out there that appeals to an audience that really mostly plays the game for the story itself.
That means every time a new story mission is created, players return to the game, play through the story content. But they don't stick around - they came what they were there for, and leave. They don't need to do queued content (or if, only once), they don't need to buy or selll stuff on the Exchange, they don't need a new starship, they don't need a reputation ability or sets. They just need the story mission.
Of course, there players that come mostly for the story but also do other stuff. But there is a subset of returning players that takes what it wants from the game and leaves. But they don't "contribute" much.
Cryptic is trying to convert at least some of these players into more active players.
Of course many of these players will not like it. They may just leave. But that is okay if more players are converted than before.
I suspect most games actually do stuff like this. Every time there is a bunch of mobs you have to fight before you get tot he next story development, it's an attempt to get people to play more and longer. TOR is full of such missions. It odesn't make the "level gates" as stricht as STO does, but - if you don't do a lot of mob kills and lag behind on skill points, you will likely find extremely tough encounters during the missions - sometimes too tough to advance without earning skills elsewhere, or getting help in some way.
STO can however be a very easy game, if you have a decent build, you can fight superior odds and beat enemies several levels above you. And so STO cannot rely on killer "end mobs". It has level restrictions instead. Players may complain about those, but I suspect that much harder fights would create even more problems...
Yes it would, though I think Transverse will be even moreso as an example of trying to rip people off by telling them that they are being ripped off. Same company at the helm of MWO btw
As for STO, in it's current state it's definitely vying for the position standing next to them. They may be second on the podium, but this podium is the gallows, not the winners circle.
In reference to your post about the positives, unfortunately those positives are very very minor. The whole game balance has been broken, the rewards are a blatant push to get DQ metric's (which seem to be slightly suspended while Q's Winter Grindland is active).
If the only way you can measure success is via metrics to show your new area "is the best and players love it" then I feel the dev's have missed the point entirely. Metric's are one thing, but actual player behaviour is another. Fixing the data by adjusting the rest of the game to "encourage," though "force" would be a more accurate word, people to only play through the DQ is just absurd and in turn makes the metrics utterly useless as an analysis tool. If you want accurate feedback, have the game balanced across all areas correctly. Then the metrics are feedback as to what areas players feel more at ease with.
But hey that's just basic statistical analysis isn't it
"You don't have to do something again and again and again repetitive that doesn't have much challange, that's just a general good gameplay thing."
im not on that metric for now, playing something else for a few months, will return to sto but not just now.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Delta Rising is the new stuff. People go there, do the first missions - and then realize there is a level gap to bridge. It would make sense for them to look in the Delta Quadrant for a solution first, wouldn't it? Since that is where a player would likely look first, that is where he also finds the solution.
In addition - everything there is new. Other than the Borg and Hirogen, all the enemies there are completely new to players. Why would they want to do other Patrols that they could have already done thousands of times (for example, to get Romulan Marks?). And people may want to do the Delta Quadrant missions for the Delta Marks, too.
I think for endgame concerns, all patrols (and lots of other content) should get similar payout as the Delta Patrols, but I could imagine altering it now would also affect lower level play - and that could affect advancement at lower levels. Maybe Cryptic wants to avoid that, I don't know.
Just don't look at the meter and keep playing. This is what I do. With me doing RPing on the game, I have plenty of ways to make "the grind" don't feel horrible. Would I love to just keep doing stories and be done, yes. But then again we always have other things to do on the side. This is how I view "the grind" as something on the side. As my crew gets more info on the situation or as we help others out on their problems along the way.
Doing the same patrol over and over, only causes burns out. My plan is start at top of map. Work down and back up. Doing a full on patrol.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Come on - this is the company that saw that unlimited rep traits were going to cause balance issues and then added specializations.
There seems to be a limiting provision in the rep system, too - with primary and secondary choices and what not.
But to say it would cause problems because the "new" endgame characters would have a huge gap to the older and more played endgame characters and then put in reputations and the level requirements...
I guess I am saying: Touch
Yes that would be the obvious way, but at the same time the value is balanced according to level so setting the other patrols up to match (at minimum) the DQ patrols cannot be incorrect, seeing as the claim is they scale according to level. If that's not the case and they have to set each area up separately then it's not setup the same way they have claimed, and in turn needs to be adjusted/fixed.
The pull for people to stick with what they know is very strong, hence the evacuation of the DQ and the invasion of Tau Dewa at release. It wasn't the only place to go, there were missions in from DS9 and other areas that were equally good for XP grinding whether socially or solo. If people know how to defeat a set group of enemies in a set time for Y XP then why bother with the DQ patrols especially if they haven't unlocked them yet. I remember the XP from my first DQ patrol was pathetic, I though oops that must be a bug, so I went off and tested XP from other Patrols (outside DQ) and they didn't have the low XP of the DQ ones, reinforcing that bug thought. How was I to know that the Dev's had the exact opposite thought process...
Cryptic have already stated to the effect that Metric's are everything to Geko and D'Angelo. This probably links into their reports to Head Office for PW. If the metics info they send back shows players in areas other than their new fancy expansion, then for them it probably means problems. Lots of probably's there, mostly because I don't know the inner working's of Cryptic/PW hierarchy and the pressures applied from HO to Cryptic. However from a logic standpoint it's about the only measure I can think for the excuses and patches so far.
"You don't have to do something again and again and again repetitive that doesn't have much challange, that's just a general good gameplay thing."
"You don't have to do something again and again and again repetitive that doesn't have much challange, that's just a general good gameplay thing."