No it is not. F2P just means that players don't have to spend money to play the game. It can be compared to Freemium or Subscription, but not P2W. STO is a Freemium game since we still have subscribers. P2W is dependent on the microtransaction system. Does a game sell style (Cosmetics) or substance (P2W) on their microtransaction store? Wildstar is a subscription game that lets you purchase ingame currency by selling time to other players. STO and SWTOR are Freemium games that sell style and substance. There is nothing forcing STO to sell just substance.
F2P make thier money on the microtransactions,but has no or little effect on game play. P2W sells the gear you need to win. both could or could not have a subscription.
at least that is the way I always saw it.
"The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war."
Douglas MacArthur - Quote on the dedication plaque of the U.S.S. Ranger NCC-97332-A Armitage class Fleet Heavy Strike Wing Escort.
F2P make thier money on the microtransactions,but has no or little effect on game play. P2W sells the gear you need to win. both could or could not have a subscription.
at least that is the way I always saw it.
F2P means Free To Play. Meaning I can play the game for free. F2P games can sell just cosmetic items or sell P2W items. A subscription game can have a microtransaction store and sell cosmetic items or P2W items. STO sold its first P2W item (Rhode Island Refit) when it was still a subscription game and it has sold a bunch of cosmetic items since around launch.
I would pay for the interiors. I think the Foundry idea is a good one. Then people could pay for whatever they want.
"The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war."
Douglas MacArthur - Quote on the dedication plaque of the U.S.S. Ranger NCC-97332-A Armitage class Fleet Heavy Strike Wing Escort.
This is what I don't understand. Ship interiors are only as useless and meaningless as the devs make them.
Exactly. And they've made them 99.99%* useless. Of course, they could make them useful in the future, if they want to. But that would be a major systems change. And until the interiors are made useful, there is very little reason to do a lot of work creating new interior maps just for players who like looking at them.
* That 0.01% is the Tau Dewa duty officer mission, for which you still have to visit your cell ship interior, once a week.
Exactly. And they've made them 99.99%* useless. Of course, they could make them useful in the future, if they want to. But that would be a major systems change. And until the interiors are made useful, there is very little reason to do a lot of work creating new interior maps just for players who like looking at them.
* That 0.01% is the Tau Dewa duty officer mission, for which you still have to visit your cell ship interior, once a week.
They made them useful at one point in time with having to visit the Duty Officer contacts on the ship interior, but players complained that it was too annoying having to visit each one.
They made them useful at one point in time with having to visit the Duty Officer contacts on the ship interior, but players complained that it was too annoying having to visit each one.
some of them still do. the bartender and chef assignments require you to go inside. Also, there's a mission for having your Doffs do Hamlet that requires you to go inside.... and several for having your doffs fabricate hypos and such like things.
A while back people discussed the idea of having actual missions inside your ship, but the problem is that such things would require them to somehow code a mission that works the same regardless of whether you use the Jem'Hadar interior or the Oddy interior(with extra large hallways).... good luck with that....
If you think that sounds easy.... go make one in the Foundry.
I don't know how many people in this game really hardcore role play
But the functionality of the interior of the ship is nothing special except for that one on board computer to resolve a couple of missions.
You look at em once, soak it in, and never come back. It's not that they're bad, but the core of the gameplay takes place from an exterior third person perspective. This is not a first person, or SIM game.
This is what I don't understand. Ship interiors are only as useless and meaningless as the devs make them.
If you look at the SWTOR, their housing is a major money sink. You need to spend Cartel Coins or credits to open up various rooms in each house and certain decorations are only available through their lockbox.
Yes, it is a major money sink. But has it any use? Can you do missions in there? Any specific activities you can't do anywhere else?
I was pretty underwhelmed. I saw a lot of stuff I could spend money on, but it didn't provide any utility.
Cryptic is a bit more careful with their resources. But they made a bad mistake. They didn't develop interiors with a specific goal in mind, they just added it for the sake of having them. And now they and we are stuck with a design that can't be used for anything practical.
For a "real" Star Trek feel, the interiors would need to be a place of mission activities. Countless of episodes in Trek are mostly happening inside the ship interior. People talking with each other, modifying stuff. But STO has nothing like that.
A new, revamped interior system must support that primarily. I'd rather have all the bridges I once bought for the game deleted from it and replaced with a single, standard interior, where all this stuff is going on.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
It always strikes me as a "chicken and egg" situation - there's no great interest in interiors because there's nothing much to do in them, because making stuff to do in them takes time and effort, and there's no reason to invest that when there's no great interest in interiors.
Personally, I like them, and it'd be great to have more to do in them. (And some of them could use improving just on general principles. The Andorian escort bridge is shameful, and it wouldn't take bucketloads of complicated coding to improve it - just some better diffuse maps, so that it looks less like something out of the animated series.) But, unless the numbers say that investment's worth their while, Cryptic aren't going to make it.
(And, of course, this is going over old ground - interiors have been discussed many times on the forum before, and mostly with the same answers going around.)
Like people has said, Bridges are pretty useles right now, but bridges (and other interiors) would get very interesting places if there were some minigames, by example, howmuch do you would pay for a bridge module or interior that ad an poker table minigame like the one in TNG? and howmuch more if that minigame allow to be played with friends and fleetmates? ...and howmuch more if you can bet dilitium?
THIS.
That's a fantastic idea. Also, this idea that bridges and interiors are "too difficult" or "too time consuming" is crazy.
Aren't Fleet starbases, spires and embassies the same thing? The ONLY reason to visit those places is to buy consoles or special doffs...otherwise they're glorified ship interiors that mostly work as a resource sink and a place to "decorate."
Personally, if I'm sinking Dilithium, EC, Expertise, doffs and other stuff into a project, I'd rather be upgrading my ship interior than a starbase I'm never going to use for anything other than visiting a vendor once in a while.
That's a fantastic idea. Also, this idea that bridges and interiors are "too difficult" or "too time consuming" is crazy.
Aren't Fleet starbases, spires and embassies the same thing? The ONLY reason to visit those places is to buy consoles or special doffs...otherwise they're glorified ship interiors that mostly work as a resource sink and a place to "decorate."
Personally, if I'm sinking Dilithium, EC, Expertise, doffs and other stuff into a project, I'd rather be upgrading my ship interior than a starbase I'm never going to use for anything other than visiting a vendor once in a while.
Well there's two differences. 1: you get fleet credit for doing the projects for starbase interiors. 2: starbases are less complex. There are no options to change the basic layout, just the window dressing.
They made them useful at one point in time with having to visit the Duty Officer contacts on the ship interior, but players complained that it was too annoying having to visit each one.
Taking a useful button off the UI and hiding it in a map somewhere doesn't make that map useful, just a required obstacle. The button is just as useful no matter where it is, the map is just in the way of getting to it.
In order for a map to be useful, rather than just required, it needs to let you do something you couldn't do without it. Not because that something is restricted to the map for no reason just to force you to go there, but because it actually does something that needs the map to work.
This would be nice, but I've always understood it was an ROI thing. They still haven't sorted the Defiant interior. So I'd be surprised if we grt anymore decent ones.
If you've come to the forums to complain about the AFK system, it's known to be bugged at the moment.
I think one possibility would be an adventure zone built based on an iconic environment.
For example, a TNG ship lost in space, adrift, with a mystery plot.
We have Battle Zones, Adventure Zones... Why NOT a Mystery Zone.
I could go into a bit more depth with what I'd do, which TNG episodes I'd tie it in with, etc. I have a really cool way in mind to do this.
I'll just say that I'd like Jesse "What Lies Beneath" Heinig to take point on it.
But it would really be something novel. I'll just cover the basics:
- It would need to be an environment with a persistant threat.
- I wouldn't do Devidians because they've been done enough.
- It works best if you have threats lurking the halls and safe areas. (Although I have a way to make that really novel.)
- You need a reason to be there that could justify hundreds of people swarming through a deserted ship, a reason why self-destruct isn't an option, and a threat/opportunity combo worth sending people over to a ghost ship and spending months there.
- So, again, that means the ship's self-destruct can't work, a reason that scanning is ineffective, and something at the heart of the mystery worth risking hundreds of lives over.
Comments
F2P make thier money on the microtransactions,but has no or little effect on game play. P2W sells the gear you need to win. both could or could not have a subscription.
at least that is the way I always saw it.
Douglas MacArthur - Quote on the dedication plaque of the U.S.S. Ranger NCC-97332-A Armitage class Fleet Heavy Strike Wing Escort.
F2P means Free To Play. Meaning I can play the game for free. F2P games can sell just cosmetic items or sell P2W items. A subscription game can have a microtransaction store and sell cosmetic items or P2W items. STO sold its first P2W item (Rhode Island Refit) when it was still a subscription game and it has sold a bunch of cosmetic items since around launch.
I would pay for the interiors. I think the Foundry idea is a good one. Then people could pay for whatever they want.
Douglas MacArthur - Quote on the dedication plaque of the U.S.S. Ranger NCC-97332-A Armitage class Fleet Heavy Strike Wing Escort.
* That 0.01% is the Tau Dewa duty officer mission, for which you still have to visit your cell ship interior, once a week.
They made them useful at one point in time with having to visit the Duty Officer contacts on the ship interior, but players complained that it was too annoying having to visit each one.
A while back people discussed the idea of having actual missions inside your ship, but the problem is that such things would require them to somehow code a mission that works the same regardless of whether you use the Jem'Hadar interior or the Oddy interior(with extra large hallways).... good luck with that....
If you think that sounds easy.... go make one in the Foundry.
My character Tsin'xing
But the functionality of the interior of the ship is nothing special except for that one on board computer to resolve a couple of missions.
You look at em once, soak it in, and never come back. It's not that they're bad, but the core of the gameplay takes place from an exterior third person perspective. This is not a first person, or SIM game.
I was pretty underwhelmed. I saw a lot of stuff I could spend money on, but it didn't provide any utility.
Cryptic is a bit more careful with their resources. But they made a bad mistake. They didn't develop interiors with a specific goal in mind, they just added it for the sake of having them. And now they and we are stuck with a design that can't be used for anything practical.
For a "real" Star Trek feel, the interiors would need to be a place of mission activities. Countless of episodes in Trek are mostly happening inside the ship interior. People talking with each other, modifying stuff. But STO has nothing like that.
A new, revamped interior system must support that primarily. I'd rather have all the bridges I once bought for the game deleted from it and replaced with a single, standard interior, where all this stuff is going on.
Personally, I like them, and it'd be great to have more to do in them. (And some of them could use improving just on general principles. The Andorian escort bridge is shameful, and it wouldn't take bucketloads of complicated coding to improve it - just some better diffuse maps, so that it looks less like something out of the animated series.) But, unless the numbers say that investment's worth their while, Cryptic aren't going to make it.
(And, of course, this is going over old ground - interiors have been discussed many times on the forum before, and mostly with the same answers going around.)
THIS.
That's a fantastic idea. Also, this idea that bridges and interiors are "too difficult" or "too time consuming" is crazy.
Aren't Fleet starbases, spires and embassies the same thing? The ONLY reason to visit those places is to buy consoles or special doffs...otherwise they're glorified ship interiors that mostly work as a resource sink and a place to "decorate."
Personally, if I'm sinking Dilithium, EC, Expertise, doffs and other stuff into a project, I'd rather be upgrading my ship interior than a starbase I'm never going to use for anything other than visiting a vendor once in a while.
My character Tsin'xing
In order for a map to be useful, rather than just required, it needs to let you do something you couldn't do without it. Not because that something is restricted to the map for no reason just to force you to go there, but because it actually does something that needs the map to work.
just my 2 creds worth
For example, a TNG ship lost in space, adrift, with a mystery plot.
We have Battle Zones, Adventure Zones... Why NOT a Mystery Zone.
I could go into a bit more depth with what I'd do, which TNG episodes I'd tie it in with, etc. I have a really cool way in mind to do this.
I'll just say that I'd like Jesse "What Lies Beneath" Heinig to take point on it.
But it would really be something novel. I'll just cover the basics:
- It would need to be an environment with a persistant threat.
- I wouldn't do Devidians because they've been done enough.
- It works best if you have threats lurking the halls and safe areas. (Although I have a way to make that really novel.)
- You need a reason to be there that could justify hundreds of people swarming through a deserted ship, a reason why self-destruct isn't an option, and a threat/opportunity combo worth sending people over to a ghost ship and spending months there.
- So, again, that means the ship's self-destruct can't work, a reason that scanning is ineffective, and something at the heart of the mystery worth risking hundreds of lives over.