And here I was, thinking that Cryptic learned something with the whole Delta Rising fiasco.
I am afraid, looking at this, that, sorry guys, but you keep on digging, and keep on digging and keep on scaring off casual players, and boring to death the veterans.
We don't want to do same queues over and over. We don't want popular queues getting nerfed, mostly because there won't be any queues to do at all after that.
I'm afraid Cryptic that you'll have to go again "We find this kind of insulting" like with the Potato Boff situation but now and then I don't have to give a damn what you find insulting.
You don't know your own game at all. That's the bottom line. You don't know who plays it, how they play it, you don't know how to balance abilities, ships and missions.
Your writers are worse than the average fanfic creator that goes to high school. You don't playtest things or take any feedback unless it's a massive backlash of frenzied players.
I know that, here sitting, I might as well be writing this to a wall.
I can say that, from a consumer standpoint, and I say, that you're utterly incompetent or lazy.
You want more people to leave? No matter what you say, on how queue display is wrong, which, from all we know, it's not - the game is emptying.
Fleets, empty and dying. Queues, apart from a few, empty.
You want to kill your game? State that! You want it to live - don't do stupid changes like that.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
The beast at Tanagra.
Kadir beneath Mo Moteh. Kiteo, his eyes closed. Chenza at court, the court of silence. Darmok on the ocean.
Shaka, when the walls fell.
"WHAT!!!!!!!?!?!?!?!" are my eyes really seeing this??? why you do this Cryptic... You've basically killed my fleet by doing this... that is all we run since DR went live...
This is a bad move...
Please explain if you are only removing "Normal" and keeping Advanced and Elite...
Or altogether removing all of the no win versions....
Yes Cryptic has finally pleased me... They just skipped the go away naysayer approach and just went self destruct picking up their little sticks out of the mud and saying okay you wanna complain about our hard work we spent all of 5 minutes on then we will remove the old content and reduce rewards on the current content. See how you like that community! LOL
Meanwhile at their next big release they are looking at players logged in with anticipation and its just that one dude so they don't count him.
With the crafting system, is it possible for us to be able to actually choose the modifiers we want for the items we make, as well as the new modifiers we get when upgrading? I must've went through 2 dozen tries to get something I wanted on the modifiers before I got close to what I wanted.
I'm not sure what your metrics are telling you. I can tell you that Cure Space Advanced is currently one of the most often failed STFs in PUGs, and before Delta Rising, Cure Space Elite was one of the most often failed STFs in PUGs. Maybe, you need better metrics, because what you are saying does not accord with my experience. Possibly, Cure Space Advanced has a high completion rate in private matches; that I wouldn't know.
EDIT1: Can we get more information on what you are measuring and how the data was collected? Honestly, I'm looking at some of the changes and your reasons for them and left scratching my head.
EDIT2: You also seem to have a typo. "The Cure Applied" is the name of Cure Ground. The name of Cure Space is "The Cure Found".
Have a look through and please post feedback and questions in the linked thread.
~CaptainSmirk
Smirk, why exactly did you post a link to a post that says exactly what the patch notes already say like you were going to be telling us something new?
I can totally see closing some holes in the STFs that we run constantly, like the way you can just get to range 0 with the entity to avoid the boom, but reducing rewards doesn't seem right. I understand your metrics say we are running these particular missions too often, but we do that because the Advanced versions of all of the other STFs in a PuG results in a fail 75% or more of the time. I have yet to PuG most of them successfully, even 4 months in. You need to look at adjusting the difficulty of the Advanced queues so that semi-casual players (your typical PuGers) can complete them, not punish people for playing the few missions we CAN complete most often.
I thought that you weren't supposed to be able to fail out of Advanced queues via optionals, you just got fewer rewards at the end? If that's the case, why is The Cure on advanced ending the moment that a sphere touches a generator and the optional is lost, or as soon as a ship is destroyed in Borg Disconnected? This is what we were told was going to happen on Elite, not Advanced. It makes trying not worth the efforts and ruins any chance of getting the gear from reputations for semi-casual players who don't want to play with a pre-prepared guild group every time. That sort of thing is fine for elite queues, but it's drastically reducing the playable content for the rest of us.
I can live with the high hit points on ships (I don't even know what people are complaining about, honestly - I can kill ships on advanced with Mk XIV gear faster than I could kill standard enemies with Mk XII, and my tribble toon with Mk XII Elite gear can shred Elite ships with no effort - the balance seems pretty good to me.), but the fact that I can't play PuGs to get advanced loot is really killing the game for me - and I'm one of the players who is the first to defend most changes to the game. If there's nothing to do, I play less, that's the bottom line - and right now, for everyone who loved the balance of the game before DR, there's literally nothing to do that's worth doing.
As I did read through ALL the notes here, I will make two points.
1) Decreasing rewards in non-Delta STFs while making them harder, and increasing Delta STF rewards does not entice me to want to play ANY STFs more.
2) I appreciate that the DEVs are listening to "some" of what we are saying.
a) Simple Ship Transition opt-out
b) Reduced time/cost of R&D PADDs
c) Adding special items from classic Romulan Missions as options on the new ones
Agreed.
I am rather mind blown. I don't even see how this is remotely rational.
Decrease rewards, increase difficulty. It comes off as mean spirited. Especially for Queues that are essentially the classics of this game.
I admit it's going to be interesting when people find out that they can't hide at point blank range against the Entity, but the last time I ran it a couple of days ago, people were just shield tanking it without moving firing away while it charged up.
I don't like how the Crystalline Fragments won't be destroyed by the shockwave, that makes no sense. Hell neither does the fact that they go through our shields, when in the show, the entity itself bounced off the Enterprise's shields. What that particular mission needs though is an objective to do the graviton beam that Dr. Kila Marr used to one shot the entity. The Three piece bonus from the MACO set should do MASSIVE damage to that thing.
Back on topic, I'd play more Delta Quadrant content if there was more dilithium there, and more evenly spread out experience. Especially with the Command specialization the easy way to get people to play ALL DR content is to increase XP across the board and add dilithium. Simple.
Taking a knife to the other content is not the answer.
Thank you greatly for the PADD changes, adding the other mission rewards is smooth, and the simple ship transition gear swap feature opt out is perfect.
With the crafting system, is it possible for us to be able to actually choose the modifiers we want for the items we make, as well as the new modifiers we get when upgrading? I must've went through 2 dozen tries to get something I wanted on the modifiers before I got close to what I wanted.
No that's been slated as something that will maybe happen in the future.
"Rise like Lions after slumber, In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many they are few"
I honestly don't understand the reasoning behind dropping the rewards in older content.
From our point of view, it looks like we are being driven into one particular corner of the game at the expense of the rest. When a new Rep was added, the previous ones were not bashed like this in the past. Now all of a sudden Omega is going to be harder to get as well as Fleet Marks.
As of right now there is no specified reason for lowering the rewards. Can we please get an explanation for this? Are too many people running around with MACO sets or something?
I'm not trying to come across as anything other than genuinely curious.
I honestly don't understand the reasoning behind dropping the rewards in older content.
From our point of view, it looks like we are being driven into one particular corner of the game at the expense of the rest. When a new Rep was added, the previous ones were not bashed like this in the past. Now all of a sudden Omega is going to be harder to get as well as Fleet Marks.
As of right now there is no specified reason for lowering the rewards. Can we please get an explanation for this? Are too many people running around with MACO sets or something?
I'm not trying to come across as anything other than genuinely curious.
This is how I feel about it. The only reason Fleet Alert is so popular is because it isn't dependant on anything else other than DPS.
Fleet Blockade is fun, but success is measured by Freighters saved. Too many people who PUG the mission do not know or do not care. Thus, the people who know what to do there? They don't even bother queueing for it. They know how clueless the people are.
Starbase Incursion? First of all it's ground content so it's less likely to be played over all, regardless of what the mission actually consists of. I love ground combat, but I'm not going to pretend the equality between participation with ground and space is anywhere close to balanced.
Second of all, the payout for it is dismal enough as it is. The time spent in Starbase Incursion could be better spent getting better rewards elsewhere.
Fleet Alert is easy fleet marks. That's it. It requires little thought. Panders to the DPS meta. And has enough participants who similarly do not need to think or do much other than create a lot of big numbers.
Nerfing the payout for Fleet Alert is a short-sighted decision, in my opinion. It doesn't address why it's popular. It doesn't address why people feel like they're painted into a particular corner for meaningful rewards.
I've said this several times, and I feel obligated to say it again.
People want to make the most out of the limited playing time they have. If they want Fleet Marks, they will grind Fleet Alert. If they want Expertise/Skill Points they will grind Argala. If they want whatever reputation currency, they will pick the easiest mission that requires the least amount of thought and skill, and is populated by like-minded players who do not need to think or use skill and still have a reasonably high chance for success.
If you nerf the rewards without offering something in return, you encourage less participation.
People are already limited to joining 3 missions at a time. People who are casual will just pick the three most popular events there are.
If you want my constructive solution?
A: Remove the queue limit. Queue for as many missions as you want. This has the immediate short-term effect of making the queues look way more populated, which can bait other players into queueing for them since they actually see players in them and think it might actually pop for them.
B: Remove or reduce the timer between events. With more people able to queue for a mission they actually enjoy doing, this means it will pop more often.
C: Remove the timer entirely for failed events, but also remove any failure rewards entirely. This incentivizes people into doing the Advanced and Elite queues more often. I have little interest in doing Elite missions because the chance of failure is so high, but also because it puts me on a 30 minute cooldown regardless of whether I fail or succeed. I will make the smart gamble and simply get less reward for a higher likelihood of success from the PUG members in the queue.
Remove the timer if you fail, and more people will be willing to try it out and learn from their mistakes, instead of playing it safe. The 30 minute penalty is too harsh for people on limited time.
Just give us 4 super-buffed AI friendlies to let us solo queues content. I trust Cryptic's AI more than I trust some of these players I run into. At least AI has 0 chance of being an AFKer or Leecher. Similarly, just give us 16 AI NPCs for 20-man content.
E: Remove the timers for 20-man content entirely. This is pretty self-explanatory. One reason Mine Trap was so popular is because there was no cooldown for that mission. I thought that was intentional -- but it turns out it wasn't.
The odds of finding 19 other people at the same time willing to do a 20-man event is hard enough as it is. If someone just got finished with a 20-man, they may be willing to go at it again. But those 19 other people will have to wait 30 minutes. Incentivize 20-man events as being lucrative by removing their timers to allow more players the opportunity to participate.
F: Make queues as lucrative as Argala in terms of Skill Point and Expertise gain.
Tribble is being brought down for maintenance to update it to build ST.47.20150112a.6.
New Feature:
Foundry Top 3
The Foundry Top 3 System is a new way for players to access Foundry missions in sector space.
When at a point in Sector Space, up to 3 Foundry missions can be started from an interact, such as a system, if Foundry missions were created for that particular system.
Players will not see any missions not qualified for.
Missions that need review will also not be available.
Currently, only Foundry missions that start at an interact in Sector Space will be used in the Top 3 System, not missions which start on a ground map.
Resolved an issue where Bridge Officers would be missing slotted powers just after being created.
No Win Scenario is no longer available.
The Cure Applied:
Decreased IKS Kangs HP and Damage in Advanced mode.
Decreased mark rewards for meeting Normal optional objective from 25 to 15.
Changed the normal optional objective to completing the queue in 4 minutes.
Changes the Advanced required objective to completing the queue in 9 minutes.
Updated optional information contact to reflect these changes.
Crystalline Catastrophe:
Decreased base mark rewards on Normal from 40 to 30.
Decreased base mark rewards on Advanced from 70 to 60.
Increased fail mark rewards on Advanced from 5 to 10.
Decreased Advanced optional timer from 10.5 minutes to 5 minutes.
Decreased maximum allowed defeated players for Normal optional from 5 to 3.
Decreased maximum allowed defeated players for Advanced required from 5 to 3.
Crystalline Entity:
There is no longer a safe inner distance on the Entitys AOE shockwave.
The AOE shockwave no longer damages/destroys Crystalline Fragments large or small.
Colony Invasion: No longer gives rewards for mandatory mission objectives.
Fleet Alert:
Decreased mark rewards earned from waves 1 and 2 from 10 to 5.
Decreased mark rewards earned from wave 5 from 18 to 15.
Bug Hunt
Normal rewards have been increased by 25%
Advanced rewards have been increased by 50%.
Elite rewards have been increased by 75%.
Systems:
Concentrate Firepower:
Increased chance of free High Yield proc on Ranks I and II.
Added a buff icon when player receives a free High Yield mode.
Altered stacking behavior: Gaining a second free High Yield while the first is still active will now refresh the duration instead of being discarded.
Command Bridge Officer Powers:
"Call Emergency Artillery"
May no longer be used while Cloaked.
"Phalanx Formation"
May no longer be used while Cloaked, or in a Social Zone.
Phalanx Formation's Rings can no longer be targeted by hostile NPCs.
Phalanx Formation cannot be activated while Engines are offline, but will no longer be cancelled if your Engines are knocked offline after it is activated.
Reduced the time and Dilithium cost for making PADDs in the R&D Officer Training School.
Dilthium cost has been reduced to 200.
Creation time has been reduced to 30 minutes.
Resolved an AI issue with all versions of Palm Strike that was sometimes causing AI to use this power at long range, or when there was no valid target to hit with it.
Resolved an issue that was causing Crafted Space Shields to sometimes have Engine mods instead of Shield mods.
Combat Hyper-Impulse Engines can be upgraded.
Content:
Empress Sela
Updated the rewards to now include the Overcharged Plasma Sniper Rifle and Personal Covariant Shields as choices.
The Overcharged Plasma Sniper Rifle can be upgraded.
Personal Covariant Shields can be upgraded.
"Desperate Measures"
Updated the rewards to now include the Prototype Gravitic Modulation Impulse Engine as a choice.
The Prototype Gravitic Modulation Impulse Engine can be upgraded.
"Taris"
Updated the rewards to now include the Numiri Regenerative Shield Array as a choice.
The Numiri Regenerative Shield Array can be upgraded.
UI:
Added the option to shut off Simple Ship Transition.
This option is found under Options>Basic >Move equipped items to newly readied ships.
Bridge Officer Training Manuals now have search filters in the Exchange.
Known Issues:
New systems are currently a work in progress including:
Captain Specialization Tree: Command Officer
Bridge Officer Specialization: Command Officer
Bridge Officer Training Revamp
New Research and Development School: Officer Training
All 3 classes are available to craft.
VO in the new revamped Romulan episodes is not in its final state.
You are moving in the right direction regarding PADD's, more can be done. 50 dil and 15 min timers would be better. Thanks for listening.
I'd also like to upgrade the Romulan Disruptor Split Beam weapon also.
It sounds like STF difficulty will be increasing while rewards decrease. If this is the case I'm confused as this likely will push people not to play those STF's.
As the company has made it harder and harder to earn fleet marks in particular and other marks in general I have become a more casual player. I will grind out a reputation or an event but log in much less after it is over. When you had the hourlies I was a captive audience and was in game much more and more frequently than I am now. Bonus Weekends are just not enough incentive and if I am busy that weekend than too bad, I'm not going to overextend myself to log in to earn extra marks. More effort for less reward equals dispirited player who logs in less.
If that is the case then why did 1/3 of my fleet quit 3 days after launch and go play other games.
Cryptic needs to get it together as the numbers lie if you manipulate them. Many players hate the grind so you give us even more grind and even bigger dilithium sinks.
Delta Rising ====> Dilithium Rising
And they deny that players are leaving even if we've all noticed the sharp drop post DR.
There aren't instafail timers in most normal queues, and they're just as dead as advanced and elite. In fact, slightly more dead, since Crystalline Catastrophe only seems to run on elite anymore.
Why run a Normal queue, when the rewards are pitiful? THAT'S why Normal queues are mostly dead. Advanced/Elite queues being dead, are both reward-related (TRIBBLE poor rewards) as well as the instafail "optionals".
I agree they are trying to force us to play certain content. Well, I play what I want, when I want. I also want to know why a lot of players have it in the signature that delta rising is the most successful update ever and the players love it.
If that is the case then why did 1/3 of my fleet quit 3 days after launch and go play other games.
Cryptic needs to get it together as the numbers lie if you manipulate them. Many players hate the grind so you give us even more grind and even bigger dilithium sinks.
Delta Rising ====> Dilithium Rising
99% of those signitures you are inquiring about, are exceedingly sarcastic in nature.
As a very long term casual player, who used to play PUG SFT's fairly regularly until the post D.R. changes, when I dropped to playing them only occasionally because the team failed more often then not...,
These new changes only mean for me, that I won't even try them anymore.
I've also pretty much stopped specifically trying to gain any more Specialization Points for the new trees.
The best way to get points, is just too damn boring.
I guess I'll mostly be a DOffer from now on, at least till I get my current main toon to the top levels, then I'll probably move on to something else in another game.
BTW: I have absolutely NO INTEREST in acquiring the supposed Kobali Ship for the 5th year Anniversary.
Just like I had no interest in getting last years option.
I was a dedicated daily player of this game up to last years Anniversary.... things have certainly changed.
STO Member since February 2009. I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born! Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
And I wonder why my desire to play this game is rapidly diminishing. :rolleyes:
After all the money I've spent, videos I've made, and time spent making ship charts, I would consider myself a massive fan of this game for the last four and half years, but you are seriously pushing me away with some of your decisions of late.
From the viewpoint of a brand new player to the game there experience will be having to take longer to obtain the gear and experience they need while steadily being pushed to play the newer content they can't compete in.
Have a look through and please post feedback and questions in the linked thread.
~CaptainSmirk
With all due respect, that thread simply regurgitates what people said here. No new explanations. If the XP debacle is any indication, Cryptic's metrics tools are COMPLETELY broken or inaccurate.
And I wonder why my desire to play this game is rapidly diminishing. :rolleyes:
After all the money I've spent, videos I've made, and time spent making ship charts, I would consider myself a massive fan of this game for the last four and half years, but you are seriously pushing me away with some of your decisions of late.
I don't wonder at all...
I know exactly why I play less and it has nothing to do with my declining interest.
It has to do with Cryptics decisions over the last nine months which have made the game less desirable to play.
STO Member since February 2009. I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born! Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
As I did read through ALL the notes here, I will make two points.
1) Decreasing rewards in non-Delta STFs while making them harder, and increasing Delta STF rewards does not entice me to want to play ANY STFs more.
2) I appreciate that the DEVs are listening to "some" of what we are saying.
a) Simple Ship Transition opt-out
b) Reduced time/cost of R&D PADDs
c) Adding special items from classic Romulan Missions as options on the new ones
Agreed on all counts.
1) I haven't played STO in about 2-2.5 months because I'm just sick of the bloody tedium and bag-of-hitpoints meta, and queue nerfs are reinforcing my aversion to coming back.
2) This patch does contain some very welcome, very good things! ..... but I just can't be enthusiastic about them when it also contains a huge negative thing in the form of reward nerfs. And why on Earth is Bug Hunt getting a boost to rewards when it's impossible to fail even when PUGged on Elite? I can only conclude that it is to pad DR metrics.
Nitpicking is a time-honored tradition of science fiction. Asking your readers not to worry about the "little things" is like asking a dog not to sniff at people's crotches. If there's something that appears to violate natural laws, then you can expect someone's going to point it out. That's just the way things are.
Let it be known that Cryptic needs to rethink their strategy. Judging by all of the "feedback" (as you guys claim to welcome), it's backfiring even WORSE than the DR launch.
And I wonder why my desire to play this game is rapidly diminishing. :rolleyes:
After all the money I've spent, videos I've made, and time spent making ship charts, I would consider myself a massive fan of this game for the last four and half years, but you are seriously pushing me away with some of your decisions of late.
This should be a big red flag, devs. This guy has done some of the best, highest-quality promo work for your product imaginable. Losing people like this is a VERY bad sign.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Is that meaning sooner or later they will be 'getting' rid of the Fleet Marks and replacing it with a different system that is EVEN more stupid? Because this what it sounds like from those patch notes.. lol
It feels like this game has went off the deep end and drowned itself, how the Developers are still treating their players aka like trash. And make it take longer to get everything required, I only queue when I have a group, I stopped Queuing altogether.
Though I also do like that they are bringing back old mission rewards, decreasing the price of the PADDs for creation, that is a nice thing. But everything else really makes me want to 'stop' queuing altogether and I haven't even unlocked Bug Hunt, probably the only person here since I dislike ground combat, it is still ****.. Good lord, the other games are better in terms of that...
I can understand why companies nerf old content so the new content gets played, but usually people 'go' back to that content because it is nostalgic in terms of the STF content you are nerfing. >.>
The Rising of the Delta is the best expansion ever, and people love it to death because it is a good day to die in the endless struggle for supremacy of your own conviction. (A spin off of the Delta Rising is the best expansion ever and all the players love it.)
Systems:
Concentrate Firepower:
o Increased chance of free High Yield proc on Ranks I and II.
Thank you. I still think its to low but at least we can see it more then once every 5 activations now. Now I only see it once every 2 activations. Is the High yield boosted by tactical console? Does it interfere with other torpedo skills?
Any chance of the crafting bugs being fixed! Its not right being level 20 and unable to craft and upgrade our own tactical consoles.
I get the fealing that the owner of the company has said as long as their are players active playing the game that it would stay online, however it really looks like someone wants the game to completely fail. I say this because of every nerf and the sopposed server stability updates { You mean server crash guarantee within a day}. I get the company needs to make money , I really do, but the company being utterly greedy is something I cant understand. I spend money on the game but recently to upgrade or make a particular item is just insanely expensive. Now you show the intention to yet again nerf rewards and make the content even harder, this shows that they have a elitist mentality therebye proving they could care less about new players who could bring them income. They clearly are pushing this game to the failure edge and its a shame, I have played the game several years now and it seems its time to move on to another. This last statement is for the company, when I move on I will not be including you in my possibilties list of games, you have proven that you dont care and dont want my time or money. Games are supposed to be fun and rewarding or at least a feeling of accomplishment Shame on you for all the wrongs that you implement on your player base and the outright lie's about your que's. I certainly dont expect any turn around or real improvements, its all been add and take over the last year and truth is Im not impressed but disgusted with the recent quality of server stability. I will still play the game since i am a Star Trek fan but my wallet will remain closed{ not 1 penny will be spent on this game anymore from me}!
Decreased base mark rewards on Normal from 40 to 30.
Decreased base mark rewards on Advanced from 70 to 60.
Increased fail mark rewards on Advanced from 5 to 10.
Decreased Advanced optional timer from 10.5 minutes to 5 minutes.
Decreased maximum allowed defeated players for Normal optional from 5 to 3.
Decreased maximum allowed defeated players for Advanced required from 5 to 3.
At this point I only come here to laugh ... CC is one of 3 PVE Queue still popping, and they're nerfing it ... hilarious ... what's the ulimate Goal here ... :
One Queue to rule them all, One Queue to find them,
One Queue to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
PS : I'm in a conference call with Captain Obvious & Nostradamus right now, and they told me what's gonna happen to CC's playability ... the next dead Queue ...
Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
lately i dont play stfs much but after reading this, i will never play stfs again.
Keep going on like this and you guys will losing more and more players. I am already consider to quit playing STO. And i hope many people will follow if you guys keep going on with nerfing the game.
Comments
This is good. More of this.
This is good. More of this. Also, my ship occasionally removes all of my bridge officers slotted. So that would be nice to see fixed too.
This is bad. Less of this.
Payout nerfs are bad. Changes to mission objective information are good.
Less Mark payout nerfs, please. Everything else I have no real opinion on.
I have no idea what this even means, and I'm not even going to try to interpret it.
This is bad. Less of this.
This is good. More of this.
This is good. More of this.
This is good. More of this.
I am afraid, looking at this, that, sorry guys, but you keep on digging, and keep on digging and keep on scaring off casual players, and boring to death the veterans.
We don't want to do same queues over and over. We don't want popular queues getting nerfed, mostly because there won't be any queues to do at all after that.
I'm afraid Cryptic that you'll have to go again "We find this kind of insulting" like with the Potato Boff situation but now and then I don't have to give a damn what you find insulting.
You don't know your own game at all. That's the bottom line. You don't know who plays it, how they play it, you don't know how to balance abilities, ships and missions.
Your writers are worse than the average fanfic creator that goes to high school. You don't playtest things or take any feedback unless it's a massive backlash of frenzied players.
I know that, here sitting, I might as well be writing this to a wall.
I can say that, from a consumer standpoint, and I say, that you're utterly incompetent or lazy.
You want more people to leave? No matter what you say, on how queue display is wrong, which, from all we know, it's not - the game is emptying.
Fleets, empty and dying. Queues, apart from a few, empty.
You want to kill your game? State that! You want it to live - don't do stupid changes like that.
Kadir beneath Mo Moteh. Kiteo, his eyes closed. Chenza at court, the court of silence. Darmok on the ocean.
Shaka, when the walls fell.
"WHAT!!!!!!!?!?!?!?!" are my eyes really seeing this??? why you do this Cryptic... You've basically killed my fleet by doing this... that is all we run since DR went live...
This is a bad move...
Please explain if you are only removing "Normal" and keeping Advanced and Elite...
Or altogether removing all of the no win versions....
If so... you've killed my fleet...
Meanwhile at their next big release they are looking at players logged in with anticipation and its just that one dude so they don't count him.
My comment from the other thread:
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=21853511&postcount=68
Smirk, why exactly did you post a link to a post that says exactly what the patch notes already say like you were going to be telling us something new?
I can totally see closing some holes in the STFs that we run constantly, like the way you can just get to range 0 with the entity to avoid the boom, but reducing rewards doesn't seem right. I understand your metrics say we are running these particular missions too often, but we do that because the Advanced versions of all of the other STFs in a PuG results in a fail 75% or more of the time. I have yet to PuG most of them successfully, even 4 months in. You need to look at adjusting the difficulty of the Advanced queues so that semi-casual players (your typical PuGers) can complete them, not punish people for playing the few missions we CAN complete most often.
I thought that you weren't supposed to be able to fail out of Advanced queues via optionals, you just got fewer rewards at the end? If that's the case, why is The Cure on advanced ending the moment that a sphere touches a generator and the optional is lost, or as soon as a ship is destroyed in Borg Disconnected? This is what we were told was going to happen on Elite, not Advanced. It makes trying not worth the efforts and ruins any chance of getting the gear from reputations for semi-casual players who don't want to play with a pre-prepared guild group every time. That sort of thing is fine for elite queues, but it's drastically reducing the playable content for the rest of us.
I can live with the high hit points on ships (I don't even know what people are complaining about, honestly - I can kill ships on advanced with Mk XIV gear faster than I could kill standard enemies with Mk XII, and my tribble toon with Mk XII Elite gear can shred Elite ships with no effort - the balance seems pretty good to me.), but the fact that I can't play PuGs to get advanced loot is really killing the game for me - and I'm one of the players who is the first to defend most changes to the game. If there's nothing to do, I play less, that's the bottom line - and right now, for everyone who loved the balance of the game before DR, there's literally nothing to do that's worth doing.
Agreed.
I am rather mind blown. I don't even see how this is remotely rational.
Decrease rewards, increase difficulty. It comes off as mean spirited. Especially for Queues that are essentially the classics of this game.
I admit it's going to be interesting when people find out that they can't hide at point blank range against the Entity, but the last time I ran it a couple of days ago, people were just shield tanking it without moving firing away while it charged up.
I don't like how the Crystalline Fragments won't be destroyed by the shockwave, that makes no sense. Hell neither does the fact that they go through our shields, when in the show, the entity itself bounced off the Enterprise's shields. What that particular mission needs though is an objective to do the graviton beam that Dr. Kila Marr used to one shot the entity. The Three piece bonus from the MACO set should do MASSIVE damage to that thing.
Back on topic, I'd play more Delta Quadrant content if there was more dilithium there, and more evenly spread out experience. Especially with the Command specialization the easy way to get people to play ALL DR content is to increase XP across the board and add dilithium. Simple.
Taking a knife to the other content is not the answer.
Thank you greatly for the PADD changes, adding the other mission rewards is smooth, and the simple ship transition gear swap feature opt out is perfect.
No that's been slated as something that will maybe happen in the future.
From our point of view, it looks like we are being driven into one particular corner of the game at the expense of the rest. When a new Rep was added, the previous ones were not bashed like this in the past. Now all of a sudden Omega is going to be harder to get as well as Fleet Marks.
As of right now there is no specified reason for lowering the rewards. Can we please get an explanation for this? Are too many people running around with MACO sets or something?
I'm not trying to come across as anything other than genuinely curious.
This is how I feel about it. The only reason Fleet Alert is so popular is because it isn't dependant on anything else other than DPS.
Fleet Blockade is fun, but success is measured by Freighters saved. Too many people who PUG the mission do not know or do not care. Thus, the people who know what to do there? They don't even bother queueing for it. They know how clueless the people are.
Starbase Incursion? First of all it's ground content so it's less likely to be played over all, regardless of what the mission actually consists of. I love ground combat, but I'm not going to pretend the equality between participation with ground and space is anywhere close to balanced.
Second of all, the payout for it is dismal enough as it is. The time spent in Starbase Incursion could be better spent getting better rewards elsewhere.
Fleet Alert is easy fleet marks. That's it. It requires little thought. Panders to the DPS meta. And has enough participants who similarly do not need to think or do much other than create a lot of big numbers.
Nerfing the payout for Fleet Alert is a short-sighted decision, in my opinion. It doesn't address why it's popular. It doesn't address why people feel like they're painted into a particular corner for meaningful rewards.
I've said this several times, and I feel obligated to say it again.
People want to make the most out of the limited playing time they have. If they want Fleet Marks, they will grind Fleet Alert. If they want Expertise/Skill Points they will grind Argala. If they want whatever reputation currency, they will pick the easiest mission that requires the least amount of thought and skill, and is populated by like-minded players who do not need to think or use skill and still have a reasonably high chance for success.
If you nerf the rewards without offering something in return, you encourage less participation.
People are already limited to joining 3 missions at a time. People who are casual will just pick the three most popular events there are.
If you want my constructive solution?
A: Remove the queue limit. Queue for as many missions as you want. This has the immediate short-term effect of making the queues look way more populated, which can bait other players into queueing for them since they actually see players in them and think it might actually pop for them.
B: Remove or reduce the timer between events. With more people able to queue for a mission they actually enjoy doing, this means it will pop more often.
C: Remove the timer entirely for failed events, but also remove any failure rewards entirely. This incentivizes people into doing the Advanced and Elite queues more often. I have little interest in doing Elite missions because the chance of failure is so high, but also because it puts me on a 30 minute cooldown regardless of whether I fail or succeed. I will make the smart gamble and simply get less reward for a higher likelihood of success from the PUG members in the queue.
Remove the timer if you fail, and more people will be willing to try it out and learn from their mistakes, instead of playing it safe. The 30 minute penalty is too harsh for people on limited time.
E: Remove the timers for 20-man content entirely. This is pretty self-explanatory. One reason Mine Trap was so popular is because there was no cooldown for that mission. I thought that was intentional -- but it turns out it wasn't.
The odds of finding 19 other people at the same time willing to do a 20-man event is hard enough as it is. If someone just got finished with a 20-man, they may be willing to go at it again. But those 19 other people will have to wait 30 minutes. Incentivize 20-man events as being lucrative by removing their timers to allow more players the opportunity to participate.
F: Make queues as lucrative as Argala in terms of Skill Point and Expertise gain.
You are moving in the right direction regarding PADD's, more can be done. 50 dil and 15 min timers would be better. Thanks for listening.
I'd also like to upgrade the Romulan Disruptor Split Beam weapon also.
It sounds like STF difficulty will be increasing while rewards decrease. If this is the case I'm confused as this likely will push people not to play those STF's.
As the company has made it harder and harder to earn fleet marks in particular and other marks in general I have become a more casual player. I will grind out a reputation or an event but log in much less after it is over. When you had the hourlies I was a captive audience and was in game much more and more frequently than I am now. Bonus Weekends are just not enough incentive and if I am busy that weekend than too bad, I'm not going to overextend myself to log in to earn extra marks. More effort for less reward equals dispirited player who logs in less.
Thanks for reading and considering this.
And they deny that players are leaving even if we've all noticed the sharp drop post DR.
Why run a Normal queue, when the rewards are pitiful? THAT'S why Normal queues are mostly dead. Advanced/Elite queues being dead, are both reward-related (TRIBBLE poor rewards) as well as the instafail "optionals".
99% of those signitures you are inquiring about, are exceedingly sarcastic in nature.
As a very long term casual player, who used to play PUG SFT's fairly regularly until the post D.R. changes, when I dropped to playing them only occasionally because the team failed more often then not...,
These new changes only mean for me, that I won't even try them anymore.
I've also pretty much stopped specifically trying to gain any more Specialization Points for the new trees.
The best way to get points, is just too damn boring.
I guess I'll mostly be a DOffer from now on, at least till I get my current main toon to the top levels, then I'll probably move on to something else in another game.
BTW: I have absolutely NO INTEREST in acquiring the supposed Kobali Ship for the 5th year Anniversary.
Just like I had no interest in getting last years option.
I was a dedicated daily player of this game up to last years Anniversary.... things have certainly changed.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
After all the money I've spent, videos I've made, and time spent making ship charts, I would consider myself a massive fan of this game for the last four and half years, but you are seriously pushing me away with some of your decisions of late.
With all due respect, that thread simply regurgitates what people said here. No new explanations. If the XP debacle is any indication, Cryptic's metrics tools are COMPLETELY broken or inaccurate.
I don't wonder at all...
I know exactly why I play less and it has nothing to do with my declining interest.
It has to do with Cryptics decisions over the last nine months which have made the game less desirable to play.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
Agreed on all counts.
1) I haven't played STO in about 2-2.5 months because I'm just sick of the bloody tedium and bag-of-hitpoints meta, and queue nerfs are reinforcing my aversion to coming back.
2) This patch does contain some very welcome, very good things! ..... but I just can't be enthusiastic about them when it also contains a huge negative thing in the form of reward nerfs. And why on Earth is Bug Hunt getting a boost to rewards when it's impossible to fail even when PUGged on Elite? I can only conclude that it is to pad DR metrics.
Joined January 2009
This should be a big red flag, devs.
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It feels like this game has went off the deep end and drowned itself, how the Developers are still treating their players aka like trash. And make it take longer to get everything required, I only queue when I have a group, I stopped Queuing altogether.
Though I also do like that they are bringing back old mission rewards, decreasing the price of the PADDs for creation, that is a nice thing. But everything else really makes me want to 'stop' queuing altogether and I haven't even unlocked Bug Hunt, probably the only person here since I dislike ground combat, it is still ****.. Good lord, the other games are better in terms of that...
I can understand why companies nerf old content so the new content gets played, but usually people 'go' back to that content because it is nostalgic in terms of the STF content you are nerfing. >.>
Concentrate Firepower:
o Increased chance of free High Yield proc on Ranks I and II.
Thank you. I still think its to low but at least we can see it more then once every 5 activations now. Now I only see it once every 2 activations. Is the High yield boosted by tactical console? Does it interfere with other torpedo skills?
Any chance of the crafting bugs being fixed! Its not right being level 20 and unable to craft and upgrade our own tactical consoles.
At this point I only come here to laugh ... CC is one of 3 PVE Queue still popping, and they're nerfing it ... hilarious ... what's the ulimate Goal here ... :
One Queue to rule them all, One Queue to find them,
One Queue to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
PS : I'm in a conference call with Captain Obvious & Nostradamus right now, and they told me what's gonna happen to CC's playability ... the next dead Queue ...
Keep going on like this and you guys will losing more and more players. I am already consider to quit playing STO. And i hope many people will follow if you guys keep going on with nerfing the game.