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A few thoughts on the "long-term" system.
razar2380
Member Posts: 1,185 Arc User
I know that the Developers that make the final decisions want players to play long-term, and they wanted to make a system to encourage it. However, there are a few flaws in their long-term plan.
Personally, I loved the idea of getting a level cap increase from 50-60, till I saw how much of a grind it was. It took so long between missions, it was discouraging for many. One of the flaws they made was combining the Captain's Specialization (CS) system, and leveling.
See, they (the developers in charge) wanted the CS to be long-term, and not have players burn through it quickly. At least that is what they said. However, by making it part of the leveling system, and not a reward system, it is now a focus for players.
Not to mention that they lock the use of gear originally behind it, so that players were focused on leveling it quickly so they could use the gear. Then, this new one came out, and they lock some of the Boff skills behind it, that can be used on the ship they are letting players grind for at the same time.
By locking access to gear, and Boff skills behind the CS system, it no longer makes it a "long-term" system, because players (obviously I am not speaking for every single player, but a lot) will be wanting to focus on them.
Also, if they had made the progression from level 50-60 at the normal progression we had from 1-50, then it would have made the episodes, including the patrol missions in the episode arc, more enjoyable. And will also give players a chance to enjoy all the work done with the art, and stories for them.
A much better way to have implemented it would have been to let us level normally (as mentioned above), but keep the CS points out of it till level 60. Then, when you reach level 60, you start working on the CS points. However, they will take twice as long to get each one as it takes to gain 1 level. It will keep that pace for the first 15 points, then it will increase by an additional 1/4 xp needed. Then, another 10 points later, another 1/4 xp cost increase.
To help this, the xp should be spread evenly across the endgame content. For example, if on normal difficulty you can finish the Argala patrol and get 5,000 xp in 4 mins, then any normal STF/PVE queue should give the same xp if it has a 4 min timer on it, and is completed.
The same should be done for advanced and elite. The time it takes to complete them should be scaled up to fit the difficulty of the mission. The same goes for the other rewards also.
By doing this, it would have encouraged gameplay across the endgame content, and not focus players to a single patrol. A long term plan is a good idea so that players don't leave because there is nothing to do.
However, if you lock things behind what is suppose to be "long-term" and then expect players NOT to try to get it fast to unlock it, it makes no sense. That would be like sitting a million dollars at the end of a mile, and telling someone that you want it to take them one year to get it, and if they get it sooner, no big deal. Honestly, no one is going to take a year to go that one mile.
Same here. You lock Boff skills behind a CS system, you can't expect every player to want to take months to get it when they can get the ship that uses those skills in a few weeks to a month tops.
Also, by reducing the extreme cost of leveling up to 60, and by making xp available at all other endgame content besides just patrols, it will also have the affect of players playing more than one patrol repeatedly.
It is not too late to turn the long-term CS system into a long-term system. It just takes a little tweaking. But, if done correctly, it can turn the DR expansion around into a success with players, not just numbers that don't tell the true story.
These are just a few thoughts I had on things.
Personally, I loved the idea of getting a level cap increase from 50-60, till I saw how much of a grind it was. It took so long between missions, it was discouraging for many. One of the flaws they made was combining the Captain's Specialization (CS) system, and leveling.
See, they (the developers in charge) wanted the CS to be long-term, and not have players burn through it quickly. At least that is what they said. However, by making it part of the leveling system, and not a reward system, it is now a focus for players.
Not to mention that they lock the use of gear originally behind it, so that players were focused on leveling it quickly so they could use the gear. Then, this new one came out, and they lock some of the Boff skills behind it, that can be used on the ship they are letting players grind for at the same time.
By locking access to gear, and Boff skills behind the CS system, it no longer makes it a "long-term" system, because players (obviously I am not speaking for every single player, but a lot) will be wanting to focus on them.
Also, if they had made the progression from level 50-60 at the normal progression we had from 1-50, then it would have made the episodes, including the patrol missions in the episode arc, more enjoyable. And will also give players a chance to enjoy all the work done with the art, and stories for them.
A much better way to have implemented it would have been to let us level normally (as mentioned above), but keep the CS points out of it till level 60. Then, when you reach level 60, you start working on the CS points. However, they will take twice as long to get each one as it takes to gain 1 level. It will keep that pace for the first 15 points, then it will increase by an additional 1/4 xp needed. Then, another 10 points later, another 1/4 xp cost increase.
To help this, the xp should be spread evenly across the endgame content. For example, if on normal difficulty you can finish the Argala patrol and get 5,000 xp in 4 mins, then any normal STF/PVE queue should give the same xp if it has a 4 min timer on it, and is completed.
The same should be done for advanced and elite. The time it takes to complete them should be scaled up to fit the difficulty of the mission. The same goes for the other rewards also.
By doing this, it would have encouraged gameplay across the endgame content, and not focus players to a single patrol. A long term plan is a good idea so that players don't leave because there is nothing to do.
However, if you lock things behind what is suppose to be "long-term" and then expect players NOT to try to get it fast to unlock it, it makes no sense. That would be like sitting a million dollars at the end of a mile, and telling someone that you want it to take them one year to get it, and if they get it sooner, no big deal. Honestly, no one is going to take a year to go that one mile.
Same here. You lock Boff skills behind a CS system, you can't expect every player to want to take months to get it when they can get the ship that uses those skills in a few weeks to a month tops.
Also, by reducing the extreme cost of leveling up to 60, and by making xp available at all other endgame content besides just patrols, it will also have the affect of players playing more than one patrol repeatedly.
It is not too late to turn the long-term CS system into a long-term system. It just takes a little tweaking. But, if done correctly, it can turn the DR expansion around into a success with players, not just numbers that don't tell the true story.
These are just a few thoughts I had on things.
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Post edited by razar2380 on
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In games i play, examples are:
Diablo 3 with Paragon Lvels
Guild Wars 2 with their new Mastery System
Elder Scrolls Online with the upcoming Champion System.
Easiest way for Cryptic to do this is to make a single specialisation tree toon based to cover the 50-60 range and then open the others as account based progressions.
Still waiting to be able to use forum titles
Though it would be a good fix for short-term, I was thinking more long term. For example, if a CS points only took about twice as long for any character to get, then it wouldn't be much problem running multiple characters, as well as the first.
They did the sponsorship tokens for the rep system, and that was a fix for short-term. After that, it only took about 1 1/2 months for anyone with multiple characters to have all of them to T5, if they played more than 1 hour a day.
However, by reducing the time it takes to earn each point, it will encourage multiple characters to be played, and will not hurt anything. It will actual help. Plus, making the xp even through all the end game content based on difficulty, and how long it takes to play.
If they still make it take an extremely long amount of time to complete a single character's CS systems, then there will still be a lot of players that will not be able to complete it. I know of at least 30 players that will most likely never finish filling up the first three sections that were in it when it came out. And that is because they are casual players. For that reason, many of them stopped playing to play games that reward based off of the time and effort in the game.
By separating the CS system from leveling to begin with, it will make the CS system separate from the leveling system. And, by making characters level at the same pace as the did for levels 1-50, it will help with story progression. Also, since this would put the CS points after level 60, they can then make it take twice as long starting out, and will make it more of a long-term system for single characters that cannot got on long, and for ones with multiple characters.
All of this by simply tweaking what is already in place, and not creating a whole new part of the game.
Even if they were to let players share their progress through the CS systems, it will still take extreme amounts of xp just to get to level 60 (which in itself has turned a lot of new, and existing players away), unless they fix it. I have 13 characters, and was looking forward to running each of them to level 60, and experiencing the new episodes with DR.
Instead, I was hit with a ridiculous grind, that made me instead make a main character, and just use the others for Dil grinding if I ever need it. My main is the only one that I run the episodes, and patrol episodes on. I don't waste time with the others, because it isn't worth the time for the little rewards given in it.
Again, this is just my thoughts on how to use what is already there for a long-term solution. We still have no idea what they have in mind, or even if it will be thought out.