I can't wait until we hear about additional XP rewards, outside of limited time events. I've really enjoyed this week with the 2.5X XP, but that's because at level cap this actually feels like a good rate of reward for time spent playing. The normal rate is so appallingly low that it really does put you off. Not one of my 'casual' player friends are still around since a couple of weeks after Delta Rising landed. They all got bored of spending hours grinding patrol missions and not even gaining one spec point.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
Don't mean to burst your bubble, but I don't like ARGALA GRINDING ONLINE. I do Argala patrols because it is efficient.
No bubbles have been burst.
The suggestion I gave is simple. You don't like Argala grinding, then don't. But for those that liked it, they didn't need to nerf it.
They could have still put the xp into the other queues, and left Argala alone, instead of time-gating it to slow down progression. And the content that they wanted players playing, they just added in xp bonuses for doing it.
They have been doing things like this before. They want players to play something, they either give it a temporary bonus, or they add in a bonus that was permanent. The difference here is that they nerfed xp progression again, before adding some rewards to content they wanted players doing.
They have a system (CapSpec) that is setup like a short-term system, but they are trying to make it long-term. Doesn't matter how long they drag out level progression, if you put short-term goals in a system, it is no longer a long-term system. It is just a short-term system that they are dragging out a ridiculous amount of time. And that is why nerfing xp progression is hurting the game.
Leader of Elite Guardian Academy.Would you like to learn how to run a fleet? Would you like to know how to do ship builds (true budget as well as high end)?The join the Academy today!
And my lord or master said unto me, "Ye, Go! Yon Forest has but 50 trees. Fell them All, as Winter is coming and we will need that wood for Our Fires."
And said I, "How much gold will thou give me, my lord and master, for felling 50 trees?"
"One Gold for Each Tree."
And so, I, being the Chief Feller of Trees, dids't go out to yon 50 Tree Forest. And there, I did the work commanded me, by my lord and master. And so he sent out slaves who did collect all the wood and returned as raw timber to the castle.
And so, when all the wood had been burned up, the lord of the manor called for me again. It was a long winter, and the slightest breeze would cause his old bones to shake uncontrollably. The lord was a man of his word. And so, when he tasked me with felling more lumber, I went out to the 100 Tree Forest and there did fell every single tree. And so the slaves then came and gathered the raw lumber and they did hike it up to the castle, without leaving so much as a splinter.
And then dids't I, the Chief Tree Feller, go in to yon castle, to seek payment from my lord and master for the felling of the 100 Tree Forest.
"Ah!" said our lord. "Ye Chief Tree Feller, thous't dids't a splendid job to keep up the supply of wood burning lumber."
"Now though, our bargain must be changed. I can only give ye 10 Silvers for Each Tree."
"Double You, Thi Ef!" dids't I shout with much alarm to my lord and master. He then looked to me, and did say, "Aye, Feller, I did look with yon Chief Wizard of the Abacus. He then dids't show unto me the value in all the wood of the land, and so now, every tree ye bring to me will fetch thee 10 silver pieces."
"A hark and a boon!" said I. "How now, shall double the work only fetch half the pay, as one tree was one gold, but now, only half in silver?"
"It is the law of Intercourse by way of trade and traffic between ye and me."
"To flames with what you say!" I shouted. "Who I lay with is mine choice, not thine!"
"Oh, sweet Feller, but not. When I lay mine self with thee, it is I who doth penetrate, and ye who doth recieve."
"A curse upon you!"
"A curse upon me, is a curse upon you, Feller. As what issueth from me, now and always will go unto you. So, you may take the silver, and my issue. Or take my issue without pay, it is only up to you."
And then, so did I look hard and long at my task master. And thoughts of what I might find outside this kingdom did cross many times my thoughts did wander and wonder at what I should do. Would I remain in the service of this lord? Or another?
I, finding no middle ground, did then say, finally, "Aye. The Devil I know is better than the Devil I do not."
And so I returned to my own domain, with the silver for the hundred trees and the knowledge of what the future might hold here, in the Kingdom of Nod.
Cryptic aren't interested in whether we enjoy the content only thing they are interested in is getting players to open up their wallets.
Cryptic lost that battle with me. When DR hit I wanted intel ships at the fleet level. That didn't happen till Season 10. The time they took lollygagging with command ships let me save up zen to get all the ship modules I needed to buy fleet T6 ships with no zen purchases.
With the lack of XP I can't train my bridge crews in to getting intel abilities much less command abilities yet. So no point in really buying the new command ships since my characters can't really use them properly. By the time I get enough XP to finish leveling intel, piloting, and command I'll have more then enough zen to buy the ships I want without spending a single dollar.
idk if any dev still reads this thread if do can u pls improve exp rewards of delta episodes and reduce amount of skill points we need for one specialization point
Eurgh, so that spiel about rewarding based on time/effort it takes was a load of rubbish then yeah? Now because people are preferring the 720 reward, you're just going to nerf it...
Cryptic logic:
People play this because it rewards more for their time and effort so they must enjoy that more... Let's lower it's rewards and force them to grind more in other places so they can have no fun whatsoever.
You guys need to get a serious grip of how much you're destroying the fun of end game. The XP grind is beyond a joke.
This is one of the most ridiculous things I have seen a Career Officer post. Dude, STO might be free to play, the Cryptic isn't in BUSINESS by charity, this is not a non-profit. While everyone would love to get 720 Dili for their missions, this would very quickly cut into profits.
Now let's talk about the REAL state of the game for a second...Russia's gov't decided to invade Crimea and the Ukraine to force expansion of their territory. The political result was the condemnation by the UN, U.S., E.U. etcetera. That condemnation included sanctions against the country. Those sanctions meant that Apple can't sell iPhones there anymore. Ford can't sell cars there anymore...you seeing where this is going? Perfect World/Cryptic lost the Russian market literally overnight (good indication of why PWE posted a loss of 50% profit revenue over the last 4 quarters) and the loss revenue isn't being made up for by the rest of us...so they literally massacred the dev teams cutting about 18 developers off the payroll (aka layoffs) and Neverwinter and STO's teams took a hit (as if we could even afford to lose more devs)
Now I'll admit that even I lost my cool with this missing items fiasco...that shouldn't have happened but it did...and it's still not been 100% fixed properly. But I digress, even with all that going on, I continued to spend money...a SIGNIFICANT amount of money (more than double the cost of s lifetime membership) just this month...and I already have the best ships in game based on each on of my toons factions and professions.
Is Cryptic perfect? Of course not. They make mistakes and probably should listen to us more when the Career Officers speak up about ideas or things that are broken and how they affect game play...but the point is, while they have made mistakes, the community continues to make a huge mistake...the less we spend, the more cuts are gonna happen. The more they cut, the fewer bugs will get sorted out, less content or FE's or anything else will arrive and eventually everyone will get tired of this and quit and STO will **** down.
My point to all of this is, there is a delicate balance between them being able to keep a profit and not handing the keys to the farm to everyone, while still making the rewards enticing enough to get players back here and keep them. So no, they can't give 720 Dili per run, I'm shocked they even doing this to be honest. Be grateful they are still trying and haven't thrown their hands up and say "we give up, let's just put this in limbo and move on to other projects. This community is too toxic, they'll never be happy unless with five them everything for free."
We need players and we need them to spend money. That's why we're seeing T6 and Fleet T6 iconic 'canon' ships...believe it or not they ARE trying to keep this going. Obviously a lot of mistakes were made, game went off in some crazy direction nobody liked, it cost us all A LOT of players, and they're doing whatever they can to bring them back AND get the money flowing back in before something really stupid happens like what happened with CoH/CoV. Which I guaruntee you is also why we saw a massive turn over with the dev team...the exec was pulled off and they brought in outsise talent, devs from other projects were moved onto STO and some of the old STO devs got re-assigned to other projects...so we have a new team trying to set things right and get back on track.
So let's not ***** about what we're not getting and focus on what you are getting...
This is one of the most ridiculous things I have seen a Career Officer post. Dude, STO might be free to play, the Cryptic isn't in BUSINESS by charity, this is not a non-profit. While everyone would love to get 720 Dili for their missions, this would very quickly cut into profits.
Now let's talk about the REAL state of the game for a second...Russia's gov't decided to invade Crimea and the Ukraine to force expansion of their territory. The political result was the condemnation by the UN, U.S., E.U. etcetera. That condemnation included sanctions against the country. Those sanctions meant that Apple can't sell iPhones there anymore. Ford can't sell cars there anymore...you seeing where this is going? Perfect World/Cryptic lost the Russian market literally overnight (good indication of why PWE posted a loss of 50% profit revenue over the last 4 quarters) and the loss revenue isn't being made up for by the rest of us...so they literally massacred the dev teams cutting about 18 developers off the payroll (aka layoffs) and Neverwinter and STO's teams took a hit (as if we could even afford to lose more devs)
Now I'll admit that even I lost my cool with this missing items fiasco...that shouldn't have happened but it did...and it's still not been 100% fixed properly. But I digress, even with all that going on, I continued to spend money...a SIGNIFICANT amount of money (more than double the cost of s lifetime membership) just this month...and I already have the best ships in game based on each on of my toons factions and professions.
Is Cryptic perfect? Of course not. They make mistakes and probably should listen to us more when the Career Officers speak up about ideas or things that are broken and how they affect game play...but the point is, while they have made mistakes, the community continues to make a huge mistake...the less we spend, the more cuts are gonna happen. The more they cut, the fewer bugs will get sorted out, less content or FE's or anything else will arrive and eventually everyone will get tired of this and quit and STO will **** down.
My point to all of this is, there is a delicate balance between them being able to keep a profit and not handing the keys to the farm to everyone, while still making the rewards enticing enough to get players back here and keep them. So no, they can't give 720 Dili per run, I'm shocked they even doing this to be honest. Be grateful they are still trying and haven't thrown their hands up and say "we give up, let's just put this in limbo and move on to other projects. This community is too toxic, they'll never be happy unless with five them everything for free."
We need players and we need them to spend money. That's why we're seeing T6 and Fleet T6 iconic 'canon' ships...believe it or not they ARE trying to keep this going. Obviously a lot of mistakes were made, game went off in some crazy direction nobody liked, it cost us all A LOT of players, and they're doing whatever they can to bring them back AND get the money flowing back in before something really stupid happens like what happened with CoH/CoV. Which I guaruntee you is also why we saw a massive turn over with the dev team...the exec was pulled off and they brought in outsise talent, devs from other projects were moved onto STO and some of the old STO devs got re-assigned to other projects...so we have a new team trying to set things right and get back on track.
So let's not ***** about what we're not getting and focus on what you are getting...
Wow, you managed to completely miss the point and context of my post. Well done!
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
Adventure/Battle Zones: Borg Neural Processors have been added as a once per day reward to the following missions on the Defera Invasion Zone: Modus Operandi, Getting to the Bottom of Things, Uninvited Guests, Counter Offensive
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Mission:_City:_Modus_Operandi Modus Operandi does NOT give a borg neural processor once per day. I just completed it twice on Defera Invasion Zone and didn't get any. The other 3 missions listed for getting BNPs on Defera are all HARD missions that can't be soloed. :mad:
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Mission:_City:_Modus_Operandi Modus Operandi does NOT give a borg neural processor once per day. I just completed it twice on Defera Invasion Zone and didn't get any. The other 3 missions listed for getting BNPs on Defera are all HARD missions that can't be soloed. :mad:
We pointed out that mistake the day the changes went live. It's actually all four hard missions which reward BNPs. They never updated the post to correct the mission name though.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
And my lord or master said unto me, "Ye, Go! Yon Forest has but 50 trees. Fell them All, as Winter is coming and we will need that wood for Our Fires."
And said I, "How much gold will thou give me, my lord and master, for felling 50 trees?"
"One Gold for Each Tree."
And so, I, being the Chief Feller of Trees, dids't go out to yon 50 Tree Forest. And there, I did the work commanded me, by my lord and master. And so he sent out slaves who did collect all the wood and returned as raw timber to the castle.
And so, when all the wood had been burned up, the lord of the manor called for me again. It was a long winter, and the slightest breeze would cause his old bones to shake uncontrollably. The lord was a man of his word. And so, when he tasked me with felling more lumber, I went out to the 100 Tree Forest and there did fell every single tree. And so the slaves then came and gathered the raw lumber and they did hike it up to the castle, without leaving so much as a splinter.
And then dids't I, the Chief Tree Feller, go in to yon castle, to seek payment from my lord and master for the felling of the 100 Tree Forest.
"Ah!" said our lord. "Ye Chief Tree Feller, thous't dids't a splendid job to keep up the supply of wood burning lumber."
"Now though, our bargain must be changed. I can only give ye 10 Silvers for Each Tree."
"Double You, Thi Ef!" dids't I shout with much alarm to my lord and master. He then looked to me, and did say, "Aye, Feller, I did look with yon Chief Wizard of the Abacus. He then dids't show unto me the value in all the wood of the land, and so now, every tree ye bring to me will fetch thee 10 silver pieces."
"A hark and a boon!" said I. "How now, shall double the work only fetch half the pay, as one tree was one gold, but now, only half in silver?"
"It is the law of Intercourse by way of trade and traffic between ye and me."
"To flames with what you say!" I shouted. "Who I lay with is mine choice, not thine!"
"Oh, sweet Feller, but not. When I lay mine self with thee, it is I who doth penetrate, and ye who doth recieve."
"A curse upon you!"
"A curse upon me, is a curse upon you, Feller. As what issueth from me, now and always will go unto you. So, you may take the silver, and my issue. Or take my issue without pay, it is only up to you."
And then, so did I look hard and long at my task master. And thoughts of what I might find outside this kingdom did cross many times my thoughts did wander and wonder at what I should do. Would I remain in the service of this lord? Or another?
I, finding no middle ground, did then say, finally, "Aye. The Devil I know is better than the Devil I do not."
And so I returned to my own domain, with the silver for the hundred trees and the knowledge of what the future might hold here, in the Kingdom of Nod.
I'd be double dating the Ladies of the Forest with my twin brother Kestrel, who I never leaf behind.
After all..., two birds in the bush, is worth more than one in your hand.
:cool:
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
Wow, you managed to completely miss the point and context of my post. Well done!
hear hear !!
There are apologist on these forums for everything Creeps do, as in game, just try to engage in discussion direction the game is going, you'll get **** storm going your way by few probably paid trolls to undermine any improvements to the game.
What Creeps have managed to do is scare away so many old players that this game might not last beyond 2016, if it does beyond 2016 I'd be mightily surprised. I am looking at my friends list of everyone who is playing half haven't returned since season 10 was launched and those who did return only play sporadically.
I loved when game was done by Perpetual and Atari hate every moment of Cryptic control over this game, knew this game would be ruined for development team behind this game is there to make game thoroughly unplayable and as miserable as this possibly can be. I guess they deserve their name sake, Cryptic for they're Creeps.
Reason why i'll never buy anything from Zen store or pay for a monthly subscription again, I'd advise same to all, don't waste your money, save it for a game that deserves your money, this game certainly doesn't.
First-play rewards for repeatable Delta Rising missions have been improved from Mk XIII Rare rewards to Mk XIII Very Rare rewards. Replay rewards for those missions remain as Mk XII Rare rewards.
While I appreciate changes to improve the game, this one leaves a bad taste in my mouth because those of us who leveled before this change are stuck with a lesser quality version and are unable to replay for the upgraded version. Instead, why not give those Mk XIII rewards the CRM 200 treatment? As in, flag each one as unique, so you can ever only own one at a time. Then, it can be earned on replays as well as the initial playthrough.
Currently, if I accidentally discard my Fluidic Antiproton Assault Dense Beam Rifle (or any other special Mk XIII DR mission reward), I can never obtain another one. For consistency with other "special" mission rewards like the CRM 200, a replay should allow me to get another one.
Also, not sure if it's been changed, but last I saw, the Mk XIII rewards for progressing through Kobali Prime are still blue quality. Intentional or overlooked?
Star Trek: Online's competition is speeding up leveling, boosting rewards, releasing both pvp and story based content, and phasing out grinding; thus, Cryptic is becoming the only subscriber/f2p company to fall behind. As a result of seeing the writing on the wall, Cryptic's competitors, SWTOR and ESO, are giving players what they want. Heck, the competition is also allowing players to instantly hit level 60. It's all about endgame roleplaying (story content) and open world pvp.
Players warned Cryptic along time ago.
I personally think that many of these rewards are too little-too late.
Why grind twice as hard, leveling from 55 to 60, when you could be enjoying your endgame content in less the time? I would rather spend time and money on story content.
Again, I don't mind paying for content.
What I am buying just has to make sense.
Timegates, heavy grinding, little leveling progress, and tiny rewards are the hallmarks of a bad f2p model. Players don't want to be pinched.
While these reward boosts are welcome, the reality is that they are not enough.
The game under Atari was awful. The suits at Atari did not understand what a MMO is and barely gave the game any budget.
Personally, I just came back to the game during the Delta Recruit event and I love it. It allowed me to outfit myself properly and breach some of the gap. Even without it, I find level to 50 to be too fast, I can barely enjoy each tier's ship!
At launch, I had bought 3 copies for the pre-order bonuses and then barely played the game because of how much I didn't like it. Then they gave the pre-order bonuses for cheap 5 months later. I tried playing during Feature Episodes (my level 31 captain has Breen, Reman and Jem'hadar bridge officers) but didn't get hooked. Legacy of Romulus, same, but I did have other things on my mind.
Now I'm back and I love it all. Of course, I'm not that far into the end game but, from my point of view, I still don't get the doom and gloom posts. I do agree there's lots of improvements to be made but the game isn't even close to being gone.
check out asterelles plug in in my signature - it allows you to pick from an ever growing set of themes for the forum - including a rather pleasant light theme and a few trek specific ones
Adventure/Battle Zones: Borg Neural Processors have been added as a once per day reward to the following missions on the Defera Invasion Zone: Modus Operandi, Getting to the Bottom of Things, Uninvited Guests, Counter Offensive
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Mission:_City:_Modus_Operandi Modus Operandi does NOT give a borg neural processor once per day. I just completed it twice on Defera Invasion Zone and didn't get any. The other 3 missions listed for getting BNPs on Defera are all HARD missions that can't be soloed. :mad:
This. I need BNPs to get the rep gear for the space set (BTW they upped the requirements from 3 to 5) I did modus and nothing. then i realized i might need to be on Elite. ran it a few hours later and still no BNP
Adventure/Battle Zones: Borg Neural Processors have been added as a once per day reward to the following missions on the Defera Invasion Zone: Modus Operandi, Getting to the Bottom of Things, Uninvited Guests, Counter Offensive
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Mission:_City:_Modus_Operandi Modus Operandi does NOT give a borg neural processor once per day. I just completed it twice on Defera Invasion Zone and didn't get any. The other 3 missions listed for getting BNPs on Defera are all HARD missions that can't be soloed. :mad:
This. I need BNPs to get the rep gear for the space set (BTW they upped the requirements from 3 to 5) I did modus and nothing. then i realized i might need to be on Elite. ran it a few hours later and still no BNP
so basically the devs are blatantly lying to us
It's an error in the OP. It's all four hard missions which reward the BNP, so for City it's "Knowledge is Key". It's been pointed out numerous times, in this thread and around the forums, but the Devs have never altered the OP. Though why anybody would think that they added a BNP to three out of four hard missions and put the last one on a normal mission, is beyond me.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
As usual, those who MUST use 'MOST EFFICIENT USE OF TIME' as their yardstick think the game sucks horribly, while the rest of us who don't feel the need to upgrade their ships past Mark XIII just laugh at those people and play on. Have a great day.
Sorry, but I actually *like* the 'flat rate' on dilithium. Then I can go play them all, instead of playing one or two patrols. Victory.
If the only thing anyone looks for anymore is the "reward", then this game is falling to the same curse as games like WoW. I am sorry, I played from the start, when a single mission took four times as long and you only got XP and a single item (most the time) for completion. Now, I love getting more for doing less, but get real, I am seeing people cry and moan over changes...I was here when Atari was selling off Cryptic and we had almost nothing new to do for a year....I still welcome changes as the other option could easily be far worse. Be happy that they are looking at the game and have the ability to look into making changes and actually making some. If Dil is all you want, just spend your days grinding at the mines and get on with youe desires, mte, I want more content (as always) and more options i the mission streams.
So, i'll sum up some of the things I don't like in this game (and honestly see are wrong)
1: The Major XP problem.
Leveling 1-to-50 is very easy and, as someone said, maybe too fast. Leveling 50-55 is pretty much balanced. Leveling 55-60 is a nightmare. <- This was a result to the excessively fast rate people leveled at DR launch (rewards were generous while Xp needed was not that important) {My main leveled only by doing the story missions and a couple of patrols} [Cryptic nerfed the xp rewards AND raised the leveling bar, thus created the XP hole]. As a note, I consider the xp gain acceptable for aquiring spec points beyond 60.
2: The Upgrade System
The system allows many obsolete objects to become viable after the mark 14 expansion. The costs of upgrading a piece of equipment are ridiculously high, including RnD materials, energy credits and dilithium. One upgrade is not that expensive, but you sometimes need 10+.
2.1: Upgrading set pieces or fleet equipment is more expensive, thus adding costs to an already payed-for object (reputation sets=dil+marks) (fleet objects= fleet provisions+dil+fleet marks)
2.2: Only way to get mk14 equipment is by crafting. I believe there should also be mk 14 sets in the rep stores, they are supposed to provide good gear for end game content. ( You used to have top gear by aquiring rep equipment, now you'd have to upgrade it too).
{I see 2.1 and 2.2 are very similar, but point out different things.}
3: The Dil-Zen Exchange problem
At first, i don't have anything against this, it allows to buy Zen with excess dilithium. Here's the problem: If people can buy things from the store without paying, then the company is loosing money, added to the f2p system, it reduces greatly the income for Cryptic. They thus keep creating and expanding ingame systems that require dilithium (fleets, reputation, R&D) to create a "Dil sink", so that the players keep using their dilithium instead of trading it. If that still doesn't work, they nerf dilithium rewards (mark-to-dil exchange in the extra dil event).
This has a negative effect on players that wish to get gear that requires dilithium, for they have to "grind" greately to get gear, which they'll later have to upgrade = more "grinding" (see 2.1 and 2.2)
Lastly, the Iconian arc STFs and missions are a bit too difficult. I, however, feel it might be my problem so i'm not including it in the list. Nevertheless, I'll point out some facts that i've noticed from playing Gateway to Gre'Thor in different difficulties:
Hit points of a Quas Cruiser: Advanced: 800k Elite: 1200k
" " Iaidon Dreadnought:Normal: 800k
Hit points of a Vaadwaur Astika in story missions: Elite: 1000K
I'd say there's something not right if a dreadnought in normal has the same HP than a cruiser in advanced.
Sorry, i am aware i am missing some more data.
Iconian encounters in STFs and story missions are both stronger and more numerous than average. [Cryptic wanted to raise the difficulty throughout the game because, i agree, it was too easy. This, however, might be a bit too much] {As I said, this might be a problem of mine, but these facts are not my imagination.
My Two Cents: I've played this game since Atari, I appreciate the game undergoes changes, but to me, it's becoming more boring every day. Too much Grinding. The Featured episodes are good, including original voice cast. Each day it seems more like Cryptic tries to make content to keep the players playing to get rewards and things, not to enjoy playing the game. When I step on the forums I see more and more people stating the same. As of me, loosing interest every day. I'm not crying about it, I just want to say what I think.
Bah, sometimes I wish all this I wrote was worth anything, because Devs won't read it, and if they do, they won't change anyhing, THEIR game is ok. Those who will read it will think im just bitching around. Im just so tired.
That word boring, is becoming something i agree with, when it comes to this game. Grind XP, Grind Dilithium, Grind spec Xp, Grind RnD Exp, Grind Reputation Marks, Grind Grind Grind..... And on top of that, lets make it ever harder for people to do that, by increasing the amount it takes, and decreasing the amount a player gets. Oh hey, lets add some also, well to do, but completely useless, bonus pools.......
The only thing they have done right, is these lame ( as in no detail behind them ) temporal doff assignment things from the year of hell lock box.
Oh on top of that? They make any fleet leaders job 13 times harder, by adding this armada system. I don't mind that kinda stuff, but i mean, i am not everyone. Time and time again, poor idiotic decisions AWAY from what the community says, and AWAY from star trek itself, has only made the crickets in this game louder.
Star Trek: Online's competition is speeding up leveling, boosting rewards, releasing both pvp and story based content, and phasing out grinding; thus, Cryptic is becoming the only subscriber/f2p company to fall behind. As a result of seeing the writing on the wall, Cryptic's competitors, SWTOR and ESO, are giving players what they want. Heck, the competition is also allowing players to instantly hit level 60. It's all about endgame roleplaying (story content) and open world pvp.
Players warned Cryptic along time ago.
I personally think that many of these rewards are too little-too late.
Why grind twice as hard, leveling from 55 to 60, when you could be enjoying your endgame content in less the time? I would rather spend time and money on story content.
Again, I don't mind paying for content.
What I am buying just has to make sense.
Timegates, heavy grinding, little leveling progress, and tiny rewards are the hallmarks of a bad f2p model. Players don't want to be pinched.
While these reward boosts are welcome, the reality is that they are not enough.
Your competition is delivering the goods.
Your competition is listening.
Ive never seen a more exact "TRUTH" in a statement on these forums as this.
So, i'll sum up some of the things I don't like in this game (and honestly see are wrong)
3: The Dil-Zen Exchange problem
At first, i don't have anything against this, it allows to buy Zen with excess dilithium. Here's the problem: If people can buy things from the store without paying, then the company is loosing money, added to the f2p system, it reduces greatly the income for Cryptic.
Except it doesn't.
Person A wants to buy something from the Z store that lets say cost 5000 zen. Person A doesn't have the cash to buy enough Zen but has a bucket load of refined dilithium. Person A exchange's their bucket load of dilithium for 5000 zen from Person B. Now where did Person B get thier Zen from? It didn't come out of thin air, Person B paid for it. And who did they pay? That's right PWE\Cryptic.
The 5000 zen had to be bought by someone using real money, even if that person wasn't the one who ended up using it in the store. Remove the Dil-Zen Exchange and what happens?
Dilithium farming is time intensive, so people who are time rich but cash poor can essentially be paid by people who are cash rich but time poor to provide in game resources. With that exchange gone, the cash poor don't have a mechanism to buy goods from the Z store and so have no reason to play the game and produce in game resources. If the time poor have no way of buying time intensive resources then they have little if any reason to spend any money or play the game. Without the Dilithium exchange income would plummet.
So let me get this straight.....there's a whole lot of 'give it to me now or else' people demanding that life should be easy for them in game by reducing effort and increasing rewards expontentially......jeez, GET OVER YOURSELVES! This game is an RPG. RPG levelling is supposed to be harder at the later levels reflecting real-life careers, with exception to the fact that no service as this many 'Admirals'! Be happy with what you receive and stop trying to hold the game to ransom!
"You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
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The suggestion I gave is simple. You don't like Argala grinding, then don't. But for those that liked it, they didn't need to nerf it.
They could have still put the xp into the other queues, and left Argala alone, instead of time-gating it to slow down progression. And the content that they wanted players playing, they just added in xp bonuses for doing it.
They have been doing things like this before. They want players to play something, they either give it a temporary bonus, or they add in a bonus that was permanent. The difference here is that they nerfed xp progression again, before adding some rewards to content they wanted players doing.
They have a system (CapSpec) that is setup like a short-term system, but they are trying to make it long-term. Doesn't matter how long they drag out level progression, if you put short-term goals in a system, it is no longer a long-term system. It is just a short-term system that they are dragging out a ridiculous amount of time. And that is why nerfing xp progression is hurting the game.
And my lord or master said unto me, "Ye, Go! Yon Forest has but 50 trees. Fell them All, as Winter is coming and we will need that wood for Our Fires."
And said I, "How much gold will thou give me, my lord and master, for felling 50 trees?"
"One Gold for Each Tree."
And so, I, being the Chief Feller of Trees, dids't go out to yon 50 Tree Forest. And there, I did the work commanded me, by my lord and master. And so he sent out slaves who did collect all the wood and returned as raw timber to the castle.
And so, when all the wood had been burned up, the lord of the manor called for me again. It was a long winter, and the slightest breeze would cause his old bones to shake uncontrollably. The lord was a man of his word. And so, when he tasked me with felling more lumber, I went out to the 100 Tree Forest and there did fell every single tree. And so the slaves then came and gathered the raw lumber and they did hike it up to the castle, without leaving so much as a splinter.
And then dids't I, the Chief Tree Feller, go in to yon castle, to seek payment from my lord and master for the felling of the 100 Tree Forest.
"Ah!" said our lord. "Ye Chief Tree Feller, thous't dids't a splendid job to keep up the supply of wood burning lumber."
"Now though, our bargain must be changed. I can only give ye 10 Silvers for Each Tree."
"Double You, Thi Ef!" dids't I shout with much alarm to my lord and master. He then looked to me, and did say, "Aye, Feller, I did look with yon Chief Wizard of the Abacus. He then dids't show unto me the value in all the wood of the land, and so now, every tree ye bring to me will fetch thee 10 silver pieces."
"A hark and a boon!" said I. "How now, shall double the work only fetch half the pay, as one tree was one gold, but now, only half in silver?"
"It is the law of Intercourse by way of trade and traffic between ye and me."
"To flames with what you say!" I shouted. "Who I lay with is mine choice, not thine!"
"Oh, sweet Feller, but not. When I lay mine self with thee, it is I who doth penetrate, and ye who doth recieve."
"A curse upon you!"
"A curse upon me, is a curse upon you, Feller. As what issueth from me, now and always will go unto you. So, you may take the silver, and my issue. Or take my issue without pay, it is only up to you."
And then, so did I look hard and long at my task master. And thoughts of what I might find outside this kingdom did cross many times my thoughts did wander and wonder at what I should do. Would I remain in the service of this lord? Or another?
I, finding no middle ground, did then say, finally, "Aye. The Devil I know is better than the Devil I do not."
And so I returned to my own domain, with the silver for the hundred trees and the knowledge of what the future might hold here, in the Kingdom of Nod.
by T9 (I am RDA) http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/Dayviid/1515565/
Cryptic lost that battle with me. When DR hit I wanted intel ships at the fleet level. That didn't happen till Season 10. The time they took lollygagging with command ships let me save up zen to get all the ship modules I needed to buy fleet T6 ships with no zen purchases.
With the lack of XP I can't train my bridge crews in to getting intel abilities much less command abilities yet. So no point in really buying the new command ships since my characters can't really use them properly. By the time I get enough XP to finish leveling intel, piloting, and command I'll have more then enough zen to buy the ships I want without spending a single dollar.
This is one of the most ridiculous things I have seen a Career Officer post. Dude, STO might be free to play, the Cryptic isn't in BUSINESS by charity, this is not a non-profit. While everyone would love to get 720 Dili for their missions, this would very quickly cut into profits.
Now let's talk about the REAL state of the game for a second...Russia's gov't decided to invade Crimea and the Ukraine to force expansion of their territory. The political result was the condemnation by the UN, U.S., E.U. etcetera. That condemnation included sanctions against the country. Those sanctions meant that Apple can't sell iPhones there anymore. Ford can't sell cars there anymore...you seeing where this is going? Perfect World/Cryptic lost the Russian market literally overnight (good indication of why PWE posted a loss of 50% profit revenue over the last 4 quarters) and the loss revenue isn't being made up for by the rest of us...so they literally massacred the dev teams cutting about 18 developers off the payroll (aka layoffs) and Neverwinter and STO's teams took a hit (as if we could even afford to lose more devs)
Now I'll admit that even I lost my cool with this missing items fiasco...that shouldn't have happened but it did...and it's still not been 100% fixed properly. But I digress, even with all that going on, I continued to spend money...a SIGNIFICANT amount of money (more than double the cost of s lifetime membership) just this month...and I already have the best ships in game based on each on of my toons factions and professions.
Is Cryptic perfect? Of course not. They make mistakes and probably should listen to us more when the Career Officers speak up about ideas or things that are broken and how they affect game play...but the point is, while they have made mistakes, the community continues to make a huge mistake...the less we spend, the more cuts are gonna happen. The more they cut, the fewer bugs will get sorted out, less content or FE's or anything else will arrive and eventually everyone will get tired of this and quit and STO will **** down.
My point to all of this is, there is a delicate balance between them being able to keep a profit and not handing the keys to the farm to everyone, while still making the rewards enticing enough to get players back here and keep them. So no, they can't give 720 Dili per run, I'm shocked they even doing this to be honest. Be grateful they are still trying and haven't thrown their hands up and say "we give up, let's just put this in limbo and move on to other projects. This community is too toxic, they'll never be happy unless with five them everything for free."
We need players and we need them to spend money. That's why we're seeing T6 and Fleet T6 iconic 'canon' ships...believe it or not they ARE trying to keep this going. Obviously a lot of mistakes were made, game went off in some crazy direction nobody liked, it cost us all A LOT of players, and they're doing whatever they can to bring them back AND get the money flowing back in before something really stupid happens like what happened with CoH/CoV. Which I guaruntee you is also why we saw a massive turn over with the dev team...the exec was pulled off and they brought in outsise talent, devs from other projects were moved onto STO and some of the old STO devs got re-assigned to other projects...so we have a new team trying to set things right and get back on track.
So let's not ***** about what we're not getting and focus on what you are getting...
Wow, you managed to completely miss the point and context of my post. Well done!
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Mission:_City:_Modus_Operandi Modus Operandi does NOT give a borg neural processor once per day. I just completed it twice on Defera Invasion Zone and didn't get any. The other 3 missions listed for getting BNPs on Defera are all HARD missions that can't be soloed. :mad:
We pointed out that mistake the day the changes went live. It's actually all four hard missions which reward BNPs. They never updated the post to correct the mission name though.
Sigh, I had such high hopes for DA. Maybe it's time for another hiatus until things are back to where they were during LoR.
If I were a Feller of Trees named Robin...
I'd be double dating the Ladies of the Forest with my twin brother Kestrel, who I never leaf behind.
After all..., two birds in the bush, is worth more than one in your hand.
:cool:
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
hear hear !!
There are apologist on these forums for everything Creeps do, as in game, just try to engage in discussion direction the game is going, you'll get **** storm going your way by few probably paid trolls to undermine any improvements to the game.
What Creeps have managed to do is scare away so many old players that this game might not last beyond 2016, if it does beyond 2016 I'd be mightily surprised. I am looking at my friends list of everyone who is playing half haven't returned since season 10 was launched and those who did return only play sporadically.
I loved when game was done by Perpetual and Atari hate every moment of Cryptic control over this game, knew this game would be ruined for development team behind this game is there to make game thoroughly unplayable and as miserable as this possibly can be. I guess they deserve their name sake, Cryptic for they're Creeps.
Reason why i'll never buy anything from Zen store or pay for a monthly subscription again, I'd advise same to all, don't waste your money, save it for a game that deserves your money, this game certainly doesn't.
Currently, if I accidentally discard my Fluidic Antiproton Assault Dense Beam Rifle (or any other special Mk XIII DR mission reward), I can never obtain another one. For consistency with other "special" mission rewards like the CRM 200, a replay should allow me to get another one.
Also, not sure if it's been changed, but last I saw, the Mk XIII rewards for progressing through Kobali Prime are still blue quality. Intentional or overlooked?
Players warned Cryptic along time ago.
I personally think that many of these rewards are too little-too late.
Why grind twice as hard, leveling from 55 to 60, when you could be enjoying your endgame content in less the time? I would rather spend time and money on story content.
Again, I don't mind paying for content.
What I am buying just has to make sense.
Timegates, heavy grinding, little leveling progress, and tiny rewards are the hallmarks of a bad f2p model. Players don't want to be pinched.
While these reward boosts are welcome, the reality is that they are not enough.
Your competition is delivering the goods.
Your competition is listening.
Personally, I just came back to the game during the Delta Recruit event and I love it. It allowed me to outfit myself properly and breach some of the gap. Even without it, I find level to 50 to be too fast, I can barely enjoy each tier's ship!
At launch, I had bought 3 copies for the pre-order bonuses and then barely played the game because of how much I didn't like it. Then they gave the pre-order bonuses for cheap 5 months later. I tried playing during Feature Episodes (my level 31 captain has Breen, Reman and Jem'hadar bridge officers) but didn't get hooked. Legacy of Romulus, same, but I did have other things on my mind.
Now I'm back and I love it all. Of course, I'm not that far into the end game but, from my point of view, I still don't get the doom and gloom posts. I do agree there's lots of improvements to be made but the game isn't even close to being gone.
@Liath | My PRIMUS Page | Altaholics | New Vehicle Models | New Emblems | Flag Tights
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This. I need BNPs to get the rep gear for the space set (BTW they upped the requirements from 3 to 5) I did modus and nothing. then i realized i might need to be on Elite. ran it a few hours later and still no BNP
so basically the devs are blatantly lying to us
It's an error in the OP. It's all four hard missions which reward the BNP, so for City it's "Knowledge is Key". It's been pointed out numerous times, in this thread and around the forums, but the Devs have never altered the OP. Though why anybody would think that they added a BNP to three out of four hard missions and put the last one on a normal mission, is beyond me.
in what way may I ask?
Sorry, but I actually *like* the 'flat rate' on dilithium. Then I can go play them all, instead of playing one or two patrols. Victory.
1: The Major XP problem.
Leveling 1-to-50 is very easy and, as someone said, maybe too fast. Leveling 50-55 is pretty much balanced. Leveling 55-60 is a nightmare. <- This was a result to the excessively fast rate people leveled at DR launch (rewards were generous while Xp needed was not that important) {My main leveled only by doing the story missions and a couple of patrols} [Cryptic nerfed the xp rewards AND raised the leveling bar, thus created the XP hole]. As a note, I consider the xp gain acceptable for aquiring spec points beyond 60.
2: The Upgrade System
The system allows many obsolete objects to become viable after the mark 14 expansion. The costs of upgrading a piece of equipment are ridiculously high, including RnD materials, energy credits and dilithium. One upgrade is not that expensive, but you sometimes need 10+.
2.1: Upgrading set pieces or fleet equipment is more expensive, thus adding costs to an already payed-for object (reputation sets=dil+marks) (fleet objects= fleet provisions+dil+fleet marks)
2.2: Only way to get mk14 equipment is by crafting. I believe there should also be mk 14 sets in the rep stores, they are supposed to provide good gear for end game content. ( You used to have top gear by aquiring rep equipment, now you'd have to upgrade it too).
{I see 2.1 and 2.2 are very similar, but point out different things.}
3: The Dil-Zen Exchange problem
At first, i don't have anything against this, it allows to buy Zen with excess dilithium. Here's the problem: If people can buy things from the store without paying, then the company is loosing money, added to the f2p system, it reduces greatly the income for Cryptic. They thus keep creating and expanding ingame systems that require dilithium (fleets, reputation, R&D) to create a "Dil sink", so that the players keep using their dilithium instead of trading it. If that still doesn't work, they nerf dilithium rewards (mark-to-dil exchange in the extra dil event).
This has a negative effect on players that wish to get gear that requires dilithium, for they have to "grind" greately to get gear, which they'll later have to upgrade = more "grinding" (see 2.1 and 2.2)
Lastly, the Iconian arc STFs and missions are a bit too difficult. I, however, feel it might be my problem so i'm not including it in the list. Nevertheless, I'll point out some facts that i've noticed from playing Gateway to Gre'Thor in different difficulties:
Hit points of a Quas Cruiser: Advanced: 800k Elite: 1200k
" " Iaidon Dreadnought: Normal: 800k
Hit points of a Vaadwaur Astika in story missions: Elite: 1000K
I'd say there's something not right if a dreadnought in normal has the same HP than a cruiser in advanced.
Sorry, i am aware i am missing some more data.
Iconian encounters in STFs and story missions are both stronger and more numerous than average. [Cryptic wanted to raise the difficulty throughout the game because, i agree, it was too easy. This, however, might be a bit too much] {As I said, this might be a problem of mine, but these facts are not my imagination.
My Two Cents: I've played this game since Atari, I appreciate the game undergoes changes, but to me, it's becoming more boring every day. Too much Grinding. The Featured episodes are good, including original voice cast. Each day it seems more like Cryptic tries to make content to keep the players playing to get rewards and things, not to enjoy playing the game. When I step on the forums I see more and more people stating the same. As of me, loosing interest every day. I'm not crying about it, I just want to say what I think.
Bah, sometimes I wish all this I wrote was worth anything, because Devs won't read it, and if they do, they won't change anyhing, THEIR game is ok. Those who will read it will think im just bitching around. Im just so tired.
The only thing they have done right, is these lame ( as in no detail behind them ) temporal doff assignment things from the year of hell lock box.
Oh on top of that? They make any fleet leaders job 13 times harder, by adding this armada system. I don't mind that kinda stuff, but i mean, i am not everyone. Time and time again, poor idiotic decisions AWAY from what the community says, and AWAY from star trek itself, has only made the crickets in this game louder.
Ive never seen a more exact "TRUTH" in a statement on these forums as this.
Person A wants to buy something from the Z store that lets say cost 5000 zen. Person A doesn't have the cash to buy enough Zen but has a bucket load of refined dilithium. Person A exchange's their bucket load of dilithium for 5000 zen from Person B. Now where did Person B get thier Zen from? It didn't come out of thin air, Person B paid for it. And who did they pay? That's right PWE\Cryptic.
The 5000 zen had to be bought by someone using real money, even if that person wasn't the one who ended up using it in the store. Remove the Dil-Zen Exchange and what happens?
Dilithium farming is time intensive, so people who are time rich but cash poor can essentially be paid by people who are cash rich but time poor to provide in game resources. With that exchange gone, the cash poor don't have a mechanism to buy goods from the Z store and so have no reason to play the game and produce in game resources. If the time poor have no way of buying time intensive resources then they have little if any reason to spend any money or play the game. Without the Dilithium exchange income would plummet.