This feels like a gut punch to all the veteran players.
The very first character I made (in 2010, and my avatar) I feel very attached to. He's my main, and participates in every event possible.
I feel like he's just been killed like Tasha Yar. Callously and with no purpose.
I appreciate the free character slot, but at what cost?
Anyway, I haven't even had the time to get any except my main through the DR content. I only just started with the next one. Now Cryptic wants me to create another character? My most recent character is only lvl 50, and I just got him there for the mirror event this month. No reps at all, not even past the Romulan storyline missions yet (he is reman).
Instead of complaining about another character grind - as I have 15 already at level 50 or higher - I believe instead I will ask a few questions that seem to go unasked.
1.) Considering that these new Delta Recruits will have missions that run parrallel to the existing tutorials/content, does that imply that any new character made during this event would be from the graduating class of 2410 instead of 2409?
2.) How exactly will the Recruit Missions parrallel with the existing missions? I understand that further details will be reveald in later blogs, but sometimes the exact details are learned in game.
3.) Will this affect existing characters in some way?
4.) I know it was said that all players will get a free character slot, but since there are 3 factions, why not give 3 character slots - 1 slot for each? (I understand that could be more of a grind, but for those of us who either have the standard 3 slots or who just have an addiction to creating characters for the thought of earning more Dilithium per day, this is a good idea.)
5.) It is believed that this is a way to entice new players into the game ot to attempt to bring back former players in an attempt to respark their interrests using the bonus XP mechanism to encurage new character creation. Will this XP bonus mechanism be retroactive to all characters on an account?
6.) Are the Server-wide bonuses stackable? I.E., when one week's bonus is active, will it be applied to the next week's bonus and stack upon it [ex: Week 1 = 1.5 XP bonus, Week 2 = 1.5 XP bonus stacked with Week 1's XP bonus for a total bonus of 3x XP] or will the new week's bonus void the previous week's bonus?
7.) I do agree with one particular assessment: the Andorian Kumari, Xindi Reptillian and Aquatic ships, the Romulan T'Varo [and, according to STO story arc, the Delahn] Warbird are all older than the Constitution Class and are available in T5 variants. The Constellation is an older, late 23rd century vessel and also has a T5 Fleet variant. The Excelsior, the B'rel, and the K'Tinga also are 23rd Century vessels that have T5 variants. Even the Miranda has a T5 variant [MU only]. The only 3 of the older ships that do not have a T5 variant are the T'Liss warbird, the Oberth, the NX, and the Constitution classes of ships. Is there any possibility of getting T5/6 variants of any of those vessels?
8.) On the topic of vessels, is there any plans to bring in vessel designs from previous Star Trek games into Star Trek Online? Some of the vessels from Star Trek Armada I and II, Starfleet Command I, II, and III, and Dominion Wars would be interesting to see in game.
9.) Back to the topic of Delta Recruitment. These new characters made during this event, how will they factor in once their mission journal is complete? Will they be considered a whole new faction made up from 3 different factions? Or Will they still be independant, but with the ability to use other factions T1-4 ships much like the Romulan Republic characters were able to do with their chosen allies vessels/technology?
10.) Is there going to be a special Reputation system speciffically for the Delta Recruit Characters?
11.) With the Delta Recruit Characters and the coming conflict with the Iconians, does this mean that the overall story is coming to a close? If so, how will this affect the game and its community? Will there be another story to tell? Will the Iconian story be left open ended so that the Iconians can be tied in with future content? If the Iconian Comspiracy [<for lack of a better word] comes to an end, will the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Republic, and the Delta Alliance have to face intergalactic threats, like the Kelvans and the Totality? [Reference the Shatnerverse books Captain's Peril, Captain's Blood, and Captain's Glory for the Totality.]
12.) Are we going to see new Fleet Holdings in the near future with the ability to create Cross-Faction Fleets? Will there ever be a new Fleet Holding that will have 5 levels instead of 3 levels other than the Fleet Starbases?
That is just a few questions I have concerning the Delta Recruit Event and the future of the game. All in all, while I do have 15 characters all at level 50 or greater, I would like the oppertunity of creating a new character that I would not have to grind the Dilitihium or spend money to obtain so I can see how the Delta Recruit Content stacks up to the current content of creating new characters. [*I can actually get the Dilithium for new character slots in a single day now.*] With any XP bonus in effect, I can get a character up to level 50 in about 3 days doing a combination of patrol missions, story missions, Starbase 24 PVE Queue and Fleet PVE Queues (getting into a fleet is simple these days). I would like to see how this goes.
Hmmm much more detail is needed. I have 10 toons and 7 of them are barely played as it is. And I don't want more.
Depending on exactly what this brings to us, I might retire a couple of the toon benefits are worth it. But I dunno...game is enough of a time sink as it is right now.
If you've come to the forums to complain about the AFK system, it's known to be bugged at the moment.
Personally in playing this game since beta I think this is easily the stupidest idea I've ever heard. I have 8 characters and your hoping I'm going level a 9th? You haven't exactly set the world on fire by adding new playable races to temp any one since legacy of Romulus.
I have a question. How in the blue hell dose this event bridge the gap between the players that have been playing for years and new players? This event is advertised to players who already know sto. So they would already play or have played it. They won't actually be new.
so what of the existing players? Whom have been telling the devs about the boredom of levelling due to xp levelling issues since Delta rising. Your answer seriously can't be hey make a new character and level it from scratch. You guys have seriously lost the plot :eek:
Was considering a KDF aligned Romulan anyway as an additional dilithium/contraband source, but did not want to waste dilithium with the current dilithium-Zen exchange rates.
Two weeks should be sufficient to fill out specialization on my other characters (Rep on all of them has long been completed).
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
If the account wide/server wide benefits are good enough then this might work on it's own, but yeah... considering how painful it is to have alts at all in this game (I largely ignore mine and just focus on my main now) this seems like a terrible idea unless it's coming with some huge quality of life improvements for having alts, or at the very least a new faction type like bringing in the cardassians so we're at least working on something new/different rather than just replaying the same old stuff for the twenty billionth time. But even a sever wide 250% exp boost for a week (if participation makes it happen) will be like... pfffff given how throttled our exp gains have become.
I have a lot of characters, and I'm going to participate in this event, because I want to see what the rewards are going to be, and have the enjoyment of see what the story brings to the table.
Likewise, for the story adds since it's one of the things I play this game for in the first place, and I've 13 characters already (some fairly new). I'd rather wait until I see what they're actually doing with it before I start whining about how all my characters are suddenly obsolete or why I have to get all my alts to L60/MkIV Epic everything/fill out all the spec trees ASAP (or at all) :P
Finally, during the first six weeks of the seven-week Delta Recruit event, there will be server wide goals that only Delta Recruits can contribute to, but by accomplishing these goals, they unlock bonuses for the entire server for the whole of the next week of the event! For example, in the first week of the event, every Episode First Run that Delta Recruits complete will count towards the goal. How many First Runs they complete will determine the bonus of the week-long event running in Week 2. You will have either a 1.5x XP bonus, a 2x XP bonus, or possibly even a 2.5x XP bonus for the entire week!
Finally, during the first six weeks of the seven-week Delta Recruit event, there will be server wide goals that only Delta Recruits can contribute to, but by accomplishing these goals, they unlock bonuses for the entire server for the whole of the next week of the event! For example, in the first week of the event, every Episode First Run that Delta Recruits complete will count towards the goal. How many First Runs they complete will determine the bonus of the week-long event running in Week 2. You will have either a 1.5x XP bonus, a 2x XP bonus, or possibly even a 2.5x XP bonus for the entire week!
What would this mean exactly?
It's called a cliffhanger for the next blog.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
I'm getting a bad feeling about this event. I feel like it will be an experimental metrics test bed where the devs may try to make older characters obsolete by introducing benefits that will be exclusively enjoyed by new players deemed "delta recruits." And if it doesn't go down that way, the next event probably will. Every event since DR seems to try to test how much veteran players can stomach and take in terms of new grind schemes. Buyer beware as they people say with this event and future events like it.
DING DING DING! Winner!
Cryptic being PWE's "R$D center" is simply R&D into stress-testing a western MMO audience to see how much pain we can take before we say enough, and how much effort and time is required to align us into an Eastern-styled, UBER-Grind MMO framework.
Theres far too many bonuses and rewards available to list them all here, so get ready to make your Delta Recruit (all accounts are getting one extra free character slot), and keep watching between now and April 2nd for more information.
PLEASE! SPREAD THIS INFORMATION.
I am sick of seeing people complain about not being able to participate in this event.
THERE'S GOING TO BE 1 EXTRA CHARACTER SLOT
Kurland Here Kurland Here This is Kurland Kurland Kurland Here Kurland, Do you copy?
Awesome, just one more nail in the coffin of my continuing desire to play this game. First all my $ ships are obsolete; now toons I've had since the game launched are going to be obsolete. Thanks Cryptic.
The only thing that matters to their metrics are the number of players grinding at every moment. After the failure of DR, when they axed our T5 ships despite our energetic and numerous complaints, they have to punish us further by castrating our levelled-up toons.
It's just "Dr Doom" Roubini
Refugee from those other games!
Not sure what to make of this. I like the idea of creating a system that encourages the use of new characters. I really hope that the benefit of such a system might be related to overcoming the barriers to multiple alt play. I'd be more interested in seeing a passive experience gain added to all characters on an account rather than dilithium TRIBBLE perks.
That said it takes very little time to bring a captain from level 1 to 50. With sponsorship from existing characters rep advancement is a breeze as well. Rocketing through those reps easily nets new characters a sizable dilithium "egg" for upgraded equipment and choice rep equipment.
The greatest gap between my older and newer characters occurs because I'm in a long established fleet and nickel/dime contributions because I can't watch the projects and miss high value contributions (marks) on general upkeep/provisioning projects. Rebalancing the returns on contributions would have done much to address this.
I'll remain hopeful because I see potential to reinvigorate the alt system while also encouraging new players even if the latter is the focus. The addition of some new story elements with the system sounds pretty cool.
Instead of complaining about another character grind - as I have 15 already at level 50 or higher - I believe instead I will ask a few questions that seem to go unasked.
I can answer a few of these from the blog and knowing Cryptics past statements.
1.) Considering that these new Delta Recruits will have missions that run parrallel to the existing tutorials/content, does that imply that any new character made during this event would be from the graduating class of 2410 instead of 2409?
It's the same story missions, with delta recruit objectives inserted.
3.) Will this affect existing characters in some way?
Rewards on the Delta character propagate to your others somehow.
4.) I know it was said that all players will get a free character slot, but since there are 3 factions, why not give 3 character slots - 1 slot for each? (I understand that could be more of a grind, but for those of us who either have the standard 3 slots or who just have an addiction to creating characters for the thought of earning more Dilithium per day, this is a good idea.)
The temporal stuff probably isn't different faction to faction, so you'd be finding the same things just in different mission sets.
5.) It is believed that this is a way to entice new players into the game ot to attempt to bring back former players in an attempt to respark their interrests using the bonus XP mechanism to encurage new character creation. Will this XP bonus mechanism be retroactive to all characters on an account?
They said the bonuses earned in week 1 will apply to all characters during week 2.
6.) Are the Server-wide bonuses stackable? I.E., when one week's bonus is active, will it be applied to the next week's bonus and stack upon it [ex: Week 1 = 1.5 XP bonus, Week 2 = 1.5 XP bonus stacked with Week 1's XP bonus for a total bonus of 3x XP] or will the new week's bonus void the previous week's bonus?
The week 2 was just an example, no guarantee there will be more bonus XP weeks or when.
7.) I do agree with one particular assessment: the Andorian Kumari, Xindi Reptillian and Aquatic ships, the Romulan T'Varo [and, according to STO story arc, the Delahn] Warbird are all older than the Constitution Class and are available in T5 variants. The Constellation is an older, late 23rd century vessel and also has a T5 Fleet variant. The Excelsior, the B'rel, and the K'Tinga also are 23rd Century vessels that have T5 variants. Even the Miranda has a T5 variant [MU only]. The only 3 of the older ships that do not have a T5 variant are the T'Liss warbird, the Oberth, the NX, and the Constitution classes of ships. Is there any possibility of getting T5/6 variants of any of those vessels?
CBS has said no to tier 5 Connies
8.) On the topic of vessels, is there any plans to bring in vessel designs from previous Star Trek games into Star Trek Online? Some of the vessels from Star Trek Armada I and II, Starfleet Command I, II, and III, and Dominion Wars would be interesting to see in game.
Cryptic does not own the rights to those designs, nor does CBS, so it is cheaper to design their own ships than pay to use other games' designs.
9.) Back to the topic of Delta Recruitment. These new characters made during this event, how will they factor in once their mission journal is complete? Will they be considered a whole new faction made up from 3 different factions? Or Will they still be independant, but with the ability to use other factions T1-4 ships much like the Romulan Republic characters were able to do with their chosen allies vessels/technology?
You are still the same faction, but with added bonus finds. Think of Delta Recruit as Starfleet+ or KDF+ or RR+ instead of a separate faction.
10.) Is there going to be a special Reputation system speciffically for the Delta Recruit Characters?
We will probably have the next new rep when the Iconians show up.
11.) With the Delta Recruit Characters and the coming conflict with the Iconians, does this mean that the overall story is coming to a close? If so, how will this affect the game and its community? Will there be another story to tell? Will the Iconian story be left open ended so that the Iconians can be tied in with future content? If the Iconian Comspiracy [<for lack of a better word] comes to an end, will the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Republic, and the Delta Alliance have to face intergalactic threats, like the Kelvans and the Totality? [Reference the Shatnerverse books Captain's Peril, Captain's Blood, and Captain's Glory for the Totality.]
Dang it, why did you have to remind me that the Shatnerverse existed?
12.) Are we going to see new Fleet Holdings in the near future with the ability to create Cross-Faction Fleets? Will there ever be a new Fleet Holding that will have 5 levels instead of 3 levels other than the Fleet Starbases?
Cross faction fleets are unlikely given the way things are structured, but 4-5 level holdings are a possibility (whether they will do it is another can of worms entirely.
This is clearly for existing players and not to generate new players. I highly doubt there are any new players to this game. To add to that fact, what if someone just recently started? Say last month? (give or take) maybe even 50 or 60 by now and doing the boring grind? They JUST finished grinding all this and now have to do it all over again. I will tell you if I was indeed a "new" player, I would turn around and quit or not participate at all.
If you want to do re-runs, its been a long time since ophidian canes and shards and the like, bring back the zefram cochrane shotgun, things of that nature who missed it.
As it stands now:
-New players will never get all accolades offered over the course of the game.
-new players have no access to ophidian cane, shard of possibilities, frosted boots, zefram cochrane shotgun, t6 Kobali ship, Breen ship, etc etc etc for a very long time.
-New players don't have a run of the old lockboxes (the rerun of lockboxes should have been timed for a similar "better thought out" event)
The reason existing veterans get mad is no bug fixes, broken content since release, dismal attention to the need of the KDF faction, recent similar treatment for Romulans, crashes, lag, disconnects, and broken hanging stf that make you take a leaver penalty, killing of pvp, and money grabbing schemes.
A reply to this is:
1.) Make new lower quality icons
2.) Put a delay in the space tray button response to button presses, pretty much ruining space combat.
3.) New gimmicky command spec and ships, when you can't have more than two active at the same time. (intel/pilot) for space (intel/commando for ground) anything else is pretty lame.
4.) A crafting revamp that is a good start but turned out to be a dil grab.
5.) This list of pointless upgrades is endless and as of this post still continues.
What would have been better is:
1.)Bug fixes going back 5 years, including such simple things as spelling mistakes.
2.)Fix laggy servers.
3.)Give KDF and romulans more ships and ship traits that even come close to federation.
4.)Ground combat revamp (clearly not enough device slots for even the above mentioned items much less hypos, tribbles, and the like.) Perhaps even more ground armor slots and a dedicated melee slot.
Just remember, new players if they really do exist, become veterans quickly in this game and head off to the boring grind like the rest of us. This can be accomplished in a manner of days. Then you have even more angry veterans on your hands. Is this what you really want?
Maybe its time to read player comments going back 5 years.
Its not a rant, its nothing against the team, its just the truth spelled out so you can see why a few are pretty upset at gimmicks over progress.
Instead of complaining about another character grind - as I have 15 already at level 50 or higher - I believe instead I will ask a few questions that seem to go unasked.
1.) Considering that these new Delta Recruits will have missions that run parrallel to the existing tutorials/content, does that imply that any new character made during this event would be from the graduating class of 2410 instead of 2409?
No. The Delta Recruits are people from 2410 sent back to 2409 to alter or protect history while doing side missions to defend the timeline.
I'll be holding out to see what and how many rewards from this are "account-wide" and what if any new perks the alts get to keep after the event ends before I judge too harshly.
I am curious about the Temporal Insight trait and what the rewards are.
I'm sceptical, and frankly more characters is the last thing on my mind, but then I vowed never to spend money on this game again until I saw meaningful alt-friendliness changes and proper rewards being granted.
The character slot is free, so odds are I'll make a character with it just because I can, especially seeing as it won't cost me anything. Truthfully though I only play one character seriously at the moment, and that one isn't making enough progress for the time investment to really consider doing anything serious with the others any more.
It's really a shame, I used to flat out love this game
Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head. - Euripides
I no longer do any Bug Hunting work for Cryptic. I may resume if a serious attempt to fix the game is made.
Finally, during the first six weeks of the seven-week Delta Recruit event, there will be server wide goals that only Delta Recruits can contribute to, but by accomplishing these goals, they unlock bonuses for the entire server for the whole of the next week of the event! For example, in the first week of the event, every Episode First Run that Delta Recruits complete will count towards the goal. How many First Runs they complete will determine the bonus of the week-long event running in Week 2. You will have either a 1.5x XP bonus, a 2x XP bonus, or possibly even a 2.5x XP bonus for the entire week!
What would this mean exactly?
It means the grind now has server-wide productivity quotas to get the best rewards. :-)
Very much this. There's just under a month to get plenty more information, including specifics of who/what is affected and what they get.
Also gives me a reason to create an alt, for the first time! (Will never understand why people have got 10 or more characters)
Suppose I'm qualified to answer the last bit with 13, soon to be 14 with this event
Partially some light themed RP stuff with around half of them, partially because I like to have one character of each class per faction for gameplay variety if nothing else (also I prefer not to drop Z-Store ships, if I decide to move a main character to a new one I like to create a character to run the old one. Typically purpose-built to fit it) and a couple of character slots I just use as "disposable heroes" for those times I'm in the mood to play through the missions fresh or whatever.
Interesting. I've already got 8 total characters I've done over the years of playing, it's about that time when I start mulling over a new specie & career combo to test out, I'll have fun with this leveling variant.
I look forward to more updates about this!
My theory is that ALL of our characters are bugged and they cant fix them so they want to just move people to new "Delta Characters". Only by having a delta toon will ou be free of tray and BO issues
I care not for any of the special stuff Delta Recruits bring, it's all just temporary or gimmicky (not a big fan of starship traits, nice to have, but rarely will I go out of my way to get them). What I care about is that finally, Cryptic is letting us have more than 50 characters (Ok, So 50 + 1 Foundry). I have been waiting for this day for so long.
I also hope the Iconians aren't watered down letdowns (for example, why does a Kazon ship hit as hard as any more advanced ship of the same rank?), the Iconians are powerful goddesses, their ships shouldn't be as weak as any lesser species (for example, frigates could be normal cruiser powered, cruisers be battleship power, battleships be dreadnought power, and dreadnoughts be something a full fleet is needed for, not just one ship whittling it down for a little while).
If you can't solve it logically, solve it like a moron.
51 + 1 Foundry Character Slots is NOT enough. Some of us love our characters. If I want to buy more character slots, why can't I? I couldn't experience the entire Delta Recruitment event without deleting a character.
The Iconians themselves can't time travel because their memories revert, but there is nothing to say an Iconian couldn't write everything she needed to do on a PADD, pin it to herself, travel back, read the PADD, do the tasks and return. Or just get one of her Non-Herald underlings to go back in time for her.
Oh yeah, I do Foundry missions for both KDFs and Feds. Just search KSTF (Short for Kinas Special Task Force, where Kinas is the name of the Admiral you will be serving under). The earlier ones are less story based and more combat based, while the later ones have a much heavier story element, but keep the large battles.
That's one of the exact reasons I don't really alt anymore, most of the amenties I like, extra storage space mostly, are a character by character basis, and not global.
"..and like children playing after sunset, we were surrounded by darkness." -Ruri Hoshino
What worries me more is that this is going to be just like the Undine 'war'. It was a huge lead up, a cataclysmic battle on Earth Space Dock and Qo'Nos itself. What happened? The very NEXT episode, mission 1 if Delta Rising wraps it all up in an anticlimactic little bow.
Is this going to be a repeat of that event or are we actually going to get the new content that should have cone with a full blown expansion? Or are we going to see this half arsed again?
Tell me. Barring fleet and rep gear, how has the cost increased? You can craft all the gear a new toon would need if you have your R&D all set for all schools. By now, someone doing it daily, even on a single toon, could have all their schools at level 15.
I didn't say "cost", did I? I said "effort". Sourcing all the materials for gear and upgrades takes time and effort (or money, if you buy R&D packs for research materials rather than running the PvE queues that yield them). I'm perfectly au fait with the R&D system - I've never bought a tech upgrade off the exchange yet, I always knit my own - so I'm also well aware of how much time it can soak up.
Even if you do make all your own upgrades, mind, the dilithium cost of getting a full set of gear to Mk XIV is by no means negligible.
But, as I said, I will wait for more information before I mount my soapbox and start denouncing things.
that will be in late spring, but who knows it could be part of it.
"Our history, our past, our present and our future is now forever changed. All we can do is preserve what is left and continue onwards. This is not a surrender nor defeat, we will continue the fight. This is our last hope, our last chance... for victory."
Vlasek D. Lasor - 4.19.3580 Star Trek Online: Foundry Storyline Series
please, its cryptic, we know already that it will be 1/2 finished, buggy as hell and just a scheme to sell SOMETHING
I am inclined to agree with this statement. Cryptic has a habit of releasing half-finished content and then scrambling about to pick up the pieces when it does inevitably explode.
Comments
The very first character I made (in 2010, and my avatar) I feel very attached to. He's my main, and participates in every event possible.
I feel like he's just been killed like Tasha Yar. Callously and with no purpose.
I appreciate the free character slot, but at what cost?
Anyway, I haven't even had the time to get any except my main through the DR content. I only just started with the next one. Now Cryptic wants me to create another character? My most recent character is only lvl 50, and I just got him there for the mirror event this month. No reps at all, not even past the Romulan storyline missions yet (he is reman).
And if not..
Have a lovely event. I'll be over here watching while I fiddle.
1.) Considering that these new Delta Recruits will have missions that run parrallel to the existing tutorials/content, does that imply that any new character made during this event would be from the graduating class of 2410 instead of 2409?
2.) How exactly will the Recruit Missions parrallel with the existing missions? I understand that further details will be reveald in later blogs, but sometimes the exact details are learned in game.
3.) Will this affect existing characters in some way?
4.) I know it was said that all players will get a free character slot, but since there are 3 factions, why not give 3 character slots - 1 slot for each? (I understand that could be more of a grind, but for those of us who either have the standard 3 slots or who just have an addiction to creating characters for the thought of earning more Dilithium per day, this is a good idea.)
5.) It is believed that this is a way to entice new players into the game ot to attempt to bring back former players in an attempt to respark their interrests using the bonus XP mechanism to encurage new character creation. Will this XP bonus mechanism be retroactive to all characters on an account?
6.) Are the Server-wide bonuses stackable? I.E., when one week's bonus is active, will it be applied to the next week's bonus and stack upon it [ex: Week 1 = 1.5 XP bonus, Week 2 = 1.5 XP bonus stacked with Week 1's XP bonus for a total bonus of 3x XP] or will the new week's bonus void the previous week's bonus?
7.) I do agree with one particular assessment: the Andorian Kumari, Xindi Reptillian and Aquatic ships, the Romulan T'Varo [and, according to STO story arc, the Delahn] Warbird are all older than the Constitution Class and are available in T5 variants. The Constellation is an older, late 23rd century vessel and also has a T5 Fleet variant. The Excelsior, the B'rel, and the K'Tinga also are 23rd Century vessels that have T5 variants. Even the Miranda has a T5 variant [MU only]. The only 3 of the older ships that do not have a T5 variant are the T'Liss warbird, the Oberth, the NX, and the Constitution classes of ships. Is there any possibility of getting T5/6 variants of any of those vessels?
8.) On the topic of vessels, is there any plans to bring in vessel designs from previous Star Trek games into Star Trek Online? Some of the vessels from Star Trek Armada I and II, Starfleet Command I, II, and III, and Dominion Wars would be interesting to see in game.
9.) Back to the topic of Delta Recruitment. These new characters made during this event, how will they factor in once their mission journal is complete? Will they be considered a whole new faction made up from 3 different factions? Or Will they still be independant, but with the ability to use other factions T1-4 ships much like the Romulan Republic characters were able to do with their chosen allies vessels/technology?
10.) Is there going to be a special Reputation system speciffically for the Delta Recruit Characters?
11.) With the Delta Recruit Characters and the coming conflict with the Iconians, does this mean that the overall story is coming to a close? If so, how will this affect the game and its community? Will there be another story to tell? Will the Iconian story be left open ended so that the Iconians can be tied in with future content? If the Iconian Comspiracy [<for lack of a better word] comes to an end, will the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Republic, and the Delta Alliance have to face intergalactic threats, like the Kelvans and the Totality? [Reference the Shatnerverse books Captain's Peril, Captain's Blood, and Captain's Glory for the Totality.]
12.) Are we going to see new Fleet Holdings in the near future with the ability to create Cross-Faction Fleets? Will there ever be a new Fleet Holding that will have 5 levels instead of 3 levels other than the Fleet Starbases?
That is just a few questions I have concerning the Delta Recruit Event and the future of the game. All in all, while I do have 15 characters all at level 50 or greater, I would like the oppertunity of creating a new character that I would not have to grind the Dilitihium or spend money to obtain so I can see how the Delta Recruit Content stacks up to the current content of creating new characters. [*I can actually get the Dilithium for new character slots in a single day now.*] With any XP bonus in effect, I can get a character up to level 50 in about 3 days doing a combination of patrol missions, story missions, Starbase 24 PVE Queue and Fleet PVE Queues (getting into a fleet is simple these days). I would like to see how this goes.
Depending on exactly what this brings to us, I might retire a couple of the toon benefits are worth it. But I dunno...game is enough of a time sink as it is right now.
I have a question. How in the blue hell dose this event bridge the gap between the players that have been playing for years and new players? This event is advertised to players who already know sto. So they would already play or have played it. They won't actually be new.
so what of the existing players? Whom have been telling the devs about the boredom of levelling due to xp levelling issues since Delta rising. Your answer seriously can't be hey make a new character and level it from scratch. You guys have seriously lost the plot :eek:
Two weeks should be sufficient to fill out specialization on my other characters (Rep on all of them has long been completed).
Likewise, for the story adds since it's one of the things I play this game for in the first place, and I've 13 characters already (some fairly new). I'd rather wait until I see what they're actually doing with it before I start whining about how all my characters are suddenly obsolete or why I have to get all my alts to L60/MkIV Epic everything/fill out all the spec trees ASAP (or at all) :P
What would this mean exactly?
It's called a cliffhanger for the next blog.
DING DING DING! Winner!
Cryptic being PWE's "R$D center" is simply R&D into stress-testing a western MMO audience to see how much pain we can take before we say enough, and how much effort and time is required to align us into an Eastern-styled, UBER-Grind MMO framework.
PLEASE! SPREAD THIS INFORMATION.
I am sick of seeing people complain about not being able to participate in this event.
THERE'S GOING TO BE 1 EXTRA CHARACTER SLOT
True. It was Level 50 during the event however.
The only thing that matters to their metrics are the number of players grinding at every moment. After the failure of DR, when they axed our T5 ships despite our energetic and numerous complaints, they have to punish us further by castrating our levelled-up toons.
It's just "Dr Doom" Roubini
Refugee from those other games!
That said it takes very little time to bring a captain from level 1 to 50. With sponsorship from existing characters rep advancement is a breeze as well. Rocketing through those reps easily nets new characters a sizable dilithium "egg" for upgraded equipment and choice rep equipment.
The greatest gap between my older and newer characters occurs because I'm in a long established fleet and nickel/dime contributions because I can't watch the projects and miss high value contributions (marks) on general upkeep/provisioning projects. Rebalancing the returns on contributions would have done much to address this.
I'll remain hopeful because I see potential to reinvigorate the alt system while also encouraging new players even if the latter is the focus. The addition of some new story elements with the system sounds pretty cool.
I can answer a few of these from the blog and knowing Cryptics past statements.
It's the same story missions, with delta recruit objectives inserted.
Rewards on the Delta character propagate to your others somehow.
The temporal stuff probably isn't different faction to faction, so you'd be finding the same things just in different mission sets.
They said the bonuses earned in week 1 will apply to all characters during week 2.
The week 2 was just an example, no guarantee there will be more bonus XP weeks or when.
CBS has said no to tier 5 Connies
Cryptic does not own the rights to those designs, nor does CBS, so it is cheaper to design their own ships than pay to use other games' designs.
You are still the same faction, but with added bonus finds. Think of Delta Recruit as Starfleet+ or KDF+ or RR+ instead of a separate faction.
We will probably have the next new rep when the Iconians show up.
Dang it, why did you have to remind me that the Shatnerverse existed?
Cross faction fleets are unlikely given the way things are structured, but 4-5 level holdings are a possibility (whether they will do it is another can of worms entirely.
If you want to do re-runs, its been a long time since ophidian canes and shards and the like, bring back the zefram cochrane shotgun, things of that nature who missed it.
As it stands now:
-New players will never get all accolades offered over the course of the game.
-new players have no access to ophidian cane, shard of possibilities, frosted boots, zefram cochrane shotgun, t6 Kobali ship, Breen ship, etc etc etc for a very long time.
-New players don't have a run of the old lockboxes (the rerun of lockboxes should have been timed for a similar "better thought out" event)
The reason existing veterans get mad is no bug fixes, broken content since release, dismal attention to the need of the KDF faction, recent similar treatment for Romulans, crashes, lag, disconnects, and broken hanging stf that make you take a leaver penalty, killing of pvp, and money grabbing schemes.
A reply to this is:
1.) Make new lower quality icons
2.) Put a delay in the space tray button response to button presses, pretty much ruining space combat.
3.) New gimmicky command spec and ships, when you can't have more than two active at the same time. (intel/pilot) for space (intel/commando for ground) anything else is pretty lame.
4.) A crafting revamp that is a good start but turned out to be a dil grab.
5.) This list of pointless upgrades is endless and as of this post still continues.
What would have been better is:
1.)Bug fixes going back 5 years, including such simple things as spelling mistakes.
2.)Fix laggy servers.
3.)Give KDF and romulans more ships and ship traits that even come close to federation.
4.)Ground combat revamp (clearly not enough device slots for even the above mentioned items much less hypos, tribbles, and the like.) Perhaps even more ground armor slots and a dedicated melee slot.
Just remember, new players if they really do exist, become veterans quickly in this game and head off to the boring grind like the rest of us. This can be accomplished in a manner of days. Then you have even more angry veterans on your hands. Is this what you really want?
Maybe its time to read player comments going back 5 years.
Its not a rant, its nothing against the team, its just the truth spelled out so you can see why a few are pretty upset at gimmicks over progress.
No. The Delta Recruits are people from 2410 sent back to 2409 to alter or protect history while doing side missions to defend the timeline.
I'm sceptical, and frankly more characters is the last thing on my mind, but then I vowed never to spend money on this game again until I saw meaningful alt-friendliness changes and proper rewards being granted.
The character slot is free, so odds are I'll make a character with it just because I can, especially seeing as it won't cost me anything. Truthfully though I only play one character seriously at the moment, and that one isn't making enough progress for the time investment to really consider doing anything serious with the others any more.
It's really a shame, I used to flat out love this game
It means the grind now has server-wide productivity quotas to get the best rewards. :-)
Suppose I'm qualified to answer the last bit with 13, soon to be 14 with this event
Partially some light themed RP stuff with around half of them, partially because I like to have one character of each class per faction for gameplay variety if nothing else (also I prefer not to drop Z-Store ships, if I decide to move a main character to a new one I like to create a character to run the old one. Typically purpose-built to fit it) and a couple of character slots I just use as "disposable heroes" for those times I'm in the mood to play through the missions fresh or whatever.
I look forward to more updates about this!
I also hope the Iconians aren't watered down letdowns (for example, why does a Kazon ship hit as hard as any more advanced ship of the same rank?), the Iconians are powerful goddesses, their ships shouldn't be as weak as any lesser species (for example, frigates could be normal cruiser powered, cruisers be battleship power, battleships be dreadnought power, and dreadnoughts be something a full fleet is needed for, not just one ship whittling it down for a little while).
Is this going to be a repeat of that event or are we actually going to get the new content that should have cone with a full blown expansion? Or are we going to see this half arsed again?
I didn't say "cost", did I? I said "effort". Sourcing all the materials for gear and upgrades takes time and effort (or money, if you buy R&D packs for research materials rather than running the PvE queues that yield them). I'm perfectly au fait with the R&D system - I've never bought a tech upgrade off the exchange yet, I always knit my own - so I'm also well aware of how much time it can soak up.
Even if you do make all your own upgrades, mind, the dilithium cost of getting a full set of gear to Mk XIV is by no means negligible.
But, as I said, I will wait for more information before I mount my soapbox and start denouncing things.
that will be in late spring, but who knows it could be part of it.
"Our history, our past, our present and our future is now forever changed. All we can do is preserve what is left and continue onwards. This is not a surrender nor defeat, we will continue the fight. This is our last hope, our last chance... for victory."
Vlasek D. Lasor - 4.19.3580
Star Trek Online: Foundry Storyline Series
please, its cryptic, we know already that it will be 1/2 finished, buggy as hell and just a scheme to sell SOMETHING
I am inclined to agree with this statement. Cryptic has a habit of releasing half-finished content and then scrambling about to pick up the pieces when it does inevitably explode.