A Rom Toon pretty much blows both Feds and Klings out of the water with all the Singularity powers, the ability to use their allied faction ships and a DOff system comparable to the Klingons, thay are just way more fun to play.
Plus, the Republic only gets access to allied ships while leveling up. Once T5 hits, we have unique ships. And the singularity comes at a -40 reduction to base power. So it's a big tradeoff.
Either way, it won't be an exodus. Might create more viable alts, but I can't see a flat-out dropping of original main toons.
I find this system very very telling of just how bad it is in STO right now particularly for things like STFs.
...
You wouldn't have lost all of us had you done the right thing when it comes to xp acquisition for spec building or not turned this game into a mobile app or farmville on facebook.
That... doesn't make any sense. New alts will in no way help the end-game STF content. Not for quite a long time, at least. Also, the Delta Recruit system is one of the ways they're actually addressing the XP concerns.
Also, c'mon - STO isn't Farmville. Comments like that just discredit the rest of your argument.
there is a lot of stuff in the news blog and some may find it confusing but these are the main points I believe are of most importance >
1.
There will never been a better time to start playing Star Trek Online than during the Delta Recruitment event, which runs from April 2nd to May 21st. Characters made during this time will be Delta Recruits, and they will earn a host of new benefits and rewards to aid them in their levelling experience.
my thoughts, this will only be of use for levelling the delta up to lv60 so no big drawback for existing characters who are at lv60.
just don't bother creating any new characters between now and April 2nd, if you have any characters who are still levelling you should be able to get them at least to lv50 by then so no big loss there.
2.
Delta Recruits will be playing a parallel story to that of their chosen faction. They have a list of goals that they can achieve at any time, and completing these goals will see them rewarded with equipment, Marks, and other rewards beneficial not just to the Delta Recruit, but to all characters on the same account.
my thoughts, not only delta but existing characters will benefit from this so no big drawback for existing characters, in fact this is beneficial.
3.
Completing the story arcs of your chosen faction will reward you with a unique Starship Trait for all characters on your account: Temporal Insight. This trait will proc a Damage Immunity when you use any Hull Heal on your starship.
my thoughts, not only delta but existing characters will benefit from this so no big drawback for existing characters, in fact this is beneficial.
4.
All Delta Recruits will have an inherent bonus trait during the Delta Recruit Event of generating Dilithium Ore upon defeating enemies, a bonus which extends to your entire group. This trait will only be available during this event and will be gone once the Delta Recruitment event ends, so gather your Dilithium Ore while you can!
my thoughts, as this ends when the event does there is no big drawback for existing characters
here.
plus any dil earned can be transferred to your main when the event ends anyway.
6.
Additional rewards are gained by leveling up, playing through story content up through the Breen story arc, and finding special Delta Recruit objectives on certain mission maps. Many of the same things that players do while levelling their characters will earn Delta Recruits improved rewards!
my thoughts, ok so some benefit for the delta here but what are we talking about so they will get a mk10 widget instead of a mk8, big deal.
7.
all accounts are getting one extra free character slot.
my thoughts, this is a pretty obvious one.
what in this makes anyone think that a delta recruit will be any better off once the event ends then one of your existing character will be I will never know, I may be missing something that others can see but that's the way it looks to me.
as far as I can see the only ones who are likely to loose out are players who don't take part.
so roll a delta even if you only to use the delta while the event is active, what have you got to loose.
if you cant afford to spend a few weeks playing the delta and give your current characters a break you must be in a bad way.
in fact given the moans of many players about levelling new characters I cant see why they haven't made the levelling bonus up to lv50 or lv60 permanent for new characters.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
what in this makes anyone think that a delta recruit will be any better off once the event ends then one of your existing character will be I will never know, I may be missing something that others can see but that's the way it looks to me.
There are some posters here who seem to see almost everything Cryptic does as negative these days.
Free T6 ships? Someone started a thread raging about them using up all their ship slots. Plus the raging that the anniversary ship was not 3 faction-specific ships.
Free anniversary loot: "underwhelming", "I already had it", "some of the free stuff was fed only"
Free space pony? Evil plot for Cryptic to sell us space hay.
2. Delta Recruits will be playing a parallel story to that of their chosen faction. They have a list of goals that they can achieve at any time, and completing these goals will see them rewarded with equipment, Marks, and other rewards beneficial not just to the Delta Recruit, but to all characters on the same account.
my thoughts, not only delta but existing characters will benefit from this so no big drawback for existing characters, in fact this is beneficial.
what in this makes anyone think that a delta recruit will be any better off once the event ends then one of your existing character will be I will never know, I may be missing something that others can see but that's the way it looks to me.
as far as I can see the only ones who are likely to loose out are players who don't take part.
so roll a delta even if you only to use the delta while the event is active, what have you got to loose.
if you cant afford to spend a few weeks playing the delta and give your current characters a break you must be in a bad way.
'completing these goals will see them rewarded with equipment, Marks, and other rewards beneficial not just to the Delta Recruit, but to all characters on the same account.'
this is the part that worries me. there is no mention of how this 'reward' will be beneficial to my other toons. for all i know its permanent captain mastery traits that allow it to share xp and whatnot with all the toons on the account. basically a push by cryptic to make my existing main obsolete and to incentivise me to use the t6 augmented delta ubertoon as my new main.
this is cryptic. the name is no mistake! what isnt being said is perhaps more important that what is being said.
'completing these goals will see them rewarded with equipment, Marks, and other rewards beneficial not just to the Delta Recruit, but to all characters on the same account.'
this is the part that worries me. there is no mention of how this 'reward' will be beneficial to my other toons. for all i know its permanent captain mastery traits that allow it to share xp and whatnot with all the toons on the account. basically a push by cryptic to make my existing main obsolete and to incentivise me to use the t6 augmented delta ubertoon as my new main.
this is cryptic. the name is no mistake! what isnt being said is perhaps more important that what is being said.
"completing these goals will see them rewarded with equipment, Marks, and other rewards beneficial not just to the Delta Recruit, but to all characters on the same account"
whats the problem, so if the delta gets a bonus trait all characters get the same trait, same if the delta gets equipment and Marks, is how I read it.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
"completing these goals will see them rewarded with equipment, Marks, and other rewards beneficial not just to the Delta Recruit, but to all characters on the same account
whats the problem, so if the delta gets a bonus trait all characters get the same trait is how I read it.
but that isnt what is says. it doesnt say 'account-unlocked rewards'. it says the delta toon will get rewards that benefit the other toons on the account. it seems very deliberate wording.
but that isnt what is says. it doesnt say 'account-unlocked rewards'. it says the delta toon will get rewards that benefit the other toons on the account. it seems very deliberate wording.
this sounds like account unlocks to me, and if not what better farmer alt to have then one that rewards your main at the same time it rewards itself.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
this sounds like account unlocks to me, and if not what better farmer alt to have then one that rewards your main at the same time it rewards itself.
because i reckon it would reward alts less than it awards itself, and i dont want to grind on a farmer alt to level my toons.
this is the exact type of incentivised obsolescence that many people are worrying about.
this is the part that worries me. there is no mention of how this 'reward' will be beneficial to my other toons. for all i know its permanent captain mastery traits that allow it to share xp and whatnot with all the toons on the account. basically a push by cryptic to make my existing main obsolete and to incentivise me to use the t6 augmented delta ubertoon as my new main.
I have absolutely no idea how you're equating "to all characters on the same account" with "make my existing main obsolete." I really, truly, don't get that.
The only incentive is to make an additional alt, which will help benefit all the toons you have. There is absolutely nothing that suggests the killing off of our mains' usefulness.
because i reckon it would reward alts less than it awards itself, and i dont want to grind on a farmer alt to level my toons.
this is the exact type of incentivised obsolescence that many people are worrying about.
it probably will reward less but I would rather have 10% extra reward to my main then zero and who said anything about levelling toons all my currents are levelled up anyway, the only thing I will be doing with my delta after the event is daily doff missions so no grinding involved.
I have absolutely no idea how you're equating "to all characters on the same account" with "make my existing main obsolete." I really, truly, don't get that.
The only incentive is to make an additional alt, which will help benefit all the toons you have. There is absolutely nothing that suggests the killing off of our mains' usefulness.
and besides which, just supposing all the doom & gloomers are correct and all the delta recruits kick sand in the face of regulars, then surly better to have one and use him as your new main then be left out in the cold, game over dude.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
Oh man. Almost every thread I read anymore is paranoid players saying stuff like "OMG evul cash grabbing craptic is making everything obsolete. Cryptic lied, the game died OMG OMG OMG." (not referring to the post above me btw, I know sarcasm)
Seriously people, your toons will not become obsolete. If they're built well, it'll take a while to surpass them with delta toons.
Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mother's, and yours.
Reading many posts just gives me a headache. My only concern is that the content I actually play is drying up so fast there is little left. I could care less about traits or upgrading nonstop, I want the STFs back and active. The recent Crystalline event obviously shows the players are still there and want to do the STFs, so just let us have some fun and damn the rest. Throw out your metric handbooks and stop adding fluff. How long can people do the same years old stfs while everything else whithers away?
oh yes wrong thread, delta recruit whatnot, hey go ahead, seems like more wasted effort to me instead of giving us some fun stf or battlezone but WHATEVAH. I am part of the group that hates the story patrol etc missions, and will not do them so I hope they have all new content to do rather than same old tired boring missions. No desire to make new captain anything for years now and dangling a trait or 2 isnt gonna change that. Ooohweeeooooh guess I am a doom & gloomer LMAO
Is it such a shock that the company is trying to make a profit? There's no grand "revenue end-game" - they're just providing the F2P game and offering incentives to purchase content. I'd expect them to continue to tempt me to spend money, otherwise they couldn't keep developing the game.
If they actually had an interest in giving us incentives to play STO, they'd have been fixing bugs, not catching up.
But with Cryptic, there's a problem.
Every time they add something new they do two things:
1) Make it even more of a grind than it already is, forcing slow progression due to the addition of yet something else you need to be competitive and successful in the game because of the need for dilithium and the 8,000 per day refine cap.
The idea behind this, I'm sure, is to try to get us to buy zen and then convert it to dilithium. Do they need to make money? Sure. Do they need to be so heavy-handed that it actually drives players away (and it has, oh, yes, it has)? No.
2) They break the game by introducing bugs - often show-stopping bugs - that make playing STO a chore. They turn it into the exact opposite of fun.
A prime example of item 2 is the Loadout problem. They said they fixed it - which obviously explains why my skill tray gets fouled up and my Bridge Officers drop out just because I switched from one sector to another, or just because I loaded into an STF.
Going into an STF and having your Bridge Officers drop out is not fun. Dealing with bugs that have been introduced and then linger un-fixed for months is not fun. Being told that there aren't enough players being affected by a known bug is not fun (and basically says to the players having the issues: "We know, but we don't care so we're not fixing it").
Are they trying to tempt their customers into paying money? Sure. But they're so ham-fisted about both trying to monetize STO and in not addressing serious problems with the game itself, people walk away (95% of my fleet has left STO with no intention of coming back as long as Cryptic has anything to do with it).
They need to stop monetizing further and start fixing if they really do want this game to survive.
But the history of this game under Cryptic's inept hands bears out that when this latest thing hits, the game will be broken even further. And who wants to give them money for that?
If they actually had an interest in giving us incentives to play STO, they'd have been fixing bugs, not catching up.
But with Cryptic, there's a problem.
Every time they add something new they do two things:
1) Make it even more of a grind than it already is, forcing slow progression due to the addition of yet something else you need to be competitive and successful in the game because of the need for dilithium and the 8,000 per day refine cap.
The idea behind this, I'm sure, is to try to get us to buy zen and then convert it to dilithium. Do they need to make money? Sure. Do they need to be so heavy-handed that it actually drives players away (and it has, oh, yes, it has)? No.
2) They break the game by introducing bugs - often show-stopping bugs - that make playing STO a chore. They turn it into the exact opposite of fun.
A prime example of item 2 is the Loadout problem. They said they fixed it - which obviously explains why my skill tray gets fouled up and my Bridge Officers drop out just because I switched from one sector to another, or just because I loaded into an STF.
...
But the history of this game under Cryptic's inept hands bears out that when this latest thing hits, the game will be broken even further. And who wants to give them money for that?
They do fix bugs. Every week. With a full-out system downtime patch. But they can't fix everything immediately, and some bugs (clearly the boff issue included) are so complex that it's going to take quite some time to track and fix it. They've made big improvements to the boff system for sure, so I'm quite happy with that. It's not at 100%, but I'd be ok with saying it's 80% fixed by now, or at least that's been my experience.
And I honestly don't feel that STO has an excessive amount of grind. It's only a grindfest if you blatantly ignore the clearly stated goals and intents of things like captain specializations, upgrades, and so on - these were designed to be long-term goals the players could work towards over time. And they were designed this way because there was enough of the playerbase who had finished more-or-less everything and had been loudly complaining that there were no more long-term goals left in the game. It's only a grindfest if you're trying to get absolutely everything right away, previously by the popular way of parking at Argala and playing the patrol for hours, which was an entirely self-inflicted pain. But if upgrades and spec points were instant and everyone had finished them within a month of DR dropping, then there would've been complaints about there not being enough to do again.
They tried something new here. I feel it worked, but I understand that several players feel it didn't. But it's not drastic enough to make STO no longer 'fun,' or to give reason to start yelling about the company being "inept." They implemented a new mechanic, with clearly stated long-term goals. I was ok with that from day one, because I both A) understood that it would be quite some time before I'd completed everything, and figured I'd be playing the game for the foreseeable future anyways, so I'd just earn things as I went along.
And as for ZEN-to-dil conversion, yeah that's an option. It's part of the many avenues that Cryptic has to make money. I get that, and I think it's fine. STO is clearly not a pay-to-win game - it's a pay-to-speed-up game. It allows you to pay to eliminate the cooldowns, which aren't that excessive anyways. 20hrs for a research project seems legit to me. A few hours for upgrading a piece of equipment to Mk XIV is also fine. Sure, sometimes I'll pay the dil cost if I want to use it right away - I like that it's an option. But I'm not going to complain that there's the additional option of using ZEN to get dil to pay those costs. It's a great way to make a couple bucks in an otherwise F2P game, and it's entirely player choice to use real money in this case.
Also... I just want to point out that signatures like your "Star Wreck: Slow Death, Franchise Killer" don't really do anything. It's just silly, and looks petty. If you do post bug reports or make suggestions in the general area elsewhere, I really don't think anyone would take you seriously.
And I honestly don't feel that STO has an excessive amount of grind. It's only a grindfest if you blatantly ignore the clearly stated goals and intents of things like captain specializations, upgrades, and so on - these were designed to be long-term goals the players could work towards over time. And they were designed this way because there was enough of the playerbase who had finished more-or-less everything and had been loudly complaining that there were no more long-term goals left in the game. It's only a grindfest if you're trying to get absolutely everything right away, previously by the popular way of parking at Argala and playing the patrol for hours, which was an entirely self-inflicted pain. But if upgrades and spec points were instant and everyone had finished them within a month of DR dropping, then there would've been complaints about there not being enough to do again.
I pretend spec don't exist past 60. That's aberrant game play induced by poor game design. I should *want* to use the new system.
If I were a disciple of the Church of the One True Main I'd probably love spec points, but I'm not, so I don't.
This is my Risian Corvette. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Plus, the Republic only gets access to allied ships while leveling up. Once T5 hits, we have unique ships. And the singularity comes at a -40 reduction to base power. So it's a big tradeoff.
Either way, it won't be an exodus. Might create more viable alts, but I can't see a flat-out dropping of original main toons.
That... doesn't make any sense. New alts will in no way help the end-game STF content. Not for quite a long time, at least. Also, the Delta Recruit system is one of the ways they're actually addressing the XP concerns.
Also, c'mon - STO isn't Farmville. Comments like that just discredit the rest of your argument.
-40 power is nothing
Jellico....Engineer ground.....Da'val Romulan space Sci
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
it probably will reward less but I would rather have 10% extra reward to my main then zero and who said anything about levelling toons all my currents are levelled up anyway, the only thing I will be doing with my delta after the event is daily doff missions so no grinding involved.
and this.
and besides which, just supposing all the doom & gloomers are correct and all the delta recruits kick sand in the face of regulars, then surly better to have one and use him as your new main then be left out in the cold, game over dude.
New Main .......................Not on your life
If my mains are made obsolete I will probably just quit the game...Just like a did to SWG when they took our mains from is
degrading something I have worked on for 3 years is not a option I will tolerate because if they do they will do it to the new delta toons in about a year
Delta toons will be Pandora's box it may be good or evil ......seems like cryptic is testing the waters about it on the forums by the lack of concrete info about it
Jellico....Engineer ground.....Da'val Romulan space Sci
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
this new toon is going to do is force player to level a new toon that isnt needed or wanted omg and cost a ton of money just to make us have a toon to rule alll. I am sorry but its a rap when you have to buy or grind just to play. That isnt fun sorry maybe the dev's dont understand......This is the worse ideal in the history of sto to bind gear and story line too toons is wrong and will lead to nothing less then our mains toons death. wich i have spent thousands over the years...
And ne body that silly enough to beleave they wont demote your main just to make you spend more isnt playing sto
I feel the need to throw in my $.02 here. I'm reading a lot of people are worried the " delta recruit" will make current main toon obsolete or under-performing in some way. While I personally don't believe this to be the case it is a valid worry. However, here are some reasons I am not worried about this:
1) Having played this game since open beta I've witnessed ALL the transformations it has gone through. The first couple years are distant memories,, some good,, some bad, however one thing has stayed constant: The FIRST character I EVER made CHAOS is STILL my best toon. He's been in and out of retirement more times than I can count while I've been leveling my other 8 Fed 2 Romulan and 2 Klingon toons. When I log in and just want to kick some TRIBBLE and have some fun Chaos is pretty much the toon I turn too. My other toons are BETTER in SOME ways,, but overall CHAOS is the best of the group.
2) Although Cryptic has made some,, shall we say,, Interesting changes to game the last year or so, I believe that fundamentally they know if Delta Recruits are FAR above current characters they anger much of the Veteran player-base and that is NOT a road to profit
3) Its been said Time and Time again by different Devs that they are after new players. What BUSSINESS isn't? Players = Customers in the MMO world and ALL business's want NEW customers to walk through the front door,, or log on to their website. That being said any SMART business knows they must attract NEW customers without alienating EXISTING customers.
4) The Reports of STO's doom are greatly exaggerated: As stated before I've been playing since open beta. I don't pretend to be an EXPERT on ANYTHING STO,, however I can say I have been seeing DOOM AND GLOOM threads since about the second week in! I believe its natural for a certain segment of society to see DOOM AND GLOOM in everything... I am that way to a certain extent about many thing,, however NOT when it comes to STO. Anyone who was here during the Great Content Drought when Cryptic was being bought by PWE and NO ONE including the Devs new/ was talking about what was going to happen couldn't help but have doomy thoughts about the game.. will it be here next week? Is Cryptic going going to close the doors? Will the new owners keep STO running or just take Cryptics engine and Devs and run for the hills? It was COMPLETELY understandable back then. Today, however, is a completely different story. I've seen various threads over the last few months about " PWE stocks plummeting" and I had to wonder if MAYBE DOOM was indeed coming. A quick search of the interweb found that while PWE's Stock HAS indeed dropped a considerable amount in the last few years... lately its been going up a few cents and down a few cents every other day,, and holding its own pretty much. If you look at the overall picture of the Stock Market.. ITS BEEN DOING THE SAME THING!!! I put NO faith AT ALL in a companies Stock Market value,, to me its MEANINGLESS.. and there will be those that choose to argue that point,, and rightly say,, each unto their own, however I believe STO will be here for many more years and I choose to be at least Cautiously OPTIMISTIC about the future.
Well that's my Two Cents worth on the Delta Recruitment and the future of STO. I plan on making One possible two Delta Recruit characters. Hardest part is going to be decideing which faction and species they will be.
One more thing: Anyone who is on the Fence about this should perhaps consider creating a Klingon character. Klingons have been neglected for a long time,, I have two that I haven't played in quite some time. Perhaps I will use the Delta Recruitment as a reason to start a new Klingon character. The " new" missions I haven't played and overall Klingon story was quite good when I last played it. Perhaps if Crytpic sees an influx of interest in the Klingon faction then the Klinks will get some love after all.. Just a thought,, I'm not on a Crusade for the Klinks or anything.
Everyone should sit back,, relax,, enjoy the game,, and most of all HAVE FUN!!!!! When a game starts to feel like a job its time to step away for a week or two.. everything will still be their when you get back... well ALMOST everything
*************************** Fleet Admiral In charge of Bacon Fighting 5th Attack Squadron The Devils Henchman
I feel the need to throw in my $.02 here. I'm reading a lot of people are worried the " delta recruit" will make current main toon obsolete or under-performing in some way. While I personally don't believe this to be the case it is a valid worry. However, here are some reasons I am not worried about this:
1) Having played this game since open beta I've witnessed ALL the transformations it has gone through. The first couple years are distant memories,, some good,, some bad, however one thing has stayed constant: The FIRST character I EVER made CHAOS is STILL my best toon. He's been in and out of retirement more times than I can count while I've been leveling my other 8 Fed 2 Romulan and 2 Klingon toons. When I log in and just want to kick some TRIBBLE and have some fun Chaos is pretty much the toon I turn too. My other toons are BETTER in SOME ways,, but overall CHAOS is the best of the group.
2) Although Cryptic has made some,, shall we say,, Interesting changes to game the last year or so, I believe that fundamentally they know if Delta Recruits are FAR above current characters they anger much of the Veteran player-base and that is NOT a road to profit
3) Its been said Time and Time again by different Devs that they are after new players. What BUSSINESS isn't? Players = Customers in the MMO world and ALL business's want NEW customers to walk through the front door,, or log on to their website. That being said any SMART business knows they must attract NEW customers without alienating EXISTING customers.
4) The Reports of STO's doom are greatly exaggerated: As stated before I've been playing since open beta. I don't pretend to be an EXPERT on ANYTHING STO,, however I can say I have been seeing DOOM AND GLOOM threads since about the second week in! I believe its natural for a certain segment of society to see DOOM AND GLOOM in everything... I am that way to a certain extent about many thing,, however NOT when it comes to STO. Anyone who was here during the Great Content Drought when Cryptic was being bought by PWE and NO ONE including the Devs new/ was talking about what was going to happen couldn't help but have doomy thoughts about the game.. will it be here next week? Is Cryptic going going to close the doors? Will the new owners keep STO running or just take Cryptics engine and Devs and run for the hills? It was COMPLETELY understandable back then. Today, however, is a completely different story. I've seen various threads over the last few months about " PWE stocks plummeting" and I had to wonder if MAYBE DOOM was indeed coming. A quick search of the interweb found that while PWE's Stock HAS indeed dropped a considerable amount in the last few years... lately its been going up a few cents and down a few cents every other day,, and holding its own pretty much. If you look at the overall picture of the Stock Market.. ITS BEEN DOING THE SAME THING!!! I put NO faith AT ALL in a companies Stock Market value,, to me its MEANINGLESS.. and there will be those that choose to argue that point,, and rightly say,, each unto their own, however I believe STO will be here for many more years and I choose to be at least Cautiously OPTIMISTIC about the future.
Well that's my Two Cents worth on the Delta Recruitment and the future of STO. I plan on making One possible two Delta Recruit characters. Hardest part is going to be decideing which faction and species they will be.
One more thing: Anyone who is on the Fence about this should perhaps consider creating a Klingon character. Klingons have been neglected for a long time,, I have two that I haven't played in quite some time. Perhaps I will use the Delta Recruitment as a reason to start a new Klingon character. The " new" missions I haven't played and overall Klingon story was quite good when I last played it. Perhaps if Crytpic sees an influx of interest in the Klingon faction then the Klinks will get some love after all.. Just a thought,, I'm not on a Crusade for the Klinks or anything.
Everyone should sit back,, relax,, enjoy the game,, and most of all HAVE FUN!!!!! When a game starts to feel like a job its time to step away for a week or two.. everything will still be their when you get back... well ALMOST everything
in short you are a dev fan boy and beleave they dont make mistakes
Sorry first real arguements to its a game just relax and play is .
One I spend tons of time and energy and a ton of cash in this game i consider more of a hobby a lil more serious then just a mere game.
Two. You sound like the u.s federal goverment saying it will be okay sit back and relax the goverment here. We are here to help you the next thing you we all are in prison. Fact is the world is liable to get worse before its gets better if ne says diff look at your history.
I feel the need to throw in my $.02 here. I'm reading a lot of people are worried the " delta recruit" will make current main toon obsolete or under-performing in some way. While I personally don't believe this to be the case it is a valid worry. However, here are some reasons I am not worried about this:
1) Having played this game since open beta I've witnessed ALL the transformations it has gone through. The first couple years are distant memories,, some good,, some bad, however one thing has stayed constant: The FIRST character I EVER made CHAOS is STILL my best toon. He's been in and out of retirement more times than I can count while I've been leveling my other 8 Fed 2 Romulan and 2 Klingon toons. When I log in and just want to kick some TRIBBLE and have some fun Chaos is pretty much the toon I turn too. My other toons are BETTER in SOME ways,, but overall CHAOS is the best of the group.
2) Although Cryptic has made some,, shall we say,, Interesting changes to game the last year or so, I believe that fundamentally they know if Delta Recruits are FAR above current characters they anger much of the Veteran player-base and that is NOT a road to profit
3) Its been said Time and Time again by different Devs that they are after new players. What BUSSINESS isn't? Players = Customers in the MMO world and ALL business's want NEW customers to walk through the front door,, or log on to their website. That being said any SMART business knows they must attract NEW customers without alienating EXISTING customers.
4) The Reports of STO's doom are greatly exaggerated: As stated before I've been playing since open beta. I don't pretend to be an EXPERT on ANYTHING STO,, however I can say I have been seeing DOOM AND GLOOM threads since about the second week in! I believe its natural for a certain segment of society to see DOOM AND GLOOM in everything... I am that way to a certain extent about many thing,, however NOT when it comes to STO. Anyone who was here during the Great Content Drought when Cryptic was being bought by PWE and NO ONE including the Devs new/ was talking about what was going to happen couldn't help but have doomy thoughts about the game.. will it be here next week? Is Cryptic going going to close the doors? Will the new owners keep STO running or just take Cryptics engine and Devs and run for the hills? It was COMPLETELY understandable back then. Today, however, is a completely different story. I've seen various threads over the last few months about " PWE stocks plummeting" and I had to wonder if MAYBE DOOM was indeed coming. A quick search of the interweb found that while PWE's Stock HAS indeed dropped a considerable amount in the last few years... lately its been going up a few cents and down a few cents every other day,, and holding its own pretty much. If you look at the overall picture of the Stock Market.. ITS BEEN DOING THE SAME THING!!! I put NO faith AT ALL in a companies Stock Market value,, to me its MEANINGLESS.. and there will be those that choose to argue that point,, and rightly say,, each unto their own, however I believe STO will be here for many more years and I choose to be at least Cautiously OPTIMISTIC about the future.
Well that's my Two Cents worth on the Delta Recruitment and the future of STO. I plan on making One possible two Delta Recruit characters. Hardest part is going to be decideing which faction and species they will be.
One more thing: Anyone who is on the Fence about this should perhaps consider creating a Klingon character. Klingons have been neglected for a long time,, I have two that I haven't played in quite some time. Perhaps I will use the Delta Recruitment as a reason to start a new Klingon character. The " new" missions I haven't played and overall Klingon story was quite good when I last played it. Perhaps if Crytpic sees an influx of interest in the Klingon faction then the Klinks will get some love after all.. Just a thought,, I'm not on a Crusade for the Klinks or anything.
Everyone should sit back,, relax,, enjoy the game,, and most of all HAVE FUN!!!!! When a game starts to feel like a job its time to step away for a week or two.. everything will still be their when you get back... well ALMOST everything
Yeah it's important to remember that Delta recruits provide bonuses to your "main" character too. Actually, probably all the permanent bonuses really.
Only if you spend countless hours of your life grinding a new character to level #60 (and possibly beyond) first.
"Countless"? Erm, I'm pretty sure that you could get to 60 just by playing the entire story line once. It's not like you need to do 1000 patrols to get to 60.
When something new comes into the game many people get excited. I can get that and new things coming to the game are desirable. My only hope is that it will not make the old characters less desirable or underpowered. If u gonna spend lots of time polishing one character, spending hundredths of millions of EC on it trying to get it as close "perfection" u don't wanna see it suddenly "just ok" like with t5 ships.
Hopefully the devs will find a way not to waste players hard work and personal preferences.
My level of excitement about this is "0"....rather see more Bonus XP weekends than grinding a new alternate and for what....so that CRYPTIC can present these numbers to their PWE boss and say...look more new player playing this MMO...Best Expansion EVER. :eek:
Might be relutctant to do for the account wide benefits at most but thrill...NOT me
"Countless"? Erm, I'm pretty sure that you could get to 60 just by playing the entire story line once. It's not like you need to do 1000 patrols to get to 60.
aye this stuff is over exaggeratted as well. Even after completing the bulk of the storyline on my other guys before the delta rising hit I really didnt have that much issue levelling them.
As for starting fresh with a delta recruit well I had actually started a new character recently which I am going to delete and I think I have played him for a max of 1 or maybe 1.5 hours and he is level 20 soo I dont know about this horrible grind. Its a bit borring starting a new character I can vouch for that but really I found once I got the level that lets me do the duty officer stuff I could login on busy days and q up a bunch of doff missions and level that way. Then one a weekend play for an hour or something.
I actually started a guy at christmas time and just ran him through the starter stuff to get him to level 10 so i could get him some of those ships..now i am deleting him for this delta thing so the only thing I regret is the fact those ships I think are character bound .. but that is okay.. i can get them next winter I guess.
from what I read this delta recruit offers account wide bonuses if you manage to level him up. I dont think this is a bad thing and getting to level 30 is well a cakewalk...
Comments
The numbers seem to disagree (http://images-cdn.perfectworld.com/arc/15/df/15dfd990d3e6a010b50cf51079f2d8ef1422556818.jpg). And even though that's not date-specific, I'd say the Starfleet/KDF/Republic split is about accurate to what I see in-game.
Plus, the Republic only gets access to allied ships while leveling up. Once T5 hits, we have unique ships. And the singularity comes at a -40 reduction to base power. So it's a big tradeoff.
Either way, it won't be an exodus. Might create more viable alts, but I can't see a flat-out dropping of original main toons.
That... doesn't make any sense. New alts will in no way help the end-game STF content. Not for quite a long time, at least. Also, the Delta Recruit system is one of the ways they're actually addressing the XP concerns.
Also, c'mon - STO isn't Farmville. Comments like that just discredit the rest of your argument.
1.
There will never been a better time to start playing Star Trek Online than during the Delta Recruitment event, which runs from April 2nd to May 21st. Characters made during this time will be Delta Recruits, and they will earn a host of new benefits and rewards to aid them in their levelling experience.
my thoughts, this will only be of use for levelling the delta up to lv60 so no big drawback for existing characters who are at lv60.
just don't bother creating any new characters between now and April 2nd, if you have any characters who are still levelling you should be able to get them at least to lv50 by then so no big loss there.
2.
Delta Recruits will be playing a parallel story to that of their chosen faction. They have a list of goals that they can achieve at any time, and completing these goals will see them rewarded with equipment, Marks, and other rewards beneficial not just to the Delta Recruit, but to all characters on the same account.
my thoughts, not only delta but existing characters will benefit from this so no big drawback for existing characters, in fact this is beneficial.
3.
Completing the story arcs of your chosen faction will reward you with a unique Starship Trait for all characters on your account: Temporal Insight. This trait will proc a Damage Immunity when you use any Hull Heal on your starship.
my thoughts, not only delta but existing characters will benefit from this so no big drawback for existing characters, in fact this is beneficial.
4.
All Delta Recruits will have an inherent bonus trait during the Delta Recruit Event of generating Dilithium Ore upon defeating enemies, a bonus which extends to your entire group. This trait will only be available during this event and will be gone once the Delta Recruitment event ends, so gather your Dilithium Ore while you can!
my thoughts, as this ends when the event does there is no big drawback for existing characters
here.
plus any dil earned can be transferred to your main when the event ends anyway.
6.
Additional rewards are gained by leveling up, playing through story content up through the Breen story arc, and finding special Delta Recruit objectives on certain mission maps. Many of the same things that players do while levelling their characters will earn Delta Recruits improved rewards!
my thoughts, ok so some benefit for the delta here but what are we talking about so they will get a mk10 widget instead of a mk8, big deal.
7.
all accounts are getting one extra free character slot.
my thoughts, this is a pretty obvious one.
what in this makes anyone think that a delta recruit will be any better off once the event ends then one of your existing character will be I will never know, I may be missing something that others can see but that's the way it looks to me.
as far as I can see the only ones who are likely to loose out are players who don't take part.
so roll a delta even if you only to use the delta while the event is active, what have you got to loose.
if you cant afford to spend a few weeks playing the delta and give your current characters a break you must be in a bad way.
in fact given the moans of many players about levelling new characters I cant see why they haven't made the levelling bonus up to lv50 or lv60 permanent for new characters.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
There are some posters here who seem to see almost everything Cryptic does as negative these days.
Free T6 ships? Someone started a thread raging about them using up all their ship slots. Plus the raging that the anniversary ship was not 3 faction-specific ships.
Free anniversary loot: "underwhelming", "I already had it", "some of the free stuff was fed only"
Free space pony? Evil plot for Cryptic to sell us space hay.
this is the part that worries me. there is no mention of how this 'reward' will be beneficial to my other toons. for all i know its permanent captain mastery traits that allow it to share xp and whatnot with all the toons on the account. basically a push by cryptic to make my existing main obsolete and to incentivise me to use the t6 augmented delta ubertoon as my new main.
this is cryptic. the name is no mistake! what isnt being said is perhaps more important that what is being said.
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"completing these goals will see them rewarded with equipment, Marks, and other rewards beneficial not just to the Delta Recruit, but to all characters on the same account"
whats the problem, so if the delta gets a bonus trait all characters get the same trait, same if the delta gets equipment and Marks, is how I read it.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
You get to the character screen after login, and the DR alt is standing there in place of your main! :eek:
but that isnt what is says. it doesnt say 'account-unlocked rewards'. it says the delta toon will get rewards that benefit the other toons on the account. it seems very deliberate wording.
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this sounds like account unlocks to me, and if not what better farmer alt to have then one that rewards your main at the same time it rewards itself.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
because i reckon it would reward alts less than it awards itself, and i dont want to grind on a farmer alt to level my toons.
this is the exact type of incentivised obsolescence that many people are worrying about.
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I have absolutely no idea how you're equating "to all characters on the same account" with "make my existing main obsolete." I really, truly, don't get that.
The only incentive is to make an additional alt, which will help benefit all the toons you have. There is absolutely nothing that suggests the killing off of our mains' usefulness.
it probably will reward less but I would rather have 10% extra reward to my main then zero and who said anything about levelling toons all my currents are levelled up anyway, the only thing I will be doing with my delta after the event is daily doff missions so no grinding involved.
and this.
and besides which, just supposing all the doom & gloomers are correct and all the delta recruits kick sand in the face of regulars, then surly better to have one and use him as your new main then be left out in the cold, game over dude.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
Sadly, Cryptic is planning to make it so your new Delta Recruit captain takes over all away team missions, for all of your characters.
Or at least that's what the voices in my head tell me. Dooooooom!
(No not really.)
Seriously people, your toons will not become obsolete. If they're built well, it'll take a while to surpass them with delta toons.
Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mother's, and yours.
I dare you to do better.
oh yes wrong thread, delta recruit whatnot, hey go ahead, seems like more wasted effort to me instead of giving us some fun stf or battlezone but WHATEVAH. I am part of the group that hates the story patrol etc missions, and will not do them so I hope they have all new content to do rather than same old tired boring missions. No desire to make new captain anything for years now and dangling a trait or 2 isnt gonna change that. Ooohweeeooooh guess I am a doom & gloomer LMAO
If they actually had an interest in giving us incentives to play STO, they'd have been fixing bugs, not catching up.
But with Cryptic, there's a problem.
Every time they add something new they do two things:
1) Make it even more of a grind than it already is, forcing slow progression due to the addition of yet something else you need to be competitive and successful in the game because of the need for dilithium and the 8,000 per day refine cap.
The idea behind this, I'm sure, is to try to get us to buy zen and then convert it to dilithium. Do they need to make money? Sure. Do they need to be so heavy-handed that it actually drives players away (and it has, oh, yes, it has)? No.
2) They break the game by introducing bugs - often show-stopping bugs - that make playing STO a chore. They turn it into the exact opposite of fun.
A prime example of item 2 is the Loadout problem. They said they fixed it - which obviously explains why my skill tray gets fouled up and my Bridge Officers drop out just because I switched from one sector to another, or just because I loaded into an STF.
Going into an STF and having your Bridge Officers drop out is not fun. Dealing with bugs that have been introduced and then linger un-fixed for months is not fun. Being told that there aren't enough players being affected by a known bug is not fun (and basically says to the players having the issues: "We know, but we don't care so we're not fixing it").
Are they trying to tempt their customers into paying money? Sure. But they're so ham-fisted about both trying to monetize STO and in not addressing serious problems with the game itself, people walk away (95% of my fleet has left STO with no intention of coming back as long as Cryptic has anything to do with it).
They need to stop monetizing further and start fixing if they really do want this game to survive.
But the history of this game under Cryptic's inept hands bears out that when this latest thing hits, the game will be broken even further. And who wants to give them money for that?
They do fix bugs. Every week. With a full-out system downtime patch. But they can't fix everything immediately, and some bugs (clearly the boff issue included) are so complex that it's going to take quite some time to track and fix it. They've made big improvements to the boff system for sure, so I'm quite happy with that. It's not at 100%, but I'd be ok with saying it's 80% fixed by now, or at least that's been my experience.
And I honestly don't feel that STO has an excessive amount of grind. It's only a grindfest if you blatantly ignore the clearly stated goals and intents of things like captain specializations, upgrades, and so on - these were designed to be long-term goals the players could work towards over time. And they were designed this way because there was enough of the playerbase who had finished more-or-less everything and had been loudly complaining that there were no more long-term goals left in the game. It's only a grindfest if you're trying to get absolutely everything right away, previously by the popular way of parking at Argala and playing the patrol for hours, which was an entirely self-inflicted pain. But if upgrades and spec points were instant and everyone had finished them within a month of DR dropping, then there would've been complaints about there not being enough to do again.
They tried something new here. I feel it worked, but I understand that several players feel it didn't. But it's not drastic enough to make STO no longer 'fun,' or to give reason to start yelling about the company being "inept." They implemented a new mechanic, with clearly stated long-term goals. I was ok with that from day one, because I both A) understood that it would be quite some time before I'd completed everything, and
And as for ZEN-to-dil conversion, yeah that's an option. It's part of the many avenues that Cryptic has to make money. I get that, and I think it's fine. STO is clearly not a pay-to-win game - it's a pay-to-speed-up game. It allows you to pay to eliminate the cooldowns, which aren't that excessive anyways. 20hrs for a research project seems legit to me. A few hours for upgrading a piece of equipment to Mk XIV is also fine. Sure, sometimes I'll pay the dil cost if I want to use it right away - I like that it's an option. But I'm not going to complain that there's the additional option of using ZEN to get dil to pay those costs. It's a great way to make a couple bucks in an otherwise F2P game, and it's entirely player choice to use real money in this case.
Also... I just want to point out that signatures like your "Star Wreck: Slow Death, Franchise Killer" don't really do anything. It's just silly, and looks petty. If you do post bug reports or make suggestions in the general area elsewhere, I really don't think anyone would take you seriously.
I pretend spec don't exist past 60. That's aberrant game play induced by poor game design. I should *want* to use the new system.
If I were a disciple of the Church of the One True Main I'd probably love spec points, but I'm not, so I don't.
-40 power is nothing
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
New Main .......................Not on your life
If my mains are made obsolete I will probably just quit the game...Just like a did to SWG when they took our mains from is
degrading something I have worked on for 3 years is not a option I will tolerate because if they do they will do it to the new delta toons in about a year
Delta toons will be Pandora's box it may be good or evil ......seems like cryptic is testing the waters about it on the forums by the lack of concrete info about it
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
And ne body that silly enough to beleave they wont demote your main just to make you spend more isnt playing sto
1) Having played this game since open beta I've witnessed ALL the transformations it has gone through. The first couple years are distant memories,, some good,, some bad, however one thing has stayed constant: The FIRST character I EVER made CHAOS is STILL my best toon. He's been in and out of retirement more times than I can count while I've been leveling my other 8 Fed 2 Romulan and 2 Klingon toons. When I log in and just want to kick some TRIBBLE and have some fun Chaos is pretty much the toon I turn too. My other toons are BETTER in SOME ways,, but overall CHAOS is the best of the group.
2) Although Cryptic has made some,, shall we say,, Interesting changes to game the last year or so, I believe that fundamentally they know if Delta Recruits are FAR above current characters they anger much of the Veteran player-base and that is NOT a road to profit
3) Its been said Time and Time again by different Devs that they are after new players. What BUSSINESS isn't? Players = Customers in the MMO world and ALL business's want NEW customers to walk through the front door,, or log on to their website. That being said any SMART business knows they must attract NEW customers without alienating EXISTING customers.
4) The Reports of STO's doom are greatly exaggerated: As stated before I've been playing since open beta. I don't pretend to be an EXPERT on ANYTHING STO,, however I can say I have been seeing DOOM AND GLOOM threads since about the second week in! I believe its natural for a certain segment of society to see DOOM AND GLOOM in everything... I am that way to a certain extent about many thing,, however NOT when it comes to STO. Anyone who was here during the Great Content Drought when Cryptic was being bought by PWE and NO ONE including the Devs new/ was talking about what was going to happen couldn't help but have doomy thoughts about the game.. will it be here next week? Is Cryptic going going to close the doors? Will the new owners keep STO running or just take Cryptics engine and Devs and run for the hills? It was COMPLETELY understandable back then. Today, however, is a completely different story. I've seen various threads over the last few months about " PWE stocks plummeting" and I had to wonder if MAYBE DOOM was indeed coming. A quick search of the interweb found that while PWE's Stock HAS indeed dropped a considerable amount in the last few years... lately its been going up a few cents and down a few cents every other day,, and holding its own pretty much. If you look at the overall picture of the Stock Market.. ITS BEEN DOING THE SAME THING!!! I put NO faith AT ALL in a companies Stock Market value,, to me its MEANINGLESS.. and there will be those that choose to argue that point,, and rightly say,, each unto their own, however I believe STO will be here for many more years and I choose to be at least Cautiously OPTIMISTIC about the future.
Well that's my Two Cents worth on the Delta Recruitment and the future of STO. I plan on making One possible two Delta Recruit characters. Hardest part is going to be decideing which faction and species they will be.
One more thing: Anyone who is on the Fence about this should perhaps consider creating a Klingon character. Klingons have been neglected for a long time,, I have two that I haven't played in quite some time. Perhaps I will use the Delta Recruitment as a reason to start a new Klingon character. The " new" missions I haven't played and overall Klingon story was quite good when I last played it. Perhaps if Crytpic sees an influx of interest in the Klingon faction then the Klinks will get some love after all.. Just a thought,, I'm not on a Crusade for the Klinks or anything.
Everyone should sit back,, relax,, enjoy the game,, and most of all HAVE FUN!!!!! When a game starts to feel like a job its time to step away for a week or two.. everything will still be their when you get back... well ALMOST everything
Fleet Admiral In charge of Bacon
Fighting 5th Attack Squadron
The Devils Henchman
in short you are a dev fan boy and beleave they dont make mistakes
One I spend tons of time and energy and a ton of cash in this game i consider more of a hobby a lil more serious then just a mere game.
Two. You sound like the u.s federal goverment saying it will be okay sit back and relax the goverment here. We are here to help you the next thing you we all are in prison. Fact is the world is liable to get worse before its gets better if ne says diff look at your history.
My character Tsin'xing
My character Tsin'xing
My level of excitement about this is "0"....rather see more Bonus XP weekends than grinding a new alternate and for what....so that CRYPTIC can present these numbers to their PWE boss and say...look more new player playing this MMO...Best Expansion EVER. :eek:
Might be relutctant to do for the account wide benefits at most but thrill...NOT me
There'll be XP boosts. And the XP payout of missions as-is should get you to lvl60 way before you even hit the Delta Quadrant.
aye this stuff is over exaggeratted as well. Even after completing the bulk of the storyline on my other guys before the delta rising hit I really didnt have that much issue levelling them.
As for starting fresh with a delta recruit well I had actually started a new character recently which I am going to delete and I think I have played him for a max of 1 or maybe 1.5 hours and he is level 20 soo I dont know about this horrible grind. Its a bit borring starting a new character I can vouch for that but really I found once I got the level that lets me do the duty officer stuff I could login on busy days and q up a bunch of doff missions and level that way. Then one a weekend play for an hour or something.
I actually started a guy at christmas time and just ran him through the starter stuff to get him to level 10 so i could get him some of those ships..now i am deleting him for this delta thing so the only thing I regret is the fact those ships I think are character bound .. but that is okay.. i can get them next winter I guess.
from what I read this delta recruit offers account wide bonuses if you manage to level him up. I dont think this is a bad thing and getting to level 30 is well a cakewalk...