To be honest ISA is not that difficult, but it all depends on the dps. If the DPS is not that strong, you have to have someone dedicated to holding back the nanite spheres long enough for the rest of the team to bring down the generator.
On my sci captain, I usually assume this role without anything being said. I fly a Vesta Tac torp boat with TS III, II, HY I, with GW III and I. I have Neutronic, Bio-Molecular, and Plasma Emission torps up front.
With this setup and me holding the spheres, I have not lost an ISA yet. This setup can almost clear the spheres solo; almost. The biggest thing is that between the grav wells and the plasma emission torp on TS III and II, the entire group of spheres is completely immobilized.
All that said, since the last few patches the Advanced ques are way harder than they were when DR first rolled out, and stupidly tougher than the old elite ques pre-DR. I like the challenge, but it is slightly out of balance right now.
FA Janin Delwynn - Fed Tac Officer
FA Dion - Romulan Engineer Officer
FA Zophie Delwynn - Fed Science Officer
The fact of the matter is that what they should have done is leave the existing difficulty levels alone for the normal, advanced & elite stf's & introduced an epic difficulty level to cater to those that wanted that level of a challenge. Instead, we now have advanced & elite level stf's that are impossible for most players & classes excpet for the massive dps'rs. It also seems to me that now the devs can't get the balance correct again. Perhaps they should consider putting the stf's back to pre-DR levels & taking my suggestion of introducing an epic difficulty level.
So is Cryptic now catering to the dps'res & pvp'rs? Maybe, since these are probably the players (whales) most likely to actually spend money. So, in a way this feels like Cryptic is abandoning new players & alt toons in favor of the whales.
Thanks to Cryptic for sucking all the fun outta the game for the majority of players!
I agree. Why the two existing STFs needed to be adjusted is beyond my comprehension. If a new tougher level was needed, then why not just add it and leave the others alone.
Having said that, giving a 30-50% chance of getting a BNP on normal would solve one problem.
On a separate tangent, I'm not finding my Omega and Assimilated sets to be too different than my free Dyson and Kobali sets. As others have pointed out, the bad guys are stripping your shields in the blink of an eye. It's difficult to determine if one set is a vast improvement over another.
To be honest ISA is not that difficult, but it all depends on the dps. If the DPS is not that strong, you have to have someone dedicated to holding back the nanite spheres long enough for the rest of the team to bring down the generator.
On my sci captain, I usually assume this role without anything being said. I fly a Vesta Tac torp boat with TS III, II, HY I, with GW III and I. I have Neutronic, Bio-Molecular, and Plasma Emission torps up front.
With this setup and me holding the spheres, I have not lost an ISA yet. This setup can almost clear the spheres solo; almost. The biggest thing is that between the grav wells and the plasma emission torp on TS III and II, the entire group of spheres is completely immobilized.
All that said, since the last few patches the Advanced ques are way harder than they were when DR first rolled out, and stupidly tougher than the old elite ques pre-DR. I like the challenge, but it is slightly out of balance right now.
Yep, as my DPS is not great I tend to use my sarr theln for ISA, grav well 1 and 3 with tt1,bfaw2 and ts3 with crystalline torp and a decent AP set up.
I tend to break off the engagement at the transformer and go grav well the nanite ships when i spot them and i'm very situational aware so i can just slam in the grav well and carry on with the transformer if i'm not dealing nanite ships.
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
I can see why but they keep on changing the rules a lot as of late. Fail timers due to lack of DPS have been roved. A friend of mine and I pug KASA and CSA more and more often in old fashion cannon build escorts as of late. If the two of us tend to the critical part of those missions we usually do fine and the quality of the pugs only set the duration of the mission.
Edit: Perhaps I was drunk or havent done CSA too often lately but have the hull hit points of assimilated BoPs been reduced? They seem more easy to shoot and my friend was under the same impression.
Tried CSA with my fleet after DR hit and i've never seen BOPS that take forever to shoot down before, was a rude shock, honest answer not a clue, have not done CSA for a while now
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
maybe, we should have in these forums a Tutorial section. but, Not with all the shinny/expensive stuff; tutorials for 10k builds which use only accessible gears.
each time, when i see players who recommend builds, there are always stuff, from lobi store, from a lot of ships (c-store), maxed specialization, and also very expensive doffs.
how, new players an even players who don't want to spend their pay in this game, can have all these shiny stuff?
plasmonic leech -> lock box or 50mil ec in exchange or if you play a kdf toon, you must buy an useless ship
tackiosomething console -> lobi store, need lobi crystals from lock boxes
zemok/marion doffs: their prices in the exchange are insane
etc
you can't denigrate a player, because he doesn't have these stuff or because he don't have a lot of dil or ec.
There's gobs and gobs of stuff online about cheap builds online. RyanSTO's youtube videos have lots of info about improving your game in ways that are cheap (choosing abilities and skills, buff stacking, etc.). Just perusing stowiki can help too. Heck, if someone shows up in the dps public channel and asks about what they should buy and says they don't have much money, people can give ideas.
The problem isn't a lack of information. The problem is 3 types of players:
1. The player who is new and thinks they're doing awesome because they can breeze through the episode content.
2. The player who has been around forever and just loves their skittles build with 3 copies of tractor beam on their mirror science ship and refuses to become a DPS ***** (meaning getting over 3k dps)
3. The player who thinks this is all a whole lot harder than it actually is and shies away from trying anything at all.
They really need to make 50,000 dps a requirement for advanced. We really need to eliminate some of the casual scum that is still sticking to the sides of this pool.
Yes, because clearly getting mad at people doing less than 5k is the same as saying that anyone doing less than 50k isn't doing their fair share. Or something.
No one is saying that everyone should have mk 14 gold crtdx3 pen weapons, lobi consoles, and rep gear. They're saying people should put weapons that fire in the same direction on their ships and point them at the bad guys and click to go pew pew.
Maybe for some people that's just as hard? It sure seems like it. I don't think it has anything to do with being casual or not, though.
Personally, I don't have a problem with the new not-quite-the-old-elite advanced anymore. I'm one of those weirdos who won't leave spacedock without at least one armor console, even when flying an escort. The BBSB (souped-up tachyon beam) was a rude surprise, but I've adjusted my setups and accepted that sometimes I just need to hit evasive and take a tea break 15 km away while the crew welds shut the worst hull breaches and drags the corpses out of the bridge.
If I play sloppy, there's a good chance it's a trip to the rez point; just as it should be. Fleet runs are still near 100% success.
PUGing, however, has become very hit and miss. People are exploding left and right, non-optionals failed frequently. The HP sponges are bad enough without two or three team members out of commission due to respawn timers. Add to that some tunnel visioning, bad attitude and the occasional douche who thinks it's hilarious to show up in a T1 or T2 ship and you've got nightmare mode right there. Although at the end of the day I'd rather team with the competent joker in a Miranda than the Scimitard who ignores probes and then rages in caps at the fail because he's far too important for menial tasks such as mission objectives.
On one hand, the Borg are dangerously punchy again, which feels right. On the other hand, irresponsible buffs to abilities that just about ignore player defenses thanks to wacky scaling because they wanted to sell some command cruiser packs seems like dodgy game design. I'm sure a certain lizard's ego getting bruised by 15-second ISA videos with 50 million DPS is the lesser evil when compared to angry casuals quitting in droves.
There's gobs and gobs of stuff online about cheap builds online. RyanSTO's youtube videos have lots of info about improving your game in ways that are cheap (choosing abilities and skills, buff stacking, etc.). Just perusing stowiki can help too. Heck, if someone shows up in the dps public channel and asks about what they should buy and says they don't have much money, people can give ideas.
The problem isn't a lack of information. The problem is 3 types of players:
1. The player who is new and thinks they're doing awesome because they can breeze through the episode content.
2. The player who has been around forever and just loves their skittles build with 3 copies of tractor beam on their mirror science ship and refuses to become a DPS ***** (meaning getting over 3k dps)
3. The player who thinks this is all a whole lot harder than it actually is and shies away from trying anything at all.
At first, I kind of just chuckled at those (I think there are a couple of others, but those are pretty much common types I'd definitely agree)...but then I started to think about it a wee bit more.
With #1 there, I think back to something Geko had said in podcast of yore about a skill revamp and how there are players that get to 50 without spending skill points. And well, do they have to for the content? Could somebody take their fresh level 1 build and their boffs - and for each new tier just upgrade to the minimum ship and minimum gear to experience the same difficulty at 50 that they did at 1, eh? Cause, I might be completely wrong - but it's always had the feeling that difficulty doesn't increase but rather decreases as we level up. Cause the mobs are scaled for X while players are actually picking up this or that and scaling along at Y. Then you get somebody that's been doing that hitting up a queue and they probably haven't seen a challenge like that since they were level 1.
With #2 there, there is a bunch of parroting of stuff that's kind of /facepalm. All the folks talking about somebody needing 30-50k to do an Advanced. Folks that may not know better see that and they're going to be put off...maybe not even bother. Those folks, those spewing the absurd requirements, are just trolling and imho those posts should be treated as such - cause it's a disservice to how many players, eh?
With #3 there, the sad part is how even some random ridiculously looking build could still do more than the content's requirements for stuff if the folks also didn't pick at the grass while watching the clouds go by...meh.
I suspect most are working to improve themselves regardless. It's only the most obstinate of the "play as I want" types and trolls who don't.
Hehe, I remember back when I played Diablo 2 trying to figure out how to make a sorceress into a melee fighter.... it doesn't work well. You can do it by heavily investing in defensive bonuses, but it's probably the worst option.... well worst aside from putting points into everything equally.... THAT is a horrible idea(because, while it gives you a lot of skills, they're all weak).
With #1 there, I think back to something Geko had said in podcast of yore about a skill revamp and how there are players that get to 50 without spending skill points.
I generally don't spend skill points until close to 50 because it's easier than messing with a skill planner every 10 minutes while leveling up and there's a high cost to changing skills (which is higher than the cost of being very sub-optimal, to me at least) to fix any early mistakes.
This is my Risian Corvette. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Hrmm, I kind of stopped reading on the second page. Maybe I'll go back and read the rest, maybe not, maybe not.
I disagree with the thought process of having kept Normal, Advanced, and Elite as they were and adding in another level. Elite was a joke that could have been Normal.
And just why should you have to work your but off for something that had a one time challenge and is only useful there after for resource grinding?
You do realize Defera gives them too, right? All you need is a team of 3 to start the Hard missions.
This is the only way, unless you DPS well.
"After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true. Except for a T5 Connie. That would be f*%#ing awesome." - Mr. Spock
Hrmm, I kind of stopped reading on the second page. Maybe I'll go back and read the rest, maybe not, maybe not.
I disagree with the thought process of having kept Normal, Advanced, and Elite as they were and adding in another level. Elite was a joke that could have been Normal.
And just why should you have to work your but off for something that had a one time challenge and is only useful there after for resource grinding?
Even in adding an additional level...you'd still have the same issue over and over and over and over. At some point, it's inevitably going to become a case of how fast one can do something or finding something else to do.
Take Advanced and make it Normal.
Take Elite (or create Elite if necessary, since some are missing) and make it Advanced.
Create an actual Elite for those folks out there that play at that level so I don't have to feel sad about what I'm doing down at my level.
...that additional level would have been created anyway. It would just have been a case of removing Normal.
Instead of...
Normal
Advanced
Elite
Nightmare
...it would be...
Normal = Advanced
Advanced = Elite
Elite = Nightmare
...with the following done for the previous Normal:
Take the current Normal and make it an Episode/Mission which can be played at Normal, Advanced, Elite where each has dialogue windows and gameplay which might offer the least bit of preparation for when somebody is going to hit up the actual queues.
Creating a scenario which might actually prepare folks for hitting up that Advanced-Normal or Advanced-Elite.
This game simply does not offer the carrot on a stick dungeon/raid progression one might see in other games. It's a casual horizontal endgame. In the end, all there is is running things faster and faster. We don't have any sort of tiers.
When they drop out the next set of queues and reputation - it's not going to require that anybody have done anything else...it could be the first endgame content somebody hits up.
We don't have the situation where somebody needs to do Omega then New Romulus then Nukara then Dyson then Counter-Command then Delta and then the Iconians/Herald stuff...
...so when they drop out the new content, it's just "new" as long as it's new. It may be different, may even actually offer the additional challenge, but it's not going to be part of any sort of endgame hierarchy.
It allows folks to bring their friends to the game and play with them. It doesn't abandon content because it's been "outleveled"...but it does basically just get into running the same ol same ol'...
Even in adding an additional level...you'd still have the same issue over and over and over and over. At some point, it's inevitably going to become a case of how fast one can do something or finding something else to do.
And what does this have to do with ques after a point pretty much only existing as a cheap fast way to get dilithium/very rare crafting materials.
And er, if you hadn't snipped where you did...
I snipped where I did becuase 1) I don't care about that and 2) it really doesn't have anything to do with my question.
See here is the thing the elite players don't seem to grasp
If the sole purpose of the ques was to make challenging content they would have stayed one and done end game missions that give you a reward on completion.
Instead they turned into something you grind to keep playing them over and over again and its one challenge mechanic was once again one and done thing which gives you a reward upon finishing it the one time.
So again tell me what is the fraking point of taking what is at best a sisyphean task and making ti more and more difficult?
I find that if you only play them from time to time and only when you feel like it they can remain fun over the long haul.
The question is how many they are designed for. Is it 1000, 10,000, 20,000?
If advanced becomes truly only for the top 1000 this will Herald (see what I did there) the end of the game's development. Right now I think we're ok - closer to the 10,000 people mark. Before DR they were set to 20,000+
Over this weekend I was grinding Viscous elite a little for the argonite until I realized you often craft 2 superiors not 1. Since I realized I have enough argonite already for all characters I quit grinding. Grinding these missions stinks. But playing them from time to time for me is fun.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
You dont need DPS to not fail advanced, you just need enough CC. DPS only shortens the stfs, it doesnt necessarily make them not fail. Combination of both works best in pugs though.
So again tell me what is the fraking point of taking what is at best a sisyphean task and making ti more and more difficult?
Cause seriously, I mean seriously, the game is what you make of it. And if you're making it into some punishment from the Cryptic Gods
First, they're not something you have to run at all.
Second, not everybody is going to play at the same level. Cryptic offering content at different levels of content is a good thing.
Third, just because a challenge has been completed in one manner does not mean that it has been completed in other ways. One can try to meet that same challenge using a variety of builds. They can try to do it with weaker builds to see what the minimum they need to meet that challenge. They can decide to see how quickly they can complete the challenge.
Fourth, as time goes on and the average "power" in play changes it makes sense that the difficulty of the challenge would need to be tweaked to reflect that.
Fifth, that you're stressing like thirty AGKs from around the globe...
If people are not happy it's because they don't like the fails.
Fails are not fun, I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who has not been in a fail mision.
Fails (or losses) are part of life and every good game. Might be hard to understand for those who got a medale for showing up at sport events, but they might also learn a lesson for live.
If thirty people see it one way, you seem to say another thing always.
While your opinion all is fine and groups you play with all is fine.
That doesnt mean stink for the average player.
The fails are not helping with keeping people happy, happy people play longer.
If thirty people see it one way, you seem to say another thing always.
While your opinion all is fine and groups you play with all is fine.
That doesnt mean stink for the average player.
The fails are not helping with keeping people happy, happy people play longer.
Do you even read the TRIBBLE you post?
Let's see what I'm posting...
"there are all sorts of different people that want different things and enjoy different things...and Cryptic is trying to provide all sorts of stuff for them"
Let's see what you're posting...
"everybody's like me and this sucks"
Then look back at what you said in the quote there...
You dont need DPS to not fail advanced, you just need enough CC. DPS only shortens the stfs, it doesnt necessarily make them not fail. Combination of both works best in pugs though.
He was referring to the Defarra hard missions that give BNPs if you didn't want to form a three man team.
This is my Risian Corvette. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
He was referring to the Defarra hard missions that give BNPs if you didn't want to form a three man team.
He was saying your choice was either to do Defera or to DPS well...to which woodwhity replied that you don't have to DPS well not to fail STFs. It's kind of a straightforward thing to follow there... :rolleyes:
He was saying your choice was either to do Defera or to DPS well...to which woodwhity replied that you don't have to DPS well not to fail STFs. It's kind of a straightforward thing to follow there... :rolleyes:
So Woodwitty was responding to a claim that you could solo the Defarra hard missions by bringing up advanced space queues?
So we've got...STFs or Defera. So in replying to the Defera bit with "This is the only way..." and "unless you DPS well..." just what could the "or" bit for the Defera be? Oh, the STFs? And thus the DPS well comes into play. You can do Defera or DPS well in STFs...
You dont need DPS to not fail advanced, you just need enough CC. DPS only shortens the stfs, it doesnt necessarily make them not fail. Combination of both works best in pugs though.
So if we were to break it down into a more conversational manner...
borgified007: Tone down the Borg STFs How's a Player supposed to get BNPs!
indaleff: You do realize Defera gives them too, right? All you need is a team of 3 to start the Hard missions.
spockout1: This is the only way, unless you DPS well.
woodwhity: You dont need DPS to not fail advanced, you just need enough CC. DPS only shortens the stfs, it doesnt necessarily make them not fail. Combination of both works best in pugs though.
So we've got...STFs or Defera. So in replying to the Defera bit with "This is the only way..." and "unless you DPS well..." just what could the "or" bit for the Defera be? Oh, the STFs? And thus the DPS well comes into play. You can do Defera or DPS well in STFs...
We'll just forget the "All you need is a team of 3 to start the Hard missions." part, as that clearly isn't an option to if you don't have the dps to solo it.
It couldn't possibly be you can solo it *or* do it with a three man team. It's totally off the table as an option.
This is my Risian Corvette. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
...that additional level would have been created anyway. It would just have been a case of removing Normal.
Instead of...
Normal
Advanced
Elite
Nightmare
...it would be...
Normal = Advanced
Advanced = Elite
Elite = Nightmare
...with the following done for the previous Normal:
Creating a scenario which might actually prepare folks for hitting up that Advanced-Normal or Advanced-Elite.'...
The problem with that is that people will see Advanced - Normal pays 'x' rewards and Advanced-Elite pays 'XX' rewards. We can all guess which queue will get filled.
Maybe if they locked Advanced-Elite where you have to complete Avanced-Normal successfully 50 times before you can move up, it would work.
Comments
On my sci captain, I usually assume this role without anything being said. I fly a Vesta Tac torp boat with TS III, II, HY I, with GW III and I. I have Neutronic, Bio-Molecular, and Plasma Emission torps up front.
With this setup and me holding the spheres, I have not lost an ISA yet. This setup can almost clear the spheres solo; almost. The biggest thing is that between the grav wells and the plasma emission torp on TS III and II, the entire group of spheres is completely immobilized.
All that said, since the last few patches the Advanced ques are way harder than they were when DR first rolled out, and stupidly tougher than the old elite ques pre-DR. I like the challenge, but it is slightly out of balance right now.
FA Dion - Romulan Engineer Officer
FA Zophie Delwynn - Fed Science Officer
I agree. Why the two existing STFs needed to be adjusted is beyond my comprehension. If a new tougher level was needed, then why not just add it and leave the others alone.
Having said that, giving a 30-50% chance of getting a BNP on normal would solve one problem.
On a separate tangent, I'm not finding my Omega and Assimilated sets to be too different than my free Dyson and Kobali sets. As others have pointed out, the bad guys are stripping your shields in the blink of an eye. It's difficult to determine if one set is a vast improvement over another.
Yep, as my DPS is not great I tend to use my sarr theln for ISA, grav well 1 and 3 with tt1,bfaw2 and ts3 with crystalline torp and a decent AP set up.
I tend to break off the engagement at the transformer and go grav well the nanite ships when i spot them and i'm very situational aware so i can just slam in the grav well and carry on with the transformer if i'm not dealing nanite ships.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Tried CSA with my fleet after DR hit and i've never seen BOPS that take forever to shoot down before, was a rude shock, honest answer not a clue, have not done CSA for a while now
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
What, you mean like this?
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1351061
http://hilbertguide.com/
There's gobs and gobs of stuff online about cheap builds online. RyanSTO's youtube videos have lots of info about improving your game in ways that are cheap (choosing abilities and skills, buff stacking, etc.). Just perusing stowiki can help too. Heck, if someone shows up in the dps public channel and asks about what they should buy and says they don't have much money, people can give ideas.
The problem isn't a lack of information. The problem is 3 types of players:
1. The player who is new and thinks they're doing awesome because they can breeze through the episode content.
2. The player who has been around forever and just loves their skittles build with 3 copies of tractor beam on their mirror science ship and refuses to become a DPS ***** (meaning getting over 3k dps)
3. The player who thinks this is all a whole lot harder than it actually is and shies away from trying anything at all.
Yes, because clearly getting mad at people doing less than 5k is the same as saying that anyone doing less than 50k isn't doing their fair share. Or something.
No one is saying that everyone should have mk 14 gold crtdx3 pen weapons, lobi consoles, and rep gear. They're saying people should put weapons that fire in the same direction on their ships and point them at the bad guys and click to go pew pew.
Maybe for some people that's just as hard? It sure seems like it. I don't think it has anything to do with being casual or not, though.
If I play sloppy, there's a good chance it's a trip to the rez point; just as it should be. Fleet runs are still near 100% success.
PUGing, however, has become very hit and miss. People are exploding left and right, non-optionals failed frequently. The HP sponges are bad enough without two or three team members out of commission due to respawn timers. Add to that some tunnel visioning, bad attitude and the occasional douche who thinks it's hilarious to show up in a T1 or T2 ship and you've got nightmare mode right there. Although at the end of the day I'd rather team with the competent joker in a Miranda than the Scimitard who ignores probes and then rages in caps at the fail because he's far too important for menial tasks such as mission objectives.
On one hand, the Borg are dangerously punchy again, which feels right. On the other hand, irresponsible buffs to abilities that just about ignore player defenses thanks to wacky scaling because they wanted to sell some command cruiser packs seems like dodgy game design. I'm sure a certain lizard's ego getting bruised by 15-second ISA videos with 50 million DPS is the lesser evil when compared to angry casuals quitting in droves.
At first, I kind of just chuckled at those (I think there are a couple of others, but those are pretty much common types I'd definitely agree)...but then I started to think about it a wee bit more.
With #1 there, I think back to something Geko had said in podcast of yore about a skill revamp and how there are players that get to 50 without spending skill points. And well, do they have to for the content? Could somebody take their fresh level 1 build and their boffs - and for each new tier just upgrade to the minimum ship and minimum gear to experience the same difficulty at 50 that they did at 1, eh? Cause, I might be completely wrong - but it's always had the feeling that difficulty doesn't increase but rather decreases as we level up. Cause the mobs are scaled for X while players are actually picking up this or that and scaling along at Y. Then you get somebody that's been doing that hitting up a queue and they probably haven't seen a challenge like that since they were level 1.
With #2 there, there is a bunch of parroting of stuff that's kind of /facepalm. All the folks talking about somebody needing 30-50k to do an Advanced. Folks that may not know better see that and they're going to be put off...maybe not even bother. Those folks, those spewing the absurd requirements, are just trolling and imho those posts should be treated as such - cause it's a disservice to how many players, eh?
With #3 there, the sad part is how even some random ridiculously looking build could still do more than the content's requirements for stuff if the folks also didn't pick at the grass while watching the clouds go by...meh.
My character Tsin'xing
I generally don't spend skill points until close to 50 because it's easier than messing with a skill planner every 10 minutes while leveling up and there's a high cost to changing skills (which is higher than the cost of being very sub-optimal, to me at least) to fix any early mistakes.
I did level my sci toon in a miranda without spending any skill points though haha
I'd imagine there are somewhat level without spending skill points because they don't know that they have them to spend!
And just why should you have to work your but off for something that had a one time challenge and is only useful there after for resource grinding?
You would think that they would care as paying players still need people to play with.
This is the only way, unless you DPS well.
Even in adding an additional level...you'd still have the same issue over and over and over and over. At some point, it's inevitably going to become a case of how fast one can do something or finding something else to do.
And er, if you hadn't snipped where you did...
...that additional level would have been created anyway. It would just have been a case of removing Normal.
Instead of...
Normal
Advanced
Elite
Nightmare
...it would be...
Normal = Advanced
Advanced = Elite
Elite = Nightmare
...with the following done for the previous Normal:
Creating a scenario which might actually prepare folks for hitting up that Advanced-Normal or Advanced-Elite.
This game simply does not offer the carrot on a stick dungeon/raid progression one might see in other games. It's a casual horizontal endgame. In the end, all there is is running things faster and faster. We don't have any sort of tiers.
When they drop out the next set of queues and reputation - it's not going to require that anybody have done anything else...it could be the first endgame content somebody hits up.
We don't have the situation where somebody needs to do Omega then New Romulus then Nukara then Dyson then Counter-Command then Delta and then the Iconians/Herald stuff...
...so when they drop out the new content, it's just "new" as long as it's new. It may be different, may even actually offer the additional challenge, but it's not going to be part of any sort of endgame hierarchy.
It allows folks to bring their friends to the game and play with them. It doesn't abandon content because it's been "outleveled"...but it does basically just get into running the same ol same ol'...
And what does this have to do with ques after a point pretty much only existing as a cheap fast way to get dilithium/very rare crafting materials.
I snipped where I did becuase 1) I don't care about that and 2) it really doesn't have anything to do with my question.
See here is the thing the elite players don't seem to grasp
If the sole purpose of the ques was to make challenging content they would have stayed one and done end game missions that give you a reward on completion.
Instead they turned into something you grind to keep playing them over and over again and its one challenge mechanic was once again one and done thing which gives you a reward upon finishing it the one time.
So again tell me what is the fraking point of taking what is at best a sisyphean task and making ti more and more difficult?
The question is how many they are designed for. Is it 1000, 10,000, 20,000?
If advanced becomes truly only for the top 1000 this will Herald (see what I did there) the end of the game's development. Right now I think we're ok - closer to the 10,000 people mark. Before DR they were set to 20,000+
Over this weekend I was grinding Viscous elite a little for the argonite until I realized you often craft 2 superiors not 1. Since I realized I have enough argonite already for all characters I quit grinding. Grinding these missions stinks. But playing them from time to time for me is fun.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
You dont need DPS to not fail advanced, you just need enough CC. DPS only shortens the stfs, it doesnt necessarily make them not fail. Combination of both works best in pugs though.
The fact this concern has come up multiple times in the forums shows its a fail.
If people are not happy it's because they don't like the fails.
Fails are not fun, I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who has not been in a fail mision.
Cause seriously, I mean seriously, the game is what you make of it. And if you're making it into some punishment from the Cryptic Gods
First, they're not something you have to run at all.
Second, not everybody is going to play at the same level. Cryptic offering content at different levels of content is a good thing.
Third, just because a challenge has been completed in one manner does not mean that it has been completed in other ways. One can try to meet that same challenge using a variety of builds. They can try to do it with weaker builds to see what the minimum they need to meet that challenge. They can decide to see how quickly they can complete the challenge.
Fourth, as time goes on and the average "power" in play changes it makes sense that the difficulty of the challenge would need to be tweaked to reflect that.
Fifth, that you're stressing like thirty AGKs from around the globe...
This post has been edited to remove content which violates the Perfect World Entertainment Community Rules and Policies . ~Bluegeek
Fails (or losses) are part of life and every good game. Might be hard to understand for those who got a medale for showing up at sport events, but they might also learn a lesson for live.
If thirty people see it one way, you seem to say another thing always.
While your opinion all is fine and groups you play with all is fine.
That doesnt mean stink for the average player.
The fails are not helping with keeping people happy, happy people play longer.
Do you even read the TRIBBLE you post?
Let's see what I'm posting...
"there are all sorts of different people that want different things and enjoy different things...and Cryptic is trying to provide all sorts of stuff for them"
Let's see what you're posting...
"everybody's like me and this sucks"
Then look back at what you said in the quote there...
...and enjoy the /facepalm I did at reading it.
He was referring to the Defarra hard missions that give BNPs if you didn't want to form a three man team.
He was saying your choice was either to do Defera or to DPS well...to which woodwhity replied that you don't have to DPS well not to fail STFs. It's kind of a straightforward thing to follow there... :rolleyes:
So Woodwitty was responding to a claim that you could solo the Defarra hard missions by bringing up advanced space queues?
This is what was in response to.
Here, let's do the conversation for you...
lindaleff stating you can also get BNPs from Defera Hard.
So we've got...STFs or Defera. So in replying to the Defera bit with "This is the only way..." and "unless you DPS well..." just what could the "or" bit for the Defera be? Oh, the STFs? And thus the DPS well comes into play. You can do Defera or DPS well in STFs...
...to which woodwhity replied:
So if we were to break it down into a more conversational manner...
borgified007: Tone down the Borg STFs How's a Player supposed to get BNPs!
indaleff: You do realize Defera gives them too, right? All you need is a team of 3 to start the Hard missions.
spockout1: This is the only way, unless you DPS well.
woodwhity: You dont need DPS to not fail advanced, you just need enough CC. DPS only shortens the stfs, it doesnt necessarily make them not fail. Combination of both works best in pugs though.
We'll just forget the "All you need is a team of 3 to start the Hard missions." part, as that clearly isn't an option to if you don't have the dps to solo it.
It couldn't possibly be you can solo it *or* do it with a three man team. It's totally off the table as an option.
The problem with that is that people will see Advanced - Normal pays 'x' rewards and Advanced-Elite pays 'XX' rewards. We can all guess which queue will get filled.
Maybe if they locked Advanced-Elite where you have to complete Avanced-Normal successfully 50 times before you can move up, it would work.