Bah, I thought they were going to explain said rewards. What a waste of my time.
No it is not, there is another blog coming out today, so stay tuned.
(STO)
Matriarch of Banished Orion Girls. Neela D'tan @captaintpol (with many alts)
May we sail and have fun always and forever. LLAP
(PC version NW)
Arwen@captaintpol TR - Tully's of RiverRun
Mai Kelly DC-Tully's of RiverRun
Neela BumKisses HR-
Arya Stark GF-
Sansa Stark CW- Team Fencebane
Crystal Marie OP-
(xbox version NW)
Arwen@Admiral Jazdia TR- Team Fenebane
Mai Kelly DC- " "
Ahsoka Tano CW- " "
Neela BumKisser HR- " "
I'm a serious altoholic (I always want to create new characters) and even I've stopped creating new alts because it is just too much work to get them levelled. For me to even consider making a new one, the 50-60 spec point grind needs reducing. Something also needs to happen with events, because some are more alt friendly than others.
My alt army: K'ymara, Orion Engineer. Caedera of Borg, Liberated Borg Tactical, Elyza Vix, Joined Trill Scientist. Christina Bellona, Augmented Human Tactical. T'Lana, Vulcan Scientist. Arbol, Martian Tactical. Ayzer Bryn, Joined Trill Engineer. Hawke, Betazoid Scientist. Karna Valkras, Klingon Engineer. Beth Parker, Human Tactical Sarel, Romulan Engineer (Federation). Yazuri, Reman Scientist (KDF)
with delta recruit for event- does this character continue on playing sto as normal or will the recruit be deleted, or will the war continue and it continues to be new way to play sto? this is after the event in may im talking about.
with delta recruit for event- does this character continue on playing sto as normal or will the recruit be deleted, or will the war continue and it continues to be new way to play sto? this is after the event in may im talking about.
Its a permanent character, the event is just providing a window of time where you can create the special "delta recruit" which comes with bonus optional objectives and rewards.
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Introducing the Temporal aspect now, huh? Why not just have an NPC come back in time, tell us what to do (and where it is that the Iconian are hiding) and be done with it..
If we did then we'd get a visit from a 30th century time cop who would punch us in our stupid mouths for dicking about with the time stream.
You know what the best way of creating a jumping-off point for a customer base is?
Gating your product.
This is going to be "City of Heroes: Going Rogue" all over again, with the dev and marketing investment coming to almost nothing (like a 1% spike in new subs for a month at most) at the cost of annoying existing players enough to drive them away faster than you pick up new players.
Not to mention the lost opportunities that the dev work could have instead gone into.
You are pushing ahead with this because you think you'll be able to make the investment back via a new wave of microtransactions. You are wrong in this assumption, because after five years anyone not already playing AND willing to pay for essentially worthless product (i.e. nonexistent in-game items) is already playing, and most of those are only doing so because leaving now would mean facing the fact that they've sunk large sums of money into nothingness.
You already have all the smokers on your balance sheet, marketing a cigarette sale primarily towards non-smokers only will be far less profitable than you seem to be expecting.
The only way most existing players are going to bother with this promotion is if they get a proper Borg, Cardassian or T6 Connie as the final reward.
You know what the best way of creating a jumping-off point for a customer base is?
Gating your product.
This is going to be "City of Heroes: Going Rogue" all over again, with the dev and marketing investment coming to almost nothing (like a 1% spike in new subs for a month at most) at the cost of annoying existing players enough to drive them away faster than you pick up new players.
Not to mention the lost opportunities that the dev work could have instead gone into.
You are pushing ahead with this because you think you'll be able to make the investment back via a new wave of microtransactions. You are wrong in this assumption, because after five years anyone not already playing AND willing to pay for essentially worthless product (i.e. nonexistent in-game items) is already playing, and most of those are only doing so because leaving now would mean facing the fact that they've sunk large sums of money into nothingness.
You already have all the smokers on your balance sheet, marketing a cigarette sale primarily towards non-smokers only will be far less profitable than you seem to be expecting.
The only way most existing players are going to bother with this promotion is if they get a proper Borg, Cardassian or T6 Connie as the final reward.
Very much this, but (I fear) they're a bit slow with true revelations. I, alike you, honestly cannot see the returns from this being half as high as they expect it to be.
That said, give it 3-6 months, and we'll be told "Delta Recruitment is awesome, and the players (new, returning and existing) love it."
The only way most existing players are going to bother with this promotion is if they get a proper Borg, Cardassian or T6 Connie as the final reward.
When most people make alts readily enough on their own this sort of grand-standing is, to say the least, quite silly.
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
...i hope in this oportunity we can get FERENGI CROSS FACTION
I see I'm not the only one who will, most likely, make a Delta Recruit but would like to have more options. This seems like the perfect time to introduce some new playable races for players.
Folks have been asking for Xindi and Suliban for ages.
Cardassians might become another sub-faction similar to Romulans so seeing them probably won't happen here. But I wouldn't mind being proven wrong.
Ferengi SHOULD be cross faction already and it's a shame they aren't.
Also, if Joined Trills can be either Fed or Klingon, why can't they also be Romulan? Same thing with Ferasans and Caitians, perhaps they could be made available to Roms as well. How come no Talaxians for Roms either? And how is it we can have a Klingon as a Fed, but can't have a Human as a Klingon?
Anyway, I think you get my point. While I'm certain it's too late at this point to add an entirely new species like Xindi or Suliban, and likely even too late to open up currently faction locked races, perhaps this is something that could be added to potential future "X Recruit" events.
Hello. My name is iamynaught and I am an altaholic.
Cryptic's entire idea of profit being greater than satisfaction is silly.... what's your point?
...I'm just going to let that one speak for itself. Here's the small points.
Presumption
Exaggeration
Projection
Try to deal with these, they'll make you a more effective poster in future.
[yes, I know this is goading, but a speedbump to rioting does serve a constructive purpose even if trampled.]
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
The only way most existing players are going to bother with this promotion is if they get a proper Borg, Cardassian or T6 Connie as the final reward.
Heh, a T6 Connie would certainly cause me to play.
The question is really up in the air as to if this matters to existing players. And we won't know until we actually see what the Account Wide awards are.
Are they junk our existing characters have already out leveled? I think this will make up a good percentage of the rewards.
Are they a R&D box here, and DOFF box there and basically just a bit of stuff we could have gotten by playing our main instead? I think there's going to be some of that.
They mentioned something to help with your Fleet Projects, but it would have to be very significant to make up for the time to level an alt, time that your main could put towards the projects.
So what I expect is a bunch of stuff that's 'ok' for the Delta Alt, pointless for one's main and perhaps, just perhaps mind you, *one* thing that may or may not make it all worth while. And they haven't talked about it yet.
And so we don't know enough to decide if we're going to play or pass for sure.
I see I'm not the only one who will, most likely, make a Delta Recruit but would like to have more options. This seems like the perfect time to introduce some new playable races for players.
You and I are slightly different. I will only make a Delta Recruit if more playable species are offered to us, otherwise I wont.
Cardassians might become another sub-faction similar to Romulans so seeing them probably won't happen here. But I wouldn't mind being proven wrong.
With how the Republic ultimately turned out, I don't see them releasing another mini faction to be honest. If they do, well... it wouldn't come as no surprise, but it'll baffle logic.
Anyway, I think you get my point. While I'm certain it's too late at this point to add an entirely new species like Xindi or Suliban, and likely even too late to open up currently faction locked races, perhaps this is something that could be added to potential future "X Recruit" events.
It's not too late if they used their brains and figured it would be a good idea a while ago; thus the additions are ready for Delta Recruit launch.
The question is really up in the air as to if this matters to existing players. And we won't know until we actually see what the Account Wide awards are.
I don't think these rewards are going to be that groundbreaking. Most people (especially casual players) probably wont bother.
Pre Delta Recruits, the obvious aim of Cryptic was to have people invest in their T6 ships. I haven't touched them. I'm still using T5's and I will be for a long time to come. I doubt very much that the Delta Recruit rewards will offer anything of vast significance. It'll be a few nice new little toys to play with for a while, that's all.
Do you really want to go the full distance on this one or do you want to try to double back and justify your impulsive mob shouting so a human discussion might just come of this? We could just butt heads, or you could try to find a better way to criticize cryptic than heaping a whole ton of emotional baggage onto an innocuous promo event.
Delta recruit bonuses are just a stop-gap to the next, "late spring" season, and not one that you can say is prohibiting content development because as the other blogs are showing quite clearly we sure as hell are getting plenty of that too (episode, PVE missions, everything you expect from more STO.)
And to this event's credit its finding clever uses for old, underutilized content (ie. low level missions). It puts a new spin on them (via the temporal angle) to explicitly encourage a new perspective on something they may have ground for hundreds of hours (and one that might extend to the final build, I for one am planning on trying something I've never done before in my long experience with this game). And on top of that, there's a few niceties for established characters too (the XP bonus isn't even contingent on making a recruit yourself).
Compared to even the winter/summer events, this is a pretty good deal. So where's the problem, if it isn't with the game itself? You can buy into this at whatever level you wish. If you're in the market for a full new alt, then work on the end game once you've finished leveling for the bonuses. If not, just earn the bonuses and be done with it. If you don't want to bother at all, there's what you might consider a "moderate term XP rebalance" to help you along whatever specialization you may be working on ATM.
Greed and profit? Incidentally, but there's good game design going on here too.
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
The more I look at this, the more I have to wonder.
Prior, they tried to inflate the server population by forcing everyone to reregister their account... I used to be accountblahblah but when I was forced to re-register the name was already "taken." So, I simply became accountblahblah dash A, like a certain starship. Lot of us saw it for what it was -- an attempt to double the game population to pad reports to make PWE think the game was more attractive.
I see Delta Recruits as more or less the same tactic. Numbers are down as people burn through content then go find something else to play. So, lets entice people to make alts for a quarter so we can report Good News to PWE.
Delta Grinding may have been the best expansion ever (and non-sarcastically I did enjoy it) but the attempts to force people to conform to metrics AGAIN despite previous backlash... really soured me.
Instead of enforcing play-time metrics, lets have something worth playing. Ultimately people have switched to "log in when there is an event" because there is no other content to play once you've maxed your main and alts.
What we need... instanced dungeons, random worlds, true exploration/exploitation and some kind of persistent world that we can interact with. All of the changes my toon has effected across the universe come to nothing when the world does not change. I can still fly across a sector and we are at war with the Klingon. Despite helping forge a treaty.
I don't see Delta Recruit as anything more than an attempt to pad reports and bring good news to the PWE offices after the post Delta Grinding crunch.
Education?
Greed and profit? Incidentally, but there's good game design going on here too.
Game design that holds profit as its ultimate end. That's the problem.
I guarantee that when this event begins there will be a cynical cash-grab hidden amongst the rewards. Even the CCE event included one, with the new torp.
Do you really want to go the full distance on this one or do you want to try to double back and justify your impulsive mob shouting so a human discussion might just come of this? We could just butt heads, or you could try to find a better way to criticize cryptic than heaping a whole ton of emotional baggage onto an innocuous promo event.
Delta recruit bonuses are just a stop-gap to the next, "late spring" season, and not one that you can say is prohibiting content development because as the other blogs are showing quite clearly we sure as hell are getting plenty of that too (episode, PVE missions, everything you expect from more STO.)
And to this event's credit its finding clever uses for old, underutilized content (ie. low level missions). It puts a new spin on them (via the temporal angle) to explicitly encourage a new perspective on something they may have ground for hundreds of hours (and one that might extend to the final build, I for one am planning on trying something I've never done before in my long experience with this game). And on top of that, there's a few niceties for established characters too (the XP bonus isn't even contingent on making a recruit yourself).
Compared to even the winter/summer events, this is a pretty good deal. So where's the problem, if it isn't with the game itself? You can buy into this at whatever level you wish. If you're in the market for a full new alt, then work on the end game once you've finished leveling for the bonuses. If not, just earn the bonuses and be done with it. If you don't want to bother at all, there's what you might consider a "moderate term XP rebalance" to help you along whatever specialization you may be working on ATM.
Greed and profit? Incidentally, but there's good game design going on here too.
Wow... it shouldn't be any surprise but your post reminded me of the blog.... there's words... but little to no substance.
Game design that holds profit as its ultimate end. That's the problem.
I guarantee that when this event begins there will be a cynical cash-grab hidden amongst the rewards. Even the CCE event included one, with the new torp.
Um... how does one spend money on the torpedo? The only interaction I can see the Crystalline event having with cash is it increasing the supply of dilithium.
I see Delta Recruits as more or less the same tactic. Numbers are down as people burn through content then go find something else to play. So, lets entice people to make alts for a quarter so we can report Good News to PWE.
Meh, I prefer to think this as just filling a gap between events and the next season (stated "late spring") without repeating another 14 item PVE grindtacular.
If cryptic really wanted to be lazy we could have easily had another mirror invasion instead or, at best, a feature episode replay (and spent a lot of time down in Drozana's maintenance bay for lobi). Or we could have this new-ish thing to coast us through to season 10. I'd prefer this, its better structured than an FE rerun, it encourages a perspective shift in game we might have spent A LOT of time growing accustomed to, and except where one might fail an objective we probably won't have to grind one mission in serial as part of the event (which would be a huge improvement over any other recent event.)
The only way an "evil" interpretation holds is if this directly replaced content for the next full season (ie. that adding a few incidental items and dialog boxes to old missions took relevant dev teams off new episodes and PVE's), and I don't think there's anything to support that besides the side-effects of wearing a tin-foil hat (see. at least one new episode, 3 PVE's, and a sector space revamp).
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Comments
1) you're going to get a free new character, with a temporal sub plot and account perks!
2) yeah, what we said last week!
3) there will be vendors at the main social hubs for the account perks!
... Idk why, but I was expecting to finally get some concrete details on what the rewards might be. Oh well, guess they'll tell us next Wednesday ...
No it is not, there is another blog coming out today, so stay tuned.
Matriarch of Banished Orion Girls. Neela D'tan
@captaintpol (with many alts)
May we sail and have fun always and forever. LLAP
(PC version NW)
Arwen@captaintpol TR - Tully's of RiverRun
Mai Kelly DC-Tully's of RiverRun
Neela BumKisses HR-
Arya Stark GF-
Sansa Stark CW- Team Fencebane
Crystal Marie OP-
(xbox version NW)
Arwen@Admiral Jazdia TR- Team Fenebane
Mai Kelly DC- " "
Ahsoka Tano CW- " "
Neela BumKisser HR- " "
K'ymara, Orion Engineer. Caedera of Borg, Liberated Borg Tactical, Elyza Vix, Joined Trill Scientist. Christina Bellona, Augmented Human Tactical.
T'Lana, Vulcan Scientist. Arbol, Martian Tactical. Ayzer Bryn, Joined Trill Engineer. Hawke, Betazoid Scientist. Karna Valkras, Klingon Engineer. Beth Parker, Human Tactical
Sarel, Romulan Engineer (Federation). Yazuri, Reman Scientist (KDF)
Where did you get that info?
Its a permanent character, the event is just providing a window of time where you can create the special "delta recruit" which comes with bonus optional objectives and rewards.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
If we did then we'd get a visit from a 30th century time cop who would punch us in our stupid mouths for dicking about with the time stream.
Gating your product.
This is going to be "City of Heroes: Going Rogue" all over again, with the dev and marketing investment coming to almost nothing (like a 1% spike in new subs for a month at most) at the cost of annoying existing players enough to drive them away faster than you pick up new players.
Not to mention the lost opportunities that the dev work could have instead gone into.
You are pushing ahead with this because you think you'll be able to make the investment back via a new wave of microtransactions. You are wrong in this assumption, because after five years anyone not already playing AND willing to pay for essentially worthless product (i.e. nonexistent in-game items) is already playing, and most of those are only doing so because leaving now would mean facing the fact that they've sunk large sums of money into nothingness.
You already have all the smokers on your balance sheet, marketing a cigarette sale primarily towards non-smokers only will be far less profitable than you seem to be expecting.
The only way most existing players are going to bother with this promotion is if they get a proper Borg, Cardassian or T6 Connie as the final reward.
Why not go to the flotilla? No lag, all the functions of Romulus, minus Doffs. and it's never crowded
That said, give it 3-6 months, and we'll be told "Delta Recruitment is awesome, and the players (new, returning and existing) love it."
I cannot argue with these facts.
When most people make alts readily enough on their own this sort of grand-standing is, to say the least, quite silly.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Cryptic's entire idea of profit being greater than satisfaction is silly.... what's your point?
I see I'm not the only one who will, most likely, make a Delta Recruit but would like to have more options. This seems like the perfect time to introduce some new playable races for players.
Folks have been asking for Xindi and Suliban for ages.
Cardassians might become another sub-faction similar to Romulans so seeing them probably won't happen here. But I wouldn't mind being proven wrong.
Ferengi SHOULD be cross faction already and it's a shame they aren't.
Also, if Joined Trills can be either Fed or Klingon, why can't they also be Romulan? Same thing with Ferasans and Caitians, perhaps they could be made available to Roms as well. How come no Talaxians for Roms either? And how is it we can have a Klingon as a Fed, but can't have a Human as a Klingon?
Anyway, I think you get my point. While I'm certain it's too late at this point to add an entirely new species like Xindi or Suliban, and likely even too late to open up currently faction locked races, perhaps this is something that could be added to potential future "X Recruit" events.
Losing faith in humanity, one person at a time.
...I'm just going to let that one speak for itself. Here's the small points.
Presumption
Exaggeration
Projection
Try to deal with these, they'll make you a more effective poster in future.
[yes, I know this is goading, but a speedbump to rioting does serve a constructive purpose even if trampled.]
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Heh, a T6 Connie would certainly cause me to play.
The question is really up in the air as to if this matters to existing players. And we won't know until we actually see what the Account Wide awards are.
Are they junk our existing characters have already out leveled? I think this will make up a good percentage of the rewards.
Are they a R&D box here, and DOFF box there and basically just a bit of stuff we could have gotten by playing our main instead? I think there's going to be some of that.
They mentioned something to help with your Fleet Projects, but it would have to be very significant to make up for the time to level an alt, time that your main could put towards the projects.
So what I expect is a bunch of stuff that's 'ok' for the Delta Alt, pointless for one's main and perhaps, just perhaps mind you, *one* thing that may or may not make it all worth while. And they haven't talked about it yet.
And so we don't know enough to decide if we're going to play or pass for sure.
Experience... let that simmer.
But DR is the best expansion ever and everyone except for me likes it!
This. And the fact that Suliban were once promised to Republic players long long ago.
With how the Republic ultimately turned out, I don't see them releasing another mini faction to be honest. If they do, well... it wouldn't come as no surprise, but it'll baffle logic.
It's not too late if they used their brains and figured it would be a good idea a while ago; thus the additions are ready for Delta Recruit launch.
I don't think these rewards are going to be that groundbreaking. Most people (especially casual players) probably wont bother.
Pre Delta Recruits, the obvious aim of Cryptic was to have people invest in their T6 ships. I haven't touched them. I'm still using T5's and I will be for a long time to come. I doubt very much that the Delta Recruit rewards will offer anything of vast significance. It'll be a few nice new little toys to play with for a while, that's all.
Education?
Do you really want to go the full distance on this one or do you want to try to double back and justify your impulsive mob shouting so a human discussion might just come of this? We could just butt heads, or you could try to find a better way to criticize cryptic than heaping a whole ton of emotional baggage onto an innocuous promo event.
Delta recruit bonuses are just a stop-gap to the next, "late spring" season, and not one that you can say is prohibiting content development because as the other blogs are showing quite clearly we sure as hell are getting plenty of that too (episode, PVE missions, everything you expect from more STO.)
And to this event's credit its finding clever uses for old, underutilized content (ie. low level missions). It puts a new spin on them (via the temporal angle) to explicitly encourage a new perspective on something they may have ground for hundreds of hours (and one that might extend to the final build, I for one am planning on trying something I've never done before in my long experience with this game). And on top of that, there's a few niceties for established characters too (the XP bonus isn't even contingent on making a recruit yourself).
Compared to even the winter/summer events, this is a pretty good deal. So where's the problem, if it isn't with the game itself? You can buy into this at whatever level you wish. If you're in the market for a full new alt, then work on the end game once you've finished leveling for the bonuses. If not, just earn the bonuses and be done with it. If you don't want to bother at all, there's what you might consider a "moderate term XP rebalance" to help you along whatever specialization you may be working on ATM.
Greed and profit? Incidentally, but there's good game design going on here too.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Prior, they tried to inflate the server population by forcing everyone to reregister their account... I used to be accountblahblah but when I was forced to re-register the name was already "taken." So, I simply became accountblahblah dash A, like a certain starship.
I see Delta Recruits as more or less the same tactic. Numbers are down as people burn through content then go find something else to play. So, lets entice people to make alts for a quarter so we can report Good News to PWE.
Delta Grinding may have been the best expansion ever (and non-sarcastically I did enjoy it) but the attempts to force people to conform to metrics AGAIN despite previous backlash... really soured me.
Instead of enforcing play-time metrics, lets have something worth playing. Ultimately people have switched to "log in when there is an event" because there is no other content to play once you've maxed your main and alts.
What we need... instanced dungeons, random worlds, true exploration/exploitation and some kind of persistent world that we can interact with. All of the changes my toon has effected across the universe come to nothing when the world does not change. I can still fly across a sector and we are at war with the Klingon. Despite helping forge a treaty.
I don't see Delta Recruit as anything more than an attempt to pad reports and bring good news to the PWE offices after the post Delta Grinding crunch.
*shrug* We'll see.
Game design that holds profit as its ultimate end. That's the problem.
I guarantee that when this event begins there will be a cynical cash-grab hidden amongst the rewards. Even the CCE event included one, with the new torp.
Um... how does one spend money on the torpedo? The only interaction I can see the Crystalline event having with cash is it increasing the supply of dilithium.
Meh, I prefer to think this as just filling a gap between events and the next season (stated "late spring") without repeating another 14 item PVE grindtacular.
If cryptic really wanted to be lazy we could have easily had another mirror invasion instead or, at best, a feature episode replay (and spent a lot of time down in Drozana's maintenance bay for lobi). Or we could have this new-ish thing to coast us through to season 10. I'd prefer this, its better structured than an FE rerun, it encourages a perspective shift in game we might have spent A LOT of time growing accustomed to, and except where one might fail an objective we probably won't have to grind one mission in serial as part of the event (which would be a huge improvement over any other recent event.)
The only way an "evil" interpretation holds is if this directly replaced content for the next full season (ie. that adding a few incidental items and dialog boxes to old missions took relevant dev teams off new episodes and PVE's), and I don't think there's anything to support that besides the side-effects of wearing a tin-foil hat (see. at least one new episode, 3 PVE's, and a sector space revamp).
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!