Sheesh, it's just gotten to the point where any bit of announced news, just makes me groan and cringe with this game anymore. It's has to be mathematically impossible to continue to be so out of synch with your community. Yet here we are again, another change shoved out with little warning or discussion, and surprise the community hates it again....
They are retiring the old ships. You will be able to complete slotted projects from last year with the new currency but there is no other way to get the old ships.
That would have been a problem with the Breen carrier since you needed the frigate to get the frigate pets.
If there is something similar with the Summer ship (pets, consoles we need) then it's still OK as long as they give us some way to get the pets or consoles without the old ships.
I should point out that people rage at Cryptic no matter what they do -- people ranted here about bringing back the Shaka emote since it was supposed to have been exclusive. Cryptic "ruined" it by letting the new players have it too.
Cryptic doesn't know the definition of the word exclusive, unfortunately. People have every right to get angry at them for that. They have been doing it since 2010 though.
On topic, though, Cryptic consistently does not communicate well or even think things through. Why shouldn't people get upset that they are removing ships and apparently the consoles? They haven't stated they are replacing them with T6 versions or if they are going to allow a project for the consoles or anything else.
I mean honestly if they are going to release T6 versions then tell us that. Not mentioning that vital fact only causes friction on the forums like this.
The consoles are more of a problem though, at least from my perspective. I never picked up both ships on my characters that now use them. I'd now like to try the console set out, and I kick myself for not doing it last year but just figured I could do it this year instead. But that apparently is going to be denied to me. My fault for being lazy last yer, but it definitely isn't my fault I didn't know they would not be available this year. That isn't something I or anyone else could reasonably foresee.
This right here is true. It takes time to catalog and address issues. I send a preliminary feedback report usually a few hours after any announcement (as was the case yesterday) then I do an in-depth dive. This happens to be a dive of 80+ pages. That takes a little bit of time.
I also have to do my standard coordination of international coordination, publication, communication with other teams, this forum migration I'm doing an in-depth analysis of, etc. If I didn't care to look into issues such as this, I'd have changed the forums to closing off all news comments. But I do care. It takes time.
EDIT: except I haven't even had a chance to get my coffee. Glarble.
To pwelaughingtrendy: I do apologize for my rather heated responses, I don't envy your job and wouldn't wish it on anyone. That said I do appreciate you tolerating the community so well and being an excellent Community Manager. Thank you.
As for the Summer Event stuff, I'd like to take a moment to break down my feelings about the changes:
#1. The change in currency: I don't mind having to aquire different currencies for each year's ship, but changing it so close to the event when so many people have saved up a surplus of Pearls is a most underhanded move, and devalues the effort that players put into getting their surpluses in the first place. They had to earn them, does it really matter when they earn them?
#2. The 'rewards' for turning in the now-obsolete Pearls: offering up spec points and R&D mats is a nice gesture, but from my point of view at least, insufficient for a currency which was used to purchase a limited-time starship.
#3. Limiting the projects and currency for new summer ships to the event only: This is also rather underhanded as it requires players who want the ship to log in and get it during the event, with no possibility of getting it later. Exclusivity breeds Entitlement, which is bad for the player community, just my opinion with that last bit.
#4. Removing the projects for the Corvette and Cruiser: This is the one that really pushed my 'anger button', as the summer/winter ships have always been made available to claim during the events, players have become dependant on being able to get them for their new alts, removing them suddenly without offering at least a chance to claim them on new characters (Delta Recruits mainly) is most a disrespectful and underhanded thing to do.
#5. Making Starship Emotes: I have no objections here, some are concerned that these will just be used by Trolls to annoy people, or to 'pollute' the newly redesigned Quadrant Space. I suspect this will be the case, but the new emotes could also be handy in a firefight where typing in a message would take too much time... So I'll just leave that as a wash, as the benefits are equally balanced by the annoyances.
Many players of STO have expected some stability in the Summer/Winter events of STO, it's one constant that would always be there for some fun, relaxation, and some clever rewards, changing it all of a sudden is a huge shock for players and likely the cause of much of the 'forum rage' seen in this thread.
Saw this yesterday and decided to read through the thread off and on to see what the general consensus was before I put in my thoughts. It seems that most of the folks posting dislike this change.
Add me to that group.
The fact they want to do away with hoarding isn't what bothers me, it's the timing. If they came out and said that AFTER this year, they will be changing the currency with each event to keep people from getting the ship on day one and not having to do the event, I could deal with that. And I think most others could as well. But the way they approached it for this year, bad move.
What Cryptic has essentially said is that time spent in game, if not being spent how the devs want us spending that time (playing what THEY want) that our efforts are nullified. However, being the kind, generous and forethinking people they are, decided not to simply erase our efforts, but instead reward them with trinkets. Some of the trinkets are actually somewhat nice, others have me scratching my head. Okay, it's just the ship emotes that have me doing that.
Cryptic, you want players PLAYING your event this year, here's a proposal.
Let us use the Pearls this one last year. If players want to trade in their Pearls for the new trinkets, let them. If they want to use their Pearls to get the (likely) new ship, let them. Do NOT retire the old ships, if players want them, let them have them. They still need to do the event to get them so what harm is there?
Now, here's where things are fuzzy, since *I* don't know if this is something they have planned or not.
Allow the new currency, whatever it may be, to be traded in for these trinkets as well. So if a player has time on their hands, they could run the event for the ship and when they complete that, they could run it for the spec points, R&D packs, emotes or any combination. I'd be willing to bet that even some of the people that have no interest in the ship may run the event to get the trinkets.
THAT might get more folks playing the event daily throughout the entire event, not just for the first couple of weeks and then leaving Risa a ghost town for the last 1/3rd of the event.
As it stands now, with what little info has been given, I will be trading in whatever Pearls I have for spec points on my lvl 60's and R&D packs on those not 60 yet. The emotes will be forgotten before I finish typing this sentence. As soon as I have the ship unlocked, I will leave Risa and not come back until next year. So out of the 40-ish days the event will run (if the new event holds onto the old schedule, which it may not), 25 will have my participation and the last 15-ish days will see me elsewhere. Wasted opportunity.
I was looking forward to getting the old Risian ships, and eventually the Breen ships, for some of my Delta Recruits. (Don't act surprised, we all know this will be done to the Winter event and likely the Anniversary event as well) Two of them were created specifically for the Corvette and the Chell Gret. Now I have to rethink what I'm going to do with them. I find it odd that you go through the trouble of creating the DR event to get us to create alts, and then alter an upcoming event in such a negative way that supported alts.
As for the old ships being T5-U's and maybe being remade into T6 ships, fine, I'll live with that. *IF* those supposed T6 versions are all available this year. T6 Corvette, T6 Cruiser and T6 "whatever this years ships is supposed to be". That would get me doing the event daily on 3 alts and would up the rest of my alts from one day of participation to 3 days. Not much granted, but it would still be better for Cryptic's metrics than what it appears it will be currently. But, I'd be happy if they just left the current T5-U versions there.
TL;DR
I understand the decision to change up the currency. I just don't like the TIMING of how they are implementing it. Putting it into effect after this years event, fine. Doing it before this years event, nullifying time and effort put into the game last year, not fine.
Perhaps it's too late to change how the Summer event is going to be handled, but it's definitely not too late to INFORM the players whether or not a similar fate is in the works for the Winter and Anniversary events and potentially learn from the mistakes made here to prevent them there.
Hello. My name is iamynaught and I am an altaholic.
I should point out that people rage at Cryptic no matter what they do -- people ranted here about bringing back the Shaka emote since it was supposed to have been exclusive. Cryptic "ruined" it by letting the new players have it too.
I suggest an emote is not the same thing as RL hours converted into a currency that is supposed to be, well, a currency. Dependable.
Anyway, it's a done deal. I'm no longer grinding for currencies that are not currencies.
I'm starting to see this in a different light. Only new players, DR recruits, are encouraged to spend RL money and time. The rest of us, thank for your patronage. Only problem is, something tells me there is a huge overlap of "players we want to keep cuz I have a boat payment to make" and "players that paid for my last boat payment, bye thanks cya".
So we've been headed off, next step is to begin wringing out all our previously "purchased" items I imagine. My favorite ship remains a T5u Galor - I'm sure we'll soon learn why T5u ships are unfair to all those new DR players who of course are mainly old STO players.
This franchise has existed since 1963. It could easily last another generation. PWE doesn't seem to understand a multi-generational franchise with a proven record is any different than the latest made-up fantasy idea.
Remember when Cryptic was all about cutting down on "all" the different currencies, blah blah blah.
So long ago, i'm sure this mmo was tied to Star Trek in some way or other, but I could be wrong...
Does no one else find it ironic that money doesn't exist in the Federation, but this game seems to THRIVE on it?
At least for this year's summer event, all we have to do is listen to sweet soothing tropical music and fly around on a jetpack. I'll do it with one hand on the mouse and one hand on the margarita.
Having had pneumonia during my A-levels many years ago and still attending school (and having half of my right lung collapse as a result) I salute your stoicism and dedication whilst also urging you to look after yourself. Zombietrendy is not nearly so friendly during livestreams and is likely to demand more than bacon.
And probably not the Liv Moore (not my pun!) style nice zombie who eats brains For Great Justice :eek:
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
... What a letdown. Not only because of the Risian starships I won't be able to play x3 for, but I'm halfway crushed for what this almost certainly means for any possibility of getting the cochrane shotty I've been patiently pining for since I joined (two or three weeks after the last mirror universe event.)
Gad, I was so exited for Risa.
Please reconsider, Cryptic.
If metrics matter to you (and by all evidence, it does), this is going to wind up cutting my playtime considerably, and it looks like that's going to be widespread.
Which is why it's being "retired". They did the same thing with the Patrol Escort when the Tempest came out.
The T5 Patrol Escort hasn't been retired, it's the tac class themed level 40 giveaway. I'm currently flying one. It cannot be upgraded.
I bought an upgrade token in the recent c-store ship sale, so that if I got an upgradable T5 in the summer event, I could bump it to T5-U.
So, no corvette, and down a bunch of Zen for a token I now cannot use. Hell if they do release a T5-U or T6 corvette this summer, I'm still gonna be pissed at their timing...
That is assuming we get such a ship and not some clunker that doesn't suit any of my toons, like a Risian T6 Cargo Shuttle or such.
<center><font size="+5"><b>Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day... Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life...</b></size></center>
the forums have never been great at being united on topics, and the people represented here are those who self-select and feel strongly enough to post. It'd be better to boast of the solidarity when we see player traffic numbers and spending figures during the event.
Er, hello, remember Delta Rising? I'm sure more than a few peeps were somewhat ticked off with that little update...
The T5 Patrol Escort hasn't been retired, it's the tac class themed level 40 giveaway. I'm currently flying one. It cannot be upgraded.
I bought an upgrade token in the recent c-store ship sale, so that if I got an upgradable T5 in the summer event, I could bump it to T5-U.
So, no corvette, and down a bunch of Zen for a token I now cannot use. Hell if they do release a T5-U or T6 corvette this summer, I'm still gonna be pissed at their timing...
That is assuming we get such a ship and not some clunker that doesn't suit any of my toons, like a Risian T6 Cargo Shuttle or such.
Even if you got the corvette it gets a T5U upgrade for free. Almost all boxed ships do.
I bought an upgrade token in the recent c-store ship sale, so that if I got an upgradable T5 in the summer event, I could bump it to T5-U.
So, no corvette, and down a bunch of Zen for a token I now cannot use. Hell if they do release a T5-U or T6 corvette this summer, I'm still gonna be pissed at their timing...
You wasted your money anyway; those event T5 ships were a free T5U upgrade.
No offense to Trendy, but it certainly does seem that the existence of this forum is merely lip-service. Players with legitimate complaints appear to be casually disregarded; Trendy most frequently replies to those who are making tangential or funny comments, not those who have legitimate complaints or those who have genuine, well-thought-out suggestions for better ways to implement change.
Perhaps it is PWE, but it seems to me that Cryptic has been cut down (personnel firings) so much that the PR side of the house doesn't even get to coordinate with the development side of the house--that would require manpower that has been let go. Why else would there be so many changes that have left legions of players feeling disenfranchised? Feedback clearly appears to come here to die. I could add a list of all historical instances where this has happened, but you'd probably lose another day's time just reading it.
STO has succinctly devolved into a cycle of "We're doing this"--sans market research of any type. Then the players vent their righteous indignation into the abyss of this forum--never to have it acted upon. Trendy (bless her for her thankless job) has to uphold the appearance of Cryptic actually giving an airborne rodent's hindquarters, but (giving her the benefit of the doubt) assuming that she actually does provide thorough feedback...it appears to fall entirely on deaf ears.
Is it really any wonder that Zone chat is overly political? STO is now--effectively--a politician; there's the pretense of actually caring for and listening to constituents....but what really happens is whatever suits personal idiom.
Star Trek has contradicted itself several times over the issue of whether or not money exists in the future.
I don't mind monetization. I do feel strongly about unethical monetization.
Not really. It's stated that, within the Federation, money doesn't exist (why would they need it when they can replicate everything they need?). Other species do use money, however, notably the Ferengis and latinum (which seems to be the hardest currency in the universe, seeing as most species trade in it in DS9).
Presumably, Starfleet keeps a stash of latinum it can give to officers for goods and services on non-Fed worlds (hence why there are so many Starfleet officers in Quark's all the time).
First of all, I hope you've got plenty of coffee for this, Trendy. XD Thank you for all of the advocacy you do on our behalf. I know how tough it can be, being the middle-man for something like this.
I've had some time to sleep on this and think about it. I posted some pretty longish comments last night, and on reflection I realize that they were not presented in a particularly organized way that is easy to skim for important points when you roll up all this feedback into your report.
I think it is important to recognize that there are at least three distinct complaints with this announcement that should be addressed separately. Colors used solely to aid in readability and navigation of this wall of text.
-Issue summaries- Issue #1:Fact: characters who do not already have the Risian ship project slotted are permanently locked out of any possibility of ever getting it.
Issue #2:Speculation: a new currency for every event strongly suggests that going forward, players who don't have the time to complete any given event reputation before it ends will forever lose their chance at completing that rep.
Issue #3:Observation: the entire concept of starship emotes is extremely unpopular, and is perceived as immersion-breaking and inappropriate for Star Trek.
Now I will elaborate.
-Risian Corvette retirement and inability of new characters to ever get it-
The decision at the heart of issue #1 contradicts the previously-stated goal of "narrowing the gap" between old and new players, and most notably affects every single Delta recruit--many of whom are brand new players to the game whose first impression of a free-ship event is learning that they will never be able to get the one everyone was looking forward to.
Think about that for a moment. There was an enormous publicity push for the Delta Recruiting event. One of the explicitly-stated purposes was mitigate or eliminate the feeling new players have that they will never catch up to veteran players. Every aspect of this event, every mechanic behind it, every weekly goal had at its core the purpose of encouraging as many people as possible to devote as much time as possible to their Delta Recruits.
Now this decision rolls around--a decision that very obviously locks out any characters created since last year's event. How do you think that makes people feel about their Delta characters, and all the time and effort put into them?
Worse, it was 100% unnecessary to do it this way, even if the dev team is committed to retiring the Corvette. Retire it if you must. But at least allow people to still begin the project until the end of this year's festival. You're accepting both currencies for it anyway, right?
The outrage is exacerbated by the timing of it. If we had been told that this year was our last chance to get the Corvette, and that next year it would be unavailable, there would be outrage, certainly--but nowhere near as much, because Delta recruits and other new players would not be locked out. As it stands, people who played the event last year had no way at all of knowing that if they didn't slot the ship before the end of the event, they would never be able to do so again. I get that the decision likely wasn't made then.
The point is that you should NEVER permanently take something away like this without giving sufficient warning to players that allows them a last chance to get it. Announcing something like this well after it's too late to do anything to avoid being screwed by it is, frankly, an extremely douchey and un-customer-friendly thing to do.
-Concerns that this is setting a precedent for other events-
This is ultimately tied into a larger debate: STO being casual-friendly.
The demographics of Trek Fandom skew older and more family-oriented than the typical MMO. Many of us, even the more dedicated players, still have lives and schedules to deal with, and can't necessarily count on being able to log in every day to do the thing.
Up until now, STO has been extremely good about not punishing players for having obligations and responsibilities outside of the game. Almost every aspect of this game is casual-friendly in this way--in this case, being able to carry over event progress from year to year meant that players were reassured their efforts were not wasted if they couldn't complete the project in a single year's event.
If the way of things going forward is that we will no longer be able to carry over event progress from year to year, the casual-friendliness of events is gone. Players who do not expect to complete the event will no longer participate. Participation will also drop even for dedicated grinders, because once a player has farmed all the event currency they need, there is no point to grinding any further. The end result is that only the most dedicated players will be able to complete the event.
These are entirely predictable outcomes. I doubt they are the intended result.
-Starship emotes-
To be honest, I'm not too bent out of shape about these. Space is big, and I wouldn't expect to see these very often except in PUGs or Earth orbit. But this is one of those things where the complaint of "aren't there better things to work on?" actually has some merit. This is a cosmetic gimmick that no one asked for, and the track record of other social emotes with VFX--like disco balls and such--clearly demonstrates not only that there are players who will use them with the specific intent of trolling others, but that their very existence is going to be controversial.
But now consider the timing. Combine the above with the outrage over the other two issues. Consider that these emotes are one of the things being offered to players in exchange for the currency that is going away.
Intended or not, this associates the two in a person's mind. A person who is already upset about the other two issues is likely to perceive the emotes as what they are getting in exchange for what is being taken away. If they do not like the emotes--and it seems pretty clear so far that they are overwhelmingly unpopular--then they will resent them.
-Suggested solutions-
1. Allow existing characters to begin the Risian Corvette project, for this year only. Retire the ship afterwards. This would not be the first announced change that has been reversed because of overwhelmingly negative feedback.
2. Do not remove the ability to carry over event progress from one iteration to the next. Do not ever do this. If this was the intended way forward, rethink it. There are no expletives strong enough to express just how bad of an idea this is, and how much harm it would cause to the average STO player who can't necessarily finish an event project in one go. You've got metrics on how many players complete these things in a single event, right? Use them.
3. Provide a UI option to disable the VFX for starship emotes. The majority of the hate for this unpopular and unwanted functionality would vanish if people have the option of simply turning it off if they don't want to see it.
See the colored text if you want the TL;DR version.
Fleet Admiral L'Yern - Screenshot and doffing addict
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
Can we just RE-SET the whole STO? get rid if every stuff people carried away though years and stockpiled from every year and call this STO v2 instead?
Might as well since they are re-selling the same ships but instead of t5 they call t6 and now with summer events..drastically leave out pearls? whats next Qmendations? If you are re-setting everything might as well do over the whole STO instead of adding mores senseless grinding.
Better idea would have been to have a conversion system from Pearls to whatever currency will start next summer. Even if reduced to 20-30% conversion rate some would have preferred them than just erasing them alltogether. As always doesnt look like it was planned well....just saying
Not really. It's stated that, within the Federation, money doesn't exist (why would they need it when they can replicate everything they need?). Other species do use money, however, notably the Ferengis and latinum (which seems to be the hardest currency in the universe, seeing as most species trade in it in DS9).
Presumably, Starfleet keeps a stash of latinum it can give to officers for goods and services on non-Fed worlds (hence why there are so many Starfleet officers in Quark's all the time).
so the vet players that saved currencies to help there new alts to get ships from previous events get shafted , those that wanted to get ahead on the events for the next yr so they not stuck playing the event for the whole event get shafted . because its ok to spend lobi to get ahead on the events but not to stock up from the previous yr . thats the jist of it .
This maneuver of discontinuing the Summer Event ships would have been more decent, though still highly disagreeable, IF they had stated they will discontinue the previous Corvette & Luxury Cruiser rewarded ships AFTER this years Summer Event except for special occasions to be brought back. However, Cryptic apparently decided to go with a less courteous approach.
I can understand a reasoning for discontinuing the Risian Pearls for another currency. I may or may not agree with it, but I can understand a reasoning behind it. With all changes though communication can really influence it's transition.
Like it has been mentioned already I can foresee Cryptic doing the same for the Winter Event as well.
Over this last, almost full, year I have gone from buying Zen about every other sale even when I did not need to just because I was still having fun playing the game adding it to my monthly stipend to where I have not bought any Zen since the Dilithium Store being executed from the game to date. STO is slowly but surely transitioning from a Carrot to a Stick mentality.
Just think of all the invested time that all the players have accumulated redoing those missions to acquire those Pearls. I will have to reread that list of trinkets & wee perks to see if any are worth the compensation for trading-in. It is a shame really to just discontinue all that effort from the players & from the staff for their creations.
I bet Cryptic will make it all right though by maybe having a sale when it happens, or adding another wee perk to soothe any pain, or maybe even add the ships to the Lobi or Zen Store ... LOL.
Comments
Cryptic doesn't know the definition of the word exclusive, unfortunately. People have every right to get angry at them for that. They have been doing it since 2010 though.
On topic, though, Cryptic consistently does not communicate well or even think things through. Why shouldn't people get upset that they are removing ships and apparently the consoles? They haven't stated they are replacing them with T6 versions or if they are going to allow a project for the consoles or anything else.
I mean honestly if they are going to release T6 versions then tell us that. Not mentioning that vital fact only causes friction on the forums like this.
The consoles are more of a problem though, at least from my perspective. I never picked up both ships on my characters that now use them. I'd now like to try the console set out, and I kick myself for not doing it last year but just figured I could do it this year instead. But that apparently is going to be denied to me. My fault for being lazy last yer, but it definitely isn't my fault I didn't know they would not be available this year. That isn't something I or anyone else could reasonably foresee.
To pwelaughingtrendy: I do apologize for my rather heated responses, I don't envy your job and wouldn't wish it on anyone. That said I do appreciate you tolerating the community so well and being an excellent Community Manager. Thank you.
As for the Summer Event stuff, I'd like to take a moment to break down my feelings about the changes:
#1. The change in currency: I don't mind having to aquire different currencies for each year's ship, but changing it so close to the event when so many people have saved up a surplus of Pearls is a most underhanded move, and devalues the effort that players put into getting their surpluses in the first place. They had to earn them, does it really matter when they earn them?
#2. The 'rewards' for turning in the now-obsolete Pearls: offering up spec points and R&D mats is a nice gesture, but from my point of view at least, insufficient for a currency which was used to purchase a limited-time starship.
#3. Limiting the projects and currency for new summer ships to the event only: This is also rather underhanded as it requires players who want the ship to log in and get it during the event, with no possibility of getting it later. Exclusivity breeds Entitlement, which is bad for the player community, just my opinion with that last bit.
#4. Removing the projects for the Corvette and Cruiser: This is the one that really pushed my 'anger button', as the summer/winter ships have always been made available to claim during the events, players have become dependant on being able to get them for their new alts, removing them suddenly without offering at least a chance to claim them on new characters (Delta Recruits mainly) is most a disrespectful and underhanded thing to do.
#5. Making Starship Emotes: I have no objections here, some are concerned that these will just be used by Trolls to annoy people, or to 'pollute' the newly redesigned Quadrant Space. I suspect this will be the case, but the new emotes could also be handy in a firefight where typing in a message would take too much time... So I'll just leave that as a wash, as the benefits are equally balanced by the annoyances.
Many players of STO have expected some stability in the Summer/Winter events of STO, it's one constant that would always be there for some fun, relaxation, and some clever rewards, changing it all of a sudden is a huge shock for players and likely the cause of much of the 'forum rage' seen in this thread.
Fixed.
Ah, that explains this overwhelming sense of dread when I grab a glass of water at night. Here I thought it was just Iconians.
Add me to that group.
The fact they want to do away with hoarding isn't what bothers me, it's the timing. If they came out and said that AFTER this year, they will be changing the currency with each event to keep people from getting the ship on day one and not having to do the event, I could deal with that. And I think most others could as well. But the way they approached it for this year, bad move.
What Cryptic has essentially said is that time spent in game, if not being spent how the devs want us spending that time (playing what THEY want) that our efforts are nullified. However, being the kind, generous and forethinking people they are, decided not to simply erase our efforts, but instead reward them with trinkets. Some of the trinkets are actually somewhat nice, others have me scratching my head. Okay, it's just the ship emotes that have me doing that.
Cryptic, you want players PLAYING your event this year, here's a proposal.
Let us use the Pearls this one last year. If players want to trade in their Pearls for the new trinkets, let them. If they want to use their Pearls to get the (likely) new ship, let them. Do NOT retire the old ships, if players want them, let them have them. They still need to do the event to get them so what harm is there?
Now, here's where things are fuzzy, since *I* don't know if this is something they have planned or not.
Allow the new currency, whatever it may be, to be traded in for these trinkets as well. So if a player has time on their hands, they could run the event for the ship and when they complete that, they could run it for the spec points, R&D packs, emotes or any combination. I'd be willing to bet that even some of the people that have no interest in the ship may run the event to get the trinkets.
THAT might get more folks playing the event daily throughout the entire event, not just for the first couple of weeks and then leaving Risa a ghost town for the last 1/3rd of the event.
As it stands now, with what little info has been given, I will be trading in whatever Pearls I have for spec points on my lvl 60's and R&D packs on those not 60 yet. The emotes will be forgotten before I finish typing this sentence. As soon as I have the ship unlocked, I will leave Risa and not come back until next year. So out of the 40-ish days the event will run (if the new event holds onto the old schedule, which it may not), 25 will have my participation and the last 15-ish days will see me elsewhere. Wasted opportunity.
I was looking forward to getting the old Risian ships, and eventually the Breen ships, for some of my Delta Recruits. (Don't act surprised, we all know this will be done to the Winter event and likely the Anniversary event as well) Two of them were created specifically for the Corvette and the Chell Gret. Now I have to rethink what I'm going to do with them. I find it odd that you go through the trouble of creating the DR event to get us to create alts, and then alter an upcoming event in such a negative way that supported alts.
As for the old ships being T5-U's and maybe being remade into T6 ships, fine, I'll live with that. *IF* those supposed T6 versions are all available this year. T6 Corvette, T6 Cruiser and T6 "whatever this years ships is supposed to be". That would get me doing the event daily on 3 alts and would up the rest of my alts from one day of participation to 3 days. Not much granted, but it would still be better for Cryptic's metrics than what it appears it will be currently. But, I'd be happy if they just left the current T5-U versions there.
TL;DR
I understand the decision to change up the currency. I just don't like the TIMING of how they are implementing it. Putting it into effect after this years event, fine. Doing it before this years event, nullifying time and effort put into the game last year, not fine.
Perhaps it's too late to change how the Summer event is going to be handled, but it's definitely not too late to INFORM the players whether or not a similar fate is in the works for the Winter and Anniversary events and potentially learn from the mistakes made here to prevent them there.
Losing faith in humanity, one person at a time.
So long ago, i'm sure this mmo was tied to Star Trek in some way or other, but I could be wrong...
I suggest an emote is not the same thing as RL hours converted into a currency that is supposed to be, well, a currency. Dependable.
Anyway, it's a done deal. I'm no longer grinding for currencies that are not currencies.
I'm starting to see this in a different light. Only new players, DR recruits, are encouraged to spend RL money and time. The rest of us, thank for your patronage. Only problem is, something tells me there is a huge overlap of "players we want to keep cuz I have a boat payment to make" and "players that paid for my last boat payment, bye thanks cya".
So we've been headed off, next step is to begin wringing out all our previously "purchased" items I imagine. My favorite ship remains a T5u Galor - I'm sure we'll soon learn why T5u ships are unfair to all those new DR players who of course are mainly old STO players.
This franchise has existed since 1963. It could easily last another generation. PWE doesn't seem to understand a multi-generational franchise with a proven record is any different than the latest made-up fantasy idea.
Enjoy paying trough the nose for them!
-PWE Marketing
sig
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It is a peculiar phenomenon that we can imagine events that defy the laws of the universe.
Does no one else find it ironic that money doesn't exist in the Federation, but this game seems to THRIVE on it?
At least for this year's summer event, all we have to do is listen to sweet soothing tropical music and fly around on a jetpack. I'll do it with one hand on the mouse and one hand on the margarita.
And probably not the Liv Moore (not my pun!) style nice zombie who eats brains For Great Justice :eek:
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
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Star Trek has contradicted itself several times over the issue of whether or not money exists in the future.
I don't mind monetization. I do feel strongly about unethical monetization.
Gad, I was so exited for Risa.
Please reconsider, Cryptic.
If metrics matter to you (and by all evidence, it does), this is going to wind up cutting my playtime considerably, and it looks like that's going to be widespread.
The T5 Patrol Escort hasn't been retired, it's the tac class themed level 40 giveaway. I'm currently flying one. It cannot be upgraded.
I bought an upgrade token in the recent c-store ship sale, so that if I got an upgradable T5 in the summer event, I could bump it to T5-U.
So, no corvette, and down a bunch of Zen for a token I now cannot use. Hell if they do release a T5-U or T6 corvette this summer, I'm still gonna be pissed at their timing...
That is assuming we get such a ship and not some clunker that doesn't suit any of my toons, like a Risian T6 Cargo Shuttle or such.
Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life...</b></size></center>
Er, hello, remember Delta Rising? I'm sure more than a few peeps were somewhat ticked off with that little update...
The Fleet Patrol Escort was retired on May 8th 2014. It was replaced by the Fleet Patrol Escort Refit.
Even if you got the corvette it gets a T5U upgrade for free. Almost all boxed ships do.
You wasted your money anyway; those event T5 ships were a free T5U upgrade.
No offense to Trendy, but it certainly does seem that the existence of this forum is merely lip-service. Players with legitimate complaints appear to be casually disregarded; Trendy most frequently replies to those who are making tangential or funny comments, not those who have legitimate complaints or those who have genuine, well-thought-out suggestions for better ways to implement change.
Perhaps it is PWE, but it seems to me that Cryptic has been cut down (personnel firings) so much that the PR side of the house doesn't even get to coordinate with the development side of the house--that would require manpower that has been let go. Why else would there be so many changes that have left legions of players feeling disenfranchised? Feedback clearly appears to come here to die. I could add a list of all historical instances where this has happened, but you'd probably lose another day's time just reading it.
STO has succinctly devolved into a cycle of "We're doing this"--sans market research of any type. Then the players vent their righteous indignation into the abyss of this forum--never to have it acted upon. Trendy (bless her for her thankless job) has to uphold the appearance of Cryptic actually giving an airborne rodent's hindquarters, but (giving her the benefit of the doubt) assuming that she actually does provide thorough feedback...it appears to fall entirely on deaf ears.
Is it really any wonder that Zone chat is overly political? STO is now--effectively--a politician; there's the pretense of actually caring for and listening to constituents....but what really happens is whatever suits personal idiom.
Not really. It's stated that, within the Federation, money doesn't exist (why would they need it when they can replicate everything they need?). Other species do use money, however, notably the Ferengis and latinum (which seems to be the hardest currency in the universe, seeing as most species trade in it in DS9).
Presumably, Starfleet keeps a stash of latinum it can give to officers for goods and services on non-Fed worlds (hence why there are so many Starfleet officers in Quark's all the time).
I've had some time to sleep on this and think about it. I posted some pretty longish comments last night, and on reflection I realize that they were not presented in a particularly organized way that is easy to skim for important points when you roll up all this feedback into your report.
I think it is important to recognize that there are at least three distinct complaints with this announcement that should be addressed separately. Colors used solely to aid in readability and navigation of this wall of text.
-Issue summaries-
Issue #1: Fact: characters who do not already have the Risian ship project slotted are permanently locked out of any possibility of ever getting it.
Issue #2: Speculation: a new currency for every event strongly suggests that going forward, players who don't have the time to complete any given event reputation before it ends will forever lose their chance at completing that rep.
Issue #3: Observation: the entire concept of starship emotes is extremely unpopular, and is perceived as immersion-breaking and inappropriate for Star Trek.
Now I will elaborate.
-Risian Corvette retirement and inability of new characters to ever get it-
The decision at the heart of issue #1 contradicts the previously-stated goal of "narrowing the gap" between old and new players, and most notably affects every single Delta recruit--many of whom are brand new players to the game whose first impression of a free-ship event is learning that they will never be able to get the one everyone was looking forward to.
Think about that for a moment. There was an enormous publicity push for the Delta Recruiting event. One of the explicitly-stated purposes was mitigate or eliminate the feeling new players have that they will never catch up to veteran players. Every aspect of this event, every mechanic behind it, every weekly goal had at its core the purpose of encouraging as many people as possible to devote as much time as possible to their Delta Recruits.
Now this decision rolls around--a decision that very obviously locks out any characters created since last year's event. How do you think that makes people feel about their Delta characters, and all the time and effort put into them?
Worse, it was 100% unnecessary to do it this way, even if the dev team is committed to retiring the Corvette. Retire it if you must. But at least allow people to still begin the project until the end of this year's festival. You're accepting both currencies for it anyway, right?
The outrage is exacerbated by the timing of it. If we had been told that this year was our last chance to get the Corvette, and that next year it would be unavailable, there would be outrage, certainly--but nowhere near as much, because Delta recruits and other new players would not be locked out. As it stands, people who played the event last year had no way at all of knowing that if they didn't slot the ship before the end of the event, they would never be able to do so again. I get that the decision likely wasn't made then.
The point is that you should NEVER permanently take something away like this without giving sufficient warning to players that allows them a last chance to get it. Announcing something like this well after it's too late to do anything to avoid being screwed by it is, frankly, an extremely douchey and un-customer-friendly thing to do.
-Concerns that this is setting a precedent for other events-
This is ultimately tied into a larger debate: STO being casual-friendly.
The demographics of Trek Fandom skew older and more family-oriented than the typical MMO. Many of us, even the more dedicated players, still have lives and schedules to deal with, and can't necessarily count on being able to log in every day to do the thing.
Up until now, STO has been extremely good about not punishing players for having obligations and responsibilities outside of the game. Almost every aspect of this game is casual-friendly in this way--in this case, being able to carry over event progress from year to year meant that players were reassured their efforts were not wasted if they couldn't complete the project in a single year's event.
If the way of things going forward is that we will no longer be able to carry over event progress from year to year, the casual-friendliness of events is gone. Players who do not expect to complete the event will no longer participate. Participation will also drop even for dedicated grinders, because once a player has farmed all the event currency they need, there is no point to grinding any further. The end result is that only the most dedicated players will be able to complete the event.
These are entirely predictable outcomes. I doubt they are the intended result.
-Starship emotes-
To be honest, I'm not too bent out of shape about these. Space is big, and I wouldn't expect to see these very often except in PUGs or Earth orbit. But this is one of those things where the complaint of "aren't there better things to work on?" actually has some merit. This is a cosmetic gimmick that no one asked for, and the track record of other social emotes with VFX--like disco balls and such--clearly demonstrates not only that there are players who will use them with the specific intent of trolling others, but that their very existence is going to be controversial.
But now consider the timing. Combine the above with the outrage over the other two issues. Consider that these emotes are one of the things being offered to players in exchange for the currency that is going away.
Intended or not, this associates the two in a person's mind. A person who is already upset about the other two issues is likely to perceive the emotes as what they are getting in exchange for what is being taken away. If they do not like the emotes--and it seems pretty clear so far that they are overwhelmingly unpopular--then they will resent them.
-Suggested solutions-
1. Allow existing characters to begin the Risian Corvette project, for this year only. Retire the ship afterwards. This would not be the first announced change that has been reversed because of overwhelmingly negative feedback.
2. Do not remove the ability to carry over event progress from one iteration to the next. Do not ever do this. If this was the intended way forward, rethink it. There are no expletives strong enough to express just how bad of an idea this is, and how much harm it would cause to the average STO player who can't necessarily finish an event project in one go. You've got metrics on how many players complete these things in a single event, right? Use them.
3. Provide a UI option to disable the VFX for starship emotes. The majority of the hate for this unpopular and unwanted functionality would vanish if people have the option of simply turning it off if they don't want to see it.
See the colored text if you want the TL;DR version.
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
Might as well since they are re-selling the same ships but instead of t5 they call t6 and now with summer events..drastically leave out pearls? whats next Qmendations? If you are re-setting everything might as well do over the whole STO instead of adding mores senseless grinding.
Better idea would have been to have a conversion system from Pearls to whatever currency will start next summer. Even if reduced to 20-30% conversion rate some would have preferred them than just erasing them alltogether. As always doesnt look like it was planned well....just saying
Incorrect.
No one cares about TOS. :-P
I can understand a reasoning for discontinuing the Risian Pearls for another currency. I may or may not agree with it, but I can understand a reasoning behind it. With all changes though communication can really influence it's transition.
Like it has been mentioned already I can foresee Cryptic doing the same for the Winter Event as well.
Over this last, almost full, year I have gone from buying Zen about every other sale even when I did not need to just because I was still having fun playing the game adding it to my monthly stipend to where I have not bought any Zen since the Dilithium Store being executed from the game to date. STO is slowly but surely transitioning from a Carrot to a Stick mentality.
Just think of all the invested time that all the players have accumulated redoing those missions to acquire those Pearls. I will have to reread that list of trinkets & wee perks to see if any are worth the compensation for trading-in. It is a shame really to just discontinue all that effort from the players & from the staff for their creations.
I bet Cryptic will make it all right though by maybe having a sale when it happens, or adding another wee perk to soothe any pain, or maybe even add the ships to the Lobi or Zen Store ... LOL.
Or TNG. Or DS9.
Indeed.
Have some Daleks.