Upgrading needs a serious update.

gholendhor

I just did a bunch of upgrades and noticed that the upgrade system is severally messed up.Several items actually downgrade when you upgrade them from very rare to ultra rare.Still other Items show no change when you upgrade them from ultra rare to epic.So,if you don't pay attention you will waste lots of dilithium,and tech upgrades.I always try to compare stats before I upgrade so I was spared.But I suspect that many a player didn't pay attention and was not spared.I do hope that the devs are aware of this and are on the case in fixing this.

elric071

Spaces between sentences, sir/ma'am, spaces between sentences....

Anyway, I noticed this when I first tried the upgrade system. According to my fleetmates, this is working as intended. There is a percentage bar as you add components and that is your chance to get an improvement, as I understand it, anyway. I don't bother with it because it seemed like a giant waste of resources just to get a good gold item.

I don't do queues much, so I really don't need the epic gear myself.

If that is wrong, sorry for the misinformation, like I said, I don't mess with the upgrades system much....

Qapla'!

sfc

This is the problem I have with these kinds of threads - they're deliberately worded to make it look like it's the game's fault with user error.

You were especially vague on what you were upgrading - and thus blamed it on the entire system.

Let's take a step back here, and first at what you're upgrading item-wise, what stats it has before and after upgrading, and what are you looking at to see it its lost stats? Items in the "possible upgrade" window usually have [???] attached to them, and only shows them at base without mods.

woodwhity

If you want level the item/increase its Mark, its a solid system.

BUT: Rarity upgrades are luckbased, and the chance is reset after each Mark-upgrade. When reaching MK 14, it keeps the rarity level after each "try", and after (luck how many tries) upgrades to the next rarity. Usually, rarity upgrades at that level are a lot more expensive (for far less performance increase) then Mark-upgrades.

Yes, from a player PoV it needs a revamp so that Rarity upgrades are not luckbased, and even better, that you can choose the mod it gets (aside from set-gear, those have already fixed mods)

But from cryptics PoV the system works seemingly quite fine.

gholendhor

I'm talking about the stats of the item being upgraded.For instance,I did a fluidic antiproton dual heavy cannon Dmgx3.At very rare it does 613.4 damage at ultra rare it does 574.2 damage.another example is I have the Aegis set,all are ultra rare.Upgrading these to epic has no effect on any of the stats,they all stay the same.So,whats the point of upgrading them fully if the upgrade does nothing or makes it worse.

sfc

gholendhor wrote: »

I'm talking about the stats of the item being upgraded.For instance,I did a fluidic antiproton dual heavy cannon Dmgx3.At very rare it does 613.4 damage at ultra rare it does 574.2 damage.another example is I have the Aegis set,all are ultra rare.Upgrading these to epic has no effect on any of the stats,they all stay the same.So,whats the point of upgrading them fully if the upgrade does nothing or makes it worse.

Can we see images, before/after comparisons?

ssbn655

I will lay odds that the OP was upgrading the old "scale with experiece" items like the Cardasian Spiral Disrupters and Quad cannons and the pre new crafting Aegis stuff.

bendalek

It's designed as a Dil sink ... An by extension a money maker for Cryptic.

Originally you could by many Very Rare items from the Dil store, but most people went for Fleet and/or Rep gear at Endgame, so there was no Dil sink, and by extension no "cash cow" for Cryptic. This new system has changed all of that.

Also if you notice a particular item that either doesn't get any improvements on Rarity/Mark upgrades or if, even worse, it actually downgrades the item, you need to post the exact before/after items in the Bug Reports sub-forum.

The Devs need to know what items are borked, so they can fix them. (unless it's WAI of course)

admrenlarreck

I stopped bothering with the upgrade system when a Purple MK Xiii sword I had upgraded to a Blue Mk XIV. I was told its WAI.

orion0029

I'll admit, I would like the rarity upgrade chances to be improved. Dumped a small fortune (30k+) of dilithium into a friggin field generator console and it's still the same rarity that I crafted it.

I realize that 30k isn't really a huge amount of dilithium, but the chance for upgrade is still ~2%. For the amount of Dilithium and kits I threw at it I'd expect at least a ~10%+ chance for upgrade. For an item that isn't fleet or reputation, it's rather annoying and prohibitively expensive to upgrade quality, likely more so with fleet or rep gear.

Also, I've 'lost' more than one piercing tetryon weapon initializing it for upgrade, they all downgraded to basic tetryon weapons. (which in fairness, I wasn't upset with, I only initialized them for upgrading in hopes of them gaining a credit value so I could recycle them and get something for them lol)

Since I don't do many STF missions, I haven't seen the need to upgrade past MK XII, so the upgrade system doesn't bother me much... Especially since my recent combat logs say I'm still outmatching most of the random people I'm in missions with, upgrading to MK XIV would likely be overkill right now. Lol

bobbydazlers

there are a lot of gambles in sto, some far worse then others, even doff missions carry a certain risk of fail or even a critical fail that can involve injury or even death and the loss of a duty officer or you can crit success so you get a bonus.
but the upgrade system when you get past mk14 and are just aiming for a quality upgrade is one of the most expensive, even more so then lockbox`s IMO, because the contents of a lockbox if you compare the value of the items to those on the c-store is approximately the right value of what you paid for the key so getting the ship is just a bonus.
stick to just upgrading the mk to 14 and forget going for quality and you will find the system much more friendly.
if you keep gambling on quality upgrades you will end up loosing big time.

rcux

Is it possible the downgrades are from not having a high enough level in whatever crafting field the trying to upgrade the item in ? For example trying to upgrade Mk XII to Mk XIII with only a level 6 in crafting skill ?

aesica

The problems I have with the upgrade system are:

1) The quality improvement mechanic is a freaking resource-devouring lottery wheel. TRIBBLE that garbage.

2) It's a nice way to make old favorite items relevant, but it's kind of scummy to give us Mk XII stuff as level 60s through rep projects/etc, then point us at the upgrade system. Plug and play with new gear is fun, having to waste time "priming it for use" before it's worth using is not.

3) The Farmville timers are trash. I'm not sinking dilithium into that, but unfortunately, I know there's some "people" who do which is why they remain. Instead, I just won't bother playing while my upgrades happen since I'm pretty much forced into a "time out" while my sihp's engines/weapons/whatever upgrade. Thanks for that.

Other than that, I like the fact that I can catch-up older items and I think the item level improvement mechanic is fair--dumping upgrade kits + dilithium into an item to essentially boost its experience and ultimately, level.

I pretty much upgrade my stuff to Mk XIV, but pretty much disregard the quality improvement entirely. If it happens, great, but I'm not going to bankrupt my resources on that nonsense, just to get a modifier that sucks.

meimeitoo

aesica wrote: »

The problems I have with the upgrade system are:

1) The quality improvement mechanic is a freaking resource-devouring lottery wheel. TRIBBLE that garbage.

2) It's a nice way to make old favorite items relevant, but it's kind of scummy to give us Mk XII stuff as level 60s through rep projects/etc, then point us at the upgrade system. Plug and play with new gear is fun, having to waste time "priming it for use" before it's worth using is not.

3) The Farmville timers are trash. I'm not sinking dilithium into that, but unfortunately, I know there's some "people" who do which is why they remain. Instead, I just won't bother playing while my upgrades happen since I'm pretty much forced into a "time out" while my sihp's engines/weapons/whatever upgrade. Thanks for that.

Other than that, I like the fact that I can catch-up older items and I think the item level improvement mechanic is fair--dumping upgrade kits + dilithium into an item to essentially boost its experience and ultimately, level.

I pretty much upgrade my stuff to Mk XIV, but pretty much disregard the quality improvement entirely. If it happens, great, but I'm not going to bankrupt my resources on that nonsense, just to get a modifier that sucks.

^^ Very well said! QFT!

corelogik

rcux wrote: »

Is it possible the downgrades are from not having a high enough level in whatever crafting field the trying to upgrade the item in ? For example trying to upgrade Mk XII to Mk XIII with only a level 6 in crafting skill ?

I doubt that has anything to do with it. I've upgraded many crafted OmniBeams to Mk XIII and one to Mk XIV, all with IMPROVEMENT in stats,... and I'm absolute zero in all crafting schools. I haven't touched the crafting system.

I've upgraded several other items too but the OmniBeams are the only thing I KNOW was "crafted" the rest of the stuff I've done, beam arrays torpedos etc,.. may or may not have been, I have no idea. OmniBeams though, the only place to get them IS from crafting,...

I've never had an item "downgrade" on me. I've used a combination of Superior, Normal and the special mission reward upgrade kits. The item that comes out of the upgrade, for me at least, has always been better than what went in. Not always by a lot, but always some improvement.

bobbydazlers

corelogik wrote: »

I doubt that has anything to do with it. I've upgraded many crafted OmniBeams to Mk XIII and one to Mk XIV, all with IMPROVEMENT in stats,... and I'm absolute zero in all crafting schools. I haven't touched the crafting system.

I've upgraded several other items too but the OmniBeams are the only thing I KNOW was "crafted" the rest of the stuff I've done, beam arrays torpedos etc,.. may or may not have been, I have no idea. OmniBeams though, the only place to get them IS from crafting,...

I've never had an item "downgrade" on me. I've used a combination of Superior, Normal and the special mission reward upgrade kits. The item that comes out of the upgrade, for me at least, has always been better than what went in. Not always by a lot, but always some improvement.

more often then not the fails only occur when you get past mk14 and are just aiming for quality, in fact so far I have never known a mk upgrade to fail and have often a bonus quality boost as well.

jerichoredoran

MK upgrade cant fail and depends on nothing but the tech points in it.

Also 99% of the items upgrade fine. The remaining 1% are items that have nothing to level (e.g. warp cores without skill tags) or special items that are simply bugged.

OPs problem is misinterpretation of information in the game. Of cause one could have asked about that but complaining is so much easier...

salem1574

gholendhor wrote: »

I'm talking about the stats of the item being upgraded.For instance,I did a fluidic antiproton dual heavy cannon Dmgx3.At very rare it does 613.4 damage at ultra rare it does 574.2 damage.another example is I have the Aegis set,all are ultra rare.Upgrading these to epic has no effect on any of the stats,they all stay the same.So,whats the point of upgrading them fully if the upgrade does nothing or makes it worse.

Amen!! Upgrading by definition means to IMPROVE and move in a VERTICAL fashion. you know up...?

bobbydazlers

aesica wrote: »

3) The Farmville timers are trash. I'm not sinking dilithium into that, but unfortunately, I know there's some "people" who do which is why they remain. Instead, I just won't bother playing while my upgrades happen since I'm pretty much forced into a "time out" while my sihp's engines/weapons/whatever upgrade. Thanks for that.

why do players insist on working on ships they are actually flying at the time, switch to another ship so you don't have to not play while you are working on gear, do your updates while your off line or if you really must fly that ship slip in a temporary item or items while what you are working on is being upgraded.

to date I have upgraded every bit of gear on 5 ships across 3 characters and it hasn't stopped me playing once.
same applies to upgrading ground gear, either upgrade while off line or use temporary gear while you are upgrading.

other then that I agree with all you say.