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This game isn't dying, is it?

bratwurstboybratwurstboy Member Posts: 7 Arc User
I stopped playing STO after DR was released (I wasn't really happy in the direction the game was going), but I recently came back, and it seems to me that there's just less people. I find it hard now to get into a game for many PvE queues that were before, very easy to get in to, I never see zone chat when I used to see walls of text in DS9 and ESD, and the clan I was a part of, Nova Core, has shut down due to the clan "not being a community", which I think is what's happening to this game. I still see people around but it just feels like there's less somehow. Am I imagining this? Has anyone else noticed anything similar?

Comments

  • warmaker001bwarmaker001b Member Posts: 9,205 Arc User
    edited July 2015
    With all the drama at Delta Rising's release, I berated a lot of what was going on. I knew a lot of people leaving from the fleets I was in.

    Nova Core was shut down? I knew PVP was hanging on by a single hand hold before DR, but after DR, well...

    I never thought that the game would die after DR. But I knew the population would be greatly diminished. Hell, you can even see this touch STOwiki. It used to be updated very diligently before DR. But it seems a good number of contributors left STO. Because you'll notice lots of things Post-DR have not been updated. Before DR, the newest things were put into the wiki within a day or two going live. Not so anymore.
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  • thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Member Posts: 5,167 Arc User
    I stopped playing STO after DR was released (I wasn't really happy in the direction the game was going), but I recently came back, and it seems to me that there's just less people. I find it hard now to get into a game for many PvE queues that were before, very easy to get in to, I never see zone chat when I used to see walls of text in DS9 and ESD, and the clan I was a part of, Nova Core, has shut down due to the clan "not being a community", which I think is what's happening to this game. I still see people around but it just feels like there's less somehow. Am I imagining this? Has anyone else noticed anything similar?

    There are more PvE queues than there used to be, so people are more spread out. That does not mean there are less people, but it may mean it takes longer for a queue to fill up, which can give that impression. I have no idea or comment about a specific fleet and their issues.

    The-Grand-Nagus
    Join Date: Sep 2008

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  • aoax10aoax10 Member Posts: 271 Arc User
    You aren't imagining it. Since DR, the amount of players have dropped significantly. The only keeping the game alive are the whales with the sales. I sure do miss Pre-DR though. Those were some fun times.
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  • gulberatgulberat Member Posts: 5,505 Arc User
    If you are only using Zone chat, I noticed that since the map revamp, a lot of chat has spilled out into the Alpha and Beta Quadrants that used to be in Zone. Not to say there hasn't been an impact due to DR, but you may want to take that into account before making a final judgment based just on ESD and DS9.

    Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
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  • hunteralpha84hunteralpha84 Member Posts: 524 Arc User
    Dying? No.

    There are some queues that are impossible to get teams for but that's more due to the failure criteria rather than a lack of people.
  • gulberatgulberat Member Posts: 5,505 Arc User
    Dying? No.

    There are some queues that are impossible to get teams for but that's more due to the failure criteria rather than a lack of people.

    The failure criteria do seem to have had a rather lasting effect unfortunately. :/ However, my understanding is that they now only have failure criteria on the Elite queues, for those queues that have Elite versions.

    Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
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  • cidjackcidjack Member Posts: 2,017 Arc User
    "Tin foil hat....check, popcorn....check, Shiner......check" Let the doom begin.
    Armada: Multiplying fleet projects in need of dilithium by 13."
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  • genemorphgenemorph Member Posts: 404 Arc User
    Before DR the queues were full and popped frequently, now it's like a ghost town. I think the rewards and STF balancing (i.e. decrease all rewards across the board - including EC making ability) pretty much has put STO on the brink, which is a pity because they've added some nice features in game since then. Unfortunately the people in charge took too long to address a few player concerns (about 9 months). What would help is shortening the time you can repeat a fleet action/stf and reduce the ones that are for twenty people to 5 (these never fill up now).

    It took a long time to lose player confidence, and I think it will take some effort to pull it back. I used to make reasonable EC from purple farming, but competitive PvE hardly fills up now, and when they do you only receive purple MK12 which has been totally devalued by the upgrade system, that coupled with massively decreased vendor item value pretty much killed EC making for me.
  • gradiigradii Member Posts: 2,824 Arc User
    Is this game dying? I don't know.

    Is it dying compared to Champions Online? Absolutely not lol.

    "He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
    Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
    he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
    In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
    He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
    He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
    He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
    He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
  • thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Member Posts: 5,167 Arc User
    gradii wrote: »
    Is this game dying? I don't know.

    Is it dying compared to Champions Online? Absolutely not lol.

    Believe it or not...
    Yup, we're working on a new content update. Still too early to talk about, but we'll let you know when we've got stuff sorted.
    Great to hear! We wanted to make the revisions to improve the new player experience, since we still get a lot of new players coming in these days! :smile: )




    The-Grand-Nagus
    Join Date: Sep 2008

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  • warmaker001bwarmaker001b Member Posts: 9,205 Arc User
    gradii wrote: »
    Is this game dying? I don't know.

    Is it dying compared to Champions Online? Absolutely not lol.

    Believe it or not...
    Yup, we're working on a new content update. Still too early to talk about, but we'll let you know when we've got stuff sorted.
    Great to hear! We wanted to make the revisions to improve the new player experience, since we still get a lot of new players coming in these days! :smile: )



    If Star Wars Galaxies endured the playerbase annihilation of the NGE update in 2005 but still linger on until shutdown in Dec 2011, anything can live on. Diminished, yes. But not necessarily shutdown.
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  • ilithynilithyn Member Posts: 903 Arc User
    Idk which STFs you are playing, but it can't be the same as me as I only rarely have problems with getting them to pop and then it's because some large event is on (like the first couple of days of Risa). Also I think a lot of people have become tired of pugging and uses private channels to create teams.

    As for zone chat. Yeah DS9 is dead, don't think I've ever seen anyone talk in zone there ESD on the other hand? I really wish people would shut up as most of the conversation, if you can call it that, is rather horrible. Something similar goes for sector space, Delta Quadrant is dead, Beta is intermittent and Alpha is of the ESD quality. So I, along with most of my fleet, is one of those people who are there but you'll almost never see me in zone chat anywhere. The quality of conversation is too low for me to go there except in emergency. So if you're worried about the dead zone chats, blame trolls and other on-line bullies for the rest of us ignoring it.
    Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end of it.
  • thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Member Posts: 5,167 Arc User
    If Star Wars Galaxies endured the playerbase annihilation of the NGE update in 2005 but still linger on until shutdown in Dec 2011, anything can live on. Diminished, yes. But not necessarily shutdown.

    And SWG only shut down because TOR was coming out and they didnt' want 2 SW MMOs competing against each other. As far as Champs, Cryptic owns the IP, and superheroes happen to be pretty popular in pop culture ATM.

    The-Grand-Nagus
    Join Date: Sep 2008

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  • farmallmfarmallm Member Posts: 4,630 Arc User
    edited July 2015
    I noticed a good drop off. The KDF fleet I'm in, and Fed Fleet are good examples. The KDF was about dead, and the Fed was dead. The Romulan is still strong, but we lost a few on that one. However most of us are more spread out since the map got a revamp. As during some events, I see a lot of people.

    To me DR didn't help much. As most players didn't like having to grind the same content and DOFF to gain levels. I did it since I kept on playing. Now its not that bad since I'm leveled off. To me it did hurt my other alts I like to play some as well. And in that case is hurting those fleets they was in since I couldn't help them as well on projects.

    I can understand the level grind to prevent players from blasting through the little content they offered. But on the other hand it hurt the player base. Fleet's player base dropped, and it killed my chances to play my other alts other than my main 3. Which in turn is less $ STO made cause I had new ships planned to buy for those characters.

    Is it dying? I don't think so. We lost players, but the game is still going. I see lock boxes still opening up, and new ships being used as they release them.
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    USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
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  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,236 Arc User
    gradii wrote: »
    Is this game dying? I don't know.

    Is it dying compared to Champions Online? Absolutely not lol.
    Believe it or not...
    Yup, we're working on a new content update. Still too early to talk about, but we'll let you know when we've got stuff sorted.
    Great to hear! We wanted to make the revisions to improve the new player experience, since we still get a lot of new players coming in these days! :smile: )
    Yes, yes, but what year? :p

    I know the Champs devs are hard at work, but the question is how long before they finish what they are working on?
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    My character Tsin'xing
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  • welcome2earfwelcome2earf Member Posts: 1,748 Arc User
    Dying? I dunno. But it can't be in a healthy state. It's kinda like the fat person that got the tummy tuck and gastro bypass; perhaps they're skinny, but it doesnt mean they're healthy.

    With the series of nerfs/takaways that happened in relation to XP and Dil, I saw a slew of players just...*poof* gone. It's like they ragequit offline. I just simply reduced my time by at least 75%.
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  • mirrorchaosmirrorchaos Member Posts: 9,844 Arc User
    sto started going bad because of that silly choice that geko made for delta rising in regards to leveling up the character from 50-60. i dunno what he hoped to of accomplished, but its one of the most lame things he ever done next to dinosaurs with freaking lasers on their heads but i will always disagree with the dinosaurs of season 8.
    T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW.
    Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
  • genemorphgenemorph Member Posts: 404 Arc User
    ilithyn wrote: »
    Idk which STFs you are playing, but it can't be the same as me as I only rarely have problems with getting them to pop and then it's because some large event is on (like the first couple of days of Risa). Also I think a lot of people have become tired of pugging and uses private channels to create teams.

    This simply isn't true. Everyone who used to pug are now using private to play or are playing an event? Really. A few people have been saying this since DR. Log on now and look at the queues for prime time Friday, they are empty. It is like that on all nights now. This is not what is use to be like by a long shot. I'm apart of a very large fleet that always had chat going, now there is hardly anyone around. People didn't make a dear John forum post, they just left.

    I've noticed a steep decline in active players since DR. Is STO dead, no, has it taken a big hit from poor decisions, yes.
  • eldarion79eldarion79 Member Posts: 1,679 Arc User
    sto started going bad because of that silly choice that geko made for delta rising in regards to leveling up the character from 50-60. i dunno what he hoped to of accomplished, but its one of the most lame things he ever done next to dinosaurs with freaking lasers on their heads but i will always disagree with the dinosaurs of season 8.

    The Solonae Battlezone was the best one they every put out in terms of play and repeateable play with the good rewards, even after a number of nerfs.

    STO isn't dead, just the occasional hamster.
  • quepanquepan Member Posts: 542 Arc User
    to answer the OP , yes and no , In most sense PVP is "DEAD JIM" the power creep killed that outside of interfleet PVP . The way the dev Team made the grind for EXP ,spec for alts made alot of players have nothing to shoot for once there one toon is at a certain point , with R&D and other things really needed for ENDGAME play.where . while the "NEW" player base is growing , the alot of veterans arent spending as much time in game as they used to , with the exception or 2 . My fleet is Very Active , though not as active as before DR , but we are also a Gaming community with more than just STO for interests so interest in STO ebbs and FLOWS .
    does the Entry of new players balances out the Leaving VETS? possibly , though everything is different from a personal perspective , the content you play might see a decline while other content peaks , its all based now on what the best reward for the time spent . which is why certain queues are ghost towns .
    just my few strips .
  • shadowwraith77shadowwraith77 Member Posts: 6,395 Arc User
    The diehards stay, while the other kiddies, go elsewhere to play!!!
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    Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!

  • crusader2007crusader2007 Member Posts: 1,883 Arc User
    edited July 2015
    It is not the same game brought up since Beta a few years ago for sure. F2P brought an influx of new players and LoR was the better expansion than DR. The business model employed since DR still is the same and not much have changed since then...grindfest and DPS online have taken over instead of strategy and planning.
    Except for a couple more PvE queues this is the same game as it was last October when DR launched. PvP is totally dead and past life support for sure. This means no more intelligent planning nor strategy to take down intelligent human foes. Nowadays, the best foe are just senseless NPCs and there is an insatiable need to increase DPS with the coolest consoles/traits/specs to take down those same NPCs.

    Since DR, Cryptic has been active to keep the few players "on" by bribing them with new cool toys tight up to FEs. Can't remember the time in which they offer so many weekend events back to back (period from October to Summer 2015 event) to keep players on.

    It is practically the same game as it was in DR. Dead...not really but IMO kind of close to it. However, kudos to PWE for trying to keep the line alive with new players coming in from SWTOR, WOW and the other MMOs.

    I myself used to enjoy PVPs and that's all I did for the former 4 years prior to DR. Since DR killed it...I adjusted to it and my fleet is what motivates me to keep on going. I'm very sad for the old PvPers who left and took all that keen sense to strategize in this game. So many great people left due to DR.
    Then again, new people come but IMO still the outflow was more pronounced that the current inflow. Up to PWE to redefine this game and hope they will at least try to keep on enticing new players to offset the losses of the past.normal-35.gif

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  • reiklingraiderreiklingraider Member Posts: 209 Arc User
    edited July 2015
    The Alternate unfriendly, reward nerf and increased grind of DR sucked a lot of the fun out of STO for me. I did not need another Alt but the free character slot for a Delta recruit was something I could not pass up even when some of the rewards disappointed me. I play a lot less and have not spent any cash in the game since then and will think twice before I start playing another Cryptic game.

    My fleet is still pretty strong but there is less chat than there used to be and some of the old timers are not around now. I think the STF ques do not pop like they used to is mainly due to the reward nerfs along with the increase in difficulty and time gated fail conditions, not because everyone went to premade groups. They simply are not rewarding enough for the time spent with the possibility of failure for even less or no reward. It gets even worse when a failure is caused by trolls. I know they took the failure conditions from Advanced ques but the rewards are still subpar for the time invested and the wait time for them to pop.

    That is my two cents for what it is worth. I still play but not as much as I did before DR and I don't spend any cash mainly because STO is not as much fun as it was pre DR. Sto is probably still pretty healthy financial wise but it has disappointed a lot of players with the forced DPS power creep.
  • zeuxidemus001zeuxidemus001 Member Posts: 3,357 Arc User
    Depends on how you look at it from just a Star Trek fans perspective its not dead. From those who are both fans and mmo players they stuck with it until DR. As far as DR is concerned those of us who fall in the fan/mmo player category with the past track record of the game along with being rubbed the wrong way once again we've moved on. Although I keep tabs on forums incase things occur that might interest me in the game but beyond that I'm pretty much a retired KDF general :P
  • lucho80lucho80 Member Posts: 6,600 Bug Hunter
    PvP is dead most of the time except on weekends. Even Kerrat isn't as good as it used ot be except for the same group of 5 KDF players doing their thing every day. The PublicEliteSTF is completely quiet most days since a lot of people moved on to DPS channels which unfortunately exclude excellent sci players with low DPS. I come in, kick off some R&D stuff. Maybe play one PvP match and log off. Every week I play whatever featured episode is around to get my free spec point. Thats it. I may chat a bit, but I usually just log off.

    I don't care what the devs say, the amount of players has dropped off considerably from what it used to be before DR.
  • ursusmorologusursusmorologus Member Posts: 5,328 Arc User
    Yes, player count is down. You can see it yourself in the logins from Steam at a 3-yr low; even if established players are switching to ARC, there are not enough new players coming in behind them to keep the count up, aka dying.
  • grayfoxjamesgrayfoxjames Member Posts: 1,516 Arc User
    I don't think the game is going anywhere. Don't forget zones were made smaller to deal with some of the lag. Where one zone used to be 70 people or so max now it's like 30 or so like at DS9. I think a lot of people are using their new armada chats more as well. Larger community without all the nonsense zone chat sometimes.

    Besides going to be 50th anniversary soon and a new movie. Perhaps that will drive more people. My fleet has gotten busier lately.
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  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,236 Arc User
    Yes, player count is down. You can see it yourself in the logins from Steam at a 3-yr low; even if established players are switching to ARC, there are not enough new players coming in behind them to keep the count up, aka dying.
    Why would anyone want to play via Steam?
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  • pwlaughingtrendypwlaughingtrendy Member Posts: 2,966 Arc User
    Doom thread bye thread.
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