There is other ways to get gear or unlock it. You can have a counter of sorts, where you have to play 25 Borg Cure spaces for instance to get the deflector, And 25 Infected for the Engine and so on.... Just an idea. But don't forget the main reason were all playing the PvE maps is for the lovely Dilithium.
There is other ways to get gear or unlock it. You can have a counter of sorts, where you have to play 25 Borg Cure spaces for instance to get the deflector, And 25 Infected for the Engine and so on.... Just an idea. But don't forget the main reason were all playing the PvE maps is for the lovely Dilithium.
I guess people would love to be "forced" (I'm only borrowing that word from other threads) into certain STFs to get certain gear. Yes, it's similar with some missions and their rewards, but they usually have a counter of one to three (if you want three items).
My mother was an epohh and my father smelled of tulaberries
Have none of you guys honestly ever heard "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!?"
It ain't broke
Don't fix it
You're absolutely right. The current system works, but the original premise was streamlining a system that is getting excessive again. As I stated in my previous post, I think my suggestion could've worked, but now I don't think it's a viable option.
Star Trek Online Volunteer Community Moderator and Resident She-Wolf
Community Moderators are Unpaid Volunteers and NOT Employees of Gearbox/Cryptic
Views and Opinions May Not Reflect the Views and Opinions of Gearbox/Cryptic
There [are] other ways to get gear or unlock it. You can have a counter of sorts, where you have to play 25 Borg Cure spaces for instance to get the deflector, And 25 Infected for the Engine and so on.... Just an idea. But don't forget the main reason were all playing the PvE maps is for the lovely Dilithium.
Lol, that was actually how it used to work back before the god awful reputation system began!
Everytime you ran an STF you got an Encrypted Borg Datachip (currency), which could then be exchanged for the MK X or MK XI version of the gear you wanted. These were simple enough to get and only the really dedicated or lucky got the MK XII.
Which incidentally, only mattered if you wanted a costume option, a couple of accolades and a title as back then Mark XI was endgame and MK XII was very rare.
Back then, you had to run Ground STFs if you wanted a particular piece of gear, but they removed that requirement. So now you can mindlessly grind Infected Space doing "1337 dps" and get MACO ground armor.
That system wasn't broken, but we got the rep system because people whined hard on the forums about how much they actually had to play the only real endgame content available at that time in order to (not) get the gear, particularly min maxers who'd never done ground combat and hadn't specced for it at all or indeed knew how to play anything but space and were confused by things like the Borg adapting to their weapons and refused to carry a remodulator.
People complained it would mean people wouldn't do the Ground segments anymore. They were right.
Have none of you guys honestly ever heard "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!?"
It ain't broke
Don't fix it
You're absolutely right. The current system works, but the original premise was streamlining a system that is getting excessive again. As I stated in my previous post, I think my suggestion could've worked, but now I don't think it's a viable option.
In the old system, there were many currencies, but most of them were not viable for endgame. All those Exploration and PvP Badges were tiered, and you got only gear for that tier (and it wasn't even particular good gear - I believe the Badges only gave Green gear). By the time you got enough badges for good gear, chances were good you already outlevelled the tier. That means the currency was dead weight.
Pretty much all currency now can directly or indirectly get you endgame gear of various sorts. I think Latinum might be the only exception, it's purely fluff, which I think is a useful category.
None of the currency is dead weight, it stays relevant for endgame. Worst case scenario with marks is that you really have all the gear you wanted from the reputation and turn the marks into Dilithium.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Have none of you guys honestly ever heard "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!?"
It ain't broke
Don't fix it
You're absolutely right. The current system works, but the original premise was streamlining a system that is getting excessive again. As I stated in my previous post, I think my suggestion could've worked, but now I don't think it's a viable option.
In the old system, there were many currencies, but most of them were not viable for endgame. All those Exploration and PvP Badges were tiered, and you got only gear for that tier (and it wasn't even particular good gear - I believe the Badges only gave Green gear). By the time you got enough badges for good gear, chances were good you already outlevelled the tier. That means the currency was dead weight.
Pretty much all currency now can directly or indirectly get you endgame gear of various sorts. I think Latinum might be the only exception, it's purely fluff, which I think is a useful category.
None of the currency is dead weight, it stays relevant for endgame. Worst case scenario with marks is that you really have all the gear you wanted from the reputation and turn the marks into Dilithium.
True. I'm not debating the usefulness of the current currencies. It's just the shear number of them, and the promise that there will be more with each new Reputation Track added. Again though, I don't think streamlining is an option now with Rep Mark to Elite Rep Mark projects, and it should probably just stay as is.
Star Trek Online Volunteer Community Moderator and Resident She-Wolf
Community Moderators are Unpaid Volunteers and NOT Employees of Gearbox/Cryptic
Views and Opinions May Not Reflect the Views and Opinions of Gearbox/Cryptic
Awhile back I advocated for streamlining the Reputation Mark economy into one Universal Reputation Mark. My reasoning was that, as predicted, it would continue to grow with each new Reputation Track added and start to become cumbersome.
I was met with the same arguments about playing unrelated content to earn Reputation Gear, I.E. playing Romulan Reputation content and buying Omega Gear. My counter to that was that Elite Reputation Marks could stay in place to ensure at least a minimum amount of proper content was played for earning Reputation Gear. Although, it was pointed out to me that Nukara doesn't have an Elite Reputation Mark, I still felt this was a way to go in order to streamline the economy.
But since Cryptic added the Reputation Project to convert 100 Reputation Marks into 1 Elite Reputation Mark, I can no longer advocate Universal Reputation Marks as a solution, because it would eliminate that guarantee of playing proper Reputation content to earn Reputation Gear.
There [are] other ways to get gear or unlock it. You can have a counter of sorts, where you have to play 25 Borg Cure spaces for instance to get the deflector, And 25 Infected for the Engine and so on.... Just an idea. But don't forget the main reason were all playing the PvE maps is for the lovely Dilithium.
Lol, that was actually how it used to work back before the god awful reputation system began!
Everytime you ran an STF you got an Encrypted Borg Datachip (currency), which could then be exchanged for the MK X or MK XI version of the gear you wanted. These were simple enough to get and only the really dedicated or lucky got the MK XII.
Which incidentally, only mattered if you wanted a costume option, a couple of accolades and a title as back then Mark XI was endgame and MK XII was very rare.
Back then, you had to run Ground STFs if you wanted a particular piece of gear, but they removed that requirement. So now you can mindlessly grind Infected Space doing "1337 dps" and get MACO ground armor.
That system wasn't broken, but we got the rep system because people whined hard on the forums about how much they actually had to play the only real endgame content available at that time in order to (not) get the gear, particularly min maxers who'd never done ground combat and hadn't specced for it at all or indeed knew how to play anything but space and were confused by things like the Borg adapting to their weapons and refused to carry a remodulator.
People complained it would mean people wouldn't do the Ground segments anymore. They were right.
That was pre season 5 or 6 way of things and that was broken, it was totally random on drops for the borg stuff. Some people were doing in exceses of 500 STF's to get one bit of space gear.
Have none of you guys honestly ever heard "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!?"
It ain't broke
Don't fix it
You're absolutely right. The current system works, but the original premise was streamlining a system that is getting excessive again. As I stated in my previous post, I think my suggestion could've worked, but now I don't think it's a viable option.
Have none of you guys honestly ever heard "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!?"
It ain't broke
Don't fix it
You're absolutely right. The current system works, but the original premise was streamlining a system that is getting excessive again. As I stated in my previous post, I think my suggestion could've worked, but now I don't think it's a viable option.
Have none of you guys honestly ever heard "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!?"
It ain't broke
Don't fix it
You're absolutely right. The current system works, but the original premise was streamlining a system that is getting excessive again. As I stated in my previous post, I think my suggestion could've worked, but now I don't think it's a viable option.
I know its not broken, but it was never fixed to start with. With so many reps now it is getting out of hand to point that there is too many.
Ok to settle this, Log onto Sto, Hover over the the Marks, E/c, GPL, for the discription. It clear says that Marks are used to "buy" items from reputation projects. .
I too remember those long ago promises to reduce currencies .
These days I chalk that up along with "lower C-store prices after F2P" . Yeah, that was said as well .
Truth is, these days they operate on : the more #$%& they put out, the more need for ship / item slots the more zen we spend on slots .
I remember enjoying some sense of order in my personal bank space ... , but that was a long time ago ... , before it turned into a certified circus .
Have none of you guys honestly ever heard "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!?"
It ain't broke
Don't fix it
I know its not broken, but it was never fixed to start with. With so many reps now it is getting out of hand to point that there is too many.
So how do you propose they fix it without crazy random drop chances or everyone running ISA or Voth Battlezone over and over?
Cause I'll tell you now, random drops need to be crazy low chance to ensure people run the content enough, and people will just farm the hell out of ISA and Voth Battlezone if you convert all rep marks to a universal mark.
Does the new system have too many currencies, maybe so, but each currency is tied to specific missions/zones against specific enemy groups and used in a specific, clearly identified store. Under the old old system the currency was so level banded that as others have pointed out, by the time you earned enough for the equipment you wanted, you were getting better loot drops off random mobs.
The answer is simple: always create more complexity, then add a way to buy your character through the maze. This system will insure steady income so long as the game remains otherwise entertaining.
I'm an advocate of the old days when you had to run ground missions to get ground gear, and space missions to get space gear. Doing that now would effectively double the currencies you would need to grind. Sweet! Now if there were only a Zen option to bypass grinding Rep...
Actually, this might "settle" this periodic quasi-dead horse once and for all...
There is a difference between "currency bloat" and "currency uselessness". We're starting to experience "currency bloat", but we don't necessarily have "currency uselessness".
As others have said, while we have 6+ sets of reputation marks, they can be converted to items, and/or other "more useful" currency after their primary purpose (indicate completion of the appropriate content) has been served.
Unlike the old system, where the bloat was also full of "useless" currencies - while I wasn't here, the stories of the various marks being "level tied' and "useless" after you clear that level - along with the same "play area X content, get mark Y" deal - also caused a massive "funnel" on what content was played (I ain't playing a Borg STF if it pays me a T3 mark, I need T6 marks)...
The big "problem" I've seen in these threads is that Cryptic used the words "removal of currency bloat" to "justify" the conversion from marks to Dilithium - and then have "grown" the assets tab to nearly a dozen entries again...
Being I don't have access to the original posts (new Arc-redirects would also make it much harder for search-fu to find any), I can't remember if the "removal of bloat" line was meant more as "shorthand" for "removal of fully useless currencies"...
Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
While I don't particularly like so many currencies, it does allow me to accumulate bonus marks on each of the different rep marks, which I can turn in for 1000 dil each, each day using the CC event (and playing Advanced to get VR mats to make more EC). While annoying, I'd prefer they leave it as-is.
There is a difference between "currency bloat" and "currency uselessness". We're starting to experience "currency bloat", but we don't necessarily have "currency uselessness".
This entire post is filled with truths.
Jeremy Randall
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
What I would favor as a compromise from a design standpoint (and I don't know this would please people in this thread) is:
A player-driven marks exchange, based on the ZEN exchange. Where you can trade any rep marks for fleet marks... and you can exchange fleet marks for rep marks. In turn, I would eliminate the "choose any" mark boxes. These would become fleet mark boxes.
In turn, each rep would have an exchange where players can trade fleet marks for that faction's rep marks. As this would be a player-driven economy, over-played content would trade poorly on conversion. Underplayed content would trade well. This would naturally bring more balance to the queues.
From there, I would:
- Separate ground and space traits. Specialization into ground or space inhibits players from partaking in both. You can still only use 8 at a time but you get 8 space and 8 ground. 4 rep ground passive, 4 rep space passive. (Any additions from Fleet projects so far would add one to both ground and space.) This is necessary for the next step...
- Introduce a "Join Random Queue". This will put you into a random queue to fill out teams. Large Fleet Mark bonus applied.
All together, this would NOT reduce bloat, which I don't think needs reducing. Usefulness would be unaffected. Any mark from a rep would require that SOMEONE earn those marks but the trading system would naturally favor playing the least popular content, as those players would get a higher return.
Beyond that, maybe offer a direct sale of Fleet Marks from the C-store. Maybe in a Fleet Supplies package that is guaranteed to contain Fleet Marks, common fleet commodities, and Lobi. High-ish chance of awarding a Fleet Quality ship regardless of whether you are in a fleet that has unlocked it and tradeable versions of existing faction-specific C-store costumes. Fleet ship modules as a prize. This is a pack for the person who wants to show generosity to their fleet or who wants personal fleet perks without fleet involvement. Maybe have some kind of commodity that acts as a universal commodity for fleet projects. A universal token for DOffs. And this item would be the go-to item for buying fleet marks and therefore buying one's way into a rep although it would be contingent on other players earning rep mark to trade for it.
to my mind with marks after you have filled the various reputations and got any gear you want all becomes as one whether they be rom marks or dyson marks they are all one thing marks and they all convert to dilithium just as easy as a few clicks of the mouse so it does not matter to me if there is one million different kinds of marks or just one.
on the other hand to combine these marks into one do-it-all mark is wrong in my opinion, if I wanted certain gear quickly I had to do certain missions to get the required marks or at least play a mission that offered a choice of marks, or i had to wait until either a summer or winter event to get the marks by running missions such as raising winter epohh and I don't see why this should change.
making marks tied to certain missions is a good thing in my opinion, there is much content I would never have played enough to get the hang of them and would never have realised what fun I was missing out on had it not been for the fact that I wanted to get the gear that I could only get with the marks from that content.
for new players it would be an injustice to deprive them of the need to play certain content to get the gear they want and make it so they might miss out on the fun that can be had by learning to play new content that at first glances might seem too complicated.
and for seasoned players we all know without even looking what marks do what and what to do with the ones we don't need.
for this reason I think no matter how many types of marks there are unifying them into one or allowing players to exchange marks would be a bad thing not only for the game but for the players also.
Post edited by bobbydazlers on
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
Each of the rep marks is perfectly useful for its own rep, and the idea seems to be, to do each rep, you should do content connected to the them of the reputation. This makes sense and is a good system, having universal rep marks would defeat the purpose.
ONce you've finished them, you get the same benefit for doing whichever ones you want, all the rep marks convert to dil at the same rate.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
^This.
Settled the issue most people seems to have with Reputation marks, I'd focus on the real currencies out there which buy the large part of the gear: EC, Lobi and Latinum.
Having 3 currencies just for shopping from players or vendors is nonsense. Lobi is nonsense.
I'd like that in a trek game we would buy most items with latinum and dilithium, leaving EC for replicator use only.
The Exchange and Vendors, EXPECIALLY the Ferengi store, should only accept Latinum.
Lobi should be disbanded, with the boxes rewarding latinum.
EC and Lobi should be converted into latinum.
This is the canon-friendly easing I'd like to see in the game,
then gimme even 30 reputations with different content which reward their fidelity points to access the store, and convert into dilithium when I don't need them anymore, I wouldn't mind.
I still dream from time to time about using the Gateway to doff off-game in spare minutes as we were told
Have none of you guys honestly ever heard "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!?"
It ain't broke
Don't fix it
I know its not broken, but it was never fixed to start with. With so many reps now it is getting out of hand to point that there is too many.
So how do you propose they fix it without crazy random drop chances or everyone running ISA or Voth Battlezone over and over?
So what do you we do at the moment, play the STF's over and over, and over. We play the battle grounds over, and over and over. There are a ton of ways to get drops. You could could have multipul choice drops, make it so you have to craft an item from components. make it so the only way you can craft those components is to get them from STF's.
Don't get me wrong, I play the ques like a boss, I'm doing STF'S daily by the hundreds. The main cause for concern is the amount of different Marks out there. We don't need them.
There is a difference between "currency bloat" and "currency uselessness". We're starting to experience "currency bloat", but we don't necessarily have "currency uselessness".
Maybe they could devise a system that all the older Marks like Borg, Nukara, Rom and maybe dyson as there little old now too, maybe turn them into one Mark called reputation Mark and then it would ease the current system, won't look so over whealming. Then when they bring a new mark ouot the one from say 2 seasons ago can then go to Rep Marks. If you not got all the gear from the rep system yet then you have issues.
Have none of you guys honestly ever heard "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!?"
It ain't broke
Don't fix it
I know its not broken, but it was never fixed to start with. With so many reps now it is getting out of hand to point that there is too many.
So how do you propose they fix it without crazy random drop chances or everyone running ISA or Voth Battlezone over and over?
So what do you we do at the moment, play the STF's over and over, and over. We play the battle grounds over, and over and over. There are a ton of ways to get drops. You could could have multipul choice drops, make it so you have to craft an item from components. make it so the only way you can craft those components is to get them from STF's.
Don't get me wrong, I play the ques like a boss, I'm doing STF'S daily by the hundreds. The main cause for concern is the amount of different Marks out there. We don't need them.
So I should go back to the old system of not getting the drop for the loot I want after a year and a half rather than it being guaranteed in a couple of weeks to a month because you think there's too many currencies?
Have none of you guys honestly ever heard "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!?"
It ain't broke
Don't fix it
In my opinion, it is broke. And getting increasingly complicated for the role it plays. It needs to be changed to make it better.
It needs to be fixed.
Even if it is broken, it's still not going to be an overnight fix or we'll be swapping one minor problem for a major one.
I agree. It can't be done overnight.
But my idea to fix it is to have you run the specific content to fill the rep bucket. As the bucket is filled, then tier is made and the store is unlocked as it is now. Then you just use EC, Dil and GPL, and possibly even R&D mats or even commodities, to purchase the stuff in the store. This makes sure that people run the specific content but still allow people to run what ever they want to actually get the stuff. Which includes redoing the story missions, Foundry as well as any STF's.
It would make things easier over all for new players to get the gear they want as well as old players to keep having their own fun and advance they want to.
Depending on how you make each thing required, you can actually drive players going to various places to collect all of the stuff necessary to get what they want.
There [are] other ways to get gear or unlock it. You can have a counter of sorts, where you have to play 25 Borg Cure spaces for instance to get the deflector, And 25 Infected for the Engine and so on.... Just an idea. But don't forget the main reason were all playing the PvE maps is for the lovely Dilithium.
Lol, that was actually how it used to work back before the god awful reputation system began!
Everytime you ran an STF you got an Encrypted Borg Datachip (currency), which could then be exchanged for the MK X or MK XI version of the gear you wanted. These were simple enough to get and only the really dedicated or lucky got the MK XII.
Which incidentally, only mattered if you wanted a costume option, a couple of accolades and a title as back then Mark XI was endgame and MK XII was very rare.
Back then, you had to run Ground STFs if you wanted a particular piece of gear, but they removed that requirement. So now you can mindlessly grind Infected Space doing "1337 dps" and get MACO ground armor.
That system wasn't broken, but we got the rep system because people whined hard on the forums about how much they actually had to play the only real endgame content available at that time in order to (not) get the gear, particularly min maxers who'd never done ground combat and hadn't specced for it at all or indeed knew how to play anything but space and were confused by things like the Borg adapting to their weapons and refused to carry a remodulator.
People complained it would mean people wouldn't do the Ground segments anymore. They were right.
Well first off it wasn't 1 EDC per piece of equipment, the Mk X version of the Assimilated Space Set cost 6 EDCs per piece, 18 for the entire set, even the anti-borg weaponry from the Omega Store cost multiple EDCs plus salvage etc. When the Rep System was first introduced I was absolutely 100 percent against it, but my opinion has changed as the system has evolved.
Have none of you guys honestly ever heard "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!?"
It ain't broke
Don't fix it
In my opinion, it is broke. And getting increasingly complicated for the role it plays. It needs to be changed to make it better.
It needs to be fixed.
Even if it is broken, it's still not going to be an overnight fix or we'll be swapping one minor problem for a major one.
Actually, there is a very easy fix. They should convert all of the "old" reputations into a generic reputation mark, and then keep the specific mark for any new reputation. For example, right now all of the marks except the iconian marks would be converted to generic reputation marks so that you can use them in any non-iconian reputation. At the same time, you have to have iconian marks for the iconian rep. When the next reputation gets released, all of the iconian marks are converted to generic marks, and the new rep has it's own mark. The same could be done with the "elite currencies" (iconian data probes etc). This way, it makes getting marks for the "old" reputations a little easier for someone who is behind, but still requires specific content to be completed to get the new reputation's currency. This way, there is only ever 4 reputation currencys going on at a time. Generic marks, generic "elite" items, the current nest rep mark, and the associated elite items.
Comments
I guess people would love to be "forced" (I'm only borrowing that word from other threads) into certain STFs to get certain gear. Yes, it's similar with some missions and their rewards, but they usually have a counter of one to three (if you want three items).
You're absolutely right. The current system works, but the original premise was streamlining a system that is getting excessive again. As I stated in my previous post, I think my suggestion could've worked, but now I don't think it's a viable option.
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Lol, that was actually how it used to work back before the god awful reputation system began!
Everytime you ran an STF you got an Encrypted Borg Datachip (currency), which could then be exchanged for the MK X or MK XI version of the gear you wanted. These were simple enough to get and only the really dedicated or lucky got the MK XII.
Which incidentally, only mattered if you wanted a costume option, a couple of accolades and a title as back then Mark XI was endgame and MK XII was very rare.
Back then, you had to run Ground STFs if you wanted a particular piece of gear, but they removed that requirement. So now you can mindlessly grind Infected Space doing "1337 dps" and get MACO ground armor.
That system wasn't broken, but we got the rep system because people whined hard on the forums about how much they actually had to play the only real endgame content available at that time in order to (not) get the gear, particularly min maxers who'd never done ground combat and hadn't specced for it at all or indeed knew how to play anything but space and were confused by things like the Borg adapting to their weapons and refused to carry a remodulator.
People complained it would mean people wouldn't do the Ground segments anymore. They were right.
Pretty much all currency now can directly or indirectly get you endgame gear of various sorts. I think Latinum might be the only exception, it's purely fluff, which I think is a useful category.
None of the currency is dead weight, it stays relevant for endgame. Worst case scenario with marks is that you really have all the gear you wanted from the reputation and turn the marks into Dilithium.
True. I'm not debating the usefulness of the current currencies. It's just the shear number of them, and the promise that there will be more with each new Reputation Track added. Again though, I don't think streamlining is an option now with Rep Mark to Elite Rep Mark projects, and it should probably just stay as is.
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Moderation Problems/Issues? Please contact the Community Manager
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That was pre season 5 or 6 way of things and that was broken, it was totally random on drops for the borg stuff. Some people were doing in exceses of 500 STF's to get one bit of space gear.
I know its not broken, but it was never fixed to start with. With so many reps now it is getting out of hand to point that there is too many.
I know its not broken, but it was never fixed to start with. With so many reps now it is getting out of hand to point that there is too many.
These days I chalk that up along with "lower C-store prices after F2P" . Yeah, that was said as well .
Truth is, these days they operate on : the more #$%& they put out, the more need for ship / item slots the more zen we spend on slots .
I remember enjoying some sense of order in my personal bank space ... , but that was a long time ago ... , before it turned into a certified circus .
So how do you propose they fix it without crazy random drop chances or everyone running ISA or Voth Battlezone over and over?
Cause I'll tell you now, random drops need to be crazy low chance to ensure people run the content enough, and people will just farm the hell out of ISA and Voth Battlezone if you convert all rep marks to a universal mark.
Does the new system have too many currencies, maybe so, but each currency is tied to specific missions/zones against specific enemy groups and used in a specific, clearly identified store. Under the old old system the currency was so level banded that as others have pointed out, by the time you earned enough for the equipment you wanted, you were getting better loot drops off random mobs.
The current system is fine as is, leave it be.
I'm an advocate of the old days when you had to run ground missions to get ground gear, and space missions to get space gear. Doing that now would effectively double the currencies you would need to grind. Sweet! Now if there were only a Zen option to bypass grinding Rep...
There is a difference between "currency bloat" and "currency uselessness". We're starting to experience "currency bloat", but we don't necessarily have "currency uselessness".
As others have said, while we have 6+ sets of reputation marks, they can be converted to items, and/or other "more useful" currency after their primary purpose (indicate completion of the appropriate content) has been served.
Unlike the old system, where the bloat was also full of "useless" currencies - while I wasn't here, the stories of the various marks being "level tied' and "useless" after you clear that level - along with the same "play area X content, get mark Y" deal - also caused a massive "funnel" on what content was played (I ain't playing a Borg STF if it pays me a T3 mark, I need T6 marks)...
The big "problem" I've seen in these threads is that Cryptic used the words "removal of currency bloat" to "justify" the conversion from marks to Dilithium - and then have "grown" the assets tab to nearly a dozen entries again...
Being I don't have access to the original posts (new Arc-redirects would also make it much harder for search-fu to find any), I can't remember if the "removal of bloat" line was meant more as "shorthand" for "removal of fully useless currencies"...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
This entire post is filled with truths.
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
A player-driven marks exchange, based on the ZEN exchange. Where you can trade any rep marks for fleet marks... and you can exchange fleet marks for rep marks. In turn, I would eliminate the "choose any" mark boxes. These would become fleet mark boxes.
In turn, each rep would have an exchange where players can trade fleet marks for that faction's rep marks. As this would be a player-driven economy, over-played content would trade poorly on conversion. Underplayed content would trade well. This would naturally bring more balance to the queues.
From there, I would:
- Separate ground and space traits. Specialization into ground or space inhibits players from partaking in both. You can still only use 8 at a time but you get 8 space and 8 ground. 4 rep ground passive, 4 rep space passive. (Any additions from Fleet projects so far would add one to both ground and space.) This is necessary for the next step...
- Introduce a "Join Random Queue". This will put you into a random queue to fill out teams. Large Fleet Mark bonus applied.
All together, this would NOT reduce bloat, which I don't think needs reducing. Usefulness would be unaffected. Any mark from a rep would require that SOMEONE earn those marks but the trading system would naturally favor playing the least popular content, as those players would get a higher return.
Beyond that, maybe offer a direct sale of Fleet Marks from the C-store. Maybe in a Fleet Supplies package that is guaranteed to contain Fleet Marks, common fleet commodities, and Lobi. High-ish chance of awarding a Fleet Quality ship regardless of whether you are in a fleet that has unlocked it and tradeable versions of existing faction-specific C-store costumes. Fleet ship modules as a prize. This is a pack for the person who wants to show generosity to their fleet or who wants personal fleet perks without fleet involvement. Maybe have some kind of commodity that acts as a universal commodity for fleet projects. A universal token for DOffs. And this item would be the go-to item for buying fleet marks and therefore buying one's way into a rep although it would be contingent on other players earning rep mark to trade for it.
on the other hand to combine these marks into one do-it-all mark is wrong in my opinion, if I wanted certain gear quickly I had to do certain missions to get the required marks or at least play a mission that offered a choice of marks, or i had to wait until either a summer or winter event to get the marks by running missions such as raising winter epohh and I don't see why this should change.
making marks tied to certain missions is a good thing in my opinion, there is much content I would never have played enough to get the hang of them and would never have realised what fun I was missing out on had it not been for the fact that I wanted to get the gear that I could only get with the marks from that content.
for new players it would be an injustice to deprive them of the need to play certain content to get the gear they want and make it so they might miss out on the fun that can be had by learning to play new content that at first glances might seem too complicated.
and for seasoned players we all know without even looking what marks do what and what to do with the ones we don't need.
for this reason I think no matter how many types of marks there are unifying them into one or allowing players to exchange marks would be a bad thing not only for the game but for the players also.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
^This.
Settled the issue most people seems to have with Reputation marks, I'd focus on the real currencies out there which buy the large part of the gear: EC, Lobi and Latinum.
Having 3 currencies just for shopping from players or vendors is nonsense. Lobi is nonsense.
I'd like that in a trek game we would buy most items with latinum and dilithium, leaving EC for replicator use only.
The Exchange and Vendors, EXPECIALLY the Ferengi store, should only accept Latinum.
Lobi should be disbanded, with the boxes rewarding latinum.
EC and Lobi should be converted into latinum.
This is the canon-friendly easing I'd like to see in the game,
then gimme even 30 reputations with different content which reward their fidelity points to access the store, and convert into dilithium when I don't need them anymore, I wouldn't mind.
So what do you we do at the moment, play the STF's over and over, and over. We play the battle grounds over, and over and over. There are a ton of ways to get drops. You could could have multipul choice drops, make it so you have to craft an item from components. make it so the only way you can craft those components is to get them from STF's.
Don't get me wrong, I play the ques like a boss, I'm doing STF'S daily by the hundreds. The main cause for concern is the amount of different Marks out there. We don't need them.
So I should go back to the old system of not getting the drop for the loot I want after a year and a half rather than it being guaranteed in a couple of weeks to a month because you think there's too many currencies?
No thanks.
In my opinion, it is broke. And getting increasingly complicated for the role it plays. It needs to be changed to make it better.
It needs to be fixed.
KDF: Dahar Master Kan (Borg Klingon Tactical)::Dahar Master Torc (Alien Science)::Dahar Master Sisteric (Gorn Engineer)
RR-Fed: Citizen Sirroc (Romulan Science)::Fleet Admiral Grell (Alien Engineer)
RR-KDF: Fleet Admiral Zemo (Reman Tactical)::Fleet Admiral Xinatek (Reman Science)::Fleet Admiral Bel (Alien Engineer)
TOS-Fed: Fleet Admiral Katem (Andorian Tactical)::Lieutenant Commander Straad (Vulcan Engineer)
Dom-Fed: Dan'Tar (Jem'Hadar Science)
Dom-KDF: Kamtana'Solan (Jem'Hadar Science)
CoHost of Tribbles in Ecstasy (Zombee)
Even if it is broken, it's still not going to be an overnight fix or we'll be swapping one minor problem for a major one.
I agree. It can't be done overnight.
But my idea to fix it is to have you run the specific content to fill the rep bucket. As the bucket is filled, then tier is made and the store is unlocked as it is now. Then you just use EC, Dil and GPL, and possibly even R&D mats or even commodities, to purchase the stuff in the store. This makes sure that people run the specific content but still allow people to run what ever they want to actually get the stuff. Which includes redoing the story missions, Foundry as well as any STF's.
It would make things easier over all for new players to get the gear they want as well as old players to keep having their own fun and advance they want to.
Depending on how you make each thing required, you can actually drive players going to various places to collect all of the stuff necessary to get what they want.
KDF: Dahar Master Kan (Borg Klingon Tactical)::Dahar Master Torc (Alien Science)::Dahar Master Sisteric (Gorn Engineer)
RR-Fed: Citizen Sirroc (Romulan Science)::Fleet Admiral Grell (Alien Engineer)
RR-KDF: Fleet Admiral Zemo (Reman Tactical)::Fleet Admiral Xinatek (Reman Science)::Fleet Admiral Bel (Alien Engineer)
TOS-Fed: Fleet Admiral Katem (Andorian Tactical)::Lieutenant Commander Straad (Vulcan Engineer)
Dom-Fed: Dan'Tar (Jem'Hadar Science)
Dom-KDF: Kamtana'Solan (Jem'Hadar Science)
CoHost of Tribbles in Ecstasy (Zombee)
My character Tsin'xing
Actually, there is a very easy fix. They should convert all of the "old" reputations into a generic reputation mark, and then keep the specific mark for any new reputation. For example, right now all of the marks except the iconian marks would be converted to generic reputation marks so that you can use them in any non-iconian reputation. At the same time, you have to have iconian marks for the iconian rep. When the next reputation gets released, all of the iconian marks are converted to generic marks, and the new rep has it's own mark. The same could be done with the "elite currencies" (iconian data probes etc). This way, it makes getting marks for the "old" reputations a little easier for someone who is behind, but still requires specific content to be completed to get the new reputation's currency. This way, there is only ever 4 reputation currencys going on at a time. Generic marks, generic "elite" items, the current nest rep mark, and the associated elite items.