We been shot in the face with the grind gun.

craigthemaster

Is it me or is the R&D system a massive kick in the nether parts. Basically it was just another drain pipe for Dilithium and a massive grind. Why do I feel like Cryptic or P/W always punish there players. The R&D system did need a change, and the system goes now is a relatively okay one but its taking most people the better part of a year to grind there toons to the point where there almost got one section to level 20. I think the worst thing and most insulting was making you spend the most outrageous amount of Dilithium on something that is a core part of the game. I'm not sure on the percentage but I'm just gonna say 80%, 80% of all gear is coming from the R&D system and th amount of Dilithium needed to get it is just a huge punishment, gruelling kick in the knackers.

You farm, or buy the parts. You have to craft the components, which cost Dilithium, you then have to then craft the weapon of console you want which again cost more Dilithium, if you want to finish it, you have to use more Dilithium, and then you have to upgrade it to Level 14 as there is no other way to get Mk 14 gear and that again cost DILITHIUM. This whole system for a game that says its "free to play" is just a massive insult to the players, especially Life timers. Who paid a subscription then stopped getting stuff. Every new feature these Devs bring out revolves around Dilithium, players buying boat loads of Zen and then players spending boat loads of cash to get the gear up to Mk 14 where everyone else is. This whole franchise is getting murdered by a bunch of money hungry people. I’m seriously frustrated at some of the decisions you guys are making!
Stop with the Dilithium already. If you’re going to make it so everything costs Dilithium, make it so that we can convert more Dilithium ore. Maybe no limit a day, and then take away the exchange to Zen part so people have to buy Zen which would probably work out a lot better, and seem like more of free to play game.

craigthemaster

gueneyhallek0420 wrote: »

Far be it from me to defend cryptic, but I've never used dilithium on anything except when I use tech upgrades. All my schools on 8 Generals are at level 18-20, mostly 20 and I started late and slacked along the way. But yah, cryptic's obvious contempt for it's player base and taking money for a 5 year old bug riddled catastrophe is sort of despicable.

I really feel for you and the younger generation. I grew up with Star trek and love playing the game. But having this type of system is worrying. Plenty online games out there those survive years off pay for subscription and content purchasing.

warpangel

Bah, you want to waste dilithium on the upgrade system, that's your choice.

I say this game is already way too easy even with nothing upgraded.

craigthemaster

fulleatherjacket wrote: »

The R&D system for STO is unique among all the mmos I've ever played, because it actually allows all gear to be upgraded to endgame quality. Show me a mmo that does that instead of releasing new gear with a new expansion and forcing players to abandon the old epic gear that's suddenly trash in favor of endless raid grinding at the mercy of the RNG. Yes, this system costs a ton of dilithium. It costs you either time or real money. Guess what? All mmos need to make money or they die. Is the price just too damn high for you? Then be happy with Mk IV purple gear. It doesn't cost that much. You can buy the purple tech upgrades on the exchange for 100-200k EC each. You don't need everything to be orange in order to be effective. As far as I've seen, there are only three types of mods that are best when upgraded to epic:

Energy Weapons
Warp Cores
Spire Tactical Consoles

Everything else is fine at rare or ultra rare if you can afford it. Universal consoles get so little of a bonus when upgraded to ultra rare and epic that it's idiotic to do it. Engines, deflectors and shields get their best upgrade at ultra rare. But if you can't afford it, too bad. You'll do fine with purple everything.

Not really a case of being able to afford it, I got a few full epic builds because i like the glow of the gold. But for kids that play the game its kind of worrying they allow this.

peterconnorfirst

Well crafting was not grindy but rather annoying. For the past (what?) 1,5 years I engaged the schools each day on all toons. Give it another month or two they all should be max in all.

Question remains, why did I do it Cryptic?

My suggestion for a reached lvl 20 crafting school:

- Mod selector on crafted gear (if it costs Dil or only works with mk12-14 stuff to make us bleed for quality increase ill survive)
- Critical success on upgrade tech hands out 4 instead of 2 techs.
- Crafted gear is always ultra rare and gets epic on critical outcomes.

Something like that would make that lvl 20 for nothing epos worth while.

tigeraries

upgrade system here does suck... quality upgrades is slow and time consuming due to the RNG. But the biggest problem is the random mods. <- that is problem number one.