I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
At least lockbox keys in STO are only $1.25. For Supply Crate Keys in Team Fortress 2... thats $2 something for pretty much the same thing... and you have a chance at getting a weapon you already have. Not to mention some of the weapons in the Mann Co. Store are like $7 something, and you could potentially craft them in game without spending money for the standard versions. The supply crates really benefit not items with better stats, but items with different visuals or the ability to track kills.
STO isn't the first game I've played with a lockbox thing.
Yeah, Avengers Alliance does it too. Lockbox characters. That game currently has 22, soon to be 23, characters that you can't get except from lockboxes. and lockboxes aren't free. They require either grinding or cash. Unlike STO, AA doesn't have a player economy. So you can't buy stuff from other players.
There's a bunch of other stuff that you need to pay for too, and a variety of ways to pay for stuff simply to remove timegates.
STO has an absolutely deplorable business model, which is why I refuse to sink a penny into any of it.
One of the few reasons I even stick around still is friends playing the game and that it sadly is the ONLY multiplayer Star Trek game being played(I'd kill for something like the old Interplay and Activision days to come around again). Fortunately for me I bought a Lifetime sub pre-launch and got my moneys worth long before F2P and "monetize everything" began, and have been "proudly" freeloading ever since.
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid." - Q
When it comes to lockboxes, the argument is the same - Caveat Emptor.
But lets face it, STO is nearing it's Sixth Anniversary and in MMO terms, we are past it's prime. Pretty much LOR was the peak of STO's success and it's really been downhill from there. But does it mean STO will "Die" soon? No, STO very well keep going on for years, though it really depends on how well Cryptic retains the population.
Delta Rising was a good step keeping the population around, but the nerfstorm that happened afterwards did not help at all. And now as we now get the full picture of Season 11, there is no real enthusiasm. Except by the Cryptic yes-men. Though for me personally, the copy / paste job of Season 11 is likely their way of rushing out content fast while they devote their real resources to what they have planned for the Star Trek 50th Anniversary.
But I will say this, if Cryptic does a bad job with the content for the Star Trek 50th Anniversary, that very well could be the "straw that brakes the camel's back". Because people are on edge and tired of the same content over and over and again, all while the focus really is on T6 Ships and $100 Ship packs. Even Fleet T6 Ships for the Admirality System, all while they put out "entertaining" blogs. But what the people really want, seems that it will never happen. Of if it does, it will be lackluster. So Cryptic needs to get more creative in the next year or else things will look bad.
this article just smacks of someone who doesn't know how to play the system for the best benefits for the least expenditure.
the first thing he brings up lockboxes are a prime example I have opened many lockboxes and it didn't cost me a penny of real world money.
although I will admit that I was never lucky enough to get a ship from them I will also say that I found the items within to be very useful and overall would have cost me around the same amount of zen as if I had bought them on the store directly.
secondly I will address the $5 upgrade cost of tier 5 ships, there is a simple answer here, don't upgrade them.
there are many tier 5 ships in the game that could be upgraded for free if players were sensible enough to get the from the events on top of this if I had any need to upgrade tier 5 ships I would use the same method I used to buy keys so it would not cost me any real money.
lastly I will address ships and ship bundles, here again there is no need to spend any real money, personally I have bought the Dyson mega pack for 10,000zen and the T6 Delta Rising Operations Pack for 12,500zen but yet again did not have to spend any real life money.
all of these things I got by playing the game and selling Dilithium in exchange for zen.
before you ask, no I don't spend all day playing the game, just a couple or few hours and sometime a couple more at weekends if I have the time but the most important thing is playing the events like Crystalline and Mirror and not just for the 50k main prize but also for the bonus days.
most other days I rarely get anywhere close to the 8k refining cap but by saving the Dilithium I do get I am able to play the system and get the things I want with the least real world expense.
finally I don't buy into that time is money or your working to earn it argument because for me this is all just fun and if I was not playing sto I would be having to find my fun elsewhere and that might indeed cost me real world money.
maybe you think I would have no Dilithium for anything else but there again you would be wrong, I have bought items from the reputation stores, upgraded 12 ships of gear and 15 ground sets of gear to MK14 with Dilithium as well as donating tons of the stuff to my fleets.
all of this I have done with just 3 main characters and 3 farming Delta alts.
Yeah, god forbid they introduce a more equitable system where everyone pays a reasonable price and people who have no job, family or whatever it is that allows them to have all this time have to pay as well.
Everytime I hear somebody defend this game, the first thing they talk about is how if you have enough time you don't have to pay for anything. It's like their celebrating the fact that they don't do anything else and are cheapskates.
I didn't think it'd be this easy for someone to push my buttons, but here it goes. I'm disabled--have been for the better part of three years, and will be for the rest of my life, barring some unlikely medical advances--so every dime that passes through our family's proverbial coffers has to be carefully spent. I can't begin to justify paying the dollar cost of much of anything in this game, but having been playing for a couple of years, I'm mostly out of stuff to spend my dilithium on (though I haven't had the heart to go whole hog on upgrading the rarity of gear). I might have more time than most, but accumulating all the dilithium I can refine in a week only takes about five hours a week, which is less time than I played video games in a week when I still worked 40 hours. All that means that I can afford to make sensible C-Store purchases with Zen bought off the exchange. My wife would (rightly) have a fit if I bought a single ship on a single (sometimes only mediocre) video game for $30, but she couldn't care less if I spend 750,000 or 1,000,000 dilithium on the same.
And the thing is, there's a whole player economy that only exists because, for the STO community as a whole, that's fine. I wouldn't be able to buy Zen if there weren't players who valued between 22,000 and 23,000 dilithium more than a real dollar, but I can earn that dilithium a lot easier than I could that dollar. So we trade, voluntarily on the part of all parties, and the 'cheapskate' and the 'whale' both get to enjoy the game a little more.
although in you case some might assume that you have more time then others to devote to the game as i said in my last comment this is not always the case, it really annoys me when others assume your circumstances and that you might be unemployed for whatever reason and not have a family to contend with.
although I can appreciate that everyone is different I still don't see that as an obstacle, as I said in my post I do have a job where I work 60hrs a week plus occasional overtime when I can get it and I also have a family who take a fair amount of my time.
this is no excuse for resorting to the cash option, I only really play at most a couple of hours a day and sometimes on weekends I might be able to squeeze in an extra hour or two sometimes and if I can get by without spending money so can others.
of course I am gratefully to players who do spend money but that is their choice and they should not spend the money if they are going to try to lay blame on the game developers afterwards, the game developers do not control players wallets the players do.
it has been said time and time again sto has the best free to play model of any MMO out there and that is still true today, if any player spends money in the game and regrets it later they have nobody to blame but themselves.
maybe there are some players that only spend a few hours a week playing sto, I would say to them this is even more reason not to spend too much money as if I cant justify spending money on game items playing 14 to 18 hours a week then I would be dammed if I would spend it on a game I only play for 2 or 3 hours a week.
I will admit that I paid for the lifetime sub but I did it when it was on sale and I felt at the time that the outlay was justified by the amount of time I spent playing also unlike some others it is money I have never regretted spending and would quite happily buy it again if I had my time to do over.
despite all of the many C-store items I have got in the game I have never sent another penny on any of them, sure I get 500zen stipend every month but this does not even scratch the surface on what I have bought by converting dilithium.
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.
Unfortunally, it's true... I had a guy in my fleet, whos wife found me on facebook, and asked me to help him leave STO, because he burned all their money on masterkeys twice in a row.
Turns out, all I had to do was ban him from the fleet, and he left, but his addiction cost him and his family dearly... And I know he is not the only one like that.
ouch, tough love but understandable. Family has to come first.
My own strategy is just to run multiple toons, just with doffing even after the nerf, I'm able to clear about 500 zen a day. Of course not every one has the time to do this, but it get's addicting after you buy your first 4 character slots.
(Up to 30 right now, I know peeps with way more than that.)
My mother always told me to walk away from a fight, The Marines taught me how.
Unfortunally, it's true... I had a guy in my fleet, whos wife found me on facebook, and asked me to help him leave STO, because he burned all their money on masterkeys twice in a row.
Turns out, all I had to do was ban him from the fleet, and he left, but his addiction cost him and his family dearly... And I know he is not the only one like that.
ouch, tough love but understandable. Family has to come first.
My own strategy is just to run multiple toons, just with doffing even after the nerf, I'm able to clear about 500 zen a day. Of course not every one has the time to do this, but it get's addicting after you buy your first 4 character slots.
(Up to 30 right now, I know peeps with way more than that.)
the problem is some players just want everything and they want it now, they need to choose the items they really want and then save up especially if they have a limited income, if that means saving dilithium or saving real money then whatever but they need to save so the items they buy will not interfere with their normal cash outgoings, sure it might take a few months or even longer but who knows something might come to the game that you would rather have in the meantime and in the long run they will be less likely to regret the purchase later on.
of all the things in life that do cost real money self control costs nothing.
personally I only have 6 characters 3 of them mostly only for doffing and CCE and Mirror events.
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.
This article is so much subjective and bias it is hard to read without roling my eyes each sentence. He just presents facts that fit his personal viewpoint. Sometimes I wouldn't even call them facts, since you do not actually have to spend any money in this game.
Many people agree with such an article because they "feel" the same way, but if you take all the facts into acount, the pro and cons, this game is actually a pretty decent F2P MMO, extremely casual and easy.
The author also seems to think that Star Trek is the pinnacle of Sci-fi franchise, which it clearly isn't. Atleast not when it comes to games. (neither is it for movies, Star Trek was (is) the TV science fiction king probably, but that's about it)
Star Trek Online is a niche game, that even if it was a AAA game, could only attrackt a certain amount of people.
It is not a AAA title with 200 million development budget, but hey SWTOR was and that game turned out to be just "meh" and is a far bigger customer rip off than STO.
This article is simply a rant ("I'm leaving" thread), that pops up on this forums every week or so. Nothing special and nothing new and extremely subjective fact twisting.
Edit: was browsing through the site and there is not one article with a positive, optimistic theme to be found. Seems on this site the articles have to be a negative rant to be published. Srsly, TRIBBLE article on a TRIBBLE site phishing for people with a strong case of confirmation bias to klick.
If I have not spent $1000 in Zen yet, I must be pretty close. I passed the $500 mark awhile back/ Slots for an extra 48 toons, all but about three costume sets, an extra 100 doff roster for over 15 toons so far. For ships, there are the three Andorian Glass cannons, Connie, Korotinga, and well ... a bunch of others. Over 28 Fleet modules last I could remember. Oh and personal weapons, a few pets, etc.
I tried to estimate this on the fly a few days ago in another post, just how much it was, and I was kind of conservative. With a few more days to think about it, I have to have spent much closer to $1000 worth, but guess what ?
I sold dilithium for the ZEN I used to buy all but the Subscription, and a few of the Modules. Or, to be fair, I used Zen from the Lifetime sub stipend, maybe$50 worth since it hasn't been a whole year yet.
I saw the price, I ground the dilithium, I bought things which aren't real, and won't exist outside the game, but I made the game provide me with the vast majority of resources to do it with. I had no expectations beyond amplifying the fun factor of the game, while it lasts. If you don't like the deal offered, don't take it.
Sometimes it is a lousy game, but often in spite of it's flaws, it shines bright as a way to enjoy Star Trek themes and interact with the others who share the same love for the franchise.
I won't defend what is bad about it, but what is good, makes it worth the occasional pain.
the problem is some players just want everything and they want it now, they need to choose the items they really want and then save up especially if they have a limited income, if that means saving dilithium or saving real money then whatever but they need to save so the items they buy will not interfere with their normal cash outgoings, sure it might take a few months or even longer but who knows something might come to the game that you would rather have in the meantime and in the long run they will be less likely to regret the purchase later on.
of all the things in life that do cost real money self control costs nothing.
personally I only have 6 characters 3 of them mostly only for doffing and CCE and Mirror events.
I think you hit the nail on the head here. We live in a world of instant gratification, so It's not just a STO problem. Of course, I'm old and grumpy, so please understand my obvious bias.
Waiting works well for me. I always seem to have enough Dilithium available if I need to upgrade an item, or if they have a ship sale, etc. etc.
Heck, I was able to grab that dread pack that was just released simply by grinding for about two weeks, and still find materials to upgrade that damn Iconian warp core to Ultra Rare. It just takes patience is all. Don't get me wrong, I'll drop a few bucks here and there if I feel the need , ie a ship sale, and I'm running a little low before it's over, but that is just supporting the company also.
My mother always told me to walk away from a fight, The Marines taught me how.
OP this article is completely accurate and full of the painful truth.
Once this realization before DR I stopped all Real $ purchases.
Anyone who continues is either:
1- have way too much time on their hands
2- have way too much money and time on their hands
3- have a macro to do their farming for them
4- have such a blind love of Star Trek they don't care about costs or money.
I have enjoyed other pastimes that cost me way more than this game has, and I walked away from them, when their day was over. It will happen with STO as well, eventually. It won't last forever. Enjoy what you can of it before it is gone.
I'd like to take a moment and talk about something that the author mentioned earlier in his thread about MMOs needing money to continue running, but didn't take into account when he started talking about how he views "Perfect World Entertainment" ripping off its customers.
The majority of the money STO made pre-F2P was whatever it got through subs, lifetime subs and purchases of Cryptic Points in order to get ships, costumes, ship & character slots, etc. I don't know how much Atari actually funneled to the game outside of these sources of revenue. You still needed money even here if you even wanted to play the game, something the Author failed to even take into account.
When the game launched free to play, paying for stuff in the game was now considered optional, but because you now had a new company, they wanted Cryptic to implement special promotion packs (Duty Officer packs, R & D packs and lock boxes & the lock box keys) that would give players a chance at a really rare ship. This increased source of revenue was an additional measure to help offset the costs that comes with keeping a game active.
Something else the author does is assume that everyone in this game needs to have these special ships in order to be the best. That may be true for some, but not all. Since the introduction of Tier 6 ships, we've had three (soon to be four) ships that only require an investment of time in order to claim. I think some have even made it clear that they don't need any Tier 6 ship to do what they want to do.
It's all a matter of perspective. If the Author doesn't like how a game operates, he or she will not be forced to play it. If someone wants the shinies that Cryptic is putting out, it's essentially their choice to spend money on the game or not.
I have enjoyed other pastimes that cost me way more than this game has, and I walked away from them, when their day was over. It will happen with STO as well, eventually. It won't last forever. Enjoy what you can of it before it is gone.
Qapla
Oh man, I was a former multiboxer of that other big name game. 4 B-net accounts, with 8 sub accounts each, with 11 characters on each account. I ran 25 man raids back in the day, all by my lonesome. This game is a breeze compared to what I used to spend before I made the break.
Mind you, I was here for Beta, but I always seemed to take long breaks. Example, between the original Kurland here and odyssey release, I think it was season 8 that brought me back.
My mother always told me to walk away from a fight, The Marines taught me how.
the problem is some players just want everything and they want it now, they need to choose the items they really want and then save up especially if they have a limited income, if that means saving dilithium or saving real money then whatever but they need to save so the items they buy will not interfere with their normal cash outgoings, sure it might take a few months or even longer but who knows something might come to the game that you would rather have in the meantime and in the long run they will be less likely to regret the purchase later on.
of all the things in life that do cost real money self control costs nothing.
personally I only have 6 characters 3 of them mostly only for doffing and CCE and Mirror events.
I think you hit the nail on the head here. We live in a world of instant gratification, so It's not just a STO problem. Of course, I'm old and grumpy, so please understand my obvious bias.
Waiting works well for me. I always seem to have enough Dilithium available if I need to upgrade an item, or if they have a ship sale, etc. etc.
Heck, I was able to grab that dread pack that was just released simply by grinding for about two weeks, and still find materials to upgrade that damn Iconian warp core to Ultra Rare. It just takes patience is all. Don't get me wrong, I'll drop a few bucks here and there if I feel the need , ie a ship sale, and I'm running a little low before it's over, but that is just supporting the company also.
this is also my way of playing, maybe because i'm also old , the puberty is far behind me.
After a while of waiting, the pleasure of having a desired object is even greater; except when i must gamble with the r&d system and the upgrade tool, my only gain is frustation. I am a very patient person, but 3 weeks for having only 1 weapon, it is a little bit excessive. (currently i still don't have this weapon to finish a build). In Rl i'm not a gambler, and I can say that sometimes I'm really fed up with this game.
I put also money in this game, but never for buying dil or for ec (to buy upgrades, mats). And i do not buy stuff, just for the false feeling of being superior of the others. my dps are bigger than yours <- maybe an inferiority complex in rl??
this article just smacks of someone who doesn't know how to play the system for the best benefits for the least expenditure.
the first thing he brings up lockboxes are a prime example I have opened many lockboxes and it didn't cost me a penny of real world money.
although I will admit that I was never lucky enough to get a ship from them I will also say that I found the items within to be very useful and overall would have cost me around the same amount of zen as if I had bought them on the store directly.
secondly I will address the $5 upgrade cost of tier 5 ships, there is a simple answer here, don't upgrade them.
there are many tier 5 ships in the game that could be upgraded for free if players were sensible enough to get the from the events on top of this if I had any need to upgrade tier 5 ships I would use the same method I used to buy keys so it would not cost me any real money.
lastly I will address ships and ship bundles, here again there is no need to spend any real money, personally I have bought the Dyson mega pack for 10,000zen and the T6 Delta Rising Operations Pack for 12,500zen but yet again did not have to spend any real life money.
all of these things I got by playing the game and selling Dilithium in exchange for zen.
before you ask, no I don't spend all day playing the game, just a couple or few hours and sometime a couple more at weekends if I have the time but the most important thing is playing the events like Crystalline and Mirror and not just for the 50k main prize but also for the bonus days.
most other days I rarely get anywhere close to the 8k refining cap but by saving the Dilithium I do get I am able to play the system and get the things I want with the least real world expense.
finally I don't buy into that time is money or your working to earn it argument because for me this is all just fun and if I was not playing sto I would be having to find my fun elsewhere and that might indeed cost me real world money.
maybe you think I would have no Dilithium for anything else but there again you would be wrong, I have bought items from the reputation stores, upgraded 12 ships of gear and 15 ground sets of gear to MK14 with Dilithium as well as donating tons of the stuff to my fleets.
all of this I have done with just 3 main characters and 3 farming Delta alts.
Yeah, god forbid they introduce a more equitable system where everyone pays a reasonable price and people who have no job, family or whatever it is that allows them to have all this time have to pay as well.
Everytime I hear somebody defend this game, the first thing they talk about is how if you have enough time you don't have to pay for anything. It's like their celebrating the fact that they don't do anything else and are cheapskates.
I didn't think it'd be this easy for someone to push my buttons, but here it goes. I'm disabled--have been for the better part of three years, and will be for the rest of my life, barring some unlikely medical advances--so every dime that passes through our family's proverbial coffers has to be carefully spent. I can't begin to justify paying the dollar cost of much of anything in this game, but having been playing for a couple of years, I'm mostly out of stuff to spend my dilithium on (though I haven't had the heart to go whole hog on upgrading the rarity of gear). I might have more time than most, but accumulating all the dilithium I can refine in a week only takes about five hours a week, which is less time than I played video games in a week when I still worked 40 hours. All that means that I can afford to make sensible C-Store purchases with Zen bought off the exchange. My wife would (rightly) have a fit if I bought a single ship on a single (sometimes only mediocre) video game for $30, but she couldn't care less if I spend 750,000 or 1,000,000 dilithium on the same.
And the thing is, there's a whole player economy that only exists because, for the STO community as a whole, that's fine. I wouldn't be able to buy Zen if there weren't players who valued between 22,000 and 23,000 dilithium more than a real dollar, but I can earn that dilithium a lot easier than I could that dollar. So we trade, voluntarily on the part of all parties, and the 'cheapskate' and the 'whale' both get to enjoy the game a little more.
Well, hopefully then you won't find yourself all up in arms when somebody who isn't a 'whale' and someone who isn't disabled (sorry about your luck by the way) and has to go out and do something, so they don't necessarily have the time and don't have the money to be a whale.
What irritates me is that somebody will make a thread like this pointing out the obvious problems with the gambling and the overpriced items and inevitably somebody will come along and point out how free everything can be if you just take all that time. Somehow this game is apparently superior because you can ride the ingame economy off of someone else's gambling addiction.
Did you even READ his post? He farms 6 toons in 5 hours PER WEEK for all the dil you can refine in a week (which would be 48k X 7 for 336k per week). If you don't have 5 hours PER WEEK for an MMO and have no money as well...then you really should not be playing an MMO. Note that I do not farm dil at that rate...but I do know that you can farm stupid silly amounts of dil for very little work. Also, you are saying that EVERYONE who participates in the lockbox scam is a gambling addict? WOW...just wow. That is one big giant TRIBBLE assumption you have over there. And even if some of them DO have it, why is it the problem or fault of mayday? If you have a gambling addiction, go FIX IT. It's not the responsibility of cryptic, PWE, CBS or other players (by this I mean random stranger players). It is the responsibilty of the person who has the problem and their family and friends (who could be fellow players). So even if some gamblinmg addicts are adding to the pool of resources for the F2P people...SO WHAT? Hell I have an addictive personality. It runs in my family. My great grand father lost his fortune to gambling. So did my grand father. So did my dad. My little brother is following that trend. They all lost to different forms of gambling...but it was all an addiction to gambling. Hell, everytime I do any little gambling, that draw is there. When I play in vegas or open a lock box or play the lotto. I understand what that draw is...and I do have that SUPER strong urge to continue that rush when I win or to keep playing to win when I lose. Here is the thing...I have logic and willpower on my side. I can deal with it...for now. And when I can no longer deal with it, I will have family and friends to get me back. If I don't...well then I will die penniless and in a ditch...but that is life and there is nobody to blame for that other then me and MY CHOICES. YOU seem to be under the impression that because SOME people have an addiction, that it isn't somehow THEIR CHOICE. When an alcoholic gets drunk, it is THEIR CHOICE. When they drive drunk...once again THEIR CHOICE. When they kill somebody while driving drunk...yep, you guessed it. What you are doing is trying to get a group of people who are making very VERY poor life choices out of their responsibility. Funny thing...people who do that are generally one of the people making said poor life choices. Man up (or woman up) and take responsibility for what you did. It's not like they hid how poor your chances are or anything. If people just did the math and walked away, guess what, no more lockboxes and they would do something else for money...but people are CHOOSING to continue...and until we become borgs...we can still choose to do STUPID things.
the thing is gambling is not the only thing you can get addicted to, its very easy for many people to say gambling is addictive so should be banned but that's not the answer.
you can be addicted to both eating food and not eating food, smoking, alcohol, drugs (both prescription and non prescription), caffeine and work, there is a full list of addictions here > http://www.addictionz.com/types-of-addictions/
some of these are more dangerous then others and could be banned and indeed some are but some cannot and it would impose on peoples civil rights to impose outright bans for every possible cause of addiction.
for this reason it is often left up to the individual to control their own habits and to know when their habits are out of control and seek help, it is not up to establishments such as cryptic or perfect world to monitor players spending or impost regulations of this nature on players who might or might not be able to spend large amounts in the game.
for example would it be up to your local newsagent to stop you buying naughty newspapers if they thought you were addicted to reading them.
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.
there is so much bs coming from this article I literally had to take toilet paper and wipe the brown ooze from the screen as I read this. If you're going to smear a games/companies name at least do your homework before writing the article.
example
Soon, starships of varying kinds started appearing in the Zen Store. These ship bundles could cost the player anywhere from $10 to upwards of $150 for complete packages. That’s $150 for in-game items: the asking price for 2-3 brand new games on other systems!
some what true but since the T6 ships were brought to game you usually can buy them on sale the first weekend there available.
In Delta Rising, the game got its first level cap increase ever, all the way up to level 60.
wrong season 2 was actually the first level cap 40ish - 50 all though it may have not been as substantial as DR but it was the first level cap not Delta Rising ( I know this because I started playing the game after season 2 went live I spent a week on the forums trying to figure out why the game would not run and if you have read past reviews of this game it is mention that season 2 brought the level cap to 50 then)
However, many players had questions about their ships. The majority of the ships level 50 players had were attuned to that level. With the introduction of new levels, the players found that their previous starships, equipment, and gear would not scale.
Cryptic’s answer to this really pissed off the players. In order to keep using the ships that you’ve already paid upwards of $25 for, you now had to pay an additional $5 to upgrade their scale to level 60! Yes, that’s $5 per ship, per character. Say you had three characters from each faction (Federation, Klingon, and Romulan) and had multiple level 50 ships. You would have to play upwards of $100 to $300 to bring those characters up to the new level cap.
again not true, the upgrade tokens were account wide so say you had a tac oddy on a fed tac but you also had one one a sci the one upgrade token would do both characters.
This was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. I uninstalled the game and never looked back. I realized what a waste of time and money this game is and how it’s a shameful mockery of what Star Trek is supposed to represent.
so why are you writing a article about this game almost six months after DR release? and then not even writing the truth about most things, more likely you were pissed off because the game was not to your liking I would hate to read your other reviews of games that don't meet your standard.
next time you try to smear a games name please do the proper homework/research and know the game your writing about don't just half a** guess at it actually play the game for some times not every game is for everybody (including STO) but had you done your research you would have known most of this just by reading the blogs Cryptic puts out before every season/expansion.
Edit: was browsing through the site and there is not one article with a positive, optimistic theme to be found. Seems on this site the articles have to be a negative rant to be published. Srsly, TRIBBLE article on a TRIBBLE site phishing for people with a strong case of confirmation bias to klick.
Yeah, noticed that too after I read the article :P
Heh, author of the article uninstalled too soon. He didn't even get to the point that craptic sells us reskinned t5 ships for full price of t6 ships.
I'm not a fan of T6 ships either, but to be fair those ships have a completely different boff setup and come with a new skin. For what it's worth their price is justifyable.
My personal beef with T6 ships is only their additional boff seat, which can sometimes be an additional Ltdcmdr slot, which makes them, especially since T6 fleet ships exist, much better than anything T5U can ever be.
But since this game has to make a profit somehow I can see where this comes from and considering that there is the dilithium exchange and the fact that you do not NEED a T6 ship and that there are a ton of free T6 ships I don't feel ripped off.
A discount for T6 ships where you already had the T5 counterpart would have been a nice idea, but the 500 zen discount if you buy it within the first few weeks is at least something.
Also, it is quite predictable that at some point in the future your favourite ship will be released as a T6 version and up to this point anybody should be able to accumulate enough Zen to afford it without going bankrupt.
Heh, author of the article uninstalled too soon. He didn't even get to the point that craptic sells us reskinned t5 ships for full price of t6 ships.
at the end of the day you need to realise PW/cryptic are not a charity, they run a business that is out to make money, not just to pay wages and other overheads but to pay shareholders also.
they will keep selling stuff as long as players keep buying stuff and they will employ every trick in the book they can legally do to get you to spend your money.
do I blame PW/cryptic for this - no I don't because as long as they are making money there will be a sto for me to play to this end I say if you have money to spend then go right ahead and spend it on sto and ignore the naysayers what do they know.
but only spend money if you want to and can afford to, don't spend money if you think you might regret spending it later.
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.
A discount for T6 ships where you already had the T5 counterpart would have been a nice idea,
indeed, for example I bought the avenger, i bought an upgrade to t5-u, i bought a fleet token, but i'm not going to buy the arbiter, because 3000 zen + a fleet module is too much, for only 1 modification of a boff seat and a trait. Maybe they could do a commercial gesture, and make the fleet upgrade of the arbiter free for those who have already a fleet avenger -same thing for the other ships-
i know, i don't need to upgrade the ships to the fleet rank, but i like the idea of having a "fleet" ship, + for the avenger the fleet skin is nice.
I'm a life long Trek fan and I disagree with everything in this so-called article.
Well you can't reasonable disagree with everything... He IS right on the Prices (looking at it overall), he is right about the PWE takeover, and several other factors.
What you CAN reasonably disagree on, is wherever you enjoy the game dispute of these factors, and even if the mentioned factors are an issue for you.
Don't look silly... Don't call it the "Z-Store/Zen Store"...
I'm a life long Trek fan and I disagree with everything in this so-called article.
Well you can't reasonable disagree with everything... He IS right on the Prices (looking at it overall), he is right about the PWE takeover, and several other factors.
What you CAN reasonably disagree on, is wherever you enjoy the game dispute of these factors, and even if the mentioned factors are an issue for you.
What? You want reasonable on this board? Where haters call this easy as all hell casual game an asian grinder and fanbois seem to think that the lockbox system is the greatest thing since sliced bread? You so funny.
I do my best.
Don't look silly... Don't call it the "Z-Store/Zen Store"...
Comments
Because it is easier to assume that anyone who disagrees is a White Knight or Apologist and therefore best to just hit with a broad brush stroke.
BTW, I'll be selling Tin Foil Hats.$.50 each. Special deals for bulk orders as soon as I figure out a good discount for bulk orders.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
There's a bunch of other stuff that you need to pay for too, and a variety of ways to pay for stuff simply to remove timegates.
My character Tsin'xing
One of the few reasons I even stick around still is friends playing the game and that it sadly is the ONLY multiplayer Star Trek game being played(I'd kill for something like the old Interplay and Activision days to come around again). Fortunately for me I bought a Lifetime sub pre-launch and got my moneys worth long before F2P and "monetize everything" began, and have been "proudly" freeloading ever since.
But lets face it, STO is nearing it's Sixth Anniversary and in MMO terms, we are past it's prime. Pretty much LOR was the peak of STO's success and it's really been downhill from there. But does it mean STO will "Die" soon? No, STO very well keep going on for years, though it really depends on how well Cryptic retains the population.
Delta Rising was a good step keeping the population around, but the nerfstorm that happened afterwards did not help at all. And now as we now get the full picture of Season 11, there is no real enthusiasm. Except by the Cryptic yes-men. Though for me personally, the copy / paste job of Season 11 is likely their way of rushing out content fast while they devote their real resources to what they have planned for the Star Trek 50th Anniversary.
But I will say this, if Cryptic does a bad job with the content for the Star Trek 50th Anniversary, that very well could be the "straw that brakes the camel's back". Because people are on edge and tired of the same content over and over and again, all while the focus really is on T6 Ships and $100 Ship packs. Even Fleet T6 Ships for the Admirality System, all while they put out "entertaining" blogs. But what the people really want, seems that it will never happen. Of if it does, it will be lackluster. So Cryptic needs to get more creative in the next year or else things will look bad.
although in you case some might assume that you have more time then others to devote to the game as i said in my last comment this is not always the case, it really annoys me when others assume your circumstances and that you might be unemployed for whatever reason and not have a family to contend with.
although I can appreciate that everyone is different I still don't see that as an obstacle, as I said in my post I do have a job where I work 60hrs a week plus occasional overtime when I can get it and I also have a family who take a fair amount of my time.
this is no excuse for resorting to the cash option, I only really play at most a couple of hours a day and sometimes on weekends I might be able to squeeze in an extra hour or two sometimes and if I can get by without spending money so can others.
of course I am gratefully to players who do spend money but that is their choice and they should not spend the money if they are going to try to lay blame on the game developers afterwards, the game developers do not control players wallets the players do.
it has been said time and time again sto has the best free to play model of any MMO out there and that is still true today, if any player spends money in the game and regrets it later they have nobody to blame but themselves.
maybe there are some players that only spend a few hours a week playing sto, I would say to them this is even more reason not to spend too much money as if I cant justify spending money on game items playing 14 to 18 hours a week then I would be dammed if I would spend it on a game I only play for 2 or 3 hours a week.
I will admit that I paid for the lifetime sub but I did it when it was on sale and I felt at the time that the outlay was justified by the amount of time I spent playing also unlike some others it is money I have never regretted spending and would quite happily buy it again if I had my time to do over.
despite all of the many C-store items I have got in the game I have never sent another penny on any of them, sure I get 500zen stipend every month but this does not even scratch the surface on what I have bought by converting dilithium.
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.
ouch, tough love but understandable. Family has to come first.
My own strategy is just to run multiple toons, just with doffing even after the nerf, I'm able to clear about 500 zen a day. Of course not every one has the time to do this, but it get's addicting after you buy your first 4 character slots.
(Up to 30 right now, I know peeps with way more than that.)
the problem is some players just want everything and they want it now, they need to choose the items they really want and then save up especially if they have a limited income, if that means saving dilithium or saving real money then whatever but they need to save so the items they buy will not interfere with their normal cash outgoings, sure it might take a few months or even longer but who knows something might come to the game that you would rather have in the meantime and in the long run they will be less likely to regret the purchase later on.
of all the things in life that do cost real money self control costs nothing.
personally I only have 6 characters 3 of them mostly only for doffing and CCE and Mirror events.
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.
Many people agree with such an article because they "feel" the same way, but if you take all the facts into acount, the pro and cons, this game is actually a pretty decent F2P MMO, extremely casual and easy.
The author also seems to think that Star Trek is the pinnacle of Sci-fi franchise, which it clearly isn't. Atleast not when it comes to games. (neither is it for movies, Star Trek was (is) the TV science fiction king probably, but that's about it)
Star Trek Online is a niche game, that even if it was a AAA game, could only attrackt a certain amount of people.
It is not a AAA title with 200 million development budget, but hey SWTOR was and that game turned out to be just "meh" and is a far bigger customer rip off than STO.
This article is simply a rant ("I'm leaving" thread), that pops up on this forums every week or so. Nothing special and nothing new and extremely subjective fact twisting.
Edit: was browsing through the site and there is not one article with a positive, optimistic theme to be found. Seems on this site the articles have to be a negative rant to be published. Srsly, TRIBBLE article on a TRIBBLE site phishing for people with a strong case of confirmation bias to klick.
I tried to estimate this on the fly a few days ago in another post, just how much it was, and I was kind of conservative. With a few more days to think about it, I have to have spent much closer to $1000 worth, but guess what ?
I sold dilithium for the ZEN I used to buy all but the Subscription, and a few of the Modules. Or, to be fair, I used Zen from the Lifetime sub stipend, maybe$50 worth since it hasn't been a whole year yet.
I saw the price, I ground the dilithium, I bought things which aren't real, and won't exist outside the game, but I made the game provide me with the vast majority of resources to do it with. I had no expectations beyond amplifying the fun factor of the game, while it lasts. If you don't like the deal offered, don't take it.
Sometimes it is a lousy game, but often in spite of it's flaws, it shines bright as a way to enjoy Star Trek themes and interact with the others who share the same love for the franchise.
I won't defend what is bad about it, but what is good, makes it worth the occasional pain.
Qapla
I think you hit the nail on the head here. We live in a world of instant gratification, so It's not just a STO problem. Of course, I'm old and grumpy, so please understand my obvious bias.
Waiting works well for me. I always seem to have enough Dilithium available if I need to upgrade an item, or if they have a ship sale, etc. etc.
Heck, I was able to grab that dread pack that was just released simply by grinding for about two weeks, and still find materials to upgrade that damn Iconian warp core to Ultra Rare. It just takes patience is all. Don't get me wrong, I'll drop a few bucks here and there if I feel the need , ie a ship sale, and I'm running a little low before it's over, but that is just supporting the company also.
I have enjoyed other pastimes that cost me way more than this game has, and I walked away from them, when their day was over. It will happen with STO as well, eventually. It won't last forever. Enjoy what you can of it before it is gone.
Qapla
The majority of the money STO made pre-F2P was whatever it got through subs, lifetime subs and purchases of Cryptic Points in order to get ships, costumes, ship & character slots, etc. I don't know how much Atari actually funneled to the game outside of these sources of revenue. You still needed money even here if you even wanted to play the game, something the Author failed to even take into account.
When the game launched free to play, paying for stuff in the game was now considered optional, but because you now had a new company, they wanted Cryptic to implement special promotion packs (Duty Officer packs, R & D packs and lock boxes & the lock box keys) that would give players a chance at a really rare ship. This increased source of revenue was an additional measure to help offset the costs that comes with keeping a game active.
Something else the author does is assume that everyone in this game needs to have these special ships in order to be the best. That may be true for some, but not all. Since the introduction of Tier 6 ships, we've had three (soon to be four) ships that only require an investment of time in order to claim. I think some have even made it clear that they don't need any Tier 6 ship to do what they want to do.
It's all a matter of perspective. If the Author doesn't like how a game operates, he or she will not be forced to play it. If someone wants the shinies that Cryptic is putting out, it's essentially their choice to spend money on the game or not.
Oh man, I was a former multiboxer of that other big name game. 4 B-net accounts, with 8 sub accounts each, with 11 characters on each account. I ran 25 man raids back in the day, all by my lonesome. This game is a breeze compared to what I used to spend before I made the break.
Mind you, I was here for Beta, but I always seemed to take long breaks. Example, between the original Kurland here and odyssey release, I think it was season 8 that brought me back.
this is also my way of playing, maybe because i'm also old
After a while of waiting, the pleasure of having a desired object is even greater; except when i must gamble with the r&d system and the upgrade tool, my only gain is frustation. I am a very patient person, but 3 weeks for having only 1 weapon, it is a little bit excessive. (currently i still don't have this weapon to finish a build). In Rl i'm not a gambler, and I can say that sometimes I'm really fed up with this game.
I put also money in this game, but never for buying dil or for ec (to buy upgrades, mats). And i do not buy stuff, just for the false feeling of being superior of the others. my dps are bigger than yours <- maybe an inferiority complex in rl??
the thing is gambling is not the only thing you can get addicted to, its very easy for many people to say gambling is addictive so should be banned but that's not the answer.
you can be addicted to both eating food and not eating food, smoking, alcohol, drugs (both prescription and non prescription), caffeine and work, there is a full list of addictions here >
http://www.addictionz.com/types-of-addictions/
some of these are more dangerous then others and could be banned and indeed some are but some cannot and it would impose on peoples civil rights to impose outright bans for every possible cause of addiction.
for this reason it is often left up to the individual to control their own habits and to know when their habits are out of control and seek help, it is not up to establishments such as cryptic or perfect world to monitor players spending or impost regulations of this nature on players who might or might not be able to spend large amounts in the game.
for example would it be up to your local newsagent to stop you buying naughty newspapers if they thought you were addicted to reading them.
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.
example some what true but since the T6 ships were brought to game you usually can buy them on sale the first weekend there available. wrong season 2 was actually the first level cap 40ish - 50 all though it may have not been as substantial as DR but it was the first level cap not Delta Rising ( I know this because I started playing the game after season 2 went live I spent a week on the forums trying to figure out why the game would not run and if you have read past reviews of this game it is mention that season 2 brought the level cap to 50 then) again not true, the upgrade tokens were account wide so say you had a tac oddy on a fed tac but you also had one one a sci the one upgrade token would do both characters. so why are you writing a article about this game almost six months after DR release? and then not even writing the truth about most things, more likely you were pissed off because the game was not to your liking I would hate to read your other reviews of games that don't meet your standard.
next time you try to smear a games name please do the proper homework/research and know the game your writing about don't just half a** guess at it actually play the game for some times not every game is for everybody (including STO) but had you done your research you would have known most of this just by reading the blogs Cryptic puts out before every season/expansion.
Yeah, noticed that too after I read the article :P
I'm not a fan of T6 ships either, but to be fair those ships have a completely different boff setup and come with a new skin. For what it's worth their price is justifyable.
My personal beef with T6 ships is only their additional boff seat, which can sometimes be an additional Ltdcmdr slot, which makes them, especially since T6 fleet ships exist, much better than anything T5U can ever be.
But since this game has to make a profit somehow I can see where this comes from and considering that there is the dilithium exchange and the fact that you do not NEED a T6 ship and that there are a ton of free T6 ships I don't feel ripped off.
A discount for T6 ships where you already had the T5 counterpart would have been a nice idea, but the 500 zen discount if you buy it within the first few weeks is at least something.
Also, it is quite predictable that at some point in the future your favourite ship will be released as a T6 version and up to this point anybody should be able to accumulate enough Zen to afford it without going bankrupt.
at the end of the day you need to realise PW/cryptic are not a charity, they run a business that is out to make money, not just to pay wages and other overheads but to pay shareholders also.
they will keep selling stuff as long as players keep buying stuff and they will employ every trick in the book they can legally do to get you to spend your money.
do I blame PW/cryptic for this - no I don't because as long as they are making money there will be a sto for me to play to this end I say if you have money to spend then go right ahead and spend it on sto and ignore the naysayers what do they know.
but only spend money if you want to and can afford to, don't spend money if you think you might regret spending it later.
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.
indeed, for example I bought the avenger, i bought an upgrade to t5-u, i bought a fleet token, but i'm not going to buy the arbiter, because 3000 zen + a fleet module is too much, for only 1 modification of a boff seat and a trait. Maybe they could do a commercial gesture, and make the fleet upgrade of the arbiter free for those who have already a fleet avenger -same thing for the other ships-
i know, i don't need to upgrade the ships to the fleet rank, but i like the idea of having a "fleet" ship, + for the avenger the fleet skin is nice.
Well you can't reasonable disagree with everything... He IS right on the Prices (looking at it overall), he is right about the PWE takeover, and several other factors.
What you CAN reasonably disagree on, is wherever you enjoy the game dispute of these factors, and even if the mentioned factors are an issue for you.
I do my best.