AoY is most certainly not a mistake. It's the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, which began with TOS. What did you think they were going to do?
This. There's really no better way to celebrate and market the 50th anniversary in-game than something TOS related.
I dunno. I keep waiting for someone to post about how ticked off they are that Agents of Yesterday doesn't have a Pakled focused feature, and doesn't debut the new Binar Faction, since that's what the fans DEMAND!
I also think it is a fail expansion, just due to the fact that it kills the faction balance. Now FED will be super overpowered and KDF will continue to drown. Thing is, in this game your faction does not matter in pvp. Its not WOW where one side is always better at pvp the other at pve. The problem with this game is that KDF and FED are to unbalanced, FEDs have WAY to many ships only available to them. Fix it by releasing an equal number of KDF ships to counter balance this huge FED swing.
Star Trek has always been rather Fed Centric as a franchise.
I am really dreading the day Cryptic finally drops even the thin charade of actually caring about Trek and just starts shoe horning JJ Verse ships into the C-Store in their desperate quest to cash in before everything goes TRIBBLE up.,
I mean hell, JJ is working on Star Wars these days, they could probably get in touch and get permission to put Star Destroyers and X-Wings and lightsabers on the C-Store. It would make about as much sense.
What does JJ Abrams have to do with anything?
Star Wars stuff will not come into STO. The closest we will ever have to lightsabers are the Nanopulse Lirpas and Bat'leths from the Winter Event and maybe the Tholian Crystaline Sword after it absorbs energy.
As for AR content... It won't come via C-Store. If there is a movie tie in thing, it will be promo or lockbox. Besides... I think you forgot about the Narada inspired Tal Shiar Adapted ships from the Tal Shiar lockbox.
Umm, Ok,, lets bring you up to speed.. It was JJ Abrams in 2009 that destroyed Romulus, and gave the enterprise a windshield. Yes, JJ made Star Wars, but before he made Star Wars, he made Star ( JJ ) Trek ( or, how to TRIBBLE people off whiler entertaining them and giving them the worlds biggest migraines with over use of light blooms )..
They can't satisfy everyone, so they pick what they think will bring in the most new players while keeping the most existing players happy. They believe (and I agree) that more people want TOS than stuff to do on Andoria.
That'd be more compelling if the expansion weren't limited to Feds and arbitrarily limited to a handful of races.
"I've got a great idea to bring in new players! Lets release an expansion that's only available to 1/3rd of the factions and can only be played with 1/5th of their player creation options!"
Pretty sure at any other development studio that person would have been fired on the spot, but at Cryptic, they probably got promoted to CEO.
That's just it though, the content that you see on TRIBBLE right now is not all the content, and considering that AoY will be the state of the game right up until the launch of Season 12, there's going to be a helluva lot of new content for all factions. Just because it isn't all getting released at the start (because that would cause most players to burn through it within less than a day, maybe a week) it doesn't mean that it isn't coming at all.
Let me put this into perspective for you: Cryptic is a business; businesses are there to make money. To be successful, any business must make a profit. In order for Cryptic to do this, and continue to develop the game that we play, they do one of two things:
1. Release new ships in the Z-Store, which works well enough until the market is saturated. Bundled ships (like the Command Battlecruisers, Flagships, or Pilot Escorts) are probably just as profitable if not more so than individual releases, since they can be released en masse, and each variant - Tactical, Operations, Science - will get access to the same traits and set boni (more or less).
2. Release more lock boxes. Behind individual (or bundled) ships, lock boxes are the next most profitable thing that Cryptic can do to support the game - otherwise why would they still be doing them? The problem with this is if they do too many lock boxes, the market will again become saturated - most likely causing any potential profit to go down the drain. One of the top complaints from players (that I remember, apart from KDF/RRF factions getting next to no content compared to FED) was the lock boxes. Those complaints have died down with all the speculation about AoY, and probably won't reach a peak until new players begin asking "why" again.
Thus, they must balance ship releases (including Expansion Ship Bundles) with other releases to ensure that the game turns a profit for the PWE Overlords; no profit, shareholders turn away, PWE drops Cryptic, and likely Cryptic will drop the game.
"I've got a great idea to bring in new players! Lets release an expansion that's only available to 1/3rd of the factions and can only be played with 1/5th of their player creation options!"
Spock, Bones, Kirk ... Vulcan, Human, Human.
Seems like the new expansion will attract fans of TOS, who can then log in and make characters similar to their favorite and most popular TOS characters.
One of the top complaints from players (that I remember, apart from KDF/RRF factions getting next to no content compared to FED) was the lock boxes
lockboxes are a scam, and I have never spent 1€ for them. I think that a lot of players do the same thing. cryptic should put in the c-store mini packs, for example an Herald mini pack with 1 armor, 1 shield 1 weapon, for a reasonnable price and bound to character. I would have bought at least 3 of this pack.
Bound to character should be an interesting way for them to earn $ (used only for objects which have a small price)
One of the top complaints from players (that I remember, apart from KDF/RRF factions getting next to no content compared to FED) was the lock boxes
lockboxes are a scam,
It's just a money sink. Not really a scam. Just straight up money sink.
The primary motivation to open things with keys is the Lobi and other stuff you may get out of it at a much higher rate of return. If you really have your heart set on a particular lockbox ship, just do what everyone on the forums always recommends ... buy keys with zen, sell keys for EC, buy the lockbox straight up for EC.
Which means, it's just a money sink. If that lockbox is too much money, then don't go for it.
The sad thing is that there is no difference between AoY and normal play , beside a few missions at the begining and the fact that you get rewards for leveling , and you are even limited to four races . Basicly its exactly what Delta recruit event was, at least then i could make a joined trill caracter.
The sad thing is that there is no difference between AoY and normal play , beside a few missions at the begining and the fact that you get rewards for leveling , and you are even limited to four races . Basicly its exactly what Delta recruit event was, at least then i could make a joined trill caracter.
"I've got a great idea to bring in new players! Lets release an expansion that's only available to 1/3rd of the factions and can only be played with 1/5th of their player creation options!"
Spock, Bones, Kirk ... Vulcan, Human, Human.
Seems like the new expansion will attract fans of TOS, who can then log in and make characters similar to their favorite and most popular TOS characters.
It's not much more complicated than that.
How would the existence of other race options somehow prevent these TOS fans from making a character similar to their favorites?
Just how many hard core TOS Fans do you imagine have just been floating out there refusing to get involved in STO because they were awaiting the day it would provide a rigidly enforced pure TOS experience, but just for a few levels so that they could then get dumped back into the main universe with their Connie bumping into Krenim Dreadnoughts and Assimilated Cruisers and Iconian Battleships and kitbash ships with bright pink hulls and catgirls running around in tube tops and mini-skirts?
It's about 7 years too late for Cryptic to start making some claim to love of Trek purity and consistency. Taking options away from players now in some desperate attempt to capitalize on TOS nostalgia is stupid and shameless.
I would bet JJ-verse ships end up as lockbox items.
Not that I'd have any indication to believe that. Call it a hunch.
Man, would it kill Cryptic to pretend that actually care about Trek at all as anything other than a license they can milk for all it's worth?
When are we going to get Borg Cubes and Iconians as a playable race? I'm sure people would pay for it, come on Cryptic!
The answer to that is "No, but that's all a franchise license is to most companies" and "Never - people may pay for it, but unless those factions' ships perform remotely like their NPC equivalents, then that will be a completely wasted effort".
"I've got a great idea to bring in new players! Lets release an expansion that's only available to 1/3rd of the factions and can only be played with 1/5th of their player creation options!"
Spock, Bones, Kirk ... Vulcan, Human, Human.
Seems like the new expansion will attract fans of TOS, who can then log in and make characters similar to their favorite and most popular TOS characters.
It's not much more complicated than that.
How would the existence of other race options somehow prevent these TOS fans from making a character similar to their favorites?
Just how many hard core TOS Fans do you imagine have just been floating out there refusing to get involved in STO because they were awaiting the day it would provide a rigidly enforced pure TOS experience, but just for a few levels so that they could then get dumped back into the main universe with their Connie bumping into Krenim Dreadnoughts and Assimilated Cruisers and Iconian Battleships and kitbash ships with bright pink hulls and catgirls running around in tube tops and mini-skirts?
It's about 7 years too late for Cryptic to start making some claim to love of Trek purity and consistency. Taking options away from players now in some desperate attempt to capitalize on TOS nostalgia is stupid and shameless.
Yeah, I've made peace with my future Andorian, but I understand your feelings there. I think someone on tribble noted the possible existence of a species respec... If that ends up being the case, I can see sticking to my Agent.
"I've got a great idea to bring in new players! Lets release an expansion that's only available to 1/3rd of the factions and can only be played with 1/5th of their player creation options!"
Spock, Bones, Kirk ... Vulcan, Human, Human.
Seems like the new expansion will attract fans of TOS, who can then log in and make characters similar to their favorite and most popular TOS characters.
It's not much more complicated than that.
How would the existence of other race options somehow prevent these TOS fans from making a character similar to their favorites?
You're taking the discussion in a different direction from what I was replying to. I was replying to the mathematics of only 1/3 available factions, and 1/5th of the races.
For the AoY faction, Klingons and Romulans don't fit. For diehard KDF and Romulan fans, I'm not even sure that's much of an issue because it would be so far out of place for a 23rd century Klingon to serve as a captain of a Starfleet vessel.
The race options thing is a PR-led explanation (we're only going to use TOS themed races) that is more likely fueled by time constraints. It's a shortcut.
But in the end, you're making a mountain out of a mole hill. The AoY thing is what it is. You like it? Play it and enjoy it. You don't? Then skip it.
Just how many hard core TOS Fans do you imagine have just been floating out there refusing to get involved in STO because they were awaiting the day it would provide a rigidly enforced pure TOS experience,
The question cuts the other way too. How many hard core KDF fans do you imagine are itching to sink their teeth into a big old expansion that's 23rd century Starfleet? How many hardcore Trill, Pakled and Ferengi fans are going to riot because they can't go crash a shuttle on Cestus?
It's about 7 years too late for Cryptic to start making some claim to love of Trek purity and consistency. Taking options away from players now in some desperate attempt to capitalize on TOS nostalgia is stupid and shameless.
They're not making that claim. They're making an expansion with a narrow scope of stuff. If you don't like that scope, you can stick to your main character, a Romulan-KDF Alien with Honor Guard armor and an Iconian Staff flying a Breen ship using Ferengi torpedoes! Have at it! Huzzah!
As a KDF character, we go from completion of Klingon Academy training through the pre-existing KDF-centric content and ultimately arrive at the point where the UFP and KDF are engaged in joint operations, dealing with threats affecting both sides. The path to that happened to be a resurgence of hostility between the Federation and the Empire, but with the end of the Iconian War, there is clearly an alliance forming between the two civilizations which will ultimately lead to something bigger than either the Federation or the Empire.
That was the old KDF tutorial... the one that went away in LoR....
The new one has you take command of a BoP that is captained by a traitor. After the higher ranking members of the crew die of course.... some of which you kill for their betrayal.
A Dominion faction that joins the story past the 2800 FE series could work. Relations improve after that. Also they could have a mission chain of their own in the Gamma Quadrant prior to that.
your good.
Because the Devs aren't going to make a whole bunch of missions that don't tie into the overall plot of the game because that would make them totally pointless and wouldn't explain why the Cardassins got involved in the larger struggle in the first place
The Borg? They did attend the conference on DS9.
Maybe the Spoon heads had their own problems with the Iconians / Elachi / Solanae? the Mirror Universe? Maybe the spoon head player is given the orb or w/e by future leeta so you will unknowingly give it to present Leeta and bla bla bla
Use the Elachi then, during the Romulan campaign we do see a Cardassian ship adrift from an Elachi attack (Don't recall the name of the episode)
The only episodes I see that would maybe need some rework are the features episodes. Other than that you could go as mad as you want with their plot up to joining the Feds/KDF.
I don't want a spoon head faction full stop. I'd rather they just go extinct during this temporal war or w/e is going on now.
If they add another faction (which technically they are with the 'Tos Fed faction') I would rather they have their own story, so we can play something new.
Wellll, according to "Massively" cryptic had originally considered making an entirely new game from the TOS era, but decided that that would split the community which they didnt want to do. Instead, they decided that making it an expansion was a better idea..
Now, there were two things in Massively's blog that caught my eye ( blog contents were taken from ther announce podcast which is also linked on massively's site ).
"Agents of Yesterday will have its own tutorial, starting experience, and sector block."
"Cryptic is in talks with CBS about the upcoming 2017 Star Trek series and working with them, but nothing is set in stone yet. They may or may not be doing something together."
So, there is implied promise there, but what that promise is i dont know.. Therew is also the escape route/backpeddle mentioned as well.
"All players, TOS and modern, will be able to come together at some point, although Cryptic isn’t explaining how that will work yet (Rivera pointed to what they did with the Romulans as a possible path)."
I also think it is a fail expansion, just due to the fact that it kills the faction balance. Now FED will be super overpowered and KDF will continue to drown. Thing is, in this game your faction does not matter in pvp. Its not WOW where one side is always better at pvp the other at pve. The problem with this game is that KDF and FED are to unbalanced, FEDs have WAY to many ships only available to them. Fix it by releasing an equal number of KDF ships to counter balance this huge FED swing.
Star Trek has always been rather Fed Centric as a franchise.
I am really dreading the day Cryptic finally drops even the thin charade of actually caring about Trek and just starts shoe horning JJ Verse ships into the C-Store in their desperate quest to cash in before everything goes TRIBBLE up.,
I mean hell, JJ is working on Star Wars these days, they could probably get in touch and get permission to put Star Destroyers and X-Wings and lightsabers on the C-Store. It would make about as much sense.
What does JJ Abrams have to do with anything?
Star Wars stuff will not come into STO. The closest we will ever have to lightsabers are the Nanopulse Lirpas and Bat'leths from the Winter Event and maybe the Tholian Crystaline Sword after it absorbs energy.
As for AR content... It won't come via C-Store. If there is a movie tie in thing, it will be promo or lockbox. Besides... I think you forgot about the Narada inspired Tal Shiar Adapted ships from the Tal Shiar lockbox.
Umm, Ok,, lets bring you up to speed.. It was JJ Abrams in 2009 that destroyed Romulus, and gave the enterprise a windshield.
You can legitimately blame Abrams for the windshield, but it was Orci and Kurtzman (shining examples of why Ascended Fanboys are sometimes a bad thing for a franchise - see also Stephen Moffat and Doctor Who) who blew up Romulus and then destroyed most of mid-23rd-century Starfleet with a jumped-up mining ship. Credit (or discredit) where it is due, please.
Comments
I dunno. I keep waiting for someone to post about how ticked off they are that Agents of Yesterday doesn't have a Pakled focused feature, and doesn't debut the new Binar Faction, since that's what the fans DEMAND!
This man is a Temporal Agent and is not doing a good job at keeping a low profile.
Bless those that go and post in a way that may ruin it for everyone.
Umm, Ok,, lets bring you up to speed.. It was JJ Abrams in 2009 that destroyed Romulus, and gave the enterprise a windshield. Yes, JJ made Star Wars, but before he made Star Wars, he made Star ( JJ ) Trek ( or, how to TRIBBLE people off whiler entertaining them and giving them the worlds biggest migraines with over use of light blooms )..
That'd be more compelling if the expansion weren't limited to Feds and arbitrarily limited to a handful of races.
"I've got a great idea to bring in new players! Lets release an expansion that's only available to 1/3rd of the factions and can only be played with 1/5th of their player creation options!"
Pretty sure at any other development studio that person would have been fired on the spot, but at Cryptic, they probably got promoted to CEO.
Man, would it kill Cryptic to pretend that actually care about Trek at all as anything other than a license they can milk for all it's worth?
When are we going to get Borg Cubes and Iconians as a playable race? I'm sure people would pay for it, come on Cryptic!
Let me put this into perspective for you: Cryptic is a business; businesses are there to make money. To be successful, any business must make a profit. In order for Cryptic to do this, and continue to develop the game that we play, they do one of two things:
1. Release new ships in the Z-Store, which works well enough until the market is saturated. Bundled ships (like the Command Battlecruisers, Flagships, or Pilot Escorts) are probably just as profitable if not more so than individual releases, since they can be released en masse, and each variant - Tactical, Operations, Science - will get access to the same traits and set boni (more or less). 2. Release more lock boxes. Behind individual (or bundled) ships, lock boxes are the next most profitable thing that Cryptic can do to support the game - otherwise why would they still be doing them? The problem with this is if they do too many lock boxes, the market will again become saturated - most likely causing any potential profit to go down the drain. One of the top complaints from players (that I remember, apart from KDF/RRF factions getting next to no content compared to FED) was the lock boxes. Those complaints have died down with all the speculation about AoY, and probably won't reach a peak until new players begin asking "why" again.
Thus, they must balance ship releases (including Expansion Ship Bundles) with other releases to ensure that the game turns a profit for the PWE Overlords; no profit, shareholders turn away, PWE drops Cryptic, and likely Cryptic will drop the game.
Spock, Bones, Kirk ... Vulcan, Human, Human.
Seems like the new expansion will attract fans of TOS, who can then log in and make characters similar to their favorite and most popular TOS characters.
It's not much more complicated than that.
lockboxes are a scam, and I have never spent 1€ for them. I think that a lot of players do the same thing. cryptic should put in the c-store mini packs, for example an Herald mini pack with 1 armor, 1 shield 1 weapon, for a reasonnable price and bound to character. I would have bought at least 3 of this pack.
Bound to character should be an interesting way for them to earn $ (used only for objects which have a small price)
It's just a money sink. Not really a scam. Just straight up money sink.
The primary motivation to open things with keys is the Lobi and other stuff you may get out of it at a much higher rate of return. If you really have your heart set on a particular lockbox ship, just do what everyone on the forums always recommends ... buy keys with zen, sell keys for EC, buy the lockbox straight up for EC.
Which means, it's just a money sink. If that lockbox is too much money, then don't go for it.
sorry, not this thread, but https://lootcritter.com/2016/05/27/confirmation-about-aoy-content-from-a-reliable-source/
How would the existence of other race options somehow prevent these TOS fans from making a character similar to their favorites?
Just how many hard core TOS Fans do you imagine have just been floating out there refusing to get involved in STO because they were awaiting the day it would provide a rigidly enforced pure TOS experience, but just for a few levels so that they could then get dumped back into the main universe with their Connie bumping into Krenim Dreadnoughts and Assimilated Cruisers and Iconian Battleships and kitbash ships with bright pink hulls and catgirls running around in tube tops and mini-skirts?
It's about 7 years too late for Cryptic to start making some claim to love of Trek purity and consistency. Taking options away from players now in some desperate attempt to capitalize on TOS nostalgia is stupid and shameless.
The answer to that is "No, but that's all a franchise license is to most companies" and "Never - people may pay for it, but unless those factions' ships perform remotely like their NPC equivalents, then that will be a completely wasted effort".
Yeah, I've made peace with my future Andorian, but I understand your feelings there. I think someone on tribble noted the possible existence of a species respec... If that ends up being the case, I can see sticking to my Agent.
You're taking the discussion in a different direction from what I was replying to. I was replying to the mathematics of only 1/3 available factions, and 1/5th of the races.
For the AoY faction, Klingons and Romulans don't fit. For diehard KDF and Romulan fans, I'm not even sure that's much of an issue because it would be so far out of place for a 23rd century Klingon to serve as a captain of a Starfleet vessel.
The race options thing is a PR-led explanation (we're only going to use TOS themed races) that is more likely fueled by time constraints. It's a shortcut.
But in the end, you're making a mountain out of a mole hill. The AoY thing is what it is. You like it? Play it and enjoy it. You don't? Then skip it.
The question cuts the other way too. How many hard core KDF fans do you imagine are itching to sink their teeth into a big old expansion that's 23rd century Starfleet? How many hardcore Trill, Pakled and Ferengi fans are going to riot because they can't go crash a shuttle on Cestus?
They're not making that claim. They're making an expansion with a narrow scope of stuff. If you don't like that scope, you can stick to your main character, a Romulan-KDF Alien with Honor Guard armor and an Iconian Staff flying a Breen ship using Ferengi torpedoes! Have at it! Huzzah!
The new one has you take command of a BoP that is captained by a traitor. After the higher ranking members of the crew die of course.... some of which you kill for their betrayal.
My character Tsin'xing
My character Tsin'xing
The Borg? They did attend the conference on DS9.
Maybe the Spoon heads had their own problems with the Iconians / Elachi / Solanae? the Mirror Universe? Maybe the spoon head player is given the orb or w/e by future leeta so you will unknowingly give it to present Leeta and bla bla bla
The only episodes I see that would maybe need some rework are the features episodes. Other than that you could go as mad as you want with their plot up to joining the Feds/KDF.
If they add another faction (which technically they are with the 'Tos Fed faction') I would rather they have their own story, so we can play something new.
Now, there were two things in Massively's blog that caught my eye ( blog contents were taken from ther announce podcast which is also linked on massively's site ).
"Agents of Yesterday will have its own tutorial, starting experience, and sector block."
"Cryptic is in talks with CBS about the upcoming 2017 Star Trek series and working with them, but nothing is set in stone yet. They may or may not be doing something together."
So, there is implied promise there, but what that promise is i dont know.. Therew is also the escape route/backpeddle mentioned as well.
"All players, TOS and modern, will be able to come together at some point, although Cryptic isn’t explaining how that will work yet (Rivera pointed to what they did with the Romulans as a possible path)."
So, More of the same???
Massively's bloig on it can be found here: http://massivelyop.com/2016/05/11/seventeen-things-you-need-to-know-about-star-trek-online-agents-of-yesterday/