Today I have visited the K13 stations and noted that one can get improved traits for 100k FC and 20k or so Dilithium.
I like the idea of upgrading traits. At the same time I wondered how this would affect the game. btw: I have 18 toons, and at that price I won't be able to upgrade all of them - that's what got me thinking
New Players won't havve the trait - their damage Output/survivability will not Change. The high Price also makes it difficult for many casual Players to get those traits. But if some Players get that trait, the average damage Output may rise -> powercreep is surely followed by harder PvEs. New Players will still do advanced Queues and not do the required damage. Therefore good Players will only do private ones, meaning that pugs will more likely fail.
Imo grinding for better gear keeps us in the game and makes it more interesting. However the high Price makes it hard to get for newer Players. What are your opinions on that? Should the Price stay? Should the game rather Focus on combining skills to improve build rather than do the grind to unlock and therefore be better Thing? Or should there be a unlock that you have to do to join advanced Queues? should the powercreep be ignored and PvEs stay at current Level - or - like some newer PvEs - not the fighting/damage done be so important?
I don't see how Power Creep matters into the equation of working toward a good build and the cost of getting there? I don't understand why people feel they have to mention that lame excuse for an argument in every discussion regardless of what that may be.
At any rate, I think it is good that we get to upgrade our traits with this new K-13 fleet holding. I like that they add new things. Anyways, I don't see how you consider this game a grind? Personally I think STO is one of the easiest and relaxing MMOs to date, given how it facilitates multitasking on a grand scale. If you consider STO extremely grindy then you have yet to play all of those Korean and other Asian MMOs where you do excruciating grind to get anywhere. Sure, STO is time gated but the time it takes to do each grind session is effortless. It may take 30 minutes at best but most of the time we are talking about ~10 minute runs.
Also, STO is in no respect stressful at all. You can look to SWTOR for example where certain reputation events run for 1 week and may take up to 2 hours per day... and maxing it will require you to the event multiple times... and wait in between each event which can be months apart.
STO is an extremely rewarding MMOs. In particular to those with fewer characters. If you have more than 10 characters then you put yourself in a very bad situation and that has nothing to do with STO itself. Try managing 10+ characters in other MMOs to the same degree you do in STO and see how well you manage. If you don't want to play an MMO which centers around PVE content then it is possible that MMOs is not right for you, but that is a question you will have to ask yourself.
So to answer your question, STO already combines skills and gear for build improving. If you haven't noticed there are starship traits, personal and ground traits, reputation traits, specializations, DOFF traits, Bridge officer traits and abilities.
the thing that is disturbing is that to gain any of it one is once again forced to join a fleet. Cryptic once again creating an elite class vs the casual player
And how is this a problem? I hope you do understand what casual playing means? i can't believe that these forums are so plagued by casual players complaining about their lack of effort being unrewarding.
I'll say it again - for every build there are already 9 better traits you could be filling your slots with instead of buying K-13 traits.
If you don't have those 9 traits for your build then sure, they're a marginally useful intermediate step as a placeholder for something better. I have 7 captains, and I'm anticipating buying maybe -maybe- three K-13 traits. But realistically you're better off saving the resources towards acquiring some of the true terminal trait choices. And doing the little bit of drudge work here and there that'll give you better choices (like level 15 science crafting skill for exotic damage builds).
But the well equipped shadowy overlords aren't pulling away from the average folks because of their introduction. Theres no advantage in picking up a 50% improved version of a basic trait when you're already rolling with something 100-200% better.
the thing that is disturbing is that to gain any of it one is once again forced to join a fleet. Cryptic once again creating an elite class vs the casual player
Not entirely accurate. I'm pretty casual and I'm in a fleet. Just gotta find a casual fleet.
Ratty, casual people are the ones who don't play the same game every single day for almost five years. They also don't grind enough in game dill to unlock half the c-store, and they certainly don't have your post count on these forums. I think you meant that your not a DPS chaser, which is true, but your defiantly not a casual player mate.
Ok I better throw in something on topic now I suppose:
The gap between people who are new and people who are not is huge. Its not a good thing. Content is either too difficult or too easy for half the player base at any given time. Lack of challenge and overwhelming challenge can both cause players to loose interest in the game.
Having stated that the gape is huge, its not just the result of some having more resources then others, its primarily the result of some having more knowledge then others with regard to what skills and abilities actually do.
Now hear is where it gets interesting, if you know how STOs mechanics work, then these traits, gold plating on most equipment, and many other things which people hold up as examples of the gap, can be easily discounted. Hear is the one thing that every one who plays STO needs to know, and most people don't:
A 15 point difference in a skill level is meaningless unless compounded with other bonuses.
Each captain skill in the game produces an effect that scales linearly. The magnitude of that effect on a per point biases is infinitesimal. For skill points to make a meaningful impact upon your performance, by which I mean an impact you don't need to spend a couple of hours with a parser to detect, you either need to increase a skill by a minimum of 30 points in the case of some of the more powerful skills, or upwards of 90 points in the case of some of the less powerful skills.
Now it is true that with a lot of resources a player can gain enough minor increases spread across multiple consoles, traits and equipment, to make a noticeable impact. But the true reason the power gap is so very large as it is, is because some people understand the game mechanics well enough to know which things are multiplicative, while others just slap things on in an additive way.
Look up STO's damage mod categories some time if you don't know about them. And try telling the difference between science abilities with and without a console to enhance them (looking at the tool tip is cheating).
Ok so in summery, Ratty is not a casual player, The power gap between players is a bad thing but the new traits are only a minor source of power creep, that wont really affect it.
Having stated that the gape is huge, its not just the result of some having more resources then others, its primarily the result of some having more knowledge then others with regard to what skills and abilities actually do.
True, but I would add "having knowledge what traits (or items) actually exist" is already a step below that which will be a hurdle many don't clear. Me certainly included. Especially when it comes to lockbox stuff, many won't know everything that exists and thus can not complement your build. Certainly not a thing when trying to get to a level where you can compete with the environment, but easily a thing when wanting to play with the big boys.
My mother was an epohh and my father smelled of tulaberries
Wanting to add: I am not of the "everything below what is currently considered optimal is TRIBBLE" kind, which you will easily find in chat. Having one weapon with the wrong proc or one trait missing is normally not going to kill your build. Unless you try to emulate one you found which bases its "philosophy" on this special thing.
My mother was an epohh and my father smelled of tulaberries
The really good superior traits would be 15% accuracy, 15% defense, 10% beam/cannon damage (flat numbers actually), 15% peak health for ground, and 10% of the various ground weapons. The thing that really makes these traits good is that they are always in effect. Of course there are some really good and valuable Lockbox traits and one should not omit them. But I think it can be very easy to underestimate some of the default traits.
These value increases may not seem much at a quick glance but these specific values can be very difficult to boost later on in any significant capacity when you are in the midrange to high end (and even top end) build ranges. The cost of trying to increasese the values by similar amounts can be steep with often many *compromises*. Consider these upgrades as sort of "free tickets" for an easy and uncompromising upgrade at only an expensive monetary cost.
Comments
KDF: 2 tacs, 2 engs, 3 scis
KDF Roms: 3 tacs, 1 eng, 1 scis
FED: 2 tacs, 1 eng, 2 scis
TOS: 1 tac
all on T5 rep (up to temporal)
all have mastered Intel tree (and some more specs Points)
highest DPS: 60.982
I don't see how Power Creep matters into the equation of working toward a good build and the cost of getting there? I don't understand why people feel they have to mention that lame excuse for an argument in every discussion regardless of what that may be.
At any rate, I think it is good that we get to upgrade our traits with this new K-13 fleet holding. I like that they add new things. Anyways, I don't see how you consider this game a grind? Personally I think STO is one of the easiest and relaxing MMOs to date, given how it facilitates multitasking on a grand scale. If you consider STO extremely grindy then you have yet to play all of those Korean and other Asian MMOs where you do excruciating grind to get anywhere. Sure, STO is time gated but the time it takes to do each grind session is effortless. It may take 30 minutes at best but most of the time we are talking about ~10 minute runs.
Also, STO is in no respect stressful at all. You can look to SWTOR for example where certain reputation events run for 1 week and may take up to 2 hours per day... and maxing it will require you to the event multiple times... and wait in between each event which can be months apart.
STO is an extremely rewarding MMOs. In particular to those with fewer characters. If you have more than 10 characters then you put yourself in a very bad situation and that has nothing to do with STO itself. Try managing 10+ characters in other MMOs to the same degree you do in STO and see how well you manage. If you don't want to play an MMO which centers around PVE content then it is possible that MMOs is not right for you, but that is a question you will have to ask yourself.
So to answer your question, STO already combines skills and gear for build improving. If you haven't noticed there are starship traits, personal and ground traits, reputation traits, specializations, DOFF traits, Bridge officer traits and abilities.
And how is this a problem? I hope you do understand what casual playing means? i can't believe that these forums are so plagued by casual players complaining about their lack of effort being unrewarding.
If you don't have those 9 traits for your build then sure, they're a marginally useful intermediate step as a placeholder for something better. I have 7 captains, and I'm anticipating buying maybe -maybe- three K-13 traits. But realistically you're better off saving the resources towards acquiring some of the true terminal trait choices. And doing the little bit of drudge work here and there that'll give you better choices (like level 15 science crafting skill for exotic damage builds).
But the well equipped shadowy overlords aren't pulling away from the average folks because of their introduction. Theres no advantage in picking up a 50% improved version of a basic trait when you're already rolling with something 100-200% better.
Ratty, casual people are the ones who don't play the same game every single day for almost five years. They also don't grind enough in game dill to unlock half the c-store, and they certainly don't have your post count on these forums. I think you meant that your not a DPS chaser, which is true, but your defiantly not a casual player mate.
Ok I better throw in something on topic now I suppose:
The gap between people who are new and people who are not is huge. Its not a good thing. Content is either too difficult or too easy for half the player base at any given time. Lack of challenge and overwhelming challenge can both cause players to loose interest in the game.
Having stated that the gape is huge, its not just the result of some having more resources then others, its primarily the result of some having more knowledge then others with regard to what skills and abilities actually do.
Now hear is where it gets interesting, if you know how STOs mechanics work, then these traits, gold plating on most equipment, and many other things which people hold up as examples of the gap, can be easily discounted. Hear is the one thing that every one who plays STO needs to know, and most people don't:
A 15 point difference in a skill level is meaningless unless compounded with other bonuses.
Each captain skill in the game produces an effect that scales linearly. The magnitude of that effect on a per point biases is infinitesimal. For skill points to make a meaningful impact upon your performance, by which I mean an impact you don't need to spend a couple of hours with a parser to detect, you either need to increase a skill by a minimum of 30 points in the case of some of the more powerful skills, or upwards of 90 points in the case of some of the less powerful skills.
Now it is true that with a lot of resources a player can gain enough minor increases spread across multiple consoles, traits and equipment, to make a noticeable impact. But the true reason the power gap is so very large as it is, is because some people understand the game mechanics well enough to know which things are multiplicative, while others just slap things on in an additive way.
Look up STO's damage mod categories some time if you don't know about them. And try telling the difference between science abilities with and without a console to enhance them (looking at the tool tip is cheating).
Ok so in summery, Ratty is not a casual player, The power gap between players is a bad thing but the new traits are only a minor source of power creep, that wont really affect it.
True, but I would add "having knowledge what traits (or items) actually exist" is already a step below that which will be a hurdle many don't clear. Me certainly included. Especially when it comes to lockbox stuff, many won't know everything that exists and thus can not complement your build. Certainly not a thing when trying to get to a level where you can compete with the environment, but easily a thing when wanting to play with the big boys.
These value increases may not seem much at a quick glance but these specific values can be very difficult to boost later on in any significant capacity when you are in the midrange to high end (and even top end) build ranges. The cost of trying to increasese the values by similar amounts can be steep with often many *compromises*. Consider these upgrades as sort of "free tickets" for an easy and uncompromising upgrade at only an expensive monetary cost.