Fail compared to WHAT? What we have now? The most popular and successful PvP Games in the world are built on FAR less player control of the builds than what I'm proposing..
That is true, but they start out like that. It's not like you play the game one day and can get all those cool, very expensive toys that make you better and better and better and better, and the next day they say: "Oops, my bad, all those toys are irrelevant." The games were designed by the ground up to be limited as they are. Players didn't spend time or money to grind up their gear first only to be said it is now no longer working for them.
More than that- those game's business also doesn't rely on people grinding or paying to upgrade their gear.
Maybe there could be some alternative approach... Say, if you play PvP, you get special rewards that scale by the quality of the gear you have, even though that quality does not affect your actual performance.
The "Whaaaa-- if I can't have my 6 years of accumulated advantage to ROFLSTOMP newbies I won't play!" mentality is why there's no PvP in this game. The stuido head decided that crowd was loathesome and left them to rot as more and more PvE oriented tools were introduced. Put that garbage -- all of it -- on a shelf. STO's PvP in its current form is a corpse. It's not even a shambling zombie. Those systems can stay in place for the people that for whatever reason have persevered in the face of half a decade of hostile neglect. But if STO want's a PvP format that'll attract players in the modern competitive play environment, it's gonna need to take a big ol' step back and rethink it's value proposition.
*blablabla* cryptic *blablabla* pvp *blablabla* eeeerm.... nope! never! even if they wanted to, they couldn't! because even if they think they wanted to, it would be a straight out lie to themselves! if they'd touched it, they'd mess it up even further, or just in another way...
if they really wanted to, they would! they won't, so.... read above...
Head didn't like Pvp to start with.
Didn't like that environment.
Only one person at Cryptic was familiar with that type of game.
Was incharge of Pvp in STO
For various reasons, they were fired/released from contract/etc.
No one is over Pvp anymore.
Any Pvp additions are 'extras', tossed out to see if it draws any fish.
Cryptic wants to delete/completely rip-out the whole pvp system.
They can't, because no one has been able to track down all the ill-effects it would have on the program
And they haven't assigned anyone to the task.
So..
Pvp floats along in the backwaters of STO.
Not neglected.
Forcibly pushed aside due to the above,
and due to the majority of sto players being anti-pvp.
so it's not just Cryptic...
Think that sums it up, but the others will let you know if I forgot anything.
And just to make a point, if they ever assign someone to pull the plug on Pvp, then they will.
Example: Exploration System. Completely ripped out over half the game when they removed it.
(edit: sry. just realized I probably posted the same junk twice.)
Fail compared to WHAT? What we have now? The most popular and successful PvP Games in the world are built on FAR less player control of the builds than what I'm proposing..
That is true, but they start out like that. It's not like you play the game one day and can get all those cool, very expensive toys that make you better and better and better and better, and the next day they say: "Oops, my bad, all those toys are irrelevant." The games were designed by the ground up to be limited as they are. Players didn't spend time or money to grind up their gear first only to be said it is now no longer working for them.
More than that- those game's business also doesn't rely on people grinding or paying to upgrade their gear.
Maybe there could be some alternative approach... Say, if you play PvP, you get special rewards that scale by the quality of the gear you have, even though that quality does not affect your actual performance.
The "Whaaaa-- if I can't have my 6 years of accumulated advantage to ROFLSTOMP newbies I won't play!" mentality is why there's no PvP in this game. The stuido head decided that crowd was loathesome and left them to rot as more and more PvE oriented tools were introduced. Put that garbage -- all of it -- on a shelf. STO's PvP in its current form is a corpse. It's not even a shambling zombie. Those systems can stay in place for the people that for whatever reason have persevered in the face of half a decade of hostile neglect. But if STO want's a PvP format that'll attract players in the modern competitive play environment, it's gonna need to take a big ol' step back and rethink it's value proposition.
It's only a problem for PvP, however. It worked swimmingly well for the PvE sides of things, and more importantly for Cryptic and PWE, to make STO a succesful business.
You just cannot ignore that and pretend it didn't work. Cryptic is not in the business of making a Star Trek PvP game. Cryptic is in the business of making a Star Trek game here, and if that works with a sucktastic PvP experience but with a great business model for PvE content, they will accept that.
Until someone at Cryptic has a solid plan how the PvP part of the game can work with the very thing that made STO succesful, nothing is really going to happen.
And I say Cryptic because no one here can actually make a solid business plan. We can throw ideas at them and hope something sticks, but it's better to realize that Cryptic still has to see an avenue to maintain or grow its business without cannibalizing something.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
I think PvP would be great as true form of endgame in STO. I did fool around with it during leveling some of my alts (Kerath is fun in low levels) and I would like to try it out again, but not in its current form.
I find @nikeix suggestions very good (maybe if you own a Zen/lockbox/lobi/event ship you would have access to its special console and abilities, or else what's the point) and also think that a tier/ranking system and a dedicated rep. or league system would be favorable, as others mentioned too.
Imho it would be a great addition (I mean a new, revamped form) to the game and would bring lots of new players and life to it. Also, if you want monetize it, you could implement exclusive new skins, materials and paintjobs, as in say CS:GO.
This type of content could easily coexist with PvE and the old PvP so there would be nothing lost, only gained and everyone could find their own preference.
P.S. - I suspect somekind of rewamp is already in the works, so our suggestions may have not much weight, but I like this idea so much, that I just wanted my two cents heard.
None of the "remove the stuff I don't like" -suggestions are any good. That stuff is the game's business model. You may as well ask McDonalds to stop selling burgers.
This is STO. People who want to play an entirely different PvP game, can go play an entirely different PvP game.
Comments
The "Whaaaa-- if I can't have my 6 years of accumulated advantage to ROFLSTOMP newbies I won't play!" mentality is why there's no PvP in this game. The stuido head decided that crowd was loathesome and left them to rot as more and more PvE oriented tools were introduced. Put that garbage -- all of it -- on a shelf. STO's PvP in its current form is a corpse. It's not even a shambling zombie. Those systems can stay in place for the people that for whatever reason have persevered in the face of half a decade of hostile neglect. But if STO want's a PvP format that'll attract players in the modern competitive play environment, it's gonna need to take a big ol' step back and rethink it's value proposition.
if they really wanted to, they would! they won't, so.... read above...
Didn't like that environment.
Only one person at Cryptic was familiar with that type of game.
Was incharge of Pvp in STO
For various reasons, they were fired/released from contract/etc.
No one is over Pvp anymore.
Any Pvp additions are 'extras', tossed out to see if it draws any fish.
Cryptic wants to delete/completely rip-out the whole pvp system.
They can't, because no one has been able to track down all the ill-effects it would have on the program
And they haven't assigned anyone to the task.
So..
Pvp floats along in the backwaters of STO.
Not neglected.
Forcibly pushed aside due to the above,
and due to the majority of sto players being anti-pvp.
so it's not just Cryptic...
Think that sums it up, but the others will let you know if I forgot anything.
And just to make a point, if they ever assign someone to pull the plug on Pvp, then they will.
Example: Exploration System. Completely ripped out over half the game when they removed it.
(edit: sry. just realized I probably posted the same junk twice.)
It's only a problem for PvP, however. It worked swimmingly well for the PvE sides of things, and more importantly for Cryptic and PWE, to make STO a succesful business.
You just cannot ignore that and pretend it didn't work. Cryptic is not in the business of making a Star Trek PvP game. Cryptic is in the business of making a Star Trek game here, and if that works with a sucktastic PvP experience but with a great business model for PvE content, they will accept that.
Until someone at Cryptic has a solid plan how the PvP part of the game can work with the very thing that made STO succesful, nothing is really going to happen.
And I say Cryptic because no one here can actually make a solid business plan. We can throw ideas at them and hope something sticks, but it's better to realize that Cryptic still has to see an avenue to maintain or grow its business without cannibalizing something.
I find @nikeix suggestions very good (maybe if you own a Zen/lockbox/lobi/event ship you would have access to its special console and abilities, or else what's the point) and also think that a tier/ranking system and a dedicated rep. or league system would be favorable, as others mentioned too.
Imho it would be a great addition (I mean a new, revamped form) to the game and would bring lots of new players and life to it. Also, if you want monetize it, you could implement exclusive new skins, materials and paintjobs, as in say CS:GO.
This type of content could easily coexist with PvE and the old PvP so there would be nothing lost, only gained and everyone could find their own preference.
P.S. - I suspect somekind of rewamp is already in the works, so our suggestions may have not much weight, but I like this idea so much, that I just wanted my two cents heard.
This is STO. People who want to play an entirely different PvP game, can go play an entirely different PvP game.