I have a laugh when people make the doom comment of 'people leaving', because there are no actual figures to PROVE it. And no, Steam stats are not accepted as an indicator of game population. On Risa I counted 40 odd instances. Each instance holds 50 people, and that was during UK time at 7PM BST! Take into account the people in the Sector Space and Social zones, plus missions and STF's, I would say that the population is healthy!
Yea... the "doooooom" doesn't fit as not everyone runs off Steam. There's people who have the stand alone launcher and those who run through Arc. So honestly the doomsayers are only seeing a small segment of the actual population. And for all we know, some of those people dropping off Steam might be using another launcher.
I have a laugh when people make the doom comment of 'people leaving', because there are no actual figures to PROVE it. And no, Steam stats are not accepted as an indicator of game population. On Risa I counted 40 odd instances. Each instance holds 50 people, and that was during UK time at 7PM BST! Take into account the people in the Sector Space and Social zones, plus missions and STF's, I would say that the population is healthy!
Yea... the "doooooom" doesn't fit as not everyone runs off Steam. There's people who have the stand alone launcher and those who run through Arc. So honestly the doomsayers are only seeing a small segment of the actual population. And for all we know, some of those people dropping off Steam might be using another launcher.
Yup, I'm a standalone user and have done for the 6 years I've played. Steam is a mare, and Arc is less taxing, but neither have any benefit to the game whatsoever.
"You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
> @silverlobes#2676 said:
> azrael605 wrote: »
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> They did change the minimum system requirements for the game, and announced it over a month ahead of time.
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> Do you mean in addition to the DX9 becoming unsupported? I followed the updates and notes fairly closely, but I don't remember seeing anything about anything other than DX9 :-\ Perhaps I just missed it.
> You really should form your own opinion about missions not just take the word of a bunch of snowflakes on the forum.
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> Happy to form my own opinions, but when I see several people saying the same thing, there's clearly a reason for it. Being observant of trends is important when dealing with the stock market, so it's become something of a habit.
> As for people leaving, I have yet to see even the slightest evidence that such is happening any more than it always does in MMOs.
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> So because you haven't seen it, that means it's not happening? I'd say that all the comments on the length of time it takes queues to pop, is a good/bad sign that there aren't as many players populating them as before.
Yes indeed they changed much more than just the DX9 thing. As for Mirrors & Smoke I completely disagree with every bit of the complaints about it, its one of the closest missions in feel to an episode of the shows, and its commentary is no more heavy handed than TNG's Higher Ground, or TOS's Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, and its whole orders of magnitude better than DS9's For The Uniform.
As far as the players go, I am logged in every day, I play a variety of missions & BZs, and contrary to some claims I see far more activity in recent weeks than at this time last year.
I guess something else about the PC wasn't passing muster then. Oh well.
I guess I'll just have to give it a run through when circumstances allow, and see for myself
That's a fair point, but if you're only basing it on your own personal experience, rather than acknowleding that what others are saying also potentially has validity, then you have to also acknowledge that your own perspective is biased
"I fight for the Users!" - Tron
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
They did change the minimum system requirements for the game, and announced it over a month ahead of time.
Do you mean in addition to the DX9 becoming unsupported? I followed the updates and notes fairly closely, but I don't remember seeing anything about anything other than DX9 :-\ Perhaps I just missed it.
Here is the official announcement back in December 2016 which stated that both Windows XP and DX9 will no longer be supported as of March 1, 2017.
If I was to criticize Season 13, it would be the Red Alerts being 10 levels higher than my character.
I am leveling a new character, so the Red Alerts let me obtain marks for content that is difficult to acquire. This character only has Tier 3 in the various Reputations, so level 70 Borg ships (with their garbage shield destroying mechanics) are a chore.
If I was to criticize Season 13, it would be the Red Alerts being 10 levels higher than my character.
I am leveling a new character, so the Red Alerts let me obtain marks for content that is difficult to acquire. This character only has Tier 3 in the various Reputations, so level 70 Borg ships (with their garbage shield destroying mechanics) are a chore.
Actually... they're not lv 70. They're lv 60. Players are just being scaled down to 50. Until it gets fixed, probably best not to go Rambo Solo Hero on them and stick with other players to balance the terms of the engagement.
They did change the minimum system requirements for the game, and announced it over a month ahead of time.
Do you mean in addition to the DX9 becoming unsupported? I followed the updates and notes fairly closely, but I don't remember seeing anything about anything other than DX9 :-\ Perhaps I just missed it.
Here is the official announcement back in December 2016 which stated that both Windows XP and DX9 will no longer be supported as of March 1, 2017.
Thanks for the direct link I expect there's a few bits on that list it wasn't compliant with... At least I now know what the other will definitely need, to be considered up to par
"I fight for the Users!" - Tron
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
What’s different from Delta Rising a bit tho is that this time the progression curve for characters wasn’t multiplied by ten right along with the effort to get there. That is the reason why this time the player population feels rather huge and likely remains huge as can be seen in the number of instances on Risa or even in the rosters of the fleets I’m in. New and seasonal players seem to thrive here instead of veterans.
What happened was that Cryptic, probably with the intention of learning from Delta Rising, totally gave into the zero effort mentality of the player base by generating easy means of character progression left and right while making the engaging content as unattractive as it can get.
The fine-tuned mix in this fragile PvE eco system which was driven by a good balance between fun and need is gone.
If they indeed implement yet another 30k Dil reward every 10-15 days admirably campaign I think it’s completely settled. Nobody *needs* to play anymore and those who *want* are a slim minority which needs to be networked well in order to uphold the fun. At least thanks to your channel as well as very few others we are.
Teamed PvE is going to walk the path of PvP in Star Trek Online and it’s up to us to make the best of it.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
New queue interface is a pain! Sure it's prettier, but you can only queue for 3 things. And having to drill down on different areas looking for things is time consuming where the old one was just click - click and you are queued.
What if the only concern I have is 'what queue has people in it?' cause I just want to do SOMETHING now!
Good luck finding those fast with 12? different windows and only seeing one difficulty at a time.
Unfortunately OP, they didn't go far enough with the rebalancing. DPS is still out of whack, NPC's are still HP sponges, Ships are almost to the point were they are nothing but a costume having incorrect weapon loadouts, hardpoints and arcs, plus a tiny NX can take out a Universe!
Although combat is somewhat enjoyable, this game has a long way to go before it's as balanced as the SFC series.
S12 is actually the worst season, and personally, I thought Delta Rising was the best season, and in that I'm totally serious!
While I don't think DR was the best...I agree with most of the rest of this post. Tac is still obviously by far the best...still a big gap between Sci and Eng as well...if the game is going to be a DPS game and they aren't going to bring the trinity back then they really need to bring all 3 much closer together DPS wise.
They say they want balance they go and revert or reduce many needed nerfs...Sci ships by far the weakest type of ship...so what do they do? Throw a 8th weapon on escorts...
They really need to **** or get off the pot...they need to actually balance it like they claim to or give up...instead of all these *lets use a band aid to patch up a hemorrhaging gash* balance passes.
As far as the players go, I am logged in every day, I play a variety of missions & BZs, and contrary to some claims I see far more activity in recent weeks than at this time last year.
This piqued my interest... Which missions do you find more activity in?
As for the OP, I personally find neither Delta Rising nor S13 to be better than each other.
Delta Rising had much more content added in. I also started playing the game a few weeks before DR so that's pretty much how I knew STO.
S13's balance pass wasn't too bad for the top-end IMO. Sure you guys lost roughly 40%. But that's what? 500k to 300k? The old 300k'ers are doing 150-180k and the old 150k'ers are still doing over 75k. All of that DPS is more than enough to complete the toughest Elite content (Korfez and HSE) right now. A lot of people focused on the huge lost numbers, but don't realize how much they still had.
The hardest hit by the S13 balance pass were those in the mid range and to a certain extent, the low-end. Those who used to do 50k and were able to do the space Elites are doing below that now, so they are having difficulty in Elites. Those doing 20-30k were hit less but took a hit in survivability (seeing a lot of player deaths in queues now). The low-end remained there but are now hit with the fact that the people in the upper spectrum are less equipped to carry them.
One of the biggest build archetypes to be hit are tanks. To tank post S13 means taking some big compromises in their builds to make up for the lower survivability of S13. That hinders their ability to draw threat (and therefore, effectively tank). The line dividing a tank and turtle is now thinner. It's easy to end up turtling especially when you get paired up with higher DPS players or high threat generating builds (like exotic damage builds).
The queue UI however, is bad. Not so much as how it looks itself, but its features and how it works is bad. The UI is good at organizing the STFs into shorter lists (for those too lazy to read), However, everything that "power users" use more took a step back. It's now harder to queue for different difficulties of the same STF. If you're queued up to an STF and decide to queue for additional STFs, you have to leave the queues you already queued up first. It now takes more actions to join a queue (the hallmark of a badly designed UI).
"Queue Groups" are a bad idea for non competitive PvEs too. For PUG runs, if a player declines, it boots the entire Queue Group out (even if 4/5 accepted) and they'll all have to accept again. In the old queue system, the system merely got the next person in line, no need for everyone to re-accept. For pre-mades, you remain inside the previous queue group even after the STF had ended. You actually have to manually leave the queue group to be able to run additional content. Sometimes this bugs out as well and you are unable to join any queue because the system still thinks you are in a queue group (even when you are not).
So I have mixed feelings about S13. On one hand, the balance pass was needed (whether we admit it or not). On the other hand, We are in a situation where queues are hard to start, even the more popular ones. Where it used to take seconds to start one of these, it can now take tens of minutes. For those that do pop, you more often end up with teams ill-equipped for the mission at hand, and it is more difficult now to make up for that.
@lianthelia 3rd place in HSE leaderboards and 13th place in ISA leaderboards is held by a sci captain piloting sci vessel.
3rd speedrun in HSE was done only with sci vessels piloted by sci and eng captains.
Yes, tacs still are ahead, but claiming how scis or engs can never be even close enough, or how sci vessels are the worst shows how little you know about the game.
Really, my only complaint with the rebalancing is that while it shaved off the head of the beer, it did nothing for the body. Sure, people aren't dealing 550,000 DPS anymore. But the level 60s that were doing 1,000 DPS are still dealing 1,000 DPS.
I think the scaling between tier 12 to 14 needs to be brought in line. Achieving level 60 and having V.Rare tier 12 weaponry should at least reasonably put you at 10k DPS minimum even with a modest tank build, with a slightly less exaggerated curve up to the more common 50k builds. Right now, the damage curve is ridiculous. Waiting on t5 reputations on new characters is miserable - especially if they're not meant to be Tac DPS captains. On a new lvl 60 Fed Engineer in a tank a couple of weeks ago, I actually was in a team that failed a Tholian Red Alert by simply running out of time. Simply because none of us were doing enough DPS. That shouldn't happen, unless everyone is flying around with no weapons equipped. Quite a contrast to my main character, which can melt through waves so fast that simply turning the hull takes more time than destroying the groups does.
The overall issue with STO has always been that its financial model ruins its own gameplay by over-aggressively trying to incentivize players into dumping money to overcome severe DPS bloat.
Other than that, having to leave a selected difficulty while having a new one selected to queue up for multiple difficulties of the same queue is probably my only quibble with anything in S13.
Really, my only complaint with the rebalancing is that while it shaved off the head of the beer, it did nothing for the body. Sure, people aren't dealing 550,000 DPS anymore. But the level 60s that were doing 1,000 DPS are still dealing 1,000 DPS.
I think the scaling between tier 12 to 14 needs to be brought in line. Achieving level 60 and having V.Rare tier 12 weaponry should at least reasonably put you at 10k DPS minimum even with a modest tank build, with a slightly less exaggerated curve up to the more common 50k builds. Right now, the damage curve is ridiculous. Waiting on t5 reputations on new characters is miserable - especially if they're not meant to be Tac DPS captains. On a new lvl 60 Fed Engineer in a tank a couple of weeks ago, I actually was in a team that failed a Tholian Red Alert by simply running out of time. Simply because none of us were doing enough DPS. That shouldn't happen, unless everyone is flying around with no weapons equipped. Quite a contrast to my main character, which can melt through waves so fast that simply turning the hull takes more time than destroying the groups does.
The overall issue with STO has always been that its financial model ruins its own gameplay by over-aggressively trying to incentivize players into dumping money to overcome severe DPS bloat.
Other than that, having to leave a selected difficulty while having a new one selected to queue up for multiple difficulties of the same queue is probably my only quibble with anything in S13.
If you think the scaling between MkXII-MkXIV weapons will solve that, you are sadly mistaken. Failure to hit 10k is a build/piloting problem first and foremost. What the game needs is a better way of educating players how to make better builds and how to make the most out of those builds.
My canon Defiant (canon with a single "n", meaning cannons, torps and an omni-beam) still does 50k even with predominantly MkXII-XIII weapons and equipment and no fleet consoles. Even if I scale that down to MkX, it'll do over 10k.
If you think the scaling between MkXII-MkXIV weapons will solve that, you are sadly mistaken. Failure to hit 10k is a build/piloting problem first and foremost. What the game needs is a better way of educating players how to make better builds and how to make the most out of those builds.
My canon Defiant (canon with a single "n", meaning cannons, torps and an omni-beam) still does 50k even with predominantly MkXII-XIII weapons and equipment and no fleet consoles. Even if I scale that down to MkX, it'll do over 10k.
Knowledge on the necessity of running or obtaining reputation or fleet gear isn't going to help players that are sitting around for two weeks waiting on the resource to finish grinding up. You're making too many assumptions on what an alt is going to have access to in the first month or two of its arduous life. Before it's turned into a dil mule, of course.
So let me get this straight. You think an update is bad because you're having bad experiences in this game. I hate to break it to you, but your experiences don't make or break this game as a whole. Your friends list, nor the queues you're joining, nor the PvP environment you're asserting.
The fact is, just because you don't like the game doesn't make it a dead game. The game will continue on with or without you. You can either contiue to complain on the forums, you can quit and leave the game, or you can deal with it. Or better yet, give the devs some suggestions on how to actually make the game better for you.
What? Worse than the expansion which caused a big chunk of the player base to leave and never come back? Is this a joke?
I just came back and I'm still having issues finishing Delta.... They really need to redo the Kobali stuff or make every mission skippable. Nonetheless I really did miss STO but not being able to advance the story line and getting zero help from the support people regarding the Kobali missions irked me to no end.
Nevertheless the look and feel recently is what peaked my interesting enough to entice me to give it a shot again... Guess what? After many attempts (again) I finally got one toon through Delta and am now stuck with another. It makes we want to scream at times.....
On a side note, I wish they would give plasma its juice again.... I feel like a neutered Rommie...
What issues are you having with the Kobali arc? That's actually one of my favorites, so if there's anything I can maybe do to help, please let me know
Getting credit for finishing the Acts and now the leader does not spawn properly for another mission... There are a couple threads in the bugs forum about the issues...
Ahh, that sounds a little outside my area of expertise :-\ I had a similar issue with the last wave of Na'kuhl not spawning aboard the Tholian vessel, and would sometimes have to quit and drop the mission several times, before it would actually load them properly to progress the level. Is that something you've already tried?
Numerous times... Accordingly, it is a fundamental reason for the the general opinion about Delta being the worst expansion for STO. Yet here we are - how long after? Still with know issues from then, plaguing the user experience...
If you are looking for an excellent PvE fleet consider: Omega Combat Division today.
Former member of the Cryptic Family & FriendsTesting Team. Sadly, one day, it simply vanished - without a word or trace...
Numerous times... Accordingly, it is a fundamental reason for the the general opinion about Delta being the worst expansion for STO. Yet here we are - how long after? Still with know issues from then, plaguing the user experience...
If you think the scaling between MkXII-MkXIV weapons will solve that, you are sadly mistaken. Failure to hit 10k is a build/piloting problem first and foremost. What the game needs is a better way of educating players how to make better builds and how to make the most out of those builds.
My canon Defiant (canon with a single "n", meaning cannons, torps and an omni-beam) still does 50k even with predominantly MkXII-XIII weapons and equipment and no fleet consoles. Even if I scale that down to MkX, it'll do over 10k.
Knowledge on the necessity of running or obtaining reputation or fleet gear isn't going to help players that are sitting around for two weeks waiting on the resource to finish grinding up. You're making too many assumptions on what an alt is going to have access to in the first month or two of its arduous life. Before it's turned into a dil mule, of course.
Again, you're underestimating what an alt can have access to. I've made several budget builds in /r/stobuilds and there are several more in there from other knowledgeable folks specifically geared for gear-starved alts. My budget builds for example used 0 dil, no fleet or rep items. an EC budget of 3M or less and used only mission reward items and still do well over 10k.
It's not the Mark of the items, but predominantly what you put together and how you fly your ship IMO.
->e30ernest
S13's balance pass wasn't too bad for the top-end IMO. Sure you guys lost roughly 40%. But that's what? 500k to 300k? The old 300k'ers are doing 150-180k and the old 150k'ers are still doing over 75k. All of that DPS is more than enough to complete the toughest Elite content (Korfez and HSE) right now. A lot of people focused on the huge lost numbers, but don't realize how much they still had.
Yea that’s quite right. But only speaking for me here and in daily practice, 150k builds make me just queue up for ISA with any pug without thinking while 75k builds makes me reconsider and do Risa sex toy hunt instead. Sure I can participate in top of the line premades with both builds but after 5 years sadly only one of them gets me into the mood to bring live to public advanced space maps.
One can bring in the argument “Hey Pete, I thought you enjoy a challenge?” Well yea sure I do, but why bother with advanced space maps at all when having a challenge but also an adequate pay out on elite grounds stuff.
Truth of the matter is a game experience that tasted like a fresh and warm slice of bread before the nerfs now simply tastes wizened. Add the bizarre new menu card to that and bye, bye public ISA.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Nothing is or will be worse than DR. The issues back then were less about the actual content but how everything around it was handled. Stuff was bugged, broken, outright bad designed and it was all advertised as a feature, and then the claim that spwaned a meme happened.
Anyone remember the XP issue? At launch XP rewards were halved across the board, then after weeks of loud complaints they were boosted up again but also the XP necessary to get from 50 to 60 was tripled.
Or the infamous japori incident? Weeks before DR launched people reported on tribble that the romulan patrols stopped scaling at 50, unsurprisingly that was also the case after the DR launch. From the first day people swarmed the sector and japori elite became the equivalent to ISA, CCA, etc. to grind XP. After a couple of weeks (like almost 2 months iirc) crypric finally patched it and declared those who grinded a whole lot cheaters, exploiters, ect, erased their progress and some were even outright banned.
That sh*t and many things more made DR the worst thing that ever happened to STO and none of that was in S13.
As for the nerf with a bat so big it would make Harley Quinn jealous, it took a few steps in the right direction but also screwed up in many other areas. Problem is it really did nothing for the gigantic powergap between scrubs and elites. Dunno what there can be done but probably nothing that isn't way too far than cryptic is willing to go.
If you think the scaling between MkXII-MkXIV weapons will solve that, you are sadly mistaken. Failure to hit 10k is a build/piloting problem first and foremost. What the game needs is a better way of educating players how to make better builds and how to make the most out of those builds.
My canon Defiant (canon with a single "n", meaning cannons, torps and an omni-beam) still does 50k even with predominantly MkXII-XIII weapons and equipment and no fleet consoles. Even if I scale that down to MkX, it'll do over 10k.
Knowledge on the necessity of running or obtaining reputation or fleet gear isn't going to help players that are sitting around for two weeks waiting on the resource to finish grinding up. You're making too many assumptions on what an alt is going to have access to in the first month or two of its arduous life. Before it's turned into a dil mule, of course.
Even if you don't follow the low resource way, alts are only a matter of preparation and preparation is know how. My latest toon I rolled during the last recruitment event had a budget of 1B EC, 5M Dil, an epic set of low MK weapons, crafted sets and consoles for leveling.
A grind was practically not existent thanks to the recruitment conditions. There is only the tame gate which, when it comes to maxing out crafting schools, still isn’t beaten but it takes no effort.
All these resources I prepared with the 9 toons I made before the 10th. The new toon did not cost any RL money to begin with and already starts to help me to save spending any.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
I'd say the balance pass and the buggy UI have all played a part in what seems a less active game, but i also think the poor QC and workmanship has played a part as well.
The artist's do a fantastic job, singling out Thomas the Cat, But the guys doing the coding that makes it all work, well !
I've been close to quitting after getting tired of experiencing the bugs and perceived lack of bug fixing.
Problem is once i hit turn 50 whilst playing Birth of the Federation the engine slows down to a crawl
Hello rubber banding my old friend, time to bounce around the battlezone again, where are all my bug reports going?, out of love with this game I am falling, As Cryptic fail to acknowledge a problem exists, Shakes an angry fist, And from Support all I'm hearing are the sounds of silence.
If you think the scaling between MkXII-MkXIV weapons will solve that, you are sadly mistaken. Failure to hit 10k is a build/piloting problem first and foremost. What the game needs is a better way of educating players how to make better builds and how to make the most out of those builds.
THIS! I am a new player who recently hit 60 and I have been noticing a distinct lack of information / education about builds, that section of the forums looks dead, and the game isn't much help.
I think the scaling between tier 12 to 14 needs to be brought in line. Achieving level 60 and having V.Rare tier 12 weaponry should at least reasonably put you at 10k DPS minimum even with a modest tank build, with a slightly less exaggerated curve up to the more common 50k builds.
my derpy mk12 builds tends to parse on isa between 15k and 20k bepending on how derpy they were and how derpy I played.....
haven't brached 50k tho even with full mk14 builds [not that I cared]
The jump in power that resulted from DR not only upping gear to mk 14 but also upgradeable further was a mistake on cryptics part. If they'd actually had mk13 stuff in rewards it might have been a little better but they were so set on having a dilithium sink that they didnt look at what would happen and that was the inevitable nerf.
They should have bitten the bullet and done things like tweak consoles for diminishing returns to encourage folk to stop stacking them in cookiecutter dps builds.
Doing things sooner would have been balance, waiting for as long as they did made it a more painful clubbing with a nerfbat.
As for the queues being dead for pvevp I personally think that this is down to the lack of maps at launch. We still only have one ground and by the time a second arrives, if ever, most folk won't play it because the rep marks were stupidly added into the general choice box which was their second mistake for the pvevp. They really should have had at least two or three for both ground and space but that would have only highlighted the issue queues have always had where folk do the numbers and go for the quickest option meaning that two would die faster.
The battlezone has some good things but was bugged (inevitably) which drove people away and has no way of balancing itself by the number of players within a zone. It's setup on the assumption that the zone will have around the max of 20 ships flying about doing things BUT those timers for couterattacks start to become a major barrier once you get down to half that number or less. 15-20 players and the timer is x 10-15 it raises to y and raises again to z for less than 10 people.
In some ways this has turned lukari rep gear into the flipside of the coin from the iconian gear where there was no bz or red alert (which makes so much sense to have been one in the context of the invasion storyline) so you were locked into grinding marks or waiting for a queue to turn up.
I respectfully disagree with the OP. I find the changes in game mechanics to make things a bit more fair and balanced. I actually entered Ker'rat the other day and duked it out with a few fast flying Federation players who were unbelievably good and wonderfully specc'ed and, although I lost soundly, I did have my moments. Prior to the changes, I would have been vaporized quickly with no victories whatsoever. Now I can enter into the PvP realm and play around with settings and have a shot. Prior to the changes...not so much.
Comments
Yea... the "doooooom" doesn't fit as not everyone runs off Steam. There's people who have the stand alone launcher and those who run through Arc. So honestly the doomsayers are only seeing a small segment of the actual population. And for all we know, some of those people dropping off Steam might be using another launcher.
Yup, I'm a standalone user and have done for the 6 years I've played. Steam is a mare, and Arc is less taxing, but neither have any benefit to the game whatsoever.
I guess I'll just have to give it a run through when circumstances allow, and see for myself
That's a fair point, but if you're only basing it on your own personal experience, rather than acknowleding that what others are saying also potentially has validity, then you have to also acknowledge that your own perspective is biased
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
Here is the official announcement back in December 2016 which stated that both Windows XP and DX9 will no longer be supported as of March 1, 2017.
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1225790/updated-system-requirements-for-star-trek-online/p1?sso=eyJ1bmlxdWVpZCI6IjEwMzUzNTk5OSIsIm5hbWUiOiJqYWd1YXJza3giLCJlbWFpbCI6ImphZ3VhcnNreEB5YWhvby5jb20iLCJwaG90b3VybCI6Imh0dHA6XC9cL2ltYWdlcy1jZG4ucGVyZmVjdHdvcmxkLmNvbVwvYXJjXC80MFwvNDdcLzQwNDdhOTdhNWI3ZmRkZmIyOWJmMDY3MWM1ZDc1YTM2MTQzNTMzMzA4My5qcGciLCJyb2xlcyI6Ik1lbWJlciIsImNsaWVudF9pZCI6IjE0NDM5Njg5ODEifQ==+e52511e318e75a3e6718428ac3971a6d9b3369a6+1498181200+hmacsha1
I am leveling a new character, so the Red Alerts let me obtain marks for content that is difficult to acquire. This character only has Tier 3 in the various Reputations, so level 70 Borg ships (with their garbage shield destroying mechanics) are a chore.
Actually... they're not lv 70. They're lv 60. Players are just being scaled down to 50. Until it gets fixed, probably best not to go Rambo Solo Hero on them and stick with other players to balance the terms of the engagement.
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
What’s different from Delta Rising a bit tho is that this time the progression curve for characters wasn’t multiplied by ten right along with the effort to get there. That is the reason why this time the player population feels rather huge and likely remains huge as can be seen in the number of instances on Risa or even in the rosters of the fleets I’m in. New and seasonal players seem to thrive here instead of veterans.
What happened was that Cryptic, probably with the intention of learning from Delta Rising, totally gave into the zero effort mentality of the player base by generating easy means of character progression left and right while making the engaging content as unattractive as it can get.
The fine-tuned mix in this fragile PvE eco system which was driven by a good balance between fun and need is gone.
If they indeed implement yet another 30k Dil reward every 10-15 days admirably campaign I think it’s completely settled. Nobody *needs* to play anymore and those who *want* are a slim minority which needs to be networked well in order to uphold the fun. At least thanks to your channel as well as very few others we are.
Teamed PvE is going to walk the path of PvP in Star Trek Online and it’s up to us to make the best of it.
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What if the only concern I have is 'what queue has people in it?' cause I just want to do SOMETHING now!
Good luck finding those fast with 12? different windows and only seeing one difficulty at a time.
While I don't think DR was the best...I agree with most of the rest of this post. Tac is still obviously by far the best...still a big gap between Sci and Eng as well...if the game is going to be a DPS game and they aren't going to bring the trinity back then they really need to bring all 3 much closer together DPS wise.
They say they want balance they go and revert or reduce many needed nerfs...Sci ships by far the weakest type of ship...so what do they do? Throw a 8th weapon on escorts...
They really need to **** or get off the pot...they need to actually balance it like they claim to or give up...instead of all these *lets use a band aid to patch up a hemorrhaging gash* balance passes.
This piqued my interest... Which missions do you find more activity in?
As for the OP, I personally find neither Delta Rising nor S13 to be better than each other.
Delta Rising had much more content added in. I also started playing the game a few weeks before DR so that's pretty much how I knew STO.
S13's balance pass wasn't too bad for the top-end IMO. Sure you guys lost roughly 40%. But that's what? 500k to 300k? The old 300k'ers are doing 150-180k and the old 150k'ers are still doing over 75k. All of that DPS is more than enough to complete the toughest Elite content (Korfez and HSE) right now. A lot of people focused on the huge lost numbers, but don't realize how much they still had.
The hardest hit by the S13 balance pass were those in the mid range and to a certain extent, the low-end. Those who used to do 50k and were able to do the space Elites are doing below that now, so they are having difficulty in Elites. Those doing 20-30k were hit less but took a hit in survivability (seeing a lot of player deaths in queues now). The low-end remained there but are now hit with the fact that the people in the upper spectrum are less equipped to carry them.
One of the biggest build archetypes to be hit are tanks. To tank post S13 means taking some big compromises in their builds to make up for the lower survivability of S13. That hinders their ability to draw threat (and therefore, effectively tank). The line dividing a tank and turtle is now thinner. It's easy to end up turtling especially when you get paired up with higher DPS players or high threat generating builds (like exotic damage builds).
The queue UI however, is bad. Not so much as how it looks itself, but its features and how it works is bad. The UI is good at organizing the STFs into shorter lists (for those too lazy to read), However, everything that "power users" use more took a step back. It's now harder to queue for different difficulties of the same STF. If you're queued up to an STF and decide to queue for additional STFs, you have to leave the queues you already queued up first. It now takes more actions to join a queue (the hallmark of a badly designed UI).
"Queue Groups" are a bad idea for non competitive PvEs too. For PUG runs, if a player declines, it boots the entire Queue Group out (even if 4/5 accepted) and they'll all have to accept again. In the old queue system, the system merely got the next person in line, no need for everyone to re-accept. For pre-mades, you remain inside the previous queue group even after the STF had ended. You actually have to manually leave the queue group to be able to run additional content. Sometimes this bugs out as well and you are unable to join any queue because the system still thinks you are in a queue group (even when you are not).
So I have mixed feelings about S13. On one hand, the balance pass was needed (whether we admit it or not). On the other hand, We are in a situation where queues are hard to start, even the more popular ones. Where it used to take seconds to start one of these, it can now take tens of minutes. For those that do pop, you more often end up with teams ill-equipped for the mission at hand, and it is more difficult now to make up for that.
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The Science Ship Build Thread - Share your Sci Ship builds here!
3rd place in HSE leaderboards and 13th place in ISA leaderboards is held by a sci captain piloting sci vessel.
3rd speedrun in HSE was done only with sci vessels piloted by sci and eng captains.
Yes, tacs still are ahead, but claiming how scis or engs can never be even close enough, or how sci vessels are the worst shows how little you know about the game.
U.S.S. Buteo Regalis - Brigid Multi-Mission Surveillance Explorer build
R.R.W. Ri Maajon - Khopesh Tactical Dreadnought Warbird build
My Youtube channel containing STO videos.
I think the scaling between tier 12 to 14 needs to be brought in line. Achieving level 60 and having V.Rare tier 12 weaponry should at least reasonably put you at 10k DPS minimum even with a modest tank build, with a slightly less exaggerated curve up to the more common 50k builds. Right now, the damage curve is ridiculous. Waiting on t5 reputations on new characters is miserable - especially if they're not meant to be Tac DPS captains. On a new lvl 60 Fed Engineer in a tank a couple of weeks ago, I actually was in a team that failed a Tholian Red Alert by simply running out of time. Simply because none of us were doing enough DPS. That shouldn't happen, unless everyone is flying around with no weapons equipped. Quite a contrast to my main character, which can melt through waves so fast that simply turning the hull takes more time than destroying the groups does.
The overall issue with STO has always been that its financial model ruins its own gameplay by over-aggressively trying to incentivize players into dumping money to overcome severe DPS bloat.
Other than that, having to leave a selected difficulty while having a new one selected to queue up for multiple difficulties of the same queue is probably my only quibble with anything in S13.
If you think the scaling between MkXII-MkXIV weapons will solve that, you are sadly mistaken. Failure to hit 10k is a build/piloting problem first and foremost. What the game needs is a better way of educating players how to make better builds and how to make the most out of those builds.
My canon Defiant (canon with a single "n", meaning cannons, torps and an omni-beam) still does 50k even with predominantly MkXII-XIII weapons and equipment and no fleet consoles. Even if I scale that down to MkX, it'll do over 10k.
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The Science Ship Build Thread - Share your Sci Ship builds here!
Knowledge on the necessity of running or obtaining reputation or fleet gear isn't going to help players that are sitting around for two weeks waiting on the resource to finish grinding up. You're making too many assumptions on what an alt is going to have access to in the first month or two of its arduous life. Before it's turned into a dil mule, of course.
The fact is, just because you don't like the game doesn't make it a dead game. The game will continue on with or without you. You can either contiue to complain on the forums, you can quit and leave the game, or you can deal with it. Or better yet, give the devs some suggestions on how to actually make the game better for you.
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Numerous times... Accordingly, it is a fundamental reason for the the general opinion about Delta being the worst expansion for STO. Yet here we are - how long after? Still with know issues from then, plaguing the user experience...
ingame: @.Spartan
Original Cryptic Forum Name: Spartan (member #124)
The Glorious, Kirk’s Protegè
What known issues from then?
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Again, you're underestimating what an alt can have access to. I've made several budget builds in /r/stobuilds and there are several more in there from other knowledgeable folks specifically geared for gear-starved alts. My budget builds for example used 0 dil, no fleet or rep items. an EC budget of 3M or less and used only mission reward items and still do well over 10k.
It's not the Mark of the items, but predominantly what you put together and how you fly your ship IMO.
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The Science Ship Build Thread - Share your Sci Ship builds here!
S13's balance pass wasn't too bad for the top-end IMO. Sure you guys lost roughly 40%. But that's what? 500k to 300k? The old 300k'ers are doing 150-180k and the old 150k'ers are still doing over 75k. All of that DPS is more than enough to complete the toughest Elite content (Korfez and HSE) right now. A lot of people focused on the huge lost numbers, but don't realize how much they still had.
Yea that’s quite right. But only speaking for me here and in daily practice, 150k builds make me just queue up for ISA with any pug without thinking while 75k builds makes me reconsider and do Risa sex toy hunt instead. Sure I can participate in top of the line premades with both builds but after 5 years sadly only one of them gets me into the mood to bring live to public advanced space maps.
One can bring in the argument “Hey Pete, I thought you enjoy a challenge?” Well yea sure I do, but why bother with advanced space maps at all when having a challenge but also an adequate pay out on elite grounds stuff.
Truth of the matter is a game experience that tasted like a fresh and warm slice of bread before the nerfs now simply tastes wizened. Add the bizarre new menu card to that and bye, bye public ISA.
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Anyone remember the XP issue? At launch XP rewards were halved across the board, then after weeks of loud complaints they were boosted up again but also the XP necessary to get from 50 to 60 was tripled.
Or the infamous japori incident? Weeks before DR launched people reported on tribble that the romulan patrols stopped scaling at 50, unsurprisingly that was also the case after the DR launch. From the first day people swarmed the sector and japori elite became the equivalent to ISA, CCA, etc. to grind XP. After a couple of weeks (like almost 2 months iirc) crypric finally patched it and declared those who grinded a whole lot cheaters, exploiters, ect, erased their progress and some were even outright banned.
That sh*t and many things more made DR the worst thing that ever happened to STO and none of that was in S13.
As for the nerf with a bat so big it would make Harley Quinn jealous, it took a few steps in the right direction but also screwed up in many other areas. Problem is it really did nothing for the gigantic powergap between scrubs and elites. Dunno what there can be done but probably nothing that isn't way too far than cryptic is willing to go.
That would be a great start but this has been an issue from day 1 and I don't exactly see that changing anymore.
Even if you don't follow the low resource way, alts are only a matter of preparation and preparation is know how. My latest toon I rolled during the last recruitment event had a budget of 1B EC, 5M Dil, an epic set of low MK weapons, crafted sets and consoles for leveling.
A grind was practically not existent thanks to the recruitment conditions. There is only the tame gate which, when it comes to maxing out crafting schools, still isn’t beaten but it takes no effort.
All these resources I prepared with the 9 toons I made before the 10th. The new toon did not cost any RL money to begin with and already starts to help me to save spending any.
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The artist's do a fantastic job, singling out Thomas the Cat, But the guys doing the coding that makes it all work, well !
I've been close to quitting after getting tired of experiencing the bugs and perceived lack of bug fixing.
Problem is once i hit turn 50 whilst playing Birth of the Federation the engine slows down to a crawl
Hello rubber banding my old friend, time to bounce around the battlezone again, where are all my bug reports going?, out of love with this game I am falling, As Cryptic fail to acknowledge a problem exists, Shakes an angry fist, And from Support all I'm hearing are the sounds of silence.
THIS! I am a new player who recently hit 60 and I have been noticing a distinct lack of information / education about builds, that section of the forums looks dead, and the game isn't much help.
my derpy mk12 builds tends to parse on isa between 15k and 20k bepending on how derpy they were and how derpy I played.....
haven't brached 50k tho even with full mk14 builds [not that I cared]
They should have bitten the bullet and done things like tweak consoles for diminishing returns to encourage folk to stop stacking them in cookiecutter dps builds.
Doing things sooner would have been balance, waiting for as long as they did made it a more painful clubbing with a nerfbat.
As for the queues being dead for pvevp I personally think that this is down to the lack of maps at launch. We still only have one ground and by the time a second arrives, if ever, most folk won't play it because the rep marks were stupidly added into the general choice box which was their second mistake for the pvevp. They really should have had at least two or three for both ground and space but that would have only highlighted the issue queues have always had where folk do the numbers and go for the quickest option meaning that two would die faster.
The battlezone has some good things but was bugged (inevitably) which drove people away and has no way of balancing itself by the number of players within a zone. It's setup on the assumption that the zone will have around the max of 20 ships flying about doing things BUT those timers for couterattacks start to become a major barrier once you get down to half that number or less. 15-20 players and the timer is x 10-15 it raises to y and raises again to z for less than 10 people.
In some ways this has turned lukari rep gear into the flipside of the coin from the iconian gear where there was no bz or red alert (which makes so much sense to have been one in the context of the invasion storyline) so you were locked into grinding marks or waiting for a queue to turn up.