Massive FPS drop after update on 9-7-17! (others have noticed as well)

captainkorak

I wanted to let you guys know that after the update thursday before last my older gaming laptop (which had no problem playing the game on medium or close to medium settings and getting a smooth 30fps) is no lucky to get 20fps walking around ESD with all settings at absolute minimum.

This is a problem for me. I have a more powerful gaming desktop, but due to a medical issue I'm not able to really sit at that anymore and have been relying on my laptop to play the game, but now battles are pretty much unplayable as the framerate either drops to almost nothing or it even locks up for a second or two. I purchased a lifetime subscription just a couple of months back and have spent a decent bit of time and money on this game. Is the reality that you guys are just going to keep upgrading the game to the point that it's unplayable for anyone without a top end gaming computer?? Right now my laptop is my only way to play, and if it was running fine on medium before it should be at least CLOSE to that now. Minor graphics improvements are not worth shutting players out, especially those that paid a LOT of money for a subscription!

So is there an update coming to address this issue (I've talked to other players on lower end systems and they've noticed it too) or did I basically waste $200 on a game I can't really play now? If so that's simply unacceptable and I will be expecting compensation, but I'd rather be able to keep playing the game to be honest.


(I have a masters degree in computer science, so yes, I've turned it off and back on, I've killed ALL unnecessary processes, and even un-installed and re-installed the latest graphics drivers. The problem is STO, not my computer.)

captainkorak

So no response from anyone at Cryptic? I mean I pay a LOT less for games for Xbox and such and that's with the expectation that they'll forever be playable on the machine I purchased it for.

Am I just basically now priced out of a game I payed a massive amount for?

jaguarskx

You are playing a PC game. Unlike consoles, technology for PCs are always advancing. A Xbox One purchased in 2013 has the same hardware as a Xbox One purchased today. The same cannot be said of a $600 PC or laptop purchased in 2013 and one purchased today. Therefore, a game designed to run on a Xbox One in 2020 should have no problems running on console with 7 year old hardware. Running a 2020 PC game on a 2013 PC / laptop will definitely not run as well as on a 2020 PC or laptop (generally speaking, since it depends on the specs). I am not aware of any graphic updates, then again I do not really bother to read all the patch notes. However, adding new features / content to a game and updating graphics in the background will invariably increase system requirements over time and not always slowly.

It sounds like you are playing STO on an old laptop that relies on integrated graphics. STO still has pretty low system requirements, for example the game is still very playable on my 2013 Dell Latitude 3540 with an Intel Core i5-4200u (Intel HD 4400 integrated graphics core) and Radeon HD 8850m (about equal to a nVidia 940m). Having tested STO using the Intel HD 4400 (this specific laptop is used to play my secondary free 2 play only STO account), I can say that the Intel HD 4400 does a decent job at playing STO at 1080p resolution and a mix of mostly low and medium settings with Lighting 2.0 disabled. So you really do not need a high end PC / laptop to play STO unless you want to max out all graphics and want a 60 FPS average.

I am sorry to hear that you have a medical condition that no longer allows you to sit... hopefully that is only a temporary condition. But it seems like you bought your desktop PC to play games, whereas the laptop you are currently using is simply something you had laying around which you may have used for other things besides gaming. So basically, you did not purchase the laptop to play STO. If you purchased the LTS when you were playing STO on the laptop then.... yeah, that sucks.

The only suggestion I can offer is to just deal with the low performance as best you can or take a break from STO until your condition improves and you can sit down and play STO on your desktop again. If this is a chronic condition, and the thought of sitting down to play STO on your desktop is an impossibility, then you may want to sell your desktop put the money towards a laptop.