IMO this change is our new Delta Rising. I hate 40% of the ques.
RA are perfect for fast and new toon marks grinding. I imagine all those people with 2-5 k dps you meet in RAs going to ques that can be failed ...omg. Many people have "grinding" toons that will never bother to upgrade and they will all hit advanced ques ... well hwo cares its not like cryptic will have something to lose, good players will .. until the decide its enough.
IF you going with this please REMOVE FAIL rules from stfs for normal and advanced, otherwise we will be flooded with grinding toons making us to fail or spend 15-20 minutes in an stf to cover for their lack of dps or non play.
BTW do any of the ques have been fixed and streamlined before deciding to force us to play then to get marks ? OR its just lets do this change and lets the suckers endure it ? Many STF are too long and boring and playing them will take 30-50% of a play session. This really sucks.
Any dev that would actually play his own game regularly not once in a blue moon would know this. But we are cursed with key devs that don't find their own game enough fun (lols) to actually play it. This is not healthy of any game.
"This is not going to go the way you think" said Luke Skywalker.
Han Solo had gone pale and hollow-eyed. He looked like Death herself. "I've got a bad feeling about this" he replied gravely.
Stop being a TRIBBLE," Leia chided. Her stern look was a hint of the disgust she felt for her lover Han in that moment. "That goes for you too, Luke!" Leia clinched her hands into white-knuckled fists at her sides.
"Hold it right there, Your Highness." Indignancy flowed over Han like a red wave that could be seen by the ruby-red complexion washing bottom-to-top over his face. "We're barely able to maintain the few task-forces we have now."
Luke smiled inside himself. This might be one of the few times he agreed with Han one-hundred percent. "You know he's right, Leia. If you put this plan into motion, members of The Alliance will fracture. Some might even quit on us." Luke sighed, "Red Alerts are the only viable reason most players even login to the game. There are only three Red Alerts, really, that the base consistently participates in: The Borg, The Tholian, and the Tzenkethi Red Alerts."
"Quit?" Leia incredulously answered her brother. She outstretched her neck and craned her head. Leia's body bends at the waist and her arms too bend--at the elbows--in a mocking sort of akimbo by placing her hands on her upper thighs. "Maybe we should all quit. Right? I mean, if there are only three Red Alerts, this game of ours is doomed." One corner of her mouth grew up the side of Leia's face and then she ended with rancor, "Nerf it, Nerf-Herder. Just nerf it already. Wait. You know what? I'll make this easy for you: I'll try it for a week or two. If it all turns out to be fine, then, O.K. But! If not? Well, that's really the question, isn't it?
--STO Therapy through StoryTelling via Other IP's
.:///////////////////////////////////////////////////:.
As I said in an earlier Post, this change to the Red Alerts is the most notice we have gotten for Red Alert changes AND THIS ONE IS JUST THE DAY BEFORE THE CHANGE.
If you don't think this is related to the upcoming AoD release you are being nieve. Want to bet that the first Queue, I mean TFO, to get Gamma Marks added will be the Assault on Starbase One.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Now add more bigger rarer rewards to the random que system and things will be looking alot better, these changes to Red Alerts are long over due.
Also expand the Endevours to drop ones for the ramdom ques, pushing more towards them anyway you can, but you need to rebalance them etc a bit, there are alot of players who simply struggle in some of them, even Red Alert: Borg lol
How about you guys leave Red Alerts in the way they are and only change them temporarily for weekend special events to the new thing?
I like Red Alerts, they are quick and I can do them when I don't have much time to play, when waiting for Fleetmates to come online or finish something so we can do a longer queue together, etc.. If Red Alerts go away the way they are now, I might just log off during these "down times" instead and just log on for the weekend events instead of playing every day. Surely that can't be the design goal of this?
After "Vistory is life"success and have filled the bank cashier, you authorize yourself to do anything like "Delta Rising".
The remaining players will choose a new way and STO will disappear.
- you are taking away popular content to fix the lack of people participating in others STF
People have been citing the supreme easiness of the red alerts as their best defining characteristics. That's not a vote in favor of the innate gameplay value of these TFO's (the RA's were fairly dead up until choice of marks and queuing were added to help support them, with extreme consequences.) It's a comment on the min-max grinding potential of these queues for marks that would otherwise take a minor amount of effort through their host TFO's (as if this was an MMORPG and players had to work towards system progress and specific rewards...)
They are a useful shortcut which further undercuts prime content in STO (other queues) simply because of their ease, not a vital feature which STO couldn't possibly do without. There was an STO before queued alerts, and there is one now through the console versions of the game. Cryptic has data on population dynamics without RA's and systems inbound to help alleviate problems with getting a specific mark. No need to maintain the ad hoc stop gap at the expense of both that effort and the rest of the PVE system.
If folks need a fallback, there'll be the defense of starbase one and random queue rewards for a choice of marks and sector patrols for short-form space combat (if indeed folks have a real gameplay preference, and aren't just trying to preserve a mark shortcut for their personal convenience [nevermind what it's been costing the PVE system].)
Post edited by duncanidaho11 on
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
(the RA's were fairly dead up until choice of marks and queuing were added to help support them, with extreme consequences.)
All those doom threads where the imminent death of thriving RAs as they're changed to queues was predicted would argue that, whatever they were, they weren't dead.
Pre-queue RAs were the best spec XP/ship XP farm, and as such, quite active.
Pre-queue RAs were the best spec XP/ship XP farm, and as such, quite active.
No, farming Argala was the defacto ship XP farming hub in modern STO history (ie. after the introduction of T6, and of course prior to queued RA's.) RA's offered a boost but you would often find yourself playing through the encounter alone (almost a guarantee in sector that didn't include a faction hub), because while they were lucrative they were only available at select times (per block) and were only accessible from the sector map (ie. where folks don't tend to hang around.)
Hence why they added queuing to try to help make RA's more accessible and minimize the incidence of 1 v. Armada. If they were already quite active, this change would have been entirely unnecessary and Cryptic would have had data to evaluate the case.
How about you guys leave Red Alerts in the way they are and only change them temporarily for weekend special events to the new thing?
I like Red Alerts, they are quick and I can do them when I don't have much time to play, when waiting for Fleetmates to come online or finish something so we can do a longer queue together, etc.. If Red Alerts go away the way they are now, I might just log off during these "down times" instead and just log on for the weekend events instead of playing every day. Surely that can't be the design goal of this?
That or just play patrols, CCA, fleet alert, or random sector encounters. Alerts aren't the only quick bite of space combat you can have in STO. If you have a real preference for that kind of gameplay, there are plenty of alternatives and arguably (from the diversity of patrols) better ones from the standpoint of that gameplay.
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
So you can play it even if you only have very limited play time on a weeknight for example.
Chance to target a large group of NPCs or an NPC Dreadnought solo, without bothering anyone (except anyone else that wanted to take that Dread, of course, but that seems to happen rarely.)
A great way to test out a new build, for example, and generally feel awesome about yourself.
I think I could actually pass on the mark reward, if I could at least keep the other two.
Nostalgia for Deep Space Encounters
The old Deep Space Encounters had a similar appeal to me. You could engage NPC groups and blow them at your own leisure, while also optionally grouping up to work together. I am not sure if more players in the map also meant increased NPC spawn sizes, but either way, the old DSEs provided a neat chance to blow up stuff without any time constraints
The revamped DSEs are extremely boring by comparision. If no one else joins, you fight standard sized enemy groups (either 3 frigates or 1 Cruiser/Battleship type enemy, never Dreadnoughts). Once in a blue moon you might get multple players and more fun, and on rare occassions, this also triggers some extra phase with more enemies. This can be fun. But it practically never happens, probably because the rewards are uninteresting and if you happen to be solo, they are very boring.
They could at least be a Double XP Zone perhaps to raise interest.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
I need something to do when I only have 15-20 minutes to play, because that's how busy my life is on work days.
argala and japori are solo content but fit this bill
The one thing they are missing are some nice dreadnoughts to fight. That's one of my favorite parts of the Borg and recently also the Tholian Red Alert - engaging the Dreadnoughts (preferably alone). When I purchase a new ship and try out a build with it, the Borg Tactical Cube is the ideal "standard candle" to determine whether my build needs work or is okay. If I can take it out without blowing up myself, all is fine. If I can't, I need to do something about it. (Or was asleep at the wheel?)
I'll really miss that dearly.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
The one thing they are missing are some nice dreadnoughts to fight. That's one of my favorite parts of the Borg and recently also the Tholian Red Alert - engaging the Dreadnoughts (preferably alone). When I purchase a new ship and try out a build with it, the Borg Tactical Cube is the ideal "standard candle" to determine whether my build needs work or is okay. If I can take it out without blowing up myself, all is fine. If I can't, I need to do something about it. (Or was asleep at the wheel?)
I'll really miss that dearly.
What about the starbase encounter Romulan patrol? That would seem to fit the bill and guarantee access to the single heavy target (with some runs you can hardly get a sense for what you're impact on the dreadnaught is, given the four other players. For this reason, I've never personally found the RAs to be a conducive venue for testing.)
For longer sessions, Terran and Undine battlezones would also offer appropriate ship testing targets.
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Cryptic has taken away the option of a quick and dirty way to get a few reputation marks because the way They want me to grind them is borked. Rather than fix the borked queue They have removed RA to force me to play a borked queue I have little interest in to increase 'my fun'? In Cryptic's eyes I'm doing it wrong?
At the same time I have an option to queue for a random which could be space or ground, with no option to swich out gear or traits to help me complete the mission, again to increase 'my fun'?
The one thing they are missing are some nice dreadnoughts to fight. That's one of my favorite parts of the Borg and recently also the Tholian Red Alert - engaging the Dreadnoughts (preferably alone). When I purchase a new ship and try out a build with it, the Borg Tactical Cube is the ideal "standard candle" to determine whether my build needs work or is okay. If I can take it out without blowing up myself, all is fine. If I can't, I need to do something about it. (Or was asleep at the wheel?)
I'll really miss that dearly.
What about the starbase encounter Romulan patrol? That would seem to fit the bill and guarantee access to the single heavy target (with some runs you can hardly get a sense for what you're impact on the dreadnaught is, given the four other players. For this reason, I've never personally found the RAs to be a conducive venue for testing.)
For longer sessions, Terran and Undine battlezones would also offer appropriate ship testing targets.
The Battlezones don't work so well because the Dreadnoughts mostly only appear when there are other players at the same point, so you can't really just target them "alone". But I could see that the Battlezones become more interesting again with the changes. But they were already fine before.
I have to test about the Starbase. But don't you first have to engage a few ships before you can head for the Starbase? That might add an annoying delay. But I'll have to try it.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Pre-queue RAs were the best spec XP/ship XP farm, and as such, quite active.
No, farming Argala was the defacto ship XP farming hub in modern STO history (ie. after the introduction of T6, and of course prior to queued RA's.) RA's offered a boost but you would often find yourself playing through the encounter alone (almost a guarantee in sector that didn't include a faction hub), because while they were lucrative they were only available at select times (per block) and were only accessible from the sector map (ie. where folks don't tend to hang around.)
Hence why they added queuing to try to help make RA's more accessible and minimize the incidence of 1 v. Armada. If they were already quite active, this change would have been entirely unnecessary and Cryptic would have had data to evaluate the case.
I farmed Argala... And it was slower than Instance-hopping Beta Quadrant until all RAs were on cooldown then repeating in Alpha, then doing Argala, or Japori or whatever or just chatting until cooldowns reset. (obviously, it wouldn't have worked back when sector blocks were a thing) I saw quite a few other people doing that too, even though I mostly play in off-hours.
STO wasn't doomed and queue RAs became one of the most popular things in the game. So, what I'm wanting to say is more or less the same thing as you: while I see why people are worried, the record of such threads predicting what will and won't be popular isn't exactly great.
What I regret here is losing the quick, fun, reliable, jump-in-for-ten-minutes-and-blow-things-up content. The rewards are a factor, but not the critical one.
I need something to do when I only have 15-20 minutes to play, because that's how busy my life is on work days.
Same here. I picked up STO again a couple of weeks ago, after not having played for over three years, and the main reason for that was not having the time. Discovering the RAs, and the rewards they offer, was a great way to play a short 20-30 minute game, and feel like I was progressing my character.
Sure, if I had more time, I'd put more time into the game and play some of the other neglected queues. But the reality is I don't have the time, and removing these RAs to "force" folks to play the other queues seems like a punishment for those of us who try our best to play the game but don't have much time to do so.
It seems like a case of, "you must play these parts of the game, for at least this long, at these times, or else don't bother". Great way to build and keep a player base...
Cryptic has taken away the option of a quick and dirty way to get a few reputation marks because the way They want me to grind them is borked. Rather than fix the borked queue They have removed RA to force me to play a borked queue I have little interest in to increase 'my fun'? In Cryptic's eyes I'm doing it wrong?
At the same time I have an option to queue for a random which could be space or ground, with no option to swich out gear or traits to help me complete the mission, again to increase 'my fun'?
Cryptic has taken away the option of a quick and dirty way to get a few reputation marks because the way They want me to grind them is borked. Rather than fix the borked queue They have removed RA to force me to play a borked queue I have little interest in to increase 'my fun'? In Cryptic's eyes I'm doing it wrong?
At the same time I have an option to queue for a random which could be space or ground, with no option to swich out gear or traits to help me complete the mission, again to increase 'my fun'?
Sounds like you pretty much nailed it.
Hmm...the first time I got something right and feel sad about it.
Based on Random STF from Tribble and these Red changes I can only conclude that the devs are trying to make it harder for players to play what they want to when they want to. Which is only going to cause people to log in less and play less.
I used to log in almost every day and do 1 quick fun queue of my choice. That is no longer an option after the changes which will mean I am not able to play the fun content that I want to play. Which in turn means there will be no reason to log in and play daily anymore.
This seems like a reverting back to Cryptic's old status quo thinking of exclusiveness makes things better, in this case taking away more opportunities on how to enjoy & play, than being inclusive, allowing more options to progress the way that may be advantageous, for STO players. Oh well, at this stage of STO's tenure maybe Cryptic believes they need to shake things up, but this doesn't inspire me to invest anymore $ into STO nor play more it just seems Cryptic is purposely steering me towards a direction, especially if a bonuses are only during a set time that perhaps a player cannot take advantage of. That's similar to the valid complaining about certain sales being centric upon a specific time zone most of the time. I do like the cool down removal. I would've been happy with even just a 15 minute cool down reduction. This "weekend only" is rubbish & unnecessary.
This is a terrible decision. If they would be available EVERY weekend it would only be a bad decision. But they won't. Just like "weekend events" were as an alternative to hourly events. They will seldom happen.
As far as the lack of a cooldown. That is not helpful at all. Even if you have only 1 character, by the time you cycle through 3 red alerts you are pretty much ready to start over again on the cooldown.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Leveling up ship ranks is a grind, esp. when you hit the level max for your character. It feels like the level scale for ships is still at the steep curve that character XP used to have before the level cap was increased to 65.
Using the Borg Red Alert was one of the most effective way to counter that steep XP curve, if not the best. Now it's relegated to 'Weekend' Events, that would no doubt be separate from XP Bonus weekends, throws that out the window.
"Oh, you have how many T6 ships that you have to work through to get the Ship Trait, and there's still more to come down the line? Well, you're going to have to wait til the next Red Alert Weekend comes up!"
So, at their current state, I see no gamma marks in RA selection - and no daily bonuses either. And no Nakuhl RA. Sounds like incredibly sloppy work to me.
So, at their current state, I see no gamma marks in RA selection - and no daily bonuses either. And no Nakuhl RA. Sounds like incredibly sloppy work to me.
Soooo ..... Just ran one of the "weekend" Borg red alerts. And it gave the 35 standard marks ... but gone were the addition of the daily marks per mark type.
Comments
RA are perfect for fast and new toon marks grinding. I imagine all those people with 2-5 k dps you meet in RAs going to ques that can be failed ...omg. Many people have "grinding" toons that will never bother to upgrade and they will all hit advanced ques ... well hwo cares its not like cryptic will have something to lose, good players will .. until the decide its enough.
IF you going with this please REMOVE FAIL rules from stfs for normal and advanced, otherwise we will be flooded with grinding toons making us to fail or spend 15-20 minutes in an stf to cover for their lack of dps or non play.
BTW do any of the ques have been fixed and streamlined before deciding to force us to play then to get marks ? OR its just lets do this change and lets the suckers endure it ? Many STF are too long and boring and playing them will take 30-50% of a play session. This really sucks.
Any dev that would actually play his own game regularly not once in a blue moon would know this. But we are cursed with key devs that don't find their own game enough fun (lols) to actually play it. This is not healthy of any game.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION:
"This is not going to go the way you think" said Luke Skywalker.
Han Solo had gone pale and hollow-eyed. He looked like Death herself. "I've got a bad feeling about this" he replied gravely.
Stop being a TRIBBLE," Leia chided. Her stern look was a hint of the disgust she felt for her lover Han in that moment. "That goes for you too, Luke!" Leia clinched her hands into white-knuckled fists at her sides.
"Hold it right there, Your Highness." Indignancy flowed over Han like a red wave that could be seen by the ruby-red complexion washing bottom-to-top over his face. "We're barely able to maintain the few task-forces we have now."
Luke smiled inside himself. This might be one of the few times he agreed with Han one-hundred percent. "You know he's right, Leia. If you put this plan into motion, members of The Alliance will fracture. Some might even quit on us." Luke sighed, "Red Alerts are the only viable reason most players even login to the game. There are only three Red Alerts, really, that the base consistently participates in: The Borg, The Tholian, and the Tzenkethi Red Alerts."
"Quit?" Leia incredulously answered her brother. She outstretched her neck and craned her head. Leia's body bends at the waist and her arms too bend--at the elbows--in a mocking sort of akimbo by placing her hands on her upper thighs. "Maybe we should all quit. Right? I mean, if there are only three Red Alerts, this game of ours is doomed." One corner of her mouth grew up the side of Leia's face and then she ended with rancor, "Nerf it, Nerf-Herder. Just nerf it already. Wait. You know what? I'll make this easy for you: I'll try it for a week or two. If it all turns out to be fine, then, O.K. But! If not? Well, that's really the question, isn't it?
--STO Therapy through StoryTelling via Other IP's
.:///////////////////////////////////////////////////:.
If you don't think this is related to the upcoming AoD release you are being nieve. Want to bet that the first Queue, I mean TFO, to get Gamma Marks added will be the Assault on Starbase One.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Now add more bigger rarer rewards to the random que system and things will be looking alot better, these changes to Red Alerts are long over due.
Also expand the Endevours to drop ones for the ramdom ques, pushing more towards them anyway you can, but you need to rebalance them etc a bit, there are alot of players who simply struggle in some of them, even Red Alert: Borg lol
I like Red Alerts, they are quick and I can do them when I don't have much time to play, when waiting for Fleetmates to come online or finish something so we can do a longer queue together, etc.. If Red Alerts go away the way they are now, I might just log off during these "down times" instead and just log on for the weekend events instead of playing every day. Surely that can't be the design goal of this?
The remaining players will choose a new way and STO will disappear.
People have been citing the supreme easiness of the red alerts as their best defining characteristics. That's not a vote in favor of the innate gameplay value of these TFO's (the RA's were fairly dead up until choice of marks and queuing were added to help support them, with extreme consequences.) It's a comment on the min-max grinding potential of these queues for marks that would otherwise take a minor amount of effort through their host TFO's (as if this was an MMORPG and players had to work towards system progress and specific rewards...)
They are a useful shortcut which further undercuts prime content in STO (other queues) simply because of their ease, not a vital feature which STO couldn't possibly do without. There was an STO before queued alerts, and there is one now through the console versions of the game. Cryptic has data on population dynamics without RA's and systems inbound to help alleviate problems with getting a specific mark. No need to maintain the ad hoc stop gap at the expense of both that effort and the rest of the PVE system.
If folks need a fallback, there'll be the defense of starbase one and random queue rewards for a choice of marks and sector patrols for short-form space combat (if indeed folks have a real gameplay preference, and aren't just trying to preserve a mark shortcut for their personal convenience [nevermind what it's been costing the PVE system].)
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
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why?
terrible idea.
All those doom threads where the imminent death of thriving RAs as they're changed to queues was predicted would argue that, whatever they were, they weren't dead.
Pre-queue RAs were the best spec XP/ship XP farm, and as such, quite active.
No, farming Argala was the defacto ship XP farming hub in modern STO history (ie. after the introduction of T6, and of course prior to queued RA's.) RA's offered a boost but you would often find yourself playing through the encounter alone (almost a guarantee in sector that didn't include a faction hub), because while they were lucrative they were only available at select times (per block) and were only accessible from the sector map (ie. where folks don't tend to hang around.)
Hence why they added queuing to try to help make RA's more accessible and minimize the incidence of 1 v. Armada. If they were already quite active, this change would have been entirely unnecessary and Cryptic would have had data to evaluate the case.
That or just play patrols, CCA, fleet alert, or random sector encounters. Alerts aren't the only quick bite of space combat you can have in STO. If you have a real preference for that kind of gameplay, there are plenty of alternatives and arguably (from the diversity of patrols) better ones from the standpoint of that gameplay.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
I think I could actually pass on the mark reward, if I could at least keep the other two.
Nostalgia for Deep Space Encounters
The old Deep Space Encounters had a similar appeal to me. You could engage NPC groups and blow them at your own leisure, while also optionally grouping up to work together. I am not sure if more players in the map also meant increased NPC spawn sizes, but either way, the old DSEs provided a neat chance to blow up stuff without any time constraints
The revamped DSEs are extremely boring by comparision. If no one else joins, you fight standard sized enemy groups (either 3 frigates or 1 Cruiser/Battleship type enemy, never Dreadnoughts). Once in a blue moon you might get multple players and more fun, and on rare occassions, this also triggers some extra phase with more enemies. This can be fun. But it practically never happens, probably because the rewards are uninteresting and if you happen to be solo, they are very boring.
They could at least be a Double XP Zone perhaps to raise interest.
I'll really miss that dearly.
What about the starbase encounter Romulan patrol? That would seem to fit the bill and guarantee access to the single heavy target (with some runs you can hardly get a sense for what you're impact on the dreadnaught is, given the four other players. For this reason, I've never personally found the RAs to be a conducive venue for testing.)
For longer sessions, Terran and Undine battlezones would also offer appropriate ship testing targets.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Cryptic has taken away the option of a quick and dirty way to get a few reputation marks because the way They want me to grind them is borked. Rather than fix the borked queue They have removed RA to force me to play a borked queue I have little interest in to increase 'my fun'? In Cryptic's eyes I'm doing it wrong?
At the same time I have an option to queue for a random which could be space or ground, with no option to swich out gear or traits to help me complete the mission, again to increase 'my fun'?
The Battlezones don't work so well because the Dreadnoughts mostly only appear when there are other players at the same point, so you can't really just target them "alone". But I could see that the Battlezones become more interesting again with the changes. But they were already fine before.
I have to test about the Starbase. But don't you first have to engage a few ships before you can head for the Starbase? That might add an annoying delay. But I'll have to try it.
I farmed Argala... And it was slower than Instance-hopping Beta Quadrant until all RAs were on cooldown then repeating in Alpha, then doing Argala, or Japori or whatever or just chatting until cooldowns reset. (obviously, it wouldn't have worked back when sector blocks were a thing) I saw quite a few other people doing that too, even though I mostly play in off-hours.
Anyway, my point was that the DOOOOM! threads about queue RAs were unambiguously real, (here is one I actually posted something in, and IIRC there were others: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1226079/why-did-they-kill-the-red-alerts/p1 ) as well as people claiming that nobody will play RA queues.
STO wasn't doomed and queue RAs became one of the most popular things in the game. So, what I'm wanting to say is more or less the same thing as you: while I see why people are worried, the record of such threads predicting what will and won't be popular isn't exactly great.
Same here. I picked up STO again a couple of weeks ago, after not having played for over three years, and the main reason for that was not having the time. Discovering the RAs, and the rewards they offer, was a great way to play a short 20-30 minute game, and feel like I was progressing my character.
Sure, if I had more time, I'd put more time into the game and play some of the other neglected queues. But the reality is I don't have the time, and removing these RAs to "force" folks to play the other queues seems like a punishment for those of us who try our best to play the game but don't have much time to do so.
It seems like a case of, "you must play these parts of the game, for at least this long, at these times, or else don't bother". Great way to build and keep a player base...
Sounds like you pretty much nailed it.
Hmm...the first time I got something right and feel sad about it.
I used to log in almost every day and do 1 quick fun queue of my choice. That is no longer an option after the changes which will mean I am not able to play the fun content that I want to play. Which in turn means there will be no reason to log in and play daily anymore.
As far as the lack of a cooldown. That is not helpful at all. Even if you have only 1 character, by the time you cycle through 3 red alerts you are pretty much ready to start over again on the cooldown.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Using the Borg Red Alert was one of the most effective way to counter that steep XP curve, if not the best. Now it's relegated to 'Weekend' Events, that would no doubt be separate from XP Bonus weekends, throws that out the window.
"Oh, you have how many T6 ships that you have to work through to get the Ship Trait, and there's still more to come down the line? Well, you're going to have to wait til the next Red Alert Weekend comes up!"
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.
QFT.
So all you get are the base 35.
U.S.S. Maelstrom, NCC-71417 (Constitution III-class/flagship) --- Fleet Admiral Hauk' --|-- Dahar Master Hauk --- I.K.S. qu'In 'an bortaS (D7-class / flagship)