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Leveling Mastery at Argala

In Argala, we used to be able to do 4 of 5 waves, exit the system, rinse and repeat until we completed the mastery.

I went to Argala, did 4 waves, exited, and couldn't get patrol to start again.

Is there a trick to doing it now or is this no longer possible?
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Comments

  • avoozuulavoozuul Member Posts: 3,215 Arc User
    It's no longer possible, it was likely intentional. Can't say that I'm impressed by this change.
    I stream on Twitch, look for Avoozl_
  • captainkoltarcaptainkoltar Member Posts: 941 Arc User
    It's slightly irritating, but it was clearly a loophole, so it's no surprise to me that they closed it.
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  • avoozuulavoozuul Member Posts: 3,215 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    I think it's about time they removed the ship mastery leveling system to begin with.
    I stream on Twitch, look for Avoozl_
  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    In Argala, we used to be able to do 4 of 5 waves, exit the system, rinse and repeat until we completed the mastery.

    I went to Argala, did 4 waves, exited, and couldn't get patrol to start again.

    Is there a trick to doing it now or is this no longer possible?

    You can't do that anymore, if you leave the map, the patrol goes on cooldown.
    Instead finish the patrol to get the 15 marks at the end, and then pick another patrol from the Patrol system. All patrols in the patrol system give double ship mastery skill points. Since they all go on a 30 minute cooldown after completion, you might want to run 5-6 different patrols in succession before you begin from the start. I think after a while the community will have figured out which patrols are the optimal ones. The Double XP should mean that overall, you need less patrols than before.

    Also, as long as the current event is running, the new Mycelial-related patrols also grant progress toward the event.
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
  • ussvaliant#6064 ussvaliant Member Posts: 1,006 Arc User
    Considering there's very few places to power level starship mastery and most want the trait asap for their builds, "Not" to have to fly 4/5 different ships for longer than they have to unlock these traits. This is a poor game choice by Cryptic.

    Take C-store ships as an example you bought the thing with money but can't access the trait as its still locked behind another wall a time/grind wall.

    Changing Argala is a bad decision its all designed to try to and herd you towards the new patrols.
    maR4zDV.jpg

    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.
  • peterconnorfirstpeterconnorfirst Member Posts: 6,225 Arc User
    azrael605 wrote: »
    It's about time they shut that garbage down.

    Why?

    You made it clear in the other thread that you dislike Argala and don’t play it yourself. In short you have zero stakes in what cryptic did with it!

    I suspect you fully realize that Argala meant much to a lot of other players in this game. So, what exact purpose does it serve to voice your minority opinion on the topic here nonetheless?

    I mean I could somehow comprehend the questionable concept of getting some weird excitement out of stepping on other players sand castles but from the looks of it you are not even part of the sandbox.

    It makes no sense so please explain. :/
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  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,253 Arc User
    azrael605 wrote: »
    It's about time they shut that garbage down.
    What is the problem with it? I didn't even do it for the XP but to test builds out in a solo environment. I see no benefits from this change only negatives.
  • acethepugacethepug Member Posts: 41 Arc User
    Considering there's very few places to power level starship mastery and most want the trait asap for their builds, "Not" to have to fly 4/5 different ships for longer than they have to unlock these traits. This is a poor game choice by Cryptic.

    Take C-store ships as an example you bought the thing with money but can't access the trait as its still locked behind another wall a time/grind wall.

    Changing Argala is a bad decision its all designed to try to and herd you towards the new patrols.

    Agreed. That's pretty much all I did during the last "Red Alert" weekend, grind out ships. Not fun.

  • warpangelwarpangel Member Posts: 9,427 Arc User
    Dodging cooldowns by quitting early was obviously an exploit.
  • foxrockssocksfoxrockssocks Member Posts: 2,482 Arc User
    Its a frustrating change. Argala was very good for a lot of reasons, not just the XP. It also throws larger spawns at you which lets you test the ship in a more "realistic" environment for group content. The proximity to the sphere made it fairly easy to head back to spacedock and change up the build if you found problems. It was also very consistent, you could time yourself against the known quantities of enemies.

    You could judge a build and your flying skills based on how long it took you to clear Argala, but the new patrols have infinite spawns on a timer at the end so it always takes roughly the same amount of time and counting XP isn't nearly as reliable. Of course , those infinite spawns do have the potential to rapidly train ship mastery if your DPS is good enough/have a grav well. On the other hand the propensity for the enemies in the new patrols to hit you with a viral impulse burst is more than a little annoying and will royally mess up your DPS output unless you are killing them as fast as they spawn.

    Sadly Cryptic/PWE wants to punish players for not playing the way they want us to, rather than understand why we play that way. The new patrols let you enter from right in front of a ship selector which is nice, but with their hidden timers and infinite spawns you don't even know what you're going to get from them in terms of your performance.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,919 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    Argala wasn't an exploit, it was a work around for a broken and stupid system.

    Having to master every starship to get the trait on every character on your account is a stupid and tedious process. It's something that a large number of players (not everyone) doesn't enjoy, it's been discussed on multiple occasions.. and what does Cryptic do to fix it?

    Closes the door on the band aid fix.

    Brilliant.

    I don't care if you don't use Argala or not, goodie for you.. but a lot of us did to get around this horrid system. The one thing this update has done though, is shown that Cryptic's agenda is obviously shifted toward getting the player to stay online longer. Progress from events was changed to take significantly longer and they obviously want it to take much longer to unlock starship traits. I am expecting Admiralty and Daily Endeavors to be targeted next.

    All these changes have done for me is made this week my fewest hours played in STO in a long time. I'm also done collecting ships since the traits are now a huge chore to unlock. If you didn't use Argala, that's fine.. it wasn't hurting you. For those of us that relied on it for experimentation with builds, it's yet another change in the wrong direction.

    I don't like the new trend of trying to force more daily time out of players. I get it.. but I don't like it. I have the traits I want/need on all my characters to date..but this change will definitely impact my decision to acquire future ships outside of free event ships. I view this as a very negative change.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    Considering there's very few places to power level starship mastery and most want the trait asap for their builds, "Not" to have to fly 4/5 different ships for longer than they have to unlock these traits. This is a poor game choice by Crypti
    You seem to be missing that they also added new places to power level your starship mastery! That's what the Patrol System is for.
    Try it out - if it's not good enough at that, explain how and why, maybe Cryptic will adjust something.
    Its a frustrating change. Argala was very good for a lot of reasons, not just the XP. It also throws larger spawns at you which lets you test the ship in a more "realistic" environment for group content. The proximity to the sphere made it fairly easy to head back to spacedock and change up the build if you found problems. It was also very consistent, you could time yourself against the known quantities of enemies.

    I think the "build-judging" will get better for you eventually, as you figured out a new routine of patrols to do. It won't necessarily be quite as convenient, since before, you only needed to concern yourself with remembering your performance in one patrol, and then it will be 5 or so.

    But everything else - you just power level by doing the Patrols in the Patrol System. Instead of just doing Argala, you have 8 options or so. You don't need to worry about heading back to space dock, because you can use the Patrol UI to stay in space dock (or whatever other social zone you prefer) at all times.
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
  • warpangelwarpangel Member Posts: 9,427 Arc User
    Argala wasn't an exploit, it was a work around for a broken and stupid system.
    The Argala mission wasn't an exploit. Avoiding cooldowns was. And now it's fixed. At least in the patrol system.
    Having to master every starship to get the trait on every character on your account is a stupid and tedious process. It's something that a large number of players (not everyone) doesn't enjoy, it's been discussed on multiple occasions.. and what does Cryptic do to fix it?
    Good thing then you don't have to master every starship on every character.

    I might even agree with you on the starship mastery being kinda stupid, though probably for the exact opposite reason. I would want the system to be more interactive and...playable for lack of a better word, rather than something that just pops up after flying the ship for a while and that's it. But it is optional and as a reason to at least fly all my ships for a while instead of an infinite string of claiming Admiralty cards before discarding, it works.
    I don't care if you don't use Argala or not, goodie for you.. but a lot of us did to get around this horrid system. The one thing this update has done though, is shown that Cryptic's agenda is obviously shifted toward getting the player to stay online longer. Progress from events was changed to take significantly longer and they obviously want it to take much longer to unlock starship traits. I am expecting Admiralty and Daily Endeavors to be targeted next.
    I know. They're finally showing willingness to reward players who want to play the game for more than 5 minutes a day. I like it.
    All these changes have done for me is made this week my fewest hours played in STO in a long time. I'm also done collecting ships since the traits are now a huge chore to unlock. If you didn't use Argala, that's fine.. it wasn't hurting you. For those of us that relied on it for experimentation with builds, it's yet another change in the wrong direction.
    And I've played a lot more. Not just the event content, either. The game in general feels less like something to log in just to pick up a daily event trinket and come back tomorrow now, so I'm more motivated to play other content as well.

    Granted, the rather excellent tailor unlocks are also a source of inspiration.
    I don't like the new trend of trying to force more daily time out of players. I get it.. but I don't like it. I have the traits I want/need on all my characters to date..but this change will definitely impact my decision to acquire future ships outside of free event ships. I view this as a very negative change.
    Not "force." They are making it worthwhile to play the game, exactly as they should. Only you can "force" yourself to play.

    Personally, I've never felt any need to go out of my way to grind ship traits. They'll pop up on the side while I'm playing and then it's the next ship in line. Not like the game has any content that would actually require me to have any specific trait(s) right now.

    In the end, it's impossible to please everyone all the time. They have to make the hard choices and this time they went in this direction. Some people will like it, other won't. I believe diversifying their content/event lineups will do the game good.
  • ussvaliant#6064 ussvaliant Member Posts: 1,006 Arc User

    You seem to be missing that they also added new places to power level your starship mastery! That's what the Patrol System is for.

    Removing something to force you into different content is not an improvement

    Also it was never an exploit as any exploit would have been being able to obtain the dil and mark rewards after completing wave 5/5.





    maR4zDV.jpg

    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.
  • leemwatsonleemwatson Member Posts: 5,504 Arc User
    Do the new patrols, slap a grav well in the right place and watch the fireworks. Waaaaaaaaaay better for ship levelling than Argala ever was.
    "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.
  • ltminnsltminns Member Posts: 12,572 Arc User
    Uncorrupted Devils would revel in this change but it is clear that in not putting any of this onto Tribble we have the results that we do. No Daily Bonus Reputation Mark Box, no Dilitium for the Beta Quadrant Patrols.
    '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.'
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  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,253 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    Considering there's very few places to power level starship mastery and most want the trait asap for their builds, "Not" to have to fly 4/5 different ships for longer than they have to unlock these traits. This is a poor game choice by Crypti
    You seem to be missing that they also added new places to power level your starship mastery! That's what the Patrol System is for.
    Try it out - if it's not good enough at that, explain how and why, maybe Cryptic will adjust something.
    For me the patrols completely fail at that. The new patrols are horrible to play some of them require me to sit AFK 10+ mins waiting for pointless timers which is not fun or productive. There is no way I am levelling any ships in the new patrols. They are not fun and badly designed compared to Angela. All I do is spend over half the mission waiting for Red Alert to end a dozen+ times.

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  • crypticarmsmancrypticarmsman Member Posts: 4,115 Arc User
    azrael605 wrote: »
    > @peterconnorfirst said:
    > (Quote)
    >
    > Why?
    >
    > You made it clear in the other thread that you dislike Argala and don’t play it yourself. In short you have zero stakes in what cryptic did with it!
    >
    > I suspect you fully realize that Argala meant much to a lot of other players in this game. So, what exact purpose does it serve to voice your minority opinion on the topic here nonetheless?
    >
    > I mean I could somehow comprehend the questionable concept of getting some weird excitement out of stepping on other players sand castles but from the looks of it you are not even part of the sandbox.
    >
    > It makes no sense so please explain. :/

    Its an exploit, and should have been closed at day 1. As well, it reinforced leaver behavior, which is second only to intentional fail trolls in the worst player behaviors.

    If they really considered it a major problem, they would have fixed it way sooner. That said, the new system is overall quiker because of the 2X XP; the only 'downside' is you need to shift gears a bit because you can't do the exact same thing over and over ad infinuitum.

    Overall, it's a BETTER system that they instituted (although I too hate having to level ships I don't particularly want to use to get access to a ship trait on EVERY SINGLE character <---- That's the system that sucks. (IMO)
    Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012
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  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,689 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    I'm fine with the change, but I've never felt the need to learn 25+ ship traits on 10+ characters just because they're there. It forces me to fly a few ships that have a trait I want to use for a bit longer, but that adds some variety. When possible I combine it with a damage endeavor, so on a day with Disruptor damage I work on a KDF character's mastery.

    I'd also be fine with not needing to level mastery though I'd get less value out of those ships if I never fly them.

    Account-wide trait unlocks is tricky because of lobi, lock box, phoenix pack and R&D pack ships. Cryptic would lose money if they gave all of your characters the unlock "for free."
  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    pottsey5g wrote: »
    Considering there's very few places to power level starship mastery and most want the trait asap for their builds, "Not" to have to fly 4/5 different ships for longer than they have to unlock these traits. This is a poor game choice by Crypti
    You seem to be missing that they also added new places to power level your starship mastery! That's what the Patrol System is for.
    Try it out - if it's not good enough at that, explain how and why, maybe Cryptic will adjust something.
    For me the patrols completely fail at that. The new patrols are horrible to play some of them require me to sit AFK 10+ mins waiting for pointless timers which is not fun or productive. There is no way I am levelling any ships in the new patrols. They are not fun and badly designed compared to Angela. All I do is spend over half the mission waiting for Red Alert to end a dozen+ times.
    I haven't played most of the old Delta Quadrant patrols, but none of the new Mycelial patrols require you to wait AFK 10+ minutes for pointless timers. They clearly have hidden timers, but they are just used to spawn a quasi-infinte amount of ships that drop loot and skill points. So if you're playing these patrols for the starship skill mastery, they are ideal. Just played The Ninth Rule, and it brought me from Tier 3 to Tier 4 in one take.
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,919 Arc User
    I'm fine with the change, but I've never felt the need to learn 25+ ship traits on 10+ characters just because they're there.

    Me neither.

    But when they're always coming out with new stuff, there is always a new ship to level and a new trait to try. Most ships have garbage traits that you wouldn't want anyway, but when they keep releasing stuff with shiny new traits.. people want to try them. If a trait proves to be worth while, then they want to get it for multiple characters.

    In the end, I can just opt to stick with the traits I already have. If they make new ships with new traits.. it just won't be worth the effort.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,253 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    pottsey5g wrote: »
    Considering there's very few places to power level starship mastery and most want the trait asap for their builds, "Not" to have to fly 4/5 different ships for longer than they have to unlock these traits. This is a poor game choice by Crypti
    You seem to be missing that they also added new places to power level your starship mastery! That's what the Patrol System is for.
    Try it out - if it's not good enough at that, explain how and why, maybe Cryptic will adjust something.
    For me the patrols completely fail at that. The new patrols are horrible to play some of them require me to sit AFK 10+ mins waiting for pointless timers which is not fun or productive. There is no way I am levelling any ships in the new patrols. They are not fun and badly designed compared to Angela. All I do is spend over half the mission waiting for Red Alert to end a dozen+ times.
    I haven't played most of the old Delta Quadrant patrols, but none of the new Mycelial patrols require you to wait AFK 10+ minutes for pointless timers. They clearly have hidden timers, but they are just used to spawn a quasi-infinte amount of ships that drop loot and skill points. So if you're playing these patrols for the starship skill mastery, they are ideal. Just played The Ninth Rule, and it brought me from Tier 3 to Tier 4 in one take.
    They do for me. Take Within the Briars! I had over 20 Red Alerts breaking interactions and having to wait 30 ish seconds for each one to end before the popups appear so around 10mins just waiting. I spend more time waiting then playing.

    The only one that semi works solo for me is Sentinels. The rest all have multiple long Red Alarts that take ages to end and you cannot interact until they end and/or have interruptions. None of them at least with the builds I run, function smoothly like Argala. Sentinels is the only playable one for me and the cooldown means its no good for mastery.
  • foxrockssocksfoxrockssocks Member Posts: 2,482 Arc User
    Multiple characters going after a trait all at once isn't terribly different if you want to run Argala. You are just forced to swap characters each time and if you take long enough or have enough characters, then its almost like before with back to back Argala. On the other hand if you want to get several traits on a new character or a new build, that is where the change hurts the most. This is really the bigger issue with the mastery system as I see it.

    I recently took an alt through that process, and started off with the Phantom for reciprocity. I thought maybe grinding marks would reliably get through one ship first, but it didn't, so I had to go to Argala. Then I did it again for the Arbiter. Then I did it for the Dauntless. So back to back to back Argala over a few days, because normal play just wouldn't get me there.

    And that particular scenario shows part of the problem with the mastery system, in that I'm flying 3 very different ships with one batch of equipment for them. Escort to cruiser to science ship do not make for a very interchangeable experience with weapons and consoles. The ship mastery trait system is a huge reason for me to not want to level alts. I don't plan on a new character until they do a Temporal recruit rerun, and luckily I don't forsee any need to grind ship traits on the rest for a long time either, so hopefully I'm done with it for a while, and perhaps they will improve the system by then.
  • jennycolvinjennycolvin Member Posts: 1,100 Arc User
    azrael605 wrote: »
    Its an exploit, and should have been closed at day 1. As well, it reinforced leaver behavior, which is second only to intentional fail trolls in the worst player behaviors.

    There was no bug nor glitch involved, not even lag, so no. It wasn't an exploit, no matter how many times you and others say it was.
    And it didn't reinforce anything except, maybe, the knowledge that you could get something you PAID for (I'm obviously talking about C-Store ships, here) in a reasonable amount of time. Especially if you needed the trait on more than one character.

    The fact that they felt the need to avoid talking about this change before making it shows that they were well aware of what they were doing, but didn't want the backlash. Easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.
    And the new patrols (with or without bonus xp) just make it clear that they're tightening the noose on how and on what we play. And for how long. Because they're not thinking about anything but metrics.
    If the new even system isn't enough for you, just look at the last 3 UE: all of them "coincidentally" related with this new mushroom stuff. They're outright manipulating the system to force people to stay in game longer to pump their data.​​
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  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,253 Arc User
    azrael605 wrote: »
    Its an exploit, and should have been closed at day 1. As well, it reinforced leaver behavior, which is second only to intentional fail trolls in the worst player behaviors.
    They're outright manipulating the system to force people to stay in game longer to pump their data.​​
    If that's the goal they have miscalculated as the changes are going cause people like me to spend less time in game. For example there is no reason for me to run the extra days of events anymore. In the past I used to run the full event now I will be running the bare minimum as all the reasons I had to spend extra time in game have been removed.
  • peterconnorfirstpeterconnorfirst Member Posts: 6,225 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    azrael605 wrote: »
    > @peterconnorfirst said:
    > (Quote)
    >
    > Why?
    >
    > You made it clear in the other thread that you dislike Argala and don’t play it yourself. In short you have zero stakes in what cryptic did with it!
    >
    > I suspect you fully realize that Argala meant much to a lot of other players in this game. So, what exact purpose does it serve to voice your minority opinion on the topic here nonetheless?
    >
    > I mean I could somehow comprehend the questionable concept of getting some weird excitement out of stepping on other players sand castles but from the looks of it you are not even part of the sandbox.
    >
    > It makes no sense so please explain. :/

    Its an exploit, and should have been closed at day 1. As well, it reinforced leaver behavior, which is second only to intentional fail trolls in the worst player behaviors.

    Aha! And since you are part of the grand jury of whats right and wrong in this game justice has finally been served.

    Majority is unhappy but you are. Grats!

    You are such an inspiration to us all. :D
    animated.gif
    Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
    felisean wrote: »
    teamwork to reach a goal is awesome and highly appreciated
  • reptilecynrikreptilecynrik Member Posts: 8 Arc User
    azrael605 wrote: »
    > @peterconnorfirst said:
    > (Quote)
    >
    > Why?
    >
    > You made it clear in the other thread that you dislike Argala and don’t play it yourself. In short you have zero stakes in what cryptic did with it!
    >
    > I suspect you fully realize that Argala meant much to a lot of other players in this game. So, what exact purpose does it serve to voice your minority opinion on the topic here nonetheless?
    >
    > I mean I could somehow comprehend the questionable concept of getting some weird excitement out of stepping on other players sand castles but from the looks of it you are not even part of the sandbox.
    >
    > It makes no sense so please explain. :/

    Its an exploit, and should have been closed at day 1. As well, it reinforced leaver behavior, which is second only to intentional fail trolls in the worst player behaviors.

    Aha! And since you are part of the grand jury of whats right and wrong in this game justice has finally been served.

    Majority is unhappy but you are. Grats!

    You are such an inspiration to us all. :D

    DFWa5BJUMAQ0Z7_.jpg
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,689 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    Aha! And since you are part of the grand jury of whats right and wrong in this game justice has finally been served.

    Majority is unhappy but you are. Grats!

    You are such an inspiration to us all. :D

    You believing something does not make it the majority opinion.

    Even if you group opinions in this thread it doesn't prove anything about the majority since the majority of players don't visit the forums, and of those who do the majority don't post in any given thread.

This discussion has been closed.