Unlocking them is an ongoing workshop for those who care.
Believe it or not, I constantly unlock and try out new traits too. I have always done it the same way I do it now with the changes, and I can still unlock a trait in less than an hour - I just might move around the sector-map a bit and slot a gauntlet-queue like Peril over Pahvo here and there.
If it works out for you, good for you. However from the implementation you discribe it would mean that in worst case I need around 12 hours to unlock my traits, which is bad for me. Thats why I approach any adjustments cryptic makes to this anoying system to begin with with a bit more sceptiscism.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
I will give the various tips on gas a go to see if that is the problem. Thanks
As for XP mastery grinding for my build I think The Ninth Rule! Would be the best due to the waves always being in the same spot. Although I prefer Elite even through its less XP per time played and I would most likely go back to Argala and possible Sentinels over any other patrol as fun matters more then max XP per time.
If it would have been an exploit the mention of the system's name would have lead to mods closing respective threads since 2014.
It was not and its realy pathatic. You are happy that the sand castles of the other kits have been stepped over. Nothing more, nothing less.
The reason for you being like this is probably so sad that I dont even want to know it. Take your feeling of justification, here. I hope it makes you happy but have my doubts about it.
It was an exploit in the sense of: "When the patrols and their cooldown timers were designed, this wasn't really what they indented people to use it for". But it wasn't an exploit in the sense of "if people do that, they really break our expectations on how fast people can level/gain resources and that could wreak havoc with the game and we must punish people for the audacity to do something like that." In short, it wasn't what they had in mind for it, but it wasn't breaking anything too bad. But they obviously took note, and finally they found the chance to build something that would remove the exploit but can still fill the gap that it closed for people - which is leveling starship mastery.
Of course that means change in the way things are done, and that always annoys some people. Just the nature of things.
From a game designer's point of view, I think it looks really unhealthy if people feel forced to run the same mission over and over again for years. Players are very good at picking the optimal route to their reward, even if that is the least fun and most boring way it could possibly be. So its the designers job to find ways to make the best way to the reward at least somewhat varied so that people that don't like the one best route can still get ahead and don't bang their heads against walls in their frustration or stop playing.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
As for mastery. I have a huge number of ships, it took me almost 2 hours just to get all my Romulan ships claimed for admiralty on my AoY character last night (granted part of that was dismissing and shifting to drydock etc to open spots on the active roster). If, big if, I ever felt the need to unlock every starship trait he has access to it would take me quite some time, and thats just fine, gives me an excuse to see if any of my other ships fit the character better than his current one (not likely), and I like that.
I do unlock all starship-traits I have available on my current character, but over time. I did unlock all the good ones from my accountwide ships already, so all the less good ones (from ships I also don't really enjoy) have all the time of the world and I do it in a comfy fashion.
As for claiming ships for admiralty-cards alone, yeah that's a pain of course. I mean I do use some of the consoles lower ranked ships have sometimes but addressing the commision/de-commission-limbo is something Cryptic might want to prioritize. It's a QoL-feature they already promised looking at.
I find this belief that Cryptic would "announce the exploit" nonsensical as the Devs stated after the 17x drama that they would NOT be publicizing exploits, they would just close them.
And they do, the second they take notice depending on the impact. Last time I mentioned in forums that one of thier new shiny items contributes a quadrillion DPS in CCA getting everybody an AFK penalty my post was deleted, the thread closed and the item adjusted within a patch.
I certainly understand Cryptic not being happy with players using Argala the way they did ... *for the past half decade* ... but calling it an exploit, not to mention players doing so exploiters is ways off.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
It was an exploit in the sense of: "When the patrols were designed, this wasn't really what they indented people to use it for".
This. Not all exploits are worth a shoutout. They internally had it on radar and eventually got around to fixing a system that *could* be exploited.
An exploit implies that a player gets something for nothing, gets more of something they weren't supposed to get, or gets something at the expense of other players (or game owners).
Using Argala to test builds and/or level mastery did not do any of those, unless you think it somehow deprives cryptic of something by not having a player spends hours leveling a ship (that was already "paid for" either by cash or sweat equity in an event).
When you leave Argala after 4 waves, you don't get any reward other than ship mastery experience. How exactly does that harm anyone else. You don't impact the in-game economy by earning more dil. The EC from space trash was de minimus, certaintly not economy damaging.
As for doing the other patrols, they take a LOT longer to complete than doing 6 x 4 waves of Argala. Also, since the patrols are frequently done with other players, it is harder to gauge ship performance.
Finally, by using a ship not operating at full strength in queues and patrols done with other players, you can negatively impact the experience (and performance) of other players since you are squishier, do less damage, and may have fewer buffs/debuffs at your disposal.
Is it worse to let someone test builds and grind out mastery on his own or force other players to team with him, dragging out the time it takes to finish the queue or patrol?
As with all things in a game like this, balance is key. Does this truly represent a balanced compromise?
It was an exploit in the sense of: "When the patrols were designed, this wasn't really what they indented people to use it for".
This. Not all exploits are worth a shoutout. They internally had it on radar and eventually got around to fixing a system that *could* be exploited.
An exploit implies that a player gets something for nothing, gets more of something they weren't supposed to get, or gets something at the expense of other players (or game owners).
Using Argala to test builds and/or level mastery did not do any of those, unless you think it somehow deprives cryptic of something by not having a player spends hours leveling a ship (that was already "paid for" either by cash or sweat equity in an event).
For testing builds, you have Tribble and the new Test-Scenario Cryptic has recently announced.
And the way people ran Argala fits your "getting something for Nothing/more than supposed to"-definition of an exploit.
People got potentially endless mastery-XP by never actually finishing the mission, which clearly means they got more mastery XP than supposed to and for basically nothing (as in never actually finishing the mission).
If 10 toons needs 1 trait, or a new toon needs 10 traits it can be a big deal time wise to achieve this. Ever bought an expansion pack or mega-bundle? Ever wanted to explore some traits for yourself? Enjoy spending 12 hours just to fully utilize the ships you purchased and their respective mastery traits as part of your build?
It's a valid concern as Cryptic does sell ships to support the game. I post this from the perspective of a player who is still quite a few Tier 5 ship mastery traits short of where I want to be. A thread like this was inevitable. I first registered a concern on the leveling mastery issue two days ago.
If a particular concern doesn't apply to you why dump all over it?
Thankfully we have double ship mastery in the new patrols (as well as some other content that was rewarding zero xp that now rewards some xp from a previous change) and now actual player confirmations that the new system does indeed works well.
Thank goodness for this positive aspect of the forums.
So...there is a problem with this "fix" to the patrol system. If this not so stable game happens to die on you while you are on patrol...
On a Computer with sufficient hardware and a clean operating system (no crack/keygen, no malware, no experimental beta Settings and equipped with all regular software- and driver-updates) STO actually does run perfectly stable and won't crash, even with the coding being less than stellar.
While I suffer lag and rubberbanding as almost everybody enjoying a Cryptic-Studios game, I have never had the game crash. Disconnects only happened two times during the last year for me, one time it was my ISP having a sudden technical failure and one time it was the account-server from STO having issues.
Well, since we're still arguing over the word, quoth Wikipedia:
In video games, an exploit is the use of a bug or glitches, game system, rates, hit boxes, speed or level design etc. by a player to their advantage in a manner not intended by the game's designers.
Leaving early to skip the cooldown was clearly using the game's level design to gain the advantage of being able to rerun a mission more often than the devs intended.
Just because the issue was sufficiently minor that the devs decided not to fix it until now that they were working on the system anyway, doesn't mean it was intended function. If they had wanted players to be able to repeat patrols without cooldown, they wouldn't have put the cooldowns there in the first place.
'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.'
Not agreeing with someone doesn't give you the right to be an TRIBBLE.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
Except it was an exploit to get around the cooldown on patrols. As warpangel said. That it wasn't fixed till now, when they had a suitable replacement in double-exp patrols, does not mean it wasn't an exploit to begin with. It was just a minor one that they let slide until they had something else to do ship leveling in.
Now a LTS and loving it.
Just because you spend money on this game, it does not entitle you to be a jerk if things don't go your way.
I have come to the conclusion that I have a memory like Etch-A-Sketch. I shake my head and forget everything.
Yeah, ok. We can go on and on forever. You're not gonna change my mind, just as I'm not gonna change yours.
At this point, the best thing we can do is for you to stop coming in these kind of threads to TRIBBLE on people and for us to simply go on and make the best of a TRIBBLE situation.
TL;DR We'll just have to agree to disagree, but there's no need to TRIBBLE on people simply because they think different.
But I guess that's too much to ask for.
Not agreeing with someone doesn't give you the right to be an TRIBBLE.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
Except it was an exploit to get around the cooldown on patrols. As warpangel said. That it wasn't fixed till now, when they had a suitable replacement in double-exp patrols, does not mean it wasn't an exploit to begin with. It was just a minor one that they let slide until they had something else to do ship leveling in.
I will give the various tips on gas a go to see if that is the problem. Thanks
Let us know how it goes, please? Also, tell us if you try something new. I'm curious myself to try new approaches.
Not agreeing with someone doesn't give you the right to be an TRIBBLE.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
Except it was an exploit to get around the cooldown on patrols. As warpangel said. That it wasn't fixed till now, when they had a suitable replacement in double-exp patrols, does not mean it wasn't an exploit to begin with. It was just a minor one that they let slide until they had something else to do ship leveling in.
Bingo
While we can be pedantic about the definition of an exploit (as opposed the more practical next step of identifying the ramifications in-game, the impact or harms), I return to my last question of whether this represents a balanced compromise between the players who want or need it (not everyone has hours a day to play).
Just because it wasn't "intended" doesn't mean it is wrong or shouldn't be done. One could argue the "intent" of the cooldown was to prevent players from earning the marks and dil by repeating the queue to completion. But, the ability to exit and re-enter was not viewed as a problem since the player didn't earn rewards that upset in-game balance. As a practical matter, since it was permitted for so long, one could argue it wasn't viewed as an exploit.
We cannot know the "intent" behind any of the mechanics. Why have a cooldown for transwarp, but allow free transwarp with the missions to essentially all the same locations? There are sufficient vagaries that asserting "intent" as the basis for arguing against it seems a bit unsupported.
What is clear is that it took time, money, and effort to alter this mechanic. Do players gain sufficiently from this change to make up for the loss of functionality / utility? Who benefits from this change. It would be one thing if the broader player base gained something by closing this "exploit" that only a few players used.
But, I can't see any broader benefit, merely loss of a quality of life functionality. How does the player base overall benefit? And if no sufficient benefit is gained by the player base, why take away a meaningful quality of life option from players who find it useful?
Just because it wasn't "intended" doesn't mean it is wrong or shouldn't be done.
But Cryptic changed it so it can't be done anymore.
It's their decision and kinda proves that it was in fact an exploit. They announced changes to the patrols a while ago so why is everybody surprised now.
If you want a game whose devs point out every little exploit and threaten to punish players for using them, look at EVE.
Cryptic chose not to call it out as one or calling out players as exploiters, just to silently close the exploit-door here.
Also, use your brain for a Moment. Potentially INFINITE mastery XP by NEVER actually finishing the mission. BASIC logic already dictates that something is broken here. It's painfully obvious.
It proves nothing but the will of making a change. Whether they did it because they didn't like how we were leveling our ships' mastery (PAID ships, in most cases), because they wanted/needed us to spend more time in game or because it really was an exploit, we'll never know.
And the "announced changes" made no mention of this kind of changes, so yeah. People have every right of being surprised.
Most of all, people have every right of being upset about it - notice I said "upset" not "jerks".
If you considered it an exploit, and you're so happy that they finally "fixed it", then it's safe to assume you made no use of it. So... why are you feeling the need of coming here and being an TRIBBLE to those that did use it?
Not agreeing with someone doesn't give you the right to be an TRIBBLE.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
It proves nothing but the will of making a change. Whether they did it because they didn't like how we were leveling our ships' mastery (PAID ships, in most cases), because they wanted/needed us to spend more time in game or because it really was an exploit, we'll never know.
And the "announced changes" made no mention of this kind of changes, so yeah. People have every right of being surprised.
Most of all, people have every right of being upset about it - notice I said "upset" not "jerks".
If you considered it an exploit, and you're so happy that they finally "fixed it", then it's safe to assume you made no use of it. So... why are you feeling the need of coming here and being an TRIBBLE to those that did use it?
Pointing out why an obviously broken System is broken is not being an a** to anybody… if anything it's like being Sesame-Street. Perhaps @baddmoonrizin should step in before this never ends.
The new patrol system gives way more experience than spamming Argala 4 waves. It looks to me like it will take 5 patrols to level a ship. The ship I'm leveling is the fleet Risian Corvette with only 4 levels so maybe it will take 6.
That said - the danger is they can easily take away the enhanced experience (and I do expect they will). Then leveling ships becomes an horrific burden indeed.
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."
Comments
If it works out for you, good for you. However from the implementation you discribe it would mean that in worst case I need around 12 hours to unlock my traits, which is bad for me. Thats why I approach any adjustments cryptic makes to this anoying system to begin with with a bit more sceptiscism.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
As for XP mastery grinding for my build I think The Ninth Rule! Would be the best due to the waves always being in the same spot. Although I prefer Elite even through its less XP per time played and I would most likely go back to Argala and possible Sentinels over any other patrol as fun matters more then max XP per time.
Of course that means change in the way things are done, and that always annoys some people. Just the nature of things.
From a game designer's point of view, I think it looks really unhealthy if people feel forced to run the same mission over and over again for years. Players are very good at picking the optimal route to their reward, even if that is the least fun and most boring way it could possibly be. So its the designers job to find ways to make the best way to the reward at least somewhat varied so that people that don't like the one best route can still get ahead and don't bang their heads against walls in their frustration or stop playing.
This. Not all exploits are worth a shoutout. They internally had it on radar and eventually got around to fixing a system that *could* be exploited.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
I do unlock all starship-traits I have available on my current character, but over time. I did unlock all the good ones from my accountwide ships already, so all the less good ones (from ships I also don't really enjoy) have all the time of the world and I do it in a comfy fashion.
As for claiming ships for admiralty-cards alone, yeah that's a pain of course. I mean I do use some of the consoles lower ranked ships have sometimes but addressing the commision/de-commission-limbo is something Cryptic might want to prioritize. It's a QoL-feature they already promised looking at.
And they do, the second they take notice depending on the impact. Last time I mentioned in forums that one of thier new shiny items contributes a quadrillion DPS in CCA getting everybody an AFK penalty my post was deleted, the thread closed and the item adjusted within a patch.
I certainly understand Cryptic not being happy with players using Argala the way they did ... *for the past half decade* ... but calling it an exploit, not to mention players doing so exploiters is ways off.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
An exploit implies that a player gets something for nothing, gets more of something they weren't supposed to get, or gets something at the expense of other players (or game owners).
Using Argala to test builds and/or level mastery did not do any of those, unless you think it somehow deprives cryptic of something by not having a player spends hours leveling a ship (that was already "paid for" either by cash or sweat equity in an event).
When you leave Argala after 4 waves, you don't get any reward other than ship mastery experience. How exactly does that harm anyone else. You don't impact the in-game economy by earning more dil. The EC from space trash was de minimus, certaintly not economy damaging.
As for doing the other patrols, they take a LOT longer to complete than doing 6 x 4 waves of Argala. Also, since the patrols are frequently done with other players, it is harder to gauge ship performance.
Finally, by using a ship not operating at full strength in queues and patrols done with other players, you can negatively impact the experience (and performance) of other players since you are squishier, do less damage, and may have fewer buffs/debuffs at your disposal.
Is it worse to let someone test builds and grind out mastery on his own or force other players to team with him, dragging out the time it takes to finish the queue or patrol?
As with all things in a game like this, balance is key. Does this truly represent a balanced compromise?
For testing builds, you have Tribble and the new Test-Scenario Cryptic has recently announced.
And the way people ran Argala fits your "getting something for Nothing/more than supposed to"-definition of an exploit.
People got potentially endless mastery-XP by never actually finishing the mission, which clearly means they got more mastery XP than supposed to and for basically nothing (as in never actually finishing the mission).
It's a valid concern as Cryptic does sell ships to support the game. I post this from the perspective of a player who is still quite a few Tier 5 ship mastery traits short of where I want to be. A thread like this was inevitable. I first registered a concern on the leveling mastery issue two days ago.
If a particular concern doesn't apply to you why dump all over it?
Thankfully we have double ship mastery in the new patrols (as well as some other content that was rewarding zero xp that now rewards some xp from a previous change) and now actual player confirmations that the new system does indeed works well.
Thank goodness for this positive aspect of the forums.
On a Computer with sufficient hardware and a clean operating system (no crack/keygen, no malware, no experimental beta Settings and equipped with all regular software- and driver-updates) STO actually does run perfectly stable and won't crash, even with the coding being less than stellar.
While I suffer lag and rubberbanding as almost everybody enjoying a Cryptic-Studios game, I have never had the game crash. Disconnects only happened two times during the last year for me, one time it was my ISP having a sudden technical failure and one time it was the account-server from STO having issues.
Just because the issue was sufficiently minor that the devs decided not to fix it until now that they were working on the system anyway, doesn't mean it was intended function. If they had wanted players to be able to repeat patrols without cooldown, they wouldn't have put the cooldowns there in the first place.
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.'
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
At this point, the best thing we can do is for you to stop coming in these kind of threads to TRIBBLE on people and for us to simply go on and make the best of a TRIBBLE situation.
TL;DR We'll just have to agree to disagree, but there's no need to TRIBBLE on people simply because they think different.
But I guess that's too much to ask for.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
Bingo
Let us know how it goes, please? Also, tell us if you try something new. I'm curious myself to try new approaches.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
While we can be pedantic about the definition of an exploit (as opposed the more practical next step of identifying the ramifications in-game, the impact or harms), I return to my last question of whether this represents a balanced compromise between the players who want or need it (not everyone has hours a day to play).
Just because it wasn't "intended" doesn't mean it is wrong or shouldn't be done. One could argue the "intent" of the cooldown was to prevent players from earning the marks and dil by repeating the queue to completion. But, the ability to exit and re-enter was not viewed as a problem since the player didn't earn rewards that upset in-game balance. As a practical matter, since it was permitted for so long, one could argue it wasn't viewed as an exploit.
We cannot know the "intent" behind any of the mechanics. Why have a cooldown for transwarp, but allow free transwarp with the missions to essentially all the same locations? There are sufficient vagaries that asserting "intent" as the basis for arguing against it seems a bit unsupported.
What is clear is that it took time, money, and effort to alter this mechanic. Do players gain sufficiently from this change to make up for the loss of functionality / utility? Who benefits from this change. It would be one thing if the broader player base gained something by closing this "exploit" that only a few players used.
But, I can't see any broader benefit, merely loss of a quality of life functionality. How does the player base overall benefit? And if no sufficient benefit is gained by the player base, why take away a meaningful quality of life option from players who find it useful?
But Cryptic changed it so it can't be done anymore.
It's their decision and kinda proves that it was in fact an exploit. They announced changes to the patrols a while ago so why is everybody surprised now.
If you want a game whose devs point out every little exploit and threaten to punish players for using them, look at EVE.
Cryptic chose not to call it out as one or calling out players as exploiters, just to silently close the exploit-door here.
Also, use your brain for a Moment. Potentially INFINITE mastery XP by NEVER actually finishing the mission. BASIC logic already dictates that something is broken here. It's painfully obvious.
And the "announced changes" made no mention of this kind of changes, so yeah. People have every right of being surprised.
Most of all, people have every right of being upset about it - notice I said "upset" not "jerks".
If you considered it an exploit, and you're so happy that they finally "fixed it", then it's safe to assume you made no use of it. So... why are you feeling the need of coming here and being an TRIBBLE to those that did use it?
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
Pointing out why an obviously broken System is broken is not being an a** to anybody… if anything it's like being Sesame-Street. Perhaps @baddmoonrizin should step in before this never ends.
That said - the danger is they can easily take away the enhanced experience (and I do expect they will). Then leveling ships becomes an horrific burden indeed.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."