I'd like to see outdated ships revisited or given updates. There was a lot of cool stuff introduced before specialization seating was a big thing that have really been left behind. Making legendary versions of such ships is a great way to address it.
For example, the Tal Shiar Adapted Battlecruiser could easily have a legendary that's themed on the Narada. Or even something that's still great like the Annorax but doesn't have temporal seating because it came out before the temporal spec was a thing could do with an update that's different than the original.
Clean up and simplify the PC UI. Clean up all of the 50 different windows and tabs for crafting, reps, etc. I shouldn't have to go character to character clicking 5000 times just to do reputations alone. Please add a "click all" or "select all" function or something.
I.e.
I have to click to finish the rep daily, if I ranked up I have to click that mission, then add tokens to it. Then say yes, then click go. Then wait. Then click finish. Then go back and click the rep again. Then click yes. Then click add all. Then click go.
That's one rep. There is 12 more to go. On one character.
That's not even including the ui click nightmare to go do the admiralty missions. Or to go do the duty officer missions.
I mean come on... do you see what I'm saying? PLEASE SIMPLIFY IT.
STO Republic. I could be misremembering, but I don't think there's been much if any story focusing on the Republic since before Victory is Life launched.
Well there is Legacy of Romulus, where Romulans were first introduced.
And that pretty much ends with the establishment of mol'Rihan. The Reman quarter is referenced, and its shadowed location shown in a background shot once, but the city itself has never been finished - only the Romulan fleet command center. Be neat to have our efforts there actually pay off.
Very much this. Moreover, the Romulans are tied with the Klingons as the most important non-Federation aspect of the Star Trek mythos, surpassing the Dominion, the Cardassians, and even the Borg. "Balance of Terror" was one of the deepest episodes of the original series, and the Romulans were the looming threat in TNG (the Borg were too sporadic to really qualify IMO).
From an STO standpoint, I have at base two issues. First, IMO the Republic doesn't really feel like an equal partner the way the Klingons do. Second, the way they're written feels just slightly off. Obviously they have to be nicer than the old Romulan Empire, but in the process they seem to have lost the sneakiness that was so much a part of the Romulan psyche. Essentially they come across as V'tosh ka'tur minus the obvious mental instability.
That's my two cents.
Yep if Romulans do become Villains again, I want more sneakiness like make every mission in the Next Romulan Arc to be more like Dragon's Deceit, the most Romulan mission in STO, despite being a Vaadwaur one, a Whole Romulan Arc should feel like that mission, instead of straight combat, you should try to outwit them, you have defeat them by tricking them into defeating themselves, Romulans are cunning cerebral villains, it should feel like playing chess against them.
STO Republic. I could be misremembering, but I don't think there's been much if any story focusing on the Republic since before Victory is Life launched.
Well there is Legacy of Romulus, where Romulans were first introduced.
And that pretty much ends with the establishment of mol'Rihan. The Reman quarter is referenced, and its shadowed location shown in a background shot once, but the city itself has never been finished - only the Romulan fleet command center. Be neat to have our efforts there actually pay off.
Very much this. Moreover, the Romulans are tied with the Klingons as the most important non-Federation aspect of the Star Trek mythos, surpassing the Dominion, the Cardassians, and even the Borg. "Balance of Terror" was one of the deepest episodes of the original series, and the Romulans were the looming threat in TNG (the Borg were too sporadic to really qualify IMO).
From an STO standpoint, I have at base two issues. First, IMO the Republic doesn't really feel like an equal partner the way the Klingons do. Second, the way they're written feels just slightly off. Obviously they have to be nicer than the old Romulan Empire, but in the process they seem to have lost the sneakiness that was so much a part of the Romulan psyche. Essentially they come across as V'tosh ka'tur minus the obvious mental instability.
That's my two cents.
Yep if Romulans do become Villains again, I want more sneakiness like make every mission in the Next Romulan Arc to be more like Dragon's Deceit, the most Romulan mission in STO, despite being a Vaadwaur one, a Whole Romulan Arc should feel like that mission, instead of straight combat, you should try to outwit them, you have defeat them by tricking them into defeating themselves, Romulans are cunning cerebral villains, it should feel like playing chess against them.
I'm not even talking about Romulans as villains. The Klingons maintain their warrior ethic even as allies, why not let the Romulans keep their sneakiness?
STO Republic. I could be misremembering, but I don't think there's been much if any story focusing on the Republic since before Victory is Life launched.
Well there is Legacy of Romulus, where Romulans were first introduced.
And that pretty much ends with the establishment of mol'Rihan. The Reman quarter is referenced, and its shadowed location shown in a background shot once, but the city itself has never been finished - only the Romulan fleet command center. Be neat to have our efforts there actually pay off.
Very much this. Moreover, the Romulans are tied with the Klingons as the most important non-Federation aspect of the Star Trek mythos, surpassing the Dominion, the Cardassians, and even the Borg. "Balance of Terror" was one of the deepest episodes of the original series, and the Romulans were the looming threat in TNG (the Borg were too sporadic to really qualify IMO).
From an STO standpoint, I have at base two issues. First, IMO the Republic doesn't really feel like an equal partner the way the Klingons do. Second, the way they're written feels just slightly off. Obviously they have to be nicer than the old Romulan Empire, but in the process they seem to have lost the sneakiness that was so much a part of the Romulan psyche. Essentially they come across as V'tosh ka'tur minus the obvious mental instability.
That's my two cents.
Yep if Romulans do become Villains again, I want more sneakiness like make every mission in the Next Romulan Arc to be more like Dragon's Deceit, the most Romulan mission in STO, despite being a Vaadwaur one, a Whole Romulan Arc should feel like that mission, instead of straight combat, you should try to outwit them, you have defeat them by tricking them into defeating themselves, Romulans are cunning cerebral villains, it should feel like playing chess against them.
I'm not even talking about Romulans as villains. The Klingons maintain their warrior ethic even as allies, why not let the Romulans keep their sneakiness?
Considering their focus on cloaks and intelligence ops as standard operations procedures the Romulan Republic Has retained their sneakiness, what they left behind with the Tal Shiar is the treachery and corruption that polluted the old RSE since sometime shortly before 2266 (and apparently existed in the Tal Shiar itself for far longer considering what happened in ENT). Also, even with aid from the Alliance they still have a serious bottleneck in singularity core manufacturing so they will need the force multiplier that stealth gives them for at least a while yet.
Also, since they give hints in the game that the Tal Shiar is trying (so far unsuccessfully) make moves on the Republic they have plenty of potential foreshadowing already in place should the devs decide to make a strong secondary arc out of it (it is too soon after the Klingon revolution arc to have it as the primary arc for at least several years) and if they do, I would be all for it .
I'd love to see story missions release more than once or maybe twice a year. ,_,
Also on the subject I saw earlier about possibly having the story go back to non-galactic-threat exploration and missions for a while, isn't that how the Lukari arc started, and went back to galactic threats?
I'd also love to see a new Romulan Republic story arc, considering how much I liked the Klingon Civil War arc. (And that says a lot when I have trouble with DSC, like I loved the Terran Gambit arc despite having trouble with mirror universe stuff.)
One thing I'd love to see is some good old fashioned RAIDS added.. the kind that gives players a feeling of anxiety and fear complete immersion not always obtainable with some of the newer content.
I'd also like to see the original Borg Special Task Force missions that include both ground and space portions re-released as "Legendary" Special Task Forces (L-STF's).
One thing I'd love to see is some good old fashioned RAIDS added.. the kind that gives players a feeling of anxiety and fear complete immersion not always obtainable with some of the newer content.
I'd also like to see the original Borg Special Task Force missions that include both ground and space portions re-released as "Legendary" Special Task Forces (L-STF's).
They would have to kill off the map change dump bug once and for all in order to do two-map TFOs, the devs have already said until that happens (if it ever does) they do not plan on having any two-map TFOs available.
One thing I'd love to see is some good old fashioned RAIDS added.. the kind that gives players a feeling of anxiety and fear complete immersion not always obtainable with some of the newer content.
I'd also like to see the original Borg Special Task Force missions that include both ground and space portions re-released as "Legendary" Special Task Forces (L-STF's).
They would have to kill off the map change dump bug once and for all in order to do two-map TFOs, the devs have already said until that happens (if it ever does) they do not plan on having any two-map TFOs available.
I can't say I've ever experienced (nor heard of) this alleged bug and I've been playing since 2011. If anything my internet is far faster and far more reliable than it was 10 years ago. On a personal level, I find it hard to believe there is such a bug.
I'd still be happy with a couple good old fashioned RAIDS though. My immersion has been lacking a bit the past while and I'm pretty sure it's due to the overwhelming amount of casual content that gets thrown our way. I honestly doubt I'm the only one who feels this way.
Immersion through challenge really works for many players. And no, you can't just bump up the difficulty of a boring pew-pew map and say "here ya are go challenge yourself there's lotsa hit points here" as my kind of fun starts with the base design of the map.
Perhaps they could get all 3 original Borg ground maps going, one of these days? There are times when players would rather have good times for 30 minutes versus 7 minutes of pressing the space bar, after all.
I can't say I've ever experienced (nor heard of) this alleged bug and I've been playing since 2011. If anything my internet is far faster and far more reliable than it was 10 years ago. On a personal level, I find it hard to believe there is such a bug.
in order to do a raid, (and it would only be Sol and Qo'NoS) you would have to develop some way to flag yourself as non-PVP if you chose not to defend ESD/First City. to not have a flag would be forced PvP and is an automatic deal killer in my book
in order to do a raid, (and it would only be Sol and Qo'NoS) you would have to develop some way to flag yourself as non-PVP if you chose not to defend ESD/First City. to not have a flag would be forced PvP and is an automatic deal killer in my book
Just to clear things up I would never think of suggesting anything involving "non-consensual" PvP and by using the term raid I was attempting to suggest that perhaps a return to some of the more involved queues of yesteryear could be in order for those looking for immersion through challenge. Of course the 2-3 players plagued with map transfer issues might have to get their internet connections in order before hand if my suggestion on "Legendary" space + ground STF's were to be implemented but I'm sure they have their share of issues even with "normal" missions and TFO's. Thanks so much for starting this thread as it's great to be able to suggest what you'd think would be nice for the future without having to overly defend the idea itself or delving into the usual space barbie versus uberdeepz end game issues.
PvP raids? Normally raids in MMOs are not PvP, they are large-team cooperative runs where the run gets progressively harder until the final boss which is the most difficult challenge level in the game. Many times, how far your team can get in it before wiping is the measure by which bragging rights are judged.
Apologies if I misunderstood. I thought you were talking the raids on the home base like they do (or did, been years since I played) in Wow Basically there, you were flagged as a participant or not if not you were invulnerable. once you engage you become vulnerable and a participant
The Askray is like the Snipes I was told to hunt for when I was a kid. I doubt that they exist. As the kids like to say now, "Pics or it didn't happen. ;-)
Sig? What sig? I don't see any sig.
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,559Community Moderator
Apologies if I misunderstood. I thought you were talking the raids on the home base like they do (or did, been years since I played) in Wow Basically there, you were flagged as a participant or not if not you were invulnerable. once you engage you become vulnerable and a participant
I witnessed one of those "For the Horde" runs. Even going so far as to follow them because why not even though I was a low level Alliance Draenei. I got headpats from a friendly Tauren. They hit Stormwind while I went to the tram to Ironforge. They made the mistake of waiting for the tram closest to the entrance. I got on the far one and beat them there. They got bottlenecked at Ironforge and destroyed.
Has anyone mentioned updating the space and ship tabs side of the Lobi store. I've got 1400 Lobi and little with to purchase after buying a whole lot of keys.
And has anyone mentioned adding a pity system while we're at 🤣 because I didn't win a ship either.
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,559Community Moderator
There was talk of a pity system at some point in the past, especially since Neverwinter has one. No idea if they're still talking about it nowadays.
Has anyone mentioned updating the space and ship tabs side of the Lobi store.
I've got 1400 Lobi and little with to purchase after buying a whole lot of keys.
And has anyone mentioned adding a pity system while we're at 🤣 because I didn't win a ship either.
A Lobi ship tab update would certainly be welcome. It's been three or four years at least since something was last added.
Space items seem to be added every now and then, even though it's mostly traits nowadays instead of consoles and things like unique Boffs.
Honestly id love more account unlocks and less real world money gated items. Id rather go back to a (optional) Monthly Subscription to have an easier life in this game. Its just painful at a point when you've played for years..
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,559Community Moderator
(Kidding, I have no idea whether we have such a system.)
We don't. Neverwinter does. I think there was talk of making a version of that for STO but outside of talk I don't know if anything was put in motion on that.
Honestly id love more account unlocks and less real world money gated items. Id rather go back to a (optional) Monthly Subscription to have an easier life in this game. Its just painful at a point when you've played for years..
Going F2P actually saved the game outright. STO isn't a juggernaut like WoW or FF14, so a monthly subscription may actually drive people away. F2P means far more accessable to everyone. Also STO's F2P model is rather player friendly and generous. I mean we get at least 3 FREE endgame ships a year just by playing events. I could say more but then I'd just be on a soapbox, and no one wants me on a soapbox. lol
Personally I would be happy to pay a monthly subscription.
I think it's fairer if everyone paid a bit for access. Right now it mostly seems the game has to survive by releasing promo ships and other stuff that's released at outrageous prices.
I mean, I've been crazy enough to pay hundreds of Euro's for a ship countless times. But the fact we are expected to pay those prices, shows that the game depends on it and that can't be very healthy in the long run. I certainly won't be doing it anymore, because I think I've paid enough by now due to the high prices of most 'premium' stuff.
And for those saying: 'but the game has survived for a very long time.' - Yes, that's true; because the game wasn't always so dependent on promo ships alone. We had expansion packs in the past as a source of income for Cryptic and C-store releases used to be much more frequent as well.
With subscriptions, some people might choose to stop playing. But for those who would remain, it would spread the burden of paying for the game's upkeep more evenly, possibly even normalise some of the way too high prices as well.
'Free to play' doesn't really exist, just like free healthcare or education or whatever doesn't exist. It simply means other people are paying for you. Even that can be acceptable to some degree - but I am convinced that everyone should pay their fair share. Which I doubt to be the case right now, given those insane prices for most items.
It's basically the same with the complaints about the prices on the Exchange of Lockbox stuff.
Those people tend to forget that those years of advice (i.e., 'don't open boxes, buy from the Exchange') has resulted in a situation where way too few people are opening boxes to supply all those players interested in the stuff that comes from them.
Only a very small portion of the players is prepared to pay for stuff - and it's showing in the in-game prices for items. I don't think it's very fair to have such a tiny portion of the playerbase shoulder the burden for everyone else. Stuff would probably be more affordable for everyone if this wasn't the case.
(Kidding, I have no idea whether we have such a system.)
We don't. Neverwinter does. I think there was talk of making a version of that for STO but outside of talk I don't know if anything was put in motion on that.
Honestly id love more account unlocks and less real world money gated items. Id rather go back to a (optional) Monthly Subscription to have an easier life in this game. Its just painful at a point when you've played for years..
Going F2P actually saved the game outright. STO isn't a juggernaut like WoW or FF14, so a monthly subscription may actually drive people away. F2P means far more accessable to everyone. Also STO's F2P model is rather player friendly and generous. I mean we get at least 3 FREE endgame ships a year just by playing events. I could say more but then I'd just be on a soapbox, and no one wants me on a soapbox. lol
This is why I only ask for a small increase in the odds of getting a lockbox/promo ship when opening said box. I'm well aware of what allows STO to stay afloat, and am grateful.
I'd like to see a complete revamp of the Player vs. Player part of the game. Something which would not be an afterthought like what we have now. Something which has better maps. Something where skill and experience matter more than money...
I'd like to see this, too. I'd also like to hit the lottery 3 months in a row.
__________________________________
STO Forum member since before February 2010. STO Academy's excellent skill planner here: Link I actually avoid success entirely. It doesn't get me what I want, and the consequences for failure are slim. -- markhawman
The pity system works in other games by putting a light at the end of the odds tunnel, so (in theory anyway) players work their way towards it after the usual curiosity tries, feeling they would be wasting what they already put in if they didn't.
It does seem to work reasonably well for coaxing funds from deeper into the "semi-F2P" sector of the playerbase (it is far from the black-and-white situation of "those who spend and those who don't" that many seem to think it is, there is probably more gray than either of the extremes), though factors like where the key prices are set and how good the lesser prizes are can have a big impact on whether the pity system makes the draw seem attractive enough to overcome the financial risk to a tight budget.
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,559Community Moderator
And for those saying: 'but the game has survived for a very long time.' - Yes, that's true; because the game wasn't always so dependent on promo ships alone. We had expansion packs in the past as a source of income for Cryptic and C-store releases used to be much more frequent as well.
I don't recall STO EVER selling expansions like other MMOs. None of the content was ever behind a paywall. Yea we had C-Store packs associated with those Expansions we had, like the Legacy of Romulus pack or the Delta Rising pack, but the expansions themselves were never sold. All story content was always free to everyone on release.
Comments
For example, the Tal Shiar Adapted Battlecruiser could easily have a legendary that's themed on the Narada. Or even something that's still great like the Annorax but doesn't have temporal seating because it came out before the temporal spec was a thing could do with an update that's different than the original.
I.e.
I have to click to finish the rep daily, if I ranked up I have to click that mission, then add tokens to it. Then say yes, then click go. Then wait. Then click finish. Then go back and click the rep again. Then click yes. Then click add all. Then click go.
That's one rep. There is 12 more to go. On one character.
That's not even including the ui click nightmare to go do the admiralty missions. Or to go do the duty officer missions.
I mean come on... do you see what I'm saying? PLEASE SIMPLIFY IT.
Yep if Romulans do become Villains again, I want more sneakiness like make every mission in the Next Romulan Arc to be more like Dragon's Deceit, the most Romulan mission in STO, despite being a Vaadwaur one, a Whole Romulan Arc should feel like that mission, instead of straight combat, you should try to outwit them, you have defeat them by tricking them into defeating themselves, Romulans are cunning cerebral villains, it should feel like playing chess against them.
I'm not even talking about Romulans as villains. The Klingons maintain their warrior ethic even as allies, why not let the Romulans keep their sneakiness?
Considering their focus on cloaks and intelligence ops as standard operations procedures the Romulan Republic Has retained their sneakiness, what they left behind with the Tal Shiar is the treachery and corruption that polluted the old RSE since sometime shortly before 2266 (and apparently existed in the Tal Shiar itself for far longer considering what happened in ENT). Also, even with aid from the Alliance they still have a serious bottleneck in singularity core manufacturing so they will need the force multiplier that stealth gives them for at least a while yet.
Also, since they give hints in the game that the Tal Shiar is trying (so far unsuccessfully) make moves on the Republic they have plenty of potential foreshadowing already in place should the devs decide to make a strong secondary arc out of it (it is too soon after the Klingon revolution arc to have it as the primary arc for at least several years) and if they do, I would be all for it
Also on the subject I saw earlier about possibly having the story go back to non-galactic-threat exploration and missions for a while, isn't that how the Lukari arc started, and went back to galactic threats?
I'd also love to see a new Romulan Republic story arc, considering how much I liked the Klingon Civil War arc. (And that says a lot when I have trouble with DSC, like I loved the Terran Gambit arc despite having trouble with mirror universe stuff.)
Not sure if this is coming out right, though.
I'd also like to see the original Borg Special Task Force missions that include both ground and space portions re-released as "Legendary" Special Task Forces (L-STF's).
They would have to kill off the map change dump bug once and for all in order to do two-map TFOs, the devs have already said until that happens (if it ever does) they do not plan on having any two-map TFOs available.
I can't say I've ever experienced (nor heard of) this alleged bug and I've been playing since 2011. If anything my internet is far faster and far more reliable than it was 10 years ago. On a personal level, I find it hard to believe there is such a bug.
I'd still be happy with a couple good old fashioned RAIDS though. My immersion has been lacking a bit the past while and I'm pretty sure it's due to the overwhelming amount of casual content that gets thrown our way. I honestly doubt I'm the only one who feels this way.
Immersion through challenge really works for many players. And no, you can't just bump up the difficulty of a boring pew-pew map and say "here ya are go challenge yourself there's lotsa hit points here" as my kind of fun starts with the base design of the map.
Perhaps they could get all 3 original Borg ground maps going, one of these days? There are times when players would rather have good times for 30 minutes versus 7 minutes of pressing the space bar, after all.
Less cosmetics and more action please. Thank you
It waxes and wanes in frequency and does not effect every player, though it does a lot of us. One thread about it is here, though there have been many over the years:
https://arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1271570/map-transfers-to-tfs-server-time-out
Just to clear things up I would never think of suggesting anything involving "non-consensual" PvP and by using the term raid I was attempting to suggest that perhaps a return to some of the more involved queues of yesteryear could be in order for those looking for immersion through challenge. Of course the 2-3 players plagued with map transfer issues might have to get their internet connections in order before hand if my suggestion on "Legendary" space + ground STF's were to be implemented but I'm sure they have their share of issues even with "normal" missions and TFO's. Thanks so much for starting this thread as it's great to be able to suggest what you'd think would be nice for the future without having to overly defend the idea itself or delving into the usual space barbie versus uberdeepz end game issues.
The Askray is like the Snipes I was told to hunt for when I was a kid. I doubt that they exist. As the kids like to say now, "Pics or it didn't happen. ;-)
I witnessed one of those "For the Horde" runs. Even going so far as to follow them because why not even though I was a low level Alliance Draenei. I got headpats from a friendly Tauren. They hit Stormwind while I went to the tram to Ironforge. They made the mistake of waiting for the tram closest to the entrance. I got on the far one and beat them there. They got bottlenecked at Ironforge and destroyed.
I've got 1400 Lobi and little with to purchase after buying a whole lot of keys.
And has anyone mentioned adding a pity system while we're at 🤣 because I didn't win a ship either.
A Lobi ship tab update would certainly be welcome. It's been three or four years at least since something was last added.
Space items seem to be added every now and then, even though it's mostly traits nowadays instead of consoles and things like unique Boffs.
(Kidding, I have no idea whether we have such a system.)
We don't. Neverwinter does. I think there was talk of making a version of that for STO but outside of talk I don't know if anything was put in motion on that.
Going F2P actually saved the game outright. STO isn't a juggernaut like WoW or FF14, so a monthly subscription may actually drive people away. F2P means far more accessable to everyone. Also STO's F2P model is rather player friendly and generous. I mean we get at least 3 FREE endgame ships a year just by playing events. I could say more but then I'd just be on a soapbox, and no one wants me on a soapbox. lol
I think it's fairer if everyone paid a bit for access. Right now it mostly seems the game has to survive by releasing promo ships and other stuff that's released at outrageous prices.
I mean, I've been crazy enough to pay hundreds of Euro's for a ship countless times. But the fact we are expected to pay those prices, shows that the game depends on it and that can't be very healthy in the long run. I certainly won't be doing it anymore, because I think I've paid enough by now due to the high prices of most 'premium' stuff.
And for those saying: 'but the game has survived for a very long time.' - Yes, that's true; because the game wasn't always so dependent on promo ships alone. We had expansion packs in the past as a source of income for Cryptic and C-store releases used to be much more frequent as well.
With subscriptions, some people might choose to stop playing. But for those who would remain, it would spread the burden of paying for the game's upkeep more evenly, possibly even normalise some of the way too high prices as well.
'Free to play' doesn't really exist, just like free healthcare or education or whatever doesn't exist. It simply means other people are paying for you. Even that can be acceptable to some degree - but I am convinced that everyone should pay their fair share. Which I doubt to be the case right now, given those insane prices for most items.
Those people tend to forget that those years of advice (i.e., 'don't open boxes, buy from the Exchange') has resulted in a situation where way too few people are opening boxes to supply all those players interested in the stuff that comes from them.
Only a very small portion of the players is prepared to pay for stuff - and it's showing in the in-game prices for items. I don't think it's very fair to have such a tiny portion of the playerbase shoulder the burden for everyone else. Stuff would probably be more affordable for everyone if this wasn't the case.
This is why I only ask for a small increase in the odds of getting a lockbox/promo ship when opening said box. I'm well aware of what allows STO to stay afloat, and am grateful.
I'd like to see this, too. I'd also like to hit the lottery 3 months in a row.
STO Forum member since before February 2010.
STO Academy's excellent skill planner here: Link
I actually avoid success entirely. It doesn't get me what I want, and the consequences for failure are slim. -- markhawman
It does seem to work reasonably well for coaxing funds from deeper into the "semi-F2P" sector of the playerbase (it is far from the black-and-white situation of "those who spend and those who don't" that many seem to think it is, there is probably more gray than either of the extremes), though factors like where the key prices are set and how good the lesser prizes are can have a big impact on whether the pity system makes the draw seem attractive enough to overcome the financial risk to a tight budget.
I don't recall STO EVER selling expansions like other MMOs. None of the content was ever behind a paywall. Yea we had C-Store packs associated with those Expansions we had, like the Legacy of Romulus pack or the Delta Rising pack, but the expansions themselves were never sold. All story content was always free to everyone on release.