Imnot sure if everyone will agree with me on this or not.. Im sure there are other posts about this in the archive also, but I thought I would start an Up to date thread on it..
I feel, as does most of my fleet that the game is just a tiny bit too easy right now..
Maybe you could lower the rewards for quests, add in a death penalty ( maybe you could put the crew member vendor back in and any dead crew have to be bought again, this would be a nice money sink as well as deterring people from dying to much, you could have a regen still.. just make the procreation a little less intense).
I am positive that there are other ideas out there as well, possibly better than mine or adding to what ive already thought off. Lets hear them

I know that if you lower the skill points rewards for missions, you will also have to alter exploration badges etc to reflect the longerperiods of time spent at that level, also that theres other knock-on effects, but im sure its possible..
You could add in a whole new tutorial for pre-ensign, where you start the game in a runabout.. Do a few things to learn the basics then off you go into the original one where you get your miranda at the end.. possibly 5 grades of cadet in shuttle would suffice..
this would have a double effect, it would increase the gameplay hours till completion, which is currently about 80 i think, or thats the official statement on various interviews. Also it would bring in the "we should start in a runabout" requests and deal with those

If you did the runabout idea, you could change the runabout for sale at ds9 to the delta flyer or anything like that..slightly more advanced than the type 2 or whatnot, thats currently there for sale..
If you would like to see the game be a tiny bit harder to level, then put your ideas here.. If you dont want the game harder, then post up some reasons why

Thanks for your time.... Tim
Comments
However, in the interests of keep maximum number of ppl subscribed (and therefore more staff/content/investment), they should keep it "easy" to allow everyone to have fun, and not alienate the people who would quit rather than play hard content. One way of avoiding this would be some sort of 'difficulty setting', but its difficult to see how that would be implemented atm.
Thats why I was shying away from talking about combat etc.. I think the combat difficulty is kinda ok at the moment.. For me its just how fast you level.. Maybe I play to much
But most of the time, there is no real challenge, since having 80% of your firepower AI anyway, how much of the battle do you really effect.
Considering I'm one of five people that effectively pull of exploit shots in my away missions, I'm quite effective.
Personally I think they should leave the difficulty as it is, currently, until they can implement a 'Difficulty Setting'. Then use the current as 'Standard', & have one 'Easier' & on 'Harder' (or two either side).
What may be easy for one person may be horribly difficult to another. Alienating one to please another is not the way to go.
For example, I have a horrible time fighting Romulans in Space Fights, their Mogai Escorts can 'turn on a Dime' & in a Cruiser they can sustain fire on one shield & quickly bring it down.
For those who blaze in, die, come back, die, come back, etc then things may be 'easy', but some of us try 'not' to die.
In my T4 Cruiser (Galaxy), for the first time, I am actually actively trying to avoid Space Fights. In Exploration Missions, if it turns out to be a Space Combat, I'll most likely leave & drop the mission. Even with 3x +25% Turn Rate Consoles, Space Combat can be painfully long & tough & I've never really been a fan of the Space Combat (I favour the Ground Combat, personally).
So, to summarize, I say 'Leave the Difficulty' until a Difficulty Slider can be implemented.
How long did it take you to get your galaxy class?
It was 'too hard' for many and they whined and complained so it got lowered.
Its far too easy at the moment, the only way i die is usually because its either 10 levels above me, or im just focused on killing one enemy and ignoring the pounding on my shields...
This is an MMO, consistency is key.
If you want more difficulty use less powerfull equipment
Look, an MMO is based on progression, and if EVERYTHING can be beaten then where is the challenge and inherent "game" aspect of it? If a win is guarunteed, how is it a game?
And too much enemies are sitting ducks at the moment, so that 90% of the space battles are dumb and boring.
It would be a first and good step in the right direction to raise the enemies AI and therefor bring a tactical necessarity and aspect in EACH space battle, without making the enemy ships (e.g. by simply adding hitpoints or shields) "harder"!
Recently, we got 5 guys together in the fleet ranging from lvl 14 to 28 and flew to cardassian sector to pick a fight with some Jem H'Dar.
Enemies were still 6 levels above the lvl 28 guy ... needless to say it was a challenge and it was tremendous fun. The dreadnought in the end got us wondering if we were ever going to complete this encounter.
We finally managed.
Afterwards we all agreed that this kind of challenge is what we are all looking for at our own level. Kind of sad that I have to pick a fight with enemies 10 levels above me to get that sense of accomplishment.
Ther'es no incentive to save your life then. There's no reason to actually try and stay up outside of DPS.
How about the incentive to not TRIBBLE up? The incentive to "do it right" and not die? O_o
Because that's not really notable. There's nothing in place to show you did it that way, and in the end the stats won't show a difference between someone who brute-forced their way in, and someone who did it "right".
I know if I TRIBBLE up and died, or if I did it right. I don't give a damn if anyone else knows it. Not that into epeen waving.
But how do you fell about the skill points rewards for quests? IMO there too high..
Yet you still get the same gear, same rewards, same Officer Points, same Bridge Officer points. If you excel at it, there ought to be a bonus for doing it "right" or a penalty for doing it "wrong". Otherwise, it's not so much a game.
No. They are not. If you want a game where it takes 6 months to hit max level, play one of the Asian MMOs.
Some game rewards come from personal satisfaction... But, clearly, you're not that type of player. We're never going to agree.
Maybe. Character progression should be based on how well you play the game. Unfortunately, as is any monkey can make it up there.
I understand what you're saying, but name another Western MMO where that ISN'T true. It's how MMOs work - "time invested = progress".
I do this my self as fighting +2 enemies is just a bit harder than those easy 0 enemies.