I'd first like to say that I think the unexpected downtimes and crashes suck, just like everyone else. I think that's where my "herd mentality" is going to stop though.
I've heard people complain that Cryptic has had chances in the past and blew it, something about some failed release that I really don't care about. before we charter Cryptic to the Failboat though, let's take a look at some things.
* In the past week and some days we've witnessed a beefing up of the login server. No more long queues to get logged in.
* We've witnessed a little new content as well as several bug fixes.
These are the good things, the things that let us know that Cryptic is trying. I'm sure that there are probably more things that I've missed, but you get the idea.
There are lots of bad things as well. One of the things is that Cryptic has put this XP cap on us. I've heard that Cryptic is planning on more content that will require the skill cap to be lifted in time. In fairness, I can see the point in the xp cap in that you want to make the gaming experience enjoyable for all.
Many of us are Eve vets and, as much as we love Eve, know that any new players there (or new characters) start WAY behind and the disparity of skill point differences is almost overwhelming. It appears that Cryptic is trying to stay away from that.
I think my message to Cryptic about this would be "Yes, but Eve is a time based game while STO is a "go and do stuff" based game. New characters can also effectively "double up" their xp by finding someone to mission and explore with. So really, there is no reason for the xp cap.
It's my opinion that Cryptic is rushing to impliment content additions in order that they can lift the xp cap to give people something to do and not loose players who get bored of an admiral with no "end game". Cryptic, PLEASE STOP. There's no need for the cap. Lifting it would allow some of us to backfill skills necessary for our chosen path or branch into new ones. (limited character slots makes this even more necessary) Lifting it would ALSO negate the immediate pressure for content and allow Cryptic to concentrate on getting everything running smoothly, something we would all like to see. (especially the devs and gm's who are right now trying to explain to their supervisor how this could happen.)
I had initially intended to post more about things that could make gameplay smoother, this post is long enough. I'll post that later.