As you will no doubt see from my forum name I am a lifetime subscriber so I have already pretty much been bought over by the game.
My gripe with the game is that you max out at Rear Admiral (45) too fast.
I managed to get my main character to 45 inside of a week from launch without any heavy grinding or 14+ hour sessions of the game which for a MMO is far too quick...
I suggest Cryptic look at the leveling and really spread it out.
Recruit -> Ensign [1 - 10]
Ensign -> Lieutenant Junior Grade [11 - 20]
Lieutenant Junior Grade -> Lieutenant [21 - 30]
Lieutenant -> Lieutenant Commander [31 - 40]
Lieutenant Commander -> Commander [41 - 50]
Commander -> Captain [51 - 60]
Captain -> Rear Admiral [61 - 70]
Rear Admiral -> Vice Admiral [71 - 80]
Vice Admiral -> Admiral [81 - 90]
Admiral -> Fleet Admiral [91 -100]
I know this would mean they would have to bring in new ships and missions to fill the gaps but the Star Trek Universe has plenty ships to go around without having to resort to them making god awful ships like the Star Cruiser or the Destiny (I quite like the Dervish).
Rather than pushing out new races and appearance kits for the ships why cant you work on making it so that the game has longevity.
Of the 14 people that I started the game with (all with lifetime accounts) only 3 of us still play the game cause there is really NOTHING to do once you have maxed out, I have 2 admiral level characters (1 fed and 1 klingon) and in order to make use of my account I have been basically forced to make new characters and once they are 45 I will have to do the same again...
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But the speed at which it took to get my first real ship (out of the light cruiser) took me 3-4 days.. it felt painfully long to be stuck in that stupid, weak, piddly little thing... either 1-10 should be faster, or they should let us get the first ship at level 5.
I played about 3 hours a day on my welcome back weekend for 3 days... I couldn't get to 11 and try out a science ship in that time unfortunately... still sitting on the fence about subbing for a month.
The combat is relatively fun.. but not in that god awful starting ship.
I am sorry but how is at the most 3 hours a night being a hardcore player? I have a kid t take care of and a full time job to deal with. If I was a hardcore player I would be on every waking minute I could...
That could be a possibility like they do in WoW and some other MMO's, give levels 1-10 or even 1-20 an xp boost (double xp for 1-10 and 50% more from 10-20 or something)
I'm pretty sure I said that that was according to the game's defendants, apparently. I'm sorry. Cryptic don't supply a sarcasm smiley.
I just wanted to get a snarky comment in before the usual suspects turned up and accused you of being
"too hardcore a player for STO which better suits players who play 2 hours a week".
Hmm , what I do remember is a TON of whining in beta about it taking too long to get to LTC (it doesn't). And most folks, myself included think the leveling was aimed at the ULTRA casual crowd and was too fast.
I know, that's my point. There are a group of people who will have no bad said about the game and will accuse those of us who think it's too dull, easy, quick to play, devoid of content etc. of being too hardcore and playing too much. ( as you said, during beta and headstart the game was full of them blaming players for 'levelling to fast' but without understanding that you can't avoid it due to the experience rewards and lack of a decent level structure )
The stats are in the charts.
The escort could switch to dual cannons and turn faster.. again, a significant improvement.
As another poster said... it's the fact that you feel stuck in a starting ship for so long that felt brutal... you never really feel like you're improving much until you get your next tier ship (new ship that can fit more weapons and extra gear... new BO powers, etc).
STO is unusual in that you really don't get anything new until every 10 levels... a pretty big gap compared to standard fare mmos.
As a casual gamer, the gap felt too big.. at least with the starting ship since it was so limited... the gap from my first science ship to my 2nd didn't feel nearly as bad since the ship was just more interesting and I had more powers to use.
I know my other friends who tried the game had the same complaint... they felt they had to wait too long to get anything "cool".
Didn't say it wasn't an upgrade said it wasn't as bad as the whining. And you got new boffs and you got a power at 5 and 8. 3 boffs = 6 'spells' plus your 2 'spells' at 5 and 8 plus your kit 'spells' seems like a fair amount of stuff in 10 levels, not counting drops and other rewards. Plenty of 'cool' It's the same as any game, you start out with a rusty sword and armor and and a magic fizzle spell and then slowly get slightly better stuff, gear that has a required level and class restrictions.
I am a casual player and I like the leveling system. It works for me and it would work for those I have been trying to play this game. A game that goes up to 100 to reach the really cool stuff like the Borg and Q won't work for the casual players I am trying to get to play.