Everytime I browse the forums, I come across countless posts (let alone threads) which complain about nothing to do or being bored at RA5. They raced to the level cap or even took their time, but now that they're at RA5, the game is what... over?
Doesn't anyone enjoy the journey more than the destination anymore? I can't be the only one... (but I wouldn't be that surprised)
With that in mind...
I am looking for 3-4 people to join me in forming a static team. I would like to find people who are RP-friendly if not outright RP'ers, casual attitude, and willing to stick with this. You are welcome (and encouraged, but not required) to join Alpha Fleet (casual, RP-friendly) as we have ample bank space and resources. I don't care if you're new to STO or, like me, have been here since the betas. Attitude and personality trump ability as far as I am concerned.
I would hope to play an hour or two a night, but that will ultimately depend on those in the team. I am -6 GMT (CST), but I play at random hours, so if you're UK or EU or anywhere else and interested, add a post, and let's see if anyone wants to give this a try...
(I honestly did not intend this to sound like some kind of fleet recruiting thread, so if you're only interested in commenting on the first part of the thread, please do.)
Everytime I browse the forums, I come across countless posts (let alone threads) which complain about nothing to do or being bored at RA5. They raced to the level cap or even took their time, but now that they're at RA5, the game is what... over?
Doesn't anyone enjoy the journey more than the destination anymore? I can't be the only one... (but I wouldn't be that surprised)
I enjoyed levelling up just fine, for the whole 4 days it took me to do anyway.
Kind of like what he said. Leveling up the first time is fun, after that it no longer brings me enjoyment... well at least in this game anyways.
I'll echo what these guys said, the original climb was GREAT TBH! But being an MMO, the climb to the top should be the least of the journey. In single players games, they end and starting from the beginning is common, but MMOs go on and on and on...and content at RA5 NEEDS to be just as compelling or this ends up being nothing more than a single player game online...and that's where some of us MMO fans are at mate...bored with the utter lack of high end content.
It's no surprise that we were going to get to RA5...so how is it the Cryptic failed to provide more than a few boring and ultra repetitive "daily" missions?!
Most of us don't "dislike" the game, we're just bored silly doing lame missions in the same boring sector night after night after night.
I guess it's been different for me. While leveling up, you usually have more variety, and you can experience that from the different view of whatever classes there are. This has been true for me even in far more full-featured MMOs. Why bother raiding the same raids every night? I'd rather start over with a new toon and raise that up.
There are plenty of episodes that are certainly worth revisiting via levelling an alt, but for the most part you are just doing the exact same thing over again. This is why I'm taking a bit of a break until there is something in place that keeps me coming back for more.
In most other MMOs, this isn't so much of an issue as there are different paths you can choose to take in your levelling. Deciding whether to go to Zone A or Zone B, each with different environments, background and missions. Unfortunately with STO, there is only ONE path from Lt. 1 to RA 5.
It will be nice when Klingon episodes enter the game. I still haven't levelled a Klingon past Lt. because of the lack of compelling content. But even still, I would really like to see more options to the player presented when levelling, linked to the chosen race or profession perhaps. Have Tactical specific episodes that require you to play out a mission suited to your field, while having the same for Science and Engineering. Just an example.
Doesn't anyone enjoy the journey more than the destination anymore? I can't be the only one... (but I wouldn't be that surprised)
I do. So does my buddy. We've been playing and leveling since closed beta, taking our time. I do solo from time to time so I got to RA5 before he did, so I made an Alt and am now leveling her out together with my friend. Leveling alts was a fun thing to do in City of Heroes/Villains, and probably in Champions Online as well. In STO however, the class matrix doesn't exactly encourage this, but we're sticking with it nonetheless.
Even though I've been playing since OB and the Headstart weekend, I still have not gotten my main up to RA5, mostly due to RL concerns.
A lot of my fleet mates, however, were able to level multiple characters to that level very quickly, and grew bored of the game. Other than on certain occasions, I'm often the only one in my fleet playing regularly (because I still enjoy the game). Much like some of the others posting here, however, they are waiting for more end-game content to be put in before they make their return.
Granted, I might have the same issue when I reach RA5. But, as a current WoW player as well, I don't think it will matter much to me: even though I have a max-level character on WoW, I'm still not able to enjoy the end-game content (from ANY section of the game, vanilla, BC or Wrath) as a) my gear is not good enough, or b) I don't have time to treat the game like a job. So, I've put WoW on hold (mostly).
I apologise for the tangent, but it leads to my point: a lot of the players of STO are likely former/current WoW players. They're used to Blizzard always having some awesome new place for them to spend (waste?) two or three hours a night for little or no progress (depending). All the power to them if that's how they prefer to play.
As for your question, I do still enjoy the levelling in the game currently; even so, the first few missions in the Lt. stream do feel tedious, but that's likely because I've been spoiled by higher-tier ships
BTW, I wouldn't mind being a part of your static team, if the timing works for me. Send me a mail in-game to Spencer@jdrehm.
Everytime I browse the forums, I come across countless posts (let alone threads) which complain about nothing to do or being bored at RA5. They raced to the level cap or even took their time, but now that they're at RA5, the game is what... over?
Doesn't anyone enjoy the journey more than the destination anymore? I can't be the only one... (but I wouldn't be that surprised)
With that in mind...
I am looking for 3-4 people to join me in forming a static team. I would like to find people who are RP-friendly if not outright RP'ers, casual attitude, and willing to stick with this. You are welcome (and encouraged, but not required) to join Alpha Fleet (casual, RP-friendly) as we have ample bank space and resources. I don't care if you're new to STO or, like me, have been here since the betas. Attitude and personality trump ability as far as I am concerned.
I would hope to play an hour or two a night, but that will ultimately depend on those in the team. I am -6 GMT (CST), but I play at random hours, so if you're UK or EU or anywhere else and interested, add a post, and let's see if anyone wants to give this a try...
(I honestly did not intend this to sound like some kind of fleet recruiting thread, so if you're only interested in commenting on the first part of the thread, please do.)
I'll join in if your still looking my @ name is trkker@trekker1982 i'm in the UK and will be on aroun 7PM most nights your welcome to look me up
levelling up is tedious. It's twice as tedious to do it again and again with no deviation.
It definitely can be if you're not taking breaks. I took a nice break and played some Mass Effect II before making a second character. I also invested some time in making up a background story for her... but I think that most of all, the reason I can level up an alt so "soon" after my main, is because I try not to solo her too much and play with my friend(s) any time we can. We're just having a ball on XFIRE, reading the mission descriptions to one another and blowing stuff up, or attempting more difficult things such as consolidating several packs of NPC's and mowing them down.
Also, contemplating what potential the game has, and discussing how it could evolve... that also entertains us.
It definitely can be if you're not taking breaks. I took a nice break and played some Mass Effect II before making a second character. I also invested some time in making up a background story for her... but I think that most of all, the reason I can level up an alt so "soon" after my main, is because I try not to solo her too much and play with my friend(s) any time we can. We're just having a ball on XFIRE, reading the mission descriptions to one another and blowing stuff up, or attempting more difficult things such as consolidating several packs of NPC's and mowing them down.
Also, contemplating what potential the game has, and discussing how it could evolve... that also entertains us.
I took a month off. I have Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, Dragon Age Origins Awakening and even an Alpha release of world of warcraft cataclysm to tinker with,
The fact is that I came back and it's still as tedious. I'm sitting at Cap 5 ( I think ) without the will to go on.
jdrehm and trekker1982, I will try to look for you in-game. I'm not in any rush on this, and I'd rather make sure anyone involved is ready to go before jumping in.
jdrehm and trekker1982, I will try to look for you in-game. I'm not in any rush on this, and I'd rather make sure anyone involved is ready to go before jumping in.
This is actually the first MMO I haven't gotten 1 char. to cap before making others. I have a Capt. 2, a commander 2 or 3 and a Lt. commander (Klingon side).
So, about 5 weeks in and haven't even seen any Admiral content, I don't think I've even done any captain content besides wrapping up some exploration cluster....and very happy about it. I'll probably have to sub for another month before I burn out ( 2 or 3 months consecutive on an MMO after about 8 and a half years playing MMO's is amazing for me personally).
If I'm really lucky, I'll make it last 'til season 2 hits.
Then again, I'm one of the people who find "end game" content in MMO's less enjoyable than leveling....so maybe I'll buy 2 more slots and do it again X 2.
This is actually the first MMO I haven't gotten 1 char. to cap before making others. I have a Capt. 2, a commander 2 or 3 and a Lt. commander (Klingon side).
So, about 5 weeks in and haven't even seen any Admiral content, I don't think I've even done any captain content besides wrapping up some exploration cluster....and very happy about it. I'll probably have to sub for another month before I burn out ( 2 or 3 months consecutive on an MMO after about 8 and a half years playing MMO's is amazing for me personally).
If I'm really lucky, I'll make it last 'til season 2 hits.
Then again, I'm one of the people who find "end game" content in MMO's less enjoyable than leveling....so maybe I'll buy 2 more slots and do it again X 2.
More power to ya. You're getting your moneys worth at least.
Thing about MMOs is- most offer more content than you can reasonably do on one character during leveling. WoW shipped with something like 4 times the content needed to get a single character from 1-60, and something like SIX times the content of level 1-10. No wait, scratch that, they had that content in beta. (Six starter zones total, and around 2 zones for each level range after, per faction.)
Planetside, SWG and EVE have randomly generated content mostly. I have no data on DDO and LOTRO. Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa, I know, and even THOSE had enough content to provide a full quest log until max level... they just lacked, uhm, an endgame. Then they failed to create one before the players all churned out, and, well, you know the rest.
Thing is... people will play an awful lot with very low returns. As long as something on their character is "getting xp" and threatening to grow, it's a draw. Completion is an enticing draw to some. I've logged a lot of hours on Killing Floor, and even when everything goes really, really poorly, you STILL get damage credit towards various perks for using various weapons.
Thing is, Cryptic went out of their way to remove the possible lure of large skill trees. They capped a system not designed for it, instead of simply adding new skills and/or providing alternate ways to soak up points or max out alternate ships/weapons. Instead of augmenting and refining the system, they TRIBBLE it. (In the technical definition of the word, not the emotional meaning.)
I have 2 RA5, 1 LTC 4, and 1 LTC 1 on the fed side, and 1 BG1 on the klingon side. I, like others here have stated, cannot get myself motivated to level another character until more things get added. Leveling my klingon was a little more fun since it was different than the fed side, so I might down the road delete one of my fed characters and roll another klingon toon, but as of right now I just don't really see a point in leveling another character.
There was only one path in DDO. The "faction" grind actually caused every player to level up through every single quest 3 times each on their first character to unlock the 32 point character. Which they then would make their main. And do everything all over again, because it had 4 more stat points for allocation at character creation.
After the Shroud, things got a little less linear. There was enough content to finally not have to do everything all three times on all three difficulties.
But I haven't played the game since before they went F2P.
LOTRO had different starting areas. So the lower levels were different depending on race and starting town and somewhat class.
So it was a bit more like the EQ or WOW model in the lower levels. But by the time you got past those areas, you ended up doing a very very similar levelling arc, because those mid and high levels brought you to the same areas for the story.
That being said, they did offer class specific quest lines. So those were different.
And I haven't played LOTRO since before their first expansion. Let alone Mines of Moria.
I was tempted to go back during one of their free to play events. But read the forums and realized the game mechanics were far too complex for me to really bother trying to master again. The min maxxer in me just didn't care anymore.
Something to keep in mind. Sometimes a simpler game system (like the kind Cryptic tends to design) ... will draw players back easier because they don't feel like they missed out on a lot and aren't overwhelmed.
There's always another side to each issue, and all that.
I like levelling up. Though it does seem to rubber band, though. I remember being a comander 2 and leveling up to 5 very easily; but I'm only going up a Captain level every 3+ days...
Comments
I enjoyed levelling up just fine, for the whole 4 days it took me to do anyway.
Kind of like what he said. Leveling up the first time is fun, after that it no longer brings me enjoyment... well at least in this game anyways.
I'll echo what these guys said, the original climb was GREAT TBH! But being an MMO, the climb to the top should be the least of the journey. In single players games, they end and starting from the beginning is common, but MMOs go on and on and on...and content at RA5 NEEDS to be just as compelling or this ends up being nothing more than a single player game online...and that's where some of us MMO fans are at mate...bored with the utter lack of high end content.
It's no surprise that we were going to get to RA5...so how is it the Cryptic failed to provide more than a few boring and ultra repetitive "daily" missions?!
Most of us don't "dislike" the game, we're just bored silly doing lame missions in the same boring sector night after night after night.
There are plenty of episodes that are certainly worth revisiting via levelling an alt, but for the most part you are just doing the exact same thing over again. This is why I'm taking a bit of a break until there is something in place that keeps me coming back for more.
In most other MMOs, this isn't so much of an issue as there are different paths you can choose to take in your levelling. Deciding whether to go to Zone A or Zone B, each with different environments, background and missions. Unfortunately with STO, there is only ONE path from Lt. 1 to RA 5.
It will be nice when Klingon episodes enter the game. I still haven't levelled a Klingon past Lt. because of the lack of compelling content. But even still, I would really like to see more options to the player presented when levelling, linked to the chosen race or profession perhaps. Have Tactical specific episodes that require you to play out a mission suited to your field, while having the same for Science and Engineering. Just an example.
A lot of my fleet mates, however, were able to level multiple characters to that level very quickly, and grew bored of the game. Other than on certain occasions, I'm often the only one in my fleet playing regularly (because I still enjoy the game). Much like some of the others posting here, however, they are waiting for more end-game content to be put in before they make their return.
Granted, I might have the same issue when I reach RA5. But, as a current WoW player as well, I don't think it will matter much to me: even though I have a max-level character on WoW, I'm still not able to enjoy the end-game content (from ANY section of the game, vanilla, BC or Wrath) as a) my gear is not good enough, or b) I don't have time to treat the game like a job. So, I've put WoW on hold (mostly).
I apologise for the tangent, but it leads to my point: a lot of the players of STO are likely former/current WoW players. They're used to Blizzard always having some awesome new place for them to spend (waste?) two or three hours a night for little or no progress (depending). All the power to them if that's how they prefer to play.
As for your question, I do still enjoy the levelling in the game currently; even so, the first few missions in the Lt. stream do feel tedious, but that's likely because I've been spoiled by higher-tier ships
BTW, I wouldn't mind being a part of your static team, if the timing works for me. Send me a mail in-game to Spencer@jdrehm.
I'll join in if your still looking my @ name is trkker@trekker1982 i'm in the UK and will be on aroun 7PM most nights your welcome to look me up
Also, contemplating what potential the game has, and discussing how it could evolve... that also entertains us.
I took a month off. I have Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, Dragon Age Origins Awakening and even an Alpha release of world of warcraft cataclysm to tinker with,
The fact is that I came back and it's still as tedious. I'm sitting at Cap 5 ( I think ) without the will to go on.
Not to be a monkey wrench, but isn't that under an NDA?
They may get upset if I post you pictures like this
http://twitpic.com/1n1q1g
woops
So how did you apply for privileges to test the alpha? Or did they just randomly pick you?
now you are getting into the NDA
Aha... I thought I might have crossed a line
thanks will look out for you
My feelings exactly. If there was more of a journey to be had, I wouldn't care about the end.
STO is the first MMO I've reached cap in. I've done it 3 times now. Roughly 1 month each. I pretty much can't do it solo anymore.
So, about 5 weeks in and haven't even seen any Admiral content, I don't think I've even done any captain content besides wrapping up some exploration cluster....and very happy about it. I'll probably have to sub for another month before I burn out ( 2 or 3 months consecutive on an MMO after about 8 and a half years playing MMO's is amazing for me personally).
If I'm really lucky, I'll make it last 'til season 2 hits.
Then again, I'm one of the people who find "end game" content in MMO's less enjoyable than leveling....so maybe I'll buy 2 more slots and do it again X 2.
More power to ya. You're getting your moneys worth at least.
Thing about MMOs is- most offer more content than you can reasonably do on one character during leveling. WoW shipped with something like 4 times the content needed to get a single character from 1-60, and something like SIX times the content of level 1-10. No wait, scratch that, they had that content in beta. (Six starter zones total, and around 2 zones for each level range after, per faction.)
Planetside, SWG and EVE have randomly generated content mostly. I have no data on DDO and LOTRO. Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa, I know, and even THOSE had enough content to provide a full quest log until max level... they just lacked, uhm, an endgame. Then they failed to create one before the players all churned out, and, well, you know the rest.
Thing is... people will play an awful lot with very low returns. As long as something on their character is "getting xp" and threatening to grow, it's a draw. Completion is an enticing draw to some. I've logged a lot of hours on Killing Floor, and even when everything goes really, really poorly, you STILL get damage credit towards various perks for using various weapons.
Thing is, Cryptic went out of their way to remove the possible lure of large skill trees. They capped a system not designed for it, instead of simply adding new skills and/or providing alternate ways to soak up points or max out alternate ships/weapons. Instead of augmenting and refining the system, they TRIBBLE it. (In the technical definition of the word, not the emotional meaning.)
Same here, been very few games I enjoy leveling up more then once.
There was only one path in DDO. The "faction" grind actually caused every player to level up through every single quest 3 times each on their first character to unlock the 32 point character. Which they then would make their main. And do everything all over again, because it had 4 more stat points for allocation at character creation.
After the Shroud, things got a little less linear. There was enough content to finally not have to do everything all three times on all three difficulties.
But I haven't played the game since before they went F2P.
LOTRO had different starting areas. So the lower levels were different depending on race and starting town and somewhat class.
So it was a bit more like the EQ or WOW model in the lower levels. But by the time you got past those areas, you ended up doing a very very similar levelling arc, because those mid and high levels brought you to the same areas for the story.
That being said, they did offer class specific quest lines. So those were different.
And I haven't played LOTRO since before their first expansion. Let alone Mines of Moria.
I was tempted to go back during one of their free to play events. But read the forums and realized the game mechanics were far too complex for me to really bother trying to master again. The min maxxer in me just didn't care anymore.
Something to keep in mind. Sometimes a simpler game system (like the kind Cryptic tends to design) ... will draw players back easier because they don't feel like they missed out on a lot and aren't overwhelmed.
There's always another side to each issue, and all that.
I used to dismiss the concept of endgame as something of value until I hit it like a brick wall in STO