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Iconic Ships v. The Cryptic C-Store
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Superchum wrote:The single most canon ship of all is in the C-Store. The Enterprise from the original series. There's no turning back now.
Above quote by Superchum from closed thread [thread=167804]New Ships = Greed.[/thread]
The reason this issue is such a problem and has naturally become a major stink isn't that Cryptic is a money-hungry monster, it's that the ship tier levels were poorly conceived and designed to begin with. Even if the new ships that are headed to the C-Store were diverted and worked into the tier system as it stands, there are still too many other current playable ships that already seem out of place.
The "Iconic" ships not included in STO thus far were either promised before launch or were reasonably expected to and should have been in the game to begin with. Let's face it, the "Iconic" content, no matter what it is, is what makes Star Trek "Star Trek". The addition of these vessels directly into the current tier system would shine too bright a spotlight onto this problem which unfortunately has no easy patch or fix. The only real solution would be to redesign the tier system as a whole, server reset, and reboot the game, causing an unknown number of subscribers to start all over again. I'm willing to wager that would not be a popular idea for most as many have already invested a lot into STO.
Adding these ships to the C-Store is an easy band-aid that is still something of a win/win for both Cryptic and it's subscribers. The players have the opportunity to get content they deem as crucial to the game/immersion and Cryptic gets to make a song and dance out of delivering it. Cryptic has every right to make money off the game; I don't know of one mmorpg worth it's salt that doesn't.
Personally, I'd rather see the whole tier system redesigned with ships in their appropriate places and a reboot to follow. My feeling is that STO should be "STO". I don't know of one single subscriber that subscribed to STO because they really just had a hankering to fly around in starships designed by Cryptic Studios. No, they subscribed because they expected to be able to fly starships seen on the tube and screen that they had come to love. Leave all the ships with futuristic, non-canon, loopy designs as C-Store fodder.
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Every thread on this issue that I've seen today has been overwhelmingly negative. And then, as I look in tonight, I see threads being closed, or moved where they won't be as visible.
What struck me was a comment from GMDestra regarding how the C-Store funds development "for their fans." Excuse me? Your "fans" have been all over the boards telling you this is not a good idea, that this is likely the straw that would break the camel's back, that charging for every single little thing you add to the game, on top of a standard subscription fee is not feasible, and not economically sound these days, and yet you guys come back with a reply like that?
You say you want feedback Cryptic, then show us that you truly care about what we, your customers, are saying. That means, you have to be able to take the negative just as much as the positive. We are the people you as a company are relying on, to keep your ledgers in the black. When we tell you something, pay attention. Don't silence us. Take your feedback, be it good or bad, and use it to make a product we'll keep paying for. But keep in mind that just like everyone else in these down economic times, we aren't the US Government. We don't have a seemingly infinite supply of money. You can't keep going back to the well, nickel and diming your customers before the well runs dry.
Blizzard got it. Within 72 hours of announcing "Real ID" for the forums, the backlash was so bad, and the cancellations ran so high, they finally had to retract the statement. If they got it, why can't you guys?
Yes, the response has indeed been overwhelmingly negative. I'm sure the reportedly underwhelming new content on Tribble along with the possibility of no interiors for Season 2.0 has fueled that little bonfire. As far as that all goes, I can't really comment too much on what I haven't seen and am crossing fingers to be pleasantly surprised (for their sake, not mine).
However, I disagree completely with the idea that a complete server reset would be needed for a redesign of the tier system. Players still have their levels it shouldn't be a problem to give everyone a free respec and ship token to adapt to a system change.
Agreed & disagree..maybe.
An extensive redesign of the Ship Tier system to correct ship tier "flow" and implement these older designs of ships that players want in (and really should have been in there to begin with) would most certainly involve rearranging the order of several ships. Some may move up, some may move down. If a vessel is currently available to a low or mid-level player and then moved up the tiers, thus becoming unavailable to said player, that would be somewhat unfair I think.
I didn't consider the respec, which would most definately be in order, but who would that be benefiting really? Certainly not the established player already at the top of the tiers; whatever switches you would make would already be beneath their tier level so a respec wouldn't really be any sort consolation as they wouldn't really suffer from any changes made. It's the low to mid-level players that would be impacted. It's they that would stand to lose the time and efforts they had already invested in. The problem with that is that it seems to me the new subscriber rate has fallen drastically; the vast majority of the current playing population is higher-leveled.
Still, in my opinion the only fair option I am seeing to correct ship tiers (to make it the way you and I, the actual PLAYERS, know it should be AND correctly implement the new ships) would be a reset. Sure, I guess we could just cr*p on lower/mid-tier/new subscribers and switch up tiers with a respec as a consolation, but that probably isn't a great business model for Cryptic as it attempts to salvage a subscriber base. I'm not saying that a reset would be better for Cryptic, either. I'm just pointing out what I believe would be the cost to give everyone what they're crying for while fixing the problem (that created this issue to begin with) the "right way". But, that's not what Cryptic is doing. The easy wy out is to sell them as extra skins in the C-Store. It's not my first choice, but at least now I have hope for getting my Nebula Class.:)
SO...
..at the end of the day, what you have now is a higher-leveled player population making demands that, if satisfied and carried out correctly, would require a vast reorganization of the game. The only fair exectution of this would require those that are making these damands to ultimately lose everything they have now at this point. The addition of these vanity ships as C-Store skins/variants/whatevers is really the only way to go without disrupting the current "fabric" of the game.
Ever since I first saw the Dervish on the site (Just after it got the name, iirc)
I've wanted to captain it.
I came to STO because it was Star Trek, but I have no problems with Captaining Cryptic's ships, either.
we can't fly all the old ships forever,
After all... alot of years has past since the last few episodes/movies.
and i belive that starfleet and the other races came up with new designes and technology.
Didn't say anything was "wrong" with or about Cryptic's ship designs, nor did I say that people "didn't want to fly them". When (most) people think "Star Trek", they think of the iconic ships they are familiar with and it is reasonable for one to expect access to them one way or another in the official CBS-sanctioned MMO.
Of course time will pass and the designs of ships will evolve; this is expected. Cryptic's variant designs have been pretty hit and miss, fortunately with more hits as of late. That being said, I still don't know of one player that came to STO because of Cryptic's ship designs. They came because it's "Star Trek".