I canceled my account today. Rather than give me a means to explain why, all I was offered was some drop down boxes to categorize it into two vague topics which didn't even begin to touch upon all the gripes I have with this game.
Not that I think it'll make a difference, but I'll air some of my gripes:
I did two Borg missions as a rear admiral lower and killed my account. Somehow Cryptic had achieved the impossible in making ground combat even more tedious. Five Borg drones? Not an issue. But then began the rush of proto-drones and regular drones beaming in, turning five into fifteen.
Assimilation is annoying, but not the most unreasonable thing. But I regularly got hit with assimilation by drones eight, nine, even as far as twelve meters away. Eight to twelve meters is a pretty big distance. Combine that with septuple assimilation (yes, I got assimilated by seven drones, the closest one to me was six meters away and the furthest was nine) and you learn new and creative ways to swear.
I've been through army powerpoint briefings that were less boring and tedious. I say without hyperbole that if given the choice between playing 15 minutes of a Star Trek Online ground mission and an hour of the most ridiculous busy work my superiors can come up with, I'd take the hour.
This post has been edited to remove content which violates the [URL=" http://forums.startrekonline.com/announcement.php?f=70&a=2"]Cryptic Studios Forum Usage Guidelines[/URL] ~InfoNinja
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Once you have completed these tasks, take the vehicle to the wash rack and give it a full detailing. You are expected to drive the vehicle in a parade in the morning.
Carry on.
There does seem to be a strong air of that, yes.
That's not as much busy work as PM'ing vehicles that were PM'ed the day prior or pushing tires across the lot all day.
As for the OP, I completely agree that ground combat is tedious, especially during my last Cure run (well, attempt). Mobs already start out like adds then adding adds to adds makes the combat more tedious, especially when they can chain stun via assimilation (most games have stun resistance buffs based on when you were last hit - decreasing the likelihood of chain stunning, which also ruined ground PvP gamewide).
Good Luck.
Giving props where it's deserved.. it IS a blast flying a Star Trek based Star Ship. However... that doesn't change the grind fest any less. It doesn't change the same small pool of mission types (go kill X number of sets of bad guys). It doesn't fix the serious lack of real career choices in the game. Improvements in the crafting system are nice but even there it's just... more of the same grind.
Sorry but if I wanted to play another Korean grind fest I'd go play Air Rivals. So yeah. Not far from closing my accounts. Still hoping though.
I wonder what kind of games you have been playing since you think that STO is a grind fest...
You can get from 1 to 51 + top crafting equipment in 1-2 weeks if you push it.
Grind fest would be if you had to push for several months to just to hit the cap level and then another few months to get top equipment.
Your whole point of attrition is exactly the way I feel about the Klingon swordmasters. On normal difficulty they are hard, but beatable. On advanced I feel like I can barely beat them when they are supported by a group of warriors, and virtually impossible if they are supported by a munitions officer or targ handler. If they are, all I can hope to do is weaken them enough so that once I respawn I can finish them off.
They might not be as bad with a team, but soloing, I can't manage my team well enough in the 45 second limit to deal with it. If I have my whole team focus fire, then they'll be killed by the ignored klingons, and if I don't focus fire, the swordmaster will have me dead in a matter of a few seconds. So instead I have to die, run back and try again, wearing them down that way.
Grind fest to me means repetitive missions. the same things over and over and over, which is the vast majority of STO mission scenarios. The variations are minor. The types are basically, go kill 5 of these groups of bad guys here. Go check out these computers here. Go check out these computers here AND kill 5 groups of bad guys. The variations to this are limited to whatever random race is playing the bad guys when you start the mission.
Content wise. STO lacks it. Lacks any kind of depth. Shallow. And so. it becomes a grind fest. Boring. Not worth doing.
As for the games I have played. Take note I mentioned EQ 1 from closed Beta. I played it up till a cpl years ago. I've played EVE, Rappelz, PWI, Star Wars till they totally fried it (haven't bothered with the IP since). And a few others... all in all I think I have played 30-40 'MMOs' of various types and judge my standards according to EQ 1 and EVE. If the MMO can't compare to them, I don't play long. STO doesn't compare, and I have fading hope it ever will.
Cool story....after an entire day of trying to get teams for The Cure STF and having to leave last minute before completing it I never ended my sub. Though I guess I can tolerate more than some people...yes this game still has disadvantages, and given this is Atari/Cryptic I'm amazed at times that things get done to an extent.
And briefings being the favored choice? Guess things are different now haha.
Although I have to agree that this is becoming more and more obvious. But hey, unless a nice amount of people speak out in a certain manner, nothing will happen.
In the end I guess there's only one thing for me to say.......
Can I have your stuff?
As I said, I have played EQ 1 since closed Beta. And EVE for *calculates* about 4 years now. I ran 8 accounts in EQ and 4 in EVE until recently. Since I have shut down my EQ accounts and dropped 2 of my EVE accounts. EVE has a bad rap about not being able to compete in PVP early on, but that is more myth than fact. in 1 -vs- 1 maybe but in small gang/fleet actions even a newbie in a frigate can make a difference.
EVE's PvE content has improved, but it, like STO is just variations on the go here, kill this many bad guys type missions. The primary difference is that EVE is PvP centric with PvE as a side thought (that is changing somewhat as the subscriber base becomes more mainstream).
I still have HOPE for STO. I mean, EVE and EQ didn't become what they are over night either so i don't expect STO to just be an instant OMGWTFBBQ success. It needs to build up. Unfortunately I honestly don't think that with the current engine, direction, nor cryptic are capable of making that happen. CBS basically hired a lemon in my opinion.
To an extent. PvE in Eve while I was playing was still always 'mining with missiles', but even within the limited emphasis PvE had, the encounters were... better. The way different weight classes worked meant that even running T4 missions in a battleship, there were still the same sorts of frigates that you'd started your missile-mining career dueling with and they were still relevant threats and swarming all over your TRIBBLE, but there was also the satisfaction of "HAHA YOU ARE PUNY NOW!!!" STO's teensy factional NPC libraries and omni-level NPCs prevents that experience from ever happening. Nothing feels excitingly threatening out of the gate.
In red.
Regarding the 2000+ quest items things...you should try Lineage2, then you will see what grind fest really means (played it for 5 years)
No, the death by powerpoint sessions usually lasted anywhere from two to five, depending on how much and what kind of trouble people got into.
Threatening suicide to get out of the suicide prevention briefing didn't work well, though.
Granted.. most MMO's grind is just variations of the same as you said, however... let us take EQ as an example. You get your quest to go get X number of quest items. These drop oh lets just say every third kill. Now, add to this, you have to travel from where you received the quest to where the items are. On your journey you might run into some mobs eager to spread your bones as jelly on the bread they just baked (DSE are similar here). When you get to the area where you have to stomp your mobs for their items... you may also find other mobs in the area that are very eager to stomp you first and they are NOT part of your quest.
This is where STO fails. When you arrive at whatever system you are supposed to go to. you have X number of enemies, and they are all of the same group normally. There is no risk that in flying wider as you orbit that you might agro mob X over here that is part of faction Y who's killing will effect how faction Y views you. You may not be liked but if you kill one of them, they like you less (normal agro and hate mechanics)
STO is missing anything even close to that type of scenario and drive, and it is the type of MMO that something like that would work VERY well.
The story arc missions are nice the first 2-3 times you do them. After that they are repetitive. As for the foundry... don't get me wrong, I actually LIKE the idea, while at the same time wonder why I am paying Cryptic to let me develop their game for them.
Yeah EVE and STO are different games. EVE is more PvP centric, STO more PvE centric, the difference is that EVE takes effort and work to get anywhere in it. STO takes very little effort or work. Granted, the skill system is totally different and how the games are implemented are different but.. I prefer games that take effort to get through. And right now STO doesn't have it.
Based on that, I don't even wanna know what you tried to tell Top to get out of the "STDs and you"-themed briefings...yeesh.
I don't think I got that one. Was that the briefing they gave to the 24-and-unders? Because if so, they gave it the day after I turned 25. Best timing ever.
I wish. Everytime some idiot E2 would go to the post clinic instead of our battalion PA's for his penicillin, a very old and unattractive female major from the clinic would schedule a briefing for said kids entire company. The briefings were horrible to sit thru. The pictures were worse.
Funny thing about it - was always the same kids with junk-on-fire syndrome. I aint no epidemeologist, but I think I coulda figured out the trend and maybe eliminated the source of the problem instead of making us all suffer.
Ouch. Thankfully I never had to sit through one of those. Of course, knowing the poor guy who got stuck with making sure everyone signed the rosters for these briefs and helping him with the paperwork from time to time went a long way to making my life easier too.
Mining in EVE... yeah I agree with you there 100%. Dead, mind numbingly boring. That is why after the first hour of doing it, I quit and started running missions, and then became a Pirate. The missions in EVE can be boring as well, the excitement comes in when someone warps into your mission and starts stealing from you. That is why I always fly PvP fit ships into my missions. I can't name the number of really good fights I got into when a ninja looter showed up and then him and his friends try to take me out when I shoot him. Been some great fights, awesome wins and equally awesome losses.
Thats the fun of EVE though. I don't actually expect STO to be anything like that as it would really ruin the game I think. However I would like there to be more to the game than their currently is, and that takes time. I've cancelled my account, but will likely be back in a cpl months to see how things are going. I haven't given up on the game.. just not happy with it's lacks right now.
Actually STO does need that type of game play. For the Klingons to raid, destroy and capture ships and the Federation to offer protection aid and support and defense from the raiders.
Fortunately, Cryptic is quite prodigious for a small development studio. They get a lot done with their resources and have updated this game faster than a lot of other games I enjoy (AoC for example). However, if you have a pet feature and it's not on the docket, you might be looking at up to a year before that issue is addressed.
Understandably, Foundry was created because that feature benefits everyone (as opposed to endgame which benefits most, but not all).
You forgot to mention that the Engineers will need a sample of exhuast from the Com's Humvee. Two bags should do.
Oh EQ in beta was a grind. In open was a pita especially the hell levels. I'm not saying it was ALL rosy. But admit when you leveled you had a feeling that you actually accomplished something, and when you made it through a hell level you KNEW you accomplished something.
In STO, and realistically it is my major beef. Nothing takes effort. It is all handed to you like butter on a hot tin. The closest thing to anything that takes a bit of effort is STF's and even those can be made easy by a group that knows what it's doing (my first TF was.. lolwut funny).
The fact is, STO is entirely TOO easy. TOO quick. Before you know it your a VA and have very limited things left you can do. You are pushed so fast to the non-existent end game that you don't even really have the chance to enjoy the game before you have to scramble for the next tier or two of ships and items.
Career choices in sto.. a joke. You have 4. Tactical. Science. Engineer and PVP. And it doesn't matter what the first three are because in truth, everything is so easy that you could be severely mentally challenged and still play this game like a seasoned 'pro'/'vet'.
As for PvP... well been there, played that. win some lose some but meh. I play EVE for my PvP more than anything else. STO's PvP seems.. weak to me in comparison. I will admit that it is because I have my own ideas on how PvP should play out. but that is just me.
Basically. I look at STO as entirely TOO easy. There is literally nothing challenging in this game except perhaps the broken ground mobs. And that simply becomes an attrition game at that point.