What an interesting point you make OP, But would you still feel the same if your favorite Dilithium grinding mission went in the same direction as the STFs and the only way to get your Dilithium fix was to run a mission you would not enjoy.
One needs to look at the big picture here, is this the 1st step in nerfing the amount of Dilithium we will be able to grind, or, is this just one simple adjustment that will not be implemented further in the game.
Will the player bases silence lead to more nerfing or will it be left alone?
If silence is taken as acceptance will this lead to more missions taking the Dilithium nerf?
Or will the loud voice of un-acceptance determine how far they can nerf the Dilithium.
It is your choice, be silent and hope for the best or voice your concern and have the line drawn here and not let them go any further.
If the stated goal of making it easier to get dilithium so that the average player could get more, then what good did removing it from STFs altogether apart from a convoluted system that barely rewards the effort put into it. PWE and Cryptic have been steadily removing dilithium sources for a long time now. I only started earlier this year, but the first major one I noticed was nerfing Ker'rat. At the time, I thought that was OK, as the mission was too easily repeatable. Then I noticed you couldn't even get the mission on a daily basis or seemingly at all anymore. Then there was the contraband nerf. OK, maybe that's a little too easy... But for every source that they remove or diminish, people will claim that there's another easy way to get dilithium...until that source is removed a couple months later. Sure, they added it to fleet actions which may have been neglected before, but for good reason. With STFs, you were and still are working to build up your gear-set, particularly for more STFs. With the dilithium-eligible fleet actions, now you're just doing those for dilithium as opposed to just blowing stuff up and hoping for some bit of random gear as you were before. So how long until the fleet action dilithium reward is reduced?
Guys... seriously. Cryptic would be shooting themselves in the economic mouth if they nerfed Fleet Actions ability to give Dilithium at this point... or really they would be shooting themselves in the economic mouth by nerfing any method that still remains for getting Dilithium at this point.
It basically comes down to this. Because Cryptic has made Dilithium one of, if not THE key ingredient in virtually all of the end game gear, as well as all of the Fleet Holdings, and Reputation Systems... then removing any more ways of effectively farming Dilithium would result in the inability of people to sell Dilithium for Zen. Which in turn would result in decreased purchases of Zen. Which would in turn result in decreased profits for Perfect World Entertainment from their Cryptic Studio's sector. This would in turn result in Perfect World Entertainment re-evaluating their acquisition of Cryptic Studio's and could potentially lead to the dismantling of Cryptic Studio's as a whole. Which would mean no more Star Trek Online.
In short, if Cryptic Studio's values their existence, they will not significantly nerf Dilithium production any more than they already have.
I am about to make a heretical and blasphemous statement: I do not now, nor did I in the past care for the STFs. I am not sorry they are no longer the rasion d'etre for STO but have been returned to their rightful place. Which is merely three missions among the many other things this game offers us. If you listen carefully, you can hear the FanBoys start howling for my head.
I am delighted so many have chosen to pose dramatically here upon the STO Forums stage to loudly announce they are leaving. When we get to the part where I am supposed to care, would someone wake me up, please? I don't want to miss a single second of the pathos of yet another in an endless series of overwrought, overfed, overindulged FanBoys ponderously heaving his pasty white bulk towards the Exit sign.
Why am I happy about this? Because I can now go into an PUG Elite STF without anyone continuously making rude remarks about how wrong I am doing things. I will no longer have to put up with so much blatant disregard for others as has inhabited the Zone channel since I started playing this game last year. Because I may now be able to come to this forum and find useful information which allows me to play better, thus increasing my enjoyment of this game. Instead of the nauseatingly familiar threads appearing in infinite number which all come down to, "You took my toys away! You're Mean! Waaaah!"
Am I happy about Season Seven? Some things, no. Haven't played enough yet to make an informed opinion for myself. Which will be uninfluenced by which ever Drama Diva with her knickers in a complete twist proving William Shakespeare's remark about the Idiot's Tale is true is currently occupying the stage.
If you're leaving, then leave. If you expect by making a scene here someone actually thinks you matter enough to beg you to stay, then all I can say is Y'all picked the wrong pole cat to sniff today. Do not threaten, act. It is called being an adult. I fully realize this may be as alien a concept as you've ever come across, but it works. And when STO crashes and burns, you'll have the additional satisfaction of saying, "Told Ya!" I may even sit still long enough to listen. Or not. I have my own life and my own problems. Not much room in here for you being all butthurt over a MMO.
A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
Have you actually read anything anyone has been saying? Have you even understood one little bit of it?
If you are so sick of it why then partake in a discussion about it? I'm sick of **** shows on TV like X-Factor and you know what - I don't watch them!
Tough luck if you don't like other people complaining about the way they have been shafted, do something else, switch off the chat channel and don't read forum posts about the thing you are sick of and then complaining about the complainers LOL, your hypocrisy is astonishing.
Did you read what I said? There are new rewards, and I feel they're worth it. You don't get to look down your nose at me simply because I disagree. Besides that, when you do that, it reveals you don't really have a real argument and you know it.
My hypocrisy? So wanting the forums and zone chat to be full of USEFUL discussions is hypocritical? The forums aren't full of "OMG SEASON 7 IS THE BEST THING EVER" and frankly I think it is the best thing since the release of the game. I get and empathise with people who think it's not. I just think they're not seeing the big picture. They can't see the forest through the trees as it were. What I'm sick of is so much naysaying static. The complainers appear to be in the majority, or at least they're the mot vocal. So if you're so easily astonished by something that isn't really hypocritical in the slightest, then you really need to get out more. Oh wait, I get it, the use of the word "astonished" is more hyperbole. Seriously, shut up already.
The closest thing to a legitimate complaint anybody has is that the foundry has been shut down. That's what's actually got me miffed. I'm surprised there hasn't been more discussion on *that*. I suspect it's been shut down because of abuse of the quickie missions people have made.
The dilithium complaints aren't even remotely legitimate. Dilithium rewards have been shifted around; so make like a Borg and adapt!
The big difference would be that firstly u was getting 1100 dil plus EC plus GEAR plus possibility of increasing that dil considerably thru dice roll up to what 6k+ more dil per run ALL IN BLOODY 15 MINUTES..NOW U HAVE TO DO DIFFERENT INSTANCES FOR EVERY ONE OF THOSE AND GET LESS WHICH SUMS UP TO ALOT OF TIME CHASING THINGS AND NOT REALLY ENJOYING THE GAME THE WAY U WANT!WHICH SUMS UP TO HOURS OF BOORING PLAY TO GET WHAT U WERE GETTING IN 15 MINUTES!HOURRSSSS
I am about to make a heretical and blasphemous statement: I do not now, nor did I in the past care for the STFs. I am not sorry they are no longer the rasion d'etre for STO but have been returned to their rightful place. Which is merely three missions among the many other things this game offers us. If you listen carefully, you can hear the FanBoys start howling for my head.
The big problem with your stance is that the Cryptic spokespersons initially came out early on to say that all of these changes were to somehow benefit the more casual player that didn't have time to play as often as the hardcore, such as the elitist STFers of whom you complain. Well, as someone pointed out in another thread, all of these changes only serve to hurt those same casual players as now every category of in-game currency (dilithium, Romulan marks, Omega marks, EC, etc.) is now relegated to its own category of event. With STFs, you gained several different useful currencies in one reasonably paced event. Now, if you want to gain access to pretty much the same content, you're going to have to grind several different events at a far more time-consuming rate. Definitely not something that would benefit casual players, except perhaps the masochistic ones.
The closest thing to a legitimate complaint anybody has is that the foundry has been shut down. That's what's actually got me miffed. I'm surprised there hasn't been more discussion on *that*. I suspect it's been shut down because of abuse of the quickie missions people have made.
The dilithium complaints aren't even remotely legitimate. Dilithium rewards have been shifted around; so make like a Borg and adapt!
The fact that you find nothing objectionable at all in Dstahl and the Devs flagrantly and unapologetically lying to their entire playerbase not once, but twice in regards to S7 related changes worries me.
The fact that you find nothing objectionable at all in Dstahl and the Devs flagrantly and unapologetically lying to their entire playerbase not once, but twice in regards to S7 related changes worries me.
Dstahl is Marketing Department. I don't pay attention to marketers. I also don't give a TRIBBLE when marketing departments lie. Have you ever taken a class in marketing? I have. They teach you how to lie through a s**t eating grin. Marketer's lie, I'm not impressed by it.
What I do pay attention to is the changes that actually occur. Those I don't find objectiable except for the removal of the Foundry.
Dstahl is Marketing Department. I don't pay attention to marketers. I also don't give a TRIBBLE when marketing departments lie. Have you ever taken a class in marketing? I have. They teach you how to lie through a s**t eating grin. Marketer's lie, I'm not impressed by it.
What I do pay attention to is the changes that actually occur. Those I don't find objectiable except for the removal of the Foundry.
Comprende? Capice? わかりますか？
Executive Producer =/= Marketing
And thank you for admitting that he lied. I know that must have been difficult for you.
And thank you for admitting that he lied. I know that must have been difficult for you.
Oh, executive producer? You do realize that marketing execs often carry that title right? You know what else? Everything that's said by him on the webpage has to be approved by the marketing department. I didn't admit that he lied. I don't even know what he said. You have exceptionally poor reading comprehension. What I said was that marketing departments lie. It's what they do. So I don't pay attention to marketing of any sort.
If you want to twist my words around, go right ahead, but it only makes you look like a fool who can't read.
To my mind the biggest issue with siloing rewards like they have done is that they mean that if you don't enjoy certain content you have to forgo entire content reward chains. I personally think Fleet Actions are boring. They were in 2010, and nearly 3 years on they are still boring. I thought B'Tran Cluster dailies were pretty mind numbing too, so I didn't play them either. But I enjoy STFs, they are the content I *want* to play, removing the rewards from them does affect me.
Don't get me wrong I don't think PVE/Cryptic are out to shaft me, I think that they are trying to make all of the content playable by driving players to content no one was playing recently. Personally I would prefer if they added rewards to unpopular content to bring them up to a threshold that people will be able to play them if they want, but that they leave the other content rewards (that people are obviously having fun with) alone.
Oh, executive producer? You do realize that marketing execs often carry that title right? You know what else? Everything that's said by him on the webpage has to be approved by the marketing department. I didn't admit that he lied. I don't even know what he said. You have exceptionally poor reading comprehension. What I said was that marketing departments lie. It's what they do. So I don't pay attention to marketing of any sort.
So either they didn't lie, or they did lie but it's marketing speak so it doesn't count? Make up your mind with your arguments.
- The goal of the conversion is to retain "purchasing power" as close to what it was previously. We looked at the amount of items needed to obtain gear sets and set out to ensure that if you had enough items to get a specific gear piece or gear set, the conversion would be do its best to retain that purchasing power in the new system. Keep in mind that the way you obtain MACO/HONOR/OMEGA sets is going to be different because it will no longer be in a store, and will instead be via projects. So just having a conversion rate would not necessarily help you decide whether to cash out yet or not. The way you obtain dilithium and gear is changing in this system and you'll be able to see most of those changes on Tribble.
When we say "casual" play - we calculate that a player can earn all inputs necessary to complete the Rep system by playing three 1-hour session per week. That is very casual when compared to the greater amount of time most players actually play. We do not anticiapte anyone needing to trade for any Dilithium in order to complete this system as they should be able to easily earn enough in three 1-hour sessions per week given the amount of Dilithium players earn on average per session.
We will make sure that you can see the price structure as well as your conversion so that you can decide how best to proceed - either spend now on Holodeck in the old system, or wait for the new.
The designers had a desire to see more people playing the Fleet Actions by making Fleet Actions the best source of Dilithium. Keep in mind that STFs will reward Dilithium AND Omega Marks - and Omega Marks can then be converted to more Dilithium after you've hit max level in Omega, so it may seem just be a short sighted argument.
You really are making yourself look like an TRIBBLE today, do you get a dilithium payment from Cryptic for that? You said Dstahl is marketing department. End of. We are merely pointing out to you that he is far more than just the marketing department, he is the boss, the top guy, get it? Sure that means he has overall say in the marketing department but it's not all he is. And for your information I was a sales director when you were probably still in nappies sonny.
Correction, Alan Chen is the Boss and Big Guy. As he is the CEO of Perfect World Entertainment, and thus Dstahl's boss.
It will all be forgotten about in a few months when the next 'big thing' annoys people. Remember the big stink when they added Dilithium and Unreplicateable Materials to crafting?
Those things were not forgotten. If you haven't noticed people are not doing as much or AT ALL crafting. So.... Mission Accomplished by Cryptic?
And to the poster several people above yours, yes it seems they are giving more options with SB 24 giving 1440 Dil with a short cooldown, buit there are no big ships there before BECAUSE it was a newbiew STF to do before the big boys took out REAL STFs with the borg. Now the big boys have been sent back to the the start of the line in regards to STFs.
I guess you must done some research and found that satisfying those few players who were polaying the starting STFs was the most important thing of all, huh Cryptic?
OK noted, thanks, however if Cryptic enjoys a level of autonomy then for all intents and purposes Stahl has the big chair, however I assume your post implies that PWE are pulling the strings?
I can't say for certain how closely interrelated the two parts of the company are. However I highly doubt that the parent company would sit idly by and let Cryptic muck about with something that directly influences the Zen Currency which is the primary mode of income for Perfect World Entertainment.
I am a fairly avid crafter myself, though possibly not to the level Stahl was referring to in that article. To my mind, crafting wasn't killed by adding dilithium to it, it was just crippled. I have not, nor will I ever, craft any of the items that require dilithium as it stands now. There are still plenty of options for worthwhile things to craft (captain and lower weapons for new toons, melee weapons, kits for all levels, etc), but none of them require unreplicateable materials. So no, it's not dead, but adding those materials to the system certainly reduced its value to level 50 players to almost nothing.
Maybe that's your problem right there .
See in the Star Trek universe , ppl actually care about the opinions of other ppl , even when they differ from their own .
I may not agree with the complaints of Foundry Authors for example , but I don't confront them and tell them that I'm right and they're wrong simply because I say so .
More over , I don't question their right to voice their grievances any more then I question the pvp-ers or stf-ers or Kdf-ers .
We are all minorities , but despite what Cryptic thinks or does , we still matter .
If ya dont like the game, go play something else.
I'm not sure what to ask you first :
Are you sure you are a Star Trek fan ? (you don't sound like one)
And what other Star Trek Mmo would you suggest that I go play ?
I'm just sick of hearing it. I get that you people don't like it, but I don't like hearing about it every moment I'm in the game and all over the forums for a FREAKING month. Just shut up already.
Ahhh , but you at least hear it ... -- and not just from the "forum going minority" -- which is even better .
Kind of sucks that you are hearing what the Dev's don't (or pretend they don't) .
Gen.Hauk is definitely right tho -- fat chance the Devs are playing this game with any regularity .
That makes sense to me. It would also explain the total U-Turn from much of what Stahl and others had said during tribble testing. This last blog feels to me like something that has been forced on them and hence the huge amount of explanations given plus the lack of feedback on the many forum posts about this, seems to me Stahl's hands are tied and he is probably feeling just as shafted if not more so, because after all this is his livelihood, than the rest of us.
Makes you wonder how many of the Dev team may be looking at the Situations Vacant post of their local paper this morning?
I doubt anyone will get laid off because of this decision. But I agree very much that the oft-quoted Blog Post very much reeked of a "this is the way it is because PWE told us to do it this way" language. It doesn't seem that there is much of anything that can be done to change this. Nor does it seem that those who are complaining about this change and who are blaming Dstahl really have much of a grounds for that blame.
I doubt anyone will get laid off because of this decision. But I agree very much that the oft-quoted Blog Post very much reeked of a "this is the way it is because PWE told us to do it this way" language. It doesn't seem that there is much of anything that can be done to change this. Nor does it seem that those who are complaining about this change and who are blaming Dstahl really have much of a grounds for that blame.
There is no corporate overlord impossing game design on us. The closest thing we have to that is Jack Emmert and honestly, he plays STO constantly and usually has really good feedback and is constantly trying to get improvements made to the game.
Changes in the game design come from the game designers on the project and surface up through blog posts like this. If anything it is the game designers who look at issues in the game and propose solutions. They make the case and build concensus on the team and then implement the agreed upon changes.
It is managements (my) responsibility to announce these changes and collect feedback to share with the designers - trust me there has been a ton of it today.
You do realize STF's were already underrewarding as they were before, right?
Now they are even less worth playing, for someone like me who doesn't want to be forced to play stupid FA's, that's a bad thing.
I agree. I mostly relied upon STF's for Dilithium and loot drops, I play solely Space missions anyway, and still feel that the ground missions suck (of course that is my opinion and preference) Now I can not convert the loot I get from STF's, much less barely get anything of Dilithium except from Neural Processors. .
I gave this a try, I am not seeing how my play style is going to fit in with this new season. This was just a terrible idea.
Maybe that's your problem right there .
See in the Star Trek universe , ppl actually care about the opinions of other ppl , even when they differ from their own .
You see maybe that is your problem right there. We are talking about a game written and produced by a company in a world that still has a capitalist economy. Unlike in Star Trek where Capitalist Economies are largely obsolete (which makes very little to no sense when you consider how expensive a fleet of Star Cruisers must be in man-power, and raw physical resources to construct), people in our world still have to deal with making ends meet. Big Busnesses like Perfect World Entertainment (and by proxy Cryptic Studio's) largely do not have the time nor patience to cater to the whims of individual consumers. What they do is instead analyze market research, find what they THINK will make them the most money based on what their competitors are doing, and then try to replicate it in their games or do something better.
What this amounts to in our case is that it will often TRIBBLE off the players more than it will get things right.
Okay, that was probably the most foolish thing that Dstahl could ever possibly have said to the player base. Fact is this: Cryptic Studio's is owned by Perfect World Entertainment. The entire In-Game Economy is based on the Cryptic Currency known as Zen. Thus any decision that revolves around the Currency of Zen has a very very very significant probability of being dictated to Cryptic Studio's by Perfect World Entertainment.
Also, the introduction of Lock Boxes? That was 100% a Perfect World Entertainment Design Call. That was not something that Cryptic Studio's was likely to have installed on it's own, and it is something that is present in virtually every other Perfect World Entertainment Game.
Heck, the C-Store itself is largely influenced by other Perfect World Entertainment Cash Shops.
And for crying out loud the Reputation system? Yeah thats another Perfect World Entertainment / Wanmei thing. (Go check out Perfect World International's Reputation System and be stunned by the fact that many of those people actually WILLINGLY paid over 2,000 US Dollars for the best gear in that game). At least we haven't gotten to the point were we are dropping as much real life money as Perfect World International yet.
I would also agree with the OP. I was only on for 3 maybe 4 hours last night, and walked away with as much dilithium as I could refine in one day. I even had enough time to run 3 STF's and do all the space dailies in the new Romulan zone.
I think people are overreacting to the changes, and personally I think it gives us a little choice when it comes to farming dilithium. I never went to the B'Tran area very often unless I got a wild hair anyway. There's no point in going to borg space other than that, since you could queue up for STF's anywhere. Personally I think I maxed out my dilithium for the day faster last night than I did prior to season 7.
To be honest I think the changes were fine, and I haven't really seen any reason why I wouldn't want to play the game. People are jumping into Fleet Actions, running STF's, and exploring the game for what it is, and I think that's how it was really intended.
The fuss is about blatant and intentional misrepresentations on the Tribble build that were suddenly changed for the holodeck build. This is further laced with a convoluted Blog posts sans mea culpa from Stahl, in short, boiling down players to automatons and describing our gameplay in a cold, mechanical fashion. Ergo, "Playing as Intended".
I have to say, this whole thing is starting to look like a giant Asian Milgram experiment designed to discover how much time/money/patience can be extorted from Star Trek fans...
I was really looking forward to the new season. Boy, was I disappointed.
While New Romulus is interesting, the increased grinding, for less reward has made me likely to just stop playing. I mean, it was a huge grind before trying to chase Fleet Marks and dilithium to get the Starbase projects done. Now, they have DECREASED the availibility of dilithium, added HUGE Fleet mark requirements to the Embassy projects, TWO advancement paths that require TWO separate "marks" to be grinded.
I'm sorry, but, I could not disagree more with the OP. This is a real step back for STO, and sadly, likely one that will cause me to walk away.
Comments
One needs to look at the big picture here, is this the 1st step in nerfing the amount of Dilithium we will be able to grind, or, is this just one simple adjustment that will not be implemented further in the game.
Will the player bases silence lead to more nerfing or will it be left alone?
If silence is taken as acceptance will this lead to more missions taking the Dilithium nerf?
Or will the loud voice of un-acceptance determine how far they can nerf the Dilithium.
It is your choice, be silent and hope for the best or voice your concern and have the line drawn here and not let them go any further.
It basically comes down to this. Because Cryptic has made Dilithium one of, if not THE key ingredient in virtually all of the end game gear, as well as all of the Fleet Holdings, and Reputation Systems... then removing any more ways of effectively farming Dilithium would result in the inability of people to sell Dilithium for Zen. Which in turn would result in decreased purchases of Zen. Which would in turn result in decreased profits for Perfect World Entertainment from their Cryptic Studio's sector. This would in turn result in Perfect World Entertainment re-evaluating their acquisition of Cryptic Studio's and could potentially lead to the dismantling of Cryptic Studio's as a whole. Which would mean no more Star Trek Online.
In short, if Cryptic Studio's values their existence, they will not significantly nerf Dilithium production any more than they already have.
I am delighted so many have chosen to pose dramatically here upon the STO Forums stage to loudly announce they are leaving. When we get to the part where I am supposed to care, would someone wake me up, please? I don't want to miss a single second of the pathos of yet another in an endless series of overwrought, overfed, overindulged FanBoys ponderously heaving his pasty white bulk towards the Exit sign.
Why am I happy about this? Because I can now go into an PUG Elite STF without anyone continuously making rude remarks about how wrong I am doing things. I will no longer have to put up with so much blatant disregard for others as has inhabited the Zone channel since I started playing this game last year. Because I may now be able to come to this forum and find useful information which allows me to play better, thus increasing my enjoyment of this game. Instead of the nauseatingly familiar threads appearing in infinite number which all come down to, "You took my toys away! You're Mean! Waaaah!"
Am I happy about Season Seven? Some things, no. Haven't played enough yet to make an informed opinion for myself. Which will be uninfluenced by which ever Drama Diva with her knickers in a complete twist proving William Shakespeare's remark about the Idiot's Tale is true is currently occupying the stage.
If you're leaving, then leave. If you expect by making a scene here someone actually thinks you matter enough to beg you to stay, then all I can say is Y'all picked the wrong pole cat to sniff today. Do not threaten, act. It is called being an adult. I fully realize this may be as alien a concept as you've ever come across, but it works. And when STO crashes and burns, you'll have the additional satisfaction of saying, "Told Ya!" I may even sit still long enough to listen. Or not. I have my own life and my own problems. Not much room in here for you being all butthurt over a MMO.
Did you read what I said? There are new rewards, and I feel they're worth it. You don't get to look down your nose at me simply because I disagree. Besides that, when you do that, it reveals you don't really have a real argument and you know it.
My hypocrisy? So wanting the forums and zone chat to be full of USEFUL discussions is hypocritical? The forums aren't full of "OMG SEASON 7 IS THE BEST THING EVER" and frankly I think it is the best thing since the release of the game. I get and empathise with people who think it's not. I just think they're not seeing the big picture. They can't see the forest through the trees as it were. What I'm sick of is so much naysaying static. The complainers appear to be in the majority, or at least they're the mot vocal. So if you're so easily astonished by something that isn't really hypocritical in the slightest, then you really need to get out more. Oh wait, I get it, the use of the word "astonished" is more hyperbole. Seriously, shut up already.
The closest thing to a legitimate complaint anybody has is that the foundry has been shut down. That's what's actually got me miffed. I'm surprised there hasn't been more discussion on *that*. I suspect it's been shut down because of abuse of the quickie missions people have made.
The dilithium complaints aren't even remotely legitimate. Dilithium rewards have been shifted around; so make like a Borg and adapt!
↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → Ⓑ Ⓐ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyDbfCbQnH8
Oh how very melodramatic.
Everybody stop chewing the scenery, you're not getting an oscar or an emmy for your performances.
↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → Ⓑ Ⓐ
The big problem with your stance is that the Cryptic spokespersons initially came out early on to say that all of these changes were to somehow benefit the more casual player that didn't have time to play as often as the hardcore, such as the elitist STFers of whom you complain. Well, as someone pointed out in another thread, all of these changes only serve to hurt those same casual players as now every category of in-game currency (dilithium, Romulan marks, Omega marks, EC, etc.) is now relegated to its own category of event. With STFs, you gained several different useful currencies in one reasonably paced event. Now, if you want to gain access to pretty much the same content, you're going to have to grind several different events at a far more time-consuming rate. Definitely not something that would benefit casual players, except perhaps the masochistic ones.
The fact that you find nothing objectionable at all in Dstahl and the Devs flagrantly and unapologetically lying to their entire playerbase not once, but twice in regards to S7 related changes worries me.
Dstahl is Marketing Department. I don't pay attention to marketers. I also don't give a TRIBBLE when marketing departments lie. Have you ever taken a class in marketing? I have. They teach you how to lie through a s**t eating grin. Marketer's lie, I'm not impressed by it.
What I do pay attention to is the changes that actually occur. Those I don't find objectiable except for the removal of the Foundry.
Comprende? Capice? わかりますか？
↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → Ⓑ Ⓐ
Executive Producer =/= Marketing
And thank you for admitting that he lied. I know that must have been difficult for you.
He can be both executive producer and marketing director can't he?
Oh, executive producer? You do realize that marketing execs often carry that title right? You know what else? Everything that's said by him on the webpage has to be approved by the marketing department. I didn't admit that he lied. I don't even know what he said. You have exceptionally poor reading comprehension. What I said was that marketing departments lie. It's what they do. So I don't pay attention to marketing of any sort.
If you want to twist my words around, go right ahead, but it only makes you look like a fool who can't read.
Make like a borg and adapt.
Someone else who doesn't understand how corporations work, I see.
See that? Now pay attention.
↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → Ⓑ Ⓐ
Don't get me wrong I don't think PVE/Cryptic are out to shaft me, I think that they are trying to make all of the content playable by driving players to content no one was playing recently. Personally I would prefer if they added rewards to unpopular content to bring them up to a threshold that people will be able to play them if they want, but that they leave the other content rewards (that people are obviously having fun with) alone.
So either they didn't lie, or they did lie but it's marketing speak so it doesn't count? Make up your mind with your arguments.
Let's go by exactly what Stahl has said:
I could go on, but you get the idea.
Correction, Alan Chen is the Boss and Big Guy. As he is the CEO of Perfect World Entertainment, and thus Dstahl's boss.
Those things were not forgotten. If you haven't noticed people are not doing as much or AT ALL crafting. So.... Mission Accomplished by Cryptic?
And to the poster several people above yours, yes it seems they are giving more options with SB 24 giving 1440 Dil with a short cooldown, buit there are no big ships there before BECAUSE it was a newbiew STF to do before the big boys took out REAL STFs with the borg. Now the big boys have been sent back to the the start of the line in regards to STFs.
I guess you must done some research and found that satisfying those few players who were polaying the starting STFs was the most important thing of all, huh Cryptic?
Sidebar: Dstahl would disagree that crafting is dead.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/11/13/captains-log-qanda-with-star-trek-onlines-daniel-stahl/
4th question.
I can't say for certain how closely interrelated the two parts of the company are. However I highly doubt that the parent company would sit idly by and let Cryptic muck about with something that directly influences the Zen Currency which is the primary mode of income for Perfect World Entertainment.
I am a fairly avid crafter myself, though possibly not to the level Stahl was referring to in that article. To my mind, crafting wasn't killed by adding dilithium to it, it was just crippled. I have not, nor will I ever, craft any of the items that require dilithium as it stands now. There are still plenty of options for worthwhile things to craft (captain and lower weapons for new toons, melee weapons, kits for all levels, etc), but none of them require unreplicateable materials. So no, it's not dead, but adding those materials to the system certainly reduced its value to level 50 players to almost nothing.
Maybe that's your problem right there .
See in the Star Trek universe , ppl actually care about the opinions of other ppl , even when they differ from their own .
I may not agree with the complaints of Foundry Authors for example , but I don't confront them and tell them that I'm right and they're wrong simply because I say so .
More over , I don't question their right to voice their grievances any more then I question the pvp-ers or stf-ers or Kdf-ers .
We are all minorities , but despite what Cryptic thinks or does , we still matter .
I'm not sure what to ask you first :
Are you sure you are a Star Trek fan ? (you don't sound like one)
And what other Star Trek Mmo would you suggest that I go play ?
Ahhh , but you at least hear it ... -- and not just from the "forum going minority" -- which is even better .
Kind of sucks that you are hearing what the Dev's don't (or pretend they don't) .
Gen.Hauk is definitely right tho -- fat chance the Devs are playing this game with any regularity .
I doubt anyone will get laid off because of this decision. But I agree very much that the oft-quoted Blog Post very much reeked of a "this is the way it is because PWE told us to do it this way" language. It doesn't seem that there is much of anything that can be done to change this. Nor does it seem that those who are complaining about this change and who are blaming Dstahl really have much of a grounds for that blame.
Oh really...
I agree. I mostly relied upon STF's for Dilithium and loot drops, I play solely Space missions anyway, and still feel that the ground missions suck (of course that is my opinion and preference) Now I can not convert the loot I get from STF's, much less barely get anything of Dilithium except from Neural Processors. .
I gave this a try, I am not seeing how my play style is going to fit in with this new season. This was just a terrible idea.
You see maybe that is your problem right there. We are talking about a game written and produced by a company in a world that still has a capitalist economy. Unlike in Star Trek where Capitalist Economies are largely obsolete (which makes very little to no sense when you consider how expensive a fleet of Star Cruisers must be in man-power, and raw physical resources to construct), people in our world still have to deal with making ends meet. Big Busnesses like Perfect World Entertainment (and by proxy Cryptic Studio's) largely do not have the time nor patience to cater to the whims of individual consumers. What they do is instead analyze market research, find what they THINK will make them the most money based on what their competitors are doing, and then try to replicate it in their games or do something better.
What this amounts to in our case is that it will often TRIBBLE off the players more than it will get things right.
Okay, that was probably the most foolish thing that Dstahl could ever possibly have said to the player base. Fact is this: Cryptic Studio's is owned by Perfect World Entertainment. The entire In-Game Economy is based on the Cryptic Currency known as Zen. Thus any decision that revolves around the Currency of Zen has a very very very significant probability of being dictated to Cryptic Studio's by Perfect World Entertainment.
Also, the introduction of Lock Boxes? That was 100% a Perfect World Entertainment Design Call. That was not something that Cryptic Studio's was likely to have installed on it's own, and it is something that is present in virtually every other Perfect World Entertainment Game.
Heck, the C-Store itself is largely influenced by other Perfect World Entertainment Cash Shops.
And for crying out loud the Reputation system? Yeah thats another Perfect World Entertainment / Wanmei thing. (Go check out Perfect World International's Reputation System and be stunned by the fact that many of those people actually WILLINGLY paid over 2,000 US Dollars for the best gear in that game). At least we haven't gotten to the point were we are dropping as much real life money as Perfect World International yet.
I think people are overreacting to the changes, and personally I think it gives us a little choice when it comes to farming dilithium. I never went to the B'Tran area very often unless I got a wild hair anyway. There's no point in going to borg space other than that, since you could queue up for STF's anywhere. Personally I think I maxed out my dilithium for the day faster last night than I did prior to season 7.
To be honest I think the changes were fine, and I haven't really seen any reason why I wouldn't want to play the game. People are jumping into Fleet Actions, running STF's, and exploring the game for what it is, and I think that's how it was really intended.
While New Romulus is interesting, the increased grinding, for less reward has made me likely to just stop playing. I mean, it was a huge grind before trying to chase Fleet Marks and dilithium to get the Starbase projects done. Now, they have DECREASED the availibility of dilithium, added HUGE Fleet mark requirements to the Embassy projects, TWO advancement paths that require TWO separate "marks" to be grinded.
I'm sorry, but, I could not disagree more with the OP. This is a real step back for STO, and sadly, likely one that will cause me to walk away.