You know what, I'm going to break from the rage here (which is well deserved) and provide some actual feedback on the new system.
I think I've actually figured out your logic on the new system. Unfortunately it's based on poor logic. The issue is that you've turned all of these drops into conversion currencies.
If I do an eSTF and get 50 marks (for ease of math) and 1 BNP, I still get 0 Dilithium. But lets say I'm going to change these marks and BNP into Dilithium via the rep system. 50 Marks = 500 Dil, and 5 BNP (going by live) gets you 1000 Dil. That means that my 50 marks and 1 BNP I got from the estf are worth 700 Dilithium. For an estf 700 dilithium isn't that bad.
The problem is that these are mutually exclusive currencies. Sure I could turn in my marks for Dilithium but I can only do that at tier 5, which is minimum three months from now. But of course if I save my marks to get the Dilithium, I can't use it on the rep system. If I do use it on the rep system, or buying gear from the rep system, then that Dilithium value is lost to me. It no longer becomes a currency I can use to buy stuff from the gear store or buy zen or anything. The same thing goes with the BNPs; one BNP might be worth trading in for 200 Dil, but if I do that, I can't use it for the Omega gear that requires 15? BNPs just to purchase (oh yeah, and that takes Marks too, AND Dilithium, if I understand correctly).
You're now making us choose between keeping our marks/bnps for grinding up the rep system OR buying gear OR converting to Dilithium. That is the crux of the matter, and the problem with the system. With the old system we couldn't use the tokens for as many things, but we got some Dilithium and some EDCs and some salvage/techs. The new system demands too much from the fewer drops we are getting.
You've unified the currencies (good) but you've cut the supply (bad) and increased the demand via the rep grind systems (bad). Not to mention the increased Dilithium costs for things like the doff upgrade system.
As you can see, the new system wasn't fully thought out and is based on a flawed logic.
The rage we're seeing here is deserved. Not just because you put in another bad system, though. The real sickening part is the dishonest tactics you guys used. Even if you guys only made the decision to remove the dilithium drops on Monday, you knew it and you deliberately said nothing. I know you deliberately said nothing because nothing was in the patch notes about the dilithium getting cut. If you were honest, you would have put it in the notes. (If you were really honest you would have told us ahead of time) It's quite clear the devs decided to make the change and then explain it afterwards; if they told us ahead of time, they would've been directly making a change against all the terrible feedback they knew it would get. Thus they decided to hide the fact.
How are we supposed to trust you when you act this dishonestly?
Yes, it's true that Dilithium is now easier to get than ever with it being shifted to FAs.
But what i don't get is WHY Cryptic needs the Elite STF players to dumb down their gameplay, too?
Why is it so important, everyone plays the same narrow content? Why would it hurt them if some people do it by STFs if they are capable, too and some by fleet actions if they want easy going?
Hell, I would probably alternate between the options depending on my mood and eventual
burn out on one kind of content.
Now i will do STFs at most until I finish the rep, because I just need the passives. My captain and the Boffs that matter are decked out in Mk XI/XII gear already.
Then I will stop more or less... This will happen early next year. And I suspect many peopel think alike. It will have killed of STFs and they will be back where they were before they got butch... remastered. Hardly ever played.
Meanwhile people will be sick of the Fleet Actions because they are to boring and tedious if you do them day on end instead of an occasional nice diversion.
Maybe what they need to do is just rip out all the dilithium acquisition methods and make one big % completion wrapper daily for 8k, like the % completion missions on New Romulus and in the new sector block's patrol. (Or better, 8 identical dailies for 1k each.)
Then give everything a % completion value for the daily, based around a playtime goal of 4 hours for 8k.
Each daily just gives 1k for an estimated 30 minutes playtime.
Thanks Leviathan for that quote (and copy of TTS chat). I made quite a few remarks in that thread, and apparently a few of them "hit too close to home", since it led to Stahl's departure from the chat.
What I find most noteworthy in that chat (and bolded for emphasis);
"We are increasing the Dil drop rate in S7 significantly - it is just not in the content you personally want to play"
Basically, Stahl admitted that they are shoe-horning us into content that THEY choose for us. Fleet Actions may be the new best source of Dilithium, but after 1-2 runs it's not very enjoyable. Especially when you are competing for the #1 spot with all the DPS monster Escorts, since Healers and Tanks are basically shafted in Fleet Actions.
After 13 pages of (heated) discussion, it is rather clear to anyone who reads it:
Daniel Stahl lied to the community, either in chat, or in the blog or a combination of circumstances, which ultimately led to the TOTAL removal of Dilithium from STFs, despite assurances that Dilithium would still be earned in STFs, just not as much as we used to get. Season 7 has thus brought us;
1. Reduced Dilithium in STFs (ZERO)
2. Time-gated acquisition of gear (Reputation system)
3. Removal of all EDC, tech drop etc, in favor of "gating" it into a crate that can't be opened for several weeks/months. By which time, most people will be fed up waiting and have long since quit.
Congratulations Mr Stahl. You have succeeded in alienating most/all of your long-time players in a single patch.
And how many hours of STF grinding was required to get a complete Mk XII space set under the old system? Oh yeah, that's right, under the old system there was no guarantee you would EVER get the Mk XII set even after thousands of hours of grinding. How is the new system worse again?
UNDER the old system, even thought you were never garanteed to earn the MK XII Elite gear ( MK X AND XI were purchasable via 20/40 EDC by the way ), you at least ALWAYS were coming out of a STF with SOMETHING YOU COULD USE, SELL OR EXCHANGE RIGHT AWAY.
Your time in STF was always profitable no matter how you put it.
STF was not only profitable but within STO, it was also the most team oriented, challenging and tactical content to be played. So even if it was getting old like anything, many VA players kept doing it because there was some excitement there you could not find elsewhere in the game. Mastering Elite STF was like a proving ground for many players and a source of enjoyment AND reward for many others.
- 2 EDC ( good for getting Mk X, XII, Dilithium or Doff )
- 1100 Dilithium right of the bat for completion
- A chance at Rare or Prototype salvage ( good for Mk X, XI, XII or Dilithium )
- A chance at Tech salvages ( good for INSTANT Mk X to XII Set Borg Gear )
- Random Green, Blue and Purple drops of all kind ( consoles, weapons, etc )
Now you tell me what we won in Season 7. Tell me why i should spend time in STF while all the INSTANTANEOUS rewards are gone?
Thanks, but no thanks. Not worth the trouble. I am outta here.
Make dilithium harder to earn for the members of the small fleet that I am in and my fleet dies, as do just about any other small fleet. Cryptic, if this is your goal, just tell me know so I can stop investing in my Fleet Starbase and I will just go sucking up to large fleets for membership.
What the heck are you thinking Cryptic?
While I understand that it will be hard and probably a terrible time for small fleets to advance in the starbase system, why will small fleets fall apart? Surely there was something holding you together before the starbase system came out?
I like Al as a person but I think he tends to bogart design decisions away from the players, to get them playing how he wants. And I feel like Stahl just sort of shrugged at the change (with or without an internal debate: we'll never know) and decided to let him do it this time at the last minute without telling any of the testers.
So I retract my earlier point that it was a lie. It was a bloodless coupe by the systems team.
The rage we're seeing here is deserved. Not just because you put in another bad system, though. The real sickening part is the dishonest tactics you guys used. Even if you guys only made the decision to remove the dilithium drops on Monday, you knew it and you deliberately said nothing. I know you deliberately said nothing because nothing was in the patch notes about the dilithium getting cut. If you were honest, you would have put it in the notes. (If you were really honest you would have told us ahead of time) It's quite clear the devs decided to make the change and then explain it afterwards; if they told us ahead of time, they would've been directly making a change against all the terrible feedback they knew it would get. Thus they decided to hide the fact.
How are we supposed to trust you when you act this dishonestly?
Last night I spent 3 hours in game. During that time I tried to do as much on New Romulus as possible and 1 run on Mine Enemy. I then decided to try an Elite Infected Space STF. 5 people in queue, I waited 10 minutes at it didn't launch.
Grinding is one thing. Non productive waiting is another.
Player and forumite formerly known as FEELTHETHUNDER
Well i came back after a 10 month break because of cryptic ethnics and now i wish i wouldn't have. I have never seen a game with so much potential and a team with so much desire to kill it by do stupid **** like this. I am about fed up and ready to start looking for another game. Like many other have said i dont have the time for the season 7 bull****. I work 60 hours a week and have 3 kids. My time is limited and you just made it to where i nor others can level the fleet. Why in the hell did you put 2 of the same systems requiring the same **** when you know one system will be left out? (fleet) Everyone will be putting all their stuff into the rep system and not in the fleet system. Nice logic and thinking their. Not to mention taking away of the resource to be able to do this. That's brilliant or moronic. I will NOT play a game where i am forced to play the way you WANT me to play. I will play my own dam way. You just turned my fun and enjoyment in to pain and misery. Way to go dumbasses! And further thought... Why am i even typing this **** when every time i turn around i am complaing about your stupid bull****. That is not what a game is about. Its about listening to you players and doing what your players wish for not what you wish they would do or how you wish they would play. **** this stupid ignorant TRIBBLE bull****! If you don't revert the dilithium i am done with your game. I'll go back to forsaken world and give them money. At least they havent lied nor tricked me or forced me into anything.
P.S. If i wanted a time based design i would play EVE.
We expect the market to fluctuate as players find the new balance, but in general we want players earning Dilithium to get a decent amount of Zen for their trade so that players who are putting in the most effort to earn Dilithium can find a market to trade the time they?ve spent in the game for Zen.
What about people such as myself? Even though I am using your Free to Play system, I am also injecting physical money into buying zen. Instead of being able to get the best ground weapons, ground gear, and space equipment from the c-store, I have to grind the hell out of "Star Trek: Online". You have created a system that rewards freeloaders than paying customers. Subscribers and zen paying customers should be more important than the ones who don't pay. While using your Free to Play system, I have injected around $220 into zen. I did all of that within the last four to six months.
Lobi store and lock boxes are not the solution. Obstacles standing in the way of someone making a physical purchase defeats the idea of injecting money. It makes people give up and walk away.
On the flip side of this issue, the high dilithium priced endgame equipment cannot be used for leveling, conquering the world, or fulfilling a personal destiny. "Star Trek: Online's" problem is a lack of overall substance. Outside of grinding for new ground and space equipment, the story and overall rewards for our effort are rather cheap to nonexistent.
Also, as a result of allowing the fleet modules to be sold in the exchange, you have taken away the core value of physical money. Instead of having two zen paying customers buying items, you ended up losing a sale from the whole process. If you guys are losing money at this point, you have no one else to blame.
When it comes to the dilithium exchange, I would put a minimum limitation on the price of one zen. 158 pieces of dilithium for one zen is a steal. It undercuts the value of the dollar.
You should want people to buy zen, so they can buy powerful c-store items to conquer the world. Only one problem to this approach, "Star Trek: Online's" endgame lacks substance, leveling, and passion.
Its sad that this game is all about the grind.
Its also very sad that this game doesn't value physical money.
As an employee, I work to make things make sense and perform at high quality. I stress more about my jobs than most people I know. I'm the guy who gets out the brasso and cleans the door hinges if I've got a spare minute, without waiting for the janitor.
As a customer, I'm generally pretty amiable. I'm polite on the phone with customer service. I make friends with cashiers and retail employees easily.
When I get irritable, it's as a product tester, journalist, or critic, particularly when information is withheld or misleading. If I come off as a jerk in these comments, it's acting from that capacity.
I'll never forget when I was in a product focus group one time. They had me take a survey on restaurant types to put in at a food court facility. I put that I wanted sushi. Then we had a focus group with associations and feedback. Turns out, probably half of us wanted sushi and half wanted burgers. They flat out came out and told us that their goal was to get support for a burrito chain or maybe pizza. I gave them holy heck for running a focus group like that and making me waste my survey when they told me that they weren't reading surveys. I told them that if they only had two choices, there should only be two choices on a survey and that you do NOT solicit feedback from customers that you're not willing to consider. If the choice was pizza vs. burritos, that's what they should have been asking me about.
They had a survey that they were doing that they were trying to cook towards the highest profit operation. There is no point in conducting a survey when the outcome is decided... aside from the fact that NOT having a survey is arguably worse.
Don't tell me what I want. Even if you're right in the end, you'll wind up taking flack from me over it. It's not receptive. It's asking for feedback that isn't taken seriously and that is offensive to me. It's disingenuous.
I'll bet that so-called marketing team never forgot that focus group either.
Incidentally, that was a simple campus food service operation. And it should have been invisible. But they made a habit of doing marketing and focus grouping like that. And you know what happened? Students started making signs and protesting, lobbying for the college to terminate their food service contract. And I had zero involvement with that. Although I did get very vocal with them over the years and managed to get two of their better employees raises and reverse one firing.
That vendor is losing accounts left and right nationally now. And I chalk that up to them being institutional and internal loyalty focused over taking honest and well-meaning feedback. There is a problem when you start taking your co-workers' ideas too far above your customers', when you form in-groups. And I think Cryptic is unfortunately very susceptible to that kind of siege mentality in-group thinking.
And if some forum poster (who may have a good point) lashes out and either constructs a theory behind your motivations (which is fair if you aren't disclosing them) or calls your co-worker an idiot (which is unfair but the form negative reactions often take), then I think someone at Cryptic would be more likely to leap to the defense of a co-worker rather than honestly assess points on merits, where merits exist.
And I think that's a poor way to do business.
And, frankly, I wish we were all discussing this cordially over crullers and coffee but I'm on the outside here and when you're on the outside of a building with no windows and no phone line in, you either have to speak at a high volume or give up on communicating.
And I don't want to give up because, purely personally, I like you guys. And it hurts me a bit that your reaction sometimes is that you'd rather we give up on communicating. And I KNOW you've thought that.
Always nice to be proven right... I read people claiming "It's just a bug, the Dilithium will be added". I was cynical and said, something tells me it's currently "Working as intended". And I WAS RIGHT.
Thanks Mr Stahl, for lying through your teeth, and TRIBBLE over your player base yet again. Although I guess I shouldn't be too surprised when you insist in the latest Massively interview, that KDF were always intended as PVP only faction. Jack Emmert says otherwise...
I like what was done with S7 except the dilithium that was removed from STF's. I used to play 4 or 5 STF's a day and it would take around 1.5 to hours and I would get a lot of dilithium. As someone else pointed out we have kids, jobs, and don't have a lot of time to invest. And there is no way I will ever buy ZEN to buy dilithium. So I don't think people will refine more dilithium. They will be refining far less in fact... And I've stopped contributing dilithium to my Fleet's progress because I need it badly now. Sad.
Now for the KDF having always planned to be pvp only, I might be wrong here but that's not exactly what he said. The KDF was pvp only ever since STO went live. But I'm not sure he meant it was always intended we would be pvp only. I might be wrong but I will give him the benefit of the doubt.:)
Other than that I love what they did with S7. All I need now is a Romulan playable character, Romulan BOFF and a D'deridex warbird as a reward from New Romulus for helping them
Sorry, no amount of "internal deliberate" (you lads should invest in an editor) or long, mind-numbing posts full of jargon and double-talk on your part is going to disguise the BS here. This fan base, in largest part, are Trek FANS, which means even the numbest of us here are SCIENCE (a.k.a. intellectually-based) fiction geeks, and may have been born at night...but not LAST night.
So you reduce or eliminate the means for obtaining Dil through the avenues that have worked well, and force folks to use either the Rep system or Fleet actions to really rake it in because YOU feel that's how the game should be played. How about, rather than dictating to the player base WHICH venues should be explored, you provide EXTRA options, not limit them even further.
And you do this as we see steady and ridiculous increases in Dil costs for Fleet projects (many of which are not only WAY overpriced, but really stupid (tribbles and dance floors, anyone?)). Granted, it's our choice whether or not to buy the "upgrades," but you make a lot of folks' minds up simply based on pricing.
Sorry, Cryptic - I love this game, but this was a d%$k move...
Fleet Commander
Caprica's Revenge (...actually active since November 2010, which may one day be important to archaeologists, but not to anyone else...)
I'm glad you can enjou your dilithium with missions you like, really. But why should we step away from our endgame tough content because it gives damn poor rewards? Spreading rewards doesn't mean you have to pull the ones from endgame content.
Seriously, that's the first time I don't know what to do in game. I don't want to farm these mindless fleet actions, I have no interest in playing my favourite STFs, and knowing that I'll need hundreds of thousands of dil to buy my rewards from the reputation system is disheartening.
That's the very first time I'm utterly bored in STO, and I have (too) many hours of game. I used to enjoy a lot STFs, Fleet actions are boring, lack of teamplay and are complete selfish dps races.
Also, as a result of allowing the fleet modules to be sold in the exchange, you have taken away the core value of physical money. Instead of having two zen paying customers buying items, you ended up losing a sale from the whole process. If you guys are losing money at this point, you have no one else to blame.
I'm not sure if I understand your reasoning here. All modules come from the z-store, therefore all modules are paid for with zen. All zen is paid for with money. If player a buys zen and then buys modules to sell on the exchange to player b, it's no different than player b spending real money himself to buy the modules.
If it weren't possible to put those modules into the exchange, player a would have never bought them since he obviously does't want or need them (he wanted to sell them to another player)
It seems to me that Geko changed his mind or pushed a change through and Stahl basically said, "Eh. Whatever. I trust you, Al."
I like Al as a person but I think he tends to bogart design decisions away from the players, to get them playing how he wants. And I feel like Stahl just sort of shrugged at the change (with or without an internal debate: we'll never know) and decided to let him do it this time at the last minute without telling any of the testers.
So I retract my earlier point that it was a lie. It was a bloodless coupe by the systems team.
No it wasn't the systems team. This design is all Geko's. Geko is if nothing else very predictable. He has a very particular view in regards to designs. Even before you posted Daniel Stahl's quotes, I had a suspicious that Geko was involved in it. But I was dismissive it because he was over Systems. But that suspicious didn't go away.
I'm glad you can enjou your dilithium with missions you like, really. But why should we step away from our endgame tough content because it gives damn poor rewards? Spreading rewards doesn't mean you have to pull the ones from endgame content.
To put this in another perspective:
STFs are "Endgame Content", playable at level 45-50, and currently reward ZERO Dilithium
Fleet Actions can be played from Level 3 (Starbase 24), or already at Level 1(2) if you are a member of a fleet (Starbase Fleet Defense), and now reward 1440 Dilithium upon completion.
Now, you Cryptic defenders (not referring to you diogene0, just quoting your post);
Why should I as an "Endgame" player, run the Endgame content for ZERO rewards, when I could (and should) rather run through the Fleet Actions during the course of my normal leveling on a new alt character?
STFs could (and should) reward SOME currency, even if it's as low as 240 Dilithium for Normal, and 480 Dilithium for Elite. Rewarding ZERO, reduces the incentive that players will want to play the content.
My choices boil down to;
1. Run Fleet Actions, gain 1440 Dilithium and "random loot"
2. Run STFs, gain 0 Dilithium, and "NO random loot"
STFs are funner and more challenging, but reward less.
I'm not sure if I understand your reasoning here. All modules come from the z-store, therefore all modules are paid for with zen. All zen is paid for with money. If player a buys zen and then buys modules to sell on the exchange to player b, it's no different than player b spending real money himself to buy the modules.
If Crytpic were to prevent people from trading modules on the exchange, they would get more direct sales through the c-store. Instead of one person buying the item and dropping it for ec, Cryptic would be able to sell two items and make twice the money. Sure, people will just turn dilithium in for zen; however, the price of the modules should be set to make that difficult.
You want to discourage people from grinding, so they are more tempted into making a direct purchase.
One solution would be...
When it comes to the dilithium exchange, I would put a minimum limitation on the price of one zen. 158 pieces of dilithium for one zen is a steal. It undercuts the value of the dollar.
As a result of putting a minimum price of dilithium per zen, you can reward those who buy zen with physical money. ...and, you will be able to make it difficult for freeloaders to buy from the c-store.
People will be more encouraged to spend physical money, so they can obtain the more powerful gear, ships, and equipment from the c-store.
It just occured to me, what is so wrong about doing it this way:
1. All activities in the game reward dillithium, based on on the time it needs to be completed and partly how challenging the content is.
2. Extras, like special currencies (that ever-growing heap of different marks is what I'm talking about) are rewarded in accordance to the content type, Romulan marks for Romulan related content for example.
Problem solved, everyone can enjoy the game how he/she/it wants and the economy can be held in check by balancing time/challenge with rewards.
It's so simple that it' mind-boggling why we have the confusing and contradictory systems put into place with S7 instead.
Why did you take the loot bags out of STFs? I know it was just a silly console and a lockbox, but it was a Treasure Chest, effectively.
People love opening Treasure Chests / Loot Bags, even if they don't get much.
Bring back the loot bags.
THIS.
Seriously Devs, what does it cost you to simply put back a Loot Bag as a gift to players for completing the "hardest" content in game?
But again, whatever you could do by now would not change the fact that you lied to us.
And nothing short of bringing Roxy back with her store and our loot bags would make things right.
And i have signed that petition to be sent to PWE.
In fact, i would be willing to pay you guys to roll everything back to Season 6. I was perfectly happy back then. Just keep the Vesta and put back the STFs the way they were.
If Crytpic were to prevent people from trading modules on the exchange, they would get more direct sales through the c-store. Instead of one person buying the item and dropping it for ec, Cryptic would be able to sell two items and make twice the money. Sure, people will just turn dilithium in for zen; however, the price of the modules should be set to make that difficult.
You want to discourage people from grinding, so they are more tempted into making a direct purchase.
One solution would be...
How would they sell two items ? Only one player from your example actually wanted the modules..... the other one only got them to make ec. In both cases only one player spends real money.
Well Stahl, the Grand Nagus' is on his knees worshiping you wishing HE could of stuck it to us so good. He thought you were a hyoo-mon and not part Ferengi. You must of excelled in the government school of economics because they only keep one hand in our pockets fishing for all our change. When I take out my wallet and open it all I see is your legs sticking out as you try to steel my last dollar.
I originally bought the game knowing I would need to pay a monthly fee or get a lifetime subscription. Not a problem generating some revenue. I could enjoy the game and relax from the hard day. If I wanted something extra from the C-Store it was a little extra, no problem. Then the game goes free to play and download is free. The $50 I spent to buy the game when it first came out was the first slap in the face. Now it's the same thing grinding everyday just to get things accomplished so you can get the gear to play the same missions again and again. A first there was crafting. A good way to make better gear but needed to grind for samples. Then you added the common and un common unreplicateable stuff to make us buy it with dilithium and that started the grind for dilithium. Then came the dilithium store and the exchange.
Now almost everything needs dilithium at hyper-inflated prices that is ludicrous, and then to give so little in dilithium payouts hoping to force us to spend even more real money to buy zen to convert to dilithium. Do you really think we would blindly do 5 missions to equal a bit less of the same payout that we use to get for one mission? People haven't even realized yet how you even upped the cost to trade up your doff officers. Inside at the personnel officer where it was the cheapest (because we needed to save our dilithium for those outrageously priced star base missions) now its 500 dilithium for white, 2500 dilithium for green, and 5000 dilithium for blue. Can we say a bit excessive when it was 10,50, and I think 100? It's been said that we were not refining enough dilithium but my fleet now has 4 players and only one real active player in it and we are at tier 2. Do you want to try and say we didn't refine enough dilithium to keep you happy? Thanks for that slap in the face again.
Then there is the ships we want like the Jem'Hadar. Why don't you all make it so Rom on DS9 is now a ship trader and you can get a token and pick your ship? Or doff missions where you get parts to assemble the ship and if you get the 3% critical chance you get the unmanned Jem'Hadar warship? Like everybody has 200+ million to buy one on the exchange because they are not given out as freely as the others, or expect us to pay $100+ to try to get one out of the reinforcement packs and end up with leaves and incense, oh and 10 lobi crystals. Ridiculous!
When you all started the bases it became a grind and some could even argue a second job. It was tolerable, (barely). Now you made it 10X worse. It's not a game anymore, It's not any fun. It feels like we grind and grind to get nowhere and then you all change things and throw us further behind so we would pay real money to make some headway in the game lining your pockets even more. You can check, I've spent my fare share in the C-Store and TWO lifetime accounts. This piggy bank is now empty and closed. You all have put the proverbial gun to STO's head and are squeezing the trigger real hard. In this economy now days we need gas for work and to put a roof over our family and food on our tables, NOT all in your pockets for a game that is a grind/job and not entertainment/fun. If you don't get a clue from all these posts and really listen to the players/payers, STO will die and it will have been by your hands all in the name of greed.
I'd have liked to have seen a dilithium reward added to completing any of the Featured Episode series. If you want to direct people to as much varied content as possible you shouldn't have just left it at the Fleet Actions in this initial update to the new system.
In addition when are we going to see Reputation Marks added to the Romulan and Borg episodes?
I'd go a little further and say completion of *any* episode series. I do not enjoy Fleet actions.
The content I enjoy the most is the storyline/episode content. It's also the content I've played the least for some time now, because so much is gated behind dilithium now.
We are being funneled into the grind for dilithium, meaning that Cryptic does not have produce storyline content at a rate more consistent with other MMOS because, after all, "statistics" show people are doing more grinding than storyline missions.
The idea that we are doing it because it is the only option to open up the things gated by dilithium is not factored in. These become manipulated statistics because there are players who are are doing it by necessity instead of fun. The danger is that if those players are totally pushed in that direction, the grind will overrun the fun -- and they'll go elsewhere for a more enjoyable gaming experience.
Some of us who have enjoyed STO and the immense *potential* of the game are starting to get frustrated at the shift in direction.
How would they sell two items ? Only one player from your example actually wanted the modules..... the other one only got them to make ec. In both cases only one player spends real money.
Logic dictates that... If you remove that particular scenario, no one will be buying the modules to sell for energy credits. They will be buying the modules for themselves. They will find some other less expensive item to sell for energy credits.
When you walk into a real world store, the merchants put the popular selling items into the back. As a result of placing them into the back, people are forced to walk through the store. While they make their way to the back, customers will be exposed to other products. Chances are they are going to buy another item. Did you happen to notice soda, beer, and water are placed in the back of the store? Its all psychological.
Logic dictates that... If you remove that particular scenario, no one will be buying the modules to sell for energy credits. They will be buying the modules for themselves. They will find some other less expensive item to sell for energy credits.
Ummm, if that example player needed modules he would buy them anyway. Not being able to sell them for ec only means that he wouldn't buy them at all, unless he needed them for himself. And he wouldn't sell them if he needed them....
"Prior to Season 7, the average amount of Dilithium refined by an active level 50 player was 3100 per session or 13,250 per week"
This kind of sums up my confusion.
Firstly, let's look at the term "Average" amount.
Say 1000 players log in over the course of a day. If 500 players make 8000 dil each in that time and actually play a lot of the content, and the other 500 make 0 dil, by logging in and do nothing, you get an average of 4000 dilithium. Using 'An Average' as a yardstick to compare ALL players is nuts. How about working on some realistic statistics rather than a simple Excel Spreadsheet function !?!
To change the system to benefit the 500 people who obviously aren't all that into the game and negatively affect those 500 who actually try and get the most out of it is just beyond incomprehensible.
Secondly, let's assume that you do actually use this 'average' value. Again, you seem to have ignored your own logic... You worked out this average, and then used this value to raise the bar for everyone. Not lower it.
If this is the amount at the moment and it isn't broken (which I don't think it was) then why not assume that the average player will make this much dil per day max, and they will need that to contribute to reputation projects, fleet projects, buy equipment, trade for zen points etc...
Instead, your approach is - let's take all of this away, and STILL expect you to be able to do all of the above ? And what's more, there are now MORE Dilithium requirements.
Here's my thought, and I think it's pretty reasonable:
maybe just cut back some of the Dilithium rewards. Don't do an "All or nothing" approach. How about say - remove it from STFs, but keep in the Betreka Nebula option ? or reduce it in STFs, and put some in fleet missions... There are a wealth of ways you could have handled this, and you seem to have alienated a large section of the userbase without actually improving or making it better for anyone !
Seriously, I urge you to reconsider fast before you do more damage.
DStahl, the Executive Producter of the game, this is a message directed soley at you:
You had previously stated that STFs would have a dilithium reward at 900ish/450ish and these levels were installed on Tribble.
S7 went live with zero dilithium rewards.
You are a liar, plain and simple.
You had previously stated that all the hard work and play that players had previously put into the STF system would ensure them equivalent purchasing power in the new system.
The conversion happened and I have less than 5% of my previous purchasing power in commodity terms, not to mention the fact that it will take me additional months of grind to get to the position that I was in before.
You are a liar, plain and simple.
You deliberately hid the truth of the conversion rate tables from players, and although after sterling effort the nature of the complete shambles was revealed, for many players (me included) it was too late and S7 hit before I could react. I lost over 400,000 dilithium worth of things. This is over ?20 worth of REAL MONEY that you stole.
You are a thief, plain and simple.
I am not even going to read your Dev Blog, because I am in the unfortunate position of NOT BEING ABLE TO BELIEVE A SINGLE WORD THAT YOU SAY.
I am not going to pay you another dime becuase I am in the unfortunate position of NOT BEING ABLE TO TRUST YOU WITH MY MONEY.
Congratulations to you for killing the game that I love and would have continued to support long into the future before this utter **** up.
Comments
I think I've actually figured out your logic on the new system. Unfortunately it's based on poor logic. The issue is that you've turned all of these drops into conversion currencies.
If I do an eSTF and get 50 marks (for ease of math) and 1 BNP, I still get 0 Dilithium. But lets say I'm going to change these marks and BNP into Dilithium via the rep system. 50 Marks = 500 Dil, and 5 BNP (going by live) gets you 1000 Dil. That means that my 50 marks and 1 BNP I got from the estf are worth 700 Dilithium. For an estf 700 dilithium isn't that bad.
The problem is that these are mutually exclusive currencies. Sure I could turn in my marks for Dilithium but I can only do that at tier 5, which is minimum three months from now. But of course if I save my marks to get the Dilithium, I can't use it on the rep system. If I do use it on the rep system, or buying gear from the rep system, then that Dilithium value is lost to me. It no longer becomes a currency I can use to buy stuff from the gear store or buy zen or anything. The same thing goes with the BNPs; one BNP might be worth trading in for 200 Dil, but if I do that, I can't use it for the Omega gear that requires 15? BNPs just to purchase (oh yeah, and that takes Marks too, AND Dilithium, if I understand correctly).
You're now making us choose between keeping our marks/bnps for grinding up the rep system OR buying gear OR converting to Dilithium. That is the crux of the matter, and the problem with the system. With the old system we couldn't use the tokens for as many things, but we got some Dilithium and some EDCs and some salvage/techs. The new system demands too much from the fewer drops we are getting.
You've unified the currencies (good) but you've cut the supply (bad) and increased the demand via the rep grind systems (bad). Not to mention the increased Dilithium costs for things like the doff upgrade system.
As you can see, the new system wasn't fully thought out and is based on a flawed logic.
The rage we're seeing here is deserved. Not just because you put in another bad system, though. The real sickening part is the dishonest tactics you guys used. Even if you guys only made the decision to remove the dilithium drops on Monday, you knew it and you deliberately said nothing. I know you deliberately said nothing because nothing was in the patch notes about the dilithium getting cut. If you were honest, you would have put it in the notes. (If you were really honest you would have told us ahead of time) It's quite clear the devs decided to make the change and then explain it afterwards; if they told us ahead of time, they would've been directly making a change against all the terrible feedback they knew it would get. Thus they decided to hide the fact.
How are we supposed to trust you when you act this dishonestly?
Maybe what they need to do is just rip out all the dilithium acquisition methods and make one big % completion wrapper daily for 8k, like the % completion missions on New Romulus and in the new sector block's patrol. (Or better, 8 identical dailies for 1k each.)
Then give everything a % completion value for the daily, based around a playtime goal of 4 hours for 8k.
Each daily just gives 1k for an estimated 30 minutes playtime.
Thanks Leviathan for that quote (and copy of TTS chat). I made quite a few remarks in that thread, and apparently a few of them "hit too close to home", since it led to Stahl's departure from the chat.
What I find most noteworthy in that chat (and bolded for emphasis);
"We are increasing the Dil drop rate in S7 significantly - it is just not in the content you personally want to play"
Basically, Stahl admitted that they are shoe-horning us into content that THEY choose for us. Fleet Actions may be the new best source of Dilithium, but after 1-2 runs it's not very enjoyable. Especially when you are competing for the #1 spot with all the DPS monster Escorts, since Healers and Tanks are basically shafted in Fleet Actions.
After 13 pages of (heated) discussion, it is rather clear to anyone who reads it:
Daniel Stahl lied to the community, either in chat, or in the blog or a combination of circumstances, which ultimately led to the TOTAL removal of Dilithium from STFs, despite assurances that Dilithium would still be earned in STFs, just not as much as we used to get. Season 7 has thus brought us;
1. Reduced Dilithium in STFs (ZERO)
2. Time-gated acquisition of gear (Reputation system)
3. Removal of all EDC, tech drop etc, in favor of "gating" it into a crate that can't be opened for several weeks/months. By which time, most people will be fed up waiting and have long since quit.
Congratulations Mr Stahl. You have succeeded in alienating most/all of your long-time players in a single patch.
UNDER the old system, even thought you were never garanteed to earn the MK XII Elite gear ( MK X AND XI were purchasable via 20/40 EDC by the way ), you at least ALWAYS were coming out of a STF with SOMETHING YOU COULD USE, SELL OR EXCHANGE RIGHT AWAY.
Your time in STF was always profitable no matter how you put it.
STF was not only profitable but within STO, it was also the most team oriented, challenging and tactical content to be played. So even if it was getting old like anything, many VA players kept doing it because there was some excitement there you could not find elsewhere in the game. Mastering Elite STF was like a proving ground for many players and a source of enjoyment AND reward for many others.
- 2 EDC ( good for getting Mk X, XII, Dilithium or Doff )
- 1100 Dilithium right of the bat for completion
- A chance at Rare or Prototype salvage ( good for Mk X, XI, XII or Dilithium )
- A chance at Tech salvages ( good for INSTANT Mk X to XII Set Borg Gear )
- Random Green, Blue and Purple drops of all kind ( consoles, weapons, etc )
Now you tell me what we won in Season 7. Tell me why i should spend time in STF while all the INSTANTANEOUS rewards are gone?
Thanks, but no thanks. Not worth the trouble. I am outta here.
Loot bags.
Why did you take the loot bags out of STFs? I know it was just a silly console and a lockbox, but it was a Treasure Chest, effectively.
People love opening Treasure Chests / Loot Bags, even if they don't get much.
Bring back the loot bags.
While I understand that it will be hard and probably a terrible time for small fleets to advance in the starbase system, why will small fleets fall apart? Surely there was something holding you together before the starbase system came out?
Perhaps, but even so:
i have not got any dilithium from any fleet action , did they change their mind or something ?
DELTA PRICE RISING
Grinding is one thing. Non productive waiting is another.
Player and forumite formerly known as FEELTHETHUNDER
Expatriot Might Characters in EXILE
P.S. If i wanted a time based design i would play EVE.
Dorlin: Level 65 GF/2nd Account: Calias/62
Elkysium: Level 65 CW/2nd Account: Krystalyn/62
Artemis: Level 65 TR/2nd Account: Fayne/62
Zantoth: Level 65 DC/2nd Account: Nemea/62
Kryndar: Level 65 HR/2nd Account: Lilith/62
Goreb: Level 65 GWF/2nd Account: Tysha/62
Bamidor: Level 65 OP/2nd Account: Valindra/62
Lobi store and lock boxes are not the solution. Obstacles standing in the way of someone making a physical purchase defeats the idea of injecting money. It makes people give up and walk away.
On the flip side of this issue, the high dilithium priced endgame equipment cannot be used for leveling, conquering the world, or fulfilling a personal destiny. "Star Trek: Online's" problem is a lack of overall substance. Outside of grinding for new ground and space equipment, the story and overall rewards for our effort are rather cheap to nonexistent.
Also, as a result of allowing the fleet modules to be sold in the exchange, you have taken away the core value of physical money. Instead of having two zen paying customers buying items, you ended up losing a sale from the whole process. If you guys are losing money at this point, you have no one else to blame.
When it comes to the dilithium exchange, I would put a minimum limitation on the price of one zen. 158 pieces of dilithium for one zen is a steal. It undercuts the value of the dollar.
You should want people to buy zen, so they can buy powerful c-store items to conquer the world. Only one problem to this approach, "Star Trek: Online's" endgame lacks substance, leveling, and passion.
Its sad that this game is all about the grind.
Its also very sad that this game doesn't value physical money.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
As an employee, I work to make things make sense and perform at high quality. I stress more about my jobs than most people I know. I'm the guy who gets out the brasso and cleans the door hinges if I've got a spare minute, without waiting for the janitor.
As a customer, I'm generally pretty amiable. I'm polite on the phone with customer service. I make friends with cashiers and retail employees easily.
When I get irritable, it's as a product tester, journalist, or critic, particularly when information is withheld or misleading. If I come off as a jerk in these comments, it's acting from that capacity.
I'll never forget when I was in a product focus group one time. They had me take a survey on restaurant types to put in at a food court facility. I put that I wanted sushi. Then we had a focus group with associations and feedback. Turns out, probably half of us wanted sushi and half wanted burgers. They flat out came out and told us that their goal was to get support for a burrito chain or maybe pizza. I gave them holy heck for running a focus group like that and making me waste my survey when they told me that they weren't reading surveys. I told them that if they only had two choices, there should only be two choices on a survey and that you do NOT solicit feedback from customers that you're not willing to consider. If the choice was pizza vs. burritos, that's what they should have been asking me about.
They had a survey that they were doing that they were trying to cook towards the highest profit operation. There is no point in conducting a survey when the outcome is decided... aside from the fact that NOT having a survey is arguably worse.
Don't tell me what I want. Even if you're right in the end, you'll wind up taking flack from me over it. It's not receptive. It's asking for feedback that isn't taken seriously and that is offensive to me. It's disingenuous.
I'll bet that so-called marketing team never forgot that focus group either.
Incidentally, that was a simple campus food service operation. And it should have been invisible. But they made a habit of doing marketing and focus grouping like that. And you know what happened? Students started making signs and protesting, lobbying for the college to terminate their food service contract. And I had zero involvement with that. Although I did get very vocal with them over the years and managed to get two of their better employees raises and reverse one firing.
That vendor is losing accounts left and right nationally now. And I chalk that up to them being institutional and internal loyalty focused over taking honest and well-meaning feedback. There is a problem when you start taking your co-workers' ideas too far above your customers', when you form in-groups. And I think Cryptic is unfortunately very susceptible to that kind of siege mentality in-group thinking.
And if some forum poster (who may have a good point) lashes out and either constructs a theory behind your motivations (which is fair if you aren't disclosing them) or calls your co-worker an idiot (which is unfair but the form negative reactions often take), then I think someone at Cryptic would be more likely to leap to the defense of a co-worker rather than honestly assess points on merits, where merits exist.
And I think that's a poor way to do business.
And, frankly, I wish we were all discussing this cordially over crullers and coffee but I'm on the outside here and when you're on the outside of a building with no windows and no phone line in, you either have to speak at a high volume or give up on communicating.
And I don't want to give up because, purely personally, I like you guys. And it hurts me a bit that your reaction sometimes is that you'd rather we give up on communicating. And I KNOW you've thought that.
I like what was done with S7 except the dilithium that was removed from STF's. I used to play 4 or 5 STF's a day and it would take around 1.5 to hours and I would get a lot of dilithium. As someone else pointed out we have kids, jobs, and don't have a lot of time to invest. And there is no way I will ever buy ZEN to buy dilithium. So I don't think people will refine more dilithium. They will be refining far less in fact... And I've stopped contributing dilithium to my Fleet's progress because I need it badly now. Sad.
Now for the KDF having always planned to be pvp only, I might be wrong here but that's not exactly what he said. The KDF was pvp only ever since STO went live. But I'm not sure he meant it was always intended we would be pvp only. I might be wrong but I will give him the benefit of the doubt.:)
Other than that I love what they did with S7. All I need now is a Romulan playable character, Romulan BOFF and a D'deridex warbird as a reward from New Romulus for helping them
So you reduce or eliminate the means for obtaining Dil through the avenues that have worked well, and force folks to use either the Rep system or Fleet actions to really rake it in because YOU feel that's how the game should be played. How about, rather than dictating to the player base WHICH venues should be explored, you provide EXTRA options, not limit them even further.
And you do this as we see steady and ridiculous increases in Dil costs for Fleet projects (many of which are not only WAY overpriced, but really stupid (tribbles and dance floors, anyone?)). Granted, it's our choice whether or not to buy the "upgrades," but you make a lot of folks' minds up simply based on pricing.
Sorry, Cryptic - I love this game, but this was a d%$k move...
Fleet Commander
Caprica's Revenge
(...actually active since November 2010, which may one day be important to archaeologists, but not to anyone else...)
I'm glad you can enjou your dilithium with missions you like, really. But why should we step away from our endgame tough content because it gives damn poor rewards? Spreading rewards doesn't mean you have to pull the ones from endgame content.
Seriously, that's the first time I don't know what to do in game. I don't want to farm these mindless fleet actions, I have no interest in playing my favourite STFs, and knowing that I'll need hundreds of thousands of dil to buy my rewards from the reputation system is disheartening.
That's the very first time I'm utterly bored in STO, and I have (too) many hours of game. I used to enjoy a lot STFs, Fleet actions are boring, lack of teamplay and are complete selfish dps races.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
I'm not sure if I understand your reasoning here. All modules come from the z-store, therefore all modules are paid for with zen. All zen is paid for with money. If player a buys zen and then buys modules to sell on the exchange to player b, it's no different than player b spending real money himself to buy the modules.
If it weren't possible to put those modules into the exchange, player a would have never bought them since he obviously does't want or need them (he wanted to sell them to another player)
No it wasn't the systems team. This design is all Geko's. Geko is if nothing else very predictable. He has a very particular view in regards to designs. Even before you posted Daniel Stahl's quotes, I had a suspicious that Geko was involved in it. But I was dismissive it because he was over Systems. But that suspicious didn't go away.
To put this in another perspective:
STFs are "Endgame Content", playable at level 45-50, and currently reward ZERO Dilithium
Fleet Actions can be played from Level 3 (Starbase 24), or already at Level 1(2) if you are a member of a fleet (Starbase Fleet Defense), and now reward 1440 Dilithium upon completion.
Now, you Cryptic defenders (not referring to you diogene0, just quoting your post);
Why should I as an "Endgame" player, run the Endgame content for ZERO rewards, when I could (and should) rather run through the Fleet Actions during the course of my normal leveling on a new alt character?
STFs could (and should) reward SOME currency, even if it's as low as 240 Dilithium for Normal, and 480 Dilithium for Elite. Rewarding ZERO, reduces the incentive that players will want to play the content.
My choices boil down to;
1. Run Fleet Actions, gain 1440 Dilithium and "random loot"
2. Run STFs, gain 0 Dilithium, and "NO random loot"
STFs are funner and more challenging, but reward less.
You want to discourage people from grinding, so they are more tempted into making a direct purchase.
One solution would be... As a result of putting a minimum price of dilithium per zen, you can reward those who buy zen with physical money. ...and, you will be able to make it difficult for freeloaders to buy from the c-store.
People will be more encouraged to spend physical money, so they can obtain the more powerful gear, ships, and equipment from the c-store.
1. All activities in the game reward dillithium, based on on the time it needs to be completed and partly how challenging the content is.
2. Extras, like special currencies (that ever-growing heap of different marks is what I'm talking about) are rewarded in accordance to the content type, Romulan marks for Romulan related content for example.
Problem solved, everyone can enjoy the game how he/she/it wants and the economy can be held in check by balancing time/challenge with rewards.
It's so simple that it' mind-boggling why we have the confusing and contradictory systems put into place with S7 instead.
THIS.
Seriously Devs, what does it cost you to simply put back a Loot Bag as a gift to players for completing the "hardest" content in game?
But again, whatever you could do by now would not change the fact that you lied to us.
And nothing short of bringing Roxy back with her store and our loot bags would make things right.
And i have signed that petition to be sent to PWE.
In fact, i would be willing to pay you guys to roll everything back to Season 6. I was perfectly happy back then. Just keep the Vesta and put back the STFs the way they were.
Thx
How would they sell two items ? Only one player from your example actually wanted the modules..... the other one only got them to make ec. In both cases only one player spends real money.
I originally bought the game knowing I would need to pay a monthly fee or get a lifetime subscription. Not a problem generating some revenue. I could enjoy the game and relax from the hard day. If I wanted something extra from the C-Store it was a little extra, no problem. Then the game goes free to play and download is free. The $50 I spent to buy the game when it first came out was the first slap in the face. Now it's the same thing grinding everyday just to get things accomplished so you can get the gear to play the same missions again and again. A first there was crafting. A good way to make better gear but needed to grind for samples. Then you added the common and un common unreplicateable stuff to make us buy it with dilithium and that started the grind for dilithium. Then came the dilithium store and the exchange.
Now almost everything needs dilithium at hyper-inflated prices that is ludicrous, and then to give so little in dilithium payouts hoping to force us to spend even more real money to buy zen to convert to dilithium. Do you really think we would blindly do 5 missions to equal a bit less of the same payout that we use to get for one mission? People haven't even realized yet how you even upped the cost to trade up your doff officers. Inside at the personnel officer where it was the cheapest (because we needed to save our dilithium for those outrageously priced star base missions) now its 500 dilithium for white, 2500 dilithium for green, and 5000 dilithium for blue. Can we say a bit excessive when it was 10,50, and I think 100? It's been said that we were not refining enough dilithium but my fleet now has 4 players and only one real active player in it and we are at tier 2. Do you want to try and say we didn't refine enough dilithium to keep you happy? Thanks for that slap in the face again.
Then there is the ships we want like the Jem'Hadar. Why don't you all make it so Rom on DS9 is now a ship trader and you can get a token and pick your ship? Or doff missions where you get parts to assemble the ship and if you get the 3% critical chance you get the unmanned Jem'Hadar warship? Like everybody has 200+ million to buy one on the exchange because they are not given out as freely as the others, or expect us to pay $100+ to try to get one out of the reinforcement packs and end up with leaves and incense, oh and 10 lobi crystals. Ridiculous!
When you all started the bases it became a grind and some could even argue a second job. It was tolerable, (barely). Now you made it 10X worse. It's not a game anymore, It's not any fun. It feels like we grind and grind to get nowhere and then you all change things and throw us further behind so we would pay real money to make some headway in the game lining your pockets even more. You can check, I've spent my fare share in the C-Store and TWO lifetime accounts. This piggy bank is now empty and closed. You all have put the proverbial gun to STO's head and are squeezing the trigger real hard. In this economy now days we need gas for work and to put a roof over our family and food on our tables, NOT all in your pockets for a game that is a grind/job and not entertainment/fun. If you don't get a clue from all these posts and really listen to the players/payers, STO will die and it will have been by your hands all in the name of greed.
I'd go a little further and say completion of *any* episode series. I do not enjoy Fleet actions.
The content I enjoy the most is the storyline/episode content. It's also the content I've played the least for some time now, because so much is gated behind dilithium now.
We are being funneled into the grind for dilithium, meaning that Cryptic does not have produce storyline content at a rate more consistent with other MMOS because, after all, "statistics" show people are doing more grinding than storyline missions.
The idea that we are doing it because it is the only option to open up the things gated by dilithium is not factored in. These become manipulated statistics because there are players who are are doing it by necessity instead of fun. The danger is that if those players are totally pushed in that direction, the grind will overrun the fun -- and they'll go elsewhere for a more enjoyable gaming experience.
Some of us who have enjoyed STO and the immense *potential* of the game are starting to get frustrated at the shift in direction.
When you walk into a real world store, the merchants put the popular selling items into the back. As a result of placing them into the back, people are forced to walk through the store. While they make their way to the back, customers will be exposed to other products. Chances are they are going to buy another item. Did you happen to notice soda, beer, and water are placed in the back of the store? Its all psychological.
Ummm, if that example player needed modules he would buy them anyway. Not being able to sell them for ec only means that he wouldn't buy them at all, unless he needed them for himself. And he wouldn't sell them if he needed them....
This kind of sums up my confusion.
Firstly, let's look at the term "Average" amount.
Say 1000 players log in over the course of a day. If 500 players make 8000 dil each in that time and actually play a lot of the content, and the other 500 make 0 dil, by logging in and do nothing, you get an average of 4000 dilithium. Using 'An Average' as a yardstick to compare ALL players is nuts. How about working on some realistic statistics rather than a simple Excel Spreadsheet function !?!
To change the system to benefit the 500 people who obviously aren't all that into the game and negatively affect those 500 who actually try and get the most out of it is just beyond incomprehensible.
Secondly, let's assume that you do actually use this 'average' value. Again, you seem to have ignored your own logic... You worked out this average, and then used this value to raise the bar for everyone. Not lower it.
If this is the amount at the moment and it isn't broken (which I don't think it was) then why not assume that the average player will make this much dil per day max, and they will need that to contribute to reputation projects, fleet projects, buy equipment, trade for zen points etc...
Instead, your approach is - let's take all of this away, and STILL expect you to be able to do all of the above ? And what's more, there are now MORE Dilithium requirements.
Here's my thought, and I think it's pretty reasonable:
maybe just cut back some of the Dilithium rewards. Don't do an "All or nothing" approach. How about say - remove it from STFs, but keep in the Betreka Nebula option ? or reduce it in STFs, and put some in fleet missions... There are a wealth of ways you could have handled this, and you seem to have alienated a large section of the userbase without actually improving or making it better for anyone !
Seriously, I urge you to reconsider fast before you do more damage.
You had previously stated that STFs would have a dilithium reward at 900ish/450ish and these levels were installed on Tribble.
S7 went live with zero dilithium rewards.
You are a liar, plain and simple.
You had previously stated that all the hard work and play that players had previously put into the STF system would ensure them equivalent purchasing power in the new system.
The conversion happened and I have less than 5% of my previous purchasing power in commodity terms, not to mention the fact that it will take me additional months of grind to get to the position that I was in before.
You are a liar, plain and simple.
You deliberately hid the truth of the conversion rate tables from players, and although after sterling effort the nature of the complete shambles was revealed, for many players (me included) it was too late and S7 hit before I could react. I lost over 400,000 dilithium worth of things. This is over ?20 worth of REAL MONEY that you stole.
You are a thief, plain and simple.
I am not even going to read your Dev Blog, because I am in the unfortunate position of NOT BEING ABLE TO BELIEVE A SINGLE WORD THAT YOU SAY.
I am not going to pay you another dime becuase I am in the unfortunate position of NOT BEING ABLE TO TRUST YOU WITH MY MONEY.
Congratulations to you for killing the game that I love and would have continued to support long into the future before this utter **** up.
...#LLAP...