Im just saying, it would be just plain wrong to do that to people. But as we have seen they dont give a pile of Targ poo about us... We are just $ to them.
They say the level cap will increase, however i'm sceptical. Adding a level increase would require more content, which not to be rude, is not cryptics forte.
An additional ten levels worth of content would take them a year or more to "develope" at the pace in which content is currently being developed. Just observe the gracious amount of content we recieved this past year..... A star base and rep system sink, two new zones with missions which were finished in a few days, except of course the content locked behind time gates. A new sector, with a bunch of copy/paste missions.
Not to mention, where exactly would a level increase take us? More skill points? More captain abilities? More boff abilities per vessel? And all gear tied to fleets and rep system would have to be redone, or made obsolete.
I wouldn't hold my breath on a level increase. Yes they said it's coming, so too they have said klingon content is coming, less currencies (which there were for a little while).
They'll release whatever makes them the most money.
If the endgame gear and ships I have become outmoded with new level stuff, I'll be rather disappointed.
A new level cap would, by definition, make current stuff "outmoded".
Cryptic would be making an outrageous mistake to just make new levels without more level-appropriate game to flow with it. I mean ... I can't think of any game that has done that at all (even if my MMO experience is limited, I'm sure news would have hit the interwebs). Simply put - there is no precedence for that kind of action.
If there is a level increase, more game will accompany it. I'd be shocked otherwise.
I don't intend to re-grind for Mk XIII stuff, so when that arrives I'll move on to other games.
_________________________________________________ [Kluless][Kold][Steel Heels][Snagtooth] [Louis Cipher][Outta Gum][Thysa Kymbo][Spanner][Frakk] [D'Mented][D'Licious]
Joined October 2009. READ BEFORE POSTING
I'd prefer to see the rank structure reworked so we start out as Captain after the tutorial and everything else above that is simply our 'security clearance level'.
We don't have to be Admirals to command a group of ships, your character just has to be given authority to do so by Command. Look at Sisko during the Dominion war for example, he was a Captain and in charge of entire fleets.
If the endgame gear and ships I have become outmoded with new level stuff, I'll be rather disappointed.
I like the ability to feel that, for a given character, i'm 'done' getting gear/ships.
Unfortunately, being "done" won't keep players playing STO and won't pay for the bills at cryptic. I know it's harsh but the level cap increase is one of the ways to make the game last longer with a stable revenue. Sooo... They need to make you pay something again, unless you intend to enslave the whole dev team. :P And they'll provide for sure new content in return, because i can't even imagine an admiral level without a bunch of new stfs to keep us busy for a year with this new rank.
Unfortunately, being "done" won't keep players playing STO and won't pay for the bills at cryptic. I know it's harsh but the level cap increase is one of the ways to make the game last longer with a stable revenue. Sooo... They need to make you pay something again. And they'll provide for sure new content in return, because i can't even imagine an admiral level without a bunch of new stfs to keep us busy for a year with this new rank.
I have one word for you: Undine.
They are going to make new Undine based STFs, and it's probable that those will lead to new mk XIII and higher gear (most likely only weapons) being available. Which will push forward the same idea we've been seeing for months: this game is won with DPS. Can't tank mk XIII weapons with only mk XII gear. XD
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
I'll do all the hours! aslong as I get called "Your Majesty" by everyone ...
Deal?
RachelJ88
*P.S. - Obviously the level cap will be raised, I like the idea of being an Admiral, the only question is, how will Cryptic infuence Ship progression so that players won't flip out about buying the Vesta and now you gotta buy some new fancy dancy thing to do MEGA STF's etc... so maybe Cryptic will add something like a Tier Up Ship Token that gives you a console slot, X ammount of hull say 5k yadayada...
I can see reaching Admiral being a Reputation thing, I'd like to see like the Omega/Romulan Tier perks/skills/passives/etc, say a Tier gives you an option to rank up Bridge Officer station, or a passive that increases a ships shield mod. <- totally wishful thinking*
Except the level cap has been what it is for quite a while, and people kept playing. Top end gear, too.
There are several ways to keep people interested and engaged, one of which is escalating gear treadmill. I loathe escalating gear treadmill/raids/etc., and if that's the way they go, I will not take part.
And for those saying 'but that's the ONLY WAY MMOs CAN OPERATE,' no. PvP, Foundry, alts, and similar can keep people engaged.
Thankfully, unless they really mess up Foundry, I'll probably be able to go off and play that when the main system disappears up its own backside.
Campaign: The Fenwick Cycle NWS-DKR9GB7KH
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
Some things I'd like to see if they do raise the cap...
1. The ability to actually control a small taskforce of starships, rather than just one. This will optimally require Cryptic to add a level of strategic gameplay with its' own mechanics rather than simply trying to extend what we have. It could be an expanded form of the carrier gameplay, but with the ability to customize each ship and crew and possibly the ability to shift to and directly fly any of the ships in the taskforce as if you were the captain. It could be a territory-control kind of gameplay. But it needs to be different.
2. The choice to "opt-out" of the "promotion" and stay at level 50 if you don't want to play Admiral-centric gameplay.
3. A separate set of skill progression/separate skill tree. In other words, new skills that you can put points into but without the ability to simply add more points to the existing skill tree and creating an imbalance there. Yes, this could even be Reputation based.
Basically, I'm saying they should think outside the box and make the over 50 game a new experience, not just level-scaling everything.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Oh, and my chances of buying new zen-store ships is near 0 if they add a tier of starship, because at least part of my motivation of getting a zen-store ship at T5 is breadth and not thinking it's going to be left behind by other content.
Adding a tier, on the other hand, would make me wonder 'ok, when's the next tier??'
Campaign: The Fenwick Cycle NWS-DKR9GB7KH
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
Oh, and my chances of buying new zen-store ships is near 0 if they add a tier of starship, because at least part of my motivation of getting a zen-store ship at T5 is breadth and not thinking it's going to be left behind by other content.
Adding a tier, on the other hand, would make me wonder 'ok, when's the next tier??'
I have to agree with this.
My Defiant Retrofit is one of my three "go to" vessels. Granted it will be replaced by my Fleet version when I get it but I hate the idea of it becoming obsolete.
On the reverse, Box ships got a nice boost when fleet ships were released... I can't help but wonder what, if any, kind of bump those "No fleet version hard to get" ships will get if Tier 6 is added.
Cryptic is not some bogeyman doing all it can to make your life miserable, just wait and see instead of foolishly complaining about something you don't even know the details from.
Bogeyman? no, but can we trust then not to nerf the things we like and introduce things we dont? - Not a bit if S7 is anything to go by:
I now dread each season and patch, wondering what I am going to loose this time and what naff things I am going to have to do to advance, (short list: Doff grider costs, STF weapons gone, dill sinks everywhere, reputation system (endless click slide, click slide - just so they could copy/paste old code) bunny chasing and the rest of NR, trics nerfed)
I used to play all my toons (10) through the STFs, now since the rep system, I only play 2, and the 2nd is one only because I want to see if the T5 Scorps are worth having.
There are several ways to keep people interested and engaged, one of which is escalating gear treadmill. I loathe escalating gear treadmill/raids/etc., and if that's the way they go, I will not take part.
Me to, it will be a new rep system and time to find something else to do.
I've said it before and will say it again ... There should NOT be any ships made that are Tier 6. The level of the fleet ships should be it.
That said ... They should give us with a level cap increase first officers as well as the ability to command additional ships that act in support of our chosen flagship.
Ships are too expensive for us to have to ... start over on them.
I've said it before and will say it again ... There should NOT be any ships made that are Tier 6. The level of the fleet ships should be it.
That said ... They should give us with a level cap increase first officers as well as the ability to command additional ships that act in support of our chosen flagship.
Ships are too expensive for us to have to ... start over on them.
Thing is, this is along the lines of what could have been said before Fleet Ships. It's something that could have been said even before that.
They can only put out so many ships at a certain level before there's going to be the obvious diminishing returns - so there's a new "level" introduced. This has happened multiple times already.
Something that they may have been testing the waters with, though, is the reduced cost for purchasing a new "level" of a ship when you've got a previous "level"... though, a T6 wouldn't quite be the same as the T4/5/5F, eh?
They're looking at an increase in level cap.
They're looking at an increase in gear tiers.
That's the way things tend to play out in games...usually 2-3 years or so. People go through that in countless games out there - it's what happens.
To develop that additional content - so that the level increase is more than just a rubber stamp - well, they're going to need to generate revenue, no?
Still, my concern (and no, that doesn't mean it should be everybody's nor should it be the most pressing for everybody) is with regard to gear tiers.
Look what they did with the Romulan/Omega stuff. Look at the Omega side. Look at what the cost would be to go Mk X -> Mk XI -> Mk XII -> Adapted. Think about the similar costs if you did that on the Romulan side - including not only the sets but the weapons. There's no upgrade path. Think about how the Reman set was - with it being a case of upgrading it.
Then think about Mk XIII, Mk XIV, Mk XV and beyond... now you're talking about "wasted" resources, imho...
Folks already buy lower tier ships for their consoles - so there's still some use to be found from that. With the "possibility" of space away teams and them being limited to certain tiers of ships - ships would still have some usage there.
Sets? Weapons? Wasted...without some means to upgrade them.
Well, I'm of mixed opinion depending upon how it's implemented exactly. Personally I'd like to see some of the current tier V ships moved into a tier VI. For example, it'd be nice to see the Odyssey moved to tier VI, and maybe move the current Dreadnought Cruiser into tier VI, but beef it up a bit (which I think is overdue anyway) maybe as a retrofit version or something. Basically this would upgrade all current Dreadnought Cruisers (since players have paid for them) while opening up the possibility of offering a Dreadnought Cruiser at its current strength as a free tier V ship.
Do the same with some more ships so that tier VI becomes the new all-paid tier, with tier V gaining a bunch of free ships. They just need to make sure that any ships that would become free aren't done in a way to TRIBBLE over current owners, by upgrading their current ships for free, or allowing them to claim the tier VI upgrade with no charge.
What I don't want to see is a new level of items, i.e - no level XIII and XIV weapons etc. Just an expansion of end-game ships (without too big a difference in relative strengths) and access to new abilities and stuff to do. By abilities I don't necessarily mean ability tray items, but things we can do in general, or further upgrades to current abilities such as a better fleet support for example, or access to a permanent ship ally manned by one of your bridge officers, but restricted to say tier I to III ships.
I now dread each season and patch, wondering what I am going to loose this time and what naff things I am going to have to do to advance, (short list: Doff grider costs, STF weapons gone, dill sinks everywhere, reputation system (endless click slide, click slide - just so they could copy/paste old code) bunny chasing and the rest of NR, trics nerfed)
"Nerf" doesn't mean, "I can't get everything quickly anymore!"
I'll admit I've not read through this thread (though I have read the original post) and I am in agreement. I would rather them leave the level cap at 50 and redress the ranking system. You're a Captain until you hit 50, then you become the Admiral and that's it.
Besides that fact, I'm currently aiming for XII Omega and Romulan Gear (I'm not bothering with the Mk X and Mk XI 'cause it's pointless where the Mk XII gear is concerned). Should they raise the level cap, they'll likely release new gear making the Mk XII stuff redundant, thus everyone who has put all their resources and grinding into such equipment will (essentially) be robbed. They'll have to do it all again.
I doubt we'll get new ships either; the current ones will either scale, or will remain the same. I can't see another (what would be 9 FED releases) with this next rank. I vote against this suggestion and hope that they stick with the leveling we currently have.
C'mon, just let me spend a few thousand more points so I can max out Energy and Projectile weapon specialization without dialing anything else back. Please?
I doubt we'll get new ships either; the current ones will either scale, or will remain the same. I can't see another (what would be 9 FED releases) with this next rank.
It's more about playstyle than actual ships, imho. They could easily do ships for Engs, Scis, and Tacs - they're there. What they can't do easily is support the playstyles. That they have this long is kind of silly, but hey - kind of silly is different than way silly.
It's easy to see them doing Eng/Sci/Tac variants of Dreads. It's not so easy to see them doing Escort/Raptors/BoPs. Perhaps the closest would be Very Heavy Destroyers, eh?
Still though, the thing I've been wondering about - having wondered it back when some stuff was said about crafting/ship modification...would be the introduction of "Gemming" as seen in a variety of other games.
Ships would receive additional "slots" that could be "gemmed" - to improve them. So an Admiral in a VA ship could have a better ship than the VA in that same ship. Additional improvements being able to be made to the ships at Admiral rank.
A little bit of crafting, a little bit of DOFFing, etc, etc, etc...
C'mon, just let me spend a few thousand more points so I can max out Energy and Projectile weapon specialization without dialing anything else back. Please?
Hrmm, would be interesting to see if it were an actual increase in SP or if it would be a separate AA advancement thing along the lines of the Rep Passives.
I hope it does happen I am at max now waiting to better myself "We need more Power Scotty" and more to level up to.
What do you need more power for...?
Outside of the gear discussions, I'm wondering what kind of content they could add to justify Admiral rank (there's not the content to justify having anything above Captain as is) - but that's a title discussion. In regard to the gear discussion, there's almost no content that requires the current level of gearing. Most people are massively overgeared for the content they're doing.
Outside of the gear discussions, I'm wondering what kind of content they could add to justify Admiral rank (there's not the content to justify having anything above Captain as is) - but that's a title discussion. In regard to the gear discussion, there's almost no content that requires the current level of gearing. Most people are massively overgeared for the content they're doing.
Indeed, and this is why we need T6 ships and challenges scaled to those ships when they release the admiral rank update. If they don't, guess what is going to happen:
Step 1: Admiral rank won't offer a greater challenge. Instances will be built around the concept of fleet ships doing mission x and it's not going to be reviewed again later.
Step 2: the game needs money. Let's be honnest it's going to happen no matter what. A new tier of ships is availabme. Ta-dah! T6 ships are here. But the challenges will stay scaled to T5 ships like the current STFs and fleet actions are scaled to rear admiral ships. NPCs will be even more pathetic, we'll still slaughter the borg/tholian/undine/iconians/whatever with an incredible easiness and these T6 ships will just bring revenue to the game but will remove some fun.
That's what happened with lockbox ships and fleet ships, it made PvE completely ridiculous; now we can finish an instance like cure space elite in 5 minutes or so. I did it, several times, and it's really not funny if it has to be one of the best challenges the game has to offer.
T6 ships and admiral rank will bring some sort of reset to pve, it's a chance to have some new challenging missions, new captain and boff abilities for more variety and new experiences along with new ships for which missions have been designed.
Mmm, I'll be looking forward to crawling through the associated threads that start "holy phasers, these Admiral missions are OP!"
Well you know the borg have been nerfed dozens of times and you'll still see people being blown up by a couple of spheres or complaining about high yield torps, or being killed by the gate in infected space "elite", so whatever the changes are, even if admiral ships had an instant "i win" button, people would still have trouble. That's why i consider this as a non-existent issue.
Comments
Players will blow through them and continue stating there is nothing to do. The status quo will change to a higher level ... literally.
I like the ability to feel that, for a given character, i'm 'done' getting gear/ships.
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
An additional ten levels worth of content would take them a year or more to "develope" at the pace in which content is currently being developed. Just observe the gracious amount of content we recieved this past year..... A star base and rep system sink, two new zones with missions which were finished in a few days, except of course the content locked behind time gates. A new sector, with a bunch of copy/paste missions.
Not to mention, where exactly would a level increase take us? More skill points? More captain abilities? More boff abilities per vessel? And all gear tied to fleets and rep system would have to be redone, or made obsolete.
I wouldn't hold my breath on a level increase. Yes they said it's coming, so too they have said klingon content is coming, less currencies (which there were for a little while).
They'll release whatever makes them the most money.
A new level cap would, by definition, make current stuff "outmoded".
Cryptic would be making an outrageous mistake to just make new levels without more level-appropriate game to flow with it. I mean ... I can't think of any game that has done that at all (even if my MMO experience is limited, I'm sure news would have hit the interwebs). Simply put - there is no precedence for that kind of action.
If there is a level increase, more game will accompany it. I'd be shocked otherwise.
[Kluless][Kold][Steel Heels][Snagtooth]
[Louis Cipher][Outta Gum][Thysa Kymbo][Spanner][Frakk]
[D'Mented][D'Licious]
Joined October 2009. READ BEFORE POSTING
We don't have to be Admirals to command a group of ships, your character just has to be given authority to do so by Command. Look at Sisko during the Dominion war for example, he was a Captain and in charge of entire fleets.
Unfortunately, being "done" won't keep players playing STO and won't pay for the bills at cryptic. I know it's harsh but the level cap increase is one of the ways to make the game last longer with a stable revenue. Sooo... They need to make you pay something again, unless you intend to enslave the whole dev team. :P And they'll provide for sure new content in return, because i can't even imagine an admiral level without a bunch of new stfs to keep us busy for a year with this new rank.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
I have one word for you: Undine.
They are going to make new Undine based STFs, and it's probable that those will lead to new mk XIII and higher gear (most likely only weapons) being available. Which will push forward the same idea we've been seeing for months: this game is won with DPS. Can't tank mk XIII weapons with only mk XII gear. XD
That would be nice. An Admiral Refit token.
Good lord the FLeet ships will be MONSTERS.
There are several ways to keep people interested and engaged, one of which is escalating gear treadmill. I loathe escalating gear treadmill/raids/etc., and if that's the way they go, I will not take part.
And for those saying 'but that's the ONLY WAY MMOs CAN OPERATE,' no. PvP, Foundry, alts, and similar can keep people engaged.
Thankfully, unless they really mess up Foundry, I'll probably be able to go off and play that when the main system disappears up its own backside.
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
1. The ability to actually control a small taskforce of starships, rather than just one. This will optimally require Cryptic to add a level of strategic gameplay with its' own mechanics rather than simply trying to extend what we have. It could be an expanded form of the carrier gameplay, but with the ability to customize each ship and crew and possibly the ability to shift to and directly fly any of the ships in the taskforce as if you were the captain. It could be a territory-control kind of gameplay. But it needs to be different.
2. The choice to "opt-out" of the "promotion" and stay at level 50 if you don't want to play Admiral-centric gameplay.
3. A separate set of skill progression/separate skill tree. In other words, new skills that you can put points into but without the ability to simply add more points to the existing skill tree and creating an imbalance there. Yes, this could even be Reputation based.
Basically, I'm saying they should think outside the box and make the over 50 game a new experience, not just level-scaling everything.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Adding a tier, on the other hand, would make me wonder 'ok, when's the next tier??'
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
I have to agree with this.
My Defiant Retrofit is one of my three "go to" vessels. Granted it will be replaced by my Fleet version when I get it but I hate the idea of it becoming obsolete.
On the reverse, Box ships got a nice boost when fleet ships were released... I can't help but wonder what, if any, kind of bump those "No fleet version hard to get" ships will get if Tier 6 is added.
Bogeyman? no, but can we trust then not to nerf the things we like and introduce things we dont? - Not a bit if S7 is anything to go by:
I now dread each season and patch, wondering what I am going to loose this time and what naff things I am going to have to do to advance, (short list: Doff grider costs, STF weapons gone, dill sinks everywhere, reputation system (endless click slide, click slide - just so they could copy/paste old code) bunny chasing and the rest of NR, trics nerfed)
I used to play all my toons (10) through the STFs, now since the rep system, I only play 2, and the 2nd is one only because I want to see if the T5 Scorps are worth having.
Grind does not equal fun.
Me to, it will be a new rep system and time to find something else to do.
That said ... They should give us with a level cap increase first officers as well as the ability to command additional ships that act in support of our chosen flagship.
Ships are too expensive for us to have to ... start over on them.
U.S.S. Maelstrom, NCC-71417 (Constitution III-class/flagship) --- Fleet Admiral Hauk' --|-- Dahar Master Hauk --- I.K.S. qu'In 'an bortaS (D7-class / flagship)
Thing is, this is along the lines of what could have been said before Fleet Ships. It's something that could have been said even before that.
They can only put out so many ships at a certain level before there's going to be the obvious diminishing returns - so there's a new "level" introduced. This has happened multiple times already.
Something that they may have been testing the waters with, though, is the reduced cost for purchasing a new "level" of a ship when you've got a previous "level"... though, a T6 wouldn't quite be the same as the T4/5/5F, eh?
They're looking at an increase in level cap.
They're looking at an increase in gear tiers.
That's the way things tend to play out in games...usually 2-3 years or so. People go through that in countless games out there - it's what happens.
To develop that additional content - so that the level increase is more than just a rubber stamp - well, they're going to need to generate revenue, no?
Still, my concern (and no, that doesn't mean it should be everybody's nor should it be the most pressing for everybody) is with regard to gear tiers.
Look what they did with the Romulan/Omega stuff. Look at the Omega side. Look at what the cost would be to go Mk X -> Mk XI -> Mk XII -> Adapted. Think about the similar costs if you did that on the Romulan side - including not only the sets but the weapons. There's no upgrade path. Think about how the Reman set was - with it being a case of upgrading it.
Then think about Mk XIII, Mk XIV, Mk XV and beyond... now you're talking about "wasted" resources, imho...
Folks already buy lower tier ships for their consoles - so there's still some use to be found from that. With the "possibility" of space away teams and them being limited to certain tiers of ships - ships would still have some usage there.
Sets? Weapons? Wasted...without some means to upgrade them.
Do the same with some more ships so that tier VI becomes the new all-paid tier, with tier V gaining a bunch of free ships. They just need to make sure that any ships that would become free aren't done in a way to TRIBBLE over current owners, by upgrading their current ships for free, or allowing them to claim the tier VI upgrade with no charge.
What I don't want to see is a new level of items, i.e - no level XIII and XIV weapons etc. Just an expansion of end-game ships (without too big a difference in relative strengths) and access to new abilities and stuff to do. By abilities I don't necessarily mean ability tray items, but things we can do in general, or further upgrades to current abilities such as a better fleet support for example, or access to a permanent ship ally manned by one of your bridge officers, but restricted to say tier I to III ships.
Game Balance - Ship Size and Wingmates
"Nerf" doesn't mean, "I can't get everything quickly anymore!"
Besides that fact, I'm currently aiming for XII Omega and Romulan Gear (I'm not bothering with the Mk X and Mk XI 'cause it's pointless where the Mk XII gear is concerned). Should they raise the level cap, they'll likely release new gear making the Mk XII stuff redundant, thus everyone who has put all their resources and grinding into such equipment will (essentially) be robbed. They'll have to do it all again.
I doubt we'll get new ships either; the current ones will either scale, or will remain the same. I can't see another (what would be 9 FED releases) with this next rank. I vote against this suggestion and hope that they stick with the leveling we currently have.
It's more about playstyle than actual ships, imho. They could easily do ships for Engs, Scis, and Tacs - they're there. What they can't do easily is support the playstyles. That they have this long is kind of silly, but hey - kind of silly is different than way silly.
It's easy to see them doing Eng/Sci/Tac variants of Dreads. It's not so easy to see them doing Escort/Raptors/BoPs. Perhaps the closest would be Very Heavy Destroyers, eh?
Still though, the thing I've been wondering about - having wondered it back when some stuff was said about crafting/ship modification...would be the introduction of "Gemming" as seen in a variety of other games.
Ships would receive additional "slots" that could be "gemmed" - to improve them. So an Admiral in a VA ship could have a better ship than the VA in that same ship. Additional improvements being able to be made to the ships at Admiral rank.
A little bit of crafting, a little bit of DOFFing, etc, etc, etc...
Hrmm, would be interesting to see if it were an actual increase in SP or if it would be a separate AA advancement thing along the lines of the Rep Passives.
What do you need more power for...?
Outside of the gear discussions, I'm wondering what kind of content they could add to justify Admiral rank (there's not the content to justify having anything above Captain as is) - but that's a title discussion. In regard to the gear discussion, there's almost no content that requires the current level of gearing. Most people are massively overgeared for the content they're doing.
Indeed, and this is why we need T6 ships and challenges scaled to those ships when they release the admiral rank update. If they don't, guess what is going to happen:
Step 1: Admiral rank won't offer a greater challenge. Instances will be built around the concept of fleet ships doing mission x and it's not going to be reviewed again later.
Step 2: the game needs money. Let's be honnest it's going to happen no matter what. A new tier of ships is availabme. Ta-dah! T6 ships are here. But the challenges will stay scaled to T5 ships like the current STFs and fleet actions are scaled to rear admiral ships. NPCs will be even more pathetic, we'll still slaughter the borg/tholian/undine/iconians/whatever with an incredible easiness and these T6 ships will just bring revenue to the game but will remove some fun.
That's what happened with lockbox ships and fleet ships, it made PvE completely ridiculous; now we can finish an instance like cure space elite in 5 minutes or so. I did it, several times, and it's really not funny if it has to be one of the best challenges the game has to offer.
T6 ships and admiral rank will bring some sort of reset to pve, it's a chance to have some new challenging missions, new captain and boff abilities for more variety and new experiences along with new ships for which missions have been designed.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
Mmm, I'll be looking forward to crawling through the associated threads that start "holy phasers, these Admiral missions are OP!"
Well you know the borg have been nerfed dozens of times and you'll still see people being blown up by a couple of spheres or complaining about high yield torps, or being killed by the gate in infected space "elite", so whatever the changes are, even if admiral ships had an instant "i win" button, people would still have trouble. That's why i consider this as a non-existent issue.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.