I just though of why their should be no tier 6 ships. The USS ENTERPRISE is a Odyssey class tier 5 ship and their should be no ship that is higher tier then the federation flagship.
I suppose if they really do plan on us allowing us to create a fleet of ships using our Boffs and manning the ones we aren't using when we become full admirals, then at least all my ships that I'm not using will have some sort of use.
Hm....
-Imagines his fleet of carriers unloading all of their pets.-
I like the upgrade current ship idea. Instead of getting a entirely new ship, just upgrade a lower ship that you really liked by adding console slots, and encreasing ship and bridge officer ratings.
That's kind of what I was thinking of. We have consoles that more or less act as weapons. Why not make T6 have extra console slots and sell uni "weapon consoles" that are on par with the respective "Mk" level for the Tier 6 ships? The consoles can be designated Front Arc or Rear Arc like the TOS Connies blue Phaser Beam Arrays.
I seriously doubt that the limits can be bypassed that way.
Truth be told, I get the impression that much of STO's innards are jury-rigged. A lot of these fixes that manage to break other things make me really wonder how the memory is managed internally, and what kind of a mess the internal scripting languages may be. I have no idea if this is the fault of the engine, or whatever scripting they may use to turn the engine into STO - or indeed if these guesses I'm making are correct.
However, while it would not surprise me in the least that, if STO goes on for a long time, we'll see the engine upgraded... it's going to be a while. Such a fundamental change will take a lot of time and effort and probably a lot of regression testing, and if they're going to wade that deeply into the very heart of the game they're probably going to try to get some other things done alongside it. Hopefully not ALL of it in one go, though, since that's a great way to break everything because someone put a '2' in when they should have put a '3'.
Something I think we need to keep in mind, re: T6 ships - you'll note that, so far as I know, the devs have said little to nothing about this.
In short, they're being coy as to what upgradeability it will have, and what, if anything, it'll cost us. They're PROBABLY doing this to see just how much damage it would do versus how much they stand to gain.
While they know they may make a lot of money off of upgrades, they know that this kind of thing may get a lot of people to leave. A lot more than left over the season upgrades and the backlash of those. This is often completely obliterating a few hundred bucks worth of investment and versatility. It's somewhat akin to asking DVD owners to buy Blu-Ray - and doing it by TRIBBLE with everyone's DVDs and breaking their players. Not going to make people happy. It would also seriously TRIBBLE up and over one of the biggest F2P features STO has going for it - the entire game can be played effectively for free. This is a major selling point, and something a LOT of F2P games simply lack. RA T5 ships may be inferior, but for the most part, they're not THAT much inferior. Most of the Z-Store ships are minor upgrades combined with a lot more choices over the defaults, e.g. tactical cruisers (Excel-R, Regent, Tac Ody) or escorts that eschew a leaning towards sci or eng for hyper-concentrated tac (Defiant-R). Everyone who comes aboard swearing they'll never pay a cent and who throws a few bucks towards them after all every now and again is money they wouldn't have had by denying access, and activity they wouldn't have had to help bolster the game so that others who spend more would have things to do with other people.
Ultimately, I would say that nobody knows how this is going to play out, not even the devs. While it's good to let your opinion be known while it's still percolating for a few seasons out, it's also important not to get quite so far ahead of yourself. It's hard, I know. I'm more than a bit tweaked at the idea that the seven or eight C-Store ships I've picked up might end up cannon fodder also-rans used by the same BOffs I have that are barely smart enough to not hit me with plasma grenades. The thought of a fleet store purchase (if I make any - still on the fence about that, and this T6 talk isn't pushing me towards paying) also becoming obsolete like that would get me even more ticked off. But presenting a case logically, but firmly, is probably going to do a lot more good than attempting to rage at the machine.
I doubt new ship tiers will happen unless it is via the fleet. The talked about fiddling with fleet ship customisation, well maybe this is a hint towards that upgrade idea. However, I feel that upgrade will most realisticly take place via an upgrade to captain abilities and skills in a similar way to how the reputation system has been done. Most of the time developers try out future big ideas by trying out the idea in a smaller way to garner opinions and fan response before implementing things on a larger scale in the long term.
Anyways that is just my opinion, I don't doubt btw that new Zen Store ships will emerge as they always do but I doubt Perfect World would blow things now after getting free mmo of the year with their new investment. They would loose to much in the long run and this world is a very capitalist place.
Comments
equal parts cynical and helpful
If my Jem'Hadar attack ship becomes no longer viable, that will kill mine as well.
Hm....
-Imagines his fleet of carriers unloading all of their pets.-
I seriously doubt that the limits can be bypassed that way.
Truth be told, I get the impression that much of STO's innards are jury-rigged. A lot of these fixes that manage to break other things make me really wonder how the memory is managed internally, and what kind of a mess the internal scripting languages may be. I have no idea if this is the fault of the engine, or whatever scripting they may use to turn the engine into STO - or indeed if these guesses I'm making are correct.
However, while it would not surprise me in the least that, if STO goes on for a long time, we'll see the engine upgraded... it's going to be a while. Such a fundamental change will take a lot of time and effort and probably a lot of regression testing, and if they're going to wade that deeply into the very heart of the game they're probably going to try to get some other things done alongside it. Hopefully not ALL of it in one go, though, since that's a great way to break everything because someone put a '2' in when they should have put a '3'.
In short, they're being coy as to what upgradeability it will have, and what, if anything, it'll cost us. They're PROBABLY doing this to see just how much damage it would do versus how much they stand to gain.
While they know they may make a lot of money off of upgrades, they know that this kind of thing may get a lot of people to leave. A lot more than left over the season upgrades and the backlash of those. This is often completely obliterating a few hundred bucks worth of investment and versatility. It's somewhat akin to asking DVD owners to buy Blu-Ray - and doing it by TRIBBLE with everyone's DVDs and breaking their players. Not going to make people happy. It would also seriously TRIBBLE up and over one of the biggest F2P features STO has going for it - the entire game can be played effectively for free. This is a major selling point, and something a LOT of F2P games simply lack. RA T5 ships may be inferior, but for the most part, they're not THAT much inferior. Most of the Z-Store ships are minor upgrades combined with a lot more choices over the defaults, e.g. tactical cruisers (Excel-R, Regent, Tac Ody) or escorts that eschew a leaning towards sci or eng for hyper-concentrated tac (Defiant-R). Everyone who comes aboard swearing they'll never pay a cent and who throws a few bucks towards them after all every now and again is money they wouldn't have had by denying access, and activity they wouldn't have had to help bolster the game so that others who spend more would have things to do with other people.
Ultimately, I would say that nobody knows how this is going to play out, not even the devs. While it's good to let your opinion be known while it's still percolating for a few seasons out, it's also important not to get quite so far ahead of yourself. It's hard, I know. I'm more than a bit tweaked at the idea that the seven or eight C-Store ships I've picked up might end up cannon fodder also-rans used by the same BOffs I have that are barely smart enough to not hit me with plasma grenades. The thought of a fleet store purchase (if I make any - still on the fence about that, and this T6 talk isn't pushing me towards paying) also becoming obsolete like that would get me even more ticked off. But presenting a case logically, but firmly, is probably going to do a lot more good than attempting to rage at the machine.
Disclaimer: Not an expert, just my opinion.
Anyways that is just my opinion, I don't doubt btw that new Zen Store ships will emerge as they always do but I doubt Perfect World would blow things now after getting free mmo of the year with their new investment. They would loose to much in the long run and this world is a very capitalist place.