I'd like to take some time out of my day and post on something that has been bothering me for a long time now. Now, I expect that because this post is going to be long that no one will bother reading it. But, let me remind you that this is to get something off my chest and I'm merely trying to express my frustrations in a matter that doesn't involve quitting every time Cryptic makes a big change on the game.
Now, I started this game back in January of last year, when the game went free 2 play. I was thrilled about the first Star Trek MMO going free 2 play, and once I got into the game, I was amazed with the fact that there was no story content that was locked to silver players. I've played one other American MMO in my life and that one is Dungeons & Dragons Online, and that has story content that is locked to silver players, but is buyable with the game's cash shop currency. However, this does requi
re a significant grind on a silver player's part on each server. Hence why I like STO's version better.
Going back to my early time in STO, I went and joined a fleet initially for a few weeks. Then, one of my friends from a Star Trek RPG club I belong to got access to the club's STO fleet, so I left my former fleet and joined up with my club's fleet. A short time later I rose up to be the leader of the fleet which I hold today as I address you all. Once we knew about the changes that were coming in Season 6, me and my fleetmates started to prepare for what I believe was the best update that happened to fleets.
Now, don't get me wrong. I know the fleet starbase is a lot of work. As of today, my fleet's base is only Tier 2, but the few of us who are still active in the fleet plan on continuing our progress on it, even if it takes us a bit longer. My understanding of the fleet starbase was that it was meant to serve as a one stop hub that offers just about everything that ESD provides. Sure, it takes forever to unlock everything, but I enjoy the challenge and the rewards that come with unlocking a place that has good stuff!
Now, I want to shift gears to talk about my observations of everyone's reactions to the recent changes that have been made within the last few days with regards to the fleet starbase. I am, just like all of you, upset at the removal of the fleet mark removal from the foundry. I was also slightly upset with the debacle surrounding the changes season 7 made with the ways that we acquire dilithium, but look at what the developers did. They listened and did the following:
1. Restored the STF dilithium rewards.
2. Added rewards in the reputation system for turning in reputation gaining projects
3. changed what was a 3 foundry mission daily into something that now rewards players with a varying amount of dilithium based on playtime.
4. allowed us to get more dilithium from the reputation system earlier than we could when the system was first introduced by turning in omega marks/borg processors and romulan marks for a 15 second completion.
Now, the way I see the attitude of people on the forum here is that they want things fast and now with little effort. The fleet starbase and fleet embassy were designed by the developers to take time to finish. I don't see Star Trek Online going anywhere, so there's no point in throwing fits about a system that is supposed to encourage people to contribute together in order to see an end result. Think of the system as real life. Most of us don't get something for little effort. You do that on a job and you are either stuck in the same job forever or you are likely to be fired because you expect to be handed a promotion for nothing.
In the end, I'd like to say that you guys have to learn how to be fair. I have had my share of things that I was disappointed with in the game. However, you guys are getting upset at something that I think is just plain stupid. So, while many of you are planning on quitting or halting progress on your bases, I plan on going on, no matter how long it takes me. This is in the end the only Star Trek MMO, the only free MMO that doesn't make you endlessly grind just to get to the max level or to unlock paid story content. Be thankful for that my fellow players.
Comments
The reason I ask this is because while the fm's have been removed from the foundry missions feds can still get fm's from the fleet events where as the KDF can not.
Nobody plays the fleet events on the Klingon side, I was in a que yesterday for over an hour I got so frustrated with it I quit and went and did something else.
My Fleet is a small one while we do have enough people to play those fleet events the problem is we are all in different time zones so getting together can be an issue.
Until fm's are re-introduced into other missions our Klingon Starbase will come to a halt in production, we have no problem with the dill or any other mats required for the projects but the fm's removal has royally screwed us.
Wouldn't you be pissed?
As people get older (like me) and lazier (also me) I want my play time to be fun. Right now, I am trying to contribute to my fleet which leaves me NO time to do my episodes. If I do episodes (I'm only on the 3rd one out of 7) I don't earn dilithium, fleet marks, or doffs for my fleet. (at least not as efficient)
Sure some of my fleetmates play over 10 hours a day and can contribute more, but I feel it is not fair for me to take advantage of them (hence some ideas on other forum on personal provisions vs fleet provisions)
Foundary earning was a good way I can put in 20 minutes or less to earn some extra marks and toss into fleet. Earn some extra dilithium and toss into fleet. and more importantly, allow me to catch up on the story and have fun since it is a GAME.
Once a game becomes work (like WoW) I quit playing. (that is me)
now people will usually want to take the least amount of effort for the most amount of gain (this is true for any thing even in life, work, love, etc etc)
I don't mind working HARDER for my job cause they are physically paying me for it, but I do mind working/playing HARDER for my game. I have over 600 games on my steam account (I love sales and games) I can go play them if STO becomes work instead of fun.
that is my take on the matter.
note: I did read all of your post
Please review my campaign and I'll return the favor.
My fleet is a federation fleet. And I can understand your frustration with the klingon side. I barely log into my level 50 klingon character. I only logged in on him about a week ago to do the anniversary misison for the klingon ship.
My fleet is a small one two with probably at most me and one other person logging on an almost daily basis. The problem is that everyone wants the shiny fleet ships now and the bigger fleets are getting there faster than what smaller fleets can do.
I understand where you are coming from with a game becoming too much work. I experienced it lately with a game I used to have fun playing on facebook called Farmville. Once things got too much for me to be able to keep up, I effectively stopped playing altogether.
Star Trek Online is different for me because I still take my time on things. I'm not rushing to finish the Omega or Romulan Rep projects since they aren't going anywhere. Like I said in my post, I enjoy a game where I don't have to pay out of my own pocket to enjoy the game. I am happy just to be able to play a game that I find fun for the moment.
the main thing is contribution. Currently my fleet we stop all ability to purchase from fleet store. (it is a tick mark that leader can do) Because some players are taking advantage of draining the fleet resources with little contribution.
This is why I strongly suggest a different method of provisions so it will provide all players equal footing. The more you invest, the more you can use fleet features.
Please review my campaign and I'll return the favor.
Man I have enough ships at the moment I have more ships than I do toons to run them so some ships just don't get used apart from that although our fleet is small we are also apart of whats called the UFC which is a coalition of smaller fleets all working together but keeping there identity as individual fleets. One of those fleets has a tier 5 shipyard so I can have access to those ships if I want to (fed side) but choose not to because of the above (to many ships) and if I do get a a tier 5 fleet ship I want it from our own dockyard not somebody else's.
I know our Klingon starbase will require a good 6months at least to get it from Tier 3 to Tier 5 but that was before they removed the fm's from the foundry missions and given it will be months before we get new fm missions or what ever they are doing with it, our Klingon starbase will suffer.
Thats more your Leadership to blame than the game, isn't there permissions for fleet stuff if people start been selfish and start taking stuff isn't it up to your fleet leaders to say something?....I know I would, if people didn't like the response and continued to be selfish then kick them or at least demote them problem solved.
Well there's a problem. Starbases will NEVER be a substitute for ESD or other outpost, cause Fleet Starbases are just there to buy some stuff and go, because the system don't allow you to stay there. And it's plain stupid. And same with the Embassy.
I appreciate it's not meant to be easy and will take time but they will keep bringing newer limited projects, new sections to the fleet and maybe raise the tiers and you will fall behind in terms of gear even if you're putting in 10x more effort than those in a zerg fleet.
It is through repetition that we learn our weakness.
A master with a stone is better than a novice with a sword.
Has damage got out of control?
This is the last thing I will post.
Most likely because it was created after Branflakes went home and he hasn't had time to merge this one yet.
They do like to keep all Feedback in a single thread simply because it's easier to go through one long thread than 30 different threads on the same subject.
My main problem is simple: they didn't do any of that until the forums literally exploded in rage , and this most recent change exacerbates the problems and issues.
I'm in two fleets: one with about 20 members, and one with well over 400. My 20 member fleet struggles to complete projects due to Fleet Marks. NOT Dilithium. Most of us are long-time players and have hordes of dilithium banked away. What we don't have is fleet marks, because outside the IOR the only way to get them is grind boring mindless missions.
I have zero admiration for the fact Cryptic 'eventually' fixed the problems THEY introduced because the solutions were so simple they should have been implemented in the beginning, and I fail to understand how you see it as a good thing that their model is , repeatedly, one of messing up badly, putting out posts attempting to spin it as a good thing, then having to backtrack and undo / fix what they messed up.
What we were told in the beginning is that a high-level starbase is achieveable for all sizes of fleets. What we're now being told is small fleets can go off and die and if you want progress you'd better have a big fleet.
Before you go running your mouth , go take a look at Tier 4 requirements. Then you will understand this is not about 'fast with no effort' but looking for a method to achieve it that gives REASONABLE rewards for the effort. The current FM system doesn't , and Cryptic removing one of the only large methods of getting FM that wasn't totally boring is going to make people LESS LIKELY to help out with FM's.
Except it doesn't. The current system with the removal of IOR only really allows grinding of badly balanced and boring Fleet Missions, which no one wants to run. There is NOTHING that encourages fleets to work together, it instead encourages people to flee to big fleets to leech off the hard work of the people who built it.
First, it's a game. When it becomes work , or real life , or a job, it has failed utterly and completely.
Second, you are implying that the method we have now is perfectly fair, which is much like saying it's perfectly fair to judge your work as if you were a 20-year veteran when in reality you are just coming out of college. Systems that do not scale are inherently unfair which is why you do not see them in 'real life'.
Be fair?
Cryptic had repeatedly misrepresented content, pushed back things they promised, flat out lied about KDF, First Officer , Diplomacy, and Romulans, and continues to nerf any and every possible thing in the game that lets people just enjoy it in the name of metrics, and you want us to be fair?
This is why it's very difficult to take posts like this at face value, because the poster has decided since HE is okay with it anyone who is not is 'plain stupid'.
Thanks a lot, guy.
Like I said, come back and talk to me when you get past Tier 2 and realize you're going to need about five and a half years to hit T5.
Um, story content?
Once you've completed it on a toon, running it again is boring. TSW and SWTOR are big on the story thing, not STO.
We've ran 20 man fleet KDFs! And are active on the Klingon PvP side. 12th fleet itself has an active (though less) dedicated KDF Division.
Here's a screen I took from the last time I attended a KDF event:
This is just one of the alliances I am mentioning. For all I know more such alliances of co-op KDF player exists but are not voiced enough.
5 FED Fleets | 3 KDF Fleets - T5 Colony on both factions