I'm hoping they don't let you add more skill points. I know its odd, but at present, its only the last tier of skills that require you do make choices. The lower tier stuff is almost automatic with a decent skill-planner, but at present you HAVE to choose. Will I go +power +guns +torps? Add 10 more levels of skillpoints and you make that last tier kinda generic again, unless you add another tier of skills...
I'd rather see like an 'epic destinies' tier, where you spend points completely unrelated to the existing skill trees, but have supplemental ground/space/whatever effects.
If they do have XIII and XIV gear, I hope they do something like the reputation (shudder) system where you can 'turn in' older mark gear for upgrades of the same type.
If and when there is a level increase I would not mind new tiers of weapons
Your mk 12's will now be equal ro blue mk 13's...and if you find new mk 13 purples there is more to link in chat and boast about.
I am a fan of every 10 level or tiers you toss your gear and work towards newer gear. In this game it is sooo easy to get gear and money to buy gear I see no issues.
As to new ships...there will always be new ships....they can mount the new weaposn..no need to make newer ships more powerful then the current breeds...and IMO they are approaching maximum density witht ships already anyways..... Sci ships will get Lt CMR tac slot and Escoprts get Lt Commander sci slot or eng slots...a bit out of whack.
So creating a new tier of weapons, IMO, will reinvigorate an already stagnant game in regards to cosnoles and weapons. I spent many months fine tuning my gear and would gladly give it up for newer more powerful weapson and consoles
Today we fight the GAULS......monstrous and HAIRY beyond reason.
I'm definitely a fan of rather than concentrating on 'progressing' by just sticking in higher level stuff, continue to move laterally and expand, with new content, new mechanics to play with, new places to explore (like Nimbus ;P ) and new stories to encounter.
what if maybe the level cap would allow us to promote a Boff to captain and let that captain take control of one of our ships that we are not currently using ? this might be a good reason for a level cap increase I will post more later on my thoughts in this direction but that's all I have for now
Major Xi'Zzin I.R.W. Raptor's Claw Storm Eagle Class WarbirdFleet Ha'feh I have never trusted humans, and I never will
I'd like to see a series of changes to let the player get more use of his or her virtual goods and to promote purchasing more/better goods.
1) Instead of bringing in a random NPC ship, change Fleet Support II to bring in a random ship from the player's roster of un-readied ships.
1a) Consider adding a new ability, possibly as part of the reputation track described in 3 below, to allow a player to beam down one or two (or more?) random BOFFs to briefly assist in ground combat. This not only encourages players to equip all the BOFFs well, but lets them show off when working in a group with friends or playing in a public area like an adventure zone with a BOFF limit (i.e., New Romulus or Defera)
2) Revise some/all of the operational asset items to function in a broader range of content than just the Season 6 fleet PVE queues.
3) Add a "command school" reputation track. Tiers 1-4 each reward a token authorizing the player to promote one of his or her commanders to Captain (more on this below). Tier 5 ability grants Fleet Support III, which should be better in some way relative to Fleet Support II.
3a) In this same track, change the ranks above Captain (RALH/RAUH/Vice Admiral/Admiral/Fleet Admiral) into a series of fairly expensive unlock projects corresponding with each tier. Anyone who doesn't have them already doesn't automatically unlock these insignia/titles/costume parts unless they run the unlock project.
4) Allow captains to promote BOFFs to captain and assign them to an unreadied ship. Players can earn up to 4 captain promotions through the rep system described in 3 above, and buy more promotion tokens on the C-Store.
4a) Players can bring BOFF-operated ships with them in the space components of missions just like the ground away team (though they should have the option of bringing any number including none and some missions should probably have limits to ensure they function properly -- e.g., forced 1-player missions like Temporal Ambassador).
4b) BOFF would have their ships' states, console load, and gear, but would have limited powers. This ensures that human teammates are still preferrable over highly-optimizes BOFF companions.
5) The DOFF system should be updated to add new missions which, in addition to duty officers, require a ship. Any non-readied, non-BOFF-captained ship can be used. For example, you might see:
In a disaster/high-risk failure, the ship could obtain injuries. Ship requirements should be generally limited to categories rather than specific ships, so "escort" would include all of that faction's escort ships (KDF equivalent might say "raptor" instead).
5a) At the same time the system should add missions that require a BOFF. As with the ships, these missions would require an un-stationed BOFF. While on the mission, this BOFF can't be added to away teams, etc. The BOFF's skills and equipment should influence the mission traits.
5b) In both cases, ships and BOFF should never die on missions - the worst outcome would be injuries.
6) Since rank is no longer directly linked to level, embrace the rep system as the continuation of the level system. A player's displayed level (not the same as his or her level behind the scenes for level balance purposes) should equal 50 + total number of rep tiers completed. For example, a player with tier 5 in both Omega and New Romulus should display as level 60.
Taken collectively, I think these enhancements would add a lot of value to BOFFs and to players' older ships. This means on one hand more things for players to do (playing missions to gather rare gear, getting dilith for upgrades, etc.) and on the other promotes C-Store sales for things like fleet ship modules (upgrade that old Tier II escort to a Tier V(c) Fleet Escort Retrofit) and C-Store ship unlocks. It also provides an incentive to get Gold/LTS status since those free endgame ships via the VADM and 1000 Tokens no longer force the character to ditch his or her current ship to get value from them.
What do you think. Am I crazy? Should this be Season 8? Interested to hear your thoughts.
I think in the interviews the devs said when you hit level 60 you will be able to control other AI controlled ships controlled by your other bridge officers.
They did not mention any higher tiers of weapons or ships.
This would make sense since as an Admiral you should control a fleet of ships rather than just your one ship.
Raise skill cap to lvl 60 along with the skill points to go along with it.
Create new station slot to each ship called "Captain".
Allow promotion to captain of boffs. (As long as your character is Admiral)
Allow assignment of captain boffs to any ship you do not have currently selected.
Have a new station list for "space" in the same way "away team" list is done, with up to 4 captain boffs to assign along with ships that you own they are assigned to.
Allow you to command up to 4 other of your own ships in space, commanded by the boffs you assigned.
This would do many beneficial things.
* It would encourage people to gear up all their other ships rather than just use their best ship 99% of the time, which improves economic activity. This is also a form of horizontal advancement rather than vertical advancement, where existing gear are not obsolete but more gameplay is needed to get gear.
* It encourages players to get all top tier ships rather than just have 7+ tier 1-4 ships sitting around in their shipyard not being used ever since they are now using up to 5 ships at a time. This will net Cryptic a ton more money in C-Store ship sales. At the same time this means that existing ships are not obsolete which is good for people who have sunk a lot of cash in getting ships.
* It will make for some very epic space battles since even a 5 player pve instance will now have 20 ships on your side. (A 20 player instance will have 100 ships!)
Obviously having 4 of your other ships helping you will unbalance at least pve instances, which is why I would say that having your "task force" should only be allowed in certain queue instances that are balanced for such task force action. (New pve, pvp queues designed for taskforces)
all you forget Cryptic/PW are about Money so you know they would add tier 6 ships along with Mk XIII + stuff to make that money.
They would make more money I think if they did what I recommended above. Since that means you will now need to buy and outfit a whole taskforce of your own ships rather just simply buying a single T6 ship and calling it a day.
They would make more money I think if they did what I recommended above. Since that means you will now need to buy and outfit a whole taskforce of your own ships rather just simply buying a single T6 ship and calling it a day.
Except they would release a trio of ships so you need to buy the pack to get all the consoles and call it A STEAL by charging you ONLY 50 bucks!
I too don't want to see tier 6 ships and super high level consoles and items....
What I want to see instead is just sticking with the ships we have and maybe adding a crafting system that lets players upgrade them.
I mean just how hard is it to put more weapons on a ship.....or more consoles or have more bridge stations.
I would love to be able to take my starter ship.....and be able to upgrade it myself...instead of the current system where we simply throw away ships for no longer being useful.
In fact maybe that would be what the higher levels should do.....they would allow you to take your ships and build on them yourself.
So if you are an admiral and want to fly around in an old constitution class cruiser or nx-enterprise ship but have it improved so it can do everything the more advanced ships can do.....fine.....just will take time and effort but if a player wants to have that kind of ship.....I don't see why they don't allow it.
Would definaatly make levels mean something and would make ships more collectable.
Power without Perception is Spiritually useless and therefore of no true value.
Except they would release a trio of ships so you need to buy the pack to get all the consoles and call it A STEAL by charging you ONLY 50 bucks!
All those console set bonuses are not really that good anyway. I'd rather have a fleet MK xii of a console that go into those slot instead.
Besides, people will get pissed off and quit over this since it just makes all the cash shop ships they bought obsolete. There's a difference between simply having to grind more time for newer gear vs having wasted real money over something. Cryptic would lose paying customers over that.
Cryptic has clearly stated they will not do this.
Also, they can still pull the trio of ships sale with T5 ships, and earn even more boatloads of money if players have to run a taskforce of 5 ships rather than just playing with their 1 ship.
I too don't want to see tier 6 ships and super high level consoles and items....
What I want to see instead is just sticking with the ships we have and maybe adding a crafting system that lets players upgrade them.
I mean just how hard is it to put more weapons on a ship.....or more consoles or have more bridge stations.
I would love to be able to take my starter ship.....and be able to upgrade it myself...instead of the current system where we simply throw away ships for no longer being useful.
In fact maybe that would be what the higher levels should do.....they would allow you to take your ships and build on them yourself.
So if you are an admiral and want to fly around in an old constitution class cruiser or nx-enterprise ship but have it improved so it can do everything the more advanced ships can do.....fine.....just will take time and effort but if a player wants to have that kind of ship.....I don't see why they don't allow it.
Would definaatly make levels mean something and would make ships more collectable.
In the upcoming content list wiki there's an interview by cryptic where they talked about letting players use crafting to upgrade their existing ships, as well as letting them command their own task forces in season 9+.
Level cap is a long ways off but crafting revamp is next season I believe.
Can anyone provide a "positive reason" for there to be an increase in the level cap?
1. More ranks for folks to complain about being called Read Admiral Lower Half, or Major General, or even just simply Fleet Admiral - especially when they hold the lowest rank in a fleet?
2. More skill points to dump into your skill tree just makes for bloated skills that in turn makes easy content easier especially when everyone just fills in on the good skills?
3. More high-end ships that you have to buy or pay for all over again? Just so you can play some sort of RTS and manage your little mini-fleet in a space mission?
4. More high-end gear that you have to buy or pay for all over again? Just so you can outfit your now bloated BO list because you sent some of them off to command their own ship in your little mini-fleet?
5. All mission content would have to be reviewed to ensure that the NPCs provide SOME sort of challenge when playing.
6. Everyone winds up with more of a bloated shipyard taking up storage space.
7. STO the MMORPG becomes STO the MMORTS? (that's Real-Time Strategy game for those that don't recognize it)
I just don't see any sort of POSITIVE reason for there to be an increase in the level cap.
I wouldn't mind T6 ships with a little hesitancy (emphasis on hesitancy). Fleet ships and Lockbox ships would have to be adjusted to be on par with T6 ships so that those of us that have fleet/lockbox ships don't have to spend more money yet again to get those ships all over again.
Upgrading ships would be a definite possibility as well to replace a "set" T6 ship...
I lol'ed when I read this one...
The only reason they would increase the level cap is to MAKE us spend more money, there would be no other reason in their minds for them to do this...lol
Can anyone provide a "positive reason" for there to be an increase in the level cap?
1. More ranks for folks to complain about being called Read Admiral Lower Half, or Major General, or even just simply Fleet Admiral - especially when they hold the lowest rank in a fleet?
2. More skill points to dump into your skill tree just makes for bloated skills that in turn makes easy content easier especially when everyone just fills in on the good skills?
3. More high-end ships that you have to buy or pay for all over again? Just so you can play some sort of RTS and manage your little mini-fleet in a space mission?
4. More high-end gear that you have to buy or pay for all over again? Just so you can outfit your now bloated BO list because you sent some of them off to command their own ship in your little mini-fleet?
5. All mission content would have to be reviewed to ensure that the NPCs provide SOME sort of challenge when playing.
6. Everyone winds up with more of a bloated shipyard taking up storage space.
7. STO the MMORPG becomes STO the MMORTS? (that's Real-Time Strategy game for those that don't recognize it)
I just don't see any sort of POSITIVE reason for there to be an increase in the level cap.
*More skill points.
*Command of own task force.
*More class skills.
*More story arcs.
Level 60 doesn't mean you will now have T6 ships or Mk xiii gear. It can easily be horizontal advancement where you keep your T5 ships and MK XII gear except you just need more of them. Read my post above and you'll see what I mean.
They've already stated that in season 9+ there is good chance they will implement level 60 with fleet admiral rank and allow for control of your own taskforce of ships.
the answer is no... i need another carrot in front of me.. i would say that if the level cap increases that they add more tiers to fleets (so you cant get new mark 13 and 14 gear.. and make it so either by rep, zen, lobi (kinda the same as zen but more of a pain) or what not, you can upgrade your existing tier 12 to 13 and 14..
stahl already has stated in one of his many interviews that in the future, there would be drop only gear (as seen so far with the warpcores, and i think it should go further, and include all gear..
simply put, a big part of many peoples mmo experience (not everyones, but many) is that need to keep improving.. and to be honest, i always looked forward to new types of gear, and having to climb the latter again..
if they dont, well i for one wouldnt want to stay around, as it would get pretty dull pretty quick if everyone has all the same gear..
one of my friends who is a game designer, said to me that ini the end, the only thing that wins is the game in an mmo. he said that the basic philosophy behind an mmo is to keep the herd moving, and not to stay stagnant for too long.. he said, ultimatly, the elitist jerks are an mmo's best friend, as they usually set the standard for other players to try to achieve.. ie, you see him running around on that shiny new mount, you then want to grind for it..
while i never really like having to run a dungeon a hundred times to get a specific peice of gear, i have missed that feeling of accomplishment i felt when i did get since i joined this game.. nothing is really earned in this game.. you are garunteed to eventually get it, good or bad, weather you put 10 minutes a day, or 10 hrs a day.. nothing challenges me in this game. before, when you had to earn your mako or omega gear, it was a big deal to have a full set, you felt on top of the world, and you were envy of most.. now, you get it and its like having a glass of water with your lunch. i just dont get that thrill..
sto ultimatly, is the lazy mans game. you can purchase your way through it.. and as long as you get into a t5 fleet, youll have almost all the top gear within a few months.. and then your stuck with it for a few years.. minimum effort needed..
i also remember when grinding your way through a reputation in other games meant something.. in this game. almost everyone in my social circle is at the same level i am, it is not challenging at all.. the only thing in this game that you can say is a challenge, is the doff assignments.. you have to be in the right place at the right time to get the rare ones.. and very rare ones.
i can make a level 50 character from scratch in about a day maybe 2, and then, if i find a good fleet, can have him/her fully geared out in about a month, maybe 2 months.. boom game over..
My biggest concern is having to grind up and buy all my gear again after all the dilithium and marks I have sunk into getting it. I think raising the cap considering how expensive everything is will cause more problems that it will fix. Probably drive more players off.
We don't need a level 60, it will take players all of a few hours to get to 60. Looks at Romulan players in the first couple of days many were already at level 50.
Instead as the content increases I would rather see it take longer to level, slow down how much XP you get for missions, require more XP to get to the next rank. That would make it a better option than adding another useless rank.
Support the Game by Supporting the KDF, equality and uniqueness for all factions!
My biggest concern is having to grind up and buy all my gear again after all the dilithium and marks I have sunk into getting it. I think raising the cap considering how expensive everything is will cause more problems that it will fix. Probably drive more players off.
We don't need a level 60, it will take players all of a few hours to get to 60. Looks at Romulan players in the first couple of days many were already at level 50.
Instead as the content increases I would rather see it take longer to level, slow down how much XP you get for missions, require more XP to get to the next rank. That would make it a better option than adding another useless rank.
not really the answer.. i for one will not create a new character, so i would like to continue doing new things with mine.. and would love to have more points added to my skill tree and what not.. get some new abilities and blah blah blah..
and heres a question.. if you invoke your logic, what are you spending your marks and dilithium and what not on anyways.. for example, say you have tholian mk12 space set, and we get a level increase, and you want to keep the set bonuses, but increase it from 12 to say 14, they could charge you something like 30k dil per to upgrade it.. man, i could do that right now.. otherwise, your not spending it on anything anyways..
MMOs are about achievements, development and acquisitions.
I think character development in STO is very poor, if Cryptic was looking at extending the level I would implore them to instead overhaul some of their core mechanics in the process.
STO does not have the content that you want to rush to max level. When people in my fleet are rushing to get to 50 and to grind through the reps I tell them to take their time because there is nothing really worth rushing for, once you max out the content is fairly trivial. I've seen countless people come in grind their way for a few months and then there is nothing left to do and they leave. The only people that stay are the ones who can entertain themselves in other ways or just love the ST theme too much to leave.
I think the game has too much emphasis on the Bridge Officers. The BOFF layout of the ship and the abilities you give them largely determine what you are capable of doing. Most ships stats are relatively trivial, it all revolves around the boff layout. All ships are pretty much cookie cutters, there is no emphasis on the development of the ship or the crew. There is no real game play involving your ship, most of the people who actually spend time in the ship's interior probably shouldn't be doing whatever they are doing in there. :P
This game is pretty much wow in space without the actual end-game raiding, you just have the daily treadmill until you cap out your reputation and have acquired the marks to acquire the items you are after. There has to be something designed for the players to spend their time on, most of the activities are a means to an end until you get to the point there is no end so the means becomes pointless.
The PvP community is very small, most who PvP are no good at it so the effective PvP community is abysmally small. The game isn't a sandbox so there are limited RP tools, there is no discovery or adventure or exploration.
I think Cryptic need to look at where they are going with the game, just slapping another 10 levels on is going to accomplish what exactly? They need to sit down and address some fundamentals, like what we are meant to be doing playing the game, because they do not focus anywhere near enough attention to the aspects of the game that could draw them a big enough following.
MMOs are about achievements, development and acquisitions.
I think character development in STO is very poor, if Cryptic was looking at extending the level I would implore them to instead overhaul some of their core mechanics in the process.
STO does not have the content that you want to rush to max level. When people in my fleet are rushing to get to 50 and to grind through the reps I tell them to take their time because there is nothing really worth rushing for, once you max out the content is fairly trivial. I've seen countless people come in grind their way for a few months and then there is nothing left to do and they leave. The only people that stay are the ones who can entertain themselves in other ways or just love the ST theme too much to leave.
I think the game has too much emphasis on the Bridge Officers. The BOFF layout of the ship and the abilities you give them largely determine what you are capable of doing. Most ships stats are relatively trivial, it all revolves around the boff layout. All ships are pretty much cookie cutters, there is no emphasis on the development of the ship or the crew. There is no real game play involving your ship, most of the people who actually spend time in the ship's interior probably shouldn't be doing whatever they are doing in there. :P
This game is pretty much wow in space without the actual end-game raiding, you just have the daily treadmill until you cap out your reputation and have acquired the marks to acquire the items you are after. There has to be something designed for the players to spend their time on, most of the activities are a means to an end until you get to the point there is no end so the means becomes pointless.
The PvP community is very small, most who PvP are no good at it so the effective PvP community is abysmally small. The game isn't a sandbox so there are limited RP tools, there is no discovery or adventure or exploration.
I think Cryptic need to look at where they are going with the game, just slapping another 10 levels on is going to accomplish what exactly? They need to sit down and address some fundamentals, like what we are meant to be doing playing the game, because they do not focus anywhere near enough attention to the aspects of the game that could draw them a big enough following.
Level 60 is going to happen. It's a matter of when, not if. What matters is how they are going to implement it.
If they create T6 ships, and have MkXiii+ gear, I will not support it.
If they simply raise the skill points cap, boff cap, and boff rank cap to captain and allow for control of fleets of your own ships captained by your own boffs like this states then I 100% support it.
The below section is taken from an interview.
"Q: (cbp4964) Will we ever be able to send out bridge officers off on separate missions, or have them accompany us to battle in ships we assign them from our own selection?
Dstahl: We have some pretty awesome plans for when we increase ranks to Admiral level 60 which make good use of your bridge officers, ships, and crew. We ultimately want full Admirals to command their fleets. You?ll have to wait until at least Season 9 to get more details though."
I'd be happy to support a single class of T6 ship for each faction (Fed, KDF, Rom) as long as they were super-heavy battleship types , unable to pull Stupid Escort Tricks, and balanced between Tac, Sci, and Eng BO slots (or even a pile of universals for the KDF one). However, I think such a T6 ship should NOT be a C-store ship, it should be through a special "Admiral" Reputation system.
I'd also like to see bonuses like escorts ships and BO abilities be part of the Admiral Reputation system. It would provide another tier of end-game content and perhaps could be tied into FINALLY facing down the blasted Iconians.
On the other hand, I have serious problems with MK XIII gear. I have TWO MK XII Field Generators and TWO sets of MK XII Neutronium Armors, combined that cost me well over 100 million EC. A full set of spiral disruptors for my Galor set me back over 100k Dilithium. The cost of fitting Adapted MACO and purple MK XII consoles was staggering. Unlike the gear grind in many other MMO's you don't get it through drops and you don't get it through just going through an STF it is a literal tiered grind. Adding another tier onto this just means more useless grinding for a minimal increase in stats.
As far as Skill Points go, I'd like to see another row of skills, actually. I think the current limits and caps are quite interesting in focusing a player onto a particular play still rather than a boring master of everything.
I agree, tier 5 should remain the ship ceiling and mk XII should remain the top gear.
Thanks for the expansion that had "as much content as the last"
9 Episodes = 30+ episodes...?
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
It's pronounced "S.T.O." "Stow" sounds idiotic! lol
I'd be happy to support a single class of T6 ship for each faction (Fed, KDF, Rom) as long as they were super-heavy battleship types , unable to pull Stupid Escort Tricks, and balanced between Tac, Sci, and Eng BO slots (or even a pile of universals for the KDF one). However, I think such a T6 ship should NOT be a C-store ship, it should be through a special "Admiral" Reputation system.
I'd also like to see bonuses like escorts ships and BO abilities be part of the Admiral Reputation system. It would provide another tier of end-game content and perhaps could be tied into FINALLY facing down the blasted Iconians.
On the other hand, I have serious problems with MK XIII gear. I have TWO MK XII Field Generators and TWO sets of MK XII Neutronium Armors, combined that cost me well over 100 million EC. A full set of spiral disruptors for my Galor set me back over 100k Dilithium. The cost of fitting Adapted MACO and purple MK XII consoles was staggering. Unlike the gear grind in many other MMO's you don't get it through drops and you don't get it through just going through an STF it is a literal tiered grind. Adding another tier onto this just means more useless grinding for a minimal increase in stats.
As far as Skill Points go, I'd like to see another row of skills, actually. I think the current limits and caps are quite interesting in focusing a player onto a particular play still rather than a boring master of everything.
That's a terrible idea and Cryptic would never do it since if this T6 ship in your example is not Cstore then it just means everyone will just rush to 60 and get this T6 ship and ignore the Cstore completely outside of rare ship collectors.
it would make sense for the MKs to go higher with the level cap increase as well as ships....
i mean think about it, whats the point of a level cap increase without the items and other things?
if they dont increase the tier of weapons and ships then we might as well never have a level cap increase and just have "normal" "elite" & "brutal" lol... (brutal being a new difficulty lol instead of a cap increase)
it would make sense for the MKs to go higher with the level cap increase as well as ships....
i mean think about it, whats the point of a level cap increase without the items and other things?
if they dont increase the tier of weapons and ships then we might as well never have a level cap increase and just have "normal" "elite" & "brutal" lol... (brutal being a new difficulty lol instead of a cap increase)
Level increase would mean skill point increase... and really, that is enough. As well as the idea of being able to promote BOFF's to command your other ships.
I agree, no T6 ships and no weapons item higher than Mk XII. I'm not opposed to advancement, but too much money has been sunk.
What should an Admiral get instead? A Flag Captain: a universal Commander boff slot added to every ship that Admiral commands.
i Agree no T6 UNLESS They upgrade ALL C-Store ships from T5 to T6.
And Gear. There is no reason that they cant make Mk XIV. ERMG I spent 1billion EC on gear I knew might become dated oneday! Reguardless, Mk X was once the cap, people spent billions. Mk XI Then became the cap, People spent billions. Mk XII became the cap, People spent billions. Mk XIV Will become the cap and people will spend billions.
The diference is that this time, Embassy Stuff needs to be upgraded, Rep stuff needs to be upgraded, IE Start the gear at mk XI, T2 version of MACO woul dbe XII, T3, XIV. (Completely and totally cosmetic, and people will feel like its a functionality change)
\Mk XIV is inevitable...
HOWEVER!
if they do go through with a level cap increase, I wish they rebalabce the ranking system...
Comments
I'd rather see like an 'epic destinies' tier, where you spend points completely unrelated to the existing skill trees, but have supplemental ground/space/whatever effects.
If they do have XIII and XIV gear, I hope they do something like the reputation (shudder) system where you can 'turn in' older mark gear for upgrades of the same type.
Your mk 12's will now be equal ro blue mk 13's...and if you find new mk 13 purples there is more to link in chat and boast about.
I am a fan of every 10 level or tiers you toss your gear and work towards newer gear. In this game it is sooo easy to get gear and money to buy gear I see no issues.
As to new ships...there will always be new ships....they can mount the new weaposn..no need to make newer ships more powerful then the current breeds...and IMO they are approaching maximum density witht ships already anyways..... Sci ships will get Lt CMR tac slot and Escoprts get Lt Commander sci slot or eng slots...a bit out of whack.
So creating a new tier of weapons, IMO, will reinvigorate an already stagnant game in regards to cosnoles and weapons. I spent many months fine tuning my gear and would gladly give it up for newer more powerful weapson and consoles
I.R.W. Raptor's Claw
Storm Eagle Class Warbird Fleet Ha'feh
I have never trusted humans, and I never will
1) Instead of bringing in a random NPC ship, change Fleet Support II to bring in a random ship from the player's roster of un-readied ships.
1a) Consider adding a new ability, possibly as part of the reputation track described in 3 below, to allow a player to beam down one or two (or more?) random BOFFs to briefly assist in ground combat. This not only encourages players to equip all the BOFFs well, but lets them show off when working in a group with friends or playing in a public area like an adventure zone with a BOFF limit (i.e., New Romulus or Defera)
2) Revise some/all of the operational asset items to function in a broader range of content than just the Season 6 fleet PVE queues.
3) Add a "command school" reputation track. Tiers 1-4 each reward a token authorizing the player to promote one of his or her commanders to Captain (more on this below). Tier 5 ability grants Fleet Support III, which should be better in some way relative to Fleet Support II.
3a) In this same track, change the ranks above Captain (RALH/RAUH/Vice Admiral/Admiral/Fleet Admiral) into a series of fairly expensive unlock projects corresponding with each tier. Anyone who doesn't have them already doesn't automatically unlock these insignia/titles/costume parts unless they run the unlock project.
4) Allow captains to promote BOFFs to captain and assign them to an unreadied ship. Players can earn up to 4 captain promotions through the rep system described in 3 above, and buy more promotion tokens on the C-Store.
4a) Players can bring BOFF-operated ships with them in the space components of missions just like the ground away team (though they should have the option of bringing any number including none and some missions should probably have limits to ensure they function properly -- e.g., forced 1-player missions like Temporal Ambassador).
4b) BOFF would have their ships' states, console load, and gear, but would have limited powers. This ensures that human teammates are still preferrable over highly-optimizes BOFF companions.
5) The DOFF system should be updated to add new missions which, in addition to duty officers, require a ship. Any non-readied, non-BOFF-captained ship can be used. For example, you might see:
"Interdict Pirates near Tellar
Requires:
*Conn Officer
*Any officer (crit success: Security Officer)
*Any ship (crit success: Escort, failure: Freighter)
Casualty Risk: Medium"
In a disaster/high-risk failure, the ship could obtain injuries. Ship requirements should be generally limited to categories rather than specific ships, so "escort" would include all of that faction's escort ships (KDF equivalent might say "raptor" instead).
5a) At the same time the system should add missions that require a BOFF. As with the ships, these missions would require an un-stationed BOFF. While on the mission, this BOFF can't be added to away teams, etc. The BOFF's skills and equipment should influence the mission traits.
For example:
"Host Barbecue in the Holodecck
Requires:
*Chef
*Bartender
*Any Bridge Officer (success: science, crit success: exothermic induction field)
Casualty Risk: Low"
5b) In both cases, ships and BOFF should never die on missions - the worst outcome would be injuries.
6) Since rank is no longer directly linked to level, embrace the rep system as the continuation of the level system. A player's displayed level (not the same as his or her level behind the scenes for level balance purposes) should equal 50 + total number of rep tiers completed. For example, a player with tier 5 in both Omega and New Romulus should display as level 60.
Taken collectively, I think these enhancements would add a lot of value to BOFFs and to players' older ships. This means on one hand more things for players to do (playing missions to gather rare gear, getting dilith for upgrades, etc.) and on the other promotes C-Store sales for things like fleet ship modules (upgrade that old Tier II escort to a Tier V(c) Fleet Escort Retrofit) and C-Store ship unlocks. It also provides an incentive to get Gold/LTS status since those free endgame ships via the VADM and 1000 Tokens no longer force the character to ditch his or her current ship to get value from them.
What do you think. Am I crazy? Should this be Season 8? Interested to hear your thoughts.
They did not mention any higher tiers of weapons or ships.
This would make sense since as an Admiral you should control a fleet of ships rather than just your one ship.
This won't happen until season 9 or later.
Keep us at Captain rank and divorce levels from rank. One captain, one ship, one crew. Anything else is just rubbish.
Raise skill cap to lvl 60 along with the skill points to go along with it.
Create new station slot to each ship called "Captain".
Allow promotion to captain of boffs. (As long as your character is Admiral)
Allow assignment of captain boffs to any ship you do not have currently selected.
Have a new station list for "space" in the same way "away team" list is done, with up to 4 captain boffs to assign along with ships that you own they are assigned to.
Allow you to command up to 4 other of your own ships in space, commanded by the boffs you assigned.
This would do many beneficial things.
* It would encourage people to gear up all their other ships rather than just use their best ship 99% of the time, which improves economic activity. This is also a form of horizontal advancement rather than vertical advancement, where existing gear are not obsolete but more gameplay is needed to get gear.
* It encourages players to get all top tier ships rather than just have 7+ tier 1-4 ships sitting around in their shipyard not being used ever since they are now using up to 5 ships at a time. This will net Cryptic a ton more money in C-Store ship sales. At the same time this means that existing ships are not obsolete which is good for people who have sunk a lot of cash in getting ships.
* It will make for some very epic space battles since even a 5 player pve instance will now have 20 ships on your side. (A 20 player instance will have 100 ships!)
Obviously having 4 of your other ships helping you will unbalance at least pve instances, which is why I would say that having your "task force" should only be allowed in certain queue instances that are balanced for such task force action. (New pve, pvp queues designed for taskforces)
They would make more money I think if they did what I recommended above. Since that means you will now need to buy and outfit a whole taskforce of your own ships rather just simply buying a single T6 ship and calling it a day.
Except they would release a trio of ships so you need to buy the pack to get all the consoles and call it A STEAL by charging you ONLY 50 bucks!
What I want to see instead is just sticking with the ships we have and maybe adding a crafting system that lets players upgrade them.
I mean just how hard is it to put more weapons on a ship.....or more consoles or have more bridge stations.
I would love to be able to take my starter ship.....and be able to upgrade it myself...instead of the current system where we simply throw away ships for no longer being useful.
In fact maybe that would be what the higher levels should do.....they would allow you to take your ships and build on them yourself.
So if you are an admiral and want to fly around in an old constitution class cruiser or nx-enterprise ship but have it improved so it can do everything the more advanced ships can do.....fine.....just will take time and effort but if a player wants to have that kind of ship.....I don't see why they don't allow it.
Would definaatly make levels mean something and would make ships more collectable.
Power without Perception is Spiritually useless and therefore of no true value.
=^_^=
All those console set bonuses are not really that good anyway. I'd rather have a fleet MK xii of a console that go into those slot instead.
Besides, people will get pissed off and quit over this since it just makes all the cash shop ships they bought obsolete. There's a difference between simply having to grind more time for newer gear vs having wasted real money over something. Cryptic would lose paying customers over that.
Cryptic has clearly stated they will not do this.
Also, they can still pull the trio of ships sale with T5 ships, and earn even more boatloads of money if players have to run a taskforce of 5 ships rather than just playing with their 1 ship.
In the upcoming content list wiki there's an interview by cryptic where they talked about letting players use crafting to upgrade their existing ships, as well as letting them command their own task forces in season 9+.
Level cap is a long ways off but crafting revamp is next season I believe.
1. More ranks for folks to complain about being called Read Admiral Lower Half, or Major General, or even just simply Fleet Admiral - especially when they hold the lowest rank in a fleet?
2. More skill points to dump into your skill tree just makes for bloated skills that in turn makes easy content easier especially when everyone just fills in on the good skills?
3. More high-end ships that you have to buy or pay for all over again? Just so you can play some sort of RTS and manage your little mini-fleet in a space mission?
4. More high-end gear that you have to buy or pay for all over again? Just so you can outfit your now bloated BO list because you sent some of them off to command their own ship in your little mini-fleet?
5. All mission content would have to be reviewed to ensure that the NPCs provide SOME sort of challenge when playing.
6. Everyone winds up with more of a bloated shipyard taking up storage space.
7. STO the MMORPG becomes STO the MMORTS? (that's Real-Time Strategy game for those that don't recognize it)
I just don't see any sort of POSITIVE reason for there to be an increase in the level cap.
I lol'ed when I read this one...
The only reason they would increase the level cap is to MAKE us spend more money, there would be no other reason in their minds for them to do this...lol
*More skill points.
*Command of own task force.
*More class skills.
*More story arcs.
Level 60 doesn't mean you will now have T6 ships or Mk xiii gear. It can easily be horizontal advancement where you keep your T5 ships and MK XII gear except you just need more of them. Read my post above and you'll see what I mean.
They've already stated that in season 9+ there is good chance they will implement level 60 with fleet admiral rank and allow for control of your own taskforce of ships.
stahl already has stated in one of his many interviews that in the future, there would be drop only gear (as seen so far with the warpcores, and i think it should go further, and include all gear..
simply put, a big part of many peoples mmo experience (not everyones, but many) is that need to keep improving.. and to be honest, i always looked forward to new types of gear, and having to climb the latter again..
if they dont, well i for one wouldnt want to stay around, as it would get pretty dull pretty quick if everyone has all the same gear..
one of my friends who is a game designer, said to me that ini the end, the only thing that wins is the game in an mmo. he said that the basic philosophy behind an mmo is to keep the herd moving, and not to stay stagnant for too long.. he said, ultimatly, the elitist jerks are an mmo's best friend, as they usually set the standard for other players to try to achieve.. ie, you see him running around on that shiny new mount, you then want to grind for it..
while i never really like having to run a dungeon a hundred times to get a specific peice of gear, i have missed that feeling of accomplishment i felt when i did get since i joined this game.. nothing is really earned in this game.. you are garunteed to eventually get it, good or bad, weather you put 10 minutes a day, or 10 hrs a day.. nothing challenges me in this game. before, when you had to earn your mako or omega gear, it was a big deal to have a full set, you felt on top of the world, and you were envy of most.. now, you get it and its like having a glass of water with your lunch. i just dont get that thrill..
sto ultimatly, is the lazy mans game. you can purchase your way through it.. and as long as you get into a t5 fleet, youll have almost all the top gear within a few months.. and then your stuck with it for a few years.. minimum effort needed..
i also remember when grinding your way through a reputation in other games meant something.. in this game. almost everyone in my social circle is at the same level i am, it is not challenging at all.. the only thing in this game that you can say is a challenge, is the doff assignments.. you have to be in the right place at the right time to get the rare ones.. and very rare ones.
i can make a level 50 character from scratch in about a day maybe 2, and then, if i find a good fleet, can have him/her fully geared out in about a month, maybe 2 months.. boom game over..
We don't need a level 60, it will take players all of a few hours to get to 60. Looks at Romulan players in the first couple of days many were already at level 50.
Instead as the content increases I would rather see it take longer to level, slow down how much XP you get for missions, require more XP to get to the next rank. That would make it a better option than adding another useless rank.
not really the answer.. i for one will not create a new character, so i would like to continue doing new things with mine.. and would love to have more points added to my skill tree and what not.. get some new abilities and blah blah blah..
and heres a question.. if you invoke your logic, what are you spending your marks and dilithium and what not on anyways.. for example, say you have tholian mk12 space set, and we get a level increase, and you want to keep the set bonuses, but increase it from 12 to say 14, they could charge you something like 30k dil per to upgrade it.. man, i could do that right now.. otherwise, your not spending it on anything anyways..
I think character development in STO is very poor, if Cryptic was looking at extending the level I would implore them to instead overhaul some of their core mechanics in the process.
STO does not have the content that you want to rush to max level. When people in my fleet are rushing to get to 50 and to grind through the reps I tell them to take their time because there is nothing really worth rushing for, once you max out the content is fairly trivial. I've seen countless people come in grind their way for a few months and then there is nothing left to do and they leave. The only people that stay are the ones who can entertain themselves in other ways or just love the ST theme too much to leave.
I think the game has too much emphasis on the Bridge Officers. The BOFF layout of the ship and the abilities you give them largely determine what you are capable of doing. Most ships stats are relatively trivial, it all revolves around the boff layout. All ships are pretty much cookie cutters, there is no emphasis on the development of the ship or the crew. There is no real game play involving your ship, most of the people who actually spend time in the ship's interior probably shouldn't be doing whatever they are doing in there. :P
This game is pretty much wow in space without the actual end-game raiding, you just have the daily treadmill until you cap out your reputation and have acquired the marks to acquire the items you are after. There has to be something designed for the players to spend their time on, most of the activities are a means to an end until you get to the point there is no end so the means becomes pointless.
The PvP community is very small, most who PvP are no good at it so the effective PvP community is abysmally small. The game isn't a sandbox so there are limited RP tools, there is no discovery or adventure or exploration.
I think Cryptic need to look at where they are going with the game, just slapping another 10 levels on is going to accomplish what exactly? They need to sit down and address some fundamentals, like what we are meant to be doing playing the game, because they do not focus anywhere near enough attention to the aspects of the game that could draw them a big enough following.
Level 60 is going to happen. It's a matter of when, not if. What matters is how they are going to implement it.
If they create T6 ships, and have MkXiii+ gear, I will not support it.
If they simply raise the skill points cap, boff cap, and boff rank cap to captain and allow for control of fleets of your own ships captained by your own boffs like this states then I 100% support it.
The below section is taken from an interview.
"Q: (cbp4964) Will we ever be able to send out bridge officers off on separate missions, or have them accompany us to battle in ships we assign them from our own selection?
Dstahl: We have some pretty awesome plans for when we increase ranks to Admiral level 60 which make good use of your bridge officers, ships, and crew. We ultimately want full Admirals to command their fleets. You?ll have to wait until at least Season 9 to get more details though."
I'd also like to see bonuses like escorts ships and BO abilities be part of the Admiral Reputation system. It would provide another tier of end-game content and perhaps could be tied into FINALLY facing down the blasted Iconians.
On the other hand, I have serious problems with MK XIII gear. I have TWO MK XII Field Generators and TWO sets of MK XII Neutronium Armors, combined that cost me well over 100 million EC. A full set of spiral disruptors for my Galor set me back over 100k Dilithium. The cost of fitting Adapted MACO and purple MK XII consoles was staggering. Unlike the gear grind in many other MMO's you don't get it through drops and you don't get it through just going through an STF it is a literal tiered grind. Adding another tier onto this just means more useless grinding for a minimal increase in stats.
As far as Skill Points go, I'd like to see another row of skills, actually. I think the current limits and caps are quite interesting in focusing a player onto a particular play still rather than a boring master of everything.
9 Episodes = 30+ episodes...?
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
It's pronounced "S.T.O." "Stow" sounds idiotic! lol
That's a terrible idea and Cryptic would never do it since if this T6 ship in your example is not Cstore then it just means everyone will just rush to 60 and get this T6 ship and ignore the Cstore completely outside of rare ship collectors.
i mean think about it, whats the point of a level cap increase without the items and other things?
if they dont increase the tier of weapons and ships then we might as well never have a level cap increase and just have "normal" "elite" & "brutal" lol... (brutal being a new difficulty lol instead of a cap increase)
Level increase would mean skill point increase... and really, that is enough. As well as the idea of being able to promote BOFF's to command your other ships.
i Agree no T6 UNLESS They upgrade ALL C-Store ships from T5 to T6.
And Gear. There is no reason that they cant make Mk XIV. ERMG I spent 1billion EC on gear I knew might become dated oneday! Reguardless, Mk X was once the cap, people spent billions. Mk XI Then became the cap, People spent billions. Mk XII became the cap, People spent billions. Mk XIV Will become the cap and people will spend billions.
The diference is that this time, Embassy Stuff needs to be upgraded, Rep stuff needs to be upgraded, IE Start the gear at mk XI, T2 version of MACO woul dbe XII, T3, XIV. (Completely and totally cosmetic, and people will feel like its a functionality change)
\Mk XIV is inevitable...
HOWEVER!
if they do go through with a level cap increase, I wish they rebalabce the ranking system...
T1-T6 should be a diferent level progression...
Say....
Acting Ensign 0
Ensign 1-10 T1
Leitenant 11-20 T2
Lietenant Commander 21-30 T3
Commander 30-40 T4
Captain 41-50 T5
Then MAYBE
Rear Admiral 51-60.
Lets be honest, if they keep going Star fleet is gonna have too many Fleet Admirals.
I wouldn't mind if they stopped at captain, and unlocked other ranks that were cosmetic through Accolade Points.