The only player group Cryptic primarily accepts feedback from are the PvPers who make up an outrageously small amount of the playerbase because to be honest the PVP in this game is the worst I've ever seen/heard of
You had me going until you wrote that "outrageous" opinion. :rolleyes:
If *that* little tidbit were only true then perhaps we wouldn't be in the LoR stacking, passive, crit insanity. Perhaps they would have found a *useful* niche for Engi/Cruisers and a solution to beam arrays. Perhaps they would have done something to mitigate the reputation grind. All these things are examples of issues that most PvP'rs know a great deal about and other PvP'rs have discussed at great length.
So, that statement is pure bunk -- all except your opinion that PvP is the worst you've ever seen. I can't argue with that. It's frack'n ridiculous right now. :cool:
My God man, what have you been playing?!? :eek::P:D
On a serious note though, I think it's about time for Cryptic to look themselves in the mirror and have a long deep trail of thought as to what they're doing.
I'm usually very reasonable and have been in agreement with them for the majority of topics/issues, but I have noticed that things have really gone downhill since the release of LoR. At least from my personal experience. I didn't have serious gameplay issues before, but since LoR half of my chars are a bugged mess, and that's just one of the issues.
Really? in what way? The main one I've seen is that annoying one that occasionally unseats your boffs.
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
Personally I don't believe that F2P games are long-term sustainable, mainly because eventually customers will reach their saturation point for how much they are willing to invest.
Right now, F2P seems to be the way to go for games, but in the long run I honestly believe it will kill off any game using said model.
However, there are only few points that you are trying to make I can agree with.
STO is Combat heavy... Yes... That's the quick way to success when a game has to go out ASAP, but will in long term kill of any game, as it quickly becomes repetitive.
But in the recent year (granted, thanks to the influx of money from F2P), we've seen incredible improvements to the story and game play, through exploration and a cleary story-line to the Romulans, wich proves that STO's initial states were more because of the rushed nature of the game, rather than Cryptic inability to make a great game.
Don't look silly... Don't call it the "Z-Store/Zen Store"...
I don't know how long this game will last. I don't have a glass ball that foretells the future. I do feel, though, that this game has a fair number of flaws, flaws that will lead to the game dying off eventually - especially once another Star Trek game with multiplayer options comes out. Cryptic's 'recent' focus on just pumping out more goodies to sell to the playerbase rather than putting more resources into 'unprofitable' gameplay content that we can USE these goodies in. The lack of a decent endgame-PvP setup is also a problem. Part of the reason the PvP community is small in this game is because it's a pretty undeveloped part of the game, content-wise and rewards-wise. Not to mention Cryptic's tendency to release gear that throws PvP out of whack on a regular basis (the most recent being the Elachi console). The gap between the top-level elite players and an average PvPer is ridiculous, and this is the result of a combination of unbalanced consoles/powers/ships along with player skill.
If I had to rate this game out of ten, I would give it a 6. It has potential to be more, and with a lot of re-working (as in, clearing away large parts of the game and re-building their replacements from scratch) it could be much better.
Ultimately, there's no overlooking the fact that STO got a real crappy start. Not only did they have to rush the launch due to the previous license holder not doing anything of significance with the license (therefore wasting time), but there was the whole issue of Cryptic being owned by Atari, a dying company. It had that whole 'year long content drought' because of that issue. This poor start has resulted in a game that isn't as good as it could have been, had it been placed in better hands. A larger/more experienced studio, a better parent company, etc.
Star Trek has never been only or heavily centered around space combat [citation needed], in fact many of the episodes were about exploration, diplomacy, first contact, rescue missions, and a variety of other subjects.
Cryptic has removed all of dynamic aspects of Star Trek and given us only Space combat or missions disguised as nothing more than forced action text based missions [citation needed]. Players get bored with this very easily as we've seen numerous times where there is a spiker for a week or two in players after a season or event releases and then a major drop afterwards [citation needed]. Cryptic has even stated on numerous occasions that they fully realize players are going to come and go, so they focus on bringing in new players.
The only player group Cryptic primarily accepts feedback from are the PvPers [citation needed]who make up an outrageously small amount of the playerbase [citation needed] because to be honest the PVP in this game is the worst I've ever seen/heard of
PWE Customer Support is a complete mockery of the words Customer Support, that is assuming you can even get someone from customer support and it isn't copy/past responses and then the ticket being closed when nothing has been done [citation needed].
There is no player loyalty [citation needed], they would rather bring in new players than focus on keeping current/veteran players simply because they think new players buy more, which is probably true because once you realize Cryptic doesn't give a TRIBBLE about you [citation needed] or producing quality content [citation needed]more evenly spread out throughout the year you get bored and don't play as much or spend as much [citation needed]. There's only a finite amount of new players you can draw in before you've left too much of a bad taste in gamer's mouths.
Player feedback: we've seen on countless occasions where many/most of the players on the forums and in-game in the chat have overwhelmingly disagreed with a decision Cryptic has made [citation needed], and yet that feedback is never considered [citation needed] nor decisions altered. (IE arc, Forcing Romulans to ally with fed/kdf, etc, etc etc.)
Content release schedule/content quality: not even going to bother listing everything wrong with this category.
I realize this is the internet, but really, lets try to have higher standards than Fox News, shall we? Lets back up our 'facts' at least.
_________________________________________________
::WARNING:: This game is not intended for use as a source of self-esteem.
Really? You "totally agree" with the OP? The only part of the OP's post I agreed with was this part:
Most of the rest of it is just the typical ravings of an obsessed LTS PVE fan who thinks the money he spent on his LTS makes him a special flower and that PvPers are children of the devil. He also wears very thick rose-colored glasses if he thinks that Customer Support was better in the Atari era - where there were just as many hundred-plus post threads about how much CS sucked - or that somehow the missions were less about space combat back then. Heck, back in the Atari days people hated the ground combat so much that Cryptic even tried to introduce a Shooter Mode as a way to entice people to do more ground combat stuff - and it didn't work. Space combat was king at launch and it still is - with people still angry that they're forced to spend Skill Points on ground skills. As far as First Contact missions, I guess he means that 1 diplomacy mission that you did over and over with different aliens. There wasn't any other First Contact in the game - as every mission was about a canon alien race. And then it ends with the typical "I don't like the game as is so it's going to die" sentiment we've been hearing since Beta.
So what parts were you "totally agreeing" about?
ummm, dude you know damned well I don't have LTS lol. I don't think The CS was better during the Atari days, I specified PWE Customer Support because PWE is handling Customer Support not Cryptic.
It's no secret that prior to the season 6 launch The was much more Dev/player interaction and more player feedback being seriously considered. Unfortunately a few misunderstood wordings by a couple of devs put an end to that and since then Feedback hasn't been taken as seriously and all you have to do is look at the patch notes to see they are becoming more and more lax about fixing bugs. The overall quality of the game has deteriorated and so I was raising some valid concerns and opening up a topic of discussion about it.
As far as PVP, it completely sucks in this game and despite numerous promises to fix it noting has been done. It has nothing to do with thinking "PVPers are the devil" it's simply that the state of pvp in this game sucks.
A very already popular in-development game is making promises and showing evidence of going to have everything in it that encopasses Star Trek aspects (not a Star Trek game thou) So again a discussion on if Cryptic has developed themselves into a whole with only focusing on space combat is valid.
PS: Not meant as a "doom" thread but a serious discussion. Actually the release of a pre-pre-alpha game module for a game currently in development that has less bugs in it than STO is actually what prompted the idea of this thread.
The game is sure in need of some serious bug-fixing love. And considering that at some point enough ppl have their favourite Shipclass for their chars I do hope Cryptic has a PlanB for income instead of even more Ships.
Star Trek has never been only or heavily centered around space combat [citation needed], ....
I realize this is the internet, but really, lets try to have higher standards than Fox News, shall we? Lets back up our 'facts' at least.
Dear god when did ppl stopped thinking on their own *doublefacepalm*
If someone told you to breath air to survive, would you just choke to make a point for not gotten a citation? Did you ever watched Star Trek besides JJs Actionfest which already has been said this game is not about?
The Devs have given a great system with the Foundry that is possible to create an unlimited amount of stories. If that doesn't give immense survivability to the game, then nothing else would. It is the player's fault if they don't use that system.
agreed but then again, even the fundry needs more attention for it to reach its potential level as a content delivery system ( searching for missions and the rating system is currently in a pretty poor state)
sorry to pull this up out of nowhere but... really? dont talk about the foundry as if its the source of all the great content in the game. if that was true it'd be a truely sad statement indeed. Cryptic's response to first contact and stuff is basically "we dont know how to do it right, so we'll leave it to foundry authors". maybe this is just me... but i have 2 problems with this:
1. the foundry is player made content, and while alot of it is really creative, it's best for a game to have that kind of thing be a "official" mission. proper rewards, proper props and scenery, and especially something that can lay impact on the game in some way. whether that be just future missions, or leveling some type of special tree like a reputation, or maybe how the diplomacy Tiers work.
2. the foundry, no matter how much you may or may not like it... is flawed. the bugs for it grow more then it ever shrinks, and creation of maps and missions is rather awkward. it's missing so much that cryptic obviously has available to them, and so much more that would be simple to add, if it was a priority, which it's obvious its not, and probably will never be.
authors dont have the option to make a story line go in two seperate ways, based on a decision the player makes. "kill NPC? or save NPC?" or to keep things simple to the way the story editor is already set up "anger NPC in dialog, or be nice to NPC in dialog". the dialog editor, and the story editor look nearly identical, but act completely different. dialog you can have go in 15 different directions. story is completely linear. no room for two people's play through to end in different ways.
lets also not forget map editor that is tedious to the infinite extreme to make really good stuff with. granted i know this would be harder to fix then the story editor potentually, but i still wish there was a way to see an objects height without loading the map for the 53rd time for that little room. -_-
no. foundry is NOT the option to the game's lack of content. not now not ever.
The foundry is a fine way to provide content, maybe not as good as it could be, but as it stands i have spent many hours enjoying User Generated Contnet,
I WOULD PREFER IT IF CYPTIC WOULD GIVE US MORE REGULAR STUFF, but i'll take what i can get, and the foundry is offering new content where cryptic isn't
Oh and I am going to make a dialogue chain where you can anger an NPC, just for the sake of it, i'm pretty sure i can link a Dialogue prompt reached state transition to an Ememy Mob spawn, if not I WILL FIND A WAY
EDIT, i know you can set it up in foundry to anger an NPC or use diplomacy, because i just did it, and then by extension i can set up two different dialogue chains triggered to spawn based on the events so i can referance one where the NPC dies, and another where it lives, It just requires some creativity
These are the Voyages on the STO forum, the final frontier. Our continuing mission: to explore Pretentious Posts, to seek out new Overreactions and Misinformation , to boldly experience Cynicism like no man has before.......
Personally I don't believe that F2P games are long-term sustainable, mainly because eventually customers will reach their saturation point for how much they are willing to invest.
Right now, F2P seems to be the way to go for games, but in the long run I honestly believe it will kill off any game using said model.
However, there are only few points that you are trying to make I can agree with.
STO is Combat heavy... Yes... That's the quick way to success when a game has to go out ASAP, but will in long term kill of any game, as it quickly becomes repetitive.
But in the recent year (granted, thanks to the influx of money from F2P), we've seen incredible improvements to the story and game play, through exploration and a cleary story-line to the Romulans, wich proves that STO's initial states were more because of the rushed nature of the game, rather than Cryptic inability to make a great game.
After reading this post, I just had to say that Zenimax has recently announced that Elder Scrolls Online will release as subscription only and possibly even no cash shop at all in it.
The leader of the ESO project also said at the time they released this information, "We feel that ESO needs to allow access to the entire game with out the need for players to shop in a store for additional content, which we feel breaks immersion into the game world"
A very already popular in-development game is making promises and showing evidence of going to have everything in it that encopasses Star Trek aspects (not a Star Trek game thou) So again a discussion on if Cryptic has developed themselves into a whole with only focusing on space combat is valid.
PS: Not meant as a "doom" thread but a serious discussion. Actually the release of a pre-pre-alpha game module for a game currently in development that has less bugs in it than STO is actually what prompted the idea of this thread.
I'm not going to address most of your other points, as I don't see any reason to debate subjective, but I will address this one.
Every game that's about to come out is the STO-killer game. Do we all remember when SWTOR was in testing and all the people who told us SWTOR was going to destroy STO? SWTOR didn't even make it a year as a Subscription game. We heard the same things when GW2 was in testing. Yet here STO sits, with a new Rom Faction, new KDF missions, and still going on. And there's always going to be another game in Alpha testing somewhere that's going to destroy STO, and WoW, until it launches and people play it, and get bored with it in 3 months, and wonder how the game could have been so terrible and why did they spend all that money in it.
Stop pinning all your opinions on something you've only seen concept art and publicity videos for - as well as just forum comments about. It's a huge difference between intent and final product. Just ask all of us who were here when Cryptic announced they had the Star Trek license and they told us all they hoped to do with it by launch.
And none of the above is to say that STO can't, or shouldn't, be a better game. It's simply to say that fear-mongering about what's on the other side of the horizon and still years away doesn't do anyone any good.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
After reading this post, I just had to say that Zenimax has recently announced that Elder Scrolls Online will release as subscription only and possibly even no cash shop at all in it.
The leader of the ESO project also said at the time they released this information, "We feel that ESO needs to allow access to the entire game with out the need for players to shop in a store for additional content, which we feel breaks immersion into the game world"
And like any big-ticket MMO, it will eventually turn to the F2P model. Some games can get away with subscription and you'll note the majority of them are niche games. ESO isn't going to be a niche game--it's going to follow in the footsteps of SWTOR.
It already is a GOOD product. Perfect, no, but good. It has less bugs than most other online games I've played.
I would say STO is an okay product but not good. A lot of bug fixes, addressing bugs and fixing them quickly, regular story based content releases, and an actual full playable separate full faction that is evil would go a long way to bringing this game up on par with the many other MMO's that keep the casual players interested for much longer.
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I don't, because they've all been reported multiple times.
It's the worst thing and what generally makes me quit for a few months after a month or two of playing.
It's like a 747 made by North Korea.
The *idea* and *conception* of the game is brilliant, and it manages to be tons of fun for a *while* despite the bugs... but even though I'm invested in the characters and story, I just can't keep it up for very long.
I don't, because they've all been reported multiple times.
If you don't report them, they don't know the problem that they may have stealth fixed or thought resolved itself has returned.
"Anyone could have done it, but No-one did it. Someone got angry about that because he thought that it was Everyone?s job. Everyone thought that Anyone could do it, but No-one realised that Everyone wouldn?t do it. It ended up that Everyone was angry with Someone because No-one did what Anyone could have done!"
So if you don't take personal responsibility for the bugs you encounter you can't complain that they aren't fixed to your satisfaction.
If you don't report them, they don't know the problem that they may have stealth fixed or thought resolved itself has returned.
"Anyone could have done it, but No-one did it. Someone got angry about that because he thought that it was Everyone?s job. Everyone thought that Anyone could do it, but No-one realised that Everyone wouldn?t do it. It ended up that Everyone was angry with Someone because No-one did what Anyone could have done!"
So if you don't take personal responsibility for the bugs you encounter you can't complain that they aren't fixed to your satisfaction.
Thx for the wise lesson, dad. Now, here's one for you: Cryptic is notorious for not responding to any and all tickets/reports/whatever. Only a fool keeps talking to a brick wall.
And like any big-ticket MMO, it will eventually turn to the F2P model. Some games can get away with subscription and you'll note the majority of them are niche games. ESO isn't going to be a niche game--it's going to follow in the footsteps of SWTOR.
That's my prediction, anyway.
I would only seek to point out that ZeniMax is actually privately held, so a lot of the financial pitfalls that hit MMOs 'needing' to adapt the more profitable F2P structure aren't as strong. Time will certainly tell, I wouldn't be surprised if it does go f2p, but I also wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't.
To be fair they did try to do random map generation although the engine failed and the number of random missions was limited, maybe if they were to fix the map generator and add more mission options to choose from the concept of exploration could be made more believable.
As for the topic, STO will be turned off when the list of lockbox ideas runs out.
It's not a map generator in the sense that you're thinking.
They had a mission generator churn out something like 4,000 precompiled text missions with a minimum of variables. They proceeded to have QA teams do quick tests of them.
The exploration missions are not generated on the fly. They are pre-generated from an algorithm that they let run for several weeks and tested by something like 5 people spending ideally only a few minutes on each one, probably in God-mode, looking for obvious bugs.
This generator is what they call Genesis. It's an older sister program to the Foundry. It did what it was designed to do aside from maybe not having as many scripts as they would have liked or a few whistles and bells like being able to save the ability to replay a mission and have it named after you if you discover it first.
I strongly suspect an Exploration revamp would be less procedural, not more, and would use procedurally generated elements more intelligently with a better emphasis on good stock scripts.
I would say STO is an okay product but not good. A lot of bug fixes, addressing bugs and fixing them quickly, regular story based content releases, and an actual full playable separate full faction that is evil would go a long way to bringing this game up on par with the many other MMO's that keep the casual players interested for much longer.
WoW doesn't have an evil faction and does pretty well. Meanwhile, all of the EvE factions are pretty much evil.
Cryptic kinda took a bath on City of Villains in some respects. I doubt they'd be eager to develop an evil faction for any game planned around a theme park model. MMOs built around theme park content, whether story or activity based, don't work very well with the idea of factions that have serious moral differences.
The only way I could see that happening is if it was the centerpiece of the game, built to the exclusion of almost all else. Like... If they did G.I.Joe, yes, they'd have to do Cobra. But then the game would be all mechanics/scenario based. No lore. No single player roleplay aside from action. And any attempt to nudge Trek that direction has negative implications for some core elements of the IP.
It's too much to focus on factions that are varying levels of evil good. Factions that approach problems a bit differently is one thing. Good vs. evil in a true sense really means developing two FULL games, content and mechanics wise, and is something I could only see them do if they could make compromises elsewhere. Good for a toyline, bad for deeper "more adult" storytelling, which I think Cryptic sees STO as making more concessions to, by player demand.
A game that's all Epohh hunting could be good vs. evil. A game that's all PvP could be. A game that calls for some serious single player tuning and storylines can't be without being developed as two games... and that won't double your playerbase in that type of game.
Unfortunately for the PvPers the majority of the player base are hardcore PvEer's. So naturally the company is going to focus more on PvE content than PvP because PvE is paying the bills.
You know this keeps being repeated over and over but I am not entirely sure it is 100% correct. While it is true that PvE probably bring in the majority of revenue nevertheless the most profitable customers, and probably a good chunk of the revenue, comes from PvPers.
Think about it for a sec.
1) All lock boxes, and P2W ships like JHAS is really only needed for PvP. I mainly see them in PvP.
2) See #1 for consoles
I think those 2 make up a good portion of the revenue and most of that gear is only needed to keep up with the arms race. Although I refuse to buy keys and play the lottery game with real money, I have bought ships for their associated consoles, "hello Acetons", to keep up with the big boys. I see the same thing with Elachi goodies too. Almost totally absent from PvE but all over the place in PvP.
It is probably a complicated picture ... but considering that Cryptic and PWE invest almost 0 in PvP content we are definitely the most profitable for them. Very sad we don't get more attention.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Comments
You had me going until you wrote that "outrageous" opinion. :rolleyes:
If *that* little tidbit were only true then perhaps we wouldn't be in the LoR stacking, passive, crit insanity. Perhaps they would have found a *useful* niche for Engi/Cruisers and a solution to beam arrays. Perhaps they would have done something to mitigate the reputation grind. All these things are examples of issues that most PvP'rs know a great deal about and other PvP'rs have discussed at great length.
So, that statement is pure bunk -- all except your opinion that PvP is the worst you've ever seen. I can't argue with that. It's frack'n ridiculous right now. :cool:
My character Tsin'xing
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
Um,... No.
"There... are... four... lights!" ~Jean Luc Picard
Well, that part is right at least.
Right now, F2P seems to be the way to go for games, but in the long run I honestly believe it will kill off any game using said model.
However, there are only few points that you are trying to make I can agree with.
STO is Combat heavy... Yes... That's the quick way to success when a game has to go out ASAP, but will in long term kill of any game, as it quickly becomes repetitive.
But in the recent year (granted, thanks to the influx of money from F2P), we've seen incredible improvements to the story and game play, through exploration and a cleary story-line to the Romulans, wich proves that STO's initial states were more because of the rushed nature of the game, rather than Cryptic inability to make a great game.
If I had to rate this game out of ten, I would give it a 6. It has potential to be more, and with a lot of re-working (as in, clearing away large parts of the game and re-building their replacements from scratch) it could be much better.
Ultimately, there's no overlooking the fact that STO got a real crappy start. Not only did they have to rush the launch due to the previous license holder not doing anything of significance with the license (therefore wasting time), but there was the whole issue of Cryptic being owned by Atari, a dying company. It had that whole 'year long content drought' because of that issue. This poor start has resulted in a game that isn't as good as it could have been, had it been placed in better hands. A larger/more experienced studio, a better parent company, etc.
I realize this is the internet, but really, lets try to have higher standards than Fox News, shall we? Lets back up our 'facts' at least.
::WARNING:: This game is not intended for use as a source of self-esteem.
ummm, dude you know damned well I don't have LTS lol. I don't think The CS was better during the Atari days, I specified PWE Customer Support because PWE is handling Customer Support not Cryptic.
It's no secret that prior to the season 6 launch The was much more Dev/player interaction and more player feedback being seriously considered. Unfortunately a few misunderstood wordings by a couple of devs put an end to that and since then Feedback hasn't been taken as seriously and all you have to do is look at the patch notes to see they are becoming more and more lax about fixing bugs. The overall quality of the game has deteriorated and so I was raising some valid concerns and opening up a topic of discussion about it.
As far as PVP, it completely sucks in this game and despite numerous promises to fix it noting has been done. It has nothing to do with thinking "PVPers are the devil" it's simply that the state of pvp in this game sucks.
A very already popular in-development game is making promises and showing evidence of going to have everything in it that encopasses Star Trek aspects (not a Star Trek game thou) So again a discussion on if Cryptic has developed themselves into a whole with only focusing on space combat is valid.
PS: Not meant as a "doom" thread but a serious discussion. Actually the release of a pre-pre-alpha game module for a game currently in development that has less bugs in it than STO is actually what prompted the idea of this thread.
Dear god when did ppl stopped thinking on their own *doublefacepalm*
If someone told you to breath air to survive, would you just choke to make a point for not gotten a citation? Did you ever watched Star Trek besides JJs Actionfest which already has been said this game is not about?
agreed but then again, even the fundry needs more attention for it to reach its potential level as a content delivery system ( searching for missions and the rating system is currently in a pretty poor state)
The foundry is a fine way to provide content, maybe not as good as it could be, but as it stands i have spent many hours enjoying User Generated Contnet,
I WOULD PREFER IT IF CYPTIC WOULD GIVE US MORE REGULAR STUFF, but i'll take what i can get, and the foundry is offering new content where cryptic isn't
Oh and I am going to make a dialogue chain where you can anger an NPC, just for the sake of it, i'm pretty sure i can link a Dialogue prompt reached state transition to an Ememy Mob spawn, if not I WILL FIND A WAY
EDIT, i know you can set it up in foundry to anger an NPC or use diplomacy, because i just did it, and then by extension i can set up two different dialogue chains triggered to spawn based on the events so i can referance one where the NPC dies, and another where it lives, It just requires some creativity
After reading this post, I just had to say that Zenimax has recently announced that Elder Scrolls Online will release as subscription only and possibly even no cash shop at all in it.
The leader of the ESO project also said at the time they released this information, "We feel that ESO needs to allow access to the entire game with out the need for players to shop in a store for additional content, which we feel breaks immersion into the game world"
Every game that's about to come out is the STO-killer game. Do we all remember when SWTOR was in testing and all the people who told us SWTOR was going to destroy STO? SWTOR didn't even make it a year as a Subscription game. We heard the same things when GW2 was in testing. Yet here STO sits, with a new Rom Faction, new KDF missions, and still going on. And there's always going to be another game in Alpha testing somewhere that's going to destroy STO, and WoW, until it launches and people play it, and get bored with it in 3 months, and wonder how the game could have been so terrible and why did they spend all that money in it.
Stop pinning all your opinions on something you've only seen concept art and publicity videos for - as well as just forum comments about. It's a huge difference between intent and final product. Just ask all of us who were here when Cryptic announced they had the Star Trek license and they told us all they hoped to do with it by launch.
And none of the above is to say that STO can't, or shouldn't, be a better game. It's simply to say that fear-mongering about what's on the other side of the horizon and still years away doesn't do anyone any good.
And like any big-ticket MMO, it will eventually turn to the F2P model. Some games can get away with subscription and you'll note the majority of them are niche games. ESO isn't going to be a niche game--it's going to follow in the footsteps of SWTOR.
That's my prediction, anyway.
summarized this topic perfectly.
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---- FIRE EVERYTHING ! ----
There will be cash-shop. Anyway good luck to them, they will need it.
I would say STO is an okay product but not good. A lot of bug fixes, addressing bugs and fixing them quickly, regular story based content releases, and an actual full playable separate full faction that is evil would go a long way to bringing this game up on par with the many other MMO's that keep the casual players interested for much longer.
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I don't, because they've all been reported multiple times.
It's the worst thing and what generally makes me quit for a few months after a month or two of playing.
It's like a 747 made by North Korea.
The *idea* and *conception* of the game is brilliant, and it manages to be tons of fun for a *while* despite the bugs... but even though I'm invested in the characters and story, I just can't keep it up for very long.
If you don't report them, they don't know the problem that they may have stealth fixed or thought resolved itself has returned.
"Anyone could have done it, but No-one did it. Someone got angry about that because he thought that it was Everyone?s job. Everyone thought that Anyone could do it, but No-one realised that Everyone wouldn?t do it. It ended up that Everyone was angry with Someone because No-one did what Anyone could have done!"
So if you don't take personal responsibility for the bugs you encounter you can't complain that they aren't fixed to your satisfaction.
Thx for the wise lesson, dad. Now, here's one for you: Cryptic is notorious for not responding to any and all tickets/reports/whatever. Only a fool keeps talking to a brick wall.
I would only seek to point out that ZeniMax is actually privately held, so a lot of the financial pitfalls that hit MMOs 'needing' to adapt the more profitable F2P structure aren't as strong. Time will certainly tell, I wouldn't be surprised if it does go f2p, but I also wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't.
It's not a map generator in the sense that you're thinking.
They had a mission generator churn out something like 4,000 precompiled text missions with a minimum of variables. They proceeded to have QA teams do quick tests of them.
The exploration missions are not generated on the fly. They are pre-generated from an algorithm that they let run for several weeks and tested by something like 5 people spending ideally only a few minutes on each one, probably in God-mode, looking for obvious bugs.
This generator is what they call Genesis. It's an older sister program to the Foundry. It did what it was designed to do aside from maybe not having as many scripts as they would have liked or a few whistles and bells like being able to save the ability to replay a mission and have it named after you if you discover it first.
I strongly suspect an Exploration revamp would be less procedural, not more, and would use procedurally generated elements more intelligently with a better emphasis on good stock scripts.
WoW doesn't have an evil faction and does pretty well. Meanwhile, all of the EvE factions are pretty much evil.
Cryptic kinda took a bath on City of Villains in some respects. I doubt they'd be eager to develop an evil faction for any game planned around a theme park model. MMOs built around theme park content, whether story or activity based, don't work very well with the idea of factions that have serious moral differences.
The only way I could see that happening is if it was the centerpiece of the game, built to the exclusion of almost all else. Like... If they did G.I.Joe, yes, they'd have to do Cobra. But then the game would be all mechanics/scenario based. No lore. No single player roleplay aside from action. And any attempt to nudge Trek that direction has negative implications for some core elements of the IP.
It's too much to focus on factions that are varying levels of evil good. Factions that approach problems a bit differently is one thing. Good vs. evil in a true sense really means developing two FULL games, content and mechanics wise, and is something I could only see them do if they could make compromises elsewhere. Good for a toyline, bad for deeper "more adult" storytelling, which I think Cryptic sees STO as making more concessions to, by player demand.
A game that's all Epohh hunting could be good vs. evil. A game that's all PvP could be. A game that calls for some serious single player tuning and storylines can't be without being developed as two games... and that won't double your playerbase in that type of game.
You know this keeps being repeated over and over but I am not entirely sure it is 100% correct. While it is true that PvE probably bring in the majority of revenue nevertheless the most profitable customers, and probably a good chunk of the revenue, comes from PvPers.
Think about it for a sec.
1) All lock boxes, and P2W ships like JHAS is really only needed for PvP. I mainly see them in PvP.
2) See #1 for consoles
I think those 2 make up a good portion of the revenue and most of that gear is only needed to keep up with the arms race. Although I refuse to buy keys and play the lottery game with real money, I have bought ships for their associated consoles, "hello Acetons", to keep up with the big boys. I see the same thing with Elachi goodies too. Almost totally absent from PvE but all over the place in PvP.
It is probably a complicated picture ... but considering that Cryptic and PWE invest almost 0 in PvP content we are definitely the most profitable for them. Very sad we don't get more attention.
- Judge Aaron Satie