I see the current .... Tier V fleet have accesses to some of the best ships in the game ... and they are expanding. T3 DIL/Emb/Spire have access to the best counsels in the game.
Content is FAR behind the a lvl 50++ player. Heck yesterday i strapped on my fleet stuff. Got in my tier two ship and solo a few cubes.
So how will they fix this. Essentially if you are in a T5 fleet with T3 holdings a little bit of grinding and you have a endgame ship you will never need to change. Power creep is no longer a creep it is over the scale.
So how to fix this, how to "re balance" the game. Some people are fearing a wide spread Nerf.... I am not one of them. Why because a nerf doesn't put cash in there pocket and it doesn't do anything but make everyone pissed.
My predictions for 2014.
1) To continue profit, and continue keeping people distracted on fleet hold/building. They will Take starbases to T6 or even T7. They will also increase holding to T4-T5.
a) how will they get people to want to grind for those tiers ? Simple next step
2) they will introduce MK 13/14 gear.
3) They will introduce Tier 6 ships
4) They will increase the lvl cap to at least 60 - if not 70.
5) they will introduce a new set of PVE missions that are (extreme) geared to upper upper end equipment and or introduce a new class of the older PVE missions making them just harder to do ( my guess is on both).
6) not understanding that serious PVP players will spend hunderds of dollars on a awesome pvp build, they will continue to ignore PVP.
Now I know some of you are saying .. What why would they do that, soooo many people would be pissed etc, and whats in it for them etc.
Well people would be pissed, but not nearly as pissed as a wide scale nerf. Because they will be too busy doing what they can to get there new shinny ship and counsels and etc. So the flamers would %&(* and moan here and then go right back to grinding away.
And why would they do it .... simple $$$$$$$. People spending money on zen for new models, the ungodly amount of dilithiam that would no doubt be needed. And all the lovely things that go with it.
This is the natural order of MMORPGs.. they power creep till they are about to break and then they break out a whole new level sooooo your power creep is now once again 2nd best. Also adding new level of ships/people/everything allows them to "Fix" class problems without ever nerfing anything that is in current use.
Yep.. that's my prediction.
Stonewall@LordHarconan
Lifetime Member Vice Admiral of the Omega Family Fleet
(228 members and growing)
I'm not convinced that all of your predictions are likely to pass. If gear is increased to Mk 13 & 14, can you imagine how many players would flip out? Too many people have already invested in spending a fortune for Mk 10, 11 and 12 gear. If they up it, it's essentially the middle finger to most other players. Whilst I can't say for sure, I wouldn't think that a very good move.
I'm currently working up (with three characters) to Mk 12. If they suddenly up everything, I doubt I'll be sticking around. Same goes for these level advancements; that's not the answer. We're already a whole community of Admirals (when should be Captains). Further level development isn't what this game needs anymore; what it needs is content and more factions.
If they want money from people, they need to develop more factions, and I'd be inclined to say not the mini factions either. I'd think a lot more can be released as an independent faction rather than a mini one. It's a shame they can't release a revision #3 of this game, they could rethink and rework so much of it.
I'd be curious to know what happened (what stayed, what was lost etc). I wasn't around at the start, but I'd believe that better planning could have made for something extraordinary ... and long-term.
KDF will get an IOU and a stack of promises to go with the rest of the assurances, interview statements, etc. ...
Oh, we are getting [Promise] T6 and [Assurance] T6.
Wasn't expecting those upgrades until season 9.
By the way, any one want to buy [Lie], I've got a stack of them from prior updates and seasons - I will do a one time offer, buy 1 get 9 free.... that's right folks, I have had so many [Lie] tokens in 3 years, I'm handing them out in stacks of 10 for the price of 1 !!!!
I'm not convinced that all of your predictions are likely to pass. If gear is increased to Mk 13 & 14, can you imagine how many players would flip out? Too many people have already invested in spending a fortune for Mk 10, 11 and 12 gear. If they up it, it's essentially the middle finger to most other players. Whilst I can't say for sure, I wouldn't think that a very good move.
I'm currently working up (with three characters) to Mk 12. If they suddenly up everything, I doubt I'll be sticking around. Same goes for these level advancements; that's not the answer. We're already a whole community of Admirals (when should be Captains). Further level development isn't what this game needs anymore; what it needs is content and more factions.
If they want money from people, they need to develop more factions, and I'd be inclined to say not the mini factions either. I'd think a lot more can be released as an independent faction rather than a mini one. It's a shame they can't release a revision #3 of this game, they could rethink and rework so much of it.
I'd be curious to know what happened (what stayed, what was lost etc). I wasn't around at the start, but I'd believe that better planning could have made for something extraordinary ... and long-term.
They need to work on two of the existing factions in game now before adding new ones.
since we're doing the gloom thing, just remember: all of that applies only to Federation toons (except the Level Cap, because that's too hard to separate out in the game engine.)
KDF will get an IOU and a stack of promises to go with the rest of the assurances, interview statements, etc. that lie broken in the past.
Klingons were an afterthought. They exist because of public demand for them and i dont think cryptic has ever cared one way or another about them. Romulans were just an excuse to bolster the membership, make a buttloat of money and do nothing truly creative for it.. This game unfortunately isnt about either Klingons OR Romulans. Its about the federation and the rest of us just get empty promises or a direct go to hell from cryptic.. We should be accustomed to this by now, but its one hell of a pill to swallow.
I highly doubt any of this will happen ever. All an increase to the level cap really does is buy them some (brief) time until people complain about increasing the level cap again. More likely we'll see the introduction of more and more reputation grind systems to take the place of any increases in the level cap.
agreed, and a replacement to any real story too.. After all, we musnt do any actual work beyond network stabilization.. That would be too demanding..
1) To continue profit, and continue keeping people distracted on fleet hold/building. They will Take starbases to T6 or even T7. They will also increase holding to T4-T5.
a) how will they get people to want to grind for those tiers ? Simple next step
Possible, but I believe they will also introduce the ability to upgrade all current tier 5 ships if they do this. I believe players will get some free upgrades scaling with your subscription level.
They could also just add more equipment slots (consoles, BOFFS, weapons) to existing ships and introduce new equipment slot types to stimulate sales. They could also add upgrade slots to all the existing equipment.
5) they will introduce a new set of PVE missions that are (extreme) geared to upper upper end equipment and or introduce a new class of the older PVE missions making them just harder to do ( my guess is on both).
I don't think so, too extreme and will potentially lose to many players. I don't believe the scaling will be any different than it is currently.
Now I know some of you are saying .. What why would they do that, soooo many people would be pissed etc, and whats in it for them etc.
Well people would be pissed, but not nearly as pissed as a wide scale nerf. Because they will be too busy doing what they can to get there new shinny ship and counsels and etc. So the flamers would %&(* and moan here and then go right back to grinding away.
And why would they do it .... simple $$$$$$$. People spending money on zen for new models, the ungodly amount of dilithiam that would no doubt be needed. And all the lovely things that go with it.
This is the natural order of MMORPGs.. they power creep till they are about to break and then they break out a whole new level sooooo your power creep is now once again 2nd best. Also adding new level of ships/people/everything allows them to "Fix" class problems without ever nerfing anything that is in current use.
It's a well established fact that a doom thread has nothing to do with the actual health of the game and everything to do with the whiny self-entitlement displayed by whoever starts the thread because the game isn't being developed in a way that makes them personally happy.
I'd have to dig up the interview (from Mr Stahl I recall), it was several months ago. It was also talking about controlling an entire task force of ships (making use your extra BOFFS and other ships you already own) to perform new types of missions. Of course this wouldn't be the first time Cryptic changed their minds on something they had talked about.
I'm pretty sure Geko's already stated in a recent interview (Priority One?) that if they do ever get around to Tier 6 ships they would have to implement some kind of upgrade system simply to avoid pissing all the current lockbox and fleet ship owners off.
Lockboxes are STO's bread and butter. People spend hundreds of dollars per person trying to get those ships. Why would they risk that by releasing something that's better than the lockbox/fleet ships? Who would spend money on lockbox keys when there are better ships available elsewhere? That leaves them with several choices:
1) Retire the old lockboxes and release new ones with new Tier 6 ships inside! And TRIBBLE off current lockbox ship owners.
2) Change the stats of the lockbox ships to Tier 6 and give current owners a free upgrade. Fair, and this is what they've done in the past for all owners of purchased ships that got a balance pass.
3) Create an ship upgrade system for all Tier 5 ships (free, C-Store, Fleet, & Lockbox), sell an upgrade token on the C-Store. Profit from every player in game.
4) Some combination of 2 & 3.
KDF was originally promised a full faction. But STO had to launch on time to get their license, so KDF launched as "PvP Faction". Some things had to go, and that was one of them.
It's been catch-up ever since. But 'tis likely true that KDF would not have gotten any catch-up -- or mustard, for that matter -- if it weren't for loyal Klingon fans who insisted on it. Including a few inside the ranks of Cryptic.
The game is all the better for it, imo. We'd be missing a lot if KDF had been reduced to nothing but "Monster Play".
As regarding the OP and the future...
We'll see. They aren't planning to do any kind of level cap increase until they work out what the endgame is supposed to look like and they've flat out said as much. They've also nixed the idea of Tier 6 ships, at least for the present, and won't consider it until they're ready to raise the level cap. Those two each go hand-in-hand and if they haven't done that you can forget about Mk XIII gear and above, too.
I'm guessing that we won't see any expansion of tiers for the current fleet holdings, either. More likely to see new enhancements to unlock and new holdings.
We probably will see more "Advanced" and "Elite" gear that gets unlocked through fleet advancement and through reputations.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
I sort of agree with the OP that this could go a long ways to fixing how over powered the player has become, but what about the old content? All of the old content needs to be more difficult, the elite STF's are getting to be a joke because they are so easy. So are they going to revamp that old content or just make a bunch of new stuff that is more difficult and leave the old STF's as is?
As for PvP, the fleet I belong to we run a PvP event every Friday night and anyone in the fleet who wants to try out PvP is welcome to show up and they will get a spot on one of the team. It is a fun event for all and we have a good turn out for this event every week.
KDF was originally promised a full faction. But STO had to launch on time to get their license, so KDF launched as "PvP Faction". Some things had to go, and that was one of them.
It's been catch-up ever since. But 'tis likely true that KDF would not have gotten any catch-up -- or mustard, for that matter -- if it weren't for loyal Klingon fans who insisted on it. Including a few inside the ranks of Cryptic.
The game is all the better for it, imo. We'd be missing a lot if KDF had been reduced to nothing but "Monster Play".
As regarding the OP and the future...
We'll see. They aren't planning to do any kind of level cap increase until they work out what the endgame is supposed to look like and they've flat out said as much. They've also nixed the idea of Tier 6 ships, at least for the present, and won't consider it until they're ready to raise the level cap. Those two each go hand-in-hand and if they haven't done that you can forget about Mk XIII gear and above, too.
I'm guessing that we won't see any expansion of tiers for the current fleet holdings, either. More likely to see new enhancements to unlock and new holdings.
We probably will see more "Advanced" and "Elite" gear that gets unlocked through fleet advancement and through reputations.
Well, for me personally, what killed the game was they promised us a faction, and we got green skin and big ships.. I'm fairly sure many in the KDf felt the same way when the KDF was released. The difference there being that the romulans are so intertwined into everyone elses storyline that there is no room for a full romulan faction to ever exist. The KDf came close to that but miraculously escaped it.. After all Worf WAS a federation officer.. Like i said, ive given up hope for anything romulan outside of more ships at some point, but i do hope they start honoring some of the promises they made to the KDF and fix some of the bug's still plagueing everyone that belongs to that faction.
I'm not convinced that all of your predictions are likely to pass. If gear is increased to Mk 13 & 14, can you imagine how many players would flip out?
Were you not in this game back when Mk X was the highest level gear you could obtain? Surpassing that wasn't the end of the world then, and it won't be this time, either.
Well, for me personally, what killed the game was they promised us a faction, and we got green skin and big ships.. I'm fairly sure many in the KDf felt the same way when the KDF was released. The difference there being that the romulans are so intertwined into everyone elses storyline that there is no room for a full romulan faction to ever exist. The KDf came close to that but miraculously escaped it.. After all Worf WAS a federation officer.. Like i said, ive given up hope for anything romulan outside of more ships at some point, but i do hope they start honoring some of the promises they made to the KDF and fix some of the bug's still plagueing everyone that belongs to that faction.
What would be an interesting way to make the Romulans a full faction without the "ally" bit is actually quite simple. The return of Sela. Now, this could be **ahem** executed several ways.
1: She reuinifies the Star Empire, asks for all loyal Romulans to join her. Must specify this is NOT the Tal Shiar. Basically the Tal Shiar would be consider a separate faction, NPC only and hostile. Effectively Sela declares them traitors after the information about the supernova gets out. Romulan characters would then at some point have to choose between the Republic and the Star Empire.
2: Sela and the Republic reach some sort of agreement. Someone else mentioned the idea of Sela as Empress and D'Tan as Praetor. Admittedly this would take some really twisted political maneuvers but hey... it's the Romulans
Now granted, there is probably not much of a chance of this happening, but one might be surprised. In any case this would be about the only way I can see to logically make the Romulans into a full faction.
As far as MkXIII/Mk XIV gear, just means more grinding-Like that would even be noticed?
Comments
Lifetime Member
Vice Admiral of the Omega Family Fleet
(228 members and growing)
Also DOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!
I'm currently working up (with three characters) to Mk 12. If they suddenly up everything, I doubt I'll be sticking around. Same goes for these level advancements; that's not the answer. We're already a whole community of Admirals (when should be Captains). Further level development isn't what this game needs anymore; what it needs is content and more factions.
If they want money from people, they need to develop more factions, and I'd be inclined to say not the mini factions either. I'd think a lot more can be released as an independent faction rather than a mini one. It's a shame they can't release a revision #3 of this game, they could rethink and rework so much of it.
I'd be curious to know what happened (what stayed, what was lost etc). I wasn't around at the start, but I'd believe that better planning could have made for something extraordinary ... and long-term.
I love reasons to listen to the DOOM Song!
Thanks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMbQNu-d7QU
Oh, we are getting [Promise] T6 and [Assurance] T6.
Wasn't expecting those upgrades until season 9.
By the way, any one want to buy [Lie], I've got a stack of them from prior updates and seasons - I will do a one time offer, buy 1 get 9 free.... that's right folks, I have had so many [Lie] tokens in 3 years, I'm handing them out in stacks of 10 for the price of 1 !!!!
They need to work on two of the existing factions in game now before adding new ones.
deleted because I can be an idiot some days.. sorry, replied to the wrong post..
Even I felt that burn.
Klingons were an afterthought. They exist because of public demand for them and i dont think cryptic has ever cared one way or another about them. Romulans were just an excuse to bolster the membership, make a buttloat of money and do nothing truly creative for it.. This game unfortunately isnt about either Klingons OR Romulans. Its about the federation and the rest of us just get empty promises or a direct go to hell from cryptic.. We should be accustomed to this by now, but its one hell of a pill to swallow.
agreed, and a replacement to any real story too.. After all, we musnt do any actual work beyond network stabilization.. That would be too demanding..
Highly probable.
Possible with level cap increase. The other option is adding upgrade slots to gear and keeping the current tiers.
Possible, but I believe they will also introduce the ability to upgrade all current tier 5 ships if they do this. I believe players will get some free upgrades scaling with your subscription level.
They could also just add more equipment slots (consoles, BOFFS, weapons) to existing ships and introduce new equipment slot types to stimulate sales. They could also add upgrade slots to all the existing equipment.
Already semi-confirmed, next rank is fleet admiral.
I don't think so, too extreme and will potentially lose to many players. I don't believe the scaling will be any different than it is currently.
Already largely ignored because the internal metrics told Cryptic years ago it isn't profitable (to niche and I don't see this changing).
No additional comments.
You know your in the wrong thread? You are missed in the proper doom thread.
I'd have to dig up the interview (from Mr Stahl I recall), it was several months ago. It was also talking about controlling an entire task force of ships (making use your extra BOFFS and other ships you already own) to perform new types of missions. Of course this wouldn't be the first time Cryptic changed their minds on something they had talked about.
One comment from Mr Stahl here at the bottom of this ask Cryptic:http://sto.perfectworld.com/news/?p=769201
Lockboxes are STO's bread and butter. People spend hundreds of dollars per person trying to get those ships. Why would they risk that by releasing something that's better than the lockbox/fleet ships? Who would spend money on lockbox keys when there are better ships available elsewhere? That leaves them with several choices:
1) Retire the old lockboxes and release new ones with new Tier 6 ships inside! And TRIBBLE off current lockbox ship owners.
2) Change the stats of the lockbox ships to Tier 6 and give current owners a free upgrade. Fair, and this is what they've done in the past for all owners of purchased ships that got a balance pass.
3) Create an ship upgrade system for all Tier 5 ships (free, C-Store, Fleet, & Lockbox), sell an upgrade token on the C-Store. Profit from every player in game.
4) Some combination of 2 & 3.
Excuse me !
Feds have had more than enough costume options for a long time - how about some KDF and Rom costume options
+1
Also, I like your quote. I too have a character that weilds a shard of Khaless blade..
Not true.
KDF was originally promised a full faction. But STO had to launch on time to get their license, so KDF launched as "PvP Faction". Some things had to go, and that was one of them.
It's been catch-up ever since. But 'tis likely true that KDF would not have gotten any catch-up -- or mustard, for that matter -- if it weren't for loyal Klingon fans who insisted on it. Including a few inside the ranks of Cryptic.
The game is all the better for it, imo. We'd be missing a lot if KDF had been reduced to nothing but "Monster Play".
As regarding the OP and the future...
We'll see. They aren't planning to do any kind of level cap increase until they work out what the endgame is supposed to look like and they've flat out said as much. They've also nixed the idea of Tier 6 ships, at least for the present, and won't consider it until they're ready to raise the level cap. Those two each go hand-in-hand and if they haven't done that you can forget about Mk XIII gear and above, too.
I'm guessing that we won't see any expansion of tiers for the current fleet holdings, either. More likely to see new enhancements to unlock and new holdings.
We probably will see more "Advanced" and "Elite" gear that gets unlocked through fleet advancement and through reputations.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
As for PvP, the fleet I belong to we run a PvP event every Friday night and anyone in the fleet who wants to try out PvP is welcome to show up and they will get a spot on one of the team. It is a fun event for all and we have a good turn out for this event every week.
Well, for me personally, what killed the game was they promised us a faction, and we got green skin and big ships.. I'm fairly sure many in the KDf felt the same way when the KDF was released. The difference there being that the romulans are so intertwined into everyone elses storyline that there is no room for a full romulan faction to ever exist. The KDf came close to that but miraculously escaped it.. After all Worf WAS a federation officer.. Like i said, ive given up hope for anything romulan outside of more ships at some point, but i do hope they start honoring some of the promises they made to the KDF and fix some of the bug's still plagueing everyone that belongs to that faction.
Were you not in this game back when Mk X was the highest level gear you could obtain? Surpassing that wasn't the end of the world then, and it won't be this time, either.
What would be an interesting way to make the Romulans a full faction without the "ally" bit is actually quite simple. The return of Sela. Now, this could be **ahem** executed several ways.
1: She reuinifies the Star Empire, asks for all loyal Romulans to join her. Must specify this is NOT the Tal Shiar. Basically the Tal Shiar would be consider a separate faction, NPC only and hostile. Effectively Sela declares them traitors after the information about the supernova gets out. Romulan characters would then at some point have to choose between the Republic and the Star Empire.
2: Sela and the Republic reach some sort of agreement. Someone else mentioned the idea of Sela as Empress and D'Tan as Praetor. Admittedly this would take some really twisted political maneuvers but hey... it's the Romulans
Now granted, there is probably not much of a chance of this happening, but one might be surprised. In any case this would be about the only way I can see to logically make the Romulans into a full faction.
As far as MkXIII/Mk XIV gear, just means more grinding-Like that would even be noticed?
Then go play Star Citizen. Please for the love of god don't let the door hit you on the way out. Frickin L33ts....
I love Grrrr.
R.I.P