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Boring Season 8 ...Review
amahood
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
First off, I will say, God Bless STO for the new game content: 
What I am going to say now, is JUST my opinion/ review of Season 8. And though it is a negative view perhaps, it is just that, a view, it does not mean I am not grateful for all of STO's hard work. I'm sure STO can take this review with a 'grain of salt'.
Season 8 Review/ thoughts:
To put it bluntly, Season 8, is quite dull, boring and .... well.. utterly Boring... The stories, in my opinion, are quite literally 'do this do that' without really any story in my opinion.
The whole thing just seems rather pointless. I don't know if it's just cause it's not my 'cup of tea', or what, yet I can see why the servers are not lined up with players wanting to play season 8.
Someone else said on the forums not too long ago, (can't remember where I read it), that if there is no waiting to log into the game, then that is a bad sign for Season 8.
I suppose the one positive thing I can say is that the maps are cool looking, yet that's about it.
I prefer a real in depth story/ stories. With characters that have some great depth to them as well. Season 8 has none of that unfortunately. It seems they focused more on how the maps should look and getting new content out for Season 8, Rather than the Story content and characters itself.
Personally I would have preferred a more simple looking map/s, with better dialogue and story.
That is just my opinion/ review of Season 8 for STO.
Alrighty God Bless ya all.
What I am going to say now, is JUST my opinion/ review of Season 8. And though it is a negative view perhaps, it is just that, a view, it does not mean I am not grateful for all of STO's hard work. I'm sure STO can take this review with a 'grain of salt'.Season 8 Review/ thoughts:
To put it bluntly, Season 8, is quite dull, boring and .... well.. utterly Boring... The stories, in my opinion, are quite literally 'do this do that' without really any story in my opinion.
The whole thing just seems rather pointless. I don't know if it's just cause it's not my 'cup of tea', or what, yet I can see why the servers are not lined up with players wanting to play season 8.
Someone else said on the forums not too long ago, (can't remember where I read it), that if there is no waiting to log into the game, then that is a bad sign for Season 8.
I suppose the one positive thing I can say is that the maps are cool looking, yet that's about it.
I prefer a real in depth story/ stories. With characters that have some great depth to them as well. Season 8 has none of that unfortunately. It seems they focused more on how the maps should look and getting new content out for Season 8, Rather than the Story content and characters itself.
Personally I would have preferred a more simple looking map/s, with better dialogue and story.
That is just my opinion/ review of Season 8 for STO.
Alrighty God Bless ya all.
Post edited by amahood on
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Comments
Got rid of all the color (especially that yellow! :mad:) so people can read this without going blind. :eek:
If you have no desire to do it, then the whole of season 8 is worthless to you.
Similarly, if you complete the Dyson rep, it also has no replay value, and just becomes another dead zone....
I think The Delta quadrant should have been opened up alot more,other than the dyson sphere.
Operations against familiar enemies,(Hirogen and the Borg) there in the delta would have been good in addition to the dyson.
No replay value? The battlezone buries you in dilithium!
I already have/can get enough Dilithium to never need to go there.
Good for you. A lot of us don't have a couple million in unrefined ore just lying around. :P
This^^ I was chatting to a fleet member last night and we both agreed that neither of us could see running more than two of our toons through the whole Dyson Sphere reps grind. I'm sorry but "capture the flag" type scenarios get old..very quickly!
The "Sphere Space" missions I have to say I find a little confusing and include more "capture the flag" type missions.
Now I TOTALLY understand that there are other players out there that are lapping up the new content and to those people I say good for you! fill yer boots
Actually now I come to think of it I found the Nimbus missions far more engaging (boff pathing problems aside that is :rolleyes:) and have enjoyed running most of my toons through that arc.
EDIT: As someones pointed out the dilithium falls like rain in the sphere, however that said I still don't have the impetus to push other toons through the reps.
This is more like what I was expecting Season 8 to be like.
I mean, sure, the maps are pleasing to the eye, but there are some plot holes so big that you can fly a Death Star through. What happened after SoI and us entering the Dyson Sphere?
Why are the Borg, who sees Omega as godlike, not here?
Why is Starfleet shooting first, shooting some more, and then after everthing is dead or blown up, start asking questions?
What litlle story is there, is hidden in the rep grind, or doff missions, why not have some missions with this info in them, instead of getting lucky with doff missions or through the rep grind?
I do like parts of Season 8, like the new rep system, and the eyecandy maps, and finally the new 5 man "STF" missions.
Other than that, Season 8 feels a bit flat, with little story, and a lot of things left unexplained.
Season 8 is not bad, but it could have been better with more spit and polish.
Rep stuff is naturally good gear but thats just gear, it is meaningless to me without deep story and content like that.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Give us some ins and outs. Tell us about the mechanics. The success rate vs the intent. What level of player should be attempting it. Visuals. Things to do. How the story was advanced.
Agreed i don't even bother with it anymore and just don't care. Where's the reward that you used to get with these season updates. You get nothing but grinding for marks.In this game players get nothing with new content. No new items unless you grind for marks. I just can't believe the player base isn't sick of this by now. I just laugh at it. I just helped take out a voth invasion fleet and my reward is what 10 lousy marks No loot drops from blowing up all those ships. And drops in new ground combat is the same TRIBBLE its always been even though is in a new area. Voth drop klingon soup or brandy. As a player unless you want to grind marks you get nothing for you time. No real sense of accomplishment. And the ones defending this TRIBBLE are the ones in top tier big fleets. That's who the game rewards.
My character Tsin'xing
I have about a million in total. Would not call that a lot these days...
Besides, with the dailies and a spotlight foundry mission, you easily surpass 8k a day and that was before season 8.
My character Tsin'xing
Luck out on a rich mining claim and you can even skip the other dailies.
First your yellow hurts my eyes that said let's move allong.
I 1000% agree with your finding's if you didn't go past Tier 1, there is a story so I have to bite myself thuth this, It's gonna be another dull and expensive drive truth STO's Grind Adventure.
I realy ask myself what fun means with the Cryptic Boys, because I don't see the fun.
Any case they reduced the price money to bad for those who start now.
Have to add they urtch you to do this so you spend marks and Dil to get your Gear when you have it it will be a lot easyer to do, at least thats what they told me.
But now all other STF's are on hold because almost everyone is in that sphere doing there part to get stuff.
1. I think they made the game field far to huge but that's my opinion.
2. Also it's cheaper then the other STF's I find it still prety expensive to do.
3. Without the proper daily you don't make much profit....
4. And you still can't make more then 8,000 Dill a day they should raise the cap allready..
Well this is my opinion off season 8 and yes I want the story to be told, so I will keep playing and be bored too. But there is not much else to do in STO land.... so have fun out there
"Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised. It's got me through the worst of the last three years. I beat the Borg with it."
Heh, once upon a time...
Those come in lockboxes don't they? I don't count them if they do, but good for people that open them!
I agree with this!!!
They created LoR and that had a ton of story and content to it. I believe with Season 8 it was more about creating a new play system for people to try. I for one have been having a blast with the Contested Zones, particularly ground.
Why do all of the seasons have to be the same? Perhaps if you view a Season as more of an update to the game, I mean yes they could of come out with the Dyson stuff and called it something else. But I believe deep down it matters not what its called.
As to story-line I am sure that they will add more content with new releases.
I remember in the old days when the Bajor series came out.. THAT was fun. I was so excited to play the new mission. I GET WHY they have a reputation system, but its not fun. Hidden stories in each tier is not the same as having single missions you run. Its not terrible.. but it shouldn't be the only source of story. If my opinion fails then.
Cryptic did a huge job and effort to create sphere material.. but I feel they missed the point. Nimbus was actually fun.. and I still play it. In my opinion I don't space adventure zones like the one we see in Season 8 is fun. If they had something like STFs that you had to visit and enter.. then sure I could get that. Or space racing regions where you had like a path that you had to get around.. very much like Paris space race in VOY.. THAT is fun. And at certain points you could activate points where you leave some drones shooting your competitor etc.. THAT is fun. This space zone we have now is nice to look at .. but that is it I guess.
The ground battle-zone is fun.. but it can't be the only source for story ( I know I know the reputation system.. but I don't count that as a story). Now if they had integrated that with a place like Nimbus.. that if you traveled (on ground) a little further way there would be a place you had these battlezones.. I think that would a hit. And some other parts regions where you play a story like Nimbus.. THAT could actually be interesting.
Its not a bad story idea they had.. but for once.. why do we suddenly have the Voth next us and why are fighting them. We only got a story about gates that opened up and we found this place... but was that place in the sphere? It doesn't look the surrounding we saw in the FE.., where is all the drones? BTW shouldn't there be gates on earth too.. (all those platforms we saw? why are we using Taus sphere? This wasn't explained). Also if this place has Omega.. where is the Borg? They could have added STFs or missions where the Borg tries their luck to take over a region?
Just to mention a few, ...
I joined this game two weeks before season 7 came out and it blew my mind. So of course I was expecting season 8 to continue the tradition. Needless to say I'm disappointed. But looking at it from your point of view, I can understand why season 8 will be lackluster (to me). But then that'll mean odd number seasons will be big and full of content and the even number seasons will just be updates.
Ah yes. When LoR launched there were a handful of folks who claimed romulans weren't given a proper light but I disagreed because they actually did a good enough job paving a road forward with a lot of thematic support. To this day I stand by their decision to have chosen the romulans as a third branch of playable race.
Unfortunately season 8 houses a lot of bad writing. In fact the writing is so terrible I'm shocked the third party relations for CBS is not raising a serious eyebrow over these terrible attempts at a story. Geko took the 1 sole IP example of the voth and twisted it so incredibly based off of a terribly unchallenged idea.
Geko also spent the last 4-6 interviews defending his work because so many of us feel like we were snubbed with terrible writing. It's all over the place. He was so desperate to use the voth (A non violent species who'd rather avoid confrontation than initiate it) that he failed to realize that once you start with a lame foundation all you're going to get is a lame duck house to roost in.
Furthermore he comes off as arrogant and unable to properly lead a less-canon plank of creativity into success because he keeps spending the time trying to persuade us that since terrible writing in star trek episodes happened before that somehow he's allowed to use terrible writing also.
So these are all very valid points. You've got an entire sphere larger than any planetary object naturally created and so incredibly large apparently producing ample amounts of omega particles and yet.. Not a single borg drone?
Terrible, terrible writing.. This is why I pledged $0 for season 8 because sometimes you just got to insist on not spending your money on TRIBBLE.
I've seen the first 2 Rep Cutscenes on Youtube, and honestly it is just a rehash of the Voy episode... Scientists vs. militaristic Doctrine warmongers... and worse, it is all just talking heads, no action.
I didn't really play in a few months, i left the game with 7000 Zen now i got 9000 Zen so that was at least 4 a months pause for me. Last thing i remember was buying the Scimitar and logging out without even looking at it twice.
Then i came back, wanted to fly my Akira Class again... first thing i notice is they totally screwed up the Shield regen drones i always used, now they are firing all the time and when i need them they point at me, make sounds, but do not regen much if any of my shields.
Awesome... friggen nerfing bat. OK whatever slap some Peregrine fighters or Danubes in there... aaand i didn't even get to play with my Ships or my BOffs in that ONE new Episode Mission (with Worf).
Then S8 releases... i follow the popups... to a place in the Romulan Sector where a Spacegateway is waiting.... surrounded by Ships... my medium size Akira Class doesn't even fit through that gate... immersion killer #1
then i press F aaaaand i'm inside a Dyson Sphere that no one has said a word about... and no Geko talking about it in Interviews and Brandon releasing PR BLOGS on the Frontpage doesn't count. The last thing i know is i escaped an unkown odd place that activated a lot of Gates. Instead of letting me play Stargate for 20 missions and let me EXPLORE what is on the other side of those hundreds of gates... until i maybe find that awesome Dysons Sphere one day. I am suddenly thrown 20 Episode Missions ahead, we've already build Fleet holdings in there, there are hundreds of Ships Fed, KDF, Rom and... Voth, that just hang around in there. blah blah blah ICONIANS... and Omega Particles !!!...
that is all i take away from it.
Then after shooting Voth Ships for 3 - 4 hours in the space zone and not even getting that daily mark i log out... bored... with little to no intention to start the game back up to go there again.
Side note: i bought a GTX 770 in the meantime, had a GTX 460 before ... and despite that i still get FPS drops inside the Spheres "space" zone.
The PR talked about this Sphere being a Space Adventure Zone, yet i am automatically lead to a ground zone (that i've seen in that livestream brandon did...) ... so instead of making a real awesome Space only zone, they felt the need to slap a ground zone in there anyway. Figures...
the real highlights so far are Account Bound Lobi, 15 Lobi per day in FE rerun mode (that even made me log in a few times to "spin the wheel"... wow didn't see that coming)
yah....
i mean to go back and check out the new PvE queue events, the ground zone and maybe even find out how to get the Rep stuff started... but as it stands the epic Space Adventure Zone is already boring and shooting up Voth space critters for 3 hours already made them feel old.
PvE Space Critters are always the same, it doesn't matter how much effort is spend on the new Ship Skins... all i see is flying % bars that need to get shot down.
The basic gameplay is always the same... it's boring. Why do the City ships not have weapon hardpoints you need to take out? Why no shielding for single sectors of the ship... instead it is a huge Ship, as big as my screen which has one huge Shieldbubble that turns my whole screen white or yellow... and when it explodes it just feels unsatisfying because it uses the same *meh* explosion effects that the small ships use... now B'Ger in the Red Alerts had an awesome explosion FX... with dozens of smaller pieces and secondary explosions... the Voth City Ship just turns invisible and makes a smaller boom. Feels Rushed... unpolished... unsatisfying... not to mention no loot drops from killing enemies SUX. I know its all about the rep points by now... but MEH.
I wouldn't even say that S8 is a fail, it does exactly what Cryptic wanted it to do.
It is just... in the big picture it is really just adding another Reputation System and a few more PvE maps.
What i want to see is more Foundry, Crafting, Exploration, PvP, DOffs, weekly Featured Episode Series... all those things that were added at one point had a huge impact and are collecting dust now.
heck even fleshing out the Romulan Faction by giving them their unique Systems and de-attaching them from the FED/KDF *bit by bit* would be welcome...
instead they keep on insisting to add more of the weakest kind of Content STO has to offer, Reputation Grind, Fleetbase Grind and ...
"Adventure Zones" lets be honest, Defera, Nukara and even New Romulus all sucked... compared to either STFs or FEs... it is the weakest Content STO has to offer.
Granted, they are getting better at doing those Zones, but that is improving the worst parts of the game, while the awesome and unique to STO Systems collect digital dust.
How long have we been told that the Neverwinter Foundry updates are going to be added to STO, where are they?
The "Gateway" still can't do TRIBBLE with DOffs... yet that is the only thing we WANTED it to do.
Crafting keeps getting pushed back...
PvP lol...
Exploration, probably needs more than a Season and chances are they want to do those Neverwinter Foundry upgrades first because they want to include it in there somehow?....
So really... any of that would have been welcome, i don't know if anybody in the community ever asked for "Dinosaurs with Laz0rs on their heads" ?...
if there was actual story around the Voth... not that weak sauce Reputation Tier Unlock Cutscene Story ... Breen FE Story Arc Story stuff... then i'd have been 100 times happier about their inclusion into the game, as it is, they are just more % bars to shoot down...
oh and ALL the Bugs i was angry about after the LoR release (that finally made me stop playing STO), yepp they are ALL still around.
No Tribble Test Weekend either... at least they aren't pretending that they want our feedback or bug reports anymore.
/take this with a grain of salt... obvious hyperbole included to make my "impression" of Season 8 unmistakenly clear.
But what really grinds my gears is that i've seen a Video not too long ago where they laid out the PWE business plan to make 2 Seasons a Year, one for new players, revamping Tutorials and new Factions etc. and one aiming at Endgame players.
So LoR was for new players, and S8 was for Endgame players. But LoR was more fun and way more exciting than any of S8 and i am as Endgame as it gets in STO.
And as long as the metrics say that all the players LOVE the rep and fleet grind, because everyone is doing it every day, nothing will change.
Wake me up when the next FE series arrives, or the next FED/KDF Sub-Faction in S9.
Kind of my thoughts as well .
Me too , but I have a problem with pathing and map design .
Some of the paths are very-very bad and you have to run around (and that's literally around large portions of a map) to get to where you want to go , be that transporters or giant dinosaurs .
That's just not fun right there .
But that's the problem , see ?
Cryptic is notorious for dropping something and going for the next new shiny .
The Voth ? The Sphere ? What we've got is what they will give us , in all likely hood for ever .
Season 9 (or the next expansion) won't be about the Voth or the Sphere .
Those are "done" , and at best we can expect some fixes & polish .
Yeah , except no matter how many times we point to the STF plate and say "please sir , can I have some more ?" , Cryptic snubs us and tells us that we will get "STF like" gameplay (and then we don't) .
They say that they go by their 'metrics' , yet they refuse (or are unable to) create more of the most popular grind content in the game .
Then ppl switch gears and ask for the old STF's back (since they don't have to build those from scratch) -- and we get the same response .
Was Gozer the only one who could actually do STF's ?
It's nice to hear that you've had fun , but what about after those 4 hours ?
See , I have been taking my time and going like one zone per week because I know how low this Season is on "discovering new things to do" .
But I also know most ppl don't play like that and get bored far quicker then I do .
BWAAAhahahaahahhaaahaaaa! Indeed yes!
and then I also have to agree with this one:
Absolutely agree with EVERYTHING said there.
The LoR indeed has better story content than season 8. Majorly!
Glad to see others agree about season 8 with me.
I agree with you, only one small thing: the size of the gate is not really "immersion breaking". Not more so then the size of the planets and suns in sector space. It's out of scale. You see the gate's true size at the end of Sphere of Influence or the Elachi Alert PvE event.