So what you're saying is, they've made so much money that the STO team has had no choice but to grow, yet they can't fix a single bug in a single featured episode? Obviously, this makes no sense.
Have you not noticed lately that the patch notes have consisted of nothing but new bug fixes? New as in, no one knew the bug existed until they said they fixed it? (ok, granted they got one bug -- the disappearing battery trick bug that was superficial at best and came back when the cooldown expired. )
In backwards order, because backwards is fun !
What you call a "superficial at best" bug was gamebreaking for a large number of people. That it was fixed so quickly indicates that it was an easy, AND High Priority fix.
What I actually said, is that lockboxes have provided a large source of revenue for the company since they were implemented that has allowed the team to grow in the time since F2P happened and soon after lockboxes were implemented. The team that was once below 20 is now above 100. The money to pay these people has to be coming from somewhere. I can tell you, it's not coming from a 2+ year old episode (that can be skipped if needs b.)
Sorry I did not post up to your standards. Let me address your points
Lockboxes.
I've been in STO since beta. When it launched I paid for a lifetime SUBSCRIPTION. That means I am a fulltime subscriber, not some f2p'er. I hate lockboxes because they hid the loot behind a $$$ investment, which as a subscriber I should not have to pay extra to get my loot.
The first thing I notice is that because you are a lifetime subscriber, you somehow think that makes you better than "some f2p'er". Sorry, starting right there I lose interest in your argument because from the very start in comes from an entitled place of someone who paid money years ago, and feels entitled to everything because of it. You say so yourself in your next words ... "I should not have to pay extra to get my loot."
The normal counter argument is that they give subscribers a Zen allowance. Yes when I came back I had around 10k Zen. But in addition to lockboxes, they threw all the new ships on the $$$ store so I used my Zen for ships. I'd need 5,000 Zen to open the boxes I collected in the last two weeks. So the allowance doesn't make a dent in the $$$ cost.
What I hear : "I spent all my zen on other things so I can't spend it on this other thing I now decided that i want."
My solution is:
- Increase the subscriber Zen allowance
- Subscribers can just open lockboxes, non-subscribers need keys. So let's start that dialog. We can have a conversation, but PWE is not going to change this, thus the hate.
You are right. They are not going to change it. Because there is no sense in either of your suggestions. Both do nothing but lost them money.
However, looking at the history of lockboxes, they do indeed listen.
When lockboxes were first introduced, aside from the Grand Prize, the contents were generally absolute TRIBBLE. ABSOLUTE TRIBBLE.
The community complained, and they started adding cooler stuff.\
Is it a perfect situation? Hell No, but to say that they never listen is just false.
With the expansion or Season 8 or just because they wanted to they said come back and play the episodes you missed. That's about what, 20 missions? They didn't test that they actually work first? "Mine Enemy" cannot be completed, it is not hard to recreate, it just does not work. They must/should have tested and known it was broken before they turned it back on. Now it has been broken for weeks and they are 'investigating'.
No work around, no fix, not even a proposed timeframe for a fix.
You want solutions, here they are:
- fix it
- remove the door requirement from the mission
- just auto-reward completion when you take the mission
- turn off the mission
This isn't some out-of-the-way mission, it is one they advertise on there front page "Come back and play this".
-currency
As I said they had too many currencies. Yes the old currencies were bad, they had level specific currencies for instance that just went stale. But the also had too many.
So they announce they will reduce currency to Dilithium, EC, and Cryptic Points (Zen). Great, currency is manageable again.
Then I get in game and find Latinum, a new variety of Marks, and Fleet currencies. I still can't figure out what a Fleet Mark is.
Marks are apparently a reputation system for various factions around the galaxy. This is all obvious to those who have played through the seasons, but I don't know where to go for each of these factions other than Dyson Sphere. I don't want to have to live on STO wiki.
Why is this a problem? One reason is that some items can be bought with multiple currencies, but the game doesn't tell you that. I think I bought something with Zen, that I could have used Dilithium, and bought something with Dilithium that I could have used EC. Now I need to got to go to STO wiki, find all the vendors, find out what they sell, cross reference each item with the other vendors, and find the best currency to use.
May be obvious or trivial to some, to ME it is confusing.
Solutions:
-Some in-game guidance on how to get each currency
- consolidate vendors so that from a single vendor I can see what's for sale and what currency can be used.
What you describe is you dealing with the learning curve of the games economy. Earlier in the thread, someone laid out. They were rather rude about it, so you might have ignored them. I'll try again.
FLEET Marks - Gain these from a variety of FLEET events, and in almost every mark box that offers a choice. These are used in your fleet stores, found at your fleet base, and you can use them to purchase Fleet Ships.
OMEGA Marks - Get these from Borg or Task Force OMEGA missions. Commonly gained through STFs and the Defera ground invasion zone. These are spent from your reputation screen to fund projects, gain levels in the Rep, and eventually buy gear.
ROMULAN Marks - Gain from missions related to Romulans. Used in the REP Screen to fund projects, gain levels in the Rep, and eventually buy gear.
NUKARA Marks - Nukara, a planet full of THOLIANS. And the Nukara task force, Dedicated to fighting THOLIANS. Any mission involving Tholians can grant these. Used in the REP Screen to fund projects, gain levels in the Rep, and eventually buy gear.
DYSON marks - Newest Mark. Gained by missions related to the new Dyson Sphere content. Used in the REP Screen to fund projects, gain levels in the Rep, and eventually buy gear.
I actually agree with you that the system is confusing, and both of your suggestions here have merit. Real merit.
Some In Game explanation about how currency works would be great.
Many vendors are already consolidated.
All your Rep Systems are findable through the Reputations Tab.
All Fleet Stores are at either the Starbase or appropriate Fleet Holding.
Latinum (The most useless currency) is spent wherever you find DABO.
But as another player said, it is not my job to fix their game.
No, it's not, but an honest look at their past indicates that when measured, calm, respectful feedback is given, and it's things that fall both within their ability to adjust and fix, and also fits in the schedule and priorities. They do listen.
Just an possibility.
Right now, they are dealing with a serious bug that is keeping who knows how many people out of the game entirely. My bet is that's some of the same programmers that could fix the bug in the mission (which I reiterate - Can be skipped and is not game breaking) working in trying to get people into game, which is obviously a terrible and difficult bug to track down and fix.
Just a thought.
When you really think about it.
Do you really think they are ignoring things on purpose?
or maybe just maybe, have they made different decisions about what is currently taking Alpha/Top/First priority than you would ?
I spent 15 years managing software development projects consisting of "a thousand things in millions of lines of code".
And how much time did you spend actually coding in such an environment? I can certainly testify that such bugs are easily enough missed the tenth, hundredth, thousandth time you scan the code. And it's not always easy to know which piece of code actually passed the data that corrupted the current information, especially in a shop with the turnover Cryptic seems to have (at least, there have been wildly fluctuating assessments of how many "devs" there are at any given point - and no one seems to draw a distinction between, say, an environmental artist like Tacofangs and a systems coder), and most especially when the code is poorly commented and documented (which causes me to wonder, don't software engineering courses teach commenting your code any more?).
It's easy to Monday-morning quarterback from the comforts of our own frustrated chairs...
The boxes are not that bad IMHO but they are a bit dissatisfying that is for sure.
I also remember the economy with all the different levels of marks, infact I still have one toon with an old Omega Mark before the rep sytem was inplace.
The biggest issue I have with the current state of the economy is there is no hirearchy.
In modern comerce you have dollars and cents. A penny is less than a Dime which is less than a quarter which is less than a dollar.
In most instances a Zen is greater any other form of cerency but not always. Dilithiam seems like the new EC as you use it for EVERYTHING yet you can only get 8k per day + 1k every other day!
Lobi is a gift currency from opening lock boxes which is nice return on real money spent!
GPL seems like it was just added to the game for GP and has no REAL value.
EC have no real place other than use on the exchange!
Rep Marks have taken us right back to where we were before in having too many currencies and not enough uses!
IMO Reputation Marks should be a universal Mark. You could us them for any reputation or towards Fleet projects.
GPL should be used with any Ferengi commerce and with all shady dealers!
EC should be the only other in game currency!
DIL should be a material not a currency! Trading it for Zen I am absolutly fine with but using it to "buy" items I am not! Using it for projects and crafting I am all for it!
Zen is the games sustanence and should remain a way to buy new Ships, Effects and other exclusive odds and ends, but nothing should be exclusive to the Cstore that can not be achieved in game!
Lobi is a great way to equalize items from the Cstore and ingame items as long as Lobi continue to be earnable in game.
(1) The "accursed" lockboxes , like them or hate them have made this game a TON of money. This money allowed the team size to grow immensely and allowed them to start providing more content and gameplay for us.
(2) They are not "refusing" to fix anything. The problem with MINE ENEMY is a known bug that has been reported that they are working on. Bug fixes don't happen overnight and sometimes something that seems simple can be difficult to track down and fix.
(1) I could look more favorably on lockboxes if the money from them would have been used to, say, make the KDF on par with the UFP. Instead, what type of content do you get? A Romulan faction that is as lackluster as the KDF and just as far from being on-par (content-wise, faction-specific content wise, actually) with the UFP.
What type of gameplay do you get with that lockbox money? Reputation grinds? *one* actual episode? How long ago was the Dominion series? I'd look more favorably upon lockboxes if the profits were used to make Episodic content (Devidian series, Romulan series, Breen series, etc)
(2) The games been out for . . . what, close to four years? And they're STILL pushing buggy content live? Why was this stuff not fixed while it was still on testlive?
Once again, I would look more favorably upon the buggy content if it was something more than a reputation grind . . . I'd look more favorably upon the company releasing buggy FEATURED content if it didn't already have numerous MMO titles under it's belt.
OP is right, quality just isn't there, which is why I still don't play STO anymore.
I like how one poster to this thread pretty much just said that if you paid for this game i.e. a lifetime subscription or any subscription for that matter you're not entitled to more than an f2per...
OMG that explains everything that is so wrong with this game and the player base that still supports it.
I stopped playing STO a couple years ago when lock boxes were introduced (as a lifetimer, I'm not paying $ for my loot).
But now with the Romulan expansion and the return of Michael Dorn, I thought I would fire it back up, play the episodes I missed, and level a Romulan.
Now I have dozens of those accursed lockboxes, and the episode "Mine Enemy" is broken and Cryptic/Perfect/whoever they are, refuse to fix it. So I cannot even complete the episodes.
I had also heard that currency in this game had been simplified over the old confusing system of credits, marks, honor, merits, badges, etc. Now I find a system just as bad with marks, fleet credits, fleet marks, lobi, latinum, dilithium, credits, Zen. Just finding the vendors and comparing what they sell for each currency is a fulltime game unto itself.
Bottom line is my impression as a returning player is not good. For heavens sake at least fix your featured content. And don't get me started again on lockboxes.
I totally disagree, its easy to discard the lockboxes if you don't want them or better still sell them on the exchange even if you sell for only 10 ec each your credits will soon mount up.
as for the various currencies granted there are a few but I look at it like this, if you were a frequent traveller in the real world and visited many countries you might find that you would have dealings with many different forms of currency.
not only do we have all the different types of money like us dollars, gb pounds and euros the list is almost endless you also have travellers cheques, bearer bonds ect.
then you have other commodities that can be used as currency gold silver diamonds ect.
bearing in mind that in sto you are travelling around the galaxy and visiting many different planets you are bound to pick up a few different forms of currency.
as for the episode "Mine Enemy" if you check the forum release notes you will find that the devs are well aware of the bug and will fix it in due course but don't forget they have just given us this awesome update and that has created a lot of minor bugs that all need fixing so just be patient and give them the time they need to put things right, personally I think they are doing a great job.
keep an eye on the release notes if you like they will announce when it is fixed.
in the mean time you can easily skip the episode and return to it when its fixed.
imho providing the bugs are only minor as they are I would much rather put up with them if it means I can play all this new content then wait for ages for them to fix all the bugs before releasing it.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
People such as the OP who forked over the funds for a LTS before the game launched was an enormous help and show of faith to Cryptic in the very beginning. Hate to break it to you, but yes, that does entitle those customers to something. It's in the F2P matrix, and Cryptic has continued to show their appreciation for those who make an investment. I would agree that we LTS holders shouldn't get everything for free. However, that also doesn't mean we should not be afforded perks for our intial and continued investment.
You also didn't read what the OP wrote and contradict your own counter argument with this; - What I hear : "I spent all my zen on other things so I can't spend it on this other thing I now decided that i want."-
The OPs words with some things highlighted.
[when I came back I had around 10k Zen. But in addition to lockboxes, they threw all the new ships on the $$$ store so I used my Zen for ships. I'd need 5,000 Zen to open the boxes I collected in the last two weeks. So the allowance doesn't make a dent in the $$$ cost.
You didn't hear anything right. The OP is saying that they don't feel they should have to pay for loot. They're obviously more than happy to pay for ships. There is a difference.
I also agree with the OP that the "Mine Enemy" bug should have been fixed before the "come back and play and get free lobi" started. It gives a bad impression when the featured content you're advertising to bring new/old customers to the game doesn't work. No doubt the QA for this game is not there. Each new release brings more and more bugs to an already buggy game. Granted, not many are gamebreaking. They are annoying and better QA is called for IMO.
Since you obviously know how things should be prioritized when dealing with bugs and such. http://crypticstudios.com/openings
I'm sure you can do better.
Just my 2 quatloos here, but I'd rather wait an extra week or two for a release if it means bugs can get fixed rather than releasing bugged content that takes months to fix. That's sadly what has become the norm for STO.
And I'd love to have a Pony !!!
Who wouldn't love bug free releases?
Well, it's clear that as long as people like Hippie John are totally cool with being scammed on a consistent basis this game isn't going anywhere, because the borderline TRIBBLE minority will continue to fund the game through the slots,,, ooops I mean lock boxes.
I spent 15 years managing software development projects consisting of "a thousand things in millions of lines of code". We did occasionally have bugs and the only bugs that are hard to find are those that cannot easily be reproduced. All other bugs were fixed the day they were reported. The only delays getting the fix out were scheduling it into a release.
Bugs are their fault
If the code is too complex to debug, it is their fault
If it is too hard to fix your code, then get out
Would you be so kind as to share what project or program or app you created allowed for fixes to happen in a single day?
NERF CANNONS - THEY NEED A 50% NERF
CRUISERS NEED A 206% HULL BUFF
No, but if the player expects change, they should learn to present their "complaints" in such a way that some actual definition of what change is both requested, and feasible. Some actual deconstruction of why the "complaint" is a complaint.
Nothing about the original post explains WHY the lockboxes are bad. Simply a flailing RARRR I hate lockboxes AND too many monies AND RARRRRR kind of post.
How, in any way, is such a post helpful?
This has not been my experience. Not in the slightest.
I quite honestly find the Devs and Community Reps very approachable and personable.
There are multiple ways to be in communication with them.
As an Atheist, I have no "gods" that I believe will reward me for anything.
However, thank you for the insult.
I'll take the opinion of random forum poster #652 under advisement.
to be perfectly honest, there was nothing really all that raaarrrr and flailing about his post.. he came on, made his points, didn't cause a scene, and was done.. stop making a legit post look like its not just cause you want to spare the devs feelings..
honestly, everything he posted is true, stuff is broken, there is way too many currencies, and lockboxes are sad at the best.. hey, don't worry, if you cant actually play the game, or know how to play it, you can still get your prize.. this is the biggest problem I see in this game, everyone gets a trophy... nothing separated the person who plays more, and puts more effort into learning how to play the game, from the person who goes in and blows every optional, and what not..
as far as it being a reported bug.. well I play two other games, and if a bug is reported on week one, it is almost always fixed by week 2.. when other gameing companies have set the bar, it is unacceptable to not even try to meet the expectations of the community..
sure, the lockboxes made money, and they did increase the size of their staff, but.. they are still laughabley the smallest crew in the industry *well with a major ip attached to their work* why is wow so successful even when it is way out of date for the tech.. because they have thousands of employees breaking bugs, making content, and making sure stuff runs smoothly.. why does trion have such a successful time, because they ponied up and got a real staff, who crush bugs within a week of it being reported (typically) and actually have a great customer service department.. these are just two examples of how it is done "right" in this industry.. love or hate their games, they actually run a good business, and these companies and games set the bar for mmo game development..
ive said this before and ill say it again.. its time for pwe/cryptic to sh*t or get off the pot.. is the game making them money.. if yes, then hire people and stop stomping your companies name into the ground.. in the fantasy world, neverwinter is pretty much a flopp, so sto is the only game that is a money maker for them, they should treat this game with the respect it deserves, and make it better.. (the game is "ok" at the moment, content can be a little dry, but it has a great foundation, nice gameplay, and awesome graphics, its time to take it to the next level)..
Ive said this before too, but I have a friend who does rendering for one of companies I previously talked about.. he plays sto here and there.. he likes the concept and the idea.. and his thought was, he sees what they are trying to do, but they just arnt getting it done.. he applauds them for trying, but said they will never get it to where it needs to be, or where they envision it being on such a small crew... too many people wear too many hats at cryptic, so no one gets to really do what their specialty is..
And I'd love to have a Pony !!!
Who wouldn't love bug free releases?
I don't think it's too much to ask for them to actually beta test their releases before they roll them out, about 90% of the bugs that the Dyson sphere introduced are glaringly obvious and could have been dealt with before release if they had actually bothered with the test servers which they obviously either didn't, or didn't listen to the feedback from, nothing new there.
So your snark is unjustified.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I'm not THAT difficult to please, I just have a very low tolerance threshold for stupid BS! - George Carlin.
Listing that as a Known Issue only means they are admitting that they broke it because they are inept. It does not mean that someone competent is fixing it. For all we know it could remain a Known Issue for a very, very long time.
I don't think it's too much to ask for them to actually beta test their releases before they roll them out, about 90% of the bugs that the Dyson sphere introduced are glaringly obvious and could have been dealt with before release if they had actually bothered with the test servers which they obviously either didn't, or didn't listen to the feedback from, nothing new there.
So your snark is unjustified.
you have a strange idea that it somehow matters....
Releases only get pushed back if there are HUGE bugs that can't get fixed before release. I haven't seen one of those in STO yet. I've seen some pretty bad ones, but that debuff reflection bug was the worst I've seen go live.
They haven't refused to fix Mine Enemy. They just haven't got around to it. And that one mission isn't going to bar you from everything else. You can either skip it under the episode tab if you have level higher than that mission and if you don't you can replay one of the previous ones and quickly get a level higher than that.
Also Mine Enemy was not specifically part of the Romulan expansion. It was an older feature episode that was appropriately put in the story sequence after its feature episode run.
Just recently, they decided to update the Lcars panels on the game, and soon enough (it's already on tribble) they are adding a little bit to the Eyes, to make them a little less dull and lifeless. While i like that they're doing this to fix smaller issues, i really think that they should be involved more in fixing larger issues that are more visible on a daily basis. It really does make you wonder how much they aren't doing because they won't make money on it, compared to how much we get additionally just because some one made it a personal project or something they did on the side.
I hope they continue to add wherever they can, but at the same time, i wish they would prioritize a little better.
Granted that you can post your opinions and counter-opinions all day long, and Cryptic welcomes both good and bad feedback, but is it really necessary to reply to people with snark?
Please keep the forum rules in mind while posting so that moderation of this thread is not necessary. I'd especially like to draw your attention to this:
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And this:
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If you believe that someone has violated our Rules and Policies or you have spotted content that may otherwise require attention, you may submit a Community Ticket here with a brief description of what you believe is wrong. Notification is voluntary and anonymous, but in no situation should a user respond to an issue personally, thereby aggravating the situation further.
Report violations, do not quote them or reply to them. Responding to a violation in an inflammatory manner is a violation in itself and will result in appropriate action. It is also important to not abuse the Community Ticket system by excessively reporting posts, sending false alarms, or nonsensical messages. Abuse of the Community Ticket system can result in an infraction for spamming.
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Comments
In backwards order, because backwards is fun !
What you call a "superficial at best" bug was gamebreaking for a large number of people. That it was fixed so quickly indicates that it was an easy, AND High Priority fix.
What I actually said, is that lockboxes have provided a large source of revenue for the company since they were implemented that has allowed the team to grow in the time since F2P happened and soon after lockboxes were implemented. The team that was once below 20 is now above 100. The money to pay these people has to be coming from somewhere. I can tell you, it's not coming from a 2+ year old episode (that can be skipped if needs b.)
The first thing I notice is that because you are a lifetime subscriber, you somehow think that makes you better than "some f2p'er". Sorry, starting right there I lose interest in your argument because from the very start in comes from an entitled place of someone who paid money years ago, and feels entitled to everything because of it. You say so yourself in your next words ... "I should not have to pay extra to get my loot."
What I hear : "I spent all my zen on other things so I can't spend it on this other thing I now decided that i want."
Take time and figure out how the in game economy works.
That's my only suggestion.
You are right. They are not going to change it. Because there is no sense in either of your suggestions. Both do nothing but lost them money.
However, looking at the history of lockboxes, they do indeed listen.
When lockboxes were first introduced, aside from the Grand Prize, the contents were generally absolute TRIBBLE. ABSOLUTE TRIBBLE.
The community complained, and they started adding cooler stuff.\
Is it a perfect situation? Hell No, but to say that they never listen is just false.
Known Bug, Team is Investigating
What you describe is you dealing with the learning curve of the games economy. Earlier in the thread, someone laid out. They were rather rude about it, so you might have ignored them. I'll try again.
FLEET Marks - Gain these from a variety of FLEET events, and in almost every mark box that offers a choice. These are used in your fleet stores, found at your fleet base, and you can use them to purchase Fleet Ships.
OMEGA Marks - Get these from Borg or Task Force OMEGA missions. Commonly gained through STFs and the Defera ground invasion zone. These are spent from your reputation screen to fund projects, gain levels in the Rep, and eventually buy gear.
ROMULAN Marks - Gain from missions related to Romulans. Used in the REP Screen to fund projects, gain levels in the Rep, and eventually buy gear.
NUKARA Marks - Nukara, a planet full of THOLIANS. And the Nukara task force, Dedicated to fighting THOLIANS. Any mission involving Tholians can grant these. Used in the REP Screen to fund projects, gain levels in the Rep, and eventually buy gear.
DYSON marks - Newest Mark. Gained by missions related to the new Dyson Sphere content. Used in the REP Screen to fund projects, gain levels in the Rep, and eventually buy gear.
I actually agree with you that the system is confusing, and both of your suggestions here have merit. Real merit.
Some In Game explanation about how currency works would be great.
Many vendors are already consolidated.
All your Rep Systems are findable through the Reputations Tab.
All Fleet Stores are at either the Starbase or appropriate Fleet Holding.
Latinum (The most useless currency) is spent wherever you find DABO.
No, it's not, but an honest look at their past indicates that when measured, calm, respectful feedback is given, and it's things that fall both within their ability to adjust and fix, and also fits in the schedule and priorities. They do listen.
Just an possibility.
Right now, they are dealing with a serious bug that is keeping who knows how many people out of the game entirely. My bet is that's some of the same programmers that could fix the bug in the mission (which I reiterate - Can be skipped and is not game breaking) working in trying to get people into game, which is obviously a terrible and difficult bug to track down and fix.
Just a thought.
When you really think about it.
Do you really think they are ignoring things on purpose?
or maybe just maybe, have they made different decisions about what is currently taking Alpha/Top/First priority than you would ?
It's easy to Monday-morning quarterback from the comforts of our own frustrated chairs...
I also remember the economy with all the different levels of marks, infact I still have one toon with an old Omega Mark before the rep sytem was inplace.
The biggest issue I have with the current state of the economy is there is no hirearchy.
In modern comerce you have dollars and cents. A penny is less than a Dime which is less than a quarter which is less than a dollar.
In most instances a Zen is greater any other form of cerency but not always. Dilithiam seems like the new EC as you use it for EVERYTHING yet you can only get 8k per day + 1k every other day!
Lobi is a gift currency from opening lock boxes which is nice return on real money spent!
GPL seems like it was just added to the game for GP and has no REAL value.
EC have no real place other than use on the exchange!
Rep Marks have taken us right back to where we were before in having too many currencies and not enough uses!
IMO Reputation Marks should be a universal Mark. You could us them for any reputation or towards Fleet projects.
GPL should be used with any Ferengi commerce and with all shady dealers!
EC should be the only other in game currency!
DIL should be a material not a currency! Trading it for Zen I am absolutly fine with but using it to "buy" items I am not! Using it for projects and crafting I am all for it!
Zen is the games sustanence and should remain a way to buy new Ships, Effects and other exclusive odds and ends, but nothing should be exclusive to the Cstore that can not be achieved in game!
Lobi is a great way to equalize items from the Cstore and ingame items as long as Lobi continue to be earnable in game.
So what things should look like is...
Currencies:
Zen
GPL
Lobi
EC
(Fleet-Rep)
Materials:
Sambles
Commodities
Dilithium
Particles
Unreplicatable
Currency is for purchases and Materials are for projects.
The only thing I would consider is if Urefined Dilithium was a Material and Refined was a currency and either but not both was tradeable.
(1) I could look more favorably on lockboxes if the money from them would have been used to, say, make the KDF on par with the UFP. Instead, what type of content do you get? A Romulan faction that is as lackluster as the KDF and just as far from being on-par (content-wise, faction-specific content wise, actually) with the UFP.
What type of gameplay do you get with that lockbox money? Reputation grinds? *one* actual episode? How long ago was the Dominion series? I'd look more favorably upon lockboxes if the profits were used to make Episodic content (Devidian series, Romulan series, Breen series, etc)
(2) The games been out for . . . what, close to four years? And they're STILL pushing buggy content live? Why was this stuff not fixed while it was still on testlive?
Once again, I would look more favorably upon the buggy content if it was something more than a reputation grind . . . I'd look more favorably upon the company releasing buggy FEATURED content if it didn't already have numerous MMO titles under it's belt.
OP is right, quality just isn't there, which is why I still don't play STO anymore.
OMG that explains everything that is so wrong with this game and the player base that still supports it.
I totally disagree, its easy to discard the lockboxes if you don't want them or better still sell them on the exchange even if you sell for only 10 ec each your credits will soon mount up.
as for the various currencies granted there are a few but I look at it like this, if you were a frequent traveller in the real world and visited many countries you might find that you would have dealings with many different forms of currency.
not only do we have all the different types of money like us dollars, gb pounds and euros the list is almost endless you also have travellers cheques, bearer bonds ect.
then you have other commodities that can be used as currency gold silver diamonds ect.
bearing in mind that in sto you are travelling around the galaxy and visiting many different planets you are bound to pick up a few different forms of currency.
as for the episode "Mine Enemy" if you check the forum release notes you will find that the devs are well aware of the bug and will fix it in due course but don't forget they have just given us this awesome update and that has created a lot of minor bugs that all need fixing so just be patient and give them the time they need to put things right, personally I think they are doing a great job.
keep an eye on the release notes if you like they will announce when it is fixed.
in the mean time you can easily skip the episode and return to it when its fixed.
imho providing the bugs are only minor as they are I would much rather put up with them if it means I can play all this new content then wait for ages for them to fix all the bugs before releasing it.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
I agree. Lifetime Subscribers should be given perks.
The list of Veteran Rewards is here
http://sto.perfectworld.com/community/veteran-rewards
Lifetime subscribers get all of those, as advertised.
The OPs words with some things highlighted.
[when I came back I had around 10k Zen. But in addition to lockboxes, they threw all the new ships on the $$$ store so I used my Zen for ships. I'd need 5,000 Zen to open the boxes I collected in the last two weeks. So the allowance doesn't make a dent in the $$$ cost.
How?
Since you obviously know how things should be prioritized when dealing with bugs and such. http://crypticstudios.com/openings
I'm sure you can do better.
And I'd love to have a Pony !!!
Who wouldn't love bug free releases?
Would you be so kind as to share what project or program or app you created allowed for fixes to happen in a single day?
CRUISERS NEED A 206% HULL BUFF
to be perfectly honest, there was nothing really all that raaarrrr and flailing about his post.. he came on, made his points, didn't cause a scene, and was done.. stop making a legit post look like its not just cause you want to spare the devs feelings..
honestly, everything he posted is true, stuff is broken, there is way too many currencies, and lockboxes are sad at the best.. hey, don't worry, if you cant actually play the game, or know how to play it, you can still get your prize.. this is the biggest problem I see in this game, everyone gets a trophy... nothing separated the person who plays more, and puts more effort into learning how to play the game, from the person who goes in and blows every optional, and what not..
as far as it being a reported bug.. well I play two other games, and if a bug is reported on week one, it is almost always fixed by week 2.. when other gameing companies have set the bar, it is unacceptable to not even try to meet the expectations of the community..
sure, the lockboxes made money, and they did increase the size of their staff, but.. they are still laughabley the smallest crew in the industry *well with a major ip attached to their work* why is wow so successful even when it is way out of date for the tech.. because they have thousands of employees breaking bugs, making content, and making sure stuff runs smoothly.. why does trion have such a successful time, because they ponied up and got a real staff, who crush bugs within a week of it being reported (typically) and actually have a great customer service department.. these are just two examples of how it is done "right" in this industry.. love or hate their games, they actually run a good business, and these companies and games set the bar for mmo game development..
ive said this before and ill say it again.. its time for pwe/cryptic to sh*t or get off the pot.. is the game making them money.. if yes, then hire people and stop stomping your companies name into the ground.. in the fantasy world, neverwinter is pretty much a flopp, so sto is the only game that is a money maker for them, they should treat this game with the respect it deserves, and make it better.. (the game is "ok" at the moment, content can be a little dry, but it has a great foundation, nice gameplay, and awesome graphics, its time to take it to the next level)..
Ive said this before too, but I have a friend who does rendering for one of companies I previously talked about.. he plays sto here and there.. he likes the concept and the idea.. and his thought was, he sees what they are trying to do, but they just arnt getting it done.. he applauds them for trying, but said they will never get it to where it needs to be, or where they envision it being on such a small crew... too many people wear too many hats at cryptic, so no one gets to really do what their specialty is..
BUY, BUY, BUY!!!! Must have lockbox, lockbox love you forever!
I don't think it's too much to ask for them to actually beta test their releases before they roll them out, about 90% of the bugs that the Dyson sphere introduced are glaringly obvious and could have been dealt with before release if they had actually bothered with the test servers which they obviously either didn't, or didn't listen to the feedback from, nothing new there.
So your snark is unjustified.
I'm not THAT difficult to please, I just have a very low tolerance threshold for stupid BS! - George Carlin.
Releases only get pushed back if there are HUGE bugs that can't get fixed before release. I haven't seen one of those in STO yet. I've seen some pretty bad ones, but that debuff reflection bug was the worst I've seen go live.
My character Tsin'xing
Also Mine Enemy was not specifically part of the Romulan expansion. It was an older feature episode that was appropriately put in the story sequence after its feature episode run.
I hope they continue to add wherever they can, but at the same time, i wish they would prioritize a little better.
Granted that you can post your opinions and counter-opinions all day long, and Cryptic welcomes both good and bad feedback, but is it really necessary to reply to people with snark?
Please keep the forum rules in mind while posting so that moderation of this thread is not necessary. I'd especially like to draw your attention to this:
And this:
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