Why play an MMO then? They are (almost?) all based around repetitive content for the possibility of minimally better gear at high levels. You don't want repetitive content? There are millions of single player games out there - Play one of those.
Personally, I have three characters right now, and will likely aim to get this new ship on at least two of them, and possibly all three - As all I have on them is the basic ship you get for free at level 40, I suspect it'll be a marked improvement (Although I have got the Breen Raider still packaged up for the main character, he is for some reason very reluctant to unpack it)...
cause there is repeatable content, and then there is cryptic repeatable content..
lets take wow, (I know I know, this will not go good, but everyone knows it and blah blah blah..)..
you log in, you have raids you have to do, you do them, but it doesn't consume every day, and you can only get yoru rewards once a week from them.. they have dailies, but their dailies are clustered together, and take no time at all to finish..
on top of that, when I play a game like wow or rift, It doesn't feel like a grind, cause they were able to design their grind in a way that you don't burn yourself out from it in less than a week.. and not every single aspect of the game relies on a grind
in star trek online.. everyday, my gameplay is made up of grinding the same exact things. over and over and over again..
we have no real choice in dailies (in wow, I have to pick which dailies im going to do from a large list.. in sto, only certain things give you certain marks/dil/rewards..
im not saying that there shouldn't be any grind in an mmo, but it shouldn't feel like one. and it shouldn't be so blatently obvious and boring..
I have been playing mmos for a long time, and I have never seen anything quite like sto's grind.. it is truly epic, so I guess they win at something.. lol...
Everything is free in this game. Paying money only gives you shortcuts.
Not quite everything. There are a handful of things that you can only get from either unique pre-order codes, collector's edition codes, (Buying off Steam?), subscribing or veteran rewards.
Why play an MMO then? They are (almost?) all based around repetitive content for the possibility of minimally better gear at high levels. You don't want repetitive content? There are millions of single player games out there - Play one of those.
Personally, I have three characters right now, and will likely aim to get this new ship on at least two of them, and possibly all three - As all I have on them is the basic ship you get for free at level 40, I suspect it'll be a marked improvement (Although I have got the Breen Raider still packaged up for the main character, he is for some reason very reluctant to unpack it)...
Yes, lets have this converstion a year from now, when you get burned out from running on your hamster wheel.
This game stopped being star trek to me after the dyson sphere came out.:
so for u guys is better to have free useless 9 console no universal console ship like every year then to work a bit for 10 consoles +universal console ship?
yes... its not about the ship.. its about the thought behind it.. its about the fact that al year, most of us have been good little drones and did all they asked, and payed way more for digital items than we should have.. and this is that pat on the back, that thank you, that hey, heres an event and a prize for all your hard work, dedication, and support...
Wow, what a bunch of whining here, and a lot of it sounds hypocritical.
-- waaaaa we just grinded a ship and now another one? Well folks, every single one of you that did the race 1000000 times for their ship put in a vote that "we like to grind for goods". Statistically, the data shows the people WILL grind for 'free' stuff. If no one did it, or very few, they would have to rethink the total failure.... And guess what --- a bunch of you will do this grind too. Tons of ppl earning the ship is positive feedback that the grindy content was accepted and popular!
---- waaa I have more than 3 characters and won't get it for all.... news flash: the ships will likely not be suitable for all characters. If it is a sci ship with 3 weapons, your tactical alt probably is not in dire need of the thing... and if you have that many characters, you DO have time to play, apparently, if you play them. If you do not play them, you don't need ships. ??
---- waaa I have a life, and cannot spend the time. Ok, I feel for you, but every day many thousands of businesses just in the USA alone offer promotions that you will not take advantage of, either because you did not have the money or did not have the time to look for them or the time to go there in person if necessary etc. Its a promotion, and sometimes people can't take advantage of it. That is life. And, I say that with a full time job, wife, and life stuff. I missed the winter ships due to family/holidays, it happens. But to cry about it, really??? Would you rather they NOT offer a ship at all, and instead give you a nice pack of fireworks that print "happy anniversary" in big colors in space or something? Or is this a disguised "gimme free stuff for no work" type thing?
---- waa, this 15 day grind is worse than the 2 month grind for EC or dil2zen that I did for my other ship. Really?
Now, complaints about a grind I see as valid. Its simply not fun to repeat dull things daily. It will have to be insanely good for me to bother with 15 days of grind .... talking a 4 weapon sci ship, or a 5 weap 5 tac console uni cmdr beast, or something else significantly superior to the usual suspects.
Agreed 100%. People should note you are getting 25 days to get your 15 days in btw... So divide up your alts or plan your family activities accordingly.
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Lifetime Sub since June 2010
Yes, lets have this converstion a year from now, when you get burned out from running on your hamster wheel.
This game stopped being star trek to me after the dyson sphere came out.:
If I get burned out, I'll take a break from the game. There's plenty else to do.
so for u guys is better to have free useless 9 console no universal console ship like every year then to work a bit for 10 consoles +universal console ship?
I still fly the anniversary Oddysey, nine consoles or not theres nothing wrong with it.
I also still fly the tier 5 Ambassador on another toon. and while I save up for the fleet version (its not my main priority atm) it's also a fine ship.
Nine console ships are fine. Period.
Ok, ten console ships may be better, but if you can't get a nine console ship set up to handle most everything in the game you're probably misunderstanding something about ship builds.
The grouch here isn't the quality of the ship, or even the quality of whatever it is we'll be running 15 times a toon for.
The problem is that absolutely nobody in Cryptic appears to care what effect this has on people with multiple toons and limited time.
I think a few people, in this thread, have expressed the idea that the anniversary event has been about easily getting a nine console ship that sets up buying better ones from the Cstore later.
It's a different pattern to the winter and summer events, a change of pace.
It allows people whose patterns didnt allow them to take advantage of the seasonal events to get a ship.
It celebrates the anniversary with everyone, not just those with the time.
Now, for some people with either few toons or lots of time, this is not an issue.
It is an issue for many others though.
There's just been too much of this polarising stuff from Cryptic recently, and the sense that feedback is even being read is getting fainter and fainter.
Did you bother to read what the dev posted about doing the mission 16 times? Is that a grinding process or not? 16 times per each character you own and you have to do it in 15-20 days?
Please read Brandon's post (pg 2) again so it sinks in...
Hi Captains,
This image was taken from Tribble, but I wanted to provide a few important notes about this. The free ships this year are not your average Anniversary ship; they've got some extremely amazing bells and whistles, and even 2 new mechanics being introduced for the first time (more info soon). Because of this, you'll need to work a tad bit harder for a free ship over just running an episode one time. However! You will receive a package of 400 Qmendations as a one-time reward the first time you complete the Featured Episode, "A Step Between Stars." That means you only need to collect 600 more, which at 40 a day from completing a short daily, will take 15 days out of the 25+ days the event runs. There should also be a Lobi option for additional/ substitute Qmendations.
All of this info and much more will be coming up in our Dev Blogs next week, and I think once you see the ships, you'll see why a little extra effort for the ships will be more than worth it.
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
You need to do it for 15 days out of 25+ and it's not running the feature mission over and over but a short daily mission. If you fall short go get some lobi from lock boxes. If no money then grind for EC doing any mission you choose and buy keys to get lobi.
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Lifetime Sub since June 2010
something I think a lot of people are not getting is, that you cant look at it as a ten to 20 minute grind per day per character.. the game has too much grind in it now..
lets say you want the ship, but you also need fleet cred, and your working on your reputation, not to mention trying to save up to buy fleet gear.. not to mention, almost all the content that gives you these marks and dil (dailies and what not) are 2-4 years old, minus the dyson project..
that means you have to
1, grind fleet marks
2, grind omega marks
3, grind nukera marks
4, grind dyson marks
5, grind romulan marks
6, grind dilithium
7, grind doffs (or ec for them) (for fleet projects)
8, grind 15 days for the anniversary ship/summer event/ce event/ winter event
9, then, you can try to enjoy say the foundry, or a mission you like..
that is not a game my friends, that is a job.. I almost feel like I should be sending a time card to cryptic for my paycheck.. lol..
It's not mandatory, you don't have to do it, the only thing is that if you want the ship, then yes, you will have to put a little bit more effort into getting it...
What Brandon said in post 115 is the key phrase of all of this:
Again, these ships are not your average anniversary ships -- you'll see that once you learn more about them. Due to this, there is a little bit more effort needed to give them away for free. They're per character, and they're optional. If you don't end up fancying them, you don't have to work on the projects. But if they do, and we think you will like them quite much, we're allowing you to earn them for FREE, but with a little side of effort.
I will say this again, Cryptic isn't forcing you to do this. If you want the ship, you can go ahead and slot the project for it... However, if you don't want the ship, then don't bother slotting the project. It's as simple as that, and some people can't seem to get over the fact that it's purely optional.
Here is an idea. Why not have event marks where we can use them for any event. So I can do the new event daily mission and complete the Summer Event I did not finish. This summer will there be another summer ship? Next winter 3 ships available... plus any other events with different tokens/marks in between. We must have gone full circle by now and back to all the different marks/tokens that there was at the start.
^^^Like this idea. Better to propose unique solutions than QQing about something that isn't going to change like most on this thread.
Gold Sub since March 2010
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
Nothing is free in life ether , its the way some chose to look at things , everything costs something ether time or money.
I to personally dont like the form of grind and the way some things are done but i simply dont do them
And for those 300 yealing on forums there will b 3000 in game that dont come here playing , happy to get free ship, or ignore it cuz they dont like it or whatever
the one thing in all the posts of negativity you mention is NEED , you dont need enything in this game
I personally am not going to farm for it.. i only pay for, play, or do content that i deam good, playable, or worthy.. (by my own standards)..
i only play in canon.. which means, a cryptic design is something you will never see me in.. so i luck out.. i havnt touched the winter event, i havnt touched the summer event, and i still havnt stepped foot inside the season 9 bull sh*t.. (there is something about talking donos with lazer beams, that just made me say no..)..
if this was (the long promised) new Orleans class, the niagra class, the freedom class, the springfield class, the challenger class, or any other canon fed ship, id probably do it, not liking it, but id do it.. (i really really really want my niagra class.. and half the ship is already rendered in game, so i don't understand what the hold up is lol, i have been patient since it made the engineering report years ago.)..
so i don't need anything.. and anything i deem as something i "want" i will get..
my whole problem is this shows the dark corridor cryptic is walking down with this game.. every year, they get a little more brazen with how far they walk the line, and how far they push us, the player base.. this game has gone from a great star trek game, to a mediocre space game that looks like star trek. and this anniversary event, was our last bastion of cryptic remembering that we are consumers, and that this game doesn't work without us.. like i said, they don't ever design these q grinds with the idea that they are giving us a chance to pick something up ingame for our time, they bank on the fact that a large portion of people will not want to waite or have the time for a 16 day grind (in a 20 day limit) and will just buy their way to the ship..
this game has pretty much became, "Buy a ship online" in the beginning, we used to get as many outfits, weapons, and other gear, as we did ships, but now, the money is in ships, so that's where they went.. its awesome that i can get new ships, but im playing all the same old crappy content that i have played a million times over with it..
that being said.. it is just a shame that they really don't care anymore.. and the changing of this event is what shows us they don't..
Well, the screenshot posted in the OP wasn't planned to be seen at this time, so it throws off our publishing schedule that reveals all the necessary information, so everyone should be missing all the information until its released. That's the issue
If you want the ship, you can go ahead and slot the project for it... However, if you don't want the ship, then don't bother slotting the project. It's as simple as that, and some people can't seem to get over the fact that it's purely optional.
And if I want the ships on all of my characters (6, so I'm not nearly as screwed as some of the others around, but it's still bad) but can't summon the willpower (or, more importantly for some people, TIME) to do not only the FE X times, but also the dailies 15*X times after that?
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
I'm with you. Not that it makes the hamster-wheel grinds anything other than hamster-wheel grinds, but it's refreshing that they're not trying to pretend it's anything else. "Do your daily logins to pad our 'active player' count and we'll give you a treat."
As long as players keep taking it. it will never stop. Players are paying money for this and not complaining much.
If I get burned out, I'll take a break from the game. There's plenty else to do.
Thats my point. I don't want to grind for it. I have been playing other games lately, and I liked that the game was once story driven.
I have all but the first anniversary ship, and I am so sick of grinding, So, I choose not to.I lost my passion for this game, and the inability to actually play a series of story driven missions for it is what bugs me.I would play a dozen story driven missions. To get the ship. But one story mission followed by a two week repetive grind is what drove me away to begin with.
It isn't the "ungrateful something fer nutin "It feels like another Cheap and lazy grindfest, without a purposed story that will make any sense.
It's not mandatory, you don't have to do it, the only thing is that if you want the ship, then yes, you will have to put a little bit more effort into getting it...
What Brandon said in post 115 is the key phrase of all of this:
I will say this again, Cryptic isn't forcing you to do this. If you want the ship, you can go ahead and slot the project for it... However, if you don't want the ship, then don't bother slotting the project. It's as simple as that, and some people can't seem to get over the fact that it's purely optional.
lol, well a little bit more effort went from 1 day, to 16 days.. that isn't a little more. that is a lot more.. no they are not forcing me to do anything, and i don't do everything.. but to stay competitive, and what not, and help your fleet our, and what not, you have to..
no one wants to be that mediocre player ever.. and they feed off this. in other mmo's rep grinds don't giv eyou "endgame" equipment, nor do they give you passive buffs, so if you don't do them, you can still be as competitive as others who have done them.. in star trek, you almost get punished for not doing the "grinds" (and i am against "buying" gear.. ie, event, rep, and fleet gear as endgame gear.. sure everyone has it, no one knows how to use it..)..
i like a game of chance, will my item drop this week in said instance, or what not.. not. oh, get on, and do azure nebula fifteen times, and then an elite stf 15 times, and you get your prize..
what could really help this games "grind" is if they gated it to weekly stuff to do, not daily.. like, when you set your rep up, it ticks for 4 days, then added event stuff wouldn't sting so bad, and you wouldn't get burned out on the content so fast.. but instead, you log on and do the same content, day after day after day, until you need a month off cause you cant take it anymore.. (which is a very common happening in game)..
honeslty, they should make use of the patrol missions, and make those random dailies as well. that way they have a whole ton of dailies to pool from, so your not dong the same ones every day.. and you make it so you contact Starfleet, get your patrol orders, and boom, do it.. they are quick, easy, and exactly what a daily should be...
I will say this again, Cryptic isn't forcing you to do this. If you want the ship, you can go ahead and slot the project for it... However, if you don't want the ship, then don't bother slotting the project. It's as simple as that, and some people can't seem to get over the fact that it's purely optional.
Starting on 4th year, the Anniversary celebration is optional... Hey genius, Christmas celebrations or any other celebrations are also optional. You won't die if you don't do it. Celebration =/= grind. Once you turn a celebration into a grind, you're the grinch that stole Christmas. And to then tell people that it's optional...:rolleyes:
I know the problem is that more and more people are supporting the opinion that this is a wrong decision so by amount of points 300 > 5.
Dude... Of course people will complain about not getting something for nothing when they think they should. I think it's kind of expected at least until everyone gets the "ooo ahh" factor of what the ship details are.
But to be fair on the numbers, you have what maybe 40+ posts on this thread today? This is typical of QQ threads... most of the whining is from repeat customers.
(and cryptic, there is a difference between people doing the grind cause they want something and liking the grind..)..
This.
When the Winter event started this year, I had, I believe, 640 pics of Q on my Vulcan, and 400+ on my Orion, left over from last year. I had none on my Romulan, of course. Even with the head start on my Vulcan and Orion, once my Vulcan had the Raider, I didn't feel much like doing the race very often after that on her to get the other ship, same for my Orion once she had the Raider, and eventually it was the same for my Romulan once she had hers.
All right, but maybe you could work on those numbers a little bit (400 for start, 40 per day, 1000 for complete), you know, some compromise. 500 for start, 50/day, something like that. Mostly, if the grind won't be as short as fastest game on ice...
I understand that these ships will blow our minds, but think about how close this anniversary is to the end winter event, and how sick are we of mindless grind...
That's well and fine, but what if you DO WANT those rewards, but your personal life prevents you from logging in more than 2-3 times each week? Because this is a limited time event, it's impossible for some of your players to achieve that reward. At least if there wasn't an unnecessary 20 hour timer on these repeatable quests, it would be somewhat doable for casual players with busy schedules. What's the point of the 20 hour timer? What's the difference if you grind the mission over 15 days or over 2 weekends (or 1 day for some people, I'm sure), either way you have to run the same exact tedious mission the same X amount of times.
Grinding is tedious in itself. There are ways to make it less annoying, but in the end, even had the necessary requirement for the Winter ships been more enjoyable, I'm not sure I would have been too interested in doing more of it for the second ship after having gotten the first. Yes, giving us 400 of these Qmendations to start is nice, but restricting the daily reward to 40 isn't going to make me too happy, unless the grind necessary to earn them is very enjoyable (and un-trollable, unlike the Winter race, in which line cutters added to the annoyance). I agree with firekeeperhu and sychosis99; increase the initial reward and/or the daily reward (of which two, I would rather see the daily reward increased), and/or decrease the cooldown from 20 hours to at most 10 hours (5 would be better). When you take into account the fact that the weather from November to March is capable of interfering with the players' ability to even get in-game, sometimes for several days at a time, you realize that the anxiety level can increase even further.
There's already plenty of grinding in this game, and I'm fairly sure there will be yet more fleet holdings added as time goes on, with more grinding to go with it. Don't we have enough to grind on already? Won't this additional grinding for what was previously a one-off mission simply detract from the grinds we already have, and thus decrease contributions to fleet projects while it's going on?
STO is now my favorite MMO, for so many reasons (it's Trek, the Devs have at least some understanding that a game should be fun and not a hassle, the C-Store is not necessary but instead offers nice extras that are desirable and this shows that the game is stable enough to keep the company from doing stupid and insulting things just to make more money, I can play a Romulan! [even though the Romulans still need a lot of work and must eventually become a full faction, at least I can play one at last!], bugs in STO when compared with some other MMOs are seldom catastrophic and usually get fixed fairly quickly, etc), but the grind, even as tame as it is in comparison to some other MMOs, is not one of the reasons why STO is now my favorite MMO.
of all these grinds the summer was most fun simply because there was a bit of variety in what you had to do
Some of us couldn't do the Summer race at all, because the path was simply not visible. I would have liked to have a Risan Corvette on all three of the toons I had at the time (I now have more), but I couldn't even try.
Please don't give away a Gal-X, I literally just bought it
I bought an Orion Marauder Flight Deck Carrier months before they gave it away. I am less annoyed that I bought it and then it was given away free than I am that it was a somewhat rare ship to see before that, and I bought it for my Orion to express her Orion-ness more, but since they gave them away you see them quite a bit more often and they're flown by Gorns, Klingons, and everybody else on the KDF side.
I've read all 13 pages of this thread and I must say,...the general agreement is that grinding is becoming a chore.
But if so many are tired of the senseless grinind,...the only way to stop it is to boycott grinding for these upcoming ships. After a while Cryptic will see the writing on the wall, that they can't continue to have these grinds for features on a ship that should have been their in the first place (for example dual deflectors on science ships).
It's blatantly obvious the Voth lockbox didn't do so well (I hardly see any voth ships while I play). We all agree that Cryptic needs to make money in order to stay in business. Lockboxes are second place to using the Jem'Hadar Attack Ship as a means to generate income.
That is all...please continue.
Personally, I'm waiting for the ability to save ship layout and until I have it outfitted to my specifications before I take it out of the shipyard. Having to reset my BOffs and skilltray (or at least my skilltray) every time I switch ships is a PITA.
Back to the topic at hand, though, I'll do the grind for at least my three Science Officers, and hope that these ships are worthy of what I have to do in order to get them.
Agreed 100%. People should note you are getting 25 days to get your 15 days in btw... So divide up your alts or plan your family activities accordingly.
Okay, and what about those players who do want the reward, don't mind doing the grinding, but only get to login 2-3 days per week because of their busy personal/professional adult lives?
Cryptic assumes its playerbase gets to login every single day. Many only get to play on days off or the weekends, so a best case scenario for them is getting to play 12 days each month (that being the best case). So they're going to be short in the time needed to complete this tedious event, because of the unnecessary daily timer they slap on their grinds, just so it creates this feeble illusion that the event is a lengthy one.
I have no problem doing the grind it takes to get the ship reward for my desired characters, but because of the 20 hour daily timer, it's not possible to do the tedious grind on my own time. The timer is unnecessary, what's the difference if someone does the mission 15 times over 25 days, or does it 15 times over 2-3 days? Yeah, I'm sure some players would have the reward ship in a few hours after the event launches, but who cares, let them. At least the casual player would have a better chance at getting the reward and not be punished just because they can't login 15 days each month.
I rather this than get a crappy vanilla ship for free , then the better version gets throw into the fleet store, or a 3 pack.....this way I get the better version for free.
I took this to mean he wants to get as much grind as possible in any new content. Last year for the anniversary event we just had to complete Temporal Ambassador once to get a free tier 5 ship. Then later we just had to complete Sphere of Influence once to get a free ship. Now we're going to have to grind for a free ship. I don't care how cool it is, it's a boring pain having to do the same damned mission over and over and over and over for it.
I'm starting to miss Dan Stahl. Since this new guy took over, things are changing drastically.
This stuff was long decided before D'Angelo took over the reigns.
Gold Sub since March 2010
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
Do that new mission 1 times for 400 somethings , and then do DAILY mission for another 40/day
Somewhat like Dyson comendation,
Chose to repeat that mission or do 1 ELITE mission, ether Borg, Voth, CE etc , or replay some of Episodes
Give us choice of how to do it and Ill be less anoyed by the "grind"
for added flavour let it be done mulitple times par day so wekend wariors can do it to, but 40 shananigans can be claimed only 1/day, so thay can grind their harts out on weekend and then spend 2min over the week to slot the projects
And thats the only thing I have against it, repetitivnes
Let me rephrase it: Our reward for supporting the game another year... is the chance to spend money to expedite another forced-cool-down grind.
No dice.
You know what the sad part is?
A lot of people will grind for the ships anyway. Probably even some of the people complaining about it. I know I'll try - a free ship is a free ship, so if I can get myself to do the prerequisite work, it's worth it - but judging by my results in the winter events and the summer event, that won't yield even one ship, let alone six.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
I'm with you. Not that it makes the hamster-wheel grinds anything other than hamster-wheel grinds, but it's refreshing that they're not trying to pretend it's anything else. "Do your daily logins to pad our 'active player' count and we'll give you a treat."
As stated above, I am not happy with t his direction...
However, reading through the posts... you know why they keep pumping out grind content... because we'll do it. That's right... we complain... often very loudly... but in the end we do the grind because of the allure of a new ship, that will most likely end up in our banks mothballed. Some on 3, 6, 10, or 14 toons.
They keep making content like this, because we keep playing it. We actively encourage this type of "content". We do it for fleet holdings, reputations, now seasonal grinds.
I'll look at the stats, and the new bells and whistles... if the ship doesn't knock my socks off (on par with minimally a Fleet Science Vessel, but preferably a Vesta, or Wells)... I'm passing... its not worth the aggravation any longer.
Don't blame Cryptic... they are responding to what the players do, and providing more of the same.
You know... I don't mind grinding for new gear... IF I NEED IT FOR SOMETHING... but we only get half of the equation here... grind for new gear so you unlock... nothing... istead we get "here's another grind for slightly better gear than what you just spent a month grinding for. No No... there's not any new, or harder content that really requires this gear... But hey, it might help you shave .025 seconds off the entirety of your next grind...Enjoy!"
Finally someone gets it. Players keep taking this TRIBBLE so it will never change. If players decided to pass on doing this then maybe it will change.
Comments
cause there is repeatable content, and then there is cryptic repeatable content..
lets take wow, (I know I know, this will not go good, but everyone knows it and blah blah blah..)..
you log in, you have raids you have to do, you do them, but it doesn't consume every day, and you can only get yoru rewards once a week from them.. they have dailies, but their dailies are clustered together, and take no time at all to finish..
on top of that, when I play a game like wow or rift, It doesn't feel like a grind, cause they were able to design their grind in a way that you don't burn yourself out from it in less than a week.. and not every single aspect of the game relies on a grind
in star trek online.. everyday, my gameplay is made up of grinding the same exact things. over and over and over again..
we have no real choice in dailies (in wow, I have to pick which dailies im going to do from a large list.. in sto, only certain things give you certain marks/dil/rewards..
im not saying that there shouldn't be any grind in an mmo, but it shouldn't feel like one. and it shouldn't be so blatently obvious and boring..
I have been playing mmos for a long time, and I have never seen anything quite like sto's grind.. it is truly epic, so I guess they win at something.. lol...
Not quite everything. There are a handful of things that you can only get from either unique pre-order codes, collector's edition codes, (Buying off Steam?), subscribing or veteran rewards.
Yes, lets have this converstion a year from now, when you get burned out from running on your hamster wheel.
This game stopped being star trek to me after the dyson sphere came out.:
yes... its not about the ship.. its about the thought behind it.. its about the fact that al year, most of us have been good little drones and did all they asked, and payed way more for digital items than we should have.. and this is that pat on the back, that thank you, that hey, heres an event and a prize for all your hard work, dedication, and support...
this is now completely lost in the game...
Agreed 100%. People should note you are getting 25 days to get your 15 days in btw... So divide up your alts or plan your family activities accordingly.
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
If I get burned out, I'll take a break from the game. There's plenty else to do.
I still fly the anniversary Oddysey, nine consoles or not theres nothing wrong with it.
I also still fly the tier 5 Ambassador on another toon. and while I save up for the fleet version (its not my main priority atm) it's also a fine ship.
Nine console ships are fine. Period.
Ok, ten console ships may be better, but if you can't get a nine console ship set up to handle most everything in the game you're probably misunderstanding something about ship builds.
The grouch here isn't the quality of the ship, or even the quality of whatever it is we'll be running 15 times a toon for.
The problem is that absolutely nobody in Cryptic appears to care what effect this has on people with multiple toons and limited time.
I think a few people, in this thread, have expressed the idea that the anniversary event has been about easily getting a nine console ship that sets up buying better ones from the Cstore later.
It's a different pattern to the winter and summer events, a change of pace.
It allows people whose patterns didnt allow them to take advantage of the seasonal events to get a ship.
It celebrates the anniversary with everyone, not just those with the time.
Now, for some people with either few toons or lots of time, this is not an issue.
It is an issue for many others though.
There's just been too much of this polarising stuff from Cryptic recently, and the sense that feedback is even being read is getting fainter and fainter.
Please read Brandon's post (pg 2) again so it sinks in...
You need to do it for 15 days out of 25+ and it's not running the feature mission over and over but a short daily mission. If you fall short go get some lobi from lock boxes. If no money then grind for EC doing any mission you choose and buy keys to get lobi.
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
What Brandon said in post 115 is the key phrase of all of this:
I will say this again, Cryptic isn't forcing you to do this. If you want the ship, you can go ahead and slot the project for it... However, if you don't want the ship, then don't bother slotting the project. It's as simple as that, and some people can't seem to get over the fact that it's purely optional.
^^^Like this idea. Better to propose unique solutions than QQing about something that isn't going to change like most on this thread.
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
I personally am not going to farm for it.. i only pay for, play, or do content that i deam good, playable, or worthy.. (by my own standards)..
i only play in canon.. which means, a cryptic design is something you will never see me in.. so i luck out.. i havnt touched the winter event, i havnt touched the summer event, and i still havnt stepped foot inside the season 9 bull sh*t.. (there is something about talking donos with lazer beams, that just made me say no..)..
if this was (the long promised) new Orleans class, the niagra class, the freedom class, the springfield class, the challenger class, or any other canon fed ship, id probably do it, not liking it, but id do it.. (i really really really want my niagra class.. and half the ship is already rendered in game, so i don't understand what the hold up is lol, i have been patient since it made the engineering report years ago.)..
so i don't need anything.. and anything i deem as something i "want" i will get..
my whole problem is this shows the dark corridor cryptic is walking down with this game.. every year, they get a little more brazen with how far they walk the line, and how far they push us, the player base.. this game has gone from a great star trek game, to a mediocre space game that looks like star trek. and this anniversary event, was our last bastion of cryptic remembering that we are consumers, and that this game doesn't work without us.. like i said, they don't ever design these q grinds with the idea that they are giving us a chance to pick something up ingame for our time, they bank on the fact that a large portion of people will not want to waite or have the time for a 16 day grind (in a 20 day limit) and will just buy their way to the ship..
this game has pretty much became, "Buy a ship online" in the beginning, we used to get as many outfits, weapons, and other gear, as we did ships, but now, the money is in ships, so that's where they went.. its awesome that i can get new ships, but im playing all the same old crappy content that i have played a million times over with it..
that being said.. it is just a shame that they really don't care anymore.. and the changing of this event is what shows us they don't..
Damn those wiki leaks. :P
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
And if I want the ships on all of my characters (6, so I'm not nearly as screwed as some of the others around, but it's still bad) but can't summon the willpower (or, more importantly for some people, TIME) to do not only the FE X times, but also the dailies 15*X times after that?
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
If we have to earn the ship via grind or cash, it's no longer a "gift".
As long as players keep taking it. it will never stop. Players are paying money for this and not complaining much.
Thats my point. I don't want to grind for it. I have been playing other games lately, and I liked that the game was once story driven.
I have all but the first anniversary ship, and I am so sick of grinding, So, I choose not to.I lost my passion for this game, and the inability to actually play a series of story driven missions for it is what bugs me.I would play a dozen story driven missions. To get the ship. But one story mission followed by a two week repetive grind is what drove me away to begin with.
It isn't the "ungrateful something fer nutin "It feels like another Cheap and lazy grindfest, without a purposed story that will make any sense.
lol, well a little bit more effort went from 1 day, to 16 days.. that isn't a little more. that is a lot more.. no they are not forcing me to do anything, and i don't do everything.. but to stay competitive, and what not, and help your fleet our, and what not, you have to..
no one wants to be that mediocre player ever.. and they feed off this. in other mmo's rep grinds don't giv eyou "endgame" equipment, nor do they give you passive buffs, so if you don't do them, you can still be as competitive as others who have done them.. in star trek, you almost get punished for not doing the "grinds" (and i am against "buying" gear.. ie, event, rep, and fleet gear as endgame gear.. sure everyone has it, no one knows how to use it..)..
i like a game of chance, will my item drop this week in said instance, or what not.. not. oh, get on, and do azure nebula fifteen times, and then an elite stf 15 times, and you get your prize..
what could really help this games "grind" is if they gated it to weekly stuff to do, not daily.. like, when you set your rep up, it ticks for 4 days, then added event stuff wouldn't sting so bad, and you wouldn't get burned out on the content so fast.. but instead, you log on and do the same content, day after day after day, until you need a month off cause you cant take it anymore.. (which is a very common happening in game)..
honeslty, they should make use of the patrol missions, and make those random dailies as well. that way they have a whole ton of dailies to pool from, so your not dong the same ones every day.. and you make it so you contact Starfleet, get your patrol orders, and boom, do it.. they are quick, easy, and exactly what a daily should be...
Starting on 4th year, the Anniversary celebration is optional... Hey genius, Christmas celebrations or any other celebrations are also optional. You won't die if you don't do it. Celebration =/= grind. Once you turn a celebration into a grind, you're the grinch that stole Christmas. And to then tell people that it's optional...:rolleyes:
QFT. You hit it dead on.
Dude... Of course people will complain about not getting something for nothing when they think they should. I think it's kind of expected at least until everyone gets the "ooo ahh" factor of what the ship details are.
But to be fair on the numbers, you have what maybe 40+ posts on this thread today? This is typical of QQ threads... most of the whining is from repeat customers.
see for yourself: http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/search.php?searchid=84795651&pp=25
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
This.
When the Winter event started this year, I had, I believe, 640 pics of Q on my Vulcan, and 400+ on my Orion, left over from last year. I had none on my Romulan, of course. Even with the head start on my Vulcan and Orion, once my Vulcan had the Raider, I didn't feel much like doing the race very often after that on her to get the other ship, same for my Orion once she had the Raider, and eventually it was the same for my Romulan once she had hers.
Grinding is tedious in itself. There are ways to make it less annoying, but in the end, even had the necessary requirement for the Winter ships been more enjoyable, I'm not sure I would have been too interested in doing more of it for the second ship after having gotten the first. Yes, giving us 400 of these Qmendations to start is nice, but restricting the daily reward to 40 isn't going to make me too happy, unless the grind necessary to earn them is very enjoyable (and un-trollable, unlike the Winter race, in which line cutters added to the annoyance). I agree with firekeeperhu and sychosis99; increase the initial reward and/or the daily reward (of which two, I would rather see the daily reward increased), and/or decrease the cooldown from 20 hours to at most 10 hours (5 would be better). When you take into account the fact that the weather from November to March is capable of interfering with the players' ability to even get in-game, sometimes for several days at a time, you realize that the anxiety level can increase even further.
There's already plenty of grinding in this game, and I'm fairly sure there will be yet more fleet holdings added as time goes on, with more grinding to go with it. Don't we have enough to grind on already? Won't this additional grinding for what was previously a one-off mission simply detract from the grinds we already have, and thus decrease contributions to fleet projects while it's going on?
STO is now my favorite MMO, for so many reasons (it's Trek, the Devs have at least some understanding that a game should be fun and not a hassle, the C-Store is not necessary but instead offers nice extras that are desirable and this shows that the game is stable enough to keep the company from doing stupid and insulting things just to make more money, I can play a Romulan! [even though the Romulans still need a lot of work and must eventually become a full faction, at least I can play one at last!], bugs in STO when compared with some other MMOs are seldom catastrophic and usually get fixed fairly quickly, etc), but the grind, even as tame as it is in comparison to some other MMOs, is not one of the reasons why STO is now my favorite MMO.
Some of us couldn't do the Summer race at all, because the path was simply not visible. I would have liked to have a Risan Corvette on all three of the toons I had at the time (I now have more), but I couldn't even try.
I bought an Orion Marauder Flight Deck Carrier months before they gave it away. I am less annoyed that I bought it and then it was given away free than I am that it was a somewhat rare ship to see before that, and I bought it for my Orion to express her Orion-ness more, but since they gave them away you see them quite a bit more often and they're flown by Gorns, Klingons, and everybody else on the KDF side.
Personally, I'm waiting for the ability to save ship layout and until I have it outfitted to my specifications before I take it out of the shipyard. Having to reset my BOffs and skilltray (or at least my skilltray) every time I switch ships is a PITA.
Back to the topic at hand, though, I'll do the grind for at least my three Science Officers, and hope that these ships are worthy of what I have to do in order to get them.
Right here, Branflakes. Right here.
Take this up the chain of command for us.
Let me rephrase it: Our reward for supporting the game another year... is the chance to spend money to expedite another forced-cool-down grind.
No dice.
Okay, and what about those players who do want the reward, don't mind doing the grinding, but only get to login 2-3 days per week because of their busy personal/professional adult lives?
Cryptic assumes its playerbase gets to login every single day. Many only get to play on days off or the weekends, so a best case scenario for them is getting to play 12 days each month (that being the best case). So they're going to be short in the time needed to complete this tedious event, because of the unnecessary daily timer they slap on their grinds, just so it creates this feeble illusion that the event is a lengthy one.
I have no problem doing the grind it takes to get the ship reward for my desired characters, but because of the 20 hour daily timer, it's not possible to do the tedious grind on my own time. The timer is unnecessary, what's the difference if someone does the mission 15 times over 25 days, or does it 15 times over 2-3 days? Yeah, I'm sure some players would have the reward ship in a few hours after the event launches, but who cares, let them. At least the casual player would have a better chance at getting the reward and not be punished just because they can't login 15 days each month.
This stuff was long decided before D'Angelo took over the reigns.
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
Do that new mission 1 times for 400 somethings , and then do DAILY mission for another 40/day
Somewhat like Dyson comendation,
Chose to repeat that mission or do 1 ELITE mission, ether Borg, Voth, CE etc , or replay some of Episodes
Give us choice of how to do it and Ill be less anoyed by the "grind"
for added flavour let it be done mulitple times par day so wekend wariors can do it to, but 40 shananigans can be claimed only 1/day, so thay can grind their harts out on weekend and then spend 2min over the week to slot the projects
And thats the only thing I have against it, repetitivnes
QFTFQFT?
You know what the sad part is?
A lot of people will grind for the ships anyway. Probably even some of the people complaining about it. I know I'll try - a free ship is a free ship, so if I can get myself to do the prerequisite work, it's worth it - but judging by my results in the winter events and the summer event, that won't yield even one ship, let alone six.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
Wrong you have been reassigned to the Nukara fields witha faulty enviro suit!!!!!!
Finally someone gets it. Players keep taking this TRIBBLE so it will never change. If players decided to pass on doing this then maybe it will change.