Here's a poll question - at what point did Cryptic forget that much of its intended audience, and player base, is localized to regions where paid professions that involve grinding don't generally make use of keyboards (unless you're into that sort of thing)?
And it's a serious poll question given the circumstance of these "Free ships" which, like everything else in the game, are not free (at all).
At best, these ships are "reward" obtained for the "job" of testing Cryptic's product; at worse, these ships are, "payment" for the "job" of testing Cryptic's product. And in neither case is "satisfaction" provided to the "employee" (a.k.a. "player"/"slave-laborer"/"unpaid-tester") as that would entail respecting said subject instead of engaging in the policy of regular corn-holing without even considering, let alone providing, a reach around.
Here's another poll question - how many compulsive spenders have to go bankrupt before Star Trek Online is classified as "unprofitable" again and PWE sells the asset back to Atari?
It's not like those compulsive spenders are being forced to spend their money. They're doing it out of their own accord.
I don't mind the grind on a fleet level ship. After all I am getting something for free, it is up to the player to decide if we want to grind. I do have some concerns.
1. With Fridays Dev blog it does not look fleet quality from the screen shots. Only has 9 console slots. All other grind ships have 10 consoles this should be the same. I understand if it is a give away with then we can make it a standard tier five ship.
2. Most players have learned gimmick consoles and abilities should be scrapped over more productive equipment.
3. I fear the level of increase of new ship potential. The game is continuing to make ships obsolete that I have purchased in the past. I own almost every fed science ship and 75% of then are not worth using. I do understand. This game is f2p, and ships bring cash in.
4. The amount of ships inventory cap needs to be raised. I don't mind purchasing the other spots. If I had every lockbox ship, anniversary ship, lobi store, and special event ship I lose room for my daily drivers like the vesta. Either give us more ship places or allow us to reclaim these special ships once the character owns it.
5. I also don't mind grinding some items the fleet holdings and reputation. But taking my time away from them for another grind is getting out of hand. I would rather have a special episode with no big give away than a grind. If we are going to grind for them let the currency be the same. I have 160 autographs and pearls each (or what ever they are called) from the last to grinds. Let me uses those to lighten my load.
6. Although I am giving Cryptic some issues to think about, they are going in a better direction than they have in the past. It is better than no content at all. And the concept art of the new ships look awesome. They don't look canon, but I can appreciate the time and effort put into them.
While I may not fly these ships, I will be getting them but not on all eight of my toons.
As I read through the thread, the overwhelming issue is the whole grindfest for an Anniversary ship. I think we all accepted the Winter and Summer grind for the non-faction ships associated with these events, especially since these events also had other entertaining activities and the non-faction ships should be something that is worked towards.
The Anniversary event, however, was always seen as a special single mission event that celebrated the birth of the game. Unlike the other events, this event was something we got for our faction (UFP-KDF-RR specific ship). For this reason, many players want to have this ship on all of their toons, which was simple with a single mission reward. The side missions were still there, but not forced upon us. The players will still use the multiple days getting the reward, especially those like me that now have over 10 toons (I have 18). But a grindfest will tell me that this will not be an all-in event with all my toons. Even 2-5 min per toon is still too long, and if the post event response is to drop this ship into the Z-store/Fleet Store after the grindfest, then that will also be write-off since I will only use three toons in a grindfest (just like the other events) and then just ignore any further offers.
If you want to make money then keep it simple for the Anniversary event, then drop the Fleet version with the 4xmodules (no discount), and the ship to the Z-store for those that don't want or have the time for the event (with the discount for the Fleet version). The folks like what you make for them; they just are getting tired of jumping through hoops to get a single ship for a single toon. Please don't ruin the excitement of the Anniversary event by turning it into just another grindfest event.
I don't mind the grind on a fleet level ship. After all I am getting something for free, it is up to the player to decide if we want to grind. I do have some concerns.
Except you're not getting something for free. You are working for a reward for a character. Sure you may not 'pay' with EC, but you're doing a task, it's keeping you logged in ,padding their numbers and hoping you're in a fleet so your fleetmates can see. Plus you're devoting your time to potentially do this more then once. Even if say they move it to the fleet store (which people put effort and time to unlock, so far from it as well), it will still cost modules, which someone paid 5 bucks. Again, you may buy it with credits.. but real cash was exchanged to generate the item somewhere.
Free will be those cstore account-wide unlock items, for good or worse. Even if it is a marketing aspect. I can log in, run a quick STF or event and get enough markets to raise my reputation. Doesn't mean it was for free. People are seriously buying into this stuff and it's sad.
To Cryptic, this is a pretty new low. This really shines of some Korean grind MMO style lately. But since you feel so intent on copying it, let me remind you of some history. Even the biggest K-MMO had a mass leaving of people who got fed up. From people who knew what they were talking into and grinded everything in a game with terrible drop rates and much more. I'd becareful just cause you're really fast approaching that straw that's breaking the camel's back. Then again, what do you really care. One look at Champions shows just that. How fast you move on to other games and how much you can turn each one into a crazy grind.
I mean do you guys even hear yourselves? "Oh we put some work into this so you have to grind." It's not even like the mechanic is going to stay exclusive to these ships. Hell, you couldn't have even been bothered to come up with a story reasoning. (Insert Faction) engineers have been working -- wait, so why is Q is involved in this? Sorry Sir, I didn't play with Q long enough so I can't get a ship? If you're just going to give everyone a free pack? Why not just I dunno reduce the number needed overall? Or hell, drop the pointless time gates. But no, we're doing your work and padding your numbers, showing everyone what good little grind monkeys we are. Evident enough by sending our captains/admirals out to mines to do pointless labor getting ore. Even if you're so heartfelt on keeping this grind heavy nonsense in, there are so many better ways to handle it, or make it more friendly. Involve it in people's routines, make it a doff mission, or complete any mission to get credit for it. You got a lot of information that needs to get out there as well.
What happens when the event is over? Is it going to the lolfleet store? Or are there going to be c-store versions? This is the best you can do for the celebration? Least the Temporal Ambassador one is still around. You know, yeah, I don't grind that mission. But I have replayed it on every alt that got that high in level. This new stuff? Can't say I will. Did the winter grind. Only the ship from the race, and even that was boring between two characters. Didn't see a point in grinding holiday items. Grind holiday to... kill snowmen easier for what? To.. kill them some more? Some accolades? Unless they have a neat passive... pass. Some recolored clothing from last year...? Pass. (Though this is a personal preference. As the outfit wasn't for me.)
I like the idea of incorporating new technology, new ideas and new ships. This is something that would have been great for that Dyson T5 reward instead of a boff who you can't rename, can't customize. Heck the carrier should have been the same way, but nope. Can't pass up a way to throw grind + per alt unfriendly fleet modules into it. Oh well. We hit max level, we turn into mark farmers, dilithium farmers, fleet farmers, event farmers, might as well add anniversary farming to it as well. It's what we do best.
so many pages so many walls of text......."SCREAMS"
Can they please release some more details before we all fall into chaos?
Regardless of the outcome my toons want these ships! all 15 of them! can i suggest s discount for subs and lifers at least?
i didn't do the winter event this year as the last breen ship was of no more use than an excelsior class but i love the dyson zone and i want these ships too so i'll wait and see what i need to do for certain before i worry any.
"Yes, you have to grind. We must punish the players with 18+ toons. How dare they 'spend' money getting so many toons".
"Account wide? Make your life easy? Ahahahaha. This must be some sort of joke!"
Hey the ship is 'Free'. It only costs time... Game feels like a job? Hey, you get paid in ships.:rolleyes:
The dress is gold and white. Over 70% people says so. When viewed from a certain screen angle it appears blue and black. The dress displayed on amazon is a blue and black dress, but it's not the same dress in the picture. If you're seeing blue & black you're slightly colored blind. A normal upright screen = white and gold.
Holy TRIBBLE! So soon after the WW autograph grind you make another one?!? How about knocking the grind part down to 7 days? (Or 7 for us LTS at least? )
Come on! My PTSD from the WW race isn't even cured yet! I still overcorrect to counter the slide when running, so I end up turning and running into walls! :P
Kinda like giving me a free $20 if you can kick me in the groin. Sure, it's a 'free' $20 but geez. You guys need to think of a new mechanic other than "give me 1000 things I made up just so you can give me 1000 of them" schemes.
Can I just use Q-autographs as filler? I have an extra 1000 of those in the bank.
6 toons * 15 days * 2-5 minutes = 3 - 7.5 hrs of extra grinding on top of the grinding I already do. yay.
I would still take the $20...
"I am a travelor of both time and space to be where I have been"
And so begins the end of STO. Which, is really sad, as this game was starting to get better. But, as previous posters have commented on, when a game becomes more work than play, people will seek play elsewhere. There have been lots of comments for and against the Anniversary Ship grind. Personally, I think that these ships need to be like all other Anniversary Events...Do a FE and get the ship as a reward. Cryptic's way of saying "Thank you for being a supporter of the game and as a token of our respect, have a ship!" However, with this grind, Cryptic is sending this message "We don't care if you play the game, but if you do and want a ship without paying Dilithium/Lobi/Zen for it, you must work for it." To me, that is an insult to those of us that have been with the game for a long time and even the new players. If I was just coming into the game, and saw this, I probably would not stay. What is the incentive? The Anniversary Event is the perfect promotional tool for Cryptic. Tells people that they matter.
The Free C-Store items? That is a joke. Just a quick bribe to try and calm the masses, and as you can see Cryptic, it isn't working. Like most players, all the ships that I might or do want, are already unlocked. So, for me, the 3 days of "Free" ships (Or whatever they give), will not help/please me as I will undoubtedly have those unlocked anyway. So, I will probably get nothing. If you want to make people happy with something, how about just awarding Zen? Say that you plan to give away 5000 Zen worth of ships. How about just giving each player that Zen instead? Let them use it as they see fit. That way, you are not giving away something that a lot of people already have unlocked.
I really, REALLY, liked BranFlakes comment about "No one was supposed to see that". Yeah, we were not supposed to know about the grind and change of the Anniversary Event until either a day before or the day of the start, and then it would be too late to do anything about. REALLY??? So, is that the shape of things to come for STO? Is that why we have a new Executive Producer? Someone to change the whole game to a point that no one will want to play, even if it is F2P? Because that is the way things are going. Oh, and you can tell them that the "Secret Projects" and the Console version of the games is a big joke. No one has commented on THAT yet. How you are going to be changing the entire dynamics of STO to make it work on a Console. Anyway, that is for a different forum, sorry, got off subject.
And, before people start yelling that I am just wanting something for free and don't want to work for it, let me say this to you..... I am a Lifetime Subscriber. I have, in the last year alone, spent over $2,500 USD on this game. So, yeah, I feel that I am entitled to my opinion and yes, I think the ships should be free to EVERYONE. Like they were in the past. If you have to work for it, it is not Free. Period.
'thank you for being a loyal customer to our product, as a reward here's a free gift just claim it at the desk........
Now
'thank you for being a loyal customer to our product, as a reward heres a fee gift just claim it at the desk, then come back 15 times once a day do the same thing whether you like it or not while you'd rather be doing something else with you limited time.......
Great.....
And one little point those of us with the graphics bug which appears with map transitions are realy happy we have to go from ESD the major cause to academy another cause.
As a lifer it's the first time im beginning to look at other space games, the only real hook with this game anymore is the Star Trek license.
Where ever you go, there you are.......
Join The Space Invaders,..... Federation and KDF fleets.
And so begins the end of STO. Which, is really sad, as this game was starting to get better. But, as previous posters have commented on, when a game becomes more work than play, people will seek play elsewhere.
...
Yeah, we were not supposed to know about the grind and change of the Anniversary Event until either a day before or the day of the start, and then it would be too late to do anything about. REALLY??? So, is that the shape of things to come for STO? Is that why we have a new Executive Producer?
Maybe that's the whole point of new Executive Producer. Maybe his task is to shutdown STO and make as much money as possible why doing so. Maybe they just got enough $$$ from lifers so now they just want to close the house. Smart way of doing it is to make the player think he himself decided to leave... game is doomed :eek::(:mad:
The first time a "free" grind ship came out, I dutifully ground it out on 10+ toons. And of those 10+ toons I fly it on zero of them. The grind took up all of my play time for the month of December that year
*nods* right there is a lot of the issue people are having with the ship grinds. The more time we have to spend doing x to get y, the less time we have to go off and play with previous ships and other stuff. And like others have said, this is coming two weeks after the last grind ended. Plus there's the grind to get fleet marks and dilithium and romulan marks, omega marks etc. Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the hard work that goes into this stuff, but.......this is why I don't want to ever sleep, there's so much to do in game and in real life, sleep just seems like a waste of time.
And I have to ask, as I don't know if anyone else has, but......what is the point to us grinding for 15 days? The only things I can think of is a ploy to get us to buy keys to get lobi, and to be able to say "hey, look at how many people are playing" even if it's just to get the ship. At least with stuff like the Crystalline Entity event, there's real benefit, like all that dilithium that can become zen, or go to our fleet projects, and all those tasty fleet marks. I will probably get this on my two main characters, and maybe a couple others if I like it once I see stats, but like some have said, I'm not going to fly it. I'm not giving up my beloved fleet Defiant or fleet Valdore. The only way I'd give up my Valdore is if there were a D'Deridex with 4 tactical consoles and a turn rate that didn't make me want to hurt someone. So.........please, rethink the desire to grind, make it more beneficial to us.
Let us upgrade the Seleya Ceremonial Lirpa and Kri'stak Blade
what the devs need to think about is most of us players have jobs and don't have the time to do this stupid grinding for a ship so they might as well just give us the ship for free
In the interests of giving useful feedback I'm going to lay out how I approach these kinds of events, in the hopes that other people will affirm what I am saying and so that it makes sense.
When I am using a character in a multi-day event, like the Winter Event, I recognize that it can take a certain amount of time to get from point A to point B. Add in stops at the Bank or Exchange, and it gets even longer.
Because I know I have limited time to earn the rewards, because I have limited play time before wife aggro kicks in, and because I am likely going to run this event on multiple characters I pretty much "park" those characters at the starting point for the event.
If I don't, I run the risk that I will run out of time and won't be able to collect what I need to finish the event.
I did nothing else with those characters, except DOFFing. This past Winter Event, I had three characters who barely ever left ESD/Qo'Nos. I logged them on, I ran the race, I sometimes did some of the other activities for awhile, and I logged out. I didn't use up any time going from point A to point B. It would have been a lot harder if the Winter Wonderland didn't have convenient Bank services.
My 2 boys were running the event with me, one at a time since we only have two laptops. Likewise, they never left the event the whole time. Unlike me, they don't have all of those handy transwarp destinations and slipstream drives to fall back on yet. They did not progress in the storyline, they did not level like they would have if they had been running the normal mission progression. Some nights (some of those were school nights) we basically did the race and got out.
Is it any wonder that we get tired of events by the time they're over?
Sure, we could have done other stuff, too. But that would have involved all of that point A to point B travel time. It definitely would've had a negative influence on marital bliss. And, like I said, there were many nights we simply didn't have time to do more than race. The boys had to get the hang of the ice track at first, and had to redo it 3-4 tries a night.
During that time, I didn't earn a lot of dilithium. I didn't earn a lot of fleet marks. Most of my non-Event Reputations came to a standstill. Choosing to make these events a priority means that I am not doing other things that earns the resources I need to build my characters and my fleet, or helping my boys to level up to 50.
That's what I'm reacting to. I was looking forward to a fun, quick, no-stress anniversary mission where my boys get a free ship to fly when they get to level 50. Because that's been the precedent set up until now. I give Cryptic money on a regular basis, so it's not like I'm not supporting the game and crying for freebies at Cryptic's expense.
Well said sir, it is most logical to park if you want the ships.
what the devs need to think about is most of us players have jobs and don't have the time to do this stupid grinding for a ship so they might as well just give us the ship for free
Yeah and they need to realize that we also play OTHER games too, and do other things in general with our life, like sleeping and eating, and not just playing Star Trek everyday for hours.
Unless it's Neverwinter or Champions, they really don't want us playing other games
hopefully that was a joke heh. Everyone I know who plays star trek plays alot of other games on steam or consoles or even tablets. I play other games while playing star trek just to deny them of boring me between cooldowns on specific stfs.
we all know that when someone new comes to be executive producer he is making radical changes in the game.
He wants to show to the Perfect World that when he become head of Cryptic that he did bring something to the game the new players, better online playing of STO, more players online etc...just for some stupid statistic to show that he matters.
In this point he wants to achieve that goals on our backs forcing us to grind like this " Free gift anniversary grind " that is really selfish from D'Angelo and clearly showing us that he has some ego issues.
So D'Angelo did you ever hear about false advertizing that players can sue company for that?
We as community can easily do that and guess what? We would won. Even we as community can ask the Perfect World for your resignation.
I don't care if it late to change your point of view of this anniversary, if you and your team will not sleep for 7 days and 7 nights .... CHANGE IT!!!!!
Really that is 50 lines of code, and you and your team have enough time to change it and test it. So stop playing stupid!!! And trying to bribe us with this puny
"Giveaway Announcement!" from C-store.
I read through the first 20+ pages of gripes and thought about why STO would use rep model for anniversary event... filler in place of real content.
Just like when Mom or Dad gives a kid a gameboy to avoid any real attention to the kid, STO is using the 15-day grind to delay having to give attention to the lack of new content. Grind as busy work means more time for Devs.
I just think the same time would have been better spent doing the same (or similar) style as last year's anniversary event, and then the mission could have been rolled into the storyline when the fleet version is released.
Rep Grind is not content just like cotton candy is not nutrition.
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.
I wanted to stop by and let you know we've been reading (and will continue to) this thread since it's inception and are considering your feedback -- it's not being fallen deaf ears and we appreciate the passion everyone has around the event and the new ships. Please just remember to keep your feedback constructive, as nonconstructive feedback is harder to consider.
I may have some additional information than this, but here is some more information about the event that I can share now:
As mentioned, you'll get 400 Qmendations on your first play through of the new FE.
The "daily" to get 40 more has taken 2-5 minutes on average during testing, and you either complete one mini-game or another for the daily.
The event runs for 28 days (we say 25+ as we also have maintenances, etc.)
With only 600 more Qmendations needed, you'll need to complete 15 dailies in those 28 days (around once every other day, or so).
We've got this information and much more planned in upcoming Dev Blogs, so stay tuned and thanks again for your passion and feedback.
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
I've been away for quite sometime, taking a break as the grind just got too much for me. I came back as I heard of the anniversary was again being celebrated and as in the past we were being offered new ships.
The tonight I was replying to the give away thread, thanks for that by the way, and saw a comment about these ships and did some searching and found this thread and these posts.
Being somewhat of a loyal fan, disgruntled at time due to being a KDF player, I must say I am very disappointed by this change. Isn't there enough grind in this game, excessive grind with the base system and rep system. I used to like rolling a lot of characters for the fun of it but when the rep system came out I found it was no longer fee sable for me and had to delete so many characters. I have further reduced the amount of characters I play to only two for the very same reason.
It's summer where I live and as such the Australian summer in the bush can sometimes reach 50 degrees C, which means computer stays off. Plus like other people I do have a life outside STO and can't long on everyday. Even if this 2-5 min mission, it requires you to log on once every 24 hours right? If you miss out that's it right? I'm not going even touch the lobi option, a waste of money there.
I seriously think this new method no matter what perks the new ships have over older ones isn't worth it. Please change it to either a reasonable amount of days like 5 or 7, or just go back to how it used to be. Failing that extend it for a coupe of months rather than just 25-28 days. This is one of the things that really bugs me about this game, all these limited time rewards, have to play the game at certain times, often daily to get these things. Not a very good reason to play when some of us simply can;t get on at those times.
Lasty weren't these ships said to be free? I don't see grinding was free, as you have to work at it. Playing a mission to get them sure, it's fun to do it a couple of times over a couple of characters, would be even better if the missions were faction unique, but grind it's work and thus not a free ship. I'm not really impressed by that to be honest.
I am having second thoughts of coming back and participating in the anniversary ship mission, um sorry anniversary ship grind.
Support the Game by Supporting the KDF, equality and uniqueness for all factions!
so this is 9 consoles ship not 10 console ships like before......:mad:
Last time with ambassador class ship we also got 9 console ship but few weeks later they gave us option to buy fleet version with 10 consoles. Could be they will do the same now. Although, when we got obelisk, we got option to buy 10 console from lobi store or exchange if someone else bought it for us.
If you want to make money then keep it simple for the Anniversary event, then drop the Fleet version with the 4xmodules (no discount), and the ship to the Z-store for those that don't want or have the time for the event (with the discount for the Fleet version).
Grinding for a celebration is just silly, pure and simple.
I mean, if I'm hosting an anniversary party at my home, do I stand outside the front door and say to my guests "Now, I've got a lovely anniversary feast laid on inside...but before you can have any, you all have to run around my garden touching each bush. Once a day. For 15 days. Isn't my party just the coolest?"
No. No, it isn't.
You see, a party game is only a 'game' for as long as the partygoers universally agree it is. That's why it's a party and not work...
Those of us with many toons have only just got over having to run Q's ice race literally HUNDREDS of times only a couple of weeks ago, and while it may have been fun to begin with, it was most definitely a chore by the end (especially if, like me, this is the third year you've done it on a lot of toons).
And CHORE does not equal GAME. Because by definition, GAME = FUN and CHORE is not fun.
However I'm also not in favour of everyone simply logging in and being given the Dyson ships that the STO devs have worked hard to make for us. To go back to my party analogy, that would be a bit like a guest barging in, stuffing his face with anniversary food, then immediately leaving without even a thankyou.
What I would suggest is making the anniversary ships ACCOUNTWIDE UNLOCKS once the Party Patrol grind has been completed by ONE toon on a player's account.
Otherwise, Cryptic is just penalizing its most loyal players - because logically the more toons a player has, the more they like the game.
Rewarding that dedication with grind at a time when the players should be celebrating along with the devs is just insulting.
Your goal is for people to login to the game every day. Our goal is to play the game the way we want to, without stupid repetitions. Let's meet at the middle. You want us to login every day for15 days, fine. Just add qumidations to all STFs ,Defera, fleet, Dyson missions as a daily reward. We are happy, you get participation. Win win.
Grinding for a celebration is just silly, pure and simple.
I mean, if I'm hosting an anniversary party at my home, do I stand outside the front door and say to my guests "Now, I've got a lovely anniversary feast laid on inside...but before you can have any, you all have to run around my garden touching each bush. Once a day. For 15 days. Isn't my party just the coolest?"
No. No, it isn't.
You see, a party game is only a 'game' for as long as the partygoers universally agree it is. That's why it's a party and not work...
Those of us with many toons have only just got over having to run Q's ice race literally HUNDREDS of times only a couple of weeks ago, and while it may have been fun to begin with, it was most definitely a chore by the end (especially if, like me, this is the third year you've done it on a lot of toons).
And CHORE does not equal GAME. Because by definition, GAME = FUN and CHORE is not fun.
However I'm also not in favour of everyone simply logging in and being given the Dyson ships that the STO devs have worked hard to make for us. To go back to my party analogy, that would be a bit like a guest barging in, stuffing his face with anniversary food, then immediately leaving without even a thankyou.
What I would suggest is making the anniversary ships ACCOUNTWIDE UNLOCKS once the Party Patrol grind has been completed by ONE toon on a player's account.
Otherwise, Cryptic is just penalizing its most loyal players - because logically the more toons a player has, the more they like the game.
Rewarding that dedication with grind at a time when the players should be celebrating along with the devs is just insulting.
I can support this suggestion.
Faction Wide Account unlock if the player is willing to do the grind, meaning that I would only have to endure running the event with 3 Characters instead of the 10 that I have.
I suppose it could be made even more player friendly by making it an account wide unlock that awards each faction specific vessel to proper characters on the players account provided that at least one Character on the account has completed the event.
The way that this anniversary event is currently set up it just does not feel like a celebration; it feels more like a milk grind IMO.
Faction Wide Account unlock if the player is willing to do the grind, meaning that I would only have to endure running the event with 3 Characters instead of the 10 that I have.
I suppose it could be made even more player friendly by making it an account wide unlock that awards each faction specific vessel to proper characters on the players account provided that at least one Character on the account has completed the event.
The way that this anniversary event is currently set up it just does not feel like a celebration; it feels more like a milk grind IMO.
Thats what I suggested a few pages ago.
But then again. D'Angelo is known to be kind of allergic to the word "account wide".... If that didn't happen with DStahl as CO it will even less happen with D'Angelo....
Comments
It's not like those compulsive spenders are being forced to spend their money. They're doing it out of their own accord.
1. With Fridays Dev blog it does not look fleet quality from the screen shots. Only has 9 console slots. All other grind ships have 10 consoles this should be the same. I understand if it is a give away with then we can make it a standard tier five ship.
2. Most players have learned gimmick consoles and abilities should be scrapped over more productive equipment.
3. I fear the level of increase of new ship potential. The game is continuing to make ships obsolete that I have purchased in the past. I own almost every fed science ship and 75% of then are not worth using. I do understand. This game is f2p, and ships bring cash in.
4. The amount of ships inventory cap needs to be raised. I don't mind purchasing the other spots. If I had every lockbox ship, anniversary ship, lobi store, and special event ship I lose room for my daily drivers like the vesta. Either give us more ship places or allow us to reclaim these special ships once the character owns it.
5. I also don't mind grinding some items the fleet holdings and reputation. But taking my time away from them for another grind is getting out of hand. I would rather have a special episode with no big give away than a grind. If we are going to grind for them let the currency be the same. I have 160 autographs and pearls each (or what ever they are called) from the last to grinds. Let me uses those to lighten my load.
6. Although I am giving Cryptic some issues to think about, they are going in a better direction than they have in the past. It is better than no content at all. And the concept art of the new ships look awesome. They don't look canon, but I can appreciate the time and effort put into them.
While I may not fly these ships, I will be getting them but not on all eight of my toons.
The Anniversary event, however, was always seen as a special single mission event that celebrated the birth of the game. Unlike the other events, this event was something we got for our faction (UFP-KDF-RR specific ship). For this reason, many players want to have this ship on all of their toons, which was simple with a single mission reward. The side missions were still there, but not forced upon us. The players will still use the multiple days getting the reward, especially those like me that now have over 10 toons (I have 18). But a grindfest will tell me that this will not be an all-in event with all my toons. Even 2-5 min per toon is still too long, and if the post event response is to drop this ship into the Z-store/Fleet Store after the grindfest, then that will also be write-off since I will only use three toons in a grindfest (just like the other events) and then just ignore any further offers.
If you want to make money then keep it simple for the Anniversary event, then drop the Fleet version with the 4xmodules (no discount), and the ship to the Z-store for those that don't want or have the time for the event (with the discount for the Fleet version). The folks like what you make for them; they just are getting tired of jumping through hoops to get a single ship for a single toon. Please don't ruin the excitement of the Anniversary event by turning it into just another grindfest event.
No No No No No No No No!!! Dont make it grindy like the breen ship its NOT FAIR!!!!:mad:
Except you're not getting something for free. You are working for a reward for a character. Sure you may not 'pay' with EC, but you're doing a task, it's keeping you logged in ,padding their numbers and hoping you're in a fleet so your fleetmates can see. Plus you're devoting your time to potentially do this more then once. Even if say they move it to the fleet store (which people put effort and time to unlock, so far from it as well), it will still cost modules, which someone paid 5 bucks. Again, you may buy it with credits.. but real cash was exchanged to generate the item somewhere.
Free will be those cstore account-wide unlock items, for good or worse. Even if it is a marketing aspect. I can log in, run a quick STF or event and get enough markets to raise my reputation. Doesn't mean it was for free. People are seriously buying into this stuff and it's sad.
To Cryptic, this is a pretty new low. This really shines of some Korean grind MMO style lately. But since you feel so intent on copying it, let me remind you of some history. Even the biggest K-MMO had a mass leaving of people who got fed up. From people who knew what they were talking into and grinded everything in a game with terrible drop rates and much more. I'd becareful just cause you're really fast approaching that straw that's breaking the camel's back. Then again, what do you really care. One look at Champions shows just that. How fast you move on to other games and how much you can turn each one into a crazy grind.
I mean do you guys even hear yourselves? "Oh we put some work into this so you have to grind." It's not even like the mechanic is going to stay exclusive to these ships. Hell, you couldn't have even been bothered to come up with a story reasoning. (Insert Faction) engineers have been working -- wait, so why is Q is involved in this? Sorry Sir, I didn't play with Q long enough so I can't get a ship? If you're just going to give everyone a free pack? Why not just I dunno reduce the number needed overall? Or hell, drop the pointless time gates. But no, we're doing your work and padding your numbers, showing everyone what good little grind monkeys we are. Evident enough by sending our captains/admirals out to mines to do pointless labor getting ore. Even if you're so heartfelt on keeping this grind heavy nonsense in, there are so many better ways to handle it, or make it more friendly. Involve it in people's routines, make it a doff mission, or complete any mission to get credit for it. You got a lot of information that needs to get out there as well.
What happens when the event is over? Is it going to the lolfleet store? Or are there going to be c-store versions? This is the best you can do for the celebration? Least the Temporal Ambassador one is still around. You know, yeah, I don't grind that mission. But I have replayed it on every alt that got that high in level. This new stuff? Can't say I will. Did the winter grind. Only the ship from the race, and even that was boring between two characters. Didn't see a point in grinding holiday items. Grind holiday to... kill snowmen easier for what? To.. kill them some more? Some accolades? Unless they have a neat passive... pass. Some recolored clothing from last year...? Pass. (Though this is a personal preference. As the outfit wasn't for me.)
I like the idea of incorporating new technology, new ideas and new ships. This is something that would have been great for that Dyson T5 reward instead of a boff who you can't rename, can't customize. Heck the carrier should have been the same way, but nope. Can't pass up a way to throw grind + per alt unfriendly fleet modules into it. Oh well. We hit max level, we turn into mark farmers, dilithium farmers, fleet farmers, event farmers, might as well add anniversary farming to it as well. It's what we do best.
Can they please release some more details before we all fall into chaos?
Regardless of the outcome my toons want these ships! all 15 of them!
can i suggest s discount for subs and lifers at least?
i didn't do the winter event this year as the last breen ship was of no more use than an excelsior class but i love the dyson zone and i want these ships too so i'll wait and see what i need to do for certain before i worry any.
"Account wide? Make your life easy? Ahahahaha. This must be some sort of joke!"
Hey the ship is 'Free'. It only costs time... Game feels like a job? Hey, you get paid in ships.:rolleyes:
I would still take the $20...
The Free C-Store items? That is a joke. Just a quick bribe to try and calm the masses, and as you can see Cryptic, it isn't working. Like most players, all the ships that I might or do want, are already unlocked. So, for me, the 3 days of "Free" ships (Or whatever they give), will not help/please me as I will undoubtedly have those unlocked anyway. So, I will probably get nothing. If you want to make people happy with something, how about just awarding Zen? Say that you plan to give away 5000 Zen worth of ships. How about just giving each player that Zen instead? Let them use it as they see fit. That way, you are not giving away something that a lot of people already have unlocked.
I really, REALLY, liked BranFlakes comment about "No one was supposed to see that". Yeah, we were not supposed to know about the grind and change of the Anniversary Event until either a day before or the day of the start, and then it would be too late to do anything about. REALLY??? So, is that the shape of things to come for STO? Is that why we have a new Executive Producer? Someone to change the whole game to a point that no one will want to play, even if it is F2P? Because that is the way things are going. Oh, and you can tell them that the "Secret Projects" and the Console version of the games is a big joke. No one has commented on THAT yet. How you are going to be changing the entire dynamics of STO to make it work on a Console. Anyway, that is for a different forum, sorry, got off subject.
And, before people start yelling that I am just wanting something for free and don't want to work for it, let me say this to you..... I am a Lifetime Subscriber. I have, in the last year alone, spent over $2,500 USD on this game. So, yeah, I feel that I am entitled to my opinion and yes, I think the ships should be free to EVERYONE. Like they were in the past. If you have to work for it, it is not Free. Period.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StopHavingFunGuys
Helpful Tools: Dictionary.com - Logical fallacies - Random generator - Word generator - Color tool - Extra Credits - List of common English language errors - New T6 Big booty tutorial
'thank you for being a loyal customer to our product, as a reward here's a free gift just claim it at the desk........
Now
'thank you for being a loyal customer to our product, as a reward heres a fee gift just claim it at the desk, then come back 15 times once a day do the same thing whether you like it or not while you'd rather be doing something else with you limited time.......
Great.....
And one little point those of us with the graphics bug which appears with map transitions are realy happy we have to go from ESD the major cause to academy another cause.
As a lifer it's the first time im beginning to look at other space games, the only real hook with this game anymore is the Star Trek license.
Join The Space Invaders,..... Federation and KDF fleets.
Maybe that's the whole point of new Executive Producer. Maybe his task is to shutdown STO and make as much money as possible why doing so. Maybe they just got enough $$$ from lifers so now they just want to close the house. Smart way of doing it is to make the player think he himself decided to leave... game is doomed :eek::(:mad:
*nods* right there is a lot of the issue people are having with the ship grinds. The more time we have to spend doing x to get y, the less time we have to go off and play with previous ships and other stuff. And like others have said, this is coming two weeks after the last grind ended. Plus there's the grind to get fleet marks and dilithium and romulan marks, omega marks etc. Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the hard work that goes into this stuff, but.......this is why I don't want to ever sleep, there's so much to do in game and in real life, sleep just seems like a waste of time.
And I have to ask, as I don't know if anyone else has, but......what is the point to us grinding for 15 days? The only things I can think of is a ploy to get us to buy keys to get lobi, and to be able to say "hey, look at how many people are playing" even if it's just to get the ship. At least with stuff like the Crystalline Entity event, there's real benefit, like all that dilithium that can become zen, or go to our fleet projects, and all those tasty fleet marks. I will probably get this on my two main characters, and maybe a couple others if I like it once I see stats, but like some have said, I'm not going to fly it. I'm not giving up my beloved fleet Defiant or fleet Valdore. The only way I'd give up my Valdore is if there were a D'Deridex with 4 tactical consoles and a turn rate that didn't make me want to hurt someone. So.........please, rethink the desire to grind, make it more beneficial to us.
Let us upgrade the Seleya Ceremonial Lirpa and Kri'stak Blade
Well said sir, it is most logical to park if you want the ships.
Also,
Why can't that be done, at least for the anniversary ships?
Let us upgrade the Seleya Ceremonial Lirpa and Kri'stak Blade
Yeah and they need to realize that we also play OTHER games too, and do other things in general with our life, like sleeping and eating, and not just playing Star Trek everyday for hours.
Unless it's Neverwinter or Champions, they really don't want us playing other games
Let us upgrade the Seleya Ceremonial Lirpa and Kri'stak Blade
hopefully that was a joke heh. Everyone I know who plays star trek plays alot of other games on steam or consoles or even tablets. I play other games while playing star trek just to deny them of boring me between cooldowns on specific stfs.
Let's say it was a joke based in a kind of common sense, because that's how it was meant.
Let us upgrade the Seleya Ceremonial Lirpa and Kri'stak Blade
Not going to grind for a ship that is behind the ships I have already ground for.
Perhaps I earned some time off... Lame...
Fleet Admiral Space Orphidian Possiblities Wizard
we all know that when someone new comes to be executive producer he is making radical changes in the game.
He wants to show to the Perfect World that when he become head of Cryptic that he did bring something to the game the new players, better online playing of STO, more players online etc...just for some stupid statistic to show that he matters.
In this point he wants to achieve that goals on our backs forcing us to grind like this " Free gift anniversary grind " that is really selfish from D'Angelo and clearly showing us that he has some ego issues.
So D'Angelo did you ever hear about false advertizing that players can sue company for that?
We as community can easily do that and guess what? We would won. Even we as community can ask the Perfect World for your resignation.
I don't care if it late to change your point of view of this anniversary, if you and your team will not sleep for 7 days and 7 nights .... CHANGE IT!!!!!
Really that is 50 lines of code, and you and your team have enough time to change it and test it. So stop playing stupid!!! And trying to bribe us with this puny
"Giveaway Announcement!" from C-store.
Just like when Mom or Dad gives a kid a gameboy to avoid any real attention to the kid, STO is using the 15-day grind to delay having to give attention to the lack of new content. Grind as busy work means more time for Devs.
I just think the same time would have been better spent doing the same (or similar) style as last year's anniversary event, and then the mission could have been rolled into the storyline when the fleet version is released.
Rep Grind is not content just like cotton candy is not nutrition.
I've been away for quite sometime, taking a break as the grind just got too much for me. I came back as I heard of the anniversary was again being celebrated and as in the past we were being offered new ships.
The tonight I was replying to the give away thread, thanks for that by the way, and saw a comment about these ships and did some searching and found this thread and these posts.
Being somewhat of a loyal fan, disgruntled at time due to being a KDF player, I must say I am very disappointed by this change. Isn't there enough grind in this game, excessive grind with the base system and rep system. I used to like rolling a lot of characters for the fun of it but when the rep system came out I found it was no longer fee sable for me and had to delete so many characters. I have further reduced the amount of characters I play to only two for the very same reason.
It's summer where I live and as such the Australian summer in the bush can sometimes reach 50 degrees C, which means computer stays off. Plus like other people I do have a life outside STO and can't long on everyday. Even if this 2-5 min mission, it requires you to log on once every 24 hours right? If you miss out that's it right? I'm not going even touch the lobi option, a waste of money there.
I seriously think this new method no matter what perks the new ships have over older ones isn't worth it. Please change it to either a reasonable amount of days like 5 or 7, or just go back to how it used to be. Failing that extend it for a coupe of months rather than just 25-28 days. This is one of the things that really bugs me about this game, all these limited time rewards, have to play the game at certain times, often daily to get these things. Not a very good reason to play when some of us simply can;t get on at those times.
Lasty weren't these ships said to be free? I don't see grinding was free, as you have to work at it. Playing a mission to get them sure, it's fun to do it a couple of times over a couple of characters, would be even better if the missions were faction unique, but grind it's work and thus not a free ship. I'm not really impressed by that to be honest.
I am having second thoughts of coming back and participating in the anniversary ship mission, um sorry anniversary ship grind.
I was thinking the same thing.
I mean, if I'm hosting an anniversary party at my home, do I stand outside the front door and say to my guests "Now, I've got a lovely anniversary feast laid on inside...but before you can have any, you all have to run around my garden touching each bush. Once a day. For 15 days. Isn't my party just the coolest?"
No. No, it isn't.
You see, a party game is only a 'game' for as long as the partygoers universally agree it is. That's why it's a party and not work...
Those of us with many toons have only just got over having to run Q's ice race literally HUNDREDS of times only a couple of weeks ago, and while it may have been fun to begin with, it was most definitely a chore by the end (especially if, like me, this is the third year you've done it on a lot of toons).
And CHORE does not equal GAME. Because by definition, GAME = FUN and CHORE is not fun.
However I'm also not in favour of everyone simply logging in and being given the Dyson ships that the STO devs have worked hard to make for us. To go back to my party analogy, that would be a bit like a guest barging in, stuffing his face with anniversary food, then immediately leaving without even a thankyou.
What I would suggest is making the anniversary ships ACCOUNTWIDE UNLOCKS once the Party Patrol grind has been completed by ONE toon on a player's account.
Otherwise, Cryptic is just penalizing its most loyal players - because logically the more toons a player has, the more they like the game.
Rewarding that dedication with grind at a time when the players should be celebrating along with the devs is just insulting.
I can support this suggestion.
Faction Wide Account unlock if the player is willing to do the grind, meaning that I would only have to endure running the event with 3 Characters instead of the 10 that I have.
I suppose it could be made even more player friendly by making it an account wide unlock that awards each faction specific vessel to proper characters on the players account provided that at least one Character on the account has completed the event.
The way that this anniversary event is currently set up it just does not feel like a celebration; it feels more like a milk grind IMO.
Thats what I suggested a few pages ago.
But then again. D'Angelo is known to be kind of allergic to the word "account wide".... If that didn't happen with DStahl as CO it will even less happen with D'Angelo....