I'm in the same boat; I'm not upset by it. Am I a little disappointed that the design decision is to waste even more of my time with fairly shady practices? Yeah, sure.
However, I also understand what they're trying to accomplish, a higher sustained player count. I am a bit concerned about the longterm impact of.. trying to milk the cow more often, but for the time being this is tolerable and will probably feed peoples' ego down the road when they have a ship that is no longer available.
"I doubt any Dev will bother to read this"
"are you truly so out of touch with your playerbase"
"not your usual bait and switch, smoke and mirrors replies that don't actually address the matter at hand"
"Your flippancy"
"ANSWER us"
"We are angry and we pay your salaries"
"we DO deserve answers"
Regardless of how you meant them in your mind, all those quotes sound like hate, rage and hostility.
This is not a flame thread, nor an attempt to incite ire, but a genuine inquiry. Much as I doubt any Dev will bother to read this, let alone dare to respond to it, I feel it's worth at least voicing the question.
Cryptic, are you truly so out of touch with your playerbase that you don't see just how angry your playerbase is over the Anniversary ship debacle? And if you are, what is your response to that anger? There are many here who just want an honest response from you, not your usual bait and switch, smoke and mirrors replies that don't actually address the matter at hand. Your flippancy, while sometimes amusing, often serves to do little more than poke the angry bear, and with so many MMOs jumping on the F2P bandwagon, an angry bear we are indeed, liable to take our money elsewhere. Just communicate with us, please. Don't evade and deflect, ANSWER us. We are angry and we pay your salaries. We don't deserve everything for free, but many of us have sunk a lot of money into this game, and we DO deserve answers.
If this is not a flame thread, not attempting to incite ire, then you have a very poor perception on the definitions
As a part of the playerbase too I would just like to say I'm not angry or need any answers.
Hear, hear. It's amazing how little perspective some of the more vitriolic complainers maintain.
They've given us their answers, it seems that the only people who feel entitled to MOAR ANSWERZZZ are just looking for Cryptic to tell them what they want to hear. Perhaps some kind of sob story about a noble North American developer, who would gladly work for free, held hostage by dastardly beard-twirling Orientals and their profit-seeking ways. :rolleyes:
Wow, OP. For a post that was not a flame post, your post sure sounded and felt like a flame post. The language and tone were so flammable I used your post to start my fireplace.
In the future please do not presume to speak for me. I can make up my own mind about how I think and feel about this game. My opinions are very different from yours. Mostly because my sense of entitlement is not as over developed.
Good luck with all that in the future.
A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though. JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
I determined what makes this whole debacle so insidious, is how much they are trying to grab you by the balls with this grind. Cryptic has tied up two sets into pieces that are only obtainable on the grind-walled ship. The Solanae Set, and the coming 3-pack set. If you don't do it, you are punished by being unable to obtain not just one complete set, but two; the latter even being a C-Store based set.
It's as plainly visible and disgusting as a grotesque pimple right between your eyebrows. Anyone who wants either the full Solanae set or the full bonus for the 3-pack, are being strong-armed into this grind. Which is blatant intent by design, they know people are tired of grinding from the Winter Wonderland. They want to see Master Key sales spike, from the people who want the ship but can't be arsed to grind. Even more likely, they want their new tokens fly off the shelves like hotcakes, so they can point and say 'see, they love this!' and use it as an excuse for putting in more time-gating that can be bought out. Failing those two, those who just grind, give them their activity metrics they drool over.
Touching on the lobi route, this is a T5 ship, with a T5.5 coming to the C-Store. If you try to go with pure lobi, even with the 400 freebies Q-chips, you're looking at close to one hundred dollars if you're lucky, to potentially near two hundred invested. For a ship which is declared 'Free!' and will have a superior version 3-pack coming to the store in a month for 50 per faction. Moral sense would dictate is should be obtainable by the most direct route for a comparative cost for a T5 ship. But of course, it's not.
Instead of a collective celebration between players and developers as years prior have been, it's been twisted into an event that is racketeering the players. Grind the ship, so you don't miss out on set bonuses, which you wouldn't miss out on anyways if they didn't force you to grind to get the pieces that are exclusively obtained with the ship. A problem that wouldn't have existed if they hadn't have changed the system intentionally to create it.
In light of this event, my wallet is likely to remain forever closed to Cryptic. No more Zen for the C-Store nor months of Gold; weather or not I'll even continue to play as a strict Silver is in doubt, thinking of logging in at this time just makes me feel unwell. There are other game producers I no longer patronize for less evils.
Well Cryptic, you definitely provided a completely new Anniversary experience.
Again this unnecessary grind for something that suppose to be a thank you for sticking with us for 4 years is just simple lazy. These grinds could exist on the game as part of the game but not as part of "Hey guys, thank you for 4 years of gaming with us"....
This feels more like a kick in the diliyhium chamber.
The first rule of debate is to not disparage your counterpart. The second you offend or become dismissive of the other person, they cease listening to you and you forfeit any hope of being taken seriously.
There's also consistency to take into account. When multiple people are making the same complaint, ie "why grind for what was a straight gift 2 years running," and someone declares 1 complainant out of several to be spewing "entitlement" while not applying it to all the others, the realization of obvious bias renders any further response an obvious waste of time.
Since, y'know, it's entitlement coming from me but not from anyone else making the same complaint. :rolleyes:
There's also consistency to take into account. When multiple people are making the same complaint, ie "why grind for what was a straight gift 2 years running," and someone declares 1 complainant out of several to be spewing "entitlement" while not applying it to all the others, the realization of obvious bias renders any further response an obvious waste of time.
Since, y'know, it's entitlement coming from me but not from anyone else making the same complaint. :rolleyes:
Actually now that I think about it if they feel we are not entitled to getting a T5 ship without a grind for the anniversary that will soon be placed into the Cstore at Fleet level quality then I don't feel they are entitled to my subscription.
Sure F2P means grindy and it is much more palatable when you are no longer subbed. I can only vote with my wallet and I did in the past by renewing my sub when they did something I really agreed with (even if I cannot currently remember what on earth it was). This is not an 'I Quit' this is a 'I Quit Paying'.
As a player who does not have one single character T-5, I have 6 characters, 3 in each account I have. I have to decide everyday what toon to level to reach my goal, right now I am working on my Romulan to level him to T-3 in Dyson, Romulan, Nukara and the other one, I have to help my fleet with SB missions, when will I have the time to ad another grind? I rather wait until the ship is on sale at the C-Store and then buy it there.
For the anniversary mission, Can you please give us the ships for completing the mission.
An if you insist on us grinding a little, then can you just let us grind for the ship parts (defector, shields and engines) for 250 or 300 Qmmendations a piece.
And if that doesn't agree with then at least HALF The Qmmendations needed for the ships please.
With hopeful regards,
marcthe000001
EDIT: Forgot to say: Remember the promise you make to not make the game such a grind fest? I do.
For the anniversary mission, Can you please give us the ships for completing the mission.
An if you insist on us grinding a little, then can you just let us grind for the ship parts (defector, shields and engines) for 250 or 300 Qmmendations a piece.
And if that doesn't agree with then at least HALF The Qmmendations needed for the ships please.
So they.re now supposed to stop what they're doing, stop the patch, go back in and edit everything to do with the rewards and do it within the time they gave matince lest everyone cries and complains?
You really don't know how much work they put into the game.
Everywhere I look, people are screaming about how bad Cryptic is.
What's my position?
That people should know what they're screaming about!
(paraphrased from "The Newsroom)
They don't have to stop the patch, they can make the changes during the anniversary as a "sorry for trying to make you guys waste your time." gift of sorts.
In Previous Years, you've been able to get Free Level 40 ships with no consoles for a limited time, with a Level 50 ship with Consoles in C-Store or No-Console Fleet version Later.
This time we're getting a new ship with a new Consoles. In otherwords we're getting a Free C-Store ship, not a Free ship when like we were leveling up.
The fact that there was no real follow up response by any Cryptic Dev or our community manager does not surprise me in the least.
The same thing happened with the JHDC and that thread had something like 3000 posts and not one comment from Cryptic to be found in it.
This blatant double dip attempt by Cryptic is just the first in what I now suspect will be many more that will follow.
I cannot seem to shake the fact that this whole Anniversary Event just seems tainted to me and the lip service that we did get from Cryptic just makes it feel all the more dirty.
There had to have been a better way for this issue to have been handled...... Their just had to have been.
Has I have said repeatedly on this topic:
If this had not been made part of the Anniversary Event I would not have thought anything about it.
Happy Anniversary Guys and has a thank you for 4 years being here for STO we are happy to present to you a new Free Science Destroyer and all you have to do is run our new FE mission and then run a mini game for 15 straight days to earn enough tokens to claim your Free ship.
Has an added bonus there's an option that will allow you to use Lobi to get additional tokens to help you get your free ship even faster.
In an effort to make your new Free Science Destroyer even more special we're proud to announce that in about 5-10 days after our Anniversary Event has ended we'll be offering a much better version of the Science Destroyer to you all in the form of a 3 pack to the tune of $50.00 and these new 3 packs will be per faction so it will only cost you $150.00 if you want all 3!
Oh and did we forget to mention that we've created or are creating a 4 piece set bonus that can only be obtained if you have both the grind/Lobi version of the Science Destroyer and the 3 Pack version of your chosen faction?
The fact that there was no real follow up response by any Cryptic Dev or our community manager does not surprise me in the least.
The same thing happened with the JHDC and that thread had something like 3000 posts and not one comment from Cryptic to be found in it.
This blatant double dip attempt by Cryptic is just the first in what I now suspect will be many more that will follow.
I cannot seem to shake the fact that this whole Anniversary Event just seems tainted to me and the lip service that we did get from Cryptic just makes it feel all the more dirty.
There had to have been a better way for this issue to have been handled...... Their just had to have been.
Has I have said repeatedly on this topic:
If this had not been made part of the Anniversary Event I would not have thought anything about it.
Happy Anniversary Guys and has a thank you for 4 years being here for STO we are happy to present to you a new Free Science Destroyer and all you have to do is run our new FE mission and then run a mini game for 15 straight days to earn enough tokens to claim your Free ship.
Has an added bonus there's an option that will allow you to use Lobi to get additional tokens to help you get your free ship even faster.
In an effort to make your new Free Science Destroyer even more special we're proud to announce that in about 5-10 days after our Anniversary Event has ended we'll be offering a much better version of the Science Destroyer to you all in the form of a 3 pack to the tune of $50.00 and these new 3 packs will be per faction so it will only cost you $150.00 if you want all 3!
Oh and did we forget to mention that we've created or are creating a 4 piece set bonus that can only be obtained if you have both the grind/Lobi version of the Science Destroyer and the 3 Pack version of your chosen faction?
Happy Anniversary Guys
This exactly what I mean, somewhere along the lines you have to use money to get the most of your free ship.
And like I'll keeps saying: WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO MAKE IT LESS GRINDY AS THEY PROMISED?!?!
(I haven't forgotten the "promote upcoming captain with sponsorship" tokens, I just wish they applie it to all grind events when you manage to grind it with one of our captains.)
I am saddened that there will be no aniversary this year. Also I propose that the misnamed Qmendations be call the Qpattys since Q keeps crapping them out every time he shows up.
These are purposely gimped ships and the only way to give them any potential is to spend a lot of money. And it's not a "free" ship if you have to earn it by repeating the same grind for 15 days. It's not free. While I'm disappointed they're not using the same system they did for the 3rd anniversary, I can deal with the fact that they've decided to change it to make some money. Fine. Just be honest about it. This gesture of appreciation is about hooking people onto these ship and getting them to fork over big bucks to get the premium version. You don't appreciate someone by getting them to spend money. I mean, really.
But this shouldn't be as much a problem next year since everyone's expectations will be considerably lower.
Luckily, the Fed version is rather unattractive, so I'll be flying around in my new, beautiful Wells science ship instead.
Comments
However, I also understand what they're trying to accomplish, a higher sustained player count. I am a bit concerned about the longterm impact of.. trying to milk the cow more often, but for the time being this is tolerable and will probably feed peoples' ego down the road when they have a ship that is no longer available.
OHHHh let's come up with a department name lol
Agreed
If this is not a flame thread, not attempting to incite ire, then you have a very poor perception on the definitions
Hear, hear. It's amazing how little perspective some of the more vitriolic complainers maintain.
They've given us their answers, it seems that the only people who feel entitled to MOAR ANSWERZZZ are just looking for Cryptic to tell them what they want to hear. Perhaps some kind of sob story about a noble North American developer, who would gladly work for free, held hostage by dastardly beard-twirling Orientals and their profit-seeking ways. :rolleyes:
In the future please do not presume to speak for me. I can make up my own mind about how I think and feel about this game. My opinions are very different from yours. Mostly because my sense of entitlement is not as over developed.
Good luck with all that in the future.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
It's as plainly visible and disgusting as a grotesque pimple right between your eyebrows. Anyone who wants either the full Solanae set or the full bonus for the 3-pack, are being strong-armed into this grind. Which is blatant intent by design, they know people are tired of grinding from the Winter Wonderland. They want to see Master Key sales spike, from the people who want the ship but can't be arsed to grind. Even more likely, they want their new tokens fly off the shelves like hotcakes, so they can point and say 'see, they love this!' and use it as an excuse for putting in more time-gating that can be bought out. Failing those two, those who just grind, give them their activity metrics they drool over.
Touching on the lobi route, this is a T5 ship, with a T5.5 coming to the C-Store. If you try to go with pure lobi, even with the 400 freebies Q-chips, you're looking at close to one hundred dollars if you're lucky, to potentially near two hundred invested. For a ship which is declared 'Free!' and will have a superior version 3-pack coming to the store in a month for 50 per faction. Moral sense would dictate is should be obtainable by the most direct route for a comparative cost for a T5 ship. But of course, it's not.
Instead of a collective celebration between players and developers as years prior have been, it's been twisted into an event that is racketeering the players. Grind the ship, so you don't miss out on set bonuses, which you wouldn't miss out on anyways if they didn't force you to grind to get the pieces that are exclusively obtained with the ship. A problem that wouldn't have existed if they hadn't have changed the system intentionally to create it.
In light of this event, my wallet is likely to remain forever closed to Cryptic. No more Zen for the C-Store nor months of Gold; weather or not I'll even continue to play as a strict Silver is in doubt, thinking of logging in at this time just makes me feel unwell. There are other game producers I no longer patronize for less evils.
Well Cryptic, you definitely provided a completely new Anniversary experience.
This feels more like a kick in the diliyhium chamber.
There's also consistency to take into account. When multiple people are making the same complaint, ie "why grind for what was a straight gift 2 years running," and someone declares 1 complainant out of several to be spewing "entitlement" while not applying it to all the others, the realization of obvious bias renders any further response an obvious waste of time.
Since, y'know, it's entitlement coming from me but not from anyone else making the same complaint. :rolleyes:
Actually now that I think about it if they feel we are not entitled to getting a T5 ship without a grind for the anniversary that will soon be placed into the Cstore at Fleet level quality then I don't feel they are entitled to my subscription.
Sure F2P means grindy and it is much more palatable when you are no longer subbed. I can only vote with my wallet and I did in the past by renewing my sub when they did something I really agreed with (even if I cannot currently remember what on earth it was). This is not an 'I Quit' this is a 'I Quit Paying'.
And I refuse to chase miniQs all over the map.
An if you insist on us grinding a little, then can you just let us grind for the ship parts (defector, shields and engines) for 250 or 300 Qmmendations a piece.
And if that doesn't agree with then at least HALF The Qmmendations needed for the ships please.
With hopeful regards,
marcthe000001
EDIT: Forgot to say: Remember the promise you make to not make the game such a grind fest? I do.
You're joking, right? Right?
We've kinda already been over this. And over, and over, and over...
You really don't know how much work they put into the game.
What's my position?
That people should know what they're screaming about!
(paraphrased from "The Newsroom)
Like my uncle Bubba says "AIN'T going to happen"
CRYPTIC has already decided to follow the GRINDFOREVER Path and they are not going to go back on it.
This time we're getting a new ship with a new Consoles. In otherwords we're getting a Free C-Store ship, not a Free ship when like we were leveling up.
The same thing happened with the JHDC and that thread had something like 3000 posts and not one comment from Cryptic to be found in it.
This blatant double dip attempt by Cryptic is just the first in what I now suspect will be many more that will follow.
I cannot seem to shake the fact that this whole Anniversary Event just seems tainted to me and the lip service that we did get from Cryptic just makes it feel all the more dirty.
There had to have been a better way for this issue to have been handled...... Their just had to have been.
Has I have said repeatedly on this topic:
If this had not been made part of the Anniversary Event I would not have thought anything about it.
Happy Anniversary Guys and has a thank you for 4 years being here for STO we are happy to present to you a new Free Science Destroyer and all you have to do is run our new FE mission and then run a mini game for 15 straight days to earn enough tokens to claim your Free ship.
Has an added bonus there's an option that will allow you to use Lobi to get additional tokens to help you get your free ship even faster.
In an effort to make your new Free Science Destroyer even more special we're proud to announce that in about 5-10 days after our Anniversary Event has ended we'll be offering a much better version of the Science Destroyer to you all in the form of a 3 pack to the tune of $50.00 and these new 3 packs will be per faction so it will only cost you $150.00 if you want all 3!
Oh and did we forget to mention that we've created or are creating a 4 piece set bonus that can only be obtained if you have both the grind/Lobi version of the Science Destroyer and the 3 Pack version of your chosen faction?
Happy Anniversary Guys
And like I'll keeps saying: WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO MAKE IT LESS GRINDY AS THEY PROMISED?!?!
(I haven't forgotten the "promote upcoming captain with sponsorship" tokens, I just wish they applie it to all grind events when you manage to grind it with one of our captains.)
Drove my Argo to the levy but the levy was dry.
But this shouldn't be as much a problem next year since everyone's expectations will be considerably lower.
Luckily, the Fed version is rather unattractive, so I'll be flying around in my new, beautiful Wells science ship instead.