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Are you playing less/More with Season 8.5?

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  • rinksterrinkster Member Posts: 3,549 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    gonjaa wrote: »
    I'm playing a lot more.

    Love the Dyson zone as an addition to the normal stuff there is to do.

    I think not doing stf's because you don't get a bonus atm is the dumbest thing I've ever heard and reeks of untruthful QQ.

    I'm glad you're enjoying the recent changes.

    However, untruthful?

    Are you calling people who don;t have the same unalloyed love of those changes liars?

    I do find it odd that, certainly in recent threads, those who dont like the changes are largely respectful of those who do.

    However, a proportion of the changes defenders seem to think that they have the right to be rude and disrespectful

    Gonjaa, it may not be how you experience things in STO, but if someone has a different experience perhaps you could hold off on calling them liars.
  • razar2380razar2380 Member Posts: 1,187 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    Though I am not a fan of having the hourly events taken away, I can see how some might prefer that they have the weekend events, and the loss of the hourly events doesn't affect them.

    Through this, and other threads, there have been some that said that the hourly events didn't fit with their schedules, and because of this, they didn't get the benefit from it. So, I can see how the change will benefit them. Makes sense.

    However, for the ones that were able to use the hourly events, and optimize on them, this has been a blow to our weekly grind, and has slowed it a lot. Then, on top of that, they have the weekend events spaced so far out that we go 9 days at a time with NO events to do. (This is not including the anniversary event that is made into a daily grind).

    That is why I believe that if they want to go this route, they need to give those of us they took a great benefit from something to tide us over. For example, they could make the events every weekend, in stead of every other weekend. This will give us only 2 days out of the week that there is nothing going on. Or, they could make these weekly events, that run every week. When one ends, the next one begins.

    Like I said, I know that there are some that this change does not affect, because they never benefited from the hourly events. They can do their regular grind, and see no difference. I am glad for them that this change has not hurt their experience.

    There was one comment that Steven made during a podcast made on Thursday (The release date of 8.5). He mentioned that many of the players were able to progress through the Dyson rep system faster than expected, and that is not good for longevity of a game. However, that fast progression was NOT because we had the hourly events.

    The reason that many players were able to progress through the Dyson rep system was because there was nothing else for them. Most of the players had already had their other rep systems to Tier 5 already. This meant that by the time the Dyson Rep came along, there was nothing else to do but that grind. So, yeah, it progressed faster.

    Think about it like this, each of the individual grinds can go from Tier 0 to Tier 5 in less than a month, without the sponsorship being used. You run 1-2 hours worth of missions every other day, and collect the marks. Then, you should be able to run the projects for the rep systems for 2-4 says without needing to grind for a while. Doing them every other day just kept you supplied with a lot of extra marks so that after you reach Tier 5, you can have the marks needed to get the good gear, and consoles.

    With doing those missions during the hourly marks event, it let you get a lot more marks in that 1-2 hour period. Thereby collecting more marks. And the Dyson rep system is the same.

    Therefore, by removing the rep system, it didn't change how fast a rep system can be progressed. They only made it harder on those that like to grind for less.

    Those of us that were able to work around the hourly events were working smart, not hard. (This is not a insult to those that could not use the hourly events). What I mean by this comment is this: If you couldn't use the hourly events, you had no choice. But, those of us that could had a choice, we could work smart, in that we could do our grind during the hourly events, and get more rewards for our effort, or we could choose to not use the hourly events, and grind things out at a slower pace to get the same amount of marks.

    The end result was still the same. We could still reach Tier on any rep system in less than a month even if we didn't use the hourly events. We would just have a lot less marks to spend on our gear and things at the end of it.

    So, removing the marks event was a move that for some of us has cut our weekly game play by a large amount. I will wait till the weekend events, and then grind out what I need to. During the rest of the time, it is just the mini Q grind on each of my characters, and DOFFing. However, that is it for me. I will watch youtube movies, Netflix, or read a book during the weeks now.

    There are always things I can do for fun. But, with them trying to make us grind the entire time we play is not my kind of thing.

    Tim.
    Leader of Elite Guardian Academy.Would you like to learn how to run a fleet? Would you like to know how to do ship builds (true budget as well as high end)?The join the Academy today!
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,236 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    No. It's called maximizing gameplay with what resources we have. Its also called efficiency.

    Why do something for two weeks when it could be done in a hour?
    Lol wut?

    Two weeks???? reality check: bonus marks was only a 20% boost. It was the difference between playing 5 STFs and 6. There was no way at all to get two weeks worth of grinding done in an hour that way. So yeah, it is very untruthful to say that the lack of bonus marks makes STFs pointless. It might be true that you choose not to play them now, but that's on you.
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    My character Tsin'xing
    Costume_marhawkman_Tsin%27xing_CC_Comic_Page_Blue_488916968.jpg
  • trygvar13trygvar13 Member Posts: 697 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    Definitely playing less. The grind is really getting bad. I never completed the Nukara rep, my Klingon got bored of the Romulan rep and now Dyson rep? It's really more a job than a game now. And one that is slowly but surely becoming way too repetitive and boring...

    I love my Klingon Dyson destroyer but I fear it will not be enough to keep be interested. Also, in the new FE there was a point where they were mentioning a Voth scientist had joined my crew and I had no idea what they were talking about. I then learned from a guildy that it was something that had to do with T5 Dyson rep... It didn't make sense to me and I'm sure it didn't make sense for a lot of people. I have not even completed T1. I don't know when (and if) I will ever complete T5.

    I also skipped the Winter and Anniversay events grind. I used my lobi to get my anniversay ship. I didn't like the ceramic look at first but it is growing on me. But I would still prefer a more Klingon feel to it.

    On a side note, I started playing Neverwinter last week. Good job Cryptic! I love the game. When the grind gets to bad I just log into Neverwinter.
    Dahar Master Qor'aS
  • thecosmic1thecosmic1 Member Posts: 9,365 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    I have been playing less for quite a while - it has nothing to do with 8.5, but rather over the last 6ish months. In the past I would grind-out my 20-25,000 Dilithium and then go and do something else for an hour or two each day. Then I dropped to just doing my Dilithium grind. Now I'm just doing my Dilithium grind and QMendation grind and that is it.

    The 6-10 minutes it takes me to do QMendations is not upsetting to me in the least. The lack of new mission content is what is keeping me out of the game.
    STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
  • razar2380razar2380 Member Posts: 1,187 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    Lol wut?

    Two weeks???? reality check: bonus marks was only a 20% boost. It was the difference between playing 5 STFs and 6. There was no way at all to get two weeks worth of grinding done in an hour that way. So yeah, it is very untruthful to say that the lack of bonus marks makes STFs pointless. It might be true that you choose not to play them now, but that's on you.


    Granted, their comment about something that could be done in an hour, instead of two weeks was an exaggeration. However, there are some of us that the 20% was a huge help. Removing it has hurt how quickly we can get the marks.

    I am disabled, and cannot move around. I need to remain on my back all the time. So, I got to spend a lot of time in the game. I would do the hourly events, not just the marks grind, and I didn't do all of them. However, that was the only reason I was in the game during the weeks. There was something to do.

    Between the events that I liked, I would play around, and sometimes even goof off. But, I was just wasting time till the next event came around.

    Now, they have removed the hourly events, and put them on weekends. So, I am waiting till then to get on and play.

    I went from spending hours on end in the game, to just getting on in the weekends (which I was getting on then anyway), and doing my rep grind, then leave. There is nothing to keep my interest for the 9+ days between grinds. And I added the + in there, because if they do a weekend event I don't need to grind through to do, then I will most likely not get on then.

    [Also, I have noticed something with the weekend events. They start on Thursdays. Since they do their patches on Thursday, if there is an unforeseen problem with the patch, will they consider extending whatever weekend event for that weekend, so that those that were not able to play it would have another chance, or do they just suffer through. That was just a thought I had.]

    I can understand that for you, the change might be an improvement. However, just because it hurts our gameplay, it doesn't mean that it makes it "untruthful" when we say it does hurt our gameplay.

    Tim.
    Leader of Elite Guardian Academy.Would you like to learn how to run a fleet? Would you like to know how to do ship builds (true budget as well as high end)?The join the Academy today!
  • oneandonlyrecceoneandonlyrecce Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    Here's the trend over the last 6 months.

    http://steamgraph.net/index.php?action=graph&jstime=1&appid=9900&from=1359936000000&to=1391472000000

    As this is Steam you get the number of co-current players, rather than total players in a day. So getting people to play for longer in a sitting will increase the number co-current players. Also this is people using Steam and there may be shift to Steam prior to Arc coming out.
  • vivenneanthonyvivenneanthony Member Posts: 1,278 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    Lol wut?

    Two weeks???? reality check: bonus marks was only a 20% boost. It was the difference between playing 5 STFs and 6. There was no way at all to get two weeks worth of grinding done in an hour that way. So yeah, it is very untruthful to say that the lack of bonus marks makes STFs pointless. It might be true that you choose not to play them now, but that's on you.

    Borg Set Example.

    96k dilithium for three pieces plus assimiliated console and cutting beam at 30k dilithium, roughly 240k XP, and 5000 omega mark.

    Doing two Borg STf's I can do 230 marks in 10 minutes doing that on the hourly event. So i do it 4 times a day, easy, getting 1000+ marks a day.

    Now getting dilithium is trickier but running Crystalline Catastrophe , Borg stf's, and nimbus. You can do this for 3 characters during the bonus hour, its easy to get 270 nukara marks. Get another 30 nukara marks.Do this with 3 characters to make 24k dilithum per day.

    Now run the mirror universe several times with elite built players. 2 or 3 hour runs will net you 300k+ plus XP

    Any good build and team can complete any STF in minutes except the hive.

    What you think is impossible is possible. You'll have enougth left over to put all fleet weapons on a ship.

    In less then a week. I don't know how easy it would be now.
  • rinksterrinkster Member Posts: 3,549 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    there may be shift to Steam prior to Arc coming out.

    Extremely likely, in my view.
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,236 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    Borg Set Example.

    96k dilithium for three pieces plus assimiliated console and cutting beam at 30k dilithium, roughly 240k XP, and 5000 omega mark.

    Doing two Borg STf's I can do 230 marks in 10 minutes doing that on the hourly event. So i do it 4 times a day, easy, getting 1000+ marks a day.

    Now getting dilithium is trickier but running Crystalline Catastrophe , Borg stf's, and nimbus. You can do this for 3 characters during the bonus hour, its easy to get 270 nukara marks. Get another 30 nukara marks.Do this with 3 characters to make 24k dilithum per day.

    Now run the mirror universe several times with elite built players. 2 or 3 hour runs will net you 300k+ plus XP

    Any good build and team can complete any STF in minutes except the hive.

    What you think is impossible is possible. You'll have enougth left over to put all fleet weapons on a ship.

    In less then a week. I don't know how easy it would be now.
    My point was that even without the events that can be done in a week. The event only makes it a little faster. It doesn't even make it 20% faster when you consider that it only boosts your acquisition rate of one resource at a time..
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    My character Tsin'xing
    Costume_marhawkman_Tsin%27xing_CC_Comic_Page_Blue_488916968.jpg
  • vivenneanthonyvivenneanthony Member Posts: 1,278 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    My point was that even without the events that can be done in a week. The event only makes it a little faster. It doesn't even make it 20% faster when you consider that it only boosts your acquisition rate of one resource at a time..

    If you are filling two or more resources at a time. One resource get all marks, other all dilihium, and other all XP. I do it that way.

    This is one of my builds. Its not accurate because I changed Boff to boost abilities. I also have weapons for faster DPS and more damage in PVP. So, I can play a 5 person STF with only 1 more person. Making it a 2 person a STF. The bonus console or weapons from it. I can sell high for EC. Doing this in the hourly event.

    http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=romulanfedhafehfad_4634

    When I get this Romulan Dyson ship. Ill take my Haakona put it in spacedock. Equip it with the highest fleet weapons in days. Ill be set.

    Even tho 20% seem low. When running 1 or 2 person STF's in a hourly. It adds up to a lot.
  • goldpressedgoldpressed Member Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    I want the Dyson ship but otherwise I've been playing less. Kind of bored/depressed when I go into the game...not the way I should feel lol.
  • fraghul2000fraghul2000 Member Posts: 1,590 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    I want the Dyson ship but otherwise I've been playing less. Kind of bored/depressed when I go into the game...not the way I should feel lol.

    Same here.

    I'm going online to refresh the big Dyson projects on the last chars that still need to reach T5 each day (I already have the commendations), but that's pretty much it.
  • gogereavergogereaver Member Posts: 166 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    gotta say less. session 8 Dyson got old fast. 8.5 and the grind for the new ship only has me popping on for 10 minutes or so. im sure once we got the ship we would grind for gear etc.
  • redshirtfanredshirtfan Member Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    More. Only because after the winter event ended I really didn't play and now I'm getting this ship. Now you have to wait for an event to play the game otherwise there is nothing to do. Apparently that is what D'Angelo wants because is supposed to make it more fun for us and more money for them. How? who knows.
  • sonoframonsonoframon Member Posts: 166 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    Less...

    That depressing feeling you get when a beloved IP gets slaughtered by a Chinese company and their American cronies for the sake of making an extra dollar. I just login every few days and doff away. No point in grinding for a subpar ship or trying to find mini q's or pick the right present. That and event weekends...

    So yeah, MUCH less.
    WELL IF THE JAPORI INCIDENT HAS TAUGHT ME ANYTHING, IT'S THAT MY EXISTENCE IS AN EXPLOIT. THANKS CRYPTIC.

    IF YOU ARE READING MY SIG - THEN YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG
  • mikeflmikefl Member Posts: 861 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    sonoframon wrote: »
    Less...

    That depressing feeling you get when a beloved IP gets slaughtered by a Chinese company and their American cronies for the sake of making an extra dollar. I just login every few days and doff away. No point in grinding for a subpar ship or trying to find mini q's or pick the right present. That and event weekends...

    So yeah, MUCH less.

    While I understand how you feel, I also believe us the players are partly to blame for the direction the game has gone. We continue to play the game even when we don't like what we are doing. We are running the corporate rat race in game for the next best shiny even if we probably wont use it.

    Unfortunately it's not Star Trek in the real world and greed abounds and so to change something we have to show them our discontent with the current direction. If the metrics (us playing a certain mission, etc) show something is making them more money and more people are playing more hours every month then it is likely to continue.
    Gold Sub since March 2010
    Lifetime Sub since June 2010
  • rinksterrinkster Member Posts: 3,549 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    mikefl wrote: »
    While I understand how you feel, I also believe us the players are partly to blame for the direction the game has gone. We continue to play the game even when we don't like what we are doing. We are running the corporate rat race in game for the next best shiny even if we probably wont use it.


    Well, i'm running that particular rat race less and spending a lot less (zero)

    I'm assuming that if I'm not utterly alone in that change to my behaviour Cryptic may notice some rustling in the metric jimmies in a while.

    Too late to do any good, of course, but eventually.
  • mikeflmikefl Member Posts: 861 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    rinkster wrote: »
    Well, i'm running that particular rat race less and spending a lot less (zero)

    I'm assuming that if I'm not utterly alone in that change to my behaviour Cryptic may notice some rustling in the metric jimmies in a while.

    Too late to do any good, of course, but eventually.

    Yeah me too.. I'm curious to see what it will be like after everyone has their ships in another 10 days and doesn't have an event to sign in for during the week.
    Gold Sub since March 2010
    Lifetime Sub since June 2010
  • htingramhtingram Member Posts: 13 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    The loss of hourly events has significantly cut my interest in playing during the week days. I basically will log in ATM to get my Romulan 4 year anniversary ship with Qs party time, maybe a reputation and doff cycle and thats the lot. I used to look at the event calendar and see if bonus marks was coming up soon and if so would hang around till the end of that, but without that being there, there is little to no reason to play except on bonus weekends for either dilithium or Marks. And that now appears to only be 1 weekend a month at best. I think your going to see a massive exodus of players through the weekdays.

    What about people that work on weekends that play STO, their pretty much screwed now. I'm sorry but the loss of a daily opportunity to gain bonus marks or dilithium is a big slap in the face of a paying customer as far as I am concerned. It has already effected my renewal plans as have dropped for the first time in years my subscription and will just endure the limitations of free to play because i see no added benift anymore to being a subscriber and I am unwilling to reward a company that made such a bad choice for punishing those that do not play the way THEY want them to. As in only on the weekends evidently... Its already resulted in most veteran players hardly doing STFs at all during the weekdays. just try to get a Vortex Elite or Onslought going during the day. its an endless Queue. even longer for mantrap or into the hive. I was in for 4 hours queueing for a mantrap just yesterday and never hit one. NOT ONE! Under the old system during bonus marks we could AT LEAST get a run or two (on different character) in during bonus marks. Now forget about it.
  • aelfwin1aelfwin1 Member Posts: 2,896 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    My point was that even without the events that can be done in a week. The event only makes it a little faster. It doesn't even make it 20% faster when you consider that it only boosts your acquisition rate of one resource at a time..

    What I find amusing in your "it's only 20%" arguments (that you repeat non-stop) is that you truly seem to only see one single 20% , and to you that is a really small fry (apparently) .

    To me the 20% Bonus was not one single static number , but a whole lot of collection of 20%'s .
    How many ?
    Well let's see ... , if I was really in the mood to grind , that would be most Fleet Mark missions x 4 , with 4 different characters , in one hour . (I could pull 5 , but why brag)

    So to me , if I multiply that with say ... one 3 hour Bonus Mark Event off the Calendar , the math looks like 20% x 4 x 3 = 240% of additional Fleet Marks .

    And that is from ONE Bonus Mark Event .
    On any given day , there were either 2 or 3 of those .
    That's either 480% or 720% . Surely still small fries ... to you maybe .

    So if you "markhawkman" want to delude yourself (and us) that you're going to make the same amount of Fleet Marks in a 5 day Weekend that comes every 1-2 months (at best) like you could do with the Bonus Mark Event off the Calendar -- you go ahead .

    Since you obviously spend a great time on the forums (instead of the game) , I'll just rely on my math , and not your "but it's just 20% guys ..." whining .
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