From what the new XP has talked about, slow down the reps, the leveling, and more monetization of STO, I am going to venture to say that I foresee a rep booster in the zen store, wait, Lobi store for about 100 lobi.
Shhh, nobody tell him about the Reputation Mark Bonus Pools in the newest lockbox...
Personally, I think the 'whole' reputation system needs to be sped up. Cooldown timers, resource requirements, and store item dilithium costs need to be cut down.
While the Fleet holdings (Spire, Base, and Embassy) are for hardcore players, the reputation system should be for casual players.
Fleet Holdings = Long term progression for a long term (obsessive player) experience. Long term goals. Reputation System = Quick progression for a casual (casual player) experience. Instant gratification.
Grinding is not fun.
When I am in a casual and laid back mood, I happen to spend more money on something I like. If I feel like something will take forever, I usually get turned off really quickly. I will most likely find another game to play.
I am almost done with the episode missions. As I look at the requirements and time-gates for the reputation system, the casual and leisure side of me wants to quit. ...and, that is before I buy my first c-store ship.
I have a few c-store ships I wish to buy, but the reputation system is preventing me from buying them.
I play games to relax not to work.
I already have a full time job.
I have the same issue, basically... that's why I essentially quit STO, playing new missions aside, before even bothering to buy anything. After getting all my reps to rank 1 (and 2 to rank 2) I really was pretty much done with rep projects for the next few years. I was going to get a D'Kyr or something, but if there's really nothing to do with a ship besides grind and replay missions, I'll just go spend money on something that I feel will actually deliver a satisfying experience for a long period of time.
In reference to how fast the Dyson rep system was completed, I wonder if they even considered that by the time it came along, most of the players had already completed all of the other rep systems. Then, they only come out with 1 featured episode, and a rep system. Of course it would not take long for them to run through the rep system. There was not much else for them to do.
Also, all of the rep systems can be done in less than a month. If you are not running the hourly one every hour of the day, almost all day long, it will take a little less than a month to do that rep system also. Therefore, the time to do it is about the same for all of them.
It is just that when players were going through all of the other rep systems, they were doing them all together, and they were working on new missions, and a new race also. Season was nothing but a featured episode, and a new grind. If the new grind came out when the Romulan rep did, it would have taken just as long almost as all the other reps did, because everyone's attention would have been split between it, and all the other new things.
The marks needed to run the other rep system projects to level up to T5 can be done in 1-2 hours every other day, and that will give enough marks for about 3-4 days on each of the three older rep systems. (This is without the hourly bonus marks).
The only time more marks were needed than that, is when you are getting gear, consoles, or sets from the rep systems. I started using the J'Hem space, and ground set till I hit Tier 5.
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!
Every rep grind should be like Romulan rep grind. Long and time consuming with no quick or easy or fun way to get to the top. Romulan has epohhs but they are time consuming and completely unfun - how it should be. seperate the real players who deserve the toys than the casuals who cant hack it.
listened to the podcast, glad they agree with me that rep grinds are simply too fast, too easy. if they made some way to extend it they'd make REAL money.
The reputation system is the worst system Cryptic ever invented, all in the name of 'grind'.
I'd rather do missions like in the old days or STF's that take 3 hours and you got an amazing reward in form of a piece of awesome gear. (Yes i know there were problems involved with teaming up with STF's or people Dcing half way tru, im sure this could easily be solved with some mechanic)
Anyway, why this torture with doing the same stuff over 100 of 1000 of times?
*sigh*
I bet most of the new players dont even remember how awesome it was backk in the day. You actually had to FLY to the right planets and sectors to do a teamed mission/stf. Now you just sit bored on ESD spacedock and wait for a Queue to pop. Some decisions people make, make me *ugh*
Personally, I think the 'whole' reputation system needs to be sped up. Cooldown timers, resource requirements, and store item dilithium costs need to be cut down.
Grinding is not fun.
Ya especially when that grind is just to unlock other grinds to unlock an item that you need to grind to buy.
Reputation at the moment isn't content, it's torture. I would suggest that each tier unlocked also unlocks all the items to purchase in your rep store.
^^ this is needs to be said in every cryptic meeting that involves introducing some sort of new grind. I would go as far to say that it very likely that players that invest the most money in the game are casual players who have jobs, family etc that like to steal an hour or two to play STO when they can but just don't have the time or will to see all these rep systems to the end. I will admit I could be wrong
im with the op on this dyson was fun way get marks the other rep grinds need to change to match it i wont even touch the other rep battle zones
one thing does bother me is that u can only get one commendation mark a day
and its the only real one that counts no matter how many marks u have they dont
move the rep bar at all:(
The Dyson rep definitely feels more relaxed than the others. I like being able to hop on and "take care of business" in a few minutes. The Romulan, Omega, and Tholian reps feel like a chore - more because of need for commodities and consumables than the rate at which marks are gained. If anything, just the costs on the projects could be simplified and I would be happy.
Why am I not keen on doing the Dyson missions more?
1.) Rewards. I don't care for for Polaron weapons. Less so when it is only useful against 1 type of enemy (Voth). At least the Romulan plasma weapon's "bonus" is a stronger DOT. The Anti-Tholian Tetryon weapons and Anti-Voth Polaron I will probably never buy. I'd be infinitely more interested to see Federation Phasers/Klingon Disruptors in a faction reputation than I will ever be about Polaron weapons in the Dyson Rep.
* I want my Starfleet Officers to feel like Starfleet, my Klingons to feel like Klingons, and my Romulans to feel like Romulans.
2.) Dinosaurs. The concept was mildly interesting the first few weeks, but I'm over it.
Why I might do the Battlezone more?
1.) Rewards. This is still one of the best ways to get dilithium. I might end up taking advantage of the dilithium weekend here.
2.) Variety. While we're "doing the same thing", there's enough variety that it doesn't feel like it.
im with the op on this dyson was fun way get marks the other rep grinds need to change to match it i wont even touch the other rep battle zones
one thing does bother me is that u can only get one commendation mark a day
and its the only real one that counts no matter how many marks u have they dont
move the rep bar at all:(
You can turn in dyson mark for dyson comendation as well. If I remember it costs like 300-340 marks and makes 5 commendations. so theoretically you can get 6 per day. 1 from the missions/queue/zone and 5 from the rep system (Converted from marks).
Just had a thought, what if there was a rep/story arc system. It can even be a side story arc.
They can have about 10 episodes that will give a number of marks, and even Dilithium. They can take from 10-15 mins to complete, and can even be done solo, or with others. These episodes can be replayed, and you can get the marks and Dil each time. There can also be one or two PVE that will give marks and Dil.
By doing this, they will make the grind more enjoyable.
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!
You can turn in dyson mark for dyson comendation as well. If I remember it costs like 300-340 marks and makes 5 commendations. so theoretically you can get 6 per day. 1 from the missions/queue/zone and 5 from the rep system (Converted from marks).
Which really doesn't do much other than give you a few days of just logging in without having to do the daily mission to start the rep. Since the system only lets you run those 1 at a time. And even when maxed you can only use one at a time to get 840 Dil every 20 hours.
Dyson Rep is a step very much in the right direction, but I can definitely see why they'd say it's too easy. I think it's too easy, too.
I'd do something like this:
Reinstate increasing cost as tiers increase. Daily would require 1 commendation and 10 marks, with the marks input increasing by 10 per tier. Hourly project starts at 5 marks, 10k EC, and 10k Exp. Exp does not change, but marks unpit increases by 2 per tier and EC input by 5k per tier. Mark yield would be rebalanced for older reps to ensure 50 is a reasonable amount of marks to earn (read: increase marks yield on slower missions such as New Romulus ground stuff).
Remove "Weekend Warrior" 5-commendation project entirely. Ensure daily commendation an be earned in less than ten minutes of gameplay. Theoretically, Weekend Warriors would use that time to earn marks to feed the daily project rather than just buy commendations.
Include Mk XI versions of ground/space sets again Ground Mk XI sets have fewer fancy costume pieces, but those pieces would be unavailable on the higher tier suits. Cheaper sets for people unwilling (for whatever silly reason) to save up for Mk XII. Costume unlocks provide some incentive for players to buy them anyway.
Which really doesn't do much other than give you a few days of just logging in without having to do the daily mission to start the rep. Since the system only lets you run those 1 at a time. And even when maxed you can only use one at a time to get 840 Dil every 20 hours.
Well, yes, that is what it was for. For people who could not necessarily run missions every day to get marks. Speed up the process for weekend warriors. Though with how quicky marks flow also frees up marks for gear projects.
Even with the system now it takes less than 40 days to complete T5 Dyson rep on your first toon if you sponsor your additional toon it only takes them less than 20 days each. I'm not sure what you re asking for. The system in place for Dyson is quite nice. In comparison the OTHER rep systems are a pain.
I semi-hate myself for saying it, but Dyson Rep was a touch too easy if you traded in marks for commendations. 5 commendations for 350 marks was slightly over-generous. But not by a huge margin. 3 commendations for the same price, would probably by much more in line between convenience and actually playing the game.
Why not have 100 marks = 1 commendation.
For some reason when I am not having fun doing new things in game I am not spending money on the game. Making the reputation system take longer so I need to repeat the same content has the opposite effect, but statistically I guess players like me are a minority. I am fleet of one I guess.
If they are going to make the reputation system take longer they should first invest is adding new missions and rewards to existing content. This would diversify the ways and reasons to earn the various reputation marks. STFs and other reputation mark related missions should be added regularly to help freshen up the pool of possible missions to choose from. Maybe I would like a MACO warp core, Romulan STF armor (or at the very least a costume unlock), or a Borg Earth invasion STF. It doesn't always need to be a new expansion or season.
I agree with the OP, I don't bother with Omega Rep because its annoying, but if they made it more Dyson like I'd do it, otherwise its not worth it to me.
Every rep grind should be like Romulan rep grind. Long and time consuming with no quick or easy or fun way to get to the top. Romulan has epohhs but they are time consuming and completely unfun - how it should be. seperate the real players who deserve the toys than the casuals who cant hack it.
listened to the podcast, glad they agree with me that rep grinds are simply too fast, too easy. if they made some way to extend it they'd make REAL money.
Well, yes, that is what it was for. For people who could not necessarily run missions every day to get marks. Speed up the process for weekend warriors. Though with how quicky marks flow also frees up marks for gear projects.
Even with the system now it takes less than 40 days to complete T5 Dyson rep on your first toon if you sponsor your additional toon it only takes them less than 20 days each. I'm not sure what you re asking for. The system in place for Dyson is quite nice. In comparison the OTHER rep systems are a pain.
I was more commenting for the people who seem to think that the system was a problem somehow. Nothing about being able to convert marks to commendations was actually problematic since it didn't give you anything other than a few days off. It was useless for people who already planned on getting a commendation per day.
^^ this is needs to be said in every cryptic meeting that involves introducing some sort of new grind. I would go as far to say that it very likely that players that invest the most money in the game are casual players who have jobs, family etc that like to steal an hour or two to play STO when they can but just don't have the time or will to see all these rep systems to the end. I will admit I could be wrong
I have the same issue, basically... that's why I essentially quit STO, playing new missions aside, before even bothering to buy anything. After getting all my reps to rank 1 (and 2 to rank 2) I really was pretty much done with rep projects for the next few years. I was going to get a D'Kyr or something, but if there's really nothing to do with a ship besides grind and replay missions, I'll just go spend money on something that I feel will actually deliver a satisfying experience for a long period of time.
*nods to both players*
Even though I love my profession, I need time to blow off some steam. Games allow me to cope with negative stress, which comes with facing offline realities. Once a game causes more stress than an actual job, the allure of playing it fizzles away.
'STO's' reputation system should be used to focus on casual players. Everything in the current reputation system has a high resource requirement and long wait period, which are used to punish casual players for being casual. Time-gates and heavy resource requirements are a turnoff; therefore, I am less likely to buy something from the c-store.
My real life job is much more rewarding than 'STO's' endgame.
Remove "Weekend Warrior" 5-commendation project entirely. Ensure daily commendation an be earned in less than ten minutes of gameplay. Theoretically, Weekend Warriors would use that time to earn marks to feed the daily project rather than just buy commendations.
I'd agree if the daily limit was also removed. An hour or two cooldown on gaining the commendation would probably be better anyway. It seems silly that if I get a commendation for disabling a Fortress ship once in twenty hours, I don't get another for disabling a second (or third, etc). An act of valor is an act of valor, no matter how many times a day you do it. And its not like you can spend them all at once either.
He confirmed the Expansion (but we already knew that from Geko)...and as is the standard party line, there is neither denial nor confirmation of an additional faction with said Expansion.
Actually they specifically said there would NOT be any new factions in the next update and that there were no plans to add any for the foreseeable future, about a month ago. Its in one of the massively articles
So, I'm a returning player and I can tell you the grind matters. When I last came on, it was LoR. I got through the main storyline and was enjoying the hell out of it and then wondered what to do next. The only Romulan content was naturally New Romulus Reputation. It took me less than a week or so to get bored and start up another game. I think that was around the time of the Steam sell and I started playing old games again.
From what everyone keeps saying, the Dyson grind sounds like something I can deal with. I don't know. I am starting fresh for the remastered fed content (which by the way is awesome thus far). For the new character, I put in 15 for the sub fee so that I can get my bank slots and so forth. Now, I can promise you that if you make this grind harder, I will leave. I don't have to be here and I casually play DCUO and Swtor as well. I will leave and all you will have gotten was a 15 purchase.
I'm sure there's people out there that will defend this company somehow. Oh, "it's f2p so stop whining about the grind" <-- let's be clear: I don't want f2p. I'd much rather pay and get a good game than to pay nothing and have a half-baked STO. You get what you pay for with lockboxes and $50 ships. OP ships with lots of content drought or grind.
My point is, bad grinds are going to drive me away. I can't be the only one. As so many of you love to point out, the boards are just a vocal minority not the majority. As the devs loved to point out during the LoR expansion and the FE Series, players come back in droves for those.
I'm sure somebody will mention how content is hard to produce. It's honestly not just a lack of content that makes me leave, it's the way in which this company consistently manages to make terrible decisions regarding the game. "we need more grinding" "we need more fleet projects to produce more grinding" "gambling boxes"
Everytime, I feel like I plead with Cryptic to not do this and everytime end up feeling ignored.
Again, if so many people come back for content, I can't be the only one. And if so many people up and leave again, I can't be the only one and am probably not the only disgusted by Cryptic's cash grabs, marketing ploys, and obvious grinds (they could fix the grind problem by enhancing the capability of the Foundry).
So, Cryptic. D'Angelo. You just released 8.5 which really encourages us to replay the Fed all over again (8.0, the Fed Tutorial was bugged for me and there was literally one extra episode after that). Give it time and release more content along the way. See if that improves revenue.
Also, give me an option to pay for content if it's that hard to make. Find the reasonable price that gets the most players to pay for best generation of long term profit (more players paying means more players playing means more players buying other stuff off of the C-Store) and let's do it.
Otherwise, I may or may not see you every six months or so to be disappointed again... and again... and again.
I'm sure somebody will mention how content is hard to produce. It's honestly not just a lack of content that makes me leave, it's the way in which this company consistently manages to make terrible decisions regarding the game. "we need more grinding" "we need more fleet projects to produce more grinding" "gambling boxes"
First, welcome back.
Secondly, I would say that the content isn't necessarily hard to produce, but it is time consuming. The time aspect is compounded because new environments have to made for each new episode. Personally, I'd be just as happy if we got new missions that re-used environments that already exist as long as there was something new and "Treky" every few weeks/month that gave the story a sense of motion/momentum. Rather than having my character sitting in Spacedock, they should be out there making a difference, as Captain Kirk would say.
I would also agree that the game is overly grindy. It's not as bad as some others, of course, but there's not enough replayability/reason to replay the more intriguing content that exist and instead we are guided into the reputation and fleet projects as "something to do," and which are repetative in nature due to the limited number of ways to gain the necessary inputs.
D'Angelo's concern is not about how the grinds affect us, but how they affect the game (read: PWE's bottom line). The impression I got is that their metrics were telling them they weren't getting a good return on their investment, and so tweaking the system is not about it being too easy, but rather about how little ROI they got for developing it in the first place.
To which I reason: If your concern is that the game isn't painful enough for you (Cryptic and PWE) to make enough money from us, you're in the wrong business.
I think they're misinterpreting the data. Its all speculation on my part of course, but I think they didn't sell as many keys for the Voth lockboxes as they had hoped to. I see even less of the notices for the Hirogen boxes.They know that the longer people are logged in the more keys (and zen) they are likely to buy, therefore to up their ROI they would need to make players stay logged in longer. This all equates to longer grinds.
I do not think they take into consideration ship fatigue, just how many ships are they expecting to keep selling from lockboxes? The players around me that used to want every new lockbox ship are more or less tired of overpriced new ships and hardly bother with lockboxes anymore.
The last time I checked there are 239 playable ships. At most you can use 1 at a time. The lockbox ships never really appealed to me. If I was playing a cardassian or a ferengi or tholian, maybe those ships would be good. I think they might have more luck if they alternated whether a box would have a ship or something else (A special Bridge Officer, or a space or ground set). There are way too many ships. I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Having ships doesn't mean anything if there's no where to fly them.
I think they're misinterpreting the data. Its all speculation on my part of course, but I think they didn't sell as many keys for the Voth lockboxes as they had hoped to. I see even less of the notices for the Hirogen boxes.They know that the longer people are logged in the more keys (and zen) they are likely to buy, therefore to up their ROI they would need to make players stay logged in longer. This all equates to longer grinds.
I do not think they take into consideration ship fatigue, just how many ships are they expecting to keep selling from lockboxes? The players around me that used to want every new lockbox ship are more or less tired of overpriced new ships and hardly bother with lockboxes anymore.
It's probably that combined with the aspect of Hirogen and Voth ships not necessarily being as aesthetically pleasing or Trek-linked.
Dyson rep isn't too easy or fast for everyone. I am only at t3 Dyson rep on my main, t0 on all other characters while my main has all other reps maxed out and my alts all at least have omega rep maxed and t2 in other reps. Main problem is I like Elite STF style missions not the Dyson sphere so not interested enough to do it every day.
loR was amazing. Problem is i played it 2, 3 times. I don't think ive touched a single piece of LoR Content for maybe 4 months or so?
The vast majority of people play episodes and then dont play them again. That's why MMO's need grind.
I guess they could try and think of a good reason to get people to replay episodes more often. Things like the FE replay tend to go over quite well. Perhaps episodes need to award marks and things?
This is a mindset I will never, ever understand. If I'm going to repeat content, I'd rather replay a multitude of story arcs than the same handful of hamster wheel grinds. If all I had to look forward to was running the same rep tasks over and over and over again, I'd be finished with the game.
I play to be engaged and immersed. For me, and apparently many in this thread, that's where the fun and relaxation is. Rep, starbase, and whatever repetitive grinds there are feel like work, not play. Getting better gear to do exactly the same grind over again faster is not enjoyable for many.
It was suggested some time ago that marks/dilithium be added to episode rewards. With things like starbases that require certain items, the only way to get them is via the grind. I'd gladly replay missions to get these resources, but not the mindnumbing grinds.
But I think that's exactly why they don't add those to episodes. Then people would want them to make more episodes, and that's "harder" than making grindy content.
There's another popular fantasy MMO thats claim to fame is story. They take flak from a small portion of their players for not creating enough endgame content (raids, PvP) -- even though they did initially -- but their response has been that the vast majority of their players play quests primarily. Raiders and PvPers have always been a tiny minority, even when they spent more time creating them.
I get that MMOs cannot create story content as fast as players can consume it. The problem with STO is that while what they have created is fun, they don't have nearly as many missions after four years as some others had out of the gate. I'd love it if they would just flesh out the content to approach anywhere near what other games have.
Our small fleet recently decide to stop putting so much effort into our starbase. We found we were just logging in to grind resources and not experience immersive content. It got boring. Now, I've got a couple of characters I'm trying to level via the Foundry almost exclusively. Slo-o-o-o-w progression, but infinitely more fun than grinding.
Now, I do enjoy some of the "grindy" content in small doses. To me, they add variety to the mission chain. But I no longer treat them as needing to complete the grind, just as occasional side quests.
Secondly, I would say that the content isn't necessarily hard to produce, but it is time consuming. The time aspect is compounded because new environments have to made for each new episode. Personally, I'd be just as happy if we got new missions that re-used environments that already exist as long as there was something new and "Treky" every few weeks/month that gave the story a sense of motion/momentum. Rather than having my character sitting in Spacedock, they should be out there making a difference, as Captain Kirk would say.
I would also agree that the game is overly grindy. It's not as bad as some others, of course, but there's not enough replayability/reason to replay the more intriguing content that exist and instead we are guided into the reputation and fleet projects as "something to do," and which are repetative in nature due to the limited number of ways to gain the necessary inputs.
I think you hit the nail on the head. It's time consuming and for some reason they think they need new environments every time. They have so many fantastic assets that they basically use once and move on. They need to reuse assets with different stories. There are planetary surface maps where the current missions barely touch the landscape; why not go back to those worlds and use more of the map?
STO has great mechanics to enhance storytelling, as evidenced by the episodes produced by the devs and those produced by the Foundry authors with lesser tools. Unfortunately, Cryptic seems to be great at creating mechanics and functionality, but limited in vision for implementing story content with the tools they've created.
I'd love it if they'd create Foundry-like missions, basically side quests that are not part of the main storyline (though not in conflict with them either).
Comments
Shhh, nobody tell him about the Reputation Mark Bonus Pools in the newest lockbox...
I have the same issue, basically... that's why I essentially quit STO, playing new missions aside, before even bothering to buy anything. After getting all my reps to rank 1 (and 2 to rank 2) I really was pretty much done with rep projects for the next few years. I was going to get a D'Kyr or something, but if there's really nothing to do with a ship besides grind and replay missions, I'll just go spend money on something that I feel will actually deliver a satisfying experience for a long period of time.
Also, all of the rep systems can be done in less than a month. If you are not running the hourly one every hour of the day, almost all day long, it will take a little less than a month to do that rep system also. Therefore, the time to do it is about the same for all of them.
It is just that when players were going through all of the other rep systems, they were doing them all together, and they were working on new missions, and a new race also. Season was nothing but a featured episode, and a new grind. If the new grind came out when the Romulan rep did, it would have taken just as long almost as all the other reps did, because everyone's attention would have been split between it, and all the other new things.
The marks needed to run the other rep system projects to level up to T5 can be done in 1-2 hours every other day, and that will give enough marks for about 3-4 days on each of the three older rep systems. (This is without the hourly bonus marks).
The only time more marks were needed than that, is when you are getting gear, consoles, or sets from the rep systems. I started using the J'Hem space, and ground set till I hit Tier 5.
listened to the podcast, glad they agree with me that rep grinds are simply too fast, too easy. if they made some way to extend it they'd make REAL money.
I'd rather do missions like in the old days or STF's that take 3 hours and you got an amazing reward in form of a piece of awesome gear. (Yes i know there were problems involved with teaming up with STF's or people Dcing half way tru, im sure this could easily be solved with some mechanic)
Anyway, why this torture with doing the same stuff over 100 of 1000 of times?
*sigh*
I bet most of the new players dont even remember how awesome it was backk in the day. You actually had to FLY to the right planets and sectors to do a teamed mission/stf. Now you just sit bored on ESD spacedock and wait for a Queue to pop. Some decisions people make, make me *ugh*
Ya especially when that grind is just to unlock other grinds to unlock an item that you need to grind to buy.
Reputation at the moment isn't content, it's torture. I would suggest that each tier unlocked also unlocks all the items to purchase in your rep store.
^^ this is needs to be said in every cryptic meeting that involves introducing some sort of new grind. I would go as far to say that it very likely that players that invest the most money in the game are casual players who have jobs, family etc that like to steal an hour or two to play STO when they can but just don't have the time or will to see all these rep systems to the end. I will admit I could be wrong
one thing does bother me is that u can only get one commendation mark a day
and its the only real one that counts no matter how many marks u have they dont
move the rep bar at all:(
Why am I not keen on doing the Dyson missions more?
1.) Rewards. I don't care for for Polaron weapons. Less so when it is only useful against 1 type of enemy (Voth). At least the Romulan plasma weapon's "bonus" is a stronger DOT. The Anti-Tholian Tetryon weapons and Anti-Voth Polaron I will probably never buy. I'd be infinitely more interested to see Federation Phasers/Klingon Disruptors in a faction reputation than I will ever be about Polaron weapons in the Dyson Rep.
* I want my Starfleet Officers to feel like Starfleet, my Klingons to feel like Klingons, and my Romulans to feel like Romulans.
2.) Dinosaurs. The concept was mildly interesting the first few weeks, but I'm over it.
Why I might do the Battlezone more?
1.) Rewards. This is still one of the best ways to get dilithium. I might end up taking advantage of the dilithium weekend here.
2.) Variety. While we're "doing the same thing", there's enough variety that it doesn't feel like it.
You can turn in dyson mark for dyson comendation as well. If I remember it costs like 300-340 marks and makes 5 commendations. so theoretically you can get 6 per day. 1 from the missions/queue/zone and 5 from the rep system (Converted from marks).
They can have about 10 episodes that will give a number of marks, and even Dilithium. They can take from 10-15 mins to complete, and can even be done solo, or with others. These episodes can be replayed, and you can get the marks and Dil each time. There can also be one or two PVE that will give marks and Dil.
By doing this, they will make the grind more enjoyable.
Hey skoon, I'm sorry, I was rushed, and on top of that currently dealing with visual challenges.
What did you think of the content of the post?
Wow all I gotta say is if a few mispellings annoy you that much I suggest meditation or something, you're going to put your health at risk..
I'd do something like this:
I Support Disco | Disco is Love | Disco is Life
Well, yes, that is what it was for. For people who could not necessarily run missions every day to get marks. Speed up the process for weekend warriors. Though with how quicky marks flow also frees up marks for gear projects.
Even with the system now it takes less than 40 days to complete T5 Dyson rep on your first toon if you sponsor your additional toon it only takes them less than 20 days each. I'm not sure what you re asking for. The system in place for Dyson is quite nice. In comparison the OTHER rep systems are a pain.
Why not have 100 marks = 1 commendation.
For some reason when I am not having fun doing new things in game I am not spending money on the game. Making the reputation system take longer so I need to repeat the same content has the opposite effect, but statistically I guess players like me are a minority. I am fleet of one I guess.
If they are going to make the reputation system take longer they should first invest is adding new missions and rewards to existing content. This would diversify the ways and reasons to earn the various reputation marks. STFs and other reputation mark related missions should be added regularly to help freshen up the pool of possible missions to choose from. Maybe I would like a MACO warp core, Romulan STF armor (or at the very least a costume unlock), or a Borg Earth invasion STF. It doesn't always need to be a new expansion or season.
Do you work for the Onion or something?
Even though I love my profession, I need time to blow off some steam. Games allow me to cope with negative stress, which comes with facing offline realities. Once a game causes more stress than an actual job, the allure of playing it fizzles away.
'STO's' reputation system should be used to focus on casual players. Everything in the current reputation system has a high resource requirement and long wait period, which are used to punish casual players for being casual. Time-gates and heavy resource requirements are a turnoff; therefore, I am less likely to buy something from the c-store.
My real life job is much more rewarding than 'STO's' endgame.
"Star Trek: Buzzkill Online"
I'd agree if the daily limit was also removed. An hour or two cooldown on gaining the commendation would probably be better anyway. It seems silly that if I get a commendation for disabling a Fortress ship once in twenty hours, I don't get another for disabling a second (or third, etc). An act of valor is an act of valor, no matter how many times a day you do it. And its not like you can spend them all at once either.
Actually they specifically said there would NOT be any new factions in the next update and that there were no plans to add any for the foreseeable future, about a month ago. Its in one of the massively articles
From what everyone keeps saying, the Dyson grind sounds like something I can deal with. I don't know. I am starting fresh for the remastered fed content (which by the way is awesome thus far). For the new character, I put in 15 for the sub fee so that I can get my bank slots and so forth. Now, I can promise you that if you make this grind harder, I will leave. I don't have to be here and I casually play DCUO and Swtor as well. I will leave and all you will have gotten was a 15 purchase.
I'm sure there's people out there that will defend this company somehow. Oh, "it's f2p so stop whining about the grind" <-- let's be clear: I don't want f2p. I'd much rather pay and get a good game than to pay nothing and have a half-baked STO. You get what you pay for with lockboxes and $50 ships. OP ships with lots of content drought or grind.
My point is, bad grinds are going to drive me away. I can't be the only one. As so many of you love to point out, the boards are just a vocal minority not the majority. As the devs loved to point out during the LoR expansion and the FE Series, players come back in droves for those.
I'm sure somebody will mention how content is hard to produce. It's honestly not just a lack of content that makes me leave, it's the way in which this company consistently manages to make terrible decisions regarding the game. "we need more grinding" "we need more fleet projects to produce more grinding" "gambling boxes"
Everytime, I feel like I plead with Cryptic to not do this and everytime end up feeling ignored.
Again, if so many people come back for content, I can't be the only one. And if so many people up and leave again, I can't be the only one and am probably not the only disgusted by Cryptic's cash grabs, marketing ploys, and obvious grinds (they could fix the grind problem by enhancing the capability of the Foundry).
So, Cryptic. D'Angelo. You just released 8.5 which really encourages us to replay the Fed all over again (8.0, the Fed Tutorial was bugged for me and there was literally one extra episode after that). Give it time and release more content along the way. See if that improves revenue.
Also, give me an option to pay for content if it's that hard to make. Find the reasonable price that gets the most players to pay for best generation of long term profit (more players paying means more players playing means more players buying other stuff off of the C-Store) and let's do it.
Otherwise, I may or may not see you every six months or so to be disappointed again... and again... and again.
No, I work for the Potato.
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
First, welcome back.
Secondly, I would say that the content isn't necessarily hard to produce, but it is time consuming. The time aspect is compounded because new environments have to made for each new episode. Personally, I'd be just as happy if we got new missions that re-used environments that already exist as long as there was something new and "Treky" every few weeks/month that gave the story a sense of motion/momentum. Rather than having my character sitting in Spacedock, they should be out there making a difference, as Captain Kirk would say.
I would also agree that the game is overly grindy. It's not as bad as some others, of course, but there's not enough replayability/reason to replay the more intriguing content that exist and instead we are guided into the reputation and fleet projects as "something to do," and which are repetative in nature due to the limited number of ways to gain the necessary inputs.
I think they're misinterpreting the data. Its all speculation on my part of course, but I think they didn't sell as many keys for the Voth lockboxes as they had hoped to. I see even less of the notices for the Hirogen boxes.They know that the longer people are logged in the more keys (and zen) they are likely to buy, therefore to up their ROI they would need to make players stay logged in longer. This all equates to longer grinds.
I do not think they take into consideration ship fatigue, just how many ships are they expecting to keep selling from lockboxes? The players around me that used to want every new lockbox ship are more or less tired of overpriced new ships and hardly bother with lockboxes anymore.
It's probably that combined with the aspect of Hirogen and Voth ships not necessarily being as aesthetically pleasing or Trek-linked.
This is a mindset I will never, ever understand. If I'm going to repeat content, I'd rather replay a multitude of story arcs than the same handful of hamster wheel grinds. If all I had to look forward to was running the same rep tasks over and over and over again, I'd be finished with the game.
I play to be engaged and immersed. For me, and apparently many in this thread, that's where the fun and relaxation is. Rep, starbase, and whatever repetitive grinds there are feel like work, not play. Getting better gear to do exactly the same grind over again faster is not enjoyable for many.
It was suggested some time ago that marks/dilithium be added to episode rewards. With things like starbases that require certain items, the only way to get them is via the grind. I'd gladly replay missions to get these resources, but not the mindnumbing grinds.
But I think that's exactly why they don't add those to episodes. Then people would want them to make more episodes, and that's "harder" than making grindy content.
There's another popular fantasy MMO thats claim to fame is story. They take flak from a small portion of their players for not creating enough endgame content (raids, PvP) -- even though they did initially -- but their response has been that the vast majority of their players play quests primarily. Raiders and PvPers have always been a tiny minority, even when they spent more time creating them.
I get that MMOs cannot create story content as fast as players can consume it. The problem with STO is that while what they have created is fun, they don't have nearly as many missions after four years as some others had out of the gate. I'd love it if they would just flesh out the content to approach anywhere near what other games have.
Our small fleet recently decide to stop putting so much effort into our starbase. We found we were just logging in to grind resources and not experience immersive content. It got boring. Now, I've got a couple of characters I'm trying to level via the Foundry almost exclusively. Slo-o-o-o-w progression, but infinitely more fun than grinding.
Now, I do enjoy some of the "grindy" content in small doses. To me, they add variety to the mission chain. But I no longer treat them as needing to complete the grind, just as occasional side quests.
I think you hit the nail on the head. It's time consuming and for some reason they think they need new environments every time. They have so many fantastic assets that they basically use once and move on. They need to reuse assets with different stories. There are planetary surface maps where the current missions barely touch the landscape; why not go back to those worlds and use more of the map?
STO has great mechanics to enhance storytelling, as evidenced by the episodes produced by the devs and those produced by the Foundry authors with lesser tools. Unfortunately, Cryptic seems to be great at creating mechanics and functionality, but limited in vision for implementing story content with the tools they've created.
I'd love it if they'd create Foundry-like missions, basically side quests that are not part of the main storyline (though not in conflict with them either).