Bad idea, queues are taking a long time to fill, population seems to be declining, yesterday I never saw more than 500 people in ESD instances and about 200 people in Sol instances, that's well under 1000 people throughout the day. You want to run Mine trap? Put something on the TV whilst you wait, same for SBFD, and you can forget about running almost anything on the KDF side.
They removed mirror with nothing to replace the missing XP so people can't be bothered to level new toons any more, they removed the Dil from the Dyson space so there are never enough peeps to finish a contested zone run, they removed hourly events and replaced them with bi-weekend events when a lot of people are busy with family activities and can only get on a few hours. People in our fleet are playing other games when on TS, asking them why they are not on STO the answer is there's nothing to do except grind and the rewards are so miserable I'd sooner play something else.
Don't want to be a doom sayer, I've never been one for that, but I frankly don't see a single thing they have done to encourage people into the game more since S8.5, in fact quite the opposite. Still, I'm saving lots of money not buying Zen, so it's not all bad. :rolleyes:
Beta, LTA, CE, Multiple preorder Versions, all Addon Packs except AoY, nearly all KDF/Rom and ~50% of all Fedships, over 25 LockboxShips, Endurer of Atari's "Year of Hell", but...
Bad idea, queues are taking a long time to fill, population seems to be declining, yesterday I never saw more than 500 people in ESD instances and about 200 people in Sol instances, that's well under 1000 people throughout the day. You want to run Mine trap? Put something on the TV whilst you wait, same for SBFD, and you can forget about running almost anything on the KDF side.
They removed mirror with nothing to replace the missing XP so people can't be bothered to level new toons any more, they removed the Dil from the Dyson space so there are never enough peeps to finish a contested zone run, they removed hourly events and replaced them with bi-weekend events when a lot of people are busy with family activities and can only get on a few hours. People in our fleet are playing other games when on TS, asking them why they are not on STO the answer is there's nothing to do except grind and the rewards are so miserable I'd sooner play something else.
Don't want to be a doom sayer, I've never been one for that, but I frankly don't see a single thing they have done to encourage people into the game more since S8.5, in fact quite the opposite. Still, I'm saving lots of money not buying Zen, so it's not all bad. :rolleyes:
I agree almost in everything but.. you say "they removed hourly events and replaced them with bi-weekend events when a lot of people are busy with family activities and can only get on a few hours", sorry but its the opposite. Weekly events are great because everybody can do it and it doesnt matter if you are out for 10 hours, you know the event is still for the whole weekend and you will have your opportunity to play it.
BUT thats the only advantaje of the weekly events. For people that need to go to workk every day, and they only have about 2 free hours of free time, the daily events were just great and the exact thing they needed.
You name the season 8.5 as a flat point when cryptic started to discourage people. Honestly ive been playing for only 5 months, but i dont need more to realize how things are working since years ago. The only thing that keeps cryptic doing stupid things and discouraging people to play are the customers theirselves. And everything evolves to the same, money. Cryptic is a company that will do EVERYTHING in their hands to make money and abuse of their customers, and this happens since years ago. Now, if people doesnt change, cryptic will never change. Thats the reason i say most of the times i dont care anymore for the bugs or anything, because i dont see this is going to change.
Too many rich users that provides cryptic with a real high base of money every month to let cryptic keep doing what they want, new content and absoultely zero efforts on fixing bugs and improving the game. Unfortunately, those type of users doesnt care about bugs, only about new content, and they are the only ones that matter for cryptic. SO, sit tight, be patient because this will never change. lol.
I too have only been playing a short while, started at the end of August last year, so coming up on six months. I signed up for Gold after the first month because I am mostly enjoying myself and want the game to exist, but don't feel comfortable opening my wallet every 2 or 3 days for more zen.
Lots of running in circles on this one. To be answer the title, I think it was done poorly. I often participated in the Dilithium Mining event if it happened to be running, the Academy Event if it happened to be running, the Multiphasic and Time to Craft events if they happened to be running on my alt that crafts. I would stay logged in an extra hour or two if something I wanted to do was coming up.
Did I enjoy the Dilithium Weekend? Yes AND no. I earned a pile of dilithium. First time I had ever gotten a backlog in Unrefined, and that backlog last 8 days of not mining, nothing. That being said, I did nothing but run from dilithium-grinding event to dilithium-grinding event for four days, which burnt me out on the game - didn't log in two or three days after. My normal play time has been evenings that my wife is working, so maybe 3 or 4 nights a week for 4 hours an evening, and every second or third weekend.
Last weekend - lo and behold - no event! Look ahead at the calendar, because curious to see what is beyond the marks event - lookie here - nothing so far. No schedule set, so no indication if it is going to be interesting weekend events or just "Grind Dil This Weekend!", "Marks at LOW LOW PRICES!", maybe even - "LOCKBOX MAYHEM, all drops lockboxes for the next 4 days!"
I get the metrics on some of the events (even some of the ones I liked) were "poor", but I seriously doubt it was COSTING Cryptic anything to run them. The schedules were setup and running, I highly doubt Branflakes was sitting behind a PC adjusting rewards sliders by hand for his pay.
What do I think? (Not that anyone cares, seems to be two entrenched camps ) I think some sort of hybrid could be used. Want to concentrate rewards down to weekend events? OK, have them. On weeks where they can't be bothered to run an event, 7 days of the old hourlies for those who are interested or can't play on the weekend.
I suspect in the long run - it'll be less dil per month than randomly doing Academy or Mining Events, and less marks per month as well. Unless those are the only two events they are planning to run, over and over and over and over. Time will tell, still too soon to know.
Don't get me started on Tour The Universe. Running with pretty good Driver Coil skill and the Dyson Core I can't even come close to finishing that thing now. The old way I used to take the event, drop into any Borg alerts or dailies that I wanted to do on my pass, and finish with time to spare - now it's a 15 minute race to see how many EC I can rack up, instead of you know, touring the universe and dropping in and out of places, seeing what's going on.
Asking for them to be rewarded equally is an insult and a laugh, I don't pay to be entertained and rewarded by "amerture hour" - if I wanted that, I'd go watch X-Factor or Britain's got Talent.
But that's just the thing - some of the official missions in the storylines are 'amateur hour' compared to some foundry missions.
Take for ex. "Divide et Impera" - that the worst, most amateur mission I've ever seen. I put it way below 'Battleship bonanza' or whatever that foundry grinder was called. :P And don't get me started on the rehashed Fed. missions painted red and called KDF missions. Entire storylines can be formed from the foundry KDF content that are much much better and catch the essence of being a KDF than that rehash.
I don't understand why us being rewarded equally for doing some of that content is an insult, especially after the wretched "Divide et Imera" where I really felt mu intellect insulted and myslef insulted as a Star Trek fan.
I'm not saying slap high rewards to any foundry content, but select missions that fulfill certain quality and lore requirements should be utilized to fill the obvious gaps in STO's story content while giving out solid rewards to those who play them.
I don't want to log on or participate during this weekend event. Seems like all our feedback on these new events are getting ignored so we need to do more then just give feedback like not participating.
But that's just the thing - some of the official missions in the storylines are 'amateur hour' compared to some foundry missions.
Take for ex. "Divide et Impera" - that the worst, most amateur mission I've ever seen. I put it way below 'Battleship bonanza' or whatever that foundry grinder was called. :P And don't get me started on the rehashed Fed. missions painted red and called KDF missions. Entire storylines can be formed from the foundry KDF content that are much much better and catch the essence of being a KDF than that rehash.
I don't understand why us being rewarded equally for doing some of that content is an insult, especially after the wretched "Divide et Imera" where I really felt mu intellect insulted and myslef insulted as a Star Trek fan.
I'm not saying slap high rewards to any foundry content, but select missions that fulfill certain quality and lore requirements should be utilized to fill the obvious gaps in STO's story content while giving out solid rewards to those who play them.
I've been racking my brain to find a way to phrase this in an easy way, so here comes the analogy;
You see an advert for a famous entertainer, who will come to your home and entertain you for a few hours - so, as you like them, you contact them and book some regular times for the famous person to come and entertain you.
But, after a few visits, the famous person lost interest in entertaining you (but didn't lose interest in your money), so they start to send a "look-a-like" to you, but kept the prices the same.
How do you feel?
Cryptic Studios, is licensed by CBS to produce (and reproduce) and use "official" Star Trek material / names / places and so on and so on. Part of this content they are licensed for, is the "storytelling" aspect. They can "officially" continue or create stories using the aforementioned names, places, likeness and so on.
I paid, in good faith, to be entertained, officially, within the realms of the Star Trek universe, by Cryptic Studios. I have continued to support Cryptic Studios in good faith for the same reason.
Foundry user XYZ does not work for, or represent Cryptic Studios, CBS or any other entity that may hold IP rights. I did not pay in good faith for foundry user XYZ to entertain me.
I did not ask for the look-a-like and if that is what we are getting now, then the C-Store prices should be 1/4 (or less) of what they are now - as look-a-likes do not cost as much as the "real" thing.
"
Again, do not misunderstand - I fully know and understand that "Foundry user XYZ" may have written exceptional stories that would blow my mind, but lots of people did not come here because of foundry user XYZ - they came here due to the official Star Trek name being here and expecting official content to be added to the game - not being fobbed off to foundry user XYZ
Again, do not misunderstand - I fully know and understand that "Foundry user XYZ" may have written exceptional stories that would blow my mind, but lots of people did not come here because of foundry user XYZ - they came here due to the official Star Trek name being here and expecting official content to be added to the game - not being fobbed off to foundry user XYZ
Sorry, but Im with Shpoks on this one.
As the theoretical customer in your analogy, I would want good content, not necessarily licensed content.
I've been racking my brain to find a way to phrase this in an easy way, so here comes the analogy;
You see an advert for a famous entertainer, who will come to your home and entertain you for a few hours - so, as you like them, you contact them and book some regular times for the famous person to come and entertain you.
But, after a few visits, the famous person lost interest in entertaining you (but didn't lose interest in your money), so they start to send a "look-a-like" to you, but kept the prices the same.
How do you feel?
Cryptic Studios, is licensed by CBS to produce (and reproduce) and use "official" Star Trek material / names / places and so on and so on. Part of this content they are licensed for, is the "storytelling" aspect. They can "officially" continue or create stories using the aforementioned names, places, likeness and so on.
I paid, in good faith, to be entertained, officially, within the realms of the Star Trek universe, by Cryptic Studios. I have continued to support Cryptic Studios in good faith for the same reason.
Foundry user XYZ does not work for, or represent Cryptic Studios, CBS or any other entity that may hold IP rights. I did not pay in good faith for foundry user XYZ to entertain me.
I did not ask for the look-a-like and if that is what we are getting now, then the C-Store prices should be 1/4 (or less) of what they are now - as look-a-likes do not cost as much as the "real" thing.
"
Again, do not misunderstand - I fully know and understand that "Foundry user XYZ" may have written exceptional stories that would blow my mind, but lots of people did not come here because of foundry user XYZ - they came here due to the official Star Trek name being here and expecting official content to be added to the game - not being fobbed off to foundry user XYZ
Oh you missunderstood me, I completely get what you're talking about and I actually agree with most of it.
The thing is, unfortunately, (and I'm talking about good story content here) in many instances the comparison would be as if I payed a local clown to come and entertain me every weekend for a certain apropriate price and after a while the clown can't come and sends Jim Carrey as replacement.
Don't get me wrong, by no means am I saying that Cryptic shouldn't continue making their story content even if it has been comming short lately. What I'm saying is that Cryptic can select some really good foundry missions that would have the priviledge of giving away more lucrative awards for playing them. This is not something new actually, we had sth. similar before, but it was taken out due to exploits.
You know what would be a better system? (than us getting extra for choosing to play an unofficial star trek missions)
The author of the mission being given a "Thank You" by Cryptic, say a token 500 Zen for their time and effort making good missions for everyone.
I know we can give a bit of Dil to the person, and the handful of foundry missions I have played I did that.
But, the way I see it, if fans have to do Cryptics job for them, then Cryptic can take some of the cash I gave them, and pass it on to the person who worked their backside off doing Cryptics job
How the "best" mission is picked each month is another matter - and, out of my current mindset, but those "spotlight" things I keep seeing, may be a good place for Cryptic to start handing out Zen
(Note, I do not create foundry content - the whole system baffles and confuses me - so I would not profit by the above suggestion, as I lack the skill set to use and create content in Star Trek Online)
I like the weekend events - be better if they were every weekend mind you.
But, then if they were every weekend, people would want them every day. Then if they were every day, people would complain because they wouldn't have anything to do.
The hourly events were really quite brilliant, but it's possible that many people don't realize why they were brilliant. The events allowed for a smallish community to experience content together without forcing them to run the same content all day. With the removal of the hourly events, people don't feel as forced into doing something in particular, so the community has been spread out, and in many cases, content has been left to rot. This is especially true on the Klingon side.
If Cryptic was being honest, and they got rid of the hourly events because many of the events were not being utilized, then the better solution would have been to remove the under-utilized events in favor of some different events. I think the best move would have been to split up bonus marks into individual rep events. One hour for Omega, one for Romulan, one for Nukara, and one for Dyson. Do 10 different events, then repeat the cycle. This leads to all events running twice a day, and four events running three times a day.
I don't want to log on or participate during this weekend event. Seems like all our feedback on these new events are getting ignored so we need to do more then just give feedback like not participating.
This is a nice way of saying boycott. After seeing the queue numbers after the initial start of the reputation event and how dead the queues have been the past couple of weeks I am starting to agree with many people that say the weekend event is not good for the player base.
However I think it has been overstatement on some parts because the only events with high queue numbers reward the most for the effort given. This should be a very important metric to Cryptic hopefully. People really don't give one TRIBBLE about anything but the highest rewarded events. Only 3 or 4 PvE events are being played with aggressive queuing. Only two of the borg and two of the fleet types are being used from what I am seeing, these obviously reward greatly over the others.
If I were Cryptic I would be asking why the other queues are so empty? Which means that your player base has considered every other fleet action a waste of time. Eliminate so much of the fleet action list leaving only the popular handful and no one would care. The queue is a fully accurate metric given that forum poster or not that is showing you what your events are worth.
If the events rewarded equally that might change but also the given degree of difficulty for some or time needed you can clearly see that this is in need of a fix.
If Cryptic was being honest, and they got rid of the hourly events because many of the events were not being utilized, then the better solution would have been to remove the under-utilized events in favor of some different events. I think the best move would have been to split up bonus marks into individual rep events. One hour for Omega, one for Romulan, one for Nukara, and one for Dyson. Do 10 different events, then repeat the cycle. This leads to all events running twice a day, and four events running three times a day.
Cryptic did what they needed to do to gain more money. Supressing the hourly events, they forced people to have harder times gathering dilithium, marks, and whatever. So people will be more willing to buy zen here and there to supply that. Of course, i am not one of them, but because the community in STO is so big, im sure a lot of people will start charging zen because they cant do hourly events anymore.
It seems a little forced strategy, but its highly trained, trust me lol.
Week end events must be great for people who don't work week ends...:(
Dont be so sad.. what about people who works from monday to friday , and of course a lot of weekends? :mad:
They should just kept both, the weekend ones and the hourly ones. That was the right thing to do. But of course, remove the hourly ones in the weekend and let only the weekend one. That will be the thing to do.
I personally think it really sucks. I used to play almost exclusively during the bonus marks hours because some of the rewards are so minuscule otherwise.
I can tell you how it affected me. I don't q up for as many events anymore. I've pretty much only been doing Elite borg stfs as of late since they seem like the only things with decent rewards. My fleet seems to be way less active during the week now. Without the bonus hourly's I see the grind getting even more grindy and it's turning me off. I'm not going to go to the extreme and say "I quit" but feels like that's the direction I'm headed. I really enjoy this game, but I really think this was a poor decision. I agree some of the hourly events were bad, but why couldn't they just remove those and leave the more popular ones?
This is a nice way of saying boycott. After seeing the queue numbers after the initial start of the reputation event and how dead the queues have been the past couple of weeks I am starting to agree with many people that say the weekend event is not good for the player base.
However I think it has been overstatement on some parts because the only events with high queue numbers reward the most for the effort given. This should be a very important metric to Cryptic hopefully. People really don't give one TRIBBLE about anything but the highest rewarded events. Only 3 or 4 PvE events are being played with aggressive queuing. Only two of the borg and two of the fleet types are being used from what I am seeing, these obviously reward greatly over the others.
If I were Cryptic I would be asking why the other queues are so empty? Which means that your player base has considered every other fleet action a waste of time. Eliminate so much of the fleet action list leaving only the popular handful and no one would care. The queue is a fully accurate metric given that forum poster or not that is showing you what your events are worth.
If the events rewarded equally that might change but also the given degree of difficulty for some or time needed you can clearly see that this is in need of a fix.
Basically yes, its a nice way of putting it, I am not sure if you are supposed to openly call for one, lol. I am now going further by not purchasing the Dyson 3 pack either and will hold off on zen purchases and buying zen items for ec off the exchange until its changed back.
Also I will now be naming my ships BringHourliesBack or something similar.
Many of the Fleet actions are still slow, especially for KDF. Under the old event system some of these less played events popped faster. This is bad for all players, but especially the KDF.
Perfect World and Cryptic. . . I don't Understand???
It strikes me oddly, . . . That Cryptic will go to all that trouble to make new Science Destroyers, and let us get some lesser powered versions for free. . .
Then turn right around and take our Hourly Event Queues totally away from us, totally Robbing us of our ability to gain the same amount of dilithium each day. . . Rob us of all the different types of marks we could get EACH Day. . And almost bringing the STF queues and other PVE queues to a STOP. .
Then call a Twice a Month Weekend Event (that does not take into consideration those who work on and around weekends into consideration) and then they act like they are doing something for us???
I Don't Understand???
One of the reasons this game is so popular thus far, is that Cryptic has made very Good efforts to reward us players who play. . .Good Thinking! . . . Right?. . . And NOW? You Rob us of things that YOU PROMISED us before all the other Season Releases, and that is now ok with you Cryptic?
I thought you understood us. . . I thought you knew that if you treated us with respect and care that we would be Loyal to YOU. . . Enjoy what you have built, Praise You, and Spend OUR hard earned money on the Amazing Game you have built??? But perhaps that Lesson is UNCLEAR to you?
Do You not realize how much Dilithium we made Daily with the Hourly Event Queue? And now your going to substitute that for: a 2 times a Month Weekend Event that is not Just a Dilithium Event, but is some Rotating LAME Event?
We are Star Trek and Sci-Fi fans, . . . That means many of us are Geeks, and Guess What Cryptic and PW. . . We Know How To ADD + Subtract, we even know how to Multiply and Divide. . .
So we know EXACTLY how many LESS Marks we are making. We know EXACTLY how much LESS Dilithium we are making. . . Because we are Smart Players. I have met some of the smartest, most dedicated, and caring people playing this game. . . It strikes me as Extremely ODD that you don't know who plays your game? Nor why WE play it. . .
So why would you take ALL these things away, and dare to think that We will just take it? . . . Do you think that We play your game because We HAVE to? Because we are 12 years old? Stupid? Or that there are not Other Games desiring our dedication?
I purchased 6 months at a time, on "The Old Republic", But when I saw how they treated the F2P players, I have NOT Played that game since.
I purchased a Lifetime subscription from you. And I have made MANY Purchases Since then. . .
But if you think I will not respond to YOU treating people badly, like my Friends, my Fleet Mates, and my Family who all play this game with me, Your WRONG! Smart Players, know when they are taken advantage of.
I love this game, it is my favorite (perhaps of all time), But if your going to make us work so hard to "PLAY" giving us LESS for MORE Of Our Time, then NO "Game" is Worth That! Because it is NO LONGER FUN!
We love this game because of how you have listened to your players. . . We have loved this game because it REWARDS us for putting OUR Time and OUR money into it. . . When WE Don't Have to. . .
You charge more than A LOT of other games for your in game Money (Z Points), But WE played anyway, because We know you need to make money. . . We are not unfair to you, so why would you be to Us?
ALL of us Players Used the Daily/Hourly Event Queue to one degree or another, But we ALL seemed to use some part of it. . . Even folks, my fellow players, who work ON and Around Weekends. . . In Place of that Event, you give us, something that is Obviously meant to slow us down and make us play LONGER for LESS. With seemingly no thought to how that would affect those who work ON or Around Weekends. . .
If you think we were making more dilithium than we should so you were not getting as many Z Point sales, then why not create more content that we just have to buy? Your so good at that already, so why not use that talent?
Cryptic, Who Made You Do This? This isn't the Cryptic I know, (and Love). . . So What is going on you guys? We have ALREADY PROVEN WE ARE LOYAL! I Don't Understand this???
The biggest problem that I am finding with the weekly events is pretty much, I end up driving myself to do large amounts of the same content repeatedly on all my characters (rep marks & mining so far) and quickly get burnt out and simply don't feel like logging in again for quite some time.
I think they would have been much better off switching the events from hourly over to daily then this bi-weekly week long thing they have going at the moment. This would give those that work odd hours or long days a chance at getting in on it for a bit after work as well.
They could also run a special 3 or 4 day weekend / weekly event in addition to the daily's which would give some other bonus or increase the yield of the running daily.
It would also be nice if they tweaked the events a bit :
Dilithium day / weekly - all quests & missions would also reward a small amount of dilithium in addition to the regular rewards and increased yields elsewhere.
Marks day / weekly - same as above all quests and missions would reward a box containing a small amount of marks of your choice in addition to the normal bonus and increased rewards during the event.
Credit day - pretty much a new daily event type thing that would make all vendors pay full value for any items sold to them (this would be useful in getting some of the vendor trash off the exchange as well).
Foundry day : The rewards for running foundry missions increased and the drops inside enriched, also any donations would have a small % added to them at no cost to the donator increasing what the creator would receive.
lots of different things they could do the current thing is kind of annoying in a lot of ways tho.
The biggest problem that I am finding with the weekly events is pretty much, I end up driving myself to do large amounts of the same content repeatedly on all my characters (rep marks & mining so far) and quickly get burnt out and simply don't feel like logging in again for quite some time.
This right here. I use to log in during the beginning of the week and the end of the week to catch the hourly events and played the weekends when they were running. Now I guess it's down to just the weekend every two weeks for a few hours till I get burnt out of doing the same thing over and over.
I don't know how many others feel as I do but I would love to see the metrics on it. I know that won't happen but I would still love to see it.
Comments
And people are surprised by this, why? exactly?
A few of us, from memory, can write a list so long of examples, we'd break the forums and the servers that host them. :P
I agree almost in everything but.. you say "they removed hourly events and replaced them with bi-weekend events when a lot of people are busy with family activities and can only get on a few hours", sorry but its the opposite. Weekly events are great because everybody can do it and it doesnt matter if you are out for 10 hours, you know the event is still for the whole weekend and you will have your opportunity to play it.
BUT thats the only advantaje of the weekly events. For people that need to go to workk every day, and they only have about 2 free hours of free time, the daily events were just great and the exact thing they needed.
You name the season 8.5 as a flat point when cryptic started to discourage people. Honestly ive been playing for only 5 months, but i dont need more to realize how things are working since years ago. The only thing that keeps cryptic doing stupid things and discouraging people to play are the customers theirselves. And everything evolves to the same, money. Cryptic is a company that will do EVERYTHING in their hands to make money and abuse of their customers, and this happens since years ago. Now, if people doesnt change, cryptic will never change. Thats the reason i say most of the times i dont care anymore for the bugs or anything, because i dont see this is going to change.
Too many rich users that provides cryptic with a real high base of money every month to let cryptic keep doing what they want, new content and absoultely zero efforts on fixing bugs and improving the game. Unfortunately, those type of users doesnt care about bugs, only about new content, and they are the only ones that matter for cryptic. SO, sit tight, be patient because this will never change. lol.
Lots of running in circles on this one. To be answer the title, I think it was done poorly. I often participated in the Dilithium Mining event if it happened to be running, the Academy Event if it happened to be running, the Multiphasic and Time to Craft events if they happened to be running on my alt that crafts. I would stay logged in an extra hour or two if something I wanted to do was coming up.
Did I enjoy the Dilithium Weekend? Yes AND no. I earned a pile of dilithium. First time I had ever gotten a backlog in Unrefined, and that backlog last 8 days of not mining, nothing. That being said, I did nothing but run from dilithium-grinding event to dilithium-grinding event for four days, which burnt me out on the game - didn't log in two or three days after. My normal play time has been evenings that my wife is working, so maybe 3 or 4 nights a week for 4 hours an evening, and every second or third weekend.
Last weekend - lo and behold - no event! Look ahead at the calendar, because curious to see what is beyond the marks event - lookie here - nothing so far. No schedule set, so no indication if it is going to be interesting weekend events or just "Grind Dil This Weekend!", "Marks at LOW LOW PRICES!", maybe even - "LOCKBOX MAYHEM, all drops lockboxes for the next 4 days!"
I get the metrics on some of the events (even some of the ones I liked) were "poor", but I seriously doubt it was COSTING Cryptic anything to run them. The schedules were setup and running, I highly doubt Branflakes was sitting behind a PC adjusting rewards sliders by hand for his pay.
What do I think? (Not that anyone cares, seems to be two entrenched camps
I suspect in the long run - it'll be less dil per month than randomly doing Academy or Mining Events, and less marks per month as well. Unless those are the only two events they are planning to run, over and over and over and over. Time will tell, still too soon to know.
Don't get me started on Tour The Universe. Running with pretty good Driver Coil skill and the Dyson Core I can't even come close to finishing that thing now. The old way I used to take the event, drop into any Borg alerts or dailies that I wanted to do on my pass, and finish with time to spare - now it's a 15 minute race to see how many EC I can rack up, instead of you know, touring the universe and dropping in and out of places, seeing what's going on.
But that's just the thing - some of the official missions in the storylines are 'amateur hour' compared to some foundry missions.
Take for ex. "Divide et Impera" - that the worst, most amateur mission I've ever seen. I put it way below 'Battleship bonanza' or whatever that foundry grinder was called. :P And don't get me started on the rehashed Fed. missions painted red and called KDF missions. Entire storylines can be formed from the foundry KDF content that are much much better and catch the essence of being a KDF than that rehash.
I don't understand why us being rewarded equally for doing some of that content is an insult, especially after the wretched "Divide et Imera" where I really felt mu intellect insulted and myslef insulted as a Star Trek fan.
I'm not saying slap high rewards to any foundry content, but select missions that fulfill certain quality and lore requirements should be utilized to fill the obvious gaps in STO's story content while giving out solid rewards to those who play them.
I've been racking my brain to find a way to phrase this in an easy way, so here comes the analogy;
You see an advert for a famous entertainer, who will come to your home and entertain you for a few hours - so, as you like them, you contact them and book some regular times for the famous person to come and entertain you.
But, after a few visits, the famous person lost interest in entertaining you (but didn't lose interest in your money), so they start to send a "look-a-like" to you, but kept the prices the same.
How do you feel?
Cryptic Studios, is licensed by CBS to produce (and reproduce) and use "official" Star Trek material / names / places and so on and so on. Part of this content they are licensed for, is the "storytelling" aspect. They can "officially" continue or create stories using the aforementioned names, places, likeness and so on.
I paid, in good faith, to be entertained, officially, within the realms of the Star Trek universe, by Cryptic Studios. I have continued to support Cryptic Studios in good faith for the same reason.
Foundry user XYZ does not work for, or represent Cryptic Studios, CBS or any other entity that may hold IP rights. I did not pay in good faith for foundry user XYZ to entertain me.
I did not ask for the look-a-like and if that is what we are getting now, then the C-Store prices should be 1/4 (or less) of what they are now - as look-a-likes do not cost as much as the "real" thing.
"
Again, do not misunderstand - I fully know and understand that "Foundry user XYZ" may have written exceptional stories that would blow my mind, but lots of people did not come here because of foundry user XYZ - they came here due to the official Star Trek name being here and expecting official content to be added to the game - not being fobbed off to foundry user XYZ
Sorry, but Im with Shpoks on this one.
As the theoretical customer in your analogy, I would want good content, not necessarily licensed content.
Not every episode of the T.V shows was "good" :P
Oh you missunderstood me, I completely get what you're talking about and I actually agree with most of it.
The thing is, unfortunately, (and I'm talking about good story content here) in many instances the comparison would be as if I payed a local clown to come and entertain me every weekend for a certain apropriate price and after a while the clown can't come and sends Jim Carrey as replacement.
Don't get me wrong, by no means am I saying that Cryptic shouldn't continue making their story content even if it has been comming short lately. What I'm saying is that Cryptic can select some really good foundry missions that would have the priviledge of giving away more lucrative awards for playing them. This is not something new actually, we had sth. similar before, but it was taken out due to exploits.
The author of the mission being given a "Thank You" by Cryptic, say a token 500 Zen for their time and effort making good missions for everyone.
I know we can give a bit of Dil to the person, and the handful of foundry missions I have played I did that.
But, the way I see it, if fans have to do Cryptics job for them, then Cryptic can take some of the cash I gave them, and pass it on to the person who worked their backside off doing Cryptics job
How the "best" mission is picked each month is another matter - and, out of my current mindset, but those "spotlight" things I keep seeing, may be a good place for Cryptic to start handing out Zen
(Note, I do not create foundry content - the whole system baffles and confuses me - so I would not profit by the above suggestion, as I lack the skill set to use and create content in Star Trek Online)
I like the weekend events - be better if they were every weekend mind you.
But, then if they were every weekend, people would want them every day. Then if they were every day, people would complain because they wouldn't have anything to do.
Catch-22 here
If Cryptic was being honest, and they got rid of the hourly events because many of the events were not being utilized, then the better solution would have been to remove the under-utilized events in favor of some different events. I think the best move would have been to split up bonus marks into individual rep events. One hour for Omega, one for Romulan, one for Nukara, and one for Dyson. Do 10 different events, then repeat the cycle. This leads to all events running twice a day, and four events running three times a day.
This is a nice way of saying boycott. After seeing the queue numbers after the initial start of the reputation event and how dead the queues have been the past couple of weeks I am starting to agree with many people that say the weekend event is not good for the player base.
However I think it has been overstatement on some parts because the only events with high queue numbers reward the most for the effort given. This should be a very important metric to Cryptic hopefully. People really don't give one TRIBBLE about anything but the highest rewarded events. Only 3 or 4 PvE events are being played with aggressive queuing. Only two of the borg and two of the fleet types are being used from what I am seeing, these obviously reward greatly over the others.
If I were Cryptic I would be asking why the other queues are so empty? Which means that your player base has considered every other fleet action a waste of time. Eliminate so much of the fleet action list leaving only the popular handful and no one would care. The queue is a fully accurate metric given that forum poster or not that is showing you what your events are worth.
If the events rewarded equally that might change but also the given degree of difficulty for some or time needed you can clearly see that this is in need of a fix.
Cryptic did what they needed to do to gain more money. Supressing the hourly events, they forced people to have harder times gathering dilithium, marks, and whatever. So people will be more willing to buy zen here and there to supply that. Of course, i am not one of them, but because the community in STO is so big, im sure a lot of people will start charging zen because they cant do hourly events anymore.
It seems a little forced strategy, but its highly trained, trust me lol.
Dont be so sad.. what about people who works from monday to friday , and of course a lot of weekends?
They should just kept both, the weekend ones and the hourly ones. That was the right thing to do. But of course, remove the hourly ones in the weekend and let only the weekend one. That will be the thing to do.
I can tell you how it affected me. I don't q up for as many events anymore. I've pretty much only been doing Elite borg stfs as of late since they seem like the only things with decent rewards. My fleet seems to be way less active during the week now. Without the bonus hourly's I see the grind getting even more grindy and it's turning me off. I'm not going to go to the extreme and say "I quit" but feels like that's the direction I'm headed. I really enjoy this game, but I really think this was a poor decision. I agree some of the hourly events were bad, but why couldn't they just remove those and leave the more popular ones?
Basically yes, its a nice way of putting it, I am not sure if you are supposed to openly call for one, lol. I am now going further by not purchasing the Dyson 3 pack either and will hold off on zen purchases and buying zen items for ec off the exchange until its changed back.
Also I will now be naming my ships BringHourliesBack or something similar.
Many of the Fleet actions are still slow, especially for KDF. Under the old event system some of these less played events popped faster. This is bad for all players, but especially the KDF.
It strikes me oddly, . . . That Cryptic will go to all that trouble to make new Science Destroyers, and let us get some lesser powered versions for free. . .
Then turn right around and take our Hourly Event Queues totally away from us, totally Robbing us of our ability to gain the same amount of dilithium each day. . . Rob us of all the different types of marks we could get EACH Day. . And almost bringing the STF queues and other PVE queues to a STOP. .
Then call a Twice a Month Weekend Event (that does not take into consideration those who work on and around weekends into consideration) and then they act like they are doing something for us???
I Don't Understand???
One of the reasons this game is so popular thus far, is that Cryptic has made very Good efforts to reward us players who play. . .Good Thinking! . . . Right?. . . And NOW? You Rob us of things that YOU PROMISED us before all the other Season Releases, and that is now ok with you Cryptic?
I thought you understood us. . . I thought you knew that if you treated us with respect and care that we would be Loyal to YOU. . . Enjoy what you have built, Praise You, and Spend OUR hard earned money on the Amazing Game you have built??? But perhaps that Lesson is UNCLEAR to you?
Do You not realize how much Dilithium we made Daily with the Hourly Event Queue? And now your going to substitute that for: a 2 times a Month Weekend Event that is not Just a Dilithium Event, but is some Rotating LAME Event?
We are Star Trek and Sci-Fi fans, . . . That means many of us are Geeks, and Guess What Cryptic and PW. . . We Know How To ADD + Subtract, we even know how to Multiply and Divide. . .
So we know EXACTLY how many LESS Marks we are making. We know EXACTLY how much LESS Dilithium we are making. . . Because we are Smart Players. I have met some of the smartest, most dedicated, and caring people playing this game. . . It strikes me as Extremely ODD that you don't know who plays your game? Nor why WE play it. . .
So why would you take ALL these things away, and dare to think that We will just take it? . . . Do you think that We play your game because We HAVE to? Because we are 12 years old? Stupid? Or that there are not Other Games desiring our dedication?
I purchased 6 months at a time, on "The Old Republic", But when I saw how they treated the F2P players, I have NOT Played that game since.
I purchased a Lifetime subscription from you. And I have made MANY Purchases Since then. . .
But if you think I will not respond to YOU treating people badly, like my Friends, my Fleet Mates, and my Family who all play this game with me, Your WRONG! Smart Players, know when they are taken advantage of.
I love this game, it is my favorite (perhaps of all time), But if your going to make us work so hard to "PLAY" giving us LESS for MORE Of Our Time, then NO "Game" is Worth That! Because it is NO LONGER FUN!
We love this game because of how you have listened to your players. . . We have loved this game because it REWARDS us for putting OUR Time and OUR money into it. . . When WE Don't Have to. . .
You charge more than A LOT of other games for your in game Money (Z Points), But WE played anyway, because We know you need to make money. . . We are not unfair to you, so why would you be to Us?
ALL of us Players Used the Daily/Hourly Event Queue to one degree or another, But we ALL seemed to use some part of it. . . Even folks, my fellow players, who work ON and Around Weekends. . . In Place of that Event, you give us, something that is Obviously meant to slow us down and make us play LONGER for LESS. With seemingly no thought to how that would affect those who work ON or Around Weekends. . .
If you think we were making more dilithium than we should so you were not getting as many Z Point sales, then why not create more content that we just have to buy? Your so good at that already, so why not use that talent?
Cryptic, Who Made You Do This? This isn't the Cryptic I know, (and Love). . . So What is going on you guys? We have ALREADY PROVEN WE ARE LOYAL! I Don't Understand this???
I think they would have been much better off switching the events from hourly over to daily then this bi-weekly week long thing they have going at the moment. This would give those that work odd hours or long days a chance at getting in on it for a bit after work as well.
They could also run a special 3 or 4 day weekend / weekly event in addition to the daily's which would give some other bonus or increase the yield of the running daily.
It would also be nice if they tweaked the events a bit :
Dilithium day / weekly - all quests & missions would also reward a small amount of dilithium in addition to the regular rewards and increased yields elsewhere.
Marks day / weekly - same as above all quests and missions would reward a box containing a small amount of marks of your choice in addition to the normal bonus and increased rewards during the event.
Credit day - pretty much a new daily event type thing that would make all vendors pay full value for any items sold to them (this would be useful in getting some of the vendor trash off the exchange as well).
Foundry day : The rewards for running foundry missions increased and the drops inside enriched, also any donations would have a small % added to them at no cost to the donator increasing what the creator would receive.
lots of different things they could do the current thing is kind of annoying in a lot of ways tho.