You mean those guys pumping out hundreds of thousands of state of the art battle cloaking, secondary shielded, thalaron pulsing, scorpion fighter spawning batships a week?
During the war, yes much of it was. Before hand? No, and even during the war there were standalone episodes. In STO everything is the Iconians. EVERYTHING.
That is similar to what I mentioned a while back.
Voyager had one underlining story, to get home. However, there were side missions that did nothing to advance the main story.
TNG was like TOS, it was to explore. Again, not all episodes did that.
I completely support having "side missions" that don't need to be tied into the main story arc. That is, as long as it will not interfere with new content to progress the main story.
I do like the developer blogs. However, is it possible to start another blog, so we can have a developer blog, and a blog for story content? Just a thought.
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!
I really don't like this story based blogs. If PWE could find a way to take these and put them into STO some how, that would really go a long way into help improving the lack of story based content. Just think of how many players miss out on that as well from not visiting the forums.
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Looking for a new fleet? Drop by the in-game chat channel, "tenforwardforum", and say hi to the members of A Fleet Called Ten Forward (Fed) and The Orion Pirates (KDF). If you already have a fleet you are happy with, please feel free to drop by our chat channel if you are looking for a friendly bunch of helpful people to socialize with.
During the war, yes much of it was. Before hand? No, and even during the war there were standalone episodes. In STO everything is the Iconians. EVERYTHING.
That was one thing I was dissapointed about the Sphere. I expected to find missions within the sphere. How many times did you wish you could beam down and explore something? There were tons of opportunities to have missions that explore the nature of the sphere, there's definately Flora and Fauna, the question is why? What about the tear in the sphere, why did we never get to explore that. Or all those strange spires doing things, why didn't we get to beam down and explore any of those. What about natives to the area, were the no freelancers operating in the sphere? If it did indeed use its fancy FTL drive to jump to this location, did it maybe bring any aliens from its original location with it?
I do enjoy reading these in character blogs; they give the world of STO just a bit more depth (things can happen without our character being involved? Shock horror!). Pity we don't get more of them...
From: Admiral T'Rell Movar, Commander of RRW Raptor Star
To: Starfleet Admiral Kintisho
We will not surrender ANYTHING. We have are not held by the Treaties of old because we are not the government with which those treaties were signed. You have no right to demand ANYTHING of the Romulan Republic. We are not fools. You onlt continue to aid us in hopes we do not side with the klingons and join in their war with you. We have shared access to a dyson sphere which is in OUR space and you have developed an entire starship from what you have learned, same as we have. You have also build a warship which is capable of using a cloaking device, operate smalled Defiant class, and similar vessel with cloaks, and have even refit dreadnaughts with cloaks all without our saying a word. In fact, there are many within the RR that doesnt even care and your continued cloaking technology development is of no concern to us. Do as you will. Know this: If one starfleet vessel enters Romulan space with malicious intend, it will be met with deadly force. Do not make a possilbe ally into an enemy.
The gateway is not in Republic space. Jouret IV is a Federation world.
The writers at Cryptic obviously had a brainfart here.
You mean those guys pumping out hundreds of thousands of state of the art battle cloaking, secondary shielded, thalaron pulsing, scorpion fighter spawning batships a week?
I always thought it was the "Republic Navy" or "Romulan Republic Forces (RRF)".
That's literally what the game runs on though. Without them, we wouldn't have STO.
I didn't say to abandon them entirely, but to move away from them. Fact is, what we have now isn't a game, it's a money making scheme with a bunch of busy work attached to it.
We used to get Featured SERIES in addition to Seasonal Updates and now we're lucky if we get a Featured EPISODE as a part of Seasonal Updates. All things considered... I don't think STO is running at all. Apparently the lockboxes are a huge financial success according to Cryptic, but it's certainly not paying off for the player. Money in, garbage out.
If all we can expect is lockboxes funding grind than may as well put a bullet in it because the game is over and all that's left is a lifeless, hollow shell devoid of value which Cryptic is abusing in unspeakable manners.
The TRIBBLE may keep STO running, but what's the point if all that serves to do is create more TRIBBLE? Cryptic needs to focus more on creating content of value or just give up and flush it...
During the war, yes much of it was. Before hand? No, and even during the war there were standalone episodes. In STO everything is the Iconians. EVERYTHING.
STO might be overdoing it. But the Tholians for example aren't really tied in the Iconian arc, yet. The Borg aren't tied in, either. Or the Breen. Or the Dominion.
Maybe those species became more aggressive because of the Iconian's return, but at least they are not serving them.
The Undine are not serving the Iconians, either. They might have been manipulated by them, though.
And quite frankly: the lose story telling of Voyager and TNG wasn't really good. I vastly prefer something like DS9, Babylon 5 or even Mass Effect (if it comes to video games).
So... Cryptic should try to stop making everyone and everything to Iconian pawns. But they should expand on that storyline nonetheless. They should deal with other powers and how they prepare for the Demons return.
I would love to see a Dominion presence in the Delta Quadrant for example, as soon as we get there. To conter the Federation/Klingon/Romlan expansion into that region of the galaxy.
Make it astropolitical. A huge power struggle between the Alpha Quadrant Alliance and the Dominion, with the Iconians looming at the horizon, and the DQ is our new playground.
Oh, and expand upon the Borg-Undine war. Take inspiration from the Vorlon-Shadow war if you must, Cryptic. I would really love to get the feeling that the Alpha Quadrant factions are quite tiny and weak compared to the Borg and the Undine.
Something I really missed when encountering the Voth, which are supposed to be vastly superior.
Talking about the Voth... I really hope we are not done with them. There is still the reason the Voth were desperate enough to try to weaponize the Solanae Dyson Sphere to be explored: their unknown enemy (Borg?).
So yeah... expand the storylines.
Voth. Borg. Undine. Tholians.
And... in some way... that's why I am really happy about this Season 9.
They finally are expanding old storylines. Particually the Undine arc, which is a very, very important part of the STO lore.
I can even get over the Undine Lock Box because of the story potential the Undine hold for the game.
In conclusion: If done right, an epic threat like the Iconians is just what I love. There needs to be enough story around it, though. Other factions and their motivations. All this is in STO, it's just not expanded enough upon.
How goes the saying?
Tell God's story, then tell the farmer's story, then listen to what the dog has to say.
Seriously, something done well since SoI is the Republic behaviour.
I disliked the Romulan Republic first, but they are shaping up quite nicely. Playing the Klingons against the Federation and everything, claiming practially two Dyson Spheres right now (each of which is the equivalent landmass of ever single planet in the Federation, the Klingon Empire and the former Romulan Empire combined. Plus a million more or so).
Well... that is Romulan. Becoming a democratic, open society does not equal to betray the core interests of your species. And the Romulans are conquerers at heart.
I didn't say to abandon them entirely, but to move away from them. Fact is, what we have now isn't a game, it's a money making scheme with a bunch of busy work attached to it.
We used to get Featured SERIES in addition to Seasonal Updates and now we're lucky if we get a Featured EPISODE as a part of Seasonal Updates. All things considered... I don't think STO is running at all. Apparently the lockboxes are a huge financial success according to Cryptic, but it's certainly not paying off for the player. Money in, garbage out.
If all we can expect is lockboxes funding grind than may as well put a bullet in it because the game is over and all that's left is a lifeless, hollow shell devoid of value which Cryptic is abusing in unspeakable manners.
The TRIBBLE may keep STO running, but what's the point if all that serves to do is create more TRIBBLE? Cryptic needs to focus more on creating content of value or just give up and flush it...
I absolutely agree.
Instead of creating a meaningful storyline, Cryptic has turned everything into a thematic grind. Lockboxes, reputation systems, and fleet holdings have become gimmicks. At the end of each Dyson and Romulan tier, the only way a story progresses is through a few second cut scenes. Players grind resources, fill in resource requirements, complete tiers, and then repeat. No dialogue options, no leveling, no 'true' story participation, no companion interaction, no companion relationships, etc... Just invisible dialogue triggers.
Players are just drones working on the same TRIBBLE over and over again.
What type of cognitive and fruitful stimulation is everyone getting?
Outside of visual aesthetics, what will the new Earth Spacedock do for story progression?
Why is the new Earth Spacedock smaller than the current one? Did the population delcine drastically?
Will the new customizable kits require me to 'buy' and 'grind' more content? Why? How much more dilithium will I need to customize a kit? Will players have to grind a new fleet outpost, so they can obtain these new kit upgrades? How much will those 'fleet kit provisions' -or- 'the fleet kit stores' cost? How much will the new outpost cost to complete?
"Star Trek: Online" is all about doing repetitive tasks, so that people can obtain tools for doing repetitive tasks.
No logic to this game at all.
Why is this happening to a game based upon "Star Trek"?
"Their biological technology is a rival for anything the Collective possesses, and surpasses our current technology, even with the addition of the discoveries from the Jenolan Dyson Sphere."
"I am concerned about the recent event in the Jenolan Dyson sphere, as well as the gates opened between it and the Solanae sphere deeper in the Delta Quadrant."
Uhm Cryptic, having problems remembering your own storyline? Since when did the Romulans gain technology from the Jenolan Sphere? I thought the Sphere they gained technology was the Solanae no? Also since when is the Solanae deeper in the Delta Quadrant than the Jenolan?
You really have to compose your blogs more coerently or it's gonna cause a lot of confusion.
"Their biological technology is a rival for anything the Collective possesses, and surpasses our current technology, even with the addition of the discoveries from the Jenolan Dyson Sphere."
"I am concerned about the recent event in the Jenolan Dyson sphere, as well as the gates opened between it and the Solanae sphere deeper in the Delta Quadrant."
Uhm Cryptic, having problems remembering your own storyline? Since when did the Romulans gain technology from the Jenolan Sphere? I thought the Sphere they gained technology was the Solanae no? Also since when is the Solanae deeper in the Delta Quadrant than the Jenolan?
You really have to compose your blogs more coerently or it's gonna cause a lot of confusion.
Where did it say the discoveries were made by Romulans? It's Joint Task Operation, remember, and the USS Gold survived being stranded in the Jenolan Sphere for quite a while until we rescued them. I don't think they spent their time playing tridimensional chess and once rescued, they shared their results to the Federation which then shared for the sake of the alliance.
And to the trigger-happy-possibly-Undine-in-disguise captains, from Ambassador S'Reeja:
"Please, try not to ruin the work I and other diplomats are doing to keep the Alpha and Beta Quadrants from self-terminating, thank you very much".
On a serious note, frankly its because the customer base is who they are. Had the customer base not been Trekkies, this game probably would have died after a couple of months. Luckily for Cryptic, they had a base for players who
A) Desperately wanted a good Star Trek game & experience
Had no other way to get a consistent Star Trek experience
and C) Would throw money at Cryptic despite their choices and behavior
In many way, I don't hold Cryptic so accountable for creating such a game, because early on they were shown that we can make low quality stuff and people will pay through the nose for it.
Don't get me wrong, I was a part of the problem, but it really is something the early community had a huge part in. Many allowed Cryptic to go inch by inch downhill and not react because the concept of a grind filled F2P mess was "inconceivable."
I do miss Cryptic in the period between Fall of 2010 and Spring of 2011, that was their highest moment. Featured eps on the rise and impressively good, community desires being fulfilled. Good times
Join Legends Memorial, a chat channel to share stories about the legends of Trek who are no longer with us.
On a serious note, frankly its because the customer base is who they are. Had the customer base not been Trekkies, this game probably would have died after a couple of months. Luckily for Cryptic, they had a base for players who
A) Desperately wanted a good Star Trek game & experience
Had no other way to get a consistent Star Trek experience
and C) Would throw money at Cryptic despite their choices and behavior
In many way, I don't hold Cryptic so accountable for creating such a game, because early on they were shown that we can make low quality stuff and people will pay through the nose for it.
Don't get me wrong, I was a part of the problem, but it really is something the early community had a huge part in. Many allowed Cryptic to go inch by inch downhill and not react because the concept of a grind filled F2P mess was "inconceivable."
I do miss Cryptic in the period between Fall of 2010 and Spring of 2011, that was their highest moment. Featured eps on the rise and impressively good, community desires being fulfilled. Good times
^^^ This... This describes me to a T. I am the F2P player who can't get consistent "Star Trek" anywhere else, and is such a fan, that I feel the desire to play, and will to some extent, "throw money" at Cryptic to continue with the feeling.
However, once my chosen toons have reached their maxes and I have ground for what I want to grind for (including Reps and Fleet stuff), I see the game beginning for me. When I can fly around all the quadrants and sectors and choose which missions I want to play and what order to play them. When I can sit and calmly go through and create quality foundry missions and enjoy all the myriad of foundry missions that others have created... THEN it will feel more like trek to me.
Right now, it feels like Grind-Trek... But once my onw personal grinds are over, I will have a comfortable ship and crew with which to seriously explore the galaxy with...
CM
"Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure science." - Edwin Hubble
I do enjoy reading these in character blogs; they give the world of STO just a bit more depth (things can happen without our character being involved? Shock horror!). Pity we don't get more of them...
I have no problem with them. I just think that the developer blog should be for the developers' blogs, and the stories they tell should be in a story blog. It will be a way of not jumbling the two up. (Kinda like how some post get moved in the forums because they are not posted in the space for them).
It will also allow for one place where all of the stories they do like this are in one collection, instead of new players needing to search through all of the developer blogs to find them.
Even though there may not be many episodes that come out, between the times they are released, they can do more stories that lead up to them. Release a short RP report like this one each week, or month. It will help keep players' interest more till the next episode is released.
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!
^^^ This... This describes me to a T. I am the F2P player who can't get consistent "Star Trek" anywhere else, and is such a fan, that I feel the desire to play, and will to some extent, "throw money" at Cryptic to continue with the feeling.
However, once my chosen toons have reached their maxes and I have ground for what I want to grind for (including Reps and Fleet stuff), I see the game beginning for me. When I can fly around all the quadrants and sectors and choose which missions I want to play and what order to play them. When I can sit and calmly go through and create quality foundry missions and enjoy all the myriad of foundry missions that others have created... THEN it will feel more like trek to me.
Right now, it feels like Grind-Trek... But once my onw personal grinds are over, I will have a comfortable ship and crew with which to seriously explore the galaxy with...
CM
See that in and of itself is what they count on. Once you are done with the grinds...
But if every couple of months they add a new one, will you ever be done?
Join Legends Memorial, a chat channel to share stories about the legends of Trek who are no longer with us.
See that in and of itself is what they count on. Once you are done with the grinds...
But if every couple of months they add a new one, will you ever be done?
Right now, I grind with everything because each grind has opportunities to add dilithium, EC, Lobi, etc. for me to purchase items for my ships. My main toon is already completed, so he works on the fleet starbase. My other 4 toons are currently working on their respective rep grinds. Once the rep gear is done, each toon will in turn focus on the fleet grinds. Once the fleet is done and all the fleet shields and such are done, then I can be picky... When a new grind comes along (I almost said "If", lol... as if), I can see if it offers me anything that I really feel I want. Now, I know I don't have to do the grinds now either, but for the mean time, the grinds are the only ways to earn the needed EC, Lobi, dilithium, marks, etc. that further my toons abilities to do things and have things...
I am disappointed in some of the grinds, just like everyone else here is... But until our society actually invents interstellar travel, this game offers me the opportunity to dream...
CM
"Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure science." - Edwin Hubble
Romulan Republic Militia Intelligence? Your really going to go with that?
Why not a cool name like Tal'Darim I think was the Civilian Intelligence. May have got the spelling wrong.
Tal'Darim, I like it.
Yes I agree that we need more actual specifications details of all the new content as majority of the blog's information we already know, we have played the game, dah.
And I wish the developers and writers would stop changing the already set lore of the episodes and PvE missions to suit their new content, that's cheating. Though I know they are just going to continue to do whatever the hell they want and not listen to us, the players.
Yeah the ICONIANS are the bad guys here!!! MORE OF THEM CRYPTIC!!!!! Got next to nothing about them, it's about time we faced them!!! We know they are responsible!!!
The Undine would not be invading if it wasn't for them!
What do we want?
ICONIANS
When do we want it?
NOW
COME ON!
Well we don't know yet how it's handled though, retcons at this stage make no sense.
That was one thing I was dissapointed about the Sphere. I expected to find missions within the sphere. How many times did you wish you could beam down and explore something? There were tons of opportunities to have missions that explore the nature of the sphere, there's definately Flora and Fauna, the question is why? What about the tear in the sphere, why did we never get to explore that. Or all those strange spires doing things, why didn't we get to beam down and explore any of those. What about natives to the area, were the no freelancers operating in the sphere? If it did indeed use its fancy FTL drive to jump to this location, did it maybe bring any aliens from its original location with it?
Amen brother. More exploration missions would've helped balance out the violence of the battle zone, and gave more feeling of the fact that we're supposed to be exploring the sphere.
They could've reused the Genesis system with the Sphere assets and made randomly generated missions, anything. Explore a giant building, or a lake, mountain climbing anything.
"Rise like Lions after slumber, In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many they are few"
I'm curious to see what it is exactly that was found out in the Jenolan Sphere that has the Militia part of the Romulans thinking that the Sphere they found is theirs. It might also be what the Voth eventual found (I'm still not done T5).
I think that's what Cryptic was more trying to get at, was that whatever was found out from Jenolan will make it more important to take back the Undine part of the Solanae Sphere and why it seems like the more aggressive Romulans want Solanae under only its control.
From: General Bahn of the House of Sigma, KDF
To: General Jerema, KDF
GhaH 'ej Duvan General,
It is true that we could merely observe the fallout between the Undine and Voth, as well as the Federation and the Republic, waiting for the right time to strike.
Except, we are Klingon! So the right time to strike is now! We shall sink our bat'leths in their skulls!
I'm calling dibbs on Commander Kaol's head as a trophy on the I.K.S. QellyS Rol.
Qapla'!
See, Cryptic? This is what happens when you keep the servers down too long.
Nice to see Cryptic hasn't abandoned their own background with relaying some of the Path to 2409 in that blog. I like the part about how it shows the Federation (under Undine influence) helped to start the war. Now is a great time for Cryptic to escalate the war with some more early missions for the KDF.
Support the Game by Supporting the KDF, equality and uniqueness for all factions!
Comments
You mean those guys pumping out hundreds of thousands of state of the art battle cloaking, secondary shielded, thalaron pulsing, scorpion fighter spawning batships a week?
That is similar to what I mentioned a while back.
Voyager had one underlining story, to get home. However, there were side missions that did nothing to advance the main story.
TNG was like TOS, it was to explore. Again, not all episodes did that.
I completely support having "side missions" that don't need to be tied into the main story arc. That is, as long as it will not interfere with new content to progress the main story.
I do like the developer blogs. However, is it possible to start another blog, so we can have a developer blog, and a blog for story content? Just a thought.
Tim.
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Surprise! I'm here!
... what'd I miss?
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
That was one thing I was dissapointed about the Sphere. I expected to find missions within the sphere. How many times did you wish you could beam down and explore something? There were tons of opportunities to have missions that explore the nature of the sphere, there's definately Flora and Fauna, the question is why? What about the tear in the sphere, why did we never get to explore that. Or all those strange spires doing things, why didn't we get to beam down and explore any of those. What about natives to the area, were the no freelancers operating in the sphere? If it did indeed use its fancy FTL drive to jump to this location, did it maybe bring any aliens from its original location with it?
Helpful Tools: Dictionary.com - Logical fallacies - Random generator - Word generator - Color tool - Extra Credits - List of common English language errors - New T6 Big booty tutorial
"to be and Undine..." should read as "to be an Undine..."
The gateway is not in Republic space. Jouret IV is a Federation world.
The writers at Cryptic obviously had a brainfart here.
I always thought it was the "Republic Navy" or "Romulan Republic Forces (RRF)".
I didn't say to abandon them entirely, but to move away from them. Fact is, what we have now isn't a game, it's a money making scheme with a bunch of busy work attached to it.
We used to get Featured SERIES in addition to Seasonal Updates and now we're lucky if we get a Featured EPISODE as a part of Seasonal Updates. All things considered... I don't think STO is running at all. Apparently the lockboxes are a huge financial success according to Cryptic, but it's certainly not paying off for the player. Money in, garbage out.
If all we can expect is lockboxes funding grind than may as well put a bullet in it because the game is over and all that's left is a lifeless, hollow shell devoid of value which Cryptic is abusing in unspeakable manners.
The TRIBBLE may keep STO running, but what's the point if all that serves to do is create more TRIBBLE? Cryptic needs to focus more on creating content of value or just give up and flush it...
Jouret IV is a Federation world, but the Gateway was connected to the Gatway in New Romulus so...
STO might be overdoing it. But the Tholians for example aren't really tied in the Iconian arc, yet. The Borg aren't tied in, either. Or the Breen. Or the Dominion.
Maybe those species became more aggressive because of the Iconian's return, but at least they are not serving them.
The Undine are not serving the Iconians, either. They might have been manipulated by them, though.
And quite frankly: the lose story telling of Voyager and TNG wasn't really good. I vastly prefer something like DS9, Babylon 5 or even Mass Effect (if it comes to video games).
So... Cryptic should try to stop making everyone and everything to Iconian pawns. But they should expand on that storyline nonetheless. They should deal with other powers and how they prepare for the Demons return.
I would love to see a Dominion presence in the Delta Quadrant for example, as soon as we get there. To conter the Federation/Klingon/Romlan expansion into that region of the galaxy.
Make it astropolitical. A huge power struggle between the Alpha Quadrant Alliance and the Dominion, with the Iconians looming at the horizon, and the DQ is our new playground.
Oh, and expand upon the Borg-Undine war. Take inspiration from the Vorlon-Shadow war if you must, Cryptic. I would really love to get the feeling that the Alpha Quadrant factions are quite tiny and weak compared to the Borg and the Undine.
Something I really missed when encountering the Voth, which are supposed to be vastly superior.
Talking about the Voth... I really hope we are not done with them. There is still the reason the Voth were desperate enough to try to weaponize the Solanae Dyson Sphere to be explored: their unknown enemy (Borg?).
So yeah... expand the storylines.
Voth. Borg. Undine. Tholians.
And... in some way... that's why I am really happy about this Season 9.
They finally are expanding old storylines. Particually the Undine arc, which is a very, very important part of the STO lore.
I can even get over the Undine Lock Box because of the story potential the Undine hold for the game.
In conclusion: If done right, an epic threat like the Iconians is just what I love. There needs to be enough story around it, though. Other factions and their motivations. All this is in STO, it's just not expanded enough upon.
How goes the saying?
Tell God's story, then tell the farmer's story, then listen to what the dog has to say.
Not anymore it seems, haha.
Seriously, something done well since SoI is the Republic behaviour.
I disliked the Romulan Republic first, but they are shaping up quite nicely. Playing the Klingons against the Federation and everything, claiming practially two Dyson Spheres right now (each of which is the equivalent landmass of ever single planet in the Federation, the Klingon Empire and the former Romulan Empire combined. Plus a million more or so).
Well... that is Romulan. Becoming a democratic, open society does not equal to betray the core interests of your species. And the Romulans are conquerers at heart.
Instead of creating a meaningful storyline, Cryptic has turned everything into a thematic grind. Lockboxes, reputation systems, and fleet holdings have become gimmicks. At the end of each Dyson and Romulan tier, the only way a story progresses is through a few second cut scenes. Players grind resources, fill in resource requirements, complete tiers, and then repeat. No dialogue options, no leveling, no 'true' story participation, no companion interaction, no companion relationships, etc... Just invisible dialogue triggers.
Players are just drones working on the same TRIBBLE over and over again.
What type of cognitive and fruitful stimulation is everyone getting?
Outside of visual aesthetics, what will the new Earth Spacedock do for story progression?
Why is the new Earth Spacedock smaller than the current one? Did the population delcine drastically?
Will the new customizable kits require me to 'buy' and 'grind' more content? Why? How much more dilithium will I need to customize a kit? Will players have to grind a new fleet outpost, so they can obtain these new kit upgrades? How much will those 'fleet kit provisions' -or- 'the fleet kit stores' cost? How much will the new outpost cost to complete?
"Star Trek: Online" is all about doing repetitive tasks, so that people can obtain tools for doing repetitive tasks.
No logic to this game at all.
Why is this happening to a game based upon "Star Trek"?
Where did this game go so wrong?
"I am concerned about the recent event in the Jenolan Dyson sphere, as well as the gates opened between it and the Solanae sphere deeper in the Delta Quadrant."
Uhm Cryptic, having problems remembering your own storyline? Since when did the Romulans gain technology from the Jenolan Sphere? I thought the Sphere they gained technology was the Solanae no? Also since when is the Solanae deeper in the Delta Quadrant than the Jenolan?
You really have to compose your blogs more coerently or it's gonna cause a lot of confusion.
D&D Home Page - What Class Are You? - Build A Character - D&D Compendium
And to the trigger-happy-possibly-Undine-in-disguise captains, from Ambassador S'Reeja:
"Please, try not to ruin the work I and other diplomats are doing to keep the Alpha and Beta Quadrants from self-terminating, thank you very much".
Practically the day the game launched lol.
On a serious note, frankly its because the customer base is who they are. Had the customer base not been Trekkies, this game probably would have died after a couple of months. Luckily for Cryptic, they had a base for players who
A) Desperately wanted a good Star Trek game & experience
and C) Would throw money at Cryptic despite their choices and behavior
In many way, I don't hold Cryptic so accountable for creating such a game, because early on they were shown that we can make low quality stuff and people will pay through the nose for it.
Don't get me wrong, I was a part of the problem, but it really is something the early community had a huge part in. Many allowed Cryptic to go inch by inch downhill and not react because the concept of a grind filled F2P mess was "inconceivable."
I do miss Cryptic in the period between Fall of 2010 and Spring of 2011, that was their highest moment. Featured eps on the rise and impressively good, community desires being fulfilled. Good times
^^^ This... This describes me to a T. I am the F2P player who can't get consistent "Star Trek" anywhere else, and is such a fan, that I feel the desire to play, and will to some extent, "throw money" at Cryptic to continue with the feeling.
However, once my chosen toons have reached their maxes and I have ground for what I want to grind for (including Reps and Fleet stuff), I see the game beginning for me. When I can fly around all the quadrants and sectors and choose which missions I want to play and what order to play them. When I can sit and calmly go through and create quality foundry missions and enjoy all the myriad of foundry missions that others have created... THEN it will feel more like trek to me.
Right now, it feels like Grind-Trek... But once my onw personal grinds are over, I will have a comfortable ship and crew with which to seriously explore the galaxy with...
CM
I have no problem with them. I just think that the developer blog should be for the developers' blogs, and the stories they tell should be in a story blog. It will be a way of not jumbling the two up. (Kinda like how some post get moved in the forums because they are not posted in the space for them).
It will also allow for one place where all of the stories they do like this are in one collection, instead of new players needing to search through all of the developer blogs to find them.
Even though there may not be many episodes that come out, between the times they are released, they can do more stories that lead up to them. Release a short RP report like this one each week, or month. It will help keep players' interest more till the next episode is released.
See that in and of itself is what they count on. Once you are done with the grinds...
But if every couple of months they add a new one, will you ever be done?
Right now, I grind with everything because each grind has opportunities to add dilithium, EC, Lobi, etc. for me to purchase items for my ships. My main toon is already completed, so he works on the fleet starbase. My other 4 toons are currently working on their respective rep grinds. Once the rep gear is done, each toon will in turn focus on the fleet grinds. Once the fleet is done and all the fleet shields and such are done, then I can be picky... When a new grind comes along (I almost said "If", lol... as if), I can see if it offers me anything that I really feel I want. Now, I know I don't have to do the grinds now either, but for the mean time, the grinds are the only ways to earn the needed EC, Lobi, dilithium, marks, etc. that further my toons abilities to do things and have things...
I am disappointed in some of the grinds, just like everyone else here is... But until our society actually invents interstellar travel, this game offers me the opportunity to dream...
CM
Well we don't know yet how it's handled though, retcons at this stage make no sense.
Amen brother. More exploration missions would've helped balance out the violence of the battle zone, and gave more feeling of the fact that we're supposed to be exploring the sphere.
They could've reused the Genesis system with the Sphere assets and made randomly generated missions, anything. Explore a giant building, or a lake, mountain climbing anything.
I think that's what Cryptic was more trying to get at, was that whatever was found out from Jenolan will make it more important to take back the Undine part of the Solanae Sphere and why it seems like the more aggressive Romulans want Solanae under only its control.
See, Cryptic? This is what happens when you keep the servers down too long.