you know what I won't forget? Dustin, Chelsea, and Jimmy use to play this game with me. Real, local friends that left when the Borg story missions got butchered. I've had other friends stop playing this game to, heavy trekkies that only quit when the devs did something to appeal to casual players and ether directly or indirectly pulled the challenge and incentive out of the game. No, I won't be "happily grinding my undien rep" what incentive do I have to do so?
So if Cryptic wants casual players so bad sure they can have them. I'm not quiting over this but I am cutting a good portion of my game time out to join my friends in other hobbies (right now they are making uniforms, looks like I can get Chelsea to teach me to sew)
Its not even about casual players though... seriously if you LIKE this game do this game. It sounds like as a trek guy you should have been annoyed by the grind anyway... they just changed it so you won't be FORCED to grind. I am not getting your point.
The incentive SHOULD be you are having fun... not you want a +30 to X type of carrot.
This change is about them being able to release new content that in fact works for anyone that has a level 50 toon. The don't want another Hive fiasco where most of us find it fine and in fact a bit of fun... but 90% of the rest of the game finds it a pain. I am fine with getting my effective power level reduced.... IF it brings back my frineds.
Think of it this way... your friends you have lost... if they came back for a week.. Would they feel like the game was fun... or would they feel like they had a whole lot of boring asian style grinding to do ?
This change and if they make a few more... will make it easier for both our friends to return and play without feeling like they are year 1 collage students forced to finish year 5 classes.
B: An account with multiple "ghosts" posting in shifts, in the interests of pulling off an epic troll.
It's odd that you have been posting near continuously in at least two major threads on the subject. I find it hard to believe that anybody is this zealous in defending a change in game mechanics.
And I've been on the internet long enough, that I've seen pretty much every tactic used to achieve the "lulz".
Wait, you tell me that there are more than 1 people supporting this change?
Mind blown.
Also. Rep missions are fun...the first ten times. Otherwise it becomes boring. That's when the carrot comes into play.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
Wait, you tell me that there are more than 1 people supporting this change?
Mind blown.
Also. Rep missions are fun...the first ten times. Otherwise it becomes boring. That's when the carrot comes into play.
So you should be happy you are no longer always forced to do them. If you can't find anything FUN to do in this game... I am not asking to be a jerk or to troll.... really though.
Think of it this way... your friends you have lost... if they came back for a week.. Would they feel like the game was fun... or would they feel like they had a whole lot of boring asian style grinding to do ?
This change and if they make a few more... will make it easier for both our friends to return and play without feeling like they are year 1 collage students forced to finish year 5 classes.
you never know, I'll ask them to join me this weekend on tribble (Jimmy sold his pc so I'll have to let him use my laptop) maybe they'll like it. And no I don't much care for grind but I understand why it exist. See below my main reason against this.
Well at lest this shows you are reading, thank you. I will test this system but for the now please consider this:
we have ground gear, and space gear, then we have the Rep system that once at level 50 is our new level system with set passive abilities we set and forget. This change is equivalent to removing the passives altogether and replacing it with character bound Rep gear. We have enough different types of gear already. Thank you for reading
That was to a dev here, frankly what a change like this is lacking in my eyes is character progression. Now if they continue to add to the story and challenge, then hell I don't need a reward I'll do it for nothing. But as is at this point I don't see a character progression coming from this.
you never know, I'll ask them to join me this weekend on tribble (Jimmy sold his pc so I'll have to let him use my laptop) maybe they'll like it. And no I don't much care for grind but I understand why it exist. See below my main reason against this.
That was to a dev here, frankly what a change like this is lacking in my eyes is character progression. Now if they continue to add to the story and challenge, then hell I don't need a reward I'll do it for nothing. But as is at this point I don't see a character progression coming from this.
Hey I hope your friends do come back man. Best thing about a MMO is being able to share it with people you enjoy spending some time with. Good luck... I hope it works out.
I agree with you... most people know me as a PvP guy... but to be honest I really wasn't much of one when I started playing this game 4 years ago. I was a MMO person sure and I loved trek. When they announced they where going to do Weakly series and they would feel like Episode runs... where it was like you got to play 4 or 5 "to be continued" style missions and finish it off with a big final mission. I was super pumped.
The first Devidan missions where awsome... when we got the halloween mission anyone that was there remembers that it was cool. The timing was perfect for the first run of those missions. At the time they promised us those once a month... with a few points during the year where they would do "re runs" and bring back limited time rewards for a week or two. It was going to be like playing your toon though an actual trek TV show.
Then that idea spudered out. I guess it was more work then they expected... OR all the issues jumping from one owner to another put it on the back burner.
I would very much like to see them return to that though... the last good series we got was the 300... that was a long time ago... I know we got a few misisons here and there like the Dyson Tuvok stuff and a cameo by Michel Dorn... still we haven't really had an actual well written chain of "episode" missions.
Myself I think Cryptic needs to fix the mechanics... forget about the silly progressions we have in every other MMO... if we leave them to that this thing is just going to look more and more like it was programmed in North Korea.
Bring back the idea of Month or at least Bi monthly 4-8 mission chains. Make them feel like Trek episodes... forget the voice actors... let the devs do the voices... Hire some proper writters and get to it. Honesty the writing lately is terrible... that tuvok mission was just plain bad... could you imagine watching that drivel in a Trek Show. Heck no... we should be demanding proper stories... and that they take the time to give them to us... forget carots... give me a story I WANT to log in for come patch day. They can drag out 4-5 missions over an entire month if they want.
Question 1: The imbalance of the game has been caused by whom?
Answer: Cryptic
Question 2: Who is made to pay for the game imbalance?
Answer: The long term and game supporting players.
Question 3: Who cares about what the players want?
Answer: No One!
Question 4: Who should have noticed the game imbalance when the developers didn't?
Answer: The players
Question 5: What did the players do to point this out?
Answer: Absolutely nothing.
Point of the matter is this: Yes, there is game imbalance. Yes, Cryptic should have caught on much earlier. But, we the players should have kept saying something, but we didn't. The new players never noticed this and the old players reveled in it. And now that Cryptic noticed, the old players are revolting because what the reveled in is being taken away.
So you should be happy you are no longer always forced to do them. If you can't find anything FUN to do in this game... I am not asking to be a jerk or to troll.... really though.
Why do you play ?
I used to have fun in this game.
The problem is, Cryptic is making changes that are reducing the fun I can have in it. So I'm opposed to these changes to keep things fun.
Now.......how could things be fun and more balanced? Let me give the devs some ideas again.
-Harder missions. Maybe a new difficulty level, or new content, but I'm not choosy which.
-PVP matchmaking that puts players with comparable gear and dps in matches.
-Make abilities and gear have separate pvp and pve effects.
-Faster to do reputations that give bonuses like the old rep system. Instead of nerfing them for the noobs, make them faster to get.
-Make reputation items and progression costs ONLY MARKS.
-Reduce some of the worst Doffs like A2B technicians, and put a hard cap on defence boost so accuracy can not be reduced to less than 30%.
There, that would achive better balance, lessen power creep problem, give noobs a chance to catch up, give elite players some very hard content to do.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
well jeff this one is gonna cost the company plenty. lots of wallets will close over this . but we both know people have been leaving in droves for quite some time. ive been watching your responses to some of the questions for 2 days now and you skirt the issue very nicely without answering anything. 150+ pages of rage say 1 thing jeff , as the numbers stand as you stated they add up to adding more to whats wrong, power creep aux2batt and faw to name a few and does absolutely nothing to fix it exept take powers that were earned from vets with hundreds of hours invested in the rep. and the problems will remain. As a paying gold member for 4yrs maybe the only way to make you listen to the community is cut off the money . because frankly I don't think free to players spend more than vets and we both know it. sad to say lots of the old guard here go more than comeback now for these very reasons stated in these 150+ pages here.I will not continue to spend my hard earned money on a game that takes what I have earned with hundreds of hrs reping my toons up. why don't you for once jeff actually fix whats wrong instead of smoke and mirrors and lying to the community, or not telling them at all[which is worse in my book] well if u go look at my account jeff it is now deactivated. and whats sad is im not in the minority here jeff its the majority of most vets who have been kicked in the teeth by criptic for years your standing in the community will suffer greatly over this as well. instead of attacking the problems head on like a leader should to make his community happy, you and your team took the easy way out. jeff you knew the rep as it was given to us was not gonna work and yet you added more. we all know this jeff no hiding it no running from it mate. thing is jeff we both know all this is going live nothing going to be tweaked or changed don't we, nothing ever is all you have proven to us is that you care more for your paycheck than u do your community and your game and you don't fool most of us one bit
HERE HERE! well said! Watcha say there Jeffery? You had enough? I think its clear we sure have!!!! :mad::mad::mad::mad:
END THE WELFARE PROGRAM CRYPTIC OR MAYBE WE NEED TO END YOURS!!!
Question 4: Who should have noticed the game imbalance when the developers didn't?
Answer: The players
Question 5: What did the players do to point this out?
Answer: Absolutely nothing.
Point of the matter is this: Yes, there is game imbalance. Yes, Cryptic should have caught on much earlier. But, we the players should have kept saying something, but we didn't. The new players never noticed this and the old players reveled in it. And now that Cryptic noticed, the old players are revolting because what the reveled in is being taken away.
It is not the players duty to do the developers job.
Next to that were the dps numbers (and therefore the imbalances) well known all the time.
I wonder how many unique player post are in this discussion. Whatever it is, make that +1.
Like I quoted another player earlier, i say the same again. Let current players have all the passives and actives they have earned so far. Then from now on you can put fic the limit to that number.
That is, we currently have 4 reputations, so 4 Actives, 8 Passives each for Ground and Space.
I believe this is the best way forward. It does not really take that long for a new lvl 50 player to get 8 passives to be competitive with experienced players. Remember that each tier bettween 1 and 4 inclusive grants 2 passives. T1 of 4 or 5 reputations gives a player enough passives to slot into the available slots apart from actives.
If it will help, rearange the reputation tiers so that at each tier a player can choose between ground and space rather than exclusive ground passives, one for tank and one for damage.
Question 4: Who should have noticed the game imbalance when the developers didn't?
Answer: The players
Question 5: What did the players do to point this out?
Answer: Absolutely nothing.
Point of the matter is this: Yes, there is game imbalance. Yes, Cryptic should have caught on much earlier. But, we the players should have kept saying something, but we didn't. The new players never noticed this and the old players reveled in it. And now that Cryptic noticed, the old players are revolting because what the reveled in is being taken away.
That's no excuse for:
A: Destroying PVE options for weaker careers like Science who only have 2 options in space combat.
B: Causing more imbalance in PVE by doing something completely unnecessary with reputation talents.
There is a PTR for a reason, if they can't test their game that's not the long time player's fault nor should we be the ones to pay for it.
What they did with this wasn't remove the ability for people to use reputation powers in PVP which would have solved the problem, they created a bigger rift for PVE science captains which already suffer from multiple useless skills that have yet to get the necessary proper attention to make them worth while in PVE combat so that we can remain competative In a season that was supposed to be all about science ships in the first place, ahem cough Voyager! Ring any bells there?
At the Very least, they should give a doff to the science captains that mimic that ability at the same percentage as the Romulan Placate passive allowed so that we'd still retain the ability for PVE.
-Harder missions. Maybe a new difficulty level, or new content, but I'm not choosy which.
Yes, we could have harder missions or a new difficulty level, but you still have the whiners who refuse to do the work and want more pew pew.
-PVP matchmaking that puts players with comparable gear and dps in matches.
Sounds easy on paper, but that's gonna be ridiculous to put into effect? What constitutes who goes where? We'd have people crying foul because someone was put into a Mk XI Gear fight because the computer decided that two Mk XI space sets overrode a Fleet Mk XII shield and someone had superior shielding.
-Make abilities and gear have separate pvp and pve effects.
Do you realize how tough that is to implement? And that would get the nerf bat, too, because something would go horribly wrong in trying to do that. Probably the easier way to do that is have separate gear.
-Faster to do reputations that give bonuses like the old rep system. Instead of nerfing them for the noobs, make them faster to get.
We'd still have that problem with power.
-Make reputation items and progression costs ONLY MARKS.
And, then what? You still have to deal with time.
-Reduce some of the worst Doffs like A2B technicians, and put a hard cap on defence boost so accuracy can not be reduced to less than 30%.
Cryptic please tell us how to give you feed back on Tribble test, not all of us are certain on how to do this. The changes that are discussed on this forum have made me aprehensive, I would like to see how this will affect my ability to play the game.
Btw. the need to limit the rep system now reveils the strategy behind the future STO seasons.
It pretty much means that with every following Season the devs intend to introduce new rep systems... and that means more and more grinding for less and less rewards.
Season 9 comes with a bit fine tuning on the existing story episodes... a new featured episode... a few pvp maps and a new rep system.... oh and ESD.
For also new overpowered ships and undine lockboxes will be introduced (of course in the name of balance).
Thats pretty much what can be expected for Season 10, Season 11, Season 12, ...
To those daring to say this wasn't a nerf, the Placate thing was one of the more valuable abilities out there. But many PvP-ers whined, and whined, and whined about it. And eventually the crybabies, as usual, got their way.
And "Weapons Offline" is a joke; like the Elite Phasers proc.
Well It would appear that they are in many aspects over the last 4 years. So if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...........
END THE WELFARE PROGRAM CRYPTIC OR MAYBE WE NEED TO END YOURS!!!
I don't mind that people want to earn things, It's that they want to earn the right to be set apart from/above their peers. Not only do I find that to be morally nonsensical, it does nothing for the health of the game.
Your wrong. It makes newer players want to play more so they can get to play like the Elite.
END THE WELFARE PROGRAM CRYPTIC OR MAYBE WE NEED TO END YOURS!!!
Btw. the need to limit the rep system now reveils the strategy behind the future STO seasons.
It pretty much means that with every following Season the devs intend to introduce new rep systems... and that means more and more grinding for less and less rewards.
Season 9 comes with a bit fine tuning on the existing story episodes... a new featured episode... a few pvp maps and a new rep system.... oh and ESD.
For also new overpowered ships and undine lockboxes will be introduced (of course in the name of balance).
Thats pretty much what can be expected for Season 10, Season 11, Season 12, ...
Of course. This is total bull. Take away from players (the better players). Give to the less. Then wrap a whole bunch of stupid gimmicks so people can pay $$$.
THis rep system move is wrong. No matter how much you sugar coat it. TRIBBLE you Cryptic.
Yes, we could have harder missions or a new difficulty level, but you still have the whiners who refuse to do the work and want more pew pew.
Sounds easy on paper, but that's gonna be ridiculous to put into effect? What constitutes who goes where? We'd have people crying foul because someone was put into a Mk XI Gear fight because the computer decided that two Mk XI space sets overrode a Fleet Mk XII shield and someone had superior shielding.
Do you realize how tough that is to implement? And that would get the nerf bat, too, because something would go horribly wrong in trying to do that. Probably the easier way to do that is have separate gear.
We'd still have that problem with power.
And, then what? You still have to deal with time.
I'll agree with you there.
If people are too stupid to play the game well, they should look up online guides.
Other games managed to get a pvp rating system in. I'm not saying it would be easy, but if others could do it....
Cryptic already implemented that with Phaser and Cryo ground weapons. So their engine CAN handle it. Given, it will be a lot of boring coding, but damn I can do that for a mod of Dow2, they can do it for the game that give them their jobs.
The problem with power would only be a problem without harder content. Most MMOS get harder content all the time to keep the "powercreep" in check. This also gives players an incentive to stay in game.
Maybe the Reputation could be less time gated than? reduce the 20 hours to... 5 hours?
But you dont need to knock down any ideas, as much as you got no expertise in the matter, Cryptic does it for you by being as lazy as a group of overfed chimps in the zoo.
They won't implement any of these ideas, as it would be hard work for them. Path of least resistance, Cryptic likes.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
I agree with you... most people know me as a PvP guy... but to be honest I really wasn't much of one when I started playing this game 4 years ago. I was a MMO person sure and I loved trek. When they announced they where going to do Weakly series and they would feel like Episode runs... where it was like you got to play 4 or 5 "to be continued" style missions and finish it off with a big final mission. I was super pumped.
The first Devidan missions where awsome... when we got the halloween mission anyone that was there remembers that it was cool. The timing was perfect for the first run of those missions. At the time they promised us those once a month... with a few points during the year where they would do "re runs" and bring back limited time rewards for a week or two. It was going to be like playing your toon though an actual trek TV show.
Then that idea spudered out. I guess it was more work then they expected... OR all the issues jumping from one owner to another put it on the back burner.
I would very much like to see them return to that though... the last good series we got was the 300... that was a long time ago... I know we got a few misisons here and there like the Dyson Tuvok stuff and a cameo by Michel Dorn... still we haven't really had an actual well written chain of "episode" missions.
Myself I think Cryptic needs to fix the mechanics... forget about the silly progressions we have in every other MMO... if we leave them to that this thing is just going to look more and more like it was programmed in North Korea.
Bring back the idea of Month or at least Bi monthly 4-8 mission chains. Make them feel like Trek episodes... forget the voice actors... let the devs do the voices... Hire some proper writters and get to it. Honesty the writing lately is terrible... that tuvok mission was just plain bad... could you imagine watching that drivel in a Trek Show. Heck no... we should be demanding proper stories... and that they take the time to give them to us... forget carots... give me a story I WANT to log in for come patch day. They can drag out 4-5 missions over an entire month if they want.
Agreed but it's not just that Do you remember the old Borg stf missions? Those kept you in your seat for hours on the weekends, I'm not saying do away with the ones we have now but 20 to 30 minute repeatable doesn't keep my friends and I occupied. Give me a mission that takes hours, goes from space to ground to space with a story and dialog, cut scenes a bonus and I'll accept any nerf they want to throw our way. I want that feeling of " wow, that took forever, it was hard and not everyone is willing to push through such a story, but we did. The 5 of us did something."
I don't mind earning something to be the cut above the best. Let's say in the Top Gun group. Frankly that's life. There is good then there are best of the best. Just because someone don't understand that, don't bash everyone else who wants to be the best of the best.
Being the best of the best at Easy Trek Online is something valuable to you?
If people are too stupid to play the game well, they should look up online guides.
Other games managed to get a pvp rating system in. I'm not saying it would be easy, but if others could do it....
Cryptic already implemented that with Phaser and Cryo ground weapons. So their engine CAN handle it. Given, it will be a lot of boring coding, but damn I can do that for a mod of Dow2, they can do it for the game that give them their jobs.
The problem with power would only be a problem without harder content. Most MMOS get harder content all the time to keep the "powercreep" in check. This also gives players an incentive to stay in game.
Maybe the Reputation could be less time gated than? reduce the 20 hours to... 5 hours?
But you dont need to knock down any ideas, as much as you got no expertise in the matter, Cryptic does it for you by being as lazy as a group of overfed chimps in the zoo.
They won't implement any of these ideas, as it would be hard work for them. Path of least resistance, Cryptic likes.
It's not being stupid, it's called "finding out what works". Trust me, I could go on the wiki now and half of that stuff is either out of date or too confusing.
That's just two weapons. You're looking at hundreds of weapons and gear types out there.
Yes, MMOs get harder content, but guess what? Power creep takes over QUITE fast. I have friends (hell, my brother, too) who plays Wow, FF XIV and the like and even they say power creep is bad there, too.
But, then what? You blaze through everything in under two weeks? What then?
"No expertise?" I'd talk - you talk like STO is the only game out there. I've played in other MMOs and I've seen power creep worse than this.
In truth, the ones who want the path of less resistance is the person whose complaining because they don't want to give up the power they got. I, for one, am glad Cryptic's doing this.
And what's with a gap getting too wide? Should ppl not get their PhD, just because that level of education looks too 'insurmountable' and daunting to some lowly high-school drop-out?! Jealousy, it's an ugly green monster... kinda like a Gorn.
That's a player-centric viewpoint. But you're not looking at it from a developer standpoint. They are trying to make the game playable and enjoyable for all players. Which means there is an acceptable amount of "player angst" that they can put up with to "nerf" you in an effort to make other players happier about playing the game.
It's not jealousy. It's a move being made to prevent future issues with the game's advancement.
I think Everquest perfectly illustrates what's wrong with a gap getting too wide. Everquest, to celebrate its 15th anniversary, just released FREE level bumps for its players. You can level for free one character to 85 (IIRC, level cap right now is 110?) ... so you get boosted.
And ...
You get 5,000 Alternate Advancement points.
FIVE. THOUSAND.
AAs are really similar to what the rep powers were. Tiny little bumps, either passive or active. Things like manaburn, or endless quiver or innate run speed boost.
Thousands of points for hundreds of these abilities.
That's the kind of gap that they are trying to avoid.
Its not that high school kids are jellous of the PHD.
Its the issue of content.
Think of it this way... Cryptic is charged with preparing the curriculum and each class.
The issue is... we are all level 50s in STO... so we all have to go into the same class room.
So now do you prepare a 6 or 7th year University class for the students some of whom just got out of high school... or do you prepare a 1st year University class for the profs .
Its pretty clear something has to give right... either the PHDs are colouring with crayons and begging someone to put them out of there misery. Or the first year folk are doing stuff way above there pay grade, are totaly lost... and likely annoying the heck out of the PHDs with all the stupid questions.
Being the best of the best at Easy Trek Online is something valuable to you?
Lol. No. It makes me want to blow things up more. Especially people online in game complaining about power creep. Especially going against Scimitar's and JHAS that as powerful has a tier 3 cruiser because that person get the gear with no understanding how to work it.
Cryptic TRIBBLE with my passive skills will make this worst, and I will want to vent more. TRIBBLE and fill in the blanks, Cryptic. Oh, you don't care.
It's not being stupid, it's called "finding out what works". Trust me, I could go on the wiki now and half of that stuff is either out of date or too confusing.
That's just two weapons. You're looking at hundreds of weapons and gear types out there.
Yes, MMOs get harder content, but guess what? Power creep takes over QUITE fast. I have friends (hell, my brother, too) who plays Wow, FF XIV and the like and even they say power creep is bad there, too.
But, then what? You blaze through everything in under two weeks? What then?
"No expertise?" I'd talk - you talk like STO is the only game out there. I've played in other MMOs and I've seen power creep worse than this.
In truth, the ones who want the path of less resistance is the person whose complaining because they don't want to give up the power they got. I, for one, am glad Cryptic's doing this.
I could code in a hundred weapons and gear in two hours. And I'm working with fan made tools, which should not be as good as the ones a company has for their own game.
I'm an amateur who does that as a hobby. With Cryptic, we (at least should be) talking about trained people who got better tools and more time to do the same.
You know nothing at all. Whoo hoo, you played MMOs. I dont care. Unless you have experience actually about making and editing games, than your opinion is nothing on this matter. You got no expertise at all. Nothing.
All you do is say "aaaaaw too hard to do, it cant be done right" . Guess what. You lie, it can be done. Yes, doing it right would require some effort on Cryptic's part.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
Your wrong. It makes newer players want to play more so they can get to play like the Elite.
Why would players want to be like that? It doesn't make any sense. I'd think that players just want to play with their pals without a big grind wall. If I'm wrong, I'd like to at least understand why.
what the heck, messing with something that should just be left alone, how about working on something that really needs to be fixed like some of the bugs, and adding new stuff not killing a good thing.......
tbarlow
They are fixing some bugs. And they ARE adding new content. The undine update here has new content. It's just not covered in this particular blog. The previous blog was all about how they're upgrading the look of the Undine to fit with the new Undine content.
Comments
Its not even about casual players though... seriously if you LIKE this game do this game. It sounds like as a trek guy you should have been annoyed by the grind anyway... they just changed it so you won't be FORCED to grind. I am not getting your point.
The incentive SHOULD be you are having fun... not you want a +30 to X type of carrot.
This change is about them being able to release new content that in fact works for anyone that has a level 50 toon. The don't want another Hive fiasco where most of us find it fine and in fact a bit of fun... but 90% of the rest of the game finds it a pain. I am fine with getting my effective power level reduced.... IF it brings back my frineds.
Think of it this way... your friends you have lost... if they came back for a week.. Would they feel like the game was fun... or would they feel like they had a whole lot of boring asian style grinding to do ?
This change and if they make a few more... will make it easier for both our friends to return and play without feeling like they are year 1 collage students forced to finish year 5 classes.
Wait, you tell me that there are more than 1 people supporting this change?
Mind blown.
Also. Rep missions are fun...the first ten times. Otherwise it becomes boring. That's when the carrot comes into play.
So you should be happy you are no longer always forced to do them. If you can't find anything FUN to do in this game... I am not asking to be a jerk or to troll.... really though.
Why do you play ?
you never know, I'll ask them to join me this weekend on tribble (Jimmy sold his pc so I'll have to let him use my laptop) maybe they'll like it. And no I don't much care for grind but I understand why it exist. See below my main reason against this.
That was to a dev here, frankly what a change like this is lacking in my eyes is character progression. Now if they continue to add to the story and challenge, then hell I don't need a reward I'll do it for nothing. But as is at this point I don't see a character progression coming from this.
Question 1: The imbalance of the game has been caused by whom?
Answer: Cryptic
Question 2: Who is made to pay for the game imbalance?
Answer: The long term and game supporting players.
Question 3: Who cares about what the players want?
Answer: No One!
Just one item that has led to massive power LEAP VR Mk12 fleet tac consoles at 31.9% + critH or CritD
Before that very very few players had more that Blue Mk12 - most Blue Mk11 - why? VR Mk12 were $30 million EC each+++
Lets cut those down to 30% and remove the modifier.
Lets limit stacking of superior OP to a max of 2 Boffs
Lets limit tech doffs to max of 1 - heck lets limit ALL doffs to max 1 of each type.
lets cut out that 6th doff slot
Lets cut the Traits stacking on some of the lock box ones to only 1 from 3
Who cares if people paid to win - this is in the name of game balance and new/old players coming back to the game!!
Hey I hope your friends do come back man.
I agree with you... most people know me as a PvP guy... but to be honest I really wasn't much of one when I started playing this game 4 years ago. I was a MMO person sure and I loved trek. When they announced they where going to do Weakly series and they would feel like Episode runs... where it was like you got to play 4 or 5 "to be continued" style missions and finish it off with a big final mission. I was super pumped.
The first Devidan missions where awsome... when we got the halloween mission anyone that was there remembers that it was cool. The timing was perfect for the first run of those missions. At the time they promised us those once a month... with a few points during the year where they would do "re runs" and bring back limited time rewards for a week or two. It was going to be like playing your toon though an actual trek TV show.
Then that idea spudered out. I guess it was more work then they expected... OR all the issues jumping from one owner to another put it on the back burner.
I would very much like to see them return to that though... the last good series we got was the 300... that was a long time ago... I know we got a few misisons here and there like the Dyson Tuvok stuff and a cameo by Michel Dorn... still we haven't really had an actual well written chain of "episode" missions.
Myself I think Cryptic needs to fix the mechanics... forget about the silly progressions we have in every other MMO... if we leave them to that this thing is just going to look more and more like it was programmed in North Korea.
Bring back the idea of Month or at least Bi monthly 4-8 mission chains. Make them feel like Trek episodes... forget the voice actors... let the devs do the voices... Hire some proper writters and get to it. Honesty the writing lately is terrible... that tuvok mission was just plain bad... could you imagine watching that drivel in a Trek Show. Heck no... we should be demanding proper stories... and that they take the time to give them to us... forget carots... give me a story I WANT to log in for come patch day. They can drag out 4-5 missions over an entire month if they want.
Question 4: Who should have noticed the game imbalance when the developers didn't?
Answer: The players
Question 5: What did the players do to point this out?
Answer: Absolutely nothing.
Point of the matter is this: Yes, there is game imbalance. Yes, Cryptic should have caught on much earlier. But, we the players should have kept saying something, but we didn't. The new players never noticed this and the old players reveled in it. And now that Cryptic noticed, the old players are revolting because what the reveled in is being taken away.
I used to have fun in this game.
The problem is, Cryptic is making changes that are reducing the fun I can have in it. So I'm opposed to these changes to keep things fun.
Now.......how could things be fun and more balanced? Let me give the devs some ideas again.
-Harder missions. Maybe a new difficulty level, or new content, but I'm not choosy which.
-PVP matchmaking that puts players with comparable gear and dps in matches.
-Make abilities and gear have separate pvp and pve effects.
-Faster to do reputations that give bonuses like the old rep system. Instead of nerfing them for the noobs, make them faster to get.
-Make reputation items and progression costs ONLY MARKS.
-Reduce some of the worst Doffs like A2B technicians, and put a hard cap on defence boost so accuracy can not be reduced to less than 30%.
There, that would achive better balance, lessen power creep problem, give noobs a chance to catch up, give elite players some very hard content to do.
HERE HERE! well said! Watcha say there Jeffery? You had enough? I think its clear we sure have!!!! :mad::mad::mad::mad:
It is not the players duty to do the developers job.
Next to that were the dps numbers (and therefore the imbalances) well known all the time.
Like I quoted another player earlier, i say the same again. Let current players have all the passives and actives they have earned so far. Then from now on you can put fic the limit to that number.
That is, we currently have 4 reputations, so 4 Actives, 8 Passives each for Ground and Space.
I believe this is the best way forward. It does not really take that long for a new lvl 50 player to get 8 passives to be competitive with experienced players. Remember that each tier bettween 1 and 4 inclusive grants 2 passives. T1 of 4 or 5 reputations gives a player enough passives to slot into the available slots apart from actives.
If it will help, rearange the reputation tiers so that at each tier a player can choose between ground and space rather than exclusive ground passives, one for tank and one for damage.
My 2 pennies!
That's no excuse for:
A: Destroying PVE options for weaker careers like Science who only have 2 options in space combat.
B: Causing more imbalance in PVE by doing something completely unnecessary with reputation talents.
There is a PTR for a reason, if they can't test their game that's not the long time player's fault nor should we be the ones to pay for it.
What they did with this wasn't remove the ability for people to use reputation powers in PVP which would have solved the problem, they created a bigger rift for PVE science captains which already suffer from multiple useless skills that have yet to get the necessary proper attention to make them worth while in PVE combat so that we can remain competative In a season that was supposed to be all about science ships in the first place, ahem cough Voyager! Ring any bells there?
At the Very least, they should give a doff to the science captains that mimic that ability at the same percentage as the Romulan Placate passive allowed so that we'd still retain the ability for PVE.
Yes, we could have harder missions or a new difficulty level, but you still have the whiners who refuse to do the work and want more pew pew.
Sounds easy on paper, but that's gonna be ridiculous to put into effect? What constitutes who goes where? We'd have people crying foul because someone was put into a Mk XI Gear fight because the computer decided that two Mk XI space sets overrode a Fleet Mk XII shield and someone had superior shielding.
Do you realize how tough that is to implement? And that would get the nerf bat, too, because something would go horribly wrong in trying to do that. Probably the easier way to do that is have separate gear.
We'd still have that problem with power.
And, then what? You still have to deal with time.
I'll agree with you there.
It pretty much means that with every following Season the devs intend to introduce new rep systems... and that means more and more grinding for less and less rewards.
Season 9 comes with a bit fine tuning on the existing story episodes... a new featured episode... a few pvp maps and a new rep system.... oh and ESD.
For also new overpowered ships and undine lockboxes will be introduced (of course in the name of balance).
Thats pretty much what can be expected for Season 10, Season 11, Season 12, ...
Well It would appear that they are in many aspects over the last 4 years. So if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...........
Your wrong. It makes newer players want to play more so they can get to play like the Elite.
Of course. This is total bull. Take away from players (the better players). Give to the less. Then wrap a whole bunch of stupid gimmicks so people can pay $$$.
THis rep system move is wrong. No matter how much you sugar coat it. TRIBBLE you Cryptic.
Yea.. They will play like a elite but get blown up like a newbie.
If people are too stupid to play the game well, they should look up online guides.
Other games managed to get a pvp rating system in. I'm not saying it would be easy, but if others could do it....
Cryptic already implemented that with Phaser and Cryo ground weapons. So their engine CAN handle it. Given, it will be a lot of boring coding, but damn I can do that for a mod of Dow2, they can do it for the game that give them their jobs.
The problem with power would only be a problem without harder content. Most MMOS get harder content all the time to keep the "powercreep" in check. This also gives players an incentive to stay in game.
Maybe the Reputation could be less time gated than? reduce the 20 hours to... 5 hours?
But you dont need to knock down any ideas, as much as you got no expertise in the matter, Cryptic does it for you by being as lazy as a group of overfed chimps in the zoo.
They won't implement any of these ideas, as it would be hard work for them. Path of least resistance, Cryptic likes.
Agreed but it's not just that Do you remember the old Borg stf missions? Those kept you in your seat for hours on the weekends, I'm not saying do away with the ones we have now but 20 to 30 minute repeatable doesn't keep my friends and I occupied. Give me a mission that takes hours, goes from space to ground to space with a story and dialog, cut scenes a bonus and I'll accept any nerf they want to throw our way. I want that feeling of " wow, that took forever, it was hard and not everyone is willing to push through such a story, but we did. The 5 of us did something."
Being the best of the best at Easy Trek Online is something valuable to you?
It's not being stupid, it's called "finding out what works". Trust me, I could go on the wiki now and half of that stuff is either out of date or too confusing.
That's just two weapons. You're looking at hundreds of weapons and gear types out there.
Yes, MMOs get harder content, but guess what? Power creep takes over QUITE fast. I have friends (hell, my brother, too) who plays Wow, FF XIV and the like and even they say power creep is bad there, too.
But, then what? You blaze through everything in under two weeks? What then?
"No expertise?" I'd talk - you talk like STO is the only game out there. I've played in other MMOs and I've seen power creep worse than this.
In truth, the ones who want the path of less resistance is the person whose complaining because they don't want to give up the power they got. I, for one, am glad Cryptic's doing this.
That's a player-centric viewpoint. But you're not looking at it from a developer standpoint. They are trying to make the game playable and enjoyable for all players. Which means there is an acceptable amount of "player angst" that they can put up with to "nerf" you in an effort to make other players happier about playing the game.
It's not jealousy. It's a move being made to prevent future issues with the game's advancement.
I think Everquest perfectly illustrates what's wrong with a gap getting too wide. Everquest, to celebrate its 15th anniversary, just released FREE level bumps for its players. You can level for free one character to 85 (IIRC, level cap right now is 110?) ... so you get boosted.
And ...
You get 5,000 Alternate Advancement points.
FIVE. THOUSAND.
AAs are really similar to what the rep powers were. Tiny little bumps, either passive or active. Things like manaburn, or endless quiver or innate run speed boost.
Thousands of points for hundreds of these abilities.
That's the kind of gap that they are trying to avoid.
Its not that high school kids are jellous of the PHD.
Its the issue of content.
Think of it this way... Cryptic is charged with preparing the curriculum and each class.
The issue is... we are all level 50s in STO... so we all have to go into the same class room.
So now do you prepare a 6 or 7th year University class for the students some of whom just got out of high school... or do you prepare a 1st year University class for the profs .
Its pretty clear something has to give right... either the PHDs are colouring with crayons and begging someone to put them out of there misery. Or the first year folk are doing stuff way above there pay grade, are totaly lost... and likely annoying the heck out of the PHDs with all the stupid questions.
Lol. No. It makes me want to blow things up more. Especially people online in game complaining about power creep. Especially going against Scimitar's and JHAS that as powerful has a tier 3 cruiser because that person get the gear with no understanding how to work it.
Cryptic TRIBBLE with my passive skills will make this worst, and I will want to vent more. TRIBBLE and fill in the blanks, Cryptic. Oh, you don't care.
I could code in a hundred weapons and gear in two hours. And I'm working with fan made tools, which should not be as good as the ones a company has for their own game.
I'm an amateur who does that as a hobby. With Cryptic, we (at least should be) talking about trained people who got better tools and more time to do the same.
You know nothing at all. Whoo hoo, you played MMOs. I dont care. Unless you have experience actually about making and editing games, than your opinion is nothing on this matter. You got no expertise at all. Nothing.
All you do is say "aaaaaw too hard to do, it cant be done right" . Guess what. You lie, it can be done. Yes, doing it right would require some effort on Cryptic's part.
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They are fixing some bugs. And they ARE adding new content. The undine update here has new content. It's just not covered in this particular blog. The previous blog was all about how they're upgrading the look of the Undine to fit with the new Undine content.