Maybe. They'd be cool to add, but they're weird weapons that never saw enough balancing or tuning - they were always meant to be "cool flavor" but they're not really congruent with most of the game's core gameplay. We're prioritizing making the core system work well and feel good/worthwhile/rewarding, then we can add extra item types.
it would be a good excuse to get them some attention. like the repeater pistol aiming animation, its always been broken.
that blast assault hold down to charge does not recover ammo fast enough, and doesn't recharge at all if you swap to another weapons. in a long fight, you just have t switch to something else, and recharge it after a fight, not easy to do in STFs or battle zones. in the mean time you walk around with effectively 1 weapon
Maybe. They'd be cool to add, but they're weird weapons that never saw enough balancing or tuning - they were always meant to be "cool flavor" but they're not really congruent with most of the game's core gameplay. We're prioritizing making the core system work well and feel good/worthwhile/rewarding, then we can add extra item types.
Well, even if you don't add them to crafting, just add them to the drop tables. These are cool weapons, and with the dilithium store essentially going away, there's no reason to just let them die. They're already in the game...I'm just asking for you to keep them that way.
They should be able to go in the Fleet Bank. It might not be working properly right now. They should be able to go in Bank, Account Bank, Fleet Bank, R+D Bag, and Overflow Bag. They're currently in a state of flux as we try to make that happen.
What if they just went to and pulled from an account pool??? An account R&D tab. I would honestly pay money to get extra slots for that if it pulled from my characters as a priority.
What is going to happen to Astrometrics Scientist duty officers with the 'Chance of collecting additional particle traces when scanning anomalies' specialization? Last time I was on tribble they still had the same wording in their descriptions... will they give a chance for rare crafting materials? (Which to be honest will be a bit pointless since there will be much fewer options to gather materials outside of the duty officer system) or will they be given some other ability?
Maybe. They'd be cool to add, but they're weird weapons that never saw enough balancing or tuning - they were always meant to be "cool flavor" but they're not really congruent with most of the game's core gameplay. We're prioritizing making the core system work well and feel good/worthwhile/rewarding, then we can add extra item types.
Well, the lack of answers previously got me to buy half of these weapons from the dil store, and I guess this response will get me to buy the other half before 9.5 goes live. It's a shame, I find these more fun/interesting than some of the standard weapon types and they have great models.
-edit-
I will admit the "hold to fire/charge" mechanic on some of these feels a bit clunky in RPG mode. If these do get some attention in the future, the option to make fire a toggle when not in shooter mode would be a wonderful improvement.
What is going to happen to Astrometrics Scientist duty officers with the 'Chance of collecting additional particle traces when scanning anomalies' specialization? Last time I was on tribble they still had the same wording in their descriptions... will they give a chance for rare crafting materials? (Which to be honest will be a bit pointless since there will be much fewer options to gather materials outside of the duty officer system) or will they be given some other ability?
Well there are "nodes" anomalies in normal space mission maps I imagine that DOFF would still be useful when interacting with those. They should result in a higher yield for materials...I would hope.
Thinking about it that sounds more like something a salvage officer would do.
"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"
What about if you are a Master Crafter in the old system, How will that appy to the new system?
I don't all my old work to go to waste.
I have 2 master craftsmen that had better be able to maintain their master craftsman status or I am walking away from this grindfest of a game. I am no longer enjoying this game, since I never play & all I do is grind. I earned my master craftsman status with 2 different toons & if they are demoted in any way goodbye Craptic.
I have 2 master craftsmen that had better be able to maintain their master craftsman status or I am walking away from this grindfest of a game. I am no longer enjoying this game, since I never play & all I do is grind. I earned my master craftsman status with 2 different toons & if they are demoted in any way goodbye Craptic.
They have mentioned a couple of times that the new systems are different and what you did in the old crafting system won't be able to transfer over to the new system. However, I'm sure they are looking into making sure that we get some kind of reward that will help us with the new system. Remember, the devs also have their own personnel accounts and likely they want a similar recompensation plan in place that we do.
They have mentioned a couple of times that the new systems are different and what you did in the old crafting system won't be able to transfer over to the new system. However, I'm sure they are looking into making sure that we get some kind of reward that will help us with the new system. Remember, the devs also have their own personnel accounts and likely they want a similar recompensation plan in place that we do.
I do not care. I am a master now & if I am not a master with the new system then it's goodbye. I am done with this bug laden, grindfest of a game & have no will or desire whatsoever to do even more grinding.
They have mentioned a couple of times that the new systems are different and what you did in the old crafting system won't be able to transfer over to the new system. However, I'm sure they are looking into making sure that we get some kind of reward that will help us with the new system. Remember, the devs also have their own personnel accounts and likely they want a similar recompensation plan in place that we do.
If it can't transfer over, and they are unable to figure out what each toon has crafted and score some kind of equivalency into the new system then it should be a straight out rank transfer. If I'm top level in the old system then transfer that status to the new system.
Personally I'm fine with having it taken into account the work that I've put in...but if they are so inept as to not be able to keep track of that then I shouldn't be penalized going forward. I don't want any crafting ability that I've earned taken away from me.
It wasn't my fault that the system wasn't build well from launch, I reached max grade with what they gave us. It also wasn't my fault that they ruined it with the so called upgrade. It also isn't my fault that they have no metrics to transfer into the new system that take into account my past work achieved in crafting. Their best course of action not to TRIBBLE people off who have put a lot into this game is a straight up rank transfer. If doesn't hurt them and it doesn't penalize those of us who have earned our rank already.
I do not care. I am a master now & if I am not a master with the new system then it's goodbye. I am done with this bug laden, grindfest of a game & have no will or desire whatsoever to do even more grinding.
Bye.
Legitimately, this new system goes further than the old one did.
I'm a master crafter too, I think giving us level ten to fifteen would be quite fair.
That said, they haven't given any indication that they're granting us that consideration.
It's bad business in my view to not give any credit.
In fact I think an ideal solution would be to give a huge XP boost/multiplier to anyone who has max crafting to accelerate them along in the new system. (Though reducing the time it takes to master to begin with would be an excellent start.)
And I'll once again post the excellent idea of others that if Crafting school advancement can't be account wide it should at least give account discounts like Rep sponsorship and the excellent Risan ship discount.
Now....can I have your stuff?
"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 see no reason for the mats conversion to return ANY commons when converting rares! This is ludicrous! When converting rares I returned about 12 mats almost all common and than 3 rares in the bunch! What gives!
Even if it goes further those of us who have earned top level should not have the right to craft those items or level which we have earned taken away from us. I for one don't recall asking them to TRIBBLE up the original system to begin with. They could have just added new items into the original system from the start to keep up with the games progress....but no, they ruin crafting with it costing us dilithium and all the replicated materials garbage and getting rid of even level items to boot. So much so that I have only crafted once or twice since. It became more trouble and more expensive than it was worth...especially in a game where you can level up so quickly and mk XI gear is mostly antiquated.
Now they decide to scrap the entire thing and start from scratch...I'm glad it will be probably be better but I didn't ask for it. I certainly didn't ask to have the work that I did taken away from me if that's the route they are going. I should have a large credit going in with my master crafter on both the KDF and Fed side. I really should only have to work my way up to mk XII gear as I can already craft MK XI....if I start out at zero that's total BS...good luck getting me to buy anything from the Z store ever again.
I will assume (and hope) the xp rewards still need looking at, as for beam school getting to level 3 takes 10'000 xp, and that would need you to about craft 3 XII items at least.
that seems very out of proportion especially as most people ill be crafting much lower level items at that stage.
Crafting System Feedback:
Visibility of Reward bonuses are missing from new Duty Officer assignments!
Summary:
Doff missions are missing the “Quality reward bonus” and “Critical reward bonus” listings when you plan them.
Perceived Issue:
All doff mission give a bonus to their quality based on the rarity of the doffs used to fill the assignment. Without visibility of this statistic you do not know if slotting another blue doff instead of a purple one will give you the acceptable amount of returned expertise and rewards you desire. Also the Critical bonus is not visible which shows you the multiplier you will receive for a critical on the mission (not all missions pay out the same amount of critical bonus).
Solution / Proposal:
Add them to the planning and assignment tabs for all missions.
Closing Commentary:
The above changes are something that I believe should be added to the system although it could require a moderate amount of rework. I understand that there are deadlines to be met and promises already made, my hope with this proposal is to provide a constructive idea that can be implemented in the shortest amount of time.
Ticket ID #45,361
Operational Support Team
Squishing Bugs for a better future
Now that dil has been looked at, the XP numbers need another look at.
An exponential growth on the Xp requirement is fine, but right now I think the rate of increase is way too steep. A single mk II craft will take you over the requirement to level 1, and a VI can take you to level 2, but getting to level 3 takes 16 more mk VIs (the best you can craft without purchasing components since blue components don't unlock till 5), and it's only getting horrendously worse from there.
The baseline needs raised a bit, maybe take a few mk ii items to hit level 1 or 2, but lower the curve so the distance between each level is lower.
In the PriorityOne podcast interview, that was mentioned. Hope it is on tribble soon.
I was expecting every Tribble patch to have new UI iterations, that we're four (I believe) patches in with no real changes yet concerns me. They've only got like 3-4 weeks at best to get this into a more useable state...
I really hope it doesn't go live as it is now. Crafting is usable, if clunky. Doff UI? Not so much.
Well the new Doff UI is usable, but it's missing the ability to set search filters so you can properly choose the doffs you want without having to manually scroll through a huge list.
One issue is the things that crit an assignment is often incompatible with the things that just succeed, so if you want the best results you have to search for traits rather than the doffs career. You REALLY need a search filter to make that easy.
Ok, in the strictest sense, it's useable. But compared to the current UI, it's a huge regression. The filters are a good example, but just in terms of design...it's just harder to use than what we have on holodeck right now.
I've gotten incredibly lazy assigning doffs on Tribble, to the point I just send the defaults on assignment because I can't be bothered scrolling through that huge list to pick my selections. It's not even the filters alone, I hardly use those on holodeck, it's the fact that the doff list is no longer sorted at all and like 3 times larger. There's just too much information missing from the new UI and too much clicking between screens.
Well the new Doff UI is usable, but it's missing the ability to set search filters so you can properly choose the doffs you want without having to manually scroll through a huge list.
One issue is the things that crit an assignment is often incompatible with the things that just succeed, so if you want the best results you have to search for traits rather than the doffs career. You REALLY need a search filter to make that easy.
I agree.
Also adjudicatorhawk has made the filtering work for us automatically. What I mean is.. I felt as you but I wanted data so I switched between Live and Test servers doing the same doff missions to see which doffs I would select vs which ones were being placed at the top of adjudicatorhawk's listing in the pop-up. What I found was 8 out of 10 times the ones he has listed near the top are the ones I would have put there! Note: I do not have Enable first officer Recommendations checked on the Department Heads tab.
With the system automatically filtering for critical chance it made it easier and faster for me to find and place doffs (I don't let them "auto place" ..see the above note). - It did not list doffs I could not use. - It listed the best critical chance doffs at the top. - it listed purple above blues which were above greens which were above commons.
All it lacks is making it highly visible when selecting a doff that also meets the success requirement (which lowers critical chance).
If I saw "Yellow" (the color of caution) on the doffs that were like this as I scrolled through the pop-up list it would make it easy to pick or avoid them as needed. (Sometimes you want more success, sometimes you want max critical chance regardless of failure.)
I am not saying that it does not still need a filter, it does need one. Sometimes I want to remove all of a certain type of doff from consideration, such as my fabrication doffs because I'm planning to use them in an R&D project after starting the mission even though they might give an excellent critical chance).
Operational Support Team
Squishing Bugs for a better future
Sorry, if someone else already posted the same stuff, but I won't read all 54 pages before replying
First of all: I like the style of the new UI for duty officers and F&E.
I just see some minor problems: Since you cannot see all requirements in the overview for all missions, you can't see which missions can be started and which can't on first sight. You can not even scroll through requirements.
That wouldn't be too bad for this purpose if the non-met requirements would at least show up first.
Well... and maybe I will understand the officer assignment on the detail page when I look at it more thouroughly... for now I didn't quite get (all of) it... but at least there are already defaults for all slots assigned.
I'd like to see XP rewarded for all schools an item can be created for. EX: Focusing lens rewards only 1 xp for the school it was created under, but the component comes up under more than one school. Why not have it reward 1 XP for Beams, Cannons, Ground and Shields. It's not a LOT of XP overall but can help with "the grind"
Also I'd like to see more info on the completed R+D tasks and the doff missions. No matter which way it's viewed (on the list of all completed projects/mission, the detailed view, or just leaving the task screen open and watching the timer run out) I'd like to see the result of the task, whether it was a critical success, success, etc.
Hi Cryptic *waves* I'm a long time MMO player (EQ, EQ2, SWG) and I recently had a chance to try out the new crafting mechanics on tribble. First off, the old system was very lacking, thank you for putting the effort in to overhaul what is on holodeck currently. I didn't spend too much time in there, made perhaps a dozen items, but I have several initial impressions that would prohibit me from enjoying the new system as much as I have in other games.
1) It took me a while to find out where and how to get the raw materials for the projects. I would assume when it goes live there will be tutorials, but the fact that the "conversion store" is so buried is a little worrisome. Even after I found out how to access it, I could ONLY get at it by "using" a raw material directly from my inventory. The crafting interface had no button or link I could find to let me in to the store. Even when going to the cargo hold section of the duty officer roster, where my raw materials were displayed, I could not access the store from there either? I had to go to my bank, drop an item in my inventory, then a right click would let me "use" the item to open the "conversion store".
2) The conversion process itself; the list is rather clunky. I'm not sure of the best way, but there must be a better way to display what you are going to be getting for what you are losing. It's nice to see the list at the bottom, with everything in your inventory, but there's no direct translation to what they will become. For example, I needed uncommon materials and the "store" listed about 8 identical looking entries. Not until I hovered over the little picture of the particle traces could I get an indication of what was going to be consumed. I wanted to use the most plentiful sources first but it took some manual scrolling up and down the list to narrow down to those first. Maybe there is some way to only show the conversion results and then pick which items you want to go into the conversion, in a batch form? Maybe a grid with each starting consumable displayed with little quantity boxes next to each one. A results section would show how much of each thing you would get out.
3) Put a "Cancel Task" button in there. This was the biggest glaring omission for me, which has been present in EVERY crafting system I have seen. It would, of course, consume the ingredients, but since you do the quality roll at the beginning of the process, I could make a judgement call if I had a certain outcome in mind. It could take me longer to progress, since I will be finishing things with less frequency, but since the quality is higher I am willing to take that chance. I'm not sure if quality has any bearing on exp gained or school progress, but if it does this would counter the fact that I cancelled all the whites. If you are not going to allow this, at least do the quality roll at the end, or heck even just don't display it. Perhaps show ALL the possible outcomes, so we have something to drool over and shoot for on the next go round. If you do allow cancellation during creation, perhaps you can give something back in return, some common raw materials, or minimal exp gain, depending on how much time had been spent on the cancelled task. I found the "pay dilithium to finish quicker" button a little odd. I guess it is nice for some, but I don't think I would ever use it, I'm too poor. Thinking about it maybe the "cancel" button flies in the face of what you are trying to do here. I don't think you should maximize the time sink for every task, just the ones that are desirable. (ie purple mk XII's, etc.) If you force potential crafters to consume time and materials on un-wanted items, the majority will likely not participate.
4) There should be some indication of what the task will net us, in terms of exp and gains compared to the next level or rank. More risk should equal more reward, if it is successful.
5) Give us a tooltip that explains what the ingredients are in the recipe window and how to obtain them. (which school, etc.) This should be toggled as once you are an expert in a school you will know this already.
6) Another biggie - no QUANTITY choices on crafting the sub ingredients. Anything that does not have a possible quality outcome should have a quantity. It would extend the time of the job, of course, but not by a linear amount. Say I wanted to make 10 coolant injectors, as it stands now, I have to do them one at a time, YUCK! I should be able to queue up 10 and let it run, but you would NOT just add the time to make 10 individuals up. In manufacturing, once you are setup and "tooled" for an item, each subsequent one should take less time to produce. It could even be diminishing as the batch completes. so the last item takes half the time that the first did, but if you cancel the batch after one, it would take the same time as just doing one by itself.
7) This would be controversial, but; ADD in a minigame to help enhance success and quality outcomes. This may take it outside the realm of the DOFF system, but if I'm going for a difficult result, it would be nice if I could interact somehow to improve my luck a bit. This would allow those in the beginning to middle of their R&D careers to get much more satisfaction out of it. Once I am max level and always get purples, I won't need this interaction, but in the early goings it might make me cheer if I can get a high grade item for my efforts. I actually like the mingames sprinkled about STO and I think this would help maintain a cohesive feel to the new crafting system.
Well, that's about all I wrote down on initial run-through. I will spend some more time in there and follow up in the coming days. Once the summer event is over I will have more free time, hehe.
1. Like everyone else has said, the DOFF assignment UI needs some work.
2. Please separate the R & D items from the rest of my inventory in the selling/recycling windows. List is getting a little long.
3. Why would armor take the exact same resources as a wrap core? Please vary the recipes up a little. A little realism (even if it is STO) goes a long way.
4. Why can't R & D items be stored in the shared account bank?
First of all I need to say it is an interesting concept. I play SWTOR as well and have maxed out all crafting professions there as well as the old crafting on here. I craft in every game I play that has crafting.
I have to agree with the major consensus that Dilithium needs be minimal or removed completely from crafting as Crafting should be an option to use instead of the Fleet/Rep Stores. The Price reduction is a good start.
The random quality results needs to be changed as well. If you look at SWTOR crafting you learn the basic recipe for a crafted item, usually Green. You can choose to Reverse Engineer crafted items with a chance to get the next rarity level. Once you have the next rarity you craft them and Reverse Engineer again to get the Next. SWTOR uses similar color progression so it would be
Green --> Blue --> Purple for most items. This is just one option for changing the random quality result, I'm sure the Devs and other players have other ideas for how this can be done.
The random Mods are an issue for me as well because again I'm in favor of knowing what I am getting when I craft something in a game. I understand with the new mods you've added and some of the existing mods you don't want people creating a Ship with all purple weapons with [CrtH]x3 on all weapons because that would destroy any semblance of balance but maybe set thing up so that you can't put any mod in place on an Item more than once making the Fleet and Rep Versions as well as random drops with those stats viable as well as allowing players to create unique combinations of Mods that suit their play styles. IE: I'd love to build a Transphasic Torpedo Launcher with the CritH / Snare mods and maybe something else once I see more of the new mod options.
Kit Modules should be added back into the crafting system so that they can be obtained more reliably without the overpricing that's happening in the in game economy
The R&D UI is relatively easy to use but has some faults that many other have already covered so I need not go into detail on those.
I'd like to see Wide Angle Torpedo Launchers added for the other torpedo types other than Quantum, simply require that the account have the Assault Cruiser Refit: Regent Class unlocked in order to gain the schematics for it. Similar option for the Quad Cannons, add craftable versions that aren't available through ships and require at least one of the ships that have them be unlocked on the account to get the schematics. Make the Crafting level of each of those appropriate to the level in which the Ships are available so around Projectiles 10 -12 for the Wide Angle and Cannons 5 for the Quads.
While I just gave the negative and wish list I'll say this now:
This is an improvement over the old system as it wasn't much of a system to begin with. There is a lot of work that still needs to be done to make it worth the time for the players to put in on it. As for those who have already maxed the old system as I have , they should be given the option of any one school they choose unlocked to level 15. This gives them a reasonable head start without giving them the entire system unlocked and reimburses their time, xp and dilithium spent on the old system.
Comments
it would be a good excuse to get them some attention. like the repeater pistol aiming animation, its always been broken.
that blast assault hold down to charge does not recover ammo fast enough, and doesn't recharge at all if you swap to another weapons. in a long fight, you just have t switch to something else, and recharge it after a fight, not easy to do in STFs or battle zones. in the mean time you walk around with effectively 1 weapon
What if they just went to and pulled from an account pool??? An account R&D tab. I would honestly pay money to get extra slots for that if it pulled from my characters as a priority.
Well, the lack of answers previously got me to buy half of these weapons from the dil store, and I guess this response will get me to buy the other half before 9.5 goes live. It's a shame, I find these more fun/interesting than some of the standard weapon types and they have great models.
-edit-
I will admit the "hold to fire/charge" mechanic on some of these feels a bit clunky in RPG mode. If these do get some attention in the future, the option to make fire a toggle when not in shooter mode would be a wonderful improvement.
Well there are "nodes" anomalies in normal space mission maps I imagine that DOFF would still be useful when interacting with those. They should result in a higher yield for materials...I would hope.
Thinking about it that sounds more like something a salvage officer would do.
I don't all my old work to go to waste.
I have 2 master craftsmen that had better be able to maintain their master craftsman status or I am walking away from this grindfest of a game. I am no longer enjoying this game, since I never play & all I do is grind. I earned my master craftsman status with 2 different toons & if they are demoted in any way goodbye Craptic.
They have mentioned a couple of times that the new systems are different and what you did in the old crafting system won't be able to transfer over to the new system. However, I'm sure they are looking into making sure that we get some kind of reward that will help us with the new system. Remember, the devs also have their own personnel accounts and likely they want a similar recompensation plan in place that we do.
I do not care. I am a master now & if I am not a master with the new system then it's goodbye. I am done with this bug laden, grindfest of a game & have no will or desire whatsoever to do even more grinding.
If it can't transfer over, and they are unable to figure out what each toon has crafted and score some kind of equivalency into the new system then it should be a straight out rank transfer. If I'm top level in the old system then transfer that status to the new system.
Personally I'm fine with having it taken into account the work that I've put in...but if they are so inept as to not be able to keep track of that then I shouldn't be penalized going forward. I don't want any crafting ability that I've earned taken away from me.
It wasn't my fault that the system wasn't build well from launch, I reached max grade with what they gave us. It also wasn't my fault that they ruined it with the so called upgrade. It also isn't my fault that they have no metrics to transfer into the new system that take into account my past work achieved in crafting. Their best course of action not to TRIBBLE people off who have put a lot into this game is a straight up rank transfer. If doesn't hurt them and it doesn't penalize those of us who have earned our rank already.
Bye.
Legitimately, this new system goes further than the old one did.
I'm a master crafter too, I think giving us level ten to fifteen would be quite fair.
That said, they haven't given any indication that they're granting us that consideration.
It's bad business in my view to not give any credit.
In fact I think an ideal solution would be to give a huge XP boost/multiplier to anyone who has max crafting to accelerate them along in the new system. (Though reducing the time it takes to master to begin with would be an excellent start.)
And I'll once again post the excellent idea of others that if Crafting school advancement can't be account wide it should at least give account discounts like Rep sponsorship and the excellent Risan ship discount.
Now....can I have your stuff?
Now they decide to scrap the entire thing and start from scratch...I'm glad it will be probably be better but I didn't ask for it. I certainly didn't ask to have the work that I did taken away from me if that's the route they are going. I should have a large credit going in with my master crafter on both the KDF and Fed side. I really should only have to work my way up to mk XII gear as I can already craft MK XI....if I start out at zero that's total BS...good luck getting me to buy anything from the Z store ever again.
Lets say I pick a beam array and go to the screen that shows what is needed (focusing lens or w/e redded out)
Would it be possible to click that red icon to take me to the screen to make that, instead of backing out etc etc?
Would be quite useful I think.
In the PriorityOne podcast interview, that was mentioned. Hope it is on tribble soon.
that seems very out of proportion especially as most people ill be crafting much lower level items at that stage.
Visibility of Reward bonuses are missing from new Duty Officer assignments!
Summary:
Doff missions are missing the “Quality reward bonus” and “Critical reward bonus” listings when you plan them.
Perceived Issue:
All doff mission give a bonus to their quality based on the rarity of the doffs used to fill the assignment. Without visibility of this statistic you do not know if slotting another blue doff instead of a purple one will give you the acceptable amount of returned expertise and rewards you desire. Also the Critical bonus is not visible which shows you the multiplier you will receive for a critical on the mission (not all missions pay out the same amount of critical bonus).
Screenshot:
http://i1238.photobucket.com/albums/ff500/Kasyena/MissingUI001_zpsb58a2e6a.jpg
Solution / Proposal:
Add them to the planning and assignment tabs for all missions.
Closing Commentary:
The above changes are something that I believe should be added to the system although it could require a moderate amount of rework. I understand that there are deadlines to be met and promises already made, my hope with this proposal is to provide a constructive idea that can be implemented in the shortest amount of time.
Ticket ID #45,361
Squishing Bugs for a better future
An exponential growth on the Xp requirement is fine, but right now I think the rate of increase is way too steep. A single mk II craft will take you over the requirement to level 1, and a VI can take you to level 2, but getting to level 3 takes 16 more mk VIs (the best you can craft without purchasing components since blue components don't unlock till 5), and it's only getting horrendously worse from there.
The baseline needs raised a bit, maybe take a few mk ii items to hit level 1 or 2, but lower the curve so the distance between each level is lower.
I was expecting every Tribble patch to have new UI iterations, that we're four (I believe) patches in with no real changes yet concerns me. They've only got like 3-4 weeks at best to get this into a more useable state...
I really hope it doesn't go live as it is now. Crafting is usable, if clunky. Doff UI? Not so much.
One issue is the things that crit an assignment is often incompatible with the things that just succeed, so if you want the best results you have to search for traits rather than the doffs career. You REALLY need a search filter to make that easy.
I've gotten incredibly lazy assigning doffs on Tribble, to the point I just send the defaults on assignment because I can't be bothered scrolling through that huge list to pick my selections. It's not even the filters alone, I hardly use those on holodeck, it's the fact that the doff list is no longer sorted at all and like 3 times larger. There's just too much information missing from the new UI and too much clicking between screens.
I agree.
Also adjudicatorhawk has made the filtering work for us automatically. What I mean is.. I felt as you but I wanted data so I switched between Live and Test servers doing the same doff missions to see which doffs I would select vs which ones were being placed at the top of adjudicatorhawk's listing in the pop-up. What I found was 8 out of 10 times the ones he has listed near the top are the ones I would have put there!
Note: I do not have Enable first officer Recommendations checked on the Department Heads tab.
With the system automatically filtering for critical chance it made it easier and faster for me to find and place doffs (I don't let them "auto place" ..see the above note).
- It did not list doffs I could not use.
- It listed the best critical chance doffs at the top.
- it listed purple above blues which were above greens which were above commons.
All it lacks is making it highly visible when selecting a doff that also meets the success requirement (which lowers critical chance).
If I saw "Yellow" (the color of caution) on the doffs that were like this as I scrolled through the pop-up list it would make it easy to pick or avoid them as needed. (Sometimes you want more success, sometimes you want max critical chance regardless of failure.)
Here is a link to my proposal addressing the issue:
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1158471
I am not saying that it does not still need a filter, it does need one. Sometimes I want to remove all of a certain type of doff from consideration, such as my fabrication doffs because I'm planning to use them in an R&D project after starting the mission even though they might give an excellent critical chance).
Squishing Bugs for a better future
First of all: I like the style of the new UI for duty officers and F&E.
I just see some minor problems: Since you cannot see all requirements in the overview for all missions, you can't see which missions can be started and which can't on first sight. You can not even scroll through requirements.
That wouldn't be too bad for this purpose if the non-met requirements would at least show up first.
Well... and maybe I will understand the officer assignment on the detail page when I look at it more thouroughly... for now I didn't quite get (all of) it... but at least there are already defaults for all slots assigned.
Also I'd like to see more info on the completed R+D tasks and the doff missions. No matter which way it's viewed (on the list of all completed projects/mission, the detailed view, or just leaving the task screen open and watching the timer run out) I'd like to see the result of the task, whether it was a critical success, success, etc.
1) It took me a while to find out where and how to get the raw materials for the projects. I would assume when it goes live there will be tutorials, but the fact that the "conversion store" is so buried is a little worrisome. Even after I found out how to access it, I could ONLY get at it by "using" a raw material directly from my inventory. The crafting interface had no button or link I could find to let me in to the store. Even when going to the cargo hold section of the duty officer roster, where my raw materials were displayed, I could not access the store from there either? I had to go to my bank, drop an item in my inventory, then a right click would let me "use" the item to open the "conversion store".
2) The conversion process itself; the list is rather clunky. I'm not sure of the best way, but there must be a better way to display what you are going to be getting for what you are losing. It's nice to see the list at the bottom, with everything in your inventory, but there's no direct translation to what they will become. For example, I needed uncommon materials and the "store" listed about 8 identical looking entries. Not until I hovered over the little picture of the particle traces could I get an indication of what was going to be consumed. I wanted to use the most plentiful sources first but it took some manual scrolling up and down the list to narrow down to those first. Maybe there is some way to only show the conversion results and then pick which items you want to go into the conversion, in a batch form? Maybe a grid with each starting consumable displayed with little quantity boxes next to each one. A results section would show how much of each thing you would get out.
3) Put a "Cancel Task" button in there. This was the biggest glaring omission for me, which has been present in EVERY crafting system I have seen. It would, of course, consume the ingredients, but since you do the quality roll at the beginning of the process, I could make a judgement call if I had a certain outcome in mind. It could take me longer to progress, since I will be finishing things with less frequency, but since the quality is higher I am willing to take that chance. I'm not sure if quality has any bearing on exp gained or school progress, but if it does this would counter the fact that I cancelled all the whites. If you are not going to allow this, at least do the quality roll at the end, or heck even just don't display it. Perhaps show ALL the possible outcomes, so we have something to drool over and shoot for on the next go round. If you do allow cancellation during creation, perhaps you can give something back in return, some common raw materials, or minimal exp gain, depending on how much time had been spent on the cancelled task. I found the "pay dilithium to finish quicker" button a little odd. I guess it is nice for some, but I don't think I would ever use it, I'm too poor. Thinking about it maybe the "cancel" button flies in the face of what you are trying to do here. I don't think you should maximize the time sink for every task, just the ones that are desirable. (ie purple mk XII's, etc.) If you force potential crafters to consume time and materials on un-wanted items, the majority will likely not participate.
4) There should be some indication of what the task will net us, in terms of exp and gains compared to the next level or rank. More risk should equal more reward, if it is successful.
5) Give us a tooltip that explains what the ingredients are in the recipe window and how to obtain them. (which school, etc.) This should be toggled as once you are an expert in a school you will know this already.
6) Another biggie - no QUANTITY choices on crafting the sub ingredients. Anything that does not have a possible quality outcome should have a quantity. It would extend the time of the job, of course, but not by a linear amount. Say I wanted to make 10 coolant injectors, as it stands now, I have to do them one at a time, YUCK! I should be able to queue up 10 and let it run, but you would NOT just add the time to make 10 individuals up. In manufacturing, once you are setup and "tooled" for an item, each subsequent one should take less time to produce. It could even be diminishing as the batch completes. so the last item takes half the time that the first did, but if you cancel the batch after one, it would take the same time as just doing one by itself.
7) This would be controversial, but; ADD in a minigame to help enhance success and quality outcomes. This may take it outside the realm of the DOFF system, but if I'm going for a difficult result, it would be nice if I could interact somehow to improve my luck a bit. This would allow those in the beginning to middle of their R&D careers to get much more satisfaction out of it. Once I am max level and always get purples, I won't need this interaction, but in the early goings it might make me cheer if I can get a high grade item for my efforts. I actually like the mingames sprinkled about STO and I think this would help maintain a cohesive feel to the new crafting system.
Well, that's about all I wrote down on initial run-through. I will spend some more time in there and follow up in the coming days. Once the summer event is over I will have more free time, hehe.
Thank you guys and gals for all your hard work!
John
2. Please separate the R & D items from the rest of my inventory in the selling/recycling windows. List is getting a little long.
3. Why would armor take the exact same resources as a wrap core? Please vary the recipes up a little. A little realism (even if it is STO) goes a long way.
4. Why can't R & D items be stored in the shared account bank?
I have to agree with the major consensus that Dilithium needs be minimal or removed completely from crafting as Crafting should be an option to use instead of the Fleet/Rep Stores. The Price reduction is a good start.
The random quality results needs to be changed as well. If you look at SWTOR crafting you learn the basic recipe for a crafted item, usually Green. You can choose to Reverse Engineer crafted items with a chance to get the next rarity level. Once you have the next rarity you craft them and Reverse Engineer again to get the Next. SWTOR uses similar color progression so it would be
Green --> Blue --> Purple for most items. This is just one option for changing the random quality result, I'm sure the Devs and other players have other ideas for how this can be done.
The random Mods are an issue for me as well because again I'm in favor of knowing what I am getting when I craft something in a game. I understand with the new mods you've added and some of the existing mods you don't want people creating a Ship with all purple weapons with [CrtH]x3 on all weapons because that would destroy any semblance of balance but maybe set thing up so that you can't put any mod in place on an Item more than once making the Fleet and Rep Versions as well as random drops with those stats viable as well as allowing players to create unique combinations of Mods that suit their play styles. IE: I'd love to build a Transphasic Torpedo Launcher with the CritH / Snare mods and maybe something else once I see more of the new mod options.
Kit Modules should be added back into the crafting system so that they can be obtained more reliably without the overpricing that's happening in the in game economy
The R&D UI is relatively easy to use but has some faults that many other have already covered so I need not go into detail on those.
I'd like to see Wide Angle Torpedo Launchers added for the other torpedo types other than Quantum, simply require that the account have the Assault Cruiser Refit: Regent Class unlocked in order to gain the schematics for it. Similar option for the Quad Cannons, add craftable versions that aren't available through ships and require at least one of the ships that have them be unlocked on the account to get the schematics. Make the Crafting level of each of those appropriate to the level in which the Ships are available so around Projectiles 10 -12 for the Wide Angle and Cannons 5 for the Quads.
While I just gave the negative and wish list I'll say this now:
This is an improvement over the old system as it wasn't much of a system to begin with. There is a lot of work that still needs to be done to make it worth the time for the players to put in on it. As for those who have already maxed the old system as I have , they should be given the option of any one school they choose unlocked to level 15. This gives them a reasonable head start without giving them the entire system unlocked and reimburses their time, xp and dilithium spent on the old system.