Depending on the length of the mission, you get something like 700 to 2000+ dilithium, plus an additional set bonus of 960 from "Investigate Officer Reports," which can be repeated every half hour. The loot grinders have the worst dilithium pay-outs. The stories have the best.
With a spotlight mission, you earn more. The last spotlight I played earned my like 3600 dilithium.
Plus 20,000 ECs, more ECs from vendor trash, and a bunch of XP.
I think those numbers are right, but it's been a few weeks since I've actually played the game.
GOO!!! :eek:
And people want to save the exploration clusters, which payout LESS?!
And people want to save the exploration clusters, which payout LESS?!
'Kay...
Yeah, 3 traditional cluster missions was like 1440, right?
3 foundry cluster mission, plus a SFA quiz = Your 8,000 character max.
Edit: Here are exact stats I took a few months ago:
For playing a 30-45 minute mission called Adrift, I received the following regular plus IOR rewards that totaled:
Almost 6000 XP (plus XP earned while playing the mission)
2497 dilithium total
1984 skill points
About 70,000 ECs, from drops discarded (It was mostly a ground mission, so the ECs were light).
For playing a spotlight, Sovereign77xs Forget Me Not, I received:
3599 dilithium
6000 XP
21,800 ECs
plus skill points
I'd probably pull Deep Space Encounters since they're badly designed and generally unfun, really only serving for accolade grind.
I'd replace them ASAP with a mini-Red Alert system in which a different system in each sector block every half-hour or so would offer a short shoot'em-up mission framed around a raid or skirmish or something rewarding a slightly above average chunk of Expertise and a about 480 dil, with another 480 dil coming your way if you complete a daily by completing one of these missions in any three sectors controlled at least partially by your faction. You could continue repeating the missions either seeking your accolade or just to get expertise as much as you like.
I'd probably pull Deep Space Encounters since they're badly designed and generally unfun, really only serving for accolade grind.
Oh, I don't know, they were kinda fun, just flying around and shooting up stuff.
But they are pretty shallow, and really have no interesting features aside from repeated space combat in them.
I guess they could be dropped with no real loss for the game. And a mini-Red Alert system with different factions could be much more interesting - if only because of the enemy ship variety you'd finally get.
I assume it would stay simplistic content, however - no actual mission goals but kill stuff.
if not been said yet patrol missions any story mission that has not been Reeeee Vamped / K-7 the vet life time prek station
I think story missions will just eventually get their revamp, one by one.
It's just that with exploration missions there are way too many to fix or improve. Patrol Missions are much like exploration missions, but they seem to be limited in numbers and can probably be repaired or revamped over time like story missions-
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
So what do you do while waiting for the 10 minute queue for the big dig, sit in space dock waiting, so fun or do some of those waste of Space cluster missions which keep you occupied on are FILLERS until the PvE queues are full.
Where ever you go, there you are.......
Join The Space Invaders,..... Federation and KDF fleets.
It's that simple. Since they've decided shrinking the game is acceptable as long as it raises the "average quality," what's the next most execrable, screwed-up thing in the game that they can boost overall quality by removing?
These forums :rolleyes:
I find it hilarious the amount of people now white knighting for Explorations clusters, which were probably one of the most complained about things that wasn't the KDF, for the first year this game existed.
What I would find even doubly amusing, if it wasn't so pathetically sad and predictable, is that not an insignificant number of those Whites Knights are the same people who complained so vehemently about how terrible they were back then.
Funny how people are complaining about the Exploration clusters yet they were very rarely used if not at all, The exploration clusters might have had the word "Exploration" in them but that does not mean they were exploration, they were just going into a random system blowing people up or scanning some devices and then leaving, Is that exploration to you? It isn't that is why it was removed they offered no worthwhile rewards and they were boring and redundant.
It is quite possible that cryptic will add a revamped system to replace the exploration clusters perhaps in season 10.
I pretty much agree with your comments. That said, if the devs wanted to avoid the vocal minority of players who are angry and ranting about the loss of the exploration clusters then they should have announced "specifically" what is coming that will replace the old exploration clusters.
I honestly believe the people who are the angriest aren't "really" angry about the loss of the exploration clusters ... they're angry that something is being taken away and isn't immediately being replaced with something better.
I know it's not exactly the same thing, but imagine the nerd rage from the players here if the devs got rid of the old ESD and didn't immediately replace it with the new and improved ESD?
That is essentially what happened to the exploration clusters ... only there isn't a "massive" group upset over it because the exploration clusters weren't particularly popular (because they weren't very compelling content).
The same thing happened with interiors ... the ship interiors were supposed to be a major part of the game back when it launched, but because most of the old interiors weren't great and were poorly developed the players didn't use them ... and the devs used the lack of player interest in the interiors as an excuse the abandon serious efforts to improve ship interiors.
I can understand some people being upset over the "self-fulfilling" prophecy that "if players aren't interested in X content then let's just get rid of X content."
I would hypothesize that "If players don't like X content then let's see what we can do to make X content better" is a superior philosophy in terms of sustaining STO for years to come.
In the immortal words of Captain Sisko: "It may not be what you believe, but that doesn't make it wrong."
Don't believe the lies in this forum. I am NOT an ARC user. I play STO on Steam or not at all.
I find it hilarious the amount of people now white knighting for Explorations clusters, which were probably one of the most complained about things that wasn't the KDF, for the first year this game existed.
What I would find even doubly amusing, if it wasn't so pathetically sad and predictable, is that not an insignificant number of those Whites Knights are the same people who complained so vehemently about how terrible they were back then.
Many of us complained because we wanted them improved.
I guess they could be dropped with no real loss for the game. And a mini-Red Alert system with different factions could be much more interesting - if only because of the enemy ship variety you'd finally get.
I assume it would stay simplistic content, however - no actual mission goals but kill stuff.
Pretty much. I wouldn't pull Deep Space Encounters without adding at least some form of grind relief back in its place, even if it wouldn't do the same job at the same speed.
Basically each sector block would have one type of enemy - Sirius would have Orions, Regulus would have Nausicaans, Fek'ihri in Omega Leonis, rogue Gorn in Eta Eridani, etc etc. Every half hour, a different system in the sector block sends out a red alert to any ship within its sub-sector (Celes System would broadcast to Celes Sector, etc), thusly encouraging some mobility in sector space without making it so you have to bunny hop systems every half hour to find it. Short mission, kill five mobs. Five mobs instead of three because this is serving the dual purpose of grinding a bit of expertise and grinding kill accolades with a modest dil source all in one fell swoop. Reuse existing maps for those systems with some minor cosmetic and/or locational changes, and boom, content!
Of course, they did remove State of Q recently, though in that case, their plan/goal to improve it is a bit out of their control - they want Avery Brooks to speak his character again, and who knows if he can be interested in that. (So maybe we'll never see that mission back. Or they have to abandon their plan).
On that point, they apparently have rights to audio files (and maybe still images?) from the shows.
So anything that can be done that involves existing audio, they can do. It's easier with episodes where the audio recordings still exist separate from the music.
Apparently, though, they can use the audio from Best of Both Worlds and Emissary.
If they hired anyone for that episode, I'd imagine it would be John deLancie. Almost anything else could be accomplished with the audio from First Contact, BOBW, and Emissary.
I can see a big feature that would be warranted there would be an improved environment that looks more retro (even if it's just a recolor) and an update on period Borg assets to look more period. Also likely to have incidental crew and half-assimilated crew in period uniforms now that we have those. (They mostly didn't exist when the mission was designed.)
I'd think especially if we aren't distorting the timeline that Sisko's dialogue could be generic tactical orders from other episodes and what he said in Emissary.
If they WERE thinking outside the box, I think getting Felecia M. Bell as Jennifer Sisko would provide more bang for the buck. She'd be pretty much at liberty to interact with us the whole mission since she doesn't make it out alive.
which were probably one of the most complained about things that wasn't the KDF, for the first year this game existed.
Exploration wasn't complained about much at all, until Season 2, when teaming and maps were broken. And even then the complaints were largely to fix the bugs that were put into the game with season 2, and also the complaints still didn't crack top 5 back then.
Top 5 complaints in the game first year:
1- KDF
2- Birds of Prey/Cloaking
3- PVP
4- No Excelsior
5- The Galaxy Dreadnought, and the way it was obtained
I could see most of the Fleet actions axed. They could be converted into open PvP zones like Kerrat (They would have to move SB24 which I think is in the wrong spot anyways).
I could see most of the Fleet actions axed. They could be converted into open PvP zones like Kerrat (They would have to move SB24 which I think is in the wrong spot anyways).
You know after they do that, they could then axe Kerrat. Because it's too dated, easy to get lost in, and just plain sucks.
I disagree. At the end of the day they still have to moderate these forums. They still take direction from Smirk and Trendy who don't quite have their own directives straight yet, so there's tons of confusion about organization and thread management right now, and they still have to put on a brave face each time something "new" happens.
With all this "New Player got lost" - Talk, I'd say the Foundry ... pretty sure lots of Casual Newbies have problems getting the whole UGC Concept, and might be driven away by "Loot-O-Matics" & broken Mission they can't finish ...
Sure removing the Foundry wouldn't make any sense right now (Exploration Clusters - Foundry Doors), but what does anymore ...
Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
I remain empathetic to the concerns of my community, but do me a favor and lay off the god damn name calling and petty remarks. It will get you nowhere.
I must admit, respect points to Trendy for laying down the law like that.
So what do you do while waiting for the 10 minute queue for the big dig, sit in space dock waiting, so fun or do some of those waste of Space cluster missions which keep you occupied on are FILLERS until the PvE queues are full.
The Undine or Voth Battlezones are wonderful places for that. Or Ker'rat (or Otha).
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
It's that simple. Since they've decided shrinking the game is acceptable as long as it raises the "average quality," what's the next most execrable, screwed-up thing in the game that they can boost overall quality by removing? PvP? Ground combat? Queued content that rarely fills?
Let's help'em out here by showing them what needs to go next until they've got extremely high quality in the 4 remaining missions that constitute the entire game!
More than ever STO deos go into a direction i don't like at all.
So what's next?
Some things come to my mind:
- PvP
- Galaxy, Intrepid, Defiant Class, StarCruisers, most science ships (sry i can't speak for KDF faction ships)
- Sector Space
- Deep Space K7, Deep Space 9, any other non ESD space station in the game (starfleet side)
- KDF faction
- everything that has a fan base too small for Cryptics devs taste
- Diplomacy and in general everything that does not include at least one explosion, lol.
- Most additional starship ship parts :eek:
"...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--"
- (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie
you will log in, get the loading screen then it will go to a blank screen and the words "Thank you for playing, please come again soon, goodbye." will scroll repeatedly across the screen.
it will be done in the highest quality though
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
I personally do not want anything removed, even if the content may be slightly outdated.
I mean, I tried cluster missions, and while some were boring others were quite fun. I find it horrible that so much content will be gone forever.
I already hate how they removed a lot of stuff, like the Elachi Alert, Terradome, etc.
It's a bad policy, and it's partially one of the reasons even Wow is falling apart.
This horrible "Let's randomly scrap content" philosophy.
This is especially annoying when the new philosophy appears to be "Grind, grind, grind, grind, grind"
I want to at least keep the relics of the time when the game was about new content.
Hmm... What's not "up to the quality of current content" about exploration?
Let's do a comparison...
Current content:
Spacebar spam
Piloting
"F" spam
Exploration:
Pressing of various buttons depending upon the mission.
"F" spam
Walking/piloting
Aiming (if anyone does this at all)
in rare cases minigames
Wait a sec... Exploration has 2 more criteria than current content... So that's why it's not up to current standards it takes a more thinking...
By that logic, the next thing in line has got to be pvp.
Comments
GOO!!! :eek:
And people want to save the exploration clusters, which payout LESS?!
'Kay...
Yeah, 3 traditional cluster missions was like 1440, right?
3 foundry cluster mission, plus a SFA quiz = Your 8,000 character max.
Edit: Here are exact stats I took a few months ago:
For playing a 30-45 minute mission called Adrift, I received the following regular plus IOR rewards that totaled:
Almost 6000 XP (plus XP earned while playing the mission)
2497 dilithium total
1984 skill points
About 70,000 ECs, from drops discarded (It was mostly a ground mission, so the ECs were light).
For playing a spotlight, Sovereign77xs Forget Me Not, I received:
3599 dilithium
6000 XP
21,800 ECs
plus skill points
I'd replace them ASAP with a mini-Red Alert system in which a different system in each sector block every half-hour or so would offer a short shoot'em-up mission framed around a raid or skirmish or something rewarding a slightly above average chunk of Expertise and a about 480 dil, with another 480 dil coming your way if you complete a daily by completing one of these missions in any three sectors controlled at least partially by your faction. You could continue repeating the missions either seeking your accolade or just to get expertise as much as you like.
I Support Disco | Disco is Love | Disco is Life
system Lord Baal is dead
But they are pretty shallow, and really have no interesting features aside from repeated space combat in them.
I guess they could be dropped with no real loss for the game. And a mini-Red Alert system with different factions could be much more interesting - if only because of the enemy ship variety you'd finally get.
I assume it would stay simplistic content, however - no actual mission goals but kill stuff.
I think story missions will just eventually get their revamp, one by one.
It's just that with exploration missions there are way too many to fix or improve. Patrol Missions are much like exploration missions, but they seem to be limited in numbers and can probably be repaired or revamped over time like story missions-
/10char
Brilliant!
To boldly go where removal is imminent. Can you make it in time? Hurry while the universe lasts!
Exciting new activities for sure. End of the line sightseeing!
---
Join The Space Invaders,..... Federation and KDF fleets.
These forums :rolleyes:
I find it hilarious the amount of people now white knighting for Explorations clusters, which were probably one of the most complained about things that wasn't the KDF, for the first year this game existed.
What I would find even doubly amusing, if it wasn't so pathetically sad and predictable, is that not an insignificant number of those Whites Knights are the same people who complained so vehemently about how terrible they were back then.
I pretty much agree with your comments. That said, if the devs wanted to avoid the vocal minority of players who are angry and ranting about the loss of the exploration clusters then they should have announced "specifically" what is coming that will replace the old exploration clusters.
I honestly believe the people who are the angriest aren't "really" angry about the loss of the exploration clusters ... they're angry that something is being taken away and isn't immediately being replaced with something better.
I know it's not exactly the same thing, but imagine the nerd rage from the players here if the devs got rid of the old ESD and didn't immediately replace it with the new and improved ESD?
That is essentially what happened to the exploration clusters ... only there isn't a "massive" group upset over it because the exploration clusters weren't particularly popular (because they weren't very compelling content).
The same thing happened with interiors ... the ship interiors were supposed to be a major part of the game back when it launched, but because most of the old interiors weren't great and were poorly developed the players didn't use them ... and the devs used the lack of player interest in the interiors as an excuse the abandon serious efforts to improve ship interiors.
I can understand some people being upset over the "self-fulfilling" prophecy that "if players aren't interested in X content then let's just get rid of X content."
I would hypothesize that "If players don't like X content then let's see what we can do to make X content better" is a superior philosophy in terms of sustaining STO for years to come.
Don't believe the lies in this forum. I am NOT an ARC user. I play STO on Steam or not at all.
Many of us complained because we wanted them improved.
Pretty much. I wouldn't pull Deep Space Encounters without adding at least some form of grind relief back in its place, even if it wouldn't do the same job at the same speed.
Basically each sector block would have one type of enemy - Sirius would have Orions, Regulus would have Nausicaans, Fek'ihri in Omega Leonis, rogue Gorn in Eta Eridani, etc etc. Every half hour, a different system in the sector block sends out a red alert to any ship within its sub-sector (Celes System would broadcast to Celes Sector, etc), thusly encouraging some mobility in sector space without making it so you have to bunny hop systems every half hour to find it. Short mission, kill five mobs. Five mobs instead of three because this is serving the dual purpose of grinding a bit of expertise and grinding kill accolades with a modest dil source all in one fell swoop. Reuse existing maps for those systems with some minor cosmetic and/or locational changes, and boom, content!
I Support Disco | Disco is Love | Disco is Life
On that point, they apparently have rights to audio files (and maybe still images?) from the shows.
So anything that can be done that involves existing audio, they can do. It's easier with episodes where the audio recordings still exist separate from the music.
Apparently, though, they can use the audio from Best of Both Worlds and Emissary.
If they hired anyone for that episode, I'd imagine it would be John deLancie. Almost anything else could be accomplished with the audio from First Contact, BOBW, and Emissary.
I can see a big feature that would be warranted there would be an improved environment that looks more retro (even if it's just a recolor) and an update on period Borg assets to look more period. Also likely to have incidental crew and half-assimilated crew in period uniforms now that we have those. (They mostly didn't exist when the mission was designed.)
I'd think especially if we aren't distorting the timeline that Sisko's dialogue could be generic tactical orders from other episodes and what he said in Emissary.
If they WERE thinking outside the box, I think getting Felecia M. Bell as Jennifer Sisko would provide more bang for the buck. She'd be pretty much at liberty to interact with us the whole mission since she doesn't make it out alive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgAlog2eTEg
Breaking the planet takes place during the leveling arc, when yer still at war with Klinks.
I agree with this.
Exploration wasn't complained about much at all, until Season 2, when teaming and maps were broken. And even then the complaints were largely to fix the bugs that were put into the game with season 2, and also the complaints still didn't crack top 5 back then.
Top 5 complaints in the game first year:
1- KDF
2- Birds of Prey/Cloaking
3- PVP
4- No Excelsior
5- The Galaxy Dreadnought, and the way it was obtained
You know after they do that, they could then axe Kerrat. Because it's too dated, easy to get lost in, and just plain sucks.
I disagree. At the end of the day they still have to moderate these forums. They still take direction from Smirk and Trendy who don't quite have their own directives straight yet, so there's tons of confusion about organization and thread management right now, and they still have to put on a brave face each time something "new" happens.
Win? Nah, I don't see it.
Sure removing the Foundry wouldn't make any sense right now (Exploration Clusters - Foundry Doors), but what does anymore ...
It is broken, useless and or outdated.
The world of STO is not about exploration or pvp or fighting Klingons...or much about Star Trek.....
It is a social sand box where Federation officers run around Deep Space 9 in swim wear or spam the zone with cute trekky shaped balloons.
It is a giant MMo that focuses on trading and pseudo combat.
Remove them until Cryptic actually makes them their own faction, and when they return, rebalance all their stuff.
The Undine or Voth Battlezones are wonderful places for that. Or Ker'rat (or Otha).
So what's next?
Some things come to my mind:
- PvP
- Galaxy, Intrepid, Defiant Class, StarCruisers, most science ships (sry i can't speak for KDF faction ships)
- Sector Space
- Deep Space K7, Deep Space 9, any other non ESD space station in the game (starfleet side)
- KDF faction
- everything that has a fan base too small for Cryptics devs taste
- Diplomacy and in general everything that does not include at least one explosion, lol.
- Most additional starship ship parts :eek:
it will be done in the highest quality though
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
I hear they may also get rid of a few programmers and hand their jobs over to the community to do for free as well.
I mean, I tried cluster missions, and while some were boring others were quite fun. I find it horrible that so much content will be gone forever.
I already hate how they removed a lot of stuff, like the Elachi Alert, Terradome, etc.
It's a bad policy, and it's partially one of the reasons even Wow is falling apart.
This horrible "Let's randomly scrap content" philosophy.
This is especially annoying when the new philosophy appears to be "Grind, grind, grind, grind, grind"
I want to at least keep the relics of the time when the game was about new content.
Let's do a comparison...
Current content:
Spacebar spam
Piloting
"F" spam
Exploration:
Pressing of various buttons depending upon the mission.
"F" spam
Walking/piloting
Aiming (if anyone does this at all)
in rare cases minigames
Wait a sec... Exploration has 2 more criteria than current content... So that's why it's not up to current standards it takes a more thinking...
By that logic, the next thing in line has got to be pvp.