I'll start by saying that I never wanted a level cap increase or another tier of ships, I was happy with T5/lvl 50.. in a lot of MMOs it basically means all the gear you've got becomes worthless..
Overall though, I think what s described so far is acceptable: sure it costs to upgrade, but at least we can upgrade most of the old ships.
There's this one big exception however... the upgrade path for fleet ships that qualify for a FSM discount is absolutely horrible. A fleet ship is a per character purchase, so people are unlikely to get the same fleet ship on multiple characters, making the account wide unlock relatively worthless for fleet ships. I have the cstore T5 defiant (Tactical Escort Retrofit) which I use on multiple characters, but is the primary ship only on my tac. I like to switch ships, so I'll only get the fleet version on characters that really suit a ship. So for the tac i-I invest in a fleet ship.
Now with the T6 ships coming up, i will have to invest in an account wide T6 upgrade of the cstore T5 defiant (Tactical Escort Retrofit), this is perfectly fine for me, i'm glad i can keep using the ships i love. But here's the part i think is unacceptable: my tac is stuck on the T5.5 (fleet) ship, unless I pay for the upgrade again!! I don't intend to buy the upgrade for the same ships twice.. once for the cstore version, fine, but it should apply the upgrade to the fleet ship if it qualifies for an FSM discount as well. Basically the T6 upgrade should stack with the fleet upgrade.
If this is implemented as is, I'm not going to be investing any more in fleet ships.. the fleet ship upgrade is the lesser of the 2 and is character bound.. i'd rather use my account wide T5-U defiant on my tac then the T5.5 fleet defiant without upgrade.
Once i buy the upgrade for either the cstore T5 defiant, it should allow me to upgrade the other to a T5-U fleet defiant as well. Without this, I can't see myself investing in fleet ships any more on any characters..
Stacking the T5-U upgrade with the FSM discount is a good idea. I'd add to that by saying that those who already have the fleet ships should get the upgrade for free.
while I agree with your post to a point I will say you are wrong about warp cores, ships always had them just not as removable/changeable items.
none of the ships would have got very far without them even before you could change them.
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.
If you think this is bad, wait until everyone realises that all their Gen XII ultra rare equipment will need to be upgraded to XIII or XIV with the new level cap too. (Think about it, it makes sense).
Or have Cryptic already said that this won't happen with X2?
I think one has to have a sane and rational mind in order to be out of it...but I concur. Seriously cryptic/perfect world...are you out of your ****ing minds? I'll say it...I don't care if you ban me from your pathetic little forum. I'm saying my peace!! I've already put thousands of hours into my 26 level 50 toons, at least 1500 dollars in real world money and have grinded beyond reason to make all of them competitive and my reward is that at least 16 of my Captains now have to pay even more real world money in order to keep them mostly competitive. Seriously Cryptic...**** off!! And to the whiny fan boys defenders who will feel the need to quote me and tell me a thing or two **** you too. I won't waste my time debating you and it won't matter because I'll be banned anyway You may enjoy being bent over without Cryptic/Perfect World handing you any lube but the vast majority of us do not.
I 100% agree with all you have said!
Life time members And people that have put in hundreds of Real time money should get a huge break. then why did we become Life members and add more Real time money on top of that just to have been Sc***ed yet again for the T6 ships and items.
I am still waiting for them to give me my Risa corvet that has disappeared from my Ferengi toon. Are they not worth of that ship? Writing tickets one after another has got me no where. any advice there?
Please do not strample over our Love of Star trek and this game to fill your pockets even more. PLEASE!
I own 8 c-store ships that I have all gotten with dilithium alone. If you don't want to pay money then either don't get the ships or use dilithium. T3 c-store ships are also not endgame but I dont see anyone complaining about not being able to upgrade them, all I see is "wow you like sucking [edited] dont you thats TRIBBLE."
T6 is no different than any of the other tiers and if you want ships/equip of that quality you earn them or pay for them just like everything else.
Ya . . . sorry - I cant be on STO 10hrs a day to grind out that much Dil. I had the cash at the time, so I got the ships - which by the way is none of your business. Like so many other PAYING customers - I have a right to provide my opinion, arguably more than you for not supporting the game financially.
As for people complaining about up-gradable T3 ships - I think you might need to do your homework on that. People didn't HAVE to complain because T5 versions were made available (eg the Nebula, Excelsior) making your point completely irrelevant.
Some people need to remember, these unlocks are account wide. So if you buy the T5-U Defiant on one character, it unlocks it for all your characters.
Same with T5-U Fleet ships. Though you still need to buy the base fleet ship first on the alts that don't have it.
Still the point is there.....You still have to pay to upgrade ships you already PAID for. Not like Cryptic doesn't make enough off of the Lockbox keys, they feel they have to line their pockets. Give us FREE upgrades if we have to PAY for expansions. WoW, and many other MMOs do it.
Still the point is there.....You still have to pay to upgrade ships you already PAID for. Not like Cryptic doesn't make enough off of the Lockbox keys, they feel they have to line their pockets. Give us FREE upgrades if we have to PAY for expansions. WoW, and many other MMOs do it.
If I already spent $20-$50 to acquire access to a ship and am now being told I must pay another $5-$10 to keep it relevant it better have ALL the bells and whistles! The only way to excuse not having all the bells and whistles when upgrading is if ALL tier 5 upgrades are free.
The only way I pay for another ship at all is if this partial upgrade is free, otherwise Cryptic and Perfect World have ignored their promise when ships were first added to the C-Store way back when and we are no longer guaranteed any end game ships bought will always remain relevant for no additional costs.
How can they fix this? I see it as simple as providing 2 upgrade options. This PARTIAL upgrade for free for any paid, lockbox, event, or reputation based ship. A FULL upgrade option for $5-$10 more for any paid, lockbox, event, or reputation based ship. Doing so both ensures they don't betray their promises which will undermine future Zen-Store sales of future and existing ships and still provides them with the new revenue stream they are trying to force in their in a way that makes everyone happy.
Well, unless something changes at that cost and limited return I see many ending their financial contributions toward this game. Money does not flow from a wallet which feels betrayed.
Your gear may not keep up with you when there's new expansions in other MMOs, but there's two factors that change things here in STO:
1) Your Ship is much closer to a class specialization than to a piece of gear. Imagine the (quite justified) exodus of players if next expansion "Resto" was removed from druids with no replacement, mages became frost or arcane only, and the shaman class was eliminated utterly.
2) You pay about 40 bucks for that expansion. Once. And you get ALL of the goodies from it. This is rather different in comparison to, oh, I dunno, say, paying 25$ for a single ship model?
Well, whilst my feelings on this matter remain mixed, I will say that, if they MUST place a cost on upgrading our ships, they should at least acknowledge that there will be numerous players who will want to upgrade numerous ships.
In which case it would, in my opinion, be an idea to provide some sort of reduced price item that upgrades multiple ships.
So lets say, for example, that to upgrade one ship to T5-U costs 500 zen, but a player wishes to upgrade five ships. Thats, obviously, going to cost the player 2500 zen.
I, for one, would be far more encouraged if there were a module (for lack of a better term) that could upgrade no more than five ships, but commanded a slightly reduced price say 2000 zen, as an incentive to purchase.
Only my opinion though.
If they do the upgrades with items like they do with fleet ships, I could seem them doing reduced bundle price.
From what I've seen of the Tier 6 Federation ships they are as ugly as hell. I'd rather stick with my Tier 5 ships. As for the upgrade, why not have the two upgrade paths. For $2 have the Tier 5-U and for $10 make it a Tier 6 ships.
Why do all small companies believe selling fewer items at a higher price is better than selling more items at a lower price. Think of the profit you could make off players upgrading their Tier 5 ships to a full Tier 6 ship, much more than buying just one new Tier 6 ship. This just smells of a money grab. :mad:
I'm not whining because I want to be able to finish elite STF's in mere minutes. I'm whining because the tier 6 upgrade will most likely result in tier 5 or 5.5 ships becoming obsolete, even if they say they won't. Also, if they are going to scale elite STF's such that t6 players won't be too powerful while they are doing these, it will hurt the fresh level 50 characters and widen the gap even more.
It would be nice if people stopped calling genuine concern about balance between older and newer players and the risk of things becoming obsolete 'whining' btw.
ah bless, you have just asked people to stop saying you are whining, when you yourself
have defined your statement as whining. :rolleyes:
cryptic dont like to increase difficulty, they have repeatedly stated that they want to
keep this game casual player friendly. the best they seem to come up with is added
complexity or increased encounter duration. bringing fleet ships into game didnt make
T4 or T5 ships obsolete, so why should this be any different? im all for questioning the
developers decisions if i feel things are not as stated or detrimental to the game, but
aside from some basic speculation, we need to see actual data or experience content
before we are in any position to comment on the relative differences between Tiers
and the effect that will have on game play.
I wanted to pop in and answer some common questions that I am seeing. Some I have already answered, but it might be nice to have them all in one place.
Q: Will Fleet Ship Upgrades be account unlock? Or single unlock per character?
A: Fleet Ships Upgrades are account unlocks. However, you must still purchase the Fleet ship to be upgraded on another character. I answered this in an earlier post, but I admit it could have been a little more clear.
Example: You purchase a fleet ship for fleet modules and fleet credits on character A. You then decide to upgrade this ship to T5-U and must pay the upgrade cost. You log onto character B and you want to get the Fleet T5-U ship. Character B will need to spend the fleet modules and fleet credits associated with this ship, but the upgrade to Fleet T5-U will be free.
Q: Will there be a noticeable difference between an upgraded regular T5 ship vs an upgraded T5 Fleet ship?
A: Yes. The difference between a T5 ship and a Fleet T5 ship will be the same as the difference between a T5-U ship and a Fleet T5-U ship. In short, the Fleet T5-U ship will have 10% more hull and shield HP and have +1 console slot over a standard T5-U ship.
Q: Why don't T5-Us get level 5 in Starship Mastery?
A: I think there's a bit of confusion of what these levels actually mean. Levels 1-4 on both T5-Us and T6 ships are the same. They're passive buffs for your ship. They're the same strength as well. So, a +damage buff Starship Mastery ability on a T5-U Escort is the same as a T6 Escort. Level 5 is a starship trait unlock. There is no additional benefit. Since T5-Us don't have a starship trait unlock, they don't need level 5.
Q: Will this upgrade system affect Shuttlecraft in any way?
A: Shuttles will not be upgradeable. They will not be affected by this system at all since Shuttle content is effectively leveless.
Q: Will/can the Ambassador Class Ship included in this upgrade? Either the Aniv Version or the Fleet equivalent?
A: The Support Cruiser Retrofit (earned from completing Temporal Ambassador while the 2013 Anniversary Event was active) is not upgradeable, however the Fleet Support Cruiser Retrofit is upgradeable to T5-U.
I know many of you still have many burning questions. Some of them we just can't talk about yet as we're still early in development, or we the information will be released in a future blog post. Anyhow, I hope these answers help clear up some confusion.
With the forums looking like the season 2 finale of the Walking Dead, I have decided to completely empty my thoughts on the new upgrade stuff and I will do my best to stick to the PWE goody goody rules so I can continue posting.
First off, yay for lockbox, lobi and event ships being free for upgrading. That's cool.
As I understand it, T5-U upgrades will have this awesome boost to hull and shield HP (As can be expected with an upgrade), an extra console slot, but NO Specialist boff slot. Tier 6 ships do have the Specialist boff slot as well as the ship levels as you do, and you have traits you can use in a T5-U ship later if the ship isn't to your liking, and you'd rather fly a Tactical Escort instead, for example.
Now, while I see that Cryptic needs money, I understand the anger that's burning the forums. I can feel the hate flowing through them. People don't want to use the Robocop-Cylon wannabe designs. They want the Defiant. They want the Rotarran. They want the N'ventnar. They want their ship, not the new designs, and they have bonded with their ships for four years. Four. That's countless hours, countless victories, and countless defeats.
And you're asking them to pay more for a ship that won't even match your shiny new B.S.-mobile? Players are going to be ridiculed and alienated because there's other players that will end up buying your Tier 6 dinghies, and they're basically going to go "Tier 6 or GTFO." Same with PvP. It will be even more unplayable because the hardcore PvP-ers (who I have the utmost respect for, unless they're... hmm.. not nice.) will be forced to get the Tier 6 ships just to stay competitive.
Don't get me wrong, I would not mind upgrading a ship or two to 5-U. However, this is a bit of a slap in the face to people who JUST got a Fleet Ship. My fleet ships (Galaxy, Defiant, and Sovereign) I have to choose between to save on Zen. Now while I'm glad this will cause a drop in the price of Fleet Ship Modules on the Exchange, I am disappointed in how this was handled. On both sides of the board. I'm not too proud to admit, that at first, I was angry. Still a little angry, but not as much as I was.
On the guy who came up with a way to charge the players, charging people for a ship that cost them in the ballpark for $30-50 an additional $5-10.
On the community for two reasons.
1) I am shocked and appalled that you treated this so negatively. While I just wanted to smash something, I have seen swearing at the devs, threats to leave (good riddance, if you ask me.) and all sorts of nasty stuff. It's ridiculous and you need to chillax. Cryptic's taken care of us before, and while I'm NOT defending them, hopefully one of them will see this and it gets to the right peoples' eyes for reading.
2) Those players with first-class tickets on the Titanic looking down on everyone else that can't afford the upgrades. Well, guess what, Moneybags? You're sinking with us, even if I have to push you off the boat, jump in the water, and drag you into the icy water. Not all of us can afford upgrades, especially when some of us have 3-4 Fleet ships. 500 Zen stacks up fast, and for an "equal" upgrade that's not even equal? Ha. yeah right.
Now, in conclusion, there is a way to extinguish the flames.
1) Offer a free T6 ship when Delta Rising goes live, of the player's choice, that way, EVERYONE gets ahold of the new traits, along with the additional ways to unlock traits later when those come out.
2) Offer a T6 ship in the same way that for example, the Sovereign, Prometheus, Vanguard, Luna, etc etc were offered at Level 40.
3) If neither one of the above ideas are acceptable. change the upgrade pricing to a little more lower, or offer the upgrade with a choice: Zen OR Dilithium.
I racked my brain around this forever, trying to find a solution that everyone is happy with, and I hope they're good ideas.
Dreadnought class. Two times the size, three times the speed. Advanced weaponry. Modified for a minimal crew. Unlike most Federation vessels, it's built solely for combat.
Well, whilst my feelings on this matter remain mixed, I will say that, if they MUST place a cost on upgrading our ships, they should at least acknowledge that there will be numerous players who will want to upgrade numerous ships.
In which case it would, in my opinion, be an idea to provide some sort of reduced price item that upgrades multiple ships.
So lets say, for example, that to upgrade one ship to T5-U costs 500 zen, but a player wishes to upgrade five ships. Thats, obviously, going to cost the player 2500 zen.
I, for one, would be far more encouraged if there were a module (for lack of a better term) that could upgrade no more than five ships, but commanded a slightly reduced price say 2000 zen, as an incentive to purchase.
Only my opinion though.
Six oneway, half a dozen another.....either way, with all the ships I have.....to pay again is poo.
I'll probably upgrade a few, but man, thats still spending more money for a 'slightly' less upgrade to tier 6 ( the standard ) ships. This is about to get interesting....espensively quick.
I was hoping that upgrading a ship would be part of R and D. Something you could do after crafting a full Aegis Set for example. But no, its a poorly thought out Zynga err Zen grab.
I wanted to pop in and answer some common questions that I am seeing. Some I have already answered, but it might be nice to have them all in one place.
Q: Will Fleet Ship Upgrades be account unlock? Or single unlock per character?
A: Fleet Ships Upgrades are account unlocks. However, you must still purchase the Fleet ship to be upgraded on another character. I answered this in an earlier post, but I admit it could have been a little more clear.
Example: You purchase a fleet ship for fleet modules and fleet credits on character A. You then decide to upgrade this ship to T5-U and must pay the upgrade cost. You log onto character B and you want to get the Fleet T5-U ship. Character B will need to spend the fleet modules and fleet credits associated with this ship, but the upgrade to Fleet T5-U will be free.
Q: Will there be a noticeable difference between an upgraded regular T5 ship vs an upgraded T5 Fleet ship?
A: Yes. The difference between a T5 ship and a Fleet T5 ship will be the same as the difference between a T5-U ship and a Fleet T5-U ship. In short, the Fleet T5-U ship will have 10% more hull and shield HP and have +1 console slot over a standard T5-U ship.
Q: Why don't T5-Us get level 5 in Starship Mastery?
A: I think there's a bit of confusion of what these levels actually mean. Levels 1-4 on both T5-Us and T6 ships are the same. They're passive buffs for your ship. They're the same strength as well. So, a +damage buff Starship Mastery ability on a T5-U Escort is the same as a T6 Escort. Level 5 is a starship trait unlock. There is no additional benefit. Since T5-Us don't have a starship trait unlock, they don't need level 5.
Q: Will this upgrade system affect Shuttlecraft in any way?
A: Shuttles will not be upgradeable. They will not be affected by this system at all since Shuttle content is effectively leveless.
Q: Will/can the Ambassador Class Ship included in this upgrade? Either the Aniv Version or the Fleet equivalent?
A: The Support Cruiser Retrofit (earned from completing Temporal Ambassador while the 2013 Anniversary Event was active) is not upgradeable, however the Fleet Support Cruiser Retrofit is upgradeable to T5-U.
I know many of you still have many burning questions. Some of them we just can't talk about yet as we're still early in development, or we the information will be released in a future blog post. Anyhow, I hope these answers help clear up some confusion.
Best Regards,
Phil "Gorngonzolla" Zeleski
Thank you for continuing to ignore us. I will now be taking my leave. Bye Bye STO.
What about the Regular Obelisk that was earned during the LIMITED TIME episode. Why isn't it on the list. I understand the Ambassador since you can get it at anytime, but not the Obelisk.
Thanks for quoting this lot as we do keep repeating it a lot. Don't suppose you can tidy stuff a bit though with the old VA ships and reduce the level requirement to 49? As it is now the T6 ships also get shared with T5 ships at level 50 which is going to get very confusing going forwards as nobody will know why one is T5 and not T6. far easier if we can just say level 50 is T6, level 40 is T5 etc
Comments
And you upgrade per class, rather than per ship, so you should have to upgrade just once.
none of the ships would have got very far without them even before you could change them.
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.
Or have Cryptic already said that this won't happen with X2?
I 100% agree with all you have said!
Life time members And people that have put in hundreds of Real time money should get a huge break. then why did we become Life members and add more Real time money on top of that just to have been Sc***ed yet again for the T6 ships and items.
I am still waiting for them to give me my Risa corvet that has disappeared from my Ferengi toon. Are they not worth of that ship? Writing tickets one after another has got me no where. any advice there?
Please do not strample over our Love of Star trek and this game to fill your pockets even more. PLEASE!
Epoch, Tar'kis
Ya . . . sorry - I cant be on STO 10hrs a day to grind out that much Dil. I had the cash at the time, so I got the ships - which by the way is none of your business. Like so many other PAYING customers - I have a right to provide my opinion, arguably more than you for not supporting the game financially.
As for people complaining about up-gradable T3 ships - I think you might need to do your homework on that. People didn't HAVE to complain because T5 versions were made available (eg the Nebula, Excelsior) making your point completely irrelevant.
Same with T5-U Fleet ships. Though you still need to buy the base fleet ship first on the alts that don't have it.
So that will save you money for characters who have the same ships.
Still the point is there.....You still have to pay to upgrade ships you already PAID for. Not like Cryptic doesn't make enough off of the Lockbox keys, they feel they have to line their pockets. Give us FREE upgrades if we have to PAY for expansions. WoW, and many other MMOs do it.
STO Expansions are free.
Not everybody has all their characters flying the same ship. So that doesn't matter.
That is my point. If they charge for expansions, then we should get more of what we want.
The only way I pay for another ship at all is if this partial upgrade is free, otherwise Cryptic and Perfect World have ignored their promise when ships were first added to the C-Store way back when and we are no longer guaranteed any end game ships bought will always remain relevant for no additional costs.
How can they fix this? I see it as simple as providing 2 upgrade options. This PARTIAL upgrade for free for any paid, lockbox, event, or reputation based ship. A FULL upgrade option for $5-$10 more for any paid, lockbox, event, or reputation based ship. Doing so both ensures they don't betray their promises which will undermine future Zen-Store sales of future and existing ships and still provides them with the new revenue stream they are trying to force in their in a way that makes everyone happy.
Well, unless something changes at that cost and limited return I see many ending their financial contributions toward this game. Money does not flow from a wallet which feels betrayed.
1) Your Ship is much closer to a class specialization than to a piece of gear. Imagine the (quite justified) exodus of players if next expansion "Resto" was removed from druids with no replacement, mages became frost or arcane only, and the shaman class was eliminated utterly.
2) You pay about 40 bucks for that expansion. Once. And you get ALL of the goodies from it. This is rather different in comparison to, oh, I dunno, say, paying 25$ for a single ship model?
If they do the upgrades with items like they do with fleet ships, I could seem them doing reduced bundle price.
Why do all small companies believe selling fewer items at a higher price is better than selling more items at a lower price. Think of the profit you could make off players upgrading their Tier 5 ships to a full Tier 6 ship, much more than buying just one new Tier 6 ship. This just smells of a money grab. :mad:
ah bless, you have just asked people to stop saying you are whining, when you yourself
have defined your statement as whining. :rolleyes:
cryptic dont like to increase difficulty, they have repeatedly stated that they want to
keep this game casual player friendly. the best they seem to come up with is added
complexity or increased encounter duration. bringing fleet ships into game didnt make
T4 or T5 ships obsolete, so why should this be any different? im all for questioning the
developers decisions if i feel things are not as stated or detrimental to the game, but
aside from some basic speculation, we need to see actual data or experience content
before we are in any position to comment on the relative differences between Tiers
and the effect that will have on game play.
If they do reduced bundle prices, I want to be reimbursed the difference on all the bundles I've purchased. But that's only if.
I wanted to pop in and answer some common questions that I am seeing. Some I have already answered, but it might be nice to have them all in one place.
Q: Will Fleet Ship Upgrades be account unlock? Or single unlock per character?
A: Fleet Ships Upgrades are account unlocks. However, you must still purchase the Fleet ship to be upgraded on another character. I answered this in an earlier post, but I admit it could have been a little more clear.
Example: You purchase a fleet ship for fleet modules and fleet credits on character A. You then decide to upgrade this ship to T5-U and must pay the upgrade cost. You log onto character B and you want to get the Fleet T5-U ship. Character B will need to spend the fleet modules and fleet credits associated with this ship, but the upgrade to Fleet T5-U will be free.
Q: Will there be a noticeable difference between an upgraded regular T5 ship vs an upgraded T5 Fleet ship?
A: Yes. The difference between a T5 ship and a Fleet T5 ship will be the same as the difference between a T5-U ship and a Fleet T5-U ship. In short, the Fleet T5-U ship will have 10% more hull and shield HP and have +1 console slot over a standard T5-U ship.
Q: Why don't T5-Us get level 5 in Starship Mastery?
A: I think there's a bit of confusion of what these levels actually mean. Levels 1-4 on both T5-Us and T6 ships are the same. They're passive buffs for your ship. They're the same strength as well. So, a +damage buff Starship Mastery ability on a T5-U Escort is the same as a T6 Escort. Level 5 is a starship trait unlock. There is no additional benefit. Since T5-Us don't have a starship trait unlock, they don't need level 5.
Q: Will this upgrade system affect Shuttlecraft in any way?
A: Shuttles will not be upgradeable. They will not be affected by this system at all since Shuttle content is effectively leveless.
Q: Will/can the Ambassador Class Ship included in this upgrade? Either the Aniv Version or the Fleet equivalent?
A: The Support Cruiser Retrofit (earned from completing Temporal Ambassador while the 2013 Anniversary Event was active) is not upgradeable, however the Fleet Support Cruiser Retrofit is upgradeable to T5-U.
I know many of you still have many burning questions. Some of them we just can't talk about yet as we're still early in development, or we the information will be released in a future blog post. Anyhow, I hope these answers help clear up some confusion.
Best Regards,
Phil "Gorngonzolla" Zeleski
Despite what I really want to do to the new upgrade content.
First off, yay for lockbox, lobi and event ships being free for upgrading. That's cool.
As I understand it, T5-U upgrades will have this awesome boost to hull and shield HP (As can be expected with an upgrade), an extra console slot, but NO Specialist boff slot. Tier 6 ships do have the Specialist boff slot as well as the ship levels as you do, and you have traits you can use in a T5-U ship later if the ship isn't to your liking, and you'd rather fly a Tactical Escort instead, for example.
Now, while I see that Cryptic needs money, I understand the anger that's burning the forums. I can feel the hate flowing through them. People don't want to use the Robocop-Cylon wannabe designs. They want the Defiant. They want the Rotarran. They want the N'ventnar. They want their ship, not the new designs, and they have bonded with their ships for four years. Four. That's countless hours, countless victories, and countless defeats.
And you're asking them to pay more for a ship that won't even match your shiny new B.S.-mobile? Players are going to be ridiculed and alienated because there's other players that will end up buying your Tier 6 dinghies, and they're basically going to go "Tier 6 or GTFO." Same with PvP. It will be even more unplayable because the hardcore PvP-ers (who I have the utmost respect for, unless they're... hmm.. not nice.) will be forced to get the Tier 6 ships just to stay competitive.
Don't get me wrong, I would not mind upgrading a ship or two to 5-U. However, this is a bit of a slap in the face to people who JUST got a Fleet Ship. My fleet ships (Galaxy, Defiant, and Sovereign) I have to choose between to save on Zen. Now while I'm glad this will cause a drop in the price of Fleet Ship Modules on the Exchange, I am disappointed in how this was handled. On both sides of the board. I'm not too proud to admit, that at first, I was angry. Still a little angry, but not as much as I was.
On the guy who came up with a way to charge the players, charging people for a ship that cost them in the ballpark for $30-50 an additional $5-10.
On the community for two reasons.
1) I am shocked and appalled that you treated this so negatively. While I just wanted to smash something, I have seen swearing at the devs, threats to leave (good riddance, if you ask me.) and all sorts of nasty stuff. It's ridiculous and you need to chillax. Cryptic's taken care of us before, and while I'm NOT defending them, hopefully one of them will see this and it gets to the right peoples' eyes for reading.
2) Those players with first-class tickets on the Titanic looking down on everyone else that can't afford the upgrades. Well, guess what, Moneybags? You're sinking with us, even if I have to push you off the boat, jump in the water, and drag you into the icy water. Not all of us can afford upgrades, especially when some of us have 3-4 Fleet ships. 500 Zen stacks up fast, and for an "equal" upgrade that's not even equal? Ha. yeah right.
Now, in conclusion, there is a way to extinguish the flames.
1) Offer a free T6 ship when Delta Rising goes live, of the player's choice, that way, EVERYONE gets ahold of the new traits, along with the additional ways to unlock traits later when those come out.
2) Offer a T6 ship in the same way that for example, the Sovereign, Prometheus, Vanguard, Luna, etc etc were offered at Level 40.
3) If neither one of the above ideas are acceptable. change the upgrade pricing to a little more lower, or offer the upgrade with a choice: Zen OR Dilithium.
I racked my brain around this forever, trying to find a solution that everyone is happy with, and I hope they're good ideas.
Dreadnought class. Two times the size, three times the speed. Advanced weaponry. Modified for a minimal crew. Unlike most Federation vessels, it's built solely for combat.
Six oneway, half a dozen another.....either way, with all the ships I have.....to pay again is poo.
I'll probably upgrade a few, but man, thats still spending more money for a 'slightly' less upgrade to tier 6 ( the standard ) ships. This is about to get interesting....espensively quick.
No, I meant the upgrade item bundles, not ship bundles.
Mirror Universe variants were never top tier to begin.
ah, ok. that makes more sense.
Thanks for quoting this lot as we do keep repeating it a lot. Don't suppose you can tidy stuff a bit though with the old VA ships and reduce the level requirement to 49? As it is now the T6 ships also get shared with T5 ships at level 50 which is going to get very confusing going forwards as nobody will know why one is T5 and not T6. far easier if we can just say level 50 is T6, level 40 is T5 etc
Still waiting to be able to use forum titles