Was it Season 7 that removed the rewards from the Borg STF's? That was eventually "fixed" with lower dilithium and inferior equipment drops that had originally been present, but they were added back in. I'd guess that something similar will happen with the rewards, as at this point there is little benefit to running the queues that make up the vast majority of end game PvE play and PvP resource gathering. Stick with the Episodes, kill stuff in the Battlezones, and find alternate sources that trigger the Daily Bonus for the Rep Marks you want/need... the queues are going to be rather quiet for awhile.
Eventually, they'll adjust the hitpoint punching bags and rewards to appropriately reflect each other. Until then, kill time and NPC's away from the queues, grind up some levels and gear, and try again once adjustments have been made to your build and the queues.
Many folks will simply say f*** it and wander off before this can happen, of course, so in the end it will boil down to how many folks come for the added challenge compared to how many folks leave because of it.
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Seriously, though... whose idea was it to reduce rewards at the same time difficulty increases were being implemented? That person needs to be given an 80 hour work week at minimum wage, then think about how that relates to a game that should be both fun and rewarding for its players. :P
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
Odd, how quickly you've changed your opinion from this post. :P
I can't wait until you twist this into something else with some interesting legal lingo gymnastics.
I see no conflicts in the linked post and the quoted one. A Dev saying you need upgrades for elites and cosmic saying you might want upgrades for advanced elite, but normal is fine on a 5.5fleet and maybe advanced too depending on player skill.
Even Epohh tagging is harder...they have cloaks and +50 speed
Your pain runs deep.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
Just so you know I have a thread going in the PvE section where you can post all your "Advanced" Q mission horror stories. I think there is going to be a lot of them going forward!
"Oh, and Normal doesn't award any BNPs, so for now until god only knows when, anyone who doesn't have top-end gear (i.e. New players) can't get the means to unlock high end gear..
All reps that need a special currency (omega, dyson, undine, delta) give that currency (bnps) in the daily/hourly box as a rare drop. You can keep getting hourly boxes after tier 5.
Cryptic difficulty is adding more health and moar damage to boring swarms of flying barns instead of, y'know, making them more difficult. Taking the exact same thing and making it last longer isn't difficult, it's annoying.
I am not blowing smoke on anything. My point still stands. The Content can still be played using existing T5 ships - you simply cannot do it on Advanced unless you are marginally skilled. On Elite you need to have the best gear and ships available to you - which was made clear even in the Podcasts. But that is not stopping anyone from doing it even on Regular difficulty while they get better.
I know this concept might be new to some... but we might have to use communication and strategy. :eek:
Star Trek Battles Channel - Play Star Trek like they did in the series!Avatar: pinterest-com/pin/14003448816884219Are you sure it isn't time for a "colorful metaphor"? --Spock in 'The Voyage Home' SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
The first ISA I ran was a total failure. Some guy went straight to a generator and ignored the cube (idk why people ever did that, and now it's even worse to do it). A sphere made it to the transformer and we failed. The second run I did I came with a science ship with gravity well, warp plasma and doffed TBR. I CC the heck out of every thing. We ran out of time and lost the optional but still beat the mission. My third run I went with fleet mates and I brought a T5U drain science brel. Nothing had shields and we finished fast.
It's looking like hybrid science ships is the way to go.
Oh and cross healing is a great skill. Heal the dude with agro so you don't get it when he dies.
All reps that need a special currency (omega, dyson, undine, delta) give that currency (bnps) in the daily/hourly box as a rare drop. You can keep getting hourly boxes after tier 5.
It sucks and is slow and random. But its there.
Not really. Because that's still random, and even if you did one every hour for 24 hours, there's no guarantee you'd get a BNP. Unlike before, where you absolutely would get one for an Elite STF. Bearing in mind that the difficulty is now less a curve and more a brick wall, normal should now award one BNP for a win, Advanced should reward two and Elite, three.
Otherwise, put the difficulty back to the way it was. There's absolutely no benefit to cutting out a large majority of the players because of power-creep and uber-builds.
You're just a machine. And machines can be broken.
Has no one been paying attention for the last couple of months?
I think most people saw "slightly more difficult" and inferred something completely different to what Cryptic had in mind for a "slight" difficulty increase.
"Slight" difficulty increase to Cryptic means "Drop a load on T6 ships and our terrible new crafting system and you might be up to the challenge for Advanced."
Don't even get me started on Elite.
You're just a machine. And machines can be broken.
Yes, I played it on Tribble; but my Fleet Sovereign can do 13k dps. I am not one of the 3,000 DPS players, even though I do not PvP. It was challenging but it was not impossible to do. I assume that if I attempt it in a T5U Fleet Sovereign when I am level 60 it will be even easier due to Trait bonuses - and easier still if I were using a T6 vessel. Plus I was doing it with Mk XII Gear. If I had been using Mk XIII I would have been looking at another, what, 20-30% bump in DPS? I will eventually attempt Elite in my ship as well; though I do not expect to win.
There is now nothing a casual player can do to obtain marks for fleets and gear.
You are aware that you can play the STFs on Regular/Normal mode and still get Marks, right? Plus you can do Ground STFs at higher difficulties if you feel that Ground is easier for you.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
You are aware that you can play the STFs on Regular/Normal mode and still get Marks, right? Plus you can do Ground STFs at higher difficulties if you feel that Ground is easier for you.
When was ground ever easier?
And what good are marks when all the Mk XII rep gear projects requires rep-specific items?
You're just a machine. And machines can be broken.
Not really. Because that's still random, and even if you did one every hour for 24 hours, there's no guarantee you'd get a BNP. Unlike before, where you absolutely would get one for an Elite STF. Bearing in mind that the difficulty is now less a curve and more a brick wall, normal should now award one BNP for a win, Advanced should reward two and Elite, three.
Otherwise, put the difficulty back to the way it was. There's absolutely no benefit to cutting out a large majority of the players because of power-creep and uber-builds.
Exactly why I said "it sucks and it is random".
The whole rep system was added to remove the random. And believe me, I ran hundreds of estfs before rep and got f-all out of it. Nothing random gets my seal of approval.
And what good are marks when all the Mk XII rep gear projects requires rep-specific items?
I think for some it is easier to get better Gear for your character then it is for your entire ship - 1-2 ground weapons rather then 7-8 ship weapons, etc. Thus going into a Ground Advanced might be easier for some.
Also, the player I replied to asked about how they were going to get Marks. I simply replied that you can still get Marks on Regular/Normal mode.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
As expected the word gymnastic you went through were indeed very interesting.
For the record, I do not hide behind additional accounts. When I have something to say I say it with this account. This is the account I have used for over 6 years.
He did make my point for me, though. I have done Advanced STFs on tribble. I have seen videos of others doing them. No, they cannot be done by someone who does 3,000 dps with green gear, but if you are a relatively aware player you can build an effective ship. I do not PvP and my ship does over 13k DPS with Mk XII gear.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
For a long time people kept complaining "the game is too easy", "give us more challenge".
Now everybody is crying "it's too hard!". (that's what she said :P)
To quote an ancient human phrase: "Be careful what you wish for".
Stop your ********. You got exactly what you asked for.
Though I will point out that Cryptic said that no content in Delta Rising will require T6 ships or the best gear, then they turn around and say that for the new elite PVE queued missions you're better off waiting until level 60 and have the absolute best gear you can possibly get (they probably meant epic quality level 14 gear). As others have pointed out, you were warned about the new elite queues.
Folks asked for more difficult missions. What we got is not more difficult. We got longer missions requiring more grinding to get better gear to fight the same boring slow ships which have more health and more damage. Difficulty would be smarter AI, like activating EPtS when shields get low, or focusing fire, or saving buffs for attack runs.
Sure, there are real crybabies, but many complaints are entirely valid.
Ok i knew that a beefing of STFs was coming but this is crazy! ran a 5-man fleet ISA we got to the tac cube with 1:12 left and hadnt even scratched the gateway and the tac cube popped BFAW and wiped our whole team! WTF! i could see this in Elite but Advanced? OMG! I go on to note we had 3 scimitars a Scryer and a Palisade. This may wanna be rethought cryptic.
"Cryptic, Scimitar came in touched me my ISE and it was too fast and was too short, it's no fun, next time I will come with my T1 connie, and I will help the borg to kill big bad scimitard, and we can prolong borg life span another 3.14 sec, please." This was the forum 1 day ago.
Comments
Eventually, they'll adjust the hitpoint punching bags and rewards to appropriately reflect each other. Until then, kill time and NPC's away from the queues, grind up some levels and gear, and try again once adjustments have been made to your build and the queues.
Many folks will simply say f*** it and wander off before this can happen, of course, so in the end it will boil down to how many folks come for the added challenge compared to how many folks leave because of it.
Seriously, though... whose idea was it to reduce rewards at the same time difficulty increases were being implemented? That person needs to be given an 80 hour work week at minimum wage, then think about how that relates to a game that should be both fun and rewarding for its players. :P
I dont mind it being harder or taking a bit longer, but now, people are just leaving. 22 MILLION Hit Points. lol
Difficulty got a MEGA buff. WTF was anyone thinking?
I see no conflicts in the linked post and the quoted one. A Dev saying you need upgrades for elites and cosmic saying you might want upgrades for advanced elite, but normal is fine on a 5.5fleet and maybe advanced too depending on player skill.
Seems like two posts saying the same thing.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1251341
All reps that need a special currency (omega, dyson, undine, delta) give that currency (bnps) in the daily/hourly box as a rare drop. You can keep getting hourly boxes after tier 5.
It sucks and is slow and random. But its there.
There is a big difference between "I want oneshoots" and "I don't want to munch 10 on a Kazon ship that has more HP then a pre DR Borg Cube"
I know this concept might be new to some... but we might have to use communication and strategy. :eek:
SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
It's looking like hybrid science ships is the way to go.
Oh and cross healing is a great skill. Heal the dude with agro so you don't get it when he dies.
Not really. Because that's still random, and even if you did one every hour for 24 hours, there's no guarantee you'd get a BNP. Unlike before, where you absolutely would get one for an Elite STF. Bearing in mind that the difficulty is now less a curve and more a brick wall, normal should now award one BNP for a win, Advanced should reward two and Elite, three.
Otherwise, put the difficulty back to the way it was. There's absolutely no benefit to cutting out a large majority of the players because of power-creep and uber-builds.
I think most people saw "slightly more difficult" and inferred something completely different to what Cryptic had in mind for a "slight" difficulty increase.
"Slight" difficulty increase to Cryptic means "Drop a load on T6 ships and our terrible new crafting system and you might be up to the challenge for Advanced."
Don't even get me started on Elite.
10 ppl avarage of 15 000 dmg/s
Shooting non stop
Time to complete ~ 25 minutes
Not counting Tholian interference where one of my fleet mates told me he checked Weaver's HP it was around 350 000 HP.
This is just maths. I was UNABLE to complete a single one CC(Advanced) because of the people dropping and leaving.
Reward 480 dil.
Sorry but this is unplayable.
Cryptic.... Fail.
You are aware that you can play the STFs on Regular/Normal mode and still get Marks, right? Plus you can do Ground STFs at higher difficulties if you feel that Ground is easier for you.
When was ground ever easier?
And what good are marks when all the Mk XII rep gear projects requires rep-specific items?
Exactly why I said "it sucks and it is random".
The whole rep system was added to remove the random. And believe me, I ran hundreds of estfs before rep and got f-all out of it. Nothing random gets my seal of approval.
And hence why I said "Revert to Pre-DR".
Because this? This will kill the game stone dead.
Also, the player I replied to asked about how they were going to get Marks. I simply replied that you can still get Marks on Regular/Normal mode.
He did make my point for me, though. I have done Advanced STFs on tribble. I have seen videos of others doing them. No, they cannot be done by someone who does 3,000 dps with green gear, but if you are a relatively aware player you can build an effective ship. I do not PvP and my ship does over 13k DPS with Mk XII gear.
Either that or people will migrate to the next-best efficient use of time (which will, of course, then be "revamped" and have its rewards nerfed).
For a long time people kept complaining "the game is too easy", "give us more challenge".
Now everybody is crying "it's too hard!". (that's what she said :P)
To quote an ancient human phrase: "Be careful what you wish for".
Stop your ********. You got exactly what you asked for.
Though I will point out that Cryptic said that no content in Delta Rising will require T6 ships or the best gear, then they turn around and say that for the new elite PVE queued missions you're better off waiting until level 60 and have the absolute best gear you can possibly get (they probably meant epic quality level 14 gear). As others have pointed out, you were warned about the new elite queues.
Again, stop ********.
Mwuahahahaha! Idiots.
Sure, there are real crybabies, but many complaints are entirely valid.
Finally the borg are scary again.
And YOUR scenario is an almost best-case!!! At least you had solid performers on your squad..
As I said in another thread, the time invest simply isnt worth the reduced dil. Buffed Difficulty+nerfed payout = ****e.
Cryptic listens. Buffs Borgs.
Where is your god now?