If it turns out they don't like it, it's F2P so they're not out anything but the time they put into it.
If they enjoy it while leveling and progressing, but later get sick of the grind once they're max level, they still had fun in the process.
So again, I don't see a lot of downside.
As for me, I've been playing since open beta. Over time when it gets boring or feels overly repetitive I just stop playing for a while. Then I come back 6 months or so later and enjoy the new content. Rinse, repeat. I have not even tried DR yet. (been busy at work)
All things considered. I do like most of the new content in the delta quadrant. It is quite entertaining however considering everything else.
I would not recommend this game to a friend or anyone. The Bugs are frustrating, the game is designed to frustrate the player into spending real money on the game. One way or another you will pay for this game. With either time or money.
I play because of the amount of time and resources I have committed to the game and I still have fun with it here and there. Mostly I'm holding out for the off chance that things could improve.
Never again. Simply because of the company that runs it.
Not after the condescending way the EP posted an insincere f u at the end of a Friday as if it were an afterthought, brazenly labeling people exploiter for playing the game.
The smugness of this *******.
No, **** no. Never again.
I hope cryptic loses the liscence so a real company with actual customer service trained people can do something with the Star Trek IP.
Not after Tau Dewagate, can't trust cryptic to keep their game together
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Hello,
I am asking for others thoughts and feelings on this question, obviously I have my own opinion but I'm hoping to expand my point of view.
If you choose to reply a simple yes or no is fine, but it'd be great if you would explain you position. Having said that this in not a Pro/Con Cryptic thread so there is no need to attack or 'correct' anyone's opinion since that's what I'm asking for anyway.
So on to the question:
Would you recommend STO to a friend?
Thanks in advance!
-Glass
Captain Trek are shields are holding !! Its an enemy we cannot Defeat !! Incoming weapon ... Hold On !! Shields down !! Ensign plot a course 12.7 by 356 evasive Maneuver Zeta !! Warp factor 11 and Skippy push those engines till were ready to blow !! Cryptic's in pursuit gaining on us Captain theres nothing we can do to outrun Cryptic ...
You will Be Cryptinized , Resistance is Futile !!
Computer , Activate self-destruct for 10 seconds on my mark ... Now
10 , 9 , 8 , 7 , you'll be back , 5 , 4 , I will never return and never be beaten by you again 2, 1 .... (((((NO)))))
3 Cater to Fed players by giving them stuff they shouldn't have. (Carriers, faction specific consoles, cloaking device)
4. Destroy uniqueness of other playable factions, Klingons and Romulans, by saying not enough people play them and the above reason.
5. Dilithium is required for almost everything in the game.
DING DING DING DING DING DING!!!!
Yeah, we have a winner! Congrats! Aye you been spying on me and my thoughts?! You hit that [Bleeep] head on. 100000% Correct... That post made my night! Someone has been paying attention.
Give this person a cookie. Hell, I'll bake you some cookies!
The dress is gold and white. Over 70% people says so. When viewed from a certain screen angle it appears blue and black. The dress displayed on amazon is a blue and black dress, but it's not the same dress in the picture. If you're seeing blue & black you're slightly colored blind. A normal upright screen = white and gold.
3 Cater to Fed players by giving them stuff they shouldn't have. (Carriers, faction specific consoles, cloaking device)
4. Destroy uniqueness of other playable factions, Klingons and Romulans, by saying not enough people play them and the above reason.
5. Dilithium is required for almost everything in the game.
I don't think the problem is in the competence (or lack thereof) of the dev team. The real problem is in who the dev team is taking orders from; they are the ones trying to milk every penny out of the game.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
I don't think the problem is in the competence (or lack thereof) of the dev team. The real problem is in who the dev team is taking orders from; they are the ones trying to milk every penny out of the game.
PWE kills Development - Welcome to Digital Communism
The only hope for STO is for it to become independent from PWE, the game is pressed like grapes to make wine for their owners, it is all about metrics and not the players.
Long answer: *sigh* - let's just forget all the things that are "going on" right now, even forget DR or LoR and just look at the basics. This is "Star Trek Online". Not "a" Star Trek Online game but the "Star Trek Online". As such, people I would even remotely recommend this game to are Star Trek fans like myself. A lot of those, myself included, consider the best Star Trek games there are, to date, to be the adventure games (25th Anniversary PC, Judgement Rites, A final Unity) or simulation and strategy games (the "Academies", Bridge Commander, Botf, Armada). What are the qualities of Star Trek? Adventure, drama, strange new worlds, exploration, iconic technology and starships. The adventure games cover the former while the simulation and strategy games cover the latter aspects. While STO has most of these in theory and in a very broad sense it severly lacks these qualities when you take a closer look.
We have a storyline feauturing a fair bit of adventures, in order to be dramatically appealing however the technology and the writing unfortunately lack at least in my opinion. The characters are not recognizable enough and the presentation is clunky - even if some characters are written im redeemable ways, the moment you see them on screen playing those comically emotes they lose everything they could have had. You visit some strange new worlds, though in the end you do the same in every world you see - kill 5 bad guys in space, kill 5 bad guys on ground. This is the way the game works and two or three sotry missions that break that basic scheme do not make up for it. It is in fact this kind of gameplay that I doubt will keep players that are in for their Star Trek adventure very long. Exploration... well, they ripped that out of the game. Smart move. Enough said. Iconic ships and technology, those are there though frankly the majority of ships and equipment in this game is as far from the original Star Trek visuals as you can get and the iconic ships take the back seat eventually for original designs - which wouldn't even be so bad if the game had a theme, but instead it's everything, all eras, all over the place and the way ships and technology are portrayed doesn't make a whole lot of sense or follows some kind of rules. In a strategy game a la Armada not all ships are equal, but they all have a purpose. Even though I have Negh'Vars at end-game there is still a reason to build Vor'Chas and B'rels for example, STO doesn't really know a difference in ships except little layout modifications but the ships essentially know no difference in usage.
Add to that all the recent issues, company policy, customer service, the business model, gambling and resource grind just for the sake of more grind at endgame I unfortunately cannot recommend this game to anyone, be it Star Trek fans or just MMO fans.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
PWE kills Development - Welcome to Digital Communism
The only hope for STO is for it to become independent from PWE, the game is pressed like grapes to make wine for their owners, it is all about metrics and not the players.
Unfortunately, based on what I can tell, the whole industry's going that way. It's not about quality anymore - while quality can result from these policies, the fact is that the focus is on a company's income, not the means used to achieve it.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
Unfortunately, based on what I can tell, the whole industry's going that way. It's not about quality anymore - while quality can result from these policies, the fact is that the focus is on a company's income, not the means used to achieve it.
The answer to this are smaller developing companies or Independent companies now, where they can focus on both the quality of their product and gain that much needed niche fan base. The era of solid MMO's with a paid subscription is almost over, and these huge corporations like PWE are destroying ingenuity, development, and player support.
Very very few games nowadays care about their product and fanbase, and are doing what PWE is doing, r@ping the hell out of game and moving on, they are akin to the BORG, assimilating everything in their wake, destroying a game's identity.
Captain Trek are shields are holding !! Its an enemy we cannot Defeat !! Incoming weapon ... Hold On !! Shields down !! Ensign plot a course 12.7 by 356 evasive Maneuver Zeta !! Warp factor 11 and Skippy push those engines till were ready to blow !! Cryptic's in pursuit gaining on us Captain theres nothing we can do to outrun Cryptic ...
You will Be Cryptinized , Resistance is Futile !!
Computer , Activate self-destruct for 10 seconds on my mark ... Now
10 , 9 , 8 , 7 , you'll be back , 5 , 4 , I will never return and never be beaten by you again 2, 1 .... (((((NO)))))
I used to. But I stopped with the crafting and doffing revamp, and everything they have done since then only proves me right.
FKA K-Tar, grumpy Klingon/El-Aurian hybrid. Now assimilated by PWE.
Sometimes, if you want to bury the hatchet with a Klingon, it has to be in his skull. - Captain K'Tar of the USS Danu about J'mpok.
I've thought long and hard about this, but to be honest, the answer has to be no.
It's an MMO - so there'll be grinding, but they've gone to far again with what is required. As many others have pointed out, to get anywhere in the game takes far too long. Longer if you want to ever consider yourself as competitive in pvp.
A lot of people have said what I wanted to say already. This is not a game for new players and even regulars are thinking twice.
This hasn't been well thought about and there's too many issues introduced for this to be considered a player friendly game anymore.
I bought the OP with dil converted to zen, just really glad I didn't spend money and my gold sub is also now cancelled. I'd only recently renewed that to try and show support as well.
If you've come to the forums to complain about the AFK system, it's known to be bugged at the moment.
I would say absolutely NOT! I like my friendls ... and I would like for them to keep liking me! DR is incredibly unfriendly to casuals and fresh 50s. Not sure what they were thinking ... except forcing us to pay for upgrades.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
No way, I even wrote up a review today advising people not to play this game. I just don't think it's right to advise people to play something that I know full well is of poor quality and is only going to keep going that way.
Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head. - Euripides
I no longer do any Bug Hunting work for Cryptic. I may resume if a serious attempt to fix the game is made.
One of my best friends, I talked him into playing STO. When I finally got my friend to start playing it was at the time of season 8. At that time I believed that Cryptic had a good F2P model where even tho they still had thier dilithium sinks. It wasn't all that bad. I also felt that the game offered a even serveing of Free playable content mixed with a fair time element. Now unless you buy zen and transfer it into dil to help out with crafting and upgradeing it just takes to long to get a decent set of items. Why would anyone (especially pvpers) spend months grinding out dil just so they can have a set of weapons. If anyone is going to spend months playing a game. It absolutly should not be grinding. Cryptic has robbed STO of its fun. For example, if I play the game for 3 hours. I find myself grinding and crafting at least 2 hours of that. To me that makes a very boring game. If something doesn't change soon, I hate to say it but I may actually move on from STO.
To answer the OPs question. Before season 8.5 absolutly, the game didn't have as much as it does now but when you played the game, you actually played the game and had fun. From Season 9-9.5 and Delta. No, I want to keep my friend and not potentially make a enemy. If cryptic fixes some of the dil sinks and stops nerfing every other dil outlet and buffs some of the rewards in the game to help out more with crafting materials (like rare ones, not a bunch of greens). Then maybe, that would be a good start in renewing some of the playerbases lost faith. If I see that cryptic is sincere in trying to make sto a good game again and not filling thier bosses pockets with hundred dollor bills then I will start recommending the game to friends and family. As of right now. I don't tell people to play STO. As a matter of fact. I tell them not to and I explain why.
I had one of my friends approach me a couple months back, wanting me to show them the basics and ease them into STO.
I knew there were big changes coming and told them everything I knew about those changes and proceeded to spend a few hours helping them get used to the feel of the game. Since then, I've not seen them log in even once. His life is pretty hectic right now, so I haven't given it much thought.
Now, if he were to ask me if he should find time to give the game another shot, I would tell him not to bother. The game has become very unfriendly to new players as well as longer term casual players. If you weren't already near the 'top of the food chain' as far as having decent gear, good luck getting it now.
I never went for the end-game gear before, and now I'm paying for it. I could have gotten the gear, but I just didn't see the need for it. Grinding isn't fun so I played the way I felt comfortable with and while I was never top tier, I could run some elite content and actually contribute, even with less than top gear.
Rep gear always sounded nice but again, I never saw the need so I never pushed myself to get it.
After the crafting update, crafting was pretty easy and a way for folks to get fairly good gear *IF* you wanted to spend the time (or Dilithium) leveling it up. I decided that maybe now was the time to start looking into some better gear so I started leveling the schools with some alts. I figured I had plenty of time to do it so I just have been running the 20 project and doing a little crafting here and there for new alts I'm leveling.
Post-DR however, most of my crafting aspirations have gone out the window.
Where I could do decently well in the old Elite missions, now I struggle to do Advanced. I ran several Advanced queues after the update and never was successful in any of them. So many people got fed up with the obscene HP increase the NPC's got, they simply quit the mission.
Normal was better, but there were still some that just gave up, though not on the scale I was experiencing with Advanced. Finishing Normal, while not difficult really, it still felt like an accomplishment. Sadly, with the cut in the rewards and with Normal not rewarding any VR crafting mats or rep doodads needed for better gear, well, obtaining better gear at this point simply isn't going to happen for me it seems.
How is a player supposed to get better gear when the gear they currently have can't cut it in missions that will reward things needed to create/buy better gear?
Experienced players don't want newbs playing on Advanced until they know what they are doing and can contribute. But they can't contribute until they not only learn the basics, by playing on Normal, but get better gear. Which they can't do by running Normal.
It's the old 'chicken and the egg' situation.
TL;DR
If any of my friends asked me if STO is currently worth getting into, I would tell them "Hell no, stay away." And I would most definitely NOT recommend the game to anybody either.
I'm here for now, but only because I have so much invested in the game. I will run some endgame content, on Normal, maybe pushing myself from time to time to see if my current gear/skill can get me through the occasional Advanced and if so, maybe I'll get me some rep gear or even craft some gear if I get enough doodads/VR stuff to make it worth it.
Hello. My name is iamynaught and I am an altaholic.
I would no longer recommend this game to a friend. I use to, and I have on many occasions failed to get friends to come play this game with me. Either because my love of Star Trek blinded me to it's failings, or becuase I stuck around through things that in ay other IP I would have ran the other direction from, those real life friends have all but abandoned the game now.
Sadly, I would not recommend anyone new come to this game in it's current state, leveling a new character with the current state of XP is a chore at best, and a nightmare at worse. Klingon characters have big blanks in they're XP progression, and everyone has a huge chunk of problems post 50.
We have Devs wiping people progress if it happened too fast, a lead developer who has deemed to speak to us lowly gamers all of twice since he took the riegns, and in general just a toxic community relations situation with the company.
Sadly, No I will not be recommending this game to anyone, friend or foe, till they fix they're issues, and get they're **** straight.
If I wanted to recommend this game to a friend, I'd have to have a reason other than, "Because it's Star Trek!". Please do not misread what I've posted. I'd like very much to able to suggest a friend or two play this game. The eye candy is quite good and some of the missions are fun to play and enjoyable. I only can remain hopeful someone will grow a backbone and make things right someday. But it seems the monetization concept has begun its inevitable takeover. The T6 ships are more expensive, the new gear requires more than a reasonable amount of Dilithium and there are many other things which are minor individually but in total detract mightily from the game.
Why am I still here? Hope things will improve and this game will become better. Not all is dark. Some things are very much better than they were when I first started playing STO. But the quality is uneven and the attention paid to repairing things or making a QA pass over the entire game seems beyond the abilities of the Dev Team. I can only wish they would respond to things which have been broken over a year or two as quickly as they did to the tiny fraction of the playerbase who were exploiting a loophole the Dev Team created.
TL;DR version: Heck no! I like my friends.
Why do I still play STO? Because I am too lazy, too stupid, and too addicted to everything Star Trek to stop playing.
A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
Yes. I'd say "play up to lvl50, then stop, and uninstall". Or maybe play 1 character of each faction up to 50, then uninstall the game.
That's the only fun part, everything else is a massive grind full of timegating and cash grab.
Comments
If it turns out they don't like it, it's F2P so they're not out anything but the time they put into it.
If they enjoy it while leveling and progressing, but later get sick of the grind once they're max level, they still had fun in the process.
So again, I don't see a lot of downside.
As for me, I've been playing since open beta. Over time when it gets boring or feels overly repetitive I just stop playing for a while. Then I come back 6 months or so later and enjoy the new content. Rinse, repeat. I have not even tried DR yet. (been busy at work)
I would not recommend this game to a friend or anyone. The Bugs are frustrating, the game is designed to frustrate the player into spending real money on the game. One way or another you will pay for this game. With either time or money.
I play because of the amount of time and resources I have committed to the game and I still have fun with it here and there. Mostly I'm holding out for the off chance that things could improve.
KNF Raptorzs
Not after the condescending way the EP posted an insincere f u at the end of a Friday as if it were an afterthought, brazenly labeling people exploiter for playing the game.
The smugness of this *******.
No, **** no. Never again.
I hope cryptic loses the liscence so a real company with actual customer service trained people can do something with the Star Trek IP.
but now sicne ppl I brought into the game asked me why i did so...
well I'm not anymore
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Reasons:
1. Dev team is incompetent at their jobs
2. Blame players for above reason.
3 Cater to Fed players by giving them stuff they shouldn't have. (Carriers, faction specific consoles, cloaking device)
4. Destroy uniqueness of other playable factions, Klingons and Romulans, by saying not enough people play them and the above reason.
5. Dilithium is required for almost everything in the game.
Captain Trek are shields are holding !! Its an enemy we cannot Defeat !! Incoming weapon ... Hold On !! Shields down !! Ensign plot a course 12.7 by 356 evasive Maneuver Zeta !! Warp factor 11 and Skippy push those engines till were ready to blow !! Cryptic's in pursuit gaining on us Captain theres nothing we can do to outrun Cryptic ...
You will Be Cryptinized , Resistance is Futile !!
Computer , Activate self-destruct for 10 seconds on my mark ... Now
10 , 9 , 8 , 7 , you'll be back , 5 , 4 , I will never return and never be beaten by you again 2, 1 .... (((((NO)))))
DING DING DING DING DING DING!!!!
Yeah, we have a winner! Congrats! Aye you been spying on me and my thoughts?! You hit that [Bleeep] head on. 100000% Correct... That post made my night! Someone has been paying attention.
Give this person a cookie. Hell, I'll bake you some cookies!
I don't think the problem is in the competence (or lack thereof) of the dev team. The real problem is in who the dev team is taking orders from; they are the ones trying to milk every penny out of the game.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
No BIG mystery about that one, China's Pride and Joy called PWE.
PWE kills Development - Welcome to Digital Communism
The only hope for STO is for it to become independent from PWE, the game is pressed like grapes to make wine for their owners, it is all about metrics and not the players.
Long answer: *sigh* - let's just forget all the things that are "going on" right now, even forget DR or LoR and just look at the basics. This is "Star Trek Online". Not "a" Star Trek Online game but the "Star Trek Online". As such, people I would even remotely recommend this game to are Star Trek fans like myself. A lot of those, myself included, consider the best Star Trek games there are, to date, to be the adventure games (25th Anniversary PC, Judgement Rites, A final Unity) or simulation and strategy games (the "Academies", Bridge Commander, Botf, Armada). What are the qualities of Star Trek? Adventure, drama, strange new worlds, exploration, iconic technology and starships. The adventure games cover the former while the simulation and strategy games cover the latter aspects. While STO has most of these in theory and in a very broad sense it severly lacks these qualities when you take a closer look.
We have a storyline feauturing a fair bit of adventures, in order to be dramatically appealing however the technology and the writing unfortunately lack at least in my opinion. The characters are not recognizable enough and the presentation is clunky - even if some characters are written im redeemable ways, the moment you see them on screen playing those comically emotes they lose everything they could have had. You visit some strange new worlds, though in the end you do the same in every world you see - kill 5 bad guys in space, kill 5 bad guys on ground. This is the way the game works and two or three sotry missions that break that basic scheme do not make up for it. It is in fact this kind of gameplay that I doubt will keep players that are in for their Star Trek adventure very long. Exploration... well, they ripped that out of the game. Smart move. Enough said. Iconic ships and technology, those are there though frankly the majority of ships and equipment in this game is as far from the original Star Trek visuals as you can get and the iconic ships take the back seat eventually for original designs - which wouldn't even be so bad if the game had a theme, but instead it's everything, all eras, all over the place and the way ships and technology are portrayed doesn't make a whole lot of sense or follows some kind of rules. In a strategy game a la Armada not all ships are equal, but they all have a purpose. Even though I have Negh'Vars at end-game there is still a reason to build Vor'Chas and B'rels for example, STO doesn't really know a difference in ships except little layout modifications but the ships essentially know no difference in usage.
Add to that all the recent issues, company policy, customer service, the business model, gambling and resource grind just for the sake of more grind at endgame I unfortunately cannot recommend this game to anyone, be it Star Trek fans or just MMO fans.
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
It is now a PERFECT WORLD ENTERTAINMENT Game - Nuff said
A company that kills game development.
Unfortunately, based on what I can tell, the whole industry's going that way. It's not about quality anymore - while quality can result from these policies, the fact is that the focus is on a company's income, not the means used to achieve it.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
I can not recommend the game in its current state.
The answer to this are smaller developing companies or Independent companies now, where they can focus on both the quality of their product and gain that much needed niche fan base. The era of solid MMO's with a paid subscription is almost over, and these huge corporations like PWE are destroying ingenuity, development, and player support.
Very very few games nowadays care about their product and fanbase, and are doing what PWE is doing, r@ping the hell out of game and moving on, they are akin to the BORG, assimilating everything in their wake, destroying a game's identity.
hahahahaha
Would you recommend STO to a friend?
Sometimes, if you want to bury the hatchet with a Klingon, it has to be in his skull. - Captain K'Tar of the USS Danu about J'mpok.
It's an MMO - so there'll be grinding, but they've gone to far again with what is required. As many others have pointed out, to get anywhere in the game takes far too long. Longer if you want to ever consider yourself as competitive in pvp.
A lot of people have said what I wanted to say already. This is not a game for new players and even regulars are thinking twice.
This hasn't been well thought about and there's too many issues introduced for this to be considered a player friendly game anymore.
I bought the OP with dil converted to zen, just really glad I didn't spend money and my gold sub is also now cancelled. I'd only recently renewed that to try and show support as well.
Star Trek.
it's really sad to see a wonderful universe so badly used in this game:
I asked myself if Picard would be happy with the grindfest :P
my weapons are not epic, but DR is an epic fail
i hope that these guys will finish their game : link
- Judge Aaron Satie
To answer the OPs question. Before season 8.5 absolutly, the game didn't have as much as it does now but when you played the game, you actually played the game and had fun. From Season 9-9.5 and Delta. No, I want to keep my friend and not potentially make a enemy. If cryptic fixes some of the dil sinks and stops nerfing every other dil outlet and buffs some of the rewards in the game to help out more with crafting materials (like rare ones, not a bunch of greens). Then maybe, that would be a good start in renewing some of the playerbases lost faith. If I see that cryptic is sincere in trying to make sto a good game again and not filling thier bosses pockets with hundred dollor bills then I will start recommending the game to friends and family. As of right now. I don't tell people to play STO. As a matter of fact. I tell them not to and I explain why.
"No no no no no ... yes."
(old guy -- I don't remember his name -- at the church meetings in "The Vicar of Dibley")
I knew there were big changes coming and told them everything I knew about those changes and proceeded to spend a few hours helping them get used to the feel of the game. Since then, I've not seen them log in even once. His life is pretty hectic right now, so I haven't given it much thought.
Now, if he were to ask me if he should find time to give the game another shot, I would tell him not to bother. The game has become very unfriendly to new players as well as longer term casual players. If you weren't already near the 'top of the food chain' as far as having decent gear, good luck getting it now.
I never went for the end-game gear before, and now I'm paying for it. I could have gotten the gear, but I just didn't see the need for it. Grinding isn't fun so I played the way I felt comfortable with and while I was never top tier, I could run some elite content and actually contribute, even with less than top gear.
Rep gear always sounded nice but again, I never saw the need so I never pushed myself to get it.
After the crafting update, crafting was pretty easy and a way for folks to get fairly good gear *IF* you wanted to spend the time (or Dilithium) leveling it up. I decided that maybe now was the time to start looking into some better gear so I started leveling the schools with some alts. I figured I had plenty of time to do it so I just have been running the 20 project and doing a little crafting here and there for new alts I'm leveling.
Post-DR however, most of my crafting aspirations have gone out the window.
Where I could do decently well in the old Elite missions, now I struggle to do Advanced. I ran several Advanced queues after the update and never was successful in any of them. So many people got fed up with the obscene HP increase the NPC's got, they simply quit the mission.
Normal was better, but there were still some that just gave up, though not on the scale I was experiencing with Advanced. Finishing Normal, while not difficult really, it still felt like an accomplishment. Sadly, with the cut in the rewards and with Normal not rewarding any VR crafting mats or rep doodads needed for better gear, well, obtaining better gear at this point simply isn't going to happen for me it seems.
How is a player supposed to get better gear when the gear they currently have can't cut it in missions that will reward things needed to create/buy better gear?
Experienced players don't want newbs playing on Advanced until they know what they are doing and can contribute. But they can't contribute until they not only learn the basics, by playing on Normal, but get better gear. Which they can't do by running Normal.
It's the old 'chicken and the egg' situation.
TL;DR
If any of my friends asked me if STO is currently worth getting into, I would tell them "Hell no, stay away." And I would most definitely NOT recommend the game to anybody either.
I'm here for now, but only because I have so much invested in the game. I will run some endgame content, on Normal, maybe pushing myself from time to time to see if my current gear/skill can get me through the occasional Advanced and if so, maybe I'll get me some rep gear or even craft some gear if I get enough doodads/VR stuff to make it worth it.
Losing faith in humanity, one person at a time.
I would no longer recommend this game to a friend. I use to, and I have on many occasions failed to get friends to come play this game with me. Either because my love of Star Trek blinded me to it's failings, or becuase I stuck around through things that in ay other IP I would have ran the other direction from, those real life friends have all but abandoned the game now.
Sadly, I would not recommend anyone new come to this game in it's current state, leveling a new character with the current state of XP is a chore at best, and a nightmare at worse. Klingon characters have big blanks in they're XP progression, and everyone has a huge chunk of problems post 50.
We have Devs wiping people progress if it happened too fast, a lead developer who has deemed to speak to us lowly gamers all of twice since he took the riegns, and in general just a toxic community relations situation with the company.
Sadly, No I will not be recommending this game to anyone, friend or foe, till they fix they're issues, and get they're **** straight.
NO!!!!!!!!
Why am I still here? Hope things will improve and this game will become better. Not all is dark. Some things are very much better than they were when I first started playing STO. But the quality is uneven and the attention paid to repairing things or making a QA pass over the entire game seems beyond the abilities of the Dev Team. I can only wish they would respond to things which have been broken over a year or two as quickly as they did to the tiny fraction of the playerbase who were exploiting a loophole the Dev Team created.
TL;DR version: Heck no! I like my friends.
Why do I still play STO? Because I am too lazy, too stupid, and too addicted to everything Star Trek to stop playing.
That's the only fun part, everything else is a massive grind full of timegating and cash grab.