Concept: B
Voice Acting: B
Gameplay: C
Content: C-
Preparedness: D
Pro activeness in resolving issues: D
Communication to playerbase: D-
Enjoyability: C
Enjoyability due to bugs: D-
This expansion was hyped and pushed out unfinished and with several issues unresolved. Further, Cryptic actively encouraged players to gain levels faster by partaking in an action they later decided was exploitative and, hence, punishing players. They've already nerfed their content and have made leveling so ridiculously slow whilst seemingly ignoring major bugs affecting everyday gameplay for a multitude of players. Lastly, their failure or unwillingness to communicate to said players has resulted in many long-time and high-quality players leaving.
Final score: Delta Rising is nothing short of a hot mess, a disaster of an expansion due entirely to the developers' need to rush content long before it is ready. D-
I am sincerely sorry for anyone who has spent real $ on a Delta Rising pack.
There was a great deal of effort put into this season, but too much was attempted at the same time, making for a confusing and difficult gameplay. A failure to create a position on what Delta Rising is meant to be, and to choose a distinct focus for gameplay produced a poor result for too many players - is it casual, if so how do they level up? Is it for serious gamers, if so why all the disconnected patrol missions? Overall the impression is one given of too much of a focus on spending a lot of money on voiceovers and graphics, not enough on a strong and constantly-progressing storyline, and little thought given to user experience.
This is a very great disappointment considering how well Legacy of Romulus worked because the story worked well, continued to progress throughout the story arc, and because of cautious introduction of other aspects such as Romulan ship powers did not detract from overall play. This season is a definite retrograde step.
Some good ideas that could have shone if not for all the detractors, I give this season a D.
EDIT/Extra comment: I've got to agree with others. After LoR launched, I made three new toons for it (a Reman tac, and Romulan sci and eng), and happily played the storyline all three times along with bringing in my Fed and KDF toons to do the patrols. So far for DR, I've taken one toon (almost) all the way through thanks to being stuck on the last mission's impossible bug. I've got a second toon sitting in DR half-way having lost interest in the "patrol mission equals storyline". Thanks to the stupid XP issue, I find myself logging in, setting up doff assignments and that's it. This doesn't bode well.
Story: B (the new voice acting mostly)
New Difficulties: F (HP Sponges do not make difficulty, just time indexes...)
Connectivity: U (Did not finish assignement, disconnects continue).
Bug Hunt: D (Bugs and Exploits made it to holodeck despite warnings by the community)
Communication: U (Did not attempt)
Average Grade / State of the Game:
F- (40%)
The new voice acting was a ray of sunshine in an otherwise completly crappy expansion. The handling of playtested difficulty curves giving way to what are now being called exploits, but were WAI when on Tribble, is ridiculous.
This is especially hienous as it has cost people real world money, in the form of XP Boosters bought from the Cstore, and not refunded.
Take this as a warning sign, if people are having more fun playing in small groups outside your brand new content, to unlock the new shinies, then then brand new content is either broken, or unenjoyable. Either way, it need improvement.
Overall, where I a teacher and this were a project assignment handed in to me for a class assignment, you would have a letter asking for a Parent Teacher conference to be conviened, asking why on earth did Little D'Angelo feel he needed to break everyone's toys just becuase they wouldn't play the way he wanted?
My time playing has dropped dramatically. I went from playing lots of STFs, and re-playing episode content, to this: Log on. Wait for assignments to complete. Begin twenty hour R&D projects. Run a patrol for duty officer assignments. Check exchange for anything interesting. Log out.
Too many bugs. Too much broken gear. "Encouraging" upgrades by altering difficulty levels that didn't need it. Nerfing rewards to increase sales. Less time monetizing, and more time fixing bugs is what's needed, but I have no expectation of that happening.
The voice actors were the only bright spot. Tim Russ was excellent. Its a shame the developers are tarnishing that fine work with their greed and incompetence.
Really, with very little extra effort and a little QOL consideration to the players, this could have been a home run.
The negative: Bugs. Some worse than others. Incredibly boring and uninspired patrol missions, most of which consist of hit "F" and then shoot the same ship for 15 minutes. If these missions were a little fun and interesting, Cryptic wouldn't have to worry so much about "exploiters" spending most of their time outside the Delta quadrant. The overreach, double-dip cash grab of upgrading ships and gear. Just too much. Making the whole game even more convoluted than before. Ugly T6 ships, especially Fed. Good grief, they can't design ships.
The positive: Story is great, and a good utilization of the characters. Good job getting the original cast to join. I'm sure that's what a lot of the cost comes from. Bug Hunt is a lot of fun. There are a couple of places you can jump up to and snipe.
Story/missions is B+ for me, it's got a few issues and annoyances, like the distasteful actions of the Kobali you're railroaded into helping when you already figured out what they were doing before even the final revelation at the end of their battlefield mission stories. The Vaadwaur were in contrast a very interesting opponent and what's going on behind them.
The Vaadwaur themselves I have to give a rating as well aside from the story they are in, and I'll rate them at A. Not A+, but A, they are really interesting but only so far, but now that we've kicked them down, I'd like to feel a little closer to targeting what's behind them. And of course, I want their lockbox because they have some really cool stuff. Any villain faction I envy the lockbox of is well done.
Now for the Queues and difficulty revamp (including XP grind), No doubt about it, solid F. It's an epic fail across the board what they have done in making this a sadistic exercise in frustration. It's flat out insane and making enemies DPS sponges that take an eternity to kill is what no one asked for that had any common sense.
Before DR, the game overall was probably B rating, Now it's about C- or D in it's current state, the content was great, but the pain that we got along with it pushed things down big time. If it weren't for the pain this expansion brought, I might rate the game A- compared to all other MMO's out there, you really could have scored here bigtime Cryptic! But no, you had to cater to a tiny minority of players that whined about things being too easy or let the upper leadership of PWE bully you into changing this game into something it wasn't meant to be that would alienate it's casual playerbase.
That means it passes. I'll play it and continue to play STO for now.
I'm not in the same boat as others who can't find ways to enjoy this game without resorting to exploits. I've said my share on the issues that exist. However, I still feel like there's enough good and fun stuff to give it a passing grade (which would technically be a D-, but I've never thought of anything below C- minus to really be any kind of success).
The new story and the Delta Quadrant overall are decent to good. The Specialization and T5U and T6 systems, I feel, are good, though the rollout could have been better. It was also nice to get some familiar characters involved, with their actors doing the voices.
I think there's really only one thing that has really upset the masses here to such a critical degree, and that's the PvE queue changes. The difficulty of Advanced in particular, and the cut in rewards across the board. There are plenty of other bugs, as well, but nothing at a level we haven't seen before from a major update.
Fix the Advanced queue, and a bit more in rewards, especially now that post-Specialization dilithium rewards for leveling seem to be gone, and we should be back to business as usual.
Story/Missions: B+ (points taken off for grindy level restrictions creating disruption of story flow)
Using Patrols as Filler: D (There was still some decent story there, but this only engages you the first time you do them, really)
Voice Acting: A (Jeri Ryan is especially excellent!)
Harry Kim being preachy about the Kobali: D
Harry Kim being disappointed in you: F
This being said, Garret Wang: A
The Kobali Adventure Zone: B (very pretty area, but again, level restrictions creating disruption of story flow)
Borg Disconnected: B
Bug Hunt: A
Battle of Korfez: I will offer no grade on this, as even though I have seen this on livestreams, I have not played it, nor will I probably ever attempt to play it.
New Difficulties: C. I am fine with them having the new Elite difficulty, even though I suspect I will never bother with it. Other people will enjoy it, so that's fine. I still have a choice to play other difficulties, so this is okay for me. Them claiming that the new Advanced difficulty is equivalent to the old Elite is ludicrous. Many players will struggle getting Borg Neural Processors or equivalent doohickies for the Reputation systems. This is problematic.
The specialization system: B. I like this idea, but look forward to new specializations, as there aren't a lot of choices yet. More grinding, as well.
Ship Masteries/Traits: B. A nice idea, but you have to pay to upgrade/ unlock masteries (or buy a t6 ship). Most of the starship traits also require ship purchases, so this stings a little. Also, more grind.
Gear Upgrade System: D-. Good idea, actually. But...so much grind and resources necessary. A lot of points were taken off because they vomited the system onto Holodeck early, while it was still very broken. I can only conclude they did this to use the entire player base as beta testers for the system. This is not appreciated.
Rewards Nerfs, particularly Dilithium: F. Harder difficulty for less rewards. This is actually insulting.
Bugs: They have been diligently working on fixing bugs, but considering how it was at release, and still is, well. You know what, I think I am just going to leave this one alone. Nevermind.
Recent issues with Dev communication and possible overreactions towards players: C. Were some people playing exploitatively? Yes. Is it likely that they swung their rollback hammer a little too willynilly? It seems so, but I guess I can't say exactly. If I recall correctly, Capain Smirk is on vacation right now. Probably not the best time, huh? I feel bad that he has to come back to these sort of PR situations. Wow. Let's be nice to Smirk, everyone. He's adorkable.
Also, please be nice to Trendy. Not just in relation to this situation, but in general. From what I can tell, there are reasons that she hides off-screen during livestreams now to moderate chat. Not cool, people, not cool.
Overall DR score: C
I wish I could give this a higher grade, but I am very worried for this game right now. I love this game, as well as most of the Star Trek IP. I am a LTS. I bought the Delta Pack. I've spent a stupid amount of money the last few years. I have nine characters. I have managed to get one of them to 60, but I am repelled by the thought of getting all of them leveled and geared up. The game feels different, less fun. I hate that. This has been my "go to" game for a long time, and I feel sad right now. Fun is important. You can't keep a game going purely on Skinner box mechanics. I really hope this improves. I know the Devs work hard and care about the game, care about the Star Trek IP, but I am really unsure if this is a great direction for the game.
Well I guess that is about enough rambling from me. Thanks and Good Hunting.
That is because the story was nice but disjointed .
Currently I am "enjoying" not getting all of my free Lobi due to the hoops associated with that and having thousands upon thousands of Marks that I have to enjoy converting 50 at a time .
Elite modes and standardized rewards for all the queued missions is something I've wanted since season 5 or 6. But the devs have gone too far, elite doesn't seem like any of my non tactical ships will be able to do their part in DPS, the advanced mode got a reward nerf, and item mission rewards were removed to make crafting look better. Upgrading to the new top of the gear pile takes millions in dilithium and EC on top of the already demanding prices for buy in. Worst of all, every ship that was in the game previously got cut off from the soon to come top tier performance wise. Sprinkle some XP nerfs in response to players using proper content plus some other questionable measures and you have the recipe for an F.
Overall C, but only because i'm too good :P No, really, the new story content/sector, not considering the patrols, are very nice and the new stuff introduced like new difficulty/stf/missions/lvl60/t6 ships are challenging and fascinating at the right way. But there is a problem: the nerfing to xp gain has made this game more tedious, and that's not good, so let's hope in a better change by the way...
its a definite A++ from me, I really don't know what everyone`s problem is with this expansion.
everyone seems to be "hay I cant continue the storyline without levelling" who cares, its not a race, so you cant finish the story missions in a couple of days, what does it matter if you can only play one episode a week or even a month, the longer the story takes to unfold the better IMO.
so you cant level up quickly, I don't want to level up quickly, its been commented on time and again that levelling from 1>50 was far too fast, its quite nice for it to take more time, in fact im at 54 now and I still think its going way too fast.
same thing with the captain specializations, I have no desire to rush through this at all, what does it matter if it takes a year two years or 10 years.
if everyone plays through all the new content, levels up to 60 and completes the captain specializations and all the rest in no time flat they will be moaning next week that their bored and there is nothing left to play for or work towards.
I hope the content and advancements in this new expansion takes me many, many months to complete, if not longer.
oh but I have to grind to play the next mission, so what were you doing before the expansion = grinding, what will you do after you complete everything = grinding, so whats the big deal.
sure theres still a few bugs like the power tray one but they have all been reported and will all be fixed at some point, there are no bugs that have stopped me from logging in and playing the game.
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.
Story Content: B
The story arc was quite logical and you can see an improvement here compared to other missions. I expected to see Iconians but the parasites' return was a nice crossover from VOY to TNG.
Protagonists: A
While I find the Reunion mission annoying as hell (mostly due to Neelix) I must say the cast did a splendid job here. Thanks to Jery Ryan and Robert Picardo who performed their old roles much better (imho) than other actors before they drastically improved the quality of those missions.
Gameplay: D
The new Intel skills are good and bring new fresh air to the players' skill bars which were outdated for years now. It opens up new mechanics and playstiles.+
Nevertheless and sadly all this is ruined thanks to the poor game design choices we encounter now. The cut down and forcing of players to actually grind to death for their masteries is just pathetic. I understand that leveling was a tad too fast before DR but cutting down skillpoint gain so far is simply unacceptable. You truly turned the game into a more asian market fitting playground in the end.
I can only hope the developer team reconsiders the current state of gameplay and alters the problematic points.
... I really don't know what everyone`s problem is with this expansion...
I can't speak for everyone but I can for myself, and I'm sure that there are other players around like me. There were a few things in your post that, from an informational perspective, can help in understanding some of the frustration.
As a player, I'm somewhere between regular and serious. I know how things work and interact; I can (but often don't) build ships to pump out 15k dps if need be. I'm not a massive minmax gamer and enjoy the game within the confines of a Star Trek style of approach to characterization and builds, and look forward to the regular new story arcs. I didn't see 'grind' so much as "must grind for the best!" but rather, trying out different equipment from different reputations was fun, and provided a nice fallback system between seasons, where I could think "Okay done all the stories, done the Foundry missions I wanted... hey, what's that Rep System three-piece set like?"
With this in mind...
I had no interest in "more levels", or "leveling up" to a Fleet Admiral, Grand Admiral, First High Lord Admiral or any other lofty title. My Starfleet toons all have Captain pips, I think of them as captains (Subcommanders for the Romulans, and the title of Commander or even Warrior does perfectly well for the KDF). So for me, the brand new Level blocks to new storyline is totally and wholly unwelcome.
It would have been nice if we had an option to use our piles of unused skillspoints to just do a fast level-up if we simply must all be Grand Poohbahs of the Sultan's First High Visir in order to kill some snake man in a sandy arena using a phaser and a grenade pack, but we didn't get that option either.
I understand that some people like to play a mission here, go off do something else, do a mission there. That's fine and if it works for you, great. For me, I want to play a whole story arc in one hit. I find it more enjoyable and immersive to get out there and just do the whole story. Incidentally I watch Star Trek in the same way: 2, 3 or 4 eps in a row is always more enjoyable for me than singular. Case in point: one year, my partner gave me the whole seven seasons of Voyager for Christmas. I had watched the whole thing before the end of February.
I was one of the few people around who really had no issue with the great nerfing of reputation traits, and appreciated the result that we no longer had to grind out every single reputation just to keep up with the power creep. It made sense to just grind out reputations that had something of real value. Thanks to Ship Mastery, and Specializations, that is now pointless: the new system introduces massive power creep, meaning more grind of the unwelcome kind.
And unlike previous, I now feel I have to grind to keep up with the latent and unwelcome power creep that has been introduced just to get back into decent PvE queues. Plus in the meantime, I won't be able to play the missions in quick succession as I want, until I reach level 59 in each of the toons I want to take through it, thanks to unwanted levels.
So that means doff missions from levels 50-59, just to play the missions that I want. I'm currently on 51-53 with all my toons. This just puts the whole Delta Rising thing into some point in the future when I can really 'enjoy' it, but it's leaving a really sour taste thanks to all this unnecessary grind.
Incidentally, in terms of the "too fast to level, this fixes it" concept: I just came back from a test of the new system with a brand new toon.
Cadet to Level 1: Achieved by clicking "talk to commendant"
Level 1 to Level 2: Clicked the button marked "Open locker"
Level 2 to Level 3: Clicked the button marked "Get crew"
Level 3 to Level 4: Azura Rescue mission
In other words, the fast leveling is still there, just slowing down for 51-60... affecting people like me who have no interest in it beyond how it's blocking our access to new content.
They consistently seek to monetize everything in the game for every dime they can get yet they offer consistently poor service in return.
Bugs that have been around from the beginning of the game STILL exist - They ignore them
They open up a test server... and then ignore the feedback from it so the actual release ends up with bugs.
The issue with the 'exploit' - This was discovered on Tribble. Cryptic did nothing about it but then they blame the playerbase for exploiting something which they made no effort to fix. Turns out if you make your game insanely grindy people tend to find the best ways to grind and a remotely competent individual would have figured that out.
It is completely shocking to see the developers be so completely pathetic they cannot even understand the basics of their own damn game. After years of seeing Cryptic consistently TRIBBLE this game I am fully at the point where I would happily see STO get shut down even after I have wasted so much time on it.
I stopped playing just before the expansion as I finally ran out of things to do with my main and finished my alts reps. Because of all the negative feedback, having to save up to buy tier 5u/6 ships, and waiting for the game to be rebalanced and the inevitable bugs to be fixed I haven't started playing again yet and it's been great. I've got so much done.
the good: the story was excellent, I liked the new sector space, and I liked being "reunited" with a lot of species from voyager. infact the story is the only reason this doesn't get an F.
the bad: well first off, while I loved the story, I did not appreciate how broken up it is. the leveling to sotry content was not thought out at all. I didn't appreciate at all finishing a mission, wanting to see the resolution of it, but having to waite 2 or 3 days because I had to grind meaningless patrol missions over and over again to get the next level to do so, only to have to do it again.
execution was horrendous, bugs that were reported for at least a month before the final release still made it in..... and instead of crushing the bugs, they spent the whole first two weeks making sure there were no exploits or anything. (examples, the space traits for crafting accidently went to everyone, there was a fix in days for that.. they found out people were grinding td and getting an advantage, well that was fixed as soon as they found out.. mr potato head can have his clothing changed , well we cant have that, that already has a fix incoming.. then you have bugs like your away team getting caught in a hall (which totally bones you in the mission) which still isn't fixed, or the difficulty problems with a lot of the queues. or how about the fact that there are still some of the queuable missions that are still not available, etc. )
dr was also the most blatent move cryptic has made towards play/pay gates. yes you can still play for free completely, but... how much longer will that last, dr was a move in the direction to make the game more difficult to play for free. (I myself am a lifer and have sunk money in so im not trying to be a free loafer, but I also don't like being nearly forced into a purchase either). I can almost see them making content packs (new queues or what not) that you have to buy access to just like in their other game champions. the moves they have made recently tell me we are headed there...
and lastly, I think all of the player base agees. I have been playing all weekend due to me actually having a free weekend with nothing else to do for once. this is a dil weekend, not to mention free lobi being given away. the game is empty.. it is the most empty I have ever seen it ever. you can almost hear an echo lol... bring up the queue screen, there is almost no one looking to do anything. queues that a week ago were bustling and had like 10 plus teams in them, now are struggling to get one.. I hope that cryptics "metrics" show them that they have reached that line finally and will start to reconsider a lot of their positions.
I bought into the hype, right up until the point they said T-6 ships. Then I realized, more or less, exactly what this expansion was going to be like. That being said, I went into this expansion with a somewhat negative outlook but was hoping for the best.
So, now that I've been playing for nearly 2 weeks post-expansion, here's how I grade it.
Story content & new missions: C-
The reason the story/missions only get s a C- is easy, about half the new missions are patrols. Even one of the "main story" missions (Alliances) is essentially a patrol. Take the patrols out and this would jump up to at least a B+. But since leveling from 50-60 using only the new content would be even more painful without doing them, well...
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Cryptic removed Exploration clusters from the game because the random mission generator wasn't up to snuff in making content that better fit in with later content. At least that's the excuse I'm going with here. So when coming up with content for the expansion, they took the randomness out and made preset patrol missions of the same quality as the old Exploration cluster missions. Only they didn't even try to change things up by having ground missions. The ONLY exception is the shuttle race mission, that mission was a pleasant surprise.
Maps and character design: B+
I have to say, I like a lot of the new art done for the expansion. The environments look great. The layouts are decent enough. The only reason this isn't an 'A' is simply because some of the maps are lagfests, making doing anything but LOOKING at them difficult. But since it's only a couple of maps and not ALL, it only affected my grade slightly.
The new NPC's look good, their outfits and ships, even the non-Voyager VO's are pretty good. A couple of exceptions here and there, but nothing so bad as to make me downgrade much.
Ships: C
This is going to cover everything. Not just the new ships but also the upgrades available to old ships. The new Intel ships, especially the Fed ones, take a little getting used to as far as visuals go. The other 'normal' ships are all pretty decent. Nothing to really LOVE, but nothing to really HATE either so a middle of the road opinion for me. A grade of 'C' fits well enough.
As far as upgrades to the old T-5 ships, at least we are allowed to upgrade them. The upgrades they get are decent and the cost for upgrading is decent as well. I think they could have priced the upgrades lower but allowing the upgrades to be sold on the exchange does allow some leeway. Again, nothing great but nothing horrid. Again, 'C' does the trick.
Game systems: F
Ah, the writing was on the wall from the moment I saw what the new R&D system was going to be like. Then I heard about the expansion and the T-6 ships and things became clearer. This is turning into a very expensive "free" to play game *IF* you want to stay competitive.
Can a purely free player who never spends any money on the game, who never trades Dil for Zen and who never upgrades or buys fleet or rep gear manage to survive in the post 50 content? Probably, but I wouldn't want to try. Not really any more difficult once you learn the powers of the various foes, just boring as heck taking out the bag 'o hit-points the NPC's have become.
And the XP curve post-50. Good lord, what have you done Cryptic. You raise the level cap, supply content to get to the cap, then you nerf XP and make it virtually impossible to get enough XP to get those 10 levels without finding some outside source of XP. And then you wonder why players took advantage of the system, excuse me, an "exploit" that you knew about for months but decided not to fix, in order to level? Well, DUH! You seriously need to make it possible to level from 50-60 with the new DR content.
Either raise the XP granted for defeating NPC's and mission completes and/or average the XP out so doing the missions will actually get the player to the next level so they can continue the storyline, this isn't rocket science. You want people to enjoy your new content, then hamper them from seeing it by forcing them to do things other than the content you want them to do?
*facepalm*
Adding in the new lag with starting projects in the crafting system, the continuing lag with the DOff system, the fact that a LOT of players can't even log into the game, the absurd HP increase to NPC's that even though recently lowered is still too high in certain cases, the nerfing of queue rewards and the poor handling of "This week's exploit", well, there was no way this would deserve anything above an F.
Overall, I give the expansion a D.
The game may look pretty and sound great but if it's not fun to play, well, you won't be graded well.
That grade can easily improve *IF* Cryptic decides to improve things. If they decide to just keep things as they are, more players will leave and fewer will come in simply from bad word of mouth.
I hope things improve, and soon.
Hello. My name is iamynaught and I am an altaholic.
I'll give it a D+. I completed the first DR episode and haven't felt like logging back in since then. That was last week I think? The voice over quality of the episode was much better than previous eps but I just found it boring and too long.
I'm primarily a PvP player and with Ker'rat MIA and no hope for PvP in sight I'm not motivated to play or spend money like I used to.
The story missions (and I mean PROPER story missions, not the lazy patrol fillers) are great. Everything else around Delta Rising regarding endgame is just terrible. Nothing to do now, all too frustrating to the average player and I've hit a wall of playing a lot less due to being surrounded by too many of Cryptic's brick walls.
If you only played missions, then its fine. But as a whole, the poor lack of understanding of the playerbase, extreme reward nerfs and a totally unsatisfying endgame have made it almost unplayable.
Gonna have to split this one into categories; just giving an overall grade would be unfair to the art team, among others.
Art and sound - 96% A. In the time they were given, I'd say that the art team did a pretty solid job, and for the most part the voice acting was good. Seven and The Doctor look a bit off, though.
Storyline - 79% C+. I can't give any more than a C, considering the amount of filler content. That aside, though, the storyline is actually pretty interesting so far.
Gameplay - 62% D- overall. The story missions are pretty decent usually (Ranging from 95% to 72%) but the amount of filler and grind added is ridiculous. Responding to "there's too much grind, this is stupid" with "Trololol let's add more grind, and let's even make it non-optional! I'm sure they'll love that!" is lazy, if not downright stupid. In addition, the space enemies are downright stupid - Vaadwaur aside they are usually not a serious threat to anyone who has Mk X or higher gear and cycles EPtS every once in a while, but they have an unreasonable amount of hull and shielding, and there are far too many waves. They aren't too hard to fight by any means, they're just too much of a a waste of time.
However, on the positive side, all the ground battles so far have been pretty fun. Fighting the Vaadwaur on the ground is actually pretty exciting for once. Additionally, as I said, the true story missions (such as Mindscape) are really neat and are even higher quality than what we've seen in other recent missions. Very good job on those.
Player Ships, Gear, and Balance - 75% C. The lockbox stuff is decent, I'd say, and I appreciate the D'Kyr buff, among other things, but I don't like what you did with the Aquarius, nor do I appreciate all the factions having the same exact consoles. Sure, it's "balanced," but it's also boring. Furthermore, I don't think anyone appreciates you forcing them to pay for their ships again, Cryptic. Though I understand that having to upgrade gear is completely normal in most MMOs, this game hasn't had a level cap increase in a long time, and I doubt that people would have bought nearly as many T5 ships as they have if they realized that they'd be stuck below the top tier later on. Also, the mission rewards are terrible.
Overall ~ Somewhere around an 81% B-. For Cryptic that isn't bad, but I can't pretend not to be disappointed with some things.
Content value: D-
Saving grace is the half way attempt at storyline and some new stuffs including music. however it is now clearly been outmatched by the obvious negative values. the obvious forum rage has somewhat already proven that point, no need to jump on that bandwagon.
Playability: U
Grind, grind, grind. paywalls getting more insidious, rewards becoming less worth the risk. no ability to level up properly. its automatically untradable as a reseult, cant grade it anything as the points are worth more then gifting them.
Fluff Content: C-
New music is alright but its not enough. new sectors are fine, but its a bit small for sure a large area of space to cover. then you got everything else you would expect, however equally its followed by bugs and issues that were not solved in tribble but thats expected. the overal that its okay but not anything special.
Overall value: E
taking into account the positives, there are significant negatives that have created problems in DR. Even the devs have recognized some of it is in need to an adjustment. im not impressed.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
finally i give a huge B, only for all these f...... Bugs. i tried 2 times to do viscous cycle advanced;
first : we failled because it is impossible to scan the anomaly. this bug is known since before DR, and wasn't important; but now with the stupid forced-optional, when we have it, the mission is impossible
2nd: we failled because it was impossible to heal the gekli.
instead of wasted money for voice acting, they should have engaged guys to fix the bugs.
day after day, i'm more and more angry about this game
Comments
Only not an F for the storyline and new area of space to explore...that was pretty well done. The changes DR brought to the game have been a disaster.
Still having to find reasons to keep playing. Most of those revolve around friends I enjoy hanging with and it's Star Trek.
Everything else flunked out big time
What was supposed to ADD content to the game damned nearly removed all old content and made it unplayable.
It didn't just flunk in its own category it has potentially ruined the entire game.
Don't know what grade that would be, like triple double deficit something like -F^27
Voice Acting: B
Gameplay: C
Content: C-
Preparedness: D
Pro activeness in resolving issues: D
Communication to playerbase: D-
Enjoyability: C
Enjoyability due to bugs: D-
This expansion was hyped and pushed out unfinished and with several issues unresolved. Further, Cryptic actively encouraged players to gain levels faster by partaking in an action they later decided was exploitative and, hence, punishing players. They've already nerfed their content and have made leveling so ridiculously slow whilst seemingly ignoring major bugs affecting everyday gameplay for a multitude of players. Lastly, their failure or unwillingness to communicate to said players has resulted in many long-time and high-quality players leaving.
Final score: Delta Rising is nothing short of a hot mess, a disaster of an expansion due entirely to the developers' need to rush content long before it is ready. D-
I am sincerely sorry for anyone who has spent real $ on a Delta Rising pack.
This is a very great disappointment considering how well Legacy of Romulus worked because the story worked well, continued to progress throughout the story arc, and because of cautious introduction of other aspects such as Romulan ship powers did not detract from overall play. This season is a definite retrograde step.
Some good ideas that could have shone if not for all the detractors, I give this season a D.
EDIT/Extra comment: I've got to agree with others. After LoR launched, I made three new toons for it (a Reman tac, and Romulan sci and eng), and happily played the storyline all three times along with bringing in my Fed and KDF toons to do the patrols. So far for DR, I've taken one toon (almost) all the way through thanks to being stuck on the last mission's impossible bug. I've got a second toon sitting in DR half-way having lost interest in the "patrol mission equals storyline". Thanks to the stupid XP issue, I find myself logging in, setting up doff assignments and that's it. This doesn't bode well.
New Difficulties: F (HP Sponges do not make difficulty, just time indexes...)
Connectivity: U (Did not finish assignement, disconnects continue).
Bug Hunt: D (Bugs and Exploits made it to holodeck despite warnings by the community)
Communication: U (Did not attempt)
Average Grade / State of the Game:
F- (40%)
The new voice acting was a ray of sunshine in an otherwise completly crappy expansion. The handling of playtested difficulty curves giving way to what are now being called exploits, but were WAI when on Tribble, is ridiculous.
This is especially hienous as it has cost people real world money, in the form of XP Boosters bought from the Cstore, and not refunded.
Take this as a warning sign, if people are having more fun playing in small groups outside your brand new content, to unlock the new shinies, then then brand new content is either broken, or unenjoyable. Either way, it need improvement.
Overall, where I a teacher and this were a project assignment handed in to me for a class assignment, you would have a letter asking for a Parent Teacher conference to be conviened, asking why on earth did Little D'Angelo feel he needed to break everyone's toys just becuase they wouldn't play the way he wanted?
This ^^ so much this
Really, with very little extra effort and a little QOL consideration to the players, this could have been a home run.
The negative: Bugs. Some worse than others. Incredibly boring and uninspired patrol missions, most of which consist of hit "F" and then shoot the same ship for 15 minutes. If these missions were a little fun and interesting, Cryptic wouldn't have to worry so much about "exploiters" spending most of their time outside the Delta quadrant. The overreach, double-dip cash grab of upgrading ships and gear. Just too much. Making the whole game even more convoluted than before. Ugly T6 ships, especially Fed. Good grief, they can't design ships.
The positive: Story is great, and a good utilization of the characters. Good job getting the original cast to join. I'm sure that's what a lot of the cost comes from. Bug Hunt is a lot of fun. There are a couple of places you can jump up to and snipe.
The Vaadwaur themselves I have to give a rating as well aside from the story they are in, and I'll rate them at A. Not A+, but A, they are really interesting but only so far, but now that we've kicked them down, I'd like to feel a little closer to targeting what's behind them. And of course, I want their lockbox because they have some really cool stuff. Any villain faction I envy the lockbox of is well done.
Now for the Queues and difficulty revamp (including XP grind), No doubt about it, solid F. It's an epic fail across the board what they have done in making this a sadistic exercise in frustration. It's flat out insane and making enemies DPS sponges that take an eternity to kill is what no one asked for that had any common sense.
Before DR, the game overall was probably B rating, Now it's about C- or D in it's current state, the content was great, but the pain that we got along with it pushed things down big time. If it weren't for the pain this expansion brought, I might rate the game A- compared to all other MMO's out there, you really could have scored here bigtime Cryptic! But no, you had to cater to a tiny minority of players that whined about things being too easy or let the upper leadership of PWE bully you into changing this game into something it wasn't meant to be that would alienate it's casual playerbase.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU:mad:
That means it passes. I'll play it and continue to play STO for now.
I'm not in the same boat as others who can't find ways to enjoy this game without resorting to exploits. I've said my share on the issues that exist. However, I still feel like there's enough good and fun stuff to give it a passing grade (which would technically be a D-, but I've never thought of anything below C- minus to really be any kind of success).
The new story and the Delta Quadrant overall are decent to good. The Specialization and T5U and T6 systems, I feel, are good, though the rollout could have been better. It was also nice to get some familiar characters involved, with their actors doing the voices.
I think there's really only one thing that has really upset the masses here to such a critical degree, and that's the PvE queue changes. The difficulty of Advanced in particular, and the cut in rewards across the board. There are plenty of other bugs, as well, but nothing at a level we haven't seen before from a major update.
Fix the Advanced queue, and a bit more in rewards, especially now that post-Specialization dilithium rewards for leveling seem to be gone, and we should be back to business as usual.
Using Patrols as Filler: D (There was still some decent story there, but this only engages you the first time you do them, really)
Voice Acting: A (Jeri Ryan is especially excellent!)
Harry Kim being preachy about the Kobali: D
Harry Kim being disappointed in you: F
This being said, Garret Wang: A
The Kobali Adventure Zone: B (very pretty area, but again, level restrictions creating disruption of story flow)
Borg Disconnected: B
Bug Hunt: A
Battle of Korfez: I will offer no grade on this, as even though I have seen this on livestreams, I have not played it, nor will I probably ever attempt to play it.
New Difficulties: C. I am fine with them having the new Elite difficulty, even though I suspect I will never bother with it. Other people will enjoy it, so that's fine. I still have a choice to play other difficulties, so this is okay for me. Them claiming that the new Advanced difficulty is equivalent to the old Elite is ludicrous. Many players will struggle getting Borg Neural Processors or equivalent doohickies for the Reputation systems. This is problematic.
The specialization system: B. I like this idea, but look forward to new specializations, as there aren't a lot of choices yet. More grinding, as well.
Ship Masteries/Traits: B. A nice idea, but you have to pay to upgrade/ unlock masteries (or buy a t6 ship). Most of the starship traits also require ship purchases, so this stings a little. Also, more grind.
Gear Upgrade System: D-. Good idea, actually. But...so much grind and resources necessary. A lot of points were taken off because they vomited the system onto Holodeck early, while it was still very broken. I can only conclude they did this to use the entire player base as beta testers for the system. This is not appreciated.
Rewards Nerfs, particularly Dilithium: F. Harder difficulty for less rewards. This is actually insulting.
Bugs: They have been diligently working on fixing bugs, but considering how it was at release, and still is, well. You know what, I think I am just going to leave this one alone. Nevermind.
Recent issues with Dev communication and possible overreactions towards players: C. Were some people playing exploitatively? Yes. Is it likely that they swung their rollback hammer a little too willynilly? It seems so, but I guess I can't say exactly. If I recall correctly, Capain Smirk is on vacation right now. Probably not the best time, huh? I feel bad that he has to come back to these sort of PR situations. Wow. Let's be nice to Smirk, everyone. He's adorkable.
Also, please be nice to Trendy. Not just in relation to this situation, but in general. From what I can tell, there are reasons that she hides off-screen during livestreams now to moderate chat. Not cool, people, not cool.
Overall DR score: C
I wish I could give this a higher grade, but I am very worried for this game right now. I love this game, as well as most of the Star Trek IP. I am a LTS. I bought the Delta Pack. I've spent a stupid amount of money the last few years. I have nine characters. I have managed to get one of them to 60, but I am repelled by the thought of getting all of them leveled and geared up. The game feels different, less fun. I hate that. This has been my "go to" game for a long time, and I feel sad right now. Fun is important. You can't keep a game going purely on Skinner box mechanics. I really hope this improves. I know the Devs work hard and care about the game, care about the Star Trek IP, but I am really unsure if this is a great direction for the game.
Well I guess that is about enough rambling from me. Thanks and Good Hunting.
That is because the story was nice but disjointed .
Currently I am "enjoying" not getting all of my free Lobi due to the hoops associated with that and having thousands upon thousands of Marks that I have to enjoy converting 50 at a time .
If I were a TRIBBLE , I'd be in heaven .
https://youtube.com/channel/UCJZ5FBJ9bFaZ6yAFiNpZiRQ/featured?view_as=subscriber
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/CaptainCidStorm
They did do the beta-testing, however, they did not do anything with the test results nor did they even bother to even read the test results.
everyone seems to be "hay I cant continue the storyline without levelling" who cares, its not a race, so you cant finish the story missions in a couple of days, what does it matter if you can only play one episode a week or even a month, the longer the story takes to unfold the better IMO.
so you cant level up quickly, I don't want to level up quickly, its been commented on time and again that levelling from 1>50 was far too fast, its quite nice for it to take more time, in fact im at 54 now and I still think its going way too fast.
same thing with the captain specializations, I have no desire to rush through this at all, what does it matter if it takes a year two years or 10 years.
if everyone plays through all the new content, levels up to 60 and completes the captain specializations and all the rest in no time flat they will be moaning next week that their bored and there is nothing left to play for or work towards.
I hope the content and advancements in this new expansion takes me many, many months to complete, if not longer.
oh but I have to grind to play the next mission, so what were you doing before the expansion = grinding, what will you do after you complete everything = grinding, so whats the big deal.
sure theres still a few bugs like the power tray one but they have all been reported and will all be fixed at some point, there are no bugs that have stopped me from logging in and playing the game.
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.
The story arc was quite logical and you can see an improvement here compared to other missions. I expected to see Iconians but the parasites' return was a nice crossover from VOY to TNG.
Protagonists: A
While I find the Reunion mission annoying as hell (mostly due to Neelix) I must say the cast did a splendid job here. Thanks to Jery Ryan and Robert Picardo who performed their old roles much better (imho) than other actors before they drastically improved the quality of those missions.
Gameplay: D
The new Intel skills are good and bring new fresh air to the players' skill bars which were outdated for years now. It opens up new mechanics and playstiles.+
Nevertheless and sadly all this is ruined thanks to the poor game design choices we encounter now. The cut down and forcing of players to actually grind to death for their masteries is just pathetic. I understand that leveling was a tad too fast before DR but cutting down skillpoint gain so far is simply unacceptable. You truly turned the game into a more asian market fitting playground in the end.
I can only hope the developer team reconsiders the current state of gameplay and alters the problematic points.
My overall grade would be a B-
I can't speak for everyone but I can for myself, and I'm sure that there are other players around like me. There were a few things in your post that, from an informational perspective, can help in understanding some of the frustration.
As a player, I'm somewhere between regular and serious. I know how things work and interact; I can (but often don't) build ships to pump out 15k dps if need be. I'm not a massive minmax gamer and enjoy the game within the confines of a Star Trek style of approach to characterization and builds, and look forward to the regular new story arcs. I didn't see 'grind' so much as "must grind for the best!" but rather, trying out different equipment from different reputations was fun, and provided a nice fallback system between seasons, where I could think "Okay done all the stories, done the Foundry missions I wanted... hey, what's that Rep System three-piece set like?"
With this in mind...
I had no interest in "more levels", or "leveling up" to a Fleet Admiral, Grand Admiral, First High Lord Admiral or any other lofty title. My Starfleet toons all have Captain pips, I think of them as captains (Subcommanders for the Romulans, and the title of Commander or even Warrior does perfectly well for the KDF). So for me, the brand new Level blocks to new storyline is totally and wholly unwelcome.
It would have been nice if we had an option to use our piles of unused skillspoints to just do a fast level-up if we simply must all be Grand Poohbahs of the Sultan's First High Visir in order to kill some snake man in a sandy arena using a phaser and a grenade pack, but we didn't get that option either.
I understand that some people like to play a mission here, go off do something else, do a mission there. That's fine and if it works for you, great. For me, I want to play a whole story arc in one hit. I find it more enjoyable and immersive to get out there and just do the whole story. Incidentally I watch Star Trek in the same way: 2, 3 or 4 eps in a row is always more enjoyable for me than singular. Case in point: one year, my partner gave me the whole seven seasons of Voyager for Christmas. I had watched the whole thing before the end of February.
I was one of the few people around who really had no issue with the great nerfing of reputation traits, and appreciated the result that we no longer had to grind out every single reputation just to keep up with the power creep. It made sense to just grind out reputations that had something of real value. Thanks to Ship Mastery, and Specializations, that is now pointless: the new system introduces massive power creep, meaning more grind of the unwelcome kind.
And unlike previous, I now feel I have to grind to keep up with the latent and unwelcome power creep that has been introduced just to get back into decent PvE queues. Plus in the meantime, I won't be able to play the missions in quick succession as I want, until I reach level 59 in each of the toons I want to take through it, thanks to unwanted levels.
So that means doff missions from levels 50-59, just to play the missions that I want. I'm currently on 51-53 with all my toons. This just puts the whole Delta Rising thing into some point in the future when I can really 'enjoy' it, but it's leaving a really sour taste thanks to all this unnecessary grind.
Incidentally, in terms of the "too fast to level, this fixes it" concept: I just came back from a test of the new system with a brand new toon.
Cadet to Level 1: Achieved by clicking "talk to commendant"
Level 1 to Level 2: Clicked the button marked "Open locker"
Level 2 to Level 3: Clicked the button marked "Get crew"
Level 3 to Level 4: Azura Rescue mission
In other words, the fast leveling is still there, just slowing down for 51-60... affecting people like me who have no interest in it beyond how it's blocking our access to new content.
They consistently seek to monetize everything in the game for every dime they can get yet they offer consistently poor service in return.
Bugs that have been around from the beginning of the game STILL exist - They ignore them
They open up a test server... and then ignore the feedback from it so the actual release ends up with bugs.
The issue with the 'exploit' - This was discovered on Tribble. Cryptic did nothing about it but then they blame the playerbase for exploiting something which they made no effort to fix. Turns out if you make your game insanely grindy people tend to find the best ways to grind and a remotely competent individual would have figured that out.
It is completely shocking to see the developers be so completely pathetic they cannot even understand the basics of their own damn game. After years of seeing Cryptic consistently TRIBBLE this game I am fully at the point where I would happily see STO get shut down even after I have wasted so much time on it.
I stopped playing just before the expansion as I finally ran out of things to do with my main and finished my alts reps. Because of all the negative feedback, having to save up to buy tier 5u/6 ships, and waiting for the game to be rebalanced and the inevitable bugs to be fixed I haven't started playing again yet and it's been great. I've got so much done.
the good: the story was excellent, I liked the new sector space, and I liked being "reunited" with a lot of species from voyager. infact the story is the only reason this doesn't get an F.
the bad: well first off, while I loved the story, I did not appreciate how broken up it is. the leveling to sotry content was not thought out at all. I didn't appreciate at all finishing a mission, wanting to see the resolution of it, but having to waite 2 or 3 days because I had to grind meaningless patrol missions over and over again to get the next level to do so, only to have to do it again.
execution was horrendous, bugs that were reported for at least a month before the final release still made it in..... and instead of crushing the bugs, they spent the whole first two weeks making sure there were no exploits or anything. (examples, the space traits for crafting accidently went to everyone, there was a fix in days for that.. they found out people were grinding td and getting an advantage, well that was fixed as soon as they found out.. mr potato head can have his clothing changed , well we cant have that, that already has a fix incoming.. then you have bugs like your away team getting caught in a hall (which totally bones you in the mission) which still isn't fixed, or the difficulty problems with a lot of the queues. or how about the fact that there are still some of the queuable missions that are still not available, etc. )
dr was also the most blatent move cryptic has made towards play/pay gates. yes you can still play for free completely, but... how much longer will that last, dr was a move in the direction to make the game more difficult to play for free. (I myself am a lifer and have sunk money in so im not trying to be a free loafer, but I also don't like being nearly forced into a purchase either). I can almost see them making content packs (new queues or what not) that you have to buy access to just like in their other game champions. the moves they have made recently tell me we are headed there...
and lastly, I think all of the player base agees. I have been playing all weekend due to me actually having a free weekend with nothing else to do for once. this is a dil weekend, not to mention free lobi being given away. the game is empty.. it is the most empty I have ever seen it ever. you can almost hear an echo lol... bring up the queue screen, there is almost no one looking to do anything. queues that a week ago were bustling and had like 10 plus teams in them, now are struggling to get one.. I hope that cryptics "metrics" show them that they have reached that line finally and will start to reconsider a lot of their positions.
So, now that I've been playing for nearly 2 weeks post-expansion, here's how I grade it.
Story content & new missions: C-
The reason the story/missions only get s a C- is easy, about half the new missions are patrols. Even one of the "main story" missions (Alliances) is essentially a patrol. Take the patrols out and this would jump up to at least a B+. But since leveling from 50-60 using only the new content would be even more painful without doing them, well...
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Cryptic removed Exploration clusters from the game because the random mission generator wasn't up to snuff in making content that better fit in with later content. At least that's the excuse I'm going with here. So when coming up with content for the expansion, they took the randomness out and made preset patrol missions of the same quality as the old Exploration cluster missions. Only they didn't even try to change things up by having ground missions. The ONLY exception is the shuttle race mission, that mission was a pleasant surprise.
Maps and character design: B+
I have to say, I like a lot of the new art done for the expansion. The environments look great. The layouts are decent enough. The only reason this isn't an 'A' is simply because some of the maps are lagfests, making doing anything but LOOKING at them difficult. But since it's only a couple of maps and not ALL, it only affected my grade slightly.
The new NPC's look good, their outfits and ships, even the non-Voyager VO's are pretty good. A couple of exceptions here and there, but nothing so bad as to make me downgrade much.
Ships: C
This is going to cover everything. Not just the new ships but also the upgrades available to old ships. The new Intel ships, especially the Fed ones, take a little getting used to as far as visuals go. The other 'normal' ships are all pretty decent. Nothing to really LOVE, but nothing to really HATE either so a middle of the road opinion for me. A grade of 'C' fits well enough.
As far as upgrades to the old T-5 ships, at least we are allowed to upgrade them. The upgrades they get are decent and the cost for upgrading is decent as well. I think they could have priced the upgrades lower but allowing the upgrades to be sold on the exchange does allow some leeway. Again, nothing great but nothing horrid. Again, 'C' does the trick.
Game systems: F
Ah, the writing was on the wall from the moment I saw what the new R&D system was going to be like. Then I heard about the expansion and the T-6 ships and things became clearer. This is turning into a very expensive "free" to play game *IF* you want to stay competitive.
Can a purely free player who never spends any money on the game, who never trades Dil for Zen and who never upgrades or buys fleet or rep gear manage to survive in the post 50 content? Probably, but I wouldn't want to try. Not really any more difficult once you learn the powers of the various foes, just boring as heck taking out the bag 'o hit-points the NPC's have become.
And the XP curve post-50. Good lord, what have you done Cryptic. You raise the level cap, supply content to get to the cap, then you nerf XP and make it virtually impossible to get enough XP to get those 10 levels without finding some outside source of XP. And then you wonder why players took advantage of the system, excuse me, an "exploit" that you knew about for months but decided not to fix, in order to level? Well, DUH! You seriously need to make it possible to level from 50-60 with the new DR content.
Either raise the XP granted for defeating NPC's and mission completes and/or average the XP out so doing the missions will actually get the player to the next level so they can continue the storyline, this isn't rocket science. You want people to enjoy your new content, then hamper them from seeing it by forcing them to do things other than the content you want them to do?
*facepalm*
Adding in the new lag with starting projects in the crafting system, the continuing lag with the DOff system, the fact that a LOT of players can't even log into the game, the absurd HP increase to NPC's that even though recently lowered is still too high in certain cases, the nerfing of queue rewards and the poor handling of "This week's exploit", well, there was no way this would deserve anything above an F.
Overall, I give the expansion a D.
The game may look pretty and sound great but if it's not fun to play, well, you won't be graded well.
That grade can easily improve *IF* Cryptic decides to improve things. If they decide to just keep things as they are, more players will leave and fewer will come in simply from bad word of mouth.
I hope things improve, and soon.
Losing faith in humanity, one person at a time.
I'm primarily a PvP player and with Ker'rat MIA and no hope for PvP in sight I'm not motivated to play or spend money like I used to.
The story missions (and I mean PROPER story missions, not the lazy patrol fillers) are great. Everything else around Delta Rising regarding endgame is just terrible. Nothing to do now, all too frustrating to the average player and I've hit a wall of playing a lot less due to being surrounded by too many of Cryptic's brick walls.
If you only played missions, then its fine. But as a whole, the poor lack of understanding of the playerbase, extreme reward nerfs and a totally unsatisfying endgame have made it almost unplayable.
:P
Sarah Knightly - Co-leader; Frontier Explorers - U.S.S. Witchblade
Rias Gremory - Leader; Frontier Marauders - I.K.S. B'ullwinkle
Art and sound - 96% A. In the time they were given, I'd say that the art team did a pretty solid job, and for the most part the voice acting was good. Seven and The Doctor look a bit off, though.
Storyline - 79% C+. I can't give any more than a C, considering the amount of filler content. That aside, though, the storyline is actually pretty interesting so far.
Gameplay - 62% D- overall. The story missions are pretty decent usually (Ranging from 95% to 72%) but the amount of filler and grind added is ridiculous. Responding to "there's too much grind, this is stupid" with "Trololol let's add more grind, and let's even make it non-optional! I'm sure they'll love that!" is lazy, if not downright stupid. In addition, the space enemies are downright stupid - Vaadwaur aside they are usually not a serious threat to anyone who has Mk X or higher gear and cycles EPtS every once in a while, but they have an unreasonable amount of hull and shielding, and there are far too many waves. They aren't too hard to fight by any means, they're just too much of a a waste of time.
However, on the positive side, all the ground battles so far have been pretty fun. Fighting the Vaadwaur on the ground is actually pretty exciting for once. Additionally, as I said, the true story missions (such as Mindscape) are really neat and are even higher quality than what we've seen in other recent missions. Very good job on those.
Player Ships, Gear, and Balance - 75% C. The lockbox stuff is decent, I'd say, and I appreciate the D'Kyr buff, among other things, but I don't like what you did with the Aquarius, nor do I appreciate all the factions having the same exact consoles. Sure, it's "balanced," but it's also boring. Furthermore, I don't think anyone appreciates you forcing them to pay for their ships again, Cryptic. Though I understand that having to upgrade gear is completely normal in most MMOs, this game hasn't had a level cap increase in a long time, and I doubt that people would have bought nearly as many T5 ships as they have if they realized that they'd be stuck below the top tier later on. Also, the mission rewards are terrible.
Overall ~ Somewhere around an 81% B-. For Cryptic that isn't bad, but I can't pretend not to be disappointed with some things.
Saving grace is the half way attempt at storyline and some new stuffs including music. however it is now clearly been outmatched by the obvious negative values. the obvious forum rage has somewhat already proven that point, no need to jump on that bandwagon.
Playability: U
Grind, grind, grind. paywalls getting more insidious, rewards becoming less worth the risk. no ability to level up properly. its automatically untradable as a reseult, cant grade it anything as the points are worth more then gifting them.
Fluff Content: C-
New music is alright but its not enough. new sectors are fine, but its a bit small for sure a large area of space to cover. then you got everything else you would expect, however equally its followed by bugs and issues that were not solved in tribble but thats expected. the overal that its okay but not anything special.
Overall value: E
taking into account the positives, there are significant negatives that have created problems in DR. Even the devs have recognized some of it is in need to an adjustment. im not impressed.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
first : we failled because it is impossible to scan the anomaly. this bug is known since before DR, and wasn't important; but now with the stupid forced-optional, when we have it, the mission is impossible
2nd: we failled because it was impossible to heal the gekli.
instead of wasted money for voice acting, they should have engaged guys to fix the bugs.
day after day, i'm more and more angry about this game