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Level progression is TERRIBLE!

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  • tpalelenatpalelena Member Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    xlesha911 wrote: »
    Poor little babies.
    I remember old style MMO, when u grind 4% exp bar in 1-2 hours... and then u lose it in 2 sec., because high-level PK find enjoying to kill low-lvl players. Ppl still playing these games and love it.
    STO lveling are SO EASY and safe... to to fill all exp bar past 50 u need only ~1 hour.

    Go back under your bridge, the sunlight may turn you to stone. Also, your English is terrible.

    Even pre XP nerf, the levelling was terribly slow.

    Remember, its not just 10 levels... its like 60 you need to get.
    Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
  • macfellymacfelly Member Posts: 107 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    There's a reason old MMO's are either not around or not played by anyone anymore. UO was awful about skill gain, it wasn't levels like today. Remember getting on a boat to level skills in UO, I do, but MMO's were few back then now there are many. WoW gets it right for the most part, You never run out of quests and If you grow bored of an area you can usually pop off to another area for a bit. There's no need to kill boars for 8 hours a day to progress.

    I gave up on STO: Delta Grinding when I found the only way to level was doing the same patrols over and over again then you get one or two missions and back to the grind. There isn't any flow in the story, its filled with large gaps and its annoying.
    Apparently not loyal enough :|
  • philfixitphilfixit Member Posts: 26 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    just play the game and enjoy it. the last major update you couldnt play properly for 10 days . this one runs pritty smooth and its going well.

    All i hear on here is substandered players moaning about this and about that.; get a life and get on with it.


    lord monty
  • breadandcircusesbreadandcircuses Member Posts: 2,355 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    Level Regression*

    FTFY

    A level 50 toon fighting level 50 NPCs is more powerful, with more ROI than a level 60 toon fighting level 60 NPCs.

    Leveling from 50 to 60 you character actually gets weaker.
    That's a side-effect of the Specializations. If a level 60 character can have between 10 and 45 Active Specialization Points, and between 0 and 4 Starship Trait unlocks from the Specialization trees, it creates a ridiculous variation in that two characters are capable of at the exact same level. Which is exactly what we got, along with wonky (that's a technical term there) scaling at levels 51-60.

    It's not like we can't look at the system, with 50 additional pseudo-levels crammed into level 60, and see why the scaling isn't working properly...
    erei1 wrote: »
    Also, a lot of people are currently bored, because leveling is no fun, and many of them don't even know how to do it. I'm speaking DR, obviously.
    Oooh, oooh! Me, that's me! Seriously, I actually updated my forum Avatar pic with a screenshot from the episode... because the advancement process it that exciting. Woohoo!

    Really, though, I can't even keep up with the level requirements of the Delta Rising Episodes, playing all of the Episodes on Elite, without wandering off and doing side content in between Episodes. I can't play Delta Rising without not playing Delta Rising... and that doesn't make sense. :P
    xlesha911 wrote: »
    Poor little babies.
    I remember old style MMO, when u grind 4% exp bar in 1-2 hours... and then u lose it in 2 sec., because high-level PK find enjoying to kill low-lvl players. Ppl still playing these games and love it.
    STO lveling are SO EASY and safe... to to fill all exp bar past 50 u need only ~1 hour.

    It's still "SO EASY and safe", it just takes forever because of the increased NPC hitpoints/resistances and diminished XP rewards. There are no PKs wandering about to steal your stuffs or knock back your progress, and the only real consequence of failure is giving it another go. If you're looking for a game with PK related challenge, EVE has a better system in place for you... if STO shifts their market position into that area, they end up being an underdeveloped competitor to EVE rather than a gameplay alternative. This splits the market share of a single market segment, rather than allowing STO to tap an alternative segment, greatly diminishing the profit potential for STO.
    Ym9x9Ji.png
    meimeitoo wrote: »
    I do not like Geko ether.
    iconians wrote: »
    With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.​​
  • talonxvtalonxv Member Posts: 4,257 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    tpalelena wrote: »
    Go back under your bridge, the sunlight may turn you to stone. Also, your English is terrible.

    Even pre XP nerf, the levelling was terribly slow.

    Remember, its not just 10 levels... its like 60 you need to get.

    Yeah and the first 50 take you what 2-3 days MAX. Big whoop. Go to BSGO and try getting to level 255 and tell me how long it takes you. Go ahead, I'll be here about 2-3 years waiting.
    afMSv4g.jpg
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  • aelrhianaaelrhiana Member Posts: 285 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    chiyoumiku wrote: »
    Leveling has become on par with most major MMO's. This is standard. Thing is you'll get people instantly jump to 60 and then go "I'm bored." This at least staves it off.

    For some of the idiot, hardcore whiners...this is true. It is not, however, true for everyone out there.

    I agree with others; forced to spend 5 - 8 hours in order to grind out the rest of a level, because your mission left you 80% short of the experience needed... That is not fun. That is frakking boring. It is stupidly tedious.

    Mos of us will be bored before reaching 60, not because we've gotten there too quickly. I'm 60 on a single toon. I think I have another at 55. You think I'm going to repeat this process on 28 more toons? Frak that. Seriously. I wasn't even fun the first time.

    They either need to bump up the XP gain or... something.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • daan2006daan2006 Member Posts: 5,346 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    talonxv wrote: »
    Yeah and the first 50 take you what 2-3 days MAX. Big whoop. Go to BSGO and try getting to level 255 and tell me how long it takes you. Go ahead, I'll be here about 2-3 years waiting.

    why is someone going to leave a some what dead mmo got a ghost town of a mmo ;)
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    swimwear off risa not fixed
    system Lord Baal is dead
    macronius wrote: »
    This! Their ability to outdo their own failures is quite impressive. If only this power could be harnessed for good.
  • breadandcircusesbreadandcircuses Member Posts: 2,355 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    daan2006 wrote: »
    talonxv wrote: »
    Yeah and the first 50 take you what 2-3 days MAX. Big whoop. Go to BSGO and try getting to level 255 and tell me how long it takes you. Go ahead, I'll be here about 2-3 years waiting.
    why is someone going to leave a some what dead mmo got a ghost town of a mmo ;)

    See, that's why talonxv's post actually supports the argument for improved progression rates. Look at BSGO's rate of progression. Look at BSGO's playerbase. Does the example talonxv provided indicate that a slow rate of progression promotes growth in a game's playerbase?
    Ym9x9Ji.png
    meimeitoo wrote: »
    I do not like Geko ether.
    iconians wrote: »
    With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.​​
  • talonxvtalonxv Member Posts: 4,257 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    daan2006 wrote: »
    why is someone going to leave a some what dead mmo got a ghost town of a mmo ;)

    True, I am surprised the game even still runs BSGO. what a bucket of bolts. But seriously, they time gated leveling to give us something to do. I mean really get done in 2 days then "BORED."
    afMSv4g.jpg
    Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!

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  • sinn74sinn74 Member Posts: 1,149 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    talonxv wrote: »
    Yeah and the first 50 take you what 2-3 days MAX. Big whoop. Go to BSGO and try getting to level 255 and tell me how long it takes you. Go ahead, I'll be here about 2-3 years waiting.

    I went to a BSGO shoe sale once.
  • talonxvtalonxv Member Posts: 4,257 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    sinn74 wrote: »
    I went to a BSGO shoe sale once.

    you mom went to a BSGO sale once! :cool:
    afMSv4g.jpg
    Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!

    http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
  • talonxvtalonxv Member Posts: 4,257 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    See, that's why talonxv's post actually supports the argument for improved progression rates. Look at BSGO's rate of progression. Look at BSGO's playerbase. Does the example talonxv provided indicate that a slow rate of progression promotes growth in a game's playerbase?

    Played for a solid 2 years, made lvl 92 and quit. Though once past 40 levels are meaningless anyways.
    afMSv4g.jpg
    Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!

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  • centaurianalphacentaurianalpha Member Posts: 1,150 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    I went to a BSGO shoe sale once.
    Probably a BOGO shoe sale.... but they don't have Odyssey boots! :(
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  • talonxvtalonxv Member Posts: 4,257 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    Probably a BOGO shoe sale.... but they don't have Odyssey boots! :(

    If they had the intel boots, it would be better.
    afMSv4g.jpg
    Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!

    http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
  • daan2006daan2006 Member Posts: 5,346 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    sinn74 wrote: »
    I went to a BSGO shoe sale once.

    lmao i see what you did their :P
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    swimwear off risa not fixed
    system Lord Baal is dead
    macronius wrote: »
    This! Their ability to outdo their own failures is quite impressive. If only this power could be harnessed for good.
  • icsairgunsicsairguns Member Posts: 1,504 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    donowick wrote: »
    Leveling from 50 to 60 is pain in you know where. But leveling 1 to 60 might be easier most of us reached 50 long before finishing story. The level 50 players lost half if not more of the exp from finishing story at max level before DR. :)

    nah i have multiple toons that are lvl 50 but never did the story. it was always so fed biased i wouldnt do it with my Klingons. bt after this i tried it and it really does seem to be nerfd xp on the older missions as well. even though i have never run them. what i mean is i think they put all xp on that sliding scale if i make a new toon the same mission give nearly 3k xp but with my old toons who had still never done the mission can only get 700 from the same mission . reward items are the same bit scaled to lvl so im thinking they scaled the xp which sucks.
    Trophies for killing FEDS ahh those were the days. Ch'ar%20POST%20LoR.JPG


  • wilvwilv Member Posts: 390 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    chiyoumiku wrote: »
    Leveling has become on par with most major MMO's. This is standard. Thing is you'll get people instantly jump to 60 and then go "I'm bored." This at least staves it off.

    People are STILL going, "I'm bored". I was bored to tears grinding out 10 levels. The featured episodes were awesome and the patrols were ok but after that I had to do the SAME patrols over and over til the next level unlocked the next set. Either that or go to Kobali and do the same missions over and over til the next set unlocked. It was AWFUL!
  • bellylintbellylint Member Posts: 26 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    I won't fall into this idiotic trap of comparing STO to other MMO.

    I compare STO to one thing and one thing only, STO. That is, STO Pre-DR and STO Post-Dr and nothing else.

    Sure, before DR I was running out of things to do, but whatever I was still doing I had some fun doing at least. Not great, super, wonderful fun but basic fun.

    Post-DR........ zero. None..... Nada. No fun, it's gone, absolute abyss when it comes to pleasure. It's stupid, the entire 51-60 are the worse ever possible, no stories I can applaud here, just stupid long grinding fights, never ending stupid long grinding fights.

    The only time I ever find any kind of pleasure is when I get a ground episode and that's it. I'm ground oriented, I will admit that, but I have never found space episode horrible in STO just less fun than ground one but now. With those stupid episodes of patrols and stupid long space fights where you hit the same stupid ship during 10 minutes, it gets on my nerves fast, super fast.

    So please, compare STO all you want to other MMO most of us don't care, we simply care about the worse expansion ever called DR.
  • donowickdonowick Member Posts: 269 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    icsairguns wrote: »
    nah i have multiple toons that are lvl 50 but never did the story. it was always so fed biased i wouldnt do it with my Klingons. bt after this i tried it and it really does seem to be nerfd xp on the older missions as well. even though i have never run them. what i mean is i think they put all xp on that sliding scale if i make a new toon the same mission give nearly 3k xp but with my old toons who had still never done the mission can only get 700 from the same mission . reward items are the same bit scaled to lvl so im thinking they scaled the xp which sucks.

    But I think It be better than starting DR with no exp at all because your lvl 50 toon with zero exp. Granted I used story to level and patrols so I was at least 5 levels above story. I think I'll make another romulan and see what happens lol. :)
  • daveynydaveyny Member Posts: 8,227 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    donowick wrote: »
    But I think It be better than starting DR with no exp at all because your lvl 50 toon with zero exp. Granted I used story to level and patrols so I was at least 5 levels above story. I think I'll make another romulan and see what happens lol. :)

    This is just a stupid nit, but still...

    XP = Experience Points

    SP = Skill Points

    The XP's haven't really been altered all that much post-D.R.
    One can still get a couple of thousand just killing 2-3 large enemy ships.

    The SP's on the other hand, are what have been cut waaaaay back.

    And Skill Point's are what are needed to make the long arduous climb from level 50 to level 60.

    :cool:
    STO Member since February 2009.
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  • donowickdonowick Member Posts: 269 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    daveyny wrote: »
    This is just a stupid nit, but still...

    XP = Experience Points

    SP = Skill Points

    The XP's haven't really been altered all that much post-D.R.
    One can still get a couple of thousand just killing 2-3 large enemy ships.

    The SP's on the other hand, are what have been cut waaaaay back.

    And Skill Point's are what are needed to make the long arduous climb from level 50 to level 60.

    :cool:

    LOL yes and don't you still earn skill points in the other stories ? :D

    I bet I'll be above lvl 50 before I reach the DR story line lol but could be wrong lol.
  • doubleohninedoubleohnine Member Posts: 818 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    I read the forums before I started DR. I started after the first patch. I knew leveling was slowed, so I decided to be nice and spent $10 on a large XP boost. I was grateful for the content I THOUGHT I was about to get, so I paid for it. I played the first 2 missions, then had to do 1 Borg disconnect to level. I then bought the large boost. I ran out right at Kobali Prime, so I had to grind all the low level missions to get the next piece of the story. But there hasnt been much story, so Im not tempted to buy another boost to get to it faster. The rate my large xp boost ran out, I figure it will take 3 or more large XP boosts if you wanted to play all the missions back to back with little to no level grind. I enjoy the Voyager cast, but so far, their content isnt worth more than the $10 Ive spent for it so far.

    And Im with everyone else, nevermind thinking of trying to take my other 3 Feds, and 1 Rom through that. And my 1 Klink I started over a year ago is STILL barely past the tutorial missions, so that has a LOOOONG way to go.
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  • aelfwin1aelfwin1 Member Posts: 2,896 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    ok, it's very rough:

    Pre-DR up/down is level progression, left/right is Power/ROI

    Post XP nerf DR up/down is level progression, left/right is Power/ROI

    Nope , that's actually quite accurate ... .

    ... and when say 'accurate' I mean that is where I think your development stage of expression is at . Fit's quite well with the 9 y/olds ego ...
  • leviathan99#2867 leviathan99 Member Posts: 7,747 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    jtoney3448 wrote: »
    Since no one has bothered to say it ill do it. Only cryptic could release a hand full of missions *patrols barely count as anything let alone a mission* and call that an expansion. Real expansions have tons of quests and THAT is how you keep people from being level cap in a flash. Hell all the quests in STO wouldnt even be 1 expansion in a lot of other games.

    Horrific exp curves combined with exp nerfs IS NOT how you handle keeping people from cap because they cant make enough content to actually play!

    To be fair in a way, they said the rest of the missions will come later. But again only cryptic could go here is an expansion ...er.... we mean part of it.....

    Players will always blow through content that is something as a game designer you have to accept, thats why in most games they focus on endgame content thats repeatable. Sad thing is Craptic broke what they already had with their new idea of difficulty. "Well the STFs were redone for level 60s with mk 14 gear!" ya... sure they were.

    Truth is you know its like office space. "Man I put the decimal point in the wrong place! I always mess up some mundane detail!". Slapping more HPs on stuff is the lamest way to create "more challenge".

    Cryptic as a company of supposed professionals constantly show what total amateurs they are. Not just for the bugs, but for how they handle themselves and their customers. The way cryptic talks they make it sound like the player base makes massive unreasonable demands, while some do most are simple and easy like fixing the older ships adding new boff powers etc.

    Truth is its not most of the player bases requests that are unreasonable, its that its beyond cryptics skills/means and they cant admit it, just like they cant admit they are wrong on a lot of issues.

    Yeah. For reference:

    1 STO episode = about 10 WoW quests worth of activity.

    WoW had around 875 quests per expansion. The equivalent of 90 STO episodes.

    Generally, a WoW expansion has nearly twice the number of quests needed to get you to level cap.

    So for comparable leveling rate, you'd need 45 episodes to bridge the gap from 50 to 60 in STO.

    However even counting patrols, STO has 17. Plus around another 3 worth on Kobali Prime.
    The rate of gains for time investment is comparable to WoW but they supplied us with less than a quarter of the quest content that a WoW expansion gets and less than half the content that a WoW expansion supplies you with to hit the level cap.

    Content shortages had previously been masked in STO by giving more XP per mission, something Legacy of Romulus pushed to the hilt.

    Somewhere along the way, they seem to have adopted the stance that they could hide the content shortage by forcing people to grind, as though episodes were a reward for leveling rather than a means of leveling. It makes very little sense.
  • theroyalfamilytheroyalfamily Member Posts: 300 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    Just an example:
    I have one alt I'm using right now. This alt (a Klink) was at level 50 at the start of DR, like everyone else. However, I had only done the missions up to the first Specters mission; when DR started I was at "Spin the Wheel". Between then and now I've done the missions from there through "Operation Gamma" (twice, to get the two set pieces), all of this on Normal because I am trying to have fun, not work. I have also done several STF's and a bit of battlegrounds, and doffing.

    I am level 53 now.

    This is absolutely ridiculous. I don't know if I will hit 55 before I get to DR content.
  • leviathan99#2867 leviathan99 Member Posts: 7,747 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    daveyny wrote: »
    This is just a stupid nit, but still...

    XP = Experience Points

    SP = Skill Points

    The XP's haven't really been altered all that much post-D.R.
    One can still get a couple of thousand just killing 2-3 large enemy ships.

    The SP's on the other hand, are what have been cut waaaaay back.

    And Skill Point's are what are needed to make the long arduous climb from level 50 to level 60.

    :cool:

    Skillpoints in STO are the direct corrollary to what is called experience points in a typical RPG.

    The term "experience points" is not used in STO. You may be thinking of "expertise" which is a whole different thing. And "expertise" probably isn't worth an abreviation because it's not used for anything aside from BOff upgrading and a handful of rep projects. I'm startled they haven't converted it into dilithium yet.
  • wilvwilv Member Posts: 390 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    As many people have stated all over the forums. The mission to level ratio level used to be one level per episode. It seems to be how the DR expansion SHOULD work as well because as anyone who reached level 59 knows, there's only ONE mission in that level to get you from 59 to 60, except that it DOESN'T. However, as people have been stating, the SP gains for these episodes are negligible at best. When you consider how long some of the episodes are they hardly seem worth doing. Off hand I can think of two episodes that were extremely long yet only rewarded a mere 708 SP, "Takedown" and "Capture the Flag".

    I mean, if it takes over 130900 SP to get from 50 to 60 and each mission is only giving out 708 I would have to do about 184 missions to finish the grind.
  • sirokksirokk Member Posts: 990 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    rekurzion wrote: »
    I actually believe leveling is too fast, especially with the new crafting and upgrading system. I'm leveling my character faster than I can raise my crafting level or earn begin earning enough dil/ec/mats to get comparable gear. I would actually suggest slowing the leveling speed even further so there is better pace with crafting and upgrading and harder content.

    That also goes with my belief that you should remain in captain level for a much longer time but add more captain 'levels'. Right now if I start a fresh toon I'm at level 50 in no time while it takes me longer to level up my gear.

    If we can level a character from 1 to 50 in 2 weeks, we should be able to level from 50 to 60 in less than a week.

    Cryptic needs to either make leveling faster again or make a C-Store module that we can just purchase the upgrade to level 60 for all of our alts! They did that for the ships, why not for leveling too?

    We demand instant gratification...NOW! :P
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  • leviathan99#2867 leviathan99 Member Posts: 7,747 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    wilv wrote: »
    As many people have stated all over the forums. The mission to level ratio level used to be one level per episode. It seems to be how the DR expansion SHOULD work as well because as anyone who reached level 59 knows, there's only ONE mission in that level to get you from 59 to 60, except that it DOESN'T. However, as people have been stating, the SP gains for these episodes are negligible at best. When you consider how long some of the episodes are they hardly seem worth doing. Off hand I can think of two episodes that were extremely long yet only rewarded a mere 708 SP, "Takedown" and "Capture the Flag".

    I mean, if it takes over 130900 SP to get from 50 to 60 and each mission is only giving out 708 I would have to do about 184 missions to finish the grind.

    It's not quite that bad when you count kill SP but there probably should be 40-50 episodes (counting a patrol as a single episode and counting each step of the Kobali Prime arc as a single episode). Currently we have around 20.
  • leviathan99#2867 leviathan99 Member Posts: 7,747 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    sirokk wrote: »
    If we can level a character from 1 to 50 in 2 weeks, we should be able to level from 50 to 60 in less than a week.

    Cryptic needs to either make leveling faster again or make a C-Store module that we can just purchase the upgrade to level 60 for all of our alts! They did that for the ships, why not for leveling too?

    We demand instant gratification...NOW! :P

    I don't know that I agree with that. It's standard in MMOs for the last ten levels to take as long as the sum of all levels minus the last ten. Half the game is getting 10 levels from the cap. Half the game is getting to the cap.

    There's also generally a curve where the first 10 levels take 1-2 hours tops (or less), to instantly "reward" new players.

    The problem is that we don't have enough content to cover the level range of 50-60. This isn't intended as an "I devoured all the content, give me more" post even though I did devour all the content and would like more.

    It would have been fine if they had doubled the SP gains from their current live values (missions and kills). It would have been fine if the current content was all intended to get us to 55 and that was the new cap. It would have been fine if there was twice the content.

    Any of these solutions would work. But it is my experience that people quit MMOs when they hit gaps in being led where to go next. I have friends who did that when STO launched (as it was possible to have to grind levels to reach content then). This is presumably why mission XP was buffed to ridiculous levels in LoR to begin with, to cover for lack of KDF content (and some lack of Romulan content) by allowing fewer missions to carry a player to cap. (And they did the same for Federation to match.)

    In WoW (I have played other MMOs but I feel pretty confident talking about WoW), they actually start by deciding what the new level cap is. Then they take the number of quests they have and make sure that completing 50-75% of them will carry you to cap, basing required experience per level and experience per quest on that goal.

    Another thing they do right there (which I haven't seen Cryptic adopt) is that they integrate dungeons into the story and basically make each leg of the leveling process a big promotional advertisement to run a particular dungeon. Generally speaking, the Blizz model is to give every story arc two climaxes. The first occurs when you finish solo questing an area and receive a quest or line of quests taking you into a dungeon. The second occurs in the dungeon.

    This also has the added benefit of having a dungeon get a variable completion time.

    For example, you might have Infected Ground complete on the defeat of Captain Ogen but have a side quest to unlock Manus as an optional boss which is obtained through mission progression. Unlocking Manus could be a daily quest (meaning you need at least one teammate who hasn't fought Manus that day). If nobody has completed the story, the mission simply stops at Ogen (which is a more reasonable length for a ground STF anyway).
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