I leveled to 57 with boring space patrols. Then I played through the new Delta story. That was fun while it lasted, but it has no replay value, not even the Kobali zone has any replay value.
Now I'm grinding out spec points so I can play with a new ability or two. Space combat, on any difficulty level, is simply tedious. There's no sense of danger or excitement to it, I've literally fallen asleep in the middle of the Argala patrol late at night.
When things got stale, I used to switch to my alts to play them for a while, since they're different character class and ship combos for the sake of variety. But they all still have Mk XII gear I can't afford to upgrade. The thought of doing so is depressing.
I did enjoy the story, but it's over and it wasn't enough. I like Bug Hunt, so I'm okay on Delta marks, but it isn't enough. Space combat used to be fun. I'm sure we were killing things too fast, but that wasn't boring and tedious. It is now.
I don't want to play my alts and I don't want to queue up for space missions. I log on to do daily things, grind out XP at a pace I'm not going to be able to maintain much longer, stand around and chat, and handle fleet things that need to be done. I am not sure how much longer I can do this.
Oh, I should add the music for Delta Rising was absolutely horrendous. My goodness, you would have done better to pull tracks from Star Trek Voyager for this area of space. I don't understand why the same song plays over and over and over and over whether I'm in combat or in isolation, would it have cost too much just to get another 10 music tracks for the area?
To put it in perspective, it's like listening to Ironforge music during Classic WoW. It got so annoying you had to turn off music.
Honestly, I'm not finding much passion to play seriously anymore.
Last time the mirror event or CC event ran, I grinded it out with five toons. Every special event had me excited and scheming to make the most of it. I looked forward to what this game produced next. Now... I'm barely motivated to complete the mirror event with one toon- and there was a time when a 12ga shotgun would've had me thrilled...
I was somewhat excited to grind my way through the spec points system, but when they took that away from me, (and still only gave back around 1/3rd of what I earned) it completely took the wind out of my sails. I'm dissapointed with the direction of the game... I feel it's becoming, cold, sterile, and far too uniform.
STFs are no fun to pug anymore, making it much harder to expand my circle of friends in game. The grind is wearing on me, bugs are infesting every corner of the game, my beloved STFs are trashed, the social element of the game is becoming more difficult to develop, the trust relationship between players and devs is damaged badly, and honestly, I'm just not having a good time. Really sad because I love the foundation this game had. This game gave me hundreds of good hours... but now? I poke my head in for a few hours here and there. Maybe run a mission or two. Chat with my fleeties... not too exciting.
I'm definitely in STO-depression right now. I could see myself coming out of it... but I don't really expect it.
Not really, No. Some of the missions are interesting and fun, but too much of it feels disjointed, grindy or needlessly made to take longer
The patrol missions really should be split up into individual missions an placed in order for context (Each one could unlock it's specific system patrol repeatable) Right now, i can tell there is a context there, but it seems a bit out of place if it is played in the wrong order.
The fact that the levelling curve is more brutal (and there don't seem to be sufficient missions at each level to actually level up enough to take the next ones) makess the game feel grindy. I know every MMO has it's share of grind, but this one just is BADLY disguised.
Finally, some of the space enemies just take forever to kill, on NORMAL dificulty. They are not More challenging or more interesting, once you lear thier trick, they are easy but they just take WAY too long to kill. i mean, would you sit in the drive thru for half an hour for McDonalds? That is how some of these guys (Vaaduuar especially) feel They aren't clever, they aren't hard but they take forever to chew thru even with a very well geared ship.
So, with all of that, I can't really say I'm having fun or that the story is very interesting, mostly because the fun and interest are buried in stuff I'd rather not shovel thru to find them.
Does creating signature images on one monitor while STO is open on the other monitor count as having fun while playing Delta Rising?
Don't get me wrong, I was surprised that I enjoyed the story through the last episode...the mix of space, patrols, and even ground...I enjoyed it up until the last episode. But playing after that's been a wee bit on the tedious side. They did, imho, a great job with the story up until the last episode and it's definitely worth playing through, again imho...even with that last episode.
... i mean, would you sit in the drive thru for half an hour for McDonalds?.
Yeah, this brings up an image of McDonald's announcing how they've made their burgers so extra-wonderful you can now spend even longer enjoying them, but all they've done is increase the level of gristle that now it takes longer to chew through them...
... and all it ended up doing was letting people ruminate on the (not too great) taste for longer.
Honestly, not much. I'm already through the story content, now I'm trying to gear up my ship.
I've all but gave up running advanced missions for Borg Neural Processors. There's a pretty big problem when lets say Cure Found Space Advanced where the Cubes are a lot less of a pita than the ships. Ran it about 5 times with 5 failures.
So this has been my play pattern the last few days, Log in to do rep projects, a couple more days to reach T5 status in most of them, run the hourly Omega rep hoping for BNPs from the reward box. Run CC Advanced with no issues there, get a beam project going and log off.
I have my character ran through TD, so most of them are 60...
So that whole "exploit" mess was your fault!! <pointing finger>
Seriously, what's the hurry to hit level cap?
From the point of conception
To the moment of truth,
At the point of surrender
To the burden of proof,
From the point of ignition
To the final drive,
The point of a journey
Is not to arrive -
Anything can happen...
- Neil Peart of Rush, "Prime Mover"
Yeah, this brings up an image of McDonald's announcing how they've made their burgers so extra-wonderful you can now spend even longer enjoying them, but all they've done is increase the level of gristle that now it takes longer to chew through them...
... and all it ended up doing was letting people ruminate on the (not too great) taste for longer.
And apparently, all the disgruntled customers are content to sit in the drive-thru at McDonald's, complaining about the gristle, but still buying and eating the burgers.
Why are you wasting time doing something you dislike? That makes no sense to me.
Why are you wasting time doing something you dislike? That makes no sense to me.
Actually I've completely changed my playstyle in the meantime. Now approaching as a casual game, and focusing on Foundry missions only, not bothering with leveling at all anymore, and the time beyond that, which I used to spend doing grind is now spent elsewhere.
When Delta Rising hit, I really liked it. I was having fun. Came across the expected bugs, etc. I expected that.
But the fun was rapidly dwindling when the nerfs to rewards, XPs, etc. started to occur.
The XP one is my single biggest complaint since time has progressed after DR and Cryptic's tweaks. Progress for leveling, gaining specialization, starship masteries are all at a snail's pace. I got even more upset when I found out yesterday that players discovered that even the DOFFing mission XP rewards were nerfed.
This is a far cry from STO's history in level progression. Before DR, you could play the story missions and level through that. Typically, about 2 missions, sometimes 3, and you'd gain a level and then some.
In today's STO, Post-DR patching? No. You can do Elite, Advanced instances, missions. You could do story missions. You can do DOFFing. You can even do the Patrols still. And you could look at your XP bar barely move.
This probably would not be an issue if one was playing with 1 or very few toons. But when you have alts like I do? This is impossible. DR really, really hates alt play, that's for sure. I don't have alts for farming. **** that, I don't live for that kind of gaming. I have my alts across the factions to play different classes in different ships in different builds. Perfectly doable before DR, but today, it's not happening at all. In DR, you have to focus on 1 or very few toons. Or your progress will be dreadfully slow.
To be perfectly honest, I'm only grinding the Mirror Event in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, the Devs will wake up and un-fubar this game once more.
There's a valid reason to hit level cap. The DR mission chain all but requires players to hit the level cap. If Cryptic didn't want to encourage a rapid grind to the level cap, they would have made missions available one right after another at lowered levels, even if it would only raise a player's level maybe twice or so, then just pad the last 5 or so levels with a few new challenges, rather than making them available right at 60.
This is one of those things many other MMOs do better; they pad the grind well, with a combination of solo and group runs, a reasonably padded story (nowhere near as threadbare as some of STO's more recent ones), and nowadays a number of them allow access to newer challenges 5 or so levels lower than their "recommended" levels, if only to allow the most determined to try their hand at it, rather than having to first race to the recommended level before trying it. Sure, rewards would still be at the "recommended" level, but the mere fact that some would be able to try and beat it at a lower level is a feel good moment in and of itself, without requiring a grind to the max first.
As to the burger analogy; who's to say they're still ordering and munching on the burgers? There's salads, sides, breakfast, drinks, chicken, and fish alternatives. In STO, that's ERP'ing, random conversation, queues, old missions, Doffing, and anything else besides DR content.
Of course, the difference between McDonalds and Cryptic is that if it proves unpopular, McDonalds takes it out or reverts it to the previous setup (McSalad Shakers and the Angus variants), and that they actually want to bring in more potential customers by copying some of the ideas of their rivals (changing their layout from the old-fashioned fast food look to a somewhat classier setup to encourage staying, socializing, and profit, with the bonus of crappy but free Wi-Fi). I need not mention all the recent missteps Cryptic has made and still has stubbornly refused to correct, though I'd give it until December before they revert things enough to regain the loyalty of the playerbase; provided there will be enough left at the rate everyone's leaving or logging in less and less regularly.
So that whole "exploit" mess was your fault!! <pointing finger>
Seriously, what's the hurry to hit level cap?
I have no hurry to hit level cap. But the less grind I do, the better I feel.
If leveling to 60 was as fun as the low level Rom, I wouldn't care how long it takes. Unfortunately, this is not true.
Give me content to do, and not mindless patrol, and I will happily do it. But grinding patrol for the opportunity to... do a "story" patrol, no thank you.
... I don't have alts for farming... I have my alts across the factions to play different classes in different ships in different builds...
Very much this.
I have nine toons, representing a Federation sci, tac and engie, a KDF sci, tac and engie, and a Romulan sci, tac and engie. I've worked hard to set each up with its own specifically-focused ship, with some ground, some space, trying to have playstyle different in each one. So e.g. the Fed tac is space-focused with ground mainly about grenades while the KDF tac is ground-focused Lethean with lots of psionic and brainy stuff going on. Having career-specific goals was great in early missions, and being able to have missions different (even if the same core structure) for each faction worked well, to keep the mission interesting for each.
Plenty of people are enjoying Delta Rising. Don't get all your info from angry forumites since forumites period make up less than 5% of the playerbase.
You must be confused, because over 90% of your 5% are upset with this game. It doesn't take a genius to log into the game and realize the queues are dead. Enough fan boys! This game is broken right now, you're allowed to be critical of this game and demand better. The biggest issue with the PvEs right now is that they are punishing not challenging, the risk vs reward is tipped way too far in favor of risk, there is no balance and no clear rules that they should be following. The funny thing is PWE knows this but they don't care, they just want your money. The irony of this all is that they'll lose more over this than gain but perhaps that's not a concern for them. This game might be on its way out and they already know it. Perhaps that's why the lifetime sale came earlier this year, gotta get the last bit of cash before they shut it down. The confidence in this game and it's developers is broken and they continue to ignore us. It will take some doing to regain the confidence in this game.
To be clear, I love Star Trek and want to see this game succeed but I can't let my love of Star Trek influence me anymore. Prove me wrong cryptic/PWE, transparency is the only way. Tell us who is responsible for this debacle and what will be done to fix it. No more play-doh factory, fix the game don't give us more broken content. The only reason I stick around is bc of the small glimmer of hope that I hold onto that maybe they'll come to their senses.
#sadpanda
Looking for more info on Dilithium Rising? Click on the link below:
I just want STF dil levels returned to previous levels...
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Former/Cryptic Name: Captain_Hans_Langsdorff
Founding member, Special Service Squadron
"Fear God and Dread Nought." First Sea Lord, Adm. Jacky Fisher
I just want STF dil levels returned to previous levels...
Forget the dilithium for a second: I'll be happy when they stop increasing the mob count to absurd levels. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to TRIPLE the amount of mobs in Advanced STF's vs the normal ones?! They already have higher HP!
Forget the dilithium for a second: I'll be happy when they stop increasing the mob count to absurd levels. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to TRIPLE the amount of mobs in Advanced STF's vs the normal ones?! They already have higher HP!
Who thought it was a good idea? The same person/people who designed the upgrade system. Everything in this game now is designed to push players toward spending ever increasing amounts of time, effort, dilithium, energy credits, and/or money to upgrade their equipment to deal with the over inflated hit points.
Who thought it was a good idea? The same person/people who designed the upgrade system. Everything in this game now is designed to push players toward spending ever increasing amounts of time, effort, dilithium, energy credits, and/or money to upgrade their equipment to deal with the over inflated hit points.
Indeed. It seems that to even have a chance at advanced STF's, you need Mk XIV epic everything. Sorry, but most people don't have time/money to get that quickly. They've effectively made the harder queues unfun and ghost towns as a result.
I've got Mk XIV and other high end gear, level 60 with loaded space traits, T3 specialization and can barely make a difference in Advanced. In old Elite, I'd have plowed through it with my current set-up. Problem is, the only useful R&D material comes from Advanced PvE.
No, I'm not having fun. I'm not going to Normal to get TRIBBLE material boxes. Can't even do Starbase Fleet Defense and other queues because there's no one there at all.
I tried, but the whole thing is ridiculous. From now I'll just log in to do the R&D research project and get out, just in case Cryptic gets a clue someday.
I've got Mk XIV and other high end gear, level 60 with loaded space traits, T3 specialization and can barely make a difference in Advanced. In old Elite, I'd have plowed through it with my current set-up. Problem is, the only useful R&D material comes from Advanced PvE.
No, I'm not having fun. I'm not going to Normal to get TRIBBLE material boxes. Can't even do Starbase Fleet Defense and other queues because there's no one there at all.
I tried, but the whole thing is ridiculous. From now I'll just log in to do the R&D research project and get out, just in case Cryptic gets a clue someday.
I take solace in the fact that the players saw they were getting the same raw deal. Most of the queues have dried up REALLY fast as a result of (yet another) poor decision by Cryptic.
A little bit of what is said on the forums is quite accurate based on my own experiences. The story itself seems to be having a bit of an identity crisis. Do the romulans have an ulterior motive? Do the vaadwuar have a deeper secret, are the kobali to be trusted? Or the Terei? Its taking too many different paths at once. But at the same time, its fun trying to figure these things out, wondering if your choices are going to affect you later on. But even that's slowed by having to grind through each new level just to do the next mission. But I would still be enjoying it, if not for one thing. The background fog, or nebulas, or whatever it is in most of the new systems forces me to play frame by very slow frame. Playing at less than 1 frame per second isn't easy, and certainly not fun. I mean, I've always had to play on almost minimum graphics, but at least it was still smooth and never gave me a problem. I don't even want to start the final mission, because it seems to get worse with every system I enter. And that is really my only problem. Well, that and the fact that cryptic said they were going to fix the power creep problem, but instead made it even worse, to the point that you can't even do certain advanced stfs without 30k dps.
I don't even care about doing elite. I haven't even hit 60 yet, nor do I have a new T6 ship. I'm still working on getting my gear up and completing the new reputation, along with getting certain sets from older reps. But in order to do that, its necessary to be able to complete advanced stfs. Overall, I'd say delta rising is doing well, but for a lot of us, and definitely for the more casual players, its like being a semi on a long trip. We have to stop once in a while to weigh in, while everyone else has an epass and cruises right along.
Comments
I leveled to 57 with boring space patrols. Then I played through the new Delta story. That was fun while it lasted, but it has no replay value, not even the Kobali zone has any replay value.
Now I'm grinding out spec points so I can play with a new ability or two. Space combat, on any difficulty level, is simply tedious. There's no sense of danger or excitement to it, I've literally fallen asleep in the middle of the Argala patrol late at night.
When things got stale, I used to switch to my alts to play them for a while, since they're different character class and ship combos for the sake of variety. But they all still have Mk XII gear I can't afford to upgrade. The thought of doing so is depressing.
I did enjoy the story, but it's over and it wasn't enough. I like Bug Hunt, so I'm okay on Delta marks, but it isn't enough. Space combat used to be fun. I'm sure we were killing things too fast, but that wasn't boring and tedious. It is now.
I don't want to play my alts and I don't want to queue up for space missions. I log on to do daily things, grind out XP at a pace I'm not going to be able to maintain much longer, stand around and chat, and handle fleet things that need to be done. I am not sure how much longer I can do this.
To put it in perspective, it's like listening to Ironforge music during Classic WoW. It got so annoying you had to turn off music.
Last time the mirror event or CC event ran, I grinded it out with five toons. Every special event had me excited and scheming to make the most of it. I looked forward to what this game produced next. Now... I'm barely motivated to complete the mirror event with one toon- and there was a time when a 12ga shotgun would've had me thrilled...
I was somewhat excited to grind my way through the spec points system, but when they took that away from me, (and still only gave back around 1/3rd of what I earned) it completely took the wind out of my sails. I'm dissapointed with the direction of the game... I feel it's becoming, cold, sterile, and far too uniform.
STFs are no fun to pug anymore, making it much harder to expand my circle of friends in game. The grind is wearing on me, bugs are infesting every corner of the game, my beloved STFs are trashed, the social element of the game is becoming more difficult to develop, the trust relationship between players and devs is damaged badly, and honestly, I'm just not having a good time. Really sad because I love the foundation this game had. This game gave me hundreds of good hours... but now? I poke my head in for a few hours here and there. Maybe run a mission or two. Chat with my fleeties... not too exciting.
I'm definitely in STO-depression right now. I could see myself coming out of it... but I don't really expect it.
It feels like Detroit Rising.
The patrol missions really should be split up into individual missions an placed in order for context (Each one could unlock it's specific system patrol repeatable) Right now, i can tell there is a context there, but it seems a bit out of place if it is played in the wrong order.
The fact that the levelling curve is more brutal (and there don't seem to be sufficient missions at each level to actually level up enough to take the next ones) makess the game feel grindy. I know every MMO has it's share of grind, but this one just is BADLY disguised.
Finally, some of the space enemies just take forever to kill, on NORMAL dificulty. They are not More challenging or more interesting, once you lear thier trick, they are easy but they just take WAY too long to kill. i mean, would you sit in the drive thru for half an hour for McDonalds? That is how some of these guys (Vaaduuar especially) feel They aren't clever, they aren't hard but they take forever to chew thru even with a very well geared ship.
So, with all of that, I can't really say I'm having fun or that the story is very interesting, mostly because the fun and interest are buried in stuff I'd rather not shovel thru to find them.
I dislike the beserker wielding the nerfbat thinking he's a Viking on a raid to pillage and plunder.
I am having an absolute ball helping newer folks in our fleet to level 50, not so much after that.
Sarah Knightly - Co-leader; Frontier Explorers - U.S.S. Witchblade
Rias Gremory - Leader; Frontier Marauders - I.K.S. B'ullwinkle
Don't get me wrong, I was surprised that I enjoyed the story through the last episode...the mix of space, patrols, and even ground...I enjoyed it up until the last episode. But playing after that's been a wee bit on the tedious side. They did, imho, a great job with the story up until the last episode and it's definitely worth playing through, again imho...even with that last episode.
Yeah, this brings up an image of McDonald's announcing how they've made their burgers so extra-wonderful you can now spend even longer enjoying them, but all they've done is increase the level of gristle that now it takes longer to chew through them...
... and all it ended up doing was letting people ruminate on the (not too great) taste for longer.
I've all but gave up running advanced missions for Borg Neural Processors. There's a pretty big problem when lets say Cure Found Space Advanced where the Cubes are a lot less of a pita than the ships. Ran it about 5 times with 5 failures.
So this has been my play pattern the last few days, Log in to do rep projects, a couple more days to reach T5 status in most of them, run the hourly Omega rep hoping for BNPs from the reward box. Run CC Advanced with no issues there, get a beam project going and log off.
Seriously, what's the hurry to hit level cap?
From the point of conception
To the moment of truth,
At the point of surrender
To the burden of proof,
From the point of ignition
To the final drive,
The point of a journey
Is not to arrive -
Anything can happen...
- Neil Peart of Rush, "Prime Mover"
And apparently, all the disgruntled customers are content to sit in the drive-thru at McDonald's, complaining about the gristle, but still buying and eating the burgers.
Why are you wasting time doing something you dislike? That makes no sense to me.
Actually I've completely changed my playstyle in the meantime. Now approaching as a casual game, and focusing on Foundry missions only, not bothering with leveling at all anymore, and the time beyond that, which I used to spend doing grind is now spent elsewhere.
creating Sigs is a passive ability, like 2 minutes- lol
When Delta Rising hit, I really liked it. I was having fun. Came across the expected bugs, etc. I expected that.
But the fun was rapidly dwindling when the nerfs to rewards, XPs, etc. started to occur.
The XP one is my single biggest complaint since time has progressed after DR and Cryptic's tweaks. Progress for leveling, gaining specialization, starship masteries are all at a snail's pace. I got even more upset when I found out yesterday that players discovered that even the DOFFing mission XP rewards were nerfed.
This is a far cry from STO's history in level progression. Before DR, you could play the story missions and level through that. Typically, about 2 missions, sometimes 3, and you'd gain a level and then some.
In today's STO, Post-DR patching? No. You can do Elite, Advanced instances, missions. You could do story missions. You can do DOFFing. You can even do the Patrols still. And you could look at your XP bar barely move.
This probably would not be an issue if one was playing with 1 or very few toons. But when you have alts like I do? This is impossible. DR really, really hates alt play, that's for sure. I don't have alts for farming. **** that, I don't live for that kind of gaming. I have my alts across the factions to play different classes in different ships in different builds. Perfectly doable before DR, but today, it's not happening at all. In DR, you have to focus on 1 or very few toons. Or your progress will be dreadfully slow.
This is one of those things many other MMOs do better; they pad the grind well, with a combination of solo and group runs, a reasonably padded story (nowhere near as threadbare as some of STO's more recent ones), and nowadays a number of them allow access to newer challenges 5 or so levels lower than their "recommended" levels, if only to allow the most determined to try their hand at it, rather than having to first race to the recommended level before trying it. Sure, rewards would still be at the "recommended" level, but the mere fact that some would be able to try and beat it at a lower level is a feel good moment in and of itself, without requiring a grind to the max first.
As to the burger analogy; who's to say they're still ordering and munching on the burgers? There's salads, sides, breakfast, drinks, chicken, and fish alternatives. In STO, that's ERP'ing, random conversation, queues, old missions, Doffing, and anything else besides DR content.
Of course, the difference between McDonalds and Cryptic is that if it proves unpopular, McDonalds takes it out or reverts it to the previous setup (McSalad Shakers and the Angus variants), and that they actually want to bring in more potential customers by copying some of the ideas of their rivals (changing their layout from the old-fashioned fast food look to a somewhat classier setup to encourage staying, socializing, and profit, with the bonus of crappy but free Wi-Fi). I need not mention all the recent missteps Cryptic has made and still has stubbornly refused to correct, though I'd give it until December before they revert things enough to regain the loyalty of the playerbase; provided there will be enough left at the rate everyone's leaving or logging in less and less regularly.
If leveling to 60 was as fun as the low level Rom, I wouldn't care how long it takes. Unfortunately, this is not true.
Give me content to do, and not mindless patrol, and I will happily do it. But grinding patrol for the opportunity to... do a "story" patrol, no thank you.
Very much this.
I have nine toons, representing a Federation sci, tac and engie, a KDF sci, tac and engie, and a Romulan sci, tac and engie. I've worked hard to set each up with its own specifically-focused ship, with some ground, some space, trying to have playstyle different in each one. So e.g. the Fed tac is space-focused with ground mainly about grenades while the KDF tac is ground-focused Lethean with lots of psionic and brainy stuff going on. Having career-specific goals was great in early missions, and being able to have missions different (even if the same core structure) for each faction worked well, to keep the mission interesting for each.
Let's get back to that Star Trek Online.
You must be confused, because over 90% of your 5% are upset with this game. It doesn't take a genius to log into the game and realize the queues are dead. Enough fan boys! This game is broken right now, you're allowed to be critical of this game and demand better. The biggest issue with the PvEs right now is that they are punishing not challenging, the risk vs reward is tipped way too far in favor of risk, there is no balance and no clear rules that they should be following. The funny thing is PWE knows this but they don't care, they just want your money. The irony of this all is that they'll lose more over this than gain but perhaps that's not a concern for them. This game might be on its way out and they already know it. Perhaps that's why the lifetime sale came earlier this year, gotta get the last bit of cash before they shut it down. The confidence in this game and it's developers is broken and they continue to ignore us. It will take some doing to regain the confidence in this game.
To be clear, I love Star Trek and want to see this game succeed but I can't let my love of Star Trek influence me anymore. Prove me wrong cryptic/PWE, transparency is the only way. Tell us who is responsible for this debacle and what will be done to fix it. No more play-doh factory, fix the game don't give us more broken content. The only reason I stick around is bc of the small glimmer of hope that I hold onto that maybe they'll come to their senses.
#sadpanda
[SIGPIC]Click here to visit my STO YouTube channel[/SIGPIC]
Former/Cryptic Name: Captain_Hans_Langsdorff
Founding member, Special Service Squadron
"Fear God and Dread Nought." First Sea Lord, Adm. Jacky Fisher
Forget the dilithium for a second: I'll be happy when they stop increasing the mob count to absurd levels. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to TRIPLE the amount of mobs in Advanced STF's vs the normal ones?! They already have higher HP!
Who thought it was a good idea? The same person/people who designed the upgrade system. Everything in this game now is designed to push players toward spending ever increasing amounts of time, effort, dilithium, energy credits, and/or money to upgrade their equipment to deal with the over inflated hit points.
Indeed. It seems that to even have a chance at advanced STF's, you need Mk XIV epic everything. Sorry, but most people don't have time/money to get that quickly. They've effectively made the harder queues unfun and ghost towns as a result.
No, I'm not having fun. I'm not going to Normal to get TRIBBLE material boxes. Can't even do Starbase Fleet Defense and other queues because there's no one there at all.
I tried, but the whole thing is ridiculous. From now I'll just log in to do the R&D research project and get out, just in case Cryptic gets a clue someday.
I take solace in the fact that the players saw they were getting the same raw deal. Most of the queues have dried up REALLY fast as a result of (yet another) poor decision by Cryptic.
I don't even care about doing elite. I haven't even hit 60 yet, nor do I have a new T6 ship. I'm still working on getting my gear up and completing the new reputation, along with getting certain sets from older reps. But in order to do that, its necessary to be able to complete advanced stfs. Overall, I'd say delta rising is doing well, but for a lot of us, and definitely for the more casual players, its like being a semi on a long trip. We have to stop once in a while to weigh in, while everyone else has an epass and cruises right along.
Been playing STO since Open Beta, and have never regarded anything as worse than 'meh', if only due to personal standards.