Yes, Mr. D'Angelo, I'm talking about you.
This won't be a rant. I simply want to take this opportunity to tell you how your 'Korean' model has ruined the game for me.
With the advent of DR, you have pretty much invalidated everything I had of value. I had *everything* at end-game level; and, in one foul swoop, you took that all away. I've literally paid you thousands of dollars, over time. And although your ToS gives you every right to do what you did, I am nonetheless very disappointed about the direction you took this game in.
Perhaps you thought DR would cause people to up their spending logarithmically. You were mistaken. In fact, quite the opposite: people ere scale down! Taking myself as example, instead of having like 10 fully decked lockbox ships, I now only use maybe 2, as I can no longer afford the hundreds of millions in EC for endless upgrade tokens (especially for rarity upgrades), and huge amounts of Dilithium. And that C-Store Ody in my sig? Yeah, she's still flying, but no longer with a full Polaron set, but just the single Utra Rare Borg set I made, and the UR Mk XIV phasers I pulled off my Aquatic Carrier. My Elachi Escort? Haven't even gotten to upgrading all my Disruptor stuff yet. Etc.
You get the picture. While I *did* spend extra cash on DR, I wound up with significantly less than I had. For one, I had to retire my new Rom alt I was so proud of (hence my previous "Love being OP!" banner). I basically had to 'starve' her: all lockbox ships I had on her, rep gear, Lobi consoles, can't use em any more. I finally 'cannibalized' some of her Account-bound weaponry, to use on my Fed main. I simply can't afford to sink an equal (huge) amount of cash into an alt, like I did to get my main 'DR-Ready. Same for my ships: I upgraded a few, all to Mk XIV, Ultra Rare; the rest is just sitting in my shipyard, collecting dust. And it hurts, as I loved taking other ships out when I felt like playing a different ship today.
People often say 'But you don't have to upgrade everything at once!' Those folks, and likely you too, seem to miss the point: I don't WANT to. I'm sick to my stomach, every day since DR, of having to 'buy back', at exorbitant cost, what I *already* had. I look into my bank account, and am seeing several full rep Space sets, all of which are still at Mk XII level. Heretofore, I could all use them; but now they're obsoleted, and all need an injection of serious cash to make them competitive again.
Tl;dr: I no longer want to pay you insane amounts of money to bring me back to where I already was. I am not a whale; a whalette, at most. I don't mind spending one- or two hundred bucks a month, when I feel I'm actually getting something new. But now I'm looking at my old Vesta, for example, did the calculations, and figure it's going to cost me at least another $100 to get her fully 'DR-Ready' too. And I'm no longer prepared to do that. Sorry.
This used to be a fun game, where an end-game piece of rep gear cost like 39k Dilithium, which you could either open your wallet for, or grind for. Nowadays, it cost me 100k+ in Dilithium, and 20+ mil in EC, just to upgrade my Assimilated console to Ultra Rare Mk XIV alone! And R&D used to be an optional mini-game; now it's as good as mandatory (all with its own money-grubbing schemes). And your queues are empty.
Mr. D'Angelo, you restituted my Specialization points. And I thank you for that. Now, please give me back my game too!
Comments
Dear disgruntled whalette,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StTqXEQ2l-Y
Sincerely,
EP
Pretty much standard operation procedure when an expansion with a level cap increase is introduced. It happens every time in WoW and every time people complain how their gear is being made useless after all the time the put into getting it. This is depite the fact they know it happens and so it shouldn't be a suprise.
You really can't expect things that were end game at 50 to be so at 60.
The only thing I don't like about gearing is that we have to do upgrades to get decent gear and it includes a dil cost. Dil should never have been a part of the new crafting system considering the number of dil sinks already in the game, and should have been removed from the old one when more dil sinks were added.
As to the rest can't really argue against it.
I know you said that people saying this miss the point, but you don't have to do it all now, this seems to be a common theme amongst many atm, my own brother in real life included, stating that they already had worked to reach the endgame so it is unfair for anything to be changed so dramatically, well it isn't really unfair at all, it's just people have a sense of entitlement, feeling they should automatically be top of the game forever. It doesn't work like that, this has been a very dramatic change in terms of how much equipment has been downgraded so to speak, but it is nothing new in alot of games, new content, new equipment, new requirements require effort to achieve.
I hope you mean mark XII.
It's not unplayable just tedious. More health/shield =/= harder content just annoying. If they had BOFF/captain skills that they used and you had to counter then it would be more interesting.
The game is certainly still playable, it just isn't fun anymore. I also feel no need to have max everything. Only about a third of my consoles and my shields are mk xiii, the rest is still mk xii. I will probably never upgrade my weapons. I just don't see the amount of content that I was expecting out of such a hyped release.
Your Rom alt you have had to cannibalise could be made VPvP spec for pennies compared to what you normally spend for example.
Secondly, when the "whales" (or "whalettes" as you put it) get so upset they're cutting back/withholding future spend because of your new mechanics, then that's Red Alert time in the accountant's office.
Just sayin' :rolleyes:
Much stuff about delta rising is awesome. Basically all additions are. The troublesome part is not those for me its rather what they simply took away from the player the same time.
- Old elite queues; New advanced isnt a replacement. Would have been a nice addition but doesnt justify to simply remove large and well working parts of the game.
- Skill Point income: Yea levelling toons was never a grind but actually recreational fun in a very grindy game. Gone now! Running another alt is the last thing I would do now.
- Dil income: Demands for that currency are higher then ever which is ok if the income would not have been reduced. Was always easy to combine dil earning with fun but now its patched out as well.
So yea the OPs line is one I had once too often as well in my head while playing DR the past few days.
As far as spending rl money is concerned, and the way I see it, the devs simply removed aspects of the game I have paid for. So lol, surely my wallet is closed now. Glad my in game recourses build up the past years dont make me have to spend or anything and the new stuff available to purchase is in heavy contradiction to the adjustments made to pve end game anyway in my eyes so no worries there cryptic.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
You don't have to spend real money here either, it's just people that want things now that cannot wait that feel the need to spend real money.
Well this game does really pressure you to spend money if you want the best stuff. You could do like me and not upgrade, but say you want to and don't want to spend cash.
Grind out 5(6?) reputations
Grind out 7 crafting trees (takes a full year to get all 7 to level 20 on one character)
Grind out all the materials and resources for upgrading
Grind out all the dilithium for ship upgrades, or T6 ships
Grind out all the ec for the lockbox stuff on the exchange, and there is a LOT of that
So yes... you could get everything here for free.
Just like you can get a free steak dinner by collecting dropped pennies in the parking lot.
They were wrong. And now we've been "warned" it can happen again. I didn't really want or need a level cap increase. But Cryptic may have needed it to keep selling ships, and to keep people playing to max their chars.
But the concern about alts - it's mostly a problem for new characters. You have alts now, and how long did it take t grind your reputations so far? And the reputation grind has practically been capped with the trait revamp for reputations. So what is left is the 60 specialization levels and Mark XIV gear and a new reputation.
Yes XII sending from my phone on night shift LOL
"Oh C'mon! You can play the DR content with MX XII gear and a T5 ship! Ridiculous to think otherwise! Pffft! You're just complaining to complain!"
One can also run the Daytona 500 in an off the showroom floor 2014 Mustang GT. Doesn't mean it will be enjoyable. Doesn't mean the driver has a chance at winning the race. Doesn't mean the driver doesn't want the car all the other drivers have.
I play STO to escape from the cares and pressures of Real Life. I want to forget about my worries for awhile. I want to be where I can entertain myself by being inside an IP which I have been a fan of since I saw my very first TOS episode back in 1968. If it isn't fun or someone is busy scaling down the fun then what?
"Well, you can just leave then! No one likes you anyway! BTW, Can I haz ur stufs?"
Anyone else around here remember EDCs? And how they were random drops from the STFs? And why pwe/cryptic changed from the random drops of EDCs to the guaranteed certainty of BNPs? I played ISE back then until my eyeballs bled. In all of those runs I think I got less than a dozen EDCs. So my chance of acquiring what was then the end game gear, at Mk X BTW, was exactly nil. I played with 'regular' gear. But I wanted the Borg Set. pwe/cryptic changed everything over so everyone would have a chance to acquire the Borg Set. Which was a good thing.
DR feels like the return of EDCs to me. I've little chance of acquiring the new gear in a reasonable time frame. I cannot afford to play the game twenty hours a day. Since others will have the new gear when I PvP against them, and the NPCs are set up on the assumption I have the new gear, all I really am now is the featured target at this week's gankfest.
Cryptic/PWE (under the expert guidance of the EP) will be able to salvage everything of value from the carcasses you leave behind...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0R06k9mnao
Feeling better now ? *grinz*
Kill Feddie.
Waff
You have finally priced yourself out of the game. You do realize you priced hundreds of others out of the game months ago by your willingness to spend, spend, spend.
I would like to feel bad for you, but it's difficult. You were willing to overspend on pixels because you could. You ignored the real value of things. To you it didn't matter you could purchase four other games on steam for the price of one ship here on STO. It didn't matter that you spent the equivalent of a normal person's grocery bill on in-game items here.
You drove the prices up here by your willingness to be exorbitant and now you find you are no longer space-rich. Welcome to the cold reality. There are a couple wealthier tiers of players to exhaust, you may be poor for a while yet. You could just stop playing, like you have helped others stop playing by shoveling over mounds of cash.
LLAP
so you say its not rant when really it is, so you already invalidated your own logic.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
You don't have to max crafting out, personally I've reached 15 in 2 and almost 15 on 2 others from just the daily 6k xp missions, but I know others in game, through playing and being in a fleet together that will make any items I need from other schools, at material costs, there are even some that do this for friends for nothing.
Your key word is my point want it is something people want, as with anything, you either have to work for it or pay for it, working for it takes time, but well everything else required work, such as fleet holdings and reputations, why shouldn't this?
I made 1.5 million dil in the weeks leading up to DR (then wasted most of it on keys) because they announced it and let us see what would be involved but I still have a halfway to mk xiv epic ship without spending any money. All it takes is patience and some effort and anyone can get what they want in the game, the game would not exist if everything was free for everyone and noone would pay for things that weren't actually giving them something, such as new content without the effort.
I did wut now?! LOL, maybe?!
"You were willing to overspend on pixels because you could."
Um, yeah? My money, my prerogative.
"You could just stop playing, like you have helped others stop playing by shoveling over mounds of cash."
I'm confused. No wait, I think maybe you're confused. What I did was help keep this game going, with my money.
"To you it didn't matter you could purchase four other games on steam for the price of one ship here on STO."
No, it didn't.
You are right about having a choice, though. Which, ironically, is what this thread was all about, to begin with: letting the EP know I no longer want to spend money on his shenanigans. Apart from having bought an Intelligence costume, with some spare Dilithium converted to Zen, my wallet will stay closed until this game sees some serious change.
Kira giveth, Kira taketh away. Sometimes a relationship of the customer with their company is really that simple.
That's just one ship. Times that by however many you have that you like to fly...
I don't care what D'Angelo's metrics and ideas are, the result is utter bull****.
"You don't have to do something again and again and again repetitive that doesn't have much challange, that's just a general good gameplay thing."
*nods*
The problem with people like you and I, lingering on with their severely downsized assets, out of necessity, is that we'll eventually just leave. Queues are empty, and with only 2 viable ships left (3, maybe, if I'm willing to use, say, Phasers on an Elachi Escort), just statistically I know I am at risk of quitting soon (even though I may now say I don't want to). And I know I'm not alone.
Something's gotta give. And it won't be me, as I gave enough.
I remember when the whole Assimilated set was only 15 EDCs and not 110k Dilithium, 3200 Omega Marks and 9 BNPs.
You don't pay a subscription here. Swings and round abouts. Also someone doesn't know about the "black market" there where in games items for real world cash exists.
I never said I believed they wanted us to play for free, I know they want every penny they can get out of everyone they can, that is what a business is, a way of making money, it is you who have deluded yourself as to the content of my post :P
I personally stopped paying a while ago due to being off work sick for the past year, but once I am back at work I will be paying to get new items, because I believe in supporting the game I've spent most of the past 3 years playing, not that I feel everyone should have to pay to play, just saying personally I don't mind spending on something that provides me with so much escapism and fun.
I know some of the easy routes to get dil have been removed, some newer ones were added, it isn't that hard to earn 8k dil in a day with a little effort, as I said, you either earn it or pay for it, this and most other mmo style games are not meant to be finished overnight, they are made to take time, to take effort to get the best stuff, to last long periods, hell if it wasn't it wouldn't of celebrated it's 4th year since going live.