Checking to see how the game is going is one thing, lurking around the forums posting nothing but negativity is something else.
Yeah not really ... if things are negative, every sane reviewer will post negative things (cause you know maybe someone listens and thing might get positive) ... that's how this game is "going" ... at least from their perspective ... nothing wrong with it ...
Oh, and FYI troll, I wasn't comparing it to MY ex, as you actually quoted it, I can clearly tell you were trying to get an effect, but instead you made yourself look stupid as I clearly wrote 'your' ex (figuratively speaking), not 'my' ex.
So you can use "your" figuratively speaking, but when others do it ... it makes them a troll ... you're priceless ... you might wanna turn off your "Black & White Goggles" ...
btw : it's still a stupid comparison... doesn't matter if it's your GF or anyones else, which is kind of obvious, because I don't know neither "you" nor "your" Ex-Gf ... games are for entertainment you pay for, GF's (should) include complex relationships ... so the right comparison here might be hookers you're disappointed with, not GF's .... is advertising all of the hookers bad points to her pimp creepy ? ... well maybe ... weird ? ... not so much, at least you paid for it ... (PS : No I'm not into hookers, and not implying you are ...)
Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
If somebody didn't want to be so much a part of the rat race of much of the rest of the game, could they stick to the Foundry missions and still get a decent enough experience from the game?
Depends on your preferences. I like a mix of combat (space and/or ground) and some story as well. All combat foundry missions are decent if I just wanna blow things up, but they get tiresome quickly. Missions focusing mostly on story can be interesting, but if too long and drawn out, then they become boring. Missions are unique to the Fed or KDF faction so the quantity can vary, but Fed have more since there are more people playing the Fed. There Foundry missions for both factions that I like and don't. Not sure if there are any just for Romulans...
You need to try out Foundry missions for yourself. I assume you play Fed so below are some of the ones I like:
- Another Man's Hell
- Purity Part 1: Of Denial
- Purity Part 2: Of Thought
- The Sword of the Kuvah'Magh
- One Too Many
- Unholy Alliance
- The Syndicate Extraction
Doing Foundry missions are a good way to get dilithium. Spotlight Foundry missions can reward anywhere between 1,440 and around 3,000 dilithium which is partially determined by the length of the mission. This is only rewards once every 20 hours. I think regular Foundry missions reward around 480 dilithium, but I don't think there is cool down involved. Additionally, there is the Investigate Officer Report that rewards 960 dilithium every time you do a Foundry mission; there is a 30 minute cool down for it. However, there are only so many Foundry missions and you should reward (tip) the author with some refined dilithium if you like the mission.
- Start a new character.. why?
Because I'm learning that the experience I'm looking for is probably most likely to come from things done before level 50, and through playing through the game nice and slowly rather than rushing, as to prolong and stretch out the experiences one gets to have before getting to the "needing to grind to get to anywhere" phase. My old character is already admiral and is already a bit tainted by the race for rewards. I heard about a player who stretched 42 levels over two years, while many others try to get to 50 in 40 hours...
- Play a slow-paced moderate combination of storyline, Doff, and Foundry, over the span of only one hour per day.
- See how things go over a week or so
Now I'm just busy pondering what I want my career and race to be to get the most out of this approach... Science maybe? My last captain was an engineer but I eneded up getting drawn into a tactical playstyle due the continuous push into battle with just about every mission I had to go through. So now I'm thinking if I should just go tactical to make sure I'm best equipped to survive in those cases?
PvE in this game is incredibly easy pre-end-game Content. Running on Normal Mission mode any Class can fly any Ship and achieve the objectives. I have used every combination of Class and Ship without incident - including taking a T1 ship all the way to level 50. The AI is designed for the lowest common denominator - autofire and spacebar without tactics. If you are simply looking for a story character rather then a PvP or ESTF character any combination works, so build to make yourself happy rather then grind efficient.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
I play a Science officer and use all Science ships for the very first time ..:D
I am actually very much enjoying her. I did also choose just the alien race so I can change her looks if and when I want a change.
I like your game plan and find it very similar to my own. I can actually say I am having more fun playing the game for the stories I can find this time around, than I ever had when I tried to rush to end game 3 years ago.
Here is a list I had saved for some non combat story type missions:
Starfleet Experimentation by Bazag
Hidden Intelligenceby Bazag
"Shoreleave Under Siege" by JohnnySnowball
"Your Mission Has Ended" by Isthisscience
"The Galaxy's Fair" by Zorbane
"A World Lost In Time" by AdmiralMurphy
"Ghosts of the Polmar Rae" by Bazag
"Uncharted Worlds 3" by patcrow
"The Needs of the Few" and "Return to Terra Nova."
These are only a few of the non combat foundry missions out there.
Play the game the way you want to. Not the way someone else thinks you should. My Fleet Leaders tell me daily I have the wrong ship with the wrong weapons and I have no idea at all what I am doing. Of course this is all said after I drop 100k's worth of Dilithium on the latest Fleet Project. :P
Nonsense.
I play STO for my entertainment not anyone else's. I play this game to have fun and hang out in an IP I have enjoyed since childhood. Walk your own path and turn a deaf ear to the people screeching about how you are doing it all wrong.
One of the things I enjoy around here is the UGC in the Foundry. Some of the missions by some of the more well known authors are really quite enjoyable and have a very Star Trek feel to them. Yeah, I know. There are people uploading new grinders and loot farms every day. But a search of these forums and using the author's names in the Foundry Search have netted me some really great entertainment. As an example, may I suggest a KDF mission, "Grapok in the General's Lung"? Completely enjoyable, damned funny and a great story all at the same time.
One last thing: If you're having fun, then you're playing STO correctly.
A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
The game is just as good as it ever was, apart from having new content, a slightly annoying increase in patrol missions tied into the new storyline (i'll admit), more equipment and more ways to improve your character.
To the OP: the Majority of players are complaining for the same reason that they really don't want to voice. That reason is that many were at "endgame" level with their ships/stats/DPS etc, since DR, they are no longer at "endgame" level and have to once again sing for their supper. The mature players see this as a challenge, the rest see this as an annoyance.
Enh, it gives me a reason to remove the green 10 gear from my ships and find something better. Yeah, not all my ships actually have top gear.
PvE in this game is incredibly easy pre-end-game Content. Running on Normal Mission mode any Class can fly any Ship and achieve the objectives. I have used every combination of Class and Ship without incident - including taking a T1 ship all the way to level 50. The AI is designed for the lowest common denominator - autofire and spacebar without tactics. If you are simply looking for a story character rather then a PvP or ESTF character any combination works, so build to make yourself happy rather then grind efficient.
Yeah, if you stick to normal there's only a few actually challenging missions. Devil's Choice and Mirror Invasion can pit you against entire fleets of enemies. It takes a good build to slug it out with an armada like that.
To the OP: the Majority of players are complaining for the same reason that they really don't want to voice. That reason is that many were at "endgame" level with their ships/stats/DPS etc, since DR, they are no longer at "endgame" level and have to once again sing for their supper. The mature players see this as a challenge, the rest see this as an annoyance.
Right. See, I've already played the rat race. After I got to endgame, I felt a bit primitive-minded and pulled along with my impulses... I realized I spent money on something I never meant to or wanted to spend money on. And the more that I see people complaining because they're not getting their wanted "cheese", the more I just want to escape from the mindset of wanting cheese at all... It just feels more like a trap.
In my opinion, I don't think a well-done game would have to rely on a linear numbers competition and a mindless grind-system to make the game competitive, but instead, would use a system that uses more of a person's creativity and cleverness to come out on top. I don't expect any of the devs to be watching this post and consider my own view since I'm no expert at this, but I do think that this game CAN be altered to work in such a way simply by adjusting the numbers to make things more evened out, so that instead of ships having to rely almost completely on blitzing DPS to win, they could win by other means, such as energy draining, or something else. It's just a matter of imagination and adjusting certain abilities to be able to actually trump DPS in certain situations. In this way, having the "biggest and baddest gear" wouldn't even be relevant. All gear would be equal and simply dependent on how it is used in a battle, forcing a user to expand their creativity and flexibility in their playstyle.
Originally Posted by wudwaen
I quite specifically want the game I and my friends came here to play. The current game, with DR, is not it. The game has become grind central and pay to win, and when taking functional abilities like crafting away from players the only thing given in return is an accolade for being someone who used to be able to craft.
I want:
my ability to craft up through Mk XI gear back.
the Advanced STFs to be the same as the old Elite STFs: Same challenge, same reward.
to be able to play through using all character options without sinking $300.00 or more into the game just on ships.
appropriate ships for all occupations in all factions. (Still not one real Romulan science ship. The only Klingon science ship is the Vorannus)
the ability to raise all ships to Tier 6 - even the NX class.
You CAN craft gear up to mk XII purples actually... however you need to have levelled up in the new R&D system which went live about three-four months ago. Players who were in the old system just got an accolade, i think a title, and some special DOFFs (which are needed to craft the Aegis gear once you unlock it).
I don't wan't an accolade for something I achieved and then was taken away. I want to start where I was already at, with the ability to craft Mk XI purple gear. They remade the entire crafting system twice now to force people to spend money to craft, or control every hour of their real life with tedium to the point of they would either spend money to get out of it, or drop it altogether. No, I do not have the ability to craft what I could already craft. Several items were taken away as well, and the Aegis set has been rendered obsoletel; there is no point in even considering it. The option to spend months regaining what I had already achieved is not having the ability. They destroyed all of the effort I already put into the game. I don't want a quaint certificate to hang on my virtual wall stating that once long ago I could do these things, I want the ability back in full where it was before they gave my characters overnight lobotomies.
And I'm not sure what you mean by your third point - all the existing ships are still useable, they're just not the 'best available' anymore. And there's the ability to upgrade T5 to T5U and right now, arguably, Fleet T5U may be better than the available T6's.
There are three factions, one of which may use ships from the other two up through T4. Everyone knows that T5U is designed to be substandard maneur. To get T5FU one must belong to a T5 fleet - which means spending hundreds to thousands in real world cash to raise your fleet up. The fleet system is designed to push people into spending money. The crafting system has been redesigned to force people into spending money. The new ship system is designed to push people into spending money. Further, the prices are prohibitive and excessive.
The only ships designed for game play now are T6. They are $30.00 each. Three occupations, (Engineer, Science, and Tactical) times three factions (Federation, Klingon, and Romulan) means that even if the ships are available it is a minimum of $270.00 just to get the basic T6 ship in order to play the full range of options in the game. For a lifer, like me, that is four-and-a-half years accumulating points to get the ships. (Of course with the current grind, I supose they intend it to take that long to get a dozen character up to where they could actually fly said T6 ships.) Assuming I dump the $270.00 into the game for ships, some of which don't even exist, I still will need to outfit them appropriately for role play, which will mean spending more to research specially acquired equipment and then more money to upgrade that equipment to Epic so that it will be functional with endgame content.
I am concerned that STO is passing into the same class warfare system that EA uses with a rival game. Let me be perfectly clear what I mean. The following is a redaction of my opinion review concerning that rival game:
(Game) is a well made and excellently written game with all the social mechanics of Jim Crow laws. Players are divided into Subscriber, Preferred, and Free-to-Play status and then assigned oportunities and restrictions. Severe penalties in crafting, experience gain, and penalties in level appropriate raids are imposed on Free-to-Play players. Slightly less restrictive penalties are placed on those who have purchased content but do not subscribe. Subscribers not only get full everything, but experience boosts by logging out in specific locations.
Additionally, no in game mechanic exists so that characters of different levels can party without severe penalties for the lower level players. Bringing a friend into the game, if you have already been playing for awhile, means having to purchase additional character slots, and coordinate exact times to meet up and play together only on those characters. Otherwise, the new to the game friend will suffer severe penalties in experience and loot loss.
Benefit from level appropriate raids, called (edited out), is also limited. While Free-to-Play and and Preferred players may go in, they are restricted from decent loot after 3 times in a week. Non-subscribing players are not permitted to post in the forums and communication to seek improvements for the game are discouraged or prevented through restrictive customer relations. Petty acts are taken out on those who unsubscribe as well. For example, if you are the guild leader in a guild where no one else is a subscriber, but you drop your subscription - your leadership status is automatically taken away and passed to another non-subscriber.
In short, the game is beautiful and astoundingly well written. However, it shows a disrespect for people I have not seen in any other on-line game. Subscribers are given the same royal treatment one would expect from dancers at an adult bar, as long as their money is flashing. But non-subscribers must sit in the special section, drink at the assigned water fountain, and use the bathroom for those "other" kinds of people.
The trend I currently see is moving STO in that direction. Further, other games I play by Arena Net and Funcom do excellently without having to make their games pay to win or exclude those with lower incomes.
Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary. ~ Cecil Beaton
Comments
Yeah not really ... if things are negative, every sane reviewer will post negative things (cause you know maybe someone listens and thing might get positive) ... that's how this game is "going" ... at least from their perspective ... nothing wrong with it ...
So you can use "your" figuratively speaking, but when others do it ... it makes them a troll ... you're priceless ... you might wanna turn off your "Black & White Goggles" ...
btw : it's still a stupid comparison... doesn't matter if it's your GF or anyones else, which is kind of obvious, because I don't know neither "you" nor "your" Ex-Gf ... games are for entertainment you pay for, GF's (should) include complex relationships ... so the right comparison here might be hookers you're disappointed with, not GF's .... is advertising all of the hookers bad points to her pimp creepy ? ... well maybe ... weird ? ... not so much, at least you paid for it ... (PS : No I'm not into hookers, and not implying you are ...)
Depends on your preferences. I like a mix of combat (space and/or ground) and some story as well. All combat foundry missions are decent if I just wanna blow things up, but they get tiresome quickly. Missions focusing mostly on story can be interesting, but if too long and drawn out, then they become boring. Missions are unique to the Fed or KDF faction so the quantity can vary, but Fed have more since there are more people playing the Fed. There Foundry missions for both factions that I like and don't. Not sure if there are any just for Romulans...
You need to try out Foundry missions for yourself. I assume you play Fed so below are some of the ones I like:
- Another Man's Hell
- Purity Part 1: Of Denial
- Purity Part 2: Of Thought
- The Sword of the Kuvah'Magh
- One Too Many
- Unholy Alliance
- The Syndicate Extraction
Doing Foundry missions are a good way to get dilithium. Spotlight Foundry missions can reward anywhere between 1,440 and around 3,000 dilithium which is partially determined by the length of the mission. This is only rewards once every 20 hours. I think regular Foundry missions reward around 480 dilithium, but I don't think there is cool down involved. Additionally, there is the Investigate Officer Report that rewards 960 dilithium every time you do a Foundry mission; there is a 30 minute cool down for it. However, there are only so many Foundry missions and you should reward (tip) the author with some refined dilithium if you like the mission.
- Wait until the next patch (Thursday right?)
- Load and update the game
- Start a new character.. why?
Because I'm learning that the experience I'm looking for is probably most likely to come from things done before level 50, and through playing through the game nice and slowly rather than rushing, as to prolong and stretch out the experiences one gets to have before getting to the "needing to grind to get to anywhere" phase. My old character is already admiral and is already a bit tainted by the race for rewards. I heard about a player who stretched 42 levels over two years, while many others try to get to 50 in 40 hours...
- Play a slow-paced moderate combination of storyline, Doff, and Foundry, over the span of only one hour per day.
- See how things go over a week or so
Now I'm just busy pondering what I want my career and race to be to get the most out of this approach... Science maybe? My last captain was an engineer but I eneded up getting drawn into a tactical playstyle due the continuous push into battle with just about every mission I had to go through. So now I'm thinking if I should just go tactical to make sure I'm best equipped to survive in those cases?
Any tips to give about this?
I am actually very much enjoying her. I did also choose just the alien race so I can change her looks if and when I want a change.
I like your game plan and find it very similar to my own. I can actually say I am having more fun playing the game for the stories I can find this time around, than I ever had when I tried to rush to end game 3 years ago.
Here is a list I had saved for some non combat story type missions:
Starfleet Experimentation by Bazag
Hidden Intelligenceby Bazag
"Shoreleave Under Siege" by JohnnySnowball
"Your Mission Has Ended" by Isthisscience
"The Galaxy's Fair" by Zorbane
"A World Lost In Time" by AdmiralMurphy
"Ghosts of the Polmar Rae" by Bazag
"Uncharted Worlds 3" by patcrow
"The Needs of the Few" and "Return to Terra Nova."
These are only a few of the non combat foundry missions out there.
Have fun!
Both very helpful information. Thanks.
Play the game the way you want to. Not the way someone else thinks you should. My Fleet Leaders tell me daily I have the wrong ship with the wrong weapons and I have no idea at all what I am doing. Of course this is all said after I drop 100k's worth of Dilithium on the latest Fleet Project. :P
Nonsense.
I play STO for my entertainment not anyone else's. I play this game to have fun and hang out in an IP I have enjoyed since childhood. Walk your own path and turn a deaf ear to the people screeching about how you are doing it all wrong.
One of the things I enjoy around here is the UGC in the Foundry. Some of the missions by some of the more well known authors are really quite enjoyable and have a very Star Trek feel to them. Yeah, I know. There are people uploading new grinders and loot farms every day. But a search of these forums and using the author's names in the Foundry Search have netted me some really great entertainment. As an example, may I suggest a KDF mission, "Grapok in the General's Lung"? Completely enjoyable, damned funny and a great story all at the same time.
One last thing: If you're having fun, then you're playing STO correctly.
My character Tsin'xing
Right. See, I've already played the rat race. After I got to endgame, I felt a bit primitive-minded and pulled along with my impulses... I realized I spent money on something I never meant to or wanted to spend money on. And the more that I see people complaining because they're not getting their wanted "cheese", the more I just want to escape from the mindset of wanting cheese at all... It just feels more like a trap.
In my opinion, I don't think a well-done game would have to rely on a linear numbers competition and a mindless grind-system to make the game competitive, but instead, would use a system that uses more of a person's creativity and cleverness to come out on top. I don't expect any of the devs to be watching this post and consider my own view since I'm no expert at this, but I do think that this game CAN be altered to work in such a way simply by adjusting the numbers to make things more evened out, so that instead of ships having to rely almost completely on blitzing DPS to win, they could win by other means, such as energy draining, or something else. It's just a matter of imagination and adjusting certain abilities to be able to actually trump DPS in certain situations. In this way, having the "biggest and baddest gear" wouldn't even be relevant. All gear would be equal and simply dependent on how it is used in a battle, forcing a user to expand their creativity and flexibility in their playstyle.
The only ships designed for game play now are T6. They are $30.00 each. Three occupations, (Engineer, Science, and Tactical) times three factions (Federation, Klingon, and Romulan) means that even if the ships are available it is a minimum of $270.00 just to get the basic T6 ship in order to play the full range of options in the game. For a lifer, like me, that is four-and-a-half years accumulating points to get the ships. (Of course with the current grind, I supose they intend it to take that long to get a dozen character up to where they could actually fly said T6 ships.) Assuming I dump the $270.00 into the game for ships, some of which don't even exist, I still will need to outfit them appropriately for role play, which will mean spending more to research specially acquired equipment and then more money to upgrade that equipment to Epic so that it will be functional with endgame content.
I am concerned that STO is passing into the same class warfare system that EA uses with a rival game. Let me be perfectly clear what I mean. The following is a redaction of my opinion review concerning that rival game:
The trend I currently see is moving STO in that direction. Further, other games I play by Arena Net and Funcom do excellently without having to make their games pay to win or exclude those with lower incomes.