I believe that the Season 9 Changes to Reputation Powers is the most unsuccessful nerf ever, its stated: the system as it exists on live is not infinitely scalable the difference between a fresh max-level character (read just reached 50) and one whod spent hundreds of hours at endgame would just be too large for them to play together. Link
So Cryptic took away a whole load of passives that people had worked for, mostly by doing (universally un-liked) missions over and over, to make sure there wasnt too much of a gap between the newbies and the vets.
Well they kinda invalidated that with captain specialization. a fresh level 60 will not be near a max level 60. The sad part is the rep abilities are a bit easier to get caught up with then the Spec points.
That being said While I would love all my rep powers back I would much rather them separate space and ground traits and let me slot my nine space traits at the same time as the nine ground traits instead of changing them out all the time.
We cant remove the cap on dill. It will totally TRIBBLE up the dill exchange. I would be all for sticking a cap on the maximum ammount you can charge for something on the exchange though
in what way would doing the much needed thing and removing the dil cap 'TRIBBLE up' the dil exchange? it won't. the prices will fluctuate for a week at most and then it would settle down again
in what way would doing the much needed thing and removing the dil cap 'TRIBBLE up' the dil exchange? it won't. the prices will fluctuate for a week at most and then it would settle down again
Your signature. I haven't seen that ship in ages. Cant believe anyone even remembers it with how obscure it is. I cant even remember what it was called or the name of the game it is from it is so old
Yet the situation they were trying to avoid with rep passives is exactly what they have created with Specializations. Only this time there are even more passives, they are even more powerful, and there isn't even a 50/50 choice at each stage - we get access to all 60 specs if we put in the mega grind. So the gap that existed before the rep passive change is now a Grand Canyon by comparison. [COLOR="lime[/COLOR].
The whole thing was just badly thought out.
Yes you can. Leave commando unfilled, just earn the points and swap to it as active,boom, all benefits of pilot turned off. Once we get more primaries you'll be able to do the same with intelligence.
And, incidentally, this nerf stared (though, some may say accelerated) the exodus of players, that DR exasperated into a flood. ...
.... you cant afford to loose (all types of) players at the rate you have been loosing them recently...
Note edited your quote to point to only the bit I had a question about.
Although I don't disagree with your comments and opinions. I was wondering where you are getting the data on player populations. Subjective only? Or do you have some comprehensive data to show the current state of the player base and its changes over time?
Again not arguing with the premise, just a bit curious where you are getting your data since I have never seen any specific information anywhere.
I can understand cryptics way of looking at these problems, and their potential solutions to them. But there are other ways that may work better. For instances if you really want to start closing the gap between vets and newbs, start by removing the dilithium refining cap. This may seem counterintuitive, but look at it like this. Currently, most players are stuck at refining 8k dilithium a day. That means they have to refine the max dilithium every day for 5 days to be able to afford a single piece of rep gear (excluding a few items). But someone who buys zen, or has a lifetime membership, gets to bypass this cap directly. They get instant dilithium, and don't have to refine or wait. This allows them to jump far ahead of anyone else. Too far. If you allow players to refine an unlimited amount of dilithium, they can at least attempt to keep up.
Theres also the matter of certain items being available almost exclusively on the exchange now. No new player, lvl 50 or otherwise, can possibly afford to get any high end gear from that extortion factory. The most I've ever seen an item valued at was 200k ec. There's stuff in there for 200mil and up. Nothing is worth that price. Devs, I'm all for player freedom, but that includes freedom from wannabe corporate jackasses. These games are supposed to be fun and entertaining, not impersonate real life and going to work every day. Its time for the devs to step in and put a limit on the exchange. Its seriously to the point that some players are even complaing about losing ec because they sell items on the exchange and go over their ec cap.
You need to know where to put your limitations. And you guys have got it backwards. You limited the exploration and discovery part of the game too much and allowed so much freedom to cheat players out of resources, when it should be exactly the opposite. I know you're capable of doing it the right way, so what's stopping you?
Dumping the dilithium cap is a sure fire way to wreck the game economy...end of story...
the cap is there to control inflation and is fine exactly where it is. nuff said.
the cap is there to control inflation and is fine exactly where it is. nuff said.
Actually, the cap is there to control player capability within the game when it comes to time. It's there to ensure that players are forced to log in daily to play, which is good to attract and hold investors. If the game appears active, they get to keep funding it.
If there was no cap people could play the way they want. They could play an entire weekend with as much dilithium as they want and not have to play during the week.
The only people that complain about changing the cap are the people running the game, and the people who spend money on the game to skip the grind.
The only bad thing about the rep nerf was how badly it was misrepresented to the players. It was total bull plop. They ended up just taking away passives people earned, only to put the new spec tree in front of them and say "Here, do this instead".
At first it didn't bother me that much but now seeing all the power leap with DR, it's very troublesome how Cryptic operates. The current Dil rewards nerf though has hit me the hardest and I'm glad they're bumping up rewards. I ran a Conduit Advanced last night that took quite a while (PUG) and when I got my 130 or whatever dil I cried a little inside.
Actually, the cap is there to control player capability within the game when it comes to time. It's there to ensure that players are forced to log in daily to play, which is good to attract and hold investors. If the game appears active, they get to keep funding it.
If there was no cap people could play the way they want. They could play an entire weekend with as much dilithium as they want and not have to play during the week.
The only people that complain about changing the cap are the people running the game, and the people who spend money on the game to skip the grind.
I buy zen with dil. I dont run the game. I think the cap should stay and that very fact invalidates your argument
I actually agreed with the reputation passive change and the reasoning behind it when it was implemented.
Indeed a person newly 50 without any of the passives would be at a massive disadvantage to a person with all of them. There was no real semblance of choice, just a spamming of powerful passives. As they stated, it was not "Infinitely scalable" because as more reps are introduced, the gap would just get wider and wider.
Yet the situation they were trying to avoid with rep passives is exactly what they have created with Specializations. Only this time there are even more passives, they are even more powerful, and there isn't even a 50/50 choice at each stage - we get access to all 60 specs if we put in the mega grind. So the gap that existed before the rep passive change is now a Grand Canyon by comparison. And you can't even turn them off for the sake of RP or handicapping.
The whole thing was just badly thought out.
^^ Finally someone who gets it. It will take a new player now ages to fill that Specialization tree too, so the gap only got significantly wider (thus horridly nullifying any and all previous rationale they had for having nerfed our rep passives).
Hence, like I said, let's just forego on the pretence, and let peeps have their rep passives back, and get it over with.
Im in full agreement with the OP in just about everything. If any dev has read it please read the following extract a second time:
Perhaps this helps.
Thanks.
I concur as well. except I dont think Cryptic's primary focus is curbing uber players that live in the game but in generating large revenue streams but otherwise....
If you are looking for an excellent PvE fleet consider: Omega Combat Division today.
Former member of the Cryptic Family & FriendsTesting Team. Sadly, one day, it simply vanished - without a word or trace...
^^ Finally someone who gets it. It will take a new player now ages to fill that Specialization tree too, so the gap only got significantly wider (thus horridly nullifying any and all previous rationale they had for having nerfed our rep passives).
Hence, like I said, let's just forego on the pretence, and let peeps have their rep passives back, and get it over with.
I know this will be controversial so I have my flame proof suit, a panic room and lots of tinned food for this one.
But drop the amount of SP for getting a single specialization point. Make far easier to level them up, the alternative is a whole new system for points, or removing it as far as I can tell.
PROUD TO PLAY THIS GAME MINUS TO GIVING ANY INCOME TO CRYPTIC
I buy zen with dil. I dont run the game. I think the cap should stay and that very fact invalidates your argument
I maybe forgot you can buy zen with dilithium as well. <.< I still stand with the cap's primary purpose being to slow down player progression, the rest of my arguments/comments can go out the window for now. I need to rethink this.
I actually agreed with the reputation passive change and the reasoning behind it when it was implemented.
Indeed a person newly 50 without any of the passives would be at a massive disadvantage to a person with all of them. There was no real semblance of choice, just a spamming of powerful passives. As they stated, it was not "Infinitely scalable" because as more reps are introduced, the gap would just get wider and wider.
Yet the situation they were trying to avoid with rep passives is exactly what they have created with Specializations. Only this time there are even more passives, they are even more powerful, and there isn't even a 50/50 choice at each stage - we get access to all 60 specs if we put in the mega grind. So the gap that existed before the rep passive change is now a Grand Canyon by comparison. And you can't even turn them off for the sake of RP or handicapping.
The whole thing was just badly thought out.
This. So much this. I don't even know what they're thinking with specializations.
-edit-
If the devs care about game balance (I like to think they do still, I mean the rep passive changes should be proof they were concerned), specs need to be nerfed into the ground. Attack Pattern Expertise the most stupidly broken thing introduced to the game in the time I've been playing.
We asked for a challenge and you made powers we already run into "don't die" buttons. Great.
I actually agreed with the reputation passive change and the reasoning behind it when it was implemented.
Indeed a person newly 50 without any of the passives would be at a massive disadvantage to a person with all of them. There was no real semblance of choice, just a spamming of powerful passives. As they stated, it was not "Infinitely scalable" because as more reps are introduced, the gap would just get wider and wider.
Yet the situation they were trying to avoid with rep passives is exactly what they have created with Specializations. Only this time there are even more passives, they are even more powerful, and there isn't even a 50/50 choice at each stage - we get access to all 60 specs if we put in the mega grind. So the gap that existed before the rep passive change is now a Grand Canyon by comparison. And you can't even turn them off for the sake of RP or handicapping.
The whole thing was just badly thought out.
Except the traits window limits how many starship traits you can have (to 6 I believe) so it works the same way as the rep powers, preventing infinite overlay, and don't the ones in ship mastery only apply to that ship?
the system as it exists on live is not infinitely scalable the difference between a fresh max-level character (read just reached 50) and one whod spent hundreds of hours at endgame would just be too large for them to play together. Link
It's fun to read that, especially when they introduced the whole upgrade system less than a year after, which mean the upgrade grind was already planned, alongside the level cap increase, because we had Denise Crosby voice for 50-60 leveling in the file few months after LoR. And this kind of stuff is not planned overnight anyway, it's planned at least a year before.
Because a fresh lvl50, with no huge veteran backup behind, will totally have all his stuff to epic MK XIV.
That just me, but I think this is probably a larger gap than having all rep power unlocked.
Except the traits window limits how many starship traits you can have (to 6 I believe) so it works the same way as the rep powers, preventing infinite overlay, and don't the ones in ship mastery only apply to that ship?
Specializations, not starship mastery. That new tab in your character sheet. Every single one of those is a passive that cannot be shut off. It's the same as the old rep passives in terms of balace, but way worse.
The FACT is this, the excuse for limiting reputation powers was completely invalidated by specializations. PERIOD. A fresh 50 would get murdered by any 60 with all specialization powers.
I'm a lover not a fighter. But I'm also a fighter so don't get any ideas...
in what way would doing the much needed thing and removing the dil cap 'TRIBBLE up' the dil exchange? it won't. the prices will fluctuate for a week at most and then it would settle down again
Zen prices would skyrocket upwards, making it very difficult for free to play , players to get anything. Look at NWN for an ongoing example of this.
My mother always told me to walk away from a fight, The Marines taught me how.
There are too many passives. Reduce them and make them more "race based" similar to what's available at character creation. Only certain races will be allowed certain passives that are unique to that race. It might help curb all those Orion women dressed like cocktail waitersses or strippers and might increase the variety of races people play. Reducing passives for everyone will help level the playing field and make things more competive. For the "uberly challenged". Just a thought
There are too many passives. Reduce them and make them more "race based" similar to what's available at character creation. Only certain races will be allowed certain passives that are unique to that race. It might help curb all those Orion women dressed like cocktail waitersses or strippers and might increase the variety of races people play. Reducing passives for everyone will help level the playing field and make things more competive. For the "uberly challenged". Just a thought
You must never have played a ground mission with an Orion and all Orion bridge crew.
Gecko laughs at the players saying "there is no power creep", it simply doesn't even exist.
->Developers delete your reputation passives because you've become too powerful
->New difficulty is introduced with more passives
Between all the nerfs, features deleted and reduction of everything and recently the expansion - AND, having to sit through all of that and listen their bs about it, which was probably the bigger insult, I can honestly say I don't give a f... anymore.
Dil exchange cap must remain its no question about it gold players in fleet can make 9k dil a day anyway.
Other thing is we need old trait system when we could pick 4 out of 8 in rep traits from 5 reps total its 20 traits intead of 4 right now and the traits from rep system are too powerfull thy should give like 1 percent crit or 2 percent crit sev not 4 and 16 wtf? whe will be next? how long before devs run out of options?
I like to have 100 cosmetic traits rather than 4 super traits.
I would like to add 1% trait ,crit 5 regen shield and 10 hull regen trait instead of one must have 4% crit chance i feal like i have no chance but to pick that trait.
I think the current system could be fine, just redo what ships are available at lv 50.
I could imagine that on lv50 you may have an Akira, a Defiant, a Cheyenne or something like those, but nothing more fancy, and you should work as you advance to unlock stronger ships, and that would be the main way to close the gap on the veterans: Grinding for ships and equipment. The gap would swiftly close up until lv 50, but then you should work really hard to be in par with the big guys. You could still hold yourself in a PVE mission, but you would have to rely on your team mates against a Cube for example.
This would be an acceptable compromise for me.
Still I limited myself to only filling the daily rep assignments and didn't bother with the hourly ones meaning I could have unlocked all the rep stuff far more quickly if i wished.
Also A large portion of the player base took advantage of tau dewa to level early in DR. Something that will definitely have contributed to people maxing out Specialization far quicker than is currently possible.
Finally due to medical problems I am not able to leave my home much. As a result I have a lot more free time than the average person to play so I would assume that the average player would not progress much faster than me through the specializations. Again this is an assumption so feel free to prove me wrong.
Okay the numbers are in and if I use Emergency Power to Drum and Bass I can consistently get 1 spec point every 60-70 minutes by grinding Delta patrols solo on Normal if I'm doing about 12k sustained/average DPS.
I could get a bit more if I also factor in doff assignment XP but due to the length of the assignments it probably wouldn't amount to shaving off, at most, more than a minute every hour. Those 50k+ monster builds would be able to kill stuff to earn spec points much faster than I can with my lowly 12k DPS. I have no idea if this would be more efficient to do on a different difficulty setting or on a team. This is, of course, faster than your average player.
Nitpicking is a time-honored tradition of science fiction. Asking your readers not to worry about the "little things" is like asking a dog not to sniff at people's crotches. If there's something that appears to violate natural laws, then you can expect someone's going to point it out. That's just the way things are.
Removing drops from STF with season 7 removed the incentive to play certain maps
Reputation is partly about making up for that however killing passives you remove the incentive to do reputations too
Trying to clap out a fire with gasoline on your hands
But anyway the point was, first gecko says "no such thing as power creep!!11", boom they removed the passives BECAUSE of power creep
Next thing is an entirely new difficulty that evens it out only now you have to REBUY and REGRIND your strength back
.. so the difficulty now fits the original power creep that never existed before it got deleted
Hilarious, like I said I am done grinding or lifting a finger for anything when it's getting nerfed or deleted depending on what they trying to sell that week
/edit
ps. And I almost give them points for restoring STF but not quite - it's still a dil nerf, and, we still got these here problems of crafting and upgrading.
Even after those we still have to address the "content light" expansion
In a way I almost think all the mistakes made were better than having people notice how little content there is
They're plain stat sticks, and they're the best traits there are. It's boring. Even though I don't want to lose the massive dps boost these give, they're annoying because they take away 2 trait spots (50% of slots!) that could be used for cooler/more fun traits.
I personally absolutely dislike raw stats as rewards/traits/talents/... It's boring game design and offers very little choice in the end.
Use the advance one only, and if wpns offer good critical percentage, use that too. They did say a while back, choicing what trait to use, will not be easy, but it is a choice that one must live with.
Same for me, I supported it at the time but after the way they have handled spec points, the rep rebalance was made completely moot and pointless. Cryptic cant do balance. Pointless to even try anymore.
Cryptic wants your money. I understand why many see what Cryptic has done is a means to reign in uber players but honestly I think it is much more than that. I feel that a lot of what has been done is meant to encourage people to spend cash to buy zen and convert to dilithium. Consider how freemium games operate. There is always some sort of currency which you can earn in game but can be purchased with cash that allows you to bypass waiting times and/or purchase buffs and items which increase the power of your character. You may not be buying dilithium directly but you can certainly purchase zen and exchange it for dilithium. You can also do the reverse and exchange dilithium for zen so that you can buy keys for the lottery or buy ships, fleet modules and upgrade items. Like all freemium games, you can do the same if you wait it out but the system is in place to entice people to pay. I get that Cryptic isn't in this for charity but let's stop pretending that there isn't a modicum of greed and forced aggrivation involved here.
Things needed/used for Dil
1. Level up R&D - To reach level 15 on a single school it takes 105 days at a minimum if you just do the research projects everyday without a bonus. To reach lvl 20 it would take 345 days at a minumum. Even if you managed to hit 7k everytime it would still take you 295 days. You can of course bypass the 20 hour wait with 17k dill.
2. Upgrading your equipment. Most XII items leveling up will cost you between 900 and 1000 dil to move the bar. Depending on what you are trying to level, this can cost you anywhere between 3k to 20k just to advance to XIII and yet you can only refine 8k a day. If you don't have upgrade boosts, trying to get that piece of equipment to turn UR or Epic can cost well over 6 figures in dil.
3. The difficulty increase in space pve is directly linked to the need to upgrade equipment. We were originally told that advanced was going to be similar to elite prior to expansion only slightly more difficult. This was bs. I believe Cryptic knew it was bs. Have you noticed that ground pve is far less challenging? The reason here is few people are going to spend time and effort to upgrade their ground equipment and therefore it doesn't make sense to force them to do so... people will just stop playing ground. A theory has been floated that the reason that no one is pugging PVE is because everyone is just working on their alts. I'm not fully buying this argument for the simple fact that people have always worked on their alts and it has never effected the queues to this extent before. Even with a new quest chain to follow, queues would still be active. Hell some PVEs have zero activity for hours and hours with maybe one or two people sitting there forever waiting... and this was prior to the mirror event which threw a bone at people trying to get rep points for pves that have no activity what so ever.
Look, you can only refine between 8 and 9 thousand dil a day. I'm not a vet so I only refine 8.5k. I have tons in unrefined dilithium to the point that I could refine for days without questing and it would take me a long time to clear my cache. Even with the reduced rewards I see that number rising (less so yes) but rising just the same. With the new upgrade system in place, it will take some people a very very long time to fully upgrade their equipment so that they can be compete in advanced and elite. Hell, if you are a player like me that is relatively new and still working things out a little.... one mistake and it can cost you a boat load.
Sorry this was long but I wanted to toss it out there. I know the white knights and fanboys will flame me for daring to call Cryptic greedy but I call it like I see it. People don't like the term pay to win because it evokes an image of a game forcing you to pay money to advance... sure, this game doesn't force you but unless you have been playing a long time and have huge dil and ec reserves, a lot of people are looking at a very long grind... months if not years worth that can be easily diverted with one's wallet. pay. 2. win.
Comments
Well they kinda invalidated that with captain specialization. a fresh level 60 will not be near a max level 60. The sad part is the rep abilities are a bit easier to get caught up with then the Spec points.
That being said While I would love all my rep powers back I would much rather them separate space and ground traits and let me slot my nine space traits at the same time as the nine ground traits instead of changing them out all the time.
in what way would doing the much needed thing and removing the dil cap 'TRIBBLE up' the dil exchange? it won't. the prices will fluctuate for a week at most and then it would settle down again
Your signature. I haven't seen that ship in ages. Cant believe anyone even remembers it with how obscure it is. I cant even remember what it was called or the name of the game it is from it is so old
Yes you can. Leave commando unfilled, just earn the points and swap to it as active,boom, all benefits of pilot turned off. Once we get more primaries you'll be able to do the same with intelligence.
Note edited your quote to point to only the bit I had a question about.
Although I don't disagree with your comments and opinions. I was wondering where you are getting the data on player populations. Subjective only? Or do you have some comprehensive data to show the current state of the player base and its changes over time?
Again not arguing with the premise, just a bit curious where you are getting your data since I have never seen any specific information anywhere.
Dumping the dilithium cap is a sure fire way to wreck the game economy...end of story...
the cap is there to control inflation and is fine exactly where it is. nuff said.
Actually, the cap is there to control player capability within the game when it comes to time. It's there to ensure that players are forced to log in daily to play, which is good to attract and hold investors. If the game appears active, they get to keep funding it.
If there was no cap people could play the way they want. They could play an entire weekend with as much dilithium as they want and not have to play during the week.
The only people that complain about changing the cap are the people running the game, and the people who spend money on the game to skip the grind.
sig
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5451/om71.jpg
It is a peculiar phenomenon that we can imagine events that defy the laws of the universe.
At first it didn't bother me that much but now seeing all the power leap with DR, it's very troublesome how Cryptic operates. The current Dil rewards nerf though has hit me the hardest and I'm glad they're bumping up rewards. I ran a Conduit Advanced last night that took quite a while (PUG) and when I got my 130 or whatever dil I cried a little inside.
I buy zen with dil. I dont run the game. I think the cap should stay and that very fact invalidates your argument
^^ Finally someone who gets it.
Hence, like I said, let's just forego on the pretence, and let peeps have their rep passives back, and get it over with.
ingame: @.Spartan
Original Cryptic Forum Name: Spartan (member #124)
The Glorious, Kirk’s Protegè
I know this will be controversial so I have my flame proof suit, a panic room and lots of tinned food for this one.
But drop the amount of SP for getting a single specialization point. Make far easier to level them up, the alternative is a whole new system for points, or removing it as far as I can tell.
I maybe forgot you can buy zen with dilithium as well. <.< I still stand with the cap's primary purpose being to slow down player progression, the rest of my arguments/comments can go out the window for now. I need to rethink this.
sig
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5451/om71.jpg
It is a peculiar phenomenon that we can imagine events that defy the laws of the universe.
This. So much this. I don't even know what they're thinking with specializations.
-edit-
If the devs care about game balance (I like to think they do still, I mean the rep passive changes should be proof they were concerned), specs need to be nerfed into the ground. Attack Pattern Expertise the most stupidly broken thing introduced to the game in the time I've been playing.
We asked for a challenge and you made powers we already run into "don't die" buttons. Great.
Except the traits window limits how many starship traits you can have (to 6 I believe) so it works the same way as the rep powers, preventing infinite overlay, and don't the ones in ship mastery only apply to that ship?
Because a fresh lvl50, with no huge veteran backup behind, will totally have all his stuff to epic MK XIV.
That just me, but I think this is probably a larger gap than having all rep power unlocked.
Specializations, not starship mastery. That new tab in your character sheet. Every single one of those is a passive that cannot be shut off. It's the same as the old rep passives in terms of balace, but way worse.
Zen prices would skyrocket upwards, making it very difficult for free to play , players to get anything. Look at NWN for an ongoing example of this.
You must never have played a ground mission with an Orion and all Orion bridge crew.
And your other point, I think they tried that.
->Developers delete your reputation passives because you've become too powerful
->New difficulty is introduced with more passives
Between all the nerfs, features deleted and reduction of everything and recently the expansion - AND, having to sit through all of that and listen their bs about it, which was probably the bigger insult, I can honestly say I don't give a f... anymore.
I have no more patience for them
Other thing is we need old trait system when we could pick 4 out of 8 in rep traits from 5 reps total its 20 traits intead of 4 right now and the traits from rep system are too powerfull thy should give like 1 percent crit or 2 percent crit sev not 4 and 16 wtf? whe will be next? how long before devs run out of options?
I like to have 100 cosmetic traits rather than 4 super traits.
I would like to add 1% trait ,crit 5 regen shield and 10 hull regen trait instead of one must have 4% crit chance i feal like i have no chance but to pick that trait.
I could imagine that on lv50 you may have an Akira, a Defiant, a Cheyenne or something like those, but nothing more fancy, and you should work as you advance to unlock stronger ships, and that would be the main way to close the gap on the veterans: Grinding for ships and equipment. The gap would swiftly close up until lv 50, but then you should work really hard to be in par with the big guys. You could still hold yourself in a PVE mission, but you would have to rely on your team mates against a Cube for example.
This would be an acceptable compromise for me.
Limit should be 1 for each rep for ground and space... with a 10 min cool down to swap anywhere as long as your not in combat.
Okay the numbers are in and if I use Emergency Power to Drum and Bass I can consistently get 1 spec point every 60-70 minutes by grinding Delta patrols solo on Normal if I'm doing about 12k sustained/average DPS.
I could get a bit more if I also factor in doff assignment XP but due to the length of the assignments it probably wouldn't amount to shaving off, at most, more than a minute every hour. Those 50k+ monster builds would be able to kill stuff to earn spec points much faster than I can with my lowly 12k DPS. I have no idea if this would be more efficient to do on a different difficulty setting or on a team. This is, of course, faster than your average player.
Joined January 2009
Reputation is partly about making up for that however killing passives you remove the incentive to do reputations too
Trying to clap out a fire with gasoline on your hands
But anyway the point was, first gecko says "no such thing as power creep!!11", boom they removed the passives BECAUSE of power creep
Next thing is an entirely new difficulty that evens it out only now you have to REBUY and REGRIND your strength back
.. so the difficulty now fits the original power creep that never existed before it got deleted
Hilarious, like I said I am done grinding or lifting a finger for anything when it's getting nerfed or deleted depending on what they trying to sell that week
/edit
ps. And I almost give them points for restoring STF but not quite - it's still a dil nerf, and, we still got these here problems of crafting and upgrading.
Even after those we still have to address the "content light" expansion
In a way I almost think all the mistakes made were better than having people notice how little content there is
Use the advance one only, and if wpns offer good critical percentage, use that too. They did say a while back, choicing what trait to use, will not be easy, but it is a choice that one must live with.
Cryptic wants your money. I understand why many see what Cryptic has done is a means to reign in uber players but honestly I think it is much more than that. I feel that a lot of what has been done is meant to encourage people to spend cash to buy zen and convert to dilithium. Consider how freemium games operate. There is always some sort of currency which you can earn in game but can be purchased with cash that allows you to bypass waiting times and/or purchase buffs and items which increase the power of your character. You may not be buying dilithium directly but you can certainly purchase zen and exchange it for dilithium. You can also do the reverse and exchange dilithium for zen so that you can buy keys for the lottery or buy ships, fleet modules and upgrade items. Like all freemium games, you can do the same if you wait it out but the system is in place to entice people to pay. I get that Cryptic isn't in this for charity but let's stop pretending that there isn't a modicum of greed and forced aggrivation involved here.
Things needed/used for Dil
1. Level up R&D - To reach level 15 on a single school it takes 105 days at a minimum if you just do the research projects everyday without a bonus. To reach lvl 20 it would take 345 days at a minumum. Even if you managed to hit 7k everytime it would still take you 295 days. You can of course bypass the 20 hour wait with 17k dill.
2. Upgrading your equipment. Most XII items leveling up will cost you between 900 and 1000 dil to move the bar. Depending on what you are trying to level, this can cost you anywhere between 3k to 20k just to advance to XIII and yet you can only refine 8k a day. If you don't have upgrade boosts, trying to get that piece of equipment to turn UR or Epic can cost well over 6 figures in dil.
3. The difficulty increase in space pve is directly linked to the need to upgrade equipment. We were originally told that advanced was going to be similar to elite prior to expansion only slightly more difficult. This was bs. I believe Cryptic knew it was bs. Have you noticed that ground pve is far less challenging? The reason here is few people are going to spend time and effort to upgrade their ground equipment and therefore it doesn't make sense to force them to do so... people will just stop playing ground. A theory has been floated that the reason that no one is pugging PVE is because everyone is just working on their alts. I'm not fully buying this argument for the simple fact that people have always worked on their alts and it has never effected the queues to this extent before. Even with a new quest chain to follow, queues would still be active. Hell some PVEs have zero activity for hours and hours with maybe one or two people sitting there forever waiting... and this was prior to the mirror event which threw a bone at people trying to get rep points for pves that have no activity what so ever.
Look, you can only refine between 8 and 9 thousand dil a day. I'm not a vet so I only refine 8.5k. I have tons in unrefined dilithium to the point that I could refine for days without questing and it would take me a long time to clear my cache. Even with the reduced rewards I see that number rising (less so yes) but rising just the same. With the new upgrade system in place, it will take some people a very very long time to fully upgrade their equipment so that they can be compete in advanced and elite. Hell, if you are a player like me that is relatively new and still working things out a little.... one mistake and it can cost you a boat load.
Sorry this was long but I wanted to toss it out there. I know the white knights and fanboys will flame me for daring to call Cryptic greedy but I call it like I see it. People don't like the term pay to win because it evokes an image of a game forcing you to pay money to advance... sure, this game doesn't force you but unless you have been playing a long time and have huge dil and ec reserves, a lot of people are looking at a very long grind... months if not years worth that can be easily diverted with one's wallet. pay. 2. win.