DR is nothing else than a bunch of features thrown in together without any consideration - heck, without any clue, even - of how they are going to interact with each other.
T6 ships, Int abilities, crafting, upgrades, specializations, scaling npcs, etc etc. If one of these features were to be added to a released game that was under any proper management, it would take months of beta testing to fine tune it. What Cryptic did instead was jumble them all together, tie them up with a nice "dilithium sink" string and release it to the unsuspecting players. Funnily enough, every single feature DR brought is very nice. If it was balanced and if it was tested and then rebalanced.
The NPC AI that many people call for in this thread is the least of their problems. There is not a game out there - let alone an MMO - that has anything like a real AI. It's all timed and/or scripted abilities and events that players must learn to work through (with dps) or around (with teamwork and dps). Some games do it better, some worse. However, a proper level designer orchestrates those simplistic abilities into something of a work of art. A clueless or rushed to finish-it-up level designer just ups the hitpoints.
The amount of broken -not bugged, broken- stuff introduced with DR is amazing. I am sure that the actual programmers/developers are top of their class and more than capable, but when faced with irrational and rushed release dates, without any time for proper player-testing and QA, even a genius can't make the code work. Add this to the lack of overall design, greenlight it with a "more dilithium sinks = equals more cash" mentality and you have the mess that DR brought to the game.
Players, especially players who spend money, do not want to be beta testers. They like new features and mechanics but most of all, they want their stuff to work and they want their game to make sense. Even more, they like to be able to play the actual content, instead of being denied access to it for no apparent reason. Whoever is in charge of DR clearly doesn't get that.
What is painfully ironic is how much more happier the players would have been with a nice new story arc, a bunch of ships for all factions and a couple of new STFs.
Keeping in touch on the forum is currently my main STO activity
Spent a bit of time in Club 47 this morning, and set some doff assignments
Did a couple of Borg Red Alerts (one of which had the no-show glitch still)
Getting reacquainted with my old games I haven't played for a while, and checking out what else is on offer.
Considering my pre-DR habits, this is a total turnaround.
My playing time in this game has fallen so much that I was actually able to submit some of my work BEFORE the deadline this week, so I guess I can thank Cryptic for that.
DR is nothing else than a bunch of features thrown in together without any consideration - heck, without any clue, even - of how they are going to interact with each other.
T6 ships, Int abilities, crafting, upgrades, specializations, scaling npcs, etc etc. If one of these features were to be added to a released game that was under any proper management, it would take months of beta testing to fine tune it. What Cryptic did instead was jumble them all together, tie them up with a nice "dilithium sink" string and release it to the unsuspecting players. Funnily enough, every single feature DR brought is very nice. If it was balanced and if it was tested and then rebalanced.
The NPC AI that many people call for in this thread is the least of their problems. There is not a game out there - let alone an MMO - that has anything like a real AI. It's all timed and/or scripted abilities and events that players must learn to work through (with dps) or around (with teamwork and dps). Some games do it better, some worse. However, a proper level designer orchestrates those simplistic abilities into something of a work of art. A clueless or rushed to finish-it-up level designer just ups the hitpoints.
The amount of broken -not bugged, broken- stuff introduced with DR is amazing. I am sure that the actual programmers/developers are top of their class and more than capable, but when faced with irrational and rushed release dates, without any time for proper player-testing and QA, even a genius can't make the code work. Add this to the lack of overall design, greenlight it with a "more dilithium sinks = equals more cash" mentality and you have the mess that DR brought to the game.
Players, especially players who spend money, do not want to be beta testers. They like new features and mechanics but most of all, they want their stuff to work and they want their game to make sense. Even more, they like to be able to play the actual content, instead of being denied access to it for no apparent reason. Whoever is in charge of DR clearly doesn't get that.
What is painfully ironic is how much more happier the players would have been with a nice new story arc, a bunch of ships for all factions and a couple of new STFs.
I believe 100% that if they didn't mess with anything and just added extra story content and STFs, the playerbase would be MUCH healthier than it is right now.
Did you see the massive player numbers Legacy of Romulus brought? LOR was a buggy release that nearly broke the servers many times over and it still managed to be wildly more successful than this one and keep the playerbase interested for nearly half a year before numbers started to drop off again.
Players, especially players who spend money, do not want to be beta testers. They like new features and mechanics but most of all, they want their stuff to work and they want their game to make sense.
The one that really baffled me was the release of the upgrade system in the state it was in. Stuff not upgradeable, things that broke when you upgraded it, things that stayed the same or got worse when upgraded. Some of this stuff is still there even now. I was dumbfounded that they could possibly release a huge money sink in that condition.
Like janus1975 I and I'm sure many others aren't logging into the game until changes are made. I really hate it to, I lived in the STF Ques pugged all the time, literally I friggin lived in the ques because I found them to be more fun than repeating story content and watching loading bars all the time. Although since day one I thought it was strange that I was prevented playing the ques I wanted to because of cool down timers.
And I couldn't agree more with the people who have pointed that if Cryptic had simply introduced the new content without the nerfs to everything else...this would be a different conversation entirely. I was looking forward to the new STF's, as it stands I haven't even tried one.
This philosophy of slowing people down to a crawl in-order to keep them in the game has and will continue to backfire on both Cryptic and the players.
Like janus1975 I and I'm sure many others aren't logging into the game until changes are made. I really hate it to, I lived in the STF Ques pugged all the time, literally I friggin lived in the ques because I found them to be more fun than repeating story content and watching loading bars all the time. Although since day one I thought it was strange that I was prevented playing the ques I wanted to because of cool down timers.
And I couldn't agree more with the people who have pointed that if Cryptic had simply introduced the new content without the nerfs to everything else...this would be a different conversation entirely. I was looking forward to the new STF's, as it stands I haven't even tried one.
This philosophy of slowing people down to a crawl in-order to keep them in the game has and will continue to backfire on both Cryptic and the players.
i had a camping tent somewhere in KGA, i think the borg found it and removed it since the update(s) hehehe.
It is true that they are hurting a lot of players in this power struggle between them and the elite. Like those who are not the elite are caught in the crossfire.
This is what I feel like. I'm an above average player, certainly not a powergamer in STO nor an Elite with an incredible build. About 10% tops in this game would fall into those categories. And does that really matter? They are a small percentage, much like the ones were did the Tau Dewa 'exploit'.
Cryptic are, once again, determining the mass direction off the game, impacting tens of thousands, upon the level grinding of the smallest number of gamers.
What happened to seving the needs of the majority?
What happened to seving the needs of the majority?
they won't by the looks of their actions, and the elites could easily have their cake as well, they are just not listening to both side's positive changes ...
It is true that they are hurting a lot of players in this power struggle between them and the elite. Like those who are not the elite are caught in the crossfire.
Once the developers prove their supremacy, hopefully they will go back and Nerf things back down so that it is enjoyable for the non-elite again. We just need to wait till they win this fight of theirs.
They cant prove their supremacy. The only way they can is nuking this game and its population. Because trying it in any other way gives us the chance to adapt and again outperform the advice-unwilling playerbase. Oh what do I talk about chances: We will adapt.
But the OP is correct, the easiest way to get this game running like it used to be is to focus on the 95% playerbase and turn a blind eye on us 5%, because the repercussions of any change pointed toward us will hurt the 95% far more than us.
Why must people try to bring in off topic negative assumptions about a person to validate their little opinions...
Oh, I believe I answered myself.
Just to be straight, I am one of the L337 by performance standards, just less vocal (and selfish)
So you do have a case-study ready for this? Some Scientific prove? (though on second thought, one can easily "create" that...did happen in my country a while back^^)
But I appreciate the Irony by invalidating your former post with the second sentence (just substitute person with group).
But I appreciate the Irony by invalidating your former post with the second sentence (just substitute person with group).
I was referring to the type of people that have to answer any forum post they come across that contradicts their opinion and not being up to the challenge substitute abuse.
My observations are readily apparent, I don't need to make anything up.
I think there is some truth to this. Videos of 3 second ISA probably do annoy someone up there.
Also "I got specs maxed out in 35 min." "wtf dood why so slow. Done in 26:cool::cool::eek:"
But I think it's mostly about ship sales for traits. It's the only thing that makes any sense. And it's a stretch.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
When I say "let it go", I mean it in the sense Lily Sloane meant it when she said "blow up the ship" in First Contact. I feel like there's almost vendetta level focus here in slowing down fast progression.
Pretend the Borg are elite players and pretend Picard is a systems dev here.
LILY: You stealth nerfed us. PICARD: This really isn't the time. LILY: Okay. I don't know jack about game development systems design but everybody out there thinks that staying here and following this content grind strategy is suicide. They're just afraid to come in here and say it. PICARD: The players are accustomed to adapting to my patches. LILY: They're probably accustomed to your patches making sense. PICARD: None of them understand the grind as I do. ...No one does. No one can. LILY: What is that supposed to mean? PICARD: Six years ago, I was invited to play a game called 'Farmville'. I had their app implanted throughout my social media profiles. My credit card was linked to my account, every trace of disposable income erased. I was one of them. So you can imagine, my dear, I have a somewhat unique perspective on the grind and I know how to implement strategy. Now if you will excuse me I have work to do. LILY: I am such an idiot. ...It's so simple. The elite players hurt you, and now you're going to milk them dry. PICARD: At my company we don't succumb to monetization. We have a more evolved sensibility. LILY: Bull...! I saw the look on your face when you lowered those numbers on the spreadsheet. You were almost enjoying it! PICARD: How dare you!? LILY: Oh, come on, Captain. You're not the first man to get a thrill from nerfing someone. I see it all the time. PICARD: Get out! LILY: Or what? You'll nerfl me, like you nerfed the players who ground STFs after launch? PICARD: There was no way to distinguish them from exploiters. LILY: You didn't even try. Where was your evolved sensibility then? PICARD: I don't have time for this. LILY: Oh! Hey! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your little quest. Captain Zynga has to go hunt his whales. PICARD: What? LILY: You do have facebook in the twenty-fourth century? PICARD: This is not about monetization. LILY: Liar! PICARD: This is about saving the future of free-to-play gaming. LILY: Jean-Luc, delete the friggin' spreadsheets! PICARD: No! ...No!
(Picard breaks the starship display cabinet with his phaser rifle) PICARD: No! ...I will not sacrifice the systems design. We've made too many compromises already. Too many retreats. They invade our space patrols and we fall back. They assimilate entire keybind systems, and we fall back. Not again! The line must be drawn here, ...this far, no further! And I will make them pay for their dilithium. LILY: You broke your little ships. ...See you around, Zynga.
Being serious, the OP is trying to say Cryptic should stop wasting time trying to slow our progress, not that we are the root of all evil.
That probably isn't what the rest are thinking of course...
Exactly this.
If you make it your goal to outperform the pack, hats off to you. I think Cryptic has gone a bit crazy chasing you down and is weekly making patches that mess up the game for everyone because they can't seem to just let you guys overperform.
When I say "let it go", I mean it in the sense Lily Sloane meant it when she said "blow up the ship" in First Contact. I feel like there's almost vendetta level focus here in slowing down fast progression.
Pretend the Borg are elite players and pretend Picard is a systems dev here.
LILY: You stealth nerfed us. PICARD: This really isn't the time. LILY: Okay. I don't know jack about game development systems design but everybody out there thinks that staying here and following this content grind strategy is suicide. They're just afraid to come in here and say it. PICARD: The players are accustomed to adapting to my patches. LILY: They're probably accustomed to your patches making sense. PICARD: None of them understand the grind as I do. ...No one does. No one can. LILY: What is that supposed to mean? PICARD: Six years ago, I was invited to play a game called 'Farmville'. I had their app implanted throughout my social media profiles. My credit card was linked to my account, every trace of disposable income erased. I was one of them. So you can imagine, my dear, I have a somewhat unique perspective on the grind and I know how to implement strategy. Now if you will excuse me I have work to do. LILY: I am such an idiot. ...It's so simple. The elite players hurt you, and now you're going to milk them dry. PICARD: At my company we don't succumb to monetization. We have a more evolved sensibility. LILY: Bull...! I saw the look on your face when you lowered those numbers on the spreadsheet. You were almost enjoying it! PICARD: How dare you!? LILY: Oh, come on, Captain. You're not the first man to get a thrill from nerfing someone. I see it all the time. PICARD: Get out! LILY: Or what? You'll nerfl me, like you nerfed the players who ground STFs after launch? PICARD: There was no way to distinguish them from exploiters. LILY: You didn't even try. Where was your evolved sensibility then? PICARD: I don't have time for this. LILY: Oh! Hey! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your little quest. Captain Zynga has to go hunt his whales. PICARD: What? LILY: You do have facebook in the twenty-fourth century? PICARD: This is not about monetization. LILY: Liar! PICARD: This is about saving the future of free-to-play gaming. LILY: Jean-Luc, delete the friggin' spreadsheets! PICARD: No! ...No!
(Picard breaks the starship display cabinet with his phaser rifle) PICARD: No! ...I will not sacrifice the systems design. We've made too many compromises already. Too many retreats. They invade our space patrols and we fall back. They assimilate entire keybind systems, and we fall back. Not again! The line must be drawn here, ...this far, no further! And I will make them pay for their dilithium. LILY: You broke your little ships. ...See you around, Zynga.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
...The more of a grind the game becomes, the less fun it is and the more people stop playing it. And if they aren't playing, they certainly aren't buying...
Worth repeating.
To make an analogy to "old media" (newspapers, television, radio), the actual profit-generating product are the ads. The rest of the stuff is just "filler". But you need great "filler" taking up the space between the ads to keep people there to look at the ads.
In Cryptic's case, the missions and activities (PvP, PvE, Foundry) are "filler" and the ships and bits & pieces are the product. But without the filler, nobody's going to want to buy the product.
Cryptic, you've made your "filler" undesirable. Guess what happens to your product?
To make an analogy to "old media" (newspapers, television, radio), the actual profit-generating product are the ads. The rest of the stuff is just "filler". But you need great "filler" taking up the space between the ads to keep people there to look at the ads.
In Cryptic's case, the missions and activities (PvP, PvE, Foundry) are "filler" and the ships and bits & pieces are the product. But without the filler, nobody's going to want to buy the product.
Cryptic, you've made your "filler" undesirable. Guess what happens to your product?
Cryptic seems to be all about trying to punish players, when they should be all about trying to keep the game fun for the players. I cannot speak for everyone, but I refuse to believe that I am the only person who finds their current offering to be far more on the un-fun side of the spectrum...
This has been one of their biggest shifts - and biggest mistakes - of late. Sucking as much fun and life out of the game with all these nerfs and extreme attempts to drag absolutely everything out. Playing the game has become a punishing, unrelenting experience since DR. They've totally forgotten about keeping it fun and rewarding for the players.
STO is now some insane endurance test of how many kicks can the dev team keep throwing at the players until they totally crumble.
Comments
What a waste of time that was.
Free Tibet!
T6 ships, Int abilities, crafting, upgrades, specializations, scaling npcs, etc etc. If one of these features were to be added to a released game that was under any proper management, it would take months of beta testing to fine tune it. What Cryptic did instead was jumble them all together, tie them up with a nice "dilithium sink" string and release it to the unsuspecting players. Funnily enough, every single feature DR brought is very nice. If it was balanced and if it was tested and then rebalanced.
The NPC AI that many people call for in this thread is the least of their problems. There is not a game out there - let alone an MMO - that has anything like a real AI. It's all timed and/or scripted abilities and events that players must learn to work through (with dps) or around (with teamwork and dps). Some games do it better, some worse. However, a proper level designer orchestrates those simplistic abilities into something of a work of art. A clueless or rushed to finish-it-up level designer just ups the hitpoints.
The amount of broken -not bugged, broken- stuff introduced with DR is amazing. I am sure that the actual programmers/developers are top of their class and more than capable, but when faced with irrational and rushed release dates, without any time for proper player-testing and QA, even a genius can't make the code work. Add this to the lack of overall design, greenlight it with a "more dilithium sinks = equals more cash" mentality and you have the mess that DR brought to the game.
Players, especially players who spend money, do not want to be beta testers. They like new features and mechanics but most of all, they want their stuff to work and they want their game to make sense. Even more, they like to be able to play the actual content, instead of being denied access to it for no apparent reason. Whoever is in charge of DR clearly doesn't get that.
What is painfully ironic is how much more happier the players would have been with a nice new story arc, a bunch of ships for all factions and a couple of new STFs.
In my case:
Keeping in touch on the forum is currently my main STO activity
Spent a bit of time in Club 47 this morning, and set some doff assignments
Did a couple of Borg Red Alerts (one of which had the no-show glitch still)
Getting reacquainted with my old games I haven't played for a while, and checking out what else is on offer.
Considering my pre-DR habits, this is a total turnaround.
Free Tibet!
I believe 100% that if they didn't mess with anything and just added extra story content and STFs, the playerbase would be MUCH healthier than it is right now.
Did you see the massive player numbers Legacy of Romulus brought? LOR was a buggy release that nearly broke the servers many times over and it still managed to be wildly more successful than this one and keep the playerbase interested for nearly half a year before numbers started to drop off again.
The one that really baffled me was the release of the upgrade system in the state it was in. Stuff not upgradeable, things that broke when you upgraded it, things that stayed the same or got worse when upgraded. Some of this stuff is still there even now. I was dumbfounded that they could possibly release a huge money sink in that condition.
Like janus1975 I and I'm sure many others aren't logging into the game until changes are made. I really hate it to, I lived in the STF Ques pugged all the time, literally I friggin lived in the ques because I found them to be more fun than repeating story content and watching loading bars all the time. Although since day one I thought it was strange that I was prevented playing the ques I wanted to because of cool down timers.
And I couldn't agree more with the people who have pointed that if Cryptic had simply introduced the new content without the nerfs to everything else...this would be a different conversation entirely. I was looking forward to the new STF's, as it stands I haven't even tried one.
This philosophy of slowing people down to a crawl in-order to keep them in the game has and will continue to backfire on both Cryptic and the players.
Would you recommend STO to a friend?
L337ies ruin every game by being the most vocal about their selfish needs.
After the game company rolls over for them,
Everyone else leaves or doesn't spend any money on the game.
L337ies tend to be cheap, so they can't support the game. (No time to wotk, busy playing)
Game dies and L337ies ask each other, "What happened the game was just getting good?"
L337ies go to and astart ruining another game.
L337ies are not a good customer base!
Agreed.
It would be entirely different if the dev team even understood the methods or menatility of said top performers. But they don't.
i had a camping tent somewhere in KGA, i think the borg found it and removed it since the update(s) hehehe.
This is what I feel like. I'm an above average player, certainly not a powergamer in STO nor an Elite with an incredible build. About 10% tops in this game would fall into those categories. And does that really matter? They are a small percentage, much like the ones were did the Tau Dewa 'exploit'.
Cryptic are, once again, determining the mass direction off the game, impacting tens of thousands, upon the level grinding of the smallest number of gamers.
What happened to seving the needs of the majority?
they won't by the looks of their actions, and the elites could easily have their cake as well, they are just not listening to both side's positive changes ...
And what prejudices do you have against jews and africans? Just asking.
They cant prove their supremacy. The only way they can is nuking this game and its population. Because trying it in any other way gives us the chance to adapt and again outperform the advice-unwilling playerbase. Oh what do I talk about chances: We will adapt.
But the OP is correct, the easiest way to get this game running like it used to be is to focus on the 95% playerbase and turn a blind eye on us 5%, because the repercussions of any change pointed toward us will hurt the 95% far more than us.
My observation is based on observable facts.
Why must people try to bring in off topic negative assumptions about a person to validate their little opinions...
Oh, I believe I answered myself.
Just to be straight, I am one of the L337 by performance standards, just less vocal (and selfish)
So you do have a case-study ready for this? Some Scientific prove? (though on second thought, one can easily "create" that...did happen in my country a while back^^)
But I appreciate the Irony by invalidating your former post with the second sentence (just substitute person with group).
I was referring to the type of people that have to answer any forum post they come across that contradicts their opinion and not being up to the challenge substitute abuse.
My observations are readily apparent, I don't need to make anything up.
Also "I got specs maxed out in 35 min." "wtf dood why so slow. Done in 26:cool::cool::eek:"
But I think it's mostly about ship sales for traits. It's the only thing that makes any sense. And it's a stretch.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
rofl
post of the year
Exactly this.
If you make it your goal to outperform the pack, hats off to you. I think Cryptic has gone a bit crazy chasing you down and is weekly making patches that mess up the game for everyone because they can't seem to just let you guys overperform.
- Judge Aaron Satie
Worth repeating.
To make an analogy to "old media" (newspapers, television, radio), the actual profit-generating product are the ads. The rest of the stuff is just "filler". But you need great "filler" taking up the space between the ads to keep people there to look at the ads.
In Cryptic's case, the missions and activities (PvP, PvE, Foundry) are "filler" and the ships and bits & pieces are the product. But without the filler, nobody's going to want to buy the product.
Cryptic, you've made your "filler" undesirable. Guess what happens to your product?
^^ Worth repeating.
i found you!
*Penny's quest ends and she gives meimeitoo a big hug after hours of searching*
*only after dropping the ring into the lava ...*
lol
This has been one of their biggest shifts - and biggest mistakes - of late. Sucking as much fun and life out of the game with all these nerfs and extreme attempts to drag absolutely everything out. Playing the game has become a punishing, unrelenting experience since DR. They've totally forgotten about keeping it fun and rewarding for the players.
STO is now some insane endurance test of how many kicks can the dev team keep throwing at the players until they totally crumble.
Hehe; thx.
"You're lost in the woods. We all are. Even the Captain. The only difference is, he likes it that way."