The old STFs. The old STFs (with combined ground and space part and before the S4 ground revamp) required teamwork and some basic strategy and completing them was rewarding. Playing ISE&co via spacebar-mashing to get marks doesn't even remotely compare to that experience.
Explorations. They were a quick and easy way of getting EC and materials, they didn't have a long time constraint unlike these Doff missions that replaced them. They provided lots of points to be used for leveling or even working with your boffs to choose better skills or better builds, and they are necessary for building fleets on certain projects. There's a reason why my Main has a million points while my Rom has only 200k at a time and it's directly due to these missions being missing. Add to that the frustration of changes made recently because 1% of the population decided to powerlevel and play the game a bit faster so they can pvp and you see the issue. Smh
I miss being able to farm exploration clusters (and remain logged in) during maintenance hours.
My Old Blog about things that could and should have been added when I wrote it. Not sure what I want to do with it now. I'll just keep it available now that most of it is outdated.
PVPing as a fresh level 45/50 character with white gear and still be competitive. The game was so accessible. No need to grind for gear, just jump in and have fun. Many of my friends agreed that the lack of gear requirements was one of STO's strong points. And just like the PVP of season 1.2 and 2/3 isn't here anymore, many of my friends aren't here anymore either due to STO's move towards having significant gear requirements and offering no option to keep queueing for matches with the old "ruleset".
This, so much this.
stardestroyer001, Admiral, Explorers Fury PvE/PvP Fleet | Retired PvP Player
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9 My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
The actual Star Trek. I keep looking but I can't find it. There's weird s*** everywhere with the odd Galaxy-class hanging about looking as lost and confused as I am. I assume they eventually reconfigure their deflector array or some other nonsense and return to the Star Trek universe.
I like how ship combat works in this game though, so whatever. To be honest, I think this game would be WAY better if it just stripped out all the Star Trek and went nuts on its own. I like the mechanics of it all, and would rather be playing in an original IP that would be creatively free, as opposed to a dumped on Star Trek mashup.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Hitting my dil cap in 20ish minutes just from doing the main queues CCE, ISE, KSE, and CSE on each of my main toons.
Now it just feels impossible. I can reach cap in 40 minutes maybe on 1 toon in the Dyson BZ. Theoretically I could spend a longer time there on a few toons and make a surplus, the next day do that on a few other toons...but just tagging dinos gets boring.
Also, this was more recent, but being able to get a spec point in about an hour just from doing Argala was awesome, until the spec points were taken away... after that I've pretty much given up the game even though the points were given back. Just isn't very fun anymore
The vendor prices of some of the gear. I was making a killing off vendor junk. They fixed me up, now I don't have to worry about buying an EC raise cap from the C store. As it will be a very very long time before I hit the standard cap.
They days when Exchange prices was lower and easily to afford. Now I rarely buy off it, since I don't feel like feeding greedy players.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Well, it's my first post here as a new user so here is what I have noticed:
Lack of support for Customer Service.
Tons of bugs since this Season 10 came out.
Reading through the forums, the devs don't listen (unless it's a flame thread putting down Cryptic's bad behavior)
The reward system not rewarding good enough 'rewards'.
The lack of communication between players and devs.
The hypocrisy and lies of devs pertaining to provided content.
The devs getting upset and trolling the foirums just as bad as the players response to the game.
All in all, this place is a mess. As a new user, I'd like to see the game change. I have only played for a month and already this game looks like it's on the brink of death.
CONSISTENCY - There was a time when you could judge the difficult by who you faced and where they were. Today you can face a Borg probe in one mission with 'X' hits points, the next one has 17x the hits points.
BUG FREE ENVIRONMENTS - While truthfully no launch has been free from glitches and poor decision, DR set a new low in player-impacting issues. From Difficulty changes to bugged instances, to borg incursions with no boss, to complete abandonment of Mac players, to the rolling out of multiple system changes so complex even the developer didn't fully understand the impact on players.
FUN WITH FRIENDS - all of the cumulative changes have had one stunning change, and it's the one I miss the most - my friends. The player base has shrunk. The queues are empty.
Open instance fleet actions. I liked being able to start doing a fleet action even if I was the only one doing it. As the fleet action progressed, more people tended to show up and tell their friends about an impending completion so that they would join too and then close to completion the instance was alive. This way one or two players could jumpstart a fun event.
I also miss being able to play a fleet action while waiting for queue pops. Sometimes that would make me miss the completion of the fleet action, but then I would just start again after completing the queued event.
I used to play at least the daily fleet action until Cryptic made fleet actions queue-only and removed the open instances. At that point I essentially stopped playing fleet actions. I miss the old days. I don't understand why the open instances could not have coexisted with queued and/or private versions of the fleet actions.
PVPing as a fresh level 45/50 character with white gear and still be competitive. The game was so accessible. No need to grind for gear, just jump in and have fun. Many of my friends agreed that the lack of gear requirements was one of STO's strong points. And just like the PVP of season 1.2 and 2/3 isn't here anymore, many of my friends aren't here anymore either due to STO's move towards having significant gear requirements and offering no option to keep queueing for matches with the old "ruleset".
Ship costumes for a low price. Why do ships cost 50$? Is one ship really worth as much as a full price pc/console game? I really like my Maelstrom costume for the fleet escort, and while I still have it, others can't buy it anymore as a simple and cheap costume.
Ships for energy credits. It used to be possible to get the basic ships for just EC. Now this option isn't even available to gold subscribers.
The original "Fluid Dynamics" and "A Light in the Dark" missions. Obviously the new versions have cutscenes and fancy voiceovers, but why did the old missions have to go?
Travelling through sector space. I know, one can still do that. But with everything being moved into the queues and almost all missions having transwarp options, I find I rarely ever fly through space anymore. Traveling is a part of the game that is still available, but has become superfluous as a game mechanic.
Exploration. Yes, I mostly did it for the daily emblems, but it was a nice diversion. I actually liked the simplistic "click 5 / shoot 5" mission format. Kill tribbles in the name of the empire! Help the Borg find their third dynasty.
The old STFs. The old STFs (with combined ground and space part and before the S4 ground revamp) required teamwork and some basic strategy and completing them was rewarding. Playing ISE&co via spacebar-mashing to get marks doesn't even remotely compare to that experience.
Basically all these things, though I much prefer the new First City over the original KDF home hub/social zone.
What I mostly miss out of those?
Exploration; expanded, meaningful, plot-driven STFs; pre-queue Fleet Actions that I could enter and enjoy whether they're active or not; the prior-mentioned STFs and Fleet Actions that were actually IN the world that we had to travel to instead of a silly "queue" window that magically takes us to a mission where we're now likely to fail it because of randoms we're joined with; the old version of Defera's ground Borg invasion where it'd be active and inactive, giving us a calm, blue sky-filled world while waiting for the next attack; and stuff like that.
Mostly stuff that relates to immersion, I guess. And fun.
The instant item pop up when you moused over the item pre-DR. The pop up menu takes 10-15 seconds to activate now.
Maps that are easy on my computer, like Undine Infiltration, Fleet Alert, and Colony Invasion.
Community building missions like Starbase Defense and Breaking the Planet where most everyone can feel powerful, accomplished, and just have pew pew fun. It's nice taking part in these missions.
The old Gorn Minefield with the massive amounts of enemies...that you could completely fly over.
Social zones. I can hate to travel to them sometimes, but it is/was an opportunity to see and meet all kinds of people.
Hourlies.
More people in game, many queues are not active at all.
The instant item pop up when you moused over the item pre-DR. The pop up menu takes 10-15 seconds to activate now.
I'm fairly certain you can adjust that in options.
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
I miss the positive feelings we all got as players when the devs actually listened to us and worked on the things we wanted, then announced those things and released them. Things such as:
Starbases
The No Win Scenario
A Romulan faction
The Delta quadrant
Starships that players really wanted (Excelsior, Vesta, Ambassador, etc)
Revamped crafting
Revamped ground combat
More storyline content
Cryptic delivered on all those things, it's true. But they packaged many of them with the addiction-preying money-sucking exploitation feature of dilithium.
I miss the feeling that I had in the month leading up to open beta and each month leading up to the next big feature release when the game still felt fresh and full of potential and not like the stale sweatshop that it currently is.
That's what this game is now. It's not dead. It's not dying. It's just stale.
[*]The Great Hall. Not the tiny one on the new Qo'nos map. The old one that can still be seen in one of the Fek'lhr missions. Going to the old Great Hall always felt like coming come. I miss the Great Hall and I miss this feeling of coming home.
[/LIST]
Look up a foundry mission called something like "old quonos" (or something like that -- it has the word "old" in it) .
If it still exists , get ready to get misty eyed ... , I know I did ... -- even if it's so different without the people that made it come to life .
As to what I miss -- it's been covered well enough in the first page ... -- there are some really OLD STO players still about ... .
My shout out goes to the good times in the old STF's and the exploration clusters -- from a crafter's POV .
It was nice to devote a little time to simply search for crafting mats just by flying around and scanning stuff .
It was a great alternative to logging off in disgust after failing yet another timer induced farce of a queue ... -- as we enjoy the Best Expansion Evah ... .
... as a non rage quitter , logging of in disgust was a new experience ...
EDIT : I also miss the times when you could bring any ship you wanted and you were not looked upon as a liability ... .
I miss running elite contend where the team is not hindered by not challenging DPS pre-requirements and 1 time instant fails which cant be corrected by the rest of the team.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
I used to do a lot of pugs, but now I hardly ever do any because of insta fail objectives and or the q wont pop at all since no one else seems to wanna play either.
People is what i miss the most. But variety comes in a close second.
The differences between a min maxed build and an experimental Mk XI blue let's see what we can do here is just to large. The cost of both gear and doffs, to even try new builds is too high, it would take months of grind just to try something out for fun. As a result all my toons are locked into ships and builds which were effective enough pre-DR, but none is flying my personal favorites.
Pre Ultra Rare doffs, I could forgo some min-maxing just because of style, without posing issues to my team. STyle has gone out of the window a long time ago.
Finally I miss not having to participate in a lottery to get what i want. It might take grind, but at the end i can get it. The exchange is not a replacement, try looking for some of the rarer lockbox doffs for kdf. I've sugggested it before, why not buff lockbox obtained doffs to epic quality, and give starbase, or qonos etc vendors the option to obtain the active roster trait in blue or purple?
I also miss weekly updates about whats coming for pvp. It never came but at least it kept the community engaged
*braveheart gurgle* BALANCE!!!!
The lack of Star trek in STO is what I miss the most...We get less and less Star Trek with ever patch and season update
Jellico....Engineer ground.....Da'val Romulan space Sci
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
Comments
I agree. The new ones suck.
Officially Nerfed In Early 2410
This, so much this.
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9
My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
I like how ship combat works in this game though, so whatever. To be honest, I think this game would be WAY better if it just stripped out all the Star Trek and went nuts on its own. I like the mechanics of it all, and would rather be playing in an original IP that would be creatively free, as opposed to a dumped on Star Trek mashup.
Now fixed to one toon, 2 energy types I am pecking at for upgrades. Nearly all the variety and creativity gone with a severe narrowing of options.
- Judge Aaron Satie
Now it just feels impossible. I can reach cap in 40 minutes maybe on 1 toon in the Dyson BZ. Theoretically I could spend a longer time there on a few toons and make a surplus, the next day do that on a few other toons...but just tagging dinos gets boring.
Also, this was more recent, but being able to get a spec point in about an hour just from doing Argala was awesome, until the spec points were taken away... after that I've pretty much given up the game even though the points were given back. Just isn't very fun anymore
Edit: Scary part is that I do not think these people will fix this...
They days when Exchange prices was lower and easily to afford. Now I rarely buy off it, since I don't feel like feeding greedy players.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Lack of support for Customer Service.
Tons of bugs since this Season 10 came out.
Reading through the forums, the devs don't listen (unless it's a flame thread putting down Cryptic's bad behavior)
The reward system not rewarding good enough 'rewards'.
The lack of communication between players and devs.
The hypocrisy and lies of devs pertaining to provided content.
The devs getting upset and trolling the foirums just as bad as the players response to the game.
All in all, this place is a mess. As a new user, I'd like to see the game change. I have only played for a month and already this game looks like it's on the brink of death.
CONSISTENCY - There was a time when you could judge the difficult by who you faced and where they were. Today you can face a Borg probe in one mission with 'X' hits points, the next one has 17x the hits points.
BUG FREE ENVIRONMENTS - While truthfully no launch has been free from glitches and poor decision, DR set a new low in player-impacting issues. From Difficulty changes to bugged instances, to borg incursions with no boss, to complete abandonment of Mac players, to the rolling out of multiple system changes so complex even the developer didn't fully understand the impact on players.
FUN WITH FRIENDS - all of the cumulative changes have had one stunning change, and it's the one I miss the most - my friends. The player base has shrunk. The queues are empty.
Basically all these things, though I much prefer the new First City over the original KDF home hub/social zone.
What I mostly miss out of those?
Exploration; expanded, meaningful, plot-driven STFs; pre-queue Fleet Actions that I could enter and enjoy whether they're active or not; the prior-mentioned STFs and Fleet Actions that were actually IN the world that we had to travel to instead of a silly "queue" window that magically takes us to a mission where we're now likely to fail it because of randoms we're joined with; the old version of Defera's ground Borg invasion where it'd be active and inactive, giving us a calm, blue sky-filled world while waiting for the next attack; and stuff like that.
Mostly stuff that relates to immersion, I guess. And fun.
Oh, and State of Q, because Q.
Maps that are easy on my computer, like Undine Infiltration, Fleet Alert, and Colony Invasion.
Community building missions like Starbase Defense and Breaking the Planet where most everyone can feel powerful, accomplished, and just have pew pew fun. It's nice taking part in these missions.
The old Gorn Minefield with the massive amounts of enemies...that you could completely fly over.
Social zones. I can hate to travel to them sometimes, but it is/was an opportunity to see and meet all kinds of people.
Hourlies.
More people in game, many queues are not active at all.
I'm fairly certain you can adjust that in options.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Starbases
The No Win Scenario
A Romulan faction
The Delta quadrant
Starships that players really wanted (Excelsior, Vesta, Ambassador, etc)
Revamped crafting
Revamped ground combat
More storyline content
Cryptic delivered on all those things, it's true. But they packaged many of them with the addiction-preying money-sucking exploitation feature of dilithium.
I miss the feeling that I had in the month leading up to open beta and each month leading up to the next big feature release when the game still felt fresh and full of potential and not like the stale sweatshop that it currently is.
That's what this game is now. It's not dead. It's not dying. It's just stale.
Look up a foundry mission called something like "old quonos" (or something like that -- it has the word "old" in it) .
If it still exists , get ready to get misty eyed ... , I know I did ... -- even if it's so different without the people that made it come to life .
As to what I miss -- it's been covered well enough in the first page ... -- there are some really OLD STO players still about ... .
My shout out goes to the good times in the old STF's and the exploration clusters -- from a crafter's POV .
It was nice to devote a little time to simply search for crafting mats just by flying around and scanning stuff .
It was a great alternative to logging off in disgust after failing yet another timer induced farce of a queue ... -- as we enjoy the Best Expansion Evah ... .
... as a non rage quitter , logging of in disgust was a new experience ...
EDIT : I also miss the times when you could bring any ship you wanted and you were not looked upon as a liability ... .
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
This...
I used to do a lot of pugs, but now I hardly ever do any because of insta fail objectives and or the q wont pop at all since no one else seems to wanna play either.
The differences between a min maxed build and an experimental Mk XI blue let's see what we can do here is just to large. The cost of both gear and doffs, to even try new builds is too high, it would take months of grind just to try something out for fun. As a result all my toons are locked into ships and builds which were effective enough pre-DR, but none is flying my personal favorites.
Pre Ultra Rare doffs, I could forgo some min-maxing just because of style, without posing issues to my team. STyle has gone out of the window a long time ago.
Finally I miss not having to participate in a lottery to get what i want. It might take grind, but at the end i can get it. The exchange is not a replacement, try looking for some of the rarer lockbox doffs for kdf. I've sugggested it before, why not buff lockbox obtained doffs to epic quality, and give starbase, or qonos etc vendors the option to obtain the active roster trait in blue or purple?
I also miss weekly updates about whats coming for pvp. It never came but at least it kept the community engaged
*braveheart gurgle* BALANCE!!!!
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse