Do you even remember why this megagrind exists? It's not to enslave anyone. It's to let everyone always have a way to improve our characters. Back in season 8, there were complaints that progression ended when the current rep grind did. This expansion was directly to alleviate that wall. Giving us optional grinds doesn't equate to being treated "like dirt". Giving us the ability to progress further than we really NEED to isn't making us a "slave".
I don't understand why people, especially non-PvPers consider this content required enough to complain that it even exists. It's... it's mind-boggling. At least PvPers have the excuse of being competitive. But PvEers? It's unfathomable to me, and quite frankly, doesn't justify the toxic rabidity that existed on these forums since DR's release. Endgame still starts at 50 like it has for the past few content updates. To demand any more than what we really need for standard play, that is, basic and advanced queues and other non-elite rep grinds is nonsensical if not just plain greedy.
Bottom line, Geko wants us to just have something to do if we really want. If somehow this forum explosion does nab the community easier access to the "infinite progression", then Geko will most likely attempt to tack something else on. Why, because he wants us to have the ABILITY to progress further. There is absolutely no force applied, nor any need for this content outside of PvP. And for crying out loud, it's certainly not an excuse for hostility between players.
This last statement isn't directed specifically at you, carcharodon1975, but I would LOVE to understand the reasons why some think it's justified to feel entitled to optional content without being exposed to childish namecalling like "developer apologist" and other ignorance.
Excuse me..."why some think it's justified to feel entitled to optional content"?Are you serious?Have you played the game at Normal difficulty?The gameplay experience at that level is mediocre at best,and utter garbage most of the time.No challenge,very poor rewards....a waste of time no matter how you try to sugarcoat it.Sadly,the experience on advanced isn't much better as the 'effort vs reward' is still way off.
So,all the content that provide both the challenge and the rewards to match are on Elite,and only on Elite....and Elite is locked behind a massive grind/cash wall.So,if you want any 'fun' playing the game you have to go through countless hours of mind numbing 'content' which you have to repeat half a billion times,and pay a ridiculous amount of cash for upgrades (or,of course,grind some more!).
And if you are wondering why....the goal post for Elite 'access' has been put so far back that as a pure F2P player you will never,ever reach it.It's all about getting people to pay for the game.
orangeitis...what Cryptic does is steering players in a certain direction,'encouraging' people to play the content they want them to play by making any alternative undesirable,and the 'encouragement' is so strong that people feel forced.
The PWE/Cryptic sweatshop...not where the game is made,but where the game is played!
Take back your home,end the grind!
Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.
Excuse me..."why some think it's justified to feel entitled to optional content"?Are you serious?Have you played the game at Normal difficulty?The gameplay experience at that level is mediocre at best,and utter garbage most of the time.No challenge,very poor rewards....a waste of time no matter how you try to sugarcoat it.Sadly,the experience on advanced isn't much better as the 'effort vs reward' is still way off.
So,all the content that provide both the challenge and the rewards to match are on Elite,and only on Elite....and Elite is locked behind a massive grind/cash wall.So,if you want any 'fun' playing the game you have to go through countless hours of mind numbing 'content' which you have to repeat half a billion times,and pay a ridiculous amount of cash for upgrades (or,of course,grind some more!).
And if you are wondering why....the goal post for Elite 'access' has been put so far back that as a pure F2P player you will never,ever reach it.It's all about getting people to pay for the game.
Your statement here seems to contradict itself. You say that Elite mode the rewards match the challenge, yet you then directly after go on to say that the grind(part of the challenge) is ridiculous. That makes no sense. Is Elite worth the grind or not...?
Regardless, Elite difficulty is there for bragging rights. Advanced is there as standard play for competent players.
orangeitis...what Cryptic does is steering players in a certain direction,'encouraging' people to play the content they want them to play by making any alternative undesirable,and the 'encouragement' is so strong that people feel forced.
I agree, in fact. But I do not think the "infinite progression" is to blame. I think we should get rewards that scale better with difficulty, as well as not be nerfed if we opt out of new content. But to point fingers at content which is effectively unneeded seems to be no different than telling players who are perfectly fine with that content that they don't deserve it.
If it's reward scaling that you're arguing about, don't bother telling me, because I agree.
Calm yourself. Btw, I actually like Star Trek and this game gives me that. And I might be critical of things, sometimes harshly, that doesn't mean I hate it or I want to leave. Here's something you might not have considered, I actually want it to improve upon itself and evolve. There is so much room for that.
But most importantly, calm yourself. It's the holidays, take a break from the sto forums for a while. Do something IRL, perhaps with your girlfriend.
^ this. We're on the same team here. We love Star Trek, and to varying extents, STO. We just disagree on what's best for the game.
Also, spending time with your loved ones kicks TRIBBLE.
Your statement here seems to contradict itself. You say that Elite mode the rewards match the challenge, yet you then directly after go on to say that the grind(part of the challenge) is ridiculous. That makes no sense. Is Elite worth the grind or not...?
Regardless, Elite difficulty is there for bragging rights. Advanced is there as standard play for competent players.
I agree, in fact. But I do not think the "infinite progression" is to blame. I think we should get rewards that scale better with difficulty, as well as not be nerfed if we opt out of new content. But to point fingers at content which is effectively unneeded seems to be no different than telling players who are perfectly fine with that content that they don't deserve it.
If it's reward scaling that you're arguing about, don't bother telling me, because I agree.
^ this. We're on the same team here. We love Star Trek, and to varying extents, STO. We just disagree on what's best for the game.
Also, spending time with your loved ones kicks TRIBBLE.
Just wanted to say while I may not always agree with your view Orange, I have always enjoyed your posts, they are atleast, well thought out and well written.
Do you even remember why this megagrind exists? It's not to enslave anyone. It's to let everyone always have a way to improve our characters. Back in season 8, there were complaints that progression ended when the current rep grind did. This expansion was directly to alleviate that wall. Giving us optional grinds doesn't equate to being treated "like dirt". Giving us the ability to progress further than we really NEED to isn't making us a "slave".
I don't understand why people, especially non-PvPers consider this content required enough to complain that it even exists. It's... it's mind-boggling. At least PvPers have the excuse of being competitive. But PvEers? It's unfathomable to me, and quite frankly, doesn't justify the toxic rabidity that existed on these forums since DR's release. Endgame still starts at 50 like it has for the past few content updates. To demand any more than what we really need for standard play, that is, basic and advanced queues and other non-elite rep grinds is nonsensical if not just plain greedy.
Bottom line, Geko wants us to just have something to do if we really want. If somehow this forum explosion does nab the community easier access to the "infinite progression", then Geko will most likely attempt to tack something else on. Why, because he wants us to have the ABILITY to progress further. There is absolutely no force applied, nor any need for this content outside of PvP. And for crying out loud, it's certainly not an excuse for hostility between players.
It is not the concept I have issue with. It is the implementation.
STO used to be one of the most alt friendly games I have played. The specialization system is decidedly alt unfriendly because it is not account wide. Every other recent mechanic similar to this in other games has been created as an account wide system and it has become, in my eyes, industry standard.
Furthermore the fact of the matter is that I make nearly 5x the amount of progression in this system in a shorter period of time by doing a patrol than I do by playing a CCA group queue. That means the game, by design, encourages me to grind out those patrols and finish off that specialization instead of actually playing the so called 'endgame'. Someone somewhere wrote a great article about the accidental creation of 'grind' in games and how because of human nature it can destroy an otherwise enjoyable game. That is exactly what is occurring here. It is bad design.
Remove the over rewarding sp from patrols, boost the sp rewards other places, either will solve the problem. But before any problem can be solved it must be viewed as a problem.
It is not the concept I have issue with. It is the implementation.
STO used to be one of the most alt friendly games I have played. The specialization system is decidedly alt unfriendly because it is not account wide. Every other recent mechanic similar to this in other games has been created as an account wide system and it has become, in my eyes, industry standard.
Furthermore the fact of the matter is that I make nearly 5x the amount of progression in this system in a shorter period of time by doing a patrol than I do by playing a CCA group queue. That means the game, by design, encourages me to grind out those patrols and finish off that specialization instead of actually playing the so called 'endgame'. Someone somewhere wrote a great article about the accidental creation of 'grind' in games and how because of human nature it can destroy an otherwise enjoyable game. That is exactly what is occurring here. It is bad design.
Remove the over rewarding sp from patrols, boost the sp rewards other places, either will solve the problem. But before any problem can be solved it must be viewed as a problem.
Agreed. If it were truly, at its core, designed to merely allow players to improve their characters, the 'grind' would be focused on accessibility (i.e. bonuses accessible to alts), but it simply isn't.
What the 'grind' does focus on are three things: RNG (a.k.a. 'significant failure chance'), timegates, and exorbitant costs. Those three systems have only one purpose, and it's not to give you the ability to improve, it's to delay your improvement.
It is entirely within reason for a developer to add those systems to a game to make sure people don't advance at a rate that detracts from the enjoyment of the game. However, Cryptic's style of RNG, timegating, and extreme costs (or, more accurately, PWE's style) exists to extend the amount of time required to advance in the game, and thus increase the amount of time players spend in it. This design may work effectively in the Asian MMO market, and I don't fault them for using it there, but sooner or later they need to realize that this model is effective at nothing but inducing fatal or crippling player attrition from your game in the Western gaming industry.
STO is about to face space game competition like the industry hasn't seen in decades, and right now it's looking like an extremely weak contender.
It is not the concept I have issue with. It is the implementation.
STO used to be one of the most alt friendly games I have played. The specialization system is decidedly alt unfriendly because it is not account wide. Every other recent mechanic similar to this in other games has been created as an account wide system and it has become, in my eyes, industry standard.
And here's where we get into an area of perfectly reasonable unreasonable demands.
We often complain that devs don't play enough STO, as a community. In reality, we expect them to both play STO AND STO's competitors. Which is an unreasonable demand in some ways and perfectly reasonable in others.
I got some free gametime to return to WoW recently.
The last time I had played WoW, I had observed that many achievements, pets, and mounts were made account-wide.
Well, upon returning, I found the account-wide features have expanded further. Reputations are now boosted for alts automatically (which I knew about but had not seen). And items classed as "toys" (which include some retired Lockbox style items) are now also account-wide and no longer take up inventory slots.
WoW's equivalent of lockbox items were generally always store and TCG tie-in items. To this day, the Spectral Tiger mount goes for over $600 on eBay. The two-headed Ogre idol goes for over $150. I have the Carved Ogre Idol which I snatched up for just under $50 worth of trading cards once... and it now goes for $800.
These items were all per-character when they debuted. With the advent of the account-wide Toybox tech, they are account-wide in WoW.
I would not be surprised if none of the devs even noticed this feature in a fairly big competitor and, honestly, the items affected by it were niche enough to the WoW experience that of the devs who played WoW, even if they did go back, few might notice this. But it's a seismic change for people who play WoW and who have these items and is a definite competitive move for the same type of player who has lockbox ships here.
All pre-order items, special edition items, trading card items, all of that stuff in WoW is now completely account-wide.
Literally everything that was the equivalent in some way to a lockbox ship from $10 items to $1000 market value items is account-wide.
They also eliminated mount tiers and have structured the new expansion to avoid flying, to reaffirm the value of mounts. In some cases, that means your first mount from ten years ago. You can play your first character from ten years ago using your level 20 mount (used to be 40, yes) from ten years ago and with transmogrification, maintain the visual appearance of your gear from 10 years ago. At no real additional cost aside from a few gold for the transmog.
And this is all presented as a selling point there.
And here's where we get into an area of perfectly reasonable unreasonable demands.
We often complain that devs don't play enough STO, as a community. In reality, we expect them to both play STO AND STO's competitors. Which is an unreasonable demand in some ways and perfectly reasonable in others.
I got some free gametime to return to WoW recently.
The last time I had played WoW, I had observed that many achievements, pets, and mounts were made account-wide.
Well, upon returning, I found the account-wide features have expanded further. Reputations are now boosted for alts automatically (which I knew about but had not seen). And items classed as "toys" (which include some retired Lockbox style items) are now also account-wide and no longer take up inventory slots.
WoW's equivalent of lockbox items were generally always store and TCG tie-in items. To this day, the Spectral Tiger mount goes for over $600 on eBay. The two-headed Ogre idol goes for over $150. I have the Carved Ogre Idol which I snatched up for just under $50 worth of trading cards once... and it now goes for $800.
These items were all per-character when they debuted. With the advent of the account-wide Toybox tech, they are account-wide in WoW.
I would not be surprised if none of the devs even noticed this feature in a fairly big competitor and, honestly, the items affected by it were niche enough to the WoW experience that of the devs who played WoW, even if they did go back, few might notice this. But it's a seismic change for people who play WoW and who have these items and is a definite competitive move for the same type of player who has lockbox ships here.
All pre-order items, special edition items, trading card items, all of that stuff in WoW is now completely account-wide.
Literally everything that was the equivalent in some way to a lockbox ship from $10 items to $1000 market value items is account-wide.
They also eliminated mount tiers and have structured the new expansion to avoid flying, to reaffirm the value of mounts. In some cases, that means your first mount from ten years ago. You can play your first character from ten years ago using your level 20 mount (used to be 40, yes) from ten years ago and with transmogrification, maintain the visual appearance of your gear from 10 years ago. At no real additional cost aside from a few gold for the transmog.
And this is all presented as a selling point there.
At what point did any of this say we don't want your money?
What comes next?
Did I miss something, or did you say WoW wants your money less than STO does? WoW as a charity..
On the other side I remember when most of the long term posters would blow a blood vessel, if a prorder ever got added to this game.
Are you saying this is good or bad? (as a mater of debate).
At what point did any of this say we don't want your money?
What comes next?
Did I miss something, or did you say WoW wants your money less than STO does? WoW as a charity..
On the other side I remember when most of the long term posters would blow a blood vessel, if a prorder ever got added to this game.
Are you saying this is good or bad? (as a mater of debate).
I'm really not sure how to interpret some of your posts. I'm not trying to be coy but I suspect there is a language barrier?
Different people complaining want different things. There isn't one single voice for players. I fully recognize that makes things difficult but it is rare with this game that players ask for something and then complain when they get it. What happens is that a group of players ask for something and then another group of players complain when the first group gets what they asked for while the second group was silent until the change happened.
I have always been in favor of being more generous with pre-order items while recognizing that some may have been offered under contractual terms that limited how and when Cryptic could re-offer the item. (I have also proposed multiple times to find ways for non-lifers to play liberated Borg.)
However, all I am saying here is that WoW is expanding single-character unlocks to account-wide unlocks in a variety of ways, to be more alt friendly. And that they are de-emphasizing the rate at which old items become obsolete through a number of methods.
Far from being a non-profit approach or a charity, I think this shows a considerable amount of intelligence and provides customers with strong emotional connections to the game, which generates sales and subscription fees.
I think it would benefit STO's numbers to adopt more of this kind of thinking, which would focus on making more total sales to more people rather than selling to 5% of players and continuously relying on that small group as a cash reservoir.
I find PWE's approaches, by comparison, to be more stingy but also less profit seeking. Being stingy or greedy past a certain point is not good for profits.
A common business error is to find yourself losing dollars by counting pennies. Sometimes a focus on costs and financial metrics will result in making less money, not more.
STO Member since February 2009. I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born! Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
Your statement here seems to contradict itself. You say that Elite mode the rewards match the challenge, yet you then directly after go on to say that the grind(part of the challenge) is ridiculous. That makes no sense. Is Elite worth the grind or not...?
Regardless, Elite difficulty is there for bragging rights. Advanced is there as standard play for competent players.
I agree, in fact. But I do not think the "infinite progression" is to blame. I think we should get rewards that scale better with difficulty, as well as not be nerfed if we opt out of new content. But to point fingers at content which is effectively unneeded seems to be no different than telling players who are perfectly fine with that content that they don't deserve it.
If it's reward scaling that you're arguing about, don't bother telling me, because I agree.
You ask if the Elite grind is worth it...I'll answer that with another question: with the poor quality of the Normal and Advanced content and the Elite grind being as painful as it is...if you have to choose between two bad options,is there a right answer?
The PWE/Cryptic sweatshop...not where the game is made,but where the game is played!
Take back your home,end the grind!
Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.
Just wanted to say while I may not always agree with your view Orange, I have always enjoyed your posts, they are atleast, well thought out and well written.
You ask if the Elite grind is worth it...I'll answer that with another question: with the poor quality of the Normal and Advanced content and the Elite grind being as painful as it is...if you have to choose between two bad options,is there a right answer?
What's "bad" to one isn't necessarily bad to another. What's "worth it" to one isn't necessarily worth it to another either. Besides, I'm not arguing against anything being "bad", I'm addressing how they're bad.
It is not the concept I have issue with. It is the implementation.
STO used to be one of the most alt friendly games I have played. The specialization system is decidedly alt unfriendly because it is not account wide. Every other recent mechanic similar to this in other games has been created as an account wide system and it has become, in my eyes, industry standard.
As a player with 45 characters, I must agree. Though I have decided to only grind any given specialization tree 5 times so I can save other earned spec points on new specializations as they're released.
What's "bad" to one isn't necessarily bad to another. What's "worth it" to one isn't necessarily worth it to another either. Besides, I'm not arguing against anything being "bad", I'm addressing how they're bad.
That's like saying elephant dung tastes better than a cowpatty....both taste like TRIBBLE.
The PWE/Cryptic sweatshop...not where the game is made,but where the game is played!
Take back your home,end the grind!
Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.
Every other recent mechanic similar to this in other games has been created as an account wide system and it has become, in my eyes, industry standard.
I only quoted this part because I would like to hear about these games that have something similar to the spec system.
I only quoted this part because I would like to hear about these games that have something similar to the spec system.
Reputations, toys, pets, leveling, and mounts are increasingly fast progression, account-wide or account benefiting (ie. greatly sped up progress on alts) in most western MMORPGs. I'm not sure where you'd look not to see this.
And I'm not sure STO won't look the same direction since they've said that while costs for initial ship loadout upgrades are where they want them, gearing out alts and alternate ships seems costlier than intended. Jesse Heinig said this on his last Priority One interview.
If that's the case, I'd think it would be reasonable to think Cryptic would have an eye on spec progress.
If you're holding a nice party, and some of your guests start throwing your living-room furniture and screaming obscenities because they don't like your dance music, are you obligated to simply stand there and let them continue? Or do you escort them out?
Why should Cryptic be obligated to let people befoul their private property - these forums? It's not like the Terms of Service are obscure, or difficult to find...
Why don't you go grind Argala like a good little sycophant and let us adults talk...
Wow, not too many actually reasonable posts ITT any more. Does any of you want to convince anyone of your positions, or do you just want to childishly insult each other?
Wow, not too many actually reasonable posts ITT any more. Does any of you want to convince anyone of your positions, or do you just want to childishly insult each other?
Childishly insult, apparently. Or attempt (poorly) to insult, anyway.
What's up with this Argala place? I'm at 54, and never been there. Folks keep talking about it like it's the only thing happening in Delta, though.
Childishly insult, apparently. Or attempt (poorly) to insult, anyway.
What's up with this Argala place? I'm at 54, and never been there. Folks keep talking about it like it's the only thing happening in Delta, though.
It's a Delta Quadrant patrol mission. One that throws a few waves of enemy ships at you, which most players identify as optimal exp. Though there was a patch boosting patrol mission exp rewards, so unless you're leveling starship mastery, there might be other DQ patrols that are more optimal for your time.
If I were you though, I wouldn't worry about grinding mindlessly like that. Unless you PvP often, the spec points IMHO aren't worth it.
Comments
Excuse me..."why some think it's justified to feel entitled to optional content"?Are you serious?Have you played the game at Normal difficulty?The gameplay experience at that level is mediocre at best,and utter garbage most of the time.No challenge,very poor rewards....a waste of time no matter how you try to sugarcoat it.Sadly,the experience on advanced isn't much better as the 'effort vs reward' is still way off.
So,all the content that provide both the challenge and the rewards to match are on Elite,and only on Elite....and Elite is locked behind a massive grind/cash wall.So,if you want any 'fun' playing the game you have to go through countless hours of mind numbing 'content' which you have to repeat half a billion times,and pay a ridiculous amount of cash for upgrades (or,of course,grind some more!).
And if you are wondering why....the goal post for Elite 'access' has been put so far back that as a pure F2P player you will never,ever reach it.It's all about getting people to pay for the game.
orangeitis...what Cryptic does is steering players in a certain direction,'encouraging' people to play the content they want them to play by making any alternative undesirable,and the 'encouragement' is so strong that people feel forced.
Take back your home,end the grind!
Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.
Regardless, Elite difficulty is there for bragging rights. Advanced is there as standard play for competent players.
I agree, in fact. But I do not think the "infinite progression" is to blame. I think we should get rewards that scale better with difficulty, as well as not be nerfed if we opt out of new content. But to point fingers at content which is effectively unneeded seems to be no different than telling players who are perfectly fine with that content that they don't deserve it.
If it's reward scaling that you're arguing about, don't bother telling me, because I agree.
^ this. We're on the same team here. We love Star Trek, and to varying extents, STO. We just disagree on what's best for the game.
Also, spending time with your loved ones kicks TRIBBLE.
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Just wanted to say while I may not always agree with your view Orange, I have always enjoyed your posts, they are atleast, well thought out and well written.
It is not the concept I have issue with. It is the implementation.
STO used to be one of the most alt friendly games I have played. The specialization system is decidedly alt unfriendly because it is not account wide. Every other recent mechanic similar to this in other games has been created as an account wide system and it has become, in my eyes, industry standard.
Furthermore the fact of the matter is that I make nearly 5x the amount of progression in this system in a shorter period of time by doing a patrol than I do by playing a CCA group queue. That means the game, by design, encourages me to grind out those patrols and finish off that specialization instead of actually playing the so called 'endgame'. Someone somewhere wrote a great article about the accidental creation of 'grind' in games and how because of human nature it can destroy an otherwise enjoyable game. That is exactly what is occurring here. It is bad design.
Remove the over rewarding sp from patrols, boost the sp rewards other places, either will solve the problem. But before any problem can be solved it must be viewed as a problem.
Agreed. If it were truly, at its core, designed to merely allow players to improve their characters, the 'grind' would be focused on accessibility (i.e. bonuses accessible to alts), but it simply isn't.
What the 'grind' does focus on are three things: RNG (a.k.a. 'significant failure chance'), timegates, and exorbitant costs. Those three systems have only one purpose, and it's not to give you the ability to improve, it's to delay your improvement.
It is entirely within reason for a developer to add those systems to a game to make sure people don't advance at a rate that detracts from the enjoyment of the game. However, Cryptic's style of RNG, timegating, and extreme costs (or, more accurately, PWE's style) exists to extend the amount of time required to advance in the game, and thus increase the amount of time players spend in it. This design may work effectively in the Asian MMO market, and I don't fault them for using it there, but sooner or later they need to realize that this model is effective at nothing but inducing fatal or crippling player attrition from your game in the Western gaming industry.
STO is about to face space game competition like the industry hasn't seen in decades, and right now it's looking like an extremely weak contender.
And here's where we get into an area of perfectly reasonable unreasonable demands.
We often complain that devs don't play enough STO, as a community. In reality, we expect them to both play STO AND STO's competitors. Which is an unreasonable demand in some ways and perfectly reasonable in others.
I got some free gametime to return to WoW recently.
The last time I had played WoW, I had observed that many achievements, pets, and mounts were made account-wide.
Well, upon returning, I found the account-wide features have expanded further. Reputations are now boosted for alts automatically (which I knew about but had not seen). And items classed as "toys" (which include some retired Lockbox style items) are now also account-wide and no longer take up inventory slots.
WoW's equivalent of lockbox items were generally always store and TCG tie-in items. To this day, the Spectral Tiger mount goes for over $600 on eBay. The two-headed Ogre idol goes for over $150. I have the Carved Ogre Idol which I snatched up for just under $50 worth of trading cards once... and it now goes for $800.
These items were all per-character when they debuted. With the advent of the account-wide Toybox tech, they are account-wide in WoW.
I would not be surprised if none of the devs even noticed this feature in a fairly big competitor and, honestly, the items affected by it were niche enough to the WoW experience that of the devs who played WoW, even if they did go back, few might notice this. But it's a seismic change for people who play WoW and who have these items and is a definite competitive move for the same type of player who has lockbox ships here.
All pre-order items, special edition items, trading card items, all of that stuff in WoW is now completely account-wide.
Literally everything that was the equivalent in some way to a lockbox ship from $10 items to $1000 market value items is account-wide.
They also eliminated mount tiers and have structured the new expansion to avoid flying, to reaffirm the value of mounts. In some cases, that means your first mount from ten years ago. You can play your first character from ten years ago using your level 20 mount (used to be 40, yes) from ten years ago and with transmogrification, maintain the visual appearance of your gear from 10 years ago. At no real additional cost aside from a few gold for the transmog.
And this is all presented as a selling point there.
At what point did any of this say we don't want your money?
What comes next?
Did I miss something, or did you say WoW wants your money less than STO does? WoW as a charity..
On the other side I remember when most of the long term posters would blow a blood vessel, if a prorder ever got added to this game.
Are you saying this is good or bad? (as a mater of debate).
I'm really not sure how to interpret some of your posts. I'm not trying to be coy but I suspect there is a language barrier?
Different people complaining want different things. There isn't one single voice for players. I fully recognize that makes things difficult but it is rare with this game that players ask for something and then complain when they get it. What happens is that a group of players ask for something and then another group of players complain when the first group gets what they asked for while the second group was silent until the change happened.
I have always been in favor of being more generous with pre-order items while recognizing that some may have been offered under contractual terms that limited how and when Cryptic could re-offer the item. (I have also proposed multiple times to find ways for non-lifers to play liberated Borg.)
However, all I am saying here is that WoW is expanding single-character unlocks to account-wide unlocks in a variety of ways, to be more alt friendly. And that they are de-emphasizing the rate at which old items become obsolete through a number of methods.
Far from being a non-profit approach or a charity, I think this shows a considerable amount of intelligence and provides customers with strong emotional connections to the game, which generates sales and subscription fees.
I think it would benefit STO's numbers to adopt more of this kind of thinking, which would focus on making more total sales to more people rather than selling to 5% of players and continuously relying on that small group as a cash reservoir.
I find PWE's approaches, by comparison, to be more stingy but also less profit seeking. Being stingy or greedy past a certain point is not good for profits.
A common business error is to find yourself losing dollars by counting pennies. Sometimes a focus on costs and financial metrics will result in making less money, not more.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
it morphed into a DOOOOOM thread
yeah, didn't see that coming at all.....
You ask if the Elite grind is worth it...I'll answer that with another question: with the poor quality of the Normal and Advanced content and the Elite grind being as painful as it is...if you have to choose between two bad options,is there a right answer?
Take back your home,end the grind!
Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.
Could it be any other way?
Take back your home,end the grind!
Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.
What's "bad" to one isn't necessarily bad to another. What's "worth it" to one isn't necessarily worth it to another either. Besides, I'm not arguing against anything being "bad", I'm addressing how they're bad.
As a player with 45 characters, I must agree. Though I have decided to only grind any given specialization tree 5 times so I can save other earned spec points on new specializations as they're released.
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That's like saying elephant dung tastes better than a cowpatty....both taste like TRIBBLE.
Take back your home,end the grind!
Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.
No.
I guess for a 10 character limit I'd say,
"What was your point?"
GG Cryptic.
dnirg eht nioj
I only quoted this part because I would like to hear about these games that have something similar to the spec system.
Reputations, toys, pets, leveling, and mounts are increasingly fast progression, account-wide or account benefiting (ie. greatly sped up progress on alts) in most western MMORPGs. I'm not sure where you'd look not to see this.
And I'm not sure STO won't look the same direction since they've said that while costs for initial ship loadout upgrades are where they want them, gearing out alts and alternate ships seems costlier than intended. Jesse Heinig said this on his last Priority One interview.
If that's the case, I'd think it would be reasonable to think Cryptic would have an eye on spec progress.
Doom was an exploit, because was to much fun and acording to Stephen Dangelo: "this is too good to be something the dev team intended to happen"
So it has to die.
GG Cryptic.
dnirg eht nioj
My character Tsin'xing
Why don't you go grind Argala like a good little sycophant and let us adults talk...
Ignoring the terrible analogy, that's still purely subjective. Taste is, by definition, a product of the mind.
What's your point, by the way?
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What's up with this Argala place? I'm at 54, and never been there. Folks keep talking about it like it's the only thing happening in Delta, though.
If I were you though, I wouldn't worry about grinding mindlessly like that. Unless you PvP often, the spec points IMHO aren't worth it.
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