R&D Research Project Improvements

gorngonzolla · January 2015

Hi all,

I wanted to inform you all of some upcoming improvements we'll be making to R&D research projects. You might recall that very early on there was a bug that allowed players to slot more than one R&D research project per school at a time. While this was unintended it did get us to look at this issue and to seriously consider the repercussions of allowing players to slot more than research project per school. Our concern at the time was that players might be able to progress through a single R&D school too quickly. At the time we chose to simply fix the bug.

However, after months of the system being in players' hands and collecting data both from personal experience and from players we've decided to increase the number of active research projects per school from 1 up to 3. Our hope is that this gives players some options on how they can progress via R&D research projects. Players now have the option to focus on a smaller number of R&D school and progress more quickly instead of only being able to spread out their experience in as many schools as they have project slots.

This change will go live with our Anniversary update later this month. We look forward to getting this improvement rolled out and into your hands!

Regards,
Phil "Gorngonzolla" Zeleski

Cryptic Studios

Lead Systems Designer

js26568 · January 2015

gorngonzolla wrote: »

Hi all,

I wanted to inform you all of some upcoming improvements we'll be making to R&D research projects. You might recall that very early on there was a bug that allowed players to slot more than one R&D research project per school at a time. While this was unintended it did get us to look at this issue and to seriously consider the repercussions of allowing players to slot more than research project per school. Our concern at the time was that players might be able to progress through a single R&D school too quickly. At the time we chose to simply fix the bug.

However, after months of the system being in players' hands and collecting data both from personal experience and from players we've decided to increase the number of active research projects per school from 1 up to 3. Our hope is that this gives players some options on how they can progress via R&D research projects. Players now have the option to focus on a smaller number of R&D school and progress more quickly instead of only being able to spread out their experience in as many schools as they have project slots.

This change will go live with our Anniversary update later this month. We look forward to getting this improvement rolled out and into your hands!

Regards,
Phil "Gorngonzolla" Zeleski

Cryptic Studios

Lead Systems Designer

I'd like to say thanks to you personally Gorngonzolla for posting this here in General Discussions so it can be debated. I don't think you're going to hear many people saying that this is a bad thing - here's to many more improvements like this!

betayuya · January 2015

*Gives gorngonzolla a very big hug*

nandospc · January 2015

Thank you, very appreciated

Now do the same with specialitazions experience points gain

rmy1081 · January 2015

This will make crafting and getting crafting traits on my alts way easier. I was really excited when I saw this on tribble.

wast33 · January 2015

thx dude.

on a sidenote: whether u nor taco seems to be tracked by the dev-tracker

...

notrealedna · January 2015

progress in R&D is like the xp gains ...thats too quick ,please nerf.

emacsheadroom · January 2015

I invite everyone to bear witness to the closest a Cryptic dev will ever come to saying: "We made an error in judgement. The players were right and we were wrong. We're sorry."

davefenestrator · January 2015

Thanks for doing this. I have multiple characters sharing the same R&D schools at 15, and I'm much rather let them specialize in fewer schools on the way from 15 to 20. Getting there in 1/3 the time will be a big help.

olliereport · January 2015

interesting, cool, 3 is better than 1

but why 3? why not just remove the limitation?

you should try and see the game from a new player perspective, the research climb to level 15 superior upgrade kits is very tough, removing the limitation would make the game even more accessible

lucho80 · January 2015

Excellent change.

Now if someone could finally fix the bug with the ground weapons not getting the new mods. It's the only glaring bug left from implementation since the other ones are annoyances.

Annoyances being:
1) Clicking a school and getting a diff one.
1) Clicking a school and not getting the daily R&D when it should be available.

gulberat · January 2015

Yeah, the clicking one school and getting a different one seems to be an issue of the UI not catching up to the command to look at a new school after you looked at a previous one. I can't tell if it's a lag issue or a different kind of issue. Agreed it should be looked into, as I definitely find it annoying.

Gorngonzolla, I am glad to see you address the slotting of extra research projects because otherwise, IMO the exponential scaling XP required for higher levels was severely outmatched to the scaling up of XP per project (once your crit chance peaks--it completely levels off), and 7000 just wasn't anything like a match to the highest levels. 21000 for an upper-level R&D player is more like it.

Thank you for addressing this.

rodentmaster · January 2015

I wonder if there are other changes as well that are very close? Will there be extra project slots added in the future, or perhaps add mods control to crafted items, or even something simple like reducing crafting costs and decreasing project time gates?

js26568 · January 2015

This should have been done before now.

If the developers were truly concerned about people leveling up the R&D schools too quickly then there wouldn't have been a "FINISH NOW" button....

gavinruneblade · January 2015

Thank you!

gonalius · January 2015

Bwahahahaha! By my guestimates, my first R&D school will have hit level 15 days before the Anniversary... Bah! Bah I say! (I kid I kid, its good news). I was just thinking yesterday that unlocking the ability to slot a second project in the same school would be a nice addition - Admittedly, I considered it more as a C-Store or Level 5/10 unlock, but I can accept free. Reluctantly of course.

drake122svk · January 2015

Translation: Since we've milked the R&D time-gated projects for long enough now, we have determined that folks who didn't pay us to fast track it until now are unlikely to do so ever. Thus you can now slot 3 projects at the same time, it no longer matters anyway. There are plenty of other opportunities for us to grab your money.

#BlatantMoneyGrab

thatcursedwolf · January 2015

I'd have preferred the old five Research method but three will take 20 down from a year to what 15 was and 15 down to a month.

Cryptic still has plenty of room for the Buy It NAO! crowd to do so.

Seems a win-win.

gorngonzolla · January 2015

olliereport wrote: »

interesting, cool, 3 is better than 1

but why 3? why not just remove the limitation?

Good questions, and ones that were brought up by the rest of the team when we discussed this change.

Why 3? Well, honestly we chose three out of caution. We would like players to be able to focus on a single school if they like, but we also don't want players progressing through the system too quickly. This is the sort of thing I'd like to take one step at a time.

you should try and see the game from a new player perspective, the research climb to level 15 superior upgrade kits is very tough, removing the limitation would make the game even more accessible

I am an avid STO player and have gone through the process of building as many of the Superior Kits as I could. Part of the impetus for this change was to make Superior Tech Upgrade Kits more within reach. Many devs' experiences combined with player feedback with the system influenced this change.

Regards,

Phil "Gorngonzolla" Zeleski

Cryptic Studios

Lead Systems Designer

captainransom · January 2015

YES!!! Excellent. Now I can get my alts caught up.

gonalius · January 2015

olliereport wrote: »

interesting, cool, 3 is better than 1

but why 3? why not just remove the limitation?

you should try and see the game from a new player perspective, the research climb to level 15 superior upgrade kits is very tough, removing the limitation would make the game even more accessible

Well until you hit level 15 in something you can only have four slots anyway, so at least then people can start on a second school.

spockout1 · January 2015

Gorngonzolla,

I appreciate the posting out here in the general discussion forums as well.

This sounds like a great idea to me. Sorry if this has already been asked or is otherwise well-known, does that mean you can slot the daily mission for the same school 3 times a day?

farmallm · January 2015

This is good. As I can work on crafting gear while I'm trying to level others. This has been much needed. Since some gear can take some time to get done.

blassreiterus · January 2015

Thanks, Gorngonzola, for making the change. Ignore all the negative posts that will come because of the decision.

smeeinn1t · January 2015

All round cheesy goodness, nice move that should allow a better rate of progress, thanks for this.

gorngonzolla · January 2015

spockout1 wrote: »

Gorngonzolla,

I appreciate the posting out here in the general discussion forums as well.

This sounds like a great idea to me. Sorry if this has already been asked or is otherwise well-known, does that mean you can slot the daily mission for the same school 3 times a day?

Yessir. That is precisely what this change will allow.

Phil "Gorngonzolla" Zeleski

Cryptic Studios

Lead Systems Designer

vawlkus · January 2015

Bit late, since all 9 of my chars are pretty close to hitting 15 in all schools now (no dilithium spent), but meh. Might make it a little easier on others that get into this late, or to get to max level (whatever that is).

gulberat · January 2015

gorngonzolla wrote: »

I am an avid STO player and have gone through the process of building as many of the Superior Kits as I could. Part of the impetus for this change was to make Superior Tech Upgrade Kits more within reach. Many devs' experiences combined with player feedback with the system influenced this change.

Regards,

Phil "Gorngonzolla" Zeleski

Cryptic Studios

Lead Systems Designer

Having the experience of playing without dev magic to get an idea of what the experience is really like is a good thing. I hope more of your team will take a page out of your book and do the same. Glad to hear you did.

Thanks as well for the insight on what actually went into your decision-making process...not just overarching talking points but the nitty gritty of what you actually looked at and what you actually did. This is the kind of communication that helps.

More suggestions, feedback, and a look at how the entire DR economy and experience all fits together as a whole for better and for worse may be found in the review link in my signature.

deaftravis05 · January 2015

emacsheadroom wrote: »

I invite everyone to bear witness to the closest a Cryptic dev will ever come to saying: "We made an error in judgement. The players were right and we were wrong. We're sorry."

Easy... it's nice when the developers comment in here, so be nice. I'd like them to feel welcome here.

lucho80 wrote: »

Excellent change.

Now if someone could finally fix the bug with the ground weapons not getting the new mods. It's the only glaring bug left from implementation since the other ones are annoyances.

Annoyances being:
1) Clicking a school and getting a diff one.
1) Clicking a school and not getting the daily R&D when it should be available.

Yes, i find clicking on the school that's showing up will allow you to then select the school you want

breadandcircuses · January 2015

gorngonzolla wrote: »

Yessir. That is precisely what this change will allow.

Phil "Gorngonzolla" Zeleski

Cryptic Studios

Lead Systems Designer

Nice, we're getting back to the 3-of-a-type setup we had initially. I never did get the reasoning behind implementing the one 20-hr per School, but shifting back to the three is a great way of helping players actually get to the point of spending dilithium on Upgrades and Superior Kits, which seems like a win-win.

Thank you, truly.

rahmkota19 · January 2015

First of all, thank you for this change.

Second of all, thank you for communicating this to us.
You have no idea how positive this community can be influenced by exactly these types of communications.

Good job Cryptic!

R&D Research Project Improvements

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