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The Folly Of Delta Recruitment Drive
ccarmichael07
Member Posts: 755 Arc User
I can't help but see the newly announced Delta Recruitment Drive as, what my granddad used to say, "spitting in the wind."
For reasons unknown to us (the players) the company (Cryptic) wants us to create new characters. They want us to create new characters very badly, even going so far as to dangle perks and dilithium generation in front of us.
But, what is missing, at least to me, is true incentive to create another character. As I've stated elsewhere, I actually deleted alt characters with Delta Rising, because there was no reason to keep them around. Additionally, while I've had a desire to create other characters, there have not been the things I wanted as "accoutrements" to entice me to go about doing so.
For 5 years, players have been asking for a variety of things. But rather than speaking to the other player's I will only speak to my own.
For a long time, I've wanted to create a Wrath of Khan era character, played as that era from start to finish, with all the goodies that go with it. But, there are some things missing (which I consider vital to the experience) that hold me back from doing as much. The things that are missing are:
- TWOK era bridge/interior (similar to the TOS era one, with appropriately dressed crew)
- TWOK era scaling vanity weapons (similar to the ones that came with the TOS pack)
- Tier 4 TWOK era vessel (Tiers 1, 2, 3 and 5 are covered. But not 4)
- TWOK era scaling ship weapons (similar to what comes with the TOS Constitution ship)
- Additional TWOK uniform options (Away Jacket, Bomber Jacket, Enlisted Uniform, etc)
Usually, when a game company decides to do a recruitment drive, they bring out some long requested items to help entice people to try their product. There would be alot of opportunity in this drive to not only bring in new people, but to help reignite interest from older players as well.
But, given that I haven't heard of any major influx of new "stuff" which players have been asking for, I can't help but feel this recruitment drive is nothing but a waste.
For reasons unknown to us (the players) the company (Cryptic) wants us to create new characters. They want us to create new characters very badly, even going so far as to dangle perks and dilithium generation in front of us.
But, what is missing, at least to me, is true incentive to create another character. As I've stated elsewhere, I actually deleted alt characters with Delta Rising, because there was no reason to keep them around. Additionally, while I've had a desire to create other characters, there have not been the things I wanted as "accoutrements" to entice me to go about doing so.
For 5 years, players have been asking for a variety of things. But rather than speaking to the other player's I will only speak to my own.
For a long time, I've wanted to create a Wrath of Khan era character, played as that era from start to finish, with all the goodies that go with it. But, there are some things missing (which I consider vital to the experience) that hold me back from doing as much. The things that are missing are:
- TWOK era bridge/interior (similar to the TOS era one, with appropriately dressed crew)
- TWOK era scaling vanity weapons (similar to the ones that came with the TOS pack)
- Tier 4 TWOK era vessel (Tiers 1, 2, 3 and 5 are covered. But not 4)
- TWOK era scaling ship weapons (similar to what comes with the TOS Constitution ship)
- Additional TWOK uniform options (Away Jacket, Bomber Jacket, Enlisted Uniform, etc)
Usually, when a game company decides to do a recruitment drive, they bring out some long requested items to help entice people to try their product. There would be alot of opportunity in this drive to not only bring in new people, but to help reignite interest from older players as well.
But, given that I haven't heard of any major influx of new "stuff" which players have been asking for, I can't help but feel this recruitment drive is nothing but a waste.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
Post edited by ccarmichael07 on
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Comments
I generally only come back to STO anymore just for the events... like the CC event and only to do the event. I can say honestly that it takes me 30 minutes to run 4 characters through CC and DOff them and that's been about the most time I've done in STO since Winter.
But I still have hope for STO... it's that damn HOPE... I just don't want to farm out patrol after patrol to get three of my characters one level. I'm hoping that the recruitment drive will allow me to actually play the game with minimal drive.
I'd probably be inclined to do it to, if while doing it I could have the experience I really want to have, an experience that resembles the "Trek" that I most identify with.
Without that, can't really say I'm that interested.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
The reasons for why Cryptic would do this? I honestly don't know... Undoubtedly people will cry METRICS! and that it's nothing more than a way to bloat the games' statistics, but I'd like to think it's a genuine attempt to encourage people to actively play the game, instead of just grinding Spec XP...
But you know what? While they're handing out a free character slot, increased dilithium gain for new characters during the event, an account-wide trait and upto 3x XP for my main characters (if reaching the top goals), I'm not gonna sit here and look a gift horse in the mouth...
I intend to create a new character and, quite frankly, milk the event for all it's worth and when it's all over and done with, I'll decide whether the new alt is promoted to 'main' status, or whether it languishes at the bottom of my character list, like so many others...
Rather than what they have planned right now, I would almost rather see a "New Game +" sort of feature, where you have the option to prepare "yourself" for the events of 2409-2410 and the Iconian War by going back in time and having a temporal mini-arc. The trade-off is giving up everything you already have (you would need massive compensation and benefits as a result. Something at least as good as [but obviously not] a 10,000 dilithium refining cap perma-boost.) to "replay" your main character and unlock "DELTA MODE."
There could be a limit on "Δ" mode of 1 character per account, but it could feature better reward modifiers, exclusive goodies and maybe even account-wide benefit unlocks.
I didn't say it was bad.
However, I don't think it will be as effective at generating numbers as Cryptic hopes. There isn't alot of incentive to build new characters, when those characters can't be played in the way people want to play them.
There have been requests for C-Store items going back 5 years, that still haven't, and likely won't make their way to us. I'd be curious to see how many players that used to play, left for these reasons, and could possibly have been tempted back, if they could have the experience they were looking for.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
I mean brilliant move. Make people play old content all over again and tell them its an event!
Fair enough... Well, I know I'll be taking part, for no other reason than to milk the rewards for all their worth while the event is active, to be perfectly honest...
There is a unique account-wide Starship Trait on offer... So, that for many people, would likely be incentive enough... There will also be boosts to XP for all characters, based on 'Delta Recruits' unlocking certain goals in the week prior...
This being said, I went ahead and read what Trendy posted on ARC before coming here. I will admit Cryptic's track record has left me skeptical. Very skeptical. Along with cynical. Highly cynical. Both of these are not mindsets I want to have about STO. But I feel as if I have no choice in the matter.
"Wait and see." best describes my attitude concerning Delta Recruitment. I know it will not be perfect. Despite the parent company's name. I halfway expect this may fall flat on its TRIBBLE and take STO down with it. But I'll wait and see. I intend to hang back at let the others go first. This way. I don't get caught up in things like the 17x Leveling Fiasco brought about by InvisiEP and his minions.
I've been looking for a reason to put some serious effort into an alt. This is it, for me. If nothing else, the account-wide benefits the announcement speaks of could be great.
Also, it's a nice way to freshen up old mission content, with some new objectives. Couple that with reworking some of the old missions altogether, and yeah I'm in
It's free / bonus / new stuff. I'm not going to argue with it. It's admittedly a strange incentive they've offered - unexpected delivery, but pretty awesome all things considered.
- buy new lock box ships
- buy new lobi items
- upgrade new gear
New toons = money, alot of money!
Some of us have invested hundreds or even thousands of dollars on our main characters. Now do the same with a new one! And don't forget to buy a new bug ship aswell cuz your old one is missing a trait... :rolleyes:
Oh and btw, since they hardly sell any more character slots they can easily give em for free without loosing income and say: "Hey look - free stuff! Aren't we nice and awesome?"
Yeah, money. But they have been given tons and tons and mega tons of ideas over the years that would cause us to throw money at them. They've ignored those ideas, and continue to do so.
That's what makes this so baffling to me. I can't fathom hundreds or thousands of dollars spent on an alt, rebuying stuff you already have, or regrinding everything you already earned.
/shrug
Just not a very effective means to make money, from my point of view.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
I had much preferred a plan that involved alt-friendliness towards *existing* alts, but it's something, at least.
Amusing how you blame Cryptic here when all this is reliant on a person being completely incapable of controlling their impulses, rendering them completely incapable of stopping themself from spending money on all those added extras...
You don't blame a retailer for having a sale because you go and spend money - yes, they are providing the incentive, but ultimately, it's you who makes the conscious decision to spend that money, not them...
Agreed, but if I read the announcement corrently, if the Delta Recruit alts reach certain goals it will increase XP gain for ALL characters the following week, so they've not completely forgotten existing characters...
why in blazes would you do any of that for an alt?
not one thing in this event requires any of that.
Cryptic is just looking for the cheapest way. They don't even create a lot of new content. They just reward you for grinding the same stuff you did month or even years ago...again.
Min effort, max profit.
I can't decide what kind of thread this is supposed to be but if it is a TWoK advocacy thread then I'm all in. I love those ships, their design, the pistols, all of it. I want my TWoK and my Undiscovered Country bridges. I want ship design inspired by TWoK so we can have back some of those glorious hard angles and the look about the ships that seemed to advocate that they came from more than just a CGI jerk off. They looked and felt real.
Edit: Gotta call myself out here. They didn't "feel" like anything as far as I know.
He didn't say you *have* to do that: only that they want you to -- which he's absolutely right about, of course.
And chances are many ppl really will. They'll start out saying they're just gonna roll a 'contraband/Dilithum' toon, so to speak, but will probably wind up buying stuffz for their alt later on, after all.
I have a whole mess of alts, and I have only paid for stuff on two of them (my original main, and my current main).
I guess I just don't understand what people are complaining about - their own shortcomings, or that the game isn't deliberately unprofitable.
Some of the new rewards will be exclusive to your new delta recruitment toon. So Cryptic is hoping that some guys out there are going to make their new toon the new main and paying for all the shiny stuff again.
We haven't got all details yet, but I'm telling ya: It's a trap! Just like that awesome last chance to get a cool bug ship with a free upgrade to T6 capabilities once DR hits the server...
I don't see this happening at all. But it would be nice if we were to see it as those were the last ships (and only uniforms before and after) that I liked from the Star Trek shows and movies.
As a side note, I didn't like the pistols but I could keep the TOS ones.
I do think they need to offer something new for the event. Ideally new T1-T4/5 ship lines. Or something else that levels for your Account along with the Delta Recruit. Pure old missions with new objectives and few new missions here and there really isn't good enough.
Some of my favourite parts of STO are the bits where they TRIBBLE around with time travel and/or alternate realities. The first time you go back to TOS-era and see that the Klingons appearance has altered to be like the original show was awesome (even if they did insist on wrecking it with an actual explanation as to why).
Gotta disagree with you there. The entire Delta Quadrant and all the missions are brand new, the T6 ships with new game mechanics are new, there's great story with continued voice acting... etc.
Maybe, but pushing players to make alts isn't the #1 way to do it. I obviously play Romulan as my main, so I could go ahead and play Romulan as a Delta Recruit and have all of my C-Store goodies immediately available.
Sure, there's some revenue potential there from rebuying a couple per-character things - but it's not the most lucrative approach.
This is what I'm banking on. Looking forward to hearing more.
Before calling it a failure... can we just wait and see what else we learn through Dev Blogs? We still got like a month before this happens!
It is stipulated in the Blog that there will be an account-wide Ship Trait available...
The explanation from Enterprise why Klingons looked like that in TOS is even worse. I preferred Worf's explanation, we don't like to talk about it.
New equipment, ie. items, was also specifically mentioned.
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This is a great event to try to get fed-only casual players to try creating a Klingon or Romulan alt.
Yes, jaded veterans with eleventy characters who'd rather skip the story episodes will snort and say why bother, but this event isn't really for you. I see it as being more for new players, casuals with only one or two characters, and people who still enjoy creating alts.
I still need one more alt to complete my set of 9 = (tac,eng,sci) x (fed,rom,kdf) so this is the perfect excuse for me to do it next month.
Edit: people who prefer Romulan and KDF characters should be cheering for this event as a way to shift a little of the balance away from feds. Science and Engineering captains should also be hopeful that it will get some tac-only players to create sci and eng alts.