Delta Recruiting Positives (let's make Tacofangs smile)

chipg7 · March 2015

https://twitter.com/Tumerboy/status/580372784158638080

I just can't even today. Everything we do that we think will be fun/a benefit to players, is apparently the worst thing ever.

Apparently, that was a terrible thing, because now we're forcing people to abandon their main toons and replay old missions.

We've got a situation where one of the game's most community-active devs is feeling down about the negativity. And he's obviously feeling disheartened enough to post about it.

Taco, there is a significant chunk of the playerbase that likes Delta Recruitment.

Of course, some players will throw negative labels on anything they don't like, and they'll complain that it's not what they wanted (case in point: I've honestly seen a lot of 'this isn't a T6 Connie so Delta Recruitment sucks' thrown around :P). But there are a lot of positive comments hidden in the threads as well. And of course there's a portion of the playerbase that isn't on the forums, or doesn't reach out via Twitter, Reddit, etc., so there are voices that aren't being heard.

Negative speak is often the loudest, and the easiest to hear. Positives are often played closer to the chest. So here are some positives that I've felt Delta Recruitment brings to the table:

- account-wide benefits, so playing this new toon will help my other toons at the same time
- new story / mission objectives, refreshing older content as part of the 'let's keep everything up-to-date' approach
- giving a bonus reason for playing the old missions that I enjoyed anyways
- another aspect to the factions' inner workings is being showcased, temporal agencies, lending to more options for future storyline content (pun intended

)
- making NPC 'stores' for easy transfer of these new benefits between other toons
- unlockable XP benefits for any player in the server during the event

And on a personal note...

- finally pushing me to make a real Fed alt, so I can get my hands on that sweet, sweet Vesta goodness :cool:

The floor's open, fellow players. While I understand there are concerns and complains, please keep those to other threads. This one is for Taco!

ceekayzero · March 2015

chipg7 wrote: »

Taco, there is a significant chunk of the playerbase that likes Delta Recruitment.

Hear hear!

I like the idea of dilithium-on-kill that was mentioned in the initial blog. But:

I haven't played through the leveling in a very long time - since before Season 8. I was considering a new alt anyway, and then Delta Recruitment got announced - Cryptic was basically giving me tons of benefits to making a new alt! Including mechanisms to entice me to play through all the story missions. That's...well, very cool.

I've spent the past two weeks (and will spend the next ten days) gathering more resources to prepare for Delta Rising. It was an absolute shot in the arm, and I think Cryptic did something fantastic here.

realisticalty · March 2015

Y'know, I've read Taco's forum posts and I really like how he engages with the user base, and from one or two of his posts I suspect he may have the same sour cynical sense of humor as I do.

Of course I have concerns about abandoning my main, and that's why I voice them, so the dev team will adjust so it isn't that much of an issue so the recruitment ends up being even better than originally anticipated. In fact, one of my concerns, that I tend to play slow and may not be able to level in the allotted time frame, was alleviated recently in an interview where someone (was it Rivera) said something about once created, always a recruit.

But all this talk of how good or bad something is, I haven't even seen the specifics so how in the world can I pass judgement either way?

So I would say to those hard working members of the development team, as long as you are soliciting enough feedback to make sure obvious errors are avoided (as much as possible, life isn't perfect) and obvious pitfalls corrected, no need to take all this negativity seriously unless it is coming from people who are completely and fully informed as to all the details and best if they have tested it. Who knows, they might end up, dare I say, liking it?

Me, I'm waiting for explanation blogs before I even -begin- to form an opinion.

(And no, I'm no fanboi...got enough credentials in that regard..just another nobody user among the multitudes...)

angrytarg · March 2015

Well, I personally will not "abandon my main" for some stats just as I don't rush after every new shiny or big numbers. I cannot understand people's reaction to the event to be honest. I can not say that I am positive about it either since - I don't know anything. The reason for this is that Cryptic does not provide information but only release marketing teasers without actually providing facts. I do think the "fear" and "anger" (it's still a game people

) they face now is self-made due to the terrible way of providing information. This only leads to speculation, rumours and trash talk.

orion0029 · March 2015

I'm cautiously optimistic about the Delta Recruitment event.

I really like getting a free character slot. (no more odd numbers on my roster. YAY!)

And playing through those early missions again would be a nice distraction from dilithium grinding, fleet politics, etc...

Best of all account-wide rewards!

I'll get some goodies on my other characters for playing a new one, that'll be great!

My only complaint would be my Delta Recruit won't be able to fly a Kobali cruiser firing out Crystalline Energy Torpedoes...:( (If there were a way to get those limited time rewards on new characters, I'd be quite excited about making a Delta Recruit:D)

coupaholic · March 2015

He's a big boy, I'm sure he'll get over it. And in time everyone else will too. You know what this place is like. Mountains out of molehills.

sheldonlcooper · March 2015

I will make a character for this. I'm very interested to see whatever story elements are added. Will I grind everything for this character and upgrade everything? No. It will exist just for the story.

lordstipe2000 · March 2015

Ferar Not Taco,

I am looking forward to this even even though it means restarting my partially leveled science alt... I think it will be an interesting and fun experience and am looking forward to it.

saedeith · March 2015

I plan on rolling a Rom and KDF toon for this event but more info would be appreciated.

evilmark444 · March 2015

I think most people at concerned because we've had 3 blogs now with basically the same information in each one. If we had some specifics already, I suspect there would be more positive feelings towards it.

captainmal3 · March 2015

I like Taco, and I want to like the delta recruit event, but I'm not going to apologise for being wary of a new event in light of previous experience. If Taco wants to hear a more positive response to this event then he should talk to the PR department and try and get them to clarify the communities concerns (not that I think he has any power over what they reveal). All I need to hear is the words 'delta recruits will have no bonuses over other characters after the event ends'. If Taco knows that that is the case then he can consider my feelings on the event to be positive, but I don't know if that's the case, so I can't help but be concerned.

khan5000 · March 2015

Even Captain Kirk had alts...Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Archer...Nu Kirk...they were all Kirk's alts.

captainmal3 · March 2015

valoreah wrote: »

Did you miss the part where there are benefits to ALL characters on your account?

No I did not, and in fact I was very glad to hear it, however I also didn't miss the part where it said many of them are account bonuses, with the strong implication that some are not. All I want is clarification on what those are, is that really so much to ask?

crypticarmsman · March 2015

Taco, the environmental graphics work you've done for STO is top notch.

That said, I think the shift in development strategy that STO has seen and been going down since Season 8.5 to now is overall a BAD paradigm driven by BAD Lead Developer decisions.

If that were not that case, I don't think PWE would have seen such a big drop in overall financials, and PWI wouldn't have directed PWE to downsize 18 positions across it's holdings. It's never good for developers to do everything a playerbase wants, but it's also bad for Lead Developers to NOT really listen to player feedback, and publically belittle said playerbase and dismiss said feedback as invalid in 90% of said Lead Developers public interviews over the past year.

Unfortunately, for things to change, Cryptic upper management has to believe there is an issue; but given the events of the past years they don't seem to believe they have an issue in this area; OR if they do, they are VERY SLOW in attempting to do anything about it; which is sad because a lot of things seen to be being cut from STO (one example: see the state of Borg Red Alerts currently on Tribble) with no real good explanation.

I'm sorry if that gets you down, and know you just implement the final decisions given to you by the Leads; but when the Leads start making what are bad decisions ( which the financials seem to bear out) that drive paying players away; the players who would still like to see the game rebound aren't going to blow sunshine the STO Dev team's way.

thutmosis85 · March 2015

Well the "parallel Storyline" is appreciated ... even if it's just some Scanning Minigame within the same old Missions ... so is the Free Character Slot ...

... since I don't really care for Spec. Points & Upgrades, I probably won't / wouldn't care about "Delta Recruit" - Advantages, I might not get with my main ...

I'm an Altoholic anyway ... so I'll probably enjoy the Story once again (better than running Patrols on my Main), even if I'm gonna abandon said Toon, after the Event ...

PS : Like others have said ... they did a poor job of providing Information ... so it'll probably backfire even more ... some people even expect new Story Missions from 1-60, because the Blogs aren't really clear about it ...
-> ""Parallel Storyline"" !? ... => don't listen to stupid Hype, manage your expectations, and take it for what it is ...

medalionemissary · March 2015

C'mon Taco

Engage those adaptative borg subroutines on your Shield Matrix!

Negative nillys will always be there cuz it's the INTARNETS

I'm still playing

And I look forward to many more years of new content from youse guys

captainmal3 · March 2015

valoreah wrote: »

The ones that are not account bound are an incentive for existing players to roll an alt during the event.

No, the ones that are account bound are the incentive for existing players, since it means we get something on our mains. All I want is clarification on whether those delta recruit only rewards are something like extra dil ore or some marks, i.e. something my main can get anyway, or something like a trait or unique console or hell even a uniform, something that my main will never be able to get.

khan5000 · March 2015

captainmal3 wrote: »

No I did not. I also didn't miss the part where it said many of them are account bonuses, with the strong implication that some are not. All I want is clarification on what those are, is that really so much to ask?

The problem isn't wanting to know more about the Delta Recruits...that's natural...we all want to know more...the problem is seeing everything thing the team does as a bad thing. These guys and gals aren't perfect and this game isn't perfect...but not everything put into this game is a diabolical plot to steal all our monies.

khan5000 · March 2015

captainmal3 wrote: »

No, the ones that are account bound are the incentive for existing players, since it means we get something on our mains. All I want is clarification on whether those delta recruit only rewards are something like extra dil ore or some marks, i.e. something my main can get anyway, or something like a trait or unique console or hell even a uniform, something that my main will never be able to get.

Listen to this..it's long but somewhere in the middle towards the end is when thy talk about Delta Recruits

http://www.trekradio.net/on-demand/

davefenestrator · March 2015

There was a poster here that whined about free T6 ships using up all of his ship slots. All you can do is shake your head and ignore these people.

I am looking forward to the event as an excuse to create a Rom - KDF engineer, to complete my set of (tac, eng, sci) x (fed, KDF, rom).

I might also delete my rom - fed science captain to make him rom - KDF science instead (free Plasmonic Leech since I have the destroyer).

I like playing the story content, and being able to use canon loadouts like beams and a torp without worrying about endgame min-maxing. I don't worry about accolades or getting every spec point so my new characters not being "as good" as established ones doesn't worry me.

cookiecrook · March 2015

if the rewards are decent and worth while, I just might bother to create another character.

starkaos · March 2015

If I was in charge of Delta Recruitment for Cryptic, then I would release different rewards for each faction. That way, there will be a bunch of players buying 2 extra character slots and other C-Store items like inventory slots. It would also have players that only play Federation play Romulan and Klingon characters which means C-Store ships and costumes.

centaurianalpha · March 2015

It's too early to give any positives, especially in light of Cryptic's sustained history of bug-ridden, ill-conceived & badly executed code. I would be happy to discover that Delta Recruiting was released bug-free, but we all know better...

zathri83 · March 2015

The delta symbol looks cool.

gl2814e · March 2015

I took a prolonged break after playing through Delta Rising.

I think it was a good move to go and play some different games instead of stewing over my disagreement with some design decisions. (Don't think either of us were wrong, but I needed the break.)

Anyway this Delta Recruit event has me excited enough to come back and roll a new main with some specific gear planning built with the post DR game in mind.

So don't pay mind to the unhappy lunatics on the forums and even Reddit Taco, they just need a break and some perspective.

I like the 1 to 50 leveling game so I'm excited to roll a new main for this event.

Delta Recruiting Positives (let's make Tacofangs smile)

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