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Re: The mysterious 'something' to help the Exp grind?
orion0029
Member Posts: 1,122 Bug Hunter
Some time ago Trendy eluded that there was 'something' in the works to ease the burden of grinding out Exp. To this day I haven't heard any word as what the 'something' is, or when it will arrive. If ever.
My questions:
1. Is the 'something' the skill point boxes now being offered as weekly awards for Featured Episodes? (If it is, I'm afraid it's inadequate)
2. If not, can someone offer any details regarding when the 'something' is coming or what it might be?
I only ask because it's been some time since this was brought up and the painful amounts of Exp required to get Skill points still exists, and still requires a rather painful amount of effort to max out a specialization.
Regardless of Specializations being 'long term goals', assuming the average player can squeeze out one spec point a day, that means it would take a little over three (3) MONTHS (105 points, minus 10 from leveling = 95) to max out ONE character. You'd have to multiply this time by the number of characters you have and that is how long it would take a player to max out all of their characters.
So I'm looking at getting one skill point a day, for the next Three years (95 points needed * 12 characters / 365.25 days = 3.12 years) just to max out all my characters. And I'm sure there are players who have more characters than I do.
All this also assumes that a player can afford the time to get one point per day. Not everyone can spare that kind of time, I'm averaging one point per week or TWENTY ONE YEARS (95 points needed * 12 characters / 52 weeks = 21.92 years) to finish up the specializations on my characters.
My only alternative is to abandon many of my characters and focus on just a few, which kinda defeats the purpose of having them, yes? (Aside from the extra storage/exchange space, and dilithium refinement.)
It would be great if Spec points earned were account-wide (much like how Diablo III runs their 'Paragon Leveling System'), that would ease the burden significantly and I wouldn't have to worry about grinding out over 1100+ spec points. Granted this would be a bit of a programming nightmare to implement without wiping out everyone's already earned points... (Which I'd be ok with if it meant future points would be account shared
)
In lieu of that, perhaps reducing the exp needed for a single spec point? 150k exp for one point takes some time, and is the reason why players such as myself can only squeeze one out every few days.
Please help Cryptic, this is an unreasonable amount of time investment required to finish character progression.
Note: The above calculations also assume that there are no future specializations planned for release, which would greatly increase the time investment.
My questions:
1. Is the 'something' the skill point boxes now being offered as weekly awards for Featured Episodes? (If it is, I'm afraid it's inadequate)
2. If not, can someone offer any details regarding when the 'something' is coming or what it might be?
I only ask because it's been some time since this was brought up and the painful amounts of Exp required to get Skill points still exists, and still requires a rather painful amount of effort to max out a specialization.
Regardless of Specializations being 'long term goals', assuming the average player can squeeze out one spec point a day, that means it would take a little over three (3) MONTHS (105 points, minus 10 from leveling = 95) to max out ONE character. You'd have to multiply this time by the number of characters you have and that is how long it would take a player to max out all of their characters.
So I'm looking at getting one skill point a day, for the next Three years (95 points needed * 12 characters / 365.25 days = 3.12 years) just to max out all my characters. And I'm sure there are players who have more characters than I do.
All this also assumes that a player can afford the time to get one point per day. Not everyone can spare that kind of time, I'm averaging one point per week or TWENTY ONE YEARS (95 points needed * 12 characters / 52 weeks = 21.92 years) to finish up the specializations on my characters.
My only alternative is to abandon many of my characters and focus on just a few, which kinda defeats the purpose of having them, yes? (Aside from the extra storage/exchange space, and dilithium refinement.)
It would be great if Spec points earned were account-wide (much like how Diablo III runs their 'Paragon Leveling System'), that would ease the burden significantly and I wouldn't have to worry about grinding out over 1100+ spec points. Granted this would be a bit of a programming nightmare to implement without wiping out everyone's already earned points... (Which I'd be ok with if it meant future points would be account shared
)In lieu of that, perhaps reducing the exp needed for a single spec point? 150k exp for one point takes some time, and is the reason why players such as myself can only squeeze one out every few days.
Please help Cryptic, this is an unreasonable amount of time investment required to finish character progression.
Note: The above calculations also assume that there are no future specializations planned for release, which would greatly increase the time investment.
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My character Tsin'xing
lol dude...the OP has a valid point...there has been nothing but repeated nerfs to all methods of gaining XP...even a nerf that was supposed to be one way but silently became another. Cryptic has been less than fair and straightforward about XP.
Enter Trendy, whom is at first at least, trying to create a dialogue about XP and says that there are some things "in the works" to help alleviate the grind...this was to help defuse the player hate being generated by the last Doffing XP nerf.
In the end, I think the OP is sadly correct: the Single point gains from the episode IS our "relief". And that sucks.
Someone needs to bring this up in the Reddit subforum, because it seems they like it there better.
Don't forget the Armada system adds +% to XP
Also if i remember correctly the weekly spec points was not the relief Trendy was on about.
Lol bro, if you had actually read my OP I actually did the math assuming 1 point/day, which is faster than your 2 days, and for someone who runs 12 characters even at 1/day that's still 3 years, playing every day without breaks.
That is what I'm concerned about, if gaining skill points were easier for alts (ie. account wide) I'd actually be more than happy with the current Exp rates.
And yes, dispite my 3-21 year problem of skill points for characters, I still enjoy STO.
If you play something like 1 character only, there is no XP issue.
If you have alternates, there is a massive XP issue. This game used to be quite alt-friendly. Ever since DR and the incessant XP nerfs, DOFFing being the most recent, it just makes it that much harder. And I'm not even talking about upgrading gear for those alts, because that's insane to do in today's STO.
What's funny, was when there nerfs to XPs, ever since the "Tau Dewa Patrol Shutdown" with everyone still online, the defenders here said, "You should be DOFFing for your XPs." Well, as I said, they nerfed DOFFing to hell a month back for XPs.
If you have that 1 or very few characters, you should be racking up on your XPs/Specialization Points. If you have the alts like a lot of veteran players did, that kind of progress is impossible for them.
The "Leveling" doesn't stop at 60. It keeps on going, and Cryptic keeps on churning out new Specializations.
I play about 10 characters..
And i tell you again, i gain my exp at my pace. Maybe 1 spec point every 4 or 5 days. And i dont do anything special to gain more xp, i just play the game doing my usual stuff. I dont play with all my toons every day. I dont need to. This is not a job (even if sometimes it feels like).
If you have so many characters, its your fault, but dont "blame" the exp mecahnics because you want all the spec points asap in all your characters. Again this is something cryptic made to keep players playing to achieve something through the whole year. And people complains about not being able to gain 1 spec point almost every day lol..
Not my fault I have tons of characters when this game used to be friendly for it. BEFORE Profits Rising. All these XP issues arose ever since the XP related nerfs AFTER Profits Rising.
Maybe YOU enjoy TRIBBLE-poor progress. Some of us don't.
My character Tsin'xing
Then you are not enjoying the game as it is supossed to.. sorry.
Also, that bonus exp from armadas doesn't work. So no extra there.
Before DR and the cap increase you hit the level cap long before you had played all the story missions. So you could select and pick your favourites, be it for the story or be it for the reward.
We can have that situation again when at level 50 we have access to all missions. I don't care much about getting a level or getting a spec point in itself. I fore see that non of my characters will ever have a spec tree completed, but that is not important for me. Important is the fact that some of my characters are locked out of game content unless I level them up to the right level.
I agree. The obversations I see. Cryptic does something really a no brainer. The player outcry foul. Cryptic says we are working on it then closed down any particular threads or consesus among the player base. Then a few month's later introduce a buggie Improvement but actually another Nerf.
I'm willing to beat the new ships announced Monday will go live Thursday with one or a few bugs. No science ships, decent carries, and probably nerfed spec's like the Resolute.
So in other words “Be in an alpha fleet of a huge armada if u like to progress your toons”
Yea, solid job Cryptic and what a relief. lol
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Pre DR I only had 7 characters, figure 95 skill points post level 60 times 7 characters that's still 665 skill points needed to finish the characters I had completed prior to DR launch.
At 1/day that's still nearly 2 years. Not counting any breaks, server downtime, real life issues, or STO Events (which could potentially slow experience progression).
All of this leads me to the conclusion that the only real solution would be to make an 'account skill point pool', which all post 60 skill point gains would be recorded (and account shared skill point exp bar) and allow individual level 60+ characters to assign skill points from this pool even if earned from other characters. (But not subtract from the pool, just keep track of how many points from the shared pool are used per character. Much like Diablo III's Paragon System)
Then people who run more than 1-3 characters won't have to worry about gaining 1+ skill point/day for years.
That way it would take the same amount of time to gain skill points for people who run 10+ characters as it would for people who run only 1-2.
My $0.02
I'd be curious as to what potential solutions others of the STO community think would solve the probem. (No sarcasm, I'm really curious, maybe we can surprise the Devs with constructive feedback.
Next restore those Bribe/Blackmail/Take care of Aquitted Orions/Delta Trade Missions to what they were before the readjustment.
Undo the 'unintended' Doff nerf never corrected after that other 'readjustment'
Actually provide a decent XP boost in the XP Boost Zone for Red Alerts.
Like you did with Superior Techs being a drop item, although rare, in Ground Battlezones, do the same with Spec Point Boxes.
Don't nerf the XP given out by the Under Fifty Missions when played by characters above 50. Restore them to pre 'Adjustment' levels. The mission when picked up at 60 shows it to be a 60 mission; Make it so. You can still readjust replay XP down but not to the point of ridiculousness.
Perhaps auto group characters in the Red Alerts so that some don't melt everything away before you get to target and you end up with practically nothing. Abuse avoidance system needed here.
I am sure that others may provide additional items rather than just blah, blah, blah... it's too tedious... yada, yada, yada.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Scaling Specialization only Xp bonus:
Game 'remembers' the most aquired post 60 spec points, from the character with the most spec points earned.
Other characters get (+50% X (Recorded points - Current points)) bonus Xp for earning spec points.
For example:
Main character Max Intel 30 points (no other points)
Alt character 'fresh 60' no points assigned
Alt character would recieve ( 50 X (20 - 0) ) = +1000% Xp for first spec point ( 50 X (20 - 1) ) = +950% for second spec point, etc...
This would allow Alts to quickly (depending on the % value) catch up to mains for spec points and would still require some effort on the alt character's part.
(Obviously +50% is just a suggested value, I'd think anywhere between +20% and +50% per point difference would be effective.)
And this wouldn't require an 'account wide' specialization point pool to be made, all that would be needed on an 'Account Level' would be the variable to keep track of the most post-60 points earned, everything else would be done 'Character Level'. Cool eh?
I'm only planning on filling Pilot for my TAC and Command for my ENG.
The Commando Tree I'm slowly filling for my Alt-Toons that I mostly use on the ground, not ALL of them.
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
Currently I am 'specializing' my characters, I have my main using Intel, one using Command, and honestly I haven't assigned any points on the rest.
Quite some time ago players complained about the alt-unfriendliness of the Reputation system, which at the time was just as unfriendly as the spec system (perhaps less so due to the lesser effort required to finish a reputation), as a result we got Sponsorship Tokens, which cut the effort of maxing a Reputation for an alt in half.
What is so different with the spec system that makes it any less important to complete specializations than Reputations?
I think they didn't want you to fill out the trees fast. As they wanted you to get them over time playing the new content when they come out with it. This is what I see of it anyways and seeing how fast that meter moved up. I'm in no hurry to fill out the trees.
My main thing is how long it takes to get from Lv50 to Lv60. That is what put a hold on my alts. And really killed their chances to have stuff from the Zen store. So in a way, they shot themselves in the foot for $.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
honestly 50-57 isnt too bad... its those last three that take 10x more than the previous 57 combined...
Very true on that.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Yet even "Maxed" you can only use 2 trees at one time.
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
Post 60 account specializations would be wonderful, but might need some kind of limits.
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
And i have on Lvl 60 toon, i play almost every day, PvEs on Advanced/Elite, Dyson and Kobali Battlezone, Argala, Aiding the Ocampa... But none of my Specs are finished. Pilot, command and commando are almost (3/4) done but i didn't even start intel yet.
Even if i play every day my online time is limited (i think thats normal for someone with a job/family/real life)
Hundreds of thousands of XP for every level is just too much
To know that i have to do that all over again on all of my other chars isn't encouraging.
And if i don't use those chars i am not going to buy things like Dilly, Keys or ships with zen (i have 2 Roms and 2 KDF so that would mean may ships/FSMs that i am not gonna buy) so its a money loss for cryptic.
Why would it be a problem if the specs were accountwide or one toon would benefit from the progress of other toons like this: If i reach Tier 1 in one Spec tree every toon (including the current one that jsut reached Tier 1 in thisexample) that has that spec activated gets 1,5 times the xp, Tier 2= 2 x, T3=3x and so on. since i can have 2 specs activated that would mean Tier 1 would give me 2x0,5 spec EXTRA so 1+ 0,5 + 0,5 = 2 times XP.
And after finishing a Spec that bonus would be reset to 0 so i don't have unlimited Bonus.
I don't think thats a problem.
We can buy sponsorship tokens for the rep systems so i can get all my Reps done in less than a month. We need something like that for the Specs too. Its how many spec points? 90 or more?. And maybe more specs coming? Since i (and i know i am not the only one) am already having problems to finish the specs every new spec will throw me back even further.