This event is one of the most unfun, abusive, banal reminders of why I've greatly dialed back my STO time and have decided to get entertainment from other games lately.
I decided to do this event on seven characters just to see if I was mistaken in the belief I've just had a string of bad luck in regards to AFKers, and to see just how quickly I could get fatigued after running the event so much.
Every single day I've done this event, I have had to deal with AFKers (either at the beginning or people who AFK in the middle of the mission) roughly 5-6 times a day. That is roughly 1 AFKer for each daily run of the event per character. I've done this for around 10 days now, and I've skipped a few days exactly because of this fatigue.
I've left the mission at least 3-4 times a day because of said AFKers, and have had to requeue. Eventually, I get tired of requeuing and simply put up with afk leechers because there is only so much time in the day, especially when I've decided to be extra punishing to myself by running it on 7 characters. I simply can not requeue the event each time there's afkers present.
Now, to address some talking points.
1: I understand why people afk in the mission. It's unfun. It's repetitive. There's no meaningful punishment for AFKing. Cryptic does not care if you AFK. There is absolutely no incentive to reporting AFKers. You are literally wasting time expecting Cryptic to discipline AFK players, particularly when the number of AFK players is this large.
Cryptic refusing to put in meaningful changes in how the AFK penalty is calculated, or refusing to change events to make it less grindy (like making the awards account-wide like with spaceships) is the same thing as endorsing AFKing.
They know it's a problem. It's been a problem for a long time. They've made some attempts at addressing it, but it's not going far enough.
2: "Just don't do it if it isn't fun.", this is technically correct (the best kind of correct). However, the problem with this logic is we are paying Cryptic for entertainment. A lot of people at Cryptic have put in time and effort to create this event. If we simply stop playing it because it isn't fun, then why are we giving money to Cryptic? They aren't producing a quality feature for STO if there are enough people who are giving up or skipping the event. This is their job. While we can choose not to participate in the event, it's counterintuitive for the fact these events are created to encourage participation.
3: There are weak links in the team. Only a few of my characters are what I would consider well-geared. This is part of my experiment, as I've chosen a mixed bag of geared and scrub characters to get the idea of who the weak links in the team are.
It is incredibly obvious that I am doing the lion's share of the work on my geared characters. Other people on my team are really given little incentive to help me out because I could literally solo the entire instance. This also exacerbates the afking problem -- as other players had might as well be afk in terms of their performance.
If I am on a poorly-geared character, it is incredibly obvious because the mission takes 3-4 times longer. As the weakest link in the team, I am basically 2 steps away from being an afker, and I am dependant upon the strongest link in the chain -- who can vary wildly from a true pro to someone just as geared as I am.
We can not solo this instance. Cryptic makes money off of making players ungodly powerful, but those players in the end, only benefit other players who have not put in the time and effort into gearing their characters.
There is no reciprocation. I can not expect other people to carry the torch for me on an ungeared character, nor should I expect to carry the torch for others. Either I do most/all of the work, or I languish in the mission. There is no middle ground. This is a problem.
4: "Then don't PUG. Get your friends/fleet/whatever to play with you."
I'm going to dispel this notion that I can find 4 other people at any time of day in my friends list or fleet who are willing to run this mission 7 times back to back on 7 characters who are just as geared as I am. Expecting 4 other people familiar to me to be at my beck and call with that many level 60 characters is unrealistic.
It's not going to happen. I am going to be forced into the situation of needing to run this event in a PUG, and it's impractical to expect even my friends and fleet to be just as geared and skilled as I am, as player skill and time is just as varied as it would be in a PUG.
If I have friends, the last thing I want to do is to torture them. Maybe some people don't mind torturing their friends or strongarming them into playing an unfun event like ITB ad nauseum, but I'm not one of those people. I tend to value my friends and the limited time my friends have too much to use them as tools for my own benefit.
This event is one of the most unfun, abusive, banal reminders of why I've greatly dialed back my STO time and have decided to get entertainment from other games lately.
I decided to do this event on seven characters
It's unfun. It's repetitive.
Just don't do it if it isn't fun.", this is technically correct (the best kind of correct).
The problem with this logic is we are paying Cryptic for entertainment.
why are we giving money to Cryptic?
They aren't producing a quality feature for STO
1: Nobody 'forced' you to do this. (So don't do it).
2: Then don't do it.
3: If it's not fun using "The best kind of correct", then... don't do it.
4: You are not paying Cryptic - its a Free To Play Game.
5: You are not: Whilst you may pay for 'other' things, Cryptic has never charged for content.
6: Then don't do it. (See 1, 2, 3).
This event is one of the most unfun, abusive, banal reminders of why I've greatly dialed back my STO time and have decided to get entertainment from other games lately.
I decided to do this event on seven characters
It's unfun. It's repetitive.
Just don't do it if it isn't fun.", this is technically correct (the best kind of correct).
The problem with this logic is we are paying Cryptic for entertainment.
why are we giving money to Cryptic?
They aren't producing a quality feature for STO
1: Nobody 'forced' you to do this. (So don't do it).
2: Then don't do it.
3: If it's the "best kind of correct", then... don't do it.
4: You are not paying Cryptic - its a Free To Play Game.
5: You are not: Whilst you may pay for 'other' things, Cryptic has never charged for content.
6: Then don't do it. (See 1, 2, 3).
Encouraging people not to play the game is not a great way to get people to play the game.
So tired of the "grind" white knights that act like having more free time is the same as skill or achievement. Its a game guys, and most of us have invested enough money that we should demanding better content, weapon balances, exploration, etc. This attitude if wash, rinse, repeat over and over and over, seems counter productive to having fun......which is what MMO gaming is all about for some sick reason. I guess most of you dont know the definition of insanity........
This event is one of the most unfun, abusive, banal reminders of why I've greatly dialed back my STO time and have decided to get entertainment from other games lately.
I decided to do this event on seven characters
It's unfun. It's repetitive.
Just don't do it if it isn't fun.", this is technically correct (the best kind of correct).
The problem with this logic is we are paying Cryptic for entertainment.
why are we giving money to Cryptic?
They aren't producing a quality feature for STO
1: Nobody 'forced' you to do this. (So don't do it).
2: Then don't do it.
3: If it's the "best kind of correct", then... don't do it.
4: You are not paying Cryptic - its a Free To Play Game.
5: You are not: Whilst you may pay for 'other' things, Cryptic has never charged for content.
6: Then don't do it. (See 1, 2, 3).
Encouraging people not to play the game is not a great way to get people to play the game.
Nowhere does it discourage people not to play the game. It only refers to people not playing content that they do not enjoy doing. (Which they did not 'pay for' in the first place, which you referred to in your opening statement).
Also... this mission goes smooth as silk if your team is good at it.
That's one of the major points. It isn't about the team. It's about the strongest person in the team. If it goes smoothly, then I'm willing to wager it's because you are the strongest link. It has little to nothing to do with the other 4 people.
This event is one of the most unfun, abusive, banal reminders of why I've greatly dialed back my STO time and have decided to get entertainment from other games lately.
I decided to do this event on seven characters
It's unfun. It's repetitive.
Just don't do it if it isn't fun.", this is technically correct (the best kind of correct).
The problem with this logic is we are paying Cryptic for entertainment.
why are we giving money to Cryptic?
They aren't producing a quality feature for STO
1: Nobody 'forced' you to do this. (So don't do it).
2: Then don't do it.
3: If it's the "best kind of correct", then... don't do it.
4: You are not paying Cryptic - its a Free To Play Game.
5: You are not: Whilst you may pay for 'other' things, Cryptic has never charged for content.
6: Then don't do it. (See 1, 2, 3).
Encouraging people not to play the game is not a great way to get people to play the game.
Nowhere does it discourage people not to play the game. It only refers to people not playing content that they do not enjoy doing. (Which they did not 'pay for' in the first place, which you referred to in your opening statement).
Developers get paid regardless of where the money comes from. If the money comes from spaceships, then those spaceships are being used in content. Thus, we go back to the part where if the content isn't fun, why are we buying spaceships to play content that isn't fun?
The money can come from anywhere, but in a developer studio, it's going to get diverted into the payroll of people who make missions. They have a job to create missions that are fun and encourage participation.
And yes, "Just don't do it." is the same thing as discouraging gameplay. Even if it is correct, it does nothing to address the problem of why people aren't playing. Just that they aren't.
Nobody forced him to do it on 1 or more (or 7 or more) characters).
It's unfun. It's repetitive.
Nobody forced him (or his 7 characters to do anything that is not fun)
Just don't do it if it isn't fun.", this is technically correct (the best kind of correct).
He admits that he should not do things 'if they are not fun' but did it anyway, and then complained about it, and claimed he was 'forced' to do things 'unfun'.
The problem with this logic is we are paying Cryptic for entertainment.
He has produced no evidence to prove he (or anyone) has 'paid' Cryptic (STO: A F2P Game) for the aforementioned entertainment)
why are we giving money to Cryptic?
He has produced no evidence to prove he has given any money to Cryptic in order to 'entertain' him.
They aren't producing a quality feature for STO
He has produced no evidence that Cryptic/STO (a F2P game) is obliged to entertain himself, anyone else or to provide quality entertainment as defined by his own terms.
Iconians has also failed to note that what he may not find fun, others may find fun. And thus his 'funds diverted from ship purchases 'should' be spent on entertainment/content (that 'he' defines as enjoyable) argument is thereby nullified.
His entire argument is based upon his own interpretation of fun and his own interpretation of where funds garnered by the dev team should be spent.
Edit: I have referred to 'Iconians' as 'him' and 'he' for simplicity. I am happy to edit my post in order to refer to 'Iconians' as 'her' should that be desired.
Encouraging people not to play the game is not a great way to get people to play the game.
He is not encouraging you to stop playing STO. He is merely tell you to skip the content that you do not enjoy doing. There are plenty of other things to do in STO. Of course that does mean you will not get the Admiralty Card if you decide to stop playing the Breach Event. If you really feel that you must have the Admiralty Card, then you are going to have to force yourself to the event. There is no other way around it.
Perhaps you should prioritize which captains you want to have the card and run in them in that order every single day. Stop playing when you simply get fed up and don't want to deal with anymore. Go through the list in the same exact order every day. That way at least your most important captains will get the card.
Nobody forced him to do it on 1 or more (or 7 or more) characters).
It's unfun. It's repetitive.
Nobody forced him (or his 7 characters to do anything that is not fun)
Just don't do it if it isn't fun.", this is technically correct (the best kind of correct).
He admits that he should not do things 'if they are not fun' but did it anyway, and then complained about it, and claimed he was 'forced' to do things 'unfun'.
The problem with this logic is we are paying Cryptic for entertainment.
He has produced no evidence to prove he (or anyone) has 'paid' Cryptic (STO: A F2P Game) for the aforementioned entertainment)
why are we giving money to Cryptic?
He has produced no evidence to prove he has given any money to Cryptic in order to 'entertain' him.
They aren't producing a quality feature for STO
He has produced no evidence that Cryptic/STO (a F2P game) is obliged to entertain himself, anyone else or to provide quality entertainment as defined by his own terms.
Alright, let me try to clear some things up.
No, Cryptic did not force me to do anything. I could easily skip this event, and I could easily play another game. However, I made the conscious choice to do this, and to play the game as it currently exists in the way it is currently designed. This is a constructive criticism, highlighting my perceived problems with the game, and voicing my opinion on what could be improved.
You are also technically correct that I have no evidence any of the developers have been paid for producing Star Trek Online. It is entirely possible that the state of California has switched to an economy where money no longer exists, and I've been ignorant of that. However, I believe strongly this is not the case, and people who work on STO do get paid for their job, even if not every player in STO has given them money.
I also have no evidence that I have ever given Cryptic any money at all, nor have I produced evidence that it is their job to create an entertaining product.
However, I strongly believe that a video game at its very core is intended to be entertaining and fun. I believe STO is entertaining and fun in some areas, and not so much in others. If, hypothetically speaking, I have ever given Cryptic money, then it's for an entertaining product and/or service.
It is entirely possible that video game developers do not create games to be fun, but I strongly believe that is not the case, and that in reality they want to create a fun game, and that they receive monetary compensation to perform that job.
I also strongly believe that as customers of that product or service, that customer feedback is an essential part of improving that product or service.
4: "Then don't PUG. Get your friends/fleet/whatever to play with you."
I'm going to dispel this notion that I can find 4 other people at any time of day in my friends list or fleet who are willing to run this mission 7 times back to back on 7 characters who are just as geared as I am. Expecting 4 other people familiar to me to be at my beck and call with that many level 60 characters is unrealistic.
It's not going to happen. I am going to be forced into the situation of needing to run this event in a PUG, and it's impractical to expect even my friends and fleet to be just as geared and skilled as I am, as player skill and time is just as varied as it would be in a PUG.
If I have friends, the last thing I want to do is to torture them. Maybe some people don't mind torturing their friends or strongarming them into playing an unfun event like ITB ad nauseum, but I'm not one of those people. I tend to value my friends and the limited time my friends have too much to use them as tools for my own benefit.
Oh man, this, this, this. In fact, I'm going to extend this beyond just this one queue and say that, in most cases, you can't run any queue you want whenever you want because the people just aren't there.
PUGing is only an option for a 'hot' queue. If people aren't queuing for it and you can't form a team at your beck and call, you ain't playing it. Events like this help to artificially create a 'hot' queue, so realistically you're going to end up PUGing it. They also draw players away from other queues they might otherwise be playing, which aggravates the dead queue issue.
It's a Catch-22.
If events rotated across more queues for a shorter period of time, and if the "doohicky" items were also rotated instead of being exclusive one-shots, you could reasonably expect that the queues would get more even play time across the board and people could reasonably earn all of the items for all of their alts over time. You wouldn't feel like you're supposed to grind it 7+ times a day for 14 days over every single event, but if you were so inclined you could still do that. You'd naturally earn all of the "doohickies" just by playing events on different alts as they come up and you wouldn't get burned out because you wouldn't be repeating the same mission day after day long after you got tired of it.
No, Cryptic did not force me to do anything. I could easily skip this event, and I could easily play another game.
OK, but let us both agree that we will not start with strawman arguments, nobody is suggesting you play another game, let us keep it strictly within STO and any grievances you have with it.
We both agree that 'STO' is not 'forcing you' to do anything or play any content.
However, I made the conscious choice to do this, and to play the game as it currently exists in the way it is currently designed. This is a constructive criticism, highlighting my perceived problems with the game, and voicing my opinion on what could be improved.
We both agree you made a conscious choice to play 'The Breach' content of your own free will (on not one but seven different characters). I disagree with your 'constructive' criticism as thus far it amounts to stating you have been 'forced' to play this (freely provided) content; which would imply it was against your will. You state it is 'a problem'; but again this is your own interpretation, many people do not have a problem.
You are also technically correct that I have no evidence any of the developers have been paid for producing Star Trek Online. It is entirely possible that the state of California has switched to an economy where money no longer exists, and I've been ignorant of that. However, I believe strongly this is not the case, and people who work on STO do get paid for their job, even if not every player in STO has given them money.
This is going back to the strawman scenario. Nobody (including myself) suggested that Cryptic has not been paid for producing STO online. The point made was that you did not support your statement that buying ships should somehow be conveyed into providing yourself with 'likable' content.
I also have no evidence that I have ever given Cryptic any money at all, nor have I produced evidence that it is their job to create an entertaining product.
You did in fact imply in former posts (in reference to "Why do we pay Cryptic") that you and others like you (who are dissatisfied) have paid Cryptic money - and inferred that the money you 'paid' them, was not used in a manner to your liking. (I now refer to your statement regarding the sale of ships - and your statement that sales from ships should be spent on content more to your liking).
However, I strongly believe that a video game at its very core is intended to be entertaining and fun. I believe STO is entertaining and fun in some areas, and not so much in others. If, hypothetically speaking, I have ever given Cryptic money, then it's for an entertaining product and/or service.
I am also of the persuasion that a game 'at its core' (and by it's very own definition of being 'a game') should be fun and entertaining. However I am not persuaded by your argument that 'if you had given Cryptic money - via buying ships' that those resources should then be used to create content for your own definition of 'fun, and entertainment'. (I would imagine the first priority of ship sales would to go towards paying staff wages, server costs, and then game related matter)
Further to this; it can be argued that given the numerous number of people who play the game; if any and all of them have given money to Cryptic in order to 'entertain' them, it would be illogical to assume that your own definition of fun and entertainment would be taken as the median, mode, or mean. In essence; your idea of 'fun' may not be concurrent with any (or all) of the playerbase.
I'm kind of wondering why anyone would think 7 alts was a use case Cryptic should be designing around. Is there any content ANYWHERE in this game that wouldn't get dull if you're hammering on it 7 times a day? That's setting yourself up to fall on your face and blaming the ground for being there when you land.
Our overseas players must just be seriously committed, because I'm up to 38 runs mostly around midnight my time and still have had only one AFKer. I'm flying ships with all rare XII and 2-3 rep set pieces so I'm not exactly a rolling juggernaut compared to the XIV gold crowd, but I still feel like there's enough targets to go around and I can chew what I bite off on my own if I have to. I still see some variation in how long the dreadnought takes, but I've NEVER seen a group not be able to finish it. Even groups with only 4.
A problem with these events is that they are being passed for at least 50% of "new" content (limited for exclusivity) beyond a few new "episodes" a year, there is almost nothing else.
What it ends up being for some players is, so many times a year, some player must equip thier [Gerbil Wheel MK 14 [Thrust]x5] , and run the wheel "x" times to get a reward, or they really dont get to partipate in "new" content.
It wouldnt be a big issue if there were a lot more new things to do but there isnt, so it is (for some people).
Lets face it, DPS chasing partially came about because of the limited amount of end game content, its become literally the end game content for some who want to play the game, and stay challenged. If there was enough end game content, Id wager most of them would be doing that first, instead of chasing the next DPS milestone.
I'm not tired of Events in general. I'm tired of *this* Event, though. Perhaps because there's nothing to look forward to, like a unique torp or something. 50k at the end of the rainbow means absolutely nothing to me whatoever, as refinement is capped, so I won't be able to cash in on it for another year or so (and that is presuming I never made any other Dilithium since then).
I'm getting some good Fleet Marks out of it, and useful mats boxes; but, tbh, I probably wouldn't even call it an Event.
i do my final 3 of 6 characters last missions for the main prize tonight, I will do some more missions for the secondary bonus prize till the event ends.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
I'm kind of wondering why anyone would think 7 alts was a use case Cryptic should be designing around. Is there any content ANYWHERE in this game that wouldn't get dull if you're hammering on it 7 times a day? That's setting yourself up to fall on your face and blaming the ground for being there when you land.
Our overseas players must just be seriously committed, because I'm up to 38 runs mostly around midnight my time and still have had only one AFKer. I'm flying ships with all rare XII and 2-3 rep set pieces so I'm not exactly a rolling juggernaut compared to the XIV gold crowd, but I still feel like there's enough targets to go around and I can chew what I bite off on my own if I have to. I still see some variation in how long the dreadnought takes, but I've NEVER seen a group not be able to finish it. Even groups with only 4.
This is not something I would consider "typical" gameplay, as it was more of an experiment to play the game as it currently exists, and not in the way I think it should exist.
This is the first event I've run several characters on, because typically I might only use one or two characters (depending on the reward). I felt it was important to do it this way because if I'm going to criticise the game, it'll be based off of personal experience, however anecdotal, instead of assumptions. I always think it's a good idea than to revisit an aspect of the game over a period of months to see if anything has changed, or that my opinion still stands.
I've been criticised before for posting my opinions based off of assumptions I've made without actually experiencing first-hand, which is a fair criticism. I didn't do this with 7 characters for any other reason but to be able to say, "Well, I've done it, and I can tell you this is what I think is wrong and why."
Part of your criticism is also fair. Because there really is no scenario in which hammering yourself 7 times a day on content will not result in burn out or fatigue. However, instead of just pointing this out, I'm pointing out why that is, with specific examples.
You are also correct in that it's almost impossible not to finish it, but that was never one of my criticisms.
Cryptic has made overtures into making the game more alt friendly. We've seen this in the form of the ship doffing system, and account-wide unlocks during the winter, summer, and anniversary events.
Part of the reason I did this with 7 characters is to highlight that the game is not as alt-friendly as it could be. This is less about my personal choice, and more about how the game is currently designed.
If there are some events in the game that result in account-wide unlocks for limited-time rewards, then surely events with limited-time rewards, but not unlocked account-wide are designed with alt-friendliness in mind, right? That's the kind of question I wanted to revisit in the wake of some of these big changes to encourage alting.
I can say that next event I will likely return to only doing it on 1 or 2 characters, unless Cryptic makes any sweeping changes that would encourage me to do it on more. Maybe in a year or more I will try this again on 7 characters and see if my experiences have changed any.
Not wanting to play an event is a reason not to play it. But to suggest it not be run at all must be motivated by not wanting others to play it either. In other words, all this "event fatigue" nonsense really boils down to: "I don't want other people to be rewarded for playing more than me."
Not wanting to play an event is a reason not to play it. But to suggest it not be run at all must be motivated by not wanting others to play it either. In other words, all this "event fatigue" nonsense really boils down to: "I don't want other people to be rewarded for playing more than me."
I agree, I have been playing with 6 characters and at first I was unsure if I would be able to even make it to the main reward with all of them but once I got into it I have found it to be great fun and although I have nearly finished getting the main rewards on them all fully intend to get some bonus runs with some of them.
other players need to realise that just because they don't enjoy an event doesn't mean that other players don't either and they should not try to impose their will on everyone.
if they don't like a particular event or any other aspect of the game just do another part of the game that they do enjoy and leave us players who are having fun to enjoy the game as we choose.
cryptic will soon know if there is any part of the game that all the players do not like by the very low to non existent metric numbers.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
If playing the same mission over and over and over and over day after day after day seems like fun and not a huge waste of time....
Then I must congratulate Cryptic. You have been assimilated successfully. Your free time will be adapted to service them and your bank account will be added to theirs.
For the rest of us, few though we may be, grind fatigue is quite real. I do opt out and will continue to do so when I'm sick of the hamster wheel.
Ive completed 8 of the 10 toons I started this on, I'm scaling down on these longer events, next time it'll be 5 toons(last mirror was 13). My 2 remaining toons have 1 and 4 runs left, I haven't been running 10 toons a day every day, the card should be useful to me as I like to rotate running admiralty on some toons while others sit. I have left only 1 run at the dread since the event started(what a painful experience that pug was), and two others I bailed before the timer started, I wont 4 man pug it unless I'm already in the middle of it and lose a teammate for whatever reason. All in all pugging is just easier when doing a lot of toons like I am. At about the 7th day I felt like I would never finish them all, and yet here I am almost done. One event wont burn most people out even if they do alt's, but back to back one right after the other might. After this one I'll need time to take a breath and do other regular sto stuff Ive been ignoring like admiralty, doffs, crafting, and maybe the BZ's. If they put an event to close to the the completion of this one I'll likely skip it. My wife thinks I play too much sto anyways, and she's probably right lol.
I'm done on 5 characters. Finished yesterday. I enjoyed it overall. However, I still prefer the original version of Breach. Even if it was longer. Just my opinion.
My main will be running it for the rest of the way. The daily reward is pretty lucrative, at 2k dil and 50 marks.
My only gripe is that the Admiralty card was not really the most exciting reward. I could've skipped the whole event had I not needed the Dil. Which isn't good for their metrics.
Personally, I prefer rewards like the Zef Shotgun or Crystalline Torpedo for events like these. They had more lure on me. And they're more useful. I mean, all things considered, An Admiralty card was a pretty weak offering. Doesn't take any effort to whip up an Admiralty card. Its not that the card isnt super useful, I just would have prefered something more usable.
Worst part for me is the daily grind of admiralty, Duty Officers, Tour the Galaxy and dilithium on more than one character. 4 for me.
Pretty much takes the better part of the day. Every day. I don't even have time to play STO most times. By the time I'm done i am tired and have other stuff to do.
I can't keep this up but as long as i play the game how can I not?
"Thou shalt respect the weak and shalt constitute thyself defender of them."
-3rd Commmandment of Chivalry
Comments
I'm guessing the participation's gonna plummet like a rock in the next 72 hours though.
I decided to do this event on seven characters just to see if I was mistaken in the belief I've just had a string of bad luck in regards to AFKers, and to see just how quickly I could get fatigued after running the event so much.
Every single day I've done this event, I have had to deal with AFKers (either at the beginning or people who AFK in the middle of the mission) roughly 5-6 times a day. That is roughly 1 AFKer for each daily run of the event per character. I've done this for around 10 days now, and I've skipped a few days exactly because of this fatigue.
I've left the mission at least 3-4 times a day because of said AFKers, and have had to requeue. Eventually, I get tired of requeuing and simply put up with afk leechers because there is only so much time in the day, especially when I've decided to be extra punishing to myself by running it on 7 characters. I simply can not requeue the event each time there's afkers present.
Now, to address some talking points.
1: I understand why people afk in the mission. It's unfun. It's repetitive. There's no meaningful punishment for AFKing. Cryptic does not care if you AFK. There is absolutely no incentive to reporting AFKers. You are literally wasting time expecting Cryptic to discipline AFK players, particularly when the number of AFK players is this large.
Cryptic refusing to put in meaningful changes in how the AFK penalty is calculated, or refusing to change events to make it less grindy (like making the awards account-wide like with spaceships) is the same thing as endorsing AFKing.
They know it's a problem. It's been a problem for a long time. They've made some attempts at addressing it, but it's not going far enough.
2: "Just don't do it if it isn't fun.", this is technically correct (the best kind of correct). However, the problem with this logic is we are paying Cryptic for entertainment. A lot of people at Cryptic have put in time and effort to create this event. If we simply stop playing it because it isn't fun, then why are we giving money to Cryptic? They aren't producing a quality feature for STO if there are enough people who are giving up or skipping the event. This is their job. While we can choose not to participate in the event, it's counterintuitive for the fact these events are created to encourage participation.
3: There are weak links in the team. Only a few of my characters are what I would consider well-geared. This is part of my experiment, as I've chosen a mixed bag of geared and scrub characters to get the idea of who the weak links in the team are.
It is incredibly obvious that I am doing the lion's share of the work on my geared characters. Other people on my team are really given little incentive to help me out because I could literally solo the entire instance. This also exacerbates the afking problem -- as other players had might as well be afk in terms of their performance.
If I am on a poorly-geared character, it is incredibly obvious because the mission takes 3-4 times longer. As the weakest link in the team, I am basically 2 steps away from being an afker, and I am dependant upon the strongest link in the chain -- who can vary wildly from a true pro to someone just as geared as I am.
We can not solo this instance. Cryptic makes money off of making players ungodly powerful, but those players in the end, only benefit other players who have not put in the time and effort into gearing their characters.
There is no reciprocation. I can not expect other people to carry the torch for me on an ungeared character, nor should I expect to carry the torch for others. Either I do most/all of the work, or I languish in the mission. There is no middle ground. This is a problem.
4: "Then don't PUG. Get your friends/fleet/whatever to play with you."
I'm going to dispel this notion that I can find 4 other people at any time of day in my friends list or fleet who are willing to run this mission 7 times back to back on 7 characters who are just as geared as I am. Expecting 4 other people familiar to me to be at my beck and call with that many level 60 characters is unrealistic.
It's not going to happen. I am going to be forced into the situation of needing to run this event in a PUG, and it's impractical to expect even my friends and fleet to be just as geared and skilled as I am, as player skill and time is just as varied as it would be in a PUG.
If I have friends, the last thing I want to do is to torture them. Maybe some people don't mind torturing their friends or strongarming them into playing an unfun event like ITB ad nauseum, but I'm not one of those people. I tend to value my friends and the limited time my friends have too much to use them as tools for my own benefit.
1: Nobody 'forced' you to do this. (So don't do it).
2: Then don't do it.
3: If it's not fun using "The best kind of correct", then... don't do it.
4: You are not paying Cryptic - its a Free To Play Game.
5: You are not: Whilst you may pay for 'other' things, Cryptic has never charged for content.
6: Then don't do it. (See 1, 2, 3).
Encouraging people not to play the game is not a great way to get people to play the game.
Also... this mission goes smooth as silk if your team is good at it.
My character Tsin'xing
Nowhere does it discourage people not to play the game. It only refers to people not playing content that they do not enjoy doing. (Which they did not 'pay for' in the first place, which you referred to in your opening statement).
That's one of the major points. It isn't about the team. It's about the strongest person in the team. If it goes smoothly, then I'm willing to wager it's because you are the strongest link. It has little to nothing to do with the other 4 people.
Developers get paid regardless of where the money comes from. If the money comes from spaceships, then those spaceships are being used in content. Thus, we go back to the part where if the content isn't fun, why are we buying spaceships to play content that isn't fun?
The money can come from anywhere, but in a developer studio, it's going to get diverted into the payroll of people who make missions. They have a job to create missions that are fun and encourage participation.
And yes, "Just don't do it." is the same thing as discouraging gameplay. Even if it is correct, it does nothing to address the problem of why people aren't playing. Just that they aren't.
Nobody forced him to do it on 1 or more (or 7 or more) characters).
Nobody forced him (or his 7 characters to do anything that is not fun)
He admits that he should not do things 'if they are not fun' but did it anyway, and then complained about it, and claimed he was 'forced' to do things 'unfun'.
He has produced no evidence to prove he (or anyone) has 'paid' Cryptic (STO: A F2P Game) for the aforementioned entertainment)
He has produced no evidence to prove he has given any money to Cryptic in order to 'entertain' him.
He has produced no evidence that Cryptic/STO (a F2P game) is obliged to entertain himself, anyone else or to provide quality entertainment as defined by his own terms.
Iconians has also failed to note that what he may not find fun, others may find fun. And thus his 'funds diverted from ship purchases 'should' be spent on entertainment/content (that 'he' defines as enjoyable) argument is thereby nullified.
His entire argument is based upon his own interpretation of fun and his own interpretation of where funds garnered by the dev team should be spent.
Edit: I have referred to 'Iconians' as 'him' and 'he' for simplicity. I am happy to edit my post in order to refer to 'Iconians' as 'her' should that be desired.
He is not encouraging you to stop playing STO. He is merely tell you to skip the content that you do not enjoy doing. There are plenty of other things to do in STO. Of course that does mean you will not get the Admiralty Card if you decide to stop playing the Breach Event. If you really feel that you must have the Admiralty Card, then you are going to have to force yourself to the event. There is no other way around it.
Perhaps you should prioritize which captains you want to have the card and run in them in that order every single day. Stop playing when you simply get fed up and don't want to deal with anymore. Go through the list in the same exact order every day. That way at least your most important captains will get the card.
Alright, let me try to clear some things up.
No, Cryptic did not force me to do anything. I could easily skip this event, and I could easily play another game. However, I made the conscious choice to do this, and to play the game as it currently exists in the way it is currently designed. This is a constructive criticism, highlighting my perceived problems with the game, and voicing my opinion on what could be improved.
You are also technically correct that I have no evidence any of the developers have been paid for producing Star Trek Online. It is entirely possible that the state of California has switched to an economy where money no longer exists, and I've been ignorant of that. However, I believe strongly this is not the case, and people who work on STO do get paid for their job, even if not every player in STO has given them money.
I also have no evidence that I have ever given Cryptic any money at all, nor have I produced evidence that it is their job to create an entertaining product.
However, I strongly believe that a video game at its very core is intended to be entertaining and fun. I believe STO is entertaining and fun in some areas, and not so much in others. If, hypothetically speaking, I have ever given Cryptic money, then it's for an entertaining product and/or service.
It is entirely possible that video game developers do not create games to be fun, but I strongly believe that is not the case, and that in reality they want to create a fun game, and that they receive monetary compensation to perform that job.
I also strongly believe that as customers of that product or service, that customer feedback is an essential part of improving that product or service.
Oh man, this, this, this. In fact, I'm going to extend this beyond just this one queue and say that, in most cases, you can't run any queue you want whenever you want because the people just aren't there.
PUGing is only an option for a 'hot' queue. If people aren't queuing for it and you can't form a team at your beck and call, you ain't playing it. Events like this help to artificially create a 'hot' queue, so realistically you're going to end up PUGing it. They also draw players away from other queues they might otherwise be playing, which aggravates the dead queue issue.
It's a Catch-22.
If events rotated across more queues for a shorter period of time, and if the "doohicky" items were also rotated instead of being exclusive one-shots, you could reasonably expect that the queues would get more even play time across the board and people could reasonably earn all of the items for all of their alts over time. You wouldn't feel like you're supposed to grind it 7+ times a day for 14 days over every single event, but if you were so inclined you could still do that. You'd naturally earn all of the "doohickies" just by playing events on different alts as they come up and you wouldn't get burned out because you wouldn't be repeating the same mission day after day long after you got tired of it.
Oke, doke
OK, but let us both agree that we will not start with strawman arguments, nobody is suggesting you play another game, let us keep it strictly within STO and any grievances you have with it.
We both agree that 'STO' is not 'forcing you' to do anything or play any content.
We both agree you made a conscious choice to play 'The Breach' content of your own free will (on not one but seven different characters). I disagree with your 'constructive' criticism as thus far it amounts to stating you have been 'forced' to play this (freely provided) content; which would imply it was against your will. You state it is 'a problem'; but again this is your own interpretation, many people do not have a problem.
This is going back to the strawman scenario. Nobody (including myself) suggested that Cryptic has not been paid for producing STO online. The point made was that you did not support your statement that buying ships should somehow be conveyed into providing yourself with 'likable' content.
You did in fact imply in former posts (in reference to "Why do we pay Cryptic") that you and others like you (who are dissatisfied) have paid Cryptic money - and inferred that the money you 'paid' them, was not used in a manner to your liking. (I now refer to your statement regarding the sale of ships - and your statement that sales from ships should be spent on content more to your liking).
I am also of the persuasion that a game 'at its core' (and by it's very own definition of being 'a game') should be fun and entertaining. However I am not persuaded by your argument that 'if you had given Cryptic money - via buying ships' that those resources should then be used to create content for your own definition of 'fun, and entertainment'. (I would imagine the first priority of ship sales would to go towards paying staff wages, server costs, and then game related matter)
Further to this; it can be argued that given the numerous number of people who play the game; if any and all of them have given money to Cryptic in order to 'entertain' them, it would be illogical to assume that your own definition of fun and entertainment would be taken as the median, mode, or mean. In essence; your idea of 'fun' may not be concurrent with any (or all) of the playerbase.
Our overseas players must just be seriously committed, because I'm up to 38 runs mostly around midnight my time and still have had only one AFKer. I'm flying ships with all rare XII and 2-3 rep set pieces so I'm not exactly a rolling juggernaut compared to the XIV gold crowd, but I still feel like there's enough targets to go around and I can chew what I bite off on my own if I have to. I still see some variation in how long the dreadnought takes, but I've NEVER seen a group not be able to finish it. Even groups with only 4.
What it ends up being for some players is, so many times a year, some player must equip thier [Gerbil Wheel MK 14 [Thrust]x5] , and run the wheel "x" times to get a reward, or they really dont get to partipate in "new" content.
It wouldnt be a big issue if there were a lot more new things to do but there isnt, so it is (for some people).
Lets face it, DPS chasing partially came about because of the limited amount of end game content, its become literally the end game content for some who want to play the game, and stay challenged. If there was enough end game content, Id wager most of them would be doing that first, instead of chasing the next DPS milestone.
I'm getting some good Fleet Marks out of it, and useful mats boxes; but, tbh, I probably wouldn't even call it an Event.
1) A token to pay out 50k dil ore
2) A token to REFINE 50k dil ore
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
This is not something I would consider "typical" gameplay, as it was more of an experiment to play the game as it currently exists, and not in the way I think it should exist.
This is the first event I've run several characters on, because typically I might only use one or two characters (depending on the reward). I felt it was important to do it this way because if I'm going to criticise the game, it'll be based off of personal experience, however anecdotal, instead of assumptions. I always think it's a good idea than to revisit an aspect of the game over a period of months to see if anything has changed, or that my opinion still stands.
I've been criticised before for posting my opinions based off of assumptions I've made without actually experiencing first-hand, which is a fair criticism. I didn't do this with 7 characters for any other reason but to be able to say, "Well, I've done it, and I can tell you this is what I think is wrong and why."
Part of your criticism is also fair. Because there really is no scenario in which hammering yourself 7 times a day on content will not result in burn out or fatigue. However, instead of just pointing this out, I'm pointing out why that is, with specific examples.
You are also correct in that it's almost impossible not to finish it, but that was never one of my criticisms.
Cryptic has made overtures into making the game more alt friendly. We've seen this in the form of the ship doffing system, and account-wide unlocks during the winter, summer, and anniversary events.
Part of the reason I did this with 7 characters is to highlight that the game is not as alt-friendly as it could be. This is less about my personal choice, and more about how the game is currently designed.
If there are some events in the game that result in account-wide unlocks for limited-time rewards, then surely events with limited-time rewards, but not unlocked account-wide are designed with alt-friendliness in mind, right? That's the kind of question I wanted to revisit in the wake of some of these big changes to encourage alting.
I can say that next event I will likely return to only doing it on 1 or 2 characters, unless Cryptic makes any sweeping changes that would encourage me to do it on more. Maybe in a year or more I will try this again on 7 characters and see if my experiences have changed any.
I agree, I have been playing with 6 characters and at first I was unsure if I would be able to even make it to the main reward with all of them but once I got into it I have found it to be great fun and although I have nearly finished getting the main rewards on them all fully intend to get some bonus runs with some of them.
other players need to realise that just because they don't enjoy an event doesn't mean that other players don't either and they should not try to impose their will on everyone.
if they don't like a particular event or any other aspect of the game just do another part of the game that they do enjoy and leave us players who are having fun to enjoy the game as we choose.
cryptic will soon know if there is any part of the game that all the players do not like by the very low to non existent metric numbers.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
Just one more little event... But sir,.... It's wafer thin !
Then I must congratulate Cryptic. You have been assimilated successfully. Your free time will be adapted to service them and your bank account will be added to theirs.
For the rest of us, few though we may be, grind fatigue is quite real. I do opt out and will continue to do so when I'm sick of the hamster wheel.
My character Tsin'xing
However, I still prefer the original version of Breach. Even if it was longer. Just my opinion.
My main will be running it for the rest of the way.
The daily reward is pretty lucrative, at 2k dil and 50 marks.
My only gripe is that the Admiralty card was not really the most exciting reward.
I could've skipped the whole event had I not needed the Dil.
Which isn't good for their metrics.
Personally, I prefer rewards like the Zef Shotgun or Crystalline Torpedo for events like these. They had more lure on me. And they're more useful.
I mean, all things considered, An Admiralty card was a pretty weak offering.
Doesn't take any effort to whip up an Admiralty card.
Its not that the card isnt super useful, I just would have prefered something more usable.
All in all though. I enjoyed it.
Pretty much takes the better part of the day. Every day. I don't even have time to play STO most times. By the time I'm done i am tired and have other stuff to do.
I can't keep this up but as long as i play the game how can I not?
-3rd Commmandment of Chivalry