We wanted to let you all know that we will be making some changes to the way we handle our Event Projects and Currencies. For the sake of thoroughness, we will be outlining the availability of these projects and their currencies. Some of the notes below are not changes, and have been marked as such. Here’s what you need to know:
All Event ship projects from previous years that aren’t already slotted cannot be started - This is not a change
All Event ship projects from previous years that are already slotted will remain slotted - This is not a change
All Event Voucher currencies from previous years (e.g.: Lohlunat Prize Voucher (2015)) already owned by the player will remain in the player's inventory - This is not a change
All Event ship projects from previous years (up to 6th Anniversary Event) that are already slotted will require the last currency for that event:
o Old Winter Event ship projects will require Winter Prize Voucher (2015)
o Old Summer Event ship projects will require Summer Prize Voucher (2015)
o Old Anniversary Event ship projects will require 6th Anniversary Prize Vouchers
The above older currencies can be purchased from the Lobi store for the normal price. This currency will be made available year round.
All projects released after the 6th Anniversary will require the currency for that year. In other words in the 2017 Winter Event:
o The 2017 Winter Event Ship will require Winter Prize Vouchers (2017)
o The 2016 Winter Event Ship will require Winter Prize Vouchers (2016)
o All old Winter Event Ships will require Winter Prize Vouchers (2015)
Event ship projects are no longer mutually exclusive - This is a partial change. Some events had mutually exclusive projects, others did not.
These changes only apply to our Anniversary, Summer and Winter Event projects and currencies.
FAQ:
In the 2015 Summer Event blog it was stated that old event currencies and old event ship projects would be removed from the player. Why have you changed your mind on this plan?
There were two key factors that caused us to deviate from the original plan here:
1) We had concerns that automatically removing a partially completed ship project from a player might leave them frustrated. Players might feel like their time was wasted, and this feeling would be compounded by not having any alternative way of completing the project once the currency for it is no longer available.
2) We’ve encountered some technical hurdles that prevented us from doing this in a way that would both accomplish our goals and provide a good player experience.
What is your reasoning behind making event ships no longer mutually exclusive?
Our goal here was to make sure that players know that a new ship project is available. Let’s say you still have the Ferengi Nandi Warship reputation project from the 2015 Summer Event still slotted. This means that when the next Summer Event ship project becomes available you wouldn’t see the project. We feel that this isn’t an ideal player experience, so we’ve removed that limitation.
A side effect of this is that you can theoretically have every ship project slotted in your available project slots and in an incomplete state. This will require the player to have to cancel a project in order to pick up a new one.
Will there ever be a means to acquire Event Currencies from previous years, other than purchasing them with Lobi?
No. Once an Event ends, the currencies associated with that event’s project may only be acquired from the Lobi Store.
Regards,
Phil “Gorngonzolla” Zeleski
Lead Systems Designer
Star Trek Online
This is a slight improvement, but not quite where most players would like it... nor is it ideal in achieving your goal of increased participation. The old system allowed players to participate more than they would have in order to stockpile for the following year (which, since some were participating twice as much in their first year, probably created misleading metrics) or run old Event projects to acquire the old Event ship (for set bonuses or for new accounts to acquire them); this is in addition to needing alts and new characters to run the project at least once during the relevant Event per Event ship desired. The current system has players participating for a single project's widgets, while generating an increasing array widgets to keep track of, with little reward for participation beyond this point. While the current system certainly benefits me (I've always preferred Account unlocks, and I've completed all of mine), it isn't helpful to newer players nor does it have me doing the relevant Event activity any more than I would have.
I do applaud the decision to allow the purchase of Event widgets from the Lobi Store, since it at least gives some way for folks to finish projects at a later date, but the ability to slot old projects during the Event still ought to happen. Keeping current Event widgets capable of working towards the old Event projects would also be better for both players and the participation goal, since the change in their function specifically precludes participating in order to complete old projects. I'll merrily fly through hoops again this year either way, without spending Lobi or worrying about missing the ship, but I think it would be better for the Event overall to allow slotting old Event projects and for current Event widgets to fill them.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
People are cherry picking from the past to form their golden age, ignoring the full-price per-character unlocks.
- At first, you could slot old projects, but they were PER CHARACTER unlocks. 1,000 shinies per character, ouch! New characters can't get the ship until a year later, also for 1,000 shinies.
- For the Breen carrier winter event, you could slot old projects, they were still PER CHARACTER unlocks. Other characters now got the unlock for just 4 shinies, yay! New characters still needed to wait a year for the next Winter.
- Summer Nandi. Account-wide unlocks for all past (reputation project) Event ships. WOOHOO! Alts you create whenever will get the ships. But: "exclusivity" kicks in.
Now, you're being asked to pay lobi to complete old projects, but those old projects will be ACCOUNT WIDE UNLOCKS. Expensive, yes, but you are getting an account-wide, cross-faction ship usable by Fed, KDF, Romulan characters. That's like a $50 3-ship bundle.
I can't see why anybody is complaining about this. Before, there was NO way to finish your old slotted projects. Now there is a way.
Its something to complain about and thus will be complained about because we need something to complain about.
Personally I don't give a replicated rats you know what since all these kinds of box ships for me to just get thrown in the bank and never touched again so I don't bother with doing these events anymore. I guess my problem is there isn't much to do in the game that i haven't done billions of times over that doesn't involve a reputation or some box ship i'll never use.
All that being said I could see more positive results coming if they took this into account when setting up events. Pretty much tho dilithium rewards are all that is needed when setting these up so maybe something thats a developing story and not so much as for a grind but I might play with power boards some.
Will this have any consequences for those players that are still unable to claim their 2014 Anniversary ship on their alts, despite having it completed and claimed on one toon this year?
As far as I see it it's the same issue we had 2015 until a one-time workaround was implemented. I really don't see why the same can't be done this year and I fear this change might make it forever unattainable...
I'm still upset that I can't get the Risan Luxury Cruiser. I earned the pearls the year it was available with every intention of getting it, and in fact I thought I had bought it on at least one character, but it turns out I forgot to slot and complete the project. Oops! I have well over 2000 pearls and no way to buy the ship I earned with my participation in the event. I am NOT happy about this.
And who's fault is that?
Yes, I made a mistake. I'm human, errors happen. I don't happen to think it's very fair that I am to be penalized for an honest mistake when I participated in the event properly and otherwise fulfilled all requirements to earn the ship.
I was present during the event at the time I was supposed to be, I completed all the required daily missions to earn the proper number of tokens to buy it with, I simply forgot to buy it when I thought I had done so. I did not discover my error until it was too late.
I simply want Cryptic to allow me to buy the thing I earned, that's all. The pearls are in my account now. I don't believe that is too much to ask.
so why did you not slot the project when the event started? 99% of the player base does that.
It also makes little to no sense if you think about it - when have you ever bought a packet of biscuits and found more or less than specified?
I can't see why anybody is complaining about this. Before, there was NO way to finish your old slotted projects. Now there is a way.
actually there was a way to do the past ships just use the current years currency. yeah okay at first that was bugged but it was fixed for the most part and was doable you could even finish past ship projects and do the current on another toon ( I did )
I kinda like this change but now I have to take a lil more time to get EC and go after keys or use my 500 zen a month to do keys or DOff packs that give lobi. most of those ships are on alt account and I really don't need them just like to have them when I farm for the fleet.
"Once this starship is obtained by any character on your account, any characters on this account can claim the Vorgon Xyfius Heavy Escort from the Account Claim tab within the Event Store (in the Event Reputation window)."
Account unlock, just like every other reputation project event ship is now, including the older ones.
And if you finish an old project with lobi, that too will be an account unlock, not just a single-character unlock like the 900 lobi ships.
Let me get this right. We now have to purchase lock boxes to get Lobi in order to purchase a "free" ship?
F U Craptic. Your BS just got un the fk installed
Um dude before you go off all half cocked and stuff. The lobi Free ships are for Event ships from the PAST. As in done, finished over with, you know AFTER said event is done!!!! The ships in question are from Anni, Summer and Winter events the last 6 years. Not the current event ship. Do your research there are A LOT of people who are doomsayers that like to get new players upset so they leave the game. It's usually a player that had an exploit they using and the devs caught them and shut them down. You still have plenty of time to get the current ship and by the stats it looks like a good ship for a beginner to cut your teeth on. And remember it's an account unlock free ship. So if you have plans for alternate toons Free T6 escort for ALL your toons. Only other T6 ships are on Zen store and are 3000Zen and that's for that ships faction this covers all of them. So don't get discouraged there are always bugs to workout. I mean they are retooling the whole game as we speak. So press on young Cpt. to glory and beyond!
So far, I have spent 120 lobi, and I got 91 anniversary vouchers. It looks like the lobi to voucher ratio is about 4 to 3. Is that what other people are finding?
Let me get this right. We now have to purchase lock boxes to get Lobi in order to purchase a "free" ship?
F U Craptic. Your BS just got un the fk installed
Um dude before you go off all half cocked and stuff. The lobi Free ships are for Event ships from the PAST. As in done, finished over with, you know AFTER said event is done!!!! The ships in question are from Anni, Summer and Winter events the last 6 years. Not the current event ship. Do your research there are A LOT of people who are doomsayers that like to get new players upset so they leave the game. It's usually a player that had an exploit they using and the devs caught them and shut them down. You still have plenty of time to get the current ship and by the stats it looks like a good ship for a beginner to cut your teeth on. And remember it's an account unlock free ship. So if you have plans for alternate toons Free T6 escort for ALL your toons. Only other T6 ships are on Zen store and are 3000Zen and that's for that ships faction this covers all of them. So don't get discouraged there are always bugs to workout. I mean they are retooling the whole game as we speak. So press on young Cpt. to glory and beyond!
Exactly my point! I have the Ferengi Nandi ship slotted and with 760 Lohlunat Prize Vouchers (2015).
And because of their methods of the previous years, I have every single event ship since 2012. So I am happy, so I have spent quite a bit on money on the game, but this new TRIBBLE is has gone overboard.
Notice in the bugs section , there is a thread with well over 1000 posts about missing items (Yes, I am missing irreplaceable items) which they have have not addressed, and still waiting on a resolution.
Instead, they just keep coming up with ways to be worse than the Ferengi.
So far, I have spent 120 lobi, and I got 91 anniversary vouchers. It looks like the lobi to voucher ratio is about 4 to 3. Is that what other people are finding?
At that rate it would be cheaper to purchase a 800 Lobi ($200 USD) ship! FU Cryptic!
Event tokens continue to be 'stamped' with the year, meaning no one can pre-save for next years events and Cryptic/PWE get their metrics
Each years tokens can be applied to previous years' projects which remain as account unlocks, meaning the same amount of overall time played is still required to unlock those ships (continuing to add to the previous metric)
The Lobi option remains open to those who don't finish the ship project and don't want/are unable to wait the full year until the event comes around again
The buyback store is updated to allow the previous years stamped tokens to be used as currency, possibly through some form of conversion (from 'Lohlunat Prize Voucher xxxx' to 'Lohlunat Pearls' for example), giving 'pre savers' or 'super grindy' people some measure of value to continuing to play the event
I'm sure someone on the business side of things will grumble about 'potential lost profits' from being able to source the free ship through continued free means, but those are profits not yet earned and frankly, if you upset your player base through this, they're profits you might not ever see...
What everyone buying Zen are really saying while all these bugs are still floating freely:
Stop new content until quality returns
Each years tokens can be applied to previous years' projects which remain as account unlocks, meaning the same amount of overall time played is still required to unlock those ships (continuing to add to the previous metric)
That's pretty reasonable, but maybe you have to turn in 2-5 times as many of the new tokens in place of the old tokens. Cryptic wants people to have a reason to get the 2016 ship in 2016 not in 2017 or 2018 or 2019. MMORPGs use $50 free giveaways like this as incentive to play during that specific event, not "meh, whenever I get around to it."
People should be using a feature like this to make up for missing a couple of days not 15+ when there are already 15+ days to spare.
After swirling those comments around for a while, I'm now a little more wary about this due to the (perceived) lack of consideration to currency balancing in STO such as with dilithium. I mean, 1:1 with fleet credits for contributions but yet 350-400+ per Zen makes it possibly the most and least valuable currency going when taking all its other uses (rep, upgrading, etc) into consideration too... It may be a small consideration, but one worth taking into account.
I digress, I've attempted to edit this in a way to keep it balanced while still retaining the original point and adding in the concerns raised.
Event tokens continue to be 'stamped' with the year, meaning no one can pre-save for next years events and Cryptic/PWE get their metrics
Previous years' ships, which remain as account unlocks, can be bought with a buyback currency (continuing to add to the previous metric, see below re. currency)
Each years tokens can be turned into a buyback currency through the buyback store, possibly being kept separate as Q's/Summer/Winter currencies, at a rate of 3:1, giving 'pre savers' or 'super grindy' people some measure of value to continuing to play the event. Keeping previous ships at a cost of '1000' increases the play-through metric for not being at the original event while not making other buyback items too cheap to obtain through Lobi
The buyback store must be re-opened each year by visiting the event map, possibly with 1x Lohlunat Favor, 1x each 'common' winter store commodity, 1x Omega Trace or some other easily obtained commodity with very little intrinsic value
The Lobi option remains open to those who don't finish the ship project and don't want/are unable to wait the full year until the event comes around again, who wish to buy the ship through various Lobi-obtaining means or who wish to buy other buyback store items
I think this still leaves the option open to F2P players with the increased volume of play required for missing the event adding to the active player count that is being sought for events. It also allows Cryptic/PWE an avenue of revenue through Lobi for those who have the money and wish to basically pay out for Lobi. Just to top off both of those, it also allows a Lobi-route and provides additional incentive to grind the event for those buyback items such as the space emotes, upgrade techs and Spec points. A 3:1 ratio to get them through Lobi might be considered a bit much, but there in lies the incentive to play the event and top off with Lobi.
This may beg the question, 'why not simply add these items to the Lobi store at increased prices?', simply put it requires players to come back to the game and play the events which I think would be emphasised by the requirement to re-open the store at the start of each years event.
What everyone buying Zen are really saying while all these bugs are still floating freely:
Stop new content until quality returns
I have a question. The previous event currency is available in the lobi store year round. Does this mean that the slotted project will also be available all year? Or, if I can't finish the project by the end of the summer event, do I have to wait until the winter event to finish it?
I have a question. The previous event currency is available in the lobi store year round. Does this mean that the slotted project will also be available all year? Or, if I can't finish the project by the end of the summer event, do I have to wait until the winter event to finish it?
Can't talk about the future, but so far, slotted projects have stayed slotted and visible throughout the year.
TOIVA, Toi Vaxx, Toia Vix, Toveg, T'vritha, To Vrax: Bring in the Allegiance class. Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider. Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
The old system allowed players to participate more than they would have in order to stockpile for the following year (which, since some were participating twice as much in their first year, probably created misleading metrics) or run old Event projects to acquire the old Event ship (for set bonuses or for new accounts to acquire them); this is in addition to needing alts and new characters to run the project at least once during the relevant Event per Event ship desired.
Precisely, sir. The idea that the ability to save up vouchers for subsequent projects somehow hurts 'metrics' is ridiculous on its face. After all, when you've used said stockpile, and some of the new batch, for this year's project... you're going to want to rebuild the stock, either for next year's project or any extra ones that crop up (like the 1-shard bonus projects that come with Crystalline Cataclysm. Three guesses how one does that.
Again, I have yet to hear how the scenario described above 'hurts' anything... including 'metrics'.
The old system allowed players to participate more than they would have in order to stockpile for the following year (which, since some were participating twice as much in their first year, probably created misleading metrics) or run old Event projects to acquire the old Event ship (for set bonuses or for new accounts to acquire them); this is in addition to needing alts and new characters to run the project at least once during the relevant Event per Event ship desired.
Precisely, sir. The idea that the ability to save up vouchers for subsequent projects somehow hurts 'metrics' is ridiculous on its face. After all, when you've used said stockpile, and some of the new batch, for this year's project... you're going to want to rebuild the stock, either for next year's project or any extra ones that crop up (like the 1-shard bonus projects that come with Crystalline Cataclysm. Three guesses how one does that.
Again, I have yet to hear how the scenario described above 'hurts' anything... including 'metrics'.
You're looking at overall time spent but not when it was spent or the number of days.
Cryptic wants you to participate in the Summer 2016 event by logging in at least 25 times during Summer 2016, not to have earned 960 shinies in 2015 and then only show up for 1 day.
People would log in for 25 days in 2015, but using 2 characters so one got the ship, one or more alts got stacks of shinies for the future. That's still only being online for 25 days not 50+.
They'll only let you opt out of showing up for 25 days by buying a pile of lock box keys instead, since then you are directly or indirectly given them real-world money.
You're looking at overall time spent but not when it was spent or the number of days.
Cryptic wants you to participate in the Summer 2016 event by logging in at least 25 times during Summer 2016, not to have earned 960 shinies in 2015 and then only show up for 1 day.
Let us study the case of a player working from a blank slate, who picks up all available vouchers each year (40 daily * 40 days = 1600), and requisitions each available ship.
The ability to save up for the future is a strong incentive to collect all available vouchers, which in turn bolsters these 'metrics'. Now, if the ship available for a given year does not interest the player for whatever reason, there are still those extra projects which turn those vouchers into useful resources.
Conversely this 'exclusivity' nonsense discourages collecting extras, which in turn hurts 'metrics'. I, among others, think exclusivity here should be limited to items of a purely cosmetic nature, if present at all, and reiterate the idea of a special 'shield' which gives the ship a special hull pattern (and fits only in that ship's shield visual slot) which is only available in the debut year.
You're looking at overall time spent but not when it was spent or the number of days.
Cryptic wants you to participate in the Summer 2016 event by logging in at least 25 times during Summer 2016, not to have earned 960 shinies in 2015 and then only show up for 1 day.
Let us study the case of a player working from a blank slate, who picks up all available vouchers each year (40 daily * 40 days = 1600), and requisitions each available ship.
The ability to save up for the future is a strong incentive to collect all available vouchers, which in turn bolsters these 'metrics'. Now, if the ship available for a given year does not interest the player for whatever reason, there are still those extra projects which turn those vouchers into useful resources.
Conversely this 'exclusivity' nonsense discourages collecting extras, which in turn hurts 'metrics'. I, among others, think exclusivity here should be limited to items of a purely cosmetic nature, if present at all, and reiterate the idea of a special 'shield' which gives the ship a special hull pattern (and fits only in that ship's shield visual slot) which is only available in the debut year.
You're missing alts. with 3 alts I could have each earn 1000 shinies in year 1 and skip Risa completely for the next 2 years.
You're looking at overall time spent but not when it was spent or the number of days.
Cryptic wants you to participate in the Summer 2016 event by logging in at least 25 times during Summer 2016, not to have earned 960 shinies in 2015 and then only show up for 1 day.
Let us study the case of a player working from a blank slate, who picks up all available vouchers each year (40 daily * 40 days = 1600), and requisitions each available ship.
The ability to save up for the future is a strong incentive to collect all available vouchers, which in turn bolsters these 'metrics'. Now, if the ship available for a given year does not interest the player for whatever reason, there are still those extra projects which turn those vouchers into useful resources.
Conversely this 'exclusivity' nonsense discourages collecting extras, which in turn hurts 'metrics'. I, among others, think exclusivity here should be limited to items of a purely cosmetic nature, if present at all, and reiterate the idea of a special 'shield' which gives the ship a special hull pattern (and fits only in that ship's shield visual slot) which is only available in the debut year.
You're missing alts. with 3 alts I could have each earn 1000 shinies in year 1 and skip Risa completely for the next 2 years.
I did that with the anniversarys. Before they added date stamps I had enough anniversary tokens saved up for the next DECADE.
Event tokens continue to be 'stamped' with the year, meaning no one can pre-save for next years events and Cryptic/PWE get their metrics
Each years tokens can be applied to previous years' projects which remain as account unlocks, meaning the same amount of overall time played is still required to unlock those ships (continuing to add to the previous metric)
The Lobi option remains open to those who don't finish the ship project and don't want/are unable to wait the full year until the event comes around again
The buyback store is updated to allow the previous years stamped tokens to be used as currency, possibly through some form of conversion (from 'Lohlunat Prize Voucher xxxx' to 'Lohlunat Pearls' for example), giving 'pre savers' or 'super grindy' people some measure of value to continuing to play the event
I'm sure someone on the business side of things will grumble about 'potential lost profits' from being able to source the free ship through continued free means, but those are profits not yet earned and frankly, if you upset your player base through this, they're profits you might not ever see...
Maybe I'm not reading this correctly, but these two statements seem to contradict one another. So do you mean to convert the event tokens to some other non-ship earning currency like "Lohlunat Favors' or "Andorian Sleigh Bells" etc?
When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
Now, if the ship available for a given year does not interest the player for whatever reason, there are still those extra projects which turn those vouchers into useful resources.
Except that those projects don't unlock unless you've already claimed the ship, and iirc, are on 20 hour cooldowns in addition to only being available during the event in question. Further to that, the buyback store as it currently exists doesn't allow the excess 2015 vouchers to be spent either.
Event tokens continue to be 'stamped' with the year, meaning no one can pre-save for next years events and Cryptic/PWE get their metrics
The buyback store is updated to allow the previous years stamped tokens to be used as currency, possibly through some form of conversion (from 'Lohlunat Prize Voucher xxxx' to 'Lohlunat Pearls' for example), giving 'pre savers' or 'super grindy' people some measure of value to continuing to play the event
Maybe I'm not reading this correctly, but these two statements seem to contradict one another. So do you mean to convert the event tokens to some other non-ship earning currency like "Lohlunat Favors' or "Andorian Sleigh Bells" etc?
I don't think I made the latter point clear but that was amended in my second attempt:
Event tokens continue to be 'stamped' with the year, meaning no one can pre-save for next years events and Cryptic/PWE get their metrics
Previous years' ships, which remain as account unlocks, can be bought with a buyback currency (continuing to add to the previous metric, see below re. currency)
Each years tokens can be turned into a buyback currency through the buyback store, possibly being kept separate as Q's/Summer/Winter currencies, at a rate of 3:1, giving 'pre savers' or 'super grindy' people some measure of value to continuing to play the event. Keeping previous ships at a cost of '1000' increases the play-through metric for not being at the original event while not making other buyback items too cheap to obtain through Lobi
The buyback store must be re-opened each year by visiting the event map, possibly with 1x Lohlunat Favor, 1x each 'common' winter store commodity, 1x Omega Trace or some other easily obtained commodity with very little intrinsic value
The Lobi option remains open to those who don't finish the ship project and don't want/are unable to wait the full year until the event comes around again, who wish to buy the ship through various Lobi-obtaining means or who wish to buy other buyback store items
Might be worth reading the whole post I quoted the list from though for context.
What everyone buying Zen are really saying while all these bugs are still floating freely:
Stop new content until quality returns
You're looking at overall time spent but not when it was spent or the number of days.
Cryptic wants you to participate in the Summer 2016 event by logging in at least 25 times during Summer 2016, not to have earned 960 shinies in 2015 and then only show up for 1 day.
Let us study the case of a player working from a blank slate, who picks up all available vouchers each year (40 daily * 40 days = 1600), and requisitions each available ship.
The ability to save up for the future is a strong incentive to collect all available vouchers, which in turn bolsters these 'metrics'. Now, if the ship available for a given year does not interest the player for whatever reason, there are still those extra projects which turn those vouchers into useful resources.
Conversely this 'exclusivity' nonsense discourages collecting extras, which in turn hurts 'metrics'. I, among others, think exclusivity here should be limited to items of a purely cosmetic nature, if present at all, and reiterate the idea of a special 'shield' which gives the ship a special hull pattern (and fits only in that ship's shield visual slot) which is only available in the debut year.
You're missing alts. with 3 alts I could have each earn 1000 shinies in year 1 and skip Risa completely for the next 2 years.
I did that with the anniversarys. Before they added date stamps I had enough anniversary tokens saved up for the next DECADE.
Exactly. Enough people were alt-ing and hoarding that it showed up on Cryptic's radar as an exploit and so we got year-specific currency.
If they are giving away an endgame, cross-faction, account-wide ship free for a little grinding they get to set some strict rules.
I have the answer to this whole problem. With all this temporal/time travel stuff going on, why can't our captains just go back through time and do the events when they were originally happening? There's got to be an Iconian gateway, or something like it, around here somewhere. Slingshot around the sun? We should be able to use the USS Pastak admiralty ship to do this. See? Time travel, problem solved.
Comments
This is a slight improvement, but not quite where most players would like it... nor is it ideal in achieving your goal of increased participation. The old system allowed players to participate more than they would have in order to stockpile for the following year (which, since some were participating twice as much in their first year, probably created misleading metrics) or run old Event projects to acquire the old Event ship (for set bonuses or for new accounts to acquire them); this is in addition to needing alts and new characters to run the project at least once during the relevant Event per Event ship desired. The current system has players participating for a single project's widgets, while generating an increasing array widgets to keep track of, with little reward for participation beyond this point. While the current system certainly benefits me (I've always preferred Account unlocks, and I've completed all of mine), it isn't helpful to newer players nor does it have me doing the relevant Event activity any more than I would have.
I do applaud the decision to allow the purchase of Event widgets from the Lobi Store, since it at least gives some way for folks to finish projects at a later date, but the ability to slot old projects during the Event still ought to happen. Keeping current Event widgets capable of working towards the old Event projects would also be better for both players and the participation goal, since the change in their function specifically precludes participating in order to complete old projects. I'll merrily fly through hoops again this year either way, without spending Lobi or worrying about missing the ship, but I think it would be better for the Event overall to allow slotting old Event projects and for current Event widgets to fill them.
Just my 2 EC's.
- At first, you could slot old projects, but they were PER CHARACTER unlocks. 1,000 shinies per character, ouch! New characters can't get the ship until a year later, also for 1,000 shinies.
- For the Breen carrier winter event, you could slot old projects, they were still PER CHARACTER unlocks. Other characters now got the unlock for just 4 shinies, yay! New characters still needed to wait a year for the next Winter.
- Summer Nandi. Account-wide unlocks for all past (reputation project) Event ships. WOOHOO! Alts you create whenever will get the ships. But: "exclusivity" kicks in.
Now, you're being asked to pay lobi to complete old projects, but those old projects will be ACCOUNT WIDE UNLOCKS. Expensive, yes, but you are getting an account-wide, cross-faction ship usable by Fed, KDF, Romulan characters. That's like a $50 3-ship bundle.
can I haz ur stuffs?
Its something to complain about and thus will be complained about because we need something to complain about.
Personally I don't give a replicated rats you know what since all these kinds of box ships for me to just get thrown in the bank and never touched again so I don't bother with doing these events anymore. I guess my problem is there isn't much to do in the game that i haven't done billions of times over that doesn't involve a reputation or some box ship i'll never use.
All that being said I could see more positive results coming if they took this into account when setting up events. Pretty much tho dilithium rewards are all that is needed when setting these up so maybe something thats a developing story and not so much as for a grind but I might play with power boards some.
I'm in the same boat as you. I was hoping the latest patch would fix that issue, but that's not the case.
so why did you not slot the project when the event started? 99% of the player base does that.
never had this happen bad luck on your part maybe
actually there was a way to do the past ships just use the current years currency. yeah okay at first that was bugged but it was fixed for the most part and was doable you could even finish past ship projects and do the current on another toon ( I did )
I kinda like this change but now I have to take a lil more time to get EC and go after keys or use my 500 zen a month to do keys or DOff packs that give lobi. most of those ships are on alt account and I really don't need them just like to have them when I farm for the fleet.
http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10001653-star-trek-online:-summer-event-2016-ship
"Once this starship is obtained by any character on your account, any characters on this account can claim the Vorgon Xyfius Heavy Escort from the Account Claim tab within the Event Store (in the Event Reputation window)."
Account unlock, just like every other reputation project event ship is now, including the older ones.
And if you finish an old project with lobi, that too will be an account unlock, not just a single-character unlock like the 900 lobi ships.
Um dude before you go off all half cocked and stuff. The lobi Free ships are for Event ships from the PAST. As in done, finished over with, you know AFTER said event is done!!!! The ships in question are from Anni, Summer and Winter events the last 6 years. Not the current event ship. Do your research there are A LOT of people who are doomsayers that like to get new players upset so they leave the game. It's usually a player that had an exploit they using and the devs caught them and shut them down. You still have plenty of time to get the current ship and by the stats it looks like a good ship for a beginner to cut your teeth on. And remember it's an account unlock free ship. So if you have plans for alternate toons Free T6 escort for ALL your toons. Only other T6 ships are on Zen store and are 3000Zen and that's for that ships faction this covers all of them. So don't get discouraged there are always bugs to workout. I mean they are retooling the whole game as we speak. So press on young Cpt. to glory and beyond!
Exactly my point! I have the Ferengi Nandi ship slotted and with 760 Lohlunat Prize Vouchers (2015).
And because of their methods of the previous years, I have every single event ship since 2012. So I am happy, so I have spent quite a bit on money on the game, but this new TRIBBLE is has gone overboard.
Notice in the bugs section , there is a thread with well over 1000 posts about missing items (Yes, I am missing irreplaceable items) which they have have not addressed, and still waiting on a resolution.
Instead, they just keep coming up with ways to be worse than the Ferengi.
I have had enough.
At that rate it would be cheaper to purchase a 800 Lobi ($200 USD) ship! FU Cryptic!
My character Tsin'xing
... and you only need 1,000 shinies if you were too lazy to do more than slot the project last year. Made no effort then? Pay more now.
How about:
I'm sure someone on the business side of things will grumble about 'potential lost profits' from being able to source the free ship through continued free means, but those are profits not yet earned and frankly, if you upset your player base through this, they're profits you might not ever see...
Stop new content until quality returns
That's pretty reasonable, but maybe you have to turn in 2-5 times as many of the new tokens in place of the old tokens. Cryptic wants people to have a reason to get the 2016 ship in 2016 not in 2017 or 2018 or 2019. MMORPGs use $50 free giveaways like this as incentive to play during that specific event, not "meh, whenever I get around to it."
People should be using a feature like this to make up for missing a couple of days not 15+ when there are already 15+ days to spare.
I digress, I've attempted to edit this in a way to keep it balanced while still retaining the original point and adding in the concerns raised.
I think this still leaves the option open to F2P players with the increased volume of play required for missing the event adding to the active player count that is being sought for events. It also allows Cryptic/PWE an avenue of revenue through Lobi for those who have the money and wish to basically pay out for Lobi. Just to top off both of those, it also allows a Lobi-route and provides additional incentive to grind the event for those buyback items such as the space emotes, upgrade techs and Spec points. A 3:1 ratio to get them through Lobi might be considered a bit much, but there in lies the incentive to play the event and top off with Lobi.
This may beg the question, 'why not simply add these items to the Lobi store at increased prices?', simply put it requires players to come back to the game and play the events which I think would be emphasised by the requirement to re-open the store at the start of each years event.
Stop new content until quality returns
Can't talk about the future, but so far, slotted projects have stayed slotted and visible throughout the year.
Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider.
Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
Don't make ARC mandatory! Keep it optional only!
Again, I have yet to hear how the scenario described above 'hurts' anything... including 'metrics'.
You're looking at overall time spent but not when it was spent or the number of days.
Cryptic wants you to participate in the Summer 2016 event by logging in at least 25 times during Summer 2016, not to have earned 960 shinies in 2015 and then only show up for 1 day.
People would log in for 25 days in 2015, but using 2 characters so one got the ship, one or more alts got stacks of shinies for the future. That's still only being online for 25 days not 50+.
They'll only let you opt out of showing up for 25 days by buying a pile of lock box keys instead, since then you are directly or indirectly given them real-world money.
- Year 1: 0 (reserve) + 1600 (collected) - 1000 (ship) = 600 (available)
- Year 2: 600 + 1600 - 1000 = 1200
- Year 3: 1200 + 1600 - 1000 = 1800
- et ectera, et cetera, et cetera (thank you, Mr Brenner)
The ability to save up for the future is a strong incentive to collect all available vouchers, which in turn bolsters these 'metrics'. Now, if the ship available for a given year does not interest the player for whatever reason, there are still those extra projects which turn those vouchers into useful resources.Conversely this 'exclusivity' nonsense discourages collecting extras, which in turn hurts 'metrics'. I, among others, think exclusivity here should be limited to items of a purely cosmetic nature, if present at all, and reiterate the idea of a special 'shield' which gives the ship a special hull pattern (and fits only in that ship's shield visual slot) which is only available in the debut year.
You're missing alts. with 3 alts I could have each earn 1000 shinies in year 1 and skip Risa completely for the next 2 years.
My character Tsin'xing
Except that those projects don't unlock unless you've already claimed the ship, and iirc, are on 20 hour cooldowns in addition to only being available during the event in question. Further to that, the buyback store as it currently exists doesn't allow the excess 2015 vouchers to be spent either.
I don't think I made the latter point clear but that was amended in my second attempt:
Might be worth reading the whole post I quoted the list from though for context.
Stop new content until quality returns
Exactly. Enough people were alt-ing and hoarding that it showed up on Cryptic's radar as an exploit and so we got year-specific currency.
If they are giving away an endgame, cross-faction, account-wide ship free for a little grinding they get to set some strict rules.
My character Tsin'xing