yeah bonus weekends are for people to grind DURING the weekend. Not for people to grind before hand and convert currency....
So on bonus dil weekend any runs you do of the Voth BZ will grant bonus dil, mining will grant bonus dil, etc... Stuff you saved from months ago? not so much...
Which means "business as usual." The "event" doesn't affect your playstyle and you can't plan for it in any way, so there is no particular reason to deviate from your daily routine before, during or after it.
Kit modules for doffs: training manuals has that covered. At least the regular kit modules are account bound, so you can put them on a new alt until it gets something better from rep or fleet.
Training manuals do not have that covered. Most special modules do not have matching training manuals. Nor do training manuals allow me to put the load of special reward kit modules in my bank to any use.
More importantly, it makes no sense for bridge officers to have a different power acquisition mechanic than player characters. If the player needs a specific piece of equipment to use ability X, then boffs should need it too.
Or, if a bridge officer does not need equipment to use the abilities, then the player should not it either. There is always the possibility to replace all kit modules with training manuals and make the players gain their abilities that way, too.
Or if you wanted to get all complicated, even some kind of hybrid solution where some abilites would require equipment, others training and some maybe both.
His point is valid. The devs appear to have a singularly poor ability to see the obvious ramifications of their changes to the game. They need to take the G Man's advice and "prepare for unexpected consequences".
All of those are examples of people gaming the system, and I wouldn't be surprised if many of the people doing it were doing it with farming alts. Probably a fair number of gold sellers too.
They are clever tricks that most "normal" casual players wouldn't think to do.
Who are you to define "normal"? Perhaps most players are simply more clever than you.
His point is valid. The devs appear to have a singularly poor ability to see the obvious ramifications of their changes to the game. They need to take the G Man's advice and "prepare for unexpected consequences".
"obvious"? yeah... not sure that means what you think it does. Is it obvious that players will try to break everything you add to the game? yeah. Is it obvious HOW they will do so? not so much...
OK, let's take the R&D Packs for Sale in the C-Store (and now also in a Lockbox nearest you). They introduced them and I believe they had them on Sale when introduced. They also announced, at practically the same time, that the next week they were going to have an R&D Bonus Weekend, wherein for one thing, those Packs would drop additional materials when opened. What would any reasonable person think was going to happen that didn't desperately need what was in the Pack at that moment or was going to put it on the Exchange....They would hold it for the next week to open them.
To this day they have not done anything about the 'hoarding' of R&D Packs. Why? Well for one thing is that they are NOT BOUND and can be sold or traded or whatever. You can't make them auto-open under those conditions and you can't remove them from eligibility for the Bonus because they SELL THEM. Sales would drop. Sales probably have dropped anyway otherwise they wouldn't need to have Promotion Events where really, really, really 'great' ships are given out in small numbers of those Promo Packs.
Now as far as the other stuff, their continued Blogs for nearly a year announcing Bonus Mark or Bonus Dilitium Weekends told you SPECIFICALLY that Daily Bonus Mark Rewards, Mark Boxes (after introduced), Elite Mark conversions, Reputation Mark or Dilitium Rewards. Special Event Reward Packs, etc. can get the Weekend Bonus.
In an earlier post I already gave my perspective on why the Daily Mark Bonus is not now eligible for the Weekend Bonus, especially in light of the self-opening of all Mark awards now. Faulty implementation of the Delta Alliance Reputation and failure to address the continued use of Boxed Mark Rewards for that Reputation before an upcoming Bonus Mark Weekend. They also, at that time, got very stingy with the Dilitium Rewards (see scale back in PVE Queues). Now they shower us with Dilitium, mainly from the Admiralty Missions. There however, to get those Missions done to get those 'showers' you need ships, or more specifically the Admiralty cards for the ships. How do you get ships? You buy them. They SELL ships you know, or sell the vehicle that the ships come in (Lockboxes, Promo Packs), or give the ships or cards away for participating in Metric Boosting Events.
All Market based.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Wait, so consoles got an updated feature "before" PC? 5 module slots and a separate passive frame slot was in place from the start. It's nice being able to mix and match as you wish - haven't had an issue with shared CDs, though it's only medic abilities I have a few of.
Oh, let's create Mark Boxes. People are saving them up for Bonus Mark Weekends. Let's make them auto-open.
Cr*p, we used the older code for Delta Rising for the Delta Alliance Reputation Mark awards, we never fixed it, a Bonus Mark Weekend is coming up in two weeks and we can't implement the auto-open in time, Let's remove the Daily Bonus Mark award from eligibility for the Bonus Weekend because some out there may get nearly 1,200 extra Bonus Delta Marks. [Two weeks after the Bonus Weekend they implemented the auto-open.] Now even though those Daily Bonuses were 'earned' during the Bonus Weekend they won't get that Bonus.
People are saving their Tier V Reputation Mark Awards for cash-in during Bonus Mark Weekends. Ditto for the Dilitium Award for Tier V (though mutually exclusive as you don't get Bonus Mark and Bonus Dilitium Weekends at the same time). Take away eligibility for that.
People are saving up their extra Reputation Elite Marks for Dilitium cash-in during Bonus Dilitium Weekends. Let's make those turn-ins 'valuable' all year long by removing their eligibility for the Bonus.
Blah-blah for the Crystalline, Mirror, etc. Event awards. They are not putting the final special item into the Event Project until Bonus <Fill in the Blank> Weekend. Remove their eligibility.
Let's make Kits load Modules. People are using Kits to store the plethora of Kits we have showered them with. No more storing Modules in Kits.
I think you get the idea.
Did you really just go on a long winded whine about them closing loopholes and exploits?? *rereads* Yes, yes you did..... go flog yourself now
Wait, so consoles got an updated feature "before" PC? 5 module slots and a separate passive frame slot was in place from the start.
It's nice being able to mix and match as you wish - haven't had an issue with shared CDs, though it's only medic abilities I have a few of.
Shared CDs are only for a handful of similar abilities. Such as Grenades. Most kit modules don't share cooldowns at all.
It was not a 'whine', it was a litany of things that they have implemented that they did or could not foresee the ramifications of how they implemented it. Read my next long-winded post on that whole topic and how it was seen and encouraged by Cryptic.
And I forgot a biggie, the big Events (Winter, Summer, Anniversary) and how they implemented the Account Unlocks and the lack of foresight in what people would do to mitigate grinding in the future.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Whether there exists a pattern of poor anticipation of players' actions or not and whether this is something to be ashamed of or not is something I'll leave for others to discuss.
What I do want to say about this is that I agree with @ltminns 's and others' opinion that using kit frames as storage does serve a purpose. It is indeed easier to swap an entire kit than putting different modules on it, rearranging all the abilities and such every time you want to change your powers for another mission.
Besides, is using kit frames as free storage really the same as 'breaking the game'? Let's be fair, we used to need only one or two slots for our kits. Now we'll need much more space if we want to have different abilities and thus keep different modules around.
One can argue that players are trying to get free bank or inventory space, but it's actually the other way around: we are simply reclaiming some of the space we lost when we suddenly had to keep all our different modules separate from the kit frames after the first revamp.
It seems reasonable to give either some free bank or inventory space. Another thing that I feel is now needed is load outs for the ground part of the game: it will no longer be possible to quickly swap entire kits, and I think ground load outs would be a huge improvement anyway with all the extra personal traits, reputation traits, pieces of gear and different content/enemies we have now compared to what we had a couple of years ago.
To be honest I DON'T think the devs made the change because of the kits frames as storage "issue". The devs probably didn't really even think about that. Thus this change was simply them trying to make things better. And aside from the storage "issue" it is.
To be honest I DON'T think the devs made the change because of the kits frames as storage "issue". The devs probably didn't really even think about that. Thus this change was simply them trying to make things better. And aside from the storage "issue" it is.
Possibly. In fact, I think you're right, this may have been their primary concern.
Still, I think they should take the storage issue and the effects of this change into account. There are people who still have specialised ground toons and who have many extra kit modules. I think my main science toon has enough of them to fill up to four kits. Since you can't put them onto a bridge officer like we can put reserve space gear on a ship, this tends to take up quite a large amount of bank slots and now the only way to deal with this is taken away.
Even if it wasn't their intention, it's still a side-effect that needs compensation or at least requires attention.
Oh, I'm one of them. each of my characters carries around about a dozen modules. Most of my characters has more than one frame too. So yes, I am definitely some one who will be affected by the change in a bad way. One advantage this change has is that you can now swap frames without emptying the frame and swapping all the modules over. Also the lack of a split between mechanic/fabrication means you can use pretty much anything you want
Bonus ___ Events aren't, IMO, really for the people who log in every day and grind, grind, grind.
They're to get people who normally log in maybe once a week to spend more time in game, on that weekend, pushing Cryptic's numbers up.
Complaining that these bonus weekends don't serve you, or change your playstyle, is pointless. They're not for you.
Answers
Which means "business as usual." The "event" doesn't affect your playstyle and you can't plan for it in any way, so there is no particular reason to deviate from your daily routine before, during or after it.
More importantly, it makes no sense for bridge officers to have a different power acquisition mechanic than player characters. If the player needs a specific piece of equipment to use ability X, then boffs should need it too.
Or, if a bridge officer does not need equipment to use the abilities, then the player should not it either. There is always the possibility to replace all kit modules with training manuals and make the players gain their abilities that way, too.
Or if you wanted to get all complicated, even some kind of hybrid solution where some abilites would require equipment, others training and some maybe both.
But in any case, the same for players and boffs.
His point is valid. The devs appear to have a singularly poor ability to see the obvious ramifications of their changes to the game. They need to take the G Man's advice and "prepare for unexpected consequences".
Who are you to define "normal"? Perhaps most players are simply more clever than you.
My character Tsin'xing
To this day they have not done anything about the 'hoarding' of R&D Packs. Why? Well for one thing is that they are NOT BOUND and can be sold or traded or whatever. You can't make them auto-open under those conditions and you can't remove them from eligibility for the Bonus because they SELL THEM. Sales would drop. Sales probably have dropped anyway otherwise they wouldn't need to have Promotion Events where really, really, really 'great' ships are given out in small numbers of those Promo Packs.
Now as far as the other stuff, their continued Blogs for nearly a year announcing Bonus Mark or Bonus Dilitium Weekends told you SPECIFICALLY that Daily Bonus Mark Rewards, Mark Boxes (after introduced), Elite Mark conversions, Reputation Mark or Dilitium Rewards. Special Event Reward Packs, etc. can get the Weekend Bonus.
In an earlier post I already gave my perspective on why the Daily Mark Bonus is not now eligible for the Weekend Bonus, especially in light of the self-opening of all Mark awards now. Faulty implementation of the Delta Alliance Reputation and failure to address the continued use of Boxed Mark Rewards for that Reputation before an upcoming Bonus Mark Weekend. They also, at that time, got very stingy with the Dilitium Rewards (see scale back in PVE Queues). Now they shower us with Dilitium, mainly from the Admiralty Missions. There however, to get those Missions done to get those 'showers' you need ships, or more specifically the Admiralty cards for the ships. How do you get ships? You buy them. They SELL ships you know, or sell the vehicle that the ships come in (Lockboxes, Promo Packs), or give the ships or cards away for participating in Metric Boosting Events.
All Market based.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
It's nice being able to mix and match as you wish - haven't had an issue with shared CDs, though it's only medic abilities I have a few of.
Did you really just go on a long winded whine about them closing loopholes and exploits?? *rereads* Yes, yes you did..... go flog yourself now
My character Tsin'xing
And I forgot a biggie, the big Events (Winter, Summer, Anniversary) and how they implemented the Account Unlocks and the lack of foresight in what people would do to mitigate grinding in the future.
As far as going to flog myself:
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Perhaps you should have anticipated the consequences of posting that opinion.
My character Tsin'xing
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
What I do want to say about this is that I agree with @ltminns 's and others' opinion that using kit frames as storage does serve a purpose. It is indeed easier to swap an entire kit than putting different modules on it, rearranging all the abilities and such every time you want to change your powers for another mission.
Besides, is using kit frames as free storage really the same as 'breaking the game'? Let's be fair, we used to need only one or two slots for our kits. Now we'll need much more space if we want to have different abilities and thus keep different modules around.
One can argue that players are trying to get free bank or inventory space, but it's actually the other way around: we are simply reclaiming some of the space we lost when we suddenly had to keep all our different modules separate from the kit frames after the first revamp.
It seems reasonable to give either some free bank or inventory space. Another thing that I feel is now needed is load outs for the ground part of the game: it will no longer be possible to quickly swap entire kits, and I think ground load outs would be a huge improvement anyway with all the extra personal traits, reputation traits, pieces of gear and different content/enemies we have now compared to what we had a couple of years ago.
Edit: spelling
My character Tsin'xing
Possibly. In fact, I think you're right, this may have been their primary concern.
Still, I think they should take the storage issue and the effects of this change into account. There are people who still have specialised ground toons and who have many extra kit modules. I think my main science toon has enough of them to fill up to four kits. Since you can't put them onto a bridge officer like we can put reserve space gear on a ship, this tends to take up quite a large amount of bank slots and now the only way to deal with this is taken away.
Even if it wasn't their intention, it's still a side-effect that needs compensation or at least requires attention.
My character Tsin'xing
They're to get people who normally log in maybe once a week to spend more time in game, on that weekend, pushing Cryptic's numbers up.
Complaining that these bonus weekends don't serve you, or change your playstyle, is pointless. They're not for you.