The few things I wish they would change back is making Colony Invasion level 50 again instead of level 60. Why does the most basic ground pve require the highest ranking? I also agree that the player equalizing ques is dumb. Sometimes you need a powerhouse to help you through the pve. It also makes the wait for a que a lot longer then before.
Alot of people talking about a lack of dps with the rebalancing and what not, but imo they are trying to use the same builds they have always ran without trying to adjust to the new balance.
I used to run APs like everyone else with a leech etc, after S13 i went full disruptors and a build centered around dealing heavy damage not high DPS, and its worked out nicely i can deal the same amount of damage i did when i was doing more DPS i still use the leech as even a slight buff is better then nothing.
My entire build was redjusted to fit dealing heavy damage, i adjusted my build dumped AP and have been quite happy with the results, S13s rebalancing was a good thing unless you refuse to adjust to it then you have no right to whine about it.
What? Worse than the expansion which caused a big chunk of the player base to leave and never come back? Is this a joke?
I just came back and I'm still having issues finishing Delta.... They really need to redo the Kobali stuff or make every mission skippable. Nonetheless I really did miss STO but not being able to advance the story line and getting zero help from the support people regarding the Kobali missions irked me to no end.
Nevertheless the look and feel recently is what peaked my interesting enough to entice me to give it a shot again... Guess what? After many attempts (again) I finally got one toon through Delta and am now stuck with another. It makes we want to scream at times.....
On a side note, I wish they would give plasma its juice again.... I feel like a neutered Rommie...
What issues are you having with the Kobali arc? That's actually one of my favorites, so if there's anything I can maybe do to help, please let me know
Getting credit for finishing the Acts and now the leader does not spawn properly for another mission... There are a couple threads in the bugs forum about the issues...
Ahh, that sounds a little outside my area of expertise :-\ I had a similar issue with the last wave of Na'kuhl not spawning aboard the Tholian vessel, and would sometimes have to quit and drop the mission several times, before it would actually load them properly to progress the level. Is that something you've already tried?
Numerous times... Accordingly, it is a fundamental reason for the the general opinion about Delta being the worst expansion for STO. Yet here we are - how long after? Still with know issues from then, plaguing the user experience...
Damn, sorry I couldn't be more help, guy Yeah, you're pretty much spot on with that assessment
"I fight for the Users!" - Tron
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
No, the Delta BS was horrible for the game... Just extended the grind out needlessly. The delta story ark is my least favorite in the entire game... Of course, I also really didnt love Voyager either.
I largely agree with the OP, I think this season has quite frankly been the worst that STO has ever seen. DR definitely wasn't great, but the things they have implemented this season from 'competitive PVE,' to the horrendous new UI to the stupid and totally pointless nerfs have just totally ruined this game for me. DR had it's problems, but it never made me stop playing like Escalation has, seeing the current teams 'vision' of this game made me decide it's time to find something else to spend my time on.
As for the nerfs, the funny thing is that they really made very little difference. Like a few others here posted, I gave it a shot, I logged on, replaced my now useless gear with gear that still works, changed up my BoFF layouts slightly and went right back to destroying everything in seconds. The Nerfs did nothing, people can praise them all they want, but all they did was make certain items and abilities completely useless while making a few other items more popular. They brought down the top end numbers, but the gap between 'good' and 'bad' players is still exactly the same is it was before. Any imbalance that existed before, still exists now, the only difference is the 'meta' has slightly shifted. The part that got me was the load of TRIBBLE they push about caring about game balance.. give me a break. Things like the Leech have been 'over performing' for years, but now that it's cheap on the exchange and people aren't spending cash to get it anymore.. now it needs 'balance.' When things no longer make money, they hack them off at the knees to sell more stuff later, it's transparent and pathetic.
The game is still fun as far as logging in and doing the story missions, but that's really about it. Every few months when they finally release new story missions, I will log in and play them but as far as doing queues, running battle zones, or any of the other 'content' this game has.. it all just feels hollow now. I respect the opinions of players that disagree (I really do) but for me personally, Season 13 just sucked all the fun out of a game I used to enjoy.
No, the Delta BS was horrible for the game... Just extended the grind out needlessly. The delta story ark is my least favorite in the entire game... Of course, I also really didnt love Voyager either.
Delta rising was the greatest expansion ever, and the players loved it lol
@lianthelia
3rd place in HSE leaderboards and 13th place in ISA leaderboards is held by a sci captain piloting sci vessel.
3rd speedrun in HSE was done only with sci vessels piloted by sci and eng captains.
Yes, tacs still are ahead, but claiming how scis or engs can never be even close enough, or how sci vessels are the worst shows how little you know about the game.
Oh wow....yeah...silly me...coming in 3rd place in a race of 3 is such a victory! (In case you can't tell my post is wreaking with sarcasm)
Have fun celebrating your mediocrity while I think the game should be fixed...
They did change the minimum system requirements for the game, and announced it over a month ahead of time.
Do you mean in addition to the DX9 becoming unsupported? I followed the updates and notes fairly closely, but I don't remember seeing anything about anything other than DX9 :-\ Perhaps I just missed it.
Here is the official announcement back in December 2016 which stated that both Windows XP and DX9 will no longer be supported as of March 1, 2017.
Thanks for the direct link I expect there's a few bits on that list it wasn't compliant with... At least I now know what the other will definitely need, to be considered up to par
In a follow on update of this scenario, I decided to torment myself earlier, and try and log on again with the same PC. After a huge patch update, and verifying all files, the game ACTUALLY LOADED!!!!!
Or rather, it didn't crash out at the Cryptic Loading screen!
It didn't crash out at the character selection screen either!
It loaded enough of the Starbase 39 transporter alcove that I could actually SEE MY TOON!!! (By Kek, how I missed those legs and a55! )
But that was as far as it would load. The icons around the mini map were just blue and green boxes, with none of the identifier details, the character portrait with the health and shield bars was absent, and there was no response to movements input.
What this suggests to me, it that the issue I've been experiencing, was in fact related to the version of Escalation released. If it was indeed, simply a case of the PC just not being up to snuff, it wouldn't be loading any further than it did at the Cryptic Loading screen crashes of a month ago. I suspect that the age of the PC may be coming into it, but that there was a consistent change in the amount of game-access achieved, following a patch update, suggests that the incompatibility is as much software, as hardware
"I fight for the Users!" - Tron
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
Wow. Good to hear about the weather at your "I'm the center of the universe", but I'm betting the people who run this game pretty much disagree on every point.
Well, they might agree that Season 13 is worse then Delta Rising, Delta Rising might have made them more money.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
I'd say Deturd rising and Desperation were bad in equal amounts, but for different reasons
Delta
》The dawn of timegated missions (I may be wrong, but pre delta, there were no real timegates were bolted to missions edit: You could count the breaches utterly epic but pointless trench run, I guess...) and timegating tactics (such as wrapping delta patrols, forcing you to travel slowly to the next area with no way to get there faster)
》The filler missions
》No smooth level/mission progression, meaning excessive grind simply to get to the next mission
》The delta hp bloat
》Idiot proofing advance and carving out elite stfs, which has made doing more than pewwing the norm (I see people in isa not bother with the optionals)
》The schism between dev and player peaked with Japori and Argalagate respectively
Escalation
》The ui - its somewhat improved but its still a real pain
》Enforced pvp as the only new content - 'not pvp' pvp or not, considering the pver versus pver running battles and the general dislike of pvp in any form; this seasons content has not sat well with many (myself included)
》The nerfs - while not bad per se, their heavy handedness (tss and sci team, for example) with some nerfs completely annihalated builds (and have given sci ships a nightmare as shieldtanking was their mitigation method) and the faw nerf, while deserved; was a bad idea (raising other powers to faw level would have been better imo)
While Escalation might have less bullet points, I'd say their power on the game is akin to deltas many 'crimes'
@lianthelia
3rd place in HSE leaderboards and 13th place in ISA leaderboards is held by a sci captain piloting sci vessel.
3rd speedrun in HSE was done only with sci vessels piloted by sci and eng captains.
Yes, tacs still are ahead, but claiming how scis or engs can never be even close enough, or how sci vessels are the worst shows how little you know about the game.
Oh wow....yeah...silly me...coming in 3rd place in a race of 3 is such a victory! (In case you can't tell my post is wreaking with sarcasm)
Have fun celebrating your mediocrity while I think the game should be fixed...
You're being ever so silly now. Tunebreaker is one of the top Science Captains in this game. You could learn a thing or two from him.
And all he really did, was try and tell you that even a Science Captain in a Science ship can do very well.
@lianthelia
3rd place in HSE leaderboards and 13th place in ISA leaderboards is held by a sci captain piloting sci vessel.
3rd speedrun in HSE was done only with sci vessels piloted by sci and eng captains.
Yes, tacs still are ahead, but claiming how scis or engs can never be even close enough, or how sci vessels are the worst shows how little you know about the game.
Oh wow....yeah...silly me...coming in 3rd place in a race of 3 is such a victory! (In case you can't tell my post is wreaking with sarcasm)
Have fun celebrating your mediocrity while I think the game should be fixed...
Ehm, it is not 3rd out of 3, because way more than one tac "participated". And only two could do better. You probably couldn't. So more like "3rd out of hundreds if not thousands". Yes, tac is still better than sci, but sci is easily viable, though it is more difficult to set up. (To get to the top of DPS boards that difference diminishes, since very top tac also needs more than "consoles plus disruptor".
》No smooth level/mission progression, meaning excessive grind simply to get to the next mission
That was only true for people stuck at level 50 at the time. While it was annoying (my main toon was one of them) it wasn't true for later toons who would easily outlevel the requirements just by story missions alone.
My mother was an epohh and my father smelled of tulaberries
Not looking forward to the Son'a, who were (to paraphrase Truman Capote) a second-rate Kazon, and the Kazon were third-rate.
But at least we're getting the Golden Antler System! (Sorry, the "Endeavor" System--but the logo just looks like an "E" between antlers to me.) Despite my munging the name, I think it's an interesting move for the game and I'm looking forward to finding out what it brings both in terms of activities and rewards.
I have to say I think the OP is essentially correct. I don't really notice too much difference with the space rebalance. I'm not really paying too close attention anymore these days. But obviously some people are. the queues are way way more dead than they were before the rebalance. The attempt to resurrect pvp did not work at all. They took a shot but it failed. Time to move on.
Maybe the new endeavor system is a fix. I don't know what it really entails so we'll have to see.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Everyone has their own experiences. My experience with this expansion is that I tried to start several queues, several things (including CCA) popped up to "Accept," and then nothing happened at all for 5-10 minutes. In looking at the queue list, I couldn't even tell if I was in a queue or not, and didn't bother going any further.
Video games are supposed to be fun. If I can't have fun without first doing a rain dance while shaking a maraca 2.5 times, then do the hokey pokey, and finally finish the last maraca shake to make the system work I'll just do something else. Hell, that sounds more fun already.
To the full DR vs. ESC comparison - this I can't start queues, last one I couldn't finish queues. Seems like about the same result.
having a VERY low end PC and borderlinely supported GPU with also low memory overall, I had to set some things differently beside DX9->11 issue, after the expansion and again some patches after the s13 expansion/session.
This is a personal, first hand experience of a newbie with no current technical understanding.
Beside DX11 (and ofc removing the launcher's related command which related to DX9/DX11), I made:
1. Windowed "full screen" maximized with desktop resolution (which is low in my old laptop case, and is needed as it - safe mode at 800/600 makes things worse. This "full screen" maximized windowed settings tends to reset in some patch processes, but it is needed exactly as is in my case to avoid some bad issues of crashes/focus issues and also of auto minimizing/resizing a window which is solvable partially by alt, but which may be caused by pressing alt as well (toggle) or otherwise)
2. Enabled streaming (disk related, not the beta feature) and this beside - this was needed for a more viable login and for transporting to fleet starbase even, as I had a very low memory
3. Was making sure settings are on the very low side so to speak, as things were very slow otherwise still.
I do (just in case from before) also use some other settings to reduce actual resolution to 96 or 98% but this is a leftover troubleshooting settings from a pre session 13 bugged DX9/new DX11 era which I keep just in case being unsure if it's needed or not.
Names of settings is NON accurate and this is not an advice. I did notice it's harder and slower to login since S13 (and some patches which added after) hence the changes I made to my settings. In MY case it helped. I can't tell if it helps others. I think with those settings after I changed those (mostly by trial and error as game was practically unplayable otherwise), it's much "more stable" again (I can teleport and login more consistently at least, and game is playable again regarding responsiveness), but settings which affect such stability may change without notice on any patch, it seems, and for me it hugely changed on S13 and again shortly after it.
The session OFC had other quircks (which as said in other topic. I appreciated the fixing tries and fixes) but this post is not about the bugs and quircks which I definitely noticed, and not regarding any added feature and it's "necessity"/being desired, but instead regarding requirements/playability AT ALL (login failures mostly or time taking for a sucessfull login/ability to play ANY PvE content/ability to transwarp or approach holdings at all without crashing or possibly being stuck or failing to transwarp at all)
The rebalancing was necessary. Personally, I don't think it hit the average player that hard; most people I've seen complaining about it were those who mentioned that they went from doing over 100k to somewhere near 50k.
I think that the UI change had more of a negative effect on the queues than the rebalancing.
But I agree that something needs to be done about the queues. They're in a worse state than ever before and that's not just because the Risa event is going on. I haven't been able to play the Borg ground queues since the UI change, even missions like Undine Assault and Borg Disconnected take ages to start. CCA and ISA are literally the only missions I've been able to play and even those missions seem to take longer to start than before.
Maybe the Endeavour system will help solve this issue, but I seriously doubt it. While this system add rewards to certain content, you'll need to log in during a specific moment to benefit from that. If there's one thing that has had the effect of wearing out the playerbase (at least the players in my fleet and armada) it's the almost non-stop sequence of events and 'log-on-during-limited-time-frames-to-get-this-reward' thing that has become the new standard.
If they want to save this game, they should start offering unique rewards and unique content. The worst thing you can do is manage your game such that players are going to preceive it as if it were a second job; with them being forced to log on each day and do the same stuff over and over again or miss out on the rewards, basically forever.
And besides more unique rewards and content, provide for an unique experience. We're basically repeating the same queues over and over again, playing the same episodes etc.
STO is still a wonderful game but so much more could be done to keep things interesting. Create new species with unique abilities, try and develop entirely new systems such as the thing where we get to command a small task force of ships (so by 'new systems' I don't mean clicky systems such as Admiralty which does not encourage people to play the content in any way). They really should focus on reworking some of the core elements of the game: less repetitive grinding, more out of the box thinking and truly new things. And most important: don't add any more stuff that gives people a reason not to play the queues. Solo content is fine, as long as it's true content and not a clicky system or something that grants access to all possible queue-related rewards (such as Risa bird trading-in). Maybe creating more solo content could actually be a good strategy now that I'm thinking of it; it should be less demanding since interaction between players and stacking of stuff becomes less of an issue (meaning that half the game's powers don't have to be reworked because they cause insane lag for instance).
But I agree that something needs to be done about the queues. They're in a worse state than ever before and that's not just because the Risa event is going on. I haven't been able to play the Borg ground queues since the UI change, even missions like Undine Assault and Borg Disconnected take ages to start. CCA and ISA are literally the only missions I've been able to play and even those missions seem to take longer to start than before.
Maybe the Endeavour system will help solve this issue, but I seriously doubt it. While this system add rewards to certain content, you'll need to log in during a specific moment to benefit from that. If there's one thing that has had the effect of wearing out the playerbase (at least the players in my fleet and armada) it's the almost non-stop sequence of events and 'log-on-during-limited-time-frames-to-get-this-reward' thing that has become the new standard.
Personally, I don't think much of anything can be done about the queues. You can't make em more interesting, really, as, well, they were plenty interesting already. It's really just the numbers. Like Federation Starbase Defense (the 20-peeps queue). The players loved it! And now? They're still loving it, but there are simply not enough ppl left any more to queue for it. Which causes an accelerated downward spiral: not enough ppl in the queue leads to even less ppl being inclined to queue for it (thinking it's hopeless anyway).
》No smooth level/mission progression, meaning excessive grind simply to get to the next mission
That was only true for people stuck at level 50 at the time.
Which was... everyone!
Dilithium Rising sent a great many ppl running, because of the insane Upgrade spiel. S13, I suspect, had a similar effect, because someone got it in his head that everyone now needed to be severely nerfed, to increase their 'fun.'
But I agree that something needs to be done about the queues. They're in a worse state than ever before and that's not just because the Risa event is going on. I haven't been able to play the Borg ground queues since the UI change, even missions like Undine Assault and Borg Disconnected take ages to start. CCA and ISA are literally the only missions I've been able to play and even those missions seem to take longer to start than before.
Maybe the Endeavour system will help solve this issue, but I seriously doubt it. While this system add rewards to certain content, you'll need to log in during a specific moment to benefit from that. If there's one thing that has had the effect of wearing out the playerbase (at least the players in my fleet and armada) it's the almost non-stop sequence of events and 'log-on-during-limited-time-frames-to-get-this-reward' thing that has become the new standard.
Personally, I don't think much of anything can be done about the queues. You can't make em more interesting, really, as, well, they were plenty interesting already. It's really just the numbers. Like Federation Starbase Defense (the 20-peeps queue). The players loved it! And now? They're still loving it, but there are simply not enough ppl left any more to queue for it. Which causes an accelerated downward spiral: not enough ppl in the queue leads to even less ppl being inclined to queue for it (thinking it's hopeless anyway).
Sigh. Now I'm depressed.
Yeah, sadly I don't think there is much to be done about public queues. If they insist on keeping this absolutely garbage of queue UI and refuse to fix several build types (aka make game fun for, let's say, tanks again), pug queues will likely remain dead.
Sure, Endeavour might come and fix the situation a bit, but only for a single queue at time, and we don't yet know if the rewards are worth doing it for majority of players.
However, as Peter said, it's in our, players' hands now. We need to form our own private queues, educate players about changes and how things work post S13 - keep (or at least try to, as much as possible) the gaming spirit alive.
While things have been much slower in TSC, too, we have still done many queues there, and I have no intention of stopping.
I largely agree with the OP, I think this season has quite frankly been the worst that STO has ever seen. DR definitely wasn't great, but the things they have implemented this season from 'competitive PVE,' to the horrendous new UI to the stupid and totally pointless nerfs have just totally ruined this game for me. DR had it's problems, but it never made me stop playing like Escalation has, seeing the current teams 'vision' of this game made me decide it's time to find something else to spend my time on.
As for the nerfs, the funny thing is that they really made very little difference. Like a few others here posted, I gave it a shot, I logged on, replaced my now useless gear with gear that still works, changed up my BoFF layouts slightly and went right back to destroying everything in seconds. The Nerfs did nothing, people can praise them all they want, but all they did was make certain items and abilities completely useless while making a few other items more popular. They brought down the top end numbers, but the gap between 'good' and 'bad' players is still exactly the same is it was before. Any imbalance that existed before, still exists now, the only difference is the 'meta' has slightly shifted. The part that got me was the load of **** they push about caring about game balance.. give me a break. Things like the Leech have been 'over performing' for years, but now that it's cheap on the exchange and people aren't spending cash to get it anymore.. now it needs 'balance.' When things no longer make money, they hack them off at the knees to sell more stuff later, it's transparent and pathetic.
The game is still fun as far as logging in and doing the story missions, but that's really about it. Every few months when they finally release new story missions, I will log in and play them but as far as doing queues, running battle zones, or any of the other 'content' this game has.. it all just feels hollow now. I respect the opinions of players that disagree (I really do) but for me personally, Season 13 just sucked all the fun out of a game I used to enjoy.
Cool to see u post again Sea.
I so hope you recapture the fun in game. The last thing we need at the moment are good players not playing.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Won't be popular, might do more damage ? but remove multiple mark packs. I'll admit i'm guilty of farming competitive, iconian, Temporal, Lukari, Terran and all others from Red Alerts.
Why queue for the stf that was designed to reward those marks if you can pick up ok, only once a day, 78 marks from a Red Alert. Thats still enough for 2 days of Rep Projects. Before having to play again
Hello rubber banding my old friend, time to bounce around the battlezone again, where are all my bug reports going?, out of love with this game I am falling, As Cryptic fail to acknowledge a problem exists, Shakes an angry fist, And from Support all I'm hearing are the sounds of silence.
But I agree that something needs to be done about the queues. They're in a worse state than ever before and that's not just because the Risa event is going on. I haven't been able to play the Borg ground queues since the UI change, even missions like Undine Assault and Borg Disconnected take ages to start. CCA and ISA are literally the only missions I've been able to play and even those missions seem to take longer to start than before.
Maybe the Endeavour system will help solve this issue, but I seriously doubt it. While this system add rewards to certain content, you'll need to log in during a specific moment to benefit from that. If there's one thing that has had the effect of wearing out the playerbase (at least the players in my fleet and armada) it's the almost non-stop sequence of events and 'log-on-during-limited-time-frames-to-get-this-reward' thing that has become the new standard.
Personally, I don't think much of anything can be done about the queues. You can't make em more interesting, really, as, well, they were plenty interesting already. It's really just the numbers. Like Federation Starbase Defense (the 20-peeps queue). The players loved it! And now? They're still loving it, but there are simply not enough ppl left any more to queue for it. Which causes an accelerated downward spiral: not enough ppl in the queue leads to even less ppl being inclined to queue for it (thinking it's hopeless anyway).
Sigh. Now I'm depressed.
That's true. I don't think the issue is that no one wants to play certain missions, it's indeed that no one wants to wait an eternity for it, meaning that less people queue even if the wish to play it is there.
I'm somewhat surprised that we're still forced to have a full team of 5 players for most queues. Most missions could be just as fun or even more fun if there's only 4, 3 or even 2 people on the map.
I think the elephant in the living room here when it comes to the queues is quite simply that there is almost no reason at all anymore to play them for a lot of people. Almost everything you can imagine is easy to obtain while hardly playing the actual game anymore, and that causes a significant devaluation of queue play.
Admiralty (needs a nerf, like really, especially with ANOTHER one coming that's centered on dil which we're sinking in), all-mark-giving events (Crystalline being one of the worst offenders, and mirror, which have NO fun factor), too many overly generous sources of dilithium all over the place, too easy to contraband farm with armies of alts, AFK friendly queues, and the list goes on.
My time has pretty much been reduced to logging in only for the free ship 5 mins a day (if I can be bothered to even do that), and play for half an hour whenever a new episode comes out. There is almost no fun left to be had, it's a sad state of affairs really.
S13, I suspect, had a similar effect, because someone got it in his head that everyone now needed to be severely nerfed, to increase their 'fun.'
Actually if you remember from the dev blog about that, those across the board damage nerfs were because of DPS league players (yeah, it's our fault guys) going into public events, public battlezones, non queue everything, and just doing what we did best and DPSing the hell out of NPCs.
We would go into the badlands BZ and vaporize the NPCs in seconds. We would go into the Dyson space BZ and obliterate every voth ship in our path. We would go into Borg RAs and Tholian RAs and leave massive levels of death and destruction in our wake. We would do what we did best. And because of us, queues would finish, missions would be accomplished, and life would go on.
However Average Joe and Lazy Lucy (my apologies to anyone on here who is actually named Joe or Lucy or any form of that name, it's just a metaphor for this instance) would be in those same instances, and would be doing their thing (usually 3-4k DPS or just derping around), and when they went to shoot at something, it would be gone too fast for them to even tag it. When they went after an objective, it and the next 3 were usually already done, courtesy of the DPS players. So what did Average Joe and Lazy Lucy do? Instead of learn and get better, they complained on the forums! Very loudly, lots of moaning, groaning, BMWing (no, not the car). I mean, we all know who some of the biggest Anti DPS League forumites are (I can't name names due to forum rules, but I don't think I need to here). And those threads that they made were often filled with casual players who couldn't be bothered to DPS properly. Instead they just called us overpowered, elitests, min/maxers, and a number of other things.
And as a result, the devs saw this, looked at their metrics, looked at a bunch of other things, and instead of making the game more user friendly with more advice on builds and more ways to actually learn the game mechanics, they loudly and derpily declared that all of us who put in effort to make our builds streamlined, efficient, and deadly, were ruining the fun of the not so vigilant players, and as such, WE MUST BE NERFED! So instead of complimenting us for learning how to beat their game more effectively, creatively (let's face it, some of those pre s13 sci builds were... well... hilariously epically confusingly space magicky), and with much style (who doesn't love an Oddy disco ball), we were punished because the more vocal playerbase couldn't keep up.
I used to be average joe. Even with full mk XII purple gear, back in S9 my max DPS was only about 12k. Pathetic really. Then I met a few DPS league guys, and instead of complaining about how much stronger they were, I learned from them, improved my build, my piloting skills, and my general gameplay. Fast forward two weeks, and I went from just under 12k to sitting just a tad over 40k. A week later I was welcomed into the 50k channel. Alas, I never got into 75k, but that's cuz I got lazy. But self preening aside, I have a life outside of STO. I work 4 days a week, usually 7-9 hours a day, plus two hours minimum of travel time. I go to classes on the days I don't work. Honestly the only day I truly have off is Sunday, and I use that for laundry. But even with all those time constraints, I was able to learn and get significantly better. So honestly, those Average Joes and Lazy Lucys have no excuses. But apparently learning how to be better isn't "fun", so instead the upper echelon players were derped, so the casuals could actually feel useful.
TL;DR
High DPS players ruined the fun for regular casual lazy players by slaughtering things too quickly, and as such were nerfed to make the other casual players feel like they were actually contributing to things.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
》No smooth level/mission progression, meaning excessive grind simply to get to the next mission
That was only true for people stuck at level 50 at the time.
Which was... everyone!
True. And it was a problem, not going to deny that. However I feel we need to make the distinction between whether the system as such was bad (it wasn't) or the transition from the old system to the new (boy was it ever). IMO it wasn't DR itself which was the problem, but said transition, so newer players won't get problem from it.
My mother was an epohh and my father smelled of tulaberries
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I used to run APs like everyone else with a leech etc, after S13 i went full disruptors and a build centered around dealing heavy damage not high DPS, and its worked out nicely i can deal the same amount of damage i did when i was doing more DPS i still use the leech as even a slight buff is better then nothing.
My entire build was redjusted to fit dealing heavy damage, i adjusted my build dumped AP and have been quite happy with the results, S13s rebalancing was a good thing unless you refuse to adjust to it then you have no right to whine about it.
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
As for the nerfs, the funny thing is that they really made very little difference. Like a few others here posted, I gave it a shot, I logged on, replaced my now useless gear with gear that still works, changed up my BoFF layouts slightly and went right back to destroying everything in seconds. The Nerfs did nothing, people can praise them all they want, but all they did was make certain items and abilities completely useless while making a few other items more popular. They brought down the top end numbers, but the gap between 'good' and 'bad' players is still exactly the same is it was before. Any imbalance that existed before, still exists now, the only difference is the 'meta' has slightly shifted. The part that got me was the load of TRIBBLE they push about caring about game balance.. give me a break. Things like the Leech have been 'over performing' for years, but now that it's cheap on the exchange and people aren't spending cash to get it anymore.. now it needs 'balance.' When things no longer make money, they hack them off at the knees to sell more stuff later, it's transparent and pathetic.
The game is still fun as far as logging in and doing the story missions, but that's really about it. Every few months when they finally release new story missions, I will log in and play them but as far as doing queues, running battle zones, or any of the other 'content' this game has.. it all just feels hollow now. I respect the opinions of players that disagree (I really do) but for me personally, Season 13 just sucked all the fun out of a game I used to enjoy.
Delta rising was the greatest expansion ever, and the players loved it lol
Oh wow....yeah...silly me...coming in 3rd place in a race of 3 is such a victory! (In case you can't tell my post is wreaking with sarcasm)
Have fun celebrating your mediocrity while I think the game should be fixed...
Or rather, it didn't crash out at the Cryptic Loading screen!
It didn't crash out at the character selection screen either!
It loaded enough of the Starbase 39 transporter alcove that I could actually SEE MY TOON!!! (By Kek, how I missed those legs and a55!
But that was as far as it would load. The icons around the mini map were just blue and green boxes, with none of the identifier details, the character portrait with the health and shield bars was absent, and there was no response to movements input.
What this suggests to me, it that the issue I've been experiencing, was in fact related to the version of Escalation released. If it was indeed, simply a case of the PC just not being up to snuff, it wouldn't be loading any further than it did at the Cryptic Loading screen crashes of a month ago. I suspect that the age of the PC may be coming into it, but that there was a consistent change in the amount of game-access achieved, following a patch update, suggests that the incompatibility is as much software, as hardware
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
Delta
》The dawn of timegated missions (I may be wrong, but pre delta, there were no real timegates were bolted to missions edit: You could count the breaches utterly epic but pointless trench run, I guess...) and timegating tactics (such as wrapping delta patrols, forcing you to travel slowly to the next area with no way to get there faster)
》The filler missions
》No smooth level/mission progression, meaning excessive grind simply to get to the next mission
》The delta hp bloat
》Idiot proofing advance and carving out elite stfs, which has made doing more than pewwing the norm (I see people in isa not bother with the optionals)
》The schism between dev and player peaked with Japori and Argalagate respectively
Escalation
》The ui - its somewhat improved but its still a real pain
》Enforced pvp as the only new content - 'not pvp' pvp or not, considering the pver versus pver running battles and the general dislike of pvp in any form; this seasons content has not sat well with many (myself included)
》The nerfs - while not bad per se, their heavy handedness (tss and sci team, for example) with some nerfs completely annihalated builds (and have given sci ships a nightmare as shieldtanking was their mitigation method) and the faw nerf, while deserved; was a bad idea (raising other powers to faw level would have been better imo)
While Escalation might have less bullet points, I'd say their power on the game is akin to deltas many 'crimes'
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You're being ever so silly now. Tunebreaker is one of the top Science Captains in this game. You could learn a thing or two from him.
And all he really did, was try and tell you that even a Science Captain in a Science ship can do very well.
Ah, good that you said it since nobody used this in this thread before...
Ehm, it is not 3rd out of 3, because way more than one tac "participated". And only two could do better. You probably couldn't. So more like "3rd out of hundreds if not thousands". Yes, tac is still better than sci, but sci is easily viable, though it is more difficult to set up. (To get to the top of DPS boards that difference diminishes, since very top tac also needs more than "consoles plus disruptor".
That was only true for people stuck at level 50 at the time. While it was annoying (my main toon was one of them) it wasn't true for later toons who would easily outlevel the requirements just by story missions alone.
But at least we're getting the Golden Antler System! (Sorry, the "Endeavor" System--but the logo just looks like an "E" between antlers to me.) Despite my munging the name, I think it's an interesting move for the game and I'm looking forward to finding out what it brings both in terms of activities and rewards.
Maybe the new endeavor system is a fix. I don't know what it really entails so we'll have to see.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Video games are supposed to be fun. If I can't have fun without first doing a rain dance while shaking a maraca 2.5 times, then do the hokey pokey, and finally finish the last maraca shake to make the system work I'll just do something else. Hell, that sounds more fun already.
To the full DR vs. ESC comparison - this I can't start queues, last one I couldn't finish queues. Seems like about the same result.
This is a personal, first hand experience of a newbie with no current technical understanding.
Beside DX11 (and ofc removing the launcher's related command which related to DX9/DX11), I made:
1. Windowed "full screen" maximized with desktop resolution (which is low in my old laptop case, and is needed as it - safe mode at 800/600 makes things worse. This "full screen" maximized windowed settings tends to reset in some patch processes, but it is needed exactly as is in my case to avoid some bad issues of crashes/focus issues and also of auto minimizing/resizing a window which is solvable partially by alt, but which may be caused by pressing alt as well (toggle) or otherwise)
2. Enabled streaming (disk related, not the beta feature) and this beside - this was needed for a more viable login and for transporting to fleet starbase even, as I had a very low memory
3. Was making sure settings are on the very low side so to speak, as things were very slow otherwise still.
I do (just in case from before) also use some other settings to reduce actual resolution to 96 or 98% but this is a leftover troubleshooting settings from a pre session 13 bugged DX9/new DX11 era which I keep just in case being unsure if it's needed or not.
Names of settings is NON accurate and this is not an advice. I did notice it's harder and slower to login since S13 (and some patches which added after) hence the changes I made to my settings. In MY case it helped. I can't tell if it helps others. I think with those settings after I changed those (mostly by trial and error as game was practically unplayable otherwise), it's much "more stable" again (I can teleport and login more consistently at least, and game is playable again regarding responsiveness), but settings which affect such stability may change without notice on any patch, it seems, and for me it hugely changed on S13 and again shortly after it.
The session OFC had other quircks (which as said in other topic. I appreciated the fixing tries and fixes) but this post is not about the bugs and quircks which I definitely noticed, and not regarding any added feature and it's "necessity"/being desired, but instead regarding requirements/playability AT ALL (login failures mostly or time taking for a sucessfull login/ability to play ANY PvE content/ability to transwarp or approach holdings at all without crashing or possibly being stuck or failing to transwarp at all)
I think that the UI change had more of a negative effect on the queues than the rebalancing.
But I agree that something needs to be done about the queues. They're in a worse state than ever before and that's not just because the Risa event is going on. I haven't been able to play the Borg ground queues since the UI change, even missions like Undine Assault and Borg Disconnected take ages to start. CCA and ISA are literally the only missions I've been able to play and even those missions seem to take longer to start than before.
Maybe the Endeavour system will help solve this issue, but I seriously doubt it. While this system add rewards to certain content, you'll need to log in during a specific moment to benefit from that. If there's one thing that has had the effect of wearing out the playerbase (at least the players in my fleet and armada) it's the almost non-stop sequence of events and 'log-on-during-limited-time-frames-to-get-this-reward' thing that has become the new standard.
If they want to save this game, they should start offering unique rewards and unique content. The worst thing you can do is manage your game such that players are going to preceive it as if it were a second job; with them being forced to log on each day and do the same stuff over and over again or miss out on the rewards, basically forever.
And besides more unique rewards and content, provide for an unique experience. We're basically repeating the same queues over and over again, playing the same episodes etc.
STO is still a wonderful game but so much more could be done to keep things interesting. Create new species with unique abilities, try and develop entirely new systems such as the thing where we get to command a small task force of ships (so by 'new systems' I don't mean clicky systems such as Admiralty which does not encourage people to play the content in any way). They really should focus on reworking some of the core elements of the game: less repetitive grinding, more out of the box thinking and truly new things. And most important: don't add any more stuff that gives people a reason not to play the queues. Solo content is fine, as long as it's true content and not a clicky system or something that grants access to all possible queue-related rewards (such as Risa bird trading-in). Maybe creating more solo content could actually be a good strategy now that I'm thinking of it; it should be less demanding since interaction between players and stacking of stuff becomes less of an issue (meaning that half the game's powers don't have to be reworked because they cause insane lag for instance).
Personally, I don't think much of anything can be done about the queues. You can't make em more interesting, really, as, well, they were plenty interesting already. It's really just the numbers. Like Federation Starbase Defense (the 20-peeps queue). The players loved it! And now? They're still loving it, but there are simply not enough ppl left any more to queue for it. Which causes an accelerated downward spiral: not enough ppl in the queue leads to even less ppl being inclined to queue for it (thinking it's hopeless anyway).
Sigh. Now I'm depressed.
Which was... everyone!
Dilithium Rising sent a great many ppl running, because of the insane Upgrade spiel. S13, I suspect, had a similar effect, because someone got it in his head that everyone now needed to be severely nerfed, to increase their 'fun.'
This is like... the worst advice I've seen.
Yeah, sadly I don't think there is much to be done about public queues. If they insist on keeping this absolutely garbage of queue UI and refuse to fix several build types (aka make game fun for, let's say, tanks again), pug queues will likely remain dead.
Sure, Endeavour might come and fix the situation a bit, but only for a single queue at time, and we don't yet know if the rewards are worth doing it for majority of players.
However, as Peter said, it's in our, players' hands now. We need to form our own private queues, educate players about changes and how things work post S13 - keep (or at least try to, as much as possible) the gaming spirit alive.
While things have been much slower in TSC, too, we have still done many queues there, and I have no intention of stopping.
U.S.S. Buteo Regalis - Brigid Multi-Mission Surveillance Explorer build
R.R.W. Ri Maajon - Khopesh Tactical Dreadnought Warbird build
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Would it be ok with you if we keep some of the ground maps as well, maybe one or two?
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Cool to see u post again Sea.
I so hope you recapture the fun in game. The last thing we need at the moment are good players not playing.
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Why queue for the stf that was designed to reward those marks if you can pick up ok, only once a day, 78 marks from a Red Alert. Thats still enough for 2 days of Rep Projects. Before having to play again
Hello rubber banding my old friend, time to bounce around the battlezone again, where are all my bug reports going?, out of love with this game I am falling, As Cryptic fail to acknowledge a problem exists, Shakes an angry fist, And from Support all I'm hearing are the sounds of silence.
At this point I'd almost say it makes no difference if they're kept in the game or not - I have seen zero activity for the Borg ones
That's true. I don't think the issue is that no one wants to play certain missions, it's indeed that no one wants to wait an eternity for it, meaning that less people queue even if the wish to play it is there.
I'm somewhat surprised that we're still forced to have a full team of 5 players for most queues. Most missions could be just as fun or even more fun if there's only 4, 3 or even 2 people on the map.
Admiralty (needs a nerf, like really, especially with ANOTHER one coming that's centered on dil which we're sinking in), all-mark-giving events (Crystalline being one of the worst offenders, and mirror, which have NO fun factor), too many overly generous sources of dilithium all over the place, too easy to contraband farm with armies of alts, AFK friendly queues, and the list goes on.
My time has pretty much been reduced to logging in only for the free ship 5 mins a day (if I can be bothered to even do that), and play for half an hour whenever a new episode comes out. There is almost no fun left to be had, it's a sad state of affairs really.
Actually if you remember from the dev blog about that, those across the board damage nerfs were because of DPS league players (yeah, it's our fault guys) going into public events, public battlezones, non queue everything, and just doing what we did best and DPSing the hell out of NPCs.
We would go into the badlands BZ and vaporize the NPCs in seconds. We would go into the Dyson space BZ and obliterate every voth ship in our path. We would go into Borg RAs and Tholian RAs and leave massive levels of death and destruction in our wake. We would do what we did best. And because of us, queues would finish, missions would be accomplished, and life would go on.
However Average Joe and Lazy Lucy (my apologies to anyone on here who is actually named Joe or Lucy or any form of that name, it's just a metaphor for this instance) would be in those same instances, and would be doing their thing (usually 3-4k DPS or just derping around), and when they went to shoot at something, it would be gone too fast for them to even tag it. When they went after an objective, it and the next 3 were usually already done, courtesy of the DPS players. So what did Average Joe and Lazy Lucy do? Instead of learn and get better, they complained on the forums! Very loudly, lots of moaning, groaning, BMWing (no, not the car). I mean, we all know who some of the biggest Anti DPS League forumites are (I can't name names due to forum rules, but I don't think I need to here). And those threads that they made were often filled with casual players who couldn't be bothered to DPS properly. Instead they just called us overpowered, elitests, min/maxers, and a number of other things.
And as a result, the devs saw this, looked at their metrics, looked at a bunch of other things, and instead of making the game more user friendly with more advice on builds and more ways to actually learn the game mechanics, they loudly and derpily declared that all of us who put in effort to make our builds streamlined, efficient, and deadly, were ruining the fun of the not so vigilant players, and as such, WE MUST BE NERFED! So instead of complimenting us for learning how to beat their game more effectively, creatively (let's face it, some of those pre s13 sci builds were... well... hilariously epically confusingly space magicky), and with much style (who doesn't love an Oddy disco ball), we were punished because the more vocal playerbase couldn't keep up.
I used to be average joe. Even with full mk XII purple gear, back in S9 my max DPS was only about 12k. Pathetic really. Then I met a few DPS league guys, and instead of complaining about how much stronger they were, I learned from them, improved my build, my piloting skills, and my general gameplay. Fast forward two weeks, and I went from just under 12k to sitting just a tad over 40k. A week later I was welcomed into the 50k channel. Alas, I never got into 75k, but that's cuz I got lazy. But self preening aside, I have a life outside of STO. I work 4 days a week, usually 7-9 hours a day, plus two hours minimum of travel time. I go to classes on the days I don't work. Honestly the only day I truly have off is Sunday, and I use that for laundry. But even with all those time constraints, I was able to learn and get significantly better. So honestly, those Average Joes and Lazy Lucys have no excuses. But apparently learning how to be better isn't "fun", so instead the upper echelon players were derped, so the casuals could actually feel useful.
TL;DR
High DPS players ruined the fun for regular casual lazy players by slaughtering things too quickly, and as such were nerfed to make the other casual players feel like they were actually contributing to things.
True. And it was a problem, not going to deny that. However I feel we need to make the distinction between whether the system as such was bad (it wasn't) or the transition from the old system to the new (boy was it ever). IMO it wasn't DR itself which was the problem, but said transition, so newer players won't get problem from it.