If there's any 'exploitive attitude', then it's Cryptic's, always inventing new consoles and abilities that are often, arguably a bit too much, so that you'll be inclined to buy them.
Figured I should clarify this. I ddn't mean 'too good to be true,' but rather a bit too good for a responsible Dev team, trying to keep power creep in check. But then -- and that was point -- they sell it to you, after all, as they figure you need the incentive to buy the item.
I'm rather in favour of a lot of things that quite routinely DO take me out-but chained disables that can't be cleansed isn't one of those. anything that makes another player genuinely and truly helpless (the unfortunate Drain situation that Spartan actually fixed AFTER 13 released here-I was basically killing enemies with a single tykens and it was so fast the player had no chance to even TRY to get out of it. That's fundamentally unfair, can you dig that? is it even possible for you to understand the concept?)
And -- looking for some common ground -- when I learned Tyken's could rapidly suck another player totally dry, with even 0 points in DrainX, I too was onboard with normalizing Tyken's a bit (I myself suggested you would need at least like 600 in DrainX to be able to start doing some real harm). No one should get freebies like that. Like that Photon torp that drained for millions of HP; things like that always ought to be fixed. Or all your copies of Kemo proccing when you didn't even active them. Those are simply fixes, and welcomed.
except, Meimei, in the case of Kemocite, you threw the loudest ranty fit when they DID fix it.
Except, they always go way beyond just fixing it. Kemo has had several nerfs, iirc (the first one really was a fix); the second one, soon thereafter, was already a big nerf. And now, it's not worthless (but a shadow of what it used to be, looking at Exchange prices).
in the case of the Leech, this change isn't the first time it's been changed. on release, it was even WORSE, and it got reduced, and when they introduced Reputations, they had to add code to prevent it from interacting with MACO shields which were now suddenly available across factions, so it's not been 'untouched' for seven years. far from it, the present paradigm came about because (again) they added stuff that interacted with it in ways they didn't account for-only now it was available to Fed players with ships that could genuinely abuse how it works thanks to the introduction of masteries.
Not sure about Masteries per se, but they generally did let DrainX get out of hand a bit. Like with the Terran Space Set. Maybe they meant for you to just use the DrainX to siphon power from NPC's, and not necessarily to primarily boost your own power levels? But I never understand why they're acting so suprised then, as they made that stuff themselves. In a bizarre twist of events, I'd rather CrypticSpartan be a permanent part of the team then, so they won't let get things out of hand in the first place: then no one will feel 'cheated' afterwards. Somehow I suspect that will conflict with their business model, though.
There is arguably less content available in the season 13 and what is left takes way more time than before...to merely get in!
So as far as is this PVE focused player that is here for the content concerned, after season 13 there is actually less of the game than it was before the season 13. Simply put as a result of the season 13 release i can do less and what i can do takes in most instances considerably more time.
Now if i have to do more close comparison between seasons 12 and 13, in the season 12 i was actually playing the game and had my good share of fun. In season 13 i'm mostly waiting to play the game and waiting to have fraction of the fun available to me in the season 12.
A good expansion? Well of course not and its not even debatable or arguable. Expansions are supposed to expand something, not shrink it or make it less. So as far as the literal meaning of the word expansion goes, the season 13 is a disaster.
s13 was my first taste of the game and to be honest its left me a little disappointed. I don't mean to be a whiney complainer but I thought I'd toss my thoughts in for the developers/cms to consider.
I've pumped about $300 in the game and feel like that was probably stupid of me. It feels like after one goes through all the effort to pimp out one's ship all there is to do is 5 minute PvE queues. With mission content being so scarce, more bugs than any other game I've ever played, and strange UI and system problems (that seem a product of neglect) I can't see me ever buying anything again from STO. It just doesn't seem worth it for a game whose sole focus seems to be on selling costumes to trekkies.
Four months ago I was set to buy an LTS but now that s13 is near over and s13.5 looks to have less content than a maintenance patch in other games I just can't see how this is a good investment.
I really want to make the Star Trek MMO my main game but this F2P system seems to promote poor content generation and extremely low quality delivered content. The art is great. The story telling is great. The world is engaging. But the gameplay is woefully behind the time, the content is extremely light and the systems seem like an afterthought.
I'll continue farming dilithium but I won't sink another dollar into this game unless something improves.
Between subscription fees, ships and occasional other stuff, I nickel and dimed my way to substantially more than that before finally scraping up enough cash at one time to buy my LTS and I guarantee the small fraction of a percent my money adds to Cryptics bottom line wouldn't even be noticed, much less missed.
When there are players regularly dumping hundreds and thousands into this game, threatening Cryptic that you are going quit spending amounts that don't even equal pocket change gets even less notice than a mosquito buzzing around someone else s head at the far end of a football field.
Episode content for Season 13 is equivalent to the length of the UK Series Season of 'Sherkock', where others (like Iconian War) are more akin to a US Series like 'Flash'. We're just not getting as much anymore.
'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.'
Between subscription fees, ships and occasional other stuff, I nickel and dimed my way to substantially more than that before finally scraping up enough cash at one time to buy my LTS and I guarantee the small fraction of a percent my money adds to Cryptics bottom line wouldn't even be noticed, much less missed.
When there are players regularly dumping hundreds and thousands into this game, threatening Cryptic that you are going quit spending amounts that don't even equal pocket change gets even less notice than a mosquito buzzing around someone else s head at the far end of a football field.
It doesn't really matter how much someone spends. So long as someone's a paying customer, and they have a valid issue, they have as much right as any other to be heard.
I'd consider myself (current access issues aside) a casual player, who simply spends a lot of time playing. But outside of the standard min/maxing acknowledgement that vr mk xii stuff is better than common mk xii, I'm not someone who chases DPS. I am, however, to completely butcher a line from a Mac Bolan book, 'an ugly man who was willing to spend a lot of money to surround himself with beauty'. I want the nice ships to fly, I want the bridge-bunny boffs to look at, and I'm prepared to spend out in both money, and time in-tailors to achieve that. Like these...
Okay, so I'm actually not that bad looking I'm no Sloth, but I'm certainly no Marco Dapper either And I definitely don't have a harem composed of Starfleet's Next Top Models, and a Romulan wet t-shirt contest winner ( ) But the line illustrates the point that I'm prepared to pay $$s to get what I want out of the game, and if veeger's prepared to drop hard cash on what they want out of the game, I've got way more time for their thoughts on issues, than I have for those of someone who only ever grinds to get everything, but leaves their wallet firmly closed.
I absolutely agree with veeger with regards to the LTS. With the current state of play, I can't justify that kind of spend, on a game with these kinds of issues, so instead, I'll buy ships and zen and other such stuff as my way of contributing to the cause and paying my way I never realized there was an issue with FBP, as far as I was concerned, 'it did what it did', and that was a staple of my builds. But now? Doesn't even seem worth slotting, so Tyken's Rift instead
"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
Between subscription fees, ships and occasional other stuff, I nickel and dimed my way to substantially more than that before finally scraping up enough cash at one time to buy my LTS and I guarantee the small fraction of a percent my money adds to Cryptics bottom line wouldn't even be noticed, much less missed.
When there are players regularly dumping hundreds and thousands into this game, threatening Cryptic that you are going quit spending amounts that don't even equal pocket change gets even less notice than a mosquito buzzing around someone else s head at the far end of a football field.
It doesn't really matter how much someone spends. So long as someone's a paying customer, and they have a valid issue, they have as much right as any other to be heard.
I'd consider myself (current access issues aside) a casual player, who simply spends a lot of time playing. But outside of the standard min/maxing acknowledgement that vr mk xii stuff is better than common mk xii, I'm not someone who chases DPS. I am, however, to completely butcher a line from a Mac Bolan book, 'an ugly man who was willing to spend a lot of money to surround himself with beauty'. I want the nice ships to fly, I want the bridge-bunny boffs to look at, and I'm prepared to spend out in both money, and time in-tailors to achieve that. Like these...
Okay, so I'm actually not that bad looking I'm no Sloth, but I'm certainly no Marco Dapper either And I definitely don't have a harem composed of Starfleet's Next Top Models, and a Romulan wet t-shirt contest winner ( ) But the line illustrates the point that I'm prepared to pay $$s to get what I want out of the game, and if veeger's prepared to drop hard cash on what they want out of the game, I've got way more time for their thoughts on issues, than I have for those of someone who only ever grinds to get everything, but leaves their wallet firmly closed.
I absolutely agree with veeger with regards to the LTS. With the current state of play, I can't justify that kind of spend, on a game with these kinds of issues, so instead, I'll buy ships and zen and other such stuff as my way of contributing to the cause and paying my way I never realized there was an issue with FBP, as far as I was concerned, 'it did what it did', and that was a staple of my builds. But now? Doesn't even seem worth slotting, so Tyken's Rift instead
I can understand how you might not have known what was going on with FBP, esp. if you haven't been chasing the min/max with the kind of devotion a lot of these folks did, but at the high end, it was definitely pushing past the point of ridiculousness, turning out several THOUSAND times the returns. (in at least one documented case, a return of around 10K TIMES higher than was being applied-and going straight to hull. as in millions of points of hull damage from a single hit to shields.)
This was a result of unplanned interactions and the "nerf' was simply to bring it down to a level where it stopped being possible to make it a godmode.
Tykens' is still effective, but it had a problem right after S13''s balance pass released, where it was sufficient by itself for killing, basically draining and trapping players simultaneously to death in one 'hit', and doing similar to boss entities in PvE. this, thankfully, didn't last as Spartan moved quickly, instead of making excuses, when it was first reported, and a fix came in a matter of days, rather than months as has been the case with other problem abilities reported when Borticus was operating on his own (that, and we didn't have to suffer through hte insistence it was working as intended!)
Well this is the thing, I've only been playing since last summer, so the condition of FBP then, as far as I knew, that was it, that was what it did, and I thought it made for a very nice additional weapon. Any time I was getting really swamped by a mob, and couldn't turn to bring cannons or torpedos to beam, BAM! FBP took the heat off for those few seconds which could make the difference between hitting a weapon, or Miracle Worker, or just outright blowing up. It was a good power, but I had no idea it was overpowered, because I knew no differently. Now in the hands of a DPS Meister, yeah, I dread to think what damage it could put out when combined with all the other fancy consoles and stuff So while it 'works' now, it certainly doesn't do what I'd come to expect of it, and it's not as useful as before, so I figured better to go with something more effective
"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
And yeah, the difference between Spartan and Borticus, is the difference between 'knowing your ****', and 'knowing you're ****'...
Borticus is a good technician, but he lacks grasp of conceptual ideas such as game balancing, htis is probably a lot to do with background, and where his rice-bowl is. (Borticus used to just be a player here, but he got promoted up to staff.) His cognitive biases are informed by his work environment, and seeing his predecessor 'leave the company under amicable circumstances-we Swear!!" after disagreeing with Geko.
Spartan hasn't run into that yet. He appears to have been brought in specifically to deal with game balance issues, perhaps because the mess things were in was drawing heat from XBone and PS4, and that's the new rice-bowl for Cryptic Studios-and they're small enough that failure, or even mediocrity, represents significant financial losses-and those communities are not exacltly known for sticking with games that are unbalanced or incomplete.
so th ere's an obvious difference in how the two appear to be managed. I'd almost suspect that he's taken on a load of tasks that Bort is simply too busy cranking out product to address-such as actual QC work or going in and actually seeing what's going on in game, rather th an relying on 'friendly sources' more concerned with being friendly, than with being good sources.
also keep in mind Spartan hasn't had to deal with the Cryptic fanbase when they get truly ugly-as has happened several times whle Bort's been on staff, so he's more open to both criticism, and to information, than staffers who had to suffer t hrough things like the meming of Delta Rising, or the Dilithium Riots from season eight.
(People oin Cryptic Staff were getting DEATH THREATS)...
Doesn't surprize me, for several different reasons. I'm sure I heard Wil Weaton got them for his part as Wesley, and it soured him to both the fanbase and the franchise itself. The attitudes/inclinations displayed in the threads about Discovery, are very consistent with those of a, shall we say, particular political persuasion? Folks like that, especially in the current era, have no problem going FullRageMode when things don't go their way (especially from behind the safety of a computer screen) Consider a certain baker, who didn't want to cook a particular cake: Heckled, publicly (on an international level) and in receipt of death threats. All from those, who proclaim themselves 'tolerant', 'forward-thinking' and inclusive. So if people similar inclination are playing the game, it wouldn't surprize me one iota of the getting uppity and criminally abusive (from behind the safety of a computer screen, of course if they feel someone's messed with Their Precious. But rather than just thinking 'Oh well, time to move on', no they will rant and rage and throw the tantrums which their life-experiences have taught them will get them what they want. So, employees getting death threats, sadly, that doesn't surprize me one iota
It also doesn't help, like you mentioned, that when issues were pointed out to Borticus, his response was to try and whitewash and say that everything was fine. That kind of behaviour doesn't fly these days, especially when people are capable of judging with their own eyes if stuff is working or not
"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
And yeah, the difference between Spartan and Borticus, is the difference between 'knowing your ****', and 'knowing you're ****'...
Borticus is a good technician, but he lacks grasp of conceptual ideas such as game balancing, htis is probably a lot to do with background, and where his rice-bowl is. (Borticus used to just be a player here, but he got promoted up to staff.) His cognitive biases are informed by his work environment, and seeing his predecessor 'leave the company under amicable circumstances-we Swear!!" after disagreeing with Geko.
Spartan hasn't run into that yet. He appears to have been brought in specifically to deal with game balance issues, perhaps because the mess things were in was drawing heat from XBone and PS4, and that's the new rice-bowl for Cryptic Studios-and they're small enough that failure, or even mediocrity, represents significant financial losses-and those communities are not exacltly known for sticking with games that are unbalanced or incomplete.
so th ere's an obvious difference in how the two appear to be managed. I'd almost suspect that he's taken on a load of tasks that Bort is simply too busy cranking out product to address-such as actual QC work or going in and actually seeing what's going on in game, rather th an relying on 'friendly sources' more concerned with being friendly, than with being good sources.
also keep in mind Spartan hasn't had to deal with the Cryptic fanbase when they get truly ugly-as has happened several times whle Bort's been on staff, so he's more open to both criticism, and to information, than staffers who had to suffer t hrough things like the meming of Delta Rising, or the Dilithium Riots from season eight.
(People oin Cryptic Staff were getting DEATH THREATS)...
So if people similar inclination are playing the game, it wouldn't surprize me one iota of the getting uppity and criminally abusive (from behind the safety of a computer screen, of course if they feel someone's messed with Their Precious. But rather than just thinking 'Oh well, time to move on', no they will rant and rage and throw the tantrums which their life-experiences have taught them will get them what they want.
This is indeed scary. And unpleasant to experience.
It also doesn't help that players on here are usually not open to logical reasoning. Like when the skill tree was revamped and a large part of the discussion was about one precious item (the Leech). It was argued that, if such an item takes up so much of the discussion, then perhaps it plays too much a role in the game. The only 'counter argument' I've seen was that they let the Leech be as it was for so long already - which is of course not a true counter argument as to why it should not be changed; rather it means it should have been changed much earlier.
Even reading or actually listening to the arguments presented can be quite difficult at times it seems. Remember when I wrote about how one OP player can make it impossible for 'Lazy Lucy' to participate, and not because she's lazy but because the maps are only built to sustain so much damage?
The reply I got was that
If one player does an insane level of DPS, the other players DPS if anything will be bolstered by that player, since that player usually is using debuffs which can be used by the other team members (IE APB, FOMM, Disruptor Breach, etc). There is no reason for anyone really to NOT benefit from a high DPS player in their instance, outside of the old Tholian and Borg RAs where the higher DPS got the more skillpoints. But honestly if you want skillpoints for levelling, it's easier to farm Argala or the Tau Dewa patrols.
Which is completely missing the point as I never questioned the ability of players to buff each other's DPS. (And also why I didn't reply to it until now.)
Somehow I get the feeling that different types of players are each living in their own reality - with little understanding between the different types due to either misunderstanding or the inability to look beyond one's own concerns and wishes. Which in turn may be a result indeed of being used to always having ones wishes being fulfilled.
Whatever it is, it is not surprising that in such an environment, illogical behaviour follows and, for a very small minority, rage and hatred.
And yeah, the difference between Spartan and Borticus, is the difference between 'knowing your ****', and 'knowing you're ****'...
Borticus is a good technician, but he lacks grasp of conceptual ideas such as game balancing, htis is probably a lot to do with background, and where his rice-bowl is. (Borticus used to just be a player here, but he got promoted up to staff.) His cognitive biases are informed by his work environment, and seeing his predecessor 'leave the company under amicable circumstances-we Swear!!" after disagreeing with Geko.
Spartan hasn't run into that yet. He appears to have been brought in specifically to deal with game balance issues, perhaps because the mess things were in was drawing heat from XBone and PS4, and that's the new rice-bowl for Cryptic Studios-and they're small enough that failure, or even mediocrity, represents significant financial losses-and those communities are not exacltly known for sticking with games that are unbalanced or incomplete.
so th ere's an obvious difference in how the two appear to be managed. I'd almost suspect that he's taken on a load of tasks that Bort is simply too busy cranking out product to address-such as actual QC work or going in and actually seeing what's going on in game, rather th an relying on 'friendly sources' more concerned with being friendly, than with being good sources.
also keep in mind Spartan hasn't had to deal with the Cryptic fanbase when they get truly ugly-as has happened several times whle Bort's been on staff, so he's more open to both criticism, and to information, than staffers who had to suffer t hrough things like the meming of Delta Rising, or the Dilithium Riots from season eight.
(People oin Cryptic Staff were getting DEATH THREATS)...
So if people similar inclination are playing the game, it wouldn't surprize me one iota of the getting uppity and criminally abusive (from behind the safety of a computer screen, of course if they feel someone's messed with Their Precious. But rather than just thinking 'Oh well, time to move on', no they will rant and rage and throw the tantrums which their life-experiences have taught them will get them what they want.
This is indeed scary. And unpleasant to experience.
It also doesn't help that players on here are usually not open to logical reasoning. Like when the skill tree was revamped and a large part of the discussion was about one precious item (the Leech). It was argued that, if such an item takes up so much of the discussion, then perhaps it plays too much a role in the game. The only 'counter argument' I've seen was that they let the Leech be as it was for so long already - which is of course not a true counter argument as to why it should not be changed; rather it means it should have been changed much earlier.
Even reading or actually listening to the arguments presented can be quite difficult at times it seems. Remember when I wrote about how one OP player can make it impossible for 'Lazy Lucy' to participate, and not because she's lazy but because the maps are only built to sustain so much damage?
The reply I got was that
If one player does an insane level of DPS, the other players DPS if anything will be bolstered by that player, since that player usually is using debuffs which can be used by the other team members (IE APB, FOMM, Disruptor Breach, etc). There is no reason for anyone really to NOT benefit from a high DPS player in their instance, outside of the old Tholian and Borg RAs where the higher DPS got the more skillpoints. But honestly if you want skillpoints for levelling, it's easier to farm Argala or the Tau Dewa patrols.
Which is completely missing the point as I never questioned the ability of players to buff each other's DPS. (And also why I didn't reply to it until now.)
Somehow I get the feeling that different types of players are each living in their own reality - with little understanding between the different types due to either misunderstanding or the inability to look beyond one's own concerns and wishes. Which in turn may be a result indeed of being used to always having ones wishes being fulfilled.
Whatever it is, it is not surprising that in such an environment, illogical behaviour follows and, for a very small minority, rage and hatred.
Yeah, I completely agree with you. There's not really much I can add, other than noting that there's a lot of folks about these days with absolutely no grasp of critical thinking or empiricism, but adamant in their belief that their musings are correct, which has been reinforced and enabled by years of helicopter-parenting and participation award 'achievements' :-\
"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
It has been dying again but far from being comparable to Delta Rising...now if you want to talk about S13.5 thats another story
Alright, what do you think? Will the new Endeavor System help to funnel the PvE activity in STO a bit so the respective content is more populated or will the Ferengi Admiralty campaign cancel the need to ever tend to PvE again once and for all?
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Anything I can say about the queues directly would be based on console; my computer was old and I migrated there on my newer console. I can say that the queues there still show the number waiting, and it's still tough finding one close to popping, but the UI is decent enough where its actual use is concerned. For anyone thinking PvP or whatnot are all on console, though, I can say: No, it's not. The queues are slow there too, and it's sure as heck not Risa; the Summer Resort generally has about three instances when I'm on.
So, anyway, in a broad sense...
The game should not be truly balanced. It can, but not if we want to continue playing. For a game to remain profitable, and ultimately supported by a game company, it must remain unbalanced enough for players to look at what someone else is doing and think: "I want that." This leads to both community involvement (because those without "that" will have to find out what "that" is, whether by PM/Fleet/Channels/Forums/Reddit/whatever) and spending (because we have to get "that" somehow; even with mechanics like the DilEx making F2P more freebie-friendly, it earns profits somewhere).
The game should not be overly unbalanced. This has been commented on by both ends of the DPS debate and by PvPers, with different perspectives, and I'm going to stay the heck out of that. Still, most of us could probably agree that a reasonable balance is needed to make most games more enjoyable? Maybe?
So the idea is to make things unbalanced enough that we have things to work towards, without making them unbalanced enough that these seem out of reach. This can be done through nerfs, buffs, introducing alternatives. The nerfs can be done quickly and effectively, and could also help to mitigate excess currency generation in the economy, but have the offset of negating player investment and making players less inclined to invest further. The buffs can be done quickly and effectively, but could exacerbate excess currency generation, making it harder for new players to invest in upgrades. The introduction of alternatives doesn't address balance issues directly, but instead adds to both sides of the balance scales, generally taking longer to have results (which are not always those intended) and inevitably leading to powercreep.
In the end, if we want more balance in the game, something about that will suck. The main challenge for the Dev team is to try and minimize this so that it doesn't drive players out entirely, which seems to be part of the problem with S13: it focused too much on nerfs, negating player investment. I see the term ragequitting tossed out there, but when enough of a player's investment disappears... if you're going to spend effort/money/time/etc. on a game, what specific reason do you have to spend it on the same game? Tinkering with a new environment or ruleset can be done just as well in a completely new environment and ruleset, after all.
Yet even after this there are underlying issues that remain. Characters are still built with 60 actual (factored into scaling, etc.) plus 35 pseudo (the minimum needed to fill one Primary and one Secondary Spec tree) levels. The playerbase was too spread out for PuGs in most queues, now made worse by those migrating to console, leaving, or going Private... but hopefully addressed by Endeavors. The classes still have disparate capabilities, with one being superior to the others. Some abilities stack geometrically, while some suffer diminishing returns. There is a lack of proper in-game tutorials, manuals, or even a UI capable of displaying how exactly something really affects your performance. The slope for our capabilities is still rather steep, some of which is intentional. Etc.
So, there's still quite a bit to be done, while at the same time maybe too much was done.
Me, I'm still playing over on console. The queues are dead, there is no Channel system over there (I really miss that), the UI is apparently better than PC (it allows for easy selection of multiple difficulties of the same queue, for example), and since I don't have my nice things (tons of Event and C-Store ships for account unlocks, 20+ characters, and all the halfway decent gear setups I'd built myself up to)... and I'm okay with that version of S13. In many ways the change to console has been liberating for me, since I don't have most of the nice things I once had to even get upset about (even Giveaways such as the Assimilated Cruiser Admiralty Ship, etc. have been one-shot rather than account unlocks, and I didn't even find the email with the free T6 Sovvie for PC until that had expired anyway). I've gone Casual-that-generally-knows-what-to-do, have no intention of investing heavily in anything, and thus I have more time for a wider variety of games beyond just STO. My old fun might have been wrong and nerfed, but I found new fun nonetheless.
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.
It has been dying again but far from being comparable to Delta Rising...now if you want to talk about S13.5 thats another story
Alright, what do you think? Will the new Endeavor System help to funnel the PvE activity in STO a bit so the respective content is more populated or will the Ferengi Admiralty campaign cancel the need to ever tend to PvE again once and for all?
Having looked at the Endeavor system on Tribble i think it "might" get people doing a bit more varied content. There seems to be a wide variety of tasks ranging from simple "do x polaron dmg" to more complex things like "complete Y mission"
I know some people in STO can't see past the end of their saucer but for anyone with the willingness to go out there and seek out those rewards it could be quite profitable (assuming the rewards are good of course).
No whether it'll push people into queues etc is another thing. There are some tasks that asked for completion of queues and they are not just the usual ISA or CCA, so it could get people playing other content.
Heck, if they do so they might find they enjoy something other than 2 min snooze-fests in ISA.
Hehe, while I don’t mind fast ISAs at all promoting other PvE maps in such a fashion would be highly appreciated. Most of the times we just need some sort of “critical player mass” to get specific maps to pop in a reasonable timeframe (3-4 willing to play at any time would be suffice for most). If we have I could imagine more amore peeps jump aboard. Yes it is reason to be optimistic.
In any case, thanks for checking it out on tribble @lordsteve1
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
It has been dying again but far from being comparable to Delta Rising...now if you want to talk about S13.5 thats another story
Alright, what do you think? Will the new Endeavor System help to funnel the PvE activity in STO a bit so the respective content is more populated or will the Ferengi Admiralty campaign cancel the need to ever tend to PvE again once and for all?
Having looked at the Endeavor system on Tribble i think it "might" get people doing a bit more varied content. There seems to be a wide variety of tasks ranging from simple "do x polaron dmg" to more complex things like "complete Y mission"
I know some people in STO can't see past the end of their saucer but for anyone with the willingness to go out there and seek out those rewards it could be quite profitable (assuming the rewards are good of course).
No whether it'll push people into queues etc is another thing. There are some tasks that asked for completion of queues and they are not just the usual ISA or CCA, so it could get people playing other content.
Heck, if they do so they might find they enjoy something other than 2 min snooze-fests in ISA.
I'm trying to remain optimitic.
It depends entirely on the rewards. If they give unique rewards, it will work for sure.
If it's just some dil/marks again, people will do the math and see if it's actually worth it vs time spent and odds are the answer will be no on anything that can't be done fast.
Similar to how the leech dropped (pre-nerf) from "have to save up for that" to "yeah, buy one get one free" status despite losing at that time none of its power. Or how many ships suddenly became available on the exchange instead of having to meet shady people in the back alleys of Kentar Prime.
My mother was an epohh and my father smelled of tulaberries
Comments
Figured I should clarify this.
Except, they always go way beyond just fixing it. Kemo has had several nerfs, iirc (the first one really was a fix); the second one, soon thereafter, was already a big nerf. And now, it's not worthless (but a shadow of what it used to be, looking at Exchange prices).
Not sure about Masteries per se, but they generally did let DrainX get out of hand a bit. Like with the Terran Space Set. Maybe they meant for you to just use the DrainX to siphon power from NPC's, and not necessarily to primarily boost your own power levels? But I never understand why they're acting so suprised then, as they made that stuff themselves. In a bizarre twist of events, I'd rather CrypticSpartan be a permanent part of the team then, so they won't let get things out of hand in the first place: then no one will feel 'cheated' afterwards. Somehow I suspect that will conflict with their business model, though.
So as far as is this PVE focused player that is here for the content concerned, after season 13 there is actually less of the game than it was before the season 13. Simply put as a result of the season 13 release i can do less and what i can do takes in most instances considerably more time.
Now if i have to do more close comparison between seasons 12 and 13, in the season 12 i was actually playing the game and had my good share of fun. In season 13 i'm mostly waiting to play the game and waiting to have fraction of the fun available to me in the season 12.
A good expansion? Well of course not and its not even debatable or arguable. Expansions are supposed to expand something, not shrink it or make it less. So as far as the literal meaning of the word expansion goes, the season 13 is a disaster.
Good for you if the game is more active for you. For me and many others however, it is not.
U.S.S. Buteo Regalis - Brigid Multi-Mission Surveillance Explorer build
R.R.W. Ri Maajon - Khopesh Tactical Dreadnought Warbird build
My Youtube channel containing STO videos.
I've pumped about $300 in the game and feel like that was probably stupid of me. It feels like after one goes through all the effort to pimp out one's ship all there is to do is 5 minute PvE queues. With mission content being so scarce, more bugs than any other game I've ever played, and strange UI and system problems (that seem a product of neglect) I can't see me ever buying anything again from STO. It just doesn't seem worth it for a game whose sole focus seems to be on selling costumes to trekkies.
Four months ago I was set to buy an LTS but now that s13 is near over and s13.5 looks to have less content than a maintenance patch in other games I just can't see how this is a good investment.
I really want to make the Star Trek MMO my main game but this F2P system seems to promote poor content generation and extremely low quality delivered content. The art is great. The story telling is great. The world is engaging. But the gameplay is woefully behind the time, the content is extremely light and the systems seem like an afterthought.
I'll continue farming dilithium but I won't sink another dollar into this game unless something improves.
Between subscription fees, ships and occasional other stuff, I nickel and dimed my way to substantially more than that before finally scraping up enough cash at one time to buy my LTS and I guarantee the small fraction of a percent my money adds to Cryptics bottom line wouldn't even be noticed, much less missed.
When there are players regularly dumping hundreds and thousands into this game, threatening Cryptic that you are going quit spending amounts that don't even equal pocket change gets even less notice than a mosquito buzzing around someone else s head at the far end of a football field.
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.'
I'd consider myself (current access issues aside) a casual player, who simply spends a lot of time playing. But outside of the standard min/maxing acknowledgement that vr mk xii stuff is better than common mk xii, I'm not someone who chases DPS. I am, however, to completely butcher a line from a Mac Bolan book, 'an ugly man who was willing to spend a lot of money to surround himself with beauty'. I want the nice ships to fly, I want the bridge-bunny boffs to look at, and I'm prepared to spend out in both money, and time in-tailors to achieve that. Like these...
Okay, so I'm actually not that bad looking
I absolutely agree with veeger with regards to the LTS. With the current state of play, I can't justify that kind of spend, on a game with these kinds of issues, so instead, I'll buy ships and zen and other such stuff as my way of contributing to the cause and paying my way
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
It also doesn't help, like you mentioned, that when issues were pointed out to Borticus, his response was to try and whitewash and say that everything was fine. That kind of behaviour doesn't fly these days, especially when people are capable of judging with their own eyes if stuff is working or not
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
This is indeed scary. And unpleasant to experience.
It also doesn't help that players on here are usually not open to logical reasoning. Like when the skill tree was revamped and a large part of the discussion was about one precious item (the Leech). It was argued that, if such an item takes up so much of the discussion, then perhaps it plays too much a role in the game. The only 'counter argument' I've seen was that they let the Leech be as it was for so long already - which is of course not a true counter argument as to why it should not be changed; rather it means it should have been changed much earlier.
Even reading or actually listening to the arguments presented can be quite difficult at times it seems. Remember when I wrote about how one OP player can make it impossible for 'Lazy Lucy' to participate, and not because she's lazy but because the maps are only built to sustain so much damage?
The reply I got was that
Which is completely missing the point as I never questioned the ability of players to buff each other's DPS. (And also why I didn't reply to it until now.)
Somehow I get the feeling that different types of players are each living in their own reality - with little understanding between the different types due to either misunderstanding or the inability to look beyond one's own concerns and wishes. Which in turn may be a result indeed of being used to always having ones wishes being fulfilled.
Whatever it is, it is not surprising that in such an environment, illogical behaviour follows and, for a very small minority, rage and hatred.
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
Alright, what do you think? Will the new Endeavor System help to funnel the PvE activity in STO a bit so the respective content is more populated or will the Ferengi Admiralty campaign cancel the need to ever tend to PvE again once and for all?
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Anything I can say about the queues directly would be based on console; my computer was old and I migrated there on my newer console. I can say that the queues there still show the number waiting, and it's still tough finding one close to popping, but the UI is decent enough where its actual use is concerned. For anyone thinking PvP or whatnot are all on console, though, I can say: No, it's not. The queues are slow there too, and it's sure as heck not Risa; the Summer Resort generally has about three instances when I'm on.
So, anyway, in a broad sense...
The game should not be truly balanced. It can, but not if we want to continue playing. For a game to remain profitable, and ultimately supported by a game company, it must remain unbalanced enough for players to look at what someone else is doing and think: "I want that." This leads to both community involvement (because those without "that" will have to find out what "that" is, whether by PM/Fleet/Channels/Forums/Reddit/whatever) and spending (because we have to get "that" somehow; even with mechanics like the DilEx making F2P more freebie-friendly, it earns profits somewhere).
The game should not be overly unbalanced. This has been commented on by both ends of the DPS debate and by PvPers, with different perspectives, and I'm going to stay the heck out of that. Still, most of us could probably agree that a reasonable balance is needed to make most games more enjoyable? Maybe?
So the idea is to make things unbalanced enough that we have things to work towards, without making them unbalanced enough that these seem out of reach. This can be done through nerfs, buffs, introducing alternatives. The nerfs can be done quickly and effectively, and could also help to mitigate excess currency generation in the economy, but have the offset of negating player investment and making players less inclined to invest further. The buffs can be done quickly and effectively, but could exacerbate excess currency generation, making it harder for new players to invest in upgrades. The introduction of alternatives doesn't address balance issues directly, but instead adds to both sides of the balance scales, generally taking longer to have results (which are not always those intended) and inevitably leading to powercreep.
In the end, if we want more balance in the game, something about that will suck. The main challenge for the Dev team is to try and minimize this so that it doesn't drive players out entirely, which seems to be part of the problem with S13: it focused too much on nerfs, negating player investment. I see the term ragequitting tossed out there, but when enough of a player's investment disappears... if you're going to spend effort/money/time/etc. on a game, what specific reason do you have to spend it on the same game? Tinkering with a new environment or ruleset can be done just as well in a completely new environment and ruleset, after all.
Yet even after this there are underlying issues that remain. Characters are still built with 60 actual (factored into scaling, etc.) plus 35 pseudo (the minimum needed to fill one Primary and one Secondary Spec tree) levels. The playerbase was too spread out for PuGs in most queues, now made worse by those migrating to console, leaving, or going Private... but hopefully addressed by Endeavors. The classes still have disparate capabilities, with one being superior to the others. Some abilities stack geometrically, while some suffer diminishing returns. There is a lack of proper in-game tutorials, manuals, or even a UI capable of displaying how exactly something really affects your performance. The slope for our capabilities is still rather steep, some of which is intentional. Etc.
So, there's still quite a bit to be done, while at the same time maybe too much was done.
Me, I'm still playing over on console. The queues are dead, there is no Channel system over there (I really miss that), the UI is apparently better than PC (it allows for easy selection of multiple difficulties of the same queue, for example), and since I don't have my nice things (tons of Event and C-Store ships for account unlocks, 20+ characters, and all the halfway decent gear setups I'd built myself up to)... and I'm okay with that version of S13. In many ways the change to console has been liberating for me, since I don't have most of the nice things I once had to even get upset about (even Giveaways such as the Assimilated Cruiser Admiralty Ship, etc. have been one-shot rather than account unlocks, and I didn't even find the email with the free T6 Sovvie for PC until that had expired anyway). I've gone Casual-that-generally-knows-what-to-do, have no intention of investing heavily in anything, and thus I have more time for a wider variety of games beyond just STO. My old fun might have been wrong and nerfed, but I found new fun nonetheless.
Having looked at the Endeavor system on Tribble i think it "might" get people doing a bit more varied content. There seems to be a wide variety of tasks ranging from simple "do x polaron dmg" to more complex things like "complete Y mission"
I know some people in STO can't see past the end of their saucer but for anyone with the willingness to go out there and seek out those rewards it could be quite profitable (assuming the rewards are good of course).
No whether it'll push people into queues etc is another thing. There are some tasks that asked for completion of queues and they are not just the usual ISA or CCA, so it could get people playing other content.
Heck, if they do so they might find they enjoy something other than 2 min snooze-fests in ISA.
I'm trying to remain optimitic.
In any case, thanks for checking it out on tribble @lordsteve1
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
If it's just some dil/marks again, people will do the math and see if it's actually worth it vs time spent and odds are the answer will be no on anything that can't be done fast.