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I am a bit concerned about the number of players on console.
archer01
Member Posts: 99 Arc User
I have no idea how many players regularly play STO on console but I suspect the number is quite low. Recently, I decided to return to the game for a bit (on Xbox One) and almost everywhere I go, it is virtually dead. I have been to three Battlezones at various times during the day and the most players that where in a given battlezone is 5. Most of the time it was only me and one other player. Also, I'd say about 90 percent of the queues are dead too.
Is it like this on pc too? It's kind of hard, or at least not so fun to earn reputation marks when most of the places where they can be earned are dead. I know I sound very negative but I figure a forum is a good place to express concern.
Is it like this on pc too? It's kind of hard, or at least not so fun to earn reputation marks when most of the places where they can be earned are dead. I know I sound very negative but I figure a forum is a good place to express concern.
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i'd say to ignore his message, a quick look through his post history tells me he enjoys making snarky/unhelpful comments.
i can tell you that the PC is very populated, but we also have dead quoues, but that mainly comes down to one of two reasons, one being that some of them are either too hard to be fun, or just not very entertaining to play even if easy, the other being that there are easier ways to earn some marks by yourself than having to wait for 5 people to quoue up, the battelzones for example.
Despite this, there will be plenty of people (people who are playing the game by the way
So, while I cannot speak to your issue on console, I can say that, in my experience, PC does not have the population issue that you describe.
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PC is definitely more populated...but has also been around many years longer and has lots of old time players that return every season. On the console, you have to wait longer for queues for sure, other than special event queues and a few popular ones like CE or red alerts. Console logins will likely increase when Victory is Life goes live.
In general however, console is a lot less social than on pc. very little chat, even zone chat, due to fact that most players on console probably play without keyboard or keypad attached making typing a lot more difficult. While there is more voice chat than on pc due to built in xbox chat abilities, it seems to be rarely used outside of fleet chat. Thus I play chars on PC much more than on console , at least once I maxed out my 2 console chars.
Coming from Reddit, I've seen a lot of people talking about console getting less and less popular.
And besides, even if there are different players at different times of the day, those different players are still less populous than on PC, where there are ALSO different players throughout the day. PC queues are generally pretty active, and from what I hear, this is an actual problem on console.
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I was wrong every time.
There is a big difference in size of player base between console and PC, that is absolutely true. Honestly, I think it's just that the game plays much better on the PC then it does on the console. Don't get me wrong, Cryptic did a great job adapting the game to console, I don't think they could have done it any better, but at it's heart.. STO is a PC game. It just looks and plays much better on the PC and I think console players just tend to lose interest faster because of it.
I can only tell you what things are like on the PC side, I only played the console version to check it out and it wasn't for me. There are times on PC where player counts are lower, these are generally 'off peak' times for the US player base. The game has a very active community from all regions, the game is just more populated during peak US time. If I play around 4-5PM my time (US Pacific Time) there are tons of people on. Actually, truth be told, since VIL dropped this is the busiest I have seen STO in quite a while. The expansion brought a lot of people back, how long they stay has yet to be seen.. but on US Peak time on PC the game has a very healthy population.
Perhaps once VIL drops on console, it will have a similar effect.. that I don't know. All I can tell you is that as a PC player, I honestly don't believe that STO is anywhere near done. I see a bare minimum of 2 more years but realistically it will probably go much longer then that. Everytime I think the game is dying off, it rebounds, it's been that way for years.
Sorry, but you're wrong. I play both the PC and XB1 versions. XB1 is busy enough with queues popping often and a few thosuand people on at anyone time.
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For STO I've always said, once you see them offer an uber-OP Borg Tac Cube in the C-Store you know PWE is on one last cash grab!
I tend to drop into sto on PS4 early evening (uk time) and if I drop into a BZ like badlands it's usually populated enough that its full cleared and queues aren't limited to the handful deemed worthy of time/reward as happened on PC due to the lack of RA's.
Console is a half done port of the PC version and they really need to sort a lot of the basics out or simply finish what they started. A lot of it feels like the usual cryptic tale of not enough dev time, put out what they can, plug holes that might affect zen and dil economy and hope noone notices the rest.
For example the autofire for abilities pretty much doesn't exist for console or set based abilities, the radial menu gets vast, will shuffle itself about and also include non combat stuff like lobi or phoenix store token "use" or trait based abilities simply because you capped that rep. Autofiring will also prolong red alert status which in turn can cause more abilities to be used.
Autohail can't be disabled, there's little to no audio warning that a PVE queue has popped (the iconic weeooo we get on PC) which is going to make the new gamma queue zone simply awful unless they finally sort it. In contrast neverwinter gets an audio cue and a large warning instead of the tiny line of text flashing up!
Controls for some minigames come across as done by someone that never held a controller, specifically the omega scanning which screams out for a guitar hero style control using the abxy buttons rather than the clunky stick flicking.
Consoles have also been shafted on the freebie ships, dorito being one and the carrier from last year also looking like its falling victim to the same. Granted they probably want to bring events in line but we've not heard anything about a chance to earn the carrier as an account unlock so its more than likely getting gambleboxed.
That said I find that I actually enjoy escorts a whole lot more on console, not so much that I'd willingly buy any but I do at least fly them which is handy as the last three freebies have been vorgon escort, breen raider and bajoran ships.
One could say the same about you "assuming" &/or if someone logs in to see a high population while they're playing. It's all about context & the regular player won't be privy to the total statistics.
I'm glad you stated that your observations are no more valid than the OPs since that is true & same for me. Your "Reddit is garbage" true or not, exposes some of your basis just as some sort of automatic & lazy dismissiveness.
Your, "Considering that a couple years ago the PC population was 100 percent and the console population was 0 percent, no I don't particularly agree. As for this "being defensive" bit. About what? I'm stating facts." I'll agree about the console population, it would have to be since before it launched it was nonexistent. Per, "the PC population was 100 percent," I have to ask how so & what source are you citing if any? A couple of years ago the PC population was exactly the same number as when? No, opinions & feelings aren't automatically facts, azrael605, no matter what you think & the pathetic standard for some entitled leaders today.
Defensive or offensive I not mind especially since, hopefully most times, it is in the spirit that we all want STO to get better & for each of us that means different things. For, azrael605, I've probably disagreed with this person in the forums more than agreed with, but I don't automatically dismiss what is stated since I might learn form it & I like the passion, from others too in the forums & in STO, even if, imo with azrael605 sometimes, it seems hostile/aggressive towards the poster instead of discussing the information. As I stated earlier it is about context, but to each their own is usually the important context to believe in & sometimes difficult to take a side-step for a different perspective, & I include myself in that.
I've never delved into the STO console(s) nor do I plan to. I can only hope it does well for the players that enjoy it. I was surprised when it began on consoles, but since it doesn't impact me I don't give it much thought. It makes sense to me that it probably has a lower population since newer, but whether or not the console STO is "dying" is all a subjective interpretation of different indicators. For the PC population of STO I do think it is declining, but it is certainly not "dying". I could take a population sample reading during only this up-coming Summer event & I'm sure it would be higher than the normal mean of STO's population & without context that can easily be misinterpreted just the same if I took a sample reading during only the lowest population times. I'm sure Cryptic has some personnel that are number-crunchers & that is probably why we've experienced a different pace in STO events of all size & sales too.
For myself, my account has been broken since last summer with the majority of my characters receiving the wrong veteran account exp bonus boost, Cryptic knows this via the forums & my numerous tickets submitted with the "indefinite" we'll look into it & get back to you, but last I checked it was still broken. When that happened I stopped subscribing the very next cycle & stopped buying zen except by exchanging dilithium into zen. I won't foolishly buy a LTS, since there is no more subscribing, with fingers crossed in hopes that would fix my account since the account should be corrected anyways & I'd be in the same boat as before but even worse shape since spent more money with the incorrect veteran account exp bonus boost. Matter of fact, I'm going to check my account right after this just to make sure it is still broke lol don't want to feel like a total boob.
(Trolling comments and accusations moderated out. - BMR)