test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
10 Anniversary...Please bring back missed items by new/inactive players. And other Suggestions.
dark4blood
Member Posts: 1,192 Arc User
Some may not like this suggestion, but most who want the game to have some type of growth, or even retain fleets/armadas with some type of player base will accept this suggestion.
1. Bring back all items that have been offered in missions, special giveaways, and special linked event sales. Things like the Shard of Possibilities are obvious, but also rare BOFFs like the Breen VR officer would be nice.
2. Secondly, start really making the game more accessible without losing money by making 90% to 95% for things upgradeable. I have been wondering, why the world of BOFFs still not upgradeable to other classes we have seen the game? Why are there still story equipment and other items not upgradeable in the game? Why do DOFF missions not have UR and Epic DOFF rewards...it is kinda weird that we basically have the same DOFF rewards we had since New Romulus update.
3. Do something different with fleets beyond just dil dumps.
This is becoming a real problem...what is the real point of fleets? What is the point of Armadas...because currently playing together is not really being encouraged. While my suggestion for Starbase vs. Starbase PVP will probably never come to pass...making fleet have a point beyond just gear is an absolute necessity. One small suggestion is that when people from the same fleet play the same mission, unique battle bonuses and rewards are made possible. Maybe 2.5% dmg bonus per fleet member and 2.5% reward bonus per player. Also simple things like Armada mail REALLY NEED to be implemented. Also, why don't we have a forward email option...I find this confusing as well?
4. This is the most unlikely change but it has to be asked at this point. Since lockbox ships and promotional box ships need adjustments when it comes to odds. Many people are leaving because the odds are too low, and these "scam boxes" are more frustrating than they are adding to player bases. Many original players have left, even players that have enough to spend on the game for these boxes. The way you encourage the continued purchase of such boxes is to increase the odds but make all ships as a whole more desirable. The odds should be 5% and 2.5% respectively for lockbox and promotional ships. This means making set base ships console have their own slot separate away from regular console slots and the new universal ones. The main problem I find in this is that many of the "original" consoles are not usable due to being obsolete in DPS and in functionality.
Thus, start making powers more important than just straight DPS to mitigate power creep...the Borg especially should be more adaptable.
5. Lastly, story mission need something beyond accolades and generic rewards, especially for team player playing. There are no hidden gems in the game for playing with other classes beyond some wonky accolades. Also lately, even the story rewards are getting sparse beyond TRIBBLE we can get from regular missions. Also, current planets and bases can be increased with new story missions so it doesn't feel like that have been stagnant for the entire game. This might actually save programming time of making up new stuff all the time, and players will appreciate it.
I definitely want people to comment, but also it would be nice to see some response to ANY of these suggestions. I want to see this game last another 10 years...if WOW can last as long as it has, Star Trek which has movies and TV shows to support it should be able to last at least another 10 years with the correct ideas.
1. Bring back all items that have been offered in missions, special giveaways, and special linked event sales. Things like the Shard of Possibilities are obvious, but also rare BOFFs like the Breen VR officer would be nice.
2. Secondly, start really making the game more accessible without losing money by making 90% to 95% for things upgradeable. I have been wondering, why the world of BOFFs still not upgradeable to other classes we have seen the game? Why are there still story equipment and other items not upgradeable in the game? Why do DOFF missions not have UR and Epic DOFF rewards...it is kinda weird that we basically have the same DOFF rewards we had since New Romulus update.
3. Do something different with fleets beyond just dil dumps.
This is becoming a real problem...what is the real point of fleets? What is the point of Armadas...because currently playing together is not really being encouraged. While my suggestion for Starbase vs. Starbase PVP will probably never come to pass...making fleet have a point beyond just gear is an absolute necessity. One small suggestion is that when people from the same fleet play the same mission, unique battle bonuses and rewards are made possible. Maybe 2.5% dmg bonus per fleet member and 2.5% reward bonus per player. Also simple things like Armada mail REALLY NEED to be implemented. Also, why don't we have a forward email option...I find this confusing as well?
4. This is the most unlikely change but it has to be asked at this point. Since lockbox ships and promotional box ships need adjustments when it comes to odds. Many people are leaving because the odds are too low, and these "scam boxes" are more frustrating than they are adding to player bases. Many original players have left, even players that have enough to spend on the game for these boxes. The way you encourage the continued purchase of such boxes is to increase the odds but make all ships as a whole more desirable. The odds should be 5% and 2.5% respectively for lockbox and promotional ships. This means making set base ships console have their own slot separate away from regular console slots and the new universal ones. The main problem I find in this is that many of the "original" consoles are not usable due to being obsolete in DPS and in functionality.
Thus, start making powers more important than just straight DPS to mitigate power creep...the Borg especially should be more adaptable.
5. Lastly, story mission need something beyond accolades and generic rewards, especially for team player playing. There are no hidden gems in the game for playing with other classes beyond some wonky accolades. Also lately, even the story rewards are getting sparse beyond TRIBBLE we can get from regular missions. Also, current planets and bases can be increased with new story missions so it doesn't feel like that have been stagnant for the entire game. This might actually save programming time of making up new stuff all the time, and players will appreciate it.
I definitely want people to comment, but also it would be nice to see some response to ANY of these suggestions. I want to see this game last another 10 years...if WOW can last as long as it has, Star Trek which has movies and TV shows to support it should be able to last at least another 10 years with the correct ideas.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
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.'
Making Fleets and Starbases/Facilities more relevant is a good suggestion, although more/different ideas are need since "do more damage/drop more loot" is a dead end.
Making older items somewhat more available is also a good idea. Many things are already in the Phoenix box but are crippled by both really low drop rates and single-char unlocks. Thus anyone with more than 1 character to get items on basically gives up on the notion of getting them via Phoenix drops.
Cryptic could address this by adding an option, similar to the "trade in a token for 2 of the next lower token", with "trade in 4 tokens for the next higher token". This means people could plan to open, say 500 P-boxes, and know they were going to get at least one epic and one ultra-rare out it. It would also help clean out the huge pile of tier V tokens that everyone opening boxes ends up with.
They could potentially also add to the 'ship/item purchase' menu a thing where, for instance, 1 Epic token unlocks the ship, 2 Epic tokens unlocks the ship for the whole account (same as if you had completed the event).
These features would turn Phoenix back into a desirable purchase again, rather than demand being mostly saturated as it is now.
The rest is mostly opinion, for example the opinion that fleets don't serve a function other then a dilithium dump. The people I team with most are my fleet mates, it's up to the players in the fleets to team up and do content. Just because the game doesn't force them together, or offer a special 'you're in the same fleet' reward doesn't mean that team play is not encouraged and available.
Lockboxes aren't going to change. Simply put, they're the life blood that keeps the game going.. it's something we all need to accept and move on.
2. Not worth the development effort. If I could pick one change for the doffing system it would be to fix all the missions that only appear at sector borders.
3. Nope, fleets with members that choose to socialize can already do that, more casual fleets can choose not to. Choice is good.
4. Nope, but I agree with @wrenfu about making the 0.04% for lock box and 1% for pack ship odds official, instead of just something we know from experimentation
5. More class-specific elements in new story episodes and TFOs is more work for the writers, coders, and QA but it sounds like fun, and it would improve replay value. Adding new story episodes to old locations makes sense too, if it fits the story arc.
Most of the items you're referring to come from feature episode re-runs and I agree I would love to see that ran more often. Otherwise specialty items such as anniversary ships etc will go into the phoenix boxes. so a solution to this already exists.
Boffs can generally be acquired super easy and there are multiple vendors for boffs that sell them for maybe 200 dilithium if that. You can also generally find boffs on the exchange for cheap as well, even purples. Unless you're super attached to a certain boff, there's a way you can "upgrade" that boff super easy. Go to the tailor and save that boff's specs and look as an outfit and discharge the boff. Pick up a purple boff that's the same gender/species etc as the other boff you discharged, and load the previous boffs specs onto them via the tailor. You can also give that new boff the same name as the old, thus you now have an "upgraded" boff. Because of it being so cheap and easy to acquire boffs you would spend more in resources to upgrade vs just doing what I said.
I do think sometimes the dilithium costs get ridiculously excessive at times, but at the same time if there were no dilithium sinks of some kind, zen would pretty much stay at 500 dilithium per zen, and believe me when I say that's not a good thing for free to play folks. You need to have some type of dilithium sinks in game to remove excess dilithium from the game and try to keep it under control. We can debate where those sinks should be and what kind they should be, but some type of sink needs to exist. Also like I said previously, that's a hard pass on pvp from my end. If I want anything to do with pvp i'll go play CoD or something like that.
The point of fleets aside from gear is it's supposed to bring like minded groups of players together towards a common goal. Same reason alot of clans in other games form. They're intended to be groups that join together that have a common goal and interests etc. I would also say that the ability to track armada donations needs to become a thing before something like Armada mail does. It's also intended that there's some sort of contact between the fleet leaders of the armada, so anything that needs to be shared through the armada can be done so via the fleet leaders. I'm all for exploring new ideas within reason.
Like it or not lockboxes are here to stay for the foreseeable future and that's not changing. There have been some mention that they're looking into possible changes to the boxes and promo packs etc, however when or if those changes come is unknown, or even what those changes may look like. I'm not going to complain about them raising the odds of winning a ship, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that either. As far as to what kind of ship is "desireable" is highly subjective and will vary from person to person. What I may think is the Q Continuum's gift to STO, someone else may think is a pile of flaming dog TRIBBLE. Also just because a ship comes with a particular console does not require you to use that console. If you want to use it, then you will have to sacrifice a console slot for it. They're not going to give you a free slot just because.
Far as power creep goes, I would argue we need an Elite+ or adaptive difficulty type. I would also say to define adaptable because depending on what it is it would completely gut space combat.
What exactly would you propose get added? The point of story missions is to tell the story of the game and also give access to basic entry/budget level gear on replay to get folks started.
A big problem I see that frustrates alot of folks, is there's not an easily defined level of progression like there is with WoW or similar. Because of this alot of newer players try to do content that they're absolutely not ready for which frustrates new player and veteran player alike. The veteran player gets mad because the new player isn't ready, and the new player gets mad because he feels he has no other options. If you really want to improve things then folks need better guides so they know where they can get certain bits of gear, along with additional budget options for all energy types, especially plasma. There also needs to be a basic dungeon journal type thing like there is in WoW so folks can prepare a bit before hand. With the dungeon journal it gives you basic information about mobs and such that folks can use to formulate strategies, without outright saying, do this, go here etc. From there I've advocated for gear check systems so you don't have someone trying to come into an elite match with all mk x or lower greens etc. This will help ensure they have a basic enough gear level that will let them survive. In addition give a proving grounds type area like WoW has so folks can learn basic concepts. Once folks get to an appropriate gear level and pass the basics of the proving grounds, then they unlock advanced and elite levels of content.
No that won't be popular but after it will guarantee folks have at least had an opportunity to experience some of the things they will encounter in the higher levels of content. After that it's on them whether they succeed or fail. At the very least it allows them to be better prepared.
Star Trek Online volunteer Community Moderator
No non-Event Event necessary. It is BS that anyone would advocate putting those Items into the Phoenix Store rather than in the Episode that they were in.
Three of the four are in the 'Arcs' put into the Available Tab. With the current paradigm, unlocked and available at Level 65, and all Episodes in those 'Arcs' need to be played in order to unlock the next Episode.
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.'
Actually Somtaawkhar, Featured Episode replay would be nice for those of us who have made new characters since the last time they did them. The last time I know of that we had a Replay event was January 2018, which means we're over 18 months since the last run. In that time, we added Jem'hadar and Discovery characters to our line ups, both of which do not have any of the rewards.
I think what dark4blood refers to might be dealing with specializations?
Fleets when they were first given the Advancement system with the Fleet holdings, it was meant something to be in a fleet. If you were in a fleet, you were in with a group of people that you enjoyed teaming up with to work on various areas of the game, including getting the highest gear that was possible at the time, before the upgrade system came out. The downside of the fleet gear is that the original stuff is now outclassed by the fact that there's so many other weapons out there.
I have no issues here. I've seen and heard more people say they walk away because of Discovery, not because of an optional thing like Lock boxes.
Som is right here. The very reason why they don't just make story missions on all these planets is that its time consuming to make the story missions, especially since there's a certain story that they are trying to tell right now. If they had a larger team, maybe they could make side missions more, but as it stands now, they can only do what they have the man power to do.
as for TFOs anything career specific unless totally optional is a "no go" in my honest option, since Cryptic cannot predict what careers will join a TFO (you could have a team of 5 tac officers for example) so having anything that's (semi-)mandatory that demands a certain career to be present would be bad game design.
Personally I'd love them to utilize holodecks for a proving ground/target dummy style space where you could test builds and learn stuff in essentially stress free location.
Closest we have is in Mirror Invasion. While all classes can do everything, Engineers can actually power up the energy Satellites faster, while Science Officers can close portals faster.
Or was it Cruisers for the Satellites and Science Ships for the Portals...
uh, NO. those of us who did pre-orders, LTS, that sort of thing have already been screwed over. the pre orders had 2 exclusives that I know of, the TR rifle and the TOS Connie. with emphasis on EXCLUSIVE. that lasted about a minute till they were Cstore or craftable
in fact I think the should go the OTHER way, bring back some of those retired items as LTS rewards, make LTS a bit more desirable
except that Star Trek 2,3,4 all revolve around "going back" in this case going back to Ceti Alpha, and finding Khan. there is nothing wrong with going back to places we have seen. I would love to see what happened with the people of Vaal, the gangsters planet, exploring some mystery disease on Trill, maybe. of course the First Federation is out there.
actually only Wrath of Khan really has anything to do with pre-existing TOS lore, Search for Spock and Voyage Home have nothing to do with either Ceti Alpha nor Khan beyond the stuff done in Star Trek 2 to which they were direct sequels.
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 haven't been here since the beginning, plus I took a long break. I don't expect to have all the special items. Nor do I think I deserve them. But I'm happy to have the things I did get, rewarding the time I have played.
I was in a Peril Over Pavo run where it turned out that everyone was an engineer, so all the defense satellites were the shield type, which made things a bit harder than a good mix would have been (though we got through it just fine anyway).
The target dummy thing is a good idea, originally they did not need official target dummies in STO since the Foundry provided a number scenarios like that. A holodeck would be a good addition to ship interiors and could provide test dummies for both ground and space combat weapons testing as a partial substitute for the lost testing scenarios.
This is your opinion, so sure, you're entitled to it. But the root of 'exclusive' is 'exclude':
"verb: exclude;
- deny (someone) access to or bar (someone) from a place, group, or privilege"
Pre-order exclusives are a thing. They encourage someone who knows about the game to sign up/pay in advance of release. This helps development of the game, is a conscious decision, and is generally accepted.
Game pack exclusives are a thing. They are available to all players at all times, and basically enourage you to buy "Expansion Pack X" or "Ship Pack Y" to obtain an exclusive item. This tends to get called "P2W" but is valid.
Time-based exclusives (beyond cosmetics) are some sort of weird insanity that has infected Cryptic. There is no incentive here, there is only punishment to players who missed it. There is no incentive to 'start playing earlier'. Nobody hears about a game and thinks "Oh hey, I like that game, but I think I will wait 5 years to start playing it". Anybody who is not playing the game doesn't even know there are time-based exclusive offers.
There are virtually no people in the game who consider their 'exclusive' copy of the T5 Risian Corvette to be special. The FE Replay rewards are not exclusive, they've been offered many times. Anyone who missed a Winter event because of family needs, jobs, illness; does not need to be "denied access to a valuable game feature" because real life was more important to them. None of these items are even close to being actually exclusive because half the players in the game have them.
If a player joins NoP Public Service channel today, they will be flat-out told by the 'expert elites' that have come to monopolize that chat "You might as well quit playing right now because you have missed too many 'exclusive' unlocks to ever play at a decent level". (Note: I do not say this is sensible advice, just what they will be told in a common public channel.)
"There is already a mechanism to get these items" also destroys exclusivity, and is also a stretch of the truth - very few players are willing to struggle against the ridiculous odds to get Epic or Ultra-Rare Phoenix tokens in order to unlock a single reward for a single character.
Make Phoenix tokens tradeable upwards as well as down (4 Phoenix tokens buys the next token up), and/or make Phoenix unlocks potentially account wide (at a Token or Dil cost), and you'd be talking. Until then it's a false hope to offer newer players.
You're missing the point of timed / event exclusives. They are used by many / most MMOs to get current players to log in and play during the event.
Players playing the game translates into some of those players making purchases.
If you knew you could easily get the Summer 2019 event ship any time that you wanted during the year, for example if the Risa event never ended, then you'd have an excuse not to log in this week, this month, or you might never get around to finishing it if you knew it could wait forever.
They will keep doing it because it works for MMOs just like it works for retailers with sales.
Actually, you're missing the point of 'timed events' vs. 'exclusive' events. A timed or seasonal event is fine, and does what you say - encourages people to log in during that event. An 'exclusive' event says "you missed this in the past, and you can never get it". Making an event non-exclusive does not imply making it available 'at any time'. You could run one 'catch-up' event per year, for instance, in which players could run an event to acquire an old/previous event item. That will earn you exactly as many log-ins as the original event did. It offers all the gains for the developer that the original event did, without punishing newer players for simply not having heard of/started the game 5 years ago.
Virtually none of the 'exclusive' items are in fact in any way 'exclusive'. All they achieve is to make newer players feel bad when someone talks about something they will effectively never be able to get. Make newer players put in equal efforts to get them, sure. Limit access so they can only unlock 1 item per year and must choose carefully, fine.
Saying "this item was given out 4 years ago, and if you weren't here then, well SUX2BU huh?" does neither the player base nor the developers any good.
Sorry, but you seem to be confused or perhaps overly defensive about something.
1. Unless you claim to be on the channel 24/7, saying "I've never seen that said" is in no way evidence that it does not get said. Further, the channel is not 'dominated' by the channel owners, because those guys are almost never ever on. When half of all the chat in the channel each day comes from the same 15 guys, they can be said to be monopolizing the chat (dominating is your word, not mine). Further, as I have an acquaintance in game who regularly gets muted by one of the channel mods even though he rarely says anything in channel, I think the "too disruptive" comment boils down to "or one of the mods just doesn't like you".
2. I'm pretty sure that phrases like "bring back missed items" and "all items that have been offered" would include event ships. So if you can get event ships for VR tokens, please reveal your secrets.
3. Already covered the point that pre-release and pre-order 'exclusives' are fine. Perhaps you missed it. Other than that, see the previous post. "Exist in every MMO and most other video games" seems like a bit of an extreme statement, but I've already gathered that sticking to the facts isn't really your thing.
Sorry, but you seem confused or perhaps overly defensive about something.
1. Unless you claim to be on the channel 24/7, saying "I've never seen that said" is in no way evidence that it does not get said. Further, the channel is not 'dominated' by the channel owners, because those guys are almost never ever on. When half of all the chat in the channel each day comes from the same 15 guys, they can be said to be monopolizing the chat (dominating is your word, not mine). Further, as I know someone in game who regularly gets muted by one of the channel mods even though he rarely says anything in channel, I think the "too disruptive" comment boils down to "or one of the mods just doesn't like you".
2. I'm pretty sure that phrases like "bring back missed items" and "all items that have been offered" would include event ships. So if you can get event ships for VR tokens, please reveal your secrets.
3. Already covered the point that pre-release and pre-order 'exclusives' are fine. Perhaps you missed it. Other than that, see the previous post. "Exist in every MMO and most other video games" seems like an extreme statement, but I've already gathered that sticking to the facts isn't really your thing.