Ten Forward Weekly 09/04/2019

somtaawkhar · September 2019

From our good friends at Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/czt812/ten_forward_weekly_04092019/

Theme: Event UI and Elachi Ship!

Guests: system designer Jette Leavens and lead ship and UI artist Thomas Marrone (group 1, ship); UI designer Jo Gianulus and lead system designer Jeremy Randall (group 2, UI).

Ship:

Qulash is correctly considered an elachi ship for "Silent Enemy" set.
Qulash walker mode isn't happening.
Qulash is new "frigate" player ship class - unavailable for players before.
Like scout ship is a sci ship/raider combo, this one is raider-flavoured cruiser.
Project completion won't unlock elachi weapons for the store
Trait is for RAPID ESCAPE behaviour, because you're invincible.
You won't be able to interact with objects while in that state.

UI:

Cryptic reconstructed system because event reputation was unsatisfactory and couldn't do some things they wanted.
Some of them: account-wide progress, automated progress filling.
New event UI:
Daily progress marker is a thing, so you won't have to write that down.
Behind-the-scenes dev's nickname for the system: "Choose your pain".
That is only a test run, next FTFO would probably look a little different.
They hadn't decided yet what they'll do with the already slotted projects.
You likely would be able to finish your started progress in next runs of relevant seasonal events (summer, winter, anniversary).
Mycellium event is one-time, they're still hoping for Halloween seasonal event, just not this year.
Buyout price would be dynamically recalculated depending on progress.
All "reclaim" items should be on single multi-tab window, not scattered across several different ones.
(Mike had awesome "pick up molecules" Gravity Kills fit.)
We would be able to preview ship model. They'd love enable you to preview every reward that have visual.
Savvy players that can multi-char the events and get overwhelming rewards are minority, they designed system to be for masses who don't even realize that you can continue getting bonus rewards on several characters and/or after main reward is gained.
Dilitium rewards for this event is autoclaim. Claim button - maybe next time.
Systems team calculated dil rewards to be that (stream numbers were wrong, quote form Jeremy from comments):
If you do not buy out at all, you can earn 10 days of Bonus Rewards. With the +2,500 daily scaling, this equates to 137,500 Dilithium Ore.
My math: seasonal events didn't grant direct dil for extra efforts, but rather marks. With 40 marks for completion and 1:10 direct exchange rate that would be 343,75 bonus completions; with 15:340 hourly that would be ~151,65.
If you buy out on day one and immediately start earning Bonus Rewards, your maximum potential for 30 days will be 637,500 Dilithium Ore.
Using the above math that's 1593,75 and 703,125 runs.
This event is very experimental to see if and how things would work.

ltminns · September 2019

Nothing about accumulated Featured TFO Commendation 'buyouts'? They said they would tell us in another Announcement. Prepatching already started yesterday. The later the Announcement the worse it will be.

Who wasted time with a question on a walker mode for the Goulash? They can't do a direct ground Dune Buggy and you think that they could just do a Starship that converts to a ground walker???

ltminns · September 2019

Yes, and with that 6000 Zen buyout you could earn that 637,500 Dilithium, which could net you about 1555 Zen for your efforts.

We seem to be getting quite a number of these one time 'test runs' of doing things different ways.

'Choose your pain' should be 'We bring the pain'.

foppotee · September 2019

I missed the live stream but I watched the recording. I enjoyed it & found it chalk full of information about of logistics which to my surprise wasn't boring. As they emphasized repeatedly they're still experimenting with the system & I applaud that effort even though I'm sure there'll be some hits & misses, preferably more hits.

Whatever grayish & bluish set/vanity Kael had on that Qulash made it look really cool. I kept imagining that ship to contracted into some sort of shell looking defensive posture though.

It is definitely disappointing that Cryptic decided to place the long wanted 2nd omni-directional plasma behind a paywall, lobi, like that. That was the 1 big negative I got out of the stream. Cryptic has known they've neglected having a 2nd omni-d plasma for so long compared to the other energy types & that it has been wanted so Cryptic decided to troll with it. Lobi items are such an expensive & restrictive route.

avoozuul · September 2019

He could've been using the Lukari rep shield which makes it bluish grey.

djf021 · September 2019

The biggest disappointment in this deal is the outrageous 6000 buyout option. We went from 1000 (800 during the first weekend sale, for 10 out of 14 days, but still) to 6000? That's ridiculous, and ensures I will not be buying it out, at least not at the beginning.
Other than that, I'm looking forward to trying this and the ship looks really nice.

sthe91 · September 2019

djf021 wrote: »

The biggest disappointment in this deal is the outrageous 6000 buyout option. We went from 1000 (800 during the first weekend sale, for 10 out of 14 days, but still) to 6000? That's ridiculous, and ensures I will not be buying it out, at least not at the beginning.
Other than that, I'm looking forward to trying this and the ship looks really nice.

You forget that the the price of the buyout goes down the closer you are to the goal. It is not just a flat 6,000 buyout option. Also, this is experimental and right now is one-of-a-kind.

baddmoonrizin · September 2019

Yes, the Zen buyout does dynamically scale down as one participates more. I'd say the 6000Z first day buyout is more a sign of "we'd really rather you play the event," because in all honesty, they'd really rather you play the game, otherwise earning things through play wouldn't be an option.

shadowfirefly00 · September 2019

somtaawkhar wrote: »

Project completion won't unlock elachi weapons for the store

This is, in my opinion, a mistaken decision. Far more sensible would be to apply the precedent set by the Andorian escorts to all ships with special-flavor base weapons, as elaborated here.

warpangel · September 2019

1000 for 10 parts out of 14 for a weapon/console/trinket
VS
6000 for a ship

Peeps just don't seem to get that this is NOT the same kind of event that have previously run.

rattler2 · September 2019

shadowfirefly00 wrote: »

This is, in my opinion, a mistaken decision. Far more sensible would be to apply the precedent set by the Andorian escorts to all ships with special-flavor base weapons, as elaborated here.

The issue with that, is the fact that Elachi weapons exist in game already as lockbox weapons. It might be a case of one or the other. You can either have them as they exist in game now, or have them as a store unlock. You can't have both.

djf021 · September 2019

warpangel wrote: »

1000 for 10 parts out of 14 for a weapon/console/trinket
VS
6000 for a ship

Peeps just don't seem to get that this is NOT the same kind of event that have previously run.

You know, I'll admit I wasn't thinking "trinket vrs ship", you got me there. I was thinking more along the lines of 1000 for around 71% of a grind vrs 6000 for 100% of a grind, which sounded crazy. You're right, the comparison of the actual rewards becomes important there.
But, I still think 6000 is a crazy high price for a ship, when normal ships are 3000. I don't even spend 6000 zen on a lockbox or Lobi ship. I think I agree with Badd, they are definitely wanting to make it more attractive to actually play.

I'm glad it goes down, though. A few days in, I'll keep monitoring the buyout price as it drops. Maybe it'll become worth it toward the end.

rattler2 · September 2019

I think people are not only forgetting we're talking trinket vs ship, but the fact that this is an experiment. With more feedback and data, they may tweek future iterations until they get it to where they feel it is the right balance for players.

warpangel · September 2019

djf021 wrote: »

warpangel wrote: »

1000 for 10 parts out of 14 for a weapon/console/trinket
VS
6000 for a ship

Peeps just don't seem to get that this is NOT the same kind of event that have previously run.

You know, I'll admit I wasn't thinking "trinket vrs ship", you got me there. I was thinking more along the lines of 1000 for around 71% of a grind vrs 6000 for 100% of a grind, which sounded crazy. You're right, the comparison of the actual rewards becomes important there.
But, I still think 6000 is a crazy high price for a ship, when normal ships are 3000. I don't even spend 6000 zen on a lockbox or Lobi ship. I think I agree with Badd, they are definitely wanting to make it more attractive to actually play.

I'm glad it goes down, though. A few days in, I'll keep monitoring the buyout price as it drops. Maybe it'll become worth it toward the end.

It's supposed to be linear. So if you've got half the points earned, the buyout costs half as much. I do believe the pricing is aimed for a) whales who want the ship day one at any price and b) casuals who end up a few days short at the end.

Though even at 6k it's still cheaper than the lobi buyouts for the previous ship events (to say nothing of trying to get an event ship from the Phoenix box lottery after the fact).

baddmoonrizin · September 2019

Yes, 6000Z is quite a price tag, but you're not just getting the T6 ship (3000Z), but also 8x Elachi disruptor weapons and 3 Ultimate tech upgrades. Now, are those worth an extra 3000Z? That's subjective. A single Ultimate tech upgrade is otherwise only available from the Key Ring Bundle (2250Z), and Elachi disruptor weapons are acquired from Lockboxes, which need keys. Keep in mind, though, a first day buyout would enable one to earn 637,500 Dilithium, if one played the full 30 days, and depending on the exchange rate, possibly earn back 1500Z.

shadowfirefly00 · September 2019

rattler2 wrote: »

The issue with that, is the fact that Elachi weapons exist in game already as lockbox weapons. It might be a case of one or the other. You can either have them as they exist in game now, or have them as a store unlock. You can't have both.

I would put forward that yes, you can have both. Folks want the weapons, but not necessarily the ship? They'd still be able to trawl the Exchange or roll the proverbial dice, like they do now. The ships themselves would have extra value from following the Andorian-escort precedent.

Whether lockboxes should exist at all is a whole other debate I won't get into here, but I will note an interesting implication which arises from the attempt to justify their existence ingame (source).

themosquito@reddit wrote:

You know, the insistence on making all these lobi and lockbox ships an actual thing in-universe has pretty much ended up making the Lobi Consortium technically the most powerful force in the galaxy. They're an interdimensional group with genius engineers who can retrofit any old ship into one competitive with the newest military designs, have fleets of stolen or salvaged ships and refitted ships from every time period and alien species. If they wanted to fight, they'd have an army of Tholian Tarantulas, Vengeance dreadnoughts, Herald ships, Voth ships, Tzenkethi, Ferengi, Kelvin Constitutions...

(Note: for some games, like Path of Exile, the boxes do not exist in the game world proper).

ltminns · September 2019

The Lobi Consortium has not been doing too good a job recently. Lockbox Ships with no Lobi Store accompaniment. And I'm not talking about T6 Replacements for old T5s.

davefenestrator · September 2019

ltminns wrote: »

The Lobi Consortium has not been doing too good a job recently. Lockbox Ships with no Lobi Store accompaniment. And I'm not sure if talking about T6 Replacements for old T5s.

The T6 Recluse does count enough to make up for many other missing ships, for me anyway

shadowfirefly00 wrote: »

rattler2 wrote: »

The issue with that, is the fact that Elachi weapons exist in game already as lockbox weapons. It might be a case of one or the other. You can either have them as they exist in game now, or have them as a store unlock. You can't have both.

I would put forward that yes, you can have both. Folks want the weapons, but not necessarily the ship? They'd still be able to trawl the Exchange or roll the proverbial dice, like they do now. The ships themselves would have extra value from following the Andorian-escort precedent.

Andorian ships are a C-Store purchase that unlocks weapons that were always sold for dil. Having a free event ship unlock lock box weapons would be a much bigger "gimme" from Cryptic costing them zen / real-world money.

markhawkman · September 2019

davefenestrator wrote: »

Andorian ships are a C-Store purchase that unlocks weapons that were always sold for dil. Having a free event ship unlock lock box weapons would be a much bigger "gimme" from Cryptic costing them zen / real-world money.

Yeah, ACTUAL lockbox ships don't do that. Iconian ships don't let you reclaim/buy for dil Iconian AP weapons... etc...

warpangel · September 2019

markhawkman wrote: »

davefenestrator wrote: »

Andorian ships are a C-Store purchase that unlocks weapons that were always sold for dil. Having a free event ship unlock lock box weapons would be a much bigger "gimme" from Cryptic costing them zen / real-world money.

Yeah, ACTUAL lockbox ships don't do that. Iconian ships don't let you reclaim/buy for dil Iconian AP weapons... etc...

The Galor/Keldon do do that with the spiral disruptors. But of course, those were still always designed to be sold that way, not cannibalizing an existing source.

Elachi weapons are already in the game and everyone can already buy them on the exchange. That's enough.

spiritborn · September 2019

djf021 wrote: »

warpangel wrote: »

1000 for 10 parts out of 14 for a weapon/console/trinket
VS
6000 for a ship

Peeps just don't seem to get that this is NOT the same kind of event that have previously run.

You know, I'll admit I wasn't thinking "trinket vrs ship", you got me there. I was thinking more along the lines of 1000 for around 71% of a grind vrs 6000 for 100% of a grind, which sounded crazy. You're right, the comparison of the actual rewards becomes important there.
But, I still think 6000 is a crazy high price for a ship, when normal ships are 3000. I don't even spend 6000 zen on a lockbox or Lobi ship. I think I agree with Badd, they are definitely wanting to make it more attractive to actually play.

I'm glad it goes down, though. A few days in, I'll keep monitoring the buyout price as it drops. Maybe it'll become worth it toward the end.

The way I understood is that the buy out price drops relative to your personal completion level, aka if you've nothing towards completing the Project it'll remain at 6000 zen for eternity but but if you do 50% of the project it'll drop to 3000 and at 90% it'll be 600 and so on.

They know it's more expensive then your typical c-store ship and it's intentionally so to encourage actually doing the event, no speculation needed there they actually admitted that the reason for the pricing.

I'm guessing they thought that having a soft "lock" on the buyout (aka your idea when ship becomes worth the price) was better then a hard lock (aka having the buyout option unlock only after a certain amount of progress was made).

markhawkman · September 2019

spiritborn wrote: »

They know it's more expensive then your typical c-store ship and it's intentionally so to encourage actually doing the event, no speculation needed there they actually admitted that the reason for the pricing.

It's a single cross-faction ship costed the same as a cross-faction pack.

Ten Forward Weekly 09/04/2019

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