Colony World Special Projects Unavailable

tevarion · September 2019

I've been looking out for the colony world special projects to return since the holding was first available but so far they haven't done so. This has seriously de-motivated me to progress my fleet's colony any further at this point as I would like to add the other services and options from the special projects. Has anyone seen any sort of event schedule indicating when these colony world special projects might return? There have been frequent returns of the special projects for the remainder of the fleet holdings but for some reason I have never seen the colony projects return since the initial period when the colony was first added to the game.

sharmutashlikha · September 2019

If I recall correctly, old special projects were made available when a new holding arrived. As the colony is still the newest fleet holding, I don't expect the special projects for it to be available anytime soon.

tevarion · September 2019

Thanks, I didn't realize that special projects only become available again once a new holding is created. Any idea why this is? It would seem strange to discourage players from investing into the newest fleet holding, especially given the massive dil sink that the special projects provide. I mean I am literally looking to dump dil into a decorative/social item (and therefore zen or dollar equivalent), why wouldn't Cryptic want me to be able to do this with the current fleet holding?

baddmoonrizin · September 2019

As it's been mentioned that a new Fleet Holding is not likely to be added, we probably just need to give them a heads up to turn those projects on for Fleets needing to get them done.

tevarion · September 2019

Other than posting this topic in the general discussion forum, how else might we notify Cryptic of this? It's not a bug, nor is it a "feature", it's just an issue that they should probably change if they want players spending large amounts of dil on the Colony fleet projects.

Also, why are they not planning on adding any more fleet holdings? I understand the idea behind not increasing the level cap past 65 or gear cap past XV (as it just gives the impression of a meaningless sort of "progression"), but adding new fleet holdings every few seasons has been a core part of the game expansions since the game launched.

ichaerus1 · September 2019

tevarion wrote: »

Other than posting this topic in the general discussion forum, how else might we notify Cryptic of this? It's not a bug, nor is it a "feature", it's just an issue that they should probably change if they want players spending large amounts of dil on the Colony fleet projects.

Also, why are they not planning on adding any more fleet holdings? I understand the idea behind not increasing the level cap past 65 or gear cap past XV (as it just gives the impression of a meaningless sort of "progression"), but adding new fleet holdings every few seasons has been a core part of the game expansions since the game launched.

Most likely because of how draining the fleet colony holding is. It's like trying to raise a second starbase. And that itself is a heavy task to work on for smaller fleets. Rolling out another one of the same magnitude would be even more daunting, when those smaller fleets are still working on holdings.

trennan · September 2019

tevarion wrote: »

Other than posting this topic in the general discussion forum, how else might we notify Cryptic of this? It's not a bug, nor is it a "feature", it's just an issue that they should probably change if they want players spending large amounts of dil on the Colony fleet projects.

Also, why are they not planning on adding any more fleet holdings? I understand the idea behind not increasing the level cap past 65 or gear cap past XV (as it just gives the impression of a meaningless sort of "progression"), but adding new fleet holdings every few seasons has been a core part of the game expansions since the game launched.

Fleets have been a core part of the game since launch in 2010, just like guilds in other games. The Fleet system, i.e. the holdings themselves, didn't start appearing in game until just before LoR's release in 2013.

As for adding more. If you think on it, it's possible for them to add more. If they do add another, I'd probably look for it to appear in the Gamma Quad. Since that's the only spot that doesn't have one currently. I was, and still am, expecting one to appear there at some point.

xyquarze · September 2019

ichaerus1 wrote: »

Most likely because of how draining the fleet colony holding is. It's like trying to raise a second starbase. And that itself is a heavy task to work on for smaller fleets. Rolling out another one of the same magnitude would be even more daunting, when those smaller fleets are still working on holdings.

Though it wouldn't have to be the same magnitude, it could be a three-tiered like all the others, or even a different size.

Since we're not completed with our colony just yet, we can wait though

sharmutashlikha · September 2019

tevarion wrote: »

Other than posting this topic in the general discussion forum, how else might we notify Cryptic of this?

You could try reddit, twitter, facebook, if you do these.

baddmoonrizin · September 2019

I'll let Kael know.

tevarion · September 2019

trennan wrote: »

Fleets have been a core part of the game since launch in 2010, just like guilds in other games. The Fleet system, i.e. the holdings themselves, didn't start appearing in game until just before LoR's release in 2013.

What I was getting at there was that some sort of fleet progression was always central to the game with each of the major expansions since it basically serves as "endgame" content (or at least endgame grind). The fleet holdings themselves might not have been present right from the start but they quickly became a core part of the game's development to a point that it's hard to imagine the game being meaningfully developed without adding at least a minor fleet holding every 2 years or so. If they're no longer developing the fleet holdings in some way then the game is sort of going into maintenance mode and the playerbase could drop off rather sharply if it looks like Cryptic isn't really putting in the effort to maintain the game.

trennan wrote: »

As for adding more. If you think on it, it's possible for them to add more. If they do add another, I'd probably look for it to appear in the Gamma Quad. Since that's the only spot that doesn't have one currently. I was, and still am, expecting one to appear there at some point.

I am sort of expecting something related to Discovery, given that it is the current Trek show on television, or even possibly something based on the Picard series when it is released, assuming they are going to add another holding at all. I don't see anything Gamma Quadrant related since VIL is already over and the push now seems to be cranking out as much Discovery stuff as they can.

tevarion · September 2019

somtaawkhar wrote: »

I also suspect a big problem is that there really just isn't any more logical fleet holdings to add. I mean we have
-A Starbase, in the Federation and Klingon styles, that serves as the hub of the fleet
-A New Romulus Embassy, which is our Romulan connection
-A Dilithium Mine, which is where the fleet get diltihum
-A Colony World, where the fleet is helping establish a new colony on a planet
-K13, which is another a starbase, but is more of our version of DS9, a starbase on the edge of explored space where the weird stuff is compared to the main starbase which is like our ESD.
-The Spire, which is where we study the tech of the Dyson Spheres
-The Fleet Research Lab, which is out Delta Quadrant allies connection
Besides doing a Gamma Quadrant fleet holding to give us a Dominion/Hur'q/Fek'Ihri tech(which is what I suspect the one they mentioned as being on the book is) there's really not much more for them to do with the fleet holding idea. anything else would just end up being redundant with something we already have.

Well I certainly don't expect another Starbase or Colony sized holding, to be honest I don't think the player numbers are high enough to support the grind for either of those sized holdings any longer which is why Cryptic is realizing they can't do that again. I do think they could keep adding at least another 2-3 smaller fleet holdings if they really wanted over the next few years. My favourite idea would be a Vanguard-type starbase as a Discovery era fleet holding, technically that would overlap with TOS era and since they already have the main Starbase plus K-13 it would be quite unlikely that we'd see yet another starbase added. They could possibly set up a "research lab" type of starbase linked to the mycelial network or something, sort of like what they did with the spire and the dyson sphere, but again that's not likely. Still I think they could come up with more ideas if they wanted to, technically the new holdings might be a lot of dev "work" to develop but it's really the only "endgame" content we get from them. From what I've read the dil/zen/dollar sinks generated by the new holdilngs more than pay for the dev work since players are essentially dumping massive amounts of resources into the new holdings, which effectively generates revenue for Cryptic. I remember there being an issue of why the Colony holding was so large was in part because they hoped (or even expected) players to dump massive amounts of dil into the grind and sort of took it for granted that the playerbase could support it. I think it was an economic decision as much as anything else, i.e., they didn't get the player grind metrics they expected out of the Colony holding so somehow don't view them as "profitable" to develop as they used to be.

tevarion · September 2019

sharmutashlikha#2072 wrote: »

You could try reddit, twitter, facebook, if you do these.

I intentionally avoid all of those things, so I will leave that to someone who can actually tolerate social media.

baddmoonrizin · September 2019

Request sent. We'll see what happens.

tevarion · September 2019

baddmoonrizin wrote: »

Request sent. We'll see what happens.

Thanks! I've been wanting to add a bar to my colony for a while now so hopefully Cryptic will consider making the special projects available again.

sharmutashlikha · September 2019

baddmoonrizin wrote: »

Request sent. We'll see what happens.

Thanks, BMR, much appreciated

ichaerus1 · October 2019

Can always try to expand on the current tri-tier fleet holdings. Add additional projects, more decorations to exterior or interior. Something to show moving forward as the timeline progresses.

It's been almost a month since making the request. Has anyone heard anything regarding this, even on a stream? It's pushing around 2 years since the projects were introduced in live. I don't recall it taking that long for the K-13 decorations to be reopened, but I could be wrong.

peterconnorfirst · October 2019

somtaawkhar wrote: »

http://priorityonepodcast.com/po401/
Around 46:30

"I will put a caveat on the fact that fleet holdings are one of our most expensive in terms of dev man hours.
...
The colony has done some good things for us, its taught us some lessons, I think it's even less likely that if we ever do another holding that it will ever be the size of the colony. So some of your players out there might be cheering over that statement."

Music to my ears. Other than that I'm speechless.

It really makes me happy that so many developer hours have been wasted to this total nonsense of a release.

What a great example of how much trouble could have been saved dev- as well as player sided with some minor communication in advance. Some sort of community manager would be helpful here too.

And yea lol no! “Players wanted to have a colony for years” is not cutting it as nobody asked for a holding that costs more than all the rest of the holdings in sum.

Cryptic at its finest. Big applause. Hope their metrics on gamewide colony progression of fleets has the shape of one big middle finger two years later.

peterconnorfirst · October 2019

somtaawkhar wrote: »

peterconnorfirst wrote: »

And yea lol no! “Players wanted to have a colony for years” is not cutting it as nobody asked for a holding that costs more than all the rest of the holdings in sum.

Well
A. The colony doesn't cost more them the other combined
B. The colony got finished by many fleets ages ago
The only ones really having trouble with it are the fleet who intentionally go against the purpose of fleets/guilds in MMOs, and try to do everything with just like 5-10 people.

If that would be the case cryptic would not have had any lesson to learn: A playerbase that can’t handle anything else but content that completes on its own certainly can’t handle guild contributions. So no need anymore to develope respective stuff. It's "dated".

No idea what you’re at with your 5-10 player thingy. In all 4 fleets I’m in we maxed out the colony with no more than that many players actively contributing.

peterconnorfirst · October 2019

somtaawkhar wrote: »

Incorrect. Even if everyone completed the Colony World they could still learn from how long it took them depending on if they got it done faster, or slower, then they originally predicted it would take players. You can learn lessons from anything, froman epic failure to a massive success.

It’s really funny how obviously they bet on the wrong horse with the colony and even admit it in their blog/stream.

When the outcome is “it’s unlikely we do anything like it ever again” any quest for what else they could have learned here besides players not going for the content is only wishful thinking in the realm of making them look more clever than they are. So of no use.

Whatever, I’m glad I don’t care that much for as long as the outcome is we get no more holdings as *BAAAD* as the colony.

peterconnorfirst · October 2019

somtaawkhar wrote: »

Now, stop trying to derail the thread with your nonsense. This is about the colony special projects not being available.

I'm not, I'm trying to explain to you and the OP that we are not getting those projects because the content is "dated" and cryptic stoped to care because it was so un-successfull to begin with.

Not that we get anywhere anytime soon when you keep on deleting your own post.

jennycolvin · October 2019

Going back to the OP's post: @baddmoonrizin, any news about this, by any chance?
And maybe, in regards with the other holdings, too? There's always some fleet that missed those, after all.

forcefield10 · May 2020

Has there been any word on this? I'm almost done my colony and want to do these projects.

rattler2 · May 2020

Far as I know... there aren't any?
Also... NECROMANCY!
@darkbladejk

darkbladejk · May 2020

they usually rerun stuff every so often so they will cycle around again eventually. for now, back to the netherworld with ye necromancy

Colony World Special Projects Unavailable

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