Since the release of the new Patrol UI, and the inclusion of Patrol Missions in our current ongoing Mycelial Crisis Event, we've been very pleased to see the positive response we've seen regarding this content. This is step one in a plan to be able to expand this system in the future, continuing to bring more "bite-sized" content options to the forefront of players' gameplay experiences in STO. The fact that players are engaging with it, and giving us good feedback on it, helps reinforce those goals.
Now that the system is live, we've discovered a few inconsistencies and unfortunate errors in the process that we're taking pains to correct. Correcting them involves modifying the rewards received for engaging in this content. All of the following changes either have been made, or will soon go live, in an effort to get the overall experience of running Patrols into a consistent and rewarding state:
* Added Dilithium to Patrols in the new Patrol System that were missing it as a reward
* Adjusted Dilithium rewards to a more appropriate value for time spent playing
* Added a Daily Bonus for the first Patrol played each day, per character (2x Marks and Dilithium)
* Adjusted erroneously-high XP modifiers that were present in Delta Patrols. This will only reduce the "End of Mission" rewards, and has no effect on XP received from defeating enemies, nor any affect on Starship Mastery XP received.
* Increased the XP/MasteryXP modifier present on Patrol maps in the new Patrol System from 2x to 3x.
Some ups, some downs, and we're still evaluating exactly what role Patrol content is intended to fill in the game, now that the feature is in the hands of our players. Your continued feedback will help us continue to bring Patrols into a state we can be confident about, and everyone can enjoy.
Jeremy Randall
Lead Systems Designer
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Comments
Just some more content resigned to the dustbin, along with Red Alerts.
IMO the most positive part of the post is: " Some ups, some downs, and we're still evaluating exactly what role Patrol content is intended to fill in the game, now that the feature is in the hands of our players. Your continued feedback will help us continue to bring Patrols into a state we can be confident about, and everyone can enjoy." I hope they're really actively listening & considering & not just posting it to placate any dissension.
Cryptic had already stated they do intend to add more patrols. It sounded like even a few more were in the pipeline & being worked upon when that was stated so I hope it too.
spocked thumb face...
i remember doing these when i first started the game MANY years ago. would love to see them come back
Reread. They increased ship mastery XP from 2x to 3x normal rewards.
This isn't very clear. Was this another nerf just to nerf, or was it an increase to encourage players to do them?
Razar.
It looks like it's Specialization XP and Expertise you get from just completing the patrol that may be getting a bit of a cut.
I'd like more info on this as well. Currently, the older patrols will typically give 480 dilithium each. One of the reasons why I enjoy doing the New Romulus "Radiation Scan" daily patrols is because it consists of 5 systems giving a total of 2.4k dil. plus an additional 480 just for completing the mission. Of course, given that there's a "Dilithium Weekend" coming up, you could really rake in the ore during those.
dont need to, you need to learn to read between the lines and get the real meaning. they gave xp for when you finish... that is getting nerf'd. xp you get when you kill infinitely respawning mobs (thou on a fixed time limit) give next to nothing. getting 2x to 3x of next to nothing is still barely anything. /shrug
that 2x to 3x is still LESS than normal xp in a normal mission.
it was the mission bonus at the end that was making these worth while. it's garbage now. I dont need to spin doctoring, I get enough of that IRL.
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
Jane Geary - L65 - Trill Tactical
T'Laran - L65 - Romulan/Fed Engineer
BlackJack - L65 - Jem'Hadar Vanguard/Fed Engineer
Darkwitch - L65 - Human
Tihis - L65 - Romulan/Klingon Engineer
Kirengouk - L35 - Alien/Tactical
I really don't see why they had to mess with this. You still have to do a good handful of Argalas to level a ship. Why is that not enough?? What is the obsession with forcing people to waste time leveling ships? It strongly disincentivizes me from ever changing ships or even buying new traits.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
No one is forcing you to do anything.
Quality of Life Improvements for the Mission Journal
Enhancement for the Duty Office Assignments
Enhancement for Admiralty Missions
Enhancement for Accolades and Reward
Enhancement Bridge Officers
Yes, having only 5 for this event is made worse by needing to do ~75 of them within 30 days, though reduced if you repeat the story episode and TFO too.
That's a reasonable amount of grind to get a free ship + goodies, it would just be less grindy to me if we had another 5-10 days to finish or more patrols to choose from.
Nice to see them bump up the ship mastery rewards. Selling ships keeps the game running.
Will this now be the equivalent of the previous Argala 4/5? Wish I had of taken some notes with respect to the previous system.
Agreed completely.
Though the one thing you can be sure is that it's 'adjusted' down. If they increase rewards, they're always clear to say it's an increase.. 'adjusted' always means nerfed, the only question is how much.
Either way, doesn't matter to me.. after this grind fest of an event.. I won't touch these patrols unless I need them for an endeavor. There are other better rewarding uses of my limited time.
Except it wasn't adjusted down. Repeatable patrols used to award 480 dilithium on Normal, and now award 500 dilithium on Normal, not including the extra 500 for the first one of the day. It's not a big adjustment up, but it is an adjustment up. I'm all for a healthy amount of cynicism, but sometimes it gets taken too far.
As far as not touching them after the event goes, that would make them like almost every other patrol in the game. There were nearly 30 patrols introduced in Delta Rising, and people only really mention 2 or 3 of them, and most really only ever repeated Argala. Honestly, most aren't all that interesting storywise, pretty much by design, so unless they have some great utility or reward, they are destined to be forgotten soon after they are released.
I think they mentioned they wouldn't remove them but if they do a patrol or redo one they might replace it and I think they replaced some of the old federation patrols with the new discovery ones . Otherwise they will leave those they don't rework or add to the system in and that is what they said on that one livestream. I think its because the issue is of the content they have removed they haven't returned and people don't like content to be missing even if its stuff people don't do often. It is possible they might find some federation patrols that they would rework and make available. But they would rework/replace them to be a bit more complex and also make it a cross faction thing. So those patrols wouldn't just be federation patrols anymore. But be something every faction and player would be able to enjoy.
- First, it sounds like the nerf only affects Delta Patrols.
- Second, they state in the same bullet that the nerf will not affect Starship Mastery XP received.
* Adjusted erroneously-high XP modifiers that were present in Delta Patrols. This will only reduce the "End of Mission" rewards, and has no effect on XP received from defeating enemies, nor any affect on Starship Mastery XP received.I've been able to streamline the story episode quite a bit - takes me about the same amount of time as a patrol. Makes things MUCH simpler!
If you have a ship like the T6 Jem Vanguard Dreadnaught Cruiser from the Gamma Starter Pack, try running the event content using that on a new-ish toon. I did that and my wingmen plus the fighters simply MELT the space mobs. Then it's just a question of skipping all the cutscenes (including the travel from node to node) and fast "F"ing the conversations. All told, I get 3x the event credit of a patrol in almost the same amount of time. YMMV
Indeed, no one is forcing me to make purchases that will support the company. I wish they would encourage me to do so, however.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
I've been doing these patrols since I refused to do a story mission with junk rewards that or a que with zero elite marks. the end of mission rewards was the ONLY real rewards for doing 4 patrols back to back (3 of which is time gated). And the end of mission rewards gave ship mastery. THAT has been reduced, to say that ship mastery hasnt been touched? misleading at best.
if they want to give a more detailed info they could... that would end speculation. you know at level cap how much xp did a mob gave before and after... how much end of mission reward gave, before and after.
frankly they could just say that going forward that all mobs now give the same xp (and ship mastery) based on their rank/pips they are classified at.... even the infinitely respawning mobs in ques/patrols/store missions. they wont thou. they should make ship mastery based on owing the ship... this grind is a gimmick to make players fly a ship they dont like just to get a trait from their ship they BOUGHT with real money.