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Updates to Patrol Rewards

ambassadorkael#6946 ambassadorkael Member, Administrator Posts: 2,674 Community Manager
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

  • doctorstegidoctorstegi Member Posts: 1,181 Arc User
    Good stuff =)
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  • gaevsmangaevsman Member Posts: 3,190 Arc User
    I like patrols, i really do, but i need more.. five is too low.. some missions are anoying!.. i'm looking at you, metreon gas!, but overall, they are good an fun.. not so practical for the event, but good!.. btw.. any chance for bonus event progress???, pretty please??
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  • sunfranckssunfrancks Member Posts: 3,925 Arc User
    Until the daily Mark package is re-added back to the Delta patrols, they will stay obsolete along with the new Discovery patrols after the event ends.
    Just some more content resigned to the dustbin, along with Red Alerts.
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  • foppotee#4552 foppotee Member Posts: 1,704 Arc User
    For the most part I think this post is very positive. For myself the 15 marks rewarded had be avoiding the patrols after I once completed each one. Now if/when this is active I'll probably go back & make it at least a daily competition of my activities.

    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.
    gaevsman wrote: »
    I like patrols, i really do, but i need more.. five is too low.. some missions are anoying!.. i'm looking at you, metreon gas!, but overall, they are good an fun.. not so practical for the event, but good!.. btw.. any chance for bonus event progress???, pretty please??

    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.

  • ddesjardinsddesjardins Member Posts: 3,056 Media Corps
    Good changes!
  • sch3ff3lsch3ff3l Member Posts: 118 Bug Hunter
    edited September 2019
    are there any chances for the original patrol missions (the ones you need to find by flying around beta/alfa quadrants) to be added to the new system? because i think just on the old patrols there might be at least a dozen missions that mostly only old players like me know they are there...
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  • keir311291#0929 keir311291 Member Posts: 1 Arc User
    sch3ff3l wrote: »
    are there any chances for the original patrol missions (the ones you need to find by flying around beta/alfa quadrants) to be added to the new system? because i think just on the old patrols there might be at least a dozen missions that mostly only old players like me know they are there...

    i remember doing these when i first started the game MANY years ago. would love to see them come back
  • tigerariestigeraries Member Posts: 3,492 Arc User
    so nerfing ship xp for finishing patrols.
  • strangepork23strangepork23 Member Posts: 10 Arc User
    i thought delta patrols gave more xp bc i find them quite a bit harder and longer, compared to say romulan patrol. sad to see bonus reduced, bc time and difficulty seem to remain the same. they were special, now they are not.
  • ddesjardinsddesjardins Member Posts: 3,056 Media Corps
    tigeraries wrote: »
    so nerfing ship xp for finishing patrols.

    Reread. They increased ship mastery XP from 2x to 3x normal rewards.
  • razar2380razar2380 Member Posts: 1,185 Arc User
    "Adjusted Dilithium rewards to a more appropriate value for time spent playing"

    This isn't very clear. Was this another nerf just to nerf, or was it an increase to encourage players to do them?

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  • entnx01entnx01 Member Posts: 545 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    tigeraries wrote: »
    so nerfing ship xp for finishing patrols.
    * 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.

    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.

  • unclegoldieunclegoldie Member Posts: 263 Arc User
    razar2380 wrote: »
    "Adjusted Dilithium rewards to a more appropriate value for time spent playing"

    This isn't very clear. Was this another nerf just to nerf, or was it an increase to encourage players to do them?

    Razar.

    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.
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  • tigerariestigeraries Member Posts: 3,492 Arc User
    tigeraries wrote: »
    so nerfing ship xp for finishing patrols.

    Reread. They increased ship mastery XP from 2x to 3x normal rewards.

    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.
  • lordhavelocklordhavelock Member Posts: 2,248 Arc User
    It always makes me nervous when they say vague things like "adjusted" Dil/XP modifiers. Why not spell out and QUANTIFY EXACTLY what amounts you're talking about. Give specific examples so we know what you're talking about.

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  • blackjack#9978 blackjack Member Posts: 18 Arc User
    The Patrols are a good way to go through your toons for daily dill as they are quick and easy, they are also a good way to level up new toons. I just hope Cryptic doesnt mess that up. More patrols are coming and will be welcome.
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  • sheldonlcoopersheldonlcooper Member Posts: 4,042 Arc User
    tigeraries wrote: »
    tigeraries wrote: »
    so nerfing ship xp for finishing patrols.

    Reread. They increased ship mastery XP from 2x to 3x normal rewards.

    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.

    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.
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  • sthe91sthe91 Member Posts: 5,403 Arc User
    tigeraries wrote: »
    tigeraries wrote: »
    so nerfing ship xp for finishing patrols.

    Reread. They increased ship mastery XP from 2x to 3x normal rewards.

    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.

    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.

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  • tobywitczaktobywitczak Member Posts: 208 Arc User
    Ok this might sound a bit silly, But one thing I would like to see is the last time a toon played the event. I have 8 of them and I tired to make sure that each toon i have played the event at least once. Also Correct me if I am wrong, the first time you play you are give a bonus, but if you switch out the toon, then you dont receive the bonus for the other toon. If this boost was allowed it might make player want to start using their other toons as part of the events.
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,501 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    gaevsman wrote: »
    I like patrols, i really do, but i need more.. five is too low.. some missions are anoying!.. i'm looking at you, metreon gas!, but overall, they are good an fun.. not so practical for the event, but good!.. btw.. any chance for bonus event progress???, pretty please??

    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.
  • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,950 Arc User
    sthe91 wrote: »
    tigeraries wrote: »
    tigeraries wrote: »
    so nerfing ship xp for finishing patrols.

    Reread. They increased ship mastery XP from 2x to 3x normal rewards.

    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.

    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.

    No one is forcing you to do anything.
    That is not the point.

    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.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    It always makes me nervous when they say vague things like "adjusted" Dil/XP modifiers. Why not spell out and QUANTIFY EXACTLY what amounts you're talking about. Give specific examples so we know what you're talking about.

    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.
    Post edited by seaofsorrows on
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  • anodynesanodynes Member Posts: 1,999 Arc User
    It always makes me nervous when they say vague things like "adjusted" Dil/XP modifiers. Why not spell out and QUANTIFY EXACTLY what amounts you're talking about. Give specific examples so we know what you're talking about.

    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.
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  • thevampinatorthevampinator Member Posts: 637 Arc User
    sunfrancks wrote: »
    Until the daily Mark package is re-added back to the Delta patrols, they will stay obsolete along with the new Discovery patrols after the event ends.
    Just some more content resigned to the dustbin, along with Red Alerts.
    Cryptic has been pretty clear on this. Patrols are not meant to be a primary source of marks, that is what TFOs and Battlzones are for. The purpose of patrols is to give player's an easier path to leveling ship masteries, which they accomplish by offering far more mastery experience then TFOs or Battlzones.

    Patrols are no more obsolete by not rewarding the daily mark bonus box then TFOs and Battlezones are obsolete for not offering as much ship mastery EXP.
    sch3ff3l wrote: »
    are there any chances for the original patrol missions (the ones you need to find by flying around beta/alfa quadrants) to be added to the new system? because i think just on the old patrols there might be at least a dozen missions that mostly only old players like me know they are there...
    Cryptic has said they plan to add the Delta and Romulan patrols into this system, and that they would go back and look at the Fed patrols, and possibly add in some of the better ones. I suspect many of them will simply get axed due to how old and rather poor they are.

    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.
  • ulwyn#5070 ulwyn Member Posts: 2 Arc User
    tigeraries wrote: »
    so nerfing ship xp for finishing patrols.
    • 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.
  • ulwyn#5070 ulwyn Member Posts: 2 Arc User
    gaevsman wrote: »
    I like patrols, i really do, but i need more.. five is too low.. some missions are anoying!.. i'm looking at you, metreon gas!, but overall, they are good an fun.. not so practical for the event, but good!.. btw.. any chance for bonus event progress???, pretty please??

    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.

    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

  • sheldonlcoopersheldonlcooper Member Posts: 4,042 Arc User
    sthe91 wrote: »
    tigeraries wrote: »
    tigeraries wrote: »
    so nerfing ship xp for finishing patrols.

    Reread. They increased ship mastery XP from 2x to 3x normal rewards.

    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.

    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.

    No one is forcing you to do anything.

    Indeed, no one is forcing me to make purchases that will support the company. I wish they would encourage me to do so, however.
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  • tigerariestigeraries Member Posts: 3,492 Arc User
    ulwyn#5070 wrote: »
    tigeraries wrote: »
    so nerfing ship xp for finishing patrols.
    • 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 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.
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