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No more featured episode runs?

wraithshadow13wraithshadow13 Member Posts: 1,728 Arc User
In the last livestream, at about 24:50, Kael mentions that they might not be doing these anymore since they'd likely be just selling the rewards in mudds store.

Does this mean they will just add the missions to the regular list WITHOUT the special rewards?

I know they said they were adjusting the delta recruits for missions that are no longer in game but missions like the 2800 series were fun and would be nice to go through with a Dominion character.

Admittedly, i'm not a fan of the store prices, let alone the mudd store, so i would rather play the fun missions for rewards i've already been earning, so i'm biased against this move but will we finally get those missions added to the regular missions list or are they just gone now?


Thoughts, comments, suggestions? What do you guys think of this possible but not 100% change?
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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Comments

  • ltminnsltminns Member Posts: 12,569 Arc User
    Those four special rewards are sold in Mudd's Market in the 'It's About Time' Bundle. Rather than just putting those special rewards back in the Episodes permanently (they are unique so a Character couldn't have more than one anyway) they decided to just sell them. Since the Discovery Episode Arcs appeared they haven't put any Sets into new Episodes requiring you to run the Episode multiple times to complete the Set.

    They found that people hated running an Episode three or four times to get all the gear. People preferred to run an Event 14 times to get one piece of equipment unlocked forthe Account. They also made rewards in the new Episodes lackluster at best.

    'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
    Judge Dan Haywood
    'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
    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.'
    Lt. Philip J. Minns
  • westx211westx211 Member Posts: 42,205 Arc User
    > @ltminns said:
    > Those four special rewards are sold in Mudd's Market in the 'It's About Time' Bundle. Rather than just putting those special rewards back in the Episodes permanently (they are unique so a Character couldn't have more than one anyway) they decided to just sell them. Since the Discovery Episode Arcs appeared they haven't put any Sets into new Episodes requiring you to run the Episode multiple times to complete the Set.
    >
    > They found that people hated running an Episode three or four times to get all the gear. People preferred to run an Event 14 times to get one piece of equipment unlocked forthe Account. They also made rewards in the new Episodes lackluster at best.

    My main issue with running an episode multiple times to get each part of a set is how tedious it pretty much always is. I use the tzenkethi set for a theme and that was a pain in the TRIBBLE to get. With the events(I hate them too) I usually have the option of a TFO, and usually a tfo that I can afk so that it's not as painful.

    And yeah, newer episode rewards have been awful lately.
    Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    edited April 2021
    Was Kael talking about not making featured episodes at all anymore or just not rerunning them after the particular event they are featured in expires?

    Sometimes those episodes are a lot better than the TFO's they are paired with in some of the events. I quickly got bored with Synthwave for example and did the featured episode instead of it the first time it was in an event, though this time I mostly do the rocket thing because while the ground patrol is ok in a bland sort of way the rocket rewards are better (besides it is a sort of tradition).
  • warmonger360warmonger360 Member Posts: 524 Arc User
    so, if there're no more eps, what's the point in playing? no more story avancement?
    WE SURVIVE!

    aut vincere aut mori pro imperio
    either to conquer or to die for the Empire
  • hyperionx09hyperionx09 Member Posts: 1,709 Arc User
    so, if there're no more eps, what's the point in playing? no more story avancement?

    Just means less time spent on side-content and more time put on major story arc and mini-events. Esp. now with plenty of stuff to pick and choose from between Picard, Discovery, Lower Decks, the eventual Strange New Worlds, eventual Disco-era Section 31 side series, and the ever in development hell Kelvin Movie 4.

    Doubly so since they stopped coming up with major original stories; the last being more Terran Empire/Mirror arcs featuring Terran Leeta.
  • hyperionx09hyperionx09 Member Posts: 1,709 Arc User
    So, am I to understand the new idea is to not bother playing the game, just buy the rewards? What fun is that?

    I mean, I can't say I'm surprised, that's been the direction of the game (and others like it) for some years now.

    Cryptic has to keep up with the times somehow. I'd say they're being quite generous allowing a scaling pay-to-skip feature that discounts the cost proportional to the number of times the event is ran, accommodating both player burnout and other player priorities. Not many other MMOs have that option yet, still relying on hardcore FOMO to keep players in the game at the risk of burnout.

    That being said, the main game consists of the episode arcs and associated grinding, while event content is just that; event content that can be recycled and slightly updated.
  • warmonger360warmonger360 Member Posts: 524 Arc User
    well, leave it to cryptic to make mistakes, cuz there's really very little to do now, other than grind, something we all enjoy so very much
    WE SURVIVE!

    aut vincere aut mori pro imperio
    either to conquer or to die for the Empire
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,501 Arc User
    well, leave it to cryptic to make mistakes, cuz there's really very little to do now, other than grind, something we all enjoy so very much

    No MMO creates story episodes faster than players can consume them, not even WoW and Final Fantasy which charge both a monthly fee and for the content expansion packs.

    So yes, if you play a MMO daily then all there is to do is repeat content.

    The point is supposed to be to have fun, so if you're no longer having fun then you should play something else for awhile while you wait for new content to be created or just to want to play again.

    I've been away from Fallout 76 for weeks now. I'll come back once the next bit of content is ready next week. I'll play for awhile then stop again. Repeat.
  • foppotee#4552 foppotee Member Posts: 1,704 Arc User
    Well if something an be monetized Cryptic will more than likely gravitate towards that & Cryptic doesn't released as many storyline episodes as they used to so there's that too. There's a couple of people at Cryptic that have a near fetish with the fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) tactic & having "Featured Episodes" offering older content rewards bypassed any potential monetization of those rewards. Cryptic is pretty decent in offering tidbit free goodies here & there nowadays. If it's a main reward earnable with any sort of initial run then it's almost 100% Cryptic will monetize it later for any that missed out.
  • foppotee#4552 foppotee Member Posts: 1,704 Arc User
    & Cryptic doesn't released as many storyline episodes as they used to so there's that too.
    Except this is demonstrably untrue. In fact, we have gotten more story missions on average since ViL dropped then we got between LoR and DR, and between AoY and ViL.

    the only period of time since LoR that Cryptic put out more story mission on average was the Iconian War, which Cryptic even said back then wouldn't be normal.

    Please cite your numbers & resources, somtaawkhar. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, but it doesn't feel like as many storyline episodes are being released as it used to be. Then again that should be quantified within a stated context. Also, is that a new cool icon pic?
  • foppotee#4552 foppotee Member Posts: 1,704 Arc User
    Please cite your numbers & resources, somtaawkhar. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, but it doesn't feel like as many storyline episodes are being released as it used to be. Then again that should be quantified within a stated context. Also, is that a new cool icon pic?
    • Between Nov 2013, when the first major post LoR patch dropped, and the release of DR in Oct 2014, we got 3 new story missions in 12 months. An average of 1 every 4 months
    • Between Oct 2016, when the first major post AoY patch dropped, and the release of ViL in Jun 2018, we got 9 new story missions in 21 months. An average of one every 2.33 months
    • Since Oct 2018, when the first major post ViL patch dropped, and now(April 2021), we have gotten 14 new story missions in a period of 31 months. An average of 1 every 2.21 months.
    • If we count the fact that Cryptic previously said that the last part of YoK, and the finale of the Klingon Civil War arc, will come out next month, that another episode or 2 so a total of 15/16 missions in 32 months. Or an average of 1 every 2.13, or one every 2 months.
    For between expansion times, the post ViL era has had faster mission output then the between LoR and DR time, and the between AoY and ViL time.

    Only the between DR and AoY time had a faster mission output, becuase they were doing the Iconian War and putting out a new mission like every month for that.

    First, much appreciate the data to look at. Second, got a couple of real-life things to do so sorry if it takes me a few days to respond in agreement or disagreement lol but again thanks, somtaakhar.
  • wraithshadow13wraithshadow13 Member Posts: 1,728 Arc User
    Who would be the contacts for the 2800 series? My TOS recruit still needs those for their goals but i've been checking in game, the wiki, the episode lists, etc but nothing said they were still playable with the only obvious exception being the rerun event.

    Personally, i GET that cryptic wants money more than anything else but considering other factors like how broken the game is (something that was on full display during the KDF recruit play through), the cost vs value, things being account wide unlocks or character only, etc, i really can't justify BUYING things that 80% of my characters got by just playing the game. More so, on a personal note, i really can't see how cryptic can charge so much for everything in the store. It just seems too expensive for what you're getting out of it. I really think they would sell more if they did a permanent price drop across all their games. A great example is that Champions Online STILL charges the same for their store items as Cryptic does.


    I think i would rather play the missions to get the items free than spend way too much for a single item unlock on a single character that can be easily lost the next time the game bugs and deletes items from my ship or inventory. I agree that certain unlocks were way too grindy, when multiple unique unlocks were all tied into a single mission (that IS incredibly lazy from a dev standpoint) but it beats being overcharged for something that was free before the mudd store joke was a thing.


    I'll be curious to see where the TOS recruit is altered when IT gets it's rerun, but overall, this was a decision that i didn't really care for.
  • wraithshadow13wraithshadow13 Member Posts: 1,728 Arc User
    Weirdly for me, there WASN'T any listings for the 2800 series specifically. It's the last 4 missions i need for the AOY character. I've been through the lists and didn't see ANYTHING for it, which has been a bit frustrating, though the other series were listed out by episodes. With you guys insisting that they were there, i finally found a single instance for it, and grabbed the mission there, to start the series. It was under Admiral Quinn as Lost Dominion, which is duh... something i should have seen sooner. It just strikes me as weird that they're not listed by episodes like the other three series were.

    As for the Champions vs Cryptic pricing, YES, they're the same company but the games are two completely separate levels of quality and development. Personally, i think BOTH games are way over priced, Champions has been hurting for a long while, making those prices all the less reasonable. Given the considerable difference between them, Lowering the prices for Champions would raise sales, rather than just make it look overpriced and undervalued. Charging the same price for a fresh meal versus one that was made several days ago and has a bite or two out of it, really doesn't make sense. That part is more of a personal gripe, however.


    Regardless, thank you guys for the headsup to keep looking in the Available tab. I'd been through there several times, but mostly using the Episodes tab, since the recruit unlocks are usually by episodes. I just had to read through more of the missions, rather than looking for the specific mission titles and series.
  • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,950 Arc User
    Weirdly for me, there WASN'T any listings for the 2800 series specifically.
    What Som told you was correct. For another answer about unlocking the 2800 series episodes and others in the available tab have a look at the last answer in this thread -

    https://arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/comment/13640963
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