No Hearts and Minds on Halloween?

despotofcartoons · October 2021

Well, it looks like this Halloween will be the first without Hearts and Minds for as long as I can remember. Yeah, I guess I'm complaining, deal with it. It was a fun little mission, and while I know (hope?) it'll still be on Friday the 13th, the next one will be in May, and I hate waiting.

Call me sentimental, but I just hate to see traditions get tossed away. Don't get me wrong, I do honestly like the new TFO. I just wish we'd gotten a little warning that it was going to replace Hearts and Minds is all, at least in a more explicit way. I mean, is it really that much of an effort to "flip the switch" for a day or two to activate it?

fleetcaptain5 · October 2021

Maybe they just didn't activate it this time because there's new content that they want people to be playing. Boosting the metrics and stuff.

At least I hope that's the case. Cause I agree with the OP. There's no good reason to not make content available anymore in the future.

I rarely played H&M because I don't really care for Halloween stuff - also because I don't live in the US. That's why I also didn't play the new Halloween mission. But both missions should remain available to those who do want to play it.

smi3th · October 2021

Yeah... Hearts and Minds does grant a unique reward that can't be gained anywhere else, and I was getting ready to run some characters through it that hadn't got that reward yet.

noremon · November 2021

Yep, this was my first time to be able to do it and I waited for Hallowe'en to do so. And am really disappointed it isn't up. I'm a new player but I have heard of it for years since it was a unique tied to a date mechanic.

aesica · November 2021

Wouldn't at all surprise me if it got shelved for "not living up to their current design standards" or whatever, but it's a lame reason really. Logged on today to run my newer recruit characters through it, but since it's not there, guess I'll just log back off and play something else.

rattler2 · November 2021

Probably will still turn up on Friday the 13th. But I can see it being replaced by the new event for Halloween.

crypticarmsman · November 2021

sirsitsalot wrote: »

Why couldn't they do BOTH? What is it? "If we ran both, then players would be able to get two rewards rather than just one, and we can't have that."

Whoopty-freaking doo!

It's a mission. It works. It's either on or off. Just turn the blasted thing on and let players do what they come to do in games:

HAVE FREAKING FUN!!!!!

Because that would require someone to be in the office on a Sunday to 'flip the switch' (IE It may be something they can't do remotely from Home

)

crypticarmsman · November 2021

westmetals wrote: »

crypticarmsman wrote: »

sirsitsalot wrote: »

Why couldn't they do BOTH? What is it? "If we ran both, then players would be able to get two rewards rather than just one, and we can't have that."

Whoopty-freaking doo!

It's a mission. It works. It's either on or off. Just turn the blasted thing on and let players do what they come to do in games:

HAVE FREAKING FUN!!!!!

Because that would require someone to be in the office on a Sunday to 'flip the switch' (IE It may be something they can't do remotely from Home )

It wouldn't. Events can be activated or deactivated by timer.

You assume all events in this game are coded that way, but that may not be the case. Hell they don't even have a unified UI for beaming into and out of game maps. Spaghetti Code is Spaghetti Code.

nye · November 2021

I heard it was retired unless we want it. Don't know about you guys but while I like the new Halloween event, Hearts and Minds should still be activated on Friday the 13th! Don't kill an event because a few don't like it! I for one like the extra doff!Come on ambassadorkael Don't let us down!!!

claudiusdk · November 2021

I was waiting for the mission to pop up to get the unique rewards on a newer character.

azyurion · November 2021

sirsitsalot wrote: »

Why couldn't they do BOTH?

My guess is that the answer is two-fold. First, server space and cycles cost money. Second, metrics : Participation rates for the long running "Hearts & Minds" has been declining with its frequent availability and we all know they like to pump participation rates for new content. There may have also been a technical reason they didn't want to bundle the H&M module with the "Return of the Old Ones" module in the seasonal patch.

crypticarmsman · November 2021

sirsitsalot wrote: »

nye#8522 wrote: »

I heard it was retired unless we want it. Don't know about you guys but while I like the new Halloween event, Hearts and Minds should still be activated on Friday the 13th! Don't kill an event because a few don't like it! I for one like the extra doff!Come on ambassadorkael Don't let us down!!!

I say don't kill an event PERIOD. It costs them nothing to leave it available during the appropriate timeframes. If nobody accesses it, then an instance for it isn't loaded. And if it is a matter of server storage space, then if a single event and its related files are eating up too much storage space, then Cryptic has bigger problems that a little extra money from PWE will solve.

As to the comment about them just not being able to be in the office on Sunday to turn it on... They managed to turn on the new event... And if they vannot manage event scheduling remotely, then that is another problem that a little money from PWE will solve, as in allocating the man hours it would need to make sure that ALL event scheduling can be handled remotely. That should have been a contingency that was planned for to begin with.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Only they can't afford the pound of cure, because they don't have the funds to spend on the ounce of prevention.

I hope that at some point, the contract between CBS Cryptic ends. Not pu punish Cryptic, but to get the rights to a Star Trek MMO into the hands of a developer whose financial source gives an actual damn about striving for the greatest possible potential in their games. Because Star Trek deserves way better than the mediocre mess that STO has become since PWE took over. I mean, for crying out loud, Cryptic delivered their best work when they were on their own, with even fewer team members than they have now. That was back when they had the freedom to explore ideas they had without having to worry about the bosses breathing down their necks. We got featured episodes and the Foundry during that timeframe. Now, featured episodes don't get made, and they killed the Foundry... And in spite of Cryptic being bought by a company with real money to throw around, More features and functionality have been REMOVED from the game than have been added. Oh... but the lock boxes flow freely and regularly, don't they...

If this is really all Cryptic's fault, then shame on PWE for not giving enough of a damn to issue directives to turn it around. If it is PWE's fault, then shame on PWE for not giving enough of a damn to turn it around.

Just calling it like I see it. as an old boss of mine was fond of saying "Perception is reality."

That goes against the philosophy of STO Lead Designer Al Rivera who HAS stated more than once he believes there's TOO MUCH playable content in STO.
^^^
And no, I'm not making that up.

phoenixc · November 2021

They could easily do both for Halloween, especially since Cat's Tale is a TFO and Hearts & Minds is a mission. Maybe next year they will do both, I can see how they might not want to dilute the statistics for the TFO in its debut year with a mission that takes less time and hassle to complete than the long TFO does.

Edit: It looks like they did kill Hearts & Minds but are willing to bring it back if enough interest is shown in it. Since it has the unique blue doff Dr. Sybok who (besides being a rare quality doff which has value itself) is a mainstay ground support doff for psionic powered characters I would think the interest is obvious.

rattler2 · November 2021

Ok guys... can we not go down the road of attack X or Y because Z?

rattler2 · November 2021

I appreciate that. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but lets not get into debates over them and beat them to death and beyond. Tends to get ugly and lead to problems where mods have to step in.

No Hearts and Minds on Halloween?

Comments