Ok Hi there everyone, especially STO staff and developers;

First thing I have to say is so far Season 3 is awesome! . . . . . . . . but chasing after these special random drop bound particles is frustrating.

I have made it to Vice Admiral, I am also a co-leader of a fleet, I have unlocked everything in the new crafting station, so that I can provide our fleet members with cool stuff. . . But even though it may have been a great idea for the developers to find a use for the level 1 particles (you have to use lvl. 1 particles to make schematics and you need schematics to make items) I really honestly think it needs to be reworked. . .

But I spent 4 to 5 hours last night farming in the Delta Volanis Cluster farming level 1 particles so I can make those schematics, and hope I can find those bound particles, all to find only 7 Dog Gone bound particles. . . And not enough of each to craft 1 single purple item. . . 4-5 hours is all my playtime for a night. . . Less most of the time.

I now think that the random drop bound particles (that we players can't give to any of our fleet members who are crafters or send any to our alternate characters who are crafters must be STO's way of controlling how much we can craft. WHY?

Why do I have to waste 4-5 hours of my time to do crafting that is suppose to be fun, and that is just to get the level 1 particles and try to get the special bound particles. . . Hey Developer peoples, NOT FUN!

If crafting is available to both races or sides now, why do we have a need to control how much we can make? I don't get it? So even though I couldn't create anything very special (Purple) I had a great idea. . .

Here is my great idea; I would take the quest to explore Delta Volanis Cluster so I would be earning level 1 explorer points while I farmed for level 1 particles. . . Then I would trade in those level 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 explorer points in for green items that you can get at the Federation Ship Yard to put in the Fleet Bank for our lower members to use. . . . . But guess what I found out?

And perhaps didn't notice before? After turning in hundreds of explorer points of different levels, I took the items to put them in the fleet bank only to find that they were all bound to ME!!!!! NOOOOOOOO! What in the world is STO thinking? Are they afraid (sarcasm) we will turn in our explorer points and get those ALL POWERFUL GREEN items and make our Fleet members too powerful? Why can't we decide who should get those items. You let us earn the level 1 explorer points at Vice Admiral by letting us do the missions, what in the world am I suppose to do with bound level 2 items I am a Vice Admiral???? Now that I wasted all those explorer points?

It doesn't make sense to me to let us do missions, and get items, that we would not ever use, and then make them bind to us on pick up. . . WHY? It just seems dumb to me. . .

At this rate I will have enough bound particles to make all purple items for my ship in about a week, but I have 4 ships. . . So that is 4 weeks of farming not doing anything else fun, but farming particles. . . Oh and then there are my Fleet members who want me to outfit their ships with really good items, so there is about 12 people in our Fleet and I am the only crafter so far, and how many months of farming will outfiting their ships add up to? . . .

I thought you were introducing a profession system and that is crafting ship weapons and parts, but at this rate . . . I will never get my Fleet Mates set up to fight Borg. . . And YES we know there are other ways to get good weapons, but if your introducing a profession, then why cripple it? Why make it so incredibly hard, that it is more of a responsibility than a fun game to play? If your not making a profession system, then what the heck is crafting for? . . . Please enlighten us. . . Please!

Thanks for all of your patience and time to read my frustrating tale and the questions. . .
Sincerely Tigermorph

The rare particle traces - or rare trace particles (I never can remember which way it works) - are no longer bound.

Just a quick note... Farming is supposed to take time and if others want you to make them stuff then get them ti farm also.

Exactly. Plus you're not really just stupposed to farm all at one time. The real goal is to farm as your leveling. Every mission you enter has 2-8 anomolies in it. Get them as you're going along doing the mission. Then it doesn't seem like farming at all. It simply seems like part of the mission. If all your Fleetmates do that the crafter will have tons of anamolies to make things with.

If they want items, let them provide components. It is enough that the crafter spent the time to build up the skill, and can make Captain/Admiral level items for fleet mates, you shouldn't be expected to provide all the raw materials too. As others have pointed out, the rare traces are no longer bound, including ones collected prior to season 3. When the rare particles were put in game, it was said that they wanted to incorporate them into crafting, so people should have been saving them.

I just wish the distribution of rare particles was higher, or at least more even among all the particles. Between all my characters that I had collecting, all of them had high amounts of the same traces, and low amounts of the same ones. Granted 3 characters is a small sample set, but it is an interesting trend that prices on the Exchange seem to mirror.

so you complaining that something that is supposed to take time takes time? -head explodes-

I agree with you about letting the fleet mates provide their own components, especially now that the rare particle traces are not bound. . . And I wanted to tell you that my fleet mates do not expect me to come up with all the particles, but I was hoping I could do it as a gift for them. . . So my fault there for thinking I could keep up with that sort of demand. . . Ha ha.

I also totally agree with the distribution of the rare particles. . . But it would seem that "Cosmic_One" and "Vario" have had a lot better hunting than we have. Perhaps you should check out where they are farming the rares as I for sure am.

Hey buddy thanks for your helpful and useful reply!
Tigermorph

Cosmic, I have already leveled in rank as high as I can go, I believe and I have farmed each and every mission while reaching Vice Admiral. But now that I have reached it, I desire to be of great use to my fleet mates. I am sure you can understand this.

Unfortunately many of my fleet mates are really into daily missions and PVP, which does not leave us as a fleet with a crafter who can make any level component for any character or alt char that they have. So I took on that roll myself trying to be of use, and because in the many games I have played and beta tested I love making things of great value and giving them to my friends and fleet-mates.

As a beta tester of many MMO type games I have seen many bugs, broken areas and also miss-adjusted crafting systems. I in this forum am simply trying to point out that the time required to find these rare trace particles is not keeping up with the other ways of gaining similar objects. . .

I have no intent on complaining so I am sorry if it sounded that way to you. I meant no offense.
But it does seem to me that STO is beginning some kind of professions system. . . So I was simply trying to explain how they could improve. . . I would not enjoy crafting as much if I can't at the end of one night be able to make at least one thing for someone. . .

That is just my opinion, but it doesn't seem very balanced to me. That is I guess what all this boils down to.
So thank you for your opinion and your words of insight.

Thanks again for your reply
tigermorph

I don't know if they're turned up. Or maybe I"m just lucky. I now have 5 hours in and the numbers seem very consistent with the above, though.

I really appreciate you all, and all your thoughts and opinions. . . And I thank you each and every one of you for being such a caring community of STO players. . . I don't feel so frustrated now and I will keep crafting and enjoying the excitement of the hunt for those rares.

Your a great bunch.

Hey and while I am on the subject, well not really exactly on the same subject. . .
I think that if they offer low level Nebula Exploration missions, that the stuff you can turn in the Level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 exploration point items at the Ship Yard should NOT be bound to our high lvl Vice Admirals, but at the very least we should be able to give those green items to our other chars. . . Since they are ALL green now.

What do you folks think? Should VAs or LA, UA chars have to spend low level exploration points for green items that bind to us on pickup, instead of being able to give to our alt chars or even our fleet mates who are just getting into the game?

I would appreciate your thoughts. . . And thanks ahead of time.
Tigermorph