Is STO becoming too easy? Do "casual players" keep STO in business? Is everyone a "Jedi"? (sorry, I mean Captain Kirk, Picard, Sisko, etc.)

I don't like to rush to judgment, but this sounds a little like the mistake that killed Star Wars Galaxies.

Too easy is boring.

There are some 'interesting' paralells.

Star Wars Galaxies: Players who wished to play a Jedi character had to first unlock their Jedi slot by fulfilling an unknown list of criteria. The first player to unlock a 'Jedi slot' did so on November 7, 2003, four months after the release of the game. Players criticized Sonly Online Entertainment for the substantial time commitment to unlock a Jedi.

Said changes were later admitted to be “stupid decisions”.

Now, with STO we have a very similar scenario forthcoming - a slight reword of the above:

STO: Players who wished to obtain the Omega gear had to first unlock their equipment by fulfilling an unknown list of criteria that took several months. Players criticized PWE for the substantial time commitment to unlock this equipment.

And this is WITHOUT factoring in the dilithium cost!

Sad really - doesn't seem as if the mistakes that failed one MMO are anything that STO's dev's are willing to learn from.

To OP: Get serious.
Something will cost dil is not a case of something REDUCED.

They mean on Average. For example I got both Mk XII sets in less than 50 runs in each STF, while i have 3 more shield protypes in bank.

But there are people who did hundreds of runs and did not get it.

Im in two different fleets each around 500 players.

I have not heard of anyone on flleet chat or voice chat complain about the lack of drops.

Everyone knows that you need to do them until you get what you want.

What i do see is a few people in the forums asking for "guarantee of access to benefits."

Its called Entitlement its the new buzz and now its part of the STO Game Mechanics.

My view is people dont want to learn ground thats harder than space or/and dont want to do the missions until they get what they want.

It may be a part of the game mechanics, but is called either gambling or grinding. Or both.

i got the maco mk xii shields and deflector in the first 2 weeks of playing elite stf's , the engines on the other hand took me over 4 months . started to do the elite ground and got the maco mk xii armor within a week , still wanting the rest and will have to grind for 60 days or what ever it is for them in the new system

You want it so people can eventually get the item guaranteed?

I'll fix it for you! At 100 runs accolade for infected you get 1 elite shield requisition along with the accolade. FIX'd!

But nooo, that's not the real reason for the reputation system.. even though they keep saying it is.

Except if you did the 100% of old ESTF runs you got TONS of weapons and TONS of dilithium on the way.

In the new 60% you get nothing on the way. In fact you have to pay on the way.

So what is better?

100% with SET+weapons+dil

or

60% with SET+(-dil)

Heh, I don't run elites on my ENG toon anymore because the toon can't be made viable for PvP play so I don't need the gear. My TAC toon's gear is still too soft for elites so I was planning on buying a special reserve set with EDC's but the new system will take those away from me till I pony up 400K dilithium and grind 60-90 days to get my rewards back.

...And some think this is a great, new system ? I'm already laughing at the ghost towns called 'STF ques' coming in a couple weeks.