It's nice to see Cryptic respond to the stf community and compromise.
I do really wish that they had also taken the foundry feedback into consideration. Maybe they will once they are sure that their anti-exploit tech works.
Over an hour of playing the Foundry wrapper = 1440 dilithium
An hour of normal stfs = 1920
An hour of elite stfs = 3840
And that's not even counting all the additional goodies like OMs.
Please consider adjusting the wrapper rewards, if the fix prevents exploits. Some of us like stories better than waves of bad guys.
I have two questions for any Cryptic Devs that are still reading:
1) Think of your favorite episodes across all the shows and movies. Does STO actually represent them?
2) Have you played your own game recently, with the same constraints a non-Dev has to, and still found it fun to play?
Because as a fan of Star Trek, who came to STO for his prime universe Star Trek fix, these days I can't really answer yes to either question. In fact I feel like this entire blog (even after the updates) is a giant middle finger to all players, especially casuals and alcoholics.
Playing the game that offers rewards for everything allowing me to play the way I want to is fun. Being repeatedly funneled through a limited number of activities that the Devs tell me I need to play for my rewards is not fun. And if I'm not having fun I'm not going to be opening my wallet and pulling out my credit card. I love Star Trek, but I also like Star Wars, and lately I've been enjoying TOR a whole lot more than STO. With TOR's Cartel Market going live tomorrow guess where the $50 I was considering spending on the Vesta pack is going to be going?
Devs, you say making certain types of content isn't worthwhile because not enough people play it. Well here's a thought. We have a refining cap in place, why not attach dilitium to everything: STFs, story missions (and replays), PVP, the foundry, dailys, fleet actions, exploration clusters, events, everything. Without trying to funnel players through specific content, remove the ropes and let the players go where they want and have fun. Look at the numbers of what the people playing your game actually do when free of constraint and allocate your development resources based on that.
READ THE POST ABOVE STO TEAM and listen to it! Put dilithium rewards, and maybe even fleet marks on all YOUR content.... there is nothing to do in YOUR game, no reason to replay episodes... and hell no new episodes for what 1 year+? Your "content" is flawed. No one wants to grind some "instance" regardless of it's type 10 times a day to get his/hers dilithium then do another instance 10 times to get the marks.... It's boring! The content is boring as it's linear... How many times can you kill the same borg until you get bored out of your skull? Ah look NEW content... Tau Dewa daily... oh it's linear... how many times you can resolve the same Acamari dispute before you are bored?
Really, do you ppl even PLAY your own game?
Please mr. Stahl, record an usual day of you playing.... show us how you get all your dilithium, fleet/romulan/omega marks, energy credits to replicate all those other stuff needed and you still have the time to eat/sleep/work. Please PROVE to us we are wrong and your game is heading in the right direction....
I have two questions for any Cryptic Devs that are still reading:
1) Think of your favorite episodes across all the shows and movies. Does STO actually represent them?
2) Have you played your own game recently, with the same constraints a non-Dev has to, and still found it fun to play?
Because as a fan of Star Trek, who came to STO for his prime universe Star Trek fix, these days I can't really answer yes to either question. In fact I feel like this entire blog (even after the updates) is a giant middle finger to all players, especially casuals and alcoholics.
Playing the game that offers rewards for everything allowing me to play the way I want to is fun. Being repeatedly funneled through a limited number of activities that the Devs tell me I need to play for my rewards is not fun. And if I'm not having fun I'm not going to be opening my wallet and pulling out my credit card. I love Star Trek, but I also like Star Wars, and lately I've been enjoying TOR a whole lot more than STO. With TOR's Cartel Market going live tomorrow guess where the $50 I was considering spending on the Vesta pack is going to be going?
Devs, you say making certain types of content isn't worthwhile because not enough people play it. Well here's a thought. We have a refining cap in place, why not attach dilitium to everything: STFs, story missions (and replays), PVP, the foundry, dailys, fleet actions, exploration clusters, events, everything. Without trying to funnel players through specific content, remove the ropes and let the players go where they want and have fun. Look at the numbers of what the people playing your game actually do when free of constraint and allocate your development resources based on that.
QFT.
I don't see why I should be forced to play game modes I don't enjoy, simply because the developers have decided that they are the only modes that will give the rewards needed to progress all the new features. The players can only refine 8000 Dilithium a day anyway (10,000 for vets, but still), so why does it matter how we get it? If I want to replay some story missions, do some exploring, and maybe do a couple of First Contact missions, why should I be punished because my limited playtime wasn't taken up with STFs and Fleet Actions?
Vice Admiral Laurence Corrin - USS Trafalgar
Captain Takaram ch'Rihan - USS Khellian
Captain Korax joH'a' vo'poH - USS Hartnell
General Hothkar, Son of Ta'lon - IKS oDwI'
STF's brought fleets together to complete them we have not done runs together. There is no reason to otherwise we would be competing in fleet action. As a person who has spent lots of money on this game fix it now. I want to play with fleet mates and gt my rewards for doing so.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since Beta.
My fleet means something to me, it is a home. But because it has less than 25 members and I don't want to be a nameless face among 500, I'll never reap the rewards of an upgraded starbase. Not cool.
While I understand that it will be hard and probably a terrible time for small fleets to advance in the starbase system, why will small fleets fall apart? Surely there was something holding you together before the starbase system came out
Because now being part of a larger fleet is incentivized by access to more goodies. We can keep playing together as a small fleet, but fall by the wayside in regards to being well equipped. We already lost members because of the content gap, now we sure as heck aren't going to be able to recruit new members if they know we are small.
I just can't imagine how exactly the meetings about dilithium referred to must have gone. Some missions offering way more dilithium than the effort for them demands being a potential problem, I can understand that. Mind you, during the week I'll be lucky to find time for more than one quick mission a day, so I don't really have a problem with something fast that will give a decent reward like the Investigate Daily Officer short missions. Got time for more? Then there's other things to do. But that quick little boost for those of us short on time was very welcome.
Adding dilithium rewards to more things is a good way way of counteracting the problem of not enough being refined for everyone that doesn't want to grind STFs all day. Though I agree with those who've stated that it should be added to everything, so we're not forced into playing certain content which then leads Cryptic wondering why we largely play those and not others. Even still, to make our 'quota' given to us by Cryptic of ~2000 dilithium ore per hour, we're still forced to grind the same old missions, just have a touch of variety. Making the reward match the effort better I can agree with too, though I would have made the STFs as the benchmark, keeping them at that point.
But honestly, dropping the dilithium rewards from the STFs I'm perfectly fine with. Cutting the quick sources for a touch of dilithium not so much, since I personally think that a couple of quick sources is vital for everyone who has a life outside of STO. But probably the thing that irks me most is the new costs for various things. 500 dilithium to convert common doffs to uncommons? Seriously? 50 times the original cost? How many people are going to bother with that anymore, especially with the other dilithium costs floating around? You wanted to make them match the cost of doffs from the doff packs? So what now are people who bought doff packs doing to do with all the non-purple doffs they get out of them? It's expensive dilithium wise to trade them in for better officers. The most valuable thing they could probably do with them now is grind them down to whites and dump them on fleet projects or the exchange.