Hey guys, I have listened to all your respective podcasts for as long as you've alll been making them, and I've enjoyed them very much.

Lately the tone has been pretty much a reflection of the forums and mood of the players in general, and lets face it..for those of us that have been here for a while things are looking grim.

I think the last episode of STOked and Podcast UCG however had some good ideas in them, and hey, finally after a long battle of posts and debates the guys on STOked talked about something many people in the feedback forums have been working at..auto refinment for subscribers.

I was happy to see that shortly afterwords we got a post stating that they decided that was a good idea and it went ahead.

Lets not beat around the bush here...anyone remotely interested in STO listens to your podcasts on a regular basis, and we also know developers do as well.

My challenge to you all is to help the people that are trying to highlight realistic suggestions in the feedback forums so that those ideas that might make free to play less painful, and better for the game as a whole get heard.

There is a lot of posts in there, and good ideas are getting buried under mountains of this sucks, and I'm quitting.

If you guys could work together and get the best ideas out of that mess and onto the shows, maybe more people would be inclined to add their support and we can get things like crafting sorted out.

Unless the long term players get one very loud voice together and soon, the window of opportunity is going to slip by and were all going to be hosed. We need your help fellas, we really do, there is no more direct method than the medium you use.

We all need to stop arguing about what is, and start talking about what needs to be.

Sure the podcasts could do that... but will cryptic listen ???? thats the main problem.....

Currently cryptic are on a "we will screw you over at every turn possible" kick and occasionally they throw us a minor bone to attempt to shut us up.... But for the most part they seem die hard dedicated to push their plans on us whether we like it or not !

I really don't get what they are trying to do, eveything they have done is almost purposely designed to enrage the current playerbase its sheer insanity on their part and from a business standpoint it makes no sense.

This is exactley what I am talking about. This brings nothing to the table, nothing. We all need to stop crying and start collaborating. read what you just wrote and instead offer a valid, anger free constructive suggestion, tell me what you think could work, and dont say something like scrap it all it sucks and go back to the way things were...that isn't going to happen.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I'm sick of making a post that gives suggestions and positive feedback only to have it buried in a wave of rage, how are we supposed to ever get a decent Idea out and get some positive support behind it if after making a thread it gets overwhelmed like this?

I get that you are angry, you have every right to be, but save the negativity for a thread of your making, or add something positive to mine.

What is there to suggest? Startruck this is a great idea if they can find the time to do it. STOked mentioned automated refinement once and within the same week CaptainGeko posts good news for Golds that has auto refinement in it.

If STOked would do it your challenge is a great way skim the good ideas from the dross of venom getting spewed on the forums these days.

I hope STOked rises to the occasion and to be honest I hope you get a reason to change your mind.

I noticed that a recent suggestion broadcast on STOked was implemented forthwith as a change on Tribble.

In the last broadcast of STOked, it was suggested that Cryptic and STO should automatically refine your dilithium ore every day, whether or not you sign in to STO, up to the limit of 8000 Dilithium Ore refined per day. So if you have 17000 dilithium ore and do not sign in for two days, 2x 8000 = 16000 dilithium ore will automatically be refined, and if you sign in on the third day, you will have 1000 dilithium ore and 16000 refined dilithium.

So yes, Cryptic listens to suggestions. I know for a fact that they do fix bugs and implement changes that players have advocated on the forums.

How Cryptic sees positive suggestions on the vast wasteland of negativity that is on the forums, THAT must be difficult.

I'm not just asking stoked, I'm asking all of them, you both sound as frustrated as I am, If we can't type our suggestions without them getting ground down into negative threads perhaps they can be heard instead.

I volunteer my services as a voice. to give my ideas. Now the problem. Which podcast would have me on? XD

You mean to say that at least they listen to suggestions from a select few that they have a personal relationship with and take employees from.

But, I digress with my jest.

What I have yet to see from any post are the positive ramifications of the decisions that are being made. Why is it that real money/c-points/dilithium is being tied to crafting? We have seen pleny of discussion on the negative effects, but none that I'm aware of the positive.

If I were to see some reason for these changes, it might go a long way to reducing some of the rage. Heaven forbid, it might even make some people lend their support.

If this works then I think this would be a brilliant way to get some messages heard.

I've posted this before, but it almost immediately became buried so I will repost here with hope.

I understand completely that Cryptic has to do something to bring in an income since the greater portion of their player base won't be paying a monthly fee. I understand that giving out "free" ships and the ability to craft high-end gear was harming their ability to make a profit and thus needed to be changed.

As far as the "free" ships at rank go... I approve of the compromise they settled on. Free ships, except VA, for Gold accounts vs Silvers only getting Lt and Lt Cmd Free makes sense. Even before the Gold upgrade I was doing alright getting a ship at each rank on Tribble just by doing one explore mission each day I logged in. Though I did have trouble getting equipment for my ships.

The crafting system, however, needs work. Adding such a high dilithium price to the particle traces and other components of crafting prevents crafters from helping their friends. I understand the need to nerf crafting so that players do have to spend some money on Cryptic points since this is going to be your only source of income from the majority of players. I mean... the Devs have families to support too, but this is going too far. I agree with other posters that this will ruin the crafting system in the game.

My suggestion would be to remove dilithium from the crafting system entirely, but remove all epic (purple) level items from crafting. Make the best thing that can be crafted be rare (blue) quality, with the possible exception of crafting only items like the aegis set, which could still have a dilithium requirement added to it. That way crafters in the game can still help new players, friends, and fleet mates with decent but no where near top of the line gear.

This way the crafters still have a purpose and don't feel bogged down with a 60% price hike (dilithium), and yet the items crafters create won't compete with the high-end dilithium gear from vendors.

I did a test recentley with 5 of my freinds that were otver for a poker game last night,
while this doesn't speak exactley to your point on the positives of the changes individually it was still interesting.

What I did was fire up LOTRO, DDO,Fallen Earth, *** and STO.

I gave them a very objective tour of each game, answering questions but not going out of my way to mention pros or cons.

An interesting result was that all 5 agreed that they were going to install and play STO after it went f2p and the reasons why were:

They thought the ships were varied and interesting, and offered something the other games did not.

The option to play traditional MMO combat or shooter mode was a huge factor.

The doff system, bridge officers, skill point advancement, dilithium exchange, and foundry all made them say that complexity wise there was a pretty large amount of things to tinker with and learn, where the other games were very similar to one another.

The most positive response was bridge officers, they loved the idea of having an rpg like party you could gear up and choose thier powers.

They also like the mission style of gameplay as oposed to the kill ten rats style, the ability to log in and do a mission was a cool feature.

I was really surprised and had to take a step back, especially in regards to the cstore and dilithuim aspects. Most of them agreed that given the models used by the other games, besides fallen earth they would spend less money for more options, and all of them agreed that they would as I said be playing come launch.

The thing that I hadn't realized as a long time player is that while I might be sitting on no content for 2 years, these guys are coming in fresh, and at the pace they play, will likely not hit the cap before newer things are put in place.

I think one of the main Ideas we need to get on top of is getting some form of endgame on the table that is more player driven than repeating the same missions over and over, and we need it before these new players max out and get bored.