As a player of STO since beta - it is amazing to me that we finally got a good, new interesting system with the DOFF's, and Cryptic/PW promptly made it so there is little interest in it. It really doesn't matter now who I send on a mission nor their qualities for success - what kind of idiotic move is this? Seriously, this was perhaps one of the most interesting engaging moves in a while to come along and instantly it gets dumbed down in no time.

It seems to me there is a lack of understanding of what keeps players interested in a game - that is that it is a challenge. Frankly, the F2P changes in general are about making the game less challenging - not more - this leads to boredom and lack of interest on most players parts. The beauty of the DOFF system was it was optional, and gave an alternative to running missions and required some thought. Now it's a click fest to just get 'em out there - ho hum, wait for the reward.

Simplicity in design is a good thing, but dumbing down games under the delusion of "accessibility" is a bad move in the long term - this is why console games are by and large short lived, run of the mill throw-aways. This formula does NOT work for MMO's if you wish to retain paying players over time.

So, what we are moving to in STO is a game with no depth; just a wide-range of eye-candy that will maybe keep a trivial gamer engaged for 3 to 6 months, dropping some coin in the C-store and moving on. The sad part is a good game will keep them LONGER and paying more... think!

Way to ruin a game that was finally moving in the right direction Cryptic/PW.

I actually agree very much with the main point here which seems to be that it can be simple without being dumbed down to be mindlessly boring.

That being said, the problem on tribble right now appears to be that it's broken. In it's current state nothing you do seems to make any difference because of a math problem. Some folks in TTS have reported that the devs are aware and working on a fix (possibly as soon as the patch today).

I was under the impression it was a bug that was due to be fixed some time this week. At least that's what I remember reading Heretic stating, he even started a thread just after the latest patch to let everyone know the DOff system was a little broken and the traits (IIRC) weren't affecting the outcome any more.

EDIT; Found the link to Heretic's thread.

http://forums.startrekonline.com/sho...d.php?t=239660

*great big sigh of relief* thanks for the link Militis.

http://forums.startrekonline.com/sho...96#post3847996

Guys this a bug, it has been known for a while now.
Remember Search is a great tool

If this is only a bug, I stand corrected and apologize for my rage. I was told this was actually the "new" design from obviously someone ill informed.

Now.. to apologise properly we will require you to perform a ritual.

To start with, remove most of your clothing and put paint on parts of your face... after this you will then... :p

You might want to check the dev tracker before raging in the future. Heretic was all over three different threads 20 minutes after this most recent build went up saying it was borked. He also mentioned that they hoped to have an emergency patch up to fix the problem today. Don't know if that is still in the works or not.

I agree 100% with the OP's general point even if the current issue is just a bug (thank Q). PWI was just a bad excuse to grind and have a fashion show. Champions may have such awesome character customization that you WANT to have a fashion show but that is not all you can do there.

Challenge is good as is the ability to alter your game world in a significant way that everyone can see and appreciate or fail to appreciate.

It's easy to assume everything is broken (given that more often than not something actually is - case in point). It also seems to be a trend that things are being dumbed down a bit too much so it's not hard to believe that this was an intended feature. Just a week or so ago they reduced the significance that doff specialization had on completing assignments (meaning you didn't need a botanist for a plant assignment anymore, an astrophysicist would do). The Doff system has a lot of promise and everyone wants it to be the best that it can be. Quite frankly the Doff system is just about all we have to hope for.

Besides, search isn't perfect if you don't know exactly what he's looking for either. In the end he said some stuff, we said some stuff, and he got his answer.

Be cool.