Is Chris and/or Jeremy going to chime in on whats going on..

[Stronghold]

Well i have canceled my sub, been playing since closed beta....going free to play might be a good thing but getting there feels like more and more options are being taken away and the game will just turn into a cash grind for ships unless you pay for them via the store.

I really do understand the they need to make money but its got the the stage where i feel STO is no longer a vaild place to spend and enjoy my time.

[JeremyR]

(Before you read this, remember that I'm not YET a Cryptic employee. I'm speaking on behalf of only myself, not the company.)

AE, you'd get a lot further with your commentary if you actually broke down and spelled out your gripes, instead of just calling it "ass hattery" and leaving it at that. That's what internet colloquialism would call flaming. Try and stick with constructive criticism and your voice will be louder.

Everything on Tribble right now is in a HEAVY state of flux, so it's difficult to comment on what's going on. We've already heard from numerous devs (D'Angelo, Heretic, JHeinig, Geko) that the numbers are not currently where they want them to be, and will be changed drastically prior to going live.

That said, I think you can expect this economy revamp to introduce a little more "grind" to STO. And I, personally, don't see it as a bad thing. Long-term players will see it as something being taken away from them -- that much is true -- but ultimately, it's a good choice for the game to SLOW DOWN the progression of players. And asking them to spend time gathering resources is an excellent way to do that. Theoretically-speaking, of course.

XP gain also needs to be tuned back, imho. I know it's currently enhanced on Tribble anyway, but I think it has always been way too fast - especially as you get into the Captain/RA range. And if that was slowed down, all captains would theoretically gather more Dilithium en route to their next rank, eliminating a lot of the moaning that's been going on regarding the price of ships and whatnot.

Now, there's also things like... the T3 Excelsior was removed from the EC shop. I think that was a step in the wrong direction, and would like to see it moved back. But we'll see if my voice will carry enough weight to make that type of thing happen.

[huggy]

And if you spend any time at all in the forums the community is in a huge uproar over lots of different thing the economy, the changes in general, and one of the biggest which seem like is being ignore are the bugs that are still in game that should not be there and i am talking about bugs that are months old, and still havent fixed, like where ur crew falls through the ground and disapears this is a bug from way back in season 2, the bar fight not compleating in everything old is new, and several others, And then they knew the taining your boffs where broken and just left it that way for a long weekend they had, jobs i have worked if the job wasnt done you worked weekends and holidays, i have worked many a time seven days a week , they have a huge amount of tweeking and plain old work they need to get done, and i hope they do, i love star trek and love the game, i think there makeing the whole situation harder then it needs to be, they had a fantastic model to go by in champions on line, and from what i have seen they have used very little of that model.

[TheOtherTed]

The situation on Tribble, the F2P test

You type this, but then act as if all is said and done. It isn't.

Cryptic has a stated policy of swinging the numbers hard, first one way then another, while testing to triangulate on a value (or range of values) that seems to work. If F2P were going live next week, you might have a case - but it isn't and you don't (yet).

The concern is understandable, but your approach is overstated.

[Stingray10]

Of course things are going to be taken away. The game will be going "free to play" they are a business they need to make money, didnt think everything was going to be free did ya?

They will give dilithium in game, but they want you to buy it as well. So they will never give you enough. Right now IMO they are trying to get the least amount they need to give in game to make it seem fair.

[huggy]

All that is good and well but right now the numbers are way off , and i know there in testing but lets use a little thinking here for instance a mk xi weapon is around 70,000 dilithium i beleave most explore cluster stuff is giving around 1400 dilithium that means your gonna have to run around 50 explore mission to just get the mk xi weapon , and they know people arent going to go for that so why cause so much uproar in the forums starting off soo far off, I personaly dont mind a grind but that is outragus, So personal i realy dont get what there thinking, doing things like this they know is gonna have a huge back lash.

[TheOtherTed]

Ok, so, I hope you jumped on on Tribble and file a ticket...

[Mourne]

Good post AgentExeider. Unfortunately, it is beginning to confirm my fears of what would happen to STO after the PWE acquisition of Cryptic.

If you look at any other PWE game (and they put out ~2 new ones a year it seems like...) they're all pay-to-win with garbage cash shops, or gigantic grinds. I was hoping this wouldn't affect STO, but looks like things are headed in a wrong direction.

Even if they tone down slightly on what they're currently doing on Tribble, it will still be a hell of a lot worse than it was (or should ever be). But hey, maybe that's their plan. Make things seem completely atrocious, so when they dial it back a bit, it seems like they're "caving to their fanbase" while still making things more greed laden cash shop focused. I just don't put anything past businesses these days. Especially MMOs.

I'd love to eat my words and have Cryptic make everything better. I just don't think it's Cryptic's choice.

[chris]

We chatted a bit about this on the live stream this weekend. We'll be doing some more test stuff this Saturday, and this will prolly come up then as well!

[washproof]

Howdy all

I have to agree to a point with the OP, it does at this time look like STO will be going all out 'Pay 2 Win' and Cryptic will be following their overlords lead.

Of course things are going to be taken away. The game will be going "free to play" they are a business they need to make money, didnt think everything was going to be free did ya?

Sorry bud but they already made their cash from Gold/Lifers so yeah it should still be 'free' as we have already paid them for a premium service and in no way should we be hit with any extra costs, I strongly disagree that its inevitable that 'things are going to get taken away' it does'nt have to be that way, this whole T5 ships into the C-Store thing is an out and out money grab, laden with U-turns. Alas I dont think D'Angelo has much say in the matter, the accountant types he jokingly refers to are in my mind the PW overlords, if Cryptic was a 'Lady of the Night' then PW would be their cash rich pimps, so D'Angelo just has to bend over, think of England and take whats coming to him, its a shame as the guy seems a realy nice bloke.

I realy do hope that Chris & J-Man 'pop a salvo over the nose of U.S.S. Cryptic over this matter on the next show (100 pt3).


heres to the next show, heres to you Jeremy! cheers.

p.s. Jeremy what is an 'Associate Systems Designer' what will you be doing day to day at Cryptic? thx again.

Washy.