CAPTAIN'S BLOG

Well....
I do agree, that STO is somewhat repetitive most of the time and I do feel the loss sometimes as well.

My Goal is to max out the Specialisations and I'm only halfway there. Recently, I decided to complete the Commando Specialization at all costs. I did that because, I found new interest in Ground Action and having the Commando Specialisation as a secondary one truly helps with that. Can you imagine running around with 1,200 HP? I do now.

As for other goals... Well, Cryptic has so many Accolades for us to receive. Boring from another franchise... "Gotta catch 'em all!"?

Also I have revisited the Foundry. Although it still has limitations, Cryptic added a lot of props, so working on Foundry mission is a nice change of pace.

The upcoming new Fleet Holding gives Fleets a new incentive to work together towards its development.

All in all, however, I fear for STO. I wonder, what will be next after the Iconians are beaten?

Just lately I log in and do dailies, mostly processing birds while the summer event is on, but I do find myself wondering..."ok..what do I do now?"

Now that the DR toons are pretty much levelled I think its time to go back to concentrating on my mains. However after a while that may become repetitive as well.

However let me turn the question on its head a little. I have other games that I could play. Good games. Why is it then, that I keep coming back to STO and the grind? Many of us are the same and I think its because its Trek, and I also think Cryptic are aware of the franchise loyalty. At least they seem to be now since the change in Executive Producer and it seems to have marked a seed change in the way Cryptic are moving, and in Trendy we seem to have a CM that follows the new EP's belief in communication.

What I have noticed lately is that the game is now FAR more complex than it was when I first installed it. There are now far more ways to configure a character for ground or space and that's where I seem to be spending the rest of my STO time. Experimenting with all these options/traits/etc.

You are absolutely correct: Star Trek Online is getting a touch stale.

Don't misunderstand: I am not a power player with seventeen level 60 characters, a bank alt, and a few more alts purely for roleplaying that never get past Lieutenant Commander. I am merely a casual player, and I've been playing casually since Open Beta. (Bitchin' end of beta event, by the way. That Borg invasion had me both soiling myself in terror every time I tried to beam into Earth Spacedock and laughing my ass off watching Beta testers way more experienced than I getting slaughtered by the scores.) I am still learning (and relearning) many of the game mechanics, as IRL concerns often take precedence, and I find myself asking the players on the STORP.ORG chat channel for help and advice far more often than I care to admit.

I have been observing the growth and development of STO over the years with great trepidation. I love the franchise, and I love the backstory for STO. There is still much potential to this game, and so much more that could be mined from the franchise for it. I have been pleased beyond words at the inclusion of the Romulan Republic and the expansion of the Klingon faction, and though I was satisfied with the old sector block system, opening up space has been a breath of fresh air (though navigating a massive and somewhat-familiar "quadrant block", if I could call it such, was a touch confusing at first, as the character I had been playing once the update came through was a green Romulan recruit). So pleased was I that I finally mustered up the courage to snag a lifetime account, after crunching the numbers and kicking myself over how much money I could've saved had I done so four years ago.

However, that doesn't mean I haven't noticed how stale the game has gotten. I have never had the chance to run PvE or PvP queues, and I've only been in a handful of PvP matches (back before there were queues for that), and only twice now have I gotten a character at or above level 50. (IRL concerns often took precedence, as I stated earlier, and for the longest time I had this strange and unexplainable OCD need to remake the same character until I satisfied some unfathomable subconscious urge to "get it right", even though I could have easily done so via respecs, changing the bio, and visiting the tailor. Don't ask me why; as I said, it is as unexplainable to me as it is to you.) Yet, even I have noticed how routine certain aspects of the game have grown.

I see quite a few ways to improve this. (I'm working on creating my own "noob's guide to STO" video series soon, and I plan on elaborating on these possible improvements I'm mentioning here in that series.)


1.) Tweak the Starfleet Tutorial:

The new Starfleet tutorial is great. It combines fun and familiar aspects of "Star Trek II", "Star Trek VI", "Star Trek: First Contact", and "Star Trek (2009)" in a new and engaging manner, and it introduces new players to both the Klingon faction (as the Klingons are the primary antagonist for the first several missions) and the Borg faction (as the Borg are, technically, the beginning of the game's "endgame" content). The story is exciting the first time you play it through, and the voice acting is a nice addition (though none of the newer voice actors really compare to Quinto's EMH, and I really wish they could've retained more of his dialogue).

However, that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. Though this may seem to be a heretical statement, the original tutorial was superior to the new tutorial in one important way: the tutorial presented one unified story. Yes, that story focused solely on the Borg to the exclusion of the Klingons, the Romulans, the Cardassians, and the Iconians (whose importance has steadily grown over the past two years), but it was still one tightly-constructed singular narrative.

The current tutorial is rather disjointed, don't you think? First, you tango with some utterly forgettable Klingon bastard whose only recognizable traits are a.) his ship's name sounds suspiciously like the word "chode" (aptly named, though calling it the "I.K.S. Spacec*ck" would've simplified things more), and b.) the bastard kills your captain. Aside from that, there is nothing really noteworthy about this character at all, and he is yet another easily forgettable Klingon adversary among the numerous Klingon adversaries you will be blasting to bits throughout your career as a "peaceful Starfleet explorer". After this, you are whisked away by Captain Vo'Lok of the U.S.S. Renown to fight the Borg menace. Nothing connects the two narratives, aside from Captain Vo'Lok showing up to be the cavalry against the Klingon adversary, Captain Kadek, before ordering you to help him attend to the waylaid U.S.S. Khitomer. (All this time, I thought naming the ship after the site of the Klingon/Federation peace treaty was both a way to tie the old tutorial into the Klingon War story -and- a

Oy. Yeah, my post above cut off. Sorry about that.

Here's a link to the full text I had originally posted before I went over the character limit: http://www.dunebat.com/sto-improvements/

So, I have to agree and I hear you. I've been a casual player of STO for years, ever sense a friend got me into the game. For the most part I level my toons using DOFF missions and I always find myself critically short of Dil except on events.

That said after you have played through the missions things start to get repetitive. The only things that keep me logging in are the occasional hankering for ship combat and the guild chatter, as well as the occasional super awesome fun raid with you guys.

I still log in once a day, and I love the story, content, and a ton of the foundry missions, but yah, there are times where I feel like I'm just Grinding (a stupid thing to say when its only 10 to 15 min a day for a run, but that's how I'm feeling) and not really getting anywhere.

I think your idea of stories is amazing, and might spice things up. I've also found a bit of RP (not that type, get yer mind out of the gutters) can really work to bring some life back into the game. I think maybe creating our own story and having groups run through content together, or set up static "raiding" runs to challenge the new enemies might help.

I also think the launch of the new R&D station in the Delta quadrant might help spice things up a bit.

I got bored loooong time ago, came back just for the summer ship and cause summer event is one of the few thing I enjoy from STO like since one year ago, to be honest the grind burned me and the changes just made the game grindier imo. I've been playing other games just to kill time and test other gameplays and mechanics, but still looking for a MMO that I can really enjoy

I've been playing for the past few years - I blow hot and cold with STO, spending hours each day grinding and then becoming bored and not re-visiting the game for a few months at a time.

The question for me is this: what Star Trek universe are we wanting to exist in? Because Star Trek is not just about battling bad guys and upgrading your starship - if we truly want to feel as though we are immersed in a universe that turns and turns every moment of every day like our own one does, then they should start fleshing it out more with other paths for users. How about a fully-fledged trading aspect? Something that a user can choose when they first enter the game? Create a Latinum exchange (a proper one) and allow users to trade, buy and sell things beyond the "freighters" you come across in sector space - that would create a far more immersive universe because it's not just about becoming a Starship Captain?

There's 2 things that have kept it interesting for me. Starting to chase DPS on my main and starting my first science officer. I went from someone that was getting so board that I didn't play STO at all over the winter to someone that's subbed and always testing out new combinations to see if I can get my DPS a little higher. While I find the challenge of chasing DPS fun, I've found that I actually have more fun with my science officer. You just have to find what it is in this game that you enjoy or take some time off if you're board.

I found myself in a similar situation, then I decided to do the unthinkable.

The first step is to switch off the dam parser. For the longest time I have been looking at that and tweaking my dps and rotations. I even forgot that I played STO because I am a Trekkie, If I wanted to just watch numbers, I could have just gone back to EVE Online...

then I made another new character my main. Thus I have been trying to get Science "toon"that flies tactical ships and is a medium to long range ground sniper. Now that's fun. Oh and look colours and pictures- a double whammy...

So far I have been having fun all over again.

Stqale, well all games get a bit stale in time. But overall I think the game is still fun, but there are things that bug me and always will. I think the crafting is a mess now, can't really make anything useful, and a I had 3 maxed characters, 1 in each faction, that I could make every usable part I needed, Now I'm forced to buy them at insane prices or rerun old missions for Mk XI parts..which work fine mostly. But all in all Trek is fun. Been here sice closed beta, I'm lifer, I'll be here when they close it. And when I get a bit bored I have other games to catch upon. As a matter of fact, crap, I'm months behind in all of them...lol..G'day folks..Enjoy

I've said this before, but I think the answer is in improving the accolade system to give out (not overpowered) rewards.

Call me an old timer if you want, but who remembers the days we used to happily play Cure Ground over and over to get that last ground gear tech? Well... maybe not happily, but we did happily try for the optional for the accolade to get the MACO costume.

Recently the optionals have been rather silly. Bug hunt, Defend Rhi'iho station, and Nukara Transdimensional Tactics - has anyone over completed the optionals on these? Make the optionals hard but achievable with a good team and apply some sensible and not overpowered rewards - costumes, bridge officers, xp boosts, crafting boosts.

Personally speaking, I've only recently started really pushing my DPS so I'm actually in a good place at the moment, but the prospect of pushing DPS on another 7 alts...

What was that Delta Recruit thing all about anyway. Can I delete him now?

Well, Attillio, my response to this blog is this:
you have to rediscover what exactly you liked about this game in the first place, and simply start doing THAT again.
Yes, it's that simple.

For me, I consider myself a casual gamer, though now since most of my five characters are at Level 60 I am starting to gear them up for serious endgame stuff, I still consider myself a casual player. I'm not obsessed with DPS, though I am improving in that area because who wants to be a burden in a firefight? Whenever I start to get bored with the game, I simply remember my daily/weekly/monthly goals that I set for myself when I first began playing:
1. daily = dilithium farming; red alerts for the Borg and Tholians; R&D projects grind up to Level 15 and beyond
2. weekly = at the end of the week, examine my stockpile of dilithium and EC and see if it's enough to buy a ship on the C-store that I really want; or, if not, check out some Lobi ships on the exchange that I can afford.
3. monthly = promote my bridge officers that are able; upgrade my best weapons and equipment to Mk XIV; check my stockpile of dilithium and EC and rinse and repeat!
You see? How can I ever be bored again when there's ALWAYS something I can do in the game at any given time? You have to get busy, too. I'm sure you haven't done EVERYTHING, as you stated in the blog.