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XP Boost Coming to a C-Store Near You...
Daevian
Member Posts: 17
On the subject of the recently-released Engineering Report:
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=196936
Specifically the bit that mentions "[*]Ways to boost XP gain while leveling up (new type of consumables)"
StormShade had this to say:
"Hey gang,
I want to go ahead and clarify some stuff for you all.
This will be a consumable item purchasable on the C-store.
You will also be able to earn this item through in-game means.
So, if you want to buy them, so you can cruise through the patrol missions faster than you normally would, you can. If you'd rather use them as they come to you through in-game means, you can do that as well. If you just don't want to use them, that option exists as well.
I hope this helps to alleviate some of your concerns.
Thanks,
Stormshade"
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showpost.php?p=3279850&postcount=73
I now give it three months before STO goes F2P rather than the commonly-estimate 6 months :P
Comments
dstahl just added this to the thread too, so getting them in-game will be a rare drop only.
most f2p games have xp potions in their cash store dont they?
IF THE ONLY DEFENCE FOR CRITICISM OF A GAME IS CALLING SOMEONE A TROLL OR HATER, THAT SAYS A LOT ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE GAME
This would explain why leveling was so much slower when I tried the game a month ago, compared to what it was at release.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
Perhaps. STO isn't F2P though
EQ and EQ2 have exp pots sold in the market place as well. If you know where to maximize where to get exp leveling in games isn't that bad in my opinion. If you're in a rush to get to max level then do the research on where to go in game that offers the best exp. No need to buy exp pots unless you're to impatient to get to max.
Same applies if you're looking for making some coin in game, research where the best stuff drops to sell.
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Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
I have to ask why? The casual players play casually of course, so they really wouldn't need to level faster, and the true power gamers already left a long time back. Besides, power gamers can hit the level cap in just a few days. Why would someone actually need this? STO is one of those games where you can reach the end very fast; who actually needs to level faster in STO, outside of perhaps people focusing on the Klingon faction?
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
why would anyone want to level faster when there is absolutely NO ENDGAME CONTENT in the game is really beyond my understanding
Well for some reason (perhaps because it fits their desire to add something else people will buy to the C-Store) the Devs are assuming that all the accounts with characters who never even reached Captain did so because levelling is too slow.
My attempts to argue that this is glossing over the real problem of boring game content have been met with, well, nothing much.
My other argument that two players who pay the sub should be able to get the same amount of xp out of their hour in the game has been attacked, derided, and downright ignored by the people who jump to the defense of Cryptic. Apparently, since someone elses levelling speed "doesn't affect me" it's perfectly fine, even though it de-values the time I have to put into the game compared to someone who can drop cash for these xp boosts.
Yes, they're available in-game too, as a rare drop. How do you get rare drops? By spending MORE time grinding.
Apparently though I'm a nutter who just doesn't understand that people being able to pay extra to level faster is "perfectly ok".
STO now has even item store?! Sub + store, any hope I continue this game after trial has perished.
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My Guild Wars titles
Do you really put value on your time in game? If so it is really sad and I dont understand why you play. IMO it should be one of two: You enjoy the game and play. You only grind/dont enjoy the game and you quit. I would undestand it would affect you if game would be pvp-oriented or there would be competiotion for lvl rising/only high lvls. But there isnt much to do in STO, so take your time and enjoy the game while you IMO.
Especially I dont see problem/care about this thing in STO. They just trying to milk as much money as possible. And taking how fast you can reach max in STO, why should you care?
This would be only an issue if the leveling was slow to begin with.
If ADD people want to give them their money to level up every hour instead of every hour and half, more power to them.
Don't get me wrong; I don't care about people using XP boosts in any PvE focused game, I just can't fathom who would actually need to spend real money for this in a game which has some of the fastest levelling in MMOs. Now if levelling was akin to, say EQ, then I could see it. If they're that anxious to get to the maximum level, then they should just put some time into playing the game.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
I've seen XP boosts in other games , but to me it seems to be a new staple ( ingame-stores ) of the F2P . I can see where there's a need for it in STO. Gaps in the Fed leveing , so you can avoid the grinds that are the DSE, and for Klingon gameplay. I really think this is a preparative step for F2P though.
As evidenced by this quote : http://forums.startrekonline.com/showpost.php?p=3279938&postcount=104
It's called "fairness". It used to be a concept people actually cared about in-game.
Why should MY hour in the game bring me any less progress than the hour of someone who can afford to pay for an XP boost?
My argument basically ran like this:
Assume the total number of hours required to reach top level is 200.
If I play 8 hours a day, I'll get there 25 days. If someone else plays for 16 hours a day, they'll get there in 12.5 days. If someone ELSE only plays for 2 hours a day, they'll get there in 100 days. However, the actual playing time to reach that level is the same for everyone. This is the way most things work. If you play tennis for 10 hours a day, I can't reasonably expect to keep to the same level as you if I only play for 2 hours.
You say it doesn't matter because "it's only PvE" but why should I have to invest more hours to reach the same goal than someone who has money, just because I don't? Is my time worth less than theirs? We both pay the same monthly fee after all. What if I happen to have an extremely busy life and can only play for an hour a day, but can't afford to buy these boosts? Do I have to consign myself to being treated like a second-class citizen by the actual game engine, just because I have no extra money to pump into it?
I guess that's the difference between the way I see things and the way the narcissistic generation see them. I would never expect to achieve parity with someone without putting equal effort into it. I'll never be as good a racing driver because I don't drive as often as them. I don't envy them because of it. I don't expect people to make allowances for me because I can't spare the time to drive as often as they do.
And before you say "it's only levelling, it's not like it's a skill" I would argue that being able to level efficiently IS a skill, it has to be learned and trained just like any other. My metric is in-game level, your metric is skill level. They're both equally valid metrics, but apparently it's ok to pay to get ahead on mine because it doesn't necessarily involve competing with other people?
So you don't mind the fact that the person playing 2 hours a day will pay 2 more months sub fees than a person who plays 16 hours a day to get to the same level, but you don't think they should be able to spend more money to level faster?
Is this one of those "F'em if they can't put in the time" arguments?
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
This is somewhat funny and sad at same time...I think saying is: Life is not fair, deal with it? It is not first game to do so, you can find such thing in plenty of games, it can be not exp boost but plenty of other things. In most of games you can buy things for real money, you could say, why should they get item (pet, accessory, make up, whatever you can think) if they have money and I dont... Reason is simple, companies want money, and if people want something they will sell... That is how world works. You basicly saying why should they get something better if they have more money, that is reason in itself, BECAUSE THEY HAVE MONEY... Maybe by chance you are communist (not insult)? If so I can understand your reasoning...
And if you play not asian grinder but western games you rarely need exp boosts, as game major point should be questing and there is plenty of them so you rarely need to grind. If time comes when you need to grind for hours/days, you should just quit the game as there is nothing left in it (or almost nothing). People rush to high/max levels way too much nowdays and companies takes advantage of that by creating and selling exp boost items. Where has gone "it is journey not the goal that matters" especially in entertaiment. It is like going skieing and only caring how fast you got down from mountain, while ignoring all the fun you get while getting down... Why should I care how fast they got down or how much fun they had? All that matters is that I am having fun...
So if you cant enjoy the game without exp boost/real money items you should just find another game...
Also to that "fairness" in games: it is long gone and maybe there was never such a thing. People always bought gold/items/accounts online just to get an edge...
So you don't mind the fact that the person playing 2 hours a day who CAN'T afford to drop more money on the C-Store will still have to pay those two extra months of subs?
Again, how much time people can spend per day playing is out of a developers hands. What is in their hands is how much time it takes, in hours, to get from one level to the next.
And to the poster above... I don't consider myself a communist, but I will leave you with this thought:
Life is only as fair as you're willing to make it.
For the record I will not be continuing my sub to STO, my gametime runs out in Feb but I stopped playing it yesterday. I stand by my moral beliefs. It wasn't totally down to this particular issue as many others have pointed out the flaws of the game, but this was the straw that broke the camels back.
I've been playing for the first time since beta. It's been about two weeks now, and I hit level cap today. Of all five ranks, the slowest one by far is the first -- a complete inversion of the way it works in most RPGs, online or otherwise. That's the way it was in beta, but it seems even worse now; I was flying around in that stupid starter ship for days, but between Captain and Admiral was a blink. I can see someone starting a new toon wanting to burn through lieutenant faster.
I also think the average STO player is not the average gamer. Among the people who didn't give up on this game after the first month are a high percentage of people who like to look at the pretty ships and the pretty costumes and the stars and lights and just marvel at the Star Trekness of it all. If I'm not mistaken, one of the jokers from the STOked podcast took half a year to reach level cap -- and he was doing a weekly podcast about the game. Also, they have a high percentage of players who for some reason just like throwing money at Atari. I have no doubt there will be a market for the xp boost.
ETA: My guess is the players who spend most of their time in game socializing and staring out windows occasionally decide they should go up a level so they can be on par with their friends. Those, above all, will be the people buying artificial xp.
Btw the end of the Engineer report where they talk about the "future" honestly that isn't being released for another 2 years IMO, crap they announced back in October has been pushed to Feburary.. now its likely they'll push that further too. And the stuff in the future list is the crap they PROMISED 6 months prior to launch. and no doubt all the new ships and uniforms they said will be C-Store, costing anywhere between $5-$20 each. Just go Free 2 Play already, the community is more than dead, so adding the F2P crowd won't be any worse. If anything it'd probably make the game better because then Cryptic can stop fucking around with subscriptions and justifying that PLUS the C-store.. that's all they do lately is PR for their crappy business model.
The foundry is looking to be like a failure in my eyes, the tools are horrid to use, worse than UnrealEd1. It sort of makes sense now why Cryptics workflows suck so much, they have horrible tools. No wonder they're always delaying things.
I say if they get all that stuff in the future's list done we can then say "the game is finally out of Beta" because that's all the stuff they promised would be in at launch, and its all the stuff we were expecting from the game, including the new combat model. Many expected a shooter mechanic- what they got was WoW only 100x broken and gimped. The combat model will probably be the most interesting thing to see, I hope its their number 1 priority, I want to see it.. if it sucks.. then fuck this game. I haven't played it in now 4 months since the new space sector was released in Tribble.
Further more.. how the fuck did this game win awards?!.. what a load of fuck.
You offer XP boosts for one of two reasons. Because the game itself is a grind fest and without XP boots you'll never get to the level cap or your players have mostly made it to the level cap where most of your content is and you want your new players to get to the level cap as fast as possible. Generating income is a secondary thing. If there's no grind or you don't have many new players offering the XP boost is a waste of time.
STO has flaws, but it has fewer flaws than CO and it has "potential" for the players. They are focusing more development time on it and adding stuff to the game. From what I've heard, STO is doing just fine and I'd be surprised if they went F2P with it.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Neither of those are true in STO.
You don't offer XP boosts to max level players. They won't buy them. You're either selling them to players who are leveling alts (an option I didn't list above), or new players trying to catch up. Somebody who is already paying the subscription fee is willing to pay for the XP boost or they wouldn't consider putting them in the store. It's impossible to get actual numbers, but cruise the STO forums and these forums as well. STO is picking up new players and the old players keep playing. They aren't adding alternate quest lines or even a fully fleshed out Klingon faction, so they're offering XP boosts.
The game is not doing as well as say, WoW, or probably even as well as LotRO, but I'm certain it's not only made back the money they spent on it, but it's turning a profit as well.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Heh i remember the 1st month,there was always 50 instances of earth space dock with 50 ppl in each arround the clock at the minimum.at least 2500+ players.
Yesterday 5 instances x 50 players.
[quote]
Heh i remember the 1st month,there was always 50 instances of earth space dock with 50 ppl in each arround the clock at the minimum.at least 2500+ players.
Yesterday 5 instances x 50 players.[/quote]
yeah, but even still the climax of the Beta was when the game was at its max, the instances for SOL were upped to cater for that fact that Klingons could now play with Feds on Sol Station, and there was a huge Mob spam of Borg Zombies across the entire place. Was great fun, really epic event.. nothing they're doing now even comes close to how epic that event was. They need more of those "get everyone togehter in a huge instance and just go crazy" events because the way it is now, it feels really empty and no one seems to be enjoying themselves- rather doing the typical MMO chat where its either "selling phat loots" or "join me fleet"- occasionally you get people saying "this patch sucked!"- very few I've seen actually say they're enjoying the game and next to no one ever joins up outside of a fleet because of how badly instanced the whole game is. I know cryptic are working towards pulling down the instances but it honestly can't come sooner- we all need to be in one big instance having a great time doing fun things- not the tedious boring crap that feels lonely the way it is now, all they've accomplished with the game is just making it an even bigger grind, if they're now making the XP bonuses easier to obtain.. what the hell is the point in grinding.
And honestly if you hate STO, then might as well go play SFC, far better game- far better community. SFC2 and SFC3 are brilliant games, though buggy, but you can have the fun stuff I've been talking about and even better, everyone is in the one game, if you want to meet up in the same instance you can up to a pretty large number of players- and SFC2 and SFC3 actually create the idea of a territorial war. If STO can get into something like that then I'll stop complaining.. but at the moment the game plays no where near as good as SFC did. And this is ignoring ground combat because IMO ground combat is broken- and Cryptic even admitted this hence why they're moving on to a new system.
Maybe in a years time when they finally get around to implementing the things they promised at launch I might actually be able to enjoy the bloody game I paid for -- which after seeing how cheap the game is now, I realize I got badly ripped off. (I paid 80% more than what the game is worth today which given the game has only been out for 12 months is riddiculous. Way to slap supporters from the very begining in the face.) That's all cryptic have been doing, slapping us in the face the entire time. Hurry the hell up, get it done please so I can finally stop giving a shit and enjoy the fucking game I paid for.
I even went to the extent of modding the game for a while just to attempt at making the game barely more acceptable. Now it seems a lot of people are trying the same thing.