Incline Official codex Star Trek Online topic :salute:

[Norfleet]

1) Contribute Dilithium
2) Use Fleet Credits to buy doffs
3) Go to the Academy to convert doffs to Purple quality, sell them on the Exchange

The problem is that you end up paying WAY more than just buying the Purple doffs outright doing this. Getting ripped off is not a profit. Besides, they don't sell that well for me. In any event, purple doffs have to wait. I ran the numbers, paying nearly 3x as much for the same thing is a ripoff.

1) Sell Dilithium for Zen
2) Buy Master Keys
3) Sell Master Keys on the Exchange
4) ???
5) Profit

I've considered this, but it doesn't really address the issue. If I did this instead, you guys wouldn't be getting any dilithium, and the project would be stalled on dilithium. It's out of my hands now, clearly. One of you can enjoy clicking a bajillion times to do the commodity stocking, I guess. The EC->FC ratio on that was always pretty lousy anyway. Not like doing dilithium, just that one dilithium dump put me in third place behind the Vaarnas and Sloppy.

In unrelated news, it seems the new update nerfs shield abilities. RSP may no longer be compatible with EPTS at all. Decline. Decline never changes. Everything inevitably goes to shit.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Well guys, they just did LTS players a big solid:

LTS people will get ALL Veteran Rewards once and future whenever they roll out, regardless of sub length. Meaning I shall be giving the Fed Destroyer a whirl, and me, mary and helpie will be sporting Androids on the bridge.

Incidentally, LTS will be on sale too.

As for patch notes...

http://sto.perfectworld.com/news/?tag=sto-patch-notes

1) Hell yeah, Fleet melee weapons! Here's hoping for a Power Glove, so I can be even more rad. 20 bucks says Mek'leth is among these.
2) I actually don't mind the shared cooldown with EPTS and RPS that much. It's not a big loss, since you can just use Shield Batteries instead, and it'll enforce some variety. The effect it will have on duels needs to be tested, though I doubt it'll break cruiser deadlock. This also depends on the cooldown lengths involved, could be you can cycle one EPTS inbetween two RSPs.
3) Removal of various debuff shared cooldowns is good, gives more variety. The Polarize Hull/Hazard Emitters shared cd removal is a good one, for instance.

 

[Norfleet]

Well guys, they just did LTS players a big solid

It baffles me that people are apparently filled with rage and butthurt about this. Let me know how your new ship works out.

Incidentally, LTS will be on sale too.

Yeah, the wisdom of spending that much money on a game which is on its last legs remains highly questionable: This move clearly demonstrates that do NOT expect the game to actually last that long, to no great surprise. Less than a handful of MMOs have actually survived 6+ years without being dumped.

1) Hell yeah, Fleet melee weapons! Here's hoping for a Power Glove, so I can be even more rad. 20 bucks says Mek'leth is among these.

Yeah, just when I was commenting how fleet guns seemed totally useless, but I could go for a fleet sword, they add them. I bet they'll be a sadsack overpriced failure, though. This is why we can't have nice things.

2) I actually don't mind the shared cooldown with EPTS and RPS that much. It's not a big loss, since you can just use Shield Batteries instead, and it'll enforce some variety.

Well, it sort of kills RSP's functionality as an emergency button, given that it will end up cockblocked half the time. Naturally, another exercise in "This is why we can't have nice things."

The effect it will have on duels needs to be tested, though I doubt it'll break cruiser deadlock. This also depends on the cooldown lengths involved, could be you can cycle one EPTS inbetween two RSPs.

MAAAAYBE. But if it's any good at all, they'll nerf it.

3) Removal of various debuff shared cooldowns is good, gives more variety. The Polarize Hull/Hazard Emitters shared cd removal is a good one, for instance.

Well, it gives Science Vessels a slight boost, anyway. Unfortunately, Polarize Hull still seems to be of very limited applicability. The cooldown is 30 seconds, but the duration is only 15, so it's really only useful for something like a submarine where your exposure time is strictly limited, so the fact that it's not really useful as a mode isn't a major issue. On my submarine, I'm fond of it as the "OH SHIT! DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!" button, but on anything else, I can't really see it as majorly relevant. This definitely makes my submarine better, though, since it no longer fights with my hazard emitters and I can slam them both while crash diving.

But RSP? I'm thinking: RIP, RSP. At least cutting it will make room for Space Farting, anyway.

 

[Jarpie]

Well guys, they just did LTS players a big solid:

LTS people will get ALL Veteran Rewards once and future whenever they roll out, regardless of sub length. Meaning I shall be giving the Fed Destroyer a whirl, and me, mary and helpie will be sporting Androids on the bridge.

Incidentally, LTS will be on sale too.

As for patch notes...

http://sto.perfectworld.com/news/?tag=sto-patch-notes

1) Hell yeah, Fleet melee weapons! Here's hoping for a Power Glove, so I can be even more rad. 20 bucks says Mek'leth is among these.
2) I actually don't mind the shared cooldown with EPTS and RPS that much. It's not a big loss, since you can just use Shield Batteries instead, and it'll enforce some variety. The effect it will have on duels needs to be tested, though I doubt it'll break cruiser deadlock. This also depends on the cooldown lengths involved, could be you can cycle one EPTS inbetween two RSPs.
3) Removal of various debuff shared cooldowns is good, gives more variety. The Polarize Hull/Hazard Emitters shared cd removal is a good one, for instance.

That's awesome, but I have to wonder do they think/know that STO wont be around for next 1000 days.

 

[Norfleet]

No one KNOWS, but the writing on the wall seems clear. MMOs do not last 6+ years. Without an increase in the perkage, Lifetime would be a completely losing deal. Only one MMO has lasted that long, and that's World of Warcrap, which is basically a statistical anomaly. Every other MMO by then has been cut up into private shards and no longer enjoys real official presence, if it even still exists, on which your lifetime subscription means jack all. So, either you think you're a special snowflake, or you realize that MMOs basically don't last that long and die by then.

For that matter, STO is already claiming a season 7. I see no proof of this, and on top of that, no Star Trek series has ever received a season 8. Therefore, expect another year of lifetime, tops.

And yeah, RSP if you're using EPTS is dead. If you're using RSP with them, you have an extremely narrow window of precisely one spot, when your last EPTS was 15 seconds ago and your next one is 15 seconds away. This does not make for conducive usage as an emergency button, since you can only use it in one very restricted timeslot. Extendo-Shield suffers much the same way, although at least if you're not using it as an emergency aid button, you can still slot it into a window.

On the other hand, it is now possible to chain Aux2X powers, so you could chain Aux2SIF for some hull armor and regeneration that you will probably now need without RSP as your backup plan.

So how's your free $200 Vaarnamobile?

 

[Jarpie]

STO is not even on three years old so I would expect it lasting at least three more but you never know. Didn't Vaarna_Aarne say that STO is the most profitable of PWE's games?

 

[Mary Sue Leigh]

I think they've planned ahead until about season 9 but I'd not hold my breath for it

I regret nothing though, I had a good run.

 

[Norfleet]

New Vaarnamobile looks to be seriously Pimptastic. Commander Tac, Lt Sci, Lt Eng, Ltc Uni, Ens Uni. You could do some serious pimpage in that thing. It's got nearly the endurance of a Cruiser with all that potential Engineering slottage, AND can spew dual-cannon death like every other escort. They REALLY want people to buy that. It's got basically the best of both worlds when it comes to ground between Escort and Cruiser: Shoots and flies like an Escort, takes a beating like a Cruiser. This thing defines pay to win.

 

[Emily]

BTw, am i the only one who finds ground combat more interesting then space?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Yea, STO is among the most profitable second-stringer MMOs, and PWE's golden boy now that it's raking in money. As they've pointed out, their budget has been increased as well, with the team a month ago being over double in size what it was at the start of this year.

The real thing to see behind this decision is:

It's a really smart thing to do on their end. It lowers the bar to go LTS further, and it eliminates majority of the complaints about having 1000+ day plus Veteran Rewards locked behind a time limit. You can also expect to see a lot more seasonal sales on LTS in the future, since it seems they smell blood in the water at that market (seeing how the LTS price is around the same as two-three normal games during sales, they can definately get a lot of mileage out of those).

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

BTw, am i the only one who finds ground combat more interesting then space?

Nope, I love ground combat to death.

 

[Norfleet]

Well, they sure as hell had to make LTS look more attractive, considering that every day that passes reduces its value that much more, as the game gradually dies like all games do. When you got lifetime at the beginning, you got all that from the beginning of the game to the bitter end. Buy in now, and you've got all that, minus everything up to this point. So you know how much you're definitely MISSING, but you have NO idea how that compares to what you're getting NOW, since the game could very well just up and die next year. On top of that, with F2P, the actual value of being a subscriber is low. Gold status only helps you as long as you continue to spam out more characters, otherwise it does next to nothing.

So it comes down to that shiny piece of $200+ pay-to-win. Now if they made that sort of thing buyable from C-Store...I could actually seriously afford that.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

STO is not even on three years old so I would expect it lasting at least three more but you never know. Didn't Vaarna_Aarne say that STO is the most profitable of PWE's games?

Game's growing, most profitable, and they expanded the staff recently.

F2P is a game changer. I wouldn't be surprised if they do a space combat revamp soon like the World of Tanks Physics patch.

 

[Subject37]

The new LTS ships look seriously cool. I have to wonder about the timing, though. They just introduced the Temporal lockboxes. You'd think that PWE would've tried to get more mileage out of the timeships as the latest shiny new toys for players to lust after before introducing something even shinier. I mean seriously, my Armitage is starting to feel like an old Buick at this point compared to all the new vessels.

 

[Subject37]

On an unrelated note I'm unhappy to report that the TOS phaser rifle does not have the same cool disintegration effect as the TOS phaser pistol. Bummer.

 

[Norfleet]

Game's growing, most profitable, and they expanded the staff recently.

There's no proof of that. Notice how they continue to not deliver on their previous promises. Lies and propaganda, nothing more. Besides, it's always darkest right before it goes totally black.

F2P is a game changer. I wouldn't be surprised if they do a space combat revamp soon like the World of Tanks Physics patch.

Yay, just what we need, more nerfs. I wouldn't be surprised either, considering the latest round of nerfs, but it won't be a good thing. It never is. Entropy always increases. Improvement is contraindicated by the very laws of physics. It will get worse. The impression that you are enjoying the game more is an illusion: The game doesn't possess more entertainment value, your ability to extract that entertainment value has simply improved. However, the amount of entertainment value in the game hasn't increased, and is actualy continuously declining as people extract it. Eventually, you hit "peak fun", and you actually begin to perceive the decline as your well starts to run dry. You try harder to extract what you can, but it continues to grow more banal, shit, boring, and eventually it just isn't worth it. The party ends.

I, of course, know better: I know that the decline is continuous, inexorable, and inevitable. Nothing ever improves. Entropy always wins. The goal is to stripmine as much value from the thing as quickly as possible until it is bled dry and all that is left is an eviscerated husk. If you do a good job, maybe you'll even leave your scars upon it, contributing to the game's entropic decay in a significant manner. I know I've done this to many games. Loot, pillage, burn. That is the way of things.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Game's growing, most profitable, and they expanded the staff recently.

There's no proof of that. Notice how they continue to not deliver on their previous promises. Lies and propaganda, nothing more. Besides, it's always darkest right before it goes totally black.

Perfect world makes serious bank, the cryptic games lend a little dignity to what would otherwise be a shitty lineup of titles.

 

[Subject37]

I have to laugh at the intense levels of butthurt over at the STO forum regarding the LTS instant vet rewards. Some people are taking themselves, and this game, way, WAY too seriously.

 

[Zarniwoop]

You should have seen the butthurt when they reduced the number of currencies from OVER 9000 to the current pitiful 3. Well 3 if you don't count latinum. Or fleet marks. Or fleet modules. Or lobi crystals. Or EDCs.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Incidentally, the rumours of the death of Emergency Power To Shields... Were greatly exaggerated. The shared CD is 15 seconds, so it might only be an issue with Extendo Shields. Standard RSP tanking, not affected at all.

 

[Norfleet]

Apparently they plan to undo the nerf as it was viewed extremely negatively. In exchange, some presently unannounced thing will be nerfed instead, as entropy must always increase.

 

[Norfleet]

A generous individual with apparently values his clicking finger more than his money has deposited $500K in the fleet bank.
This money has been used to purchase the following:
$330K: 5500 Shield Generators (used to fill all shield generator requirements at both bases)
$177K: 2950 Provisions (used to fill provisions requirements)

The bank is now very empty again. I am posting this because LAST time, Vaarna complained the money disappeared "mysteriously", so now you're getting an itemized expense report of exactly where the money is going. If you're just being balky because of the FC, even though FC involved is kinda paltry and weaksauce, then indicate when you have deposited the money and that you would like the commodities dumped in the bank for you to cash in yourself. I just do this because A: I have a thing, and B: I want to see the bases as places that are actually worth going to, instead of a "Why the heck did I even come here?" every time I accidentally forget not to go there because it's a waste of time.

 

[Fens]

A generous individual with apparently values his clicking finger more than his money has deposited $500K in the fleet bank.

yeah... deposited some funds, because i figured i won't be doing anything with the money right now anyway (not playing much these days and if i do, i just fly around and enjoy shooting stuff with the equipment i already have)

should i run into a 'tour the universe' event again, i'll drop some more

ps.: thx for the clicking, norfleet

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I've got several mil, though seeing how a mysterious person took it last time, this time I'm going to hand it to you personally Norfleet.

 

[Norfleet]

I don't remember seeing any mysterious losses. All the funds from last time seem to match what the stuff that loaded onto both bases, and the stuff that is presently sitting in my bank waiting for it to come back into style, since I bought those from places I found rather awkward to get to, so stocked up. That, and the procurement engine was an early version and ran away. Now that I have a firm handle on what kind of crap is really commonly needed, I have a better idea of what to stock up en-masse on.

However, this time I'm keeping detailed expenditure accounts so the money can be exactly accounted for to the penny.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

A generous individual with apparently values his clicking finger more than his money has deposited $500K in the fleet bank.
This money has been used to purchase the following:
$330K: 5500 Shield Generators (used to fill all shield generator requirements at both bases)
$177K: 2950 Provisions (used to fill provisions requirements)

The bank is now very empty again. I am posting this because LAST time, Vaarna complained the money disappeared "mysteriously", so now you're getting an itemized expense report of exactly where the money is going. If you're just being balky because of the FC, even though FC involved is kinda paltry and weaksauce, then indicate when you have deposited the money and that you would like the commodities dumped in the bank for you to cash in yourself. I just do this because A: I have a thing, and B: I want to see the bases as places that are actually worth going to, instead of a "Why the heck did I even come here?" every time I accidentally forget not to go there because it's a waste of time.

Such raw sexual tension between you two.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Put two million credits in the bank. It's all for Norfleet's Space Jew.

 

[Norfleet]

Did I not predict this would happen? Apparently, their newest master plan is to nerf the Borg set, by removing the console from the set. It will no longer be possible to run two partial-sets at all. As always, things always get worse.