I call Bull***t! It's your fault and you are punishing people for it. How is this any different than the bugged dilitium offer !? And that was abused. It's your fault you broke the game and instead of trying to make it equitable to everyone you are just bashing in heads.
Well I'm sure the game can stand to lose a few old players, more room for new players to grow right !?!?
Oh wait there's a struggle to find players across all fleets... well this will surely help since some of those fleets may crumble now due to the loss of players.
I call Bull***t! It's your fault and you are punishing people for it. How is this any different than the bugged dilitium offer !? And that was abused. It's your fault you broke the game and instead of trying to make it equitable to everyone you are just bashing in heads.
Well I'm sure the game can stand to lose a few old players, more room for new players to grow right !?!?
Oh wait there's a struggle to find players across all fleets... well this will surely help since some of those fleets may crumble now due to the loss of players.
*slow clap *
Oh, the difference is clear. The bugged dilithium offer actually changed the economy of the game AND made them money. This mistake slightly improved players' chances at getting the crew they wanted in three weeks AND failed to make them money.
Oh, the difference is clear. The bugged dilithium offer actually changed the economy of the game AND made them money. This mistake slightly improved players' chances at getting the crew they wanted in three weeks AND failed to make them money.
Isn't it obvious which one is worse?
Too True - the only reason this a severe impact, is because TP did not make any $$ from this BUG (I really wish they would learn to code, dev test, unit test & QA before release stuff)
The "AND" shuttle bug that cost us a lot of money on false percentages and the current issues with stuck voyages also stand out as the game exploting us.
I participated in all three Divisions every day since the beginning of the game and NEVER since then have my rewards from Arena been TRiPLED.
Another bug, working as intended (not).
Will I get my double rewards back from the last 5 years? (that's a rhetorical question)
Seriously: New mechanics are introduced to the game, unlocked, a “buy more” button added without the need for dilithium or such? What is there to misunderstand?
There WAS no experience to draw on, as they introduced the feature and was only available for one day.
Also, you can't do anything with those dropped polestars dropping from constellations other than combine those in crew retrieval to filter out towards crew you are interested in. But even then the game mechanic works on using Quantum “currency” which can be bought for US$ 145.49 in Europe (the same amount the premium packs cost). That means that no damage in revenue to TP is done.
I won't get it, why filling up the inventory shall be malicious or even be an exploit.
Exploits would be using their API with external tools or injecting own code somehow for manipulation - which clearly none of us / the banned did. Just operated THEIR games user interface (which I to did btw.).
Let's look over to another game for comparison:
Star Trek Online
There, players can buy as many Lockboxes (with different “Themes” applied) as they want and what fits into their inventory or bank. As the offers change roughly every half year with the introduction of new Lockbox including different ships to fly, people grab them in advance and out them in the bank.
(I compare that to the “Skill tokens/Polestars”).
If you want to open a Lockbox 📦 , you need to buy keys 🔑 to open them for real money 💵 or in-game currency Diamond 💎.
If I compare those Lockboxes from STO to the game mechanic of STT, having even the inventory overflowing with the ISM, Constellations and by that after use those Polestars in the inventory, is not giving any advantage other than having slightly more filter opportunities to target specific crew to buy - either for Quantum or real money via the Dilithium in-game currency.
Destroying a Mega-Event to the point that my Admiral and other fleet mates got banned for basically the entire event (72 hours out of 96 hours) and squads not being able to play competitively anymore down to being unable to achieve the fleet daily participation introduced for ISM - we were only able to get 500 ISM out of the possible 900 ISM daily (which means, lower-ranking players will be less off by 1.200 ISM at least, with the ban making it impossible for the fleet to reach the daily goal.
Final comment pointed towards@WRG Ben
You have been involved in Quality Management in you daily task before you got the new position as Associated Product Manager (or a kind of title/position - your anniversary in-game-mail got deleted, so cant check the exact title. Sorry).
I know that QM and introducing it into a running company is complicated. I myself did introduced QM certifications ISO9001 etc.
What I can figure out from company communications on the forum, Timelines Talks (like that - happy to see the makers more approachable) and “liny” or bigger errors and faults in the game, makes me thinking that not enough communication within the company is happening between the departments (programming, graphics, marketing, operation, ...). I know, that this pandemic makes running such a LIVE product from home offices even more difficult. Howceevall want the time back, where we can just walk next office to the colleague and address an issue in a personal talk by a cup of coffee.
It's very often the eyes for details required and especially that goes for programming code and programming instances within the Unity Development / Game Engine. 4 eyes checking (especially new!) code together are always better (meaning im sure you have a best practice for programming quality), but copying over existing code and amending it not properly (the cause of wrong packs and descriptions/advertisement) is one thing.
When reusing existing code snippets, first rule: never copy code, where variables are included. If so, make them unique.
Even none programmers can notice the lacking eye for detail - very often in text descriptions.
Seriously: is your programming staff incompetent in using “Unity” engine, when it comes to applying proper formatting of text (bold, cursive, underline, colour) with HTML markup language (HTML is not programming!) as we very often see it with <B> </B> code in the text fields of packs or in-game mail notifications?
It starts with the little things …
Don't get me wrong - the game is fun and even after 5 years I am still here and playing it. It’s constantly in development. But the responses on failures, created due to bad programming practice is adding up.
Getting back to communication: the “Adira Gate”: I can only guess that this was due to various factors. You wanting to introduce “Adira 1” and “Adira 2”. Mixing up in graphic departments can happen, especially if a product - especially intended for release nearly simultaneously - is named so similar. Computer code and file names of graphics can get mismatched. Especially here, internal communication AND double checking between different departments is essential.
I know you all learned from those errors and are also reconsidering your actions regarding these “once per day claimable” vs. “We messed up the code by offering a buy button the second day without having linked that $variable to the $sale instance...
Better check the code before applying and remove unneeded code (because I figured the side / loop for buying should not been in there based on your companies reaction.
Last thing: we do not see your code, annotations and intend of functions. All we see is the final product with a claim / buy again button - looping back with my argument above re Lockboxes in other games and STT QUANTUM currency acting like a key to unlock them (replicate a personally tailored “behold” of some kind.
Anyway - closing my post with the old community “rant”: DB, Do Better.
You are TP/WRG now, and I know you want to do better. But please deliver fair and not such actions as taken in this case. There would gave been better solutions …
Yours only code knitting romulan
Looking for a fine fleet? With the game having reached the age of a small child, players went and newly joined. We are an active fleet and are also connected in friendship with Klingons. Grab your daily starbase donations. Get your daily Fleet Boss Battles rewards guaranteed? Chat about Trek? Want more than just the game? Consider joining [TLA] "The Liberal Alliance"Contact me in-game [TLA] Khazaan or even better on the LINE app, handle also "khazaan".
You know what might mitigate this debacle? An honour sale. Just saying.
They still have some left to sell?
FYI: Don't know if I'm a whale, may be a sea lion or other mid-sized aquatic mammal, regardless, I've spent $2000 over 3.5 years and was going to go for the $50 dil and $25 double crew offer from the 5* I retrieved (a tier 5 ffs)....but, now. :shrug: gotta keep that sunk cost fallacy in mind....
So nothing to be done is that right? Loads of players that pay YOUR Bills stay banned for what 60 more hours just because you at tp/wrg whatever can't admit that you did a mistake.
How about say you are aware that people took advantage of our mistake and move on? No you, took whatev we gained off us which was alright. Nothing to complain about. I took something I shouldn't have so you took it back.
BUT BUT But you ban players who frickin pay for this game so you can live from it and that's what's gonna haunt you guys for the rest of this games existence.
I never cheated or anything or "exploited" anything lmao
Your own incompetence which many have looked past for years causes the players trouble.
How many improvements have been suggested over the years and you done nothing. Now you bring a half decent feature after God knows how many years and that's even working ok. But your apprentice pushed the wrong buttons and screwed the pack. How about this guy gets the blame and not me that done nothing but play your game with no bad intentions.
Jesus Christ have mercy on you but you guys have a lot to learn.
Worst thing is everyone else got to pick those 19 whatever packs and those who did it because of your error are now banned.
I could go on and on about your wrong doings but chance that any of you read this is zero.
This is the clearest cut case of a company screwing up and putting the screws to its customers that ive seen. As i and others have said many, many times: you are the ones who messed up the roll out of your feature. Not us. You cant get mad at us for doing something as simple as tapping a button that YOU programmed.
I hope that someone at the company is getting dragged over the coals for this.
Long time lurker and first (and last) time poster. Hello, my name is Asimov and I am a so- called exploiter.
I have decided to add my voice to this. I am sure it will be lost in the storm of protest, but I felt the need to write this before I exit the game for good. Suffice to say I completely disagree with TP/WRG’s disproportionate response to this issue. I also take issue with the language used in the posts from TP/ WRG in addressing this problem.
I have waited for the furore to die down a little before I decided not to play any more in case I would regret it down the road as a knee- jerk reaction. The truth is though, even if they lifted the ban early (which given their current position, would be very surprising), the trust and relationship I had with the game has eroded away to nothing and I would not change my mind about quitting.
I am a big Sci Fi fan but, prior to this game, not particularly a Star Trek fan. Seen a couple of seasons of TNG before playing, but the game really gave me the enthusiasm for the franchise as a whole and I have loved delving into the various series alongside playing the game.
I am level 90 and VIP13 so invested quite a bit into playing the game. I have pretty much played everyday for the last 3 years or so. This last year, in particular, the game has provided me with much needed escapism from the world struggling around me. Even though I play a lot, I would still describe myself as a laid back player, in a laid back fleet. I enjoy looking on the forums but I rarely interact with the community as life and work commitments don’t give me the time to do so.
Now to the evening in question… I was busy feeding my one year old daughter and we were both thoroughly engrossed in an episode of JoJo and Gran Gran (I live in the UK), as I logged in. Using my Dad skills of having my phone hidden on one side of me whilst feeding my daughter, I somewhat absent mindedly began clicking the usual things in the game and jumped into the portal to see if there were anything to pick up. Great, a free pack. Got it and exited. Noticed it was still there. Strange I thought, but the day before there was two packs so maybe I missed the second one. Went in and claimed. And then saw the ‘Buy Again’ button. Odd, I thought. Again, still not really paying attention, I continued to click it. I stopped after a couple of minutes, mainly out of boredom and, to be honest, the episode of JoJo and Gran Gran was heating up to a crescendo by now. Afterwards I thought, oh well, at least FINALLY there was a bug that has gone in my favour after hearing for years on the forums of other players gaining advantages through bugs and loopholes from DB/ TP/ WRG mistakes. Did I feel guilty for taking advantage of the bug, which clearly was a result of TP/ WRG’s ineptitude? Absolutely not. Not for a second. I had a little chuckle to myself and thought, oh well they are going to have to sort this mess they created out. You win some, you lose some.
An appropriate response would have been to take back the additional items the players in question gained. Fine, it’s a fair cop guv. But to ban those players from the game, during an event, during a campaign and during a new feature where the fleet I am part of are counting on me for the shared rewards is just ludicrous. Don't even get me started on the subsequent fix of allowing players to obtain 19 packs - most players, in my view, would have either with eyes wide open, or not, taken advantage of this bug, so why is everyone else now being rewarded for not having logged in during those 5 minutes the bug existed!?
But the thing I take most umbridge with is TP/ WRG questioning my moral compass. HOW DARE THEY! The game is literally designed to click buttons to gain rewards. I spend hours and hours every weekend mindlessly clicking the screen to try and rank in the events and get some good rewards. I have got to stage where I am clicking without paying attention, which I did during this debacle. That doesn’t make me a cheater or morally bankrupt. Would I have stopped and logged a ticket if I had realised what was going on? Probably. Would I have been banned? Probably not. Would I still have been as angry about this situation if I had not been unlucky enough to log in for those 5 minutes and therefore not banned? Absolutely I would.
I was really looking forward to the upcoming honour sale in March and had diligently saved 750k. It’s a shame I can’t donate my honour to my fleet mates to make up for getting banned. I was also looking forward to delving into the new feature as it seemed like a good way to target crew as advertised. I was brimming with little ideas they could use to develop the feature, like faction tokens to turn into faction polestars as there is a lot of players who have long since maxed out the faction shuttles numbers.
Alas, life goes on.
TP will have to learn the hard way that alienating a section of the fan base and community by questioning their integrity is not going to be taken lightly. I really hope I am wrong, but the game is not going to survive in the long term with a gulf between TP and the player base that this issue has formed. Ben has mentioned a few times that WRG do read the forums and take in feedback, so I hope they do take onboard the negative feedback that has resulted in them handling an issue, that was their own creation, so poorly. They have a lot of goodwill with players to repair in the short term.
I’d also like to give a shout out to Timelines Talks, a show which I thoroughly enjoy and will miss a lot. I loved my Thursday routine of sticking the stream on from the night before whilst working and listening to the comical ramblings and astute analysis of Auto, Idol and Stars along with their litany of guest hosts. Hopefully the game will survive this period and you can continue to make great content for the community. I salute you guys. Thank you. Good luck with the house move Idol.
Just as a quick aside- I call BS on anyone calling for individual firings on here. I know people are angry but don’t lash out on individuals who are the face of the game for the community like Shan and Ben please.
I remember recently reading on the forum, sorry I forget who posted it, about matching what you spend in the game with a charity donation. So in that vein I will calculate what I would have likely spent in game for the rest of the year and donate it to a local charity.
Sorry if this has turned into a ramble, but just wanted to get my two cents in. Thanks for anyone taking time out of their day to read this. Hope everyone is safe and well. Best wishes to all.
Long time lurker and first (and last) time poster. Hello, my name is Asimov and I am a so- called exploiter.
I have decided to add my voice to this. I am sure it will be lost in the storm of protest, but I felt the need to write this before I exit the game for good. Suffice to say I completely disagree with TP/WRG’s disproportionate response to this issue. I also take issue with the language used in the posts from TP/ WRG in addressing this problem.
I have waited for the furore to die down a little before I decided not to play any more in case I would regret it down the road as a knee- jerk reaction. The truth is though, even if they lifted the ban early (which given their current position, would be very surprising), the trust and relationship I had with the game has eroded away to nothing and I would not change my mind about quitting.
I am a big Sci Fi fan but, prior to this game, not particularly a Star Trek fan. Seen a couple of seasons of TNG before playing, but the game really gave me the enthusiasm for the franchise as a whole and I have loved delving into the various series alongside playing the game.
I am level 90 and VIP13 so invested quite a bit into playing the game. I have pretty much played everyday for the last 3 years or so. This last year, in particular, the game has provided me with much needed escapism from the world struggling around me. Even though I play a lot, I would still describe myself as a laid back player, in a laid back fleet. I enjoy looking on the forums but I rarely interact with the community as life and work commitments don’t give me the time to do so.
Now to the evening in question… I was busy feeding my one year old daughter and we were both thoroughly engrossed in an episode of JoJo and Gran Gran (I live in the UK), as I logged in. Using my Dad skills of having my phone hidden on one side of me whilst feeding my daughter, I somewhat absent mindedly began clicking the usual things in the game and jumped into the portal to see if there were anything to pick up. Great, a free pack. Got it and exited. Noticed it was still there. Strange I thought, but the day before there was two packs so maybe I missed the second one. Went in and claimed. And then saw the ‘Buy Again’ button. Odd, I thought. Again, still not really paying attention, I continued to click it. I stopped after a couple of minutes, mainly out of boredom and, to be honest, the episode of JoJo and Gran Gran was heating up to a crescendo by now. Afterwards I thought, oh well, at least FINALLY there was a bug that has gone in my favour after hearing for years on the forums of other players gaining advantages through bugs and loopholes from DB/ TP/ WRG mistakes. Did I feel guilty for taking advantage of the bug, which clearly was a result of TP/ WRG’s ineptitude? Absolutely not. Not for a second. I had a little chuckle to myself and thought, oh well they are going to have to sort this mess they created out. You win some, you lose some.
An appropriate response would have been to take back the additional items the players in question gained. Fine, it’s a fair cop guv. But to ban those players from the game, during an event, during a campaign and during a new feature where the fleet I am part of are counting on me for the shared rewards is just ludicrous. Don't even get me started on the subsequent fix of allowing players to obtain 19 packs - most players, in my view, would have either with eyes wide open, or not, taken advantage of this bug, so why is everyone else now being rewarded for not having logged in during those 5 minutes the bug existed!?
But the thing I take most umbridge with is TP/ WRG questioning my moral compass. HOW DARE THEY! The game is literally designed to click buttons to gain rewards. I spend hours and hours every weekend mindlessly clicking the screen to try and rank in the events and get some good rewards. I have got to stage where I am clicking without paying attention, which I did during this debacle. That doesn’t make me a cheater or morally bankrupt. Would I have stopped and logged a ticket if I had realised what was going on? Probably. Would I have been banned? Probably not. Would I still have been as angry about this situation if I had not been unlucky enough to log in for those 5 minutes and therefore not banned? Absolutely I would.
I was really looking forward to the upcoming honour sale in March and had diligently saved 750k. It’s a shame I can’t donate my honour to my fleet mates to make up for getting banned. I was also looking forward to delving into the new feature as it seemed like a good way to target crew as advertised. I was brimming with little ideas they could use to develop the feature, like faction tokens to turn into faction polestars as there is a lot of players who have long since maxed out the faction shuttles numbers.
Alas, life goes on.
TP will have to learn the hard way that alienating a section of the fan base and community by questioning their integrity is not going to be taken lightly. I really hope I am wrong, but the game is not going to survive in the long term with a gulf between TP and the player base that this issue has formed. Ben has mentioned a few times that WRG do read the forums and take in feedback, so I hope they do take onboard the negative feedback that has resulted in them handling an issue, that was their own creation, so poorly. They have a lot of goodwill with players to repair in the short term.
I’d also like to give a shout out to Timelines Talks, a show which I thoroughly enjoy and will miss a lot. I loved my Thursday routine of sticking the stream on from the night before whilst working and listening to the comical ramblings and astute analysis of Auto, Idol and Stars along with their litany of guest hosts. Hopefully the game will survive this period and you can continue to make great content for the community. I salute you guys. Thank you. Good luck with the house move Idol.
Just as a quick aside- I call BS on anyone calling for individual firings on here. I know people are angry but don’t lash out on individuals who are the face of the game for the community like Shan and Ben please.
I remember recently reading on the forum, sorry I forget who posted it, about matching what you spend in the game with a charity donation. So in that vein I will calculate what I would have likely spent in game for the rest of the year and donate it to a local charity.
Sorry if this has turned into a ramble, but just wanted to get my two cents in. Thanks for anyone taking time out of their day to read this. Hope everyone is safe and well. Best wishes to all.
So long STT, thanks for all the memories.
LLAP,
Asimov
That is no ramble, friend. That is perfect. They should close this thread and use your post as the epitaph to the thread/game. I sincerely hope they read it. Best of luck to you for the future. LLAP.
This thing spread all over the world. There are houdreds 1/5 reviews on Google Play Store. In the row. I can't imagine someone to download this game after see that. DB/TP/WRG ship could sunk very fast. No new Lambo. Are we really need all that? Think about that for minute @Shran.
Long time lurker and first (and last) time poster. Hello, my name is Asimov and I am a so- called exploiter.
I have decided to add my voice to this. I am sure it will be lost in the storm of protest, but I felt the need to write this before I exit the game for good. Suffice to say I completely disagree with TP/WRG’s disproportionate response to this issue. I also take issue with the language used in the posts from TP/ WRG in addressing this problem.
I have waited for the furore to die down a little before I decided not to play any more in case I would regret it down the road as a knee- jerk reaction. The truth is though, even if they lifted the ban early (which given their current position, would be very surprising), the trust and relationship I had with the game has eroded away to nothing and I would not change my mind about quitting.
I am a big Sci Fi fan but, prior to this game, not particularly a Star Trek fan. Seen a couple of seasons of TNG before playing, but the game really gave me the enthusiasm for the franchise as a whole and I have loved delving into the various series alongside playing the game.
I am level 90 and VIP13 so invested quite a bit into playing the game. I have pretty much played everyday for the last 3 years or so. This last year, in particular, the game has provided me with much needed escapism from the world struggling around me. Even though I play a lot, I would still describe myself as a laid back player, in a laid back fleet. I enjoy looking on the forums but I rarely interact with the community as life and work commitments don’t give me the time to do so.
Now to the evening in question… I was busy feeding my one year old daughter and we were both thoroughly engrossed in an episode of JoJo and Gran Gran (I live in the UK), as I logged in. Using my Dad skills of having my phone hidden on one side of me whilst feeding my daughter, I somewhat absent mindedly began clicking the usual things in the game and jumped into the portal to see if there were anything to pick up. Great, a free pack. Got it and exited. Noticed it was still there. Strange I thought, but the day before there was two packs so maybe I missed the second one. Went in and claimed. And then saw the ‘Buy Again’ button. Odd, I thought. Again, still not really paying attention, I continued to click it. I stopped after a couple of minutes, mainly out of boredom and, to be honest, the episode of JoJo and Gran Gran was heating up to a crescendo by now. Afterwards I thought, oh well, at least FINALLY there was a bug that has gone in my favour after hearing for years on the forums of other players gaining advantages through bugs and loopholes from DB/ TP/ WRG mistakes. Did I feel guilty for taking advantage of the bug, which clearly was a result of TP/ WRG’s ineptitude? Absolutely not. Not for a second. I had a little chuckle to myself and thought, oh well they are going to have to sort this mess they created out. You win some, you lose some.
An appropriate response would have been to take back the additional items the players in question gained. Fine, it’s a fair cop guv. But to ban those players from the game, during an event, during a campaign and during a new feature where the fleet I am part of are counting on me for the shared rewards is just ludicrous. Don't even get me started on the subsequent fix of allowing players to obtain 19 packs - most players, in my view, would have either with eyes wide open, or not, taken advantage of this bug, so why is everyone else now being rewarded for not having logged in during those 5 minutes the bug existed!?
But the thing I take most umbridge with is TP/ WRG questioning my moral compass. HOW DARE THEY! The game is literally designed to click buttons to gain rewards. I spend hours and hours every weekend mindlessly clicking the screen to try and rank in the events and get some good rewards. I have got to stage where I am clicking without paying attention, which I did during this debacle. That doesn’t make me a cheater or morally bankrupt. Would I have stopped and logged a ticket if I had realised what was going on? Probably. Would I have been banned? Probably not. Would I still have been as angry about this situation if I had not been unlucky enough to log in for those 5 minutes and therefore not banned? Absolutely I would.
I was really looking forward to the upcoming honour sale in March and had diligently saved 750k. It’s a shame I can’t donate my honour to my fleet mates to make up for getting banned. I was also looking forward to delving into the new feature as it seemed like a good way to target crew as advertised. I was brimming with little ideas they could use to develop the feature, like faction tokens to turn into faction polestars as there is a lot of players who have long since maxed out the faction shuttles numbers.
Alas, life goes on.
TP will have to learn the hard way that alienating a section of the fan base and community by questioning their integrity is not going to be taken lightly. I really hope I am wrong, but the game is not going to survive in the long term with a gulf between TP and the player base that this issue has formed. Ben has mentioned a few times that WRG do read the forums and take in feedback, so I hope they do take onboard the negative feedback that has resulted in them handling an issue, that was their own creation, so poorly. They have a lot of goodwill with players to repair in the short term.
I’d also like to give a shout out to Timelines Talks, a show which I thoroughly enjoy and will miss a lot. I loved my Thursday routine of sticking the stream on from the night before whilst working and listening to the comical ramblings and astute analysis of Auto, Idol and Stars along with their litany of guest hosts. Hopefully the game will survive this period and you can continue to make great content for the community. I salute you guys. Thank you. Good luck with the house move Idol.
Just as a quick aside- I call BS on anyone calling for individual firings on here. I know people are angry but don’t lash out on individuals who are the face of the game for the community like Shan and Ben please.
I remember recently reading on the forum, sorry I forget who posted it, about matching what you spend in the game with a charity donation. So in that vein I will calculate what I would have likely spent in game for the rest of the year and donate it to a local charity.
Sorry if this has turned into a ramble, but just wanted to get my two cents in. Thanks for anyone taking time out of their day to read this. Hope everyone is safe and well. Best wishes to all.
TP/WRG you evidently have inheirited the issues that DB had - mistakes.
DB made so many mistakes it was almost like they were planned. Just a partial list:
Releasing test crew into the loot pool only to take them away from the players and never to see those test crew again;
Mirror Picard fiasco;
Polywater Yar fiasco;
Multiple glitches that the coders did to give advantages to certain player friends in the game;
Dil packages that give you more Dil than shown;
Allowing 3rd party programs/scripts to be used for easier, faster, and autoplay features;
Leaving certain deals up way past their time and only removing them when someone mentions it;
This list is extremely long. But TP/WRG came along. Would things be changed? We hoped, but then we found out that WRG kept virtually everyone from DB. So, that means the mistakes would continue. And they did. Because in the last few months worse mistakes have been made -
Offer wall;
No Christmas deals;
Adira;
Did we even have a CD special like they hyped it?;
Incorrectly coded button on a daily retrieval pack;
72 hr bans on players;
The last few months have been the worse mistakes. I do not know who is making the decisions at TP/WRG, but this is not good business conduct. I believe Game Magazines would have a field day about all of this.
You know what might mitigate this debacle? An honour sale. Just saying.
An Honor sale after this? They need to give everyone even more than what they have ever done (Honor, Dil, event Ranked 5* rewards, Cronitons, Voyage Tokens, free portal packs, etc), with a huge apology, and even that will not repair all of the damage they did as people have already decided to never come back and those that are still here have no faith or trust in TP anymore. This game is done thanks to one insane and immoral decision implemented. I hope the shareholders realize their demand for more money just cost them millions by TP attempting to pander to them.
There are three ways to do something; the right way, the wrong way, and the Janeway.
Just for fun, some more DBacles...
- Emailing everyone everyone's email addresses.
- Exclusive Mirror Spock event... Then turning around and giving everyone who had their email addresses given away a free Mirror Spock.
- Not actually keeping Mirror Spock exclusive anyways.
- CS giving away toons not in packs at the time (Locutus, Mirror Spock... Again).
- Musketeer LaForge.
- $5 dollar double your stars.
- Email dupes.
- Smudge.
You know what might mitigate this debacle? An honour sale. Just saying.
An Honor sale after this? They need to give everyone even more than what they have ever done (Honor, Dil, event Ranked 5* rewards, Cronitons, Voyage Tokens, free portal packs, etc), with a huge apology, and even that will not repair all of the damage they did as people have already decided to never come back and those that are still here have no faith or trust in TP anymore. This game is done thanks to one insane and immoral decision implemented. I hope the shareholders realize their demand for more money just cost them millions by TP attempting to pander to them.
Totally agree with you Magenta. It seems like an emotional knee jerk decision by TP. I’m holding out that they’ll realize the gravity of what they’ve done, and acquiesce to the players. Damage has been done, but I’m gonna ride this out and see how they respond before making any terminal decision about playing the game.
Shan thanks for the rude email you sent calling me a cheater. You using the word exploit is poor wording. An exploit is us using something to cheat such as software or a hack. All I did was click the botton that kept saying cluck here. But you jump on this forum stating you all knew our intent calling us cheaters. Hope your game does fine with out my monthly delithium and 9.99 28 day buy. I hope others follow me. You folks dropped the ball. I'm just a daily user that is at level 59 and been with Timelines since the start. Way to reward us with gross incompetence
I was pleasantly surprised with a new 'buy again' button, so I pressed it. My excitement towards the new feature grew substantially, to the point I was impressed with TP's surprise gift for players.
I did not program the app.
I did not hack the app.
I did not use a 3rd party interface into the app.
I pressed a button that the app presented.
I did not exploit anything.
I did not breach any terms of services.
If you want your stuff back, take it. Don't insult me. Don't penalize me further by taking stuff away that I had before today. DO NOT BAN ME.
TP, this is your mistake. You should not make the players suffer for your mistake. Instead, why not focus your efforts on QA? I will assist you with a test plan for future changes. (no charge!)
1. Does button appear? (yes - continue, no - BUG!)
2. Can button be pressed? (yes - continue, no - BUG!)
3. Is award given? (yes - continue, no - BUG!)
4. Is button still there? (yes - BUG!, no - continue)
What a horrible response. @Shan you need to reconsider the way you responded to your bug. It’s obvious that your lack of customer service is having a negative impact on the player experience.
Don't know why you are bothering responding to Shan he was busy personally emailing me and calling me a cheater and said he could lift my ban but since I was "rude" I can sit the whole 72 hours out to "teach me a lesson".
What a horrible response. @Shan you need to reconsider the way you responded to your bug. It’s obvious that your lack of customer service is having a negative impact on the player experience.
Don't know why you are bothering responding to Shan he was busy personally emailing me and calling me a cheater and said he could lift my ban but since I was "rude" I can sit the whole 72 hours out to "teach me a lesson".
Don't know why you are bothering responding to Shan he was busy personally emailing me and calling me a cheater and said he could lift my ban but since I was "rude" I can sit the whole 72 hours out to "teach me a lesson".
Dude. It might be fun to pile on, but gonna have to ask for some proof on that emailing.
But if it's from support, that's also against TOS, I think.
Shran, I am completely shocked and dismayed at your actions. I am still not even clear what these new items are and if you want to ban me for 72 hours then do so. This is not players fault but the people that programmed the game and the people delivering the messages. Feel free to look at how much I have spent playing this game since I started in March 2016. If you want to ban me for 72 hours consider it permanent Shran because my days playing will be done. Again, this is your fault and not players fault.
Did you get a personal email from him? This is a guy that needs new employment. Very rude indeed.
Comments
Well I'm sure the game can stand to lose a few old players, more room for new players to grow right !?!?
Oh wait there's a struggle to find players across all fleets... well this will surely help since some of those fleets may crumble now due to the loss of players.
*slow clap *
Oh, the difference is clear. The bugged dilithium offer actually changed the economy of the game AND made them money. This mistake slightly improved players' chances at getting the crew they wanted in three weeks AND failed to make them money.
Isn't it obvious which one is worse?
Too True - the only reason this a severe impact, is because TP did not make any $$ from this BUG (I really wish they would learn to code, dev test, unit test & QA before release stuff)
I participated in all three Divisions every day since the beginning of the game and NEVER since then have my rewards from Arena been TRiPLED.
Another bug, working as intended (not).
Will I get my double rewards back from the last 5 years? (that's a rhetorical question)
Seriously: New mechanics are introduced to the game, unlocked, a “buy more” button added without the need for dilithium or such? What is there to misunderstand?
There WAS no experience to draw on, as they introduced the feature and was only available for one day.
Also, you can't do anything with those dropped polestars dropping from constellations other than combine those in crew retrieval to filter out towards crew you are interested in. But even then the game mechanic works on using Quantum “currency” which can be bought for US$ 145.49 in Europe (the same amount the premium packs cost). That means that no damage in revenue to TP is done.
I won't get it, why filling up the inventory shall be malicious or even be an exploit.
Exploits would be using their API with external tools or injecting own code somehow for manipulation - which clearly none of us / the banned did. Just operated THEIR games user interface (which I to did btw.).
Let's look over to another game for comparison:
Star Trek Online
There, players can buy as many Lockboxes (with different “Themes” applied) as they want and what fits into their inventory or bank. As the offers change roughly every half year with the introduction of new Lockbox including different ships to fly, people grab them in advance and out them in the bank.
(I compare that to the “Skill tokens/Polestars”).
If you want to open a Lockbox 📦 , you need to buy keys 🔑 to open them for real money 💵 or in-game currency Diamond 💎.
If I compare those Lockboxes from STO to the game mechanic of STT, having even the inventory overflowing with the ISM, Constellations and by that after use those Polestars in the inventory, is not giving any advantage other than having slightly more filter opportunities to target specific crew to buy - either for Quantum or real money via the Dilithium in-game currency.
Destroying a Mega-Event to the point that my Admiral and other fleet mates got banned for basically the entire event (72 hours out of 96 hours) and squads not being able to play competitively anymore down to being unable to achieve the fleet daily participation introduced for ISM - we were only able to get 500 ISM out of the possible 900 ISM daily (which means, lower-ranking players will be less off by 1.200 ISM at least, with the ban making it impossible for the fleet to reach the daily goal.
Final comment pointed towards @WRG Ben
You have been involved in Quality Management in you daily task before you got the new position as Associated Product Manager (or a kind of title/position - your anniversary in-game-mail got deleted, so cant check the exact title. Sorry).
I know that QM and introducing it into a running company is complicated. I myself did introduced QM certifications ISO9001 etc.
What I can figure out from company communications on the forum, Timelines Talks (like that - happy to see the makers more approachable) and “liny” or bigger errors and faults in the game, makes me thinking that not enough communication within the company is happening between the departments (programming, graphics, marketing, operation, ...). I know, that this pandemic makes running such a LIVE product from home offices even more difficult. Howceevall want the time back, where we can just walk next office to the colleague and address an issue in a personal talk by a cup of coffee.
It's very often the eyes for details required and especially that goes for programming code and programming instances within the Unity Development / Game Engine. 4 eyes checking (especially new!) code together are always better (meaning im sure you have a best practice for programming quality), but copying over existing code and amending it not properly (the cause of wrong packs and descriptions/advertisement) is one thing.
When reusing existing code snippets, first rule: never copy code, where variables are included. If so, make them unique.
Even none programmers can notice the lacking eye for detail - very often in text descriptions.
Seriously: is your programming staff incompetent in using “Unity” engine, when it comes to applying proper formatting of text (bold, cursive, underline, colour) with HTML markup language (HTML is not programming!) as we very often see it with <B> </B> code in the text fields of packs or in-game mail notifications?
It starts with the little things …
Don't get me wrong - the game is fun and even after 5 years I am still here and playing it. It’s constantly in development. But the responses on failures, created due to bad programming practice is adding up.
Getting back to communication: the “Adira Gate”: I can only guess that this was due to various factors. You wanting to introduce “Adira 1” and “Adira 2”. Mixing up in graphic departments can happen, especially if a product - especially intended for release nearly simultaneously - is named so similar. Computer code and file names of graphics can get mismatched. Especially here, internal communication AND double checking between different departments is essential.
I know you all learned from those errors and are also reconsidering your actions regarding these “once per day claimable” vs. “We messed up the code by offering a buy button the second day without having linked that $variable to the $sale instance...
Better check the code before applying and remove unneeded code (because I figured the side / loop for buying should not been in there based on your companies reaction.
Last thing: we do not see your code, annotations and intend of functions. All we see is the final product with a claim / buy again button - looping back with my argument above re Lockboxes in other games and STT QUANTUM currency acting like a key to unlock them (replicate a personally tailored “behold” of some kind.
Anyway - closing my post with the old community “rant”: DB, Do Better.
You are TP/WRG now, and I know you want to do better. But please deliver fair and not such actions as taken in this case. There would gave been better solutions …
Yours only code knitting romulan
Public profile
Captain Zombie's Combo chain calculator
They still have some left to sell?
FYI: Don't know if I'm a whale, may be a sea lion or other mid-sized aquatic mammal, regardless, I've spent $2000 over 3.5 years and was going to go for the $50 dil and $25 double crew offer from the 5* I retrieved (a tier 5 ffs)....but, now. :shrug: gotta keep that sunk cost fallacy in mind....
How about say you are aware that people took advantage of our mistake and move on? No you, took whatev we gained off us which was alright. Nothing to complain about. I took something I shouldn't have so you took it back.
BUT BUT But you ban players who frickin pay for this game so you can live from it and that's what's gonna haunt you guys for the rest of this games existence.
I never cheated or anything or "exploited" anything lmao
Your own incompetence which many have looked past for years causes the players trouble.
How many improvements have been suggested over the years and you done nothing. Now you bring a half decent feature after God knows how many years and that's even working ok. But your apprentice pushed the wrong buttons and screwed the pack. How about this guy gets the blame and not me that done nothing but play your game with no bad intentions.
Jesus Christ have mercy on you but you guys have a lot to learn.
Worst thing is everyone else got to pick those 19 whatever packs and those who did it because of your error are now banned.
I could go on and on about your wrong doings but chance that any of you read this is zero.
Thank you..... 🙄
This is the clearest cut case of a company screwing up and putting the screws to its customers that ive seen. As i and others have said many, many times: you are the ones who messed up the roll out of your feature. Not us. You cant get mad at us for doing something as simple as tapping a button that YOU programmed.
I hope that someone at the company is getting dragged over the coals for this.
I have decided to add my voice to this. I am sure it will be lost in the storm of protest, but I felt the need to write this before I exit the game for good. Suffice to say I completely disagree with TP/WRG’s disproportionate response to this issue. I also take issue with the language used in the posts from TP/ WRG in addressing this problem.
I have waited for the furore to die down a little before I decided not to play any more in case I would regret it down the road as a knee- jerk reaction. The truth is though, even if they lifted the ban early (which given their current position, would be very surprising), the trust and relationship I had with the game has eroded away to nothing and I would not change my mind about quitting.
I am a big Sci Fi fan but, prior to this game, not particularly a Star Trek fan. Seen a couple of seasons of TNG before playing, but the game really gave me the enthusiasm for the franchise as a whole and I have loved delving into the various series alongside playing the game.
I am level 90 and VIP13 so invested quite a bit into playing the game. I have pretty much played everyday for the last 3 years or so. This last year, in particular, the game has provided me with much needed escapism from the world struggling around me. Even though I play a lot, I would still describe myself as a laid back player, in a laid back fleet. I enjoy looking on the forums but I rarely interact with the community as life and work commitments don’t give me the time to do so.
Now to the evening in question… I was busy feeding my one year old daughter and we were both thoroughly engrossed in an episode of JoJo and Gran Gran (I live in the UK), as I logged in. Using my Dad skills of having my phone hidden on one side of me whilst feeding my daughter, I somewhat absent mindedly began clicking the usual things in the game and jumped into the portal to see if there were anything to pick up. Great, a free pack. Got it and exited. Noticed it was still there. Strange I thought, but the day before there was two packs so maybe I missed the second one. Went in and claimed. And then saw the ‘Buy Again’ button. Odd, I thought. Again, still not really paying attention, I continued to click it. I stopped after a couple of minutes, mainly out of boredom and, to be honest, the episode of JoJo and Gran Gran was heating up to a crescendo by now. Afterwards I thought, oh well, at least FINALLY there was a bug that has gone in my favour after hearing for years on the forums of other players gaining advantages through bugs and loopholes from DB/ TP/ WRG mistakes. Did I feel guilty for taking advantage of the bug, which clearly was a result of TP/ WRG’s ineptitude? Absolutely not. Not for a second. I had a little chuckle to myself and thought, oh well they are going to have to sort this mess they created out. You win some, you lose some.
An appropriate response would have been to take back the additional items the players in question gained. Fine, it’s a fair cop guv. But to ban those players from the game, during an event, during a campaign and during a new feature where the fleet I am part of are counting on me for the shared rewards is just ludicrous. Don't even get me started on the subsequent fix of allowing players to obtain 19 packs - most players, in my view, would have either with eyes wide open, or not, taken advantage of this bug, so why is everyone else now being rewarded for not having logged in during those 5 minutes the bug existed!?
But the thing I take most umbridge with is TP/ WRG questioning my moral compass. HOW DARE THEY! The game is literally designed to click buttons to gain rewards. I spend hours and hours every weekend mindlessly clicking the screen to try and rank in the events and get some good rewards. I have got to stage where I am clicking without paying attention, which I did during this debacle. That doesn’t make me a cheater or morally bankrupt. Would I have stopped and logged a ticket if I had realised what was going on? Probably. Would I have been banned? Probably not. Would I still have been as angry about this situation if I had not been unlucky enough to log in for those 5 minutes and therefore not banned? Absolutely I would.
I was really looking forward to the upcoming honour sale in March and had diligently saved 750k. It’s a shame I can’t donate my honour to my fleet mates to make up for getting banned. I was also looking forward to delving into the new feature as it seemed like a good way to target crew as advertised. I was brimming with little ideas they could use to develop the feature, like faction tokens to turn into faction polestars as there is a lot of players who have long since maxed out the faction shuttles numbers.
Alas, life goes on.
TP will have to learn the hard way that alienating a section of the fan base and community by questioning their integrity is not going to be taken lightly. I really hope I am wrong, but the game is not going to survive in the long term with a gulf between TP and the player base that this issue has formed. Ben has mentioned a few times that WRG do read the forums and take in feedback, so I hope they do take onboard the negative feedback that has resulted in them handling an issue, that was their own creation, so poorly. They have a lot of goodwill with players to repair in the short term.
I’d also like to give a shout out to Timelines Talks, a show which I thoroughly enjoy and will miss a lot. I loved my Thursday routine of sticking the stream on from the night before whilst working and listening to the comical ramblings and astute analysis of Auto, Idol and Stars along with their litany of guest hosts. Hopefully the game will survive this period and you can continue to make great content for the community. I salute you guys. Thank you. Good luck with the house move Idol.
Just as a quick aside- I call BS on anyone calling for individual firings on here. I know people are angry but don’t lash out on individuals who are the face of the game for the community like Shan and Ben please.
I remember recently reading on the forum, sorry I forget who posted it, about matching what you spend in the game with a charity donation. So in that vein I will calculate what I would have likely spent in game for the rest of the year and donate it to a local charity.
Sorry if this has turned into a ramble, but just wanted to get my two cents in. Thanks for anyone taking time out of their day to read this. Hope everyone is safe and well. Best wishes to all.
So long STT, thanks for all the memories.
LLAP,
Asimov
That is no ramble, friend. That is perfect. They should close this thread and use your post as the epitaph to the thread/game. I sincerely hope they read it. Best of luck to you for the future. LLAP.
DB made so many mistakes it was almost like they were planned. Just a partial list:
Releasing test crew into the loot pool only to take them away from the players and never to see those test crew again;
Mirror Picard fiasco;
Polywater Yar fiasco;
Multiple glitches that the coders did to give advantages to certain player friends in the game;
Dil packages that give you more Dil than shown;
Allowing 3rd party programs/scripts to be used for easier, faster, and autoplay features;
Leaving certain deals up way past their time and only removing them when someone mentions it;
This list is extremely long. But TP/WRG came along. Would things be changed? We hoped, but then we found out that WRG kept virtually everyone from DB. So, that means the mistakes would continue. And they did. Because in the last few months worse mistakes have been made -
Offer wall;
No Christmas deals;
Adira;
Did we even have a CD special like they hyped it?;
Incorrectly coded button on a daily retrieval pack;
72 hr bans on players;
The last few months have been the worse mistakes. I do not know who is making the decisions at TP/WRG, but this is not good business conduct. I believe Game Magazines would have a field day about all of this.
Reverse those Bans. You are killing the game!
@DScottHewitt here I TP'd it for you , I mean fixed it
An Honor sale after this? They need to give everyone even more than what they have ever done (Honor, Dil, event Ranked 5* rewards, Cronitons, Voyage Tokens, free portal packs, etc), with a huge apology, and even that will not repair all of the damage they did as people have already decided to never come back and those that are still here have no faith or trust in TP anymore. This game is done thanks to one insane and immoral decision implemented. I hope the shareholders realize their demand for more money just cost them millions by TP attempting to pander to them.
DB: Do Better.
Member of Starship Trista.
- Emailing everyone everyone's email addresses.
- Exclusive Mirror Spock event... Then turning around and giving everyone who had their email addresses given away a free Mirror Spock.
- Not actually keeping Mirror Spock exclusive anyways.
- CS giving away toons not in packs at the time (Locutus, Mirror Spock... Again).
- Musketeer LaForge.
- $5 dollar double your stars.
- Email dupes.
- Smudge.
Totally agree with you Magenta. It seems like an emotional knee jerk decision by TP. I’m holding out that they’ll realize the gravity of what they’ve done, and acquiesce to the players. Damage has been done, but I’m gonna ride this out and see how they respond before making any terminal decision about playing the game.
Shan emailed me and called me a cheater!
1. Does button appear? (yes - continue, no - BUG!)
2. Can button be pressed? (yes - continue, no - BUG!)
3. Is award given? (yes - continue, no - BUG!)
4. Is button still there? (yes - BUG!, no - continue)
Let me know if I can help further.
Have a great day!
Pshh. Just give a bunch of pixels away. Curry some good will for once.
Don't know why you are bothering responding to Shan he was busy personally emailing me and calling me a cheater and said he could lift my ban but since I was "rude" I can sit the whole 72 hours out to "teach me a lesson".
Whoa really?
Dude. It might be fun to pile on, but gonna have to ask for some proof on that emailing.
But if it's from support, that's also against TOS, I think.
Did you get a personal email from him? This is a guy that needs new employment. Very rude indeed.