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My time has come to step away

Torias327Torias327 ✭✭✭✭✭
I have always tried to be as positive as possible on the boards, but I believe my time with the game has reached its twilight hours. I have had fun, but the overwhelming time commitment (20+ hours for Mirror Troi) involved in events and the staggering price tags to collect crew have finally hit home, and I just no longer enjoy playing. I did some math earlier, and I have very likely spent 1500 dollars this year on this game. In that year, I have placed top 1000 no more than 8 times. I have given up weekends and sleep, setting alarms and playing around my job. It seems like for that level of commitment, it should not be almost guaranteed that I can’t get a 5* event reward unless I double my standard commitment or don’t just buy it outright. To all those that say “I spent 40 minutes and it’s so easy to stay top 1000” I just have never understood it, it’s brutal and it ruins a weekend for me. And honestly, as a collector, it’s ruined most of my weekends. The faction changes are cementing it now too, because without assuming the worst, I still have to assume based on patterns we will have 1 3seat 3 4seats, and 2 5seats. I’m not going to run into a wall and freak out about this anymore. It’s too expensive and the fun is long since lost.

Comparatively, I have played World of Warcraft for nearly 10 years. I own every collectors edition, save the original, most of the “dlc” paid pets and mounts, have utilized various paid services over the years. All tabulated, with the subscription fee, I can’t get to over 3,000$ spent for that 10 year period. I used to think it was a lot of money, but 1 year of timelines has me close to half of that, and that revelation is breathtaking for me. Really, truly, it sat me down hard and I have to say I just don’t think I can go on. I may hang out F2P or on a dilithium card, but overall, I think my participation in the game is finished. 204 unique immortals, and easily 100 more I could get from my crew if I just stop event participation with my resources. But at this point, why even do it. The shuttle chances are disgusting, 4 immortal 5* crew for a 65% chance OUT of event? No. Being constantly trounced by RNG in the gauntlet with hard to believe surprise outcomes? No. It’s disappointing, the game has so much it could do and offer, but it’s stagnated and there have been so many things just not followed through on, like the new honor hall crew (sitting on 200,000+ honor for 2 months now), or the October comment to evaluate reward structures. It’s been 4 months now and as a player, I have lost interest in waiting because that’s 12 events that the rewards were killer to earn. So yeah. I enjoyed my time with all of you and a special thanks to the folks at the Wiki and the posters on the board that always offered help or advice. LLAP.
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Comments

  • Banjo1012Banjo1012 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It’s tough to have that come to Jesus moment. I totally understand alot of what you’re saying. You spend a bunch of money to get this crew then you have to dump more to actually place well in an event. Committing to this game is quite draining. I question it sometimes myself. These new crew in packs are the things that turn me off. One person said a few days ago they used 10000 dilithium and did not get one Lorian, the new crew in the pack they wanted. If you think about it that is absolutely insane. I learned a long time ago to never ever go for that. You will come up empty and feel really effed up inside for wasting all that dilithium for nothing. There are things about the game that are off, annoying, or downright expensive. I’m usually pretty go with the flow but that is my WTF complaint.
  • You won't be the first to realize that playing STT competitively is a full time job now, OP. Ex fleetmate once posted here there's absolutely nothing wrong with the heavy influx of chrons from newer sources like voyages, fleet daylies, $9.99 packs and so on. Well, a year ago top 1k placement in a galaxy event required 260k VP tops, and that's the more popular events. Now that amount has tripled. Not only it's extremely boring to participate with full force, it's also very time consuming, as you said. And to invest all that time for the sake of a 1/5 reward is even more discouraging.

    The flow of the game has changed to open up more resources, but inadvertently became that much more of a grind. I used to pull 3 accounts on monthly cards with full force, and even that seemed like not enough gameplay at times. Now I can barely handle 1 account, which is now f2p, as are the other 2. Nothing about events has changed over the years. It the same exact grind, just more of it.
  • MagisseMagisse ✭✭✭✭✭
    Sorry to hear about you leaving, but I agree with Travis that it sure sounds like you're to the point where you're killing yourself over the game rather than getting much out of it. I'd encourage you to try as a F2P and see what you think, but obviously that necessitates changing how you play and what your goals are.
  • GhostStalkerGhostStalker ✭✭✭✭✭
    So when he says $1500 this year, he's talking about the year that's barely over a month old? That one? Ouch. That's my rent and utility bills right there. I wish you the best, man.
  • I agree, Torias.
    Most of the veteran players I know have spent over $4000 (thousand!) plus dollars on this game.
    Personally, I don't feel it should even be legal.
    At the very least, it's unethical for game companies to try to financially bankrupt their player base.
    I understand the "personal responsibility" counter-argument, but that's how I feel, and I've been gradually tamping down my own spending here as a result as well.
  • I completely agree that this game has a lot of problems that should be addressed and I also think DB could do/give more to its loyal whales. I do not however believe that DB is responsible for any of us spending thousands of $. Yes I do believe that there is some responsibility in doing your best as a company to avoid people getting addicted but I feel that when it comes to online games it is easy to spend money if you have that personality. I'm not a fan of dramatic "I am leaving" posts and in all honesty, if you are able to spend 1k a month on an online game you either have a problem that someone should be able to see that is close to you or your priorities are different than mine.

    I can not imagine getting up at night for this game or even interrupting a dinner with friends. I play this game in a fun and leisurely way and yes have put in a good amount of money but this game does not dictate my time. During thanksgiving I am not ranking anywhere in an event because I have places to be and friends and family to hang out with.

    So without this being an insult and more an observation, it looks like the OP might have a somewhat addictive personality and that means that it is smart to stay away from FTP games. I wish you the best and take care of yourself and spend more time off line.
    "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"
  • It's not a game if it's not fun. Either find a way if enjoying it or find something you do enjoy. Good luck whatever you choose.
    Ten Forward Loungers - Give Your Best, Get Our Best!
    Check out our website to find out more:
    https://wiki.tenforwardloungers.com/
  • Grant77Grant77 ✭✭✭✭
    Give F2P a try. To me, nothing beats the feeling of beating players that spend a ton of money by using nothing but your own intelligence and ingenuity. Money is certainly not necessary to be successful. Just keep chipping away and have fun.
  • Torias327Torias327 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I will admit to the addictive personality, which I have for the most part found ways to control through out my life. I love Trek, and when I found Timelines it was about 18 months ago. I didn’t spend any money at all for 6 months until I liked it, but the ensuing 12 months (not the last 5 weeks as guessed above, LoL!) I let loose and enjoyed the game, too much I suppose in hindsight. I don’t regret it, or begrudge the choice I made, but the scales on that balance have tipped now, and it’s no longer worth the expense, in money or in time. I will play for free and see how it goes, maybe spring to keep my nearly complete Janeway collection (Curse you, Katrine) complete from time to time, or it will fade into the background and drift off. I really appreciate the way this community supports itself, far too often with the torches and pitchforks in my opinion, but the community is pretty awesome :)
  • I Need to address one elephant in the room:
    What are you doing wrong in the game? With that much commitment, it should be quiet easy for you to be top 1000.
    I myself places 19 times top 1000 last year with a lesser commitment. Yes, I am VIP 12 and have spent my share but Overall it Comes down to some strategy:

    I mostly Play faction Events - and for that I look at what Bonus Crew is available and Level those as fast as I can for the Event, perhaps even buying one Event pack to Level that character, too.

    And during the Events, I jumpstarted the missions and then did the 3-seaters with the same Crew over and over again. works nearly every time unless there´s an Event where I have Little to None Event Crew.
    So my strong advice: Become f2p and Level up what you got and work on your strategy.
  • Paund SkummPaund Skumm ✭✭✭✭✭
    dunnagh wrote: »
    I Need to address one elephant in the room:
    What are you doing wrong in the game? With that much commitment, it should be quiet easy for you to be top 1000.
    I myself places 19 times top 1000 last year with a lesser commitment. Yes, I am VIP 12 and have spent my share but Overall it Comes down to some strategy:

    I mostly Play faction Events - and for that I look at what Bonus Crew is available and Level those as fast as I can for the Event, perhaps even buying one Event pack to Level that character, too.

    And during the Events, I jumpstarted the missions and then did the 3-seaters with the same Crew over and over again. works nearly every time unless there´s an Event where I have Little to None Event Crew.
    So my strong advice: Become f2p and Level up what you got and work on your strategy.

    I just counted myself. 30 times top 1000 last year. I wasn’t very competitive pre-May because I only started in October 2016 and had to slowly build a crew roster. Only VIP 8 and that’s just barely (monthly DIL cards). So I kind of agree with you.
  • WaldoMagWaldoMag ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2018
    I do believe OP’s spending is being misinterpreted. In a years time OP has spent 1500 on the game. OP says in that year they placed top 1000 8 times. So only question should be is OP talking about last year or a years worth of time.
  • Torias327Torias327 ✭✭✭✭✭
    So not every event makes me want to push to top 1000, lets set that out. Sometimes I buy a pack and pop the gold and that’s a great weekend because done after threshold. But I do the open 30, run 10, open 10 run 30. I run my shuttles. I get my bonus crew. I sit at 500-750 until Saturday night, when I slide to 1200. I keep pushing and I finishe around 1400-1900 based on how sexually desirable or stat heavy the gold is. If it’s a high demand event, I will crash anywhere from 200 to 1500 places in the last hours, with normal play. And since I budget to buy crew and packs and slots and the such, I do not budget to spend on dilithium in droves to auto finish shuttles. After the kickstarter, it’s all normal play with the boosts I have from the calendar and cadets and purchases, and I seldom ever run out of boosts. Failing 3 out of 4 missions with 85% runs 2 or 3 times, as the RNG is apt to do, pretty much precludes me from placing without the addition of dilithium. There’s simply too many people playing harder than there used to be, and those top slots are much more competive. I often see the “I get the 5* without trying every week” posts, and I have researched and run the strats, and I have gotten better but still not good enough, but I would rather spend 50$ and know I have The 5* crew of the week than spend 50$ and play my butt off to get ganked at the end with someone that had 1100 bonus items in a galaxy vs my 900. I really do prefer certainty over the gamble. There were multiple events though where I tried and woke up and pushed and spent and played and just couldn’t get past 1500. Maybe it’s me, but if so than that’s an even better reason to transition to free play and phase out if it isn’t fun. 125$ a month really can’t be a lot of money compared to the spending that takes place with the top 1000 regulars. It doesn’t even sound like much when you math out 7$ a day on coffee and a bagel per month (140$ for a 5 day work week). But it is an expense, and the number just isn’t worth the frustrations and stresses of constantly being told by a game thanks for money, but we need more to win. You’re so close, just spend another 20 this month and you can win. It’s deceptively easy to ignore, and hence the true insidious nature of micro transactions. I said before, I made the choice, and I don’t regret it. But the game hasn’t evolved enough with stagnant rewards brackets and increasingly disturbing RNG controlling every aspect. At least if I traded it in for a gambling habit I’d have the same chance to win money that I do getting a single holoprogram on any given day lmao.
  • Torias327Torias327 ✭✭✭✭✭
    WaldoMag wrote: »
    I do believe OP’s spending is being misinterpreted. In a years time OP has spent 1500 on the game. OP says in that year they placed top 1000 8 times. So only question should be is OP talking about last year or a years worth of time.

    Yes, this. 1500$ in a 12 month period of play, is roughly 125$ a month. 30 or 40 dollars a week (typically the 25$ event pack, but occasionally the 50$ event if I desired the character, and rarely the 50/30 packs because it’s the ONLY offer I ever get). 1500 might be a low estimate, but it’s probably close. And honestly, not that much when rationed out monthly/weekly. I basically feel like I’m quitting smoking or lunches out, and now going to have that money back in my pocket. We all have a vice, and mine stopped being fun. If the number sounds scary, do your own math for the year, friends. It’s jumps up pretty fast.
  • Torias327Torias327 ✭✭✭✭✭
    To address the question regarding my crew, my crew includes (all immortalized and limited to 5* for space):
    1701 Sisko, Pahwraith Dukat, Changling Founder, Borg Queen, Agent Janeway, AOS Crusher, Mobile Doc, Convergence Quark, Crell Moset, Kortar, Durango Troi, T’Kuvma, One, Borg Janeway, Delta Paris, Wedding Dax, Mirror Troi, Mirror Kira, Admiral Janeway, Madoiselle de Neuf, Mirror Picard, Commander Troi, Arachnia, Obsidian Garak.
    4/5 Guinan and 3/5 Borg B’elanna, disguised Kira, and Comm Dax.
    And maybe 3 dozen or so more golds under level 100 working their way up with various levels of stars. More would be 100, but for the event purples that need to get frozen for space every week. 204 total immortals, I keep 7 cadets out and the purples with stats over 750. 260 crew slots.

    I doubt it’s my crew. The fact I consistently fail 3 or 4 shuttles trying to get S31 or KCA items every 3 hours is just the underlining that the game isn’t fun anymore, when staffed by only stat-matching immortal legends.
  • Yeah, on some levels "I feel your Pain".

    Please update us and let us know what you ultimately end up doing FTP / walk -away / whatnot.
    “You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain”
    ― Musashi, Japan's Greatest Swordsman and Samurai
  • I fell your pain too!

    I am vip14 and roughly has spent the same amount and has similar frustration. I have been F2P for slightly more than a month now.

    I played my previous MMOTCG for 3 plus year, I think. Honestly I thought I would play STT until they shut it down since I love Star Trek. But I was wrong. The clock is ticking... and I feel the time is near for me to leave the game too.
  • edited February 2018
    I'm vip 13. I've never worried about the expense as i buy small and see it as no difference than a night at the pub.

    In 2018 i stopped spending but I've renewed the card. I stopped playing the gauntlet except sometimes i do the initial run of 15ish for merits. I do voyages and try to finish 1 a day but sometimes i forget to check for the entire day. I recall at 6 hours. I gave up tge arena and therefore on the completing daily rewards and getting tbat 200 honour. Sometimes i miss the 20 chrons now. I stopped expedition, galaxy and hybrid events ages ago. I only play faction but i might cut back on those. I place 200ish usually and i don't buy the 25/50/100 packs but use 650/1300 dil to get the 4/4*. i need to develop a mindset that is okay to give up on the 1/5*. If the art is not good i skip the event. Lately that has been frequent. I can't understand the need to collect a character that looks terrible. I'm so disappointed in db and they have made it easier to stop playing: they don't care so I don't care.

    I encourage you to give up like me. Just let it go. Put in the time you want and accept the reduction in rewards.
  • Jim SteeleJim Steele ✭✭✭✭✭
    I encourage you to give up like me. Just let it go. Put in the time you want and accept the reduction in rewards.
    Well said! I have cut right down, I like the collecting aspect, but collecting 5* characters is futile and they take up space.

    I usually give the events a go, but since we are getting a 4/5* gold every other month these days, I'm not to bothered about finishing top 1000 anymore.

    Jim


    DB: Do Better
  • arjunaarjuna ✭✭✭
    Jim Steele wrote: »
    I encourage you to give up like me. Just let it go. Put in the time you want and accept the reduction in rewards.
    Well said! I have cut right down, I like the collecting aspect, but collecting 5* characters is futile and they take up space.

    I usually give the events a go, but since we are getting a 4/5* gold every other month these days, I'm not to bothered about finishing top 1000 anymore.

    Jim


    Exactly if they give away a 4/5 every other month I see no reason to chase 1/5s unless I really like the character. It actually hurts now to get into the top 1000 as chances are you won't really be able to use a 1/5 and you lose a crew space.
  • Althea BiermontAlthea Biermont ✭✭✭✭✭
    I gave up the arena and therefore on the completing daily rewards and getting that 200 honour.

    Not sure why you do that. You don't need to win. I just randomly select an opponent and then wait the 30 seconds or so it takes to lose the battle. I stop at doing 5 of the 10 since you only need 5 for the daily.

  • ClanofClanof ✭✭✭
    Didn't want to start another thread on the same topic but I think I'm on my way out as well. Not that I have put anywhere near the amount of time or money into it as the OP, but I have put in more than I ever thought I would on a mobile game.

    About a month ago I started cutting back a lot on my play time because it was feeling a lot more like a chore than a game. It was a lot better and more fun when I cut back to just checking on it 2-3 times a day instead of constantly being on it getting all the dailies and answering dilemmas/sending shuttles all day. Then this mega event started. Obviously I'm not just going to quit over one mega event, but I kinda sorta am in the way that every week they've been coming out with characters I didn't care about at all with bad to terrible art. So when they announced the first week of the event I was like.. Ok cool I guess I'll just skip the event this week. But without an event to draw me in I ended up checking in even less and by the weekend I was going whole days not bothering to check in. The second week was another week where I didn't care about the characters so I guess I would skip... I honestly didn't really mean to not check in at all, but it just kind of happened that I lost interest in bothering to check in with no event drawing me in and not wanting to complete the chore-like activities of dailies. Now there is yet another event announced with characters I don't want. I haven't logged in since the first week of the mega event and I'm not really missing it at all. I don't know if this is the end for me but it feels like it might be.

  • I gave up the arena and therefore on the completing daily rewards and getting that 200 honour.

    Not sure why you do that. You don't need to win. I just randomly select an opponent and then wait the 30 seconds or so it takes to lose the battle. I stop at doing 5 of the 10 since you only need 5 for the daily.

    The point of playing is to win, no? :)
    but maybe not! it boils down to what you want to achieve in the game.

    If just to kill time, then I’d better do something else - read books, spending time with kids, etc. If just want to see the arts, just go to wiki -but if I don’t play, I prob don’t bother to begin with.

    Game is supposed to be entertaining and now it is not. Daily chores and grinding are part of most of fremium game. I am pretty sure many ppl woke up in the middle of the night sending shuttles, spend money to buy crews etc, and those were tolerable to start with. But when the last 6 or so months you keep getting duplicate crews, failed shuttle missions, improbable gauntlet ——> the final nail in the coffin.


  • edited February 2018
    It is indeed feeling like a chore instead of a fun game. Especially now that we've started a second fleet and I'm running that with an alt to get it off the ground.

    Log in, do this and that, switch accounts, do this and that, switch account, blah blah blah...

    Ironically I am kind of having fun with the alt account. Starting over but knowing what I'm doing (and what STT really is) is... alright.

    Doesn't help that I don't give a flying fig for STD and the majority of new crew in the game.
  • The point of playing is to win, no?

    No. Not in this game; the point is to enjoy it, and I'm the same as a few others where I've had enough now. Some of it is just the grind, much more is the DB not doing what DB said they would, some of it is money.

    I am not sure what happened lately but I don't really like playing any more. I haven't done any packs for ages because it just isn't worth it (to me) any more. Voyages nerf. The latest screw-ups on events, bad art, poor communications, poor game balance, really (really) unbelievable RNG - I have been playing well over 18 months, done dabo every day, never had top row. Lots more, can't be bothered.

    Enough and good bye - enjoy while you can, but as they say in England: When the fun stop, STOP.

    And that's me.
  • Torias327Torias327 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2018
    Popping in for an update, I’ve gotten both my Cornwells so far, haven’t paid to upgrade her, but I like the character so I am not giving up the easy copies yet. At a non mathematical guess, my fail rate is roughly 40% on my shuttles this event, none sent out below 92%, the vast majority over 97%, so far. If anything backs up my lack of fun and feelings to let it go, this event is big time. Statistics or no, failing 3-8% of the time does not look like 1 or 2 out 4 shuttles failing consistently every 3 hours. It’s worse than a casino, because at least a casino doesn’t get to legally make up totally baseless odds from thin air. Sigh. I am excited to see the 500th crew, though, hopefully it’s Andorian Janeway or TimeWarp Disco Janeway.
  • "To all those that say “I spent 40 minutes and it’s so easy to stay top 1000” I just have never understood it." Same here. I will never understand how people do it.

    As for the dilithium card, I recommend against it. In 2018, I've had a card for a weekly premium portal pull every week, I've bought 1 of the deals for 10 packs or something, and I've redeemed honor for 2 legendary beholds. All of which has netted me precisely two crew. And I'm someone with about 40% of the available crew, which includes I believe every single 1 and 2-star. So there's a lot out there I could be getting from these packs, and instead all my money (dilithium) and time/effort (honor) have been for nothing. I've written to customer service about this and instead of even trying to appease an upset customer, they were patronizing and outright rude before being, as expected, unhelpful.

    Even at a cost of $4 a month, it's not worth it to spend money on this game.
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