I work in advertising/marketing and TP is terrible at it! So many missed opportunities and failing to connect with their revenue stream (the players).
If this "new feature" isn't the earth shattering, Armageddon inducing, pregnant pause they've hyped it up to be; especially after this disappointing past 30 days, then I'm done. I have another game that's holding my attention and leaving STT will be an easy decision.
It was weird there was no holiday deal. It didn’t even have to be good. It just had to be something. They could easily sell avatars and make huge bank. Wouldn’t even have to necessarily be Star Trek. Could sell a mistletoe avatar, a turkey avatar, etc and clean up.
I had $25 set aside in case they ran the 15/4k/4k that they had last year. I haven't seen a good enough deal lately, so I'm still sitting on the money. The current $50 deal is pretty good, but I'm not ready to part with that much money. Oh well. I'm a patient fellow. I'll wait until a deal in my price range gives the value I'm looking for.
Yeah I hear ya. I would like better $25 deals. I ponied up $50 for the 9000 dilithium but I wasn’t willing to then pony up another $50.
Guys they're probably raking in the dough. They're copy pasting events, and copy pasting the same characters with different pictures and selling them to players who are buying them without realizing that the content doesn't warrant needing a better roster. Every event is some combination of the same event types. There hasn't been anything new in terms of event types or content of even the slightest bit of significance in over 2 years that I've been playing. Their fixed overhead is probably tiny and their development team costs cannot be high considering there is no game development. Licensing is probably their biggest cost. I sincerely hope there is a new game mode, and some incentive to improve our rosters, because right now there is none. But I am not sure they even have incentive to make a new game mode because people keep spending even though there is no incentive and no fresh content. They will most likely continue the status quo as they can print money and sell it without improving the game because we allow it. I bet the revenue alone from the same handful of people instantly completing shuttles with Dilithium is enough to sustain this current business model.
The amount of cynicism is a bit mind boggling to me. The fact that people are even suggesting they are intentionally sabotaging their own product strikes me as a complete lack of logic.
If the game fails, they lose money/their jobs/their company. How does anyone honestly believe that? Please tell me how that makes any sense.
As others have already said, such as @(HGH)Apollo, @Emperor Borg Drone and @W.W. Carlisle, amongst others, there are a number of much more reasonable explanations.
This last year has been probably one of, if not the most challenging in any of our lives. Literally life changing, in most cases. Think of all the ways that has impacted your own life. Added stress, mental health impacts, logistical challenges. It isn't any different for the people behind the game.
Honestly, I think some of you forget these are real people, not some faceless corporation. Are they perfect? Not even close. Have many mistakes been made? Without a doubt. Are they only human, like you and I? Of course. Please don't lose sight of that fact.
With everything that’s been going on since TP/WRG took over the game, including, but not limited to: The honor-wall debacle, 3* crew exclusive packs, the mishap with Adira, a $99 offer that includes 2* and 3* citations, the complete lack of an honor sale, telling players that we need to stop hoarding resources, a completely lackluster fifth anniversary, promises of big things to come and these “big things” being a SIXTH and SEVENTH unit of currencies being introduced to the game, the monetization of the stuck-voyage bug, and just a general tone-deafness to the players by WRG causing long-time players to either go f2p or leave the game entirely … I have to wonder is WRG tanking this game on purpose?
This is complete speculation on my part, but the best hypothesis I can come up with using Vulcan logic is this: WRG is operating Star Trek Timelines at a loss, they’re losing money on the venture. TP/WRG perhaps has a contract with CBS saying something to the effect of “WRG must continue to keep the Star Trek Timelines game operational so long as the active number of players exceeds x-amount”. WRG not wanting to continue eating a loss of revenue then does everything in its power to drive away players with the end-goal of getting active players below the number specified in the speculative contract, so that game can be shut down for good.
As Data said when paraphrasing Sherlock Holmes:
“We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Titled got edited, must have hit a little too close to home.
I dont know what their goal is but they are failing on a lot of areas.
I am playing since August 2017.
I have seen Voyages and Skirmishes added and apart from that all that was done was QoL stuff.
So unless i fail to remember anything important, all this was done quite a long time ago. Im not saying TP/WRG try to kill it on purpose or dont know what to do but they are doing a great job at copy/paste crew and events every week.
Also saying yeah but they try hard to improve it so we cant critisize them. Thats their job to try hard but even at that sorry but they fail. I admire the time put in but not whats achieved in this frame. Apart from daily dil i dont want to invest anymore and even that at my current savings is not needed. Give me a reason to be excited about the game again and not be a daily pain im doing just because i am this far and dont want all the time i put in be wasted.
I hope that this new feature is the real deal otherwise il just drift along and be bored as heck from the same week in and week out.
What is crazy is that this community is so damn good that this game otherwise be dead already. Look at the shows the websites and the info thats offered its staggering that the game otherwise failed to do justice. I understand they have to make cash but even that they miss out on so many things as menitoned by others that even that they cant do properly. Hire some of community or at least listen to the Feedback given.
With everything that’s been going on since TP/WRG took over the game, including, but not limited to: The honor-wall debacle, 3* crew exclusive packs, the mishap with Adira, a $99 offer that includes 2* and 3* citations, the complete lack of an honor sale, telling players that we need to stop hoarding resources, a completely lackluster fifth anniversary, promises of big things to come and these “big things” being a SIXTH and SEVENTH unit of currencies being introduced to the game, the monetization of the stuck-voyage bug, and just a general tone-deafness to the players by WRG causing long-time players to either go f2p or leave the game entirely … I have to wonder is WRG tanking this game on purpose?
This is complete speculation on my part, but the best hypothesis I can come up with using Vulcan logic is this: WRG is operating Star Trek Timelines at a loss, they’re losing money on the venture. TP/WRG perhaps has a contract with CBS saying something to the effect of “WRG must continue to keep the Star Trek Timelines game operational so long as the active number of players exceeds x-amount”. WRG not wanting to continue eating a loss of revenue then does everything in its power to drive away players with the end-goal of getting active players below the number specified in the speculative contract, so that game can be shut down for good.
As Data said when paraphrasing Sherlock Holmes:
“We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Titled got edited, must have hit a little too close to home.
If that were the case, the whole thread would have been deleted. Maybe it says something about the strength of the company that they can afford to leave posts like this in place.
Whatever the case may be, I'm just glad that we can have the conversation.
FWIW, I think if you read into the Convergence Day Arc, we might be missing something. The whole story line reeks of "there's something not right in the universe - it can't be over just like that". It's a ruse or simulation or Q is screwing around or ... something else. The seemingly lackluster response from TP/WRG concerning the desired vs. actual perks and sales might all be part of that illusion.
I also think that due to the pandemic and a few transition issues, there was a gap in development and rollout. As a long time project engineer and programmer, it can take months to move a major change from concept to final delivery. This transition hasn't been smooth for a lot of reasons, but I think they might be playing on this for the sake of keeping the game interesting.
Let's face it, mobile games are going to keep growing, and I seriously doubt that ST:TL is just a "loss leader" to CBS. Money is money, and if they want to get interest renewed in this game, they're going to have to make some changes or else it will get (more) stale.
This is purely speculation on my part, but I think in the next few weeks, possibly around the Chinese New Year, we're going to see some of these changes - and hopefully some decent LTO and honor sales.
Remember, in the press release / chat they gave, they told us exactly what they wanted us to hear. You know, they might just be hiding a few things and fibbing on a few more - just to keep the suspense up.
I hope it's something like that - just wishful thinking on my part.
If there were:
Collections added perhaps once every couple of months.
Intermittently introduce some extra perks for your shuttles / voyages to keep it fresh.
New events. I actually care less about this, but rotating galaxy/ faction/ skirmish with hybrids does get rather monotonous to say the least.
New gauntlet crew added within a set time frame that we are all aware of. Maybe once every 4-6 months.
Decrepit 5* appearing in voyages.
New honour hall crew added every six months or so.
Quarterly honour sales, don’t deny us the one thing that helps us to at least entertain the pretense of eating into our honour debt.
Even just changing the start screen every now and then to show the lights are still on behind the scenes.
Increased VIP levels.
Extended rewards or achievements for immortalising characters (instead of capping it at 600).
Add to the gauntlet rounds achievement, offering honour/ dil/ a citation/ a crew member etc.
This is the only cellphone game I’ve ever played and it’s purely down to my love for the franchise and my awesome fleet. I know adding all of these ideas is unlikely, and I literally just bullet pointed them off the top of my head. I’m sure there’re plenty of other things that could be developed in addition to my list. But if some of these additions were sanctioned, wouldn’t the game be a bit more interesting? @Shan any chance you can have a word? 🖖🏻
Interesting premise, but unlikely. Since TP is privately held, there are not 10K to look up the data. But, based on interview comments by the CEO, there annual revenue was about $45M. Given that DB probably asked for $30-50M for the company (wild guess here) and Paramount/CBS/etc. is charging a significant licencing fee, my two cents is they are making money until you factor in cost of buying Timelines. Whether they took a loan or it is based on the opportunity cost of capital, they are likely not making much on Timelines until they recoup their initial investment. Therefore, they are looking at ways to cut costs and increase revenues. Just a guess, but realistic based on other take over models that I have seen. Also, they are unable to sell off parts of the acquisition to finance the purchase. Remember, the founder started out as a venture capitalist. He expects a return on his investment.
The amount of cynicism is a bit mind boggling to me. The fact that people are even suggesting they are intentionally sabotaging their own product strikes me as a complete lack of logic.
If the game fails, they lose money/their jobs/their company. How does anyone honestly believe that? Please tell me how that makes any sense.
As others have already said, such as @(HGH)Apollo, @Emperor Borg Drone and @W.W. Carlisle, amongst others, there are a number of much more reasonable explanations.
This last year has been probably one of, if not the most challenging in any of our lives. Literally life changing, in most cases. Think of all the ways that has impacted your own life. Added stress, mental health impacts, logistical challenges. It isn't any different for the people behind the game.
Honestly, I think some of you forget these are real people, not some faceless corporation. Are they perfect? Not even close. Have many mistakes been made? Without a doubt. Are they only human, like you and I? Of course. Please don't lose sight of that fact.
This seems like you are intending to apologize for TP/WRG and make excuses.
The core of this thread is that people have been watching the quality of this gaming experience deteriorate for quite some time. We have seen an increased amount of errors that have drastically impacted events. We have seen an increased level of LTO’s that are of significantly less “value” than we are used to. We have seen our suggestions for improvements either fall upon deaf ears, or be monetized.
10 months ago I could understand the pandemic being used as an excuse for a number of things. But as has been pointed out, software/game design is the easiest profession to adapt to a work from home setting. Maybe in your career the pandemic has afforded you more slack from your customers/employers. As far as most other careers/businesses that I am aware of, the pandemic is “may the strongest survive”.
The cynicism that makes your head explode has been building over a long period of time. A period of time that has demonstrated to a loyal fan base over and over that since the time that wrg/tp acquired this game, the “goal” is to have a skeleton crew keep the lights on, while simultaneously extracting every single penny they can. This gaming community is unique in its passion and dedication to the star trek franchise, but this company is straining that dedication to levels that are becoming increasingly difficult to manage.
Take this anniversary/holiday season for example. A large number of complaints stem from people being disappointed in not having any type of sale or LTO’s that make them spend money. Let me re-type that to make the point more clear for you, people want to spend their money, ON THIS GAME, but the devs are not providing the offers that the people want to buy.
Its not as though the pandemic resulted in a shortage of dilithium portal packs or honorable citations for wrg/tp to sell.
If there were:
Collections added perhaps once every couple of months.
Intermittently introduce some extra perks for your shuttles / voyages to keep it fresh.
New events. I actually care less about this, but rotating galaxy/ faction/ skirmish with hybrids does get rather monotonous to say the least.
New gauntlet crew added within a set time frame that we are all aware of. Maybe once every 4-6 months.
Decrepit 5* appearing in voyages.
New honour hall crew added every six months or so.
Quarterly honour sales, don’t deny us the one thing that helps us to at least entertain the pretense of eating into our honour debt.
Even just changing the start screen every now and then to show the lights are still on behind the scenes.
Increased VIP levels.
Extended rewards or achievements for immortalising characters (instead of capping it at 600).
Add to the gauntlet rounds achievement, offering honour/ dil/ a citation/ a crew member etc.
This is the only cellphone game I’ve ever played and it’s purely down to my love for the franchise and my awesome fleet. I know adding all of these ideas is unlikely, and I literally just bullet pointed them off the top of my head. I’m sure there’re plenty of other things that could be developed in addition to my list. But if some of these additions were sanctioned, wouldn’t the game be a bit more interesting? @Shan any chance you can have a word? 🖖🏻
Interesting premise, but unlikely. Since TP is privately held, there are not 10K to look up the data. But, based on interview comments by the CEO, there annual revenue was about $45M. Given that DB probably asked for $30-50M for the company (wild guess here) and Paramount/CBS/etc. is charging a significant licencing fee, my two cents is they are making money until you factor in cost of buying Timelines. Whether they took a loan or it is based on the opportunity cost of capital, they are likely not making much on Timelines until they recoup their initial investment. Therefore, they are looking at ways to cut costs and increase revenues. Just a guess, but realistic based on other take over models that I have seen. Also, they are unable to sell off parts of the acquisition to finance the purchase. Remember, the founder started out as a venture capitalist. He expects a return on his investment.
My own suspicion is that they made a bad investment in Disruptor Beam and Timelines was the collateral.
I am still hopeful that they can turn this ship around, do justice to the IP and keep us onboard. I don't buy any of the Covid excuses that are being made for them, the problems with lack of content go back a lot further than just this last year.
We know that the team is small, and if that's a problem then it should be made bigger. This game will only have a healthy future with continued development and iteration. If this is the cash cow that many think it is, then they have an incentive to both maintain the health of the game and try to get us to spend even more on it. This is only achievable by giving us a need for more crew, which means new, deeper features that require a larger roster. This has been the case since 6 months after Voyages released and there was no news of a new feature then.
Essentially the trick of any game as a service is to control supply and demand for the items that players buy. As it stands demand is entirely driven by pretty pictures and not actual game use. Take next months campaign featured reward, Grateful Lwaxana Troi. She's a bog standard Cmd/Dip/Sec character. If you're not a fan of the character she is of very little interest to you. And if you buy the campaign anyway for the other goodies she compounds the problem that TP face selling you another bog standard Cmd/Dip/Sec character.
The only way to address this is to give us new gameplay modes on a regular 6 month schedule. It needs to be this frequent because we know that many of these features are going to be hit and miss. But it's the totality of the options that induces player demand. As argued elsewhere I also think power creep should be more aggressive, but I won't rehash that here.
As always it comes down to why would I spend money to improve my roster when it doesn't actually gain me anything. Even the honor sale doesn't interest me because I'm swimming in Legendary Citations myself (though I do think they have done a lot of damage to themselves by not having one for the many other players who were looking forward to it.)
The most concerning thing to me is that they continue to release actual bad crew like Kevin Uxbridge. I got him because I like the character, but I just can't bring myself to cite him because he just doesn't do enough. This shows that they don't even understand their own game. If I spend my citations I'll want to acquire more. If they give me good crew I will want to cite them. Instead they give me junk.
The amount of cynicism is a bit mind boggling to me. The fact that people are even suggesting they are intentionally sabotaging their own product strikes me as a complete lack of logic.
If the game fails, they lose money/their jobs/their company. How does anyone honestly believe that? Please tell me how that makes any sense.
As others have already said, such as @(HGH)Apollo, @Emperor Borg Drone and @W.W. Carlisle, amongst others, there are a number of much more reasonable explanations.
This last year has been probably one of, if not the most challenging in any of our lives. Literally life changing, in most cases. Think of all the ways that has impacted your own life. Added stress, mental health impacts, logistical challenges. It isn't any different for the people behind the game.
Honestly, I think some of you forget these are real people, not some faceless corporation. Are they perfect? Not even close. Have many mistakes been made? Without a doubt. Are they only human, like you and I? Of course. Please don't lose sight of that fact.
This seems like you are intending to apologize for TP/WRG and make excuses.
The core of this thread is that people have been watching the quality of this gaming experience deteriorate for quite some time. We have seen an increased amount of errors that have drastically impacted events. We have seen an increased level of LTO’s that are of significantly less “value” than we are used to. We have seen our suggestions for improvements either fall upon deaf ears, or be monetized.
10 months ago I could understand the pandemic being used as an excuse for a number of things. But as has been pointed out, software/game design is the easiest profession to adapt to a work from home setting. Maybe in your career the pandemic has afforded you more slack from your customers/employers. As far as most other careers/businesses that I am aware of, the pandemic is “may the strongest survive”.
The cynicism that makes your head explode has been building over a long period of time. A period of time that has demonstrated to a loyal fan base over and over that since the time that wrg/tp acquired this game, the “goal” is to have a skeleton crew keep the lights on, while simultaneously extracting every single penny they can. This gaming community is unique in its passion and dedication to the star trek franchise, but this company is straining that dedication to levels that are becoming increasingly difficult to manage.
Take this anniversary/holiday season for example. A large number of complaints stem from people being disappointed in not having any type of sale or LTO’s that make them spend money. Let me re-type that to make the point more clear for you, people want to spend their money, ON THIS GAME, but the devs are not providing the offers that the people want to buy.
Its not as though the pandemic resulted in a shortage of dilithium portal packs or honorable citations for wrg/tp to sell.
*sigh* This is getting really old. We've discussed this at length, both on this forum and privately. I don't know how else to make my POV clear to you.
Quite frankly, after the abuse you've heaped at me, including yesterday via PM, I have no desire to engage with you. Especially when it's like speaking to a brick wall.
You've clearly got your own POV, and it doesn't budge, no matter how many people counter your points or disagree with you. You manipulate facts until they suit your agenda. I have no desire to waste my time with you anymore. And I won't.
I will simply say this, since it seems you missed the point. Again. These people are human beings, who deserve respect. Especially in times like these. It's not asking too much to give them that.
This seems like you are intending to apologize for TP/WRG and make excuses.
The core of this thread is that people have been watching the quality of this gaming experience deteriorate for quite some time. We have seen an increased amount of errors that have drastically impacted events. We have seen an increased level of LTO’s that are of significantly less “value” than we are used to. We have seen our suggestions for improvements either fall upon deaf ears, or be monetized.
10 months ago I could understand the pandemic being used as an excuse for a number of things. But as has been pointed out, software/game design is the easiest profession to adapt to a work from home setting. Maybe in your career the pandemic has afforded you more slack from your customers/employers. As far as most other careers/businesses that I am aware of, the pandemic is “may the strongest survive”.
The cynicism that makes your head explode has been building over a long period of time. A period of time that has demonstrated to a loyal fan base over and over that since the time that wrg/tp acquired this game, the “goal” is to have a skeleton crew keep the lights on, while simultaneously extracting every single penny they can. This gaming community is unique in its passion and dedication to the star trek franchise, but this company is straining that dedication to levels that are becoming increasingly difficult to manage.
Take this anniversary/holiday season for example. A large number of complaints stem from people being disappointed in not having any type of sale or LTO’s that make them spend money. Let me re-type that to make the point more clear for you, people want to spend their money, ON THIS GAME, but the devs are not providing the offers that the people want to buy.
Its not as though the pandemic resulted in a shortage of dilithium portal packs or honorable citations for wrg/tp to sell.
I applaud you for this comment sir. You were very articulate, while also being restrained, staying on point with the arguments being made and not attacking those on the other side but rather attacking their arguments while rephrasing the arguments that me and those like me have brought forth. Quite telling that people WANT to spend money on this game, but can't find a reason to because the devs keep refusing to give us one.
I will simply say this, since it seems you missed the point. Again. These people are human beings, who deserve respect. Especially in times like these. It's not asking too much to give them that.
Respect is something to be earned. E.g. by pulling a person out of a burning car or digging up someone from an earthquake shattered house. It does not come for granted.
Many people tend to use the term inflationarily but to many others respect means something special. And just existing and doing your job is not special and does not warrant respect.
Wir, die Mirror Tribbles [MiT] haben freie Plätze zu vergeben. Kein Zwang und kein Stress, dafür aber Spaß, Discord und eine nette, hilfsbereite Gemeinschaft, incl. voll ausgebauter Starbase und täglich 700 ISM.
I know there are many suggestions made regarding the game, and it is appreciated.
However right now the focus is on the new feature, it is a big one, it takes up a lot of our resources.
Regarding comments on the pandemic, while we are lucky that our jobs allow us to work remotely, that does not mean there are no side consequences of the pandemic that you are not privy to, and that continue to impact our daily lives.
This is not an excuse, it is just a fact.
It is perfectly understandable to feel disappointed by this or that, and it is fine to say so, in a neutral and cordial manner.
But the constant negativity and derogatory comments are getting a bit much.
I made allowances due to the effect the pandemic has on all of us but I would like to return to productive discussions as opposed to game/studio bashing and interpersonal conflicts.
I hope this new feature will be well received and will restore some of the lack of faith I've seen from some members.
Comments
Yeah I hear ya. I would like better $25 deals. I ponied up $50 for the 9000 dilithium but I wasn’t willing to then pony up another $50.
If the game fails, they lose money/their jobs/their company. How does anyone honestly believe that? Please tell me how that makes any sense.
As others have already said, such as @(HGH)Apollo, @Emperor Borg Drone and @W.W. Carlisle, amongst others, there are a number of much more reasonable explanations.
This last year has been probably one of, if not the most challenging in any of our lives. Literally life changing, in most cases. Think of all the ways that has impacted your own life. Added stress, mental health impacts, logistical challenges. It isn't any different for the people behind the game.
Honestly, I think some of you forget these are real people, not some faceless corporation. Are they perfect? Not even close. Have many mistakes been made? Without a doubt. Are they only human, like you and I? Of course. Please don't lose sight of that fact.
Titled got edited, must have hit a little too close to home.
I am playing since August 2017.
I have seen Voyages and Skirmishes added and apart from that all that was done was QoL stuff.
So unless i fail to remember anything important, all this was done quite a long time ago. Im not saying TP/WRG try to kill it on purpose or dont know what to do but they are doing a great job at copy/paste crew and events every week.
Also saying yeah but they try hard to improve it so we cant critisize them. Thats their job to try hard but even at that sorry but they fail. I admire the time put in but not whats achieved in this frame. Apart from daily dil i dont want to invest anymore and even that at my current savings is not needed. Give me a reason to be excited about the game again and not be a daily pain im doing just because i am this far and dont want all the time i put in be wasted.
I hope that this new feature is the real deal otherwise il just drift along and be bored as heck from the same week in and week out.
What is crazy is that this community is so damn good that this game otherwise be dead already. Look at the shows the websites and the info thats offered its staggering that the game otherwise failed to do justice. I understand they have to make cash but even that they miss out on so many things as menitoned by others that even that they cant do properly. Hire some of community or at least listen to the Feedback given.
Not at all.
The title was simply not appropriate.
It is a good reminder for everyone that we have community guidelines, on top of various notices I've posted recently.
If that were the case, the whole thread would have been deleted. Maybe it says something about the strength of the company that they can afford to leave posts like this in place.
Whatever the case may be, I'm just glad that we can have the conversation.
I also think that due to the pandemic and a few transition issues, there was a gap in development and rollout. As a long time project engineer and programmer, it can take months to move a major change from concept to final delivery. This transition hasn't been smooth for a lot of reasons, but I think they might be playing on this for the sake of keeping the game interesting.
Let's face it, mobile games are going to keep growing, and I seriously doubt that ST:TL is just a "loss leader" to CBS. Money is money, and if they want to get interest renewed in this game, they're going to have to make some changes or else it will get (more) stale.
This is purely speculation on my part, but I think in the next few weeks, possibly around the Chinese New Year, we're going to see some of these changes - and hopefully some decent LTO and honor sales.
Remember, in the press release / chat they gave, they told us exactly what they wanted us to hear. You know, they might just be hiding a few things and fibbing on a few more - just to keep the suspense up.
I hope it's something like that - just wishful thinking on my part.
Collections added perhaps once every couple of months.
Intermittently introduce some extra perks for your shuttles / voyages to keep it fresh.
New events. I actually care less about this, but rotating galaxy/ faction/ skirmish with hybrids does get rather monotonous to say the least.
New gauntlet crew added within a set time frame that we are all aware of. Maybe once every 4-6 months.
Decrepit 5* appearing in voyages.
New honour hall crew added every six months or so.
Quarterly honour sales, don’t deny us the one thing that helps us to at least entertain the pretense of eating into our honour debt.
Even just changing the start screen every now and then to show the lights are still on behind the scenes.
Increased VIP levels.
Extended rewards or achievements for immortalising characters (instead of capping it at 600).
Add to the gauntlet rounds achievement, offering honour/ dil/ a citation/ a crew member etc.
This is the only cellphone game I’ve ever played and it’s purely down to my love for the franchise and my awesome fleet. I know adding all of these ideas is unlikely, and I literally just bullet pointed them off the top of my head. I’m sure there’re plenty of other things that could be developed in addition to my list. But if some of these additions were sanctioned, wouldn’t the game be a bit more interesting? @Shan any chance you can have a word? 🖖🏻
This seems like you are intending to apologize for TP/WRG and make excuses.
The core of this thread is that people have been watching the quality of this gaming experience deteriorate for quite some time. We have seen an increased amount of errors that have drastically impacted events. We have seen an increased level of LTO’s that are of significantly less “value” than we are used to. We have seen our suggestions for improvements either fall upon deaf ears, or be monetized.
10 months ago I could understand the pandemic being used as an excuse for a number of things. But as has been pointed out, software/game design is the easiest profession to adapt to a work from home setting. Maybe in your career the pandemic has afforded you more slack from your customers/employers. As far as most other careers/businesses that I am aware of, the pandemic is “may the strongest survive”.
The cynicism that makes your head explode has been building over a long period of time. A period of time that has demonstrated to a loyal fan base over and over that since the time that wrg/tp acquired this game, the “goal” is to have a skeleton crew keep the lights on, while simultaneously extracting every single penny they can. This gaming community is unique in its passion and dedication to the star trek franchise, but this company is straining that dedication to levels that are becoming increasingly difficult to manage.
Take this anniversary/holiday season for example. A large number of complaints stem from people being disappointed in not having any type of sale or LTO’s that make them spend money. Let me re-type that to make the point more clear for you, people want to spend their money, ON THIS GAME, but the devs are not providing the offers that the people want to buy.
Its not as though the pandemic resulted in a shortage of dilithium portal packs or honorable citations for wrg/tp to sell.
+1 I second all of this.
My own suspicion is that they made a bad investment in Disruptor Beam and Timelines was the collateral.
I am still hopeful that they can turn this ship around, do justice to the IP and keep us onboard. I don't buy any of the Covid excuses that are being made for them, the problems with lack of content go back a lot further than just this last year.
We know that the team is small, and if that's a problem then it should be made bigger. This game will only have a healthy future with continued development and iteration. If this is the cash cow that many think it is, then they have an incentive to both maintain the health of the game and try to get us to spend even more on it. This is only achievable by giving us a need for more crew, which means new, deeper features that require a larger roster. This has been the case since 6 months after Voyages released and there was no news of a new feature then.
Essentially the trick of any game as a service is to control supply and demand for the items that players buy. As it stands demand is entirely driven by pretty pictures and not actual game use. Take next months campaign featured reward, Grateful Lwaxana Troi. She's a bog standard Cmd/Dip/Sec character. If you're not a fan of the character she is of very little interest to you. And if you buy the campaign anyway for the other goodies she compounds the problem that TP face selling you another bog standard Cmd/Dip/Sec character.
The only way to address this is to give us new gameplay modes on a regular 6 month schedule. It needs to be this frequent because we know that many of these features are going to be hit and miss. But it's the totality of the options that induces player demand. As argued elsewhere I also think power creep should be more aggressive, but I won't rehash that here.
As always it comes down to why would I spend money to improve my roster when it doesn't actually gain me anything. Even the honor sale doesn't interest me because I'm swimming in Legendary Citations myself (though I do think they have done a lot of damage to themselves by not having one for the many other players who were looking forward to it.)
The most concerning thing to me is that they continue to release actual bad crew like Kevin Uxbridge. I got him because I like the character, but I just can't bring myself to cite him because he just doesn't do enough. This shows that they don't even understand their own game. If I spend my citations I'll want to acquire more. If they give me good crew I will want to cite them. Instead they give me junk.
*sigh* This is getting really old. We've discussed this at length, both on this forum and privately. I don't know how else to make my POV clear to you.
Quite frankly, after the abuse you've heaped at me, including yesterday via PM, I have no desire to engage with you. Especially when it's like speaking to a brick wall.
You've clearly got your own POV, and it doesn't budge, no matter how many people counter your points or disagree with you. You manipulate facts until they suit your agenda. I have no desire to waste my time with you anymore. And I won't.
I will simply say this, since it seems you missed the point. Again. These people are human beings, who deserve respect. Especially in times like these. It's not asking too much to give them that.
I applaud you for this comment sir. You were very articulate, while also being restrained, staying on point with the arguments being made and not attacking those on the other side but rather attacking their arguments while rephrasing the arguments that me and those like me have brought forth. Quite telling that people WANT to spend money on this game, but can't find a reason to because the devs keep refusing to give us one.
Respect is something to be earned. E.g. by pulling a person out of a burning car or digging up someone from an earthquake shattered house. It does not come for granted.
Many people tend to use the term inflationarily but to many others respect means something special. And just existing and doing your job is not special and does not warrant respect.
Your feedback and concerns have been shared.
I know there are many suggestions made regarding the game, and it is appreciated.
However right now the focus is on the new feature, it is a big one, it takes up a lot of our resources.
Regarding comments on the pandemic, while we are lucky that our jobs allow us to work remotely, that does not mean there are no side consequences of the pandemic that you are not privy to, and that continue to impact our daily lives.
This is not an excuse, it is just a fact.
It is perfectly understandable to feel disappointed by this or that, and it is fine to say so, in a neutral and cordial manner.
But the constant negativity and derogatory comments are getting a bit much.
I made allowances due to the effect the pandemic has on all of us but I would like to return to productive discussions as opposed to game/studio bashing and interpersonal conflicts.
I hope this new feature will be well received and will restore some of the lack of faith I've seen from some members.