Ok so not the best news in the world.. Some interesting stuff on end game though.. Not insane about the skill cap but at least bridge officers can continue to get points..

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79456

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Heh.. yours featured less swearing... and was more polite... im impressed

But yea.. endgame doesnt seem all that appealing either.. basically they are avoiding saying "we've not completed endgame"

Like I said in the other thread, this is reason for me to cancel my lifetime subscription and just pay per 1 - 2 months instead.

I really loved the idea of infinite skill points and really maxing out a character. I know it was gonna take ages, but that would be okay since I planned on playing the game for a really long time.

Now I'm not so sure about that anymore. Anyways, I'm hoping for a quick reply from Cryptic about the issue. Maybe it's all just 1 big misunderstanding or something, that's at least what I'm hoping for.

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it wont be a misunderstanding, craig has sadly released stuff in the past in interviews obviously before the marketing department managed to get hold of it and make it sound more agreeable. That cap will come and sadly it will change the dynamics of the game, it will make it boring at endgame, and hard mid game as youl be constantly worried about doing the wrong thing skill wise.

Once this is implemented the forums will fill with "amazing builds" that will make you feel like youve done it all wrong and should delete your character, then the mathmatitians will come in and say its all false and everyone should use this build as it is 0.000001 % more efficiant.. and everyone will switch to that giving us all the same setup..

All i can say is... HA i was right

sorry.. just after last nights "this game will go on for ages as the fans love it" conversation.. this is just anouther nail in the coffin.

Exactly yeah.. I've been a long time fan of what they've done so far and really love the game, but this change instantly turned me into a sceptic who wants to cancel his lifetime order.

I don't mind that they lower the level from 45 to 50, that's not really a big change but this cap... Unbelievable how stupid it is, it brings a ton of disadvantages with it.

If I could ask Craig 1 thing right now it'd be: "What the hell were you thinking??"
Probably followed by some nasty words and telling him to lay of whatever drugs he was using at that moment.

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Well.. TBH.. Its about money guys.. Plain and simple.. Why would they let you basically create a super char and have no reason to make a new char when they are going to sell (Micro Transaction) char slots. When I saw how the points were going to work originally my business brain went "HU? That's not going to stay like that" The problem is they said it would be one way and are changing it so close to release. Yes that is not good but it is totally within their rights and as far as a business move its a smart one.. They will possibly sneak it buy allot of people and then the NON gaming trek fans wont even pay it any mind.

In the end.. These people are about making money.. They have to be and this is probably, on paper at least, a good move. They may lose some lifetime subs and a few purchases.. But in the end 3 months down the road, no one will remember anything about it and they will have their 1 or 2% profit from char slots sold. And if you don't think that small amount is worth it to them I have seen companies do odd things for far less..

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Very true, i mean its not unexpected , but it is just like cryptic to spring stuff like this on close to release, they like there sudden announcements and stupid pre-launch actions. But they have once again destroyed one of there original sales pitches, just like the genesis content, they've used it to its potential to attract players then changed it... it may be good business sense but its very bad morale and company reputation wise.

It's not even good business sense. The damage they did today to their companies reputation is huge, it'll cost them a lot of marketing effort to undo those damages.
If this hits the big media who don't like this change it'll cost them even more.

Pissing costumers off is never good business sense, promising a thing and then not living up to it is one of the worst things any company can do and if it happens too much people lose faith in the company and won't buy their products anymore.

If I tried something like that with a costumer of us I'd have to answer to the director himself why we lost a 50k client due to me breaking promises. We sell our software so well and have a high reputation because we live up to our promises, several huge sales (in the 100k - 500k euro range) have been made because of mouth to mouth talk between costumers and potential costumers.

Reputation = everything.

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Well, having a cap on skill points forces you to actually think about what you are doing down the road instead of mindlessly pressing the up arrow button. Keeping the continuous BO point is good, because you may decide to switch from a science to an escort, forcing you to promote/acquire more tactical officers and train them.

One thing they should do is to release some common mistakes new players make and add the idea that the Player Skills page has more than just Starship Captain and Team Leader skills to ensure you don't realize it as a Lieutenant Commander and get angry at the game.

I don't think the new cap and the issue with the skill points is that bad, maybe you won't be able to have points in every skill but at least for me that isn't the goal. I want to specify in a certain area.. If I want my char to be good in a completely different area then I will make a 2nd one..

(Maybe the years in Wow flawed me there...)

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=/\= ======================== =/\=
Captain Jonathan Barrett
Valkyries Tactical Division Delta Squad
The 12th Fleet
United Federation of Planets
USS Styx Rapier Class
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Never draw fire; it irritates everyone around you. (Murphys Law of Combat)