[rsciw]

Ironically Cryptic once reduced the amount of currencies there are in the game to ultimately add more than there ever has been.

Good ol' days of Emblems, Mark of Valor, and what not else all kind of marks. However whenever this topic comes up, I advise caution, careful what one wishes for, as that "removal" is exactly how we ended up with getting the Dil grind and an 8k daily refine limit

[Sul-Matuul]

Oh yeah the currency issue has got to be addressed soon, and i'd tie that in to the whole reputation system too.

They simply must come up with a better way to introduce gear/enemies etc. than just tagging an endless stream of essentially identical grinds onto the end-game. The rep grind each time is identical and offers nothing more than a few different cosmetics and some gear tailored to whaever the current bad guy is. But ironically you don't even need that very gear by the time you earn it all because you've then no longer got a reason to place content containing said enemy. That's gotta change somehow, but I've got no ideas how tbh.

With my own endgame charcters I want a means to take them out into the game world at the high level (or a level i am happy with) and be encaged with something long term and not repetitive. Give me some bigger TFO's, or more in depth battlezones. Give me progression systems that actually reward me with things i'll find useful or need; the personal endeavors are nice bonuses but do i really need them, could I survive perfectly well by ignoring them? Probably yes. Heck, give us raids that require proper planning and are more than just "warp in an kill things for 5 mins". Give us an exploration system. Give us a conquest system for fleets to expand territories. Give us a system to "create you own starship". Lots of potential.

[Oxygenthief]

Wow, thanks for all the replies and outstanding input.

What would you all recommend a newb spend money on first. More specifically I have seen sales almost daily since I've been logging in recently. Which ones should I take advantage of? Which ones will have the best bang for my buck? Should I look into a DLC? Thoughts?

[WelshAvenger]

....Give us an exploration system.

Something that they took away in the first place, then said they'd look at bringing it back. Granted, the old exploration system wasn't perfect, hell, it could be downright tedious at times, but it was there for us to do.

[rsciw]

Give me some bigger TFO's, or more in depth battlezones.

Then you'll get people crying about them being too long in an rTFO or endeavour I agree though. I like to compare it to ESO, as that's the only other MMO I played to a large extent with stuff (SWG was a pure sandbox, not too much in raids apart from maybe slapping Exar Kun around a bit, or sending HK45 packing...). in ESO you have fairly good raids that require some team thought, can't just go in randomly and pew pew magic yourself around, as you'll just end up (pixel-)dead.

Then on top you of that you have trials, where you need a larger group of 8 or 10 I think it was, and run through various phases with large end boss types, and all that gets onto a periodic leaderboard. These things, especially when new, can take quite a while to complete (super experienced can rush through it, as with everything...).

Both the raids and trials were quite involved, often had to spec yourself to maximise your skill set either generally for raids or trials, or specifically for a designated raid / trial. Different gear sets have vastly different bonuses, so running something not useful is a downer for the whole team.

While these things would be fun, I don't quite think that either STO's engine would be capable of it, and/or the majority of the player base would want it, ain't insta gratification these days.

In a way however the original Borg STFs were a shot in that direction, had to think what to do, how to do, who does what. But they were still quite short, even in the old days (though I remember the Cure ground once taking us over an hour to complete )

[Thelin th'Zarath]

Stick with it. It'll be around for a while longer. This new Endeavour system is guaranteed for about 3 more years of grinding, while they do a little more, soo the 5+ years isn't unreasonable. Heck the original Everquest and it's sequel are still around and I remember playing them.

Unless someone can make a deal with CBS (or whomever will come out if a re-merger of the companies happens) for a new multiplayer and/or MMO game that can outdo STO, this game still has control of the market. They just have to constantly push new stuff in, or it could get stale rather quick again, even with endeavours alone.

Off topic: I do hope a dev company can deliver a game with being more in depth then this 'micro-management everyone is a Captain/Ship' game (like STO was originally intended to be before that became vapourware), say like a mix of Bridge Crew, and actually being able to move around the ship and do jobs as a crew and explore, etc. Until that time STO is going to be around. Wouldn't be surprised though, if they do try to make an STO II, should they find a better engine then the one they re-purposed form Champions Online. And if they're smart they'll keep this one going for people that might want an older change of pace, while starting from scratch on another version. *shrugs* Just my opinion though.

Who knows what the future will bring? Until then, stick with this. It's the best we have to share Trek with each other in a simple way.

[Sorotia]

I don't believe CBS will pull a "Lucas Arts" and get another team to develop a new game and sunset this one... LA as to what happened with SWG and SWTor... So, seeing how Star Trek is getting more traction recently, definitely more life in STO.

Well the devs aren't the greatest, but they haven't done anything like SOE did to drive SWG completely into the ground like they did with the NGE, not to mention probably aren't a lot of people lining up to do anything as Star Trek gaming is a really tricky slope. There have been some good games but there have been some real bombs including one of the last Star Trek game to be developed which was based off the Kelvin timeline.

Honestly the lifespan of STO depends on the writers....if they can progress the game...perhaps do new things and come up with new races....there is always the Andromeda galaxy.