[Bridger]

Greeting Everyone!

I think it is no surprise for everyone that since Delta Rising things are not going as good in STO as before and this trend is going on since today.

The attendance to event has dropped dramatically and even if we host event attendance is very limited, so please tell us in all openness:

1.) What type of events you want.

2.) What is you stopping to play events together with your fleet members.

3.) Everything you want to tell us, we can only improve the situation when we know what is going on.

Cheers
Bridger

[WelshAvenger]

Hi Bridger,

Thanks for this thread. Here's my 2 cents...

1) With Age of Discovery coming up, Tier 6 rep and Jem'Hadar toons needing to level their rep up, it might be beneficial to members to have levelling events where we can get together and help new characters/players to progress through the game. Perhaps a 'Grind out for marks' event where we help members in their quest for mrks and resources to help get them the shiny kit from different reputations.

2) The main this stopping me attending events right now is a combination of time zone (I'm PST) and available time. Real life has to come first and between my job, taking care of my mother in law and wanting to spend quality time with my wife, it doesn't leave a whole lot for STO. So any events need to have a lot of notice so that I can book them in to the schedule my wife makes up of visits to relatives, trips into town, groceries etc.

3) This one is on me, in that I don't jump onto TS anywhere near often enough when I'm in STO. Most times I'm there to do a daily run for the event so I'm on for a maximum of twenty minutes or so. I don't check on TS to see if anyone fancies doing runs for marks or spec point experience. Perhaps we could tie in with Cryptic's calendar and when they have a marks or XP weekend, have some people running STF's and missions as much as possible and encourage other to join in to take advantage of the available help.

[Saelanna]

1.) What type of events you want.

I often feel that events are aimed at people that spend a lot of time and money perfecting their build; for a casual gamer like myself talk of parses and DPS can feel a little intimidating (although I’m sure no one means it that way). So maybe an event for people where it doesn’t matter if your gear isn’t perfect and where you don’t feel bad when the team wipes for the umpteenth time.

2.) What is you stopping to play events together with your fleet members.

For me it’s simply a matter of time. I’m Mum to a six year old girl who goes to bed at about the same time as most events start. Anything before 20:30 UFP time is completely impossible for me. I also work shifts so I’m not available every night; I know there’s nothing anyone here can do about that.

3.) Everything you want to tell us, we can only improve the situation when we know what is going on

I can’t think of anything else to add to what I’ve mentioned above. If there’s an event that I feel I can contribute to AND that fits in with my hectic home/work life I would always try to attend.

[Scarlett]

Hey Bridger, thank you for the thread!

1) I have not participated in scheduled events in a while (see below),yet when I did several ... *several* ... months ago, there was very little direction and it was more "what do you guys want to do". So if someone spoke about this or that mark, then the team rolled. I believe this was before you became Head of STO though, so hopefully that changed. To directly answer the question it would be to have a session with a goal or focus: this day we are going after Dyson Marks by putting boots on the ground and hunting a dinosaur, or guess what, there is an Undine balloon that needs popped in the Battlezone, UFP ARE GO! Sure, that's not for everyone, and that's on them.

As for TS, I stopped logging on because, unless it was an event, then no one was there when I was there OR were in a group I either could not join, didn't have permissions to even listen to chat, or were in a game I don't play soooo, I would have been a tenth wheel. At least I think that is how it went ...

2) For my part, I am only able to play when I can. Frankly, I did a lot of my grouping when my son took his nap. Now he old enough to not need them, but too young to be unsupervised and I'd rather play with the little guy than play a computer game. That's not to say I will never join an event in the near future, but even with a weeks lead time, I dislike making promises I am uncertain to keep. So this is on me.

HAVING SAID THAT, coincidentally today I thought to myself to start asking people to play with me. On occasion I'll ask if anyone needs assistance, but maybe I should ask if anyone wants to play with me. If not, then ok

3) See #1 above as that is all I can think of right now.

[Sul-Matuul]

Hi Bridger, thanks for the chance to have a say.

For what it's worth UFP has always been an awesome place to be a part of. There's a huge variety of people here, both on the site and in STO. And everyone is always friendly and willing to help out each other, which is really refreshing these days I can tell you!

1) The sort of event's i'd be interested in would be those not too fussed about DPS scores and aimed at, well really anyone participating. Just grouping up for a few runs of whatever STF's we fancy are often all that's required, even if we all die a bazillion times and fail miserably! Or going to a battlezone and doing a few round tours to earn some rewards.
Heck even teaming up with some newer players to help them out on missions or earning certain rewards they are wanting is something i'll happily do if i'm able.
I'm also a fan of the non-gaming events, things like picture contests, writing contests etc. These are nice as they let those with little time for gaming have a stab at glory as well, or just post their own creations for people to appreciate.

2) So what stops me playing with fleetmates most often i'd have to say is the reliance on Teamspeak. I fully appreciate it's helpfulness in teamplay and that is cool, i'd never suggest dropping it. However I don't even own a microphone and cannot use one in the house for gaming as it's too small here and we have a young child trying to sleep when i'm gaming normally. So really voice comms are just out of the question for me. And i know I can listen in on the chatter, but it feels a bit off tbh as i'm sort of missing all the fun that way.
I'm much happier these days with chatter limited to in-game chat channels. I know members do use the UFPlanets one a lot and have been in impromptu events run through there which wee always fun.

3) Anything else? Hmmm, well i'll say that I think a lot of players are pretty exhausted with STO these days. There's just too many events run back to back, too much grinding for rewards. And on top of that a lot of social elements are dead in the water. I do think this is where the Fleets can help though. Running with your friends can make doing x queue for the millionth time to earn dilithium a real fun experience, not just a dull grindy drag. So perhaps we could have regular events each week where the object is to run a set group of content to help people earn whatever the chosen reward that week is? So say one week people help each other get plenty of Omega marks or something, the next week will be about earning mission reward sets or something. I think Scarlett mentioned something similar.

[Deltron]

1) With Age of Discovery coming up, Tier 6 rep and Jem'Hadar toons needing to level their rep up, it might be beneficial to members to have levelling events where we can get together and help new characters/players to progress through the game. Perhaps a 'Grind out for marks' event where we help members in their quest for mrks and resources to help get them the shiny kit from different reputations.

2) The main this stopping me attending events right now is a combination of time zone (I'm PST) and available time. Real life has to come first and between my job, taking care of my mother in law and wanting to spend quality time with my wife, it doesn't leave a whole lot for STO. So any events need to have a lot of notice so that I can book them in to the schedule my wife makes up of visits to relatives, trips into town, groceries etc.

3) This one is on me, in that I don't jump onto TS anywhere near often enough when I'm in STO. Most times I'm there to do a daily run for the event so I'm on for a maximum of twenty minutes or so. I don't check on TS to see if anyone fancies doing runs for marks or spec point experience. Perhaps we could tie in with Cryptic's calendar and when they have a marks or XP weekend, have some people running STF's and missions as much as possible and encourage other to join in to take advantage of the available help.

Aye. PST time zone is a bummer. the only time I can play is when Im not working. Also, I have been stuck doing my own thing. Marks are not my priority, its leveling another toon and farming salvage and Dilitium for my main, waitng for an upgrade weekend. I look for you guys sometimes.

I agree with the above post. Maybe some leveling events with our Jem'Heezys or when age of Disco drops. I like doing those as a team over marks, which is by all means good too. When AOY was released, that was the best times for me as a STO noob in the fleet.

As far as PvE goes, I think the lack of it is the game and not UFP. when they streamline the mission jouranls, fix the PVE que and what not - when age of Disco drops, I'm sure there will be more options for us as a fleet.

BTW, with the reputation system going up to Tier 6, Ill bet that we'll have plenty of SFTs for the fleet to enjoy.

[Petrarch]

To pitch in my thoughts:

1 - There was a lot of times what happened during the event was not what the event was advertised as. It lacked a bit of structure. Sometimes that happens though, comes with the territory. I'd like to see events were new players and veterans alike get to see the older content, those queues that time have forgot and never pop, events to hoover up marks to help with the rep grind and generally things to relax and have some fun with. I'd like to see things focus more on the content. It doesn't matter if you have a ship that can vaporise the entire Borg Collective singlehandedly or one that hangs on by its fingernails, it's all about the experience and learning. Everything else can fall into place given time.

2 - It's a combo of factors, the foremost being the old timing chestnut. The kids bedtime routine starts at 19:00 and once we get through that, Mrs.P and I like to sit down for a bit. Usually this means, with the odd exception, I'm not around before 21:30 BST and it's also the reason why I don't get on TeamSpeak much anymore, I have to keep an ear open in case the kids wake up. During daytime hours I'm with them almost constantly and while I can still read the forums, I've not really got any time to jump in-game and start blasting. I've always had timing issues even before they arrived and even the events I could/did attend back then are out of the question now.

3 - The lack of activity lately here has bled into STO in-game to a degree as well. Maybe I've just been unfortunate and unlucky with my times, but there's been several occasions when there's been plenty of people online, but no-one's talking to anyone else. I don't think this is a sign of an anti-social sentiment, rather everyone's in a rut and treading water, waiting for something to happen. The grind and constant string of events has tapped everyone out - we're tired, bored and hoping Age of Discovery will give the game the shot in the arm it needs to get going again.

[Bar'ol]

1.) What type of events you want.

What Saelenna echos a lot in how I feel. There is a lot of you that seem to have the resources and free time I dont have then when I group up with the lot of you I feel like I'm not really being best team player since I'm not as invested as everyone else. Especially when it's been required, from the past couple I've played with fleetmates, to be federation. I dont like federation nor do I play federation.

2.) What is you stopping to play events together with your fleet members.

Basically requirement of being fed has stopped me. This could be easily fixed if perfectworld would allow more cross-faction with their stf.

3.) Everything you want to tell us, we can only improve the situation when we know what is going on.

I dont see Chase around much, but I absolutely loved his ground combat events he did. It was instructional, friendly, and great time. Every week I looked forward to that. Once it stopped I sorta just dropped from STO it seems, hah. I just dont see that kind attitude with the other events that were/are ran. Nothing against anyone its just I dont see this type of event leadership like that since.

[Taku]

Greeting Everyone!

Greetings to you!

1.) What type of events do you want?

Honestly, I haven't thought about it. I don't know what I would want. All I ever do are PUGs for the Featured Event for the special Rep reward, or the Red Alerts for marks, or whatever needs to be done for the Endeavour Pack. Otherwise I'm not doing TFOs.

2.) What is stopping you from playing events together with your fleet members?

Uhhh, lack of people. I'm in the [UFPlanets] chat channel, and I check the Fleet Roster, but there are times when I am — literally — the only Fleet member online. Most times it's me and two or three other people. Right now there are six other people online. Oopsy, now there are only five other people. Two on ESD, one on their bridge, one at the Fleet Research Station, and the last one somewhere in Alpha Quadrant space.

3.) Are there any suggestions you have about events? We can only improve the situation when we know what is going on.

I participated in one planned event. It was right after the Colony Invasion was available. We had many randoms, and it went... poorly. The Fleet I was in before UFP had event hosts all around the world, and the event hosts had 2 or 3 backup event hosts. Schedules were worked out based on when people were online the most. In this case it was Wednesdays and Sundays. There would be someone to start a TFO at any time, in any time zone.
I'm US Central Time, but I'm on at all times of the day so time zones don't matter to me, but others have said that there's no planning for their time zones. Maybe see if that can be rectified?
I know that event hosts don't want to sit for hour upon hour waiting to see if enough people (or if anyone) shows up. It's not fun. I've done it. But that's what it takes sometimes. Another other option is instead of announcing a Fleetwide event, break the Fleet down into geographic zones and let each zone plan its own events. Maybe come together once a month for some rolling Fleetwide mega event.
I'm just spitballing. I don't know enough about the UFP makeup to really say what would work.
Still, there might be a kernel of an idea in there somewhere.

Cheers
Bridger

Ta.

[pip]

1.) What type of events you want.

2.) What is you stopping to play events together with your fleet members.

3.) Everything you want to tell us, we can only improve the situation when we know what is going on.

Hey, Bridger!

For myself, personally, I'm not playing the game much any more. The Breach event is the only one I've done in a while (and already regretting the grind; those laser-dinosaurs had better be worth it). If it weren't for grinding this event, none of my toons would even be levelled. So right now, I'm seeking to get in at a time that I can afford, run the event, and get out again to go do other things. Pugging is a good fit for that.

The sad thing is that I'm likely going to be out of the game for a while again once the event's over. I keep an eye on game news, because I always have a passing interest in how the game is developing, and I do buy new ships sometimes when my stipend has accumulated and there's a ship sale. There are some neat things coming out in the new season (random STF queues, which may be the only way to get enough ingame players to play anything but Borg STFs), so I will likely log in to check these things out, but I can't see myself spending a lot of time on it. I'm just off playing other games and doing other things nowadays.

When I was playing more, I think the kind of events that I would be looking for would emphasize the social and fun aspect. If the folks showing up for an event were people that I knew and were fun to play with, that's what I'd be looking for.

Some of the most fun events I've shown up at have had a theme plan for the night: we're going to run tier three ships, or we're going to run TOS ships, or it will be a Klingon night, or whatever. There would be a general plan for the evening: we'd do the Borg STFs first, then a selection of other STF's, then spend some time in the Undine Space Battlezone, then finish out the evening in the Voth Ground Battlezone, for example. We wouldn't necessarily break up into TeamSpeak squads, and battlezone romps are good for lots of action, loose teaming that still involves cooperation, and costume show-offs for those of us who are in this for the Space Barbie aspect.

Other events that I had a lot of fun with were the Khitomer games: everyone played basic ships on an equal footing, and it was a blast.

But generally, the number one thing keeping me out of most events is the fact that I'm just not playing much any more.

Hope this helps, somehow. Good to hear your "voice", Bridger.

[JByb04]

Thank You Admiral Bridger for the opportunity to speak and offer my opinion on this matter.

1.) What type of events you want.

When I originally joined UFP about 4 years ago. I played on the PC. When STO was released on console I decided to switch. To me it was much more economically feasible to buy an XBox instead of investing in a full blown gaming computer to replace my battle worn Samsung Laptop. Initially it seemed like the fleet was doing well. But upon my return I see that all support for the Console Fleets has dropped. I'm still a member of UFP on XBox and I've even contributed to projects. In fact I've finished a couple. So for me I'd like to see UFP return to the console. Otherwise there is no way I'll be able to participate in any sort of events.

If such a return is considered I'd be happy to help in anyway I can.


2.) What is you stopping to play events together with your fleet members.

See above.

3.) Everything you want to tell us, we can only improve the situation when we know what is going on.

STO is at an interesting point. We've had an excellent EP and now somebody new has taken command. Perhaps a new person in charge will lead to great things down in the line. Especially as it relates to PvE and Social Events.

I yield the floor.

[Raz Beraht]

Bridger - Sep.2018

I'd just like to start off by saying this is the best fleet ever, and I've been in a few. I'm looking forward to another seven years here in the UFP, even if I have a history of taking breaks from the game now and then.

What events do you want to see?

Honestly I could go for more forum activities and discussions. I enjoy the build section and learning about the game mechanics, ship comparisons, ect. Even if that section is buried as a subforum of a subforum or something.

The game itself doesn't offer much for compelling group activities. STF's and battlezones are it. Cryptic struggles in this too, if they weren't bribing us with ships I'm not sure places like Risa would ever see a sizable population. The only thing I can think of that might be fresh would be groups doing foundry missions together and then talking about it or posting their perspectives or something. That might just seem interesting in my head though, not sure if it actually would be.

What keeps you from participating?

Most of our events are STF runs. Which is fine and great, but I don't know how to run these STF's and I'm too introverted to just come out and say things like:

-"Hey so how do we do this?"
-"Umm, what borg cube?"
-"WTF just happened?"
-"What am I supposed to be doing?"
-"Damn I just blew up again!"

Now that I'm actually thinking about it, I felt useless and kinda embarrassed after the last STF run I joined and that probably subconsciously dampened my enthusiasm, but it's entirely my fault for not speaking up.

[MatthewFelix]

1.) What type of events you want.

Events that are easy for people to enjoy without having to rely on extreme levels of coordination since dealing with the coordination can prevent people from simply enjoying the game. Not sure how Age of Discovery will factor into things though since people seem to either hate it, love it, or are like me and indifferent until we get more information.

2.) What is you stopping to play events together with your fleet members.

Mostly busy with work and academics.

3.) Everything you want to tell us, we can only improve the situation when we know what is going on.

I've only been able to log in for short periods of time at odd times of the day and often see only a few others online at the same time.

[ForTheGamer]

1.) What type of events you want.
I'm sort of happy with events. Easier is nicer, but since AoD is likely to change a lot of things, I'm not sure what else to add here.

2.) What is you stopping to play events together with your fleet members.
Anytime I've been on the event either has either been cancelled or I've just had the unbearable luck to miss it. There's also the problem that I'm still dealing with my wrist issue.

3.) Everything you want to tell us, we can only improve the situation when we know what is going on.
I find it pretty discouraging that there's hardly anyone on. Or barely anyone chats whenever I've been on. I know some people don't bother with the main chat room (obviously), but I still like using it.

[Wesstan]

Also have a little look at the all time steam charts for STO. its not as if STO is in its peak right now (though i have to say i really enjoyed the Gamma Episodes...):
https://steamcharts.com/app/9900#All