Uglesett

You just have to sympathize with the poor modelers and animators who do some absolutely excellent work, only to have most of the customer base associate all that hard work with something terrible.

This. I may have my disagreements with @Crysantos and @MrConway when it comes to some of the decisions they're contractually obliged to defend, but if I had their job I'd probably have flipped my desk and reached for my bar cabinet long time ago. So kudos to them for not needing to be committed to mental care (yet )

Honestly, you'd think they'd be running low on feet to shoot themselves in by now.

That doesn't actually help when the problem is that the research bureau is a completely unattractive option for anyone who doesn't have too much free time on their hands. Even if progress on a mission gives me enough research points to almost get the legendary module I was working on, that's not going to help when I'm never going to get more research points.

So, how are players who do are never going to reset lines going to get them? I'd still like to know just what is the reasoning behind making the game less and less welcoming for casual and semi-enthusiastic players. You can't sustain this game on only the hardcore enthusiasts and the whales, like any other f2p game you need a stable base of "ordinary" players to keep the servers populated and give the whales someone to play against.

Alright, fess up. Who's the joker who voted "yes"?

Or, you know, you could just leave the existing missions as they are, and make the research bureau an alternative option. As I said in the thread in the development forum, what is it with the developers seemingly doing everything they can to make the game frustrating and irritating for the more casual players, while simultaneously trying their level best to burn out the enthusiasts? What on earth is this supposed to accomplish? Even the most hardcore players are probably going to get bored of regrinding again and again, while making things inaccessible to the more casual players is just going to make them feel unwelcome and stop playing. I'm not going to reset lines, because I don't have that kind of time to play. All this is accomplishing is making players like me feel less and less welcome, and face it, you need the casual players as well to keep the servers populated. Alienating a large proportion of the player base just to wring a bit more out of the small hardcore fanbase is not going to do the game any good neither in terms of longevity nor financially.

Thread in the development blog forum:

That said, what is it with the developers seemingly doing everything they can to make the game frustrating and irritating for the more casual players, while simultaneously trying their level best to burn out the enthusiasts? What on earth is this supposed to accomplish? Even the most hardcore players are probably going to get bored of regrinding again and again, while making things inaccessible to the more casual players is just going to make them feel unwelcome and stop playing.

Stop breaking the game for people who don't have all the time in the world to play! The current method of getting them works as it is. Fix the things that are broken, not the ones which aren't. That said, how much are people willing to bet that this is just something they throw up for people to be outraged at so they deflect anger from the Puerto Rico event?

Erm. Well, this is a pile of poo. While most of the legendary upgrades are a bit cack, there are a few that I would like to get still. But I'm never going to be arsed to regrind a line, I don't have that kind of time to play.

I might end up completing it, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it if I don't.

What's sad is that that's still going to be easier than getting her through this event

Behold, a classic example of someone who Does Not Get It™ Nobody's disputing that WG has a right to make money off their product. What's bad about this event is: -Deceptive marketing beforehand. The Puerto Rico was presented (and I'm not talking about the PTS here, I'm talking about marketing material) as far more accessible than it actually is. -Obfuscation of actual costs (the full effect of the doubloon boosters and the fact that they would not in themselves be enough) -Abusing psychological mechanisms such as "fear of missing out" and sunk cost fallacy to manipulate players into spending more than they would be willing to if costs were clear upfront -The same mechanisms can entice some players to spend a literally health-threatening amount of time in the game Need I go on?

Yeah, this cheeses me off more than it probably should, simply because even though the rewards in this case are a bit cack, I still like completing the collections. But this one is a royal pain in the arse to complete. Heck, even if you buy the Gorizia (which I'm not going to do), it's a bit of a coin toss whether you manage to complete it or not.

The sensible thing to do if they actually cared about their reputation would have been to halt the event already on last Friday, refund all doubloons spent on the shipyard so far and pull the PR from the accounts of everyone who got it so far. And then they could rework the directives and doubloon costs and restart the event this week.

If you check the "apology" thread in the news forum, you'll see what's required in order to get the Puerto Rico depending on how many doubloon boosters you buy. But the short of it: You're ed. If you really want to get it without shelling out doubloons, better move your gaming gear to the toilet, find a trained health care professional who can hook you up with an IV drip and get hold of someone who can sell you a lot of amphetamine. (Amphetamine's probably fairly expensive, though. So doubloons are likely the cheaper option.)

Sooo.... people with addictive personality traits who are prime targets for this kind of "marketing" strategy deserve to be exploited and have any existing issues they have worsened? Part of the problem with things like skinner box mechanics (loot boxes) and FOMO-based marketing is precisely that too many people have absolutely no idea how effective and dangerous that kind of psychological manipulation is.

Benham grind was a natural step in seeing how far they could push people which they followed up with the Puerto Rico event now. The only reason it didn't get more criticism than it did was because people were too busy rioting over the NTC to really pay attention to the runaway train on the "special event" track.

To be fair to @Crysantos and @MrConway, they're sort of contractually obliged to try to put out this dumpster fire, even if all they've been handed to do it with is a damp cloth. Cut the poor guys some slack, if I had their job I'd probably just flip my desk over and then follow the example set in that gif @nambr9 posted earlier.

You forgot the Benham grind.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: This forum lacks a "facepalm" reaction option. (BTW, you may want to edit the text after the picture, it's hard-coded black and impossible to read on dark themes)