The Official Star Trek Timelines Free to Play Discussion Thread

Shattered...everything

I couldn't agree with you more, like I stated in the TA announcement:

 

I open my iPhone, hey look I got a notification,

"Captain, your chronitons have regenerated"

Annnnd uninstalled. Really a shame too. I could have gotten into this game and I would have spent some money. But you want to put in an energy system then you get uninstalled and no money whatsoever.

Billy

 

I'm not amazed that there are a bunch of people crying about free to play. It's called patience. You don't have to pay anything. It's really not bad. Not great but not bad. They will improve it because they're committed to the game like Game of Thrones. It's really stupid to delete something because there is energy. If you have a life, your going to put down a game once and a while. So play and put it down. It will not hurt you. But it's really not bad. Too bad you really never gave it a chance.

 

I give every game a chance. This game had its chance and failed badly. I played the game for about an hour.

This site is here to discuss games. It's not here to call other people out and call them stupid or say they are crying. We shouldn't demean other people. How about you stick to the merits of the game.

Energy based timer systems do nothing but gouge players out of money or force them not to play. I want to pay for a game and play it however I like to play. If a developer wants to use an energy timer they could atleast put in a one time purchase for players like myself and leave the energy system in for players like yourself. They can easily make everyone happy and make money in the process. Since they didn't it is not worth my time to waste on it. The practice must be stopped. It's not about free to play. Free to play can be done right. I purchase IAP all the time. It's just done very badly in this game.

Billy

 

When people come here and bemoan immediately about free to play or delete it just because their is a timer it's hard to take their comments about the game seriously because they only played for five minutes to an hour. I was calling anyone stupid, I merely said its stupid to come here and get upset about it when Disruptor Beam, who really works hard to work with their customers to create a quality game (see Game of Thrones), isn't even given the chance. Truthfully you can play this game for however you want. Think about it. You said you'd played for a while and then saw the notification. You deleted it specifically because of a timer. Until you elaborated your reasoning for not liking the game was because it took a notification for you to realize their was timer. Then as you said you deleted it.

Note that in your reply to me. You mentioned nothing about gameplay. The only complaint you had was the timer, again. So you based your entire experience of the game on timers... Which you even said you could have gotten in to the game. They were the only thing stopping you.

If you want to call me out on supposedly demeaning people and not sticking to the merits of the game make sure that you do as well. And there's a lot more to the game than timers...

 

Are you saying the game is garbage, with the game should be towed away AS garbage?

 

Both, and then some!

 

This game is a love letter to everything an opportunistic developer wishes F2P could be. They've rolled out every trope. Timers everywhere, 'stamina', gatcha (characters, equipment, ship parts), speed it up (with ludicrous costs in premium currency and applied to drop-dead boring game mechanics (is skinning it with a love letter to Star Trek enough to hide it?) which serve no thematic role beyond monitization), and a VIP system which adds a new facet to every aspect of monitization (governs amount of refreshes that can be done, increases rewards). To say nothing for the ludicrous equipment system. It's some kind of gearception where in items are needed to level and advance characters but those items may need to be made of items made of items: all breaking down into an obnoxious grind as early as chapter two, quickly distracting from the fun you originally experience in the in-game characterization of Q.

Edit: Also, LOL at the 'buy the Enterprise'* $25 limited time IAP it tosses at you shortly after you start—a powerful but ultimately mid tier at best ship which will trivialize earlier ship combat events but do little to speed progress as alongside ship battles you must also clear away missions which focus on characters (rare ones will take a lot of time to get or premium currency).

*Also comes with some VIP points and almost enough premium currency to speed up a single multi-hour timer (perhaps one of the crappiest uses to which premium currency might be applied in this game).

I'm on an iPhone 6 and it never locks up. Or at least hasn't. That said, it does crash rather frequently (not on a predictable timeline—typically during network connections).

 

Trekkie here. Not a big fan of F2P and James sums it up pretty well in the last post. You won't get mid/high level crew or ships unless you pay.

At least I have only spent one evening trying it out.

Starting my wait for the next decent Trek game.

 

Hmm, for a legit Star Trek game on mobile that's not free to play? Maybe something like the Telltale games. $5 initially, then $5 per expansion pack. It just depends on the game. Like I know you know (I promise I'm not trying to be snarky), you can't just convert a F2P game to a paid game when it was designed from the ground up around a F2P structure. So it's hard to imagine this particular game as anything too similar if it were paid.

If it were a one time purchase, anywhere from $10-$20 based on the type of game.

 

How would this game be as a premium game? No timers, removal of all the gotcha and upgrade/evolve elements, everything rebalanced, and just play through all of the quests? Probably not, because once you strip out all of the freemium aspects, you're left with a storyline/missions that are driven by some rather uncompelling game mechanics.

I'm not against the model that this game took. I didn't expect it, but I'm not opposed. I am still undecided if I will stick with this game or not, though. The actual gameplay is pretty weak. Just pick some crew members, match them up with the right mission, and then the game just "rolls some dice" and tells you if you succeeded or not. The ship battles (so far that I have seen) boil down to watching a cut scene while tapping buttons that aren't on cooldown.

If the actual gameplay action was more involved, then I think this would get a better reception. I'm hoping things get deeper as I go, but I'm skeptical.

 

Well, that depends? I've spent hundreds (if not thousands) in the App Store so I'm thrilled to pay for a good game or app. And I think $15 is a bargain for a good game (which I pay pretty regularly for remakes of classics and would for many games I've enjoyed if they had been priced in that range).

I'd be even happier to spend with small-window returns.

But before I could say "yes" here, Star Trek Timelines would have to have been a game designed to be enjoyable. As it stands, it's overflowing with game mechanics designed specially to hinder and frustrate players into spending money. It's not so much the money thing I have a problem with: it's the fun thing. In F2P, frequently and in my opinion, developers lean heavily enough on the monitization mechanics that the fun side of gameplay takes a significant hit, and in cases like this we're left with a transparent and uninspired hamper wheel (basic grind small progress grind cycle) which is concealed only by fan service.

I love Star Trek, though, and I have a feeling if these same efforts had been put into building a game focused solely on being a fun experience I would have loved to spend good money. Even with a degree of grind and randomization built in.

That said, I know well I'm not the typical audience in the App Store. I'm more willing to spend money on a premium title than sales statistics suggest to be the norm. Although I'm also willing to spend some money on a F2P game if I actually end up *enjoying* it once I've played long enough to sort out the grind vs. fun balance. But it seems these F2P developers really care about luring in the much smaller percentage who will pay hundreds if not thousands to polish turds.

 

It's definitely a good strategy. At least in terms of success and monitization in today's App Store. And looking through the slideshow (kind of hard on mobile) it seems like it's an explanation of the market and economics behind the choice? I understand the incentive to develop these games.

I object as a player in that I believe I can get a great deal more in gameplay value for the relative amount of money spent from other titles. And even if I was comfortable spending $2,000 on a game like this to break down those barriers, the elements designed to frustrate, the grind, the scheduling element—I'd have spent a lot of money on a game which, at its best, is still not as enjoyable as another well crafted game designed for fun first (whatever our passion: first person shooters, an RPG). F2P games like this hook many of these whales in a far more abusive (and very deliberate) psychological way and they're designed to keep them hooked indefinitely. GungHo knows I've been that guy before.

 

A good strategy? For what? For whom? Why are you ignoring what's been said here? As someone with a gaming culture background dating back to the 80s, I could care less if the whole freemium "gaming" industry (developers and companies) collapsed. In fact, it would make me happy.

And btw, why don't you guys mark/tag your articles about CoC / Hearthstone etc. as "advertorial"? You're not treating your audience with respect imho.