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Discussion Thread: Space Metagame Changes

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  • trekkiematttrekkiematt Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    Please Please Please put an EXCHANGE at the FLEET STARBASE..IT MAKES NO SENSE why there isnt one there. thanks and cant wait for Delta Rising
  • naz4naz4 Member Posts: 1,373 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    One thing that would kill a lot of things in STO would be more stuns, confuse, placates, disables, blocks. Far worse in AOE mode.

    as if we don't have enough of them.

    Oh and power creep by increasing the amount of modifiers on weapons, consoles etc etc. Might as well get my parrot sat on the keyboard pecking the space bar at that point.
  • ilandarakilandarak Member Posts: 4 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    I've seen too many builds focusing around DPS where they stack 5 of the same thing, like 5 DB with CrtDx3, and then abuse the crtd of 5 tactical vulnerability locator/exploiters. This is seriously ridiculous and just taking advantage of Stat stacking to the point of 134% critical chance. It takes any real challenge out of the game.

    I would suggest only weapon or console of the same stats should be applied (ex: only one Crtd x 3 dbb bonus would apply, even if you have 5 slotted), and the same goes for consoles of the same type or bonus (no vulnerability locators x 5 +beam. If they want to have 5, they have to be of different types. )

    Also, if carriers and fighters are going to be so expensive, make them more useful. The fighters/support ships are severely lacking in AI and power. Now I don't expect my Delta Fliers to take out a Borg tactical cube, they should respond better to commands like interception (with the ability to take heavy hits for you, and shoot down regular torpedoes based on skill) or maybe use them like living torpedoes, like the Jem'Hadar, and have commands that order them to ram enemy ships (making them similar to the Avenger class quantum ordinance, flying straight at a target and firing everything until impact). Or attack patterns for them like strafing runs, kamikaze, or target subsystems.
  • hunterguyver4hunterguyver4 Member Posts: 64 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    I would like to post my ideas which some of my fellow gamers have discussed whether on Facebook or in-game. I gotta warn you its a laundry list, but if you think some ideas are worth looking at further and implementing for Delta Rising I think some of them are pretty good.

    1. I would love to be able to change the outfits and appearances of my rewarded and purchased aliens; Jem Hadar, Reman, Breen, Romulan purchased from Fleet Embassy, Orion, and Voth thus far. I would love it if the Romulan Republic even the Federation/Romulan Hybrid uniform were available if we are able to change the outfits of our Reman and Romulan BOFFs. I also would like to dress my Orion in other stuff then Klingon, Orion, Omega, and Voth outfits.
    2. I also noticed that the Jem Hadar, Breen, and Voth have transporter patterns different from the Federation, Klingons, Romulans and Remans. Instead of using the traditional Federation beaming pattern for those first 3 listed could we have beam patterns that match their races. I would even llike to see my Liberated Borg BOFF have the Borg Transporter pattern
    3. I would love to see some more creepy levels like the mission "What Lies Beneath. " I love. . . . LOVE replaying that mission because it reminds me of Classic DOOM/DOOM 2/DOOM64, even Unreal and Dead Space.
    4. For the Rep Traits is it possible to have a fifth slot to represent all the current 5 reputation systems for both Space, Ground, and active that way we could have a trait.
    5. The next group of ideas deal with the Odyssey Class. I love the Odyssey Class especially my Ops Odyssey. But I would love to see it be the flagship class that it is in the game. So my ideas for that beautiful girl are the following
      a - Maybe have a fifth Foreweapon maybe for Duel Heavy Cannons while keeping all 4 aft-weapons
      b - All BOFF stations upgraded to Commander or Lieutenant Commander or at least have the option all stations Universal
      c - A universal console if we already have or by all 3 Odysseys that would allow us to launch both the Aquarius and Chevron and use them at the same time like the MVA Escort
      d - while on the topic of consoles, for those of us who buy they ship bundles and use all three on one ship I was thinking maybe "Bundled Ships" like the Odyssey, or rhe Andorian, or Vesta, et-cetera have a row just dedicated to either consoles for those bundles or universal console.
      e - last but not least for the Ody, and well any ship actually, a consumable combative Captain's Yacht like the Scorpion Fighters reward from "The Vault" mission. But instead of launching 3 yachts it only launches one, with a cool down of 10 minutes.
    6. Ship interiors. I was wondering if there are plans for interiors that are more 25th Century than 24th Century, if we are going to get more areas to explore especially if we have alien ships like the Jem' Hadar, Breen, Tholian, Cardassian, and Risian. . . especially the Risian. Was kind of let down that the interior was the standard Federation interior.
    7. I would love to see Omega Marks and Neural Processors awarded than just the Elite PvEs or The Borg Missions be revamped into something like what we do on New Romulus, the Voth Ground and Space areas, and the Undine Battle Zone.
    8. If we have BOFFs from the Exchange program, like my Orion, I would like to have an option in the Omega Reputation system, of doing Honor Guard Armor/Shield/Weapon projects for my Orion.
    9. For those of us who hit the Diplomatic Rank "Ambassador" I think we should be able to explore planets in Klingon space. Maybe even being able to explore planets in the Tau Dewa sector.
    10. I am curious to know if we are going to get Cardassian BOFFs, or any other Non-Federation BOFFs we can have whether we are part of the Federation, Klingon, or Romulan faction
    11. Since I base my characters off my appearance, as a little quirk I would like to be able to change whether he holds his weapons left handed (which I am), right handed, or be ambidextrous along with all my other BOFFS.


      Well thats all I can think off at the moment. I hope I brought some good ideas to the table for you to at least think of. If they aren't then at least I had the chance to suggest them. But if you like these ideas and decide to implement at least one or two, I am glad I was able to help :)


      *Edit - 2:16am 8-21*
      I got some more Ideas

      How about maybe when Season 10.5 comes around Planet Baku along with both Baku and Sona' make a come back as a Vacation place to revival Risa :);)

      The Nexus and Veridian III missions would be sweet. Exploring the remains of the saucer of Enterprise-D maybe finding James T. Kirk's burial mound.

      For Bridge packs can we get authentic Bridge and interiors of NX-01, NCC-1701-A,B,C,D, and E, USS Excelsior from Star Trek VI, even the bridges of the Kelvin, Enterprise, and Vengeance from the 2009 and 2013 movies. I would SO buy all of those listed Bridges in one fell swoop.
      "Richard, I'll give you one word of advice, you shouldn't anger a demigod" - Lord Archanfel, Supreme Zoalord and leader of the Chronos Organization in the series Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor series.
    1. lucho80lucho80 Member Posts: 6,600 Bug Hunter
      edited August 2014
      artemisa0k wrote: »
      Deflector pulse : temporarily rendered deflector ability's unusable but causes the deflector to fire off pulse's essentially turning the deflector into a additional single target cannon temporarily.

      Out of all that I read, this sounds like an awesome extra ability. It sounds like something that would work with part gens. It would be awesome if it ignored 50%+ shields.
    2. peterconnorfirstpeterconnorfirst Member Posts: 6,225 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      Please Please Please put an EXCHANGE at the FLEET STARBASE..IT MAKES NO SENSE why there isnt one there. thanks and cant wait for Delta Rising

      Yes. Pls do this.
      animated.gif
      Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
      felisean wrote: »
      teamwork to reach a goal is awesome and highly appreciated
    3. welcome2earfwelcome2earf Member Posts: 1,746 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      New races are not really related to space metagame changes. Specific races can affect the metagame, like those Romulan BOFFs with traits that buff vapers did.

      That said, ALL races should have boffs that have the potential for a passive space trait.

      All. Of. Them.
      T93uSC8.jpg
    4. hawks3052hawks3052 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      My 2 wishes for Delta Rising

      Please make it more necessary that a class stays with the ship type it belongs to.
      Science Vessels for Science Officers, Escorts fro Tacs and Cruisers for Engineer.

      Secoond wish: Buff the science class out of it support only role and give it more meaning. It's not fur to play science for a long time now.
    5. mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      That said, ALL races should have boffs that have the potential for a passive space trait.

      All. Of. Them.
      I tend to agree.
      Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
    6. havamhavam Member Posts: 1,735 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      so a mature level 60 with a full tree will completely dominate a fresh level 60

      didnt we just go through this with rep passives?
      This is not any different than a level 50 dominating a level 40. The more time you spend on your character, the better it gets.

      so in the current meta lvl 40 and lvl 50 don't pew together in the queues. IS this going to be changed, or what gonna happen with lvl 60 characters with infinite sp, vs fresh players?

      In addition, the current meta sees pvp as an intrinsic reward, meaning you gain siltch reputation advancement points, marginal Dil and FM (could have sworn those were Borg in Kerrat, and all borg content was supposed to award Omega marks, but lets not digress).

      Can we change the new meta to something were people who like to pvp don't marginally progress in the lvl 60 infinite skill tree? Just for a change. Can we just once have equal rewards for pvp and pve in this brave new meta?
    7. darramouss1darramouss1 Member Posts: 1,811 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      Aux 2 Batteries - This is the number one ability that needs to be adjusted. It is waaaaay OP.

      Attack Pattern Omega - No ability should do so many things. Granted, it is a high level ability but even so, it VASTLY outperforms every other high level ability in the game. "Sir, we have warp plasma clogging our engines and a tractor beam is locked on us!!" "Don't worry, ensign, just go up, up, down, left, right and it will all magically clear itself." What a load of rubbish.

      Photonic Officer - VASTLY underpowered. Needs to be relevant.

      Boarding Party - VASTLY underpowered. Again, needs to be relevant.
    8. angrytargangrytarg Member Posts: 11,001 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      Safe for completely recreating the whole space fight mechanic, I think a valuable improvement would be to rework Engineering Team, Science Team and Tactical Team.

      Right know, these abilities clear each and every debuff at theit lvl 1 incarnation. Why? If hit by a lvl 3 debuff, why can I clean this with a lvl 1 ability?

      All teams should have an high (90-100%) chance to clear debuffs of their own level, a half chance to clear debuffs of a higher level and a quarter chance to clear debuffs two levels above.

      Make it a tough choice wether a tac heavy ship slots attack patterns at LTC or a TT3 for a chance, just in case some high level boarding parties hit.

      Boarding Parties on the other hand should become viable. Only use shuttles when the enemies shields are up, when they are down use transporters. Add DOFF modifiers like "Sappers" that grant a chance at causing hull damage via plant explosives, add a chance to temporarily capture a boarded vessel (for some seconds it becomes an NPC ally) and so on.

      When we talk about teams and BP, find some decent use for crew of a ship. Higher crew results in reduced team cooldown, better resistance against boarding parties (the afformentioned capture or sap chance should be influenced by the amount of resisting crew) and so on.
      lFC4bt2.gif
      ^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
      "No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
      "A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
      "That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
    9. yreodredyreodred Member Posts: 3,527 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      Rework of Space Weapons
      I always found Space Combat in STO lacking of Trek feeling. Low level Space Combat strangely feels much more like Star Trek than later level or endgame.
      Cannons and Beam weapons should be more even.
      The existing space weapon mechanic may be good for a generic Sci fi game, but in Star Trek things work different.
      Another thing is that bugs me is the fact that even the smallest ships can mount the biggest weapons, but some of the biggest ships cannot. This doesn't make sense. It also contradicts to everything that was shown on TV or Movies.
      The main problem is some ppl use singular cases (like the Defiant that had phaser cannons) and translate it to the whole game. This doesn't work and results in a chaotic disorder.
      In Trek ships work very simple actually, bigger = better. (general guidance)

      I have developed several approaches to make STOs space combat feel much more like Star Trek.

      First: Complete rework
      The idea is to even cannon and beam weapons abd to make faction specific weapons unique for each faction.
      This would require to overhaul all energy based space weapons in STO and realignment in Weapon Tiers.
      Tier I to III are open for all factions, while Tier IV is faction specific.

      Tier I: Cannon/Beam "Turrets"; low overall damage, 360°
      Tier II: Single Cannons / Singe Beam Banks; mid overall damage, 180°
      Tier III: Dual Cannons / Dual Beam Banks; high overall damage, 100°; 200 DPS
      Tier IV: Dual Heavy Cannons (KDF); very high overall Damage (spike capable), 45° (1 per ship)
      Tier IV: Single Heavy Cannons (RR); high overall damage (spike capable), 90° (1 per ship)
      Tier IV: Beam Arrays (Starfleet); mid overall Damage (spike capable), 300° (1 per ship)
      whereas the last tier of heavy weapons should be faction exclusive.
      (DPS values are just examples to show the relations between weapons tiers)


      Second: Make Canon/Beam weapon visuals an option
      This would be a much easier option, but it would keep the current system without "fixing" it's flaws.
      It would simply require a right click option that let us switch from Cannon to Beam weapon visuals and vice versa.
      All other stats stay the same. When entering a PvP area the weapons visuals would be reset to its original setting.


      Third: Reworking ship weapon slots
      The idea behind this one is to make Ships more faction specific, while keeping the current system.
      While fore/rear weapon slots make sense at escorts and other DHC capable ships, i think side facing weapon slots could be a Starfleet specific thing. Starfleet Cruisers and other beam weapon "specialists" could have 3fore/3aft/1right/1left weapon slots for example. (other combinations like 3f/1a/2r/2l are also possible of course)
      This would allow much more individual ship types and would make ships of various factions feel real different (instead of Starfleet cruisers being just bad versions of other factions "cruisers".)
      Everyone who has played Starfleet command III should know the the basic idea.


      Fourth: "Merging" Weapons (aka less is more)
      When equipping the same type of weapon fore of aft, there could be a option let it appear as one single weapon.
      (the game could handle this as if all weapons would fire at the same time.)
      This would GREATLY enhance Star Trek feeling. Many ppl i know have said that STO feels the most like Star Trek at the lower levels, because ships have much fewer weapons.
      This proposal would basicly revitalize this.


      Fifth: Slowing down Combat
      One thing that always bugged me was the super fast pace of damage and repair in space combat. I mean it's highly unrealistic to have a ship be repaired from mere 20% hull damage to full 100% in seconds. (it would be ok for shields but hull damage being repaired so fast doesn't make sense)
      My suggestion would be to increase Hull about x3 (at least), while lowering hull repairing Abilites CD about the same amount.
      Shields and shield repairing abilities would stay the same.
      Another possibility would be to give each ship hull much higher resistances (maybe starting at 50%) by default, while lowering Hull "healing" abilites CD 0.5 of it's current amount. Additional hull resistances would start to diminish at a much higher value than now, but never reach more than 90%.
      By doing that, no one could one hit a enemy ship and no one could get completely healed in seconds.

      Star Trek isn't some fantasy RPG where Wizards can heal a fighters by casting a spell, these are Starships and normal people are repairing them. No magic and no arcade like game mechanics anymore, please.



      *** Thanks to Angrytarg for generously helping me in elaborating all this.
      "...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--" - (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie

      A tale of two Picards
      (also applies to Star Trek in general)
    10. dalolorndalolorn Member Posts: 3,655 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      Funny, I also think low-level combat is more immersive. When I started out as a fresh ensign, the game felt a lot closer to the real thing than it does now...

      Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.p3OEBPD6HU3QI.jpg
    11. woodwhitywoodwhity Member Posts: 2,636 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      Funny, I find endgame combat far more enjoyable than the slugging around low level combat.

      But you really lost me when you limited a weapon on a ship. No limits. Whats with all the control-freaks going around lately?
      But I like it how you implement a latent godmode.

      As for trekfeeling and such, there are channels for that and you can always limit yourself to firing on weapon at the time.

      We currently have a high variety of possibilites, but instead of using and employing them, you want to take variants away just to suit your eyes.
    12. adamkafeiadamkafei Member Posts: 6,539 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      patrickngo wrote: »
      /Snip

      I agree with ideas 4, 6 and 7, I think aux depletion would be an unnecessary attack on science ships, AOE just shouldn't attack friendlies as it isn't telling the computer to fire at anything that moves, it's telling your tactical officer to fire at their choice of hostiles, there is no way that they are going to fire at friendlies, that said I would go along with chance to miss. Rather than a drain attached to weapon skills, attach drain to each shot (rather than each weapon cycle as it is now) as that would result in FAW, CRF, CSV producing extra drain, then you can add 50% drain to BO. Finally on making objects hurt, they've started with this in UAN/E while I agree it's an okay idea I think we should have 'hidy-holes' as it was common for ships in canon to hide behind things when things got too rough.
      ZiOfChe.png?1
    13. yreodredyreodred Member Posts: 3,527 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      woodwhity wrote: »
      Funny, I find endgame combat far more enjoyable than the slugging around low level combat.

      But you really lost me when you limited a weapon on a ship. No limits. Whats with all the control-freaks going around lately?
      But I like it how you implement a latent godmode.
      "godmode", sweet. :)
      That was just one suggestion of five, no one insisted that you have to like it.
      And there's no need to lapse into rants, we're just discussing things here, aren't we?
      woodwhity wrote: »
      As for trekfeeling and such, there are channels for that and you can always limit yourself to firing on weapon at the time.

      We currently have a high variety of possibilites, but instead of using and employing them, you want to take variants away just to suit your eyes.
      Have you ever done a ESTF or Fleet action?
      I mean ther's so much going on some ppls. FPS goes down to 5 or 8 it's not even funny anymore.
      Most suggestions like changing visuals or merging weapons into one would soley depend on the player itself to use or not. So no need to start making a bogeyman of it.

      No one said that ALL suggestions HAVE to be realized.
      Reading is OP, i see. lol.:)
      "...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--" - (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie

      A tale of two Picards
      (also applies to Star Trek in general)
    14. mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      I am still not sure if anyone uses Tractor Beam II or III, but I am pretty certain almost no one uses Jam Sensors anymore.

      One thing to consider - make Jam Sensors a multi-target ability- say, Jam Sensors I hits only one target, but Jam Sensors I hits 3 and Jam Sensors III hits 5, or whatever number seems to work (maybe a 5 km radius around the original target? Or a Cone arc?).
      Tractor Beam could possible also catch multiple targets at higher levels.


      One thing for PvE - you should really make at least some of the cloak counters (like Charged Particle Burst) work against some of the NPCs. Very few NPCs actually cloak (even less are important enough to warrant cloak counters), but the few ones that seem "worthy" foes get to cheat. This is also indirectly of interest to PvP - if players actually were to learn how to counter cloak in an STF, they may not be entirely unprepared for it in PVP.

      strorus wrote: »
      Hi, here's my 2 pennies worth...

      Before I get into Engineering powers; I first want to suggest Attack Patterns no longer enhance any other damage apart from weapons only. I.e. no longer increases exotic damage such as Gravity Well.

      I very much disagree with this. We don't let Miracle Worker or ROtate Shield Frequency heal less on Science Vessels, nor does Subnucleonic Beam on a Cruiser or Escort dispel less buffs.

      Ship Class and Career Class are split in STO so that you can mix & match, and if Tacticals can't really benefit from their class abilties in a Science Vessel, that will make them irrelevant on those.

      You can argue the benefit is too high compared to what a Science Captain gets, and maybe ask for buffs to his abilities, but just nerfing Tactical abilities regards to science abilities is wrong.
      Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
    15. adamkafeiadamkafei Member Posts: 6,539 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      You can argue the benefit is too high compared to what a Science Captain gets, and maybe ask for buffs to his abilities, but just nerfing Tactical abilities regards to science abilities is wrong.

      While I agree that nerfing tactical skills as regards science is the wrong thing to do, He also has a point in that something has to be done about it.

      The way I see it, we can't nerf tactical skills, the forums would burn (I don't think they've recovered from the last incineration), what we can do is to reorientate the buffing such that the base damage (that tactical should buff from) would be low but the benefit derived from aux and particle generators skill would be very high to compensate.

      This would mean that on the same ship build the tactical captain would still produce a more damaging gravity well than the science captain but if the tac captain didn't spec into particle gens and/or runs high aux power but the sci did then the tac's grav well simply would not compare. I feel this is the only real fix to the issue and it should be made to all science abilities that have a damaging effect.
      ZiOfChe.png?1
    16. voporakvoporak Member Posts: 5,621 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      One thing that came to mind just now. Every faction needs to have a boff species with +crit chance, or at least a trait of equal power. Besides the fact that Rom ships are just plain better than Fed or KDF ones, there is nothing that matches Superior Romulan Operative on their boffs. Either everyone gets it, or Operative should get changed to not stack.

      It is kinda disheartening to fly into a PvP match and know that no matter how good I am, or how well I built my ship, I am at a disadvantage.
      I ask nothing but that you remember me.
    17. dareaudareau Member Posts: 2,390 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      My thoughts:

      1. It's hard to straighten out the meta when the powers and DOff abilities are so mixed up. For example, Aux2Bat, how many people use it to boost power levels - say to feed an [AMP] system, most people use it with 3x technicians for the reduction of abilities to global cooldown. Yet, a power that's designed to do so - photonic officer - is rarely used because the A2B & DOff combination is better than the skill designed to do so.

      My thought is that DOffs should either boost the primary effect in some way (GW aftershocks, reapplication of Tyken's debuffs, BFI reinforcing shields some) or complement the skill's intent (offensive debuff with sensor scan's defensive debuffs), none of this "cooldown from a power skill or negative turn rate from a shield damage skill).

      2. There are inequalities with powers. Some powers have only one effect (Tachyon Beam with only one effect - shield drain) while others have multiple (Tac team with it's offense boost, cleanse, and defensive shield effect). Hard to balance when this is the case - heck, even Energy Syphon with it's drain & buff effects is typically considered a better choice than Tachyon beam...

      Don't balance a single effect power on the scale of a triple-effect one, Tachyon beam's pure shield drain should be higher than even CPBs shield damage, cause CPB also messes with Cloaks while Tachyon's just strip shields. Optional removal of certain effects from "overburdened" powers would assist some too... Either that, or standardise all powers with, say, 2 effects - one for the target, and one for the user...

      3. Class "roles" - Sci is supposed to be the CC / Debuff / AoE class, yet because an engineer decided to make the Aceton beam that debuff is engineering? Tasha & Worf being the ones who typically reinforced the forward shield means that TT gets the shield redistribution?

      Tactical should be offensive buffs and weapon modifiers only. Science should focus on CC / AoE damage and debuffing. Engineering would be nothing but heals and power management. Do remember that every ship has the ability to mix and match these powers to an extent, every escort can run at least a hull heal and shield heal from engineering, while the cruiser can be the primary healer...

      4. Engineering captain's lack of sharing with captain powers. Relatively self explanatory.

      5. "Power minigame". I never find a reason to shift my power settings from max aux high weapons minimal shields & engines on my Vesta. KDF Dyson Sci-royer, much the same, mix of Aux and weapons, rest ignored, no changes necessary. When I need a speed boost, full impulse it. When I need more shield power to handle fire from different directions? EPtS & TSS cover my tail enough, especially with TT keeping those shield points flowing to the damage. I should feel it when I overcap weapons, skills cover the "holes" all too easily.

      Not 100% certain how to handle this - especially in light of tricks that allow people to run at cap in 2x power levels and 50+ in the other 2...

      6. Lack of skill and level differentiation. GW III is not tremendously more useful than GW I. TT III vs TT I? Same thing. GW I with a no-skill Tac but lots of damage modifiers doing a better job of crushing targets than a fully specced out GW III from a Sci?

      Ironically, most tactical skills have this right - almost nobody recommends grabbing a BO I over BO III for single-hit target killing. Nobody recommends CSV I to minimize aggro, they recommend CSV III for maximum damage potential. They might recommend dropping to BO II and AP-B II for more overall damage because of force multiplier effects than BO III / Beta I. Therefore, increase the level differentiation somewhat across the board (a III should be about twice as effective as a I), make skill a bigger focus for the damage / multipler / effect than it currently is now...

      7. Pressure vs Spike - I vaguely remember popping into the PvP forums when I first started and seeing that a pair of cruisers would be able to pressure an escort enough to make him pull away, request heal support, or pop, and the only way said escort could pop a cruiser was to build up enough of a spike to overwhelm the "tankiness" of said cruiser. Now a days, especially with things like SRO, ships can spike so high that bosses feel it, players can't begin to stand against it, and the plethora of heals on even the most basic escort means that they can shrug off most pressure damage unless there's a "weak" spiker waiting to take advantage of the "hole" in heals...
      Doesn't help that this is the MO of the game's bosses - I don't worry about an Elite Tac Cube wearing me down to open KASE, I worry about it sending that "not rendered" HY III of 6 digit damage through shields at me. When everything vapes, obviously vapers win... :P

      Restore the balance between pressure and healing, spike and resistances. Doesn't help that the defensive side of things suffers "diminishing returns" while offense is strictly linear, so that the difference between a high-end spike and a high end defense is a lot bigger than a middling spike vs middling defense...

      Obviously, mixing even a couple of these changes together would essentially result in a radical rebalance of the game... Gonna take a lot more to get this straight than to keep messing with things on the piecemeal basis that's going on right now...
      Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...

      To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
    18. mcluvinmcluvin Member Posts: 0 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      Hi Jeff,

      I'm glad to see that you're looking at improving the space "metagame." It is after all a big part of what's special about a Star Trek game.


      Directly to your questions:


      Things that are underperforming:

      - Crew
      - high rank engineering BOFF skills
      - Torpedos
      - Science abilities outside of healing and Gravity Well (ever see someone use Photonic Shockwave?)


      Things that are too dominant:

      - Energy Weapon Spam
      - Weapon power level setting
      - Stacking Tactical consoles of the same type (due to no diminishing returns)



      Here are some additional thoughts:

      - Instant hull healing is nonsense. I'd prefer that hulls be stronger compared to damage sources, with survival being more tied to crew keeping your crew alive rather than to timing a big magical hull heal. An ability like Engineering Team should reinforce the crew and perhaps apply a buff to hull repair (perhaps a big one), not instantaneously heal the target ship's hull.

      - Evasive Maneuvers. vvrRRROOOOOOM.?? The speed bonus is a bit silly. There are also no maneuvers. Can't say that I have a better idea on this one though.

      - Why do all weapons have the exact same range? This entirely removes an important element of space combat. You could do much with this.

      - I would love to see starships' space console/ability configuration be decoupled from BOFFs. Putting the space abilities on the BOFF makes configuring a ship's abilities unnecessarily cumbersome (especially when you like to switch ships or builds), and in my opinion doesn't really add any RP value to the BOFFs.

      - Sector Space. I agree with ditching the exploration clusters - they really didn't deliver a compelling exploration experience. However... It's Star Trek. It should involve some space exploration. I find that I spend almost all of my time in-game sitting on a starbase or in an STF instance. It may not be feasible within the game's engine, but I'd love to see a more seamless exploration experience. Sector space feels like little more than a graphical menu of instances.

      - Ironically, the combat in the tutorial missions in the Bird of Prey or Miranda ships feels more epic than at max level. This is because at the lower level each shot feels important, while at the top level you're firing eight weapons all simultaneously, continuously. It is not interesting. You can't even see the ships anymore- just a bunch of colored light.



      Finally, the rest of this is related to ship's "power levels" and is in my opinion are the most important:

      I've noticed a lot of comments about how (to paraphrase a bit) power levels are kind of lame. I agree.

      At minimum, I suggest re-evaluating the relationship between power levels and energy weapons. At present, it discourages players from doing anything other than energy weapon spam with a build, because you have to run 100% weapon power even if you only want to use a few energy weapons. It should be possible to operate fewer weapons with less power. Note that freeing up power from weapons in this manner would inherently encourage usage of builds that do not rely on energy weapons spam, because such builds would have more power available for other systems (as would make sense).

      However, if a more comprehensive overhaul of power levels is an option (and I hope it is!), I have a more ambitious suggestion.

      Treat the ship's power more like a resource. For example, each ship's system (or perhaps individual modules in some cases, such as a weapon or a console that has an active ability) might hold a certain amount of power (let's call it "charge"). The warp core generates power at a certain rate, and the "power levels" control which portion of the power generated by the core the core is transferred into each system's charge level. The "charge" would affect either the cooldown or magnitude of the given system's/module's effects. When the system/ability is activated, some or all of the charge is consumed.

      This would...

      - Provide a framework for both player choice and balance. You can give ships powerful abilities and even allow players to use them rapidly, but they'll make a trade to do it. For example: with power as a resource escorts might actually be more effective if they adopt a hit-and run pattern rather than parking and firing four forward Dual Heavy Cannons and three turrets continuously. You can even make cannons more powerful such that they become a true burst weapon which requires burst tactics because firing them too much for an extended period leaves the ship vulnerable. This is just one example - the suggested mechanism could impact a wide variety of balance problems (Galaxy-X spinal lance? Any of those arguably "OP" Universal consoles that came out in the past year or two?).

      - Provide opportunities to expand the space/starship meta (and don't kid yourself, that's what many of us are here for). If we cared about how much power our ships could generate, a powerful warp core could be a real asset. There would also be the question of how much power can be stored and how quickly it may be transferred from one system into another, or how much power a certain console or weapon consumes. You could add abilities such as overloading a system to make it perform better for a time. Maybe you can even overclock the core (at risk of a breach, perhaps).

      - Make space combat more interesting. During combat it will be necessary to consider how much reserve power is available to deal with stuff that comes up, rather than spamming every ability/weapon as fast as possible. The lack of a meaningful resource (outside of cooldowns) makes space combat at level 50 very mashy and spammy. Recall the above example about an escort doing a hit and run tactic.

      - Provide a means to differentiate further between the different kinds of ships - Cruisers could finally benefit from their huge engineering sections. Obviously this assumes that large ships can equip more powerful cores, which at present is not the case, but it probably should be.


      Well, I hope this is helpful; good luck.
    19. chrisbrown12009chrisbrown12009 Member Posts: 790 Arc User
      edited August 2014
      I dont know if its been talked about but are the fleet weapons going to be upgraded or not? I think it would be a slap in the face to have all these fleet weapons suddenly no longer end game. Also, while we are talking about fleet weapons, can the Elite fleet phasers be re done. they are rather lack luster.
    20. heckgoblinheckgoblin Member Posts: 685
      edited August 2014
      Not sure if this is the right place to ask, buuuut...

      IS THE MANHEIM SUICIDE CONSOLE EVER GOING TO BE FIXED?

      Seriously, the only reason you should use it, is when you want to die immediately.

      (The console that comes with the Mobius, in case I wasn't clear.)
      I AM WAR.
    21. lucho80lucho80 Member Posts: 6,600 Bug Hunter
      edited September 2014
      heckgoblin wrote: »
      Not sure if this is the right place to ask, buuuut...

      IS THE MANHEIM SUICIDE CONSOLE EVER GOING TO BE FIXED?

      Seriously, the only reason you should use it, is when you want to die immediately.

      (The console that comes with the Mobius, in case I wasn't clear.)

      I do agree, there is a reason people call it the suicide console. There is no justified reason to use it. I actually own the ship and that console is sitting in my bank gathering dust.
    22. torachtorach Member Posts: 259 Arc User
      edited September 2014
      It's still useful to me to see what players feel strongly about. Even if I don't necessarily agree with them about what the problem specifically is, or about what the best solution for it is, players are very very good at speaking up when they feel something is "off", for lack of a better word.

      I'm going to suggest something that will for sure ruffle alot of feathers around here..

      Torpedos does virtually nothing if shields are up.... why not make energy based weapons do alot less damage against hull?

      1. This would force players to respec their captain skills, so they have to evenly distribute skillpoints between torpedo and energy weapons, or max it out, but to be able to do this, you would have to sacrifice alot from the engineering tree and science tree, hence making you alot less tanky and making your heals less effective. Then having you to be relied upon other players for decent healing instead. Because as it is today, you can setup a ship that can be an insane tank, and dish out much pressure damage *and* spike damage at the same time..

      2. Aux 2 battery wouldn't be considdered an overpowered ability.

      3. It would force alot more diversity in builds, and it would force players to become better tacticians, and rely on the other classes in the game for support. It's a social game afterall...

      4. It would make alot of abilities that are very rarely used to day, "useful" again.

      5. It would force players that mostly play PVE to actually learn how to time their assault, and learn how to heal others without overhealing or healing at the wrong time. And then when they do try to PVP, they wouldnt have to learn everything from scratch, hence the transition from PVE towards PVP would be alot more smooth than it is today. PVE is way to easy today, so when people try PVP they get stomped over and over again, just because the PVE part of the game only taught them that you need to overcap energy damage to become successfull... also there is no need for a dedicated healer in PVE everyone heals themselves instead of healing others. Making them rely on their own skill and timing their assault, and learning how to crossheal and help others in the team...



      I'm sure i can thnk of alot more valid points for making energy weapons do less damage against direct hull, but overall this would rebalance most issues we are faced in the game today..


      And as a sidenote... you should neverever make anything close to or be able to get 100% critical chance... The new R&D science trait is getting way out of hand.... getting 100% crit chance on abilities that does direct hull damage is just silly beyond messure. (Even though the releasenotes clearly states that it only should be able to give you *UP* to 25% critchance based on particle gen)....
      "Better were the days when mastery o' space came not from bargains struck with eldritch creatures... but from the sweat of a man's brow and the strength of his back alone. Ye all know thi's to be true!"
    23. lucho80lucho80 Member Posts: 6,600 Bug Hunter
      edited September 2014
      So after seeing another thread discuss how the new Elite queues aren't that hard using current builds that simply dish out DPS, I'll give one example about the current meta and why science sucks in PvE.

      In PvP world:
      Guy runs two copies of TT, plus a whole assortment of shield/hull heals. Bringing that shield down presents a bit of a challenge and can use the help of a sci boat with Tachyon Beam or shield power drain to bring the shields down and hit that hull hard.

      In PvE world:
      A Borg tac cube lets you bring down one shield to nothing, and does nothing to protect itself while the other 3 shields remain intact. Escorts and FAW boats can just shoot away on that side and kill easily.

      Solution:
      Make NPCs smarter and actually require science skills help to bring down, and give them skilled abilites instead of bad ones that don't do anything (The Sphere's shield drain being one of the few effective ones) . Currently the game is pure spacebar hitting and pop goes the target as far as PvE is concerned.
    24. lucho80lucho80 Member Posts: 6,600 Bug Hunter
      edited September 2014
      We will be bringing down the Tribble server for maintenance to apply a new update: ST.45.20140912a.3

      [*]Increased the HP of Boarding Party Shuttles.
      • They were 0, now they scale with the casters level.
      • They also now have some shields.
      • Increased the HP and Shields of Ground Security team.

      I sincerely have to applaud a very needed change. Keep up the good work!
    25. thibashthibash Member Posts: 506 Arc User
      edited September 2014
      2 that come to the top of mind:

      Aceton Beam:
      Good ability, but duration and cooldown are too long and it can be cleansed easily. By cutting both duration and recharge in half, it'd be a much more useful ability.

      Boarding Party Shuttle:

      It's an interesting risk vs. reward skill, but the crew mechanic makes it virtually unusable. If the launching of shuttles was no longer tied to crew, but rather a garantueed 3 shuttles, it might see some more use.

      Which brings me to my final point:

      Speed.

      The speed in this game is just too high. Mines, boarding party shuttles, high yield torpedos, they're all useles against players because players easily outrun them. I'd limit the speed a bit to make all these abilities viable again. Or speed them up. Or make speed/defense/damage mutually exclusive. That way a lot of the ingame abilities would start to become useful again.
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