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WHAT HAPPENED to Discovery phasers!???

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  • kidinthehall#2744 kidinthehall Member Posts: 69 Arc User
    I like using the Fleet Photon Torpedo as a good DISC/TOS torp.
  • sheldonlcoopersheldonlcooper Member Posts: 4,042 Arc User
    sarvour0 wrote: »
    BTW, how can i get the new disco torps from the AoD missions for other chars

    For the Beams, I have alts parked in 2256 and using Account Bank to transfer what they buy from the 2256 vendors. I was not aware of there being a different torp from standard photon torps; I will look into it later.

    Yeah the torpedo is like the original series torpedo. small and blue.

    I thought my phasers were a little different than the video. I like them fine as they are but I do agree that the ones in the pre-AOD video are better. a little faster and brighter.
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  • rickvic#6033 rickvic Member Posts: 129 Arc User
    They look very similar to the TOS Torpedo from the Fleetstation, but I guess with a other explosion effect. I use the Kelvin Torpedos on my Disco ships
  • angrytargangrytarg Member Posts: 11,001 Arc User
    The Kelvin torpedo is THE torpedo in game. Reload mod, fast travel time, decent damage. I don't know why other torpedoes are so slow.
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  • sarvour0sarvour0 Member Posts: 382 Arc User
    sarvour0 wrote: »
    BTW, how can i get the new disco torps from the AoD missions for other chars

    For the Beams, I have alts parked in 2256 and using Account Bank to transfer what they buy from the 2256 vendors. I was not aware of there being a different torp from standard photon torps; I will look into it later.

    Yeah the torpedo is like the original series torpedo. small and blue.

    I thought my phasers were a little different than the video. I like them fine as they are but I do agree that the ones in the pre-AOD video are better. a little faster and brighter.

    AoY or AoD torp? (2256 or 2267 vendor?)
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  • rickvic#6033 rickvic Member Posts: 129 Arc User
    They add the phasers again in the lockbox but did not patch them. way to go
  • crypticarmsmancrypticarmsman Member Posts: 4,101 Arc User
    sarvour0 wrote: »
    sarvour0 wrote: »
    BTW, how can i get the new disco torps from the AoD missions for other chars

    For the Beams, I have alts parked in 2256 and using Account Bank to transfer what they buy from the 2256 vendors. I was not aware of there being a different torp from standard photon torps; I will look into it later.

    Yeah the torpedo is like the original series torpedo. small and blue.

    I thought my phasers were a little different than the video. I like them fine as they are but I do agree that the ones in the pre-AOD video are better. a little faster and brighter.

    AoY or AoD torp? (2256 or 2267 vendor?)

    The Torp he's refering to is the 'Prototype Photon Torpedo Launcher' and I believe it's only available as a AoD mission reward in one of the 2256 version Tutorial mission chain. You can't buy it from an AoD Academy Vendor.
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  • sarvour0sarvour0 Member Posts: 382 Arc User
    edited December 2018
    sarvour0 wrote: »
    sarvour0 wrote: »
    BTW, how can i get the new disco torps from the AoD missions for other chars

    For the Beams, I have alts parked in 2256 and using Account Bank to transfer what they buy from the 2256 vendors. I was not aware of there being a different torp from standard photon torps; I will look into it later.

    Yeah the torpedo is like the original series torpedo. small and blue.

    I thought my phasers were a little different than the video. I like them fine as they are but I do agree that the ones in the pre-AOD video are better. a little faster and brighter.

    AoY or AoD torp? (2256 or 2267 vendor?)

    The Torp he's refering to is the 'Prototype Photon Torpedo Launcher' and I believe it's only available as a AoD mission reward in one of the 2256 version Tutorial mission chain. You can't buy it from an AoD Academy Vendor.

    From "Secrets" apparently;
    https://sto.gamepedia.com/Mission:_Secrets
    https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/11005613-age-of-discovery:-secrets

    Edit: Testing out the "Photon Torpedo Launcher" & "Prototype Photon Torpedo Launcher Mk IV", which use the same icon, both have the blue torp. The one w/o any Mk is probably from the scalable Walker but I will check on alts that only have the Malachowski and no Walker.

    Also, my DSC phasers are intermittently behaving more like they should/used to, but not 100%. During the B@BS run they worked almost 100%, but periodically slowed and/or stretched out. Work in progress, perhaps?

    Edit #2: the Photorps from the AoD Vendor in Starfleet Academy use the same icon as the other two mentioned; I will be testing for vfx.
    Post edited by sarvour0 on
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  • kidinthehall#2744 kidinthehall Member Posts: 69 Arc User
    Come on Cryptic, just let us know if this is something that will be changed or are we stuck with it. I upgraded a lot of these to MK XV and it sucks to no longer want to use them.
  • captainperkinscaptainperkins Member Posts: 379 Arc User
    evlripper wrote: »
    Come on Cryptic, just let us know if this is something that will be changed or are we stuck with it. I upgraded a lot of these to MK XV and it sucks to no longer want to use them.

    evlripper, you took the words right out of my mouth! I think the original Discovery Phasers, and even Klingon disruptors were so screen accurate and so unique that they were my favorite weapons in game. I am a TOS fan boy, I fell in love with Trek from the first six Kirk movies... The Undiscovered Phasers and hand weapons were my favorite in game weapons, until Discovery phasers. In my own imagination Discovery looks like it should have taken place after Undiscovered country in that "lost era". The long rectangular/art deco shapes and pulse beam weapons really do line up a lot more with that Undiscovered country era, including the darker military look to things and the blue touch screens.

    Since the update of AoD and the reduction in Phaser FX it's amazing how much I hate them... I have not been upgrading or wanting to use them at all, and have even slapped some TOS whistling blue phaser beam emitters on my disco ships, because those are better than the bizarre look of the Emitter linked weapons since AoD... A shame.
  • rickvic#6033 rickvic Member Posts: 129 Arc User
    Did they fixed it ?
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    edited December 2018
    sarvour0 wrote: »
    sarvour0 wrote: »
    sarvour0 wrote: »
    BTW, how can i get the new disco torps from the AoD missions for other chars

    For the Beams, I have alts parked in 2256 and using Account Bank to transfer what they buy from the 2256 vendors. I was not aware of there being a different torp from standard photon torps; I will look into it later.

    Yeah the torpedo is like the original series torpedo. small and blue.

    I thought my phasers were a little different than the video. I like them fine as they are but I do agree that the ones in the pre-AOD video are better. a little faster and brighter.

    AoY or AoD torp? (2256 or 2267 vendor?)

    The Torp he's refering to is the 'Prototype Photon Torpedo Launcher' and I believe it's only available as a AoD mission reward in one of the 2256 version Tutorial mission chain. You can't buy it from an AoD Academy Vendor.

    From "Secrets" apparently;
    https://sto.gamepedia.com/Mission:_Secrets
    https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/11005613-age-of-discovery:-secrets

    Edit: Testing out the "Photon Torpedo Launcher" & "Prototype Photon Torpedo Launcher Mk IV", which use the same icon, both have the blue torp. The one w/o any Mk is probably from the scalable Walker but I will check on alts that only have the Malachowski and no Walker.

    Also, my DSC phasers are intermittently behaving more like they should/used to, but not 100%. During the B@BS run they worked almost 100%, but periodically slowed and/or stretched out. Work in progress, perhaps?

    The main difference seems to be that while the "secrets" torpedo uses the same sprite it moves a bit differently, with a (what seems to be) slightly wider tracking arc, a slight "drunk missile" spiral and overall just looks a bit more aggressive than a standard torpedo. I like the effect, though I am not fond of the wimpy squeak sound it makes firing (though it does remind me of Paul Lynde's old line "Its a rat race out there.... and the rats are winning!).


    The phasers have definitely been changing. On my screen they have never looked like the ones in show, but at least now they show the middle part of the pulse path. On the first day there was nothing but the flare at the gun ports and a flicker of blue for one pulse length but nothing else, then it went to a kind of very narrow stretched out "black widow" hourglass between my ship and a very close by enemy but with a sizable gap between, and now the gap actually has pulses in it most of the time.

    It might be a rendering issue I suppose (the pulses right near the ship actually look like flat ribbons with an interesting two-toned blue btw), I have an Nvidia 1060 card but my monitor is an old 1366x768 LED/LCD instead of a modern one and I have a DVI-D to D-sub adapter which is not exactly optimal, but whatever the devs are doing is making a difference anyway. They also seem to have cleaned up the sound on them a bit though they still do not sound that much like the show yet (not that I am fond of either one, I don't know which sounds worse, the game or the show).

    Also, they definitely have an overload animation and sound though they are easy to miss and it does not have the "powerup" whine the other beams have before firing. The pulses themselves seem no different in overload but the "muzzle flash" is bigger and the sound has a kind of ripping cloth undertone. I get the feeling they were trying to make them look like it was firing faster instead of having the thicker look like the original prime universe weapons do.



  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    azrael605 wrote: »
    > @evlripper said:
    > Come on Cryptic, just let us know if this is something that will be changed or are we stuck with it. I upgraded a lot of these to MK XV and it sucks to no longer want to use them.

    Has anyone at all considered that the "changes" reflect changes in beam effects that will be seen on screen in season 2? Not saying it is, just saying its a possibility.

    It is certainly possible, the show has a very poor track record when it comes to continuity and consistency, and that is not just between series.
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    edited December 2018
    azrael605 wrote: »
    > @phoenixc#0738 said:
    > azrael605 wrote: »
    >
    > > @evlripper said:
    > > Come on Cryptic, just let us know if this is something that will be changed or are we stuck with it. I upgraded a lot of these to MK XV and it sucks to no longer want to use them.
    >
    > Has anyone at all considered that the "changes" reflect changes in beam effects that will be seen on screen in season 2? Not saying it is, just saying its a possibility.
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > It is certainly possible, the show has a very poor track record when it comes to continuity and consistency, and that is not just between series.

    Actually Discovery has better continuity than any Trek series first season. No effects change in any way during season 1.

    However, the "new effects" on the phasers here in game are closer to the "blobby bolt" phasers seen in season 1 of TOS, which lines up with the showmakers stated plan to align certain effects with TOS as the series progresses.

    The "blobby bolt" phasers were actually photon torpedo SFX, someone going over "Balance of Terror" saw an unfamiliar weapon (the new torpedoes) and "corrected" it to phaser in the scripts at the last minute but the opticals house was already instructed to use the new torpedo stuff. They only used those for phasers once, and only for "proximity" phaser setting. Every other first season episode used the blue phaser stock cuts. Or at least originally anyway, I have not seen all of the "remastered" episodes so they might have put prox phasers in somewhere they should not have been, it would not be the first time the remastered episodes were misinterpreted. One gaff they did had a D7 at extreme magnification in dialog, they cut to an outside view and the ships were in the positions they would have been in if the main screen was not on magnify for example.
  • captainperkinscaptainperkins Member Posts: 379 Arc User
    azrael605 wrote: »
    > @evlripper said:
    > Come on Cryptic, just let us know if this is something that will be changed or are we stuck with it. I upgraded a lot of these to MK XV and it sucks to no longer want to use them.

    Has anyone at all considered that the "changes" reflect changes in beam effects that will be seen on screen in season 2? Not saying it is, just saying its a possibility.

    Well I considered this for point two seconds. I follow your logic (and commend you for knowing about the obscure blobby proximity phasers from Balance of terror), HOWEVER- here is why I don't think these Discovery Phaser effects are intentional.

    1- The original Discovery Phasers and Disruptor animations were near perfect screen accuracy. Now they are not. That's a downgrade not an upgrade.

    2- Star Trek Online NEVER releases content from the show BEFORE the show is on screen. That would make no sense.

    3- Sometimes during battle the pulses miss the target and stretch out, or if you're flying toward an enemy thats flyin toward you the pulses slow down and condense in to ugly slow moving globs... It's clear that the animation has a glitch that seems to be effected by distance and motion.

    4- The original Discovery Phasers/disruptors did NOT include mini impact explosions. These explosions were exclusively added to Age of Discovery. While I appreciate the explosion animations, as they are screen accurate, I believe in order to make these explosions the FX team had to alter the mechanics of the phaser/disruptor bolts. This probably has something to do with accuracy during movement between your ship and target. (To avoid the ugly chasing/drifting effects of the old pulse weapons in game.... Honestly.. the only reason I NEVER use cannons in game is because of the ridiculousness of watching energy bolts change direction and chase after a target.)

    I was very hopeful with the popularity of this thread that the team of devs would at LEAST ACKNOWLEDGE that they know about this issue. The fact that they refuse to do so, and have had several updates correcting several minor bugs but none of addressed these FX issues really worries me.

    I stopped using my Discovery ships and weapons entirely... I know that sounds dramatic but the fact is that the phasers and ships were SO accurate I was thrilled to use them I even found myself signing on to STO just to play with my Shenzhou. Now the weapons FX are so terrible that immersion is incredibly broken for me and I feel really gipped.

    My number one Fear here is: CBS told STO that the phaser effects were TOO good and TOO accurate and to "dumb them down."

    As for those of you who say the phasers have never changed on your screen- please read the original post here and keep in mind you probably didn't even start using Discovery weapons until AFTER Age of Discovery Launched.
    We are talking about how the phasers USED to look. See the video below:

    https://youtu.be/UFckjnq9spQ
  • captainperkinscaptainperkins Member Posts: 379 Arc User
    azrael605 wrote: »
    > @evlripper said:
    > Come on Cryptic, just let us know if this is something that will be changed or are we stuck with it. I upgraded a lot of these to MK XV and it sucks to no longer want to use them.

    Has anyone at all considered that the "changes" reflect changes in beam effects that will be seen on screen in season 2? Not saying it is, just saying its a possibility.

    I considered it. Here's why I don't think this is the case:

    - The game would not release content from the show BEFORE the show airs. That wouldn't make sense or be legal.
    - The phaser/disruptor FX have seriously down graded and behave more like glitches. (See: When they miss target they elongate in to space in a ridiculous fashion, and when you are flying toward a Target who is flying toward you they shrink to ugly slow moving globs)
    - The impact explosions are new and I think to make them work they had to modify the Phaser/Disruptor mechanics. Perhaps it has to do with a timing issue. This is complex to explain but imagine since the explosions each last a second or so- if the impact explosion is "part of the Phaser animation" then they had to slow the phasers down, making the entire animation last longer to let the explosions play out." <-- something approximating this explanation is highly likely.

    Here are my suggestions:
    Ditch the explosion impacts and give us our original screen accurate phaser/disruptor animations.
    Acknowledge this glitch so that we can feel like there's some hope of it getting corrected.
    Maybe in the future you can find a way to add explosions while keeping the Phaser/Disruptor animations screen accurate.

    My fear:
    CBS arbitrarily decided the Game's phaser/disruptor FX were SO accurate that they wanted them "dumbed down" for some bizarre reason. <-- I find this explanation highly unlikely.

    Please note: Those of you saying the Phaser FX never changed for you, keep in mind we are talking about the graphics of Discovery Phasers BEFORE the launch of Age of Discovery. Most of you only started using Discovery phasers AFTER the change of the graphics, so of course you would not notice a difference.

    See: this video of the original screen accurate FX. I would increase my bloom much more than the person who made this video, making the phasers even more glowy... they were so beautiful I really am upset they're gone... (And they are gone. The new Phaser/Disruptor FX are nothing like the show and nothing like they were before. They're entirely different.)

    https://youtu.be/UFckjnq9spQ
  • kidinthehall#2744 kidinthehall Member Posts: 69 Arc User
    The new effect just has this choppy low FPS look to it when it fires. It's quite gross.
  • darkbladejkdarkbladejk Member Posts: 3,698 Community Moderator
    Perhaps I'm missing something here but what exactly is different about them? I've not really noticed a change. Not saying you guys are wrong by any stretch of the means, just saying I can't tell a difference. Does anyone have a before and after comparison, or at least an after comparison to go with the "before" video above?
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  • captainperkinscaptainperkins Member Posts: 379 Arc User
    Perhaps I'm missing something here but what exactly is different about them? I've not really noticed a change. Not saying you guys are wrong by any stretch of the means, just saying I can't tell a difference. Does anyone have a before and after comparison, or at least an after comparison to go with the "before" video above?

    I might have to make a video myself, but here's a comparison. The first vid (above) is the Discovery phasers prior to Age of Discovery launch. Notice how fast the bolts move and how they look almost exactly like in the show...

    https://youtu.be/hu4JW6ahPNk

    The second are the current ones which are slow globby and ugly and glitchy, Note the Klingon disruptors and the blue sensor linked phasers from other ships in this vid:

    https://youtu.be/Vrd4a_sPn5o?t=280


    These vids are not the best for comparison- I will make a proper comparison video for you tonight. This issue is quite serious as I dropped a lot of money and resources on upgrading my discovery phasers before AoD, and they've been ruined by this glichy downgrade in graphics.

  • captainperkinscaptainperkins Member Posts: 379 Arc User

    Here's a much better comparison:

    First vid is from original Discovery Phasers when they were screen accurate and we loved them:

    https://youtu.be/wtI4Ucg33m8 Notice how fast they zip through space and are more screen accurate.

    Second vid of the current abomination they call discovery phasers from after Age of Discovery launch:

    https://youtu.be/YzJUB8hZog0



  • kidinthehall#2744 kidinthehall Member Posts: 69 Arc User
    Great comparison. Again it just boggles the mind how they made this new visual and really though it was such an improvement. It honestly and I'm sorry to say, just looks kinda amateurish.
  • captainperkinscaptainperkins Member Posts: 379 Arc User
    evlripper wrote: »
    Great comparison. Again it just boggles the mind how they made this new visual and really though it was such an improvement. It honestly and I'm sorry to say, just looks kinda amateurish.

    Indeed!!! :(
  • sarvour0sarvour0 Member Posts: 382 Arc User
    Recently it was working 80%-90% like it did/should. Struggling to fix?
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  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    Here's a much better comparison:

    First vid is from original Discovery Phasers when they were screen accurate and we loved them:

    https://youtu.be/wtI4Ucg33m8 Notice how fast they zip through space and are more screen accurate.

    Second vid of the current abomination they call discovery phasers from after Age of Discovery launch:

    https://youtu.be/YzJUB8hZog0



    I never noticed the "blobby" part in battle with all the distractions, but it is quite visible in the last video. Besides looking like they may have made the pulse beams a bit wider, the main cause of the blobs seems to be a tracing "Doppler" issue of some sort that is making the pulses stretch or contract depending on range and whether you are approaching or pulling away from the target.

    With traditional beams that effect would not be as noticeable (though I have seen similar stretch and squash effects with tetryon sometimes in high-intensity battles like that, especially when a shot misses). I wonder if they switched them from using cannon mechanics to beam mechanics when they went live or something like that for performance issues.
  • captainperkinscaptainperkins Member Posts: 379 Arc User
    This thread got a lot of attention yet fell away with no answer. That's sad to me.
  • gaevsmangaevsman Member Posts: 3,190 Arc User
    Honestlly, the dual beam Banks are the worst offenders, the beam arrays are quite better, thou they are not that fast as before.
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