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Balance ... The Undiscovered Country
macronius
Member Posts: 2,526
I don't want to turn this into another thread about BO. Plenty of threads that describe how ridiculous this move is. What really troubles me is the complete lack of care about balance. When you have a mechanic like Aux2Bat, Double Tap and now BO without drain and 100% crit, is any though given to how it will affect the myriad of other powers and mechanics in the game? Do you consider what happens to the numerous builds that are suddenly rendered obsolete over night?
There are many posts showing people doing 100-200K per hit ... instantly and consistently. This makes all "resist" builds for cruisers and science vessels obsolete as it is impossible to "tank" this damage. And for PvE, it adds even more power trivializing the content which was already easy.
Case in point, Hive Onslaught has become almost a routine ESTF that is farmed for mats by your average pug. Only 6 months ago ... it was a terror leading to endless failures and raging on this forum (myself included). We haven't gotten any better (trust me). But creep has rendered the damage from this mission as completely manageable. And now you amp up the power even more ... only a couple of weeks after releasing more OP traits from lock boxes.
Also how can you expect to be considered a professional development team if you introduce such a dramatic change (for ill or good) and have it on tribble for less than 1 day of testing. To me this is underhanded and even a sleazy approach to development. I get that you wanted to buff the latest gear to grind and purchase ... excuse me craft.
But really ... where is the balance Cryptic? Where are your metrics ... it all feels disingenuous!
There are many posts showing people doing 100-200K per hit ... instantly and consistently. This makes all "resist" builds for cruisers and science vessels obsolete as it is impossible to "tank" this damage. And for PvE, it adds even more power trivializing the content which was already easy.
Case in point, Hive Onslaught has become almost a routine ESTF that is farmed for mats by your average pug. Only 6 months ago ... it was a terror leading to endless failures and raging on this forum (myself included). We haven't gotten any better (trust me). But creep has rendered the damage from this mission as completely manageable. And now you amp up the power even more ... only a couple of weeks after releasing more OP traits from lock boxes.
Also how can you expect to be considered a professional development team if you introduce such a dramatic change (for ill or good) and have it on tribble for less than 1 day of testing. To me this is underhanded and even a sleazy approach to development. I get that you wanted to buff the latest gear to grind and purchase ... excuse me craft.
But really ... where is the balance Cryptic? Where are your metrics ... it all feels disingenuous!
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
- Judge Aaron Satie
- Judge Aaron Satie
Post edited by macronius on
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system Lord Baal is dead
And I am done giving them money. Funny thing is most vets have already stopped too ... many started out just like me ... happy to spend a modest sum each month to support the devs. Eventually they woke up to the shenanigans and are just sitting on the sidelines watching this train wreck in slow motion.
- Judge Aaron Satie
Pow-er Creep! Pow-er Creep! Pow-er Creep!
But yeah, in all seriousness... I was actually enjoying the increased difficulty in the new Undine content, and my BO3s regularly hit for 6 digits *before* this buff.
Now, ROFL.
I wonder if the right team could tackle ISE in under 60 seconds now?
money is the only goal, but if players are not happy or enjoy the game, they won't earn money
I wanna see a team of Scimitars with faw all get [over] beams, wonder if they could pull <30 seconds?
If you are saying that this is beyond silly ... to be ridiculed. Then I completely agree with you. Does any of this really excite people?
"Awwwwww yeahhhhhhhh .... I just nuked ISE in under a minute." :rolleyes:
- Judge Aaron Satie
I think it's exciting in a laughable sort of way, to see how far power creep's come.
Yes most of the long time vet PvP players have already all been gone for sometime. Now and then someone pops a head in to see what is going on. No one ever seems to come back for more then a week. Its just hard to stomach most of what Cryptic has done to STO.
Now I think it is starting to become clear, that PvE people are starting to see what the more number oriented PvP people have been seeing for 3+ years.
I know I have said many times I'm off... for some reason I guess its mainly because its still trek I keep coming back and sticking around.
I think perhaps now with some of these new Crafting mods (not because there good but more because they are just so bad)... and Crafting traits that are clearly created by people that have never played this game (cannon and beam skills that can stack to 3... but don't last long enough for that to even be possible for instance) clearly show that these guys just have ZERO pride in what they do.
There are other games out there... they may not have trek and starships... what they often do have though is people that don't hate there job in charge.
It hasn't taken more then one in a very very long time.
He went on to say that certain OP aspects of the game are there to make theory crafters and min-maxers feel smart and feel like they've discovered something, when in fact it was there by design all along. So balance is an illusion, power creep is necessary and "fun" trumps good gameplay.
From that day forward I pretty much gave up on the idea that this will ever be a good PvP game or even a challenging PvE game. So you can enjoy it for what it's worth with no expectations or move on to something else that fits your ideals better.
in other words ppl with no real skill can come in and feel as if they have skill starting to see why a lot here dont like wow because that game you need skill you need good gear to go places
system Lord Baal is dead
Me and some friends have actually issued a challenge. Can we finish our side in cure, solo, before the three of them do?
Before, it was "can we hold until the team completes their side?"
Then, doing two lanes solo, for the bops
now, it's "Okay, you scimi, go centre, I'll take my excel left, you three in your oddys and escorts, go right."
- Judge Aaron Satie
Truth be told, most ships can take a single cube by themselves, on the other hand, Scimitars are not as though as they once were in PvP (Barring the BO change)
It all goes along with the casual free to play mmo theme park they (PWE) aim to make this game. A lot of players here are not MMO peeps but have been drawn here by the IP so that's something to consider. I myself was not a mmo gamer, just a gamer and was drawn to game cause I like Trek. I stuck around because of circumstances and what at the time I thought was fun space combat.
Then LoR hit and once I caught on to the whole "gee my main character I've spent hundreds of hours and dollars on has just been rendered obsolete by the new mini-faction" thing is, it's never been the same since. LoR was the game changer. The superior space traits and the never ending power creep and unbalancing TRIBBLE that's been pumped out since then.
If there was challenging and interesting PvE content in this game, I wouldn't really care about any of it and just enjoy the new content. But there isn't any new content. A couple featured episodes and a couple uninspired new missions with timers. And rep with timers. And crafting with timers.
So that leaves me with PvP, which is already in a sad state and continues to get worse with each patch and lock box.
This... +1000
Can't say that is a wise strategy. I will admit though that LoR was a huge cash cow for them and so might this expansion. We shall see.
- Judge Aaron Satie
Both good players and cheaters win, but cheaters cheat because they are bad. Practice makes perfect. Learn what others are willing to share, discover new tricks yourself. If you become too OP to enjoy the game, nerf yourself. 4v1 CtF in Halo was fun, back when I was THAT good.
The best effort at balance has been seen already. Cryptic realising the hole they dug into and making changes to traits for example, and I suppose one could argue that R&D gear like rep gear is still obtainable by everyone just so long as you are prepared to earn it.
And if you took the time to earn it, you would expect to have an edge over someone who didn't.
Same for the mechanics changes. Yes the BO change is potentially OP, I only say that because every change Cryptic decide to do ever is potentially OP, but it is a change that everyone could benefit from. It's an ability everyone has access to and could use. It doesn't make it right I know but if everyone has it no-one has a clear advantage.
It all seems like wasted effort to me. It's not like anyone needs more power is it?
It's the IP that hooks people into playing and nothing else. Instead of feeding creep a better alternative would be to use the IP to it's full potential with more aesthetic options.
There is no "balance". The "balance" is a lie.
When the developers "nerf" something, it's for reasons other than some sort of elusive game "balance". We just don't know what their long term plans are in that regard.
This is evident with the constant one step forward, two steps back line they've been walking since Season Eight.
I remember how everybody (including some of the present naysayers) were singing praises about the nerfing of the Rep trait system. They were going on about how it was a "positive step" into the "right direction" in addressing the whole whine-fest regarding "power creep".
Well, guess what? It was for naught. The developers nullified that by piling on more "power creep" items and changes. Which makes the whole rationale behind it a load of BS. They have other reasons why they did it. Whatever their plans may be will either be good for the players, or bad for the players. We just have to wait and see.
People will just be better off not worrying about so-called "power creep" and the whole idea of game "balance" in STO. Because it's never going to be attainable.
I never understood the rage in the first place, as it should be the challenging content, but hey, some ppl dont wont challenging content.
Powercreep plays only a very minor role in making hive doable for "pug" (most pugs cant do it even now), it was nerfed multiple times, which made it easier. The most unfortunate change was giving the unimatrix ships a time to activate themselves after spawning instead of being active asap of spawning. Giving even a decent pug the chance to destroy one of them without resistence.
Power creep has a common friend here, its called nerfing. And seemingly everything that a bit challenging (hive, CCE, Battle of NR) must be nerfed into oblivion asap. Else the 1k dpser wont pay.
then i look at sto and realize the potential wasted on the interns and gecko...and realize perfect world cares for one thing our money money of which i have stoped giving since the vesta and atrox that sit in my hangar gathering dust while i use my dkyr and intredpid that i got for free in the atari days...