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I've got too many cool ships
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Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
Instead of looking at the game killing weaknesses of the game before suggesting some potentially outrageous proposal to address them, I've decided instead to try something different. I'm going to look at a minorly inconveniencing or disappointing aspect of the game and suggest up to three different solutions. As readers I'm first and foremost looking to understand if you're annoyed by the same thing I am. If you are, I want your insights into the proposals suggested, which proposal you think best serves to alleviate the problem, and if you have a good or better solution I haven't mentioned, I'd love to hear about it.
Today's topic, I have too many cool ships and I do not have the patience to respec for each of them. When I turned into a Brigadier General I picked up a Qin Raptor, it will always have a place in my heart. When I turned into a Major General I picked up the Heghta Bird of Prey, I've never flown it but it is a sweet looking machine and I do sort of regret not getting to know it better. At Lieutenant General I grabbed the Kafir Carrier, also never flown but I'm sure a completely different experience than what I normally fly. I then went and immediately spent Cryptic Points on the Guramba, my goal since I returned and first created my new main. That is four cool ships and, with my current spec being centered on being the best Guramba beam boat I can be, I'm not able to do any of the other three justice. This is a problem that will just get more aggravating if they give us the ability to change ships from our bridge anywhere in space.
Obviously the first solution has been an idea floating around the forums for awhile, removing the captain skill point cap. It has positives like allowing people to continue to work on their favorite character long after level cap and making the currently horrible choice of Polaron weapons viable, but negatives like leading every character to have the exact same '9 in every skill' skill build and adding complications to adding further levels to the game. Attempts to correct problems with it though, like by slowing the rate at which level capped characters can obtain skills, lessens it's ability to address the complaint in this particular post.
The second is stolen shamelessly from other MMO's, allow dual speccing. For those who don't know, 'dual speccing' would be to allow each character to have two or more pre-created skill arrangements that he can switch between out of combat. From a game mechanic standpoint this is pretty much pure benefit and the only downside I can think of would be trying to imagine exactly how your character manages to focus and change his entire range of expertise. But if you've overlooked that problem for the sake of respeccing at the trainer, I don't see how this is an even bigger leap.
The third is an interesting idea that plays up to something very unique about STO, allowing the admiral to appoint his bridge officers to a temporary command of his current ship with their own suite of "Captain" skills. The cool part here is that no other MMO that I've played has an opportunity to try something like this, WoW, CoH, DCUO, Rifts, none of these have an organized system of subordinates. Of course the down side is that it amounts to little more than a short cut to playing an entirely different character, and maybe that's not what you want.
So, if you like any of these ideas let me know why. If you hate all of them and think each one would do more harm than good, feel free to tell me that too. If you have your own solution to the 'too many cool ships' problem feel free to present it below.
Today's topic, I have too many cool ships and I do not have the patience to respec for each of them. When I turned into a Brigadier General I picked up a Qin Raptor, it will always have a place in my heart. When I turned into a Major General I picked up the Heghta Bird of Prey, I've never flown it but it is a sweet looking machine and I do sort of regret not getting to know it better. At Lieutenant General I grabbed the Kafir Carrier, also never flown but I'm sure a completely different experience than what I normally fly. I then went and immediately spent Cryptic Points on the Guramba, my goal since I returned and first created my new main. That is four cool ships and, with my current spec being centered on being the best Guramba beam boat I can be, I'm not able to do any of the other three justice. This is a problem that will just get more aggravating if they give us the ability to change ships from our bridge anywhere in space.
Obviously the first solution has been an idea floating around the forums for awhile, removing the captain skill point cap. It has positives like allowing people to continue to work on their favorite character long after level cap and making the currently horrible choice of Polaron weapons viable, but negatives like leading every character to have the exact same '9 in every skill' skill build and adding complications to adding further levels to the game. Attempts to correct problems with it though, like by slowing the rate at which level capped characters can obtain skills, lessens it's ability to address the complaint in this particular post.
The second is stolen shamelessly from other MMO's, allow dual speccing. For those who don't know, 'dual speccing' would be to allow each character to have two or more pre-created skill arrangements that he can switch between out of combat. From a game mechanic standpoint this is pretty much pure benefit and the only downside I can think of would be trying to imagine exactly how your character manages to focus and change his entire range of expertise. But if you've overlooked that problem for the sake of respeccing at the trainer, I don't see how this is an even bigger leap.
The third is an interesting idea that plays up to something very unique about STO, allowing the admiral to appoint his bridge officers to a temporary command of his current ship with their own suite of "Captain" skills. The cool part here is that no other MMO that I've played has an opportunity to try something like this, WoW, CoH, DCUO, Rifts, none of these have an organized system of subordinates. Of course the down side is that it amounts to little more than a short cut to playing an entirely different character, and maybe that's not what you want.
So, if you like any of these ideas let me know why. If you hate all of them and think each one would do more harm than good, feel free to tell me that too. If you have your own solution to the 'too many cool ships' problem feel free to present it below.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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The only response this really needs is from the most recent engineering report that indicates "Adding ability to switch ships from your interior (instead of returning to spacedock)" is in testing.
This is something that will become a reality and will become a factor in the 'more ships than I can fly" predicament. So what were your thoughts about either of the actual proposals?
Well, I believe that the changing ships would be the ability to change from your ship to your shuttle...not from a raptor to a Bird of Prey.... or vice versa...but whatever...
As for the reaminder of the post, I shall need more time than I have spent to digest and comment....
My only at-the-cap KDF toon is specced for Battle Cruisers in order to use the Veranus Fleet Support Vessel and Carriers, but I have a fondness for BoPs that could only be properly expressed in Klingon Opera.
My personal solution is that I am currently leveling an Orion Tactical Officer, who so far is using BoPs exclusively.
Basically, puting the effort into an entirely different character in order to try out different ships and playstyles.. Though I don't know if I'm going to do Raptors with my KDF Eng. or switch my Tac to Raptors and go with BoPs for him..
Anyway, that's how I do mine.
I have 9 character slots total, three VA Feds (one each of Sci, Eng, & Tac), three KDF toons (one at LG, one at Com. one still at Lt.), and should they ever make another faction, I will have one of each career of them, but right now I'm using one of those extra slots on a lowbie Fed doing explorations over and over to gather anoms for my Fed & KDF crafters.
Yeah, I suppose that works and I can see it having advantages to the game developers as it makes us more likely to shell out for character slots and stick around long enough to go through the entire leveling process. My problem with doing that is that I pretty much will not level another Klingon character until something is done about our leveling experience.
That's pretty much what I did, to the point that I have 3 KDF for each ship I wanted to command (Raptor, BoP, Fleet Support) and am now working on Fed equivalents.
Respeccing for each bloody ship and playstyle on one character just didn't jive with me. I'd rather level up again from scratch and just log onto a different one.
*Yes, I know one skill affects both Vor'cha (the T4 and T5), but really, there's no point in using the T4 ever once you hit BG1+
The only recommendation I can give is to put skill points into skills and abilities that can be applied to all ship classes, and ignore the ones that only buff up just one type. By doing this, I don't need to respec each time I want to change ships.
Probably because there are SO MANY ships to choose from on the Fed side. Also, if you notice the ones on Fed side many of the double-uppers are C-Store ships combined with regular "obtain-as-you-level-up" ships.
There are 9 selectyions for ship skills at Tier 5. Four of those only apply to one ship, and the rest apply to a double (which, in many cases, I completely agree with; the Advanced Escort and the MVAM are essentially the same ship, and the cruiser retrofits are both similar to a degree).
Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing the Guramba Siege Destroyer grouped up with its parent Raptor skill category, being a purchasable ship and all, but it's playstyle definitely marks it to be somewhat different.
I'm curious, which ships would YOU like to see grouped up then, to make it more along your comfort zones? Keep in mind, if it's grouped up in skills, it should be grouped up in playstle too.
I liked dual speccing in CoX. If I could triple spec each captain that would be swell
The Negh'Var and the Vor'cha should be grouped, and possibly the Orion ship.. The carriers (as they are). Both BoPs.. The Siege Destroyer and raptor (even though the siege has it's 'siege' mode, it seriously is close enough to the Raptor).
Ultimately, I really think they need to redo most of that section of the tree. I honestly would like it broken down to somethnig like "Heavy Warships" "Light Warships" "Superheavy Warships (for the carriers)" etc.. maybe 4 skills total with each encompassing at least 3 ships for each skill (with some 2 ship exceptions) to allow for a greater range of ships usable with a skill.
I find that completely acceptable and would love to see that implemented.
It would definitely give us a chance to swap out to a different ship to play with from time to time.