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Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
Hey guys,
I just wanted to give you all a head's up that Geko and I are going to be getting our hands dirty over the next few months with a number of different aspects of ships. As a result, I am particularly interested in hearing your opinions and thoughts in several areas.
This being said, I want to keep your expectations moderated; there's a ton we'd like to do, a lot we can do, but also quite a bit we won't be able to do for a wide variety of reasons from time to balance. Also, I can't at this point give out as many details about what we are doing as we have with the duty officer system, and I apologize in advance that this will be a lot more listening and analyzing and a lot less spilling cans of beans.
Specific questions:
1. What ship(s) did you fly as you ranked up? For each, primarily PvE, PvP or both? Group or solo?
2. What ship(s) do you fly at cap? For each, primarily PvE, PvP or both? Group or solo?
3. Which ship(s) do you think are currently overpowered? PvE, PvP, or both? Specifically why?
4. Which ship(s) do you think are currently underpowered? PvE, PvP, or both? Specifically why?
5. What feature of your favorite ships do you like the most? As in, console configurations, station configurations, aesthetics, special abilities, etc.?
Looking forward to all your feedback!
I just wanted to give you all a head's up that Geko and I are going to be getting our hands dirty over the next few months with a number of different aspects of ships. As a result, I am particularly interested in hearing your opinions and thoughts in several areas.
This being said, I want to keep your expectations moderated; there's a ton we'd like to do, a lot we can do, but also quite a bit we won't be able to do for a wide variety of reasons from time to balance. Also, I can't at this point give out as many details about what we are doing as we have with the duty officer system, and I apologize in advance that this will be a lot more listening and analyzing and a lot less spilling cans of beans.
Specific questions:
1. What ship(s) did you fly as you ranked up? For each, primarily PvE, PvP or both? Group or solo?
2. What ship(s) do you fly at cap? For each, primarily PvE, PvP or both? Group or solo?
3. Which ship(s) do you think are currently overpowered? PvE, PvP, or both? Specifically why?
4. Which ship(s) do you think are currently underpowered? PvE, PvP, or both? Specifically why?
5. What feature of your favorite ships do you like the most? As in, console configurations, station configurations, aesthetics, special abilities, etc.?
Looking forward to all your feedback!
Post edited by Unknown User on
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first klingon alien
0) Bop Tier 0
1) Bop (although bought all of em)
2) K'tinga, and stopped playing that character, due to lack of interest in the ships mostly. All the Bop's were the same and the k'tinga was too slow by comparison
New character
0) Bop Tier 0
1) Raptor, which I sort of like
2) probably raptor when I get there, its somewhat maneuverable and good looking.
I think there is a huge gap in specs between the Bop and the other two klingon ships, and they have a battlecloak too
edit-oh wait, this is the klingon side... uhm, delete please?
2. B'rel refit (only because I despise the other models with the wing changes, they look bad when up I posted pics and such before about why and how) Also the Destroyer escort, but mostly the B'rel refit.
3 and 4! Carriers, Hah how can I call them overpowered and underpowered? PVP they are op, they take WAY too much damage to take them down, however in pve solo, they are very slow at killing enemies, another one of those, start a fight, go cook supper, do the supper dishes, come back and check and see if it's dead yet ships. NOTE: I'm a casual player, I'd rather not spend 10 mins per space battle.
5. I find it hard to get excited about any klingon ships, i'm not a super fan of the faction, but none of them just snags my interest and makes me go YES! I do like the B'rel, I wish the cloak was less flighty (the patch on tribble may be fixing this) but Klingon ships are green...and have wings. They are a fairly boring lot, I can't yell at anyone at cryptic it's just the way they are in Star Trek. Klingons have boring green ships. So I could ask for more variance in models and colors, but really, how far can you go when the best descriptors I can find for a race are "boring" "green"
I'm gonna go hide now.
1. 1 - 10 = Bird of Prey, Both, Solo
11-20 = K'tanco, Both, Solo
21=30 = K'tinga, PVE, Solo
31-40 = Vorcha, PVE, Solo
41-51= Vo'Quv, Both, Solo.
2. Vo'Quv primarily, Both, Solo.
3. None seem overpowered to me; though I haven't had much experience with the Varanus, Marauder or Gurumba.
4. Kar'Fi in my opinion. It feels way too fragile in comparison to the Vo'Quv, it's manueverability doesn't make up for that, and in my opinion a fighter bay is worth far more than a single weapon; so losing a fighter bay to gain a weapon and some maneuverability, then losing hull points on top of that... hurts. (This was at least true when I flew the Kar'Fi months ago.)
Another problem is that it has no access to the To'Duj fighters and the Bird of Prey. While the Feklhri Frigate is fairly nice, the S'kul fighters are, in my experience, terrible, because they blow themselves up. I grant I'm speaking from the perspective of a Vo'Quv captain here, but in my experience one of the things you want is for your fighters to stay alive as long as possible as a carrier captain so they can keep dishing out the pain.
The suicide ram also makes little sense in the context of the ship. I mean what are they, automated drones? Are Klingons actually flying them? I mean it's not that Klingons wouldn't do that under the right circumstances, but it strikes me as immensely weird that it's just part of how these things work.
Everything else felt alright to me; but again I have no experience with the Varanus, Marauder or Gurumba, so I can't comment there.
5. I love everything about the Vo'Quv ot be honest. Here's a list:
a) Fighters/Immersion - I just love having these around. It's not just that they're useful and powerful (they are), and it's not just that I like having pets (I do), but it's also because on some level it lets me feel like my battles make sense. ... What I mean is - because STO is a game, and a fairly easy one at that, sometimes we take on a ridiculous number of ships at once, and no matter what we're flying, we can come out on top.
I don't mind this, but on some ships it does push credibility a little. The Vo'Quv's fighters or Birds of Prey however create a backdrop of a fleet action of some kind; and the ship itself is just so huge that it's hard to question it mowing through tons of other vessels.
b) I love the way it turns. Yes it's slow... it's huge, it damned well should be! It feels more like a big ship than any other ship in the game at present. My Federation assault cruiser feels... a little too nimble at times imo.
c) Bridge officer configuration - IMO it has the best configuration out there, hands down. I love the idea of one Commander slot, 2 Lt. Commander slots and a Lt. slot. And because they're specifically Engineering and Science heavy, the Vo'Quv can be *monstrously* tough. Which I love... I play tanks a fair bit in other games; so being incredibly hard to kill is fun for me.
d) Firing ports - Unlike a lot of ships, the Vo'Quvs weapons tend to fire from logical locations. Beams for instance aren't all fired from almost the exact same point, which averts the weirdness that happens on some Federation ships where it seems like one array is firing 3 beams from the same spot. Likewise it's canon spread feels good, with the small guns up front and the big ones on the wings.
I know this isn't a huge thing for most people, but for me one of my biggest gripes with STO's ships has been how they handle weapon locations. There are too many situations where multiple copies of the same weapon fire from the *exact* same spot and... it just looks ugly; not to mention it makes the ship look poorly laid out in a military sense.
About the only thing the Vo'Quv fails on when it comes to firing ports is it's turret spread - which as with every other vessel makes all turrets fire from the exact same spot forward or rear. (Really wish there were say... a line of turret nodes on top and another on the bottom, so that in most cases if you have say... 3 turrets fore and 3 aft, they could fire from separate nodes while still remaining close enough so that you don't accidentally fire 'through' the ship. Which is another gripe I have about a lot of ships in this game...)
======
But yes, the Vo'Quv is hands down my favorite ship in the game at present.
Really, since this is a broad and general kind of thing I'm not sure two topics on different boards is required. Maybe this should be one topic and moved to the more frequently trafficked Star Trek Online Discussion board...?
Red text added for clarity KDF-side.
I can't WAIT to see what possible improvements are made!
I have 4 LGs so far. With the later ones I used Raptors or BoPs for both PVE and PVP, because they do more damage, you place first in FEs, level faster, etc. I leveled them mostly solo.
2. What ship(s) do you fly at cap? For each, primarily PvE, PvP or both? Group or solo?
Tac@NeghVar, Tac@Guramba, Sci@Bop, Eng@BoP. Only the Guramba is just for fun, the others are for PVP (5 man premade). The Eng@BoP is a Heal-BoP, but too squishy as such. Have to switch into the Marauder Cruiser.
3. Which ship(s) do you think are currently overpowered? PvE, PvP, or both? Specifically why?
None. And yes, Carriers are not OP in PVP. They taste like chicken.
4. Which ship(s) do you think are currently underpowered? PvE, PvP, or both? Specifically why?
Marauder, Veranus and B'Rel. The first 2 should get their special ability as a console, so players can decide if they want it or not. Most PVPers would leave that console out and use a real engineering or science console. The B'Rel is simply too squishy.
5. What feature of your favorite ships do you like the most? As in, console configurations, station configurations, aesthetics, special abilities, etc.?
The NeghVar has a great console config. The Guramba looks great with both the Borg Set or the Reman Shield. Also it's special ability is quite decent.
5 LGs... I have flow all the ships... in the end the bop is the fastest way to level, and the most usable ship against the npcs at any of the levels. IMO
This has nothing at all to do with the bop being OP though... its the same fed side. Escorts are the fastest way to level, the NPCS don't put out enough dmg in any kind of smart enough way to warrant having a ton of heals.
2. What ship(s) do you fly at cap? For each, primarily PvE, PvP or both? Group or solo?
I have an engi in a Maurader, dedicated heal bot for pvp, doesn't get used much as if you are going to fly with klink heal bots you might as well play fed where the better ships are.
3. Which ship(s) do you think are currently overpowered? PvE, PvP, or both? Specifically why?
Klink side there are no overpowered ships. The cruisers are well balanced against the fed ships... although the extra dmg doesn't really trade the extra tank on the fed side. Mass healing is still fed domain, however the klink cruisers can be fun too fly dmg wise.
4. Which ship(s) do you think are currently underpowered? PvE, PvP, or both? Specifically why?
Brel... is a joke of a ship. (no offense to those that enjoy it) It is a fun toy... however flying it in serious pvp isn't much better then taking shuttle craft. Really it can't take more then a couple hits once the shield resists are gone... and not being able to use hull HOT skills as you retreat in cloak make the ship worthless IMO.
As has been stated the Orion and Varnus would be well served with consuls for there specials, it would be nice to run them as basic carbon copies of the fed versions....
The Varnues however is still the wrong sci ship for a klink fleet with low turn, and engi heavy boffs, Klink teams need to be able to move faster and the Varnues is slow big and bulky... pretty much the exact opposite of what Klingons would put into service. IMO Of course we have the flying coffins... I mean the carriers.
5. What feature of your favorite ships do you like the most? As in, console configurations, station configurations, aesthetics, special abilities, etc.?
The Brel may suck but the classic look is killer.
Battle cloak is a fun ability that is vilified a bit too often, its not OP in anyway... it allows interesting ways to play, the "Advanced" Battle cloak then takes them away by pretty much making the abilities you need to cloak while still in combat range useless. Not being able to use HZ as you cloak means you have to zoom off to cloak if you don't want to die, and then you might as well be in a raptor. Its nice to be able to use polarized hull while cloaked on both versions of the Battle cloak... however the way hull resists work with the low hull of the brel its unwise to do so unless you are really not in any danger... and then of course why cloak.
The Raptor is a also a broken ship IMO... and it would be easy to fix... I am not a fan of the long neck, however many like the look and it has grown on me somewhat... the issue is the turning axis, The raptor seems to turn from the back... which makes for very odd game play. Although it should be very close to the defiant on paper, it feels wrong when you fly it.
Inertia in genreal, I imagine there was some thought put into the inertia values of the ships. The Bop and Raptor both seem to have to little, they are very hard to pivot turn in comparison to the fed escorts. The fed escorts are very easy to pivot using throttle and inertia to keep arcs... in general there more nimble even though the turn numbers wouldn't make that seem so.
The Vorcha has a great inertia value, it turns like a cruiser but it slides a bit more making it a fun ship to fly, it is one of the funnest ships to fly on ether side if you like Eject Warp Plasma.
I always use the same ship for both PvE and PvP because I tend to jump into PvP when I'm bored. It's not my primary moe of leveling and so I don't "spec" for it or fly ships supposedly more suited to it.
1. Science ships (as an Engineer) Each ship (Nova > Olympic > Intrepid > Luna)
2. Nebula
3. I don't feel anything is overpowered in PvE
4. N/A
5. Aesthetics, station config, similarity to canon I prefer "Star Trek" Trek ships to "Cryptic" Trek ships.
Birds of Prey. I love my BoPs. Cept the stupid ugly wings, thanks for that..
Hegh'ta BoP.
Federation Cruisers, in both. They can tank like no one's business and can put out damage that is extremely competitive with the much squishier escorts and BoPs. Everything KDF side is fine, cept Carriers, they got nerfed into oblivion so big deal..
Carriers, if anything. They got buffed, then as a reaction from Feds, got nerfed HARD. Anyone saying they are unkillable or too hard to kill in PvP needs to learn to PvP.
Any percieved weaknesses in KDF ships against Feds in PvP is not really a KDF ship weakness, but Fed Cruisers just being ridiculously OP.
I DID like my ship the way it looked. You guys RUINED it when you FORCED wing animations on me. Now it's HIDEOUS! Thanks a ton.
I like my universal slots and battle cloak though.
* * *
That said, I caution you about doing too much to space combat. It's a major reason a lot of us play. Space Combat is sacred, eff it up at your own peril. Any significant change to the Normal difficulty level and playstyle will probably be met with riots. Advanced and Elite on the other hand, need to be more interesting.
as a KDF, BOP, both characters (eng/tac).
2. What ship(s) do you fly at cap? For each, primarily PvE, PvP or both? Group or solo?
Eng: Voquv. Everything
3. Which ship(s) do you think are currently overpowered? PvE, PvP, or both? Specifically why?
I can't think of any
4. Which ship(s) do you think are currently underpowered? PvE, PvP, or both? Specifically why?
Raptor: Not because it is a bad ship, but it is a sitting duck right after it uncloaks because who it associates with.
Garumba. Worst ship in the KDF fleet IMHO.No cloak and is a DPS ship.
No ships are underpowered for PVE.
5. What feature of your favorite ships do you like the most? As in, console configurations, station configurations, aesthetics, special abilities, etc.?
Voquv, devensive spec, is the most logical ship in the KDF fleet. It doesn't cloak and is massive. So, in PVP, all the feds attack it while 5 real BOP uncloak and blow the feds all to hell.
With the Voq, you don't even need the pets.
Specific questions:
1. What ship(s) did you fly as you ranked up? For each, primarily PvE, PvP or both? Group or solo?
2. What ship(s) do you fly at cap? For each, primarily PvE, PvP or both? Group or solo?
3. Which ship(s) do you think are currently overpowered? PvE, PvP, or both? Specifically why?
4. Which ship(s) do you think are currently underpowered? PvE, PvP, or both? Specifically why?
5. What feature of your favorite ships do you like the most? As in, console configurations, station configurations, aesthetics, special abilities, etc.?
Snip
My first klingon I used the K'tinga and Neg'Vhar (BoP when there were no cruiser options) because they were the only cruisers we had. Second time through I used a raptor.
Much faster leveling as an escort for obvious reasons. They move/turn faster and make NPC's melt with no effort.
At cap I fly the raptor, because well its the only "escort" the klingons have.
Overpowered? Well, I don't really see any as OP per say, however the MVAE and Intrepid R are superior to Klingon ships (especially our science ship) in every way. More Hull/Shields, nice Boff setups, Ablative, npc spam...ect...
The most underpowered ships? All of the Klingon retrofits (the b'rel in particular). They are ok but lets get real, all of our retro's are gimmick ships that trade off sub-par special abilities for a console slot, where the fed ships do not. They actually have usefull abilities that they can choose to use or not, Klingons do not have that luxury. I guess I would stick the raptor in the underpowered class as well, but only because the Fed has the Fleet and MVAE, which offer a little more in survivability.
Favorite features? Ablative, MVAM, Phaser lance ....lolz.
And since you seem interested, We need a cruiser with a LT.COM TACTICAL.
2. At cap either the BoP or a Cruiser. A Klingon cruiser mind you. I need my cloaking ships.
3. Hard question to answer. Playing against the kdf I could only say the BoP. That's only because with the uni slots you never know what to expect. Some might say carriers. I dont know about that. They can be troublesome at times but not always OP.
4. I would agree with the gorn and orion ship. Slow non cloaking ships, maybe Im just to attached to the cloak.
5. For me its the Vor'cha refit. I like the look from the shows. I love the boff layout. Its a good ship that can fill a few roles. I would like to see special features being consoles rather than a loss of a console station.
Also going back to Star Trek Armada 2 theirs a few "special" things that could be done with kdf ships that would be cool. Ion cannon, polaron torp, gravity mines, weapons enhancer, commando team. Just to name a few.
edit with some links just in case!
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Polaron_torpedo
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Ion_cannon
http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Armada List with them all.
BoPs and Raptors for the higher DPS, mainly because my main Fed is a cruiser and I didn't want to repeat that. Both PvE and PvP. Solo, mainly because my friends are all waiting for F2P.
A BoP on my tactical, a Vo'Quv on my engineer. PvP mainly, public matches mainly.
None, really. Beam Fire At Will is currently overpowered, but you say there's a fix for that in the works, and I have confidence in you.
Carriers, just in PvP. The shield nerf I think was too much, and the lack of an "attack my target" command for pets really hurts the viability of carriers. I say this both as a carrier pilot and as a Fed cruiser pilot who has fought carriers and found them to be easy prey. Really, though, just an "attack my target" command would fix this. Focus fire is SO IMPORTANT in PvP and carrier pets are so predictable since they will never deviate from their very limited actions that they are super easy to deal with.
I really like the aesthetics of Klingon cruisers. I wish carriers had more of that predatory look to them. As for equipment, while the borg set is really nice, I don't like that it is clearly superior to all other available equipment for tanking builds. Having one obvious best choice makes the whole build portion of the game less fun. Multiple equally viable and DIFFERENT choices make for more fun when building. As for consoles, I wish all multi-purpose ships like carriers had one universal slot, like how the Nebula does. It'd help them out a lot.
1: Flown all the ships available, both in PvE and PvP, solo mostly in PvE grouped in PvP
2: Same answer as for 1, having 8 max lvl KDF toons i have a toon in all ship types.
3 :I don't think any KDF ships are OP, Fed side i think the MVAM and Intrepid-R are a tad too powerfull
4: B'Rel, Garumba, Varanus and Marauder all feel underpowered to me (in PvP , PvE is so redicoulously easy that it makes no diference), and the main reason for this is the 'special' abilities, without exception the specials KDF side are poor, especially when compared to the specials fed side.
The Enhanced battle cloak on the B'Rel is a joke and makes the ship a death trap (especially when combined with the reduced hull, i still cant understand why this ship lost a console and hull).
The fighter squadron on the Marauder is poor as the fighters despawn as soon as the target dies ,compare this to the reman fighters from the feature episode that stay untill destroyed and only take a device slot and this special doesnt feel special at all.
The repair platform/drones on the Varanus are also poor..they explode way too easilly, often wont heal if your at red alert and even when they do heal its for such a small ammount that its next to worthless.
And last but not least the Garumba, first problem is that to charge the special you first have to turn the ship into a cruiser as far as manuverability goes (and as its an escort type ship this makes using cannoins very hard), second problem is that the special only has a small target arc and takes 3 seconds to fire with its low manueverability its hard to keep a target in arc while it fires and finally is the 3+ seconds where you cant fire while the ship then transforms again.
5: Favourite aesthetics is the K'Tinga, always been my favourite ship in Trek (and one we most definatly need a T5 version of) as to station configs i firmly believe the KDF need more options in this area, at T5 our escort ships (the raptor and the Garumba) only have 2 layout choices (and the Garumba is a rediculously expensive ship which doesnt help matters), compare this to fed side where they have 4 diferent layouts now (MVAM, Defiant-R, advanced escort and fleet escort), cruisers are not as bad but we still lack a cruiser with an Excelsior style BOFF layout and our Sci options are so limited its pathetic. I know some would say as we have the uni slot BoP we dont need the same options feds have but i disagree with that, its true the BoP can more or less have same BOFF layouts as the fed escorts and sci ships but with less hull and shields and non of the bonuses sci shps get its never going to be as good overall at a roll as a dedicated ship and while the battle cloak is nice its not the huge advantage a lot of feds believe it to be, especially against a well organised team.
Special abilities..well i think i already explained what i think of KDF side abilities, as too what would be my favourite ones there both fed side..the MVAM and ablative, both of these are light years ahead of anything we have KDF side being both usefull and fun to use, we really need some abilities like these KDF side. The Garumba special might become more usefull ( and fun) if the turn rate penalty was removed, the ability would still have drawbacks (charge time, delay before firing and loss of firing while it reconfigures) but at least the ship would still feel like an escort type ship.
That said:
2) The Oin Heavy Raptor and the Negh'Var Battle Cruiser. The Hegh'Ta is too fragile for my tastes, the B'Rel is even worse and has other problems as well.
3) Overpowered? None.
4) The Varanus Fleet Support Vessel. It still turns too slowly for a science ship, which makes it difficult to use many of the offensive science powers. The support drones that it launches are, quite frankly, worthless. Also, I really feel that we need a cruiser with a LCdr Tactical slot instead of Ensign Tactical slot.
5) I like the Universal Bridge Officer Slots and feel that all Klingon ships should have at least one.
2. I alternate between the excelsior...the dreadnaught and the refit Galaxy class.
3. I think PVP is fairly blanced honestly. though i hear fire at will is OP. and as someone who uses it...i gotta agree...
4. I actually find science ships to be underpowered. they seem to lack that punch i like. same with raptors klingon side. though you klinks who fight the BOP syndrome to fly raptors my raptor pilot salutes you. xD
5. For the dreadnaught...the sheer power. Love how tough it is..moves like a brick though...a very very tough brick. my excelsior for the Lt commander tactical slot....sexy as hell. For the refit galaxy class...splitting into a msall more maneuverable cruiser and giving BOP and raptor pilots a look at what its like to ride your rear in pvp xD
Assault Cruiser, Star Cruiser, Neg'Var Battlecruiser, Recon Science Vessel, Long Range Science Vessel Retrofit, Tactical Escort Retrofit, Gorn Fleet Support Vessel.
The differences are not that big, and most of the strength and weaknesses come from the powers.
The Advaned Heavy Cruiser Retrofit seems to have an unfair advantage with its +1 turn rate over other cruisers of its tier.
The Long Range Science Vessel Ablative Armor is pretty strong, almost like the old 15-second RSP strong. Generally, having a Commander and a Lt.Cmdr BO slot differ opens combinations that sometimes seem stronger.
The Multi-Vector Assault Escort seems to have significant advantages when in MVAM mode to all other ships, and even its BO configuration makes it highly desirable (and overall potentially outshining the Bird of Prey)
For PvE, I think Cruisers are basically indestructable if played right, and both Cruisers and Escorts breeze through space combat very quickly (Escorts quicker than Cruisers). I think overall Escorts are the most fun to play in space combat, at least at normal and advanced difficulty.
A little weird to me is that some people deem the Federation Cruisers as OP compared to the Klingon ships - though all Kling Cruisers have better turn rate and a cloak. The Neg'Var certainly beats the Galaxy-Retrofit when not cloaked. But I think this might be all due to the two factions setting up their ships differently - KDF for alpha strikes, FED for Healing. So it seems the problem is that the defensive powers of Engineering are simply better than the offensive ones. Considering how many people complain about Cruisers not dealing enough damage and jumped onto the broken Beam Fire At Will as their clutch for this, I think it is required to look into these powers. Maybe a few nerfs to resist and heal powers, and a few small buffs to the offensive power?
For PVE, Science Vessels are a little weak on that front. Science suffers a lot from the enemy not really using any powers or tactics that Science abilities can disrupt or circumvent. For example, Charged Particle Burst is wonderful in PvP, as it ignores shield resistance, which makes a lot of ships so tough. But in PvE, not many enemies even have shield resistance buffs, so CPB is just a weak damage burst skill in PvE - no reason to sacrifice 2 weapons for that. Too boot, you often fight only one single enemy, so area effects are less useful.
Over the tiers, I think in Tier 3, the Klingon Battle Cruiser is better than the Heavy Cruiser, as it has better offensive potential (almost escort-level turn rate, and turn rates are not boosted as strong at that tier which increases the gap at tier 5). (That said, I would love to have a Tier 5 non-Advanced Heavy Cruiser...)
The Raptor is underpowered. The Federation equivalents inherent better turn rate cannot be compensated with an engineering console, and within the KDF, it has to compete with the Bird of Prey. Giving it an Engineering instead of Tactical Ensign could make it more interesting to players.
The Assault Cruiser is slightly underpowered. The Star Cruiser is a better healer and the Excelsior is a better damage dealer. Give the Assault Cruiser the Excelsior turn rate, and it should work fine.
The Fleet Support Vessel is a little on the weak side as its healing pets are weak. (And generally, please, can we have less pets in PvP, or at least the option to not use pets?). It does not integrate well with the Klingon fleet, which mostly focuses on first strike tactics using stealth. That is a problem it shares with the Patrol Cruiser.
The Carrier is unfun to play with and unfun to play against. The ship turns frustratingly slow, and the control about the pets is too indirect. Also, on the opposing end -those pets turn PvP into PvEvP. If there was a way to equip some kind of alternative special weapons (torps or beams) in those Pet slots, the Carrier might be more fun and less annoying to fight. People that really must have their pet classes and think fighters in Startrek fit can still have their ship for that (and just need to get better pet controls), but others can do different things with it.
Stations
Everyone wants to have Universal Stations, of course.
I think generally configurations that allow you to mix two different classes for Commander and Lt.Cmdr are interesting to players, especially if we talk about offense-oriented builds.
The reason for that is probably that you can not really use more than 4 Tactical powers at once on an alpha strike in the first place. So it is nice to add the offensive powers of a second class into the mix - and especially nice if that's Photonic Shockwave.
The BoP and the MVAM AE are very powerful for that reason.
For all other class combinations - there are drawbacks and advantages, but one of the biggest advantage for all is that it allows you to use more high level ranking skills at the same time without running into shared and global cooldowns.
If you introduce such ships, give such BO combinations to all factions, and maybe come up with something for the "focused" ship classes.
Ships that have 3 Ensign slots of the same class are generally bad, unless they are science slots. Science has a lot of good ensign powers, and even the low-ranking ones provide good benefits. Filling Engineering and Tact Ensign slots is always hard, because you quickly run into shared cooldowns with either higher ranking powers or other Ensign powers. That limitation doesn't exist for Science powers.
It is probably too late for this, but I always wondered why the _Exploration_ Cruiser is the ship with the Engineering Ensign and not with an Ensign (or even Lt.Cmdr) Science. But then; I would have probably designed all Federation ships with a science focus and all Klingon ships with a tactical focus. (E.g. instead of giving ships a second Bridge Officer of their associated shhip/BO class, I would have given them one associated with their faction. So all Tier 5 Federation vessels would have had a Lt.Cmdr Science, and all Tier 5 Klingon vessels would have had a Lt.Cmdr Tact).
Consoles
Science Consoles are weak. It's the default place for the Borg Universal Console for me. The only ship that really needs them is the Science Vessel. I think "nerfing" the Science Console might have been done better in a different way - for example, add some kind of stacking penalty / diminishing return. The way it's now, for a ship that has only 2-3 science stations, 2-3 science consoles are irrelevant.
Engineering Consoles are great to have. Tactical consoles are great for anyone relying on weapons. There are several good choices even. (But don't bother with those Engineering Regeneration booster consoles)
Aesthetics
I hate the Tier 3 Golfball ships. But their stats are good for an SV of that tier.
I love the Tier 2 Science Vessels, and I enjoyed the Tier 3 Cruiser.
The Tier 3 Escorts are neat as well.
The Recon Science Vessel look good from the top,but the engineeing/deflector section doesn't.
Sovereign has the best assault cruiser parts (though I like the Imperial nacelles, but not the rest).
The Defiant is the best-looking Tactical Escort Retrofit by far.
I have grown somewhat fond of the Cochrane LRSV, but with the Intrepid pylons (otherwise, the nacelle position just doesn't look right, and the Discovery pylons just work the wrong way around)
Special Ability
I don't like any of the KDF special abilitie, other than cloak/battle cloak (enhanced battle cloak works badly).
On the Federation side, Ablative Armor and Cloak is nice. Saucer seperation and MVAM mode are of course good also, but primarily due to the advantages the bring.
The Galaxy X Lance is neat, but the KDF/Naucassian equivalent mechanic is not.
...
On a general note: I don't like the current ship skill system. At Tier 5, the skill list is cluttered with a skill for almost every ship, for no good reason. Easiest solution: Give us one skill for each ship type (Cruiser, Science Vessel, Escort, Raider, Carrier) and be done with it. There is no reason to have the current skill list, except to force us into spending our respecs (and buying them on C-Store, to use the standard boogey man
I am also not sure i like the whole idea of the "spec a lower tier skill for 50 % the benefit". It sticks out like a sore thumb to the way all other skills work. Maybe it would be better to split what the ship skills do into 3 areas (shield improvement, hull improvement, turn rate/speed improvement?) for each ship.
(e.g. "Cruiser Shield Management" and "Escort Engine Management" and "Science Damage Control management"), and put the ships for different ships in different tiers. (Cruiser Hull Tier 3, Cruiser Shield Tier 4, Cruiser Engine Tier 5; Science Shield Tier 3, Science Maneuverability Tier 4, Science Hull Tier 5, Escort Engine Tier 3, Escort Hull Tier 4, Escort Shield Tier 5, Raider Engine Tier 3, Raider Shield Tier 4, Raider Hull Tier 5, Carrier Shield Tier 3, Carrier Hull Tier 4, Carrier Engine Tier 5)
1. i played 2 KDF toons so far, singleplayer mostly, i will concentrate on the one that i got up to Endgame.
As i said in the FED thread already, i tend to stick to the CANON Ships, on KDF side that meant for my first char:
B'Rel > Raptor > K'T'inga > Vor'cha > Negh'Var ...including wasted respecs where needed.
the only Canon ship missing from the KDF that would make any sense is the D-5 Battlecruiser / tanker from ENT. but i blame Star Trek for not giving the Alien Species more Ship types, heck they didn't even give the Klingons or Romulans one new Ship in the Dominion War when they showed the big Fleet's, can't blame Cryptic for that imbalance.
2. i am still unsure what Ship to use for Endgame.
I have a tactical Gorn, so if i want to go with the roleplay-thing i would end up with a TAC Gorn in a SCI ship?! (not sure if good)
Carriers are more for SCI chars too...
So i am left with Cruisers, BoP's or other ALIEN ships. (and i keep BoP's for my 2nd char)... so i'm kinda STUCK with the Negh'Var as it seems.
3. i would carefully say that Carriers and BoPs need a good long look.
Carriers can tank like stones, and the pet spam needs to be taken care of while fighting them too, in a one on one i was never able to destroy a carrier, i did not die very often either... but ... well it's odd.
I'd say they need to get looked at in a controlled environment, which i will not get in a public PvP match ;P
BoP's... i don't like the universal BOff slots. Not at all.
You never know if you will get hit Escort style with high DPS or if he throws crazy SCI abilities at you.
If they had a limited amount of universal Slots (for example only the Commander BOff), that would be OK with me, but the complete crew, is that really needed?
Using BoPs on my 2nd char (Captain 4 right now), i feel a bit confused in which direction i should even take my own BOff's... -> lots of experimenting, not very casual friendly.
4.
Cruisers, especially Vor'cha and Negh'Var feel... boring... basic... can't do anything special...
they are maybe as good as the Sovereign as beam boats.
Not sure if they can compete with the Excelsior.
5.
i tried all the special Alien Ships on Tribble when i got to BG1, and i have to say i like none of them.
The Gorn ship has a boring stationary repair drone ability (that will get shot down in PvP fast).
The Orion ship is just ugly... nothing i would ever want to fly... not with my Gorn at least, don't even know what it does ;P
The Nausicaan Guramba Siege Destroyer is... to expensive, and the ability felt just awkward and unreliable to me when i was testing it. I like the looks of it, but thats about it.
The Kar'fi carrier looks more like a Train... and i don't see anything special about it?
The B'Rel retrofit... that was not what i expected from it... i thought i would be able to shoot torps while cloaked, (as advertised)... not decloak shoot a torp and recloak... and get decloaked by using repair abilities...
i guess the ship has it's use if you fly in a team with Carriers who provide pet UI spam... so it is hard(er) to target you... but in a singleplayer zone i don't see any good use for that ship.
but as i said i only tried those on Tribble to see what they can do, and i was not impressed with any of them.
Don't get me wrong, those ships are good for singleplayer roleplaying intentions and provide much needed flavor to the KDF, but i don't feel like those ships are the KDF's *top gear*.
On FED side the refits ARE clearly the top gear though.
BoP all the way, picking up a new one every time I made the next rank. I didn't go for the B'Rel Retrofit though, since its cloak is, IMO, not as good as the regular battle cloak, for the following reasons:
- In the Sortie missions, the ship gets detected at a range of 12 km with the cloak active (and nothing else going on, other than moving towards my target). The other ships don't do this.
- I can fire my torpedoes while cloaked... Or not, I have to decloak for a bit to fire them... Same for healing, I can do it while cloaked... Or not, since my cloak drops temporarily for the duration of the heal. This means that, although on paper it says I can heal while cloaked, in reality this isn't the case. Only thing I could effectively do is heal a bit of hull with ET, all others have a duration, for which I will be decloaked the entire time and subject to attacks. In the end, I'd be better off decloaking when healing (I have shields to protect me then), something I can do a well in the Hegh'ta as in the B'Rel. I also only use energy weapons, making the projectile shooting totally useless to me.
I level playing PvE only, and even now don't PvP frequently. This was a bit of a mix of soloing and grouping (the latter taking place with fleetmembers).
See 1. I fly the Hegh'ta, for reasons already listed above. Should those problems be improved, then that might make the Retrofit more interesting. It does have a better turn rate.
Can't answer these since I don't PvP enough and don't fly anything other than the BoP.
I like the BO slot lay-out of the Bird of Prey, and the chance it gives me to customize it to my needs. I run with two sets of Beam Overload and Canon Rapid Fire, suplemented with TT and APO, as well as DEM, EPtS and RSP, plus ST and HE. This allows me a good amount of healing, while still dealing lots of damage. The only thing that makes this less potent than possible is the fact that this is a science LG. Compared to the Tactical LG I have it's definitely less of a punch for the science guy.
I think that's pretty much it.
1.) All of them. Fed-side, mainly PvE, KDF-side, a mix of both. Group and solo.
2.) Fed-side: Assault Cruiser, Advanced Heavy Cruiser-R, Defiant-R, Intrepid-R, Nebula-R, MVAE, MVAE-R, Fleet Escort, Star Cruiser. KDF-side: Hegh'ta BoP, Vo'Quv Carrier, Raptor, Varanus, Negh'var, Vor'cha-R. Both PvE and PvP. Group and solo.
3.) Any ship with Fire at Will and 5+ Beam Arrays is currently OP for PvE.
Any ship with a Commander and Lt. Commander from a different specialty (e.g. MVAE-R, Nebula, D'Kyr, etc) has the 'potential' to be considered OP, unless the BoP is given a 12th BOff-slot (especially for PvP purposes). The single, greatest appeal for the BoP (and the long-standing justification for all of the BoP's drawbacks) is the ability to run combinations of BOffs, thanks to Universal stations, that 'were' unavailable on other ship classes... As these combinations of 'off-spec' Commander/Lt. Commander BOffs become more and more available, the drawbacks of the BoP become a significant handicap, which is magnified in top-tier PvP.
The MVAM console is very powerful (particularly the Beta version), when separated, however, the long cooldowns serve to mitigate some of this power. If the turn rate bonuses were tweaked slightly downward (so that none of the versions could out-turn a BoP), it might be more balanced. The accompanying MVAE-R also illustrates the off-spec Lt. Commander BOff combination that is whittling away the appeal of the BoP.
4.) The DSSV (and its KDF corollary, the Varanus) suffer from a turn-rate weakness, that limit the effectiveness of directionally-limited Science powers.
The Assault Cruiser is mildly inferior to the Excelsior, but an increase in turn rate to match the Excelsior would balance things, and provide a genuine choice for slightly more tank or slightly more firepower, rather than having a noticeable advantage on the part of the Excelsior.
The Raptor's pivot axis (and poor turn-rate/inertia combination, for an Escort) is a distinct disadvantage, particularly against other Escorts, and cannot be easily compensated by simply adding an RCS console or two.
The Vor'cha-R, while a capable ship, should be the KDF equivalent to the Excelsior, with the LtC Tactical BOff, instead of the Assault Cruiser's Lt + Ens. With it's lower hull than comparable cruisers (but higher turn-rate, much like the Excelsior), it is the ideal candidate for this upgrade.
The Carriers got hit a little too hard with the nerfbat in the last go 'round, it is strange that they get Science Vessel BOff layouts, Science Vessel weapon slots, but do not benefit from things like Science Vessel shield-levels, Sensor Analysis, etc.
Some special abilities are barely useful in any circumstance, while others are so situationally useful, as to be 'nearly' useless; some examples, the Varanus' repair drones, the Nebula's TDG - Note: Hate when people lag bomb outside of ESD with this..., etc.
Again, the BoP continues to fall further behind the power curve, as new and 'unique' BOff combinations are released. The MVAE-R illustrates the problem most significantly, able to combine one of the arguably most effective combinations of a Tactical Commander and Lt. Commander Science, while still retaining a full complement of supplementary skills (in the Lt and Ens Tac, and Lt Eng) and gaining the powerful MVAM special ability. The BoP sacrifices hull, shields, a weapon slot, balanced (but not weighted toward any specialty, which limits damage potential, by comparison) console slots, and an Ensign BOff; and gains Battle Cloak and a good turn rate... When the BoP's most appealing feature (the ability to run combinations of BOffs that were not able to be achieved, previously, in other vessels) becomes a non-advantage, because ships with those combinations are now available, it is time to bring the BoP back into line, and the seemingly-logical solution would be to give it an Ensign BOff-slot... Either make it a Universal, or simply make it an Ensign Tactical slot (which would fit the 'Raider' designation), if a Universal would be too powerful, but, with all the other drawbacks that the BoP suffers for its only-remaining 'unique' advantage (the Battle Cloak), there needs to be a change.
5.) I am a huge fan of the Sovereign-class hull, but choose not to fly it currently, due to the FAW problem (I was a 2x FAW user from long ago, but stopped flying the ship, when that became an abusive combination) and its lower turn-rate than the Excelsior... For Cruiser choices, it currently comes to the Star Cruiser for a Healer, or Healer/damage hybrid; and an Excelsior, for a damage cruiser. Still, it is one of the prettiest hulls in Star Trek (and CapnLogan has outdone himself with the model).
I am a big fan of the variety of choice in BOff layouts, for both sides, and is one of the reasons that I love the BoP (and MVAE-R, Nebula-R, Excelsior, etc.)...
The Vor'cha is beautiful, but using components of the original and CapnLogan's new skin for it, creates one of the most fierce and striking starships available to either side.
The Hephaestus-class skin is awesome, although I'm not a huge fan of the saucer (and typically swap a Cerberus one for it)... The nacelles, in particular, are my favorite on any ship in-game.
The T5 Raptors (both variants) are beautiful, and I really like the extra Tac Ensign with the extra Eng Console, however, the pivot axis problem negates the 'uniqueness' of this layout, by necessitating the addition of an RCS console.
Funnily enough, though, my favorite, overall, hull in the game is the T2 Excalibur... Looking like an adapted Constitution, fitted with Sovereign-era technology, it is a logical progression of hull designs from what we saw in the movies, and really is one of the most 'Star Trek' original designs from Cryptic.
Love the MVAM Console, but think it needs a little tweaking, so as not to be too powerful.
Absolutely adore the Aegis Shield effect on every ship (though, it looks better on Fed ships), would love to see variant components of these set items (e.g. a resilient/regenerative Aegis shield; a resilient/covariant Borg shield, etc.)
Don't like to leave the Borg items' visuals enabled, but love to see the effects flicker when the procs are triggered, that's an awesome effect.
-Big Red
3 characters 1 tac, 1 eng, 1 sci.
1. A)Raptors, mostly pve, group when i can
C) Bops, pve, group when i can
2. A) Tier 5 Raptor for pvp, Nausicaan for pve. mostly pve, but some pvp. group when i can
C) Will be Bop for pvp, Varanus for pve. rest as 2a
3. In pve, none. Not enough data for pvp.
4. I think the BoP and Raptors needs a hair more hull.
5. I love for the most part how the Klink ships come together, the whole package.
In STO in general the only problem i have with the ships is that Cruisers tend to have all the pluses in pvp. Highest hull, highest crew, most weapon slots, more overall power (+20 as opposed to +15). I notice that in pvp more than half of all fed use cruisers and about half of klinks do in pvp, i think the numbers should be tweaked to encourage more of the lighter ships.
It should be noted that although on the Klingon side i tend to run class ships, on my feds i tend to use more sci and tac ships for all 9 of my alts.
1. Escort/BOP due to speed and firepower to get through the missions as quickly as possible. I don't PvP til I hit cap, and usually solo til STFs, or just team with my fleetmates.
2. Depending on my character's class, I do enjoy the MVAM Escort with the Boff set up of the original ship. On the KDF side, I LOVE MY VO'QUV CARRIER
3. I do not feel that any ships are currently overpowered.
4. 2 answers, one for each faction: While I understand it's limitations, the Galaxy X is still one of my most favorite ships on the FED side. But I have difficulty using it due to turn rate (gotten too use to escorts I suppose as I was a cruiser captain for the past year til MVAM came out) and not enough tac skills to take advantage of DCs or DHCs. In it's current configuration, when I do use it in Fleet PvP or STFs, I load it with beams and heal skills and Tank and Heal. When I solo PvE, I load cannons and take as long as I need to.
5 as well as 2nd answer to 4. Favorite feature would be the Boff layout of the Vo'Quv Carrier, only ship in the game with at least 3 LTC skills. Also being the largest pilot-able ship in the whole game, with the most crew, just a great symbol of the Empire. That being said, I feel it's underpowered without more weapon slots. I understand I can view the hanger bays as my 'weapon slots' but I think the trade off would be fair in that weapon power is generally lower in order to keep Shields up as well as high aux to launch pets. If not it's weapon slots, then it's shields need a buff as it's a cruiser (hull) with a science function so the sci shield buff should be present as well.
As the carrier is as big as it is, it should take a coordinated effort (imo) to take it down, not just one really good escort, although kudos to those pilots
STFs and PvP in my Carrier is the most fun I have in-game
2 klingons, engineer / science
1. raptors for PvE leveling
1a. PvP is non-existant at lower levels, please rectify this by giving incentives TO pvp. Current fastest way to level is PvE grinding.
2. Carrier for the engineer currently. PvP focused
2a. BoP for the science. PvP focused
3. Fed side: it's not one ship, but the whole gamut of choices of ships you can fly, each with different BO combinations. Please give more ship selections to klingons
4. B'rel. You guys made the cloak the only cloak where heals and buffs to your cloaked ship will reveal it for the entire duration of the heal. Please do pop in and give us PVP'ers a chat once in a while, either in the PVP forums or OrganizedPVP.
4a. As far as PvE is concerned, a T2 ship is enough for end game PvE.
5. Varanus' abilitiy with the healing drones is vastly underpowered compared to the additional console slot for the Fed DSSV.
A: LT BoP, LC BoP, Comander BoP, CAPT Vor'Cha (beautiful ship) Carrier up to LTG and now GURAMBA SEIGE DESTROYER, PvE, solo
Q: What ship(s) do you fly at cap? For each, primarily PvE, PvP or both? Group or solo?
A: GURAMBA SEIGE DESTROYER for everything.
Q: Which ship(s) do you think are currently overpowered? PvE, PvP, or both? Specifically why?
A: Dont feel like starting a war with other klink's
Q: Which ship(s) do you think are currently underpowered? PvE, PvP, or both? Specifically why?
A: Don't feel like starting a war with other klink's
Q: What feature of your favorite ships do you like the most? As in, console configurations, station configurations, aesthetics, special abilities, etc.?
A: What abilities? Other than cloak the only ship with a special power is the GURAMBA SEIGE DESTROYER to Transform and use it Javelin.