The new mechanics of the Infected and Cure STF's are interesting and better in some cases, and less so in others. There are definite benefits and detriments to having them load as a Fleet Action, and I thought I'd go over them now. I've taken time to talk it over with a number of friends who do the STF's and Fleet Actions and here are some of my thoughts.
1) Infected Space is definitely more interesting. Its almost unrecognizable from the original. The approach certainly also feels more 'fleet actiony'. At least in the one-shot sense that Fleet Actions became when the ground and space portions were separated. Auto-teaming makes these feel a little more like STF's though I suppose. All in all, I liked it, but I miss the connection this mission had to the storyline before. This is true of all the STF's. I don't feel I have time to read what is going on either, because guns start blazing right off the bat, and I don't want people to feel I'm dead weight on an auto-team situation. I'll likely end up reading the storyline when I queue a mission with a full team of friends, or just read it on the Wiki... That's sad. Admittedly once the story has been read we know it... but some changes have been made. New players won't know whats going on, they're just going to go in guns blazing too.
2) Infected Ground felt very much like its earlier counterpart. The only real changes that I noticed were the energy bridges that they put into the map. This feels a lot like training wheels to me and quite a few others who have been doing it without for a long time now. Some have suggested that it should not exist on Elite mode.
3) Cure Space definitely feels different from the original, with familiar touches. I've got no problem with turning the book-end space portions into one Mission though. The same story can be told without segmenting it like that. This mission seems to have heavy amounts of crashing.
4) Cure Ground all in all was pretty cool. As a tactical, queued in a team with no scientists, it was a bit of hell though. Unfortunately Season 4 has made the Tac squishier than ever, with no good way to mitigate for it. This promotes Zerg behavior which, honestly is dumb, and ultimately not promoted in a boss fight where you are forced to get in close quarters with Armek. We really need to see Hypoes (and many Ground Kit Abilities) see their animation times and cooldowns change to match the snappy pace of Season 4+ Ground Combat. This is true of regular missions as well. Most skills take longer than it takes to get yourself killed, what's the point in that? Additionally, a lot of traits need to be relooked at to mesh well with the changes. Peak Health for instance saw a Drastic change in its value as a ground trait, to the point of almost being worthless now. Rapture for Letheans is a neat skill, but considering how long it roots a character it needs to hit a lot harder than it does, or see a shorter cooldown. I'm fairly sure I've stated some of my opinions on ground combat before, but this is a good place to reiterate them.
5) No Space to Ground Transitions. This element change is the biggest part of really changing what the Borg STF's are. They don't feel like 'Task Forces' anymore but more like Fleet Actions. However, I think it would be fantastic if we could have the option to jump directly from one mission to the next as we like, rather than having to requeue. If we could jump in at Infected, and continue onward all the way to Khitomer Accord (and the upcoming Hive) that would be fantastic.
6) Timeouts happen. Crashes happen. I personally experienced a lot of crashing in Infected the first time I did it. Luckily it hasn't happened to me since, but my comrades faced the problem dozens of times across the 4 currently available missions.
7) When do we get to test the changes to Khitomer Accord? I'm really curious to see what was done to this one. The original storyline had 3 parts, will KA become 3 Fleet Actions/STF's?
8) What are the benefits to being a well rounded character? STF's use to represent the balanced character. Now, there is no need. There should be special rewards for those of us who opt to build a well rounded character. (actually I hope the skill pools between ground and space get split still).
9) Unrelated to this, but my favorite Fleet Action was easily the DS9 one. Please bring it back!!! Many of my friends likewise vehemently agree on this matter. This one was just really engaging, so I want to make sure and point it out.
In short, these are just some of my passing thoughts on the matter, and I thought I'd open the whole issue of the STF's to the community with a few of my thoughts. I'm sure a lot of other players have ideas regarding the state of STF's in the game, and how it can improve for the future. My biggest wish, is that it will be possible to have a character that is able to be both Specced for PVP (Ground & Space) and Fleet Actions/STF's. By splitting the missions up, they've drastically hurt this. I'd really like to see our captains have Ground and Space skill pools as have been discussed in the past. I'd also like to see a Ground Action some day where each captain brings his boffs along. We spend all this time building these guys, it'd be nice to dust them off in a challenge setting.
One more thing, I'd like to request that a variant of the current Fleet Action system be applied to the STF's. There needs to be a good system where by a team can enter an STF and run persistently through. The timeout feature is all well and good, unless your team mates crash a lot and can't come back. At which point you end up with a couple guys who can't complete the STF. There is also the instance of people just disconnecting naturally for one reason or another. For those of us who want to go in with OUR TEAM this would be a benefit to the system.
Hey Dodge. Nice Post. I wanted to bring up one point about Cure Space.
Originally, in the Cure, you fly in to save the Klingon ship, Go to the Ground to face Armek, then back up into space to kill the Borgified Klingon ships that you unborgify/gain NPC control of, that ends with a Cube, + Tac Cube right before the Carrier.. Which, to me, is a pretty epic fight already.
In the STF, After you stop the Borg Cubes from Spawning ships to attack the Klingon Ship, with nothing left, the Carrier shows up.. Honestly, I think the Carrier should show up right when your on the Last Cube with the Negh'vars. And then you could even make the previously defeated Cube areas spawn 2 Sets of Allied Klingon ships to help with the final fight with the Carrier. 1 Set would be Birds of Prey, the other set would be the Raptors. At least then it would still feel like it did before, while still also having the Fleet action feel it has already.
But maybe that's just how Normal feels.. Easier then it probobly will be on Hard and Elite Difficulties that I'm sure we'll get to test later in the testing phases.
And as far as KA goes, I'm predicting Parts 1 and 3 Being tied together some how.
Perhaps you have X amount of time to defeat the Gates again before enough Borg reach a center gate. Then from that Gate the Romulan ship could show up with "Reinforcements" based on how well you did with the Optional and on the Dififculty of the Fleet Action STF.
That's my Guess on how the KA STF Fleet Action may happen.
Thanks klaw. I think your idea isn't bad either. It did feel a bit more immersive I think, where you rally one group, but can't save the other. Then, the ones who didn't make it attack you. It was pretty fantastic in that respect. Also, and I'm wondering if anyone notice this but does Armek not drop the Kits anymore?
Comments
Originally, in the Cure, you fly in to save the Klingon ship, Go to the Ground to face Armek, then back up into space to kill the Borgified Klingon ships that you unborgify/gain NPC control of, that ends with a Cube, + Tac Cube right before the Carrier.. Which, to me, is a pretty epic fight already.
In the STF, After you stop the Borg Cubes from Spawning ships to attack the Klingon Ship, with nothing left, the Carrier shows up.. Honestly, I think the Carrier should show up right when your on the Last Cube with the Negh'vars. And then you could even make the previously defeated Cube areas spawn 2 Sets of Allied Klingon ships to help with the final fight with the Carrier. 1 Set would be Birds of Prey, the other set would be the Raptors. At least then it would still feel like it did before, while still also having the Fleet action feel it has already.
But maybe that's just how Normal feels.. Easier then it probobly will be on Hard and Elite Difficulties that I'm sure we'll get to test later in the testing phases.
And as far as KA goes, I'm predicting Parts 1 and 3 Being tied together some how.
Perhaps you have X amount of time to defeat the Gates again before enough Borg reach a center gate. Then from that Gate the Romulan ship could show up with "Reinforcements" based on how well you did with the Optional and on the Dififculty of the Fleet Action STF.
That's my Guess on how the KA STF Fleet Action may happen.