The Photonic Studies duty officer reduces cooldown times on photonic abilities, it specifically lists Photonic Officer as one of the things it affects.
The Photonic Officer ability has a basic rated cooldown of 180 seconds and an active time of 1 minute. During its 1 minute of active time, abilities cool down 32% faster.
With
zero photonic DOFFs, the ability takes 163 seconds to recharge.
Photonic officer increases its own rate of cooldown while it's active If it recharges at 132% of normal for 1 minute and then proceeds normally, that means in the first minute it "earned" the equivalent of 79.2 seconds, meaning the total time should be reduced by 19.2 = 160.8. Since I'm not actually sure when the different counters start and stop due to activation time and lag and stuff, 160.8 is close enough to 163 to call this good.
With
one Rare photonic DOFF (listed as 15% reduction to cooldown time), the ability takes 135 seconds to recharge.
A 15% reduction on 180 seconds is 153 seconds, and I would expect the cooldown to now be 134. Again: 135 ~= 134. Good enough considering the slop involved. Everything checks out.
But hold on to your hat because here's where it get weird.
With
three Rare photonic DOFFS at 15% cooldown reduction each, the ability takes 121 seconds to recharge.
A 45% reduction on 180 seconds is 99 seconds. Obviously, 99 is a
lot less than 121, and that's before we even include photonic officer's own cooldown reduction.
If we include the 132% cooldown rate during the first minute, the final cooldown should be 79.8 seconds.
Working backward, the actual reduction from the DOFFs was 39.8 seconds or 22.1%.
The game isn't even doing the obviously goofy mistake of ((180*0.85)*0.85)*0.85, because that would still be less time than what you actually get.
So... Yeah. Something isn't working here.
Comments
Do you know the difference from the user's perspective between a bug, and something that works as designed but whose mechanics are counter intuitive, exceptional and opaque?
Trick question. There isn't a difference.
Photonic studies doffs don't work the way their description says they should, i.e. the same way as other officers with "reduces cooldown". If you put 2 maintenance engineers on your ship, they both apply in a logical and intuitive way. If you put 3 technicians on your ship, they all apply in a logical and intuitive way. Having multiple photonic doffs does not work this way, which means either their mechanics are broken or the description of their ability is obsolete and inadequate.
Cryptic is the only one who knows which it is. Hence; We start a thread and ask.
.... I already tried this approach.
The 134 second figure comes from 180 seconds times 0.85 from the first doff, which is 153, and then subtract 19.2 seconds from photonic officer's effect on itself, giving 133.8 which I rounded up to 134 for readability. You can't start from 134 because that's the final result after waiting for the ability to recharge, while the doff reductions take place right at the start.
So going back a step, start with 153 (reduced time after first doff) and then multiplying by 0.85 again for the second, gives 130; multiply by 0.85 again for the third doff, and you get 110.5. Minus the 19.2 seconds, and with multiplicative bonuses and three doffs the final cooldown should be about 91.3 seconds. Compare to 79.8 seconds using additive bonuses (like other cooldown reducing doffs), and an actual observed result of 121 seconds.