Warp Core equipment type coming soon?

walshicus

From here: http://www.gamersbook.com/scene/news/an-interview-with-star-trek-online-executive-producer/

[DSTAHL] With the constant flow of new ships coming out of the shipyards, our next major update to ships will be to incorporate warp core design into how a ship performs in combat and what types of power it can bring to a fight.

So I take it that this implies we'll be getting a Warp Core equipment slot in the near future? Nice! I've always said there are a number of key systems that should be exposed through the equipment interface; Warp Core, Computer Core, Sensor Array...

What do you guys think?

arcademaster

Didn't DStahl or CaptainGecko say in some interview that adding something like this to the game would require too much reprogramming? It wasn't long ago either, maybe in the last ASk Cryptic. But I'm too lazy to search.

In general I'm always happy about new types of equipment, that means more character development, more stuff to do. (inb4 "more stuff to grind" )

kamiyama317

It will be interesting to see what they do with it. I wonder if the warp cores will replace any power bonus that our ships come with. Like how escorts right now get +15 weapons power, maybe once these cores come out all those power bonuses are removed and whatever core you pick grants you your subsystem power bonus.

Or the warp cores could do something else entirely?

pyryck

Sounds like the Ship UI tab is about to get just a little bit larger.

On the upside of adding in major system components to our ships is the option of having some of them be in a "set" to provide a little extra "oomph" like what current sets do for us now.

It will offer a lot more customization or tailoring of your ship to suit your play style. Maybe not so much the graphical avatar as much as the numbers behind the scene.

kingdoxy

It might be a mountain of work, but its one of the few ways they can keep folks buying ships. If each ship had a different warp core modifier or there were multiple types that could only slot into certain ships it would help differentiate the ships and make some more appealing to purchase.

assimilatedktar

walshicus wrote: »

What do you guys think?

That the best warp cores will come from high-tier fleets and the Lobi store.

azurianstar

Yeah, it would be a lot of work to add in Warp Cores, because they would have to go through all ships and remove their power bonuses and redo the skill tree. So if they are indeed doing so, it would be part of a Major Season.

And it would be nice if they did, because Power bonuses for ships and the skill tree power bonuses never really made sense. Made more sense that you had warp cores that had certain limits in capabilities. Which easily could mean all sorts of new possibilities such as ship-specific warp cores (for instance not able to stuff a Galaxy Warp core in a Defiant, or vice versa).

Or having a power system more dedicated to shield power than weapon power or warp systems that yield higher warp speeds in sector space.


So if they did pull it off, it opens new doors in the game and make it a bit more interesting.

causalityeffect

This is a fairly obvious attempt to keep milking the cash cow by adding MORE equipment people will end up having to grind for. Whole new category of set items and huge dilithium costs coupled with introduction of ships with varying types of warp cores.

They already played the carrier + ship layout cards so now they need a new gimick to sell a whole new brand of ships.

Its just hilariously funny that Cryptic Developers whine that it would take too much effort - then when they see the cash cow its suddenly feasible.

kamiyama317

causalityeffect wrote: »

This is a fairly obvious attempt to keep milking the cash cow by adding MORE equipment people will end up having to grind for. Whole new category of set items and huge dilithium costs coupled with introduction of ships with varying types of warp cores.

I hope they turn all the 3 piece space sets into 4 piece space sets. Could you imagine mixing 2 and 2 of any set you want?

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jkstocbr

I think this would be a great idea. We definitely more ways to manage our ships, like new ship consoles and device slots for example. I hope that the Warp core system is more than just a Slot and lets up manage it like tree of devices/consoles to add variety.

shar487a

I can't wait for actual Warp Engines to become available -- after all, these are the largest components of all star ships. Unfortunately STO has no support whatsoever for warp speed combat engagements. The only way the latter can be corrected is to completely rework torpedo damage mechanics since energy weapons cannot fire out of a ship's warp bubble.

leviathan99

causalityeffect wrote: »

This is a fairly obvious attempt to keep milking the cash cow by adding MORE equipment people will end up having to grind for. Whole new category of set items and huge dilithium costs coupled with introduction of ships with varying types of warp cores.

They already played the carrier + ship layout cards so now they need a new gimick to sell a whole new brand of ships.

Its just hilariously funny that Cryptic Developers whine that it would take too much effort - then when they see the cash cow its suddenly feasible.

While that may factor in, I really think the big factors are:

- When the team expanded, they got programmers on the STO team, it would seem. (I don't think STO had any under Atari.)

- This gives them a tool for ship balancing that they can update easier. Instead of having manually modify ships, they can tweak warp core stats or add new warp cores.

It's fundamentally how I can see them managing threat generation, tanking utility, the extra aux needs of sci vessels, and survivability vs. damage.

I always thought having tanking skills on the skill trees discouraged ship experimentation and would personally favor removing the threat control skills from the skill trees and place threat directly on a warp core. This would promote swapping playstyles within a ship and swapping ships more.

As it stands, we have very little interest in ships beyond our main ship.

But when we get to use our spare ships as pets in space and with more incentive for ship and playstyle swapping within a ship, demand for different ships and types of gear will go dramatically up.

I personally think it's probably smart to go ahead and start focusing on getting 5 or more Fleet Tier/Lockbox Tier ships and gearing them all to function as a team. It will save headaches later when they add that mechanic.

rustiswordz

I've heard arguments from all player types sci/tac/eng that these warp cores will wipe out what makes their ships special in the first place, myself i'm not so sure. If we have a wide range of cores to choose from you can pick a core to enhance what you want from a ship.

Say an escort with a built in 10+ power to weapons, you can pick up a core specialises in hull and shields that will make your escort a little more tanky. Or a weapons core in a cruiser to give a little more pew to its systems.

Or a core that gives a small bonus across all systems a jack of all trades core.

Thats how i see this idea myself.

reginamala78

Hmm, maybe this will increase diversity between the ship classes. Little cores have limited output but can discharge rapidly enough to power DHCs. Huge cores can't adjust as rapidly to changing conditions, but can sustain high levels of energy draw. Fluff stuff like that to justify exaggerating the classes maybe. We shall see.

mandoknight89

reginamala78 wrote: »

Hmm, maybe this will increase diversity between the ship classes. Little cores have limited output but can discharge rapidly enough to power DHCs. Huge cores can't adjust as rapidly to changing conditions, but can sustain high levels of energy draw. Fluff stuff like that to justify exaggerating the classes maybe. We shall see.

That would be a silly limitation on larger cores. Unless like fuses, capacitors don't exist in the future.

leviathan99

reginamala78 wrote: »

Hmm, maybe this will increase diversity between the ship classes. Little cores have limited output but can discharge rapidly enough to power DHCs. Huge cores can't adjust as rapidly to changing conditions, but can sustain high levels of energy draw. Fluff stuff like that to justify exaggerating the classes maybe. We shall see.

Yeah and it's entirely possible that ship types could have modifiers or caps on the effectiveness of different cores, which could de-tank escorts or make the same core perform differently in different ships.

rjcfoxtrot

Moving us closer to a model like what Suricata proposed would be awesome.

http://www.suricatafx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Ship_Tier_Changes.jpg

evendzhar

fulleatherjacket wrote: »

Do you have any idea how many players have been demanding warp cores as slottable ship components for the last three years? Obviously not. Stop being such an enormous blubbering whiner about the grind you don't have to take part in or spend real cash on.

People only want things as long as they are offered for free. If it turns out all the good warp cores come with 5000 Zen ship packs, for hundreds of Lobi or 50k dilithium in the fleet store, a lot of players will no longer be enthusiastic.

user839020189287

Maybe the news of Warp Cores was to introduce some kind of Scotty-like BOFF Mini-game?

"I am giving her all she's got, Captain!"

Spam key like mad.

"Captain, I don't know how much more emergency power we can take!"

More key spamming.

"She can't take much more of this, Captain!"

*keyboard is smoking by this point*

Sounds like fun, can't wait to see what turns up!

rovakiin

Wait... slightly confused. Does this mean warp cores will be consumables? Or will they be permanent ship components like consoles?

markhawkman

rovakiin wrote: »

Wait... slightly confused. Does this mean warp cores will be consumables? Or will they be permanent ship components like consoles?

It probably means they will have an effect on ship power levels.

causalityeffect

fulleatherjacket wrote: »

Do you have any idea how many players have been demanding warp cores as slottable ship components for the last three years? Obviously not. Stop being such an enormous blubbering whiner about the grind you don't have to take part in or spend real cash on.

Why no of course not... its not like I have been around since this game began and was one of the players asking for them only for Cryptic to do nothing while they happily minted out ship after ship that people wanted.

Yeah its so nice for Cryptic to implement something people ask for... while at the same time TRIBBLE those people over in the process. However, its obvious your one of the hapless sheeple Cryptic is slaughtering in the first place.

I just cant wait for Lockbox item Thalaron Set that comes on the Scimitar Dreadnaught with Dreadnaught Class warp core included.

rovakiin

The only thing we'd be able to hit with a thalaron weapon would be the stationary cubes in Cure Space or the Transwarp gates in KAS or IS. :P

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thedoctorbluebox

I am 100% for anything that can help players customize and make their ships unique in-game.

thegreendragoon1

I'm hoping that this at least partially decouples stats from specific ships. Nothing too crazy, just some flexibility between similar classes.

twg042370

The ship types do need more flexibility in how they're put together. I'd support warp cores along the same lines as shields or deflectors: Four or three different types that provide various effects.

aaronh42

rjcfoxtrot wrote: »

Moving us closer to a model like what Suricata proposed would be awesome.

http://www.suricatafx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Ship_Tier_Changes.jpg

This. I absolutely loved his concept.

I can understand why Cryptic might want to avoid it though, they seem very much in the "Look at the ship, know its characteristics" camp. Unless cores and computers were locked to specific ships, you would lose that.

Of course, they could tie it to ship type, so escort cores can only go on escorts, etc... really at that point though, the various ships become just skins. Lot of stuff to consider....

jkstocbr

Just don't turn it into a Mini-game like Doff and Rep please-please-please!

centersolace

rjcfoxtrot wrote: »

Moving us closer to a model like what Suricata proposed would be awesome.

http://www.suricatafx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Ship_Tier_Changes.jpg

So they're finally giving this a look? Season 8 looks promising already!