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TRIBBLE Maintenance and Release Notes - March 8, 2013
zer0niusrex
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
We will be bringing the Tribble server down for maintenance to apply a new update.
ST.25.20130128a.48
General:
ST.25.20130128a.48
General:
- Significantly increased the rate at which the Plasma Flamethrower's primary fire drains Plasma Fuel.
- Changed the display name for attacks made by Wing Cannon Platforms so they can be more clearly identified in the combat log.
- This is a display change only.
- Using the Tachyon Drone hangar pets on the Jem'Hadar Dreadnought and Jem'Hadar Heavy Escort Carrier will now result in actually launching Tachyon Drones, instead of Orion Interceptors.
- Space Stealth and Cloaking Updates:
- The Romulan and Reman Deflector Dishes no longer provide a percentage-based increase, but instead provide a flat numeric increase to Stealth abilities.
- The Reman Deflector bonus is now +15 on all Blue quality versions, and +30 on the Mk XII Purple .
- The Romulan Deflector bonus is now +15.
- The Subterfuge Trait no longer provides a percentage-based increase, but instead provides a large increase to the "Starship Stealth" skill of their captain.
- +100 / +150 / +200 for ranks 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
- All ranks of the Subterfuge Trait have gained a Defense bonus.
- +1.25% / +2.5% / +3.75% for ranks 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
- The Stealth Bonus and Ambush Bonus from having multiple Bridge Officers with Subterfuge does not stack, but the Defense bonus will.
- The Romulan and Reman Deflector Dishes no longer provide a percentage-based increase, but instead provide a flat numeric increase to Stealth abilities.
- Updated the description for the Subterfuge trait.
- This is a text change only.
Post edited by zer0niusrex on
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Comments
Any time you attempt to view a cloaked target, there are two figures which are brought into consideration:
YOU: Perception (which can be modified by StealthSight, which I'll explain separately)
THEM: Stealth
For the purposes of calculating the distance at which you can see through an enemy's cloak, the formula is very simple:
Perception - Stealth = Viewable Distance
Perception, for all players and critters, begins at a base value of 5000. Meanwhile, a Standard Cloak, with 50 Aux and no +Stealth skill, has a Stealth Value of 4975. (*This value is easily viewable on the ability's tooltip.)
5000 - 4975 = 25
"Viewable Distance" in STO's system space regions very simply equates to distance units, at a 1:50 ratio. So when you divide by 50, this gives you the resulting UI measurement in kilometers.
25 / 50 = .5km
What this means is that a player using an unbuffed Cloak, vs. another player or critter with an unbuffed Perception, will be invisible until they get within a distance of 0.5km or less.
This also means that every +50 of Stealth Value you add to your Cloak/MES values results in an extra 1.0km of distance you can approach your target before being seen. And that +Perception values are a linear decrease to that distance when attempting to see Cloaked enemies.
Every +1 Starship Stealth skill point grants you +0.5 Stealth Value on a linear scale. So the Bridge Officer Trait "Basic Subterfuge" which now provides a +100 Starship Stealth skill boost, provides you with an extra +50 Stealth Value when using Cloaking abilities. Or 1km of extra distance before being detected by enemies.
StealthSight is a bit more complicated. Instead of being a linear bonus to Perception Values, it is what we call internally a "Strength Factor." The way to calculate the actual Perception gained from your Stealth Detection Rating (or SDR) is as follows:
5000 * (1 + (SDR / 10000))
So, a SDR of 300 gives you a total perception of:
5000 * (1 + (0.03)) = 5150
And, just like Stealth Values, the Perception scale is linear and applies directly to distance units at the same ratio of 1:50. So a bonus Perception of 150 in this example, allows you to perceive Cloaked enemies (150 / 50 = ) 3.0km further away than you previously could with an SDR of 0.
Given the values at play here, I hope you now understand why percentage-based bonuses were simply not working along a reasonable scale.
For example, the previous implementation of Basic Subterfuge granted a +5% to Stealth Values. When applied to a standard unskilled Cloak, this brought its Stealth Value from 4975 all the way up to 5223.75 ... a difference of almost 250 Stealth, or almost 5.0km of additional Stealth distance units. That's a pretty massive bonus, and one that was only further exacerbated by the previously-available ability to stack multiple Bridge Officers with such bonuses. By replacing those percentage-based increases with more reasonable, linear bonuses, the Stealth mechanic can be more easily balanced.
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
Thank you!
A question however, where does AUX scaling enter the mix? Does it provide a flat linear bonus?
Also:
The Reman Deflector bonus is now +15 on all Blue quality versions, and +30 on the Mk XII Purple .
The Romulan Deflector bonus is now +15.
Wouldn't it have been easier to make the bonuses +25, and plus +50 respectively? Since the stacking is gone I don't think it would be OP given the relative effort required to obtain the deflectors.
Thanks again for the information. These bits of knowledge just make my day, seriously.
I might consider respecing some of klinks now to get them over 5000 stealth with the cloak.
It's good to finally see some math that is not metrics.
galacticguards.enjin.com/
Formerly Jewkesman Member from Nov 2009!
Any chance you could share more of the internal math with the community in the future? It sure would help to clarify several things and possibly reduce the quantity of bickering at times.
For example I would love to see how weapon power over-capping officially works along with so many other things.
Right, sorry. I meant to include that.
Aux Power improves your SDR by a numeric amount. It is linear.
For Non-Science Ships, it scales as follows:
25 Aux = 10
50 Aux = 20
75 Aux = 30
100 Aux = 40
For Science Ships, it is:
25 Aux = 30
50 Aux = 60
75 Aux = 90
100 Aux = 120
Not a huge bonus. It may need to be improved. We'll see.
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
ingame: @.Spartan
Original Cryptic Forum Name: Spartan (member #124)
The Glorious, Kirk’s Protegè
This'll make understanding things like AMS possible!
Whats wrong with it?
And also, the console being useless is subjective.
Been playing STO since Open Beta, and have never regarded anything as worse than 'meh', if only due to personal standards.
/scnr
I would *love* for this kind of detail to be available in-game...
Original Join Date: January 30th, 2010
Technically, it is. Just slide your Aux around and watch your SDR change on your status window.
How SDR calculates to Perception on the other hand, is not included in-game. We plan to update our stat displays at some point, and this is on the list of explanations to include.
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
I m curious why was there a need for defense values to be buffed across the board?
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013
Whenever we diminish the value of something players have worked hard to earn, we try to compensate whenever possible. In this case, we chose to include a Defense bonus because it is thematically appropriate to the concept of being an elusive target in Space combat.
The changes in this patch both reduce the Stealth values attached to the Subterfuge Trait, and eliminate the stacking of those bonuses. We felt that a small Defense bonus would help mitigate those changes.
What is your specific concern over the Defense bonus? Do you feel that the bonus is too large?
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
Does this mean that auxiliary power affects only perception and not stealth?
I doubt there is a real concern of adding defence to the flavor.
Concern is more like that now already everyone tries to fill all his TAC BOff stations with Romi blue Male BOff's, and in addition should those changes go live ENG and SCi will be also filled with the respective Romi BOff's.
There is no competative other Space passive that would warrant a diffrent setup.
Edit: After thinking about it and taking PvP into account. Well even more defence on certain Ships could make the game even more unbalanced as it is.
But that's something i rather let the ones with hard facts and numbers throw on the table.
No, Aux also affects Stealth values. It is +1 Stealth per +1 Aux Power, straight across.
This value is factored into the example given in my first post in this thread. The base value of a Player Cloak (with no Stealth skill) is 4925+Aux, hence being 4975 @ 50 Aux.
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
Being a frequenter of the forums, I'll take a stab at this:
- In PvP, Cruisers are no longer finding themselves able to wear Escorts down via attrition
- Some people approach this problem by trying to examine why this wasn't true a year ago (others are examining the DPS discrepancy between beam and cannon builds)
- This faction has determined that the problem is defensive power creep over the seasons (e.g. Lockbox/Fleet Ships, Shield DOFFs, Elite Fleet Shields, Reputation Bonuses, and now Subterfuge BOFFs)
- The problem isn't the size of Subtlety defense bonus so much as the fact that it is (in their opinion) a step in the wrong direction for the overall defensive capabilities of ships.
i dont think its too much, and with human boffs, and the expense of rom boffs, theres steep cost and opportunity cost.
with doffs like these, and future doffs having very desirable passive stats, there comes a problem of not being able to trade them to get officer training. on several ships, i simply cant even consider them because of that. could we please get a work around for captain trainable only skills being gotten in a way that does not require trading? id pay dil for that, just charge dil for those powers at the boff trainer, and other more rare boff abilities. they are all plentiful on the exchange anyway.