Could we finally, after all these years, just get new Ensign-Lieutenant Commander abilities added for all classes, but especially for ensign tactical and engineering.
Indeed, this is long overdue and an excellent opportunity to add more variety and fill in missing holes (there have been many good suggestions over the years). Perhaps we could finally get Commander level BOFF powers also?
I didn't mean to sound ungrateful for the reversal of these changes, but seeing that they've added new Singularity based powers/abilities for Warbirds, I just thought now would've been a good time to also cook up some new BOFF space abilities too.
First off, I thank to the Devs for listening to the community and reverting the CD changes. Furthermore, the usefulness of each EPtX has gone up dramatically with these changes. Awesome.
So to cap it all off, these are the net changes to the EPtX: All EPtX effects are now standardized at 30s. Moreover, EPtE and EPtAux has been improved with better/additional stats. EPtW has essentially been buffed with 25s more of the damage bonus. I for one, support this change. *thumbs up*
I know it's a bit soon to ask in the same post, but I do strongly agree that it'd be nice to see more Abilities added to the Engineering mix. :P
__________________________________________________
All hands! Prepare the popcorn and tinfoil hats!
I have a couple suggestions. If you still think EPtX powers aren't balanced well, or in particular that EPtS is overpowered, perhaps consider nerfing the duration down to 20 for every ships EXCEPT cruisers, which get the full 30 second duration, or give cruisers some kind of bonus for using EPtX powers. Since cruisers get the most use out of these already, and Geko was looking for something unique to give to cruisers, this might work out.
Unrelated to this topic, I think a lot of T5 ships would benefit from having that fifth ensign-only BOff slot made universal, especially the Galaxy-R, Defiant-R, and Intrepid-R.
I really like this alternate fix. Now I have new and interesting dilemmas in the name of Science.
Do I swap my 2xEPtS for 2xEPtW or 2xEPtA and rejig my power settings? Can I afford to be a wee bit more squishy for a little more damage? For Escorts it might be even more tempting. If you're gonna 'splode anyway best go out in style.
Sorry for the prolonged silence on the EPtX front, but until we had made a final decision on what we were going to do with these powers, I didn't want to risk miscommunication on the issue. We are planning to revert the cooldowns of these abilities back to their Holodeck recharge times, while maintaining the QoL upgrades to Weapons, Auxiliary, and Engines which are currently on Tribble. The duration of all Emergency Power buffs will be 30 seconds across the board.
It just felt like part of a larger change that simply could not/would not be implemented at the same time or within the timeframe for the launch for LoR. No doubt it is going to be subject to much rejoicing, even I am thankful that the current proposed changes are being reverted; but in the end - it is still something that will need to be addressed. Hopefully it is something that does not disappear from the whiteboard completely.
Also, I hope you guys receive some honest feedback from people on the changes. There are a lot of folks that simply look at how things affect them - which can lead to massive resistance to certain changes - and - which can blind them to certain things.
For instance:
EPtW as part of EPtS/EPtW (3x DCE ~99-100% uptime) - is going to widen the gap between Escort and Cruiser/Science Vessel damage that much more. The modifier from EPtW is a final modifier - it is applied after all the other modifiers are applied. With the damage ratio being constant between Beam Arrays and DHCs (DPV - 1:1.74 & DPS - 1:1.45)...well, that base difference in DPV of 74 damage and base difference in DPS of 36 damage...the DPV difference can easily surpass 2000 DPV while the DPS difference can easily surpass 1000 DPS. That is before taking into account any Critical Hits, Critical Severity, or any debuffs on the target - which will only widen that gap...even though the ratios stay the same.
On the other hand, the EPtS every 20s would have increased the number of heals as the fight continued. Same up to a minute, I believe, one additional heal through two, two through three-four, three for five to six, etc, etc, etc.
So by not reducing the recharge on EPtS while increasing the duration of the +Dmg from EPtW (also not reducing the pressure +Dmg because of shortening the duration) - it's the kind of tweak that with testing my help with some of the "too much" healing aspect even though the resist will remain. Look forward to testing this aspect.
Will be interesting - interesting...will also be harder to make changes down the road, no? Folks are going to get used to their tastier EPtX abilities. Still though, those proposed changes without additional changes were just a little too much of a stretch...
While we do want to create situations in which players choose between survivability and damage and make conscious choices about what powers they use when, we've decided it's more important right now to make all Emergency Power choices viable than it is to disrupt the metagame that's evolved around builds with ensign-level Engineering powers. My hope is that now, every time you get an Engineering Bridge Officer with an Emergency Power ability of any sort, you will feel like you could conceivably benefit from slotting that officer without retraining them. We may make further adjustments to these powers in the future as part of our ongoing quest to keep the game fun for all players, but for now, this is what we're planning on doing.
-AdjudicatorHawk
I do hope those changes eventually see the light of day as part of a potentially larger overall series of changes. I really do. While I enjoy a middle-ground rather than a didactic option, I believe that one could find that middle-ground through a series of choices in regard to the opportunity cost of Damage vs. Survival. Take damage with X, damage with Y, and survival with Z...etc, etc, etc...that people should be able to find what they're comfortable with - it's just when you can take EPtS/EPtW and maintain that near 100% uptime...the only opportunity cost is coming at the expense of the DOFFs. Different folks will argue what exactly that cost involves - I believe it's going to be dependent upon the build.
As for possibly not making the changes somewhere down the line because of the rigidity some have in their builds, I would say that would be a bad thing. Of course, I feel for them - who does not? Who has not had some favorite build...shattered...sundered...sh, er...pooped upon, eh? Nevertheless, some of that (imho) could be addressed by more in-depth changes to Engineering BOFF abilities. You know, something that would offer them additional viable builds in exchange for their losing a particular build. Some may definitely grumble - some may find builds that work even better for them.
Yep, definitely going to be a case of potential tweaking along the lines there for some of that. Should be good though, should be good.
Grab somebody to cover heals, change up the DOFFs, run the 2x EPtA for that additional stealth detection for them pesky Romulans.
Thanks again for reverting the changes in the interim - and - good luck being able to implement those design goals down the road.
Nice, my 100+ impulse speed Galaxy 100% of the time awaits.
"Cryptic Studio’s Jack Emmert (2010): Microtransactions are the biggest bunch of nonsense. I like paying one fee and not worrying about it – like my cellphone. The world’s biggest MMO isn’t item based, even though the black market item GDP is bigger than Russia … microtransactions make me want to die.”
Still a general revamp one day will be welcome to keep things interesting.
Thank you guys for listening and for the effort. And I understand the discretion in not speaking on it til you had a definitive decision.
*salute*
"Rise like Lions after slumber, In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many they are few"
Might be interesting when they work out the Dread sep for those folks, eh?
Considering saucer sep is bugged and does not give you speed bonus atm, it's the same. I reported it twice already in bug forum, but it's romulans romulans romulans...only romulans these days.
"Cryptic Studio’s Jack Emmert (2010): Microtransactions are the biggest bunch of nonsense. I like paying one fee and not worrying about it – like my cellphone. The world’s biggest MMO isn’t item based, even though the black market item GDP is bigger than Russia … microtransactions make me want to die.”
Best of luck with the changes in the future, and I need to see if I can get my vesta into the ballpark of the holly turnrate stratosphere that JHAS reside in.
Just noticed this, and thank you for reverting these changes for the time being. My engi alts thank you for not pounding their PvE builds into the ground.
I'd love to see something more interesting done with low level engineering powers, but hopefully that can wait until an entire system is ready to be tested, not one half of a whole that we may never see.
Incredible! They're actually listening to us! I don't believe what I'm seeing...
It seems my cruisers won't get useless when Romulans finally come to ESD to beg for EC!
Oh THANK YOU for listening to the community on this. I'd been dreading and planning extensively for how I was going to make up for the power loss on my cruiser; no matter what I did I was going to wind up about 14 power short of where I wanted to be on weapons unless I dropped some defensive skill points that I *really* didn't want to do, dropped a weapon from my broadsides, etc. None of these were choices that I wanted to do. All I do is PvE, but given I tank elite stfs, a loss of damage is a loss of threat. I could have probably found a way to just deal with the dps loss, but it wouldn't have felt right.
Now instead, I'm looking at a buff. I think I can work with that!
Had there not been the disparity between 1x EPtX, EPtX/EPtY, and 2x EPtX...there might have been less resistance and less confusion.
The 40/5 for the 2x EPtX...
The 20/10 for the EPtX/EPtY...
The 20/25 for the EPtX...
Not only was there the simple disparity listed there, but there was also the confusion about the overall goal that Cryptic was attempting to reach because of that 40/5 for the 2x EPtX.
For somebody sporting 2x EPtS1 - it would increase the frequency of the shield heals received. Sure, during the first minute - the number would be the same; but as the fight progressed, the longer it lasted - even with the 5s (or less) gap every 40s - the number of heals would increase gradually compared to the current system.
So while there were nifty boosts being provided to the other EPtX abilities, increasing their bonuses from 5s to 20s - they just really couldn't compare to what was available with EPtS.
It simply didn't match up with what appeared to be the stated goals - reducing the amount of chaining taking place or making the other EPtX abilities aside from EPtS more attractive.
Now, had it been something more along these lines:
20/25 for all.
What? Yep, 20/25 for all.
1x EPtX - 20/25.
2x EPtX - 20/25...20/10 with DCEs.
EPtX/EPtY - 2/25...20/10 with DCEs.
Okay, sure - that might take care of the disparity and punt a little dent in the chaining; but how would that make EPtA/EPtW/EPtE more attractive? Wouldn't it just be the same ol' 2x EPtS that it was before?
There's the 10s gap and there's 5s clipping. EPtS never expires - instead, it's clipped.
If you run EPtS and something else, there's no clipping - rather, there's 5s of overlap where both abilities are active. Yes, some may feel more comfortable carrying the two copies - but outside of carrying it for comfort and a select few reasons - it wouldn't necessarily be the preferable choice.
Now...of course...there would still be the blowback for this on several levels. There's going to be the folks that say a 10s gap can't be survived. Search through their posts and see how many of those have also complained about unkillable ships/invincible ships, etc, etc, etc. Ahem, yes...they want to kill but not be killed.
There will be the folks that say it destroys a particular class of ship. Pester them enough about it and you will see that it's actually a case of it destroying their particular builds in those particular classes of ship...not the class of ship itself. Builds get broken from time to time. Whenever there is something that is not working as intended, working as designed, working as developed, or working as desired...builds that are built around those mechanics will find themselves broken when the issue is resolved. Such would be the case here - no different, imho.
Now, having said all of that - I offer a major caveat to it all. A reason that I would not try to implement the above changes or any additional changes (outside of potential tweaking) until this caveat was addressed. Of course, we've already been told that this caveat will not be addressed any time soon. Yes, the caveat is the lack of Ensign Engineering BOFF abilities.
Until that is addressed, allowing for a more logical use of higher ranked EPtX abilities if the player so desires to use them over the other available abilities - then any such changes would only cause the non-use of the higher abilities or even the wasting of the lower slots. That would be a regrettable decision, imho.
So none of this is a request for any near term changes or anything of the like...just my thoughts (lil' ol' nobody me) and some food for thought (likely already considered, but hey - the server's down and I'm bored) for when the subject is brought up again down the line.
You know, with these changes the 3rd ensign eng might not be so terrible.
EPTS 1 > AID 1 > Optional > Optional
EPTS 1 > AID 1 > Optional
EPTE 1
3x DMG Control Engineers and you are PERMA-ZIPPY! :P
(Fleet) Excel would be a speed demon with this.
Right now for G-R on tribble I have...
EpTS > AID > EPTA > AT SIF
EpTW > RSP > ES
EpTE
With 2x damage control doffs and 3x maintainace doffs for hull repair/shield emmiters on EptA and 3x SIF gens I have pretty nifty ATSIF/HE and TSS.
I somewhat like the flexibility it offers. I could actually swap the EP powers, depending on how I want to play it.
Still, universal ensign would be more valuable.
"Cryptic Studio’s Jack Emmert (2010): Microtransactions are the biggest bunch of nonsense. I like paying one fee and not worrying about it – like my cellphone. The world’s biggest MMO isn’t item based, even though the black market item GDP is bigger than Russia … microtransactions make me want to die.”
Had there not been the disparity between 1x EPtX, EPtX/EPtY, and 2x EPtX...there might have been less resistance and less confusion.
The 40/5 for the 2x EPtX...
The 20/10 for the EPtX/EPtY...
The 20/25 for the EPtX...
Not only was there the simple disparity listed there, but there was also the confusion about the overall goal that Cryptic was attempting to reach because of that 40/5 for the 2x EPtX.
For somebody sporting 2x EPtS1 - it would increase the frequency of the shield heals received. Sure, during the first minute - the number would be the same; but as the fight progressed, the longer it lasted - even with the 5s (or less) gap every 40s - the number of heals would increase gradually compared to the current system.
So while there were nifty boosts being provided to the other EPtX abilities, increasing their bonuses from 5s to 20s - they just really couldn't compare to what was available with EPtS.
It simply didn't match up with what appeared to be the stated goals - reducing the amount of chaining taking place or making the other EPtX abilities aside from EPtS more attractive.
Now, had it been something more along these lines:
20/25 for all.
What? Yep, 20/25 for all.
1x EPtX - 20/25.
2x EPtX - 20/25...20/10 with DCEs.
EPtX/EPtY - 2/25...20/10 with DCEs.
Okay, sure - that might take care of the disparity and punt a little dent in the chaining; but how would that make EPtA/EPtW/EPtE more attractive? Wouldn't it just be the same ol' 2x EPtS that it was before?
There's the 10s gap and there's 5s clipping. EPtS never expires - instead, it's clipped.
If you run EPtS and something else, there's no clipping - rather, there's 5s of overlap where both abilities are active. Yes, some may feel more comfortable carrying the two copies - but outside of carrying it for comfort and a select few reasons - it wouldn't necessarily be the preferable choice.
Now...of course...there would still be the blowback for this on several levels. There's going to be the folks that say a 10s gap can't be survived. Search through their posts and see how many of those have also complained about unkillable ships/invincible ships, etc, etc, etc. Ahem, yes...they want to kill but not be killed.
There will be the folks that say it destroys a particular class of ship. Pester them enough about it and you will see that it's actually a case of it destroying their particular builds in those particular classes of ship...not the class of ship itself. Builds get broken from time to time. Whenever there is something that is not working as intended, working as designed, working as developed, or working as desired...builds that are built around those mechanics will find themselves broken when the issue is resolved. Such would be the case here - no different, imho.
Now, having said all of that - I offer a major caveat to it all. A reason that I would not try to implement the above changes or any additional changes (outside of potential tweaking) until this caveat was addressed. Of course, we've already been told that this caveat will not be addressed any time soon. Yes, the caveat is the lack of Ensign Engineering BOFF abilities.
Until that is addressed, allowing for a more logical use of higher ranked EPtX abilities if the player so desires to use them over the other available abilities - then any such changes would only cause the non-use of the higher abilities or even the wasting of the lower slots. That would be a regrettable decision, imho.
So none of this is a request for any near term changes or anything of the like...just my thoughts (lil' ol' nobody me) and some food for thought (likely already considered, but hey - the server's down and I'm bored) for when the subject is brought up again down the line.
-thanks
Oh. Is my nose playing tricks or does this reek like trinity?
Well Here is something to ponder:
- Playing a tank/healer in this game is not fun. And i mean actual gameplay mechanics here. It's simply not engaging. its a boring task.
- the game is designed around dealing large amounts of damage, because if you don't things don't die and you get nothing. Cruisers per design have been made impotent and only the few builds that have cropped up have been able to get SOME of the cruisers out of the ghetto.
- Cruisers are the iconic star trek ships. Its GOOD that STO offers several flavors of ship, but why is only the escort allowed to have agility and oozles of firepower while also sporting a very effective tank and sufficient healing? While cruisers and sci ships got nerfed and neutered? Most escorts are freaking huge, larger than the smaller cruiser of earlier tiers and still get much larger agility. so wtf?
Unless cryptic pull its head out of the trinity TRIBBLE and makes a system of equal ships, this whole debate will always come down to this:
Escorts art cryptics favored ship, as they have designed the game around them.
Escorts art cryptics favored ship, as they have designed the game around them.
Allow me to share with you a little wisdom from CaptainGeko (may not be an exact quote but it was words to effect of) "Escorts make money and the other classes don't so why bother with them" (I stress this is not an exact quote, simply what the actual quote said in a round about way).
Allow me to share with you a little wisdom from CaptainGeko (may not be an exact quote but it was words to effect of) "Escorts make money and the other classes don't so why bother with them" (I stress this is not an exact quote, simply what the actual quote said in a round about way).
I think its time for "upgrade kits" to be sold on C-store. They would be one use consumables that would allow you to change a Lt. or lower boff station to a universal one. This alone would work wonders for any and all ships but would be of most benefit to the ships released when the ship design philosophy was different.
Cryptic could charge 1000 Zen for it and no one would bat an eye at the chance to revitalize their favorite if useless ships.
Comments
Indeed, this is long overdue and an excellent opportunity to add more variety and fill in missing holes (there have been many good suggestions over the years). Perhaps we could finally get Commander level BOFF powers also?
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
doffs are your most impotent piece of gear. more impotent then the rarity or mk of any of your consoles, equipment or weapons
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Though it does, adequately, describe most of my DOFFs. Useless gits. :P
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
So to cap it all off, these are the net changes to the EPtX: All EPtX effects are now standardized at 30s. Moreover, EPtE and EPtAux has been improved with better/additional stats. EPtW has essentially been buffed with 25s more of the damage bonus. I for one, support this change. *thumbs up*
I know it's a bit soon to ask in the same post, but I do strongly agree that it'd be nice to see more Abilities added to the Engineering mix. :P
All hands! Prepare the popcorn and tinfoil hats!
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=644061
I feel that having different math for RCS accelerators and the [Turn] modifier on engines is inconsistent.
Unrelated to this topic, I think a lot of T5 ships would benefit from having that fifth ensign-only BOff slot made universal, especially the Galaxy-R, Defiant-R, and Intrepid-R.
Do I swap my 2xEPtS for 2xEPtW or 2xEPtA and rejig my power settings? Can I afford to be a wee bit more squishy for a little more damage? For Escorts it might be even more tempting. If you're gonna 'splode anyway best go out in style.
It just felt like part of a larger change that simply could not/would not be implemented at the same time or within the timeframe for the launch for LoR. No doubt it is going to be subject to much rejoicing, even I am thankful that the current proposed changes are being reverted; but in the end - it is still something that will need to be addressed. Hopefully it is something that does not disappear from the whiteboard completely.
Also, I hope you guys receive some honest feedback from people on the changes. There are a lot of folks that simply look at how things affect them - which can lead to massive resistance to certain changes - and - which can blind them to certain things.
For instance:
EPtW as part of EPtS/EPtW (3x DCE ~99-100% uptime) - is going to widen the gap between Escort and Cruiser/Science Vessel damage that much more. The modifier from EPtW is a final modifier - it is applied after all the other modifiers are applied. With the damage ratio being constant between Beam Arrays and DHCs (DPV - 1:1.74 & DPS - 1:1.45)...well, that base difference in DPV of 74 damage and base difference in DPS of 36 damage...the DPV difference can easily surpass 2000 DPV while the DPS difference can easily surpass 1000 DPS. That is before taking into account any Critical Hits, Critical Severity, or any debuffs on the target - which will only widen that gap...even though the ratios stay the same.
On the other hand, the EPtS every 20s would have increased the number of heals as the fight continued. Same up to a minute, I believe, one additional heal through two, two through three-four, three for five to six, etc, etc, etc.
So by not reducing the recharge on EPtS while increasing the duration of the +Dmg from EPtW (also not reducing the pressure +Dmg because of shortening the duration) - it's the kind of tweak that with testing my help with some of the "too much" healing aspect even though the resist will remain. Look forward to testing this aspect.
Will be interesting - interesting...will also be harder to make changes down the road, no? Folks are going to get used to their tastier EPtX abilities. Still though, those proposed changes without additional changes were just a little too much of a stretch...
I do hope those changes eventually see the light of day as part of a potentially larger overall series of changes. I really do. While I enjoy a middle-ground rather than a didactic option, I believe that one could find that middle-ground through a series of choices in regard to the opportunity cost of Damage vs. Survival. Take damage with X, damage with Y, and survival with Z...etc, etc, etc...that people should be able to find what they're comfortable with - it's just when you can take EPtS/EPtW and maintain that near 100% uptime...the only opportunity cost is coming at the expense of the DOFFs. Different folks will argue what exactly that cost involves - I believe it's going to be dependent upon the build.
As for possibly not making the changes somewhere down the line because of the rigidity some have in their builds, I would say that would be a bad thing. Of course, I feel for them - who does not? Who has not had some favorite build...shattered...sundered...sh, er...pooped upon, eh? Nevertheless, some of that (imho) could be addressed by more in-depth changes to Engineering BOFF abilities. You know, something that would offer them additional viable builds in exchange for their losing a particular build. Some may definitely grumble - some may find builds that work even better for them.
Yep, definitely going to be a case of potential tweaking along the lines there for some of that. Should be good though, should be good.
Grab somebody to cover heals, change up the DOFFs, run the 2x EPtA for that additional stealth detection for them pesky Romulans.
Thanks again for reverting the changes in the interim - and - good luck being able to implement those design goals down the road.
Might be interesting when they work out the Dread sep for those folks, eh?
Still a general revamp one day will be welcome to keep things interesting.
Thank you guys for listening and for the effort. And I understand the discretion in not speaking on it til you had a definitive decision.
*salute*
Considering saucer sep is bugged and does not give you speed bonus atm, it's the same. I reported it twice already in bug forum, but it's romulans romulans romulans...only romulans these days.
Best of luck with the changes in the future, and I need to see if I can get my vesta into the ballpark of the holly turnrate stratosphere that JHAS reside in.
I'd love to see something more interesting done with low level engineering powers, but hopefully that can wait until an entire system is ready to be tested, not one half of a whole that we may never see.
It seems my cruisers won't get useless when Romulans finally come to ESD to beg for EC!
Now instead, I'm looking at a buff. I think I can work with that!
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013
My Galaxy X engineer is also happy that you saw reason. Because he can now run epts3 and eptW 3, aux2bat, ES, etc.... and benefit from these changes.
The Damage buff from eptw3 is desperately needed on engineering captain-cruisers but would not have been viable with the short cooldowns
You know, with these changes the 3rd ensign eng might not be so terrible.
EPTS 1 > AID 1 > Optional > Optional
EPTS 1 > AID 1 > Optional
EPTE 1
3x DMG Control Engineers and you are PERMA-ZIPPY! :P
(Fleet) Excel would be a speed demon with this.
The 40/5 for the 2x EPtX...
The 20/10 for the EPtX/EPtY...
The 20/25 for the EPtX...
Not only was there the simple disparity listed there, but there was also the confusion about the overall goal that Cryptic was attempting to reach because of that 40/5 for the 2x EPtX.
For somebody sporting 2x EPtS1 - it would increase the frequency of the shield heals received. Sure, during the first minute - the number would be the same; but as the fight progressed, the longer it lasted - even with the 5s (or less) gap every 40s - the number of heals would increase gradually compared to the current system.
So while there were nifty boosts being provided to the other EPtX abilities, increasing their bonuses from 5s to 20s - they just really couldn't compare to what was available with EPtS.
It simply didn't match up with what appeared to be the stated goals - reducing the amount of chaining taking place or making the other EPtX abilities aside from EPtS more attractive.
Now, had it been something more along these lines:
20/25 for all.
What? Yep, 20/25 for all.
1x EPtX - 20/25.
2x EPtX - 20/25...20/10 with DCEs.
EPtX/EPtY - 2/25...20/10 with DCEs.
Okay, sure - that might take care of the disparity and punt a little dent in the chaining; but how would that make EPtA/EPtW/EPtE more attractive? Wouldn't it just be the same ol' 2x EPtS that it was before?
000 EPtS#1
015 EPtS#1 TCD expires, EPtS#2
020 EPtS#1 expires
030 EPtS#1 CD expires, EPtS#2 TCD expires, EPtS#1
035 EPtS#2 expires
045 EPtS#1 TCD expires, EPtS#2 CD expires, EPtS#2
050 EPtS#1 expires
060 EPtS #1 CD expires, EPtS#2 TCD expires, EPtS#1
There's the 10s gap and there's 5s clipping. EPtS never expires - instead, it's clipped.
If you run EPtS and something else, there's no clipping - rather, there's 5s of overlap where both abilities are active. Yes, some may feel more comfortable carrying the two copies - but outside of carrying it for comfort and a select few reasons - it wouldn't necessarily be the preferable choice.
Now...of course...there would still be the blowback for this on several levels. There's going to be the folks that say a 10s gap can't be survived. Search through their posts and see how many of those have also complained about unkillable ships/invincible ships, etc, etc, etc. Ahem, yes...they want to kill but not be killed.
There will be the folks that say it destroys a particular class of ship. Pester them enough about it and you will see that it's actually a case of it destroying their particular builds in those particular classes of ship...not the class of ship itself. Builds get broken from time to time. Whenever there is something that is not working as intended, working as designed, working as developed, or working as desired...builds that are built around those mechanics will find themselves broken when the issue is resolved. Such would be the case here - no different, imho.
Now, having said all of that - I offer a major caveat to it all. A reason that I would not try to implement the above changes or any additional changes (outside of potential tweaking) until this caveat was addressed. Of course, we've already been told that this caveat will not be addressed any time soon. Yes, the caveat is the lack of Ensign Engineering BOFF abilities.
Until that is addressed, allowing for a more logical use of higher ranked EPtX abilities if the player so desires to use them over the other available abilities - then any such changes would only cause the non-use of the higher abilities or even the wasting of the lower slots. That would be a regrettable decision, imho.
So none of this is a request for any near term changes or anything of the like...just my thoughts (lil' ol' nobody me) and some food for thought (likely already considered, but hey - the server's down and I'm bored) for when the subject is brought up again down the line.
-thanks
Right now for G-R on tribble I have...
EpTS > AID > EPTA > AT SIF
EpTW > RSP > ES
EpTE
With 2x damage control doffs and 3x maintainace doffs for hull repair/shield emmiters on EptA and 3x SIF gens I have pretty nifty ATSIF/HE and TSS.
I somewhat like the flexibility it offers. I could actually swap the EP powers, depending on how I want to play it.
Still, universal ensign would be more valuable.
Perhaps the best possible solution.
It could have been just keeping the new 20 seconds version, which would be good for EPTW, or the old one that is good for EPTS.
But by using the holodeck timers and the new tribble bonuses, all of the abilities benefit from this change.
Thanks, this is a very good idea. Not nerfing anything!
Oh. Is my nose playing tricks or does this reek like trinity?
Well Here is something to ponder:
- Playing a tank/healer in this game is not fun. And i mean actual gameplay mechanics here. It's simply not engaging. its a boring task.
- the game is designed around dealing large amounts of damage, because if you don't things don't die and you get nothing. Cruisers per design have been made impotent and only the few builds that have cropped up have been able to get SOME of the cruisers out of the ghetto.
- Cruisers are the iconic star trek ships. Its GOOD that STO offers several flavors of ship, but why is only the escort allowed to have agility and oozles of firepower while also sporting a very effective tank and sufficient healing? While cruisers and sci ships got nerfed and neutered? Most escorts are freaking huge, larger than the smaller cruiser of earlier tiers and still get much larger agility. so wtf?
Unless cryptic pull its head out of the trinity TRIBBLE and makes a system of equal ships, this whole debate will always come down to this:
Escorts art cryptics favored ship, as they have designed the game around them.
Allow me to share with you a little wisdom from CaptainGeko (may not be an exact quote but it was words to effect of) "Escorts make money and the other classes don't so why bother with them" (I stress this is not an exact quote, simply what the actual quote said in a round about way).
I think its time for "upgrade kits" to be sold on C-store. They would be one use consumables that would allow you to change a Lt. or lower boff station to a universal one. This alone would work wonders for any and all ships but would be of most benefit to the ships released when the ship design philosophy was different.
Cryptic could charge 1000 Zen for it and no one would bat an eye at the chance to revitalize their favorite if useless ships.