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My view of LoR from a VA Fedrulan
balordezul
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
So I have been playing the beta hard and working through bugs and I'm a big supporter of the independent Romulan faction that I know will never happen.
Disclaimer, I will be giving my "OPINION" of LoR and these views may not line up with your own. They are not meant to ruffle feathers or promote nerd rage as these are my views and suggestions. Also my goal is for STO to be a strong game and a wonderful game for everyone. My views have no focus on PvP as I do not participate in that small aspect of the game.
So I'm going to give you my review on a few items. I will also at the end list an area of "Wish List" items I would like to see in the end some may not be possible or even desirable by others and by devs.
A list of items I will be covering:
1. Singularity Core powers
2. Balance/Battle Cloak/Sig Core/Traits/Race
3. D'deridex
4. My Wish list
1. Singularity Core powers
Overall impression - This is a very cool idea and none of these powers are game breaking and some have very little use.
Plasma Shockwave - This is the first power you get and one of the better ones you have available to you. The damage it is does in not what makes this power good but the ability to deal with small crafts, mines and targetable torpedoes.
Ranking: Second Place
Quantum Absorption - This power is another good power for ships that don't have many shield heal options. I have found this to be great on the T'varo Light Warbird Retrofit as I did not have much on the healing side. On the other hand I don't have much use for it on my more tanking focused ships and the value drops a good deal at that point.
Ranking: Fourth Place
Singularity Jump - I like this one a little better than the Quantum Absorption for the fun factor. The micro jump is cool to use when going through missions and is another escape button if used correctly. The small rift that creates is nice but think of it more as a poor mans gravity well but the better part about it is the accuracy debuff that hits the foes.
Ranking: Third Place
Warp Shadow -This one keeps changing a little in each patch it feels like. This one is hands down the worse power that comes from the singularity core. The only time this one is really any good is when you are facing multiple npcs but you still want to fight vs just battle cloaking and flying away.
Ranking: Last Place
Singularity Overcharge: Now your mileage will vary out of this power. For X value of seconds you have a mini version of rapid fire and beam overload. The math that I have worked out from this power is that it is a 2.5 to 3 times base damage. Now a beam overload 1 is almost three times the damage of one of the micro beam overloads. The visuals for this power is very impressive but the damage output is ok. Now this is where this power splits from ok to great depending on what type of ship you fly. If you are in a ship with limit offensive tactical powers this will be a go to singularity power. If you are in a strong DSP ship like the T'varo Light Warbird Retrofit or the Mogi Retrofit you will get more damage out of your boff powers.
Ranking: First Place
2. Balance/Battle Cloak/Sig Core/Traits/Race
Balance is a hard one more for Cryptic to do well as most of the time it will make someone very unhappy. For example Geko has stated that escorts are to survivable and dual heavy cannons should drain more energy but if they were corrected to much of the player base would be upset and that is understandable. So now they need to find a way to balance Sig Core powers + Battle Cloak + Power Levels and that is not going to be fun.
Starting with the race Romulans or Remans this one is easy. Go Romulan as "Subterfuge" is included in your species trait. If you are going for RP play whatever you want as most of this would not affect you anyways.
I will say that you want all your boffs to have Romulan Operative or Superior Romulan Operative and Subterfuge if and when you can find those combos. You really need your battle cloak on as short of a cool down as you can. As a number of the larger ships have a very low base turn rate.
Suggestion: I can't overemphasize the importance of Battle Cloak for some of these ships. As a personal note I plan on flying the fleet D'deridex and the one of the fleet Ha'apax. If we need to do something at this point to nerf Romulans I would suggest a 20% reduction in turn rate but a larger boost in the current cloak turn rate to offset it. So all romulan ships are really tied into using battle cloak to get the correct angle of attack. I personally could deal with a 4 turn rate Ha'apax and even higher turn rate during cloak if that meant less nerfs in other locations like power levels.
3. D'deridex
I personally love this ship but I know others have not been happy with this one. I can't wait to get my hands on the fleet or the refit version. I did use the tier 4 version over the mogi to level in and still had a fun time but I'm sure I could have killed things faster in the mogi. The two tactical consoles really does not bother me but I'm not an escort pilot and that is just my point of view. On the other hand I could see another version of it coming out down the road to give players the option to use that ship as a heavy dsp focus.
4. My Wish list:
Beta - Open up all the fleet/cstore ships so we can test them out please.
Doff system - Romulan general recruitment npc needs to be placed in Romulan Command.
NPC AI boost!
NPC Power updated - Romulan npcs should use the Singularity Core powers and also battle cloak and act in similar manner to the scimitar with some adjustments.
Romulan Combat themed armor - We know Omega gear is not getting a new costume set but we do need a Romulan Combat armor look. Maybe add a new Romulan rep ground set and a alt costume for Romulans only to unlock after collection the main costume. So many fed and kdf use their themed armor but Romulans do need one as well.
More Romulan ship skins/material - The refits and the fleet version looks exactly the same as the others can we get two new materials added for this two groups of ships?
Romulan carrier - :P just saying ...
Romulan Fleet Gear - So here is the suggestion a 1 to 1 trade you buy the item you want from your fleet store example [Elite Fleet Disruptor Dual Heavy Cannons Mk XII [Dmg] [Acc]x2] and now you go to Romulan Command on new Romulus to a new npc. This new npc will exchange [Elite Fleet Disruptor Dual Heavy Cannons Mk XII [Dmg] [Acc]x2] for [Elite Fleet Romulan Plasma Dual Heavy Cannons Mk XII [Dmg] [Acc]x2] with no extra cost. If the gear needs to be itemized for the FED of KDF that is on the devs end to work out. One of the cool things with fleet gear are the ground weapon skins and a new unique Romulan themed weapon skin would be nice.
This is really just food for thought and another way to make the Romulans feel a little more independent and not just pushed into a Fed or KDF fleet.
Current ground kits- Pre picking a side I had KDF mines and post I have Fed mines for my Eng. Is it possible to add a new visual set to Romulan ground deployables? Also the new tricoder for Romulans is cool when it displays.
Remind us that we are Romulans - I have played all the mission that you can replay between 2 and three times on the test server and a few even more. I think we need another set of dialogue somewhere that has a voice over so no one misses it. The context needs to include that we are not Federation who focus to peace and diplomatic end but are really space cowboys ready to shoot anything that moves. We are also not honorable warriors of the Klingon empire that are ready attack every helpless transport we can find. But we are Romulans a stubborn race and proud and a little quick to anger but willing to get down and dirty and do lots of bad stuff to suit our ends. (Go play the missions if you don't know what I'm talking about.) -Geko talked about this and I did not get this point until afterwards as I have been playing Fed and KDF for years and was playing my Romulan as such.
Unification not Civil War - Now that I can't group with my friend because I made a Fedrulan and he a Klinka'ron it is a little sad. Can the dev team look at adding some mission sets down the road and a method that you can team up with your Romulan brothers?
Again I love this game and already picked up my legacy pack to show my support for this game.
Ok lunchtime and see you all in game.
Disclaimer, I will be giving my "OPINION" of LoR and these views may not line up with your own. They are not meant to ruffle feathers or promote nerd rage as these are my views and suggestions. Also my goal is for STO to be a strong game and a wonderful game for everyone. My views have no focus on PvP as I do not participate in that small aspect of the game.
So I'm going to give you my review on a few items. I will also at the end list an area of "Wish List" items I would like to see in the end some may not be possible or even desirable by others and by devs.
A list of items I will be covering:
1. Singularity Core powers
2. Balance/Battle Cloak/Sig Core/Traits/Race
3. D'deridex
4. My Wish list
1. Singularity Core powers
Overall impression - This is a very cool idea and none of these powers are game breaking and some have very little use.
Plasma Shockwave - This is the first power you get and one of the better ones you have available to you. The damage it is does in not what makes this power good but the ability to deal with small crafts, mines and targetable torpedoes.
Ranking: Second Place
Quantum Absorption - This power is another good power for ships that don't have many shield heal options. I have found this to be great on the T'varo Light Warbird Retrofit as I did not have much on the healing side. On the other hand I don't have much use for it on my more tanking focused ships and the value drops a good deal at that point.
Ranking: Fourth Place
Singularity Jump - I like this one a little better than the Quantum Absorption for the fun factor. The micro jump is cool to use when going through missions and is another escape button if used correctly. The small rift that creates is nice but think of it more as a poor mans gravity well but the better part about it is the accuracy debuff that hits the foes.
Ranking: Third Place
Warp Shadow -This one keeps changing a little in each patch it feels like. This one is hands down the worse power that comes from the singularity core. The only time this one is really any good is when you are facing multiple npcs but you still want to fight vs just battle cloaking and flying away.
Ranking: Last Place
Singularity Overcharge: Now your mileage will vary out of this power. For X value of seconds you have a mini version of rapid fire and beam overload. The math that I have worked out from this power is that it is a 2.5 to 3 times base damage. Now a beam overload 1 is almost three times the damage of one of the micro beam overloads. The visuals for this power is very impressive but the damage output is ok. Now this is where this power splits from ok to great depending on what type of ship you fly. If you are in a ship with limit offensive tactical powers this will be a go to singularity power. If you are in a strong DSP ship like the T'varo Light Warbird Retrofit or the Mogi Retrofit you will get more damage out of your boff powers.
Ranking: First Place
2. Balance/Battle Cloak/Sig Core/Traits/Race
Balance is a hard one more for Cryptic to do well as most of the time it will make someone very unhappy. For example Geko has stated that escorts are to survivable and dual heavy cannons should drain more energy but if they were corrected to much of the player base would be upset and that is understandable. So now they need to find a way to balance Sig Core powers + Battle Cloak + Power Levels and that is not going to be fun.
Starting with the race Romulans or Remans this one is easy. Go Romulan as "Subterfuge" is included in your species trait. If you are going for RP play whatever you want as most of this would not affect you anyways.
I will say that you want all your boffs to have Romulan Operative or Superior Romulan Operative and Subterfuge if and when you can find those combos. You really need your battle cloak on as short of a cool down as you can. As a number of the larger ships have a very low base turn rate.
Suggestion: I can't overemphasize the importance of Battle Cloak for some of these ships. As a personal note I plan on flying the fleet D'deridex and the one of the fleet Ha'apax. If we need to do something at this point to nerf Romulans I would suggest a 20% reduction in turn rate but a larger boost in the current cloak turn rate to offset it. So all romulan ships are really tied into using battle cloak to get the correct angle of attack. I personally could deal with a 4 turn rate Ha'apax and even higher turn rate during cloak if that meant less nerfs in other locations like power levels.
3. D'deridex
I personally love this ship but I know others have not been happy with this one. I can't wait to get my hands on the fleet or the refit version. I did use the tier 4 version over the mogi to level in and still had a fun time but I'm sure I could have killed things faster in the mogi. The two tactical consoles really does not bother me but I'm not an escort pilot and that is just my point of view. On the other hand I could see another version of it coming out down the road to give players the option to use that ship as a heavy dsp focus.
4. My Wish list:
Beta - Open up all the fleet/cstore ships so we can test them out please.
Doff system - Romulan general recruitment npc needs to be placed in Romulan Command.
NPC AI boost!
NPC Power updated - Romulan npcs should use the Singularity Core powers and also battle cloak and act in similar manner to the scimitar with some adjustments.
Romulan Combat themed armor - We know Omega gear is not getting a new costume set but we do need a Romulan Combat armor look. Maybe add a new Romulan rep ground set and a alt costume for Romulans only to unlock after collection the main costume. So many fed and kdf use their themed armor but Romulans do need one as well.
More Romulan ship skins/material - The refits and the fleet version looks exactly the same as the others can we get two new materials added for this two groups of ships?
Romulan carrier - :P just saying ...
Romulan Fleet Gear - So here is the suggestion a 1 to 1 trade you buy the item you want from your fleet store example [Elite Fleet Disruptor Dual Heavy Cannons Mk XII [Dmg] [Acc]x2] and now you go to Romulan Command on new Romulus to a new npc. This new npc will exchange [Elite Fleet Disruptor Dual Heavy Cannons Mk XII [Dmg] [Acc]x2] for [Elite Fleet Romulan Plasma Dual Heavy Cannons Mk XII [Dmg] [Acc]x2] with no extra cost. If the gear needs to be itemized for the FED of KDF that is on the devs end to work out. One of the cool things with fleet gear are the ground weapon skins and a new unique Romulan themed weapon skin would be nice.
This is really just food for thought and another way to make the Romulans feel a little more independent and not just pushed into a Fed or KDF fleet.
Current ground kits- Pre picking a side I had KDF mines and post I have Fed mines for my Eng. Is it possible to add a new visual set to Romulan ground deployables? Also the new tricoder for Romulans is cool when it displays.
Remind us that we are Romulans - I have played all the mission that you can replay between 2 and three times on the test server and a few even more. I think we need another set of dialogue somewhere that has a voice over so no one misses it. The context needs to include that we are not Federation who focus to peace and diplomatic end but are really space cowboys ready to shoot anything that moves. We are also not honorable warriors of the Klingon empire that are ready attack every helpless transport we can find. But we are Romulans a stubborn race and proud and a little quick to anger but willing to get down and dirty and do lots of bad stuff to suit our ends. (Go play the missions if you don't know what I'm talking about.) -Geko talked about this and I did not get this point until afterwards as I have been playing Fed and KDF for years and was playing my Romulan as such.
Unification not Civil War - Now that I can't group with my friend because I made a Fedrulan and he a Klinka'ron it is a little sad. Can the dev team look at adding some mission sets down the road and a method that you can team up with your Romulan brothers?
Again I love this game and already picked up my legacy pack to show my support for this game.
Ok lunchtime and see you all in game.
Post edited by balordezul on
0
Comments
Just going to address a few things in the singularity powers, haven't read the rest of the post yet, but I wanted to get this out while fresh.
Plasma Shockwave: Only comment I have to add is that this seems to be intended to give science captains a bit of a DPS boost, as it benefits from the +10% x3 damage stacks from Conservation of Energy.
Quantum Absorption: Best use for this one is when you're fighting a losing battle of attrition; it's not strong enough to deal with heavy spike damage or multiple damage sources, but if you're fighting something that has a high average DPS, this will get you the time you need for your heals/resists to finish cooling down.
Warp Shadows: Agreed, this one is still too situational to be of much value, and that situation (as you said) is for taking the heat off from multiple enemies so you can either focus one of them into the ground, or escape into cloak. The buff from the appropriate Singularity Core that allows it to confuse HYTs in the vicinity also isn't much help, you generally don't encounter those in bulk often enough to justify using either this power or keep that particular core slotted.
Singularity Jump: Hands down my favorite of the bunch. As noted, it can be seen as the "poor man's gravity well", giving every warbird at least a touch of crowd control. But I find its real strength is in comboing well with other skills. In my T5 Mogai, I tend to charge an enemy (or better yet, a group of enemies) while dropping a Gravity Well, then pop SJ at the same spot, trapping anything that didn't manage to escape before the SJ became active. I can then turn around and spray them with torps, knowing that they're all in range of splash damage for each other, and they can't even see me, or if they can see me they can't hit me, or even if they can hit me, they can't damage me, thanks to the singularity. In my D'deridex, I'd use Warp Plasma instead of the Gravity Well; the plasma slows them too much to escape the singularity, and the singularity slows them too much to escape the plasma, letting them get chewed up by both, and helpless to stop me from cloaking, turning, and opening up on them with the decloak damage bonus. If there's any "flaw" in this power, it's that I enjoy it so much I tend to use it when I would be better off using Warp Shadows instead. :P
Singularity Overcharge: as noted, will work best with heavy energy weapon builds, not so much on torp builds. It does appear to suppress power drain from weapons, so you should be able to sustain heavy firepower while it's up, despite reduced power levels.
Good analysis, btw.
Since you are a VA, i'd really like to hear your opinions on the power level drop. you didn't touch on that much and thats really the biggest worry among most of us.
For the Carrier, i agree, even made a topic about it, the general consensus was that the Scimitar should be a 3 pack carrier. for tac/sci/eng versions.
I also agree with the unification for romulans. were all romulans, who we allied with shouldn't matter. though i understand the mechanical reason why this doesn't work.
I completely agree with your additional comments and it is funny to see how these powers will add different levels of strategies into the game play.
Two notes:
Singularity Jump - I too used that with my D'deridex and eject warp core plasma but I would battle cloak and swing around de cloak and hammer away.
Singularity Overcharge - "It does appear to suppress power drain from weapons" - I did not add this as I was not sure if that was a bug or as intended as my power level do not move at all when this power is used. Also it does not state in the power description or info that it suppressed power drain. Time will tell on this one ....
Everything you had to add was 100% true and good insight.
Well my power levels are significantly lower than my Vo'quv.
Vo'Quv Ha'apax
74/50 65/50
72/50 73/50
70/50 58/50
82/50 54/50
298 250
It is the difference between a well geared transferred toon vs a beta toon with missing gear and rep but that really is only 18 points of subsystem difference without the nerf.
I personally would take a turn rate penalty over a -10 to all subsystems and if I understand correctly it is even a larger issue in pvp having the lower power settings.
Well I think we are still missing something here about power levels and penalties. All other ships are getting warp cores and they come with a good number of passive buffs. We really need to be comparing MK XII warp cores to singularity cores. I can tell you just off the stats warp cores are hands down better. But the next question are they better enough to offset the powers from the singularity cores and all the ships having battle cloak? Well the devs think not so they have hit us in a hard place our power levels.
Personal suggestion is give all Romulans ships a -20% to turn rate and remove the minus 10 to all power settings.
For example some fleet ships:
Ha'apax/D'deridex from a 5 to a 4
Mogai from a 14 to a 11.2
Dhelan from a 16 to a 12.2
T'varo from a 18 to a 14.4
But then again the 20% could be too high but that is what testing is for. One thing that I do know is the Warp Cores look amazing and Fed and KDF ships are about to get much better.
Do I feel the power drain is a little too high when are ships are a little lower on the turn rate already, yes I do. But I don't have a silver bullet idea on this one I'm sorry.
But like you said, theres no silver bullet. theres no perfect solution other than to strip everything that makes the romulans unique.
But honestly, i would rather they nerf the cloak and nerf the powers than take away power levels which are much more important.
I'm of the opinion that heavy DPS focus should really be the role of a ship like the Mogai or even the T'Varo at fleet and retrofit levels.
I understand everyone wants the signature ship to be the hero ship, but the Defiant does a lot more DPS than the Excelsior, so I really think the DPS ships should be the DPS ships.