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Just a couple bullet points from the latest Tribble Patch Notes

thegrimcorsairthegrimcorsair Member Posts: 0 Arc User
edited May 2013 in PvP Gameplay
  • The minimum power level of any subsystem has been reduced to 15.
  • Photonic Fleet has been rebuilt!
  • Romulan Captains will now create Photonic Warbirds when using this ability.
  • Altered which ships can be summoned at each rank, and the odds of each appearing:
  • Rank I = 3 Frigates w/ 10% chance of each upgrading to a Cruiser.
  • Rank II = 3 Cruisers w/ 10% of each upgrading to a Battleship.
  • Rank III = 1 Battleship and 2 Cruisers w/ 50% of each upgrading to a Battleship.
  • Ships summoned by Photonic Fleet will now always have the correct abilities and weaponry, will not drop loot, and will expire and appear using the correct photonic FX.
  • All Photonic Ships are now smarter about acquiring new targets during combat.
  • If there are no targets nearby, Photonic Ships will now attempt to follow their owner until a new target can be acquired.
  • Photonic Fleet now has a maximum duration of 60 seconds, and will no longer expire if combat ends.
  • Photonic Ships now generate drastically more threat than they previously did, and have higher Defense values.
  • Photonic Capacitor
  • Updated the description to repair some inconsistent data:
  • This trait can be triggered by any Science ability, not only shield heals.
  • This trait can only be triggered once every 10 seconds, and will only apply if Photonic Fleet is currently on cooldown.
  • Increased recharge reduction.
  • Every Science ability now reduces the cooldown of Photonic Fleet by 20 seconds.
  • If a Science Captain uses abilities perfectly, this can reduce Photonic Fleet's cooldown from 240sec to 80sec, increasing the uptime of Photonic Fleet from 25% to 75%.

[EDIT2]

Misunderstanding of new minimum power level removed.

[/EDIT2]

Oh, Photonic Fleet has been rebuilt to be... less crappy? Maybe?
If you feel Keel'el's effect is well designed, please, for your own safety, be very careful around shallow pools of water.
Post edited by thegrimcorsair on
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Comments

  • ursusmorologusursusmorologus Member Posts: 5,328 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    • The minimum power level of any subsystem has been reduced to 15.
    So, no taking subsystems offline through draining power, eh?
    It says that minimum level was reduced, not raised. I read it as you can now set your minimum power to 15 instead of 25. If they were talking about knocking systems offline, then they would say the minimum was raised to 15.

    and Photonic Fleet sounds much better but it will still be a last-ditch thing for me, something I use to cover my escape
  • thegrimcorsairthegrimcorsair Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    It says that minimum level was reduced, not raised. I read it as you can now set your minimum power to 15 instead of 25. If they were talking about knocking systems offline, then they would say the minimum was raised to 15.

    Oh, actually, that does make a lot more sense. Especially with how power starved the new warbirds will be at low level. Huh.
    and Photonic Fleet sounds much better but it will still be a last-ditch thing for me, something I use to cover my escape

    Hey, at least at endgame Klingons will be getting a minimum of two Bio-neural Warheads/Stasis Beams and one Isometric Charge and a maximum of three Iso's per Photonic Fleet Summon. Oh well, no Raptors means no suddenly summoning a swarm of AI-driven Graviton Pulse Generators.
    If you feel Keel'el's effect is well designed, please, for your own safety, be very careful around shallow pools of water.
  • maicake716maicake716 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    does this mean no more p2w stuff comming from the klingons photonic ships? or does this mean that the fed ships will be getting their own p2w stuff from theirs?



    guess my fearful photonic armada will never see the light of day again eh?
    mancom wrote: »
    Frankly, I think the only sound advice that one can give new players at this time is to stay away from PVP in STO.
    Science pvp at its best-http://www.youtube.com/user/matteo716
    Do you even Science Bro?
  • thegrimcorsairthegrimcorsair Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    maicake716 wrote: »
    does this mean no more p2w stuff comming from the klingons photonic ships? or does this mean that the fed ships will be getting their own p2w stuff from theirs?



    guess my fearful photonic armada will never see the light of day again eh?

    We've had P2W stuff on ours for a bit. Namely the PSW torp from Photonic Sci Ships. Nothing that really compares to the Photonic Raptor's GPG, Vor'cha's Stasis Beam or Bio-neural Warhead (okay, PSW torp is kinda comparable to this), or Negh'var's Isometric Charge.

    Since it'll be Vor'cha's and Negh'vars at endgame for KDF, the direct answer for the Federation would be Sovvys and Typhoons, if memory serves, with their attendant powers. Lotsa Tractor Beams for Feds, if nothing else.
    If you feel Keel'el's effect is well designed, please, for your own safety, be very careful around shallow pools of water.
  • marc8219marc8219 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Looks like my Fed tac is permanently staying in a FAW spam clearing aux2bat cruiser. These are going to be alot more in demand with all of this photonic fleet spam and more fleets unlocking elite pets.
    Tala -KDF Tac- House of Beautiful Orions
  • webdeathwebdeath Member Posts: 1,570 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    I'm happy with the modification to Photonic Fleet. Doesn't make it any more viable then before. But at least it's more useful then it was previously. :)
    You think that your beta test was bad?
    Think about this:
    American Football has been in open beta for 144 years. ~Kotaku
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • ussultimatumussultimatum Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Hey, at least at endgame Klingons will be getting a minimum of two Bio-neural Warheads/Stasis Beams and one Isometric Charge and a maximum of three Iso's per Photonic Fleet Summon. Oh well, no Raptors means no suddenly summoning a swarm of AI-driven Graviton Pulse Generators.


    Bort mentioned in the TTS channel that those console powers have been removed, they were not supposed to have them.

    And also that Photonic ships are photonic and should not be proc'ing (phasers, disruptors, etc).
  • thegrimcorsairthegrimcorsair Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Bort mentioned in the TTS channel that those console powers have been removed, they were not supposed to have them.

    And also that Photonic ships are photonic and should not be proc'ing (phasers, disruptors, etc).

    Thanks for the heads up.

    So it's still a useless power with a trap trait designed to milk new players for money towards retrait tokens. Nice.
    If you feel Keel'el's effect is well designed, please, for your own safety, be very careful around shallow pools of water.
  • ussultimatumussultimatum Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Thanks for the heads up.

    So it's still a useless power with a trap trait designed to milk new players for money towards retrait tokens. Nice.

    Well its functional in PvE, where the ships will draw aggro for you.

    TBH if they could spam console powers and proc weapons at a rate of even 50% uptime 3x captains spamming photonic fleet in a pvp match would be madness.

    That's 30 copies of photonic fleet out over the course of just a 20 minute arena match. Each copy lasting 1 minute or until destroyed.



    I'm not convinced that would really be good at all for PvP.
  • thegrimcorsairthegrimcorsair Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Well its functional in PvE, where the ships will draw aggro for you.

    TBH if they could spam console powers and proc weapons at a rate of even 50% uptime 3x captains spamming photonic fleet in a pvp match would be madness.

    That's 30 copies of photonic fleet out over the course of just a 20 minute arena match. Each copy lasting 1 minute or until destroyed.



    I'm not convinced that would really be good at all for PvP.

    I pretty much agree. I was kinda hoping they'd put out a trait that changed the power into power that was more inline with Science Captains as balance tippers that would be useful in PvP and not add even more contacts to the HUD.

    A "Summon Gal-X Dreadnought on Command Button" would probably have been a bit much, right?
    If you feel Keel'el's effect is well designed, please, for your own safety, be very careful around shallow pools of water.
  • virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    The x/15 thing for Fed/KDF will open up some additional power options with the various Warp Cores and just dropping things to x/15 instead of x/25...

    100/50/25/25 can be 100/70/15/15 or 100/50/35/15, etc, etc, etc...hrmmm.
  • kamipoikamipoi Member Posts: 365 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    thats if its not just romulans allowed to go to 15 but yes could be interesting.either way photofleet still an annoyance at best but no real threat. but thats fine i dont mind i wont be grabbing that train anyways i got better options for my builds ^.^ and finaly get to get accuracy evasive on my vulcan...as well as the lovely 30% boost noone else gets(sorta....)

    good things coming out of cryptic hope they keep the good work up i do have complaints about stuff but we will see actual performance soon.
  • virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    It's not just Roms that can x/15 now. It's anybody.
  • kiriseekirisee Member Posts: 446 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Hi Guys..pvp isn't the only part of this game...there is a pve element....it's that element that wants a better photonic fleet and sci powers..i understand alot of sci was op for pvp stuff.....but what can we all do? Cryptic does not have a game engine that can handle both concerns pve and pvp......tis sad....sigh
    "If everyone used Macs, we'd be working on how to get to Alpha Centauri rather than how to get to Mars."
  • darkfader1988darkfader1988 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    maicake716 wrote: »
    does this mean no more p2w stuff comming from the klingons photonic ships? or does this mean that the fed ships will be getting their own p2w stuff from theirs?



    guess my fearful photonic armada will never see the light of day again eh?

    But the Fed Holo's had nice phaser proc spam whereas kdf's did not!
    MT - Sad Pandas
  • shookyangshookyang Member Posts: 1,122
    edited May 2013
    The x/15 thing for Fed/KDF will open up some additional power options with the various Warp Cores and just dropping things to x/15 instead of x/25...

    100/50/25/25 can be 100/70/15/15 or 100/50/35/15, etc, etc, etc...hrmmm.
    I generally think this is a bad idea to lower your minimum power levels to 15.

    At least for an escort, I need as much weapon, shield, and engine power as possible. Aux is nice for the heals, and reducing that by 10 would make my heals less effective than they already are (since I run them at such a low power to begin with).

    I think it's going to be very situational. If you run a beam boat and don't really care about turning or flying fast, then lower your engine power might be beneficial.

    Actually, now that I think about it, this will be awesome on my B'rel torpedo boat. I run weapons and shields a minimum power, and this will let me put another 20 in my B'rel's engines or Aux.

    Can you currently exceed the 125 cap on Aux and still see an increase in your abilities that use Aux? For instance, having an overflow of 135...do your heals and stealth bonuses cap you at 125? Or does it go to 135?
  • virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    There's no overcap...but with the Warp Cores, there are different types which allow you to raise the cap from 125 to 130 on Shields, Engines, or Auxiliary (not for Weapons). So you could get an extra 5 out of one of those three systems.

    There's also a mod on the Warp Cores that give you 7.5% of one subsystem's power to another. [W->S] would give 7.5% of Weapon Power to Shield Power for example.
  • thegrimcorsairthegrimcorsair Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    kirisee wrote: »
    Hi Guys..pvp isn't the only part of this game...there is a pve element....it's that element that wants a better photonic fleet and sci powers..i understand alot of sci was op for pvp stuff.....but what can we all do? Cryptic does not have a game engine that can handle both concerns pve and pvp......tis sad....sigh

    Cryptic sure as hell does have a game engine that can handle both, and don't be fooling yourself or anyone else into thinking otherwise.

    The problem lies with the content design going one way and the mechanics of the game being vastly more complex than said content design is capable of utilizing.

    Let me reiterate, it's a design issue not an engine issue.
    If you feel Keel'el's effect is well designed, please, for your own safety, be very careful around shallow pools of water.
  • drkfrontiersdrkfrontiers Member Posts: 2,477 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Well its functional in PvE, where the ships will draw aggro for you.

    TBH if they could spam console powers and proc weapons at a rate of even 50% uptime 3x captains spamming photonic fleet in a pvp match would be madness.

    That's 30 copies of photonic fleet out over the course of just a 20 minute arena match. Each copy lasting 1 minute or until destroyed.



    I'm not convinced that would really be good at all for PvP.

    I agree. And then throw in all the fleet pets and the embassy D'deridex's et al and things degenerate pretty quickly already.

    Not sure if this helps things.
  • hurleybirdhurleybird Member Posts: 909
    edited May 2013
    Basically a pretty big buff to kinetic science guys and aux2batt builds.
  • thegrimcorsairthegrimcorsair Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    hurleybird wrote: »
    Basically a pretty big buff to kinetic science guys and aux2batt builds.

    Having the ability to guarantee at least one Typhoon w/ TBR on summon and a pretty solid chance to summon two or three of them with Phtonic Fleet is definitely nifty for Sci's going for the mighty hull-hit.

    Could you outline how the changes boost Aux2Bat builds, though?
    If you feel Keel'el's effect is well designed, please, for your own safety, be very careful around shallow pools of water.
  • hurleybirdhurleybird Member Posts: 909
    edited May 2013
    Having the ability to guarantee at least one Typhoon w/ TBR on summon and a pretty solid chance to summon two or three of them with Phtonic Fleet is definitely nifty for Sci's going for the mighty hull-hit.

    Could you outline how the changes boost Aux2Bat builds, though?

    Being able to only put 15 points in weapons power helps kinetic science ships. They don't need weapon energy and that's 10 points they can put somewhere else.

    Aux2batt builds don't need aux power, so they get 10 free points too.
  • thegrimcorsairthegrimcorsair Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    hurleybird wrote: »
    Being able to only put 15 points in weapons power helps kinetic science ships. They don't need weapon energy and that's 10 points they can put somewhere else.

    Aux2batt builds don't need aux power, so they get 10 free points too.

    Thanks, didn't think about it in those terms. Hey, plus side it makes them more vulnerable to Target: Weapons, too.

    [Edit]

    That is, it's easier to disable their mines and torps, not necessarily shutdown their offense entirely.
    If you feel Keel'el's effect is well designed, please, for your own safety, be very careful around shallow pools of water.
  • shookyangshookyang Member Posts: 1,122
    edited May 2013
    [Edit]

    That is, it's easier to disable their mines and torps, not necessarily shutdown their offense entirely.
    I don't think kinetic weapons run off weapon power levels, no?
  • thegrimcorsairthegrimcorsair Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    shookyang wrote: »
    I don't think kinetic weapons run off weapon power levels, no?

    They're damage isn't based off Weapon Power, but if the subsystem is offline they can't shoot torps or mines.
    If you feel Keel'el's effect is well designed, please, for your own safety, be very careful around shallow pools of water.
  • maicake716maicake716 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    why is everyone saying that they'll spawn typhoon class ships with photonic fleet?

    i dont recall ever being able to call that in before...
    mancom wrote: »
    Frankly, I think the only sound advice that one can give new players at this time is to stay away from PVP in STO.
    Science pvp at its best-http://www.youtube.com/user/matteo716
    Do you even Science Bro?
  • hurleybirdhurleybird Member Posts: 909
    edited May 2013
    They're damage isn't based off Weapon Power, but if the subsystem is offline they can't shoot torps or mines.

    If weapons are taken offline because of drain magnitude, it's pretty easy to counter that by switching power presets. ;)
  • virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    maicake716 wrote: »
    why is everyone saying that they'll spawn typhoon class ships with photonic fleet?

    i dont recall ever being able to call that in before...

    Rank III = 1 Battleship and 2 Cruisers w/ 50% of each upgrading to a Battleship.

    Perhaps thinking that a Typhoon might pop with that instead of the Majestic/Noble...
  • thegrimcorsairthegrimcorsair Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    hurleybird wrote: »
    If weapons are taken offline because of drain magnitude, it's pretty easy to counter that by switching power presets. ;)

    If they're switching power presets, they're losing out somewhere else.

    I really wish they'd made the Vesta 2 LTC Uni w/ Com Sci and LT Eng so I could use E Siphon 3 and two Target: Subsystems 3 skills. With 5 Flow Caps and the Romulan T5 power I can boost my Target: Subsystem 3 to over 120 drain, and my E Siphon 3 is in the neighnborhood of 75. :/

    I mean, that's the point of drains, isn't it? To force an opponent into a sub-optimal power configuration? Of course, vets get their pre-order Red Matter Caps for an on-demand +25 to everything and all subsystem fixed, almost anyone can run 2 batteries to cover vital subsystems (say, Engine and Shields), and anyone with a good A/M Warp Core post LoR launch gets another Battery for boosting power levels and fixing subsystems with as far as I can tell no cost what-so-ever. So, yeah, if you aren't Siphon Droning with a Vo'quv you may as well slit your wrists as actually bother to fly a drain boat post LoR.
    If you feel Keel'el's effect is well designed, please, for your own safety, be very careful around shallow pools of water.
  • praxi5praxi5 Member Posts: 1,562 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    If they're switching power presets, they're losing out somewhere else.

    I really wish they'd made the Vesta 2 LTC Uni w/ Com Sci and LT Eng so I could use E Siphon 3 and two Target: Subsystems 3 skills. With 5 Flow Caps and the Romulan T5 power I can boost my Target: Subsystem 3 to over 120 drain, and my E Siphon 3 is in the neighnborhood of 75. :/

    I mean, that's the point of drains, isn't it? To force an opponent into a sub-optimal power configuration? Of course, vets get their pre-order Red Matter Caps for an on-demand +25 to everything and all subsystem fixed, almost anyone can run 2 batteries to cover vital subsystems (say, Engine and Shields), and anyone with a good A/M Warp Core post LoR launch gets another Battery for boosting power levels and fixing subsystems with as far as I can tell no cost what-so-ever. So, yeah, if you aren't Siphon Droning with a Vo'quv you may as well slit your wrists as actually bother to fly a drain boat post LoR.

    You mean Scis are being pigeon holed into specific builds? Again?

    Say it ain't so!

    srsly though, there are very few Cmdr level Sci skills that are useful. Tyken's is borked, ESiphon is heavily resisted, CPB sucks unless heavily spec'd into with full Aux, GW can be walked out of, VM 3 is a joke (even with the DOffs) thanks to Leadership (though that may be fixed soon), FBP 3 is selfish and heavily Aux dependent.
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