'Raid Mode' STF Mission Request

wmcarson

As one of the leaders of the Fleet I'm in (subtle shout out for the Starfleet Reserve!) I've noticed a challenge when it comes to keeping our veteran players engaged in the end game, myself included.

This goes hand-in-hand with getting the newer players/members integrated into the 'good ole boys/girls club' and helping them get the end game experience they are looking for.

So with that in mind, a proposal that I'm sure many have thought of before (and I'm sure even posted to these very forums):

The Most Awesome Proposal Ever ? Raid Mode STFs!

Bring back the old STFs as a special 'Raid' style PVE mission! This is in addition to the existing STFs. Allow teams of five (or even 10!?) run the STFs the way they USED to be, with both space and ground combined.

*Make these missions something that encourages participation and not just coasting through a Reputation Mark grind.

*Make these missions something a little harder and more challenging, encouraging people to actually care about their spec/builds.

*Make these missions something that people ACTUALLY want to practice on and consider different tactics and strategy with their team.

*Make these missions something Fleets can actually schedule 'raid nights' around.

There is nothing greater than working as team to overcome a group challenge. Nothing greater than securing that elusive optional reward or getting that one sought after piece of loot.

I still remember the first time my fleet mates and I first secured the Cure Space optional or the first time someone got all three pieces of Prototype Tech. It was exciting! Something to look forward to day in and day out!

These sort of experiences are something newer Captains of Star Trek Online never get to experience in the end game, and something that the old curmudgeonly Captains from before Season Seven certainly miss.

Loot/Reward Table

What would make these even more fun would be to bring back the old loot - BUT to get the geek in me going - upgrade the Borg Assimilated gear to a 'Fleet' ultra rare version! Plus you could incorporate some of the unique Borg themed gear into the loot table!

Example Loot Table, with the following dropping per successful run:

*1x STF Tech (See Below) [Bind on pickup]

*1x Borg Themed Box (Random pull of things like Borg BOFs, Borg DOFs, Borg Space/Ground Weapons, etc.) [Bind on Pickup]

*1x Mk XII Very Rare Console [Bind on equip]

*2x Box of 100 Omega Marks [Bind on Pickup]

The key however would be to make it so each team member can win only one item from the loot table, so a needy ninja doesn't gank everything (either on purpose or by accident). And pending the programing needed, maybe add in a 'raid commander chooses' option for the loot.

Regarding the Tech Drop

Using the old STFs as an example, having something like the following drop [Bound on Pickup] would be fantastic (one of the following drops each run):

*Infected: Assimilated Shield MK XII UR, Omega Shield MK XII VR, MACO Shield MK XII VR, Omega PSG MK XII VR, or MACO PSG MK XII VR.

*Khitomer Accord: Assimilated Deflector MK XII UR, Omega Deflector MK XII VR, MACO Deflector MK XII VR, Omega Armor MK XII VR, or MACO Armor Mk XII VR.

*Cure: Assimilated Engine MK XII UR, Omega Engine MK XII VR, MACO Engine MK XII VR, Omega Weapon MK XII VR, or MACO Weapon MK XII VR.

*Into the Hive: Assimilated Warp Core? Mk XII UR, Omega Warp Core? MK XII VR, MACO Warp Core? MK XII VR, Borg Medical Analyzer, Tactical Borg Kit? Engineering Borg Kit?

Plus throw in the standard elite STF reward for Omega Marks and Dilithium and maybe bonus marks for hitting the optional objectives.

No need to worry about Tech Tokens and the like, just drop the gear as is. Leave Admiral D?vak and his crew at Quarks drinking away their retirements we don?t need them! As the Nakura Reputation system proved it is possible to turn in loot for marks, so maybe allow that functionality for those rare moments where someone gets a drop tech drop they don?t need.

Answering some Potential Objections

Some would advocate having the tech drop for everyone, but really half the fun of raiding is playing with your friends and guild mates to help them get the gear they need. So what if you have to run each STF several times to get your gear? If a person only needs to run all four once to get what they need, then the STO Dev team would be wasting their time on something like this. A point of an end-game raid is to keep a player engaged for month(s), not days.

Some would argue that need/greed on the above would hurt Pugs and their chances at getting the one piece of gear they need. Guess what? There are always going to be those issues with Pugs regardless of mission or even game. And there is the Reputation System.

Lastly, if it?s a private group - and people that have played together and respect each other - then any problems with loot distribution and need/greed most likely reflects bigger problems with the group itself (cue Doctor Phil!). If someone in my group needs that one piece of Omega Ground Gear and I don't need it, I'll click pass. Needs can be addressed before starting the mission so everyone is on the same page.

In Conclusion

I love playing Star Trek Online and have really enjoyed the new expansion. The new expansion has really invigorated our Fleet?s older membership but once we got our new toons to level 50? the fact that the only thing left was grinding out marks? was disheartening.

I?m not going anywhere, STO for life, but I do miss the fun and excitement of the old STFs and feel for all those new people who have yet to experience the thrill of pulling their first Prototype Tech Drop from an STF.

[Massive Wall of Text Accolade] Unlocked!

wmcarson

Anddddd for those that don't reading walls of text.

In short:

Add in STFs like they used to be

Add in loot drops

Get ice cream

arctos1717

This would be great, 'cos these days it's just grinding for marks, our fleet teams go through Elite STF-s in 7 to 8 minutes, there's no magic anymore. Before we had to meet at a certain system, do both space and ground, was fun even if it lasted up to 3 to 4 hours, depending on the STF.

There's no fun anymore, it's just a routine with STF's, something we "have to do", no team spirit, just get in kick the **** out of Borg, pick up your Omega marks and keep on with zombie play style.

There is no CHALLENGE anymore!

As a fleet admiral, I'm signing this suggestion/request on behalf of the whole Ad Infinitum fleet.

azurianstar

Yeah, what's left of us first geners (in hindsight) really did have fun in the original STFs. Sure they were long hauls, but in that time it got us to actually socialize, come up with strategies, and eventually build friendships that still last today. When the STFs got revised for F2P, it lost that luster. Pretty much the only thing you see is "GG" at the end. And spoiled players with instant gratification.

But the old STFs and the original Big Dig, pretty much was the closest things STO ever had to a classic MMO dungeon crawl, where we brave through the NPCs to get to the end for a powerful fight with a nice reward at the end.

So it would be great if they could reimplement the classic STFs in some fashion.

arctos1717

I rather spend my evening doing a long and demanding, strategy requiring STF with my friends than grinding Azura every 30 minutes for Nukara marks.

It really was fun and interesting, we were even trying to find a way to finish the Big Dig when it was bugged at the end, we didn't give up.

Doing Cure was also pretty amazing, not to mention 2-3 hours for Khitomer, but that feeling of agreeing of doing that specific STF on a specific day, meeting in that system, watching the whole team arrive and starting it was truly epic. As much as I love Star Trek and STO, these days the game is in such state that reflects the way the whole society is. Fast and cheap thrills and a rate race, grinding the same **** all the time to collect marks, so dissapointing.

Give us the option of doing old style STF's also, raise the difficulty, we deserved it for playing and being loyal to the game since the beginning.

aetam1

I would agree with longer and more challenging missions but I do not like the idea of combining ground and space again. Maybe you could make something like 2 separate missions. Put a button to continue to the 2nd part at the end so it still feels like one mission but you have the option to only play one part.
Ground can be fun sometime but I really enjoy space. And some new space content that I can not access without the ground part would make me sad.

Also I would like to see nukara/romulan stfs.

wmcarson

Didn't even think about the Big Dig and all those good catch.

If there was concerns about filling the loot tables w/ something from the reputation system you could get really out of the box.

Add into the rewards category traits. This may be controversial since its essentially a lifetime perk (disclaimer I am a lifetimer) but if you added in uber rare drops that allow you to essentially turn any species in the game into a liberated Borg. Get the Efficient Trait and all that, plus some visual unlocks!

You could even do the same for ships w/ special skins and stuff

I was talking with some Fleet Mates last night and a great idea that also came out of it

If its not desired by the STO team to bring back raid mode STFS and have loot drops of old....(which is preferred)

Maybe do special event weekends where if you run them (even in there current form) during the special event time you got special loot drops and the like....

sarek93

This is something that the devs should seriously consider. The mechanics for loot drops are still in the STF's and there are plenty of quasi-STF's (like the Big Dig) that could take advantage of a new raid mode (maybe bump it up to 10 players). Now that LoR is out and all factions have been fleshed out with lots of leveling opportunities, it's time to start focusing on end game again. The reputation system turned end game into the full fledged grind fest that it had been leaning more and more towards as the game went on.

The OP's right in pointing out that the old versions of STF's (and especially the old drops) provided a good incentive to run hard/raid like missions (elite ground STF's were IMO about the closest we ever got to a traditional MMO raid). Now if you look at the public queues for STF's, there's hardly anyone running grounds anymore. Why? Because there is no incentive to run the challenging ground missions that take 20+ minutes to get through when you can pop into an Infected Space Elite and pick up the same number of marks in under 10 minutes. There needs to be new incentives to run the ground missions, and I think raid mode STF's would be the perfect way to add that in.

I would agree that there should be a way to pop out after the space half of the mission, but no new rewards should be given to a team that does that because they would essentially just be running a space STF. I think you could tie the normal Omega marks reward to each section and then have a loot drop at the end of the latter half of the STF (ground) where the new raid mode loot would be.

In another discussion within the fleet (I'm a member of the OP's fleet btw), we were discussing the rewards that could drop. Another suggestion would be to put new loot drops in for raid mode STF's that wouldn't conflict with current Omega Rep unlocks. A working/incomplete list is as follows:

1. Borg Plasma Energy Weapons Mk XI VR (with chance to drop Mk XII VR version) (plasma+??? [assimilation?] procs)
2. Revamped Kits for STF's: Borg Medical Analyzer (revamped), Borg Fabrication/Neutralization (engineer kit), Borg Fire Team (tactical kit) [all kits would be Mk XI/XII very rares)
3. Borg Warp Core/Singularity Core Mk XI VR (with chance to drop Mk XII VR version)
4. Trait box drops (we know they can do this from the Tal Shiar lock boxes) with some potential traits being - Borg neural blast; Borg shield stripping active power (the ones the elite and regular tac drones have); efficient; anti-Borg traits (boost ACC or DMG vs. Borg); etc.
5. VR Borg Doff pack drops (similar to the old gamma quadrant lock box drops) which would unpack into a VR borg doff with special traits unique to the STF packs
6. Borg Assimilation Codes (Borg version of Tal Shiar Codes) which allow the person who picks it up to begin a doff assignment chain that has the possibility of spitting out Borg doffs
7. Anti-borg reusable devices - hyposprays, antiproton boosters, etc.
8. Assimilated Ship Skin pack - Unlocks ship customization options for adding borg skins to your ship (without needing the Assimilated set equipped)
9. Borg Uniform Box - Unpacks tailor unlocks that allow players to put Borg unis and Borg arms, etc. on their characters
10. The big ultra rare drops that would entice people in:
a. New Ultra Rare Mk XII Borg Space and Ground Sets
b. New VR Mk XII Consoles which would boost Borg plasma weapons/regular plasma weapons
c. New Universal Module that gives players the space ability to put the "Assimilate Ship" Proc on other ships

Just some thoughts. This list is designed to be broad and include a lot of options to spark discussion.

gavinruneblade

Please for the love of Q do not ever bring back random drops. Never never never never never (insert hundreds of thousands of "never's"). As one of the people who ran endless ESTFs before reputation and got basically nothing out of it, the thought of going back to that is a pure nightmare.

I vastly prefer the guarantee that I will always get a reward that the reputation system gives me.

Also, we don't need more power creep. Variant items are great. More powerful items are not.

The idea of optional joint STFs that have both the space and ground is excellent. I think there is no reason for anyone to oppose that if it is added as an option. Do just space, do just ground or do both, your call.

On the liberated borg as a reward, no that should remain as it is. On the other hand, let's get some non-photonic Maco boffs or a klingon honor guard tactical officer.

sarek93

I think the idea is that it would not be a substitute for Omega Marks/normal reward drops as they are now. The idea is to make this a way for people who want the extra challenge to play through and get some new drops/items that would be exclusive to the joint STF's. You would still be able to get your marks and dil and complete the rep projects, but you'd still get one of the above as a guaranteed drop. Rather than have 1 awesome rare drop and a bunch of other worthless stuff, you would now get one of those above mentioned drops. Some would be rarer than others.