Capping, min/maxing, and stacking are three commonly used terms to describe how players handle the allocation of stats in a game. Often they are misused. I'm certain that nothing in this post will change that. That's okay I really just need to go over it so that I can have a brief discussion on Tactical Consoles. In short, although this post MAY be of interest to some I'm sure the great many can safely disregard it.
Capping a stat is when any further points spent on that stat will no longer have any benefit. For instance power levels in STO. The game caps the level at 125. That can be increased using items. The game will then display the new cap. Say that's 130. There's your cap. Any points spent to increase the power level past the cap are wasted.
You could **** around with that a bit and say "well the excess becomes a buffer vs drain" or that "there's a hidden calculation we can't see" or something else. For all intents and purposes though, I don't care. This is just a sample of what a cap, and capping, would be. There COULD be further distinction such as a 'soft' or 'hard' cap. If you understand cap, you understand the soft and hard. Okay maybe not. Soft could be where the excess points are kept as a buffer, even when not displayed. It could also mean, and more commonly, the highest values reachable in the game due to gear limits. Hard would be a developer set limit where excess points are lost for good.
So essentially a CAP is the highest value of a stat that the game engine will ever use in calculations that involve the application of that stat. For example the bonus derived from weapon power uses up to the CAP value, but no more.
Min maxing is min maxing. You put the least amount of points to gain the greatest benefit. This doesn't mean putting all your points into one stat and ignoring another. Min maxing is actually one of the more difficult things to grasp, and therefore one of the most misused terms. One of the only places in STO where a player can truly min/max is weapon mods. You can have many different outcomes in mind when you fire weapons in STO. Take the simplest first. The most direct damage the most often. Right away you'll run into a spot of trouble. That trouble would be that you CANNOT CAP hit rate by using ACC mods. So let's gloss over that a bit. The math and the concept remain the same.
Acc, Dmg, Crit H, and Crit D all convert into a given amount of damage. Acc converts misses into hits. Dmg adds damage to all hits. Crit H converts hits into Crits, and Crit D increases the damage of all Crits. So. What do? Without having a way to cap hit rate using these mods you need to choose what hit rate you will maximize your damage for. Once you have a given hit rate you just plug in the mods and calculate the changes to damage.
For example, say you are at a hit rate where you have one normal hit and one critical hit. What would give you more damage, five BAZILLION Crit H or one more normal hit? Well one more normal hit of course. Okay. Fine. But what next? Well I have two normal hits and one critical so if I simply convert those two normals into criticals I'll add the same damage as adding one more normal hit. But It will happen in LESS time so DPS is better. Procs that depend on weapon hits will go down, but procs that depend on criticals will go up. Well I choose Crit H because I'll take the greater DPS. And on and on until there are no more stats to allocate or you hit a cap.
So essentially that is min maxing. There's a point where adding more of the same stat gives less of a benefit than adding more of a different stat. And it is dependant on game mechanics, and it can change back and forth. Add some of this to x. Then something else to y. Then some of something else.
It's a crappy example though, because if you bother to do the math, Acc never ever goes bad. There is no better stat than Acc. Except for Tractor Beam. TB beats Acc hands down. Once you min/max your damage taking TB and its twisted cousin Warp Plasma into account your damage will ROCK.
So what is stacking? That is exactly what it sounds like. Just PILE ON ONE STAT. Like Acc. Because it never goes bad. Or don't. But if you did it would be stacking. Or stack neutronium consoles. They do go bad, but that IS stacking. Or stack Tac consoles, because they NEVER go bad either. And that would be stacking.
Or wait a minute. Is stacking Tac Consoles actually that clever? Well yes and no. The clever part is knowing what you expect your weapons to do. I expect my energy weapons to quickly drop an opponent's shields so that the torpedoes I have just outside those shields fly blissfully through the opening and smack into their hull. So I buff my energy weapons the minimum amount that I need to, to achieve just that max effect (max=dropped shields) and then I buff my torpedoes with any remaining slots. In PVP that will get my ship the most of what it is I want out of PVP.
Anyway. Know what it is you expect your ship to do, the outcomes you desire, and allocate resources accordingly. And have fun.
Cheers!
EDIT: Why would I say you could want other outcomes from firing your weapons? Well because you could. You may play on a team. Perhaps one team member will focus on robbing defense so that the rest of the team doesn't need Acc. Maybe your job will be to debuff the current target with critical hits. You don't care SO much about the damage, the debuff is your job so you want the most critical hits as possible. Or maybe you DON'T want to be placated or you DON'T want to trigger extra heals on your target. Well maybe you want more Dmg mods. Although these examples in particular MAY NOT hold up under game conditions, the method itself will. That is what is important here.
there was this fleet dhlean with 4 AP dhcs that hit me with a decloak alpha several times in this match. each time there was a string of 8-10 6-10k DHC crits, and i was dead in a single fireing cycle. i looked at the log, it was 8-10 crits in a row each time. like i tend to do, i reacted in time to counter it with TSS and TT, but it didn't mater, theres no stopping DPS like that.
stacking crtH, and crtD, has finally reached game breaking proportions, for romulans only. a similar ship from ether of the other 2 factions would have only been HALF as dangerous in that situation, 4 DHC on non rom escorts hasn't been a reliably way to kill someone since rep came out
with the capping, min/maxing, and stacking roms can do, they done broke the game if such a dumbed down weapon setup is all you need
I myself fell into the field gen trap. I'm just surprised someone from sad panda is still using it. A couple of weapons hits (doesn't take much) are enough to cancel out all the field generator you could ever equip. You might as well fly your ship with empty sci consoles slots where you would have put those field generator.
Never heard them referred to as a trap before. Have seen many a /facepalm in regard to a Sci using them though - since they're already sporting the higher shield mods and it being considered extremely selfish...but never heard of them referred to as a trap before.
Heck, flip through those Escort builds in the PvP build thread and look at the Sci consoles...
edit: Yep, this would be a good example for what Thissler was talking about with the min/max thing...a Sci sporting Field Gens is not the same as an Escort sporting Field Gens.
Never heard them referred to as a trap before. Have seen many a /facepalm in regard to a Sci using them though - since they're already sporting the higher shield mods and it being considered extremely selfish...but never heard of them referred to as a trap before.
Heck, flip through those Escort builds in the PvP build thread and look at the Sci consoles...
edit: Yep, this would be a good example for what Thissler was talking about with the min/max thing...a Sci sporting Field Gens is not the same as an Escort sporting Field Gens.
i dont think any of my escorts builds even recommend field gens. none of my sci ship builds do thats for sure. field gens are for when you have absolutely nothing better to put there, and you arent dealing any exotic damage.
These are the Eng/Sci consoles from the ToC for Escorts/Raptors/Destroyers. Two of them have (???) next to items that were listed. Not sure what the HP+ Console was supposed to be nor what the Field Projector was supposed to be.
2x RCS, EPS Borg, Cloak
2x RCS. Neut Borg, Field Projector (???)
RCS, Borg 3x Part Gens
3x RCS, EPS Borg, 0Point
RCS/Leech, 0Point, Dynamic Tachyo, Borg
MVAM, Borg Flow Cap/Part Gens, 2x Field Gen
Tachyo, Borg, 0Point, Neut 2x Field Gen
2x RCS, 0Point, Borg 2x Field Gen
RCS, MVAM 3x Embassy Flow Cap/Part Gens [ShH]
2x RCS, Torpedo Point Defense 2/3x Embassy Flow Cap [ShH]
I'm just surprised someone from sad panda is still using it. A couple of weapons hits (doesn't take much) are enough to cancel out all the field generator you could ever equip. You might as well fly your ship with empty sci consoles slots where you would have put those field generator.
A couple of points:
1) Praxis knows how to build premade sci/healer set ups.
2) We're not an army, we don't make any mandates to our guys and the most important thing for any fleet (for any player really) is to always experiment with builds even when things sometimes don't make sense at a glance. Otherwise you risk being unable to adapt when the time comes.
3) A lot of us have "PUG" builds and separate "Premade" builds.
4) We're playing in an environment now with an amazing amount of spike, can you clearly show that adding something on the order of approx 4000 to 6000 extra shields per facingbacked up by resistances will literally do nothing?
5) Test everything out yourself. Whether you go by feel, or numbers, test everything out for yourself.
I think HP+ is a + to structural integrity skill for the new mine consoles.
Yeah, but that would have been an Eng console...hrmmm. Field Gen, Emitter Array (boosted heals), Shield Emitter (boosted shield regen), a Romulan [ShH] or [HuH] Sci console? Meh.
Comments
stacking crtH, and crtD, has finally reached game breaking proportions, for romulans only. a similar ship from ether of the other 2 factions would have only been HALF as dangerous in that situation, 4 DHC on non rom escorts hasn't been a reliably way to kill someone since rep came out
with the capping, min/maxing, and stacking roms can do, they done broke the game if such a dumbed down weapon setup is all you need
I miss being in your sig, but what Jeff said there was pretty damn epic.
at this point in the game there is still sciencie players using 4 field gens? super lol
Vin Naftero@playhard88 - FED Sciencie
K'tan@playhard88 - KDF Tactical
Argento@playhard88 - RRF Tactical (FED)
Never heard them referred to as a trap before. Have seen many a /facepalm in regard to a Sci using them though - since they're already sporting the higher shield mods and it being considered extremely selfish...but never heard of them referred to as a trap before.
Heck, flip through those Escort builds in the PvP build thread and look at the Sci consoles...
edit: Yep, this would be a good example for what Thissler was talking about with the min/max thing...a Sci sporting Field Gens is not the same as an Escort sporting Field Gens.
i dont think any of my escorts builds even recommend field gens. none of my sci ship builds do thats for sure. field gens are for when you have absolutely nothing better to put there, and you arent dealing any exotic damage.
2x RCS, EPS
Borg, Cloak
2x RCS. Neut
Borg, Field Projector (???)
RCS, Borg
3x Part Gens
3x RCS, EPS
Borg, 0Point
RCS/Leech, 0Point, Dynamic
Tachyo, Borg
MVAM, Borg
Flow Cap/Part Gens, 2x Field Gen
Tachyo, Borg, 0Point, Neut
2x Field Gen
2x RCS, 0Point, Borg
2x Field Gen
RCS, MVAM
3x Embassy Flow Cap/Part Gens [ShH]
2x RCS, Torpedo Point Defense
2/3x Embassy Flow Cap [ShH]
Borg, RCS, Dynamic
Flow Cap, Leech
Borg, RCS, Dynamic
Leech, HP+ Console (???)
A couple of points:
1) Praxis knows how to build premade sci/healer set ups.
2) We're not an army, we don't make any mandates to our guys and the most important thing for any fleet (for any player really) is to always experiment with builds even when things sometimes don't make sense at a glance. Otherwise you risk being unable to adapt when the time comes.
3) A lot of us have "PUG" builds and separate "Premade" builds.
4) We're playing in an environment now with an amazing amount of spike, can you clearly show that adding something on the order of approx 4000 to 6000 extra shields per facing backed up by resistances will literally do nothing?
5) Test everything out yourself. Whether you go by feel, or numbers, test everything out for yourself.
I think HP+ is a + to structural integrity skill for the new mine consoles.
Yeah, but that would have been an Eng console...hrmmm. Field Gen, Emitter Array (boosted heals), Shield Emitter (boosted shield regen), a Romulan [ShH] or [HuH] Sci console? Meh.