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Special Task Force...not so special anymore
astarte05
Member Posts: 35 Arc User
The thrill is gone, ladies and gentlemen. The thrill is gone, away.
STFs, a staple in every endgame experience. They used to be new, exciting, challenging. Now they're just....meh. Even strategy has abandoned these missions. 10% rule in Infected? MRRML in Cure? Blow both gates at once in Khitomer? Oh please. Just go in there and pewpew everything, you be aight.
STFs are entirely too easy, people. When you have groups that can clear even Cure in under five minutes, you have a problem. Even Janeway took a whole episode to deal with the Borg, with us, we'd have them wrapped up before she even got out of her opening intro credits. Before, the Borg wiped out thirty-nine Federation warships and ten thousand lives. Now, it's like two Akiras, a Galaxy, and a Miranda could have prevented Wolf 359 from ever happening.
There needs to be something to give them teeth again. And no, I'm not talking about going from laughably easy to Nintendo Hard like they did in Hive. One cripplingly bugged mission doesn't make up for three lol ones. Why not mix it up a little? Maybe instead of one Tactical Cube in Infected, how about three? Maybe Donatra should have her own task force? Maybe this random Assimilated Carrier has a Space Pickle or two warp into help it out, like Borg fleet support?
Or do something radical; hell, talk to Activiision and dig up the old Fusion Cubes from Armada II. Or, again like in Armada II, an actual offensive into Borg space. Just...something, anything, to break the monotony of laughably easy endgame missions, and the only new STF to come out is fraught with bugs, glitches, and stuff that just makes no sense (being lanced from 15km away at the respawn point, for example).
STFs are too easy. They need a little polishing off of their own.
-Miriyah
STFs, a staple in every endgame experience. They used to be new, exciting, challenging. Now they're just....meh. Even strategy has abandoned these missions. 10% rule in Infected? MRRML in Cure? Blow both gates at once in Khitomer? Oh please. Just go in there and pewpew everything, you be aight.
STFs are entirely too easy, people. When you have groups that can clear even Cure in under five minutes, you have a problem. Even Janeway took a whole episode to deal with the Borg, with us, we'd have them wrapped up before she even got out of her opening intro credits. Before, the Borg wiped out thirty-nine Federation warships and ten thousand lives. Now, it's like two Akiras, a Galaxy, and a Miranda could have prevented Wolf 359 from ever happening.
There needs to be something to give them teeth again. And no, I'm not talking about going from laughably easy to Nintendo Hard like they did in Hive. One cripplingly bugged mission doesn't make up for three lol ones. Why not mix it up a little? Maybe instead of one Tactical Cube in Infected, how about three? Maybe Donatra should have her own task force? Maybe this random Assimilated Carrier has a Space Pickle or two warp into help it out, like Borg fleet support?
Or do something radical; hell, talk to Activiision and dig up the old Fusion Cubes from Armada II. Or, again like in Armada II, an actual offensive into Borg space. Just...something, anything, to break the monotony of laughably easy endgame missions, and the only new STF to come out is fraught with bugs, glitches, and stuff that just makes no sense (being lanced from 15km away at the respawn point, for example).
STFs are too easy. They need a little polishing off of their own.
-Miriyah
Post edited by astarte05 on
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spice those npc's up a little...
i can just sit in the middle and let them kill themselves with a FBP 2 with 0.58 reflect without even shooting my beams or cannons
give them more independend buffs and more powers
also i like to see FUSION CUBES ohw meh gawd that would be sweet!!!:D
[2/14 12:45] [Combat (Self)] Vessel One of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 685369 (1123670) Kinetic Damage to you with Plasma Energy Bolt Explosion.
I must say, yes the STF's are easy, but honestly i don't really mind. It's a grind anyway, so lets keep it doable.
This is my suggestion to give Borg it's teeth back <= click
I call it, the Stoutes paradox.
Queues and those which are NOT being used..
Big Dig
Breaking the Planet
Vault Shuttle Event
Rhi Atmosphere Event
Mine Trap
Defend Rh'Ihho Station
You know why? There easier ways to get the marks. This is of course the side of KDF I'm talking about.
Heck even the Fleet events are rarely being used these days.
I say make some, like Vault Ensnared, elite and Azure Race. There is more room on that map to add some more nodes to free ships with. The 4 in Azure is way too easy, 3 switch between two nodes and the rest just goes between the other unless there's a Falchion needing rescued and 'might' need help with a Tarantula.
Now if the Neg could use a jump console, decloak and fire, that'd put some spice into things. If it changed locations or the quantity and type of ships could change it would make things different.
ISE is little different. Cube and 2 spheres, that took 15s, wow. The spheres are again using EPtE and don't even stick around to do any damage, so its easier than ever.
The generators are so out DPSed now there is no 10% rule. The swarm of spheres that used to pop ships now all use EPtE and scatter across the area unable to control themselves getting stuck in the gate. This is STO's elite content? The best in the game? lol. Repeat on the other side, then use invisble walls to kill the gate without fear of the tac cube getting close.
KASE
It has always been ISE x 2, its unoriginal. Blow one gate and the group of spheres that spawned at the other was a problem, now? Nope, they EPtE and run away so who cares.
Donatra? The ship that could kill tanks? Nope, cloak and run away. It barely even tries to shoot things anymore.
HOSE
The only one capable of wiping groups really. Except the unimatrix ships have been bugged for months and if they start to lance your team its over, just quit the mission. Their 360 degree 20-30k range lance is impossible to beat once it starts firing. Even if all 5 of the team respawns at once you'll lose 2 before you attack. The only way to beat it is to kill of the unimatrix ships before the lance starts firing. More premium content that remains broken for months and months without a word from devs on it.
Ground STFs are in ruins as well. Who even wants to CGE, IGE or HGE? They take a long time for no extra reward. KAGE is easy and fast, some people run that. Of course back in S7 beta we told them this would happen.
So what is special about a set of 8 missions? 1 bugged, 3 never played, and the other 4 so static and formulaic that there is no challenge ever. Nothing changes in these missions, the AI is always exactly they same, the enemies are always the same, the borg never adapt.
These missions should be made smarter then they are. We need dynamic enemies. We need enemies that continue to challenge us as the T5 bar raises with every season. S5 enemies aren't relevant after S8.
Completed Starbase, Embassy, Mine, Spire and No Win Scenario
Nothing to do anymore.
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I think "Star Trek: Online's" problem is with a lack of vision.
As a result of playing the stfs a million times over, the majority of the players have become skilled and disenfranchised. Cryptic can raise the difficulty to a billion, and it will still not stop what is happening. Players have warned Cryptic to do something different. People complained about the obsessive grinding, repetitive tasks, and lack of variety. Even though they created an entirely new expansion, Cryptic was still not able to fix "STO's" problem. Endgame.
Within several recent blogs and interviews, Cryptic mention that endgame will be the focus of season eight. Only one problem, Cryptic will also be adding more reputations and holdings. I do not want to play a game, which grinding resources becomes an everyday job.
If you progress three Federation character types, you will have experienced what its like to play as a Romulan and KDF. Upon getting past the faction exclusive missions, the entire endgame is the same across all three factions. Grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind through the same stfs, so you can progress a startbase, reputation system, and embassy. Its not fun.
While I have enjoyed "Star Trek: Online" thoroughly, I think the season eight additions are going to arrive too late. Do you know what? I know they are going to arrive too late. Players have been complaining about the endgame since season six. Unless Cryptic is able to release season eight tomorrow, I do not see how "Legacy of Romulus" is going to keep the majority busy.
Why play a game in which you do the same tasks over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, so you can grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind to complete the same systems across three factions?
"Star Trek: Online's" endgame is similar to working as a cashier or stock clerk at a local supermarket.
*beep, beep, beep...*
Lol, it was only the other day my tac/scort was holding her aggro and she was actively turning AWAY from me! Even when I deliberately sat in her 45 degree forward arc (a full alpha strike with GDF being the only way that group was taking her down) but even then she actively turned away from me, it was quite frustrating having to wait 5 to 10 minutes to use my alpha strike.
Hell yeah !
make it a 10 people mission
all get randomly selected
5 play the borg and 5 the stf party
muhahahahahahahahahahaa
sweeeeettttt
There are teams I have been in that struggled entirely with the STF's. Then again, I go with my fleet and we dominate them. STF's are all in who you are going with. Don't Nerf Them. Don't Superpowermode Them. Leave Them Alone.
You want exciting content? They should make this "Fed / Klingon War" an ACTUAL WAR and let us do PvP Patrols and create pvp zones. That is a consistently updating challenge as players will keep getting better.
But, don't beg them to TRIBBLE the populace over in favor of one super equipped player.
I don't think anyone here wants to TRIBBLE over the general populace of the game but when one can do elite content using only common Mk X gear on a commander level ship (two ranks down from the ships you are meant to use with the same gear) or even complete it in shuttles, which has also been done (yes your Mirandas are overpowered...) it NEEDS to be upgraded such that an endgame ship is REQUIRED to complete elite content (even if the endgame gear is not)
You don't need to be super-equipped for STFs. Remember these were perfectly doable before the top level equipment currently in the game existed.
Fleet Ships? Nah. Nope.
Fleet Weaps? Didn't exist.
Fleet Engineering Consoles that remove the need to chose between turn rate & damage resist cos now the one console can do both? Nope, didn't need them either.
Hell, when the STFs came out first people didn't even have the MACO sets because they hadn't ground them out yet. And they got done, with optionals. And once people had the tactics down, they became easy. The crux for me is that they're too short, too simple, and you need to do them 100s of times to get the reward from it. That means you just autopilot after a while. The power creep in the game over the last 12-18 months is just extra icing on the increasingly stale STF cake.
I don't think learning tactics is the main stumbling block for new players to STFs, I think the game's difficulty curve, or lack of it, is the problem. Pack your ship with rainbow beams and combinations of BOff powers so sub-optimal that they basically amount to newbie-traps you'll still find your way past most of the mission based PvE. You don't need to improve little by little as you level, but then you suddenly need to improve a lot when you start STFs. They need to turn that into some sort of actual difficulty curve, and then attend to the STFs.
Where I would agree with you though, is that they can't just make the STFs harder by stat-padding everything some more so you do need the top end gear to do it. They need to make the objectives more complicated, and the enemies more intelligent rather than adding a million more hit points.
What we need is some creative AI than can throw us some left curves. Have AI target highest DPSers and disable their weapons ... throw in some powers like assimilation ... adaptive shields so you have to alternate weapon types ... something. Wow ... raindbow boats are actualy in demand ... LOL
More hit points and troll-torpeodo / instajib is not the answer.
- Judge Aaron Satie
I completely agree with the OP and to point out how wrong you are about "super equipped" i take my weakest and lowest spec'd build into Elites and have ZERO challenge and that's using mk Xi COMMON weapons, GREEN shields, etc etc...
If a ship that badly kitted can find zero challenge in Elites then there is defiantly something FAR wrong with end game.
Bring back the old long grind STF's at least they were A. A challenge and B. Required some skill and thought. Anyone can pew pew, the old style required a lot more and were far more worthy of end game...
***Disenchanted***
Real Join Date: Monday, 17 May 2010
Cryptic needs to return the STFs back to how they were when first released: 2 to 3 hours to beat them (under 2 hours if you have a good team), unlock in order (Infected, Cure, Khitomer), return the story to them, make borg space useful again, etc. Anything I missed?
Tell the complaining dimwits to shut up about the time needed to beat em. If they can't find away to set aside 2 to 3 hours on a WEEKEND to do one STF that's their problem. End game is a bloody joke. I hightail it into WoW just to do a raid because it's more challenging than the STFs are currently.
terradome is kind of overdue to be adapted to the current stf system...that can't take too long and can be thrown in like CE was.
i rather have new ones than have the old one reworked and further bugged