Hello STO'ers! Sorry it's taken me 'til past Page 10 to address some of the feedback that's come out so far. But let's get right down to it without further delay...
1) Crescent Disruptor Proc
What the dev blog doesn't tell you is that this proc comes with an inherent immunity period for the target that gets his shields pierced by it. For a short amount of time (I believe it's 5 seconds), no further shield ignore procs are possible on the target, once one shot has gone through.
As for the "portion of damage resistance" that is negated, it's a -50 Resistance Rating. Due to diminishing scales, this has a different end-result depending on what value the target started at. Targets with a high Resistance Rating will be impacted less than those with mid-range or low stats.
2) Subspace Integration Circuit
We didn't do a great job explaining how this power functions, so let me break it down to a mechanical level:
- An untargetable projectile is shot at the target. It tracks - it cannot be escaped.
- Once it impacts the intended target, it erupts into a hazard area that is 3.0k from the impact point in every direction (I think that distance is right - working from memory here)
- While within this hazard zone, your Flight Speed is reduced and your weapons and bridge officer abilities cannot be activated. Your Perception will also be limited to only being able to see your own ship.
- After a short time (6 seconds, I believe), the Rupture closes, dealing a moderate amount of Kinetic damage to anyone within the hazard area. It's about equivalent to a Quantum Torpedo - nothing massive.
Players in PvP that see an enemy using this ability can easily counter it:
- Keep an eye out for the distinctive projectile, and use any Maneuvering Buff while it is inbound (Evasive Maneuvers, AP:Omega, EPtEngines, Subspace Wake, etc). And keep your Throttle high.
- Fly with higher than 25 Engine Power, and invest in Inertial Dampers skill. We made sure, when tuning this power, that even a moderately-geared player can escape the hazard without a monumental effort, before it implodes.
3) New Traits
Keep in mind that all players only have a maximum of 9 Trait Slots. Sacrificing one of those slots for the boosts that can be obtained from these new unique Traits is a big give-and-take. Generally speaking, we try to make all of the new Traits we introduce just as effective as those you can gain by choosing a specific profession or species.
A few quick points:
The +25% Healing from Regenerative Tissue will not increase your average heal by exactly 25%. Much like Tactical damage consoles, this is a modifier that's applied to the 'base' value of your heal, and does not amplify the innate bonuses that players get for leveling up, or those applied by skills like Medic. It is a boost, just not quite as big as it sounds. And the more invested your player already is at amplifying their Healing potency, the less effect will be seen by this Trait.
Doubling the Rank Up rate of Hangar Pets may sound impressive, but Carrier captains will still have to contend with keeping their pets alive to reach the Rank 5 mark. Also keep in mind that the difference in performance between Rank 1 and Rank 5 is really rather small. The main benefit this will grant to Carriers is that the auto-heal that takes place at each Rank-Up will occur more frequently.
As for Inspirational Leader favoring an Aux2Battery build, I feel I must inform you that the proc rate has a small internal cooldown. Spamming abilities more quickly than our intended balance point will not net this build much more benefit than it will the average player. I'd also like to point out that each individual buff only lasts a short duration (15sec I believe), so getting multiple stacks within that small duration window is very unlikely. It's far more likely that players equipped with this Trait will frequently be flying with a +10 to all skills, in short bursts. But the actual benefit that skill boost gives you will only matter if you activate abilities that rely upon those skills.
---
I believe that addresses the majority of the balance concerns and questions that have arisen since the publishing of this dev blog. We'll do our best to keep an eye on the forums for any other major questions that may come up.
Ship stats should be released later today, as well as an FAQ.
Jeremy Randall
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
I apologize if some of the information in the previous post isn't 100% accurate, as I'm posting these details from memory without being able to verify them in the engine. As soon as I can verify them, I will update this post with verified values.
Jeremy Randall
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
...
Doubling the Rank Up rate of Hangar Pets may sound impressive, but Carrier captains will still have to contend with keeping their pets alive to reach the Rank 5 mark. Also keep in mind that the difference in performance between Rank 1 and Rank 5 is really rather small. The main benefit this will grant to Carriers is that the auto-heal that takes place at each Rank-Up will occur more frequently.
...
Still Cruisers and Science Ship captains draw the short straw. While Escorts are the kings of STO, carriers are about to become the Queens (lol). Crusiers and Science ships get more and more ignored and treated as second (science) or third rate ship (cruiser) in STO, only receiving alibi boosts which other ship classes also benefit from.
That's not motivating at all.
"...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--"
- (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie
And all only via the lockboxes or the lobi store (which you can only use with lobi crystals that you can mostly only get from lockboxes)? I know the game has to self-fund but why not some via the dil store? going too far imo...
high Resistance Rating will be impacted less than those with mid-range or low stats.
2) Subspace Integration Circuit
We didn't do a great job explaining how this power functions, so let me break it down to a mechanical level:
- An untargetable projectile is shot at the target. It tracks - it cannot be escaped.
- Once it impacts the intended target, it erupts into a hazard area that is 3.0k from the impact point in every direction (I think that distance is right - working from memory here)
- While within this hazard zone, your Flight Speed is reduced and your weapons and bridge officer abilities cannot be activated. Your Perception will also be limited to only being able to see your own ship.
- After a short time (6 seconds, I believe), the Rupture closes, dealing a moderate amount of Kinetic damage to anyone within the hazard area. It's about equivalent to a Quantum Torpedo - nothing massive.
Players in PvP that see an enemy using this ability can easily counter it:
- Keep an eye out for the distinctive projectile, and use any Maneuvering Buff while it is inbound (Evasive Maneuvers, AP:Omega, EPtEngines, Subspace Wake, etc). And keep your Throttle high.
- Fly with higher than 25 Engine Power, and invest in Inertial Dampers skill. We made sure, when tuning this power, that even a moderately-geared player can escape the hazard without a monumental effort, before it implodes.
How ever, players (like my self) in PVP Like to use effects that Stop or Slow the target down.. such as:
Eject Warp Plasma
Tractor Beam
50+ second Grav Pulse
Target Engines
Danube Runabout Pets (Especially the Elite Yellow Stones)
Intercepters
Siphon Drones
Energy siphon + Disable subsystem Doff
Photonic Shockwave
Viral matrix (Especially with Stacking Doff)
Plasma Shockwave with Singularity to give Possible Disable.
Tiplar
Time ship Rewind
You think that your beta test was bad?
Think about this: American Football has been in open beta for 144 years. ~Kotaku
Where's the buff for Cruisers or Science Vessels?
Is it really Crypitcs goal to make the only current Star Trek game into a Escort and Carrier game?
I'm reallly tired of seeing them trying to ruin Star Trek, or what's left of it.
They don't care. Tactical Captains probably outnumber us Science and Engineering Captains combined together. I keep asking why there are no Science and Engineering buffs and things and I just get rebutted from other saying there is no need for "More" Sci and Engi stuff :rolleyes: Guess we aren't important enough :P
What the dev blog doesn't tell you is that this proc comes with an inherent immunity period for the target that gets his shields pierced by it. For a short amount of time (I believe it's 5 seconds), no further shield ignore procs are possible on the target, once one shot has gone through.
As for the "portion of damage resistance" that is negated, it's a -50 Resistance Rating. Due to diminishing scales, this has a different end-result depending on what value the target started at. Targets with a high Resistance Rating will be impacted less than those with mid-range or low stats.
Borticus, if you have the time, perhaps you can answer a question that a few other players and I had. The wiki page below gives a formula for converting damage resistance rating to damage resistance percentage.
As far as I know, the formula from the above page is accurate when the damage resistance rating is positive. But a different formula seems to apply when the damage resistance rating is negative. Could you tell us the formula for negative values?
Hello STO'ers! Sorry it's taken me 'til past Page 10 to address some of the feedback that's come out so far. But let's get right down to it without further delay...
1) Crescent Disruptor Proc
What the dev blog doesn't tell you is that this proc comes with an inherent immunity period for the target that gets his shields pierced by it. For a short amount of time (I believe it's 5 seconds), no further shield ignore procs are possible on the target, once one shot has gone through.
As for the "portion of damage resistance" that is negated, it's a -50 Resistance Rating. Due to diminishing scales, this has a different end-result depending on what value the target started at. Targets with a high Resistance Rating will be impacted less than those with mid-range or low stats.
....
A big Thank You for addressing concerns, but I am still curious about the weapons themselves.
Are they functionally identical to existing weapon types?
The special Lobi cannon sounds like it will have an abnormal firing cycle from regular single cannons. It is a bit unclear if that applies only to that weapon, or if all 'crescent' cannon weapons will have a different firing cycle(due to animation differences?).
Perhaps its a bit of paranoia on my part, but because of the way weapon drain works(I'd love to see you guys get around to normalizing it), this greatly impacts the potential performance and appeal of the weapons.
Edit: As I think on it, I presume this Heavy Crescent Wave Cannon will be to Single Cannons as Dual Heavy Cannons are to regular Dual Cannons? Are there even other weapons that share that firing cycle?
How ever, players (like my self) in PVP Like to use effects that Stop or Slow the target down.. such as:
Eject Warp Plasma
Tractor Beam
50+ second Grav Pulse
Target Engines
Danube Runabout Pets (Especially the Elite Yellow Stones)
Intercepters
Siphon Drones
Energy siphon + Disable subsystem Doff
Photonic Shockwave
Viral matrix (Especially with Stacking Doff)
Plasma Shockwave with Singularity to give Possible Disable.
Tiplar
Time ship Rewind
To be fair, I don't think most of you noted above is an issue or very effective in holding a target in PvP - not against people who know what they are doing anyway. The new hazard universal console that Jeremy posted is not OP in my opinion. They usually have a 2 - 3 minutes CD and the way it was described, it's of very limited use I think. There are several skills that can be used to prevent disable or against slow, namely APO and A2I. A2I especially can be cycled rapidly and when it's in effect, you are immune to disable. APO in addition is not affected by slow, hence if someone fires this at you, and you activate APO, you will simply fly away without being slowed nor disabled. Mark my words, this console is a big waste of time. I can see it being used in combination with certain skills to increase its effectiveness but let's examine the list you provided :
Eject Warp Plasma - HE, APO, avoiding it
Tractor Beam - PH, Evasive, APO, Jam Sensors, PSW, B'Elanna Torres console
50+ second Grav Pulse - APO
Target Engines - EptE, investment into Subs. Repair like Human boffs, Engines Capacitors / Batteries
Danube Runabout Pets (Especially the Elite Yellow Stones) - Don't fly into the plasma cloud, HE, APO, Scramble Sensors so the pets went poo the launcher instead
Intercepters - GW, Scramble Sensors, FAW, PH, APO, Evasive, TS
Siphon Drones - FAW, HE (neutralize energy drain), Plasma Shockwave, PSW, TS, Scramble Sensors, GW, EptE
Energy siphon + Disable subsystem Doff - HE, PSW, Human boffs,
Photonic Shockwave - A2I, APO
Viral matrix (Especially with Stacking Doff) - ET, Engines with Hot Restart, Batteries, EptX
Plasma Shockwave with Singularity to give Possible Disable. - The disable proc chance is merely 10%, too low to reliable, Human boffs, EptX, Batteries
Tiplar - ???
Time ship Rewind - Good once every 5 minutes and require you to waste one console slot on the suicide console thus extremely limited used
The special Lobi cannon sounds like it will have an abnormal firing cycle from regular single cannons. ... I presume this Heavy Crescent Wave Cannon will be to Single Cannons as Dual Heavy Cannons are to regular Dual Cannons? Are there even other weapons that share that firing cycle?
Your assumption is correct: The relationship between this unique Heavy Crescent Wave Cannon and a standard Single Cannon is the same as the relationship between a Dual Cannon and a Dual Heavy Cannon.
There are no other weapons available that match this firing cycle, at this time.
Jeremy Randall
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
Will the Crescent Wave's shield-bypass proc apply to a full firing cycle from a weapon, or just to an individual bolt? I assume full firing cycle since it's my understanding that energy-type procs are chance per firing cycle rather than per individual shot (if that's not the case, please correct me!), but it would be nice to have confirmation.
To be fair, I don't think most of you noted above is an issue or very effective in holding a target in PvP - not against people who know what they are doing anyway. The new hazard universal console that Jeremy posted is not OP in my opinion. They usually have a 2 - 3 minutes CD and the way it was described, it's of very limited use I think. There are several skills that can be used to prevent disable or against slow, namely APO and A2I. A2I especially can be cycled rapidly and when it's in effect, you are immune to disable. APO in addition is not affected by slow, hence if someone fires this at you, and you activate APO, you will simply fly away without being slowed nor disabled. Mark my words, this console is a big waste of time. I can see it being used in combination with certain skills to increase its effectiveness but let's examine the list you provided :
people already have enough of an issue with that timeship ability that does that freeze time aoe bubble, and they cant even be shot when theyre frozen.
this new console is practially that, without the user being unable to shoot.
you cant use bo powers for 6 seconds? time and time again in pvp this has been proven to be a death sentence.
Eject Warp Plasma - HE, APO, avoiding it
Tractor Beam - PH, Evasive, APO, Jam Sensors, PSW, B'Elanna Torres console
50+ second Grav Pulse - APO
Target Engines - EptE, investment into Subs. Repair like Human boffs, Engines Capacitors / Batteries
Danube Runabout Pets (Especially the Elite Yellow Stones) - Don't fly into the plasma cloud, HE, APO, Scramble Sensors so the pets went poo the launcher instead
Intercepters - GW, Scramble Sensors, FAW, PH, APO, Evasive, TS
Siphon Drones - FAW, HE (neutralize energy drain), Plasma Shockwave, PSW, TS, Scramble Sensors, GW, EptE
Energy siphon + Disable subsystem Doff - HE, PSW, Human boffs,
Photonic Shockwave - A2I, APO
Viral matrix (Especially with Stacking Doff) - ET, Engines with Hot Restart, Batteries, EptX
Plasma Shockwave with Singularity to give Possible Disable. - The disable proc chance is merely 10%, too low to reliable, Human boffs, EptX, Batteries
Tiplar - ???
Time ship Rewind - Good once every 5 minutes and require you to waste one console slot on the suicide console thus extremely limited used
the thing about paper pvp is that it doesnt work. sure yeah, you listed counters. how often do you find yourself able to use every single one of those counters at the time you need to?
the console is obviously targeting pvprs in the worst possible way and they dont seem to care.
at least theyre not lying to us anymore about how important pvp is to them and that theyll get to it at the next season -rolls eyes-
btw, i hear season 8 will not have anything to do with pvp... -shocked-
I'd like to request a special weapon that isn't disruptor damage in the next box. I mean I like disruptors, but some variety would be nice. Plus I've, uh, spent quite a bit on phaser relays.
When you say that BO powers will be disabled, does that mean that Captain powers can still be used? What about set powers?
Ie. My BOFFs are out-of-commission, but I can still use Evasive, SNB, etc?
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
I'd like to request a special weapon that isn't disruptor damage in the next box. I mean I like disruptors, but some variety would be nice. Plus I've, uh, spent quite a bit on phaser relays.
I was just thinking this, seems lately that alot of the new weapons are Disruptor based..Modified phasers would be cool, especially if you're a Fed.
What the dev blog doesn't tell you is that this proc comes with an inherent immunity period for the target that gets his shields pierced by it. For a short amount of time (I believe it's 5 seconds), no further shield ignore procs are possible on the target, once one shot has gone through.
As for the "portion of damage resistance" that is negated, it's a -50 Resistance Rating. Due to diminishing scales, this has a different end-result depending on what value the target started at. Targets with a high Resistance Rating will be impacted less than those with mid-range or low stats.
oh good, theres is a lock out. pvp would literally be over if there wasn't. the valdor console has a 2.5% chance to proc per hit too, and according to hours of parceing ive done, it procs every 0 to 7 seconds wile you have all your weapons pointed at someone. if there were weapons completely bypassing shields every 0-7 seconds, anyone that pvps might as well uninstall the game.
the res reducing though is still way over the line, at the very least that needs to be removed from crescent DHCs. i dont need 5k-10k DHC shots also having a bonus -50 armor bypass. these are still pretty game breaking, but i suppose pvp will still be sort of playable still with them. the lockout should be 7-10 seconds, and that - res replaced with a standard disruptor proc thats not per shot but per cycle like normal
Your assumption is correct: The relationship between this unique Heavy Crescent Wave Cannon and a standard Single Cannon is the same as the relationship between a Dual Cannon and a Dual Heavy Cannon.
There are no other weapons available that match this firing cycle, at this time.
none available to us, but the high end borg npcs have a heavy plasma cannon. if you wanted to throw cruisers a bone, you would enable heavy single cannons to start droping, it already exists in game, let us use it too!
So apparently the only Tactical Weapon Consoles to get now are Disruptor Coils.
There are more Disruptor-Based weapons than any other weapons in the game now.
A list of Disruptor-based Weapons
Plain ol' Disruptors (And fleet variants)
Spiral Wave Disruptors (From owning the Galor)
Plasma Disruptor Hybrids (From the mission: Past Imperfect)
Polarized Disruptors (Lock box)
Nanite Disruptors (Lock Box)
Crescent Disruptors (Lock Box)
A List of Tetryon-Based Weapons
Plain Ol' Tetryons (And Fleet Variants)
Phased Tetryons (From Lock Box)
Polarized Tetryons (From the Mission: The New Link)
Refracting Tetryon Beams (Nukara Rep Store)
A list of Polaron-Based Weapons
Plain Ol' Polarons (And Fleet Variants)
Phased Polarons (From Lock Box)
Dominion Polarons (From the Mission: Boldly They Rode)
A list of Plasma-based Weapons
Plain ol' Plasma (And Fleet Variants)
Romulan Plasma (From Rep Store)
A list of Phaser-Based Weapons
Plain Ol' Phasers (TOS: From T0 Connie or Mission: Everything Old Is New), Andorian (From owning the Andorian Escort) and Fleet Variants (All of these have no extra procs and are just color and fx changes)
A list of Anti-Proton Weapons
Plain Ol' Anti-Protons (And Fleet Variants)
As you can see from the above list Phasers (One of ICONIC weapons) is severely lacking in its variants compared to Disruptors (The OTHER iconic weapon). I would hope we would soon see more Phaser-based weapons appear, since some of us would like to have our ships look a little like an actual Fed ship using Fed weaponry.
The biggest issue with not having Phaser-based Weapons is we have four ships that almost require you to have phaser-based weapons to use the ship to it's fullest: The Galaxy Dreadnought (The Phaser-Lance), The Chimera (The Phaser Lotus), The Vesta (Quantum Field Focus Phaser) and the Andorian Escort (Phaser Dispersal Array). It would be nice to use Phaser-based weapons with extra Procs on these ships.
Maybe when you release the Galaxy-Pack you'll include some new Phaser-based weapons, hmmm?
Formerly Known as Protector from June 2008 to June 20, 2012
Please enable us to buy a token with Zen to faction change a 25th Century FED to a TOS FED.
people already have enough of an issue with that timeship ability that does that freeze time aoe bubble, and they cant even be shot when theyre frozen.
An ability that is good once every 5 minutes, and typically used as a panic button for the Timeship. If used as a fire support, the "oh TRIBBLE" button when you need is gone.
this new console is practially that, without the user being unable to shoot.
you cant use bo powers for 6 seconds? time and time again in pvp this has been proven to be a death sentence.
Once again, you read it incorrectly. The console has an AOE of 3 KM. Outside of it, you are not affected by the hazard. You are not stopped or held, but merely slow + power disable. Whereas there is no defense against Fragment Time, this console can be resisted by a number of anti-disable abilities. Plus, the best way is to simply move out of its range, similar to a GW. So it doesn't disable your boff powers for 6 sec. - it can last 6 sec. if you park yourself in there and do nothing. Once you move out of the 3KM sphere, you will no longer be affected by it. So in effect, it's no different than a short & sweet PSW.
the thing about paper pvp is that it doesnt work. sure yeah, you listed counters. how often do you find yourself able to use every single one of those counters at the time you need to?
I pvp a lot and many PvPers know me very well, including Minimax who told the OPvP channel recently that he is going to stop playing Sim3 and focus on STO because I lit a fire in his behind. The reason why he said that is because I am extremely hard to be disabled and usually turn around and nailed my ambushers no matter what tactic they try.
So when I am talking about PvP, it surely isn't paper PvP.
More to the point, it's rare that you will be hit by more than a few of your listed slow/hold/disable powers. If you are going to be hit by 10 different disables at the same time, chances are you are gang up and won't live very long anyway. So you don't need to have to defend against every single of them. But let's review your list one more time, but from a more practical perspective :
Of all the counters on the list, here are the ones I don't have : PSW, B'Elanna Torres Console, FAW, A2I, ET
I can slot in Deuterium Surplus in lieu of B'Elanna Torres console, so that is taken care of. Of all the hold/slow/disable powers you listed, I can counter all the counterble ones as follows :
Eject Warp Plasma - HE or APO, honestly I just hit HE, it's rare that both of them are in CD
Tractor Beam - PH, Evasive, APO, Jam Sensors depending on what I have available
50+ second Grav Pulse - APO or hit Deuterium Surplus, usually APO but it's rare that Graviton Pulse lasts that long since I have high Inertial Dampeners skills
Target Engines - My engines can't be disabled for more than 1 sec, it has Hot Restart wired in
Danube Runabout Pets (Especially the Elite Yellow Stones) - Rarely run into them since I am a Fed, tractors follow the same rules as Tractor Beam above, for the plasma cloud, just don't fly into them. Unlike people, NPC don't time the eject plasma as well or as strategically as people would, making them easy to avoid
Intercepters - Super Charged GW @ 150+ Graviton Skills, 120+ Particle Generators and 130 Aux and if they won't bite, I will guide them right into the GW myself.
Siphon Drones - Rarely seen these days for some reasons, if they are at distance, EpTE/Evasive, then hit Torpedo Spread. If close, activate HE to prevent energy drain, then Evasive follow by Super Charged GW.
Energy siphon + Disable subsystem Doff - Juel Ducane only lasts 5 sec. at most but with 120+ sub repair, it just blinks by. When ES, I turn on HE to stop the drain.
Photonic Shockwave - Avoid being closer than 3KM to known users of PSW and if necessary going in with APO active
Viral matrix (Especially with Stacking Doff) - Engines with Hot Restart, Batteries, EptX, very high subsystem repair skill and high inertial dampeners; the most potent part of VM is engines disable but since my engines have a built-in Hot Restart, they only have 1 sec of time to grab me, which is too short to do anything. Warp Core has an Aux battery if necessary. And I carry Weapon Battery due to my specific build. VM is completely ineffective against my build even without ET.
Plasma Shockwave with Singularity to give Possible Disable. - Do nothing, rarely seen and rarely used by anyone in PvP. Proc chance is too low and impossible to predict which sub it will affect and in any event, 120+ in subsystem repairs ensures it will just blink by like nothing
Tiplar - ??? No idea what this is
Time ship Rewind - See above
- An untargetable projectile is shot at the target. It tracks - it cannot be escaped.
...
Players in PvP that see an enemy using this ability can easily counter it:
- Keep an eye out for the distinctive projectile, and use any Maneuvering Buff while it is inbound (Evasive Maneuvers, AP:Omega, EPtEngines, Subspace Wake, etc). And keep your Throttle high.
- Fly with higher than 25 Engine Power, and invest in Inertial Dampers skill. We made sure, when tuning this power, that even a moderately-geared player can escape the hazard without a monumental effort, before it implodes.
Sorry, but that doesn't really count as "countering". You're basically saying that the probe will inevitably catch up to us and the only question is when.
Please consider adding something as a TRUE counter, one of the Teams would probably be best, either Eng or Sci. It was already said that every ability should have at least one counter and this one seems to have none.
Science for the win. / Czechoslovak Fleet 1st Division
A list of Phaser-Based Weapons
Plain Ol' Phasers (TOS: From T0 Connie or Mission: Everything Old Is New), Andorian (From owning the Andorian Escort) and Fleet Variants (All of these have no extra procs and are just color and fx changes)
A list of Anti-Proton Weapons
Plain Ol' Anti-Protons (And Fleet Variants)
As you can see from the above list Phasers (One of ICONIC weapons) is severely lacking in its variants compared to Disruptors (The OTHER iconic weapon). I would hope we would soon see more Phaser-based weapons appear, since some of us would like to have our ships look a little like an actual Fed ship using Fed weaponry.
The biggest issue with not having Phaser-based Weapons is we have four ships that almost require you to have phaser-based weapons to use the ship to it's fullest: The Galaxy Dreadnought (The Phaser-Lance), The Chimera (The Phaser Lotus), The Vesta (Quantum Field Focus Phaser) and the Andorian Escort (Phaser Dispersal Array). It would be nice to use Phaser-based weapons with extra Procs on these ships.
Maybe when you release the Galaxy-Pack you'll include some new Phaser-based weapons, hmmm?
Additionally to your suggestion i would like to have some more weapon variants that use aux for the Vesta Variants, like single cannons, turrets, Beam Arrays, heavy cannons or dual beam banks, similar to the Andorian weapons which are availlable through the Dilituhium store.
Heck yeah, a GCS pack featuring new phaser based weapons, like engineering powered phasers, only useable on Starfleet ships would be awesome. Or a Heavy beam Array (only forward) which fires only once per cycle, or does damage like a DC or maybe some hybrid weapon like Phaser/Tetryon or Phaser/Disruptor would be also interesting.
"...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--"
- (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie
Players in PvP that see an enemy using this ability can easily counter it:
- Keep an eye out for the distinctive projectile, and use any Maneuvering Buff while it is inbound (Evasive Maneuvers, AP:Omega, EPtEngines, Subspace Wake, etc). And keep your Throttle high.
- Fly with higher than 25 Engine Power, and invest in Inertial Dampers skill. We made sure, when tuning this power, that even a moderately-geared player can escape the hazard without a monumental effort, before it implodes.
Lets assume just for a moment, that you have your full attention in your enemy and you know exactly when he is going to use this OP console. Do you think that this is the only thing they are going to use? What about if they use Graviton Pulse + this console? What about EWP? And in convination with GW? And if I use it on my romulan ship with bc? etc?
The thing that I dont understand is if you guys dont care about PVP, why you made this console so PVP focus! There is only bridge officer powers on a ship with BOFFs.. so to me is clear that is not the case that you guys ignore PVP, it seems that you guys really HATE PVP.
Sorry, but that doesn't really count as "countering". You're basically saying that the probe will inevitably catch up to us and the only question is when.
Please consider adding something as a TRUE counter, one of the Teams would probably be best, either Eng or Sci. It was already said that every ability should have at least one counter and this one seems to have none.
His idea is that you activated the counter before the wave hit you and you still have the counter activated. I mean, yes.. sure... also there is a bigger counter: stop playing PVP.
I think he even assumes that only one member on the team is going to use this console.. lol..
So does that mean that like the others, even though it overwrites the normal Disruptor proc, that it too will stack with the other dual proc Disruptor procs?
Also, the question that was really bothering me wasn't answered by your earlier clarification. It's in regard to the Subspace Torpedo from the Elachi Secondary Set (like the Borg, Rom, Nukara 2 weapons + 1 console). Will that torp work with Torp Spread (allowing folks to use it with 100% accuracy)? Will it work with the various PWO Torp DOFFs? Thanks.
If anyone would dare to suggest a ship with such a BOFF/console layout i would call him crazy. Especially since those ships are also capable to use Heavy Cannons.
Btw, is there any newer ship not able to use them?
Why can't we get a equal strong Beam weapon? Even if it is just a DC or DHC with the looks of a Beam weapon, but it would feel much more like Star Trek instead of Star Wars or BSG.
The Elachi Monbosh Battleship
Faction: Federation, Klingon or Romulan
Rank Required: Rear Admiral, Brigadier General or Subadmiral I
Availability: Lobi Crystal Store
Hull Strength: 39,000
Shield Modifier: 1.2
Crew: 2000
Weapons: 4 Fore, 4 Aft
Device Slots: 4
Bridge Officer Stations: 1 Lieutenant Commander Tactical, 1 Commander Engineering, 1 Ensign Science, 2 Lieutenant Universal
Console Modifications: 4 Tactical, 4 Engineering, 2 Science
Base Turn Rate: 10 degrees per second
Impulse Modifier: 0.15
+10 Weapons Subsystems, +10 Engine Subsystems
Can Load Cannons
Console ? Universal ? Subspace Transceiver
Seriously if those BOFF/Console Layouts are ok, no one with a right mind can claim that the Galaxy -R BOFF/Console layout is ok.
I just can't understand why it is so hard for the devs to rework some older and much more iconic ships ships, like the Galaxy -R to make them at least playable. Especially the Galaxy Class is one of the ships some people like the most, but the Galaxy -R is just a pain to fly.
The more super ships Cryptic releases while ignoring what a big part of the playerbase really wants, the more frustrating it gets.
"...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--"
- (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie
The rest of the new stuff looks cool, albeit hilariously broken. I'm going to continue mostly staying out of PvP, I think.
Yeah, wouldn't want to risk drowning in the flood of tears. Always amuses me how a) people can get so worked up about an "OP" item for which they don't yet have the stats, and b) how pvpers always seem to think all MMOs revolve around their cute little niche market segment.
When you say that BO powers will be disabled, does that mean that Captain powers can still be used? What about set powers?
Ie. My BOFFs are out-of-commission, but I can still use Evasive, SNB, etc?
Has anyone gotten one yet and can they comment on this question?
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Comments
1) Crescent Disruptor Proc
What the dev blog doesn't tell you is that this proc comes with an inherent immunity period for the target that gets his shields pierced by it. For a short amount of time (I believe it's 5 seconds), no further shield ignore procs are possible on the target, once one shot has gone through.
As for the "portion of damage resistance" that is negated, it's a -50 Resistance Rating. Due to diminishing scales, this has a different end-result depending on what value the target started at. Targets with a high Resistance Rating will be impacted less than those with mid-range or low stats.
2) Subspace Integration Circuit
We didn't do a great job explaining how this power functions, so let me break it down to a mechanical level:
- An untargetable projectile is shot at the target. It tracks - it cannot be escaped.
- Once it impacts the intended target, it erupts into a hazard area that is 3.0k from the impact point in every direction (I think that distance is right - working from memory here)
- While within this hazard zone, your Flight Speed is reduced and your weapons and bridge officer abilities cannot be activated. Your Perception will also be limited to only being able to see your own ship.
- After a short time (6 seconds, I believe), the Rupture closes, dealing a moderate amount of Kinetic damage to anyone within the hazard area. It's about equivalent to a Quantum Torpedo - nothing massive.
Players in PvP that see an enemy using this ability can easily counter it:
- Keep an eye out for the distinctive projectile, and use any Maneuvering Buff while it is inbound (Evasive Maneuvers, AP:Omega, EPtEngines, Subspace Wake, etc). And keep your Throttle high.
- Fly with higher than 25 Engine Power, and invest in Inertial Dampers skill. We made sure, when tuning this power, that even a moderately-geared player can escape the hazard without a monumental effort, before it implodes.
3) New Traits
Keep in mind that all players only have a maximum of 9 Trait Slots. Sacrificing one of those slots for the boosts that can be obtained from these new unique Traits is a big give-and-take. Generally speaking, we try to make all of the new Traits we introduce just as effective as those you can gain by choosing a specific profession or species.
A few quick points:
The +25% Healing from Regenerative Tissue will not increase your average heal by exactly 25%. Much like Tactical damage consoles, this is a modifier that's applied to the 'base' value of your heal, and does not amplify the innate bonuses that players get for leveling up, or those applied by skills like Medic. It is a boost, just not quite as big as it sounds. And the more invested your player already is at amplifying their Healing potency, the less effect will be seen by this Trait.
Doubling the Rank Up rate of Hangar Pets may sound impressive, but Carrier captains will still have to contend with keeping their pets alive to reach the Rank 5 mark. Also keep in mind that the difference in performance between Rank 1 and Rank 5 is really rather small. The main benefit this will grant to Carriers is that the auto-heal that takes place at each Rank-Up will occur more frequently.
As for Inspirational Leader favoring an Aux2Battery build, I feel I must inform you that the proc rate has a small internal cooldown. Spamming abilities more quickly than our intended balance point will not net this build much more benefit than it will the average player. I'd also like to point out that each individual buff only lasts a short duration (15sec I believe), so getting multiple stacks within that small duration window is very unlikely. It's far more likely that players equipped with this Trait will frequently be flying with a +10 to all skills, in short bursts. But the actual benefit that skill boost gives you will only matter if you activate abilities that rely upon those skills.
---
I believe that addresses the majority of the balance concerns and questions that have arisen since the publishing of this dev blog. We'll do our best to keep an eye on the forums for any other major questions that may come up.
Ship stats should be released later today, as well as an FAQ.
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
That's not motivating at all.
How ever, players (like my self) in PVP Like to use effects that Stop or Slow the target down.. such as:
Eject Warp Plasma
Tractor Beam
50+ second Grav Pulse
Target Engines
Danube Runabout Pets (Especially the Elite Yellow Stones)
Intercepters
Siphon Drones
Energy siphon + Disable subsystem Doff
Photonic Shockwave
Viral matrix (Especially with Stacking Doff)
Plasma Shockwave with Singularity to give Possible Disable.
Tiplar
Time ship Rewind
Think about this:
American Football has been in open beta for 144 years. ~Kotaku
They don't care. Tactical Captains probably outnumber us Science and Engineering Captains combined together. I keep asking why there are no Science and Engineering buffs and things and I just get rebutted from other saying there is no need for "More" Sci and Engi stuff :rolleyes: Guess we aren't important enough :P
Borticus, if you have the time, perhaps you can answer a question that a few other players and I had. The wiki page below gives a formula for converting damage resistance rating to damage resistance percentage.
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Damage_resistance
As far as I know, the formula from the above page is accurate when the damage resistance rating is positive. But a different formula seems to apply when the damage resistance rating is negative. Could you tell us the formula for negative values?
A big Thank You for addressing concerns, but I am still curious about the weapons themselves.
Are they functionally identical to existing weapon types?
The special Lobi cannon sounds like it will have an abnormal firing cycle from regular single cannons. It is a bit unclear if that applies only to that weapon, or if all 'crescent' cannon weapons will have a different firing cycle(due to animation differences?).
Perhaps its a bit of paranoia on my part, but because of the way weapon drain works(I'd love to see you guys get around to normalizing it), this greatly impacts the potential performance and appeal of the weapons.
Edit: As I think on it, I presume this Heavy Crescent Wave Cannon will be to Single Cannons as Dual Heavy Cannons are to regular Dual Cannons? Are there even other weapons that share that firing cycle?
To be fair, I don't think most of you noted above is an issue or very effective in holding a target in PvP - not against people who know what they are doing anyway. The new hazard universal console that Jeremy posted is not OP in my opinion. They usually have a 2 - 3 minutes CD and the way it was described, it's of very limited use I think. There are several skills that can be used to prevent disable or against slow, namely APO and A2I. A2I especially can be cycled rapidly and when it's in effect, you are immune to disable. APO in addition is not affected by slow, hence if someone fires this at you, and you activate APO, you will simply fly away without being slowed nor disabled. Mark my words, this console is a big waste of time. I can see it being used in combination with certain skills to increase its effectiveness but let's examine the list you provided :
Eject Warp Plasma - HE, APO, avoiding it
Tractor Beam - PH, Evasive, APO, Jam Sensors, PSW, B'Elanna Torres console
50+ second Grav Pulse - APO
Target Engines - EptE, investment into Subs. Repair like Human boffs, Engines Capacitors / Batteries
Danube Runabout Pets (Especially the Elite Yellow Stones) - Don't fly into the plasma cloud, HE, APO, Scramble Sensors so the pets went poo the launcher instead
Intercepters - GW, Scramble Sensors, FAW, PH, APO, Evasive, TS
Siphon Drones - FAW, HE (neutralize energy drain), Plasma Shockwave, PSW, TS, Scramble Sensors, GW, EptE
Energy siphon + Disable subsystem Doff - HE, PSW, Human boffs,
Photonic Shockwave - A2I, APO
Viral matrix (Especially with Stacking Doff) - ET, Engines with Hot Restart, Batteries, EptX
Plasma Shockwave with Singularity to give Possible Disable. - The disable proc chance is merely 10%, too low to reliable, Human boffs, EptX, Batteries
Tiplar - ???
Time ship Rewind - Good once every 5 minutes and require you to waste one console slot on the suicide console thus extremely limited used
Other than the unique Proc (which replaces the standard Disruptor proc) and unique FX, they are identical to existing weapon types.
Your assumption is correct: The relationship between this unique Heavy Crescent Wave Cannon and a standard Single Cannon is the same as the relationship between a Dual Cannon and a Dual Heavy Cannon.
There are no other weapons available that match this firing cycle, at this time.
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
people already have enough of an issue with that timeship ability that does that freeze time aoe bubble, and they cant even be shot when theyre frozen.
this new console is practially that, without the user being unable to shoot.
you cant use bo powers for 6 seconds? time and time again in pvp this has been proven to be a death sentence.
the thing about paper pvp is that it doesnt work. sure yeah, you listed counters. how often do you find yourself able to use every single one of those counters at the time you need to?
the console is obviously targeting pvprs in the worst possible way and they dont seem to care.
at least theyre not lying to us anymore about how important pvp is to them and that theyll get to it at the next season -rolls eyes-
btw, i hear season 8 will not have anything to do with pvp... -shocked-
Do you even Science Bro?
When you say that BO powers will be disabled, does that mean that Captain powers can still be used? What about set powers?
Ie. My BOFFs are out-of-commission, but I can still use Evasive, SNB, etc?
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I was just thinking this, seems lately that alot of the new weapons are Disruptor based..Modified phasers would be cool, especially if you're a Fed.
oh good, theres is a lock out. pvp would literally be over if there wasn't. the valdor console has a 2.5% chance to proc per hit too, and according to hours of parceing ive done, it procs every 0 to 7 seconds wile you have all your weapons pointed at someone. if there were weapons completely bypassing shields every 0-7 seconds, anyone that pvps might as well uninstall the game.
the res reducing though is still way over the line, at the very least that needs to be removed from crescent DHCs. i dont need 5k-10k DHC shots also having a bonus -50 armor bypass. these are still pretty game breaking, but i suppose pvp will still be sort of playable still with them. the lockout should be 7-10 seconds, and that - res replaced with a standard disruptor proc thats not per shot but per cycle like normal
none available to us, but the high end borg npcs have a heavy plasma cannon. if you wanted to throw cruisers a bone, you would enable heavy single cannons to start droping, it already exists in game, let us use it too!
There are more Disruptor-Based weapons than any other weapons in the game now.
A list of Disruptor-based Weapons
Plain ol' Disruptors (And fleet variants)
Spiral Wave Disruptors (From owning the Galor)
Plasma Disruptor Hybrids (From the mission: Past Imperfect)
Polarized Disruptors (Lock box)
Nanite Disruptors (Lock Box)
Crescent Disruptors (Lock Box)
A List of Tetryon-Based Weapons
Plain Ol' Tetryons (And Fleet Variants)
Phased Tetryons (From Lock Box)
Polarized Tetryons (From the Mission: The New Link)
Refracting Tetryon Beams (Nukara Rep Store)
A list of Polaron-Based Weapons
Plain Ol' Polarons (And Fleet Variants)
Phased Polarons (From Lock Box)
Dominion Polarons (From the Mission: Boldly They Rode)
A list of Plasma-based Weapons
Plain ol' Plasma (And Fleet Variants)
Romulan Plasma (From Rep Store)
A list of Phaser-Based Weapons
Plain Ol' Phasers (TOS: From T0 Connie or Mission: Everything Old Is New), Andorian (From owning the Andorian Escort) and Fleet Variants (All of these have no extra procs and are just color and fx changes)
A list of Anti-Proton Weapons
Plain Ol' Anti-Protons (And Fleet Variants)
As you can see from the above list Phasers (One of ICONIC weapons) is severely lacking in its variants compared to Disruptors (The OTHER iconic weapon). I would hope we would soon see more Phaser-based weapons appear, since some of us would like to have our ships look a little like an actual Fed ship using Fed weaponry.
The biggest issue with not having Phaser-based Weapons is we have four ships that almost require you to have phaser-based weapons to use the ship to it's fullest: The Galaxy Dreadnought (The Phaser-Lance), The Chimera (The Phaser Lotus), The Vesta (Quantum Field Focus Phaser) and the Andorian Escort (Phaser Dispersal Array). It would be nice to use Phaser-based weapons with extra Procs on these ships.
Maybe when you release the Galaxy-Pack you'll include some new Phaser-based weapons, hmmm?
Please enable us to buy a token with Zen to faction change a 25th Century FED to a TOS FED.
An ability that is good once every 5 minutes, and typically used as a panic button for the Timeship. If used as a fire support, the "oh TRIBBLE" button when you need is gone.
Once again, you read it incorrectly. The console has an AOE of 3 KM. Outside of it, you are not affected by the hazard. You are not stopped or held, but merely slow + power disable. Whereas there is no defense against Fragment Time, this console can be resisted by a number of anti-disable abilities. Plus, the best way is to simply move out of its range, similar to a GW. So it doesn't disable your boff powers for 6 sec. - it can last 6 sec. if you park yourself in there and do nothing. Once you move out of the 3KM sphere, you will no longer be affected by it. So in effect, it's no different than a short & sweet PSW.
I pvp a lot and many PvPers know me very well, including Minimax who told the OPvP channel recently that he is going to stop playing Sim3 and focus on STO because I lit a fire in his behind. The reason why he said that is because I am extremely hard to be disabled and usually turn around and nailed my ambushers no matter what tactic they try.
So when I am talking about PvP, it surely isn't paper PvP.
More to the point, it's rare that you will be hit by more than a few of your listed slow/hold/disable powers. If you are going to be hit by 10 different disables at the same time, chances are you are gang up and won't live very long anyway. So you don't need to have to defend against every single of them. But let's review your list one more time, but from a more practical perspective :
Of all the counters on the list, here are the ones I don't have : PSW, B'Elanna Torres Console, FAW, A2I, ET
I can slot in Deuterium Surplus in lieu of B'Elanna Torres console, so that is taken care of. Of all the hold/slow/disable powers you listed, I can counter all the counterble ones as follows :
Eject Warp Plasma - HE or APO, honestly I just hit HE, it's rare that both of them are in CD
Tractor Beam - PH, Evasive, APO, Jam Sensors depending on what I have available
50+ second Grav Pulse - APO or hit Deuterium Surplus, usually APO but it's rare that Graviton Pulse lasts that long since I have high Inertial Dampeners skills
Target Engines - My engines can't be disabled for more than 1 sec, it has Hot Restart wired in
Danube Runabout Pets (Especially the Elite Yellow Stones) - Rarely run into them since I am a Fed, tractors follow the same rules as Tractor Beam above, for the plasma cloud, just don't fly into them. Unlike people, NPC don't time the eject plasma as well or as strategically as people would, making them easy to avoid
Intercepters - Super Charged GW @ 150+ Graviton Skills, 120+ Particle Generators and 130 Aux and if they won't bite, I will guide them right into the GW myself.
Siphon Drones - Rarely seen these days for some reasons, if they are at distance, EpTE/Evasive, then hit Torpedo Spread. If close, activate HE to prevent energy drain, then Evasive follow by Super Charged GW.
Energy siphon + Disable subsystem Doff - Juel Ducane only lasts 5 sec. at most but with 120+ sub repair, it just blinks by. When ES, I turn on HE to stop the drain.
Photonic Shockwave - Avoid being closer than 3KM to known users of PSW and if necessary going in with APO active
Viral matrix (Especially with Stacking Doff) - Engines with Hot Restart, Batteries, EptX, very high subsystem repair skill and high inertial dampeners; the most potent part of VM is engines disable but since my engines have a built-in Hot Restart, they only have 1 sec of time to grab me, which is too short to do anything. Warp Core has an Aux battery if necessary. And I carry Weapon Battery due to my specific build. VM is completely ineffective against my build even without ET.
Plasma Shockwave with Singularity to give Possible Disable. - Do nothing, rarely seen and rarely used by anyone in PvP. Proc chance is too low and impossible to predict which sub it will affect and in any event, 120+ in subsystem repairs ensures it will just blink by like nothing
Tiplar - ??? No idea what this is
Time ship Rewind - See above
Sorry, but that doesn't really count as "countering". You're basically saying that the probe will inevitably catch up to us and the only question is when.
Please consider adding something as a TRUE counter, one of the Teams would probably be best, either Eng or Sci. It was already said that every ability should have at least one counter and this one seems to have none.
Additionally to your suggestion i would like to have some more weapon variants that use aux for the Vesta Variants, like single cannons, turrets, Beam Arrays, heavy cannons or dual beam banks, similar to the Andorian weapons which are availlable through the Dilituhium store.
Heck yeah, a GCS pack featuring new phaser based weapons, like engineering powered phasers, only useable on Starfleet ships would be awesome. Or a Heavy beam Array (only forward) which fires only once per cycle, or does damage like a DC or maybe some hybrid weapon like Phaser/Tetryon or Phaser/Disruptor would be also interesting.
Nice job all concerned, really
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Lets assume just for a moment, that you have your full attention in your enemy and you know exactly when he is going to use this OP console. Do you think that this is the only thing they are going to use? What about if they use Graviton Pulse + this console? What about EWP? And in convination with GW? And if I use it on my romulan ship with bc? etc?
The thing that I dont understand is if you guys dont care about PVP, why you made this console so PVP focus! There is only bridge officer powers on a ship with BOFFs.. so to me is clear that is not the case that you guys ignore PVP, it seems that you guys really HATE PVP.
Division Hispana
www.divisionhispana.com
His idea is that you activated the counter before the wave hit you and you still have the counter activated. I mean, yes.. sure... also there is a bigger counter: stop playing PVP.
I think he even assumes that only one member on the team is going to use this console.. lol..
Division Hispana
www.divisionhispana.com
So it is another dual proc Disruptor proc?
Disruptor
...overwritten by...
Polarized Disruptor
Hybrid Plasma-Disruptor
Nanite Disruptor
Elite Fleet Disruptor
Crescent Disruptor
So does that mean that like the others, even though it overwrites the normal Disruptor proc, that it too will stack with the other dual proc Disruptor procs?
Also, the question that was really bothering me wasn't answered by your earlier clarification. It's in regard to the Subspace Torpedo from the Elachi Secondary Set (like the Borg, Rom, Nukara 2 weapons + 1 console). Will that torp work with Torp Spread (allowing folks to use it with 100% accuracy)? Will it work with the various PWO Torp DOFFs? Thanks.
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
Btw, is there any newer ship not able to use them?
Why can't we get a equal strong Beam weapon? Even if it is just a DC or DHC with the looks of a Beam weapon, but it would feel much more like Star Trek instead of Star Wars or BSG.
The Elachi Monbosh Battleship
The Elachi S'golth Escort This is just rediculus IMO.
Seriously if those BOFF/Console Layouts are ok, no one with a right mind can claim that the Galaxy -R BOFF/Console layout is ok.
I just can't understand why it is so hard for the devs to rework some older and much more iconic ships ships, like the Galaxy -R to make them at least playable. Especially the Galaxy Class is one of the ships some people like the most, but the Galaxy -R is just a pain to fly.
The more super ships Cryptic releases while ignoring what a big part of the playerbase really wants, the more frustrating it gets.
Yeah, wouldn't want to risk drowning in the flood of tears. Always amuses me how a) people can get so worked up about an "OP" item for which they don't yet have the stats, and b) how pvpers always seem to think all MMOs revolve around their cute little niche market segment.
Has anyone gotten one yet and can they comment on this question?
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