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Official Dyson Sphere Battlezone Feedback Thread
salamiinferno
Member Posts: 159 Cryptic Developer
Please leave all of your bugs, comments, concerns, and feedback here!
Dyson Sphere Battlezone:
Dyson Sphere Battlezone:
- A battlezone is a persistent ground combat zone where players battle enemy NPC?s for control of the map.
- Players can currently reach the zone by talking to Voth Defectors in Earth Space Dock or Qo'Nos.
- The battlezone is intended for level 50 players and can hold up to twenty players per instance.
- Each player can bring two bridge officers and can team with up to five players without losing them.
- Meaning a team of 5 players will total 15 including bridge officers
- The team UI will show your two bridge officers and your player teammates but no their bridge officers.
- Each capture point scales to the number of players that are around it, starting from 1 and capping at 5.
- The goal of the zone is to capture and maintain 18 out of 21 points on the map. This will trigger the final stage, where players must defeat at least one of the three boss fights to succeed. After this, the zone will go into a cooldown state before resetting the capture points to begin again.
- Players can earn dilithium for the daily missions and Voth Marks by participating in capturing points
Post edited by salamiinferno on
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Commander Ander here. I'm the content designer in charge of the battlezone (bolded for dramatic effect). We've all worked hard to deliver what you're seeing today, and we're continuing to work on improving the battlezone as much as we can! (As we speak, I have it up on my other screen)
The battlezone is very different from our previous adventure zones, and we're excited to see your reactions and feedback to it. I'm personally excited about seeing a full team of five people who each have their bridge officers.
What works? What doesn't work? What feels weird? Let us know! I will be keeping close tabs on this thread and responding every now and then.
So, pile on the feedback, and I may or may not see you in game!
Commander Ander
Capturing the zone, and defeating the boss(es) that spawn as a result, are one of many ways players will be able to own the special tokens needed to purchase their elite sets of gear from the Dyson Sphere Reputation. It also rewards a good amount of Marks, Dilithium Ore, and a Daily Commendation if you still need one for the day.
It's also really dang fun.
The zone resets a few minutes after control is gained and the boss(es) are defeated. Since it's a persistent area, the action has to continue to circulate.
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
Okay. Thank you.
I don't quite understand some of the enemies' tactics (and their tells) even after reading the Dev Blog on them, but I suppose that will come with time. I keep getting one-shotted by the Spec Ops Voth and have no clue how to prepare or counter for it.
The mech enemies are my favourite - they are quite fun, with their directional shielding, and it's awesome fighting with something so huge... but I still feel something's missing, such as a bazooka (or some similar heavy weaponry with an ammo mechanic). I just think that they look so huge and epic, that a boss battle with gimmick could be made out of them. A bazooka would feel perfect for blowing them up, or at least weakening their armour to increase the effectiveness of our normal weapons for x amount of time? Oh well, one can dream.
I still stand by my belief that we should have ground-based vehicles like the Argo to fight some super-Voth Voth :P Example: http://imgur.com/qtlhbxi (Champions Online has similar, so it's certainly possible.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
1) There is one area in the far north east (art batteries) that I couldn't disable 5 of them because there was only 4.
2) The first machine that you fight in the traintrack one one-hits everyone dead. please stop that.
3) Their are "things" on the ground. X's. T's. You walk through them and you pick up stuff automatically. My question is: Why? Seems like a strange mechanic.
Also, i guess there is no way to get to the space adventure zone from there, eh?
Also, I bet with alot of people in those zone swarming objectives, it will make the servers cry for the first few months.
All in all, way too fun. WAY Waaaay too fun.
I want to be a swarmer when i grow up. Seems like an easy job. Nobody knows you or cares that you are even around. And you still pick up a paycheck.
It seems to always pick the same two. One of which I don't want, but keep around and is not stationed in the standard away team group. We will ever get to choose which two like in other maps?
In addition when you beam down and go to stations, the assignments for the standard away team aren't correct. Showing the first boff you have selected correctly and security team for the remaining three. Then when you select the drop down on the second boff, the rest populate with the correct values.
None. Once you enter the zone the proper way you get to choose your boffs. For now, while everything is in a testing state the boffs will be picked for you.
overall loved it
I didn't get a daily commendation for doing this.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Did you complete the control of the zone, and fight the boss? I think that's the only way this zone grants a Daily Commendation.
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
I also finished this and it said invisible token file a bug report
DELTA PRICE RISING
Soon after I started playing, the artillery-generator objectives stopped working. The generators were stuck in a loop of shutting themselves down, and the counter would read like 178/5 generators disabled.
I like the little lore tidbits you can find once some zones are captured. And the little side-missions of protecting a researcher or swarmer-reprogrammer are cool, too.
Took me a while to figure out what the glowy things on the ground are (battle support tokens and power-ups). A good disappearing animation would help make it clear when you step over them. I know the buffs show up on you, but it's not always clear when you 'scoop them up'. Having the tokens 'pop' when picked up instead of fade away would make this clearer.
Conjoined, Re-emergence, and . . .
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Thanks for the info,
I noticed this: http://imgur.com/545OTU4
It looks like the textures are missing and I am only getting the base 3d model. Not sure if it's a bug or if you just left out the detail for the time being. I'll try to catch the name of the mob.
Edit: Voth Spec Ops and Bio Engineered Dankanasour, I could have sworn I went up against these guys before and they had full textures/models
Love the random pickups laying around.
Edit: to follow up, after a couple relogs I spawned on top of the fern instead of in it and was able to escape. Still, some wonky clipping on some of them.
Whoops! That would be an older, test model that we had. I claimed to have removed all of the older models, but it looks like I was wrong. Very nice find!
The Scenery was nicely done as well, especially the backdrop. But was surprised you could see more of the sky than of the ground.
The Enemies were rather interesting.
The Voth Medics didn't spam heal at all, but thought it odd that you fought more medics than troops.
The Voth Commanders were not easy to take down, but their Orbital Strike graphics need to be adjusted, the AoE is far greater than the displayed targeting circle. And it needs to be far more apparent, given the intensity of the battle, it's not noticeable at times.
The Mechs:
The Cera wasn't much of a threat at all, just a mortar spammer.
But the Dac was quite a tough nut to crack. Was rather clever to have the shield push you back while the Voth reclaim the capture point. However, it has one major weakness that can be exploited, and that is the Engineer Cover Shield. If you drop a CS along the path, it protects you from the repelling action of the Dac shield and you can get right next to it and drop bombs or spam turrets.
The Mini Boss Mechs, just a bigger Cera that can be soloed. But since there is an accolade on it, I just wonder what is the respawn time? Given the activity, it might end up frustrating to get to them.
Be funny (probably annoying as well) if they could push you off the ledge and make you fall to your toom. But alas, invisible walls.
Dinos:
The Dans were....... more bark than their bite. On rare times, they could land a decent hit, but overall they were wimps.
The Furis, at first I thought they were Rex's, but they just spammed lasers. Wasn't quite a challenge. Was fun riflebutting them to death.
The Rex's, was a good choice for a boss battle. They did not go down easy. But offensively, eh I just didn't feel anything.
Overall, be nice if Dinos had some umph to you. Like having the Rex grab you and toss you into the air and lob you out of the fight. Stomp on you, or swipe (knockback) with the tail. Instead all it did was run in circles attacking however it attacks.
The Dans, wished they could jump on you and pin you down for a few seconds.
Furis, like Dans in pinning you down or maybe have a knockback with the tail or head.
Performance:
Loved the cut scene and the explanation. But don't recall having an option to choose my BOFFS, but I saw those with Reman BOFFs so there has to be a way.
The BUFFs: Wished the icons were more noticeable, the brightness of the zones kind of dull them down. Also be nice if there was something telling you what they do.
The Capture points.
I only got to experience the Battle on the East Side, but found the Northern Generator (on East side) to be bugged with one of the generators in the wall.
The Omega Run: Be nice if there was some kind of indicator that points you in the direction of the boss battle. I knew something was going on, but not sure where.
The zone didn't fully complete, so not sure the end result.
The Rewards: Not sure what to do with those points for capturing. Guessing they were turned off so not to spoil the reward. But I worry how to earn commendations for the reputation with the Battlezone.
Accolades: I noticed a lot of simple accolades, and I would like if the Dev Team could elaborate. Like with the Exploration, it said to go to all the points, but after the battle I went to them all and nothing happened. So not sure if I missed one, so be nice if it had a Battle Zone sector counter.
And boss and mini-bosses, tell me which one I killed so I don't end up camping the wrong one.
Concerns and Suggestions:
While it was fun, I can see people losing interest in this after a month and I have to ask, what will happen to the Battlefield if there is one or two players? It would be an impossible task to fight the Territorial Control then, so will the game adjust?
Also, I have to say that I honestly didn't see this as territory control. It was more like a large Capture and Hold vs NPCs. When I think of territory control, I was thinking it was more on a grander scale, like a war. Like each points being their own separate maps and players overcoming the odds to gain control and the overall control of the various maps leads to the conclusion and the maps would vary where one day the fighting is on map 2 but today it's moved back to map 4.
This is partly why I think the overall interest will be very short term and harm any other possibilities for territorial control in STO.
I feel it would've been fun if there was some strategy in this Territorial control, like you have NPCs spawn at the points or nearby, but I would've loved if they came from a main spawn point (transport drop off or transporter) and they moved towards the capture point. That way you can strategize like going for their transporter site to stop them or going for their supplies or communication to interfere with them.
Another thing, there was too many invisible walls that wasn't on the map edges. Kept running in to them. Like on the west side, it looks like you could hop down to the next area off the platform, but you hit the wall and have to go the long way around. Either wished they were gone or somekind of shield that tells you there is something here and have to go around.
So all in all, its not perfect and likely get praise after launch, but I personally feel that Territorial control can go further than it currently is. But it's an okay start.
Also, while it's not really a bug it'd be real nice to have a "teleport back to base camp" button or something similar. Was a bit tedious running out to check zones, finding nothing, then running all the way back.
It says defeat v-rex at omega silo but two of them have green ticks on them and the third is empty.
I had the one boff thing too and also found that while I was defending a researcher with my rommie tac I was shooting the turrets of the fed engineer players next to me when he deployed them.
Looks amazing so far tho.
If you go to a respawn zone there is a teleport pad there,,,
As for the rest, Epic, I LOVE this zone, and the enemies. THIS is how a tough enemy should be (Time to rethink the Borg guys...)
Things I would change tho, Voth specialists are cannon fodder, they are almost being one shotted, may need to rescale them, too many medics not enough troops, and please fix the Defeat V-Rex at Omega Silo, there's no Omega-Silo showing on the map or in any description...
As for the Dino pets, DON'T CHANGE THEM!!!!!! (I don't care how much ppl b...h about them) They are awesome just the way they are...
***Disenchanted***
Real Join Date: Monday, 17 May 2010
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Proud Member of: Fubar Inc.
After reloading after a crash trying to get into Storming the Spire, the zone was reset.
Not too keen on the invisible walls and inability to push enemies off the platforms.
The Voth provided actual fighting, unlike the Borg in Defera.
We should get the Commendation when you finish the 20-hour zone mission.
Don't blame yourself, I like them pink.
Anyways, my two cents:
The Voth defector didn't prompt me to select Bridge Officers before transporting me to the Battlezone.
It would be prudent to have the different Battlezone icons be identified on the map and mini-map when the mouse is held over them.
Suggestion:
I really would love to somehow earn or unlock a Defector Voth Specialist Bridge Officer. Like..... wow, that would be such a great thing to have.
OK, well I tried to participate and test the content. But I suppose I was too late to the party... All of the points had been "Captured", or something (there were 3 areas still in red), I wandered around trying to figure out how to capture points till I finally located the Omega Silo where the V-Rex was supposed to be (it was highlighted in Red). Nothing there. And here I was thinking it was a good day to die... :P
Eventually I investigated every area of the map and none of the areas in red had anything to do in them. So I'd say the Battlezone is a Epic Failure at this point. Seriously there should at least be something to do when areas of the map are highlighted in red. Otherwise the Voth should be trying to retake the blue areas.
Bottom line is that the event timers are way out of wack. And Frankly it leaves a really bad impression. If this content goes live in this condition you'll drive players away from the game.
I may log back into Tribble in the coming weeks. But after enduring repeated crashes trying to enter "Storming the Spire" and the complete lack of content in the Battlezone. I'm totally demotivated to waste anymore time with any of it.