I remain empathetic to the concerns of my community, but do me a favor and lay off the god damn name calling and petty remarks. It will get you nowhere.
I must admit, respect points to Trendy for laying down the law like that.
I have said many times in many threads that the pug stomping will lead to the end of PvP - I have been given the learn to play speech - except in my thread where I ran up against sad pandas mirror cheese - which they admitted doing it as an example to what's wrong. But I could see well then that this behavior would continue(not saying the panadas - just cheese mades) and this behaviour would scare New people away - then the vets would start leaving and soon even the cheese mades would have no-one left to play with.
And so ends STO PvP - death by attrition.
P.s. I am coining the term from now on to describe these groups "cheese-mades"
It's not you Drk, and it has no sway over your ability or teamwork skills. PvP is just in rather a sorry state atm. FAW is so damn boring I can't see what the appeal is.
If there was any feedback i'd say you need to adapt alittle, stay current on metagame. But at the end of the day a single player can only do so much.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] @Aquitaine985 Lag Industries STO PvP Fleet - Executive
A Sad Panda of Industrial calibre. 2010: This is Cryptic PvP. Please hold the line, your call is very important to us...
PvP is just in rather a sorry state atm. FAW is so damn boring I can't see what the appeal is.
I made my posts on FAW, I sent a select few PMs imploring certain folks to look into the mechanics.
I debated where I could, I tried.
Yet here we are. Double proc is fixed, FAW is still here (as I thought would be the case - since I had tested FAW without DEM).
Until over-capping and drain resistance are reworked, beams themselves are reworked, or some new item providing resistance to it all - FAW is not going anywhere.
I understand why its being used, its effective and is low maintenance - but like you Reg I find it painfully boring.
Why should I work so hard on one of my hyper-optimized builds that require effort to make happen when I am just going to be outdone by a FAW boat that is significantly easier to fly?
I could, and did, fly one myself - but it just got tiresome, it lacked something visceral.
Instead, I've just decided to step away from STO for a while until the Devs show they actually care about creating a fun and balanced PvP environment (I'm not holding my breath).
This is why I have said one of the best ways at putting some effort into pvp balance is, to make ALL consoles un-useable along with doff's. This makes any possible combat come down to captain skills, boff skills, weapon and gear choice (no boosting from consoles), and player skills. While there will still be sci spam, it won't be boosted by consoles nor will you face any cheese consoles themselves. Aux2batt builds become normal builds, dem+marion becomes just dem, ships with 3+tac slots are no better than ships with 1-2. It will go along way towards taking it back to basics for which even a casual player can jump in and have a good chance at competing or, even fresh 50's vs geared 50's. Just some food for thought!
EDIT: Also singularity charge would remain full to better mimic M/AM warp cores but, all singularity powers would be locked out for use.
I made my posts on FAW, I sent a select few PMs imploring certain folks to look into the mechanics.
I debated where I could, I tried.
Yet here we are. Double proc is fixed, FAW is still here (as I thought would be the case - since I had tested FAW without DEM).
Until over-capping and drain resistance are reworked, beams themselves are reworked, or some new item providing resistance to it all - FAW is not going anywhere.
I understand why its being used, its effective and is low maintenance - but like you Reg I find it painfully boring.
Why should I work so hard on one of my hyper-optimized builds that require effort to make happen when I am just going to be outdone by a FAW boat that is significantly easier to fly?
I could, and did, fly one myself - but it just got tiresome, it lacked something visceral.
Instead, I've just decided to step away from STO for a while until the Devs show they actually care about creating a fun and balanced PvP environment (I'm not holding my breath).
Bu.. bu... how else do i do damage in this game ultimatum.. HOW
I can't remember where I saw it (or heh, if I actually saw it or just imagined it at this point) - but in a discussion on FAW, the bit where it was mentioned as being "iconic" to Star Trek.
But like many things in STO compared to ST...it's more like eating popcorn while watching a movie at the theater than it's like going to the theater to see a movie.
I can't remember where I saw it (or heh, if I actually saw it or just imagined it at this point) - but in a discussion on FAW, the bit where it was mentioned as being "iconic" to Star Trek.
FAW as it exists in this game isn't iconic to Star Trek.
Beams are iconic to Star Trek.
Beams being iconic to Star Trek doesn't remove DS9 and the Defiant from canon.
Aside from all of that a game needs to accommodate for a variety of play-styles and in this case weapon types.
That requires a modicum of balance between such weapon types, which we no longer have.
It wasn't an acceptable state when only a few high spike tools had the only value, but it's not really an acceptable state when a 250 degree arc, 360 degree coverage, build dominates with some of the highest output along with the greatest ease of use.
Beams being iconic to Star Trek doesn't remove DS9 and the Defiant from canon.
I ask Santa to remove DS9 every year for Christmas. No luck so far! :P
As bad as some of the plot armor, plot weapons, plot deus ex machina was with the rest of the Trek franchise...DS9 took it boldly where no plot gimmicks had gone before. One might even say, it was the story of the Bajoran Plothole.
beams are only iconic when they are minimalist, not disco ball. the only thing close to faw in actual canon was a tactic used to flush out a cloaked ship.
um...it was still better than Voyager, which had to rely on cheesekake not to be cancelled.
Obviously folks are going to have different opinions on the various series, movies, captains, etc...
...and one can't help but feel pity for all the folks that have it wrong. :P
Kirk1 > Picard > Kirk2 > Archer > Janeway > Sisko
TOS > TNG > ENT > VOY > DS9
The Wrath of Khan > Generations > The Voyage Home > The Motion Picture > Star Trek > The Undiscovered Country > Into Darkness > First Contact > The Search for Spock > The Final Frontier > Insurrection > Nemesis
USS Enterprise > USS Enterprise-A > USS Enterprise-B > USS Enterprise-C > USS Voyager > USS Enterprise-D > USS Defiant
Joking of course...not on the order, but the feeling pity aspect. Folks will prefer what they do, and there's no point in arguing subjective matters like that. Some prefer cake, some prefer pie - all it means is that each prefers something different, not that what one prefers is better to what the other prefers.
The question as it applies to this thread, though, is it just a subjective discussion or is it an actual discussion of mechanics and systems? I think the subjective aspect is clouding the mechanics aspect...as it does in many cases.
Even though I have my preferences, it's not going to stop me from pointing out if something I like is borked. Just because I do not like something, does not mean that I cannot point out it is borked.
My comment about pacing, the popcorn thing, being off in STO imho - definitely subjective. That FAW is still broken...anybody using it is exploiting...isn't subjective.
beams are only iconic when they are minimalist, not disco ball. the only thing close to faw in actual canon was a tactic used to flush out a cloaked ship.
Yep, that's the popcorn vs. movie thing. Might go to the movies once, two - three times a month, whatever - right? The popcorn is usually gone before the movie even starts, lol...gobble, gobble, gobble.
That's the difference, imho, with pacing - between them being iconic in ST and being spammage in STO.
Before S8 hit, I felt that the game was bordering on being too much power given to players. Still, PVP was quite doable though the feeling of cheese overall was growing more and more. It was still enjoyable overall.
When I read of the stuff coming for S8, the gut feeling that things were about to go completely overboard was there. More reputation, more gear with buffs, more buffs given to gear that didn't have them before, more DOFFs to break the game. Generally, even more power than ever before given to players.
In PVE, you can see stuff that long ago would have required more time and effort from a group to take down. Now the same things can be sped right through, blown up in seconds.
In PVP? Holy jeez, I knew it was going to be overboard. I haven't PVP'ed since S8 hit and everything I've heard about it from friends and on these boards confirm my fear that PVP in STO has "Jumped The Shark." It's just straight B.S. now.
PVP was already struggling to take place before S8. Hell, the queues were already slow. Now? They're even slower. I'd dare say that if nothing changes, PVP will not make it another 6 months, except for a handful of dudes fighting each other.
Cryptic has absolutely no idea what GAME BALANCE means.
A glance on a targeted player tells everything you need to know about the state of this game and how "balanced" it is. The scary part is that there are still buffs that do not show up on a targeted player.
Instead, I've just decided to step away from STO for a while until the Devs show they actually care about creating a fun and balanced PvP environment (I'm not holding my breath).
That explains a lot, thought you'd taken a break. As for the other stuff, yeah it kinda makes my engineer nothing but a generic captain with a 30s 2 min CD hunker down button.
I find drain resistance benefits both cannons and beams, in general all forms of energy weapons. However as you and many others have said overcapping only seems to benefit beams.
Ah well whatever, happy holidays if you're not in game or on the forums before then.
The game has been spammy here and there depending on the state of mines.. but no the game was never ever spammy like it is now.
Skills being op depending on when we are talking about... yep very true. However Cryptic has mostly balanced the skills out the last 4 years sadly. lol
"go back to experience stomps everything and nothing can compare except more experience, right?" - beameddown
Not sure if your serious on this one... Yes most of us are saying EXPERIENCE and skill should decide the match 99% of the time. Not who loaded the most p2w nonsense consoles... ground the most p2w pve traits... or picked up the newest lockbox/cstore ship... or has the best pool of friends or largest EC warchest to load up on all the mk XII fleet p2w cosnoles first. (the theory of buff the little guy would be great and fine and all... if it wasn't the vets who would be the ones in the best position to grind all the junk... I have all the junk, ok I guess I'm behind on the newest rep and I don't care. The cheese mades get to exist because the vets are the ones that grind all the newest junk. So its XP + Cheese + those super internet connections. lol)
This game has never ever been cookie cutter. Funny thing is these days I have 10x the option in terms of gear... and yet I feel like I have less options as far as my build goes.
I really don't see how anyone could possibly defend the state of pvp in sto. The only PvP I will be touching in STO for awhile is right here. I would really love to come back, first though the creator of all the issues has to take the first step. Cryptic needs to convince me they are willing to change... otherwise I'm sleeping on the couch and they don't get none of my good lovin, no $$$ tonight.
I find drain resistance benefits both cannons and beams
It doesn't benefit them in remotely equal proportion.
I was working on a very specific cannon focused build for quite some time.
Squeezing out every last ounce.
I performed repeated tests to see if drain resistance would improve my output and after a dozen tests or so none of the results ever saw more than 1% improvement.
The beam results were significantly higher.
I'm always willing to listen though, so if you have time to put it to the tests I'll take a look at your results.
The problem is the rep system. From fleet/faction gear to the rep perks it turns high level pvp into almost a simple gear check.
The best PvP experience I've had in this game?
Level 20-30 queues. No fleetmades stomping everyone, just enough equipment to be interesting, not so much mechanic stacking that you can build utterly broken fits. It's incredibly fun and I actually keep a character slot open just to repeatedly level and play through that bracket.
Literally the only problem is that queues take forever.
DF, I thank you for this, its good to see someone with a good rep in STO has stood up and said what many of us non knowns have been saying for sometime.
Your argument gives ours credence .
I do find it amusing though how many of the replies are from the same people who blamed the pug players or the lesser known players for being bad, not being team players etc etc.
How the woes of normal players were brushed aside, ignored or just got abused.
Just strange how someone with a known toon or good reputation doesn't get the same treatment, in fact everyone agrees with the point of view.
Just shows if you aren't in the clique, you aren't worthy of being listened to or being taken seriously. (No disrespect at all is intended to the OP in this post).
DF, I thank you for this, its good to see someone with a good rep in STO has stood up and said what many of us non knowns have been saying for sometime.
Your argument gives ours credence .
I do find it amusing though how many of the replies are from the same people who blamed the pug players or the lesser known players for being bad, not being team players etc etc.
How the woes of normal players were brushed aside, ignored or just got abused.
Just strange how someone with a known toon or good reputation doesn't get the same treatment, in fact everyone agrees with the point of view.
Just shows if you aren't in the clique, you aren't worthy of being listened to or being taken seriously. (No disrespect at all is intended to the OP in this post).
Thanks seansamurai1. But you are too modest. You are known to me, and I am sure alot of others too.
I say unequivocally, that Star Trek Online is the best game I have ever played. Ever.
It has the potential to be that one legendary game, honestly.
The issues around which STO revolve, which have been here since around Season 4, have been the ball-and-chain of Cryptics realisation of that dream.
If someone asked me what was my wishlist for the future?
Golden Rule: Listen and engage with your customers via dev blogs, meet-and-greet blogs, etc. Listen to what players are telling you about how they are experiencing your product.
1.) Separate the influence of PvE on PvP. Be that in shutting-off the rep, and doffs then so be it.
Consider a internal process whereby a leaderboard AI can be developed, and an option for players where they want to play:
Perhaps even if it is was simple as taking the average healing/dps per player over the last 10 matches.
If they qualify they are placed in queues with more veteran players. If not, they are placed with players who share their averages.
2.) Stop producing universal consoles. Make them universal only in the fact that they can be used in any slot ONLY on the ship you purchase them with.
3.) Create more challenging and storyline based STF's for the community with less emphasis on grind, and much more emphasis on team-work.
The "reward people for time spent playing" idea is not working. People want to play to have fun and relax. They do not want to have to login in to be faced with a mountain of "work" which needs to be done to remain competitive.
So in that vein, IN ADDITION to the existing rewards, give out a +2-5 multiple-choice reputation point for playing in each match of PvP, Foundry Mission, PvE Episode etc.
That way, players are rewarded for what they want to do. Hell there is TONS of stuff I want to be doing but can't to stay "on-schedule" I would love to just hit the space lanes once in a while and know there's a bit or reputation reward at the end of it.
4.) This is a just a personal observation. But honestly, I really think that they really overdid it by given all the Romulan ships battlecloak. Some of the ships should only have standard cloak. But that ship has sailed and the Romulans will always be the go to guys if you want to play damage. Which really pees me off. For a lot of players immersion really is important. Take me. I am a through-and-through Klingon. I love the lore, the culture, the ships etc. But for the last two years its been very difficult to stay remotely competitive.
5.) Rewards. I believe that Cryptic need to change the direction of rewards. The players are saturated with "blowing-up" stuff.
What about different kinds of rewards? What about a reputation rewards that do not affect game-play but unlock specializations and slight different variations of abilities trees. Giving the player the ability to break away from the cookie-cutter.
What if as a player I could unlock a list of specialisations like "Ty'Go'Hor Guardsman" which unlocks a special doff series or perhaps a small missions series, afterwhich I earn a special rank title and perhaps a "Unique" customisable costume set?
Alot of folks could really go for instead of changing the mechanics, change the way things look.
6.) Lockboxes, doffs etc. - As profitable as these undertakings are and realizing that they will never really realistically go away. How about introducing an alternating set of rewards, of enriching the game experience and not of consequence.
How about rewards of unlocking mini-factions?
How about a rewards that unlocks a species which you can play as.
Nothing over the top, just different.
7.) Work with the Foundry authors to start getting some of their great works associated to other aspects of the game. Associate their missions to NPC's and random contacts one sees in space.
8.) Maps. Please maps. A long time ago someone I trust deeply told me that the process of creating PvP maps was extremely time consuming and challenging for a number of reasons.
There was a time for that argument. But I do not believe that it holds any water after Season 8. What Cryptic achieved with the technology behind the Dyson Sphere made me smile, not because of the content - because of its RAW potential for stuff I do like. You know what I'm talking about!! (cue beaming Eddie Murphy Come to Papa grin!)
Thats it really. LOL
A few years of work. But my Nirvana in STO, except of course when I stumble upon one of those particular feisty little Epochs which gets my blood pumping.
Hi drk, like most posters i share your sentiments. Hence I have taken a long break from PvP and with it a big part of STO. The ball is in cryptics' court always had been. Potential is one thing, 8 seasons of utter neglect ..... whatever.
@Branflakes: Can we have our own subforum? Obviously we all enjoy the STO pvp community, but cannot find the energy to put up with systems decisions in game. Guess that makes us part of the community representation that is in your job description. Not sure if people fed up with systems, actually belong in the pvp sub-forum. Apparently we're no longer the ones actually pewing.
It doesn't benefit them in remotely equal proportion.
I was working on a very specific cannon focused build for quite some time.
Squeezing out every last ounce.
I performed repeated tests to see if drain resistance would improve my output and after a dozen tests or so none of the results ever saw more than 1% improvement.
The beam results were significantly higher.
I'm always willing to listen though, so if you have time to put it to the tests I'll take a look at your results.
Thanks, same to you.
The funny part?
I wanted FAW to be useful, I wanted it to be effective, I want cruisers to be useful and effective.
Unfortunately it's beyond "useful and effective" and has moved into heavily dominating the meta-game.
How can cruisers ever be effective by giving it an OP ability that doesnt need a single bit of skill or coordination?lolol
Its like making Scatter volley hit 5 targets and widen the arc another 100 degrees, and increase its damage by another 30%.
There is the Builds, Powers, and Game Mechanics section of the forums, eh? Folks are discussing systems there...sometimes threads end up getting moved from here to there. Threads get moved from General Troll to there as well. Folks are discussing mechanics, whether in PvP, PvE, or both. If that's along the lines of what you meant there...
Nah more like
Forum>Community>PvP Gameplay> No longer doing STO but like to throw the occasional forum punch at my buddies
Forum>Community>PvP Gameplay> Will be back when systems grows a pair
Forum>Community>PvP Gameplay> No to the Meta, Yes to the players
After not PVPing for a long long ime and seeing this thread I decided to pop into the F vs F queue last night. I am a Tac captian and I was in my Fleet Assult cruiser running the Spire Polaron beams and the Spire 3 piece set. Aux2bat/FAW/DEM etc, etc. 3 XII VR Tac consoles and 1 Spire Crit D tac console. I had 11 kills 1.8 mil damage. My team lost 13/15 one player died 12 times himself. Seems the other team just focused on him since he was dieing so easy.
What I noticed was everyone spamming Nimbus distress call and photonic fleet at once. I was suprised I did so well. I do have all XII Fleet gear and XII VR consoles and all rep finished but assumed that not running Fleet weapons just CritD (ACC) Spire polaron weapons would hinder me. I did notice that the Sprie CritD Tac console with the Crit D weapons and Borg, Zero point, Tachyokinetic, and Nukera Console gave me some really massive cirts. Perhaps thats how I got 11 kills or perhaps I got lucky and was fighting noobs.
Last time I PVP'd I remember throwing everything I had at people and only doing damage via bleedthrough. I could not even dent shields. Also getting insta-killed by JHAS's with TB/CRF3/THY combos.
Comments
I as well have doubts, wondering if it can actually be fixed at this point.
And so ends STO PvP - death by attrition.
P.s. I am coining the term from now on to describe these groups "cheese-mades"
If there was any feedback i'd say you need to adapt alittle, stay current on metagame. But at the end of the day a single player can only do so much.
@Aquitaine985
Lag Industries STO PvP Fleet - Executive
A Sad Panda of Industrial calibre.
2010: This is Cryptic PvP. Please hold the line, your call is very important to us...
I made my posts on FAW, I sent a select few PMs imploring certain folks to look into the mechanics.
I debated where I could, I tried.
Yet here we are. Double proc is fixed, FAW is still here (as I thought would be the case - since I had tested FAW without DEM).
Until over-capping and drain resistance are reworked, beams themselves are reworked, or some new item providing resistance to it all - FAW is not going anywhere.
I understand why its being used, its effective and is low maintenance - but like you Reg I find it painfully boring.
Why should I work so hard on one of my hyper-optimized builds that require effort to make happen when I am just going to be outdone by a FAW boat that is significantly easier to fly?
I could, and did, fly one myself - but it just got tiresome, it lacked something visceral.
Instead, I've just decided to step away from STO for a while until the Devs show they actually care about creating a fun and balanced PvP environment (I'm not holding my breath).
EDIT: Also singularity charge would remain full to better mimic M/AM warp cores but, all singularity powers would be locked out for use.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Bu.. bu... how else do i do damage in this game ultimatum.. HOW
the premades out there are my big example
But like many things in STO compared to ST...it's more like eating popcorn while watching a movie at the theater than it's like going to the theater to see a movie.
FAW as it exists in this game isn't iconic to Star Trek.
Beams are iconic to Star Trek.
Beams being iconic to Star Trek doesn't remove DS9 and the Defiant from canon.
Aside from all of that a game needs to accommodate for a variety of play-styles and in this case weapon types.
That requires a modicum of balance between such weapon types, which we no longer have.
It wasn't an acceptable state when only a few high spike tools had the only value, but it's not really an acceptable state when a 250 degree arc, 360 degree coverage, build dominates with some of the highest output along with the greatest ease of use.
I ask Santa to remove DS9 every year for Christmas. No luck so far! :P
As bad as some of the plot armor, plot weapons, plot deus ex machina was with the rest of the Trek franchise...DS9 took it boldly where no plot gimmicks had gone before. One might even say, it was the story of the Bajoran Plothole.
Obviously folks are going to have different opinions on the various series, movies, captains, etc...
...and one can't help but feel pity for all the folks that have it wrong. :P
Kirk1 > Picard > Kirk2 > Archer > Janeway > Sisko
TOS > TNG > ENT > VOY > DS9
The Wrath of Khan > Generations > The Voyage Home > The Motion Picture > Star Trek > The Undiscovered Country > Into Darkness > First Contact > The Search for Spock > The Final Frontier > Insurrection > Nemesis
USS Enterprise > USS Enterprise-A > USS Enterprise-B > USS Enterprise-C > USS Voyager > USS Enterprise-D > USS Defiant
Joking of course...not on the order, but the feeling pity aspect. Folks will prefer what they do, and there's no point in arguing subjective matters like that. Some prefer cake, some prefer pie - all it means is that each prefers something different, not that what one prefers is better to what the other prefers.
The question as it applies to this thread, though, is it just a subjective discussion or is it an actual discussion of mechanics and systems? I think the subjective aspect is clouding the mechanics aspect...as it does in many cases.
Even though I have my preferences, it's not going to stop me from pointing out if something I like is borked. Just because I do not like something, does not mean that I cannot point out it is borked.
My comment about pacing, the popcorn thing, being off in STO imho - definitely subjective. That FAW is still broken...anybody using it is exploiting...isn't subjective.
Yep, that's the popcorn vs. movie thing. Might go to the movies once, two - three times a month, whatever - right? The popcorn is usually gone before the movie even starts, lol...gobble, gobble, gobble.
That's the difference, imho, with pacing - between them being iconic in ST and being spammage in STO.
When I read of the stuff coming for S8, the gut feeling that things were about to go completely overboard was there. More reputation, more gear with buffs, more buffs given to gear that didn't have them before, more DOFFs to break the game. Generally, even more power than ever before given to players.
In PVE, you can see stuff that long ago would have required more time and effort from a group to take down. Now the same things can be sped right through, blown up in seconds.
In PVP? Holy jeez, I knew it was going to be overboard. I haven't PVP'ed since S8 hit and everything I've heard about it from friends and on these boards confirm my fear that PVP in STO has "Jumped The Shark." It's just straight B.S. now.
PVP was already struggling to take place before S8. Hell, the queues were already slow. Now? They're even slower. I'd dare say that if nothing changes, PVP will not make it another 6 months, except for a handful of dudes fighting each other.
Cryptic has absolutely no idea what GAME BALANCE means.
A glance on a targeted player tells everything you need to know about the state of this game and how "balanced" it is. The scary part is that there are still buffs that do not show up on a targeted player.
That explains a lot, thought you'd taken a break. As for the other stuff, yeah it kinda makes my engineer nothing but a generic captain with a 30s 2 min CD hunker down button.
I find drain resistance benefits both cannons and beams, in general all forms of energy weapons. However as you and many others have said overcapping only seems to benefit beams.
Ah well whatever, happy holidays if you're not in game or on the forums before then.
It is through repetition that we learn our weakness.
A master with a stone is better than a novice with a sword.
Has damage got out of control?
This is the last thing I will post.
Nah, they fixed that some time back. I was happy they did. That was so TRIBBLE up any sort of rotations on my part...
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=839811
August 29th...
Skills being op depending on when we are talking about... yep very true. However Cryptic has mostly balanced the skills out the last 4 years sadly. lol
"go back to experience stomps everything and nothing can compare except more experience, right?" - beameddown
Not sure if your serious on this one... Yes most of us are saying EXPERIENCE and skill should decide the match 99% of the time. Not who loaded the most p2w nonsense consoles... ground the most p2w pve traits... or picked up the newest lockbox/cstore ship... or has the best pool of friends or largest EC warchest to load up on all the mk XII fleet p2w cosnoles first. (the theory of buff the little guy would be great and fine and all... if it wasn't the vets who would be the ones in the best position to grind all the junk... I have all the junk, ok I guess I'm behind on the newest rep and I don't care. The cheese mades get to exist because the vets are the ones that grind all the newest junk. So its XP + Cheese + those super internet connections. lol)
This game has never ever been cookie cutter. Funny thing is these days I have 10x the option in terms of gear... and yet I feel like I have less options as far as my build goes.
I really don't see how anyone could possibly defend the state of pvp in sto. The only PvP I will be touching in STO for awhile is right here.
I was due.
It doesn't benefit them in remotely equal proportion.
I was working on a very specific cannon focused build for quite some time.
Squeezing out every last ounce.
I performed repeated tests to see if drain resistance would improve my output and after a dozen tests or so none of the results ever saw more than 1% improvement.
The beam results were significantly higher.
I'm always willing to listen though, so if you have time to put it to the tests I'll take a look at your results.
Thanks, same to you.
The funny part?
I wanted FAW to be useful, I wanted it to be effective, I want cruisers to be useful and effective.
Unfortunately it's beyond "useful and effective" and has moved into heavily dominating the meta-game.
The best PvP experience I've had in this game?
Level 20-30 queues. No fleetmades stomping everyone, just enough equipment to be interesting, not so much mechanic stacking that you can build utterly broken fits. It's incredibly fun and I actually keep a character slot open just to repeatedly level and play through that bracket.
Literally the only problem is that queues take forever.
Your argument gives ours credence .
I do find it amusing though how many of the replies are from the same people who blamed the pug players or the lesser known players for being bad, not being team players etc etc.
How the woes of normal players were brushed aside, ignored or just got abused.
Just strange how someone with a known toon or good reputation doesn't get the same treatment, in fact everyone agrees with the point of view.
Just shows if you aren't in the clique, you aren't worthy of being listened to or being taken seriously. (No disrespect at all is intended to the OP in this post).
Thanks seansamurai1. But you are too modest. You are known to me, and I am sure alot of others too.
I say unequivocally, that Star Trek Online is the best game I have ever played. Ever.
It has the potential to be that one legendary game, honestly.
The issues around which STO revolve, which have been here since around Season 4, have been the ball-and-chain of Cryptics realisation of that dream.
If someone asked me what was my wishlist for the future?
Golden Rule: Listen and engage with your customers via dev blogs, meet-and-greet blogs, etc. Listen to what players are telling you about how they are experiencing your product.
1.) Separate the influence of PvE on PvP. Be that in shutting-off the rep, and doffs then so be it.
Consider a internal process whereby a leaderboard AI can be developed, and an option for players where they want to play:
Perhaps even if it is was simple as taking the average healing/dps per player over the last 10 matches.
If they qualify they are placed in queues with more veteran players. If not, they are placed with players who share their averages.
2.) Stop producing universal consoles. Make them universal only in the fact that they can be used in any slot ONLY on the ship you purchase them with.
3.) Create more challenging and storyline based STF's for the community with less emphasis on grind, and much more emphasis on team-work.
The "reward people for time spent playing" idea is not working. People want to play to have fun and relax. They do not want to have to login in to be faced with a mountain of "work" which needs to be done to remain competitive.
So in that vein, IN ADDITION to the existing rewards, give out a +2-5 multiple-choice reputation point for playing in each match of PvP, Foundry Mission, PvE Episode etc.
That way, players are rewarded for what they want to do. Hell there is TONS of stuff I want to be doing but can't to stay "on-schedule" I would love to just hit the space lanes once in a while and know there's a bit or reputation reward at the end of it.
4.) This is a just a personal observation. But honestly, I really think that they really overdid it by given all the Romulan ships battlecloak. Some of the ships should only have standard cloak. But that ship has sailed and the Romulans will always be the go to guys if you want to play damage. Which really pees me off. For a lot of players immersion really is important. Take me. I am a through-and-through Klingon. I love the lore, the culture, the ships etc. But for the last two years its been very difficult to stay remotely competitive.
5.) Rewards. I believe that Cryptic need to change the direction of rewards. The players are saturated with "blowing-up" stuff.
What about different kinds of rewards? What about a reputation rewards that do not affect game-play but unlock specializations and slight different variations of abilities trees. Giving the player the ability to break away from the cookie-cutter.
What if as a player I could unlock a list of specialisations like "Ty'Go'Hor Guardsman" which unlocks a special doff series or perhaps a small missions series, afterwhich I earn a special rank title and perhaps a "Unique" customisable costume set?
Alot of folks could really go for instead of changing the mechanics, change the way things look.
6.) Lockboxes, doffs etc. - As profitable as these undertakings are and realizing that they will never really realistically go away. How about introducing an alternating set of rewards, of enriching the game experience and not of consequence.
How about rewards of unlocking mini-factions?
How about a rewards that unlocks a species which you can play as.
Nothing over the top, just different.
7.) Work with the Foundry authors to start getting some of their great works associated to other aspects of the game. Associate their missions to NPC's and random contacts one sees in space.
8.) Maps. Please maps. A long time ago someone I trust deeply told me that the process of creating PvP maps was extremely time consuming and challenging for a number of reasons.
There was a time for that argument. But I do not believe that it holds any water after Season 8. What Cryptic achieved with the technology behind the Dyson Sphere made me smile, not because of the content - because of its RAW potential for stuff I do like. You know what I'm talking about!! (cue beaming Eddie Murphy Come to Papa grin!)
Thats it really. LOL
A few years of work. But my Nirvana in STO, except of course when I stumble upon one of those particular feisty little Epochs which gets my blood pumping.
@Branflakes: Can we have our own subforum? Obviously we all enjoy the STO pvp community, but cannot find the energy to put up with systems decisions in game. Guess that makes us part of the community representation that is in your job description. Not sure if people fed up with systems, actually belong in the pvp sub-forum. Apparently we're no longer the ones actually pewing.
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013
How can cruisers ever be effective by giving it an OP ability that doesnt need a single bit of skill or coordination?lolol
Its like making Scatter volley hit 5 targets and widen the arc another 100 degrees, and increase its damage by another 30%.
lol
But isnt that the whole problem with balance? Make 1 thing OP out of all the options available, and the result is exactly that.
Uh... microbrain LOL
Nah more like
Forum>Community>PvP Gameplay> No longer doing STO but like to throw the occasional forum punch at my buddies
Forum>Community>PvP Gameplay> Will be back when systems grows a pair
Forum>Community>PvP Gameplay> No to the Meta, Yes to the players
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013
Please figure how what's going on and resolve it urgently. This kind of power creep is quite frankly catastrophic.
What I noticed was everyone spamming Nimbus distress call and photonic fleet at once. I was suprised I did so well. I do have all XII Fleet gear and XII VR consoles and all rep finished but assumed that not running Fleet weapons just CritD (ACC) Spire polaron weapons would hinder me. I did notice that the Sprie CritD Tac console with the Crit D weapons and Borg, Zero point, Tachyokinetic, and Nukera Console gave me some really massive cirts. Perhaps thats how I got 11 kills or perhaps I got lucky and was fighting noobs.
Last time I PVP'd I remember throwing everything I had at people and only doing damage via bleedthrough. I could not even dent shields. Also getting insta-killed by JHAS's with TB/CRF3/THY combos.