i've listened to the arguments for and against a level cap increase for a while now, and honestly a little frustrated with both sides of the discussion. mostly its been paranoia and accusations, with neither side giving any good ideas on how to fix the problem.
this idea i like to think can solve 3 problems in the game at once, and would be the most efficient use of cryptics time, and money. problem 1: level cap feels old and boring as we've been stuck at 50 for several years now. problem 2: the crafting system was old in season 5, and the following seasons havent made it any better or more relevant. infact its gotten so far pushed out of the way that most fleets that work on guides and tutorials dont even have a topic about it. problem 3: power creep, something so widely talked about. now when i talk about power creep, i am refering to the PVE definition. that means that my cruiser can take out a dreadnought class target in roughly 10 seconds, while using FAW spam to also take out the surrounding frigates and generally remove all challenge from even elite content.
so i'll start out outlining the progress a currently level 50 character will have to go through as if they JUST got to level 50.
so to start off, now that their vice admiral, they have access to all the rep systems in the game. they can choose to start focusing on reps immediately, or push them aside for the moment with the intent of pushing forwards to level 60. regardless, they can probably work on both at the same time with some degree of effectiveness in both.
now they are level 60, and for non-PVP actions they have access to a new skill that lets them summon one of their other ships into combat. in addition, one of their Boffs can now be promoted to captain. only ONE can be captain at a time, and this can be switch around for a small fee if you decide later that you'd rather your engineer was a captain instead of your tactical. though this may be something that requires going to a starbase for, after all, the rank of captain's important.
(
note: i can already here it now, "but there shouldnt be 2 captains on the same ship!" shut up and watch the movies. kirk was an admiral for the first few movies, and i pretty sure spock was a captain. still might be a captain. infact i dont remember anything about admiral kirk's demotion to captain having any effect on spock going back to commander. as far as i know, there were actually 2 captains on the same ship. but that's hardly important as we are all admirals anyway.
with your upwards leveling out of the way, you now have to work on your reps. note that the enemies are harder now, as even if you bought MK12 gear, the enemies will be scaled to level 60 in many areas. and if you dont think that's a huge difference, take a level 40 into a level 50 instance and tell me you arent taking alot more damage then your maxed out character. effectively your still level 50, fighting in a level 60 area. how you make yourself become level 60 in stats i'll get to in a moment. for now we continue the story of maxing a few reps, choosing your full MK12 gear. you have maco space set, romulan rep weapons, dyson consoles, and nukara ground gear. you may even have bought yourself a fleet ship, we'll say its an escort for this demonstration, specifically a MVAM simply cause i'm most familiar with its pros and cons.
now we have everything a character in season 8 would have been able to get. our build isnt top notch, but we're not interested in that, as we still have more upgrades to go with our ship.
now comes the new stuff. our ship and gear are all level 50, but we're having to face level 60 enemies. these level 60 enemies are also using level 60 skills, something that's still really hurting even with our new gear. we've promoted our tactical officer to captain, who now comes in to help by flying our level 40 ship, which has likewise been geared out.
through exploration missions, deconstructing drops from enemies, and miscellaneous rewards from missions, we've gotten a fair supply of crafting points (more original name under request). with these crafting points, we can go to either our special fleet crafting base (come on you KNOW that'd be a thing. >.>) or go to memory alpha.
we'll start with our weapons. by bumping them up to MK13, we can choose to put 1 proc on them by crafting a special item from data samples (or if cryptic feels like replacing these, the new stuff.) in this case, i feel like adding an accuracy proc onto my torpedo, so i get a targeting module, install it with crafting points, and BOOM!
[quantum torpedo launcher MK XIII [dmg]x3 [acc]]
now for our weapons. now because of some other stuff, we've gotten a different sort of modifier for these. now we've crafted a rotation platform, to increase the arc of our cannons by 25 degrees. now we have
[plasma dual heavy cannons MK XIII [acc]x3 [arc]]
now as we've had to fight alot of things with radiation damage we need to address our shields. we'll build a modulation accelerator and add that to our shields. this has a 20% reduction in exotic type damage. (so basically any DoT and stuff).
we do the same general idea with all our gear. and finally, to get our ship itself up to T6 grade, we need to craft an upgrade for our ship as well. for this i'm thinking 2 upgrade slots. you'd have the option to upgrade any of your Boff stations to have +1 skill, and in the case of your commander slot, this'll become a captain slot. or you could give yourself +1 weapon slot, or add a additional console slot (no more then 5 obviously) or maybe on some ships, allow its universal console, in our case, the multivector console, to make that console part of the ship. this would free up one of our console slots for something else. you could also give the ship a base bonus to all powerlevels, a captain skill, its max warp speed, its turn rate, its hull, its shield cap, etc.
this would make crafting one of the most useful systems in the game without replacing fleet or rep gear. infact it'd rely on fleet and rep gear to be any good. some gear/ships might have more or fewer slots. and also, our gear stays the same base damage and stuff as MK12, we're just adding a custom modifier to our weapons. so unless you choose the [DMG] proc, your weapons are still going to be doing the same as MK12 when your increase them to MK13. likely a system like this would also make room for MK14 down the road.
but this sort of expansion gives room for the power creep to go away, without nerfing anything. all stats, skills, and combos remain the same. to some degree they'd even be better, but they'd be in a higher caliber of action, and thus, be alot less prone to 1shot things. futhermore, ollllld ships would be able to be bumped to the same standards of new ships like the scimitar. imagine crafting upgrades for your galaxy X to have another weapon slot in the front? while also increasing turnrate? what ever your favorite ship ship is, you could give it that edge it's missing without actually taking away what makes another ship special. a system like this COULD make old ones so much more interesting. and without costing cryptic much it wouldnt have to spend anyway. furthermore i imagine it'd boost sales for them as people could buy a ship they wanted because of how it looked, but otherwise wouldnt have gotten cause something else was better in stats.
Sorry this post is so large. i was honestly hoping i could make it shorter, bur props to anyone who got all the way through. you deserve a cookie

if there's a flaw in this that i missed or forgot to address, please point it out. i'm pretty sure i can come up with a solution.
Comments
Of more substance, I love the idea of of using one of our boffs to captain one of our old ships. I've got who knows how many ships in drydock, all crewed with redshirts just waiting for me to get onboard. Be great if one of them actually got used.
As for the crafting revamp, love that too. Make it meaningful and it would open up a lot of choice to the player. I wonder if the engine could handle that though. Or the data storage as this would open the door to untold millions of unique items and ships of various combinations. It might be too big a dream to dream.
Original Join Date: January 30th, 2010
I'd also like a first officer system implemented in which you can assign your first officer (and two of your bridge officers) to another ship, which will (out of combat) follow you around like a pet, and (in combat) join you to obliterate the enemy. This would only be for storyline missions, and not PvE or PvP content however.
Already there, Atrox Vo'Quv and the T5-BoPs
I never liked the idea of having just one Captain in a personal fleet. Plus, I think the game mechanics would have to be reworked for an appropriate Admiral/Fleet Admiral rank; "why" you ask (?), beacuse in all but a few cases, Flag Officers in Star Trek are usually only seen on the Bridge veiwscreen, ready room console, or the briefing room viewscreen, giving orders. In other words, the player would have to be seperate from the ship.
Tal'Shiar/Reman Resistance/Romulan Nemesis uniform, pls.
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i dont think cryptic is ready to redesign the difficulty of all the queues to allow for 25 player ships. and if its only going to be used for story line missions or non-queues, then that really limits when we'll ever notice this sort of update. we have a few daily missions, some adventure zones, and of course just generally fly around that we'd see all 5 ships, but i for one primarily play in the queues. ISE, KASE, cure, fleet alert, no win, crystaline, etc. all these public queues would be screwed up if you could bring in a fleet of ships with you. and if you made it so you could solo ISE with your personal fleet... well that kinda defeats the purpose of this being an MMO doesnt it?
by only bringing in one ship at a time, i dont think this will severely damage the difficulty of the game, yet allow all of our sidekick ships have a role, by only bringing in one at a time. maybe later they could add a mission designed for your whole fleet. but also bare in mind that not everyone has 5 ships they can bring in. a new player would have a T4, T3, T2, and a T1 to bring in. whereas i would have 5 T5 ships to bring in. no matter how they do the system, i'd be way stronger then the new player. not only that, but if they were expected to do the same mission as i am, then the enemies would have to be scaled for all 5 of my ships. i'd have no problem with my specially designed fleet, but new player would have 3 ships that are so old and dated they'd be dieing without agro. then they'd have a T4 ship that'd be doing okay, but still not as good as my cashshop/fleet level ships.
sorry, but practically thinking, 1 ship at a time still gives us what we want to a degree, without throwing everything we know out the window.
This 1000 times.
And personally I don't like that "space away team" idea either.
This game is called "Star Trek". It already has little to no immersion as it is, but this would make it even worst.
The show was about ships moving around and doing stuff (well and a station, that would be boring gameplay^^), not fleets moving around and doing stuff. So space away teams = 5 ships would be the final nail in STOs storytelling coffin.
If you want to move around in fleets team up.
This sounds like a good compromise. I'd also like the sidekick ship to be available in sector space and social space maps, though.
There used to be a picture here, but they changed signatures and I can't be bothered to replace it.
The main point for away teams in space is that we are Admirals so we should be acting like one. Admirals command fleets not just one ship. So having a system similar to duty officer assignments where you can send your ships on missions would be Admiral content.
I don't know why we would need a level increase for that.
Your right, we don't.
We don't really need one for anything. :cool:
Precisely.
the space away team idea/fleet admiral I could see working similar to voth ground battle zone. so basically in a zone specifically made for it. other wise your just creating a bigger dps problem for the rest of the game.
so what the game needs is more challenging and fun end game content. not a level cap increase.
How about "No?"
James T. Kirk did fine with only one ship.
Jean-Luc Picard did fine with 1.5 ships, if we want to count the laughable "saucer lifeboat as carrier pet" game mechanic. :rolleyes:
Janeway got it done with 1 ship.
Sisko - 1 ship.
If you need more ships than the canon uber-hero captains made do with, you're doing it wrong. Solve the real problem- stop doing it wrong.
I don't think the sidekick/boff fleet thing is about need so much as want.
There used to be a picture here, but they changed signatures and I can't be bothered to replace it.
What, was I unclear? Then let me clarify: Do. Not. [CENSORED]. Want.
But if people desperatly want they could add something easier and better.
How about a Choice of Hangar pet like frigattes. Spawning only one instead of 2 waves, Using a device slot or console slot.
There could be a wide choice of ships, Miranda, defiant, may be even constitution or road island.. May be shuttles as an optional... Maybe unlocking more with purchasing the equivalent c store ships...
That wouldn't break the balance, it would be optional for every one and it would be easy to implement... It might get some money in cryptics wallet... And it would do prety much what the people who want sidekicking want.
And it certainly wouldn't need a level cap rise. It may just take a little spice out of carriers, but that's what that system would do no matter how it's done.
Hmm.
"Reinforcement Coordination Console." Summons 1 ally until dismissed or destroyed. Occupies 1 console slot- because we want equipping this to be a "do I really want it badly enough to give up [favorite other console]" decision rather than it simply making every single ship into a flight-deck escort/cruiser/sci ship. No control commands, since it's specifically not a carrier pet but is supposed to have its own captain.
I could live with that by simply ignoring it and going right on without ever using one.
Of course we'd be condemning the forums to a tsunami of "maek a de-duh-cated slot for teh rein4cement consolezz!!!1!!!" threads in the process. Eeewww.
And just like every other suggestion ever made- still no justification for the frivolous addition of 10 more levels.
TL;DR, stopped after this paragraph.
1) is not a problem for most people. they are used to the level 50 maximum.
2) The crafting system, at least I heard, is getting a revamp (someone back me up here, I'm not sure where I heard this from... dev blog?)
3) Power creep is an ongoing problem in this game. Increasing the level cap is NOT the answer!
As I've said before in a different thread, the answer to power creep is to switch the game mechanics from potion based to one where you cannot heal yourself, but damage resistances become the deciding factor between blowing up easily and blowing up a lot later. This forces escorts to pick one or the other. Cruisers naturally will have better base hull, so they can either go the tank route, or try to hybridize. In either situation, we step away from power creep.
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9
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Yeah that was kind of the idea.
Even a specific slot could work if it had an alternative use like... Additional armor.... Speed/defense buffs... A photonic cannon ^^
As long as we are not forced to use it (even by balance requirements) I'm game. But I for myself would stick with one ship for probably 95 % of the time, too.
ahh yes, because since the CAPTAINS of the show were limited to just one ship, then definitely all players in the game should be limited :rolleyes: of course, janeway only had one ship at her command. sisko had a station and a defiant, and usually commanded both at one time or another. kirk could have had other ships but was only interested in the enterprise.
now we are admirals. vice admirals yes, but still admirals. we have 3-4 ships at the bare minimum. i myself have 12 T5 ships, plus a shuttle. now you cant hardly compare that many ships under my command to janeway or sisko, or picard. none of them would have gotten that as they are CAPTAINS. we are ADMIRALS. understand the difference. many of the admirals in starfleet had the ability to claim command of any ship in the fleet should they need too. one admiral left her excelsior to command the enterprise for a mission. the only reason her main ship didnt come with is because there was no need for 2 federation ships. now in an actual war, which btw we are in a war, whether you choose to refer to the borg war, klingon war, dyson war, or what ever you happen to be fighting, we're technically at war. as admirals with command over several ships, we'd naturally charge into battle with our fleet. if cryptic is going to call us admirals, they should at least treat us as admirals in some way or another. commanding my fleet into battle like a field admiral would, would be the first and only time in this game i've felt more then a captain in battle.
Yeah... That circles us right back to the real problem.
It's not us not having fleets, it's us beeing forced into an admirals position.
News flash on "Admirals":
- admirals do no have fleets
- admirals do not have singular ships
- Admirals have DESKS.
So, if you want to play an admiral, that would mean from now on you are locked into esd (at least it will look better now) and can look with jealousy over to the kdf, since after all, Klingon generals at least get ships.
I'm starting to like that admiral concept lol.
that's not true, there's several admirals in the show that go into the field. remember admiral paris? yeah he lead a force against a borg sphere at earth. bad example? okay how about admiral ross? battle of DS9, which is the best example here as that was a war, and we're at war. admiral ross went into battle for cardassia with captain sisko. a FIELD admiral was in charge of the battle, conversing with several captains over how to proceed, getting their advice, and going with a plan of action.
there are then other admirals that sit behind a desk, give orders from a distance, and never see the light of combat up close. infact if they did, they'd probably hide under their chair.
remember that there are always two types of admirals. field admirals, and desk admirals. because of our role in the game we'd obviously be put as the former. field admirals are given this role to play the part of captain with superiority over other captains, for the role of organizing fleets of ships. this is so there's no debate about which captain among hundreds of captains leads the fleet. starfleet has regulations regarding that, as seen in the voyager episode "equinox". that does not mean that in battle, they can always fall back to these rules and measure eachothers ship to see which is bigger or more powerful. especially since the same class ship can be used many times in a fleet. we have two identical ships, which takes command? neither, the fleet admiral is leading, the captains can all stop arguing now.
now we could say to just redesign the ranks so there's no rear/vice admiral rank at all, after all the game treats us that way anyway. max rank is captain, but dont you think that severely limits the progress in the game? this game needs more things to do at endgame, so we dont have to keep making new characters to find ways to advance our characters. i enjoy one character, and want to keep playing and advancing that character. right now my only hope is to keep playing the new repe- sorry, reputations, and hope that the gear from them is an improvement over what i have. which by the way is the cause of powercreep, the very thing my first post addressed in a cost effective, efficient manner that grants all parties a simple answer.
That seems like an incredibly idiotic thing to do for a military organization. Lets put all our top-ranking officers in one starbase that can be easily destroyed and completely devastate our military. Having each Admiral command from their ship makes such an attack meaningless since it is far easier to destroy a starbase than it is to do a simultaneous attack on every single Admiral ship.