Ok, Season 9 is nearly here. I'm curious about what people are excited to see and what fears they have. I know some of the info has been on tribble, and some of what is in season 9 is still speculation. But lets have some opinions on what we have heard.
To keep this simple, everyone is limited to posting 2 features or items that they like or are excited about trying in season 9. Then you only get to list 1 (yes ONE) item or feature that you've heard about that you don't like. Please leave a brief explanation as to why you feel the way you do on your chosen features or items.
I like the new revamp of ESD and the possibility of the Captain's Table. I think that they will make a great visual experience to the game for all Fed aligned players.
I also like the new reputation ability 'Omega Kinetic Shearing'. I think it will make torpedo boats/mine layers a force to be reckoned with again. It will at least help close the gap between them and the FaW beam ships.
I am concerned about how the new lockbox is going to be done. I hope that they don't release bio ships for us to use, but something akin to the adapted destroyer...something that limits how biotechology is incorporated into our own.
Still not very useful, is now a manual toggle that I have to stick on my already full hotbar, and now comes with a ridiculous graphic associated with it. Will not use.
I like the replacement of daily commendations with the bonus mark reward once per day per reputation will make alot more content viable reward wise. I do wish the 'daily' part of it simply reset at a specific time like dilithium refining though as there is no timer shown as far as I know.
I like the revamp of sensor analysis to add more umph to science vessels. I just wish they would have done it in a way to provide more options to more player types by allowing it to stack on your current target if not activated and to allow players to turn off the graphic effect of it.
I dislike how reputation traits are being blamed for the massive variance between top tier ship builds and terribad ship builds and are being redesigned and limited. Extremely dislike.
In past releases/revamps their seemed to be a little bit for everyone. They tried to make things appeal to a variety of player types.
now comes with a ridiculous graphic associated with it. Will not use.
Having played MMOs since original Everquest, I just don't care about something like a big arrow. Is it a useful upgrade? If yes, then it could be a big pink bunny flashing above the enemy, I don't care.
Many other players share that ideal as you can see by things like the oft-slammed Avenger still being a very popular ship due to effectiveness.
I dislike how reputation traits are being blamed for the massive variance between top tier ship builds and terribad ship builds and are being redesigned and limited. Extremely dislike.
That's a miscommunication by the forums. The traits are being "nerfed" to deal with potential future powercreep within the trait system itself. The blog unfortunately worded it so that people flipped out about the fresh level 51 comment, thinking the goal of the nerf was to deal with current power variance.
Which is preposterous since nothing in the trait system could even approach that issue.
So chalk that up to just bad word choices sparking the forum frenzy.
The nerf is just there to deal with the fact that Cryptic plans on adding a lot more rep grinds as the game rolls on into the future.
I wouldn't say I'm excited about anything that Season 9 has to offer. For the most part, as far as I am concerned, Season 9 is a copy > edit > paste job of Season 8. However, I am looking forward to the new Kit Feature and the new Earth Space Dock.
What I'm not really looking forward too is the amount of humanoid players who will be flying bioships. That said, I am interested to see what Mirror Universe ships we'll likely be seeing with this new lock box.
What frustrates me? All the simple and minor requests that should have been implemented or added by now remain distant. Would it hurt them to add the Benzite for Bridge Officers? Would it hurt them to fix the KDF Marauding Officers? Would it hurt them to open up customization on the unique Bridge Officers (Reman and Romulan specifically?) Would it hurt to add the Suliban to the Republic? And that's just the Bridge Officer issues.
With Cryptic, it's all new new new and little lets fix the old.
Having played MMOs since original Everquest, I just don't care about something like a big arrow. Is it a useful upgrade? If yes, then it could be a big pink bunny flashing above the enemy, I don't care.
Many other players share that ideal as you can see by things like the oft-slammed Avenger still being a very popular ship due to effectiveness.
That's fine. If it doesn't bother you then by all means, please use it. I won't try to stop you. As for me, I'm going to remove it from my hotbar and forget it ever existed. Win/win.
Mine Trap Supporter
0
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 59,174Community Moderator
edited April 2014
Like:
-New Tailor stuff (ALWAYS a + for us costume crazies )
-New ESD
Dislike:
-Only one new story mission (Remember when we used to get Feature Series missions?)
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
Likes:
1 - Kits getting an upgrade. And you can customize them.
2 - Undine got upgraded. At least now they will be more a challenge and have better looks.
3 - Tailor upgrades. This will keep me busy for a while making adjustments on my looks.
Dislikes:
1 - The mission you have to gather up the undine in Bajor. They made it a group mission. I wanted it to be solo. Or have a solo variation.
2 - The mission you get to save the planets. No solo there either.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Reputation"revamp" which is just a nerf (originally they strengthened the traits themselves so they were more powerful but you could only have a few of them, but they went back on that too and they are weak and mostly irrelevant to gameplay now)
Trait "Revamp" pretty pointless.
So yeah, glad there's new content but i don't much care for anything else.
I wasn't aware there were new costumes, only new facial options.
Oh yea! They're throwing in the old Kit visuals and Armor visuals into the Tailor now. We can have the Science Energy Armor look from the Physicist Kit on any class! Its live on Tribble right now. Even the KDF gets the armor and kit parts!
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
Oh yea! They're throwing in the old Kit visuals and Armor visuals into the Tailor now. We can have the Science Energy Armor look from the Physicist Kit on any class! Its live on Tribble right now. Even the KDF gets the armor and kit parts!
Ok, Season 9 is nearly here. I'm curious about what people are excited to see and what fears they have. I know some of the info has been on tribble, and some of what is in season 9 is still speculation. But lets have some opinions on what we have heard.
To keep this simple, everyone is limited to posting 2 features or items that they like or are excited about trying in season 9. Then you only get to list 1 (yes ONE) item or feature that you've heard about that you don't like. Please leave a brief explanation as to why you feel the way you do on your chosen features or items.
I like the new revamp of ESD and the possibility of the Captain's Table. I think that they will make a great visual experience to the game for all Fed aligned players.
I also like the new reputation ability 'Omega Kinetic Shearing'. I think it will make torpedo boats/mine layers a force to be reckoned with again. It will at least help close the gap between them and the FaW beam ships.
I am concerned about how the new lockbox is going to be done. I hope that they don't release bio ships for us to use, but something akin to the adapted destroyer...something that limits how biotechology is incorporated into our own.
Ok, your turns...just remember, keep it brief.
will try the "vicious circle" or whatever its called, and the upgraded borg-8472 missions.
there is not enough information being given to the community as to what to expect for season 9, so right now its like walking into a pitch black room with a blind fold on, with one small narrow path and a bottomless pit all around. so to me there is no motivation to even consider season 9 straight away.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
That's a miscommunication by the forums. The traits are being "nerfed" to deal with potential future powercreep within the trait system itself. The blog unfortunately worded it so that people flipped out about the fresh level 51 comment, thinking the goal of the nerf was to deal with current power variance.
Which is preposterous since nothing in the trait system could even approach that issue.
So chalk that up to just bad word choices sparking the forum frenzy.
The nerf is just there to deal with the fact that Cryptic plans on adding a lot more rep grinds as the game rolls on into the future.
It's not just a miscommunication though. To some player's perception that was creating the variance and I'm sure one of the big reasons given on the 'why did you leave' survey is that variance. Now I have no data to back this assumption but I do believe that immense variance is one of the major problems STO needs to address.
As for the infinite scaling problem it is not fixed. Additionally because of the much more complex nature of the rep traits post revamp the entire system is more likely to create unintended performance results when combined with various boff abilities, consoles, other traits, and so on than it was before.
"Turned down a bit?" So basically nerfed, like everything else in Season 9. -sigh-
Nah, in this instance, they said that they tuned it down to bring it in line with the other sets that boost energy types. The dev post:
The feedback given in this thread, and elsewhere on the forums, has caused us to have more design discussions internally, regarding the 2pc Set Bonus on the Counter Command Ordnance set.
The short version is this: The bonuses to Phaser/Disruptor damage will be returning. They are being changed into a "bonus" instead of a "strength" however, so their magnitude will appear to be lower than the previous screenshots that were floating around.
In order to allow for this, without doubling up too much on redundant bonuses, the Phaser/Disruptor damage bonuses that are part of the Counter Command Multi-Energy Relay (Tac Console) are being reduced, while its associated Photon Projectile damage is being increased.
The main reason for this is simple: The fact that no existing Space Set offers a passive set bonus that increases Phaser damage output is an oversight that we specifically wanted to address with the Counter-Command equipment. And one that players obviously noticed and also desired to be corrected. Unfortunately, too many chefs in this particular kitchen led to some crossed wires and miscommunications. Once the changes I've mentioned in this post are applied, we'll have come to a point where our original design intentions are being met.
From what I gather, they want the set bonus in there, but want it to be more in line with other energy weapon set bonuses in terms of overall effectiveness.
I wouldn't call this a nerf for two reasons.
1- Currently there is no phaser boosting set. So no matter what, when this season goes live ANY set bonus > ZERO set bonus.
2- The comment about having too many chefs has me thinking that the implementation of this bonus was muddled, so that in the one iteration, the 15% was dead on (as a tac console), but in a set bonus implementation it was too much.
In other words, the "testing" environment worked out the way it's supposed to and our testing of this stuff was able to help get this into the game.
personally I feel they should have just left the rep system be. Sure there will be those that haven't collected them all yet, but whats the point of limiting it to the 4-4-4 ? people will work out the strongest and simply apply them and we'll still have the same problem.
0
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 59,174Community Moderator
edited April 2014
The strongest what though?
Some people might go all Defense, while others would go all Offense.
Some might go all Nukara, while others go all Omega.
And why slot active ground powers for a Space mission?
I kinda see a little bit more customization with this. As things stand now... everyone's picking skills that are useful for everything. The current passive that gives you more shots before the Borg adapt is ONLY useful against the Borg.
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
To some player's perception that was creating the variance and I'm sure one of the big reasons given on the 'why did you leave' survey is that variance.
Most players posting about this topic cite everything BUT the rep passives. Fleet consoles get cited a lot. Attack Pattern Omega gets cited a bunch. The Scimitar gets lambasted almost all the time.
It really is miscommunication when people say that this nerf isn't addressing the problem of power creep properly. This nerf isn't intended to deal with Attack Pattern Omega or Aux2Battery and never was. It's just the wording of the blog leaves that open to oodles of endless forum debate.
As for the infinite scaling problem it is not fixed.
Sure it is. Moving forward, there will be dozens of choices. But only 4 you can equip at a time per passive type. It's a hard cap on what you can do. No more infinite scaling.
Like:
1. New ESD looks pretty good, although I won't be there much.
2. New battle zone, I guess.
Don't like:
1. New reputation system. More choices but no growth. Anything I choose, I'll have to sacrifice something else. After another reputation or two the difference between combinations will decrease until I won't care anymore. The passives will be more convoluted and particular and I'll wonder, "Meh. Is this going to make that much of a difference? Is it worth mind numbing grinding for? Nah."
Sure it is. Moving forward, there will be dozens of choices. But only 4 you can equip at a time per passive type. It's a hard cap on what you can do. No more infinite scaling.
They can only create so many desirable options to choose from in the system though. Even beyond that how many can be added until the list is too long for most players to want to deal with it? 100? 200? And can you come up with 100 trait options before they start getting silly like +10% damage VS X enemy? For that matter if the trait options become too specific where they are only desirable in specific situations or powerful for specific builds then they would have been just fine with the old system.
The problem has changed but it still exists. Both from the mechanical standpoint, and the human element part which you seem to completely ignore.
Comments
-ESD revamp (absolutely love it)
-Undine space BZ
Dislike:
-Sensor Analysis change
Still not very useful, is now a manual toggle that I have to stick on my already full hotbar, and now comes with a ridiculous graphic associated with it. Will not use.
Mine Trap Supporter
I like the revamp of sensor analysis to add more umph to science vessels. I just wish they would have done it in a way to provide more options to more player types by allowing it to stack on your current target if not activated and to allow players to turn off the graphic effect of it.
I dislike how reputation traits are being blamed for the massive variance between top tier ship builds and terribad ship builds and are being redesigned and limited. Extremely dislike.
In past releases/revamps their seemed to be a little bit for everyone. They tried to make things appeal to a variety of player types.
Having played MMOs since original Everquest, I just don't care about something like a big arrow. Is it a useful upgrade? If yes, then it could be a big pink bunny flashing above the enemy, I don't care.
Many other players share that ideal as you can see by things like the oft-slammed Avenger still being a very popular ship due to effectiveness.
That's a miscommunication by the forums. The traits are being "nerfed" to deal with potential future powercreep within the trait system itself. The blog unfortunately worded it so that people flipped out about the fresh level 51 comment, thinking the goal of the nerf was to deal with current power variance.
Which is preposterous since nothing in the trait system could even approach that issue.
So chalk that up to just bad word choices sparking the forum frenzy.
The nerf is just there to deal with the fact that Cryptic plans on adding a lot more rep grinds as the game rolls on into the future.
Well, not really like so much as "might be interesting in the long run," the Kit revamp.
Don't Like
Everything else. :P
What I'm not really looking forward too is the amount of humanoid players who will be flying bioships. That said, I am interested to see what Mirror Universe ships we'll likely be seeing with this new lock box.
What frustrates me? All the simple and minor requests that should have been implemented or added by now remain distant. Would it hurt them to add the Benzite for Bridge Officers? Would it hurt them to fix the KDF Marauding Officers? Would it hurt them to open up customization on the unique Bridge Officers (Reman and Romulan specifically?) Would it hurt to add the Suliban to the Republic? And that's just the Bridge Officer issues.
With Cryptic, it's all new new new and little lets fix the old.
That's fine. If it doesn't bother you then by all means, please use it. I won't try to stop you. As for me, I'm going to remove it from my hotbar and forget it ever existed. Win/win.
Mine Trap Supporter
-New Tailor stuff (ALWAYS a + for us costume crazies
-New ESD
Dislike:
-Only one new story mission (Remember when we used to get Feature Series missions?)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
Likes:
1 - Kits getting an upgrade. And you can customize them.
2 - Undine got upgraded. At least now they will be more a challenge and have better looks.
3 - Tailor upgrades. This will keep me busy for a while making adjustments on my looks.
Dislikes:
1 - The mission you have to gather up the undine in Bajor. They made it a group mission. I wanted it to be solo. Or have a solo variation.
2 - The mission you get to save the planets. No solo there either.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
And we had that temporarily in testing- it didn't even survive long enough to get to Holodeck.
Undine Content
Tailor changes
Dislike: Everything else, such as
Removal of commendations
Nerfing of some Rep sets
Reputation"revamp" which is just a nerf (originally they strengthened the traits themselves so they were more powerful but you could only have a few of them, but they went back on that too and they are weak and mostly irrelevant to gameplay now)
Trait "Revamp" pretty pointless.
So yeah, glad there's new content but i don't much care for anything else.
1 - New customization stuff for characters, away with the stubble in the wrong colour !
2 - Possible Undine(-like) ships !
Dislike:
1 - ESD revamp (it's not like I'm ever there, it's more a "don't care" thing really)
It was put back again after huge ultra rage on the tribble forums, tho its been turned down a bit, its in one of the thread's.
Oh yea! They're throwing in the old Kit visuals and Armor visuals into the Tailor now. We can have the Science Energy Armor look from the Physicist Kit on any class! Its live on Tribble right now. Even the KDF gets the armor and kit parts!
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
"Turned down a bit?" So basically nerfed, like everything else in Season 9. -sigh-
Kit Upgrade, I could see some of my characters using this new system, others will no doubt keep what they have.
ESD Revamp, looks awesome in the screenshots people have posted, will definitely check it out
Dislike
Everything else.
will try the "vicious circle" or whatever its called, and the upgraded borg-8472 missions.
there is not enough information being given to the community as to what to expect for season 9, so right now its like walking into a pitch black room with a blind fold on, with one small narrow path and a bottomless pit all around. so to me there is no motivation to even consider season 9 straight away.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Kit Revamp. Yay.
Loads of Bugs. Nay.
It's not just a miscommunication though. To some player's perception that was creating the variance and I'm sure one of the big reasons given on the 'why did you leave' survey is that variance. Now I have no data to back this assumption but I do believe that immense variance is one of the major problems STO needs to address.
As for the infinite scaling problem it is not fixed. Additionally because of the much more complex nature of the rep traits post revamp the entire system is more likely to create unintended performance results when combined with various boff abilities, consoles, other traits, and so on than it was before.
Nah, in this instance, they said that they tuned it down to bring it in line with the other sets that boost energy types. The dev post:
From what I gather, they want the set bonus in there, but want it to be more in line with other energy weapon set bonuses in terms of overall effectiveness.
I wouldn't call this a nerf for two reasons.
1- Currently there is no phaser boosting set. So no matter what, when this season goes live ANY set bonus > ZERO set bonus.
2- The comment about having too many chefs has me thinking that the implementation of this bonus was muddled, so that in the one iteration, the 15% was dead on (as a tac console), but in a set bonus implementation it was too much.
In other words, the "testing" environment worked out the way it's supposed to and our testing of this stuff was able to help get this into the game.
Some people might go all Defense, while others would go all Offense.
Some might go all Nukara, while others go all Omega.
And why slot active ground powers for a Space mission?
I kinda see a little bit more customization with this. As things stand now... everyone's picking skills that are useful for everything. The current passive that gives you more shots before the Borg adapt is ONLY useful against the Borg.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
Most players posting about this topic cite everything BUT the rep passives. Fleet consoles get cited a lot. Attack Pattern Omega gets cited a bunch. The Scimitar gets lambasted almost all the time.
It really is miscommunication when people say that this nerf isn't addressing the problem of power creep properly. This nerf isn't intended to deal with Attack Pattern Omega or Aux2Battery and never was. It's just the wording of the blog leaves that open to oodles of endless forum debate.
Sure it is. Moving forward, there will be dozens of choices. But only 4 you can equip at a time per passive type. It's a hard cap on what you can do. No more infinite scaling.
1. New ESD looks pretty good, although I won't be there much.
2. New battle zone, I guess.
Don't like:
1. New reputation system. More choices but no growth. Anything I choose, I'll have to sacrifice something else. After another reputation or two the difference between combinations will decrease until I won't care anymore. The passives will be more convoluted and particular and I'll wonder, "Meh. Is this going to make that much of a difference? Is it worth mind numbing grinding for? Nah."
They can only create so many desirable options to choose from in the system though. Even beyond that how many can be added until the list is too long for most players to want to deal with it? 100? 200? And can you come up with 100 trait options before they start getting silly like +10% damage VS X enemy? For that matter if the trait options become too specific where they are only desirable in specific situations or powerful for specific builds then they would have been just fine with the old system.
The problem has changed but it still exists. Both from the mechanical standpoint, and the human element part which you seem to completely ignore.
Not really feeling bad about anything...; I don't even bother with PvP, so that doesn't enter into the equation for me, heh....