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Dear Cryptic, Is Console Swapping a Feature or Exploit?
skurf
Member Posts: 1,071 Arc User
I was just wondering if swapping out universal consoles, like Isometric Charge with another Isometric Charge to avoid the 3 minute cooldown of the ability is by design or if somebody does it are they considered to be exploiting the system?
Personally, I always considered this an exploit, but then Cryptic addressed our complaints about it by adding a 30 second cooldown to a console when you equip it. In my opinion, this does not address the exploitative nature of console swapping because you can still get off a good 3-4 uses of a certain ability during the time it would take for that ability to cycle through its cooldown. So in the end, Cryptic's "solution" does very little to actually fix the underlying mechanics of this problem.
I was just curious if Cryptic considered the problem fixed, if this is an actual feature (that benefits battle-cloakers much, much more than non-cloakers), or if it is an exploit and we should be reporting people for using it?
An official response would be appreciated, thanks.
Personally, I always considered this an exploit, but then Cryptic addressed our complaints about it by adding a 30 second cooldown to a console when you equip it. In my opinion, this does not address the exploitative nature of console swapping because you can still get off a good 3-4 uses of a certain ability during the time it would take for that ability to cycle through its cooldown. So in the end, Cryptic's "solution" does very little to actually fix the underlying mechanics of this problem.
I was just curious if Cryptic considered the problem fixed, if this is an actual feature (that benefits battle-cloakers much, much more than non-cloakers), or if it is an exploit and we should be reporting people for using it?
An official response would be appreciated, thanks.
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@DevolvedOne
@DevolvedOne
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Why wouldn't they be shared?
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
ALERT THE MASSES!!!
Oh wait, you already did.
Thanks for that.
As the OP stated, Cryptic added the 30-second cooldown, specifically as a response to concerns about console-swapping. That they did not see fit to disable console-swapping outright during PvP, or to make the cooldown any longer, suggests they have no problem with the practice per se. Now, if they had done one of those things, but left some kind of loophole that players could use to get around the cooldown or the swap disable, that would be an exploit. But as it is, console swapping is working as Cryptic intends for it to work.
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Why does that console have a cooldown in the first place?
Exactly, they have yet to address this particular issue in any direct way. The 30s timeout applies to any activatable that you swap now, including batteries, consoles, hypos, anything. The fact that it does apply to consoles too is purely coincidental.
Some people will use any excuse they can to justify being A**hats though, so I'm sure the 30s cooldown will be used as an excuse by many.
edit: Should have said, "is being used" rather than "will be"
Did I say that? I didn't say that.
Cooldowns should just carry over to identical copies of itself. That's all.
Wow, just wow.
MVAM console it would probably have worked with too, altho you need multiple copies, not sure if that was possible back in the day. Now it should work tho, cuz it also seems to work on multiple gear sets that deliver functional activating abilities..
Heck i would so reset my mvam's cd lol 10 minutes was so annoyin back in the day
Yes it is the best solution but STO isnt an RPG
Exactly in fact even for kits now... skills should share cool downs not kits. Swap kits all you want but if you have X Y or Z on that kit its cool down shouldn't change. (not a ground guy perhaps that's a big issue I don't see... seems to me though you can only swap out of combat, so just have skill cool downs persist changes.)
For Space its pretty simple really consoles should have a cool down that persists a console being removed. Fire an ISO... remove an iso Leave the 3 min counter ticking in case another ISO is reslotted. It shouldn't involve NASA level programming.
As far as people swapping from one console to the next all the time... hey go to it call that a feature if they like. The issue is people swapping to consoles of the same type. I mean I love getting hit with ISO every 40s and getting AMSed by the same person at the same time. Its fun.
It wouldn't be an issue though on the ground either. Imagine you have one 2 kits that are completely different but they both share say Plasma grande. If it wasn't on cool down you could swap back and forth no issues... if it was on cool down you still could swap your grenade would just continue counting any cool down it may have on it if you had used that skill.
I don't see how that would be an issue.
For ground pvp you still have to be out of combat to swap kits... so if your out of combat and swap kits no big thing. If you had one shard skill on both kits it would just keep ticking the cool down YOU created by using the skill. Swapping back to the other kit any skills that where not on the new kit would still just be ticking away. At that point yes swapping out of combat would be a feature.... and not really be an issue.
It would be 1000 times more elegant then the botch job they put in place. Hamfisted lazy coding solution is what they added with the 30s. Either they are terrible or there code isn't noted anywhere... or both I guess.
Its a loophole in the system that they haven't fixed yet.
Because.... reasons. Primarily because....Cryptic.
Seriously, why are you even allowed to swap consoles once inside a combat map at all?
I know ... they have had a history of hiring terrible coders who didn't learn to add notations to there code. So there modules could easily be linked in and easily traced ect.
I say that because its clear when they patch something and it reintros old issues that they never really fixed them just went around them... or they have multiple code moduals performing the same function.
Its pure slop, it should be very easy for the system to keep a cool down ticking when an item is removed.... the fact that it seems it isn't that easy is further proof that there code is a mess.
1) Swapping ConsoleA1 for ConsoleA2.
2) Swapping ConsoleA for Console B (actually swapping any "gear").
Addressing #2 would prevent #1, but is #2 the "exploit" that #1 is? #1 could be addressed without addressing #2.
Addressing #1 would result in the endless debates about why ConsoleA was being treated in a certain way while ConsoleB was not. Folks would argue until the internet burned about which Consoles should and should not be subject to the "simple" fix of making the items Unique - that there could exist but a single copy on a character whether on a ship, inventory, bank, etc, etc,etc. Given the introduction of loadouts and being able to equip the same piece of gear on multiple builds, there is no need to have multiple copies of an item at this point. But still, folks would inevitably argue why X was being treated one way while Y was not and what's up with Z.
Addressing #2 could really tick folks off, but it too has a relatively "simple" solution. Yes, the "simple" is in quotes - they're "simple" ideas that may not be "simple" to implement. Loadouts check if you're in a certain area whether or not you can use them. So there is already map checking that takes place. When you're in Red Alert you can't change certain gear - so there's already a check that takes place to restrict gear switching. Take the map checking from Loadouts and pass it the restriction of a Red Alert. No more swapping of most gear when in certain maps. But yeah, folks would have a massive cow if something like that were implemented.
How do they come up with stuff like this?
R.I.P
(and no, I'm not blaming PVP for it as PVEs 'competetive teamwork' missions are as bad, if not worse)
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I explained in full detail how to recreate, and also how this highly exploitable by battle cloak capable ships in particular.
I know others have brought up this issue before me, many, many times.
I think it's safe to assume that the tech doesn't exist, their engine isn't capable of more or this is the most amount of effort they were willing to put in.
Two points to make here.
One:
There's no such thing as searching for discrepancies. You test everything, and you find edges. Most of the time they're minor and they go without notice or they get gradually adapted into the normal way people play. Sometimes they're powerful or flashy, and people who didn't know they were possible whine about them being unfair, unintended, or unskilled, until their effectiveness is degraded or removed by software or tactical changes, or they become the norm for a new generation of whiners who learned by getting told how to win, rather than figuring out how to win by testing everything in search for an edge.
Two:
It takes a perspective warped by overexposure to PvP norms to think opening your inventory and changing your equipment is unfair and unintended, but esoteric keybind maps, builds that only work if you have certain rare doffs that 99% of players have never even heard of, etc, is totally ordinary and intended gameplay. No top-end PvPer in this game is playing the game the way it was intended, and people need to get off their fraudulent moral high ground, stop getting angry at players for using mechanics that the game gave them to work with, and start placing the blame where it really belongs.
If it is an exploit, then there is no argument to be made. It's something in the game that just should not be happening period, and should get completely changed or fixed.
If it is a 'feature', then it is an extremely overpowered feature. Seriously, they put 3-5 minute cooldowns on all these consoles for a REASON. By swapping you basically are avoiding a great deal of that very cooldown that was put in from day one.
So they either need to increase the cooldowns by swapping to the full 3 minutes (and not a second less). OR they need to MAJORLY nerf all clickable consoles to a level that better reflects their 'new' cooldown of only 30 seconds since you can just swap it out anyways.
Point is that no matter what you call it doesn't matter, the whole point is that it needs to be changed and fixed.
I'd be all in favor of reduced-power 30-second active consoles, personally. If they were less powerful but more frequent they'd be more fun for PvE, which is on about a 30 second cycle [clear move repeat]; and less annoying and overpowered for PvP, which is on about a 2 minute cycle [nuke and alpha, mop up, survive, recover, repeat].