Unique ships...and where they went wrong.

synthiasuicide

Ok, I've bought so many ships over the years. About 3/4 of the C-Store ships, etc.
Stayed away from lockboxes.
Played Beta, then left and came back right after F2P. Only run 4 toons. Yes I buy the newest toys, then go back to others when they lose their appeal.

But, why make Ships with unique things....then make those unique things take a console slot that would be better used by a UNI?
Take the Oddy, obviously better to ditch the 3 Consoles and put Uni's in. But, then the ship loses it's Uniqueness and you realize everything your doing now to Min/max in the Oddy would be better in an Another ship. It makes no sense.

They did it right with the Fed Dread and the Garumba, by having their abilities built in. The Lances. And I get it on Consoles like Plasmonic Leech taking a slot. But, when its a special TO THAT SHIP ONLY it shoulda been built in. Hell Cryptic would make more money from me if them console slots were free so I'd have a reason to go get a Tachyo Uni.

I ran myself outta the game Min/Maxing, got bored, took a year break. Came back with the attitude of Putting fun first. And Don't see myself Playing Elite Delta Rising at all. I went back to flying the Oddy with all 3 consoles.
Flying a Bortasqu without the Bird of Prey console is stupid. You see the pet sitting there. But, can't launch it? lol Ulitimately the pet is sub par, but....it's just sitting there. lol

So far my favorite ship in the game is the Hakoona, Looking forward to getting our Klink base to Shipyard T5 for the Fleet Ha'Apax. It's fun to separate, fly one section until the other is destroyed, then re-attatch, separate the other, repeat.

Things like separating the Dread shoulda been unlocks. Like the Ship tailor with Skins. Buy the Exploration Cruiser, Unlock the ability to separate the dread. Can't launch the Aquarius on your oddy? buy the Tac Oddy, Unlock that ability, etc.

But, with all the great consoles to equip. Running your ships special ability console gimps your ships affectiveness and makes it not worth it. Like the Riker Manuver to the assault cruiser. The wide Angle Torp should take a slot, but not that Unique Ability.

Rant over. lol

bubblebafle

The problem is, the major part of these unique abilities or consoles are broken, bugged or useless. But this is happening at least since almost 2 years ago (the time i started playing).

One awesome example is the singularity console of the Arkif. You get 2 abilites, the singularity beam and the annhilator mode. Well, the singularity beam is so bugged that nobody uses it. Using the annihilator mode carries a huge list of graphical glitches that makes it not even worthy to use it. And the annhilator mode itself is a waste of time. So everybody replaces the console with any other uni. This is this way since years ago.

The worst part comes when you buy a bundle pack that grants you abilities that you will realize they are TRIBBLE. The Bortasqu is an example. The autocannon is completely useless most of the times. The teleporter can be useful, but in the end, you will even forget you have it.. the 3rd ability grants your bop pet some extra abilities. But since the pets on this game are most of em, useless (and the bortasque bop is one of the most useless pets in the game) and not interactable, that ability is useless as well. In the end, you will be better just bying the command version of the Bortasqu and thats it.

I also have the Haakona and i love it. But there is a problem with the Haakona, the Guardian pet is really useful, but the Assault pet does absolutely nothing when it comes to attack your enemies. Another completely useless pet. This is why i always avoid to use the guardian part of the Haakona. Its better just to stick without separating before you use the guardian part, since you will be losing hp points and structural integrity and your pet is going to be useless.

And this happens with a lot of cases. The problem is, cryptic never payed attention to these abilities, they never revamped em, and they are bad designed since the beginning so there is no chance to get em fixed making those ships really unique.

ddesjardins

For the most part, players drop the ship-specific consoles shortly after trying them. Situational consoles (unique powers that really have a single use) rarely last with any build due to the cool-downs.

This may change as global cooldowns are being dropped on Tribble; anything greater than 2 minutes is being downsized to 2 minutes, Situational consoles may suddenly have a use again.

nazelnag

i also have several C-Store ships and one of the most disappointing aspects, is exactly how using those special abilities make the ship less viable.

long cooldown consoles, make them even worst, because sometimes you try to save the console to use on the right moment and end up not using it at all.

it's good to hear that there's the possibility of getting the cool downtimer reduced, that makes the console more viable.


disappointing that some ships like the "Heavy Escort Carrier: Armitage Class", come with a ensign , Lieutenant and commander tactical seat, when they could just come with a Lieutenant commander and commander seat.
It's not like people really want 3 ensign seat of the same, when 2 ensign and 1 lieutenant seat would be preferable.
so, the same old problem in game settings "it's almost there", but it's never there.

rinkster

As I understand it, pretty much every clickable console with a 3 minute cooldown is switching to a 2 minute CD.

It's going to make a lot of cheese much more viable, imo.

As well as make looking at lower tier ships a more valuable pursuit.

tenkari

they arent built in to every ship for a reason: some people love havign neat abilities and allowing these abilities to be used on other ships appeal to them, thus they have to pick which valuable console slots to use for these abilities.


they never went "wrong" with these abilities, they in fact made console space more premium. in fact, people owuld likely be complaining if they couldnt take their plasma manifolds of their oberths, or plasmodic leeches, or the valdore console only usable on the valdore.

aspartan1

synthiasuicide wrote: »

[..]

They did it right with the Fed Dread and the Garumba, by having their abilities built in. The Lances. And I get it on Consoles like Plasmonic Leech taking a slot. But, when its a special TO THAT SHIP ONLY it shoulda been built in. Hell Cryptic would make more money from me if them console slots were free so I'd have a reason to go get a Tachyo Uni.

[..]

That so much so..... It is also befuddling to me why they deviated from the built-in model as well. I assumed they just wanted people to buy ships for the console set bonuses. You cant do that when the ability is built-in after all...

synthiasuicide

tenkari wrote: »

they arent built in to every ship for a reason: some people love havign neat abilities and allowing these abilities to be used on other ships appeal to them, thus they have to pick which valuable console slots to use for these abilities.


they never went "wrong" with these abilities, they in fact made console space more premium. in fact, people owuld likely be complaining if they couldnt take their plasma manifolds of their oberths, or plasmodic leeches, or the valdore console only usable on the valdore.

You missed my point. I was talking about consoles that are ONLY usable on THAT ship.
Can't put the Disruptor Auto Cannon from the Bortasqu on ANY other ship then the Bortasqu. Yet, UNI's are sooo much better now. Way better to ditch the special console that only works on that ship to toss on a uni.

I get the rest. They sold me a Valdore for the Console, I wanted it on my Hakoona. That's fine. But, when it's a special Console that only works on a certain ship. If it's not built in. Make the passives at least on par or hell, HALFWAY on par with a Uni you can replace it with. lol

Make soo many ships much cooler if it was actually worth it, be it on par, or better then some Uni's.

rinkster

synthiasuicide wrote: »

You missed my point. I was talking about consoles that are ONLY usable on THAT ship.
Can't put the Disruptor Auto Cannon from the Bortasqu on ANY other ship then the Bortasqu. Yet, UNI's are sooo much better now. Way better to ditch the special console that only works on that ship to toss on a uni.

I get the rest. They sold me a Valdore for the Console, I wanted it on my Hakoona. That's fine. But, when it's a special Console that only works on a certain ship. If it's not built in. Make the passives at least on par or hell, HALFWAY on par with a Uni you can replace it with. lol

Make soo many ships much cooler if it was actually worth it, be it on par, or better then some Uni's.

But here's the issue.

That same disruptor autocannon only comes with one of the three variants of the Bortas.

And, yet, it fits neatly on them too.

If it was built in, you'd only have it on the one variant and would not be able to gain the set bonus.

If it was built in to each model, then Cryptic wouldnt be able to sell two of them.

kayajay

I've got a lot of different ships and I do love the looks of some...Intrepid Nova/Rhode Island, but they're weak and I find myself always coming back to one ship...my Mobius Temporal Destroyer. I do love the consoles...I know the suicide console has to be sparingly used and only when you can get away with it, but the temporal backstep is always fun. It's a tough escort, fast, I've got the hull up to almost 50, while still having fun with it. You can try a new ship, but it's got to be something special to make you turn your back on your favourite...oh, but for ALL consoles to be truly universal though.

drmox

Sadly they should have been Devices that occupied a Device Slot instead and there should have been an increase to the numberof Device Slots per Ship type/class to accomodate this.

In some ways your gimping yourself with using a console slot for something else and in a way Cryptic may have gimped their sales this way.

Now with Tier 6 the gimping continues or sorts. :rolleyes:

litchy74

The easy and most obvious solution is the same as the special power tray ships now have a special consule tray. ONLY the ship specific special consule can go there, so say your Vesta has and extra 3 consule slots which only special Vesta consules can go in there. You get the slot with each Vesta ship but only all the consules with each ship or the bundle as now.

To me this means you can use your shineys with out losing out on consule slots. OP well yes but would the devs sell more bundles as then people could use all there new items I expect so.

dkeith2011

rinkster wrote: »

But here's the issue.

That same disruptor autocannon only comes with one of the three variants of the Bortas.

And, yet, it fits neatly on them too.

If it was built in, you'd only have it on the one variant and would not be able to gain the set bonus.

If it was built in to each model, then Cryptic wouldnt be able to sell two of them.

Set ships like the Oddy, Bort and Vesta could have an additional set of unique console slots usable only by those sets.

wilbor2

The only consoles i use now is my vesta n kar'fi. Ar'kif oddy regent JHEC tal shar adapted destroyer nebula T'vero n others i cant remember the name of are next to useless.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

lordmalak1

They started going wrong when the lockbox and mirror ships started being better than the c-store stuff. Even the freebie givaway stuff is more usable than the cookie-cutter c-store lot.

...unless you're a feddie.

strykewolf67

I always felt that the 'special' abilities of various ships should have been 'keel-out', as in built as part of the ship. Not a console, not transferable.

guilli88

strykewolf67 wrote: »

I always felt that the 'special' abilities of various ships should have been 'keel-out', as in built as part of the ship. Not a console, not transferable.

YES, I completely agree.

As it stands now, even with other sources of unique consoles (universals), pretty soon we are just going to be useing special consoles, and not the actual sci/eng concoles.

I've already sacraficed 4 eng console slots for universal ones because they offer 1% crit and 10% severaty and a bunch of useless other stats.

It's horrible There's just no room for armour, shield, power level or any other basic consoles.

synthiasuicide

Actually, just to add, in the case of the Oddy and the Bortasqu, the Pets should have a special slot just like a Hanger bay works on the ships loadout.

Fed Dread, Hanger bay, free slot, nothing else can go there, Equip Eilite Pet, All Bonus.
Oddy, Aquarius, Wastes a console slot, Doesn't even come close to what an elite pet does. lol

But, Visually Hanger are Fire and Forget. The Aquarius you see it detatch. Have to monitor it, it could die and youd never know unless you "Set Focus" so you know when to call another. So a Hanger bay wins over this console hands down. lol

Actually we all know why it happened. They didn't plan for the game to be like it is now back then. So make it up as they go. But, every ship with special consoles should be giving slots strickly for them special consoles that no other console can go in. Like the Fused Tail gun in the new Tempest.
Never bought the Exploration cruiser for the separation console? then your Fed Dread is missing a special console and one of them special slots remains blank until you purchase the ship.
That right there would bug the hell outta me and I'd have bought the Exploration cruiser to "Complete" my Dread.

Missed opportunities.

rahmkota19

Supported. Just imagine every ship like the Excelsior, Dreadnought, B'rel, Guramba or T'varo. Built-in abilities.

The bad part would be that we would get closer and closer to Pay2Win than we already are doing.

Still gonna support this.

hpgibbs

3 words:
Nadion Saturation Bomb

Combined with Alpha, Tactical Fleet, Fire on my Mark, Omega III, Tac Team I, and 5 Spire Vulnerability locators/exploiters.

GG. game over. good bye.

Best unique console in game.

bubblebafle

hpgibbs wrote: »

3 words:
Nadion Saturation Bomb

Combined with Alpha, Tactical Fleet, Fire on my Mark, Omega III, Tac Team I, and 5 Spire Vulnerability locators/exploiters.

GG. game over. good bye.

Best unique console in game.

You forgot to say that you need to use a scimitar. :P, but anyways in this game, it doesnt matter anymore, you dont need all that stuff to vaporize any npc in seconds.

hpgibbs

bubblebafle wrote: »

You forgot to say that you need to use a scimitar. :P, but anyways in this game, it doesnt matter anymore, you dont need all that stuff to vaporize any npc in seconds.

Well the nadion bomb isn't able to go on the scimitar

And I'm really not a fan of the Scimi anyhow. Like its a good ship, naturally, but I just plain don't like it. And the 3 piece set thaleron pulse is astoundingly meh. Yea, it can pack a punch, but you have to be running ungodly high aux power for it do really do anything

coolheadal

kayajay wrote: »

I've got a lot of different ships and I do love the looks of some...Intrepid Nova/Rhode Island, but they're weak and I find myself always coming back to one ship...my Mobius Temporal Destroyer. I do love the consoles...I know the suicide console has to be sparingly used and only when you can get away with it, but the temporal backstep is always fun. It's a tough escort, fast, I've got the hull up to almost 50, while still having fun with it. You can try a new ship, but it's got to be something special to make you turn your back on your favourite...oh, but for ALL consoles to be truly universal though.

Yeah the Intrepid Class, Ambassador Class retrofit Nova Class Retrofit are neat star ships. Intrepid can be made tougher if you the right set, consoles and BOF training skills for sci. My favorite is the Risan Luxury Cruiser, style, handling and universal console slots. I always seem to go back to the Risa Luxury Cruiser, because I've worked/grind so hard on getting the right gear for it.

dareau

Couple of questions:

How would you differentiate between ownership of a single piece (say, people who only bought the Aventine "tactical" Vesta) and ownership of the entire set?

How would you compensate those who get 3 or 4 powers from their full set (Vesta) from two power sets like most Rommie and some lockbox/lobi pairs like the Recluse?

And finally, keep in mind the current system requires trade-offs, I give up a field emitter, neutronium, and phaser consoles to fit the full 3 piece Vesta set - so when I go up against an opponent without the powers, they have slightly higher stats with which to counter my clicky powers...

Imagine if you would, someone who slots their 3 piece in the science console slots - but, with this new system, can run 5x grav gens - so they toss a GW III on you, with such a range that even AP-O can't get you out of reach - then when you're trapped slaps a deflector phaser on you?

drmox

reyan01 wrote: »

Agreed.

I've always thought, for example, that the T'Varo's 'Red Blob of Doom' console should have been made into a Dyson-esq 'fixed' weapon slot.

I think its to tempt more sales with flexibility in uses outside of the ship that had the console pure and simple.

Problem is you get basic T5s without these consoles competing well with the ones that do use the gimmicks. Crytpic could do better with using device slots or as some have mentioned a Special Console Magazine or a combination of inbuilt and Magazine.

hpgibbs

One of my questions is the Fed Cloak console: the console name is Cloaking Device, yet it goes in as a console, and not a device. Kinda ironic how they set that up.

drmox

hpgibbs wrote: »

One of my questions is the Fed Cloak console: the console name is Cloaking Device, yet it goes in as a console, and not a device. Kinda ironic how they set that up.

Yeah it is a bit. Its taken from the original series where it is refered to as a device rather than machine or whatever nomenclature.

Tactical should get a Kitchen Sink console sometime in the future which they can thow at things too for added effect.

legendarylycan

hpgibbs wrote: »

One of my questions is the Fed Cloak console: the console name is Cloaking Device, yet it goes in as a console, and not a device. Kinda ironic how they set that up.

which is why i said several months back in another thread (ironically, one about fed cloaks) that current consoles that grant any form of active power should be turned into devices and leave consoles for passive bonuses

hpgibbs

drmox wrote: »

Yeah it is a bit. Its taken from the original series where it is refered to as a device rather than machine or whatever nomenclature.

Tactical should get a Kitchen Sink console sometime in the future which they can thow at things too for added effect.

I know lol, How about where we can shoot R2-D2 at other players? As seen in Star Trek 2009:
http://imgur.com/kN3AIll

dkeith2011

shadowfang240 wrote: »

which is why i said several months back in another thread (ironically, one about fed cloaks) that current consoles that grant any form of active power should be turned into devices and leave consoles for passive bonuses

Very good idea.