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  • vagiusvagius Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    Haven't played much since DR launched due to work, but I pugged Infected space advanced in my non upgraded fleet dhelan with lowly purple mk xii gear. It took longer than usual, but I didn't find it any harder really. It's just shooting more things for a longer period of time. We succeeded with about 4 minutes left on the optional (so pugs with opt are not impossible, contrary to belief), and despite one team member's very vocal protests, we did not have to resort to the 10% rule. With a good premade team with high DPS (5x20k+), I don't see that it would take much longer than elite used to.

    Given a couple months to get used to the new STFs and upgrade everything to t5u/t6 gold mk xiv, I'm sure advanced will become just as easy as the old elite was - and we don't even have t6 fleet level ships yet. The power WILL creep!
  • uryenserellonturyenserellont Member Posts: 858 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    vagius wrote: »
    Given a couple months to get used to the new STFs and upgrade everything to t5u/t6 gold mk xiv, I'm sure advanced will become just as easy as the old elite was - and we don't even have t6 fleet level ships yet. The power WILL creep!

    and there's the main problem: after spending lots of money on upgrades we will be able to do the same queues we used to be able to do, for half the reward mind you.

    They should have left the current queues alone and added new endgame queues. That's what MMOs do. They don't suddenly increase the difficulty of current endgame content after releasing an expansion with a new level cap, requiring players to spend money on upgrades to be able to do that content again. No, they leave the old endgame content alone and add new endgame content, with higher difficulty and greater rewards.

    Cryptic not only did not leave the old endgame content alone in favor of new endgame content with higher difficulty and greater rewards, they nerfed the old engame rewards in the case of STFs.

    Its mind boggling. My only guess is they're in search of the most profit from the least amount of work possible. Some suits probably mandated it.
  • peterconnorfirstpeterconnorfirst Member Posts: 6,225 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    I'm sorry, but I am at lvl55 and, guess what?

    Between mkix gear & a tier5u ship + lvl55 without having to carbon copy some ridiculous dps build, still doesn't cut it in advanced space.

    Going from lvl50 at a fun 9-10k build prior to DR, didn't just magically jump another 50-100% in dps!

    And, no my personal skill is not the issue and, no I am not going to change my build because I am forced to either.

    What I will do is, not pay a single dime till advanced is brought up to average fun PUG ready speed and, I am betting there are more people who would approve of this, than there are saying we should have to change!

    I tend to agree here and thx 4 input. I myself only do grounds for the time being.

    Quiet a few comments have turned up throughout the thread suggesting things in the advanced mode will be better when we hit level 60.

    What exactly is supposed to change when we do?

    4 star ship masteries maxed out… 10 of those new captain’s specialisation selections perhaps… ah 1 more space trait too?

    They will boil those million hull hit points down to a tolerable level I suppose?
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  • gl2814egl2814e Member Posts: 328 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    There is nothing fun about fighting stupid NPCs with 500k health.

    The only people who you made happy with these changes are PWE's accountants who are rolling in Zen to Dilithium money right now, forum trolls who don't actually play the game but lust after the frustration of players, and Elite DPS players who really just want to throw their big numbers at other things' numbers. (Really you'd think those types would just buy a Calculus workbook or Math Blaster but I digress.)

    I love Star Trek. And I really like this game, but I have no interest in fighting a Sphere with 500k health on non-nightmare mode. Frankly there are better things to do with my time and money. And I suspect despite the chuckleheads mentioned above, I am not even close to being in the minority with this.

    (Keep the rewards nerfed even, just let me put Advanced as I was able to on Monday night with Elite.)
  • admiralcarteradmiralcarter Member Posts: 19 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    I thought how bad can it be?

    In the past we ran through the Elite Queues without any problems and fast too... ISE in less then 3 minutes (Wich was ridicolous of course).

    I knew the new Elite Queues will be very hard, so I didnt even touch them before Level 60 and upgraded gear...

    So I decided to go with the Advanced Queues for now. I never experienced any problems with my builds in the past as I invested quite some amount of dilithium to have all the shiney fleetstuff in my ships...

    Now its like I am throwing cottonballs. Granted my tank is still holding but so is the tank of the enemy NPC's.

    Okay I thought. Time to bump down to normal queues for now. Advanced queues might work for you once you hit Level 60 and upgrade your stuff to MK XIV but guess what...

    A failed Fleet Alert after Wave 4? What? I never failed a Fleet Alert... not even with the worst team, yeah sometimes it was close before the time ran out but Wave 4????

    So I hopped in again and checked on the health of the NPC's groups...

    300k for a BoP? Seriously?


    I think a challenge is a good thing. Mission failed on time run out is a good thing too... also more optionals... but simply adding up 200% more HP and RES to the enemies is not a good thing.

    In my opinion the Event queues are way out of balance.

    How is a newby player supposed to play them? (Yes fleet alerts are available at Lieutenant Rank)
    How are fresh level 50 players with mission gear supposed to play a Normal STF?

    Its not fun to bite ourselves through massive ammounts of Hull HP.

    I really hope you take feedback from the players into account, as it seems I am not the only one who thinks that way.

    Thanks.
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  • vagiusvagius Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    In skilled hands, a freshly level 50 non-rom sci captain can do 10k with non rep gear with no issue. this is what normal STF's are for.

    Once you have a bit of half decent gear (ie full mkxii rep/fleet/VR+ - basically what was endgame gear on monday), try your hand at advanced for more challenge - it's harder than the cakewalk that old elite was, and for good reason, old elite was horribly outdated by power creep.

    Once you've maxed your level/gear, give elite a shot. if cryptic did their jobs properly, this should still be difficult even with t5u/t6 and mk xiv epic gear and a good team.

    looks like a logical progression, with options for everyone's skill/gear levels to me. I hope power creep doesn't negate the challenge they've added too quickly.

    Advanced too hard? boo hoo. Go back to normal. I know it's harsh, but it's what cryptic intended when they redesigned the queues - you are given the choice of which difficulty mode to run STF's in based on your gear and skill level. it's not elitism, it's called cryptic catering to the fact that some of their playerbase is very good, some are decent, and some not so much.

    Seems like people are only complaining because they can't spam STFs to get their 960 dil in a minute and a half (or less, for some) anymore.

    I'm not one to defend cryptic, especially with DR, but for once I think they did something right with the difficulty levels (rewards notwithstanding)
  • shadowwraith77shadowwraith77 Member Posts: 6,395 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    vagius wrote: »
    In skilled hands, a freshly level 50 non-rom sci captain can do 10k with non rep gear with no issue (provided you stay to a narrow choice in build variety and, only focus on primarily bfaw/ep2w/apb/aux2batt/etc. + very expensive VR doffs). this is what normal STF's are for.

    Once you have a bit of half decent gear (ie full mkxii rep/fleet/VR+ - basically what was endgame gear on monday), try your hand at advanced for more challenge - it's harder than the cakewalk that old elite was, and for good reason, old elite was horribly outdated by power creep ( outdated by powercreep? No not really, seeing how there are tons of player's ranging from 3-10k dps with full mk xii gear but, we still like to believe so.).

    Once you've maxed your level/gear, give elite a shot. if cryptic did their jobs properly, this should still be difficult even with t5u/t6 and mk xiv epic gear and a good team.

    looks like a logical progression, with options for everyone's skill/gear levels to me (by everyone's, we really mean only the few limited choices for gear/builds that yield top dps). I hope power creep doesn't negate the challenge they've added too quickly.

    Advanced too hard? boo hoo. Go back to normal. I know it's harsh, but it's what cryptic intended when they redesigned the queues - you are given the choice of which difficulty mode to run STF's in based on your gear and skill level. it's not elitism, it's called cryptic catering to the fact that some of their playerbase is very good (by our definition [meaning elitist only club], very good is only what we say it is based on dps ratings), some are decent (But, decent doesn't win advances), and some not so much.

    Seems like people are only complaining because they can't spam STFs to get their 960 dil in a minute and a half (or less, for some) anymore.

    I'm not one to defend cryptic, especially with DR, but for once I think they did something right with the difficulty levels (rewards notwithstanding)

    There you go, had to fix some of that for you.
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  • admiralcarteradmiralcarter Member Posts: 19 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    Adding 200% more HP to NPC's has nothing to do with making it more difficult...

    Also going back and playing the normal queues if you cant beat the advanced queues is no option too... as the normal queues even contain NPC's spawns with a ton of hull hitpoints. I dont know if this is just a bug or intended as of now.

    As far as I see it its better to avoid the queues for the moment. (And you already might have noticed that player numbers go down on the queues right now)

    If theres no balancing for Hull HP scaling is coming soon, I am afraid the PVE queues might run dry soon.
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  • uryenserellonturyenserellont Member Posts: 858 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    Why would you want to even bother with normal queues that give you 240 dilithium, once an hour? They're only good for those unfamiliar with that queue, to learn before moving on to elite (now advanced).
  • frozenfewfrozenfew Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    Hey, I don't mind a challenge.

    All of these maps take way too long. I had to leave C entity after 30 minutes, and it was only down t0 40%

    I think they went totally overboard.
    I really dislike the new expansion. the format is the same. Dialogue. fight a few guys, dialog, fight the next level up, more dialog, then top level ships. then dialogue end.

    All STO did is come up with a new story to follow. what's with all these Extra graphics? twirling snowflakes? guys running around with glowing eyes?
    I think they are crossing the line between star trek and Mario brothers or D&D. The R&D takes a month or more to complete. THEN, I have to pay more Dilithium for stuff I had to use 32000 to get in the first place?

    Come on!!! this format is HELL!!!!:eek:
  • shadowwraith77shadowwraith77 Member Posts: 6,395 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    deokkent wrote: »
    Dude you just don't get it.

    I agree with you that the game is not hard. Of course it isn't, the difficulty hasn't changed as far as can tell. It looks like you're fine with the increased health points and resists, which is what they've done to up the ante. I am not fine with that, it's the same mechanics as before, just takes longer to do the same things we were doing before and on top of that with less rewards.

    Good for you that you like the new meta, but I prefer my time spent in game to mean something.

    I am with you, as I prefer a modest build that's fun, that can use just about anything and, not narrow minded on what nets the highest dps only.

    I also prefer to fly my vessel, like it's an actual space combat from the TV series/movies and, not some mobile weapons platform that needs only broadside everything to death or, park and, act like some freaking deathstar!

    Sure this lowers my dps potential but, it is a whole heck of a lot enjoyment, vs what I see recommended as required builds being offered and, than watching those builds on video in battle acting like a mechanical fist punching away on a mindless punching bag.

    But, trying to point this out to them, is like talking to a brick wall.
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  • fatman592fatman592 Member Posts: 1,207 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    Normal and advanced queues are very empty at prime time. And with all the time between leveling, one would expect them to be buzzing. That metric alone is the best indicator that a nerf is coming.

    But that's what happens when you just add hull hp and one shot kills. Perhaps in the future, resources could be spent on proper AI. All that's happening now is what happened before, DPS race, then we'll be OP again and the cycle will continue.

    But hey, it's easier and more profitable to copy paste, so I understand.
  • staq16staq16 Member Posts: 1,181 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    This game is incredibly easy, it's the definition of casual, if your finding things difficult in STO, don't leave the house, it's dangerous out there.
    And any game that'lowers its game' to increase 'fun', is is not dying, it's dead.

    In your opinion that is the case. There is no objective standard in play here so it's down to individual preference. Point is that if most of the playerbase percieve there is a problem, then there's a problem, regardless of what more dedicated players may think.

    The forums are not necessarily the best indicator here - those who post are by definition self-selectors who push their own views - but I'm sure Cryptic will be closely monitoring the numbers entering the various queues over the next few weeks.

    (FWIW, I'm personally witholding judgement; I suspect that the new Advanced are really meant to be for L60s with fully-levelled T5U/T6 ships, and the problem is that most players are still L50 without the bonuses on their ships)
  • pyrogxmk3pyrogxmk3 Member Posts: 206 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    I do find it hard to call "everything takes ten times as long because targets go from 900k to 21 million HP" a difficulty increase. A massive boost in tediousness certainly.
  • tekehdtekehd Member Posts: 2,032 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    vagius wrote: »
    Once you have a bit of half decent gear (ie full mkxii rep/fleet/VR+ - basically what was endgame gear on monday), try your hand at advanced for more challenge - it's harder than the cakewalk that old elite was, and for good reason, old elite was horribly outdated by power creep.


    The problem is that for rep gear you need the module type things (neural procs, ancient technology, etc.) which are not given as reward in normal queues. Asking people to attain things they can't without doing advanced before doing advanced is not a constructive suggestion. It's nice there is harder content added...... it's not nice that they adjusted the curve to be so steep it makes it nigh impossible for newer players to attain.

    The FA is especially messed up..... queue with lower players who can't stay alive for more than a few minutes while throwing cotton balls at frigates with 300k hulls..... the whole point of the type FA queue was for new players to get their feet wet..... not to be humiliated and discouraged from continuing in the game.
  • cookiecrookcookiecrook Member Posts: 4,537 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    deokkent wrote: »
    Dude you just don't get it.

    I agree with you that the game is not hard. Of course it isn't, the difficulty hasn't changed as far as can tell. It looks like you're fine with the increased health points and resists, which is what they've done to up the ante. I am not fine with that, it's the same mechanics as before, just takes longer to do the same things we were doing before and on top of that with less rewards.

    Good for you that you like the new meta, but I prefer my time spent in game to mean something.

    Exactly! Well said, sir!
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  • notrealednanotrealedna Member Posts: 1,028
    edited October 2014
    I think the OP is trolling us and trolling is against the forum rules.

    adding more hp to npcs =/= elite pve.It only makes you waste more time and turn the game into a dps race thus making healers useless.
  • ednarulesednarules Member Posts: 39 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    The queues are pretty empty compared to pre-DR. Im actually noticing less players online than when LoR launched. Delta quadrant doesn't have that many people on it.

    Most of the game is bugged out, Fleet Alert was not supposed to be Level 60, I fear to try the other stuff as well. And listen to tekehd, his is the most logical response to the diehard defenders drones.

    For delta marks, ancient power cells and dil, is the stupid Kobali ground zone the only way again? Like with dyson ground?
  • sennahcheribsennahcherib Member Posts: 2,823 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    if you were designing it from scratch, would it not be logical to open normal at 50, advanced at 55 and elites at 60? thats more or less how its always been done.

    I agree, but the problem is:

    - how they can grab the expensive R&D materials (craylon, plekton, argonite)
    - how they can grab borg neural processors, voth processor, ancient power cell (i'm level 55 -now-, i was unable to succeed the stf "borg disconnected advanced" thus no power cell lol)
    - fleet marks (fleet alert is now difficult for new players, and no! defera is not the solution because a lot of players don't like this place)

    etc,

    there is 2 solutions :

    - they remove the update for the stfs, and they keep the elite ones for the uber players

    or

    - they add more rewards in the current stfs. i mean for the normal difficulty

    now, this game is just for a minority who can succeed the advanced and revamped stfs, that's all.

    oh btw, 1 hour ago, i was in infected the conduit with a lvl56 player, and this noob (yes, noob) has used FAW everywhere, at the first generator, we failed. thus the level is not a matter of quality of a player, i prefer to play with a smart new player, than with a stupid old player.
  • mightybobcncmightybobcnc Member Posts: 3,354 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    Adding this because it came up elsewhere: hpmscaling is breaking older missions for new players. If you level past 50 on your first character you hit enemies with delta quad levels of hp, but are still running your level 30 or 40 ship with white, green and a few blue items, most mark 10 or lower.

    The specific thread mentioned the shariens swords mission with enemies having 168k HP.

    This is flat out impossible for a new player. When we hit the delta quad it's one thing, but to inflict it on people still working through the story the first time is really worse then the pre-nerf elachi finale.

    And imagine how bad it will be on double exp weekends when you get to 50 with half as much loot and mission completion drops?

    Oh god.

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  • notrealednanotrealedna Member Posts: 1,028
    edited October 2014
    Not trying to feed the troll but if you fail the optional you fail the stf .How is optional if you cant fail it?
  • shadowwraith77shadowwraith77 Member Posts: 6,395 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    The only good thing(s) I can say about the new difficulty changes, is they created a 3rd difficulty and, they added some spice to the original enemy layouts, by providing extra enemies where it could stand to use them.

    Ground advanced borg missions, seem adequately challenging for sub-60 with everything not completed, elite I cannot say, as I haven't tried them because I am not lvl60 yet.
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  • brianvandemerwebrianvandemerwe Member Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    I agree with everyone. Don't lower difficulty, resist the people freaking out. With Starship Mastery and specialization I doubt a lot of toons have become as powerful as they can be over the next few weeks.


    At this level of difficulty, you won't have any players to play with. They are going to leave STO for good.

    I just spent 40min in crystaline advanced in a 15K T5-U ship. Everyone got fed up and left.:eek: I know you guys want a challenge but, you need to realize the group of you that can spend hours a day grinding impossible missions is actually VERY small. The only reason STO has made money is off the MANY casual players that can fit this game into their busy schedule. (Imagine that, some of us actually are adults, and have careers.) If you don't bring down the difficulty, You guys will find out just how FEW of you there are that want to waste 40mins of their time to complete ONE stf. Because STO will loose its entire money making base and have to shut down. I'm a lifer and don't want to see this game lose money.

    Make advanced what Elite was and make the new Elite the one for the guys who want the mega challenge.
  • graysockgraysock Member Posts: 172 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    The only good thing(s) I can say about the new difficulty changes, is they created a 3rd difficulty and, they added some spice to the original enemy layouts, by providing extra enemies where it could stand to use them.

    Ground advanced borg missions, seem adequately challenging for sub-60 with everything not completed, elite I cannot say, as I haven't tried them because I am not lvl60 yet.

    probably just hp increased by 3times or more and damage resistances and damage also.

    No new challenge, but to get more dps.
  • oridjerraaoridjerraa Member Posts: 313 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    ladymyajha wrote: »
    No the problem is, there are no damn tanks in this damn game anymore, because they all went dps. So anyone who gets top DPS, pulls all the agro and no one stops it. I'm a damn sci ship, I can do alot, but when I get focused fired and the damn cruiser is in -threat gear and barely doing any DPS, there's an issue.

    I can do a lot, but hull tank isn't one of them, but I shouldn't have to. That's the damn cruisers job, but when I out DPS the cruiser and even with -threat gear pull all the agro off a cruiser, there's an issue.

    That and the damn cruiser drivers are always running the dps comm system, and never caring that if they're not tanking, someone else is, and maybe they could use a bit of damage mitigation comm stuff, it's what it's there for.

    Hi there. I command a threat control cruiser, built to be a hard to kill agro magnet. loaded to the hilt with heals for myself and others. My captain is an engineer. The public queue system dose not support a healer/tank build, it grabs the first 5 to fill a mission.

    By inflating hit points instead of inflating damage, cryptic has made my preferred role even more redundant. Damage is king, good tank healers have jumped on the ATB wagon. Why run Romulan + threat consoles, Like I do, when they can load up universals there and boost damage.

    Brody ToS
  • uryenserellonturyenserellont Member Posts: 858 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    pyrogxmk3 wrote: »
    I do find it hard to call "everything takes ten times as long because targets go from 900k to 21 million HP" a difficulty increase. A massive boost in tediousness certainly.

    Maybe it's a different kind of difficulty increase, like "more difficult to want to play through the tedium and not just say 'TRIBBLE it I'm done'."
  • orangeitisorangeitis Member Posts: 5,222 Arc User
    edited October 2014
  • lucho80lucho80 Member Posts: 6,600 Bug Hunter
    edited October 2014
    At this level of difficulty, you won't have any players to play with. They are going to leave STO for good.

    I just spent 40min in crystaline advanced in a 15K T5-U ship. Everyone got fed up and left.:eek: I know you guys want a challenge but, you need to realize the group of you that can spend hours a day grinding impossible missions is actually VERY small. The only reason STO has made money is off the MANY casual players that can fit this game into their busy schedule. (Imagine that, some of us actually are adults, and have careers.) If you don't bring down the difficulty, You guys will find out just how FEW of you there are that want to waste 40mins of their time to complete ONE stf. Because STO will loose its entire money making base and have to shut down. I'm a lifer and don't want to see this game lose money.

    Make advanced what Elite was and make the new Elite the one for the guys who want the mega challenge.

    CE is only an issue if people go there all unprepared. It's one of the few STFs that require some actual sci skills to succeed.

    1) Grav wells with aftershocks and grav torpedo spreads. One ship with grav gens pumped up helps.
    2) Ships with sci abilities that clear damage buffs from the CE like tachyon beam and energy siphon.

    I saw plenty of teams during the CE event that went in there to just press the spacebar and shoot at stuff while I was the only one with GW and one of the abilities to clear the damage buffs.
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