If I were to guess, I would say we ended up with we did because of player feedback on something that the devs wanted to do.
Cryptic has attempted many times to introduce NPCs with better AI and using more abilities. The forums flood with tears about the difficulty. Things can end up being nerfed half a dozen times before it even hits Holodeck...only to end up being nerfed further once it gets there cause apparently some folks missed the opportunity to complain about it on Tribble.
So if Cryptic wants to slow things down - cause combat encounters are happening too fast - but they can't actually go about increasing the difficulty, then increasing HP would be a means for them to do that, yeah? Slows things down without increasing difficulty, that compromise of what Cryptic wanted and what the player wanted.
eh, we've never seen good AI in STO.
If I remember correctly the AI has always been pretty bad, and that standard AI hasn't changed much; what made things so bad in the new style missions. They took a bunch of ships that you fight singely in episodes and then imported them dozens at a time into encounters. It seems ok, until there are now 30 ships out there with SNB all firing them off at the same time, because the AI does everything the same way everytime.
So I don't think the complaints were not valid, having that many ships all using warp plasma, SNB, TBR, etc in encounters was just insanity, you'd escape one to hit another over and over.
Still, giving the AI all of a players abilities don't mean much when they don't know how to use it. Just using what is available isn't effective, there are no checks for active buffs, no intelligent usage on anything. And if they did get the NPCs abilities, they need to remember having 15 NPCs use BO on you all at once isn't fun in any way.
Examples like the STFs borg "invisi" torps are pretty bad to bring up. They were clearly bugged, they could one shot some cruisers even, and there is no way plasma torpedos should have been 90%+ of the damage output of STFs, but they were. Too bad when they fixed them nobody (has or since) gone back to look at the overall damage output of the STFs, because its pathetic.
I always wondered how much the AI limitations were caused by server load concerns
Several small groups, large group, fixed emplacements...players charging in and getting overwhelmed is a player issue. Directed AoE abilities, high accuracy and increased damage...players parking and shooting is a player issue.
With the Elachi, they were in various groups - the used their abilities in groups - yes, you could charge in with FAW and light up multiple groups...then get overwhelmed by those groups. Same can happen with multiple enemies. That's a player issue...they're not thinking...but they'll have no problem coming to the forums to complain about what the game did to them even though they did it to themselves.
I still remember the original version of Devil's Choice. It was a lot of fun. but... it was kinda like playing on hard mode even when you were actually playing on normal. which is where the river of QQ on the forum came from. people tried it and got curbstomped. Not everyone of course, just those who were unprepared.
I still remember what it felt like doing an exploration cluster mission afterwards with the same ship and build I used in Devil's Choice. It was like stepping on bugs.
If NPCs were anything like PVP players, most PVE players would quit due to sucking too much against them.
Or because a wave bugged out and never spawned, as it was too busy posting on the forums about the size of its DPS-epeen and how much carebears suxx0rz.
Comments
eh, we've never seen good AI in STO.
If I remember correctly the AI has always been pretty bad, and that standard AI hasn't changed much; what made things so bad in the new style missions. They took a bunch of ships that you fight singely in episodes and then imported them dozens at a time into encounters. It seems ok, until there are now 30 ships out there with SNB all firing them off at the same time, because the AI does everything the same way everytime.
So I don't think the complaints were not valid, having that many ships all using warp plasma, SNB, TBR, etc in encounters was just insanity, you'd escape one to hit another over and over.
Still, giving the AI all of a players abilities don't mean much when they don't know how to use it. Just using what is available isn't effective, there are no checks for active buffs, no intelligent usage on anything. And if they did get the NPCs abilities, they need to remember having 15 NPCs use BO on you all at once isn't fun in any way.
Examples like the STFs borg "invisi" torps are pretty bad to bring up. They were clearly bugged, they could one shot some cruisers even, and there is no way plasma torpedos should have been 90%+ of the damage output of STFs, but they were. Too bad when they fixed them nobody (has or since) gone back to look at the overall damage output of the STFs, because its pathetic.
I always wondered how much the AI limitations were caused by server load concerns
Completed Starbase, Embassy, Mine, Spire and No Win Scenario
Nothing to do anymore.
http://dtfleet.com/
Visit our Youtube channel
With the Elachi, they were in various groups - the used their abilities in groups - yes, you could charge in with FAW and light up multiple groups...then get overwhelmed by those groups. Same can happen with multiple enemies. That's a player issue...they're not thinking...but they'll have no problem coming to the forums to complain about what the game did to them even though they did it to themselves.
I still remember what it felt like doing an exploration cluster mission afterwards with the same ship and build I used in Devil's Choice. It was like stepping on bugs.
My character Tsin'xing
Or because a wave bugged out and never spawned, as it was too busy posting on the forums about the size of its DPS-epeen and how much carebears suxx0rz.