STOP selling them ships with optioins.
Please just sell ships with Hard fixed weapons and consoles. Develop a system to let people upgrade them a bit if you want to try to make some extra cash.
BUT Stop giving people options.
Cause when you give them options they start thinking the stupidest things you can imagine are good ideas for there ship builds.
I am sick of popping in now and then to play this game and realizing that a quick PvE Que is a no go because the average player in this game is beyond help.
Just spoon feed them please. There is no excuse for ships doing under 10k DPS anymore. The only conclusion is that players doing under that are Trolls / RPers that might as well be trolls... or just not intelligent enough to realize the game design is DPS DPS DPS....
Some stuff just won't work folks... One of each weapon type... Torp/Beam/Single Canon/Torp... ect ect.
Just sell them preset STF Approved ships... they need it.
EDIT:
I won't go and change my initial some what flippant OP. I will simply edit this as some have suggested to say. Yes I was a bit of a jerk in the above. I still feel I had a point... we have had some good conversation over 20+ pages now. Before you respond with a Die in a fire OP... read though at least some of the conversation. Some good ideas to help with ALL our our que issues have come up in the following pages. Thanks.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack.
Comments
And I am not a troll just because I do around 7k consistantly with my Guardian. Excuse me for not upgrading from mk XII purple phasers. It may not be a DPS beast, but its consistant, and isn't a cookie cutter build that doesn't fit my playstyle.
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I see the removal of your head from your TRIBBLE is well overdue...
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STFs ? I heard that a long time ago, not sure what it was anymore
This sums it up fairly well.
Awww! It sounds like you aren't putting out enough DPS to carry 4 other PuG's through an STF. Maybe you're the one who needs some help. :P
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You know what 10k is just a number 7k isn't that bad... and something tells me your not jumping into anything that says Elite unless you know you can do it.
You know the types of players I'm talking about ones... that havn't taken the time to learn the missions and are in way over there head shooting rainbows. Sure I help some willing to listen here and there when I have the time. Honestly though this game is one of the worst MMOs for lack of sense I have played. Perhaps its because so many "non gamer" types are attracted to the game because its trek. I don't know... and yes I don't expect Cryptic to really sell hardwired ships (and frankly going by the setups the devs live stream with... they wouldn't know what to sell anyway).
Perhaps what is really needed is a bunch of Weekly missions that are really nothing more then training missions... where a NPC gives you a basic weapons pack to install and explains how to use the items and what they do... and how to get better stuff later. Far to many people don't understand something as basic... as Shoot one weapon type.
Yes well it does get a little boring being forced to play in 40k+ ships to carry the team all the time.
I guess at least its easier then ever to swap ships.
Perhaps what is really to blame is Cryptic terrible STF design where harder simply means more ships or more HP. DPS DPS DPS... perhaps I shouldn't blame players for not adapting... Cryptic is to blame as usual.
I am not a programmer type, but i wonder if something like you suggest could done with the foundry? A mission that is a training program. Use your current ship, have the NPC's explain what will work and wont work. What this weapon type does, etc.
If I could use the foundry, I would spend some time making those, then try to get them shared on the forms and by the powers that be.
I have no clue what my dps is, but I normally get 1st or 2nd in Advanced Crystal Entity, with my Eng Oddy. How can I find out? I don't mind hunting it down if you don't have time. I'm not lazy or anything.
Well, im lazy sometimes. But not today.
I could see a 1.5k zen bundle with 4 blue and 1 purple boff with pre-set powers, and a ship the equivalent of the kazon raider/apu cruiser in power with option to upgrade. Comes with green Mk 12 gear, including consoles. Alternatively, a set of training padds instead of boffs.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1345951
This thread doesn't seem that old and seems to point to he major parser programs.
CEE is also one of the few exceptions where pure DPS doesn't "win" the round. Healing is taken into account in that mission. So it is very possible for a heavy heal ship to fly around doing little DPS but healing everyone they can and win easily as well. (its one of the few missions they got right that way... even if it is still Massive DPS that gets that mission completed, at least something useful like healing others is counted for reward)
Don't take me earlier rant as MUST HAVE X DPS either. I don't think there is much excuse to be ineffective anymore... still you can "Not fail" most of the missions if you know what you are doing even with a lower amount of DPS.
Seeing people throw gravity wells on transformers when nanites are 5s away from healing them ect is the type of stuff that drives me nuts. Cryptic has set everything up to max UberDPS King but you can still play everything if you play smart...anyway.
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Cookie Cutter Builds also remove one of the good things, diversity. If you just let them buy a ship with everything you need to "succeed", eventually everyone's going to have the EXACT SAME THING. And what would the point be in going through the reps to get things like the Romulan Hyper Plasma Torp or Delta rep Bio-nerural Gel Pack? There wouldn't be a desire to as "I have everything I need provided to me so I don't have to do anything."
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Indeed why not... with the way loadouts SHOULD be working now where they can change your powers and everything as well... they could even sell "Load Out Package - Kobali Cruiser DPS" Ect... that would include everything needed for that ship. (Pipe dream I know)
I think ya in the end some player education is what is needed... I really shouldn't be pointing fingers at the players. Can't blame most people to be honest... there are more and more options these days and there are plenty that just don't work in combo... its obvious to the games Vets but perhaps not obvious to a newer player that may not really be a hardcore gamer type.
I think you're not familiar with the archetype model from champions I cited. For each role they have four different builds, and each build comes with multiple options. They are intended to be a solid foundation, not a cookie cutter.
You still have to finish, but it gives a baseline of competency you won't fall below, or if you do, you'll notice and can revert and figure out why that change hurt you instead of helping.
You would still want to get better gear, though i can see downgraiding the mark some. because mark 10 or 11 greens with no set bonuses aren't that great. Plenty of drops and all 50+ mission rewards are improvements.
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Player 11,133 DPS (Combat Saved! DPS Saved!)
Player C) 5,113 DPS (Combat Saved! DPS Saved!)
Player D) 4,315 DPS (Your time in combat is less than 94% of the complete encounter time.)
Player E) 2,894 DPS (Combat Saved! DPS Saved!)
I...er...went into that um...seeing what I could do as a tank/debuff-support as a Sci in a Samsar actually running full Command in the LCdr slot.
The Hits In bit...
Player Me) 73.544%
Player 2.166%
Player C) 4.809%
Player D) 12.045%
Player E) 7.436%
The Damage In / Heal bit...
Player Me) 2,961,529 / 2,483,273
Player 147,802 / 389,585 (only guy sharing heals outside of BioBubbles)
Player C) 275,354 / 160,933
Player D) 399,881 / 96,829 (only death)
Player E) 459,604 / 205,862
That 2,961,529 damage in was a base damage of 9,743,346...wheee. 69.78% of actual damage taken by the group and 78.67% of the base damage taken by the group.
And I know folks that would have a massive cow over an ISA taking over 18 minutes. I had a blast...it's the most fun I've had in STO in years. An actual failed optional from going past the 15 minutes...sure, the one guy was a wee bit AFKy there, and if he hadn't been we'd probably have gotten the optional; but it actually felt like a battle rather than just lobbing grenades into a barrel of fish.
Can tell by looking at the average damage from Player C & E that they were either eating constant range penalty or had something funky going on with their Weapon Power. Player D as mentioned just kind of zoned out there for a moment.
But some little tweaks, nothing gear related, and a little more activity - that group would have gotten the optional without having to change any gearing. And yeah, there were some odds and ends going on with everybody's damage...
Player ME...
Bio-Molecular Disruptor Array - Fire At Will I
Bio-Molecular Disruptor Array
Photonic Fleet/Nimbus Pirate Distress Call
Plasma Fire From Energy Weapon
Cutting Beam
Omni-Directional Disruptor Array
Gravity Well I
Enhanced Bio-Molecular Photon Torpedo
Gravimetric Photon Torpedo
Bio-Molecular Incubation
Gravimetric Rift
High Yield Gravimetric Explosion I
Refracting Tetryon Cascade
Concentrate Firepower I
Enhanced Bio-Molecular Photon Torpedo - High Yield I
Player B...
Photonic Fleet/Tyken's Rift I
Plasma Particle Emission
Particle Emission Plasma Torpedo
Cutting Beam
Quad Disruptor Cannons
Bio-Molecular Dual Heavy Disruptor Cannons
Dual Heavy Disruptor Cannons
Gravity Well III
Quad Disruptor Cannons - Rapid Fire I
Dual Heavy Disruptor Cannons - Rapid Fire I
Bio-Molecular Dual Heavy Disruptor Cannons - Rapid Fire I
Heavy Bio-Molecular Disruptor Turret
Omega Kinetic Shearing
Heavy Bio-Molecular Disruptor Turret - Rapid Fire I
Proton Barrage
Plasma Fire From Energy Weapons
Plasma Torpedo - Heavy I
Warhead Tricobalt Explosion
Concentrate Firepower I
AntiProton Automated Defense Turret
Bio-Molecular Incubation
Overwhelming Force - High Yield
Player C...
Enhanced Bio-Molecular Photon Torpedo - Spread III
Enhanced Bio-Molecular Photon Torpedo - High Yield II
Omega Kinetic Shearing
Cutting Beam
Tetryon Array
Dual Protonic Polaron Banks
Bio-Molecular Incubation
Enhanced Bio-Molecular Photon Torpedo
Phaser Array
Protonic Polaron Turret
Gravimetric Photon Torpedo
Tetryon Beam Array - Fire At Will II
Nimbus Pirate Distress Call
Dual Protonic Polaron Banks - Fire At Will II
Phaser Beam Array - Fire At Will II
Gravimetric Rift
Gravimetric Photon Torpedo - Spread III
Tetryon Array - Overload I
Dual Protonic Polaron Banks - Overload I
Enhanced Bio-Moluecular Photon Torpedo - High Yield I
High Yield Gravimetric Explosion II
Tetryon Beam Array - Target Shields I
Proton Particle Burn
Concentrate Firepower I
Phaser Array - Overload I
Dual Protonic Polaron Banks - Target Shields I
Phaser Beam Array - Target Shields I
High Yield Gravimetric Explosion I
Player D...
Corrosive Plasma Dual Beam Banks
Plasma Array
Plasma Torpedo
Romulan Plasma Array
Corrosive Plasma Beam Array
Plasma Fire From Torpedo
Plasma Torpedo - Spread III
Cutting Beam
Plasma Array - Fire At Will I
Nimbus Pirate Distress Call
Romulan Plasma Beam Array - Fire At Will I
Corrosive Plasma Dual Beam Banks - Fire At Will I
Omega Kinetic Shearing
Plasma Array - Overload II
Omega Graviton Amplifier
Plasma Fire From Energy Weapons
Tractor Beam Repulsor I
Quantum Torpedo
Plasma Energy Bolt
Gravity Well I
Corrosive Plasma Dual Beam Banks - Overload II
Romulan Plasma Array - Overload II
Corrosive Plasma Beam Array - Overload II
Corrosive Breach
Concentrate Firepower I
Player E)
Dual Antiproton Banks
Gravity Well I
Antiproton Array
Neutronic Torpedo
Experimental Proton Weapon
Dual Antiproton Banks - Fire At Will I
Experimental Proton Weapon - Fire At Will I
Antiproton Turret
Antiproton Beam Array - Fire At Will I
Omega Kinetic Shearing
Neutronic Torpedo - Spread I
Gravimetric Photon Torpedo - Spread I
Gravimetric Rift
Antiproton Turret - Rapid Fire I
Proton Particle Burn
Gravimetric Photon Torpedo
Aceton Beam III
Directed Energy Modulation II
Tyken's Rift ?
Neutronic Torpedo - Heavy I
Concentrate Firepower I
Plasma Reflection
And I know folks that would look at that for all of us and just /facepalm all over the place. But again, that group didn't fail on the first Trans nor the second Trans. They held it together and got it done. Just failed the optional by less than two minutes...and in looking at average damage of the energy attacks, it looked mainly to be a range penalty and Weapon Power thing going on there. Work in some positional stuff, and everybody would have likely been getting 6-8k (even more as it would have cut down on the time, so that would have to be factored in as well).
But yeah, I guess I'm just goofy - don't care about the optional...nobody outright AFKd, nobody trolled the group, folks chained their GWs on the Nanites so we could take down the Trans with the DPS we had, even had a guy tossing folks heals, and all the rest...
Sure, there's room for improvement - that was the first time I'd flown the Samsar into an ISA and I can see stuff I'd like to tweak. But that's a good thing, no? Having room to tweak stuff, ways to improve, yeah?
Giving folks premade ships - well, that wouldn't have addressed those range penalty, weapon power, or positional things...wouldn't fix that "issue".
If folks want all kind of zippy blow through content runs then there are all sorts of channels for that...
...for me, this was one of the best runs I can remember - it felt like a fight and it felt like everybody was actually in the fight. That's pretty damn awesome in my book.
Two, if this game was designed to only be played with a set few types of builds/ships/weapons/etc., then the designers would have made it that way. Instead you are a part of a Massively Multi-player Online game that was designed to be fun for the most number of players (not just you and your fellow elitists).
Three, rather than complain about other players' options, why don't you exercise one or two of your own. There are closed-team settings and fleets and chat channels all right up your alley for you to meet, maintain contact with, and group only with fellow elitists like yourself.
Now go, run off with your little friends into some deep dark Elite STF corner of the galaxy and leave the rest of the game to us.
EDIT: I pay (paid) Cryptic/PWE (not you) to play this game. I'm not teaming with you (I detest PUGs myself and don't do STFs if I can avoid it). Don't tell me how to play my game and don't try to TRIBBLE my game unless you personally plan on compensating me for it.
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I didn't make the games rules... Cryptic did. Its clear there rule is High DPS required. OR barring that High Control Required.
If you bring neither to the team yes I'm sorry your playing the game wrong. Cryptic says so, Not me. If it was me I would say I don't care... so it takes me 20min to play this mission, guess I'll just RP with em and roll with it... but that choice was taken away now. The mission fails when you don't play it right, SO I can't RP with you.
Perhaps this is why most Games have an RP server.
AND yes I know your trolling me. lol
Don't get me wrong Virus I'm not saying everyone should be doing 40+K DPS and blasting through things.
I'm ok with taking awhile to finish a pug match.... it just seems there are plenty of people that have ZERO clue about the missions or how there ships are supposed to work.
In your run you only had one rainbow boat at least.
Obviously your group had CONTROL... cause if you hadn't you would have failed.
If that group you pointed out was doing stupid things like throwing there Gravity wells on gates ect while mission failing NPC ships where moving along to there objectives you would have failed.
I know in most MMOs you can say the same types of things about the "dungeon' type combat. However most of them don't have it on a "Quick Que" When they do they generally do a better job of letting people know what they should be doing or bringing into those missions.
When I used to play this game a lot sure I would just run groups from DPS channels and such... and things where always in and out... it was also boring no doubt. So I would pug a few here and there just cause... and mostly they where smooth... but at least when they where not I didn't have to deal with the Auto Fail TRIBBLE. With the Auto fail now you would think most of these bad pug players would adapt... I mean obviously they fail often, you would think they would start changing there builds. I know there not all Hardcore RPers.
Show me any of these rules that Cryptic has supposedly burdened us with, because I haven't seen them. And I haven't been kicked out of the game because I don't do 10k damage in one fell swoop.
Cryptic did... if you bring a team of 5 people that all do 4k DPS and don't have or understand how to use there control skills into ANY Advanced STF.
They will fail. 100% of the time.
I was also to general... its not just DPS builds people need to be educated on. Its also things like proper Science/control setups. One good control ship can keep ANY mission from failing... and allow a team with next to no dps to still complete the content eventually.
Cryptic has clearly made the game about DPS... if you haven't noticed NPCs DO NOT get smarter if you crank up the difficulty or start a more advanced version of an STF. They simply grow in number and HP. How do you deal with that.... with DPS. Cryptics design goal is clear.
They even went out of there way to super boost MK 14 weapons... the game is about DPS, and if you don't have enough Cryptic will sell you more. There game and that is there rules... anyone convinced of anything else is diluting themselves.
Maybe you should step down off your high horse for a few, just be sure someone doesn't move the stepladder so you don't fall and break the ground.
You know... if you are going to insult people for no reason, you may want to run your very condescending posts through a spell-checker, first.
You are totally mutilating the proper forms of "You're", "their", and "it's". For goodness sake; if you are going to insult people and you can barely spell, you really come across like an inept moron.
Please, show me these "rules" Cryptic has. No, really, I'll wait. I want a link to where someone on the Dev team as specifically said: "This game is all about who has the highest DPS, and if you don't have excruciatingly high levels of it, then you're playing wrong and need to leave." Show me where it was said. No one is playing the game "wrong"; not everyone is playing how you want them to, is what I think you meant to say.
Get over yourself, remove your head from your TRIBBLE, and stop taking a video game so seriously.
And let's not forget we're also diluting ourselves too