Specialization for alts

simeion1

Specialization

When I first heard about this prior to Delta Rising I was stoked. It was something that players could work for that was max level. It was also interesting that there was going to be multiple types of specialization. I liked this at first. Alongside of the specialization came new BOFF and Captain powers. It does not sound like a bad idea, make your character little more different than other, I am big on have more options to play. I hate cookie cutter builds, one reason I hated the old kit system.

Now after six months of playing with the system I am sad to say it is killing STO. It is making new powers OP and old powers obsolete. Here are some examples

1. Two players PvPing against each other. Player A is a new character with only ten spec points. Player B is a seasoned level 60 with a minimum of 45 points. One full tree and secondary tree in sue. If these two players are on the ground and Player B is fully spec’d into command and commando the hit point difference can nearly 400 points. This is ground breaking in PvP.
2. Scenario 2 has a Player A is an engineer with Site to Site Ensnare along with mines. Player A can teleport Player B into his mines for almost an automatic kill. Also there is a lot of disables with some of the new powers. Electromagnetic Pulse, Ionic Turbulence, and Trip wire drones have long game breaking disables.

Now some of this has or in the works of being fixed.

Another problem with Spec points is the work it involved into getting them. Since DR my play time has been cut down, not only because of frustrations in the game but real life events. On my main character I use to have Pilot tree done prior to Cryptic stretching the tree, just this last weekend I finished Intel. So currently I have Intel done, 15 points in pilot, 5 in command, and 8 points in commando, this is on one toon, not to include my alts (8 of them) which are severely falling behind (This has cost cryptic money from me). I use to have alt character for different reasons. I used to PvP on the ground with two Caitians (one Tac and a Sci) and liberated Borg Eng. I had an Orion Sci on the KDF side to play a BoP and other unique things on the KDF faction. I also have 3 Romulans; one of each class, the Sci I was going to PvP with in space. I did keep all of these characters in top end gear and top end ships. Now with specialization it is too much of a grind to keep all of these characters in top notch gear and ships. Just to give you an idea, I got a JHAS for a ground character. Most recently I would have bought the Command Ship Faction pack and the Epic Ship pack, but why do this when my alt characters are become less effective. Cryptic just lost money from me because of the Spec grind.

So is there a fix to this, yes I think so. It should hopefully be pretty easy also. Here some of my suggestions.

1. Start earning spec points at level 1 This will give a level 60 player two tree to compete with in PvE and PvP. Must give back the missing 50 points from older characters. This will also help new players close the gap on established accounts.
2. Make all kills worth some SPXP and XP, currently there and maps, missions, and scenarios where players don’t get SPXP. 75% of the map of Kabali Prime does not award kill SPXP. The new queues don’t award kill SPXP also. While I understand kill SPXP has to be weighted on the level of the NPC you are playing, they should not award nothing.
3. The next suggestion can work one of two ways.
a. Every Spec point you get on your main toon will be awarded alts.
b. Or ever spec point earned on your account after level 60 is earned by all characters.
4. Normalize all SPXP; this mean doff mission, queues, and mission replays.
Either way something needs to be done to help alt characters earn SPXP and Spec points. It will close the gap between new and old players. It will also make Cryptic money because those like me that are not playing alts now will start to do so again.

Question to the player base?

Have you not bought an item/ship from the Zen Store, upgraded equipment, or leveled a new character because of how ineffective to earn Spec Points?

orion0029

I feel for you bro, I've gotten fed up with the spec grind and I haven't even done much with it. I'm at the point where I focus more on getting enough spec points to make qualification manuals then I just ignore the whole specialization system.

I'd think a way to improve this for alts would be to make specialization 'sponsorship tokens', for when a toon maxes out a specialization that character can purchase a token (from the Dil store?) which would fill in the bottom two tiers of the specialization on another toon.

Obviously they would have to be account bind on pickup, like current sponsorship tokens, but this would greatly ease the burden of getting spec points on alts...:)

davefenestrator

PUG PVP is FUBAR. Since you're one of the last 10 people doing PVP you should do it via private groups where you can set some limits.

Perhaps Cryptic could make a PVP queue for versions where all traits and spec points are disabled, but you'll still run into the people with all Epic XIV gear and eleventy billion credits worth of doffs and consoles.

garaks31

a very nice and detailed suggestion, should be done .maybe selling the spec points could also be a option

praxi5

You mentioned PvP, so instantly people are going to say "LOL PVP!!!!!" and be done with it.

I'd provide an example for PvE, like where rewards are dependent upon damage/healing done (like in CCA/SB24) in order to have the masses not instantly shrug it off.

The argument that Cryptic (and amazingly, some apparently short-sighted players) make is that Spec Points aren't "required" and are just nice "bonuses", so the rather intense requirements for them are justified.

trennan

praxi5 wrote: »

You mentioned PvP, so instantly people are going to say "LOL PVP!!!!!" and be done with it.

I'd provide an example for PvE, like where rewards are dependent upon damage/healing done (like in CCA/SB24) in order to have the masses not instantly shrug it off.

The argument that Cryptic (and amazingly, some apparently short-sighted players) make is that Spec Points aren't "required" and are just nice "bonuses", so the rather intense requirements for them are justified.

What would help here isn't so much of the specializations fault. This is a more balance issue.

For PvP, universal and clicky consoles should be disabled, making them unuseable. This means you have to go back to regular consoles. Craft, buy, mission, and reputation one.

Though some of the sets do tend to have to many advantages. Take the one they introduce that clears a debuffs every 6 or 10 seconds to combat drain builds. Which subsequently caused the drain builds to stop being used. So disable Reputation sets.

This puts everyone in the pvp arena needing to set their ship up with standard gear, in all their wonderful varieties.

Then do some work to the PvP mods to make them, well, usefull. What I would do here, is to move the PvP to the item itself. That way when you're crafting you have a chance to create a useful PvP item.

Like:

Antiproton Beam Array MkII [CritD]x3 [PvP Dmg] can become

PvP Antiproton Beam Array MkII [CritD] x3, x4 or whatever the max mods a beam array can have.

Then it becomes simple. Everything on your ship, but weapons, has to be PvP Whatevertheitemis [mod apropriately], before you can que.

alex284

praxi5 wrote: »

You mentioned PvP, so instantly people are going to say "LOL PVP!!!!!" and be done with it.

I'd provide an example for PvE, like where rewards are dependent upon damage/healing done (like in CCA/SB24) in order to have the masses not instantly shrug it off.

The argument that Cryptic (and amazingly, some apparently short-sighted players) make is that Spec Points aren't "required" and are just nice "bonuses", so the rather intense requirements for them are justified.

Well, this is a game. Nothing here is required.

I'd like spec points to be faster to earn. On the other hand, the usual complaint is not that it's hard to fill a spec tree, but that it's hard to fill *all* the spec trees (usually just for a sense of completion). You don't need to do that. Just like you don't need to win CCA and get a mk 12 purple forcefield console.

flyingshoebox

The grind to get specialization points has basically killed alting for me and I don’t seem myself making any more at this point. I still use the ones I have to play a bit but they are falling farther and farther behind and I tend to avoid using them for much of anything. To be honest the way you get specialization points now is a good deal of why I’ve been playing less and less since the dr update. I’ve still purchased stuff in game the last thing I think was the command cruisers. I did get them to use on all my current toons and have used them on a few. So I can’t say it will stop me from buying something but it has weighted the scale more towards don’t buy something. It was part of why I’ve skipped the iconic pack. It’s also been part of why I’ve gone from hoping for a quick release on what I’m guessing will be the piloting pack to not really caring when it comes out.

Something I’ve been wondering about with specialization points is how crucial are they for people that tend to burn though content quickly. I don’t mean in a how strong their character abilities are but in giving them something to do. Because while I know I’d love to see account wide unlocks on spec points I do wonder if them taking so long to get is what keeps some playing the game. As an example a buddy of mine has unlocked all of them on at least 3 characters and has a bunch on his other 3 alts. While I don’t have more than 12 on any one character and most don’t have more than 3 but that’s out of 14 total toons. At the same time even when he had no more hills to climb in sto he still played it a lot more than I would so for him it wouldn’t really matter but for some it could.

davefenestrator

If you only play alts to get spec points, then yes you might as well stop playing them.

I play alts to see the different stories, fly different ships, and have different captain powers. Alts are also useful to have different active builds / loadouts at the same time. My Fed Eng uses Polaron, my Rom tac uses Plasma, etc.

Spec points don't really matter to me since I don't do PUG PVP. When I get a new point, I pick a new ability and get back to playing.

simeion1

Please stay on topic, I appreciate the responses! I don't want too use this as a PvP vs PvE thread. I am trying to get help for alt on account. I used PvP as an expmaple because as four hundred hit point difference is huge.

trennan

simeion1 wrote: »

Please stay on topic, I appreciate the responses! I don't want too use this as a PvP vs PvE thread. I am trying to get help for alt on account. I used PvP as an expmaple because as four hundred hit point difference is huge.

Well while you do have a good idea. Unles you plan on playing an alt as much as you do your main. Do you really have a reason to need those specialization points? I Have my main, the one I play the most, I have alts I'll hop on to and just go goof off with. But leveling them up and they're spec points aren't a high prioty. Mainly just to hop on them do some doffing and R&D and back to my main. So I haven't had a need to worry about specialization points on them.

tk79

I might add opening the Spec trees at level 1 as well. Most bonuses are percentages, and won't make low level characters OP since their base values are already small.

I like this proposal, but I doubt it will be considered. Unfortunately, the devs intentionally want you to grind for spec points. It adds to their metrics. If folks start earning spec points at level 1, there will be less incentive to grind post-50/60, and their metrics will drop. They don't want that.

davefenestrator

simeion1 wrote: »

Please stay on topic, I appreciate the responses! I don't want too use this as a PvP vs PvE thread. I am trying to get help for alt on account. I used PvP as an expmaple because as four hundred hit point difference is huge.

OK

Question to the player base?

Have you not bought an item/ship from the Zen Store, upgraded equipment, or leveled a new character because of how ineffective to earn Spec Points?

No, because spec points aren't "needed" outside of PVP PUG. Play the game, do things you enjoy doing, and eventually after a few months the spec points will take care of themselves.