On one hand I would like to see the team repair functions work so that teams can fly over and restore your derelict.
But making the defeats hurt more won't encourage 'better' builds. It will encourage number crunching to 'one true' build. If your skills are not at X and your equipment at Y then we don't want to team with you at all. Seen it in other mmo's.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
On one hand I would like to see the team repair functions work so that teams can fly over and restore your derelict.
But making the defeats hurt more won't encourage 'better' builds. It will encourage number crunching to 'one true' build. If your skills are not at X and your equipment at Y then we don't want to team with you at all. Seen it in other mmo's.
A despicable and immature attitude towards games, but sadly many people are exactly that.
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
Craptics answer to create challenge is to add more and more HP to enemies. It's the main reason that has driven STO into a constant DPS race!
Craptic doesn't even need to create more complex AI to increase difficulty. There are plenty of abilities that if touched up a little and given to enemies that would help immensely.
Imagine if Borg cubes were given a buffed feedback pulse. The DPS crowd would TRIBBLE their panties. Or if they were given a better version of scramble/jam sensors. Or if they had viral matrix. If people were forced to have counters to various skills then DPS would naturally drop.
Of course it would never happen. It would ruin craptics metrics and the player base would cry like when spheres had crazy emergency power to engines. Or when they had a mega tachyon beam.
STO is a ship collecting simulator not a real skill based game.
With comments such as yours you demonstrate you have no appreciation or knowledge of what it would take to do what you're proposing or how it could effect the game. Creating a more complex AI is not as simple as you think. The more complex something is, the easier it can break. For each ability and thing you give to the AI you have to give them instructions on when to use each ability and what circumstances not to use it. Messing with code is something that can easily be attempted by just anyone. One tiny little 1 or 0 out of place and the whole code can crash down and be a mess.
When you give an item or ability to the AI or a player, you have to answer the question, why would I ever use this? If you can't answer that question as the person giving the item or creating it, you can't expect the AI or the average player to answer that question either. Same thing goes with creating maps or missions. If you can't give people a reason to want to play your map or mission, how can you expect them to answer that question either.
I agree that there is wayy too much focus on DPS these days. As it is right now there is nothing in game to encourage people to work together. Even then it's not something you can force people to do either. Folks just tend to do their own thing. If you want to give people a reason to work together, give more rewards for doing so AND up the penalty for not doing it. There has to be some give and take to this. You would also need some way of keeping people who don't belong out of the higher level difficulties as well. Now you might say "but that's elitist" however if you want to really improve the queues as you say, then it's something that needs to happen. It would also help to have guides in game sort of like the dungeon journal in WoW that would explain certain basic concepts to people.
You're right about one thing, people would complain and rage if too much was done, at least too quickly.
As to your comment about this game being no skill, you have to know when to use certain abilities and what to do in certain situations if you intend to survive and deal good damage. You're barely scratching the surface of any of this.
"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again." - Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek Generations
I am always open to new an different ways to play the game. I don't think it would be a big deal to have a few STFs released that wouldn't allow you to respawn until the whole team was dead.
Death, in space anyway, should just be that your ship is disabled. Another teammate should need to interact with your ship to help repair it. Afterwards your ship should be heavily damaged. Weapon hard points disabled, loss of bonuses from gear that's been damaged...etc. I've always found the respawn function kind of stupid and the current damage system function in advanced and elite is far too forgiving.
I seem to recall that the Tholian Hard PVE Queue 'Transdimensional Tactics' sports a Respawn that locks you out of the Mission. If you are not healed but instead Respawn you are brought back to the Starting Area behind a Shield Wall and can no longer participate in the Mission.
That sort of technique would need a change to the system for Space PVE Queues, as unlike Ground Missions you don't have the choice of waiting for a heal to participate further. Only Respawn.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Comments
But making the defeats hurt more won't encourage 'better' builds. It will encourage number crunching to 'one true' build. If your skills are not at X and your equipment at Y then we don't want to team with you at all. Seen it in other mmo's.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
A despicable and immature attitude towards games, but sadly many people are exactly that.
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
With comments such as yours you demonstrate you have no appreciation or knowledge of what it would take to do what you're proposing or how it could effect the game. Creating a more complex AI is not as simple as you think. The more complex something is, the easier it can break. For each ability and thing you give to the AI you have to give them instructions on when to use each ability and what circumstances not to use it. Messing with code is something that can easily be attempted by just anyone. One tiny little 1 or 0 out of place and the whole code can crash down and be a mess.
When you give an item or ability to the AI or a player, you have to answer the question, why would I ever use this? If you can't answer that question as the person giving the item or creating it, you can't expect the AI or the average player to answer that question either. Same thing goes with creating maps or missions. If you can't give people a reason to want to play your map or mission, how can you expect them to answer that question either.
I agree that there is wayy too much focus on DPS these days. As it is right now there is nothing in game to encourage people to work together. Even then it's not something you can force people to do either. Folks just tend to do their own thing. If you want to give people a reason to work together, give more rewards for doing so AND up the penalty for not doing it. There has to be some give and take to this. You would also need some way of keeping people who don't belong out of the higher level difficulties as well. Now you might say "but that's elitist" however if you want to really improve the queues as you say, then it's something that needs to happen. It would also help to have guides in game sort of like the dungeon journal in WoW that would explain certain basic concepts to people.
You're right about one thing, people would complain and rage if too much was done, at least too quickly.
As to your comment about this game being no skill, you have to know when to use certain abilities and what to do in certain situations if you intend to survive and deal good damage. You're barely scratching the surface of any of this.
Star Trek Online volunteer Community Moderator
That sort of technique would need a change to the system for Space PVE Queues, as unlike Ground Missions you don't have the choice of waiting for a heal to participate further. Only Respawn.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'