The current Skill Revamp needs some work but overall its a move in a positive direction. In some cases players will come out with net gains on things they had before.
Id advise anyone who is questioning whether theyll be okay with this change to go onto Tribble themselves and play with the new Skill Tree themselves. Dont just assume things will be hunkydory or that the sky is falling.
Go test the new Tree out and give feedback. At least when it launches youll have an informed opinion on the matter and dont have to worry about second and third hand accounts of things being said and done in the Tribble Forums/On Tribble Server.
Why? There is NOTHING broken with it and complex? NOT really. They should dedicate the time to fix other stuff like create NEW content, another full or semi faction or even give some love to PvP? This would be like the 3rd time they touch the same stuff and IMO useless waste of time from what I see so far. I know some peeps might say well these are developers and NOT bug hunters...still they should devote the resources to something else. If ain't broken why fix it?
This, !!!
Cryptic is repairing something that ain't broken, and i think they will break it now !!
Why? There is NOTHING broken with it and complex? NOT really. They should dedicate the time to fix other stuff like create NEW content, another full or semi faction or even give some love to PvP? This would be like the 3rd time they touch the same stuff and IMO useless waste of time from what I see so far. I know some peeps might say well these are developers and NOT bug hunters...still they should devote the resources to something else. If ain't broken why fix it?
This, !!!
Cryptic is repairing something that ain't broken, and i think they will break it now !!
People have been begging for a skill revamp for a long time now. They do something players are asking for and get bitched at. What exactly is their motivation to continue to listen to people?
Not everyone wanted a skill tree revamp. Myself I like the skill tree just fine.
Some would say it was hard to understand. I disagree, if one actually took the time to read the short descriptions it was very easy to understand. Sure there was some mystery as to the "efficiency returned per point placed into a skill", but that could've been easily cleared up with some description/ToolTip editing, rather then wasting 6 months of development time tearing down a perfectly good system.
It's like re-inventing the wheel for no good reason.
Not too mention all the whacky bugs it will cause going forward. Combining certain skills has given me great cause for concern.
Why? There is NOTHING broken with it and complex? NOT really. They should dedicate the time to fix other stuff like create NEW content, another full or semi faction or even give some love to PvP? This would be like the 3rd time they touch the same stuff and IMO useless waste of time from what I see so far. I know some peeps might say well these are developers and NOT bug hunters...still they should devote the resources to something else. If ain't broken why fix it?
This, !!!
Cryptic is repairing something that ain't broken, and i think they will break it now !!
People have been begging for a skill revamp for a long time now. They do something players are asking for and get bitched at. What exactly is their motivation to continue to listen to people?
Not everyone wanted a skill tree revamp. Myself I like the skill tree just fine.
Some would say it was hard to understand. I disagree, if one actually took the time to read the short descriptions it was very easy to understand. Sure there was some mystery as to the "efficiency returned per point placed into a skill", but that could've been easily cleared up with some description/ToolTip editing, rather then wasting 6 months of development time tearing down a perfectly good system.
It's like re-inventing the wheel for no good reason.
Not too mention all the whacky bugs it will cause going forward. Combining certain skills has given me great cause for concern.
So what they should ignore everyone else and just listen to your feedback? Thats not how this works.
Why? There is NOTHING broken with it and complex? NOT really. They should dedicate the time to fix other stuff like create NEW content, another full or semi faction or even give some love to PvP? This would be like the 3rd time they touch the same stuff and IMO useless waste of time from what I see so far. I know some peeps might say well these are developers and NOT bug hunters...still they should devote the resources to something else. If ain't broken why fix it?
This, !!!
Cryptic is repairing something that ain't broken, and i think they will break it now !!
People have been begging for a skill revamp for a long time now. They do something players are asking for and get bitched at. What exactly is their motivation to continue to listen to people?
Not everyone wanted a skill tree revamp. Myself I like the skill tree just fine.
Some would say it was hard to understand. I disagree, if one actually took the time to read the short descriptions it was very easy to understand. Sure there was some mystery as to the "efficiency returned per point placed into a skill", but that could've been easily cleared up with some description/ToolTip editing, rather then wasting 6 months of development time tearing down a perfectly good system.
It's like re-inventing the wheel for no good reason.
Not too mention all the whacky bugs it will cause going forward. Combining certain skills has given me great cause for concern.
So what they should ignore everyone else and just listen to your feedback? Thats not how this works.
Oh was I the only one who thought a revamp of this scale was unnecessary ?
Cute. LOL
I guess "Everyone" else is on your page
I would have preferred End Game content or new battlezones/Red Alerts.
Not a skill tree revamp that wont even accomplish it's mission of bringing the captain classes in line with each other.
Its STILL a DPS race. And even with your coveted skill tree revamp, Tacs still rule.
And we still have no End Game in sight.
I for one welcome our new skill tree. I recall that STO was rushed to released and some things still haven't got the amount of work they should. The release schedule has always been tight. How bulky and unoptimized has the code become at this point? I'm seeing the revamp as more of an under the hood thing than anything else. Trim the excess, tidy up the rest. The new UI is almost just icing.
The screenshot in the article looks a lot like the specialization trees. Which suggests to me that the new tree might have a certain amount of modularity. By that I mean new parts can be added at will, without extra coding effort. New classes, anyone? Unlikely. But a fun thought.
When this goes live I will no longer be able to take STO seriously as a game of strategy and choice and will only continue for the scenery, story and special events.
so basically for the exact reasons the rest of us play it? srsly? up to now scenery and frenchize were not the ONLY reasons to play this game? Gameplay was a reason for you, seriously?
Why? There is NOTHING broken with it and complex? NOT really. They should dedicate the time to fix other stuff like create NEW content, another full or semi faction or even give some love to PvP? This would be like the 3rd time they touch the same stuff and IMO useless waste of time from what I see so far. I know some peeps might say well these are developers and NOT bug hunters...still they should devote the resources to something else. If ain't broken why fix it?
This, !!!
Cryptic is repairing something that ain't broken, and i think they will break it now !!
People have been begging for a skill revamp for a long time now. They do something players are asking for and get bitched at. What exactly is their motivation to continue to listen to people?
Not everyone wanted a skill tree revamp. Myself I like the skill tree just fine.
Some would say it was hard to understand. I disagree, if one actually took the time to read the short descriptions it was very easy to understand. Sure there was some mystery as to the "efficiency returned per point placed into a skill", but that could've been easily cleared up with some description/ToolTip editing, rather then wasting 6 months of development time tearing down a perfectly good system.
It's like re-inventing the wheel for no good reason.
Not too mention all the whacky bugs it will cause going forward. Combining certain skills has given me great cause for concern.
Yeah not everyone wanted a revamp, but obviously enough people did that they chose to go forward with it, at this point the options are to give constructive feedback (whether positive or negative, either can be constructive) on it while its in testing, learning to live with it if you choose not to give feedback, or ending your playing time here. Because they aren't going to throw away all that development time now and not make the change.
Yeah, I just disagree to the extent they went with it, but whatever, that's my personal opinion, I felt their attention was needed more elsewhere. But like you said it's a done deal.
I just hope it was a worth the time.
They did a great job on the Boff and Trait Revamps to their credit.
When this goes live I will no longer be able to take STO seriously as a game of strategy and choice and will only continue for the scenery, story and special events.
so basically for the exact reasons the rest of us play it? srsly? up to now scenery and frenchize were not the ONLY reasons to play this game? Gameplay was a reason for you, seriously?
sssyrrrrrryssslllyyyyy boiiiiii. But srysly it's always been 95% Trek. For realzzz.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
I for one welcome our new skill tree. I recall that STO was rushed to released and some things still haven't got the amount of work they should. The release schedule has always been tight. How bulky and unoptimized has the code become at this point? I'm seeing the revamp as more of an under the hood thing than anything else. Trim the excess, tidy up the rest. The new UI is almost just icing.
The screenshot in the article looks a lot like the specialization trees. Which suggests to me that the new tree might have a certain amount of modularity. By that I mean new parts can be added at will, without extra coding effort. New classes, anyone? Unlikely. But a fun thought.
I think the UI could use a bit of redressing to be better. Such as labels for the text boxes. But that's a minor quibble really.
We also lose a lot of info, now we can see how many we have in x and can calculate what the damage going to be, we lose a lot of those data (how it now is).
I picked no, but I wouldn't exactly say *no*...but it fits me best for the options there are.
I wouldn't say no no...but I would say no as in that we didn't need it...I like some people took the time to understand what the skills do and what abilities they affect, unlike casuals who look at it and say this is to hard, without even trying.
Can't have a honest conversation because of a white knight with power
If the dev's see a reason for a skill revamp that's entirely sufficient to justify it (see. the role of developers/creators in game design).
I think the question to ask isn't "do you want it?" (we're well past the point where that's relevant) but rather what you might be able to do (or not do) with the new system. It's coming and making it as good as it can be through constructive feedback is most definitely the most productive approach we can take at this time.
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Scrap the revamp and use the time the Devs would be wasting on something neither wanted nor needed and FIX THE EXISTING PROBLEMS in the game.
You could start by moving the prize drop for the "City" Hard mode mission in the Defera Invasion Zone further away from the starting point and/or set a cool down timer on the start console in the same way that the Obelisk in the Temple run has a cool down timer. This could likely be solved by simply editing the location of the drop in a single line of code.
Honestly, please focus on fixing existing issues before introducing massive new problems.
Not sure how they are wasting time? Clearly they have two different teams working on the game. One team that evolves the game to meet new demand and another team that fixes and manages the current builds of the game. The bug fixing team may actually be very small.
But yes, I can agree with you that they are somewhat extremely slow at addressing problems and in particular easy fixes. One such is swapping the pet icons of the Baltim Raider Frigate and the Mir Fighters. They have each other's icons.
And for what i just read i have only two words... "TRIBBLE you". 75% less power in all aspects, offense and defense?
Are you serious craptic?
As of now, i can take my Connie, fly to Khitomer and kick the TRIBBLE out of the Borg there.
After that revamp (should it come that way) i would even be challenged, when i use my Breen warship.
You seriously need to stop right now, on that matter!
If you can kick butt in the TOS Constitution it is in all likelihood because people might be carrying you. Whether it is intentional or not on your part, it is common at large with or without your involvement in it.
Either way, I don't think you should bash the revamp before it is even out. I dont know whether you have tested the entire revamped skill tree or not, but from my own observation it seems to be increasing damage. The new skill tree is doing something the old one did not do explicitedly. It introduces critH/critDMG more explicitedly, but most importantly it introduces BOFF cooldown reductions which has come in different phases with the DOFF system and then the starship trait system. They even introduced higher yield of damage per power point with this revamp.
The total sum of this is more damage in general. In addition, from my own observation they buffed the yield of every "revamped" but existing skill node like defense and turn rate/speed. The direct result of this is better survivability, but the increased mobility will indirectly also add to your damage per second because you can converge between targets faster.
People still have every right to voice their support or displeasure with the change, optional or not. Do I want a revamp? Sure. Do I want Worlds of TrekCraft? Nope.
"Worlds of TrekCraft?" Uh, WoW discarded the talent tree system our skills will be getting long ago in favor of a much better model.
LMAO at WOW having a better talent system after thier revamp on that game. Seriously? Yeah that was when thier subs started tanking. WOW "new and improved" talent trees created generic charecters that were all the same talent wise with very little variation between them. Yup gee a hunter that could control animals but was weak in ranged or a hunter that could use daggers for hand to hand but no plate and poor pet control so no real help from pets and really lacking in stand off or a standoff that was dead meat for anything that got close before you could kill it. Yeah real good improvements on WOW skill trees. WOW is a bland pap of cookie cutter charecters who are either very good at one thing and ineffective at anything else or charecters who are ineffective at everything. Yup coming soon: Warcraft the world of Star Trek where the toons are all the same and nobody is given credit for being smart enough to figure out how to customize thier toons to match thier play style.
LMAO at WOW having a better talent system after their revamp on that game. Seriously? So explain how my hunter went from being a death machine to an ineffective plinker under that revamp that came out with Catcalysm.
Explain it? Sure. Funny thing about multiple-class systems: There's ALWAYS more people not playing your class than there are people who are (and if there isn't there's something SERIOUSLY screwed up...). That means that even though a nerf has you shrieking bloody murder that they cruelly and evilly chopped a full inch off the length of your... nose... its may still be a good or even absolutely necessary choice for the health of the game as a whole. Can they over correct? Absolutely. Are mistakes made? Duh. Are nerfs categorically bad? #*$& NO.
This kind of rampant provincialism is exactly why game designers have to screen out 90%+ of player feedback. Because most people literally won't look one inch past the fence around their 'yard' to see what's going on.
LMAO at WOW having a better talent system after their revamp on that game. Seriously? So explain how my hunter went from being a death machine to an ineffective plinker under that revamp that came out with Catcalysm.
Explain it? Sure. Funny thing about multiple-class systems: There's ALWAYS more people not playing your class than there are people who are (and if there isn't there's something SERIOUSLY screwed up...). That means that even though a nerf has you shrieking bloody murder that they cruelly and evilly chopped a full inch off the length of your... nose... its may still be a good or even absolutely necessary choice for the health of the game as a whole. Can they over correct? Absolutely. Are mistakes made? Duh. Are nerfs categorically bad? #*$& NO.
This kind of rampant provincialism is exactly why game designers have to screen out 90%+ of player feedback. Because most people literally won't look one inch past the fence around their 'yard' to see what's going on.
Wow really gee wow I was NOT refering to a pug situation that you seem to have assumed. Gee no sheat sherlock some class are played more then others which I may add is complelty besides the point in my post. On WOW I played every class and the advent of generic cookie cutter toons was across the board. So yeah that revamped "simplified" talent tree dumbed WOW down to the point where a blindfolded monkey could create a toon.
There's nothing wrong with the current design other than you have to actually READ it to make an effective character - that aside there is no balance to speak of between the 3 classes. When all 3 classes are clocking similar DPS with their various skills then there will be balance but I really doubt that will ever happen. It will be interesting to see what the outcome is.
Why? There is NOTHING broken with it and complex? NOT really. They should dedicate the time to fix other stuff like create NEW content, another full or semi faction or even give some love to PvP? This would be like the 3rd time they touch the same stuff and IMO useless waste of time from what I see so far. I know some peeps might say well these are developers and NOT bug hunters...still they should devote the resources to something else. If ain't broken why fix it?
This, !!!
Cryptic is repairing something that ain't broken, and i think they will break it now !!
People have been begging for a skill revamp for a long time now. They do something players are asking for and get bitched at. What exactly is their motivation to continue to listen to people?
What people? I don't recall anyone asking for a complete skill revamp. Probably a few floating around I guess.
To suggest they are doing this because of players asking for it is nothing but theoretical.
Anyway, I'm going to hold judgment until actual release on holodeck. I expect changes to it currently to what is seen on Tribble, because some elements to it doesn't make any sense.
Retired. I'm now in search for that perfect space anomaly.
There's nothing wrong with the current design other than you have to actually READ it to make an effective character - that aside there is no balance to speak of between the 3 classes. When all 3 classes are clocking similar DPS with their various skills then there will be balance but I really doubt that will ever happen. It will be interesting to see what the outcome is.
And lol is all I can say. If Sci ground could dish out equal damage to tac while at the same time healing his or her entire team, then we talk overpowered. People need to lay off the DPS/damage talk and class balancing in terms of damage. If they want that kind of balance they may as well suggest complete removal of classes and simply call for an introduction of universal abilities.
To suggest they are doing this because of players asking for it is nothing but theoretical.
A point which you'll find applies to any and all suggestions.
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
do I detect thinly veiled rage caused by the possible drop off (ie, rebalancing) of DPS with beam faw boring boats? Or is it that those wanting the ZOMG THIS WILL MAKE ME 1000% MORE DEEPS ultimate skills will cause people to have to make choices on which things they actually want?
I for one welcome any change that
a) makes beams / cannons equally effective
b) gives you the equivalent of 9 points in every one of the one click selectable skills (do get 50 for space after all)
c) requires rational thought and planning rather than cookie cutter beam fawboring builds
do I detect thinly veiled rage caused by the possible drop off (ie, rebalancing) of DPS with beam faw boring boats? Or is it that those wanting the ZOMG THIS WILL MAKE ME 1000% MORE DEEPS ultimate skills will cause people to have to make choices on which things they actually want?
I think it's more that this is one of those movements in a social space to which there's inertial resistance to. The current system is something you can certainly settle with and in spite of that cryptic's decided to try improving things. Great, but just by the circumstances you'll see some unsettled as they're pushed along in an as yet uncertain direction.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say "things will probably turn out alright" (just as most things have for STO so far) but in reacting to those that don't want to hear that just try to understand that theirs is a natural reaction for peoples. People will people along like people for as long as they're people, so just let them be the peopling people they need to be. :P
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
I'm not sold on this new skill tree system, after playing around with it for the past few days. I have my reasons, that I'll not go into here. But the poll is irrelevant, given the amount of time that Cryptic has already likely sunk into this project it'll go live regardless. At best all we can hope for is a few minor alterations here and there at best.
There are some issues that have been addressed that are long over due such as the damage drop off over distance between cannons and beams. But on the same note having to choose between either CrtH or CritD for projectile weapons is pointless for the players like myself that run a full energy weapon loadout. Also there are some skills that are currently on the lower end of the tree that have been moved to the opposite end with the new system. To me is seems like Cryptic are saying "Well here this is the way we think you should be building ships"
From what I've seen and read, weapons like the Zefram shotgun and TR-116B rifle have lost out because there is nothing in ground skills that specifically states that it now buff's kinetic weapons. And from what I've heard from a few bug hunters a number of ground builds and some are quiet innovative if I might add, may now be pretty much worthless.
I am totally with the devs rationale on this. Build diversification and thoughtful individual choices are more important to them and their vision of the game than people posting videos of CCA being beaten in 3.5 seconds.
To new players who see stuff like that, it makes their content seem trivial, to those that achieve it is is making their content trivial.
I don't want to play a trivial game. If I could go back in time 3 or 4 years when borg STFs required a competent team and 25 minutes (I'm talking ISA / KSA) I would do it in a heartbeat. It was more fun back then.
Heck, I even, occasionally build sub-optimal just to, you know, have a bit of a challenge.
There's nothing wrong with the current design other than you have to actually READ it to make an effective character - that aside there is no balance to speak of between the 3 classes. When all 3 classes are clocking similar DPS with their various skills then there will be balance but I really doubt that will ever happen. It will be interesting to see what the outcome is.
Read what? If you wanted to know what your powers did for sure you had to use the wiki or google which the skill revamp is trying to fix
I am totally with the devs rationale on this. Build diversification and thoughtful individual choices are more important to them and their vision of the game than people posting videos of CCA being beaten in 3.5 seconds.
To new players who see stuff like that, it makes their content seem trivial, to those that achieve it is is making their content trivial.
Ok so lets break this down. You talk about their "vision of the game" well the thing is they "are" responsible for what the game as become. They've built in this rampant power creep into the game. And as a result people have gone away, looked at what they've been given access to and one of the results was as you say CCA being completed in a few seconds.
You talk about build diversification, well yeah ok with the new skill tree cannons might well be brought back on par with beams. I've heard talk that they might possibly be able edge out beams slightly. Then in all likely hood people that are running beams might switch back to cannons. The after a period of time people would start complaining that the game has once more become "Escorts online". Further more if they wanted diversification in builds, why oh why is the deck stacked so heavily against kinetic damage in space?
What you call making content trivial, isn't that at all, it's experimentation, it's trial and error. It's people sitting around and thinking "Well what if I pair Console A up with Weapon B, how would that interact with Item C. A prime example is No win Scenario, you'll get no argument from me that power creep had a part in it being pulled from the available missions. Now my own feelings towards to some of the DPS crowd aside. it took them god knows long to beat it and countless runs. I remember watching the video's of their attempts back in the day.
I do believe these types of video's give an insight into how things work. I've posted video's in the past and a few that come to mind is one where we killed the cubes in CSE without touching a single probe underneath. Now that shouldn't have been allowed to happen in the first place! Admittedly we did for nothing more than giggles, but a quote from @sarcasmdetector (and feel free to correct me on this mate) on the video was that "DPS can solve everything" it can be argued that even back then people saw things like this becoming an issue. From my perspective the minute that video was seen by the Dev;s the regen rate for those probes sustaining the cubes should have gone through the roof to prevent it from happening again.
Another good reason for going back over video's is for analysis. a video of IGA that was made by my fleet, we went through looked at it and came up with improvements on the tactics and builds that we're used. One example was one player realized that the DoT doff's weren't really effective because due to the duration of the DoT compared to how fast the target died. As a result the base build was changed. And it's alright people complaining about cookie cutter builds, but for those that choose to imitate these builds that's their choice, but in no way does it mean that it's going to be as effective in their hands, than with the original concept.
I really believe there is a great deal more diversification going on in game than people think. Just because builds seem similar on the surface because a portion of the player base all choose to run Antiproton instead of phasers for example. There could be other more subtle changes within that build. Player A might run a conductive rcs with the EPS proc on it, Player B might then turn around and say you know what I don't need the extra turn rate, but I could do with more hull healing, so i think I'll drop the Samsar console in its place and trade off a little damage potential.
Comments
Id advise anyone who is questioning whether theyll be okay with this change to go onto Tribble themselves and play with the new Skill Tree themselves. Dont just assume things will be hunkydory or that the sky is falling.
Go test the new Tree out and give feedback. At least when it launches youll have an informed opinion on the matter and dont have to worry about second and third hand accounts of things being said and done in the Tribble Forums/On Tribble Server.
This, !!!
Cryptic is repairing something that ain't broken, and i think they will break it now !!
Not everyone wanted a skill tree revamp. Myself I like the skill tree just fine.
Some would say it was hard to understand. I disagree, if one actually took the time to read the short descriptions it was very easy to understand. Sure there was some mystery as to the "efficiency returned per point placed into a skill", but that could've been easily cleared up with some description/ToolTip editing, rather then wasting 6 months of development time tearing down a perfectly good system.
It's like re-inventing the wheel for no good reason.
Not too mention all the whacky bugs it will cause going forward. Combining certain skills has given me great cause for concern.
So what they should ignore everyone else and just listen to your feedback? Thats not how this works.
Oh was I the only one who thought a revamp of this scale was unnecessary ?
Cute. LOL
I guess "Everyone" else is on your page
I would have preferred End Game content or new battlezones/Red Alerts.
Not a skill tree revamp that wont even accomplish it's mission of bringing the captain classes in line with each other.
Its STILL a DPS race. And even with your coveted skill tree revamp, Tacs still rule.
And we still have no End Game in sight.
Hooray. I'm thrilled.
The screenshot in the article looks a lot like the specialization trees. Which suggests to me that the new tree might have a certain amount of modularity. By that I mean new parts can be added at will, without extra coding effort. New classes, anyone? Unlikely. But a fun thought.
so basically for the exact reasons the rest of us play it? srsly? up to now scenery and frenchize were not the ONLY reasons to play this game? Gameplay was a reason for you, seriously?
Yeah, I just disagree to the extent they went with it, but whatever, that's my personal opinion, I felt their attention was needed more elsewhere. But like you said it's a done deal.
I just hope it was a worth the time.
They did a great job on the Boff and Trait Revamps to their credit.
sssyrrrrrryssslllyyyyy boiiiiii. But srysly it's always been 95% Trek. For realzzz.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
My character Tsin'xing
I wouldn't say no no...but I would say no as in that we didn't need it...I like some people took the time to understand what the skills do and what abilities they affect, unlike casuals who look at it and say this is to hard, without even trying.
I think the question to ask isn't "do you want it?" (we're well past the point where that's relevant) but rather what you might be able to do (or not do) with the new system. It's coming and making it as good as it can be through constructive feedback is most definitely the most productive approach we can take at this time.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
But yes, I can agree with you that they are somewhat extremely slow at addressing problems and in particular easy fixes. One such is swapping the pet icons of the Baltim Raider Frigate and the Mir Fighters. They have each other's icons.
If you can kick butt in the TOS Constitution it is in all likelihood because people might be carrying you. Whether it is intentional or not on your part, it is common at large with or without your involvement in it.
Either way, I don't think you should bash the revamp before it is even out. I dont know whether you have tested the entire revamped skill tree or not, but from my own observation it seems to be increasing damage. The new skill tree is doing something the old one did not do explicitedly. It introduces critH/critDMG more explicitedly, but most importantly it introduces BOFF cooldown reductions which has come in different phases with the DOFF system and then the starship trait system. They even introduced higher yield of damage per power point with this revamp.
The total sum of this is more damage in general. In addition, from my own observation they buffed the yield of every "revamped" but existing skill node like defense and turn rate/speed. The direct result of this is better survivability, but the increased mobility will indirectly also add to your damage per second because you can converge between targets faster.
Then I think you may be vastly disappointed. As it seems now the revamp seems to be increasing damage rather than reducing it.
LMAO at WOW having a better talent system after thier revamp on that game. Seriously? Yeah that was when thier subs started tanking. WOW "new and improved" talent trees created generic charecters that were all the same talent wise with very little variation between them. Yup gee a hunter that could control animals but was weak in ranged or a hunter that could use daggers for hand to hand but no plate and poor pet control so no real help from pets and really lacking in stand off or a standoff that was dead meat for anything that got close before you could kill it. Yeah real good improvements on WOW skill trees. WOW is a bland pap of cookie cutter charecters who are either very good at one thing and ineffective at anything else or charecters who are ineffective at everything. Yup coming soon: Warcraft the world of Star Trek where the toons are all the same and nobody is given credit for being smart enough to figure out how to customize thier toons to match thier play style.
Explain it? Sure. Funny thing about multiple-class systems: There's ALWAYS more people not playing your class than there are people who are (and if there isn't there's something SERIOUSLY screwed up...). That means that even though a nerf has you shrieking bloody murder that they cruelly and evilly chopped a full inch off the length of your... nose... its may still be a good or even absolutely necessary choice for the health of the game as a whole. Can they over correct? Absolutely. Are mistakes made? Duh. Are nerfs categorically bad? #*$& NO.
This kind of rampant provincialism is exactly why game designers have to screen out 90%+ of player feedback. Because most people literally won't look one inch past the fence around their 'yard' to see what's going on.
What people? I don't recall anyone asking for a complete skill revamp. Probably a few floating around I guess.
To suggest they are doing this because of players asking for it is nothing but theoretical.
Anyway, I'm going to hold judgment until actual release on holodeck. I expect changes to it currently to what is seen on Tribble, because some elements to it doesn't make any sense.
A point which you'll find applies to any and all suggestions.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
I for one welcome any change that
a) makes beams / cannons equally effective
b) gives you the equivalent of 9 points in every one of the one click selectable skills (do get 50 for space after all)
c) requires rational thought and planning rather than cookie cutter beam fawboring builds
I think it's more that this is one of those movements in a social space to which there's inertial resistance to. The current system is something you can certainly settle with and in spite of that cryptic's decided to try improving things. Great, but just by the circumstances you'll see some unsettled as they're pushed along in an as yet uncertain direction.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say "things will probably turn out alright" (just as most things have for STO so far) but in reacting to those that don't want to hear that just try to understand that theirs is a natural reaction for peoples. People will people along like people for as long as they're people, so just let them be the peopling people they need to be. :P
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
There are some issues that have been addressed that are long over due such as the damage drop off over distance between cannons and beams. But on the same note having to choose between either CrtH or CritD for projectile weapons is pointless for the players like myself that run a full energy weapon loadout. Also there are some skills that are currently on the lower end of the tree that have been moved to the opposite end with the new system. To me is seems like Cryptic are saying "Well here this is the way we think you should be building ships"
From what I've seen and read, weapons like the Zefram shotgun and TR-116B rifle have lost out because there is nothing in ground skills that specifically states that it now buff's kinetic weapons. And from what I've heard from a few bug hunters a number of ground builds and some are quiet innovative if I might add, may now be pretty much worthless.
To new players who see stuff like that, it makes their content seem trivial, to those that achieve it is is making their content trivial.
I don't want to play a trivial game. If I could go back in time 3 or 4 years when borg STFs required a competent team and 25 minutes (I'm talking ISA / KSA) I would do it in a heartbeat. It was more fun back then.
Heck, I even, occasionally build sub-optimal just to, you know, have a bit of a challenge.
Read what? If you wanted to know what your powers did for sure you had to use the wiki or google which the skill revamp is trying to fix
I would question the actual percentage of suggestions that have been made and they went ahead and did it. Especially with something like this.
But I have a better theory why they are doing it. Go ahead a guess what you think that is if you want.
Ok so lets break this down. You talk about their "vision of the game" well the thing is they "are" responsible for what the game as become. They've built in this rampant power creep into the game. And as a result people have gone away, looked at what they've been given access to and one of the results was as you say CCA being completed in a few seconds.
You talk about build diversification, well yeah ok with the new skill tree cannons might well be brought back on par with beams. I've heard talk that they might possibly be able edge out beams slightly. Then in all likely hood people that are running beams might switch back to cannons. The after a period of time people would start complaining that the game has once more become "Escorts online". Further more if they wanted diversification in builds, why oh why is the deck stacked so heavily against kinetic damage in space?
What you call making content trivial, isn't that at all, it's experimentation, it's trial and error. It's people sitting around and thinking "Well what if I pair Console A up with Weapon B, how would that interact with Item C. A prime example is No win Scenario, you'll get no argument from me that power creep had a part in it being pulled from the available missions. Now my own feelings towards to some of the DPS crowd aside. it took them god knows long to beat it and countless runs. I remember watching the video's of their attempts back in the day.
I do believe these types of video's give an insight into how things work. I've posted video's in the past and a few that come to mind is one where we killed the cubes in CSE without touching a single probe underneath. Now that shouldn't have been allowed to happen in the first place! Admittedly we did for nothing more than giggles, but a quote from @sarcasmdetector (and feel free to correct me on this mate) on the video was that "DPS can solve everything" it can be argued that even back then people saw things like this becoming an issue. From my perspective the minute that video was seen by the Dev;s the regen rate for those probes sustaining the cubes should have gone through the roof to prevent it from happening again.
Another good reason for going back over video's is for analysis. a video of IGA that was made by my fleet, we went through looked at it and came up with improvements on the tactics and builds that we're used. One example was one player realized that the DoT doff's weren't really effective because due to the duration of the DoT compared to how fast the target died. As a result the base build was changed. And it's alright people complaining about cookie cutter builds, but for those that choose to imitate these builds that's their choice, but in no way does it mean that it's going to be as effective in their hands, than with the original concept.
I really believe there is a great deal more diversification going on in game than people think. Just because builds seem similar on the surface because a portion of the player base all choose to run Antiproton instead of phasers for example. There could be other more subtle changes within that build. Player A might run a conductive rcs with the EPS proc on it, Player B might then turn around and say you know what I don't need the extra turn rate, but I could do with more hull healing, so i think I'll drop the Samsar console in its place and trade off a little damage potential.