After playing this weekend and a short bit today, I am alot less fearful but a bit more disappointed, then i think I should be.
Likes: It should be fairly straight foward to produce all 8 of my builds, which are admittedly more generalist builds. It only took me one full look at the fully unlocked tree and a bit of looking at the old tree to match this up (so in theory 2 reset tokens) 3 seems fair.
Annoyances: hard to test alot of what I do without lobi ships or zen ships (all of mine are) and my weapons. (I have not tested science)
Dislikes: Hate the constriction of choices, let be honest, most would choose diffrently then 4 or 5 years ago due to incr. understanding of the game. I'd love to fly a hybrid beam/torp but i am so much short on everything else i need to CYA, so no crit+turn+beam+torp. The system is so the same, hard choices, its dislikeable for not being better.
loathe: duel ability (drain ablity also provides resistance to same) I subscribe to the Rock Paper Sizzor theory, build your DPS, I'll drain your enegry/ build for that leave your self open to systems offline, build for that your open to shield blead through. I would love to see 3 or 4 skills added to each profession and more thought given to; hey I fly this ship and this is who i am going to be good against, at the expense of that one guy who will rip me a new one.
Oh and those max abilities at the end, good luck selling those, i need to spend point on things i'll use.
@borticuscryptic obviously you have a lot on your plate here, however I share the concern with Lucho and some others about why Tach Beam, Energy Siphon, and Hazard Emitters take such a hit (I don't think that's been answered unless I missed it)? The goal is to get more people to try new things right? Nerfing some of the only good things we get as Sci Captains is not going to convince a lot of people to switch from Red to Blue. Is this a bug? Or WAI?
i don't have the actual quote. but i beleive Bort said somewhere that several science skills are currently working badly because they had strange calculations related to Aux power, and thus changing the baseline has affected them more than expected.
So this seems to be be a bug, and not a nerf.
Real Temporal Operative: Purchased the Special Temporal Agent pack before it was even officially announced!
@borticuscryptic obviously you have a lot on your plate here, however I share the concern with Lucho and some others about why Tach Beam, Energy Siphon, and Hazard Emitters take such a hit (I don't think that's been answered unless I missed it)? The goal is to get more people to try new things right? Nerfing some of the only good things we get as Sci Captains is not going to convince a lot of people to switch from Red to Blue. Is this a bug? Or WAI?
i don't have the actual quote. but i beleive Bort said somewhere that several science skills are currently working badly because they had strange calculations related to Aux power, and thus changing the baseline has affected them more than expected.
So this seems to be be a bug, and not a nerf.
Tachyon Beam's problem could be excused that way. Energy Siphon's drain is based purely on skill. The duration is based on Aux power.
I have not had to time to read the entire thread so I might have missed an additional explanation or information.
I just wanted to say that I'm not in favor of rescaling the effects of high aux on powers in the new skill system. If you want to boost the effects on the low end, then fantastic. Currently in PvE on holodeck it can be frustrating using some Sci powers at full Aux as the results can be limited, situational, negligible, or out of step with the focus on damage. Please do not compound that problem by rescaling high aux power and cutting supporting powers effectiveness, and adding another problem: weaker powers for those investing in high aux.
You know, the sad thing is, this was supposed to make choosing skills less confusing and it seems to be having an entirely opposite effect.
The people who don't get it will either mash buttons or copy off the internet. The ones who mash buttons will mostly find there are no terrible choices. The ones who copy will be better off than ever.
Better tooltips, a real tutorial, and a general polish pass to add things like a "confirm" button still need to happen, but mechanically we're already moving in a good direction.
The thing I hate the most, is that the skill tree design is a jumbled mess, as opposed to the neat and organized look of the current system. I like having things straight-forward in a line, not branching off here and there. I find the new look horribly chaotic and aesthetically displeasing.
My notes on Tribble testing over the last two days. These have been compiled without reading any one else’s posts. They may be useful or not, but it is what passed through my mind while poking at the new system.
There are two parts to this, first the applicable comments to the new system, and second general QoL improvements for the game and leveling progression.
New Skill system:
Purchase skills is constantly glowing and flashing even when no skills are available for purchase.
Most of what I have noticed so far has to do with the skill point text. For some examples:
Ground side— Weapon penetration. Total armor penetration is +3. +3 what? Points of damage? Percent? +3 to the results of a d20?
Space side— Tactical 15 point choice— Projectile Critical Damage. Increases your Critical Severity by +5 for Projectile Weapons. Again +5 what?
Really don't need the ‘For each point of X gives .y%’ if all we have is a +50, or +35, or +100 chunk of points. As each skill chosen makes a large (generally equivalent to three pips into the skills of the previous system, and the math is based on the on 1 of 99 (or now 100) of the previous system, it makes the description more difficult and confusing for new and even current players. There is a layer of description in there that just feels confusing, adding an unneeded layer to the description. Perhaps simplifying it from the base of 1 point / 100 points to a base of the whole amount presented in that skill point.
Perhaps it can be simplified to three statements on each skill. Give a general explanation, perhaps some flavor text, then the total bonus from that skill point.
For example:
Ground 2nd skill choice selection— Device expertise.
“This skill increases the effectiveness of most consumable devices.” The first line is a good general description of what that skill choice does.
“Each point of …”
“+100 Device mastery…” Remove the two middle sentences
“Total Device Bonus = +50%.” For the final sentence instead state something along the lines of “This skill increases most consumable device effectiveness by 50%.”
The entire text of those four sentences and bits there could actually be summed up in that one sentence. Of course, what does effectiveness mean? Perhaps the extra space could be used to answer that question. Increases hypo healing by 50%, increase duration of food or tribble buffs by 50% etc. (if that is what the skill does for those items)
Description of shield hardness is also difficult to understand.
The first sentence isn’t entirely clear. “This skill increases the amount of incoming damage negated by your shields.” Negated? Does that mean the potential damage goes ‘poof’ and simply vanishes, similar to how resilient shields work?
The second sentence makes the most sense, assuming the first sentence works as above. Then we get into that point mess. A percent of a percent always makes my eyes start to cross, glaze over, and drool leak from my mouth. Simply state “This skill increases the base .2% per current point of shield power to .3% per current point of shield power.” Of course this is dependent on my understanding how these percentages work.
For Improved shield hardness then state “This skill increases … to .37% per current point…” and for advanced Shield Hardness “… to .4% per…”
Similar simplifying statements throughout all the skills could make it much easier to read and understand for new and current players.
Other than the text issues, these are the other things I’ve noticed:
I like the choice between Improved Crouch and Improved Aim. I crouch, but I do not aim, so this benefits my play style. Others may not agree.
Fatal Fists. I like it! A bit of an advantage to the up close play style. Perfect for a melee char.
General QoL:
I made a Romulan char, played up until the choice of faction (Approximately level 19, double exp on Tribble?) before going to Drozana and leveling up to 60 to play with the skill trees and the spec trees.
Ogod, warp 5, so slow…
Most of my issues here seem to be because of the extra leveling exp:
The guided intro to the skill purchasing is after when the first skills are available. This may be due to a double exp event on Tribble, but since those events are so regular, it may be a problem for first time players.
New trait slot guided intro appears too late again, much after the trait appears, perhaps because of 2x exp.
Instructions on equipping character (the Crateris mission) are too late to apply to getting new gear and equipping it. I know there’s a lot of information that needs to be spread out, but please explain as soon as it applies to the character.
Lvl 20, finished Khitomer mission, chose side, now only have lvl 10 ship access. Ah, Kererek did not contact me automatically when I leveled to 20. I had to seek him out and speak to him. After speaking to Kererek I get a free costume change, still? Same with 30, 40, 50. He did for 55 and 60 though.
Doffing system is activated at lvl 11, but no doffs given (initial duty officer cadre). However crafting doffs are provided at lvl 15. Can not use them because I received them before picking a side. Finally acquired doffs, but only the 3 bonus from leveling to 18.
After mission Neutral No More, does the 1st doffing complement arrive, past level 20.
Some text issues:
‘New Romulus’ and ‘Dewa III System’ text overlap, before and after the Search For New Romulus mission.
‘Dewa III System’ The planet is Dewa III of the Dewa system.
First time leaving Rom Flotilla during Explore the Flotilla mission puts the player outside the Flotilla. Afterward, leaving Rom Flotilla puts player next to Sol System. Warp 6.67 is better than the crawl of warp 5, but still there are tears of boredom. Especially without doffing working.
After the Sela cutscene on Khitomer, Tovan and char are overlapping, disobeying the pauli exclusion principle.
Reputation trait slots are available (4 of them), even though reputations are not available until 50. Perhaps locking them until 50 as well would reduce confusion on new players.
For the love of Q, please always put the 20 hr rep missions on top of the list. Terran, Dyson, Romulan have those missions second in the list.
Other than those observations, It looks good and I’m enjoying playing with the various possible builds. I will continue to explore the options and add more thoughts about this system later.
I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
I played around with the new skill tree and here are the things I found:
-Energy and Projectile Weapon training are missing further explanation of by how much they increase weapon damage. I believe it is just temporally missing the description and an update is already planned. But better point out, just to be sure.
-On the first tactical unlock, starship stealth, the formula is displayed as Perception - Stealth/50. But something tells me it is calculated as (Perception-Stealth)/50. I am correct? Anyway, it generated doubt about what is the correct formula. Adding some parenthesis to emphatise the order of operations would be nice.
-Weapon Amplification: First node has a percent sign accompaning the description of the total effect. The other 2 doesn't have.
-Shield Mastery: Could be informed on tooltip if the charges stack. In case so, also tell us which is the maximum stack.
These was the trivial things I caught. About the concept itself, I have some issues:
1) On holodeck, my engineer captain has the capacity to train my BOff on virtually any rank III engineering ability. The only skills I cannot train are EptW III and EptA III. But this was due a conscious choice of me. I could easily reorder my skills to add these as well. Under the new system, I will lose access to training many of these. In the new skill system, it is impossible for someone to unlock training in all BOff abilities. The blog said we won't lost anything. Well, I'm going to lose the ability to fabricate some engineering BOff abilitues manuals. BTW, the same thing happens with ground skills.
2)This is a bit more subjective, but when I tryed to make a build aiming for the tactical ultimate unlock, I felt a bit constrained. There is 30 skills on tactical track, and to get all ultimate unlocks, it is needed 28. It remained only 17 points to invest on the remaining tracks, and I had to leave behind skills which sounded necessary. Now, I did not test how powerfull the ultimates unlocks are, so they might very well conpensate the lacking on the other areas.
3)On the Lt. Tier, it was basically presented a choice: You want to be very good on torpedos or on energy weapons? Do you want a good shield capacity or good shield healing? But I find all those aspects are very important and deserved attention. So my proposal. Unify the first node on each track in a single skill that boosts both aspects. And make from it a tree where you choose where you really want to excel. The specialization system has a similar system and works pretty well. This would also free some points for use in other skills, giving players a bit more flexibility (which I believe is missing in the system).
Finally and risking to go a bit off-topic. It would be nice to have implemented skills loadouts. My skills choices depends drastically on the ship I'm going to fly. It is not necessary much. 2 or 3 slots/char I think would meet the needs of most player. Who wants more, could purchase in the CStore. And to respec them, it would still be needed the respec token.
Pre-forum change name: Captain Wilhelm Join Date: March 2009
Thanks Cryptic for introducing the Kelvin Timeline. It remembered why I decided to never more put any money on this game.
That's not how players make decisions. If a player is only using energy weapons, then they've sunk a significant amount of resources into that build. Changing to a hybrid build, even if they only add a single projectile weapon, is going to be a non-starter. They wont do it. They'll continue to use the energy only build and will completely ignore the skills that only affect projectile weapons, including the passive node on the tactical tree. It wont help them, so there will be exactly zero reasons for them to ever care about picking it. And when they get to the energy weapons node, they'll take CritH over CritD because CritH is that much better than CritD. So right now an energy only player will ignore 3 choices (the two projectile ones, and the CritD choice), by splitting the nodes, players will potentially only ignore 2 choices.
In regards to the italicized:
You seem to think that the projectile choice would be ignored by the majority of the player base. Youre correct, because energy is king. But but leaving the nodes as they are... players are still going to ignore the projectile skills. Which is no different than what you expect.
You're defending a bad design choice behind the veil of player agency. Stop it. Players are losing more agency with the nodes as they are now because you're removing the ability to FULLY SPEC for something. That should be just as valid a choice as hybridization is.
Ok, lets talk realpolitik for moment. I mean really cut through the TRIBBLE.
Every single design choice that can be made in a way to erode the dominance of BFAW beam boats is going to be made in the way that erodes BFAW dominance.
The nerf-bat may not be swung in one mighty Mjolnir-esque THUMP, but make no mistake which way the wind is blowing. At the end of the day every request that supports the current one-dimensional itemization, build, and rotation that is the current undisputed king of DPS-gameplay is going to get ignored. Flat out ignored.
Disappointment is the distance between bad expectations and reality. Set your expectations appropriately. Maintaining the circus we have now on Holodeck is NOT one of the goals here.
There's a new TV show coming. An event bordering on once in a lifetime for this game to re-position itself as something relevant in the broader Star Trek brand. I promise getting this product in respectable shape to try and pitch it to a new audience is more important that maintaining the status quo for the bottom 90% of the players sorting by money spent. There's going to be some upsets, there's going to be some upheaval, and there's going to be some gnashing of teeth. And all of those things are still 1,000x better for the game as a whole that to let the current system continue to fester.
There's a new TV show coming. An event bordering on once in a lifetime for this game to re-position itself as something relevant in the broader Star Trek brand. I promise getting this product in respectable shape to try and pitch it to a new audience is more important that maintaining the status quo for the bottom 90% of the players sorting by money spent. There's going to be some upsets, there's going to be some upheaval, and there's going to be some gnashing of teeth. And all of those things are still 1,000x better for the game as a whole that to let the current system continue to fester.
And then there's going to be players leaving in droves, just like what happened with SWG. Like fans have been saying to CBS and Paramount since they started suing every fan-project out there, stop trying to pander to a new audience and focus the core fandom who have supported the franchise for decades.
You can succeed perfectly well at the majority of STO's content, and earn progression towards nearly every reward in the game, without dealing >10k DPS.
"That sound you just made? It was adorable.
...Please don't ever make it again."
For realsies: No player with the level of investment in this game you desperately, DESPARATELY want them to have hangs around thinking "Oh man, I am just so stoked to be loping along doing less than a quarter of the damage what a fully dressed out player does. I rule!"
You know that. We know that. That's not a meaningful talking point in this discussion. Now let's all just pretend it wasn't said.
You can succeed perfectly well at the majority of STO's content, and earn progression towards nearly every reward in the game, without dealing >10k DPS.
"That sound you just made? It was adorable.
...Please don't ever make it again."
For realsies: No player with the level of investment in this game you desperately, DESPARATELY want them to have hangs around thinking "Oh man, I am just so stoked to be loping along doing less than a quarter of the damage what a fully dressed out player does. I rule!"
You know that. We know that. That's not a meaningful talking point in this discussion. Now let's all just pretend it wasn't said.
I've been thinking about that quote. Trying not to read too much into it. As a horrendously dreadful pilot using mostly science captains, I can get over 10k in a T1 BoP. I'm not bragging, not even a little, because I have no cause to. I'm really average, at best. If I can do it, realistically, anyone can.
A lot of people couldn't be bothered to take the game very seriously, though. And who is to say that's wrong?
DPS can not be the main focus of absolutely everything in this game. Nor can RPing. Nor can Space Barbie. The main reason why so many of the items in this game are largely ignored by people is because they're not "optimal." People tell everyone that they're "gimping" themselves by using it (which, to be fair, sometimes IS the case). That's bad business. If they want to sell ships/weapons/unlocks/whatever, they need broad appeal. People need to buy them for a variety of reasons, not just "because DPS."
A big hint to this is the "Where is the harder content?" that never comes. That's a lot of development time for, what, 5-10% of the game? There are people spending boatloads just to look at ships, or make canon builds because it's Star Trek. They have no idea what their DPS is, or which shields work best. And they don't care. And that is as valid as religiously checking DPS. You can't lock paying customers out of content. Just my $0.02.
And then there's going to be players leaving in droves, just like what happened with SWG. Like fans have been saying to CBS and Paramount since they started suing every fan-project out there, stop trying to pander to a new audience and focus the core fandom who have supported the franchise for decades.
It says more than I ever could when a player tries to scare the Dev's into inaction by trotting out the spectre of a 10 year old boogieman of the industry. Let me assure you A LOT MORE GAMES have died of system-rot since then than have from gambling on the periodic system update. They just aren't afraid of the same things you are.
And pretending for just a moment this is a business, what customer gets you salivating more - the diehard whose already bought everything on your shelves or the fresh meat to whom everything you have on offer is shiny and new? Well, shiny after you blow the dust off of it. Hard news: They aren't here to make you happy, they go to work every day looking at how to stay in business. Retention is a real issue, but acquisition is life or death. Eyeing new customers with the TV series coming the choices are saying "oh, we went free to play 5 years ago" or "Oh, we totally updated our core gameplay just last year!" Yeah. No. Contest.
Personally, I think I'll cope if the top 1% apex DPS build suddenly requires me to upgrade one whole elite XIV torpedo... I mean, that just totally sounds like a shake-up on the order of the NGE. ((snort))
That's not how players make decisions. If a player is only using energy weapons, then they've sunk a significant amount of resources into that build. Changing to a hybrid build, even if they only add a single projectile weapon, is going to be a non-starter. They wont do it. They'll continue to use the energy only build and will completely ignore the skills that only affect projectile weapons, including the passive node on the tactical tree. It wont help them, so there will be exactly zero reasons for them to ever care about picking it. And when they get to the energy weapons node, they'll take CritH over CritD because CritH is that much better than CritD. So right now an energy only player will ignore 3 choices (the two projectile ones, and the CritD choice), by splitting the nodes, players will potentially only ignore 2 choices.
In regards to the italicized:
You seem to think that the projectile choice would be ignored by the majority of the player base. Youre correct, because energy is king. But but leaving the nodes as they are... players are still going to ignore the projectile skills. Which is no different than what you expect.
You're defending a bad design choice behind the veil of player agency. Stop it. Players are losing more agency with the nodes as they are now because you're removing the ability to FULLY SPEC for something. That should be just as valid a choice as hybridization is.
Ok, lets talk realpolitik for moment. I mean really cut through the TRIBBLE.
Every single design choice that can be made in a way to erode the dominance of BFAW beam boats is going to be made in the way that erodes BFAW dominance.
The nerf-bat may not be swung in one mighty Mjolnir-esque THUMP, but make no mistake which way the wind is blowing. At the end of the day every request that supports the current one-dimensional itemization, build, and rotation that is the current undisputed king of DPS-gameplay is going to get ignored. Flat out ignored.
Disappointment is the distance between bad expectations and reality. Set your expectations appropriately. Maintaining the circus we have now on Holodeck is NOT one of the goals here.
There's a new TV show coming. An event bordering on once in a lifetime for this game to re-position itself as something relevant in the broader Star Trek brand. I promise getting this product in respectable shape to try and pitch it to a new audience is more important that maintaining the status quo for the bottom 90% of the players sorting by money spent. There's going to be some upsets, there's going to be some upheaval, and there's going to be some gnashing of teeth. And all of those things are still 1,000x better for the game as a whole that to let the current system continue to fester.
You dont seem to understand.
Energy weapons arent king because of BFAW (though it is a rather large portion of it). Energy is king because hybridizing is actively punishing players. Even a rainbow build will do more damage than a hybrid energy/projectile build. And that because torpedoes are so massively neutered by shields.
Players arent going to magically switch to hybrid builds because Cryptic offers them a pithy choice into boosting their projectile CritH. Not like Bort thinks they will. They wont even consder it, they'll just continue using their build which they have likely sunk millions and millions of energy credits, and dilithium into and hundreds of hours on building. They wont give any consideration to torpedoes or mines. They'll play and play and play until they feel Cryptic has gone too far.
And then, down the road, those players will leave. They wont be the people on the forums shouting "Dooooom!" or "**** this I'm out!" they'll just be gone. (Do you want to see what massive sweeping changes that upset the status quo result in? Google 'Star Wars Galaxies NGE'. That game died. Overnight. Not over the course of years, or months or even weeks. It took one night for SWG to become a shadow of its former self. I was there.) Just how far down the road? That will likely be decided here. WIth this change.
Youre worried about bringing a new audience in. Let me give you a hint... the state of the game on Holodeck... is pretty conducive to that. Even with the DPS-meta as it is. The game is actually good enough right now, to keep drawing players in.
Bort was right when he said, you can play and enjoy this game while doing less than 10k DPS. And the majority of people, wont care about doing even 5k DPS. You may not like it. But he was actually, factually, correct in his statement.
If Cryptic ignores the current DPS meta, and actively works against it, people are going to leave. And thats not good, many of the DPS centric players are huge in the community, even outside of the massive deeps they do. You do not want to ever alienate them. It doesnt end well. In any possible way.
The current BFAW meta has been allowed to go too long for them to start changing it now. If they had wanted to do this... it should have been done. Years ago.
More importantly, Bort is still defending a bad design choice behind the veil of player agency, when the bad design choice is, in fact, limiting player agency more than it is allowing it.
Min-maxing is part of every MMO in the history of MMOs. Trying to work against it is foolish. Thats what the BFAW meta is: min-maxing. And if it were to go away, something else just as min-maxed would take its place.
Choice is important. Without consequence, those choices are meaningless. Choices where the outcome/decision are different depending on outside influences are even more powerful and important to a progression system such as this one.
Without choices that mean anything, the entirety of the system may as well not exist. "If everyone is special, nobody is."
You might disagree with the choices we're asking you to make, but I hope you can at least understand the reason that they are there.
In a related note, my testing has shown a distinct advantage when playing as a Tactical captain (moreso than usual thanks to some of the skill changes and interactions); while I'm unsure if this is WAI:
Drain Infection and EPS Corruption provide flat damage values, rather than being scaled off of Exotic Particle Generators (and thus Conservation of Energy) and/or Aux Power levels (instead, Emergency Power to Weapons can boost them as they are considered to be All Energy Damage). This is inconsistent with the design, favoring the All Damage bonuses of Attack Pattern Alpha and Tactical Fleet over the capabilities of their native Profession or Skill Tree. While playing a Tactical captain has always been favored mechanically, limited interactions for Exotic Particle Generators further skews this. Where a Tactical character has the ability to blow ship up with Science, a Science Captain can't even boost the damage from a Science Skill... and an Engineering captain grants no benefits to the Engineering Ultimate whatsoever; that just seems wrong in a system supposedly intended to be more intuitive for new players (old ones are used to Tactical working better for most things).
Similarly, Engineering has had a couple skills removed entirely, and unlike Attack Patterns both Batteries (critical for making use of EPS Maniford Efficiency) and Driver Coil (many players dismiss it, but it can take low-level travel times from "making dinner" to "grabbing coffee", while also helping get around at Full Impulse) now eat up progression unlocks. Meanwhile, there simply aren't enough skills in Engineering that justify investing to the point of unlocking the Ultimate, thanks to diminishing returns on DRM values and generally superior choices in either of the other Skill Trees (mostly Tactical).
It's very easy to find a reason to fill the Tactical Tree and unlock the Tactical Ultimate, but Engineering and Science are rather lacking at the moment (especially Engineering). So, here are a few suggestions for modifying the Space Skill Tree:
Engineering Tree
Put Hull Restoration and Damage Control back together (pun intended) at Lieutenant rank, combining both active and passive hull recovery.
This provides a greater incentive to invest in Engineering, and opens up three spaces in the Engineering Tree at Lt. Commander.
Consolidate Energized Hull Plating and Ablative Hull Plating into a second rank of Hull Plating.
Add a Reinforce Hull Plating unlock to the Hull Plating line that applies +10 DRM (15 sec duration, refresh duration rather than stacking if reapplied or applied by another player) to the target of any hull healing applied by your captain.
Diminishing returns on DRM makes heavy investment in either our console slots or Skill Tree less appealing; these need to be more valuable to have any chance of drawing Skill Points away from pretty much anything on the Tactical Tree.
Place the Hull Penetration line in the Engineering Tree, adjacent to the Hull Plating line.
If your mere presence can improve the armor of your own ship, maybe... just maybe... you might be able to help punch through the armor of your enemies.
Apply the Attack Patterns treatment to Batteries, making all battery-type abilities perform as if we had 100 in Batteries.
Engineering captains rely on that skill to make proper use of EPS Manifold Efficiency, and losing low-cost access certainly doesn't help make Engineering a better choice when choosing a Profession.
Replace the current 5 points Engine Subsystem Power unlock on the Engineering line with one that provides a bonus to the cooldown of Starship Devices.
Let us choose between passively shaking off Subsystem Disables and actively countering them with Batteries more often.
Replace the current 10 points Battery Expertise unlock on the Engineering line with Engine Subsystem Power.
This matches the choice of Weapons/Shields at 15 points.
Come up with a better Engineering Ultimate, one that makes use of actual Engineering abilities.
While it is thematic that an Engineer might be capable of subverting an enemy's systems, there is no Engineering Skill that enhances EPS Corruption nor is there any particular benefit to having an Engineer unlock it. In fact, it works better for a Tactical that can buff its damage with Attack Pattern Alpha and Tactical Fleet. My suggestion would be to have the Engineering Ultimate grant a buff that increases Max Power settings (with added unlocks that enhance all energy weapons to debuff enemy Max Power settings and/or enhance all projectile weapons to apply a Starship Injury and/or enhance all hull heals to remove a Starship Injury) for the duration; that would make the investment worthwhile and be more consistent with Engineering themes and capabilities.
Science Tree
Put Shield Restoration and Shield Regeneration together at Lieutenant rank, combining both active and passive shield recovery.
This provides a greater incentive to invest in Science, and opens up three spaces in the Science Tree at Lt. Commander. Plus, it remains consistent with the proposed changes to the Engineering Tree.
Place the Shield Penetration line in the Science Tree, adjacent to the Shield Hardness line.
If your mere presence can improve the hardness of your own shields, maybe... just maybe... you might be able to help punch through the shields of your enemies. Plus, it remains consistent with the proposed changes to the Engineering Tree.
Apply the benefits of Exotic Particle Generators to any non-weapon ability that causes damage.
The entire Tactical Tree progressively improves your weapon damage, adding benefit after benefit; the Science Tree should at least be capable of consistently improving the damage of its own Skills. While the most glaring inconsistency I see is Drain Infection, in general it seems counterintuitive that a Tactical captain is more capable of applied Science than a Science captain... and a Skill Revamp is a good time to address that to some degree.
Tactical Tree
Move the Weapon Amplification and Weapon Specialization lines down to the vacated Commander tier.
Given that everyone has weapons at that rank, it makes more sense than the later skills.
Move the Coordination Protocols line down to the Captain tier.
This is mostly because Tactical would now need something at this Rank, and KDF players will have potentially gained access to hangar pets by this point.
Create a Coordinated Fire line at the the Captain tier, granting bonuses specifically designed for mixed payloads; firing an Energy Weapon would grant a bonus to Projectile Weapons (5 sec duration, refresh duration rather than stacking if reapplied) and Projectile Weapons would grant a bonus to Energy Weapons (10 sec duration, refresh duration rather than stacking if reapplied). The initial Skill would grant Accuracy (+7.5%), followed by forked unlocks providing Critical Hit (+3%) and Critical Severity (+10%).
This is specifically designed to be more cost-effective than additional investment in Targeting Expertise, Weapon Amplification, and Weapon Specialization because it only applies to a mixed payload; a more focused build already has advantages in consoles and Energy/Projectile Weapon Training costs, while this specifically rewards a mixed bag (if you choose to invest in it). Additionally, these are the Ranks at which your likely payload is large enough to start running around with a varied weapon setup.
Create a new version of the Coordination Protocols (Strategic Assault, Defensive Strategies, Offensive Strategies) at the Admiral tier, capable of enhancing all non-hangar pets and summons.
Adjust the Tactical Line pet unlocks to apply to all pets rather than merely hangar pets.
There is a distinct lack of improvement for Photonic, Separation, and Summoned pets within the Skill Tree (along with the lack of control when using them), which these would alleviate.
These changes are intended to meet the goal of implementing meaningful choices, both within the Skill Tree and in Professions in general. As it stands, Tactical captains are gaining capabilities with the new Skill Revamp while Engineers are losing capabilities... and Science still has that weird thing where they aren't actually as good at Science as a Tactical. I can't guarantee my suggestions would fix these issues (or even make anything other than Tactical appealing), but that was my goal.
As a side note, based on your current Skill Tree the Flight Deck Officer doffs should be part of the Tactical department and Sensor Officer doffs should be part of the Science department. It's not a huge issue one way or the other, but it would be more consistent if the idea is to make things more understandable for new players.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
My commentary - only going to comment on Ground, since me commenting on Space would be like asking a vegetarian to pass comments on how good a steak was.
Passive Regeneration
It is nice to have a way to increase the passive regeneration; we did not have this possibility with former skill-tree – BUT, if this is not applied like, 25 – 30% bonus in Combat and 50% bonus out of Combat, there’s not much use for this skill. Zero-passive regeneration bonus in combat from this skill serves little purpose & again, diminishes potential possibilities from Ground-combat.
To explain: The entire point of higher passive HP regeneration on Ground (and yes, it is useful, trust me) is to be able to raise survivability and offset the incoming damage, while you fight the enemies. There is practically no rush out of combat and there are more efficient ways of regaining health out of combat anyways. Simply speaking - You do not need higher passive regeneration when you just stand around and are out of danger. The way this skill is set, it gives little to no advantage to anyone – but, to tanks it potentially could serve well, if this skill grants the bonuses In Combat as well.
Suggestion: Apply the bonuses of this skill in Combat on Ground as well. Make the final number 25 – 30% in Combat, while retaining the original of 50% bonus Out of Combat.
Combat Specialist
The fact they gave ‘Combat Specialist’ to everyone AND removed its’ crucial improvement of critical hits of melee is likewise undermining, underwhelming change; It’s like they took a special skill from say, Engi & gave it to everyone, at least that’s the way I see it.
To address this, and make it more fair, I think this skill should give improvements of crits of melee, as it used to, but to Tacticals only. Or, as mentioned below, have 'Offensive Mastery' to boost 'Combat Specialist' + melee (unarmed; ex. Lunge & Sweeping Strikes) crits skill as well, not only Weapons as it currently is.
Threat Control
‘Threat Control’ is being removed completelly for ground, (it was part of my original setup/build, as it was one of its’ needed components, due to tanking nature of it) & the reason for its’ removal is apparently, because people “don’t understand it, and didn’t use it” – Is that a reason to remove a perfectly valid skill, useful for tanking builds? In my opinion; no. It removes further variability from Ground combat – and given we have far less options as it is, compared to space, I suggest this stance is reconsidered.
Suggestion: Space has got their ‘Threatening stance’, why not keep this for Ground as well?
Offensive Mastery
I believe that offensive Mastery should encompas melee as well. By melee in this instance, I mean things like Bite, Lunge, Pounce, or Sweeping Strikes - Not just weapons, as it presently is. There aren't enough bonuses for melee in the special-skills, selection you gain as you progress through the tree - found one. That, and we've essentially lost damage-potential by Combat Specialist being given to everyone + no longer boosts critical hits. This change I believe would offset that, at least a bit and would be also more feasible to implement, given that everyone on the Ground has the same skills/trees, regardless of the career.
Additionally - I believe the Ground would benefit from having 11 - 12 spendable points. 10 feels a bit too tight. I'd say compromise it at 11.
*Howgh* More observations later.
Post edited by jodarkrider on
[10:20] Your Lunge deals 4798 (2580) Physical Damage(Critical) to Tosk of Borg.
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Some interesting ideas there, The unlock choices of engineering also need some work, 2 power for one subsystem ? Really? power is even worse then Damage resistance where there is a actual cap that can be reached that have no benefit after(besides when your power is drained) , I propose adding 4 different chooses like +5 inertia or impulse mod. As well as maybe just a flat turn rate increase like +2. While those are movement options there should be A power option like +2 to all subsystems? A hull healer option too, like a aoe burst of 20% or some sort of chain heal proc or a added crit chance to hull heals.
I've also been looking at and playing around with the skill system a bit more and I just can't help but feel like it should just be a flat 50 or 49 skill points one for each level, it just feels better to earn one point every level. At least until you get the specialization which is also one point per level. Even if you feel you might need to expand the trees a bit, by adding a another one skill per tree.
I also can't shake the feeling that certain min max builds feel a little out of reach and that 3 points would solve that. Sorry but us min maxer try are best even though my min/maxing is rarely a dps thing becuase that seems easy, tanking min manxing is hard this is both a blessing and a curse. It means dps enthusiast will have hard time getting as much tank, but it also means tankers will have hard time getting a descent damage build out of it too..
I believe that offensive Mastery should encompas melee as well. Not just weapons, as it presently is. There aren't enough bonuses for melee in the special-skills, selection you gain as you progress through the tree - found one. That, and we've essentially lost damage-potential by Combat Specialist being given to everyone + no longer boosts critical hits. This change I believe would offset that, at least a bit.
Additionally - I believe the Ground would benefit from having 11 - 12 spendable points. 10 feels a bit too tight. I'd say compromise it at 11.
*Howgh* More observations later.
Am I missing something? Because the description in the pic you linked specifically states that it does include melee weapons.
I believe that offensive Mastery should encompas melee as well. Not just weapons, as it presently is. There aren't enough bonuses for melee in the special-skills, selection you gain as you progress through the tree - found one. That, and we've essentially lost damage-potential by Combat Specialist being given to everyone + no longer boosts critical hits. This change I believe would offset that, at least a bit.
Additionally - I believe the Ground would benefit from having 11 - 12 spendable points. 10 feels a bit too tight. I'd say compromise it at 11.
*Howgh* More observations later.
Am I missing something? Because the description in the pic you linked specifically states that it does include melee weapons.
[EDIT] edit- unless you mean things like Lunge?
Melee Weapons, not necessarily all melee. As @jodarkrider mentioned being a Tac, I'd assume the issue is that it doesn't improve Bite, Lunge, Pounce, or Sweeping Strikes.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
All the discussion about one single skill point you need to spend extra to get your crit bonus on beams. Aren't there some other aspects of the skill revamp that are important?
Like the people noticing discrepancies between Tribble and Holodeck effect values for some science powers? More data there would probably be immensely more useful.
Mustrum "I really need to reserve some time to test more on Tribble" Ridcully
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As @jodarkrider mentioned being a Tac, I'd assume the issue is that it doesn't improve Bite, Lunge, Pounce, or Sweeping Strikes.
That's what I meant. I'll fix it for clarity. Thank you for pointing it out.
[10:20] Your Lunge deals 4798 (2580) Physical Damage(Critical) to Tosk of Borg.
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Something that would be spectacular to add to the UI for this:
A popup box, or side window, not unlike what exists currently on Holodeck. only this window/box comes up after you have chosen your skills. It has a SPACE and GROUND breakdown of your results (similar to the orbit/ground "stats" window).
At the bottom of this side window (or popup box!), 2 buttons: CONFIRM and CANCEL.
Tried testing on Tribble but I'm going to have to wait until I can get a max level character over there with proper gear and ship for final thoughts. Seriously, tier 4 ships are the highest we can test with? Or am I missing something...
One thing I will say it needs, a confirm button! We shouldn't have to spend a retrain token just to mess around and get a final build organised. There is also still the problem for new players, no way of telling them what is an optimised build. Yes, I know there are tooltips but if you're new to the game how are you supposed to know, for example, that power levels/EPS are so crucial? 12 points spent to get what appears to be the same sort of power levels as I have on Holodeck seems a bit much too. Yes, I may have more overall with the +2 power to x system in the unlocks but whoopee 2 whole points?, I'd rather have something more useful for the unlocks if I'm going to be spending over a quarter of my points anyway in power systems. Yes, I know there are things like Plasmonic Leech and Supremacy but unless they fix the broken economy only a small fraction of players are going to own both of these but that's beside the point.
Also tied in with this is the ultimate skills. Maybe a carrot on a stick for new players? They seem very underwhelming for the outlay to me. A new tac officer may think, 'Oh I have to spend 25 of my points to get the tactical ultimate', or Sci/Engineer with theirs, only to realise they've seriously gimped themselves at end-game when they venture into the community outside the game to get the information they should have access to while levelling. Maybe this is all tied in with not having a commit button so Cryptic gets more money from selling retrain tokens... I've tried a couple of builds and they seem to be working OK but I'm not getting close to unlocking an ultimate. Will have to see when I get my main over there.
A few tweaks are going to be needed to the unlocks from points spent. Some useless skills in there still but I'll wait until I can spend more time with better ships/equipment and then I can actually compare numbers properly.
It's not all doom and gloom though! I love the new engineer skill for increased threat generation, maybe we'll see more engi tanks? I'm also glad to see the early pet unlock in the tactical tree, it means that an engi/sci based carrier pilot doesn't have to spend too much in the tactical tree, I hope that stays. Overall it may work out to be a breath of fresh air and an improvement to the game but that's not going to be known until it's gone live.
I'm also glad to see the early pet unlock in the tactical tree, it means that an engi/sci based carrier pilot doesn't have to spend too much in the tactical tree, I hope that stays. Overall it may work out to be a breath of fresh air and an improvement to the game but that's not going to be known until it's gone live.
thats the part where everyone else will say and actially said NOPE, this should be at the very end of the tree and no where near the start, hangar pets and stealth is something that SOME use, not everyone, what am i gonna do with that if i dont have anything with cloak or dont have pets or even a pet enable ship? That stuff is only relevant at 40+ Level anyone cause before that you dont have acces to pet enabled ship, so its completly wrong placed, other stuff that everyone benefitts right from the start should be first, specific stuff like pets and stealth at the end, so yea the rest of us definately hope that this does NOT stay the way it is right now.
Also bumping up another topic that is still valid and should still be reconsidered and not forgotten, Boff Training Manuals, I/We still say that you should not break the system we have right now, our characters can - if skilled right - craft ALL Manuals avaible from their Carrer, with the new system one would need a total of 9 Dedicited Characters to be able to craft all Manuals, this is EXTREMLY dissapointing and a completly unneccesary change, it invalidates my Dedicited Crafting Chars whos sole Purpose is crafting Manuals, i dont know how many people here allready stated the same so it affects many as it seems, therefore:
my eyes are still on you and the entire team @borticuscryptic PLEASE dont nerf the Manual Crafting System, its absolutely FINE the way it is, we appreciate your efforts to improve stuff and add new content, BUT taking away something / nefing something is NOT appreciated PLEASE.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event and mission rewards!!
Energy weapons arent king because of BFAW (though it is a rather large portion of it). Energy is king because hybridizing is actively punishing players. Even a rainbow build will do more damage than a hybrid energy/projectile build. And that because torpedoes are so massively neutered by shields.
Players arent going to magically switch to hybrid builds because Cryptic offers them a pithy choice into boosting their projectile CritH. Not like Bort thinks they will. They wont even consder it, they'll just continue using their build which they have likely sunk millions and millions of energy credits, and dilithium into and hundreds of hours on building. They wont give any consideration to torpedoes or mines. They'll play and play and play until they feel Cryptic has gone too far.
Remember when Kemocite was broken? Hybrid builds became king and even the staunchest all-beam users started slotting in Neutronic due to the advantages it gave.
The meta can change.
If the new skill system will promote a new era where more "canon" loadouts reign supreme over pure beam/cannon/torp builds then I think it is a good thing. As a Star Trek game, I welcome anything that would make things look more "Trek". And the latest swathe of changes and traits seem to show that Cryptic wants to head for this direction.
I'm not saying that this single change will disrupt the meta. However, small numerous changes can add up to a really big thing. Baby steps...
Unless the entire EPS system is changing, EPS flow also affects the speed at which power:
A. returns to full from Full Impulse
and
B. the speed at which weapon power replenishes after a firing cycle.
The first is always true but the second technically only true when overcapping is involved.
Both stem from the same effect: EPS affects the flow rate of power into a subsystem. That means that any time power is transferred into any subsystem, EPS will speed it up - it won't give you more power, but it'll get the existing power there FASTER.
Whenever you turn off Full impulse, power flows back into all subsystems. EPS speeds this up and gets you back to full combat effectiveness faster.
Concerning weapons fire, your energy weapons (cannons, beam, whatever) lock away X power for Y seconds during their firing cycle. Beams lock up the power longer than DHCs, and these mechanics have been discussed to death already. However whenever you have an overcap of "more than 125 weapons power" available - any EXCESS (overcapped) power gets the opportunity to flow into the Weapons Subsystem during the firing cycle at a rate defined by your EPS rate. If memory serves, this is along the lines of 5 power every second for a default (No EPS investment).100 EPS will make that 5 power tick in every 0.5 seconds, at 300 EPS it'll tick every 0.25 seconds, etc. In other words, with 100 EPS you will be able to transfer twice as much power from your overcap into your Weapon subsystem during your firing cycle.
Example: Beams fire for 4 seconds, recharge for 1. Default flow from overcap into Weapons subsystem = 5 per second, so an effective overcap of 20 power. DHCs fire for 1 second, recharge for 2. Effective overcap is only 5.
Note that without ANY EPS your maximum effective weapons overcap is only going to be +20 power, because beams fire for 4 seconds and you'd only be transferring 5 energy per second back into the subsystem.
Note that Plasmonic Leech and a few other things will dump energy directly into the subsystem instantly instead of relying on EPS. This means that Leech basically acts "outside" the overcap.
Guess what... if you tested out EptS1 on Live... you'd also get 22.5 power. Because Starship Electro-Plasma Systems does not affect the numerical power level. It affects the rate at which a subsystem will reach the numerical level.
On LIVE, EPS Transfer Rate currently does affect the bonus power granted from EPTX and has done for years.
The amount granted is BASE*(1+(EPS/200))
BASE is 15 for EPTX1, 20 for EPTX2 and 25 for EPTX3.
EPS doesn't affect the power boost you get from Emergency Power abilities at all anymore. They've treated it like Attack Patterns, wherein Emergency Power abilities now get the same power boost they would get if you maxed out EPS in the current system.
That makes sense, thanks.
Currently on Live my EPTS1 grants +22.93 with 105.7 EPS.
Looks like on Tribble that'll be +25.00 dead. That's a nice buff for Dragon/Drake cruiser builds - their multiple copies of EPTX will grant more Weapons and Shield power by default now.
Energy weapons arent king because of BFAW (though it is a rather large portion of it). Energy is king because hybridizing is actively punishing players. Even a rainbow build will do more damage than a hybrid energy/projectile build. And that because torpedoes are so massively neutered by shields.
FAW has become the preferred norm because of several reasons. The first is that it's much less effort to just bind ability activation to the spacebar and fly around at maximum throttle not caring too much about what's in your forward arc. The second is that FAW automatically targets chaff like the annoying PVE enemy fighter/platform/heavytorpedo spam. The third is the interaction with Plasma Science Consoles (they add a flat amount of DPS that doesn't scale up with your weapon damage, only the number of shots you fire). And the forth is that FAW is multi-purpose - it increases Single Target as well as AoE DPS.
But FAW is also demonstrably broken - just look at how Crits haven't/have/haven't worked and how Accuracy overflow STILL doesn't work during FAW. In fact, if you swap from FAW to Surgical Strikes, suddenly the meta gets shaken up - you're still using energy weapons, but Crits and Accuracy mean something again, and the Plasma Consoles suddenly drop from adding ~4% DPS to adding 0.4% DPS.
There have been a multitude of abilities recently which reward you for slotting a torpedo alongside energy weapons.
Examples include the "Super Charged Weapons" and "Weapon System Synergy" starship traits.
Shield penetration isn't as much of an issue as many people make it out anymore either. For a start if you're firing both Energy weapons and torpedos then your energy weapon shots will hit your foe first and strip most of the shields. Secondly, there are now many other methods of increasing the raw penetration itself: The 'Omega Kinetic Shearing' trait grants +40% damage as a DoT with full shield penetration. Concentrate Firepower grants +10%/15%/20% damage which bypasses BOTH shields AND hull resistances. The Weapons System Synergy trait grants +50% Shield Bleedthrough and you can easily get it to a ~30% uptime. The Kinetic Precision trait grants a constant +10% Shield Bleedthrough to Projectiles. The Self-Modulating Fire trait basically grants 50% Shield Penetration to both Energy Weapons and Projectiles for 10s every 45. And the free Anniversary T6 Science ship comes with a Krenim Chroniton Torpedo Launcher that has 100% Shield ignore on it (default rate is 25%, boostable to 50% with a set bonus)... etc. etc.
Torpedos by themselves aren't a problem as long as you're playing to their strengths. The issue is that they've fallen out of favour recently due to the prevalence of FAW. But they also have broken mechanics just like FAW: just look at Torpedo Spread's interactions with Kemocite (currently the only way to Crit with it), Gravity Well + Destabilizing Resonance Beam, or even the (very broken) combo of Concentrate Firepower + 'Overwhelming Force' trait + the Laytaf Dulot DOFF.
There are also means of Buffing Torpedos without sacrificing much in the way of Energy damage. Examples include the Experimental Proton (+Photon and +CritH) and Counter Command (+Phaser/Disruptor and +Photon) and Terran Task Force (+Projectile dmg and Secondary Torpedo Launcher) sets. As well as some oddball ones like Heavy Escort Modifications (+Kinetic dmg, +CritH, +CritD, +Acc, +Recharge)
It's fairly obvious the devs would prefer us all to slot at least one Torp. Really the only thing holding us back at this point is a lack of BOFF ability slots (on MOST ships) to provide for both Energy Weapon AND Torpedo Abilities.
Finally got onto Tribble last night. Noticed a few things from leveling up a new guy to level 6:
The damage control skill seems to be giving incorrect numbers in it's tooltips at the first and second tier.
The second is more of an observation: Currently on live we can spend experience whenever we earn it, and have a steady often mission to mission, improvement. I noticed on tribble that that steady improvement is gone and instead every level you get to improve 1 thing. This actually seems to have increase the difficulty of earlier missions. (noticed this playing the KDF mission "Space Chase." Where it took considerably longer than usual to kill the federation frigates. As an altaholic I am pretty familiar with these starting levels and it was a significant difference. I imagine it will balance out, and even seem like gaining power faster later on in the levels.
Comments
Likes: It should be fairly straight foward to produce all 8 of my builds, which are admittedly more generalist builds. It only took me one full look at the fully unlocked tree and a bit of looking at the old tree to match this up (so in theory 2 reset tokens) 3 seems fair.
Annoyances: hard to test alot of what I do without lobi ships or zen ships (all of mine are) and my weapons. (I have not tested science)
Dislikes: Hate the constriction of choices, let be honest, most would choose diffrently then 4 or 5 years ago due to incr. understanding of the game. I'd love to fly a hybrid beam/torp but i am so much short on everything else i need to CYA, so no crit+turn+beam+torp. The system is so the same, hard choices, its dislikeable for not being better.
loathe: duel ability (drain ablity also provides resistance to same) I subscribe to the Rock Paper Sizzor theory, build your DPS, I'll drain your enegry/ build for that leave your self open to systems offline, build for that your open to shield blead through. I would love to see 3 or 4 skills added to each profession and more thought given to; hey I fly this ship and this is who i am going to be good against, at the expense of that one guy who will rip me a new one.
Oh and those max abilities at the end, good luck selling those, i need to spend point on things i'll use.
i don't have the actual quote. but i beleive Bort said somewhere that several science skills are currently working badly because they had strange calculations related to Aux power, and thus changing the baseline has affected them more than expected.
So this seems to be be a bug, and not a nerf.
Tachyon Beam's problem could be excused that way. Energy Siphon's drain is based purely on skill. The duration is based on Aux power.
I have not had to time to read the entire thread so I might have missed an additional explanation or information.
I just wanted to say that I'm not in favor of rescaling the effects of high aux on powers in the new skill system. If you want to boost the effects on the low end, then fantastic. Currently in PvE on holodeck it can be frustrating using some Sci powers at full Aux as the results can be limited, situational, negligible, or out of step with the focus on damage. Please do not compound that problem by rescaling high aux power and cutting supporting powers effectiveness, and adding another problem: weaker powers for those investing in high aux.
Thanks for reading this.
The thing I hate the most, is that the skill tree design is a jumbled mess, as opposed to the neat and organized look of the current system. I like having things straight-forward in a line, not branching off here and there. I find the new look horribly chaotic and aesthetically displeasing.
I don't care about "pretty pictures". I care about having a more orderly and organized look.
There are two parts to this, first the applicable comments to the new system, and second general QoL improvements for the game and leveling progression.
New Skill system:
Purchase skills is constantly glowing and flashing even when no skills are available for purchase.
Most of what I have noticed so far has to do with the skill point text. For some examples:
Ground side— Weapon penetration. Total armor penetration is +3. +3 what? Points of damage? Percent? +3 to the results of a d20?
Space side— Tactical 15 point choice— Projectile Critical Damage. Increases your Critical Severity by +5 for Projectile Weapons. Again +5 what?
Really don't need the ‘For each point of X gives .y%’ if all we have is a +50, or +35, or +100 chunk of points. As each skill chosen makes a large (generally equivalent to three pips into the skills of the previous system, and the math is based on the on 1 of 99 (or now 100) of the previous system, it makes the description more difficult and confusing for new and even current players. There is a layer of description in there that just feels confusing, adding an unneeded layer to the description. Perhaps simplifying it from the base of 1 point / 100 points to a base of the whole amount presented in that skill point.
Perhaps it can be simplified to three statements on each skill. Give a general explanation, perhaps some flavor text, then the total bonus from that skill point.
For example:
Ground 2nd skill choice selection— Device expertise.
“This skill increases the effectiveness of most consumable devices.” The first line is a good general description of what that skill choice does.
“Each point of …”
“+100 Device mastery…” Remove the two middle sentences
“Total Device Bonus = +50%.” For the final sentence instead state something along the lines of “This skill increases most consumable device effectiveness by 50%.”
The entire text of those four sentences and bits there could actually be summed up in that one sentence. Of course, what does effectiveness mean? Perhaps the extra space could be used to answer that question. Increases hypo healing by 50%, increase duration of food or tribble buffs by 50% etc. (if that is what the skill does for those items)
Description of shield hardness is also difficult to understand.
The first sentence isn’t entirely clear. “This skill increases the amount of incoming damage negated by your shields.” Negated? Does that mean the potential damage goes ‘poof’ and simply vanishes, similar to how resilient shields work?
The second sentence makes the most sense, assuming the first sentence works as above. Then we get into that point mess. A percent of a percent always makes my eyes start to cross, glaze over, and drool leak from my mouth. Simply state “This skill increases the base .2% per current point of shield power to .3% per current point of shield power.” Of course this is dependent on my understanding how these percentages work.
For Improved shield hardness then state “This skill increases … to .37% per current point…” and for advanced Shield Hardness “… to .4% per…”
Similar simplifying statements throughout all the skills could make it much easier to read and understand for new and current players.
Other than the text issues, these are the other things I’ve noticed:
I like the choice between Improved Crouch and Improved Aim. I crouch, but I do not aim, so this benefits my play style. Others may not agree.
Fatal Fists. I like it! A bit of an advantage to the up close play style. Perfect for a melee char.
General QoL:
I made a Romulan char, played up until the choice of faction (Approximately level 19, double exp on Tribble?) before going to Drozana and leveling up to 60 to play with the skill trees and the spec trees.
Ogod, warp 5, so slow…
Most of my issues here seem to be because of the extra leveling exp:
The guided intro to the skill purchasing is after when the first skills are available. This may be due to a double exp event on Tribble, but since those events are so regular, it may be a problem for first time players.
New trait slot guided intro appears too late again, much after the trait appears, perhaps because of 2x exp.
Instructions on equipping character (the Crateris mission) are too late to apply to getting new gear and equipping it. I know there’s a lot of information that needs to be spread out, but please explain as soon as it applies to the character.
Lvl 20, finished Khitomer mission, chose side, now only have lvl 10 ship access. Ah, Kererek did not contact me automatically when I leveled to 20. I had to seek him out and speak to him. After speaking to Kererek I get a free costume change, still? Same with 30, 40, 50. He did for 55 and 60 though.
Doffing system is activated at lvl 11, but no doffs given (initial duty officer cadre). However crafting doffs are provided at lvl 15. Can not use them because I received them before picking a side. Finally acquired doffs, but only the 3 bonus from leveling to 18.
After mission Neutral No More, does the 1st doffing complement arrive, past level 20.
Some text issues:
‘New Romulus’ and ‘Dewa III System’ text overlap, before and after the Search For New Romulus mission.
‘Dewa III System’ The planet is Dewa III of the Dewa system.
First time leaving Rom Flotilla during Explore the Flotilla mission puts the player outside the Flotilla. Afterward, leaving Rom Flotilla puts player next to Sol System. Warp 6.67 is better than the crawl of warp 5, but still there are tears of boredom. Especially without doffing working.
After the Sela cutscene on Khitomer, Tovan and char are overlapping, disobeying the pauli exclusion principle.
Reputation trait slots are available (4 of them), even though reputations are not available until 50. Perhaps locking them until 50 as well would reduce confusion on new players.
For the love of Q, please always put the 20 hr rep missions on top of the list. Terran, Dyson, Romulan have those missions second in the list.
Other than those observations, It looks good and I’m enjoying playing with the various possible builds. I will continue to explore the options and add more thoughts about this system later.
-Energy and Projectile Weapon training are missing further explanation of by how much they increase weapon damage. I believe it is just temporally missing the description and an update is already planned. But better point out, just to be sure.
-On the first tactical unlock, starship stealth, the formula is displayed as Perception - Stealth/50. But something tells me it is calculated as (Perception-Stealth)/50. I am correct? Anyway, it generated doubt about what is the correct formula. Adding some parenthesis to emphatise the order of operations would be nice.
-Weapon Amplification: First node has a percent sign accompaning the description of the total effect. The other 2 doesn't have.
-Shield Mastery: Could be informed on tooltip if the charges stack. In case so, also tell us which is the maximum stack.
These was the trivial things I caught. About the concept itself, I have some issues:
1) On holodeck, my engineer captain has the capacity to train my BOff on virtually any rank III engineering ability. The only skills I cannot train are EptW III and EptA III. But this was due a conscious choice of me. I could easily reorder my skills to add these as well. Under the new system, I will lose access to training many of these. In the new skill system, it is impossible for someone to unlock training in all BOff abilities. The blog said we won't lost anything. Well, I'm going to lose the ability to fabricate some engineering BOff abilitues manuals. BTW, the same thing happens with ground skills.
2)This is a bit more subjective, but when I tryed to make a build aiming for the tactical ultimate unlock, I felt a bit constrained. There is 30 skills on tactical track, and to get all ultimate unlocks, it is needed 28. It remained only 17 points to invest on the remaining tracks, and I had to leave behind skills which sounded necessary. Now, I did not test how powerfull the ultimates unlocks are, so they might very well conpensate the lacking on the other areas.
3)On the Lt. Tier, it was basically presented a choice: You want to be very good on torpedos or on energy weapons? Do you want a good shield capacity or good shield healing? But I find all those aspects are very important and deserved attention. So my proposal. Unify the first node on each track in a single skill that boosts both aspects. And make from it a tree where you choose where you really want to excel. The specialization system has a similar system and works pretty well. This would also free some points for use in other skills, giving players a bit more flexibility (which I believe is missing in the system).
Finally and risking to go a bit off-topic. It would be nice to have implemented skills loadouts. My skills choices depends drastically on the ship I'm going to fly. It is not necessary much. 2 or 3 slots/char I think would meet the needs of most player. Who wants more, could purchase in the CStore. And to respec them, it would still be needed the respec token.
Join Date: March 2009
Thanks Cryptic for introducing the Kelvin Timeline. It remembered why I decided to never more put any money on this game.
Ok, lets talk realpolitik for moment. I mean really cut through the TRIBBLE.
Every single design choice that can be made in a way to erode the dominance of BFAW beam boats is going to be made in the way that erodes BFAW dominance.
The nerf-bat may not be swung in one mighty Mjolnir-esque THUMP, but make no mistake which way the wind is blowing. At the end of the day every request that supports the current one-dimensional itemization, build, and rotation that is the current undisputed king of DPS-gameplay is going to get ignored. Flat out ignored.
Disappointment is the distance between bad expectations and reality. Set your expectations appropriately. Maintaining the circus we have now on Holodeck is NOT one of the goals here.
There's a new TV show coming. An event bordering on once in a lifetime for this game to re-position itself as something relevant in the broader Star Trek brand. I promise getting this product in respectable shape to try and pitch it to a new audience is more important that maintaining the status quo for the bottom 90% of the players sorting by money spent. There's going to be some upsets, there's going to be some upheaval, and there's going to be some gnashing of teeth. And all of those things are still 1,000x better for the game as a whole that to let the current system continue to fester.
And then there's going to be players leaving in droves, just like what happened with SWG. Like fans have been saying to CBS and Paramount since they started suing every fan-project out there, stop trying to pander to a new audience and focus the core fandom who have supported the franchise for decades.
"That sound you just made? It was adorable.
...Please don't ever make it again."
For realsies: No player with the level of investment in this game you desperately, DESPARATELY want them to have hangs around thinking "Oh man, I am just so stoked to be loping along doing less than a quarter of the damage what a fully dressed out player does. I rule!"
You know that. We know that. That's not a meaningful talking point in this discussion. Now let's all just pretend it wasn't said.
I've been thinking about that quote. Trying not to read too much into it. As a horrendously dreadful pilot using mostly science captains, I can get over 10k in a T1 BoP. I'm not bragging, not even a little, because I have no cause to. I'm really average, at best. If I can do it, realistically, anyone can.
A lot of people couldn't be bothered to take the game very seriously, though. And who is to say that's wrong?
DPS can not be the main focus of absolutely everything in this game. Nor can RPing. Nor can Space Barbie. The main reason why so many of the items in this game are largely ignored by people is because they're not "optimal." People tell everyone that they're "gimping" themselves by using it (which, to be fair, sometimes IS the case). That's bad business. If they want to sell ships/weapons/unlocks/whatever, they need broad appeal. People need to buy them for a variety of reasons, not just "because DPS."
A big hint to this is the "Where is the harder content?" that never comes. That's a lot of development time for, what, 5-10% of the game? There are people spending boatloads just to look at ships, or make canon builds because it's Star Trek. They have no idea what their DPS is, or which shields work best. And they don't care. And that is as valid as religiously checking DPS. You can't lock paying customers out of content. Just my $0.02.
It says more than I ever could when a player tries to scare the Dev's into inaction by trotting out the spectre of a 10 year old boogieman of the industry. Let me assure you A LOT MORE GAMES have died of system-rot since then than have from gambling on the periodic system update. They just aren't afraid of the same things you are.
And pretending for just a moment this is a business, what customer gets you salivating more - the diehard whose already bought everything on your shelves or the fresh meat to whom everything you have on offer is shiny and new? Well, shiny after you blow the dust off of it. Hard news: They aren't here to make you happy, they go to work every day looking at how to stay in business. Retention is a real issue, but acquisition is life or death. Eyeing new customers with the TV series coming the choices are saying "oh, we went free to play 5 years ago" or "Oh, we totally updated our core gameplay just last year!" Yeah. No. Contest.
Personally, I think I'll cope if the top 1% apex DPS build suddenly requires me to upgrade one whole elite XIV torpedo... I mean, that just totally sounds like a shake-up on the order of the NGE. ((snort))
You dont seem to understand.
Energy weapons arent king because of BFAW (though it is a rather large portion of it). Energy is king because hybridizing is actively punishing players. Even a rainbow build will do more damage than a hybrid energy/projectile build. And that because torpedoes are so massively neutered by shields.
Players arent going to magically switch to hybrid builds because Cryptic offers them a pithy choice into boosting their projectile CritH. Not like Bort thinks they will. They wont even consder it, they'll just continue using their build which they have likely sunk millions and millions of energy credits, and dilithium into and hundreds of hours on building. They wont give any consideration to torpedoes or mines. They'll play and play and play until they feel Cryptic has gone too far.
And then, down the road, those players will leave. They wont be the people on the forums shouting "Dooooom!" or "**** this I'm out!" they'll just be gone. (Do you want to see what massive sweeping changes that upset the status quo result in? Google 'Star Wars Galaxies NGE'. That game died. Overnight. Not over the course of years, or months or even weeks. It took one night for SWG to become a shadow of its former self. I was there.) Just how far down the road? That will likely be decided here. WIth this change.
Youre worried about bringing a new audience in. Let me give you a hint... the state of the game on Holodeck... is pretty conducive to that. Even with the DPS-meta as it is. The game is actually good enough right now, to keep drawing players in.
Bort was right when he said, you can play and enjoy this game while doing less than 10k DPS. And the majority of people, wont care about doing even 5k DPS. You may not like it. But he was actually, factually, correct in his statement.
If Cryptic ignores the current DPS meta, and actively works against it, people are going to leave. And thats not good, many of the DPS centric players are huge in the community, even outside of the massive deeps they do. You do not want to ever alienate them. It doesnt end well. In any possible way.
The current BFAW meta has been allowed to go too long for them to start changing it now. If they had wanted to do this... it should have been done. Years ago.
More importantly, Bort is still defending a bad design choice behind the veil of player agency, when the bad design choice is, in fact, limiting player agency more than it is allowing it.
Min-maxing is part of every MMO in the history of MMOs. Trying to work against it is foolish. Thats what the BFAW meta is: min-maxing. And if it were to go away, something else just as min-maxed would take its place.
In a related note, my testing has shown a distinct advantage when playing as a Tactical captain (moreso than usual thanks to some of the skill changes and interactions); while I'm unsure if this is WAI:
Drain Infection and EPS Corruption provide flat damage values, rather than being scaled off of Exotic Particle Generators (and thus Conservation of Energy) and/or Aux Power levels (instead, Emergency Power to Weapons can boost them as they are considered to be All Energy Damage). This is inconsistent with the design, favoring the All Damage bonuses of Attack Pattern Alpha and Tactical Fleet over the capabilities of their native Profession or Skill Tree. While playing a Tactical captain has always been favored mechanically, limited interactions for Exotic Particle Generators further skews this. Where a Tactical character has the ability to blow ship up with Science, a Science Captain can't even boost the damage from a Science Skill... and an Engineering captain grants no benefits to the Engineering Ultimate whatsoever; that just seems wrong in a system supposedly intended to be more intuitive for new players (old ones are used to Tactical working better for most things).
Similarly, Engineering has had a couple skills removed entirely, and unlike Attack Patterns both Batteries (critical for making use of EPS Maniford Efficiency) and Driver Coil (many players dismiss it, but it can take low-level travel times from "making dinner" to "grabbing coffee", while also helping get around at Full Impulse) now eat up progression unlocks. Meanwhile, there simply aren't enough skills in Engineering that justify investing to the point of unlocking the Ultimate, thanks to diminishing returns on DRM values and generally superior choices in either of the other Skill Trees (mostly Tactical).
It's very easy to find a reason to fill the Tactical Tree and unlock the Tactical Ultimate, but Engineering and Science are rather lacking at the moment (especially Engineering). So, here are a few suggestions for modifying the Space Skill Tree:
Engineering Tree
Science Tree
Tactical Tree
These changes are intended to meet the goal of implementing meaningful choices, both within the Skill Tree and in Professions in general. As it stands, Tactical captains are gaining capabilities with the new Skill Revamp while Engineers are losing capabilities... and Science still has that weird thing where they aren't actually as good at Science as a Tactical. I can't guarantee my suggestions would fix these issues (or even make anything other than Tactical appealing), but that was my goal.
As a side note, based on your current Skill Tree the Flight Deck Officer doffs should be part of the Tactical department and Sensor Officer doffs should be part of the Science department. It's not a huge issue one way or the other, but it would be more consistent if the idea is to make things more understandable for new players.
Passive Regeneration
It is nice to have a way to increase the passive regeneration; we did not have this possibility with former skill-tree – BUT, if this is not applied like, 25 – 30% bonus in Combat and 50% bonus out of Combat, there’s not much use for this skill. Zero-passive regeneration bonus in combat from this skill serves little purpose & again, diminishes potential possibilities from Ground-combat.
To explain: The entire point of higher passive HP regeneration on Ground (and yes, it is useful, trust me) is to be able to raise survivability and offset the incoming damage, while you fight the enemies. There is practically no rush out of combat and there are more efficient ways of regaining health out of combat anyways. Simply speaking - You do not need higher passive regeneration when you just stand around and are out of danger. The way this skill is set, it gives little to no advantage to anyone – but, to tanks it potentially could serve well, if this skill grants the bonuses In Combat as well.
Suggestion: Apply the bonuses of this skill in Combat on Ground as well. Make the final number 25 – 30% in Combat, while retaining the original of 50% bonus Out of Combat.
Combat Specialist
The fact they gave ‘Combat Specialist’ to everyone AND removed its’ crucial improvement of critical hits of melee is likewise undermining, underwhelming change; It’s like they took a special skill from say, Engi & gave it to everyone, at least that’s the way I see it.
To address this, and make it more fair, I think this skill should give improvements of crits of melee, as it used to, but to Tacticals only. Or, as mentioned below, have 'Offensive Mastery' to boost 'Combat Specialist' + melee (unarmed; ex. Lunge & Sweeping Strikes) crits skill as well, not only Weapons as it currently is.
Threat Control
‘Threat Control’ is being removed completelly for ground, (it was part of my original setup/build, as it was one of its’ needed components, due to tanking nature of it) & the reason for its’ removal is apparently, because people “don’t understand it, and didn’t use it” – Is that a reason to remove a perfectly valid skill, useful for tanking builds? In my opinion; no. It removes further variability from Ground combat – and given we have far less options as it is, compared to space, I suggest this stance is reconsidered.
Suggestion: Space has got their ‘Threatening stance’, why not keep this for Ground as well?
Offensive Mastery
I believe that offensive Mastery should encompas melee as well. By melee in this instance, I mean things like Bite, Lunge, Pounce, or Sweeping Strikes - Not just weapons, as it presently is. There aren't enough bonuses for melee in the special-skills, selection you gain as you progress through the tree - found one. That, and we've essentially lost damage-potential by Combat Specialist being given to everyone + no longer boosts critical hits. This change I believe would offset that, at least a bit and would be also more feasible to implement, given that everyone on the Ground has the same skills/trees, regardless of the career.
Suggestion: Offensive Mastery: +10 Weapon Proficiency, Combat Specialist, Weapon & Unarmed Criticals.
Additionally - I believe the Ground would benefit from having 11 - 12 spendable points. 10 feels a bit too tight. I'd say compromise it at 11.
*Howgh* More observations later.
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"bIghojchugh DaneH, Dumev pagh. bIghojqangbe'chugh, DuQaHlaH pagh."
"Learn lots. Don't judge. Laugh for no reason. Be nice. Seek happiness." ~Day[9]
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I've also been looking at and playing around with the skill system a bit more and I just can't help but feel like it should just be a flat 50 or 49 skill points one for each level, it just feels better to earn one point every level. At least until you get the specialization which is also one point per level. Even if you feel you might need to expand the trees a bit, by adding a another one skill per tree.
I also can't shake the feeling that certain min max builds feel a little out of reach and that 3 points would solve that. Sorry but us min maxer try are best even though my min/maxing is rarely a dps thing becuase that seems easy, tanking min manxing is hard this is both a blessing and a curse. It means dps enthusiast will have hard time getting as much tank, but it also means tankers will have hard time getting a descent damage build out of it too..
Am I missing something? Because the description in the pic you linked specifically states that it does include melee weapons.
edit- unless you mean things like Lunge?
Melee Weapons, not necessarily all melee. As @jodarkrider mentioned being a Tac, I'd assume the issue is that it doesn't improve Bite, Lunge, Pounce, or Sweeping Strikes.
[EDIT] Yeah, that.
Like the people noticing discrepancies between Tribble and Holodeck effect values for some science powers? More data there would probably be immensely more useful.
Mustrum "I really need to reserve some time to test more on Tribble" Ridcully
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"bIghojchugh DaneH, Dumev pagh. bIghojqangbe'chugh, DuQaHlaH pagh."
"Learn lots. Don't judge. Laugh for no reason. Be nice. Seek happiness." ~Day[9]
"Your fun isn't wrong." ~LaughingTrendy
Find me on Twitterverse - @jodarkrider
A popup box, or side window, not unlike what exists currently on Holodeck. only this window/box comes up after you have chosen your skills. It has a SPACE and GROUND breakdown of your results (similar to the orbit/ground "stats" window).
At the bottom of this side window (or popup box!), 2 buttons: CONFIRM and CANCEL.
One thing I will say it needs, a confirm button! We shouldn't have to spend a retrain token just to mess around and get a final build organised. There is also still the problem for new players, no way of telling them what is an optimised build. Yes, I know there are tooltips but if you're new to the game how are you supposed to know, for example, that power levels/EPS are so crucial? 12 points spent to get what appears to be the same sort of power levels as I have on Holodeck seems a bit much too. Yes, I may have more overall with the +2 power to x system in the unlocks but whoopee 2 whole points?, I'd rather have something more useful for the unlocks if I'm going to be spending over a quarter of my points anyway in power systems. Yes, I know there are things like Plasmonic Leech and Supremacy but unless they fix the broken economy only a small fraction of players are going to own both of these but that's beside the point.
Also tied in with this is the ultimate skills. Maybe a carrot on a stick for new players? They seem very underwhelming for the outlay to me. A new tac officer may think, 'Oh I have to spend 25 of my points to get the tactical ultimate', or Sci/Engineer with theirs, only to realise they've seriously gimped themselves at end-game when they venture into the community outside the game to get the information they should have access to while levelling. Maybe this is all tied in with not having a commit button so Cryptic gets more money from selling retrain tokens... I've tried a couple of builds and they seem to be working OK but I'm not getting close to unlocking an ultimate. Will have to see when I get my main over there.
A few tweaks are going to be needed to the unlocks from points spent. Some useless skills in there still but I'll wait until I can spend more time with better ships/equipment and then I can actually compare numbers properly.
It's not all doom and gloom though! I love the new engineer skill for increased threat generation, maybe we'll see more engi tanks? I'm also glad to see the early pet unlock in the tactical tree, it means that an engi/sci based carrier pilot doesn't have to spend too much in the tactical tree, I hope that stays. Overall it may work out to be a breath of fresh air and an improvement to the game but that's not going to be known until it's gone live.
thats the part where everyone else will say and actially said NOPE, this should be at the very end of the tree and no where near the start, hangar pets and stealth is something that SOME use, not everyone, what am i gonna do with that if i dont have anything with cloak or dont have pets or even a pet enable ship? That stuff is only relevant at 40+ Level anyone cause before that you dont have acces to pet enabled ship, so its completly wrong placed, other stuff that everyone benefitts right from the start should be first, specific stuff like pets and stealth at the end, so yea the rest of us definately hope that this does NOT stay the way it is right now.
Also bumping up another topic that is still valid and should still be reconsidered and not forgotten, Boff Training Manuals, I/We still say that you should not break the system we have right now, our characters can - if skilled right - craft ALL Manuals avaible from their Carrer, with the new system one would need a total of 9 Dedicited Characters to be able to craft all Manuals, this is EXTREMLY dissapointing and a completly unneccesary change, it invalidates my Dedicited Crafting Chars whos sole Purpose is crafting Manuals, i dont know how many people here allready stated the same so it affects many as it seems, therefore:
my eyes are still on you and the entire team @borticuscryptic PLEASE dont nerf the Manual Crafting System, its absolutely FINE the way it is, we appreciate your efforts to improve stuff and add new content, BUT taking away something / nefing something is NOT appreciated PLEASE.
Remember when Kemocite was broken? Hybrid builds became king and even the staunchest all-beam users started slotting in Neutronic due to the advantages it gave.
The meta can change.
If the new skill system will promote a new era where more "canon" loadouts reign supreme over pure beam/cannon/torp builds then I think it is a good thing. As a Star Trek game, I welcome anything that would make things look more "Trek". And the latest swathe of changes and traits seem to show that Cryptic wants to head for this direction.
I'm not saying that this single change will disrupt the meta. However, small numerous changes can add up to a really big thing. Baby steps...
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The Science Ship Build Thread - Share your Sci Ship builds here!
The first is always true but the second technically only true when overcapping is involved.
Both stem from the same effect: EPS affects the flow rate of power into a subsystem. That means that any time power is transferred into any subsystem, EPS will speed it up - it won't give you more power, but it'll get the existing power there FASTER.
Whenever you turn off Full impulse, power flows back into all subsystems. EPS speeds this up and gets you back to full combat effectiveness faster.
Concerning weapons fire, your energy weapons (cannons, beam, whatever) lock away X power for Y seconds during their firing cycle. Beams lock up the power longer than DHCs, and these mechanics have been discussed to death already. However whenever you have an overcap of "more than 125 weapons power" available - any EXCESS (overcapped) power gets the opportunity to flow into the Weapons Subsystem during the firing cycle at a rate defined by your EPS rate. If memory serves, this is along the lines of 5 power every second for a default (No EPS investment).100 EPS will make that 5 power tick in every 0.5 seconds, at 300 EPS it'll tick every 0.25 seconds, etc. In other words, with 100 EPS you will be able to transfer twice as much power from your overcap into your Weapon subsystem during your firing cycle.
Example: Beams fire for 4 seconds, recharge for 1. Default flow from overcap into Weapons subsystem = 5 per second, so an effective overcap of 20 power. DHCs fire for 1 second, recharge for 2. Effective overcap is only 5.
Note that without ANY EPS your maximum effective weapons overcap is only going to be +20 power, because beams fire for 4 seconds and you'd only be transferring 5 energy per second back into the subsystem.
Note that Plasmonic Leech and a few other things will dump energy directly into the subsystem instantly instead of relying on EPS. This means that Leech basically acts "outside" the overcap.
Further reading here and here
On LIVE, EPS Transfer Rate currently does affect the bonus power granted from EPTX and has done for years.
The amount granted is BASE*(1+(EPS/200))
BASE is 15 for EPTX1, 20 for EPTX2 and 25 for EPTX3.
That makes sense, thanks.
Currently on Live my EPTS1 grants +22.93 with 105.7 EPS.
Looks like on Tribble that'll be +25.00 dead. That's a nice buff for Dragon/Drake cruiser builds - their multiple copies of EPTX will grant more Weapons and Shield power by default now.
FAW has become the preferred norm because of several reasons. The first is that it's much less effort to just bind ability activation to the spacebar and fly around at maximum throttle not caring too much about what's in your forward arc. The second is that FAW automatically targets chaff like the annoying PVE enemy fighter/platform/heavytorpedo spam. The third is the interaction with Plasma Science Consoles (they add a flat amount of DPS that doesn't scale up with your weapon damage, only the number of shots you fire). And the forth is that FAW is multi-purpose - it increases Single Target as well as AoE DPS.
But FAW is also demonstrably broken - just look at how Crits haven't/have/haven't worked and how Accuracy overflow STILL doesn't work during FAW. In fact, if you swap from FAW to Surgical Strikes, suddenly the meta gets shaken up - you're still using energy weapons, but Crits and Accuracy mean something again, and the Plasma Consoles suddenly drop from adding ~4% DPS to adding 0.4% DPS.
There have been a multitude of abilities recently which reward you for slotting a torpedo alongside energy weapons.
Examples include the "Super Charged Weapons" and "Weapon System Synergy" starship traits.
Shield penetration isn't as much of an issue as many people make it out anymore either. For a start if you're firing both Energy weapons and torpedos then your energy weapon shots will hit your foe first and strip most of the shields. Secondly, there are now many other methods of increasing the raw penetration itself: The 'Omega Kinetic Shearing' trait grants +40% damage as a DoT with full shield penetration. Concentrate Firepower grants +10%/15%/20% damage which bypasses BOTH shields AND hull resistances. The Weapons System Synergy trait grants +50% Shield Bleedthrough and you can easily get it to a ~30% uptime. The Kinetic Precision trait grants a constant +10% Shield Bleedthrough to Projectiles. The Self-Modulating Fire trait basically grants 50% Shield Penetration to both Energy Weapons and Projectiles for 10s every 45. And the free Anniversary T6 Science ship comes with a Krenim Chroniton Torpedo Launcher that has 100% Shield ignore on it (default rate is 25%, boostable to 50% with a set bonus)... etc. etc.
Torpedos by themselves aren't a problem as long as you're playing to their strengths. The issue is that they've fallen out of favour recently due to the prevalence of FAW. But they also have broken mechanics just like FAW: just look at Torpedo Spread's interactions with Kemocite (currently the only way to Crit with it), Gravity Well + Destabilizing Resonance Beam, or even the (very broken) combo of Concentrate Firepower + 'Overwhelming Force' trait + the Laytaf Dulot DOFF.
There are also means of Buffing Torpedos without sacrificing much in the way of Energy damage. Examples include the Experimental Proton (+Photon and +CritH) and Counter Command (+Phaser/Disruptor and +Photon) and Terran Task Force (+Projectile dmg and Secondary Torpedo Launcher) sets. As well as some oddball ones like Heavy Escort Modifications (+Kinetic dmg, +CritH, +CritD, +Acc, +Recharge)
It's fairly obvious the devs would prefer us all to slot at least one Torp. Really the only thing holding us back at this point is a lack of BOFF ability slots (on MOST ships) to provide for both Energy Weapon AND Torpedo Abilities.
[Edit: Clean forgot about "Kinetic Precision"!]
The damage control skill seems to be giving incorrect numbers in it's tooltips at the first and second tier.
The second is more of an observation: Currently on live we can spend experience whenever we earn it, and have a steady often mission to mission, improvement. I noticed on tribble that that steady improvement is gone and instead every level you get to improve 1 thing. This actually seems to have increase the difficulty of earlier missions. (noticed this playing the KDF mission "Space Chase." Where it took considerably longer than usual to kill the federation frigates. As an altaholic I am pretty familiar with these starting levels and it was a significant difference. I imagine it will balance out, and even seem like gaining power faster later on in the levels.